Ginny looked loving at Harry as they danced together in a sunny meadow. They glided over the smooth grass. "I love you Ginny." Harry said to her as he kissed her temple.
"I love you too Harry. I've always loved you." She told him and felt completely safe in saying it out loud. This was a haven, a place she could dream the dreams she wanted and ignore the evil that plagued her every other living moment. She so rarely came to the meadow and when she did, Ginny made sure to enjoy every moment of it.
Harry kissed her again before letting go. "I have to go now. You sleep."
"Please don't." She felt the tears form but held them back. "I need you."
He gazed down at her sadly. "I need you too but this can't be."
He turned and walked away and Ginny felt the small piece of her heart that remained whole start to ache horribly.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked about Harry's room. It was still dark and she noted vaguely that Harry was not beside her. She listened carefully and heard the shower turn on before she rolled over to hug his pillow. She could rest for another ten minutes before he'd be coming to wake her.
"Ginny?"
She awoke with a start and looked blearily at Harry. "Do we have any hot water left?"
He laughed. "I still don't understand how you can be so witty at three in the morning."
"It's a gift." She grumbled and shoved the warm blankets off of her. She shivered slightly as she got up and crossed her arms to walk towards the shower. Once in the steam filled room she stripped and turned on the warm jets before stepping under their refreshing spray. She washed quickly and turned off the water. She stepped out of the shower and in to the warm mist that filled the room.
She quickly toweled herself off and began to rub the water out of her shoulder length wavy hair. Ginny stilled and looked at the fogged up mirror. She ran her hand over the smooth glass, leaving a cleared trail in its wake and water beading up to run down to the sink. She gazed in to her chocolate brown eyes before surveying the rest of her face. She had bags under her eyes that blemished her naturally pale skin. The freckles that she had hated as a child were still there but faded and not as conspicuous. Her face was round and she knew that eventually she would look exactly like her mother. She'd seen pictures of her Mum when she'd been twenty and they could have just as easily been pictures of her.
"Ginny?" Harry called through the door. "Are you almost through? We have to leave in a few minutes."
"Yes, I just need to put clothes on." She yelled back but he didn't respond. She grabbed her robe from the hook on the wall and threw it on hastily. She opened the door and found him standing there. "What?" She asked him.
He didn't speak for a moment. "Your hair is still wet."
"I forgot my wand."
"Oh." He pulled his own wand out and waved it over her and she felt her hair dry instantly.
"Thanks." She smiled at him. "I'll be ready to leave in three minutes." She walked quickly back to her room to dress. She emerged a few minutes later with her bag in hand. She found him waiting on the couch. "All set." She informed him and he stood.
Together they Apparated to the portkey office and checked in with the witch at the desk. The older woman spoke in a nasally, monotone voice. "You have two minutes to move down the hall and enter room three. There you will be instructed to take hold of the charmed object that will take you to your destination." She handed them a slip of parchment. "Have a nice trip."
"Thank you." Ginny replied as she took the offered paper. Together they walked down to the specified room and through the door.
"Good morning!" A small man with a large mustache said brightly. "Your portkey leaves in just under a minute. Please take hold and have a safe trip." He handed them a large roll of silver tape.
Harry and Ginny each held an end with one hand and their bags in the other. The second hand on the clock above them moved slowly towards their appointed departure time. When it finally reached 4:00am she felt the jerk behind her navel and they were off. Ginny felt herself land hard and had to work at staying on her feet.
"Good evening and welcome to beautiful San Diego! Land of palm trees and gorgeous beaches that are mercifully populated by scantily clad women year round." A jovial young wizard said before winking at her. "Please proceed through the doors to have your papers checked at security and enjoy your time with us in the great US of A!"
"Right." Harry glared at him before taking her arm and guiding her out the door.
When it shut she turned on him. "What was that?"
"I don't know about these Americans." He looked back at the door as if checking to make sure the man was not following them.
She smacked his arm. "I meant you! Why did you drag me out of there like that?"
"I… uh…" He grinned sheepishly at her. "Sorry, he was flirting with you and my instincts kicked in."
"He was not flirting with me and may I remind you that I am a big girl, I can take care of myself!" Ginny sighed. "Let's go." She moved off towards the security guard who was reading a magazine. She took out her official Ministry papers and handed them over. "Ginevra Weasley, here on official Auror business from England."
"Harry Potter, same." He handed over his own set of papers.
The security man scanned them quickly. "Everything's in order, you can go." He handed back their papers and they walked out in to the cold night air.
"Isn't California supposed to be warm all the time?" Ginny asked as they looked around the brightly street. She looked up and noticed a sign that said 'Gas Lamp District'. There were muggles everywhere but she and Harry had dressed appropriately. They had been warned that the magical community in southern California usually did not wear the traditional robes.
"I don't know." He replied distractedly as he studied a map. "Come on, the hotel is this way." He led her over several blocks until they found a brick building that looked conspicuously out of place. None of the other buildings along the row were brick and the sign outside said 'Last One Standing'. "Here we are." Harry pulled the door open and held it for her.
"Thank you." She said as she entered. She looked around the bright lobby before heading over to the check-in desk. "Reservation for Weasley and Potter."
"Of course." The friendly woman looked through a ledger. "I have a reservation for Potter, two people."
"That would be it." Ginny confirmed and looked questioningly at Harry who simply shrugged.
"Just the one night will be eight galleons." She informed them and Harry paid her. "Here is your room key. You are up the stairs and to the left. Room 26. Enjoy your stay with us and if you need anything please floo us here at the front desk."
Ginny and Harry moved up the stairs to their room. She unlocked the door and pushed it open to reveal a spacious room, including a fireplace, table, chairs and couch. She grinned when she noticed one other feature. The room only had one large bed. "Guess we are bunking together. Oh I would love to have seen Sharon's face when she flooed in the reservations."
Harry closed the door and quickly performed several advanced locking and monitoring charms on it. He turned and surveyed the room as well. "I can kip on the couch if you'd like."
"That would be pointless. You'd just have to crawl in to bed with me when I have a nightmare." She set her bag down and opened it, rummaging for her notes. "We should work on our plan for tomorrow for several hours and then sleep."
"I agree." Harry said and he too gathered some notes before sitting down at the small table.
She sat down and kicked off her shoes so that she could curl her legs underneath her. "We are meeting the American Aurors at 8:00am in a town just east of here called Alpine. The Apparation point is the back room of a restaurant called the Bread Basket. From there we will move in muggle automobiles to the location where the suspect is thought to be hiding. Once we have positively identified him then the team will move in to apprehend him."
"I hate that we can't take him down ourselves." Harry muttered as he made a few notes on the extradition forms they had brought along.
Ginny laughed. "I agree but you know Americans. They always have to do it themselves." She looked over at what he was writing. "No, it's M-a-c not M-c. We don't want to have the forms wrong."
"Walden Macnair." He wrote it out correctly after magically wiping his mistake. "Got it. What is his age again?" He looked up at Ginny expectantly as she rifled through her notes.
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"We broke up." Harry told her when she's asked after Celia whereabouts. She had been under the impression that the woman would be joining the rest of the Weasley's for Christmas.
"I'm sorry Harry." She tried to hide her elation but apparently she had not done a wonderful job.
He chuckled. "No you're not. I know you didn't like her and it's all right. We just didn't suit."
"I tried to like her… but she was just too perfect." Ginny said defensively. "It's hard not to feel like a slob around someone that perfect."
He shrugged. "She wasn't perfect."
"She looked perfect." Ginny retorted.
"She was jealous of you." He finally said. "She didn't like that we were so close. She would glare at me every time I mentioned getting an owl from you."
"Oh." Her conscience overtook her. "I hope you didn't break up over me."
"No. She just didn't understand me. I tried to explain to her what it's like to be… us."
The situation cleared in Ginny's mind. "She didn't understand that we still relive it all the time."
"No. She thinks that meeting with a Mind Healer will help." He straightened an ornament that hung on the large Christmas tree that sat in the living room of the Burrow.
"I gave up. I've met with the Mind Healer that McGonagall arranged for. She came to Hogwarts at least twenty times and we have talked it all through but nothing helped. She finally said that therapy was just not going to stop my dreams."
He nodded. "How is your last year going?"
"Lonely." She tried to laugh but failed.
He pulled her to him for a hug. "I miss you too. It's not the same without you."
She relished these rare moments when she was in his arms and she didn't want to ruin it with depressing thoughts. "I'm studying hard so that I'll get in to the Auror training program."
He chuckled. "I bet you're also ignoring all the poor boys at Hogwarts."
"Everyone is studying." She answered evasively. "Do you know who your partner will be yet? Will they let you and Ron work together?"
"No." He let go over her and walked over to stare in to the fire. "We've both asked but for some reason Kingsley refused. We won't be assigned partners for awhile anyway."
"Maybe you and I could work together." She said cautiously. "I'll only be a year behind you."
He turned to her with a genuine smile. "That would be great Gin."
The scene faded and soon she was running to the Quidditch pitch to meet Colin after her Charms NEWT. He had left a note in the common room for her to meet him and she was already five minutes late. She got there, out of breath but could not see her friend anywhere. Turning around to study the stands, she stumbled backwards slightly but caught her balance quickly. The stands were all empty. "Maybe he's left already." She mused aloud. She still didn't know why he wanted meet her out here.
"Don't move." A cold, drawling voice said from behind her that she recognized it instantly as Draco Malfoy.
Cursing her stupidity for walking in to an obvious trap and the fact that her wand was tucked in to her robes, she tried to think quickly of how to get out of this situation. "What do you want ferret fucker?"
"Oh, harsh words from the Gryffindor whore." He replied evenly. "Oh wait, you can't be a whore if no one wants to shag you. Quite pathetic really." She could hear him advancing slowly on her from behind. "Turn around and do not reach for your wand. I'll have to kill you if you do."
Ginny turned slowly around to face him and was shocked to see that the once kempt boy was skeletally thin and his hair hung in long clumps all around his face. "I repeat. What do you want?"
"Vengeance will be mine, Weaslette. You sent my father to prison and I'm going to torture you for it." He laughed manically.
She studied his eyes and noted that the intelligent, calculating look they had once held was gone. His face told her plainly that he was utterly insane. "Did it take you a whole year to come up with a plan to get me?"
"Crucio!" He yelled and she was hit with the curse. She fell to her knees, blinded by the pain but she did not cry out. After what seemed like an hour he finally lifted the curse. "You will not talk back to me or I will punish you again."
"I'll say what I please." She informed him as she held her stomach and slowly slid her hand towards where her wand was kept. If she could get him to curse her again then she might have a chance to get to her wand. "You look like the back end of a troll, Draco. Haven't you ever heard of a shower?"
She'd managed it. "CRUCIO!" He yelled.
She rolled on the ground, trying to focus on getting her wand and not the horrific pain that was pulsating through her. He held her under the curse longer before finally lifting it but it didn't matter. She had her wand.
"We are leaving now." He informed her imperiously.
She grinned up at him. "I don't think so." She whipped out her wand and stunned him. He did not even have a chance to react. Slowly Ginny pulled herself to her feet and stumbled over to where he lay on the hard ground. "You always were too stupid for your own good." She kicked him hard in the ribs before binding him with ropes and levitating him. The walk up to the castle was agony on her abused body but she kept walking steadily until she'd reached the front doors. She looked up at the castle and breathed a sigh of relief.
Ginny opened her eyes to find Harry looking down at her, his head resting on his elbow. "I was just about to wake you." He whispered.
"Draco…" She said slowly and he nodded.
"We have to get up soon."
She tugged gently at his arm until he laid down next her. She put her head on his shoulder and he hugged her to him. "I need this right now… just for a little while."
"Okay." He said softly as he ran a hand over her hair. "I think I need it too."
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A/N: I gave the first chapter to several friends before posting it and the response I got from them was "I'm confused." So, that was why I was thinking that my readers would be confused as well. I'm glad that was not the case!
Thank you for Reviewing! Your questions and comments are helping me to understand where I am having leaving holes that I don't mean to leave open. Ask me your questions because I really need them as a guide. In my head the plot makes sense but I need to know where I left things out since it is important to not have a back-story. I have a list started of about twenty things I have to answer in the story and it would be lovely to add to that list!
THANKS to my Beta! You rock!
Miliardo Peacecraft: I'd love to say more about the dreams… but I'm just gonna let that one unfold.
SaintEmo: I think people enjoy making me blush… (hehe) thanks.
Harrie: See above A/N… my theory is that the people I had perusing it don't read fan-fiction.
xiaoxiao: I think that's why this appeals to me so much… you are clueless and the story just has to unfold. There is something sort of mysteriously appealing about Aurors… except when they look like Moody, of course! (lol)
JPx: Wow… thanks. That's nice to read. (I say this often but I blush every time someone compliments me). I'm glad you are enjoying this and all… (I gotta stop or my face will be permanently red)
Rivenn: This story is h/g… but they are both really screwed up right now… patience grasshopper (lots and lots of patience)
Ally: Note to self, kill Lucius… also maim in process (lol). I enjoy torturing the bad guys. I love the lovey-dovey too but I think this one will stay darker… although there is some sweet stuff as you saw in this chapter. I'm glad you like it and I'm relaxing a lot more… THANK YOU! You're reviews always make me smile.
Harry and Ginny 4eva: I'm glad you like the summary. I sat there staring at the screen for like ten minutes and six revisions later that was what I came up with. Blah! I got through that conversation, read over it and went 'oh how Fred and George.' They are a big ole mess…
kazziedal: I have a really strong argument for them getting together in cannon and as someone who studies relationships as a major I can point out several good reasons why they would suit well. I'm just hoping that we are all right about!
mysticruby: They have a lot in common… and they are both really screwed up from these dreams… I got your review and thought, 'I should probably quit writing and post another chapter'. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it.
