Chapter 5
Ginny trudged down the familiar, marble staircase, a stark difference to the flimsy wooden one they had at the Burrow, nevertheless she loves both all the same.
Potter Manor had been passed down from each generation to the next. The people that had been here the night before for Harry’s party were probably only some of the thousands that have walked these very halls. She shivered, pulling at the jumper she’d nicked from Harry. It didn't quite fit him anymore, she reasoned, and he offered anyway, so who was she to decline?
She skipped the last two steps and jumped her way to the ground floor, heading straight for the kitchen. She was quite frankly, annoyed at herself for feeling this way, and having the feeling irked her so badly that she could not find sleep.
Truth of the matter was there’d been lingering tension between her and Harry for weeks now, ever since they’d come home from the end of his fifth year and her fourth.
It wasn't good tension either. Initially she thought it had something to do with Sirius nearly dying, but she had no idea why he was distant from her, when he could converse perfectly well with his dorm mates and her brothers during his birthday party.
She climbed to the top shelf at the kitchen, not quite being able to reach, and pulled at the bag of tarts she knew James stored there. A bottle of milk found itself beside her tarts at the table and she munched silently while staring at the table.
It frustrated her to no end why he wouldn't speak to her. She didn't do anything wrong that she knew of, and she’d literally risked her life like any of their friends to come with him at the ministry. Ginny loved Sirius too, of course she would go without a second thought.
With a sinking feeling, she realized that she had been the one to convince him that his vision was real, she was the one who urged them all to go despite their friends' protests.
Ginny suddenly stopped eating, crumpling the top of the bag to seal it. She bit her bottom lip hard enough to draw blood, willing herself not to cry.
Harry probably blamed her for everything that happened, she thought miserably. If she, too, had listened to Hermione, maybe they wouldn't have needed to get hurt, and maybe Sirius wouldn't have nearly died. Ginny did not want to imagine what would happen if he actually did.
She took a shuddering breath, letting a few tears cascade down her cheek. She felt terrible, chest burning and head pounding. Tom had said something like this would happen in the future. Ginny would mess up and people she loved would hate her. But she didn't mean to cause them harm, and she knew why Harry had been avoiding her now.
Angry at herself, she shrugged off his jumper and folded it, placing it on the table. The gleam of the golden number ‘7’ and the surname ‘Potter’ glared back at her.
Footsteps distracted her from her musings, and she whipped her head quickly toward the door frame. For a second she panicked, seeing a messy bundle of black hair, not wanting to cross paths with Harry just yet at her state.
“Ginny?” James asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Only then did Ginny’s racing heart slow, allowing her to take a few deep breaths while James adjusted his glasses.
“Hi Uncle Jamie,” she sniffed, smiling weakly at him. Ginny knew she couldn’t hide her red eyes from him, no matter how much she liked to joke about his eyesight.
“What happened?” he murmured gently, coming to sit beside her. She stared at him, eyes watering at how much he looked like Harry, and she tried her hardest to suppress the hiccups that were trying to make their way up her throat.
Ginny cleared her throat for a few seconds, and she was immensely grateful that James didn’t push. It was times like these where she missed her eldest brothers the most, and she was fortunate enough that she had James and Sirius.
“Harry’s mad at me,” she said stiffly, hushing James when he began protesting, “I know why now, and I know logically it’s not my fault because I didn’t intend for that to happen, but it hurts because he’s ignoring me. We’re supposed to be best friends aren’t we? This is embarrassing, you're his dad. I’m going to shut up now.”
He drummed his fingers on the table, taking note of her hunched shoulders, and the hair Ginny wished he didn’t know she purposely let fall in front of her face to hide her eyes.
“Is that all?”
Ginny stayed quiet for a moment, debating whether she should say what she really thought of the entire thing.
“Tom,” she blurted, ignoring how James slowly sat upright, “He told me. He said I’ll mess up little by little, until everyone I loved—,” Ginny coughed briefly, “cared about, would ignore me, forget me, starting with Harry. I’m scared it’s beginning, and that it’s just a matter of time, and look at how silly I am, listening to a ghost of Tom Riddle, I hate it.”
James hummed, pulling her for a warm hug, “I mean this in the nicest way possible, but you’re being ridiculous my dear.”
He reopened the bag of treats on the table, handing her it before taking one himself, “Voldemort has a unique way of manipulation, and you shouldn’t be ashamed of sometimes falling for it and believing him.”
Popping open the lid of the milk bottle, he conjured himself a glass, and refilled her own half full cup. Ginny watched him in silence, rubbing her cheeks lightly.
“What’s important is that you caught yourself, before you fell all the way through,” he continued, “We both know Tom Riddle’s wrong. Lily and I love you Ginny, and Harry’s love for you is twice as much as ours combined. You’ve been friends for years, and act like you’ve been for more. Whatever he’s angry about, he’ll get over it. Trust me, or else I’d have to ground him for hurting you.”
Ginny chuckled weakly at him, leaning her head on his shoulder while staring forlornly at the jumper on the table in front of them. James’ eyes darted from her to the article of clothing.
“I know I’m being stupid,” she replied, “He and my brother have fought over worse, but I just, I felt terrible earlier when he was laughing and talking to his classmates and it was like I was never even there.” Shivering, she touched the warm glass of milk to her lips, “It took me back for a second to when I was eleven, and I had to remind myself a few times that it was a long time ago.”
“He even opened my brothers’ presents in front of everyone, as well as Hermione’s and his roommates’. I don’t think he even noticed mine.” Her head fell from his shoulder so she could rest her forehead on the wooden surface, effectively hiding her face from him, because she could feel her chest starting to ache again.
“Maybe when I wake up in the morning everything will be okay,” she giggled sleepily, her head lolling to the side, eyes closed.
James hated coercing her to sleep like this, it reminded him too much of when the Diggory boy died and Harry couldn’t sleep for weeks. Furrowing his brows, he tried to think of what she and Harry could have fought about. It must have been major if it affected her this much, and Ginny was tough, so it couldn’t have been something minor.
A creak in the floor boards pulled his attention away from his thoughts, eyes burning through a shimmering block of air in the corner of the room.
“Harry,” he said forcefully, “I know you’re there.”
Harry stepped out of his invisibility cloak, staring guiltily at his slippers. James watched his eyes dart from Ginny beside him, to his old jumper folded neatly in front of her.
“How much of that did you hear?” His voice was sharp, and Harry winced involuntarily. James rarely got angry, dressing downs were Lily’s thing, not his.
“I was here before you were!” he defended himself, making his way to sit quietly on her other side.
“I told you to just be honest and not mess up didn’t I?” James replied, watching him unfold his own jumper to tenderly wrap it around her shoulders, “Was making her feel terrible part of your plan?”
“No!” Harry exclaimed, horrified, “How am I supposed to act normally around her? I’d tell her I was in love with her five words in!”
“And is that so terrible?” James pointed out, “Better that than whatever this was. I rarely see Ginny cry, Harry.”
Harry looked away, swiping swiftly at the corner of his right eye, “I was going to apologize already, but you arrived dad, I mean it.”
“You heard what she said. When she wakes up in the morning, everything better be okay.”