She Will Be Loved

She Will Be Loved

By Kay Kay

Beauty queen of only eighteen/She had some trouble with herself/He was always there to help her/She always belonged to someone else/I drove for miles and miles/And wound up at your door/I've had you so many times but somehow I want more/I don't mind spending everyday/Out on your corner in the pouring rain/Look for the girl with the broken smile/Ask her if she wants to stay awhile/And she will be loved/She will be loved/Tap on my window knock on my door/I want to make you feel beautiful/I know I tend to get so insecure/It doesn't matter anymore/It's not always rainbows and butterflies/It's compromise that moves us along/My heart is full and my door's always open/You come anytime you want/I know where you hide/Alone in your car/Know all of the things that make you who you are/I know that goodbye means nothing at all/Comes back and begs me to catch her every time she falls-"She Will Be Loved" Maroon 5

~

Harry sat back, laughing and feeling positively joyful. Just six short weeks before he'd defeated Voldemort. The weeks had been a flurry of testifying at torturous Death Eater trials and long press releases, but Harry had finally been able to come home to the Weasleys. Mrs. Weasley had insisted on a combination Defeat of You-Know-Who/Ginny's Graduation party, although it was now November and Ginny had been graduated and training to be a healer at St. Mungo's for some time now.

The Burrow was even more packed than usual, and the house seemed to be literally bulging. Bill was there with Fleur and their twins, Giselle and Cosette, who were 3, and already up to no good. Charlie was there, jovial as ever. Fred and George were there, Fred accompanied by Angelina and their 1-year-old Brandon, and George by the very pregnant Alicia. Ron and Hermione had come, of course, and Mrs. Weasley was all in a tizzy over Hermione, wanting to work on plans for the wedding in the spring. Percy was the only Weasley absent, and the only Weasley casualty of the war. He'd been put under Imperius by a Death Eater, until his mind was no longer.

Lupin and Tonks were there, along with several of both Harry and Ginny's classmates from school. Their was an abundance of food and good spirit, and a pick up Quidditch game was going on outside. Harry hadn't felt so happy in years.

"Bonjour Oncle Harry! Will you play dolls with us? We need someone to be the dad." Giselle (or was that Cosette?) looked up at him hopefully.

"Sil vous plait, Oncle Harry! You're the only one not playing Quidditch, and Maman said you might play with us." The two identical girls beamed at him, and their adorable dimples and strawberry blond curls almost tempted him, until he saw red curls flick out of the room in the corner of his eye.

~

Even though Harry's life seemed to be settling into place, like pieces of a puzzle finally coming together, there was one thing that still bothered him.

Ginny.

Harry wasn't sure when he'd fallen in love with her, or even when he'd realized he loved her. During his time at Hogwarts Ginny had been a force of life around him. She was the only one who could make Harry see sense when he most needed too, and make him laugh even when things were bad. When he'd graduated he'd missed her so terribly, and known that he loved her. It was only natural, in his mind, that they be together.

Before Voldemort's defeat Harry used him as a firm rationale not to tell her he loved her. Voldemort would have used it against him. Now that Voldemort was gone, however, it was slightly more difficult for Harry to come up with an excuse for not telling Ginny how he felt.

There was one simple reason Harry could not tell her, but it was really the clincher; she didn't love him back. As much as he'd tried to ignore it, Ginny had thoroughly moved past him since her school day crush and Harry couldn't fight the feeling that telling her he loved her would only get him laughed at. And when he thought about it, he couldn't really blame her for it. She had loved him for four long years and he had totally ignored her. He should have known then, that some cruel law of irony would force him to fall in love with her.

Now, though, Harry could not take it any longer. He felt he would be happier at least knowing that she knew, no matter what paltry chances he had of her accepting him.

'All right, Potter,' he thought, climbing after her on the stairs, 'it's time to put up or shut up.'

~

Sometimes he still came to her in nightmares. She dreamt she was in first year again, and she could do nothing else but listen to him. She dreamt she was lying in the chamber, confused. He told her she was beautiful, and how stupid Harry was to miss it. He told her he was sorry that he had to take her, take her before she had a chance to make Harry see her. He told her that Harry hated her, and there was nothing she could do, just because stupid little Harry could not see how beautiful and - he'd hiss the last word to her - ripe she was.

He reached out and touched her on the shoulder, and his hand slowly moved from her shoulder across her stomach, like a caress, only so cold that Ginny would start to shiver, just as she had in the chamber.

"You are mine, Ginevra."

~

"Gin?" Harry knocked softly on her bedroom door. "Ginny, can I talk to you?"

"C'mon in, Harry." Ginny sounded tired. As Harry opened the door he noticed that she looked it too.

"Is something wrong, Ginny? You look so-" Harry sat next to her on the bed.

"Like shit, I know." Ginny almost wished she could tell him, but she'd never told anyone. Since Harry had defeated Voldemort, Tom was not only in her dreams, but everywhere, all the time. Like he'd leaked out of Voldemort and into her. She knew it was just her mind, calling back that nightmare of her early life, but it was taking it's toll on her. "Nothing's up, Harry. It's just been hard to get sleep, with all the...you know."

Harry nodded, but in her pause he'd seen that darkness that passed behind the warm glow of her eyes every time she thought of Tom. In his seventh year she'd talked to him about it a bit. That feeling she'd had of being out of her own control. All the things that Tom had told her. Harry knew that even though Ginny never said so, Tom was always with her, haunting her the same way he was haunted by all the ghosts of his past.

"S-sometimes," said Harry haltingly," it helps to have another person to help you...help you forget."

Ginny flinched. Harry could obviously tell she was thinking of Tom, just as she could tell when he thought of Sirius. "Harry, I..." she trailed off and looked away, swiping a tear from her eye.

"I've been so foolish, Ginny. I've been so dumb." He reached for her hands.

Ginny looked startled. "What are you talking about Harry?"

"I should've told you before. And I know you don't feel the same but Ginny...Gin, I've fallen in love with you."

Ginny remembered when she was young and Charlie told her the story of Harry Potter. She'd wanted to marry him then, at the age of 4, this heroic boy who'd saved them all from Voldemort. And then he'd saved her from Voldemort, like a knight in shining armour. It had taken Ginny so long to realize that Harry was just a normal boy. A boy with flaws and problems and a horrible temper, not someone to be idolised and put on some pedestal. Ginny had been so happy when she'd finally left her crush on Harry behind, and really became part of his life, and found boys who did not have so many limitations in life as that sad boy. She was blissful to find boys who didn't know her so absolutely, didn't know about Tom, and the basilisk, and the horror of the chamber. Boys she could go through as easily a worn pair of shoes, not worrying about them finding out.

"It's ok, Ginny, I knew you wouldn't feel the same, I just-" there was a catch in Harry's voice and he swiped a tear away.

Ginny was crying in earnest now. "Harry, you don't...It's not that I couldn't love you. It's not that I don't love you...Harry...he-"

"Who?" asked Harry, wiping his eyes.

"Tom," she whispered.

~

It was Easter before Harry was round again. He was moving out of the flat he shared with Ron and Hermione, since they were getting married, and Mrs. Weasley had offered him a room until he could find some new flatmates. Harry and Ginny avoided each other at all costs. Harry still loved her, but Ginny's admission that Tom was the reason she couldn't love him had brought him many startling things to think about, after she'd kicked him out of her room, sobbing, that November night.

When he thought about it Harry felt overwhelming bitterness to Voldemort, that he had touched her to the inside of her soul, and taken possession of it all. 'Just one more thing I loved that he took,' Harry thought resentfully. He felt though, that Ginny was his chance. She was the first chance he'd ever gotten to retrieve what he so dearly needed from Voldemort, after Voldemort had taken it away.

At the reception for Ron and Hermione's wedding they were seated together, Harry being Ron's Best Man and Ginny Hermione's Maid of Honour.

"Ginny," whispered Harry quietly, causing her to jump about a foot in the air, "can we talk?" She nodded and allowed herself to be dragged to a small anteroom off the reception hall.

"Harry, I told you, I-"

"Shh," Harry interrupted, pulling Ginny into a soft comforting embrace. "I know. I just...I love you so much. I know that things are so hard for you but I-I want you to know that I'll always love you. I'll be there for you if you need me. When," Harry gulped," he's there."

Harry lifted Ginny's chin, his eyes filling with the unmistakable look of love as he stared into her tearful brown eyes, and gently pressed his warm mouth to her pink lips. With a stroke of her hair, he turned and went back to the hall.

~

A year later Harry was still living with the Weasleys. Mrs. Weasley objected to him living in the muggle world, and was so scared for his safety that she treasured having him around the house when he wasn't working. Ron and Hermione also came to visit often, with their new daughter Ginevra (after Ginny) whom they'd nicknamed Eva.

Harry and Ginny's interactions had been kept to meaningless talk about work and the baby, only the frivolity of their everyday life. Every night as the family said good night to each other Harry would pull Ginny close outside her room and tell her he loved her, and he would always be there for her. But even Harry's persistence didn't seem to be wearing her down, as she always just nodded, and sent Harry along, his head down from the rejection she gave him every night, though he still never gave up.

~

"Harry."

"What?"

"You're awake." Ginny somehow made this sound like a question and a statement at the same time.

"I'm always awake," said Harry, turning towards her. "I wait to see if you'll come in the night." Ginny expelled the breathe she didn't know she'd been holding, and began to sob uncontrollably, falling towards Harry.

He lifted her gently on to the bed and stroked her hair. "I belong to him, Harry. He touches me and he tells me that I'm his. That you had me and you lost me, and it's too late now. He says I'm his and I can never belong to anyone else. But, Harry-Harry, I just don't want to be his any longer!" She leaned toward him and kissed him, her tears falling into his mouth as he opened it under her tongue.

"I love you so much, Ginny," Harry moaned, pressing himself against her. She sighed and pushed back with equal pressure, a sense of urgency behind her kiss.

She suddenly sat up, pulling back from him with a choking noise. "I can't do this Harry. I just can't."

With sad eyes, Harry looked up at the woman he loved, kneeling in front of him on the bed, crying and gorgeous, and saying goodbye. "I love you, Ginny."

"Good night, Harry."

Fin.