TOO LATE

'italics' thoughts

"This, this is not a big deal. No one…no one will miss me…" She sat hovering on her Nimbus 2000, staring at the Quidditch pitch, tears filling her eyes. She watched them from the corners of her eyes and. She made no move to stop them from falling, because she soon would be. Through her tears, the pitch was transformed into a glistening emerald with few rays shooting through. 'How ironic, the sun's splendour is all around me, warming the air and I feel so cold, so very cold inside' That colour struck a painful note of her heart, a once much loved colour, now the instrument of her destruction, it reminded her of…'no, I refuse to travel that path again …' and now, she could see no other escape route.

Looking back, she realized that she'd been too distant with her friends and family, but she couldn't help it. Being around them was too painful. Especially Ron and Hermione. Don't get her wrong, she was happy they finally got their act together and realised they liked each other, but every time she saw them interact, it felt like a sharp knife was slowly cutting her insides to pieces. So, she drifted, started hanging out with a new crowd, made some new friends, and hoped that her feelings would change. She let her hair grow out, and often used it as a shield to hide behind. She threw herself headlong into schoolwork; she even rivalled Hermione for the biggest know-it-all in the school for a time. But, it didn't work, nothing worked. She'd tried so hard to fill that emptiness inside her, but with everyday that passed, the void grew and grew until now, she was nothing but a cold, empty husk of nothing.

She felt her nose running and lifted her head to stare at the sky; the luminous green was giving her a headache. She inhaled deeply to try and calm her nerves down, but she couldn't breathe in deep enough. She looked at the potion bottle sitting there innocently in her hands. She raised it to her lips and swallowed it before she could change her mind. Emptied of its deadly contents, she let the bottle go. 'Only a few minutes, just a few minutes and then it's all over'. She wiped her nose and attempted to stem the flow of tears streaming down her face. She laughed softly to herself, she remembered writing him a note, spilling her heart out to him on paper, convinced he'd finally notice her, even if it was too late, but she'd discarded her half-hearted attempt: "What's the point, he's too busy having fun with his new friend." She laughed openly now, almost shouting to the skies "did they think I was stupid, that I couldn't see what was going on in front of me. I may be young, yes but that does not make me naïve. Don't they know, we, the ones unlucky enough to suffer unrequited love, we always know these things. " They'd thought she hadn't seen the whispers, the knowing looks that screamed at her 'we know something you don't'. They were all so laughably ignorant, conveniently forgetting what she'd been through in her first year…it had opened her eyes to soo many things and now….'Stop stalling, you don't have time for this ', she chastised herself. Her eyes began to blur but she had no tears left to blame. She lifted her arms to the sky, as if to embrace the chilly wind around her and fell backwards.

As she fell, her hair fanned around her, tangling her limbs at the same time. From below, her descent would have resembled a single drop of blood, attempting to mar a perfect emerald. Once again, her eyes filled with tears but the wind froze them as quickly as they fell. On the edge of her subconscious she noted that the suns rays sparked off the frozen drops, blinding her with radiance. She closed her eyes and braced herself for impact…"ooof…ooooww". After a few seconds, she realised that in fact, she was still alive and she had landed on a body, a surprisingly soft and firm body (those were muscles she could feel rippling against her lower back she was certain of it) , but a body nonetheless, not the Quidditch pitch she had been aiming for. She carefully considered her options and realised that she would prefer not to open her eyes just yet. Those warm hands around her waist were quite warm and she was soo comfortably that she didn't want to move. She closed her eyes and became aware of lips tickling her ears, accompanied by warm gust of ears. She shivered when she realised what the words were:

"please don't leave me, I thought I was too late, don't do this to me, you can't do this to, I can't lose you, I love you soo much I couldn't bear it if you left me"

She sniffed, hearing those words, from him, it wasn't fair. 'my life, a fairy tale gone wrong. These were the words that I had hoped for and now, they come too late, my knight in shining armour cannot save this damsel in distress' By now he'd lain her on a conjured blanket and had been occupied with listening to her heart to reassure himself it was still there. She opened her eyes, blinked, staring at the sky and told him in a halting whisper "Harry, it's too late, it's too late, you can't save me. And, and…you'll never know how much i…how much I…" She paused, tears choking her, and breathed her last breath, her sentence left uncompleted.

He had gradually moved closer to her lips, in an attempt to hear her better. When she'd paused, he opened his eyes in a mute enquiry. He stared at her for a few seconds, noting the closed eyes, and the fact that no warm gusts of air escaped her mouth. "Ginny, Gin…how much you what…how much you what". She shook her shoulders gently, then roughly in an attempt to wake her up but soon gave up. Tears spilling from his eyes, he held her frail body to him, despite the fact that it was rapidly cooling. His tears soaked her clothes and he buried his head in her hair, the fiery red hair that had always drawn his eyes to her, like moth to a flame. He covered her up with the blanket but couldn't bring himself to carry her to the Hospital wing. He stared at her, maybe in the hopes that she would wake up again, and everything would be alright.

"Ginny, I should have known something was wrong. You think I didn't notice you…I did…too much. I noticed when you started stopped cutting your hair, when you spent more time in the library, when your eyes began to loose their shine, but, but, but I was too scared to talk to you. Maybe if I'd made use of the famous 'Gryffindor courage' I could have…could have…and you'd still…'" he stopped there, unable to continue. He had to face the fact that he was gone, and there was nothing he could do about it. He finally stood up, with her in his arms, and took her to the Hospital wing.

His first stop was Gryffindor tower, to tell everyone the bad news, he left as quickly as he could, unable to cope with the all the questions and grief. He went back to the pitch, where he'd caught her…'too late, I'm always too late'. He stared at the sky, contemplating the fact that less than 3hours ago, Ginny had also been staring at the sky, and it was him that had driven her to such desperate measures. Suddenly, he squinted, about 200 yards away there was a broomstick lying inconspicuously on the floor. He ran towards and picked it up. "Ginny's broomstick" he said to himself, and he couldn't stop the tears from falling anymore more than he could convince himself to let go of the broomstick. Minutes later, this was how Hermione found him, hands going white at with the force he used to grip the stick. She was hesitant to approach, having no words to console him so she did the only thing she could, she hugged him and let him cry on her shoulder. He clung to her, inadvertently letting go of Ginny's broom while he cried, releasing all the words he'd left unsaid, the regrets he had and all the things he should have done. Eventually, he lifted his head and looked at her. He only said "Thank you" before walking way, Grim determination written over his face. She started to follow him when something snagged on her school robe, she looked down and was shocked to see that Ginny's broom (what used to be a broom) had transformed into a baby willow tree. She stared in astonishment as this display of wand less magic and thought 'times like this, I almost…but not quite…pity voldemort '. She unsnagged her robe and hurried after Harry. Before she had taken 5 steps, she noticed a piece of dirty, crumpled paper on the floor. She picked it up, read it and tears filled her eyes. Her heart swelled with pity for the two lost lovers. She finally understood why Harry had sprinted out of the common room so suddenly 'but he was too late'.

The Piece of paper said:

Dear Harry

Harry, my only love

Harry, I've decided that I can't handle my feelings anymore and I don't know what else to do. However, before I……before I go, I've decided to tell you that I love you. I know that you don't love me and you never will and you probably don't think of me as much more than Ron's little sister and I've accepted it. I realize that you do not need someone like me in your life when Vol…when Vol…with the Dark lord trying to kill you all the time so…that's it. This is my pathetic attempt to say goodbye…so Goodbye Harry. This is the last you'll ever hear of me, I wish I could believe that would mean something to you. I…I…goodbye.

Love Ginny.