Chapter Two – Broken Without Warning

Glasses still on, his face was pressed into the dirt in an uncomfortable looking way, his shirt was lying several feet away from where he was sleeping half naked. She smiled down on him as she zipped up her golden bridesmaid robes. Looking around the quiet wood, the lush green of the trees and the dew on the patchy grass gleamed in the early morning sunlight. Harry was leaving tonight for the unknown, and he had agreed with her last night: she was going with him.

"Harry," Ginny said, kneeling down next to his half naked form, gently pushing against his bare shoulder.

"Piss off, Ron," He murmured and rolled over.

"I hope you don't actually think that I'm Ron," She whispered loudly into his ear. His eyes jerked open, squinting in the early morning sunlight. Shading his eyes with his hand, several expressions flittered over his face; shock, realization, a quick blush, a wide grin, slight embarrassment and he settled on a sly smile.

"Good morning," He chirped knowingly at her, kissing the closest part of her he could grab; her forearm.

'Hello," she smirked. "You should probably get up." He reluctantly pulled himself into a sitting position.

"It's so early though, Ginny," He said, rubbing his eyes behind his glasses. "Who gets up at this time?"

"My Mum," Ginny said sweetly, passing Harry his shirt. "So unless you feel like explaining to her why we're coming in early in the morning wearing the same clothes as last night and looking rather dishevelled, we had better try to get inside before she notices we aren't there."

"I can't be bothered getting up though," He said childishly. "You can't make me."

"I reckon I could if I wanted to," She smirked. "Get up that is." He blushed rapidly. "Now, get up before my Mum wakes up or face disembowelment courtesy of the twins."

"Oh," he said, and relocated his clothes rapidly from the ground to his body.

"Now, which way is your house?" He asked dumbly, staring around the little forest they were in.

"This way," She told him, and tugged his hand after her.

"Did I say go yet?" He asked her, tugging her hand back and pressing her against a tree. She giggled as he kissed her nose. "You know what I said to you last night?"

"You said a lot of things last night," Ginny replied cheekily.

"You know what I mean." Harry said.

"I do know what you mean," She said, as he kissed her forehead and pulled her in the general direction of her house. "And I love you, too." He grinned ridiculously wide at her, and they kept walking.

"You know," He said, sounding mildly apprehensive. "You're the only person that I've ever said that to."

She felt her heart tug and was silent for a second. "Well, you're sweet, aren't you?"

"I am," He concurred.

The walked in a comfortable silence out of the wood and began making their across the meadow, towards the remnants of the previous night's wedding lying scattered around the Burrow's garden.

"When are we going to tell Ron and Hermione?" Ginny asked him.

"Let's not," Harry smirked. "Let's just see how long it takes them to notice."

"I think they're gonna realize pretty quickly, Harry," She said. How would they not notice when she was tagging along on their little adventure?

"No they won't," He said as they approached the rubble which were the wedding decorations the night before. "Not if they don't see us together, why would they?" He looked at her inquisitorially. She thought he was joking for a brief moment before realizing that he was serious.

With a sudden feeling of betrayal and anger, followed by rage, she realized that for once, her and Harry might not just be on the same wavelength. They always had been before; she felt he had always had the ability to see straight into her head. Not this time apparently. She felt used.

"Harry!" She half yelled angrily at him. Shocked, he looked like a deer in the headlights.

"Wh-w-what?" he stuttered, taken aback by her sudden change in demeanour.

"I can't believe this!" She cried at him. "You're a git, you know that?"

"Ginny, what have I done?" He asked alarmed. "What's up, you were fine five minutes ago!"

She looked at him huffily, her face and ears reddening.

"You're not taking me with you are you?" She questioned him angrily.

"You know that already," Harry said to her. "Is this why you're suddenly angry?"

She slapped his shoulder. Hard.

"You are the biggest git since that word was invented!" She ranted at him as she felt a slight alignment to her mother. "Last night you pretty much said that you were taking me with you!"

"I wouldn't have ever said that, Ginny." He told her. "You're not coming, so I never would have said that I would take you with us. You know that." He looked a mixture of concerned and alarmed.

"You did say though!" She half yelled at him. "Last night, I told you I was coming with you, that I didn't care how dangerous it was, and you didn't object!"

"But did I say 'Ginny, feel free to come with me, Hermione and your brother on an extremely dangerous mission that you know nothing about'?" He blurted to her. "'And by the way, we have no idea of how long we will be gone and what we will really be doing?'"

"Well, no," She began.

"Then you're not coming," he explained boldly, crossing his arms across his chest and kicking some streamers that were lying on the ground. "Plain and simple, Ginny."

"You are infuriating!" She told him. "Just let me come with you!"

"No!" He exclaimed. "It's too-"

"If you dare say dangerous, I will hex your hair off!" She interrupted him.

He paused for a moment. "Risky," he finished, a smirk on his face.

"Aarrgh!" She cried at him. "Despite what the average person thinks, I can look after myself, Harry."

"I know you can, Gin," he said earnestly. "I just don't want you to have to!"

"But you do want to be with me," She stated, thinking of the previous night angrily.

"Yes," Harry said. "Glad you picked up on that," he joked. She shot a glare at him irritably.

"So, you're expecting me to sit around waiting for you like a good little girl?" She snarled at him.

"Er, I suppose that's a way to put it," He said, only slightly deterred by how this sounded.

She looked up at his face shocked. He had never been like this before to her. Hermione had told her how she'd been on the victim end of what she had called his pig-headedness, but Ginny had never really believed that to come from him. Standing here, arms folded with determination on his face, he seemed as stubborn as Ron at the moment. Or herself, she thought dryly.

"I can't believe you," Ginny said. "You've never been like this before."

"I have," Harry said. "You've just never had to deal with it."

"I don't see why you just don't take me!" She exclaimed. "You know what, I reckon that maybe I could help you somehow."

"It's. Too. Dangerous." He said slowly, putting great emphasis on each word.

"And I can look after myself!"

He sighed. "If we've been over it once, we've been over it a million times. You're not coming."

"Why not?" She asked. "Just bury your pride for once. I bet you can't even give me a justified reason of why you can't take me along." He opened his mouth. "And saying that it's dangerous doesn't count."

He sighed again, running his hands through his hair from frustration. "I could give you one thousand and one reasons, Gin," He said resolutely, "but let's put it like this way, it's simpler. I don't want you there." He turned to walk away.

"Why, to protect me or something?" She demanded, pushing over a chair to face him.

"No, I just don't want you there," He said plainly, avoiding her gaze. He side stepped her, and walked towards the kitchen door.

She felt a lump rise in her throat. She had liked him for so long, and she had finally got what she wanted, only to have it torn away after such a short time. She remembered leading him to the hospital wing after Dumbledore's death; he had looked so hopeless. A sudden realisation popped into her head. He didn't want her there, but-

"You need me though," She said smugly to Harry's retreating back. He stopped in his tracks. "You need me." He turned to face her.

"What?" He asked, his voice quivering slightly. She could see his resolve starting to wane.

"You need me there," Ginny explained simply. "You may not like it, but you need me there. I'm coming with you."

"N-no I don't. And you're not coming with us," he said stubbornly. 'Why do you think that?"

"I could give you one thousand and one reasons," she smiled, repeating his words, "but let's think of it this way. Either you swallow your pride and take me with you to wherever it is you're going, or I'm gone," she told him.

"What?" He sounded shocked.

"I'm not going to sit around here waiting for you, Harry," She told him. "I've been doing that for over five years. I'm not going to sit back like a child and do nothing until you get back from your big adventure to be the girl that you left behind waiting for you."

He looked at her funnily. "Don't give me ultimatums like that," he said quietly after a pause.

"You've already made your choice, you just don't realise it," She said, flipping her hair over her shoulder and edging towards him. "You need me and I'm coming with you."

He examined her for a moment, eyes glazing over for a second before a harsh look came over his face.

"I don't need you," He stated, and he stormed into the Burrow, slamming the door behind him.

She stood there stalely for a moment. He had called her bluff. He had walked away, thinking his stubbornness and cave-man attitude had won. And if that was the case, she wasn't going to let it be a bluff. She'd given up on him before, she could do it again.

Up in Ron's room, Harry had gotten changed in a temper, and was now throwing his belongings haphazardly into his trunk angrily. He finished shoving his belongings into his trunk, and begun pacing furiously around Ron's room, wondering where he was. His bed looked like it hadn't been slept in.

After five minutes or so of pacing stormily, Ron and Hermione walked in wearing their robes from last night, looking at Harry curiously.

"Good, you're here," he snapped. His eyes glanced over their clasped hands and he smirked. "Hurry up and pack, we need to leave."

"Well, I would go pack but I can't get to my stuff because Ginny is storming around her room in a temper worse than yours," Hermione explained, looking at him concerned.

"You two had a fight last night?" Ron asked.

"Er, yeah, we've had a bit of a row, I s'pose," Harry said shortly, pulling Ron's trunk out from under his bed. "Now pack, we need to leave."

"That bad?" Hermione asked him curiously. He scowled.

"Just go pack," He told her irritably.

"I'll go talk to Ginny," Hermione said, leaving Ron's room.

"You two seemed to be getting along alright last night though," Ron stated, pulling his trunk towards him and began to throw his clothes into it.

"And you and Hermione seem to getting on fantastically," Harry simpered at him. "So you keep your mouth shut."

"He is so bloody stubborn!" Ginny exclaimed as she watched Hermione fold her shirts into her trunk. "I've got six older brothers to treat me like I'm a baby, why does he feel the need to protect me too?"

"I call it his 'saving people thing'," Hermione told her, rolling her eyes. "It's not just you he does it to."

"But can't he see that I can look after myself?" She mumbled crossly.

"No," Hermione said. "Don't worry though Gin, he'll come around."

"If he does, he better well get down on his hands and knees and beg for my forgiveness," she told her. "I'm not going to sit around waiting for him; I've already done that long enough! And after all the stuff he was saying before our row, he better well come apologise!"

"What stuff he was saying?" Hermione asked her with a smirk. Ginny reddened. "What happened last night, because it's pretty obvious that you only fought this morning."

"Well," Ginny deliberated, "Do you want the full story or the brother friendly story?"

The trio wandered down to the kitchen some time later, levitating their trunks. Ginny was sitting between her parents, and Fred and George were resting their heads in their arms groaning, obviously hung-over. She looked up at Harry expectantly. He turned away, sitting down at the table as far away from her as he could.

"It was such a beautiful wedding," Mrs Weasley swooned as Hermione sat down. Ron paused at where the twins were sitting. He clapped his hands between their heads. They squawked in pain the loud noise inflicted to their headaches, and Ron ran to sit by Harry.

"We'll get you for that one day," Fred said angrily to his brother, looking up blearily.

"Are you lot leaving now?" George asked the trio.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Us three are leaving now." He looked pointedly at Ginny, who glared at him.

"It's so sad," Mrs Weasley said, pulling Hermione into a hug. "Promise that you will be around."

"We should be, Mum," Ron said, hugging his mother.

"You look after them," Mrs Weasley told Harry. He laughed sourly.

"These two can look after themselves," he replied. Ginny shot him another glare, and he replied by giving her a sad smile.

"I'll see you guys around," Ginny said to Ron and Hermione, pulling them into a group hug. Harry pulled away from her mother as she broke her hug with Ron and Hermione.

He caught her eye. Instead of a repeat of the previous glares, she looked at him emotionlessly. He made to say something to her, but his voice wouldn't come out, not this time anyway. She turned her back and slowly walked away from him.

She didn't realise that was the last time she would see him for four years.