Ginny looked at herself in the mirror. What she saw was nothing that satisfied her. Her normally glowing face looked grayed, and deep, black shadows had formed beneath her dulled amber eyes. It was upsetting to see what had really become of her after Harry left. Perhaps she was being selfish, wishing that the boy she loved with her soul would come back to her, bringing back some kind of happiness, but he was being selfish just the same. He had brought along two other extremely important people in Ginny's life: her brother, Ron, and Hermione, one of her own closest friends. He had been selfish in taking these people away from their families so that they could help him on some mission he probably wouldn't succeed in anyway. Ginny felt ashamed to think such thoughts, but without Harry with her or her brother safe at home and Hermione there with them made her angry enough to believe them.
She would leave for Hogwarts in only three days. She couldn't think of what it would be like, now that it was under Voldemort's control, with Snape acting as Head Master. And she would go through this entire year without Harry to comfort her. She hated not knowing what he was doing or if he was safe. She hated wondering if he was thinking about her or if they would ever get a chance to be together again. She especially hated, and desperately feared, the fact that there was a good chance he would never be coming back to her. This thought almost always resulted in tears, for Ginny could barely fathom him not being in her life. She could bear them not being together, as long as she still had him with her. But if he died while trying to fulfill this impossible mission, Ginny didn't know how her own life would go on.
Immediately following the wedding, Ginny had been absolutely furious. Enraged that she hadn't been able to escape with Harry and Ron and Hermione. She really had wanted nothing more than to help them. But now the anger of not being able to go with them had evolved into the anger she had with Harry and the fear she felt every second for her missing friends' lives. She just wished that she could know what they were doing and when they were safe. It was too hard being in the dark all the time. It wasn't where she wanted to be at all.
Ginny looked over to her barely packed trunk and sighed. She knew she should be packing, but she could hardly bring herself to it. She had begged and begged her mother to allow her to not go back to Hogwarts, but Molly had hands down refused. The consequences and danger of Ginny not returning to school were too terrible to risk, and Ron's absence would surely attract attention that the Weasley's didn't need. One child out of school was suspicious enough. So Ginny would be off in three days to a school that seemed almost unfamiliar to her now, and she was dreading every second that brought her closer to the moment she would leave.
In the distance, Ginny heard the clock downstairs chime midnight. The candle on her dresser flickered slightly and she closed her eyes momentarily. It was getting late, but she didn't want to go anywhere near her bed. Ginny could hardly sleep at night, and when she did, her dreams were infested with the terrible thoughts of death and Voldemort and Harry never coming back. She dreaded sleeping almost as much as she dreaded going back to Hogwarts. Not wanting to give into sleep, she decided to pack her trunk a little more, hoping it might distract her.
Ginny couldn't take what the war was doing to her family. No one seemed to be happy any more. Her mother was a constant stream of worry for her children and her father was just worn down. Percy was still gone, causing more stress, and now with Ron away too, Ginny was just waiting for the moment her mother would snap. Her family was slowly being torn at the seams, and all Ginny could do was wait and pray for when it all would be over and they could be sewn back together again. And that, Ginny discovered, was a terrible way to pass time. Everything seemed to be a terrible way to pass time now, though.
Books and robes were now piled half way up Ginny's trunk, and she could feel her eyes getting heavy. Her candle had burned down low and was threatening to snuff out at any minute, leaving her alone in the shadows. Not wanting to sleep, but not able to avoid it any longer, Ginny brought the candle to her bedside table and begrudgingly got into bed. With a swift blow, the candle was out and the room was dark. Only for a few more hours, though, Ginny thought to herself. But the hours to wait for the darkness to subside were always long. And waiting was all there was to do.