CHAPTER TEN A SOLEMN EVENING

The atmosphere was a lot heavier that evening then Ginny had hoped it would be once the house was filled. Dinner tucked in and tea cups poured, everyone sat around the drawing room, speaking somberly and trying to keep their thoughts in the room instead of up the stairs with Harry. Hermione and Ron were barely on speaking terms and sitting in the corner having a warmed conversation just under earshot. Draco sat trapped in a corner by the twin wonders as they discussed the benefits of going International with Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in America, as Americans seemed to buy anything as long as it was remotely funny. He tried to give them business advice but he was distracted by the looks of desperation being shot at him from under Ron's arm by Hermione. She had the look of a criminal that had been on the run for years before being cornered into a confession. He sat down the letter he had been trying to read for over an hour now. Since he had come down from the bedroom he had had several correspondences and had seemed particularly interested in this one before he had been interrupted. Crookshanks ran across the top of the couch and Draco reached up with one hand and pulled him down roughly in his lap. He needed something to occupy his energy even though he wasn't fond of the decrepit old fur ball, and a low growl from Crookshanks showed that he wasn't found of Draco either.

Ginny and Luna stood near the doorway but Ginny wasn't really listening to whatever Luna was on about. She was talking about coming across a teacup in the room and, just curious, had peeked inside at the soggy leaves to see a troubled relationship that was in need of attention. She saw death in the cup but wasn't sure how it fit in as the troubled couple didn't kill each other. Ginny nodded when she thought it was appropriate, but only to distract Luna from her constant glances up the staircase. She had suddenly developed a very weak bladder as she was constantly needing to go upstairs. She excused herself once again to check on Harry as Luna noticed that both Hermione and Ginny were the only ones not still holding their cup, but hadn't quite made it through the doorway when she heard a throat being cleared across the room.

"He's fine, Ginny. Let him sleep." Draco had suddenly claimed head of household and she was forced to pick up her hand and flip him off before leaving the room. He smiled as he watched her leave knowing that she was stronger then he had given her credit for.

If things had been tense between Ron and Hermione an hour before, they were getting tighter by the second. Ron had been getting eaten alive for nearly a month now after he had been seen hugging Lavender Brown goodbye at the train station. She had been getting on a train as he was getting off and she had run up to ask him how he was and hugged him goodbye but by the time it had gotten to Hermione, they had been fucking each other on the platform. Nothing he said could convince Hermione that he had no lingering feelings for Lavender, and in fact had not even missed her since their sixth year. There had never been and never would be feelings for her as she had just been a way to get to Hermione in the first place, but she wasn't hearing it. She was convinced now that every time he saw a woman in the street he was mentally undressing her. Any woman that even looked his way was flirting with him, and he was not only enjoying it, but returning the flirt. But last week he had found a life raft in the form of a letter from Viktor that Hermione had kept from school. She claimed that she had just forgotten that it was in her trunk, but he noticed that it had been moved not to the garbage, but to her scrapbook a couple of days later. "It's a memory from school. Get over it," was repeated by both parties over and over, add nausea. The battle had been raging for weeks on again ,off again, but it hadn't been mentioned today until Hermione had been telling Ron the plan with Draco. She had let slip while telling him about his former relationship with Ginny that she had also gone out with him. While he had made a mental note to ask Ginny if she had been retarded sometime in her life, now there was one more pawn for Ron to use and he shot a look of despise across the room at one of the men that had tried to pluck his flower.

"Why didn't you tell me that you and Draco used to date before we got married?" Ron was glad that the attention was shifted from his fight, but knew that he wouldn't be in the lead for long.

"There is a huge difference between dating someone and going on a date with someone, Ron." Hermione was exasperated. She really didn't want to discuss this here. "Are you saying that you wouldn't have married me if you knew Draco and I had spent a day or two in Hogsmeade? Well, I guess I don't have to wonder how shallow your pool is, Mr. Weasley. God Ron, are we still in school? Can't you just grow up and stop acting like he's eye humping me right here in the living room"

"Like you're one to talk about overreacting! I have a legitimate reason to distrust Malfoy now, but a perfect stranger in a shopping mall? Oh she's trying to get me to sleep with her! How do I know that there's still not something between the two of you now, huh? That after we're finished here that you won't run off to the comforting arms of your former lover? I don't like the idea of the two of you sleeping under the same roof now. We're keeping the bedroom door locked from now on just in case Mr. Malfoy gets any funny ideas. See? It's not so fun to be accused of something that you're not even thinking now is it?"

She tried to get up to leave, but he wasn't quiet done and from where she sat she could see that he was winning. She couldn't have that. Quickly scanning for a fatal blow she came across the bruise on Ginny's face and knew where to hit him next. "You know the reason that Ginny and Harry started to fight, Ron? He hadn't had sex with her for nearly a month and she was frustrated with him." Ron cringed at the visual he had just been force fed of his little sister cowgirl riding his best friend. "Look where that's gotten him. Nearly dead. Struggling for life. All because he couldn't respect his woman enough to be there for her when she needed him. How long has it been for us now, Ron? Coincidence?" She left him dumbstruck in the corner as she crossed over to try to get to Draco but she was cut off by Luna carrying an empty teacup.

"Hermione, is this your cup, dear?" Hermione shrugged her shoulders as she looked around, trying to locate her cup. "I hope not. It's tragic. Death, love, hate, pain...of course it would make a great romance novel." Hermione laughed as Luna crossed to try to talk Draco into letting her read his leaves, which he was not having. The twins jumped at the opportunity at knowing their next fiscal year and held up theirs one at a time. Luna lost herself in them and looked as if she was talking into a muggle walkie-talkie as if trying to convince the leaves that they must be mistaken that the building would learn to polka.

Ginny could barely see over the top of the stairs when she realized that she wasn't the only one in the hall. Sitting with his back against the doorway to Sirius's bedroom was a very pale Harry, glasses off and eyes closed, looking as though he was waiting admittance to join the portraits in their tomb. She ran up the stairs and knelt down next to him, recieving only a very small shudder to acknowledge her arrival.

"Harry? What are you doing out of bed? We've got to get you back. Come on, now." She placed an arm under each of his and tried to pull him up, but his body was limp and his head rolled to his shoulder roughly, knocking hard against the door frame. His eyes snapped open and looked up over Ginny's shoulder, not seeing her. She could see that his eyes were blood shot and glazed over. Even with his eyes now open but unfixed, he looked as if he had been dead for hours. She looked closely to make sure that he was even breathing and saw that he was, although shallow, breathing steady. Ginny's heart began to race as she was hit with a horrible feeling of deja vu. She saw her parent's faces look just like this at one time. The next time that she had seen them, their eyes had been forced closed and they lay side by side in the same coffin that would forever keep them comfortable in their rest. She felt as if she were being strangled and couldn't call out for the help that she so desperately wanted.

A muffled voice sounded from behind the closed doorway and brought a bubble of hope to Ginny's churning stomach. "Who comes pounding so loudly at my door, hmm? The polite thing to do for waking someone so rudely would be to come in for a visit." Ginny stood to think what the consequence of going into the bedroom now would be, especially dragging Harry in without his permission, but Professor Dumbledore was just through this door and it was rather rude of them to wake him.

"I'm sure some day you'll forgive me for this." She said softly to Harry before brushing a kiss onto his forhead and placing a hand on the rusted doorknob above his head. Taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as if she was about to dive into a pool, she flung open the door, flinging Harry backwards into the room.

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Chapter 11 Teaser

For the first time since Harry had entered the room, the conversation finally carried far enough across the room that it was overheard by the farthest corner where the Potters' resided. At the mention of Harry's name, both Lily and James perked up from their slumber and tried to cross into the already crowded Weasley portraits.

"Harry's here?"

"What's this about him being hurt now?"