When Harry arrived in Ginny's flat she was in the kitchen cooking. He stood in the door way and watched her singing a song to herself as she moved between the pots and pans. She seemed so happy, so content.
Ginny turned around and jumped when she saw Harry. "You're back already! I wasn't expecting you until dinner, which I decided to cook by the way. I wanted to prove to you that my mother was wrong about my cooking abilities."
"I didn't know you knew how to cook," Harry said calmly.
"I know how, I just don't let people find out much. If they knew it would become expected of me," Ginny explained grinning.
"We need to talk," Harry said.
"Isn't that what we were doing?" Ginny teased, not noticing his serious expression.
"What happened that night on the cliffs?"
Ginny turned around and looked in Harry's eyes. "I thought we said we'd discuss it when the time was right."
"Well the time is now for me. I need to know."
"What is bringing this on? What did Hermione say to you?"
"If anything it was me who said something to her, and it's you who brought this on."
Ginny's face flashed with anger. "How do you figure that?"
"Don't yell at me, but I've been practicing reading minds, and you've been my most available target." Ginny's face went pale. "Your thoughts, especially your thoughts around that night, keep getting interrupted by something else you've been trying to keep out." Harry paused, waiting for Ginny to respond, and her hand instinctively went to her stomach. "So there was a baby," Harry said quietly. Tears began to fall down Ginny's face and she slowly nodded her head. "What happened?"
"I didn't know I was pregnant. I had been talking to Mum earlier in the afternoon and I realized we didn't use a contraceptive charm the last night we were together. We had both just been so caught up in all of the emotions surrounding the night we didn't think much about anything else. I had wanted to talk to you about it, but Mum was being pretty sensitive about her children being alone with their significant others. That night we went out on a walk with Colin. I heard a noise and you went to go investigate it. Colin kept wanting to talk to me about something, but I had a bad feeling and was having a hard time concentrating while you were gone. That was when I saw Draco Malfoy. Before I had time to react I was hit with a stunner. I can only assume Colin was too. The next thing I knew woke up in a house somewhere. I could smell the ocean. I was on a bed, and Malfoy was looking over me. He started talking trash to me so I spit in his face. He slapped me in response." Ginny paused and she could see the anger flare in Harry's eyes. "It really didn't hurt that bad. I was more concerned for you. I couldn't figure out how Malfoy had gotten so close to the Burrow without being detected. He looked angry at the fact that I wasn't weeping and begging him for mercy." Ginny shivered involuntarily at the thought. "He climbed on top of me and I knew he was going to rape me, but he was called away before he could do anything else. I didn't know why, but I was grateful. At least I was grateful until I saw Tom walk into the room. I knew that I was as good as dead. What happened instead was worse. He began to torture me as if he thought that hurting me would hurt you, and my thoughts strayed to you. I wondered if I actually was pregnant. That was my mistake. Tom was in my mind and I didn't even know it. He knew I was pregnant, he could sense it in my being. It was the man I loathed more than anything who confirmed that I was going to have your baby. I didn't know whether to expect pity or sympathy or just more torture. I didn't expect what he did though. He looked at me and laughed and then muttered an incantation. I felt the worst pain I'd ever felt in my entire life. It was like someone had taken a knife to my abdomen and was ripping my baby out. I tried to fight off the spell, but I guess I just passed out from the pain." Ginny stopped her story and fell to the ground crying, clutching her stomach. Harry watched her, tears in his eyes, unsure of how to respond.
"You should have told me sooner," Harry said, his voice hoarse.
"Yeah like it was that simple," Ginny snapped. "Oh hi Harry, welcome back after your four year absence. You don't remember me, but we had sex and I got knocked up. No worries though, a dark lord killed the baby so I wasn't forced into motherhood at fifteen!"
"I deserved to know, I have a right to mourn," Harry's voice was now starting to tremble.
"Well I think I've done enough mourning for the both of us for the last four years!" Ginny yelled at him, her voice raw with emotion.
"Did you get any help? Any counseling? I know that all of the time I spent with therapists helped my recovery." Harry was doing the best he could to be sensitive and not start yelling back at her.
Ginny looked up at him. "I never told anyone. By the time I was taken home, you had already healed all of my wounds, so there were no signs that I had been pregnant. I was only a couple of weeks along. I just couldn't stand to say it out loud."
"So you've been dealing with this all by yourself all this time?" Harry asked, his attempts at staying calm finally snapping. Ginny nodded her head. "How could you be so stupid? What if there was permanent damage or internal bleeding?"
"I'm sorry, I was too concerned with mourning the deaths of my boyfriend and his baby," Ginny snapped at him. "How dare you pass judgment on me? You weren't here; you didn't see how hard it was for me to simply get up in the morning. You didn't feel like you were responsible for the death of the person you loved more than life itself. I knew talking about this was a bad idea. You invaded my personal thoughts, you had no right to do that."
"You had no right to go through all of this alone. Even if I wasn't here I'm sure your family would have helped you, you had friends. Hell, I'm sure Colin would have loved to jump right in and help ease your pain."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ginny asked him angrily.
"Well he probably was glad I died so he could move in on my girlfriend," Harry accused.
"How dare you say something like that? He was there for me when you weren't; he was there for me long before you even noticed me. I may not be in love with him, but he's always been good to me and he never deserted me."
"So I deserted you? I spent over a year in the hospital trying to recover, and I still don't remember most of my prior life, but I deserted you," Harry yelled at her.
"I don't want to talk to you anymore," Ginny said quietly, her voice quivering.
"Well the feeling is mutual." Harry stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs to his room. Ginny stayed on the ground crying.
"I've got to get out of here," she said to herself. She walked into the living room and grabbed floo powder. "The Burrow!"
Harry stayed in his room for about an hour. He couldn't believe that he should be a father right now. A father. A family of his own. But it was gone. He didn't understand how it could hurt so much to have lost something you never knew you had. "If it hurts me this much, I don't even want to think of how much it hurts her. But still she had no right to go through this alone. No wonder her family has been so worried about her. She must have been slowing destroying herself all these years. Oh I'm an idiot."
Harry went downstairs to find Ginny to apologize, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Great," Harry said to the empty house. He went to the kitchen and noticed that the stove was still on. He turned it off and started to clean up. He was rummaging through Ginny's cabinets when he found a bottle of Firewhiskey. Going against his better judgment, he opened the bottle and took a big swig. It burned going down his throat, but he needed something to numb the pain. The second and third swigs didn't burn as much, and by the fourth he didn't even notice it anymore. He abandoned the mess in the kitchen and walked to the living room where he collapsed on the couch, still working on the bottle in his hands. He stayed like that until the bottle was gone.
Harry looked around the flat, bored, alone, and drunk. He got up from the couch and stumbled towards the door. He stumbled down Ginny's street looking for a place to go to continue drowning his sorrows. In his drunken stupor he managed to find a bar. He went inside, desperate to numb his pain. When he entered, he didn't notice the attractive brunette staring at him from the corner. He didn't notice her sit down next to him at the bar. He did however notice when she put her hand on his crotch.
Ginny stumbled out of the fireplace in her parents' house, still sobbing. Her father had been sitting at his desk working on some paper work when she appeared, and he rushed to her side.
"Ginny, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" he asked her anxiously. She shook her head. "Molly, get in here. There's something wrong with Ginny." Molly ran in to the living room and gasped when she saw the state her daughter was in.
"Ginny, sweetheart, what happened?" she asked.
"Nothing, I'm fine," Ginny lied.
"We can't help you if you won't tell us what's wrong," her mother said gently.
"I just had a row with Harry. It was silly really, I just needed to get out for a bit."
"It doesn't look like it was just a silly fight. Why don't you go up to your old room and get in bed for a bit? You can take a nap and then later I'll fix some tea and we can talk," Molly suggested, helping her daughter up the stairs.
Arthur sat back down at his desk, frustrated that there was nothing that he could do to help his daughter. There was a loud pop and Bill appeared next to him.
"Bill, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in France?" Arthur asked.
"I was, but I just had a bad feeling about something that happened before I left and I needed to come back. Dad, what's wrong?" Bill asked, concerned.
"It's Ginny. I haven't seen her look this bad since that night," Arthur said solemnly.
"What happened?" Bill asked.
"She wouldn't tell us; only that she had a fight with Harry," Arthur explained.
"I don't think that spending all this time with him is good for her. It's too painful for her to relive all of those memories, knowing that he doesn't remember any of them," Bill said, looking frustrated.
"Well at first I thought it would be good for her, she was looking happy again. But after seeing her today, I don't think she can take much more of this. Maybe it's time Harry went back to his life as James," Arthur said quietly.
"I'm going to go talk to him, see if I can get anything out of him," Bill said. "Where is he staying?"
Arthur examined the piece of parchment on his desk. "With Ginny."
"How could you allow that?" Bill asked angrily.
"She's a grown woman, it's her choice. Like I said, I thought this was good for her at first."
"Still, what if he tried to take advantage of her vulnerability when it came to him?"
Arthur looked at his son. "Harry may not remember who is was, but I honestly believe he's still a good person. The only reason he's really working so hard on remembering her is because he feels guilty for deserting her after everything our family did for him"
"It doesn't matter. It's still not right, she's my baby sister. I don't want her living with some stranger. I'm going to go talk to Harry." And with a pop Bill left the Burrow.
When Bill arrived in Ginny's flat, all he found was an empty bottle of Firewhiskey. "Great, Ginny's upset, and Harry's probably upset and drunk, and he's definitely missing. I hope I can find him before he gets himself into any real trouble."
Bella Stanford couldn't believe her luck. She had the one thing that her lover wanted, and he was passed out on her sofa. She had started her affair with Colin Creevey two years ago. He would go visit the woman he thought he was in love with, and when she rejected him, he would come and look for comfort in the bar. That was where Bella came in. She started out just listening to his problems, and she eventually let him use her for physical comfort. She fell in love with him, knowing that his heart belonged to another. She only longed for the day when she could give him what he wanted. Colin had tried to end their affair when his love finally agreed to go out with him, but he came crawling back when he longed for her physical touch.
Bella's parents were Death Eaters who were killed when she was young. She was left an orphan, and grew up with a hatred for the wizarding world. She hated the Ministry and all it stood for. So when Colin had drunkenly told her about how he was responsible for killing Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, and Lord Voldemort, she kept his secret. And now she finally had he one thing he needed: the boy-who-lived.
When Colin had discovered that Harry was still alive, he came to Bella. Colin left the country every few days to try and find a more permanent hiding spot if Harry did get his memory back. He was in Germany right now. The first thing Bella did when she had gotten Harry back to her apartment was owl Colin to tell him her news. But now she didn't know what to do other than wait.
Harry stirred from his place on the couch. Bella walked over to him and gently stroked his hair. If the situation was different, she would love to have her way with him. Despite her hatred for what he stood for, the amount of power she knew he had was intoxicating.
"Ginny," Harry murmured, rolling over.
"Oh Merlin, not another one hung up on that witch," Bella said groaning. "I don't know what it is they all see in her. She's not even all that attractive."
"I want to remember everything about you. I really do," Harry said quietly never actually opening his eyes. "But Gin, I think my mind will forever be mostly blank, but that doesn't mean my heart isn't still working. I think I'm falling in love with you all over again....." Harry's voice trailed off and he reached up and pulled Bella towards him. He lifted up his head and gave her a kiss before passing out again.
"You know I almost feel sorry for you," Bella said with a laugh. "That is if you hadn't played your part in ruining my life. Colin won't like hearing that you love her though. If I tell him he may do something irrational and kill you on the spot. But, if you were to tell her that you love her I could have Colin... I think I may have made a mistake."
"Ginny..." Harry called out again.
"Oy, someone needs to put this guy out of his misery," Bella said laughing.
"Ginny I just want to be with you, wherever you are. I'd give anything to be with you." There was a loud pop, and Harry disappeared from Bella's flat.
Ginny lay in her childhood bedroom, staring at the ceiling. She replayed the conversation she had with Harry earlier that day over and over again in her head. She couldn't figure out how the conversation had turned into an all out brawl. She had shared more with him than she had anyone else, and he had yelled at her. She felt the tears reforming in her eyes. "How could he be so cruel? Maybe he isn't the same man I fell in love with."
Ginny tried to force that thought out of her mind. If he wasn't her Harry, she really was going to be left to spend her life without love. Suddenly there was a loud pop. The next thing she knew was the feeling of being squashed. She tried to yell for help, but her mouth was smothered by someone's hair.
"Ginny, I'm such a fool," the man on top of her whispered, rolling off of her. Unfortunately, her bed was small and he fell onto the floor. "Oww."
"Harry what are you doing here?" Ginny asked, propping herself up on her elbows so she could look down at him.
"I wanted more than anything to be with you right now, and poof!" Harry said, making a large gesture with his hands.
"Are you completely sloshed?" Ginny accused him.
"Maybe," Harry replied with a grin. He stood up from the floor and crawled back into her bed next to her. "But I realized that if I was hurting that much, you most be hurting a million times more. You were the one who actually had to feel the pain, and who had to deal with it for all these years."
"You're pretty profound for someone who's had way too much to drink," Ginny replied calmly.
Harry smiled at her wickedly. "You haven't yet said that you forgive me for being the daftest man on the planet." Not waiting for her to reply he leaned in and kissed her. She gave in to his kiss at first, but when she realized how much alcohol she could taste in him, she pushed him away.
"I'll forgive you for now. Just don't ever yell at me like that again. You really need to stop drinking so much," she said wrapping her arm around him as he settled his head on her chest. "Just go to sleep, we'll talk again in the morning when you're more yourself."
Ginny lay there with the man she loved passed out in her arms. She was torn between the feelings of warmth from having him in her arms and the pain from knowing he still didn't really know who she was.
"What the bloody hell is going on in here!" Bill exclaimed as he stood in the doorway of his sister's bedroom.
Ginny looked at him through squinted eyes. "Merlin Bill, it's too early to be yelling like that. What's your problem anyway?"
"Gee, what's my problem? How about the fact that I was out all night looking for Harry only to find him the night morning in bed with my sister!"
By now Harry was stirring. "Why is everyone being so loud?" he asked meekly, holding his head.
"It looks like my suspicions about you being completely wasted were correct. Honestly Ginny, how could you let him crawl into your bed when he obviously upset you earlier and he's totally pissed?"
"Bill, you need to calm down," Ginny said quietly.
"How did you get in here anyway?" Bill asked Harry.
"Magic?" Harry asked, obviously still tipsy sending Ginny into a fit of giggles.
"I don't see anything funny about any of this," Bill said angrily.
"What's going on in here?" Molly asked, appearing in the doorway. "Oh," she added when she saw Harry still in Ginny's bed. "I guess that answers that question."
"Ginny, I don't think Harry should continue to stay with you," Bill said firmly. "If he's upsetting you he can just go back to where he came from."
Ginny sat up in bed, looking angrily at her brother. "First of all, you are not my father. You are my brother, and while that does entitle you your opinion, it does not give you the right to tell me what to do. Secondly, you have no idea what I went through that night. You have no idea what it is like to lose the person you love more than life itself. You have no idea how much I lost that night. It has been so hard for me to try and move on, and if there is any possibility that I can have even a bit of my old life back, I'm willing to give it a chance. No matter how much the process might hurt."
"Well, I think that settles that," Molly said, trying to smile. She walked out of the room, leaving her children to settle their own problems.
Bill turned to follow her, but Ginny hopped out of bed and stopped him. She leaned in and whispered in his ear. "Not that it's any of your business, but Harry and I weren't doing anything but sleeping." She paused, and then smiled wickedly. "But I thought that any question about the level of mine and Harry's intimacy was settled with that article in the Daily Prophet." Bill's face turned red and he walked out of the room, not able to make eye contact with Ginny or Harry. Ginny turned around to find Harry staring at her mystified. "You've been mighty quiet throughout all of this Mr. Potter," she said.
"I've never seen a woman do that like that before," he responded.
"What? Put a man in his place?"
"Never with such force and determination. I don't think I want to know what you whispered to him."
"Well then you're just starting to see all of me there is to see," Ginny said with a grin. "I think I've been worried about scaring you off."
"You don't have to try and impress me," Harry said. "But we do need to talk about last night. I honestly don't remember what happened after I left your flat; how I got here or what I said when I did."
"Later, Harry. Later. Now go downstairs so I can get dressed."
Harry pouted at her from his place on the bed. "Why? It's not like its something I've never seen before."
"Alright Mr. Smarty Pants, I'll make you a deal. When you remember what it looks like, you can see it again," Ginny teased.
"You have yourself a deal." Harry went to walk out of the room, but made it no farther than the edge of the bed when he turned around. He walked over to Ginny and wrapped her in a tight embrace. "I don't remember if I said it last not, but I'm sorry." He gave her a small kiss on the cheek and left her alone in her room.
A/N Okay this chapter was mostly written before the previous one, so there was no need for the wait this time around. The same cannot be said for the next chapter, but I don't think this is anywhere near the same cliffhanger as the last chapter was. Thanks again for all of the positive feedback, I really do appreciate it. It keeps me working on this story instead of my school work! I had another little plot bunny start to develop over the weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to start that one once I finish this one off. Most of the action in this story will be wrapped up in the next couple chapters, but then there's going to have to be a little fluff. I mean haven't Harry and Ginny sufferred enough?