The next morning Harry woke to find Ginny in his arms, it was then that the horrible revelations of the afternoon before came back to him; she may never walk again.
Not long after he had woken Ginny began to stir, soon she was awake, but she could not feel or see Harry's hand on her own, in fact she couldn't see Harry at all, she began to panic. "Harry, Harry where are you, it was all just a dream – I hope Darren didn't hear…"
"Hey, Gin calm down, I'm right here."
"Darren?" she asked fearfully.
"No, Harry. Who's Darren?"
"Oh, um, no one."
"Fine Gin if you don't want to tell me now you don't have to but I hope that one day you will tell me."
Ginny nodded. "I'll tell you Harry I promise."
"Good morning Harry, Ginny."
"Morning Georgie." Harry replied.
"Well guess what?" She asked Ginny.
"What?" Ginny responded.
"Today you are moving to a spinal injury unit."
"Really you mean I'm out of here?"
"That's it, so when you're ready we can get you down there."
"I'm ready."
"Ok let's go."
Harry carefully picked Ginny up and placed her in the wheelchair provided. He pushed her alongside Georgie as she led them to the spinal injury ward.
"I think you will like it down there Ginny, it's on the ground level and opens onto the gardens, so you can sit in the sun for the afternoon, or under the shade of a tree for a picnic lunch. Plus the nurses are really nice and it's my ward basically. I mean I worked with you only because of how you came in but there were some back problems that I was worried about so I kept in the case. But my speciality is physiotherapy, mainly I work with spinal injuries (helping those with injuries walk again)."
"So you'll be my doctor down here as well?"
"Yes."
After Ginny had been settled into her new room Georgie asked for a moment alone with her, to talk to her about one of her test results. Harry waited patiently outside her room waiting for either one of them to invite him back in. After waiting for almost fifteen minutes Georgie emerged pushing Ginny ahead of her.
"Harry, let's go for a walk in the gardens." Ginny said.
"Sure, are you coming Georgie?"
"No, I have things to do. See you both later." Georgie replied as she turned and left.
Harry moved behind Ginny and pushed her chair down the path, for a long time neither spoke a word. They stopped when Harry found a large shady tree for them to both sit under.
"Harry, would you take me out of this chair? I want to sit on the grass too."
"Sure thing Gin." Harry said as he lifted her from the wheelchair and placed her gently on the ground next to him. "So what is it on your mind? And don't tell me it's nothing, because I know you better than that."
"Well it's just I'm not sure what I should do, I mean well Georgie just said, well she told me that…"
"What Gin, what did she say, come on I can't help you if you don't tell me what the problem is."
"I'm pregnant." She finished almost mournfully.
"What? I don't understand."
"Ok I'll start from the beginning. After the final battle I had a huge fight with my family over a death that was my fault so they kicked me out. Well, at first it wasn't so bad because I still had Hogwarts but when I graduated I had nowhere to go and no one to turn to, don't blame yourself Harry, I don't. So once I was out of Hogwarts I stayed with friends until I found a job, but it didn't last long. Eventually I met this guy named Darren, at first I thought he was really sweet, he took me in and we even got married. But after that it all turned sour, he started drinking heavily and shouting at me all the time, it was awful, but it got worse after about a year he started to beat me. I thought I deserved it so I didn't stop him, I thought no one cared so I stayed. Then one day I just snapped and ran, that was when you found me in the river, I'd thrown myself in."
"Oh, Gin, I'm so sorry, I had no idea. But who did you did you kill to make your family kick you out?"
"Percy, only it wasn't like that, it was a mercy kill."
"A mercy kill?"
"Well at the end of the battle a few of us were going around and killing those who were better off dead, so their suffering ended. I was put in charge of death eaters as all of them were to die, whether they could be saved or not, and amongst them I found Percy. I offered to have him saved, to transfigure the death eaters robes and not tell anyone but he told me that if I did that he'd never be able to live with the shame, he begged for me to kill him…"
"So you did?"
Ginny nodded, the memory of it all obviously to painful to recall. "But when I told mum she went ballistic, she screamed for two days straight, I hid in my room for two weeks, grateful that I could magic food from the kitchen. One by one my brothers came by to see if mum's rambling was accurate, all of them left yelling as much as mum, none of them bothered to listen to the fact that he had begged for his end."
"Shh, it'll be ok Gin, we'll get through it all, and get them back."
"They never want to see me again." She sobbed.
"Shh, don't worry." He hugged he comfortingly, willing for everything to be all right and resolving to be the one who would fix all the problems.
For a while neither spoke, just sat in silence, Ginny sobbing quietly into Harry's chest. It was almost an hour before she spoke.
"Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you leave?"
"Because I couldn't handle the press after what I'd done, and I didn't want to burden you guys with me being all moody about damned reporters turning up all the time. Realistically I would never have been able to live a normal life because of who I was."
"But you must of seen that we'd rather you moody and alive than dead."
"Well I didn't exactly mean to stay away I just never got around to returning. I'm sorry; if I'd known what you were going through I'd have been by your side in a heartbeat. I just had to wait for everything to die down."
"It's ok Harry I don't blame you for any of what happened to me. I just wish you'd come back sooner."
"So do I."
"Harry?"
"Mmm?"
"How did you disappear, I mean there was that huge explosion then Voldemort was dead and you were gone."
"Well as soon as he fell my wand exploded, but I'd made a portkey just prior to killing Voldemort; so in the explosion made by my wand I was transported to the forest in which I lived."
"Your wand exploded?"
"Yep right there in my hand." Harry held out his right hand as he spoke so Ginny could see the hundreds of tiny scars covering his palm, she began to trace the scars absentmindedly.
"So what are you going to do?" Harry asked her finally.
"About what?"
"The baby."
"Oh, I don't know, I mean I want to keep it but I'm afraid it will remind me of Darren, what if it looks like him?"
"Do you want it?"
"I guess, but how am I going to take care of it from the blasted chair?"
"I'll be here to help, always, I'm back with you for good now."
"It's so hard, I want it because, well, I want to be a mum, and Georgie said that I might not be able to have any more children. But I want to forget Darren, I don't want a reminder of him."
"Well which are you leaning towards now?"
"I'm not sure, I guess I want to keep it, but I'm not sure."
"Well how about we get you inside and you can have a rest, and after a sleep you'll be able to think clearly, you don't have to decide right now after all."
"Thank you Harry." He lifted her off the grass and put her back in the chair, before he slowly turned and pushed her from the gardens.
Once he had her settled back in her bed, he pulled a chair close to her bed and held her hand as she drifted off to sleep.