Eventually satisfied that the worst had passed, she once again attempted to awaken the dark haired boy. Extricating her hand from his, she gripped his shoulder gently and shook him slightly. She was pleased to see that he at least responded this time, though he didn't fully wake up. He swatted at her lazily with one arm and mumbled something under his breath. She shook him again, "Wake up Harry."
His eyes finally opened up, and he stared straight up. Green eyes met brown, and the pair froze for a long moment as Harry processed several things. Eventually he managed to croak out, "Ginny? What's going on?"
"Shh, it's alright," she calmly reassured him. His voice sounded a bit rough, but not overtly so. "You were having a vision or a nightmare or something, but it's over now. You're okay." She kept her voice soft because she didn't want to alarm him. She wanted to keep him relaxed.
"Voldemort was mad," he told her, frowning and scrunching his eyebrows together. He licked his lips nervously and started when he tasted the coppery substance on his lips. His left hand flew up to his lip, and he examined it as he pulled it away, noting the blood he had wiped away.
"You bit your lip," Ginny offered by way of explanation. She began gently running her fingers through his hair again. "I didn't know what to do," she commented. "We both dozed off, and I woke up when you started tensing up and moving around. When I heard you gasp, I looked up at your face to find that you were in pain. You bit your lip and clutched your scar. I tried to wake you, but you weren't responding, so I eventually just gave up. I thought about running for help but decided against it. From what I know about your scar pains, you just have to wait them out. And I know that you don't like to draw unnecessary attention to yourself. So I just settled for trying to comfort you as best I could until it passed." She knew she was rambling slightly by that point, but she didn't know what else to do.
"Sorry," he said as he sat up and edged away from her slightly. "I didn't mean to make you worry. He was angry that his attacks didn't go exactly as planned. It sounded like there was more than just the two attacks I heard about. But he was pretty angry about Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade."
"You have nothing to apologize for, Harry," she said, giving him a small smile. "I just wish there was more that I could have done for you. I felt so helpless. And seeing you like that just kind of made me scared."
"Sorry," Harry said again. He looked pensive for a moment before continuing. "I reckon it's not an entirely bad thing that I woke you up. I can't imagine people's reactions if they came down to find us asleep on the couch together."
She giggled slightly and quickly agreed. "You're probably right. I can just imagine Ron coming down and challenging you to a duel to defend my honor or something equally stupid."
Harry gave a forced laugh, but it was easy to tell that he wasn't really all that amused. "We should probably head on up to bed. We'll be tired enough as it is without staying up half the night chatting."
"Yeah," she agreed somewhat reluctantly. Something seemed a bit off with him. He was abnormally subdued. It was understandable considering the night he had, with fighting off Death Eaters and receiving visions of a Dark Lord, but she couldn't help the feeling that it went beyond that.
She stepped forward and hugged him, "Goodnight Harry."
He was stiff in her arms, but he awkwardly wrapped his arms around her and patted her back gently as he said "Goodnight Ginny."
He pulled away, and she watched as he walked uneasily to the boys' staircase and began his ascent. Her gaze never faltered until a few moments after he had risen out of her sight. She sighed as she sank back into the couch they had only recently awoken from. It had been an incredibly long night. First she had been almost frantic with worry waiting for him to return. She had been short with her friends that night, and she knew she should probably apologize the following day.
It was actually her short tempered presence that had convinced Ron and Hermione to head up to bed early without ever confirming where Harry was. They had been worried when he didn't show up at curfew. Neville had reminded them that the curfew didn't apply to Harry any more, which set Hermione off another one of her tangents about abusing privileges. She had been going on for a solid few minutes when Ginny finally snapped at her. She told the bushy haired witch to mind her own business, that she didn't always know what was best for every one else, and that she wasn't always right.
Ginny knew she was overly harsh with her words, but nothing she had said was a lie. Hermione did have a problem with that. She always forced herself into other people's business, even when they protested. And she tended to have this air of superiority about her… she just assumed that she always knew best and that others should just heed her advice and get on with it. It could be incredibly frustrating at times. She was just so bloody stubborn and pigheaded.
Granted most of the time she was right, at least in matters that were more non-personal. It was when she was sticking her nose into the personal lives of other people that she really became irritating. Like that conversation the two had shared about Harry. Hermione had reprimanded her for "coddling" Harry and allowing him to continue with his charade, allowing him to pretend that there was no war going on and that his godfather wasn't really gone.
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