Love Knows No Bounds

Chapter One: Beginning of the Downward Spiral

There were only so many ways you could screw up a perfectly good relationship with someone as genuine and loving as Ginny Weasley, and Harry Potter successfully achieved each and every one of them. It had been 7 years after the war, and the two Hogwarts sweethearts figured they were meant to be. It wasn't until the past three years of their relationship had things really started to go downhill. But nothing is as simple as it seems to be to a boy of 17, as Harry, now 27, looked back dejectedly at his life. This flash to the past brought with it some feelings of sadness and some feelings of happiness. Which of the two feelings took precedence, Harry couldn't identify. When the sound of smashing dishware china facilitated into his ears, Harry quickly snapped out of his daydreaming and gathered up his belongings from the house he and Ginny had shared together. He just made his way to the door when he heard Ginny's tear-stricken voice cry out to him.

"Now go and don't you ever come back. I hope your love life from here on out is cursed!" Ginevra shouted powerfully.

Harry, without replying, closed the doors to their manor behind him and he didn't look back. He had known he hadn't been the perfect husband, but things were okay. Weren't they? He had this constant battle in his head on whether things were ever really perfect at home. Each and every time, a mixture of perfection and flaws were discovered. The troubles all started with the incident at The Ministry of Magic where Harry worked as an Auror. Well, the issues were there long before but this was the first time he was going to do something about them, Harry rationalized. The late hours at the Auror's office kept Harry away from home most nights and it was when he started to come home later than usual every night, at about 2 o'clock in the morning, that Ginny figured out something else was going on.

Without Harry's knowledge, Ginny followed him to work one evening and before Harry entered his end of the night time stamp, he took a detour to the basement of the Ministry of Magic. Not knowing what to expect, she followed him diligently and stealthily. What she saw when she turned the corner at the bottom left of the staircase leading to the basement was nothing. But what she had heard instead were quiet but very pronounced moans. Not wanting to reveal her position, she hid behind one of the banisters but kept just enough of a viewpoint that she could clearly see Harry snogging Hermione, who at the time, also happened to be Harry's best friend's wife. Harry ran his fingers through Hermione's big bushy brown hair and whispered a string of statements that Ginny couldn't make out except for the last one which was just a bit louder and more accentuated than the others.

"Hermione, I love you," Harry stated in between fervent gasps and whispers.

"Oh, Harry! I love you, too!" Hermione proclaimed. "But I've got to get home to Ron and the kids."

"I know. I have to get home to Ginny. I really don't know what to do about me and Ginny, Hermione," Harry told her never feeling more sincere in his life. "I mean I know things haven't been working lately between us. Things haven't been right in a long time."

As Harry said this, Ginny thought to herself how he seemed to have a pang of regret in his voice. But Ginny knew better. Her husband couldn't be sneaking around like this and still love her. As Ginny stood there hearing the rest of their conversation she felt like knives were stabbing at her heart at each word she heard Harry utter from his lips. Those lips. The ones that she used to love to kiss and bite to make Harry moan. All of that is gone now, she thought as she turned to leave only to hear Harry and Hermione notice her sulking back up the stairs.

"Ginny! I can explain!" Harry declared desperately.

"I heard everything! There's nothing you can say to fix this, Harry. We're done," Ginny said holding back choking sobs.

"Ginny, wait! Hermione, I'm sorry but I have to go," Harry didn't want to leave but did he really want to save his marriage? Not even he knew the answer to that. It should have been clear what he really wanted but his indecisiveness always made it hard to make a definite stance on his feelings.

"It's ok, Harry. I understand. Go home to your wife," Hermione told him with a tone of sympathy in her voice.

As Ginny apparated back to the home that her and Harry had shared all these years she finally gave in to the sobs that she was holding back into her chest. How could Harry do this to her? He could have at least had the decency to end their marriage before screwing around with Hermione. But of course Harry only did things his way, to benefit himself and to hell with everyone else.

Harry, walking to the apparition point on the roof of the Ministry building, cursed to himself as he tried to contemplate what had just happened. How had she known let alone even suspected what Harry was up to? He hadn't been dropping any clues or anything of the sort and it dumbfounded him. But then again Ginny was very smart and she was top of her Gyriffindor class in her 6th and 7th years at Hogwarts.

When Harry finally got home, the lights in the house were all dark. Maybe she just went to sleep, Harry thought hopefully. But deep down he knew otherwise. He unlocked the front door using the winged key they kept under the doormat and gently opened the door in case Ginny had actually gone straight to bed. Things were quiet as he walked into the parlor only to realize his shoes were squeaking. He quickly took them off and started upstairs when he heard a crashing sound. He ran up the stairs to make sure she was ok. He entered their bedroom which was furnished with mahogany wooden dressers and a king sized bed to find Ginny bending over a lamp that was obviously thrown across the room. She was trying to pick up the fragments but Harry could hear her weeping as she slumped down to the floor. Not hearing Harry come in, he put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at him and he could see the pain in her eyes. It broke his heart.

"Ginny, I'm so sorry."

"You actually sound like you mean it," Ginny stated with a cruel undertone.

"I do."

"Oh yeah right, you expect me to believe that after what I saw? How could you, Harry?"

"I don't know," Harry told Ginny with nothing but sincerity.

"You don't know? Well I'll tell you what I know. Either you end things with Hermione and never see her again or you lose me."

Harry cringed. He hated ultimatums. But before he had time to even ponder it he blurted out, "I want you, Ginny. I want only you." Did he really just say that? He loves Hermione yet he is choosing Ginny without the slightest clue why.

"You'll really end things with the woman you supposedly love?"

"You are the woman I love Ginny, and the woman I married," Harry told her feeling defeated.

Ginny wanted desperately to believe him but she knew deep down that she couldn't put herself out there anymore. But she didn't want to end her marriage so she decided to stick it out. She just wanted to forget what she saw but she knew that would be nearly impossible to accomplish.