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Chapter 11

Harry Potter. Harry. Potter. . I had said it before and I would no doubt say it countless times again and again. Harry Potter, the bane of my existence. The sour milk in my tea. The annoying lump in my mattress. The cursed sting and itch of sunburn after a long day at the beach. I had a feeling he would forever be floating around in the background of my life, ready to pounce and irritate and worsen my day whenever he could. Not with any real ill intentions, of course not, but with an ignorance that maddened me to no end. He got to me without even realising what he was doing. And thanks to my wonderful brother, I would never be rid of him.

Two days after I sent the angry letter off to Teddy was a Saturday. A Hogsmeade Saturday. Jayda left early in the morning to spend the entire day with her Ravenclaw lover. They were going to have breakfast together, then Ryan would take her shopping, a long walk together and then lunch in Hogsmeade. That left me rather lonely, but I didn't mind. After a late breakfast I decided to go to Hogsmeade on my own and have a walk through the little village. The time to myself was what I always enjoyed. It was relaxing and calming.

This trip, however, turned out to be probably the least relaxing walk I had ever taken through Hogsmeade. All because of the Boy Who Lived.

Around lunchtime I was strolling happily along, hardly a care in the world, enjoying the gentle sunlight streaming down into the village. All of a sudden I was pulled aside by some unseen force. The unseen force yanked me rather powerfully behind a row of shrubs bordering someone's cottage. I just about screamed in surprise, thinking for a second that I was being kidnapped and was about to be raped and tortured and murdered. In broad daylight. With hundreds of Hogwarts students and Hogsmeade dwellers around. And in front of someone's house.

"What the hell!" I exclaimed, looking around me wildly, searching for the source of my abduction.

Harry Potter suddenly appeared, holding his invisibility cloak. He smiled rather sheepishly, which quickly disappeared as he saw my disgruntled face. I whacked him on his upper arm, annoyed. "Hey!" He protested, wincing under my blow.

"What the hell are you doing, Harry?" I half-yelled, feeling thoroughly put out. I already had a feeling that my day was about to be completely and utterly ruined.

"Sorry, Gin. I just wanted to talk to you alone for a minute." He folded the cloak away into his bag as he spoke.

I frowned, getting more and more annoyed by the second. "Why couldn't you have just walked up to me and asked me? You didn't have to snatch me away behind a bush. And what's with the cloak?"

His face reddened slightly as he shrugged. "Dunno…I just thought you wouldn't want to talk to me otherwise."

My glare softened a little at that. I guess I didn't have to be angry at him all the time. Even if he was the biggest idiot at Hogwarts. "Well, what is it?" I said brusquely, crossing my arms. I had a very very bad feeling about this. If he was going to say something totally ridiculous, maybe being cold and aloof and indignant would put him off.

I was wrong. "Er…well, I may as well just say it…um, well, we—that is to say, I, er…"

Couldn't this boy at least string a few coherent words together? I sighed impatiently. "Spit it out, Harry!"

He looked down at his feet now, hands in his pockets looking like a five-year-old boy who had been caught stealing cookies. Kicking at the ground, he mumbled quietly. Something about a dove feud? When he looked back up at me to see what my response would be, he was bright red in the face. "So...what do you think?" He asked softly.

Getting completely frustrated now, I nearly shouted at him. "I didn't understand a single word you said, Harry. Speak up, stop mumbling, just sa—"

"I still love you."

I stopped, utterly gobsmacked. I stood there for several seconds, mouth wide open, staring at him. He still loved me? After all these months, after Ruby Harish and the tissues at Christmas and dumping Ruby so cruelly and publicly, here he was declaring his love for me again. What the hell did he expect of me? To burst in to tears and tell him I still loved him too? Was he really mentally unstable, as I had always thought all along? "What?" I asked him, just to make sure I had heard him correctly.

"I still love you, Ginny. I was thinking that…that we should get back together. What d'you say?" He sounded so hopeful. So confident and sure of himself. I wanted to growl in fury and slap his stupid smiling face.

But I didn't. Instead I took a deep breath, in and out. I allowed the rage inside me to ease out, to float away on the wind. At first, I hadn't the faintest idea what I was going to say to him. Explain how much I detested him now? Let him know how much he had killed me inside when he left me for Ruby? Tell him about Teddy? Then I decided that he didn't deserve any form of an explanation. I didn't owe him a single thing. I could return the favour, leave him hanging, wondering why. Now he could see what it felt like to have your soul crushed and feel it crumble away to nothing inside of you until you feel utterly worthless, less than worthless. The lowest of lows.

I took another deep breath. "No, Harry. Goodbye." Before I could even see what his reaction was, I had turned and extricated myself from the shrubs and was walking away. I could hear him stuttering behind me.

"Ginny, wait! Please!" He called desperately.

Before I knew it he was running after me. He yanked on my shoulder to turn me around. "For God's sake, Harry, just leave me alone!"

He looked like he was ready to cry. "Please, Ginny, I don't understand."

I closed my eyes for a few seconds, mustering up the courage to ignore the urge that was welling up inside me to punch him square in the face. When I opened them, I almost wanted to laugh at how pathetic he looked. So desperate and needy. "You're not supposed to." It was the vagueness of my statement that I was pleased with the most. I smirked at him and walked away for good, feeling impressed with myself. I had shown him. And I didn't even raise a single fist. I couldn't help but emit a little victory yell with glee as soon as I was out of his earshot.