Okay, so this hit me and I’m writing it because I want to see what happens…right now it’s mostly angst, bordering on flangst, I guess, but there will be fluff! Just be patient!
Harry Potter — Weekly Review
By Ella Chant, Witch Weekly Staff Writer
Harry Potter was always the charmer and since he defeated Voldemort and was accepted into the Auror Academy, things have been going very well for this nineteen-year-old young man.
Recently, he was seen in Diagon Alley on three separate occasions with three different women, all beautiful and perhaps foreign, as our reporter overheard Harry and his date speaking French at one time.
Although there is no evidence that Harry and any of these girls are permanently hitched, it is quite evident that Harry and Ginny Weasly, his girlfriend of over a year — spanning half of his last year at Hogwarts and half of her last year, following that — are no longer attached.
Harry was also spotted at Quality Quidditch Supplies buying a new Firebolt 2, the fastest broom on the market. Rumors are that he will take up the sport with an amateur league, as soon as he finishes his Auror training.
There were also protests outside the Academy to graduate Harry Potter — after all, the boy who defeated Lord Voldemort shouldn’t need more classes on how to defeat the dark arts! However, the Board of Aurors remains firm and this reporter assumes that Harry Potter will be training for some time to come.
“It’s ridiculous,” Ginny Weasly said. “You know, I’m surprised Harry hasn’t done something about this stupid reporter and her weekly Harry update already.”
“Give him time,” Hermione Weasly replied. “He doesn’t read Witch Weekly, so I doubt he knows about the press. And maybe he’s enjoying it. A little bit of positive attention can’t hurt.”
“’Girlfriend of over a year,’” Ginny said, pointing to the offending line. “’No longer attached’ — well, of course we aren’t! We broke up two Christmases ago. And they make it sound all grand that Harry’s nineteen, but he just had his birthday!”
“Nobody ever said the press was unbiased,” Hermione said gently, taking the magazine out of Ginny’s hands. “Don’t you find some of it funny, though? Like those protestors…you and I both know that Harry would never take the easy road, even if they offered it to him.”
Ginny shrugged her shoulders. She had trouble thinking about Harry these days without getting terribly angry or terribly upset. There was something nobody else knew about their relationship….
That Christmas, they had claimed their breakup was mutual and the cause was a big row. But it wasn’t true. Harry had calmly explained that she was a weakness and he couldn’t afford weaknesses, with the duel growing closer. And so they had separated with a promise to get back together — if Harry was still alive — after Voldemort was defeated.
But Harry had lived. Ginny had given him that summer for space, but throughout her final school year, she had gotten anxious, waiting for a visit, a letter, anything. She held her breath through Christmas and Valentine’s Day and by now, the fully qualified witch was simply mad.
She was at the Burrow now, over the summer — and it was August — waiting to start her new job at The Daily Prophet in September.
A small part of her accepted the fact that she had chosen to start work in September, rather than July or August because she was hoping that Harry would show up at the Burrow and they would have a lovely reunion and move in together and get engaged and married and have three kids…but the greater part of her ignored that tiny detail and pretended that she need time off of school before the stress of work began to gnaw away at her.
She wasn’t even quite certain if she could forgive Harry.
“I found her!” Ron said, coming into the room quite suddenly. Then, louder, “Mum, I found Ginny! She’s in the living room with Hermione!”
“You don’t have to shout,” Hermione said to her husband, looking miffed. “And Ginny and I were just talking, nothing wrong with that, is there?”
“No,” Ron replied carefully, “but Mum wanted me to give this letter to Gin. So, here.” Ron handed Ginny the parchment and stalked out — which prompted Hermione to follow with cries of:
“Ron! Wait, Ron! Hold up! Ron! Ron! Ron! Would you just listen a minute?”
Dear Ginny,
I am an awful person. I’m sure you’ll agree with me, because you’re the person I’ve been awful to. I didn’t forget about you — I want to say that right now — but I tried.
Not because I don’t still love you. That will never happen. I tried to forget about you because I was afraid that I carried too much pain around that that I was going to load it all on you and you don’t deserve that, Ginny. You deserve somebody who’s got a house and a dog and a good job in the Ministry.
I can’t forget you, though. I realized it, just after the battle, you were the first think I thought about. I nearly went running to you, but I couldn’t. I never needed you more, but somehow, I felt as though I’d died, rather than Voldemort, and I needed some time.
So I waited. I waited the whole summer and fall and when Christmas rolled around again I nearly went to the Burrow to find you. But, again, I couldn’t. I just couldn’t bear to use you as a security blanket. I don’t want to treat you like that, Ginny.
And now it’s August and I’m nineteen and an Auror and Witch Weekly is spouting all sorts of nonsense about me that I’m afraid you’ve read. You always were one for magazines like that. I’ve tried going out with girls in my attempt to forget you, but like I said before, it was pointless to even try.
So I’m writing you this letter. I don’t know if you still want me. I did say I’d be back and I didn’t come. I’m giving you my flat address, so if you want to visit me, you can. Or if you’d rather I visit you, that’s fine as well. Just owl me.
It’s all right if you don’t want to meet me, too. I can certainly understand that. I just feel like I’ve gathered myself together now, so I’m ready to see you. If you’ll have me.
Love,
Harry
It took Ginny a minute to comprehend the page. It was what she’d been waiting for all year. It was appropriately sad and upset and desperate and hopeless without being altogether depressing. It sounded like Harry, too, and it made her feel somewhat warm inside.
But at the same time…it wasn’t good enough. I’ll owl him, she thought, and I’ll tell him that I need him to come here. It might work. She might even get her mother to invite him for dinner, so she could see him surrounded by her anxious, protective brothers and her parents.
Confrontation, however, would come. Even if Ginny tried to ignore it, Harry would be there to see her alone. And eventually he would drag her out to the woods and they would have it out, the two of them and he would beg for forgiveness, and Ginny wouldn’t be able to say no. And just like that, she’d forgive him for the pain he’d caused her…it simply wasn’t worth it.