Disclaimer: I don't own anything that seems familiar in this story; it is all from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling!
Love Conquers All:
Harry looked longingly at the shining mass of flaming red hair that flowed gracefully down Ginny Weasley's back. He couldn't bare the unfairness of the world he lived in, why was he forced to deprive them both of a relationship that brought so much happiness into both of their lives? What kind of a world was it that he could only wonder at what might have been because to get to close to Ginny now would be to risk her life?
Harry loved Ron and Hermione as best friends do, but he knew that he would never be able to prevent them from coming on the search for Voldemort's horcruxes and even if they didn't come, Voldemort would target them anyway, knowing of the powerful bond of friendship the three shared with each other. But Ginny, she was a different matter, try as she might, Harry knew he could never allow her to persuade him to let her come on the journey next year. He knew that if Ginny were to be killed, he would not be able to continue. Harry had lost so many people he loved in his lifetime and if he lost Ginny too, the girl he had allowed himself to fall in love with over the past year, he would die inside, the fight would not be worth fighting anymore.
Ginny turned swiftly to face Harry as if she had felt the burn of his gaze on her back. Her face was full of sorrow but the sorrow in her soft brown eyes was tainted by something else, the look that she rested on Harry was hardened by the anger she felt at not being able to join her brother and his friends on the journey that they would embark on when the summer came to an end. When Ginny had found out Harry, Ron and Hermione's plans for the following year she had pleaded furiously with them to be allowed to come, but to no avail.
"Harry," she began, "It is just as important to me as it is to you to see Voldemort defeated! I'm only a year younger than you Harry! I've faced almost as much as you too. Let me come with you, please!" she pleaded as she had done all summer.
"I can't Ginny, your mum would never forgive me if you died, to her, it's bad enough that Ron's coming, she would never forgive me and I would never forgive myself either, Gin!" Harry looked into Ginny's eyes and saw the reflection of his own emerald ones within them.
"It's not up to my mother, Harry! It's easy for her to say 'no'! She's doing her bit already with the Order; I haven't had that chance, Harry! And besides, none of us know who's going to be here at the end of the year, if you go off with Hermione and my brother, how can you guarantee that I'll see you all again? I couldn't bare it if I lost you Harry, last year, that time when we were going out, it was the best time of my life. We all need to stay together now, we don't have Dumbledore here to protect us anymore!" Ginny was breathing heavily, she had inherited her mother's temper and determination and she wasn't about to let her case go without a fight.
Harry flinched as Ginny mentioned Dumbledore; he had tried not to think about his headmaster since Snape had killed him at the end of last year. But, at the thought of Snape, Harry's grief at the loss of Dumbledore vanished to be replaced by a fresh wave of anger for the man who had turned traitor to the Order of the Phoenix and murdered Dumbledore in front of Harry at the end of last year.
"You're right Ginny, Dumbledore's dead, he's gone and he's not coming back and I can't let that happen to you! I love you Ginny, I can't loose you." Harry flushed crimson as he said this, even though he and Ginny had gone out with each other for a few weeks last year, he had never told her how he felt about her and now his anger had subsided slightly he couldn't hide his embarrassment at what he had just said. Ginny looked at him in shock and amazement, she had known that Harry fancied her and he hadn't dumped at Dumbledore's funeral because he just didn't like her anymore or anything stupid like that, but she hadn't known just how strong his feelings for her were. She stared into the emerald green eyes that she had fallen for so long ago and moved towards him. He drew her into a soft embrace and savoured the feeling of her head against his chest. She was so small and delicate and fitted perfectly into his arms and yet he could feel the power coursing through her body, almost see it through her pale skin, at the same time. As he held her she looked up and he let his lips brush softly against hers. Their kiss became more powerful and neither of them knew whether it lasted ten seconds or ten minutes until Ginny pulled away. She looked at him and took in his entire body, the once scrawny, malnourished boy had grown into a muscular, handsome young man, he had grown strong from the years of quidditch and from the countless battles he should not have had to endure but had. His face which, although wore a gentle expression, hidden in his eyes, bore the scars of the losses that Voldemort had inflicted on him. Finally, her gaze rested the thin, red, lightening bolt shaped scar that ran down his forehead and, although small and half hidden by his mess of jet black hair, made him stand out from everybody else in the world in which they lived.
She looked into his eyes once more and whispered softly to him.
"I love you too, Harry, and that's why I need to be with you when you go looking for the horcruxes, let me come with you, Harry, and I promise, I will never leave you." She laid her head back to rest on Harry's chest and it was in that moment that Harry knew he would never let the small figure of the girl he held and loved so much, out of his sight again, he would never leave her behind because, after all, now Dumbledore was gone, they all needed each other more than they ever had before, and, as the old muggle saying goes: 'Amor onmia vincit' or 'Love conquers all.'