"Just A Little Too Late"
By: Sailor Gemini
Summary: Outside of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, there wasn't much of anything that was thought could take down the mighty Boy Who Lived. Sometimes though, even our champions fall. This time, if recollection serves correctly, it seems that he is the cause of his own undoing.
Chapter One: A Mistaken Glance
Harry looked at himself in the mirror, and it clucked at his complexion. "Oh you poor thing. I don't think you should go out looking like that, dear. You look so dreadful!"
He tried not to let the words of the simple object get to him, but his brow furrowed. "Now dear, that looks even worse. If you keep your face like that long enough, it's bound to stay that way. Relax. Pinch your cheeks for some color."
Harry turned his back to the mirror rather than continue to listen to its annoying string of advice. He knew he looked dreadful. He knew that he was probably as pale as the first time we woke up after fainting from a dementor. If anything, he felt the same way. As if all the happiness had been sucked out of him.
His chest felt almost hollow, and he sat there alone in the lavatory, and tried to gather a recollection of exactly how things had come to be this way.
Of course, you haven't any idea of what Harry had just seen to make him as white as a sheet, feeling robbed of joy. I suppose the suspense might just be toying with you. For the first time in a long time, Harry had been brought to his knees, but not by Voldemort, or evil Death Eaters, but he was a victim of his own doing.
As Harry closed his eyes, he saw the image that was almost burned into his mind's eye. Ginny, who he had always deemed as his Ginny in the private thoughts of his own mind, had been pushed up against a wall by the slimy git who found nothing more entertaining then making Harry's life hell.
Harry had been out doing some patrolling that evening with Ron, walking through the grounds underneath his Invisibility Cloak, mostly to keep him company. Ron had just told him he had to meet up with Hermione and the other prefects for a few minutes before he was free to go to bed. Harry had separated with him a few corridors back, and was just taking a short-cut through the court yard when he saw the Malfoy and Ginny in a tussle through a window. Being the ever so nice rescuer-of-sorts, Harry had the brilliant idea to try and save her. He had just pulled out his wand, and started towards the Arithmancy classroom, when he heard something very peculiar from the open window as he passed it. It caused him to stop for a moment, and peer in through the small slot between the window pane and the window itself.
He saw Draco Malfoy, who's robe was almost falling off of his shoulders, pushing Ginny Weasley, who's robe was already pooled at their feet, up against the wall across from the window. Draco had one of her hands gripped in his, above her head, and Harry almost pushed open the window when he heard Ginny, dammit his Ginny, whimper in this almost kittenish way, and he saw her hands pulling at Malfoy's robe.
Malfoy let go of her hand, and grabbed her roughly by the hips, pulling her up against him, and Harry saw her clearly as the two of them kissed. His wand hung loosely from his fingertips and his mouth slowly dropped open, but he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from what he was witnessing. Her eyes were half closed as he broke the kiss, and she moved her head to the side as he slid a hand into her hair to hold her still as he started to kiss up her neck from her exposed collarbone to right behind her ear.
Harry then heard her moan, a sound he only thought about late at night when he wished he could hear her whisper his name when he couldn't sleep, and he sudddenly couldn't look anymore. He turned away from the window, and walked quickly in the other direction, with the a sharp ache forming in the pit of stomach. He made his way quickly to the Gryffindor common room, and slid into the men's lavatory, for fear of seeing anyone.
The thought that this was his fault, surely he was aware of. Harry was one of the few boys who has been lucky enough to receive an almost unconditional love and loyalty from a pretty young girl close to him. She has been a family friend, and an understanding compassionate one who had grown to be close to him these past few years. He had never tried for what she wanted though, and while he tried to tell himself it was the more noble route, the safest route for Ginny, he couldn't help but think that he had made the wrong decision. He had never quite figured out that Ginny would give up hope after a while. Even when she dated a few of the boys in his year, Harry never took them too seriously. He surmised that it was probably then that his eyes were opened to how much this young pretty girl had grown into a beautiful young woman.
And now, well, Harry didn't know what to think. He knew that he wasn't going to say anything to either Ron of Hermione until he had figured out more of what was going on.
TBC
