Ginny sat down on the old bed, with its headboard wooden and dark like her mood. The bed that they had shared, tumbling, legs crossed in lovemaking. She felt awful, empty and aching. Trembling, she pulled the letter from her purse. Only three words rang through her mind.
"Harry and Draco…" she said slowly, softly, questioningly. Suddenly she was disgusted. Ginny didn't want to read his letter, to give him the satisfaction when he was off with Draco doing merlin knows what. She nearly vomited at the thought of him, of them together.
But she had to know. It burned her but she needed to know what his pathetic excuse could possibly be for leaving her. It had been two weeks. Fourteen days since he told her he didn't want to be with her anymore. What had he said? She couldn't find it in her memory because the only words in there were those same three over and over.
Oh, yes. He had said it was for personal reasons. After the war he felt different and needed time to sort things out, to be alone. And she'd let him go. No questions asked. She kissed him and cried and told him she loved him. And then he was gone.
It was less than seven days later when she'd found out about them. Her brother, Ron. He slipped up, mentioning Draco in a casual sense, which struck a chord with Ginny, since they'd always hated him. She'd gotten it out of him, and hadn't spoken with anyone since. Hadn't eaten, hadn't slept. Only cried. Ginny was always strong, and rarely cried. But this. This was unthinkable. "We accept Draco now, he's explained, apologized. Really." Ron had said. Bullshit. And they believed it. The one thing she'd wanted nearly all her life and it was gone.
But now she was alone with this letter that was larger than life. She ripped open, satisfied at hearing the paper tear.
'Dear Ginny', it began. 'We were in love.' Her heart soared and she read on. Maybe he was apologizing. Maybe he wanted to come back. 'We loved each other; I'm pretty sure we did?' A question mark? He couldn't remember that they'd loved each other?
'After everything, I just can't be sure. Everything is different, and blurry, and I can't….anymore.' Everything was different? Well of course it bloody well was. She started to sob, bitter and drenched in sorrow and the grief of losing him. It was as if her heart had been snapped in half. Irreparable.
'Draco...' Bloody Draco. She didn't want to hear about him. Just the fact that he wrote his name on this damned piece of paper made her want to kill him. Draco. She could do it. You had to mean it to use a killing curse? She would mean it now. She didn't want to read further but she couldn't help it. Her eyes caught the page and it was like a train wreck. You couldn't stop watching even if you wanted to.
'…Understands me. He knows what it's like. I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I'm sorry I hurt you. So sorry.' And that was it. Nothing else, like they had never even happened, like a dream you had then couldn't remember in the morning. He'd erased it all.
"Sorry? He's sorry?" She screamed it, lucky that no one was home. "He's bloody sorry?" Ginny started to cry, sobbing with tears dripping on this letter. She crumpled it up. What would she do with it? Save it as a memento of something she would never have again? Or tear it up and hear the satisfactory sound of paper ripping? She couldn't do either. She read it again, twice in rapid succession. It hadn't given her anything. She would have been better off not reading it. But there was nothing to do about it now. She laid it beside her and wept well into the night.