Title: Losing Faith

Summary: It's the summer after Ginny's sixth year, and Voldemort is dead. But still, things are not how they should be. How will everyone cope now that the worst threat is over? HG RHr

Genre: Angst/Drama

Rating: T

Disclaimer: It's all JK Rowling's. 'Nuff said.

A/N: And to make it up to you all, a second update in a week! – Gasp - Thank you so much for the reviews … I wouldn't be continuing with this fic if it weren't for you guys, you're all wonderful! – Nods – Don't worry, Ginny won't go easy on Harry – quite the opposite, actually! – Evil snicker -

V I V I V

REVELATIONS

Finding that she was suddenly unable to breathe, Ginny spun around, ignoring Ness and Glyn's protests, and ran for the stairs, her emotions in turmoil as she stampeded up the twisting staircase to her bedroom. At the sound of footsteps behind her, she slammed the door closed with such force that the picture frames on the wall rattled and leant against it, struggling for breath.

"Oh Gods." She gasped out to the empty room, her fingers clutching onto the armoire by the door as she tried to comprehend the truth. Harry was downstairs. Harry, her boyfriend, the reason she had been so desperately depressed over the summer, the person who had made her feel so guilty and torn up at merely smiling or laughing. A nasty feeling was gripping her stomach, and it wasn't the happiness of a reunion with him after being separated for nearly two months.

Ron sulked all the way down to Hogsmeade, unsurprisingly. When Hermione had informed her friends and boyfriend that she had to stay behind and catch up on work, he had even offered to stay and keep her company, to which she had looked more exasperated than happy at the proposal. She had informed him, in no uncertain terms, that with him distracting her she wouldn't get a sliver of work done, and he certainly wasn't thinking of spending the Saturday in the library.

"I'm off to Zonko's." He muttered grouchily, glaring at Ginny and Harry's entwined fingers, and stomped off, his shoulders hunched and head bowed. Both boyfriend and girlfriend sighed identical sighs, glanced at each other and let out short laughs.

"You'd think Hermione had dumped him, the way he's acting." Ginny grinned, moving closer to Harry and resting her head briefly on his shoulder, her smile only widening as he pressed a kiss to her hair.

"She did." He said; amusement evident in his voice. "She dumped him for her books, today at least."

"It's really a Hermione sort of thing to do." Ginny joked. "Can we go to Flourish and Botts? All this talk of Hermione has reminded me I need to get a textbook Professor McGonagall recommended."

"Then let's go to Madam Puddifoot's." Harry suggested, smirking as Ginny's jaw dropped. "I like a bit of romance, me."

Ginny burst into hysterical giggles, struggling to quench them under his insulted gaze. "Sorry, sorry – I just – I never thought you'd want to step a foot in there again after your disastrous date with Cho!"

"Oh, right." Harry nodded. "I forgot that. Erm, let's not go there after all." He looked about to say more when he bent over double, clutching his forehead and grimacing in pain.

"Harry!"

"Scar." Harry gasped out, meeting Ginny's worried brown eyes. "I think – Gin, Voldemort – he's here."

Someone was holding her shoulders, and she leant into the embrace for several moments, shivering uncontrollably at the painful memory. The tears escaped from beneath her closed lids, skating down her cheeks, and she jerked away at the touch of a thumb wiping them away.

Glyn stared back at her, his face creased into a worried, guilty frown.

"Gin…"

"Don't call me that." Ginny snarled, the anger rising up inside her. "And get rid of him."

"Who?"

"Glyn, you idiot!" She snapped, scared by her own fury but unable to quench it. He backed away, his expression wary, and for a moment she thought that he was going to ignore her request, but then he had taken his wand out from his trouser pocket and had it pointed towards himself.

"Finite incantatem." The words were so soft she had to strain to hear them, and then he was changing. Brown hair shortened and darkened into black, eyes brightened from the dull grey into the vibrant green, his body thinning and growing slightly, and then there was that oh-so-familiar scar etching its way back into his forehead.

Harry stood in front of her, looking so real and alive, and Ginny didn't feel at all like she had expected to the first time she saw him again.

Her anger was being drowned by the surges of confusion and sorrow. She wasn't entirely sure whether she wanted to pummel her boyfriend into a pulp or throw herself at him sobbing.

In the end, he made the decision for her.

"I'm – I'm so sorry, Ginny."

"Oh, you are, are you?" She queried mockingly, folding her arms. "I should expect so, after everything you've done. Where do I start, Harry? I can't even begin to comprehend where to begin to tell you everything."

He bit down hard on his lower lip. "I – I wanted to tell you…"

"No, you bloody well didn't!" Ginny screeched. "I said I heard you last night – it was Ness that wanted to tell me, you wanted to keep it secret! How long would you have kept it secret from me? My entire stay? Would you have waited until I had gone home and then turned up pretending you hadn't been living right under my very nose? Would you have lied to me that long?"

"No, I – I did want to, but I was worried that you'd – that you'd react like this!"

"And with good reason." She spat out. "My God, Harry. I just – you've been larking around this long, having a bloody good laugh with those precious girls next door and your beloved Healer, while me and my family have been worrying ourselves sick over you. While I've been feeling guilty for having a good time when I thought you were all sad and broody somewhere alone!"

Harry's expression darkened. "It's not always been like that." He informed her coolly. "If you knew what I was like when I woke up in St Mungo's…"

"You never gave me a chance!" Ginny screamed at him, and he fell silent, eyes wide and horrified. He had heard of Ginny's infamous temper from her brothers and parents, even witnessed some of it, but the rage that was radiating off her… she was literally bubbling up with anger, and he took a reflexive step backwards. "You just buggered off without bothering to talk to us! We could have helped, we could have – we could have done something!"

"I didn't think you'd understand." Harry mumbled. It was evidently a very wrong thing to say; Ginny's brown eyes sparked furiously and for one terrible moment he thought she was going to lay a punch right on his nose. Instead, she folded her arms and stared him down, evidently trying to stop herself from doing what he had thought she was going to do.

"I can understand you wanted space, Harry." She said finally, her voice trembling with emotion. "But to ignore letters – when all people are doing is worrying about you – and to just leave without saying goodbye? Did you – do you really have so little faith in us to think that we wouldn't understand when you wanted to be alone?"

Her breath hitched and she lowered her head for several moments, her hair falling in her face. "And then to have the audacity to try and pry out of me personal things – private things – when you're quite literally lying to my face?"

A cold dread gripped Harry's stomach and twisted it painfully. "I was just worried about you, Gin… and with good reason, those flashbacks…"

"Are none of your business."

"No, they are!" Harry insisted, shaking his head. "If I hadn't left…"

"Oh, don't think so highly of yourself, Potter." Ginny snarled, and Harry flinched back slightly. "I know why I have these flashbacks, and they're nothing to do with you, so therefore they are none of your business. And you have quite a bloody cheek to try and ask me about them when you refuse to open up yourself." She bit down hard on her lower lip, stifling a sob at the look on his face. The face she had missed so dearly, the face she had spent every night dreaming of seeing again…

Dreams are never the same as reality, she thought wryly. She had imagined an idealistic relationship with Harry – and it had been, up until the Hogsmeade attack. Sure, they had had their arguments, but overcome them within no more than a week despite both being incredibly stubborn. This was different, though.

"Why are you here?" She asked suddenly, staring at him. Harry frowned; her tone was almost conversational, and those weren't the words he though would come out of her mouth.

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. What is so important here that you felt you had to run off without saying goodbye, ignoring all our letters and generally being a prick?"

Harry swallowed hard, her final statement hurting more than he had expected it to. In their past fights, they had called each other a colourful variety of names, but never truly meant them – but from the look in Ginny's eyes, he knew she couldn't have been more serious if she'd tried.

"It's a long story."

"Don't give me that crap!" Ginny barked out, stomping her foot in a childish manner. "Either you're going to tell me, or you're not! Why are you here? What – what's the reason behind all this?"

Green eyes stared fixatedly at the floor; Ginny let out a small puff of breath and leant backwards, hurt flickering across her face.

"You obviously don't trust me enough to tell me."

"What? No!" Harry shot upright, staring at her in shock. "Ginny, no, I trust you more than anyone, it's just – I can't!"

"Why not?"

"It's too hard, all right!" Harry yelled, his already frayed nerves snapping. "Please, don't ask me to explain it all right now – I will, I promise, I just can't – not now!"

"You promised you'd come back." Ginny said softly, her eyes glittering with tears. "Were you going to come back, Harry?"

He stared at her incredulously. "Of all the – bloody – what kind of question is that?" He demanded, sounding uncannily like his long time best friend and Ginny's brother. "I can't believe – I love you, you great nitwit, of course I was going to come back! You have that little faith in me that because of some blasted psychopath that I killed I'd ruin what we have?"

Ginny couldn't stop the wry smile from twisting across her lips.

Do you really have so little faith in us to think that we wouldn't understand when you wanted to be alone?

"It seems that we're lacking in quite a lot of faith recently." She said finally, quietly, and opened the bedroom door. "If you don't mind, I'd like to be alone."

"Ginny… please…"

With a sudden, surprising snarl of anger, she gave him a hefty push out the door and slammed it after him, locking it and leaning back against it. Finally, she allowed the tears to flow freely, wondering whether it would ever end, whether it would ever get better.

V I V I V

"Letter from Ginny!" Ron bellowed, waving the said piece of parchment between his fingers as he swallowed the remainder of his toast and took a swallow of pumpkin juice.

"No need to shout, dear, we're right here." Molly said absently, taking a sip of her tea and peering over the rim of the cup at him. Her husband, deeply immersed in the Daily Prophet, glanced up briefly, meeting his wife's twinkling gaze. "What does she say, Ron?"

Ron scanned the parchment eagerly, not noticing the look that passed between his parents. Despite being legally an adult, he was still unwilling to admit if he missed his brothers or sister, and it was obvious from the way he had been acting all summer and after Ginny's departure that he was feeling rather lonely without her around.

"She says it's bloody hot." He announced to the room at large, completely forgetting who he was in fact talking to. Molly merely frowned gently at him whilst Arthur let out a small chuckle. "And that the Empath Healer is good, though quite hyperactive – blimey, I can see how that might get in the mornings." He pulled a face.

"Drifting, dear." Molly reminded him.

"Right. She says she's living with some – what!"

"What?" Molly jumped, sending her scalding tea all over her husband's newspaper. "Oh, sorry Arthur – here – evanesco." Stowing her wand safely back in her apron pocket, she turned back to her son. "What's the matter, Ron?"

"Living with some bloke, that's what!" Ron spluttered, his pasty complexion turning a furious red. "Says he's my age – quite handsome, I bet he's a right ponce!"

"Ron, that's enough!" Molly said hurriedly, seeing her son continue to ramble incoherently. "What do you mean; she's living with a boy?"

"Her housemate is some bloke! You have to go and get her, Mum; she can't live with a guy, who knows what might happen?"

Arthur let out another chuckle. At his wife and son's glares, he hastily retreated behind his newly cleaned newspaper, clearing his throat uncomfortable.

"May I remind you that Ginny is also living with a Healer – a responsible adult?" Molly informed Ron, who had the grace to flush. "Boys can be just friends with girls, Ron. Harry and Hermione, for example. And while we're on that subject, do you really think that Ginny would do something like that to Harry?"

"She says…" Ron continued, looking queasy. "She says that he's 'fit' and – ugh, that she's looking forward to getting to know him."

"She's just teasing you." Molly sighed, shaking her head and not bothering to hide her smile. She certainly did sympathise with Ginny – having six over-protective older brothers didn't bode well with any relationship.

Ron let out an unintelligible grunt and dropped the parchment down onto the kitchen table, looking disgruntled. Molly reached for it and scanned through it eagerly, feeling a pang of sorrow at seeing Ginny's neat, curly script. There was no mention of how Ginny herself was doing, which didn't sound like a good sign, but she had only just left the Burrow. From the sounds of things, her only daughter at least liked Venice, and was adjusting slowly. Taking in a deep breath, Molly wondered how she managed to miss Ginny so much when her children were away at school for the majority of the year.

V I V I V

Ness stopped in her tracks, staring in shock at the Famous Boy Who Lived sitting calmly in her living room, idly flicking through a book though not reading it at all. "Oh!" She exclaimed loudly, causing Harry to jump violently and send the book flying sky high. "Blimey – erm – wow."

"Oh, Merlin." Harry groaned, snatched his wand out of his pocket and pointed it at himself. "Vultus diversus."

Ness managed to snap her jaw shut just in time as Glyn came back into focus, and blushed furiously. "Sorry, Glyn." She muttered embarrassedly as he glared at her.

"I think that's the first time I've rendered you speechless." Harry teased, though there was still a flicker of irritation showing in his grey eyes. Ness turned even redder, if that were possible, and shifted uncomfortably.

"I was just taken off guard, that's all!" She protested. "I'm not one of your mindless girl fans, I thought you knew that. I wasn't expecting to see – well, I've never seen you in the flesh, but I've seen you… but it's a different you, even though it's the same…"

"Please, stop." Harry raised his hands in the air in mock-surrender, and though he grinned cheekily at her, she couldn't help but notice it was rather forced. Seeing her concerned expression, he shrugged nonchalantly. "I – uh, I spoke to Ginny. It didn't go down too well."

"I know."

"You do?" He glanced at her in surprise. "How?"

"She spoke to me about half an hour – she was pretty upset." Ness said apologetically. "Asked if she could go home for a while, sort her head out."

Harry did a double take, his eyes widening. "What?"

"She's gone, Glyn." Ness said, wincing. She held out a folded piece of parchment. "I'm sorry – I don't know for how long, but I didn't want to force her to stay if she didn't want to. I think she'll probably be back – if I know Molly Weasley, she won't let these flashbacks and Ginny's attitude carry on."

With trembling hands, furious at Ginny for going without at least telling him, Harry took the parchment off her and unfolded it. The words on there sent his heart plummeting to his stomach and the guilt brimming up inside him again.

'Here's a goodbye in a note, Harry. Now you know how I felt.'