See Chapter 1 for warnings
THE LOVE THAT FOLLOWS
Chapter 7—The Kindest Aura Ever Not Seen
One blink.
Two blinks.
The shadows lengthened and stretched, creeping across the dormitory with long ink-colored fingers that seemed to be reaching for him. Harry didn't feel like moving from their path. He continued to lie on his bed, staring at nothing and remembering far too much.
Ron's voice spoke nearby, buzzing like an annoying fly in Harry's ears.
"Do you want to walk down to the village or something?" he asked, and Harry would have rolled his eyes at the stupid question if such a thing did not involve moving. He said nothing in response. "Well, do you want to go throw things in the lake? Or freeze our arses off and go for a fly? You can even bat Bludgers at me if it'll make you feel better."
The words succeeded in earning a snort from Harry.
"He made a sound!" Ron exclaimed, sounding pleased with himself. "Actual proof that he lives!"
"Sod off, I'm not dead," Harry sighed, finally breaking his silence.
"Could've fooled me," Ron shrugged, and Harry turned his face back into the mattress. He lay on his stomach on his bed, ignoring the entire world and everyone in it. Or trying to, at any rate, damn Ron.
"Why are you even here then?" Harry wondered, turning his head to the side to speak more clearly. "I mean, who even talks to dead bodies anyway?"
"Only the most selfless of friends," Ron said seriously, and Harry snorted again.
"Sure."
"Seriously, Harry," Ron said, sounding grim as he dropped down onto his mattress. "You've been sitting up here like this for days now, you've barely managed to drag yourself to classes and you haven't been going to meals. You haven't moved once all weekend."
"That's not true," Harry argued, feeling a headache coming on. "It's not like I've been laying here pissing myself or anything."
Ron rolled his eyes. "All right, you've occasionally been getting up to take a wee, but I'm not really sure how much that counts. If Kreature wasn't bringing you food up from the kitchens every so often, you probably wouldn't even be eating. You need to get up, Harry! You need to get outside! You need to stop moping already!"
"I'm not moping," Harry said in a low voice, telling Ron the truth. He was not moping—he was hiding away in shame and despair. Those two things were clearly not the same. And what did Ron know anyway? Harry had every right to hide away, and certainly every right to mope, which he was clearly not. But he clearly could if he wanted to.
"But you're not getting over this either," Ron pointed out, and Harry lifted his head to glare at the stupid statement.
"This isn't something to just get over, Ron," he snapped, feeling anger and pain sweep through him at the memory of the Hospital Wing. "You weren't there, okay? You don't know what it was like, you don't know what happened!"
"Okay, sorry," Ron held up his hands palm out in a gesture of peace. "You're right, it really must have been awful. But, Harry, you can't just lock yourself up here forever as a result! You're Harry Potter, mate, you're a bloody fucking survivor! So grit your teeth and bear it like always, and survive already!"
"Go away," Harry mumbled, turning his face back into his mattress. What the hell did it look like he was doing? Obviously, he was surviving; he was still alive, after all. Ron had no idea what he was talking about.
"All right, Harry," he said in a sad voice, but Harry tensed at the steel edge of resolve to his words. "I was hoping it wouldn't come to this, but I see I have no choice."
Marching to the other side of the dorm, Harry heard Ron open the door and allow someone inside, but Harry did not care enough to turn around to face whoever it was. "Go away, Hermione," he muttered instead, folding in on himself even more.
"I come all this way just to see you, and the very first thing you tell me is to go away? Really?" a familiar voice spoke above him, and Harry's head snapped up in surprise, jumping to his feet at the sight of Ginny smiling down at him.
"Ginny!" he exclaimed, still feeling shock course through him as she stepped forward to wrap him in a hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Ron wrote me," she told him with a frown, stepping back to look Harry up and down. "He told me what happened and told me how bad you were doing and I wanted to come see you."
"I'm doing fine," Harry mumbled, collapsing back into a seated position on his mattress.
"Clearly," she said dryly, dropping down to sit beside him.
He turned his face away, hating the fact that she was able to read him so well.
"You traitor," Harry said, directing his words to Ron, who was standing several meters away silently watching the two of them. "Who the hell calls in their baby sister to fight their battles for them? And who calls someone's ex-girlfriend to come cheer them up? That's just weird."
"Okay, first of all," Ron began, striding closer, "you and I are not battling, so Ginny's definitely not here to tag in for me. Second, she's one of the only people who's ever really been able to make you see reason and get your head out of your arse, you stubborn git. And third, if you're not going to talk to me or Hermione about it, you're bloody well going to talk to someone, and Ginny's always been good at getting you to talk about the things you don't want to talk about. And she does a pretty decent job of making you laugh. So hence, here she is.
"Just a warning, Gin," he said, directing his words to her, "you've got your bloody work cut out for you. He's in a right state, you should know."
"I can see," she said quietly, and Harry turned away from her.
"Well, I'll leave you to it then," Ron announced, striding back to the door. "If either of you needs anything…well, Hermione's around."
Glaring, Harry watched the redhead leave the dorm without so much as a backward glance. How dare he just walk out like that, without even looking at Harry's glare first? It was a damn good glare; Harry could feel it.
"Don't let your face freeze like that," Ginny said in amusement, and Harry turned the glare onto her. "I mean, I suppose it's not the worst look on you, though. You've always been pretty sexy when you're angry."
"Oh, sod off," Harry muttered, trying not to smile. "Let me be angry then if I'm at least being sexy whilst doing it."
"I never said that was when you were at your most sexy," she grinned, bumping shoulders with him, and he could no longer fight the smile threatening to break out across his face. "Now come on," she said, climbing to her feet and holding out her hand to help him up. "Let's go for a walk. It's been a long time since we last saw each other and we have a lot of catching up to do."
"Go for a walk where?" he asked, eyeing her hand suspiciously.
"I figured we could walk down to Hogsmeade," she shrugged, sighing in exasperation and reaching down to tug him up by the arm when he still did not take her hand. "You need to get out of the castle, and we can go drown all your sorrows in alcohol, yeah?"
"That doesn't sound like the worst idea," Harry admitted grudgingly, catching the heavy cloak Ginny threw at him. Three minutes later and he was dressed in boots and a jumper, pulling the cloak on and grabbing one of his handknitted hats from Molly to tug down over his ears. Ginny grabbed one of them as well with a grin, and Harry shook his head at her in fond amusement.
"What?" she asked innocently. "My mum knitted them, I'm entitled to steal one."
"As long as it's temporary theft," he said sternly, face relaxing as she laughed.
"Come on, grumpy thing," she said with a shake of her head and a smile, reaching down to twine her fingers through his own and pull him from the room. The Gryffindors in the common room all looked up and stared as they watched the two of them cross the room together and climb through the portrait hole.
"Did you wait 'til Saturday to come up here just so you could drag me to the village to get pissed?" Harry asked in a curious voice as they set off toward the Entrance Hall.
"Eh, partly," she shrugged unrepentantly, still smiling. "But also because weekends are the only days I have free. We still train in the off-season, you know."
"How's that going?" Harry wondered genuinely. "Quidditch, I mean. How are you liking the Harpies?"
"Oh, they're bloody fantastic!" she exclaimed, launching into a short but detailed account of the players and how much Ginny loved playing on a team of some of the fiercest women she had ever met.
"Sounds like you should definitely fit in then," he chuckled, earning a good-natured glare.
"Are you implying that I'm scary?" she raised one orange eyebrow at him.
He raised the same eyebrow back. "Are you implying that you've never heard that before?"
She shrugged. "Haven't heard it today, at least."
Any retort Harry had been about to utter died on his tongue as his heart suddenly stopped at the sight of Draco stepping onto the landing near the main entrance and freezing at the sight of them, grey eyes going wide. Oh god, what was Draco doing there? This was the closest the two boys had been since the day of the Hospital Wing; Harry had been successfully managing to avoid him so far.
And so of course the universe has to pick now as the time to run into him, he thought wryly, unable to remove his gaze from the gorgeous blond. Draco stood several meters away, staring at him with something close to panic in his eyes, before his gaze dropped to Harry's hand still wrapped around Ginny's own and a glare cemented itself onto his face, one that made Harry feel both uncomfortable and confused. He had not noticed until that moment that they were still holding hands.
"Come on, Harry," Ginny said quietly, pulling him toward the door, but Harry could see her looking back at Malfoy, a thoughtful expression on her face, and Harry wondered what she was thinking.
"So," she said, waiting until they were safely outside to speak.
"So," he echoed, feeling hollow. God, that had been hard to see Draco; he had not been expecting to feel so shaken.
"Sooo," she nudged him with one sharp elbow, "tell me all about it then."
"All about what?" he said stubbornly, unwilling to open up about any of it that easily.
"Don't make me use force to get the answers, Harry," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Hermione was right when she said that playing dumb really doesn't suit you."
"When the hell did she say that to you?" Harry demanded incredulously.
"Hey," Ginny grinned, "if you weren't the one trying to act dumb so often, she wouldn't have to say it so much and to so many people, now, would she?"
"Bint," Harry returned the smile, shaking his head. "Why do I seem to have a thing for only dating evil people?"
"Whatever turns you on, Harry, I make no judgments," she laughed, swinging their arms. "And speaking of evil people and the dating of them…"
"Can we wait to talk about this?" Harry asked in a low voice, "At least until I've got some alcohol in me?"
"Oh, fine," she allowed in a long-suffering tone. "You're buying, just so you know."
Harry surprised himself by chuckling. "I've really missed you, Gin."
She turned a bright smile on him. "And why the hell wouldn't you?"
oOo
"Wow," Ginny said, blinking at him as she tried to process everything Harry had told her. "Wow."
"Yeah," Harry said, tracing the rim of the empty shot glass sitting on the table before him, staring at it for several moments before picking up the full shot glass next to it and downing it in one burning swallow. Firewhisky hurts, he thought absently, setting down the empty glass next to the others.
"Fuck, Harry, I'm sorry," she said sympathetically. "I won't lie, that's absolute shite is what that is. What a fucked-up situation."
"Yeah," he repeated, appreciating that Ginny did not try to downplay the true fucked-up shittiness of the awful situation.
"What ended up happening to that blonde bitch, though?" she wondered, and Harry stared at her oddly and with no small amount of offense on Draco's behalf, wondering what she meant. She had just seen Malfoy, after all, she should know that he was fine. "I meant Greengrass," she explained, chuckling as Harry's expression cleared in understanding.
"Suspended," he answered hollowly, "indefinitely. McGonagall is still giving her the chance to sit her N.E.W.T.'s at the end of the year with the other seventh-years, but she's not allowed back at school at all."
"Are either of you going to press charges?"
"I'm not sure if Draco will," he said in a low voice, wishing he knew the answer, wishing that he was in a position to find out the answer from Malfoy himself. "I mean, he might, it seems like something he would want to do, but at the same time, I'm not actually sure if he ever wants to put himself anywhere near another courtroom again, so who knows? I'm not pressing charges though. I just want this whole thing as forgotten as it can be."
"Makes sense," Ginny nodded, tossing back another shot of her own with a grimace.
"It was so awful, Gin," he whispered, shuddering as he copied her and threw back another shot. "I'm not sure if I'm even really doing how awful it was justice in my explanations."
"I can't believe he really tried to kill himself right in front of you," she agreed, eyes sad. Harry shivered as his breath caught at the memory, and Ginny slid closer to link her arm with his own and lay her head on his shoulder. "It'll be okay, Harry," she said in a soothing voice, patting him comfortingly on the thigh. "It'll be okay, just watch. I promise that everything will sort itself out soon, it won't stay horrible forever. Things always get better, no matter how horrible they seem now."
"Well, now you sound just like Hermione," he muttered, compensating for the burning in his eyes by sipping more firewhisky.
"Lucky you, then," she grinned, "surrounding yourself with so many caring, intelligent women."
Harry shook his head in reluctant amusement. "Tell me more about your life, Gin," he said, wanting desperately to get the subject away from himself. "Tell me more about your team, tell me about the people you've met. Are you dating anyone new?"
"No, of course not," she said with a blush, and the obvious lie made Harry grin, poking her and grinning wider as she squirmed in annoyance. "Fine!" she huffed, straightening up and giving him a glare. "Fine, you twat. There's…well, there's this one bloke that I maybe sort of like…"
"Yeah…?" Harry prodded, hoping that her dating life was going much better than his own.
"Yeah," she ducked her head, her face on fire, "he's one of the gear handlers for the team. He's the one in charge of getting everything out and set up and lugging the gear between practices and games and stuff."
"Sounds dreamy already," Harry sniggered, earning a sharp elbow in his side.
"He's…really sweet," she said in an embarrassed voice, blush deepening.
Harry gave her a half-hearted smirk. "And what does mystery man look like?"
"Better hair than yours, definitely," she laughed, reaching out to tousle his hair affectionately.
"You say that like it's actually possible," he smiled, and she smiled back as she shook her head.
"I've really missed you, you know," she told him, still smiling. "I was really worried at first when we broke up, you know, again, that things would be awkward between us forever and that we would never be able to talk about things like our love lives with one another," her smile widened and she laid her head back down on Harry's shoulder, slipping her hand back into his and squeezing. "But I'm really glad that we can. I'm really glad that it's just as easy to be around you as it always was. You'll always be my best friend, you know."
"I know," he smiled, resting his cheek on her hair. "You'll always be my best friend too, Gin. Even if you do end up dating some ball-handling bloke with awful hair."
"I said better hair," she laughed, fingers tightening around his own, and Harry finally felt himself beginning to relax, finally feeling the sadness from the past week slowly start to lift under Ginny's cheerful presence.
He had always known he was lucky to have her in his life.
oOo
By the time they stumbled back up to the castle, dusk was falling and they could not stop giggling. Ginny clutched at his arm as she laughed and swayed, cheeks pink as they tripped their way up the stairs into the main hall.
"You are drunk," he said with a grin, and she shook her head fiercely, nearly falling over in the process. Laughing, she clutched at his arm, almost sending them both toppling over. "Stop try'n t'kill me," he slurred, wondering when exactly words had become so difficult.
"You're the one wi'no balance!" she exclaimed, still laughing. "Now come on, you, let's go see Gryffindors!"
"What're you doing?" he wondered as she began pulling him toward the Great Hall. They could hear the sounds of dishes clattering and students laughing on the other side of the large doors. "We already ate dinner. Didn't we? Did we? I thought we did. Now I can't 'member."
"Yes," she rolled her eyes, swaying dizzily as she did so and grimacing. "But I wanna see everyone!"
"You don't even go here," he frowned.
"Irlelevant," she waved one hand, face screwing up as she tried again "Eerilelervant. Fuck, stupid words," she mumbled, punching Harry on the shoulder as he laughed at her.
"Maybe you shouldn'ta left school so soon," he grinned.
"Oh, bollocks," she said, blowing a loud raspberry at him. They opened the doors and Ginny happily tugged him over to the Gryffindor table, beaming up at the ceiling. "God, I've actually missed this place!"
"But has it missed you, is the question," Harry smiled widely, earning another punch on the shoulder.
"Oi!" Ron called, and Harry and Ginny cheerfully skipped over to him and Hermione, swaying on their feet and laughing as they clutched at one another to stay upright. "Where did you two go? And what's wrong with—are you two pissed?"
"No!" they both protested simultaneously, turning to one another and laughing.
"Yeah, clearly not," Ron drawled in a sarcastic tone, lips twitching.
"I'm more soberer than I've ever been in my entire life," Harry proclaimed, holding up one hand in promise and nearly smacking Ginny in the face with it, who laughed even as she punched him on the shoulder again. "Ow!" he cried, rubbing the spot. "Your sister is violent, Won-Won!"
At the nickname, Ginny nearly fell over laughing, holding onto the table as she bent double and gasped for breath. "Won-Won!" she cackled, and Harry had to hold onto her to keep himself from falling over as well, he was laughing so hard.
"Oh, just sit down already before you two fall over," Ron sighed in exasperation.
"Wight-o, Won-Won!" Ginny smirked, snapping him a salute and laughing as he returned it with a rude hand gesture.
"So where have you two been?" Hermione asked, looking between the two of them disapprovingly as they both struggled into the seats across from Ron and Hermione.
"Village," Ginny shrugged, reaching across the table to snag Ron's glass of pumpkin juice, ignoring his huffed "Oi!" as she drained it with a grin. "On'y place t'get real firewhishky 'round here."
"Firewhishky?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep," she nodded happily. "I made Harry pay for it all. On account of him being super rich and everything."
"I'm not super rich," he frowned. "Just, you know…sort of moneyed now. Kind of. Most of it was Sirius's."
"Yes, silly," she said, poking him in the chest and swaying backwards unevenly, "but now it's yours. Sooo…accept your richness already and deal with it."
Harry grinned. "Just as long as you accept the fact that you stupidly gave up such a rich boyfriend. And all for some dreamy ball boy with bad hair."
The comment set them both off laughing again, earning confused looks from Ron and Hermione.
"Well, at least you seem to be doing better," Hermione said, still looking between him and Ginny.
"Hard not to 'round her," Harry grinned, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and messing up her hair, laughing as she struggled to get free. "Won-Won's wight earlier, 'bout her being fun t'be 'round, and all that. Right laugh, she is, when she's not being violent."
"Who says I can't be both at the same time?" she demanded, finally fighting free from Harry's hold, who collapsed on the table in a fit of laughter at the sight of her disheveled auburn hair sticking up everywhere.
"Your hair looks like mine!" he wheezed, laughing harder at her glare and the sight of her twitching lips.
"Not even after four straight hours of flying," she argued, paying him back by tousling his hair with both hands, making him laugh even harder as he weakly tried to wave her away.
"Stop, you'll make it worse!"
"It can't never be worse, tha's my point!" she slurred, chuckling as she finally released him only to rest her head on his shoulder. "Aw," she cooed, patting his thigh. "Look at his poor, messy hair, like a li'l kitten or something. A grumpy li'l kitten with black hair. Isn't he so precioush?"
"You two are insane," Ron shook his head in obvious amusement.
"We're more saner than anybody else here!" Harry disagreed loudly. "Definitely more saner than you, at least, you orange prat."
"Orange prat?" Ron repeated in disbelief, raising one orange eyebrow.
Harry nodded with a grin.
"Miss Weasley," a familiar stern voice said above them, snapping their attention up onto the Headmistress, who had somehow snuck up behind Harry without his knowing, making him frown and wonder if his danger-detecting instincts were somehow fading in the wake of the war.
Or maybe he really was just drunk.
"Hello, Professor!" Ginny greeted cheerfully, beaming up at McGonagall, and Harry could have sworn he saw the older woman's lips twitch.
"May I ask what you are doing here, sitting at the Gryffindor table, seeing as you are no longer a student and therefore no longer a Gryffindor?"
"You can never stop being a Gryffindor!" Ginny protested, nodding seriously. "At least, not in your heart. My heart is still one hundred percent Gryffindor!"
At that, Harry knew for sure he saw McGonagall's lips twitch. "I see," she said, shaking her head. "As pleased as I am to hear such impassioned declarations from a former student, that still does not answer the question of what you are doing in a school you no longer attend. I was under the impression that you had left your studies to pursue a career in Quidditch."
"That is the correct impression to be under, Professor," Ginny beamed. "And it's much better than school. Much, much better. Much, much, much—"
"She's here to see me, Professor," Harry interrupted, noting that McGonagall's lips did not seem to be twitching very much anymore. "She came to, er, cheer me up. Because this week has been no fun. For me. At all. Until Gin came 'round."
"I see," McGonagall said quietly, and Harry noticed that her gaze turned sympathetic. "Very well, then, Mr Potter, Miss Weasley, just do be sure that you are behaving yourselves and acting appropriately. Remember that the both of you, especially you, Mr Potter, are an example to all the younger students, yes?"
"Yes, right, we promise, Professor, best behavior only," Harry nodded, glad when the woman turned and swept away.
"What does that mean?" Ginny demanded, looking around at the three of them. "Why aren't I just as much of an example as this one?" She jabbed a thumb in Harry's direction. "I'm a much betterer example, I'll have that woman know! I'm the youngest player to be signed on to the Harpies in twenty-nine years! That record is older than all of us, and I bloody shattered it, like a goddamn legend!"
"Of course you're a betterer example," Ron grinned, laughing at Ginny's outrage. "He's just a sad mope who doesn't even play Quidditch anymore."
"Right," Ginny agreed, laughing as it was now Harry's turn to appear outraged.
"I still can! Just 'cos I don't doesn't mean I can't," he grumbled. "I just choose not to! I'm being noble, really, letting someone else take my place on the team! That makes me even more of an example!"
"A bettererer example?" Ron suggested, and Harry nodded firmly.
"Exactly."
"You three are ridiculous," Hermione shook her head. "Harry, you really shouldn't be drinking, even on a weekend. You still have studies and homework, you know."
"I needed it, 'Mione," Harry said sadly, turning his saddest puppy dog eyes on her and wondering if they actually looked as heartbreaking in reality as he pictured them to look in his head. "I was all sad and mopey, 'member? And Gin came to cheer me up! With alcohol! Only," he felt his nose scrunch, "not with gin. Gin doesn't drink gin."
Ginny laughed loudly, nodding in agreement. "Gin definitely doesn't drink gin," she sniggered. "Gin says 'fuck off' to gin."
"Gin should drink some coffee," Hermione said sternly, sounding so much like McGonagall that Harry automatically glanced around himself to make sure the Headmistress hadn't wandered back. "Gin has to Apparate back home soon."
"Not for hours," she waved Hermione's stern suggestion away. "Let's go back up to the common room or down to the lake or something. We can go visit Hagrid! Or we can go feed the Thestrals! Or hunt for marnadines with Luna! They're meant to come out in winter!"
"You've done that too?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Of course!" she exclaimed, leaning around Harry to yell, "Luna!" very loudly in the direction of the Ravenclaw table, succeeding in drawing the attention of quite a lot of people, all of whom she ignored as she yelled again, "Luna! Get over here and explain what marnerdines are!"
A minute later, Luna wandered over from the Ravenclaw table with a happy smile, taking the empty seat next to Ginny and smiling even wider as Ginny turned to wrap her in a tight hug.
"Hello, Ginny," she greeted, returning the hug with a pleased expression. "It was very kind of you to call me over. I wanted to come say hi earlier, but I wasn't sure if I would be intruding. I've missed you, you know. I was telling Harry how much I missed you not too long ago. It's good to see the two of you together again."
"It's true, she did say that she missed you," Harry nodded. "Apparently Luna thinks you're nice for some reason. Prob'ly 'cos she doesn't actually know how violent and evil you really are."
"Oh no," Luna disagreed, smiling at Ginny. "She's not evil at all; she has a very kind aura."
"Ha!" Ginny said triumphantly, turning to Harry with a smug look.
"Well, what's my aura?" he wondered, rolling his eyes at the redheaded girl next to him.
"Yours is very impassioned," Luna said seriously, "very driven and determined. You can tell just by looking at it that you have a strong intolerance for injustices and are willing to do anything for those you love."
"Ha back!" Harry said, turning to Ginny with a smug look of his own.
"Ha what?" she asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Er…" Harry's nose scrunched up as he thought. "I dunno, but, ha. In your face."
"Right," she rolled her eyes.
"Hey, what's my aura?" Ron asked, leaning forward to speak to Luna, who turned to him with a smile.
"Yours is very loyal and amicable," she told him, and Ron turned to both Harry and Ginny with a smug look of his own, the expression vanishing as Luna continued, "Even if you don't always act on those two attributes. It's still a very strong aura."
"Hey!" he huffed, glaring as Harry, Ginny, and even Hermione laughed at him.
"And Hermione's is very tranquil," Luna continued, "and very harmonious. There's a definite edge of strong intellectualism to it, but there's also a very deep and ardent undercurrent of protectiveness and love. You can tell by her aura that she is the heart of the group and usually the one holding everyone and everything together. She has much more of a steadfast, unwavering sort of aura."
"That's my Hermione," Ron grinned, pulling her close enough to press a kiss to her cheek. "The heart of the group for damn sure, we wouldn't have been anywhere without her."
"You two are really very sweet together," Luna said in a faraway voice, sounding wistful. "I notice how much the two of you seem to care for one another; it's lovely to watch. I've always wanted someone to be sweet to me like that."
"You'll find someone, Luna," Ginny said, patting her hand. "You're just surrounded by stupid teenage idiots at the moment who don't know how to value true in-dividual-ism," she pronounced slowly, beaming once the word was out. "But one day soon, you will find someone smart who's able to app-re-chi-ate," she paused to beam again at the difficult word that had slurred its way free, "you for how special and beautiful you really are."
"Thank you, Ginny," Luna said bashfully, ducking her head and fighting a rare blush. Had Harry ever seen her blush before? He wasn't sure. "That's a very kind thing to say."
"Well, I can't help it," she grinned, "it's just my aura, I have no control over it."
"Are we hunting marnerdrines, or what?" Harry interrupted, rolling his eyes at Ginny.
"Oh! Would you like to come with me?" Luna asked happily, eyes sparkling. "I would love the company. It can get very cold and lonely out there by myself."
"I'm in," Harry shrugged. "We didn't catch any last time."
"You're not meant to catch them," Ginny told him, shaking her head, "you're meant to see them. Right, Luna?"
"I can't believe you remember what they are," Luna said with a smile. "I was sure you would have forgotten all about them."
"Of course not," Ginny laughed. "No one can ever forget where they were the first time they heard about marnarerdrines, right, Harry?"
"Right," he grinned, the smile lessening as he thought back to that conversation he had shared with Luna by the lake all those lifetimes ago, when she had comforted him through his confusion over Draco. It felt like he had become a completely different person since then.
Suddenly unable to help himself, Harry twisted around in his seat, searching out the Slytherin table and startling visibly as he found himself suddenly gazing into furious grey eyes glaring into his own. Why the hell was Malfoy so angry? He looked livid as he glared at Harry, and Harry felt miserable at the realization that Malfoy really did hate Harry every bit as much as Harry had feared he would—it was more than obvious from his expression.
He would never forgive Harry; he hated him forever now.
"Come on, then," Harry sighed, suddenly much less enthused than he had been only seconds earlier. "Let's go see if we can see any marnarnardines." His tongue stumbled over the final word but no one corrected him as they climbed to their feet, Hermione appearing much less certain than the rest of them.
"Hey," Ginny said quietly, slipping her hand into his and squeezing as they slowly made their way toward the door. "It'll be okay, Harry, you'll see. It'll all work out."
"Bloody optimistic aura of yours," Harry said, doing his best to smile.
"Kindest aura you've ever not seen, admit it," she grinned, and he felt his lips stretch into a real smile.
"I'm really glad you came all the way out here, Gin."
"So am I," her smile softened for a moment before widening once more. "After all, where the hell else am I gonna see a bloody merdnerdrine?"
Harry laughed, glad that he was not the only one having trouble with that damned word. "Mandananrindes," he said slowly, laughing harder at the way the syllables tripped their way drunkenly over his tongue like clumsy stones. "Do you even know what they are?"
"Not a bloody clue," Ginny chuckled. "But you don't really need to know what a make-believe animal looks like to not see it, do you?"
"No, s'pose not," Harry grinned, the smile vanishing as he allowed himself one more glance at the Slytherin table before they left the Great Hall.
Malfoy was still glaring, and all Harry could do was turn away with a pained feeling tightening his chest, making it hurt to breathe.
All he could do was miss Draco from a distance.
TBC
A/N: Only one chapter left on this little angst-filled journey of ours!
