Disclaimer: I do not, though regrettably, own Harry Potter.

Chapter 3: Retracing Steps

Harry and Ginny walked back toward the burrow, soaking wet and hand in hand. Harry looked at the girl beside him. Dripping from head to toe, she was still the most gorgeous girl he'd ever known. He wondered how he could be so lucky to even get to stand beside her. Ginny was a comforting force in his life. Despite all the troubles and horrors he'd experienced, the people he'd lost, the pain he'd suffered, whenever he looked at Ginny, every bad thing seemed to melt away, and all that mattered was the present moment, and the girl before him.

"What are you thinking about?" Ginny asked him, looking into his eyes.

"You." He replied, grabbing her by the waist and pulling her toward him. Having reached the burrow, Harry leaned back against the outside of the house, pulling Ginny with him. Having Ginny pressed against him was almost too much for his senses to bear. They kissed passionately for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only a few minutes. They broke apart, breathless, staring at each other deeply.

"Harry," Ginny breathed. Their foreheads were now touching, leaning on each other for support for both their lack of air.

"Yeah?" Harry replied huskily. He felt that whatever she asked he would more than willingly give it to her in a heartbeat. He wanted to give Ginny the world.

"I don't think we should tell anyone about us just yet." She let out quickly, looking into his emerald eyes for some sort of reaction. Harry was confused by this. Why wouldn't she want everyone to know? Was she ashamed of being with him?

"Why?" Harry asked quietly.

"Well, I don't want everyone making a big fuss over us. Everyone already has so much on their mind...what with Bill and Fleur's wedding coming up, and Dumbledo–" She stopped abruptly, looking into Harry's eyes again. She hadn't meant to say that, she didn't want to upset him. As she looked into his eyes, she saw a darkness pass over them, followed by an intense sadness that only Harry could feel.

"Oh Harry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." She started, but he interrupted.

"Don't worry about it Gin," he looked down, and inched slightly away from her. "I don't want to talk about it. Maybe you're right. Maybe we shouldn't tell anyone about us just yet, it doesn't seem like the right time." He looked sad, but continued anyway, regaining a little of the color in his cheeks. "Anyway, you just reminded me of something I need to discuss with Ron and Hermione."

Ginny tore her eyes away from him, looking hurt. He touched the bottom of her chin and gently raised her head up to meet his gaze. "I would love it if you were there too."

Ginny's expression turned from hurt to thrilled all in a matter of a second. She leapt into Harry's arms and Harry caught her. She hugged him tightly and then leaned back for a tender kiss. They stayed like that for another minute or so then broke apart again.

"I think we should head back inside now." Harry said, although he didn't seem like he meant it.

Ginny giggled. "Ok, but act like nothing happened between us. Pretend you didn't find me, and walk in a few minutes after I go in." She winked at him, and turned to walk inside.

About ten minutes later, Harry was in the living room, sitting with Ron and Hermione. He received a few questions about Ginny, and Hermione wondered how he could possibly have not seen her out there flying, seeing as it was a clear, bright day and there was no where else to look but up. Harry shrugged it off and moved on to more important subjects.

"I need to talk to you guys about something important," Hermione and Ron looked at each other questioningly, "about the horcruxes." Harry finished, and Hermione and Ron immediately moved closer to him and listened with rapt attention. "But first," Harry took a deep breath and looked at Ron seriously, "I would like for Ginny to join us."

Both Ron and Hermione were taken aback by this comment, and Ron spoke first. "Harry, you're joking. She's just a child, she doesn't need to be involved with all these heavy problems. Plus," Ron looked down, "well, she's my sister, Harry. I don't want her any closer to danger than she has to be..." he finished lamely.

Harry understood where Ron was coming from, but trudged on. "Ron, I know you care about Ginny a lot. I don't want her any closer to danger either, but she's a bright witch and I think we could use her help. Besides, she's just as involved as everyone else. Most of her family is in the order. Also, she's the only one besides me that has actually seen and talked with Voldemort. I think that might be of some importance..." Harry finished quietly, not wanting to bring up bad memories for Ron but needing to say it all the same. Harry looked at Ron, trying to decipher what was going through his head.

Just then, Hermione placed her hand on his, and whispered something inaudible into Ron's ear. He seemed to relax at Hermione's touch, and nodded to what Hermione was whispering to him. When she was finished, he looked back up at Harry.

"I reckon it might be a good idea that Ginny be here for this." He said to Harry. Harry looked at Hermione's hand on Ron's, then locked eyes with Ron, who went red. Harry gave him a questioning look but Ron shook it off and quickly changed subjects. "Ginny!" He shouted up the stairs. Ginny came running down, gave Harry a quick look that no one else seemed to notice, and sat next to her brother.

Harry took a deep breath, and started to explain everything about Dumbledore's private lessons and the horcruxes to Ginny. Ginny looked scared at the fact that Voldemort had several parts of his soul hidden around the world, but she stayed strong and didn't break Harry's train of thought until the part about the prophecy came up.

"I thought the prophecy was smashed back at the department of mysteries last year?" Ginny asked quickly, looking around at everyone in the room with a curious expression. Hermione and Ron quickly looked down at their shoes, not wanting to tell Ginny any more. Ginny noticed this and a worried expression came to her face. "Harry," she looked deep into his eyes with that look that made Harry want to tell her all his secrets, "Harry, what did the prophecy say?"

Harry took a deep breath and looked back into her eyes with equal intensity. "Well, Gin, it seems that Dumbledore had heard the prophecy a long time ago, before I was born, in fact. Where he heard it from isn't really important, but what it says is. It says..." Harry stopped and looked down. Ginny touched his chin and brought his face back up to hers, much like Harry had done to her only an hour before. "It says that, well, it's about me and Voldemort, and it says that...neither can live while the other survives..." Ginny face turned pale, and she put her hands to her mouth.

"But, that means..." Ginny spoke, her words muffled through her hands.

"It means that I will either have to be the one to kill Voldemort, or Voldemort will be the one to... kill me." He finished calmly. He saw that Ginny's eyes had welled up and a single tear slid down her cheek. She stayed silent for a few minutes and no one spoke, until Harry broke the silence.

"Gin, it's OK, really. Don't be upset. Besides, I've faced him loads of times before. He's not all he's hyped up to be...he's a big push-over, really." Harry smiled, in an attempt to cheer Ginny up. Ginny was not comforted by this.

"HARRY POTTER! DON'T YOU DARE JOKE ABOUT THINGS LIKE THAT!" She yelled, tears leaking down her face. "It's not..." she hiccoughed, "funny!" Harry stepped toward her quickly and buried her in a hug. He patted her head gently. Ron looked away, clearly uncomfortable.

"Shh, Gin, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to poke fun...It's OK...I'm sorry..." After a few minutes in his tight embrace, Ginny broke away and instead of sitting back down next to Ron, she sat next to Harry instead.

"I'm sorry for acting childish... I want to hear the rest. You had something you wanted to tell us Harry?" Harry smiled at her, and proceeded to tell Ron, Hermione, and Ginny about his dream from the previous night, and how he was back at Riddle's grave two years ago.

"So," Hermione started, "you think that Riddle's father's bones could be a horcrux?" Harry nodded, impressed as always at how quickly Hermione caught onto things. "That's a very clever guess, Harry, I'm impressed." Harry blushed at the compliment, and smiled.

"So, it's worth checking out then, right?" Harry asked.

"Definitely Harry, but there is one problem."

"What?" Ron asked, turning to her, clearly confused.

"Well, Harry's the only one that's actually been there. We don't know where it is, therefore we can't apparate there with him. Actually, I think Harry might have some trouble apparating there too, since it's been so long since he's been there. He probably doesn't remember it very well."

Harry nodded at this, though he didn't mean it. He didn't want to tell his friends that he still remembered every single detail from that night vividly, that on numerous nights the graveyard still haunted his dreams...

"So," Harry looked at Hermione, who had spoken again, "I think that the best thing to do would be to, well," Hermione looked timidly down at her feet, "go back in Harry's memory and get a good look at the place so we can apparate there ourselves." She said very quickly, and everyone looked at her. "Plus," she added at their stares, "I think it would be useful to see the exact process that brought V-Voldemort back to body form."

Harry was the one who spoke. "You want to go into my memories of...that night?" He asked, knowing the answer.

"Are you OK with that, Harry?" Ginny asked from beside him. He looked into her eyes, and he didn't want to let her down.

"I guess so." Said Harry, expelling a long-held breathe.

Hermione tried to hide the look of triumph behind her eyes, but didn't do a very good job. "Great, let's head up to Ron's room and get started."

"I'll go get Percy's old penseive down from the attic." Ginny said, then muttered under her breath, "Git."

"You wanna go right now?" Harry asked in somewhat of a shock, but the girls had already bounded up the stairs, eager to get started. Ron clapped him on the back.

"You OK mate?"

"Yeah...I'm fine." Replied Harry, and with that they all made their way up the stairs to Ron's bedroom.

A/N:This was kind of a short chapter, butI think I'm ready to write about the penseive now, so the next chapter should be up pretty soon. Thanks to those of you who reviewed, I appreciate it more than you know. To all those who are reading this story and havent reviewed, if you could please just tell me that you'r reading it so I know who my audience is, that would be great. I'm getting a lot of hits but I don't know if it's the same people or many people. I'm not asking for anything big, just a little review that tells me that you're reading. Thanks a lot!