Standing in the doorway, Harry looked out across the room. Despite it being night time, the fire was ablaze, and cast a dim, orange glow across the furniture. His eyes swept the room, taking in every detail of the room that was no obscured by darkness. The sofa, the armchair and the coffee table cast shadows across the floor. Another shadow was with them. Harry looked up from the dark silhouette to see Ginny, kneeling in front of the fire, staring absent-mindedly into the dancing flames. Taking a step forward, Harry tried his best to be silent, but the aged floorboard creaked under his foot. Ginny, hearing the noise, spun around.
"Harry," she said, her voice barely more than a whisper. In the dim light of the fire, her pale skin was tinted yellow, and her chocolate eyes were faintly illuminated. Neither of them moved for several moments, until Harry walked slowly towards her. Sitting down beside her, Harry noticed how the flickering light from the fire caught her red hair, making it glimmer softly.
"Harry," Ginny said again, slightly louder this time. For a while, they both sat, not speaking. They didn't need to speak. They simply understood. Merely days ago, they had participated in the Battle of Hogwarts, fighting with unflawed bravery. That experience alone was enough: the pain, the confusion, the crushed hope. But in addition, they had both lost so much. Family and friends had been murdered before their very eyes as they fought to prevent such a thing from happening. Fred, Lupin, Tonks, and many others had lost their lives in just one miserable night.
Harry finally broke the silence.
"I don't think we'll ever get over it really," he said, referring to the events they'd witnessed, "It's enough to scar a person for life." Ginny met his gaze. He could see the pain. Her eyes glistened with tears. The light had disappeared from the deep pools of hazel, and had been replaced by a shocking emptiness. Slowly, she shook her head, his hair swishing gently about her shoulders.
"We can't stay like this forever," she replied, the melancholy echoing in her voice, "People have lives they can't afford to leave unattended." It pained Ginny to even say this aloud. As far as she was concerned, too much had been taken away for people to just pick up where they left off. How could they sit down for dinner as a family, knowing that there would be an empty chair? How could she go back to school, knowing that her classmates woudn't all be joining her? How could she get on with her life, when so many others had been denied the chance? But Ginny knew that it was an inevitability that things would move on. No one had a choice. Despite her efforts to hold them back, tears streamed silently down her cheeks. Harry laced his fingers through hers, and simply let Ginny cry. He understood.
"I couldn't sleep," Ginny explained, sniffing, "So I came downstairs. I was going to read, but I couldn't concentrate." Her and Harry had walked together to the kitchen, and she sat on a stool while he made tea. "I haven't slept properly for the past couple of nights actually. I've just been...preoccupied." Gratefully, Ginny took a mug of tea from Harry, who pulled a chair from the kitchen table and sat with her. She brushed away a stray tear with the sleeve of her night dress.
"I know what you mean," he said, sipping his tea, "It's like I don't have time to sleep, with all the grieving and the memories. At some point, we're even supposed to be happy, I mean, Voldemort's gone. I wonder when I'm going to fit that in." Ginny smiled weakly. Harry put down his mug, and looked Ginny in the eyes. "We'll get through this, Ginny, we all will." He hugged her softly, then left the kitchen. Ginny did not follow him, but she listened to his footsteps as he headed back to the room he and Ron were sharing. As hard as it was for her to realise, Ginny realised Harry was right. She nodded stiffly to herself, tucking her hair (signature Weasley red) behind her ear. Catching sight of his neglected mug of tea, Harry's words replayed in Ginny's mind, comforting her. Smiling Ginny set down her tea, and headed back off to bed, where for the first time in days, she slept soundly.