A/n: Hello and welcome to my collection of one-shots! This story is exactly what it says on the tin- a collection of scenes which can be collaborated with the timeline and universe of my other fan fiction "Back To The Past" that either I feel cannot fit into the original storyline or have been requested by my reviewers.
If there are any one-shots you would like me to write, feel free to ask in a review or PM me.
It is not essential that you read "Back To The Past" before reading these one-shots as I'm sure many authors have/will write their own versions of some of these scenes, though I would recommend it!
This first one shot is all about how Ginny got together after the war and it was requested by wizmage, Haley Renee and yukikiralacus. So, my dearies, this chapter is dedicated to you three! ;)
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with the Harry Potter universe- all of that belongs to the esteemed J.K Rowling. The two set of lyrics below belong to the superb Jessie J and whoever wrote them, created the music to them, etc.
I only own the imagination behind the scene and a brand new kindle with the Harry Potter books on it :D
Listening To: Who You Are- Jessie J
LMMRLMMRLMMR
So I sit and I realise
With these tears falling from my eyes
I gotta change if I wanna keep you forever
I promise that I'm gonna try.
-Nobodys Perfect- Jessie J
Seeing is deceiving, dreaming is believing
It's okay not to be okay
Sometimes it's hard to follow your heart
Tears don't mean you're loosing
Everybody's bruising
Just be true to who you are.
- Who You Are- Jessie J
The elated murmurings of the people in the Great Hall bounced off the walls as they quietly celebrated the recent events whilst still trying to be respectful to all who had been lost. People sat in clumps, food and drink in front of them though rarely anybody took anything. Some ignored the trickles of tears that ran down their battle worn faces and some expressions lifted with disbelieving smiles. Somewhere, everywhere, in amongst all of those heads and crowns that could be seen all around the hall, a single truth echoed throughout the mass.
It was all over.
Voldemort was dead. He had been killed in this very hall. By the very person he had sought to defeat over the course of the past sixteen years. Defeated by the Boy-Who-Lived, Harry Potter.
Ginny Weasley's blank face only blinked in reaction to the thought of his name.
Harry. Her Harry.
Something inside her paused for a moment as it tried to guess what she was feeling. It searched and searched, looking for anything, any emotion connected to that once all-important name…
But there was nothing, no feelings to be felt as that name ran through her mind. Nothing but an emptiness and sadness that had nothing to do with him. No, that emotion was reserved for one person and one person only:
Fred.
There it was- the burning and twisting sensation that wracked through her throat and stomach. Finally, some emotion. Something other than the blank feeling. Something that could be seen and empathised with across the entire hall and the entire wizarding populace- grief.
Already forgetting the mention of her ex-boyfriend, Ginny rested her head on her mother's shoulder and finally, after staring expressionlessly at a wall for half an hour, gave way to her grief and sorrow and let a few tears fall down her tired face.
LMMRLMMRLMMR
It was silent in the Burrow.
The many Weasleys were not running around, arguing, they were not outside playing Quidditch, they were not rummaging through the cupboards and they were not all smiling as they once had been. And more importantly, they were not complete.
They had just finished burying Fred, one of the Weasley children who often brought light to any situation given to him. But there would be no more of that- not even his remaining twin, George, could muscle up a smile. Nor did he feel like he would ever want to again, just like the rest of them.
With the rest of her family scattered around, Ginny Weasley sat on one of the threadbare sofas, her face once again blank and streaked with tears.
But she was no longer crying. She had done enough of that. She was no longer thinking of her lost brother- as heartless as it may have seemed, Ginny had spent a long time thinking of her brother, so much so that she had not slept in the two weeks between his death and funeral. Instead, her thoughts took a break from her anguish and turned instead to Harry Potter.
He was here, somewhere; she knew because she seemed to be hyper aware of him whenever they were near one another. Yet they had not spoken to each other once.
Ginny knew that it was mostly her fault- after all, she was the one who left the room as soon as he walked in, she was the one who ignored the pleading looks he sent her way, she was the one who ignored the concerned way her mother was looking between them and she was the one who refused any eye contact with him.
She knew how her behaviour must have looked to someone on the outside, but Ginny felt like her actions were completely justified.
He had hurt her.
She had thought many times over the past year about what had happened at Dumbledore's funeral and every time she wished she had done something other than waving him off like some damsel in distress. She had been that weak woman waiting for a rescue once before in the Chamber and it wasn't who she was. She liked to think that she was a strong person, someone who could hold her own and someone who didn't run away from a fight. Yet that is exactly what she had done, and she hated herself for it, and a small part of her resented Harry for that change in her too. She had vowed to herself never to let herself become that person again- it seemed, however, that when it comes to Harry Potter, her morals went right out of the window.
How could she have let him break up with her like that? Leave her behind with the false hope that Voldemort himself wouldn't come after her because they were no longer an item? Of course he would have known! He had known! How could he not? He was Lord Voldemort and- loath she was to admit it- he was rather an intelligent and powerful wizard; he would not have left all of Harry's ties with people to be unchecked and unmonitored. He had, after all, had people watching over the Order members and her family and the only reason he hadn't found the Dursleys was that he knew how Harry had felt about them and they had been hidden under a fidelius charm. Malfoy had probably let his precious 'Lord' know the moment he had been at his 'master's' side and the Carrows had certainly made known their… displeasure…. at her "affiliation with the dirty half-blood".
She never knew they could use such big words.
They also punished Neville for being with him two years previously at the Ministry- if Ginny had never been Harry's girlfriend for a while, then she would have been known to them because of that!
She just wanted to rewind time, to tell him that he could do what he wanted, but she wasn't going to allow him to leave her. She would point out all of the flaws in his plan and he would argue back at first before sheepishly rubbing his neck and apologising for even suggesting such a thing…
She snorted to her self. Like that would have happened. He would probably just have been more determined to leave her, the stupidly, noble prat.
But no matter how bitter she was over how she had acted in reality and how he had left her, Ginny had never once felt angry towards Harry or his decision.
She analysed it everyday and she had dreamed and fantasised that it had somehow gone differently but underneath it all she understood why he had done it.
He had been scared, well and truly scared and he had acted and pushed that feeling aside in the only way he had known how- by doing whatever he could to keep her safe. She knew he had cared deeply for her (she could see it in his eyes and she had never seen him so comfortable with someone before) and he had acted in a natural way for him.
It didn't mean that it didn't hurt incredibly, though.
So that is why she hid from him and avoided his eyes. She didn't want him to see the pain and she didn't want him to see the sadness.
And, if she was completely truthful, if only to herself, she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to forgive him yet.
LMMRLMMRLMMR
One week left to go until Ginny was returning to Hogwarts with Hermione and the youngest Weasley found her self staring morosely into a cup of cold tea, her heavy head resting on her arm.
She couldn't quite understand why she felt so tired. She hadn't had to avoid Harry as much since he had moved out the Burrow and began working at the Ministry; Kingsley had asked for people to fill in the empty Auror ranks, no qualifications necessary, and Harry had practically been the first to jump in line. He had been fast tracked onto the training programme and reporters were drooling at the chance to interview him.
Ginny wasn't quite sure how she felt about that, so she never thought about it.
She rarely slept at night and she didn't think she would be able to for a very long time. Her mind just refused to switch off and with her going back to school so soon…. Well, sleep was the least of her worries.
Shaking her head to clear away bad memories, Ginny looked up when she heard a step on the stairs creak.
"I was just going back to bed, mum," Ginny began to explain as stood and turned away from the door, picking up her cup of tea as she did so. "I just needed a quick drink so don't worry-"
"I needed one too."
Her body froze as she recognised that voice, the voice that she had hoped to hear for so long and had ran away from at the same time.
She turned around slightly, her stomach turning to lead inside of her and looked at him from the corner of her eye, being careful not to look into his own.
He looked terrible. His hair was as long as ever, practically to his shoulders and his skin was pale. He had big black bruises around his eyes and he was thinner than she remembered him being. He seemed tired and stressed and as though a cloud hung over him constantly.
She took a deep breath and turned away, willing the burn in her eyes to disappear as she closed them.
"Are you still having trouble sleeping?" His voice whispered to him from across the worn kitchen. She swallowed hard.
'Stop talking to me… please, stop talking to me…'
A tense moment passed as she stayed facing from his gaze. The only sound was the rhythmic drip of the kitchen tap and the slight wind from outside.
"Ginny?"
His voice sounded as though it was getting closer. Ginny clenched jaw and hands as she heard his feet padding slowly across the floor as he moved towards her.
'Go away… please, just leave me alone… go away…..'
She bit his lip as her imagination made her think that his breath was hitting the back of her neck… or maybe he was actually that close.
She bit her lip against her tears as she quickly moved forwards and started to walk around the other side of the kitchen table to get away from him, her feet quick and her eyes carefully focused on the ground.
"Ginny, p-please…" she heard him stammer as he rushed around the table after her. "I need… I want… I-I… Ginny, please!"
She stopped still, her hand clenched tightly on the banister of the stairs as her heart twisted painfully at the desperate pleading.
"Don't." she croaked out. "Just… don't."
His voice didn't sound much better and he seemed unable to raise it above a whisper. "Please, j-just stay and… a-and listen."
He paused for a moment, waiting for her to move. But she was unable to, so she stayed there, tears building in her eyes as she heard him swallow thickly behind her.
Neither of them moved nor spoke as the tap continued to drip away.
"What do you want, Harry?" she murmured as she stared at the wall above her. If she spoke any louder than she was already, she feared she would burst into tears.
He mumbled quickly to himself and she almost smiled as she imagined him running his hand through his hair.
"I…. You've been avoiding me and…. I just… I…" he sighed again and fell silent. Ginny shifted from foot to foot and waited for a few seconds before sighing herself.
She was just about to continue walking upstairs when a sudden noise behind her made her jump around in shock.
Ginny's wide eyes finally focused on Harry's emerald green ones and saw the emotions in his eyes- the pain, the angst, the desperateness, the loneliness and something else that she couldn't quite identify. They were the same things she had been feeling and that alone caused her not to turn away from him and run back up the stairs.
As her brain tried to process what his eyes were telling her, Ginny looked down and around to see what the loud noise was and she was surprised to see Harry's fist clenched tightly shut on top of the kitchen table. It trembled slightly and as she looked at it, she understood that other emotion in his gaze; self-loathing.
Her mouth opened and closed a few times, but Harry didn't even seem to notice.
"For Merlin's sake!" He growled to himself as he ran his hands through his hair before looking her dead in the eye. She felt frozen in place as she watched his shoulders droop.
"I-I'm…" he sighed again before pushing his words out, a desperate and frustrated edge in his voice. "I'm no good at this, Ginny! I can't talk about…. about f-feelings and how…how I want to be with…." he ran his hand over his face this time before switching to a new train of thought.
"I missed you."
Ginny looked down and twisted her fingers together as a tear finally fell down her face.
"I-I missed you, too." her voice wobbled as a shudder ran through her body.
'Don't cry, don't cry, don't cry…'
They fell silent again.
"I'm sorry." he breathed. She nodded her head.
"I know."
Harry cleared his throat slightly before moving his hand to pull out a chair. Ginny watched him carefully, seeing the full extent of his tiredness and he plonked himself down heavily.
"I just wished it had never happened." he whispered.
"But it did." she bluntly said, her face sad yet somehow closed off at the same time.
He looked at her briefly before dropping his head into his hands. "I just want things to go back to the way they were."
For some reason, this annoyed Ginny. She folded her arms and ran a trembling hand through her thick hair before leaning against the doorway and frowning at him.
"Things can't go back to the way they were; we can't go back to that." despite the agitation she felt towards him, her voice was still soft. He looked at her, alarmed and defeated. "We aren't those people anymore, Harry. I'm not the same person. And you aren't either. Things have happened to us that neither of us are prepared to talk about."
He nodded at her words and looked back down at the table. "I know."
A few moments of mutual understanding passed before Ginny gave up standing and moved over to sit across from him. The stars outside were fading and the sky seemed to be lightening up, but neither of the teenagers were bothered about going up to bed, not now that they were- somewhat- discussing what was going on between them.
"You know, I watched your name."
Ginny looked up, startled and confused. Seeing her look, Harry chuckled once, humourlessly, to himself before elaborating.
"On the Marauder's Map."
Comprehension dawned on her. "Oh."
"Er… yeah…" he mumbled as his cheeks tinted slightly pink and he rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. The corners of her lips turned up slightly at that. "I wanted to make sure you were safe."
Her smile instantly dropped.
Harry looked up when she didn't respond in anyway and was taken aback by her determined and fiery expression- it was the same blazing look she had given him when they had first kissed and when he had broken up with her at the funeral. His brain shut down slightly as he focused on her and waited for her to speak.
"I am quite capable of looking after myself, Harry."
She watched him intently as he nodded, his eyes showing that he understood that fact completely.
"You can't keep on running away from me and breaking us off whenever a bad guy decides he wants to kill you," she said in a tone of voice that showed she was completely sure such a thing would happen again. "As much as you want to protect me and keep me safe, I'm not a little girl. Don't treat me like my mother does, Harry, I can look after myself."
Harry smiled fondly at her. "I've heard your bat-bogey hex is quite painful."
She chuckled once before trying to look seriously at him. Her eyes lost their humour but she couldn't stop the small smile that lit up her face.
"I'm serious, Harry."
His face instantly turned completely stoic with seriousness as he nodded.
"I know you are," he replied again. "And…. I'll…. I-I'll try."
Her smile widened as her eyes filled with tears once again. "That's all I ask."
They stared at each other before Ginny stood up and moved to stand beside him; his eyes watched every minute movement she made, each step she took and he watched as she raised her arms out towards him. He didn't even hesitate as he too stood up and stepped into her arms, his own wrapping tightly around her and holding her as close as she was holding him.
Ginny breathed in deeply- taking in his woodsy, broomstick smell- before she placed a light kiss to his neck that was full of promise and understanding.
"Welcome home, Harry."
"It's good to be back, Ginny."
LMMRLMMRLMMR
A/N2: A bit of a fluffy moment at the end there (okay, it was ultimate fluff!) , but I hope that it somewhat lived up to your expectations- I know that quite a few of you didn't agree with my view that it would take a couple of months for them to get back together and practically all of you have your own idea of what happened. This is just my humble view and I hope I made it realistic.
Now for those of you who have read my work before, you all know that I never quote artists lyrics in my chapters. I may tell you who I'm listening to, but I have never ever quoted them before. The simple reason as to why I did this in this chapter is because I really felt that those two sets of lyrics portrayed how I wanted this chapter to go and how I feel that the characters may have felt in his scene. If I have done my job right, then hopefully I have conveyed those feelings to you and that you possibly agree with me. If not, at least I understand the reference.
For me, the "Nobodys Perfect" lyrics are relevant to Harry towards the end as he understands that he cannot treat Ginny like he did anymore and that he has to stop protecting her all of the time- he has to 'change' his attitude towards her if he wants to be with her. The lyrics to "Who You Are" relate to Ginny throughout- she wanted the dream as the reality was too difficult to deal with sometimes. In the timeline between the battle and her getting back together with Harry, she learned that it isn't always possible to be the strong person you like to think you are. Like I said, hopefully I have conveyed to you how I meant those lyrics to be significant to the chapter.
There are more one-shots to come including Harry's awkward proposal and an AU look at how people could have reacted to the pregnancy…
Please tell me what you think!
Happy new year!
Listening To: Hurt- Christina Aguilera.
