Chapter three

Ginny strode out of the fireplace and into the Grimmauld drawing room, brushing the faintest trace of soot off of her shoulders, just in time to hear the front door be slammed shut as Harry entered.

She heard voices, Ron's and Hermione's, ask Harry what had happened as he angrily brushed them off and as his footsteps approached she simply moved into the hallway to block his path.m

"Gin," he sighed sounding frustrated,

"I told you not to follow me."

Harry sounded hollow now, as if all the anger and exercise had simply zapped away all of his energy and what was left was just a remnant of frustration. Ginny softened the angry words she had prepared at just how exhausted her boyfriend sounded,

"You can't just run away from these problems, Harry" she said softly.

"I know," he nodded, "can we just talk tomorrow?"

She nodded the affirmative and went to hug him, melding herself into his side, they relaxed into each other and Ginny looked up,

"We will talk though, okay? No more running"

Harry closed his eyes and nodded, tightening his embrace slightly.

The next morning, Hermione bustled around the breakfast table busily, pouring tea for everyone as she spoke at length about the meeting she had today, muggle lawyers with a magical child, and she was so excited to talk human rights legislation and how she could apply it to the Ministry that she didn't stop to notice that no one was really listening.

Ron had tried, in the beginning, but had slowly lost concentration and had just taken to nodding at intervals he deemed appropriate.

Ginny had tucked her legs up underneath her as she leant her head on Harry's shoulder as she chewed her toast. Harry was picking at his museli with a spoon in one hand, his other hand resting on Ginny's leg.

They'd slept well last night, but were both so distracted now, concentrating on the conversation they were going to have to have after Hermione left for her meetings, and Ron left for the ministry. Harry wasn't scheduled on until night training, and Ginny was waiting for pre-season to start, so they'd have the house to themselves.

They bid Hermione a rapid farewell as she rushed away, and pushed Ron out the door as well before slowly clearing away the breakfast dishes, Ginny flicked her wand as they began to self scrub and then boiled a kettle of water with another flick of the wand before pouring two mugs of tea.

She added a sugar and a splash of milk to Harry's, then just a dab of milk to hers.

They ended up back at the kitchen table facing one another,

Harry took a sip of the offered tea and sigh,

"Thanks Gin," Then he stars down, seemed to muster the courage form somewhere, and look back up again,

"I'm sorry about running, I know it doesn't solve problems. It's just that I don't know how to feel about my family and I really don't want you meeting them just yet because I don't want you to be so affected by how awful they are." Harry had said this all very fast and then immediately took a gulp of tea before looking at Ginny. Ginny sat there quietly waiting for Harry to pour out his feelings, she knew from experience it took him a while to get started but once it began, he needed to tell all.

"You know I don't like them very much, Gin," he let out a half-laugh, "mostly because they don't like me. I didn't have a happy childhood pre-Hogwarts. Maybe you've heard bits and pieces from Ron but they were horrid."

Ginny knew that Harry need prompting to go on, this was the most he'd ever properly discussed his family with her. They'd spoken at length about war, possession, Voldemort, their nightmares, but not about this.

"Do you want to tell me about it, your childhood I mean?" She asked softly.

Harry seemed to ignore the question and stared down at his mug.

"I know how they'll get under your skin, and I don't want you to have to deal with that."

"Harry, anything that affects you automatically affects me, regardless of whether we discuss it or not." Ginny said quietly, "please talk to me..."

Harry interrupted before Ginny had a chance to go on,

"Dumbledore left me on the doorstep, the night my parents died they left me on the doorstep with a note so they would find me in the morning, they always used to bring it up, just left without an explanation and an expectation. I mean Dumbledore was a brave man and a good man but they never really checked on me after that night."

He looked at Ginny nervously who managed a half smile to encourage him to continue,

"Dudley is three months older than me so they always had someone to compare me to, the weird nephew against their perfect, spoiled son. The first year, we were in the nursery together but when I was almost three they moved Dudley to a proper bed from the crib and I moved to the cupboard under the stairs."

"There was Dudley's room, my aunt and uncle's room, Dudley's second room and my cupboard. They didn't really hit me, although they threatened it a lot, but really it was just a lot of time feeling like nothing. They left me in the cupboard when I wasn't wanted to clean, or garden, or whatever Petunia needed..." Harry was rushing his sentences by this point so took a break to gulp some tea, and Ginny noticed his hands were shaking. That used to happen a lot, the shaking, the Healers concluding post-cruciatus nerve damage but although they mostly had it under control with potions now it came back when Harry was particularly nervous.

"Dudley used to beat me up all the time, broke my glasses constantly, his friends would hold my arms and he'd punch me in the face, wouldn't let anyone talk to me at school..." The shaking had worsened now and his shoulders were involuntary moving,

"You alright, Harry?" murmured Ginny quietly, "want to take a break?"

Harry shook his head, "sorry for getting upset, I mean I wasn't tortured or anything by them,"

"It wasn't right, Harry" Ginny said definitively, "it's ok to be upset, it's not right to lock toddlers in cupboards and let a cousin physically hurt his relative and treat you like a servant."

"I stayed in that cupboard until I was eleven," Harry admitted quietly, "they started to lock me there and not really feed me when I was eight or nine whenever they wanted to teach me a lesson."

Ginny couldn't help herself and gasped a little.

"Your mum and Hermione and a few others pretty much saved me around 5th year when sending cakes and that, Dudley was on some stupid diet which meant even less food than normal."

Harry took another gulp of tea then finally looked at Ginny properly,

"It's weird, they weren't always yelling, which certainly happened, but it was really how they just ignored my pain and my needs that really hurt, and that no one really seemed to care from the ministry that I was barely being looked after."

Ginny nodded and slowly went over to lean in for a hug,

"Do you see why I don't want you to meet them, Gin?"

She nodded thoughtfully,

"I mean Dudley might be alright one day," Harry conceded, "he almost apologised the last time we saw each other, that night I left there."

"Maybe we could start with just seeing him." Ginny suggested

Harry just nodded with exhaustion,

"We'll see, Gin" he said softly.

AN: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Hope to get on a more regular update schedule soon but life is crazy. Thanks for your patience and please review.