CHAPTER EIGHT HARRY'S WORST NIGHTMARE
This chapter contains extremely graphic self-mutilation. You have been warned. There is also a scene of assult at the end of this chapter.
If the day had been long, the night was longer. With Ginny gone the bed seemed uninviting. He often rolled over, expecting to find her there, only to be disappointed. He didn't even remember falling asleep but shortly he would be praying that it was nothing more then a dream.
"Ginny? Are you here?" Harry called out into the dark pitch of the hallways as he wandered the house looking for his love. He turned the corner and believed he had seen her but realized suddenly that it was just the dismembered head of a house elf, long since past. As his thoughts wondered if it was a fruitless venture he rounded a corner towards the one room he couldn't imagine her being in. But there was the proof, a single sliver of silvery light crept across the neglected carpets and hit Harry's shoes as if lighting the path for him to walk. His mind raced immediatly to rage as he realized it was the only place she could be and should have the respect to NEVER be. Not in Sirius's bedroom. She knew how he felt about anyone disturbing the dust of the ghosts in that room. It was not right, and she had known and respected how he felt about it.
He marched up to the door, ready to fling it open and demand an explination for her disrespect, when he caught a glimpse of something shimmering in the light under the door. A very distinct red seeping into the carpet in front of the doorway made his heart jump into his throat. He had seen too much of that cursed liquid to fill a life time. He stopped breathing as he slightly pushed on the door to reveal a sight that nearly killed him instantly.
"LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME!" Ginny screamed as the light glinted from the bloody razor held tightly in her right hand. Her left wrist weeping blood into pools at her feet. The tendons were exposed and a chunk of pink stained bone was sticking out of her shredded tissue. Ginny crossed the room in one swift motion and grabbed Harry by the forearm tightly, pooling blood into his open palm. She stumbled to the floor, pulling him down until he was kneeling in her lifestream. There she knelt on his arm, pinning his wrist, palm up.
"All I wanted was for you to feel something for me. Damn it Potter, I LOVED you. I needed you to love me. And you couldn't feel a thing for me. Well, tell me fucker, can you feel THIS?" She swiped suddenly down and hard across his wrist tearing the flesh apart as the razor drank of his blood. He screamed out in pain...no, fear....perhaps both, until he realized that his voice was coming out weaker. His vision blurred as his limp body hit the floor next to the seizing body of his love. The last sight he had was of her eyes as they sunk into her cold grey form, a look of pure loathing fixed directly into his own.
He sat bolt upright in bed, drenched in blood, no it was only sweat, and began screaming. Down the hall, Ginny jumped clear off the bed and grabbed her wand off the side table. He jumped off the bed and ran directly to the door, fumbling with the door knob. The sweat from his hands made it impossible to get a proper grip on the knob. He screamed again in frustration as he flung his arm back and balled his aching hand into a fist. He felt the light touch of someones fingertips brush his fist and heard his name screamed out as he swung forward into the wall. The bones in the center of his hand buckled under the sudden pressure and his wrist bent too far down. He felt the tendons pull and the skin on his knuckles rip open. He collapsed into a ball in the corner, afraid to look Ginny in the eyes in case they showed that same look of disdain. As Ginny watched, the man that she loved screamed out tears of pain, humiliation, and defeat into his swelling hands underneath the blood filled dent in the wall.
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It was mid-afternoon when Harry finally decided to join the voices downstairs. He hadn't dared to sleep after that, and Ginny had gone down hours ago to prepare for her company. He rubbed his eyes warily as he replaced his glasses to see the stairs that he was walking down. Many people had gathered in the kitchen and their voices flowed cheerily through the halls. The house seemed warmer and lighter than Harry had remembered it being in years. The smell of steak and potatoes filled Harry's nose and the night before was lost in the trecele tart steaming from the kitchen for just a moment. As Harry was guided by unseen hands into the kitchen, he came upon the one face that could make him question if he was having another nightmare.
"Sleep well, fuck face?" Came a drawl from under a mop of platinum blonde. Draco Malfoy was sitting at Harry's table, sitting between Ginny and Hermione with his feet up on the fourth chair, swigging a bottle of warmed butterbeer. "Seems no one around here slept well last night," he said as he took another drink before slamming the bottle down on the table and standing to tower over Harry. "They tell me that someone had a pure shit-fit at two in the morning. What's the matter, Potter? Dementors find you again?" He sneered as he loomed over him. He had grown even since school and was easily four inches taller.
"What are you doing here?" Harry looked around to Ginny for an answer. "What is he doing here?"
"Now, now, Potter. I've been given a formal invitation to this little school reunion." He held up a letter that had obviously been carried by an owl. "Your lovely girlfriend here..."
"She's my fiancee, Malfoy." Ginny looked over Draco's shoulder to see Harry's face, hoping that there would be a flicker of jealously there, but what she did see both alarmed and confused her. There was no jealousy in those eyes, but a glimmer of something she wasn't sure that she saw and she thought she would have to wait much longer to see.
"Really?" Draco looked back over at Ginny as well. He picked up an apple from off the table. "Not bad, Potter. At least now we know you're not gay." He smiled wickedly as he took a bite of the apple before walking out of the kitchen.
Harry looked incredulously around the table, taking in the faces of Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, seeking for an answer as to what the fuck was going on. "Malfoy. What is Malfoy doing here?"
Ginny stood up and crossed the room towards Harry. "I told you we where having some friends from school over." She said as she took his hand in hers to examine the damage. She looked up into his eyes with a look of grimace on her face from the deep black bruise that covered his knuckles. "Do you need some help to take care of this?" She asked more queitly as to not draw attention to it.
Harry tried to not pull away as a sharp pain shot up his arm at her slight touch. He looked down into her eyes and burrowed straight through them into her soul, searching for more of an answer to his question. "Ginny, what is he doing here?" This time he asked with more concern then anger and she found his tone impossible to resist.
"I invited him over, Harry. Not many people are left from school. I got in touch with Fred and George and they've just replied that they'll be here this evening. Luna Lovegood, you remember her, she's coming in tonight as well. Ron and Hermione are here of course, but that's the last of them. I couldn't even get through to Neville Longbottom, Seamus has joined his mother working with the wizard embassy over in Ireland and he can't make it out, Dean is busy at St. Mungo's where he says they can't wait for you to start." With this last bit she gave him a look of questioning as she had seen him leave for work just yesterday. He couldn't meet her eyes and looked down at the floor at this remark. "So I thought, just to fill the house, I would send owls out to anyone that we knew and see who responded. He may not have been a friend then, Harry, but he did help us in the final battles and he's shown up now. He must want to be friends now, right?"
Harry looked at Ginny and questioned her sanity. Malfoy. Draco Malfoy a friend? True, he had helped out tremendously with the final battle. Is it true? Harry scanned his mind for whatever Draco had done that was such a help, and was hit with a blinding flash of green light. His head began to sear with pain and he grabbed at his scar, something he hadn't been forced to do for years.
"Harry?" He heard three sets of voices call out for him, but he couldn't focus on any of their faces. The next thing he knew he was looking up at Ginny from the floor, her head surrounded by screams and burning flames as structures failed all around them. He blinked again harder and she was holding his head in her hands, gently rubbing the sides of his head.
"God, Potter. Just pass out at the drop of a hat anymore, do you? Good thing our lives don't depend on you anymore, huh?" Malfoy had returned to the kitchen and Harry must have been out for quite a bit, as Luna was now taking in the scene from over by the table as well.
"I've heard of this," Luna's whispered voice came from the corner "the muggles call it "post-traumatic stress disorder". I think the pressure has finally gotten to you, Harry."
"What pressure?" Ron laughed. "There's nothing to even worry about anymore, mate. Battling Ginny can't be nearly as tough as Vol- Damn. Well, You- Know -Who anyways. Even though she is pretty scary."
Ginny threw a look of disgust at her brother. "This happens a lot, Ron, and for your information it has nothing to do with me."
"And honestly Ronald, it's been six years. You should at least be able to say 'Voldemort' without choking on your tongue." Hermione scolded.
"Like Harry's ever been right on anyway. I think that the battles just finished off an already feeble structure. Perhaps it's time to send Harry away. I hear they have great straight jackets in the closed ward at St. Mungo's." Draco began to laugh and Harry was not terribly surprised to hear a few other chuckles join him. He was suddenly embarrassed and wanted nothing more then to get up the stairs back to the dark of his room. Ginny saw this in his face and immediatly intervened.
"Draco, that's enough. Why don't you come help me carry in the trays to the dinning room. Luna, if you could go see if Fred and Geoge have arrived. Harry, get yourself a cup of tea and fix me one while you're at it." She gave Draco a sharp look that conveyed that he was supposed to follow her and a second, just as sharp look, to Harry that told him to not dare and come after them. He had no intention of following them into the other room, as this now gave him some alone time with Ron and Hermione.
He pulled himself up onto the bench and looked around at his two closest friends, trying to make eye contact. Hermione looked firmly at Harry before turning away to face the other wall. "Hermione, I need to talk to you. You don't have to listen, but there are two sides to this story." Hermione was unmoved and she began to stand to join Ginny and Draco in the dinning room. "Please, Hermione. Just hear me out and then you can decide if you're going to condemn me. I have to tell someone what happened last night, and I'm...scared." He noticed a bit of a twitch, but she still wouldn't look over the table at him.
"What is it, mate?" Ron asked, and Harry looked up into his friends eyes knowing that it might be the last time he saw concern in them.
"I had a nightmare about Ginny last night." Harry started.
"That she left you? I don't think it was just a dream, Harry. I think it was prophecy." Hermione said coldly.
"Why would she leave you, Harry? I'm sure that you two can work this out, whatever it is." The words stung Harry as he realized that Ron still hadn't caught on.
"You could say that she left me. In my dream, I had to watch Ginny slit her own wrists and bleed to death over me. I saw her spirit leave her body, because I couldn't love her. Then she slit my wrists so that I would feel something for her, even if it was only pain. I'm scared, Hermione. What if it really is prophecy. Like the last time. What if her thoughts are getting into my mind and this is something she really wants to do? What if I'm killing her? I know it can't be easy, but I never thought it was this bad. She won't talk to me."
"No Harry, she CAN'T talk to you." Hermione had finally turned to look into Harry's eyes. Her face was softer then it had been previously and she looked almost nauseated at the hatred that she had been holding onto for him. "She's afraid to talk to you. Look what it got her last time."
Harry grimaced at this remark. "You know I would never hurt her. Not on purpose. You know that right?" He looked around at the two and saw that while Hermione's face had changed to concern, Ron was quickly beginning to catch on. He was grinding his knuckles into his hands and Harry saw a definite spark in his eyes.
"What did you do to my little sister, Harry?" Ron said as he closed the gap between the two. Harry stood up to prepare himself for the inevitable, and realized how much taller everyone else seemed to be today. He pulled himself up to his full height, still dwarfed by Ron's gangly form, and looked him square in the face.
"Ron, two nights ago your sister and I had a bit of a fight. I lost control and I..."
Harry barely saw the pieces fall together in Ron's eyes before Harry felt Ron's fist crack into the side of his head. The kitchen blinked in and out of focus as blow after blow came down on his head. He never once put up a defensive hand or hit back, he just lay on the floor accepting his dues. Ron's fists, becoming tired, gave way to his shoes, and Harry felt a rib crack as his side was kicked in repeatedly.
Hermione sat stunned at the table for nearly five minutes watching the brutel display of testosterone going on before her. Ron's shirt was splatered with blood from both Harry and himself and there didn't seem to be any hesitance in throwing another punch. She felt guilty as part of her mind told her that Harry was only getting what he deserved. She noticed that Harry, while he had never put up any kind of fight, was barely breathing any more under the weight of Ron's trainers. She couldn't just let Ron kill him, could she? Wouldn't that be what was best for Ginny? She thought over the conversation she had with Ginny and the love she still saw deep in those eyes, and the fear she had seen as Harry told her of watching what he had brought Ginny to do and she was suddenly motivated to put a stop to this. She had barely stood, yelling to Ron trying to get him to calm, when the noise of Ron hitting Harry's head against the stone floor brought everyone from their previous duties. Ginny and Draco crossed into the room and Fred, George, and Luna filled the doorway, all with shocked expressions. Screams of "Ron stop!" filled the air in all different tones. Fred and George rushed in and grabbed Ron physically up off of a shaking Harry.
"Let me go. I'll fucking kill him. That bastered. She trusted you. We all trusted you. You'll die." Ron screamed any sentence fragment that could get past his pursed lips and gritted teeth.
"Ron, what have you done?" Ginny screamed as she grabbed a chunk of her hair into her hands.
"Harry told Ron, well, started to tell Ron about what he did to you and Ron just lost it." Hermione said through tears.
Fred and George turned in unison, still holding onto Ron as he struggled to get back at Harry. "What did he do to you Gin?" Came their voices in stereo.
"That mother fucking pussy hit her. He fucking beat up our little sister." Ron was in hysterics now and was shortly joined by two others as now three sets of fists pounded into the bleeding lump that resembled Harry.
"Immobulous." The three froze as Draco, who had gotten to his wand quickest, aimed it directly into the center of the carnage. "Leave them like that until they calm down. Don't let them leave this kitchen until they promise not to murder Potter. Ginny," He waved his wand and Harry levitated limp bodied in the air, "show me where your room is. I think he'll need some medical attention. Luna, mix up some essance of murtlap and Granger help her with a blood-restoration potion." Everyone stood frozen as if they had all been hit by Draco's spell, wondering what had made him care all of a sudden. "You know, if you don't move there will be more than one way to kill Potter. Go!"
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Chapter 9 Teaser
"Well, after seeing what Ron's done, I think that he might have been punished enough." Ginny dropped her voice, hoping that Harry's coma was so deep that he wouldn't hear that she had treasoned against him.
"This? You think this is enough? Well I might say that it's punishment for what he did to you. An eye for an eye, eh? But I didn't think that you where out to punish him. I thought your whole plan was purely to redeem him."