Disclaimer: We all know its JKR's and not mine.

Author's Note: I have no idea where the hell this came from. But I like Ginny and Neville in a non-simple kind of way, and wanted to take them out for a spin given the events of HBP. If you'd feel so inclined to read, I thank you.

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He thought he had left her strong, ready to take on the world. He thought that the knowledge of his love would sustain her in the coming year, provide a light in the darkness he had left her to face alone. Harry Potter thought Ginny Weasley would his general on the home front, leading Dumbledore's Army, and that when he returned, for whatever happened he would return, they would piece their lives back together.

Harry Potter had never been more wrong. And he'd been wrong quite a lot in his lifetime.

Not that she'd done anything but perpetuate the myth. She'd smiled when he'd left her, through her tears she'd laughed about keeping Ron and Hermione apart, and kissed him goodbye in a way that said 'I'll be okay.'

But she hadn't been okay, she honestly thought she would be, but that had been the biggest lie of all. He had left her broken. It was like he had taken all the best parts of her with him, and left her to manage with all the faulty, dysfunctional pieces of herself. And she'd self-destructed, right in front of everyone.

It had been the first meeting of DA for the year. In truth she hadn't thought much about putting one together, not that she'd thought much about anything, but Neville and Luna had appeared before her at breakfast on the fifth day of school with plans, training schedules, and a list of new recruits they thought would be trustworthy. So she'd muttered something about yeah that sounded good, just to make them go away. Except they came back the next day and day after that, and before she realized it, she and Neville were eating every meal together at the Gryffindor table, and meeting up with Luna during every free period.

They made her laugh and smile in a way that wasn't sad. Neville with his hideously poor memory but truly brave heart and Luna with theories so crazy they just might be the most brilliant thing anyone had ever come up with. They were her trio. The three misfits of Hogwarts—the bungler, the loon, and the girl Harry didn't want.

Strangely it was this blossoming friendship that probably did the most to destroy her. Because as she spent more time with Neville and Luna, as she came to depend on their presence, to laugh at their foibles, and appreciate their strengths, she realized that this was what Harry, Ron, and Hermione were to each other—an inseparable trinity—and that was why when they had insisted on coming, Harry hadn't spoken a word about Voldemort using them, attacking them, although anyone could tell you they were just as precious as she ever was. Harry had welcomed them along because he needed them. They made him stronger.

And she wasn't a part of that. She was on the outside.

It had been thought that had repeated itself over and over, beating a tattoo in her brain until she couldn't hear anything else. Harry didn't need her. Harry didn't need her. When she'd stood in front of the roomful of mostly Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, a few Hufflepuffs, and two thoroughly vetted Slytherins and began to speak about how with Dumbledore gone and the Death Eaters growing in strength it was up to them to protect Hogwarts to make sure that whatever happened this place remained, she'd been fine. But when she'd started in about how they were necessary, how people were counting on them, the words wouldn't come anymore. She had just stood there in the middle of the room silent and hollow because the words weren't true, nobody was counting on them. People were counting on Harry. People were counting on Ron and Hermione by association. But back here in this room, these young faces, they wouldn't be remembered because no one thought their sacrifices necessary, just unfortunate.

She didn't know how long she stood there struck dumb by the knowledge that in the end they were all superfluous, even her. She was barely conscious of the uncomfortable murmurs going through the room, increasing in volume and anxiety with each passing minute. She hardly felt the pair of strong hands on her shoulders, gently but firmly guiding her back to her chair.

Though she heard one of the Ravenclaw's grumbled comments that this was Harry's fight and not theirs, she couldn't bring herself to respond because truthfully she thought he had point. No one doubted that whatever they did here, the outcome would depend on the trio who was far away. So when several of the students started to gather up their things, she made no move to stop them.

"Sit down."

In the end it was probably more the shock of hearing Neville issue such a command, than any real power of the command itself, but whatever it was everyone was suddenly still.

"All of you sit down. Y-you came to hear what we had to say, so . . . you're going to hear it." Blinking a few time, Ginny looked up to find her tall, awkward friend standing in the middle of the circle looking for all the world like he'd really rather be facing a Snape shaped bogart at the moment. But still he stood there, his posture laced with a kind of steel that reinforced his words even as the nervousness in his voice undercut them.

"We've already heard what she had to say and it wasn't much," shouted a different heckler from the back of the room.

"Fine!" Neville snapped, "You want to go . . . go then, but you're wrong about one thing . . . this isn't just Harry's fight!"

He had everyone's attention now, including Ginny's.

"Is it?" Even as his body shook with the exertion of forcing himself to remain the center of attention, his gaze swept the room. "You all know what I'm talking about. You know why you're here. You're not here because you want glory or fame. You're here because Y-"

He stopped and then visibly shoring himself up as though he was about to plunge head first into the lake in the middle of February, barreled ahead, "Because Voldemort—yeah, that's right I said it!—because he took something from you. He took something from all of us and we never got a say, never got to do a damn thing about it. So we're doing something about it now."

Neville had calmed a bit, a little of the desperate rage leaking out of him, and he looked around the room a bit like he didn't know what he was doing standing in the middle of it. For a moment Ginny thought the spell that had settled over the room might be broken, but then from the back of the room came the unmistakable voice of Colin Creavey.

"He took my first year at Hogwarts. I'm told it was a damn good year too." This seemed to break a little of the tension and the group laughed.

"My brother." Everyone's heads whirled around to stare at the compact Slytherin boy who had been huddled in the darkest corner. "Two years ago, after he left Hogwarts, came back from his summer holiday with the Dark Mark."

At their incredulous stares, he began to roll up his sleeves as though to prove that his brother was the only one who bore that mark, but Neville's voice cut his movements short acting as a kind of unstated acceptance.

"He took my parents." He had their full attention again, "They're not dead, but they might as well be."

This seemed to be the final crack in the damn. One by one each student volunteered their own personal losses. Everything from a distant relative they had met only a few times but remembered fondly, to a seventh year Hufflepuff whose entire village had been wiped out in a single night.

"The Death Eaters killed off the entire population of Sparklipunks."

Luna looked around, wideyed at everyone's stares of astonishment, "They didn't like them because they could always sense evil coming and warn a household. My father has written extensively about the need for the ministry to launch an aggressive Sparklipunk repopulation effort." Still everyone stared. "I always wanted one for a pet."

"Well there you go," yelled the Slytherin boy, "none of us will ever have a Sparklipunk. I call that a bloody crime."

Everyone chuckled, and Ginny found herself warming to the burly, dark-haired boy. Then slowly, she became uncomfortably aware that everyone was staring her, that she was the only one who hadn't volunteered her loss.

Shifting her gaze around the room, her eyes finally lighted on Neville, looking at her from across the room, with nothing but simple concern and encouragement. Not looking away, she shrugged with feigned casualness.

"He took Harry, didn't he?"

And with that, with that final admission their unspoken pact was sealed. Dumbledore's Army was reformed, a phoenix comprised by the fire of victims who wouldn't be victims anymore.

And with that Ginny lost a little piece of her heart to Neville Longbottom.

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Thank you for reading. I have a few ideas to extend this if anyone would be interested.

Comments and Criticisms always appreciated.

Panache