In The Bleak Midwinter.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J. K. Rowling excepting the ones you have never heard of. Got it? Good. Oh, yeah, the title is off the Christmas carol. And when you finish it, don't ask me why I called this because I have no idea.
A/N. Personally I think there are way too many flashbacks for this story's good.
Ginny turned the key in the lock, shaking with fury. Stupid witch, she didn't understand the way it worked.
"If your articles don't spice up in the next month, I'm afraid dear I'll have to sack you."
It wasn't her fault she hadn't gone for the best career; it wasn't her fault over the events of the year, two years ago.
She shut the door behind her, going into the usual silent, quiet house. She shoved a pan over the oven and poured soup into it. If only she had been an Auror, perhaps all this wouldn't have happened.
"YOU ARE NOT BEING AN AUROR! IT IS MUCH TOO DANGEROUS!"
"But Moody said..."
"I DON'T CARE WHAT MOODY SAID! LOOK AT HIM, COMPLETELY PARANOID!"
"But Harry'll look after me..."
"AURORS DON'T USUALLY WORK TOGETHER 24/7 EVEN IF THEY ARE MARRIED!"
"Then what can I be? Even Dumbledore said I'd be a great Auror..."
"There are much better things than that. Like journalism, and working at the ministry. Aren't there Arthur?"
Her father looked up and nodded.
"So are you implying that you DON'T want me to work with Harry? I want to work with him, not take up some silly career like journalism."
"Journalism is not silly..."
"Look at Rita Skeeter."
"There are always bad examples."
"Charlie, Bill, Ron, wouldn't I make a good Auror?"
"You can't go away, besides being an Auror means being away from your family..."
"You could be killed..."
"See darling, your brothers don't agree. Now you can be something sensible like an editor..."
"OH JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE JEALOUS! IT DOESN'T MEAN I HAVE TO BE SOMETHING SENSIBLE BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING SENSIBLE, BUT NO YOU STAYED AS A HOUSEWIFE, AND I AM GOING TO BE AN AUROR!"
She scowled, she hadn't been an Auror, and she had just become some stupid writer from Witches Weekly. And her family had rubbed it on her since she got the job.
"You're a brilliant writer, your articles are easily the best. Didn't I say you'd make a great writer?"
Her whole family had seemed to be a club, `Keep little Ginny away from danger.' And if she had been an Auror, she wouldn't have been so devastated. She probably would have uncovered the plot. But she hadn't. She had done what her family wanted her to do. Even though it was rubbish and unenjoyable. And boring.
She pulled out her parchment and quill and started writing the next article.
Yawning she looked at the time, and started climbing the stairs wearily up to bed. She looked at the blank pillow beside her. If it hadn't happened Harry would be there. And they had to choose Christmas day as well, it would have been the best she ever had.
"I've just put the children to bed, went to sleep faster than I would have expected."
"Ginny, I've got something to give to you."
He pulled out a medium sized box and pushed it into her hands. Ginny opened it and gasped.
"Oh Harry, you shouldn't have. It's gorgeous!"
It contained a golden bracelet, decorated with colourful stones that looked suspiciously like rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds.
He shrugged, "Felt you needed a treat."
She hugged him and was about to kiss him, when BANG!
Ginny screamed, standing in the doorframe was Voldemort and at least ten Death Eaters.
She couldn't really remember what happened except them shouting to each other and as she heard Voldemort say `Avada Kedrava' one the Death Eaters muttered `Stupefy' at her and she knew he was going to pretend he had killed her. And before she fell into darkness she knew that person was Draco Malfoy. Harry, as he was an Auror, knew from Dumbledore that he was spying on Voldemort and passing information onto the ministry. And the next morning when Ginny came round and saw Harry lying on the floor, dead, and in the children's bedroom, both the twins were had disappeared, their bodies weren't found.
Sitting beside his gravestone, she traced the words with her fingers.
Harry Potter,
Caring father, husband and friend.
The Boy Who Lived Lives No Longer.
Ginny came and sat beside the gravestones of her family every week. She had never really accepted Harry was dead. Every month for a year and a half she had written a letter and sent it off with Hedwig, but it always came back.
She reread the glistening ink, feeling her eyes swell with unshed tears. She carefully and neatly folded it, attaching it to Hedwig's leg.
"You'll find him won't you? Harry always said you found Sirius, just find him Hedwig."
Her piercing eyes looked at her sadly before flying out the window. Ginny followed her with her eyes until she disappeared out of sight.
Two months later she reappeared with the same letter attached to her foot.
She came back to Ginny when she was on the top of a tower at Hogwarts, speaking to Dumbledore, for her next article. He watched her as her eyes lit up with hope and joy and then fell into sadness as she realised it was her own writing.
She could remember saying; "Good try Hedwig." And then she turned back to continue interviewing Dumbledore, tripped on the hem of her robes and went tumbling down the stairs.
She remembers waking up in the wizarding hospital. She can remember the friendly nurse saying there was no lasting damage.
"And what about my baby?"
The nurse's eyes avoided Ginny's worried eyes. "The fall was quite bad. You had a miscarriage."
She could remember the tears falling silently from her eyes. She had been pregnant before Harry died and the last thing that gave her some hope, `at least I'll have Harry's child,' had gone away and faded.
It had taken much determination to get back to the Ginny she had been. The one thought that helped was `Harry would have wanted you to be the same.' Ron and Hermione had been badly affected, but they were married and had their own living family to care for, Ginny had none.
Hedwig flew over and Ginny absently stroked her.
"He's still alive, isn't he? He never really died, he just disappeared. But then why can't you find him?"
Hedwig hooted gently.
Ginny felt anger rise steadily higher. "HE IS STILL ALIVE!" She thundered, before rushing back into her house, tears flowing silently down her face.
Sitting on the bed, she reached out with a trembling hand and opened the small, secret drawer in the desk. Opening it she pulled the box out and opened it. Inside, in the top was a note, written in Harry's writing. His last message.
To Ginny
Just to show you how much I love you.
Love Harry.
That was typically Harry, short and sweet. She pulled the bracelet out and stared at it, thinking how elegant it was. She stared at it and then the large diamond in the middle of the design began to clear. The diamond started to shake slightly. After about fifteen seconds it was completely clear and she could see a small room. A small room barely furnished, with a window looking out at the sea and a dark tall figure sitting beside it, his head on his hands, staring at the waves. Someone that looked very familiar.
"I wish I could see her. I wish I could write to her. Why the hell did I have to do this? I'm always thinking of her and the baby. Damn, why am I so helpless?"
The diamond returned to normal, leaving Ginny bewildered. Unless she was very wrong, that figure had been her husband, Harry.
A/N. I had no idea I was going to put that in.
Disclaimer: That idea is from the book, Arthur: The Seeing Stone, by Kevin Crossley Holland. Arthur has a stone that he sees things in.
And I'll end the chapter here, *dodges heavy objects that get thrown at her* I've already written the next chapter, it just needs to get put up.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J. K. Rowling excepting the ones you have never heard of. Got it? Good. Oh, yeah, the title is off the Christmas carol. And when you finish it, don't ask me why I called this because I have no idea.
A/N. Personally I think there are way too many flashbacks for this story's good.
Ginny turned the key in the lock, shaking with fury. Stupid witch, she didn't understand the way it worked.
"If your articles don't spice up in the next month, I'm afraid dear I'll have to sack you."
It wasn't her fault she hadn't gone for the best career; it wasn't her fault over the events of the year, two years ago.
She shut the door behind her, going into the usual silent, quiet house. She shoved a pan over the oven and poured soup into it. If only she had been an Auror, perhaps all this wouldn't have happened.
"YOU ARE NOT BEING AN AUROR! IT IS MUCH TOO DANGEROUS!"
"But Moody said..."
"I DON'T CARE WHAT MOODY SAID! LOOK AT HIM, COMPLETELY PARANOID!"
"But Harry'll look after me..."
"AURORS DON'T USUALLY WORK TOGETHER 24/7 EVEN IF THEY ARE MARRIED!"
"Then what can I be? Even Dumbledore said I'd be a great Auror..."
"There are much better things than that. Like journalism, and working at the ministry. Aren't there Arthur?"
Her father looked up and nodded.
"So are you implying that you DON'T want me to work with Harry? I want to work with him, not take up some silly career like journalism."
"Journalism is not silly..."
"Look at Rita Skeeter."
"There are always bad examples."
"Charlie, Bill, Ron, wouldn't I make a good Auror?"
"You can't go away, besides being an Auror means being away from your family..."
"You could be killed..."
"See darling, your brothers don't agree. Now you can be something sensible like an editor..."
"OH JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE JEALOUS! IT DOESN'T MEAN I HAVE TO BE SOMETHING SENSIBLE BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SOMETHING SENSIBLE, BUT NO YOU STAYED AS A HOUSEWIFE, AND I AM GOING TO BE AN AUROR!"
She scowled, she hadn't been an Auror, and she had just become some stupid writer from Witches Weekly. And her family had rubbed it on her since she got the job.
"You're a brilliant writer, your articles are easily the best. Didn't I say you'd make a great writer?"
Her whole family had seemed to be a club, `Keep little Ginny away from danger.' And if she had been an Auror, she wouldn't have been so devastated. She probably would have uncovered the plot. But she hadn't. She had done what her family wanted her to do. Even though it was rubbish and unenjoyable. And boring.
She pulled out her parchment and quill and started writing the next article.
Yawning she looked at the time, and started climbing the stairs wearily up to bed. She looked at the blank pillow beside her. If it hadn't happened Harry would be there. And they had to choose Christmas day as well, it would have been the best she ever had.
"I've just put the children to bed, went to sleep faster than I would have expected."
"Ginny, I've got something to give to you."
He pulled out a medium sized box and pushed it into her hands. Ginny opened it and gasped.
"Oh Harry, you shouldn't have. It's gorgeous!"
It contained a golden bracelet, decorated with colourful stones that looked suspiciously like rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds.
He shrugged, "Felt you needed a treat."
She hugged him and was about to kiss him, when BANG!
Ginny screamed, standing in the doorframe was Voldemort and at least ten Death Eaters.
She couldn't really remember what happened except them shouting to each other and as she heard Voldemort say `Avada Kedrava' one the Death Eaters muttered `Stupefy' at her and she knew he was going to pretend he had killed her. And before she fell into darkness she knew that person was Draco Malfoy. Harry, as he was an Auror, knew from Dumbledore that he was spying on Voldemort and passing information onto the ministry. And the next morning when Ginny came round and saw Harry lying on the floor, dead, and in the children's bedroom, both the twins were had disappeared, their bodies weren't found.
Sitting beside his gravestone, she traced the words with her fingers.
Harry Potter,
Caring father, husband and friend.
The Boy Who Lived Lives No Longer.
Ginny came and sat beside the gravestones of her family every week. She had never really accepted Harry was dead. Every month for a year and a half she had written a letter and sent it off with Hedwig, but it always came back.
She reread the glistening ink, feeling her eyes swell with unshed tears. She carefully and neatly folded it, attaching it to Hedwig's leg.
"You'll find him won't you? Harry always said you found Sirius, just find him Hedwig."
Her piercing eyes looked at her sadly before flying out the window. Ginny followed her with her eyes until she disappeared out of sight.
Two months later she reappeared with the same letter attached to her foot.
She came back to Ginny when she was on the top of a tower at Hogwarts, speaking to Dumbledore, for her next article. He watched her as her eyes lit up with hope and joy and then fell into sadness as she realised it was her own writing.
She could remember saying; "Good try Hedwig." And then she turned back to continue interviewing Dumbledore, tripped on the hem of her robes and went tumbling down the stairs.
She remembers waking up in the wizarding hospital. She can remember the friendly nurse saying there was no lasting damage.
"And what about my baby?"
The nurse's eyes avoided Ginny's worried eyes. "The fall was quite bad. You had a miscarriage."
She could remember the tears falling silently from her eyes. She had been pregnant before Harry died and the last thing that gave her some hope, `at least I'll have Harry's child,' had gone away and faded.
It had taken much determination to get back to the Ginny she had been. The one thought that helped was `Harry would have wanted you to be the same.' Ron and Hermione had been badly affected, but they were married and had their own living family to care for, Ginny had none.
Hedwig flew over and Ginny absently stroked her.
"He's still alive, isn't he? He never really died, he just disappeared. But then why can't you find him?"
Hedwig hooted gently.
Ginny felt anger rise steadily higher. "HE IS STILL ALIVE!" She thundered, before rushing back into her house, tears flowing silently down her face.
Sitting on the bed, she reached out with a trembling hand and opened the small, secret drawer in the desk. Opening it she pulled the box out and opened it. Inside, in the top was a note, written in Harry's writing. His last message.
To Ginny
Just to show you how much I love you.
Love Harry.
That was typically Harry, short and sweet. She pulled the bracelet out and stared at it, thinking how elegant it was. She stared at it and then the large diamond in the middle of the design began to clear. The diamond started to shake slightly. After about fifteen seconds it was completely clear and she could see a small room. A small room barely furnished, with a window looking out at the sea and a dark tall figure sitting beside it, his head on his hands, staring at the waves. Someone that looked very familiar.
"I wish I could see her. I wish I could write to her. Why the hell did I have to do this? I'm always thinking of her and the baby. Damn, why am I so helpless?"
The diamond returned to normal, leaving Ginny bewildered. Unless she was very wrong, that figure had been her husband, Harry.
A/N. I had no idea I was going to put that in.
Disclaimer: That idea is from the book, Arthur: The Seeing Stone, by Kevin Crossley Holland. Arthur has a stone that he sees things in.
And I'll end the chapter here, *dodges heavy objects that get thrown at her* I've already written the next chapter, it just needs to get put up.