A/N: For those of you who prefer action over romance, I think this chapter will fit the bill nicely. I've been thinking about this for a long time.

For those of you who like the sexy stuff, you are just going to have to wait. Please review - this chapter really kicked my ass!

Ginny understood why Harry had avoided everyone after he learned where the two Horcruxes were. Now that she knew, the thought of telling everyone, of actively taking steps to place Harry closer to his own death, was more than she could bear. She cried everywhere she could think of that was private – in the shower, in bed with silencing charms set around her drapes, while she was flying (that was a good one, she could blame her red eyes on the wind), and even once halfway down the passageway to the shrieking shack, where she let herself collapse against a tree root and sob.

Harry was solicitous of her obvious need to be alone. He didn't push her to talk and never commented on the state of her eyes or puffy face. He held her hand when they were together and gave her chaste kisses whenever he could. He cried in the shower too, for her this time, not himself.

Predictably, Hermione was the first one to notice Ginny's frequent absences and generally depressed demeanor. After two days of watching, she cornered Harry after Transfiguration and peppered him with questions – was Ginny okay, had anything come between the two of them, should they go to Dumbledore – until finally, Harry gave her an answer that was the truth, but not.

"I think that everything has just really sunk in with her, Hermione. It takes time to absorb, you know. I'm helping her work through it."

That satisfied Hermione, which meant that Ron didn't ask any questions either, about why his sister's appetite had suddenly been cut in half or why her eyes were always red. Neville knew to keep his mouth shut of course, and Luna had taken to offering to "cleanse Ginny's aura" during the next full moon to help eliminate the Nargles that had taken up residence inside her.

Harry would have gone on letting Ginny take her time in coming to terms with the news – and really, Harry himself was in no rush either – but for the encounter he had with Malfoy. The other boy was leaving Professor Flitwick's office, looking happier than Harry remembered seeing him in weeks. Harry grasped his wand tightly; he didn't trust Malfoy to abide by the school rules that prohibited hexing other students in the hallways. But Draco merely gave him a cocky grin. As he walked by, he remarked under his breath, "there's a lot to find in the Room of Requirement, isn't there, Potter?" He rushed down the hall, turned the corner, and disappeared.

Harry grabbed the Maurader's Map out of his pocket and hurried into an empty classroom. Sure enough, he could see Draco's dot heading for the Seventh Floor corridor. He searched some more until he found Ginny in the Gryffindor Common Room. Thankful that classes were over for the day, Harry rushed upstairs.

Ginny was sitting at a table, books and parchment spread out in front of her as if she was doing homework, but Harry was not fooled; her parchment was nearly blank. She looked up as Harry came into the room.

He sat down next to her, gave her a quick kiss, and grabbed her hand. "It's time, we have to go now."

"Where? To the Room? Now?"

Quickly, Harry showed her the Map and told her about what Draco had said. "What if he's going to get the tiara right now? What is Voldemort knows I know about it and wants Malfoy to move it somewhere safer?

Ginny's face crumpled. "It's my fault," she whispered. "I kept you from getting it days ago."

"No, it's not," said Harry firmly. "Remember, I knew about it days before I even told you, and I didn't do anything either. " He pulled the Map out again. "Look, Malfoy is almost there. We'll see if he tries to leave and we can intercept him." He grabbed her hand and looked her straight in the eye. "Are you sure you want to do this with me? I'm find going alone, or I suppose I could tell Dumbledore."

"I'm going," said Ginny decisively. "The Horcrux is easiest to manage when I'm around, if you haven't noticed. You need me."

Harry smiled. "Of course I do."

HPHPHPHPHPHP

The walk to the Seventh Floor took a remarkably short time. To Harry's surprise and concern, the door to the Room was visible when they arrived, and it seemed not to be completely shut; they could see a thin beam of light from inside shining on the floor.

"Maybe Neville is right." Ginny spoke first, whispering. "Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with the Horcrux and Malfoy was baiting you to come here?" She looked around. "Do you think he has Crabbe and Goyle in there too? Maybe we should get the others."

Harry took a deep breath. He was feeling frantic to rush through the door and find out, once and for all, what Malfoy was up to. Tiara, no tiara, there was something else - Harry's suspicions about the other boy that had been growing ever since June - would no longer be put aside. But Ginny was with him, and dragging people he loved into dangerous situations without thinking first usually ended up being a bad idea.

"I don't know who is in there, or what they are doing," he said. "It's probably very dangerous. I know I almost get Ron killed yearly, but I'd rather not continue that tradition with you. Maybe we should contact Dumbledore."

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Nice try, Harry. You almost got me killed last summer at the Department of Mysteries, remember? So I'm all in now." She peered harder at the door. "And anyway, I don't think there is time to get anyone else. If he's in there, and we can get in, we need to go now."

Harry nodded. This was exactly why he loved Ginny so much. "Okay. But stay close to me and keep your eyes open. I don't trust Malfoy for anything."

Cautiously, he pushed open the door. Inside, the room looked much like it had in Harry's mind; piles of old furniture and broken objects stacked in haphazard piles with narrow passageways snaking through the junk farther back into the room. The light was dim and it was very quiet.

"Where did you see it?" Ginny whispered next to him.

"On a desk, next to a big cabinet-thing." Harry closed his eyes to try to remember the scene. Once again, he was struck with a sense of déjà vu that he had seen the cabinet before, somewhere else.

"Should we split up to look for it?" Ginny didn't sound very eager to do so.

"Absolutely not. Stay close, I can feel that we aren't far." In fact, Harry's scar was beginning to ache and for a second, the Room swam sickeningly before his eyes. "Actually, stay really close," he said. Ginny immediately understood and grabbed his hand. The contact cleared Harry's head and he squeezed back. "Try to keep touching me as much as you can, unless there is danger," he said. "I think you're right; I need you to fight the new Horcrux."

They walked a couple of feet further into the room. All of Harry's senses were on high alert. He was vaguely aware of a thumping in his scar, but it seemed mixed up with a fog in his head and he couldn't tell where the pain stopped and the . . . nothingness began. When Ginny reached up and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, the fog coalesced into an almost pleasant feeling for a second. Before he could think more about it, Ginny gave a soft intake of breath.

"There, Harry, is that the cabinet?" In front of them was a large wooden box with odd carvings. Harry couldn't see a door, he assumed it was on the side facing away from them. Next to it, the desk with the stone bust and perched on top, the tiara. Despite his strong grasp on Ginny, his scar gave a stronger thump when he made eye contact with it. But almost immediately after, the warm foggy feeling chased the pain away. Harry shook his head to clear it and focused for a second on the cabinet.

"Yes!" he hissed back. Suddenly he realized why it looked so familiar. "I hid in one just like it in Borgin and Burke a couple of years ago!" he said, his excitement at solving that mystery made him speak a little more loudly than he intended.

"Very good, Potter. Observant of you." Harry and Ginny froze as Draco walked around from the back of the cabinet. He had his wand pointed at them and a dull silver object Harry did not recognize in the other.

"I wouldn't try anything, either of you," Malfoy said. "I've created a lot of Dark Magic in the room right now; one false move by either of you could be quite . . . dangerous." He gave them a grim smile, but Harry saw him tremble as he clutched the . . . thing more tightly in his fist.

Harry squeezed Ginny's hand again. "I'm going to let go," he said under his breath. "We need both hands free." Next to him, Ginny nodded.

Letting go of Ginny was immediately disorienting. The pain her presence had kept at bay roared back with a vengeance, and Harry struggled to stay in the moment. He took deep breaths, praying inwardly that having the tiara so close would not plunge him back into flashbacks.

Draco saw their hands drop and he smiled again. "Together, apart, it doesn't matter," he said. "I am finally ready to fulfill my Master's tasks. Getting the blood traitor at the same time is just going to be a bonus. Hogwarts is going to look quite different by nightfall." He stepped closer to them and yelled "Sectumsempra!"

Harry got his shield up just in time. Next to them, he saw that Ginny's shield was up too. "Good one, Gin," he said. "Let's try to bind him. It's two on one."

But just then, there was a movement behind the cabinet and Crabbe stepped out. Harry's heart dropped; he expected Goyle was close behind and their odds were going to be much worse. But it was just Crabbe. Draco looked sharply at him. "The others?" he asked.

Crabbe nodded. "Soon," he replied. "Including your father."

It may have been Harry's imagination, but Draco suddenly looked less confident to hear that his father was involved in . . . whatever this was. His mouth tightened as he nodded. "I will succeed where my father could not," he said quietly. "And when I do . . ." he trailed off, looking at Harry and Ginny. "Never mind. That fool of a headmaster got at least one thing right; Azkeban could never contain the Death Eaters once the Dementors defected from the Ministry." He looked at Crabbe. "Whatever you want to do."

They began to battle. Ginny was an excellent fighter, thanks to the DA and the Department of Mysteries, and Harry relaxed a fraction and stopped trying to keep an eye on her. Draco was a strong fighter too; Harry didn't want to think who may have been teaching him. Crabbe was not, but what he lacked in technique and reflexes, he made up for in the evilness of his spells. Harry had never seen many of the curses he was firing; they leeched dark magic into the air and felt lethal, or at least extremely dangerous.

Harry moved almost without thinking, parrying curses, dodging hexes, and throwing up shields whenever he could. He was vaguely aware that something felt different as he moved, but he couldn't concentrate enough to put his finger on it. He had some success pushing furniture over to block Draco's progress; but stopped this tactic when a birdcage he shot exploded too close to the bust and tiara.

And all the while, Harry's scar was throbbing. He could feel the darkness at the edge of his brain, threatening to pull him under, particularly when his steps brought him too close to the tiara Horcrux. But then he'd catch sight of Ginny out of the corner of his eye, or the fog in his brain would descend, and he would find himself able to focus and keep moving. The Room was hot, and smoke from their combined curses was making it difficult to see his surroundings, but Harry remained focused on three things: Malfoy and Crabbe, who seemed to have figured out how to coordinate their attacks and were moving closer and closer; the tiara Horcrux, hazy in the dim light; and Ginny.

At one point, he was certain he saw the tiara shaking on its base, a dark glow surrounding it. It seemed to be pulling him closer to it as he and Ginny circled and fought Malfoy and Crabbe and Harry wanted to look at it and hold it and maybe put it on. But then he saw Ginny squint at the tiara, an odd look on her face, and the pull on him disappeared.

"Stay away from the tiara," he hissed at her during a tiny lull. Malfoy and Crabbe had disappeared behind the cabinet. "It's definitely trying to get pull us towards it."

Ginny nodded and took a deep breath, stepping farther away.

And then Draco and Crabbe were suddenly back, and Draco had a renewed look of purpose on his face. He was holding his wand differently, and the silver object in his hand – Harry could now see it was a silver skull – had a dull glow.

Harry paused, a feeling of foreboding filling him. Ginny was further away than he wanted; she had moved to look around the back of the cabinet where Crabbe and Malfoy had been. Harry saw Crabbe watch her step away and heard Draco's voice, chanting an odd, horrible sounding incantation.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Crabbe screamed out a curse in Ginny's direction and a rush of green light shot towards her. Harry wasn't sure if he actually heard the Avada Kedavra or imagined it but suddenly he was in front of her, pushing them both out of the way and onto the floor and the curse flew just over their entwined bodies. As Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny he felt a warmth flow through him that had nothing to do with the heat in the room and the fog grew more dense around his brain.

"Fool!" he heard Draco yell. "You missed! Now I have to start over! Just let me do it – you keep an eye on the door and take care of the girl."

Reflexively, Harry rolled Ginny away from him as Draco bore down on them. "Stupify!" Draco yelled, and Harry felt his body freeze in its spot on the floor. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Ginny get up and begin again to battle with Crabbe, but before he could even begin to think how to help her, Draco was there, his face a mix of fear, determination, and triumph. He held the skull, chanting at it once again. The skull glowed brighter and Draco's eyes along with it as he held up his wand and pointed it at the skull, and then at Harry, and then back again at the skull.

Run, Ginny. Please, get out of here. Go! Harry was screaming at her in his head and he had no idea what was happening in her battle with Crabbe, which had taken them around the back side of the cabinet. He thought he still heard the exchange of spells, but the pain in his head was getting unbearable too quickly for him to even know what was happening and there was a fog that was wrapping around him and he felt, rather than saw, Draco move his wand back to Harry's chest.

"I told you Harry, years ago. You needed to choose the right friends." Draco's voice was colder than Harry had ever heard it. "You chose wrong. And now, I get to be the one to end it. Crabbe, freeze the girl and come watch. You will be able to tell the world that you witnessed the destruction of Harry Potter!"

The fog in Harry's brain enveloped him. For a brief instant there was nothingness, and then the nothingness was met with the feeling that he could not let Ginny be hurt, he would not let Ginny be hurt. The fog closed in more heavily. Instead of being suffocating though, something loosened within Harry and suddenly he could move. He jumped to his feet but could not move out of the way just as Draco yelled the words.

"Avada Kedavra!"

And the fog burst out of Harry and surrounded him like a blanket and in him mind, he saw Ginny running towards him and the curse disappeared into the air.

In front of Harry, Draco screamed in frustration, and then the scream turned into one of fear, and then pain. The fog had grown to envelope Draco's hand and the skull in it began to glow brighter and brighter, and then it was on fire and Draco was unable to let it go and the fire was moving up his arm. The sounds he was making were the most horrible Harry had ever heard.

"Ginny!" Harry screamed himself, and then seconds later, Crabbe and Ginny came around from the back of the cabinet, still battling. Ginny's cheek was bleeding but she was fighting fiercely.

And then Crabbe saw Malfoy. The flames were one Malfoy's chest now and he was thrashing around in agony he reached out towards Crabbe, but the boy backed away, then turned and sprinted for the open door of the cabinet.

Ginny was the first to cast an Augamenti charm, and Harry's joined seconds later. Over and over they doused Malfoy with water, only to see it evaporate in puffs of steam.

"Master, please, Master." Harry could hear Malfoy crying as the flames continued to consume. "Father . . . help me, father . . ." his words ended in a gurgle as the fire reached Draco's throat. Harry pulled Ginny back as the burning figure staggered and then fell into the side of the cabinet, which almost immediately went up in flames itself.

Harry kept one arm wrapped tightly around Ginny, ready to run if the fire spread. It didn't seem interested in any of the wooden tables and chairs or books piled around, but with a pop, a tiny flame jumped away from the cabinet and landed on top of the bust and tiara. Ginny started to move towards it and Harry held her back. "Let it burn," he said tersely. "I think the fire is killing it."

The tiara burned and the rest of the fire stayed contained to only the cabinet and to the now still body curled up at its edge. And yet, Harry heard more screaming, and it seemed to be coming from inside the burning wooden container. He took half a step closer.

"Do you hear that Harry?" Ginny too was leaning in, listening.

"I think there were people . . . inside . . . when it started to burn," Harry said quietly. "Crabbe, and others. Malfoy's dad, it sounds like."

Ginny didn't say anything, just shuddered in Harry's arms. Together, they stood and watched as the cabinet burned into a pile of ash. The fog had disappeared and the pain in Harry's head was gone. He stared, uncomprehending, at the space and then suddenly pushed away to dart behind a pile of broken desks. Ginny heard him retching and she turned in the direction he had gone. But Harry was back before she had taken two steps and he held her again.

"We need to go directly to Dumbledore," he said, voice harsh against her hair. "And we need to take the tiara with us." It had not been consumed, but still smoldered on top of the bust. It seemed to have cracked open in the heat and a tarry substance was leaking out.

Ginny found her voice. "And . . and, we should take . . . that," she said, pointing. Harry looked at the pile of ash that, until minutes ago, had been Draco Malfoy. Nestled in the center was the silver skull. It was no longer glowing but steam was rising from it.

"Don't touch it," Harry warned her. He had no idea what he was thinking at that moment, but he knew the thing was dangerous. "We'll need to levitate it."

In the end, they put levitation charms on both the tiara and the skull and covered them with Harry's Invisibility Cloak to transport them to Dumbledore's office.

Harry had expected, or assumed, that the Headmaster would be alone; he was unprepared to see their friends there ahead of them, talking over each other in a panic, and Dumbledore standing amongst them, listening intently while watching several of his delicate silver instruments.

His and Ginny's appearance was met with a moment of shocked silence, and then an explosive clamor as everyone began talking at once and Hermione threw herself into Harry's arms. "We thought you were dead!" She cried.

It was too much for both of them, after the horror they had just experienced. Ginny swayed where she stood, looking completely disoriented. Harry pushed aside his own deep unease and let go of Hermione in time to catch Ginny as her legs crumpled. A chair was thrust under him and he sat heavily, pulling Ginny into his lap.

"That seems to be becoming your chair." Dumbledore's voice was grave. "Harry, Ginny, I can see you have been through a terrible ordeal. I'm sorry I have to ask you to share more. Can you tell us where Malfoy is?"

Harry's head jerked up. "How did you know?" In his arms, Ginny began to cry.

"The Map," said Ron. "You left it in the Common Room. When we looked at it, we could see the Room of Requirement on there – no idea why, it's never shown up before. You two were there, and Malfoy and Crabbe, all moving around. And then the names of Death Eaters kept fading in and out. Lucius Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, a guy called Yaxley. That's when we brought the map to Dumbledore.

"And then Crabbe disappeared, and a couple of seconds later, Malfoy did too. And the Death Eaters." Neville took up the story. "And then the room itself faded off the Map but you were both still inside."

"Shortly before you two arrived, I got a message about a strange fire in Borgin and Burke, the very shop where Merope Gaunt sold her family heirloom locket all those years ago." Dumbledore walked over to stand before Harry and Ginny. "The only thing that burned was a large Vanishing Cabinet. It just burst into flames with no warning. Old Mr. Borgin had just let a number of Death Eaters into his shop and they had entered the cabinet just before it caught on fire. He said that none of them emerged."

"They're dead," said Harry flatly. There was no easy way to say it. "All of them." He tried to ignore the gasps of horror and surprise. "And Ginny and I, I'm surprised we aren't dead too." He took a deep breath before continuing.

"I've been keeping something from all of you," Harry admitted. He told them about his flashback and his knowledge of where the Horcruxes were. He waited for condemnation or protest or sadness, or any of the other emotions he and then Ginny had been feeling for the past weeks, but none came. Obviously, everyone already understood there was too much more to the story.

Slowly, Harry began to explain what had happened that day, beginning with Draco's comment outside Professor Flitwick's office.

"Yes, Filius came to me shortly thereafter, to tell me that Mr. Malfoy had been asking a lot of questions about how to charm two similar objects in different locations. He seemed quite pleased with the answer he got."

"The cabinets," said Ginny thickly. She had stopped crying and seemed to be trying to come back to herself and the room. Ron got up and put his hand on her shoulder for a long moment, and Ginny leaned into it. "Thanks, Ron," she said quietly.

"Draco must have done something to the Room to keep the door open so we could get in," continued Harry. "That's why it stayed visible on the Map, at least until he . . . until he died." He shared as much as he could remember from the fight, Draco's comments about 'others,' and how Hogwarts would look different by the evening. All the while, Professor Dumbledore and the others listened silently.

When Harry got to the part of the story involving the tiara and the silver skull, Dumbledore jumped to his feet. "Where are they now?" he asked sharply.

"Umm, right here," said Harry. He pulled off the Invisibility Cloak to reveal the objects, covered in soot and still smoking slightly, hovering in the air. A small shower of ash rained down from them.

Hermione looked sick. "Is that . . . ?" she asked.

Harry nodded grimly. "We tried to put out the flames. Nothing would work."

"They were cursed," said Dumbledore. "You would not have been able to put out the fire no matter what you tried."

He had moved the tiara over to the small table that held the remains of the locket and was now circling the skull slowing, mumbling a spell. After a minute, he looked up at Harry. "And did you say you felt different while you were in the Room?"

Harry shut his eyes to try to figure out the best way to explain what had happened, how the fog seemed to take the place of the pain at times, how the tiara seemed to call to him and Ginny, how he had been able to move more quickly than he could have imagined to pull Ginny out of the way of Crabbe's killing curse. What he could not describe was the look on Malfoy's face as the skull began to burn, or the sounds coming from the cabinet as it too, went up in flames.

"They were evil, pure evil," he finally said. "But I wish they hadn't died that way."

"You grant them more peace than they deserve," said Ron bitterly. "Malfoy would have killed you and not thought twice."

"I'm afraid Mr. Weasley is right," said Dumbledore. "But we have a bigger problem."

Harry looked up blankly. "Bigger than Malfoy trying to kill me and Ginny and a bunch of Death Eaters trying to break in to the school?"

Dumbledore sighed. "This skull," he said, pointing at it with his wand. "You said Malfoy was holding it and saying incantations right before he said the Avada Kedavra?"

Harry nodded. "It was not a spell I had ever heard before."

"I wouldn't have expected you to know that spell, in fact, I would have been disturbed if you did," said the Headmaster. "From what you have told me, and from the magical signature left on the skull, I'm positive that Draco was preparing it to become another Horcrux. One that he made with your death."

"But why would Draco have wanted to rip out his own soul?" Ginny had sat up straighter in Harry's arms and was paying avid attention to the discussion. "He kept talking about a task for 'His Master.' That means Voldemort, right?"

"Yes, Miss Weasley," said Dumbledore. "But it was not his own soul Draco sought to rend, although any time one kills in anger or evil they cause great damage to their soul anyway. No, I believe that Draco's intent was to rip out the soul piece in Harry, Voldemort's unintended soul piece, and put it into a different object, to become a more stationary Horcrux."

No one spoke.

"Which means," the headmaster continued grimly, "that Voldemort knows that a piece of his soul lives within Harry."