Dear Gin

"Dear Gin"

Dear Gin,

We need to talk.

Meet me tonight at midnight in that empty classroom in the third floor corridor.

Hermione.

It was not the brevity of the note or the fact that it was so unexpected that had Ginny running barefoot down the corridor in the freezing cold a quarter of an hour early that night. Hermione was given to write short, incomprehensible notes. She had a habit of not explaining herself. After two years of loving an infuriating woman, Ginny had learned not to jump to conclusions.

That damned period though. Hermione was as careful about grammar as anyone Ginny had ever met. She had never put a period after her name. She never would. Her name is not a sentence, and a period simply does not belong there.

There was something tragically final about that period. Something was wrong about that period.

Of course, Ginny had noticed the distance between them recently. Ever since Professor McGonagall had scheduled meetings with all of the Seventh Years about graduation, Hermione had not been herself. She sat in the Common Room with her hand absent-mindedly stroking Ginny's knee, staring into the fire for hours. She even forgot to write an essay for Professor Vector. Ginny had not seen her girlfriend so distracted since the days of the Time Turner.

Maybe she's worried about Harry. Maybe she's nervous about her interview at the Ministry. Maybe she's worried about graduation. Maybe she's working too hard on her N.E.W.T.s. The more excuses Ginny came up with, the less any seemed to fit. Hermione had always been a very attentive lover, but recently Ginny's attempts to flirt and tease had met with little success.

Last night Ginny had convinced Hermione to meet her in the same classroom they were meeting in tonight. Hermione's fumbling attempts to please Ginny went steadily downhill until Ginny finally told Hermione to stop and left crying. Hermione did not come back to the Tower for a long time. Ginny pretended to be asleep on a couch, and Hermione had levitated the note onto the cushion next to her head before going up to her own dormitory.

Ginny arrived at the classroom door and stopped to listen with her ear against the wood. She was breathing hard and the sound of her heart pounding clogged her ears. It took several seconds for the noise of her heart to receed and for her breathing to slow. She could hear the click of Hermione's heels pacing across the stone floor inside. The wood muffled the sound, but Ginny was sure Hermione was talking to herself.

The stone floor of the corridor was freezing as Ginny knelt down and pressed her ear to the crack at the bottom of the door. What she wouldn't give for an Extendable Ear right now.

"...you must have noticed..."

A shiver ran through Ginny's body, and she wrapped her cloak tightly around her shoulders.

"Ginny, I'm sorry..."

Hermione's heels were clicking and a slight breeze came from under the door, hitting Ginny's cheek.

"...just not the same..."

The blood ran out of Ginny's face.

"Are you quite alright Ginny?"

It took a moment to register a few facts about this voice. After a few seconds Ginny realized two things; this voice did not come from inside the classroom, and this voice was male. She did not jump; did not make a noise. She simply closed her eyes and swallowed hard.

"Nick, you scared the life out of me."

Ginny realized from the look on Nearly Headless Nick's face, that this comment might be somewhat offensive to a ghost.

Ginny took her face off of the cold floor and whispered to Nick. "Sorry. I didn't mean that. What are you doing here?"

"One of the more unfortunate parts of being dead, is that you do not require sleep. The nights at Hogwarts are quite lonely, you know."

Ginny's heart rate returned to normal, but the muttering from the classroom had continued unabated, and Ginny remembered that Hermione was inside, practicing her breakup speech.

"May I ask what is troubling you, Ginny?"

Ginny looked up and was surprised to feel tears in her eyes. She could not bring herself to answer.

"Am I to assume that Ms. Granger is the one clunking around that room behind you?"

Ginny stood and nodded, looking at the floor.

"And you are worried about what it is she is practicing to say to you."

Ginny nodded again and a tear slid down her face.

"May I make a suggestion?" Nick did not wait for a response from Ginny. "Waiting out here is only making it worse. Go inside. Trust me, whatever she says, it could be worse."

Nick grabbed his scalp, lifted his head off his neck, and tilted it slightly in salute to Ginny. With a sly grin he floated down the hall toward the statue of a humpbacked witch.

"Ginny... I wasn't... I wasn't expecting you... you're early."

Ginny stood straight-backed and stone-faced by the door. She tried very hard to fight it, but she still got butterflies in her stomach when she saw Hermione. She felt so silly. They had been dating for two years, and still she gets butterflies.

"You look really great, Gin." Hermione stammered.

"Look, Hermione. I know this is difficult for you, but maybe we should just get it over with. It would be easier on both of us, don't you think?"

Hermione looked rather puzzled. Her forehead wrinkled in concentration.

Ginny had mustered her courage. "If you're going to breakup up with me, just do it, okay?"

Hermione's eyebrows shot up and the merest shadow of a smile played across her lips. "I don't want to break up with you, Ginny!"

Now Ginny's eyebrows shot up. "Then what did you bring me here for? What's been going on with you recently? Why did you put a period after your name?"

Hermione seemed to relax slightly, and the smile widened to show her teeth. "Why don't you sit down, and I'll explain."

Hermione took Ginny's hand and led her to the large chair behind the teacher's desk. Ginny was slightly dazed by the abrupt change of events. Ginny stared at the spot Hermione had been until she had returned with a chair from one of the student desks.

Hermione put the chair right in front of Ginny and took the younger girl's hands in her own.

"Ginny, I'm sorry about how I've been recently. I'm really sorry about last night. I hope you know it was not about you. I love you, Gin, I always have. I have been a bit preoccupied recently because now I know..."

Hermione took a moment to collect herself. Ginny's head was ringing and her mouth was very dry. She was so scared, but she could not for the life of her understand why.

"I know now that I will always love you. I know that you are the most important thing in the world to me. I have been so scared this year because I was afraid of next year..."

Hermione's voice broke. Ginny's heart was pounding again, and she was fighting to hear. She was sitting abnormally straight in her chair.

"Next year you'll be here, but I won't be."

A tear rolled down Hermione's cheek. She was staring fixedly at the right arm of Ginny's chair.

"I got to thinking about my life without you in it, and I was so scared. I have come to depend on you being there, Gin, but everything is going to change soon."

Ginny flinched slightly. The next words spilled out of Hermione's mouth like a tidal wave, and, for some reason, she blushed deeply.

"So, we have a decision to make, Gin. You have a decision to make."

Hermione finally raised her eyes to look into her girlfriend's. Ginny had no idea what to do. She got that feeling like when a teacher asks her a question that she should know the answer to, but did not. She tried hard to remember what Hermione had said. She searched for a question, but came upon nothing. Hermione began to smile again.

"What decision, Hermione?"

Hermione's fingers moved on Ginny's hand, and Ginny felt something cool slide onto her finger. Ginny looked down and saw a beautiful silver ring. It was a thick band, and there were three deep blue stones set into it. The two outer stones were smaller the center stone, and they all were perfectly even with the silver that encased them.

"Will you marry me?"

Ginny was suffocating. Her heart was bursting and she was crying. Then she was nodding and Hermione had thrown her arms around Ginny. They were crying onto each other's faces.

Hermione pulled away and asked, "So then I guess you forgive me for being a git recently?"

Ginny nodded and smiled through her steadily falling tears. "I forgive you. I love you. I will marry you."