A Cup of Tea, Please

16 | Aid my Anguish

Hermione left shortly after she made her decision, leaving Harry with an uncomfortable feeling of uncertainty as to how she actually felt about the idea of his and Draco's friendship.

Though what comforted Harry to a degree was that Hermione still fire-called him every morning, and eventually Ron started joining her (likely because of a to a 'talking to' from Hermione). Both of them, however, avoided any mention of Draco in casual conversation, which was probably for the best.

Weeks flew by with Harry being too caught up with Auror work to even consider visiting Draco at his cafe. Merlin, Harry could barely find the time to attend the Weasleys' Hallowe'en party, but once he did, they did not let him leave with an empty stomach.

He felt like he'd been overstuffed with sweets and pumpkin pie and cake and chocolates. Needless to say, having work the very next morning did not bode well for Harry, as he felt the food from yesterday forcing its way out as he ducked and dove and dodged countless hexes.

What made the party even less enjoyable was how sheepishly Ginny was acting around Harry. Despite the love that Mrs Weasley and the rest of the family showered him in, Harry felt that Ginny was intentionally avoiding him, leaving with a sickening feeling that something was wrong.

His fears were only confirmed when Ginny appeared in his fireplace a month later, on the last evening of November.

"Hey, Harry?" she asked timidly.

"Yes?" Harry replied as his stomach churned. Something was definitely wrong.

"Do you mind if we-er-have a chat?"

"No. Come in."

He did. Not now. But it was too late to change his mind as he watched Ginny step out of the flames.

"Harry, I hope you know that I love you a lot," she started solemnly.

"I love you too, Gin."

Ginny flashed a small smile before her face fell again.

"But ever since I got my tryouts over and done with and had them out of the way, I've been thinking about our relationship. A lot. We rarely even have time to see eachother anymore and I doubt we'll be able to with my new position."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. I don't have time to do anything aside from work these days."

"And we both have different things we want from life, right?"

Harry didn't like the direction the direction this conversation was headed.

"I guess."

After one final but thorough confirmation, Ginny was certain about her decision.

"Harry, I don't think we should stay together any longer."

The words penetrated Harry's heart. He knew this was coming, but he hadn't expected it to hurt this much. He wanted to object. He wished that this was a horrible dream. He craved for Ginny to take back her words, for this to be a cruel prank. Just for her to laugh in his face and say that she was kidding.

But no. She was silent. Expressionless.

It seemed that she had, in fact, been thinking about this for quite a while. For so long that the reality that they weren't together anymore didn't cause tears to break out and run down her cheeks, unlike Harry.

As soon as she left, he disconnected his fireplace from the Floo network so nobody else could contact him, before collapsing onto the ground into a shapeless pile. He was a sobbing mess.