A/N: This is a story that might have been in my brain all along, but was actually sparked by the series premiere of "Joan of Arcadia" Last Friday night. Just a random question, did anyone else notice that the girl who plays Joan also plays the first girl to die in The Ring? Just wondering . . .

Summary: After a horrific summer, Ginny is recruited by the Gods to find who they called the Next Savior. But in the course of victory over the dark side, there is love, loss and sadness. Who knew a short curiosity visit into a muggle cathedral would make such a difference in her life…

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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Life's Purpose

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Going Home

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On her way home from the end of her sixth year, Ginny Weasley sat in the compartment with Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. The atmosphere was tense and would probably not change at all for the duration of the ride. Normally, it wouldn't be like this. Normally it would be different.

There would be candy wrappers littering the floor of the compartment, gum in Hermione's hair, sticky fingers that insisted on tickling Ginny to death, but none of that was there now. Normally, the atmosphere would be light and carefree, sometimes victorious over the new defeat of Voldemort, but this time it would not be that way. Normally, Harry and Ron would be sitting on the floor playing some odd game that they'd created and she and Hermione would gossip about who knows what. But now, the compartment was erily silent, the only noise heard was the chugging of the train and the distant sound of another compartment farther down the hall.

Ginny looked across at Hermione and felt a tug at her heart. The older girl was crouched into a corner crying silently for the fallen and for her soon-to-be-fatherless child. Through tears and chocks and sobs she had announced at breakfast to Ginny and Harry that she was pregnant with Ron's baby. Both of her friends had promised to help all they could.

Ginny sighed and averted her gaze to Harry, the savior of the wizarding world. His eyes were clouded over behind his glasses, they missed that boyish spark she had grown to appreciate.

She turned her attention to herself. She knew she looked a sight, she hadn't brushed her hair in days, hadn't eaten a single thing in a whole week and hadn't slept either. That morning she had stolen a glance at her face in the mirror. There were dark circles under her eyes and her cheeks were close to hallow. She didn't have the strength or the motivation to smile. Everything that had once made her happy and secure had been snatched away from her in the worst way possible.

Ginny sighed again. A week ago they'd all been so happy. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looking forward to graduation, Harry and Ron towards their auror training and Hermione to her extra schooling to get into the ministry of magic, and Ron and Hermione to their coming wedding.

They had all grown up so fast and missed out on so much. Harry and Hermione had just graduated from Hogwarts, they had their diplomas, and they had two of the highest-ranking GPA's in the History of Hogwarts. Hermione had always wanted to be Minister of Magic, to be at the head of things, make something of herself and prove all those snaky Death Eaters wrong. A muggle-born witch or wizard is just as good as a pureblood. Harry had always wanted to be an auror, follow in his father's footsteps left engraved in stone for his orphaned son. Ron had looked forward to joining Harry in being an Auror, then maybe playing some quidditch, but now . . .

Ginny sighed again. Well, at least Harry would get his wish.

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The time seemed to drag by in that overly silent compartment. Each person locked in memories of the dear deceased.

As the train screeched to a halt at Kings Cross Station, Ginny whipped a stray tear off her cheek and stood. She reached above her seat to grab her trunk, but found she couldn't pull it down, it was too heavy. She frowned up at it. How could a trunk that she had carried for a quarter of a mile to the train from the school all of a sudden be so heavy? She shrugged and put it off as fatigue.

Giving up on being able to carry her trunk she turned to Harry. "Harry? Would you mind getting my trunk for me and putting it on a trolley? I can take it from there."

Harry turned at her voice and his cloudy eyes cleared a bit at the sight of her. He had made a promise to his best friend and he intended to keep it. "Sure thing Gin." He grabbed her trunk easily and carried it to a cart out side of the train, said he'd see her at the Burrow and went back to the compartment to help Hermione who needed more help than anyone.

Ginny watched his retreating back with worry. The last time she'd let someone walk away from her like that, he'd ended up dead at the hands of the cruelest man on earth.

Suddenly something clicked in her head. Her mother still didn't know about the attack. Mr. Weasley knew as well as the next auror, for he had been there, but it had been a special wish of Ginny's Harry's and Hermione's to tell Mrs. Weasley face to face what had happened. As a screech followed by a loud bout of sobbing came from the end of the platform, she had no doubt that it was her mother, she wondered how her mother would react to the absolute truth. She might as well hear it now.

Turning to meet her parents and her loved brothers, she tried a minuscule smile- and failed. Giving up on her happy façade, she let her mother wrap her in a warm embrace before moving on to Harry and Hermione who can come up behind her. When her mother finally calmed down a bit and whipped some of her happy tears off her face, she looked around and a frown slowly started to form on her face. She turned to Ginny and said, "Where's Ron?"

No matter how hard she tried Ginny just couldn't get her mouth to open and form words worth saying to make this easier on her mother. Looking to her surrogate brother and shaking her head sadly, Ginny walked off to the side a little and watched her mother's reactions as Harry relayed to her the news.

It was like all the sound had gone off and all she could do was watch as Harry took a step forward, still supporting Hermione and told his surrogate mother of her son's downfall. Molly's hand rose shakily to her mouth and she shook her head not believing a word, but at the same time knowing it was true. Her other hand grasped out at her husband, reaching for some anchor to the world she knew as real, where everything was perfect.

Ginny sighed sadly and looked away from her mother. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared off into nothingness.

"You all right Gin?" A voice broke into her thoughts. Bill stood over her looking extremely worried.

"Oh, yeah, I'm all right." She replied vaguely. "I'm just a little tired, that's all."

"Are you sure? You don't look all that great." He put a hand on her shoulder.

Ginny whipped her face tiredly and sighed again. She could feel the lump in her throat start to rise and her eyes start to sting and she blinked quickly. "Yes Bill, I'm just really tired."

Suddenly her vision blurred and she was looking up at a mass of color whom she assumed to be Bill. Her head spun and she broke out in a cold sweat, within seconds, she was almost drenched in salty water. She swayed on the spot and Bill caught her before she hit the floor.

"GINNY! NOT MY BABY!"

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Three weeks later . . .

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Harry stared at Ginny's hallow cheeks and sighed. He'd been doing that a lot these days, sighing. He'd sit there day after slow day, by her bedside praying, wishing she'd get better, but she only got worse. It wasn't the flu, they knew that, but it was something bad. They didn't know if she was contagious or not, so they left her in her bedroom, not wanting to disturb her or contaminate the rest of the household with the sickness.

The doctor had been on vacation in America and had only just come back. Harry had insisted on there being a professional medical exam, and insisted on the best saying he'd pay for it no matter what the cost, and he ignored the Weasleys' protests.

So here he was, waiting for the doctor to come and examine Ginny's symptoms and tell the family what she had.

There was a knock at the door. Harry slowly got up and answered it, not taking his eyes off his ward. Who was now mumbling in her sleep and moving a bit.

Finally he tore his eyes away from the invalid and looked to the newcomer.

"Mr. Potter I assume?"

Harry nodded, faintly aware of Hermione hovering outside of the door. He gave her a look and she disappeared.

"Well Mr. Potter-"

"Please, call me Harry. Mr. Potter makes me sound really old, and I'm only eighteen tomorrow." He whipped his messy hair off his forehead. It was so hot in the house, why weren't any windows open? He was painfully aware that he was sweating more than usual.

"Right then Harry. I'm Dr. John Gillians, I specialize in unique sicknesses. I'm going to run some tests on young Ginny in there and see what I can come up with." He paused and looked Harry in the eye. "How long have you spent keeping vigil over Ginny Harry?"

"Ever since she got sick sir, I'd say it's been about a week or so."

Making hmming noises as he scribbled on his clipboard, the doctor looked at Harry's face closely. Exactly the same as William or Bill had said Ginny had looked the day she had first contracted her fever. Pale as the moon, and wide irises, with dark circles under the eyes, and a slightly calm exterior while they started to sweat in turrets. "I'll need you to stay away for a minute, but when I'm done with Ginny here, I want to take a look at you."

"Yes sir." Harry sighed, shoved his hands in his pockets and proceeded to Ron's old room where He and Hermione were supposed to be staying, but really only Hermione stayed there. He had a suspension that she only played like she did, the twin's room was empty now, she could have easily slept there. He only left Ginny's room to go to the bathroom and eat once a day.

Hermione looked up when he entered the room. She was sitting cross-legged on the bed and she was idly picking at the yarns in Ron's comforter while her gaze shifted slowly around the room taking in everything about it. Almost as if she were trying to form a physical shape of Ron from her memories of him. She had apparently captured one of his old shirts and on her, it was huge and orange and she wore a pair of black soccer shorts under it. Her hair was puled messily off her face, but more of it hung in her eyes rather than stayed in the ponytail holder.

"Hey Harry." She said quietly. Her voice was raspy, like she hadn't talked in a long time.

"Hey Hermione." He plopped down next to her and sighed whipping his forehead again.

"You don't look too good." She said.

"Yeah, the doctor says he wants to have a look at me after he finishes with Ginny."

"Oh." Her eyes shifted to a picture on the cedar trunk at the head of the bed. It was of Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ron's favorite Quidditch players from the Chudley Cannons at the Quidditch World Cup the summer before. All the people in the frame waved jovially back up at her, Ron was practically waving his hand off until the picture Hermione grabbed his arm and pinned it between them.

Hermione had found her eyes filled with tears when she first picked up the photo, but when her picture self restrained the picture Ron, she smiled slightly and replaced it carefully in the same spot it had been in. She gave a shaky sigh and tears filled her eyes again.

Harry gave her a hug from behind and she leaned into his embrace. "Gods Harry, I miss him so much. I just can't believe he's gone."

"Neither can I Hermione, neither can I."

They stayed quiet for a long time, neither talking, just being sad together. After about an hour, Hermione turned to face him.

"Harry promise me something." Her face looked urgent and afraid.

"What Mione?"

"Promise that you'll never leave me by myself. I've lost my parents, my baby sister, the boy who very well could have been the love of my life, my best friend's pointer in the clock downstairs has been steadily pointed at Not so Blissful Oblivion for the past week and a half and she could very well die from this, I don't want to loose you too Harry, you're all that I have left save the rest of the Weasleys."

"I know Hermione, I feel the same way." He hugged her, then pulled away. He looked straight into her eyes and spoke. "Hermione, I was right there when Ron dove infront of Ginny and took the blood expulsion curse for her, he was lying on the ground steadily bleeding to death and he told me to do three things. One was to avenge every person's death who had died at the hands of the death eaters. The second was to kill Voldemort. The last he told me in the faintest whisper. He told me, 'Harry, take care of Ginny and Hermione. Be a big brother to Ginny, she'll need one who isn't a stuck up arse. And take care of my Hermione, I know she'll need it soon.' " Harry paused to take a deep breath to rid the tears in his voice. "Then he said to me, 'You're a good man Harry and a good friend. You're our only hope for peace following this godforsaken war. I died for a good cause. Tell Ginny and Hermione I love them, and tell Hermione I like Serenity.' " Harry looked to Hermione whose eyes were spilling tears freely now. "I just now realized what he ment Hermione. He knew about the baby. He died knowing he was going to be a daddy. He died happy and proud Hermione." Her head lowered to face her lap and tears poured into her thin pants. Harry gently took her chin and tilted her to face him. "Hermione, I promised Ron I'd take care of you and Ginny, more so you Hermione, and I don't intend to fall back on that promise."

Hermione's bottom lip quivered and she broke down in sobs, Harry held her rocking her back and forth on the bed. Soon after she stopped crying, she burrowed against the wall and fell asleep, Ron's Chudley Cannon's shirt wrapped securely around her.

Harry sighed deeply and covered her in the bright orange duvet. She snuggled even deeper into the warmth and slept harder. This was good for her, she hadn't slept in days, that couldn't be good for the baby. He quietly exited the room and shut the door behind him.

As he made his way past Ginny's room, the doctor looked up from what he was doing and told Harry that he was almost finished examining Ginny. Harry nodded and continued down the stairs.

Looking over the banister, he could see that Colin Creevy had stopped by, most likely to get the scoop on Ginny's sickness.

As Harry looked down, Colin looked up and said "Hey Harry."

Harry opened his mouth to respond, but before the first syllable even came out, his bright green peepers rolled back in his head and he went into a dead faint tumbling down the stairs. No one remembered until too late that there was a heavy armoire at the bottom of the stairs. Needless to say, the doctor was at the Burrow longer than he had expected to be . . .








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A/N: So, whad'cha think? Why don'cha tell me by clicking the little button that says "go".

More chapters to come, hopefully one tomorrow, it'll be really hard to write so if not then, then Friday. I can only update on weekends now because my mom claims that the computer distracts me from doing my homework. I say that's hogwash. That wouldn't happen if I got to do my homework at school.