¤*~ Chapter 9!

¤*~ Disclaimer: I'm not J.K. Rowling.

¤*~ Special Thanks to---Chuckles: you don't know me, but I thought your story was cute and it gave me some ideas for this chapter…not the slash part, but the really good use of adjectives to create the scene.

¤*~ A/N – Although I have denounced SAPPINESS in my previous chapters and A/Ns, I figured this chapter needed a dose of sadness and melancholy. I don't mean to say 'Oh poor Harry let's cry for him' but I mean- after what happened in the end of the 4th book, it's probably normal for someone in his situation to feel guilty and somewhat freaked out.

Oh, yeah…I decided to make this H/G. I mean, Ron needs a girlfriend, and who better than Hermione to be her?

PS – I used these thingies ^^ to emphasize some words (i.e.: I ^really^ want to). And I've emphasized the British accents these characters have by adding in some London slang (with the help of my friend James).

Some words include: "gormless wuss" = silly person, "knackered" = really tired, "wanker" = idiot, "blyme" = gosh, "oy" = hey, strop = to harass…etc.



Ginny sighed and turned her restless body to face the digital alarm clock that had been placed in her room. It was just past three o' clock in the morning. Unable to sleep and hoping to hear Harry's voice from his room across the hallway, she flicked on the light and sat up. After about thirty minutes of waiting in vain, she climbed out of her bed and tiptoed out of the room. She crossed the hall and pressed her ear against his door. To her surprise, she heard soft noises. 'Is he crying? Should I go in and wake him up? Wait- first I have to make sure I don't have bed-head. I have to look nice for this.' She checked her appearance in the nearest mirror, then slowly cracked open Harry's door. She poked her head inside the devastatingly dark room. She could now hear him much clearer- he was crying. She carefully padded over to the side of his bed, and let her eyes adjust to the darkness.

Tears slowly rolled down Harry's thin cheeks, which shone a silvery white in the moonlight. He was curled into a loose ball, and his eyes were shut tight. He looked so vulnerable, so childlike. Ginny sucked in her breath and watched in silence as his breathing hitched erratically and his chest rose and fell at alternate intervals through his exhausted sobs. She wiped tears off her own cheeks and was about to wake up when he began to mutter something. "Stop…just leave me alone…please don't hurt her, just go away…" Ginny stood up and reached her hand out again to wake him. She grasped his shoulder and shook him lightly. He woke up and his thick, wet lashes fluttered open to see Ginny standing over him with tears in her eyes. He fumbled for the glasses resting on his nightstand, and slid them on to focus on the red-haired girl.

"Ginny?" he asked groggily.



At once Ginny felt awkward and slightly embarrassed to be standing in his room in the middle of the night. "Err…hi Harry."



"…What are you doing here?"



"I – err…you woke me up."



"I did? I'm dreadfully sorry! You must be exhausted."



"No, really I'm not. But…I'm not here ^because^ you woke me up, it's ^how ^ you woke me up that upsets me."



"How did I wake you up?"



She paused before responding, "You were crying, Harry."



Harry climbed out of his bed and stood up. He was clad in nothing but a pair of green checkered boxers and a pair of white socks. Moonlight streamed across the tree and through the window behind his bed, thus creating a dappled effect on Harry's back and chest. Seeming to scrutinize her with his eyes, he challenged, "I was not."



Ginny was taken aback by this absolute denial. "Yes, you were. Oy, you still've got tear marks on your cheeks."



Harry wiped his hand across his cheek and appeared surprised that it was wet. "I see," Harry paused and returned his emotionless gaze back to Ginny. "How does that involve you?"



Ginny frowned slightly and stammered a response, "I- I thought that maybe I- I could help you maybe stop crying or something."



Harry's nondescript facial expression shifted into one of slight annoyance. "It was just a nightmare. Everyone gets them." He must have been held back whatever rude comment he had in store.



"Not almost every night."



"And who said that I get them almost every night?" Harry took a short step towards Ginny, and instinctively she shifted backwards. Harry took immediate note of this small action. "Why did you back up?" Ginny, feeling increasingly intimidated, took another step backwards. She opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Harry. "There, you just did it again." He experimentally stepped towards her again, and she backed up into the door. "Why are you backing up?" She let out a small whimper, and suddenly every ounce of aggression in Harry dissipated. His shoulders slumped as if he was releasing a heavy weight and he stared at her, appearing guilty and shocked. "Do I…scare you?" he asked, astonished.



Ginny nervously toed the shiny wood floor. "No, it's just that-…well, maybe I should go."



Harry was now standing less then two inches away from Ginny. "Please don't. I want to talk with you." He took her hands and gazed into her eyes. Ginny practically melted: Harry could have a hypnotic effect with people, if he tried.



"O-okay…," she whispered, as if in a trance. Harry led her back to the rumpled sheets of his bed, where they both sat down.



"So what did you want to ask me earlier?"



Ginny snapped out of whatever trance she was in. "I wanted to ask you what happened a couple months back that turned you from happy and carefree to sad and paranoid."



"I wouldn't exactly say, "sad and paranoid", but well…I think it was everything that happened in my fourth year. I found out that the school only liked me because I was famous- when Rita Skeeter and Draco spread all those rumors, everyone immediately started hating me. Not only that, but…during the last event of the TriWizard Tournament-" Harry cut himself off and turned away from Ginny. She gently grabbed his chin and turned it to face her- tears were forming in his eyes, and his silvery moonlit cheeks turned a light shade of pink. "I don't want you to see me like this…" he laid his narrow face in his hands, and Ginny wrapped her arms around him.



"What happened at the TriWizard Tournament?"



"Well…Cedric and I were at the last leg of the maze, and we had to grab the cup- you see, whoever walked out with it would be the winner. When we were both facing the cup this huge spider came out from behind Cedric and tried to attack him, but I distracted it and it almost amputated my leg. I could barely walk because of that spider, and the deep laceration was bleeding all over my new robes…Anyway, then he wanted me to take the cup 'cos I had saved him twice so far. I insisted on us both grabbing it at the same time so that we'd both be winners-I didn't even want to win, remember I didn't even put my name in that cup in the first place. Then, when we touched it, we were transported to Godric's Hollow because the cup was a bloody portkey. As soon as we got there it was pitch black but then all these Death Eaters lit their torches- I saw Snape and Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy's fathers there- and we were in this old cemetery with a huge boiling cauldron. I heard someone say, "Kill the spare" and then the Avada Kedavra curse was performed on Cedric. There was this flash of green light, and it was like all the life was just sucked out of him-" Ginny cut him off.



"Isn't that the same curse that You-Know-Who used on your parents?"



"Yes. Anyway, after that my forehead hurt so bad I couldn't stop them from tying me up to Voldemort's father's tombstone. So then I saw that Wormtail was- Oh, Ginny: you never found out that it was Wormtail (he's Peter Pettigrew, you know) who ratted out my parents and not Sirius Black…and Sirius is my godfather."



Ginny gasped in shock and punched Harry's arm. "Blyme! Are you serious? How can you be serious? Why didn't you ever tell me?"



Harry just laughed and continued his tale. "So then I found out that Wormtail had to bring Voldemort back to life. Voldemort was this nasty little red baby-creature at the time-"



Ginny cut him off again, "Does my brother know about Sirius? Does Hermione know about Sirius?"



"Yes! They both know about him! In fact, the four of us are good friends. He writes them letters sometimes. We had the maddest adventure in our third year- but that's an entirely different story."



Ginny playfully shoved him back onto his moonlit bed. "You and your secrets."



Harry dragged her down next to him. "If you don't stop stroping (A/N: British slang for "harassing") me I'm going to call Ron. He's only one door away, you know."



"Ron would never hurt me. It's Hermione I'm worried about."



"Oy, when am I going to finish my story? I'm quite knackered, and I'd like to get back to sleep."



"Alright, you gormless wuss."(A/N: More British slang for "silly person")



"Like I was saying…Voldemort was this nasty little red baby-creature, and apparently they had to mix the correct ingredients into the cauldron for Voldemort to be able to absorb it and become his full self. So Wormtail dropped him into the cauldron, and then got some dust from the grave I was on to rise out of the ground and into the cauldron as well. Then – you'll never believe this part, Gin- Wormtail chopped off his own hand and threw it into the cauldron!"



"Eurggh! That's disgusting!"



"Like I said, it was the worst experience I've ever had. So after he cut off his hand, he used the remaining one to slice my forearm open with a knife," Harry paused to reveal to Ginny a long, jagged scar on his forearm. She gasped and poked it, causing Harry to flinch and retract his arm in sudden pain. "…So then after Wormtail had all the ingredients in the cauldron, Voldemort stood up out of it in human form. Then Voldemort started reprimanding the Death Eaters for not being loyal enough, and he performed the Cruciatus Curse on me. I have never been in more pain in my entire life. It's like being stabbed a thousand times, then falling off of a hundred-story building onto concrete seven times- I'm not exaggerating, either." By this time Harry was sprawled out on the bed with Ginny resting her head on his chest. She was near tears just thinking of this terrible experience, and how it happened to the boy she had secretly loved for years. "When he did it, I was still tied to the tombstone. I could barely see or move. My head was swimming when he challenged me to the duel. That was rather unfair, don't you think? A powerful wizard challenging a crippled fourteen year-old boy to a duel seems a bit one-sided to me. I shouted at him, and that cleared my head enough to allow me to stand up- Wormtail had untied me with his new silver hand. I dodged a few more curses, then emerged from behind another tombstone and said, 'Expelliarmus' at the same time Voldemort said, 'Avada Kedavra'. Then the really odd thing happened: Our wands connected with a golden thread, and we rose into the air, surrounded by a criss-crossed web made of the same stuff. There was a golden orb in the middle of the connecting thread, and the closer it got to Voldemort's wand, the more spirits came out. First Cedric, then the old man from my dreams, then…my dad and my mum. I urged the orb to edge close enough to Voldemort's wand for the threads to dissipate, and we fell to the ground. I ran- or stumbled, rather- far enough to grab the cup and Cedric's body and be transported back to the maze. Once there, I dragged the two of them out and collapsed. The rest of the story you already know." Harry turned his head to face the one that was resting on him. "Well, that's my story. What do you-" He noticed Ginny was crying. He wrapped his bare arms around her, and soothingly whispered into her ear. "'S okay, Gin, I'm fine now. Nothing for you to bother with, everything's over and done."



Ginny stood up with tears streaming down her cheeks, and Harry followed suit, embracing Ginny once more. "Everything's NOT over," she sobbed, "and you're NOT fine. You…all that stuff happened to you, and you didn't do anything to cause it. You're nice…and honest…and brave…and…" She looked up to see Harry gazing at her romantically, but she was too caught up in the moment to stop talking, "…And handsome…and charming…and- mmph!" Suddenly Harry's lips were on hers, and she returned the favor. This continued for several minutes until Ginny professed that she had to go back to bed.

Just as she was leaving, Harry called after her, "Ginny, wait…what does this mean?

Ginny was out of breath from her and Harry's "activities" and appeared a bit flustered. "I- I really don't know. We'll talk about it in the morning.



Ginny lay in bed, feeling both happy and sad. Happy that she had kissed Harry, and sad after hearing Harry's tragic experience. Nevertheless, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.