Chapter 9
"Ginny?"
"Ginny, look at me."
"GINNY!"
She woke with a start. The first thing she noticed was the temperature. She wasn't too hot, or too cold. She was absolutely perfect. She noticed she was in a field. She couldn't see anything other than the long grain that was sprouted up from the earth. It went as far as the eye could see.
"Ginny. Look at me." She turned and tears sprung to her eyes as she grabbed the other woman and embraced her.
"Luna." She whispered it so gently it was as if she was saying a prayer. "What's going on?" As soon as she asked the question a feeling of dread spread over her. "Oh, god. Am I dead?" She asked.
"No, look I don't have much time. It takes a lot to do this, I've been trying for a while."
"Do what? What's going on?"
"You're dreaming. I needed to tell you something. You need to remember this when you wake up. Gin, he's back."
"Who's back?" She couldn't understand what was going on and she could feel herself start to wake up. "Luna?"
"Like I said. I don't have much time. This is almost never done, I can send you feelings, memories but I'm not supposed to contact you. That's not how it works. I'm breaking rules."
"What rules? Lu, what's going on?"
She saw tears spring to her sister's eyes and the familiar need to protect her flashed across Ginny's body like an ocean wave hitting a rock.
"He's back Gin. He's coming for her…and you." Tears were streaming down her face again. "God, I should've let you kill him. You need to learn the truth. It's the only way to protect Zoe."
Ginny felt herself waking up. It felt as if she were in two worlds. She clung to her sister not wanting to let her go.
"You have to remember this Gin. You have to. For Zoe. He's back."
Ginny bolted up in bed. Sweat covered her body and her breath was laboured. Her heart rate was a million miles a minute.
Harry's arms were around her in an instant. "Gin? What's wrong, did you have a bad dream?" He asked kissing her shoulder gently. She felt bad for waking him.
"Something like that." She murmured.
"What was it about?" He asked. He continued to hold her securely.
"My sister." She said. A moment later she composed herself. "I'm sorry I woke you Harry, I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep. I'm gonna make some tea, you should get some rest." She kissed him as she got up and dressed in pyjama pants and s tank top.
He stared for a moment at where she had just been. She never got upset when she talked about her sister. She loved telling stories about what she was like and the things she used to do together. He decided to follow her.
"Gin, what's going on?" he asked.
"Nothing, it was just a weird dream." She said. It was about 5 in the morning and she knew the paper was probably here, she poured them each a cup of tea and went to retrieve it. Harry watched her, knowing something was wrong but not knowing exactly how to help her.
She walked back into the kitchen opening the paper as she did, it all happened very quickly then, she dropped the cup tea and glass shattering across the floor. "It wasn't a dream." She murmured he waved his wand to clean the mess and moved beside her.
The front page read.
CONTRAVERSAL CHOICE IN THE MISISTRY.
COLLIN CREEVY TO BE RELEASED.
He wondered who that was and why it would inspire such a reaction from Ginny.
"Gin, what's going on?"
"Creevy! She hissed the name.
"Who is that?" He asked.
She sat at the table and rubbed her hands over her face and hair.
"He was Luna's stalker." The revelation shocked him. "She'd never mentioned anything like this before.
"We met him our last year at school. He was in our year, he was in a different house though. We'd seen him around before but seventh year we shared a compartment on the train in. He was a muggle born boy, shy, quite, we talked with him but he became obsessed with Luna. He'd follow her around, send her notes, gifts, anything that would inspire a reaction from her. During school it wasn't too bad, Luna was never interested in him and told him so many time, as nicely as she could. After school she met Neville, they didn't hit it off right away, in fact I was with her when they first met. He was a jerk. A few weeks later we ran into Neville again and he apologized and they began to date. We hadn't seen Collin in a year, but all of a sudden he sent her a horrid letter, saying they were together and how dare she cheat. I told her then to let me intervene, I wanted her to go to her ministry and report it. She didn't and it escalated, she began seeing him everywhere and the letters kept coming. One night I'd just come back for assignment, and Neville had just gone away on business, at this point they were engaged. He broke into her house and she called for me using a necklace that had half a charm, I had the other half, I got there and she was so beaten and bloody. It broke my heart to see her like that. I managed to confine him and Harry I…I wanted too…" she looked at him and he saw the fear there. "I understand if after telling you this you may not want to see me again."
"Gin," he said gently reaching out to cover her hand with his own. "That will never happen."
"I wanted to kill him." The words were spoken in a way he knew them to be true. "I would have too if she hadn't stopped me. She insisted that if we called the aurror's and he would be put away. He was and that was the end of it. He was put under the truth potion and questioned. He confessed that if he couldn't have Luna then he would kill her so no one else could either. He was sentenced to life in Azkaban because of the threat he posed to Luna. But apparently now that she's dead the ministry decided that he is no longer a threat but… he'll come. He'll come for Zoe. He'll see her as his last hope at getting Luna. The last living part of her. God I should have killed him."
"Ginny it'll be alright, we won't let him get to her. I promise." He had a blazing look in his eyes and kissed her. She felt safe with him. The sun was beginning to rise. It was now early August and they'd been going strong since that first date in December.
She looked at him and couldn't help but to say it. She hadn't before but needed too now. "I love you."
He smiled at her and caressed her cheek. "I love you too Gin. And I promise nothing will happen to Zoe. You won't lose her."
"I can't lose her, not Zoe."
"You won't Gin, I'm here."
She nodded and he took her back up to bed. Every once in a while she checked on the girls. They did this often, told the girls they could have a sleepover and pretend the other parent just showed up early the next day. So far they hadn't caught on.
As she lied in bed on the Friday morning in August he held her and every so often whispered that he loved her and it would be ok. She prayed that was true.
AN: And that's chapter 9. I know it feels fast which is why I fast forwarded to August to put some time into their relationship. Collin will appear and who knows what we'll find but that will be a major theme in the story which is why I needed to hurry to the "I love you." Together Harry and Ginny will battle Collin to try and protect Zoe. Feel free to leave ideas or constructive criticism it is always extremely welcome. R&R Thanks for reading! New Year today! Yay!
