HARRY POTTER AND THE UNFORGIVEN
A Sixth Year Harry Potter Fanfiction
BY
Jayiin Mistaya
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
...never tickle a sleeping dragon
COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or anything related to Harry Potter. Those rights are held, exclusively, by JK Rowling, and any other entities, corporations, subsidiaries, or groups not named here possessing legal rights to the aforementioned books and/or trademark.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a short one, and is the first of a series of letters between Harry and Ginny; they'll be posted as interludes every few chapters.
Thanks to everyone who has been reading, even if you haven't reviewed, and especially to those people who have me on author alert or favorites.
More information on Harry Potter and the Unforgiven can be found at my website, which is linked in my Author Profile.
Feedback of any kind is always appreciated.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks to Elusive Evan for making me continue to post this.
LETTERS I
Ginny was almost ready to go back to bed when Hedwig hooted from her window.
She knew it was Hedwig without even looking. Most owls sounded the same to Ginny, but Hedwig had always sounded clearer, almost as if she enunciated better than other owls; not that Ginny expected any less from Harry's very proper owl.
Ginny opened her window, letting Hedwig fly in and deposit an envelope in her hands before perching on her nightstand.
Her first name was written in green ink on the front of the envelope.
"Is this from Harry?" Ginny asked the owl, gingerly cradling the letter.
Hedwig hooted emphatically, and fluffed her wings a bit.
Trying to convince herself she wasn't excited about getting a letter from Harry, she opened the envelope and unfolded the parchment, noticing something heavy spellotaped to the back.
Ginny,
I don't know how to write to you – well, okay, that didn't make any sense. It's more that I don't know what to say to you, and it feels like there should be something for me to say. At least, more than just 'hey, thanks for risking your life for me.'
There's a part of me that wants to think of you as just my best mate's kid sister. Only, you're not. You're not 'just' anything, and anyone who thinks of you like that, especially me, is doing you a disservice.
I'm sorry. I won't think of you like that anymore.
You were right at Christmas, you know. You're the only one who can understand what it feels like to doubt yourself, to wonder if you did something horrible – or were something horrible. Or just maybe, might have to become something horrible. You went through your own personal hell in the Chamber.
Ginny, I'm sorry I forgot. Of all the stupid, insensitive things I did last year, I regret that the most. All I can do is promise you I won't forget again. Tom has marked you, like he has marked me. The scar isn't as visible, but I know it's there. No matter what else happens, he will always know you – just like he will always know me.
I think there's still more to say, but I'm running out of words. I don't know you, not really. I don't understand how it's possible, but I don't know you. I somehow even managed to get to know Luna, but I never got to know you. I'm sorry, and I'd like to fix that once I get out of here for the summer. There are a lot of things I'm going to do when I am finally free of this place – but getting to know you is top of the list. If I learned one thing last year, it's that I cannot take any of my friends for granted. I'm even trying not to take the Dursleys for granted.
I think you'd be a little surprised at how I'm being treated this time. Even Uncle Vernon agrees things will be different this summer. I'm allowed out of the house every day, even if I do have to help Dudley practice his boxing. Uncle Vernon doesn't want me around Aunt Petunia while she's pregnant…as if being magical was somehow contagious.
Uncle Vernon's cousin Veronica has moved in to help take care of Aunt Petunia, and she seems to be thrilled that I'm learning how to be Dudley's personal trainer. It means I get fewer chores, but I have to spend all my time with Dudley. It's better than it could be, though, and I'm glad for it.
If you're bored, write me back. Maybe I won't have to wait until I get out of here to start getting to know you.
Harry Potter
P.S. I'm sending Hedwig to stay with you. Uncle Vernon really hates her and I don't want her to be cooped up this summer. I've sent my Gringotts key with her so you can get money to pay for anything she needs.
Harry had written her a letter. Not only that, but he'd entrusted her with Hedwig and his Gringotts key, which she now realized was what was taped to the back of the letter.
She felt her old self-doubt float to the surface, forcing her to ask: Why me? Why not Ron or Hermione?
She could rationalize it away easily enough. Hermione was having some kind of family reunion and no one could send her any letters. Ron had Pig. That left her and gave her an owl she could use to write back to him. Harry knew her family didn't have much money (not that he would expect anyone to pay so much as a knut on his behalf, regardless of their fortune), so sending his Gringotts key to whoever took care of Hedwig made sense.
Not that I'm actually going to use any of his money, the silly boy! The idea he'd let her was flattering, though.
She would be lying if she said she didn't like the idea of Harry wanting her to write him, of Harry wanting to get to know her. She also knew better than to read anything into the gesture other than friendship. For all she knew, he had sent similar letters to Luna and Neville, wanting to get to know them better.
But something still didn't make sense. She knew there was something she was missing.
Did he choose me because of the dream? She shook her head. That didn't make any sense either, because he would have had to have sent Hedwig before she had even gone to bed.
His letter had been more serious and more open than he'd ever been with her, as if he were trying to say things while he had the chance to say them. Then she realized it wasn't that Harry had sent Hedwig to her, it was that he'd send Hedwig – and his key –at all.
He'd kept Hedwig at the Dursleys' before, even when she was cooped up, and even with their financial difficulties the Weasley's could have easily supported an owl for the summer. Ginny knew Harry knew that.
Maybe he just didn't want it to happen again or maybe he was worried after she'd been injured last year?
It struck her that Harry had a habit of sending people he cared about away from danger. He would send Hedwig away if he - and therefore she – was in danger.
The second realization struck her. He wants his Gringotts key accessible if something happens to him.
Ginny pulled out quill, parchment and her favorite purple ink. She would write him back, and she'd find a way to make him tell her what was going on.
She had to.
End Chapter
Revised 8-11-9
