A Different Path
Chapter 1: A Spark
Sirius was dead. Sirius was never coming back. Sirius was gone. These thoughts stayed in Harry's head through the night, not allowing him to sleep. Harry was shaken out of his trance by the clicking of a beak. Pig was on the windowsill, with another letter. This was the third night after Harry had come back from his fifth year at Hogwarts and Ron and Hermione had already sent Harry three letters each. Each letter told him the same thing; that Sirius' death was not his fault. They didn't understand though. Harry looked at Pig in disgust, not wanting to read another letter from Ron or Hermione. Harry knew that if he just replied to them that they would stop sending him letters so frequently, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't have the heart to lie to them and tell them that he was alright. So instead, he let them worry and hoped they would get bored and stop sending him letters. Harry got up and took the letter from Pig, expecting to see Ron's messy handwriting. What he saw shocked him. The handwriting should seem unfamiliar to Harry as this person had never written to him. Yet he recognised that writing like he would Ron's or Hermione's. It was the handwriting of the girl he secretly had a crush on ever since his disastrous relationship with Cho had ended. Harry recognised this handwriting because he had started to take more notice of the all little details in relation to the girl. He knew the way she flipped her fiery red hair. He knew way the way she raised her right eyebrow when she was starting to get angry. And he knew her handwriting from watching her study all those times in the common room. It had hurt him so much when she had revealed she was going out with Dean on the train ride home. The letter was from Ginny.
Dear Harry,
I hope you don't mind me writing to you but I feel we've become good friends this past year and I wanted to write you a letter. I know you haven't replied to any of Ron or Hermione's letters, so you probably won't reply to mine either but I wanted to at least try. How are you feeling? Stupid question, I know but I had to ask. I won't harp on about you not feeling guilty about Sirius but I just wanted to let you know that it was NOT your fault, whatever you may like to think. I also wanted to let you know that if you ever need someone to talk to, then I'm here for you and always will be.
Now on to other things. Hermione's been staying here as it's not safe for her to stay with her parents, now that You-Know-Who knows she's a friend of yours. It's becoming more and more obvious that her and Ron like each other yet they both seem oblivious to it. It's driving me crazy. Also, Fred and George have been showing me some of their new products and I'm really impressed. Their shop is going to do so well. Bill is back from Egypt for the summer and he's been taking me places. He took me to a Quidditch game and a Muggle theatre, where we watched a movie and ate lots of popcorn. It was great.
Well that's all I have to say. Don't let your sadness rule you. Fight back and do Sirius proud.
Love Ginny
Harry just smiled while reading the letter. He always felt that Ginny understood him better than anyone, even Ron or Hermione. She subtly told him to stop weeping about Sirius' death without going on about it and told him what was going on with her summer to distract him from the pain he was feeling. It was exactly what he needed. However, there was one line that stood out to him. She told him to fight back. As he had read this line, a spark went off in Harry's mind and he formed an idea of what he was going to do this summer. She probably didn't mean it like this but Harry found himself envisioning a battle between him and the Death Eaters. He would do exactly what Ginny had said and fight back. For Sirius.
