Disclaimer: All the characters you have heard of before are the property of J.K. Rowling. All the new ones belong to me. The quotes at the beginning of the chapters belong to Guster as do the chapter titles.
Key: ------------- = Beginning and end of chapter
OOOOOO = Flashback
888888888 = Scene Change
Chapter 1: Fall in Two"...but he lied to himself again. Closing doors and locking locks he looked inside himself, only to find a deep down fear..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ginny Weasley couldn't sleep. Lying awake in the room she had inhabited all her life, in the house she had inhabited all her life. The quiet didn't help. This only provided space to be filled with her thoughts, thoughts that tended to drift towards the depressing, because that was all she had at the moment. The house shouldn't have been that quiet. That was what her mind kept latching on to. The house was supposed to have other noises than the sound of her own breathing and the regular night noises outside of her open window. There was supposed to be the sound of people getting up for a snack in the night, or moving around in their sleep. But no, those sounds were forever gone. Ginny closed her eyes and was powerless against the memories of the previous week...
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ginny smiled as she soared through the air after the bludger that had been hit in her general direction. Quidditch was one of her favorite things, not to mention playing it with her friends. She was at her friend Lucy Carter's house for a graduation party. Ginny was on a team with Lucy's twin brother, Eric, and two of Lucy's uncles. Lucy's team was comprised of her boyfriend, John King, and two of their other school friends. They didn't have enough people for full teams but Ginny didn't mind. Quidditch was quidditch.
Ginny quickly reached the bludger and sent it sailing towards John who had the quaffle. John dodged it on his way to the makeshift hoop at the other end of the yard while Ginny turned and looked toward Eric, who had a devious look on his face. Ginny understood that look, knew it well. It was time for their favorite trick. Ginny quickly found the bludger again as Eric quickly and quietly sailed towards John. Ginny soon reached the bludger and began hitting it back and forth in front of her as she moved towards John. Eric was already floating discretely behind John who was now almost within shooting range of the post. As Ginny finally reached the same place as Eric and John, she sent the bludger flying right by John's right ear. He was so startled by this, he sent his shot wildly to the left, and right in to the hands of the agile Eric who had been waiting to see which direction the quaffle would fly. Using the superior speed of his broom, Eric sped to the other end of the field and scored a beautiful shot, speeding the quaffle right between the keeper's legs.
It was as Ginny was speeding towards Eric to congratulate him that she got a funny feeling in her chest like something was wrong. She stopped her broom and looked around only to find Lucy's mother, Kelly, running towards the field shouting to every one to come down. The queasy feeling in Ginny's gut instantly became ten times worse as she flew in a daze down to Lucy's mother.
"What's wrong Kelly?" Ginny asked, frightened. The older woman got a sad look on her face when she looked at Ginny among all the other people.
"There's been a battle. Minerva McGonagall just told us through the fireplace. It seems she's been working her way south, informing wizarding families along the way of the happenings along with several other people. She said the battle happened far north of here, so that's why the news took so long to arrive. She also said that it should still be going on, and they need all the help they can get. All of us adults are going to apparate up there to aid in any way we can. We need you all to stay here. We do not want any of you children in any danger."
"Mom!" Eric and Lucy yelled at the same time. They looked at each other briefly before Lucy continued. "We're not children anymore. We're all 18 except uncle Bob and uncle Greg and they're well over that age. Also, we have all graduated from Hogwarts. Note that being the purpose for the party. If they need all the help they can get, we're coming too!"
"Yah!" The rest of the group yelled.
"Please Kelly," Ginny pleaded. "I'm sure my whole family is there and I would feel so much better if I could be there to help them in any way I can" The sad look returned to Kelly's eyes at that. It was then that Ginny knew something was really wrong. "What's really going on Kelly?" Ginny asked quietly. A false brightness came to Kelly's eyes then.
"Nothing dear! Anyway, I suppose you all are right. You can come, but if you are not careful I will not be responsible for what happens." At that, they all began running towards the house to get the rest of their group, and ten minutes later they all apparated to the scene of the battle.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
All Ginny could think upon seeing the carnage all around her was that this field probably used to be a beautiful place. Maybe full of wild flowers and butterflies. Now it was a vast plain of red and black with only one figure standing there other than the members of their group. This figure was Harry Potter.
"Harry!" Ginny yelled as she ran towards her brother's best friend. He was standing so still, just looking down at his feet like they were the most interesting things he had ever seen in his life. It wasn't until she had gotten much closer that she noticed he was crying. "Harry," she said again as she finally reached him. "What happened?" Before he could answer, Ginny finally really looked around at the details of her surroundings. What she saw sent all the blood rushing from her face as her heart broke in a million pieces. Lying practically in a straight line behind Harry was Ginny's entire family, all motionless and not breathing. Sobs suddenly burst from her throat as tears raced down her cheeks. Now she was practically screaming. Shaking Harry by the shoulders she yelled in to his face, "WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY FAMILY? WHY ARE THEY ALL JUST LYING THERE?" She stopped a moment to catch her breath as the tears continued to course from her eyes. "Tell me, please" she finally whispered, pleading, as she let go of Harry. Now Ginny was standing just like Harry, staring down at her feet, crying silently.
"I killed them," Harry whispered. This caused Ginny's head to shoot up to stare at Harry. "I killed them all. I just wanted him to die. And he did. He just took everyone with him. Why did I survive? Why do I always survive? Oh Ginny, I'm so sorry" Harry's voice trailed off as he sank to the scorched ground around him. Now on his knees he began sobbing loudly and uncontrollably. Ginny understood now why Kelly had looked so sad. McGonagall must have told her of her family's presence at the battle. With tears still running down her cheeks, Ginny sank down next to Harry and let all her grief and anger come pouring out in a scream, head pointed towards the heavens, eyes squeezed shut, hands balled in to fists. This is the picture that would appear in the Daily Profit the next day. The Boy Who Lived and the last remaining member of the Weasley family on the ground in a battlefield littered with bleeding corpses, Harry sobbing at the ground and Ginny screaming at the sky.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Ginny rolled over on her bed in the Burrow, not wanting to think about it anymore. But wait, this wasn't the burrow anymore. Not in Ginny's mind. The burrow was a happy place filled with smiling and laughing people. It was supposed to house seven men and two women, all living out their lives as the wondrous family they knew they were. But not anymore. To her this house was now just an empty husk of a large building with mismatched walls, holding only one woman and the memories of the family it used to contain.
Ginny looked around the room, only for her eyes to land on her desk, littered with letters from her friends telling her she shouldn't be alone right now. Telling her this was a time to be with friends. She had decided to ignore them all. She needed time to deal and they would just have to deal with that. She glanced up to the mirror on the wall, only to wonder at the woman staring back at her in the moonlight. Not a week ago she had been just a smiling, happy, newly graduated girl without a care in the world. She had only worried about boys and all the other drama of teenagers. The horrible events of her first year were already dealt with and behind her and friends and family surrounded her. Now in the mirror she saw a bedraggled woman of at lest twice her age. The black circles under her eyes never seemed to go away, not to mention the redness in her eyes from crying constantly for three days. Her hair was a matted mess about her shoulders. What would her friends think of her now?
Lying back down, she tried once again to drive these kinds of thoughts from her head. Finally, around 4:00 in the morning, Ginny's desperate body fell asleep, maybe only out of sheer self-defense.
888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
Three days after the battle, at the same time Ginny Weasley was remembering her arrival on the battlefield, Harry Potter was standing once again on that very battlefield. This time though, the once lovely field was not covered with bodies and blood, but just dirt. The only sign of the happenings three days before were the scattered footprints and scuffmarks in the dirt. Harry didn't know why he was there. For some reason he was just drawn there. Memories of the day of the fight kept him from sleeping basically at all and he would find himself apparating here, to the spot he had stood for only fifteen minutes before Ginny had shown up, and just staring around. Now the events that took place came back to him vividly and he could not stop his thoughts from completing the scene...
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Harry had just finished auror training along with Ron about a week before the battle. The two had not been involved, but from what they heard planning for the battle had been in the works for about three months. A helpful tip from Snape had given them the location and date of the next Death Eater meeting so they had planned their attack. They had decided on bringing all their forces and wiping out all the death eaters and Voldemort all at once. This was a good idea in theory, but the actual battle went far differently than they had expected.
Hiding in the woods at the north end of the field, the group of aurors and Dumbledore (who had come secretly, against Fudge's wishes) lay in wait for the first of the death eaters to show up. The plan was to pick them off as they came, but it didn't work that way. Instead of apparating in to the field, the death eaters came in a march from the south end of the field. At this, the aurors decided to rush out en masse and assault the death eaters, head on.
The battle had only been going on for fifteen minutes when the aurors realized they would need help. They sent a mediwitch to inform the Weasleys, who lived about a mile away, of the battle and enlist their help, along with all the other wizards and witches they could contact to help. It was right as the Weasleys arrived, marching in a straight line for a reason unknown to him, that Harry faced Voldemort. Stopping right behind him, the Weasleys each did a spell to aid Harry by funneling their power in to him. Harry knew in that instant that he would have only one shot to pull this momentous feat off, and he was the only one who could do it. Mustering up all his energy and aided by the energy from the Weasleys, he let loose his attack. He didn't so much cast a spell as fling as much energy at Voldemort as he could in one almighty blast. The bright blue light that emitted from Harry's wand spread and formed a bubble around Voldemort, vaporizing Voldemort's killing curse in midcourse. The bubble began to slowly close around Voldemort and much to Harry's surprise began to shrink him. About the time Voldemort and the bubble were the size of a marble, the small floating object exploded in a shower of green light, letting out a shock wave, knocking down all the people in the field who were still standing. That is, everyone except Harry.
Without looking behind him, Harry knew that all the Weasleys were dead. Looking in front of him momentarily, Harry saw Dumbledore on the ground about ten feet in front of him, his face frozen in a look of triumph. Harry looked down and began to cry.
It was a mere fifteen minutes later that Lucy's family and Ginny showed up to find Harry the lone figure standing in a field of corpses with a single large scorch mark on the ground before him.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Initially Harry had had a small amount of belief in him that maybe it wasn't his fault that all the people in the field were gone. But time, which usually makes things seem clearer and more rational, had done the opposite for Harry and just made him surer that the deaths were all his doing. He continually told himself that if he hadn't constantly fallen in to the traps Voldemort set for him, Voldemort would have been dead by now and this battle would have never happened. If he had only been smarter and tried harder he could have prevented all of this. If he had used an actual spell instead of the impulsive energy burst he had never used before, he believed more people would have lived.
It was with these thoughts that Harry apparated back to his apartment in London and in to his bedroom. He lay down in his bed, and like Ginny, fought off bad memories while trying to sleep, and finally succeeded in the early hours of the morning with thoughts that maybe the next day would be better.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Chapter One
