I know many of us diehard Harry Potter fans all had our own ideas of how the series should end. I must confess that I was one of them. By the time Deathly Hallows had come out, I had a full blown plot idea of how it was supposed to end, it should end this way, it's going to end this way and goddammit if it doesn't end this way. My hopes, however were shattered, when the final battle took place at not the Department of Mysteries, but at Hogwarts!
So, like the fan I was, I went back to the various comic strips I created about this ending (this was before I actually thought of writing the ending because I'd probably end up writing the entire book and however much free time I may have, I don't have that much). After reading DH, I saw how I could connect my fan fantasies to the real deal. So, in a stroke of perhaps insanity, I did it.
When I began writing this, I tried to find a way to get it into the Department of Mysteries, because that was where my original fantasy happened and dammit if this happened at all it would happen there! However, the further I looked, there was no conceivable way to get both Harry and Voldemort to the Department of Mysteries. Short of inventing a Horcrux of course… So I had to stay at Hogwarts, which turned out to work.
So now here I am, sitting at my computer, stunned and surprised that what I had initially intended to be a paragraph intro to this fanfic turned into a 3 paragraph rant. Sorry to all of you who had to sit through that.
My story picks up right after Harry tells Neville about Nagini. It goes from there to my own epilogue (don't even get me started on the one JKR gave us). Happy reading!
As Harry left Neville, a new sense of hope filled him. If Neville could maybe, just maybe, kill Nagini, then Ron and Hermione would have at least a small chance to defeat Vold…
"Harry," it was a voice Harry had grown to know all too well. She was out of breath. Harry realized he'd been running away from the wreckage. Knowing he would regret it, he turned to face Ginny. Hey red hair was covered in a fine powder of who knows what. Her eyes look towards him beseechingly, almost confused. As she neared him, while catching her breath, she tucks her hair behind her ear in the most seductive way possible… Harry couldn't help but be mesmerized by her beauty. She opened her mouth to speak, but before the siren's song can disarm him completely, Harry cries out quickly,
"Ginny, get out of here! It's not safe!" He steeled himself for the argument he knows is coming. Ginny always could be persuasive. Mentally, he noted not to look into her eyes. But it was unnecessary. No mental notes could have prepared him for what Ginny did.
She kissed him full on the mouth, by far the most passionate of their kisses. Harry cannot help but melt into it, wishing it would never end. But like all good things, it did. She broke it off, and almost immediately after, he felt a stinging sensation across his left cheek. Ginny had slapped him.
"Don't you think I know that!" she says roughly, gazing at him with the same fire and intensity Harry had seen after Dumbledore's funeral. The last time he had tried to leave her, he realizes. "My brother is dead! Don't tell me about danger, I know," it looked as if she might be finished, but then with the cry of someone in physical pain, she says, "Why are you doing this to me?" Harry can see tears rimming her eyes. He stares at her dumbfounded.
"I'm not doing anything to you!" he exclaimed, making sure he wasn't standing on her foot or anything.
"Yes you are!" she growls fiercely. Kissing him again, she said, "You tell me to stay out of danger. I can do that! But then why do you leave me and run headlong into it? How can you expect me not to follow?" Harry turned to walk away, to leave her for the last time, but Ginny races in front of him, blocking his path. Whispering in his ear, she says,
"Even the famous Harry Potter needs help sometimes," He shrugs her off before she can kiss him again, and inside his heart starts to tear in half. Continuing his original direction, he attempts to ignore the words Ginny furiously hurls at him.
"No one can make it on their own! You should know that!" Harry can hear the slap of her sneakers on the ground as she follows him. He can hear the hurt in her voice as she yells, "I love you Harry Potter, but sometimes you make me crazy!" Harry freezes, listening to every word. The footsteps slow to a walk. "You can't save everyone Harry," She's caught up to him, "Something's gotta give," Her warm, soft hands are on his shoulders, "And I'd really rather it wasn't you,"
Her gaze is hypnotic, her touch like a life preserver. With her holding him, he can never be lost. She leans toward him, tilting her head ever so slightly. The movement is enough to wake Harry up. Realizing what he has to do, he whipped his wand out before Ginny could even react. The spell is on the tip of his tongue, then he sees her eyes. And for a second, his resolve wavers. But her eyes bleed into Severus Snape's dying eyes, the memories he'd given Harry, Dumbledore's mission for Harry. And he whispers, pointing the wand at Ginny, "Petrificus Totalus,"
She drops like a log, her arms at her sides, legs clamped together. The only thing not bound by the jinx is her long flowing red hair. Her eyes, oh god why did they have to move, Harry thought, spun toward him, conveying the hurt and fear she couldn't speak aloud. Giving her one last longing glance, Harry dashes out of the Great Hall into the night.