Just Old Friends

Chapter 23: Ginny's secret

"Ginny, what happened to you in the battle? People keep hinting something bad happened but nobody will tell me."

Ginny sighed and met Harry's gaze.

"Harry it was bad, you see what happened was…"

A head appeared in the fire and Ginny jumped. Neville's face grinned at the two friends.

"Sorry to interrupt, but I thought I'd give you the heads up. Dumbledore is calling a meeting tonight; seems Draco is already making his moves, he wants everybody at the Ministry by eight tonight."

"Thanks Neville, do you know what's happening?"

"Sorry Gin, no idea, I'll leave you two alone."

Neville's face disappeared and Ginny looked back at Harry.

"Looks like trouble."

"Indeed Miss Weasley, I'm guessing that Neville has gotten here before I did."

Harry grinned at his old Headmaster.

"Yes sir, Neville bet you to us. But if I was you, I'd go to Hermione and Ron's next. They're discussing wedding plans and you want to get there before Hermione invites that Cassandra to stay for dinner or something."

"Indeed."

Dumbledore's head disappeared from view and again Harry was left alone with Ginny.

"So you were saying Gin?"

"Oh my injury… yeah, you see; I lost my family and my fiancé to the war."

"Oh yes, that's the big secret everyone is keeping from me Gin. I didn't wake up yesterday you know."

"No, it's been oh… five months."

The laughter that ran through the room lightened the atmosphere. Harry took Ginny's hand in his and looked deeply into her eyes.

"What happened Gin?"

"It's bad. I hate thinking about it."

"I know that, but everyone keeps saying that it's up to you to say and Neville and Hermione have both hinted that it's something big."

She sighed and pulled her hand away from his.

"I was throwing curses around during the battle everything was so intense. I remember wondering if I was going to live or die there and then. I remember seeing the carriage fall on Neville and screaming out."

She looked up and her eyes were filled with tears. Harry picked her hand up gently and rubbed the back with his thumb.

"I was so scared Harry; Luna was dead, I'd seen her fall, Ron was in a state and now Neville was caught under the carriage. I didn't know what to do I wanted to see them all, take all of them into my arms and hug them all, but I couldn't.

"I moved over to the carriage with Seamus and we started to pull at the thing just trying to remove it, it wasn't working though. A curse was flung at us and we had to scatter. Neville was unconscious and I couldn't help but think he was dead."

Harry could see the tears flowing down her face in great amounts now; it was scary how much she was crying. He didn't know what to do so pulled her to him. He had her on his lap rocking her back and forth, one hand resting on her back and the other on her hair.

She was crying so hard that he didn't know if she was ever going to stop and suddenly he knew that he should just support her, forget asking questions. He didn't know how long they were like that for, but it was long enough.

Ginny pulled away and moved back to her seat opposite him wiping her eyes as she went. She smiled shyly at Harry.

"I'm so embarrassed."

"Don't be, it's alright. Tell you what why don't we drop it and –"

"No, it's something everyone knows about and it isn't really a big deal I'm used to it; it's just thinking about the battle that's hard because even though I'm happy to be alive and I love having my memories of those I love, I don't want to remember them dying."

Harry just nodded at her as she picked up her wine glass and downed what was left and gently placed it back on the table.

"It's weird really; Malfoy stood over me, Lucius that is. He looked me up and down and spat on me. Said that it was my kind that was destroying the purity of the wizarding world. That I cared for Mudbloods and half bloods and so I would pay for it. I told him I wasn't afraid to die."

She laughed gently meeting Harry's eyes.

"He said there are many things worse than death and hit me with Cruico. I remember the pain like it was yesterday. I bit my tongue to stop from yelling out and I remember the taste of blood in my mouth; it was infectious.

"Then the pain left. Hermione was right behind Malfoy and he knew she was there, he turned and disarmed her quickly she stood there with a wand at her chest. He looked at her in the same way he had me. Said that he was sure he wouldn't get away with killing her but he'd give her an existence far worse, cut her off at the heart."

Ginny shook her head slowly

"I remember seeing his mouth form words and without thinking I jumped in front of her, pushing Hermione to the ground. The spell hit me and I felt this funny turn inside I wanted to be sick to lie down and not move."

She looked directly at Harry now

"It was the Infructuosus curse Harry, that's what he used on me. I can never have children."

A/N: Infructuosusis Latin for infertileI looked it up so now you know what the secret was that they've been keeping to themselves Ginny can't have children.

Okay so I was planning on letting you wait longer but with exams next week it meant I had to post now otherwise you wouldn't get any more story until February.

Brilliant-author16 well thank you for letting me sidetrack so Tonks can have her baby I think she might be glad that you've allowed it! As for the whole Ginny/Harry thing its slowly becoming more them, in fact I think I've got it planned out how they're going to get together you just have to watch the space

Harryp123 I don't think that Dudley will play to big a role in this story it'll be just bumping into each other when leaving and things, and no pranks are planned.

Annie a hyper Annie is a scary Annie; I feel so sorry for Ava having to put up with hyper Annie (mind a hyper Kris isn't much better and it's a drunken Kris tonight so it'll be fun) as for orange, well I like the idea I can just see Ron trying to turn things orange at the wedding, but yeah I think Hermione like you must hate orange

Avadne again wow all 22 chapters in one go wow. I'm glad you liked it and I'm sorry about hyper Annie don't think I can really help (it might be best to hide the coke and not let her drink litres of the stuff) anyway thanks for the review

Chica91 yeah it is odd just having Dudley turn up and I don't think the Ginny thing was as bad as it could have been but yeah its bad for her because she can't have that huge family like her parents had so yeah bad.

Hermione2be yeah a cliffy is bad but it could have been worse, at least I have the next chapter here for you

Potter4prez you think its emotional, wow I didn't think so but maybe its because I have a rock instead of a heart and don't get emotional about anything but thanks for the review

Like I said earlier I doubt there'll be more post before February or at least in the next two weeks, so hope you enjoy

Kris