Not Your Fault

AN: This is my interpretation of how Harry and Ginny's reunion would've gone after the battle of Hogwarts. I know in most stories like this Ginny totally explodes, but I think Ginny would've realized that he was just being his noble self when he left her to protect her, and Harry really doesn't need an explosion from her right now.

"NO!" Professor McGonagall's anguished cry still rang through Ginny's ears. The battle last night had been devastating. Faces of those who perished swam across her vision; Fred, Remus, Tonks, Colin, and for a brief moment, Harry.

Harry. She thought he had died that night. When she saw Harry's supposedly lifeless body in Hagrid's arms... No. Harry's alive. He defeated Voldemort right in front of my eyes. But how? Voldemort was running rampant for three years, why couldn't Harry kill him earlier? Is that what he was preparing for this year, or was he just on the run? She needed to talk to Harry about all this. She needed answers.

Harry was restless. Less than twenty-four hours ago, he discovered that he was a horcrux. He came back from the dead. He defeated Voldemort. That creature who was less than human, a mere shell with a shattered soul inside. Harry could now live without worries. No more death-defying adventures, no more tragedies. So many people died in this war...

And it was his fault. I killed them, Harry thought. If it wasn't for me... They'd still be alive. Teddy wouldn't be an orphan, Colin would be here documenting the world with his camera, George would still have his other half... The Weasleys wouldn't be grieving.

His mind slowly drifted to a red-head he was sure to be in the girls dorm. How was Ginny coping? Would she resent him? Did she blame him for her brother's death? If only I could explain...

After a night of restless sleep for nearly all in the castle, the sun rose to find Harry Potter soaring above the the black lake. He had decided to take a walk to try and clear his head, when he came across the broomsticks he, Ron, and Hermione had used to escape the the inferno of the Room of Requirement. He took the ancient cleansweep outside and began to fly circles around the lake. Flight had always been one of the few things that could clear Harry's mind, make him forget whatever plagued him. Today, it was grief; Grief for Dobby, Fred, Remus, Tonks, Colin, Professor Dumbledore, Sirius, Cedric, and his parents. He was plagued by guilt; he felt responsible for all their deaths, it was his fault.

But he was nervous too. Why should he be nervous though? Because he was planning to go talk to Ginny today. It was just a conversation with a girl. Not just any girl though, he thought. This was Ginny. The girl had Harry wrapped around her little finger. Just the thought of her could make him smile. Ginevra Weasley had the power to turn him from a fearless war hero to a nervous wreck. Harry shook his head to dispel those thoughts, and continued circling the lake.

Ginny was awakened by the sunlight coming through her window in Gryffindor tower. She went to close the curtains but her gaze fell upon a figure flying above the black lake. Harry. Only Harry would fly after such a traumatic event. It was one of the things she loved about him.

He was distraught, that much was obvious to Ginny. He used to do this during her fifth year to clear his head and just forget the world for a while. Sometimes she would join him out on the pitch, just enjoying each other's presence. She decided to join him once again. Taking her broom from under her bed, she left her dorm.

The atmosphere around the once grand castle was still rank with the smells of war. Blood and sweat met Ginny's nostrils and collided with any fresh air in the vicinity. The sun had risen by now, an she could clearly see the damage done to her second home. He remembered her first time seeing the castle... Crossing the lake in the little boats led by Hagrid... Seeing the castle, and being in awe. It seemed so beautiful, so strong, so invincible. But now it was broken. She could see where Voldemort's giants had destroyed the walls, where curses had met the stone, the resulting explosions blasting it apart.

She saw Harry still soaring above the lake. He was grieving. He would surely feel guilty for everything that happened. He had always handled tragedy badly. It was the same after Cedric's, Sirius', and Dumbledore's deaths. He brooded and blamed himself until he snapped. She couldn't let that happen this time. She mounted her broom an kicked off. It wasn't until she was next to Harry that he acknowledged her.

"Hey, Gin" he said quietly.

"Hey" she responded. They flew in peaceful silence for what seemed like hours before landing on the bank opposite the castle.

Ginny sat facing the lake and patted the space beside her for Harry to sit down. He obliged, and the two sat in silence. This continued until Ginny saw that Harry wasn't going to open up anytime soon, so she voiced a question that had been in her thoughts for a while.

"How are you coping?" she asked.

"Okay." Harry said, trailing off as he looked down at his hands.

Ginny sighed. "Harry, I know that's not true. What's bothering you?"

Harry had to gather up his courage before answering her.

"It's my fault." he muttered, "I killed them all. If I had just-" But Ginny interrupted him.

"Harry James Potter, the only person you killed is Voldemort! None of this is your fault!"

"No, Gin, just hear me out." Harry said almost desperately. "if i'd just given myself up earlier, Voldemort never would have attacked the castle. We'd still have Remus, Tonks, Colin, Fred, and everyone else who died for me last night."

"They didn't die for you, Harry, we didn't fight for you. We fought because Voldemort was a fucking evil bastard and an asshole who deserved everything that he got. We fought to save the entire wizarding world, Harry. This is bigger than just you being the chosen one, you don't need all that weight on your shoulders. It's not yours to carry." Harry gave her a small smile.

"You sound a bit like Ron." he said. "He told me something like that the day I got to your house over the summer. Except he wasn't as colorful with his words." He said with a small smirk at Ginny. She slapped him playfully on the arm.

"I will swear when I want to, thank you very much. And personally, I feel that not a single non-explicit word is appropriate when describing that snake-faced monster." she said indignantly. "Speaking of this summer though, where did you disappear to after the wedding? I only ever got news from Potterwatch, and that wasn't much." Harry took a deep breath. He knew this was coming as soon as she came to talk to him.

"Have you ever heard of a horcrux, Ginny?" he asked her.

"I think I heard you or Ron mention it before."

"Well a horcrux is a piece of a person's soul that is encased inside an object." he began, "It's really dark magic, you have to murder someone in order to create one. Voldemort made seven horcruxes. One was a locket that belonged to Salazar Slytherin, another was a cup that was once Helga Hufflepuff's, his third one was Ravenclaw's diadem, one was a ring made from the resurrection stone-" Ginny interrupted him.

"The resurrection stone? From the tale of the three brothers? It's real?" she asked him. Harry nodded.

"So are the elder wand and the invisibility cloak." he said.

"The invisibility cloak-" she started to say. Harry saw a look of epiphany dawn upon her face. "Your invisibility cloak. It's the one from the story isn't it."

"Yes it is." Harry said with a small smile. "Apparently, I'm descendant from Ignotus Peverell, the brother who created the cloak. Dumbledore thought that it was more likely that instead of Death giving the Peverell brothers the Hallows, that they were in fact extremely powerful and creative wizards." he explained. "Anyways, his pet snake, Nagini, was also a horcrux, and so was his old diary." He paused here, waiting for Ginny to come to the realization.

"His diary? As in Tom Riddle's diary?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly. Harry nodded gravely.

"The very same. The part of his soul inside the diary was what possessed you in your first year."

"That was what tried to kill you that year... He set the basilisk on everyone in the school... He nearly killed both of us. All through a piece of his soul encased in a diary." Ginny thought aloud. She looked terrified and disgusted by the idea. "But you still haven't answered my original question." Ginny said, so Harry continued on.

"Ron, Hermione, and I left to go hunt down these horcruxes..." He recounted their tale, leaving out some parts, like when Ron left, and Hermione's torture at Malfoy Manor. He explained what he saw in the pensieve until he got to the part about him being the accidental horcrux. What will she think of me when she finds out? He had been thinking for a while when he was startled out of his thoughts by Ginny.

"Harry? Are you okay? If it's too soon to relive all of this, I understand." she said gently.

"No, it's not that... You know how I could speak parseltongue? And how I could sometimes see into Voldemort's mind? And how being near him made my scar hurt?" he asked. Ginny nodded at all of his questions.

"Well that's because I was Voldemort's accidental horcrux." Harry said. He paused to take a deep breath before plowing along through his tale. "When I went into the forest to meet Voldemort, he cast the Killing Curse, but because I was sacrificing myself for all of you, he only killed the bit of himself that was inside of me."

Ginny was stunned. Harry? A horcrux? I suppose it makes sense though... Nobody in his family was a parselmouth, and his scar was so unusual. She saw a look of resignation and apprehension on his face. He needs to know that I don't care about that. That I still love him even if he was one of Voldemort's horcruxes. She wove her arms around his waist and held him. She felt him tense at first before relaxing and returning her embrace. She kissed him on the cheek.

"Well the fact that you could be so good despite that just proves to me how strong you are." she said as she looked up into his face. His eyes were sad and clouded, but they were beginning to light up with relief. She could see his battle scars clearly now, and reached up to trace one that ran across his cheek. "You overcame that, showing how wonderful a person you are." she tilted her head upwards and met his lips with her own. They broke apart and Harry finally had a true smile on his face.

"I love you, Ginny." He murmured into her ear. She leaned into his side, and he wrapped one arm around her shoulders. She kissed him lightly on the cheek once more.

"I love you too, Harry."

AN: Yes, I know, very, very, very fluffy, but I just love Harry and Ginny. NellieZabini4 disagrees with me, saying that they're "too perfect together" but I don't care. they give me warm fuzzies inside. :)

review? please? pretty please with a chocolate frog on top?