Harry Potter and the Year After

Chapter Sixty-six: That Night

Chapter 66: That Night

That night, Harry couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about the look on Ron's face. The hollow sound of his voice.

"I forgive you," was the last thing that Ron had said in their conversation around the lake, but Harry wondered if things would ever be the same between them. After all, Harry had done the one thing that Ron had always feared the most.

Turning on his side, Harry punched his pillow. It had been cathartic to tell Ron everything that he'd told him. He hadn't realized how much it had all been weighing on him—even the fact that he was still in love with Ginny...

Harry forced himself to shut his eyes. His eyes were blurry anyway with his glasses off. He thought he'd probably only get a headache if he didn't at least try to keep his eyes closed and fall asleep.

When Harry heard the door to his bedroom creak open, he had been in a twilight between half asleep and still ruminating over Ron and everything that had been said.

"Who's there?" Harry said, quickly grabbing his glasses and shoving them onto his face as he sat up. He grabbed his wand and lit it with a nonverbal lumos.

By wandlight, she stood stock still at the end of the bed, her own wandtip unlit though her wand was raised. She only wore a short, thin nightgown and was barefoot.

"Ginny?" Harry asked, incredulously. "Am I dreaming? What are you doing here?"

"Ava—I, ah, I...," she started. "Where am I?"

"What?" He flicked his wand at the nearest candle and lit it. But then Ginny turned back toward Harry and stepped forward. She ran her fingertips of her wandless hand lightly along his quilt.

"Harry," she said then, her face breaking into a worried expression. "Please will you hug me?"

"Alright," he said, surprised. He was confused but he wasn't going to start questioning her.

He dropped his wand to his bedside stand and slid halfway out of bed. Then, he gently pulled her into a hug, hyper-aware of the fact that he was only wearing his boxers.

She seemed to relax into his arms. "You're so warm," she said softly.

"Yeah, well, I was just in bed."

"I must have sleepwalked here. I don't remember coming here," she whispered, and she shuttered a little.

"You can sleep here tonight, alright? I won't tell Mal—er, anyone. I will sleep on the floor, okay?"

She didn't move from hugging him. "You were going to say Malfoy, weren't you?"

"He's your boyfriend, isn't he?" Harry asked, reluctant to let go of her.

"No, he's not my boyfriend. We just let everyone think that we were dating," she said. She let go of him but then stepped around him and slipped into his bed. She held out her hand to him and he slipped his hand in hers as he climbed back into his bed.

"I wish that joke had been true," Harry said quietly. Ginny pulled Harry's arms so he had one tucked under her neck and the other was wrapped around her waist. Her head was resting on his chest again.

"Well, I'm done with him."

"Yeah? Like you were done with me?" he asked as she nuzzled down against his chest.

"No, not like how I was supposedly done with you at all," she said. She still had her wand in her hand that was tucked under his arm, Harry belatedly realized. He carefully took it from her and laid it next to his on the bedside stand. "Thanks, I have a hard time putting that stupid stick down for some reason."