Huge apologise for taking so long with this chapter, I do have the next one almost ready to post. Hope this one is okay first!

Chapter 27 – I Need You

Days blended into weeks, weeks blended into months, life at Hogwarts was returning to normal. Well as normal as life could be, considering. Professor Snape had made a full recovery after escaping Lucius Malfoy when saving Harry and Ginny, he had hid out in the forest surrounding the castle as the Death Eater had searched for him and when the coast was clear. He bolted to the point for apparating, weak from lack of food and water, the injuries he'd received through his duel with Malfoy weren't major and he had made a quick recovery.

Harry's relationship with the potions master had changed into something different, nothing remotely close to friendly but tolerant and understanding. This had been very off putting at first but now was becoming normal. However, Ginny hadn't interacted with the professor herself, but she rarely interacted with anybody.

Molly Weasley had become increasingly distressed when she couldn't comfort her daughter. Every time she tried to talk to her or hug her, Ginny would curl back on herself. It worried her even more that her once strong willed daughter couldn't bear to talk to anyone, even Harry. They had been through so much together even before the kidnapping; they had been each other's rock, each other's support. But now everything had changed, Ginny was a shell of the girl that once existed, and Molly felt useless and worthless not being able to help her.

So each day Ginny re-enacted the same routine, she would get up exhausted from the nights nightmares, she'd wash and get dressed. Placing her facial features into a mask for the day as she left for the great hall. There she'd drink coffee and play with the little amount of food she had selected for breakfast, rarely taking anything to her mouth, as the taste never reached her.

Her friends looked on in complete horror as they watched her doing this to herself. Harry always walked her to her first class of the day, but the walk was always silent with heads down, they only briefly touched each other when departing. He would always reach for her hand giving it a little squeeze, and that was it, nothing more.

Harry had tried many times to talk to her about what had happened to them but the memories were too painful to revisit or talk about. So they continued to keep everything bottled up as they went through their daily routine of school life.

Their last days they spent in the hospital wing Madam Pomfrey had spoken with Harry about Ginny's injuries and traumer she had suffered, and Harry had confirmed the nurses suspisions that she had been raped. To make sure nothing else caused further suffering she administered a potion that would prevent any unwanted pregnancy.

A month later nothing had changed, Ginny barely let Harry touch her, which he totally understood, but the embrace from when she had just woken up from being unconscious seemed to be a distant memory. He was lucky if she let him hold her hand apart from the squeeze he gave her each morning. Every time he tried to gently hug her or any sort of contact she'd flinch away from him, making an excuse to move away from him. Each time this happened Harry could feel another piece of his heart crumbling.

After Ginny had been discharged from the hospital wing, every night, without fail, her dreams assaulted her. Harry had gone down to the common room each time her scream echoed through his own nightmares to find it empty and on the occasions he had gone into her bedroom to see if she was okay she'd sent him away with an "I'm fine!"

But Harry knew she wasn't fine as night after night the screaming continued to echo through his head. The routine they had had for years to comfort each other was gone and it only added to their suffering.

As the warm weather began to disappear, making way for the cold, Harry had never felt so lost in all his life. He'd found a new home with Ginny, found the love of his life, someone to hold, someone to trust completely, and someone that was truly the start of his family. And now his life was a mess again.

Voldemort may not have succeeded in killing him, but this pain was even worse than dying. Every day he watched Ginny plaster a fake smile upon her face, a mask hiding the pain she was still suffering from. Every day he watched the feistiness evaporate from her, he watched her soul dying into darkness. She was fading away and he longed to hold her again, longed to take the pain away.

Harry and Professor Snape had to recount what had happened when they had been captured to the order because Ginny had point blank refused. Next to the kidnapping it was one of the hardest things he had had to do, being in the headmaster's office with members of the order along with members from the Weasley family. Severus had tried to relieve Harry of having to explain certain parts that were particularly painful for him to recount and for that, Harry was grateful.

Flashback

Harry sat in Dumbledore's office still baring the wounds and bruising covering his body. His ribs had been strapped with dressings trying to keep them from moving too much. But that was doing compared to everything else, slowly members of the order joined him. Remus and Tonks came into the room laying a hand gently on Harry's shoulder before taking their seats, Moody soon followed along with Bill and Arthur Weasley who immediately came over to Harry embracing him gently.

"I know it's hard." He sniffed, "But please don't blame yourself Harry, nobody blames you for what happened!"

"Sir..." Harry muttered, barely keeping himself together.

"And you can stop it with the 'sirs', please call me Arthur," he spoke swallowing hard trying to rid the lump that had formed.

Harry had nodded taking a deep breath trying to calm himself down. Then the headmaster, Professor McGonagall and Severus Snape had entered promptly taking their positions with an air of sadness about the suffering they needed to discuss.

Dumbledore then stood addressing the group quickly before continuing, "You all know why we're here and we all know how difficult this is going to be," he breathed looking down. "So let's get this over with, Harry can you tell us how you got kidnapped."

Harry slowly nodded, "The four of us had gone out flying after Professor Dumbledore had left the Burrow, Ron and Hermione went off on their own and Ginny and I started racing through the forest." Taking a deep breath he continued, "She then jumped off her broom, running through the forest and I went after her. I got so far and couldn't see her, I thought she was just hiding from me and I started shouting for her."

Harry then squeezed his eyes shut running his hands over his face as the picture in his head of Ginny being first captured appeared, if somehow they'd getting away then, they could have escaped what had happened.

"Harry?" Remus spoke softly as he laid his hand again on his shoulder.

"I'm okay," he nodded taking another deep breath, "I then heard her scream behind me, I turned round and a death eater had hold of her."

Harry continued recounting everything from Lucius Malfoy to the fight and how they arrived at the castle. "They put us in different cells and I didn't see her till that night...that...that..."

"Its okay we'll come to that in a minute." reassured the headmaster.

"But I could hear her screaming! I don't know what they were doing to her...she can't talk...she can't tell me!

Professor Dumbledore nodded understanding Harry's predicament and how hard it was for him, giving him time to recover and Severus filled the order in. Telling him about Voldemort calling him to the gathering, he began telling the group what had happened during the gathering. By this point Harry's head was buried in hands unable to control his emotions anymore, Snape found it difficult to recount the events himself but continued to the best of his knowledge.

Snape continued, "She lost consciousness before the end...and when Malfoy moved away from her...then they released Harry...and..."

"I held her." Harry spluttered keeping his head in his hands, "She was so limp...and lifeless, I couldn't handle it anymore... I lost it..." He continued sobbing, "I hate them...I wanted to kill him, I still do but they didn't let me get far."

Severus continued, "Soon as he moved, Voldemort held the crutiatus curse on him until he could barely life his head up."

Eventually the meeting was over after revealing how they had escaped, the whole room sat stock still in shock. Tonk's had broken down, tears rolled down her cheeks as Remus tried to comfort her.

Arthur had sat with his head in his hands for most of the meeting listening to the horrors of what his daughter had been through. The guilt stabbed Harry's aching heart harder knowing that it was his fault that this had happened. It didn't matter what Arthur had said to him, he knew the blame lay with him.

End of flashback

But Harry needed her more than he needed anything in his life, and here he stood a month later suffering more than he ever had in his life.

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