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Chapter Fifty Three
‘I can’t believe you just let her go’
‘What do you expect me to do, what can I do but wait for her to come back?’
‘Go after her - fight for her, for your daughters’
‘She’ll come back when she’s ready’ he rubbed his forehead ‘Or at least I hope so, if her mother doesn’t poison her against me’
‘Of course she will that’s what Molly’s good at – that’s what she’s wanted from the beginning isn’t it, to be proven right – that it won’t work’
‘Sounds like you’re projecting your own problems with her on to the situation with me and Gin’
‘Am not’ she muttered,
‘Then don’t tell me what I should and shouldn’t do, I know Gin – she’ll come back when she’s ready to, I just have to give her time – I’ll go and find Hermione’
‘Maybe that’s not the best thing to do’
‘She’s my best friend and she’s missing’
‘Ginny is your wife and she thinks there’s something going on – you going after her looks like there is’
‘Why does she have to be so flaming paranoid?’
‘Why do you keep trying to save everyone when it’s not your job anymore – when the prophesy is over with’
‘All I know how to do is to fight him, to stop him ever coming back – you don’t know what it’s like with him – for me it was a thousand times worse then what every other witch and wizard went through’ he reached for his glass of water ‘He was always in my head, he was always trying to kill me for seven years he dedicated his time between killing me and enslaving humanity’ he closed his eyes lying on the pillows ‘He did kill me, he made me think I’d never be allowed to be with Ginny let alone have any sort of future with her – he made me give her up so he wouldn’t kill her, he made my life miserable – my very existence miserable and the only joys I had were Ginny and Hermione and Ron’
‘He’s not coming back’
‘Because I helped stop him this time round too – I was born to stop him and now it’s my job to stop his followers, to stop them trying to reincarnate him, to stop them trying to become him before it’s too late’
‘Your job has set hours – your job does not include going around the world searching for Hermione because she’s gone on holiday to get away from Ronald trying to force himself on her’
‘She said that to you – I’m going to kill him’
‘She just said he was very persistent with it when they were alone and she wasn’t ready to give in yet – she said she knew she would but just not yet’
‘And still he pushed and she snapped and now she’s missing’
‘Not missing, she’s hiding, she’s forgetting about ever being in love with Ron – give her that chance and she’ll be back’
‘How do you know?’
‘She’ll always be your friend Harry, even if she does want something more, she’ll always be your friend because she could never hurt Ginny that way and she could never hurt you by taking you from her’
‘I would never go’
‘She would never let herself be a temptation, she will always be your friend, but she’ll always have a part of her that loves you more then that and she’ll always have a part of her that still loves Ron but for now let her just be alone and not have to worry about it all’
‘Fine but it doesn’t explain how you know any of this’
‘I read a lot of magazines – a lot – Charlie will tell you how many I left strewn around his place to get blown up – plus me and Hermione were pupil and teacher for a while, we did talk as friends as well’
‘Hmm’
‘Don’t worry about her, worry about your wife and whether she’ll come home or not’
‘I am but I need not to or I’ll start to believe she won’t’
‘You have to go after her – to change her mind’
‘She doesn’t want me near her right now, she’s took my daughters to stay with the one person she can’t stand for more then a few days at a time and it means she wants to be alone – just like it did when she ran away last time, just like it always is because she’s still a little girl and she still needs her mother’
‘Don’t begrudge her that’
‘Ron’s right – I’ve forced her to grow up when she doesn’t want to, to make her a wife and a mother when she should still be at school, when she should still be having fun and travelling around’
‘She doesn’t want that, she wants you’
‘If she did she would never have left’
‘Stop being so self absorbed and pathetic little brother’ she said telling him off sharply ‘Your just like Charlie worrying that because we want you we’ll resent you for settling down – Gin wanted that with you, I on the other hand just want to be with Charlie and I don’t care what we do – we could sit at home all day at the four walls and I’d be happy, but lucky for me my man wants the same as me – he wants to travel, to live – Gin wants to raise her daughters and then do what ever comes next – she's adapted to the life she chose because she wanted to be with you, because she wants to be with you’
‘But – but-’
‘No buts, so she’s gone for a few days, so she’ll come back and you’ll be happy again, it hurts her to be away from you – she worries way to much about you and if you come back late from work you should see how nervous and anxious – the other day she cleaned out the oven the muggle way because you were an hour late and didn’t tell her’
He swore and put his head in his hands,
‘She won’t be gone for long but that is only if her mother doesn’t get in her ear about you and I’m going to be there to stop it if you won’t’
‘I can’t go after her, she doesn’t want me to’
‘I’ll come and see you tomorrow – I’ll see if she’ll let me bring the twins’
‘Thank you’
‘Just think about everything Harry, don’t make the same mistake my mother did by waiting to long’
‘Love you Soph’ he got up to hug her ‘You make a great sister you know’
‘You’re not so bad as a brother – overly protective and a bit of a hero complex but a good one all the same so I can safely say love you too you fruitcake’
‘I am; I’m slowly losing my mind a long with everything else’
‘Just rest – you’ll feel better in the morning’ she kissed the top of his head ‘See you tomorrow’ and released him to go.
He flopped back on the pillows feeling completely drained but still alive which he hadn’t felt when the monster in the cauldron tried to suck out his life force.
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RIP JD Salinger |