Well, here's the next chapter. If that wasn't obvious… It's based on "The Winner Takes it All" by ABBA.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Ginny was exhausted. Literally exhausted. She watched her whole family cry for Fred, but she didn't. She didn't even have strength enough to cry. She just sat miserably, her whole body aching, threatening to just shut down and let sleep claim her, perhaps forever.

She wished she would just cry. She wished she could break down and sob. Maybe her stomach would her a little less and her muscles wouldn't be as sore. Maybe she'd actually feel the need to keep going. She knew it would come in its time, though. The tears would eventually fall. It was only a day after the war had ended, after all. It would come.

She also knew it wouldn't all be for Fred and the other casualties. She'd tried to convince herself otherwise, but in the end, she knew there would be tears for him. It always came back to him. Always.

She hadn't seen him since the end of the battle. It was only a day, but it felt like an eternity. Yes, it's cliché, but it's true. Well, sure, she'd seen him, but she hadn't actually seen him. She'd seen him in the halls and the courtyards, helping clean things up, but she hadn't talked to him or anything. She was sure he wasn't thinking about her. So she'd let him be.

Truth be told, yes, she was angry at him. She really didn't know why he had to leave her there all alone. The Golden Trio can go off gallivanting across the country, but not Ginny. She's too young. She'll get hurt. She'll mess something up. Ginny was pretty fed up with it.

She was pretty fed up with Hermione coming to tell her she needed to talk to him, as well. Hermione really never could mind her business. Sometimes it was sweet, but this time it was just irritating.

Ginny shock her head, simultaneously shaking herself out of her reverie. She had been standing there awkwardly, staring off into space. She was supposed to be cleaning up rubble.

She starting walking and turned the corner, almost walking right into someone.

"Sorry," she muttered, then looked up. Crap, she thought. It was him. Harry.

"Sorry," she said again, then walked around him. She walked a little too quickly, but she really didn't want to be there.

"Ginny, wait," Harry said. Ginny froze. She considered running off, but she knew he would pursue her, and she didn't trust herself to run very fast in her sore and weakened state. She instead just turned.

"Yes, Harry?" she inquired, keeping her expression blank.

"I-uh-I'm no good at apologies-," he said, staring at the ground, "but I'd like to say, sorry. I know that I hurt you running off the way I did, but I just didn't want you to get hurt."

Ginny sighed. "Harry, look, I know you wanted to protect me, but I don't need protecting."

"Yes you do, Ginny! If something would've happened-"

"It wouldn't have been your fault!" Ginny was surprised at how angry she sounded, but it had been coming for a while. "I'm not some porcelain doll that at the blink of an eye could be shattered! You have to stop seeing me like that! I can protect myself."

"Ginny, I-"

"No! Harry, I'm not that little girl you saved five years ago, cold and lost in the Chamber of Secrets! I'm not a damsel in distress! I'm tired of being treated like one!"

"I'm sorry; I just didn't want you to get hurt."

"You and Ron are so much alike. You always don't want me to get hurt and yet you two are constantly the ones causing me the most pain!"

Harry winced, but Ginny was too riled up to really care.

"Harry, I can fight for myself. You have to remember that," Ginny said.

"I know that Ginny," Harry said.

"Do you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Then why do you never act like it?"

"Ginny, I just wanted to keep you safe."

"Harry, I'm not that goddamn pathetic! You obviously think Hermione and Ron could keep themselves safe, but you look at me and all you see is Ron's little sister that'll end up dead or captured or something at the drop of a hat because she doesn't know what she's doing."

"Ginny, I just really care about you."

"I cared about you two. I thought it was right when I was with you. I thought it made sense. But I guess I was really just a fool. I played by the rules, but I guess I was the only one. So you can't pull that on me now. If you really cared about me, you wouldn't have left me here. Do you know what it's been like since you three left?"

Harry shook his head.

"Couldn't have been more like hell if it were set on fire. Death Eaters were everywhere. If you weren't a Slytherin, you couldn't walk down the hallways without fearing you'd be hexed or even, God forbid, subjected to the Cruciatus Curse for no reason whatsoever. It was even worse for the Mudbloods."

Harry squirmed uncomfortably.

"Don't think yourself so smart for leaving me behind now, huh?" Ginny asked.

"I'm so sorry, Ginny, I didn't know," he responded.

"No, you didn't. Look, Harry, I'm sorry if it makes you upset to see me like this, but there's not much I can do about it. I just don't want to talk about all we've gone through right now. I might've loved you once, but I don't know now. The winner takes it all, and you're definitely the winner in this."

"Ginny…"

"Goodbye, Harry. I'll see you around. I hope we'll still be friends, but I can't guarantee anything."

She mustered a sad smile, sent it his way, then turned on her heel and walked off down the hallway. She hurried around the corner. She made all the way to a deserted secret passage way, that was somehow still standing, before she broke down. She knew it would come. She was right.

She sat there crying until she couldn't anymore. The exhaustion settled back in, and she didn't feel better like she had hoped. She felt worse.

She didn't feel up to coming out and helping, so she stayed where she was. She fell into a deep slumber eventually, and when she finally awoke, her head was pounding, she was sweating, and her body was aching. She could've sworn she was dying.

She realized almost immediately that she wasn't alone. Someone else was in there with her. She jumped up, terrified. The figure next to her started.

"Blimey!" they shouted. "I was dozing off. You scared the hell out of me!"

Ginny breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar voice.

"Seamus, what are you doing in here?" she questioned.

"Sorry," he said, "but I was assigned to clean up the secret passageways and I found you in here and figured I couldn't leave you alone. I tried to wake you, but you were really in deep sleep."

"Why didn't you tell someone?"

"Something tells me you wouldn't want anyone else to know about this."

He may not act like it sometimes, but Seamus is a pretty smart guy.

"So what happened to you?" he asked. "No offense, but you look terrible. And I been walking around with people who are bleeding profusely from pretty much everywhere."

"It's none of your business," Ginny said, a little more harshly than she had anticipating.

Seamus held his hands up. "Touché."

Ginny looked down at herself then. She really did look terrible. From what she could tell, her hair was a rat's nest, the bags under her eyes that she had acquired halfway through the school year had probably gotten worse, her clothes were twisted about and unruly, and to top it all off, she was both sweaty and bloody.

"We should probably get you to an actual bed, though, Ginny," Seamus said. Ginny didn't argue. She followed behind him as he led her out of the passageway and towards the Great Hall, where they had beds set up because of, well, the lack of Common Rooms. She didn't even care who saw her as she entered the hall. She collapsed on one of the nearest cots and was out again in a second.

Well, there you have it. That one was a bit closer to the song. I mean, Ginny even said the title of it.

Next chapter: the Golden Trio has a chat.

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