A Talk

"You still love him, don't you? Harry, I mean," Neville asked once as they laid next to each other on a comfortable sofa the Room of Requirement had summoned for them when they had asked for a place to lay low and be at peace.

Ginny remained quiet for a moment, before she lifted her head to look at Neville's face. She looked sad, he noticed, and he couldn't help but want to erase that expression from her face.

Ginny, he realized, only truly looked like herself with a smile on her face.

"Of course I do," she confessed quietly, her voice barely louder than a whisper. She laid back down, resting her head against Neville's chest, her eyes facing the charmed ceiling. "He's Harry."

Neville felt like he had been dunked in ice. 'He's Harry,' she had said. 'I love him still,' she had said.

Who was he, to think that he could have, what, a chance with this girl when she was so clearly taken with someone else?

"Stop that."

Ginny's voice drew him out of his musing.

"Stop what?" He asked.

"Your ugly, self-pitying thoughts. I can feel them from here," Ginny reproached.

"You've been spending too much time with Luna if you think you can feel my thoughts," Neville quipped, trying to hide his unease.

Even though he couldn't see her, Neville knew Ginny well enough to tell that she had just rolled his eyes at him.

"Well, she does have some good points. Sometimes. She'd agree with me on this though. You're not second best, Neville. You're you, and that's enough."

There was something warm in her voice, something he couldn't quite identify. She took his hands in hers and put them on her stomach, their embrace slightly awkward until they both shifted slightly and made it more comfortable.

"But – but you said that Harry…" Neville protested weakly.

Ginny sighed. "The problem with Harry," she explained, her tone bittersweet, "is that he loves everyone but himself. Merlin, he loves this world so much I'm scared of what he would do for it sometimes, what he would sacrifice for it. And I just – I just want someone who loves me more than they love the world, you know? Someone who doesn't think that breaking my heart means protecting me," she spat out viciously, her hands tightening around his.

"Merlin, I'm such a bitch, aren't I?" She added with a broken laugh. "He's a hero, and here I am, complaining about it."

"You're not a 'bitch', Ginny," Neville replied carefully. "And heroes always look better in the stories anyway."

"They really do," she laughed, and this time it didn't sound as broken.

They spent the rest of the afternoon there, just lying down in quiet companionship. At some point one of Neville's hands found its way to Ginny's hair, twirling the fiery strands between his fingers.

"I'm sorry about earlier," Ginny said when it was finally time to leave this warm cocoon they had created for themselves.

"Don't be," Neville replied with a slight smile. "I'm always here for you if you need me."

Ginny just hummed in agreement, but there was something contemplative about the way she looked at him on the bay back to the Tower.

Oh well, that was a problem for another day.