The Shoebox
I don't own Harry Potter, Ginny, or the HP universe.
Ginny took a deep breath. You wrote these to him, he deserves to get them! she chided herself. Still, it didn't stop her hands from shaking, or her voice from trembling. "Hey, Harry?"
Harry looked up at his wife, who was standing anxiously in the doorway, a shoebox in her hand. "Yes?"
Ginny dropped the box into his lap. "I was helping Mum clean the Burrow today and I found these in my closet. They're from the war. I want you to read them."
Harry was puzzled. "What are they?"
"Letters. To you." Ginny started to speak faster. "You don't have to read them all at once. There's way too many for that. But you should still read them. I mean, if you want to. You don't have to. They're in order."
Harry carefully opened the box and was greeted by the sight of about a hundred letters. "Holy—I was only gone for eight months!"
Ginny smiled wanly. "Yeah, well, that's a long time." She kissed him on the cheek. "I'm dead tired. I think I'm going to go to bed. Come up when you're ready." Turning around, she fought to keep the sob from rising in her throat. Three and a half years had not healed the hurt of losing him.
"Yeah…" Harry was already reaching for the first letter.
August 1, 1997
Dear Harry,
So you're gone. Off with Ron and Hermione. Great.
I mean, I knew you were leaving. It's not like a big shock or anything. You told all of us. We all knew that you would be out of here the day after Bill and Fleur's wedding, it didn't take a genius to figure that out. But I guess if you had left in the middle of the night, we would have known you guys had a plan and would keep safe, at least for that night. Now we don't know anything, and it's so hard. You better be okay. I don't know what I'd do if you were dead.
As you guys were leaving, the Order was getting people out safely. George grabbed me and dragged me into the house. I was going nuts at the time. I was so close to grabbing your arm or something as you Apparated so I would be taken with you. Of course that would have meant you were traveling with the Trace, and the Death Eaters would have found you right away and we all would have been dead and the Wizarding World would have been screwed with you gone. So that was probably good that he stopped me, but it was still completely overprotective, so I screamed at him and scared him half to death right before going up to my room to write this. He's not very pleased with me right now. Anyway, he stopped me and used magic to tie me up and then he did Disillusionment and Silencing Charms on me. So I was kept hidden, which I didn't like. That's another reason why I screamed at him. Afterwards, the Death Eaters came in and found us (including me) and tortured us for your whereabouts. It hurt like hell. I figure that pretty soon it'll hit me like a load of bricks that I was tortured, but right now I'm pretty numb inside. It scares me, feeling nothing. I'd almost rather be upset. I guess that's why I'm writing this. When I think about you, I'm not numb. Far from it. I get so happy, and my heart starts beating really fast, and I have to concentrate so I remember to breathe. And when I'm missing you, I have to suck in the air and I feel like there is a knife in my heart. I want to feel this pain. I want to feel alive.
I know we're technically not together more. I also know that your heart is fighting with your nobility. Your nobility is saying to let me go, let me date "safer" people, let me be free from Death Eaters going after me because I'm your girlfriend. But your heart is saying that I'm yours and you actually want me to wait for you. Your nobility will hate me, but guess what: I'm siding with your heart. I love you. Yeah, I know I never told you that in so many words, but hopefully you got that message in your birthday gift. You better not die, because I need to see you again and tell you that those few short weeks together were the best weeks of my life. I imagine my future, and you're always in it. Standing next to me at our wedding. Holding our first kid. Sitting on the porch watching our grandkids running around. Maybe you don't feel this way, but I need to see you again so I can find out whether I can count on this.
Please, take care of yourself. Please come home to me.
Love, Ginny
Harry stood up and tiptoed upstairs. He slipped open the door and peeked at his wife, sleeping quietly, knowing she was loved by him. Thin silvery tear tracks marked her cheeks. He'd never realized that leaving her had caused so much pain.
Crossing the room, he gently kissed her cheek. "I love you too, Ginny," he murmured.
Taking a deep breath, he went downstairs and reached for the next letter.
I hope you guys liked it! I'll be posting a lot more letters soon. Please review! It makes me happy :)