Authors: Gemmika and Ham

Title: Tears of a Saviour (Prologue)

Summary: A boy, who has the fate of the world resting on his shoulders. A girl, who has to fight with everything she has to keep him alive, to keep him with her. From the dangerous hunt for the horcruxes to the final showdown with the Darkest wizard in History… Harry and Ginny know that their love and their friends are the only things that will see them through. Post HBP.

DISCLAIMER: No, we don't own Harry Potter. We just write fanfics for fun and make absolutely no money out of it. It all belongs to the great JK Rowling.

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Tears of a Saviour

Prologue

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With a miserable gesture, Harry got up, turned his back on Ginny and on Dumbledore's tomb and walked away around the lake.

His legs felt heavy and leaden and each step he took away from her he felt a fierce burning in his heart.

Would he ever get to experience those magical days again? Would he ever get to be that happy again?

There was a fairly good chance that he wouldn't survive the war and he found that the biggest regret he had was not spending enough time with her. Not having told her years ago, being so blind and not seeing what had been right in front of his eyes all along.

And what would happen if he did survive the war? Would she wait for him? Would she take him back? He realized that he didn't know what he would do if she didn't wait. Would it be worth surviving at all?

He suddenly had trouble seeing properly and the ground went blurry. He reached up absently to touch his eyes and found them wet with tears.

A hate flared up in his heart, a murderous hate directed at the Dark Lord.

He had grown up in miserable conditions all his childhood, not knowing his parents and being starved and abused. He had borne it to the best of his ability. He had lived his entire life praying desperately for a home, for one person who would love him unconditionally and look out for his needs above his own. With Sirius he thought he had found that, until the Dark Lord had taken that away from him too.

Harry had always thought of Dumbledore as a surrogate grandfather, a mentor, someone he would follow through the fires of hell and back. As long as Dumbledore was with him there had been no fear, there had been no doubts. He had always felt that things would be all right at the end of the day no matter how bad the situation was. Dumbledore had made him feel safe for the first time in his life. And now he lay dead.

But this was the final straw. This had been the hardest thing he ever had to do. The weeks spent with Ginny had been almost surreal. It had almost felt like a dream… one that he never wanted to wake up from.

It had felt magical to be loved like that by someone, and to love in return. It felt magical to know that he was loved for himself and not for his scar or what he had done. The feeling of being held in her arms, of kissing her, was something he could never put in words. He just knew that if he lived and could never have that again then he didn't want to survive the encounter against the Dark Lord.

He knew that he was doing Ginny a great injustice. He should have told her about the Prophecy, about the horcruxes. He should have taken her along with him. Ginny was just as capable as Ron and Hermione. He had made a lot of mistakes with Ginny over the years and treated her very shabbily.

Would she ever forgive him?

'Wait for me Gin, please…' Harry thought desperately, tears running down his cheek in hot streaks. 'Give me a chance to make it up to you after this is all over.'

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Ginny watched Harry's retreating back with a mixture of feelings. The most obvious was hurt; genuine broken hearted tears were now falling down her face. She had to wait until he wasn't in sight anymore in order to cry. Harry would want her to be strong; she was strong… but not quite strong enough for this. She felt weak, almost helpless because she couldn't stop this from happening. Everything she had ever wanted in her life had been hers, and she hadn't even put up a fight for him. She had let him walk away… what kind of Gryffindor was she?

She saw him pause on his way over to Ron and Hermione and she cursed herself for watching him. He had just broken up with her, and here she was, her eyes still following him as if he were still hers. Stop it Ginny, she told herself in a reprimanding tone, he's gone… and he isn't coming back.

Just that simple thought, that he would never come back into her life made her body go numb, and she slumped to the ground. A life without Harry? How could that be? He was everything to her. He was her love, her best friend… her Harry. She looked down at her hands, hands that would never again hug him close, or rub his shoulders when he felt tense. She couldn't accept that, not now and not ever.

Harry belonged with her, and she'd be damned if she let him go. She had wanted him for so long, had known deep in her heart that they belonged together. Now that she had him, she wasn't stupid enough to let him go without a fight. All of her earlier feelings vanished as her resolve rose. After all, she was a Gryffindor; she couldn't let him walk out of her life that easily. Not when she remembered the feel of his arms around her, the taste of his lips on hers… dammit, she could still feel the warmth of his hand in hers.

Anger surged inside her as she watched him talk to Ron and Hermione. Instinctively she knew what it was about. "Damn you Potter," she whispered murderously, "you are going after him aren't you… and that is why you really broke up with me. You don't want me coming along."

It was a realization that stung her, one that went straight to her heart. Harry didn't believe in her, he didn't think she could handle it. She was going to show him that she could somehow she was going to follow him, Ron and Hermione when they left. She wasn't going to stand aside and wait for news of his death; she wanted to fight beside him. It was where she belonged, at his side. The sooner he realized it, the better off he would be, she decided as she stood up again.

Her heart was going to kill her, Ginny thought wryly. If only it would stop chasing her thoughts around she would be able to come to a conclusion of how she felt, and what she was going to do. She loved him. That much was certain… she wouldn't and couldn't ever love anyone else, not after Harry. What she was debating was whether or not to go after him. Would he be so angry that he never spoke to her again? Would he be so worried about her that he would put her safety above his own? That was what she was afraid of.

She knew him, knew that he would sacrifice himself for any of his friends. If she went, if she followed him as he hunted down Voldemort… she might end up being the cause of his death and she didn't think she could live with herself if that happened. Harry was her reason for living, her reason for getting up each morning, her reason for smiling and being who she was….

Harry loved her, because she was herself. He hadn't fallen for her until he had seen who she really was. If only she could remind him of who she was, of why he loved her. If she could somehow find someway to show him what he was missing without her… a grin spread over her face. Well, Bill and Fleur's wedding might just come in handy after all.

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A direct quote from JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.