Anima

You asked what happened between Ginny and Harry. Here ya go.

Chapter 11

Ginny looked herself over critically, smoothing down her red locks and glancing over her makeup. Gone was the plain Jane girl of last year and in her place was a budding woman. She glanced down at her shirt and snorted to herself. Budding was right. Still, she was willowy so she wasn’t expecting large breasts but still, a girl could dream. Tilting her head, she pulled at her shirt a bit before concluding Hogwarts uniforms were not intended to show off a girl’s figure. She sighed to herself and threw on her wizarding cloak over the school uniform, her smile turning bitter as she gently extracted the picture in the mirror frame. Either Fred or George had taken it just outside of the Burrow, she wasn’t sure which. She and Ron horsing around, Harry whizzing passed on his broom.

Her heart clenched briefly and she closed her eyes, pressing the picture close as she took slow breaths. Her mum was always saying she thought too much and she was right. Immediately thoughts of Harry threw her into the past...


...
“Ginny-...I, um...”

Ginny frowned slightly, not sure what was wrong with Harry. He reeked of alcohol, that much was painfully obvious. His clothes were torn and his glasses were broken but whatever was going on he was absolutely heartbroken about. She shook her head and opened the door to her room further, quietly ushering him within her private domain. She wasn’t even sure if her mum knew Harry was here at the Burrow and frankly she didn’t care. Something was really wrong.

Leading Harry inside, she pulled out her wand and carefully cast a privacy spell after shutting the door. Just a little one. Hopefully small enough that the Ministry wouldn’t notice her using her wand outside of school. But this way she and Harry could talk within the safety of the Burrow without her family barging in uninvited. The walls were so thin between rooms she would have been in constant fear of her parents hearing them and investigating.

Harry collapsed on the first available surface which just happened to be the closed lid to her Hogwarts trunk, bending to hang his head between his knees. Immediately she thought about school for some strange reason, the eager anticipation for sixth year fast approaching as summer quickly gave way to autumn. Shaking her head softly to rid herself of stray thoughts, she sat on the bed next to him. Reaching out to gently touch his arm, “What is it, Harry?” The dark haired boy glanced up before looking away, green eyes staring sightlessly at the ground before very slowly extracting a well used wand from a hidden pocket and handing it to her. She took it with a deep frown, not understanding. But upon closer inspection she blinked in surprise. It was made of oak, Ron’s upgraded wand. She almost gasped as a silent tear slowly streaked down Harry’s cheek. Suddenly, she was hit with an awful insight and she prayed she was wrong, “Harry? Where’s Ron?”

She knew the pair of them had been traveling around together all summer, searching for a way to defeat Voldemort. But they were careful, right? Or surely they had protection or something. Right? He looked up with tears in his eyes and a sob in his throat and her hands flew to cover her mouth, the wand dropping to the floor from nerveless fingers as she started rapidly shaking her head over and over again, “Ginny...I...I’m so-...”

His head jerked to the side from the vicious slap, Ginny’s temper pulling an about-face from overwhelming sadness and despair to rage. She thought of all the adventures the boys dragged each other on. All the needless risks that could have gotten one or both of them killed over all of these years. She thought about poor Hermione out there all on her own because they’d left her behind, but it was more than that. She thought about how if Hermione or her or an Order member or even one Auror had gone with them, Ron might be coming home again. But he wouldn’t. She’d never see her big brother again. He was gone. Dead. And nothing Harry could do or say now could fix that, “Get out.” He moved a fraction of an inch towards her, his face reflecting astonishment as she rejected his touch and screamed in his face, “Get out!!”
...


She shook her head to herself. Maybe he was really drunk because she knew all too well how the male species reacted to heartbreak in that state. Maybe the Slytherin cursed him with Imperious or something. The end result had been Harry sleeping with Daphne Greengrass that night and that as they say was that. She’d never forgiven him after that, but she seemed to feel more anger about Daphne over Ron and it sounded absolutely horrible just thinking it. Not to mention where had he actually gone to run into the little pureblood snot in the first place?

“What’s wrong, Weaslette?” Ginny sighed and looked over her shoulder, seeing Draco leaning against the door jam in his Hogwarts’ robes and hair a mess of haphazard spikes. Sexy was all she could think but he was Hermione’s so she didn’t dwell.

She ignored his question since he wouldn’t be interested in her mess of a love life, ex or otherwise. Instead she focused on his constant need to call her either Weaslette or Red when it suited him, “Why do you insist on calling me that?”

He frowned to himself for half a minute, letting her direct the conversation to ponder her question before just shrugging, “Don’t know. I like nicknames, I suppose...and for you it fits.”

A shadow of a grin tugged at her lips, “Usually nicknames are reserved for friends.” He shrugged to himself again, grey eyes curiously looking over her empty space even as he occupied the door jam. She was suddenly struck with the realization of how tall he was. Taller than six feet and certainly more so than she remembered in school. He’d actually been a bit short for a guy from what she could remember. He must have had a hell of a growth spurt since she’d last seen him. Shaking her head, irritated with her lack of concentration lately, “So we’re best mates now?”

His head tilted a bit, again thinking before whipping around and heading for the living room, calling over his shoulder, “Not yet.”

Ginny blinked twice before grinning for real. Ever since they’re initial meeting, Draco had slowly showed her in his own subtle Slytherin way that he liked her, but this was the first time he said something like that. Being the hopeless Gryffindor that she was, she liked to think the Slytherin was her friend but she was never completely sure. Still, he was in love with Hermione, of that she knew for sure, so Mione would make him behave himself.

She took a last look around her barren bedroom and slipped the picture into a hidden pocket of her robes. Sending a silent farewell, she tapped her trunk to follow as she walked into her small living room. After the war she’d moved out of the Burrow and into a small one bedroom flat in London, just to get a taste for muggle living. But now that she was going back to school she’d given her notice to move back to Hogwarts for one more year. Hermione was already in the living room, enlisting Draco’s help in shrinking down all of her possessions until they were no bigger than a match box.

The blond was a tad faster and scooped them up before Hermione could get to them. Grinning devilishly, holding all of her things between thumb and forefinger, “Anyone have a light?” Hermione smacked his shoulder and he just continued grinning even as he handed it over. Ginny sighed softly in relief and she was almost shocked to see his expression soften just a fraction, “Just a joke.”

She nodded with a shrug and a smile, “I know.”

Hermione pointed and shrank her trunk and Ginny picked it up easily, stuffing it into the pocket with all of her other things, “So, ready?”

The small redhead slowly exhaled, taking a last look around. She was going to miss her small home but she was eager to finish up school and finally be off on her own adventures. Then she caught the little smirk on Draco’s face and she realized seventh year was going to be chock-ful of adventure at Hogwarts. Especially with the former Slytherin Prince along for the ride. Smiling brightly, “Oh yeah...”