Disclaimer:only plot is mine

Forever.

A word that has the potential to build hopes and dreams.

But when taken away, it has the ability to demolish those same hopes and dreams it helped to create. And it does so, with fervor.

Ginny Weasley wadded up the piece of parchment on which she had scribbled this memento. She threw it across the room where it hit the bare window pane with a meek 'thud,' before falling to the floor.

Ginny had been hunkered in the corner of her bedroom at the Burrow for three entire days and nights; she sat in solitude in the corner, staring at a knot in the floorboard, only getting up to use the restroom. She didn't eat, she didn't sleep. She just sat. And stared.

It was on the third night that she picked up the quill and parchment and attempted to write what she was feeling, thus resulting in many paper balls lying under her windowsill.

With an indignant huff, Ginny rose slowly to her feet. Her muscles screamed in agony at the simple movement after having been dormant for so long. She ignored them. She crossed the room to the single, bare window and gazed out at the night sky. A blood red harvest moon shone down on the otherwise forlorn, wintry landscape. This red illumination of the normally dark, winter night was what prompted her to rise, to walk. It seemed to reflect her emotions: dark, sinister, barren, cold, bleeding, dying, pain…

Seeing a representation of the turmoil raging in her gut broke her resolve to not cry. The tears began to fall slowly, sporadically. But soon, they were pouring in torrents. Soon, she let herself begin to feel everything she had been avoiding for the past three days. And it was like enduring it all over again.

How could he end it like that? After 3 years, after everything they had been through together, he just…changed his mind?

She pressed her forehead against the icy windowpane, and her breath began to fog it up with each exhalation. The coolness of the glass helped to ease the piercing headache that was beginning behind her eyes. As her body continued to shake with each sob, she began to replay the events in her mind. She knew it would hurt, but she also knew that it was the only way to find closure.

3 days prior

Ginny had woken up early that morning and found that Harry was not in bed. After a year of dating and two years of marriage, Ginny knew Harry was not a morning person. So she crawled out of bed, pulled on a red velvet robe, and made her way downstairs to find him. She found him asleep on the couch.

Her brow was furrowed as she said, "Harry?"

When he did not reply, she approached the couch, knelt beside it, and poked him softly. He stirred, and turned to look at her. He smiled weakly.

"Why are you asleep out here?" Ginny asked him carefully.

Harry sat up so that his face was even with Ginny's. "Well, you know, no reason. I just couldn't sleep in the bed last night so I thought I would give the couch a try."

Ginny was skeptical. "I know you've been very busy at the Ministry, but you've been acting funny for a few weeks now. Is everything ok, love?"

Harry took a deep breath and straightened the glasses on his nose before he began. "Actually, no. Ginny, you know that everything I've felt for you in the past three years was special, but I… I just don't feel the same way about you as I did even a few months ago. I've put up some kind of barrier between us, and I don't know how, and I don't know why, but it's there. And I've been trying, Merlin I've been trying, to tear the wall back down, to love you again. But it won't budge. You haven't done anything wrong, anything at all. And that's the bloody problem, I don't even understand why my feelings have changed, all I know is that they have."

He paused his gush of honesty to look at her face. She had gone very pale, and looked completely shocked.

"Well, I was expecting you to complain about work or something; I wasn't expecting this!" she said slowly. "Why, just last night you were going on and on about how you missed me when you were at work, and how you counted the minutes until you could see me again."

"Yes," he said, "and it was true. I still care about you, but I… don't love you, at least not in the pure sense of the word. I wouldn't have brought this up yet, I would have continued to struggle with it on my own. But you gave me an opening, and I had to take it. I had to, Gin."

Ginny swallowed hard to choke back the tears. "Is there another woman involved?" She had always had a fleeting suspicion that Harry still harbored feelings for Hermione.

"No, absolutely not. I'm not interested in anyone else in an intimate way right now, Gin."

"So…is this the real end of us this time?"

"Yes, I think it would be best to have a clean break. No lingering hopes of us working past it, no ties, no 'going on a break'. A clean break is going to be our best option. I'm so sorry. I will always care about you, you know that, right?"

The breakup had been bad enough; they were the famous couple, the couple that other witches read about in Witch Weekly. And now, now he was dumping her? And could offer absolutely no reason for ending the magical relationship they had to boot! They had been so deeply connected, in every possible context: physically, mentally, emotionally, magically. Hadn't HE been the one to whisper in her ear at night that he had never loved anyone the way he loved her? That he had never been happier in his entire life than when he was with her? That his life was hers, to do with what she pleased, forever? Forever.

She had packed her bags and immediately apparated to the Burrow. When she arrived, she was in a terrible state. She cried into her mother's bosom like she had as a little girl. Then, Ron apparated, bearing more bad news.

"Ginny, I have to tell you something. It's not good, but I think you deserve to know the whole truth. Harry loves Hermione, he wants to be with her. Now, he never cheated on you, he cared too much for you for that. But, Gin, he loves her. And I just saw them together at the Leaky Cauldron; he was terribly upset about breaking things off with you, but on the other hand, he was grinning and holding her hand saying 'it's worth it to be with you, Hermione.' I'm so sorry, Gin."

This bit of news triggered something in Ginny's mind. So she had been right in thinking her husband had feelings for the older witch! So what if he hadn't actually cheated on her, he had wanted to, hadn't he? And Hermione knew it. So wasn't that just as good as cheating anyway? 'She's nothing but a very good friend of mine.' Hah! He was a liar! This made her doubt all of the loving things he had ever said to her. If he could lie once, he could have lied a million times, couldn't he?

This series of events had led Ginny to her window on the night of the Harvest moon. For the past three days, she had blocked everything, but now it was all fresh again. She felt as if she had been shot through the middle with a giant cannon ball.

As she backed away from the window, Ginny began to develop something in her mind. Why should she continue living? What was there to live for? Everything she had been living for before was gone now, her life was over. Yes there was her family, but they would get over her death in time wouldn't they? It would be a pity, and she didn't want to upset them, but it wasn't fair. It wasn't fair to keep living when her world of glass had been shattered into a million tiny fragments. She had no desire to live. Why not end it, forever?

Forever.

She had built her world around a single word, and a single boy. Now that they had both let her down, she felt dead anyway. She could never be truly happy again, she would never be able to give anyone else the love she had given him. So what was left?

With a determined gleam in her eye, Ginny opened her window and climbed out onto the roof. The wind whipped her hair around and around her face as it froze her through to the bone. She looked down; it was 4 stories to the ground. She was suddenly overcome with relief; this horrible life was about to be over! She wouldn't have to feel the pain anymore; she wouldn't have to think about Harry ever again. She would be free.

Forever.

She would be happy.

Ginny raised her arms out on either side of her body, like giant wings, and then wrapped them tightly around her body. She closed her eyes, and then disappeared over the edge of the roof.

A blood red harvest moon shone down on the otherwise forlorn, wintry landscape.