Eyes

I'd never noticed her eyes until the day I came to Headquarters during the Christmas holiday. I had just arrived, her mother had let me in and my coat was already in the closet before she found me. She saw and took on a grim, sad expression that meant I'd done something wrong. Her mother left, leaving her and I in the hallway.

"Ginny," I sighed, as thought I was to be reprimanded.

"You weren't there," was her simple reply before she turned to walk away.

I didn't understand what she meant but it was with those three words that I fell into what I have now. Those three words coupled with the way her eyes misted over as though she was fighting back tears.

Her eyes.

Before that moment, I could not have even told you what color they were but now those eyes are plastered in my mind. That deep brown, so close to my own, yet so different in the way she used them. Fred and George said that her Bat-Bogey Hexes were the most powerful thing she could do, and to be the recipient of one was hell, but now I know that they were wrong. The most powerful thing she can do is look at you. To give you the look that she gave me at that moment.

The helplessness. The pain. The anger. I still did not know why she was looking at me.

She ran up the stairs and I heard a door slam. I knew she had gone to the room we shared when we were both there, so I followed her. I needed to know what she meant by saying, "You weren't there."

I knocked lightly on the door and heard a small voice say, "Go away." I opened the door anyway.

She was sitting on the edge of the large four-poster bed, her feet barely touching the floor, with her face covered in her hands. Her red hair had fallen around her, framing her delicate, pale hands. She was sobbing; the sound horrified me.

I sat down next to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She looked up, looked down at her knees, then up at me, with the same stare she had given me in the hall. My insides writhed and twitched, I felt as though I had been hit full-on with the Cruciatus Curse.

"You weren't there," She said again.

"Ginny, what happened?" I asked her.

"It's...It's Dad. He is in Saint Mungo's. The healers say he's going to be fine. We saw him yesterday," she said and broke down. "Oh god, Hermione, I was so scared."

"Oh, Ginny! What happened to him?"

"Harry saw the whole thing in a vision he had, I guess. He saw Dad, he saw him being attacked by a snake! Then we were taken to Dumbledore and he sent us here."

"But you said he is going to be okay! There's no reason to cry!"

"Hermione, you weren't there," she said with a sad expression. "I needed you, I needed to talk to you, I needed you to tell me it would be fine, but you weren't there for me."

"Ginny, I didn't know! I'm sorry I couldn't be there for you when you needed me. I'm sorry you had to be alone while all this happened but now I'm here. It's going to be okay!"

She sobbed again as I took her into my arms and held her close to me, stroking her hair as her tears fell down my shoulder.

"Ginny, you said it yourself, he's fine. Will he be coming home soon?"

"I think so," she said with a sniffle.

"Good. Now perk up, I think your mother is making lunch."

I tried to distract her. I needed her to stop crying. She needed to be the happy, perky Ginny whose hair would bounce when she walked, the Ginny who giggled at me for hours over Michael Corner, her boyfriend. It was killing me inside to see her sad like this.

"I think I'll go help her with lunch. By the way, Harry has himself locked up in Sirius' room. I haven't seen him for a while, maybe you should try and coax him out of there."

Her change of mood was so fast it was scary. The minute before she had been sobbing into my shoulders, the next, wiping her tears and telling me to go get Harry.

"Thanks for cheering me up, Hermione. I guess I needed to hear your voice say he would be fine. You're my best friend, you know," she said all in one breath, as though it was an embarrassing thing to say.

Then again, I did not know she thought of me as her best friend.

"No problem, Ginny. You're my best friend too." It was strange how easily that slipped out of my mouth.

She left the room and I began to cry. I cried for many different reasons; because I wasn't supposed to leave her alone when she needed me, because I wasn't supposed to feel like it was my job to protect her like this. The look she gave me. I swore that I would never let a situation occur where she would look at me that way again.

I dried my tears, washed my face, straightened my clothes, and left the room to go find Harry.

That night, I had a dream. Of a red-haired girl with beautiful sparkling brown eyes holding my hand. Of the girl holding me close. Of getting closer and closer to her, but right when our lips touched, I awoke. I looked across the room to see the girl sleeping in the bed adjacent from mine. I dressed quickly and went downstairs, intent upon pushing the dream from my mind.

The dream didn't go away though. It haunted me for the rest of the day. I continued dreaming the same dream again, night after night. I grew accustomed to it. It got to the point where I wanted to dream it. I didn't want it to be that way, but that was the way it was and there was no avoiding it.

In my waking hours I hid it from everyone, but I watched her all the time. Whenever I got the chance I would watch her. In the halls, on the grounds, in the Great Hall, in the Common Room. It was my guilty pleasure watching her. I think she noticed but didn't make anyone aware of it.

We went to the Ministry of Magic, and down into the Department of Mysteries, intending to rescue Sirius. It turned out I had been right. It was a trap, intended to lure Harry into stealing a prophecy for Voldemort. The last thing I remember about it was getting hit with what looked like a streak of purple flame then having the dream again. It didn't go any farther than usual but it played over and over like a film in my mind.

Then a sobbing voice broke in. I heard her crying. She wasn't supposed to cry! She was supposed to grin like she did every time in the dream and say, "I love you, Hermione." Instead, she was sobbing. I had to make it stop, I had to hold her in my arms and make her feel better! The sobbing continued and the dream faded to black; all I saw was blackness. I still heard the sobbing and someone was holding my hand.

I opened my eyes and saw the dark Hospital Wing. I was back at Hogwarts and in the hospital. My chest hurt but I felt fine otherwise, if you didn't count the panicky feeling I had at trying to find her to make her stop crying.

I didn't panic for long as she was sitting in a chair at the side of the bed I was in. She was crying and holding my hand to her soft cheek.

"Ginny," I whispered weakly.

"Hermione!" she gasped. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine. What happened?"

"You were hit with a spell back at the Department of Mysteries. Madam Pomfrey made me leave you a few hours ago but I snuck out and came back. Oh my god, you're okay! I was so scared; I thought they killed you! Oh god, Hermione, I thought I had lost you!"

She was holding my hand, just like in the dream.

"No, Ginny. I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere just yet."

"Oh, Hermione!"

She was holding me close, just like in the dream. I put my arms around her and she stopped crying.

"Ginny, I need to tell you something." She pulled away, looking serious. "Something important."

I gulped. This was the moment. If I didn't say it then, I would never say it.

"I love you, Ginny. I love you more than life itself and I don't want to see you cry anymore."

She grinned, just like in the dream.

"I love you too, Hermione. If you don't want me to cry, you will get better and get out of this hospital bed soon."

She got closer and closer to me, just like in the dream.

All I could see were those beautiful, sparkling brown eyes.