Life after Death
"-hit me and I died. Just like that. My soul, I... I could feel it leaving. Do you know what that feels like? Well, I hope not. Anyways, it was strange. Dying in itself may cause pain. The burning, the tearing and all that. But the very moment I died? No, no pain. It was ... elation, I guess. Pure relief. Freedom! Soothing and cool it took everything. Every scrap and every sin, every burden and every lie. Free. That's what I was."
"But you are here."
"Indeed. I choose pain over salvation. Why I did that? Well, that's the weird part. Usually, you do not choose, you just die. Ghosts are something different. Their life prevents their souls from departing. So the pain of life still haunts them in death. There is a reason that those recalled with the resurrection stone want to be dead. After all, death is a wonderful thing."
"So how come you are here then?"
"Ah, yes. Well, I had a choice, because I carried the hallows. All three of them. Well I was the rightful owner of the elder wand even with Tom having it. So I was given a choice. And, well, with the choice there things were different. Yes, I could have escaped the pain, the torture the loss of my bloody arm but... I could die later, you know? All my family, Fred too, they all where their. I could see them, hear them. They where free. No regret, no pain."
"F-Fred was...happy? Good... I..."
"Ron, Death is different from what you imagine. Everyone dies. If you don't, you didn't life in the first place. Fred had no regrets. Neither had Remus and Tonks and all the others. They all know that it was unfortunate and all of them wanted to live, but when death comes, you accept. As easy as that."
"Harry, I don't... What did you do?"
"I told you. I choose to die sometime else."
"But the others..! Couldn't they have..?"
"No, they couldn't. There was no choice for them. I choose to return to you. All of you. Hermione, Luna, Neville, you parents. And Ginny. If not for Ginny, death would have been too tempting."
"What! You would have wasted the choice because of my bloody sister?"
"Yes."
"What the fuck, you bloody..!"
"You do not understand, Ron. I was offered absolute freedom and the ability to meet my parents, Sirius and Dumbledore. No pain, no tears. It was perfect..."
"You-! I-!"
"In the end, you don't have to understand. You will, once you die someday and maybe it's better if you don't. It's... tempting, you know? I have seen what it is like. Ginny is literally all that kept me. I could not live without her. Fact is, had I chosen to die, she would have to live without me, something I could not do to her."
"Fine. Fine! You, bloody lord of death, what the fuck happened after the wedding? After they took you?"
"Ron. Do you think they just let me go?"
"Well... no."
"9 Months, Ron, is a long time. Yesterday was the very first time I saw the sun in all this time. You see the scars, the missing arm. Ron? What do you think had happened? The fact that my eyes can see and I still am a man is some kind of miracle, really. And the fact that I'm sane? Ginny's responsible for that. As I am responsible that she's alive and relatively unharmed."
"Unharmed!? The used the Curciatus on her!"
"They had me, Ron. They wanted to do worse. Rape her before me, gut her and feed me her remains. I did not loose the arm by accident! For every attempt they aborted I had to give half an inch. Finger by finger... Can you imagine it? Bellatrix and her knife? ...No, you can't. I sure hope you can't."
"Damn... I..."
"I know. It's over now. I just want to go and find Ginny. I believe she saw me chained to the stake? When they presented my "body"?"
"Yeah, I haven't seen her since. Does she even know you aren't dead?"
"I don't know. Although, I was dead for a time..."
"Mate, please. Stop that."
"Yeah, I better. I'll find you later."
"... Bloody hell..."
Ronald Weasley, since about half an hour war veteran, watched Harry Potter walk out of the hospital wing. It had been nine month and a week or so since he had last seen his best friend. Within these months, terrible things must have happened. He and Hermione Granger had no choice but to hunt down the horcruxes left all over the country by Lord Voldemort. These evil little tokens had tied the madman to the realm of the living, making him immortal. The worst things was, they had failed. They destroyed the locket that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin, the cup of Helga Huffelpuff but it wasn't enough. From Harry they knew that the diary that possessed Ginny had been one and that Dumbledore destroyed another, leaving the diadem of Rowena Ravenclaw. They never managed to find it. Did that mean that Voldemort was still alive? Ron shuddered at the thought. No, Harry wouldn't have let that happen. Surely, Harry took care of it. Ron sighed. He needed to find Hermione.
Harry limped out of the hospital wing, pointedly ignoring Madame Pomfrey's shouts and curses. He needed to find Ginny. He had done it. Riddle was gone and Harry lived. The prophecy was fulfilled. Done. Over. But the world lay in shambles. The ministry was but a pile of rubble and burned papers, Hogwarts was the ruin it appeared to be to non magical people and Harry himself took a whole lot of scars with him from this war. If he was honest, he was surprised he could still walk. The amount of blood he had lost over the last few weeks was inhuman, his vision still swam from time to time. He dared not mentioned it to Madame Pomfrey. Never would he leave the hospital bed again, he was sure of it. Harry drew his battered and bloody cloak tighter around his left side. The feeling of missing a limb was what reassured him that Ginny was not harmed. It was all that kept him sane then. And all that kept him awake right now. He needed to see Ginny and he was sure where he would find her. She always hid there when it all got too much. He did too, after all.
...
She was alone now. More so than ever. And when she had seen Harry's body chained to the floating stake, impaled by this grotesque black spike, Ginny refused to believe him dead. He couldn't be, he promised to teach her how to become an animagus, promised to let her fly on his firebolt, to go shopping with her, let her cut his hair. He promised to hold her. He promised to be with her! The moment she had seen him there, bloody battered and unresponsive, she ran. Away from it all, away from Tom, for he had once again taken everything from her. She cried, screamed her pain into the empty halls of the chamber of secrets. She screamed until she could no longer, cried until there were no tears left. There, in the very same place Harry had saved her once, she fell unconscious, hoping he would come once again.
A/N: So, that's what I do while I try to figure out what to write for Jane. This weird little piece will end after two chapters and, as you may have noticed, does not follow the original story line. You are free to imagined how the years before played out or what relationship Ginny and Harry had. Just to clear it up: Harry destroyed the diadem and killed Nagini. How? Well, hell if I know. Maybe fiendfire, would be fitting for this wounded and broken Harry.
