All A Dream
By Kim Hauser
It was New Years Eve, and everyone was at the Burrow, waiting for midnight. Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, Ron, Ginny, Arthur, Molly, Harry, and Hermonie were all there, spread out. It was the first New Years that Harry, Ron, and Hermonie weren't at Hogwarts, having graduated the June before.
They were all sipping champagne, and even though, between the three of them, they had drank only six full glasses, Ron was giggling like mad; Hermonie was barely affecting, having been the smartest of the three; and Harry was having fun kissing the three females every ten minutes or so,
"Ron, I do believe you have had enough bubbles," Hermonie said, her cheeks a rosy red from all the excitement.
"No, I haven't," he countered in-between giggles. "And anyway, who cares? It's New Years, right?" After that last statement, he nearly fell over, and would have, if Hermonie hadn't caught him by gabbing his sweater, which was the ever-so-hated maroon and gold 'R'.
It was about ten minutes to midnight, and everyone was getting ready to celebrate. Streamers, horns, and wands were coming out, getting ready to make a big bang to welcome in the New Year.
Harry stood up on a chair, swayed slightly, then made a toast. "To happiness and immortality." Everyone else echoed what he had said, some more slurred than others. The next few seconds following it was filled with the clanking of glasses.
Giny walked over to Harry and kissed him soundly, not caring what her family said. They had all known that they had been going out for a short time last year, and then ever since Harry had destroyed the last Hoxcurse, and now all he needed to find was Voldemort's soul.
"Three minutes now," Bill and Charlie announced drunkenly. They had nearly drunk two bottles of champagne between the two of them.
Fred and George, too impatient to wait any longer, shot off some sparks and bangs. Truthfully, they were the soberest ones there.
"With everyone laughing, one would think someone spiked everyone's drinks with laughing powder, don't you think Fred?" A very sly George said to his twin, and they both broke into grins. Opening up the joke shop had been the best thing to ever happen to them, and it was thanks to Harry. They were constantly making new products, and the Laughing Loonies were the newest and the best selling thing they had ever made. Who ever consumed it (it came in two different ways: a powder to slip in drinks and a chocolate bar) would laugh like a lunatic (hence the name) for about an hour on end.
Apparently, that was why they hadn't been drinking any champagne, for they had spiked all the open bottles.
"15…14…13…12…" Everyone started to chant, "11…10…9…8…" Right after the 8 the door to the Burrow burst open, and about a half-dozen cloaked figures came inside, uninvited. The first green light came from the leader's wand, and Hermonie was lifted off her feet, and slammed against the wall, dead………
Harry opened his eyes, half-awake. Two tears fell unnoticed down his cheeks. He sat up in bed, woken up from his dream from the light being turned on. Ginny was standing in his doorway, being the one that had turned on the light. Her eyes were puffy, giving the clear and accurate conclusion that she had been crying.
"C'mere," Harry said, and she quickly crossed the room, and was enveloped in his open arms. They stayed like that, arms around each other, finding comfort in the other's arms.
After a while, Ginny started to speak softly. "Can I stay in here with you?"
Harry interrupted what she was going to say afterwards with, "Of course."
He lay back on the bed, and Ginny went back with him. She curled up next to him, her head on his chest. Harry stoked her red hair gently, and they eventually fell asleep like that, the lights on to keep awaythe monsters.
Harry's sleep caused him to dream again.
It was about a week after graduation, and the three friends were still coming to terms that they were able to do magic outside of school –as long as they weren't caught by Muggles that is. Being sugared up on butterbeer and foolishness Harry, Ron, and Hermonie were having the time of their lives. They were walking in the middle of the side street, arms around each other, Hermonie in the middle.
Hermonie kissed Harry on the cheek, and then Ron. "I love you both," she said happily. Their friendship had never gone past just friends, and that way they way they all wanted it, at least, that was they way they thought they wanted it.
Reaching a busy street, they turned left, staying on the sidewalk now. A hearse went by, followed by a long line of cars.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, and Harry explained that someone had died, and now the Muggles were going to put the deceased in the ground.
Hermonie spoke up when Harry was done. "When I die, I don't want either of you going to my funeral in suits, or in black. I don't want you to remember me dead."
Both boys quickly promised. "Don't dress up for mine, either. It'll be bloody stupid to remember best friends like that." Ron said. Again, everyone promised.
Harry woke up to Ginny's face being pressed into his chest, her crying again.
He softly shook her sholder, and she jerked awake. Ginny looked at him, and then put her head back, tears falling faster. She started to talk softly, but Harry could hear every word.
"I dream of everything, thinking that it is just a dream. Then I wake up, and almost everday I cry because of them. Why did it have to happen? Why?"
Harry asked himself the same questions, over and over, everyday. He put his hand on her back and tried to soothe her, but with the people that she had grown up with dead...it was hard to.
He looked at the calender that hung across from the bed, Ron's old calender. Today was Febuary 1st, excatly one month since it had happeed. He had moved into the Burrow to try and console the remaining Weasleys, and to becloser to Ginny.Ginny was home too, ProfesserMcGonagall letting her travel by Floo Powder to visit her parents on the weekends. It was Sunday, and that meant that Ginny had to go back to the school by five pm.
Ginny stopped crying, and harry figured that she had gone back to sleep, but that was until she stirred, andsaid, "Are you going to visit their graves today?"
Harray answered, "Yeah. You coming?" She nodded into his shirt.
The silence that followed wasn't of any regular silence, it was of sadness and sorrow. They visited the graves nearly every weekend, just the two of them. Fred and George had to run their shop, but Hary knew that they visited the graves sometime over the week, when buisness was slow. Mr. And Mrs. Weasly visited about twice a week,mourning their dead sons and adopted daughter.
Ginny stirred again, then sat up. Harry sat up behind her and heard her say, "We better be going soon then. I'll be ready in about a half hour." She got up and left.
Harry sat there for a moment, and then got up and rummaged through his dresser until he found some clean clothes. He then went into the bathroom, took a quick shower, changed into a pair of clean jeans and a blue shirt. After changing, Harry went downstairs into the kitchen. He magiced himself a cup of hot chocolate, and sat there waiting for Ginny, sipping it.
Ginny came downstairs, taking not that much longer than he did, in a pair of white pants and a red hooded sweatshirt to match her hair. They didn't speak.
Harry left a note on the table on a scrap piece of paper. They left the Burrow through the back door, and Harry made sure that the door was locked behind them.
"Lets walk,"she said, looking at the bright sky. Harry nodded, knowing that she was right. It wasn't like their destination was far away, the cemetery being only two or more miles.
As they walked, like any other time, Harry's mind wandered back in time.
Harry brought out his wand, and pointed it at the cloaked figure that had first came through the door. He wasn't able to do anything, because the scar on his forehead suddenly flared up. He dropped his wand as he dropped to his knees, hands to his forehead, crying out in pain.
Ron, on the other hanlled his parents, and all the others that crosses Voldemort's path. T was finally going to end tonight. Green magic flew out of his wand, and hit the cloak in the chest. Voldemort flew back, his hood falling backwards to reveal who he really was, towards the wall at an alarming speed, and he nearly went through the window in the kitchen.
The rest of the hooded figures, after noticing that Voldemort was dead, tried to leave. The wind from the still-open door blew into the house, and some hoods fell back. It was revealed that the Draco and Severus Snape had followed Voldemort one last time.. The two of them wheeled around and shot some more spells into the house, . One hit Bill in the chest, and he fell backwards, slowly crumpling to the ground. Charlie also got hit by one, another Weasley dead. Fred and George started to randomly yell spells at Draco and Snape. Draco got hit in the leg with one, and it turned into a baseball bat.Snape grabbed him, and they too ran off into the night, following some of the others that had been able to run off unscathed.
Harry hadn't realized that Ginny said something until she squeezed his hand. "You okay?" She asked, noticing that his color had paled.
"Just remembering," He said, the last remaining images fading from his head.
"Still cant believe it happened? That it happened when it did?" She asked, close to tears.
Harry took his hand out of hers, and put her arm around his back and his around hers, and they walked the last half-mile in silence.
At the gravesite, Ginny broke into fresh tears, while Harry just stood there, shocked. Someone had written MUDBLOOD over Hermonie's grave in what looked to actually be blood. Harry, as soon as he gathered his wits about him, used a spell to clean it off, but the image was still there mentally even though it was gone physically.
Harry stepped back to read what ad been carved on to his friends graves, even though he had memorized it.
Harry knew for a fact that Ron had wanted to ask Hermonie to marry him after the New Year. Bill's, Charlie's, and Percy's graves were also there, but it was Ron and Hermonie's he had come to see. Harry turned and wiped away Ginny's tears, and she buried her face into his chest yet again.
Harry knew, somewhere in his heart, that Ron and Hermonie wouldn't want them to be still mourning them, but it was so hard not to. Flashes of memories went through his head: meeting on the train, Fluffy, freeing Sirius, The Order, playing quiddatch with Ron and his brothers, the nights they had stayed up doing homework that was due the next day, the weekends they went to Hogsmeade, among several other hundred upon hundreds of memories. If you grew up with someone, and they were the only real family you had, it was near impossible for you to forget about them, or so Harry was finding out quick enough.
This hurt even worse from when Sirius died, but he could see why. He had known Sirius for only about two years, but he had been good friends with Ron, Hermonie, bill, and Percy for nearly eight.
"We are going to get over this," Harry said softly, not only to Ginny, but also to himself.
"When? I can't seem to get over this happening, even though I am trying. I don't want to forget about them, but I want this sadness to go," Ginny said, her head bowed down slightly.
"I know. So do I," Harry replied. They stayed there for several more moments, then hand in hand Harry and Ginny walked back to the Burrow.
Once at the Burrow, Harry glanced at the grandfather clock, the clock that showed where everyone was. The hands that had Fred, and George were at work (they lived at the back of the joke shop because of the recent vandalism attacks, but they usually popped by sometimes around noon on Sundays. The hands that had once held Ron, Bill, Charlie and Percy were gone.
"Is that you?" Arthur called down the stairs.
"Yeah, it is us." Ginny called back.
Arthur came down the stairs, wearing jeans and t-shirt. "If you are hungry, I'll make you breakfast."
Harry declined –the blood on the gravestone was still vivid in his mind- but Ginny agreed to eat.
Arthur magiced some eggs to fry themselves. Ginny said, "Harry, could you help me on some homework?" Harry nodded, so she ran upstairs to get her books.
Ginny came back down just seconds before the eggs were done, so Harry familiarized himself with the subjects. She had been placed in the highest math, potions, and history.
"Its math I'm having problems with," Ginny said, with her mouth full.
So Ginny and Harry sat there at the table, with Harry helping out Ginny just like Hermonie had helped out Ron and him. The memory hurt deeply, and Harry could deal with the deep tightening in his chest for his friends, but just barely.
Several hours passed quickly, being interrupted only once because Mrs. Weasley came down and made herself some food.
She had gotten thinner and her hair, once auburn, seemed darker. Mrs. Weasley seemed to have lost hope. Four of her seven kids were dead, and the remaining three were barely coping. No parent should have to bury his or her kids. She looked like a ghost, in a sort of way, not wanting to pass on, but not wanting to live without them.
Then Fred and George came, and the house was filled with laughter. Not the same type of laughter that seemed to echo through the house like it had been before New Years, but it was better than nothing was, at least.
After an early dinner, Ginny left Floo powder for Hogwarts, followed by the twins. Harry was the last to leave,but he didn't go very far. He worked in the closest Muggle city that there was to Hogwarts.
Time seemed to speed up from this point. It was now late March, and the letter from Hogwarts was open and in front of him.
The letter was from Professor McGonagall, and it said that Ginny had killed herself, and the only thing that she left behind was:
Sorry. The pain just won't go away…they haunt my dreams, my LIFE.
No one needed to explain who 'they' were. Harry knew that Ginny was having a hard time getting over it, but he wouldn't have ever thought, in a million years, that she would take her own life.
His mind replayed back a conversation they had just three weeks before it happened. Before Ginny killed herself, that is.
"I just can't take it," she said softly.
"What?" Harry said, but he knew what she was talking about.
"The sadness. I walk down the hallways, and seem them, even though I know Ron and Hermonie are dead. I see someone, and for a second my heart tells me, "She's alive! Its all been a bad dream!" but my head is always correct. They're dead, I tell myself, but there is nothing I can do to stop hoping that they ain't………No matter what I try, Ron and Hermonie just won't go away………" Ginny said, her head bowed.
Harry had the same problem. He would see someone with orange/red hair, and he would see Ron, but it didn't go as far as seeing them wherever he went like she did. Though, she was in Hogwarts, the place where they had grown up at…………
Harry should've seen it then, but his eyes had been closed to her depression. Another funeral to attend, another friend to bury. At this rate, all the people that Harry cared about would be dead in a matter of years.
At the funeral, Harry threw a single white rose onto the pile of red ones. A single tear went down his cheek to match it, to show the sadness that wouldn't come anymore. As Harry walked away, he also walked away from the ones he loved, the past he once knew, and from the sadness of all the people who had died because of him………
"Harry, man! Wake up!" Ron's voice filled Harry's ears, and he quickly sat up, nearly banging into Ron. Harry quickly gave him a hug, glad to see him alive and well.
When he finally let go of him, Ron's cheeks were almost as red as his hair. "What was that for?"
"I had a dream that you, Hermonie, Bill, Charlie, and Percy all died because of Voldemort," Ron shivered at the name of you-know-who, but Harry continued on, "And Ginny committed suicide."
"Either you have a vivid imagination, or you just learned that eating five pieces of chocolate pie is bad for you," Ron said, laughing softly as to not wake the other boys in the dorm, "But in either case, tell me what happened."
Harry paused. "I………don't remember."
Ron looked at him funny. "Oh well. Good night." Ron got off of his bed and into his own.
"Ron?"
"What?"
"You're a good friend."
Even in the darkness, he could tell Ron was blushing.
"You too, Harry."
done