A/N – Harry potter is owned by JK Rowling. I'm just playing with her toys.
This is not the end of the story; I have a few more things to add. I hope that you continue to read on
##
The kitchen of Grimmauld Place was a morose place, the youngest Weasley children sat in silence. A copy of the letter that Harry had sent to Kingsley and Minerva lay discarded on the table. The siblings' thoughts were with their partners and what other earth shattering confessions Harry might be planning to make. This was an uncomfortable silence that played on the darkest fears the oldest of the two, ever since the hunt, his fears were of only one thing.
'What's taking them so long?' asked Ginny, Ron sat silent staring into the middle distance, his thoughts turning over and over. 'Ron!' Ginny shouted and he jumped 'bloody hell! You didn't need to shout, I'm right here.' She asked again 'What's taking them so long?' Ron cleared his throat. 'Hermione is probably talking to him about the stuff that she's been going through, you know her nightmares and stuff. She's been seeing a Muggle mind healer. I think their called terrapins. An hour ever week she goes, and it helps her feel better.' Ginny looked at him uncomfortably 'she told me that she is going through the same stuff as Harry, maybe not to the same extent, I never realised it was this bad. How come you don't have these issues?'
Ron squirmed under his sister's gaze 'there are a few things that I've not told anyone about, Ginny, things I'm not proud of.' He could feel her eyes boring into him, very slowly and with a calmness that hid her ferocious temper she said, 'you had better tell me exactly what you have done, Ronald and you had better tell me right now.' Every word she spoke dripped with unspoken threats of severe and long lasting repercussions if he didn't divulge his secrets. 'Erm, well you know when we were on the hunt? Well when we got the locket back of old toad face, we Apparated to the doorstep but Yaxley grabbed Hermione, when we landed he lost his grip and we Apparated to some forest that she'd been to on holiday with her parents. I got badly splinched; I lost a fair amount of blood. They used dittany to help heal the wounds, but for a few weeks I was too weak to apparate so we walked. We took it in turn to wear the locket; it latched on to your worst fears and amplified them.' Ron played with the corner of the letter as he spoke. 'Go on' urged Ginny.
'Well there was this one night I had been listening to the radio when they did the roll call of the missing, trying to hear if one of the family had disappeared. Hermione was trimming Harry's hair when she said that she figured out how to destroy the horcruxes. They huddled together the way they do and I couldn't take any more. I used the Deluminator and told them that I was still there. Harry asked me what was wrong and I told him that it was bloody great that we had another thing to find. We had a huge fight about the radio, I told him that I was listening out for any word on my family, I told him he wouldn't know what that's like because all his family were dead.' At this Ginny stood up so fast her chair was propelled across the kitchen, her hand shot to her mouth. 'Oh my god...' he carried on 'I told Hermione that I was leaving and asked if she was coming, she said we agreed to stay help him. I said so you've chosen him have you? She said yes, I took of the locket, left the tent, and Apparated to Shell Cottage.'
Ginny stood in silence, her thoughts were screaming but no sound escaped her lips, Ron continued 'Bill and Fleur let me stay with them for a bit. I told them what had happened and for two days Bill couldn't even look at me, eventually he said "you better find them" every day for 2 months I went out looking for them, I looked everywhere I could think of. Places that seemed significant. I was almost caught by snatchers a few times.' Ginny's power of speech returned to her 'how did you find them?' she asked, her voice shaking with repressed anger, 'I wanted to get back to them from the moment I left. It was Christmas day and I was in this pub avoiding a group of snatchers and trying to get warm, I heard their voices, Harry and Hermione. I pulled out the Deluminator and I heard them saying my name and something about a wand. I clicked it and all the lights went out in the room and this blue ball of light appeared, kind of like the light you get on a Portkey. I grabbed my stuff and left the pub and Apparated to the side of a hill I searched there for two days and I couldn't find anything. I pulled out the Deluminator and the blue light appeared and I just knew where I had to be. I Apparated and when I came out of it I saw Snape's Patronus. I saw Harry climb jump into the frozen pond and waited for a long time and he never came up. I figured that he was in trouble so I jumped in and pulled him and the sword out.'
'Wait, you mean to tell me that my idiot brother pulled Harry out of a frozen pond with the sword of Gryffindor? That's a pile of dragon shit Ron and you know it. I don't know what's worse, that you're a fucking coward or a fucking liar.' Ginny sneered at him. 'When Harry realised that it was me he forgave me, not instantly but he did. He said that I was to destroy the locket otherwise what was the point in coming back? He opened the locket and I promise you Ginny that piece of his soul latched on to my fears and I felt so small and utterly helpless, then I showed me them together kissing. It showed me Hermione telling me that who would pick me over the Chosen one. Something went wrong in me Gin, something broke and I don't know how to make it right.'
Ron sat with his head in his hand while Ginny glared at him 'you really are a piece of work, do you know that? You know full well what that bastard Riddle did to me; you think it's funny do you? I could have fucking died in that chamber and now I have to listen to your shit excuses for betraying your best friends. That's fucking low, even for you.' Ginny started to storm away, what Ron said next stopped her dead in her tracks 'I know how you got Harry to marry you,' she turn round to see her brother still sitting with his head in his hands 'I know that you used love potion on him after the battle. I saw you pour it into his pumpkin juice.'
Ginny hesitated a little too long so Ron continued 'after I saw those images in the Horcrux I realised that I had lost her, I did everything I could to make up for being a coward and Harry even helped me. He's always been in love with her, no one stood a chance but he never knew that she was in love with him. He couldn't see a future with him in it so he didn't chase after her or anyone.' All colour drained out of Ginny's face as she dropped to her knees on the hard stone floor.
'Just after Snape died Harry watched the memories that Snape had given him and found out that Harry was a Horcrux. He was heading to the forest and saw Hermione and me sitting at on the marble star case and he told us what he was going to do. It was at this point I knew that I never stood a chance with her, she ran to him and threw her arms around him and said "I'll come with you" she was going to walk into hell side by side with him and I couldn't even last in a fucking tent. He told her to stay and kill the snake. Ever since that day I have been dosing her with small amounts of love potion maybe once or twice a week. I knew that she liked me but I needed to do something to push her over the line.'
In the commotion the sibling's never heard the floo activating, in the deathly silence following Ron's confession the clearing of their father throat made them jump 'how long have you been standing there?' they asked in unison his reply was 'long enough.'
