When the Truth Hurts, a harry potter fanfic

The beginning of my story is straight from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I am not trying to plagiarize J. K. Rowling's work. I am just starting from there and wanted people to know exactly have I have going on inside my mind for the gang, because I am rewriting after that part. –FriendOfThyWittyOne

→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→→

Chapter 1

"Ginny, listen…" he said very quietly, as the buzz or conversation grew louder around them and people began to get to their feet, "I can't be involved with you anymore. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together."

She said, with an oddly twisted smile, "It's for some stupid, noble reason, isn't it?"

"It's been like…like something out of someone else's life, these last few weeks with you," said Harry. "But I can't…we can't…I've got things to do alone now."

She didn't cry, she simply looked at him.

"Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you're my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."

"What if I don't care?" said Ginny fiercely.

"I care," said Harry. "How do you think I'd feel if this was your funeral…and it was my fault…."

She looked away from him, over the lake.

"I never really gave up on you," she said. "Not really. I always hoped….Hermoine told me to get on with my life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to be able to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more — myself."

"Smart girl, that Hermoine," said Harry, trying to smile. "I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages…months…years maybe…."

"But you've been too busy saving the Wizarding world," said Ginny, half laughing. "Well…I can't say I'm surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I liked you so much."

Harry could not bear to hear these things, nor did he think his resolution would hold if he remained sitting beside her. Ron, he was, was not holding Hermoine and stroking her hair while she sobbed into his shoulder, tears dripping from the end of his own long nose. With a miserable gesture, Harry got up, turned his back on Ginny and on Dumbledore's tomb, and walked away around the lake. Moving felt much more bearable than sitting still, just as setting out as soon as possible to track down the Horcruxes and kill Voldemort would feel better than waiting to do it…

Ginny sat there, deadened by the information she had just heard, as Harry walked away from her, apparently in as much pain as she was in. She had remained calm only for him, but now that he was truly gone, all composure was lost. She had known this would happen; she had known he would not want to carry along the burden of a girlfriend through the rest of his struggle through life. But she had told him she didn't care, and that is what hurt the most. She thought that her not believing it to be an obstacle in their love should mean he felt the same way, but he didn't.

As Harry left her vision, she slowly rose to her feet. Scanning the area she saw the smiling faces of people trying to get over their grief. To her, it felt as though she would never smile again.

"Ginny!" cried Ron, wiping tears from his eyes. "Ginny, are you alright?"

Her eyebrows rose to form a quizzical look upon her face. What did he mean was she alright? The only man that Voldemort feared was gone, and the only man that she would ever let was gone too, not dead, but gone to her.

"Ginny?" asked Hermoine; her voice shook through her sobs. "We all mourn for Dumbledore, but we have to stay strong." The look in her eyes showed the fear that wasn't heard in her voice.

Ron's sister turned her head towards the two voices that offered comfort, but she didn't truly hear the pleading in their voices for her to be alright. Her mind was elsewhere at the moment, at a place and time when she had been happy, snuggled in the arms of the one she loved.

Quietly she struggled, "I have lost nearly everything I cared for. And with them I have lost my hope. Don't tell me…to remain strong." Her eyes clouded over with a stare that Ron and Hermoine had never witnessed before. Ginny was too far gone to stop now. "You cry for Dumbledore, yes, but what about Harry? He is going to his death!" she began to raise her voice. "Why didn't we stop him? Blast him! Harry!" she continued to elevate the volume of her cries. "Voldemort cannot be stopped! You don't know what he can do! You don't know…what he can do to you!" People had become quiet in the commotion of Ginny's mad ranting. Ron grabbed her by the shoulders and walked her away as her sobs shook her whole body; she didn't even try to struggle, she no longer cared.

"She woke up screaming, Ron," whispered Madam Pomfrey, wiping the sweat from Ginny's face. "She fell right back asleep though. Ron, she can't stay here any longer, the school is closing for the year. This kind of thing is beyond magic; anyway, I suggest a muggle hospital."

Ron's eyebrows knitted together in frustration. "A bloody muggle hospital? Why?" he inquired.

"This isn't common behavior for a witch; this is very strange and I think it would overwhelm the wizardfolk at St. Mungo's." she replied giving him a look clearly implicating to lower the volume in his voice.

"Fine. But I don't like it," he said as he turned on his heels and ran straight into Minerva McGonagall. "Mr. Weasly, do watch where you are walking," she said in her normal superior manor, but her eyes showed great pain. "Sorry, Professor," Ron muttered as he walked swiftly out of the hospital wing.

"How is she?" asked Professor McGonagall, walking over to Madam Pomfrey and Ginny.

"Not well, I'm sorry to say. She is seriously delusional and deeply hurt by Harry Potter's leaving. She woke up screaming his name."

"Harry Potter's leaving? What do you mean? I just saw him at the…the funeral."

Madam Pomfrey slowly shifted her eyes to Minerva. "You didn't know? Harry has decided that he is going after He Who Must Not Be Named alone! The fool!"

Professor McGonagall cursed under her breath, something that was believed to be impossible. "Don't tell anyone else this. We don't want to frighten the students."

She swiftly turned, her robes swaying at the fast movement. She had to tell the Order of the Phoenix of their new member, the one who would determine the fate of the rest of the world.

Her surroundings were black and white, with occasional greys, but none the less frightening. Where was she? She racked her brain for any clue to the new setting in which she found herself. "Ginny." Her name echoed in her mind. Where was this voice coming from? "Ginny." The sound ricocheted off of the colorless trees, sky, and ground. A dark shadow suddenly appeared in front of her…just barely out of her vision. "Who's there?" she cried out, alarmed that her thoughts had been spoken. "Who are you?" No reply. The shadow grew, indicating it was nearing her. She squinted, trying to get even a glimpse of the approaching figure. A great sense of danger penetrated her mind. Slowly she recognized the handsome features of the man in front of her; it was Tom Riddle. "No!" she screamed, trying to get away. "Not again!"

Her eyes snapped open just as his hands had reached out for her, trying to grasp at all that was left of the confident and radiant girl that had been Ginny. Gradually she realized she was screaming…but she knew it was just the beginning of the terror that had once happened to her before. Voldemort already knew that she and Harry had been a pair, and he was already moving in for the kill.