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Chapter Forty-Three

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"Night, mate!" Harry said in a rambled rush as he shut his curtains on the perplexed face of Ron Weasley.

"Night…" He heard Ron respond, a questioning tone in his voice, most likely thinking that Harry had gone sparse.

But Harry didn't bother with it any further. In fact, he wanted to put Ron far from his mind…

After waiting a bit and hearing Ron and the rest of his dorm mates settle into their own beds, Harry took out his wand and whispered a silencing spell on his curtains. Then he froze, waiting to hear if anyone had heard him cast the spell.

But all he heard was heavy breathing and the beginning of snores in response.

Harry let out a sigh of relief before a randy grin stretched across his face. He sat up more readily against his headboard and turned to fluff his pillows a bit before settling back against them once again.

Once settled, he adjusted his hold on his wand and recited the simple spell that he had learned in his first year…

"Lumos!"

The tip of his wand lit, and Harry set it aside, propping it up within the folds of his bunched together blanket to give him enough light… Before he saw his shadow from the casted light and thought better of it. Harry grumbled slightly as he grabbed his wand and recited a spell that got rid of the shadows that could probably be seen from the other side of the curtain.

He really didn't need anyone to see what his shadow movements were going to do in a moment… Especially Ron. It was bloody lucky that Ron didn't so much as kill him after he read the magazine article, though Harry knew that Ron had been tempted. Until Hermione had come along and told Ron that he had no right to judge, since being caught snogging was a lot more innocent than getting caught in bed together.

That had shut Ron right up.

He put the wand back in its propped up place, and figured that the dim wand-light would do just fine.

With jittery excitement, Harry then shoved his hand into his fleece pajama pocket and dug around for the piece of folded up glossy paper. He grinned once he got a hold of it and pulled it out.

With eager hands, Harry unfolded the paper, only to pause and frown at all of the crease lines all over the page…

Harry grabbed his wand from its resting place and cast an ironing spell to get rid of the creases on the page. He wanted his view of the picture to be completely unobscured.

After putting his wand in its resting place, once again, Harry allowed himself to get a good look at the picture.

His greedy eyes tried to take in every detail.

He watched as his picture counterpart attacked Ginny's lips with his own, shoving his tongue past her swollen lips and dancing with her own, and-

Fuck! He was so hard!

Harry wasted no more time. He wasn't such a masochist that he wanted to make himself suffer as he watched the tortuously erotic scene play before him in a loop. He slipped his hand into his pajama trousers and grabbed hold of his engorged length.

He started out slow with his hand movements, merely wanting to give himself a bit of relief as his eyes scanned over every inch of Ginny's body that was pressed against his own in the picture. She looked so fucking gorgeous in the photo, with her fiery, red hair against the dark,

blue fabric of her dress. And the way that her eyelashes fluttered even with her eyes closed as she tilted her head even more sideways to allow him more access to her delicious mouth.

But the appraisal in his eyes kept going back to the milky, white skin at her thigh that was revealed by her hiked up dress…

The way her legs constricted around his waist… drawing him in closer… Merlin, she was his own personal siren's call.

His eyes wandered down lower in the picture, focusing on the exact spot where they were almost connected… if it hadn't been for her knickers and his trousers separating them.

Harry let out a long, hearty groan as his stomach muscles constricted with fluttering sensations, and he started to move his hand faster, his hips thrusting upward into his open fist.

His imagination started to go wild.

He imagined his picture counterpart letting one of his hands on her hips go, before merely reaching between the two of them and freeing the fabric that stood in the way between them.

He imagined freeing his cock by just loosening one button and pulling down one zipper, before he would reach underneath her dress and pull her knickers to the side.

He would feel her wetness against his fingers as he did this. And he would let out a unhindered groan as she would gasp at the contact.

Then, she would plead with him to push his hips those couple of inches forward… and he would do just that, sheathing himself in what he believed would be the most perfect, tight heat.

Harry groaned as his hand tightened even further over the sensitive head of his cock.

He would then start to thrust within her delicious center, gasping as they each claimed each other's virginities.

She would join in on the dance of their love-making by grinding her hips downwards to meet his thrusts beat by beat - creating a rhythm that no song could rival.

But then, through her gasping breaths, she would tell him to go harder. Deeper. Faster.

Until, Harry would realize that, in a sense, they really were one body as they were joined in that way.

Ginny would then lean closer to him, breathing heavily in his ear, before uttering the most simple, yet perfect, words he could ever hear tumbling from her lips…

"I love you, Harry."

Harry came, spilling semen all over his fist and pajama trousers.

"FUCK! OH, Gin!"

With one last intense wave of his orgasm washing over him, the pleasure of it was the last thing that he remembered as he slumped back and passed out in pure bliss…

That was the last good thing that he experienced that night, however.

Because that was when the nightmares started again.

…...

Harry walked out of his Defense Against the Dark Arts class, grumbling at how awful the last couple of days had been…

Word had quickly spread about the magazine article. And though Harry had surmised that it was for the best that he didn't correct the story for Ginny's future safety, he couldn't help but be annoyed and pissed off by the way people were now treating her.

But Ginny took all the gossip and jibes with grace. Well… to a point.

Harry grinned at how many times she administered her famous bat bogey hex on any boys that said any leering comments to her. Malfoy had been one such stupid boy who had dared to say anything and it had been the third time she made bat bogies come out of his nose… one would think that he would learn by now not to cross Ginny Weasley.

Harry honestly just thought that Malfoy hadn't said anything to Ginny in front of him… If Malfoy had dared to insinuate that she was anything short of the amazing person that she was, Harry wouldn't be able to hold himself back from showing Malfoy what he was really capable of.

Despite the rumors, Harry and Ginny carried on their relationship as normal. There was no reason to hide it when half the school thought their relationship was fake anyways. And the people who mattered knew that the magazine article was bollocks, already.

One good thing that came out of the article was the picture that had been taken. Harry's cock twitched as he thought of his wanking session from a few nights ago.

When Ginny had seen Hermione walk in the common room that day they had read the article, she went up to rage and warn Hermione about it.

That was when Harry had taken the liberty of taking out his wand and casting a duplication spell on the picture, which he tucked in to his robe's pocket to use for later.

But he had only used the picture for that one night… Because he had been too exhausted to wank any night past that…

And the reason for his exhaustion?

Nightmares.

Horrible, horrible nightmares. Of Sirius dying. His parents dying. Ron and Hermione dying. Remus dying. The rest of the Weasleys dying.

Ginny dying…

And each night it just kept getting worse and worse, as they would all die a death more gruesome than the one the night before…

It served to make him more anxious during the day… becoming more and more adamant that Death Eaters could never find out how much he loved Ginny…

He never wanted his nightmares to become reality.

Suddenly a large hand waved in front of his face. "Hello? Earth to Harry…?"

Harry jumped and looked over at Ron, who had been walking next to him and was now looking at him with a concerned look on his face. "You alright, mate? You really seemed zoned out there…"

A twinge of annoyance spread through Harry. It always seemed that whenever he got lost in his thoughts, someone always felt the need to pull him out of it. What was so wrong with a bloke spending a bloody moment of peace within his own mind?!

But Harry bit his tongue, knowing that the majority of his irritation came from lack of sleep. He had been nitpicking the minorest of things to get annoyed at, and was recently starting to blow them out of proportion.

It wasn't until Hermione had called him out on his attitude yesterday when he suddenly had a moment of self-reflection with how he had been acting.

The only person that he wasn't short with these days was Ginny… which was probably for the best, seeing as she would probably serve his balls to him on a silver platter if he ever snapped at her the way he had been doing with every other person.

And besides that, Harry couldn't help but feel extremely guilty whenever he was around Ginny. The bloody article was causing a lot of people to treat her differently. There was no need to add to her boyfriend snapping at her on top of that. Lack of sleep be damned.

Harry counted to ten slowly in his head, before letting out a slow breath. It was an exercise that Hermione suggested when Harry had told her that the reason why he was so irritable was because he wasn't getting any sleep. "I'm fine, Ron. Was just lost in my thoughts, is all…"

He didn't elaborate further. There honestly wasn't much else to say, really.

"Oh." Ron said, looking at Harry sideways curiously as they walked. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Harry shook his head tiredly. "No. Can we talk about something else?"

Ron looked at him with a calculating look on his face, and Harry really hoped that Ron wasn't going to push the issue.

To his relief, he got his wish when Ron started in on how quidditch practice went the night before, and Harry's new strategy to have Ron sit slightly below the rings as he waited for the other team to make a goal. It was easier and faster to push yourself upward than to do a short dive to one of the lower rings.

"It's brilliant, but risky…" Ron said nervously, most likely thinking about his terrible game that he played in the middle of last year.

Harry patted his mate on the back and said reassuringly, "You'll manage it just fine, Ron. You managed to block almost every goal during practice. You've just got to-"

"Harry…?" A small, hesitant voice interrupted him. He turned his head to look behind him and saw that it was Cho. He caught sight of her friends farther back down the hall behind her, watching them, and he realized that Cho ran down the hallway just to catch up to him.

"Oh, hey, Cho," Harry said in a pleasant tone. Ever since their conversation that they had while he was in the hospital wing a while ago, they had actually managed to move past the idea that Cho had of them ever being a couple again. Cho knew that he was dating Ginny now, and she was now dating Michael Corner. And because of that, they had actually managed to be somewhat friends that spoke casually to each other every once in a while. "What's up?"

Cho bit her lip, and her eyes looked sideways to Ron who was standing impatiently next to him, most likely anxious to get to lunch already. "C-Can we talk?"

Harry's eyebrows furrowed in confusion at the sound of the nerves in her voice. He looked over to Ron, who was eyeing Cho suspiciously.

Harry felt a twinge of suspicion as well, before he mentally shook it away. It was probably misplaced.

Harry shrugged slightly, "Sure."

Ron's head snapped over to looked at him, with raised eyebrows and an imploring look.

"I'll see you at lunch." Harry told him, and Ron merely looked at him for a long moment, studying his face, before he nodded slightly and turned after giving another suspicious look to Cho.

Harry watched him march off, seeming to be suddenly eager as he went off in search of food. Harry turned his attention back to Cho, stuffing his hands into his front robe pockets. "What'd you want to talk about?"

His voice had a lilt of curiosity to it, as Cho really looked as though she had something weighing on her mind.

Cho bit her lip again, and Harry felt that his short patience as of late found the action to be very irritating.

Why couldn't she just be out with it already? He wanted to go spend time with Ginny at lunch. He didn't have any classes with her during the day because she was a year younger, so lunch was the only time he was able to spend time with her before the end of the day.

"Can we actually go somewhere more private to chat?" She asked, her voice still small. "I've got something important to discuss with you."

Harry's eyebrows furrowed in concern. What exactly did she need his help with? Was she in some sort of trouble that she needed his help with? "Sure, Cho…"

She just stood in place for a long moment, staring at him in a way that said that she was flabbergasted that he'd even agree.

So, Harry took the initiative and turned down the hall. "Well, come on, then."

…..

Ginny was running late. A fact that really grated on her nerves. Because not only was she longing to get some food in her stomach, she also wanted to spend some time with Harry.

Ginny bit her bottom lip as she strode down the castle corridors at the fastest walking pace she could manage.

She was really starting to worry about her raven-haired, green-eyed boyfriend. It was honestly clear to her that he wasn't getting nearly enough sleep. He had said as much to her, but he never went into any further details beyond that. And it left her believing the worst.

Some part of her suspected that it had something to do with Voldemort, wondering if he was in Harry's mind again, as he had been last year. Ginny shuddered at the thought. If anyone knew anything about having a monster like Voldemort inside of their head, it was Ginny. And if that were the case, Ginny would understand completely as to why Harry wasn't getting any sleep.

But when she had asked him about it, he had waved off her theory.

"It's got nothing to do with that, Gin." He had said to her, trying to brush away her concerns.

"Then why won't you tell me what it is about?" She had countered, her tone demanding despite her not wanting it to be.

Harry had sighed then, and responded just as vaguely as before, "I promise that I would tell you all about it, but I don't even understand it, myself…"

He was driving her mad with worry.

So, she resolved to spend every spare minute that she had available with him. Wanting to show, by mere action, that she was always there for him.

Which was why she didn't appreciate being late.

Ginny grumbled as she picked up her pace, going as fast as a walk could go. She had been asked to stay after class in Potions today, so that dear, ol' Sluggy could apologize to her formally about the magazine article.

She was so sick of hearing about the bloody article!

Ginny honestly just wanted to put it behind her and lay it to bloody rest, already.

It didn't help that many people, especially the boys in the school, were making comments to her about the article. But it seemed that every once in a while, Harry would look at her with such guilt in his eyes about the whole ordeal.

But more than the guilt, Harry seemed to feel determination to make it so no one that wasn't already close to them knew about the extent of their relationship.

And since that day they had argued about the article, Ginny had come to see that some points in Harry's argument were valid. But she didn't dare say such things to Harry, lest he take things further and demand that they date in secret…

Or worse…

That he break up with her for her safety or some other daft reason that she wouldn't agree with.

It was then that Ginny turned a corner and bumped right into someone who was walking the opposite direction.

"Ophf!" The other girl let out as she fell to the floor from the impact.

Ginny opened her mouth to automatically apologize, but it froze in her throat as she took in the girl on the ground before her.

"Would you watch where you're going, you slag!" Meyetta grumbled, rubbing her head as she stared at her thrown books over the floor.

Ginny was frozen in surprise as she stared down at her dorm mate. She hadn't seen her at all this week. And especially not since Meyetta had talked to that reporter, Gelsmerta Tisley, about Ginny…

Apparently, Meyetta had been "sick" in the hospital wing all week, so far.

But Ginny knew the truth. Meyetta was just too much of a coward to face her after what she had done.

Before she even knew what she was doing, Ginny had her wand out of the twist in her hair and had it pointed at the girl beneath her.

"Get up!" She demanded, a red-hot fire flamed in the pit of her abdomen that was growing ever-higher.

Meyetta's head snapped up at the sound of Ginny's voice, and she watched in satisfaction as the blood drained from Meyetta's face at the sight of her… before her expression was swiped clean and her face became passive and neutral.

"Ginny," Meyetta said casually as she picked up her pile of books and stood gingerly before her. "Is the wand really necessary?"

Ginny tightened the hold on her wand and twisted her hand slightly in response. "Why did you say all those horrible things about me to that reporter?" Ginny demanded, glaring with all of her might at the girl Ginny had once, long ago, longed to be friends with - before the chamber.

Meyetta sneered and Ginny thought that it made her face look ugly. "It's not as though what I said wasn't true. You've been drooling after Harry Potter since before our first year. It was really quite pathetic."

Rolling her eyes with a scoff, Ginny replied haughtily, "You really know how to make a simple childhood crush into something it isn't, don't you? And that's not the reason why you did it, so quit trying to skirt around the question like the slimy bitch you are."

Meyetta flinched back at the bite in Ginny's tone, before he straightened and fought to regain her composure by brushing imaginary wrinkles out of her skirt. "Fine. The reason I did it is because we both know that you don't really deserve him. He's Harry Potter! The Chosen One. And you?" Meyetta laughed and looked at Ginny in a way that implied that she smelled bad. "You're a Weasley. A family so poor that it doesn't even deserve to have any Pure Blood status."

As the insult hit her, she found that it had no lasting effect. There would have been a time in her past where she would have been ashamed by her family's lack of wealth. But she had gotten over that shame not so long ago. When she had come to the realization that there was plenty more that mattered in life than money.

So, Ginny didn't get angry. In fact, she started to laugh. "So-So who do you think truly deserves him?" Ginny laughed as she finally dropped her wand arm in order to clutch her stomach. "You?!"

Meyetta staggered a bit in her confidence as she realized that her insult on Ginny had no real impact. "As a matter of fact, I-"

Meyetta didn't get to finish her sentence, as she was cut off as Ginny doubled over in laughter.

"Why the hell are you laughing, you freak?!" Meyetta exclaimed, irritation and distress finally cracking at her neutral exterior.

For a moment, Ginny could only wave her off as she fought to catch her breath. Honestly, the idea of Harry and Meyetta together was ludacris! So much so, in fact, that she found it to be absolutely, maddeningly hilarious. They were completely different people that had polar opposite mentalities on life.

Harry hated the spotlight. He didn't care about money, even though he had millions of galleons in his vault. He cared more about people than status. And he was a genuinely nice person.

Meyetta… was the opposite of all of that.

Ginny could only chuckle as she thought of a scenario of a married Meyetta and Harry, with Meyetta trying to force Harry to some posh, pureblood party with Harry downright refusing to go… most likely insisting that they stay in and order fried take out, instead.

Finally, she calmed down just enough to be able to stand upright and speak. "If you honestly think that you are the one for Harry, then you don't even know him at all. Which tells me that you only really want him for his fame or his money. Which one is it? Or is it both? Harry certainly is the package deal, isn't he?"

The sarcasm was seeping through her every word.

They stared at one another, glaring with all of their might. Before Meyetta was the first to crack.

"Whatever." She muttered, hotly. "Stay away from me, Weasley. If you know what's good for you."

"Fine." Ginny said in just as thick tone. "Just so long as you know to do the same for my boyfriend."

Ginny watched in satisfaction as she got another glare from that last statement before turn stepped to the side and walked past Ginny down the hall.

Ginny sighed as soon as she was out of sight. The confrontation, oddly enough, made her feel loads better about the whole ordeal with the magazine article. Now that she finally got to tell off the one person who was most responsible for it.

And with that thought, she continued her brisk pace to lunch.

….

Harry could not ruddy believe that this was happening.

"But…" Harry started, trying to get his mind to catch up to the situation at hand. "But, what about Michael?!"

Cho was staring at him deeply, with tears gathering in her eyes. "He's not you, Harry… He will never be you!"

Harry scoffed, and turned on the spot, facing the closed classroom door they had just entered moments ago. His hand automatically came up to pinch at the bridge of his nose above his glasses.

"I… I just don't understand, Cho." Harry stressed. Trying to think clearly now that he had his back to her. "I thought that we were past this! We had settled this months ago! You know that I'm with Ginny!"

He felt her arm come up to grab at his bicep from behind, trying to coax him into turning around again. He remained still at stone though, not budging an inch. So, instead, she made her away around him so that she was in front of him again.

"Not according to the magazine article, you're not…" Cho whispered, as she tried to catch his gaze by dipping her head and looking up at his downturned head.

All that she got was a glare in return.

Harry dropped his hand and glared at her with all of his might. "The bloody article wasn't true." Harry seethed.

Instead of more tears from his tone, as Harry would have expected from her, she merely smiled slightly. "No… I finally get it now, Harry. The reason why you don't want to be with me… The reason why you insisted that you love Ginny… You're using her as a shield to protect me."

Harry's jaw dropped. What in the name of Merlin was she talking about?! "What?!"

Cho smiled wider and nodded, brushing a strand of her raven hair behind her ear. "You're pretending to date Ginny so that Death Eaters won't think that we are together. That is very noble and romantic, Harry, but I think that we should at least be able to date in secret…"

She stepped closer to Harry's shocked, frozen form, lifting her hands to rub at his chest. "I miss your soft lips…"

She leaned her head upwards just as Harry snapped out of his daze and took an abrupt step back. "What in Merlin's name-?!"

"Admit it, Harry!" Cho exclaimed, in a way that Harry had never seen of her before. "You didn't want us to be together because you really are the 'Chosen One'! And you didn't want to associate yourself with me because you wanted to keep me safe. So, you started to 'date' Ginny to make it so people forgot that we even had a relationship."

A bubbling, nervous energy started bursting through Harry as he listened to the infuriating theory. "But we never had a relationship!" Harry exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air in his exasperation.

Cho flinched back as though Harry had slapped her, and her eyes watered, looking hurt.

Harry groaned out in an angered frustration, swiping a rough hand through his hair, before he strode past her. "I don't have the time for this rubbish!"

He threw open the door, walked through it, before slamming it behind him.

He was so ruddy mad!

This latest scenario from Cho was just the tip of the iceberg in the grand scheme of things. And Harry felt that he was about to burst!

He had to find Ginny. Only she could get him to calm down. To make him feel better about things even though they were downright cruddy.

Harry strode down the corridors towards the Great Hall. Cho was wise enough not to follow him. When he finally made it, he stepped through the entrance and immediately spotted the coveted sight of red hair sitting at the Gryffindor table…

Ginny sat next to Ron, Hermione, Neville and Luna, looking all around the hall with a worried expression on her face.

He didn't give her the time to spot him herself. He immediately strode towards where she sat, where she didn't even notice his appearance until he was only a couple feet away.

"Harry-" She attempted to say, before he cut her off, reaching down to grab her hand and attempted to pull her from her seat.

"Gin, please… I need you to come with me."

Ginny gaped at him as she stood, slower than he actually wanted her to. "What's going on?"

Harry turned his gaze at their friends at the table, eying them with a certain level of unease as they stared back at him with loaded questions in their eyes.

Harry took in a deep breath. "I just feel like I'm about to explode, and you're the only one that can help me calm down. So please, can we go? I promise that I'll take you to the kitchens later."

Ginny's eyes widened slightly at the frantic tone in his voice, and she nodded hastily, before tightening her grip on his hand and leading the way out of the Great Hall, herself.

They didn't stop until they were up in the Astronomy Tower.

As they arrived, Harry felt a wave of calm overcome him as he recalled the memory of their first shared kiss in this very spot.

When they got close to the edge, is when Ginny finally stopped. She turned to face him, the crisp, winter breeze blowing her hair in her face by thick strands.

Before he could fall into the temptation to brush the wisps of hair from her face, she took out her wand from the knot in her hair and cast a warming charm on the both of them before she grabbed his hand again and gently guided him so that he was sitting on the floor. Then, once he was seated on the cold stone of the floor, she stepped forward to sit herself down on his lap.

Her hand came up to the nape of his neck and she began to scratch and massage the area, causing tingles to shoot down his spine.

"What's wrong?" She asked quietly.

And for the first time in quite a while, he told her. Everything.

Once he had opened the floodgates, he was unable to shut them.

He told her about the nightmares that he had been having nightly, and how he didn't understand the meaning behind why he was having them.

How his lack of sleep was making him irritable.

And how Cho had somehow disillusioned herself into thinking that he was dating Ginny because he secretly was in love and wanted to protect Cho.

When he finished, Ginny stopped the comforting scratches that she had been painting on his scalp and tilted her head up to look at him.

She stared intensely into his eyes, which caused Harry to lose his breath. Then, she tilted her head upwards and pressed a soft lingering kiss on his lips.

Harry almost gasped at the tender feeling he could feel coming from her in that moment. He could sense it in her demeanor. He could feel it in her kiss.

It made him forget everything else.

That is, until she pulled away, and he could see the lingering worry in her gaze.

"You don't have to worry about Cho… I don't fancy her at all." Harry stated, feeling the need to let her know to relieve her worries.

But Ginny didn't look any less unnerved as she bit and worried her bottom lip. "It's not Cho that I'm worried about… I trust you completely, and I know that you won't let that go anywhere. But…"

Harry frowned. "But?"

"But…" Ginny said again, before she sighed. "I'm afraid of what these nightmares are, not only doing to you, but also what they mean."

Harry leaned forward to press a lingering kiss to her clothed shoulder. "What do you think they mean?"

"I don't know…" Ginny said with a long sigh, before she shifted her gaze to look at him out of the corner of her eyes. She looked slightly nervous as she worried her bottom lip, and Harry could tell that she was wanting to get something off of her chest.

Harry stared at her with knit eyebrows, wondering at what it was that was bothering her. Before he finally got his answer when she spoke. "What are you afraid of, Harry? I know that you've been keeping walls up to keep everyone out."

The colour started to drain from his face as Harry spluttered, feeling his defensive walls start to rise. "I'm not afraid-"

He stopped at the roll of her eyes.

"We all have things that we fear, Harry. And there comes a time when we have to face those fears in order to not linger on what holds us back… Which is why-" Ginny stood and held out her hand to him in offering. He took it immediately and let her pull him up. "-I'm going to be facing my fear tonight."

With their hands still clasped, Ginny lead him out of the Astronomy Tower and down the stairs. Where they walked down the corridors until they reached the outside of the girl's loo on the second floor of the castle.

As soon as he saw the entrance, Harry caught on to what she was implying and tugged on her hand to stop her.

"You…" Harry swallowed as he squeezed her hand, tracing small circles on her hand. Somehow, he could sense the anxiety she felt at what they were about to do. "You don't have to do this, Gin. Not for me… not to prove a point."

But Ginny didn't move. She merely stared at the loo entrance before she nodded, resolute. "Of course I have to. And I'm not doing it for you… I'm doing it for me."

They walked into the girl's bathroom together, Ginny's hand trembling inside of his. When they entered and came upon the circle of sinks, Ginny paused and looked up at him expectantly. And he knew without her having to ask that she wanted him to open the Chamber of Secrets.

Thank Merlin Moaning Myrtle didn't seem to be around. She would only make this worse for Ginny.

Harry hissed in parseltongue and the cracking and groaning sounds of the sinks moving out of the way for the tunnel entrance was revealed.

"But how will we get back up?" Harry asked her, turning his gaze away from the hole in the floor to look at her.

Ginny lifted her hand and dug into her pocket to reveal her shrunken broomstick before putting it back into her pocket.

It was then that it really hit Harry that Ginny had really planned for this to happen. Enough that she had prepared for a way to get them out of the chamber.

Ginny stepped forward towards the hole, looking as though she intended to be the first one down the long chute. But Harry stopped her.

"Come here." He said in a coaxing manner, holding his arms open for her to step into his embrace.

She hesitated, but Harry stepped forward, taking away her choice by wrapping his arms around her. Then, he walked her backwards until they were both at the edge of the hole.

Harry looked down at her. Trying to assess if this is what she really wanted.

"Ready?" He asked, hoping that he was giving her one last chance to bow out of reliving her traumatizing past.

Ginny lowered her head and tucked herself tight under his chin. He felt her nod against him.

"Ready." She stated in a uncertain, quiet voice.

Harry stepped them sideways, and took the plunge.

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A/N: Please leave a review! I've actually got a lot done for the next chapter! It's just the matter of filling the holes, so hopefully I will post the rest in the next few days!

The next chapter will be more angsty, obviously, but I promise that I will add more light-hearted humor in there for the next one! Not like this one… which was screaming 'Emo Harry'!