A new moon brings new beginnings and at the moment, Harry Potter, age seventeen, was afraid of what those beginnings may be.
During this new moon, Harry found himself running for his dear life in the pitch black of the Forbidden Forest. He had just paused for a breath, stopping at a particularly large tree and leaned against it.
He was trying desperately to find or gain an advantage of some sort from the thing that called itself Lord Voldemort.
"Come to me Harry. You're only denying the inevitable. You may as well just end it all now." Harry jerked at the sound of the voice and concentrated on keeping his panting as quiet as possible.
"Now Harry, at least stop cowering and fight me like a man. It's what your old man would want, I'm sure." Harry actually agreed with the thing and he was planning on fighting, he just wanted a chance...
He took a silent, deep breath then started his deadly sprint once again. He ran and ran, making random ducks, dives and turns to avoid the flying curses thrown at him.
Harry wished it wasn't him that had to face Voldemort, but the Ministry and the Order was engaged with the Death Eater and Voldemort had specifically targeted him to fight.
Harry had just started recognizing the area when he literally ran into someone. In seconds he had been pulled to his feet and he took crash mate. His heart stopped as he took in the scared, sweet face with it's honey brown eyes and flaming red hair.
"Ginny! I told you to stay away!" For the first time that night, Harry felt a fear beyond the gently nagging fear that he had grown so used to in the last few years. This fear plunged him into a heel hole of fear. Nothing existed but the fear he felt for his one true love.
"I couldn't. I had to be with you! If you're going to die, we'll die together," she said forcefully.
Harry opened his mouth to tell her to go back against all that his heart screamed at him to keep her by his side, when a voice interrupted him, "Ah, isn't this just so precious? The noble hero tells his loyal girlfriend that she must return to safety. But unlike most of your petty cliché stories, my dears, the hero won't vanquish the villain for this time the villain will rightfully win!-Avada Kedavera!"
Before Harry was able to move, Ginny moved in front of him, the spell hitting her full in the chest. She made no noise. She simply fell into Harry's arms.
"What's this? The plot thickens, the girlfriend is now a failed heroine, sacrificing herself to save the hero that will ultimately die also." Harry looked up from Ginny's face, tears running freely down his cheeks, to face his death and to return to reunite with his love.
"Avada Kedavera!"
Harry watched the spell hit his body as though in slow motion expecting his death to come with it, but he did not die, all he felt was a warm tingling sensation that seemed to fill his body then, once he was full, it all streamed out of him in one huge gush to hit the wide-eyed Lord Voldemort. The brightness of the spell lasted longer than normal and once it cleared, Harry saw Voldemort on the ground, quite dead.
Harry slowly lowered himself to the ground easing Ginny's body down with him. He looked down at Ginny's still form and blindly reached out for a wand. He grasped one and raised his arm sending up a rainbow of sparks. He knew that it would take a moment or two before the Death Eaters realized that their Marks no longer throbbed in dull pain and that their Lord had finally perished.
He looked away from Ginny's still form to the fast degrading corpse of Tom Marvolo Riddle, "Once again Voldemort, you underestimated one thing, that one thing being the power of love.
For Harry the war had not started again, it had only continued where it had left off. He had lost so many people he loved and cherished to the sinister game the defeated Dark Lord spun and he would never forget them. He would never forget the lessons he learned or the people he met throughout that painful time. He would always remember his and the Dark Lord's flight and fight.