July 31, 2010
400 words, according to OpenOffice word count.
It's not that Ginny didn't like Harry. She just didn't see herself marrying him anymore, not like she'd dreamed when she was a little girl. It seemed as though no one could understand that, though. He was Harry Potter! Who wouldn't want to marry him? He was the kind of boy any parent would be proud to call their son-in-law, her own parents included.
But Ginny didn't want to marry him. Not today, not tomorrow, not any day of her life. She didn't even want to date him. Her love for him had shriveled up when he had broken up with her at Dumbledore's funeral, and it died a year later when he refused her offer of assistance and support for the greater cause, to help him as an equal, rather than as a useless girlfriend in need of protection. She refused to be repressed by anyone, even Harry Potter.
"I don't understand," he said, looking thoroughly confused. The rest of her family had stopped talking to watch their interaction, and Ginny resented him for bringing the subject up during dinner.
"I don't want to have lunch with you. What's not to understand?"
"Ginny! Don't be rude!" Mrs. Weasley interjected disapprovingly.
Suddenly Ginny's stomach lurched at the thought of finishing a meal. She may have only been seventeen years old, but she was old enough to handle her own business. The glower on her face as she lowered her fork frightened her brothers and father into continuing with supper as if nothing were happening, but her mum was quite unaffected.
"Is... is there someone else?" Harry asked tentatively. Her demeanor softened. She knew that he truly cared for her, but she didn't want his fear for the lives of the people he loved to control her. She deserved better than that.
If Ginny was absolutely honest with Harry, she would tell him that there was no one else, that she was not a damsel in distress to satisfy his hero complex. This had nothing to do with Draco, who she hadn't seen since the battle over two months ago, but she would tell Harry what he didn't want to hear so that maybe he would finally accept that she didn't want to be with him anymore and divorce her from his life.
It was the only way to force him to stop pursuing her.
"Yes. There's someone else," she said.