A very short one. This is basically to help me get back on track after a few months off. Sorry for the delay - I've been busy with college coursework. I'll try to get back to it. Again, sorry for any bits of shoddy spellwork.

Redemption

Chapter Five

Ginny swept into Madora's on Monday morning, still feeling the effects of Harry Potter's presence. She had been perpetually argry since Saturday, and it showed no signs of lifting.

"How was your family thing?" Madora asked, placing a bacon roll and a cup of tea before Ginny and retreating out of firing range.

"Awful," Ginny spat, scowling. "You'll never guess who bloody well turned up."

"Harry Potter," Madora supplied. "I heard."

"Where from?"

"Just heard a rumour. How was it?"

"Infuriating. That arrogant son of a--"

"Ginny!"

"--really get's on my nerves!" Ginny huffed. "And what's more, the rest of my family adore him, like they can't see that what he did, leaving us after all we did for him, isn't unforgivable! I mean it's ridiculous, I feel like I'm only one with my eyes in my head in that house!"

Madora watched her.

"What?"

"Maybe they don't see it's unforgivable because they think it is," she said gently.

Madora, who almost never gave an opinion on her customers problems, flicked her wand at the counter and a cloth began polishing of its own volition. Ginny sat, stunned.

"They think its alright that he completely disregarded us for years on end? They think he was right to abandon us and go off in search of fame and glory for himself? They think he isn't self-obsessed and unbareable?"

"Ginny, d'you have any proof that any of what you just assumed is true?" Madora shook her head at the dim look on Ginny's face. "I didn't think so. Are you sure," she added, leaning forward, "that you are seeing things like this impartially, or are you being influenced by personal feelings? Resentment at his leaving you, perhaps, not them. Jealousy towards the people he's met and the things he's seen? Frustration that once he relied upon you for love and stability, that he no longer needs?"

It took Ginny a moment to digest everything Madora had said, and when she had, her bacon roll had lost its taste to her.

"Nah, that's just bollocks," she said eventually, way too late to be believable. Madora gave her a significant look, and returned to the kitchen.

When Ginny slipped into her office, subdued, at the end of the day to collect her coat and check her messages, she found something she most certainly had not been expecting.

Reggie Fellmort.

Ginny balked. She'd forgotten about Reggie, and had treated him less than civily at the Ministry party.

"Ginevra Weasley," he said quietly, light falling through the window behind him and darkening his face. Still Ginny could sense an edge to his voice that had not been there before.

Nodding, she crossed the room to him and reached to shake his hand. "Yeah, I'm okay. You?" she replied, glancing towards her hand. He did not shake it, but glared at it, his luminescent grey eyes cutting straight to her stomach and making it feel like she'd swallowed a large ice cube. He looked up, and she saw a darkness behind his eyes that make her chest tighten. "Reggie?" she asked softly, lowering her hand slowly.

Reggie's own hand reached out quickly, flashing out towards her wrist. Out of nowhere a bolt of red light steaked past her and knocked his hand away, and Reggie hissed and leapt back, glowering over her shoulder. Ginny spun around, to see Harry Potter filling the doorway, wand aloft, and panic in his eyes.

"Did he touch you?" he spat.

"Harry... What are--"

"Did he touch you?" he repeated loudly, striding into the room and pushing his wand into Reggie's sternum.

"N-no, he didn't Harry, but why are you--"

"Hold on."

Harry turned back to Reggie, and lifted the man's chin with the tip of his wand. Ginny saw dark, watery patterns swirling across the pewter irises of Reggies eyes. She backed off, drawing her own wand from the pocket of her jeans.

Ginny realised that Harry was speaking. He was not talking directly to her, but was reciting something dark and foreign under his breath. Then suddenly Harry raised his second hand behind the handle of his wand and threw a considerable amount of wait behind it, driving his wand forward. The point sunk through Reggie's chest as if it were clay, and a bright scarlet light erupted from Reggie's chest. It flared, roared, then rose angrily up towards the ceiling and dispersed into the air.

Ginny blinked, swallowing. His chest was heaving.

"What the fuck was that?" she breathed heavily, her words getting stuck in her throat. Looking past Harry, she saw Reggie slump and crumple to the ground. "Harry? Is he dead? What's going on?"

Harry shook his head. "He's not dead. It's worse than that. C'mon, help me pick him up. We've got to get him back to the Burrow. I'll explain there."