It had been three days since Harry had defeated Voldemort. And Harry had not spoken to Ginny at all, since then.
Currently, Harry was sitting up in his old dorm, on his old bed. He knew that he needed to talk to Ginny, to get everything all straightened out. He knew that he had to try and help her understand why he had done everything he had been doing.
He didn't make any move to go and find her, though. Not yet. He let out a sigh and ran his hand through his messy black hair.
He was trying to gather his bearings, gather his courage to get up and go talk to Ginny, when Hermione and Ron walked in.
They were holding hands as they walked over to Harry. They sat down on Ron's old bed and looked at Harry, not knowing really what to say. They both knew what Harry was fighting with in his head. They knew that he was trying to gather the courage to talk to Ginny.
"The longer you wait, that worse it'll be, Harry." Hermione said, quietly.
Harry, who had been staring at the floor after Ron and Hermione had come in, looked up at her. He shook his head. "I know that, Hermione. I know. What I don't know is how to face her. I'm sure that she's still upset with everything that happened and we all know what her temper looks like. I'd most likely get my head taken off."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Harry, Ginny's temper isn't that bad."
Ron laughed. "You don't know my sister then, do you? Probably not, seeing as how you've never made her angry enough for her to do something."
With a quick glare at Ron, Hermione stood up and moved to sit down by Harry. "She won't do anything rash, Harry. No matter what Ronald says." She paused. "She loves you, you know. She told me that, right before we left to find all of the horcruxes."
Harry looked stunned. He knew that Ginny had liked him for a long time, he knew that she had feelings for him, but he never knew that she actually loved him. Although, he supposed, he should have known, considering the fact that she wouldn't talk to him for several days straight, after he had told her that they couldn't be involved anymore.
"Go on, mate. Straighten things out with my sister." Ron said.
Harry looked over at Ron, then over at Hermione, who nodded, encouragingly, at him.
He sighed and stood up. "If I'm not back in a few hours..." He started, but didn't finish. He was trying to make a joke, but a part of him was really fearful of what the youngest and only female Weasley would do to him.
He made his way out of the dorm room and down the stairs. As he walked down the stairs, he tried to think of places that Ginny might be. When he got down to the common room, he found that he didn't need to go searching for her, because she was right here, in the common room. She was sitting on one of the love seats, staring into the flameless fireplace.
He walked slowly towards her, not wanting to startle her from her thoughts, wherever they might be.
Apparently, though, Ginny had seen him from the corner of her eye, because she looked up and upon seeing him, stood up, with her fists clenched.
"Ginny..." Harry started, but never got the chance to finish, because he was slapped across the face by the angry female.
"What was that for?" He asked, holding his cheek, which was more then likely red. "Bloody hell!"
Ginny didn't say anything, she just glared at him.
Suddenly, Ron and Hermione appeared at the bottom of the staircase that led up to the boy's dorms.
"What happened?" Hermione asked.
"We head you holler, Harry." Ron said, walking down the last few stairs, with Hermione following. Once the pair was close enough, they saw why Harry had hollered. They could see the red mark on Harry's cheek, where Ginny's hand had hit.
"Are you absolutely barking?" Ron asked. "He hasn't done anything to deserve that, Ginny!"
Ginny's glare turned on Ron. "Shut it, Ron! Or else you'll be next. I had every right to slap him! I should do the same to you as well! And what's worse is none of you know why I do it! No idea at all!" She spat.
"Ginny, calm down. Tell us what's bothering you. I'm sure that we can come up with a simple solution to fix whatever it is." Hermione suggested, trying to get closer to her friend, to put her arm around her. Ginny slapped away Hermione's arm though, which left Hermione a bit stunned.
Ron was furious. He stalked over to Hermione, pulled her away from Ginny, and spat at his sister, "What the bloody hell is your problem? Hermione hasn't done anything to you and you go and do something like that?"
Ginny laughed a bit and took a step towards Ron. She stared at him for a minute before her fist connected with his face.
Hermione let out a small scream, surprised that Ginny had done that. She pulled Ron to her, trying to see what the damage was.
Ron pulled away from Hermione and turned on Ginny. "Mum should put you in the mental ward at St. Mungo's! You have absolutely gone out of your mind!"
"You left me..." Ginny whispered, starting to shake. Her words leaving the trio a bit confused. Hermione was the first to realize what she was talking about.
"Ginny... You know why we couldn't bring you along..." Hermione said, trying to reason with her.
Upon hearing Hermione say that, both Ron and Harry caught on.
Ron glanced at Hermione before saying, "Don't try to reason with her. She's gone completely mental."
Ginny laughed, but it wasn't the normal laugh that they had all heard thousands of times before. "That's what happens when you get tortured every damn day, Ronald! I mean, just look at Neville's parents! They lost their minds after just a short time under the curse!"
Ginny turned her back to them and ran a hand through her long red hair, a sob escaping her lips and tears running down her cheeks.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked stunned. They knew that Hogwarts had been miserable, but they hadn't known that the cruciatus curse was used on the students.
Tears spilled out of Hermione's eyes. She thought that having to jump from place to place every day, worrying about Death Eaters, was hard. She never thought that having Ginny stay at Hogwarts would be worse then what she and the boys went through. She didn't want to even think about comparing fighting freely to not being able to fight back at all.
Ginny could hear Hermione's sobbing. She could practically hear Ron put his arm around her, comforting her. She turned around to take in the sight. Hermione was pressed against Ron's chest, sobbing. Ron had his head resting on top of Hermione's, his eyes closed and a pained look on his face, which Ginny couldn't tell if it was because of her or because of Hermione. She then glanced at Harry and saw that he was staring angrily at the floor, his hands turning into fists.
Ginny laughed again. "Yeah... That's what went on here, while you lot traveled to Merlin knows where."
Harry made a move to get closer to Ginny, which only caused her to take a few steps backward.
Harry sighed. "Ginny, I honestly didn't know what would happen here, but I figured that it would be safer for you here. I didn't want you to come with us because we didn't know what would happen. Death Eaters could have showed up at any time and killed you, or tortured you for information. It would have been worse then having to be here. And all the moving around we had to do to stay hidden... And aside from all of that, you're underage, you couldn't have defended yourself without someone from the ministry showing up." He was just trying to reason with her.
Ginny was furious by now. "What the hell do you think happened here, Harry? You think I was tortured just for the hell of it? Because I decided to skip class one day? They tortured me mostly because of my relationship with you. They wanted information on you, so who best to go for, since Hermione was supposedly in hidding and Ron home with spattergroit? That's right. Me. Every day for at least a week, Death Eaters would come to the school. The male Carrow would drag me up to Snape's office and the interogation would begin. Whenever I didn't answer a question the way they wanted, a new form of torture would be cast upon me. I have so many scars because of them. Physical and mental.
"But, oh yeah, it was way safer for me here. After all the interogating, I guess they just figured that I really didn't know anything and sent me on my way. But they tortured us in class. We could never actually escape it." Ginny spat out, tears still running down her face.
The trio was speechless. None of them knew what to say and even if they did, they wouldn't have been able to say anything, they were to stunned.
Ginny sniffled, trying to control herself. "I'm so sick of everyone using the excuse that I'm underage. I can hold my own in any battle and you three should know that more then anyone. I fought with you in the Department of Mysteries. I was part of Dumbledore's army, just like you. I can do anything you can! Just because I'm younger doesn't mean anything! I've been fighting something every year since first year. Or have you all forgetten that?"
"Ginny..." Ron started, not really knowing how to comfort his sister.
"I don't think I can handle you three anymore. At least not right now. Maybe it's all the stress of the war. Maybe I really am going insane. But I'm done with you three. I could care less what happens to you now. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad all of you are all right, but I don't want to have to look at you three and know that I really wasn't good enough to tag along in your little adventure for Dumbledore. I suppose you were right, Ron. Nobody likes a tag along..." Ginny spat, sneering. She was refurring to the time when Ron basically shoved Ginny out of their compartment on the train, because Harry had some sort of information, at the beginning of her second year.
She turned her back to the trio and walked towards the stairs to the girl's dorm. She paused at the bottom of the stairs when Harry said her name, but she ignored him and walked up the stairs and into her dorm room. She shut the door and pressed her back against it, closing her eyes. She slid down the door, coming to rest in a sitting position on the floor. Her knees were up, resting just a few inches away from the rest of her body, her elbows sitting on her knees, her hands tangled in her hair. Sobs shook her, as the tears slid down her cheeks.
She didn't want to have to do that, but she knew that it was best, for the moment anyway. She knew that with some time, she would get over her anger and apologize to the trio. And she hoped that when that happened, Harry would take her back.
She laughed quietly to herself. "Who am I kidding? He'll never want me now. Not after all of that."
What Ginny didn't know though, was that Harry was now sitting down on one of the couches, with Ron to his left and Hermione to his right, his hands in his hair, elbows on his knees.
Harry swallowed, before saying, "I can't believe I left her to deal with all of this. I can't believe that all this time she's been hurting and I haven't been around to help her. We should have just stayed here. That or just taken her with us..."
Hermione put a hand on Harry's shoulder. "Harry, you know that we couldn't have done either of those things. Stop blaming yourself. Ginny will be alright, maybe not right now, but eventually, she'll be alright. What we did, what you did, saved so many people, Harry."
Ron nodded. "Yeah, mate. Hermione's right. Besides, she had Neville here to help her out. And Seamus. Stop blaming yourself for leaving Ginny behind and start believing that one day you'll be back together."
Both Hermione and Harry stared at Ron.
"What?" He asked, glancing back and forth between the two.
"Ron... You actually want Harry to get back together with Ginny?" Hermione asked softly.
Ron's ears turned bright red. "Well yeah. Because that way, if he marries her, he'll be my brother. Not that you aren't now, but it would be more offical if you ended up marrying her..." He closed his eyes and turned away from his best friend and his girlfriend. "Just drop it, okay?"
Hermione giggled and Harry chuckled. They both knew that Ron thought that Harry was the best man for his sister. They both knew that Ron wouldn't even let any other boys close enough to even think about dating Ginny, let alone marry her.
"I just hope it goes by fast, but even if it doesn't... I'll be waiting for her." Harry said, smiling a little bit.