"I will always be with you, my darling"

"My darling, no, no, no…"

"Live, Harry, go on…"

He couldn't look, he couldn't… Blood spluttered all over her dirty robes and some got on his front. He couldn't stand to see her coughing like that, it seemed like she couldn't stop at all. He didn't want to cry, he didn't want to break down, to scare her at the last moments of her life, but a betraying sob escaped his throat and after that one, there was no turning back. Tears clouded his eyes.

"Harry…" she tried to smile weakly, going paler every second.

"Ginny, don't leave me, please, I c-can't… I don't want… why did you do that? Why?" he was almost screaming at her.

She smiled weakly again, her eyes were bright but there weren't any tears, "I am not sorry for saving your life, Harry… I want you t-t-", she started coughing again. It was a long hard fit. She was shaking all over.

"Ginny, my love, my darling, baby… please… please don't leave me…" he thought he'll go crazy. He was muttering the words all over and over again, like a prayer.

"Harry", his name came out as a painful sob, two tears streamed down her cheeks, which only a couple of days ago were blushing pink like roses, when he'd asked her to marry him.

Harry could see himself laughing and twirling Ginny on the vast field of tall grass behind the Burrow. Then he has lost his balance and fell down with her. She rolled off him, laughing. The sun was playing with her bright hair, sizzling like ambers in a flame. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling, inhaling the rich scent of heated grass. Harry couldn't resist the temptation of tracing her lips with his finger… so soft… so welcoming… entirely his… His kiss was deep and long, and she responded gently but passionately. After some time Ginny circled her arms around his neck and they were just lying there without any care in the world on their minds. He breathed in the clean smell of her hair, so sweet, fresh and adored, mixed with the lush smell of field herbs. She just bathed in the sunlight like she did in his love, giving and taking back equally. Looking at her, he could have counted every freckle on her smiling face…

… And now, now they were so pale, Harry hardly noticed them on the papery yellow skin, smudged with blood and dirt. A powerful sob shook his body and he began to tremble. He could feel her body losing heat; it was heavier, colder…

"Harry, p-promise me, please…"

"Of course, my dear, my love, my angel, anything you ask for…" he murmured frantically, afraid to raise his voice too loud for her. Ginny struggled to keep her eyes focused on him.

"Promise me, you will be happy… an- and find love again…"

"Gin-"

"Harry, please…" her gaze was strait and clear for a second, but then she broke out in that awful coughing fit, which made his blood freeze.

"Of course, baby, yes, but I know you won't die, you can't die, you can't leave me, baby…" he was sobbing like a little child now, rocking himself and her.

"Be brave, my darling, be brave for me…" she murmured and smiled that weak smile again, that made him nauseous with agony.

Of course, she was brave; she was as brave as he can never be if she leaves him. Pain flashed through him in the form of recent memory. Just ten minutes ago… ten minutes… so little time and such a big difference…

Voldemort knocked him down with a spell. Harry's head hit a rock. He felt like his skull just shattered. He could see the wizard approaching him and laughing evilly. The shapes and forms of fighting people were hazy. The hooded ones must've been Deatheaters; the others were from the Ministry and the Order. Harry tried so hard not to slip out of consciousness, fight it. Everything depended on him, an eighteen-year-old young man, just out of school, engaged to an amazing young woman. Ginny… his thoughts, except this one, were slipping like sand through fingers. Voldemort was saying something and laughing that nightmarish laugh, unchangeable laugh, just like the time he killed his parents. His parents… they died to save him. He felt anger boiling inside. It pulled him back to consciousness, but it was too late… Voldemort raised his wand and was halfway through a spell, the spell that would end everything. Harry was about to prepare for nothingness when a sharp cry broke the moment. A flash of red hair leaped into his view, enveloped in green light, which turned to orange in an instant and bounced off towards Voldemort. Harry observed a brief surprise in the snake-like face, before the wind swept the grey ashes, which a second ago were the Dark Lord himself. Now, he was dead… as was the red haired girl, which shielded Harry from the lethal spell.

"GINNY! NOOOOO!" He rushed to her side and sat with her in his arms, as he was sitting for ten long torturing minutes now.

"I'll be brave, my sweetheart, my dear, but I cannot without you", he sobbed, looking at the frail form in his arms, "You are my everything, you always were, my love, my life. I can't breath without you, I can't smile, its never going to be right without you, Ginny, please, please, I love you… "

She put a finger on his lips to shush him and smiled, and suddenly Harry saw the old bright smile of hers and couldn't help smiling back through all the tears, "My darling, Harry, I love you…" And with those words her hand dropped, as the last breath left her small fragile body.

"Ginny, Ginny, no, baby, no, Ginny", he was almost screaming, although he knew perfectly well it won't help. "Why, why did you leave me, baby? WHY!"

Tears rolled down Harry's cheeks, dividing his dusty and blood-smudged face into three. Ginny's face looked so pale and delicate against the dark earth. Two tiny glistering tears dropped on her dry lips. She was still smiling in her eternal sleep. A gust of breeze brushed Harry's cheek. It felt so much like her touch, caressing and loving. Another one was against his lips. It felt so lingering and familiar.

Harry looked around. Nobody and nothing was in sight.

"I'll always be with you, my darling", someone whispered softly, touching his cheek.