"I'm not trying to accuse you of anything," Hermione attempted to soothe her red-haired friend. "I know that you care for Harry and that you want to be there for him, but you can't coddle him and let him keep pretending like nothing is wrong. You either need to get him to open up or back off a little. Offering him another means of escape is just not healthy for him right now."
"And trying to force your will upon others is not very conducive to your friendships," Ginny retorted.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means exactly what I said," Ginny explained fiercely. "You can't force Harry to open up to you or to tell you all of his secrets. You need to let him come to you on his own terms. He needs to be able to trust that you won't push him for more than he's willing to give."
"Harry would never open up to anybody if we didn't push him," Hermione protested ardently. "He's a very private person. But he needs help dealing with this. He can't do it alone, so we need to get him to open up. And it's kind of hard to do when I'm the only one who's trying while everyone else just pretends like everything is just peachy."
"Maybe the rest of us just respect Harry enough to give him his privacy," Ginny replied a bit more civilly. "Merlin, Hermione. You just keep pushing him and pushing him, and he keeps retreating further and further away from you. When are you going to get it? You're ruining your friendship with him. He actually dreads having to talk to you because he knows it's only a matter of time before you try to force him to talk. You may be trying to get him to open up, but all you're succeeding in doing is closing him off to you."
"That's just because people like you and Ron let him just pretend like nothing's wrong. You may think you're helping him out by giving him space, but that's not what he needs right now. He needs his friends to help him through these tough times. He'll never let us help him unless we make him," Hermione was pleading with her to see things her way.
"And what makes you an expert on what Harry needs?" Ginny asked.
"I've been his best friend for the last five years. I know as much about Harry as anyone else and more than most," Hermione explained, trying to remain patient but failing slightly. "You may have been practically obsessed with him these past five years, but you've only recently started talking to him. He avoids talking about anything that makes him uncomfortable like it's the plague. He's hardly ever said anything about his relatives or his life before Hogwarts. The only reason we know half as much about his life there as we do is because Ron, Fred, and George went to pick him up that one time they locked him in his room all summer and the time that your dad and the three of them picked him up the summer before our fourth year.
"Any time any of us bring up his relatives, he avoids giving concrete answers and changes the subject as quickly as possible. He refuses to tell any of us anything about them or about his life outside of Hogwarts. He always just says things are fine. I'm fine. The Dursleys are treating me fine. But we know they don't, and I know he's not. So please, just listen to what I've said. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. I either need you to help me or to back off, but you can't keep coddling him," Hermione finished with watery eyes.
"I'm sorry, Hermione. I know that you love Harry and that you mean well, but you're going about this all wrong. I can't support what you're doing, and I'm not backing off," Ginny replied honestly, wishing she could tell her friend what Harry had recently revealed to her about his life with the Dursleys before Hogwarts. "Harry needs someone who will offer him unconditional support, and he's not getting it from you. He's definitely not going to get it from Ron. I intend to be there for him for as long as he'll have me. This isn't about fulfilling some stupid childhood fantasy where I end up with Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Harry's my friend, and I intend to help him in any way he needs me whenever he needs me. But I'm not going to force him to open up to me before he's ready to. And I'm begging you to reconsider what you're doing, before you ruin the friendship that you two have."
"When he finally breaks down," Hermione said, her frustration mounting, "you'll know who to blame."
"If he breaks down or needs to talk, I'll be there for him, should he want me there," Ginny said in a forced calm.
"How can you just sit back and wait for him to fall apart?" Hermione questioned heatedly.
"First of all, you're assuming that he will fall apart, and I'm not so sure I agree with you on that account. Second of all, I've had someone else's will forced upon me before," Ginny replied frigidly, her eyes flashing dangerously, "and I'm not about to subject anyone else to that. Now if you'll excuse me," she continued, standing, "I'm heading back downstairs." She strode to the door, exited, and returned to the common room, leaving Hermione alone, still sitting on her bed.
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