A/N:This is my entry for the Take a Prompt, Leave a Prompt challenge. Prompt: Remember, Christina Rossetti.
His feet sunk purposefully into the blood stained earth. His give-away footprints distorting the previously pressed marks of hooves and the massive imprints of giants' toes. Harry Potter moved swiftly past the dead, not looking down, too afraid to learn the lives of whom he had taken in his rashness to finish a war which he knew he was not ready to begin.
The injured moaned for their parents and the sweet relief of death, which no one craves until it finally comes too slowly. Harry caught sight of the one thing he wanted in this world, but the one thing he could never have.
Ginny Weasley was crouched meters away, consoling a girl whom Harry did not recognise. Her words were like heaven to him. They calmed him more than anything else could have in that moment. Ginny. Could he say goodbye? See her tears fall as he tells her that he is off to be the reckless, stupid hero she always feared he would become. He wanted to feel her lips once more before he joined the rest of the fallen in the afterlife. He knew that he couldn't, he knew that he –
Oh, what the hell.
He strode over to her; his hand slid the cloak off his body as he approached.
"Ginny," the word came out rushed, as though his mouth knew how erratic his heart was and tried to express that in the one word. Her eyes found his and a second passed before she really seemed to see him. Her face dropped. The girl, lying helplessly at her feet had finally found peace in death as Ginny stood. Suddenly, with the look on her face and the sickening feeling of guilt in his stomach, he remembered another reason why he was not going to tell Ginny.
"Harry James Potter," she began, her face heating up as she slowly moved to him, her hands clenched in front of her, "you had better not be doing exactly what I think you're doing?!" her eyes scanned his face, hoping for a sign that she was wrong.
Harry had hoped she would be sad. But Ginny Weasley was not going to cry. Ginny Weasley was now too angry to kiss him. Ginny Weasley had already lost her brother, could not find one of her best friends, had heard that Voldemort was going on a killing spree, and now the love of her life was standing before her on his way to his execution. No, Ginny Weasley was mad!
"Harry!" she yelled, not caring who heard. "What were you thinking?! You cannot give yourself up, no matter who Voldemort threatens!" her eyes were alive and burning with fire.
"Ginny, I – "
"No! I don't care what you think is going to happen in those woods. I cannot lose someone else. Not tonight."
Harry stepped forward and pressed his lips to hers, as she moved to protest he placed a hand on her cheek. She suddenly felt so raw, so vulnerable. Everything that had happened finally hit her. Their lips separated and, trying her hardest to hold back tears, she whispered:
"I love you. Please, don't go."
Harry's only reply, before he turned and walked away with the cloak back over his head, was:
"That's why I have to, because I love you. Please, forget me and move on." Ginny watched him go, fingers lingering on her lips.
"Never."