Whatever The Circumstances

by ajaeee

Ginny and Harry have had their moments, but this time is for real. And now Ginny finds herself headed for another wizarding school to escape. Mistakes, deceit and cover-ups ensue… [CH.1] RR

WHATEVER THE CONSEQUENCES

Summary: Ginny and Harry have had their moments, but this time is for real. And now Ginny finds herself headed for another wizarding school to escape. Mistakes, deceit and cover-ups ensue…

Disclaimer: HP isn't mine, Simple Plan owns the song Perfect World, and the only thing that's mine is the plot.

Author's Note: I know that it seems out of the blue that I'm suddenly posting something up again, but I've actually formulated this story's plan. Just give me a chance!

XOXOX

I never could've seen this far
I never could've seen this coming
Seems like my world's falling apart
Why is everything so hard?
I don't think I can deal with the things you said

It just won't go away

In a perfect world
This could never happen
In a perfect world
You'd still be here
And it makes no sense
I could just pick up the pieces
But to you
This means nothing
Nothing at all

I used to think that I was strong
Until the day it all went wrong
I think I need a miracle to make it through
I pictured I could bring you back
I pictured I could turn back time
Cuz I can't let go
I just can't find my way
Without you I just can't find my way

I don't know what I should do now
I don't know where I should go
I'm still here waiting for you
I'm lost when you're not around
I need to hold on to you
I just can't let you go

-Simple Plan, 'Perfect World'

XOXOX

Chapter One – Perfect World

"Ginny…can I talk to you, please?" Harry pulls at my sleeve, and I turn around. I offer him a bright smile; he needs it, he's been so down all day. Perhaps he'll tell me why he's so depressed…I know I can get it out of him.

I sit down in the Common Room's loveseat, and my eyes follow him as he sits down beside me. He looks so tired, and I figure that he's probably just stressed about his OWLs. I'd be stressed about them too, if I were him. He's hardly ever studying. He never has time. I guess it's understandable though. He's so tense, now that Tom is back.

I brush a piece of his hair out of his eyes and offer him another smile. After all, it was what he'd "fallen for". I blush inwardly just remembering that; I guess I'm just a fourteen year old on the inside.

"What is it Harry?" I ask, finally remembering that he'd wanted to talk. My mind starts working on what it is he could be about to say. Thoughts of proposal dance in my head for a second, but I turn pink and allow reality to smack me upside the head. There is no way a fifteen year old will propose. Not unless this was the 20th or 19th century.

Harry seems uncomfortable, and he fiddles with the sleeve of his robe. "Well…" his green eyes flick up and look into my eyes for a minute. He's troubled. I smile, trying to encourage him. Whatever he has to say, I'm sure it's important.

"I can't be with you anymore."

The words escape his lips.

The blood leaves my cheeks and my eyes widen with surprise. I can't understand what's going on. The throw pillow on my lap drops to the floor, but I don't hear it. My ears are ringing with what Harry's just said.

He continues.

"I'm sorry Ginny, but it's for your own good." He looks up again and tries to find forgiveness in my eyes.

I try to dole out a measure of understanding, but I can't. I don't know what to do. "Why, Harry?" I whisper. My heart pounds painfully and my throat throbs. I fight for control over my voice.

All of a sudden, the Boy-Who-Lived seems to have aged twenty years. "It's for your own good," he reasons again. His green eyes try to will me into believing.

I shut my eyes, blocking him out. "How?" I demand quietly. My voice is shaking, and I swallow hard. "How is it for my own good?"

I don't understand. It was perfect; we were perfect. The Quidditch star, his best friend's younger sister who was second best witch in her class…We had made the front cover of Witch Weekly! "The Boy-Who-Lived is in Love" it had read. Suddenly that article seems ages ago.

I grit my teeth, steeling myself. He's getting ready to answer, and I force my tears back. I wait for the final blow, the crushing words that will tell me his secrets.

The blow comes hard.

"I'm afraid that I'll lose you Ginny. That's why. But I promise: I'll come back for you. I love you…Just wait for me. Wait till this is all over. I just don't want you hurt."

I don't think that's the entire story, and I long to know the rest. But more than that, I ache to reach out and hug him, hold him – but he's shattered my heart. I can't even find the strength to look at him. When I finally do look up, I can see everything. The whole answer is in his eyes. He can't hide it from me.

He's afraid.

He's afraid, not for my sake. He's afraid for his own. Afraid that Voldemort will come after me, afraid he'll lose me, afraid to lose his precious prize. He thinks I'm too weak to look after myself. He thinks that I will be used against him. He thinks that he'll have to protect me.

For once in my life, I hate Harry Potter.

But that feeling of hate is overthrown by my own sick reasoning. It might be something else, Ginny. It might be an April Fools joke.

But it isn't April – it's mid-May.

And this is no joke.

"Wait for you?" my voice is smooth, and there is no sign of the impending tears. "Wait, Harry? Wait till when? Till something happens and you end up dead? Wait till I'm an old maid?"

I'm through waiting. I've waited for him so long already. I'm not going to anymore.

Besides, this wasn't that important. I didn't mean that much to him anyway.

I stand up, not wanting to be here anymore. I don't want to hear anything else. "Whatever Harry," I whisper coldly. Tremors run up my spine at my tone of voice. "This fling is over."

I don't wait to see his reaction. I march up the stairs to the girl's dormitories.

The rest of the girls in my year are sleeping.

I grab my night-gown and wander into the Gryffindor girl's bathroom to take a nighttime shower. The door closes behind me. I clutch the clothing to my chest and take a deep breath. An anguished cry escapes me, and I fall to the floor. I'm shaking with sobs, and I can't find an explanation for it.

On the other side of the Gryffindor tower, in the fifth year boy's dormitory, Harry curls up in a little ball and finally allows his tears to fall.

XOXOX

Morning officially is the worst time of day. I sit up and force my eyes open. They are red and puffy. I also have bags under them. Ah, the results of crying to sleep…

My white collared shirt is wrinkled, and I smooth it out with a spell and flick of my wand. I choose to wear the red tie with the Gryffindor crest on it. The red and yellow striped one is too common anyhow. The black pleated skirt doesn't seem too short anymore, now that I have no worries about boys looking at me. I'm single again, I think to myself. I can afford to have all eyes on me.

I rush out of the room to the bathroom to wash up, my robe over my arm and my book-bag on my shoulder. My hair's been done up in its normal half-ponytail.

After washing up, I slowly make my way down the stairs to the Common Room. I dread seeing Harry. I hope he isn't around.

Unfortunately for me, he's there with Hermione. They're waiting for my brother. I avoid looking at them.

Hermione greets me good morning, however, and I find I have no choice but to mutter a "Good morning Hermione" back. I hope she doesn't realize that I am miserable.

Harry is not looking at me. In fact, he's wandered to the other side of the room. I don't care though. Inside, I'm screaming all sorts of delightful words at him.

"See you in the Great Hall," I tell Hermione. She nods at me. As I'm exiting, I hear her yelling up the stairs at Ron. Those two would make a great couple.

'Couple.' The word stings at me, taunting. I swallow past the heavy ball of hurt in my throat. I can get through this day.

But even as I enter the Great Hall, I know that I can't.

Justin Finch-Fletchley is making out with his third year girlfriend, Eleanor Branstone. Gross. Have they no shame at all?

Dean Thomas and Parvati Patil are ogling across the table at each other. Watch out there, Patil. You're drooling on your overly short skirt.

Colin Creevey is making his way across the hall to the Ravenclaw table to sit with his girlfriend, Orla Quirke. I hope you trip and die Creevey.

And if this had been any normal morning, I'd be joining the ranks with Harry Potter. But it's over. We're over. Tears burn at my eyes, but I blink them away. I could live.

I sit down at the table and watch the food materialize in front of me. Mechanically, I pick up a fork and begin to eat. The food is tainted with tastelessness. The pumpkin juice is spiked with the sour taste of depression. I can't even tell what it is that I'm eating, my eyes are so blurred.

I don't even manage to finish two bites before I feel sick. My mind has been swimming with questions from the moment I'd awakened. I feel nauseous.

Hermione, Ron and Harry enter the Great Hall, chattering. I look up momentarily as they position themselves next to me at the Gryffindor table. Ron tears into the food the moment it appears, and Hermione and Harry are discussing OWLs.

He seems happy. Too happy. He must be glad that he doesn't have to worry about a girlfriend now.

"Oh honestly Mi, I can get more OWLs than Fred and George!" Ron sticks his tongue out at the bushy-haired girl. She rolls her eyes and sips her pumpkin juice. She obviously doesn't believe him.

"Ronald, they're loads smarter than you, and they didn't get half as many OWLs as your mum would have liked." She sets her juice down and proceeds to place a bite of food in her mouth. After swallowing, she continues, "You should start studying while it's early."

Harry lets out a laugh, and I flinch. None of them notice. Better for me. I don't think I want to deal with them. I decide to go over and finish breakfast with Luna. She's much better company than these three.

"Hello Ginny," she gives me a small smile. "Something wrong?"

She always knows. Behind her air-headed exterior she knows. She isn't a Ravenclaw for nothing. She knows that something is wrong. She pats the seat beside her, and I sit down.

"So what is it?"

I look down and fiddle with my tie. I don't know how to word my thoughts. Finally, I say quietly, "It's over."

Luna shoots a glance over at the Gryffindor table, and then looks back to me. "Last night?"

I nod, and she merely pats my shoulder. Her lips purse, but she says nothing.

Our conversations are always like this. She's not as feather-brained as she makes it seem. She understands depression better than most people. And she knows me well enough to know that she doesn't need to ask the details. I'll end up telling her sometime during the day.

Before anything else can happen, today's mail pours in. It's Monday, so those with magazine subscriptions receive their latest issues. The Quibbler, Witch Weekly, Quidditch Comments and a Daily Prophet drop before the two of us. Luna picks up her Quibbler and tucks it into her knapsack. The Daily Prophet is quickly scanned through by the two of us, but since we can't find anything interesting in it after a brief scan, it too gets placed into her bag. I grab my magazines and get up from the table. There still is a good quarter of an hour before class, and Luna follows me out of the Great Hall to our first class, Double Charms.

Quidditch Comments is best viewed when surrounded by Quidditch enthusiasts, so I toss it carelessly into my school bag. I open Witch Weekly and make it look like I'm reading. My mind, however, is on other things. Like the green-eyed wizard who broke up with me last night.

I've got to find some way out of this.

Luna tucks her wand behind her ear and pulls out a quill. She's doing a Quibbler crossword, so I leave her to it. Meanwhile, I try to get my mind off of a certain Gryffindor Quidditch Seeker…

It's impossible.

He's walking right by the Charms classroom just as I look out the door. I glower and turn to my Witch Weekly. I need to get out of here. I can't stand him.

And then there it is:

PARLEZ-VOUS FRANCAIS?

Win a trip to Magical France this summer! See the sights, see the Wizarding side of the Eiffel Tower!

I ignore the rest of the ad and stare glassily at the blackboard. Then I turn to Luna, but before I can address the girl, Professor Flitwick enters. It's only then that I realize the entire class is full. Everyone is already in there, so I put away the magazine. I'll tell Luna my plans after.

We're doing a more advanced Summoning charm, one that doesn't require you to say the name of the item you need. You just have to think really hard of the object you want. I'm having trouble with the charm, only because I can't think of anything else but Harry.

Flitwick dismisses his annoyance for me when I tell him that I have a bit of a home problem and I can't think proper. Luna gives me an encouraging smile, and I return it.

"Just stop thinking about him," she whispers as Colin's textbook flies towards us ("HEY! That's my textbook, Luna!"). I nod and watch her send the book back to him.

It isn't as easy as that, but I'll live.

"Hey Luna, I have something to show you later, okay?" I try to summon a quill from my table, but it doesn't move. I imagine that somewhere in the castle, Harry Potter is floating around wondering why he's being pulled towards the door. I hope he doesn't have Potions. I wouldn't want him to get into trouble because his ex-girlfriend is summoning him…

But then again, I don't care.

All day my thoughts are of Harry, and I try valiantly to forget him. But everything I look at, everything I see, everything just reminds me of him. You don't forget four months that easily.

Well…not when you're me…But obviously Harry can forget four months easily.

He's doing a stellar job of it, in fact. At dinner, he comes in with Lavender Brown hanging off his arm. I start a bit, and Luna, who is sitting beside me as I refuse to sit alone at the Gryffindor table, shoots me a sympathetic look. She's seen the sight too.

The fifth year Gryffindor boys are raising a ruckus. "Oh, with Lav now, Harry?" Seamus grins cheekily at Harry.

Harry shakes his head and helps Lavender sit down. "Lavender's only hurt her foot, that's why I was helping her."

"Sure there Harry!" Dean jests with a grin on his face. "Whatever happened to Ginny?" he clasps his hands under his chin, tilts his head to the right and blinks way too many times in one second. I feel myself grow red. I do not act like that!

Harry shoves him good-naturedly but doesn't answer. Nobody notices his lack of reply except me. I catch his eye, but we both look away. Luna sighs loudly into her Yorkshire pudding, but she says nothing.

Three days later and nothing has changed. We're not talking still.

Dinner is a most trying time, since Harry and I used to eat together all the time, holding hands under the table and flirting. Everybody seems to notice the sudden change. I'm not sitting beside him; I'm not even on his side of the table.

"Lover's spat?" Lee Jordan asks loudly.

"Ignore them," comes the voice of my blonde best friend.

I'm trying my best, but sometimes it seems like it's not enough…

"Let's go Luna!" I stand up from my spot at the Ravenclaw table and storm towards the doors. She follows me wordlessly. Before I exit, I glare at the Gryffindor table. The boys see it and fall silent.

We walk up the stairs, then sit on the one in front of the third floor. It begins moving, but neither of us care.

Luna fixes her big blue eyes on me, and stares me down. I shrink under her gaze. "What?"

"You should forget him."

"I'm trying."

"Try harder."

"What do you think I've been doing?" I demand. My voice is strong and carries out over the empty staircases. "I'm trying!"

Luna looks at me quietly, then says, "You've devised a plan, right?"

I shrug. "Not yet, but I'm searching for a plan."

I had forgotten about my half-formed one that was lying around in my book-bag, but I would remember eventually.

END CHAPTER ONE

XOXOX

CHAPTER TWO PREVIEW

"For once, I kept silent and urged the tears not to fall…I was strong…in my own way."

REVIEW! (MWAH)