Chapter 1:
The Problem of Unhappiness
A ray of light shot in through the crack of his four-poster bed, the ray was too bright. Brighter than he'd ever seen it, brighter than it should have been. He only could wish that he felt as bright as the sun looked, for if he felt that way then maybe he'd be happy. Sure he was happy about the victory and such but how one celebrates when their peers were in mourning over a loved one amazed him.
His thoughts ventured to his adopted family and how much pain he'd caused them over the years. He'd done so much to them and finally he caused a son and brother to them to be lost. Though Fred had been very much a brother to him, they weren't blood-related and never would he feel that sacred bond with anyone.
"He's in there!" Harry heard Ron's hushed whisper at the dormitory door. His best friend since the first day at King's Cross. If only Harry knew what the outcome of this would have been then he would not have given Ron the trouble.
"Well he needs to stop wallowing! Harry! Get up, Harry!" Hermione's bossy tone almost made him smile but couldn't right now. It was physically impossible.
She yanked open the bed curtains and stood there with both hands on her hips and brow furrowed. "Come on, get up so we can go get and eat breakfast."
Ron stood behind her practically drooling over her, he was too absorbed in her looked to even notice the look Harry was trying to give him. "Ok." Harry mumbled and slid out from under his sheets.
He dressed and walked down the stairs to meet Hermione and Ron. They sat on the couch with Hermione's head tucked tightly into Ron's chest and Ron's arm hugging her close. Harry smiled at them and silently walked towards the portrait hole, pretending he hadn't seen them showing affection to each other.
Halfway down the stairs they caught up him and didn't talk just looked straight ahead.
Harry began to walk to the Great Hall but both Ron and Hermione caught him by the arm and drug him towards the room of requirement. "Why are we going there?" Harry asked, faintly bewildered.
"We're going to have a lengthy discussion about your behavior." stated Hermione, in a tone that sounds quite similar to Mrs. Weasley's.
Ron just nodded and walked around a little then the door showed itself. Inside was a very small version of the Great Hall, food covered the table and the ceiling looked like a bright sunny day. Ron immediately started to shovel food into his mouth, Hermione sighed and turned to Harry.
"Do you know how long you sat in your bed? Three days, Harry! That's too long and I won't tolerate it anymore. You need to stop acting this way, not only do you have me and Ron worried, but also the entire school! For heavens sake, Harry, you just saved the world and you're wallowing like a little girl!" Ron laughed at this and Hermione shot him a dirty glance then returned back to Harry. "There is no exception to this and if it doesn't stop then I will have to make it stop and that includes some very nasty and high level hexes. So just stop hiding and come back and be yourself for us."
Harry stared down at his feet, unsure of what to say. He wasn't ready to face the world and be the hero he was not. "I can't." His words weren't heard by Ron but by Hermione who slapped him hard across his face. Her own face was red from anger, and jaw clenched, she looked if someone had just insulted a house elf in front of her.
"Harry James Potter, if you say that word one time I will hex you!" Ron looked up with a huge lop-sided grin smeared on his face. "You are a hero and none of us will let you think otherwise, so you shape up and sit down with your two best friends for an enjoyable breakfast." She pointed her wand at a chair and Harry sat across from her and Ron.
"Ron," Harry started. "How's everyone?"
He glanced sideways at Hermione then back at him. "Not bad, a little sad, but happier than they've been for a while. Fred's loss was hard for us all but he died for something good and we're all happy cause we know that's the way he wanted to go."
They ate in silence for a little while longer then Ron looked up at Harry again. "Hermione beat me at Wizard's chest." He said, casting a look at her. She blushed and Ron started to laugh a booming laugh that sounded very familiar and warm to Harry's ears. "Only because she cheated! Hermione Granger cheated, can you believe it?" Ron was red in the face from his laughing.
Harry smiled now and saw Hermione blushing a deep crimson, he broke into a bone rattling laugh, and one he hadn't known was there. "How'd she manage to cheat?" Harry asked.
Ron chuckled harder. "She distracted me in very inappropriate ways!" Ron yelled.
Harry was now holding his stomach as it ached from this.
Hermione stood up and tapped Ron on his shoulder, he immediately stopped laughing and looked up at her. "If you will excuse me, I'm going to leave you two to some catching up." She walked around the table and pulled Harry into tight hug. "It's good to have you back, Harry." She whispered into his ear.
She walked back around the table to Ron who stood awaiting his hug. She slowly wrapped her arms around his neck, still holding her wand in her hand. Her lips crushed down hard on his for a few seconds past awkward for Harry. Ron's arm's snapped to his side as he fell hard onto the floor, she smiled and walked towards the door but paused.
"Don't bother trying to undo the spell it'll last for a good ten minutes and wear off. And Ron that's what you get for sharing our game of wizards chest of which we won't be playing again for a very long time until you can control you loud mouth." She exited the room and Harry burst out into another fit of laughter.
Ten minutes later the spell broke and Ron sat up with a mad face. "By the way, Harry, Ginny has been looking for you." He mumbled and left the room.
Ginny, the person whom Harry had tried to keep from his mind the most. He was scared to see her and remember everything about her; her red silky hair, jubilant laugh, smooth skin, soft lips. The memories flooded him and he suddenly wanted her back more than he ever had.
Harry walked out the room of requirement, searching for Ginny. He looked down in the Great Hall, the common room, and every classroom open. She wasn't there. He gave up and walked outside to the large tree in which he and Ginny had shared so many afternoons lying there.
He saw her hair first, the sun glinted off it in the most beautiful way. Her body then came into view, her soft curves and athletic figure made him want to hold her right then and there. He stood there admiring her from a distance and breathing in every bit of her scent that he couldn't describe.
"Hello, Harry." She said, startling him. He walked towards her sat down in front of her. She continued to stare out at the lake, he followed her gaze but couldn't keep his eyes from her face for very long. "So you decided to come back," She whispered.
They sat in silence for a while after that, her looking out at the sun glittering off the water's surface and him staring into the depths of her brown eyes. It wasn't a comfortable silence but a wary silence where both didn't know what to say or what to do.
She couldn't take the wind's whispers anymore so she looked at him and begun to speak. "You abandoned everyone once before to save the world and when you finally do come back you disappear again. You left my family to mourn for themselves and to mend themselves without their youngest brother. Though you don't have the Weasley temper or the trademark red hair, you're still apart of this family whether or not you like it. What you did was worst than what Percy did, at least he came back when we needed him most but you…you just went to hide in your own little cave of self-pity while we got to face the world."
Ginny stopped and stared at him for a few moments with her jaw set and taunt. "You're a selfish prat, and I don't know what happened to the brave and heroic Harry I fell in love with went. I guess he became a coward when there was no evil villain to defeat. Is that what you need? Someone who wants to be your enemy and wants to defeat you." She stood in frustration. "Because that's what I'll be if it gets the old Harry back. I can go around in a mask pretending to kill people just to get you back! I don't the want the Harry that hides from everyone because he thinks he's terrible and doesn't deserve anyone's love. I'll tell you right now that you've already got my love and no one else will ever have it for as long I live. And I'm pretty damn sure my family plus Hermione loves you too! So don't act like the boy-who-is-unloved, be the boy I love. That's who I miss and I won't sit around and wait for him anymore. If he wants me then he'll just have to come and get me and prove to me who he really is!"
She turned and stormed back to the castle. Harry and jumped to his feet and sprinted after her, he grabbed her arm and she spun towards him. The tears rolled down her cheeks but she tried to hide them, she hadn't changed one bit from the girl he'd always known. Harry wiped the tears away with his thumb then smiled warmly at her. He smiled at her with every bit of love he had left in him and she melted right into his arms.
Harry stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head while she cried, soaking his shirt. When she settled down he just held her tightly, afraid of letting go again. "Ginny, I'm sorry for leaving and you were right, it was dumb of me to do and I won't do it again. I promise… I think I found the old Harry for you and he wanted me to tell you something," She pulled back to look up at him. "He told me to tell you that he loves you."
Ginny smiled and kissed him deeply. He clung to the feel of this as he'd always done but this time it was better. She knew he wasn't going anywhere ever again so she didn't have to think of this as her last kiss just one compared to the many in the future. They pulled apart and went sit back under the tree where the sun hit them and made them warmer than they'd ever felt.
"Will you ever tell me everything that happened when you left?" Ginny asked after a few comfortably silent moments.
"Yes, I will. Just later when I'm able to remember things without having to look back over my shoulder out of fear." Harry finished with a grin, brushing back her hair. He lay down on his back while she rested her head on his chest, their breathing matched perfectly as did their bodies.
"Let's go do something to get our minds off all of it." She sat up smiling, she pulled out her wand and murmured something. Two brooms from the broom-shed instantly flew to their side.
Harry whistled low under his breath, "Wow, your power has gotten stronger since last time I saw you."
She laughed quietly, "No it hasn't, you just haven't seen it improving over the last year. I imagine that I'm almost as powerful as the boy-who-lived now." She winked and mounted her broom, kicking off gingerly from the ground. Harry picked up the other broom and noticed that it was a Nimbus 2000.
"Gin, where on earth did you get two Nimbus' from?" Harry asked, flying into the air with practiced ease.
"Number one: you're the only one who can call me 'Gin' because I hate it but it sounds cute coming from your mouth. And two: Malfoy happened to leave these in the Slyrtherin's locker room and I happened to find them." She sped off, flying just as well as he seen her last time.
"I'm going to get Ron to start calling you 'Gin'." Harry yelled at Ginny. Seconds later, a large rock came hurling at Harry and hitting him square in the back, causing him loose his breath.
"Ok, go ahead and do that. But I assure you that you'll be getting no special attention from me." She flew right past him, Harry kicked it in gear and chased after her. He spent a good twenty minutes chasing until she disappeared into a thicket of trees, Harry slowed, using his Seeker's eye to spot any red. He crept further into the forest, still searching. Almost ten minutes later, he began to worry, she was no where in sight and he called her name a few times.
The bushes rustled and someone jumped back on his broom, clasping their arms around his waist. Harry's heart climbed into his throat before he realized who it was. She was laughing harder than he'd ever seen, "Harry…you're face…when I…" She faded back into her chuckles, Harry couldn't help from laughing along with her.
He turned around on the broom to face her, took her hands and said, "Hold on tight to me," He winked at her and the broom took off through out the forest. She screamed held tightly to Harry who sat there laughing at her. They finally landed on a remote island in the middle of the lake, Ginny hadn't ever seen the island before and was looking very quizzically at Harry.
"Harry James Potter, do you know how dangerous that maneuver was? We could have been killed! Don't ever do that again." Ginny demanded, walking to the edge of the sand.
Harry followed her and wrapped his arms around her waist, he leaned his chin on her shoulder. "Stop it, you're sounding like Hermione and I've had enough of her bossiness for a lifetime," She smiled at that. "And besides you don't have to worry about it 'cause your powers weren't the only ones that have increased." She turned to him, suddenly interested in what he was saying.
"And how might that be?" Ginny asked, wrapping her arms around his neck.
"Another one of those things I'll tell you when it's time, but you don't have to freak about the broom because I charmed it to go where I tell it go without hitting anything."
Her brow furrowed. "How will I have to wait to understand things?"
"Until I'm ready, that's all I'm asking for, love." He bent down to kiss the crease between her eyebrows, then trailed kisses down her jaw and back up to her lips. She pressed her body tighter to his, his lips felt so warm that she never wanted to let them leave hers. She curled her fingers into his wind-blown messy, black hair, enjoying the taste of his lips. She kissed his neck and nuzzled into his chest, inhaling in his smell. "I love you, Ginerva."
She playfully slapped his arm, "Why did you have to use my real name and ruin the moment?" She kissed him before he could respond with another smart-ass comment. "Moment's back," She mumbled against his lips. "So tell me you love me again."
Harry pulled back to look into her eyes, "I love you." He whispered. "I promise to tell you that every day of my life even if you decide you don't want me anymore." He hugged her close.
"Harry, I hope you know that I'll always want you. Remember I'm the girl that waited sixteen years for the famous Harry Potter; even if he was a complete git most of the time." Ginny loved the feel of Harry's chest when he laughed, it rumbled against her head. She looked down at the sand and an idea popped into her head. "Let's build a sandcastle! I've always wanted to do that."
Ginny immediately fell to the sand and started scooping large handfuls into a pile in the shore. Harry just watched her concentrate on making the pile a perfect form. She looked up at him then grabbed his hand and pulled him down into the sand next to her. She crawled on top of him and smiled, she unbuttoned the buttons on his shirt then pulled it off to reveal Harry's perfectly sculpted chest. She ran her sandy hands down his chest to his stomach and above the start of his jeans where she laughed and stopped, rolling off to the side. Harry then realized that she had gotten sand all over him and he frowned at this.
"Come on, Harry I don't want to just lay there and snog all afternoon. Help me with our castle," They worked for a good thirty minutes then Ginny's short attention span faded and she started to pursue different activities. Every three or four minutes she would lean over kiss Harry for a couple minutes then go back to their castle which now was four feet high with a bridge and moat surrounding it. The sun began to set when they had given up on their castle and resorted to snogging.
"Look at our castle," Ginny said admiring it from a few feet over.
"When we get older, where do you want to live, Ginny? I don't care as long as it's with you, so choose freely." Harry watched her speculate the question.
"A muggle neighborhood so people don't bother us, it needs to be two stories and feel like a home. Like the burrow, I want our kids to feel like they never want to leave their home. I want it to be almost in the country but not standing all alone. It needs to have a big backyard with trees and a front yard with a porch. How does that sound? Oh, yeah, and our room needs to over look at the sun rising and the porch sees it set." Ginny snapped out of her daydream and laid her head on Harry's chest.
"I can do all that for you." Harry said, picturing a very happy future with Ginny. "We should get back because I need to our family. I feel terrible about leaving them when they needed me." Harry got up and got his shirt, putting it back on.
"Harry, please don't be upset about all I said back at the tree, I was just mad and was trying to find a way to get through you wall. I just thought that showing how much more pain you were causing would break it but I didn't mean to make the good Harry upset or feel bad."
He smiled at her, "Don't worry, love, you're right but that's not what really broke the wall."
"What did?"
"You telling me that you had fallen in love with me and that you would dress up as Tom just to get me back." Ginny smiled and summoned the broomstick.
They both hopped on and Harry was about to take off when Ginny stopped him. "How about we test that charm you made?" She winked and Harry placed the charm then turned around as the broom took off towards the castle.
Ron spotted them first, they were snogging by a rather large tree. His fury built when he saw Harry's hand slide down to cup Ginny's butt, he was about to barge right over there when a claming hand was placed on his shoulder. Hermione was giving him a very stern look that told him not to test her.
"Let them have their moment, they haven't been together for an entire year." Hermione said.
"Yeah, well neither have we." Ron mumbled.
"Well, Ronald who's fault was that? You turned around and left just when I was finally getting sick of waiting for you and was about to do something. But you're stupid arse had to walk out on me. Imagine all the time we would have had together if you would have stayed. Harry and Ginny were forced apart and it must have been hard for them. Now let's go inside and tell everyone we haven't seen them." Hermione took Ron's hand and led him back to the Great Hall where the rest of the Weasley family was waiting.
Five minutes later Harry and Ginny showed up looking very flushed with rather large grins on their faces; Harry's arm was slung carelessly over Ginny's shoulders. Mrs. Weasley rushed over to Harry and engulfed him in one of her famous hugs. "Oh, Harry, I was so worried about you! Ginny told me she would take care of you and try to get you back and I'm so glad she did! We really did miss you, Harry." She pulled him back examine him, "You're too skinny, tonight we are having a proper meal at the burrow so if you will meet us there in two hours." She gave him one more quick hug then moved to collect some of her things.
The rest of the Weasley's looked sadly at him then walked outside so they could apparate back to the burrow. They left them so quickly that soon Ginny and Harry were the only two left at the table. Harry frowned, he'd caused them all to leave too fast and maybe he shouldn't go to the burrow after all. "Harry, stop it." Ginny commanded.
"I'm not doing anything." He said still looking down at his shoes.
"Look at me." Ginny demanded. "If you don't stop with that look in five seconds I will wipe it off." Harry stared straight at her face for well past five seconds, he was being stubborn. "Ok fine," Ginny kissed Harry when he least expected it. He felt her tongue lightly trace his bottom lip and he enclosed his arms around her waist. She pulled back and saw his sloppy grin. "I told you that I'd wipe that face off."
"I should make that face more often." Harry tried to look sad by putting his lower lip out and creasing his eyebrows.
Ginny laughed and kissed him once on the cheek. "For that face that's all you get and I only gave you the kiss because the face was so pitiful. All I wanted to do was laugh."
Two hours later Harry and Ginny arrived to a very gloomy burrow, everyone sat in silence and all through dinner no one said anything until Ginny spoke up. "Ok, we need to stop this now. We all got upset with Harry for wallowing about Fred's death when here we are doing it ourselves! At least he snapped out of his daze and pulled me out too, Ron and Hermione seem fine until they get around everyone else. Fred's dead and we need to accept it! He's probably up in heaven right now banging his head on a door because he's so bored with us. If you can't it in yourself to pep up then do it for Fred. Percy, you had just made up with Fred and now you're not being the prat you always were! Dad, Mum since neither of you have corrected of us since the battle, I find that it's not fun to break the rules if I'm not going to be corrected. And George, really? Fred was your twin and he's probably extremely disappointed with you right now, because you haven't celebrated once about the defeat of Voldemort! You should be setting off every trinket in you shop right now. We need to cheer up and move on so Fred can watch us from heaven and be happy for us not feel bad for leaving us."
Ginny was red in the face from the effort of talking, she excused herself for the night and went o her room to wash up and change. She sat of her bed in a tank-top ad shorts when someone knocked. "Who is it?" She called.
"Harry," came the mumbled reply. She waved her wand to open the door and Harry walked in and sat down on the end of her bed. "That little speech you did really made everyone cheer up. They actually laughed once or twice; they'll be back to normal in a few days." Harry went to lay down by her side, and stroked the soft skin of her upper arm. "We all needed to hear what you said."
"Thanks, but it doesn't make the pain any less only numbs it a little more. I don't know how you dealt with the death of both your parents that would destroy me." Ginny said, turning to face the window, to keep her tears hidden from him.
"Gin, you can't hide from me, so don't try. And I was too young to truly feel it but I still could and yes it hurts but you were exactly right. My mum, dad, Sirius, Remus, Fred, and Tonks all want us all to be happy and be a bit of a show for them. So the pain will fade and be a dull ache just to remind you of them but I've found medicines that help numb the pain in a good way."
"Medicines?" Ginny Asked,
"They're like muggle potions that heal wounds. But these are good medicines. They consist of being with you, being with my family and being with you." Harry kissed her neck.
"Are you saying that I make you happy?" Harry nodded to answer her question. "Good, cause you make me happy too." She rolled over so that they were facing each other. Harry placed a fragile kiss on Ginny's lips in which she deepened.
Neither noticed when the door opened to show a surprised Hermione. "Hey," She said, blushing red. Harry and Ginny broke apart laughing at Hermione's discomfort. "Harry you should get to bed before Mrs. Weasley does her rounds." Hermione disappeared into the washroom to get ready for bed.
Harry stood and gave Ginny one long kiss. "Goodnight my love. Dream of me as I do the same." Harry winked and left the room.