Scene 4: In Which Harry is Strangled

Sixth-year Ginny Weasley skipped along the border of the Forbidden Forest, though she didn't step into it. That would be against the rules, and Ginny was a girl who never broke the rules. But dancing dangerously close to the edge-- ah, that was a different thing altogether.

"I love you, Harry Potter," she whispered, even though she knew that Harry couldn't hear her. "I love you." She'd been in awe of him before she had even set eyes on him. He had always been the great Harry Potter, the strong heroic figure that she'd read about in books. Yet he had only been a baby when he defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named; she'd told herself that time and time again. Probably, he wasn't very brave or courageous or clever. Probably, he'd just been lucky. And then she had met him. He had had the most beautiful eyes, green and deep; they were the eyes of a hero. Ron had come home from school that year raving about how Harry had defeated You-Know-Who once more, and the intensity of Ginny's longing to know him had grown. The next year had been Ginny's first year at Hogwarts. It had been then that she had unwittingly come under the influence of Voldemort. Harry had saved her from the Chamber of Secrets, and she had fallen in love.

"Love me, Harry," the words rang clearly through the crisp autumn air. There was no one that Ginny could see, and from where she stood, her view included all of the Hogwarts grounds between the forest and the castle that sat majestically atop the rolling hill. "Find me, Harry". He won't, the wind whistled. Everyday, the wind said this. Everyday, the wind crushed Ginny's dreams.

Sure, Ginny had dated others. Some Slytherins, snickering behind her back, even dared to call her promiscuous. But she had never loved anyone the way she did Harry. None of them had had that "hero" aura around them. They had all fallen at one time or another, and Ginny had simply kept on going.

"Why do I need him?" she asked. She knew the wind's answer. You don't. You're stronger than that.

"I'm not," she sighed. Opening her arms to embrace that which could not be held, Ginny lifted her face to kiss the wind. "I can't even take that step into the Forest." I know, her invisible lover whispered. That was the reason she stood here, day after day, waiting on the edge of something bigger than the forest.

Ginny left the arms of the wind and walked deliberately to the very first tree of the forest. She stuck her foot out, as if to walk forward but found she could not. "I can't." Try it again, the wind encouraged.

"I can't!" Ginny cried. "If he were here, I could. I know I could." If he was gone,

could you do it? The wind asked. If he couldn't come to you, would you step in the forest?

"Why would I want him gone?" Ginny asked furiously, turning her gaze all around, but finding nowhere to direct her anger. For all those times he spurned your love, for all those times he laughed your glances off- for all those other girls he flaunted right in front of your face, never thinking about what he was doing to you.

"But--," Kill him, love! You'll never have him, anyway. Ginny wanted to yell, to scream in anger, but the wind sent a little breeze to spread its fingers over her mouth. I just want you to be happy.

Ginny nodded slowly. "I want to be happy, too," she said. She could see the leaves on the huge oak tree nodding at her, at the bidding of the wind. "Kill him."

The wind whispered its approval. He'll be here soon, won't he?

"Yes," Ginny agreed hoarsely. "He'll visit Hagrid soon." She tested herself again, willing herself to step into the forest. She couldn't.

It was the wind that noticed Harry first. It hailed her with gusts of wind, stopping her as she tried to crawl to the forest, to put even a finger in. When Ginny looked up, Harry was already down the hill and walking towards Hagrid's hut. But he didn't stop there, and Ginny knew he had seen her. Coming to find her at Ron's request? To reprimand her for skipping at Quidditch practice yet again? They would have noticed she was gone.

"Ginny," he said, beginning to jog the rest of the short distance between them.

Then Ginny did something as surprising to her as it was to him. She threw her arms around Harry and kissed him.

Her arms tightened around his throat, and as she deepened the kiss, Harry gasped for air. Ginny stood on her tiptoes to reach her arms as far as they could go around Harry. She didn't know how long she stood there, but it took some time, even with the wind's help. She dropped his limp body eventually, and, a triumphant smile playing over her lips, turned and walked into the Forbidden Forest.