When pacing didn’t work she let out a yell of frustration and collapsed on her bed. She laid in a coma- like state for a while, her stomach doing multiple whirls and twirls. She was worried about him. Of course she was worried, why wouldn’t she be worried about her own boyfriend? It was the way that he hadn’t talked for days before they had found the location of the Horcrux, and the way that he would stay shut up in Ron’s room for days at a time, leaving Ginny to wonder about every possible thing he might have been thinking about or doing. What was the point of them even being together if he wasn’t going to tell her what was going on; she would rather hear it from him than Hermione or Ron.
And then there was the fact that she couldn’t go with them. She was of age now, why was Harry so desperate to hold her back when she so very much wanted to fight? She knew it was because his “noble-ness”... But she could do what she wanted to couldn’t she? She was seventeen. That was what bothered her most about Harry. Of course she loved him, hell; he was the only one she had ever really loved. It could have been the fact that he was always there for her, to protect her. Every time she saw his face, every time someone uttered his name, every thought of him… it all just caused her to smile. But then he was just so damn stubborn. He always said how she was stubborn, but when it came to him and the war he beat her by a long shot.
She began to worry again and soon she started to become restless. Returning to her other position of pacing the floor, she tried to walk her nerves off again, when suddenly the door flew open. Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the room, and Ginny ran toward Harry.
“Finally!” she exclaimed before rushing toward her boyfriend and kissing him lightly (much to the displeasure of Ron), then beckoning them to sit. “What happened and why did it take so long?” she asked fiercely.
“Nice to see you too,” Ron said sarcastically.
“Shut up Ron!” Ginny yelled. “Okay, what happened?” she asked turning to Harry.
“Well, we found Nagini-”
“That only took four bloody hours!” Ron cut in.
“-And then when we killed her-”
“The bloody Death Eaters showed up!” he cut in again.
“Thanks Ron. So the Death Eaters showed up as soon as we killed her and we were stuck fighting them for about two hours before we could get away from them,” Harry said.
“The Death Eaters? But how did they know that you destroyed the last Horcrux?” Ginny asked.
“Well the most logic reasoning we thought of was that Voldemort may have felt it, being one of the two last remaining parts of his split soul… but we aren’t entirely sure,” Hermione explained.
“So then what happens next?”
“Well, everything that this has been leading up to… the final battle, and more importantly, the defeat of Voldemort. We don’t know when he’ll strike, but it’s only a matter of time, and when that time comes, we’ll be ready… or, I’ll be ready. I mean it is what I have to do.”
“Harry if it’s all up to you then what have we been doing?” Hermione asked as she nodded at Ginny and Ron. “You don’t have to do this by yourself Harry. You have friends that’ll be there for you, you have people that will fight beside you no matter what. Harry you don’t have to do this alone.”
“Yeah, but, like the prophecy said ‘And either must die at the hands of the other for neither can live while the other survives.’ So I am the one that has to finish him off.”
“You don’t have to finish him Harry… YOU want to finish him off. YOU wouldn’t have it any other way. But WE,” Hermione pointed at Ron, Ginny, and Herself, “We, will be with you when that happens. Like I said Harry, you don’t have to do this alone.”
“Well off of this happy matter, anyone want to get something to eat?” Ron asked.
“You guys go ahead we’ll be down in a minute…” Harry said referring to Ginny and himself.
“You know on second thought, I’ll stay up here with you guys…” Ron said protectively.
“Oh Ron, c’mon!” Hermione said exasperatedly and pushing Ron towards the door, she smiled as Harry mouthed the words ‘thank you’.
When the door closed Harry turned to Ginny. “So-”
“Harry I’m going to go with you,” Ginny said.
“Go with me where?”
“When the final battle begins, I’m going with you…no matter what. Nothing you do or say is going to stop me, I am of age and you can’t tell me what I’m going to do.”
“Ginny, I-”
“No. I’m going with you, no matter what,” Ginny said seriously. “I won’t leave you hanging. Like Hermione said, WE will be by your side when it happens, that WE referred to ME too. So I’m going with you.”
“Ginny, we’ll talk about this later. Right now there are other important matters. Tomorrows you birthday party and I don’t want you worrying about me all day.” Harry said. “And then after, we can talk… because I have something to ask you too. But right now let’s go downstairs, Ron’s waiting and if I don’t get down there in probably the next minute he will TRY to hurt me. C’mon.” he took her hand and they went downstairs.
Ginny lay wide awake in bed, Hermione fast asleep in the bed beside her. She didn’t know how long it had been; surely she had been lying there for at least two hours. Millions of thoughts and questions were running through her head right now, and it was almost impossible for her to even try and sleep.
Why was Harry so keen to keep her out of the final battle? Why did he always need to act so brave and noble about these sorts of things? What did he need to ask her tomorrow? And when was this battle going to begin? The last of these were the most important. She knew it was coming soon but she never realized how unprepared for it she was. Maybe Harry was right in thinking that she shouldn’t come. No, no, what was she thinking, she had to come; she had to fight beside him, she wouldn’t have it any other way.
Sighing agitatedly Ginny looked at the alarm clock on her bedside table. 2:30. she had been eighteen for two and a half hours now, and she hadn’t even realized it. Letting drowsiness take a hold of her, she rolled over and entered a sleep haunted with dreams of fields filled with shouts and screams of terror of war, faceless people fighting for their lives, and Harry falling to the ground at Voldemort’s feet, Ginny not anywhere to be seen in the battle… not beside him.
“Happy Birthday Ginny!” multiple people cried as she walked into the living room. Smiling, she said hello to everyone, entered into tiny bits of conversations, and then settled into quiet corner of the room. She looked down at her hands in her lap and felt the prickly feeling start up in the pit of her stomach again. That sensation was starting to seem way too familiar for her liking, and she tried to think about other things than the final battle, but not before a voice above her spoke.
“Now what are you doing sitting in the corner, when you should be having fun?” someone asked. Ginny looked up to see Remus Lupin standing in front of her “Being unsocial are we?”
“Hello Remus,” Ginny said casually. Remus settled down beside her and handed her a bottle of butterbeer, which she took thankfully. “I was just thinking…”
“About what?” he asked, already having a pretty good idea of the answer.
Ginny didn’t respond, she just looked straight in front of her at the handsome man with jet black hair and the most dazzling emerald green eyes glinting behind his trademark glasses, grinning from ear to ear, laughing and having a good time.
“You don’t have to worry about him you know,” Remus said. She frowned and looked over at him instead. “He knows what he’s doing. You just have to believe in him. He can defend himself, he has a good head on his shoulders, and … he has you,” He added. Ginny smiled slightly.
“Of course I believe in him. I’m just so worried. And I really don’t understand how he can be so calm knowing what lies ahead… and what may happen.”
“Don’t you think on it Ginny. He knows everything about defense. He has the power to do this… he CAN do this,” Remus said. “And whatever lies ahead, it’s going to happen, and we’ll just have to face it when it does.”
“I-”
“Kingsly! What is it?!” some one yelled from the crowd of people in the room, for he had just appeared out of thin air in the middle of the throng, his face full of panic.
“It’s started. THE FINAL BATTLE HAS BEGUN.”