Harry Potter and the Dark Lord

A/N: This takes place directly after the end of Half Blood Prince.

Chapter 1: The Hero's Farewell

It wasn't just one day. In Harry's original plan he'd say goodbye to Ron and Hermione right after the funeral, and head toward the Dursley's to plan and kill time until just before his seventeenth birthday. Then off to his parent's house. The hunt would begin, and he wouldn't have too much time to think about what…who he had left behind. But Ron and Hermione would be coming with him, and they had to go to the wedding, and weddings are complicated, and it just couldn't be done in less than two days, and then one day for the wedding, so three days.

Day one started with Harry running errands for Mrs. Weasley, cleaning, and helping to get the back yard into good order. He had been moping through cleaning the living room, casting longing looks at Ginny through the window, when Hermione walked up to him. She took his hands, and sat down next to him.

"Harry."

"Oh, Hi, Hermione."

"I want you to listen to me very carefully. Forget your plan of nobly dropping Ginny, and enjoy the next few days. They'll be little enough joy for who knows how long after that, so you should take advantage of what time you've got."

"But…"

She cut him off, "Look, you can't protect Ginny by pretending she doesn't mean anything to you. Between Snape already knowing about you two, and Voldemort being the best Legilemens to ever live, it just isn't going to work. Her going back to school when it opens should help, but you tormenting yourself, and her, by playing at this charade won't."

"Hermione, it's not that…" Harry was quiet. "She makes me happier than anything ever has. I was ready to leave right after I broke with her. If we start back up, I don't know if I'll be able to go."

"Leave that to Ron and me. We'll get you back on the path, day after the wedding, but you might as well enjoy the next few days."

He looked across the garden to Ginny, putting up a garland of flowers for the wedding. "You two will get me going?"

"Right after breakfast on Sunday morning."

Harry dropped his duster, walked out to Ginny and looked up at her. "I was being stupid."

"Took you long enough to figure that out."

"Ummm..."

"Took Hermione long enough to tell you that." She smiled kindly at him. She knew why he had broken up with her, and she knew how he hadn't planned for three days of limbo between saying his goodbyes and actually leaving.

He grinned up at her. She hopped down from her perch and slid into his arms. At some later point he heard Mrs. Weasley say, "How are those flowers coming along?" Not really a question, she could see the last length of the garland dangling from where Ginny left it. He looked a bit chagrined and let Ginny go.

The next day involved more errands. "Harry, go get…" "Harry, put these there..." "Harry, help get Fleur's family settled." It was the first time he had ever wished the Weasleys had House Elves. How on earth could one party take so much planning? Do they really need all this white, pink, and gold fluffy stuff? And why do I have to carry it all?

He and Ron had just gotten back from a trip to Fledding's Jewelry to pick up the rings, and a few other things.

"What are these?" Harry asked looking at a small pile of short wide boxes.

"Like I know? Stuff for the ladies."

They had handed off their packages to Mrs. Weasley, who told them to look out back and see if everything was all right. "I just want to make sure everything is perfect…"

"Wow!" Harry said his eyes wide.

"Yeah," answered Ron, not sure how this much change could have taken place in the two hours they were away.

"Is this your backyard?" Harry asked.

"I think so, that's the house behind us." Ron turned to face the house, and then turned back to the yard.

The backyard had been transformed into a fluffy white/pink/gold wonderland. Rows of chairs flanked a white path leading up to a white gazebo draped with shimmering white/pink/gold silks. Flowers cascaded from candle holders placed at the ends of the rows. The hedges had developed white blooms. Mrs. Weasley walked up behind them, and put her arms around them. "What do you think?"

"It's lovely Mrs. Weasley."

"Mom, compared to this, Fleur's a homely girl."

"Ron, that the nicest thing you've ever said to me. Now come inside, dinner's in a few minutes."

"Did you get it?" Hermione asked Ginny as the red-head walked in with a brown paper wrapped package.

"Yep, came on one of the owls. Lucky no one decided to open it."

"Not luck, this company makes sure their goods can only be opened by the addressee."

"Then I better hand it to you." Ginny gave the package to Hermione.

A quick flick of her wand, and the package opened. Two smaller parcels wrapped in brown paper lay inside. She handed one to Ginny, and began opening hers. "Wrong one, this is yours."

Ginny switched packages with Hermione and opened the hole in hers large enough to take out the cream colored lace bra, panties, suspenders and stockings. "Oh they're so pretty. What did you get?"

Hermione held up a ruby colored merriwidow.

Ginny grinned."Oh my. You might kill Ron with that."

Hermione smiled wickedly at Ginny. "That's kind of the idea."

"I hope Harry likes these."

"Ginny, Harry will love whatever you have on. The real question is: Will he be able to figure out how to take them off?"

Ginny giggled, "Well, if he doesn't that could be interesting too."

"How are you going to tell him?"

"Tomorrow night, you know Glinda's Song,"

"Yeah, good one."

"Anyway, the band will play that one, and I will be dancing with him, and I'll ask him then."

"Good plan. I already told Ron to make sure his room was free, told him what I wanted to do in his room while it was empty. He blushed so hard his hair was the least red part of him after I told him."

Ginny laughed. "Tomorrow will be so much fun."

"Will McGonagall be at the wedding?" Hermione asked. The wedding was two hours away and they were taking advantage of the first time in three days to talk without anyone listening in.

"I think so," said Ron.

"Good, I want to ask if we can go back to Hogwarts a bit."

"Why on earth would you want to do that?" asked Harry.

"I want to get in the library. There's loads of stuff we need to know, tricks that will come in handy. Really basic things like how to set a ward, or more important stuff like what artifacts of Ravenclaw are believed to have survived. Where Voldemort used to spend time. All sorts of useful stuff."

Harry have been about to roll his eyes, and groan, but part of him actually listened to what she had said. "You know that's a good idea."

"You think?" said Hermione sarcastically.

"If we're very lucky she'll let us raid the potions cupboard."

"If we're very lucky we'll get a chance to use the Pensieve. I don't know where Dumbledore stored his memories, but if we can find them, even if there is nothing new, I'd like to see what you think after looking at them."

"Not to kill your dreams, but how are we supposed to do this without her knowing what we're going to be doing? It's a Secret Mission, remember?" Ron said.

"Bugger," Hermione said. Both Harry and Ron looked shocked.

"Have you ever said that before?" Ron asked.

"Yes, because my choice in profanity is much more important than the fact that now we've got to figure a way to break into the school and steal what we need."

Harry stared out the window. Ron fiddled with a chessman. Hermione looked at both of them halfway hoping one of them would suggest that maybe they could trust McGonagall and they wouldn't have to break in after all.

"We'll go to the Shrieking Shack. Harry can use his cloak. We'll use Disillusionment Charms. The school's closed, and I think I remember Remus saying something about most of the Professors going home for the summer, so getting in and out won't be too hard. We'll probably have to abandon the plan for the Pensieve, I don't see an easy way to get a hold of it, but maybe an opportunity will present itself." Ron moved the chessmen around the board while he spoke.

"That could work." Harry said nodding. "We can work on the plan more when we get to Privet Drive."

"Not like we'll have much else to do there," Hermione said.

Mr. Weasley poked his head into Ron's room. "Come on you three, it's time to get dressed." Hermione got up to leave, as they walked down the hall Ron and Harry heard Mr. Weasley say, "Molly's waiting for you in Ginny's room…"

Harry hopped off his bed and rummaged about in his trunk. "Here they are." His new dress robes were dark forest green with a black trim.

"It's not often I feel grateful to Fred and George, but these are worlds better than the dress robes my mom got." Ron was pulling his maroon robes out of his closet.

"Yeah, I like you better without lace."

"Harry." Ron paused looking like he was trying to say something.

"Yeah, mate." He stopped one leg in his dress pants, one leg out.

"Could you make sure not to get back to the room 'til after 2:00." Ron was grinning sheepishly.

"You and Hermione?"

"No, I just want to make sure I'm good asleep before you come tromping in here. Of course, me and Hermione."

"Sure. Wow. I guess I didn't think… wow…"

"Yeah, well, that's more or less what I told her. Took me a while to get used to the idea."

"Wait, she asked you?"

"Yep." For a moment they both silently appreciated Hermione.

"Brilliant!" Harry said in a whisper. Actually having a girl tell you exactly what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it, and where sounded like a dream come true to him.

"Yeah." Ron grinned, he was fairly sure nothing more adventurous than a kiss would have happened tonight if he had been in charge of the planning. They went back to putting on their dress robes.

"So, are you going to, you know, do IT?" Harry asked.

"I think so. I don't plan to chicken out."

"No, I didn't mean…just…wow." Harry continued buttoning his shirt. The idea that in just a few hours his two best friends would be in this room, here, where he was standing, doing IT, was swirling around his mind. When he realized that he had bungled his tie for the fifth time he put his mind back in his head, and began concentrating on the job at hand. He looked over at Ron, who was having about the same luck with his tie.

"So, do you have anything?"

"Huh?"

"You know. Something so she doesn't get pregnant. Pregnant and hunting Voldemort don't go hand in hand."

"Harry, she's a witch."

"So…"

"Ginny told me about it. It's something all the girls learn in third year, makes sure nothing happens if they don't want it to."

"Oh. That's useful."

"Yeah... What do Muggles do?"

"Condoms."

"What are they?"

"I'm not really sure. I didn't spend enough time with the Muggles. After all it's not like Uncle Vernon set me down to have a talk with me." Just the idea of which set them both to laughing.

They were dressed and had been sitting in the living room playing chess for half an hour before Hermione came down. Harry was winning for once, but he suspected that Ron was a bit distracted. Both Ron and Harry stopped and just looked at her. Her gown was deep ruby and cut so that her arms and shoulders were bare. She had her hair pulled up, and tendrils were curling around her face.

"You two look nice." Once she spoke they both jumped up. Ron went to her, put his arm around her, and whispered something in her ear. She smiled and kissed him. Harry went over to him more slowly, and hugged both of them.

"You're beautiful Hermione." Harry told her.

"Oh, how sweet. Stay that way, I want a picture." Mrs. Weasley hurried down the stairs and grabbed a camera. "Now smile." They did and she shot the photo.

The next hour was a blur of pictures, and helping get guests seated, answering questions, small talk, and vapid pleasantries. At one point Hermione left, and then a few minutes later, reported back that the bride was here, and with a good look at Harry said the Ginny was gorgeous. Eventually everyone got seated. The band began to play, and the wedding started.

Harry sat between Fred and George on the one side, and Hermione and Ron on the other. Mrs. Weasley was sniffling quietly in the row in front of them. Mr. Weasley sat with his arm around her.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been talking about how fantastic the back yard of the Burrows looked. How pretty the music was. George had added how pretty Fleur's cousins were… neither he nor Fred had brought dates, hoping to find themselves some partially Veela companions among Fleur's family.

The music shifted to a wedding march and all talking ceased. Bill, Charlie, and one of Bill's friends from school walked to the front. Gabrielle walked up the center aisle, followed by Ginny, both of them clothed in filmy pale gold gowns. Harry's breathing stopped. His vision focused solely on Ginny, the light shifting around her dress, the little emeralds sparkling in her flame red hair, her look of intense calm.

Hermione nudged him, "Stand up."

"Oh." He stood, tore his eyes away from Ginny to watch Fleur walk up the aisle. The bride was beautiful. Gloriously, radiantly, set the poets to writing, beautiful. She finished her walk and joined hands with Bill. The groom was, well, he had been handsome. Nowadays, he was euphemistically described as rugged. The wounds had scarred, but they would never heal cleanly. They faced each other, and joined hands. Their binder stood up and began to explain the grave and beautiful nature of the Unbreakable Vow.

After about a minute of that Harry's eyes went back to Ginny. One day, I'll be standing here with you. I will live. I will come back.

The bonds glowed red on Fleur's and Bill's hands, and they were married. They kissed, and everyone applauded. The happy couple walked back down the aisle. Everyone milled around for a bit, and with a few waves of her wand Mrs. Weasley had the backyard ready for a serious party.

Long tables laden with food formed a U around a dance floor. Harry, Ron, and Hermione made small talk, anything to avoid talking about the fact that tomorrow they'd leave for the Dursley's, and after that…

The music perked up and other guests began helping themselves to food. Harry was tempted to join them, but knew that he needed to stay nearby, about ten million pictures had to be taken, and he was to be in some of them. He walked over to Ginny. She smiled at him.

"You're beautiful." He wanted to kiss her, but felt it would be inappropriate with all of her family milling around them.

"You're not so bad yourself. Green suits you."

"Thanks, your mom picked them out."

"I'll have to admit, as annoying as Phlegm is, she did pick out nice dresses for us."

"Nice is hardly the word, you're..." he didn't have a new word "beautiful," he said lamely.

"I love hearing you say that."

He leaned towards her and whispered in her ear, "Beautiful."

Ginny flushed slightly, but kept her voice playful. "Do you think being part Veela gives you fashion sense as well as extreme prettiness? Or is that just one of her natural talents?"

"I want the Bridesmaids over here…" The photographer called. Ginny looked at Harry, "I'll be back, eventually…" and off she went.

He walked over to Ron, "Hey, do you think you could get a picture or two of Ginny and me?"

"If you'll do the same for me and Hermione."

"Let's find a camera. We should get a photo of the four of us too."

Time passed, photos were taken, and the newlyweds hit the dance floor. Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny grabbed a small table as a base for them, and then alternated between dancing to the slow songs, and talking and eating during the faster ones. Finally the first notes of Glinda's Song began to wind themselves through the group. Ginny and Hermione looked at each other with an expression that neither of the boys understood.

"Let's dance." Ginny gave Harry her hand, and they walked to the crowded dance floor.

Ginny had that hard, bright look about her. Harry saw it and knew something was coming. He began to go over the reasons he didn't want her to come along with him on the Voldemort hunt in his mind, hoping she wouldn't want to fight him about it. He thought she had understood, but they hadn't actually talked about it, so maybe she didn't. Ginny looked at him for a long time, kissed him, pulled away and began to speak.

"Did you love me yesterday?"

Harry blinked slowly as his mind fell off of one track and tried to get onto another. This was the last thing he could have possibly imagined her saying. "Yes."

"Will you love me tomorrow?"

"Of course." He felt unsure of himself, off balance. He knew something was coming, but couldn't guess what.

"Then love me tonight." He looked confused. She began to blush, but the hard, bright look remained.

"Love…Me…Tonight…" what she said finally made sense. She could see it hit him like a wave. He stopped dancing, looked blank, and then nodded. She led him off the dance floor to her room.

"You learn how to make a lock that can't be opened from the outside when you live with Fred and George," Ginny said as she closed her door. It hit him that he was alone with Ginny. Always before someone could walk in, someone could find them, but now they were alone. Really, truly, alone.

Harry's face broke into a grin. "We're free then."

"Yes." She smiled back, a look of joy, with just a tinge of sorrow underlying it.

His eyes traveled over her. He closed the gap between them and kissed her. Moments later he pulled back and walked behind her. He stood a few inches away from her, and began to pull the emerald tipped pins out of her hair.

"I don't ever want to forget any of this," he purred, while stroking the hair that fell from the pins. He kissed her neck and she sighed.

"I want to see you." She took out her wand. "Lumos." The resulting light was dim, but they could easily see each other. She reached for the back of her gown.

"Let me," Harry said as he reached for the buttons, and began undoing them. "Who made this thing? There's what, fifty buttons?"

"Hmmm… I remember my mum smiling when she saw this."

Harry stopped for a moment, horrified. "Does your mum know what we're doing?"

"You think all fifteen no teen sex wards in this house failed simultaneously? She knows I'm giving you a proper good bye. My mum understands. They aren't saying anything, but they know you won't be coming back for a long time."

Harry decided to file that information under things he would think about later, much, much, later. Better things to spend time on now. Like getting more of these bloody buttons undone. "How did you get into this thing?"

"Gabriele did my buttons. I did hers. Half an hour later we were all set."

"Half an hour?"

Ginny laughed. "Okay, more like five minutes. Keep going." Harry got the last button undone and grazed his fingers along Ginny's exposed back. She arched her back against him, and shrugged off her dress. She spent a moment with her back to him, letting him drink in the view, and then turned to face him with a sassy smile.

His breath caught in his chest Ginny was facing him, just wearing a little lace bra, panties, stockings, and lace up sandals.

Better than my dreams; better than my fantasies. Harry quickly toed off his shoes, and knelt before Ginny. He untied her sandals and slipped them off. He cupped his hands around her calves and slid them up her legs as he stood up. His hand settled on her bottom as he kissed her. After a few minutes Ginny pulled away.

"My turn." She unlatched his robe and pulled it from his shoulder. She untied his tie, and slid it though her fingers. She smiled and kissed him. Ginny worked on undoing the buttons of his shirt. Then untucked it from his pants. She stopped undoing his clothes and moved away.

"I want to burn this into my memory. You, your shirt undone, standing in my room, getting ready to make love with me." She looked at him, making sure every line, every shadow was perfect in her mind. Harry reached out a hand and cupped her shoulder. His fingers trailed down her arm.

Her fingers danced along his skin as she pushed his shirt off. Kneeling in front of him she touched the line of hair that started at his navel and led down. "Let's see where this goes…" she smiled up at him. Ginny took his trousers in hand, and had them unbuttoned quickly. They dropped to the floor and Harry kicked them off.

Ginny stared at him for a few seconds, fascinated. Harry watched her study him. He saw her desire and felt humbled by it. He buried his hands in her hair and gently pulled her up to him. He kissed her, hard, pulling her against him, his heart beating faster, his body throbbing.

"Ginny."

She pulled back and walked to the bed. She tossed off the covers and lay down. "Come here, Harry."

And then he was in her arms. Laying next to her, skin to skin, breath to breath. It felt so good kissing her, her mouth gently sucking his tongue, her hands stroking his back, her stocking clad leg rubbing up and down his.

After a few seconds, maybe minutes, not hours, Harry spoke, "I love you."

Ginny kissed the tip of his nose. "I love you. I have since I was 10 and saw you heading off to school with my brothers."

In the days, weeks, and years later, when Harry would think back on this night, he was always awed at how it played in his mind. Moments of intense, almost painful, clarity blended into each other, the margins forever fuzzy.

The immense feeling of rightness stayed with him forever. Sounds were very clear, and for the rest of his life the memory of her breath against his ear, her moans under his lips, her gasp as they merged would be erotic triggers.

He could remember a moment of conversation, resting his head upon her tummy, his fingers on her knee, but not the moment before it. The moments after were some of his favorite memories. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"All my life, love. All my life."

"But…"

She sat up and held him closely to her. "No buts. You and me are right. We fit. And there is no way I'm letting you go off and leave me here without…" Her sentence trailed off, and he noticed her eyes were bright with tears.

He didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. He cupped her face, and kissed her, and after a not too long bit of time, he forgot about leaving, about danger, about the sorrows that would start tomorrow, and only felt the joy of their touching.

The last of their clothing vanished. And he was above her, and she was guiding him. He sank into her and knew that he'd never want anything ever again the way he would want this. It was soft, and wet, and hot, and smooth and he was on fire and the only thing he needed was to be in her, and to move, because moving made hot and wet and smooth and soft somehow better, so much better. Then the world went fuzzy, and at some later point it sharpened.

His eyes were closed, but he could feel her on him. Her hair tickled his nose. Ginny's face was snuggled into his neck, her body wrapped around him. He was afraid to open his eyes and find himself in the dorm at Hogwarts, this all a dream.

She shifted her head to rest her chin on his chest, looking up at him. Harry opened his eyes. He didn't know what the expression on her face meant. He traced her lips with his finger.

"I don't want to leave you."

"I know." She kissed his fingertip then nipped it with her teeth.

"I'll come back."

"Good. I want us to do this again. I want us to do this a lot." He smiled at her. Doing this a lot had a vast appeal for him. He glanced towards their clothing, and thought about Ron and Hermione.

"How late do you think it is?"

"It doesn't matter, you can spend the night."

Harry eyes goggled. "Your parents are going to let me sleep all night with their fifteen-year-old daughter?" Harry just couldn't imagine Mr. Weasley saying yes to that one.

"Almost 16, and yes my parents, well, my mum, knows. She considers this a very special circumstance. The Hero's Farewell she called it. Apparently they were quite popular during the last war. Once you get back we'll have to sneak around until we get married, but tonight, that's special."

"We will get married," he said.

"Yes we will," she responded.

He spent a few minutes stroking the skin on her back. "I will come back." It was a promise to her, and a prayer to any and all gods who may have been listening.

"I know. It's the reason I can bear you leaving."

A/N: Well, we may at least start romantic and happy. Happy romance won't exactly be a regular feature in this story, so don't get too used to it.

This is where we begin to go away from the DH version of the story. Next chapter we'll start to head back to the general lay out of the story.