A/N This will, unfortunately, probably be my last chapter for a week or so. I'm going away, and I'm not sure whether there will be an internet connection. Enjoy the chapter :)
10. Memory
"Stupefy!" I snarled, pointing my wand towards the masked figure. He crumpled immediately and I kicked his body roughly to the side. I stepped back and took a moment to breathe and clutch the stitch in my side.
In the confusion and chaos of the battle, I hadn't been taking notice of where I was going. I took a split-second to look around at my surroundings and I recognised the dark hallway as the charms corridor. I was standing in front of Professor Flitwick's office - or what used to be his office. The Death Eater I had been fighting only moments earlier had blasted the door and everything inside the office to pieces with a badly aimed curse in my direction.
A little further down the corridor, Flitwick and a masked Death Eater were locked in a ferocious duel. When the Death Eater I had been fighting had destroyed Flitwick's office, I could see Flitwick out of the corner of my eye. He paused for a split-second and whimpered slightly, before setting his features in a look of renewed determination and continued to fight.
There were numerous bodies on the hard stone floor. Although I couldn't bring myself to look into the faces of any of the victims, the majority of them appeared to be Death Eaters.
I had just begun to run down the corridor when I stopped dead in my tracks.
I could feel it before I could see it. My heart felt like it was being frozen and the minimal light that was still present seemed to dim. I knew it was coming closer as the cold spread from my heart through my entire body, to the ends of my fingertips and my toes. All too soon, the black figure swept around the corner into the corridor I was standing in.
I took a deep breath and pointed my wand at the Dementor. The nearer it came to me, the more warmth I could feel being sucked from my body. I searched my mind desperately for a happy memory. The past few months at Hogwarts had been so miserable, the word 'happy' seemed foreign to me. The last time I had been happy in the slightest was with Harry. I thought back to the summer, specifically to Harry's seventeenth birthday. That day, we kissed like we've never kissed before. It was a mind-blowing, wonderful, amazingly passionate kiss, and it's one I'll never, ever forget.
I focused on Harry, and how his lips felt, as I opened my mouth and yelled the spell.
"Expecto Patronum!"
Instead of the bold, silver horse I had hoped for, a wisp of faint, grey mist shot from my wand, and hovered in the air. The Dementor stopped for a split second before continuing to glide quickly towards me as the mist flickered, before disappearing altogether.
I almost collapsed on the floor as the Dementor drew closer, and he was soon only a foot away.
"Why?" I muttered feebly to myself. "Why? That was happy, I was happy!"
As soon as I had said the words, I began to doubt them. Was I really happy that day? No. I wasn't.
Even as I was kissing Harry with every breath I had, with his arms tight around me, I wasn't happy. Why would I be? He was leaving, and I didn't know when I was going to see him again.
I searched desperately once more for a memory that I remembered even more clearly than that one, one where I was happier than I'd ever been in my life. My thoughts returned to Harry, and I suddenly realised. I realised what my happiest memory was.
Our very first kiss, in the common room. The kiss that turned my life around, for better or for worse.
"Expecto Patonum!" I yelled again, with as much strength as I could muster.
A large, bright, silver horse galloped towards the Dementor, which immediately disappeared from sight. I slid down the wall that I hadn't realised until now I had backed against and sat down on the floor, the heat flooding back into my body.
"Well done Miss Weasley, well done indeed," squeaked a high voice beside me, almost as if I had just accomplished a particularly difficult spell in class.
I looked up and saw the short and squat form of Professor Flitwick standing next to me. Evidently, he had defeated the Death Eater, who I could see slumped against the legs of a suit of armour.
"Thank you, Professor." I said weakly.
He smiled at me. "Now, let's go kick some more Death Eater ass, hmm?"
For the first time in the battle, I laughed. He smiled again, before jogging off down the corridor, casting a spell at a stirring Death Eater as he went.
I got up slowly to my feet and followed him. As I turned the corner at the end of the corridor, I passed Percy, who shot a body-bind at a Death Eater before turning to me.
"Ginny! What are you doing here! Get back to the Room of Requirement, you're too young to fight."
"I need to fight," I said quietly. "We need to finish this war," I continued to myself as I ran past Percy. "And then we can make more memories."
A/N I know the ending was a bit lame, but I hope the rest of the chapter was ok! Please review :)