Under the Stars
Ginny sighed. Life wasn't so easy. She had learnt over the past few days of summer vacation that life was hard when the boy you loved was thick-headed and a prat to boot. She knew the damn consequences, wouldn't he know that? She knew that she could end up dying, and being in a relationship with him wasn't going to make that stand stronger. She could die from just knowing him as a mere correspondent.
But right now, summer was over. Ginny was walking down the empty halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft And Wizardry, where she was an active sixth-year. Sixteen years old and she already knew the effects of heartbreak. At the current moment, she was making her way after classes to the forbidden Astronomy Tower to work on an assignment Professor Binns had set her class. The Astronomy Tower was the only place she could think with freedom. So it was forbidden, screw forbidden. She needed to think.
Pulling her cloak closer to her, she made her way up the steep steps of the Astronomy Tower and stepped over the 'Forbidden Access' sign tied across the width of the stairwell. It was quite cold up here, the breeze blowing through the many open windows scattering the length of the winding tower. In the distance, Ginny could here the hoot of a disgruntled owl fetching it's dinner. Ginny smiled, she liked the sounds of nature and the scents of natural fall season wafting through the open windows.
She grinned at herself. She had finally reached the top of the Astronomy Tower. Ginny liked the solitude. Being by yourself was often a hard thing to do at home and at Hogwarts. Thinking to herself, Ginny wondered whether she really came up here to work on her essay, or think about how to get Harry to see her ways. "Oh well," she said in a gentle whisper that disappeared amongst the howling wind.
Ginny sat on the ledge of an open window that looked out upon the many telescopes on the deck-like rounding, and the stars in the night sky twinkled happily. Such an ironic thing seeing as Ginny wasn't "twinkling happily". She was angry. Complete opposite of the stars. "Such an arse..." she muttered to herself, flipping absentmindedly through her History of Magic textbook. She was talking about Harry.
"Who's such an arse?" whispered another voice. The voice shook a bit, as if it already knew who Ginny was talking about, and out of the far corner of the tower, came a seventh year, with unruly black hair that stood up at odd angles and piercing green eyes behind round-rimmed glasses.
Ginny stood up quickly. "You are," she blurted out quickly. "You don't understand that I know the consequences!" The textbook fell to the ground with a snap, falling open at her heals. Her hands had clenched themselves to fists and were obediently at her sides for now, her eyes glowed angrily, the puppy-dog brown turning ice cold.
Harry pressed a hand to his forehead and massaged it gently, sighing. "Ginny...we've been over this. If I keep disappearing ever other month go to fetch bloody Horcruxes, I can't risk you. You're my...my..." he stuttered, sitting down and pulling his knees up close, wrapping his arms around them.
Ginny kneeled at his eye-level.
"I'm your what, Harry?"
Harry looked up, those brilliant outstanding eyes bore into Ginny's, like heat, they dissolved the hatred in hers. She even though she saw a flicker of a tear trying to escape. "You're my reason for moving on in my life, for continuing to live and if I lost you, there would be nothing left for me to survive for," he said faintly, hanging his head back down to stare at the floor.
Ginny felt her own eyes water up. "Harry...listen to me," she said sternly, yet quietly. She reached a hand to his chin, pushing it up so she could look him in the eyes before his head would fall back down again. "You. You are my everything. You leave. I follow. There is no consequence of following you that I don't know of. I know that I could die. But I'd die in your arms. I know that I could get hurt. But you'd get hurt with me. I know that I could fail all my school subjects," she mentally laughed at this one, remembering when she thought this over. "But you would with me!" She let her hand fall from his chin and grabbed his hands, desperately looking into his eyes for an answer.
"Gin...please, I know that you know the consequences, but what if all that does happen? What then!" he said. The tears that had been straining to get out fell like lonely bullets to the floor.
Ginny's throat clogged up. She hated seeing him like this. This wasn't the Harry she knew, the reclusive Harry that he had become. But that Harry was opening up to her, a chance that not many people had gotten. "H-Harry...what then? Everything then, Harry...everything. I'll have you and you'll have me. So stop torturing yourself with that stupid mistake you made at the end of last year and get over it! I love you and there's nothing, nothing in this world that can change that!" She dropped his hands, stood and leaned up against the window again, her back to him as tears raced down her own face.
Ginny could hear the scrapes of his shoes against the floor as he pushed himself up and walked over to her. She went stiff, expecting something like a touch on the shoulder before he left, mad at her for such truthful words hitting him bluntly in the head. But that wasn't the outcome of her sincerity. She felt him place his hands on her shoulders, he felt her stiffen up even more. As she reached a hand to wipe a tear away, another hand stopped her, grabbing her wrist. He turned her around and wiped the tear away for her.
"I know," he said quietly, marveling at the tear on the pad of his thumb. "That you love me. And I fully well know that this bouncy feeling in me, is saying I love you too...but Gin- you've got to understand. If I get back together with you-"
Ginny interrupted him. "If you get back together with me the consequence of that would be I can't come along on hunts," she said with a stern expression. Harry nodded dully. "Then listen here. You will write to me. Every day. You will not discourage me in such a way that I feel left out because I don't want to go back to being a crush-ridden schoolgirl that couldn't open her mouth without embarrassing myself," more tears fell.
Harry grinned lightly, sliding his arms around her. "You know there's no way of that happening again. I promise to write to you Gin, are you kidding me? I'd write to you anyways whether we're together or not," he said. "Now before you jump into any more suspicions and regulations, I have one more explanation."
"Go on..." said Ginny quietly, fiddling with a loose strand on his cloak.
"I'm sorry I was so stubborn," he let out a little laugh. "In your words, I'm sorry I was such an arse. I should have realized that you would try your hardest to get the point through my thick skull anyways." He tapped his head with his finger and she let out a stifled laugh.
"I'm stubborn too, Harry James...you should've known what you were messing with. You know now that I don't give up easily," Ginny looked up at him and smiled.
Harry wrapped his arms around her more tightly. "Two of a kind," he whispered.
She scowled playfully and pouted. "Now, now that you know the harsh reprimanding you get for not saying yes to me..."
Harry rolled his eyes. "What's my punishment, O Fair One?" he said sarcastically.
"Oh stop it!" Ginny giggled and she pulled his face closer to her own, kissing him.
Harry felt the bubble in his chest burst with pride. He had done it. They had done it. They had survived each others wraths and over come their differences and stubborness. Ginny was in the arms of the man of her dreams and Harry was kissing his golden angel. All was perfect. For now. Ginny let go of him and pulled back with pinked cheeks and ruffled, staticky, hair. She was smiling wider than she had ever smiled before and as she took Harry by the hand, stepping over her History of Magic book, she led him to the deck, where she sat down, and he sat too.
She leaned her head up against his chest, that monster that was in Harry's chest last year had come back, and it was purring with pride. "I love you," he whispered down at her.
She looked up. "I love you as well, you dolt," she smiled and laughed.
The two sat up there under the stars until Peeves had come up and blown a turnip in Harry's ear, disturbing the peace, and the rest, they say...is history.