Chapter 3: May
Part of the problem was that as soon as the story became sensationalized Harry, however conveniently for him, had disappeared; so in his absence the reporters hounded Ginny. They had initially wanted to find information about Harry's whereabouts and have him answer their questions, but the hordes of fans and admirers of Harry that had taken to camping outside of the Burrow lands yelling and screaming at the house blaming Ginny for what they deemed her inadequacies and thus the driving force of his actions had turned the tide of the story.
When the reports could not make Harry the center of the story, they soon determined that they could use the growing anger and hate Harry's fans were openly expressing towards Ginny as the main selling point of their articles.
Per the self-named Potter-heads Ginny was unable to give her husband what he needed (love, care, attention, time, children, etc.) and he was too good to put her through the humiliation of a divorce, so he found what he needed elsewhere. So it was HER fault that the Great Auror did not live up to their fantasies, not that he was a flawed human being.
Backwards and chauvinistic thinking, but typical of a hero-worshiping and obsessed fan.
Nonetheless the crowds where there and they were disruptive. So after a fortnight of being confined to the house, Ginny asked a few friends if she could stay with them to hide. She had to explain over and over that she preferred not to go to one her brothers' homes for the following reasons: Harry was still a part of the family and even though Ginny highly doubted that she would continue her married life with him (there were just too many stories for it all to be lies), she had to make think through the potential consequences of various actions.
Though she found it unlikely, she didn't want to make snap judgments that could have potentially detrimental consequences for everyone. She needed time (and a quiet place she could think) to think it all through. She was pretty sure that her married life with Harry was over. There were other factors that had driven her to that conclusion but she held onto hope that maybe they could find a way to part ways amicably. She would, no she NEEDED to eventually forgive him. She knew she needed to do it for her own sake, not his. It had been something her father had taught her after her first year at Hogwarts: she needed to make peace with the situation so she could move on and not be weighed down by the event of the past.
Plus she needed to consider that the only family Harry knew was hers, she didn't want to put her family in a position to take sides or shun him. She knew they loved her and were on her side, but she also knew that if Harry was to be cut off from the Weasleys, it would seriously hurt him and she didn't want to be the type of person who demanded or enjoyed that.
Another reason for not staying with her brothers was the reporters would expect that and may camp out at their houses to try and find her. Charlie lived on the Dragon Sanctuary so it would be harder to harass them there, but it still didn't seem fair and so she wanted to leave her brothers as a last resort.
Every friend she talked to seemed to want the same information, and after repeatedly explain her reasons for wanted not to include her family in her marital drama, what her current plans were, and asking to stay with them for a night or two to throw the vultures off her scent almost all of them had made excuses and demurred; only Luna and Neville opened their doors to her. Ginny was determined not to take advantage and promised to spend only a week with each, but each insisted that she could stay with them for as long as she needed.
Ginny had planned to constantly move from location to location so that to evade and hopefully tire the vultures. Plus she was sure she would soon have to would find her own place. Her salary was considerable, and she was due a nice bonus for scoring the winning points in the tournament, thus finding a nice place to call her own would not be a problem.
As per team protocol the Harpies had put her on injury leave for 10 days after the game, but when it was time to go back the team manager had told her that there were crowds of Harry fans (she had always refused to call them Potterheads, but the name was convenient) who had encamped at the doors and were demanding to "talk" to her, so he suggested using her injury to extend her break into a holiday. A nice long holiday. She deserved it, and the club would pay her salary until the start of the next season by which time either the story would die down or the crowd would tire and leave.
She had been looking forwards to going back to the field: flying fast, hitting and dodging quaffles, maybe even slamming into an erstwhile friend -teammate- or two. It would have been cathartic, but she was told to take a holiday. A three month long holiday.
All the better, now she had ample time to find a new place, talk to friends and family who would help her make her decision about Harry and put it to action. In three months when she returned to the field she would be a free and new woman. If only she knew….