In the End

Prologue - The End Of My Life

We were all living in Grimmauld Place for the summer, while Ron and Harry completed their Auror training and Hermione interned at the Ministry and I tried to find a job. I wasn't like the other three. I didn't have a direction for my life. Except wanting to spend the rest of it with Harry. But it seemed I wouldn't even get that privilege.

~

"Harry, you're not listening to me!" I was practically screaming by now. "I love you. Is that so hard to grasp?"

"Ginny, I'm sorry, but I just don't feel like that about you." His green eyes that I had dreamt about so many times were pleading with me. Praying for me to just give up. My eyes filled with tears. This could not be happening.

"So that's it. You're just going to walk away." I stared around the room, willing my tears away.

"I said I was sorry. What more do you want from me?" He was yelling now.

He was so clueless. I turned slowly and glared at him through my tears. "I want you to go to hell." His eyes clouded and he walked out of the room. He looked back at me one last time, our eyes met and for a moment I thought he was going to come back. Then it was over and he was leaving my life forever.

~

The war has been over for almost two years now. The memories of those dreamy weeks before Dumbledore's death were fading. Those idyllic weeks when I had Harry Potter's love. It has been a year and a half since he left my life for good. I have grown. Not physically. Emotionally. I have come to terms with the loss that filled me when The Boy Who Lived ripped my heart out.

I have a job now. Mr. Lovegood hired me to write for the Quibbler. I am now the author of a feature article an issue and an advice column called Ask Ginevra. It may not be what I had expected, but I have come to love it. I get to work with Luna and her equally batty father; I have time to help Mum around the Burrow. It's been hard for her since the war. She lost three sons and her husband to a monster and his minions.

~

God, Tom. What you've done to my life. And to think I let you in my mind for almost a year. You killed my father, Charlie, Percy and George. You scarred Bill for life. You almost ruined Fred. You took his other half and the girl who made him all he could be. Angelina meant more to him than any of us thought. Ron lost his arm. Hermione, her parents. And it would take months to list the things you've taken from me.

~

I have broken free of both the raven-haired men who took over my mind. I have become my own woman. I will run and leap and fly.

In the end, I am only Ginevra.