All Good Things

Part One: Nightmares

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Ginny scrunched up her nose and frowned. It wasn't working. Scratching her cheek, she began again. It still wasn't working. Grunting in frustration, she threw down her quill and leaned back in her chair, stretching her neck. Deciding to finally call it a night, she placed her Arithmancy homework in her drawer and waved her hand, turning off the light. She'd been doing that ever since her birthday, doing magic without her wand, ever since she'd been allowed to do magic out of school. It seemed to come naturally, the wand only there to help her focus when required. Of course, she'd never let her family know that. No, she was still poor, sweet, innocent, little Ginny.

Flopping angrily onto her bed, she rubbed at her eyes and snuggled deeper into her brother's shirt. She missed them. All of them. Sure, the twins came home every weekend when they could. Between running their joke shop and working with the Ministry, creating things to help with the war, they had very little time to spare. Only Percy, Ron and herself lived at home now, and Percy spent most of his time at the Ministry, while Ron had practically moved in with Hermione.

She had to smile when she thought of that. Poor, clueless Ron. It had taken him quite by surprise to discover that he'd fallen in love with his friend, despite the fact that more than half the wizarding world had cottoned on to the fact. When he'd finally kissed her, in front of the entire school at their graduation, he'd been as shocked as her. Now they were practically inseparable, arguments and all. She only wished that everything could be that simple. With the war going the way it was, they would win soon, but that did not make things any less dangerous.

Shuddering at the thought, she wished once more that she could see all her brothers and know for certain that they were safe and sound. No one had heard from Bill and Charlie for over three months now, and, despite Harry's reassurances that they were fine, she wouldn't be happy until she was getting teased by Charlie for stealing his good shirt and a hug from Bill. She may be eighteen now, but she was never too old for a hug from Bill. It made everything okay with the world.

Punching her pillow, she turned over onto her stomach and attempted to clear her thoughts, but one remained. He-who...no, she admonished herself, Voldemort. I can speak the name of the man who killed me. She felt an icy chill run down her spine as she remembered that day. A shadow gripped at her throat and she almost gagged aloud, before shaking off the feeling. It had been the worst year of the war so far. For both sides. Hogwarts had finally been breached and many people had died, students, teachers, deatheaters, and...Voldemort, himself.

The war should have ended that day. If only. They had all stormed the castle, the spells protecting the school finally broken. They had been ruthless, killing over fifty students, three teachers and, if it hadn't been for Professor Snape, Hagrid as well.

Ginny recalled that evening with painful clarity. Being trapped in the corner of the main hall, a group of first years cowering behind her. He-Who...Voldemort had disarmed them easily and Ginny had refused to close her eyes, preparing to die, but not without as much dignity as she could muster. But it hadn't happened, not yet. She had, once again, been saved by Harry Potter.

The battle had been mesmerising, a sight so awful and wonderful to behold. The sheer intensity of it drawing tears to her eyes as she watched Harry fighting for his life. If it hadn't been for her, perhaps he would have beaten He...Voldemort with a lot more ease. At the very least, with a lot less pain and heartache to himself.

"Accio!" It was the most distressing feeling she had ever experienced, it felt different when applied by a dark wizard, almost as if she had been pierced in the gut with a muggle fishing hook and reeled in at 100 miles an hour. H-Voldemort had her by the throat before she could so much as gasp. And that had been when she saw it. The sight that scared her more than Voldemort ever could. Harry was afraid. He was afraid, and that meant he couldn't save her. She knew he'd try, but his fear told her he knew he might not succeed.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Ginny woke screaming, like she had every night the nightmares had plagued her. She wasn't even aware when her day dreaming had slipped into sleep. Breathing deeply to calm herself, she wiped her brow, listening as the stairs and the floorboards in the hall creaked with movement. She soon heard whispered voices as her mother and Harry debated who should enter.

Please be Harry, please be Harry, please be Harry, she silently prayed, not sure if she could handle her mother in the sleep starved state her mind had taken residence in. Breathing a sigh of relief as she heard her mother's door closing, Ginny sat up and waited for the door to open.

"Gin?" There was a crack of light slivering through the room causing Harry's shadow to spread across the bottom of her bed. "Can I come in?" he asked softly.

" 'Course," she whispered, scooting over to let him sit beside her. She allowed him to pull her into his arms and leaned her head on his shoulder as he gripped her tightly.

"What was it this time?" he asked, gently kissing her forehead.

She snuggled closer to him, pulling herself onto his lap and sighed. "Same again. Highlights from the Chamber of Secrets, last year...the curse..." He pulled her still tighter against him, and she didn't complain, feeling safe and secure in his arms, listening to the beat of his heart in his chest and the breath moving through him.

"I'm so sorry." It was barely audible, but she felt him speak.

"For what? For saving my life?"

"For getting you into the situation in the first place."

"Harry, stop it. If anyone's to blame, it's me." Her tears ran freely as she continued, "If you hadn't felt you had to save me, you could have saved Sirius, or Neville, or Colin, or Professor Dumbledore, or-"

"Stop it." His voice was soft but his words were strong. He pulled her face up to meet his, leaning his forehead against hers and wiping away her tears. "If I could do it all again, I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't give you up for the world."

"But if you hadn't spent so long with those spells, if you hadn't tried to save me, to bring me back, then-then you could have...you could have stopped Malfoy's father from killing Sirius and-"

"And I wouldn't have you."

Staring at him in the dull moonlight, she saw that there were tears in his eyes as well. She reached for his cheek, attempting to wipe them away, only to have him catch her wrist and turn it over, gently placing a kiss in her palm, causing a shiver to run through her. A moment later he had pulled her flush against him, kissing her with so much passion, that she was left in no doubt as to why he had saved her. He loved her. He may never have said it, but neither had she. They simply knew.

After a few minutes, Harry pulled away, eliciting a small groan of complaint from her. "Ginny, what if your mum comes in?"

"Then she'll die of shock, my brothers would kill you and I'd be branded a scarlet woman, now shut up and kiss me."

Harry chuckled and complied. After a moment, he pulled back again and could barely contain his smile at her growl.

"To hell with my mum, Harry. She's probably asleep by-"

"It's not your mum, Gin. If we don't stop now, I may not be able to." Her eyes widened as she realised what he meant. She stared into his eyes and he made a move to stand. "I should..." She placed her fingers to his mouth before replacing it with her lips. "Gin."

"What if I don't want you to stop?" she murmured against his mouth.

He groaned. "Then I'd say you chose the worst possible house in the world to tell me." He pulled her to him and kissed her hungrily until there was a noise in the hall. They jumped apart as if they'd been stung and Harry quickly sat in her desk chair at the side of her bed, his back to the door. Ginny attempted to flatten her hair, snickering softly as she spotted Harry's predicament. Giggling, she threw her stuffed rabbit at him and he caught it, promptly placing it in his lap as the door creaked open.

"Ginny?" Mrs. Weasley walked slowly to her daughter's bed and sat down. "Are you all right, dear?"

"I'm okay, mum," she replied snuggling under the covers. "I-I was a little shaken up, but it's okay."

"No, Ginny, it's not okay. If Harry hadn't done what he did-" Her voice broke off and Ginny sat up to hug her mum.

"I'm still here, and I'm not planning on duelling with any death eaters in the near future,"

"Or ever," she heard Harry mutter and, forgetting that he couldn't see her in the darkness, Ginny glowered at him.

"Well then." Mrs. Weasley collected herself, sure that her daughter was indeed all right. "I'm off to bed." She wiped her eyes and hugged Ginny one last time before heading to the door. "You'd best get some sleep. Both of you."

"I'll head down stairs in a minute," Harry said and she nodded before leaving the room, the door clicking gently behind her.

Ginny chuckled. "If she had any idea, you wouldn't be allowed anywhere near my room."

Harry laughed, sitting back on the bed. "If she had any idea, I wouldn't be allowed anywhere near you, let alone your room."

"Ah, remind me again why no one knows."

"Because I want to live?" Harry tickled her and laughed as she bit back a squeal.

"Harry Potter, you do that again and you will regret it."

He smiled and kissed the end of her nose. "Well, the last thing I want is to incur the wrath of Hurricane Ginny, so I guess I'll head back down to my room."

"Hurricane Ginny?" she raised her eyebrows.

"Oh yeah." Kissing her one last time, he moved to the door.

"Harry, I...never mind,"

He turned as she lay back down. "Gin, I'm fed up sneaking around as well." Shocked, as ever, at his perceptiveness, Ginny sat up again and Harry walked back to her, sitting down and taking her hands. "It was fun at Hogwarts."

She snickered. "Yeah, I'll never look at secret passages and store cupboards the same way again."

He smirked. "Neither will Nearly Headless Nick."

"Don't remind me!" She groaned and leaned forward, dropping her head onto his shoulder. He laughed and kissed her hair before she looked up at him again. "It'll be strange not having you at Hogwarts this year." At his look, she frowned. "Harry?"

"Hmm?" He hid his grin.

"Have you decided what you're doing this year?"

"I'm going to be a man of leisure according to the Daily Prophet."

"I don't believe you for a second, you'd go mad." Smiling, he tapped her nose and kissed her before heading to the door. "You're up to something."

He smirked and turned to face her and ignoring her, he spoke. "We'll tell them tomorrow."

She grinned and repeated. "Tomorrow."

He shut the door and she lay back, listening to his progress down the stairs. He was up to something, she knew it. He may be able to fool their friends and family, but not her, she knew him too well.

Sighing, she rolled over and smiled. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she could tell the world that she was in love with Harry Potter. The only difference was, that this time, he'd be saying that he loved her as well.

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End of Part One: Nightmares

Note: The next few parts will probably be a prologue of sorts, it'll jump back to when it all began and explain how they got together, why they didn't tell anyone, what exactly happened when Voldemort and the Death Eaters managed to get into Hogwarts etc.

Note 2: Oh, and Hurricane Ginny is the name of Chapter Three of my other fic, Harry Potter and the Eye of Tae Nan, but Ginny's character will be very similar in both of these stories!

Part Two: In the Beginning