Ginny rushed through the halls, trying to get to charms class on time. She shook her head. She was still very angry with Snape for taking points from Gryffindor because Colin had been to slow for his liking!
Ginny walked into the Charms classroom, and only a second later Flitwick entered and smiled at them all. He was always too cheerful, and it was always a good laugh to watch their Charms Professor struggle to get to the top of the books. Ginny giggled along with the rest of the class at his daily struggle. Once he was situated he began his daily lecture.
Halfway listening to Flitwick and halfway daydreaming, Ginny began to doodle absently on the parchment in front of her. The lecture droned on and on like every first day back they never actually got to do anything until the second lesson after they got back.
The girl beside Ginny suddenly giggled and Ginny looked over at her. She was looking at what was on Ginny's parchment. The red head looked down at what she had been doodling and blushed deeply. She crumbled of the piece of parchment before stuffing it in her bag.
She could never have been more relieved for a lesson to be over. She had kept hearing the girl giggling ever so often and it made her go redder and redder and redder. Ginny was sure that if her face went any redder that no one would be able to tell where her hairline actually was.
Ginny went up to the Gryffindor Tower instead of heading down to lunch. She had never really felt right about eating lunch in the Great Hall alone. Not many people actually hung around with her. Her best friend was Hermoine and she had met her through Ron. Now, that has to tell you something.
Ginny dropped her bag down on the floor in front of the chair by the fire. Ginny sat there in silence for a moment, letting thoughts swim through her head. Alright, time to be the good little girl that you were brought up to be, Ginny thought miserably as she began to dig through her bag to do her homework.
Then she saw it. The balled up piece of parchment she had been doodling on. Ginny hesitated before taking it out and un-crumbling it. How she had made it look so perfect she had no idea. She hadn't glanced at the paper once the whole time that she had been drawing this childish picture.
Is it so childish? Ginny asked herself biting her bottom lip. The little picture had come from her subconscious. She had learned about how the subconscious worked in a Psychology Book that she had borrowed from Hermoine.
Ginny balled the doodle back up and aimed it at the fire. She was about to toss it in, when Harry came in. Ginny quickly shoved the parchment in her bag and removed her Charms book. Ginny opened the book casually, but watched as Harry crossed the Common Room and walked up to the Boys Dorm.
He didn't even say hi! How rude! Ginny thought as she watched the staircase expecting him to come back down. He didn't. She waited and waited; he didn't. Ginny knew that she shouldn't let curiosity take over, but she closed her book, set it on the couch, and walked up the stairs to the 5th Year Boy's Dorm.
She didn't even bother knocking, which she mentally slapped herself for (He could have been changing!), but what she saw shocked her. It was Harry, but it wasn't Harry. He was sitting at the foot of his bed with his head down and sobbing. It wasn't loud sobbing, but Ginny knew that he was sobbing.
All manly men sounded the same when they sobbed, it sounds muffled as if they are trying to keep it in, and it's deep and heart breaking. But why was Harry sobbing? Ginny couldn't understand it. And for a second she thought about turning around and walking out but something stopped her.
He was apparently keeping all this bottled up inside and to himself, because if Ron and Hermoine knew that he was having these break downs, they would be here instead of her…
Ginny made up her mind and silently walked over to him. He didn't even know that she was there until she laid a gentle hand on his back and he jumped. He stared at her for a moment before wiping the tears from his face.
"Ginny, I-" He seemed lost for words, but Ginny just sat down next to him and smiled reassuringly.
"Tell me what's on your mind." Ginny said simply. Harry gave her an unsure look and she added, "It will only be between us, I promise." Harry then gave her a small smile before sighing and looking back down at his feet.
"Sirius- Never mind, I really don't want to talk about this." Harry said and sighed.
"If you don't want to talk, then listen," began Ginny, "If what was bothering you was the fact that you feel absolutely miserable that he's gone, then I would say that just mourn for him and then move on; but since I know that's not what's bothering you, I'll say that no one blames you for his death. Not me, not Remus, not Ron and Hermione, no one blames you except yourself, and you'll only be happy again once you realize that."
Harry suddenly looked at her a bit confused. "How did you-"
"You forget, Harry, that I too harmed many people. It was not my fault, but I felt like it was. I could have killed someone, anyone! I felt like it was my entire fault for so long. And I had nightmares every night for the longest."
"Y-you had nightmares, too?" Harry asked in a whisper and Ginny nodded.
"I still do to this day, but I keep them from everybody." Ginny paused then went on, "In my nightmares, the events from my first year just doesn't replay its self, but the people I hurt yell at me, saying I could have killed them. Hermoine's yelling at me, Penelope's blaming me, and you-" Ginny's voice broke for a moment but she regained her composure, "And you are telling me that I'm evil."
Harry's head shot up and their eyes met, "Ginny, you are not-"
Ginny cut him off, "I know it's just a dream, Harry. Colin has forgiven me, in fact, I think he's my best friend in my year, and that's saying a lot." Harry stared at her and they suddenly heard the bell sound. "Oh, lunch is over, I've got to get to History."
"Oh, Gin, sorry that I made you miss lunch." Harry said as he stood and began to gather his things for his next class.
Ginny smiled at him, "No problem, Harry. Anytime you need to talk, I'm here." They smiled at each other and parted ways. Ginny was in higher spirits in History, and even had the guts to take out the crumpled piece of parchment to add some more decoration to it.
That night, Ginny skipped dinner again. Instead she sat in the Common Room doing her homework. She had a basket of food that she had raided from the kitchen. It helps when you have Fred and George for you brothers.
Ginny popped a gingersnap into her mouth as she turned the page of her Defense book. Defense had always fascinated her and she just wanted to read the book ahead of time. It was a dark book that had a great deal of description that made her a bit queasy but she continued to flip through the pages.
She was so entranced in how to defend yourself against the Asphyxias Curse, which was a popular curse used by Death Eaters to watch their victims die a slow death that she didn't even notice someone enter the Common Room.
She was just reading about how it made you have an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide leads to loss of consciousness or death when the person stole a gingersnap and took the seat beside her.
"Interested in Defence?" Harry asked after he had swallowed. Ginny looked at him from behind her book and smirked.
"I am, but I'm better in Charms." She answered lightly. When Harry didn't respond she added, "What's your favourite class?"
"I guess it would have to be a tie between Defence and Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid rules, but Care has always been a sort of tame class. But Kellie, she's a bit old to be as active as Lupin was when he was teaching that class, and Lupin has always been my favourite professor." Ginny nodded in agreement.
"Lupin is by far my favourite teacher." Ginny said smiling at Harry, though she wasn't visible to him from behind her book. Harry smiled at her, got up and walked over to the other side of the room where he removed his own homework.
Time passed and people began to come into the Common Room. By eleven o'clock people began to head up to bed. But Ginny stayed put. She didn't even acknowledge the fact that by twelve, the only people left in the Common Room were Harry and her.
She was just beginning to get engrossed in her History Essay when something smacked her in the back of the head. It turned out to be a pillow. Ginny looked around the Common Room confused until she saw Harry sitting in the same corner. He was reading his book innocently, but there was no one else in the Common Room, it had to be him.
Praying to God that she wasn't wrong, Ginny threw the pillow in Harry's direction before turning back to her essay innocently. She had to bite her bottom lip to hold back giggles.
She heard what sounded like a muffled yell, and she couldn't resist the erg to turn around and look. Harry was covered in ink. The pillow had hit the bottle and the bottle had fallen upon him. Ginny gaped at him feeling quite embarrassed.
"That's what I get." Harry muttered with a grin looking at Ginny. She bit her bottom lip as Harry reached for his wand and quickly cleaned the ink off of him and the floor. He then grabbed the pillow and gave her an evil smile.
Ginny saw this and said, "Uh oh," before Harry charged as her. She had just enough time to grab a pillow off the couch before they got into a pillow fight. Ginny squealed every time she was hit and Harry just laughed.
Ginny tried to jump over the couch as Harry took another swipe at her and she made her book bag fall over, all of its contents falling lazily to the floor. Ginny didn't even pay attention to it and continued to run around the room, trying to contain her giggles.
Finally, Harry cornered her and she had to put her hand over her mouth to stop from giggling so much. She had somehow dropped her pillow between the couch and the wall. She put her finger to her lips, "Shhh – Shhh – Shhh," she managed to get out between her hysterics.
Harry abandoned the pillow and jumped at her, reaching for her stomach. He began to tickle her uncontrollably. Ginny couldn't contain her laughter as she was dragged to the floor. Harry was now on top of her, tickling her.
"P-please stop! Oh, H-Harry! P-please!" She pleaded between her laughter. It was another ten minutes before Harry's hands finally got tired and he let her up. But she just lied there on the Common Room floor, exhausted from laughing so much.
"When I am able to breath again, I'm going to kill you." Ginny threatened breathlessly. Harry grinned evilly at her. He then stopped in his tracks and looked at something on the ground.
"Hey, what's this?" He asked as he bent down and picked up a crumpled piece of parchment. Her crumpled piece of parchment! Ginny shakily got to her and rushed over to him.
"No! Harry! Don't! Please don't read it!" Ginny pleaded as she tried to snatch back the parchment, but the damage was done and Harry was now looking at the little drawing. Ginny let her head fall into her hands as Harry stood there in shock.
"Ginny-"
"No! Don't say anything!" Ginny said quickly as she snatched back the parchment and gathered up her things. She ran back up to the Dormitory trying to calm down. How could I have been so stupid as to leave that out? Damn it! And when everything was going so well!
Ginny flung her bag onto her bed and collapsed onto it and tried to steady her heavy breathing. She stayed like that for a while cursing herself for being so careless.
The Dormitory door creaked open and she lied still as if asleep. She listened to the footsteps as they drew nearer, and only opened her eyes when the person kneeled beside her and whispered her name. She knew who it was.
Ginny slowly opened her eyes and met those of emerald green. She wanted to hide away from him, but she just sat up and looked at him. Finally, he spoke.
"Ginny, that parchment-"
"Was just a careless doodle and will be destroyed immediately." Ginny finished for him sadly.
"Actually, I was going to say that that parchment was correct, but if you want to dispose of it-"
"What?" Ginny asked suddenly aware of what he had just said.
"I agree with it." Ginny just sat there stunned for a second before all dignity left her and she engulfed Harry in a tight hug. When she withdrew, Harry smiled at her and gave her a small kiss on the cheek.
"We should probably get some sleep." Ginny nodded slowly. Sure, a kiss on the cheek wasn't what she had always dreamed of, but it was the start of something.
And as Ginny fell asleep that night, she fell asleep with a piece of parchment under her pillow, and upon that parchment was a big heart and two names surrounded by smaller hearts. And on that parchment was the truth that may not seem that big now, but would soon.