Lifeline - 7

But all of it would be mute if Ginny died. Harry wouldn't have any desire to go on after Voldemort's demise. Pushing open the door, she again peeked inside. Harry had since fallen asleep, but Hermione had to blink twice to be certain what she was seeing.

Ginny's eyes were still closed, and she appeared to be sleeping, but her fingers were gently running through the strands of Harry's hair.

"Madam Pomfrey!" Hermione hissed, alerting the matron. "I think Ginny's waking up."

*~*~*

Several days after Ginny's brush with death, she was still in hospital recuperating. To everyone's great relief, she was making definite, if slow, progress. Her organs were healing, but she was still too weak to get out of bed. Her breathing remained labored, and she suffered frequent loss of breath if she spoke too long.

She bore an angry red welt across her forehead and scalp where the snake had held her. Madam Pomfrey said there most likely always would be a scar, but fortunately her hair would hide most of it. Its mere existence infuriated Harry. He seethed that all this had marked her, much like it had done to him. Still, it could have been so much worse and for that, he was grateful.

Harry had taken to using his Invisibility Cloak to sneak into the hospital wing. He'd curl up in the empty bed next to Ginny's and was actually sleeping better than he had in the loud dormitory. He felt better knowing he was beside her, just in case anything went wrong.

The gray light of dawn was beginning to seep through the windows, signaling it was time for Harry to return to his dormitory. He stretched languidly and pulled himself out of the bed, carefully re-tucking the corners of the sheets so Madam Pomfrey wouldn't know he'd been there.

He leaned over to kiss Ginny's forehead and was surprised when she opened her eyes.

"Hey," she said, sleepily. "D'you have to go already?"

A slow grin filtered across his face. "I didn't know you knew I was here," he replied, whispering.

Ginny smiled, still keeping her eyes closed. "I can always tell when you're here, Harry."

"Why? Do I stink?" he asked, raising his arm to sniff only half-jokingly.

Ginny snorted and finally opened her eyes. "No, you prat. You don't stink. Your scent is very nice, actually."

"Er…that's good…. I think," he said, raising his eyebrows. "How do you feel?"

Ginny shrugged. "Still tired and a bit sore, but stronger all the time. My left leg keeps going numb, but Madam Pomfrey thinks it'll recover."

"You really scared me, Ginny," Harry whispered, tugging at a stray thread on her blanket.

"Sorry about that," Ginny replied, glancing up at the tone in his voice. "The Horcrux has been destroyed though, right?"

"Yeah. It's just a tiara again," he replied, thinking about the thin, lightning bolt mark that he'd found on the inside of the piece after Ron had finished polishing it.

"So…what now?" Ginny asked, and Harry could hear the tremor in her voice.

"Right now we concentrate on getting you better. Don't worry about anything else, Ginny," he said, locking eyes with hers.

"You're not thinking about slipping off without us, are you, Harry? I couldn't take that. I need to know you're not going to do anything rash," Ginny said, her voice very low and husky.

"I'm not going to do anything until you're well, Ginny," he said, and he meant it. He had to be certain she was well on the road of recovery before he could even consider leaving her.