A/N: All characters belong to Jk Rowling. enjoy :)

The Burrow seemed quiet these last few weeks. Everyone seemed to be mourning the loss of Fred. Yet everyone smiled for each other's sakes. Ginny made her way down the stairwell of her home. It seemed she was the last one to wake up this morning. But that wasn't a surprise to her. She stayed awake until around two o'clock thinking and worrying about Harry. It seemed she had done that a lot lately. She hadn't spoken to him since he arrived at Hogwarts before the battle. Once she made it downstairs everyone seemed to be wearing a very worrying expression while staring at a copy of the Daily Prophet.

"What's wrong?" she asked, interrupting the silence that seemed to be there.

"Um, Ginny. Maybe you should see for your self." Replied Ron. He almost seemed nervous when he handed the paper to her. She grabbed it cautiously; afraid of what she might see on the front page. She closed her eyes and counted to three in her head. Then finally looked at the paper. There he was. Harry Potter on the front of the paper for the second time this week. Wait a minute she thought to herself as she saw something in his hand. She scanned the article to see what it was.

"No, tell me that it's not true!" she yelled at her family. But they only nodded. It couldn't be true. Harry would never sink that low. But he did and that's what killed her inside the most.

"Ginny please, listen to me. Harry hasn't spoken to anyone since he left Hogwarts. When I went to see if he was home or not, Kreacher told me he wasn't feeling well and that he was asleep. I know Kreacher was just saying what Harry told him to because I heard him close the door after Kreacher was already downstairs with me. Harry won't respond to any of our letters and he won't respond to a mere visit from me. I think you should go and see him." Hermione told Ginny in a voice of reason. She almost seemed apprehensive when she spoke. Like she wanted to make sure Ginny heard every word she said. Ginny heard her loud and clear. She ran up to her room and got dressed as quickly as possible and quickly put on some make up to look presentable. She returned to the kitchen where Hermione had her coat on and pecked Ron goodbye. She held out her arm for Ginny to grab. They both apparated to the front of 12 Grimmauld Place.

Harry was on the back porch smoking his third cigarette today. They may of tasted nasty but at least after a while he started to feel better. He had noticed Kreacher was getting worried about him. He started not eating as much as he used to and he seemed to spend his days on the porch. Especially since that stupid article came out about him. Then there was a knock at the door.

"Kreacher, do you mind getting that? And tell them I'm out for the day and you don't know when I'm coming back."

"Yes Master." Kreacher walked hesitantly to the door. He didn't want to follow Master Harry's orders. He wanted to have someone talk some sense into him and get him out of this trance of his. Kreacher answered the door to two girls. Both familiar to him and both wearing determined expressions on their face.

"Kreacher, um, hi. Where's Harry?" Said the redheaded girl. What is her name? She stayed here twice, um Jenny, no, um…GINNY!

"I'm sorry but Master Harry is not here." Kreacher said mentally cursing himself for what he said.

"I hardly believe that's true. I know that he only leaves to go get drunk or buy more cigarettes." Replied the girl with the bushy hair. Kreacher thought for a second, she visited the other day, and she knew Kreacher was lying. What should Kreacher do?

" does not believe Kreacher? Well Kreacher can't say he believes himself." Replied Kreacher hoping she'd understand what he meant by that. Than an expression of understanding met Hermione's face.

"Well if he was here. Where would he be?" Hermione asked slyly. Knowing Kreacher was trying to bend the orders Harry told him.

"Well Kreacher knows that Master Harry would be on the back porch. Using up the miserable items Master buys at store." Kreacher said opening the door widely to let them in.

And with that Hermione and Ginny rushed into the house of the drunken prat. They got into the kitchen where the door to the back porch was, and stopped. Hermione turned to look at Ginny and gave her a reassuring look. Ginny nodded then slowly walked toward the door. She slowly opened it and saw Harry leaning up against railing with his back towards her. It was reported to be around 50 degrees outside today and he wasn't wearing a jacket. A puff of smoke blew out in front of him. She knew exactly what that meant. It meant he was indeed smoking. That barmy article wasn't lying.

"Harry." Ginny said in a calm and collected yet strong voice. She was surprised to see him not even budge. He didn't jump at her voice yet didn't turn around. All he did was let out another puff of smoke. She waited a moment for a response but none came.

"Harry please. Turn around." Ginny said in the same voice hoping that he would listen to her. But he didn't he just let out another puff of smoke and stayed silent.

"Harry if you're not going to turn around than just listen," she said with tears in her eyes and continued, "Harry, you are really amazing sometimes. We all knew you were going to feel guilty after the battle, but this is just ridiculous. Harry, the silent treatment isn't going to get you far. And let me tell you, these cigarettes and pub visits aren't either. I don't know if you know, but there's an article about you in the Daily Prophet. It's just sickening to know you, of all people, are doing this to yourself." He sat there silent, puffing out smoke but this time he dropped his head. It's a start, she thought to herself. "Harry, you killed Voldemort if anything you should be happy. But I know what your thinking….You're thinking that you're the reason why Fred died, why Tonks and Remus died, why Colin died, why George lost his ear, why Teddy is an orphan and why Hogwarts is destroyed. But let me tell you that it's not true. Everyone fought at their own risk. Everyone fought for what they believed in and it wasn't just because they liked you or your opinions. They fought because they liked their opinions and their own thoughts about life without Voldemort and they were willing to give up everything for it."

Harry shook his head and looked up at the sky. Ginny knew what she was saying to him was hitting a nerve but maybe that's what he needed. Maybe he needed someone to tell him something he needed to hear. Or maybe he just needed to hear it from her.

"Harry I'm happy to see you can do more than just smoke at the moment. I don't care if you don't love me anymore or if you really just hate me right now. But I'm not going to let you sit around here and mope all day long. Kreacher is even worried about you and let me tell you, to get emotion out of him, wow!" At this she heard him giggle. It was very subtle and short but he giggled. "Its great to know that maybe some Harry is still in there…I know you are going a tough time and everything. But we're your family and we need to know your okay. Harry, please come back with Hermione and me to the Burrow. You don't have to talk to anyone. You can simply just nod or shake your head to anyone but please just at least show yourself." Ginny waited a moment to see what he was going to do.

"I don't know." He said looking into the distance. HE TALKED, HE SAID THREE WORDS, three depressing words but WORDS! She thought to herself.

"You don't know what?" She said with emotion filling in her eyes.

"I don't know if I can do it, if I can face them. I don't know if I can do anything anymore…except maybe smoke and order drinks." He said staring at the cigarette in his hand.

"Well you won't know until you try, right? And don't worry about this whole drinking and smoking thing, I'm sure we can teach you more, maybe something like teaching you how to stop." She said tilting he head, he still hadn't turned around and she hadn't moved from where she was standing, behind him not seeing his face. "I can tell you the first step. Turn around." She continued with a hopeful voice. Harry paused for a moment. He took one more look at the cigarette in his hand and winced. Maybe he should listen to her. He slowly turned around with a guilty expression on his face. She stood there for a second, completely shocked. She didn't think he would actually turn around.

"What now?" He said with an expressionless face.

"Now you're going to change and wash up. Brush your teeth then meet Hermione and I in the kitchen. Okay?" He nodded he knew that she was probably disgusted and disappointed in his appearance let alone his behavior but it seemed she wasn't going to show it in her face. They both walked into the kitchen. Hermione was in there with her back towards them. She seemed to be admiring something that was in the china cabinet. She tried so hard not to turn around until she knew that Harry looked ok.

"Be ready in ten minutes so we can get back to the Burrow in time." Ginny said looking at her wrist watch. Harry left and started going up the stairwell to the bathroom. Hermione turned to face Ginny. Ginny was smiling; she was successful.

"So what happened?" Hermione asked enthusiastically, obviously something happened to make Harry actually listen to Ginny. "Don't tell me you Confunded him."

"What? No! I just told him what he needed to hear. And I told him that he didn't have to talk to anyone else but me when we got there. So please don't be offended if he doesn't talk to you." Hermione shrugged. She understood that it was going to take time for Harry to become himself again. "Can you apparate to the Burrow and tell them that, then come back before Harry is ready?" Hermione nodded it was obvious they all needed to know why Harry won't talk to them. With that thought in mind she apparated back to the Burrow.

Ginny's eyes wondered around Grimmauld Place. There were so many memories of hers in this disgusting house. She remembered Sirius's mother screaming every bloody day, and she remembered her mother always nagging her to help clean up the cobwebs and mold that grew in the corners. Ginny left the kitchen and went into the first door she found, it was a closet usually used to put coats in but, no, Harry seemed to find it convenient to store booze in it. I'll have to talk to him about that she thought out loud. Then she slowly went up the stairs, happy to hear the sound of the shower running. She approached the study that she cleaned nearly three years ago. It seemed to have been used recently. She made her way towards the desk and found a pile of two copies of the Daily Prophet. Both in which Harry was featured on the front page. Then a letter from Hermione on the top. Ginny looked around to make sure no one saw her. She read it. She was almost at the verge of tears when Hermione talked about her. And how she wanted Harry to be hers again. The thing was it was absolutely true. She set the letter down where it was. Then a parchment caught her eye. It had a quill across it covering up what words were written on the page. She moved the quill off the parchment and read the word. Sorry. Ginny Weasley never cried, but now this made her burse into tears. It was the closest thing to feelings Harry had left. It showed that he was still the Harry she knew; that that drunken prat that was in his body still had feelings. Ginny quickly put everything back where it was and headed back to the kitchen to find Hermione already there.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked with a worrying voice.

"Nothing. Just… I saw his response to your letter. A response that he never sent back to you." She responded with a little bit of emotion still in her voice. She didn't want Hermione to know she was crying just a minute ago. But her red eyes gave it away. Hermione gave her a half smile.

"Do you want to tell me what he said?" Hermione asked in a hopeful tone that maybe it was going to make her feel better than she already did.

"It said Sorry. I don't know what he meant by 'Sorry' but to me it means he still is Harry James Potter, the one we used to know." Ginny said smiling. Hermione nodded. She couldn't see what was so grand about a simple response as sorry. But she could tell that it meant a lot to Ginny. So she just put on a sympathy smile for her sake. Then, with in seconds, the two girls heard footsteps coming down the stairs. It was Harry.

"Ready?" Ginny asked in a calm voice which was a really good cover up than the voice she used with Hermione. The voice with Hermione was an emotional voice; with Harry was a strong voice like nothing happened. Harry nodded in response and gave a half, absent minded smile to them. Hermione Grabbed Ginny's arm and let out an arm for Harry to grab.

Harry hesitated. Am I really ready for this? He asked himself, well do I really have a choice. He took hold of Hermione's arm and apparated to the Burrow. There he was standing in front of the Burrow. A place where, he swore to himself not only two days ago, that he would not see again. He let go of Hermione's arm and Hermione let go of Ginny. They started walking towards the front door yet Harry stood still taking in what was left of his dignity.