Will You Ever Return to Me?

WILL YOU EVER RETURN TO ME?

Prologue.

June 1998, The Burrow.

War. Death. Fear. Harry Potter knew too much of it. But it was finally over, and he supposed that they won--Voldemort was gone, and he was still standing. Most of the wizarding world was celebrating, just like they had almost twenty years before, the day Harry got his famous scar. And, like twenty years before, the tragedies that the war entailed were ignored by the celebrants.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione could not celebrate. They could only feel bitter relief, having lost so much, suffered so long. They didn't feel like heroes, and they didn't want to be told they were. All that distinguished them from a multitude of others was that they lived, and the others died.

Too much was lost. Too many people they knew had fallen. For them, there was nothing to be happy, or triumphant, or proud about. They could only feel a bitter satisfaction that they had done their job. If that.

Molly and Arthur Weasley. Executed by Death Eaters for being blood-traitors. Remus Lupin. Killed in his werewolf form, never to appear human again. Nymphadora Tonks. Went after Remus and fell into Lucius Malfoy's trap. Alastor Moody and Filius Flitwick. Killed fighting to protect Hogwarts. Minerva McGonagall. Killed by Snape, apparently as an act of revenge. Rubeus Hagrid. Given the Dementor's Kiss. Charlie Weasley. Fell of a sabotaged broomstick. Fred and George Weasley. Tortured to death by Bellatrix Lestrange. Susan Bones, Colin Creevey, Parvati Patil, Zacharias Smith, Theodore Nott, Seamus Finnigan, and Anthony Goldstein. Killed in the attack on Hogwarts. Gabrielle Delacour. Used the wrong Portkey and vanished, her mutilated body returned to the family. And so many others. No, they couldn't celebrate, nor could they live among those who did. Almost the moment Voldemort fell, they had decided to leave the country. Here, they were haunted by too many bad memories.

Of course, there was hope as well. Hope, and friendship, and love. Ron and Hermione had gotten engaged, and Harry was hoping that he might have something like that with...

With the person who had just stepped out to meet them. "Ginny!" he shouted.

"You're alive!" She ran up and hugged her brother. "Hermione!" She embraced the girl. "Harry..."

Harry embraced her warmly. "Ginny." He moved in to kiss her.

"Harry, don't," she said.

"What?"

"We can't--"

"What?"

"Well..." She raised her left hand, which had a--

"What's this?" Harry asked, grabbing her hand and lifting it.

"What the bloody--" Ron exclaimed before Hermione smacked him.

Ginny wrung her hand away. "What does it look like?"

"An engagement ring," Hermione supplied.

"It is an engagement ring," Ginny said. Harry went numb at the pronouncement.

"You've gotten engaged?!" Harry shouted.

"Well, yes, I have."

"But I thought..."

"That I was going to wait for you? I guess you don't know me that well."

"Who... who...?" he managed.

Ginny looked at him. "Why do you care?"

"How can I not care?"

"Jealous?"

"Of course I am. I love you, Ginny."

Ginny looked into his eyes. "You never told me that when we were dating."

"Enough, Ginny. Who?"

"Draco Malfoy."