"She was really cut up when you ended it—"
"So was I. You know why I stopped it, and it wasn't because I wanted to."
- Harry Potter and the deathly hallows, pg 104.
"What's got you in such a rotten mood?" Ron asked boldly as he and Harry carried Hedwig and Pigwidgeon down to the common room.
They were leaving Hogwarts and Harry didn't know if they would ever be back.
"Nothing," Harry grunted, scanning the room for Hermione so he could escape the overwhelming clamor of owls hooting, cats hissing, toads croaking and students, students everywhere hugging their friends and enjoying the last few moments of the school year. That being said, things up in Gryffindor tower were noticeably more subdued than normal, considering the funeral all students had been in attendance of mere hours earlier.
"Oh there you two are!"
Ron stopped craning his head in attempt to search for his favourite bushy haired brunette, and turned to smile at Hermione.
"You all set?" he asked as Harry furtively scanned the room hoping a certain someone would not make her appearance until after they left. Merely setting eyes on her, on her glorious hair, or her eternally fierce expression, was going to feel like a knife to his heart.
"Harry?" Ron enquired, dragging his attention away from scanning their surroundings, "are we waiting for Ginny?"
There it was, that stabbing feeling. Apparently her name could invoke it just as effectively as the girl in person.
"No," he murmured, making his way to the portrait hole, a confused Ron and Hermione hurrying behind him.
He was halfway down the corridor when the pair caught up. Both with slightly wary looks on their faces.
"Not that I'm complaining about Ginny not being present, it's kind of nice to be shot of my baby sister for the first time in a month, but are you sure you don't want to wait…? She's not going to get angry at you for not waiting?"
"No, she's going to sit with her friends on the train." Harry murmured, silently begging for Ron's inquisition to cease.
His prayers were answered as Ron took his explanation at face value, appearing only slightly nonplused about the abrupt change in circumstances. Hermione however was shooting him concerned glances.
Getting a carriage to Hogsmead for themselves, allowed Harry to reopen the subject of their impending Horcrux search and thankfully bury his friends curiosity over him and his recently ex-girlfriend.
"Once we're all at the burrow, we can leave to go find them." Harry insisted as they found a compartment on the train and settled in. "The sooner we start the better."
"Harry, we can't do anything until after you turn 17," Hermione reminded him.
"Yeah," Ron continued, "and how many more times am I going to have to mention Bill and Fleurs wedding? We can't leave until after that."
Harry sighed and begun rubbing his temples. "Ron, I seriously do not care about going to your brother's wedding, the last thing I want to do is hang around your place, watching Fleur sickeningly coo over Bill until they get around to tying the knot."
"Well too bad, you're coming mate. Besides Ginny will kill you herself if you don't go to that wedding with her."
Harry grimaced, there it was, another stab to his already aching heart. As if he hadn't experienced enough loss yet in his life. At least she isn't dead. He had to keep reminding himself.
"…Harry," Hermione's soft, cautious voice begun.
Thankfully, the door to their compartment was flung open at that very moment and in blundered Neville and Luna. "There you three are!" Neville interrupted.
"We're not interrupting anything are we?" Luna asked loftily as she focused on the air surrounding Harry's head.
"No no, of course not," Harry replied quickly before Luna could start talking about the wrackspurts which were surely fluttering around him.
Hermione narrowed her eyes at Harry across the compartment, he avoided her piercing gaze. In fact he spent most of the following hours pretending to take a nap whilst the others talked.
It was midafternoon when the compartment door was opened again, and Harry heard a voice that twisted his innards. "Oh Luna, Neville, there you two are…"
A chorus of "Ginny!" and "Hey Sis!" echoed through their small compartment. Harry remained motionless, eyes closed, resting against the glass.
Harry felt Neville, who had been sitting beside him, bunch up and move away from him. "Here Ginny, sit down, Harry's asleep, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you woke him up."
NO, Harry screamed internally, please don't sit next to me, it'd be just too easy to reach over and touch her and right now he needed some space if this breakup was going to stay permanent.
Ginny cleared her throat, and murmured something about how she had to return to her own compartment.
There was a slightly stunned silence after Ginny left.
Of course Luna was the one to break it. "Ginny didn't look too well, she must have a case of the firemites. Her eyes were a touch red."
"I think it's more likely that she's just been crying Luna." Hermione corrected.
Ron screwed up his face in confusion, "She's not normally much of a crier though… I wonder what's wrong with her."
"I saw her just after the funeral, she didn't look to great then either," Neville murmured. "I mean, she wasn't crying but she looked so… broken. I guess Dumbledore's death has just hit her a bit harder than expected."
"I don't think that's it. She barely cried during the funeral, yes she was upset, but she was handling it." Hermione added.
There was more silence in their compartment, and Harry hoped the topic was being dropped.
"Should we maybe wake Harry up? Get him to go check on her?"
"No Neville… If she wanted to talk to Harry she wouldn't hesitate to wake him up herself. Maybe you two should go check on her." Hermione replied, glancing between Neville and Luna. "It was the two of you she was looking for when she came here."
Nodding, Luna stood up abruptly, "Yes. She never did tell us what she came for did she? Come on Neville. These three will mind our things."
"Merlin," Ron murmured to Hermione as Neville closed the door behind him with a soft 'click'. "I can't even remember the last time I saw Ginny that cut up!"
"Mmm" Hermione murmured, once again warning Harry of her strangely perceptive abilities.
He peaked through his eyelashes to see what Hermione was doing only to find her looking straight at him. As they made eye contact, she raised her eyebrow in question.
Huffing lightly to himself, Harry blinked his eyes open and turned to face his friends. Ron still as confused as ever, Hermione, her face full of pity.
"Oh, you're awake Harry!" Ron exclaimed. "You'd never believe –"
"Ron be quiet," Hermione uttered. "He wasn't sleeping, he heard the whole thing."
"What-?" Ron asked bewildered, looking at Harry in question.
Harry merely shrugged, as if to say – its Hermione mate, she knows everything.
"…Harry," Hermione begun again, her tone soothing yet wary. "What happened between you and Ginny?"
Looking down at his hands, Harry barely managed to choke out the truth, "I broke up with her."
Silence. Then:
"WHAT! – after, after everything that's happened in the last month, you decide to break your relationship off with my sister just as I'm starting to get used to the whole thing! Merlin Harry! What the bloody hell is your problem!" Ron exploded.
"Ron shush!" Hermione hushed him. "I'm not sure if they heard you in Durmstrang!"
"No… let him shout. Make sure everyone knows before we get off this train. That's the whole purpose of this."
"OF THIS! I'm going to say it again. WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS YOUR PROBLEM! Is this all just some ruse to break my sisters heart. You knew, you goddamn knew how she felt about you. She's always been besotted by the wonderful boy-who-lived."
"Ron stop it!"
"NO Hermione. I will not stop until I get a straight answer out of him. Only this morning they were all sickly sweet and together, now Ginny is off crying, and he's here all stone cold just staring at me."
"Ron, listen to me." Harry pleaded as his best mate folded his arms, gritted his teeth and glared across the compartment into his face.
"I didn't want to break it off with her, trust me I didn't" he added as Ron made to interrupt. "Do you remember in second year, when she wrote in Riddles diary? She almost died, because she was my best friends little sister. Can you imagine the danger she would be in if Voldemort knew how much I cared for her. I never should have gotten together with her. I've put her in too much danger."
Ron maintained his scowling whilst Hermione interrupted. "Harry, she's a smart girl, she knows the danger of being associated with you. But… I understand. She's still underage, she will be back at school next year and god knows what will happen while we're gone. I understand you're trying to protect her, but don't say you never should have gotten together with her. Harry, I… we have never seen you as happy as you have been this past month with her."
Harry grunted and turned to face Ron. Once again it was his approval he needed. He needed Ron to realize that he had broken up with Ginny for her benefit, for her safety, and that he wasn't trying to hurt his little sister by toying with her heart.
"You're not just 'messing her around?'"
"No, I would never do that Ron! I just… don't want Voldemort to think he would be able to use her to get to me. I - I really care about her Ron. I do. Ginny made me feel like I was just a normal person, a normal teenager. After everything I have been through, that is not something I can say that I have ever felt before. She made all my issues disappear so I could be normal. So I could be me." Harry paused to take a deep shaky breath before continuing. "And so I would really appreciate it if you stopped yelling at me as if Ginny is the only person who is hurting over my decision. Because I know that deep down, you understand that I only did this so she wouldn't end up dead... or worse. It would kill me if any of you got hurt because of me… especially Ginny."
Ron was silent for a moment. "Oh?" he eventually snorted, "Then what are Hermione and I – chopped liver?" he asked in a mocking tone, signalling their heavy conversation was over.
Harry visibly relaxed, "nah." He replied. "It's just, you two have been with me from the beginning, and I know I can't shake you no matter what. Ginny on the other hand. She has no idea about what we are going to do, and if we're together, it gives the impression that she knows more than she really does and I cannot take being the sole reason why she would be targeted. You guys… you've made your own decisions."
Ron and Hermione both shot him a comforting smile. "Yeah mate, we made our own decisions years ago. From the night that troll was let in there was no way you could have gotten rid of us even if you tried."
When Harry stepped off the Hogwarts express for the last time, he felt the eyes of the world on him. Students everywhere were pointing at him, more so than usual. It made sense when Harry, Ron and Hermione bumped into Ginny near the gate back out to the platform.
He could hear the whispers of, "they broke up." And "I knew if wasn't anything serious" even one person saying, "Well I guess she ran out of love potion to work on him, the whole thing was definitely a farce."
"Oh there you are my dears!" cried Mrs. Weasley the moment the lot of them had passed through the barrier out into the muggle world. Harry watched as Ron and Hermione were engulfed in a hug by Mrs. Weasley.
"So," a soft voice on his left murmured. "Everyone on the train knows about… well now you don't have to worry about me"
Harry took in Ginny's face as he was squashed between her mother's strong arms. She looked as Ron had described her earlier. 'Broken'. She still maintained that fierce expression, but something in her eyes was off, and Harry who had spent the last month lost in those loving, trusting warm eyes could tell she was taking his decision hard. And that only added to his pain.
After being released by Mrs. Weasley, clapping Ron on the back and giving Hermione a kiss on the cheek, Harry turned towards the Durselys who stood at the end of the platform glaring at him and his little reception party.
Harry waved goodbye to the remainder of the Weasley's, but stopped just on the edge of their group. Not touching Ginny as he so yearned to do, but looking into her eyes he managed to whisper out his final goodbye before walking away from the woman he was sure he loved.
"I'll still worry about you Ginny. No matter what."
Hi there! - thanks for reading :) This story has been bouncing around my head for a while now, and I hope I managed to do it justice. Please let me know if you enjoyed it, or if you imagined Ron and Hermione finding out some other way about the breakup.
:D