"What if I don't care?" Ginny replied fiercely. Harry shook his head at her.
"I do."
"But it'smy life, Harry! I can do what I want with it," Ginny said, trying to get through to him.
"Ginny..." Harry sighed. He didn't want to have this conversation right now. "It is your life. And you can do what you want with it, it's just...Ginny," he paused here, as if he didn't know quite how to phrase what he wanted. "It's my life too," he said ultimately. "And I choose for you not to be in it to keep you safe. Period."
"Harry -" Ginny tried again.
"No." And he turned around and walked away.
--
"Don't you think you're being irrational?" Hermione said, finally. She had been standing in the doorway to his room while he attempted Occlumency through meditation. She'd been there for several minutes without speaking, and Harry had let her be; he didn't feel like initiating a conversation with anyone, let alone someone who was most likely going to tell him how wrong he was about all the decisions he makes in his life.
(Well, he knew one thing for sure. He was absolute rubbish at any kind of Occlumency. He guessed Snape had to have been right about something eventually.)
Harry sighed.
“Hello to you, too, Hermione,” he responded quietly.
“Hello. Don’t you think you’re being irrational?” she asked again.
“Thank you, Hermione, I’m fine, really. I only watched my headmaster get murdered by one of my teachers who I thought was reasonably trustworthy a few days ago, but I’ll be okay. And how are you?” Harry said, as if she had asked him how he was feeling. He went on in a high-pitched voice, “Oh Harry, I’m so sad about Professor Dumbledore! Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Harry switched to his normal voice. “I have no choice, Hermione. I have to be okay so I can kill Voldemort. Thanks for the concern though, it really makes me feel a lot better to know people care.” He finished with a pointed look at her.
“Harry, please, this is important. Do you or do you not think you’re being just a bit irrational?” Hermione huffed.
“And you don’t think pleasantries are important?” Harry asked, still trying to meditate, rather fruitlessly, if he was honest with himself.
“No, I don’t particularly think pleasantries to be important. Why did you break up with Ginny?”
Harry sighed again. “It really is none of your business, Herm.”
“Don’t call me that!” Hermione cried. “And, ‘none of my business’? I think it is.”
“Feel free to think so as long as you know you’re wrong.” Harry shrugged at her. “Either way, I have every right to break up with anyone I want to.”
“Don’t finish a sentence with a preposition,” she replied absently. “It takes two to tango, Harry.”
Harry stopped trying to meditate, coming to terms with the fact that he definitely wasn’t going to accomplish any more (any more? he thought amusedly, don’t be so optimistic, Potter, saying you got anything at all done, or else you might give someone a heart attack from the pure shock of it all,) today. “Yes, Hermione, it does take two to tango, but it only takes one to play Solitaire,” he retorted.
She paused.
“What?”
“I don’t know if that’s an actual saying or whatever, but the point remains valid!” Harry snapped. “I can break up with Ginny or whoever else I may want to if I want to! And I did, so I did. End of story.”
“Whomever…and stop ending sentences with prepositions,” said Hermione, “And hardly! If Ginny wants to risk her life by being your girlfriend, she has the right to decide that! What are you, her keeper?”
“‘If Ginny wants to risk her life’? Wow, Hermione, way to make me feel better. Sure, she has the right to decide to risk her life by being my girlfriend…but so do I. And I refuse to be the reason she dies or gets kidnapped or whatever! She can go be some other target’s girlfriend.”
“Harry…” Hermione said gently, “she’s probably already in danger by being your girlfriend for the last few months. Breaking up with her now won’t save her.”
Harry glared at her. “I know everyone loves to control my life in every possible way, but my mind will not be changed. Just like Ginny has the right to decide to put her life in danger by being my girlfriend, I have the right to refuse her. You talk her about her rights, and her decisions, but what about me, Hermione? Don’t I get any say in this? Or are you just going to tell me how to think and act and who to like and love for the rest of my life?” he said fiercely before storming out of his room.
I seem to be doing a lot of angry walking lately, he thought idly.
--
“Hey, Potter,” Tonks said cheerfully, after tripping on him.
“Hey, Tonks.” Harry said dully, laying on his back on the floor in the kitchen.
“Is there a reason you’re laying on the ground in the kitchen?” she asked curiously, still on the ground from her fall.
“Same reason you are.”
“You tripped on the Boy Who Lived...?" Tonks laughed at him, "...and landed on your back with your hands behind your head on the ground and with no injuries whatsoever?” she asked in amazement. “What’s your secret and how fast can I learn it?”
“No secret,” He said, thinking of something Sirius had told him in a story about his father and co. “just skill.”
“That sounds like a quote.”
“Yeah,” Harry chuckled. “Yeah, it does. It is.” He added, when he realized he hadn’t answered her question-statement.
“So, Harry,” Tonks started out casually.
“Yeah…?”
“Why’d you, y’know, break up with the youngest Weasley?”
Harry rolled his eyes, not entirely aware if Tonks had seen him, as she hadn’t gotten up yet. “Because I could.”
“Did you want to?”
“‘Don’t finish sentences with prepositions, Harry,’” he mimicked, still peeved at Hermione.
“Huh?”
“Nothing, nothing,” Harry said dismissively. “Don’t worry about it…just something Hermione said to me when she was badgering me about breaking up with Ginny.”
“Oh,” Tonks chuckled nervously. She paused a moment, but couldn’t really stop herself, nor did she have a reason to stop herself. “So did you want to break up with her?”
“In a perfect world, I wouldn’t have,” said Harry evasively.
“That doesn’t answer my question.” Tonks pointed out.
“No, it doesn’t, does it?” Harry sighed. “I would have liked to not break up with her. So no, I didn’t want to. But I did want to, otherwise I wouldn’t have.”
“You still haven’t answered it.”
“I know.”
“Are you going to?”
“I don’t know…maybe.”
“I don’t think you are.”
He laughed a bit. “I think you’re right.”
There was a comfortable silence as the two lay on the ground, staring at the ceiling.
“Do you regret it?”
“How can I, when I know that the difference between Ginny living and Ginny dying might be my decision to stay with her or leave her? How can I be that selfish?”
“It’s all right to be selfish, sometimes, Harry,” Tonks responded quietly.
“Not for me.”
“Maybe not to your conscience, but you deserve it more than anyone, Harry.” She said sincerely. “I hope you realize that one day.”
Tonks sighed, and squeezed his hand. She left him to his thoughts.
--
“Hey, Harry, can we talk?” Harry looked up at the visitor and suddenly looked suspiciously at him.
“If it’s about how I’m not allowed to break up with Ginny because it’s her choice to be my girlfriend, stop right there, turn around, and get out. All I’ve got to say, if that was what you came to talk about, is that I decided to break up with her because that was my choice. I could because I can, so I did.”
Remus raised an eyebrow.
“I’m afraid that isn’t what I wanted to speak to you about. But if you need an ear, know that you can always borrow mine.”
Harry smiled tightly at him.
“So, Harry, do I even want to know why you’re on the ground?”
“I’m hiding.” He amended this statement, “I don’t think I’m doing too well, though, considering both Tonks and you have found me.”
“I don’t think either of us were looking for you,” Remus said, smothering his grin.
“What did you want to talk about?” Harry said, rolling his eyes.
“I was wondering if I could borrow your Invisibility Cloak for a few minutes tonight,” Remus said innocently.
“Remus?”
“It’s for good, I promise!” He cried instantly.
“For good?” Harry asked, not wanting to let his ex-professor borrow his Cloak forever.
“As opposed to using it for evil,” Remus explained.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll go get it for you now,” Harry said, rising from the floor.
“Thanks, Prongslet,” said Remus grinning at him. Harry grinned back.
The two made their way to Harry’s room and Harry rummaged through his trunk.
He couldn’t…find it?
What?
What!
…WHAT?!
Harry was unable to verbalize his despair.
At that precise moment, Ron slipped into the room pseudo-stealthily. He stopped short when he saw Remus and Harry there.
“Hey…Harry, Professor Lupin,” Ron chuckled nervously, hiding something behind his back.
“What’ve you got there, Ron?” Harry asked curiously. It looked a bit like…no. No. Ron didn’t….did he?
“N-nothing…”
“Is that my Invisibility Cloak?” Harry asked dangerously. He certainly didn’t recall letting Ron borrow it any time recently.
“Well, erm…yes?”
“Is that a question or an answer?” Remus asked, eyebrows raised, firmly on Harry’s side.
“An an-answer.” Ron answered weakly.
“How could you take one of the only things I own from my father without my permission?” Harry demanded.
“Hermione convinced me you wouldn’t mind!”
“And you believed her?!” Harry asked incredulously. “Have I ever used my things so carelessly as to let you believe that you can just take them whenever it suits your fancy?”
“We always use it for our adventures!”
“Yeah – when I’m with you! Ron, you can’t just take my things without my knowledge!”
“He’s right, Ron, you can’t just take people’s things whenever you feel like it. I doubt your brothers and sister and parents would condone that sort of behavior from you (or anyone) if you did it to them.”
“Well – I – er, um – here!” Ron thrust the Cloak at Harry and bolted out the door.
Harry eyed the door oddly, as if it was its fault his two best friends were acting so oddly.
“Here, Remus, you can just give it back in the morning,” Harry said, handing the Cloak to Remus, still looking oddly at the door.
