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Harry slumped down against the castle wall in their favorite unused classroom and let their head sink down. Their dark, curly hair fell forward into their eyes, which usually cheered them--finally having hair that was long enough to fall about their face had made them giddily pleased for weeks, on and off--but right now, it just annoyed them, and the depressing droop of it only seemed to accentuate their overwhelming feeling of despair.
They sat there for a while, breathing in the quiet, grateful for a chance to just get away from the rest of the world for a bit. Everything was just...too much, all of the sudden, all of their worries and fears spiraling out of control and into this intangible thing that seemed to sit, heavy, over their chest.
After a while, though, the door opened, and Harry heard footsteps enter the room. Harry held themself still, staring down at the floor, hoping whoever it was would see that this room was in use and leave without bothering them. But instead, they heard Ginny’s voice saying, “Alright, Harry?”
Harry looked up, blinking owlishly in surprise, just in time to watch Ginny settle down cross-legged on the floor beside them, her back against the wall and her knee and shoulder gently bumping theirs.
“Ginny?” Harry asked, then cringed a little at how their voice rasped, rusty from disuse and unshed emotion. They swallowed. “What are you doing here?”
“Luna,” Ginny said. “Fae saw you duck in here, and then fae came and found me because fae said that you looked like you needed a hug, and fae wasn’t in a touchy sort of mood, but fae thought that somebody ought to do it. Are you alright?”
Harry felt a tiny stir of amusement, thinking how like Luna that all sounded, but then felt their heart sink again as they thought about all of their worries. Homework, Sirius, the Tournament, Hermione and Draco and Ron...it all felt like too much to think about. Tears pricked at their eyes.
“Not particularly,” they said, slouching down and drawing their shoulders up so their face was partially concealed by the collar of their robes.
“Do you want a hug?” Ginny was looking down at them with a kind of knowing sympathy, and Harry was suddenly very glad that she wasn’t the type to pry. If it had been Hermione trying to comfort them, she would have tried to force them to talk logically through everything that they were feeling, and though that could be very useful at times, right now all Harry wanted was a break from worrying.
“...Yes,” they said.
“Well, come on then.”
Before Harry could move, Ginny was pulling them closer. She was just as strong as her well-defined arms suggested, and Harry willingly let her pull them onto her lap and wrap her strong, warm arms around them. They leaned against her chest, letting their head rest on her shoulder and breathing in the flowery scent of her perfume and her soft hair. They felt utterly safe.
Misery crawled up their throat, unlocked by the strong, warm feeling of being locked in Ginny’s arms, of feeling her breath and the beating of her heart in her chest. Harry tried to hold it back, but it was too much for them, and a few tears gently dropped onto Ginny’s shoulder. They sniffed thickly.
Ginny began to rub a hand gently up and down Harry’s back, and they gave in to the sensation, closing their eyes and letting the tension slowly bleed out of them to the warm, solid embrace and the gentle, rhythmic motion. They curled their knees up against Ginny’s body, burying their face in her robes and reaching an arm around her in return. They couldn’t remember the last time they had felt like this, had just been...held. They gripped her robe tightly in one hand.
At some point, the motion of Ginny’s hand stopped, and she just held them, and they sat and breathed while the misery slowly drained away and some empty place inside of Harry was filled up with soft contentment.
After what felt like a long time, Harry sighed, and curled their head back against the press of Ginny’s chin.
“Harry, stop,” she laughed, spitting and sputtering theatrically. “I’m eating your hair.”
Harry grinned and sat up shyly, pushing their hair back away from their face and letting Ginny’s arms fall from around their shoulders. “Sorry,” they said.
Ginny rolled her eyes at them. “You’re not.” She stretched and checked her watch, jostling Harry off of her lap as she did so. “It’s almost dinner,” she said. “Want to go down to the Great Hall and get something to eat?”
“Alright,” said Harry, sighing and picking up their bookbag. Ginny grabbed their hand and pulled them up off the floor, and Harry let her pull them across the classroom and out the door, towards the Great Hall where they knew their friends would be waiting.