Fate

Chapter 11 - Let It Go

Harry climbed quickly into the common room, spotting Ginny instantly, curled up on the sofa in front of the fire, the dying embers of the fire sparkling off her hair and face. Harry stood still for a moment watching her.

His thoughts went back to Sirius' comment about love, and Dumbledore's words flashed through his mind.

"It is, perhaps, the most mysterious of the many subjects for study that reside there..."

"It was your heart that saved you."

"It's a start, Harry. It's a start."

He felt the familiar tug in his chest as he stood their watching Ginny. He almost laughed at the thought. He was only 16 years old, only actually kissed two girls in his life, only gone out with said two girls once each...

And yet for some reason he felt as if the bond with Ginny was already there.

He frowned, chasing the thought away. This was not the time to get involved in romantic relationships...especially when you were going to be traveling through time the next day and you were destined to be the Wizarding World's Hero...again.

He looked back to Ginny as she mumbled something slightly in her sleep, a smile coming to her face and her legs curling up closer to her body.

Ah, screw it, he thought quickly, making his way over to the couch and sitting softly next to her. He smiled, reaching over and shaking her gently.

"Gin?"

Her eyes blinked open quickly, her head jerking around to look at him, and her face relaxing when their gazes connected.

"Where have you been?" She said sleepily, fighting down a yawn.

"Ginny," Harry said sternly. "You've got class tomorrow. You should be in bed."

"I've slept on the couch plenty of nights," Ginny argued, slowly sitting up and stretching a bit before turning back to him. "Besides, I was waiting for you."

"Really?" Harry said with his eyes twinkling.

Ginny blushed. "Harry Potter, you were supposed to be here hours ago."

Harry glanced up at the tall grandfather clock that stood against the wall. "Yeah, about that..."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," Ginny said too quickly, getting up. Harry looked over at her frowning and saw that she was blushing again. He caught her hand, stopping her.

"You have an irritating habit of running away from me for reasons I can never figure out," Harry said half seriously, pulling her back down on the couch beside him. She looked down, not meeting his eyes. "Hey," he reached down and lifted her chin up, making her look at him. "It's not like I was off snogging some other girl."

She frowned. "I wouldn't think that, besides..." she looked away again, "It's not really my business anyway."

"What!?" Harry said with exasperation. "Not your business? Gin if it's anyone's business it's yours."

"No, it was just a little kiss, you shouldn't feel obligated or anything," she waved him away and tried to stand up again, but this time when he pulled her back, he pulled her all the way into another kiss.

Merlin help him if he wasn't falling in love with this girl.

When he pulled back, he saw how surprised she looked and started chuckling. "Gin, I don't just go kissing girls for no reason."

"No, of course not," she said, seeming to get a little more confidence in herself after that kiss. She even managed to smile at him. "So where were you?"

Thankful that one obstacle was covered, Harry leaned back, smirking as he remembered the last few hours. "You'd probably never believe me anyway."

Ginny narrowed her eyes at him. "Try me." She smiled a bit and cocked her head.

"How bout a deal?" he said on sudden inspiration.

She sighed, "What kind of deal?"

"You tell me why you ran out of the Three Broomsticks earlier today, and I'll tell you where I've been for the last 5 hours."

"Blackmail," Ginny muttered darkly.

"Maybe," Harry admitted, "But you'll get something out of me too."

"Well, if you must know," Ginny began, "it wasn't anything you or Ron said, per say, you just reminded me of something that I've been trying to forget for the past little while."

Harry raised a very curious eyebrow. "Oh yes? And what would that be?"

"No teasing Harry."

"Wizard's honor."

"I'm serious!"

"No, that's my Godfather. You're Ginny!"

"Oh, you!" Growling, Ginny jumped over on Harry, tackling him to the ground, trying her best to try and cause him some, if not a lot of damage. Harry seemed to be laughing too hard to really notice though and sooner than she would have thought, he had her pinned by her arms underneath him and he was grinning down at her in victory.

"Come on, Gin. Spill."

"Don't laugh."

"Promise."

"Don't tease."

"Never."

She sighed. "Well, you know I had a crush on you when I was younger, right?"

Harry grinned handsomely. "How could you not?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Anyway, when I was 12, I kinda wrote something in my journal....no, not that journal, my real journal...and it fell into the wrong hands."

"Ah..." Harry said in understanding. "Lavender and Parvati?"

"Right in one." Ginny blew a stand of hair out of her eyes. "Can you get off me now?"

"You're not quite down with the story, Miss Weasley," Harry said seriously. "What was written in the journal, now?"

Ginny blushed deeper than Harry had ever seen before and refused to meet his eyes as she spoke. "Just something about how I was in love with you, and I...." she giggled slightly, "I pledged to myself that I would marry you one day."

Harry's eyes went wide. "Well...uh...that was unexpected."

Ginny squirmed out from underneath him and looked rather embarrassed as well as mad. "Happy now, Potter?" She glared at him.

Harry looked at her thoughtfully. "Why did that make you run away?"

She looked rather taken aback by the question. "I've had to avoid Lavender and Parvati all week. Thank goodness their not in my year." She spoke with slight bitterness. "I finally managed to snag one of their diaries, and after blackmailing them a bit with it, got their promise that they wouldn't tell you and that they wouldn't tease me if you happened to ask me out." She blushed again.

"Really?" Harry said, quite thrown off by the surprise. "And you were worried that I'd make fun of you?"

Ginny rolled here eyes, standing up and moving towards the couch. "Obviously."

"Well, I think it's rather cute," Harry went over and joined her on the couch. "No need to be embarrassed."

"Says you," Ginny huffed. "Blimney, Harry, I was 12 years old. You'd think they'd let something like that go after a while..."

Harry leaned over and tapped shoulders with her. "Ah, you know you love me," he said in a teasing manner.

"Right," Ginny said with a smirk. "My regular knight in shining armor, you are."

They both sat in silence, an unspoken agreement not to bring up the slightly tense aura that came about as Harry said the word "love". Ginny, though, managed to defer rather quickly, and turned to him with a grin.

"Well, I did my part," she said almost dutifully. "Spill, Harry."

He turned to her with a half smirk. "I still don't think you'll believe me."

"You never know," Ginny pulled her legs under her and turned to face him on the couch. "It might not sound so ridiculous."

"Well, I was with Sirius and Remus."

"Oh, well that gives me some clue as to why you're worried."

"I haven't even gotten to the point yet."

"I know, sorry, continue."

"They told me they had something else they needed to talk to me about."

Ginny's smile frowned. "What did they do?"

Harry chuckled, "Something brilliant...it's kind of hard to explain..."

"Just say it, Harry."

He looked at her doubtfully. "Well, sufficed to say, they've found a way to travel back in time."

Ginny's jaw dropped. "You're not serious. Time travel? Oh, Harry, did you really believe them?"

Rolling his eyes, Harry leaned back. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."

"I'm sorry," Ginny said quickly, reaching out and taking his hand, "but, really...time travel?"

He looked over at her curiously. "How much do you know about the veil? The one in the Department of Mysteries that Sirius fell through?"

"Not much," Ginny said frowning. "Does that have something to do with it?"

"It has everything to do with it," Harry sat up straighter, careful not to let go of her hand and began explaining exactly what Sirius, Dumbledore and Remus had explained to him hours ago.

When he had finished, he leaned back, trying to gauge what she was thinking through her facial expressions that were giving absolutely nothing away.

"Well?"

"Well, I have to say it's quite brilliant, and actually sounds plausible," she admitted.

"So you believe me?" Harry said hopefully.

"Yes," she said through her teeth," But what I'm wondering now is: why are they trying to travel back through time?" She looked over at him curiously. He paled considerably; realizing what he had initially wanted to tell her in the first place had not yet been said.

"Dumbledore feels that the war at this moment is pretty much hopeless," Harry admitted, his voice softening. "Even with me-um..."

"What? What's that supposed to mean, Harry Potter?" Ginny sat up straighter, her hands coming up to her hips and looking very much like her mother. "With you?"

"Gin, I don't want to talk about that right now."

"I thought you went through this saving people thing last year," Ginny practically scolded.

Harry stood up quickly; fuming and turning his back to her too look into the dying fire. "You don't know what you're talking about."

"You're 16 years old, Harry," Ginny said, almost pleading. "You already saved the world numerous times. Let it go-"

"I can't!" Harry practically screamed at her. He turned to face her with haunting eyes. They softened when their gazes locked. "I can't..."

She stood up, walking over to him. "Tell me why."

He shook his head stubbornly. "Not now, Gin. Please."

"Harry, I want to help you, but you've got to let me in," she said softly.

"You have helped me, more than you'll ever know," Harry admitted, not looking into her eyes. "There are just some things I have to do on my own."

"No one should have to be alone."

He shook his head. "No, but they often are."

"Please," she pleaded.

He sighed and looked up at her. "You remember that night in the Department of Mysteries?"

"Yes," she whispered.

"The small balls that lined the shelves...and the one that I picked up?"

"Yes."

"It was a prophesy."

"About what?"

He was silent again, trying to register what he was about to do. He had managed to keep the prophesy to himself for so long, unwilling to receive any more pity from anyone. But some things...some things were better off shared between two people. He finally looked up into her eyes.

"It's me, Gin. I have to kill Voldemort..." she gasped. "No one else can."

"You?" She said, her and coming up to cover her mouth slightly. "No, that doesn't make any sense-"

"Of course it does!" He snapped at her unexpectedly. "Who's the only person to survive the killing curse? Me. Who has faced Voldemort more times than anyone besides, possibly, Dumbledore? Me. Who was born at the end of July...?" He took a few steps away from her. "Me."

"Harry?" Ginny's timid voice came in. "What did it say?"

The painful words came to his mind instantly, another memory he knew he would never loose. He recited them quietly, without looking at her, knowing how she would react.

"The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches...Born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies...And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not...And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives..."

He heard her gasp from behind him again and he closed his eyes. "The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies..."

Dead silence filled the common room and was only broken as Harry heard Ginny sniffle slightly behind him. He turned and she was looking at him with hurt, tear-filled eyes.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I don't want pity," he said gruffly.

She scowled at him. "You are so bloody stubborn."

"Look who's talking."

"Harry!" She took two steps towards him and smacked him across the chest. "Be serious! Now, I know exactly what that prophesy was referring to and I assume that you fit the requirements in it." She glared up at him. "So why are Sirius and Remus medaling with time? And what does it have to do with you?"

"I'm not trying to change the prophesy, if that's what you're thinking," Harry stated. "That's not possible."

"So says the guy who's trying to convince me that people can travel through time!"

"Gin, we're going back to save someone."

Her eyes widened. "We? You're going too?" Her eyes started to fill with tears, but before they could fall down her face, she blinked them away.

"The war's hopeless," Harry's voice had softened. "I can't beat him."

"You're running?" Ginny's voice was dangerously low.

"Not even," Harry said, almost wanting to laugh, but knowing it was not the right moment. "I'm going to get help."

"Who?"

"My parents."

Ginny's face softened instantly but she kept her worried look. "You're parents? Merlin...you're going to try and save them?"

Harry nodded.

She didn't say any more and didn't look up at him, just stared at the ground, deep in thought.

"Look, Gin, Sirius and Remus know what they're doing, blimney even Dumbledore agrees!" He laid both hands on her shoulders and she looked up at him, one single tear in her eye. "It'll work, I just know it."

"Everything's going to change, isn't it?" She said it so bluntly and softly that it shook Harry to the bone.

"Yes."

Both were silent and not another word was spoken that night. After a few moments, Ginny calmly walked away, up the stairs to the girls dormitory. Harry stood perfectly still until he heard her door click shut and then he grudgingly made his way up to his dorm room, realizing, with some trepidation, that this would probably be his last good night's sleep for a long while to come.