Unexpected Song
Disclaimer: I don’t own the Harry Potter characters. I just like to have a loan of them from time to time. ;) By all rights, they belong to JKR, Warner Brothers, Scholastic and Bloomsbury. Some lines were taken from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I don’t own the rights to lyrics of Unexpected Song, either. I’m borrowing them for this songfic – they were written by Andrew Lloyd Webber. *****
I have never felt like thisFor once I’m lost for words
Your smile has really thrown me
On the third landing, a door stood ajar. Harry just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap.
“Ginny,” said Ron. “You don’t know how weird it is for her to be this shy. She never shuts up normally...”
***
Ginny Weasley leaned her back against the closed door, halfway ready to hyperventilate. She was never going to be able to act normally around Harry – not if her hands were going to get all clammy and her pulse was going to quicken every time she caught sight of those green eyes and that smile.
Why didn’t Ron warn her that Harry was coming today? She had overheard Ron, Fred and George talking about getting him away from the Muggles he was staying with, but she never imagined that she’d walk down to breakfast that morning and he’d be there. And he had seen her in her nightdress, too. What if he’d laughed at her after she’d scrambled back upstairs? She hadn’t stuck around long enough to find out how he had reacted one way or another. She wouldn’t have been able to bear the humiliation if he’d started chortling along with her dim-witted brothers.
*****
This is not like me at all
I never thought I’d know
The kind of love you’ve shown me
Then came a faint moan from the end of the Chamber. Ginny was stirring. As Harry hurried toward her, she sat up. Her bemused eyes traveled from the huge form of the dead basilisk, over Harry, in his blood-soaked robes, then to the diary in his hand. She drew a great, shuddering gasp and tears began to pour down her face.
“Harry – oh, Harry – I tried to tell you at b-breakfast, but I c-couldn’t say it in front of Percy – it was me, Harry – but I – I s-swear I didn’t mean to – R-Riddle made me, he t-took me over – and -- how did you kill that – that thing? W-where’s Riddle? The last thing I r-remember is him coming out of the diary...”
“It’s all right,” said Harry, holding up the diary, and showing Ginny the fang hole, “Riddle’s finished. Look! Him and the basilisk. C’mon, Ginny, let’s get out of here…”
***
As Ginny lay in the hospital wing, she kept seeing in her mind, that image of Harry in the Chamber, covered in blood. His voice kept repeating to her “It’s all right … it’s all right.” Had anyone else told her that, she might not have been able to believe it. But hehad said it and she trusted him. And he obviously trusted her, too. He hadn’t shown an ounce of doubt when she had said that she’d been possessed by Riddle’s diary. He had just told her, “It’s all right.”
*****
Now, no matter where I am
No matter what I do
I see your face appearing
Ginny, who had always been very taken with Harry, seemed even more heartily embarrassed than usual when she saw him, perhaps because he had saved her life during their previous year at Hogwarts. She went very red and muttered “hello” without looking at him.
***
That evening, Ginny lay in her bed at the Leaky Cauldron. She was mentally scolding herself for acting like such a twit when she’d seen Harry. I should be past being humiliated around him … and lord help me if I start knocking things over again. If I can overcome being possessed by Tom Riddle, surely I can overcome being shy around Harry Potter. He’s going to be everywhere once you get to Hogwarts – the time to get a grip is now, Ginny Weasley!
*****
Like an unexpected song
An unexpected song
That only we are hearing
Someone once said, time heals all wounds. Maybe, thought Ginny as she sat on the edge of her four-poster bed in the fourth year girls’ dormitory of Gryffindor Tower. But how do you get rid of the scars those wounds leave behind? To just look at her, a person wouldn’t think she, Ginny Weasley, had any scars … she was a fourteen-year-old girl from a loving family. What types of emotional blemishes could she possibly have?
It wasn’t common knowledge. Only a select few even knew the half of it … and the other half of it she had kept bottled up tight for the past few years. But every once in a while, the lid to that bottle loosened … that time on the Hogwarts Express her second year, when the Dementor had come into her compartment. And then sometimes when she’d slip into a nightmare, when her subconscious was relaxed enough and the memory crept back in to haunt her. And she had just had one of those instances … she hadn’t had a nightmare in months and yet tonight –
She’d woken up in a cold sweat. Her mouth was parched. Her skin tingled with panic. She knew it was only a nightmare, but she still felt ill at ease. Her eyes scanned the darkness of the dorm room. She felt her nightstand, hoping she’d find a glass of water. Her mouth felt like it was lined with sandpaper.
There’s a pitcher of water down in the common room, she thought, wiping some of the perspiration from her brow with the sleeve of her nightdress. The house-elves never failed to keep a water jug filled to the brim for the students of Gryffindor House. She’d just tip-toe down the spiral staircase, get a glass of water and perhaps sit for a moment or two in front of the fire.
*
Ahh, she thought as the cool water tickled her throat. Better. The fire was dying out in the grate. She had no clue what time it was, but she supposed the fire had been left unattended hours ago. I’ll just sit here for a bit, she contemplated as she settled into a comfortable chair in front of the fireplace.
It didn’t take long for sleep to conquer her. She had drained the last of the water from her cup and her head lolled to the arm of the chair and she finally found some rest, until –
“Huh?” Ginny exclaimed groggily. She’d been jerked from her sleep by something … she rubbed her eyes, hoping they’d adjust to the darkness – the fire had completely expired at this point. “Who’s there?” she whispered into the blackness. If she hadn’t know better, she’d have thought someone had sat on her.
“I didn’t know anyone was down here,” a voice whispered back. “Sorry.”
Ginny rubbed her eyes again. Someone had sat on her. It was still difficult to make out who the figure was in the darkness, but she definitely recognized that voice.
“Harry?” she said. “Is that you?”
“Ginny?” Harry whispered back. “What are you doing down here?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” she replied.
“Me either,” said Harry.
******
I don’t know what’s going on
Can’t work it out at all
Whatever made you choose me?
Ginny got the post that morning. Errol had collapsed on the kitchen table after Ginny had pried the letters from the clutches of his frail beak. She patted his feathers gently and flipped through the letters. Two letters from Hogwarts – one for her and one for Ron – and two letters from Harry – one for her and one for Ron. She set everything else aside and picked up the letter Harry had written her. She tore into the envelope and drank in every word he had written down. And though she had seen it and even heard it before, her heart skipped a beat when she read the words I love you penned at the bottom of the letter.
Things had changed between them that night they met in the common room.
The night, Ginny thought, with a wide grin forming on her face, he sat on me. She laughed out loud and Errol hooted piteously.
She couldn’t figure out what act of fortune had led she and Harry down the staircase that night, but their link had never been stronger than at that point. The only way Ginny could ever hope to describe it was that they finally just seemed to fit, like two puzzle pieces … she’d been able to sense it for what seemed like forever. And that night, Harry had finally sensed it, too. She didn’t know what led Harry down to the common room to her, but she was so thankful that he had finally come.
*****
I just can’t believe my eyes
You look at me as though
You couldn’t bear to lose me
“No!” she heard Harry’s voice rip through the unearthly howling that whirred around the circle of Death Eaters surrounding them. “Not Ginny!”
Ginny’s eyes met Harry’s – his stare penetrated her very soul. She felt warm, like the sun had come out and was softly baking her skin with its rays. The howling ceased. All she could hear was Harry’s voice, saying softly, “It’s all right.”
He had raised his wand hand and in a flash of light, the entire assembly of Death Eaters had been ricocheted back. He hurried to her side and pulled her away.
“It’s all right,” he said again.
*****
Now, no matter where I am
No matter what I do
I see your face appearing
Ginny flicked her wand and the sausages danced from the kitchen counter into the pan on the stovetop. The links sputtered and spit as they fried and Ginny poured two glasses of iced pumpkin juice and set them on the little breakfast table.
The screen door leading from the garden swung open lazily and Harry kicked off his shoes on the mat. He propped his Firebolt against the wall and eyed the frying pan keenly.
“Hello, stranger,” said Ginny, tossing him a copy of The Daily Prophet.
“Hello yourself,” said Harry with a grin. He set the paper down and squeezed his wife into a hug.
“Have a good morning on the pitch?” asked Ginny.
“M-hmm,” said Harry, “but I’m having a better morning now that I’m with you.”
*****
Like an unexpected song
An unexpected song
That only we are hearing
Ginny’s head lay across her sleeping husband’s chest. The tranquility of his slow and steady breathing soothed her.
A soft murmur sounded from across the room. A tiny form inside a pale pink bassinette began to stir.
“Mmm,” said Harry in his sleep. His eyes groggily started to open.
“Go back to sleep,” said Ginny quietly. “I’ll get her … it’s all right.”
She kissed him softly and slipped from their bed.
As she rocked their tiny daughter, she stroked the baby’s downy red hair and said, “It’s all right, love, it’s all right.”
THE END
