A/N: Sorry for the long delay, but I have just bought Diablo 2 and suddenly found my time disappearing at an astounding rate. Anyway, here is the next chapter. Hope it's up to everyone's expectations, low as that might be.
Thanks to those who review the last chapter. Especially Bucky, who was the only review I had for a few days, making me think that no one else cared for my work anymore. I began this chapter for him/her/it, thinking that I at least own it to him/her/it to complete this story. (Sorry, but you didn't have any information in your author's page.)
To some dude, I think thefly has a massage to you. read it in the reviews.
Thanks goes to Ronniekin's sweetheart and Bob33 too. Thanks lots.
Keep those reviews coming. While it's not compulsory, it does encourage the author greatly to see reviews. Thanks.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The name Tel'anran'rhiod belong to Robert Jorden and the 'Wheel of Time'
Dreaming of You
Chapter 4
Heart Talk 2
Draco Malfoy paced around the Slytherin's common room, his face creased with worry. It was almost time for him to report in, and he wasn't looking forward to it at all, not when he didn't have the goods to deliver. How is he going to explain that he had failed to kidnap one of Harry's best friends? The Dark Lord did not take kindly to failures. At least the common room was empty, sparing him from embarrassment…
The fireplace behind him suddenly busted into flames, startling Malfoy. A face slowly appeared inside the fire, and Lucius Malfoy looked out of the fire at his son.
"Well, have you completed the mission?" Lucius demanded, getting straight to the point.
"I'm very sorry, but Potter and Weasley keep interrupting." Draco said placidly, hopping to be able to get through this without hurting himself.
"In other words, no." Lucius sneered. "How useless can you get, not being able to complete such a simple mission? You just have to get her alone and Portkey her to us. How difficult is that?"
'I'll like to see you try it with Potter hovering over her all day, Dad…' Draco thought sarcastically. He did not, however, say it out loud. He's not so foolish as to incur the anger of his father needlessly.
"No matter." Lucius continued. "Peter Pettigrew" Lucius made a disgusted face. "That insufferable rat, through his rat spies inside Hogwarts, had found a better target for you."
Draco was surprised, though he didn't allow it to show on his face. There's someone else even closer to Potter than that mudblood? Briefly, Draco ran through the names of the Gryffindors, but drew up a blank.
"One that you should have no trouble with, even with your limited talents." Lucius continued. "Weasley's daughter."
"Ginny?" Draco was surprised. Ginny Weasley, closer to Harry Potter then even his best friend Hermione Granger? How is that possible?
"Just do it." Lucius snapped. Draco's doubt had appeared for a moment before it was suppressed. "Do not question the Dark Lord's decision."
"As the Dark Lord commands." Draco replied smoothly, bowing slightly. Lucius stared at Draco for another moment before his head disappear from the fire.
"So… Ginny Weasley…" Draco whispered. He smiled a cold smile. This should be interesting.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Wait, Harry!" Hermione cried as she tried to catch up with Harry, who was running full speed towards God-knows-where.
"Ginny may be in trouble! How can I stop and wait!" Harry shouted back over his shoulder.
"Use your brain, Harry!" Hermione returned, finally managing to catch his arm. Harry, in his impatience, tried to pull himself free. Hermione did not let go, however, and they ended up tumbling over each other.
"Harry, calm down." Hermione said. Being on the top, she had recovered faster, and had seated herself on Harry, to prevent him from running off again. "What can you accomplish by running around in circles?"
"I have to find Ginny." Harry said stubbornly. He struggled to get up. Hermione pushed him down again roughly.
"We do have a faster way to find her, you know." Hermione said quickly, trying to hold Harry's wriggling form. "The Marauder's Map, remember?"
Harry stopped struggling as if by magic. "Of course! I had completely forgotten about it." He would have slapped himself on the head if it weren't for the fact that Hermione was holding it down.
"I was almost sure that you had forgotten about your brain." Hermione scolded, still not relaxing her hold. For such a thin boy, Harry is surprisingly strong.
Just then, Ron appeared around the corner. He had tripped over the ledge at the foot of the painting, giving Harry and Hermione a huge head start, which is why he only caught up with them now. He stopped short at the sight of Hermione seating on Harry.
"What are you two doing?" Ron spoke up, after recovering from the shock.
"Ron, good timing." Hermione cried out on seeing him. "Help me hold Harry. Don't let him rush off again."
"Don't worry about that, Hermione." Harry replied. "I wouldn't rush off. Just let me up. I need to get the map."
Hermione got up slowly, still ready to grab hold of Harry should he decide to resume his mad rush. Harry, however, just stood up and dusted himself off.
"Let's go." Was all he said before starting for the Gryffindor's common room.
"Where are we going?" Ron asked as Harry brushed by him.
"Back to the dorm." Hermione answered, as she too walked by him.
"But we just came from there!" Ron protested as he turned to follow.
"I forgot to take the map." Harry said shortly. He was almost sick with worry for Ginny. Just thinking of the possibilities of Voldemort getting his slimly hands on her was almost enough to make him scream.
"Well, why didn't you think of it when you are there?" Ron wasn't normally this irritable, but his worry for his little sister had made him short-tempered. And all that aimless running he just did had not improve his temper at all.
"Stop that, Ron." Hermione snapped. "Do you want to find Ginny?" Although she too was worried for Ginny, She couldn't afford to give in to panic like Harry just did. She had to keep her cool. After all, wasn't she supposed to be the brain of this team? But it's a little hard to think when the boys were arguing, though…
Ron opened his mouth to retort, but shut it when Hermione glared at him. The rest of the journey was made in silence.
~~~~~~~~~~
Seamus, Neville and Dean were just getting ready for bed when Harry banged into the room, crossed the length of it to his trunk, grabbed something from it and was out of the room before they could even blink.
Seamus turned to Dean. "Is that Harry just now?"
"I think so, but I couldn't see clearly. He was moving too fast." Dean replied. "What about you, Neville?"
A snore was his only answer. Neville was already asleep.
Seamus and Dean looked at each other before shaking their heads and turning to their beds, the incident already dismissed from their minds.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Well?" Ron whispered, as Harry walked down the stairs with the map in front of him. "Where is she?"
"Astronomy Tower." Harry answered quietly.
"WHAT!!!" Ron exclaimed. "The Astronomy Tower? Without you?"
Seeing Harry's clueless look, Hermione explained it to him.
"The Astronomy Tower is the place where boyfriends bring their girlfriends to when they want to get away from other people."
"Oh…" Harry quickly looked back at the map. "At least she's alone there."
"Well, we better go get her." Hermione said, standing up. Harry shook his head at that.
"I think it would be better if I go myself." Harry replied.
"Why's that?" Hermione asked.
"Ginny must be upset about something, or she would be here in the common room with us." Harry answered.
"Yeah." Ron chipped in. "Ginny used to hide away when she's upset about something. Gave us quite a job looking for her, sometimes."
"Oh well. You guys know her best." Hermione said, sitting back down with a slightly sad expression. "Go on, just don't be too late."
Harry flash her a quick smile before disappearing through the door of the common room.
~~~~~~~~~~
Ginny sat at corner of the room on top of the Astronomy Tower, not doing anything, nor thinking anything. Her mind is a comfortable blank now. Luckily the Tower was empty today. This being the first day of school, everyone was too tired to think of sneaking around with their respective partners. She had wandered around the castle for sometime after what she heard within Moaning Myrtle's toilet in a daze, not knowing, or caring where she ended up.
Of course, she had finally found herself here at the Astronomy Tower, looking out of the window at the failing day and the coming of night when she snapped out of her daze. Somehow it fits how she's feeling right now. The happy two weeks that she had with Harry was ending, like the day was, and the only thing in the future was the endless night of looking out of the shadows at Harry and Hermione together. She knew, somehow, that she would never love anyone like she loved Harry. It was somehow part of her now, loving Harry. She would never escape from it.
As the first stars appeared in the sky, Ginny found tears gathering in her eyes again, as she recall the way they got together in Tel'anran'rhiod, and of the two weeks of happiness she had. She had sank to her knees there in front of the window and allowed the tears to fall. There's no one there. No one to see her cry, to laugh at her for being to foolish as to think that Harry Potter, The Great Harry Potter would ever love her. But there's a part of her that protested to that thought. The part that told her that the past two weeks were not a dream, that Harry had told her he loved her, many times. That he wouldn't lie about something like that. Not Harry. He had known too little love in his life to make light of love.
Just as she was taking comfort in that thought, another one popped up in her head. If Harry loved her so much, why didn't he touch her more? Ginny had grown up in a large family. To her, touch is a very important part of telling someone that you care for him or her. A simple pat on the head, a hug, or simply holding hands means more than words to her that someone care for her. But Harry did none of these with her. In fact, he seems uncomfortable when she cuddled up to him.
Of course, in her mind she knew why is that. Harry was almost always alone before he came to Hogwarts. His muggle relatives did not like, much less love him. He had grown up lacking much of the human contact that she had taken for granted in the large family she had. But in her heart she can't help but feel that he somehow didn't care for her when he showed discomfort in those simple acts that couples share. She knew he couldn't help it, but she still felt that way anyway.
Distantly, she heard the door to the room she's in creak open, and a head poked in, looking around for something.
"Ginny?" A voice said into the silence of the room. A voice she knew very well.
"What do you want, Potter?" Ginny said harshly, harsher than she had wanted to sound. Crying for hours will do that to your voice.
There was a stunned silence before Harry replied.
"What? Why did you call me Potter?" Harry's voice sounded shocked.
"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked, ignoring Harry's question. In true, she didn't know why she did that, either. It just slipped out.
"Looking for you. What do you think?" Harry replied, walking into the room. "Something's brothering you. Why don't you tell me about it?"
"Aren't you with Hermione?" Ginny replied, ignoring Harry's question again.
"We were looking for you." Harry answered, sitting himself beside her. "Everyone was worried about you, when you weren't in the common room when we got back. Ron nearly wore a hole in the floor of the common room with his pacing."
Despite herself, Ginny smiled a little at the thought of Ron falling through the floor of the common room because of the hole he created by pacing.
"What about you? Are you worried for me?" Ginny couldn't help but ask. She knew that answer, but she needed to hear it for herself.
"No. I wasn't worry about you." Came the answer.
"What?" Ginny was shocked. So Harry didn't care for her after all. She could feel her heart making a trip down to the basement of her shoes…
"I was fanatic!" Harry continued. He turned to face Ginny. "When I couldn't find you in the common room, I nearly went crazy. It took Hermione and Ron to pull me back to my senses."
"Oh… Sorry." Ginny said. But her heart had suddenly been given wings, and was now somewhere in her head. Harry Potter cared for her!
"Why did you disappear like that? I thought that Voldemort had somehow got hold of you!" Harry asked, the concern plain in his voice.
"I thought that you left me for Hermione." Was the shaky reply.
"Why would I want to do that, when I have you?" Harry asked, puzzled.
"When I saw you hugging her, and you never did the same to me." Ginny answered, near tears again.
There was a moment of silence. Then Ginny felt Harry's arm landed softly on her shoulders.
"Ginny, she was crying." Harry replied gently. "You can't expect me to just leave her like that." He pulled her closer to him.
"No, I suppose not." Ginny gave a small sigh and rested her head on his shoulders. She felt him tense up, but he didn't pull away like he did the first time she did that.
"I'm sorry about not hugging you." Harry said then. "I really don't feel comfortable with it. But give me time, and I will overcome this."
"So you're still my boyfriend, right?" Ginny looked up to Harry's face.
"I never stopped being yours, and I never will, Ginny. Don't worry about that." Harry answered, smiling down on her. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
"I'm really sorry for running off." Ginny said, snuggling deeper. "I just felt really confused when I saw Hermione hugging you."
"It's ok. Don't worry about it." Harry replied. "Just remember that I will always love you, no matter what. You're the only one who can understand me completely. There'll be no one else that I'll love more than you."
Ginny smiled on hearing those words. Her thoughts before now seem silly and stupid in the face of Harry's words. Suddenly tired, she felt herself drifting to sleep, warm in Harry's embrace. "I love you too…" She said sleepily.
There they sat, Harry with his arm around Ginny's shoulders, Ginny resting her head on his shoulders. 'That wasn't so bad.' Harry thought. 'This is what I was so afraid of?'
"Ginny?' Harry said. "We should get going. Ron will be worried."
There was no answer. Ginny was already fast asleep. Harry sighed and gathered her in his arms. He didn't want to disturb her sleep, but they had to return to the Gryffindor Tower. The best way to accomplish both is to carry her back. At least it's so late at night that there wouldn't be anyone around to see him carrying her.
Standing up, Harry made his way across the room and closed the door behind him as he went through it.