A/N: Thanks so much to all the readers and reviewers! I totally love you guys! Here's the next chapter!
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Ginny watched the Death Eater fall to the ground and then turned to search the room for someone who needed help. Kingsley Shacklebolt was putting up a great fight for Lucius Malfoy. Ginny guessed that they were pretty evenly matched. In fact, as she watched, Kingsley got in a nice curse and Ginny decided that he could handle himself. Blaise and a man Ginny recognized as Theodore Nott were battling the very same Death Eaters who had captured Ginny in Knockturn Alley. Ginny was contemplating joining in just to show them what she could really do when another flash of red caught her eye. She spun and found her father caught in a raging duel with Crabbe and Goyle Sr.'s.
"But I just stunned you!" Ginny yelled as she ran forward. But just as she reached them, Ron stepped forward out of nowhere, blocking her path.
"I've got it Gin." Then he turned and joined the duel.
"But…"
"Lovely day for a battle, isn't it Ginny?" Ginny turned to find Luna Lovegood prancing back and forth to avoid the spells sent at her from a burly looking Death Eater.
"Um…"
"The sun is out and the Yellis Orans are howling." She singsonged, now sending random spells in the Death Eater's direction.
"Yes, Luna…"
"Harry and I have broken up." She cried happily and then her eyes narrowed at the Death Eater before her and before Ginny could even articulate an answer, she'd stunned him and moved on to the next.
"Congratulations?" Ginny called after her and then turned around to find the man from dinner the other night staring at her. Mulciber, she remembered he was called.
"Hello lovely." He said with a sickly smile and took a few steps forward.
"Oh hell no." Ginny whispered and aimed a stunner at him. He sidestepped it and kept coming.
"Not real fair of Malfoy to keep you all to himself." Mulciber cackled. "'Specially when he wadn't even usin' you." He grinned maliciously and then leapt at her. Ginny spun out of the way, meaning to stun him again but she missed and he began to pace around her, leering like a maniac. "Come on home with me, little birdie, and I'll show you what you're missin'." He took a step towards her and Ginny pointed her wand at the spot just below his belt.
"Take one more step and I'll show you what you'll be missing." Mulciber raised one eyebrow. "Stupefy." Ginny shouted and was relieved to see Mulciber fall to the ground, stiff as a board, in more ways than one. Ginny stifled a giggle and moved on.
"You never were a very good werewolf." Greyback spat. Ginny turned to see Greyback staring hatefully down at Lupin who was half-sitting, half-lying on the floor. Just as Ginny was about to run forward, Bill stepped in front of Remus and growled at Greyback.
"And now look who you've got defending you," Greyback snarled at Lupin. "Half-breeds."
"Well, that would be your fault, wouldn't it?" Bill smiled. "Couldn't even finish the job properly."
"Well I'll finish it now." Greyback roared and leapt forward only to be caught by Lupin who'd gotten to his feet.
"Over my dead body." Lupin hissed.
"I created you, boy, and I will destroy you."
"We'll just see about that." Lupin said and then Ginny couldn't really tell what was happening or who was biting whom or who's blood that was or really anything at all.
Fights were going on all around her, people shouting spells or throwing punches and Ginny couldn't focus on any one thing. Not one thing was staying still long enough to ground her. It was as if the whole world were turning around her and Ginny was stuck where she was, unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to join in the fighting and then there was a loud bang above all the other noise and Ginny was finally able to move. She turned around and there was Death standing at the door to the Great Room, leering in at all of them. Every person in the room stopped and turned to stare at the woman who'd just appeared in the doorway. Her pale skin was deathly white and she was dressed in black from head to toe. Then Ginny realized that it was not Death personified that stood before her but a girl she almost recognized from Hogwarts. She strained her mind but…
Then the girl spoke, "Am I late?" She smiled charmingly at them all.
"Parkinson?" Blaise asked, stepping forward and then someone at the back of the room growled and ran forward and Pansy raised her wand and narrowed her eyes.
"Father, how nice to see you too." She said calmly, and then the fighting broke out again.
Ginny shot another spell at an oncoming Death Eater and wondered if it would ever end. And where was Draco? It had been ages since she'd seen him. She was so sick with worry that she could hardly concentrate. If anything happened to him… But, no, she wouldn't think about that. Right now she needed all of her wits about her just to stay alive.
A Death Eater came at her and she was surprised out of her reverie, but then someone behind her shot a spell at the man and he dropped to the ground, out cold. Ginny turned around to thank her protector.
"Ah yes, Miss Ginevra." Ginny froze and stared up into the cold grey eyes, so much like Draco's and yet so very, very different. "I had thought I recognized you from someplace." He sneered as he looked her over, from head to foot. She was paralyzed with fear. She couldn't even turn away as he raised his eyes to hers again and then he reached out a hand and touched her hair. "I should have realized, with all that ghastly red hair." He pulled her hair roughly and she winced. "A Weasley."
"Is every red-head in Britain a Weasley now?" She asked, her voice becoming stronger with each word. "It seems you have a Weasley amongst your own ranks then." She remarked, pointing at a red-haired Death Eater lying on the ground a few feet away from them.
"Well, he wasn't a very good Death Eater if he was out-maneuvered by the likes of you people." Lucius drawled.
"Yes, well," Ginny looked around her at the continuing chaos and watched as Tonks took out another Death Eater. "It seems you don't have a great many good Death Eaters then." It was true. The floor was scattered with men and women in black Death Eater robes. Of course, there were a few Order members too. Ginny cringed, wondering if they were only stunned or… But it did seem as if the light side was winning. Lucius seemed to notice as well.
"I don't care about them!" He snarled. "My son has betrayed me and I will not let him get away with it. He obviously cares about you. I wonder how he would feel if I showed you what real pain is." And then, before she could move or speak or scream, he raised his wand and without taking his eyes off of hers, said one word. "Crucio."
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
"Bloody hell." Draco croaked, bringing a hand up to massage his throbbing head.
"Easy there Malfoy." Said a vaguely familiar voice.
"I swear to God the next person to knock me out will not make it to tomorrow." Draco finally managed to open his eyes. Longbottom was standing over him, looking sheepish and a bit afraid.
"Sorry Malfoy but you were in the way see, and she was about to Avada you and all I could think was to get you out of the way so…"
"Just shut it Longbottom." Neville's mouth snapped shut. "Did you get her or what?" Neville motioned silently to the still form a few feet from where Draco lay.
"Good God Longbottom, you actually managed it." Draco got slowly to his feet and peered down at his stunned aunt.
"Yes, well, I am a fairly decent wizard." Longbottom said indignantly. "Contrary to what everyone might say."
"I'll never question it again." Draco said, looking at Neville with what he feared might be awe. "Good going." Neville blushed and nodded but Draco's mind had turned to more important matters. "I have to get back to the battle." He aimed his wand at the door and a silvery shape shot from the end of it and whisked out the door. Neville looked surprised but Draco cut off any comment. "I have to find Ginevra."
Moments later the Weasley twins rushed into the room. Both froze at the sight of Draco and Neville and the unconscious Bellatrix.
"Don't ask." Draco advised them. "Just help Longbottom get her to the aurors. I have to go find your obnoxious baby sister." He didn't wait around for a reply. He dashed from the room, thinking that if anything happened to Ginny that he might end up in a cell next to his aunts, for murder.
The hallways seemed immeasurably long as Draco sped his way to the Great Room. He swore that there were twice as many stairs as usual and that someone had moved the Great Room to the farthest end of the manor. Finally, he was there, standing outside it's now nonexistent doors. Then he froze. What if she was already dead? What if the worst had already happened? Could he handle it? You'll have to, he told himself and forced himself to enter the room.
Inside it was madness. Death Eaters and Order members were no longer distinguishable. Everyone's robes were in some form of disrepair. There was blood everywhere. Draco took a deep breath and forced down the nauseous feeling that had formed in the pit of his stomach.
Merlin, let her be alright. Someone ran by and Draco caught a glimpse of red hair. He spun around but it was only Ron. And then he saw her, not ten paces from him and before her stood the one person in this room that Draco truly hated. His father. As Draco watched in a state of horrified fascination, Lucius raised his wand and pointed it at Ginny's chest. Move, he urged her with his mind. Fight back. But she only stood there, frozen, and then Lucius uttered one word and Draco was running forward and before he could stop himself he'd stepped in front of Ginny and then all he knew was pain; pain like nothing else in the world; pain to make a man mad with agony. And then it was gone and Ginny was leaning over him, crying.
"Oh Draco…" She gasped.
"What a touching reunion." Lucius drawled and Draco turned his head to look into his father's cold eyes.
"You won't touch her." He growled. Lucius laughed. It was the laugh of a madman; the laugh of a person so far gone from reality that nothing could bring them back.
"Crucio." He cried, still laughing and Draco was again engulfed in pain. His head was spinning when his father finally lifted the curse. Ginny was balling now and he tried to reach up and console her but he found that he couldn't move, he was shaking too badly.
"You, you, you monster!" Ginny cried, clambering to her feet to stand between himself and Lucius. She didn't even have her wand, Draco realized. She must have lost it sometime in the midst of the battle. "Your own son! You'd do this to your own son!" Lucius laughed more loudly and raised his wand, almost nonchalantly, to Ginny's chest. Move, Draco tried to tell her. Please get out of the way. But he couldn't speak.
"Is this…this cause worth more to you than your own son?" Ginny cried shrilly as Draco tried to rise, tried to get in front of her.
"And now," Lucius said, raising his arms on either side of his head. "For the grand finale."
"Are you insane?" Ginny asked. And then Draco saw that glint in Lucius's eyes; that glint that came right before…
"Oh yes, my dear, oh yes." Lucius smiled grimly and still Draco couldn't move or speak.
"Avada." Draco closed his eyes, not able to bear what was about to happen, unable to do a thing about it.
"Kedavra." He heard the thud and his world spun.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
A/N: Haha sorry for another evil cliffie. The poems were verses two, three, and four of Longfellow's "The Psalm of Life". Please comment, comment, comment! The more comments, the faster I'll get out the final chapters! And the sooner I get out the final chapters, the sooner I can start posting my new fic!