A/N: Here comes part 2 of 3! Where the first chapter was humorous, this one is serious. This is one of the first times I've written the serious parts into my stories, because almost everything else I have written is fluff. Now let's get walking!
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Part 2 -- The Walk
As Ginny walked outside, she tried not to let it phase her that she was standing next to the guy she'd crushed on since before she knew him. Since she had tried to rid herself of her feelings for him, she had gotten her feelings straight rather then throwing them away. Now she liked Harry but wasn't obsessed with him in the way she used to be. She wished she could say she was in love. But then the concept of love was such a mystery that she did not know how to tell. The only thing she knew was that she thought of him night and day, with an appreciative and protective nature rather than a fixated one. She sighed inwardly. Her life was so confusing.
Harry walked through the giant doors into the crisp autumn air, staring straight ahead. Whenever he had time alone, his mind seemed to wander back to that fateful day of the Triwizard Tournament. He was almost lost to the world when Ginny spoke and brought him back.
"So, the match against Ravenclaw is a week away. Do you think Ron will be ready?"
Harry sighed. "I'm sure he'll do fine. I don't know about me, though. I haven't been..." He trailed off. He shouldn't worry Ginny with his problems. "I've just been really tired, recently."
Ginny got the point anyway. "Not sleeping well? I know how that feels."
Harry turned his head toward her. "You do?"
"Yeah. I used to, well, have nightmares. After my first year."
Harry looked at her for a few seconds before he realized he was staring. Of course, idiot. Just had to bring that up. Great. "Oh. Yeah, sorry."
"Don't be, I don't have them anymore. All I had to do is think about something pleasant before I went to sleep for a while and eventually they were gone for good."
"Sounds like a Dementor." Harry saw Ginny shudder at the mention. Nice one, Potter. Bring up more horrible things.
"Yeah, sort of. Whenever I was near one of those things the next year, I would hear..."
Harry stopped walking. There was something in Ginny's voice that made him do so. He couldn't identify it. "What? What did you hear?"
Ginny gave a nervous laugh. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Well, I don't know how, but I heard Tom. And you." She looked at the ground. "In the Chamber."
"What did you hear?" Harry asked gently. He didn't want to press her.
Ginny's ears were pounding. She couldn't tell him what she heard. At least, not everything. Not that she heard Tom tell Harry that she had obsessed over him. "Just little pieces of what he said to you. Like, 'It's very boring, having to listen to the silly little troubles of an eleven-year-old girl,''Ginny simply loved me,' and how he called me stupid little Ginny." She sighed. "But he was right. I was stupid." She gave a small shiver as the breeze cut through her. It was always colder when she thought about Tom.
Harry removed his cloak and draped it around Ginny's shoulders. He slowly began to walk again with his arm still around her shoulders until he was burning with embarrassment and he removed it. "You are not stupid. Don't even say that; you had no idea that simply writing in a diary would have such an effect. No one would have."
Ginny knew he probably only said it to make her feel better, but it meant so much more coming from him. She didn't need the cloak to warm her up anymore, because Harry's words did that much, but she didn't want to give it back either. "Thanks," she said timidly.
"I always heard my parent's death, when I was near a Dementor. But now I think," Harry couldn't believe he was going to admit it out loud, "I think I'd see Cedric's death as well. If only I had gone by myself." The last part he mumbled to himself.
"No." Ginny said in response. "You wouldn't do that. At the time you just thought you were just winning the tournament. And you wouldn't take all the glory for yourself. It's not...you."
Harry shook his head. Now that he'd spoken the problem he had to keep going. "No, I still should have known that something bad would happen. We hadn't had any interactions with Voldemort in two years, it was bound to be coming. I should have known. And now another death has occurred because of me."
"I used to think that, about death," Ginny started, staring straight ahead in order to concentrate on how she worded what she was about to say. "That every death could have been prevented if someone had done something different. And that makes sense. But you know what I've learned?" Harry shook his head and his unruly black hair shook around his head. He was looking at her with intense green eyes that showed that he was listening intently. God, she loved his eyes. "Death is inevitable. If it's your time to go, then you will die. The only thing other people can influence is the way it happens. That scared me so bad when I thought of it. It's almost like–like we don't have any control over our lives. But it also means that if it's not your time, you won't die."
Harry continued to look at Ginny as she spoke. How did she do it? Influence him so much? When she turned her head to him again, it startled him a bit. Did she want him to speak? How could he respond to that? But then she continued on, looking into his eyes.
"You're the prime example. You've escaped death, what? Four, five times now? And you know why. You've still got a purpose in this life." Ginny turned and looked ahead again. She couldn't bear to look any longer at his face. It made her melt to know for sure that he was listening. It was harder to form sentences knowing that he would probably catch it if she said anything stupid or wrong. "Cedric had fulfilled his purpose on earth, if he hadn't died by Voldemort's wand he would have done so some other way. And there's no way you could change it now, anyway. What's done is done. Do you see what I mean, Harry?"
As Ginny turned her face to his again, Harry was suddenly overwhelmed with the want to kiss her. It scared him that he felt such a compulsion to lean only a little bit forward and reveal everything he felt at once. She would think he was a fool. She had shown no interest in him since her first year, anyway. It was stupid to assume she fancied him as much as he did her. "Yeah, I think I do."
Ginny forced herself to look away and searched her mind for a subject change. She couldn't believe herself. For a moment she had actually thought Harry would kiss her. He had never communicated anything to her that said 'more than friends', so why had she even considered that he would do such a thing? Finally she came up with a happier topic. "Well, at least not everything about the Triwizard Tournament was bad. What about the Yule Ball?"
Harry laughed. "That wasn't bad? Are you sure?" Ginny gave him a half-smile that made him want to explain his reasons for disliking it. "Don't get me wrong, Parvati's a nice girl and everything, but..." Harry sighed and shook his head. "It doesn't work. I think Ron and I were about 180 degrees in the wrong direction when we went about getting dates for that bloody dance."
Ginny didn't know what to think. She had known, because Hermione had found out and told her, that Harry had asked Cho Chang first and foremost. So it was nice to think that he didn't like that decision. But then he had asked her, too, eventually. It had been an act of desperation and Ron had actually suggested it, but was he saying that he should not have asked her at all? STOP, she told herself. You're terrible with overanalyzing. Whatever he meant by that statement, it wouldn't be this hard to figure out. She concluded that he simply meant the ball had turned out to be a disappointment and forgot about it, for now. She'd surely analyze the statement more later. She always did. "Yeah, I understand. I went with Neville, and I could handle that he was clumsy and kept stepping on my feet on the dance floor. But like you said, it just doesn't work. Ron definitely went down the wrong path for that dance, though, didn't he?" She felt a smile spreading on her face.
Harry gave a small laugh, "Yeah, I heard him and Hermione after the dance. Hermione really gave him a reality check that night. I'm sure that one pushed him in the right direction. 'Cause hey, six months later, they were going out. At least this time, it will be easy for Ron."
Ginny laughed, trying to keep it from sounding nervous. She had nearly forgotten. There was a Halloween Ball in a little over a month. The official announcement wouldn't be made for a few more days but since Harry and Hermione were prefects, Ginny had found out about it. "I don't know. Ron has been known to mess these kinds of things up before."
Harry was smiling now. Ginny had really been cheering him up since they had started walking. They must have walked around the lake 212 times now, but Harry didn't mind. "True, but I'm sure eventually he'll ask Hermione and she'll say yes. Or 'Duh.'"
"Funny. I don't see Hermione as a 'duh' kind of girl."
"Very funny. But seriously, this time around Ron's got it easy. No thinking up words to say and no worrying if she'll say yes."
"You're wrong there. Knowing my brother, he'll still dwell on all of that. We Weasleys tend to obsess like that." Ginny felt blood rushing to her cheeks. Had she just said that? Out loud?
"Yeah, you're right again. I bet he will worry about it. But he shouldn't have to."
"Neither should you."
Harry blinked twice. Did he hear that right? "What?"
Ginny tried hard to think of a reason for saying that. "Come on, Harry. Almost every girl in Hogwarts is either obsessed with you or would at least go to the dance with you. It's part of being the Boy Who Lived."
Harry sighed. "Well I wish it wasn't. I don't want to go to a dance with some girl that's obsessed with me because I'm famous."
Ginny's mouth went dry. He had just described to the 't' how she had acted in her first year.
"I want to go with someone that understands me. That I can..." Harry swallowed hard. "...talk to." He subconsciously quickened his pace after that as if to run away from his last comment.
Ginny's heart ached. She knew that last statement Harry had made wasn't about her. It couldn't be. But she wanted so much for it to be. Enough experience with overanalyzing statements had taught her never to assume such an extreme thought. Harry must have simply been thinking of someone specific, and later he would realize he'd said it in front of Ginny and regret it.
Harry's heart pounded so hard he thought he could hear it. He wasn't sure what to make of the silence. He figured he'd prefer it to Ginny being utterly repulsed by his subtle and yet not-so-subtle statement. As the breeze blew once again Harry was brought out of his thoughts and realized just how dark it was. He looked up to see that the were facing the castle. "Why don't we go back inside? It's getting dark out here."
Ginny smiled at him. "Alright." She had to admit that it was getting too dark to see, but she still wanted to stay out and talk with him some more. Still, there was no way she would say that to him. She hated to be obvious and that would be crystal clear.
Harry was still mildly embarrassed from what he had said before but for now he was mostly content with walking back to the common room with Ginny by his side. He had at last, thanks to today's walk, admitted to himself that he had feelings for her. Now he had to wonder how to go about admitting them to her. He couldn't see himself doing so anytime soon. He had only taken a small step in that direction tonight and it hadn't seemed to have an effect. Not a good one, anyway.
As Ginny walked with Harry back to the Gryffindor common room, she wondered what she should do with his cloak. Surely she couldn't keep it. What if he didn't want her too? Then he'd have to ask for it and she would feel extremely stupid. No, she'd have to give it back.
Once they were in the common room, Harry felt quite awkward. He didn't want to say goodnight yet, but then he didn't know that he could last any longer with her around without spilling out everything he was feeling. Upon searching the room with his eyes, he saw Ron and Hermione. Luckily, Ron was not facing them, and he saw Hermione look up and quickly back down again so Ron would not notice. Harry knew that even though nothing had happened on their walk, Ron would suspect it did. And Harry would prefer to live.
Ginny took a deep breath. She had to go upstairs now before her brother tried to yell at her for hanging around Harry. "Well, I've got some work to finish up for class tomorrow. Oh," she shrugged the cloak off her shoulders and tried to sound nonchalant. "here's your cloak back." She held it out to him and he shook his head.
"No, you keep it."
She blinked a few times quickly. "Keep it? Are you sure?"
"Yeah, I've got plenty. I don't want you to be cold." Oh yeah, nice excuse. She's got her own cloaks in her room. Idiot.
Ginny looked down at the cloak in her arms with some disbelief. "Well, thanks, then. I'll just go–"
"Ginny, wait."
She turned at the bottom of the stairs and raised her eyebrows at him.
Harry felt nerves take over and chickened out. "It was, er, nice talking to you." Luckily, she still smiled at him.
"Yeah, we should do it more often."
Harry sighed as she walked upstairs, ran his hand through his hair, and went over to join Ron and Hermione.
Once Ginny got up to her room, she rubbed her hands over the forest green fabric of the cloak once before putting it into her trunk. She had lied about the homework. She only knew that she couldn't stay with him now without going too far. She had come too close to doing so already. She couldn't tell him how she felt. Not yet. She changed into her pajamas and went to bed, knowing she would not have any frightening dreams tonight.
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A/N: Guess it got more fluffy than serious at the end. Oops. Well, the last chapter will be fluff. And the way I end it, I could do a 4th chapter. It'll be up to you all! Next chapter is up! Go!!!
