Authors Note: So this is told through flashback. It's about Harry dealing with his tangled up feelings about the battle, his memories as well as the memories of others about the battle, and how it impacted the rest of his life afterwards. Anyway Ginny and Harry are married, but they have problems in their marriage because Ginny feels that Harry won't open up to her. He finally tells her all about "that night." Anyway I hope you all enjoy it. It was gonna just be a bunch of chapters, but I decided to just have it be this one shot. It's almost 50 pages though, so it's pretty lengthy...anyway I like it. I cried while writing part of it, so we'll see whatyou all think when you review!
I'm alsohaving a really hard time with the title. I don't really like the one I have...I was thinking thatI wanted it to have something to do with battles, or scars, or healing, or forgivness, because those are all themes of this story. But I don't really know. The one I have is OK I guess...well if you have any suggestions let me know.
Harry's Story at the Battle Part 1
Reminiscing
Harry stood in the living room of his and Ginny's
apartment, engrossed in their second big argument this week.
"I want a family, Harry." She told him,
reinforcing this information for what seemed like the millionth time.
"I know you do, Ginny. And I want a family
too, but I just don't think that now is the best time to bring a child
into this world." Harry told her as patiently as he could.
"Harry, we've been married for two years, Voldemort
is gone, forever. He's not coming back. There won't be a
better time." Ginny told him, throwing her arms in the air.
"But there are still death eaters that haven't been
accounted for, and things are still dangerous. And I'm still in
training, I don't think that my auror training salary would be enough
to support a family-" Harry started to explain, but was cut off before
he could complete the thought.
"Harry, I was raised in a family of nine.
Things were always a tight stretch, and we always managed to pull
through. I was raised off of hand me downs for Christ's
sake! I think we would manage. You have a large salary,
bigger than my dad's ever was, and we have more money in the bank than
we would ever know what to do with. Not to mention my
salary." Ginny told him, irritated with his continuous excuses.
"I know, Gin, but still. I think we should
wait just a little longer..." Harry said, trailing off. He
was fishing for another excuse.
"Harry I feel like I've been waiting my entire life
for you to be ready." Ginny told him. Harry almost
staggered under the weight of that blow. What hurt the most was
that she had a point. "I idolized you for years, waiting for you
to notice." Ginny said,
ticking off one finger. "When you finally started paying
attention, I had to wait until I graduated from Hogwarts until we could
really be together" she said, ticking off a second finger. "After
Hogwarts, you
proposed and I was the happiest person on earth," Harry smiled,
reminiscent of that day, her graduation day. He remembered it as
clearly as if it had been the day before. He could visualize the
tangy scent of the air, the aroma of summertime at Hogwarts.
Flashback
He had been a graduate of Hogwarts for a year, and
had been training hard at the ministry to become an auror. He
was, fortunately, in Fudge's good graces once again, and had been
accepted into the auror training program. He was living in a
small apartment in London, only a few blocks away from the muggle
entrance to the ministry. But work was not all he was
doing. During his final year at Hogwarts he and Ginny had grown
much closer. Their relationship had evolved from that of
Big-Brother's-Best-Friend and -Best-Friend's-Little-Sister, to best
friends in their own rite, and later to more than friends.
Ginny was great. She was beautiful, smart,
fun, brave, everything Harry would ever want in a friend or a
girlfriend. And she liked him back. He had been shocked by
his own good fortune. With Ron and Hermione spending all of their
free time together, Harry had been feeling vulnerable and alone.
Ginny had been there for him the entire time, she was always by his
side through everything that he went through.
She helped him work through his feelings about
Sirius's death, which was still predominant among his dark
thoughts. He found his mind drifting more and more towards the
veil that he had seen in the
department of mysteries, and even considered going through it himself
to see what was there and solve the mystery once and for all. But
Ginny had guided him away from those thoughts, and skillfully steered
him back to the light. He honestly to this day could not fathom
what he would have done without her.
But then his seventh year had come to an end and
they no longer saw each other daily. They had agreed to take a
break and see how it went. It had gone badly for both. They
had instead resorted to Hogsmede weekends and letters sent between the
two constantly.
By the time Ginny was graduating Harry knew that he
could not live without her, but Voldemort was still around, and growing
in strength. Harry did not want to marry Ginny only to have one
or the other of them die the next day.
He remembered watching her graduate, shake hands
with Dumbledore, receive a diploma, smile broadly. The moment was
gone, although it would live eternally in pictures. Ginny was
easily the prettiest girl there. She had come a long way from the
awkward little girl who knocked over sugar bowls whenever Harry entered
a room. She was beautiful, especially in her dress robes, which
had been newly purchased for this occasion.
Harry had eyes only for her, much to the amusement
of Ron, who did not fail to comment on it. It had been a while,
however, even after the graduation ceremony ended, before Harry could
get her alone.
It had been that night, they had been alone outside
where they had gone to 'get some fresh air' after dinner. Fred
and George had exchanged many a snigger when they announced their
desire to go outside for a walk. Harry was nervous. He had
no experience proposing, but Ginny was the only girl he ever wanted to
be with. She was the only girl who he felt truly comfortable
with.
"So, congratulations, Hogwarts graduate."
Harry said at last, breaking the prolonged silence as they walked, hand
in hand, around the edge of the Weasley garden. Harry's mind took
a brief meander down memory lane to the occasion that he and the twins
had de-gnomed the garden in the summer before his second year.
"Thanks." Ginny said, laughing lightly and
applying a slight pressure to his hand. "I never thought that
this day would come." She said somewhat pensively, her voice
sounding slightly distant.
"Yeah." Harry agreed, thinking back to his own graduation from the hallowed halls of Hogwarts.
"It's kind of bittersweet." She said, inhaling
deeply. "It's great to know that I'm done with homework, but it's
so odd to think that in three months time I won't be going back there
again. There
are so many faces that I'm used to seeing every day that I'll probably
never see again." Ginny said thoughtfully, a slight twinge of
regret in her voice.
"You know what I remember?" Harry asked, stopping and turning her towards him.
"What?" Ginny asked, laughing at his abruptness.
"I remember in my first year. I met your
family in Kings Cross. I didn't know how to get through the
barrier, do you remember?" Harry asked her.
"How could I forget?" Ginny asked, grinning in the faint moonlight.
"You were complaining to your mom, begging her to
let you go to Hogwarts, do you remember that?" Harry asked.
"Yes, I hated being the only kid not allowed to go
to school. To me Hogwarts was a completely novel idea.
There was nothing I wanted more in the world than to go to Hogwarts and
be a big kid. I wanted to do magic and learn and be with my big
brothers. I wanted to be just like them." Ginny said,
gazing into the distance, her eyes faintly glazed over.
"Yes." Harry agreed.
"That was seven years ago now. That's so odd
to think of. It seems like it was just last week." Ginny
said with a sigh. "So much has changed since then."
"Yes, so much has changed." Harry said.
"You're not a little girl anymore. You're a woman, a grown woman
who knows her mind. A brave, clever, beautiful, supportive, kind
and caring woman. The most perfect woman I've ever met. And
I'm not a confused little boy anymore, Ginny." Harry said,
kneeling down on the slightly damp ground and revealing a soft velvet
box from his pocket. Ginny gasped slightly. "Ginny Weasley,
love and light of my life, will you consent
to be my wife?" Harry asked, opening the box to show her a
lovely, delicate silver band. In the center of the band was a
square cut diamond that twinkled in the soft lighting of the
garden. There were two smaller diamonds on the ring, one on each
side of the large
diamond.
Ginny got down on her knees as well, tears welling in her eyes.
"Yes, Harry. Yes. I will be your
wife. I will love you forever and ever." Ginny said.
As he removed the ring from the box and slipped it onto her long
slender finger it seemed to glow for a moment. She seemed to be
struggling to hold back tears. "It's beautiful," she whispered,
admiring the ring that fit so perfectly
on her finger.
"You're beautiful." Harry whispered back,
standing and taking her hands in his own, raising her to his
level. "Ginny, you made me the happiest man in the world
today. Regardless of Voldemort, death eaters, everything else
that's going on, I have you, forever and always. And you'll have
me even longer than that," he told her. "But I have to ask you to
wait a little while. I don't feel right marrying you until this
war is over and Voldemort is gone. It shouldn't be long, I feel
that we are on the edge now. But it wouldn't be fair for me to
marry you if I were to die tomorrow. Then I would leave you a
widow." Harry explained, his own hear filled with regret.
"I understand." Ginny told him, although she
also felt remorse at this. "Shall we go tell the news to the
others?" She asked him, a smile breaking on her lovely, delicate
face. Harry smiled happily, engulfing her hand in his own larger
one.
End Flashback
"but then we had to wait until Voldemort was
gone because it was too much of a risk." Harry was jerked out of
his reverie and found himself still staring at her hand, just as he had
been doing in his remembrance. Three fingers. She was angry
and frustrated. He hated it when her chocolate brown eyes welled
with tears like that, when the usual calm and tenderness was replaced
with anger. "We finally got married, after four years of waiting
around as your
fiancée, and now you're still making me wait for you to be ready.
You still can't handle a commitment, can you? We've been married
for two years, and you still refuse to let me in." She told him,
ticking off the fourth finger.
"Ginny, that's not true." Harry said in a
placating voice, although it was barely above a whisper.
Harry was no longer the boy he had been at Hogwarts,
he had aged a good deal since then. He had seen things that still
haunted his dreams, things that had changed him permanently. He
no longer had the look of innocents and naiveté, but was instead a
man. A man that had suffered much and lived through hard
times. A man who had been forced to grow up before his
time. At 25 he had an expression in his eyes that suggested an
age of far greater experience and maturity than his years
allowed. Although on the outside he was still a young man, in
spirit he was far older. His work was tolling as well, and now
Ginny wanted a family. To be sure, he wanted children as well,
but he still felt that it was not safe to bring a child into a world
still in the throws of healing from the war.
"It is true, Harry. I have been waiting around
my entire life for you. And you do refuse to let me in. You
know all of my thoughts, everything about me. You know the way
that I like to brush my teeth, you know which side of the bed I prefer,
how I take my coffee, you know every little quirk and every little
idiosyncrasy, and I feel like I don't know anything about you. I
let you in completely, you know more about me than I know about
myself. But when it comes to you I'm never sure. You're so
mysterious, you never let me inside your mind. You have all these
dark corners of your mind that you don't let anyone in to." Ginny
told him in frustration.
She was tired of waiting around for Harry to decide
to stop being afraid of letting her in. She understood, she
really did. She got that he was afraid of growing too close to
people, of becoming too
attached. That had not worked out well for him in the past.
So she had been able to write it off as first when she felt that he was
being sullen and reserved. But after almost six years of living
together, it was time for him to realize that she wasn't going
anywhere.
"Ginny, you have no idea." Harry told her morosely.
"Only because you won't let me get an idea."
She told him, exasperated. "Believe me, I don't not know for lack
of trying or wanting."
"Ginny, you don't want to know what goes on in the
darkest, deepest corners of my mind. I don't even want to
know. There's a reason that I keep it bottled in, it's because
it's dangerous, it's because it's scary, and it's because I don't want
to think about it. It's the shadowiest workings of my mind
because I keep it that way. You weren't there that night,
Ginny. You don't know what it's like." Harry told her,
choking on a lump that was rising in his throat. It had been a
long time ago. Perhaps she was right, maybe it was time to move
on.
"Harry, if this marriage is ever going to work then
you'll have to tell me sometime." Ginny said, a calmness entering
her voice that was stiff and unnatural. He knew that his words
had hurt her, but what she said next hurt him more than anything else
she could have said. "Maybe we just aren't ready for
marriage. I'm only 24, and you're only 25. We were so young
when you proposed, and we've obviously grown in different directions
since then." For a moment Harry couldn't speak. He stood,
rooted to the spot, muted by her words. He could not believe that
she had said that. It was as if he had been slapped hard across
the face. Her words were stinging him more than any slap could
ever have done.
"You don't mean that Ginny." He said at last,
after a long moment during which she averted her eyes and refused to
look back at him.
"Maybe I do mean it, Harry." She replied
defiantly. Her ears were turning pink around the edges, just as
Ron's used to do. She jutted her chin out and still kept her eyes
fixed on a corner of the wall away from his face in an effort to avoid
eye contact.
"No you don't." Harry told her calmly, willing his words to be true with all his might.
"Yes, Harry, I do." Ginny told him.
"You don't love me anymore?" He asked,
horrified. What had he done? He had successfully ruined the
single best thing that had ever happened to him.
"Of course I love you." Ginny said, breaking
down at last. She collapsed onto the couch, sobbing in to her
arms. "I'll always love you, Harry, however hard I wish not
to." He sat down on the couch next to her and looked at her for a
long moment. He would have to let her in eventually. She
had to know the truth about his tangled emotions, if he could even
discern the truth for himself from this tangled web of confused
feelings. He took her slight figure up in his arms and began
telling her the complete version of what had happened that night,
leaving nothing out.
"Ginny, it's time I told you the whole story about
what happened that night. I told you a garbled version of the
truth, but what I'm saying now is the whole truth, with nothing
omitted. I didn't want to tell you then because it was too
painful, too confusing. I didn't want to relive it more than I
had to in my own head, and I didn't want to impose than sort of pain on
you." Harry started, taking a deep, cleansing breath. It
was time. He had been putting it off for two years, and now it
was time. She would know everything that had happened that
night. He had to tell her. And afterwards she could decide
what she thought about him, about everything.
Flashback
It was a dark and stormy night, the evening of March
13. The death eaters had been pressing forward for the past
month, taking no prisoners now. Voldemort was on the point of
obtaining eternal life, which had been his goal for his entire reign of
terror. The death eaters had stopped taking people into their
folds, instead they killed, without mercy. They were "cleansing"
the world of all the impurities, of all the mud blood. The muggle
police were a wreak. They had no idea who was committing the
murders, how to trace them, or even how people were dying. Bodies
would turn up appearing stunned, as if all of their organs had
simultaneously combusted.
Of course, the wizarding world knew that this was
the results that would appear when a lab ran results on the body of one
who had been killed using the Avada Kedavra curse, an unforgivable
curse.
Dumbledore, the leader of the Order of the Phoenix,
had decreed that it was time to make a last stand, whether they died or
lived was irrelevant now, for only more of their numbers would die if
they held out any longer.
It was four years after Harry and Ginny had
announced their engagement. She was 22 and he was 23. They
were all young, in body and in spirit, and were ready for a
fight. All of the members of the DA were now prominent members of
the order. There were more Hogwarts graduates as well, but Harry
and his circle of friends were the leaders.
Hermione so far had proved invaluable. She had
organized a network of spies among the house elves through the elves
that she met and befriended through Dobby. Much to Harry and
Ron's surprise, SPEW had gotten a great deal of attention.
Hermione, rather than perusing a high powered career as many had
expected she would, had instead taken on the less glamorous job of
setting up a fledgling organization. SPEW was a fledgling no
longer, in fact it had many
members and was one of the leading non profits of the day.
Hermione was not rich, but she had her husband, Ron, were happy.
They lived comfortably off of the money he earned in his salary and the
money she made in public appearances.
Hermione and Ron had, like Harry, decided to wait
until the defeat of Voldemort to get married. But after two years
of waiting they had decided that there was no time like the present,
and had tied the knot. Hermione and Ron, although they fought
like cats and dogs often enough, were very happy together. They
were a match made in heaven, as was apparent to all who knew them
well.
Neville, to everyone's surprise, had done great
things as well. He had entered a healing training program at St.
Mugoes. He had told Harry in confidence once that it had been his
dream since he
was a young boy to cure his parents. And he was making great
strides towards accomplishing that goal too. When he acquired his
own wand as a replacement for his fathers, which had been broken that
fateful
night at the ministry at the end of Harry's fifth year, the night that
still haunted his thoughts occasionally when he remembered Sirius's
fall through the veil, he had made great strides in his magical
career. It turned out the Mr. Olivander had been quite correct
when he said that the wand choosing the wizard was very important after
all. There had been a piece in the Daily Prophet about Neville,
written by Luna Lovegood, describing him as a rising star in the field
of medicine. Thanks to his research in the fields of herbology
and potions, healers were growing closer every day to finding cures for
what had thought to be permanent memory destruction. Everyone had
high hopes that Neville would live to see his parents fully
recovered.
Luna, after graduating, had gotten a job with her
father at the Quibbler. After two years working with him, she
realized that the articles she was writing were ridiculous, and that
none of what she was writing was true. She had been clinging to
everything her
father said because she wanted to believe it, but she had found things
that were real. She was no longer a social outcast who needed to
cling to her invented reality as an escape, she had friends.
Great friends, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Ginny
Weasley, and Neville Longbottom. She had gotten a job at the
Daily Prophet after that realization, and was moving up in the
world. She and Neville were seeing each other as more than
friends now.
But tonight none of that mattered. Harry was
standing in the rain, Ginny on his right and Ron on his left, waiting
for the arrival of the death eaters. He knew they would
come. Voldemort was confident, as well he should be, and was
determined to put an end to
the wizarding world's last hope of salvation, Harry Potter.
Sure enough, only a moment later, they started to
appear. Harry could feel Ginny shifting, and knew that she was
scared. They had a plan, and Harry had to stick with it. he
knew that. He knew that he would do what Dumbledore had told him,
hard as it would be to put his trust in faith and leave his friends
when they would undoubtedly need him most. But he removed all
thoughts of that from his brain, they were competent fighters, they
would defend themselves.
Harry and the others began to shoot spells at the
approaching death eaters as the approached. There was a row of
members of the order stretching far away, and he knew that at this
moment they would be circling the arriving death eaters and trapping
them in the center. The was the plan at least. They had
chosen the location of the final showdown on a comparably level plane,
the same site that the quiddich world cup had taken place all those
years ago. Thinking of that night pained Harry, though. It
reminded him of Mr. Weasley, who had been murdered last year during his
duties for the order. Harry planned to avenge that death.
Avery would pay for that. Unless Ron got there first. Harry
had heard him talking about what he would like to do to the man who
killed his father if they ever came face to face.
And then the battle started and Harry lost all track
of what was going on. He did not know where his friends were,
except Ginny who was fighting by his side. He had told her
earlier not to leave him until he told her to, he wasn't taking any
unnecessary risks. If she were going to die, he would want to be
there. And if he were going to die, he would want her
there. But he wasn't going to think of either of them dying, he
wouldn't let himself.
Harry could not think, all he could do was fire
spells at the masked death eaters who were approaching from all
sides. And then Harry understood. They had anticipated the
plot and arrived in scattered groups. They were coming from
behind the orders line. He had to find Hermione to get a message
to Dumbledore. He would have gone to Dumbledore himself, but
Harry knew that he was on the other side of the line. Harry
called for Hermione, his voice rising above the volume of the wind,
which was picking up now, chilling him to the bones in an ugly
prophecy. He scoured the field for any tell tale sign of Hermione
and finally saw a figure that resembled her fighting against a
tree. He and Ginny rushed to her, panting for breath, and stood
at her side.
"Need message- Dumbledore- Death Eaters, outside
line!" Harry panted. he was yelling even though they were
close, but his voice was barely audible over the shouting and the rain.
"I know!" Hermione yelled back. "This
lot surrounded me." Hermione explained, gesturing the menacing
circle of death eaters that were approaching. Harry counted six,
they were outnumbered two to one. He shot a stunner at the
closest one and struck his march. Five to three, not as
bad. "I don't know where Ron is. Find Ron. Whatever
happens to me, find my Ronnie." Hermione implored, entreating him
with her eyes. Harry looked back at her, shooting a spell at a
death eater he had been marking out of the corner of his eyes.
"Nothing is going to happen to you, so you can find
him yourself when this is over." Harry said firmly between
curses, his voice not betraying the tumult of emotions that her words
released inside of him. Ginny was impeding the progress of one
death eater by
employing her famous bat bogie hex. Hermione had used the impedimenta on a fourth.
Harry pushed up the sleeves of his robes, ignoring
the Goosebumps rising on his skin. It was time to put some of the
techniques he had been learning in auror training to use. And
fast. At this rate the death eaters would win. Their
numbers had swelled since his fifth year, and the order was far
outnumbered. Harry just hoped he didn't encounter too many
dementors.
Harry, upon entering the auror training program, had
made it his mission to master the spell that Dolohav had used so
effectively in the department of mysteries. He had done it, and
used it now. His wand flashed purple twice, cutting down the two
death eaters. Harry knew that if they weren't dead yet, they
would be soon.
"Gin, stay here. Or go with Hermione.
You two stay together. And find Ron. Stay in large
groups. I don't want you going off on your own, either of you.
Understand?" Harry demanded. Ginny would have argued, but
she knew how deadly serious this situation was. There was no room
for argument in Harry's tone.
"What about you?" She asked him quickly. "Where are you going?"
"I have to find Dumbledore." Harry said evasively.
"And then?" Ginny pressed, suspecting the answer.
"Voldemort." Harry said shortly, avoiding her
eyes. She shuddered and came a step closer, gripping his
shoulders.
"Harry-" She started.
"Ginny, don't argue. I have to do it and you
know it. I'm the only one who can. You remember the
prophecy." It was not a question.
"Of course." She said in a defeated tone.
"Ginny, I love you. Whatever happens, remember
that. I will love you forever and longer. But-" Harry
gulped. "If I die, I want you to be happy. Don't wait for
me forever. When I'm gone I'll wait for you, behind the veil, but
that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be happy. Or fall in love
again. Or do whatever you want. Don't let my memory stop
you from-"
"Harry, don't say it. I'll never love anyone
but you. And don't you forget that." Ginny told him,
pressing a finger against his lips.
"I have to go." Harry said, kissing her
quickly and passionately before running across the field to find
Dumbledore. He couldn't stop the thought crossing his mind that
it might be the last time he ever kissed her.
Ron's Story at the Battle Part 1
Fred and George
Ron had gotten separated from Hermione in the fray
at the start of the battle. But Ron was not too worried, he would
be able to hold his own, and so would Hermione. He would find
her. 'Please let me find her' he prayed. He was a little
more concerned than he was willing to let on.
Ron was on a mission. He had been overcome
with passion and hatred. He wanted to find Avery, the man who had
killed his father. He knew that Harry, Ginny, Fred, George,
Charlie, Bill, and Percy would all be searching for the man as well,
but Ron wanted to find
him first.
His prayer was not long in being answered. Ron
saw the face that had haunted his nightmares for the past year snarling
and leering at him not far ahead. It was difficult to be sure in
this lighting, and Ron may have been imagining it, but he felt in his
bones that it was Avery. His mask had been discarded, presumably
during a fight that he had obviously come out of victorious.
Ron couldn't stop the morbid query of who he had
killed from entering his mind. Would someone else have lost a
father tonight because of this man? He wondered. If I kill him,
will I be taking away someone else's father? The questions
wouldn't stop coming. That was why he wouldn't make a good auror,
he always felt guilty when he even thought about killing people.
That was partly Hermione's fault.
She was always telling him to question things, not to accept things without an argument.
Hermione. No, he told himself, don't think of
her now. You'll only get distracted, which will lead to death,
and then thinking of her would have been in vain because you'll never
see her again. He told himself cynically.
"Another Weasley!" jeered Avery as Ron glared at him, is wand brandished.
"Yes, another Weasley. You killed my dad, now I'm going to make you regret it." Ron said.
"Oh, you're still on about your father? I
would have thought you'd have moved on to your brother by now."
Avery taunted.
"My brother?" Ron asked in a momentary lapse
of concentration. Avery took advantage of this opening and shot a
spell at him. Ron put up a shield spell and deflected it.
'Stupid, Ron. He was only trying to get your guard down, they
told you about that in
training. Harry's told you about that countless times in mock
duels. Why don't you listen?' Hermione's voice started
rattling in his mind about paying attention. Her voice had of
late made a habit of entering his thoughts of it's own accord.
"Yes, your brother boy. I killed him."
Avery snarled. Ron told himself over and over again to ignore
it. But he couldn't stop the curiosity. He had to know.
"Which one?" Ron asked. Avery let out a cackle of laughter.
"How should I know? There are too many of
you. There were two of this one. Identical they were.
I killed one of them, the other shot me with something and seemed
really angry and upset. I felt my personal safety would be at
risk if I messed with him." Avery
let out another cackle, tilting his head back and laughing. He
had a disgusting grin plastered on his face and seemed really proud of
himself. Ron did not let his mind wander to Fred or George, would
not
ponder over which, if either, of them this man had killed.
Ron took advantage of the man's lack of
concentration and shot him with the Avada Kedavra curse. It was
the first time he had used it, and he didn't know if it would work, but
he was so filled with hatred and rage that it did. The fact that
he had successfully used
and unforgivable curse filled him with both awe and fear. He
hadn't known that he had it in him. It was a scary thing.
He did not want the ability to kill. Once you had the ability and
will to kill, you were only a few steps away from being Voldemort or a
death eater.
Ron ran off in the direction that Avery had come
from, desperate to find Fred and George, to see if there was any truth
in what Avery had said. He did not have far to go. He saw a
figure hunched on the ground, rocking back and forth, sobs audible over
the
howling of the wind. The beating of the rain and the rocking of
the trees seemed to Ron to be echoing the distraught man's tears and
shaking. The world was crying for his brother, the dead one and
the living.
He sprinted the last few steps and slid in the mud
to the side of the body. Fred looked up, his face splotched in
red and angry tears on his face. He was waving his wand, ready to
kill whoever was interrupting this moment of grief. Ron could see
in his eyes that
his brother would have killed him too. There was no registering of recognition on his face until Ron spoke.
"Fred, it's me." Ron said in a placatory voice.
"Ron." Fred choked.
"Yes Fred, I'm here." Ron soothed.
"They've killed him, Ron. That son of a bitch
that killed dad, he's killed George." Fred said, sobs raking his
body again. Each sob seemed to tear him more deeply.
"I know, Fred." Ron said, tears streaming down
his own face. He felt a large lump rising in his throat.
Things wouldn't be the same without George. Fred wouldn't be the
same without George. All the joy would be gone from their joke
shop. The jokes would be half as funny with one twin gone.
Ron but his arm around his older brother's shoulder and cried with him,
remembering all the times he had shared with his two brothers at
Hogwarts, before Hogwarts, and after Hogwarts. They had been mean
to him before, teased him, but in the end they always had his
back. The two of them. Fred and George.
Together. Everything had changed.
"I have to find that bastard and kill him." Fred said, anger rising in his voice.
"I already did, Fred. He's dead." Ron told him in an effort to calm him down.
"Dead?" Fred asked, sounding if anything angrier.
"Yes, I killed him." Ron said slowly, not sure if he had said something wrong.
"I wanted to kill him. I deserved a shot at
him." Fred said. Ron understood that he was taking
his sadness and anger out on Ron,
but Fred could be unpredictable when he was upset.
"I know you did, but he might have gotten away and killed someone else if I had waited." Ron explained.
"Yes." Fred nodded his agreement, his face
growing still wetter. Ron and Fred sat on the rain drenched
ground for several long moments, rocking back and forth and crying over
their loss. "He was my best friend, Ron. He knew me.
Hell, he was me. What will I do now that he's gone? It's
never been just Fred. Ever since I was born it's always been Fred
and George, a big lump. Now he's gone. I might as well be
gone." Fred said, his tears renewed in full.
"Don't say that, Fred. What would happen to
the joke shop if you were gone? The people need you to spread
joy." Ron said consolingly, although he was not sure if he
believed it himself.
"The joke shop isn't worth it without George.
It was always something we did together. We did everything
together. Now nothing will be worth it." Fred said in a
tight voice. It cracked in the middle of his sentence and he
broke down again. "He's gone, Ron. He's gone." Ron
did not know what he could say that would comfort his brother.
What could he say? There was no response to that. All he
could do was sit there and hold his brother until his shaking subsided.
"Fred, we're going to apperate out of here with the
body, okay?" Ron said slowly and loudly over the volume of the
wind. Fred did not reply. Ron took his silence as assent
and apperated away from the raging battle with the body and Fred.
They arrived at 12 Grimwauld Place intact. Ron knew that he had
to return to the battle, although he hated to leave his brother in this
state.
He left Fred on the floor, rocking back and forth
cradling George's broken body, chanting over and over 'he's gone' as if
trying to make it sink in. Neville's Story at the Battle Part 1 Revenge
Neville had been next to Luna, who had been next to
Hermione, who had been next to Ron, who had been next to Harry, when
the battle began. In the chaos that proceeded the arrival of the
death eaters and the destruction from behind of the order's line,
Neville had been separated from his friends. All except
Luna. He was with her now, fighting with her back to back, pitted
against four death eaters.
It had been a while since Neville had done
this. It was four years now since he had graduated from Hogwarts,
and since then he had been training in healing, which did not entail
much grounding in combat magic. Of course, he had the lessons
that he had learned from Harry at Hogwarts all those years ago
engrained in his memory. The DA meetings had been the crowning
jewel of his time at Hogwarts. In his other lessons, with the
exception of herbology, he had been a nobody. No one cared about
what he did except to make fun of it.
But when he was at a DA meeting, everything was
different. Harry had actually cared about his progress, he had
taught him real defense. And now he was using it. To be
sure, the first year of meetings were pretty bad. Neville made
great strides under Harry's tutelage, of course, but he had not been a
shining star. After he had gotten his own wand though, everything
had turned around. Snape did not criticize him after that.
The memory of Snape's facial expression on his first day in the sixth
year when he successfully completed a potion perfectly by himself was
priceless. It was still one of Neville's favorite memories.
The wand gave him more confidence more than
anything. It was a symbol that he was no longer living in his
father's shadow. It proved that he was a wizard in his own right,
and that he could do magic. He had advanced so much in that year,
and the next one. In
fact, his marks had been high enough for him to be accepted to the healers training program.
And now he was standing, gripping that same wand for
his life, back to back with Luna, firing spells at complete random and
attempting to maim or impede anyone he could who was on the other
side. He tried to grasp on to the feeling of pride and self
confidence that had been bubbling inside of him a moment ago, but it
did not work. He searched in his head for other proud memories,
and found one.
And now look at him, he was leading the field in the
memory herbs and potions. He was on his way to curing memory
trauma disorders. That was a huge accomplishment. He had
been praised as a shining star by the Daily Prophet. To be
entirely fair, that was due mostly to the fact that his girlfriend had
written the article, but the entire wizarding world was looking to him,
Neville Longbottom, for great things. Neville, who had been at
the foot of his year for so
many years. People were expecting great things from him!
The pride came welling to the surface now, and
Neville had a large spurt of magical energy. He slashed at one of
the death eaters in a wild attempt to injure them. He struck out
and hit the target.
The death eater fell with a gasp and a flash of gold light. Had
he killed them? Neville cringed at the thought. What would
people think if they found out that he was a healer who, in his spare
time, killed
people? What would his Gran say? What would his parents say
when he finally cured them and brought their memories back? When
he thought of it they would probably all be proud. His parents
had both been
aurors after all.
Luna was panting from the strain of the
fighting. He couldn't blame her. She was in the same boat
as him. Her aid to the order up until now had consisted of
writing sympathetic articles and using her positions to get more
friends to the order inside the newspaper.
Just as Neville was thinking of how happy and
confident he was in Luna's presence, there was a laugh and a flash of
light. Luna had been hit. He felt more than saw her body
crumple behind him. Now
he was surrounded, his back and front exposed to the enemy.
Just as Neville was contemplating what he could do
next, and considering trying to apperate away, he heard a familiar
laugh that was enough to make his legs freeze. he had heard that
laugh so many times in his dreams, so he did not need to turn to see
who the body and face of the person the laugh belonged to. He
could see her face as clearly as if it had been plastered over his face
day and night. The heavy lids, dark, strong features, the
hollowed cheeks. Everything spoke of cruelty. How many times had
he relived his encounter with her? The number was infinite.
She was the source of his motivation to continue
with his research. Every time he reached another blockade in his
studies, encountered a new problem with whatever drug he had invented,
he thought of her laugh, her face, the words she had spoken to
him.
Thinking of it now made him dizzy, just as it always
did. "I have had the pleasure of meeting your parents boy.
Let's see how long you can last before you crack like they did."
Bellatrix Lestrange. In Neville's mind, there was no crueler
person on earth.
What kind of sick mind took pleasure out of hurting
innocent people? Yet she reveled in it. All this flashed
through Neville's mind in one moment of hot fear and terror.
Neville turned slowly. Time itself seemed to
have stopped. This was the moment he had been imagining for
years. he had rehearsed what he would say, imagined her possible
reaction, what she could
possibly say to justify her actions, everything. Yet now that it
had arrived he could not open his mouth to say a word. He felt
paralyzed. His throat was dry. He had now turned fully, his
body was facing her.
There were more death eaters now. He would never escape.
Yet a part of him did not want to. He wanted to confront this
woman, to face her. He did not want to run and prove his own
cowardice. He wanted to face her like a man, face her as his
father would have.
He straightened his back as Bellatrix stalked
towards him. She tore her mask off her face, revealing the face
he knew so well. She smiled that evil, sinister grin that he had
seen countless times in his memories of that one encounter he had had
with her.
"So, Longbottom. You are Longbottom, aren't you?" She asked in her thick French accent.
"Yes." Neville said stiffly, meeting her
eyes. She was just as scary as he remembered, although she did
look much older now.
"You look just like your father did!"
Bellatrix exclaimed, apparently delighted. "Who here remembers
god old Frank?" Bellatrix demanded of the assembled death
eaters. There was a murmur of appreciation in the crowd.
One man let out a bark of laughter,
stepping foreword. It was Rudolphus Lestrange, Bellatrix's
husband. He had been there that night that had culminated in his
parent's permanent insanity.
"There is a certain family resemblance."
Rudolphus commented, examining Neville. His eyes swept up and
down. "This will be fun."
"That's what I was thinking. Just as a little
test, shall we try out a small dose first? We can do it exactly
the way we did it to his parents. Do you remember,
Rudolphus? How much fun that was! We can do it just the
same and see who lasts longer." Bellatrix said, smiling
maniacally.
"I'm betting on the parents." Rudolphus
commented. "They lasted surprisingly long, considering." He said,
sneering and chuckling to himself. Bellatrix joined in with her
harsh, cruel laugh.
"Yes, but by the end they were begging for death." Bellatrix reminded him.
Throughout this exchange, Neville was quiet.
Inside him, however, an explosion was happening. He was enraged
that these people would talk about his parents in this fashion.
They had tortured them to the point of insanity and were laughing about
it. They felt no
guilt, no remorse. He had lived his entire life without parents
because of these people, and they did not even care.
Neville was so angry that he would have done
anything at that moment. He took a step back and stirred Luna's
crumpled body. That only made his fury grow, for these people had
taken away the only girl who had ever actually taken his
seriously. Well, the assistant nurses took him seriously, but
Luna had always been kind to him, and treated him as an equal.
And now she was hurt or possibly dead because of these cruel, murderous
people.
"What did you do to them?" Neville demanded,
his medical curiosity taking hold of him. He tried to make his
voice as firm and assertive as possible, but there was a quiver that he
could not keep out of it now that he had been recalled to Luna's body
on the
ground.
"Oh yes, I had almost forgotten. Ladies and
gentlemen, our young rising star of medical science!" Bellatrix
cried out sarcastically, pointing towards Neville. There were
laughs of derision among the death eaters. Some sniggered, others
just openly
laughed. "It is too bad that no one will know how to heal him
once he's in the same position as the others." Bellatrix said in
a voice filled with mock sorrow.
"What did you do to them?" Neville repeated, his tone containing more confidence this time.
"I suppose it would help your research to know,
wouldn't it? Well, we preformed the cruciatis cure on them, among
other things. We showed them some unpleasant sights, and told
them the sorts of things
that we had done or were planning on doing to their loved ones.
It was very sad, really. They were fine until we told them what
we had done to you. Really you could say that it's all your fault
that they
cracked at all." Bellatrix said, smiling viciously, her lip
curling. Neville did his best not to fall into the trap she had
set him, the trap of self doubt and blame, but it was so hard not
to.
Neville did not realize what he was doing, but he
felt his wand rising without his knowledge or control.
"Crucio!" He yelled, pointing his wand at
Bellatrix. She began to laugh at him, but after a moment the
spell began to take hold. Neville continued pointing his wand at
her, venting 24 years of hatred, loneliness, bitterness, fear, and
anger into the spell.
She was screaming, begging, crying, whimpering, and cowering on
the ground. Neville felt no pity for her at all. She had,
moments before, spoken with no concern about what she had done to his
parents, and about what she was planning to do to him. This woman
who was screaming and balling like a little baby was accountable for
the loss of countless lives.
He continued filtering all of the emotions he had
been feeling for years into his cruciatis curse. The other death
eaters looked on in horror as their leader lay crumpled and writhing on
the ground. "It's too bad that no one will be able to help to
cure you after I break you." Neville said coldly, his voice
almost as empty as her own had been moments before. Her tone had
a more mocking quality to it, while his was only harsh and
uncaring.
He felt as if he were watching the scene from
outside his own body. This was not the timid, insecure Neville
who he used to be. This Neville was cruel and cold. He did
not particularly enjoy seeing himself sink to their level of violence,
but he had no choice.
He had been waiting for this moment his entire life.
Everything had been leading up to the moment when he could avenge his
parents. Now this was it, and he could not show weakness.
He stopped the spell at last, having exhausted his own rage. Bellatrix did not stir from the ground.
"Bella." Rudolphus said softly, almost
tenderly, to his wife, crouching down to revive her. She let out
a laugh, but it was not the haunting laugh that had echoed in Neville's
nightmares, it was a foolish laugh. Neville had pushed Bellatrix
to the brink of insanity and over it, and he hadn't even needed to use
any words or threats.
Instead of being filled with a sense of pride,
Neville was filled with a sense of dread and self hatred. He did
not want to wait and see what had happened. He scooped Luna's
limp body into his arms
and ran as fast as he could. To his surprise, no spells were shot
after him. He made it to the safety of a covering of trees before
stopping. He had to see if Luna was alive before
continuing. If she was, then jolting her body by running all over
the place would not be wise.
Harry's Story at the Battle Part 2
Voldemort
Harry left Ginny and Hermione and ran quickly
through the rain in what he assumed was the general direction of where
Dumbledore was supposed to be. It was dark, the wind was loud,
the rain was falling in sheets, he was cold and drenched to the bone,
but none of that mattered right now. All that mattered was
finding Dumbledore, and killing Voldemort.
Harry squinted through his glances,
wishing that they would stop fogging over. It was too bad he had
needed glasses, it would be much easier to see without them. He
was just puzzling over what he could do when he crashed into a
tree.
"Ow" he cried out, rubbing his nose and feeling
wetness. He paused, wondering whether it was blood or just the
rain, but when he tasted the salt in his mouth a moment later he knew
it was blood. "Bloody fuck" he swore under his breath, wiping
away at the blood with the side of his hand. At least his nose
was not broken, he thought irritably.
He continued through the rain, more cautiously
now. He could see flashes of light in the distance, and he heard
shouting all around. The cries echoed around in his mind, he
heard shouting, laughter, and he thought he even made out
sobbing. He turned in a circle, trying to decide which way to
go. He was completely
disoriented now, and did not know how to find Dumbledore.
It became obvious only a moment later when he heard
a fierce battle cry and saw a tall figure illuminated in gold. It
had to be Dumbledore. In the bright flash of light he could also
discern the shape of a bird. It had to be Fawkes.
Harry ran towards where Dumbledore was, hoping that
this would also reveal Voldemorts whereabouts. If Voldemort had
even come. Harry was frozen with doubt for a moment. What
if Voldemort had decided to only send his death eaters to eliminate the
order? What if
he was not here and all these lives were lost in vain? What if
Harry never got a chance to put an end to Voldemort once and for
all?
Harry continued on his way, approaching Dumbledore and the order members surrounding him.
"Dumbledore!" Harry called out, walking towards him against the wind.
"Harry, we're losing too many. Find Riddle
now, or we pull back." Dumbledore said, defeat in his
voice. Harry knew he was right. There was nothing they
could do if they lost everyone in the order. But this was not the
Dumbledore who had been Harry's mentor and headmaster at
Hogwarts. This Dumbledore was old and wizened, defeated by years
of Voldemort's hatred. He was not the fearless man who could
accomplish anything that he had once been. After Hogwarts had
been closed the previous year, he had gone downhill. Harry nodded
firmly.
"Take everyone away. Get all of them out of
here. Leave me alone with Riddle." Harry decided at last, after
thinking hard about Ginny, and the many friends he was sure to lose if
they lingered any longer.
"Harry, we can't leave you alone." Dumbledore told him, panic in his voice.
"Just do it." Harry ordered. He never
would have ordered Dumbledore, once thought of as the greatest wizard
of all time, to do anything if the situation hadn't been so dire.
But right now he was thinking only of saving as many as he could.
"What will I tell them?" Dumbledore asked, after a startled pause.
"Tell them it's over and we've won. I won't be
leaving until that's true, so it won't be a big lie. Just go,
leave Voldemort to me." Harry said. He was not at all
confident that he could, in fact, deal with Voldemort on his own.
All he knew was that he had to.
Dumbledore turned away and left to spread Harry's order.
Harry inhaled deeply. The area around him had been emptied of
death eaters, presumably due to Dumbledore's spell, and the order
members had already scattered to find more death eaters.
"RIDDLE!" Harry called out, his voice
resonating over the volume of the storm. I Voldemort were here
anywhere, he would hear Harry's call. "RIDDLE! SHOW
YOURSELF! YOU CALL YOURSELF THE MOST POWERFUL WIZARD IN THE
WORLD? PROVE IT!" Harry challenged at the top
of his lungs. Voldemort would not stand for that kind of insult if Harry knew anything about him.
"So, we meet again Potter." Said an icy voice
that was enough to chill Harry to the bones. He turned and saw
the figure of Tom Riddle approaching him. They were close in
height now. Riddle seemed to have grown stronger and healthier in
the past years. The only
thing that remained the same in his appearance as the night that he had
been resurrected in Harry's fourth year were his eyes. Those
narrow red slits were still there, putting Harry in mind of a
snake.
In fact, they looked exactly like the eyes of the
snake that was now circling Harry's ankles. He knew that her name
was Nagimi from a previous encounter. Voldemort was hissing to
her now in parsletongue, the language of the snakes, a language which
few wizards
understood. Harry understood it though, a gift that had brought
him much difficulty in his second year. His classmates had all
believed that he was a murderer based on his ability to speak with
snakes.
"Leave us, Nagimi. Gather my death eaters to
come and witness the fall of the boy who lived. That was your
name, was it not, Potter? Well, it won't be any more. You
will be the boy who lived at one time. Or the boy who died.
The boy who fell." Voldemort
hissed at him. Harry did not understand at first, the hissing he
was making now did not mean anything in parsletongue. Then he
realized that Voldemort was laughing. "So, you called me,
boy?" Voldemort
demanded, switching to English.
"Yes, I called you to tell you that it is high time
you met your doom." Harry told him with more confidence than he
felt. Voldemort began hissing with laughter again.
"Meet my doom, will I? By your hand I
suppose? That is quite the challenge. I accept." He
said, appearing to find this all very amusing. "You do realize
that I could crush you with one word, though."
Voldemort added, seemingly offhandedly. Harry did not
reply, he waited for Voldemort to begin dueling. "Well, what are
you waiting for? Bow, Potter. Or do I need to assist
you?" Voldemort asked, referencing the duel they had had
before. Harry bowed shortly, he
would not fall for that again. Voldemort inclined his own head as well.
Riddle shot a dart of red at Harry, who dodged to
the side nimbly. Voldemort smiled, he was only warming up.
"Ever find out what that prophecy was, Tom?"
Harry asked conversationally as he shot a jet of green sparks from his
own wand.
"No, I never did. But it won't be very important for much longer,
as I'm about to kill you." Voldemort said, advancing on Harry
with his wand raised. Harry thought that for a brief moment he
saw a flash of
hesitance and curiosity in Voldemort's face.
"How do you know?" Harry asked him, smiling
himself on the outside, but shaking with fear on the inside.
Being in such close proximity with Voldemort made his head ache.
"I am the better wizard, Potter." Voldemort explained, as if to a young child.
"But you never heard the prophecy. How do you
know it didn't say what would happen here tonight?" Harry
pressed, watching with glee as Voldemort's expression changed
slightly. Voldemort obviously did not want to attempt to kill
Harry only to have it backfire again.
Harry did not know what else to do but to press his advantage.
'Act confident, pretend you know what you're doing' he told himself
over and over again.
"You know, Harry, we could avoid all of this quiet
easily." Voldemort said slowly. Harry was not sure if he
had heard correctly. Voldemort had called him Harry.
"No, we can't." Harry told him.
"But we could." Voldemort insisted. "You
could join me." Harry's stomach turned over at the thought.
"Join us, and you could have power beyond your imaginings. With
your help we could rule the world," Voldemort coaxed. Harry
blinked. Voldemort was trying to get him to join his cause.
He would never do that. Harry was a good guy, he was a defender of
those who could not defend themselves. And yet
Voldemort's words seemed oddly appealing. "We're just the same,
you and me." Voldemort told him. "I put some of myself in
to you when I gave you that scar. You could be powerful,
Harry. You can get out of the shadow of that broken down old man
and rule the world at my side. I would be the father you never
had. Just think of it Harry." And Harry, against his own
will, did think of it. He hated himself for doing it, but he
couldn't help but be drawn in to Voldemort's depiction of what reality
could be. He saw himself, ruling the world. Maybe Voldemort
was right, maybe there was no fighting the inevitable. Harry was
just like Voldemort. He wanted power, it was only natural.
Who would blame him for joining Voldemort's side? "And
think of Ginny. If you were on my side, you would have no fear of
attack. You could finally marry that girl of yours."
Voldemort coaxed.
Although the mention of Ginny was supposed to make
Harry want to join Voldemort, it instead started a fire inside his
mind. He thought of what Ginny would say if he joined the ranks
of the death eaters. Her face flashed clearly in his vision, and
that more than
anything made his decision for him.
"Never. I will never join you or your death
eaters. No one will. There won't be any death eaters left
to join after tonight." Harry told him.
"Legilimens!" Voldemort cried out. Harry
recognized the familiar spell from his lessons with Dumbledore and
Snape. Voldemort would try to find out what Harry knew through
reading his mind, but Harry was ready. he had had much practice
with these types of spells in his occlumency lessons. He
countered the spell and put up a wall just in time. He receded
into his own thoughts, protecting them with all of his will power.
No sooner had he entered his mind than he felt a
force slamming into his mind. It was Voldemort's will, combating
his own. This was the only way either one of them would
win. It would be a battle between their minds to see who would
emerge victorious. Harry felt himself trembling with the exertion
of fighting Voldemort. He could also feel himself losing
ground. Voldemort would soon be in the
outer layer of his thoughts.
Harry pressed back hard against Voldemort's
mind. He managed to regain some ground. He felt Voldemort
grip him mentally, squeezing. Harry pushed back, freeing himself
from Voldemort's hold. Just then a thought occurred to him.
A thought that, had Voldemort gotten a hold of it, would have been
Harry's undoing. He needed to lead Voldemort to a certain area of
his mind, and keep him away from the rest of it.
He thought hard of that force that was within
him. The force that would be the only thing to harm
Voldemort. The force that was contained in such large quantity in
the department of mysteries. Love. And courage. He
recalled those emotions to the surface of his brain, thinking of them
hard. He managed to harness the feelings. He felt an
invisible net going over the feelings, a net he had cast.
Harry, for the first time when facing Voldemort,
knew exactly what he had to do. With an incredible surge of
energy, Harry pushed against Voldemort's mind. It gave.
Only slightly, but Voldemort had moved. Harry pushed again,
harder this time. He was making progress. He used his "net"
of emotions to push harder against Voldemort. This time there was
a large give. Now the positions were reversed. Harry was on
the verge of entering Voldemort's mind.
Harry gave one final shove and he was in.
Scenes went flying past him as if he were in a movie. Tom Riddle
as a young boy at an orphanage. Tom Riddle as a young man
arriving at the Riddle House and killing his father and grandparents,
the first murder the boy ever committed, and far from the last.
Harry saw countless scenes of brutality. He was so engrossed in
what he was seeing as he flew deeper into Voldemort's mind that he only
recalled his mission when he felt the shove of Voldemort's
blockade. He would not have much time, as he did not have the
strength to fight much longer. He released his net. The
emotions it had contained, the emotions he had brought from his own
mind, were now being released into Voldemort's mind. Consuming
him. Voldemort had never known love, or courage, and could not
understand them. Harry quickly exited the mind. He snapped back
to reality and reentered his body.
He looked down at the crumpled figure of Voldemort
in front of him. It was shriveling in front of his very eyes,
dissolving, disintegrating, disappearing. Voldemort was crying
out in agony. Harry looked around, he was surrounded by death
eaters now, death
eaters who had arrived at the call of Nagimi. But now, rather
than advancing menacingly, they were backing away. Voldemort was
gone, dead, forever.
The death eaters who had joined Voldemort's ranks
because they were under curses seemed to be coming to their
senses. The others seemed to be looking shifty and nervous,
backing away from Harry faster, for fear of now being caught by the
ministry. Harry saw
Luscious Malfoy and his son Draco among the death eaters, backing away quickly, making a run for it.
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted at Draco's retreating
back. Draco was not escaping without punishment. Neither
was his father. They would pay for the years of torture they had
put people through, and the years that Draco had taunted and bullied
other students at Hogwarts. He pointed his wand at Luscious
next. He looked threateningly at the remaining death
eaters. None of them moved to attack. Nor did they move to
retreat. They were all rooted to their spots out of fear.
Harry did not know what to do next. If he
apperated to Dumbledore, the death eaters would escape. If he
stayed here and waited for someone to come, he might be here
forever. He opted for a third option. He used a clever
spell that he had learned a while ago
and had never had a chance to employ. He conjured ropes from the
air and wrapped them tightly around the death eaters, who he herded
into a large group. He then ensured that no one would break the
ropes by
charming them to be indestructible.
Reasonably sure that they would still be there when
he returned, he apperated to Grimwauld place. When he arrived he
could hear the portrait of Mrs. Black yelling, and heard Tonks
apologizing to Mrs. Weasley. It was just as things had been in
the past, before
Sirius was gone, before Mr. Weasley was gone. Harry entered the
living room, almost scared of what he would find. He did not want
more people close to him to be dead. He saw Fred on the floor,
holding George's body and crying. No one could console him, and a
few people glanced at him concernedly every once in a while.
Molly was alive and as well as could be expected upon the death of a
son. Tonks was there, as was Remus. There was a subdued
atmosphere in the room
when Harry entered. No one seemed to have noticed him yet.
He saw Percy, Bill, and Charlie all talking in a corner about the
battle, what they should have done differently, and George.
Everyone's eyes were red. Harry did not know how long he had been
alone with
Voldemort, but it had obviously been long enough for everyone to arrive
home. He wondered if Ron, Hermione, and Ginny had made it.
His mind flitted to Luna and Neville, and then lastly to Dumbledore,
who he needed to find.
Harry turned and left quietly. He could not
shake the image of George's broken body from his mind, but knew that
right now was not a good time to think of that. He went to the
kitchen, which was deserted, and then up to the room he and Ron had
shared when they
stayed here. There he heard Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, all talking
in hushed voices. He heard George's name mentioned, and his
own. He opened the door slowly, edging his face around the side
of the door. The three looked up. He saw that Ginny and
Hermione had been crying, and still were, and Ron also had the
appearance of one who had shed many tears. He was wiping his eyes
right now. It looked as if they had just finished with their sobs
for the moment.
Harry entered the room and shut the door, then
turned to his friends. Ginny leapt up from the bed and ran to
him. He opened his arms for her and she hugged him tightly,
sobbing into his shoulder.
"Harry, you're alive." She gasped.
"We-we-we all thought-" She stuttered, her hands roaming over his
back and face and arms, as if to assure herself that he was all there.
"We thought you were a goner, mate. Dumbledore
told us we had won, and that it was time to go home. We assumed
you'd be there, but when you weren't, we just all thought
that..." Ron trailed off. Hermione came over and hugged him
next, checking as Ginny had that
he was, in fact, still alive and in one piece.
"Harry, George...he's dead." Ginny told him slowly and quietly, her voice choked.
"I know Ginny." Harry told her simply, holding
her in his arms tightly as she cried against him. He had thought
that they had finished crying, but apparently he had been wrong.
His shirt was growing damp from her tears, and she showed no sign of
stopping.
"Harry, what happened?" Ginny asked at last, pulling back just enough to see his face.
"Nothing Gin, he's gone, it's all over. That's
all that matters." Harry told her, walking over to the bed and
sitting down, his arm still around her. He pulled her closer, as
close as he could. He never wanted to let her go again. He
had been so scared. He had thought he would lose her.
"Harry, I was so frightened." Ginny said,
leaning against him and wrapping her arms around him more tightly,
squeezing him hard.
"We all were." Ron said quietly. Harry
noticed that they also could not stop looking at each other, hugging,
and checking to see if the other really was alive.
"Ginny, I love you so much." Harry whispered in her ear, his face buried in her hair.
"I love you too Harry. I don't know what I
would have done if you had died. I don't know what the rest of
the world would have done either. We all would have fallen apart
without you." Ginny told him.
"Excuse me, I hardly think I said that." Ginny
interrupted. Harry paused in his story to look at her.
"I thought we agreed on no interruptions?" He
reminded her, resuming his story after she subsided, settling back into
her seat. "Where was I?" Harry asked, thinking back to the
two years previously. "Oh, yes. You were just telling me
how much you loved
me." Harry reminded her, resuming his story where he had left off.
"Let's get you cleaned up." Ginny suggested at
last. Harry looked at her, his eyes filled with love, adoration,
and admiration. She was so strong even in the face of all she had
encountered that night. Even though her brother was lying on the
floor dead on the
floor beneath them, she was still strong and practical. "You're a
complete mess, Harry. You're covered in blood. You should
have a bath." She suggested. He smiled feebly at her brave
efforts to put on a strong front. She was firmly wiping away
tears and swallowing hard. She sniffed loudly, but determinedly.
"Let's go home, Ginny." Harry said, taking her hand in his and walking out onto the landing.
"Wait, Harry, you can't go just yet." Hermione told him.
"Hermione, it's late, I'm tired, why can't I sleep?"
Harry asked. It was actually early, he noticed, looking out the
window. The sky was tinted red and pink with the dawn's
light.
"The others will want to know you're safe, and
Dumbledore will want to speak to you." Hermione told him.
"I'll see the others, but Dumbledore can wait until
morning. Where is he, anyway? I didn't see him
downstairs." Harry observed.
"Didn't he come back with you?" Hermione
asked, fear in her voice and anxiety on her face. "No, he was getting
all of you away from the battle." Harry said, uncertain now.
"Yes, he did that." Hermione told him with a
dismissive wave of her hand. "He went back. Didn't he go
back? He said he was going back. You didn't see him?"
Hermione asked, worried. "Ron, where is
Dumbledore?" Hermione asked, turning to Ron. He was
standing behind her, looking concerned and listening attentively.
"I couldn't say." Ron told her.
"Why can't you say? Do you know?" Hermione demanded.
"Of course I don't know. Why do you always expect me to know everything?" Ron asked her.
"I'm sorry, I'm just tired and worried."
Hermione said, apologizing and reaching for his hand.
"Well, maybe he's downstairs now." Harry
suggested, hoping against hope that he would be there. When they
arrived, however, he was not there.
"Harry!" Mrs. Weasley shrieked. "You're
alive!" She ran to him and embraced him, crying on him and
hugging him tightly. "We were so worried."
"I'm sorry. I'm fine. I'm alive.
You haven't seen Dumbledore, have you?" Harry asked before the
others could surround him and begin questioning him.
"No, I thought he was with you, Harry dear." Mrs. Weasley said anxiously.
"He didn't turn up?" Arthur asked, joining his wife in front of Harry.
"No. I'm going to go look for him."
Harry told the room. The others had begun to surround him by now,
Bill, Charlie, Percy, Tonks, and Lupin. Fred seemed oblivious to
everyone but George.
"I'll come." Ginny told him.
"No, Ginny. I have to go alone. You
should stay here and rest." Harry suggested. "Get some
sleep. I'll come get you soon and we can go home. I don't
want you to have to be in that big empty apartment alone." Harry
told her. Ginny, to his surprise, did not argue. She was
not overly eager to return to the scene of the battle.
Harry disapperated before any more could be
said. The last thing he saw was Mrs. Weasley ushering people
towards the kitchen to fix breakfast. He saw Hermione crouching
beside Fred, probably attempting to coax him away from George's
body.
When Harry arrived at the battle site he went
immediately to the location of the death eaters who he had roped
up. He found that the Ministry Law Enforcement Squad and a few
aurors were already there, rounding up the death eaters.
"Potter! What happened here?" demanded Andy
Grell, an auror who had graduated training only a few months ago.
"A fight. They lost." Harry said, not
smiling, although Grell began to laugh at this comment.
"And you won?" He asked, straightening.
"Obviously. They're the ones in ropes." Harry observed.
"That was a nice spell, the indestructible one. It took us a while to break it," Grell told him.
"Yeah. It's a simple one, but effective,"
Harry told him. It felt so odd, making small talk. He had
things to do, bodies to find. He shivered slightly at the
prospect.
"Show it to me some time, will you?" asked Grell.
"Sure." Harry replied.
"So, where's er, well, You Know Who?" Grell asked uncertainly.
"Gone." Harry told him.
"Gone?" Grell asked, taking a step closer.
"Forever. He'll not be coming back.
Ever." Harry told him forcefully. He was almost trying to
reinforce the concept within his own mind.
"So, the boy who lived survived after all?"
Grell asked, smiling for some reason. Didn't he understand that
this was serious? That people had died over this?
Apparently not. "Good going. Why aren't you a fully fledged
auror yet? You're better than most of
us." Grell observed.
"I'm not ready yet." Harry told him, not
revealing that he had been offered a chance at becoming a full auror on
numerous occasions. He had passed the training, but he didn't
feel mentally prepared yet. He still had too much to learn.
Maybe in a few years he would be ready, that was what he kept telling
himself.
"Well, I hope you'll join us someday." Grell
said, walking back towards the death eaters who were being carted away,
probably to Azkaban, although the dementors were no longer there.
Harry slipped away quickly, before anyone else
engaged him in conversation. They somehow all seemed to know that
it had been him. How? Had a death eater escaped? Or
was he just paranoid? Maybe Grell had assumed it had been him
since he had been on the scene.
Harry walked around the circumference of the battle
field. It looked less sinister in the daylight, although there
were the tell-tale signs of a battle that still lingered. Spilt
trees, small fired
burning, smoke, and a few robes lying on the ground. Harry did not care to guess where their occupants were.
Harry, at long last, came across a pile of robes
that looked all too familiar. He rummaged in the pile of robes,
dreading what he would fear. There they were, a pair of half moon
spectacles. There was no wand, however, so perhaps Dumbledore had
escaped his doom.
Harry had this thought in his mind for only a moment longer. He
then looked up and saw a sight that was enough to make his blood
curdle. Dumbledore's naked body was hanging from a tree, his wand
snapped in half and dangling close to his ear from a separate
rope. Harry could not look any longer. Dumbledore's face
was blue tinged and swollen. He was obviously dead. This
could only be the work of death eaters, no one else would be so cruel
to an old man. Harry climbed up the tree slowly, making a huge
effort not to look at Dumbledore's swaying body. He could not
bear it. He cut the rope down, hating to let the body fall like
that, but there was no way around it. Dumbledore needed a proper
funeral. Harry preformed a hovering charm on the body and
propelled it in front of him, the way he had once seen Sirius do with
Snape's unconscious body.
Harry transported Dumbledore's body back to the
ministry officials, who, although looking very disgusted by the
appearance of the dead corpse, promised to deliver it to the proper
people. They
guaranteed a respectable funeral for the brilliant wizard.
Harry had one final thing to do. He wanted to
scour the area around the forest, in case he had missed Neville or
Luna's bodies, which had not yet turned up. He still held to a
thread of hope that they had left the battle and made it safely back to
one of their houses, but at this point he did not have much hope left
in him. He also wanted to make sure that there were no more death
eaters lying in hiding on the surrounding trees.
He made his way to a clump of rocks, which seemed as
good a place as any to start. He searched the trees for an hour,
searching for his friends. There was no sign of human life, so he
gave up, deciding to return to Ginny and the Weasleys.
The sun was much higher in the sky now, and it was a
clear and bright day, contrasting with the previous night. He
apperated to Grimwauld Place and entered the front hall. He went
to the kitchen first, but found it empty. They had apparently
finished eating.
He then went upstairs and tapped on the door to the room that Ginny
used to sleep in. He pushed the door open and saw her resting,
her chest rising and falling peacefully.
He entered the room, and although he hated to wake her he shook her gently.
"Ginny, wake up. Let's go home." Harry suggested. Ginny sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"Harry, you really are alive. I was afraid it
was a dream for a moment there." Ginny told him. She rose
from the bed and grasped his had, wobbling slightly. They
apperated right away to their house, not remembering to say goodbye to
anyone.
"Ginny, let's get married." Harry said as soon as they reappeared in the living room.
"I thought that had been the plan for the last two
years." Ginny told him, the tiniest of smiles tugging at her
mouth.
"No, I mean soon. Let's get married soon." Harry told her.
"I've been waiting for you to say that for a long
time." Ginny said contentedly. "But first you need a
shower." She told him.
They both got in the shower and Ginny helped him to
scrub the blood off of his back and shoulders. She wiped the dirt
off of his face and chest and kissed him tenderly. Harry was
ready to burst for joy that she was alive. He couldn't stop
looking at her. And
soon they would be married.
"Ginny, I love you." Harry told her
again. It was like, now that they had survived that ordeal, that
he couldn't stop saying those words. He couldn't tell her enough,
after having been faced with the prospect of never having a chance to
tell her again.
"I love you, Harry." Ginny replied, smiling
happily. They went to bed after their shower and slept the entire
day away in each other's arms.
Harry woke that evening and found Ginny still
sleeping. He slipped quietly from the room, not wanting to wake
her. He had not yet told her about the battle, or Dumbledore, or
Luna and Neville's missing bodies. He sat down at the kitchen
table, his head in his hands. This had been his first chance to
really be alone and quiet with his thoughts since encountering
Riddle. He thought over what he
had said about Harry's potential to be powerful. He had said
Harry could rule the world with him. He would have been the
father Harry never had. It was a tempting prospect. Harry
found himself regretting that things had not played out
differently. It took a
great deal of energy for Harry to remind himself that, if it were not
for Voldemort, he would not need a substitute father.
Harry sank into a phase of depression. He
could not stop reliving the moments he had had inside Voldemort's
mind. The moments he had experience facing his own desires.
They were complicated things, desires. He wanted power, he wanted
success, he wanted Ginny. He wanted a family, but he also wanted
safety. More than anything he was afraid.
Not knowing what else to do, and not wanting to wake
Ginny, Harry rose. He could not sit here any longer without going
mad from thinking. There were too many things to think
about. Instead he headed over to the hospital, just to check if
Neville had turned up. To his surprise he had, he had checked in,
according the nurse, earlier that morning. But not to work, she
further told him. He had been bringing in a Miss Luna Lovegood,
who was in critical condition. She was recovering now. Only
one word echoed in Harry mind, recovering. He asked her what room
they were in and walked to it with all haste.
"Neville!" Harry called out loudly when he was
halfway down the corridor. He received an angry glare from a
passing nurse, obviously a silent reprimand for him to be quiet.
"Harry? Have we won?" Neville asked.
"Yes, we have. Voldemort is gone, for good
this time." Harry told him. Neville looked glad to hear
this. "How is Luna?" Harry asked.
"Better. She'll be fine now." Neville told him. Harry was glad to hear this news.
The next few weeks were a flood of activities.
The newspapers printed issue after issue about the death eaters being
captured, the prisons being restored, and obituary after obituary about
the many who had died. George's was among them.
Dumbledore's took up an entire page in the Daily Prophet. It
included a picture and a description of the many works of his
life. It made Harry sad to read it.
There were also funerals to attend, wedding
preparations to be made, and reporters to be dodged. Reeta
Skeeter, who was back to reporting anything she could, had written a
piece about the battle including quotes that Harry never remembered
saying, as she was wont to do on most occasions.
Harry, although happy that Voldemort was gone, was
still depressed and busy. He was busy rounding up the escaped
death eaters, and cleaning up the mess left behind by Voldemort.
The world had a lot of healing to do before things would ever be the
same.
End Flashback
"And so that's what really happened. I still
think about what he said to me, Ginny. I can't help it. I
love you so much, and I don't regret the choice I made, but sometimes I
can't help thinking what would have been different." Harry
confessed at last, looking at the woman in his arms. She looked
like she had been crying at times during his story. She was lying
against him with her head against his chest. She seemed to have
forgiven him.
"Oh Harry. Why didn't you tell me all of this
when it happened? Why didn't you tell me that you had been
offered a position as a real auror? Why didn't you take it.
I can't believe you. All this time you've been feeding me excuses
about how you don't have a big enough salary. Yeah right.
Accept the job Harry. Become a full time auror. I know that being
in the training program is safer, but you know what, Harry? Take
a risk. You do the same work that all the aurors do anyway.
You do more work than most. Harry, as your wife, I order you to
accept the job." Ginny told him.
"Aren't we rather missing the key issue here?"
Harry asked mildly. He couldn't help smiling at her. "Okay,
I'll tell Moody that I want the job on Monday, I promise." Harry
told her.
"Oh Harry. Why didn't you tell me?" Ginny asked with a sigh.
"It wouldn't have made a difference. It only would have upset you," Harry told her.
"Harry, I could have helped you through it. We
could have worked through it together. I know you want influence
and power, but that and killing innocent people and destroying lives
are totally different things. Look what he did to Fred!
He's still broken
from his loss, I doubt he'll ever be the same again. His hearts not in
the joke shop any more. He was telling me the he was thinking of
selling the business just last week." Ginny told him. "But,
I bet you, if he had told someone about his emotions instead of trying
to work through it alone, he would be different." Ginny told him.
"I doubt it." Harry told her.
"Well, you do have someone. Now I at least know why
you've been so distant." Ginny said, seemingly understanding.
"So you forgive me?" Harry asked. She nodded. "And
marrying me wasn't a mistake?" Harry asked.
"Of course not." Ginny gasped, horrified.
"Your words, not mine." Harry told her. She pulled
him into an embrace.
"I should be the one apologizing, Harry. Not
you." Ginny told him. "I've been so impatient with
you. Of course you needed time to heal. We don't need to
have kids right now. We can wait as long as you
like."
"You don't want kids?" Harry asked. "I
can't believe you." Harry told her, shaking his head in mock
seriousness.
"No, I didn't mean I don't want kids ever-"
Ginny started to say hurriedly, before she realized that he was teasing
her.
"I actually have decided that I want to have a big
family." Harry told her. She smiled. "And if we're
going to have a lot of kids we should probably start soon." Harry
suggested.
"That would probably be the wisest plan." Ginny confirmed, nodding sagely.
"Which means that we should probably get a move
on. Right now in fact." Harry said, standing and yanking
her to her feet. She giggled, standing in front of him. He
leaned forward and kissed her on the mouth. She squealed a little
and started to laugh, breaking
the kiss off. "What?" Harry asked.
"I can't even remember the last time you kissed me like that." Ginny said, giggling and blushing.
"Just think, after all these years I can still make you blush." Harry announced.
"I bet I can make you blush more" Ginny challenged,
leaning in and kissing him hard. She wrapped her arms around his
neck while his hands were busy roaming up her shirt. They backed
up to their bedroom, eager to start their family.
Authors Note: So whatdo you think? I hope you liked it...were there any areas thatreally didn't make sense/flow/whatever commentary you would like to give me. Anyway, just tell me what you think. Oh and how do you like those apirings? Wasn't what happened with Fred and George so sad? I hated writing that...they're like my favorite characters after Sirius and Remus...well actually they're all just tied, i love all of them. Fawkes is pretty cool, not gonna lie...haha so review it and tell me what you think!
I
also hope that the bit with Dumbledore wasn't too gruesome or
brutal...that just struck me as the type of thing that death eaters
would do. I dunno. Also, was the fight with Voldemort rly
unrealistic or was thatsemi-OK? Flame if you want, just tell me
what you think.
