Neville bites back a groan as he sits down next to Ginny, shifting gingerly in his seat. She looks at him out of the corner of her eye. He struggles first thing in the morning, even though he tries to hide it, and she suspects he's in more pain than he lets on.
"Tea?" Ginny asks, gesturing at the steaming pot on the table in front of her.
He nods, gratefully reaching for it and pouring himself a cup. He spends long moments just holding the cup and breathing in the steam, blinking away sleep.
It's early still, most of the students still in their own hammocks. This is one of her favorite times, everything still and quiet before the inevitable chaos of the day.
Fortunately Neville seems to get this, so he makes a good morning companion.
Ginny turns her attention back to the cloth in her hands. She's embroidering, putting awkward stitch after awkward stitch into strips of black cloth, hoping against hope that she will never need to hand them out. All she has left at this point are her plans. Plans and backup plans and contingencies for those. An endless morass of conditionals.
"New hobby?" Neville asks, voice rough with sleep.
She avoids the question. "We need to start talking about what happens when school ends."
"That's not for another six weeks," he says, as if six weeks is a lifetime and not a quickly approaching complication.
Technically there's no reason they can't just stay in the castle, but at some point that will become unsustainable. Aberforth can only supply them with so much food. Not to mention that they are no longer a small handful of students, but an entire bloody battalion. Tempers have flared from time to time, though Hannah does her best to keep everyone distracted.
Most of the 'troublemaking' students are in the Room of Requirement full time now. As April wanes, more and more students have come to take refuge when they just can't take it anymore. They tend to come in bruised or shaken, and this paints a clear-enough picture for Ginny.
The students still sticking it out—mostly Slytherin, who are much better equipped to hide in plain sight—talk about the strange sort of quiet that has fallen over the castle now that all open rebellion has stopped.
Inside the Room of Requirement, the students seem to think the war will somehow come to an end any day now. Ginny doesn't know if that is simply self-preservation masquerading as hope, or a total lack of understanding that a resistance isn't the same as a war.
The truth is they are all just hanging on, trying not to lose ground. That isn't the same as winning. All she needs to do is listen to the latest Potterwatch to understand that.
"We'll come up with something," Neville says, nodding to himself.
She can't help but think he's waiting for her to come up with something, and she tries not to struggle under the weight of that, of how blind she is stuck in here.
He glances around before leaning in. "How is…our friend doing?"
Ginny hasn't been able to risk going back to the cloister to check in with Tobias in a while. "Bassenthwaite says he's holding in there."
She just hopes that's enough.
Of the four of the DA leaders, only Terry is still openly living in the castle. Which is helpful except for the fact that Ginny finds herself increasingly frustrated with him, because Terry often only sees what is of interest to him in any given moment, and she needs the big picture. She needs the thousand details to weave together.
Fortunately, Ginny finds a valuable resource in probably the last place she expects, because apparently Caroline hears about everything that happens in the castle. Ginny makes a habit of spending an hour or so with her every day, just listening to the gossip of the day. Caroline seems content enough to share, even though she still seems to think Ginny is strange for her interest.
"You think you'd have better things to do," she says.
Ginny smiles. "You'd be surprised."
Caroline huffs and goes back to detailing the trials and tribulations of the Great Families and their rather dramatic offspring.
At the very end of April, Ginny travels the short passage into The Parlor one afternoon to find Caroline and Astoria relaxing during a break in their schedule. Astoria is practicing her harp behind a silencing charm.
"Hey," Ginny says, sitting on the couch next to Caroline.
She gives Ginny a tight smile, looking up from a small stack of mail in her lap.
"Packages from home?" Ginny asks.
Caroline nods. "My birthday is next week."
"Yeah," Ginny says. They've been planning a small celebration for the event.
"My mother sent me a list of people to sit next to at meals."
Ginny frowns. "Why?"
"To help expedite an appropriate betrothal, of course."
"Of course," Ginny says. It's Caroline's sixteenth birthday after all. And apparently to her parents that only means one thing. "Do you want to be betrothed?"
Caroline turns to her. "When has that ever mattered? What I want?"
For a moment, Ginny can't help but think of that bold little girl on the train she'd been so many years before.
You're the first girl on the Slytherin Quidditch team in over a decade!
In a fit of pique, Caroline shoves the stack off her lap, papers scattering here and there. Ginny leans over and pick one up. It's an article that's clearly been clipped from a magazine. How to draw the right sort of attention, the title reads. She skims it, eyes lingering on things like posture, appropriate laughter, soft voice, deliberate leaning.
She hands it to Caroline.
"It's like she has no idea what is really happening!" she says with uncharacteristic sharpness, crumpling the article up.
Getting to her feet, she paces out of the The Parlor.
Across the room, Astoria has stopped playing, her eyes following the departure of her best friend.
"Neville! Ginny!" Nigel calls out one evening.
Ginny looks up from her embroidering, catching Neville's eye across the room. Together they cross over to where a small group of students are gathered around the wireless.
Nigel has become the resident wireless tapper, always searching for a new episode of Potterwatch. Ginny understands the impulse, even as the endless tapping tends to grate on her nerves.
His face is shiny with excitement. "They're saying the three of them broke into Gringotts!"
"What?" Neville asks.
Demelza nods. "Escaped on a dragon, if that is at all to be believed."
At this point, Ginny wouldn't put anything past them.
"What would they want from there?" Terry wonders.
"You mean besides a giant pile of gold?" Seamus says.
Everyone begins to wildly speculate.
Hannah crosses over to join them, touching Neville's arm. "Arianna's here."
Ginny glances over at the portrait. The young girl gestures at them, hand beckoning.
Neville sighs. "I suppose I should go see what he wants."
"I can go," Ginny offers.
"Nah. I've got it."
"I'll go with you," Hannah says.
They try to keep Ginny on site, as the Trace makes her magic far too dangerous outside of the school. Just one more reason the rapidly approaching end of term needs to be dealt with. She has a nearly two-month gap between school ending and turning seventeen that has been troubling her more and more.
Neville isn't gone long, maybe a half hour.
"Oi!" he calls out. "Got a surprise for you lot."
Ginny pushes to her feet. Neville's face is shiny with a sort of pure joy she hasn't seen in a long time. He shuffles to the side, and someone is standing right behind him that is definitely not Hannah.
Harry steps out of the shadows, blinking slightly at the light and the sudden rush of sound as he's recognized. Students are yelling and cheering, and it's like a wall of noise. Ginny just stands and stares.
He doesn't really even look like himself, is her first thought.
She watches, frozen, as he seems to recover enough to look around the space, eyes lifting to the banners floating above them, lingering on the green one at the end.
She wants to ask, What did you expect?
Only then he's scanning the crowd, his eyes eventually landing on her, his shoulders seeming to drop with relief.
She gives him a grim smile, and he smiles back.
He hops down into the room, and that's when she sees it, the familiar gleam of red hair behind him.
Ginny runs forward, elbowing people out of her way.
"You idiot," she says, throwing herself at Ron the moment he climbs down.
"Good to see you too, Gin," he says, voice wry, but arms tight around her.
"Are you okay?" he asks when they finally pull apart from each other, eyeing the barely fading bruises on her face.
"Well," she says, "they canceled Quidditch."
"You poor thing," he says.
"Ginny," Hermione says, hand on her arm. "We were so worried when they said you disappeared."
Ginny drags her into a hug. "You were worried?" she says, voice slightly hysterical.
She lets go of Hermione, turning to Harry, but before she can even think of hugging him, of whether she really should, his face creases in pain, a low groan spilling out of his lips. Ginny steps towards him in concern, but Hermione and Ron turn their backs on the rest of the room, pressing in close to Harry as if to protect him from something.
Above her, the portrait swings open again. Seamus roars out Dean's name as more students start pouring out of the passageway. The two boys embrace, both speaking over one another as they laugh and touch.
"How?" Ginny asks, stunned by the reappearance of so many long lost students all at once.
Neville shrugs. "I sent out a message on the coins the second I saw it was Harry. Hannah's at the other end telling them where to come."
Dennis and Colin are jumping down, Nigel crying out their names, but Ginny only has eyes for the pale blond head right behind them.
"Luna," Ginny says, pulling her into a hug.
"Hello," Luna says, like it's only been a few days since they've seen each other, patting Ginny on the back.
Ginny pulls back to look at her. She seems thin, and there's a fading bruise around her eye. "I am so sorry."
Luna smiles, something dark under her serenity. "I believe I was exactly where I was meant to be."
"Ginny," Neville says, waving them over. He and Terry are already standing with Harry, talking something over.
She grabs Luna's hand, pulling her along. Bringing her back where she belongs. Neville gives her a brilliant smile.
"What are we doing?" Ginny asks.
"They're looking for something in the castle," Terry says.
"Yeah?" Ginny asks, looking over at Harry.
"An artifact, something to do with Ravenclaw," his voice is tight as he rubs at his forehead, and she isn't sure if that is pain or annoyance at having to explain this all again.
She lifts an eyebrow at him. "Something Ravenclaw? You don't have anything more to go on?"
Harry shakes his head, managing to look embarrassed and impatient all at once.
"Right," she says. She turns to Luna and Terry. "Any ideas?"
"Just Rowena Ravenclaw's lost diadem," Terry says, glancing sideways at Luna. "Which is lost ."
"Do we even know what that would look like?" Ginny asks.
"I can show him," Luna says.
Ginny glances at Harry, and he nods. "It's the best idea we have."
Together, they move off into the crowd.
Ginny looks at Terry. "In case that doesn't pan out, maybe you could check in with the other Ravenclaws, see if they have any ideas?"
"Sure," he says, moving off.
Ginny shares a glance with Neville, the room a chaotic tumble around them. "We don't know what this is yet," she reminds him.
"Don't we?" he asks, eyes bright.
She shakes her head, looking up, catching sight of Harry and Luna as they move through the crowd. She rushes to catch up with them.
"Harry, wait," she says, stopping him near the door.
He turns back, looking, well, she isn't sure what. Wary?
"Ginny," he says, like maybe he doesn't have time to deal with her right now.
She shakes her head. Neither of them have time for that right now. "Do they know you're here?"
"Oh," he says, his jaw tightening. "If they don't already, they will soon."
She nods, the implications of that spooling out in front of her.
"Ginny," he says, looking worried like it's just occurred to him what this may mean for Hogwarts.
Her fingers squeeze his arm. "It's okay," she says. "Go."
"Come along, Harry," Luna says. "Ginny has everything under control."
They disappear out the door.
Ginny stares a moment at the closed door, listening to the pressing noise of students around her.
War is coming to Hogwarts.
Neville steps up next to her. "Ginny?"
"Send for the Order," she says.
Neville meets her grim gaze. "I already did."
Reiko is the first student from inside the castle to arrive. She reels back a bit at the sheer amount of students now packing the space.
Her eyes find Ginny. "McGonagall wants everyone in the Great Hall," she calls out.
"What about Snape and the Carrows?" someone shouts.
Reiko shakes her head. "Apparently they're gone."
A cheer goes up in the room.
Reiko crosses over to Neville and Ginny. "She want to evacuate the students through here."
There's only one way that will work, and part of Ginny quails at the thought of giving up the protections of their one last safe space.
Ginny turns to Neville. "We'll need Hannah to make an announcement. Have her leave a written slip with Aberforth for anyone else coming through."
Neville nods. "I'll go get her." He glances at both of them, giving them a bracing smile. "See you in the Hall."
"Okay," Ginny calls out to the room. "Let's get moving!"
Walking through the halls is strange after nearly three weeks of hiding. Sleepy students shuffle along, many of their eyes widening when they catch sight of Ginny.
She skims the crowds, trying to find Tobias in the crush.
McGonagall stands at the front of the room as they all file in. If she's at all surprised by the reappearance of dozens of students after weeks and months of being missing, she doesn't show it.
McGonagall calmly explains the evacuation plan, Hannah looking small up there as she speaks loudly over the hall, giving all of the students the secret location of the Room of Requirement.
Hannah has just finished when Ginny notices Harry skirting the edges of the hall, looking around for something, leaving a wake of gasps and craning necks in his wake.
She frowns, wondering what happened with Ravenclaw's diadem, but then there isn't room for thinking anymore because from nowhere and everywhere a grating, echoing voice drills into her mind.
In an instant, Ginny is eleven years old again, the years melting away. The far-too-familiar whisper is now a scream, a voice ripping through her brain. Inescapable. Decimating.
Give me Harry Potter.
It takes everything she has to keep her feet, to not the let the voice buckle her knees.
Tom's voice finally fades, leaving echoes she swore never to feel again. There is a long moment of breathless, painful silence.
Then Pansy surges to her feet, screaming for them to hand Harry over.
There is part of Ginny that doesn't blame her, part of her screaming for self-preservation with the feel of Tom still fading in her mind. But this is not something she will ever allow.
Ginny pulls her wand, three other houses of students only a step behind her, but it's someone else who stupefies the terrified girl.
Tobias.
He stands over her prone form, lips curled with distaste. "She always did annoy me," he says.
Ginny shoots him a grim smile as he comes to stand next to her, nearly a dozen other Slytherin moving to back them.
McGonagall recovers herself. "Mr. Filch, would you escort Slytherin out—"
Ginny turns to look at her.
McGonagall falters, clearing her throat. "Would you escort Miss Parkinson and her friends out first? And anyone else willing to capitulate to Voldemort's demands."
Blaise and Urquhart gather up Pansy, warily watching the wands pointed in their direction, Crabbe and Goyle shooting threatening glares at Tobias. Bridget and Helena trail behind them, faces screwed up as if they smell something bad. People are pushing out the other members of the Enforcement Squad, spanning all four houses.
If you believe all the lore, if you never learned to actually look, you would probably expect the school to divide in one clean line between Slytherin and everyone else. But there are Ravenclaw families in tight with the new regime, pleased with new Ministry positions, less restrictions on experimentation. There are people who fold with the wind, too frightened to do anything else. There are those who think they know a winning side when they see it.
The one thing the lines are not is predictable.
"And now the rest of you," McGonagall says. "Single file. No pushing."
"What if we want to stay and fight?" someone shouts.
"If you are of age, that is your decision," she says.
A cheer goes up in the crowd.
Tobias turns to Ginny, his hand on her arm. He's of age, even if she isn't.
"You're staying?" she asks, even as she already knows the answer.
"You know me, can't miss a chance to show off."
Neville comes to stand next to Tobias, clapping a hand on his shoulder. "I'll make sure everyone understands," he says.
Tobias gives Ginny a big hug as if saying goodbye, but into her ear whispers, "See you soon."
Ginny gets swept up in the flow of evacuating bodies, her mind lingering on the details surrounding getting the younger students clear of the fighting. Getting to Hogsmeade through the secret passage will still leave them vulnerable unless they have somewhere to go after that. Almost all of them are too young to Apparate. They can Floo, she supposes, but the Ministry no doubt has protections in place.
Aberforth may know what to do, she tells herself.
Near the entrance to the Room of Requirement, Nadira has gathered up all her siblings and nieces and nephews, the entire Shafiq clan evacuating as a unit.
Ginny comes to a stop next to Nadira. "Is everyone here?"
Her eyes skim the group again. "Yes."
Ginny nods. "And you know where you will go?"
"This is not my fight," Nadira says as if Ginny has left some criticism unspoken.
"No," Ginny agrees. Why should she have to fight for a place that calls her strange and dismisses all she knows? This system has never welcomed her. "But it's mine."
Nadira considers her for a long moment before nodding. "Then I wish you good luck with it."
Ginny holds her hand out.
Nadira looks back at her a long moment before folding her palm across her chest.
Ginny pulls her hand back, mimicking the gesture. "You as well."
Nadira says something to her family, the small ones filing first into the room.
Once they are all through, Ginny follows next.
While she's been gone, the Order has started gathering, including her family. And Harry. Still looking like he's lost something.
"Ginny!" Bill shouts as he catches sight of her.
He crushes her into a hug.
Then her mother and father are there, everyone talking and shouting over each other, and Ginny has to wonder why she ever thought she couldn't go home.
Her dad lifts her chin, eyes narrowing at the bruise on her face. "I'm okay," she promises.
George squeezes her arm. "Where in Merlin's name did you bugger off to?"
She gives him a smile. "I've been here the whole time."
Fred's eyebrows lift. "Hiding in plain sight. Gutsy."
She shakes her head. "Calculated."
Lupin appears. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but Minerva needs help securing the castle."
Her mum nods, turning to Ginny. "You'll have to leave. You aren't of age."
"Mum," Ginny argues, knowing it's expected.
"Your mother is right, Ginny," her dad says.
Her brothers give her sympathetic looks, but don't step in to help her case.
Ginny closes her eyes for a moment as if calming herself. "Fine," she says, just the tiniest edge of annoyance.
Only Harry gives her a look as if suspicious of her easy capitulation. Everyone else is apparently too busy to even notice.
She takes the time to hug each of them, tell them she loves them, hold them tight and breathe them in.
The moment their backs are turned, she heads for the unassuming door at the rear of the room.
She passes through to The Parlor. She's not surprised to see that everyone has gathered there.
They turn to look at Ginny as she enters, everyone falling silent.
"You all know that the Dark Lord is coming," Ginny says. "This is the most well-protected part of the castle. You will be safe here."
It will be one less thing for her to worry about.
"You can bring any underage siblings in here as well." She points to a stack of blindfolds carefully embroidered with runes. "Those will allow them in."
The girls look at each other, but if they have a problem with Ginny bending the rules, they don't say anything.
Ginny looks around at them. "I've chosen my fight. Your fight doesn't have to be my fight. Just know that whatever happens, you will always be my sisters."
Tilly is the first to step forward, like it isn't even a question. "I'm with you." She slings a canvas bag across her chest. "I've been working on some side projects. Can't ask for a better chance to try them out."
"You're sure?" Ginny asks because this isn't something to be taken lightly.
Tilly's jaw tightens. "This is our school. They would do well to remember that."
"Ginny," Nicola says, tugging on her sleeve.
Ginny takes a deep breath, turning to look at the fourteen-year-old girl she has watched blossom in this space over the last year.
Nicola eyes are bright, but her voice steady. "I won't fight. I can't. I'm all my brother has."
Ginny tries not to let her relief show. "I understand."
"But I made this for you," she says, holding out a box. "It's only a prototype."
It looks like it is made of bronze, and hums with some unseen current.
Nicola points at a button. "Push this and it will absorb all spells in a thirty yard radius. I'm not sure of its capacity, I haven't tested it as much as I would like…"
Ginny reaches out, touching her arm. "Thank you."
Nicola nods.
Ginny stows the box in her robes, knowing there is no time for ceremonies. Pulling the key from around her neck, she lifts it over Nicola's head. "If all seems lost," she says, "use this key."
Nicola looks down at it and back up at Ginny's face. "You're coming back."
But there is no way to know that.
Millicent steps up next to Nicola, putting a hand on her shoulder. She gestures at the stack of embroidered blindfolds. "I'll make sure these get handed out."
Ginny nods. "Thanks."
"Try not to die, yeah?" Millicent says.
"Worried?"
"Not really," she says. "I just don't want all that hard work to go to waste." She gestures at Ginny's arm and the tattoo there.
Ginny's lips twist. "I'll do my best. To stay alive and not lose the arm."
"See that you do."
A few feet away, Caroline and Astoria are in arguing in low tones.
"No," Caroline says, the firmest Ginny has ever heard her voice. "This is my choice."
Astoria steps back as if she's been slapped.
With jerky gestures, Caroline winds her dark blond hair up into a ponytail. "It's not what my parents would want, or what you want, but it's what I want. For once in my life, that should matter more than everything else."
"I can't… I can't go with you," Astoria says. "My father…"
It's no secret that Astoria's father is in tight with the Death Eaters for all that no one has never said it out loud. He'll be out there in the halls.
Caroline nods. "I know. It's okay. But I need to do this."
Astoria hugs her fiercely.
"You aren't of age," Ginny says, knowing it needs to be.
Caroline considers her over Astoria's shoulder. "Neither are you."
"True."
Caroline's expression hardens. "This isn't your decision to make."
"No," Ginny agrees. "It isn't."
A crow flies over, coming to rest on her shoulder.
"Are you sure?" Ginny asks.
The bird caws, talons tightening.
She'll take that as a yes.
In the common room above, Tobias is already waiting for her.
The girls look at each other with varying levels of wariness. Ginny just crosses over to him, taking both of his hands in hers.
"Shall we?" he asks.
She nods, squeezing his hands. "For Smita," she says.
He nods, his jaw tight. "For Burbage."
Ginny looks back at Tilly and Caroline. "Let's go."
Up in the halls, students are darting here and there, the sort of thrumming energy Ginny hasn't felt in a long while. Flora immediately lifts off Ginny's shoulder, sweeping up into the air and out the nearest doorway.
The first person they run into is Neville. He's got a fluffy pink pair of earmuffs around his neck.
"What's happening?" Ginny asks, grabbing his arm.
He doesn't bother questioning what Ginny is doing here. "We're off to the greenhouses," he says. "Got a nice crop of infant mandrakes we'd like to introduce to them."
"And some Devil's Snare," Terry says. "I've always wanted to see them in action."
Seamus is trailing a few steps behind, rolling his eyes at the herbology geekery no doubt. "Defensive spells are very well and all, heck they're great. But this waiting is killing me." He bounces on his feet.
"I doubt we'll have long to wait," Tobias says.
"Mr. Longbottom," Professor Sprout calls out.
Neville gives her a big grin. "Gotta go!"
They disappear around the corner, just in time for Reiko and Bassenthwaite to pass by, brooms lifted up on their shoulders.
"There was no talking her out of it," he says when he catches Ginny watching.
"Don't even bother trying," Reiko says, face mulish as she resolutely marches past them without stopping.
Bassenthwaite shakes his head, giving Ginny a look. "I'll keep her safe."
Ginny nods.
"See you later, wife," he shouts at Tilly as he sets off in a jog to catch up with Reiko.
"You'd better," she yells after him. "Because I want a bloody divorce!"
They disappear, Bassenthwaite's laughter echoing behind him.
"Come on," Tilly says, moving off with Caroline. "Help me pass these out."
And then it is just Tobias and Ginny.
"What do you think?" he asks.
She needs the bigger picture. "Astronomy tower."
He nods.
They swerve and push through the mass of students, often feeling like they are moving upstream. The crowds thin as they approach the base of the tower. Pushing open the door, they glance up the sweeping stairs curving up into the darkness above.
"Ugh," Tobias says, pulling a face.
"Wanna race?" Ginny says, and starts up the stairs.
"Merlin, I hate you sometimes," he grouses.
Tobias is breathing heavily a few steps behind her as they pause halfway up.
"Almost there," Ginny says, starting back up again.
"We aren't all bloody Quidditch stars," he complains, holding a stitch in his side.
Finally pushing out into the open air, Ginny realizes they weren't the only ones who had this idea. Flitwick is already up there, pulses of light emanating from the tip of his wand, building into enormous wards cocooning the entire castle.
A few minutes later Tobias catches up, face red. "Bugger," he exclaims, leaning against the wall.
Flitwick turns at the noise, his eyes widening. "Miss Weasley-" he starts to protest.
"I know, Professor. I'm underage. But the passages are all closed. And we can help."
His eyes dart to Tobias, clearly processing something. "I suppose you will be safer up here than running around the castle," he decides.
Ginny steps up to the crenellations, glancing down over the grounds.
Tobias steps up next to her. "They've brought the bloody Dementors," he mutters. Sure enough, in the distance there are black hovering forms just outside the wards.
Ginny feels her heart begin to hammer in her chest.
"How long can you reasonably expect the wards to hold, Professor?"
He shakes his head. "It's only a matter of time. There are far more of them than there are of us."
That is not something Ginny can do anything about, so she pushes it aside, letting her eyes take in the grounds beneath them. Long columns of armor are walking down out onto the lawns towards Hogsmeade, and at least that is a few more on their side.
They have the Forbidden Forest on one side, the lake on another, the sweeping open ground towards Hogsmeade between, and the hulking bulk of mountains behind them. Ginny analyzes the easy paths, the likely paths, trying to think of it from her opponent's side.
A screeching call makes her look up. A large crow sweeps down, landing on the crenellation. There's a piece of paper in one of her claws.
Ginny takes it, glancing at the writing on the paper.
She nods. "Thank you," she says to the crow, running her hands down over the black plumage. "Be safe."
The crow caws at her and takes off.
Flitwick's eyes narrow as the bird flies away. "I don't want to know who that is, do I?"
It isn't really a question.
Ginny crosses over to the large map Flitwick has spread out on the ground. She marks the numbers and types of troops in the locations Flora provided.
They all stare down at it, Flitwick moving off from time to time mumbling to himself as he adds yet another layer.
Ginny stares and stares, and finally she can see it, where the defenses will buckle first. Nice try, Tom , she thinks.
"Professor," she says. When he looks, she points. "There."
He silently considers it for a moment, eventually nodding. "You're right. They're trying to lure us into defending the wrong area."
His Patronus streaks off-communication with McGonagall, she can only assume.
Moving back to the wall, Ginny and Tobias watch the army of armor suits reposition. Before they finish, bright lights begin to explode against the wards.
"They've begun," Flitwick observes.
Ginny glances over at Tobias, his posture betraying not an inkling of impatience.
He meets her eyes, and it seems to be an acknowledgement that these could be their last moments, that they could very well die as soon as the fighting begins. Ginny has long since adapted to the long play, to cool analysis and careful execution. She knows this fight will allow for neither. She's suddenly thankful for all the time she spent with Gryffindors this year, knowing there will come a time to embrace her inner rashness.
Together they stand and watch as each defense is carefully stripped by the invading force.
"The wards are down," Flitwick says.
Tobias and Ginny share a grim look.
"Suppose it's time to join the fray," he says.
She reaches out and takes his hand.
His mouth twists. "I have no intention of dying, Ginevra."
She squeezes his fingers. "See that you don't."
The castle is in utter chaos.
If there had ever been lines, a hard definition between the defenders and the attackers, they are nothing but a blurred memory. Now there are only scrums and weak spots, one group pushing up against another.
Ginny and Tobias find themselves behind a barricade spanning a hallway, built of rubble from the collapsing walls. There are giants outside apparently, and worse, to judge from the concussive forces battering the stalwart old pile. But there are also people on brooms streaking overhead, and werewolves scrabbling along walls as if gravity doesn't affect them.
There are perhaps a dozen students clumped together, their strategy seeming to consist of popping up long enough to fling spells over the top, alternating with shield charms.
"Well," Tobias shouts as a spell ricochets overhead. "This is fun."
Ginny already misses the expansive view from the top of the tower, a dispassionate height from which to make sense of all of this. From here all she knows for a fact is that they are vastly outnumbered and outskilled. A handful of professors, the last remaining remnants of the Order, the DA.
And Harry.
She can only hope that wherever he is, he's doing something to finish this all off. But none of them can afford to rely on that.
"There!" Colin says, pointing at a werewolf working his way up the wall on one side.
Three of them send stunning spells at the same time, the werewolf letting out a yelp and falling back.
The longer she is here, the more clear it is that if they stay here, they're just going to get picked off one by one. The worst is how relieved the students looked when they saw her appear with Tobias, like she'll be able to come up with something.
"It's too buggering hard to think!" she cries in frustration, falling back behind the barricade.
That's when she notices movement in the hall behind them. Snatchers.
"Behind!" Ginny bellows, flinging a large piece of rubble at them, and it buys them precious moments as their attackers are forced to blast them out of the way, fine dust and gravel spraying back at them.
"This way!" Tobias shouts, gesturing them into a narrow hall off to the right.
The Snatchers are scrabbling after them close behind. They race around a corner.
And rush headlong into a crossing full of Death Eaters.
Tobias lets out a hoarse yelp of surprise, but is already casting spells, because the Death Eaters seem similarly surprised. It's probably the only reason it isn't an immediate rout. A few fall to well-placed stunning spells, and then they are back on defense.
Ginny concentrates on protection and absorption spells, letting the rest of the group attack and disarm. She's just finished deflecting a particularly strong curse when she feels her wand rip away from her fingers, clattering a few feet away in the rubble.
Turning, she looks into the masked face of a Death Eater. She steps back, but he is already sending his next curse her way, and no raised arms are going to help her. At the last possible moment, Tobias steps across her, shoving her back against the wall as his shield spell blooms in front of them.
"Get down," he says, pushing her to a crouching position.
Ginny judges the situation from what little she can see between the students' legs, locating her wand on the floor near the wall. Too far to risk going after.
Someone lets out a yelp, falling against Ginny. She pulls the body towards her, making sure they are covered.
Attackers ahead, attackers behind.
It's pretty much a kill box.
Of bloody course, Ginny thinks, cursing to herself. Box. Scrambling for the cube still tucked away in her robes, she pulls it free. Stepping out from behind Tobias and the scrum of students, she presses the button.
The mouth opens wide with an inhuman shriek, and then every spell in the room is rushing towards her—defensive and offensive indiscriminately. Ginny holds the box up, shrinking back, praying that Nicola knows what she's about. At the last moment the spells bend towards the box as if pulled in by gravity, the mouth gobbling them all up, metal growing hot under her fingers as more come and come.
Ginny screams against the pain, but holds on.
The cube snaps its jaws shut.
In the ensuing shocked silence, Tobias punches one of the confused Death Eaters across the face. Ginny takes advantage of everyone standing about in confusion to get her hands back on her wand.
"Nice," Tobias shouts. "I'll take twenty."
The quiet doesn't last, but their attackers seem rattled, unsure of what might happen next, some of them backing out of the room.
"Here!" one of the students says, gesturing towards a classroom.
The students huddle back into the relative protection of the doorway, dragging their stunned and incapacitated friends inside.
Tobias and Ginny watch their retreat, covering them as best as they can. The window next to Ginny shatters, and she pulls back just as a stray spell ricochets through the room, eventually hitting a Death Eater. He hits the floor with a grunt.
"Ginny," Tobias says, grabbing her robes and pulling.
She reaches out a hand to the wall to steady herself. "Okay—"
The wall blasts away under her fingers and the next thing Ginny knows, she is plummeting out of the castle.
She manages to twist her wand, shout out a cushioning spell just before she hits the hard ground below.
Tobias lands with a thump next to her. He rolls over onto his back. "Ugh. Well, that could have been worse."
There's a high-pitched humming sound, and a few feet away, the box sits, sparks coming off of it from where it landed.
"That can't be good," Tobias says. He scrambles up to his feet, scooping it up.
They're out in the courtyard now, or what's left of it. There are pockets of students and Order members here and there, and what looks like the glow of a pack of Patronuses near the gate.
"There!" Ginny says, pointing towards a giant relatively far from anyone else and currently hurling jagged rocks at the castle to calamitous effect.
With a grunt, Tobias lobs the box towards it, sending a quick spell after it to make sure it covers the distance. It lands at the giant's feet with the force of a bomb, an explosion of brilliant colors washing up over his enormous body, all of the spells hitting him at once.
The giant shrieks, turning and running towards the Black Lake.
"Remind me to never get on Nicola's bad side," Tobias mutters.
"Come on," Ginny says. "We need to get back under cover."
That's when the world seems to explode.
Ginny shakes her head, trying to clear the ringing in her ears, but the movement just makes everything worse. Her side is on fire and she lies half sprawled across a broken piece of rubble. With a groan, she rolls to her knees. She cradles her ribs, idly wondering how many of them she's broken.
Glancing around, she finds her wand, and it's only then that she sees Tobias. He's half-covered by rubble, blood trickling down his face, and he's lying very, very still.
"No," Ginny says, scrabbling towards him. She falls more than once, crying out in pain, but refuses to stop, the battle still raging around her nothing more than a distant buzz.
She finally, finally pulls herself up next to him, her hand pressing down on his shoulder, and he lets out a groan, his eyes fluttering open.
"Fuck," he rasps.
"Just hold on," she murmurs, looking at the stones covering the lower half of his body. She charms away the larger pieces, her arm shaking with fatigue.
Tobias lets out a long string of curses, and Ginny tells herself if he can manage that he's fine. The last piece of rubble remains stubbornly in place, Ginny finally leaning into it, pushing it even as her side screams and Tobias does too.
"You stupid berk," she says as it rolls off, finally revealing his mangled legs. Blood wells up immediately, Ginny scrambling to press her hands to the wound.
"My fatal flaw," Tobias says, voice rough. "Letting myself get turned into a bloody hero." He looks up at her, his eyes unfocused. "Get it? Bloody?"
His head lists back against the ground as his blood flows out over her fingers.
No. No, no, no, no.
God, why hadn't they been smart enough to spend time on healing charms? Why hadn't they prepared for this? They had so much time. So much time wasted thinking they knew what war really looked like. Time wasted on pranks and petty revenge and having parties rather than thinking what your friend's blood would feel like between your fingers.
Focus, Ginny.
She casts a charm, ropes wrapping around his thigh. She urges them tighter, Tobias groaning in pain. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she says. She has to get the bleeding stopped.
A curse streaks by overhead, the power of it lifting her hair like wind. She ducks down over Tobias's body. Somewhere nearby, there's another explosion.
"Just go," Tobias mumbles, hand pushing weakly at her shoulder.
"That is never going to happen," she snarls.
She sits up, aiming her wand at a pile of debris at the feet of a group of approaching Death Eaters.
"Reducto!" she shouts, the ground under their feet exploding and lifting them up into the air. She doesn't bother to watch them land, to see the fallout, just leans down and slides her arms under Tobias's.
She starts dragging him back towards the castle. She tries to move away from the front lines, but they seem to have all but disappeared at this point.
There is fire in her side, and she tries not to see the trail of blood Tobias is leaving behind him. She doesn't see any more Death Eaters, and she doesn't know if that is just blind stupid luck, but doesn't have time to think about it. She's just about made it inside when a strange quiet falls over the castle.
And then it's there again, that hated, familiar, horrible voice—filling everything, coming from nowhere and everywhere.
Dispose of your dead.
She whimpers, tugging at the heavy weight of Tobias's body.
The words seem to go on and on, threats and challenges, and Harry Potter, come face me yourself.
She drops to the ground, her arms wrapped around Tobias's still form, utterly defeated because has it really all been for nothing? All of it?
Aberration , the voice whispers.
Not so strong after all.
"Ginny."
She looks up to see Neville working his way over the rubble towards them. Before she can even summon the words to beg for help, he's lifting Tobias's legs, heedless of the blood.
"Come on, Ginny," he says, voice soft and encouraging. "Almost there."
Somehow she finds her feet.
The Great Hall is in chaos, people calling out names, groaning in pain, shrieking in grief. She ignores it all in favor of finding someone to help.
"Over here," Madam Pomfrey says, appearing next to them and gesturing at one of the dining benches.
She pushes Ginny back out of the way, and she can't even follow what the Matron is doing, wand flashing, bandages flying through the air.
"That's all I can do for now," she says before moving on to another patient.
"What?" Ginny says, but Pomfrey has already moved on.
Ginny lowers herself to the ground, leaning against the bench, her hand finding Tobias's, fingers pressing against the steady throb of his pulse.
Not five yards away is a pair of bodies on a stretcher, hands stretched out towards each other, but not touching. Ginny forces her eyes away and thinks about the warmth of Tobias's skin.
She's still sitting there when they bring Fred in.
She stares at his horribly still body and knows she should be feeling something.
"I'll stay with him," a voice says.
It's Luna. Dirt in her hair and a long scratch down her arm, but standing and breathing and living .
"Luna," Ginny says, voice breaking.
Luna's hand slides down Ginny's hair, a gesture of comfort. "Go," she says. "I'll stay."
Ginny nods, pushing to her feet and stumbling towards her family as if moving through a physical wall of sound and pain.
None of them see her approaching, and the one closest to her is someone she hasn't laid eyes on for over two years.
"Percy?" she says, looking up at her long lost brother standing with tears on his face.
"Ginny," he says, pulling her in tight against his chest.
Everything seems to be happening far away, the screaming in her mind like a distant buzz. No one in her family even bothers to question what she is still doing here, they just pull her close.
She doesn't know how long she sits there, Ron appearing, shouting with disbelief as he folds himself over Fred's prone form. Ginny just stares and tries to breathe because she doesn't have a plan for this. Can't line up any of her variables.
And Fred just still refuses to move.
Time seems to mean nothing, bodies and lives and broken plans moving by without them.
"Snape is dead," Ron reports at some point, his voice hollow. "Voldemort killed him."
Ginny can't breathe.
"Serves him right," someone snarls.
"Does it?" Ginny finds herself saying.
They all turn to look at her with surprise, but all Ginny can think is how little they really know about people's lives. She didn't like him, not exactly. He was unpleasant and unforgiving, but does anyone deserve to die like that?
"He killed Dumbledore," Bill says.
"Yeah," she says, thinking about the last time she saw Snape. Go. And for some reason that is so much easier to focus on. "Maybe."
Nothing she learned about Severus Snape this last year makes sense, and she's just allowing for the possibility.
"Starkers," Charlie mutters, probably assuming this is some misplaced Slytherin loyalty, if he can even allow the idea of Slytherin and loyal in the same thought.
Slytherin are loyal, Ginny knows. It's just that the lines they draw, the units of insiders they create are not defined by common boundaries, by anyone else's rules. They do not pledge loyalty based on notions of people they should care about. It is far more complicated and infinitely more nuanced than that. It can't be understood with just a glance.
And maybe Snape couldn't be either.
Ginny pushes to her feet, ignoring the ache radiating from her side, the numbness in her heart.
"Where are you going?"
She glances down at Fred's body, so horribly still, and knows she can't stay here. "To help with the injured," she decides.
If she stops now, she may never be able to start again.
Outside, darkness has fallen, thick and inky, the moon and stars hidden behind a cloak of smoke and mist and spent magics.
There are soft moans of settling stones and listing trees and fallen bodies left behind.
The first body she comes to is draped in a dark cloak, almost disappearing into the earth if not for the bone-white mask covering their face.
A Death Eater.
She lifts her wand and with a quick spell, she knocks off the remains of his shattered mask, a surprisingly young face peering out. A boy, really. They stare back at each other.
The only movement is his hand, moving towards the wand on the ground just barely out of reach of his ravaged body.
Ginny kicks it away with her foot, cracking it in half with her heel.
His mouth twists into a snarl. "Do it," he spits, blood on his lips. "Finish it."
She could, she knows. It would be so easy. Just a flick of her wrist and one less monster in the world. One less murderer. Isn't that what they are fighting for?
Isn't that what they are dying for?
"How do you know it wasn't me?" he goads, voice a painful rasp. "That I didn't kill your best mate, your father? That I wouldn't kill you too if I had my wand?"
She thinks of Fred, of Tobias. Of countless others she probably doesn't even know about yet. "I don't," she says, hand tightening around her wand. "But if you did, what makes you think I would want your death to be quick?"
He blanches, the first real glimpse of fear shining in his eyes.
To Ginny, it seems pretty clear that he won't survive. His body is crushed like he got the worst of a giant, or stampeded by centaurs. Blood seems to seep out of endless wounds. Still, there is some small chance a medic might make it in time.
Pointing her wand up, she sends a flare into the sky. He curses at her, but she ignores it.
Kneeling next to him, she lifts the corner of his robe, pressing the fabric against the blood oozing out of his side, because stopping the blood ( so much blood ) is the only thing she can think to do.
He laughs, a sick rattling sound in his throat. "Are you actually trying to save me?"
She ignores him.
"You can't," he says, the faintest sign of a wobble in his voice.
She meets his eyes. "I know."
It probably would be more merciful to finish him off, she thinks. Maybe if she were slightly more compassionate, she would.
As it is, no one comes.
She watches him die, his hand gripping tight onto hers until the very end, as if he's forgotten he hates her, would much rather kill her. She can only think that in death, everybody looks the same.
When it's done, she lets go of his hand, leaving his eyes staring empty up at the sky, and wearily pushes back to her feet.
She scans the field and tries to make her feet move, to just keep going. Find the next body. Do something .
A figure appears up over the rise, materializing through the smoke. At first Ginny assumes it is the medic at last, until she registers the figure's familiar determined and steady gait.
"Harry," she breathes.
He doesn't stop moving towards her until he's standing right in front of her.
She thinks to ask what he's doing out here, where Ron and Hermione are, but she already knows, doesn't she? Deep down she's always known. Because the Forbidden Forest stretches out behind her, and there is only one thing that can stop all the killing.
You have permitted your friends to die for you rather than face me yourself.
Harry opens his mouth as if to say something, but seems to change his mind, instead reaching for her face. He kisses her, both more forward and confident than he's ever been before, and if she needed any more proof where he is going, what this is, she has it now.
Ginny closes her eyes, pressing into him, and he tastes like smoke and blood and tears and sweat, and it isn't fair. It isn't fucking fair at all.
She pulls back, gasping for air, her forehead resting against his.
"I'm sorry," he says.
She shakes her head. Reaching up, she presses her palms firmly against his cheeks, framing his face, staring at him so hard it makes her vision begin to swim. Like the pressure of trying to memorize him, to slow down time, is too much for her mind to handle.
"Bloody hero," she says, choking on the accusation.
His face contorts, as if he's trying to smile but his lips just won't cooperate. "If there were any other way…"
"I know," she says. Because he may be reckless and stupidly brave and a bloody fool from time to time, but it's all there in his face… How much he wants to live. How utterly terrified he is.
His fingers tighten on her shoulders. "I wish…"
She kisses him hard, not wanting to think of possibilities, of the future, and this time he's the one to eventually pull away, his fingers dragging across the back of her hand, and then he's disappeared under his cloak and is gone, nothing but a ghost against her skin.
She presses her fist to her mouth and stares out into the dark of the forest and tries not to scream.
"Miss? Was that your flare?"
She turns to find a haggard-looking medic climbing toward her over the rubble.
"Miss?" he asks.
Ginny shakes her head. "It's too late."
It's all too late.
Together they turn and move towards the next body.
"Something is happening," the medic says, his hand latching on to Ginny's arm.
She glances back toward the Forbidden Forest, and sure enough, she can detect movement in the trees. And the sound of shouting and small explosions. Sounding almost like…celebration?
She feels everything inside her go cold.
"We have to go," the medic demands, dragging her after him.
She doesn't argue, stumbling over rocks and craters as she does her best to keep up with him.
Voldemort's voice chases them from behind, amplified and echoing.
Harry Potter is dead.
The medic curses as Ginny nearly falls, her legs trying to give up. He glances back over his shoulder. "Run," he says.
Somehow she does.
They reach the castle just ahead of the Death Eaters, Neville and Hannah and Luna and the rest of her family pouring out the front doors.
"Ginny," her father says, pulling her against his side.
His face is pale as he looks out over the grounds behind her. Ginny slowly turns, and there Harry is, cradled in Hagrid's arms like a rag doll.
She doesn't scream like others around her do, doesn't cry out or feel tears welling in her eyes as she stares at Harry's lifeless body. Her father's hand is firm on her arm, but she doesn't know why. She isn't going to throw herself at Voldemort the way Neville does.
No. Instead she stands and understands with absolute, hard-edged clarity that even if it is the very last thing she ever does, she will destroy Voldemort. She sees that life spread before her, that single drive filling her vision, because looking at him, she doesn't see an evil, unbeatable wizard, a murderer. She sees a smug young boy with flowing black hair and a festering fear eating away at his heart. She knows this boy inside and out, as well as she knows herself.
She will destroy him and grind his bones to dust. Even if it takes a hundred years and every drop of blood she has.
Could you kill, if you had to?
Yes. Yes, she could.
She will.
It's at once the calmest and most frightening feeling she has ever experienced. It sustains her through the following chaos, watching Voldemort torture Neville. Only then-
There is a sword and a snake and a head spinning through the air, and everything cracks back open.
Ginny fights with Luna and Hannah at her back. She fights for Tobias in the hall behind her, for Harry walking alone into a forest, for her brother, for this school and this castle that is theirs, dammit. It feels as if her brain has shut off entirely. She's nothing but an instinct anymore, a body in motion.
Survive.
She gets separated from Luna and Hannah as the fighting spills into the hall. She turns, nearly tripping, only to come face to face with dark eyes staring out from a bone-white face, dark hair a wild tangle.
Bellatrix cackles with manic glee, her wand flashing. Ginny manages to deflect the first curse, and the second, but her arm is partially numb from the last deflection and she isn't sure she can stop another.
Death passes a hairsbreadth from her, a burning hex that leaves her knees weak just from the proximity.
And then her mum is there, shoving her out of the way, screaming at Bellatrix, wand flashing so fast Ginny can barely track what is happening.
Spell. Counterspell. Charge. Retreat.
Mum, Ginny thinks, trying to get back to her feet, refusing to watch this happen.
Bellatrix lets out a triumphant bark of laughter, but it seems to catch in her throat as her mum unerringly sends one last spell in her direction. But nothing so simple as a spell, but rather a wall of energy, a radiant force.
Bellatrix is coming apart, something so quiet and delicate. Ginny has never felt power like that in her life, the way it seems to radiate through the air.
"Ginny," her mum says, grabbing her arm, pulling her close.
She nods, looking up at her mother, the hardness in her eyes that almost renders her unrecognizable. "I'm okay," she breathes.
There's a gasp from the center of the room, Ginny turning just in time to see Harry pull off his cloak to stroll calmly in front of Tom. Her brain stutters, trying to make sense of what she's seeing. This is when her knees weaken, tears prickling against the back of her eyes as if that terrible calm before never existed.
He's alive, but only for now.
She catches maybe half of what is said between them as they circle each other, understands even less. The crowd around them is rapt with attention. This, Ginny realizes, is exactly what she's been waiting for since Percy first stormed out of the Burrow. Good and evil circling each other, one final great battle. It's still nowhere near as simple as that.
It's terrible and transfixing and pulses with the knowledge that this moment will define all of their futures.
Harry is steady and brave as always, but there is something different in him now, more calm and sure than ever before. Like he's seen something, understands something none of them can touch. Not even Tom.
In the end, Ginny is proven right about Harry. When it comes time to cast one final spell to save his own life, to save the lives of everyone here, Harry doesn't reach for the killing spell. He does nothing more than disarm Tom, letting the dark wizard's own killing spell rebound upon him.
Poetic justice, and proof that Harry is no murderer.
She can't say she would have done the same.
He disappears beneath a pile of jubilant people.
Ginny's knees give out.
When she recovers, numbly getting back to her feet, she moves across the hall not towards the celebrations, but the body crumpled on the floor. Everyone is giving it wide berth, as if scared it may still possess some power, some control over all of them. But there isn't any of that anymore.
Because lying on the floor is Tom. He's motionless, completely unthreatening. She looks for anything of the boy he once was, but just can't see it.
She considers that maybe Tom has been gone for a really long time.
But Ginny… She's still standing.
You're stronger than you know.
A white sheet materializes, falling softly over the desiccated remains. Ginny turns, startled to see her mum standing next to her, wand in hand. It's a surprisingly compassionate gesture towards a man who had none. Particularly from a woman who has lost two brothers and a son to his terrible reign.
Mum takes Ginny by the elbow. "Come away, dear."
Ginny looks one last time upon the body of a boy turned murderer. Did he even notice? How do you know when you've become nothing but a monster?
But there aren't any answers here. Just a husk.
Ginny lets herself be pulled away.
She can still feel it, the fading aura of that powerful spell encompassing her mother. "You were amazing."
"You pick your battles," Mum says. She turns her head, appraising her daughter. "But I think you already know that lesson, don't you?"
Ginny tightens her jaw against the threat of tears and nods. "I had really good teachers."
Walking out of the hall of jubilant celebration, Ginny makes her way towards the makeshift infirmary.
"Ginny."
She turns, and near one of the first pallets is Reiko. Her face is still a mass of bruises, so it's hard to tell if she's been hurt.
Ginny touches her arm, "Are you—" She breaks off when she sees who is lying on the pallet. It's Bassenthwaite, his face pale and slicked with sweat.
Ginny kneels down next to Reiko. "What happened?"
"Some sort of curse. Something dark." Reiko has tears on her face, not bothering to hide them. "They say they can't— That there's nothing-"
Ginny grabs her hand.
Bassenthwaite's eyes barely crack open. "That you, Captain?" he asked, words partially mumbled.
"Yeah," she says, settling down next to him. "It's me."
"You okay?"
"Yeah," she says. "I'm okay."
He nods, sucking in a rattling, wet breath. "Y'know, we definitely would have taken the Cup again."
Ginny reaches out and takes his hand. "Of course we would," she says, keeping her voice steady only through sheer force of will. "You're the best Beater I've ever had."
His lips twitch. "Flatterer."
She shakes her head. "Just a fact."
"At least now you'll have Graham."
They both know why they fought. For students like their missing teammate Graham. So he won't have to hide anymore, so he can be back here playing Quidditch were he belongs.
Bassenthwaite nods, his eyes closing, breathing labored. "That'll be better… Things back to what they should be."
Ginny bites down hard on her lip. "I'll make sure of it," she promises.
His hand squeezes hers. "I know you will."
She leans forward, pressing a kiss to his forehead, and the fact that he doesn't pull away or tell her to sod off is like a knife in her gut.
She looks at Reiko.
Reiko gives her a firm nod. She'll be there until the end.
Ginny squeezes Reiko's shoulder, and forces herself to move further into the room, scanning for Tobias, terrified of what else she may find.
He's only three pallets over, but he's very, very still, and she stands for a long moment, frozen, until she registers the gentle, even rise and fall of his chest. She skims her eyes down his body.
"Couldn't save the leg," Madam Pomfrey says, looking up from the girl in the cot next to Tobias's. "Maybe under different circumstances…"
Ginny kneels down next to Tobias, touching his forehead. "But you saved his life."
"We'll transfer him to St. Mungo's as soon as Shacklebolt confirms it has been secured. I'll keep him sedated until then."
It's a reminder that while Voldemort may be dead and Hogwarts a temporary sanctuary, there is still a battle waging outside, a Ministry littered with Death Eaters and deceit.
Tom has died before. It may take a while for people to accept that this time it's forever.
Ginny leans down, resting her cheek on Tobias's shoulder.
She rests there, staring off into the distance, letting thoughts just pass by, slide off. It takes a long while for her to register the dark blond hair trailing out from under a white sheet on the other side of the room.
She squeezes her eyes shut and listens to Tobias's breathing.
Ginny keeps moving, and despite the pain and this hollow ache in her chest, it's good, always having one more task, one more thing to do.
She lets her feet carry her to the common room. It's empty, a few trunks here and there as if they'd been abandoned half-packed, or been ransacked. She walks past them, past the empty hearth and the lake keening at her like a question.
She pushes open the door to The Parlor, winding down the steps.
Dozens of people are inside, the lights blazing. Everything intact and untouched. Tilly looks up as Ginny enters, crossing over and giving her a firm hug.
She pulls back, her face streaked with tears through the dirt on her face. "Ginny. Caroline…"
"I know," Ginny says. "I saw her."
Tilly's jaw tightens. "I lost her in the chaos somehow. I should have—"
Ginny shakes her head. "Tilly."
She closes her eyes, nodding her head. "I know." With a breath, she turns as if to move back into the room.
Ginny puts out a hand to stop her, Tilly looking back at her in question.
She takes in Ginny's grim expression. "Oh, goddess. Who else?"
"It's Bassenthwaite."
"No," she says, voice firm. Disbelieving.
"He's in the infirmary. They don't think…" She lifts her chin. "You should go see him."
Unspoken is, while you still can.
Tilly turns without another word, rushing up the steps.
Ginny moves further into the room, touching Nicola's arm where she sits with a collection of young students.
She looks up, face flooding with relief. "Ginny."
Nicola pushes to her feet. Pulling the key up and over her neck, she lifts it back over Ginny's head, letting it fall back in place.
"Back where it belongs," she says.
Ginny tries to smile, looking around the space. Unlike the rest of the castle, down here it's almost possible to believe none of it actually happened.
Only Astoria sits on the couch, with Hestia and Flora on either side. She's staring off into the distance, tears streaming down her face unheeded.
"Her father…" Nicola shakes her head.
Oh, Merlin.
Ginny clears her throat. "Does she know about Caroline?"
Nicola nods, her face pale.
Take good care of them.
"It's not your fault, Ginny," Nicola says.
"Then whose fault is it?"
Nicola doesn't have an answer.
Ginny moves further into the room, moving from person to person, hearing about their experiences, their losses. Collects them all up and stitches them together like a cloak she'll never really be able to take off.
She's not surprised none of them seem to have any interest in leaving this sanctuary. They linger for lots of reasons, she knows. Waiting for word of loved ones. Waiting to be told what to do. Waiting for some sense of normality to reassert itself.
Because the truth is that none of them really know what kind of world is waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
Night has fallen again by the time Ginny makes her way back into the Great Hall. There are still people here, huddled in small groups, but the celebration and merriment have long since faded.
Off to one side, she can see that her mum is finally sleeping, her head on her dad's shoulder. Her father looks up at her, catching her eye, and she nods to him, letting him know she's okay.
He looks back at her with exhausted, haunted eyes and nods.
Ginny keeps moving, finding her way to the small room adjacent to the hall, the one with bodies waiting to…go elsewhere.
She stands in the doorway, taking in the sheer number of sheet-covered bodies. People sit here and there, holding vigil, but the room is unnaturally still and silent.
Ginny moves through the bodies, searching.
She wonders at the fact that she can recognize the draped form as clearly as she could a face. Slowly lowering herself to her knees, she reaches for the cloth.
"Don't."
Ginny looks up to see George sitting in the shadows against the wall, and just for the tiniest moment she can almost imagine…
She wonders if for the rest of his life, George gets to live with looking like a ghost. If it will always be why not me ?
"Don't remember him like this. Remember him like…" George breaks off.
Remember him as he was. Full of laughter and pranks and being a berk and impossible and wonderful and putting a giant salamander in her bed. Remember when she was a toddler and was still confused why there were two of them, how she used to crawl up into his lap and he'd pretend to be annoyed by it. He never pushed her off.
Ginny lets go of the cloth and crawls over to sit next to George. She wraps her arms around his waist, her face pressing into his chest. He's motionless against her.
She takes a risk, speaking through the horrible thickness in her throat. "I love you, Forge," she says, an echo from long, long years before.
He makes a choking sound, and for a moment she thinks she's miscalculated, or that maybe he's forgotten, but then his arms wrap around her, fingers digging into her back. He's shaking, and she isn't sure if those are tears or laughter. Maybe just an agonizing combination of both.
It's only then that she lets herself really feel it, the loss and the almosts and the fear and helplessness of years and years of worry. The tears come and come and come until they feel like they will never stop.
For a while, she sleeps, her big brother's arms tight around her.
Dawn comes grey and heavy to Hogwarts.
Ginny wakes to deep, hollow numbness. The pressure of tears are gone, but leave nothing behind but emptiness.
She leaves George finally sleeping, Charlie coming in to take her place.
She doesn't smile at him, or look him in the eye, just lets him squeeze her fingers as she passes.
She washes in the buckets available outside in the debris-strewn courtyard, and grabs a bowl of porridge the House Elves are stirring in giant vats. She wonders if the kitchens were yet another casualty, but doesn't bother asking.
Seamus and Dean are eating nearby, bodies still touching as if to make up for their long separation, Terry, Michael, and the Patil twins sitting nearby. Ginny sees other people, other familiar faces, but doesn't stop, doesn't speak.
Her feet take her to her favorite sanctuary without conscious thought.
Like the rest of Hogwarts, her secret cloister has not escaped unscathed. One of the main supports is shattered, a giant beam slanting down across the center of the space. The sound of water is conspicuously absent.
She stands in the doorway, staring at the devastation, totally unprepared for how much it disturbs her, how adrift it makes her feel. People are dead, far too many people. This is just a room. Just a thing.
Stepping inside, she spends long moments methodically clearing the rubble off a stone. The simple task completed, she sits, letting the silence of the space settle over her, staring off into nothing as the exhaustion takes hold.
By her foot, she sees the spine of a book poking out from under the rubble. She brushes off the cover. Tobias will want to finish it, she thinks, tucking it into her pocket.
She has no idea how much time passes before she hears the sound of someone climbing up and over the rubble behind her.
She looks down at her bowl, now cold and still untouched, as Harry carefully lowers his body next to her, like he's ancient and aching. She stares at the ripped knee of his trousers, the cuts and bruises on his hands.
For a long moment they just sit there, his shoulder warm and steady next to hers, like the world is just a little less likely to fall away under her feet, and that's just as unfair as everything else.
"You did it," she says.
He doesn't say anything, and she forces herself to look up at him. He's already watching her, his head turned towards her like he's been studying her too. This close, she can see the dark circles under his eyes, the hollowness of his cheeks, and the shadow of a beard on his face.
When had he grown up?
"You finished it," she says.
But he doesn't look pleased, just regards her with his serious, deeply troubled eyes. "I'm sorry."
She sucks in a breath, knowing he's apologizing for Fred, for Lupin and Tonks, for Colin and Caroline and all the others ( so many ), like it is somehow his fault. For a second it all threatens to swamp her again, but she ruthlessly shoves it back down.
Looking back at the rubble, she eventually shakes her head. "I wonder if it can be salvaged," she says.
She thinks she means the cloister, but maybe she means the school, the world.
"I hope so," he says.
"I suppose it's a bit insignificant," she says, but her voice breaks and cracks and she should be stronger than this.
Harry's body shifts, turning towards her. "I'm really glad…," he says, and when she looks up, he's watching her like she was the one in danger.
"Me too," she tries to say, the image of his body lying so terribly still at the feet of Voldemort still burned into her mind.
They regard each other, like neither of them can manage to look away, and that's not all just exhaustion.
She wants him to hug her, to fold her into his body, to make this all go away. She wants him to never touch her ever again.
I wish… had been his last words to her. She isn't sure she knows how to wish anymore. She feels a lot like this cloister, shattered and transformed and something that maybe can never be put back together again.
She's done things, seen things, things she can't put into words, things she doesn't even know how to feel about. How she should feel about them. She looks into Harry's face and feels a thousand miles away from the girl he kissed the summer before.
She doesn't know how to put any of that in words though, so instead she finds herself saying, "I'm a Slytherin."
Harry's expression doesn't shift, still staring straight back at her with nothing of confusion or surprise. "I know," he says.
Not 'so what' or 'who cares', but an acknowledgement, an affirmation. Like he couldn't even imagine it any other way.
Ginny bites down hard on the inside of her cheek.
He tentatively reaches out towards her, his fingers brushing against the back of hers, and it's almost too much.
"I'd like to tell you about Severus Snape," he says.
She looks up at him in confusion, but he looks calm and certain, his voice soft as he tells her the story of a Slytherin called Severus Snape. She sits and listens, collecting the tales and secrets, weaving them into her own.
For Ginny, Harry's words are the final puzzle pieces falling quietly into place. She knew, she realizes. It was there in front of her, but she couldn't see it. Wouldn't allow herself to see it. Because the danger of the game Snape played is breath-taking, terrifying.
Harry turns to look at her. "He's one of the bravest people I've ever known."
"No," Ginny says.
"What?" he asks, like she's the last person he expects resistance from.
She shakes her head. "He wasn't brave."
It was something else entirely, but no less important. Ginny sees a man that if he had been even a tiny bit less cruel and hard…maybe none of them would be sitting here right now.
She looks at Harry, her hand squeezing around his, holding his gaze no matter how hard she finds it because everything just still hurts.
"He was necessary," she says.
She can tell Harry doesn't understand. Not really. But that's okay. Because she thinks she's finally starting to, the lesson this place has been trying to teach her all along.
The sun is high in the sky by the time Ginny works her way out the front door of the castle.
Neville sits with Luna and Hannah on what's left of the grass, the three of them sharing a bowl of food between them. Ginny feels something ease in her chest just seeing them there. Picking her way around the rubble, she sits down with them, Hannah holding the bowl out to her.
Ginny takes a bit of bread, lifting it to her mouth and chewing methodically.
"Look what I found," Neville says. He holds up the Sword of Gryffindor for her to see, something a bit defiant and humorous in his gaze.
"Reckless," Ginny says, lips twitching.
He smiles like it's a compliment, and maybe, somehow, it is.
"I suppose it ended up in the right place after all," she says.
"Things usually do," Luna says.
"We did it," Hannah says, something like awe in her voice. "We survived."
The four of them sit there together, looking out over the grounds.
Everything is decimated. There are plumes of smoke rising from the direction of Hogsmeade, broken stones and suits of armor strewn across the lawns. Some sort of substance slicks the surface of the lake. The Quidditch pitch has been reduced to nothing but ashes.
"We'll rebuild," Neville says.
Ginny takes a moment to critically eye the damage. "Yeah," she says. "We should be able to do that."
Hannah links her arm through Ginny's. "We'll do it together."
Luna lifts her face to the shifting afternoon light, eyes closed as if listening to the hum of the grounds no one else can hear.
"Listen," she says. "It's already begun."