Here we go. This is my favorite chapter so far. You guys will see what I mean.

Please keep up the reading! The reviewing, too, if it's not too much to ask. I've got a lot of time on my hands, so I should be powering through this story pretty quickly. 4 chapters in 2 days isn't half bad, is it?

Enjoy.

Harry had been sleeping in Ginny's guest room for five days when he was jolted awake by a scream from Ginny's room. His feet hit the ground, and he was pounding down the hall before he even realized he was vertical. He almost tore her bedroom door off in his haste to get inside.

Ginny was standing, hands over her mouth, staring at the window. Hanging on the other side of the glass was a life-sized rag doll, complete with soccer jersey and red yarn hair, with a noose around its neck.

"Finnegan!" Harry bellowed, knowing the man was on duty tonight and would come running at his call. "Ginny," he said in a softer, soothing voice. He walked quickly towards her, arms outstretched. "Ginny, get away from the window." Ginny didn't respond to him. When he got close enough, he saw that her eyes were filled with tears that were spilling down her cheeks.

"Ginny," he said, more harshly. "Ginny, get away from the window. We have to get you into the living room. There's zero visibility from the ground, there. Do you understand me?" He felt like he was talking to the rag doll, for all the response Ginny was giving him. He wrapped his arm around her waist and tugged. She tripped over her feet, but let her lead him out of the bedroom.

Finnegan came bursting into the room as they made their way to the couch.

"Call base, get forensics down here. I want a whole team to case the area, whoever did this still has to be around. Tell them to bring a crane, a ladder, anything to cut the damn thing out of the window before she sees it again. Call the Commander, tell him there's been a breach and that he needs to call Arthur Weasley, but that Ginny's fine. You're also going to want a pretty big evidence bag."

"Yes, Sir." The recruit didn't ask questions and was already on his cell phone, dialing base. Harry made a mental note to throw a bonus his way as soon as he could. For now, though, he had bigger things to worry about.

He lead Ginny to the sofa and eased her down on it, her breath was hiccupping out in harsh sobs, and the tears began to fall. Her hands had moved and were now covering her eyes. Her head was shaking back and forth.

"I…I… heard…I heard…" Harry rubbed a soothing hand down her arm.

"Don't try to talk, ok? Just breathe for me, Ginny. That's all you have to do." He tried to calm her, but she shook her head violently at him.

"No…n-no. I heard so-something on my w-w-window." She said shakily. "It s-sounded like a…a rock or s-someth-thing. Like someone w-was…was th-throwing rocks a-at my w-window-ow." She shuddered out, and Harry suddenly understood. He hated to leave her like this, but he ran into his room and slammed his feet into his running shoes as fast as he could. He ran back down the hall, passing Finnegan on the way to the door.

"Don't you dare leave her alone. Not for anything until I get back!" He yelled back at the recruit, already jumping down three stairs at a time, cutting corners where he could. When Finnegan yelled back, Harry was already too far away to hear.

He jammed the door open ahead of him, and took off running to the spot under Ginny's window. He could see the gruesome doll hanging there from the ground. He searched frantically around his feet for pebbles or stones or…Got it! He toed a small pile of gravel laying next to a street sign. He looked up and whipped his head around, looking for…

"Hey!" He yelled, running up to a bagel vendor on the corner. The vendor gave him an odd look, but Harry didn't care. He didn't give a damn what this man thought of him. "Did you see a man? Or a person? Throwing rocks up at that window?" He asked, already hearing sirens approaching. Backup, excellent. The vendor widened his eyes.

"Yeah, actually, I did! Couldn't see their face, wearing a black jacket and hood." He looked expectantly at Harry, who made impatient gestures at him. "And…and jeans. He was wearing dark blue jeans. Couldn't see his shoes…" Harry nodded and ran down the street where a squad car pulled up.

"Vendor says he saw someone throwing rocks at the window. Black jacket and hood, dark jeans. He didn't see their face. I'm going to case the park and around the block, maybe they're sticking around." The officer, who Harry didn't know, nodded and looked astounded. Harry took off towards the park and a dead run.

He didn't blame the officer. Whoever he was, Harry was sure that he wasn't used to having famous Agents run up to them wearing practically nothing at five a.m.

oOo

Ginny had calmed down considerably by the time most of the police had left her apartment. Seamus Finnegan was a Godsend, and hadn't left her side since Harry had sprinted out the door. Which had been…She glanced at the clock…over three hours ago.

She'd be worried if she hadn't just seen Kingsley Shacklebolt, who'd told her that he'd seen Harry mapping out the area and debriefing a small team down on the street. Shacklebolt paused on his way out the door.

"Did you happen to see what he was wearing when he went tearing down there?" He asked them. Finnegan nearly choked on his coffee.

"Nothing but his boxers and a pair of trainers." He responded. Ginny honestly couldn't remember what he'd been wearing, but cracked a smile along with them and watched Shacklebolt duck out her door.

No, she hadn't remembered his attire, but she'd remembered his strong, steady voice. He'd said her name. He'd said her name a lot. And even in her shell-shocked state, that had gotten through. The rough gravel of his voice had penetrated when she'd been trying to block everything out.

She still felt goose-bumps raise when she remembered his touch on her arm. He'd been warm, and his hand on her waist had been strong and in charge. Just what she'd needed.

"Good coffee." Finnegan said, toasting her. She smiled back at him and looked down at her barely-touched cup. It had been the young recruit's words of comfort that had woken her from her stupor. His talk about being strong, but grieving as well. For the past three hours, he'd kept up encouraging, endearing words to her no matter who'd been in the room with them. Finally, it had been his talk of his girlfriend that had gotten down to her core.

He was a good guy, and he was clearly head-over-heels infatuated with his Lavender. She'd needed reminding that there were still good guys out there. She'd needed something real, anchored to true life, and not all of this stalker craziness, to wake her up.

She started to say, "Harry's is better.", but the sentence never left her mouth, because now she was looking at his big, comforting form walking through her front door. Finnegan slid off his stool to stand at attention. Harry held up a finger and crossed to her bedroom where he disappeared. He came out a moment later to move down the rest of the hall and check in every one of the rooms. When he came out of the guest room last, he'd donned a pair of sweat pants and tee-shirt, and had lost his sneakers.

"You can go back outside." He said, nodding to Finnegan, who paused, then turned to Ginny and enveloped her in a quick, but firm, hug.

"I'll just be outside, ok?" He asked, jogging to her front door and nodding at her encouragingly, shooting her a thumbs up before shutting the door quietly behind him.

Her eyes were still on Harry, who was standing fairly still, and didn't seem to know what to do. Their eyes locked for a long moment, and before she knew what he was doing, she'd launched herself off of her stool and into his arms.

She didn't allow herself to cry again, but she did allow herself to be comforted about how he immediately took her into his embrace and gripped her hard. She buried her face in his shoulder and shuddered.

She hadn't realized how much she'd gotten used to his dark, menacing form in her life until he'd been out of it, if only for three hours. During her interviews with the police, she'd noticed her eyes straying to his usual spot, and had known a jolt of anxiety every time she'd seen he wasn't there.

She felt him take a deep breath under her cheek, and tried to guess at whether he was as shaken up as she was. Her first guess would have been no, because he was Harry Potter, but then again, he was holding her rather tightly. And Ginny could swear she felt just the smallest tremor running through his arms.

They stood like that for a long time, wrapped up together, before Ginny slowly came to. He seemed to wake up at the same moment, realizing that they were clutching each other tightly in the middle of her kitchen. She sighed, feeling him tense up beneath her, knowing that he was about to break contact. Which was a pity. He was so solid, and warm, and despite everything that had happened this morning, Ginny had felt a slow simmering begin in her lower stomach at the close proximity to him.

She sighed, deciding to take a stab at humor before he pulled away first and things got awkward.

"My coffee sucks." She murmured into his arm. There was a short pause before he chuckled and loosened his arms, letting her pull free. Was it just her imagination, or were those his fingers brushing softly over her hair as she backed up?

He raised his eyebrows at her and opened her freezer, pulling a plain glass jar out of the side. It was filled with coffee grounds. He turned to the counter to fiddle with the coffee pot as she hoisted herself up to the island's stool she'd vacated a few minutes ago.

"You use a different kind of coffee than I do?" She asked, holding her breath. There was a pause, then he tilted his head to the side before shaking his head. She sighed.

"So you're not talking to me again." She said it as a statement, not a question. She propped her chin in her hand, feeling rejected. To her surprise, he sighed and turned around.

"It's not you, it…it's a surveillance technique." He said, staring right at her. Her eyes widened.

"Oh, my God, you totally just said a full sentence!" She sat up straight, fascinated as the corners of his mouth tilted up. "And, you want to smile right now! You think I'm funny!" She watched as the little tilt turned into a full-blown grin.

"I think you're a head case, is what I think." He shook his head and turned to flip the coffee pot on. He leaned forward and braced his arms on the island, facing her as the pot started to gurgle and hiss. He sighed, his smile suddenly gone.

"It's a surveillance, excuse me, a personal surveillance technique." He repeated.

"Personal Surveillance?"

"Bodyguard." He said, his mouth twitching some more. She put her chin back into her palm, hypnotized by this simple conversation. It seemed so novel, the fact that he answered her questions. He hadn't spoken a single word to her in almost a full week. Until this morning. He'd had to talk to her this morning. And now…now he was still going.

"It's just that for long-term cases, the Agent tends to get more emotionally invested with their charges than they should. The bureau likes to keep distance between its agents and its clients. They encourage us to try and stay as objective as possible, in case…some decisions were to be made."

"What decisions?" She asked. He looked at her squarely, considering.

"Decisions like, if I were to be pulled off your case and replaced. Or if something were to happen to you. Or if there was a situation where I had to choose between myself and you. Or you and the bureau. It just…gets messy." He shook his head. "But, you don't have to worry about those kinds of things, because that would never happen."

"Because you wouldn't let them."

"Exactly."

"Because you're the best."

Harry smiled at her. "That's up for interpretation." He said. Their eyes were still locked, still playing their own little staring game, like always. Ginny sighed.

"So, really it's for my own good, you not talking to me." She said.

"Well that, and, it really, really pisses you off." He smirked at her. She gasped at him.

"I knew it!" She swatted at him, but he ducked out of her reach. Their laughter died down, and he continued his unerring gaze.

"But, it really is mostly for your safety." He said.

"And your safety." She said. He hesitated, but nodded reluctantly. The coffee pot gave a mechanical groan behind him, signaling that the pot was done.

Harry didn't turn away from her until Ginny had nodded her head firmly, signaling that she was ok with his silence. He tipped his head to her and grabbed her mug, replacing the cold brew with his new, hot stuff.

She cradled it in her hands and sniffed it before taking a sip while he filled up his own mug. She moaned.

"How is yours so much better than mine?" she asked as he turned back to face her. "Are you going to tell me your secret?"

His mouth tilted up into a barely-there smile and he brushed his finger down his nose.

No.