He tried to take her hand in his, only for her to pull it away. Harry sighed and led the way to Dumbledore's old office intending to use the pensieve. They passed the great hall; Mrs Weasley was sitting on the edge of the bench staring now at the white sheet that covered Fred. George was curled up laying on his side next to Fred his hand gripping the sheet that covered his brother. Charlie looked up as they passed and gave a stiff nod to acknowledge them passing. Harry let out a breath that he hadn't known he was holding as they started up the stairs.

"How can you show me?" Ginny asked quietly as they made their way through the castle.

"I'm going to use Dumbledore's pensieve and show you everything, including what happened in the forest" he replied.

Harry climbed once more over the fallen gargoyle and led Ginny up the moving spiral staircase, through the door and over to the cabinet where the pensieve resided. He carried it over to the desk and raised his eyes to Dumbledore's portrait who merely nodded in consent. Harry lifted the tip of his wand to his temple as Ginny watched him pull it away several times dropping the memories into the swirling mist. After some time he looked into her eyes and asked,

"Ready?"

Ginny nodded.

"Just lean forward into the pensieve, I'll be right behind you" he instructed. Ginny did as she was told, holding her breath as her face made contact with the swirling mist. She fell into nothingness and landed into Dumbledore's office almost exactly where she had left. The sun was rising casting the room in a warm glow. She stood and watched as the Harry before her destroyed Dumbledore's office as he sat calmly surveying the demolition. Harry landed beside her wincing at his harsh words to Dumbledore. She watched as Dumbledore told him the prophecy was real and exactly what it would entail. She gasped and looked at Harry who simply nodded. The scene in front of her changed. She watched the meetings Dumbledore had had with Harry during his sixth year at school making all the proper sound effects when necessary. When the scene changed in front of her to the cave she grasped Harry's hand, tears sliding down her cheeks as she watched Dumbledore wail in pain; the panic in Harry's eyes as the Inferi made to pull him under the surface of the water.

She watched the murder of Dumbledore on top of the tower.

"I can't believe Snape fucking did that" she snarled watching as Dumbledore's limp body fall from the tower.

"Dumbledore was right. Snape was on our side the entire time. Dumbledore asked him to do it to spare Malfoy; he was dying anyway." said Harry simply. Her eyes narrowed; then comprehension met her features,

"His hand." It wasn't a question.

Harry nodded. As he watched himself tell Ron and Hermione his mission and them telling him that they would join him. She watched everything that had happened to him that year.

She watched the Death Eaters catching them in the cafe on Tottenham Court Road. She saw the break in at the Ministry, then Ron leaving. She walked with Harry and Hermione through Godric's Hollow grasping Harry's arm as fresh tears stung his eyes.

"Voldemort almost caught you!" she exclaimed, her watery eyes on Harry as she watched what happened in Bathilda's house. Harry nodded with his eyes wide as he noted Ginny saying 'Voldemort' rather than 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named'. She observed Ron returning to save Harry from the bottom of the icy pool,

"Oh my!" she gasped watching as the Horcrux Harry and Hermione taunted Ron to tears.

It then moved on to them being captured by the Snatchers and dragged to Malfoy Manor. Ginny stood open mouthed as she watched Draco refuse to admit it was really them. She cried as she saw Luna and Ollivander being rescued and sobbed honestly as Harry dug Dobby's grave; his tears mingling with his sweat as he worked. She then watched each meeting with Griphook and Ollivander.

"I thought the tale of the three brothers was a fairytale" she said confusedly before Harry went on to explain the Peverell brothers and his invisibility cloak.

Ginny's eyebrows disappeared into her hair as she viewed the Gringotts break in. She felt a tug on her arm and then she was swirling through the mist and landed back in Dumbledore's office.

She turned to look at Harry, nothing but shock on her face.

"Okay well now you know..." he said feebly trailing off at the end.

"Well now I know? WELL NOW I KNOW!?" she yelled incredulously. "For fuck sake Harry how could you do all of that as if it was no big deal?" she was shaking.

"I just – I don't..." Ginny trailed off. "You almost died about a million times, how can you be so calm?" she murmured finally finding her voice.

Harry stood and looked at her.

"I dunno...I guess I just knew that I had to do it...I just came to terms with it I suppose. I knew what I had to do in order to destroy Voldemort and I did it knowing I may have died in the process."

Ginny looked at him, eyes glistening with tears, the setting sun dancing off of her beautiful hair.

"Why do you think I broke up with you last year?" he said in barely more than a whisper. "I wanted to give you a chance to move on. If I'd died I wanted you to be able to move forward and find love with someone else; just as much as I didn't want to make you a target."

Ginny raised her hand to touch Harry's cheek; he hissed through his teeth as Ginny traced her fingers over the blue bruises materializing under his eye. She pulled his face towards hers and murmured,

"I'm sorry..." as her lips brushed his.

He pulled away reluctantly and asked her, "Do you want to see what happened in the forest?"

Ginny nodded slowly.

"Okay, I need to explain something before I show you..." Harry started. Harry explained what had happened to him the night he and his family were attacked when he was one years old. Ginny stood open-mouthed as he then explained that the connection had grown stronger when Voldemort had used his blood to resurrect himself.

"So I guess you could say that my scar was a Horcrux...well it wasn't really but I don't really know what else to call It." he finished.

"Okay, I'm ready" she said after a short pause.

Harry took her hand and once more they delved into the depths of the Pensieve.

**

Ron could feel something heavy on his chest. He opened his eyes to find Hermione's head resting there and he noticed that wasn't the problem. He watched her sigh and bury her face deeper into his jumper. The heaviness in his heart intensified as he thought of what Fred would say if he saw him now,

"Well it's about bloody time! If you two took any longer to get together I would have hexed your lips together! Oh great, now we need to see you acting all mushy and romantic; well I guess it makes a nice change from you being a sour faced git."

His lips curled into a sad smile and a lone tear rolled down his cheek. He reached up and wiped it away and felt his skin healing under his hand. Then he recalled Hermione cleaning him up before he went to sleep and noticed that her wounds were still red and angry. He looked around and noticed the washcloth and the bottle of Dittany sitting on his bedside table. He slid from under Hermione and rested her head on the pillow. Then he sat and gently tended to her injuries, constantly checking that he hadn't woke her. When it came to a particularly nasty burn on her thigh he heard her hiss through her teeth in pain. He jumped startled and quickly removed his hand,

"I'm sorry – they just looked really bad – I just wanted to help..." he said really quickly.

"It's okay" she said looking at the worry in his eyes; which lessened. "You don't have to though-,"

"I wanted to," he said cutting her off. "You were looking after me earlier and I never even thought...I'm sorry," he said sincerely.

Hermione was once again lost for words. She had never heard Ron willingly say sorry to her without him mumbling it and staring at his shoes. She had also never seen him look at her that way before; or had she?

She could remember that he had sometimes looked at her that way when they had been studying together in the common room, or when he stole glances at her. She sat up and cupped his face in her hands and kissed him tenderly.

"We can look after each other," she said softly as she pulled away.

Ron pulled her close and buried his head into her bushy hair and let his grief rule him once more.