Hey people. I need to apologize for taking so long to update, I wish I hadn't. I've just been struggling to keep my sanity lately--and my focus. It's been a rough few weeks. If this chapter sucks, I'm sorry. I just want to be able to give you something.
~*~
Ginny woke slowly, her surroundings rather befuddling. She glanced around, eyes still clouded with sleep. Two comforting, muscled arms were wrapped gently around her, and she was sitting on someone lap.
It came back to her in a rush.
At once, Ginny groaned softly. She hadn't meant to become anything more than friendly acquaintances with Harry, and now she had listened as he poured out his heart out to her before she had fallen asleep in his arms. "Damn it," she muttered darkly, her mind churning over the possibilities. There had to be some way to block this issue from getting raised again, because the awkwardness the situation of 'talking of it out' would simply be aggravating. There had to be some way to make Harry forget.
"Think, think, think," she whispered, slowly easing his arms away from her, trying to ignore the sense of loss she felt without them. Sliding of his lap, she faced the sleeping Harry. His eyes were closed, sheltering the fierce green from the world. His hair was tousled, though that was nothing new. Ash clung to his robes, and the edges of his simple garments appeared scorched. There was a steady rise and fall of breath from his well muscled chest, echoing out lips that were curved in a content smile. It wasn't fair of him to look so cute and vulnerable when sleeping, Harry wasn't supposed to be cute and vulnerable. At all. Ever.
"Damn him," she muttered again, brushing a lock of hair behind her ears while she toyed idly with her wand in the other hand. Something to make him forget... Oh, she was an idiot. A simple memory charm and he wouldn't remember anything beyond entering her office. It would be easy to tell her superiors that it was so there was no need to reveal any classified secrets. Harry would never remember, and she would never have to face him about the situation.
Of course, she had never been too good with memory charms. They tended to go awry, and occasionally the person would recall brief flashes of what they were supposed to have forgotten. But then, how hard would it be to erase a few hours of time? Well, twelve hours, considering the fact that it was approximately 6:00 a.m.
She pointed the wand at his calmly sleeping form, and spoke softly, "Oblivate." Ginny focused on the moment in which they had first entered the room, then switching her attention to now. He would, hopefully, forget everything within that time period. She could only pray that it had worked correctly.
She sighed as she watched him sleep, lips pulled into a sorrowful smile. "I'm sorry Harry, but we're not meant to be like this," Ginny murmured. Taking a step forward, she allowed her fingers to gently brush back a lock of raven black hair, feeling her stomach flop uncomfortably. Uneasy of her reaction, she turned swiftly away, closing the door softly on Harry Potter, and a hazy future.
~*~
Hermione strolled down the corridor for the second time that week, mulling over recent events. She had spent the morning with Phil, giggling and grinning as they translated a hefty portion of his Threstral text. It hadn't taken long, no more than two hours, but Hermione had enjoyed it immensely. Phil was simply so easing to talk to, as if the words flowed without conscious thought. They fit together, as if their minds were somehow interconnected.
But, to Hermione's great confusion, the best and worst part of the day had been his exit. He had left with nothing more than a shy smile and the brush of his lips over her cheek. Somehow, this managed to leave her both disappointed and grateful. Damn those emotions.
Then the guilt had come. Torrents of guilt, that made her feel like the most rotten person in the world. Ron hadn't remained in the picture, instead she had returned to her desk to find him gone. It had been a small shock, and a reminder. What about Ron?
What about Ron? She asked herself silently. There had never been anything between them, nothing but Hermione's timid fantasies. They were two of a trio, like siblings. She was like a sister to him, as some old quotes would say, "One close as bone," considering the fact that they could never be blood siblings.
But if that was true, if she and Ron were like siblings, why in Merlin's name was she being punished with the onslaught of guilt? Hermione shook her head lightly, casting the thought aside. She shifted the bookbag that was slung over her shoulder, evening its weight. Whitewashed walls surrounded her once more, recalling to mind this task.
She entered the small, simple room, feeling the tears prick in the back of her eyes. Ron stood motionless, no more than three feet from the place she had left him only the day before. Was it only yesterday? It seems like years ago. Hermione thought, sighing softly.
"Hey Ron," she whispered into the empty air, allowing her bag to flop lightly on the tiled floor. "I just came for a bit of a visit, and to work on this next line. I swear I know the language, but it's bloody confusing. Doesn't seem that old though, which is good; if I have to look up anymore archaic Egyptian runes I'll scream. Did you have any idea how many languages the Egyptian wizards went through? Merlin's beard--" Hermione's talk continued as she lowered herself to lean against the wall, smiling slightly as she rattled off to facts to someone who couldn't understand her; though within the back of his mind Ron could feel the comforting tone of her speech.
~*~
Harry awoke alone in a small, dark office, with absolutely no idea as to how he'd gotten there. Standing, he ran a hand through his mess of already tangled hair, bewildered. Having awoken from the strangest dream, one in which Ginny fell asleep on his lap, he was now rather disoriented. He glanced at the clock, only to find it proudly declaring that it was half past seven. "Damn it, what did I do?" He asked himself, with a small mount of incredulity.
Exiting the room, he was even more befuddled as he realized that he had never been there before. Feeling more lost with every step that he took; Harry wandered aimlessly down an eerily silent hall. It was, of course, his luck that he ran straight into the scene of the fire.
Oh yeah, I was getting people killed. Harry degraded himself silently, fists clenching subconsciously. Blinking, rather hard, he tried to shove the image of a dead man from his mind, retreating from the scene up the small staircase.
Once on the main level, Harry continued to stroll, head ducked in focused thought. So lost in his pondering was Harry that he ran smack dab into someone, finding himself be thrown back a few steps against a wall, as whoever he had run into had obviously been in a hurry. "Sor—," Harry began, before realizing just who he had slammed into.
Cool, silver eyes glinted back at him, lips drawn in a customary scowl. "Out of my way, Potter," Draco sneered, shoving Harry into the wall as he stormed down the hallway. Harry's only reaction was a disgruntled, exhausted glare shot at the back of Malfoy's head.
"Bastard," Harry muttered, rubbing a sore portion of his shoulder.
"Mr. Potter," a dark, heavy voice spoke from behind him, "just the person I've been looking for, unfortunately."
Emerald eyes suddenly sparked with quickly contained fury, his tone sarcastic when he chose to spoke. "A pleasure to see you, too, Snape."
~*~
Malfoy glared with bitter distaste at the walls. As if his day hadn't been awful enough, he just had to run into that Potter. Scum of the earth, he didn't deserve the honor of being run into. Curse him, bloody arrogant fool.
Draco swung suddenly around a corner, to catch a glimpse of a swiftly retreating redhead. Mood suddenly uplifted, Draco steps swiftened as he trailed the little redhead. He walked with no sound, and it was quite easy to suddenly wrap an arm around her waist before leaning down to whisper in her ear. "What have we here? Why, if it isn't the lovely Miss Weasley."
"I thought I told you to leave me alone, Malfoy." She snapped back, yanking herself forcefully out of his hold. "Stop following me."
"I wasn't following you, dear Ginny." He explained, falling into step beside her as she took up her quick pace once more. "I was merely on the premises, and happened to be drawn to your undeniable beauty."
She flinched as his long, lithe fingers ran lightly over her hair, taking another step away. "Yes, well unfortunately for you Malfoy, I happen to be busy."
"Oh really, my dear. With what? Anything I can… assist you with?" He smirked as Ginny turned her smoldering brown eyes up to glare at him with impeccable fury.
"No." She turned promptly into another hallway, one he recognized as the Auror's department.
"Ah, well, perhaps I'll be lucky enough to run into you later." Draco had no desire to enter that hallway, he had been in those rooms before, and had never felt very comfortable surrounded by the 'good guys'.
Ginny shook her head lightly, against meeting up with him later, but abandoned her cruel comeback to turn and start towards the end of the hall. It was not long till she reached the office of Alastor Moody, though it was nearly double that time before she gained the courage to knock. Moody's voice called from within, hasty but gruff, "Come in."
She pushed the door open, entering his strictly neat, if rather unordinary, office. The Dark Detectors and various other instruments hanging on the walls were unsettling, and some of them were downright frightening. "Ah, Miss Weasley," Mood said from where he sat at his desk, looking up from a report, "what do you need?"
She closed the door softly behind her, before taking a seat perched on the end of one of his chairs. "Well, Moody, I was kind of… That is to say…" She fumbled for her words, already knowing the answer to her question, but wanting to have it confirmed nonetheless.
"You'd like to know if Potter is still an auror," Moody said, quite directly. Ginny only nodded, causing a small frown to cross Alastor's face. "Yes, Miss Weasley, he is."
"Do you know why he told me he wasn't?" She asked, gathering the courage she had not known she would need to ask such a question.
Moody sighed, placing the report down before turning his electric blue eye on her, that had been wandering the back of his head. "He was assigned to you, Miss Weasley. Potter is there for your protection, and he will continue to do so. There will be no argument."
Any other person would have nodded, shrinking away from the vigilance and command in Moody's spirit. However, Ginny Weasley was bound to be extraordinary. "There bloody well will be an argument! I don't need a body guard, least of all Potter." She cried angrily, struggling to keep the hate in her voice, and having his name emerge more as confusion.
"I'm sorry Miss Weasley, but there will be no changes. You will be needed, hopefully soon, in order to perform some task of magic. You must be kept safe."
"I don't want to perform some bloody random act of ma—"
Ginny was cut off my Moody, "Miss Weasley, this is very important. It could not only help the wizarding world, but it could save your brother."
Her face paled immediately, shocked by the completely honest way in which he spoke. Thoughts were suddenly spinning at an alarming rate through her head. She blinked, attempting to force the world to sit straight once more, but it continued to swim out of focus. "You mean… Ron…"
The door burst open, and a Hermione flushed with happiness entered the room. "It's Harry, Moody! He's the second key, it's Harry!"
~*~
The grey beard wizard smiled as he studied the next band of color; red. Only this was no ordinary red, it was a crimson of the fiercest and purest love and hate, passion and despair. Always an interesting color, its new bearer was no different. The course of this one was complicated, also. Nearly the moment it had emerged, the flow of color greeted orange as its relative. From there, it was many years until it stumbled upon the next, but all in rapid secession. First, emerald, to be followed by gold and silver; for a year, the strand had run a path as close to emerald as it could manage. The following years it had been more separate, from all of them, before it began to interlope, on occasion, into the bond that was formed between green, gold, and orange. Silver was marred with it occasionally, forming delicate knots. Ebony it fought but once, and only for a split second of time, but the sorrow that began there was great. Then, unshocking as it had happened so very many times, scarlet and emerald merged into a relationship stronger than all those around it. It had split once, causing a great many knots in the string, but now the two were slowly sliding closer together.
"Excellent," the wizard whispered, using a pale finger to cajole red gently towards its contrasting green.
~*~
Alright, that sucked, undoubtedly. As I said before, I'm so sorry!!! Next chapter, I hope will come sooner. We do have Thanksgiving break, hopefully I'll have some time then. I'm trying, I promise! And next chapter, I promise it will be better. Less broken up and stuff. Thanks for not deserting me completely!