The Feud

Harry trailed kisses down Ginny's neck as their clothes flew across the room. Harry pushed Ginny down until she was flat on her back and he was leaning in to kiss her mouth again. Ginny let out a moan and just then the door flew open, revealing five red haired people who were returning home much earlier than expected. Ginny spotted her family members first, and she shoved Harry off her. He looked around, startled and then spotted the group of Weasleys looking stunned and Harry moved so Ginny's naked body was blocked from her family's view.

As Harry looked at the five who had interrupted he and Ginny, he whipped an afghan off the living room couch and wrapped it around his waist even as he bent to scoop a pile of clothing from the ground at his feet. Harry tossed the clothes to Ginny, his eyes never leaving the group in front of him. No one except Ginny moved for many long instances, until Harry felt her hand on his back, holding a bunch of cloth. With serious misgivings about turning his back on the murderous glares that were being directed at him, Harry turned and Ginny held up the blanket to cover Harry as he pulled on his boxers and jeans. This meant Harry was standing in the circle of Ginny's arms, and he found himself wishing that he never had to leave that comforting space. After he was dressed, Harry looked down at Ginny and saw that she was wearing only her underwear and his large grey t-shirt.

Answering Harry's questioning gaze, Ginny nodded to the to separate places across the room where her top and jeans had sailed some half hour before. Harry turned back to the other Weasley's just as Ginny began to mutter something in his ear. "Gosh, Potter, I didn't know you had such a good arm. Maybe you should try for chaser sometime."

Ginny's teasing comment put a small smile on Harry's lips, but it was an ill timed expression that Harry regretted as Fred and George dived across the room to tackle him, quickly followed by Charlie. Ginny shrieked as Harry dodged, and Harry spun to make sure she was okay. The moment of distraction cost him dearly, and Charlie caught him and pinned him to the ground. As Harry fell with one Weasley brother on top of him, he looked desperately for a way to escape without hurting anyone. His eyes lit on Ron, his best friend, who just stood off just in the door with his arms crossed over his chest. He watched stonily as his older brothers beat Harry. Harry refused to hit the Weasley brothers, but his attempts to dodge their fists were failing more and more often. Ginny was sobbing for her brothers to stop, and her mother had collapsed on to a chair and sat with her head in her hands.

Pain pulsed through Harry and Ginny's crying filled his ears until he couldn't take it anymore. He refused to fight back with his fists so his anger, fear and frustration found the outlet it craved in his magic. Power thrummed through Harry and was released into the air around him, throwing off Fred, George and Charlie, so intense that Harry was knocked out. Ginny shrieked again as she hurried to Harry's side screaming at the sight of him laying still and bloody on the living room floor.

"MUM!" she screamed as she through herself down beside Harry. The last thing Harry heard before he blacked out was his Ginny shrieking for her mother to come and help him.

Harry Potter sat at his kitchen table with a glass of firewhiskey in his hand, thinking that no matter how bad things became, he just couldn't bring himself to numb the pain with alcohol. He simply didn't like the stuff enough to drink that much of it. As Harry set aside the barely touched glass and retrieved a butterbeer to replace it, Harry wondered how his friends could like firewhiskey as much as they apparently did. But then, there was only one thing that Harry didn't wonder about his friends. And that was why he had had to replace his old ones with people so unlike those he used to associate with.

Those painful memories dogged him even though it was a year since they had happened. Horrible scenes chased through Harry's mind; the Weasleys discovering him and Ginny, being beaten by those he had once counted as nearly family, knowing that Ron had stood and watched as it happened, believing his best friend deserved it. Then there was the shock of waking up the next day with Dobby the house-elf caring for him as he convalesced in Grimmauld Place, and then the realization that the Weasleys no longer welcomed him under their roof, and the terrible certainty that he would be unlikely to ever so much as see Ginny again. Then he realized that not only had he lost the love of his life, the closest thing he'd ever had to a family, he had also lost his best friend. The most awful part was that he wasn't sure he would have wanted to be Ron's friend after the redhead had done nothing as three older and stronger boys had beaten him. As he lay in a bedroom in his godfather's house, memories had assaulted him and he had thought of the happy times in the house and of Sirius. He stayed until he could no longer bear the pain the past brought him, then he had packed his things, which Mrs Weasley had sent to him, and taken Dobby and moved into an apartment overlooking Diagon Alley.

Yet even in his new place the past had chased him. Thoughts of Ginny were set off by the slightest thing, he would see a red haired person on the street below his window, or a pair of chocolate eyes would meet his on the street. Ginny had haunted Harry to the point that he had gone to the Burrow one night to see if she missed him to.

That memory hurt him more than the one of being beat up by three Weasley brothers. He had flown his broom under Ginny's window and knocked at it until she had awoken and let him in. She had pulled Harry into her bedroom, tears streaming down her face. The whole night they had sat on her bed talking, kissing and trying to avoid thoughts of what would happen if someone found Harry there.

Ginny had fallen asleep in his arms and then he had drifted off holding of to the love of his life for what turned out to be the last time. The two had awoken to the sound of footsteps on the landing outside her room and Harry had not had time to hide before Ron had burst in to wake his sister up for breakfast. Harry wasn't quite sure if he would have been angry at Ron if he wasn't so worried about being beaten again or Ginny getting in trouble because of him.

He hadn't thought about it at the time. He had just begged the boy who had been his best friend at Hogwarts for six years not to tell anyone that he had spent the night, however innocently, in Ginny's bed. Ron had told him to get out before he called his brothers and Ginny had told him to go. Harry had looked at her, trying to tell her he loved her, but they had both known that they would never get the chance to be near each other anymore.

Harry returned to his lonely apartment with one more painful experience to dwell on and more ghostly reminders of Ginny to haunt him. Soon he had tired of the constant reminders, so he had learned to ignore those people around him and he had tried to piece a life together from the shambles of his past. Harry had headed out on his quest for Horcruxes, alone, wishing he still had his best friends to accompany him.

He had traveled across the globe and had made little progress until he arrived in America and had met a wizard named Nathan Deneenan. He walked on the wilder edge and had introduced Harry to his friends. The group of people Nate hung with was composed of a mixed lot of witches and wizards with no fixed home and who roved the world, seeking thrills and the next big adventure.

Chasing down an evil wizard and six bits of his soul with The-Boy-Who-Lived seemingly constituted an exciting enough diversion, so the group had come to London with Harry and had returned there whenever their quest met with another wall. A great deal of drinking and partying went on whenever they found time. It gave Harry something to do, and so long as he had that, he could stave off most thoughts of Ginny, and of Ron's betrayal. Harry could even forget that Hermione didn't like his new friends and no longer came to visit him like she had at first.

Harry could pretend that he didn't need them because he had Nate, Luke, Zack, Juliet, Angel, Sammy and Tory. They were enough, because they stood by him in a fight and they knew how to have a good time when they had the chance. But mostly they were enough because they had to be, because they were all Harry had.

Nate and the boys walked into Harry's apartment just then and joined Harry at the kitchen table. "The girls are waiting for us at the Leaky Cauldron," commented Nate.

"And Juliet is wearing a very tight dress." Zack added with a wink.

"I'd say it's more off than on." Luke corrected conversationally. Everyone laughed a little, knowing that their friend Juliet often did wear that sort of outfit, especially when Harry was likely to be about.

"She's bound and determined to have you. Why not just take her up on it?" asked Zack.

"How many of you have taken you up on that offer before?" asked Harry, watching as the other three grinned widely, all answering him wordlessly. "That's why."

No need to mention a much more relevant, red-haired reason.