Title: Promises
Author: PineappleIce, aka Nicole
Summary: Ginny realises Harry isn't going to complete his last promise to her. But she discovers that there is more to fate and destiny than one person can control and takes matters into her own hands. One-shot.
Pairing: GW/HP
Genre: Romance/Angst
Rating: T
Warnings: Angst, suicide
A/N: I don't know where this came from. I've been writing a lot of this pairing recently, despite not liking it. Oh well, enjoy! It probably gets confusing towards the end, but try to roll with it.
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, don't do drugs.

"I'm coming back for you, Ginny," he promised, desperately, gasping as the rain pelted down on him. His eyes were serious and sad in the moonlight as he held her face gently. "I swear, I'm coming back for you."

"I want to come with you!" she replied, clinging to him, crying. "Don't leave me here! I don't belong here in Abylon!"

He sighed, shook his head, moving a strand of her red hair out of her face, which was white. "You do, Gin. You can do most good here, the wounded will be sent here. You can help heal them!"

She glared at him, brown eyes angry. "I hate you."

"Right now that doesn't concern me!" he replied, pecking her forehead. "Because I love you, Ginny, and I know you'll be safe here. I'll come back- I'll marry you, when all this is over! You're only seventeen, Ginny. I'll come back soon."

She lowered her head, and all her passion seemed to die away instantly. She sighed. "Harry... I don't hate you. I really love you... but I'm scared that if I let you go, you will never return... and I will live my life alone..."

"That's not going to happen," Harry said firmly. "I'll be back soon..."

Abylon was a pretty little fishing village, with several cottages, a hospital, and a school, amongst other buildings. It was somewhere in England, though nobody knew where exactly it was. When it was first opened, it was an all-magical base against Voldemort. The village was protected so powerfully that he would never find it. When she was first taken to Abylon by Harry and Ron, and left to live here with her mother, Ginny had become a Healer in the hospital, dealing with the masses of injured witches and wizards that seemed to pour in. Ginny had spent her free time sitting down by the river, waiting for Harry returning like he had promised.

That was where she was that day, sitting with her legs crossed in the long grass, her head cocked thoughtfully, her long red hair spilling like flames onto her white robes. The water in the river flowed gently like the tears down her cheeks as she waited for Harry.

But Ginny was a girl no longer. A long time had passed, and the woman that sat watching the water desperately was twenty-seven years old.

Ginny Weasley was still waiting for Harry Potter. He had promised her he was coming back; he must be coming back. He had always kept his promises. She was sure he would appear at any moment, probably bloody and worn, but grinning, triumphant at beating Voldemort finally.

But they told her Harry was dead. They said he had died a long time ago, killed by Voldemort's snake Nagini. They told her to move on, to never forget the Boy Who Lived, but to accept he wasn't returning for her. She sighed. They didn't understand. He was coming back... she knew he would.

But he needed to come back quickly if he was to marry her like he had promised. Which he would, she reminded herself, because he had promised. He needed to come back quickly because Ginny was due to be married to Dean Thomas in a week.

Dean Thomas. She would never marry him. He was a liar, a fraud. He had come back from the fighting three years ago, severely injured. It had been he who had choked out the truth about Harry, confirming most of the Abylonians' worst fear; Harry Potter, their only hope, was dead.

But he wasn't dead. Ginny knew he wasn't dead. Because for him to come back, like he had promised, he would have to be alive.

Nobody believed Ginny, and her mother pushed her into marriage with Dean Thomas. Ginny sighed bitterly, her hair whipping around her face as the cold wind hit her.

'What if Harry doesn't come back? But he will. But what if he doesn't? He promised. Do you want to be stuck in marriage with Dean? Harry won't let that happen. How will Harry know?'

Ginny shook her head to shake away the thoughts. Thoughts were bad. They took her to doubt, to pain, to heartbreak. They took her far from this life, from any life.

"Oh, Harry," she whispered hoarsely. "My love... oh, my love." Her shoulders shook and she tried to imagine Harry's arm around them, his smiling face... but it was hard to conjure up in her head. She gasped painfully as she realised she had forgotten his face.

'Ah... maybe you aren't in love with him any more, Ginny. Of course I am. You can't love him after a decade, Ginny. Of course I can. You sound pretty sure. Love is for life. And your life is over without him? It would be. It is then. He's not coming back in this life. That's... not true. Accept it. I won't! You must, Ginny.'

"He is coming back," she said, then repeated it loudly. "He is coming back!"

Then it hit her, like a knife to the chest. The wind stopped suddenly as everything stopped for Ginny. She felt as though the wind had been knocked out of her, the world was spinning... her world was spinning.

Harry was never coming back.

The thought that she had wasted ten years of her life waiting for him never occured to Ginny Weasley. In that moment, she knew that he was her life, that everything had been leading to this.

Without Harry, she had no life. So her life was over.

This was the truth. A small smile turned up her lips. The truth had set her free.

The Ginny Weasley that ran down to the water, long hair and robes billowing out behind her, was completely free, a laughing, happy soul that nobody had seen for more than a decade when things had been simple, and pure, and love came naturally to her.

As she reached the edge, she stopped, and looked towards the horizon. The sun was hovering on it, casting a beautiful pink glow across the sky.

"I love you, Harry," she whispered. Then she laughed. "Oh, my love, how I love you. I was waiting for you to do what you said you would... to return to me... but now I see that it is I who must return to you. Harry..."

And then, closing her eyes and feeling her heart stop, Ginny Weasley let herself fall into the water.

&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Ginny..." She hadn't heard that voice for so long, soft and rich and caring, deep and pure and loving. It surrounded her like liquid velvet, and she wanted to lose herself in it. But it could not be... she was still here... she had thrown herself into the water...

"It cannot be you," she murmured. "So long I waited... they said you wouldn't come..."

He chuckled softly, and she felt his soft touch, as gentle as the last time she had felt it. "Hush, Ginny. It is me; I am here, like I said."

Slowly, heavily, she opened her eyes, hardly daring to believe it for a moment. This was some trick, some dream. But she found those beautiful, bright green eyes staring back at her, twinkling slightly behind the same old black-plastic framed glasses.

"Harry!" she screamed in ecstacy, throwing her arms around his neck and pressing her face into his black-robed shoulder, breathing in his scent. He wrapped his strong arms around her and sighed, stroking her long hair absent-mindedly, teasing strands between his slender fingers.

Finally, she pulled out of his embrace and looked around. They were sitting upon a grand white bed in a nice stone chamber which was otherwise completely unfurnished. A stone staircase wound down from the bed to the doorway. She blinked... this place was unfamiliar.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Harry smiled, entwining his fingers with her own. "Our home, Ginny."

She blinked. This didn't make sense. She stared at him, confused, as he pressed a kiss onto the end of her nose. "But... Harry, what about Voldemort? What happened to him?"

He shook his head, his eyes growing serious. "Hush, Ginny, let's not talk about unpleasant things. I just want to hold you again, love..."

She fell into his arms again, and he trailed soft kisses down her neck affectionately. She couldn't believe it... so long had she waited for Harry, and here a new life was beginning with him. Maybe it would be better not to question it too much; there was probably a good explanation she would understand when she recovered from the water incident.

"Harry... I thought I was dead."

He chuckled. "I assure you, my darling, you are as alive as I am." Then he covered her lips with his own, in a long, tender, meaningful kiss.

When they drew apart, Ginny smiled up at him and toyed with a long strand of his black hair. "I love you."

"And I love you too, Ginny. I will love you for all of eternity. I promise."

&&&&&&&&&&&&

"Ginny!" Molly Weasley's scream was loud and piercing as she stared, aghast, at Dean Thomas and Luna Lovegood pulling the still form of her daughter out of the water.

Dean looked down at his wife-to-be, her white robes soaked, her red hair sticking to her face. Blinking back tears, he glanced at Luna, who was checking Ginny's pulse.

Luna shook her head.

"Oh, Ginny," Dean whispered.

"I always knew it was dangerous for her to come down here!" wailed Mrs Weasley. "She w-wouldn't listen! Oh, Ginny, oh Ginny!"

Ignoring Mrs Weasley's cries, Dean slowly began pulling Ginny's tangled flames of hair out of her face. Her skin was a bright, deathly white, her eyes closed. Sighing, blinking back tears, he pulled the last of her hair away, revealing her mouth, revealing something that made his heart stop.

As she lay on the grassy bank, hair tangled beside her, arms spread wide, looking like a beautiful fallen angel, Ginny Weasley's lips were turned up.

She was smiling.

Fin.