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It's been a year and I'm finally back! And good news, it's now a Harry Centric Fic
Opening Announcement; I'm a fan of using obscure characters, as you probably know if you've read my other stuff. Hell, my first story had Perce and Molly Weasley two of Harry best mates, and they were both total badasses. Nevermind how off the rails characters selection became in the Azkaban story!
So bear with me on a few things; Hermione has a little spin not oft used in FanFic, Harry is meant to come across more or less canon, at least early on… There will be a central character and a baddy showing up in Act Two, neither of whom I believe have ever been seen before…
Lastly, CH1 opens with the prat version of Ginny, even going so far as to ham her up to an unnecessary degree…
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Of Chaos and Flame
by Lens of Sanity
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Chapter One: Chocolate Brown to Midnight Blue
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It was late on a Friday evening and Ginny Weasley was enthusiastically reading the brand new edition of Witch Weekly, one of her favourite presents ever was when her mother promised to pay for the subscription every year on her birthday. This was one of many reasons that Fridays were the best day of the week when you were the prettiest member of an old, if ignoble Line.
Absently she noticed that it was the last week of June and that tomorrow would be her and her boyfriend's two week anniversary. That was another cause for her abundant happiness, and her confident declaration of being the prettiest Weasley; her boyfriend was none other than Harry Potter.
That's right; the Harry Potter.
She had known since they had first met at the tender age of ten years old, that the two were destined to be together, and if she was honest with herself she'd known her whole entire life. The tale of the Boy Who Lived was always her favourite bedtime story back when her father had read to her as a little girl. And the best game growing up was marrying the scar faced Harry Potter teddy bear her friend Luna had once owned. Not that she would ever tell a soul about that, as she was very grown up now and people -especially Harry- knowing about her doing that would be simply mortifying.
Following her custom on finally allowing herself to open the weekly magazine, she leafed directly to the Astrological Signs page searching for what the coming week would bring. She knew from Divination that Horoscopes were very important, as the past two weeks had been filled with prosperity for all Leos, and Ginny was incredibly eager to find out how best to behave in the upcoming seven days.
'The situation will considerably improve in the final part of the month when you, having Venus right beside you, will be able to enter the gates of love paradise, surrounded by an aura of magnetism and sex appeal. There are new discoveries on the erotic realm in store for you, and adventure will be waiting for you when travelling, in a cultural or educational environment.'
The Sun's ruby glare on the horizon was noted by the fiery haired fifteen -nearly sixteen- year old, as she had once more concluded that Fridays were great, and that things are even better in the world when your name was Ginny Weasley.
Her vacuous smile began to falter a little as a Galleon, the only one in her possession, was felt as it warmed uncomfortably in her pocket. After a long moment understanding dawned. "The Dumbledore's Army Coin, of course," she ejaculated this thought quite loudly from her seat in the school library, startling several second years.
Even though she was the one who named the organisation when they were pooling options, Ginny had always thought Potter's Army had a much better ring to it. Only at the time she had still been a little too shy in her boyfriend's presence to say so out loud, hesitant that the boy would not appreciate her exuberance.
After folding the magazine under her arm and collecting her wand, Ginny took off in search of the adventure promised her in the magazine, vacant smile never wavering.
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On her way to the seventh floor corridor with a familiar tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy, the redhead encountered her brother and the bushy haired brunette girl he had always been too thick and prattish to ask out. From his slouched yet wary position up against a wall, it was Neville who was first to spot Ginny's last and oldest friend Luna, serenely walking up from the direction of Ravenclaw Tower.
"Hey Hermione, where is Harry are we doing an end of year D.A. or something?" Ginny asked, turning back toward the staircase and the Room of Requirement.
Ron grabbed her arm to prevent the fifteen year old from continuing, as her brother said, "We can't go that way, Tonks and Professor Lupin are over there."
"Okay, I'm sure they wouldn't mind if we were out of bounds but whatever." With a huff Ginny asked, "Where is my boyfriend anyway?"
After dragging the group into one of Hogwarts' many abandoned classrooms Hermione used a never before seen privacy charm, going on at length declaring that it would make anyone else hear nothing but an unidentified buzzing. Ron and the muggleborn girl then went about outlining what they knew of tonight's events.
Harry had taken his Invisibility Cloak and gone somewhere with Headmaster Dumbledore. Ginny, Luna, and Neville all simultaneously came to the conclusion that the other two knew more than they were saying. The three refrained from asking as always, knowing from experience that the 'Golden Trio' -as they were sometimes called- never give out too much information when they didn't have to.
Case and point; everybody knew that Harry had killed at least two of his Defence Professors, and was responsible for Umbridge's unexplained removal last year, but the school at large had no idea as to any of the hopefully sordid details.
Hermione was obviously sceptical that the school was actually in any danger, more wary of these kinds of things ever since the events of last summer, and the death of Sirius Black. Regardless of Hermione's own feelings she handed out a tiny snifter of something called Felix Felicis which the brunette explained would grant Liquid Luck to the drinker. Harry seemed to have won it in a competition earlier in the year and wanted them to drink it in the unlikely event of a Death Eater attack on Hogwarts.
"Well it is the end of the school year Hermione, something crazy always happens to Harry. I think we should take the warning seriously and do as he asked." This was quite the pragmatic attitude from Neville, one which Luna agreed with, while appearing far more focused than her signature dreamy exterior.
Ginny voiced her opinion, "Well if Draco Malfoy really has been up to something all year, he'd probably do something on the day he knows the Headmaster is away. Wouldn't he?"
"Fine," the brunette acquiesced, "Ron, you keep an eye on the map and take Ginny and Neville with you, while Luna and I go watch over Professor Snape's office. Everyone remember to keep your Potion safe and not drink it until you really need it because there is probably only about twenty to twenty-five minutes worth before it runs out."
They would be in for a long and boring wait.
Ginny went back to her magazine after only a few minutes.
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Ginny Weasley was bored.
She'd been forced by Ron to put away her copy of Witch Weekly because she wasn't looking worried enough. 'It's not like anything bad could happen, Harry will come and save the day if any Death Eaters actually do come,' the redhead thought to herself as she mourned the loss of her favourite 'book.'
"They are here, coming through to the seventh floor. That prick Malfoy is leading some guys named Gibbon and Yaxley. Oh shit Fenrir Greyback." Ron looked to his friends and saw Neville with an unaccustomed look of fury across the boy's face. He must have heard the same stories as Ron had, violence and a penchant for little girls. "There are six, including that werewolf Greyback."
Ginny immediately jumped out and started hexing up a storm, landing her favourite Bat Bogey Hex, Chiroptera and a simple Blasting Curse Reducto before everything went black as night.
"This is the twins' Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, get back and get down NOW!" the elder Weasley roared in command, not having the time to be surprised at his friends instant obedience.
As he scrambled into Ron's fall-back room Neville asked, "I got winged by a cutter, did either of you two get hit?"
The two Weasley's checked their bodies over and both shook their heads, uninjured and fine. "We have to get to the Order as fast as we can," Ron checked the map in the dim light and after a while finished, "okay, we're clear follow me."
The three managed to traverse across two long corridors and down a curving flight of stairs, eventually coming across Remus Lupin and Filius Flitwick, who they brought up to speed as to the Death Eater situation. The Charms Professor sped off at a remarkable pace given his size and the werewolf began arguing for the three to be sent to the safety of their dormitories.
Ten minutes of circular argument later Ron bellowed, "We promised Harry! We are not going anywher-," an almightily crash emanating from the direction of the Headmasters office interrupted the deceleration, and the four headed off running straight into a warzone.
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Half an hour later an orange cutting jinx slashed into the redheads left forearm, bringing with it tears to her eyes, "Owie, Diffindo!" As her own severing charm opened a shallow cut into the cloaked figure's chest, she thought that, worse than the pain, she'd now have to fight while making sure not to get bloodstains on her new pants.
Those pants had been expensive after all.
Ginny had been retreating back toward the Room of Requirement, trading shots, shielding, and dodging scary unfamiliar spells for the past few minutes or so. Having swallowed down the few drops of Lucky Potion a while ago, she'd found herself fighting with a strange feeling she never had before; light, perhaps unconcerned may have been a good way to describe it.
On a whim she did a cartwheel while giggling, and a wave of power crashed over her, watching as a thick bolt of deep green light zoomed harmlessly over her shoulder, 'Te-he, that one was close.'
"Stoop-aff-fye!" she yelled fervently in high spirits, causing a jet of red shot from her cool magic stick to impact the chest of the mean Death Eater. "Whoo, I rule!"
Looking around the deserted hallway Ginny figured out that she had become separated from the rest of her friends, and seeing the door across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy was wedged open, stylishly she moved over to take a look.
"Crucio!"
"Woop," the flame haired young woman dove into a room made distinctive by towers of junk, leftovers of a thousand failed experiments, and the contraband of countless Hogwarts students. She slammed the door shut and levitated a large oak table, heavily stained and missing a leg, making sure it was wedged to keep the door closed.
"Hmm, it's only one Death Eater, why am I running from the bad guys?" she mused to herself out loud, the door handle rattling a few times behind her, and a few hollow thumps indicating unsuccessful attempts to blast through a magically enhanced Hogwarts door. For whatever reason Ginny felt it would be a good idea to explore the room a little, this seemed to be appropriate as the mean Unforgivable using Death Eater would eventually go away.
As she came to a cupboard on which rested the chipped bust of an ugly old warlock, Ginny impulsively decided to take a look, finding a Potions textbook which looked brand new on the surface but was all tattered on the inside. "Advanced Potion Making by Libatius Borage, I think this is on next year's book list," the girl muttered aloud to herself absently as she stuck the thing into an oversized robe pocket.
"I think you are correct little girl," responded a young and decidedly menacing voice.
Wand in hand she spun quickly and found herself face to face with not one, but twenty black cloaked and silver masked adults. Death Eaters, each one seemingly eyeing her with a relaxed confidence, a mouse to cat analogy came to mind unbidden and unwanted.
'Eep.'
Those at the back appeared to be stepping out of some kind of magical wardrobe, her eyes span to the still barricaded door and she realised it was on the far side of the cloaked figures, way, way out of reach.
Worriedly she feigned confidence, "I've always been fairly decent at the subject, and it's good I have next year's book already. Maybe I can study over the summer?" the Felix Felicis was still working; she could feel it urging her to display exactly how nervous she really was, and her tone was very, very worried, poorly pretending an aloof self-assurance.
Still, Ginny really didn't know what to do.
The man, who was assumed to be the leader as he is the one who was talking, leered blatantly at her chest, gesturing to the red and gold of her school tie as he spoke, "So we have a Griffindor welcoming committee, here I was under the impression the Dark Mark had been set off ordering us reinforcements to arrive… Does big bad Dumbly-dore station sweet little girls to defend his castle now?"
Ginny didn't know what to do.
She couldn't do anything. How could a girl with only a couple of years magical training, and one year under Harry, 'this is not the time for naughty thoughts Ginny Weasley,' have possibly done anything about a score of fully trained Death Eaters? Nothing that's what, and she wanted to cry thinking about it.
"Well girl speak up, or did your mother fail to teach you proper manners? We can be very persuasive in our teaching methods I'll have you know."
'Harry, I need Harry. He will rescue me. That's what he does, that's what he's for. He rescues his girlfriend when she is in danger.'
The leader of the masked men grew impatient, demanding a loud and pointed, "Well?"
In that single horrifying moment it suddenly descended on the redhead that she had it all backwards. Harry Potter, the Harry Potter, did not exist to save her, not in the least. So she was going to die, here, in this mostly forgotten room. Killed by merciless evil wizards, and there was not one thing in the world she could do to stop it.
That was when Felix in her system triggered something, something deep, something half buried. A rippling in her mind, or her magic, or maybe very being. It nudged something to shake loose and change. Like a kernel of toughness in her very soul, a stone granite-hard began to break, crumble to dust and dissolve, losing its never before acknowledged hold on the girl.
And just like that Ginny Weasley knew what to do.
'Fire.'
'Yes, fire. It's always been fire.' Ginny remembered the first time she made fire happen consciously, Professor Lupin had the foresight to bring Burn Salve to that lesson, which was good because otherwise poor Colin might have had permanent scaring.
'Fire.'
'Yes, I can destroy twenty pathetic little Death Eaters easily. I just need to use fire.'
With a twisted smile never before seen cross the flame haired woman's face, she conjured fyre for the first time in her short life. She found herself laughing at their screams, as her enemies were consumed in beautiful warmth.
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With a predatory lope the redhead stalked through the corridors of Hogwarts, Ginny, 'kn-euw,' she drew out the word long in her mind, 'kn-o, not Ginny. Ginny makes me sound like a house-elf or some such thing. I will be Ginevra from now on I think,' the three syllable title suddenly seemed far more appropriate, grander or at the very least bigger maybe. She was stalking about the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry looking for an opponent.
It had come to her in a flash of realisation, an instant of clarity. She owed a Life Debt to Harry Potter, it was so obvious now. Her life, her being, Merlin save her, her very soul, existed for one purpose; to aid Harry Potter.
She had been wrong these past few years, thinking the man her own personal saviour, the sort right out of a Beedle Tale. 'Gods in Heaven I let my mother talk me into doing that,' she shuddered at the implications. No, Harry was not her private knight in shining armour. Ginevra though, she-, well she was not so much his girlfriend, as she was his property.
Well that was probably taking things too far, but it was closer to what the man deserved compared to how she'd been treating him so far.
The clarity, things were just so obvious now, and it was also obvious that Harry would want her to stop Death Eaters today, protect the school like he would, and even though the Lucky Potion wore off several minutes ago, the resolve to stop Harry's enemies was strong.
"Incendio, Chiroptera, Protego, Reducto," spying her eldest brother was in trouble she rolled to her left snapping off a second, "Reducto."
Five swift spells shouted out, one a shield barely strong enough to deflect a mass of brown aimed at impacting her. A large yellow haired man was taken in the side by the heavy blasting curse and began tossing about Unforgivables like they were candy.
Unexpectedly the redhead's attention was directed toward the stairwell she believed leads to the Astronomy Tower, and an easily recognised mass of wild raven hair descended a few moments later, glower firmly attached to his face.
"Harry, where did you come from?" Ginevra cried, stupid question in her opinion, and fortunately there was no time for him to answer her. He put his head down and sprinted forward, narrowly avoiding a blast that erupted over his head, showering them all in bits of wall.
Harry aimed a hex from the floor at the enormous blond Death Eater who was causing most of the chaos, "Impactus!" the man gave a howl of pain as the spell hit him in the face and he wheeled around staggering.
A dispassionate part of Ginevra's mind noted the man must have shielded most of that spell somehow, to even be on his feet. The large man then tried bounding away after the two other black cloaks which were now retreating, and her midnight blue eyes began to narrow in fury.
'You are not getting away from me that easily sunshine.'
She sprinted with the last of her waning strength, and flying round a corner Ginevra put as much power as she could into channelling fire once more "Incendio!" The most powerful spell she could cast conjured a ball of flame twice the size of her head and it raced toward the towering Death Eater. His hastily raised shield cracked at the onslaught of heat and the fifteen year old closed on the man, sending a trio of overpowered blasting hexes.
"Reducto, Reducto, REDUCTO!"
The last left her head swimming as it took far more magical strength from her than she had ever thought possible, but it impacted squarely on his chest taking the man's feet from under him, and he hit the far wall with a dull crunch.
Stumbling toward the prone form her wand dropped from her shaking grip and she noticed the man's chest was cracked and gaping, but despite everything he was still alive. 'Not for long,' she thought to herself as her knuckles smashed into the Death Eaters ribs, again and again …and again.
Ginevra smiled sweetly as she locked gazes with the blond mountain of a man, she then forcefully ploughed her right hand deep into his exposed chest cavity. Squeezing, the spark of life slowly drained from his eyes as the redhead observed, still smiling. The brother and sister, who would later turn out to be Amycus and Alecto Carrow, had long since fled by this time. They would never learn how good a decision they had made.
Several minutes and a few cleaning charms later Ginevra returned to the stairwell leading to the Astronomy Tower, and the much abused site of tonight's main battle.
"Gin, you got that damned werewolf off me with the Reductor Curse just in time. Can you even imagine what my fiancé would say if I came back all scared and broken?" He said it with a cavalier grace the younger woman was well accustomed to.
"Let's face it Bill, what's Veela Aura have when stacked up against your good old fashioned charms? You'd have been fine regardless."
"You're right about that one lil' spitfire."
Strangely the hated nickname from her youth did not faze the woman as it once had. "Less of the little or I'll start wondering around the Burrow starkers until you beg for mercy."
With a wary nod and a strange look, her oldest brother continued, "You get the boy, Neville? and I'll take Flitwick. I need to keep my wand out on the off chance they come back."
"No problem," Ginevra said as she complied with the request, "any idea what happened tonight Bill?"
"Not a clue."
With a shrug the two made their way to the hospital wing.
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Snape had murdered Headmaster Dumbledore on top of the Astronomy Tower.
Yeah.
That's what happened tonight.
It was the reason why Harry was in such a rush to follow Death Eaters when he charged through the battle; he was trying to kill yet another of his Defence Against the Dark Arts Professors. The female Weasley didn't know the old man, having only spoken to him in passing a few times at Grimmauld Place, but she knew enough that Harry was going to need help getting through this. With her newfound understanding of the world, Ginevra found herself looking at the situation completely differently than she would have only a few hours beforehand. So she knew that it was Hermione and not her, who was the one which should be there for him, while he went about not talking about it in that way he did.
This was not the worst news to come from tonight's battle however.
"But he had taken his Lucky Potion, I know he had." Hermione, even more so than Luna, was the girl Ginevra counted as her closest female friend. Don't mistake this to mean she had no friends of her own of course; Ginevra was quite popular in her year, and among the boys some years beyond. Only those others were simply school children who had never been close to this war in the same way her family had, fighting and possibly dying on the front lines.
"Yes, he had Ms. Granger. We believe that is part of the reason why this happened." They'd told the story of using a small amount of Felix Felicis to the Griffindor Head of House and McGonagall had in turn gone to Professor Slughorn, an expert opinion seeming to be the best idea.
In the space of ten seconds he had taken three cutting wounds, two of which were cursed with some form of purple flames, as well as two Killing Curses shot off by that blond man Ginevra managed to dispatch. Who knew how many people he saved in those ten seconds, but one thing was certain; Hermione Granger would have been introduced to a big old flash of green had he not been taking part in the battle this evening.
"Ron can't be dead," Hermione wailed, "he just can't be!"
He was though, she'd never said it out loud but Ron had always been her favourite brother. Everyone assumed it would be Bill because the two got along so well, but she and Ron had always been close growing up in the safety of the Burrow, good times getting back at the twins and their various pranks, summers spent annoying Percy.
He'd have liked to go down in that way though, Ginevra knew that to her bones, taking a curse and saving the girl, that's the man Ron had always aspired to be.
"What are you smiling about!" Hermione screamed in the younger girl's face, madness and grief getting the better of her. Locking eyes Ginevra just voiced her thoughts, the truth about a man who'd given his life to save hers.
Then Ginevra stalked from the room, leaving behind her grief stricken parents, her friends, and the deceased shell that was once her favourite brother.
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'I killed a man today.'
Ginevra was alone in her bathroom in the girl's dormitory, all alone inside Griffindor tower, as it was very late at night. The woman was looking down at her bloodstained hands, blood dried brown and not red when it was left to dry, she was mildly surprised to learn. There was far more on her right hand than her left, under her nails and all across her knuckles.
'I guess I killed like twenty people today, but those others don't really count do they girl?' Her memory of what happened in the Room of Requirement was murky, like something done long ago or when you were half asleep. Whatever it was definitely happened, but you hardly remembered it. She couldn't even begin to guess what spell was used, all she knew was that it felt like... home, a hug and hearthfire in the depths of winter.
'So I killed a man, ended his life, and I did it on purpose.'
Looking into the mirror and gazing again at her refection, the fifteen -nearly sixteen- year old was once more surprised to see her eyes had changed. Where they were once a bright chocolate brown, big and by all accounts beautiful, now however they were a deep dark blue, midnight close to black. Familiar in a way that she was not quite able to place, but one thing she knew for sure was that they were alive in a way she had never seen when looking at her own face in the mirror.
There was a spark to be seen now, something she was certain was important.
'I should shower, cuts, dirt, bruises, and blood. I should definitely shower.' Ginevra stuck her thumb into her mouth then, taking a long moment to simply experience the flavour of a man whose life she had ended.
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Swirling a single robe over her naked form she took off, down the stairs from the girl's dormitory. It was very late, under normal circumstances where last night didn't include a battle, or when classes were in session, this time of day would be fair game for early risers. These were not normal circumstances and so she passed through a common room completely devoid of students, and made her way up to the sixth years' dormitory, light on her feet from years spent stealing her brothers' broomsticks in the dead of night.
Harry was not awake, although it was clear his night had been far from restful. Briefly wishing she had bothered learning that privacy spell Hermione used earlier, Ginevra decided to stick with the only one she knew, a stripped down version of a Cone of Silence learned in O.W.L. Charms class.
Sensing someone's presence the man's green eyes snapped open and locked onto blue, after a long moment he hoarsely spoke, "Ginny?"
Containing a wince at her old name she pulled her hands behind her head and dragged off the single layer of clothing. "Hello Harry."
His stare never shifted from her eyes, which given his age was saying something, and he just looked into her for the longest time. "Gin-," she took a kiss from him, unusual in itself as she had never before initiated the experience.
"When I leave I am not going to be a virgin anymore Harry, and after last night I think you may need this even more than I."
The man did not respond with words.
Collapsed with exhaustion but unable to sleep, the woman felt she should be disgusted, she should but patently she was not. Blood of a dead man still under her nails and covering the backs of her hands, her own blood some of it from cuts and scrapes, sweat matted hair, drenched bodily fluids soaking their way into the mattress she was sprawled across. The crimson haired woman was also in quite a large amount of pain, but strangely even though most of it was bad, all of it felt so very good, so very right.
'Things are different now, everything has changed, and some of it is not awful.'
Her contemplation stilled for the longest time, floating in the absence of everything, consciously accepting oblivion.
'Today was a good day.'
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