Solitary Worlds
V.
Thirteen Years
“Geeny!” The melodic voice could only belong to one person. Ginny turned around just in time to see a flash of white coat as a woman launched herself at the redhead.
Gabrielle Delacour hugged her friend with all the exuberance that came naturally to her. Gabrielle lived a decadent, sophisticated world and Ginny – with all her earthiness – was both her perfect match and complete opposite.
“Gabrielle!” Ginny exclaimed breathlessly. “I haven’t seen you in ages! Where have you been?”
“I ‘ave been back at ‘ome visiting some family,” she said with a laugh. “And you? ‘Ow are you and ‘Arry? Still perfectly in love?”
Ginny gave her a small smile. “Let’s get a cup of tea, shall we? We have a bit to catch up on.”
Instantly, Gabrielle sobered, her lovely face drawing into a mask of concern as she fully registered Ginny’s appearance. “What ees ze matter, Geeny? What ‘as ‘appened to you?”
“Tea,” Ginny said firmly. “And I’ll tell you all about it.”
As the walked down the street to Tom’s, Gabrielle took more notice of Ginny’s appearance. On the surface, almost nothing had changed. Her hair still sparkled, and her clothes were immaculate. But something had been lost. Some spark that was once within Ginny had dimmed. Her eyes no longer shone with laughter, and around her mouth there were lines from emotions held in check. They seated themselves and ordered; Gabrielle looked Ginny in the eyes.
“And so you must tell me all, Geeny. From ze very beginning.”
“There’s not much to tell. Harry and I –“ she swallowed. “Harry and I are over.”
“When?” Gabrielle exclaimed. “’Ow? You two, you were so very in love, and –“
“And it turns out that sometimes love just isn’t enough.” She smiled at Gabrielle, a smile that held all the sadness in the world. “After Voldemort, Harry wasn’t – the same. But it was okay, because he was still Harry.”
“Still the boy who leeved.”
“Still the boy I loved. But during the battle, there was a moment – no, a while – when we were separated. I should have been beside him and I wasn’t. But Susan was.” Ginny gave a tired smile. “And they went through something that Harry and I didn’t, and naturally they ended up leaning on each other for support afterwards, and they got closer and closer –“
“That bastard. ‘E ‘as been cheating on you all zees time?”
“No. He loves me that much.” Her laugh was bitter and her hands gripped her tea mug far too tightly. “She went away for a few years and things were fine. But now she’s back and Harry says that he can’t keep pretending with me when he’s in love with her too. He says that he’s ‘confused’ and that he needs to sort things out.”
“And what deed you do?”
Ginny looked at Gabrielle with tortured, embittered eyes. “I agreed with him. I said that yes, I can see that he’s in a tough situation and that I would never want him to break the law of god or man, and I threw his ring back in his face, moved out and changed my number.”
“Geeny! I will tell Fleur! ‘E will be blacklisted within ‘ours, no, within minutes.” Gabrielle paused, fully realising the situation. “’Ow ‘as Ronald taken eet? ‘E did not tell you to go back to ‘im, did ‘e?”
The smile on Ginny’s face was sad and grief filled. It was obvious that Ginny understood and hated all the implications of their separation. “Ron hasn’t spoken to Harry in five months. Hermione – she loves them both but she’s married to Ron and she doesn’t want anything to come between them. Occasionally she tries to intervene, but it never goes well.”
“’Ow did all this ‘appen without me knowing?”
“You were wrapped up with your French playboy and I didn’t want to worry you. And then you were away for so long – I didn’t really know what to say.”
Gabrielle looked at her friend. When they’d first become close, it was just after the war with Voldemort, when the two had been struggling with the irrevocable changes in their lives. Still, Ginny had always dismissed things with a smile and a shrug and continued on with hope.
Ginny’s hope was gone, now.
“You ‘ave broken up with people before, Geeny. Normally you are fine. What is wrong?”
“I never loved anyone after they stopped loving me. And now I do.”
She paused, as if taking that in.
“I still love him.”
Four simple words that could hurt Ginny for the rest of her life, Gabrielle knew.
But it was the next five that would tear her apart;
“But he doesn’t love me.”
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