Chapter 4
Ginny stormed about the Gryffindor Common Room in a rage; kicking discarded books and papers which had been left behind as the Gryffindors had quickly made their way to the Great Hall for the emergency meeting. Michael’s comments had hit a major chord with her and the one person she wanted to talk too had disappeared with Ron and Hermione.
Not only was she angry, but there was a large ache in her chest and she thought to herself, “Why…why didn’t he want to see her?”
“Why had he not just come up to me and hugged me,” Ginny said out loud as she started to reminisce over recent events.
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While Ginny had been traveling through the tunnel that led from Hog’s Head to Hogwarts, all she could think about was the fact that she was going to see Harry. As she had stepped into the Room of Requirement, she felt her heart leap with joy when she’d spotted him on the other side of the room. She remembered giving him a radiant smile only to let it wane shortly after because the expression he had given her was not what she had expected.
A little while later Ginny had found herself arguing with her family about coming with them to help fight. She had dreaded the thought of just waiting at home, not knowing what was happening, and had wanted to be involved, hoping to protect her family and to help Harry. As she pleaded and argued with her family, beseechingly she had sought out Harry, who had just stood there.
When she had needed his support, he had shaken his head “No.” She couldn’t believe it! Harry, of all people, should have been able to understand how she felt. So Ginny had turned away feeling bitter.
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Ceasing her rampage about the Common Room, Ginny immediately felt the fatigue and sadness return due to the night’s events. Suddenly feeling a chill Ginny made her way to an armchair close to the fireplace, cleaned off some discarded books that were lying on top, and sat down. Taking out her wand she said “Incendi,” and a fire immediately sprang to life.
As the flames danced about they brightened up the common room even more, showing the chaos left behind by the students. Several of the windows had been destroyed from wayward spells. The floor was littered with debris from the school taking damage in the attack. There were discarded books and papers along with a few odds and ends such as quills and, among everything else, even one of Fred and George’s Puking Pastilles that a student must have been planning to take to get out of class the next day.
Tucking a few stray strands of hair behind her left ear, Ginny stretched her hands out to the fire; trying to get herself to feel warm again. Even though there was sunlight streaming into the cluttered room through the shattered glass, she still felt cold and the common room seemed bleak.
A few minutes passed before Ginny decided that she was finally warm enough. Folding her legs underneath her she laid her head back against the chair, closed her eyes, and continued to recount the events that had taken place.
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For what had seemed like an eternity, Ginny had stayed there in the Room of Requirement. Every time she heard an explosion or felt vibrations through the floor, her heart stop. Then Neville’s grandmother had appeared from the tunnel and, shortly after, Harry had shown up along with Ron and Hermione. For one second Ginny had felt sheer joy. Perhaps Harry had finally wanted to see her. Maybe he had wanted to tell her that he had missed her something fierce and wanted to hold her before going off again. Instead, all he said was that they had needed her to leave the Room of Requirement.
At that, her temper got the best of her. So she had taken the opportunity to leave and join the fight. Oh yes, she had heard him yelling at her but she was angry, as well as bitter, to the point that she ignored him and continued onwards to the fighting.
Quickly she had found herself in the fight and as she shouted out spell after spell, she felt the anger and bitterness go away as she focused on every Death Eater she could find. With every spell of hers that hit someone her negative emotions would lessen.
Suddenly, during the fighting, they were all given a reprieve as You Know Who had pulled back his forces, waiting for Harry to come to him. Ginny remembered entering the Great Hall and seeing Fred’s body lying on the floor; a slight smile on his ashen face; George cradling his twin’s head in his lap with a look of unbelief on his countenance.
The fact that Remus and Tonks were there had also added to her misery and sorrow, but it was more so that Fred, her older brother, had paid the ultimate price.
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An unwelcome tear slowly slid down her cheek as Ginny remembered the horror she had felt at seeing Fred’s body lying so still. She quickly wiped the tear away.
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As Ginny had stood there weeping for Fred, Remus, and Tonks she had felt someone come to her and hold her. Immediately her first thought was of Harry, but she knew his touch and realized, instead, that it was Hermione offering her comfort and mourning with her. The entire family had stood there for about twenty minutes grieving for the fallen, but they all knew that there was still a battle that needed to be fought. Silently they all moved away, hugging one another as they separated to help with the defenses and the wounded.
She left the others and made her way to the entrance of the school and came across a seventh year girl by the name of Jane who was crying with a still bleeding scalp wound. As Ginny had been comforting Jane and telling her that everything would be alright, Ginny had suddenly felt a small breeze. The strange thing was that there had been no wind to disturb the dust that lay on the ground. Stranger even was that, as she felt the breeze, Harry had come immediately to her mind. She had tried to find the source until eventually, thinking that she must have imagined it, went back to helping Jane to the Great Hall to receive treatment from Madame Pomfrey.
There Ginny stayed, assisting wherever she could and offering words of encouragement to others. As she had wandered about, Kingsley’s booming voice had echoed throughout the Great Hall telling everyone to take their positions, their time was almost up. As everyone started to leave and return to their positions Ginny, to her horror, realized that she had not seen Harry for the past forty-five minutes. Filled with worry she sought out Ron and Hermione hoping that Harry would be with the two of them.
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Ginny’s legs had fallen asleep as her mind had wandered. She pulled her legs out from under her and brought her knees up to her chin, feeling the numbness leave her legs only to be replaced by that tingling sensation when the blood rushes back in.
As the sensation returned to her legs before her eyes drifted toward the fire, she seemed to lose herself in the intricate dance of the flames.
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After five minutes of searching, she had found Ron and Hermione in a classroom across from the Great Hall. They had been holding each other and crying when Ginny had stepped into the room. While she had been genuinely happy for them Ginny was also angry that they had not been keeping an eye on Harry.
Both Ron and Hermione’s expressions had shown their shock and horror as they realized that they had not seen Harry since all three of them had entered the Great Hall to find the Weasley family mourning. They quickly started to run through the school shouting for Harry. Soon everyone had joined in the search and was shouting out his name, trying to find the one person that You Know Who wanted the most. As time passed, Ginny started to realize that Harry was no longer there and that he must have left to confront You Know Who on his own.
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Fresh tears started to flowed down Ginny’s face, the fire starting to die down, as she recalled the last few events
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Harry Potter was dead, according to You Know Who, as his voice rang throughout the school. Ginny had sprinted back to the entrance, through the crowd, while being crushed in on all sides as everyone else made their way to the front of the school. She had hoped that the Dark Lord had been lying. But as Ginny had seen Harry’s limp body in Hagrid’s arms, she froze as Professor McGonagall let out a cry. McGonagall’s outburst brought Ginny out of her stupor and she cried out with a heart wrenching, “No!”
Her heart felt like it had been torn in two as she watched events unfold. Everything seemed to come back into focus as the battle was joined once more and, as the fighting escalated, sheer anger replaced the strangling sadness and she went after every Death Eater she could see with reckless abandonment. As the fighting started to reach its climax, Ginny had found herself facing Bellatrix, which was fine with her, until her mother had stepped in.
Suddenly there had been screams of “Harry!” and “He’s alive!” reaching Ginny’s ears and she started to look around frantically, thinking the world had gone mad. She thought she had been hearing things but no, it was true, there he was standing before You Know Who.
With her heart in her throat, she had watched this final confrontation between the Boy She Loved and the Dark Lord who had desired to kill him. Ginny, being so focused on Harry, had not noticed what was being said. All that mattered to her was that Harry was alive. With bated breath, she watched the confrontation unfold and then, quite suddenly, it was over. Harry was standing over the Dark Lord’s corpse as everyone started celebrating.
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Ginny got up from the chair and started to make her way to her dorm room.
As she reached the foot of the stairs, though, she paused, “Why hadn’t Harry come to see her?”
She could understand that he had gone through a lot. There had been many things that could have preoccupied him and that he was most likely exhausted from the ordeal. However, couldn’t he have just taken a second…just one second…to come see her and tell her he was glad to see her?
As she started to climb the stairs Ginny stumbled as a thought burst into her mind clear as day, “What if Harry had, somehow, found someone else while they had been apart?”
Almost immediately, Ginny remembered the day of Harry’s seventeenth birthday. Determined to give him a kiss that he would never forget Ginny had felt euphoria as she kissed Harry. The kiss had not lasted as long as she would have liked, no thanks to stupid and clueless Ron, who had shown up; resulting in both of them instantly seperating away from each other.
Ginny recalled seeing Hermione looking nervous, as she had followed Ron into the room. But why hadn’t Hermione stopped Ron from interrupting them? Hermione had always been a good friend and Ginny had come to regard her as her sister. Nevertheless could she have deliberately allowed Ron to barge in on them? And the three of them had been all alone for all those months. Could Harry have gotten closer to Hermione without Ron’s knowledge?
Shaking her head at such a ridiculous notion, Ginny tried to banish those thoughts. But still. Still a sliver of doubt remained entrenched in the back of her mind. She needed to find Harry but she had no idea where he could be. So instead of trying to find him, she would just have to anticipate him. She knew that Harry must feel as tired as she must, so where would he go to rest?
It hit her just as she finished her last thought. With determination, she made her way up the stairs muttering to herself, “Harry has a lot of explaining to do.”
