Harry impetuously follows a lead to find a Horcrux, but instead finds it's a trap. He's in an open plain facing a mob of Inferi.
"Expecto Patronum!"
The silver stag shot out of his wand, plowing through the middle of the pack of Inferi as if they weren't even there. But it didn't stop the Inferi on the left or right. He still faced a hundred of the walking dead.
But that was when two more Patronuses appeared out of nowhere. On the left, what looked like a gigantic wolf drove the Inferi like a dog herding sheep, only to cut them down. On his right, a bird--perhaps a phoenix--was moving too quickly to be seen clearly; it blasted through the Inferi as if they were autumn leaves. When the Patronuses had vanished, so had the Inferi.
Harry, shocked and breathless, sat on the ground as two witches dashed toward him. The larger and quicker of the two blended into the night in her black robes, and it wasn't until she was almost on top of Harry that he saw her orange-streaked-with-silver hair.
"Wotcher, Harry," Tonks winked. "Sorry we couldn't have got here sooner. Still, as long as it was soon enough, eh?"
"We?"
"Me and my apprentice. I believe you've already met."
No, Harry thought, I've never met anyone with a Phoenix Patronus... Then he realized: that was no phoenix. The other witch, shorter than Tonks and younger, ran up, trying to catch her breath. She smiled a radiant smile at Harry.
"Is this a bad time?" Cho Chang asked.
Feeling under no further threat from Inferi and in no rush to report back to the Ministry, Tonks had started a fire and conjured up a pot of tea and three cups. The three of them sat drinking and listening to the sounds of the night.
"You never said anything about an apprentice," Harry said to Tonks, avoiding Cho's gaze.
"She applied shortly after Dumbledore... Well, she may be a raw recruit, but her skills are pretty advanced. And she told me she has you to thank for that."
"Me?" Harry almost choked on his tea.
"Well, Dumbledore's Army, anyway," Cho spoke up. "I never planned on working for the Ministry, unless it was something Quidditch-connected. But they're not even playing now, are they? It's the State of Emergency, and it's a shame: a pleasant diversion is also a tempting target." Cho sighed and looked into the fire. "Anyway, even when Flitwick asked in my Fifth Year, I didn't have any career plans that Hogwarts could help with. Then Cedric was killed." She paused again, glancing at Harry. "And if you're waiting for me to get weepy again, I'll have to disappoint you. I'd stopped that some time ago, even though you never stopped to notice, and it was because you started Dumbledore's Army. Harry, I would have gone mad without it, I swear. I was never much interested in Defense, but you taught it so well..."
"She said you taught her how to make a Patronus," Tonks interrupted. "Guess now you're glad you did, eh?" she winked again.
Harry didn't answer immediately. There was a battle going on inside him between the monster in his chest, proclaiming his love for Ginny, and the butterflies in his stomach, which used to afflict him whenever he was with Cho. He'd thought they were long gone, but they were making a comeback. Finally, he asked, "How did you get to be an Auror, then?"
"A recommendation," Cho said.
"From whom?"
"Oh, you know, a friend of a friend..."
"It was Marietta, wasn't it?"
Harry's voice had turned to ice, and, when Cho answered, she was just as frosty. "Yes, Mister Potter, Marietta talked to her mother, who talked to some people in the Minister's Office; she'd worked for Scrimgeour years before. But that's as far as it went for them; I still had to prove on my own what I could do. And if you're going to start barking at me again because of my friend..."
"She nearly gave us all away!"
"She couldn't! Someone Modified her memory! Even now she can't remember any of it! And for months now she's suffered because of that hex of Granger's..."
"The pimples are gone!"
"But the scars aren't! Her face is ruined, maybe for life. It's just not fair."
Cho suddenly stood up. "Tonks, I'm going back to the Ministry to make the report. I'll see you around, Harry." Cho took two steps away from the fire and Disapparated.
"She's right, you know," Tonks said. "You shouldn't have barked at her. Your opinion means a lot to her."
"It does?" Harry sneered. "Since when?"
"To hear her tell it, since her Fourth Year, when you two faced off for Quidditch--for the only time, as it turned out. But that's when she fell in love with you."
Harry's brain froze up as if someone had hit it with a Petrificus. Cho ... Cho loved me ... Cho loved ME? Harry was finally able to blurt out, "But, but what was all that with Cedric!"
"Well, she thought that was love, too," Tonks said, "and maybe it was. To hear her tell it, she waited for you to ask her to the Yule Ball, but Cedric beat you to it. I don't blame her, Harry; I've seen his pictures. Anyway, he was so tall and handsome, and so taken by her, that she just got carried away. And, six months later, he was murdered.
"She was torn apart by that, and really at odds and sods most of the next year, except for the DA--and you. You two did have some good times together, she said."
Harry knew exactly what times she meant: the first Saturday back, early in the morning in the Owlery; their kiss under the misteltoe; the date to Hogsmeade, where Harry had been too busy thinking about Hermione and Rita Skeeter and the upcoming interview to even keep his mind on what Cho was saying half of the time...
"But..." Harry started to say, never feeling more helpless, "why didn't she say something then?"
Tonks was looking into the fire. "Two people, Harry, saying what they think, opening their hearts--you'd think it would be the easiest thing in the world, but sometimes it can be the hardest. I should know." She sighed, then rose from the fire. "Can you find your own way back, then, or you want to come to the Ministry with me?"
"I'm all right now," Harry said quickly; "just want to ... think about things."
Tonks simply nodded, made the tea service vanish, then Disapparated.
The monster in his chest he had felt since Ginny kissed him was huge and powerful; he never would have expected that it would have to battle a flock of butterflies. And, at this moment, the butterflies were putting up quite a struggle.
xxx
Ginny is dead. Harry fights and defeats Voldemort by drawing him into the Land of the Dead, behind the Veil in the Ministry. There, in a bleak and featureless landscape covered by a dense fog, Harry finds what looks like Ginny's body.
So, Ginny was in the Land of the Dead, too. Fine, then, Harry thought as he sat heavily on the ground. May as well stay here with her. Nothing else to do for eternity, anyway...
"It's not her body, Harry; it's her spirit."
The last thing Harry expected to hear in this silent land of mist and fog was a voice, and the last person he expected to see as he turned quickly around was...
"Cho!" He scrambled quickly to his feet. "Are you, er, does this mean..."
"No, Harry, I'm not dead; not at the moment, anyway. They gave me this." She touched a silver amulet that shone against her robes. "It allows the wearer to pass through the Veil; only one of its kind. Excuse me for a moment." Cho reached into her pocket, took out a small hand-sized mirror and spoke into it. "Are you there?"
"Wotcher, Cho." Tonks' voice came out of the mirror. Harry walked around behind Cho and looked in to see Tonks' face, with violet hair. "Wotcher, Harry."
"As you can see, I've found him, and he's found Ginny's spirit. The Weasleys should be glad to hear that."
"They're right here waiting. But we'll have to be quick about it, or it won't work."
"Get started, then, and we'll be ready." Cho put the mirror in her pocket.
"Start what?"
"The spell that will cause the Veil to reveal itself."
"Do we have to ... go anywhere?" Harry said, looking around.
"This is the Land of the Dead; space and time as we understand them have no meaning here. Just wait; the Veil will find us when it's ready."
There was a long pause. This was the first time he'd seen Cho since Tonks had told him how Cho felt. Did Cho know about Ginny? Would things get awkward when they went back? "Listen, erm, how do we work this? Do I have to hold on to you or..."
"This isn't like Apparating. I'll put the amulet around your neck. Then you can pick up Ginny's soul and just walk out. You'll be able to restore her to life."
Something about the way she said that... "What about you?"
Cho paused for a long time. "I'm not going back. I volunteered to come in to save you. I'm staying."
Harry felt a fear like none he'd ever known. "That means..."
"Yes, Harry, I'll be dead." She took a deep breath. "That's the first time I've said it out loud."
Harry was shaking his head. "No, no, that isn't right. I can get you back, I--"
"Stop, Harry." Cho's voice was terribly soft as she spoke. "I've made up my mind. Somebody had to go through the Veil to find you; when you went through, it altered the balance between life and death. You don't belong here, and if you stay much longer, you'll die."
"But if you give me the amulet, you'll die!"
"Harry, I'd seen you and Ginny, after that last Quidditch match. She seems to make you happy, in a way I never could. That hurt at first, but I accept it." A single tear rolled down her cheek. "But I realized something else. I realized that the pain I felt when I saw you with her was every bit as awful as the pain I put you through when I was with Cedric. Believe me, Harry, I am so sorry for that. I never meant to hurt you, ever."
"But, but, you don't have to die for me! I never asked anyone to die for me!"
"But some of us already have, dearie. I'm just sorry I didn't do a better job of it."
Harry turned, looking for the source of the strange voice. Suddenly a patch of the fog seemed to condense into a solid shape: that of a witch, dowdy, middle-aged, and a bit unkempt.
"Bertha Jorkins, at your service, Harry."
Harry recognized the name at once. "You worked for Crouch! Voldemort captured you..."
The witch waved her hand to silence him. "Yes, yes; they tortured me, I blabbed everything I knew, and they killed me. I'm really sorry about that, Harry--the blabbing part, not the killing part."
"Where, where did you come from?"
"Oh, there's no 'where' here. I'm just sort of about. I come together when I'm needed to, like now. It isn't so bad, really."
"But, but if you hadn't been tortured..."
"If, If, If!" Another patch of fog coalesced behind this barking voice. It turned into former Hogwarts Headmaster Phineas Nigellus. "Pull yourself together, Potter! What if Bertha had lived? What if a hippogriff had pink feathers? What if Muggles had magic? 'What If' is a game for children. It's time to be a man!"
"Go easy on Harry; I'd say he's done pretty well getting this far."
Another bit of the fog began to move, coming together to form a body--this time, of Cedric Diggory, still wearing his Hogwarts robes and Best Boy pin.
"Good to see you again, Harry. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances."
"Circumstances! You'd still be alive if I hadn't..." Harry's voice broke. "If I hadn't insisted we take the Cup together. You're dead because of me."
"No, Harry," Cedric shook his head. "I'm dead because I chose to take the Cup. There's a difference, you see. Just don't ask me to forgive you or any rubbish like that. You had no way of knowing the Cup was a Portkey. As far as I'm concerned, you've done nothing I need to forgive."
Cho looked at Cedric, beaming.
"Better listen to him, Harry," another voice spoke up. "No matter what it seems like to you, you've done nothing wrong."
This time it was a far more welcoming voice, and one that ate deeper into Harry's heart. Another patch of fog coalesced into the form of his godfather, Sirius Black.
"Sirius, I'm..."
"Stop right there, Harry. When we joined the Order of the Phoenix, and when I agreed to be your family's Secret Keeper, I knew that my death was a very real possibility. But I knew that keeping you alive was more necessary."
"But you were, you were the closest thing to a family I had," Harry said, tears staring to form even though he hated it.
"Well, there's one cure for that, isn't there: start your own family. It's why we wanted to make sure that you were The Boy Who Lived, no matter what the odds. By the way, I guess you know by now that Number Twelve Grimmauld Place is all yours, to do with as you wish. Tear it all to the ground if you want. If you don't, I expect you to clean it out, top to bottom, of everything even remotely tied to the Dark. Make it a home of colours, and laughter, and music, and children..." Sirius raised one eyebrow. "But above all, make it a home of love; bring love into the old pile, Harry. It's gone without it for far too long."
"But, but I didn't want you to pay this price for it. Why didn't you do it when you had the chance!" Harry was shouting at Sirius now, in anger and sorrow.
Sirius's ghost answered simply, "By the time I'd gotten out of Azkaban, I'd almost forgotten what love was. I needed to just hang about, watching Molly and Arthur and you and your friends, plus some of the rest of the old gang. But then, watching others isn't the same as doing it yourself. Maybe if I'd had a few more months to watch ... but I didn't."
"No, you didn't!" Harry rounded on Sirius. "Because of me! You're dead because of me! And so are you!" he pointed angrily at Cedric's ghost.
"Don't forget me, Harry."
It was a voice he could recall hearing only once before in his life, hearing it barely over the chaos of the Priori Incantatem. But he knew it, as surely as he knew anything. He stared through his tears as another bit of the fog and mist condensed into Lily Evans Potter.
"Mum?" he sniffed.
"Harry, my love."
He couldn't help it. He dashed toward his mother--and through her.
"You're still alive, Harry," Lily said, "and that proves it. There's nothing for you in this world."
"Go back and live, Harry Potter," Cho smiled at him.
"The wizarding world needs you alive, now more than ever," Cedric nodded.
"But why!" Harry shouted. "Voldemort's finally dead, so who am I supposed to protect them from?"
"How are we supposed to know that?" Sirius asked. "We can't see into the future any better now than we could when we were alive."
Bertha Jorkins said, "Harry, it's all about hope."
"When you're out there in the world," Lily smiled, "and everyone knows it, they'll also know that even the worst of the Dark Arts can be overcome, and not by other, darker magic, but by love."
"Voldemort's gone now," Nigellus grumbled, "and so is Grindelwald. But do you think someone else won't come along just as bad? Maybe a year from now or a century from now, but he's coming."
"That's why Harry Potter has to return to the world of the living now," Cho said. "Not just to enjoy the peace you have brought about, and which you deserve, but to give others hope in the times to come."
"But what kind of hope is there for me?" Harry's tears were flowing freely now. "So many of you, the people I love, will be here. You'll be dead and lost to me forever."
"You think the dead we loved ever truly leave us?"
The voice, which seemed to echo even in this empty place, made Harry jump. One more piece of fog coalesced into--Harry could hardly believe it--Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore.
"Normally I hate repeating myself," the shade of Dumbledore went on, "since so many things didn't need to have been said in the first place. But it seemed appropriate here and now."
"I ... I didn't want you to die. I didn't want any of you to die."
"Noble sentiments, I'm sure, but utterly misplaced," Nigellus interrupted. "Death comes for us all, you know, sooner or later."
"Harry." Cho touched his shoulder; he turned to face her. Both were crying now, even though Cho was smiling. "I'm not doing this because I love dying. I'm doing it because I love you. I'm doing it because there are witches and wizards beyond number who need you to be alive. Even if you never meet them all, knowing that you defeated Voldemort and survived it will give them something I couldn't: hope."
"It's a gift you can give the wizarding world, Harry," Dumbledore said, "a force for good more powerful than any Patronus."
"You must stay alive, Harry," Sirius added, "and live the life you were meant to live. Don't fret about the dead, Harry; if you do that, you'll lose all hope and can't bring it to others. It'll be as if you were the one who spent a dozen years with the dementors."
"We'll watch over you, Harry," Lily said, her ghostly green eyes filling with tears. "We always have."
Another part of the fog began to shift, but it didn't resolve itself into a person. Instead it was like a paper-thin door. It was time.
Cho took the amulet from around her neck, reached up and put it around Harry's. The fine silver chain caught on his glasses; Cho smiled, unhooked it, then kept looking into Harry's eyes.
"Harry..." She seemed to be at a loss for words.
"Cho, I... You were my first kiss."
Cho's voice dropped to almost a whisper. "Then it's only fair that you should be my last." She moved toward Harry as he, without realizing it, moved toward her.
They kissed.
Harry had never been kissed, not even once, between the night his mother died and the December night he and Cho kissed under the misteltoe in the Room of Requirement. In the past year, he and Ginny had been making up for lost time at every opportunity, and he reveled in the physical excitement of each kiss. Revelled in it, and assumed that it was love.
But this one was different. As he kissed Cho, he could feel his own joy, yet also his sorrow, knowing that Cho would soon be dead, giving her life to save his. He realized something else as well: he was not only feeling his own mixed emotions in the kiss, but Cho's as well.
And in that instant, regardless of when Muggle or Wizarding law declares that adulthood begins, Harry Potter stopped being a child.
Cho took a step back; Cedric moved behind her, raising one hand to her shoulder. It didn't pass through, but rested there.
Cho Chang was dead.
"We'll see you around, Harry," she smiled.
Harry picked up Ginny's spirit, and took one last look back at those who had died for his sake. Then he passed through the Veil.
xxx
Epilogue
Harry and Ginny were in adjoining beds at St. Mungo's.
"I'm bored," Ginny muttered to nobody in particular. "I want to be up and about."
"The mediwizards say you two need to rest for another couple of days," Hermione said, while perusing the Daily Prophet.
"I'll bet you two get enough activity after lights out," Ron leered.
"Not here, we don't," Ginny muttered aain. "When they put the screens up, they mean it. Can't shift them, even with a Disruptor spell, and can't Levitate over them either."
"Just as well," Hermione said. She stopped suddenly, stared at one article, then quickly turned the page.
"What's that, then?" Ron asked.
"Nothing."
He snatched the Prophet out of Hermione's hand, looking through it, until he stopped at an inside page. "This must be your nothing."
Hermione tried to grab the paper back, but Ron tossed it to Ginny. She scanned the article with a curious look on her face, then read it aloud:
"The Ministry of Magic also reports that the body of Cho Chang, an Apprentice Auror, was found in a locked room of the Ministry last night. There were no signs of struggle in the room or marks on the body. Auror Nymphadora Tonks Lupin says that a full investigation will be conducted."
Ron glanced at Harry. "No offense meant, Harry, but, well, given her disposition after Cedric was killed, she's probably happier wherever she is now."
Hermione took the Prophet from Ginny, rolled it up and clomped Ron over the head with it. Harry simply turned his head, looking through an enchanted window at an enchanted sky.
"I'm sure she is," he said quietly.