Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.


Chapter 9 – Neither Can Live While the Other Survives


"No! Harry!" She was unable to stop the sobs that wracked her body, nor could she remember ever feeling any greater pain than this. Voldemort seemed to delight in her pain, though Ginny was only vaguely aware of it. She was barely aware of anything that transpired in the following minutes, or hours, she wasn't sure. The next she became fully aware was when she heard her mother and father calling her name. She looked up and saw that they had left the forbidden forest and were now standing in one of the castle courtyards, her family, friends, and all those who had fought against Voldemort, standing opposite them. Her parents looked positively aghast, their eyes shifting between Harry's dead body, which had been carried by Hagrid and was now set down at Voldemort's feet, and her own place still trapped in the orb with Nagini.

"Harry Potter is dead!" Voldemort shouted in absolute joy, his Death Eaters laughing happily behind him. "He died trying to flee, leaving you all to your fate like the coward he was." Ginny saw red.

"That's a lie!" She shouted, her grief now turning to anger. "He died to save them!"

"Quiet, you silly girl." Ginny would have ignored him, would have said more, but a wave of his wand silenced her as he turned back to those before him. "Many have died here today. Too much magical blood has been spilt, but no more needs to be. I am a merciful lord. Come forward now and join us, and all will be forgiven." For a moment none moved. Then, at his parents' bidding, Draco was the first to come forward. Surprisingly, he was followed by Neville who limped forward pathetically. "I admit I had hoped for better." Said Voldemort. The Death Eaters laughed, Bellatrix jeering at 'ickle Longbottom'.

"I've not come to join you." Neville spoke. "I've come to say that it doesn't matter if Harry's dead. People die everyday. Family, friends...but they're not really gone. None of those we lost tonight died in vain. But you will!" Voldemort laughed, stepping over Harry's body and towards Neville.

"You are quite wrong, Neville Longbottom." He waved his wand and something came soaring out of one of the towers, revealing itself as the Sorting Hat as it got closer. Voldemort took hold of the hat and spoke to the crowd once more. "There shall be no more sorting at Hogwarts. The banner of my noble ancestor, Salazar Slytherin, will suffice for all." He turned back to Neville, and with another wave of his wand, the Sorting Hat forcing itself onto Neville's head, far below his eyes. Neville tried to pry it off but to no avail, and Ginny feared the worst. "Let this be a lesson to all who continue to oppose me." The Sorting Hat burst into flames and Neville's shrieks could be heard. For a moment Ginny felt sick but it was quickly gone, replaced by an even more overwhelming anger than before. Feeling her magic well up, Ginny let it loose with an angry cry, shattering the orb that held her prisoner. She rushed to Neville's side, casting as she went, thankful that Voldemort had not thought to remove her wand, his arrogance that none could defeat him once again proving of use to her. Within mere seconds of Neville being set on fire, the Sorting Hat was removed, Ginny healing the most serious of his injuries before handing the hat to Neville who felt a strange weight enter it. Understanding dawned and he shot Ginny a look, though said nothing. Standing, Ginny turned to face Voldemort, moving in front of everyone with her wand drawn protectively.

"Again you defy me, Ginevra." He growled, reaching down to pet Nagini who had been released as well and had slithered to his side.

"And I will continue to defy you until you are finally dead." She growled back, the anger burning in her eyes. Voldemort shot a stunner at her, but she was quick to deflect it. "Did you really think that I learned nothing under your tuition?" She asked as she began walking towards him. "You may be the reason for it, but don't forget that my power rivals yours."

"You know nothing compared to me, to Lord Voldemort."

"Want to bet your nearly mortal life on it, Tom?" The use of his real name never failed to anger him.

"You dare-"

"Yes, I dare! I've seen you when you were nothing but a memory needing a silly little first year to bring you to life." She continued to slowly walk towards him. "I was young and naïve, and far too trusting for my own good, but I was not stupid. You shared everything with me that year. Everything, including those thoughts you believed were your own. It may have only been your teenage self, but no one would be foolish enough to presume you weren't a powerful wizard even then."

"And you presume I have learned nothing from when I was a student here?" He seemed amused.

"I'm sure you have. But then, so have I, thanks to you. That's the thing about a soul fragment, Tom. You may have placed it in the diary when you were a teenager, it may possess the essence of your teenage self, but it is still a part of you, it cannot be fully separated from the rest. And neither can I, sadly. You need me, Tom, if you want to never die."

"You place yourself above your use. You believe there is something about you that is special? That Lord Voldemort needs?"

"You do need me Tom, but you are right that there was nothing special about me. At least not in the beginning. You could have fed off anyone had they been the first to write in the diary. However your belief that your power was so great that you could have fed off anyone at anytime so long as they wrote to you was wrong. The moment I opened the diary and you started transferring yourself into me, possessing me, our fates were linked. I needed to die for you to return, and you needed to stay in the diary for me to live. When Harry destroyed it, enough of you was destroyed for me to sustain my own life. But so much of your power had been transferred to me that there was a part of me that was no longer my own." He knew all this already, but she had piqued his curiosity by making him believe there was more to it.

"Anything else?" He asked in a bored tone, telling her what she already knew, that her distraction wouldn't last much longer if she didn't give him something he didn't know, but she didn't need it to last much longer.

"Only that I choose to fight. As Harry is no longer here to finish what you started, I will."

"But you said it yourself. A piece of my soul resides inside you. Neither of us can die while the other lives." He smiled sickeningly.

"You're right." She said, not at all put off by his reasoning. "But I can take out you and that snake and then myself. There will be nothing left holding you to this Earth." She too smiled smugly. "Poetic, isn't it? The prophecy you tried so hard to hear said that 'neither can live while the other survives'. It spoke of you and Harry, after you marked him as your equal, but it now refers to not only you two, but us as well." That was news he hadn't heard, never having gotten the other half of the prophecy, and his hesitation at hearing it was enough for Ginny. She now stood directly before him, positioned where she wanted to be, and acted quickly. "Neville!" She cried at the same time that she used her magic to shove Nagini towards him. The Sword of Gryffindor was quickly pulled out of the Sorting Hat, Neville having suspected that to be the weight he'd felt after remembering how it had first come to Harry. He swung the sword as the snake was still moving, severing its head in one quick motion. It had happened so quickly that Voldemort had only begun to react when he saw the sword, but Ginny had been ready for him, holding him off long enough to allow Neville to destroy the snake.

"No!" He roared, his own magic bursting forth in his anger and sending Ginny flying backwards; Ron and Hermione, who had come outside with everyone else and stood near Neville, breaking her fall. "Avada Kedavra!" He cast the spell at Neville but Ginny moved quickly into its path, taking the curse for her friend, and finally ridding the world of the last of Voldemort's horcruxes. Like with Harry, the Dark Lord fell alongside Ginny, his followers rushing to his side as Ginny's family rushed to hers. Her mother sobbed and she clung to her only daughter and it was the fact that she was aware of that sobbing that first clued Ginny in that something hadn't gone to plan. She had expected to die, and yet she heard her mother's sobs, her father and brothers' cries as well, felt the ground beneath her; she was most certainly not dead. The next thing she became aware of was that for the first time in five years she was alone in her head. Tom was gone; she could neither feel his presence nor his power, though his knowledge remained, Ginny having learnt it herself, regardless of the whom her teacher had been. Ginny moved and heard the sobs stop, felt her family jump back as she stood up. Realization dawned thanks in part to the knowledge Tom had left her, and because of the only explanation available.

"I was a part of you." She directed to Voldemort, whose face was surprisingly blank, given someone had just survived his killing curse yet again. "Did you really think you could kill a part of yourself without feeling some effects? I had two people residing inside of me and now I don't. You've destroyed your own horcrux, and now I can finish what you started." She raised her wand but didn't cast any spell as she noticed movement in the corner of her eye and felt hope rise within her. The horcrux inside of her had died in her place and when she'd realized that, she'd wondered, hoped, that the same held true for someone else. Ginny smiled, tears coming to her eyes once more, though for an entirely different reason. "Or, I can let him do it. He's definitely earned it." She turned to her right and everyone turned with her, seeing Harry standing there his wand drawn and trained on Voldemort. All hell broke lose the moment Voldemort cast his first spell. Harry deflected it quite easily and that was the cue for the fight to resume. Ginny took out several Death Eaters with one spell before going on the defensive, protecting her friends, though it soon turned to protecting herself. Bellatrix, who had long despised Ginny's position with her beloved master, came after her, cackling evilly. Ginny smirked, prepared to play with the witch for all the pain she'd caused over the years, but no sooner had Bellatrix gone on the attack was Ginny pushed aside.

"Not my daughter, you bitch!" Ginny watched with wide eyes as the two witches traded spells, Bellatrix continuing to cackle believing that mummy dearest didn't stand a chance, while Mrs. Weasley worked to finish this as quickly as possible. In many ways Bellatrix Lestrange was very like her master, her arrogance being one of them, and so it wasn't really a surprise when Mrs. Weasley came out the victor; she was, after all, defending her child, her only daughter, and wasn't weak to begin with.

"That was brilliant, mum." Ginny said, allowing herself to be engulfed in her mother's embrace for a moment before getting back to the battle, though it seemed to be mostly over. Harry and Voldemort were standing in the middle of the courtyard, their wands attached by green and red streams of light, while all others now stood around watching them.

"This is your last chance, Tom." Harry said when their spells broke and they stared each other down. "Think about what you've done and try, really try, for some remorse."

"What is this?" Of all the things Harry could have said, he had not expected this.

"That wand still isn't working for you, is it?" Ginny wondered briefly what his wand had to do with anything, but quickly focused on ensuring none of the remaining Death Eaters were about to help their master. "And it never will, because you murdered the wrong man. Snape never defeated Dumbledore."

"He killed-"

"Doesn't matter." Harry interrupted. "Although the Elder Wand's history is bloody, you do not need to kill someone to become the master of their wand, merely defeat them, disarm them against their will, and it wasn't Snape, but Draco who disarmed Dumbledore that night in the astronomy tower." Voldemort's eyes sought out the Malfoys who were all huddled in a corner, none of them having taken part in the battle since being reunited, though Narcissa and Lucius both stood protectively in front of their son when Voldemort sought him out.

"Even if you are right, what does it matter?" He turned back to Harry. "I will end this, Potter, and then deal with Draco Malfoy."

"But you're too late. I disarmed Draco weeks ago, I took this wand from him." He held up a wand that Ginny knew was most certainly not Harry's own. "So it all comes down to this: does the wand in your hand know that its last master was defeated? If it does, then I am the true master of the Elder Wand." Voldemort's face became a mixture of fear and anger, though it quickly turned to just anger as he shouted out his favourite spell. Harry cried his own.

"Avada Kedavra!"

"Expelliarmus!" The bang that followed the spells colliding was deafening and all waited for the outcome. This time the spells did not connect, Harry's red jet of light blasting through Voldemort's green, sending the Elder Wand flying. With his natural ability as a Seeker, Harry deftly caught the wand without once taking his eyes off his opponent. Voldemort fell backwards, arms splayed wide as, with his horcruxes gone, he finally drew his last breath. Silence followed for several long moments as the shock of what just happened abated, to be replaced by the roar of the cheering crowd. Ginny wasted not another second and flew at Harry, crashing in to him and knocking them both down. Harry agilely turned so he landed on the hard ground and not Ginny, and that was the last conscious thought he had for some minutes, or hours, he honestly couldn't say, for Ginny was kissing him and he could think no further than that.

"I love you." She murmured when breathing became a necessity, forcing them apart.

"As I love you." He returned, holding her that much tighter.


A/N - Harry's alive! Shocker right? lol

Aftermath and epilogue to follow.

Review please!