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Chapter 32

It was morning, and Hermione woke-up a few minutes after Ginny did. Ginny wiped whatever moisture was on her face from the few tears she shed after she woke-up from her dream. She was debating whether to tell Hermione about the dream or not.

"Have a good rest?" Hermione asked as she stretched. She leapt onto her feet and approached the bathroom. She let the door open so she could still talk to Ginny.

"Sure, I guess," Ginny replied. She decided not to tell Hermione. She didn't feel like talking about it. Hermione would either fret about it or tell her that the dream didn't mean anything. Ginny did settle on writing about it in her diary later. "I mean, I slept okay after all the excitement last night."

"La' nigh'? Wha' essigh-meh?" Hermione asked with her mouth full of tooth-paste. She then spit it out into the sink. "I mean, what excitement from last night?"

Ginny smirked. "You honestly don't remember?" she asked.

Hermione was contemplating difficulty. "I think I had some sort of dream, but I don't recall what it was about."

"Do you remember any aliens attacking you?"

"Aliens?" Hermione said and laughed. "No, no aliens, but I do think there may have been some dementers."

"That wasn't a dream, Hermione," Ginny stated and giggled. "You were half-asleep when it happened."

Hermione seemed mystified at the comment. "What happened?"

"To make a long story short, Fred and George dressed up as aliens and tried to frighten you, but you mistook them as dementers. You used the Patronus spell too!" Ginny explained.

Hermione gasped and almost choked on her breath. "WHAT?!!"

"Oh, don't worry! The spell wasn't working and you were using one of the joke wands," Ginny said.

"But-but, the Ministry might've found out that I attempted to do magic! I'll be expelled! I'm already expelled! I know I am!" Hermione exclaimed and began to weep.

"No, if you have been expelled, they would've sent an owl hours ago," Ginny said and tried to settle her down by rubbing her shoulder.

Hermione calmed down and exhaled. "You're right, plus they couldn't kick me out of Hogwarts. I got top marks on all my O.W.L.'s."

"Ron would probably be less successful on that matter. He didn't do as well as you did on his scores. Oh, he attempted to do magic by the way."

"Ron was here?" Hermione demanded.

"Well, yeah, and Harry was too. We were in the bathroom, and we heard you screaming but the doors were jammed. Ron Alohomora'd it, but he used a fake wand, as well," Ginny explained.

"Oh, I see," Hermione answered merely and then paused. "Why were Harry and Ron here?"

"It's a long story. How about I start from the beginning?" Ginny proposed. She revised everything that occurred the night before to Hermione, but she still didn't tell her about her dream.

"Goodness, is Ron still being a jerk to you?" Hermione asked. "I wonder what Harry wanted to tell you. It probably wasn't anything bad, though."

"I hope not, but I really don't know," Ginny said. She then wanted to see Harry and make sure he was alive. She knew her dream wasn't real, but it felt like it could have come true. "Do you want to get some breakfast?"

"Sure, I could go for that," Hermione answered. Ginny was hungry as well, but she was going to the kitchen in hopes that Harry would be there as well.

The two girls made their way downstairs and greeted Mrs. Weasley as she was serving Harry and Ron at the table. Ginny tried to suppress a grin as she saw Harry. He didn't look at her since he was reading a book about giants.

"Well, if it isn't Miss I-Don't-Believe-in-Aliens," Ron said cleverly and then looked at Ginny, "and friend."

"I still don't think aliens are real, Ron. I thought they were dementers, plus I was half-asleep," Hermione answered and Mrs. Weasley served the girls bowls of porridge.

"Right, you keep on telling yourself that," Ron said with a smirk and a spoonful of porridge.

"Your father told me about what happened last night. That reminds me; two owls came in this morning," Mrs. Weasley said. She picked up two notes and gave them to Hermione and Ron.

Hermione opened hers and her jaw dropped. Ron read his and put it down and continued eating his food.

"I have to go to court next month!" Hermione exclaimed. "They found out that I endeavored underage magic!"

"I do, too," Ron said carelessly.

"Why are you acting like you don't care? We could get expelled for what happened last night!" Hermione yelled. She put her letter down and buried her face in her hands.

"Listen, you're one of Hogwarts's top students and my dad is becoming more and more respected in the Ministry of Magic. We didn't even do real magic. Nothing will happen to us," Ron explained tranquilly.

"You can't be so sure of that, Ron!" Hermione cried and accidentally slammed her hand down on the handle of the spoon in her bowl which sent it flying and almost hit Mrs. Weasley in the face.

"How about we go talk to Mr. Weasley right now?" Mrs. Weasley suggested. "He will make sure everything is being taken care of. Ron, you should come too. Your father's in the garden."

Ginny was thankful that the three left her alone with Harry. No one said anything to distract him from reading his Giant book until Ginny said, "So what did you need to tell me last night?"

Harry put down and closed his book. He looked up at Ginny and she saw his eyes. Suddenly, all the scenes from last night's dream were racing through her mind as if she was experiencing it all over again. It went from the kiss to the duel and finally to the voice of Bellatrix Lestrange canting Avada Kedavra and Ginny witnessing the death of Harry.

"Ginny--" Harry began to say, but he was interrupted.

"Um, actually," she said as she was tugging the collar of her shirt. "I'm feeling quite ill." She stood up and headed towards the stairway. "I guess we can talk about it later."

She ascended the stairs quickly and tried to hold the tears until she made it to her bedroom. And when she did get there, Ginny burst out bawling on the floor. Harry didn't look peculiar or unordinary. He seemed like his normal self. Ginny just couldn't look at him and not think about the staggering end to her dream.

Her dreams never seemed to come true, but ever since she started dreaming of Harry every night that summer, she was becoming even more close with him--except for the fights they had about her snooping in the attic. He was starting to show signs of forgiveness, but it was the wrong time for her.

"No, I can't be with him! It might happen! It might happen!" she cried into her pillow. Harry has been in one too many runs with Death Eaters and Voldemort. It was a great chance that he would be in several more, but how many times could he escape them without getting killed?

Ginny felt as if she caused his death in the dream. If she didn't stop them from escaping the dungeon, they may have made it out. The dream was probably not going to come true in its purest form, but it may have foreshadowed later events to take place. What if Ginny was a large risk in Harry's life?

"I can't be with him. I just can't," she wept. She didn't want to give him up again, but she felt as if she must for an extra shield to his protection.

After a while of weeping, she wiped her eyes and it occurred to her that it was Harry's birthday. It caused a couple more tears to shed. She couldn't ignore him on his birthday. She even had a gift for him. She let out a long breath and searched for his gift in her dresser drawer, but found something else.

It was a wrapped box of what Harry got for her from his trip to Texas. At the time, she was too worried about the blemish on her nose that she forgot about it. Ginny sighed and gingerly unwrapped the red paper from the box. She opened the box and hit upon a black belt with soda bottle caps attached to it aligned one by one from end to end. She laughed as she thought about the mutual joke Harry and she had.

Luna Lovegood was a fine friend of hers, but she knew she was a bit on the odd side. Harry and Ginny used to joke about Luna's butterbeer cap necklaces. So Ginny knew why Harry brought her the belt. It made her smile, but it didn't take too long for her to frown because she was going to miss the wonderful times she and Harry would have had together.

Ginny finally found what she was looking for. It was the broken piece of wood she kept that was part of Harry's old Nimbus 2000. Fred and George made fun of her for keeping it, but she thought it would be a brilliant gift, especially since she attached a string of leather to it so it would be a necklace. It was more for the humor, but she also found it to be exceptionally thoughtful.

"I wish we could fly off to some island," she said to herself. It would never ensue, she knew, but anything could happen, she thought.

All she could do was wish Harry a Happy Birthday and hope everything went well for that day. She wanted to be around for his birthday dinner, but she also wanted to avoid him as much as she could. She wanted to avoid everything around her in all actuality. Ginny wanted to get used to not thinking about Harry every minute of the day.

She dropped the gift from Harry and left her room. She didn't want to see Harry or anyone else so she went to the attic. No one came in the attic anyway. She noticed that the ghoul hadn't hassled her the past few times. It appeared much more dark and atrabilious then before--mainly because the previous times were more exciting. It was also painful to be there because it was what put Harry and Ron in anger towards her in the first place.

I should come here more often, she thought. If thinking of Harry will bring back bad memories then maybe I'll stop.

A/N: I promise I'll write the next chapter soon! Sorry for taking so long with this one! *muah!*