Ginny's Story
Chapter One: The Parting of the Ways
Harry Potter raised himself up miserably from his seat in the congregation and began to trudge slowly along the edge of the lake. Ginevra Weasley watched him go with a heavy heart. She truly wanted to reach out to him, to comfort him that he wasn't alone really but it saddened her to know that he could never accept her entreaty nor would he. Harry was her one true love. Ginny had known as much from the very moment they had first met when all the air seemed to have been sucked out of the kitchen at home in the Burrow when he had come to visit just prior to his second year at school; or perhaps she had fallen for the hero of her mother's stories when she was even younger than she was now. Either way, though they had officially been a couple for a matter of weeks really, Ginny clearly knew she could never be with anyone else but Harry Potter. He was already very different from any of the other boys she had gone out with: modest, diffident and remarkably unassuming he treated her with a due diligence and respect for her own person. He wasn't overly protective for he knew she got enough of that from her six brothers and parents and she treasured him all the more for it. She even owed him quite literally her life when he rescued her from the Chamber of Secrets. Could there be a more emphatic way to win over a girl's heart? If there was, she didn't know it. Now however their paths were to diverge for he was taking a route that he did not wish her to follow. Although they both knew she would gladly and unequivocally have accompanied him until the end if necessary, he was not prepared to allow any more people to willingly throw themselves in front of him in an attempt to shield him from Voldemort. One by one Harry had seen each of his protectors take the stand – his parents, Sirius and now Dumbledore – and perish so that he could live just that little bit longer and Ginny understood that her now ex-boyfriend could not allow it to continue. She loved him all the more for his noble self-sacrifice, but she ached to think of the loneliness of his journey. Their paths could never be joined again until after the war's end assuming, of course, that Harry survived. Ginny shook herself out of her reverie with a start at the horror of the possibility Harry may not make it. She chided herself for thinking like that. She longed to cry, but simply found the tears would not flow.
Suddenly realizing that she was now sat alone as the throng of mourners began to disperse in their different directions, she too decided to get up and find her family. It wouldn't do to sit and wallow with naught but sad thoughts for company. Harry (and Hermione too now that she thought about it) would be disappointed in her if they found her doing just that. Chancing one last glance back around the lake she found the Minister of Magic, Rufus Scrimgeour, storming angrily away from Harry as Ron and Hermione gingerly approached. At least he would be with them on his journey. Ginny was certain that they couldn't allow Harry to go it alone. She, by contrast, would have to be satisfied with the snatched few months when all her dreams were fulfilled with the boy she had long adored. She must return to leading her own life which involved, but did not include, the Boy who lived. She would fight the encroaching darkness in her own inimitable way, and thereby make her suitor proud. Ginny whipped her head around trailing her mane of long red hair behind her to stride purposefully towards her parents.
Arthur and Molly Weasley were looking suitably downcast for a funeral, but also seemingly resigned as if Dumbledore's death had not been so unexpected. Ginny supposed that it was merely that grief and loss were the inevitable oppressive sensations intangibly associated with wartime. Her father looked unusually tense, pointedly avoiding having to look at Percy, whilst her mother was being comforted by Bill. Molly threw an arm around her only daughter as she reached them and Ginny reciprocated. Her focus now had to be upon the people left behind while her friends, Harry and Hermione, with the youngest of her brothers, Ron, spearheaded the effort to overthrow the dark lord. There was unfortunately very little she could do directly to help that cherished trio, but she could ensure that everybody else continued the fight in support of what they were attempting to do. Whilst they were alive, there was still hope. Her dad had told her of Dumbledore's final words to the Order of the Phoenix: "Harry is the best hope we have. Trust him!" Ginny Weasley could honestly ascertain that she didn't have more faith placed in anyone else.
"Ginny. Anything wrong, dear?" Her mother enquired, obvious concern etched in her face.
Ginny seemed to realize that her whole demeanor must shimmer with solemnity, a noticeable contrast made all the more acute by the fact that Ginny Weasley was usually so cheerful, feisty and fiery.
"Wha'?" She jumped with a start out of her contemplative mood.
"Oh, sorry mum!" She added apologetically. "It must be the funeral affecting me more than I thought it would. How will the Order and Hogwarts cope after the loss of Professor Dumbledore?" She finished in a whisper.
Ginny had instantly decided that she wasn't quite ready to divulge what had passed between herself and Harry to her parents, but Mrs. Weasley squeezed her tighter for the sensitivity on display.
"I understand what you mean, dear. But we will continue to fight on until the end while there is still hope." She gave a fleeting glance over towards the knot of three friends now making their way back towards the castle with their arms tightly furled around one another. "That is what Albus Dumbledore would expect of us, and I can think of no better way by which to remember him. It will be his legacy to us!" She concluded defiantly.
"We'll stay here for tonight because your father has some business to attend to at the Ministry, and we shall head home tomorrow morning."
With those words of both defiance and comfort, Mrs. Weasley beckoned her children forward and together they turned back towards the sanctuary of Hogwarts School.