Harry sat up in his bed, waiting anxiously. He was trying to be patient, he really was, but the pressure of the whole situation was struggling to overwhelm him. The burdens that he had placed upon his friends' shoulders, the hardships that came with merely being associated with Harry Potter, would seem too much for any normal person. His friends, however, weren't normal; they were strong and faithful and loyal, all the things that kept him going. Through all these trials Harry couldn't begin to understand why they stuck around, and now that his imminent death was more certain . . . To be friends with him had to be a health concern all on its own.

He clutched at his bed sheet compulsively; this waiting for his imminent doom was nearly undoing him. The mere prospect of telling them this was worse than voicing anything that he had previously divulged, this was worse than the prophecy, or the abuse. It was uncontrollable in that there was no way to alter the words about to spill from his mouth; it was pure agony. Harry began a mental preparation by imagining Ron, Hermione, and Ginny's reaction, he couldn't even bring himself to think just what he was about to unleash. If he couldn't do it in thought, how was he ever going to manage it in reality?

Harry cursed himself again, for being as stupid as all that, stupid enough to not know how to freaking duck. Of course, there was the logical part of his mind trying to discredit that train of thought. Other things had been plaguing his mind, things like he was busy getting Ginny out of that hellhole, and that he thought his shield could hold off, but then again that was stupid too.

He felt his entire body jerk, as the entrance in to the hospital wing was swung open, casting the light of the setting sun into the white infirmary. Ron and Hermione entered, their faces various shades of pink and orange from the blinding light. They were bickering something fierce, but it didn't escape his notice that Hermione's eyes weren't filled with their usual spark when she was in the heat of a battle, verbal or no. Ron remained oblivious, not an unusual occurrence, bless him.

As most of their arguments ended nowadays, Hermione heaved a sigh, casting Ron a disdainful look, and then made her way to Harry. She left Ron still blubbering in her wake. He tried to smile as they approached, tried to feign happiness and light, he should have known resistance would be futile. It was only a moment before Hermione's penetrating eyes analyzed his tense figure and nervous mood.

"What's wrong, Harry?" She voiced her concern while conjuring herself a chair and took a seat. You know those moments when you think of things so stupid in a moment of stress? Well, Harry was having one of those, as he vaguely wondered how much material he had missed during his coma. He had a feeling it would be one of the foremost topic on Hermione's mind.

Ron followed, sitting his worn recliner, still glaring spitefully at his girlfriend, before tuning to Harry and giving him a cheeky grin. "Hermione here," he pointed with a jerk of his thumb, "has gone on another house elf excursion. Seems to want them to make another bid for freedom, show 'em just what they're missing."

For a moment the bushy haired girl's attention was drawn away from him. "Honestly, Ronald, I'm not suggesting we break them out. I just think it would be nice if they got out in the real world a bit." She paused, thinking, "Like the Amish, they get two years out in the contemporary world to decide weather or not they'd like to come back to their village."

Ron snorted, "Who the bloody hell are the Cornish? You mean the pixies?"

Hermione had opened her mouth for another rebuttal, when Harry cleared his throat; he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing and he needed to get this done with before he lost his nerve, that was if hadn't already.

Hermione turned toward him now, with full attention. "Can you be anymore immature, Ronald? Can't you see Harry needs to speak with us?" She peered at him concerned. "Are you sure you feel quite all right? You look awful peaky."

Harry couldn't understand how Hermione could channel the persona of Madam Pomfrey, Madam Pince, and Professor McGonagall all at the same time. He'd have to ask Trewlany sometime, see if there was a limit to the channeling frequency. He wondered if he was pale just from nerves or if that lovely Mortifer bit was starting to kick in.

He cleared his throat again. "Um, yeah, I'm okay. I just have to tell you guys something."

Now Ron's attention was on him as well. He wasn't clueless all the time, after all. Harry could feel his heart or his hand clench, whichever it was he wasn't really sure. Ron pulled himself to sit on the edge of his leather chair, now looking anxious. "Go on, then, mate."

Harry considered saying he'd rather not, it was just a bout of dementia, and the two of them might as well head on down to dinner, but he couldn't bring himself to lie to them anymore the he already had. They didn't deserve that sort of betrayal, no one did.

"Well, yeah, Hermione's right," Harry laughed nervously, "But I mean to say, when isn't she? I do have to talk to you, and I uh," he paused hoping for the right words to just float across his mind, but life was never that easy, especially for him.

"So," he nodded, "yeah, um-" Merlin's beard you're a pathetic one, aren't you Potter? Spit it out for goodness sake, no use beating around the bush now. Harry clenched his jaw, cricking his neck just slightly to the left. He wasn't meeting their eyes, but come on, how was he supposed to? His observation of the top bedcover continued as he felt two pairs of eyes boring into him. Harry steeled on the courage he had left in him. "So, I'm dying."

Not a word was spoken, but the lack of oxygen in the air was palpable. The silence lasted for a lifetime, and a lifetime without oxygen was a long time indeed. The thin ice was broken by Hermione's twitter of a sigh.

It actually wasn't much of a sigh, Harry later reflected, it was more like she was trying to exhale her shock into his lungs so he could breath again. So he could function again.

It was as if there were two bodies inside of her, each one fighting for the control. She shook her head forcefully, stopped suddenly, and closed her eyes tightly, her breathing labored. One could dispute who was more likely to die in the room, Harry or Hermione.

She sucked in a breath again and blew it out through her teeth. How she ever managed to look so stricken but in doubt at the same time, Harry would never know. "Harry-"

Her body seemed to twitch convulsively. "Harry, that's," breath, "that's just rid-"

Hermione's entire demeanor sagged and a sob burst forth. Clearly the side of acceptance had won out over her defiance.

He wanted to reach out to her, to hold her and tell her that he was sorry. She'd spent her entire childhood taking care of him, they both had, and all he could do was let them down. He began, "I-"

"No," She gasped, "Harry just stop. You can't say anything to make this-- this-- Merlin, I don't know. Just stop a minute, okay?" Harry nodded, unsure what to do with himself now. Was she actually going to be angry with him for this?

Hermione heaved inward one last time and looked directly at him. Her eyes were glistening but filled with an intensity he most liked to remember her with. "I shouldn't be surprised," she started, "but I am.

"I tried to prepared myself for something like this. You'd never have requested us so formally otherwise. How can you expect something and still be surprised by it?" She looked at him pointedly as if waiting for an answer. All he could manage was a shrug before she continued again.

"Well, it doesn't matter either way, because this is what we're facing now isn't it?" Hermione seemed to have forgotten he was even in the room, which suited Harry fine. "We'll deal with it just as we always have, and we'll get through it. We've beaten the odds before and we will again. There's no doubt in my mind."

But there's doubt in your eyes, he thought.

Abruptly she took his hand. She had come back into the here and now. She broke away from the protection of a mind filled with solutions and equations to every problem. He wouldn't have to give her facts this time. Hermione may love her facts and research but what always pulled them though was faith. She would have never lasted those long hours in the library without it.

It never ceased to amaze him how all of his friends, his family, could have such a fire in their eyes, but be so unique to him. "Do you hear me, Harry Potter?" She asked.

"You will beat this and we'll be there to make sure you don't screw it up."

She pulled him into a hug, but it seemed much more calculated than previous embraces. Hermione pulled back and looked to her left. At Ron, Harry assumed. He couldn't manage to do the same.

She seemed to realize that it would be just wonderful for her to leave the infirmary. He didn't know if she was right, but then again, it was Hermione, she was always right, wasn't she?

With one last squeeze of his hand for reassurance, Hermione left the hospital wing, radiating the faith that was Hermione Granger.

Once the large doors closed behind her the thin air returned. During her entire monologue he had never lost the lingering shadow of Ron's presence right next to him, a silent statue.

Ron Weasley was never a person of extreme patience or one to keep silent for too long, but at this moment he could have passed for the most studious of Ravenclaws. Then again, only a true Slytherin would leave me squirming like this.

Yet still – silence.

And Harry couldn't even pluck up the courage to look at his first and last best friend.

When Ron did speak, Harry had to strain to hear the strangled whisper. "I don't know how many sleepless nights I spent thinking about how anyone could be so lucky as you, Harry."

At the sound of his name he couldn't restrain it any longer. It was time to stop acting like a five-year-old put in time out. Harry looked at the red head, whose eyes were staring blankly out the tall window. He doubted Ron even realized that Harry was looking at him now.

"How could anyone be so bloody lucky?" He continued. "You've slayed madmen, dragons, and who knows how many other creatures of the deep. Sure, you'd usually come out of it with a scratch or two, but still, more or less, whole."

Ron shook his head slowly, with care. It was a very foreign expression on him.

"If you were any normal person you'd be dead five times over by now, but you're not normal. That's been obvious to anyone who truly knows you for ages. No matter how I would grow up or grow taller you were always the adult.

"I don't think it was till after Sirius died that I truly realized that you were the adult for a reason. You were old. I swear I saw some gray hairs on your head this year. And who could blame you for it?

"You finally told me about your damned relatives and, as if that wasn't enough, let's add on a prophecy. A prophecy that practically signs your name in blood for you to put your life on the line, once more, and they expect you to keep functioning with this huge burden on your shoulders, so, as usual, you rise to the challenge effortlessly and unscathed.

"All I could think was, it's going to get better, it'll get better. No one person can go through so much and not receive some repayment for it."

Ron stopped, and suddenly those brown eyes were looking directly into his.

"You, Harry Potter, are the unluckiest bastard I've ever been fortunate enough to meet."

Harry blinked. It wasn't an insult or a compliment. It was just a fact. A fact that Harry chose to ignore, and he'd gotten away with ignoring it because Ron had shouldered that burden for him.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Fortunate?"

Ron just gave him that half smirk that usually got him out of an escalating argument with Hermione. "Of course." A second hadn't passed before his face crumpled and with it came an unintentional façade. His voice choked and Harry could no longer maintain indifference.

He held on to the red head who now more then ever needed Harry as solid, as human, and as an anchor to the earth, before it disappeared.

The formalities would be addressed later. There would be questions and concerns, as there always were. Hermione would need all the information she could wrap her brain around to find a resolution. Ron would listen to the medical terms and probably not understand one word of it, but that was okay, because he would be there, a tower of strength and support. His wingmen, no mater how much Hermione would protest the term.

"I'm dying." Harry wondered how many times a person could repeat those two little words in a 24 hour block without losing his mind. It was only moments later that he realized his loss of mind would not be from his actions but someone else's lack of reaction.

The most beautiful orbs of light he had ever seen were swimming and slowly becoming smaller. The worst part about it was the fact that those eyes were in Ginny Weasley's head.

As soon as he felt the words leave his lips he felt her leaving him. It wasn't nearly as startling when Ginny began with the tears and shaking her head as vigorously as Hermione had done just last night.

It was when she stood and began backing away from him that his heart really started to pound. He realized this must be what an out of body experience felt like. To have your heart and mind ripped from you body was an awful thing in contrast to a few tears.

Harry watched as his hand reached out to her desperately and her name lingered on his lips. She couldn't leave him, she wouldn't. That wouldn't be his Ginny.

Yet there she was, walking away, her eyes aghast. He had saved her for last because on some level very different from Ron and Hermione this would be the hardest for him. It was hard because she would need no explanation as to how it had all occurred, for she was there. She had probably begun to reach her own conclusions long before receiving his final word.

It was hard because it was Ginny.

She whispered only one word between the time she entered the infirmary and the time she left. "No."

And then she was gone, his heart gone with her.

It wasn't an hour later that he was sitting on the edge of his semi-permanent hospital bed. Hermione and Ron were both standing tentatively behind Madam Pomfrey, Dumbledore to his left.

"Tongue out, Potter." The medi-witch snapped. He wanted to groan; if one more foreign object was stuck where it shouldn't ever go, Harry didn't know what he'd do. All the same he obliged as Ron gave him a sympathetic smile behind the woman's back.

If he was completely honest with himself he knew that his anxiousness to leave the hospital wing had nothing to do with Madam Pomfrey's prodding and everything to do with a certain red headed witch.

He had only learned this morning that Ron and Hermione had taken care of informing Ginny of the prophecy while he was still in coma. It had alieved him only slightly from yet another harsh discussion but it did little to ease his mind.

If she had taken the prophecy in such stride, why could she not even bear to look at him now? Did she think he wouldn't be able to fulfill his destiny with The Curse looming over him? Harry could see how for some people that would be a worry beyond all others, but that was not an issue for him. Voldermort would go down with him, at the very least. Now, as soon as Madam Pomfrey released him, he was going to make sure Ginny knew it as well.

"Are we done yet?" Harry asked, possibly a little more loudly then he ought have. The severe looking woman just glared down at him, smacking her wand on her hand. For a moment her perpetual severity flickered and she took his face in her hands, turning him left and right, before she smacked his cheek smartly.

"Well get going then," She barked, "Can't have you taking up all my hospital beds." Harry was poised to jump off the bed when she held her hand out to stop him, her glare returned in full force. "Slowly," she warned.

He nodded and joined Ron and Hermione as they led him out of the infirmary for the first time in over a month. The dark halls of Hogwarts were a stark contrast to the usually sterile Hospital Wing, but it was a relief nonetheless.

Harry managed to ignore his friends' watchful eyes all the way up to the portrait of the Fat Lady, where he began to steel himself for just what he was about to confront. Taking a breath, he nodded to the painted woman as Hermione said the password.

"Good to have you back, Mr. Potter," She smiled at him and swung open. The common room was abuzz with the sounds of students basking in the glory of the end of exams. It didn't take long for them to realize the new entrants.

Many handshakes, hugs, and claps on the back greeted Harry. He tried to accept them gratefully when in truth his eyes were searching and glancing back to the stairs that led to the girls' dorms. When the buzz died down he nodded at them and crossed the busy crowd.

Hermione sighed and Ron snickered obviously sensing what he was about to do. He stopped suddenly remembering the obstacle that awaited any boy to step foot on those stairs. Harry turned around and looked at the two desperately.

Ron smirked, "Accio Firebolt." Handing Harry his broom, Ron tucked his wand away. "Hope it works."

Whether he was talking about the flight up or his destination, Harry didn't care, he just flung a leg over the broom handle and took off. He could hear Madam Pomfrey from here, for no doubt she'd be in her grave if she saw him.

When Harry reached the landing he pounded on the door, intending to be every bit the strong alpha male. "Ginny we have to talk about this!" He shouted at the solid wooden guard. Harry pounded again, "Ginny, for Merlin's sake, answer me."

There was silence on the other side and Harry sighed, leaning heavily against the doorframe, wondering if all was lost.

The door snapped open and Harry stood straight. The second he saw her tearstained face all manliness flew out the window.

He looked down and scuffled his feet slightly. "Um, do you think we could go for a walk?" Harry glanced up then back down, clearing his throat, "Maybe, uh, around the lake?"

Deciding to go for it he looked back up at her hardened and glistening eyes, trying not allow the memory of last night to flood him. Instead he concentrated on communicating to her just how much this conversation needed to happen, because if it didn't every bit of him was lost.

She disappeared behind the door and his heart stopped, but only for a moment, for she reappeared a second later with cloak in hand.

If anyone noticed them leave they were kind enough not to stare.

The rustling of the leaves and the warmth of the sun on pristine lake were lost on Harry. All he could feel was a chill very unnatural for the season. Perhaps it was because for the first time in a long time he was with Ginny and not feeling comfortable.

When they did speak it was simultaneous. "I'm sorry." The sudden change from silence to sound startled a nearby duck into flight.

Her brow furrowed at him. "What in Merlin's name do you have to be sorry for?"

Harry opened his mouth to answer her, to let her know all the things that he had done to let her down, if she had been daft enough not to already realize them; but he stopped short, for her delicate finger was covering his lips.

She pulled away gently. "I'm going to stop you there; otherwise we'll be here all night." Harry looked down; she lifted his chin to allow his eyes to look into hers. "We'd be here all night with you babbling absolute nonsense that holds no truth. So for right now let me do the babbling, okay?" He nodded.

"I'm sorry for leaving you last night. For leaving when you were reaching out to me and all I could think to do was run. I will never do that to you again, I swear it, no matter how angry you make me, I will never turn my back on you again. That doesn't change the fact that I was scared for you, for me. Don't get me wrong, Harry Potter, I'm still scared out of my mind, but we can be scared together, am I right?"

All he could do was nod at her for fear unleashing that knot in the back of his throat.

"I made a mistake and I'm human and so are you no matter what others might have to say about that. You're going to make mistakes and I'm going to want to smack you into next Sunday for them, but I'll do it facing you.

"Do you forgive me? For now and forever?" Ginny took both his hands in her small ones and looked deep into his eyes. Merlin, she's strong.

"Yes," Harry clutched at her slight fingers.

"Good," She smiled and nodded, looking at their intertwined fingers. When she looked back up at him her eyes were glistening once more. "And I forgive you, for now and forever."

Ginny leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips, before pulling away and continuing the walk. He continued to hold her hand.

She looked over at him her long, dazzling hair falling over her shoulder. "Now I want to tell you something because you need to hear and realize it. You've been deprived no matter what you may have others believe and I'm going to get through to you that you are a good person inside and out.

"When I told you about Seamus your response astounded me beyond all measure. If I had gone to my brothers, or my father, or anyone else for that matter, they would have blown a fuse. They would have been out that common room door and Seamus would, at the very least, be in St. Mungos. And, I suppose, that's their kind of love.

"But your love is unique." She stopped walking, as they stood under the large oak tree together. "You didn't bother with the questions, you took my hand and sat me down. You held me and in that moment you took me into your heart, I knew I would be taken care of forever, and no one could do it better then you.

"So, for now, I will sit next to you, under this oak tree, and ask no questions, and hold you so that you know you'll be taken into my heart and care forever."

It was then that Harry's mind had ceased to function and all that was left was that ever-pounding organ in his chest. All he could manage to do was lean his head against hers as a drowsy fatigue settling over him like a tablecloth.

He didn't know weather it was from true fatigue or the overwhelming emotion that had come over him after hearing her speak and knowing it was true. Either way, Ginny pulled him close to her as the settled under the stirring leaves of the giant oak with his head in her lap.

She played idly with his hair and for the first time in a long while the warmth of the day came back to him. Harry placed his hand over the one that was currently deep in his locks. He turned to look at her.

"I love you, Ginny."

Her eyes fluttered shut for only a moment, basking in the ecstasy of it all. The brown orbs were glistening again but this time with a happiness and hope that would be indescribable to all those who had not experienced it.

"I love you, Harry."

He allowed his own eyes to fall shut as she took off his glasses and kissed his forehead. Snuggling into her lap, Harry realized that he would be taken care of, for now and forever.

Fin

It is 12 o'clock in the morning and I, myself, am basking in the glory of it all, right along with Ginny. It's been over a year and I have finally finished my first novel length fanfiction. I am incredibly proud of my work here and I could never have gotten this far without all of you, my faithful readers. Your reviews have been the fuel to light my proverbial fire and I cannot thank you more.

There will be a sequel but how far into the future it is I do not know. I encourage you all to join my yahoo group (the link is on my user page), where I will respond to all of my reviews for both this chapter and the last.

I will not disappear off the earth, I assure you. I encourage you all to join my Role Playing Game (this link is also on my user page), where I am often. I am considering the possibility of writing a cookie from Ron's point of view during "the reaction" scene.

I hope this is an early Holiday Gift for all of you and I hope you can return the favor for me with your comments. I'd like to hear from all of you even if you have never reviewed for me before; your opinion does matter to me.

Most importantly I'd like to thank my beta and dear friend for sticking through this with me. She always encouraged me through all my ideas and this story could truly not have been possible without her. A large amount of the plot you can thank her for, she is truly a gem! I love ya and Miss ya!

Happy Holidays!

Gypsy t. Potter/Tess