Beneath Starry Skies

-

The sky was pock-marked with blinking silver stars.

Harry sat in the garden at the Burrow, having been unable to sleep. He was haunted by dreams of his parents' faces in a tall mirror, a giant snake, a miniscule silver hourglass, a skeletal white figure rising from a great cauldron, an eerie veil rippling as if in a gale before then falling still and silent, an awful waveless lake that was home to hundreds of Inferi and of red eyes. Blazing red eyes with vertical black pupils like a snake's. They were the sort of eyes that did not blink like a regular person's and that seemed capable of seeing into the deepest recesses of the soul. Harry could not imagine honestly that the day would ever come when those terrible eyes would not haunt him from the grave.

There was a very powerful Wand, the most powerful Wand, hidden in the Headmaster's Office at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There was a very powerful Stone lying in the dead leaves of the Forbidden Forest. There was a Cloak that had aided in adventures of all sorts for Merlin knows how many generations of the Potter/Peverell family. Harry could see the Invisibility Cloak the way he had left it, stuffed into the trunk up in the attic bedroom where Ron's snoring was clashing with the moaning of a ghoul that he had once forced into his pajamas; because of Harry. A smile flickered across Harry's face; Ron could sleep through the night now. Everyone could. His smile weakened and vanished… everyone that had survived…well, besides himself.

And Ginny, "Harry?"

At the cue of the voice he had longed to hear for months, he turned his head so quickly that his neck cracked Ginny stood in the Burrow's back door wearing a pale dressing gown over her nightdress, her red hair mussed and her honey-brown eyes a little misty. It was clear she had just awoken…had she gone to check on Harry and seen his bed was empty?

"Hi Gin." Harry said casually as his eyes feasted on her.

She came and sat beside him, her bare feet treading silently on the overgrown grass, "Why're you outta bed?"

"I couldn't sleep…" he replied and felt just as he had every time he had said something normal to Cho; wishing he were more interesting. Even after everything, he thought, I'm still dull!

She nodded, "Not much of a shock you have insomnia, is it?" he could tell that she had more to say but that she was restraining herself. He had still not told her the details of what had happened that night. She only knew what she had seen and what others had told her.

"Not just because of…that." He said, referring to the final battle with Voldemort and the Death Eaters, "Just everything..." it was true. Harry could hardly imagine that his greatest foe had once been Dudley Dursley and that a bright green flash of light had crept in and out of his thoughts and yet had not frightened him.

Ginny nodded and took his hand. There was a long stretch of silence while they watched the stars and then she said softly, "I thought you were dead." He looked at her, "I mean everyone did…"

"That was sorta the point." He said and realized how insensitive he sounded and tried to make amends by adding honestly, "I hated myself for it but I didn't have much of a choice. You think I liked letting you all think you had no hope and Voldemort had won?" he shook his head, the pain from that moment in him again; "I hated it."

"I know, Harry, I know that now…"

"I thought I really was going to my death." He said and her eyes widened, "I thought my life was over."

"Harry, I…" She hesitated, trying to find the perfect words, "Did you…I mean, what happened that night?"

For a moment he just looked at her and she saw his sureness faltering in his face and finally he said, "Ginny…have you ever heard of a Horcrux?"

---

"So…so, Snape loved your mum?" Ginny asked incredulously when Harry had finished telling her everything he had witnessed within the Pensieve.

He nodded and she was surprised to see the tears that glittered in the green eyes, "Yup. And he did loads of stuff because of it…and…and his Patronus was the same as my mum's, it was the one that lead me to the sword when your brother saved me."

"So…Dumbledore had planned for himself to be killed…and for you to die?!" Harry nodded, "And we all figured you were his favorite student!"

"I didn't really mind. I wasn't about to question it, I knew what I had to do. I put on my Invisibility Cloak, one of the Hallows and I…I walked through the castle…I thought it was the last time for sure…I saw that Colin was dead and…Lupin and Tonks…of course…I'd been there when Fred…when he…" Ginny wiped her eyes impatiently and Harry moved hurriedly past the topic of Fred Weasley, "I wanted to say goodbye to everyone and to see them one last time…but…they'd've held me back and I don't think I could've left again anyway…Voldemort was waiting and I couldn't let anyone else die because of me." Harry swallowed, "I went out onto the grounds and you were ther—"

"You…you did walk past me, Harry!" Ginny cut in and it was almost accusatory, "It sounds stupid, I guess, but I sort of sensed you were there, but of course I couldn't see you."

"I saw you turn and look…" Harry said nodding, "I kept walking and I saw Neville and I told him that if Ron, Hermione or I didn't that he had to kill Nagini although I didn't explain to him about the Horcruxes." Harry sighed and ran the fingers of his left hand through his untidy black hair, the right still held in Ginny's. He looked at the sky again, "And I walked away. Then I realized something; the Snitch from Dumbledore, I open at the close…I knew what it meant! I…put it to my lips and told it that I was about to die…it…it opened and…the Resurrection Stone was inside."

Ginny gasped, she had known at once that this was the Hallow that Harry would have desired most…his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore, Lupin…Harry's mentors had died one by one, "Harry…" Ginny squeezed his hand and rested her head on his shoulder, "Wh-what happened?"

"Well, I did what the brother in the story did, I turned it three times in my hand and…and…" his throat seemed suddenly tighter. He swallowed and finished quietly, "And they were…right there with me."

"Who? Were they, like, ghosts or…or solid…or like Patronuses…?"

"It was my parents, Sirius and Remus." He said in little more than a whisper, "They…they weren't ghosts, but they weren't, y'know, alive…"

"Like Tom." Ginny said softly.

"What?"

"Like Tom, well, Voldemort, but he was Tom Riddle to me, Tom when he came out of the diary Horcrux in my first year." Ginny elaborated, "Not a ghost, but not alive."

He nodded warily, "Erm, yeah…" he was a bit troubled, "But more like when you…when you…weren't awake."

She shrugged. He told her painfully what they all had said to him and she had burst into tears at Remus' words. When her eyes were dry again, he said, "Well, my mum and dad, Sirius and Remus walked with me and we saw two of the Death Eaters watching out for me. They said they were going back to Him so we followed them…" Harry sighed, "Voldemort had loads of followers with him and I…I accidentally…I dropped the stone and they…they vanished. So I took off the Cloak and I walked towards him and I let him kill me."

"But he didn't kill you, Harry!" she said, stroking the white scars, I must not tell lies, on the back of his right hand.

"Well, he did…" Harry said and Ginny raised her eyebrows, "This is the part that's a bit…odd."

---

"She…she said you were dead!?" Ginny's eyes were very round, "But…Narcissa Malfoy?! Why would she lie for your sake?"

Harry shook his head, "Didn't you hear what she asked me, it wasn't for my sake, all she cared about at that point was if Draco was alright or not." Harry smiled a slight, mirthless laugh, "Lucky for me, too, that, or I would be dead!"

Ginny shuddered and Harry felt an unbearable wave of guilt and wrapped both arms gently around her as he had so yearned to do. He was quiet until she said in a very Ginny-ish way, "Well, are you gonna finish telling me or not?"

"So…I sorta had to play dead. He had Hagrid carry me outta the forest. I wanted so badly to show Hagrid that I was okay, but I didn't dare to risk it…I had to…had to just let him cry and…and whimper my name…Hagrid, who told me I was a wizard on my eleventh birthday and took me away from the Dursleys…who explained to me about Quidditch and Purebloods versus Muggle-Borns and about Voldemort and who bought me…bought me…H-Hedwig…" Harry squeezed his eyes shut, trying to rid the beautiful snowy owl from his thoughts, "Hagrid who made us rock cakes and tea from his copper kettle…Hagrid with his Skrewts and Buckbeak and blasted Acromantulas…Merlin's Beard, I hated lying to Hagrid…" Harry was the one that shuddered this time, "When we got to the castle…McGonagall screamed and…then…then…then you, Ron and Hermione saw…saw me and…and…it was hell, Ginny, hell…"

"I thought you were g-gone, Harry." Ginny said in a very quiet, very rueful voice.

"You were supposed to…" Harry said with his voice just as soft as hers, "Hagrid put me down and I had to listen to Voldemort prattle on about his triumph…and how…how you all pretty much were gonna join him or else…" he laughed gently, "Then Neville, bless him, he killed Nagini like I told him. Only one piece of Tom Riddle's mangled soul remained."

"Then you were gone! How did—" Ginny scowled, "That bloody Cloak!!"

"Yeah, of course, well, then…"

---

"We beat him, Harry, you beat him…" she sighed, "The Prophet was right about you being the 'Chosen One' then, huh?"

"Yeah, chosen by Voldemort when Snape brought him that prophecy." Harry said and after a long, long silence he said almost heatedly, "I wish I had known! Snape never even mentioned my mum in seven years, I never gave it a thought, I just assumed he hated her and thought her a worthless 'Mudblood' just because I knew he loathed my dad so much!" Harry shook his head, "I always hated him, I was so blind, all I ever saw was that Snape hadn't liked my dad and he didn't like me! But his blasted dying wish was to look in my eyes…" she raised one eyebrow at him, "As everyone has always told me, I have my mother's eyes." He finished in a strangled voice.

"Look at me." She made the same request that Snape had and once again he obeyed, "Your mum had beautiful eyes."

He smiled faintly, "Dunno if you've ever seen my mum, Ginny, but she was beautiful, I wish I'd known her, she was wonderful—"

"And so is her son." Ginny smiled encouragingly and kissed Harry sweetly. After a few blessed moments of troubles forgotten, they pulled out, "I love you, Harry." She said earnestly.

"I love you, too." He smiled, lacing the fingers of his right hand through her red hair, the other arm still around her, "Now that you know the full story, you know that I really do love you, Gin, and how much its had to keep me going this past year." He looked at her hungrily for a moment and when she giggled he hugged her and said into her hair, "You were what kept me going."

And for a long time, they remained just like that, embracing deeply and tenderly, beneath starry skies.

--End--