Search:

SIYE Time:10:43 on 9th December 2024
SIYE Login: no


Shelter
By redandraven

- Text Size +

Category: Alternate Universe, Post-HBP
Characters:Harry/Ginny
Genres: Fluff, General, Romance
Warnings: None
Story is Complete
Rating: PG
Reviews: 27
Summary: A missing one-shot from DH. Molly went to check on them all when they arrived at Shell Cottage, and Ginny tagged along to sit with Harry on his cliff overlooking the sea.
Hitcount: Story Total: 6897



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
This didn't happen, but it should have. I have been been working on Hindsight, but this one-shot plot bunny wouldn't shut up, so I took a break for one day and wrote it down. Let me know what you think!




ChapterPrinter


Harry sighed and set his chin down on the arms that hugged his knees. They had only been at Shell Cottage for a few days, but he already knew that he loved the sea. Something about the gentle and repetitive waves calmed him as nothing else had in quite some time. The sound was soothing, and just loud enough to drown out the demons that haunted him. The cliff was at once the perfect place to think and the perfect place to forget all of his thoughts.

As wave after wave attacked the shore, he stared unseeing at the foam and let his mind wander. When he allowed himself an outsider's viewpoint of his life, it seemed truly unreal. Harry could feel the burden of ending this war on his shoulders as keenly as he could feel the salty wind in his face. And yet, it seemed so odd that a boy of 17 was meant to save so many more capable and experienced than himself. Sometimes he tried to run with that thought, and tempt himself to believe that perhaps others should be led to the forefront, and he could instead be the one sitting back and hoping for the best.

The thought nearly made him laugh.

Somehow it didn't make sense to his soul. The burden he carried had not come all at once. Certainly he had not felt it at all when he had never heard of the Wizarding world. But bit by bit, year by year, he had come to see how intertwined his life was with that of the Dark Wizard that hunted him. He had volunteered to rescue the Philosopher's Stone because he could find no one else to help. He had run down to rescue Ginny because there wasn't time to find help. He had gone to rescue Sirius because he couldn't imagine not doing it. And he had gone with Dumbledore because it was his destiny. It was simply who he was, even if he had never heard the prophecy.

Dumbledore had been the final umbrella that had protected him through all of those years. Harry would do what he could, but still not be expected to solve the problems of the world as long as his headmaster was there to clean up the remnants. The wizard's death had unceremoniously dropped the weight of the world on Harry's shoulders, and in the days that followed he had tried to continue his regular life without success. The pulsing thoughts of his imminent future pushed out any of the usual activities that he enjoyed. It was rather like trying to sing a love song while drowning. When fighting for its life, the body had a way of pushing out every other thought or function as both irrelevant and irreverent.

Not for the first time, Harry's mind turned to the course they were now set upon. Certainly striking a bargain with the goblin was not the path that Dumbledore would have chosen. But after so many months of aimless wandering if felt good to simply be on a path, no matter how foolish it may be.

Harry's thoughts were broken by the sound of a rock as it cascaded down the cliff, clanging as it knocked into other rocks and brought them down with it to the sandy shore below. It was the cause of this small avalanche that made his heart stop however, and he was hardly aware of his limbs as he stood up awkwardly on the uneven ground and gaped at her. She was biting at her lower lip in concentration as she picked her way slowly to his spot. Her long, fiery hair whipped in distracting circles around her head, and she tried automatically to contain it when she wasn't using her arms for balance. As she chanced a glance his way, he could see that she was nervous. Her eyes were almost pleading with him, begging him to not to be upset with her for disrupting his solitude.

She was beautiful.

“Gi-Ginny?” His mouth tripped over the word, as it seemed like a foreign language in his current life. “What are you — how did you —?” The fragments ended awkwardly as his brain failed to wrap around her appearance. She smiled and held back a chuckle at his response as she made the final steps to his retreat. Her foot slipped at the last second, and Harry automatically reached for her hand to pull her up, bracing his other hand on her waist for support. At once, a flood of warm emotions hit him at the feel of her touch, but it was over too soon as they clumsily adjusted themselves to sit down on the rocks.

“I hope you don't mind if I join you,” she said hesitantly. She picked a leaf off of her jumper nervously and focused her attention on adjusting her spot on the uneven rock. Harry used this time to study her appearance, as though he had never seen her before. The changes in her were somewhat imperceptible, but somehow she seemed older to him. Perhaps it was the way she carried herself, or the physical changes that he couldn't help but notice. But she seemed like someone who had grown into a leader. What worried him, however, were the bruises he saw on the exposed portions of her arm, and there was a large cut on the back of her neck. When she finally gave up her preoccupation and looked at Harry, however, he saw a glimmer of the little girl he had first met in her shy glance. He blinked and came back to himself, realizing that she was waiting for his response.

“I missed you,” he said simply, as it was the only thought that ran through his mind. He realized belatedly that it didn't answer her question. But she seemed to not mind, and smiled anyway. Harry looked at his shoes for a minute, trying to gain more rational thoughts. “How did you get here?”

She chuckled into a quick smile as she glanced back towards the cottage. “Bill has been telling my mum ever since we got to Muriel's that she didn't need to come over. Everyone was safe, and all that. But she couldn't give up the chance to henpeck Ron after not seeing you three for months. She finally bullied Bill into letting her come just now. She can be very persuasive when she wants to be.”

Harry squinted slightly, trying to decide the rest of the story. “And you?”

At this, Ginny broke into a grin worthy of the twins. “I take after my mother sometimes.”

“I see,” Harry laughed, returning his gaze to the ocean. He heard her sigh next to him as the silence dragged on, but he wasn't sure what to say. He noticed her struggle to keep her hair in check, and cast a quick bubble charm around them to ease the wind and noise of the sea. She thanked him, and Harry soon missed the crash of the waves because it made their silence seem all the more deafening. The sight of those bruises nagged at him, but he knew she wouldn't take kindly to him smothering her with questions about them. Finally, he settled on a joke to chip at the ice around the topic, with the hope that it would break the dam.

“So, how was school?” he said lightly, as though asking her about a cheerful picnic.

She nearly laughed, but it came out more like a “hmm!” instead. “Just lovely! A truly breezy year,” she added in the same light tone he had begun with. “How was your camping trip?”

Harry sniggered. “Just gorgeous, really. I've always wanted to freeze in a tent for days on end while watching Ron and Hermione bicker and eat thin gruel for every meal. Can't wait to go back, really.”

“I should say not!” They laughed for a moment, but when that trickled out, the silence descended again and they were both at a loss. He felt her gaze, however, and turned to find her studying him intently, as though debating on what to say.

“I know you can't tell me what you are doing, but . . . can you tell me how it is going?”

He thought for a moment, and figured that it wasn't anything Bill and Fleur couldn't tell her, anyway. “Better now, I suppose. We had some progress early on, and then we were just stuck for some months there. But now . . . well, we at least know the next step, and we're working on it.”

“Bill is worried about you three.” It was said as quiet statement.

“Me too,” he said with a sigh. “But we're doing the best we can.” He was relieved when she didn't press him further, and they watched a bird as it circled slowly.

“How are things at Muriel's?” he asked hesitantly.

She grimaced and sniffed in reply, and he was instantly sorry he had asked. “I'm so sorry you guys had to go into hiding, I just --”

“No, don't worry about it. It wasn't your fault, and we are all fine. It's just . . . not where I want to be, you know? I need to be at school, helping Neville and . . . fighting. I hate just sitting around with my parents for tea when I am worried about all of them.” Harry nodded at this. Of all people, he could surely understand the frustration of inactivity.

“It wouldn't be so bad if my parents weren't being so insufferable. They were pestering me for details about every little scratch, and treating me like . . . like . . .”

“Like a child?” he finished.

Her lips formed a tight line. “More like I'm eleven years old again, really.”

He could only gape at her, horror struck. “Ginny, you never did anything wrong! How could they hold that against you?”

“Never did anything wrong?” she retorted. “My parents taught me better than to trust something like that. And I knew something was wrong, but I was too ashamed to tell anyone, and too stupid to --”

“Ginny!” he cut in, unable to take any more. He took her hands gently and looked her in the eye. “You made a mistake, but you can't hold on to that forever. Trust me, this comes from someone who has made a lot of mistakes.”

She blew the air out her nose and glared at the rocks beside them in response. “Right, yeah. You're the one that saves the day every time the rest of us screw up.”

“Not always. Have you forgotten breaking into the Ministry of Magic?” he said bitterly. “Did a bang up job of 'saving Sirius' there, don't you think?”

She closed her mouth and sighed, seeing the point he made.

“Let's face it, Ginny. You and I were both, as young adults, completely and utterly duped by the most powerful, evil wizard of our time. He also just happens to be three times our age, and cunning enough to fool nearly half of Great Britain into submission.”

“Well, when you put it that way . . .” she said, a small smile breaking through. A moment later, her scowl returned as she glanced at the cottage nervously. “I just hate how everyone treats me like a child that can't be trusted to make her own decisions or help in any way. It's the worst part about being the youngest child. No matter how much older and smarter and capable you get, there are six boys that are even more so. No matter what I do, I will always remain the baby of the family, and no one seems to see past that and realize that I can handle myself.”

“If it helps, you know that I don't see you that way.”

“Hhrumph,” she huffed back, not ready to give up the tirade. “Right, sure. That's why you took Ron and Hermione on your little adventure, and dumped the fragile girl to 'keep her safe' before you left.”

For the look that Harry gave her, she might as well have slapped him. “Wha — what? Is that what you honestly think? No! Ginny, no! I never thought that about you! You are one of the most amazing and strong witches I have ever known, and that night at the Ministry proved that you can handle your own against Death Eaters, and anything else that gets thrown your way. Did you honestly think that was why I left you behind?”

She ground her teeth for a moment and sighed, and finally her shoulders drooped into submission. “No, I don't think I — I mean, I guess I didn't. I have just heard it so often lately from my brothers and my parents and my atrocious Aunt Muriel that I . . . I guess I figured it must be what you thought too.” She paused for a moment, and Harry waited, sensing that there was more she wanted to chew on before admitting to him.

“Harry, I'm sorry. I told myself after Dumbledore died that I wouldn't be a stupid girl about things and pester you about all of this. That I would just support you in whatever you needed to do, even when you ended things with me. And that's why I never asked before, but I guess it bothered me more than I let on. So I guess, maybe I just need to ask. Harry, why did you end it with me? Why did you take my brother and not ask for my help?”

Harry rocked back for a second and looked away, thinking quickly. The decision had come from deep within him, and was something he honestly hadn't questioned himself. There weren't reasons for it, it just . . . was. After a minute or two, he finally gathered his thoughts and looked back at her.

“First of all, Ginny, you have to take into account that I've never been very good at talking through my feelings. So, I need you to . . . give me the benefit of the doubt, yeah? If some of the things I say don't make a lot of sense, can you just bear with me and try not to take it all the wrong way?” She nodded tightly, and Harry pressed on.

“The thing is, Ron and Hermione are different to me than you are. Maybe that's obvious in some ways, but they really are. From my first year at Hogwarts, they have always been with me through every tough spot I've found myself in. I think you know me well enough to know that I told them I should do this one on my own, and tried to ditch them before we came. But at the same time, I knew that if I did leave them behind, I wouldn't really know what to do with myself. I would be constantly reaching for them out of habit, wondering what Ron would tell me my next move should be, or what Hermione would tell me was the detailed life history of whatever we were working on. It would be like losing my arms or something, because they have always been there for stuff like this, and I wouldn't begin to know what do to without them.”

“And it's not that I don't think you could, okay?” he backtracked. “I know you probably could have helped us. It's not that you aren't capable, it's just that . . . that's not what you are to me, you know? Ron and Hermione represent different things to me, and . . . that's just not what you mean to me. Does that make any sense?”

Ginny's face was clearly one of a lost person who was attempting to humor him, and for the moment, and he took that for what it was. “Yeah, I knew I would muck this up. I just . . . I remember at the funeral, all I could think of is what would happen to me if it was your funeral instead. I've lost a lot of people I cared about in my life, I guess. So you would think I would be used to it and that it would get easier, but it doesn't. Not really. Every one is so different.” He sighed and leaned back, trying to organize his thoughts.

“I knew it would be dangerous bringing Ron and Hermione. And I came rather close to losing Hermione last week, to be perfectly honest. And you know what? I think losing one of them would make me just . . . snap. I think I would be so enraged that I would run out, ready to tear his head off with my bare hands. I'm not sure I could think straight, but I would be just about ready to kill anything in my path and end this whole sodding mess as soon as I possibly could. But . . . that's not what would happen if I lost you, Ginny.”

“It's not?” she jumped in, clearly startled and possibly disappointed by that turn. “You wouldn't want to fight for me?” The last part was so timid that Harry barely heard it, and he suddenly realized that she was second-guessing how deeply he felt for her in the first place.

“No, Ginny, I think losing you would be the end of me. I think if I lost you, I would wander off the battlefield like an Obliviated man and just sit by a tree. I'd tell anyone who came near me to sod off and solve their own problems, because it just wouldn't matter to me anymore. It would just seem pointless, as though the entire war was completely lost anyway.” Harry didn't trust himself to look at her with this admission, and instead focused on every detail of his hands as they fidgeted in his lap.

“And maybe it's not fair to you to put all of this on you, because I know what it's like to have everyone try and protect you instead of letting you help, and I probably shouldn't do that to you. But to me, you represent . . . hope. You are the only hope I've ever allowed myself for a world without all of this rubbish. And I don't say that to pressure you or anything, I never asked for you to wait for me to finish, but . . . “ He shrugged, not sure how to finish that statement.

“I think that's why I broke up with you, anyway. It's like, if I knew you were safe somewhere, I could go back to . . . doing what I need to do. But if you came with me, I wouldn't be able to focus because I would constantly be trying to protect you, no matter how much I know you can fend for yourself. Because I just know I'd be useless if anything happened to you.”

“Besides, I couldn't really enjoy what we had with all of this hanging on me, anyway. Dating you was something . . . pure, and light, and easy, and nothing like that belongs in a world where it is up to me to kill a mass murderer. Until all of this is over, I don't think I could hang out with you by the lake and not have a care in the world. For those few weeks with you, I got to be a different person- a happy, content person — and I . . . I don't get to be that person right now, Ginny.” Harry was silent then, and gathered all of his courage to finally take another glance at the woman beside him.

And she was crying. But it was nothing like when Cho cried.

She hardly seemed aware of the tears as they rolled down her cheeks, and she smiled at him slightly, staring into his eyes deeply. She opened her mouth to attempt a response, but perhaps they all seemed inadequate to her, because she instead dove into his arms in a tight embrace. Harry hesitated for only a moment before allowing himself to enjoy her warmth for now. They held each other for some time, lost in thought, before Ginny finally broke the silence.

“Thank you, Harry. I guess I needed to hear that after all.”

He tried to think of a reply, but settled for merely tightening his hold on her, and stroking her hair lightly. After a few minutes of watching the waves below and enjoying her comfort, she pulled back slightly to look in his eyes.

And slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers.

It wasn't the deep, frantic kiss they had shared on his birthday. He moved his mouth slowly, tenderly over hers, as though trying to show her all the promises that he didn't trust himself to say out loud. And yet, his insides quivered with the feeling of this simple kiss, more than they ever had before. Just as his Bubble Charm had shut out the bitter wind, this kiss seemed to push out every other howling doubt and trouble, and he felt almost as though his heart had stopped pumping to rest and enjoy this feeling. It may have lasted for a few minutes, and yet he still felt like it was too soon when they let their lips linger and drift from each other. He rested his forehead on hers and stared into her eyes, willing himself to stay there forever.

“I love you, Harry,” she said quietly, almost subconsciously.

At this, Harry pulled his head back to study her, as though she had just said that she had personally won the World Quidditch Cup. Seeing this, she winced and started to backtrack.

“I . . . look, Harry, you don't have to say it just because I did, and I didn't mean to say that just now, but I do mean it, and --”

“I love you too, Ginny.” The words seemed to shock him as much as they shocked her, but a second later they seemed like the most natural thing in the world. He smiled and chuckled slightly, looking down for a second. “It's just — well, I've never said that to anyone before, really. But . . . you're right. That's what this is, isn't it?”

When he looked at her for reassurance, he saw that she was smiling at him with the same awe that she had before their kiss, and a single tear snuck out from the corner of her eye before she could stop it. He brushed away the tear lightly, and she turned and settled her head on his shoulders, staring out into the sea once more. They stayed like that for a few minutes, each lost in their own thoughts, before Harry glanced at the cottage and noticed that some figures had emerged and were headed their way. He shook her shoulder and cleared his throat, and Ginny turned. When she recognized her mother heading toward their sanctuary, she sighed and turned back to Harry.

“Thank you Harry. And, I wanted to tell you that . . . I believe in you. I don't know what it is that you three are trying to do, but I know that you can do it. And when you do, I'll be right here waiting for you,” she said, tapping his heart.

Harry tried to reply, but ended up merely nodding as they stood up. He canceled the Charm as they walked away, and felt the shock of the wind as it returned to whipping through his hair. It was over too soon, but the shelter had been beautiful.

Reviews 27
ChapterPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear