Ginny's Oath

Chapter one – the life debt

Harry went to bed after the feast and fell to sleep almost immediately. He wasn't asleep for long before he had a nightmare about Voldimort and the basilisk. He decided to go to Madam Pomfrey and ask for a sleeping drought. On his arrival to the hospital wing he saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley having a quiet conversation with Professor Dumbledore in a corner near the entrance. Ginny was in a bed about half way down the room and was watching them through her eyelashes pretending to be asleep. "Mr. Potter, why are you wandering around the castle after curfew?" asked Madam Pomfrey. "I couldn't sleep. Wanted to ask if I could get something to help me." He responded. She just pointed at the nearest bed and nodded at him. Harry climbed onto the bed and waited as she went to her office. When he looked back he saw Ginny slipping out of her bed and quietly making her way towards him. She wouldn't meet his eyes and was looking down at her hands as the wrung them together at her waist. "Harry," she whispered, "I…I, um, well, I wanted to say thank you for coming after me this afternoon." "I'm so sorry you got hurt and, well, let me just…"

"I Ginevra Molly Weasley hereby acknowledge the life debt I owe to Harry James Potter. In recognition of my actions resulting in his injuries and near death I pledge my life, my allegiance, my service, my love and my magic to him for"

"GINNY STOP!" Screamed Mrs. Weasley while running towards them.

"as long as I live. So mote it be." The wand Harry now saw in Ginny's hands glowed bright gold showing that her magic had accepted the oath.

A warm feeling began to fill Harry as Ginny dropped to her knees and began to tremble. "Uh, er,.. what?" Harry stuttered. Ginny started to wheeze and the trembling became more violent as Mrs. Wheasley tried to reach her, but was unable to actually touch her. Mr. Weasley yelled "Quickly Harry. What did she promise to you."

"Um, I'm not sure what's happening…something about a life debt, and then she said her life, and and magic and…"

"Harry, please lay your hand on Ginny and tell her you accept her oath, and then I will try to explain to you what is happening."

Harry did as Mr. Weasley asked, and Ginny stopped shaking, only to fall to the floor at his feet. He bent down and lifted her to the bed and her breathing evened out. She seemed to now be in a deep sleep.

"What happened? Why did she seem so distressed?" Harry wondered aloud. Mr. Weasley took a deep breath to calm himself and looked worried. "Ginny must have felt a lot of guilt about.."

"But it wasn't her fault!" Harry interrupted.

"I know. But let me try to explain." "Can you remember exactly what she said? Sometimes the wording of these kinds of things can be very important."

"Uh… she said "I, um, Ginevra Molly Weasley, I didn't know her name was Ginevra, hereby acknowledge the uh, life debt I owe to Harry James Potter. In recognition of my actions, erm, resulting in his injuries and near death I pledge my life, uh, my allegiance, my service, my uh, my l love and my magic to him for as long as I live." Mr. Weasley, what's a life debt, and what does that other stuff, uh, the life and service, uh and magic…"

Mr Weasley sank into a chair as he mumbled to himself "well she did manage to do the thing properly didn't she." "Harry," he said aloud, "I'm afraid this may be a bit difficult to understand to someone raised in the muggle world. As magical people we have to be very careful about swearing things to each other, or making promises and oaths. Especially when using our life or magic in the oath. To break such an oath will cost you whatever it is that you have sworn it on, in this case Ginny's magic would be forfeited to you and she would die."

"Thank you for accepting Ginny's oath, as she would have died if you had not. You see, she gave you her life and her magic, and as you didn't know what she was doing her magic started to transfer to you. If you hadn't accepted her offer, then once her magic transferred she would have given her life."

"But why would she do that? I certainly wouldn't want that to happen, why…"

"I can't answer as to why Harry. I can only try to explain what she has done. A life debt is formed when a wizard or witch knowingly places themselves in danger to save the life of another. I don't know everything that happened in the chamber of secrets, but your fighting a basilisk certainly fills the requirements of a life debt. By acknowledging the debt, Ginny has committed to doing everything within her power to protect your life until the debt is satisfied. That means she would either have to die in your place, or encounter the same level of risk that you did when the debt was formed."

"But I don't want her to have to do that. I'm not worth…"

"Ginny feels that you are. And so do the rest of us Weasleys when it comes to that. You did save her life after all. As for the rest, she has essentially given herself to you completely. Her magic will ensure that all of the components of her oath will be followed until she dies. Her allegiance will always be to you before anyone else, she will serve you willingly whatever you ask of her, and she will love you for the rest of her life."

"But how can she know that, I mean she's only 11. I'm not sure what love even means."

Harry argued. "If she didn't love you then the oath wouldn't have worked." Mr. Weasley answered.

Madam Pomfrey (after seeing to Mrs. Weasley's anxiety and providing her a calming drought), interrupted to hand a sleeping potion to Harry and send him back to his dorm. When he tried to protest, she simply ushered him out the door telling him any more discussion could wait until the morning when everyone was well rested. After all, this was a hospital wing and not a conference room.

HGHGHGHGHG

Harry awoke to the sound of movement next to his bed the next morning. Someone was rustling around in his truck and whispering to themselves. He rolled over and reached for his glasses, and was surprised to see that it was Ginny, and she was now standing next to him holding a towel and a pair of his boxers. "My lord, I'm sure this is your trunk, but I can't seem to find any clothes in here that are the right size" she told him. "Um, why are you in the boys dorm, and uh, what are you going to do with my underwear?" Harry asked. "Well, you can't take a shower and not change, can you?" "I'm getting your things ready for you, and then while you are in the shower I will pack your trunk for you so you can go straight down to breakfast and be ready to get on the train home."

Harry was stunned. He didn't know how to react or what to say to that, so he did the easy thing and started to get up and go to the shower like Ginny told him. He was half way to the door when he stopped and asked her "what did you call me?"

"I addressed you as my lord" was her response.

"Why?"

"Because I am your servant and that makes you my lord." She replied in a tone that seemed to point out he was being rather thick headed.

"What do you…oh..um, we need to talk about this I think…" He was starting to wake up and remember last night more clearly now. "Let's try to find a quiet compartment on the train away from the others and work through this."

After showering Harry returned to find clothes for the day laid out on his bed, and all his belongings packed neatly away in his trunk. Ginny was nowhere in sight. He dressed quickly (if a bit nervously) in case she came back and was relieved to be left alone for the time being. He then made his way down the 7 floors to the great hall for breakfast where he found Ginny saving a place for him across from her brother Ron and their friend Hermione. She was loading a plate with eggs, bacon and potatoes, and had already buttered some toast and poured pumpkin juice for him. Hermione watched with a raised eyebrow as he took his place and mumbled a quick thank you under his breath to Ginny. Ron didn't seem to notice anything unusual as he was focused on the last Hogwarts meal of the year. Harry ate quickly and the 4 friends left to head out for the carriage ride to the train station, where they boarded and found a compartment in the last coach as was becoming their habit.

As the train pulled out of the station Harry looked at Ginny and said come with me, so she followed him out of the compartment and up the aisle towards the front of the train. Ron shook his head and asked Hermione if she knew why Harry was so quiet today and what he and Ginny were doing. "I don't know Ronald, but we don't know what they went through in the chamber of secrets and it might help them if they can spend some time talking about it." "It must have been horrible, and they both nearly died down there, so I hope they can help each other recover from it."

"Recover from what?" "Madam Pomfrey let them go so they must be ok." Ron stated.

"Madam Pomfrey is a Healer, but she isn't going to help them with their feelings or mental state." She replied.

"What do you mean?" "Ginny's probably really happy now that Harry saved her." "She's talked about him for years and said how she wanted to be his girlfriend." "I bet she drives him crazy with her constant chattering and whining, she can go for days and never let up about him." "Gets annoying to tell you the truth."

"Ron" she started "When someone has a traumatic experience it can change the way they think and how they react to things. Sometimes it even caused their whole personality to change. They might suddenly take things more seriously, or become more worried about things. Harry and Ginny have lived through something that nobody else can relate to, so the best way to understand it is to talk to each other about it. It's good that Harry had someone he can talk to as he usually just keeps everything to himself and that isn't healthy." Hermione lectured.

Harry found an empty compartment a couple of cars forward and pulled Ginny inside. "Now. Tell me why you did it."

"Why I did what?" Ginny replied.

"Why did you swear that oath last night. Why did you force me to accept this…this uhm, accept you being a servant or whatever it was. What choice did I have? You made it so I had to agree and now You're stuck with me forever and I'm not what you think I am Ginny. I'm not a hero and I'm not this powerful wizard that people make me out to be. You have to take it back. There had to be a way out of this so you can live a normal life."

"Listen to me Harry. I needed to do this as much for myself as for you. You don't know everything that happened this year. Tom started out so friendly and nice. He listened to me and helped me with my homework and accepted me for who I was. I wanted to come to Hogwarts for as long as I can remember, but when I got here it wasn't what I thought it would be. Instead of adventure and fun I found myself being laughed at for my second hand books and hand me down robes that were from my brothers. I don't care that we aren't a rich family, but it hurts when people can't see passed the lack of money to judge you for who you are. Tom cared about what I had to say and gave me advice on how to get along. But then I told him about how scared I was when you got hurt and how I had always wanted to meet you because I was told stories growing up about how you defeated Voldimort. He started asking questions about you and wanted me to follow you and spy on you and tell him all about you. I didn't hesitate to so what he asked because it was what I wanted to do anyway and so I've been watching you all year and you know what I realized? I realized you're not who I thought you were. I started to know you for who you truly are, and I fell in love with you. Not with the hero from my bedtime stories as a little girl, but with the quiet, sometimes shy boy who treats others with respect and tries to get along. You go out of your way to help others, but refuse to allow them to help you in return. Never causing trouble, but sticking up for what you believe with all of you're heart. I knew you would never accept that I owe you for what I did to you and I needed to take responsibility for what I had done. Because I also need to stand up for what I believe in. My foolish behavior nearly got both of us killed, and I need to atone for that in some way. I knew you wouldn't let me, so I spent several hours last night determining how to word my oath so that you had to accept it. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't let me suffer if you could help it and so by pledging myself to you I am now able to help you and hopefully both of us will be better for it. I really do love you Harry. I tried to destroy Tom's diary when I realized he was trying to get to you and then when I saw you with it I thought it was too late and he had won. I knew I had to steal it back so I would be the one he hurt instead of you, but then he made me leave that second message and I knew I was going to die and I prayed you wouldn't come and then hoped that you would but I was so scared for you and…"

The tears turned to sobs and Ginny struggled to get herself back under control, but Harry told her they would finish talking later. He almost wanted to stay mad at her, but couldn't manage to find the energy. They went back to their friends and napped until the train arrived back in London.