Chapter Eight: When Two Eyes Meet

Emerald eyes wandered into Ginny's chocolate brown. Compassion, guilt, and eternal love radiated from those spectacular orbs and entered Ginny's soul. She could tell that he wanted to hold her in his arms, but was holding back for her sake. He was waiting for her to give him a sign of some sort.

Ginny lost total control of all her functions and more tears filled her bloodshot eyes. Before she knew it, Harry had embraced and her body melted into his. Harry's shirt was quickly becoming moist, but he didn't seem to mind. Surprising, the cold shakes that Ginny had experienced a few moments ago had not returned. It was a totally different feeling when she was being rocked in Harry's arms. Ginny couldn't explain it, but it felt nice.

Soon the tears dried and Ginny finally calmed down, but neither of them moved. Ginny remained in the comfort of Harry's arms and Harry took advantage of embracing the woman that he loved. They sat in silence, not wanting to break the moment, but Harry knew it couldn't go on like this.

"Are you okay," Harry asked Ginny as she pushed herself out of his embrace. Her eyes once again met his, but she quickly broke the contact.

"Honestly, I don't know," responded Ginny. "Things are just so complicated."

"I know."

"I mean before I went to bed I was holding your dead body and now you're alive again and you can hold me again. It's just hard to accept."

"I know. This is why I was afraid to come back."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was dead, I was given a choice. I could either stay dead or I could come back. My parents really wanted me to go back, but I wasn't really sure. Then, I saw you crying over me in the Hospital Wing. I felt so guilty that I caused you so much pain. I didn't know if I could ever forgive myself."

"So seeing me devastated helped you make your decision?"

"No actually. It convinced me that staying dead was the right decision."

"Oh," said Ginny with a bit of pain evident in her voice.

"It's not what you think." Harry explained quickly. "I just didn't want to hurt you more than I already did. You were so broken because of me and I didn't know if you'd want me to come back after all the pain I put you through."

"Of course I would want you back," replied a very defiant Ginny. "It has been the one pray I've been saying since the moment the Final Battle began. I couldn't live without you, Harry. You mean too much to me."

"You mean so much to me," continued Ginny. "But it's still hard, you know. I mean… it's just… it's just difficult to finally accept your death and then discover that your actually alive. Don't get me wrong, it's the best thing that ever happened to me, but… I don't know."

"I guess a part of me just doesn't want to believe that this is real. That this isn't some dream that I will wake up from and cry over. I don't think I could handle that. It was just so hard waking up this morning and knowing that I would never get to talk to you again or kiss you again. I just don't want my heart to be broken."

"I'm sorry, Ginny. I didn't mean to cause you so much pain. I just…"

"No, Harry. Don't blame yourself. It's not your fault all this happened. There is only one person to blame and right now he's laying in a heap right in front of us."

Both Harry and Ginny turned their heads to the robe. It was his fault that they were sitting on the Astronomy Tower at this moment, discussing this unusual topic. It was his fault that Ginny had to suffer with the pain of losing a loved one and Harry had to make an extremely difficult decision about his life. It was his fault that they were even dragged in this dreadful war and it was his fault on how the war ended. Both were extremely happy that he was dead. Though, Harry wished that he could have suffered a long, painful death.

Harry turned his head back toward Ginny. "So are we okay?" Harry asked apprehensively.

"Yeah," answered Ginny. "We weren't in much trouble to being with."

"Good. For a second there, I though you might want to get back together with Dean and have lots and lots of make up sex."

"Well, I guess I can't deny it anymore. It did cross my mind a few of times," laughed Ginny.

"I'm hurt," mocked Harry placing his fists under his eyes and pretending to cry.

"Suck it up you wimp."

"Suck it up?! I'll show you sucking it up!"

Harry was about to launch himself on to Ginny and tickle her unmercifully, when she jumped up as if she knew what he was about to do.

"Only if you can catch me!" yelled Ginny as she ran toward the door, laughing very loudly.


The day was as perfect as it could be. Harry had chased Ginny around the castle for nearly an hour and by the time their little game was over, both teens were exhausted and hungry. They decided to head down to the kitchen and have a romantic lunch which the house elves were more than happy to accommodate.

After the delicious meal of spaghetti and meatballs with the side of Cesar salad, Ginny decided that she couldn't hog Harry anymore and the two decided to go into the Gryffindor Common Room where Ron and Hermione were reading books. Actually, Hermione was reading, Ron was just staring at the page wondering what the Quidditch score was. Harry saved Ron from his mindless boredom by playing an excruciating loud game of Exploding Snap. Ginny decided to watch from the sidelines and cheer on her man, something Ron wasn't too pleased about.

After a few hours of reacquainting himself with his two best friends and girlfriend, Harry decided that he needed some alone time to be with his thoughts. Despite their better judgment, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny left the Common Room and went to the Great Hall for a spot of dinner, leaving Harry alone to do what he pleased.

Once his friends had left, Harry immediately regretted his decision of not coming along. The Common Room was so large and yet so quite. Just a year ago, this room was packed with students studying for their exams and hanging with their mates. This room was never silent, even in the middle of the night. Chaos always erupted in this room, whether it was good or bad and now it was empty, with the exception of him. This room that he had loved since the moment he had first arrived at the school, began to give him the creeps and Harry decided to wander around the castle, hoping to find a place that wasn't as silent as the room he had just left.

After thirty minutes of mindless wandering, Harry once again found himself on the Astronomy Tower. Harry didn't know why he was so drawn to this building all of a sudden, but for the moment it provided a peaceful silence that didn't seem to bother him. The Order had spent the entire day identifying the victims and informing the families of their loved ones tragic death. The robes that Voldemort had left behind were picked up and burned to a crisp, something thousands of people have been waiting for. Hogwarts was back to its peaceful self and there was no reminder that was a gruesome battle had take place twenty-four hours ago.

But the causalities and their families weren't the thing that was bothering Harry at the moment. Harry couldn't help but shake this feeling that he was forgetting something very important; something that could mean either life or death. This feeling kept eating away at him, taunting him. If this thing was so important, why couldn't Harry remember what it was?

"Harry," a quiet voice interrupted Harry's thoughts. The teen turned his head to see Remus standing in the doorway.

"Hey Remus," replied Harry as Remus walked toward the balcony where Harry was leaning over.

"So how have you been, Harry? We haven't had much time to talk recently."

"I'm fine, I guess. I really don't know what to feel at this point."

"That's understandable. You've been through quite a lot in a short period of time. You defeated one the most powerful wizards of all time and you came back from the dead. It's normal that you should feel a bit out of place for a while."

"I guess. But that's not what's really bothering me."

"Well, what is?"

"I can't help but think that I'm forgetting something."

"What do you mean? What could you possibly forgetting?"

"I don't know. That's what I'm trying to figure it out, but I keep drawing a blank. It's bothering me because I know it something important, but I can't remember."

"Well, you should forget about that for now. Today is a day for celebrations."

"Why?"

"Don't you remember or did death take away your memories? Voldemort has finally been taken down after many years of torture and death. And it's all because of you, Harry. If you thought you were famous before, it's going to be nothing compared to now.

"So people will be celebrating the fact that I murdered a man. I'm a murder, Remus. There's no way around it."

"You're not a murderer, Harry. You didn't even want to kill him-"

"Yes, I did. I wanted to kill him ever since I knew about him, even before I knew about the prophecy. I wanted to destroy him for taking away the only parents I ever had. I wanted him to pay. I just wanted justice served."

"Is it bad that I wanted him dead," continued Harry. "Did wanting him dead make me a bad person?"

"Of course not," yelled Remus. "Wanting someone dead because they killed your family is normal. I wanted to kill Voldemort the day he killed your parents."

"But the fact of the matter is that you didn't kill him."

"It's because I couldn't. Harry, you were blessed with the rare gift of extreme magical power. You have more power than any other average witch or wizard. If any of them had the power that you had, don't you think they would abuse it? But you didn't, Harry. You used your power for good and not evil. You did something that Voldemort didn't; you didn't take your power for granted."

"Voldemort used his power to kill people just because he could," explained Remus. "You used your power to stop him from doing that and he died in the process. I know you would rather not take credit for something as cruel as death, but Harry, the death you caused was unintentional-"

"But I came to the Final Battle to kill him-"

"Or to be killed. Tell me Harry how did you kill Voldemort? Did you use the Killing Curse on him?"

"No, but-"

"Did you torture him to death?"

"No, but-"

"Did you use any Muggle defenses against him?"

"No, but-"

"You killed him because he was trying to kill, Ginny. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, but-"

"Don't you see, Harry? This makes you completely different from Voldemort. Voldemort killed because he loved to kill. You kill because you wanted to protect those that you love. You could never become him."

"I know that. It's just that it's so hard, you know. So much has happened in so little time. I mean, it's hard to believe that nearly twenty-four hours ago, I was dead and had killed the person who murdered my parents. I guess, I don't really want to accept what happened. In some sort of way, I wish I didn't have to be the one who killed him."

"That's understandable, Harry. But in the same respect you should also be very proud of yourself. You achieved quite an accomplishment."

"I know."

"Your parents would be quite proud of you."

"I know."

"And Sirius would be proud of you too."

I kn-. Sirius. Oh shit! That's what I forgot!" rambled Harry.

Remus looked at the teen with a confused look on his face. What in the world was he talking about? What could Sirius have to do with anything that was going on?

"Listen Remus," responded Harry noticing the look on Remus' face. "I know this going to sound crazy, but Sirius isn't dead. And I'm going to go save him."

With that in mind, Harry dashed from the Astronomy Tower without turning back to look an extremely baffled Remus.

"Wait, Harry!" yelled Remus trying to attract the attention of the possibly mental unstable boy, but there was no avail.

Harry was too fast for his own good and there was no way Remus could ever catch up to him. Harry was on his way to the veil and there was no way to stop him. There was only one thing that the werewolf could do, find Ginny. She could talk him out. That is, if they weren't too late. Remus needed to act quickly before he lost Harry for a second time.


I'm so sorry that this chapter was so late. First off, I'm still in school and I had a ton of projects that need to come first. School is my first prioity and writing cannot get in the way of that. However, this chapter did come too late in my opinion and my new goal is to get a new chapter uploaded every other weekend. But in order to do that I need reviews. Despite what most people believe, you reviewers help keep this story alive. In fact, I had one reviewer send me an email a few days ago telling me to post this chapter. He or she inspired me to finish the chapter. So please review. It's not hard and it takes two minutes out of your day. Thank you!