5 Nights of Promises by Isabelle



Summary: COMPLETED! WARNING: ANGST AHEAD! If he promises her tomorrow, he'll also have to promise her forever and forever is not his to give. Set post-HBP. A series of short stories of 5 nights after Harry's 6th year.
Rating: PG starstarstarstarstar
Categories: Post-HBP
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: None
Published: 2005.07.23
Updated: 2005.07.27


5 Nights of Promises by Isabelle
Chapter 1: Pledge to a Earring
Author's Notes:

Spoilers : post-HBP!!

Summary: A watcher in the crowd and a pledge unbroken.

Pairings: Just Harry/Ginny - yeah, OTP!!

Rating: PG (for slight language)

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Around them he had never felt like such an outsider. Perhaps because he was indeed truly not there. He hid under his invisibility cloak. Never had he felt like such a coward. He would reveal himself a bit later. But for now he just wanted to watch them.

Particularly he wanted to watch her without people thinking he still had feelings for her. He would have to be indifferent once he made his presence known. He couldn't risk her life - he wouldn't be able to bare it.

She looked beautiful, he thought. All soft and golden. The closer he got to her the more her flowery scent, which continuously surrounded her, infatuated him. Lulled him, reminded him of times when he bathed himself in her scent.

She was helping Gabrielle with the flowers in her hair; laughing with the younger girl. When she walked away from the pre-wedding preparations and went to her room alone, he followed her - intent on only watching her. Just watching her from far away - or up close without getting too near. Without letting her sense him.

He's never seen her look so pretty. Her hair was longer now - it seemed like the two months they'd spent apart had made it grow inches. He longed to touch it like he did once. He truly longed to hold her and make the entire world go away. Make the war go away. Make his destiny disappear.

But he couldn't do that. Not until Voldemort was gone - not until he had defeated him.

Life would have to wait until then.

He entered her room after her and watched her as she opened her wardrobe. He'd never really entered her room and was not surprised to find photos of him on her dresser. One was of both of them caught on one of those rare occasions when they relaxed by the lake. He'd remembered that day. He'd forgotten he was Harry Potter then. He was just a boy in love with Ginny.

In love with Ginny.

"How long are you going to stare at me, Potter?" her voice cut into his thoughts. He sharply looked up and there she was - sitting on the bed, idly painting her toe nails.

He cleared his throat and pulled the cloak off him slowly.

He'd never been able to fool her.

"Hermione brought me these two colors - should I use Golden Amber or Tempting Fuchsia?" she spoke to him as if they had just seen each other a minute ago and it was perfectly normal.

"Errr...." he shuffled his feet.

"It won’t matter - both will annoy Fleur." she smiled sadly. "She's not that bad, you know." She said after a term of silence.

He sat next to her, making sure their bodies weren't touching. She sighed audibly.

"Are you planning on being silent and not saying a word?" she turned and looked at him.

"I don't know what to say." he said truthfully.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and smiled. "I'm glad you're f-fine... you just disappeared from the Muggle's home... we didn't know were you went off to..."

"I've been with Aurors... they've been keeping me secret... been training and such-"

"For the showdown." she interrupted, her voice crispy but controlled.

Harry looked away and towards her window. "You looked happy out there."

"I am happy, Harry. This war makes me sad but I will not let it get in the way of my happiness." She sounded resolute.

"Good."

"I will get my happiness, Harry. Someday I'll marry - find true love, have many children and live to see old age."

There was a stabbing pain inside of Harry. It was bitter, cold and wretched. He could see her vision. He could see her happy and laughing with many children and a loving, normal husband at her side. He hated that view. To think of her with anyone else made him sick to his stomach. The monster he thought long dead was breathing fire now.

"Right..." Harry stood abruptly. "I won’t get in the way."

"I know you won’t, Harry. Because you will be that man."

He would admit that the pain inside completely disappeared, it was quickly replaced with elation but even more quickly drowned by thoughts of doom.

"Ginny..."

"Why did you come here, Harry? To tell me once more this is for the best? I will ask nothing of you except to come back to me when you're done. I will be waiting, Harry. But I will also be fighting, Harry...by your side. I swear I will."

Panic rose in him at the thought of her fighting. Just to think about it ....

"I can't have you out there!" he exploded. "What if something happens - I can't be worrying about you!"

She looked at him passively - and he met her eyes. She was the strongest woman he had ever met and she told him everything in one look. She stepped carefully towards him and grabbed one of his hands.

"You think I'm safe in the Burrow? At Hogwarts? There are other ways to fight. There are other war zones. Helping in clinics, hospitals, in research... I can't sit back and do nothing." Her voice was calm but Harry could see her fierceness was threatening to break free.

He nodded slowly. "Just be careful, will you?"

She smiled slowly and leaned into him. He should have walked away but the furious monster that Ginny Weasley had created inside of him was stronger than both of them and very quickly his arms were wrapped around her and he was surrounded by her scent.

After months of training, researching and hard work it felt like at long last he was coming home.

He leaned in to kiss her. He had forgotten the euphoria that was her mouth.

When they pulled apart she looked intently at him.

"I love you, Harry Potter." She whispered harshly. "So you come back to me, you hear? Or I swear I'll hunt your soul down to hell itself just to Bat-Bogey-Hex you back to oblivion!"

He laughed at her comment and kissed her again.

"I've got to go... I've lingered here too long." He reluctantly pulled away from the warmth of her arms and grabbed his invisibility coat.

She watched him until only his head remained.

"So this is how our meetings will be, then? Every few months or so you'll come knocking at my door... we'll have our little rendezvous and until later?"

He was saddened by her depiction of their actions. "You know I wish it weren't like this."

"I know.... I know, Harry." She paused and turned quickly to her dresser, pulled out a box and opened it. From inside she pulled a small silky sack. "Ron, Hermione and I have special permission to use magic when warranted. I'm making this a warranted case." He watched as she revealed a pair of old pearl earrings. "Our family has never had much," she blushed slightly. "... but being the only female Weasley, I inherited these. They were my grandmother's... they're the earrings I am to wear on my wedding day."

She placed them on her palm and muttered an incantation. The small earrings glowed bright green then went back to their normal coloring.

"You take one and I'll take the other." She handed him one of the earrings, which he took - still a bit confused. "During the First War my grandfather fought right into his old age but he was always connected with my grandmother using these earrings. When you desperately need to see me... or I desperately need to see you; speak my name to the earring and the happiest memory we shared will be shown."

Harry looked at the earring eagerly and then back at Ginny. There was a single tear track on her right check.

"I hate the war... I hate Vol-Voldemort, I hate this prophesy," she said with some strength. "But what I hate the most is how it feels like it drains all the happiness away..."

A thick lump felt to Harry's throat and he reached out and cleaned her tear track. "You'll wear these earrings someday, Ginny. And that's the a promise I make to you."

He pulled away from her, pocketed the prized earring and disappeared under the cloak.

Ginny gasped and went towards him but he pulled back and walked out the door. He had to leave. If he stayed in her presence a moment longer he would cave in. But he couldn't cave.

Their future was in his hands.

He would not die to make sure she got her happiness... he would live to make sure she would.

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end part 1



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