A/N: This was previously published on HPFF. It was written in 2006, and for a contest. I got one vote - myself, but I still like it. Hope you do too!
It was her last night at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and as soon as her head touched the pillow that fateful night, after almost all the celebrations and never-ending parties that heralded the end of the school exams had finished, that all too familiar and all too common nightmare started again.
She was walking through a pitch-black forest in the dead of night. She could not see a thing, not even her hand when she waved it right in front of her face, yet somehow her feet knew the way through the invisible trees surrounding her. She did not even know where she was, or how she had got there in the first place, but she was looking for something, and her body seemed to know where it was, so, unable to resist, she let her body guide her. It was as if she had been here, many, many times before, though she could not remember more than one other time that she had seen this foreboding forest. The many dry and dead branches and leaves littering the forest floor crunched loudly under her feet, no matter how softly she tried to tread on the uneven ground.
"Silencio!" she muttered with a swish and a flick of her wand, instantaneously muffling the sounds of her feet on the noisy ground. She slowly but surely headed carefully towards the edge of the seemingly never-ending forest, in the direction of a bright green glow, taking care to cover her tracks with her wand as she went. As she emerged from the forest into a vast sandy desert, a scene of utter chaos met her disbelieving eyes.
The evil Lord Voldemort and a dozen or more of his faithful Death Eaters were fighting against what remained of the Order of the Phoenix. The eerie green glow over the whole scene was coming from the Dark Mark, sitting high in the starless night's sky above the horrible scene, the tongue protruding from the skull's mouth twisting and turning, as if it was trying to escape from where it belonged, and had always belonged. All of the Order looked deathly pale, though whether it was the light or their battle fatigue she couldn't tell. Fred Weasley, Hagrid, and Tonks were all lying motionless on the ground, blank eyes unable to see the carnage around them, all bleeding from many cuts, varying in size and shape. George and Hermione were stirring and moaning restlessly in the sand, Hermione bleeding from a long gash in her neck, which was covered with gritty sand, and she was scratching at it, as if she was trying to take the wound off her own body, and expose healthy skin beneath. Three unhooded Death Eaters were lying dead around her. It looked as if Hermione had taken them all down by herself. She felt a sudden rush of pride for her best friend, that the once timid bookworm could achieve such a feat.
Many more Death Eaters were lying motionless or twitching disgustingly, their sand-covered bodies and body parts strewn all over the desert. Some Death Eaters, however, were conspicuously missing: Lucius Malfoy was not there, as he was still in the prison Azkaban, and neither was Goyle's father or Goyle, and she reasoned they must be either dead or hiding from his master. As she watched, shocked, horrified and disgusted at the scene which she could previously have only imagined in her worst nightmares, Mrs. Weasley rushed to George and Hermione's aid, reviving them quickly with her wand, healing their grievous injuries and rapidly consoling them for their losses, before they had to join the fight once more.
The Order of the Phoenix had been fighting in this one battle – the Minister and his staff, along with most of the wizarding community, were now calling it the final battle - for almost five hours now, and although she had previously been unable to join them in their secret quests and missions to rid the world of this evil, she had been finally allowed to join in the battle that would hopefully destroy He Who Must Not Be Named forever. Noticing that they urgently needed her assistance in the fight, she swiftly ran out of the forest to join the Order, who were grossly outnumbered by their opponents. She started firing her very best Bat Bogey Hexes randomly around at as many Death Eaters as she could, and then she became immediately engaged in a one-on-one combat duel with the shortest of the many hooded Death Eaters.
"Expelliamus!" she screamed manically, her voice filled with malice and fury. The offending Death Eaters black hood slipped, casting his head into the strange green light of the Dark Mark, revealing a very familiar youth with disheveled white-blond hair and cold, unemotional steel-gray eyes. He looked the same as when she had last seen him, his eyes shining green in the spell-light of the worst of the Unforgivable Curses cast by Severus Snape – Avada Kedavra. How well she remembered that day, and how she had wished he was dead. She still did wish it, and now she could at least partially avenge Albus Dumbledore's death.
"Draco?" she gasped in surprise, her mouth opening and closing like a fish's, as he quickly shouted "Protego!" conjuring a very strong shield and sending her own spell back right at her stomach.
"Yes, it is I, Draco Malfoy, the Dark Lord's most faithful servant! And once I am finished with you, and you are lying next to the rest of your failures of a family on the ground, the Dark Lord shall conquer the world, with me by his side!"
"NEVER!" she shouted in reply, throwing herself to the side, narrowly dodging the spell as it whizzed past her and hit a nearby tree, killing its upper half instantly, but leaving its lower half green, fresh and growing. That was a sight she would remember for the rest of her life, the corruption in the world, yet the goodness present as well.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!" she screamed all of a sudden, and a pure beam of solid green light sped at an incredible speed at Draco's chest, catching him off-guard. In the light of the Unforgivable Curse, she saw the shock on his face, and it was burned forever into her memory and dreams, as he fell lifeless to the ground. She fell to her knees too, ashamed at her own behaviour and choice of spell, but was caught in a pair of strong arms. She turned around to find Harry behind her. He quickly kissed her on her icy cold cheek, but did not speak, as if he was afraid he would vomit if he opened his mouth even a tiny bit. He sent her a reassuring glance, and then turned to continue the fight.
"Duck!" he yelled suddenly, flinging himself in front of her, shielding her body from whatever spells might come at her. She dropped to the ground, covering her head with her hands and burying herself as much as she could in the gritty, bloodstained sand, as if she could just burrow her way to the other side of the world to escape this scene of madness. Even with her eyes tightly closed, she could see the flash of brighter green light reflected on her eyelids. There was a thump, and she hesitantly looked up to see Harry lying motionless, blank eyes unseeing, on the ground. She tried frantically to revive him, hoping feverently he was only stunned, and would blink those beautiful green eyes, whispering her name in his loving voice. A shaking hand gently gripped her by the elbow from behind and steered her away from the fighting ground, back towards the forest, where many dead trees now stood, the results of many badly aimed spells, hexes and jinxes. "I'm so sorry," Mrs. Weasley said sadly, "He's dead. He can't come back now. It what he would have wanted, to finally be with his parents and Sirius."
"Noooooo!" Ginny Weasley screamed as she sat bolt upright in her four-poster bed. She snapped her eyes open, expecting to see that horrible scene of carnage all over again. Instead she was met with the sight of those familiar red and gold bed hangings of the Gryffindor seventh year's girls dormitory. She looked at the muggle alarm clock she had conjured in Transfiguration for her bedside table: it was 4:37 am. She rolled over, groaning, and closed her eyes tightly, trying to fall asleep again, but imprinted on her eyelids were the images which had appeared in her nightmares every night since that terrible battle. Slowly, she rolled out of bed and padded in her fluffy bed socks across the polished wooden floor towards the bathroom. After tidying herself up and fixing her flaming Weasley hair, Ginny got dressed in a simple pair of jeans and a warm black jumper and headed down towards the Gryffindor Common Room. She carefully avoided the wizard chess fragments and scrunched up pieces of parchment as she crossed to the portrait hole, exiting the cosy warmth into the icy draughts of the pitch-black corridors.
Making her way by the light of her wand through the many changing corridors towards the front doors, she thought briefly of Ron and Hermione, spending their lives in peaceful harmony together, needing only each other and their future family for company. A warm salty tear threatened to form in her eyes, but Ginny quickly wiped it away before it could fall down her pale, icy cheek. She hurried outside, bracing herself against the sub-zero temperatures and winds of the Hogwarts grounds before daybreak. She made her way through the soaking wet and frosty grass as it brushed against her denim-clad legs, soaking through the material, but she didn't care. She finally reached the place where she was headed; a small mound of overturned earth, behind the Quidditch pitch and on the side of the hill. It looked weedy and overgrown, many indiscriminate plants growing in the bare earth. Reverently, Ginny proceeded to pull up every single plant, until only bare earth remained, and then casting a spell to prevent any more growth sprouting. Then she stopped, suddenly unable to control the flood of tears coursing down her cheeks. She knelt into the soaking grass beside the mound and lovingly traced the inscription on the headstone with her numb, shaking fingers.
"Harry James Potter
The Boy Who Lived
The Chosen One
Died age 18
To Save Us All"
How long she knelt at the foot of his grave in the dark she could not tell, but when she stood again, the first weak rays of sunshine warmed her back. She turned and watched, breathless, as a spectacular ruby-red morning sun rose over the spires and towers of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the cold unwelcoming grey bricks temporarily glowing a stunning warm pink. Finally contented and at peace with herself and the world, Ginny turned and cast a last, long look at what remained of her beloved before taking off her jet black jumper to reveal a bright pink t-shirt which matched the hue of the sky perfectly. She turned to leave, but seemingly on a whim, she sprinted back to that small plot of earth. Removing her jumper, she laid it gently on Harry's grave, and carefully removed a smooth and silky silvery fabric from a jumper pocket. She lovingly laid the invisibility cloak on top of her now soaking wet jumper, and weighed it down with rocks so that it could not be disturbed or moved. To the unsuspecting eye, it would appear that the heap of earth and the headstone had vanished, leaving only fresh green grass behind for all to see. With a heavy sigh, she turned away and began walking slowly and surely back towards Hogwarts and into her fresh new future in the wizarding world, which was free from pain and suffering once and for all.