A Cannon's Harpy

IX

Ginny arrived at the same park in Little Whinging she stormed away from a few weeks prior. Despite Kreacher's glare, he had been kind enough to tell her where to find Harry. With her parents now knowing about a man in her life allowed her to leave the house, rather than sneak, without too many considering glances or guilty thoughts from her side. She'd been honest with her father; she would bring Harry to meet them. The when just needed to be decided.

"Morning." She missed a step when she saw the red eyes of a man who'd not slept a minute. He sat in the same bench as before. "What happened?"

He tried to smile. "Morning, how did the girls night out go?" It was a valiant, but futile effort at sounding normal.

She sat beside him, feeling guilty, but not sure about what to say. "Short, I actually spent most of the evening with Ron and his girlfriend, Hermione."

"Oh." He nodded.

"What's wrong, Harry." She almost pleaded. "You've got to talk to me at some point." He fidgeted as if he wanted to say more. "What happened to you during the war?" The question needed to be asked. She'd been avoiding it for weeks already, but for some reason he seemed to be near the brink of talking.

"I killed people," Harry whispered as he stared up at the distant trees moving with the morning breeze.

"Many people killed Death Eaters, Harry. It was either that or be killed." She gripped his hand. "Bill and Charlie did, they told me."

"So much was my fault." He spoke as if he had not heard a word she'd said. "If I'd only been quicker, so much wouldn't have happened. So many lives would not have been wasted."

Tears formed and leaked down his cheeks. She brushed them away tenderly, each time replacing her hand with soft lips. "You were still young, Harry. I'm sure everyone who fought feels as if they could've done more."

"But I could've made a difference!" he said with surprising force. Waves of energy flowed out from him, something she'd only experienced around Dumbledore. Then it faded. "I'm sorry, Ginny." His voice was barely louder than the morning breeze. "I shouldn't…" He swallowed and tried to sound happy. "So tell me about your evening."

Just like that he bottled his emotions. "You can talk about it," she urged not wanting him to slip away. "Don't hide from me, please." She let her head rest against his shoulder.

A gentle hand brushed a stray hair from her slightly damp face. "I don't mean to hide, Ginny."

"I've done things I wished could've been different," she began to say. She took a slow deep breath and began. "In my first year at Hogwarts someone gave me a diary…"

"You," Harry said in a very faint voice. "I… bloody hell!" Ginny jerked away from his shoulder as his entire body began to tremble. His hands clutched his forehead and he screamed.

"Harry!" She called out frantically. His entire body convulsed. Unsure of what else to do, she shook him repeatedly in the hope of helping. "Harry!" His ashen face and wide pain filled eyes stared up at her, pleading almost for relief. Nothing she did made any difference. The seizures refused to stop.

Dumbledore would know what to do and not knowing where else to go she summoned her energy and Apparated the two of them to the front gate of Hogwarts, fortunately the first day of school was still a couple of weeks away.