Harry Potter had faced Death many times in his young life, starting from soon after his first birthday. He had not, however, had the opportunity to think about what it might feel like to die.

It was a somehow familiar feeling, he found, and not altogether pleasant. He could feel a sense of movement, and yet in another part of him, a sense of stillness; He could still feel Ginny in his arms, and his glasses against his face seemed to be stuck in perpetual falling, as if a part of them were stuck where they had been moved against his face.

More annoying was the feeling in his stomach, as if a great hook were yanking him about from behind his navel.

A flash of realization hit him, then, and he found himself thinking, amused, "Death is like a por-"

They landed in a tangle of limbs, hitting the ground hard and tumbling. Harry heard his glasses hit the ground with a clack, and a groan before sound erupted above them; screams and yells of surprise, followed by an indistinct sobbing. Hands clutched at them, and Harry moved to fight them off, squinting against the sudden blurriness. Ginny was pulled away, and then a wild-haired someone had rammed into his chest, wheezing and sobbing. Harry managed to make out the words, "It worked, oh Merlin, it worked," before being barraged by a cacophony of questions.

He didn't bother to answer, looking frantically for Ginny as the sobbing person who must have been Hermione continued to clutch him. Without his glasses, the sea of red hair was impossible to discern, and for a wild, panicky moment he imagined further screams as the Weasleys looked down to see the pale, wide-eyed corpse of their only daughter.

"Ginny, what happened, are you all right?" Harry's turned so quickly that he got a crick in his neck. The only thing he could determine from the direction the voice had come from was a large indistinct blur with two redheaded figures melding together in it.

"My glasses," he gasped, and the arms around his chest fell away, stooping down to pick up his glasses. A wand was waved over them before they were pressed into his hand, and he put them on. The world cleared, and his first sight was Hermione, tears leaking down her cheek as she tried to suppress them.

He cast about and saw Ginny, alive and well. She was being held by her mother, and was staring at him with the same frightened, hard expression that must be on his face. His knees began to weaken, and strong arms grasped his elbows and guided him to the nearest seat. Harry's eyes never left Ginny's, and Ginny's left his only to tell her mother to loosen her grip, please.

"What happened?" Harry croaked, feeling the world beginning to spin. No answer was forthcoming for a time, until a voice that could have only belonged to Fred or George piped up from the back.

"Funny, we were going to ask you the same thing, mate!"

Harry blinked and looked over his shoulder, only to be met with the most furious glare from Ron. He started, and then looked forward, his eyes instinctively falling on Ginny. Her glare was as potent as Ron's. His heart thudded until he realized that she was looking, not at him, but over his shoulder.

Ron's voice piped up. "You disappeared, no word, not even so much as a 'see you soon,' and pop up clutching my sister out of nowhere." The tone in Ron's voice struck Harry as nearly hilarious. As if he were more worried that Harry had taken advantage of Ginny than any danger they may have been in. If he hadn't looked so alarming, Harry might have laughed out loud.

"Where were you?" came a muted reply, and Harry turned again to see the pale, pinched face of Arthur Weasley staring at him, pleading for an explanation that would somehow make the night make sense.

"Malfoy Manor," was the quiet, almost shamed reply. Ginny was looking down, swallowing thickly, her mother's face pale over the top of her head. "They took me to Malfoy Manor."

"Malfoy Manor!" With a crash, Arthur had stood up; knocking over the wooden kitchen chair he'd taken. Harry jumped and looked around, locking eyes with Ginny, who had done the same. She gave a fleeting smile, both shy and embarrassed, ignoring Charlie restraining her father from flying out the door in a fit of righteous anger.

"How did you come to be there, Harry?" Charlie asked when his father had grudgingly settled. "How did you know where to find Ginny?"

It was Harry's turn to blush, and he shook his head, slowly at first, then rapidly as a wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm him. "Um... I don't know, exactly. I..." He swallowed his voice quieting. "I had only meant to... to get away." He closed his eyes. "And I ended up next to her." When his eyes opened, they sought out and found Ginny's once more. Her gaze seemed to bolster him, and the dizziness receded.

"You Apparated into Malfoy Manor," Arthur asked sounding awestruck. The rest of the family quieted down when Harry nodded slowly. Arthur seemed a loss for words. "How... however did you get out?"

Harry shook his head. "I don't know... it... I was certain we were dead, but--"

"It was a Portkey. His Glasses. I--"

The quiet, almost hollow voice came from over his shoulder where Ron was standing, and Harry turned slowly to gape at Hermione. Ron's face matched Harry's almost exactly.

"You knew about this," demanded Ron, angry and incredulous.

Hermione shook her head quickly. "I didn't... know, actually... I..." She looked up, apologizing to Harry with her eyes. "You know how he is, Ron! He wouldn't be able to wait; he'd have to do something! I tried to convince him not to, but I had to make sure he could get out!" Her voice quavered, and Harry could vaguely see her hands trembling. "He left before I could tell him... and I was so afraid it wouldn't work…" She sniffed thickly, chewing her lower lip.

"You made that Portkey?"

"I'd been... practicing. Just in case. But I... I had to use something Harry would take with him, so I had to... err... modify the spell..." She was wringing her hands now, distraught at the idea that she could have failed her friends. "I got the idea from the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Someone'd said the cup was a Portkey, and if V-Voldemort had really wanted Harry, he wouldn't chance that someone else might win, would he? He must have found a way to make sure that only Harry would be transported if he touched it..." Hermione's voice got quieter and quieter, even as she spoke more quickly. "And I didn't have anyone to test it on but myself, and for all I knew I was just making a Portkey and I wasn't going to hand it to my mum to check if it worked, was I..?"

"Hermione, Portkeys are strictly regulated!" Arthur's own hands were shaking. "It's amazing that you could make one, but you could get into great trouble--"

"We're already in 'great trouble', Dad," Ron said in a low voice. "We can't trust the ministry anymore, can we? Hermione's got the right idea."

"We should hide."

Harry's voice startled even himself. He felt an urgent need to speak, to tell them what he'd begun to suspect and that Ron had roundabout confirmed. "They'll look for us here now. They know I'm alive, so we need to go somewhere safe."

Dizziness and nausea were starting to overwhelm him, and he sought out Ginny's eyes again. Somehow, seeing her safe, he was able to stave off the blackness that threatened to surround him.

"Where is safe, though?" sighed a voice.

"Headquarters," Charlie said at once, and Harry nodded. Of course, it was perfect.

"But Bill and Fleur," Molly's trembling voice cut through the rising din. "The Fidelius charm will keep her out, and with Dumbledore gone..." She sniffed.

It was as if the frustration broke something in Ron. "Why did you take off like that, Harry? Why did you go half off your knob and leave, without any backup or escape plan? What on earth were you thinking?!"

Harry's head swam, and he looked plaintively at Ron. "It was Ginny." With that, blackness enveloped him, and he felt himself falling away into oblivion.

"Is it at all possible that he just couldn't have done?" The voice came sounded as if it were coming to him underwater, hollow and muted, though somehow also loud. He flinched away from the noise, but the person kept speaking as if he hadn't moved.

"I mean, doesn't it make sense, if he was going to keep prisoners there, he'd put up some kind of Anti-Apparition ward?" Harry's interest was peaked, and the voice was clearing. Another voice, sounding sharper, clearer and decidedly bossier broke in.

"Of course not, Ron," the voice said exasperatedly. "He wouldn't have been able to Apparate in, would he?"

"Oh, yeah," Ron said, glumly.

"Montague did," Harry whispered, evidently loud enough to be heard as two separate people jumped on either side of him.

"Harry!" Hermione swam into his blurred vision, setting his glasses on his face. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fi-" he started with his customary statement. A new voice, however, cut him off as if anticipating the remark.

"Don't lie, Harry." The new voice was both stern and soft, and made his heart leap. Harry turned to see Ginny, looking at him with an arched brow, half amused and half challenging. "You fainted dead away for no apparent reason. That doesn't seem very 'fine' to me."

Harry grimaced, opening his mouth automatically to retort. Ginny's other brow went up, and he deflated. "I'm not in any danger, then."

The smile on Ginny's face was worth the humility it cost for him to admit he was anything other than all right.

"Harry?" Ron pulled on his shoulder slightly, and then seemed to give up halfway through the gesture. "Hermione and I, we... I mean, she thinks maybe... but I just..."

Ginny rolled his eyes, and Harry found himself smiling again. Hermione broke in with an exasperated huff. "Why didn't you just Apparate out with Ginny, Harry?" she demanded with her usual strident force. Ron instantly protested, and Ginny flashed a look at Hermione that would have triggered another fight had Harry's hand on hers not distracted her. Harry knew, however, that she only shouted and snapped when she was worried. Or proven wrong, but that wasn't the case this time.

"I still think he couldn't have, Hermione," Ron was saying, ramping up to another of their brilliant arguments. "There had to be a ward, there just had to be."

"Ron, I've already said, if there was, he wouldn't have got inside in the first place!"

"Montague did," Harry repeated, and Hermione turned on him, opening her mouth in protest. Harry cut her off. "Malfoy said that's how he got out of the Vanishing Cabinet, by Apparating, and we know he wound up in a bathroom."

Hermione's mouth worked like a fish, the implications of the facts sinking in slowly and causing her to look more and more horrified. Harry looked down at the bedspread pooled at his lap. "The truth is, though, I didn't think of it." He heard both Ron and Hermione gasp, and sighed in response. "I hadn't expected to find Ginny like that, and when I recovered from that shock, she had pointed out that we were there alone. All I could think of was the Department of Mysteries..." He shuddered, and felt Ginny's fingers tighten on his own. "I guess I was just... stupid."

They sat in silence, only a small part of Harry's mind wishing that they'd at least disagreed that he was stupid. Ron, however, decided to at least let Harry off the hook. "Fred and George think you're brilliant, by the way."

"Oh?"

"Yeah," he was grinning now, ear to ear, and Hermione had a similar, lesser smile on her face. "Mum had been absolutely livid when you'd left, had sworn between outs of crying that she'd really let you have it if you made it back alive."

"I believe her exact words were, 'He'll wish the Death Eaters got him when I'm done,'" Hermione grinned. Harry felt the blood go out of his face.

"Yeah, but when you said 'It was Ginny' and then fainted like that, she just melted." Ron shook his head, chuckling. "Fred and George want tips."

"Mum wasn't the only one who melted," Ginny whispered in his ear, sending warm shivers down his back.

"Where are we now?" Harry asked.

"Headquarters," Hermione piped in immediately. "It really is the safest place, though we do have to guard the Floo in case Snape decides to rear his ugly head." Harry had never heard Hermione speak of a teacher, even Quirrell, in such a vindictive manner, but her eyes were blazing now.

"What about Fleur and Gabrielle?"

Ron and Hermione looked at each other, coming to a silent agreement. "It seems Dumbledore had one last trick up his sleeve," Ron said, his voice full of awe and sadness. "He'd visited Bill about a week before Summer Term, when Fleur happened to be there, and mentioned how they'd have to leave headquarters for a while. He said the address during that, which let Fleur in on the secret. She can see the place and come in."

Harry sat, stunned, and Hermione nodded. "That's how I felt. She's upset about Gabrielle, of course, because she can't see the place or come into it and without Dumbledore around..." Hermione trailed off, and for a few moments, silence reigned. "But there are other safe places, and Fleur's family will likely not be a target right off. Not if he's concentrating on you."

Harry nodded. At the moment, if he could, he would prefer that all Voldemort's attention were on himself and no one else. He knew it was too much to hope for, and was, frankly, scared out of his mind at being the focus for a known multiple killer. It was better to him, however, that no one else suffer. Then, like a shot, a realization jolted through him, bringing with it both a thrill of happiness and a jolt of nausea.

"The Dursleys."

"What?" Ron's brow furrowed, and Hermione blinked. "What about them? You don't have to go back, you know..."

"No, I don't have to go back." Harry closed his eyes, moaning and chuckling at the same time. "They have to come here."

He looked up to see three faces gaping at him. Ginny put a hand on his forehead. "Were you hit on the head, Harry? I didn't think a stunner hit you, but maybe just glanced-"

Harry laughed out loud, a sound which startled the other three. "No, no... but they won't be safe after my birthday any more than I will. When the protection wears off, that's the first place Voldemort will attack."

Hermione blanched, and Ron sputtered. Ginny swallowed thickly, nodding and whispering, "Of course." Hermione pulled her fingers away from her mouth.

"But Harry... Dumbledore is..." She winced, and then continued with a deep swallow. "No one can tell them the secret. It... it's gone with the Secret Keeper." Her voice broke and she leaned against Ron, hiding her face.

"They already know." Harry's own voice was subdued. "He pulled the same trick with them as he did with Fleur." A weight on his side distracted him, and he looked over to see Ginny leaning against him, her face hidden by her shining red hair.

"Ron? Hermione?" Both looked up, and Harry swallowed. "Can we be alone? Just for a bit?"

Ron looked wary. Hermione beamed suddenly, and pulled Ron up. "We'll be..." She flushed, and pulled Ron out without finishing her statement or listening to Ron's weak protests.

"They'll be snogging, I bet that's what she was going to say," quipped Ginny shyly, and Harry chuckled.

He looked at her, simply looked at her until she finally brought her eyes up to meet his. That same, now familiar, fierce look was in them, strengthening him, warming him, and he reached out to touch her face.

"I heard the prophecy," he started, and Ginny blinked, surprised. "Dumbledore had been there when it was made." He proceeded to tell her the prophecy, emphasizing the phrase that haunted him since he'd heard it, that neither he nor Voldemort could live while the other survived.

"That's what's been bothering you, isn't it?" Harry looked into Ginny's eyes, expecting to see fear, even to see her understanding why they couldn't be together. All he saw was concern.

"Of course," he said, distracted by her eyes and why she wasn't backing away in horror at this moment. "I've known for a year and a half now, but I just- after Dumbledore --" he swallowed, but forced himself to continue, "-- was killed, it's really struck home." His voice lowered. "I'm alone."

"You are not." Ginny's voice was just as low, but threaded through with enough anger and determination that the effect was like a shout. Her narrowed eyes, blazing now, made him wish she were shouting. A shouting Ginny was somehow easier to handle than this red-headed cobra.

"You are not alone, Harry Potter, and you should be ashamed to have even thought that."

"But there's no one left. There is no one between me and Voldemort to teach me how to deal with this!" He felt himself trembling slightly. "I'm not ready! Ginny, I'm not ready for this! I couldn't even remember to Apparate when I found you, let alone any strong magical spells that will miraculously destroy the worst Dark Lord since Grindelwald! Everyone expects me to work a miracle, but I don't know how to do that!"

Ginny took his hands and waited as Harry's breathing slowed. He looked at her, trying to will her to understand, to see why he was so alone. He would have paced had he been standing, but his legs still felt like jelly. Ginny was, however, being rather obstinate in not agreeing with him right away, and he felt as if some grand gesture was needed. He took her by the shoulder and looked her in the eye. "Ginny, I could die."

To his surprise, instead of squirming away from his intense gaze, her deep brown eyes met his. She put a hand on his cheek, and the subtlety of that gesture was somehow grander than his gripping her shoulder. "Harry. You could live."

Harry hadn't decided whether the very idea that he could actually live through this or the sheer faith that Ginny had in him was more shocking, and she didn't give him a chance to try to work it out. "You're right, Harry. There's no one in front of you. I understand that. But you're not alone. You have Ron, and Hermione, and Mum and the whole family. You have me as well," she added shyly. "Maybe this power you've got that Tom doesn't isn't just love. Maybe it's that you can love, and you are loved."

Harry's eyes must have shown his utter terror at losing another person. His mind, certainly, began to show him all the faces of all the people that meant so much to him that had died, all because of his connection to Voldemort. Beyond that, names in newspapers, headlines, all leading back to Voldemort and his increasing vendetta against the Wizarding world in general, and Harry in particular. Ginny's fingers tightened on his hands, and he found that he couldn't look away from her. "I know you're afraid to lose more people. Well, we're afraid, deathly afraid, to lose you, Harry. You're not alone. You'll never be alone, no matter how you push us away, because we love you, Harry." Her eyes were moist now, and he could feel his own prickling at the corners. "Tom will never have that."

Like an explosion, the thought that had plagued him since the funeral slammed into his conscious mind, revealing its hidden truth: He did, indeed, need his friends and family in this endeavor. He couldn't face Voldemort alone, because he didn't have to. Perhaps, at the final confrontation, it might be him and old Tom Riddle, but in the meantime, he would need, and, more importantly, would receive, help.

He smiled. It felt like it was the first time in a long time. His heart swelled, and he pulled Ginny to him and held on with all his might, surprising a laugh out of her.

"When did you get so smart, Weasley?"

Ginny answered with another laugh and nothing more.

"You told her?"

Ron paced the study, brow furrowed. Harry stayed close to the couch. Having been at the receiving end of one punch, he had no desire to risk another, especially since the tall redhead's senses weren't dulled by out-of-date love potion.

"Dumbledore had said to tell my friends who had earned my trust. I think that three battles with adult wizards and standing up to Voldemort under threat of torture is pretty trustworthy, don't you?"

Hermione was already nodding, but Ron snorted. "So she's coming with us, then?"

Ginny, being the topic of conversation, bristled, but Harry's hand on her shoulder made sure that the most damaging thing sent Ron's way was the evilest of glares.

"It's her choice," Harry said, looking Ron in the eye. He kept his face and voice outwardly calm, but inside he was cursing the fact that he could only Apparate within the confines of the house, and not even into the foyer for easy access of escape. Ron was looking particularly murderous. "Not right away, at any rate. There is still too much for her to learn. She needs to know how to Apparate, and how to cast silently." He looked down at Ginny. "She'll know when she's ready."

"In the meantime, you'll have someone here who knows about the Horcruxes and can look into things quietly." Ginny's chin was set, and her eyes were pinning her brother to the wall upon which he'd stopped to lean.

"Starting with this," she said as she pulled the note out of her pocket and straightened it, showing off the initials on the bottom: R.A.B.

Ron stared at the note, then at each person in turn. Finally, he shrugged. "That's smart."

Ginny huffed, crossing her arms. "I hate it when you do that, Ron. I get all geared up for a row and you tip your king." Ron simply smiled enigmatically, distracted by the brilliant smile he was receiving in turn from Hermione.

While Ginny pouted, Hermione turned to Harry. "How are your aunt and uncle doing?"

"I don't know," Harry said bluntly. "Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia won't come out of their room, and all I've heard from Dudley was a stammered 'thank you' before he scurried back in there with them. I can only hope they're eating."

"Maybe you should have Kreacher make sure," Ron said with a wicked gleam in his eye.

"Ron!" Hermione looked scandalized. "That would be cruel!"

"She's right. I couldn't do that to Kreacher."

It took a moment, but the entire room broke into laughter, which was compounded when a confused looking Kreacher walked in moments later.

Ginny approached Harry the evening before the three of them were to leave. He watched her, swallowed, and held up his hand before she could speak.

"I don't have a right to ask you to wait for me. I don't know... anything about how I feel or am supposed to feel or any of that. I haven't had very good role models." Ginny nodded, looking down, and he could see her face beginning to crumple before he lost it behind her hair. "But I'd like to learn." He stepped forward, tilting her chin up. "Maybe you can teach me, huh?"

Ginny gulped for breath, nodded, and threw her arms around him, holding him tightly, as if she could hold him there by sheer force of will. Before long, however, she let him go, wiping her eyes. Neither of them said goodbye as he walked out the door, and out into the world to carve, rather than simply face, his destiny.