The Article: Part 2

Payback & Comfort

A/N: Part two is here! Thanks to all my reviewers and favoriters and alerters (even if the last two aren't ever words)!

Any smart person would have run away at the sound of Ginny's yelling. Any smart person knew that Ginny Weasley's wrath was to be avoided at all costs and doubly so if the reason for her anger was Harry being hurt.

The Dursleys were not smart people. Even they, though, knew that they were in trouble when the redhead slinked into the kitchen with a deadly sinister smile, flanked by Harry's equally dangerous looking friends.

Petunia gave a gasp of horror and backed away when Ginny brandished her wand.

The two elder Dursleys found that they could not back away anymore because the three teenagers were now circling them like a pack of lions.

"Harry made us promise not to do anything to you, Dudley" Ginny said in the kindest voice she could muster to Harry's childhood bully, "You're welcome to watch, but we figured you didn't want to".

Dudley nodded fearfully and scampered out of the kitchen, leaving Vernon and Petunia Dursley back to back in the middle of the kitchen.

The three faced the Dursley, grinning evilly.

"You can't do this!" Vernon sputtered.

"I think you'll find that we can" Ron answered with as much loathing he could manage.

"And we will!" Ginny spat "what you did to Harry was unforgivable!"

"But there's got to be some sort of law against this!" Petunia pleaded desperately.

Hermione's face betrayed her.

"Hah! You can't use your freakishness on us, it's illegal!" Vernon shouted in triumph.

"You know what else is illegal!" Ginny snarled, grabbing him by the throat and overpowering his attempt to break her stranglehold with her other hand "Making Harry live in a cupboard! Starving him! Destroying his childhood!"

Then Ginny kneed him in the groin. Vernon Dursley keeled over, but Ginny forced him onto the table, eliciting another gasp from Petunia.

Hermione smirked "We never were planning on cursing you or anything, we just wanted you to sweat it out".

"I guess we'll be seeing you in court." Ron grinned triumphantly; Petunia gave yet another horrified gasp at the thought of word of a trial getting to the neighbors.

As if reading her mind (which she might have been), Hermione continued "and you really should worry about your neighbors, because soon they'll be your fellow inmates".

Hermione and Ron disappeared simultaneously with a loud crack, leaving Ginny alone with the Dursleys, who were quaking in fear of her.

"There is only one reason why I'm not making you suffer like you made Harry suffer, why I'm not hurting you like you hurt my Harry, only one!" She spat.

"And that reason isn't any fucking law!" She shouted "It's because Harry didn't want me to get into trouble because of you!"

"You don't even deserve to breathe the same air as he does! He saved you even after all you did to him! You should be grateful that he so much as lifted a finger to save you from Voldemort, and from me!"

With that, Ginny Weasley disaparated.

Professor McGonagall was not normally disturbed in her office during the summer months. Most teachers were on vacation (the only reason she wasn't was because of a paperwork snafu that had to be taken care of).

She had no idea how Rita Skeeter had made it into her office, and she had tried to end the interview as quickly as possible. She had literally shoved the reporter out after she saw Harry's 'bedroom' before he got his Hogwarts letter, if she hadn't, she would have lost all semblance of composure in front of her.

What she had saw in that interview had haunted her in the following days. Most of what she felt was guilt. She had been there; she knew that they wouldn't treat Harry right, why hadn't she stopped it from ever happening?

Now, in her second major interruption in a week, she discovered Ginny Weasley felt much the same way.

She had just barged into her office like she owned the place ('Harry' was way too obvious of a password, McGonagall had then decided).

"You saw what they were like, you knew!" She screeched "and you did nothing!"

"How can you even live with yourself after knowing what you caused Harry!" Ginny spat vicously.

McGonagall flinched at her words, doubly so because yhe headmistress of Hogwarts had no response ready for her most headstrong student.

"You're really letting a student yell at you like that McGonagall?" One of the older portraits asked.

"In this case, I think I deserve it" McGonagall managed, her voice weak. Ginny seemed to accept her.

However, Ginny's attention was no longer on her, but instead on a certain portrait. Apparently that comment had reminded her of a former headmaster…

"Hey Dumbledork! I know you're not really sleeping!" She bellowed, poking said portrait in the chest with her finger.

"Very mature, Weasley" Snape sneered.

She ignored him, and Dumbledore's portrait finally looked up under her glare, he (it?) looked incredibly old and weary.

"There is only one thing I regret more than sending Harry to them." His voice was so full of weariness and pain that Ginny faltered in her anger "and only Harry knows what that is."

"I made a terrible mistake, one that could have destroyed Harry" Dumbledore continued "The fact that he can still love like he does is a testament to how strong he really is, and how much of a better person he is than I." Dumbledore's head was bowed in sorrow.

Ginny nodded slowly, as if in understanding, and then walked out of the room.

McGonagall had never seen Dumbledore give into anyone's accusations so easily (exept for Harry's). But she was not surprised, Dumbledore's portrait had wept as soon as McGonagall's interview with Rita Skeeter had ended.

Harry sat at the edge of a small pond outside the Burrow. He had been there for hours, ever since leaving the Dursleys (leaving them to whatever fate his friends and girlfriend had planned for them).

The events of earlier had shaken everything he had believed. He had imagined if anybody found out about his childhood, they would mock him. He had had nightmares in his first year of Ron and Hermione abandoning him after finding out he lived in a cupboard.

Even as Ginny had proclaimed her love for him a few months ago after the Battle of Hogwart, a sinister voice of doubt that sounded suspiciously like Uncle Vernon had whispered to him that, no one would ever love a freak like him.

Harry had half been expecting the other shoe to drop and for her to realize that she could do so much better than he, who had so much blood on his hands, who couldn't go a three nights without waking up screaming from nightmares.

"Harry, are you okay, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

She must have really been worried about him, because usually she left it to Ron, Hermione (and more recently, Ginny) to talk to Harry when he was upset.

"I don't know" Harry answered honestly.

"Do you need anything?" She asked.

Harry paused to think, what did he need?

"Ginny, I need Ginny".

Mrs. Weasley rushed inside, presumably to find her and prompty throw her at him, it wasn't often that Harry willingly talked to anyone about his feelings, and when something was wrong and he didn't he tended to blow up.

A few minutes later, Ginny came running out of the house, slowing to a jog as she got closer to him and stopping to sit down beside him.

"Mum said you wanted to talk" Ginny told him "I told her that you must have been kidnapped and the person out there was using polyjuice potion, but she just shoved me out"

Harry laughed; she could always make him laugh.

"You did want to talk, right, not that I mind if we do other activities with our mouths…" She trailed off, quirking her eyebrows and grinning mischievously.

Harry grinned back, glad that she was trying to lighten the situation. He felt a little guilty that he was about to undo that.

"I love you" He said suddenly, seriously.

"Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve you or why you, or any of you guys, even want to look at me, let alone treat me like family. I have so much blood on my hands."

Ginny tried to stop him there, but Harry blazed on, starting to yell "I mean look at me! I have nightmares every other night! I- I'm damaged, Gin! You deserve so much better!"

Harry broke down sobbing, and Ginny wrapped him up in her arms comfortingly. "Harry" She said softly. "You aren't the only one who has nightmares."

Ginny's voice trembled as she spoke, she tried to get past the memory of Harry laying, apparently dead on the ground. "I have nightmares of your dead body, being brought out by Voldemort. I was ready to die when I thought you w-were gone" A few stray tears left her eyes which Harry instinctively brushed away.

"Now" She continued, more calmly "I'm going to tell you this every day of my life, I love you. I love you. I don't give a damn if you think I deserve better, because I know that if I'm not with you there is no way that I'll be happy, and I know you feel the same!"

"I love you, Harry. If you have nightmares, I'll stay in your bed and we'll fight them together. I love you! If you're damaged, I'll spend the rest of my life helping you heal. I love you, and I'll spend the rest of my life making sure that you don't forget it." There was passion in her voice, and she had that blazing look on her face that Harry loved, even if it was marred by tears.

"Thank you for helping me" Harry told her.

"Don't thank me, you say it like it's some sort of favor." Ginny frowned "I'm going to help you whether you like it or not."

"So will I, for as long as you'll have me" Harry assured.

"Forever, then" Ginny quickly clarified. Harry's face split into an almost painfully wide grin at the thought of forever with her, a grin which spread to Ginny's face as well.

"I wish there was a stronger phrase than 'I love you'"

"So do I".

"Now what was that about other things to do with my mouth?"