I'll Be Here
When Ginny is haunted by horrid visions of the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry will not leave her side until she knows that he won't let anything happen to her.
I do not own the Harry Potter series; J.K. Rowling is the owner of everything I write.
Chapter One
Ginny was running down the stairs, cautiously watching her footfall so she wouldn't stumble over a piece of debris. She was back in the Battle of Hogwarts, students, professors, Order members, and Death Eaters fighting around her, bolts of red, blue and green light flying above her head, and Ginny seeing flames dancing out of the corner of her eye.
She was sporting her hoodie and jeans, which were ripped and singed by both fire and spells. Her hair was dirty and she was constantly throwing it back behind her ears to keep it out of her face, which was caked with mud as well as her hands, which were clutched on her ebony wand, her only source of defense.
Ginny nearly fell down the stairway as a Hufflepuff was struck with an emerald Killing Curse meters ahead of her. The student, a burly-looking seventh year that Ginny did not recognize fell with a look of fear on his face and tumbled down the rubble-covered stairs. He came to rest on the landing with a heavy thud, but to Ginny it was oddly muffled in her ears; all the sound in the battle was warped like she was underwater, time seemed to go slower…
She leaped over the body of the Hufflepuff, and quickly produced a Shield Charm to block a Stunning Spell that came from her left, but Ginny couldn't see the caster. The spell ricocheted off the shield and blasted a chunk out of the railing next to her.
She made a break for a fallen column, with two sides covered with rubble: a perfect sanctuary with the addition of a Disillusionment Charm.
Then suddenly, a female close behind her yelled "Crucio!" and, with a flash of crimson light from behind her shoulder, and a sharp pain that arose quickly in her shoulder, Ginny fell front-first downwards, and landed on a dirty boulder. The pain of falling hurt her collarbone enough, but the pain of the Cruciatus Curse was like being stabbed several times.
She pushed herself upwards (rather painfully) and flopped onto the ashy stone floor. She rolled onto her back to look at her attacker, who was none other than Bellatrix Lestrange.
The witch's greasy, wavy dark hair was disheveled over her head. She wore a leather and black silk dress that didn't entirely fit her; it wasn't too loose and wasn't too tight, it just didn't fit her today as it probably should've fit her years ago. Bellatrix was almost dancing in joy that she caught her prey. She was smiling broadly, revealing her dirty, old-ivory like teeth. Her eyes were dark and maddened, and she was more frightening than Ginny remembered. In her long, dirty-nailed hands, she was holding her wand, which's tip was still glowing a faint red and smoking little grey ribbons. Ginny found it odd that Bellatrix wasn't wounded at all. Ginny knew that Bellatrix was a scarily good dueler, but to not be hit by any spells was unbelievable.
"Hello, muck."
Bellatrix aimed a kick at Ginny's ribcage, which triggered a fiery shot of pain. Ginny moaned and tried to stand up, but the witch pushed her boot down on her spine forcefully and shoved the girl back onto the dirty floor.
"Don't even try to escape," Bellatrix advised. "You won't win—"
Ginny rolled over quickly and cast a bolt of red light; the Stunning Spell was aimed right over Bellatrix's stomach, but with a quick flourish of her wand, Ginny's escape attempt was ricocheted back at her.
The Stunning Spell hit Ginny's forehead, and she fell back to the ground, barely conscious.
"I told you," Bellatrix cackled. "Did you honestly believe your idiotic attempt would affect me? Think again!"
"You bitch," Ginny spat back (quite literally, blood dripping from the corner of her mouth), "you deserve more than a simple jinx."
This earned Ginny a kick to the face; a burst of pain and a cracking noise told Ginny that her nose was broken.
"You speak as though your power could actually match mine." Bellatrix scoffed.
"I know I could beat you if you let me up!" Ginny yelled.
Bellatrix laughed and rocked backwards on her heels, as though Ginny had just told her a mildly entertaining joke. "Me—let you up…ha, ha!"
Ginny took this opportunity to try and crawl down the stairs declining behind her; could those seconds save her life? She had to try.
"WHAT?"
Yet another kick hit Ginny's back, and she rolled down the stairs, which the edge of each cut into her side each time she fell across one.
"Ooh…" Ginny moaned in pain. She felt like a ragdoll, beaten and bruised, dragged and around, pulled through everything…
"You actually tried to escape?"
"No…" Ginny tried saying sarcastically, but she sputtered out blood and the word was incomprehensible.
"What?" Bellatrix screeched, hoisting up Ginny by her hair. "What, girl?"
Ginny whimpered, "Nothing, nothing."
Bellatrix threw Ginny down on the ground, where she attempted to shriek with a cracked voice.
"Guess you'll never see your lover again, that damned Potter." Bellatrix whispered, raising her wand. "Avada Kadavra!"
There was a flash of green light…
Ginny woke up in a cold sweat.
She was in her four-poster bed the Gryffindor girl's dormitory, sheet and blanket messy and thrown over the side, her feet sticking out towards the foot of the bed, numb and cold.
She looked around, the dark not allowing much visibility; seeing only shapes and shadows. Her eyes slowly adjusting to her surroundings, Ginny wrapped her arms around her torso and hugged herself. Tears slowly started coming to her eyes.
Fred…Colin...friends, and innocent…
They were all gone…
Ginny buried her face in her thin pajama pants, and started to cry. They were all gone, and they would not come back. Innocent students that fought to protect their home…she could've saved so many, and these dreams would continue to haunt her.
Fred had always been there to cheer her up when she was sick or sad, and now….
Ginny ceased crying and breathed heavily.
She knew who would understand her, someone that probably suffered more than her…
She grabbed her wand off the bed-side dresser and muttered the incantation, "Lumos!" and a bluish-white light appeared at the tip of the wooden rod, emanating light at regular intervals, though not flashing. The light illuminated the dark, lightly reflected off the polished wooden floor, and revealing some dust particles hovering about her curtains.
She quickly crept out of the canopied bed, lowered one foot onto the floor. She pushed herself out of the bed maybe too quickly, her sock adorned feet slipping on the smooth floor, catching herself by grabbing onto the curtain, which became looser at the base with a light rip noise.
Ginny slowly tiptoed to the door, past a bed that she thought should've been holding a fast-asleep Hermione Granger. The bed appeared to have held a body all night.
Forgetting about the absent bed, Ginny crept over to the door and, wand aloft, used her hand to push the wooden barrier open.
She moved swiftly onto the stone bridge that remained like an overlook of the Gryffindor Common Room, which was only lit by the flickering orange fireplace. There were bodies on the couch, moving in unison as they snored.
Ginny moved across the bridge into the boy's dormitory.
The room was filled with snoring. The beds to her left contained the slumbering bodies of Dean and Seamus, and to her right was Neville Longbottom, still bloody and filthy, and yet another empty bed, one that should've contained her brother, Ron Weasley. She suspected snogging.
She also ignored this absence, and quietly walked over to the bed of the only man that mattered to her.
Ginny lowered her head to Harry's head, her long curtain of red hair brushing the side of his face.
"Harry," she whispered.
"I'm awake." He whispered back.