"…quote..."
The Pendant
So there he was, walking down a pitch-black corridor, his wand illuminating only several feet in front of him, while his companion Lucius Malfoy's wand was doing the same for him. "It just did it again."
Malfoy had made that comment three times already, and this time, Harry was actually paying attention. The corridor had just shifted again, and he noticed the momentary feeling of a Portkey without his body moving an inch. The fact of the matter was that they had been walking around these halls for almost half an hour now, and for all Harry knew, they had set off an enumerable amount of secrecy sensors that would alert Speer to their presence at a moment's notice. "Ok. We need to stop doing this."
"Doing what?" Malfoy asked.
"Just walking around." He paused and thought for a second. "There has to be a way to predict these changes and figure out a way to not end up in the entrance chamber over and over again." The truth was that they had met up with Ron and Hermione during one of their shifts.
"And what exactly do you propose?"
"Think back to the four times this has happened…does anything occur right before the change?"
The two of them sat there thinking, though no one could tell in the semi-darkness, about their troubles so far. And in that instant, Harry's wand jerked of its own accord from down by his side to slightly left of in front of him. "What was that?" Lucius asked, seeing the light from his wand change direction do suddenly.
"It's Ginny!" The charms were working. Harry couldn't believe the magic he had used so many months ago was actually working. "She's that way."
"That leads into a wall."
"I know, but maybe if we do this fast enough, we won't have to worry about the random switches. We'll know what door we're looking for, what hall we need to go down, maybe even find a secret passageway. C'mon!" And Harry tore off into the darkness with Lucius struggling to keep up. He ran around one corner, then past another. At one point, he realized that the geometry was actually going to help him where it may have confused others. His wand suddenly pointed straight into a wall at 90 degrees. He started thinking out loud. "Most people would go around…take two lefts or two rights to get all the way around…but there's no way…"
Lucius finally caught up. "What is it?" He was out of breath. Granted, Harry had at least twenty-five years on him, so it was to be expected.
"She's this way, and the entrance has to be here." Harry started feeling the walls instinctively, trying to mimic Dumbledore's actions in the cave. "Somewhere around here."
"What are you looking for?"
"Shhh." He didn't mean to be rude, it was just the first thing that came to him. Harry could feel his hand being literally drawn to a certain spot on the wall, and decided that if it had worked once before, it may work again. He conjured a knife from thin air, much to the surprise of Malfoy, quickly rolled up his own sleeve, and made a quick incision below his elbow.
"Potter!"
"It's ok." He stowed the knife in his robes thinking it wouldn't hurt just in case, and then placed his other hand over the now bleeding wound. Once his hand was sufficiently covered in blood, he began rubbing it all over the wall he was facing, not sure of the exact point he should be doing this. "Oh, you may need to also…" He added to Lucius.
"And the others?"
"Oh yeah!" Harry pulled out his coin and tapped his wand to it in the same instant that the wall in front of him opened into an archway eerily similar to that of Diagon Alley. Not pausing to think about how important that first trip was to Tom Riddle and the fact that he would utilize the same arch here, Harry waited for only moments before Ron and Hermione showed up before walking through.
The only problem was that the second he was through the arch, it sealed itself again, and after waiting for almost a minute, it appeared no one else was going to be allowed through. Harry could have sworn he heard fists banging on the wall behind him, but he was sure he was just imagining it. Giving up hope that others would be able to join him for the last part of this journey, he walked forward through a very narrow, even darker passageway before he saw a door in front of him. Once he reached it, he could see that there was a carved snake with imbedded emerald eyes, and he thought for a second that Parseltongue would be necessary to enter, but even Riddle had said that he and Harry were the only Parselmouths to exist since Slytherin himself.
Throwing any caution to the wind, he uttered the words 'open up' in snake language, but nothing happened. Shaking his head back and forth a few times, he realized that he was giving this man, this petty criminal in his mind, too much credit. Instead, he reached for the handle, which felt far too cold to the touch, and turned it. The second he caused any movement to the knob, however, it began opening of its own accord. The door slowly creaked open with the sounds that accompanied the frightening muggle holidays. And when it was thrown completely open, the sight he had nightmares about met his own eyes.
"Harry…" Ginny spoke with a raspy, almost dying, voice.
"Gin." It was all he could say. He looked around the room quickly out of habit and saw that it was lit by a single lantern in the corner that illuminated a small mirror on the wall. This is where Rookwood was questioned and where Avery was punished…He pushed those memories aside quickly and focused on the important aspects of the situation.
Speer was standing behind Ginny with his wand to the back of her head.
Ginny was standing in front of him, whimpering slightly, but looking as defiant as ever.
"Potter, I would not take another step if I were you." Wulfric spoke. The hatred returned. And Harry most definitely took a step forward. However, in that instant, his wand disappeared. He looked around, thrashing his head from side to side, but when he looked up, he saw that Speer's wand had vanished as well. "I told you not to do that."
"Fine! I'll kill you with my bare hands!" He made to move forward again, but stopped when his enemy spoke.
"As you can see, your wife is still in front of me. Without my wand, why wouldn't she run to you?" He paused to let the information sink into Harry's mind. He realized it was a good question, and decided to discuss it. "Our bodies our bound, Potter."
"Bound?"
"The second my heart stops beating, so will hers. The second my blood stops flowing, so will hers. The second my brain stops functioning, so will hers. The second my soul departs," he paused again, "so will hers."
"LIAR!!" Harry could feel a righteous anger flowing through his body like never before. He wanted to rage at the pathetic excuse for a human being in front of him and tear him limb from limb.
"Fiery Daughter," he was talking to her in a low tone, like a lover. "Why don't you walk to your husband? Why don't you take refuge in his arms?" Ginny starting weeping a little. "You see, Potter? She will not move. The Dark Lord created the vanishing sensor for this very reason. He knew that his wandless abilities were unmatched, and therefore, he would fear no man while in this room."
"So?"
"I still fear you. I am an old man now. The work with the Polyjuice Potion this year has been difficult for my body. Impersonating a teacher and a student both at school and during holidays while not arousing suspicions as to my own absences has been difficult. Albert believes me dead, and yet I sense you two have met."
"We have. He told me all about how you were too weak to stand up to Voldemort!" Harry's anger was boiling to the surface. He could see tears slowly leaking down Ginny's cheeks. He simultaneously wanted to comfort her and kill Speer.
"Quite. Your own parents chose a heroic death, much like mister Malfoy would have if you had given him the chance."
"What?" Harry assumed he was taunting him.
"You only found this place on his information, I'm sure. I'm also certain he was waiting outside these walls to enter, to sacrifice himself for you three. You see…one of the Dark Lord's wards on this room was that he who entered the room could only save those he loved outside the room by dying for them. This ensured complete loyalty."
"You think Lucius was coming in here to save the rest of us?"
"The ultimate act of penance! His family has dishonored Wizardkind while praising 'Magic if Might' at the same time. The only way for his wife and budding dark son would be to help the great Harry Potter."
"Well, that didn't happen. I'm here now!"
"Yes you are…and in quite the predicament. If you kill me, your wife dies. If you kill us both, your friends outside the room die. Ah, if you only understood the power of Dark Magic!" He raised his voice for the first time, and it made Harry feel safer. He always knew a powerful person whenever they were calm enough to be confident, undaunted by the surrounding elements and situations. Instantly, he thought of the man who knew more about magic and human behavior than any other. Albus would know what to do, and he had already told Harry what to do, but Harry didn't know it 'til now.
"I've said this to someone before, and they ended up dead. I hope you will choose another path."
"What is it?"
"Try for some remorse. Become something better than what you are. All you have to do is act on the things that you believe in, and your life will follow the path that has been laid out for you."
"Remorse? HA! That will not bring my wife back to me! The Daughters will!"
"No they won't. There is no magic that can truly reawaken the dead."
"FOOL! What do you know of magic!?" Speer was yelling vehemently now.
"I have experienced too much of it to begin to act as if I know all of its secrets. My experience, like that of Dumbledore before me, has taught me that magic and the world are so much bigger and uncontrollable than we could ever fathom.
"Youth! You presume to be wise, but it is only foolishness!" Ginny's whimpers brought Harry back. He already knew what he was going to do. He knew that he had armed himself with things that Wulfric Speer had never contemplated before.
"I will give you one last chance." And faith began to drive his actions now.
"You're giving me an ultimatum!? Are you serious?" Harry slowly moved his hand to his cloak.
"Please, just let her go, and I will let you live." His fingers grasped the vial he knew would fix everything.
"What? You have a secret in your pocket? Nothing can stop this, Potter! NOTHING!!" He was crying the last few words, much like a dying man accepting his fate. The next moment, faith itself moved Harry's body. He clinched the vial of Reptomore and threw it directly at Ginny Weasley…
Time stood still. They looked at each other. Said I love you one last time, and waited for the end.
…In the next split second, the pendant that Harry had given her for her birthday, that had guided him to her this very day, flew out of the neckline of her shirt and met the vial head on. There was a tremendous crash as the glass exploded and the deadly potion was sent splashing into the air. As Harry watched, he thought he had made a huge mistake, that the potion would hit her and kill her, but in the next, an invisible cocoon was wrapped around her body, the potion seemed to fall like hitting an umbrella and spill out onto the floor and anything else it touched.
Including Speer. His wailing echoed off the walls a dozen times as his body began melting. The potion ate at his skin, his bones, and the rest of his body until there was no more. Ginny didn't move an inch as the potion seemed to boil on the ground, eating the ancient remains of the dead that had fallen at that very spot in the past until there was nothing. Smoke surrounded her body as the Reptomore finished its task, Ginny uncurled from the protective posture she had taken, and the two of them looked at each other, realizing that Speer was gone forever.
They crossed the room in a heartbeat and embraced in a similar fashion to the Gryffindor Cup win two years before. "I love you."
"I love you."
Who knew who said it first? Who cared? They were together again. "I'm so sorry, Ginny."
"It's ok. I knew you'd find me. I knew you'd come for me." She was crying, and it made Harry start crying too.
"I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." Harry continued to say through his own tears until nothing else mattered.
"It's ok. Let's get out of here sweetie."
"Ok." He paused and separated himself, his arms still wrapped around her. "I love you."
"I love you, too." She pressed herself against him once again. Through everything she had been through, he could still smell the flowery scent she always had. They were still together, still married, still themselves. They always would be.
"I love you Ginny." His tears were flowing now.
"I know." Her tears were falling to the ground.
"And I won't let go until you tell me."
A/N: I love you cookie.
