Wake Up

Chapter 2: Never Really Over

a/n: Sorry this chapter is so short; it just seemed like a logical place to end it, seeing as I am updating because I have the first three chapters done. Usual disclaimers; R&R!!

Please? I am offering cookies.

XXX

Three months and I'm still sober

Picked all my weeds but kept the flowers

But I know it's never really over

Bill and Fleur's wedding was three months ago. Looking back, Ginny wished she could have written a letter to herself, warning her and everyone else that the war was closer than they had thought. The wedding hadn't been over for twenty-four hours before the Death Eaters struck, determined to show the Order exactly who was calling the shots.

The Order had won handily, but the time of fairy-tale weddings and reminding every one of the love and joy they felt for one another was over.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione disappeared on their quest to find the four remaining Horcruxes soon after. Hermione had told Ginny everything; in case they happened to not survive, Ginny could tell the Order exactly what had happened.

It had been three months since they had left, and Ginny had remained cool, calm, and expected nothing- in other words, sober. She expected neither a victory nor a failure; it was the only way she could keep herself sane.

She had cleaned out her mind, eradicating any thoughts other than her school work and the welfare of her mother. Hogwarts had reopened, despite the death of its beloved Headmaster, and Ginny had begged and fought to be allowed to go back. Mrs. Weasley had refused up until the moment Ginny had illegally Apparated to King's Cross Station on September 1st, and then reluctantly allowed her to go, but not without a few extra rules.

She wrote her mother every day, not only because she had been ordered to, but because she knew her mother was quite literally worrying herself sick over Ginny being so far away, and Ron up and leaving to go fight in the war, on top of her normal worries about her other children and her now constantly working husband. If anything, Mrs. Weasley wasn't sober.

Try as Ginny might, however, she could never completely get the Golden Trio, particularly Harry, out of her mind. She wanted him to be safe, and to come back to her, whole and still in love with her. With her, it wasn't really over.

"Dammit," she would mutter under her breath every night, oblivious to the stares of her dorm mates. "I still love him."