Collide

I'm open, you're closed
Where I follow, you'll go
I worry I won't see your face
Light up again

Even the best fall down sometimes
Even the wrong words seem to rhyme
Out of the doubt that fills my mind
I somehow find
You and I collide

-Howie Day-

Harry, Ron and Hermione hauled their trunks out to the front of the Burrow, out in the yard. They were Apparating to an undisclosed location, known only to the three of them and the petite, pretty redhead that stood in front of them.

She was a picture of defiance, her freckled arms crossed and her chin up, looking as if nothing but sheer will-power was holding her up.

"I suppose you're going, then," she said staunchly, giving a faint smile.

"I suppose," Harry said in a measured voice. "Bye, Ginny."

"Goodbye, Harry," she replied. "Hermione."

"I'll write you, I swear I will," Hermione promised fervently.

"I know," Ginny replied, hugging her friend. "Ron, see you later."

"Yeah," Ron said gruffly. Then, losing it, he put his arms around his baby sister and started blinking furiously.

"It's okay, Ron," Ginny soothed. "I'll see you when you come home..." She glanced at Harry over Ron's shoulder and added, "Whenever that is."

"We'll come back as soon as it's safe," Harry promised.

Ginny laughed softly. "It'll never be safe, Harry, but come back anyway."

"Okay," he agreed, slightly chagrined.

"Don't go staying away for some stupid, noble reason," she added, reminding Harry of their conversation at Dumbledore's funeral. "I'll hunt you down and Bat Bogey Hex you until you beg for mercy."

Harry hadn't expected to laugh at the scene of their farewell. But Ginny always surprised him. She hugged him last, and he caught the scent of her flowery perfume, a scent tied distinctly to happy times and good memories.

"Take care of my brother," she said softly.

"Take care of my surrogate family," he whispered back.

"I promise," she said.

"Me, too," Harry agreed, putting his finger under her chin and forcing her eyes up to meet his. "I promise, Ginny."

From the look in her eyes, he saw that she knew he was promising more than protection. He was promising everything; his love, his life, his every thought and breath. Though he was a seventeen-year-old boy, and you couldn't have gotten him to say it aloud, even if you used torture, he loved her through-and-through and would do anything for her.

That was his promise.

"A hero always keeps his promises," Ginny reminded him, and with a final squeeze, let him go. "I can't tell you lot to be careful, because you won't," she mused. "I can't tell you to not to go, because you won't listen." She smiled humorlessly around at the three of them.

"I suppose I'll just have to tell you to come back with your shield or on it," she finished. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Harry, Ron and Hermione said in unison. Then they Disapparated one-by-one.

Harry was the last to go. She raised her hand and held it out to him, and he did the same. All the words left unspoken, the love left un-vowed, hung between their outstretched hands almost visibly. Their eyes met; chocolate brown and piercing green. Then Harry said a final goodbye and disappeared.

"I love you, Harry," Ginny whispered, now that he was gone and it was safe. "With all my heart. I always will."

Harry appeared beside Ron and Hermione, the echo of her words not in his ears, but in his heart.

"You guys," he said fiercely, "we've got to do this, if it's the last thing we ever do."

"With our shields or on them," Hermione said, a slight smile on her face.

Harry paled and disappeared.

"Where did he go?" Ron asked indignantly.

"He probably forgot something at the Burrow," Hermione replied, a knowing look on her face.

Ginny was walking back towards the house, a picture of battered bravery. She'd smiled when he left, but now that he was gone, her head hung dejectedly and her eyes stung with tears. She was just wiping at her eyes with the heel of her hand when a loud pop sounded behind her.

She whirled around to see Harry standing there, looking at her in almost wonder. "Ginny," he said quietly, "I-" He broke off, looking at the sky in an effort to control his emotions.

"I know, Harry," she said. "I know."

Losing his effort to contain himself, Harry ran towards her, wrapped his arms around her, and gave her the parting kiss he'd decided against.

Everything between them flowed through that kiss, from the sorrow at parting to the anger at having to part; Ginny's determination not to let him see her break down and his equally fierce determination to be strong for her; his desire to protect her battled against her desire to fight with him. All the happy memories, the lazy days by the lake, the few precious weeks they were allowed to be together.

All of that and more passed unspoken between them as they shared that one last passionate, desperate, hungry kiss. Harry's head was spinning and Ginny was sure one of Luna's Wrackspurts - creatures that caused fuzzy-headedness - had gotten her.

When they finally unglued themselves from each other, Harry took her face in both his hands. "Ginny," he said urgently, "if I come back on my shield instead of with it, I want you to know that I love you."

"Me, too," Ginny murmured, tracing his profile with a slender finger. "But you have to go save the world now."

And finally, after all that, they said goodbye. Harry disappeared, and this time he didn't come back. Ginny waited in the garden until dusk, then disappeared inside. This time, she remained proudly composed, ignoring the tears pricking the corners of her eyes, her chin held high and her eyes fierce.

Her mother looked up from the carrots she was chopping when Ginny came inside. "They're gone, then?" she asked tremulously.

Ginny nodded. "They're gone."

Without another word, she climbed the stairs and entered her small bedroom. Calmly, slowly, she shut the door. Then she turned around, ran and flopped onto her old lace duvet, and cried until the tears wouldn't come anymore.