Eclipse

"Turn around," he commanded. The moonlight streamed through the high windows of the owlery, landing in soft patches on the phosphorescent droppings that coated the downy feathers. It also highlighted the tear tracks on the girl's face as she looked over her shoulder, her hair looking alternately mahogany and copper as she shook her head.

"Every now and then I get a little bit lonely," she whispered, petting the white owl in front of her. Hedwig hooted and nibbled at her fingers, as if taking a side in the argument. "And," she faltered, turning away from him again, "you're never coming round." Her shoulders stiffened as she fought against the new wave of tears.

Harry tried again. "Turn around." It was very hard to argue with someone who refused to look at him. Didn't Ginny know that she just needed to give him that doleful look that she was so good at and he would drop to his knees?

"Every now and then I get," her voice cracked, "get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears." How could she explain to him any clearer that she was tired of being second in his life? When would he understand that she couldn't take much more of this? The-Boy-Who-Lived was turning into The-Man-Who-Refused-To-Say-No-To-A-Request-To-Save-The-World.

"Turn around!" She could hear the anger underneath his words but still refused to look at him. The snowy owl began to fidget, clearly wanting to be out of the way when the yelling started. The school owls had all flown up to the top of the large, open room and were now all sleeping uneasily.

"Every now and then I get a little bit nervous," Ginny sighed, her sorrow starting to give way to anger that matched that of the green-eyed man behind her. "Nervous that the best of all the years have gone by." She was thirty-three next week. Thirty-three! Where had the time gone? Granted, Harry was only a year older but it started to feel like they both were so much older, ancient even. They had seen and done more then most people ever thought of possible in one lifetime. Every day, she looked at her students crowded together in the small Charms classroom and prayed that they would never have so much as one day's worth of tears because of what she and the others had fought for. What they had sacrificed. What they still sacrificed. It had been worth it, hadn't it?

There was silence. She wanted so much to look at him but fought the urge.

"Turn around," he whispered from right behind her. With the gentleness that only she brought out in him, he touched her shoulder, sliding his hand down to her elbow. With his mouth inches from her ear, he caressed her beaten soul with his words. "Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes. Turn around, bright eyes." He hadn't called her that pet name in years, not since their first argument on Platform 9 3/4. Had they really been that young? Even the argument had been a foolish spat between two teenagers.

"Every now and then I fall apart." He didn't have to hear her words to know that she had broken under his gentle words.

He tried again. "Turn around, bright eyes."

"Every now and then I fall apart." She wanted so much to give in to him. The need to have him hold her in his arms was so strong that she trembled from the need of him. Would it change anything? One night's passion was not going to make up for his absences.

"Turn around?" she spun out of his arms and out the door, her back still to him. She stopped abruptly as the moonlight hit her fully. The world had changed into a silvery wonderland while she had been inside the enclosure but she was blind to everything but the ache in her heart and the man behind her. "Every now and then I get a little bit restless and I dream of something wild. Turn around?" How dare he ask so much of her! How dare he think he could make his absence better with a kiss and a romp on the stinking floor of the owlery!

Tears she could not longer control were streaming down her cheeks and she did nothing about them, letting them wash her soul clean from this wound. Every part of her ached and she was getting tired of always being mad at her husband. "Every now and then I get a little bit helpless and I'm lying like a child in your arms."

The pain that shot through her heart brought her to her knees. It hurt so much to have him here and not be able to have him understand her. The last time she had seen Harry they had run to each other like it was the first time. Having him hold her all night had been so special but he had left without a word in the morning. No note. No explanation. Good ol' Ginny would understand, wouldn't she?

"Turn around," Harry begged. Were this many tears a good thing? He knelt behind her, trying to gauge her reactions to him. Every time he left, she kept a piece of his heart with her. It terrified him that he might not be able to get them back. Did she really hate him this much for not always being near by? Dumbledore had promised to keep her safe for him each time he left. What more could he do?

Her muffled cry of anguish made him cringe. He tried to pick her up but she pushed him away. As if to explain her actions, she screamed, "Every now and then I get a little bit angry and I know I've got to get out and cry!"

"Turn around." She wasn't listening to him anymore. Her arms were wrapped tightly around her middle and her face turned towards the night sky. Her eyes were unseeing, reflecting all the stars in the sky but no emotions that he could make out clearly. Knowing that he couldn't make the shiny depths fill with love but wanting to try, Harry grimaced, "Every now and then I get a little bit terrified but then I see the look in your eyes. Turn around, bright eyes."

He saw her return back to the moment but regretted the look of pain he saw in her eyes. Echoing her earlier words, he said, "Every now and then I fall apart."

She turned and gazed at him then, her eyes clear and bright. How could he ever tell her how beautiful he still thought she was? There were no words strong enough. They had been married for ten years but had he ever really told her that she was the only woman who he had ever found truly beautiful?

Slowly, advancing towards her as if she would bolt at any second, he repeated, "Turn around, bright eyes. Every now and then-" he faltered, his own eyes filling with tears of want, of need, of desire, "I fall apart," he choked out.

Their first kiss was a mere brushing of lips, but it slowly deepened into a joining of souls. Several heartbeats passed, the two of them the only ones alive in the moonlit night. Harry tugged at his tie, successfully getting the knot firmer around his neck. With a low laugh, Ginny reached over and loosened it, pulling it away with a slow, seductive movement. Throwing it to the ground, her hands went back to help him undo the buttons that had suddenly become unmanageable.

"I need you now. Tonight," he growled, bringing her hands up to kiss her palms one at a time.

That never failed to make her shiver. "And I need you more than ever." She brought every bit of love out of her shuttered heart to show him in her eyes that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. "And if you'll only hold me tight," she started but he put her own hands over her mouth.

"We'll be holding on forever!" he stated with a vengeance, wanting to make sure that she understood that he didn't want to leave her again, ever. But there was so much that still needed to get done. That conversation could wait, though.

The ring he had given her for their fifth anniversary sparkled in the unwavering moonlight. He brought her hands to his lips again. Remembering the words he had spoken to her that night on the cliffs overlooking the sea, he smoothed the band of fire-colored stones with his lips and repeated them to her. "And we'll only be making it right, 'cause we'll never be wrong. Together, we can take it to the end of the line." That was the only time they had ever spent together away from everything. The guilt swamped him, leaving him breathless. No wonder she was angry with him. He deserved it.

"Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time," she confessed, sorrow fighting with the passion. "I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark."

Harry sighed, knowing that he couldn't make this situation better but wanting to try. "We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks," he murmured, drawing her towards him. He kissed her again, overwhelming her with actions when the words failed him. The music of the night washed over them, soothing the hurt and confusion.

"I really need you tonight," Ginny cried out, giving herself to him completely. "Forever's gonna start tonight."

Laughing softly, Harry cradled her against him and whispered, "Forever's gonna start tonight."

The hoot of an owl was closer now as one swooped towards them, landing on the soft grass near Harry's shoulder. This wasn't a school owl, Ginny noticed. Only one person would send an owl like that. With surprising clarity after all that had just happened, Ginny reached for her black school robe and shrugged into it. Not bothering with the rest of her clothes, she started up the hill to the backdoor of Hogwarts.

"Once upon a time I was falling in love, but now I'm only falling apart," she yelled back at him over the shoulder he had been kissing only moments before, the pain back in her heart. Why did she ever hold onto the hope that this was going to work out?

"There's nothing I can do!" he yelled back at her, clutching the owl's message in his hand. The poor timing was making him seethe with anger. He was tired of choosing, tired of fighting, tired of not being able to hold her every night. He was just tired. "A total eclipse of the heart," he whispered to himself, knowing that there was nothing he could do to make this right for Ginny.

"Once upon a time there was light in my life," Ginny yelled, wanting to hurt him as much as he had hurt her. She didn't care who heard them now. "But now there's only love in the dark."

"Nothing I can say," he muttered, knowing she was too far away now, both in distance and in emotions, to hear him. "A total eclipse of the heart." Folding the note more carefully, he shoved it in the pockets of the pants that he had just pulled on. He wouldn't be coming back here for a while. Maybe that was a good thing, after all.