CHAPTER ONE: LOSING GRIP

Ginny turned her eyes away from Harry's retreating back. Alone she sat, amid the many chairs, emptying as others around her began to wander away. She was oblivious to the silent tension of mourning that stilled the singing of birds and the gentle breeze. Without Dumbledore, Hogwart's didn't seem to have the same beautiful effect that once held Ginny captivated, no matter how many times she returned to the castle. Still she sat, shifting through her emotions, unable to focus on one before another would rise and vie for attention.

Are you aware of what you make me feel, baby
Right now I feel invisible to you, like I'm not real
Didn't you feel me lock my arms around you, why'd you turn away?
Here's what I have to say

'You understand, Ginny,' she told herself over and over, like a rhythmic mantra, it echoed in her mind, willing her to believe in it. Absently brushing a stray lock of ginger hair away from her face, she looked out over the lake, staring intently, though focusing on nothing at all. She shouldn't really be so caught up in something as silly as a relationship, she chided herself. This was Harry's life at stake. In many ways where Voldemort is concerned, it's everyone's lives at stake, she amended.

The moment Harry had kissed her in the common room, she had told herself that she knew what she was getting into. Raising her eyes to the sky, she walked herself back to that time, feeling as if it had taken place lifetimes ago instead of mere weeks. For a split-second before she decided to kiss Harry back, she'd reminded herself of the situation by thinking hard about who she was about to kiss.

For Harry wasn't an ordinary boy, by far. From the moment Voldemort, the most sinister sorcerer the wizarding world has seen in over one hundred years, entered the Potter's house, his fate was sealed and his destiny set, marked by the lightning-bolt-shaped scar still visible on his forehead. Surviving the curse that was meant to kill him and vanquishing Voldemort into an existence resembling vapour, Harry became famous.

And from the moment Ginny had laid eyes on the famous Harry Potter, she knew that he was someone special - different, aside from the fact that he was the Boy-Who-Lived. She knew that he would be someone who would understand what it was like to feel invisible and different from everyone else. She knew he would understand her when she felt that she was always coming in last place, being the youngest and only girl in a family of seven children.

And beginning last year, after the horrendous events in the Deparment of Mysteries and hearing Harry tell his best friends Hermione and her own brother Ron of the prophecy he had found there, she also knew it was likely that he could face death. Yet in a flash of bravado and a false sense of maturity, she'd told herself that she could handle anything before promptly returning his kiss.

I was left to cry there
Waiting outside there
Grinning with a lost stare
That's when I decided

'I was wrong,' Ginny interrupted her manic mantra of understanding and with that thought, she became aware of the silence surrounding her. Inside, she felt something new stir within her, though she was unsure who she should direct it towards. Ginny was angry.

Why should I care?
'Cause you weren't there when I was scared
I was so alone
You, you need to listen
I'm starting to trip, I'm losing my grip
I'm in this thing alone

How dare he treat her like a cast-off? Ginny thought indignantly as she stood abruptly from her chair, knocking it over in her haste. Spurred to action by her anger, she stalked off towards a lone tree growing near the banks of the lake. With each step Ginny took, she felt her anger mount, her tirade reaching catastrophic heights. He knew of the prophecy when he kissed her didn't he? She demanded of herself. He knew what he was getting into when he up and decided to snog me in front of the entire Gryffindor house. Did he just pull that idea out of nowhere? Or was it because Cho was with someone else now? 'Was that it?' she hissed to herself. Was his big performance with her all because he couldn't have Cho? Deep, in a rational corner of Ginny's mind, she knew she was jumping to all the wrong conclusions in her anger. She knew that Harry would never put her in a place like that because of some other girl. But as her rage boiled over, she found it quite easy to kick that corner of her mind to a proverbial curb and instead, chose to stew in her angry state.

Besides, he was trying to be noble wasn't he? He thought that being linked to him would put her in a greater danger. 'Please,' Ginny mirthlessly laughed in silence. It wasn't like the whole world wasn't already in grave danger, now was it? What makes him think that she couldn't handle being with him and going off to fight the Dark Lord. She would have gone too! He was there in the Department of Mysteries. Sure everything went haywire once they'd started smashing the prophecies, but she'd made it out alive, didn't she? And with a broken ankle, no less. And where was he the night that Dumbledore died? When the castle was under attack? Despite the Felix Felicis, she had taken down three Death Eaters with curses she'd perfected over the years. What she didn't have in magical expertise, she made up for in sheer daring and courage. She wasn't in Gryffindor for nothing, Ginny thought proudly.

Ginny was miffed at Harry's attitude towards her. She knew that he had a prophecy after him, and she had the basic idea of what it said, but it didn't mean he had to go running to meet it, did he? Where did it say in the prophecy that he had to do it all on his own? Why wouldn't he let her help him? Ginny stifled a scream of frustration as the questions came charging at her one after the other, demanding answers. She didn't know what Harry was thinking anymore. But it was still rich of him to think that he was the only one who had something at stake. It wasn't merely a battle anymore – those had been fought. It was now a war and no one in the wizarding world would be spared, if Voldemort had his way.

Am I just some chick you placed beside you?
To take somebody's place
When you turn around can you recognize my face?
You used to love me, you used to hug me
But that wasn't the case
Everything wasn't okay

'Stay angry, Ginny. It's the only way,' Ginny chanted her new mantra to herself as she made her way back to the castle to begin packing her things away. She mentally traced the path she would take through the secret passages inside the castle, so as not to run into Harry along the way. Despite her intentions, she felt stubborn tears well in the corners of her eyes as her throat constricted and burned. Just thinking of him and having his name float carelessly through her thoughts brought on fresh waves of hurt within her. 'Stay angry,' she told herself once more as drops of tears gracefully snaked their way down her flushed cheeks. For being angry was the only way she knew that could distract her heart from acknowledging that it was broken.

A/N: Characters are all property of J.K. Rowling and including but not limited to Bloomsbury Publishing. I do not own these characters, just merely borrowing them for a different spin on original story events by their author. The song "Losing Grip" belongs to Avril Lavigne. I do not claim either of them as my own.