A/N: Thanks for the reviews! It's a good feeling when you find out people are actually reading what you write haha. Anyway it's finals week so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to write. And then after that it's Christmas Break! So I may be too busy stuffing myself with free, non-college priced, food. Plus I have to get back to my job. But feel free to pepper me with reviews which will clog my inbox and force me to write haha. Thanks so much for reading!

Chapter 4: Truth be told

Harry slowed his pace as he approached Ginny. He tried to catch his breath. It wouldn't do him any good to try and explain everything he felt for her if he couldn't get any air in his lungs to say it. But, what was he going to say? How could he put all his feelings for her into something that would make her understand. Would she even listen to him? He stopped walking all together to ponder this new horror. What if, after everything he'd done, she was over him? Could she have found someone else at Hogwarts this year? No, who else is there? But maybe he had done irreparable harm in leaving her so suddenly and not telling her anything.

He started walking again slowly. He owed telling her anyway. He was about 50 feet from the tree now, and he was creeping slowly. He felt oddly like some wild beast, stalking its prey. He shook his head. It was Ginny. He shouldn't have anything to fear…except maybe a bat boogey hex.

When he was ten feet away he stopped. He could hear her breathing heavily as she stared out across the lake, hugging her knees to her chest. He cleared his throat. Before he could even step back she launched herself up and whipped around with her wand pointing at him.

"Oh," she looked surprised, and lowered her wand, but not all the way, "it's you." She looked at him. For a second he saw a flash of longing cross her eyes. But then she shook her head and blinked and when her eyes opened again all he could see was rage. He gulped, but knowing what he had to do he took a step forward. "Don't." She said, with as much venom as she could muster. "Don't walk over here like everything is going to be ok." He stopped and looked startled at the hatred in her voice.

"Ginny, please, let me explain."

"Explain what? Explain how you left me to go on your grand adventure? How you didn't want me tagging along? How you don't think I could have handled it? How you forbid me to fight? When my whole family was out there? How you expected me to just sit, like a good girl, as the castle came crashing down around me? As I saw those murderers rampaging around Hogwarts? How can you explain that? What's your excuse?" Her voice had raised with each question she asked until she was shrieking at him, her wand again pointed at his chest, quivering. She paused, gulping air. She looked at her wand arm sheepishly and lowered it. She screwed up her face and turned away from him her arms clutching her sides, facing the lake again. "Are you going to explain why you cant be with me again? Tell me that its for the greater good? Or how you've found someone else…that's it isn't it? Or," she shuddered as Harry was standing dumbstruck, his gaze fixed on her shaking back, "or how you could have led me to believe you felt the way I did." Her voice had gone hollow on her last words.

Harry didn't know what came over him, what possessed him to do it, but he was striding over to her. He reached her as she turned around. Before she could say a word he pulled her into him and crashed his lips onto hers. For a second, an infinitesimal second, he thought she was going to pull away, but then she leaned into him and was kissing him back with a passion he'd never experienced before. They kissed for Harry didn't know how long. It felt like ages when they finally broke apart. Harry sat down heavily, panting and out of breath. Ginny looked more unsure of herself. One hand was running nervously through her hair, the other was trembling as she brushed her fingers across her lips. Her gaze was unfocused staring at a point some distance above Harry's head. After a minute she sat down, a good 3 feet away from him. Harry sighed.

"It was never about you not being good enough. You've always been good enough, better. You've been more than I could have imagined. You're smart, funny, beautiful," she glanced up at him and then her eyes flicked back down, searching the ground for something that wasn't there, "and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Ginny. But, I had to. You know what Voldemort did with Sirius. He used him as bait. To get to me. Just because he was my godfather. Imagine what he would've done to you." She looked up again, but this time held his gaze.

"But what about Ron and Hermione?"

"I love them, I love them like my family, but you." He stopped and was now glancing around everywhere but at her. He ran a hand wearily through his hair. "Ginny I," he stopped and looked straight at her "I love you Ginny Weasley." She looked up at him. And finally, finally in her eyes he could see it, see that blazing look that made his heart swell. Her eyes began to water. He hurriedly knelt down next to her just in time for Ginny to throw her arms around him and break down on his shoulder.

Harry didn't know how long they sat there. Ginny was crying. Ginny hardly ever cried. He sat and hugged her to him. He knew she wasn't crying just for him. Yes there was her relief, her relief that he hadn't gone and found himself a Veela girl. That he felt that same as she had since she first laid eyes on him 6 years ago in a busy train station. She cried for that, but she also cried for Fred. Her beloved elder brother who could no longer tease her or play tricks on her. She cried for George, how would he cope with the loss of his other half. She cried for Lupin and Tonks, for Collin, for all those that had died defending her home and those she loved. After ages it seemed, she sat up and wiped her eyes on her sleeve and gazed up into the green eyes she'd been dreaming about for months.

"Never leave me again."

"I won't, I promise." They sat together by the shore of the lake for a long time. They lounged against the tree, his arm around her shoulders, her head on his chest. Ginny found herself running her hands along him, to make sure he was still there. She traced the words etched into his hand. She frowned as she noticed what looked like bite marks halfway up his arm.

"Harry? Where did you get that?" He looked down contentedly at his arm and then gulped. He did not relish explaining all of his latest scars.

"Umm," he said casting around for a way to change the subject.

"Harry James Potter. You tell about that scar right now! What other ones are you hiding?" She sat up and was on her knees staring daggers at him. "Don't even think about not telling me. There is so much you already haven't confided in me. And I won't stand for it. Not anymore." He sighed.

"Alright. Well that one was from Nagini." He paused as she gasped. "We, I mean Hermione and I, went to Godric's Hollow and the snake was kind of living inside an old lady and then attacked me." He said the last line in a rush not looking at her face.

"Oh, well, you will have to tell me the full story later. What other scars have you acquired since I last saw you?" Harry sighed.

"Well, its a lot to explain, but this locket, I'll tell you all about it later I promise, it was evil and as the snake was attacking me it sort of lodged itself to my chest. Hermione had to use a severing charm to get it off." She was staring open mouthed.

"Let me see it." She reached forward to open his shirt.

"No, Ginny don't!" She pulled on the front and the buttons came undone. They both gasped and stopped dead, his hand on her wrist, her hand over her mouth. It wasn't the faded oval scar on his chest that they were staring at. It was the new, raw mark on his chest surrounded by several inches of bright purple bruising that they were staring at. In the center of his chest was a red 12 pointed star, right where Voldemort's latest killing curse had struck him.

"I swear I didn't know about that one Ginny." Harry seemed to be the first to recover himself.

"How did you not know about it? Didn't you feel it when you…how did you get that anyway?" She looked up into his eyes curiously.

"Well, it probably happened when," he gulped looking away from her eyes, "when I died last night."