Harry Potter Breaking The Chains

He disappeared for large periods of time, and she noticed that he didn't seem to be going to his office all of those times. She had a feeling that he went to the Room of Requirement, but she never actually brought herself to follow him to find out. That was his business as far as she was concerned. She would know if he decided to tell her and not before. But that didn't stop her from speculating.

She worried that Hermione would catch onto the same clues that she was finding, but the older girl seemed pretty preoccupied with her studies lately. She was almost always in the library, and when she wasn't, she was still buried in a book. Ginny struggled to understand how Hermione could study so much without going crazy. But then again, studying was fun for Hermione, so maybe it was different.

And she figured as long as no one else noticed where he was going, they would all assume he was just studying. From what she heard, he was easily acing all of his classes, even giving Hermione a run for her money. She had seen Hermione offering help to Harry several times, only to have him politely refuse. She was surprised the first time this happened, but she figured that Harry was probably always smart enough to do well in his classes. He just never applied himself in the past. That seemed to have changed this year.

It puzzled her, really. Sometimes she felt like he was just throwing himself into everything, constantly keeping busy, just so he wouldn't have to stop and think about his life or anything that was going on in the world. But then other times, she got the feeling that he thought a lot about it. And there had even been a couple moments where he revealed things to her that he said he hadn't told anybody else. So it's not like he was completely avoiding things. And he seemed to be happy, for the most part. Granted there were times when everything caught up with him, she could see it in his eyes at times. She saw it earlier that day during the HA class. They all saw it.

But by the time he met them all for dinner, he was back to his lively self. She, like Hermione, assumed that there was plenty that he was keeping secret from them, that he was carrying a burden much heavier than any of them had ever had to carry, but he carried it well as far as she was concerned. If it ever got to be too much for him, she would be there for him. But until then, she was content to let him keep his secrets.

Hermione was not as understanding. She constantly brought up the issue, trying to push Harry to open up. Sometimes Ginny just wanted to smack her upside the head and tell her to shut her damn mouth. Okay, so maybe that would be a little harsh, but Hermione really didn't have a clue when to stop. All she was succeeding in doing was further isolating her friend and making him feel entirely uncomfortable. The more Hermione pushed, the more Harry pulled away.

It pained her to see their relationship suffering like that, but there was not much she could do about it. Hermione refused to relent. And she knew Harry would not cave in, and she respected him for that. He wouldn't let anyone pressure him into doing anything he was uncomfortable doing. Ginny had tried on a couple of occasions to convince Hermione to let it be for the sake of her friendship with Harry, but the older girl had insisted that it was for his own good. So Ginny could only sit back and watch and give Harry her silent encouragement, a reassuring smile here and there. And most of all she would just be there for him to talk to whenever he was ready.

Hermione snagged her after dinner before she could get settled and whisked her up the girls' dormitory and into the 6th years' room. After verifying that the room was empty, Hermione dragged Ginny by the arm over to her bed and sat down, patting the space next to her for Ginny to fill. The second Ginny's bottom hit the bed, Hermione started in on the interrogation.

"What's going on between you and Harry?"

"What, no hello? No, how's it going Ginny?" she returned teasingly. Hermione just arched an eyebrow in response. "We're going to the ball together as friends."

"Well everyone knows that," Hermione replied condescendingly. "I want to know what's really going on between you two."

"What makes you think there's anything going on?" Ginny fired back.

"Oh come on," Hermione tutted, "I'm not stupid, you know. Ron's not the only one who's noticed that you've been disappearing a lot lately. And Harry's always conveniently missing at the same time as well. I hardly think that's coincidence."

"Harry and I are just friends," Ginny calmly explained to her bushy haired friend.

"But you're not denying that you're spending time with him," she pointed out.

"Friends do tend to spend time together every so often," Ginny retorted.

"Yes, but why is it that no one else ever seems to know where you are whenever you and Harry disappear together?" Hermione inquired. She really was a nosy bugger.

"I don't know. Maybe nobody pays attention," Ginny speculated.

"Oh come on," Hermione exclaimed. "Listen Ginny, I know you've had a crush on Harry for like forever." Ginny moved to interrupt, but Hermione held up a hand and pushed on. "Oh, I know you gave up waiting on him a long time ago, but that's very different from getting over him now, isn't it? I just don't think now is the time to be starting up a relationship with him. He's going through a fragile time right now and is likely to be extremely vulnerable. He might cling to you just because you treat him like nothing's wrong, but it's not healthy for him. He needs to come to terms with what happened with Sirius and what's going on in the world around him. I don't think now is the right time to get involved."

"You are unbelievable," Ginny returned hotly. "How dare you accuse me of any such thing?"

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