Written for love from elysium's round 2 of Canon Pairings Competition. My prompt was an image of an abandoned house.

Written for Ralinde's Pairing Diversity Boot Camp using the prompt 'walked'

A House In Ruins

"Harry! What happened?"

Harry came from the living room wearing a grim expression, which became only grimmer as he saw Ginny's face. She stared around, open-mouthed, at the state of Grimmauld Place.

It was in complete ruins. Paint was peeling from the ceiling and walls, any portraits or photos were shattered on the floor, and the staircase was covered in bits of paint and glass. As her eyes travelled even further around the dark, narrow hall, she even noticed that the door that led down to the kitchen was on its hinges.

"Harry…" she said again, this time looking to her husband for an answer. This was not how she had left the house a few hours ago.

He simply shook his head. "I came home to this," he said quietly. "I don't know what happened." He, too, looked around the destroyed hallway, appearing as lost and as defeated as Ginny was. "It's the same everywhere," he added, pointing up. "They got to the kids' rooms and everything."

"They?" Ginny looked curiously to him as she began walking towards the broken staircase. At the foot lay a portrait that had once been of the five of them. Now, the photo had burn marks through their faces, and the frame it was in was shattered at her feet. She bent down to pick it up. "Who would do something like this?" she wanted to know.

Harry shook his head again. "Take your pick," he said. "The Aurors made that big arrest two weeks ago of Death Eaters in hiding. There are plenty more Dark wizards out there we are still to find. Take your pick, Ginny. I can imagine after the arrest, there would have been plenty of unhappy people with the turn of events."

Ginny shook her head, bewildered. "You weren't even leading," she whispered, running her hand over the burnt photo, stopping briefly over what had been the faces of each of her children. "Why us?"

"My name was still in the papers," Harry answered, coming to stand beside her. Gently, he took the photo from her, balancing it on the stair railing. "They get to us, Ginny, they get to everyone."

"Is there anything missing?"

"No, just destroyed. James' first ever broomstick… gone. Lily's cooking books… a pile of ash now."

"Have you told anyone?" Ginny continued.

"No, is there any point? If we let them know it's affected us, whoever did it, wins. We'll fix it ourselves."

With a sigh, Ginny took out her wand, but Harry covered her hand with his, shaking his head. "Magic won't work," he told her. "I've already tried."

"What do you mean it won't work, Harry?" She shook her hand from his hold and pointed her wand to the smashed frame. "Reparo," she muttered, but nothing happened.

"I'm sorry, Ginny." Harry looked to her with a defeated expression; one she had never seen on him before.

"It's not your fault, Harry," she replied, seeming to understand.

"It's no one's," Harry added. "Well, no one we yet know of."

"You should report it, Harry."

"What for? To have the Aurors tell me that they have more important things to worry about than the state of our house?"

"No, so they can find and punish whoever did it!" She looked to Harry, not understanding why he was being so stubborn. This was his house – the only thing he had ever owned his whole life. Why couldn't he just tell someone?

Rather than responding, Harry broke away from her gaze, and turned his attention to the one thing that remained intact – the portrait of Walburga Black. The cover had been torn from it, but it seemed even she was too shocked to shout the cruel insults at them like she usually did if the cover was off.

"Could have taken that with it, don't you think?" he asked in humour.

Ginny didn't smile. "Harry… please listen."

"I'll owl Ron and see if it was just us, or everyone on that arrest."

"If it is everyone, at least the Ministry will become aware of it," Ginny responded. "Ron's not going to sit back and let people get away with it if it's happened to him, you know?"

Harry nodded. "Well, let's just hope that it was only us that they targeted."

Ginny rolled her eyes. If he would just report the attack to the Ministry, she had no doubt they would make it a high priority to find whoever did it. He was withholding information about a crime. Surely, he of all people, understood that.

"Harry…."

"No, Ginny, no one needs to know about this, okay? If they do, panic will unleash. They'll start to think Voldemort is back again, or something."

"Over a break-in?" Ginny questioned. "Harry, people may be naïve, but they're not idiots."

"But this is Grimmauld Place!" Harry protested. "Let's not even mention it to the kids until they get back. It'll just worry them. Maybe we can find a way to replace the things that have been lost."

Ginny didn't like the idea of it at all, but she also knew that she was not going to change Harry's mind. For some unknown reason, he didn't want anybody to know what had happened. Whether his reasoning was what he said, or it was something else like pride or shame, she would never know.

"They'll find out eventually," she said as calmly as she could. "They always do."

Harry nodded. "I know," he said, "and when that moment comes, we'll deal with it. But for now, can we just start cleaning this place up?"

Ginny sighed, then nodded. "Okay," she said. "But, Harry, we can't sleep here tonight."

"I'll owl Ron and Hermione," Harry said. "Best not to worry your parents yet." He wrapped his arms around her. "Let's just salvage what we can and get out of here."

So... Harry Ginny... again. I actually really like this, you know. I read over it and I feel as if it's one of the best things I've written in a while! hope you liked it too! Your reviews would be much appreciated :)

Also, randomly, I have started a reading and writing forum. The link is on my profile. If you're interested, I'd really appreciate it if you could sign up and make a few posts. It's called "The Silver Station".