Finals were over, classes had concluded, Harry was back in town for Ginny's graduation. She had an offer to enter Britain's Ministry of Magic Auror Program, everyone wanted to get their hands on the seventh year who had helped Harry Potter defeat "You Know Who". However there was another offer she had kept private, a chance to work for the International European Auror Program, which held its headquarters in Switzerland. It was a chance of a lifetime, to be able to train under the best in the world.

There was one thing that stopped her. Harry. They had been together steadily for a year... she loved him, she always had. She was beginning to wonder though if she could really remember what she was without him. She had never been the girl to let a boy define her, in fact most boys had enjoyed the fact that she held her own, yet she broke her own rules for him. She catered to his schedule and more often than not bent over backwards to make him happy. He was always good to her though, he never took advantage of the fact she would do anything for him.

With the end of her seventh year coming she felt an even greater need to stand on her own. She often wondered about the job working for an International defense team, knowing Harry would never leave Britain; he had just been able to get the Ministry back on target. He knew about Ginny's offer to work for the MoM but was also aware she had other offers, he had refrained from asking her too much about it, he learned long ago to avoid business pillow talk.

Since he had left school, he and Ron had gotten a flat together in downtown London close to Diagon Alley. Hermione and Ginny were frequent visitors, and now that Hermione and Ron were engaged it seemed only a matter of time before Harry proposed to Ginny. They spent evenings talking about it sometimes, and always Ginny felt a certain level of panic arise knowing that her life was almost all planned out for her. Harry was the only boy she ever loved, the only boy she had ever allowed to go "that" far with. She loved him, and she felt no shame in taking their relationship to that level, it relieved the stress that both of them had allowed to build over the past few years.

As Harry walked through the doors of Hogwarts with stride, he had just come from the Burrow; the ring was sitting in his pocket. The ceremony took place in the Great Hall, but he was a few hours early and was planning on meeting Ginny in the Head Girls Dormitory.

He strode carefully, it was a habit, always sneaking around the castle during his school days, knowing that with his luck he would see McGonagall and she would get on to him about unannounced visitors, 'what would Mr. Weasley say if he knew you were visiting his daughter'...

He stood outside the door, his heart was swelling, he could smell her, it was a shampoo or a perfume of sorts, he never could quite pin it down, but it was intoxicating. He knocked gently,

"Ginny?" he asked,

"Harry!" she said opening the door as he came in for a hug, knowing that in a few minutes he would quite possibly be very angry with her.

"You know I miss you more every time I have to leave you?" he laughed

"Oh really? Shagging that good?" she chuckled

"Mmm" he said kissing her, "Its been a while..." she smiled, it always started like this, a playful game of dropping hints, followed by a time of laughing tickling, and then it happened

"We have a few hours before I have to be in the Great Hall..." she said now unbuttoning his collar,

"Oh Ginny Weasley are you trying to seduce me?"

"Maybe... or I could just be teasing you, making you think you'll get some only to take it right out from under your adorable little nose"

"Mm, I guess I will just have to take my chances then," He started stroking her head, it was a surefire way into bed with her, he put his hand on the small of her back pulling her in close, then she backed away. She proceeded to take off her shirt and place it neatly on the chair,

"I don't care if Ron and Hermione know we have been shagging but I would prefer my whole family didn't know how you take advantage of me when we are alone" she said now pulling him down to the bed.

There was a part of her that always fell apart when Harry kissed her, it was the way his hand was placed so perfectly around her face, the way he whispered in her ear that sent goose bumps through her entire body.

Yet she knew in her heart they couldn't go on like this forever, the real world was headed for them like a freight train, she left a week after graduation for Switzerland, she hadn't told him yet, this was the first she had seen him since she found out and she couldn't do this in a letter.

"Gin," he said stroking her face

"Mhm"

"What's on your mind?"

"We can't do this forever you know"

"I know pretty soon I'm going to have to make an honest woman out of you" he said smiling down at her, but she only returned with a half hearted grin,

"I leave for the International Defense Team in Switzerland next week," she said getting it all out in one breath, avoiding eye contact at all cost.

"You're leaving me?" he said not really expecting or wanting an answer, "after everything... your leaving?"

"Harry you have sent me through the ringer more times than I care to recall, first with all the noble deed business, needing to defeat Voldemort, I understood and I sat aside, I also waited all through our last year together at Hogwarts when you popped in and out of my life, saying you cared about me, kissing me, and then the next day telling me it was a mistake, but I put up with it because you were Harry Potter and you had things to do to save wizarding kind, and this last summer after it was all over you came to me and I took you in forgiving everything, but I never forgot. Then on your birthday when we... shagged for the first time I realized I never wanted to lose you and I spent my entire seventh year pining for you, waiting for your letters, and now I realize... I don't know who I am without you. I may never have another chance like Switzerland, and for once I'd like to be defined as something other than Harry Potter's Girlfriend" and there it was, every resentment, every feeling of inadequacy she had ever felt for him out in one splurge.

"So you can't be with me because I'm Harry Potter? Because all of a sudden that hero worship doesn't sound that great? You know me Ginny you always call me on whatever shit I throw at you, but I'm calling you on yours now, because that's what this is, this is shit"

"No it isn't! I'm sick of always feeling like I have to measure up to be something that I'm just not, I'm not going to be the perfect wife, I don't want to get married right out of school, and I want a life of my own!"

"Since when have I ever tried to stop you?" They were both out of bed now, putting their clothes back on

"NOW! YOU ARE TRYING TO STOP ME NOW! YOU WANT ME TO BE JUST LIKE MY MOTHER!"

"WHAT?!?!"

"You always tell me how much you want a big family, with a lot of kids always scurrying around; I'm not ready for that yet! I'm only eighteen years old! Did you know I got recruitment letters from every major Auror Program in Europe? Not to mention a try out with the Chudley Cannons had I chosen to accept it? AND I CANT DO ANY OF IT BECAUSE IM SCARED OF LOSING YOU!"

"But you are," he said quietly, "your leaving me" she couldn't look at him, her eyes were turning red and tears were sure to flow soon,

"I have to Harry, just for a little while, after 2 years I will have an opportunity to return to Britain as an International Consultant"

"I'll wait for you," he said his eyes solemn, brimming with tears,

"No, Harry if we are truly meant to be we will find our way back to each other... and if not then we weren't meant to be"

"And you really want to take that chance?"

"If it means that I can be happy on my own... and that when we get together we know it will be right, then yes"

His eyes looked hurt and defeated, it made her stomach turn, her heart felt like it was in knots.

He wanted to throw up, this couldn't be happening, how could she be leaving, the room was spinning and nothing seemed as it should.

He went into the bathroom to collect his thoughts, then to throw up, he had his head between his legs, trying to breath, what was happening to him? He never got like this, even when he had a chest cold, it was nothing like this, then his heart hurt, it just ached, it sent uncomfortable shockwaves through his entire body. He splashed water on his face and tried to get through his head what had just happened.

For the longest time she couldn't move, every part of her felt numb, as if something had been ripped from her and she couldn't speak, and before she knew it she just sat on her bed and cried, cried out every bit of hurt, every bit of anger that resided in her.

They were both a little late from the ceremony. Ginny had left the room first, telling him she was going, he followed shortly after. Before the ceremony began Ginny went to speak to McGonagall to tell her the final decision Ginny had come to about life after Hogwarts. The Headmistress was surprised but elated for Ginny; it was a rare occurrence that a student chose a path so far from home, especially some one as close to their family as Ginny Weasley was.

Ginny had been elected as the Seventh Year Speaker; she approached the podium nervously,

"The day has finally arrived, a day we swore we would celebrate, a day we swore would be the happiest of our lives, yet I can't help but feel the sudden sting of loss at what is no longer here to call our own. We enter the wizarding world now with every opportunity; we enter as a new hope, though not unscathed in the war against Voldemort. These scars he has left us with, visible or not, will forever change our lives, and if we try, we can see through the darkness and feel the happiness we felt walking through this Hall for the first time. To make each day for the future, refusing to live in the past" She stepped away and looked in the audience, her whole family was smiling, aside from Harry who just looked at her like a wounded puppy.

They went through and announce one by one every graduate, and as Ginny stepped up the pace changed slightly,

"The final Weasley to enter through these gates for another decade, will leave a legacy unmatched by her siblings, Head Girl and Quidditch Captain, she has always shown exceptional leadership skills, and will be leaving us before summer's end to report to Switzerland for the International Defense Team Auror Program,"

While her classmates cheered, and Ginny did her best to smile, her family was clearly perplexed and shocked, they clapped however. Her brothers beaming with pride, and again Harry just looked at her like a kicked dog, she then went to sit down with her classmates where she was recieved with overwhelming congratulations.

Hermione nudged Ron, and then he saw what she had, Harry, looked upset, his face was all screwed up, like he was attempting a very complicated math problem, he was the first to leave as soon as the ceremony had finished. He made his way to the lake where he had spent many sunlit days, where his father and mother had spent time together, where he and Ginny had broken up for the first time. He stared at the lake, completely at a loss.

"Harry?" Ron asked at Hermione's request

"It's over" he stated plainly

"Harry, she's just going for a little bit, I'm sure-"

"No Hermione, she doesn't want to stay together, she doesn't want me to wait for her, its over" neither Ron or Hermione knew quite what to say

They did however take a cue when Ginny left her admiring classmates and headed over to Harry

"I do love you" she said quietly

"How? How can you do this to me, if you love me?"

"The same way you did it to me when you needed to be on your own"

She knew it wasn't fair. He at the time was on the verge of defeating the most the world had ever seen. Where she… she was merely graduating. Leaving the tumultuous life that had so plainly fell into her lap.

"I just," she paused trying to choose her words carefully, "I need to do this, more for my own selfish whims… I need to do this"

Harry just looked at her, his eyes no softer than they had been previously, "Just hurry home Gin,"

"Don't wait for me, this isn't going to work if you wait for me, I want you to be happy and seize every opportunity… I want to know that you are going to be okay"

"I'll be fine, better when you come back, but fine"

That's the first chapter… It'll get better as I go on… R&R!