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SIYE Time:14:08 on 28th March 2024
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Need
By iluvfanfics

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Category: Alternate Universe
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Fluff, General, Romance
Warnings: Extreme Language, Sexual Situations
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 725
Summary: Their nightmares and demons bound them together. Their love helped them to survive. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley knew they needed each other; the trouble was in admitting it.
Hitcount: Story Total: 276967; Chapter Total: 16405
Awards: View Trophy Room






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Chapter 4

Ginny listened quietly while Professor Dumbledore explained that Voldemort had left a small part of himself inside of her when he’d possessed her through the diary last year. It was this small part of him that had given her the ability to speak parseltongue and probably lots of other things left to discover.

“I had wondered if this would happen,” he confessed. “But these things often take time to reveal themselves and I had no idea if and how it would manifest itself.”

“It’s rather interesting,” he said, stroking his beard, “that parseltongue was an ability he passed along to you.”

Ginny must have scoffed because he looked at her over the top of his glasses, his blue eyes twinkling.

“It IS interesting, whether or not you want to admit it,” he said mildly. “Perhaps you should ask Mr. Potter how he acquired his ability to speak parseltongue.”

“I don’t object that it’s interesting, Professor,” Ginny said, just as mildly. “I object to the use of the word ‘ability.’ It’s much too positive to describe what’s happened.”

“Parseltongue is an ability very few wizards have,” Dumbledore pointed out. “It doesn’t have the best reputation but perhaps you and Mr. Potter can change that.”

“I’m not likely to be broadcasting the fact that I can talk to snakes,” Ginny said, more harshly than she meant to, “especially since I got the ability to do so from a dark wizard.”

Dumbledore sat back in his chair and rested his hands on the top of his desk. “You have a connection with Tom Riddle,” he said bluntly, “I do not think this connection will end until Voldemort himself is gone. We are in uncharted territory here, Miss Weasley. I don’t have any idea as to how this will play out.”

“What are you trying to say, Professor?”

“I merely wish for you to face the facts, Ginevra. This connection–it may lead to other things and as far as I can tell, there will be no escaping it. You must learn instead, to control it–so that it doesn’t control you.”

“What sort of things?”

”As I have said, I do not exactly know,” Dumbledore said carefully. “But you might find yourself casting unusually powerful spells, or that you have a sudden knowledge of something without actually having studied for it. There is, quite frankly, no way of knowing which parts of himself Voldemort left inside of you. When he possessed you, you shared each other’s minds; even though it was the mind of a sixteen year old Voldemort, I imagine his mind was already twisted and evil.”

Ginny abruptly stood up and walked over to the window. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared down at Hagrid’s hut, wishing she were visiting him instead of in this office talking about her connection with Voldemort.

She knew exactly what the Headmaster was talking about. She’d already been surprised at the force of some of her spells and once in awhile, school lessons seemed awfully familiar. Ideas and memories often appeared to her out of nowhere; at first she hadn’t noticed it but being back in Hogwarts had triggered a whole flood of memories that had never happened to her and Ginny had realized with a sickening certainty that they were left over from her possession last year. Sometimes it felt like something dark and oily had taken root inside of her; during those times, it was all she could do to not lash out at everyone around her. She shivered. It would be all too easy to lose control and let that part of her take over…

“He’s sick,” she said in a low voice. “Some of the things he’s thought and done…I don’t think he meant for me see them; he didn’t realize the connection would go both ways when he tried to take me completely over.”

“I suppose,” she murmured, almost to herself, “that if Harry hadn’t shown up, it wouldn’t have mattered much.”

She turned back. “Is there anything else, Professor?”

Dumbledore’s eyes searched her face. “No, you may go. Thank you for telling me. I trust you will let me know if anything else unusual happens?”

Ginny nodded and moved towards the door.

“Then I will see you tomorrow morning at breakfast. And Ginny, please know that I am always available, should you require my assistance. You may come speak with me any time you wish, day or night.”

Ginny was touched. “Thank you, Professor.”

He smiled and Ginny left the room.

Harry was waiting for her at the end of the stairwell. He sprang up when she descended the steps and fell into step beside her as they walked back to the tower.

“You know what he told me?” Ginny said finally.

“If what I suspect is true then he had the exact same conversation with me last June,” Harry said dully. “I’m sorry.”

Ginny shot a look at him. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry about, Harry. This is Tom’s doing, not yours.”

”I didn’t mean it like that,” he said carefully. “I just meant that I’m sorry it’s happened to you.”

“Oh. Well, thanks then.” She fell silent. “I’m sorry about your connection as well.”

“Yeah, it sucks,” Harry said.

Ginny snorted. “That’s a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?”

Harry smiled. “Yeah.”

“Still,” he continued after another silent moment, “it’s kind of nice.”

“Kind of nice,” Ginny repeated in disbelief. “Kind of nice!”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said hastily. “I just meant that well…it’s nice for me…to have someone to share it with. I’m not the only parselmouth anymore.”

“You’re not going to tell people, are you?”

”No,” Harry said firmly. “But I’ll know, and you’ll know and well…it’ll be like our secret, yeah?”

“Our own little secret language, then,” Ginny said dryly.

“Sort of,” he admitted. He decided to take a chance and threw a brotherly arm around her shoulders. “It’s just another thing we’ve got in common you know.”

“Yes,” she murmured. “We seem to have more in common every day.”

A week went by and Harry could see that Ginny was as uncomfortable as he had been when he first learned he could talk to snakes; in fact, she seemed to be taking it even worse than he had but he supposed that came from growing up in the wizarding world where such things were taught as evil.

He caught up with her after lunch one day and convinced her to take a walk with him after dinner. He had an idea but he wasn’t really sure how to approach her with it. She might think it was stupid.

Harry brought his cloak down to dinner with him and caught Ginny’s eye after pudding. He motioned towards the door and she stood up with him. Once outside they walked in silence to the lake. They reached the edge and Harry turned to her.

“I know what you’re going through.”

Ginny just raised one eyebrow at him.

“But I’m not a dark wizard and neither are you,” he plunged on, “and none of this is our fault.”

She raised the other eyebrow at him.

“I can see that it bothers you,” he insisted, “and believe me, I felt the same way, but-“

“Harry,” she interrupted, “what are you getting at?”

Harry deflated and stuck his hands in his pockets. He lifted his elbows in a half-shrug. “All I’m saying is that he’s inside me too. I know how you feel.”

“I feel dirty,” she said suddenly.

“Me too.”

“I feel like I’m…tainted.”

“Me too.”

“Angry. Used. Liable to explode into a dark wizard at any moment.”

“Me too. I know. And I understand but I really don’t think that’s going to happen.”

Ginny looked out at the lake. “What if there’s too much of him inside of me?” she said in a low voice. “What if there’s not enough of me left and he takes control again?”

Harry shook his head. “That’s not going to happen. You’re too strong for that. Look, Ginny-” he took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him, “all this means is that he transferred some of his powers to you. It was an accident on his part and if he’d meant it to do any real harm, he would have transferred a lot more.”

“You don’t get it,” she said quietly. “I still feel him sometimes. It’s more than a transference of his powers, it’s like he’s still there.”

Harry nodded, his lips pressed together tightly. “I know,” he said. “Believe me, I know. And I think it’s always going to be this way, until he’s gone for good.” He waved a hand towards the lake. “He’s still out there, Gin. Biding his time.”

“So what do we do?”

“Well,” he looked back at her, “I thought it might be fun to really learn how to speak parseltongue.”

Ginny looked shocked. “What?”

“Our own secret language,” he reminded her sheepishly. “I thought maybe we could practice speaking it to each other, until we’re more comfortable with it.”

“That-” Ginny stopped and gazed at him searchingly. “That might be okay,” she said slowly. “But it will be just between us, right? No one has to know?”

“No one,” he assured her.

“So how do we begin?”

“Well, I guess look at me and pretend I’m a snake. Then say something.”

Ginny stared at him for several minutes and then began speaking. It took awhile for him to realize that she was speaking parseltongue. He had to really concentrate to hear the hissing when what he really heard was, “My name is Ginny Weasley. I have six over-protective prats for brothers and I’m a student at Hogwarts.”

Harry smiled. “Weird.”

”Your turn,” she prompted.

“My name is Harry Potter. I don’t have any brothers but am related to the dumbest muggles on the planet and have a lovely pet owl.”

“Weird,” Ginny echoed. “I can’t even tell you’re speaking parseltongue half the time.”

“I know, we’re really going to have work on that.”

Over the next several weeks, Harry and Ginny took numerous walks together speaking entirely in parseltongue. Several times they actually found a live snake and enjoyed many conversations about the weather in Scotland vs. the weather in Southern England and the differences in the taste between various rodents. They learned slowly to recognize when the other was speaking parseltongue and it was in this way that they got braver and had whispered conversations in the common room when no one else was around. They spent a lot of time together and Harry found it difficult sometimes to keep Ginny’s secret. Especially when Ron looked at him funny and Hermione looked at him knowingly whenever he went off with Ginny.

Ginny grudgingly admitted to herself that it was nice. Harry helped her to lose her fear of parseltongue, or rather, lose her fear of the implications of being one of the only two people who could speak to snakes. Ginny decided she had wasted too much time last year worrying about her crush on Harry; she’d been better off being his friend.

Nearly two months later, Harry had skipped dinner because he’d put off his potions essay too long and was scrambling to finish it by the next morning. He barely heard the portrait open and didn’t even know anyone had entered the common room until a small hand placed a roast beef sandwich wrapped in a napkin in front of him. He looked up to see Ginny, a small smile on her face.

“Thanks,” he said distractedly, taking the sandwich and biting off a chunk. “I was hungry.”

”Figured,” she said. “Made lots of headway?”

”A bit,” he grunted. “Would have made more if I hadn’t wasted so much time playing Quidditch the other day.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “Or if Hermione would help me. You wouldn’t happen to know what happens when one adds asphodel root to essence of wormwood would you?”

”You get a potion that removes warts,” Ginny said promptly. She flushed when Harry looked at her in amazement. “Sorry. I don’t know how I knew that.”

Harry nodded but didn’t say anything. Ginny had eventually told him all the details of her conversation with Professor Dumbledore. Since then, he’d often noticed when she spouted random bits of information. He had yet to see an example of increased power however.

Ginny punched him lightly on the shoulder in goodbye and turned to leave. She waved at Ron and Hermione who had just entered the common room and started to walk up the stairs.

“Ginny!” Ron raised his voice. “I want to speak with you.”

Harry’s head lifted at the angry tone in Ron’s voice.

“What is it?” Ginny asked impatiently. “I’ve got things to do.”

Ron’s eyes narrowed. “Actually I want to speak to you and Harry.” He looked over at Harry who lifted in eyebrows in question. Ginny huffed and joined them around Harry’s table in front of the fire.

Ron stood, mimicking his sister’s pose with his arms crossed in front of his chest. His gaze flitted from Harry, who was still seated, to Ginny who was glaring at him. Harry thought Ron cut a rather imposing figure and he shot a glance at Hermione who smiled worriedly back.

“I want to know where you two keep disappearing off to all the time. Every time I turn around, you two are sneaking away. Did you think we,” he gestured between himself and Hermione, “wouldn’t notice?”

“Don’t bring me into this, Ronald,” Hermione interrupted. “I think it’s great that Harry and Ginny are friends. You’ve no right-“

“Just answer the question,” Ron interrupted. “Harry?”

Harry closed his potions book slowly and sat back in his chair, his arms dangling loosely off the sides. “I’m really not sure what the big deal is, Ron. Ginny and I are friends. We’re allowed to spend time together.”

Ron’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Friends? Is that all?”

”Now, wait just a minute-” Ginny said hotly. She stopped short when Harry held up a hand.

“What are you asking us, Ron?”

Ron took a deep breath and said quickly: “Are you dating my sister? My 12-year-old, baby sister?”

Harry had opened his mouth to speak but Ginny would not be silenced. “All right, that’s enough,” she said sharply. “Harry and I are friends, nothing more. And frankly, it’s none of your business what we are; if we were something more, it would be no concern of yours.”

“You are my sister,” Ron shot back. “It’s my job to protect you. I didn’t do a bang-up job last year, I know, and I mean to make up for it.”

“By protecting me from Harry?” Ginny laughed. “Ron, he’s your best mate!”

“I know,” Ron shot Harry a small smile. “But you guys are hiding something and I want to know what it is.”

Ginny sighed and exchanged glances with Harry. He shook his head imperceptibly; it was her story to tell and he would not interfere. She ran an agitated hand through her hair, pulling out her ponytail as she went.

“Fine,” she said after a long moment. “I’ll tell you both. But you have to promise to keep it a secret. I don’t want the whole bloody castle to know.”

“Of course, Ginny,” said Hermione. She sounded offended that Ginny would even suggest such a thing.

Ginny checked the room, making sure they were still alone, letting her gaze finally rest on Ron’s. Harry wished he could reach out and squeeze her hand in support but he thought she’d probably deck him for thinking she couldn’t handle this.

“Two months ago I discovered that I’m a parselmouth,” she said, speaking directly to Ron. “It freaked me out and Harry helped me. He took me to see Dumbledore and has spent a good deal of time speaking parseltongue with me so I would be more comfortable with it. That’s all we’ve been doing. Talking to each other and the occasional snake on the grounds. That’s it.”

Hermione gave a small gasp and Ron’s face paled. “You-you-you’re a parselmouth,” he choked. “Like Harry?”

“Yes,” Ginny confirmed. “Like Harry. In fact, just like Harry.”

“Oh!” Hermione said, her eyes going wide. “Then did he…give it to you?”

Ginny tore her gaze from Ron’s to look down at her friend. “Yes,” she said flatly. “He did.”

“Who?” Ron managed. “Harry?”

”No, you idiot,” Hermione said, “Tom Riddle. Voldemort.”

“Don’t say that name,” Ron said through gritted teeth. “Ginny, I don’t understand–what does this mean?”

Ginny gave a louder sigh and shot another look at Harry. He tried to smile encouragingly at her but it came out as more of a grimace.

“Tom Riddle left me some of his powers when he possessed,” Ginny summed up. “Just like Voldemort transferred some of his power to Harry when he was a baby.”

“But-but only dark wizards are parselmouths,” Ron breathed.

“Ronald!”

Harry shot to his feet, ready to defend Ginny, but she shoved him unceremoniously aside and stepped forward.

“Are you saying you think I’m a dark wizard?” she asked her brother quietly.

“No-no, of course not, I just…well, it’s true, isn’t it?” Ron defended himself.

“It’s not true,” Harry said in a low voice. “I’m a parseltongue and I’m not a dark wizard.”

“Well, no Harry, of course you’re not but it’s not your fault He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named tried to kill you and passed on some powers…” his voice trailed off when he saw the menacing look come into Harry’s eyes.

“Neither is it Ginny’s fault,” Harry said harshly. “It’s not her fault Tom Riddle possessed her. I think you owe your sister an apology.”

“For what?!”

“For acting like speaking parseltongue is a bad thing,” Hermione insisted. “I honestly don’t see what the big deal is. So what if they can talk to snakes, it sounds jolly interesting to me-“

“Interesting,” Ron bellowed. “It’s an ability passed down from Salazar Slytherin himself Hermione. It’s not interesting, it’s scary!”

Harry stiffened. He could feel Ginny bristling behind him. He’d expected Ron to be a bit more supportive of his sister. He’d been fairly supportive of Harry last year when everyone found out he could talk to snakes. Why should he treat Ginny any differently?

“I can’t take anymore of this git,” she said to Harry. “I’m going to my room.”

Harry nearly cheered her when he realized she had just spoken to him in parseltongue. Ron’s eyes went wide as Ginny hissed at Harry and then stalked off up the girl’s staircase.

“I’d better go after her.” Hermione shot a scathing look at Ron before following Ginny.

“Ron, mate, you’ve done it this time,” Harry shook his head. “Why did you have to say that?”

“Say what?”

”That it was scary. Merlin, you’re thick sometimes. You saw how hard it was for her to even admit it to you; you heard her say she’d been having a difficult time coming to terms with it! How could you say that to her!?”

Ron raised one eyebrow. “Why are you so concerned?”

“Ginny’s my friend,” Harry said fiercely. “And she doesn’t deserve to be treated that way.”

“I think how I treat my sister is my own business,” Ron pointed out. He fell backwards into a nearby chair with a soft thump. “What’s going on here, Harry? I mean, really. Since when are you and Ginny such good friends?”

Harry both hands through his hair agitatedly. “I just…hell, I just respect her so much, Ron. I mean, she’s been through hell you know? And she’s still here; she’s still fighting for something normal. After what she went through last year, she’s still funny, kind, thoughtful, when she has every reason to hate the world.” He snorted. “And she’d kick your arse and mine put together if we gave her half a reason. She’s like-” he searched his brain for the right word, “hell, I don’t know what I mean. But I don’t think any of us realize how much she controls her-her fury all the time.”

“Her fury?”

Harry half smiled. “Yeah. I really think she’s furious most of the time. Furious at Tom Riddle, furious at that damn diary, furious at Lucius Malfoy for giving the thing to her, furious at herself, furious at you and me for having to rescue her, furious at her brothers for not paying attention to her last year…”

“Okay, okay.” Ron held up a hand. “I get it.”

“She even looks like what you’d imagine fury would look like, doesn’t she?” Harry mused. “All that red hair. When she’s mad, it sort of lights up, you know?”

Ron eyed him critically. “No, I don’t know,” he said. “Are you crushing on my sister?”

Harry shrugged. “No. Not really. I don’t think so. Just…in awe, I suppose. I’m really happy we’re getting to be better friends. Despite how much she hates the parseltongue it just added to the list of things we have in common.”

He sat down in the chair next to Ron’s. “She’s really pretty though,” he pointed out. “You can’t deny that.”

Ron snorted. “I will deny that to my dying day.”

They fell silent, both contemplating the force that was Ginny. Finally, Ron gave a great sigh.

”I guess, you’re right. I’m a git. I should go apologize.”

“Of course I’m right,” Harry said. “And yes, you’re a git. But I think you’re going to have to wait until tomorrow to apologize. Guys aren’t allowed in the girls’ dorms.”

“Ron?”

“Yeah, Harry?”

“What was Ginny like when she was a little girl?”

Ron contemplated the question for a moment before grinning. “You know, Harry, I think your word ‘fury’ sums it up just right.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yeah. She hated being the youngest and the only girl. Mum would try to keep her inside and do girly things with her but she never wanted anything to do with all that stuff. She was always sneaking after us and then, if we were doing something we’d get in trouble for, she’d hold it over our heads until she cashed in the favour. She was a bloody menace. She was sneaky and if she wasn’t getting us blamed for the things she did, she was getting out of them by batting her big brown eyes and tossing her pigtails. She had throwing a temper tantrum down to a fine art.”

Harry laughed. “I can see that.”

“Still, she was awfully cute. We were closest in age so it was often us against the rest of my brothers. We were pretty close growing up; until I came to Hogwarts.” Ron looked towards the staircase. “That’s why what happened last year is more my fault than Percy’s, Fred or George’s. I should have noticed.”

“It’s funny how you both feel so much guilt over what happened when really it wasn’t anyone’s fault but Voldemort. You want to blame someone, blame him.”

Ron heaved a big sigh. “I’ll try, Harry. I’ll try.”

*******
Harry barely saw Ginny over the next several weeks. Ron had yet to apologize to her and she avoided all contact with both of them. Harry couldn’t understand why Ginny seemed mad at him; Hermione eventually had to explain that Ginny felt Harry was betraying her because he was speaking to Ron. Harry had shrugged and brushed it off until a few days later when Ginny ignored him in the hallways and he decided the whole thing made him rather angry. Why should he stop being friends with Ron just because Ginny and Ron were fighting? Ron was his best mate. Harry had already stood up for Ginny to her brother. What more did she want from him?

It wasn’t until Sunday evening that Harry found himself alone with Ginny in the common room. He had been left behind when Ron, Dean and Seamus snuck down to the kitchens because he had yet to make up dire predictions for his Divination homework.

“Ginny,” he began conversationally, “do you think I should die by drowning in the bathtub or be trampled to death by a giant herd of blast-ended skrewts?”

”The latter, I think,” she said idly flipping the newspaper. “It’s more painful.”

“Pain it is then,” Harry said cheerfully and he made the notation on his chart.

He scribbled in a few near-death experiences and finally rolled up the parchment, thankful he was finally done. Shoving the parchment into his bag, he left it by the table and went to join Ginny on the couch. She ignored him, even when he stretched out and propped his feet up in her lap.

”Are you ever going to talk to me again?” he asked her in parseltongue.

Ginny looked up startled that he used the snake language when there were other people in the room. Harry found he didn’t much care.

“Ron’s my best mate,” he continued. “You can’t expect me to stop being friends with your brother simply because you’re mad at him.”

“He’s a git,” she hissed back in a low voice.

Harry took it as a personal triumph that she’d used parseltongue. “Yes, he is,” he agreed. “And I told him so. He’s been trying to apologize to you for days now but you won’t let him.”

Ginny sighed in frustration and tossed the Daily Prophet onto a nearby table. “I’m sorry, Harry. You’re right. You’re allowed to be friends with whomever you want. I just…” her hands curled into fists, “I just want someone to be on my side.”

“I am on your side,” Harry insisted. “Ron was a total prat. But he knows it and you need to accept his apology.”

“He’s my brother,” she said plainly. “It just makes it worse somehow.”

“I know,” said Harry sympathetically. “But you really should give him a chance.”

Ginny shoved his feet off her lap and twisted around on her seat so that her feet lay on his stomach. He put a hand down and absentmindedly rubbed them.

“I’m sorry,” she said finally, switching back to English.

“You ought to be. I didn’t do anything except defend you.”

“I know,” she said. “You’ve been really great. I just…lost my temper, I suppose.”

“You do that a lot,” Harry said. “I think I’ll call you ‘Fury’ from now on.”

“Fury?”

“Yeah,” Harry grinned up at the ceiling. “With that red hair and your temper–you’re the personification of fury.”

“That’s silly,” Ginny reached down and pinched his thigh. He retaliated by tickling the bottoms of her feet, which nearly got him a kick in the nose. Soon, they were laughing as each tried to tickle the other. The fight eventually ended when Ginny fell off the couch pulling Harry with her. He landed on top of her with a soft ‘oomph.’

“I win, Fury,” he drawled, shifting his weight to his arms.

“Don’t call me that!” Ginny reached up and tugged at his hair. He grabbed her wrist to stop her just as Ron entered the common room. They both froze.

Ron stood looking down at them with a blank look on his face. Harry rolled off Ginny and quickly got to his feet. Ginny merely sat up, propping herself against the couch, a mask of innocence on her face.

“Um, tickle fight?” Harry explained. Ginny nodded in agreement but Ron didn’t look like he believed them.

“Honestly, Ron,” Ginny finally huffed, “just what is your–hey!” Ron had reached down and grabbed her under the arm. He hauled her to her feet and dragged up the stairs all the way to the boys’ third-year dorm while she protested loudly.

Her brother shoved her inside the room and closed the door behind him. Ginny sat on the edge of the closest bed and crossed her arms over her chest. Brother and sister were silent, watching each other warily.

“He makes you laugh,” Ron said finally. He suddenly looked weary.

“Who? Harry?”

Ron nodded.

“Sometimes.” She shrugged. “So what?”

“I haven’t heard you really laugh since before last year,” Ron clarified.

“Oh, well-“

“Let me finish,” Ron held up a hand. “I’m sorry for what I said about you being a parselmouth. I don’t really think that; it was just the shock.

“I failed you so spectacularly last year, Ginny,” he said earnestly. “I’m trying not to do it again.”

”By being suspicious of my friendship with Harry? By looking for signs that I’ve turned into a dark wizard?”

Ron shook his head. “No, by paying attention to what’s going on with you.”

“You can’t know what’s going on with me every minute,” said Ginny, an edge of frustration creeping into her voice.

”I know.” Ron ran an agitated hand through his hair. “But we used to be friends, you and I. Can’t we get back to that? I want you to trust me like you trust Harry.”

Ginny titled her head as she considered his request. She hadn’t thought about it but he was right–she did trust Harry, despite the odds of her ever wanting to trust anyone again. After all, the last time she’d trusted someone so completely, he’d turned out to be Voldemort.

“Friends,” she repeated slowly. “Okay. What about the protective brother bit?”

He smiled sheepishly at her. “I’ve been trying; haven’t you noticed? I didn’t even blow up about that little scene down there with Harry. Although I am dying to know-“

“It was nothing,” she confirmed. “Just a tickle fight that got out of hand. That’s all.”

“And there’s nothing between you two?”

She shrugged. “We’re friends. We’ve a lot in common, but no, nothing beyond that.”

”What about your little crush on him last year? Don’t try to deny it, even I wasn’t that thick.”

“I’m not denying it,” she said hotly. “But it’s over. We’re friends. He knows that.”

“Fine, fine,” Ron said, holding up his hands and backing away. “Just checking.”

“So are we done here?” Ginny pushed herself off the bed and walked over to the door.

“Yeah, except-” Ron hesitated and then took a step closer to her. He tentatively put his arms around her shoulders and gave her a small, awkward hug. She returned the hug, just as awkwardly and they both left the room considerably lighter than they had before.

*******
Later that night, Harry was searching through his trunk for a spare bit of parchment when he noticed that his invisibility cloak was missing. He panicked for a short while before he remembered that Ginny had been in the room earlier in the afternoon. In fact, now that thought about it, he hadn’t seen Ginny at all after her talk with Ron. Would she have taken it?

He quickly got out the map and scanned the parchment for Ginny’s dot. She was in the Astronomy Tower. He checked his watch. It was still before curfew. He could just make it.

Ten minutes later, Harry entered a seemingly empty Astronomy Tower. He knew Ginny was there. He smelled a familiar flowery scent in the room.

“I know you’re here,” he said confidently. “And next time you might ask before you nick my cloak.

A swish of fabric revealed Ginny at the window. “Sorry,” she said apologetically. “I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“I don’t,” he said honestly. “But still, I’d like to be asked.”

“Sorry,” she said again, unnecessarily.

“Everything okay?” Harry was taking a tremendous chance with this question. Their relationship so far had been based on mutual understanding and similar experiences. Despite their many conversations over the past few months, they hadn’t spent a lot of time on ‘feelings.’

“I’m fine,” she reassured him. “Just thinking.”

“About what?” He joined her at the window.

She shot a sidelong glance at him. “Nosy aren’t we?”

“Look, Ginny,” he said firmly. “I’m trying to be your friend here. You might meet me halfway and tell me what’s troubling you. I might be able to help.”

“I just feel,” she waved a hand, “weird. Life is changing and I know I won’t ever get it back. My brother wants to be my friend; my mother sends me letters and avoids all mention of what she really wants to ask, namely, ‘am I being possessed this year?’ Fred and George make every effort to not treat me with kid gloves but it only makes it apparent that they are. My professors look at me weirdly, I’ve got regular nightmares about Voldemort. Oh yeah, and I’ve also got a connection to said dark wizard which allows me to speak parseltongue along with as yet undiscovered abilities.”

She took a deep breath and turned to Harry. “I know I’m the whiniest bitch on the planet but when did everything spiral out of my control, Harry? I feel like an adult trapped in a child’s body. I’ve got nothing in common with anyone my own age…”

Her voice trailed off and Harry was struck again with a sudden clarity that this was what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him last year. Who else but someone who had been there could understand what she meant?

“I’ve said this before and I will repeat it until I am blue in the face or until you get it,” he said fiercely. “I. Understand.”

“He took so much from me,” Ginny said softly. “I don’t know if I’ll ever get it back.”

Harry shrugged. “So what? You’ll replace those things with something else.” He took a step closer so their shoulders were just brushing.

“He left the important stuff, Ginny. You still have a family who loves you, friends, a sense of humour…” Harry’s voice trailed off. He’d never had to comfort someone before; perhaps he was doing a crap up job.

“Maybe,” Ginny said.

“Maybe nothing,” he snorted. “Look, things would have been different if last year never happened, sure. And who knows what kind of person I’d be if my parents had survived and I never had to go live with my Aunt and Uncle? But there’s no point in such speculation. This is who we are; and for whatever reason, this is who we were meant to be. We have to learn to live with what we’ve been given; otherwise, what’s the point, Gin?”

She was silent for a moment and then she turned to him, the beginnings of a smile on her face. “You make a lot of sense for a boy, Potter.”

Harry was relieved. He felt like he was flying by the seat of his pants; what he’d said had been extremely sappy and he wondered where it came from. If Hermione had heard him, she would have been so proud.

“Feel better?”

“A little. It’s going to take a while to get used to,” she said. “Everything is so different that what I thought it would be. For example, who knew we would ever be friends like this?”

He nudged her with his elbow. “You mean because of your massive crush on me?”

She nudged him back just as hard. “Git. That’s not what I mean. Besides, you know I’m over that.”

“Great. I’ll go tell the butter dishes it’s safe to come out now.”

“Harry Potter!”

Harry laughed and skipped nimbly out of her reach. She lunged again but he moved away just in time. He laughed at her from across the room. “Okay, I’m sorry. I take it back.”

“And you’ll never mention that,” she shuddered, “incident again?”

“I promise,” he swore. He moved back over to stand next to her. “Can I try something?”

She looked at him warily.

“What?”

“It’s just something new I want to try,” he said mildly. “It’s part of the new sensitive Harry Potter. I’ve never done this before so I may be rubbish; you let me know what you think.”

Harry stepped even closer to her and slowly slid both arms around her. He pulled her against him, her head tucked underneath his chin, and squeezed gently. It was the first time he’d ever hugged a girl; Hermione usually hugged him but he’d never initiated it.

Harry was amazed when he could feel Ginny’s tense body slowly relaxing. Her body did this weird melting sort of thing until she was moulded against the front of him. Her arms slid around his waist and, astonishingly, she squeezed back until they were hugging each other. His head dropped onto her shoulder of its own accord and his arms wrapped themselves tighter around her tiny body. Harry felt sort of tingly, as if some age-old instinct had awoken in him. His body seemed to know what to do before his brain did.

Eventually, Ginny gave a small sigh and extracted herself from his arms. Harry felt dazed. Hugging Hermione, as nice as it was, was never like that.

“That-” Ginny cleared her throat, “that was really nice, Harry. Thank you.”

He could only nod in response. “Any time,” he finally managed to say.

Ginny raised her eyes at him but didn’t comment. Instead, she gathered the invisibility cloak from where she’d dropped it on the floor and held it up. “We’ll have to go together. It’s past curfew.”

He nodded and took the cloak from her, spreading it out and holding one corner of it up so she could slide underneath. They moved silently together, Ginny in front as they made their way back to Gryffindor Tower. There was a tenseness between them that had not existed before the hug in the Astronomy Tower and Harry felt determined to move past it.

“Just so you know,” he leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “if we get caught, I’m shoving you out of the cloak and taking off.”

“Not if I shove you first,” she whispered back.

“Oh, please,” Harry scoffed. “A tiny thing like you? I could take you.”

“I may be small, but I’m mighty,” she warned.

Harry grinned. “I know, Fury, believe me, I know.”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Sorry, but I don’t have a choice. The name has stuck, you see.”

“How would you like it if I thought of a horrible nickname for you?”

Harry shrugged. “Do your worst.”

“Scarhead?”

”Too Malfoy.”

“Specky-four-eyes?”

”Too juvenile.”

“Heir of Slytherin?”

“Too...”

“Right. Sorry. Bad joke.”

“Can’t you think of anything good? I think ‘Fury’ is an excellent name. It describes you perfectly.”

“Well the only thing that describes you perfectly is git. Guess’ll I just have to call you that.”


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