I don't think I can feel anything anymore.

I know it's unusual…for me, in particular, to get so overwhelmed by the loss of a sibling, but…I guess nobody else has ever had a brother like him. I toss my long red hair back over my shoulder, staring out my window, knowing that what I am and what I was are now two completely different species. I don't know how to think; don't know how to accept that Fred is not coming back. The thought disturbs me to the point of tears, and I feel worse than I did in my first year, when my soul was taken by the man responsible for his death. Why couldn't it be me instead of him? He had a future, he had plans…I was content to live in the moment, to pretend that life always was and always would be in the here and now. I don't understand anything now that he's gone. I pretend to slowly heal, and I know my family plays along in the charade. That's all it is, isn't it? Just a game. As if the hole in our hearts can be patched up with the everyday experiences that were nothing but habits when he was with us, but now it's all a chore. I turn my head as the door to my room creaks open. I feign a smile as he walks inside and takes a seat next to me on my bed.

"I'm sorry, Ginny." He tells me. I shake my head, hoping my hair will cover the tears in my eyes.

"I'm fine, Harry." I tell him, but my voice cracks in the middle of the sentence. He puts a hand on my shoulder.

"You're not fine." I shake my head again. He sighs. "It'll heal in time, you know." He says. I shake his hand off of me and stand up, my blood pounding.

"What makes you think that? You didn't know him for as long as I did, Harry, you weren't there! You don't understand, won't ever understand…" I can't stop the tears that are now streaming down my face as he, too stands.

"I know." He whispers, wiping the water from my cheek. He leans forward and kisses me on the mouth and I kiss him back, because now his lips are the only thing keeping me grounded on the Earth, the only thing keeping me from falling, sinking under the sea as my body limply disappears beneath the waves. And for a moment, just one, I feel like maybe he's right, maybe somehow life will become life again. A glimmer of hope. And that's all I want, all I need. A small circle of light somewhere over the horizon. Because for now, just for that one moment that he gives me, I am whole again.