The Odd Comfort

"Ginny, we need to get ready. We're leaving in a little bit to go head them off," Harry whispered to the redhead on his chest.

Harry then did the only thing he knew to do.

Ginny woke in the morning with drops of perspiration on her brow. Immediately she started crying again and yelled out Harry's name. She yelled his name over and over, waiting to see him appear before her, but it didn't happen. Instead Hermione appeared, and wrapping her arms around Ginny, she began rocking her.

Once Ginny gained as much of her composure as she thought possible, she left Hermione's embrace and headed to the bathroom. She closed and locked the door and turned on the warm water in the shower. Ginny removed her clothes and looked in the mirror at herself for the first time in a long while. She saw her face had become gaunt and her bones now protruded from her chest and hips. At first she assumed it was because during the war she had barely been able to tolerate food due to her high-strung nerves. But since making the effort to eat under the reproachful stares of her friends and family, she'd found she couldn't keep anything down even if she wanted to. After getting fed up with her image, she stepped into the warm water of the shower and let it mingle with a fresh torrent of tears.

Hermione sat on her bed after getting dressed and waited for Ginny to get out of the shower. Today was the day that she was going to get the story out of Ginny no matter how hard it would prove. No one knew what had really happened to Harry except that he and Voldemort were dead. The only thing Ginny had said since was that it was her fault. Hermione couldn't see how Voldemort killing Harry was Ginny's fault, but that's what Ginny insisted.

Hermione waited for a while until Ginny emerged from the bathroom. She had to hold back a gasp when she saw Ginny in Muggle clothes instead of her robes. How could I have not noticed how frail she has become? Hermione asked herself. Instead of bringing the question to light, she just gave Ginny a concerned look. Ginny tried to smile at Hermione, but it just looked like she was in a serious amount of pain.

Before Ginny had a chance to shoo Hermione away, she had been grabbed by the wrist and was being pulled down the stairs to the common room.

"Please, Hermione, I just need to be let alone," Ginny begged Hermione, but Hermione hadn't seemed to hear her.

"We're going to breakfast, and then we're going on a walk so that we can talk, Ginerva." Hermione said this with a tone that hinted at no escape.

Ginny walked, or more so got dragged along, with her head down. She didn't want to see the sympathetic looks the other students were giving her. It had been a week since they had come back to school, and she was still getting looks. She suspected they wouldn't stop anytime soon. It's not everyday you're dating "The Chosen One" and he dies in the epic battle to destroy Voldemort.

They arrived at the Great Hall before she even realized it. She could feel the eyes boring into her skin as she walked by. For once, she didn't even feel like raising her head up proudly because there was nothing to be proud about. In her eyes, she had lost too much to feel anything but numb.

Hermione pulled Ginny down onto the bench next to her and started piling food on Ginny's plate for her. Ginny stared at the eggs, pancakes, and toast like they would eat her and felt disgusted. If people had told her last year that she would go days without eating and still have felt nauseous at the sight of food, she would've laughed in their faces.

Ginny put her fork into the eggs and pushed them around, staring at them in disgust, until someone cleared their throat in front of her. She looked up to see Ron looking at her with a worried expression on his face.

"For Merlin's sake, Ginny, you need to eat something before your body finally just swallows you whole."

Ginny looked back down at the eggs and put a small portion on her fork and ate it. She then put a feeble attempt of a smile on her face and looked up at her brother as she swallowed.

"Oh, now that won't do, Gin," Ron said to her with a determined look. "I won't let you leave this table until you've cleared your plate."

Ginny looked at her brother like he had sprouted another head and looked back down at the plate of food. She thought she was already going to vomit with that one bite, but decided to at least try to eat; maybe it was just the nausea getting to her again.

After eating a pancake and half of her eggs, she looked back up at her expecting brother with a green tinge to her face. Before Ron could say a word, she got up and ran outside to vomit. Hermione looked at Ron with her eyebrows furrowed together with concern, not noticing someone had followed Ginny outside.

"She's letting herself waste away since she feels so guilty, Ron. We have to do something."

"Yes, but nothing seems to work with her. She was stubborn and sarcastic before... well... you know." Ron hesitated as he remembered what had taken place. "But now she's stubborn in her guilt, and we don't even know the full story of what happened."

"I'm going to see if I can at least talk to her, or have her say something other than how guilty she feels," Hermione stated definitively while standing. She leaned over and kissed Ron and went outside.

Hermione found Ginny outside, sitting on the bench next to Harry and Dumbledore's tombs. She remembered how Ginny insisted that Harry wanted to be laid to rest next to Dumbledore when something happened. It made her wonder if Harry knew that he was going to be killed.

Before Hermione could reach Ginny, she saw a blond-haired boy walk over and sit next to Ginny and hug her. She had to blink a couple of times to make sure that she wasn't imagining Draco hugging a Weasley.

Hermione stood there watching the odd couple for a few more minutes, waiting for Draco to do something offensive. Obviously he didn't realize that he was holding a Weasley. Even during the time he stayed with the Order, he still had snide remarks to say about Hermione, but he just cradled Ginny in his arms, stroking her hair and whispering something in her ear. Seeing that everything was all right, she walked back inside to tell Ron.