Slowly, the rest of the Great Hall came into focus around Ginny and the other Weasleys. The injured were being treated by Madam Pomfrey, Hannah Abbott, and a few others on the raised platform where the head table usually stood, and small groups of students and teachers huddled around the hall, trying to comfort one another.

Ginny gave Hermione's hand a final squeeze, turned away from her grieving family, and looked around. More bodies were being brought in one by one, and some fighters were still making their way into the hall for the first time. A few heads turned her way as she passed them, and she half-expected someone to stop her, to tell her off for leaving the safety of the tomb that the Great Hall had become.

But half of the ceasefire had already passed, and there were still fighters on the grounds, cold and hurt and scared and alone. Besides that, she hadn't seen Harry since Ron and Hermione arrived, and she was getting nervous that he may be off doing something stupid.

As she passed through the Entrance Hall, she glanced around at the walls, but the names that had been painted there were barely visible now. What hadn't been blown away by wayward curses was stained with blood and coated with dust, and even those written high above the fighting were disguised by the ash from dueling. Nonetheless, Ginny's eyes found the place where she knew Colin had written Harry's name, and she blinked back her tears anew.

Her vision blurry once more, Ginny turned towards the doors, and made her way out onto the grounds, her mind lost in the memories of that early January morning.

Barely paying attention to where she was going, Ginny wasn't surprised when she collided with someone heading towards the castle.

"Sorry – are you – ?" Ginny stammered, wiping her eyes with the heel of her hand.

"No – yeah – sorry – " Her eyes flashed open when she heard his voice.

"You!" She spat, aiming her wand at Draco Malfoy's throat.

"I'm not – please – " Draco took a step back, his hands held up between them in surrender. His eyes were ringed in red, and there was a smear of blood coming from the corner of his mouth.

"You're not what?" Ginny's voice and hands were steady, but she was sure he could hear her heart pounding in her chest. "A Death Eater?"

"I just want – I want to go back – " Ginny realized that he was crying, and it infuriated her.

"Now?" She raged, stepping closer to him. "You want to go back now? You – you got Dumbledore killed! You let Snape and the Carrows take Hogwarts!"

"I didn't mean – "

"SHUT UP!"

"Please – "

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" She roared, and sparks flew from the tip of her wand. "Do you know how many people have died because of you?"

In that moment, it made sense to Ginny; if Malfoy hadn't let Dumbledore die, Harry wouldn't have left – Dumbledore would have kept him safely at Hogwarts, the DA wouldn't have spent the year being tortured by Death Eaters, and Ginny would have spent the last two months at Hogwarts, instead of hidden away in the countryside.

"I know – you don't understand – " Malfoy sobbed, and Ginny couldn't stand to watch him a moment longer.

"Get out." Ginny said through gritted teeth. "Get away from me, and stay away from my family."

Malfoy took another step back, and when Ginny didn't advance, he sprinted away from her. Shaking now, Ginny had half a mind to turn around and hex him as he ran away, but she didn't trust herself to stop after a single spell.

"Alright, Ginny?" Neville called out from nearby, his wand drawn as he looked in the direction Malfoy had gone.

"No." Ginny spat. "I shouldn't have let him go."

"You don't think he's trying to sneak up on us, do you?" Neville asked, still looking like he wanted to give chase. "Voldemort told all the Death Eaters to retreat."

"I think he's a coward, and he'd have better luck staying alive with our lot than his own." Ginny's jaw was beginning to ache from clenching. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, trying to bring herself back to what was important. "Where's Sean?"

"Luna's with him, I told him I'd get Colin – before the fighting started back up." Neville said, as delicately as he could manage.

"He's – we were fighting by the greenhouses." Ginny offered, though she couldn't bring herself to look in that direction.

"Yeah – Look, Ginny, I'm really sorry, about Fred, and Colin. And Professor Lupin and his wife." Neville's words were making it hard for Ginny to swallow, but she nodded in thanks. He reached out and gave her arm a squeeze, before turning towards the greenhouses, where Colin's body lay.

Ginny braced herself, and turned to the open grounds. Dawn was approaching, and the darkness was slowly lifting. From the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of movement, and went to approach it cautiously.

As she got closer, she heard sobbing, and lowered her wand.

"Hello?"

There was no discernable answer, but Ginny recognized the shape of a girl with her head buried in her knees, and her arms wrapped tightly around herself.

"Are you hurt?" She asked, her eyes straining to see.

"I want my mum," the girl whimpered as Ginny crept closer. "I want my mum,"

"It's alright," Ginny answered softly, trying to get a better look at her. "It's okay. We're going to get you inside,"

"But I want to go home," whispered the girl. "I don't want to fight anymore!"

"I know," Ginny couldn't help it, her voice broke. "It's going to be alright."

Ginny couldn't understand anything else the girl was saying, but she knelt down next to her, and placed a hand on her forearm, trying to calm herself down as well now. Ginny closed her eyes and bit her lip, wishing she was home, too. Wishing her own mother wasn't in the Great Hall, weeping over Fred's body.

Hearing – or rather, feeling – someone walking up behind her, Ginny opened her eyes and looked over her shoulder. It was still dark, but she could clearly see that there was nobody else left on the grounds. She almost called out, when the girl let out another sob.

"Let's get you inside, come on – " Ginny went to put her arm around the girl to help her to her feet, when suddenly, she jerked away.

"Don't!"

"It's alright," Ginny tried to reassure her.

"Don't – don't touch it!" The girl finally looked up, and Ginny recognized her as a Hufflepuff named Megan, from Harry's year.

"You're hurt?" Ginny asked, and she looked down at her own fingers, which had bushed against the Megan's robes. There was a smear of blood across her fingertips. "We need to get you inside, Madam Pomfrey can fix you up."

"She can't, she can't fix this!" Megan turned towards Ginny, burying her head in her shoulder. Confused, Ginny stroked Megan's hair, hoping she would calm down in time for Ginny to get her inside.

"Can you tell me?" Ginny asked. "Can you tell me what happened?"

She shook her head vigorously.

"Can I look? Can I check your shoulder?"

Megan took a shaky breath, and sat silent for a moment longer, before slowly nodding her head, and unfolding herself from Ginny.

"Don't touch it – I – I don't think you should touch it."

"Alright, I won't touch it." Ginny promised, and watched as the girl reached towards the shoulder Ginny had grazed earlier, pulling her cloak off to the side. Ginny restrained herself from gasping when her wandlight fell onto a wound the size of her fist. It looked as though the bleeding had stopped, but no spell Ginny had encountered could have torn through flesh like this.

"How – Did you hear which curse - ?" Ginny asked, tearing her eyes away.

"It wasn't – it was him – the one everyone talks about – he bit me – "

All of a sudden, Ginny understood.

"Greyback? Did Greyback do this?"

Megan nodded and swallowed hard, as tears welled in her eyes again.

"I recognized him, from the pictures in the Potterwatch Pamphlets. Am I – ?"

"No." Ginny answered fiercely. "You're not going to be like him. Look over there – go on, look."

"You see that?" Ginny pointed her towards the quarter moon, which was hovering over the lake. "It's not full. You won't be a – you won't be like him."

For the first time since she was twelve, she was hesitant to use the term werewolf, fearing it would send the other girl back into her shell. Her first instinct was to find Remus, but her stomach jolted, as she remembered that Remus couldn't help her anymore, that he wouldn't be able to comfort this girl, he couldn't be who she needed right now.

Looking around towards the castle, Ginny searched for someone who could help.

"You're sure?" The girl asked. "You're sure I can't be?"

"I'm sure, I promise – Neville!" Ginny felt a flutter of relief as she recognized a figure wandering towards them.

"Ginny?" Neville called back. "You girls shouldn't be out here – the hour's almost up!"

"I know!" Ginny reached around her companion's back, being careful not to touch her wound. "We're coming in now – I need – I need to you go on ahead and get Bill."

"You alright?" Neville asked, hesitating halfway between Ginny and the castle.

"I'm fine, just get Bill!"

Ginny watched as Neville turned around and sprinted away from them.

"Neville's right, we need to get inside, we can't stay out here."

"They're coming back?" The girl asked, her eyes wide.

"Yes, they're coming back. But we won't be here when they do. We'll be inside – " Ginny desperately wanted to say where it's safe, but she couldn't bring herself to lie.

Megan seemed to be calming down as they walked back across the grounds, and began to stumble through telling Ginny what should could remember of the battle.

"I had come out to the grounds with one of the groups of fighters when it all started. We were doing alright for a while, until Professor Lupin was killed, and there was another wave of Death Eaters, and we didn't know what to do – we got separated dueling."

"That's when came at me, and I didn't understand why until I saw his face… I could never forget that face…" Megan pulled herself tighter into her cloak as they approached the main doors, and walked into the light. Ginny could see her properly now, he pale face seemed to glow against the dark bloodstain that had smeared half her neck and cheek.

"I thought I'd die right then, but Parvati and Lavender saw it happen, and blasted him back, chasing him into the castle. When I realized what happened…" Megan trailed off, and brushed away her tears with the back of her hand. "Have you seen them? Parvati or Lavender?"

Ginny thought back to when Hannah and Lee had made a break for the Great Hall at the beginning of the night – was that before or after Megan had been attacked? Everything that had happened in the past four hours was jumbling together now.

"I think so – Parvati was dueling in here – Someone in the Great Hall will know."

As they crossed through the Entrance Hall, Ginny caught sight of Bill and Fleur sprinting out towards them.

"Are you 'urt?" Fleur asked, reaching the girls a few steps ahead of her husband.

"I'm fine," Ginny said, for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. "It's Megan – Megan, this is my brother Bill, and his wife Fleur."

Bill caught his sister's eye, and Ginny motioned to Megan's shoulder discreetly. Walking across the grounds didn't seem to have agreed with her wound, and it was bleeding again.

"Can we have a look at your shoulder, Megan?" Bill asked kindly, nodding to Ginny that he understood. Megan shrunk away for a moment.

"I don't think – is it safe?" Megan was still looking at Ginny, clearly still worried that the bite could infect others.

"It's completely safe, I promise." Bill assured her. "Fleur cared for me after I was attacked by Greyback, and suffered no ill affects." Megan's eyes widened, and she turned to face Bill for the first time, and caught sight of his scars.

Ginny helped Bill and Fleur coax Megan inside, bringing her to a small group of Greyback's other victims. With her charge safely in her brother's care, Ginny did a quick search of the hall, her eyes falling on Sean, Luna and Neville, who were watching as Oliver Wood gently laid Colin down nearby. As she walked to them, she saw her family and classmates scattered about, healing and consoling where they could. Only George remained at Fred's side, hugging his knees. There was still no sign of Harry.

Silently, Ginny sunk down next to Sean, leaned her head on his shoulder, and slipped her hand into his. There was no point in asking how he was doing, and there were no words that would help him.

Ginny was exhausted; physically, emotionally, and in every other sense of the word. For just a moment, she closed her eyes, wishing she could fall asleep, and that she wouldn't wake until it was all over. She couldn't even wish it was all a nightmare, couldn't imagine a dream being able to cause her this much pain. She just wanted to sleep through the rest of the pain, with Sean kept safely between her and Luna as Neville stood guard nearby.

"What am I going to tell him?"

Sean's words brought Ginny back to the bustle or the Great Hall, and she looked up to him. His eyes were dry now, but somehow darker too.

"Dennis, I made him go – Colin wanted to help them get away from that Prefect, but I told him they had to go with the others."

"Colin wouldn't have wanted Dennis to see this," Luna said.

"Shes's right," Ginny offered, squeezing Sean's hand and pulling herself closer to him. "We'll go with you, when it's over. We'll tell him together."

Sean leaned his head against Ginny's, and she felt him nodding against her, before his shoulder started to shake again.