Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long to update. Being a senior my workload is stagering and I fear it is only going to get worse. I'm sorry if you wish I would update quicker, I'm going as fast as I can really. Anyways this is the fourth chapter in this story. I decided to have this be about Harry and Ginny's last few days at Hogwarts before they return home for the summer. I hope you enjoy reading it and be sure to review.

Jon

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The Chamber and Beyond

Ch. 4

I Don't Pity You

The great hall slowly started to fill up with people coming down to breakfast. As soon as the other students caught sight of Harry and Ginny sitting at the corner of the Gryffindor table they turned to their friends, whispering and shooting glances at the pair.

'Apparently the story leaked out about me defeating the monster. Just what I need; more fame. I guess I should have expected it, after all the same thing happened when I saved the Sorcerer's Stone.'

Harry then turned to Ginny. 'I feel sorry for what I know she's about to go through. The whispering and rumors, not to mention the ever persistent questions that everyone else will undoubtingly ask her about what went on in the chamber. I'll be sure to be there for her; I won't let her feel alienated and even more alone then she does now.'

Just then Ginny looked up at Harry and met his gaze. She smiled one of her radiant smiles and Harry's stomach gave a flip and he could have sworn his heart skipped a beat. 'What's going on with me? I've never had this feeling before.' But just as quick as the feeling had come it passed and he dismissed it.

"So Ginny, what do you want to do today since we don't have anymore classes and exams have been canceled?" asked Harry a bit off-handedly.

Ginny thought for a second before replying. "I don't know really. I always spent all my free time up in my dormitory, writing in the...the diary. I guess I can hang out with you and Ron today; that is if you don't mind off course, I'd hate to be a burden."

Harry felt another pang of guilt at her words. 'How could I not have noticed how alone and insecure she was?' He took a deep breath before replying. "First off Ginny, you could never be a burden so stop worrying yourself; we are friends now just like I am friends with Hermione and Ron. Secondly, Ron is going to be staying in the hospital wing today waiting for Hermione to be unpetrified so it will just be you and me today." A contemplative look crossed his features. "I guess we could go for a walk by the lake; it's a nice day out and while I would love to go flying first years aren't allowed so that's out. Maybe we'll even stop by Hagrid's for afternoon tea to welcome him back."

Ginny's eyes lit up at the prospect of spending all day with Harry. "That would be wonderful Harry, I need to grab a couple of things from my dormitory but I'll meet you back down in the Entrance Hall in lets say about twenty minutes?" she said uncertainty in her voice.

"Sounds great I'll see you then." said Harry and with that she smiled and left the table.

Harry watched as the eyes of every student followed her out of the great hall and then turned back to stair at him. 'Why can't they all just leave us alone?!'

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She couldn't believe her luck. 'I get to spend all day with Harry alone. This is what I've always wanted but still I'm nervous. What if I mess this up somehow? What if I do something to make him regret being my friend? That would just kill me.'

Ginny was walking past the infirmary on her way up to the dorms so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn't see the person in front of her until she ran into them. She fell to the ground with a thud and looked up to see her brother staring down at her.

"Ron what are you doing here?" asked Ginny as Ron outstretched his hand to help his sister off the ground.

"I was just heading to the bathroom. Hermione should be waking up soon. So what are you up to, you seemed to be in pretty deep thought a moment ago." Ron asked with a curious look plastered across his face.

Ginny looked down at the floor and blushed. "Its nothing really, Harry and I were just going to spend the day together relaxing is all."

A shocked look appeared on Ron's face. "Harry is going to spend the day with you? Since when do you two spend quality time together?"

Ginny looked back up at Ron with a smile on her face. "He says he wants to spend more time with me because he hasn't been a very good friend to me up until now, or something along those lines."

Ron seemed to contemplate what Ginny had just said for a moment before replying. "You know Ginny I think Harry feels sorry about what happened to you and that's why he wants to be your friend."

Ginny's smile faded from her face as tears began to well in her eyes. "Y-you mean he only wants t-to be my friend because he pities me?" she said as her heart was silently breaking.

Ron didn't say anything he just looked down at his feet.

Ginny took that as a confirmation and she streaked off to the dormitory before Ron could even call out to her. She ran all the way up to the girl's dormitory and slammed the door shut as she went over to her four poster bed and curled up in a ball as the tears consumed her. 'How could she have been so stupid? Off course Harry didn't like her, How could he, she was just a stupid little girl. He only felt sorry for what had happened to her and nothing more.' The sobs racked her body as she lay there cursing her horrible existence.

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Harry stood down in the Entrance Hall waiting for Ginny to come back down so they could take there leisurely stroll across the grounds. He was beginning to become worried she was already 15 minutes late. He looked up the stairs for any glimpse of red hair coming towards him. He wasn't really paying attention to what was going on around him till he heard two first year Gryffindor girls mention Ginny's name. Harry turned around to face the girls as he eavesdropped on their conversation.

"Ginny's been up there for the last half-hour crying her eyes out." said the first girl.

"Do you have any idea why she's so upset?" asked the second girl.

"No idea, when I asked her she just told me to leave her alone and that she didn't want to talk about it." replied the first girl.

That was all Harry needed to hear. He took off at a run, sprinting towards the dormitory. 'I wonder if somebody asked her something about the chamber that upset her.'

As Harry was passing the infirmary he heard Ron call out to him. "Harry wait up, what's your rush?"

Harry skidded to a halt and faced Ron. "I just heard that Ginny's up in the girls dorm crying. I'm going to go check on her and see what's wrong."

Ron looked down at the floor in shame. "I may already know what's wrong."

Harry walked closer to Ron concern in his voice. "So why's she crying? Did someone say something that upset her?"

Ron took a deep breath before replying. "I guess you could say that; you see I sort of said that... well I mean I sort of implied that you were only being her friend because... because you pitied her."

Harry stood there shocked, but that feeling slowly melted away to outrage. "You said what?! What's wrong with you?! She nearly died yesterday and now you go and say this to her! Who said I wouldn't want to be her friend; yes I feel sorry for what she went through but that is not the reason that I offered her my friendship! She's kind, caring, and nice to be around; you should know that by now, being her own brother and all!" Harry yelled at him his hands clenched into fists. It was taking all his will power to control the urge to slug Ron. "I can't believe you would say something so cruel to your own sister." Harry said coldly.

With that Harry took off at a run up to the Gryffindor common room leaving Ron feeling even worse then he had before.

When Harry reached the Gryffindor common room he rushed strait to the girl's dormitory and started sprinting up the stairs. Unfortunately he only made it up about 5 steps before the magic of the castle activated turning the steps into a slide as he slid back down to the bottom.

Harry silently cursed the archaic principles of the past as he paced back and forth in front of the entrance to the girls dormitory. 'Stupid founders; won't let boys up into the girl's dormitory because they don't think they are trustworthy enough.'

Harry's mind was constantly working to try to figure out a solution to the current problem at hand. 'The only way up there without touching the staircase would be to fly up but unfortunately the staircase is just to narrow and tightly coiled to permit a broom. I'll just have to settle with asking girls that are going up to their rooms to tell Ginny that I am down here and wish to speak with her.' And so that is what he did but each an every time the girls came back with the same reply. "She doesn't wish to speak with you."

Harry spent all day and well into the night standing outside to entrance to the girl's dorms. Finally when he was to tired to stay awake anymore he sat down leaning against the wall in front of the steps and went to sleep.

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Ginny rolled over in her four poster bed wiping the sleep from her eyes. She felt drained from crying all day previously. She noticed that it was still dark in the room so she looked over at the clock on her nightstand; it read 2:30 A.M.

"ugghh, why is it still so early?" she said as she rolled over and tried to fall back asleep to no avail.

She suddenly became aware of her growling stomach. "I guess I should have figured I'd be hungry, after all I did skip lunch and dinner yesterday."

She grudgingly got up and got ready to sneak down to the kitchens to nick some food. Fred and George had told her countless times of how they got into the kitchens to steal food by tickling the pear in the painting of a bowl of fruit. As she started down the stairs that led to the Gryffindor common room Ginny was contemplating on how exactly she was going to get all the way down to the kitchen without being caught by a teacher of Filtch. (I forgot how to spell his name and I'm to lazy to go and look it up) Just as she reached the common room she tripped over something in front of the stairs. As she plummeted to the ground she braced herself for impact but instead felt arms snake around her stopping her advance to the floor. As she turned around to thank the person who caught her she locked gazes with the very person she least wanted to speak to.

"What are you doing down here Harry?" She bit out coldly as she pried herself from his grasp.

"I wanted to talk to you." He replied.

Ginny looked at him fiercely even though it was killing her on the inside to see him standing in front of her. "I think Ron helped me see all that I needed to as far as our friendship is concerned."

"Ginny, Ron was totally off base with what he said, I don't want to be friends with you because of pity." said Harry.

"Then why Harry? Why do you want to be friends with me so bad now, when you didn't care for my friendship before all this happened to me? How is now so different from before?" Ginny bit out angrily.

Harry was shocked at the amount of hurt and anger in her words. "Ginny the only reason why I didn't try to be friends with you more this year was because I thought that me being around made you uncomfortable."

Ginny looked down at her feet and blushed. 'Were my feelings for him really that obvious? He couldn't have realized why I am so nervous around him. Surely if he knew that I liked him then he wouldn't be hanging around me now, he would be trying to distance himself from me.'

Harry, in a further attempt to help her understand, spoke up again due to her silence. "Ginny did Ron ever tell you anything about my relatives?"

Ginny just looked up at him and shook her head no.

"Well they really don't like me very much, but as bad as my aunt and uncle were to me my cousin, Dudley, was by far the worst. He is twice my size and would beat me up at every opportunity. But it wasn't only me that he hurt; if he ever found out that anyone was nice to me he would beat them up and use them as a warning to anybody that might ever want to befriend me. This kept everyone away from me so I grew up without any anybody to talk to or be my friend. The point is that I know what it's like, Ginny, to be so alone that you are willing to talk to anyone and I'm sorry that I helped to make you feel that way this year. You see its not pity that I feel towards you, If anything its guilt and understanding, I'm sorry for the way I treated you and I'd really like to make up for it." said Harry with an apologetic look on his face.

Ginny stood there staring at Harry in shock. 'I can't believe the way his family treats him. How did he come out being such a nice and caring person even after all the abuse he was put through?' Finally she regained her voice. "I'm so sorry Harry, I had no idea. Of course you can be my friend."

They stood there silent for a moment before Harry finally changed the subject. "Hey Ginny what time is it?" He said as he looked around the dark common room.

"Last I checked it was 2:30." she said looking around the room also.

"What are you doing up so early?" he said curiosity getting the better of him.

"I woke up and I was hungry so I was going to go nick some food from the kitchen." said Ginny.

Just then Harry's stomach growled from lack of food. "Mind if I come with you? I skipped lunch and dinner as well and I could really use some food."

"Not at all, I could really use the company." she said with a smile on her face. "I'm not sure how were going to avoid the teachers and Filch though." She said as her mouth curved into a slight frown.

"Not a problem, I have it covered" Harry said as he dashed upstairs to get his invisibility cloak.

When he got back down they went to the kitchens to feed their growing hunger; then with that the returned to bed happy that they had finally worked out their issues.

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A/N: Okay that's another chapter finished with. I realized when writing this that I can't only have it in Harry's POV, so that's why I have it changing between Harry's and Ginny's POV in order to show what they both are thinking about their relationship with each other, whether it be friendship or something more. I have absolutely no clue what I'm going to write about in the next chapter. I do know that I want to skip a few days and go strait to the journey to Kings Cross Station, but I have no clue what to write about besides that. I also want to introduce Hermione somewhere in this next chapter; while this is mainly a HarryxGinny fic I would also like to write about the changes Ron and Hermione see in their friends and their take on the situation. So if anybody has any ideas please send them along, otherwise I fear it will be a long time before I update again just because I have no clue what to write next. If you don't have any ideas to send along I still urge you to review and at least tell me what you think of this chapter, I myself think that its one of my better ones but who knows maybe you hate it; whatever your feelings are towards it I would like to know. Even the simple encouragement to keep writing is great to hear. As always, thanks for reading.

Jon