Thanks again to Victor Aagaard for betaing this story.
One more chapter to come. I'm going to post it next week.
Please read and review.
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Growing Closer | ||||||
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Category: Post-OotP, Alternate Universe Characters:Harry/Ginny, Harry/Ginny, Hermione Granger, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley, Ron Weasley Genres: Fluff, General, Humor Warnings: None Story is Complete Rating: PG Reviews: 19 Summary: Post OotP. It’s the summer before Harry's sixth year, and he's still dwelling on Sirius' death. Harry and Ginny are growing closer as Harry stops blaming himself for Sirius having died. Hitcount: Story Total: 9182; Chapter Total: 3512 Author's Notes: |
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Growing Closer - Chapter 1 It was three days since Harry had arrived at the Burrow, three days in which he had been moping around and shutting himself off to everyone who cared about him. In short he was exactly the same as he had been at Christmas. The difference was that this time he was blaming himself for Sirius’ death and not for the attack on Mr Weasley. Harry was reserved with everyone at The Burrow and if anyone mentioned Sirius then he would fly out of the house and into the garden, alone. Mrs Weasley thought he just needed to work through it and come to terms with Sirius’s death on his own, Ron and Hermione thought that he needed to talk with someone and let all his feelings out instead of bottling them up inside of him. He certainly didn’t want to talk to an Order member because that would just make his pain worse and Remus Lupin was out of the question because he was off on a task for the Order. So, finally Ron and Hermione came to the conclusion that the only person who could help Harry with what he was going through was Ginny and they resolved to ask her as soon as they got the chance. Ginny watched silently as Harry left the room, saying that he was tired, after he had half heartedly finished playing a game of wizard chess with Ron. She felt a gnawing sense of worry for him as he closed the door behind him with a sharp click. As soon as the door was closed and Harry’s footsteps faded as he went upstairs, Hermione pounced. “Ginny, you need to talk to Harry.” “What for?” replied Ginny, surprised. “He’s blaming himself for Sirius’ death and he’s shutting us all out, he won‘t talk about it to us at all,” said Ron, a frown appearing on his forehead. “What makes you think that he’ll talk to me if he won‘t talk to you?” asked Ginny. “He listened to you at Christmas when he thought he was being possessed by You Know Who,” replied Ron. “All I did was tell him the truth because I knew what it felt like,” Ginny muttered, a shadow crossing her face. “Tell him the truth again,” finished Hermione simply, “He needs to know that he’s not to blame and that he can’t cut himself off from us forever.” Ginny thought back to how Harry had been since he had arrived at The Burrow and he had hardly been speaking to anyone. It was as if he had withdrawn into himself and didn’t really notice anyone around him. “I’ll try but I can’t promise that I’ll be able to help him.” The next night at dinner, Mr Weasley had news of the Death Eaters. “Kingsley is fairly sure that Bellatrix Lestrange and some of the other Death Eaters are at hiding out at Lucius Malfoy’s place. He’s sending some Aurors tomorrow to find out and hopefully catch them.” At the mention of Bellatrix Lestrange, Harry got up from the table, an angry scowl on his handsome face, and left through the back door. “Ron, go and see if he’s alright,” said Mrs Weasley worriedly. Seeing her chance to talk to Harry, Ginny got up from the table. “It’s okay, Mum, I’ll go. I’ve finished eating.” Ginny left the kitchen and hurried after Harry who was going across the garden. She followed him around the side of the pond and out to the paddock where they played Quidditch. Hastening after him, she followed Harry into the trees and was surprised to find him sitting on a log in a clearing with his head in his hands. Moving quietly so as not to startle him, she sat down. Attempting a cheery tone she said, “I thought I was the only one who came and sat here. It‘s the only place I can escape from my brothers for a bit of peace and quiet.” “I saw it once when I was flying with Ron,” muttered Harry into his hands. Taking a deep breath, Ginny decided to get straight to the point. “Everyone is worried about you, shutting yourself off like this.” “It’s for their own good.” “What do you mean?” asked Ginny, confused by Harry’s answer. Finally, Harry lifted his head, tears in his emerald eyes, and looked straight at Ginny. “Don’t you see? Everyone who cares about me ends up dying, all I do is cause people to die or get hurt.” “Don’t you dare talk like that! That’s not true and you know it. You didn’t cause Sirius to die, that was Bellatrix Lestrange,” replied Ginny angrily. “It was my fault that he went to the Department of Mysteries, my fault all of you went. I could have got you killed, Ginny. Don’t you care about that?” fumed Harry. “I went because I chose to go, and so did Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, Sirius and all the other Order members. You were tricked by Voldemort but you still went to try and save Sirius.” “And I got him killed!” “No you didn’t,” said Ginny more calmly than she felt, “When you saw that vision of Sirius being tortured you went willingly even though you knew that there were going to be Death Eaters there. It could just as easily been you who got killed, or me, or any one of us who were there. Look, what I’m trying to say is that Sirius knew that there would be Death Eaters there, just as we all did. It was Voldemort’s and Bellatrix’s faults that Sirius died, not yours.” “I still feel responsible,” whispered Harry softly. “I still felt responsible for nearly killing Hermione and all those others in my first year, even though I knew whose fault it really was,” replied Ginny, shivering at the memory of her first year and the Chamber of Secrets. “It was Voldemort who did that, not you,” answered Harry darkly. “I know that now, but it didn’t make me feel any better after it happened, because deep down I’ll always know that it was partly my fault.” “That really wasn’t your fault. How could it be?” asked Harry. “I was the one who was stupid enough to write in that diary in the first place,” said Ginny, looking at the ground. “Ginny you-” She cut him off. “Let’s just agree to disagree on that one. I came out here to stop you from blaming yourself for Sirius’ death. Have I succeeded?” “Yes, you’re right, nothing could have stopped Sirius from going. He would probably have gone even if I hadn’t been there, if it had just been the Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries. I still miss him though, a lot.” “I miss him too you know, he was a great person,” said Ginny softly. They slipped into a companionable silence with Ginny trying not to think about how close they were sitting and how warm Harry’s leg felt against hers when Harry broke the silence with a question that had been on his mind since the train ride home from Hogwarts. “How’s Dean?” “I don‘t really know,” replied Ginny, shrugging. “I thought you were going out with him.” Ginny rolled her eyes and laughed. “I only said that to shut Ron up, you know what a pain he can be sometimes.” Harry laughed with her. “Yeah, so you’re not going out with him?” “No, why?” replied Ginny, looking curiously at Harry. “No reason, I just wondered,” said Harry casually, his insides jumping, as he sneaked a look at Ginny’s face, half hidden under her long flaming red hair. “You know, you can always talk to me Harry, you don’t need to shut yourself away from your feelings.” “I know I can,” said Harry, standing up, “Should we go back in? I need to apologise to your mum for storming out like that.” “Yeah,” replied Ginny, taking the hand he offered her. They walked back down the hill to The Burrow in silence, with Ginny wondering why Harry hadn’t let go of her hand. Not that she was complaining, when her small hand fit so nicely into Harry’s much larger one. Ginny might have made out to everyone all year that she no longer had feelings for Harry but that was definitely not true. She had become good friends with Harry over the past year and had done her best to ignore the fact that he had spent most of it mooning over Cho. Thank Merlin he was over her now. If anything she felt more for Harry now because she had got over her hero worship of him and got to know him properly, as the person he really was. Harry also had a similar train of thought. One which consisted of a voice in his head, his own voice for once, screaming happily that Ginny wasn’t going out with Dean after all. The main reason for this was that after his disastrous date with Cho, Harry had in fact started noticing Ginny in a much different way to what he had previously. He hoped sincerely that Hermione had been wrong, if that was even possible, when she had told him that Ginny had given up on him. Not to mention hoping that he hadn’t imagined Ron hinting on the train ride home from Hogwarts that Ginny should choose Harry as her boyfriend. Especially since he really liked the feel of her hand in his. |
| Reviews 19 |
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