Killer Lies [Harry Potter Fanfiction] (Killers: 1)

8. Merlin can be so Cruel

** Harry Potter, the other characters and some places do not belong to me. They belong to the ultimate genius, J.K. Rowling. I am simply borrowing them but the ideas are purely mine. Please remember to comment and vote. Thank you. Now, Enjoy. ES <3 **

8. Merlin can be so Cruel

Neville watched Ginny as he held open the door for her and Luna. He noticed how stressed and tired she looked, almost as if she was out of sorts; more so than usual with the things she had been going through with the whole Harry fiasco.

Neville still couldn’t believe what Harry and Hermione had done. They both had been in stable relationships, or so the public saw. Neville and Luna had always known that things weren’t exactly perfect between Ginny and Harry. There was always that space between the two of them. They could never meet halfway. It always seemed as if Ginny was always doing all the work and Harry was just being dragged along for the ride. Neville was glad that things had ended between them even though Ginny had been hurt. He just couldn’t help but feel slightly happy that now Ginny would be able to find someone who met her halfway and loved her just as much as she loved him.

The group exited WWW, walking through the shop out to the street.

“Tossers, the both of them,” Ginny growled as she pulled her flaming hair into a messy bun and slipped her wand through to keep it in place. “Why do I have to work with a bunch of ungrateful gits?”

“You shouldn’t stress too much.” Luna replied as her eyes roamed freely.

“I can’t help it! George wakes me up on my day off just because Draco Malfoy can’t make it to work on time. How is that fair?” she complained.

Neville followed the two silently. As he trailed behind his two female companions, he couldn’t help notice how the two attracted so much attention. Not that either of them noticed. Besides the fact that both of their hair colors stood out, the two women we’re noticeably attractive. Even though Luna was spacey, people couldn’t deny that she was a looker. Ginny on the other hand, just refused to believe that she was attractive like that. Yes, she had a boyfriend for over a year and yes, she got attention but she believed it was because she dated Harry Potter and she was the only female Weasley for generations. But Neville knew different and he was sure Draco Malfoy did as well.

He slid into a booth, Ginny and Luna following suit.

Ginny sighed loudly as he waved Tom, the landlord of the Leaky Cauldron. As he began to take orders, he could feel Ginny watching him. He knew he was being uncharacteristically quiet but he couldn’t help it. His was worried about her.

He wondered how long she could go before bringing up what was on her mind and sure enough, after Tom slipped away to gather their orders, she pounced.

“Why are you so quiet?” she looked at him suspiciously.

“No reason.” he lied.

Luna’s gaze darted around the Leaky Cauldron and Neville though she drifted off into her own world when she unexpectedly spoke, “He’s worried about you. You seem oddly… distracted, strained and anxious today. Why is that?”

Neville watched her close up in the blink of an eye. She obviously didn’t want to talk about it but he realized the moment when she decided to talk. Her shoulders relaxed. She exhaled slowly. A small wrinkled appeared between her eyebrows.

“Honestly, yesterday was an absolute nightmare.” she groaned, her head dropping down to the table, slightly shaking the three Butterbeers that Tom had just brought over.

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” He tried to soothe the tension she was feeling.

She sat up, took a sip of her Butterbeer and spilled everything that had happened from when she left her flat that afternoon and headed to the Burrow up to when she banished Hermione from her flat angrily.

“You banished her?” his eyebrows rose.

“Now that explains the feeling I’ve been getting from you.” Luna nodded as she tapped her index finger again her chin. She smiled at Ginny sadly.

“Ginny,” Neville sighed. “Now, as an Auror myself, I have to tell you that the Unforgivable curses are… well, unforgivable. You remember what happened with my parents and when Snape was headmaster.” he lectured.

She rolled her eyes. He could just hear what she was thinking: Leave it to Neville to truly get on my case about what’s right and what’s wrong.

He grinned.

 “Neville, Neville, leave her be.” Luna chastised him.

“I’m only saying –” he started to say but Ginny cut him off.

“I didn’t do it, Neville. So there’s no reason to go into Auror mode.” she teased as she took a sip of her Butterbeer.

The food arrived then and all talk about Harry and Hermione was pushed to the back.

They finished half an hour later and decided to head out to get ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour. He hadn’t been in months; too busy with work and life to enjoy the desert.

As they were leaving the Leaky Cauldron and making their way to the back room where the entrance to Diagon Alley was, when they realized that there was someone just opening it.

They didn’t get a look at the person but followed them through the entrance and were immediately bombarded with flashes and questions. Shocked, Ginny covered her eyes and tried to hide behind Neville. She couldn’t understand why these blasted reporters were her now. She and Harry were over so why, why would they attack her when she was alone? They’d left her alone pretty much.

Dozens of voices flooded her ears; she couldn’t understand what they were saying. Yelling, screaming, trying to ask millions of questions at once. She covered her ears trying to block out the loud noise until finally she could catch some of the questions being asked and she froze; froze because Merlin really couldn’t be so cruel, could he?

“Are you back together?”

“Harry Potter, Harry Potter! Are you thinking of taking the position of Minister of Magic from Kingsley Shacklebolt?”

“Are the two of you going to get married? The youngest Weasley marrying the Harry Potter?”

“Harry Potter, sir! Harry Potter! What do you have to say?”

Question after question shot towards them but all Ginny seemed about to do was turn towards the other person.

Harry Potter.

And Ginny finally knew that yes, yes, Merlin could truly be that cruel.