Taking the Blame
Warning: contains my sense of humor…
Harry sat at the edge of the pond, a shrinking pile of flattened pebble to his right and an angry expression on his face. He had just spent the whole summer being told that none of the events of the past year were his fault and that he should not blame himself for Sirius' death. "You tried to protect him, Harry; you did the only thing that made sense!" Hermione's know it all voice played in his head, repeating the words she had been telling him all summer.
"It is my fault!" He yelled and threw one of the stones into the water with all the strength he could master. The stone landed with a great splash much closer than Harry expected causing two droplets of water to spray into his eye on onto his cheek. Harry brushed them away irritably. "I could have worked harder. I could have listened to people. I could have--"
"And I could have burnt Tom's diary once I figured out what it was"
Harry stopped. He had not heard Ginny's approach, and frankly, he was not very happy about her presence. "Great," he muttered to himself, "another person coming to tell me it's not my fault and trying to make me feel better." He threw another stone, this time farther away into the lake.
Ginny smiled sadly and sat down. "Oh it's most definitely your fault" she said, pausing only long enough to raise her hand and signal to Harry that she had not finished. "Same as it was my fault that the stupid Chamber of Secrets was opened."
"You didn't kill anybody!" Harry's voice began to rise. Ginny did not respond for a while. She just picked up a dark stone and smoothed it between her fingers. She examined it a bit and then set it skipping across the lake.
"True, but there was just as much potential and I had just ask much intention as you did."
"Thanks," Harry responded bitterly, "For making me feel so much better."
"I thought you didn't want somebody to try to make you feel better."
Harry threw another stone. "Well, I didn't expect you to make me feel worse" He said and tried to get up but Ginny caught his sleeve and pulled him back down.
Harry glared at her, a look she returned undaunted. "Listen" her voice was harsh, "I'm not here to sugar coat it for you. It's your fault and I won't tell you otherwise. I'm not here to tell you that Bellatrix was the one who killed him and you had nothing to do with it. I've been through that too you know." Her face took on a nasty expression as she mimicked her brothers "It wasn't you, Ginny, it was Tom. Don't worry about it Ginny, it was Tom." Ginny looked straight into Harry's eyes, "Well it bloody wasn't Tom. It was me who had the blood on her hands. Not metaphorically speaking."
Harry cringed, "So you just want me to sit here and feel guilty? What are you trying to do?!"
"I'm trying to get Harry Potter back and if that means beating some sense into him I will." Ginny sighed, "I know its hard now but as soon as you realize that you made a mistake and you can now learn from it the better for all of us. There is a war out there and as long as you're more concerned about doing nothing so that you won't kill anybody, more people will be killed by your lack of action."
"Well what do you want me to do?" Harry was practically yelling, "Prance out there and say 'Hey, Voldemort! I'm right here. Let's duel and end it all.' Is that what you want?"
Now it was Ginny's turn to cringe. "No," She whispered, "but I don't want you to give up either."
They looked at each other, angry stare meeting sympathetic one. Finally Ginny put her hand on Harry's arm. "The past is over," Ginny said and then added somewhat sarcastically, "as the wise muggle president of the United States once said."
The two sat in semi-silence for a while. The only sound was the occasional splash when another stone hit the water.
"I didn't know that you followed muggle politics," Harry said and Ginny was delighted to hear a slight bit of amusement in his voice.
She shrugged, "It makes me feel better. I mean we might have--"
Harry looked at her to see why she stopped while she took a big breath and composed herself for the rest of the sentence. "We might have Voldemort terrorizing our country, but the poor muggles have Bush"
Harry laughed. "I don't know," he responded with an evil glint in his eye, "We do have Fudge"
"Oh, but I like fudge" Ginny said nonchalantly, "Although I don't like walnuts."
Harry stared at her for a second before bursting out laughing. "Oh yes, fudge ripple ice cream is definitely one of my favorites"
"When did the poor 'ittle Harry Potter have a chance to enjoy fudge ripple ice cream" Ginny scrunched up her face and reached over as though to pinch Harry's cheek.
"When I was about six, I think. It was right before Dudley's birthday. They bought some for his party and I, of course, was not allowed to have any. So that night when I figured they were all asleep I snuck into the kitchen and got a spoon and the ice cream. I ate quite a bit actually." Harry made a proud face while Ginny giggled.
"Harry Potter the rule breaker strikes again," She laughed.
"Well it is genetic, you know," Harry winked and then made a comically sad face. "Of course I forgot to wash my face and all so in the morning…" his voice trailed off and he smiled at Ginny's attempts to stop laughing and catch her breath.
"You weren't very intelligent were you" She gasped out finally, and then shrugged, "I guess you haven't changed much."
Ginny ducked as Harry pretended he was going to swat her. She fell backwards and Harry took to tickling her mercilessly. Ginny tried to wiggle her way out of Harry reach but he in turn just caught her hands.
"And you, Miss Ginevra Weasley, are not very nice," he scolded.
Ginny smiled, noticing that she was now lying on her back with Harry slightly leaning over her to keep her hands in place. "oh poo" was all she managed to say because Harry closed the short distance between them and for the first time since the events last year Harry forgot about his troubles and just enjoyed their first kiss.
A/N:
First I would like to apologize to anybody who might have found anything offensive even though I did take it down a few notches from its original plan. Ok maybe not original plan but I did sit down to do the main planning right after coming back from "Fahrenheit 9/11" so it did become a little political…
Second I would like to thank my darling Frodo for being such a lovely editor and actually enjoying being called Tomato. And of course thank you to What's His Face for rereading it and then saying that I was right and the lovey dovey part doesn't just plop in.
Third: I always love comments complaints, love letters, death threats… you know the works. Plus I have Athazagoraphobia.