Disclaimer: I don't own anything except the plot of this story (and perhaps a few OCs). Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Warnings: some dark themes, problems with mental health, quite a bit of angst

Check the author's note in the end.

"But Harry, couldn't we discuss about this?"

"No, Ginny. No. That's my final word on this."

"But - !"

"No."

That was the last word Harry Potter said before he slammed the front door of his house shut and leaned against the wall. He felt that he hyperventilated just a bit but right now it didn't matter. Ginevra Weasley, his girlfriend for three years and fiancée for a year, was now finally out of his life. He felt free.

A few years ago everything had seemed so clear and his future had been bright. He would marry Ginny someday since the girl had had a crush on him since she was eleven years old and at that time Harry had considered her attractive. They would have at least two kids, perhaps three and then they could all live together as a happy family. Harry would become an auror and Ginny would continue her Quidditch career in Holyhead Harpies. They would go to the elite parties, they would be the happy couple 'till the Death would part them.

But real life wasn't a fairytale and slowly but surely Harry started to notice things he hadn't noticed before Ginny and he had moved together. It had started when Harry had informed her about going out with his friends for a while. It had been okay to Ginny at first but...

Flashback

Harry arrived home, closing the door after him. "Ginny?" he called his girlfriend. No answer. Harry checked the time; Ginny didn't go to bed this early so where she would be? He didn't hear the boiler either so nobody was using the shower. The worst scenarios flashed in his mind; Ginny being kidnapped, Ginny being tortured by the remaining Death Eaters, Ginny lying lifeless on the cold floor...

Harry drew his wand from his coat pocket and started silently to walk towards the living room. The lights were turned off but nothing felt out of place. Even though he had been a target of various dark wizards and witches practically his whole life, Harry assumed it would be safe enough the switch the light on.

He wasn't actually prepared for what he saw.

There was no blood, no broken furniture, no bodies. Everything seemed to be normal, except Ginny who was sitting on the couch. Her eyes, red-rimmed and puffy, were staring at the wall in front of her. The gaze was almost empty but there was something Harry couldn't place, something paranoid, something dark. There were red marks on her arms; after the war Ginny had unconsciously started to scratch herself when she was stressed and now the situation seemed to have become pretty bad. It was a miracle she hadn't drawn any blood off her arms.

When she heard the footsteps she turned his head almost as fast as the vampire could. Her pale cheeks got some of their colour back when she saw Harry. "Harry..!" she sobbed, jumped up and practically flew to Harry to wrap him into a bone-crushing embrace.

"Ginny?" he asked but the young woman just sobbed, not even reacting to his words. "Ginny? Ginny, what happened? Are you okay? Nobody was here? Are Ron and Hermione okay? George? Your parents? Char-?" he wasn't able to finish the list before Ginny slapped his cheek.

"Ginny?" he asked in shock.

Ginny inhaled deeply a couple of times before she started screaming. "I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU, YOU IDIOT! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED! YOU COULD HAVE DIED!" she screamed from the bottom of his lungs. Harry wasn't actually sure what the hell was going on Ginny's head but he knew better than to wind her up even more.

"Ginny! I was with Dean and Seamus for the whole evening, it's not like I was alone-!" he tried to explain but was interrupted by a furious Ginny.

"YES! YOU WERE WITH THEM AND NOT ONCE YOU TEXTED ME ABOUT YOUR WHEREABOUTS! NOT ONCE DID I GET A PATRONUM TO TELL ME THAT INFORMATION! WHERE WERE YOU ACTUALLY, WITH SOME ANOTHER WOMAN!?" she screamed. Harry's eyes reached the size of the tea plates. Not once had he cheated on Ginny. She had no reason to doubt his loyalty. He knew that she would want an explanation but when he saw her grab her wand from the table he knew that there would be just one thing he could do.

He ran, ran away from the house to Neville's place. He couldn't deal with Ginny's temper at that moment.

End flashback

Afterwards Ginny had apologized and told Harry that she had been a bit too concerned about him. She knew that Harry's job was a risky one and she couldn't help but be a bit alarmed all the time. Harry had forgiven her – just like all the other times after that.

The time when Ginny had decided to not to talk to him when he didn't text her back in two minutes. The time when Ginny had read his text messages and blamed him about cheating on her once again. The time when Ginny had stalked him around the town. And the time Harry would just want to forget about; the time when Ginny had told him that she would kill herself if Harry left her. Of course she had said before that being without Harry was difficult but now she had become obsessed. She started to talk about marriage, the children, their future together (not that Harry didn't want those, he loved talking about those things) and when she was in a mood for some passionate love-making Harry didn't have any objections; he loved those times when his girlfriend was acting like a normal human being.

But day by day her presence in the house had become too much for him to bear. He still loved Ginny, that wasn't the problem; the problem was the fact that he couldn't date a person like her. That love, the power that had saved him for countless of times, wasn't suddenly enough. The choice wasn't easy to make but finally he had decided to break up with Ginny.

Of course she hadn't taken it too lightly. The break-up had happened a few weeks ago – just a phone call and he had ended up as a single person. They had decided to continue being friends. That was okay to Harry but Ginny had had something more in her mind. She tried to manipulate him to come back to her, she tried to make Harry to begin feeling ashamed of what he did. Luckily Harry understood that and never gave up on his decision. They hadn't gotten back together and that wouldn't happen. Ever.

Sometimes Ginny appeared behind his front door to "talk" to him. Mostly she just tried to convince him that he had made a wrong choice, that she knew that she would make everything all right. She had told him many times that she wouldn't manage without him. And Harry had grown tired of it; he felt physically sick when he saw her. That's why he had slammed the door shut without giving her a chance to talk – there wouldn't be anything new. She would tell him the same things that she always told him. Harry didn't want to listen to it, not any more.

A part of him understood Ginny. The war had damaged many people both physically and mentally. Ginny had lost her brother and she had almost lost Harry. She hadn't known for a few months where her brother, best friend and crush had been. She had been almost killed by Bellatrix Lestrange. The result of those events was that she became codependent of Harry. At first he hadn't noticed it. Then, in the beginning, he had thought that it was pretty cute. When time went by he had understood that there wasn't anything cute about it; Ginny had become more and more sick during these years. Yes; her co-dependence had become so bad that he could call it an illness.

He felt bad for considering Ginny ill, he felt bad for breaking up with her but he knew better than well that if he had continued to date her his own mental health would have broken down. He knew that his friends and Ginny's relatives wouldn't be too happy with his decision but after all it was his life and he ruled it – and he wasn't willing to risk himself because of her.

He decided to call Neville – maybe he would be up to hang out with him? There was still some of the summer holiday left so Neville hadn't gone back to Hogwarts just yet and it was a weekend anyway. Harry felt himself nod. Yes, he would call Neville. At least he didn't need to feel bad about spending time with his friends any more.

He felt free.

A/N: It's me again, hi! I know that I said that I will publish a one-shot pretty soon but this idea just popped up and I wanted to start to write this so...

Writing this is pretty hard to me since I have dated a co-dependent person and I had to break up with her since my own mental health started to collapse. Writing this is some kind of a therapy for me; my own experiences were an inspiration for this story. Ginny is a great character but somehow it just felt right to write her to develop a co-dependence on Harry. The war must have left some damage in peoples' minds and I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of those who fought in the war would suffer from this said... Problem? I don't even know how to call it...

I'm not saying that co-dependent people would be horrible people. No; some of my friends are somehow co-dependent but they're loyal and helpful friends (including my ex) also. I can always rely on them when it's needed and I try to be there for them when they need me even though I'm "a lonely wolf" type of a person myself. I don't want to offend anyone with this fic; I just have some experiences, good and bad, and writing helps me to get through them.