Part II
)BW(
Draco, Ananda, and Ginny rushed back outside, into the flurry of battle. "Pull back!" they called to everyone they saw. "Pull back to the castle! Harry's alive."
The DA and members of the Order who could hear them were clearly confused, but slowly began to draw the battle back toward the castle. Harry waited at the top of the steps, the morning light resting over him like a robe. He waited, wand tucked into his pocket, something Ginny knew was virtually impossible for him while his friends were in danger.
When they were within several meters of the castle steps, the Death Eaters faltered. They pointed and shouted to each other.
"Everyone stop!" Harry's voice rang out over the battle, over the grunts of giants and howls of werewolves; over the clash of bodies and spells.
Everyone did stop, turning to stare up at the Boy Who Lived.
"He lives," voices murmured. "Harry Potter lives!"
"This ends now," Harry said, his magically amplified voice echoing over the crowds below. "Tom Riddle, your fight is with me. Call off your monsters and face me in fair combat."
Voldemort stared at Harry, his eyes wide, disbelieving, and furious.
"Of course," Harry went on calmly. "You've never faced me in fair combat before. Maybe you think you're not up to it, Riddle?"
"Don't call me that," Voldemort hissed. "Do not think you are any match for Lord Voldemort, boy."
"I'm alive," Harry said, shrugging. "Obviously, I'm some kind of a match, Riddle. Face me. If you dare." He turned and walked into the castle.
"Come," Voldemort said. "Come, all of you. Watch the destruction of Harry Potter."
He swept through the combatants, all still motionless, and went up the steps. Neville was right behind him. The DA followed, as did most of the Death Eaters. It was so strange, Ginny though. Former enemies crowding together to watch a battle between their leaders. No thought of picking each other off on the way. The Death Eaters were even setting up barriers so the giants, Acromantula, and other beasts had to remain outside, beyond the lines of injured and dead that covered the grass.
They poured into the entrance hall and into the Great Hall. Draco, Ginny, and Ananda had cleared a large area in the center of the hall. All of the injured and dead had been moved to the back of the hall, near an exit. Harry stood in the center of the hall, wand in hand. Voldemort stood facing him, wand at the ready. Ginny found a spot with Ananda, Jools, and Adrienne. They huddled together, eyes fixed on Harry. Ron and Hermione, who stood across the hall with Blaise, Draco, Pansy, and several of the team girls, grinned fierce grins. Pansy leaned on Draco and still looked like she might go into shock – Draco and Harry being alive was clearly something she wasn't going to be able to process for a while longer.
"Are you ready to die, boy?" Voldemort asked, raising his wand.
"You know, you've said that to me so many times," Harry said, shaking his head. "And, funny, here I am. Not dead. Again."
Ginny wanted to laugh. Neville, who stood with Dean and Seamus, put a hand over his mouth. The Death Eaters hissed.
"Why can't you ever seem to kill me?" Harry went on. He had started to circle, his eyes fixed on the creature that had made his life a misery since he first entered the magical world; really, since he was a year old.
"You are fortunate in your friends and allies," Voldemort said. "And lucky."
"I am," Harry agreed. "I noticed you couldn't kill my friends today." He threw a faint smile in Draco's direction. "Or my allies."
Draco sneered at him – some things never changed – but didn't deny it. Ananda grinned, gripping Ginny's hand. Ginny saw Bellatrix LeStrange eyeing her in an unsettling way.
"You're a fool, boy," the Dark Lord said, fingers claw-like around his wand.
"I'm not a boy anymore, Riddle," Harry said. "Maybe that's why you're so scared to fight me. I looked like such an easy target when I was a baby."
Voldemort snarled.
"The reason you can't kill me," Harry said, "and the reason you couldn't kill my friends today are connected, Riddle. It's the one thing you never understood about us."
"And what's that? Love!" Voldemort spat the word.
Harry shrugged. "It's pointless explaining it to you," he said. "How many times have we defeated you and how many times have you ignored the reason why?"
"I will defeat you now," Voldemort said, raising his wand. "And we'll see where your vaunted love gets you then."
"It's already taken me beyond death and back again," Harry told him, raising his wand, too. "It saved my friends today, it allows Dumbledore to live beyond the grave …"
People gasped. Harry smiled, though pain flashed across his eyes. "To the well organized mine," he quoted, "death is but the next great adventure."
There was a murmur from around the room, as members of the DA and Order nodded in assent.
"I'm not afraid to die," Harry said. "Not anymore. So kill me – if you can."
The spells were cast at exactly the same moment.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
Their magics met in an explosion of light, but only for a moment. When the smoke cleared, Voldemort lay dead, his unnatural body crumpled on the stone. Small, somehow, Ginny thought distantly.
"He's dead," someone said.
"He can't be!" Bellatrix LeStrange surged forward, falling beside her master and shaking him, as though hoping to reawaken him. Ananda, standing beside Ginny, gave a snort of disgust. Probably one she'd been holding onto a long time, Ginny thought.
A moment later, Bellatrix let out an inhuman howl and rounded on Harry with her wand drawn. Before anyone else had moved, Draco and Pansy, who were closest, leapt forward with drawn wands.
The battle suddenly came to life again, the confusion and chaos deafening. Over the din, Ginny heard her mother shriek, "Get back! Get back! LeStrange is mine!"
Harry, Draco, and Pansy were shoved aside as Mrs. Weasley threw herself at Bellatrix and began firing spells. Bellatrix was apparently too shocked to be amused that a dumpy housewife had just begun a duel with her. Ginny had never been more proud of her mother.
The battle didn't last long. Without their master, Voldemort's followers fell into confusion and were quickly subdued. The Order and Aurors took most of them into custody immediately.
Ginny didn't notice any of this until after the fact – when the battle ended, she found herself surrounded by her family. She and Ron were hugged and kissed and hugged and scolded roundly. Ginny didn't notice for a few minutes that someone was missing. Her mother's keening cry of loss told her before she saw the body.
Percy lay on one of the tables at the back of the Great Hall.
Ginny stared at him, the ache she had felt over Draco and Harry magnifying and filling her chest until she couldn't breathe. She reached blindly for Bill, who lifted her up as though she were a little girl again. She pressed her cheek into his shoulder, still staring at Percy's lifeless body. Someone had closed his eyes – he looked so peaceful. Fred and George knelt over him, both in tears. Ginny couldn't have cried. Her whole body was ice-cold. She thought at first Bill was shaking. Then she realized it was her.
The twins were telling their father in broken voices how brave Percy had been in the battle. He'd saved the lives of countless students and thrown himself in the way of countless oncoming curses. Fearless, Fred said. A hero, George added.
Her father stood over Percy, gripping one of his limp hands and murmuring words too low for Ginny to hear. Mrs. Weasley lay across Percy's chest, sobbing uncontrollably into his front. Ginny felt warmth seeping into her shoulder and realized Bill was crying. She twined her legs around his waist and rubbed a hand over his back.
Charlie and Ron stood close together, staring down at their brother. Ron looked like he'd aged a hundred years since Ginny had last seen him. She wondered where Harry and Hermione (essentially part of the Weasley family) had gone. She looked around the hall and saw Jools, Hannah, Parvati, Adrienne, and Patrice. They were talking quietly to a group of DA people, all standing a bit closer together than was really necessary.
Ginny's eyes continued to travel around the room. A group of Slytherins stood around a table near the door. Harry and Hermione stood with them, for some reason. Blaise had his face pressed into Hermione's shoulder and Pansy sobbed into Harry's. Draco stood alone, staring down at the table. Ananda leaned on the table beside him, her eyes wide and haunted. A sudden gap in the mass of people showed Ginny what they were all staring at.
Severus Snape lay on the tabletop, his black robes wreathed around him. Ginny didn't have any room left in her for pain or anguish, but when she caught Draco's eye, she tried to offer him something. She knew what it meant to lose someone you loved. Today, she knew.
She stayed with her family for a while, losing all track of time. Eventually, it became clear that help was needed all over the castle. Bill, Charlie, and Mr. Weasley went to help the teachers, parents, and Aurors, leaving the twins and Mrs. Weasley with Percy's body. Ron, Ginny saw, had slipped away. Ginny saw him leave the hall with Harry and Hermione, who had left Blaise and Pansy to Draco's care.
"Gin."
Ginny turned. Jools stood behind her. She glanced around Ginny, her eyes wide. "Oh, Gin, I'm so sorry!"
Ginny accepted a hug, though she was becoming aware of how long it would take her to realize Percy was gone.
"I know your family needs you now," Jools said slowly. "But I – some of the team hasn't got any family. The Slytherins – well, they lost Snape." Jools gave her a piercing look. "And everyone wants to know what the hell is going on with Ananda."
Ginny looked around. Ananda had detached herself from Snape's table and stood alone near the door, looking lost. The temporary comradery between her, Pansy, Jools, and Draco, forged in the heat of battle, had disappeared. Ginny felt dreadful.
"There's nothing I can do here," Ginny said. "Let's round everyone up. I think Hermione is with Harry and Ron."
"She is, but she promised to come to us the minute she could," Jools said.
"Mum," Ginny said, turning and kneeling by the older woman.
"Ginny," her mother managed, staring at her with a look Ginny would never forget.
"I'm sorry, Mummy," Ginny said, hugging her mother and wishing she could do something – however horrid she felt, it was nothing to what Molly Weasley was feeling now.
"Oh, Ginny," her mother said, pressing a kiss to her temple. "My little girl."
"Mum, some of my friends are hurt," Ginny said gently. "I have to go help them but I promise I'll be back soon."
Her mother gazed at her with wide eyes. "I promise I'll come back, Mum," Ginny repeated, looking into her fearful face. "I swear I will."
Mrs. Weasley nodded. "Where's Ron?" she asked suddenly, her eyes darting around.
"Harry and Hermione are taking care of him," Ginny told her. "He'll come back soon."
Mrs. Weasley looked relieved. "He's safe if he's with Harry and Hermione," she said. Her face crumpled. "Oh, Ginny …"
"Go, Gin." George pulled their mother into his arms. "We'll take care of her."
Ginny nodded and kissed his cheek. "Be back soon."
"You'd better or we'll set Peeves on you," Fred threatened.
"Ooh, scary!"
Fred grinned – small and weak, but a grin nonetheless.
Ginny turned and followed Jools, who had been waiting at a discreet distance, across the hall.
"Is Terry okay?" Ginny asked suddenly, remembering Jools had family, too.
Jools nodded. "He's in hospital – broken leg," she said. "But he's fine. My parents are with him." She let a small smile flash across her face at the thought – a look Ginny envied.
They were almost to Snape's table, ready to collect the Slytherins, when Ginny paused.
"I'll be right back," she said, pulling away from Jools and heading toward the doors.
Ananda stood by herself, lost and painfully alone in the whirled of muted activity around her.
Her lip trembled. "He was my mentor," she said as Ginny drew up to her. "He – he took care of me, looked after me. He trained me." She looked away, across the hall to the table where a few Slytherins, including Draco, Pansy, and Blaise, remained around their professor. "No one else knew – he knew everything."
Ginny took her friend in her arms. "I lost someone today, too," she said quietly, the horrible reality sinking into the icy chill protecting her heart from the impact of that loss. "I know, Nanda."
"I'm sorry, Gin."
They held onto each other for a moment, shaking and scared and and hurt and relieved it was over.
"We have something we have to do right now," Ginny said, coming to a decision as she pulled back.
"What?" Ananda asked miserably, her eyes dull.
"It's time our friends know you're a hero," Ginny said firmly. "You need them right now and they need you, too, even though they don't know it yet."
"Who will believe me?" Ananda murmured. "Without Professor Snape to back me up ..." She swallowed hard.
"Jools is already halfway there, and you kidnapped and starved her," Ginny said, giving her friend's shoulders a shake. "And everyone else has to believe it – it's the truth, with or without Sn – Professor Snape's word." Ginny leaned forward. "Please, Ananda. You don't have to be alone anymore."
"I'm scared," Ananda whispered.
"After everything you've been through?" Ginny asked, looking her in the eye. "This will be a walk by the lake."
"Yeah," Ananda retorted with a small spark of her old fire. "Like a walk round the lake when the giant squid is grouchy and decides to eat you."
"The giant squid has never eaten anyone," Ginny said, pulling Ananda with her toward the others. She whispered, "Stop being such a Hufflepuff."
"I'm telling Captain Susie you said that." But Ananda followed her slowly toward the others.
)BW(
Draco wasn't sure how long he stared down at Professor Snape's still, peaceful face. Across the hall, his father lay on another table, just as – as dead. Draco's mother knelt over him, sobbing uncontrollably. Draco supposed he ought to be with her. But he belonged here, with the man who had freed him and empowered him and saved him from the life his father would have chosen for him.
Pansy's tears rolled onto the fabric of Snape's robe as she sobbed into his shoulder. Blaise leaned on Draco, his own tears tangling in his eyelashes. Jessica stood behind Pansy, an uncertain hand on her shoulder. The second year's eyes glistened with tears as she stared at Snape's still face.
Snape had been more than a professor to them – he had been their mentor, their protector, more of a father than Pansy or Draco had ever really had. He had raised them, helped put their feet on the right path.
He deserved better. None of them had seen him fall.
"Draco."
Ginny stood by him, slid her arms around him and let him hold onto her. He did – it wasn't her sorrow but it was so comfortable to have her there.
"He's a hero, you know," she murmured.
"We know," Blaise murmured, his voice shaking. "He was always a hero to us."
"You don't know," Ginny said but stopped. "Wait until Ananda tells you what he's done."
"What the hell does she know?" Pansy demanded, glaring at Ginny from Snape's shoulder.
"A lot, if you're willing to listen," Ginny retorted, though gently. "Please," she added softly, "the team needs you lot right now. Some of them are really badly hurt."
Draco wanted to object.
"It's all right," Daniel Jones said. He and his friend Juliette, both bandaged but mercifully alive, appeared at Draco's elbow. "We'll stay with him. He won't be alone." Draco realized there was a whole crowd of other Slytherins around the table, waiting to say goodbye to Professor Snape themselves.
Draco nodded. "Pans, Blaise, Jess."
They moved slowly away from the body. Ginny ducked under Draco's arm and pulled Ananda, who had been hanging back, with her. Draco's cousin looked over her shoulder at Snape's body, her eyes so bleak Draco almost wanted to reach out to her.
He looked around at the other girls collected near the Great Hall's massive doors – Adrienne and Hannah Abbot, Parvati and Patrice Patil, Jools and Natalie.
"Where are the others?" he asked.
"Millicent and Betina are in hospital," Jools said. "Ginny and I saw them there earlier." She paused. "I think they're both going to be okay but Betina looked really bad. Sick or something."
"Susie is up there, too," Hannah said slowly. "We took her earlier."
"What happened?" Draco asked. Something in her voice …
"We should go see her right away," Hannah said, avoiding his eye. "She's – it's bad."
"And where's Granger?" Draco added.
"She's with Ron and Harry," Ginny said. "I saw them leave."
"Either of you mind explaining what the hell is going on?" Pansy demanded of Ginny and Ananda.
"Not until we've seen to the others," Ginny said firmly. "They need us right now."
"Let's go." Draco led the way out of the hall, not letting himself look back at Snape or reach out for Ginny. He noticed Ananda struggling to remain behind in the hall. She and Ginny exchanged heated words ("I'm going to kill you, Weasley! They don't want to see me!" "They all need to see you, Malfoy, and you need them, so stop being a ninny and come on!").
"Do you happen to know what's going on with those two?" Draco demanded of Jools.
"Why would I know anything?" she asked.
"You did disappear with Weasley halfway through the battle," Draco hissed. "Gave us a right scare, I can tell you."
"All I know is that Ginny thinks Ananda is Merlin, all of a sudden," Jools said. "She insisted she had to go to Snape and when we got into the Shrieking Shack, she and Ananda were hugging and going on like best mates. Ginny told me just to trust her."
"Why?"
"Coach, I don't know and she wouldn't tell me anything," Jools retorted. "I'm as curious as you."
Disbelieving, more like, Draco thought. After everything Ananda (disguised as Jools) had put Ginny through, never mind Jools herself … he glanced back. Ginny and Ananda walked a few meters behind the group. Their arms were linked and they spoke in low voices.
"You'd think they were best bloody friends," Pansy muttered, appearing on Draco's other side. Draco took her arm. Her tears had stopped.
"Any ideas?" Draco asked.
"Nothing, except I think Weasley might have take a Confundus to the head," Pansy muttered. "And where the hell has Potter got to?" Draco raised his eyebrows. "What? We need Granger!"
"I need her," Blaise mumbled from Pansy's other side. He looked subdued but gave them a small smirk. "Up against a wall, possibly."
"Please, spare us all," Pansy said, wincing. "For Merlin's sake, Blaise!"
Jessica, wiping tears from her eyes, managed a giggled.
"Least I'm honest about the Gryffindors I'm snogging," Blaise said, nose in the air, "unlike some Slytherins I could mention but won't."
"Hey, if Jess chooses to keep her love affair with the Creevey freaks to herself, that's her business," Pansy said, her lip twitching.
"Oy!" Jess shouted as the girls around them laughed.
"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Jess," Natalie said. "They're very nice boys and – ow!"
It was good to hear them all laughing again, Draco thought.
They stopped laughing at the hospital door.
Draco went in first, determined not to crowd the wing and get booted out. Jools insisted on coming as well, pointing out that as captain, she was in charge of the health of every girl, just as much as he was. He was too tired and worried to argue.
"You may see Johnson and Bulstrode," Madam Pomphrey told Draco. She looked like she hadn't slept in days. He tried not to look at the injured and dead crowding the room. Even with the help of Aurors, parents, and the Order of the Phoenix, the work was constant and slow.
"What about Susie?" Jools asked.
"She won't see anyone right now," the hospital matron said sternly. "We must respect her wishes."
"How long has she been by herself?" Jools demanded.
"Never you mind, young lady," Madam Pomphrey said. "You may visit your friends for a short time but they need rest."
"That's fine," Draco said, with a restraining hand on Jools' shoulder. She glowered at him but didn't argue until Madam Pomphrey had hurried away to tend other victims.
"We'll see her anyway," Draco murmured as they went to Betina and Millicent's corner. "She shouldn't be alone, whatever the problem is."
"It can't be anything fatal if she's been left alone so long," Jools said in a low voice, her brow pinched.
"I doubt it," Draco said, though the feeling lingered that something was very wrong. "Come on – Johnson and Millie first."
Betina was asleep, her face white. Millicent lay beside her, bandaged all over but wide awake. She was pressing a wet cloth to Betina's face. "Thank Merlin!" she said as they came in. "I'm going to die of boredom if you don't break me out."
"We're not here to hack off the healers," Draco told her, kissing her forehead. "We're here with the team, making the rounds."
Betina's eyes fluttered open. "Hi, coach."
"All right, Johnson?"
"Better," she said. Draco raised her eyebrows and she smiled. "No, it's fine. My fever broke an hour ago and Mill's been giving me water."
"She does look better," Millicent promised, setting the wet cloth on the bedside table and reaching for a small bottle of water. She tipped a little water into Betina's mouth. The Hufflepuff swallowed and sighed.
"You look after each other," Draco ordered. The ball of nerves in his chest began to relax. These two would be fine and well looked-after. He decided to wait on telling Millicent about Snape. It would hurt her terribly and she needed all her strength to heal physically right now. "We'll send the team in as soon as we can."
"I want to hear everything!" Millicent said, glowering at Draco. "Injured five minutes into the battle. I didn't do anything."
"You did plenty," he said firmly, trying not to think of Snape. "Don't talk nonsense, Millie."
"Don't call me Millie!" she bellowed, convincing Draco that his Beater was well on the mend.
"Shut up, you'll get us thrown out!" Jools said. "All right, Mill?"
"Fine," Millicent grumbled. She didn't object to Jools' gentle hug. "Reckon you saw a right side more than I did."
"The others want to see you," Jools said quickly. "Let me see if I can sneak them in." She ran a hand over Betina's limp hair. "You up for some company, Seeker?"
"Oh, yes please!" Betina grinned sleepily.
"She's still on three potions for the pain," Millicent told Jools. "High as a kite, this one."
"Am not," Betina said with a sloppy smile.
Draco left them to it and went in search of his other captain. She wasn't hard to find. She was the only patient with the curtains drawn around her bed. Draco knew right away something must be very wrong. He pushed the curtain aside. She lay on her side, facing away from the slit in the curtain. She had blankets piled over her. The only reason Draco was sure it was Susie in the bed was because he could see her red hair against the pillows.
"Bones?"
"Go away." The words were so faint Draco almost didn't catch them.
"No."
"Please?"
He almost did leave then, but caught himself and moved into the small space. Someone had put a chair by the bed. He sat in it.
"Please go, coach." Her voice wobbled.
"You don't have to talk to me or tell me what's wrong, but you can't lie in here by yourself," Draco said flatly. "I won't bother you."
Susie rolled onto her back and threw a look at him. She looked absolutely fine, except a bandage wrapped around her throat. "You can't see me, coach. No one can. Not now."
"You look just fine to me," Draco said, grouchy and very worried.
"I'm not." Susie rolled away. "I'll never be fine again."
"Suit yourself," he said. "I'm still not getting out of this chair." He folded his arms and waited. He had to wait a long time. He heard the other team girls swarm the hospital wing. They got several minutes with Millicent and Betina before Madam Pomphrey shrieked the wing down scolding them. Ginny, Jools, and Ananda finagled permission to stay, on the grounds that they had done magical healing. Madam Pomphrey must have been desperate if she was letting them stay. They clearly wanted any excuse to talk to the injured that they could get – well, and any reason to hide, in Ananda's case.
"They sound healthy."
Susie's voice brought Draco back to the dark curtained area in which he sat.
"We're all going to pull through," Draco said simply. "Mostly," he added, wincing as he remembered Snape down in the Great Hall. All the Slytherin team girls would be terribly hurt by the loss of Snape.
"Nothing short of a miracle," Susie murmured. "I was sure Jess or Patrice were done-for. Or Betina."
"They're fine," Draco said. "And Betina will heal – probably develop an addiction to pain potions. Jess and Patrice weren't hurt at all. Clever girls."
"Thank Merlin," Susie murmured.
"How long are you planning on staying in here?" Draco asked.
"As long as Madam Pomphrey makes me," Susie returned, curling into a tighter ball under the blankets.
"I mean in this dark corner, hiding from your friends," Draco said, making the words as gentle as he could.
"I don't know." Draco almost didn't catch the answer. He did catch the hopeless note in her voice.
"Coach? Coach, are you in here?"
Hermione Granger came through the curtain. "Oh, Susie, I'm sorry," she said immediately. "I was just looking for the coach and – "
"I – it's okay, Hermione." Susie rolled onto her back. Draco was startled to see the tears glittering on her cheeks.
"Do you need anything?" Granger asked, crossing the room.
Susie shook her head, face crumpling and tears dripping off her chin. Granger reached out a hand and brushed it across Susie's face.
"What am I going to do, Mione?" the Keeper moaned, squeezing her eyes shut. "I feel empty. I'm so scared."
The ball of dread in Draco's chest grew – what was she talking about?
"Susie." Granger pulled the ball of blankets that was Susie upright and put her arms around her. Susie burst into body-wracking sobs, her face in Granger's shoulder. Granger looked at Draco with tears in her own eye. Draco gave her a look that demanded to know what was going on.
"You can tell the coach, Susie," Granger said softly, rubbing her back. "He'll understand. He can help. Please," she begged. "You can't face this alone. Let us help you."
"I'm scared," Susie said again.
"I know," Granger said. "But you're also courageous. Please," she said again, looking Susie in the eye. "Can I show him?"
Susie stared at Draco, tears still trickling down her freckled cheeks. Draco met her eye. "I told you, I'm going anywhere, Bones," he said firmly. He braced himself, not sure what to expect. Susie nodded after a long moment. Gently, Granger unwrapped some of the blankets. The bandages Draco had thought only covered her throat actually extended across her shoulders –
And over the stump where her right arm had been.
Draco didn't make a sound – he had been preparing himself not to flinch or gasp. Something in his chest lurched at the sight; he felt cold. He forced himself to look from the bandaged stump of her arm, which was only extended away from her shoulder a few inches, and up into her face. She looked frightened and angry and so hurt. "I'm so sorry," he said, finding that he meant it and that his throat was too tight to say anything else.
Granger bundled Susie back into her cocoon of blankets. Susie was still crying but not as hard or wildly as before. Granger pulled Susie back into her arms and rocked her gently, rubbing gentle circles over her back. "Can I tell him what happened, Susie?" she asked softly. "Wouldn't it help if someone else knew?"
"Okay," came a small voice from the blankets. "Fast please."
"I'll tell him and then we'll leave you for a bit, shall we?" Granger asked.
"No, please." Susie's shoulders began to shake. "I don't want to be alone now – now the coach knows."
"You won't be," Granger promised.
"But don't tell anyone else just yet," Susie begged. "Hannah knows. I – I'm not ready for
Jools or – "
"No one else," Granger promised.
"What happened?" Draco managed, his throat unsticking just enough. "Were you there, Granger?"
"I was nearby," Granger said, swallowing as she stared at Draco through the gloom. "We were battling a group of werewolves. Me and Susie and Professor Lupin and some other students and some Aurors. Susie went down – one of the werewolves was tearing into her. Lupin and I got there in time to hex him and pull him off. But – but he took most of her arm with him. Lupin suspended Susie in a sort of stasis, and Hannah and I brought her up here. By the time we got here, the stasis was wearing off. Madam Pomphrey said she couldn't save the arm and if she tried to, it most likely wouldn't ever really work again. And there was a chance that Susie would wind up a lycanthrope – the blood poisoning had already begun."
"So they removed her arm?" Draco asked quietly, his stomach turning at the thought of a werewolf ripping it off.
"Right away," Granger said. "She didn't feel a thing, but it must have been dreadful when she woke up." She rubbed Susie's back some more as the Keeper trembled in her arms.
Draco sat back, running a hand over his face. Never, since Snape had helped him that night months ago when he'd been so terrified of the letter from his father, had he doubted he'd chosen the right side. He thought of his mother, crying over his father's body in the Great Hall. The body of a murderer; a man who helped bring werewolves into a school full of kids because a more powerful man told him to. Draco felt sick.
Granger watched his face. When he met her eye again, she reached out a hand. Hesitantly, he took it. She squeezed his hand once and let go.
"Are you all right?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" he asked, staring down at his hands in his lap.
"I mean, about Professor Snape," she said. "I know what he meant to Blaise – what he meant to all of you. And ..." She paused. "Harry says Snape is a hero."
"A hero?" Draco asked distantly.
"It's all to do with this memory Snape left for Harry, telling him how to defeat Voldemort," Granger explained. "Harry didn't tell me everything. He just said Snape had sacrificed more than anyone else and never stopped being Dumbledore's man for a second." Granger frowned. "It sounds like your cousin might know something about all this," she said. "What's this I hear about Ananda being one of the good guys?"
"Search me," Draco muttered, grateful for the change in subject. He had always trusted, admired, and valued Snape. Somehow, him being a hero made the idea of his death that much harder to cope with. "No one tells me a bloody thing anymore."
Granger actually managed a weak giggle.
"Maybe you'd better go ask Ginny about it," she suggested. "She and Ananda are still in here somewhere, aren't they?"
"Probably," Draco said. He hesitated, glancing at Susie.
"I'll stay with her," Granger said quietly. "You might send Hannah in soon, though. Harry needs me, too."
"And Blaise said something dreadful about you and a wall earlier," Draco said, grinning a little when she went brilliant red. "Aren't you popular today."
She glowered at him. "Go away, coach. I still have my wand on me."
He went, smirking over his shoulder at her.
"Right," he said, when he found Ginny mixing pepper-up potions with Ananda. "You tell me and you tell me now."
"You're so bossy," Ginny said, pushing him aside with her elbow and reaching for a bottom of beetles. Ananda snickered.
"Now, cousin!" he snapped, rounding on her. "Do you want me to yell the place down and get us all thrown out?"
"All right, all right, your bloody highness." Ananda pulled the cauldron off the fire she had conjured and poured it into a bottle. She waved her wand and a little label appeared on the side. "Let's do this quietly, please."
"You should just tell Betina and Millie, while you're at it," Ginny pointed out. "And Pansy. She's in with them now. And Jools. Of everyone, Jools has the right to know."
"All right, fine." Ananda's voice was clipped, a sure sign she was anxious.
They rallied around the invalids' bed, standing and sitting and hoping Madam Pomphrey was busy enough not to notice her patients being disturbed.
"This had better be a damned good story," Millicent said, glaring at Ananda.
"Stop that," Ginny ordered. "She saved all our lives, Bulstrode." She glanced at Ananda. "Start at the beginning," she said quietly. "Don't leave anything out."
Ananda took a deep breath, set her shoulders, and began. "You all remember when Dumbledore started sponsoring the team and we had to send notes home asking our parents if we could be on the team?" The girls nodded – they hadn't realized the impact the responses to those letters would have. "Of course, my mum said no. She's lived in France since my uncle Lucius joined up with the Dark Lord years ago. She almost didn't let me come to Hogwarts when I was eleven. When she got the note about the team, she sent me an owl straight away, telling me if I didn't quit she'd pull me out of Hogwarts." Ananda shrugged. "It was no more than I expected. What I didn't expect was that Mum's friends in London, who work for Ministry Intelligence, were reporting that the Dark Lord was taking an interest in Hogwarts. Mum wanted to pull me out of Hogwarts then anyway, team or no team. I told her I was safer here with Dumbledore than anywhere and for the moment, she let me off. But she kept sending me messages about how Bellatrix LeStrange was becoming obsessed with rumors about an inter-house Quidditch team."
The girls gasped. Draco clenched his fists. "Not obsessed with the Quidditch team itself, of course," Ananda went on. "But the idea of the four houses uniting, in some way. Death Eaters whose kids were at Hogwarts began reporting strange behavior – Slytherins and Hufflepuffs speaking civilly to each other. Ravenclaws and Gryffindors studying together. Gryffindors and Slytherins having a laugh. A team that united the best that all four houses had to offer." Ananda sighed. "I thought the whole thing was ridiculous. What did the Dark Lord care about a bunch of kids?" She shivered. "But he did care. A lot. I think he thought that the houses coming together meant Dumbledore was building an army against him or something."
"Our Quidditch team started all this?" Jools asked faintly.
"When, in the whole history of the school, have the four houses come together?" Draco pointed out, shaking his head. "It's never been done. The Dark Lord would have thought Quidditch was a smoke screen for something bigger. Maybe something related to Potter."
"That's exactly what he thought," Ananda said, nodding. "I was off the team – I felt helpless. Then I realized there was a way I could help everyone." She swallowed. "It was crazy and completely stupid. But Bellatrix LeStrange knew by then she had lost you, Draco. Her favorite. Her protege. She knew when she didn't hear back from your letters and you kept making excuses to your family about staying at school for extra study. Your parents didn't realize right away, but Bellatrix knew. She started looking for someone else, someone Pure-blooded."
"You offered yourself," Pansy breathed.
"I knew if I was on the inside, I'd be able to keep track of what was going on," Ananda said, looking down at the bedspread. "Of course, convincing Aunt Bella – she made me call her that – convincing her I was genuine was hard. I had to cut all ties with the team – with my real friends." Ginny put her arm around her. Ananda leaned into her. "To keep you safe and to convince Aunt Bella I really wanted to be her protege. I found some Slytherin bullies to hang around with, just to make the whole thing more convincing. Anyway, Aunt Bella liked me right away. I knew how to talk to her, get under her skin. But she said I had to prove myself somehow, do something more. She said I should never have quit the team – I could have spied on you all, found out if the team was a cover for some sort of resistance movement."
"So you found a way back onto the team," Jools said, her eyes wide.
Ananda couldn't or wouldn't look at her. "It was perfect," she murmured. "I had just come from a conversation with Aunt Bella – she gave me different magical objects to use to communicate with her while I was in the castle – and I couldn't think of a way back onto the team. I caught the whole misunderstanding between Jools, Draco, and Ginny. It was perfect timing – the whole plan came into my head the moment I saw you. And Jools was so easy to catch – all alone." Ananda blinked hard. "I don't expect you to forgive me. Ever. But I did what I had to do. Kidnap, torture, and spying. I proved myself and became Aunt Bella's protege. I knew what she was doing and what the Inner Circle was doing. The Dark Lord didn't really care about me – he didn't think I was capable of much – so he let Aunt Bella have me as a 'pet.'"
"Wow, Ananda!" Betina had struggled into a sitting position, leaning against Millicent. Her dark eyes were round. "You're so brave!"
Ananda's lip quivered.
"What happened next?" Ginny coaxed.
"I realized all this information I was getting wasn't going to good use," Ananda said. "I didn't think Dumbledore would trust me and if anyone in the Dark Lord's crowd found out I was going to him ... well, I couldn't do that. But I got lucky – Professor Snape came to see me." Her eyes clouded in pain. "He told me he hoped I wasn't as big a fool as I seemed." She managed a smile. "I was so desperate and scared and struggling to keep up the Jools disguise. I told him everything and then I started to cry." She threw a hesitant smile at Pansy. "You know how much he loved it when girls cry."
Pansy sniffled, her lips curling into a crooked smile. "It was his favorite thing."
"What do you mean, was?" Millicent demanded.
"Later, Mill," Draco cut in gently.
"He told me to stop being a ninny and, since I'd gotten myself into the mess I was in, to decide if I wanted to continue or not." She lifted her chin. "I told him that if this was one thing I could do to help my best friends – and my family," she added, glancing at Draco. "Then, hell yeah, I wanted to continue."
Draco noticed several of the girls nodding. They understood "hell yeah."
"He told me I could report to him," Ananda said. "I suddenly realized I didn't know for sure that he was trustworthy. I asked him and he took me to Dumbledore and they explained their plans to me. All about – about Dumbledore dying and – "
"Wait a minute," Jools broke in. "You know how that happened?"
"Of course," Ananda said, her eyes suddenly hollow. "I had to do it."
The gasps and outcries were only just hushed before Madam Pomphrey heard.
Ginny was the only one of them who didn't look horrified or furious. She put a hand on Ananda's shoulder, her eyes full of understanding. Draco wondered if there were a more loyal, dedicated friend alive than Ginny Weasley. He supposed the only one who could compare was Ananda herself.
"It was the final task," Ananda explained. "Even the Dark Lord couldn't doubt my loyalty if I killed the greatest wizard the world has ever seen." She choked back a sob, leaning on Ginny for a moment. "Professor Snape was supposed to do it – to prove his loyalty. But Dumbledore said if I could do it, I'd have Aunt Bella's complete trust. She'd tell me everything about the Inner Circle, everything she knew about the Dark Lord. Dumbledore said I didn't have to – Professor Snape could do it."
"I still can't believe – did Dumbledore really plan his own death?" Millicent asked, a little breathless.
"Boy, did the Daily Prophet get it wrong," Jools murmured. "I mean, they implicated Harry."
"Yeah, but who really believed that?" Ginny pointed out.
"It was definitely me," Ananda said quietly, tears glittering on her cheeks. "Dumbledore knew it was the only way to really, truly beat the Dark Lord. He also knew it would get Professor Snape and I close enough to help Potter when he needed us. And it allowed me to finish my original plan."
"Which was?" Pansy demanded, leaning forward.
"To break up the team, of course," Ananda said, surprised. "You were all targets, especially with me forced to spy on you. I had to force you to break up so that you'd be out of the Dark Lord's sight and so that you'd all put your energy into the DA, something he didn't actually know about." Ananda smiled faintly. "Professor Snape knew all about it, of course. He did everything he could to help you without seeming like he was. He cleared corridors at times he knew you'd choose to raid the hospital and kitchens. He gave special instructions to the House-Elves and Madam Pomphrey to provide everything you needed."
"Huh." Draco blinked. "That explains why even Justin Finch-Fletchely never botched a raid."
Ginny grinned at him.
"I was told to let Jools be rescued," Ananda went on. "There was no point in me owning her identity anymore, with the team falling apart."
"But it was Snape becoming headmaster that broke the team up," Jools said slowly. "I mean, he stopped us playing."
"Sure, but Ananda created all the right rips and tears – it was inevitable that we'd have to quit anyway," Ginny pointed out. "And most of us were so involved with the DA that we couldn't have done both."
"But she also created bonds between members of the team, just by trying to rip it apart," Draco realized. "Those bonds meant the Slytherins became part of the DA." Ginny and Pansy exchange nods.
"And when we rescued the real Jools, we all felt more strongly connected than we ever had before," Ginny said. Suddenly, there were tears in her eyes. "You were all alone," she said, hugging Ananda again. "We were afraid but we had each other. We all hated you and ..."
"You were supposed to," Ananda said. "Come on, Gin, don't cry. My evil plan was brilliant!" She gave a half-hearted maniacal laugh and looked absurdly pleased when Millicent and Pansy chuckled.
"So the DA formed and the Carrows came to Hogwarts," Ginny went on. "Oh, when the Death Eaters came into the castle, the night Dumbledore died – did you let them in?"
"I wasn't supposed to know about the raid until Professor Snape had me on the roof with Dumbledore and the Death Eaters the Dark Lord sent to witness," Ananda said. "It was part of the final test. I wasn't supposed to have time to think about it." She threw a half-smile at Draco. "This was supposed to be your task, you know. To prove our family was still faithful to the Dark Lord."
Draco felt a stab of guilt. Ananda had taken it all on herself, for his sake and for her friends. "Don't lose any sleep over it," Ananda said, nudging his shoulder. "I'm okay, I did what had to be done. Anyway, the team needed their coach." She sighed. "No, I didn't let the Death Eaters in. But I knew they were coming because Professor Snape told me. So I let slip to several ghosts and they got word to everyone in their common rooms. They also woke the teachers up in time to contact the Order."
"And the Carrows?" Jools asked.
"By the time Professor Snape was headmaster, I knew the Dark Lord's plans for Hogwarts," Ananda said. "I was Professor Snape's one ally. Not even the Order of the Phoenix knew his real plan. They were pretty convinced he was the Dark Lord's double agent, not Dumbledore's, after the first attack on the castle."
"Because he was going around helping the Carrows capture people and making it pretty clear he was the Dark Lord's inside man," Draco said slowly.
"Yeah. Who was going to believe I was important at all? I'm just a kid," Ananda murmured. "Only the Death Eaters who – who saw me kill Dumbledore knew the truth and they weren't going to bother telling anyone." She swallowed hard.
"But Snape was Dumbledore's man all along," Ginny said, shaking her head.
"I always knew he was," Draco murmured, more to himself than anyone else. Snape had saved him from his family when he thought he'd collapse under the pressure from home. He had saved most of the Slytherins, scared and unsure. Snape had stepped between them and the Dark Lord. Draco swallowed. Ginny's hand slipped into his and squeezed gently.
"I won't explain how Potter finally killed Voldemort or what he, Hermione, and Weasley had to do to bring him down," Ananda went on. "It's complicated and that's their story. I will say that Professor Snape and I had several tasks we had to do for Potter, at Dumbledore's request. We had to help Potter find some magical objects and destroy them." Ananda glanced at Ginny. "That's where Ginny came in."
"That night Snape caught me," Ginny said, "he took me into this 'secret lab' – " She made exaggerated quotations marks with her fingers – "and told me what had to be done. Of course, I thought he and Ananda were traitors. They had to full-body bind me before I would listen to either of them long enough to realize they were telling the truth." She smiled faintly. "When they told me how I could help – by helping prepare the DA to defend the castle and getting a memory to Harry when he needed it – of course I said I would."
"What about killing the snake?" Pansy asked. "That took serious guts, Weasley."
"That was improv," Ginny said, grinning. "Snape and Ananda were supposed to kill Nagini when Voldemort left them alone with her. They weren't expecting to get stuck alone with her in the Shrieking Shack. They couldn't get the spell down, but when Snape was ordered to bring Nagini with him to the castle – after we all thought Harry and the coach were dead – and Snape saw Ron holding the sword of Godric Gryffindor, he thought maybe I could kill her. She was one of the magical objects that had to be destroyed for Harry to defeat Voldemort. Gryffindor's sword was one of the few things that could destroy her," Ginny added by way of explanation. Draco's head was starting to spin. "And Snape knew I was the only good guy who trusted him. So he did this weird Legilimency thing called projecting – he showed me in my mind what I had to do." She looked at Ananda. "It was nothing compared to what you had to do, but I'm glad I could help."
"Jumping between Death Eaters and the DA took guts, like Pansy said," Ananda said.
"So that's it?" Millicent said to Ananda, her head on one side. "You were one of the good guys all along?"
"The goodest of the good guys," Ginny said stoutly. "Haven't you been listening, Bulstrode? She put herself between us and Voldemort."
There was a moment of silence.
"Like I said, I did some rotten things," Ananda said quickly. "I don't expect to be forgiven but I thought you all should know that – "
Pansy was the first around the bed, her arms tight around Ananda. Millicent struggled to stand and limped over to join her. Ginny backed away, grinning uncontrollably. She smiled at Draco, so happy and relieved Ananda was home.
Betina's cries of, "You're amazing, Ananda. I love you!" were what got them all thrown out and threatened with bedpan duty if they ever returned.
"It's just as well," Draco pointed out, taking the opportunity to hug Ananda while he tried to clear his damned throat. "You still have the rest of the team to tell."
Ananda tried an aggravated groan but was grinning too widely because Pansy and Millicent had put their arms around her and Ginny had kissed her cheek. The group moved off down the corridor and Draco fell back to walk with Jools. He linked his arm through hers the way she had done in the past.
"Well, Boot?" he said softly. "Will you be able to forgive her?"
"I don't know," Jools said slowly, leaning comfortably into his side. "I – I want to. But she scared me so much." She sighed. "She didn't hurt me or anything when she captured me. She gave me enough food and was gentle when she took all my hair. And it must have been so hard for her, all those months. But – I don't know."
"No rush," Draco said. "Just remember – you're still a captain."
"What's happened to Susie?" Jools asked softly. "Draco, is it terrible?"
Draco shook his head. "She'll want to tell you, and soon. I don't – just let her tell you, when she's ready."
Jools nodded, her brow creased with worry.
"In the meantime," Draco said. "Think about Ananda, yeah?"
"Have you forgiven her?" Jools asked.
"Are you kidding?" Draco stared at his cousin's plait, swinging behind her as she skipped along between Pansy and Millicent (who had been her heroes since she was little, Draco remembered, before they became her friends on the pitch). "After what she did for me? I was supposed to do all those things she did. She took my place and became a spy – she saved me, more than anyone else. I owe her – " He paused, shook his head. "I owe her everything."
Jools nodded, biting her lip.
When they reached the Great Hall, Jools squeezed his arm and let go. "Thanks, coach." She paused. "I don't know if Ginny told you, but one of her brothers died. She's going to – she's really going to need you. And with you losing Professor Snape ... well, I expect you need her, too." Jools gave him a strong smile. He knew what an effort it cost her not to mind about him and Ginny.
He kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Jools."
"Sure, mate. I'll try and round up the rest of the team." She hugged him and disappeared into the Great Hall. Draco moved to Ginny's side. She had been laughing and smiling on the walk there but now she stood, watching the door swing shut behind Pansy, Millicent, and Ananda.
"Gin?" Draco turned her to face him. The hollow look in her eyes haunted him.
"I'm so sorry about Professor Snape," she said quickly, looking up into his eyes. He looked away, a lump in his throat and an ache building in his chest. "I know what he meant to you and – he really was a hero."
"That makes it worse," Draco managed, trying to clear his throat. "He didn't deserve – no one even saw how – "
She put her arms around him and pressed his face into her hair for a long moment. When he felt enough in control of himself to speak, he said quietly, "I'll miss him. Gin, I heard about your brother."
She began to shake, her fingers tightening in his robes. "It didn't hurt as much when I was with you all in the hospital," she said. "But, Draco – Percy's gone and ..."
They didn't go into the hall for a long time. They stood clinging to each other in the entrance hall, not saying much but leaning on each other in an exhausted kind of relief. Ginny wasn't crying for her brother, Draco realized after a while. Maybe this pain hurt too much for tears.
"I saw your dad in there, too," Ginny said into his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Draco."
"Don't be," Draco said, his fists clenching in her robes. "He wasn't a good man."
"But he was your father," Ginny said quietly.
"Professor Snape was more my father than Lucius Malfoy was." Draco squeezed his eyes shut. It was the truth – Professor Snape had really taken care of him. His father certainly never had.
Ginny didn't say anything for a moment. "The team is family for some of the girls now," she said. She pulled back and looked up at him. "Daniel Jones asked me last week what the team would do after the war. I never thought beyond the war. What will we do now?"
)BW(
Weeks passed and Hogwarts began to put itself back together.
Most of the school had been in hiding or fighting Snape and the Carrows for months. Professor McGonagall, deputy headmistress, offered to keep the school open in the summer, for those who wanted to catch up and help rebuild the battered castle. She also arranged for the seventh years to take their N.E.W.T.s when their professors decided they were ready.
Before everyone left, there was a memorial service for all those lost. At Harry's insistence, Severus Snape was the buried in a tomb beside Dumbledore's. Harry and Ananda told the story of Snape's heroic sacrifice to protect Hogwarts. Most of the audience cried, including Ginny. She had, of course, realized what an incredibly brave man he was. She just hadn't realized the extent of his sacrifice until Ananda and Harry put their stories together.
Around Snape and Dumbledore's graves appeared a hundred little headstones, commemorating students, teachers, parents, and members of the Order of the Phoenix who had died during the battle. She recognized so many of the names: Hestia Jones, Lavender Brown, Lisa Turpin, Gregory Goyle, Professor Flitwick, Rubeus Hagrid. Professor McGonagall read all the names, each one pressing its little spirit hand against Ginny's heart, a memory hand print. She tried to remember them all, never to forget what they'd given up so Hogwarts – the world – could be safe again. The ice around her heart had thawed enough that when Percy's name was read, she choked on a sob. Draco, sitting on her right, pulled her head down onto his shoulder.
At the end of the service, they went together to the graves and conjured flowers to lay on them. They weren't the only ones – the headstones were buried in summer flowers. The soft scent sat on the breeze for days. Pansy and Hermione conjured a special rose for Snape's grave, something they said they'd created themselves. It was a brilliant blue lily. They showed Harry and he gave a choked laugh, told them they were geniuses, and held onto both of them.
Percy's funeral, held several days after the memorial service at Hogwarts, haunted Ginny for weeks. She felt Percy's absence like a physical thing, especially with her family there. Harry and Hermione came with Ron. Ginny was grateful to them – she knew it hurt them to see her mum in such a state and her father's hollow eyes. She thought about how much worse it was that Percy had estranged himself from the family for so long. So much time was lost. Ginny hurt in ways she had never hurt before and gave constant thanks, in spite of herself, that she had lost only one brother that day.
They buried him in the orchard behind the Burrow. He had loved it there and his headstone, raised and designed by Fred and George, looked peaceful under the dappled sunlight of the apple trees.
"This way, he'll always be with us," Mr. Weasley said as he and Ginny put flowers on his grave that evening. "He'll get to be a part of the family, even though we're separated now." Ginny put an arm around him and finally had a proper cry for her lost brother.
)BW(
Ginny was as amazed as anyone when most of the student body chose to stay or return to the castle for summer classes. Some were so adamant about staying that their parents were forced to come back to Hogwarts to see them. McGonagall turned it into a week-long event for families, filling the inns around Hogsmeade with students' visiting relatives and fitting as many as possible into the castle itself. Since Ron refused to leave Harry and Hermione, and Ginny refused to leave the team or Draco, their parents returned to Hogwarts with them, wanting to keep the family together as long as they could. Even Bill and Charlie got time off. The Weasley clan stayed in the spacious apartment over Fred and George's new Hogsmeade joke shop, coming to visit the school every day to help rebuild.
Ginny was relieved to return to school and her friends. The hole Percy had left in their family was much less noticeable when the family was spread out. Ginny devoutly hoped that she wouldn't always feel that way. The war had brought home how precious and irreplaceable every one of her brothers were, not to mention her mum and dad.
The Weasleys stayed for two weeks, before feeling secure enough in the safety of Ron and Ginny to head south again.
"Just promise you'll come home the moment the N.E.W.T.s are over," Mrs. Weasley begged Ron and Ginny.
"We will, Mum," Ron promised.
Students who had been living in the Room of Requirement were reluctant to move back to their houses. They'd had almost no personal space and the room had become a bit disgusting from the many teens living in it for months. That didn't stop Daniel Jones, his friend Juliette, Seamus, Dean, Justin, Neville, and Luna from petitioning to keep the room open for those who wanted to stay there. Professor McGonagall told them they had to close the room and return to their houses, but overlooked the inter-house mingling that went on constantly. Students from all four houses appeared in other houses; visiting friends, having slumber parties, doing homework.
"I wonder if they'd consider getting rid of the houses," Ginny said one evening. She sat with Ananda's head in her lap and the rest of the team around them, crowded onto the hearth rug in Gryffindor (the best hearth rug of the four common rooms, everyone agreed).
"They're barely accepting our team," Ananda pointed out, nodding at the Gryffindors who were giving them space. Not, Ginny thought, in an unkind way, though. "Don't push people too fast."
"You're one to talk," Pansy said, nudging her. "You're a bloody hero – you had everyone fooled."
Ananda smiled.
In the beginning, it hadn't been easy for Ananda. The Order of the Phoenix and the Ministry of Magic were after her to know why several Death Eaters, during interrogations, had implicated her in Dumbledore's death. Of the three conspirators who had planned it, she was the only one left alive. It had taken some convincing before anyone believed her story. In the end, papers were found in Dumbledore's office, locked away with his will, that confirmed Ananda's story and cleared her of all blame. The same papers confirmed that Harry'd had nothing to do with Dumbledore's death, either, though most people had stopped believing the Daily Prophet's inflammatory rumors.
Ananda looked so happy these days, Ginny thought. The dark circles under her eyes had faded and she seemed to glow whenever she was with anyone from the team – always content as long as she was with her friends. The only time she looked sober was when she took her daily walk, alone, to Snape's tombstone, to lay one of Pansy and Hermione's bright blue lilies.
Susie sat with Hermione and Hannah, curled in one of Hermione's quilts and leaning back against a sofa. She still didn't talk much but slowly, over a few weeks, she told the rest of the team about her injury. As Hermione had predicted, no one bothered her about it or showed her any pity. They hugged her and didn't cry (if they were going to) until they were away from her. She spent most of her time with Hannah and Hermione (who had saved her life) and Draco (who, for some reason, she felt comfortable with). The rest of the team helped her whenever she let them, which wasn't often.
"The nightmares are the worst," she had told Ginny while she was still confined to hospital. "When I close my eyes, I see teeth and … a man …"
Ginny stayed with her until she went to sleep every night until she was released from hospital. It helped, she thought. She just didn't know if it was enough.
A month after the battle, the house Quidditch teams began clambering for practice. Terry Boot, Ernie MacMillan, Harry Potter, Gus Godkin (who, in spite of all his ominous talk, had never actually had anything to do with Death Eaters or Voldemort, according to Ananda), and Draco Malfoy camped out outside McGonagall's office until she finally gave in, shouted at them in tones that rang through Hogwarts' halls, and schedule team practices. No matches, but the teams had gone so long without Quidditch that they didn't argue.
"It's bloody brilliant, being back on a broom," Harry told Ginny one afternoon when they walked to the pitch for her team's practice. "Mind you, Ron and Mione and I did get to try out a dragon on our mission but – "
"A dragon?" Ginny demanded.
"Never again," Harry said fervently. "We had to jump off over this lake and – no, you couldn't pay me enough."
"Someday, the three of you are going to have to tell the story properly," Ginny said sternly. "At least to the DA. You owe us."
"We do," Harry agreed. "I don't know how we'd have finished our mission without you lot. We couldn't believe how many people turned out this time. And you got the Slytherins in! Like, all of them."
"It was amazing," Ginny agreed. "I don't know how all of us didn't kill each other, honestly! We were in that bloody room for months."
"You didn't want to leave the bloody room when McGonagall asked you," Harry pointed out.
"Well," Ginny said, smiling. "We got used to it. Like a giant camp-out for a few months."
Harry shuddered. "No camping, I beg you."
"Can I ask you one thing?" Ginny asked after a moment's silence. "Please? It's been driving me crazy!"
"What?"
"How did I not die when Voldemort tried the killing curse on me? Or Nev. Or Draco."
Harry cleared his throat. "I'll tell you – another time."
"Harry, you're the only one who's ever repelled the killing curse," Ginny persisted.
"That's still true," he said slowly. "You didn't repel it – exactly."
Ginny opened her mouth, saw his face, and closed it again. More mysteries that would have to wait until later.
They arrived at the lockers to find Pansy waiting, hands on her hips. "Take your time, Weasley," she said, rolling her eyes. "We're waiting."
"Don't start, Parkinson, I know what you're really doing out here," Ginny said with a look at Harry. She ducked away before Pansy could punch her in the arm and went into the lockers.
The practices were always the same, though that didn't for a moment make Ginny enjoy them less. Everyone was there twenty minutes early, doddling around and pretending to polish brooms, study strategy, or stretch out. Draco usually held out until ten minutes before when he'd come round, bullying them into readiness and moaning on about, "How hopelessly fleshly and limp" they'd all become. A few sucker punches from Millicent and Natalie put a speedy end to this insult and Draco turned his attention to their posture and form.
"He loves it," Susie murmured to Ginny, from where she sat on a bench by Ginny's locker. "Anything to get you lot riled up."
"Anything," Ginny agreed. "Last practice he told me I'd have to use my hair to blind oncoming Chasers because I was as crap as ever at catching."
Susie chuckled, a low hoarse sound. She hadn't started laughing again until Hermione and Hannah had coaxed her back to the pitch. At first, she'd sat in the stands looking so miserable that Ginny wanted to scoop her up and carry her away. Ginny thought about watching others fly and knowing she never could again and ... she couldn't bear it. She thought about saying something to Draco, but then Blaise appeared in the stands and begun speaking softly to Susie. They left the pitch together, talking in low voices. Ginny looked to Hermione and saw her friend smiling a triumphant smile. She caught Ginny 's eye and gave her a stern look.
"I think you're up to something, Granger," Ginny called, pitching a Quaffle passed her into a goal Hermione was supposed to be guarding.
What Hermione'd been up to was talking Blaise into getting Susie back on a broom. Apparently, he hadn't needed any convincing, but as he told Hermione, he'd never helped someone with one arm relearn to fly before.
"He was terrified he was going to get her killed," Hermione told Ginny later. "Of course, she's an excellent flier and it was just a matter of learning to balance and steer with one arm."
Susie would never play Quidditch again, Ginny thought with aching sadness. But she hadn't lost hope. Hadn't stopped flying. And certainly hadn't quit the team.
By midsummer, she was captaining again. When Jools proposed that Susie return as captain, Susie argued that captains played on the team.
"Captains also inspire people," Jools insisted. "No one inspires me more than you, Suse."
The rest of the team agreed wholeheartedly and every practice Susie seemed a little less unhappy. She got good enough on a broom, with Blaise's help, to fly laps and referee the team's daily matches. Ginny had never seen someone without an arm fly before. It was fascinating to watch her compensate with her legs and abs. Ginny had to make a conscious effort not to stare, for fear of hurting her friend's feelings.
As N.E.W.T.s and (late) graduation drew near, whispers began in the lockers. Ginny knew what they were all worried about, the anxiety no one would put a name to.
"I wish someone would just say it," Pansy grumbled into her locker.
"Say what?" Hermione asked, wrapping her wet hair in a towel.
"What we're all thinking," Ginny said. "What's going to happen to the team when you lot leave in a few weeks?"
"You'll keep on without us," Hermione said, chewing her lower lip.
"Like hell," Adrienne said in passing. "Without you two," nodding to Hermione and Pansy, "we're toast. You were the best thing we had going for us."
"She's right," Ginny said, tying up her trainers. "You two gone, both captains gone …"
"The coach gone," Adrienne added. They all glanced at Draco, who was bent over several pieces of parchment with Susie and Jools. The three of them had been hiding out from the rest for the last few weeks. Ginny didn't know why they bothered – all the strategy in the world wouldn't save the team after the seventh years left.
"Do you reckon they're up to something?" Hermione asked, her head on one side. She finished buttoning her oxford just as Blaise came into the lockers. He looked supremely disappointed to have missed Hermione in her knickers and Ginny rolled her eyes.
"Blaise," Hermione said. "Is the coach up to something?"
"He's always up to something," Blaise pointed out, kissing her nose.
"Yes, but has he told you what this time?" Hermione persisted.
"What makes you think Draco tells me anything?" Blaise asked, pulling the towel from Hermione's hair. "Anyway," he added with a pointed look at Ginny. "I'm not the one's got him wrapped around my finger, am I?"
"Shut up, Zabini," Ginny muttered.
She and Draco kept their relationship off the pitch and out of the lockers, but everyone knew about it anyway. Ginny supposed if there were any chance of the girls' team competing in the inter-house again, the relationship would have been impossible or one of them would have had to quit the team. Since all the team did anymore was practice, however, nobody said a word. Ginny wondered if they were all worried about another upset like the one Ananda had managed while disguised as Jools. Maybe they were all just happy to be a team again, closer to each other than they had ever been before, with no sign of rifts or drama.
"You should ask him, Weasley," Pansy said, nudging passed Blaise and heading for the locker doors. "We're all so depressed that we're going to waste our last three weeks sulking and not get a thing done."
Ginny scowled after her, punched a smirking Blaise in the shoulder, and went to corner Draco before he could escape the lockers with Jools and Susie.
"If we were doing anything for you to be worried about, I'd tell you," he said as they walked back to the castle together.
"Like hell you would, coach," she grumbled. "Now I know you're up to something."
"Yes," he retorted. "Strategy to cover the fact that you've lost all ability to catch the bloody Quaffle."
"Not like it matters if I can catch, since half the team is leaving," Ginny muttered. She threw him a look. "Including you." He wove his fingers through hers and didn't say anything. "You planning on telling me what you're doing after you graduate?"
He gave her a look. "Nosy Weasley."
She stuck her foot out and he swore as he stumbled.
"Clever and cheeky," she corrected. "Never insult my nose."
As the N.E.W.T.s passed and the final week before graduation approached, Ginny became positive Draco was hiding things from her. Not only her, but the rest of the team.
"It's not just Malfoy," Hermione said one morning over breakfast. She glowered across the Great Hall. At the moment, Draco was sitting at the Ravenclaw table with Jools and Susie. Blaise sat nearby. He met Hermione's eye and winked. She stuck her nose in the air and returned to the Daily Prophet on the table in front of her.
"Apparently, Draco let Zabini in on whatever it is," Ginny grumbled. "Forget them, anyway. You have decisions to make, Mione."
"We all do," Hermione said, nodding down the table. Ron, Harry, Dean, and Seamus were muttering and exchanging bits of parchment. "We've all been accepted into winter term at different universities. Some people are talking about taking the Grand Tour and now it looks like a bunch of the DA are going together." She sighed. "Harry and I think we'll probably not, though, until Ron can aff – I mean, until he's ready to go."
Ginny bit her lip. "He'd understand, if you lot wanted to go," she murmured.
"Harry's trying to think if we can give Ron the Grand Tour as a graduation present without offending him," Hermione said. She glanced at Ginny. "Somehow, we think it won't take."
"Probably not," Ginny agreed.
"We can wait," Hermione said. "Honestly, when I think about it, I'd rather. I spent a year not at home, living on the road – on the moors, actually. I think it might do me good to try university first."
"Where, do you think?" Ginny asked.
"Well …" Hermione frowned. "I've only heard back from five universities so far."
"Just the five?" Ginny asked, rolling her eyes.
Three days later, an overstuffed envelope arrived for Hermione. At the same moment the tawny owl dropped the envelope into Hermione's porridge, a barn owl dropped one on Pansy's head and a screech dropped another into a judge of pumpkin juice in front of Jools. The cursing could be heard by everyone in the hall.
"What's that?" Ron asked, peering at Hermione's envelope.
Hermione snatched it up, her eyes wide. "That's not possible," she kept saying. "I didn't apply …"
A moment later she had pulled a sheet of parchment out. Suddenly, she let out a shriek and went tearing across the hall to the Slytherin table. Pansy was on her feet already and the two of them began talking in agitated voices. Then they rounded on Draco and dragged him bodily from the Great Hall.
The entire hall had gone silent in amazement. Ginny glanced at Jools again. The captain set her envelope aside and grinned into her breakfast as though she knew something.
"What the bloody hell was that all about?" Ron wondered.
"Malfoy's finally driven Hermione and Pansy around the bend?" Harry said, shrugging and going back to his bacon. He would know, Ginny supposed. He seemed to spend every possible moment with Pansy these days.
"Come on, Gin." Natalie and Parvati were already on their feet, heading for the entrance hall. The rest of the team joined them in short order, but there was no sign of Draco, Pansy, or Hermione.
"Where did they go?" Ananda said, staring around.
"Did you lot see what Parkinson's envelope said?" Parvati asked her. "I was too far away to see Hermione's."
"It had a university stamp on it," Millicent said, shrugging. "I couldn't see which one."
They found out later that afternoon, when an emergency meeting was called in the locker rooms.
"Finally get to know what you've been up to, coach?" Ginny grouched at Draco in passing.
"You're so suspicious," he murmured back with a smirk.
"Well?" Ginny asked, throwing herself onto a bench by Hermione.
Her friend glanced at her, expression closed. Blaise sat on Hermione's other side, fingers laced with hers, grinning like a fool. He winked at Ginny.
"What?" Ginny demanded, but at that moment Draco stood up. For once, the chatter in the lockers stopped immediately.
"I'm sure all of you are wondering," he began without preamble, "what's going to happen to the team next year. Half the team is graduating and going away. And your humble coach," he added with a mock solute. The girls were too tense to laugh. "So what do we do?"
They waited. All of them, Ginny knew, were praying that he planned to answer his own question.
"I'll tell you what we're going to do," he said, the old Quidditch fire in his eyes. "We've worked too damned hard – you've worked too damned hard – to let this crazy, impossible team fall apart. We survived a war, for Merlin's sake!"
They all nodded, leaning forward and tense with anticipation.
"So here's what we're going to do," Draco said, looking them in the eye. "We're going to turn pro."
)BW(
TBC (epilogue forthcoming)