White Noise

Chapter 2: Remember All

"See now? You look amazing," Dakotah said as she continued fluffing Ginny's hair. Then she conjured a mirror out of a rag and held it up in front of Ginny.

Ginny was nervous; her eyes were closed and her foot was tapping the floor furiously. She felt Dakotah gently nudge her and she was slow to open her eyes. She realized soon that she had nothing to worry about. Dakotah had done a good job.

Ginny was pleasantly surprised. Her hair was cut just below her shoulder with feather layers framing her face. She especially liked the blonde highlights; she felt she looked like having just gotten back from vacationing in Egypt.

Dakotah had gone so far as to even put make-up on her. Ginny especially liked the eye shadow, which was a pale green that shimmered and sparkled. It wasn't too flashy but just noticeable enough. Dakotah leaned down and rested her chin on Ginny's shoulder so that their faces were reflected in the mirror side by side. "You have a beautiful face. Great complexion," she said quietly, thoughtfully.

"Thank you."

Dakotah shrugged and smiled in a lopsided fashion. Her long fingers ran through Ginny's new hair absent-mindedly. "I didn't say it as a compliment. I said it as a fact."

Ginny put her palm on the back of Dakotah's head, leaning back so she could reach. "Thank you just the same."

Dakotah stood up, stretching her arms to the ceiling. Ginny watched her stretch, observing her thinness and the dangling sparkly thing hanging from her navel. Her blonde hair was still perfect looking and her eyes were dark as she smiled down at Ginny. For a moment, Ginny wasn't sure what Dakotah looked like more: a Veela or a cat.

"How do you stay looking like that?" she asked suddenly.

Dakotah looked down at her, her arms still reaching as high as she could, and arched her right eyebrow. "Looking like what?" she asked, although she sounded like she knew exactly what Ginny was talking about.

"Like...like...like..." Ginny waved her hand in the air, motioning toward Dakotah's sylph like body. "Like you've just stepped out of a Muggle magazine."

Dakotah shrugged. "I don't know. I've always looked like this."

Somehow Ginny knew she was telling the truth. "I've always only been plain. Red hair, freckles, only daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley. I've never had great grades, they've always been average. I married the boy I was expected to marry--"

Ginny clapped her hands over her mouth, astonishment rounding her eyes out. "I didn't mean that nearly as bad as it came out. I loved Harry. I still love Harry."

"I knew what you meant," Dakotah said gently. She smiled softly so that she wouldn't offend Ginny. "No one will fault you for speaking of him in the past tense," she added carefully.

Ginny looked away quietly. She was embarrassed by Dakotah's apparent wisdom. "You don't know my brother Ron then, do you?" she said, half-jokingly but mostly serious beyond all normal comprehension.

Dakotah's smile widened slowly. "Don't worry about him. And don't be embarrassed by your feelings," she added knowingly. "I was married once, did you know that?" She didn't wait for Ginny's reply. "His name was Zacharias. He died before The War even started." She looked away, blinking rapidly. Ginny thought she saw a teary haze mud up Dakotah's eyes but it was gone so quickly...

"He was from North Dakota. We met by pure accident." She smiled, seeing the unknown Zacharias for the first time all over again.

"How did he die?" Ginny asked curiously.

Dakotah shrugged and it seemed to Ginny that she appeared weaker now than she had ever before. "I don't know," she answered quietly. "The doctors and healers never did quite figure it out. They thought it might have been a Muggle illness."

Ginny stayed silent, somehow knowing nothing she could say would affect Dakotah one way or another anymore.

"It's alright though," she said a little too brightly. "Shit happens."

***

Ginny could hear heavy footsteps making their way down to her office and she knew, without a doubt, that it was her boss. Les had managed to stop by at least once every day since Monday. It was Friday.

She sighed and whirled her chair around, launching herself into a standing position so that she might head off Les and get out of her office before he got in it. "Hi Les!" she said perkily, giving him her best smile. She didn't want him thinking she was holed up in her office to avoid people (which she was). Yesterday's confrontation with Les had been terrible: he'd asked her to tell him how she was doing.

She was doing fine, dammit. She was here, at work, wasn't she?

Les nodded. "Ginny. How are you today?"

For an instant she almost rolled her eyes. That is, until she told herself that he was just trying to be a friend. She'd rather he would just try to be her boss. "I'm fine Les," she replied quietly. Maybe if she didn't talk a lot, he'd get the hint and realize she wanted to be left alone.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his beady eyes peering closer at her while he wrung his beefy hands seemingly nervous.

She nodded. "Yes, Les; I've told you the same thing for the last four days." She smiled gingerly. "Please, don't worry about me. I'm fine. If I have a problem, I promise you I will come to you about it," she compromised with him, knowing that without such a promise she'd never actually not see him.

Les's eyebrows arched up and she could see that he was gauging how honest she was being with him.

"Please, Les," she pled, and added quietly, but in a serious tone, "I promise I will."

He nodded, relenting however unwilling to do so he actually was. "Fine," he said with a sigh. "But if you have any problems, or if there is anything I can do, please let me know right away."

"Of course," she replied sincerely. He really did mean well, she knew.

Les's smile was thin and Ginny noticed how pale he looked. She couldn't be sure if it was the pallor of his skin or the fluorescent lighting. "Are you feeling alright?" she asked timidly, unsure of how to broach the subject of his health. "You look pale."

He wiped his brow and Ginny watched, alarmed, as he started sweating from the small gesture. "I'm fine." He smiled a little brighter than before, but Ginny still wasn't all that satisfied with his answer. "Oh, and to let you know," he began while putting his hand on her shoulder. It felt like a heavy weight on her. "You'll be getting a new partner."

She felt all the blood rush from her head and knew she had paled considerably. "When?"

"On Monday. He'll be here Monday. Is that alright with you? I don't know who they are sending yet, but I'm sure he'll be nothing less than professional with you."

Ginny wasn't worried about 'professional' though. No, she was more concerned with having to learn someone new, having to work with someone new. Getting to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Having to depend on them.

"Alright," she said quietly and turned away.

***

She stayed in her office for the rest of the day, quietly going about her work and minding her own business. Ginny noted, with some dismay, that her mind was wandering more than she'd like. She'd been thinking about Harry a lot since Les mentioned a new partner for her.

She hadn't realized she'd be getting back to the physical aspect of casing so soon, although she wasn't all that surprised.

Harry had been a good partner to her, as well as husband. He'd always thought of her first (of course, he'd always thought of everyone else before himself) and she'd felt safe with him. When she was at a crime scene, because he was right there with her, she always knew that she'd be safe. With him next to her, she didn't have a worry in the world.

It had been a shock when she'd learnt of his death. She'd been home sick with a cold. Ginny was supposed to have been out there with him -- but she wasn't. To this day she felt guilt over his death. It was her fault he was dead. She hadn't been there to protect him as he always had been for her.

Ginny didn't realize she was crying until a single tear dropped to her hand. She looked down at the tear, sitting on her left hand and then looked to her wedding band. It was simple, plain and beautiful, like him. She smiled tenderly looking down at it. Gold and silver leaves intertwined together to wrap around her ring finger. She loved her ring. It reminded her of Harry, completely and thoroughly.

She pulled open the top drawer of her desk and started randomly searching through the files she'd kept stacked there since the day she'd started.

Some of the papers had since yellowed and crinkled, words that had once been neatly, carefully written, were now indistinguishable. She hardly took the time to decipher the smudged letters before dropping them to the floor.

It wasn't until she found the photo that she realized she had been looking for it. She handled it with care, as if it was the most valuable thing in the world. She smiled, looking down at the picture and seeing a much younger Harry holding her.

Their smiles were bright and wide, sitting as close to the Whomping Willow as they could without being hurt. Ginny watched, amused, as the picture Harry turned to look at the tree and scowled, just a bit.

She smiled and traced their profiles.

For a time she only sat and watched them, smiling at Harry's youthful look and cringing at her outfit. She looked so young and immature. She had been young, at only sixteen. Young and naïve; what she wouldn't give to be that young and naïve again.

The picture, she recalled foggily, had been taken by Ron sometime during their 7^th year, but not before the Final Battle had started.

She could still see Hermione laughing next to her brother, her arm wrapped around his waist as he kissed her in front of his sister and best friend. She was blushing by the time they'd ended their kiss and when they'd pulled away, they were both flushed from nerves and raw emotion.

Ginny had looked at Harry then, to see his reaction to his best friends' kiss, and found him watching her. He'd been looking at her like he knew her, although they hadn't even really gone on a first date yet. They'd kissed but there hadn't yet been a first date.

It was then that she noticed someone else was in the picture, far, far back but still noticeable. She took a closer look, bringing the picture up so that it was almost touching her nose.

Squinting her eyes she still had trouble making out the person but it soon became clear who the lurking figure was in the background, somewhere long past the Whomping Willow.

Malfoy.

She dropped the photo like it was on fire and cursed. Why the hell did he have to be in this picture? It happened to be her favorite picture... why did he have to be in it?

Ginny put the picture back in the drawer, irritated that she'd never seen his shadowy figure before and even more irritated because despite that, she still loved the picture.

Watching her hands slide the photo back into its dark hiding space, she realized that she was glad Ron had missed it. She liked the authenticity of their photo-ed selves. Later on she would come to wonder why, she was somehow Malfoy was in it.

***

Later that night, long after the sun had set, Ginny was still awake. She loved being the last one to bed. Everything seemed safer late at night, to her. Or at least, she thought, you couldn't see what you were afraid of in the dark.

She had come to love the solitude the night offered. It wrapped her in a dark embrace.

By now, she'd agreed to have breakfast with Ron on Monday. He'd insisted that they meet; her entire family was worried about her. She knew he was probably telling the truth and she didn't want her family worried about her, although they would no matter what. So, in order to get Ron to leave her alone and to ease all their minds, she'd go to breakfast with him. It wasn't something she was particularly looking forward to.

Picking up the antique brush her mother had given her on her wedding day, she looked in the mirror and studied herself. She looked like herself, but in an older version. She didn't look like the Ginny Harry had married so long ago. She looked older...more mature. She wasn't sure she liked that look.

Her brother would have a fit once he saw her hair. She could hear him now. "What the bloody hell did you do to your hair, Ginny? Trying to change yourself already?" Just thinking about her brother's reaction gave her a headache.

Maybe she could magick her hair back to normal. No, Dakotah would be offended and she rather liked it. She was used to offending Ron. It wouldn't be anything out of the ordinary.

She set the brush back on the vanity.

Ron was going to hate her hair.

She stood up and went over to the bed she had shared with Harry. She stared at the bed for a while, her eyes picking out the patterns of the quilt that she'd first dressed her bed with on her wedding night.

Ginny thought back to the picture hidden away in the back of her top desk drawer. Those were happy times, even with Malfoy always skulking in the background.