"You miss her. I know you do, you loved her!" Said Hermione. Harry looked at her. "Don't deny it." Hermione just knew with these things. She hadn't, to the best of his knowledge, mastered the art of Legilimency.
"Can we just not talk about it, please?" He asked her. Hermione opened her mouth but it was Ron who spoke.
"Harry, this is unhealthy!" He said. "I miss her, too. You should just admit it, you can tell us anything, mate." Harry knew he could. And he knew that Ron missed her, too. But as much as Ron loved his sister, he didn't understand. Hermione was still on his arm, and he hadn't let anything take her away. Not like Harry had. "Is this how she'd have wanted it?" There was a long silence.
"Harry." Said Hermione sympathetically, placing a hand on his forearm. "It's been months. You did all you could. This should be a happy time."
"Happy?" Harry asked. "After… after what happened to her?"
"No." She said. "After what happened to him!" Harry shuddered. She hadn't said his name, even if she had Harry was one of the few who didn't normally flinch, but now he just couldn't stand the thought of that horrible creature. Wasn't it bad enough that he took his parents, his godfather, and all of those other poor innocent people? Why did he have to take her?
"Think about it, Harry." Said Ron. "She died for what she believed in. She died fighting. And in a way, she won! Harry you have to accept it, it wasn't your fault." But to Harry, it was. If only he'd listened to Snape back in year five, if only he'd tried harder, if only he'd never loved her at all, she'd still be all right.
"Ron's right." Agreed Hermione. "And she was happy to be right beside you when the big moment came. She really loved you Harry, I know. She told me."
"You were the only one right for her." Added Ron. "Remember that day? Back in year six, when we won the Quidditch Cup? D'you think I'd have let you kiss her like that if I didn't know you cared?" Harry remained silent. He wasn't finding this very comforting. Both of them had been saying the same thing since that day. The day that had haunted him every moment of his life ever since. And Harry never said anything about it.
"Harry, we're just trying to help you." Said Hermione. "We love you, Harry. You're our best friend. If it weren't for you, just think! You-Know-Who'd have taken over back in year one when Quirrel tried to steal the Sorceror's Stone, Ron and I'd never have found each other, Ginny…" Harry turned his head, the name was almost painful. "Ginny would have died along with the rest of us, only she'd have been a shy, lonely little girl, instead of the wonderful woman she'd become. The woman she'd become thanks to you!"
"Harry, my sister was so much better off thanks to you." Said Ron. "Come on, since when has Hermione been wrong?" Harry ignored them both. Just thought about that day. The scenes replayed in his mind.
He remembered destroying each horcrux. He remembered Voldemort returning to power, anyway. He remembered Voldemort kidnapping him. He remembered wondering why Voldemort hadn't killed him. He remembered seeing Voldemort step up to him, and look within his mind the familiar way that Snape had in year five. He'd tried to close his mind. He really did, but Occlumency was Harry's greatest weakness. That is, his greatest weakness second only to the girl who he couldn't stop himself from thinking about. He couldn't help it; Ginny's face was at the front of his mind all the time.
"Mmmmm." He remembered hearing, when Voldemort finally removed himself from his mind. "The Weasley girl?" He felt a shudder down his spine as Voldemort uttered the name of the family that he had cared about for so long, who had treated him like a member of the family himself, when not even his own aunt and uncle had. "I've nearly finished her off before. Now that you and your beloved headmaster are both unable to interfere, I could have her killed within seconds." Harry knew this was no idle threat, he could and he would kill Ginny if he wanted to. There was no way that Ginny could survive The Killing Curse. But as long as Ginny was in hiding, as long as she didn't leave, as long as she followed his instructions, she would be safe.
"Do you want to die with the young lady, Potter?" Asked Voldemort in a whisper that would send a shudder down the spine of the dead. The small red slits met Harry's normally soft green eyes that were now filled with hatred. "Oh, you will. You will watch her die her painful death, and then it will be your turn." He sneered. "And I will finally have exactly what I've always wanted." He had been too terrified to speak. "Do you want that, Potter?" He was frozen stiff. He couldn't move…couldn't think… "All you have to do…is tell me…" Each time the evil man paused, it only made him more horrifying, "where the girl is hiding?"
No! Harry thought, terrified that he was about to sacrifice the girl he loved more than anything, simply because he couldn't close his mind. Don't think. He reminded himself. Don't think…no! The thoughts flooded through his mind, he couldn't help it, he revealed where she was before even taking a breath.
"Clever, Potter." Said Voldemort. "Godric's Hollow, right where Lily and James lost their lives. It was easy you know. Terribly easy…" Harry shut his eyes tightly and tried not to listen as Voldemort described the murders of his parents with the same detail and enthusiasm as Harry might use to describe a particularly impressive Quidditch victory.
"Now, to retrieve young Ms. Weasley." Voldemort stepped to the door. Harry thought for a moment that he would actually be left alone; maybe he could find a way out of here. But as Voldemort neared the exit, another painfully familiar face entered the room: Bellatrix Lestrange.
The rest of that night was a blur. He awoke the next morning shaking with fear after the nightmares of his poor Ginny being tortured to death right before his eyes. The sight he did see was not much less disturbing. He saw Ginny struggling in a chair. Her arms were bound to her sides by a dead snake that had been wrapped tightly around her.
"Harry." She whispered weakly. "I can't…" Harry hushed her. He could tell she was too weak to be speaking.
"Nice to see you're awake, Potter." Hissed Voldemort. "Now, I think, it is time to finish off the lady." Ginny shut her eyes tightly as Voldemort raised his wand. "Avada-" Voldemort's wand flew from his hand. Harry, Voldemort and Ginny all looked around at once. Standing proudly in the corner with his wand pointed at Voldemort, was Ron, who had successfully apparated in and used a silent disarming charm within seconds. Moments later, Hermione appeared behind Ginny and used a silent charm to untie the dead snakes from around Harry and Ginny both at once. Ginny thought quick. She turned around and grabbed Hermione's wand from her hand before Hermione could stop her.
"Avada Kedavra!" Someone screamed. But it wasn't a snakelike voice of Lord Voldemort, it was the voice of a girl. An unforgiveable curse only works if you really mean it, and Ginny meant it with everything inside of her, and that was why, just as easily as Lily and James before him, Voldemort fell down dead. There was an echo in the room, or so Harry thought as all of what had happened registered to him and Hermione and Ron grabbed his arms in attempt to apparate back out, when he heard the Killing Curse repeated loudly. But he soon realized that the voice was not that of Ginny Weasley, but of Bellatrix Lestrange. The four of them apparated as the sound of those words filled the room.
Harry's heart lifted with a relief that at times he wasn't sure he'd ever feel. But the relief only lasted for seconds, before Ginny collapsed, dead on the Burrow's kitchen floor.
Now, it was six months later. Harry looked up at his two best friends, who were both staring at him with concern. Of course he was proud of Ginny, more than anything. They'd always thought it would have to be him who defeated Lord Voldemort in the end, but Ginny had finished him off. But it was his fault that she died, and he'd never forgive himself for that.
But he realized, as he saw Ron and Hermione stare back at him the way they always had when they were worried about them, that they were right. Ginny died saving the entire wizarding world. And, though he would never forgive himself for letting her die, he would always be happy that everyone would remember her as the amazing person that Harry always knew she was.