A/N: Came up with this while I was at work today! (Pencilx I know I still owe you a fic! still working on that one XD)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
"You can't come with us. This isn't a game, I don't want you to get hurt. " Harry said, unable to hide the tone of desperation in his voice as his fingers traced the contours of her cheekbones, ever so prominent under her pale skin.
"Don't tell me things like that, Harry. You know I can come with you, you know I'm good enough to fight." She pushed his fingers away brusquely as she stared evenly back at him, a steely glint in her eyes.
(Sometimes, Harry wished he was just a little taller so he wouldn't feel threatened every time she glared directly into his eyes.)
"It's not about that, Ginny. I'm doing this for Sirius and Dumbledore and my parents, and I don't want…" How could he explain how he felt? How could he explain the mixture of pain, and longing and anguish churning in his heart? How could he tell her he didn't want her to come because he didn't want her to see the horrors he had seen? The high, cold laughter of Voldemort, the sneers of the Death Eaters, the curses and screams that haunted him in his dreams every night, how could he tell her that this was what he wanted to protect her from?
Would she understand?
"You don't want to? This isn't about what you want, Harry, it's what I want too! What about my feelings? You're a selfish prick, Harry Potter, do you know that?"
She stalked off in anger, slamming the kitchen door behind her.
He found her at the far end of the garden, sitting on the crumbling brick wall.
"Hey." He clambered up to sit beside her, but all she did was sniff and edge away.
"Still mad at me?"
She turned her face away.
"C'mon, Ginny, you know I was just…"
"Just what? Just being a git? Just being a selfish dungbrain? What, Harry, what exactly do you want?" Ginny prodded at Harry's chest with her index finger, jabbing it harder with every word she said. She glowered at him, waiting for him to give her an answer.
The rays of the setting sun behind her gave her already flaming red hair an even more fiery look, which, coupled with the blazing fire in her eyes and the tinge of pink in her cheeks, made her look as if she was encased in some sort of shimmering, ethereal fire.
"You look beautiful like this. " Harry blurted out, immediately regretting his words as Ginny's expression changed from angry to furious.
"This isn't a joke, Harry!"
Harry couldn't help noticing, however, that a small smile was playing on the corner of her lips.
Here goes nothing, he thought.
Mustering up all the courage he had, he reached out and clasped her face in his hands. Assuming the most intense and focused expression he had, he drew himself closer and uttered a proclamation of love so passionate that his ears turned red from the embarrassment of saying it.
"Oh, Harry!" Ginny sighed, unsure of whether to be angry anymore. Her expression lightened considerably and he heaved a sigh of relief. He made a mental note to thank Fred and George for helping him come up with and memorise that long and mushy confession. It really did come in useful in times of 'emergencies'.
"You're not mad anymore, right? Let's just kiss and make up, shall we?"
"Kiss and make up? What kind of person do you think I am?"
But she was giggling now, and Harry had never been so glad to hear her laugh, even if she was still pretending to be mad. He wanted to hear her laughter all his life. He couldn't let Voldemort take her laughter away, not now, not ever.
"Just one kiss?"
"No! What's wrong with you!?"
"One, just one!"
In the midst of his attempts to kiss her and her attempts to push him away, they lost their balance and fell off the wall onto the grass below. They lay in the thick grass, breathing hard as they looked up at the sky.
"The stars are coming out, Ginny."
"Remember when you said you'd take me star gazing on my birthday?"
"The only couple in Hogwarts' history to star gaze in the Great Hall? Of course I remember, I was so sure Filch was going to get us that time."
"You have an invisibility cloak, Harry. Learn how to use it next time. "
"Oh right! I should have brought it along, we wouldn't have had to be chased all over the castle by raging Filch then."
"You know that shooting star we saw before Filch spotted us?"
"Yes?" Harry edged closer to her and held her hand, feeling its comforting warmth in his palm.
"I made a wish on it. I wished we'd be together forever." Her voice was starting to tremble.
"You don't have to wish for that, isn't it a given? We will be together forever." He said, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"You'll come back, right? After it ends?" She blinked back her tears, biting on her lower lip to stop herself from sobbing.
"Wait for me, Ginny. I promise I'll come back, after it ends. Next year, next year, on your birthday, we'll go star gazing, alright? Proper star gazing this time, I promise. We'll go to the beach, and we'll lie on the sand all night and do nothing but look at the stars. You'd like that, won't you?"
He knew she was crying, but he couldn't bear to look.
" The stars will be with you, Ginny, every single night, until I come back. When you see them winking at you like this, you'll know that somewhere out there, I'll be looking at the same constellations and thinking of you."
"You will?"
"I promise I will, Ginny, I swear upon the stars."
