A/N: I own nothing. A big thanks to stella8h8chang, my awesome beta. If you want to read a brilliant Albus/Gellert story, please check out her Time Loves to Fly: Tempus Amat Volare. Link in my favorites. It's a WIP, but the way she writes young Albus and young Gellert is phenomenal! And thanks to one of my favorite authors JJ Rust, for spotting a couple of typos as it was originally posted. His eagle eye is much appreciated.

Luna's "British Muggle leader" that she quotes is Winston Churchill (according to a quick Google search). I could not find a source, but if others know more about it, don't hesitate to let me know! Thank you so much.


Chapter 21: Ginny's Dreams

It was early Monday afternoon.

Ginny ran down the corridor, her footsteps pounding with each heartbeat.

(Hold it in . . . hold it in . . . hold it in . . .)

She wanted to cry, but she didn't.

She wanted to throw things, but there was nothing to throw.

She wanted answers, so she went to the one other place besides the Hospital Wing that was sure to have them.

McGonagall's office.

The Headmistress was sure to be in her office by now, after having rushed to the Hospital Wing to find out what happened with Neville in that morning's Dark Arts' class. Ginny had already absorbed as much as she could from Lavender and Parvati. Seamus had come down to lunch, with Blaise Zabini following him. Seamus had mentioned that Neville had come to, but was sleeping when he left, and Pomfrey had given express orders to not disturb him.

"Ginny! Wait!"

Ginny stopped and turned. Luna Lovegood walked, without her usual dreamy gaze, to meet up with her. "Are you going to see Professor McGonagall?"

"Yeah. I want to know what the hell is going on."

Luna nodded. "This is not so good, is it?"

Ginny shook her head. "It's awful." She pointed toward the direction of the Head of Gryffindor's office. "You want to come along?"

"Only if you don't think I'll be in the way."

"You'll be fine," Ginny said hurriedly. She beckoned Luna with her arm. "Come on."

They continued quickly, onto their destination and arrived at the door. Ginny rapped on it hard, making the whole thing shake with her powerful knocking.

A couple of moments passed—

The girls stepped back when they heard the door open. Standing before them was the imposing figure of their older Scottish Transfiguration teacher. Ginny noted that her eyes were positively on fire, and strands of grey hair were flying this way and that, as if she had been running all morning long.

"Miss Weasley. Miss Lovegood." McGonagall said quietly. She stepped out of the doorway and checked both directions of the hall.

"Do you have questions about that latest Transfiguration assignment?" McGonagall lowered her head and looked at the two girls in a manner that told Ginny to just nod, which she did, as did Luna. Seeing the coast was clear, McGonagall gave two inconspicuous nods to both girls, indicating they could come into her office. Ginny stepped forward, and heard McGonagall shut the door behind Luna. Then, she heard the soft sound of a girl sobbing.

"This way, girls."

McGonagall led them to a corner of her office, directly in front of the fireplace that Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry had traveled through last Christmas. A set of plush chairs were placed near the fireplace, and a table held a tray of sandwiches, chocolates, biscuits and pasties. A steaming pot had been charmed and was already pouring two more cups of tea; cubes of sugar and cream magically dispensed into each cup.

McGonagall gestured for Ginny and Luna to take a seat, which they did. The keening and crying sounds were right next to Ginny, and she looked over to the chair just to her right.

She saw Daphne Greengrass, sitting in a longer loveseat, sobbing huge tears, water trailing down her cheeks and soaking into her robes.

"Daphne?"

"Oh Merlin!" Daphne exclaimed. Ginny wasn't sure if she had even heard or seen her and Luna come in. She gasped in between each word, trying to catch her breath through her tears. "He hurt him . . . he told me to do it . . . I just wanted to sting him . . . he hurt him so bad . . . he could've died . . . he could've died. . . . " Her voice trailed off to a small, pathetic squeak.

Ginny watched as McGonagall sat beside the Slytherin girl and, in a move surprising from the old witch, she put her arm around Daphne, and gave her a kind squeeze.

"Daphne," McGonagall said, softly, but looking at both Ginny and Luna, "why don't you take a sip of your tea, dear?"

"He could've died . . . he could've died . . ."

Ginny watched as Daphne rocked back and forth, and repeated the same phrase over in that tiny, sad voice. She felt her heart breaking for her.

Over, and over, Daphne couldn't stop saying those words.

McGonagall pointed her wand at the crying girl and, with the most gentle, rolling brogue that Ginny had ever heard from her, uttered, "Lux Lucis Somnus."

And Ginny flinched a bit as Daphne shut her eyes and slumped into the arm of the chair, snoring quietly.

"It is unfortunate," McGonagall said quietly, putting her wand down on the table in front of her, "but Miss Greengrass is in too much shock to drink her tea, which had a Calming Draught in it. And with Madam Pomfrey attending to Mister Longbottom, I don't want to make things worse for her by forcing her to go the Hospital Wing." McGonagall pulled a tartan blanket over the girl's shoulders. "I'll allow her to sleep as long as she needs and to compose herself before taking over her Head Girl duties tonight." Turning to Luna and Ginny, she drew her lips together, puckering them as if sucking on a lemon. "I suppose the both of you are here about what happened in the seventh year Dark Arts class?"

Ginny nodded, looking at McGonagall straight on. "Carrow Crucioed Neville." She could feel her anger surfacing, and looking at McGonagall, Ginny thought that the Transfigurations professor was about to burst.

"Mister Carrow," McGonagall practically spat and huffed out a tremendous breath of air, "I can only hope, that in the next life, there's a place in which Mister Carrow will experience every bit of what he caused today for an eternity."

Ginny and Luna looked at each other. Even though Ginny was sure both of them agreed with the professor's sentiment, hearing it verbalized was rather shocking for them.

McGonagall looked over at the slumbering, snoring Slytherin. "Miss Greengrass went to the Hospital Wing to check about Mister Longbottom, but was in such a state, that Mister Zabini — quite a surprise, I assure you — brought her to my office and asked if I could talk to her." The Scotsworman shook her head. "The poor girl couldn't stop crying. She wouldn't stop blaming herself about Mister Longbottom. And she's been this way since Mister Zabini left, barely even ten minutes before the two of you showed up." McGonagall nodded to Ginny. "I've already notified your parents, Miss Weasley. I've let them know that I'm watching out for Miss Greengrass."

Ginny was still trying to wrap her head around Daphne's reaction to the class.

"Professor, Carrow forced her to curse Neville. From what everyone's said, it wasn't Daphne's fault! She cast the spell, trying not to hurt him! She had no control over what Carrow was going to do."

"Ginny, I don't think that matters."

Ginny and McGonagall both looked over to Luna Lovegood, who was sitting straight up and had just brought her teacup back down gently onto the saucer.

"Daphne has a very hard time with bad situations. She's really the type of person that would blame herself for things that go wrong, or, well, most recently, fairly catastrophic. She's extraordinarily insecure already."

Luna chuckled at Ginny's face, which was crumpled in disbelief.

"Ginny, I'm really surprised! I mean, you've got Ronald as a brother. They are quite a lot alike."

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

Luna nodded and smiled in her dreamy Luna way. "I think both Daphne and Ron see such little value in themselves and in what they contribute to the world. When things go bad, and they're right in the middle of it, they're always going to think that the bad things happened because of them." Luna turned her protuberant eyes toward Daphne and smiled a sad smile. "They can't see past their own faults, and that becomes their biggest failure." She looked back up at Ginny, who felt a chill as Luna talked about her brother.

"Ron can handle his insecurities better than Daphne though, and it's probably because he has a family around him, and close friends who're there for him. But Daphne, no matter what others do for her, will somehow always feel like an outsider."

Ginny shook her head. "But what d'ya do about that?" She gestured toward Daphne's still sleeping form. "How do you make them feel like they're not an outsider?"

"Simply do what you are doing right now, Miss Weasley." McGonagall answered. "Simply be there for each other." She placed her cup down and took a ginger biscuit. "You must realize that, as much as I would like to see changes in our current administration, so long as the Headmaster," she wrinkled her nose in disgust, "runs this school, and so long as the Minister remains in power, there's nothing any of the other teachers can do to remove the bad apples on our staff."

Ginny gave her a horrified look. "Not even if they torture us?"

McGonagall shut her eyes, the pain she felt was evident. "It started when they lifted the ban on the Unforgivable Curses." She opened them and watched the flames in the fireplace burn. "The one thing I can do, the only thing, is to be here for the students. To make sure that every student will remain as healthy and safe as possible."

Ginny rubbed her forehead. "Pr-professor . . . what happened in the classroom today?"

McGonagall turned slowly to look at both Ginny and Luna, inhaled very deeply, and proceeded to lay out in detail the incident between Neville and Carrow.


McGonagall escorted both Ginny and Luna out of her office. Daphne was still sleeping soundly, and McGonagall had sent a message to both Blaise Zabini and Millicent Bulstrode, asking for their assistance to bring her back to Slytherin House without drawing more attention to her than was necessary.

As the door shut behind them, Ginny leaned against the wall, pounding her fist against the stone in a steady, but distracted, beat.

"Ginny? What's on your mind?" Luna asked.

She whistled. "I'm just thinking about all of this. What happened with Neville today. What it all means." She threw out her arms and let them hit her sides. "I'm at a total loss! How? How are we supposed to get through this? It's only the second week of school, and look what happened with Neville. Look at how Daphne's dealing with it!" Ginny could hear the frustration, the hopelessness in her voice.

And then, Luna put her hand on her shoulder.

"I heard something a long time ago. 'If you are going through hell, keep going.'"

Ginny raised an eyebrow at her.

"I think they're words spoken by a Muggle British leader." Luna thought for a few moments. "I know that we're already there, Ginny. In hell. But we have to stay right where we are. We have to learn and go to school like normal, but we also have to watch out for each other. And we all have to make it through this together. Right?"

Ginny lowered her brow, and nodded. What Luna said certainly made sense.

But, Godric! There was such a long way to go!

"Ginny? Luna?"

The girls spun around at the sound of their names being hoarsely whispered. Ginny stepped around the corner of a wall. "Michael?"

Michael Corner emerged, looking to his left and right. "Have you seen Daphne? I heard she was here."

Ginny looked at Michael, giving him a small smile full of sympathy. "She's actually resting in McGonagall's office. She's," Ginny searched for the right words, "she's in a bit of a shock right now."

"Shock?" he asked weakly.

Ginny winced sympathetically. "Did you hear what happened? In Carrow's class?"

His brow grew stormier. "I heard that Carrow damn near killed Neville." He shook his head. "Evil bastard."

"Daphne was there, you know?"

Michael's face fell a little. "I know . . . he didn't hurt her. Wait! Did he hurt her?" His worried expression nearly knocked her over.

"H-he . . . not exactly. Carrow, um—"

(Just tell him, Ginny.)

She swallowed and sighed deeply. "Carrow demonstrated the curse on her first, but didn't hurt her." She said rapidly, holding her hands up to keep Michael calm, when it was obvious he was about to explode. "Neville spoke up, and Carrow forced Daphne to Crucio him—"

Michael let out a small breath of shock. "Damn . . ."

"Daphne stung him a little on his hand, not meaning to hurt him—"

Michael's face grew cold and hard. "And that's when—?"

Ginny nodded slowly. "That's when Carrow cursed Neville. Right in front of Daphne. And . . . and she really couldn't handle watching Neville being tortured in front of her. She's blaming herself, and no one's able to get through to her. Not me. Not McGonagall. She's just . . . she's not here, she's not functioning right now."

Ginny stopped talking and she watched as Michael's face ran through a motley of emotions. Sadness . . . frustration . . . anger . . . and finally—

Michael spun around, reared back his arm, and rammed his balled-up fist right into the nearest wall three times.

"Eearargh!" "Gah!" "Gee-yeargh!"

Ginny and Luna jumped back at the impact of skin and bone and tissue hitting the stone.

Ginny looked at Michael's fist, and Michael's face . . . and waited for it—

"Ow! Oh, owowowowow . . . " He shook his now bruised hand very rapidly, his teeth now gritted in apparent pain. He hopped up and down trying to shake it out and sucked in a breath and blew on his damaged digits. "Ouch! Mother . . . effin' . . . sonofabit—"

"Well, what d' you expect? Getting all heated, allowing your testosterone to take over." Ginny shook her head, and held out her hand. "Here, let me see the damage."

Michael loudly drew in a breath and he let Ginny examine his injuries. Luna came over and peered at the hand as well.

"Idiot."

"Hey! I was angry."

"Well, I hope you feel better now."

Michael glowered at her. Ginny turned his hand over, a bit too roughly for him. He winced and groaned.

"Sorry."

"You could be a bit more gentle."

She gave him a flat look.

"Michael, we should go with you to the Hospital Wing." Luna interjected.

Ginny shrugged. "We can update you about Daphne, and go see how Neville's doing."

Michael nodded, holding his bad hand. "Sh-sure, yeah."

They started making their way to the hospital. Michael kept wincing in discomfort and he looked at his hand, taking in the damage.

"I feel like I haven't been there for her."

Ginny shook her head. "What do you mean? Of course you have. You're here now."

"But last year, when she had her breakdown. In June, when Dumbledore died and she basically ran away." He shook his head. "She told me about what happened this summer after your brother got married, and how that bastard Death Eater from the Ministry basically--" Michael's disgusted look on his face finished the sentence for him. "And now this," he flapped his arm uselessly in the direction of McGonagall's office. "I'm never there when she needs me the most."

"You know, this is really sweet."

Michael just stared at Ginny. "What's 'sweet'?"

"You. You getting all angry and huffy and punchy and wanting to be there for Daphne." She spoke to him in a gentle voice. "It's really clear that you care for her, and I really think that that alone helps, even if you not physically with her when things get rough."

She saw Michael blush. He nodded, but vaguely as if he wasn't letting Ginny's words sink in.

"Ginny," Luna started, "remember what we were talking about in McGonagall's office? About Daphne not feeling like she belonged anywhere?"

She nodded. Michael looked at Luna as if she had just sprouted a pair of wings. "What do you mean, Daphne doesn't feel like she belongs?"

Luna ignored the question, but turned to Michael. "I think if you tell her, it'll help."

"Oh? Oh!" Ginny said, nodding in comprehension.

Michael looked at her in confusion. "Tell her what?"

"You should tell her, Michael." Ginny nodded and gave Luna a grin and a wink.

"I'm . . . I'm completely confused." The Ravenclaw boy shook his head rapidly.

Ginny sighed in exasperation. "Luna, I don't have either the strength or the patience. Would you like to enlighten him on what exactly he can do? For Daphne?"

Luna smiled in her dreamy way and she turned to address him. "You should tell her you love her."

And as Luna skipped ahead of them, Ginny stopped walking . . . because Michael had stopped walking.

He had turned roughly the color of a beet.

"I . . . I wh-wh . . . ah . . . her . . . huh?"

"You love her, you twit!" Ginny shook her head and rolled her eyes. "Boys!"

"B-but . . . I . . . I'm not—"

"Michael, let me spell it out for you. L, as in all those bloody letters you sent to her this summer. While she stayed at the Burrow. One thing I learned was that if you tried to get her attention when a message came from you, she literally became a flobberworm. Practically immune to outside stimulus."

Michael blushed furiously. Which surprised Ginny as he was already quite red.

"O, as in 'Ouch!' and 'Ow!' As in hitting your hand on the wall a stupid number of times because you just found out your girl's in shock because she witnessed something horrible.

"V, as very forgiving, as in, no matter what happened between the two of you, you always found her, sought her out, and you made sure she was okay." Ginny looked at him with a maudlin expression. "That's a really new thing for you."

She stopped talking as Michael stood next to her, his face showing that he was working through some thought process.

Michael shut his eyes for a moment, sighed, and opened them back up again.

"Uh, Ginny," Michael began, still blushing furiously, "y'know . . . er, I don't think we really talked about what happened between us, right? W-we never really exchanged words about why we ended. We just . . . ended, didn't we?"

She nodded, but added. "I do remember you breaking up with me after that Quidditch game. Because we had just beaten up Ravenclaw. No offense, Luna."

"Oh, none taken!"

Ginny turned back to her ex-boyfriend. "And then, I hear later that you and Cho were all kissy-kissy, so I didn't really think we needed to talk."

Michael opened his mouth, and didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. Finally, with a small nod to himself, he started talking. "About a month before that game, we, er . . . had some alone time, right?"

Ginny smirked and raised an eyebrow. She folded her arms and nodded. "Yeah, we did have quite a bit of alone time, Michael."

"Okay, but this was in a broom closet on the third floor." Michael took a breath. "And, while we were together, you said 'Harry'. While we were snogging."

Ginny's eyes went huge. To her right she heard Luna whisper "Oh!"

She brought a hand to her mouth. "Oh . . . oh Godric's balls! Michael, seriously?! I said that?"

Michael nodded.

Ginny smacked her head into her hand, and shook it vigorously. "Oh my stars! I . . . I didn't know!" Ginny held her hands out to him, her brow creased with anger toward him and herself. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"Well, the first time you did it—"

"Wait, I did it again?!"

Michael nodded a second time. "You only did it twice." Ginny groaned, but Michael continued. "I sort of ignored it the first time, but it kind of got to me. Then you did it again, and it really got to me, and I decided I needed to be an arse to you." He winced. "I had that fling with Cho, thinking, 'Well, I'll just get with Potter's ex-girlfriend, and I'll win her over and Ginny'll be all jealous'." Michael shook his head, a bit of a morose look on him. "But that didn't work. She was still going through a lot at the time. We wrote a little back and forth, but nothing really came from it."

Ginny groaned a second time. "Michael, I'm . . . I'm really sorry."

Michael shrugged. "It's okay. I should've said something when it happened, and we could've ended on a bit more friendly terms, I s'pose. But," Michael turned back to the direction of McGonagall's office, "there's Daphne now, right? And you have, well . . . I'm not going to say his name, because our walls do have ears." He gave her a very knowing look. "But I think it's safe to say that you're taken."

Ginny blushed and smiled.

Michael smiled as well, but after a few moments, his face fell. "Merlin! Daphne . . ." he looked at the two girls. "You two think she'll be all right?"

"We don't know," Luna shook her head.

"Daphne's the first person I didn't give up on," Michael said softly. "I don't know why. But she's funny, she's smart, she's . . . er, honest. Almost bluntly so." He snorted and rolled his eyes, but smiled sadly. "I know she's got problems, but," and he looked back up at both Ginny and Luna. "I can't give up on her. I just have to be there for her and . . . I don't know. Help her. Whatever I can do."

Ginny looked at Michael Corner, this time her face wholly and completely serious. "You're really in love with her, aren't you?"

She saw Michael swallow, and his face changed. He made no gesture either way, but he blinked for a long time.

"E!" Luna piped up.

Michael and Ginny just stared at her.

Luna hopped over next to them. "You forgot the 'E' in 'love'. Michael, you'd do everything to make sure she's okay. Everything to make her happy. Wouldn't you?" She smiled at him.

Michael paused, and furrowed his brow. "I- . . . I think I would. I want to be there for anything that she needs, for everything . . . " He hesitated, and a small smile threatened to pop up on his face. But, suddenly, he developed a stony look. "And if anyone ever harmed her, or tried to harm her—" He balled up his hand, and, apparently forgetting his prior injuries, slammed his fist into his open palm.

"OW-ch! Bloody . . . fuck! Buggerbuggerbugger. . . !" Michael stomped his foot on the floor and shook out his once-again throbbing and hurting hand, grimacing in pain.

"Come on, you prat. To the Hospital Wing with you." Ginny stood behind Michael, and pushed him forward, as Luna skipped down the hall, ahead of them by several steps.


Dear Diary,

Ginny paused. So much had happened today, and Ginny found herself at a loss at where to begin.

(At the beginning, you twit!)

Ginny sighed. The diary had been nice to write in every once in a while, particularly this summer, when all hell had broken loose.

However, after what had happened with Neville, after finally seeing him in the Hospital Wing and hearing him talk even though he was still in pain . . . after seeing Daphne in the state she was in after the Dark Arts class . . . and especially after her conversation with Michael Corner and realizing her former boyfriend had not only forever moved on, but was, indeed in love (even if not ready to admit it to himself . . . the prat!), the diary just didn't seem like it was enough.

Ginny shut the book and closed her eyes.

She took a breath . . .

"Hey! What's a pretty girl like you doing up here all alone?"

Ginny smiled, her eyes still shut. "I thought you were out on your special mission."

"Nah . . . cut it short when I heard there was a beautiful girl here at Hogwarts, pining away for me—"

"Potter!" Ginny gasped as Harry laughed. "I do not pine!"

"I know, I know . . . . Lame attempt at humor." He pushed his sliding glasses back up his nose.

Ginny shook her head. "You've got to stop spending all your time with my brother, Harry. His idea of 'humor' is gonna rub off on you. And then you'll really be a lost cause."

Harry laughed . . . and Ginny laughed.

And then she stopped.

"I miss you so much, Harry."

Harry's smile faded away, replaced by a most serious expression. "You've got no idea how much I miss you too."

Ginny licked her lips nervously. "Things are bad. Here, even at Hogwarts. I feel like we're under attack every day!" She looked at him, and could feel several lumps in her throat. "And I can't stop thinking about what the three of you are doing. How you're managing to survive, all by yourselves—"

Harry shrugged. "With Ron and Hermione, I'll be fine, Gin." He looked at her. "Just . . . Ginny, you have to be careful. With what happened to Neville today—"

"Oh, Godric!" Ginny hit her head against the headboard of her bed. She let out a shaky breath. "Neville. He's . . . .doing better. But, dammit! How the hell are we going to make it out of this year in one piece? And what if the war doesn't end soon?" Ginny shook her head and felt tears gathering in her eyes. "How long will it be before we're all safe again? Before you and Hermione and Ron come back to us? How long do I have to wait for my family to stop fighting and just be a family?"

Harry leaned his head against the wall and continued to look at Ginny. "I wish I had the answers, but I don't."

Ginny watched him through wet eyes. "You just want this to be over—"

"And I'm the only one that can finish it."

Ginny nodded, crying fully now. "I nev- . . . never told you that I love you, Harry."

She watched as Harry responded, first by swallowing, then by flexing the muscles in his jaw. "Y-you love . . . you love—?" He stared at her dumbly and merely pointed a shaky finger to himself.

Ginny rolled her eyes and snickered. "Even in my head, boys still suck with the whole 'feelings' thing, don't they?"

She heard Harry laugh. "We're a very simple species."

Ginny lolled her head back toward him. "I never told you how I fe-feel, Harry. I don't know why. It just," she plopped her hands down in fatigue and frustration and sniffed, "just never seemed right."

Harry nodded.

"But now I re-regret it. I never told you, expressly, how I feel. I haven't spoken to Percy in ages. I never told Hermione that she's already like a sister to me, and I never told Ron enough times that he's worth so much . . . so many, many th-things . . ." She gasped through her tears. "I do love you. I can't be afraid to say that anymore. To say the words, you know?" She shrugged, but continued to weep. "I can't be afraid of anything . . . "

"Ginny," Harry said softly. Ginny held her breath as he brought a hand up to her cheek, and she sighed in disappointment when she couldn't feel him touch her face.

"I'm . . . I'm . . ."

"You're not real," Ginny whispered to him. "You're in my h-head." Ginny felt her shoulders shake in rhythm with her cries. She let her body unfold, and she laid down, fully, spreading her body out on top of her sheets. Ginny folded her hands and rested them on her tummy.

And, taking a deep breath, she turned to Harry–In–Her–Head. "I love you, Harry Potter. I really, really do."

She watched as Harry laid down next to her, propping his head on his arm. "Ginny, I lo—"

"Wait!" Ginny held her hand up. "Don't." She shook her head. "D-don't say it. It's not real if you say it." Ginny let out another sob and wiped at her face. "This is my head, and I'm the one that needs to be honest with myself. So, I'll say it again, H-Harry Potter. I do love you."

She cried, although softer now, as she watched a slow grin appear on his face.

"And I love my brother Percy. I love Ron and Hermione. I love all of my family . . . even," she rolled her eyes, "Muriel. I love Remus and Tonks. I love all of the people that are fighting against this madness.

"But, Harry, I need all of you and all of the Weasleys, to be safe, okay?" Ginny asked him. "You may nod."

Harry did.

"We can get through this right?"

Harry nodded again.

"I'm strong enough to get through this?"

Harry smiled at her. "You could bring down mountains if you wanted to, Ginny."

Ginny nodded and returned his smile and she let herself finally drift away to a sleep filled with tears and dreams of happier times, both in the past and in the unknowable future.