HP the Gryffindor Heir of the Labyrinth

Rina-Bollyqueen420

Apologies, Questions and Understanding

The Sunday following the Halloween Ball, found the two girls sitting at the side of the lake. Ginny was complaining about the-boy-who-lived-to-annoy-her, whilst Sapna contemplated her impending doom. Ginny comforted Sapna with jokes, that cheered her up slightly, but not much. Sapna still couldn't believe that she'd have to marry the guy who loved to see her in pain. Although recently, he'd been civil. This worried Sapna, because it usually meant that he was up to something. She confessed her slight fear to her red-headed friend, who laughed.

"Perhaps he's falling in love with you too Sapna," she joked. "Just watch, any second now he'll jump out from behind that tree and sing you a soppy love song from one of your films." Sapna laughed.

"I seriously doubt that Ginny. But great imagery though, 10 points to Gryffindor for brilliant use of creativity." Ginny grinned.

"You never know, he might be seething at the thought of someone else marrying you. Jealousy might be making him green with envy." Sapna snorted. As if.

"Yeah right," she scoffed. "He's probably jumping for joy that I'll never be around to pester him."

"You won't be around to pester who?" came a voice from behind them. Ginny looked at the intruder annoyed.

"Saps, be a dear and tell this git that I don't want to talk to him," she said looking at her friend. Harry sighed.

"Oh come on Gin," he said. "Please give me a few minutes of your time? I promise that I'll leave after you hear me out." Ginny looked at Sapna, the Asian girl nodded at her friend to go with him. Defeated, she sighed and stood up to face him.

"Fine," she said sharply. "Five minutes. That's all you're getting." With that she left with Harry, telling Sapna that she'd only be a few minutes.

"Well," she said, once they were at the herbology labs. "Say what you have to say." Harry fidgeted nervously. "Well? I don't have all day you know." This made Harry even more fidgety. In all her life, Ginny had never seen him look so nervous. She almost felt sorry for the poor bloke. 'Almost' being the key word, since she was so mad at the way he was acting in the common room.

"I want to say I'm sorry for being a jerk in the common room the other night," he said quietly. Ginny barely heard his words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that," she said with a slight smirk on her face. Harry glared at her, before sighing and repeating what he'd said.

"I said, 'I'm sorry for being a jerk in the common room the other night'. There, I said it. Are you happy?"

"Very," she grinned. Harry sighed in relief. "Doesn't mean I forgive you though Mister Potter."

"I really am sorry Ginny," he said. Ginny knew that this wasn't a part of his 'apologise-to-Ginny' speech. His voice trembled with an emotion she couldn't describe. "I shouldn't have shouted at you like that, I definitely shouldn't have grabbed you the way I did. It's just that I was so angry at Voldemort, the prophesy, and at the prospect of anyone else I love getting hurt." Ginny looked up into his emerald orbs.

"You really mean that?" she asked.

"Yes I do." He took a step closer to her. "I couldn't stand it if something happened to any of my friends," he whispered as he stroked her face. "Especially you." Ginny shuddered at his sincere words and his touch. "You mean a lot to me Virginia Anne Weasley. More than anyone else." Ginny hugged him fiercely.

"You mean a lot to me too Harry James Potter," she replied. For a moment it felt like time had stood still for the young couple.

"Ginny?"

"Yes Harry?" she asked.

"Next Hogsmead weekend, would you go with me?" Ginny pulled away from him and looked at him curiously.

"I always go with you Harry," she replied as Harry shook his head.

"No Gin, you always come with us. I mean, would you go with me, and only me to Hogsmead? As in just the two of us. No Ron, no Hermione, no Luna, no Colin, no Sapna. Just me? As my date?" Ginny blushed. She couldn't believe that he was asking her out, on a date!

"Yes, I will," she replied with a grin. Harry pulled her closer. So close that their lips were almost touching.

"Ginny, can you make me a promise?" he asked.

"Anything," she sighed.

"Promise me that if I ever kiss you, you won't run away again." Ginny let out a small laugh.

"No, I promise not to run away if you kiss me."

"Good," he replied, before bringing his lips to hers.

Sapna looked down at her watch. Ginny had been gone for nearly half an hour. Over the past couple of days, Ginny had been the only one to keep her from doing something stupid. She had comforted her with her words, made her laugh, and most importantly, she had stopped her for thinking about Rahul.

But now that she was alone, her thoughts were slowly being invaded by him. His eyes, his face, his anger, his cruel remarks, his shocked face when she'd told him that she was getting married, his smirk, and his laugh, his everything. How could she have been stupid enough to let herself fall in love with the boy whose favourite pastime it was to torment her? She'd sent a letter to her father, asking him to tell Rahul's family that she didn't know who she was getting married to yet. If Rahul found out that she knew all along, he would think that she'd just been toying with him. But she hadn't done anything to Rahul recently and he'd been fairly quiet too. She threw a stone into the lake and watched it skim across. She sat there, contemplating her future. Would Rahul forgive her for the compromise they would have to make? Would Rahul ever love her as much as she loved him? What would he do when he got the letter?

"Penny for your thoughts Rani," came her tormentors voice from behind her. Sapna threw another stone into the lake as he sat down beside her. She just ignored him, hoping he would get the hint that she wasn't in the mood for his usual jibes and leave. He didn't.

"Go away Rahul," she said quietly. "I'm not in the mood and I want to be left alone." Rahul shrugged.

"Since when have I ever listened to you before?" he said. "What's up with you lately? You've been ignoring me. And I'm feeling very hurt."

"You should be happy Rahul," replied Sapna, finally turning to him. "I'm not arguing with you anymore, I'm not in your face all the time and I'm not picking fights with you. So what do you care anyway? You've never really cared about me before, why are you even talking to me right now?" Rahul shrugged.

"I don't know," he replied. "But I don't like seeing you like this. It's like your fire's gone out." Sapna snorted.

"Back to my original question. Why do you care anyway?" she asked. "You should be happy that my fire's gone out. That someone has managed to defeat me." Something flickered in his eyes that Sapna had never really seen there before. Concern.

"It can't be that bad can it?" he asked. "I mean you're getting married after all."

"You men are all the same," she stated angrily. "You think that an Indian girls purpose in life is just to get married and have children. Why is it that the girl has to make all the sacrifices? You know that after I get married it will be decided by my in-laws what I can and can't do. I have so many things that I want to do and experience in life that can now never happen. Everything I do will be for them and my husband. A husband, whose name I don't even know yet! I will have to make the biggest compromise of my life to keep my family happy! It doesn't matter whether I love him or not! He won't love me! Whoever it is, will despise me for ruining his life! He'll hate me more than you ever could! If he doesn't love me he'll ruin my life! He'll torment me day and night and my in-laws will hate me for making him unhappy! That is the future I have in front of me right now Rahul! So forgive me if I don't really feel like having petty arguments with you right now," she finished. She got up to leave but she felt him pull her down again.

"You finished?" he asked, quirking his eyebrow at her. She huffed and turned away from him. Determined not to let him see the tears that were forming in her eyes. "Now why would you think that? Who knows, maybe your husband will fall madly in love with you." Sapna laughed. "After all, you aren't that bad." Sapna turned to him in shock.

"Was that a complement to me from Rahul Khannah?"

"Don't get your hopes up," he smirked. Then his expression turned serious. "But what has you thinking that your life is going to be so bad? Why do you think that you won't be able to achieve your dreams?" Sapna sighed, in defeat.

"If it wasn't so bad, then why don't my parents tell me who he is, huh?" she asked. "Why would they say in the letter that they would not tell me his name for fear of me doing something stupid? That only means that I won't like who it is, and he won't like me. It could be any of the guys that I hate from Jadoo Sitara. It could be Aman, Vijay, Rohit," she stated monotonically. Then she snorted. "It could even be you for all I know," she said. Rahul looked at her in shock.

"I don't think our parents would be that stupid," he stated.

"Wouldn't they?" she asked him. "They said in the letter that they didn't want me to jump off the astronomy tower if they told me. Now who is on top of my most hated list that I would do anything to avoid getting married to?"

"Me?" he asked. Sapna nodded. "But you don't honestly think that it could be me? Could it?" Sapna shrugged.

"I don't know," she replied. "I'm just saying that you're the main possibility." Rahul looked at her strangely. She sighed and turned to ask him her question. "Ok, hypothetically speaking," she started. "Say tomorrow you get a letter from your parents, telling you that you are going to be married to me once I finish my education, because it's my grandma's wish before she passes away to see me happily married. What would you do then?" she asked him. "Could you compromise your life like that? By marrying a girl that you don't love? A girl who's been the bane of your existence ever since you can remember? Can you honestly say that you wouldn't hate me for ruining your life? Could you live with the fact that for the rest of our lives, we're going to have to play the 'happy couple' around our friends and family, whilst in reality we really hate each other?" She looked at him in the eyes. "You couldn't do that with your life Rahul. You couldn't make a compromise like that. You wouldn't let me live my dreams and you wouldn't love me the way a man is supposed to love his wife. You wouldn't love me." With that she got up and walked away, her eyes almost filling with tears and he watched her retreat.

What Sapna had said confused him to no end. Her words and the way that she'd looked at him when she said that final sentence.

"You wouldn't love me."

She was such a drama queen usually. He wasn't used to seeing her look so upset. So defeated. Her words had pulled at his heart, stretching it to breaking point. Why was he caring now? She was right, he should be happy that she was finally leaving him alone. But what do you do when the one person who has been annoying you for as long as you can remember, goes cold on you? In fact, he was still confused about his decision to come to Hogwarts. Jadoo Sitara had seemed boring and lifeless after she's left to come here. Why didn't he just stay there and relish in the fact that she wouldn't be there to annoy him. Why did he have to come to Hogwarts? For some strange reason, he hated the fact that she was arranged to be married. For some reason he couldn't stand it that she would no longer be his alone to annoy. He would never be allowed to see her, unless her husband permitted it.

But why did he want to see her anyway? Why had he suddenly started to care about Sapna and her future? Why did he care that she was hurting? Why did he care that tears were staining her beautiful face? Why did he care that she would belong to someone that wasn't him? Whoa! What was he thinking? Where the hell had that come from? What on earth was happening to him?

He looked up, just to see her turn around and glance at him, her eyes filled with tears. And suddenly all his 'Whys' were answered. A cold dread suddenly filled him. This couldn't happen to him! Not now! He couldn't fall in love with her! Not when she was about to get married! Damn it! He wouldn't allow himself to! He couldn't be in love with her! He'd put a stop to it! He ran his hands through his hair in despair. What had that stupid little witch done to him? What had she done that had made him feel what he did for her? The answer to his question, was that she's cried and opened herself up to him. Told him her fears and doubts about the future. Damn it! She'd made him feel sorry for her. So much so, that now he wanted to protect her, cherish her, annoy her, and love her. Damn it! He'd fallen in love with the one girl who had always been 'off-limits'. He'd fallen in love with Sapna Wasai. And he'd fallen hard.