Chapter 20 – How Can I Go On Living Without Ginny?
"MY SISTER IS DEAD!"
I aimed my wand as Hermione and I raced up the stairs to the bank, summoned by a nearly inhuman scream of agony from my brother George. Then Harry wailed: "Ginny is dead! It's all my fault."
My wand quickly found the lone remaining assailant, and "Avada…" had already passed my lips, before I saw my enemy collapse in a heap and start to roll down the stone steps. He was coming right at me, so I stepped a little to the side and kicked him in the head as the body rolled past.
"You shouldn't do that, Ron," Hermione chided me reflexively. I didn't even defend myself. The only thought in my brain was the one that I knew was also filling Harry's mind: If we had stepped aside and allowed the two Ministers and their aurors to handle this, Ginny would still be alive, and Harry would be looking forward to a very happy life with her. Of course, I thought of Mum. This would destroy her. Fred had hit her hard, but two children in a month and her only daughter - the youngest of us. It was unthinkable.
Harry was hunched over Ginny's inert body, tears running down both cheeks, as he made heart-wrenching wordless cries. I rushed to his side, putting my arm around his shoulders.
"How can I go on living without Ginny?" Harry asked me.
Fortunately, Monsieur Delacour spoke, before I could attempt to say something remotely comforting. What could I possibly say?
"It may not be too late," I heard Monsieur Delacour speak into Harry's ear. "We must get her to Beauxbatons immediately. The Rod of Asclepias has been surprisingly effective in the past." Turning his head towards us, he spoke in a whisper, "you had best go home and tell Arthur and Molly. They should be told immediately. Give them some hope, but not too much hope. That would be cruel."
"We'll go back to the Ministry right away. Arthur is …." Before Hermione could even finish the sentence, Monsieur Delacour had grabbed Ginny and Harry and vanished.
"Let's go," Hermione nudged me.
I took her hand and apparated to Dad's ante-room. Prudence looked up and could tell at once that something was very wrong. "Umm, you better go right in…"
We were in, before she finished speaking. Dad was talking to Madam Bones, but stopped in mid-sentence, when he saw our faces.
"Ginny has been killed," I told him. "Madame Delacour holds out a little hope that the Rod of Asclepias might..."
"What can we tell your mother?" Dad spoke through sobs. "First Fred, and now…"
"We know," Hermione tried to console him. "Don't give up hope."
"I let her stay and came back to England to do my very important work, knowing my little girl planned to fight terrible Wizards. What kind of father am I. I should have sent her home and led the fight, myself. Shacklebolt would have been happy to..." He was again sobbing too much to speak.
"Ginny was doing what she felt she had to do, what she wanted to do, what she wasn't going to be stopped..."
"I'm her father. It's my job to find a way to make her be sensible. It was my job. I failed. I don't know what I can say to Molly. This will destroy her. I'm not at all sure it won't destroy me. I just don't..."