Ok, I'm really sorry for the disgustingly long wait! Really, really sorry. First I had writer's block, then I was a bit distracted by the endless studying I had to do for the end of the school year. I'll try to never leave you guys hanging this long again. Ok?

Also, I now have a poem to go with this story posted, so if you're interested, you can go read that. It's from Ginny's point of view. I don't have any reviews for it yet, so if you read it, please review!

Chapter 9: Ginny's POV, then Harry's. And just so you know- x x x x x x x means that time has gone by, but the POV is the same.

Numb

---Chapter 9---

"Ginny?" he said again. I still didn't answer him. I just wanted to stay here and never move again. Ever. "Gin, come on, please! Say something! You're scaring me!"

This made me feel bad. I knew what it was like to be scared. I reached one of my hands out and he took hold of it. I held onto his hand as tightly as I could. It felt like if I let go, I would fall into the darkness.

"H-harry?"

"Yes?" His voice sounded closer now. I wanted to tell him to hold me, but I also didn't want him to hold me, because I wasn't sure if I could stand being touched right now. It would have been so much easier just to die then and there.

He put a hand on the side of my face after pulling my own hands away from it and, unexpectedly, it felt nice. "What is it?" he asked softly. His eyes were doing it again. They were reading my soul. It was hard to look away, but after a few seconds, I flung myself forward into his arms because I needed a reason to live right now. I was still crying, but he didn't seem to mind that I was soaking his shirt; after all, it was wet from the rain already.

"I'm sorry..." I tried to say. I wasn't entirely sure it was coherent, but he must have been able to tell what I said.

"Sorry for what?" he asked.

"For...being me."

I felt his arms tighten around me as he said, "Gin, don't ever apologize for that. Do you want to know why I love you? It's because you're you. And I'll always love you for that."

It was hard to convince myself that he was speaking the truth. It was too much. He loved me just because I was me? No...there had to be some other reason... I had to think. Why did I love him? I loved him because... Well, because just I did. He was Harry. How could I not love him?

"I know you don't feel like it right now," he said, "but you're the most wonderful, astounding, breathtaking person I've ever met." His voice sounded nice with the pouring rain in the background. I couldn't believe he actually thought this, but at the same time, I knew he wouldn't lie about it. I didn't know why he felt like this about me, but I knew he did.

Then I heard someone calling us. "Harry! Ginny!" It was Mum. Oh, right. The storm. We probably should have been in the house.

"Come on, Gin. Let's get inside." Harry said, taking my hand and helping me up. We started walking just as Mum called out to us again. "We're coming!" Harry answered. He slipped his arm around my shoulders and looked down at me. I wasn't sure if I was still crying; I couldn't tell because of the rain. When we got inside, though, I knew I must still have been crying, because Mum noticed.

After she was done shouting about how wet we both were, she looked at my face, came closer to me, and asked what was wrong.

"I'm fine."

"You're crying."

"So?"

"So obviously you're not fine, Ginny."

"Yes I am."

"No, you're not."

"Well maybe if everyone treated me like I wasn't some dark creature I would be fine! But whenever I come downstairs everybody just stares at me! Harry's the only person who treats my like I'm still me!" I knew this wasn't why I'd been crying in the first place, but it was still something to yell about. "If you all think I'm contaminated, why don't you just tell me to leave?"

"Ginny..." said my mother, pulling me into a tight hug, "We don't think you're contaminated at all. It's just that nobody's sure what you want. Are we supposed to leave you alone, or do you want to talk about it? We can't just act like nothing happened."

Now I was crying on her shoulder, sobbing my heart out for the millionth time. "I just w-want to forget it all." I said.

I wasn't sure exactly what to do. Ginny was crying again, but Mrs.Weasley was there for her now. I stayed for a few minutes before withdrawing from the room. What was I supposed to do, anyway? It was all so confusing.

One thing I knew, though, was that I hated Lucius Malfoy for everything he'd done. It was all his fault that Ginny was so upset. It was his fault everything hade gone completely to pieces. His fault.

But...

It was my fault Ginny was crying right now. I was the one who kissed her; I shouldn't have been so stupid. I should have known something like this would happen.

All my fault.

x x x x x x x

"Harry?"

I looked up at the closed door and knew who was behind it.

"Hm?" I asked, looking back down at the floor. There were random discarded objects all over Ron's floor, so it wasn't as if it was uninteresting.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Okay." I heard Ginny open the door and walk over.

"Harry... I'm really sorry about earlier. I thought I'd be okay to just, you know...kiss you. I guess not."

"Gin, you don't have to apologize to me, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is. I shouldn't have kissed you."

"No, you're not to be blamed for anything. It wasn't anyone's fault except..." I stopped, unsure of whether I wanted to say me or Malfoy. And I wasn't sure she ever wanted to hear anything about Malfoy ever again.

"It's... It's Voldemort's fault, Harry." I looked up, surprised. "If he hadn't been so evil...the people who became the Death Eaters wouldn't have been such horrible, messed up people and Malfoy wouldn't have..." For a moment she looked haunted, so I took her hands in mine. She opened her mouth to say something, but right before she did, the door opened and Ron walked in.

He saw the two of us and blushed. "Er...maybe I'll just...go." he said, starting to back out of the room.

"No, I'll just talk to Harry later, it's fine." said Ginny. She turned around and walked out.

There was an awkward silence after she shut the door.

"Sorry about that, mate. I didn't expect you two to be in here."

"It's fine." I answered, falling back onto my pillow.

"How's she been doing, anyway?"

"She's... I don't know. She's trying to get over it... I think she's getting better, but I don't really know if she'll ever be back to normal."

"She'd better get back to normal, because if she doesn't, I might kill somebody."

R E V I E W !