Disclaimers are busy enjoying their last few days of freedom before school.

Don't Ever Leave Me, OK?

The bus lurched to a stop, but it went unnoticed by the auburn-haired woman. She sat, staring off into space. Someone walking up the aisle knocked over her bag, and almost instantaneously the woman snapped back down into reality. She looked up to see another woman, perhaps in her early thirties, struggling with a small baby and a pram. "So sorry about that," said the woman, dropping into a vacant seat behind the lady, as the baby began to grizzle. "Oh, never mind," replied the redhead in earnest, as she bent over to snatch up the contents of her bag before they rolled away down the aisle of the bus. Sweeping a hand under the seat, her fingers clasped onto something she really didn't want to see at that moment - or any moment, really. Picking it up, the woman brought up the necklace for inspection. It was a shell necklace; many shells of different shape, size, colour and texture all threaded together. At one time the necklace might have been wanted, but not now, not anymore. Now it only served as a painful reminder of what had come to pass. "Ooh, isn't that pretty," said the woman with the baby. The redhead noticed with bitter amusement that the necklace had caught the baby's attention as well, and now the little child stared openly at it, her big brown eyes full of wonder and enchantment. "Yes," answered the redhead, grasping the necklace so tightly now that her knuckles were turning white. The baby's attention was diverted from the necklace as her mother handed her a bottle, and as such neither of them noticed a lone tear that slipped from the glittering blue eyes of the woman with the fiery-coloured hair. The tear trickled slowly down her freckled cheek, and she angrily wiped it away with the back of one of her hands, before unceremoniously shoving the necklace back in her bag. Looking out the window, the woman tried her best to put away the past - lock it up and throw away the key - but her overly bright eyes gave her away, and before long more tears were slipping down her cheeks, unnoticed by the other passengers of the bus.

Harry and Ginny had been unofficially going out for a little over two months, when Dumbledore announced an upcoming trip to the beach. It was Christmas Holidays, and Ginny, Ron and Hermione had stayed behind to spend the magical time-of-year with Harry. There were a few other students staying this year, but they were mainly Ravenclaw's, and certainly there was no one staying that the dream team and Ginny didn't get along with. The trip to the beach was a surprise Christmas present for the students, and it came about partly because the local temperatures were dropping rapidly, plunging them into an icy winter. A trip to a tropical beach for some warmer weather seemed like the perfect idea. They were only going for a day, but Ginny was thrilled, she couldn't wait. Ginny knew she was going to have so much fun - she was in love and for once that someone loved her back.

The twenty-one students and seven members of faculty, whom hadn't gone home for the holidays, traveled to the beach using strictly supervised Portkeys. The excitement turned to astonished gasps as the students landed - they could barely believe their eyes. They had quite literally stepped into the Bahamas, a deserted island no less. Sand stretched for mile upon mile up the beach, and the blue water glinted in the sunlight, beckoning to the entranced students. Almost instantly, clothes and robes were ripped off to reveal brightly coloured bathing suits, and the kids ran for the water, while the faculty brought out the sun umbrellas and beach towels, and settled in for a nice, relaxing day.

Ginny took her time on the beach, allowing herself a pleasurable look at Harry's well-toned body, as he paddled about in the water. Quidditch, she decided, treated him very well. His body was lithe, not too skinny, but with doodle grooves (A/N: This is what I call the V where a guy's torso connects to his legs. Only guys with six packs and almost six packs have these, guts don't show doodle groves.) where his torso connected with his legs. He also had a six-pack, which, Ginny had discovered, was surprisingly very ticklish.

"Stop staring!" Hermione said as she walked up to the younger girl.

"Would you?" Ginny replied coyly.

Hermione held her hands up in mock surrender. "Fine then, point taken. Come on let's go in the water."

"Yeah, be there in a sec."

Ginny walked slowly down to the water's edge, keeping her eyes locked on Harry the whole way. He too, she noticed, was watching her, as if she might disappear at any moment. Ginny slipped into the cool water and swam eagerly out to him. When she reached him, however, she was slightly startled as he grabbed her, pulled her in close, and gave her a fierce kiss.

"What was that for?" asked Ginny, coming up for air.

"Just don't leave me, ok?" said Harry, a hint of desperation in his voice. Ginny gazed into his emerald green eyes for a few moments, trying to seek out the lost little boy who had just said that. She smiled reassuringly.

"No fear, I love you too much." Ginny snuggled further into Harry's arms, and the two watched as the other students began to conduct a full on water fight.





Later in the day, when most students were out of the water, and nearly everyone (teachers included) were participating in a Sandcastle Competition that Dumbledore had set up, Harry and Ginny wandered off down the beach. There hands were interlocked, and they strolled lazily across the sand with not a care in the world. Once they were out of sight of the Hogwart's students and staff, Harry suddenly dropped down into the sand, pulling Ginny down with him. Ginny looked at him questioningly, but he just responded by raising his eyebrows seductively. It was all the permission Ginny needed. Quickly she reached up and kissed him on the lips. Harry replied by circling his arms around her, drawing her closer to him. He moved Ginny's long red hair out the way and started kissing her neck. "Mmmmm." Harry smiled at that and turned her around to kiss her on the mouth, quite passionately in Ginny's opinion. Ginny sighed; she could stay like this forever, worry free, happy and in love. But that wouldn't be a good idea, she realized, for she was starting to lose control over herself. Ginny broke off the kiss and stood up, "Come on, let's keep walking."

This time it was Harry's turn to sigh, rather exasperatedly. "Ok."

As they continued walking up the beach Harry would stop every now and then to pick up shells. These were almost immediately stowed away in his pockets, but not a word was said as to why. Ginny just presumed he liked shells.

They had been walking up along the beach for a while now, sitting down under shady palm trees when they felt it was needed and stealing kisses here and there. Ginny loved it; she would have given up forever just to stay there with Harry. Unfortunately though, the sun was sinking and Ginny could hear Ron and Hermione calling out to Harry and her, calling them back and signaling an end to their temporary bliss. Harry and Ginny stopped in their tracks and turned around to begin walking back. In the near distance, they could see Ron and Hermione running up the beach towards them, hand in hand, and smile's on their faces. Ginny was glad that Ron and Hermione had finally worked things out, sometimes her brother was just so... lost. Thank Merlin for Hermione, she could keep him on track.

"Where the bloody hell have you two been?" bellowed Ron, as they caught up to Harry and Ginny. "Come on, Dumbledore says the Portkeys are due to activate in less than fifteen minutes time!"

"Yeah, ok Ron, hold your horses," Harry replied. "We were heading back anyway."

Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny walked back to the group of Hogwart's teachers and students in silence. No one really wanted to leave, being on a beach so far from civilization made life seem so innocent and worry free, and everyone had heavy heart's about heading home, knowing that the darkness was growing, lives were being lost. Each of them knowing that there would come a time when Harry would have to once more face Voldemort, and if possible, defeat the dark wizard. Ginny tried to keep Harry's mind away from dark thoughts like Voldemort, though, she always made sure he was smiling.



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Several months after the trip to the beach, Ginny's birthday came up. She was showered with gifts from her friends and family. Her mother, as per usual, had sent Ginny a jumper with a large love heart on the front. Ginny blushed thinking of the hints that Harry and her were receiving from her family. The next present was a book from Hermione, entitled "The Depths of Your Magical Dreams". Ginny was thrilled about this; she had wanted to read the book for quite some time. 'Trust 'Mione,' Ginny thought. She got a huge bag of sweets from Honeydukes from Ron. As soon as Ginny had opened this present, she promptly hit Ron over the head, claiming that he was trying to make her fat.

While all her presents were good, the most wonderful present was the one Ginny received off Harry. It had entranced Ginny the second it had slid out of the wrapping paper. It was a stunning necklace of shells. Ginny picked it up to examine, running her smooth fingers over the dints and grooves in the shells. "Oh my gosh, Harry, thank you so much! It's beautiful!"

"I made it myself, well Hermione helped me a bit." He smiled, "They're the shells I was picking up at the beach that day." He drew her in for a hug. "I love you Gin, don't forget that and don't you ever leave me, ok?"

Ginny was shocked again by this outburst, but she hid it, replying calmly, "I love you too Harry. But don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." 'Not without you at least,' she thought to herself, as he placed the necklace around her neck and did up the clasp.