When Doves Cry
Chapter 5: The Trouble With Love
Disclaimer: Still don't own them.
A/N: If by two weeks, I meant a little over a month, I'm delivering this right on time
Ginny awoke to the sound of Hope wailing from the next room. Groaning, she rolled over to tell Harry that it was his turn; however, when she did so, she found that Harry was no longer there. Sighing, she threw off the covers and got out of bed.
In the kitchen Ginny sat Hope in her highchair as she turned on the coffee pot and prepared Hope's bottle. On the fridge she found a note.
Gin-
Had to get to work. Didn't want to wake you. Hopefully I won't be home too late. Have a great day.
Love you,
Harry
"Work? Since when does Quidditch practice start be 6:30?" Ginny said to herself. She'd never heard of a more ridiculous practice schedule. Not only was it early, but in the chilly month of February, it was nearly below freezing out. Cold weather wasn't exactly the best for Quidditch.
Shaking her head, Ginny crumpled the note and tossed it into the trashcan.
"Harry what are they doing?" Harry heard through the communication system Cho had set up. Cho was a few hundred feet away, looking at him as she asked the question.
"I don't know," he replied.
Rather than fleeing the patronus charms being thrown their way, the Dementors were simply keeping a distance far enough away so that the charms were too weak to do anything by the time they reached them. And rather than attempt to advance in between attacks, the dementors were simply lingering in one spot, as if they were observing them.
"I've never heard of Dementors behaving this way before," Harry told Cho.
"Can't you remember them from when you were here before?"
"I wish I could. I remember them being here, and that about it. Maybe we should try and advance on them."
"What?" Cho exclaimed. "Why? They're staying away! That's what we wanted."
"I don't trust them"
"Harry, Dementors don't plot."
"At least not as far as we know. Something's weird about this, and we need to figure out what it is. We're going to approach them."
"You're the boss Harry," Cho said.
With that Harry opened communication with the entire defense team and gave the directions to approach the dementors.
Harry carefully watched the looming cloaked creatures as his team approached them. They continued to stand there without showing any sign of intending to move.
"Harry what should we do?" Cho asked, obviously concerned by the lack of movement by the dementors.
Harry looked at his team members, who were cautiously still inching forward, and made a decision.
"Stop," he called. "No sense putting everyone in danger. I'll go myself."
"By yourself?" Cho exclaimed. "Harry, no. It's too dangerous."
"I won't get too close," he promised. "As soon as I feel uncomfortable about something I'll turn back."
He saw Cho bite her lip and nod in response.
Harry could feel the eyes of everyone watching him as he stepped forward. He carefully held his wand in front of him, keeping his guard up.
The closer he got the more suspicious he became. He wasn't getting the cold feeling that dementors usually gave him, and they still weren't moving.
Then all of a sudden it hit him.
Ginny's face flashed through his mind. Ginny at different stages through her teenage years.
"It's over," he face shouted.
"We're done Harry."
"Maybe we should just break-up then!"
"It's over."
"It's over."
"We're done."
The scenes each flashed by in an instant. Finally it came to one he had just witnessed the day before: Draco and Ginny in the hospital wing.
"We should get married," Draco's voice echoed through Harry's ears.
"We should get married."
"We should get married."
"We should get married."
"Potter."
"We should get married."
"Potter"
"We should get married."
"Potter!" the voice finally brought Harry back to reality.
"Yeah Malfoy?"
"We got the shields down. Get your men out of here. We're done for the day."
Not missing a beat Harry gave his team directions to apparate back to the headquarters before doing so himself.
Ginny smiled as she sat at a small table in the Leaky Cauldron. After telling her mother about the errands she needed to run, Molly Weasley had promptly insisted that she take James and Hope off Ginny's hands for the day. As much as she loved her children, some time off from being mum was nice.
Finishing the last bite of her dinner, Ginny put some galleons on the table to cover the bill and headed across the street to the bookshop.
There she placed an order for a book she wanted to give Charlie for his birthday and was old that it'd be in for her to come pick up in a week.
Turning on to the street as she left the shop, she accidentally bumped into a passing woman.
"Oh I'm sorry," she said. "Jen!" she then exclaimed.
"Ginny!" the other woman, with chocolate brown hair and hazel eyes smiled at her.
"I haven't seen you in so long," Ginny said as she hugged her friend.
"I know. We really should find more time to see each other."
"We should. But how are you doing?"
"Pretty good," Jen told her.
"And Draco?"
"I wouldn't know."
"What?" Ginny asked, confused.
"He didn't tell you we split up? Just after the holidays…"
"What?" Ginny's jaw dropped. "But…but what happened?" Ginny knew the question was blunt, but it had just slipped out.
"I…" Jen started but paused and then said, " I don't know. I'm sorry Ginny but I really have to run. I'll owl you and we'll get together soon though."
"You'd better," Ginny told her before they parted ways.
The sun was setting and Ginny knew that her mother would be expecting her to get the kids soon. However, she decided she had one more stop she needed to make.
"It was bizarre," Harry told Draco as they sat in his study. "I didn't feel anything and then the flashes began."
"What were they of?"
"Ginny."
"You're telling me that of all the things you've seen, your absolute worst memories are of our little Virginia?"
"It was of her breaking up with me over and over again, and…" Harry was about to tell Draco about seeing his proposal to Ginny in his flashed, but stopped himself. "and stuff like that," he concluded.
"I don't know. It all sounds pretty normal to me Potter."
"But you didn't see them. They were behaving like normal dementors."
"Maybe they've just been affected from being kept on that island for so long with no source of nourishment."
"I think there's more to it than that"
"Why are telling me about this? Who am I? The resident dark arts expert?"
Harry remained silence and glanced around the portraits on the walls. Portraits of generations of dark wizards. Draco scowled, making it clear he understood exactly what Harry's silence meant. "Maybe in your library…" Harry suggested.
"Forget it Potter. I need a drink," he said before getting up and leaving the room.
Ginny apparated into Draco's study to find her husband alone in the room.
"Harry?" she asked, surprised to see him there. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" he asked, as glint of suspicion in his eyes.
"Paying an overdue visit to my best friend," she said.
"Same here," he said as if defending himself.
"Really? Since when does Ron frequent Malfoy Manor?" Ginny teased, but Harry didn't seem to pick up on her humor.
"I meant I was also visiting a friend Ginny," Harry spat.
Ginny frowned.
"Are you ok Harry?" she asked softly stroking to side of his face.
At her touch his tense angry attitude seemed to melt away.
"I'm fine Gin," he smiled.
"Good. Now leave," she grinned.
"Leave?" he exclaimed.
"I need some time with Draco."
"For what?"
"He and Jen split up," she said quietly.
"And?"
"And? And….Wait! Did you know?"
"He mentioned it awhile ago…"
"And you didn't tell me?"
"Whoops…"
"Harry Potter! You…You…"
"Sorry Gin," he smiled sheepishly.
Ginny laughed. Harry never failed to wiggle his way out of her wrath.
"Well to make it up to me, you can go get the kids from my mother. They're your kids tonight. What time do you have to be in tomorrow?"
"Noon."
"I'll be home by noon then," Ginny told him.
"By noon? Tomorrow? Where are you going to be?"
"Here."
"Doing what?"
"Having a hot wild affair with the sexy blond who own this mansion," she teased.
"Oh good. I was worried you were planning on doing something dangerous like try and make Malfoy have a heart to heart with you."
Ginny smiled and kissed Harry goodbye before he disapparated.
Ginny gave the portrait of Draco's Great Uncle Dominic the password to open, stepped through the portrait hole into Draco's bedroom and headed for his bureau.
Just as she found what she was looking for Ginny heard Draco come into the study.
"What the fuck are you doing in my room Potter?"
"Looking for my favorite pair of pajamas," she called back.
"Weasley?" Draco asked, surprised to hear her voice.
"No, I think you had it right the first time," she said, stepping back into the study, carrying two sets of pajamas in her arms.
"Sorry Gin, but you'll always be a Weasley in my book."
Ginny smiled and shoved the gray set of pajamas at Draco.
"Go get changed Mr. Malfoy," she commanded.
"And to what occasion to I owe this honor of having you break out my silk pajamas?"
"The occasion is me and you spending some quality Draco Ginny time, just like we used too. Now go get changed," she said, shooing him off, but not before stealing the glass of wine out of his hands and taking a sip. "We're going to need more of this."
Ginny lay stomach down in emerald green pajamas, the same make as Draco's, on Draco's bed, which was large enough to have slept her entire family when she growing up. Draco sat beside her, propped up with overstuffed pillows.
In front of her Ginny had a large box of assorted chocolates. She frowned as she took a small bite out of one and discovered strawberry crème inside. She spat out the small but and handed the rest up to Draco who shook his head and laughed at her antics.
"So are you going to tell me about it or do I have to start asking questions?" Ginny said suddenly. Draco raised an eyebrow at her. "What happened?" she sighed, looking at him sympathetically. She knew that he knew her well enough to know what she meant.
"I don't know. Just a lot of little things I guess."
"But that's what commitment's about! Working though the little things."
"There were just too many Gin. And I think… I think that we into it all too fast," Draco confessed. "We didn't know each other well enough and when our full personalities started coming out, I guess it was sot of a shock."
"Who ended it?"
"Well technically she's the one who left, but I sort of pushed her into it. She was trying to fix things and I well…wasn't."
"Why?" Ginny exclaimed. "You love each other?"
"Well sometimes love isn't enough."
"Please don't say that Draco."
"Sorry Gin but it's the truth. Love isn't always enough."
"Well I hope you're wrong," she said sharply but then softened her voice. "Because love is pretty much all I have right now when it comes to Harry and me."
"Problems in Potter Paradise?" Draco questioned.
"No," Ginny said. "Well yes…well, I don't really know. I'm so confused. When I see Harry everything's fine; we're as happy as ever. But the thing is, I never see him. He's always working or busy with something, while I'm home with the kids all the time. I…I thought when Harry came home that it would be different, but he's been home a year now and all of a sudden I feel as alone as I was before he came home. I feel so alone Draco. I feel so alone."
It was at this point that Ginny couldn't take it anymore and she burst out in tears.
She felt her best friend collect her into his arms as he gently tried to calm her.
A/N: Well there it is. Sorry it took so long. I tend to get severe cases of writers block when it comes to this story. I can guarantee that chapter six won't take so along because it's already written, I just have to type it. Well I hope you liked this one . Thanks for all our reviews and support. It means a lot. Look for chapter six soon!
Love,
Bella