A/N: I wanna make this clear first: this is post DH, everything that happened in DH (minus the Epilogue) has occurred, including every single death. The only difference is that Ginny died amongst them. Just so you guys don't raise any questions.


Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

-- From a headstone in Ireland


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Stolen Hearts

Chapter One

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The sunny days of August were not as blissful as Harry once remembered them to be. Once again, he found himself at the Burrow for the summer, even though he was far from being the young boy that he once was. He had just celebrated turning twenty and this was just one of his usual visits he would spend with the family he had learned to love and cherish.

Harry shifted in his seat at the breakfast table, still with the panging knowledge of who once sat in his spot. Two seats at the table were filled with the only two people who didn't have the flaming red hair or the same blood running within their veins. He carefully lined the edge of the mahogany table in front of him with his finger, knowing that Ginny's soft delicate hands would have touched the same wood years ago.

Harry could never believe that it had only been two years, it felt so much longer. He wished that Ginny was sitting in this seat instead of him, but it wasn't the only thing of Ginny's that he wished she was still apart of. Her bedroom had become Hermione's only at the beginning of the year – but only when Hermione was staying over. If not, it lay motionless and dust-filled.

The room had automatically become hers after the war, but to this very day, she never slept in the room. She often snuck out late at night, and bunked in with him and Ron and sneak back out in the early hours of the morning. It made it a lot easier when the three of them moved out to their own apartment last year. But every summer for a few weeks, they would return to the Burrow and the whole progress would start over again.

Harry sighed as he sipped his morning coffee. He reached for the Daily Prophet and ripped off the corner of the front page which contained the date. It was a habit he did for the first half of August, so that the date wouldn't remind him that in a week's time, it would have been Ginny's birthday. But even when his eyes didn't linger at the date, he knew that the day was approaching. He could live without calendars and dates for years and still be able to tell when it was Ginny's birthday – it was a curse he had gained from years of spending them with her.

Hermione joined him a few moments later and requested the newspaper from him. Harry obediently handed it over due to the fact that he wasn't even reading it, but was lost in memories of his deceased girlfriend. Fiancé, if he actually got a chance to ask her. He had planned to ask her to marry him as soon as the war was over, but obviously, that idea was abandoned.

Hermione looked at the torn corner and looked at the shredded remains of it besides Harry's hand that rested on the table. "Oh Harry," Hermione said, "I know you're still grieving over Ginny but I really think you should go out and find yourself a nice girl. I can't stand seeing you like this."

"Ginny has only been dead for two years," Harry told her. "I'm just not ready yet."

Hermione let out a frustrated sigh, "look, Ginny was my friend too. Nothing is going to change the fact that she's gone. But I really don't think she would want you wallowing away here…"

"How would you know?" he cut her off.

"Oh for Merlin's sake Harry," she said, struggling not to raise her voice. "Would you want Ginny sitting here instead of you, pining away over you? Look, George hasn't totally gotten over Fred's death but at least he's living his life and I think you should be living yours."

"You're not trying to get him to go out again, are you?" a new voice came. Both of them turned their heads in the direction of the voice to find Ron there, his mouth open. "I can't believe you would try and get him over my sister. My sister."

"Ron…" Hermione attempted to coax.

"No, Hermione," Ron snapped. "If Harry doesn't want to get over her, then leave him alone. You're making it seem that it's easy to erase her from our lives."

"Ron, you know that's not true… Ron! RON!" but the, now, youngest Weasley member had already retreated back up the stairs, where the loud sound of a door slamming shut echoed in Hermione's pleas. Hermione exhaled, "you know I'm not trying to make you forget Ginny. I would never ask you to do that."

Harry's eyes didn't leave his breakfast as he spoke, "but you do want me to live a life without her."

"Harry, you've got to."

"Why do I have to?" he demanded, turning his head to glare at her. "Because I need to get a life that doesn't involve work or drinking?"

"The way you've been acting these days isn't even close to being healthy," she explained. "I don't want to be end up alone."

"Hermione, I'm only twenty--"

"And you'll regret not enjoying these years, Harry. Before you'll know, the next ten years are gonna fly past you and then what will happen?"

"You just want to make sure that I'll have someone when you and Ron move out together. Or kick me out," retorted Harry. "Either way, you just want to know that I'll be fine when you and Ron finally go off together."

"You know what? Fine!" Hermione threw her hands up, "I've tried reasoning with you, Harry Potter. And I don't care what you do any more if you're going to have that attitude. Go do what you want! Go get drunk and pine away over someone who is never coming back. And when you finally realised that, you will blame yourself for not listening to me now." She got up from the table, letting her chair screech against the tile floor. "If you excuse me, I have a boyfriend upstairs who needs to listen to me too. Perhaps he can learn from your mistakes."

Harry listened to Hermione walk away and her footsteps travelling up the stairs. How dare she tell him what to do with his life? He had every right to act the way he did. Ginny was his girlfriend - he was going to propose to her for Merlin's sake! So what he had one too many drinks recently? He fumed at the recollection of Hermione's words. But deep down, he knew she was right…

Harry reached into his pockets and pulled out the velvet box that contained the engagement ring that he planned to give Ginny a few years ago. He had carried it with him ever since her death, after deciding not to bury it with her. He flipped the lid open to reveal the ring that carried an emerald solitaire in between two square white diamonds.

He quickly shut it again and threw it across the room, leaving a dent in the wall where it hit. He let out a cry of frustration before breaking down completely.


A/N: Okay, next chapter will finally get this story moving.

I just wanted to do this one and it was originally suppose to do something but I split it into two, because I'm lazy like that. Nah, I didn't want to get your hopes up on long chapters that will never exist.

Anyways many thanks to those who reviewed: Nymphatrix, pekenaescorpi, cutieme012, PikachuHater and Author1

More reviews are required, if you please. Just for the motivation and all, you know.

Lots of Love,
Creative Touch

P.S. New poll, you know what to do with it.