Title: In The End
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all the other wonderful characters are not mine. I'm making no money with this. It's just for the fun of it, I promise.
Author's Note: Hey everybody, this is my first fic to be published... Please review, so I know whether to go and hide in my cellar or maybe try myself on another one ;) Oh, and there's something else: This fic is based on a strange idea I got when I watched the movie 'Merlin' with Sam Neill, great one by the way. But I swear that not all of my ideas are that strange.
It had been one of the usual training hours of Dumbledore's Army in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts when it had happened. The event everybody had feared most, the moment they had been training for. The final showdown.
Phineas Nigellus had left his portrait just some days before Voldemort had proclaimed that he would challenge Harry to a duel. And up to now he had not come back. No one knew for sure but everybody suggested that Phineas had told the Dark Lord about the prophecy. How he might have learned to now about it was beyond them. The only plausible explanation was that some of the other portraits in Dumbledore's office must have talked about what they had heard only hours after the real prophecy had been destroyed in the Department of Mysteries.
In the end it didn't matter how Phineas had found out about it or why he had chosen to turn to the Dark Side but he had done so and now He Who Must Not Be Named knew about the prophecy and due to that his desire to kill Harry had grown in tremendous rate.
Voldemort's Death Eaters had tried to capture Harry, but failed and so it was up to him alone to force his way into Hogwarts and corner his enemy.
Looking back no one could tell why Voldemort had chosen the DA training hours to seek the final battle with Harry, but he had done so.
Maybe, they guessed, just for the show of it.
The members of Dumbledore's Army stood frozen in shock as a t thin hooded figure entered the room without a single sound to be heard and it was not until his icy laughter echoed in the room that they realized who he really was and that he, Lord Voldemort himself, stood right there in front of them.
"This is what Dumbledore will send against my Death Eaters?" he said in a highly amused and disgusted voice.
"Of course, that explains why he's hiding you from me," he sneered and still all the shock-wide eyes of the DA members where fixed on him.
Voldemort didn't pay any attention to them. His focus lay on Harry entirely.
"So," he said, "after all, here we are. You know why I'm here, don't you? The old man told you, I guess."
"I didn't need Dumbledore to tell me that you would come, to know it," Harry answered when he finally was sure his voice wouldn't fail him.
Voldemort ignored him.
"Let's see what else we have here," Voldemort said turning towards Hermione, "You must be his little know-it-all friend, the mudblood, right?"
Ron was about to say something but Hermione stopped him with a simple gesture. The words were stuck in her throat.
Voldemort sneered even wider.
"Then you must be this mugglefriend Weasley, whose family is a shame for all the proud purebloods--"
Harry decided to interrupt him at that point.
He didn't want Ron to do anything stupid and put himself in danger. Harry knew that Voldemort came to fullfill the prophecy and if he could just make the Dark Lord focus on that and not on Ron's family's way of life he could perhaps give his friends a chance to escape.
"Did you tell those proud pureblood friends of yours that you're actually a mudblood, too? I bet they'd like to know, don't you think?" he asked and his stomach churned when he saw the look on Voldemort's face. Worse than any look he had ever seen before.
"Crucio!" Voldemort yelled and the curse struck Harry hard right in the middle of his chest. His knees gave way and he hit the hard floor.
The pain was indescribable. Harry heard himself scream though he tried with all of his will not to. Spasms shook his entire body and his head hit the ground three or four times. He could do nothing about it.
Through his blurred vision he could see the shapes of his friends. Immediately they had pulled out their wands and aimed at the Dark Lord.
Slowly the pain faded away and Harry's mind became clear as he lay curled up in front of Voldemort's feet. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth. He had bitten his lip in the spasms that had shaken his body. Harry choked and for an instance he was afraid he would vomit right onto Voldemort's feet.
But he didn't.
Very slowly and with Hermione's support he rose form the floor.
Still his friends wands pointed at Voldemort. They were looking at Harry terribly insecure, waiting for an advice to follow or an order to obey to.
"Take your wands down," he said finally, which obviously surprised the DA members as well as Voldemort.
They hesitated.
"That was a very smart advice Potter gave you. I would follow it, if I were you, which I'm fortunately not," Voldemort said who had quickly recovered from his surprise. "You don't have that ridiculous bunch under control pretty good, do you, Potter?"
"Take your wands down," he repeated. "It's not the time." Then he turned around to Voldemort again.
"No, indeed. You can't imagine how long I've been waiting for today. This is my time. This is the hour of my revenge," the Dark Lord answered.
Harry shook his head.
"No, it's not," he said firmly, "It's the hour of your doom."
Voldemort burst into his icy high-pitched laughter again but Harry didn't care. He took a deep breath and asked himself if what he was about to do would be the right thing, but something in his heart told him, that it was.
And fervently he hoped that his friends would understand.
"You killed my parents, Voldemort, and you tried to kill me." Harry paused, then he took a step back, bowed his head and said, "But I forgive you."
Voldemort's face froze and confusion spread throughout into the whole room. For a long moment they stood in silence.
"You... you gave the order to torture my parents," Neville's shaking voice broke in. "And... and because of you they lost their... their mind." He stepped back, just like Harry had done before, bowed his head and continued, "B-but I forgive you."
A wicked smirk appeared on Voldemort's face and he shook his head in disbelief.
"What a touching scene, Potter. You and your little friend here want to forgive me?" He had stressed the 'forgive me' as if it had deeply offended him.
Then his face became serious again. "That's the most stupid thing I've ever heard," he said and his angry hoarse voice grew louder as he spoke.
Harry nodded.
"Probably it is, but it's the truth. I forgive you," he repeated and deep inside of him he felt a certain relief. It assured him that saying that and really meaning it was the right thing to do.
"So do I," Neville confirmed.
"And I, V--Voldemort," Ron said as he took a tiny but courageous step towards the Dark Lord. Still he had some difficlties saying the Dark Lord's name.
"You tried to kill my father," ha added and then stepped back and bowed his head, like the ones before him had done. "But I forgive you," he said and his voice faltered.
Suddenly there was a murmur all around them. The other members of Dumbledore's Army joined in. Harry could hear them behind him. They reminded Voldemort of what he had done to them, stepped back and then the room was filled by the chant of multiple voices.
"But I forgive you."
The wicked smirk on Voldemort's face vanished and for an instance left an impression of serious concern.
Then there was silence again.
"Are you done?" Voldemort asked trying to sound as annoyed and unimpressed as possible.
"There's nothing more to say," Harry answered.
"Very well, then..." Voldemort said raising his wand, "are you going to defend yourselves after all or shall I just extinguish Dumbledore's kindergarten with a single charm?"
"It doesn't matter, whether we defend ourselves or not," Harry stated matter-of-factly.
"That of course is true, Potter," the Dark Lord confirmed laughing. But Harry continued as if he hadn't heard what Voldemort had just said.
"You loose, no matter what you do."
Harry's voice had grown strong and there was not the slightest sign of fear or uncertainty in it. And in fact that was the only thing that kept the DA members from running away, screaming for help. There was not a trace of a doubt in Harry's voice and somehow that gave the others the confidence they needed to stay and go on.
As Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket he could hear the robes of the others rustle behind him as they did the same and some of them even sighed in relief. But when he dropped it on the floor he could hear them hesitate. Again Neville was the first to follow his example and again the others joined in.
The Dark Lord in front of them looked puzzled.
"Don't you know, that I'm going to kill you?" he asked and this time it was Neville who answered.
"Then we will die for one another. You loose, Voldemort, and we win." His voice had grown as strong and firm as Harry's had been.
"But..." Voldemort started again.
Harry interrupted him.
"You never listened to Dumbledore, did you? He tried to tell you so many times. There are things worse than death! And he warned you. Warned you that someday it would be your undoing that you just didn't want to understand that."
He paused.
"This is the day, this is your undoing."
"That's enough!" Voldemort shouted, "I've better things to do than listening to the crazy ideas the old fool planted into your poor mind, little Potter. Prepare for your end! All of you!"
He hesitated as if waiting for them to pick up their wands, but nothing happened. They just stood there in the Room of Requirement eyes fixed on invisible marks somewhere on the floor right in front of their feet.
And again the Dark Lord's icy, mocking laughter filled the room and again he raised his wand to kill his opponents.
"Ava-----da Keda----------vra!"
As he screamed the curse some of Harry's friends jerked in shock.
A multitude of green flashes flew through the room towards them. They were bathed in bright green light that hurt their eyes and an incredible noise like an explosion, apparently loud enough to make them deaf for a moment, made the air vibrate. The light vanished as fast as it had appeared and for a second there was only dark silence and green sparks dancing on the inside of their eyelids.
Then the sound of something heavy hitting the ground echoed from the walls.
When Harry's eyes rearranged with the darkness he could make out Voldemort's lifeless body lying on the floor in front of him.
A relief beyond description spread out through his veins and though he felt tired and exhausted he wanted to jump and jolt for joy.
They had made it. Finally they had made it!
Someone lit the room. It was Luna. In the dim light of her wand he could see the pale red and empty eyes of Voldemort staring back at him in terrific fear.
"Harry?" a low shaking voice broke into his happiness, "Harry?".
It was Neville's.
Harry turned around, a smile across his face that he betted he would probably never get rid off again.
But as soon as he saw, what had caused the concern in Neville's voice it vanished instantly and an empty lifeless impression of pure shock took its place.
It had not been an echo.
There had been two bodies hitting the ground.
Voldemort's and that of Ginny Weasley.
Her lifeless eyes stared into the nothingness above her and her deathly pale face was jerked in pain.
"Did anybody hear her say that she would forgive him?" he asked panicked.
Neville shook his head.
All the unexpected joy that had been growing within him during the few seconds of triumph turned into despair. He searched in his mind for something he could do to help her though he knew that it was hopeless.
She was lost, no matter what he would do.
His feelings changed yet again and despair turned into wild anger and wild anger into blind rage.
"Why didn't you tell me!?" he shouted, tears gathering in his eyes. "Why didn't anyone tell me!?"
No one answered, but he could hear suppressed sobs from next to him. Hermione kneeled down next to Ginny and gently stroke her cheeks smoothing the horrible impression from her face. Then she pressed her fingers on her lifeless eyes to close them.
Ron's face was empty, as if all his life had vanished with Ginny's.
"Harry?" he heard a fragile voice say, "Harry, I'm here."
They turned around to the place where Voldemort lay, struck down by his own curse that had dropped back on him somehow.
A silvery shadow had arisen from the tip of his wand, just like Cedric's and the ones of Harry's parent's had done, when Harry and Voldemort had fought two years ago.
"Ginny!" he said and despair echoed in his voice.
She drifted over to them and gazed down at her cold body.
"Oh," she said as if she had just realized that she wasn't in it anymore.
"Ginny, what have you done?" Ron asked and somehow it sounded like a charge.
"I chose, Ron," the shadow said. "Don't be angry with me, I didn't mean to hurt you."
Ron couldn't answer The words were stuck in his throat.
"But... why...?" Harry asked while a single tear ran down his cheeks.
"My time had come. I knew, I couldn't forgive him unless I would betray myself," Ginny smiled, "I'm not as strong as you are. I've never been."
"That's not true," Harry croaked.
Ginny turned around as if she had just heard something behind her, then she faced the others again.
"They are calling me. It's time for me to go," she explained.
"No, please, can't you stay? As Nick did!" Ron pleaded desperately.
Ginny just shook her head.
"No, Ron, I'm sorry. Harry, will you explain it to him?" she asked softly. "I don't want to end up like Myrtle."
She looked back over her shoulder again as if seeing something in the suddenly cold and dark room that the others just couldn't perceive.
"I'm going to miss you all an awful lot," she said and this time her voice was shaking, too.
"But as long as you think of me, I'll always be there. Tell Mom and Dad that I love them, and that I'm sorry for not saying goodbye..." her voice faltered.
Her shadow seemed to take a deep breath and a ghostly tear rolled down her transparent cheek.
"Harry, I'll meet Sirius again. Is there something you want me to tell him?" she asked as she regained her strength to speak.
"Tell him... tell him that I miss him more than ever and that he has to take good care of you..." Harry answered not knowing what to feel right now.
"I will," Ginny replied and a suffering smile sparkled on her face.
"You meant a lot to me, all of you," she continued in weak and sad voice, "and... hey, this is not the end. We'll meet again some day, I promise."
Then she waved goodbye to them hesitantly, turned around and vanished in the dark.
She left her friends behind in grief and for a long time nothing but the sounds of sadness disturbed the silence of the room.
In the end they had saved the entire wizarding world loosing a true friend and none of them could say whether all the peace their world would have now could ever compensate their loss of Ginny Weasley.
- fin
I'm begging you to review! I mean it goes to her knees As long as you won't just rip off my head I'm fine with every piece of reasonable critisism I can get.