Chapter 16
Ginny was finding it impossible to sleep any longer, thoughts and memories about Harry were running laps through her thoughts and plaguing her dreams. Looking out the grand window beside her bed, she realized that there were still several hours until the other students would be rising to get ready for classes.
Sighing to herself, she threw the tangled blankets that were covering her back and climbed out of the bed, resigned to study if she couldn't get any sleep. She grabbed her dressing gown and transfiguration book off of her desk and silently made her way out the door of her dormitory, not wanting to wake the other occupants of her dormitory.
After closing the door behind her, she tiredly climbed down the stairs to the common room of Gryffindor tower. When she reached the base of the stairs, she was surprised to see the shadow of another person sitting on one of the plush arm chairs before the fire. She turned hastily to go back to her room to change into something more appropriate, not wanting to embarrass herself by being seen by someone she didn't know in her night dress and dressing gown.
As she was about to make her way back up the stairs though, she felt the eyes of someone on her back. Turning back around, she saw the person before the fire staring at her intently, and as she looked back she saw unmistakable emerald eyes fixed intently on her.
"Harry! I didn't realize it was you" she said as she made her way to the fire hesitantly, not knowing how to approach her boyfriend for the first time since their relationship began.
He just continued to stare at her unblinkingly as she came to a halt next to the chair that he was sitting in and returned his stare, but coming nowhere close to the intensity that his held. They remained in that position for several minutes before she broke the gaze and began to speak, but only one word would leave her lips, a name she never thought she would be able to speak again when he had disappeared.
"Harry"
She had decided one thing while she held his gaze, that no matter what others might have reason to believe, he was not evil, not truly. His eyes betrayed much of what he was feeling, and she had realized with a shock that his earlier barriers had faded completely and he was sitting before her as Harry, the seventeen year old, black haired, green eyed boy she had secretly admired since she first set eyes on him until the day she realized that the worship had turned to love.
"What are you doing down here Harry? Ron is going to have a heart attack when he wakes up and you're gone you know" she smiled slightly at the thought of her brother frantic with worry when he realized his best friend was not in the dormitory.
She was surprised to see a small smile grace Harry's face as well for a fraction of an instant.
"I could ask you the same question" his voice was barley above that of a whisper but it held a strength that would make even the loudest room fall into silence in order to hear his words.
She was startled to hear him speak at all though, because according to what Dumbledore had said, he hadn't said a word to anybody since he had turned up at the hospital and now he had spoken to her twice.
She grinned sheepishly at him before answering.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get a head start on my reading for transfiguration, you?"
"Just thinking" he answered, still not taking his eyes from her
"Would you like some company?" she asked hesitantly, hoping he wouldn't turn her away.
"Please, would you sit with me for a bit?" he asked, his voice even quieter as he said these words
Nodding, she made her way to the chair next to his to sit.
"Not there, over here, I won't bite" he said with a small half smile
Not quite sure what to do, she just looked at him intently. Sure, during the time they had been together, they had sat curled together in each others arms, but she was unsure about what she should do for a few moments before approaching Harry hesitantly and perching herself awkwardly on the arm of the chair.
"How are you feeling?" she asked the boy beside her
"I've been worse, how about you?"
Typical Harry, she thought, always worrying about everyone else's well being before his own.
"Better now than I have been in a long time, I've missed you so much"
With those words, all awkwardness slipped out of the situation and she glanced at him as he lifted his arm and fixed it around her slim waist and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close to himself as he spoke against her hair.
"I never wanted to leave you Ginny, but it was the only choice I had, and I want you to know I meant what I said that day, I love you"
"I don't blame you for leaving me Harry, I understand you had to do it, but I wish you had never been put in that position to start out with, and I feel the same way about you, I love you too"
He seamed to sigh with relief at her words and pulled her closer to himself still, and she rested her head on his chest, relishing the sound of his heart beating in his chest and the gentle rise and fall of his breathing. His arm was wrapped around her body in a protective manner, occasionally squeezing her shoulder gently.
They sat that way for a long time, just thinking their own thoughts about how nice it was to at least have one thing almost normal again. As the sun was seen peaking over the distant mountains, Ginny spoke again, turning to look deep into his eyes as she did so.
"What happened Harry? Where have you been and why are you so closed off to everyone else now? Sirius is worried about you, so are Ron and Hermione. You know you can tell me anything, I won't tell them unless you want me to"
He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath before again looking into her eyes.
"I'm sorry Gin, I can't tell you everything, but I will tell you some. If you want to tell the others, than feel free to do so, it's your choice."
He took another deep breath to still his nerves before continuing again, his voice still barley above that of a whisper and his eyes taking on a distant haunted look.
"Somehow, I sent the dementors to Azkaban and took Voldemort and the death eaters to some sort of chamber underground in the mountains. When I woke up, I was lying against a wall in a big domed room and I could hear the voices of the death eaters talking behind me. They were talking about how they had been looking for six days for a way out, but couldn't find one. I listened to them for a while before they started talking about me. They said something I still can't figure out, they said that if I weren't dead that I would be able to get them out of there. Apparently they thought that the killing curse had worked. Someone came up behind me then and kicked me in the back, I guess he was trying to take out his frustration on my body, but when he kicked me, he figured out I was not dead and pulled me to my feet as he yelled at Lucius Malfoy and told him what he found out. Malfoy came over then and he had an insane look on his face. He told the other man to bring me to the chamber and he would make me regret what I had done"
He looked back to Ginny and saw tears running down her pale cheeks as she looked in his eyes and listened to him tell his story and he knew for her sake that he couldn't tell her anymore. He knew that he would be burdened with the images of that time for the rest of his life, and he couldn't do the same to one he cared so much about. He pulled her closer to himself and felt the tears running down her face as she silently cried into his robes.
"I won't tell you what happened next, I think you have a pretty good idea about that. I'm sorry I told you anything at all, I didn't mean to upset you" he whispered as he rocked her back and forth in his lap.
"No Harry, I'm glad you did, you shouldn't have to face all of this on your own and I won't let you" she said, her tear stained face looking into his stubbornly as she lifted her hand and carefully brushed his long strands of raven hair from his face gently, so she could look into his eyes unhindered and he see that she was speaking the truth.
He smiled sadly at her words and thought to himself about how lucky he was to have found her and earned her love.
"Alright, but lets wait until later to talk about the rest, let's just sit here for a while"
"That sounds good to me" she answered as she curled back up on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder, his arm still around her.
He gently shifted his weight and wrapped her up in his cloak with him to keep her warm and rested his own head on top of hers in peaceful contentment.
They both slipped into peaceful sleep and were still in that position when the other members of Gryffindor house descended the stairs on their way to breakfast.
As the students descended the stairs, they couldn't miss the sight that greeted them in front of the fire. Most didn't quite know how to react when they saw Ginny Weasley curled up and sound asleep in Harry Potter's arms. No one wanted to wake the sleeping pair as they opened the portrait hole, so they just stood around the room and waited in silence until Ron and Hermione descended the stairs hand in hand.
They looked curiously around the room at the faces of the silent students before their eyes fell on the sleeping forms of Harry and Ginny.
The two of them were still hesitant about their friend, especially after what Dumbledore had told them at the burrow, but seeing him holding Ginny so protectively helped to alleviate some of those worries. They dropped each others hands and approached the plush chair quietly. Ron put his hand out and rested it on Harry's shoulder to wake him up, but as soon as his hand contacted his best friend, Harry's eyes flew open and were alight with a terrible green fire that they had only seen when he faced Voldemort.
He tightened his grip on his girlfriend and lifted his left hand at Ron and the red head instantly flew across the common room, landing with a hard bang on the floor. The screams from the other students awoke Ginny and she jumped to her feet and took in the scene before her, first her brother lying sprawled on the floor with a look of abject shock on his face, the other students scrambling out the portrait hole in fear, Hermione with her mouth hanging open and her eyes traveling from her boyfriend to Harry, fear evident in her expression.
Ginny then looked down at Harry herself and saw his eyes were wide and filled with terror and he was trembling from head to toe, his gaze never leaving his friend and his arm still stretched in front of himself, his face void of all color.
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A/N: Is this mean or what? I just couldn't resist but don't worry because if I get some good reviews, I'll post more tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope you all enjoy this part and the previous chapter, I figured I would make up for making you wait so long for the last chapter so here you go! Hope it makes sense and if not, leave your questions in a review and I'll answer them in the next chapter.
Ginny was finding it impossible to sleep any longer, thoughts and memories about Harry were running laps through her thoughts and plaguing her dreams. Looking out the grand window beside her bed, she realized that there were still several hours until the other students would be rising to get ready for classes.
Sighing to herself, she threw the tangled blankets that were covering her back and climbed out of the bed, resigned to study if she couldn't get any sleep. She grabbed her dressing gown and transfiguration book off of her desk and silently made her way out the door of her dormitory, not wanting to wake the other occupants of her dormitory.
After closing the door behind her, she tiredly climbed down the stairs to the common room of Gryffindor tower. When she reached the base of the stairs, she was surprised to see the shadow of another person sitting on one of the plush arm chairs before the fire. She turned hastily to go back to her room to change into something more appropriate, not wanting to embarrass herself by being seen by someone she didn't know in her night dress and dressing gown.
As she was about to make her way back up the stairs though, she felt the eyes of someone on her back. Turning back around, she saw the person before the fire staring at her intently, and as she looked back she saw unmistakable emerald eyes fixed intently on her.
"Harry! I didn't realize it was you" she said as she made her way to the fire hesitantly, not knowing how to approach her boyfriend for the first time since their relationship began.
He just continued to stare at her unblinkingly as she came to a halt next to the chair that he was sitting in and returned his stare, but coming nowhere close to the intensity that his held. They remained in that position for several minutes before she broke the gaze and began to speak, but only one word would leave her lips, a name she never thought she would be able to speak again when he had disappeared.
"Harry"
She had decided one thing while she held his gaze, that no matter what others might have reason to believe, he was not evil, not truly. His eyes betrayed much of what he was feeling, and she had realized with a shock that his earlier barriers had faded completely and he was sitting before her as Harry, the seventeen year old, black haired, green eyed boy she had secretly admired since she first set eyes on him until the day she realized that the worship had turned to love.
"What are you doing down here Harry? Ron is going to have a heart attack when he wakes up and you're gone you know" she smiled slightly at the thought of her brother frantic with worry when he realized his best friend was not in the dormitory.
She was surprised to see a small smile grace Harry's face as well for a fraction of an instant.
"I could ask you the same question" his voice was barley above that of a whisper but it held a strength that would make even the loudest room fall into silence in order to hear his words.
She was startled to hear him speak at all though, because according to what Dumbledore had said, he hadn't said a word to anybody since he had turned up at the hospital and now he had spoken to her twice.
She grinned sheepishly at him before answering.
"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to get a head start on my reading for transfiguration, you?"
"Just thinking" he answered, still not taking his eyes from her
"Would you like some company?" she asked hesitantly, hoping he wouldn't turn her away.
"Please, would you sit with me for a bit?" he asked, his voice even quieter as he said these words
Nodding, she made her way to the chair next to his to sit.
"Not there, over here, I won't bite" he said with a small half smile
Not quite sure what to do, she just looked at him intently. Sure, during the time they had been together, they had sat curled together in each others arms, but she was unsure about what she should do for a few moments before approaching Harry hesitantly and perching herself awkwardly on the arm of the chair.
"How are you feeling?" she asked the boy beside her
"I've been worse, how about you?"
Typical Harry, she thought, always worrying about everyone else's well being before his own.
"Better now than I have been in a long time, I've missed you so much"
With those words, all awkwardness slipped out of the situation and she glanced at him as he lifted his arm and fixed it around her slim waist and pulled her onto his lap, holding her close to himself as he spoke against her hair.
"I never wanted to leave you Ginny, but it was the only choice I had, and I want you to know I meant what I said that day, I love you"
"I don't blame you for leaving me Harry, I understand you had to do it, but I wish you had never been put in that position to start out with, and I feel the same way about you, I love you too"
He seamed to sigh with relief at her words and pulled her closer to himself still, and she rested her head on his chest, relishing the sound of his heart beating in his chest and the gentle rise and fall of his breathing. His arm was wrapped around her body in a protective manner, occasionally squeezing her shoulder gently.
They sat that way for a long time, just thinking their own thoughts about how nice it was to at least have one thing almost normal again. As the sun was seen peaking over the distant mountains, Ginny spoke again, turning to look deep into his eyes as she did so.
"What happened Harry? Where have you been and why are you so closed off to everyone else now? Sirius is worried about you, so are Ron and Hermione. You know you can tell me anything, I won't tell them unless you want me to"
He closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath before again looking into her eyes.
"I'm sorry Gin, I can't tell you everything, but I will tell you some. If you want to tell the others, than feel free to do so, it's your choice."
He took another deep breath to still his nerves before continuing again, his voice still barley above that of a whisper and his eyes taking on a distant haunted look.
"Somehow, I sent the dementors to Azkaban and took Voldemort and the death eaters to some sort of chamber underground in the mountains. When I woke up, I was lying against a wall in a big domed room and I could hear the voices of the death eaters talking behind me. They were talking about how they had been looking for six days for a way out, but couldn't find one. I listened to them for a while before they started talking about me. They said something I still can't figure out, they said that if I weren't dead that I would be able to get them out of there. Apparently they thought that the killing curse had worked. Someone came up behind me then and kicked me in the back, I guess he was trying to take out his frustration on my body, but when he kicked me, he figured out I was not dead and pulled me to my feet as he yelled at Lucius Malfoy and told him what he found out. Malfoy came over then and he had an insane look on his face. He told the other man to bring me to the chamber and he would make me regret what I had done"
He looked back to Ginny and saw tears running down her pale cheeks as she looked in his eyes and listened to him tell his story and he knew for her sake that he couldn't tell her anymore. He knew that he would be burdened with the images of that time for the rest of his life, and he couldn't do the same to one he cared so much about. He pulled her closer to himself and felt the tears running down her face as she silently cried into his robes.
"I won't tell you what happened next, I think you have a pretty good idea about that. I'm sorry I told you anything at all, I didn't mean to upset you" he whispered as he rocked her back and forth in his lap.
"No Harry, I'm glad you did, you shouldn't have to face all of this on your own and I won't let you" she said, her tear stained face looking into his stubbornly as she lifted her hand and carefully brushed his long strands of raven hair from his face gently, so she could look into his eyes unhindered and he see that she was speaking the truth.
He smiled sadly at her words and thought to himself about how lucky he was to have found her and earned her love.
"Alright, but lets wait until later to talk about the rest, let's just sit here for a while"
"That sounds good to me" she answered as she curled back up on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder, his arm still around her.
He gently shifted his weight and wrapped her up in his cloak with him to keep her warm and rested his own head on top of hers in peaceful contentment.
They both slipped into peaceful sleep and were still in that position when the other members of Gryffindor house descended the stairs on their way to breakfast.
As the students descended the stairs, they couldn't miss the sight that greeted them in front of the fire. Most didn't quite know how to react when they saw Ginny Weasley curled up and sound asleep in Harry Potter's arms. No one wanted to wake the sleeping pair as they opened the portrait hole, so they just stood around the room and waited in silence until Ron and Hermione descended the stairs hand in hand.
They looked curiously around the room at the faces of the silent students before their eyes fell on the sleeping forms of Harry and Ginny.
The two of them were still hesitant about their friend, especially after what Dumbledore had told them at the burrow, but seeing him holding Ginny so protectively helped to alleviate some of those worries. They dropped each others hands and approached the plush chair quietly. Ron put his hand out and rested it on Harry's shoulder to wake him up, but as soon as his hand contacted his best friend, Harry's eyes flew open and were alight with a terrible green fire that they had only seen when he faced Voldemort.
He tightened his grip on his girlfriend and lifted his left hand at Ron and the red head instantly flew across the common room, landing with a hard bang on the floor. The screams from the other students awoke Ginny and she jumped to her feet and took in the scene before her, first her brother lying sprawled on the floor with a look of abject shock on his face, the other students scrambling out the portrait hole in fear, Hermione with her mouth hanging open and her eyes traveling from her boyfriend to Harry, fear evident in her expression.
Ginny then looked down at Harry herself and saw his eyes were wide and filled with terror and he was trembling from head to toe, his gaze never leaving his friend and his arm still stretched in front of himself, his face void of all color.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Is this mean or what? I just couldn't resist but don't worry because if I get some good reviews, I'll post more tonight or tomorrow morning. I hope you all enjoy this part and the previous chapter, I figured I would make up for making you wait so long for the last chapter so here you go! Hope it makes sense and if not, leave your questions in a review and I'll answer them in the next chapter.