Disclaimer: See previous chapters.
Thanks to all those who put up with my strange quirks – I appreciate the fact that none of you have sought to murder me in my sleep over that last chapter. ;-) Thanks to all my amazing readers!
The warmth of the Sunday sun washed over Harry as he climbed the chasm between sleep and waking. He noticed two things simultaneously – first, that Ginny was still nestled into his chest, her breathing deep and even. Second, that he could make out the sound of footsteps descending the stairs to the common room. Harry's instincts were at war. He didn't want to let go of Ginny, yet whoever was coming would see them together. It wasn't that he was embarrassed to be with her, but he could imagine the type of lecture Professor McGonagall would give if she learned how they had spent the night. In the end, his love for the redhead in his arms won out, and he held her closer as two fourth year girls entered the common room. They looked at Harry in shock, but said nothing. He smiled weakly, and as the two girls exited through the portrait Harry could have sworn he heard them giggling.
"Thank you, Harry." Ginny's voice startled him and he brought his eyes back to hers – they were bloodshot from exhaustion, but free of fear.
"For what?" he asked innocently as he squinted to make out the time on the wall clock. In his haste to get Ginny warm last night, he had left his glasses in his room.
"Everything," she replied simply. Harry brought his eyes back to her face and brushed away the hair that had settled across her forehead in sleep.
"Do you want to talk about it?" She hesitated for a moment, looking beyond him, her eyes unfocused. "You don't have to," he quickly amended.
"No," she responded, nodding her head resolutely. "It's time." Ginny resolutely scooted from his lap to sit next to him on the couch. She tucked her feet up under his leg and wrapped the blanket around her knees. Taking a deep breath, she began.
"You weren't around for the beginning of the summer that year, so I don't expect you know, but I was having quite a few nightmares in the weeks after you saved me. I would wake up screaming, gasping for breath. Rather like I did last night." Ginny looked down and Harry immediately reached out a hand and placed it on her knee. She nodded gratefully back and continued. "I think the main reason we took that trip to Egypt was because Mum and Dad thought I might improve with a change of scenery. It worked, in a way – I didn't think about Riddle for an entire week. But that picture you saw of us in the paper was the first time I'd really smiled since the diary was destroyed. I had put so much of myself into those pages, that I almost felt as if everything that made me me was ruined along with it. I didn't know who I was anymore. And I especially didn't know how to act around you. I'd gone from sending you a singing valentine to feeling so guilty that I tried to avoid you completely."
"You sent me that valentine?" Harry interrupted.
"Pathetic, wasn't it?" Ginny replied. Harry laughed, then looked at her seriously.
"So what happened?" he asked.
"It was something Lupin said that helped put things in perspective, actually. He told the class that he was thinking about giving us a shot at the boggart – everyone was excited at the prospect. Except me. I knew what it would turn into the moment it saw me."
"Riddle," Harry supplied. Ginny nodded.
"I realized that it would not be a good thing to have Tom Riddle show up in the middle of Defense Against the Dark Arts, so I stayed after class one day to tell Lupin that I shouldn't face the boggart. I didn't realize it, but he knew everything that had happened to me the previous year."
"Dumbledore probably told the Order," Harry mused.
"I'm sure he did," Ginny sighed. "As soon as Lupin said that he knew about the diary, I found myself telling him everything. What Riddle said to me, what he made me do, how I had nearly gotten you killed, and how frightened I had become of my own shadow. Having the Dementors near didn't help, either. They forced me to listen to Riddle's voice again every time they got too close. When I finished, Lupin gave me a piece of chocolate and asked me to sit down. He told me that our choices define who we become in life. I knew I had made some bad ones, and began to wonder if there was any hope for me. But it was what he said next that really stuck with me. He said that I had been through a terrible ordeal, and I could either spend the rest of my life hiding from my memories, or I could learn from my mistakes. I could choose to be a coward, like Riddle, or be brave… like you." Harry swallowed hard.
"I think I can guess which one you chose."
"You know, it's only occurred to me lately just how weak Voldemort really was. What kind of a coward uses an eleven year old girl to do his dirty work? One that was afraid that anyone else would have been able to fight him off." Harry moved to object, but Ginny placed a finger on his lips, silencing him. "Don't forget, Harry – whatever I may be now – at the time I couldn't fight him. I didn't even know how to try." She sighed, and pulled the blanket closer around herself. "It wasn't easy – trying to put the fear behind me and move on with my life. At the start it was a daily struggle. But I eventually realized that the more I decided to be brave, the happier I was. Until you came back from the maze with Cedric's body. The sight of the two of you lying on the grass told me all that I needed to know. Voldemort was back. I don't remember moving, but I found myself alone in my room. I sat on my bed and rocked back and forth, gnawing my lip – wondering when he would come for me." She looked at Harry, a strange sadness in her eyes. "I'm sorry I wasn't there in the hospital wing," she said simply, and Harry tucked some hair behind her ear as he answered.
"It sounds like you were busy." They both smiled then, and Harry cleared his throat. "So what happened?"
"I slept, I think. But I didn't rest – not with Riddle's taunts echoing through my mind. When the sun rose the next morning, though, something was different." She paused, as if trying to find the right words. Harry waited patiently. "I realized that Riddle had already done everything he could to me. Oh, he could kill me, I supposed, but that would have been nothing compared to what I'd already been through. And I had survived it. I was still alive, and I was still me, even if I was cowering inside my proverbial shell. Once I figured that out, it was a bit easier to fight his snide remarks. I knew they were all empty threats. The only thing that scared me now was the possibility that he might kill someone I cared about." Ginny sat back on the arm of the couch, letting her unspoken sentence hang in the air between them.
"I'm sorry," Harry said softly. Ginny placed a hand on his cheek.
"It was not your fault. Don't you ever forget that." He nodded, and they both turned to watch the sun climb higher into the sky – basking for a moment in memories of what had been and the promise of what was yet to come.
Yeah, it's on the shorter side, but I did write it rather quickly!