Disclaimer- What would I do with my free time if J.K. Rowling hadn't created these magnificent novels…. Well, I guess I might be a little saner in the eyes of my friends.
Author's Note- Sorry I didn't post any author's notes last time … I guess I was just in a hurry to get my chapter up. Anyway, I always appreciate reviews and I thank everyone who has taken the time to post them. Keep them coming if you've got them!
Summer '96
)Chapter 8(
It was to an empty room that Harry awoke from his fitful sleep the next morning. For the merest trace of a moment, he half-believed that the previous night had been yet another bad dream, but reality struck as he realized that Ron had probably spent the night sleeping on the living room couch.
He got up and dressed silently, thinking that he would go out for a quick walk before facing the inevitable continuation of last night's conversation. As he slipped into the hallway, however, he heard a voice behind him, halting his progress toward the door.
"Harry?" through the dim light he could just make out Ginny's small form standing in the doorway to the room that she and Hermione shared.
"Er, yeah?" said Harry.
"Where are you going?" she asked quietly.
"Just out for a bit of fresh air," he said in an offhand sort of way, trying to avoid the awkwardness between them.
"Oh," Ginny sighed.
There was a rather pregnant pause, during which both of them seemed absolutely desperate for something, anything, to say. It was Harry, who first opened his mouth to speak.
"Erm, thank you, Ginny," he muttered. "I mean, for standing up for me last night."
Harry could just see Ginny's slightly sheepish grin as she replied, "Yeah, well, Ron was being a prat. I had to say something."
Although she continued to smile, her bright eyes revealed a sadness that Harry had never noticed there before. Suddenly he realized, that by withholding the contents of the prophecy, he had hurt her too. Maybe not as badly as Ron, but he suspected that Ginny, along with Hermione, must feel slightly betrayed in a way as well.
"I-I'm sorry, Ginny," he said, suddenly overcome with an unexplainable urge to comfort her in some way. "I just-."
"Don't, Harry," Ginny interrupted softly. "I get it. Well, I can't get it obviously, but I understand why you didn't tell us right away."
Harry let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "And-and Hermione?" he asked after a moment.
"I don't think she's mad at you … more shocked than anything, really," said Ginny. She glanced at Harry's slight look of skepticism, then continued, "She's your friend, she'd do anything to help you, and I'm sure she understands. It should be interesting to see how this whole thing with her and Ron works out though, huh?"
Harry gave a small grin, thankful for the change of topic. "Yeah, it should." As an awkward sort of silence settled around them, Harry shifted uncomfortably then said, "Erm, well I should probably get going…."
"Oh yeah, your walk," said Ginny, seemingly with sudden realization. "Okay, well, be careful."
"I will," he assured her as he turned to go. "I'll see you in a few."
"Yeah," Ginny said, and she watched as Harry left the hotel room.
Without a real knowledge of where he was going, Harry gradually made his way downstairs. Although the earliness of the hour provided him with virtually empty corridors, he still spotted a few hotel workers on his way out. The man behind the front desk was chatting animatedly with what looked like a janitor … something about a rumor that the pool was somehow haunted. Harry walked past them, not really registering the conversation, and left through the front doors.
Once outside, he found himself following the same path he and Ron had traveled down the previous day, seeing as he was at least relatively familiar with it. When he arrived at the back of the hotel, he strode down to the bank of the creek where he found a large rock on which to perch himself. The sun had barely risen, but the currents and waves of the water caught its scattered rays, reflecting them back in little sparks of blinding light. Harry closed his eyes relishing, for a moment, the peaceful coolness of nature's version of silence. He was interrupted, however, by the soft thud of footsteps behind him. He knew, before he opened his eyes, who it was as he felt him sit down on the rock beside him.
"Hey," came Ron's hesitant voice.
Harry sighed, bracing himself, and then opened his eyes. "Hey," he said.
"Look, Harry," Ron began somewhat desperately, "I'm sorry for what I did, I just, well, it's just that you've been so distant lately. I mean, you constantly mutter in your sleep, you freak out at the mention of Dumbledore, and well, you never really talk about any of it. Last term ended so horribly and confusingly … you barely talked to anyone, and I guess I just thought that maybe you didn't trust me enough to tell me. I felt like I was losing my best friend."
"And you thought you'd prevent that by tricking me into telling you?" asked Harry, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"Okay," said Ron, "granted, it was a really bad idea. Ginny was right, I was way out of line. I just got a little desperate I guess…."
"You think?" Harry said, a slight bitterness beginning to surface inside him. Then, as Ron's face fell, he sighed once more and continued, "Listen, Ron, it's like I told you last night, it had nothing to do with me not trusting you. You are my best friend, and nothing will change that, but, well," Harry paused, struggling to deliberate the point. "I-I guess I was just scared," he said finally. "People are dying, one of the post powerful wizards in the world is tearing apart our lives, and now I find out that I'm the only one who can stop it. I didn't tell you because-because to do so, to say it out loud, would make it real, and absolute. I couldn't deal with that yet. I needed to come to terms with it in my own mind."
A penetrating silence followed this explanation, both wizards looking anywhere but at each other, then, " I am sorry," said Ron quietly and abruptly.
"I know," replied Harry, "I am too." Ron looked at him questioningly. "I'm sorry that I caused you to think that I couldn't rust you. I would trust you with my life, Ron."
Ron didn't say anything to this, but his understanding and his gratitude couldn't have been more apparent. Harry welcomed the absence of any additional words; things were mushy enough as it was. But then, of course, Ron had to say something just as effective.
"You know, I don't care what that prophecy says, Harry. You won't be alone … you have your friends," he said.
And although Harry couldn't take too much comfort in these words, he appreciated them all the same. He smiled, and then got to his feet and stepped down onto the sidewalk.
"We should probably start heading back," he said. "The girls will wonder where we went."
"Yeah, you're probably right," agreed Ron as he followed Harry down from the rock. They began to make their way back to the hotel, the rising sun gilding the tops of the trees. "I think Sirius would be proud," stated Ron abruptly.
"What?" Harry asked, taken aback by the randomness of this comment.
"Of this, of us," said Ron. "I mean, maybe not the destination so much, but you've got to admit, this whole vacation does have a certain reckless marauder quality to it."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," said Harry pensively. Then, as if coming out of a reverie, "What is with you lately? You're getting all deep and emotional," he added smiling.
"Me, deep?" asked Ron, laughing at the very idea.
"Either that, or you're just really full of it."
"I'd go with, 'full of it,' before I went with, 'deep,' Harry," said Ron.
There was a considerable amount more people moving about the hotel when they re-entered a few moments later; mainly guests, jostling their way up to the front desk to be checked in or checked out. Harry and Ron pushed through, forming a path to the elevator, and had soon gained the peace and quiet of the shaft as they continued toward their room. A sudden thought occurred to Harry, though, as the elevator moved upward.
"Ron," he began, "how did you know I would pick truth?"
"Probably the same way you knew Hermione would," smiled Ron to a rather confused look from Harry. "You didn't, but you had to take the chance."
The elevator came to a halt, and they got off, Harry lost in thought.
Author's Note- Yeah, sorry if I made Ron too girly and whiney and emotional there … I try to keep them in character. I should be done in the next couple of chapters or so (hopefully!) I'd certainly like to be done by HBP anyway…. Well, hope you enjoyed!
