Hi, so here is another chapter and the longest one i have written for this story. This was exhausting emotionally for me so i really hope i did it well and you liked it.
Also on a side note, considering about fifty people died on the 'good' side during the battle it seems to me rather obvious that Colin, Ginny and Luna were not the only kids that were underage that stayed to fight. Therefore i had wrote in Ginny's ducklings, my OCS, Grace, Alfie, Tommy and John into this chapter. I have also taken some liberties with childbirth potions and whatnot but this is the Wizarding World and Ginny is Ginny Weasley so i believe any adaptions are justified though of course they are my own.
Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.
Please let me know what you think, and i will try my best to get the next chapter too you soon. As always i wish you all the best happiness and health in the world.
Beat Your Heart Out
Chapter 24-It's War
Ginny returns to Hogwarts for her reunion with her brothers (both of them) her best friend (and another), the kids she helped to fight and Harry. The battle for Hogwarts begins and though they don't all know it at once, the Weasley family is ripped apart, just as they are coming together, to never be the same again.
She stepped out into a pub she was sure she recognised.
It took her a few seconds before she realised she was in the Hogs Head. The pub where she had officially joined the 'radicalised teenage gang' (as her mother had called it) that was Dumbledore's Army. She had been proud then. She was proud now.
George helped her to her feet and she looked around to see a man whose eyes were a shocking shade of blue. A shade of blue that reminded her of her headmaster—the man that had took her aside when she had been a scared eleven year old and told her that nothing that had happened the year the Chamber had been open was her fault. That his office was always open if she wanted a cup of hot chocolate and who had been the figurehead to many who had took up arms in his name.
She opened her mouth to say something (because the resemblance was too much for her to ignore it) but the old man was gesturing to George towards a portrait hole and Ginny was being shoved through it by Fred and into a dank passageway forwards her wand in her hand feeling the sparks fly at the knowledge that the wand and it's owner was reunited at last.
(She did not think of James. She could not think of James)
She almost fell through the hole as the tunnel came to an end. Fred caught her as George pushed her through the tunnel and then she was awash with faces.
There was Neville who did her a glance over raised an eyebrow at her obvious lack of pregnant belly and then threw her a small smile underneath the bruises and cuts adorning his skin. Seamus his arm slung around Dean, Lavender with Parvati, Ernie back from grieving his face showing the sadness of a lost brother and Luna her hair tied in a rather neat knot. Cho Chang talking with Michael and then to her amusement plus exasperation, Tommy with Alfie, Grace, John and a cluster of other first and second years she had taught at Hogwarts all of them looking desperate to join a fight that they had no idea would cost them anything. Ginny a new mother in herself looked at them and wondered if in ten or eleven years time she would be seeing James in the same position. She felt bile rise up at the thought, her private parts throbbed a little still with the aftereffect of birth despite the muggle and magical ways to stop that and she had to look away from them least she start sobbing right there in the Room of Requirement.
And then she saw them.
She saw Hermione first, her hair still brown and bushy and tied back in a long plait, she was dirty and covered in bruises and burn marks and her jeans were splattered in mud. Her friend was thinner and there were shadows under her eyes, next to her was Ron. Ginny felt George stiffen next to her as they clapped eyes on their brother for the first time since August. Ron too looked like he had been through hell and back, his face was unshaven and he had a nasty cut on one side of his face, his eyes were dark as if he had seen things and comprehended things that nobody should have to and Ginny had a sudden visceral flashback to how she had felt after she had realised just what had been possessing her for the whole of her first year at school. Ron saw them and grinned his mouth lifting up in a half attempt at the smile that he had usually given out so freely and Ginny had to resist the urge to throw her arms around him and hug the life out of him.
And then she was aware that someone else was watching her and she turned to see the one person she had wanted to speak to for the last nine months.
Harry Potter.
He too looked ten years older than his age. His hair was cut lopsidedly but it was still messy, his eyes were still green behind the same glasses and Ginny, calculating the changes in him could see that he was holding himself in a way that she recognised as his scar was hurting. He stared at her with those eyes and suddenly the fact that they had been apart didn't matter, the fact that she had given birth to his son didn't matter. All that mattered was that he was in touching distance.
She yearned in that second to tell him about James. To tell him about his baby and the fact that she had done something that she once would have said was impossible. That she had kept his child safe right under the nose of the Death Eaters themselves. She wanted to tell him that and then take him home, pass him his son and never let him go.
She had never had any doubts about it but that long moment (thought in reality it was probably six seconds) confirmed to Ginny what she had known at the age of eleven.
That Harry Potter was indeed the great love of her life and nothing, nothing, was ever going to change that.
But then like so many moments between them over the course of the years it was interrupted and Ginny had to pull away, her eyes and her thoughts away from Harry and his baby and back into the battle plan that was rapidly unfolding.
She forgot however about one thing, one crucial thing.
Her mother.
To say Molly Weasley was not pleased was an understatement and Ginny found that she could understand with a crystal clear knowledge why. The thought of James even though he was a baby stood where she was right now was enough of a thought to turn her blood cold. She could understand why her mother had pushed back when Sirius had wanted to tell them what the Order was up to. But that didn't change anything, Ginny knew why she was here, she knew what she was fighting for and as her father had always said she had her mother's temper.
Factor in the hormone imbalance and she knew she was a damn force to be reckoned with.
She was dimly aware that Bill was talking to her but she was close to hitting him as it was when she felt Harry's eyes on her. For a spilt second there eyes were locked and then she saw him shake his head. She gritted her teeth—did anyone here not think that she had thought about what she was leaving behind?
"I mean you have James to think about"
That was from her mother and Ginny felt her blood go cold and a kind of fury she had never felt before seep into her veins like poison. While she and her mother had, had difficulties they had always had a way of resolving them but right now all she wanted to do hurt her mother in the way she had just hurt her.
"Whose James?"
That was Ron and Ginny was dimly aware that Harry was still watching her but she didn't, she couldn't look at him and talk about James, the hour before the world went to hell, with Voldemort pressing into his mind at any given second was not the moment that she wanted to tell him that he had a son. Instead from somewhere deep within her she closed her eyes took a deep breath and said with as much venom as she could muster (and that was quite a lot), "I am not leaving, my whole family is here, I am not going to sit around and do nothing and wait not knowing if…" she trailed off as something or rather someone collapsed through the hole in the wall in a way that she instantly recognised because in their house there had only been one of them that had ever been that clumsy.
Ginny stared because she had expected many things to happen tonight, had been prepared for them, had steeled herself against them but this had never really thought that this would happen.
Percy had returned.
He looked around and it was clear as day that he had not expected them all to be stood here sans Charlie. She heard Fleur say to Lupin something about the baby Teddy and out of curiosity (and because Lupin was standing closer to the door) she turned to look at the baby that for all she knew one day would be her son's best friend. She could see a tuft of blue hair and then she had to look away least she think of her own baby and start crying there and then. She took another step backwards as Percy was welcomed back into her family her heart both heaving and breaking as she realised that there was another baby at home who might not see his Mummy or Daddy again.
She felt sick.
A compromise was reached but Ginny hardly listened to it. She didn't care about anything other than the fact that she was not being sent home like some petulant child. She didn't even have the energy to be mad at Percy. In fact all she wanted to do was go home and crawl beneath the covers of her bed and pretend that this was not happening and watch her baby snuffle a little in his sleep.
She didn't register the battle beginning with a shudder that rocked the foundations of the castle, Tonks climbing out of the portrait hole ten seconds later followed by the rather dominating woman that Ginny knew from looks alone had to be Neville's grandmother. In fact she barely registered anything until Harry was there the manic gleam in his eyes she had last seen when it had come to Quidditch telling her it was ok, she could go now.
Ginny wanted to tell him so many things in that moment but she couldn't. She couldn't even reach for him. If she did she knew that she would completely break apart and she could not afford that. Her son needed her to win this war. He needed her to come home. He needed his mother and his mother was never going to make it through tonight unless she locked away her emotions and pulled her big girl boots on and didn't think of him.
And somehow Ginny did it.
Of course it was made easier by the fact that once she stepped out the room she could see that the castle had descended into madness.
She was aware in that moment that she had not said goodbye to any of her brothers, her mother, her father, Fleur, Lupin, she had not seen Neville or Seamus or Dean or Luna, she had not seen Astoria or Cho or Michael or anyone else who was now somewhere in this castle and as Tonks went off screaming in search of her husband Ginny turned to catch one desperate look in a pair of green eyes that seared into her existence and then Harry was gone and she turned her wand in her hand, ready to fight.
Somehow she had ended up near the old Transfiguration corridor. McGonagall had whipped up all the desks, the animals they used for spells and several rather sharp shards of glass from a smashed window and was directing them as if troops into battle. Ginny had become embroiled with a Death Eater she didn't know and she had just sent a rather neat stunning spell straight into her face when the end of the corridor exploded (probably coming from a blast upstairs) and half the floor seemed to collapse in a slide.
She slid down it and landed in what she was sure had once been the Charms corridor in another life.
Astoria Greengrass in her school skirt and shirt, her tie gone, her hair loose was cackling with all the insanity a student of Slytherin could possess as she fired curses after curses at a Death Eater Ginny was sure was one of the Lestrange brothers, the thinner one with the thin face not the hulking brute married to Voldemort's bitch Bellatrix. She fired of a curse and then ducked as a jet of green light came whizzing past her, Ginny fired two her Jelly Jegs Jinx contrasting with a transfiguration spell that made the younger Lestrange brother tremble and then transform even as his legs were wobbling into what looked like a wobbling small horned creature, it gave them some time to pull back and Ginny laughed at the look on Astoria's face. She looked like she had been through hell and back in the last months or so but still her eyeliner was impeccable.
"Wondered when you would show up" Astoria said grinning. "How've you been Weasley?"
"Good Greengrass" Ginny said "You?"
"Eh just escaping death and all that"
They stumbled backwards as another bang echoed above them followed by the sound that Ginny knew (from a lifetime of fear from Ron) were the sound of scuttling spiders.
"Come on" she ducked into a mercifully empty classroom and Astoria followed. Ginny winced. She had been taking potions to counteract the blood that she had lost due to James's birth and she fumbled in her pocket taking a swig as Astoria closed the door and praying that it would last her until the end of this battle or at the very least until she could get a tampon.
They were in what was a used storage room and Ginny was just about to say something when there was a slither of a whisper behind them. They both whirled around wands raised but before either one of them could say anything something or rather someone scrabbled out from behind a cabinet.
It was Grace.
How she had come back in when the first years were supposed to have gone was beyond Ginny's understanding at this point but she knew that if Grace was back within the castle the demonic trio that was Tommy, John and Alfie were here as well especially as Tommy had two brothers who would be fighting as well.
"Get out from behind there" Ginny snapped in no mood to be patient. Grace was sniffing as she staggered forwards and Ginny could see she was bleeding below the knee, covered in dirt and dust and close to tears.
"Fuck" Astoria said behind her. "Where's the rest of the DA kiddo?"
"Gone" Grace said wiping her eyes on the back of her soot covered hand and wiping it across her face. Her blonde hair was singed at the bottom and covered in blood. "Tom, Alf and Johnny went to the front to see if they could help Tom's brothers and I was with Talia and Maria in the Great Hall when the Death Eaters arrived. Talia stunned one and used a spell to body-bind one but I only got his legs and as he went down he killed them both. I kicked his wand away and ran. Ginny I don't want to fight anymore! I don't want to be brave. I just want to go home!"
And with that she descended into sobs. Ginny couldn't help herself she knelt down ignoring the pain in both her privates and her knee and hugged the girl. There was another crash above them and the sound of shouting coming closer.
"Ginny there gonna find us if we keep staying in one place" Astoria muttered. "Grace is it? Listen. We need to get to the Great Hall, once were there you can help with the wounded do you think you can do that? No more fighting involved but we cannot open the entrances to the castle because more will come in. Can you find something in you to be brave just a bit longer?"
Grace nodded her lower lip trembling. Astoria smiled her hand hooking under Ginny's elbow and hauling her to her feet.
"Good. Come on then and stay behind us whatever you do. If we get into a fight or fall or you get lost go straight to the Great Hall and stay there"
Grace nodded.
Astoria used a charm to get them up the hole they had fallen down and then the three of them were running as they hit the main staircase.
It was a mess of fighters. The animals from the Forbidden Forest had joined the fight and the spiders were huge. Ginny saw one crash into three boys by the main staircase and she knew who they were with a flicker of pride, irritation and rage.
Suddenly she hated Voldemort with everything she had in her because despite what she had to lose she had known going into it what was at stake. The first years who this time last year had been thrilled about coming to Hogwarts who had imagined a year of Quidditch and laughing and learning and friendship and not a year of blood and piss and war and death. She blasted a Reducto curse at the spider and he went flying upwards squealing and then through a window as Astoria blasted him backwards. Ginny turned just to block another curse coming from a masked man. Astoria touched her once on the arm and then went off engaging him in a fight so that Ginny could get to the kids cursing her bad luck that the one Slytherin that she had trusted with her son had to be one who was fighting with them and not hiding in the dungeons like the rest of the house.
She turned to see Grace helping Alfie to his feet and she eyed them critically. Tommy had a split lip and a rather nasty gash on the side of his head that was bleeding steadily but wasn't deep. Alfie was leaning heavily on Grace's shoulder and Ginny knew just by looking at him that his leg was broken. John had staggered upwards but had sat back down again breathing heavily. He was unarmed but his eyes were bugging in his head. He turned and vomited through a hole in the floor and Ginny resisted the urge to grin as she had a vivid picture of it falling on a Death Eaters head.
"What the hell do the four of you…actually no don't answer that. McGonagall can deal with you four when she catches her breath—"
"If she's still alive…" Tommy muttered.
"Oh please" John said regaining the power of speech as he ran a hand through his hair. "This is McGonagall Tom she's going to outlive us all"
Ginny personally agreed with him but she wasn't going to say so.
"Right" she said as she turned and blasted another Death Eater coming up the stairs backwards. He toppled below and crashed into another. Ginny waved her wand and suddenly the stairs rose to become a wall which gave them precious minutes but enough to hold a conversation.
"Wow"
"Well said Alfie" Ginny said wiping her eye where she was bleeding. She was choking on dust and dirt and blood. The air reeked of smoke and her ears were bleeding from the noise. Her privates were aching and her legs shaking and for all she knew she could be leaking milk into her bra and her family for all she knew could be dead in their number.
"Right" she said gritting her teeth. "I don't care about what you thought you were doing this ends now. We are going to the Great Hall and you will assist the healers as best you can with the injured. You will fetch tea and water and wrap bandages, you will probably have to sit with the dead as they die. You will probably have to count the bodies. It will be harder than this but as you are here you will do it and you will do it with no complaints otherwise you can go home and face your parents. You want to be soldiers in this war you dig in deep and do the unpleasant tasks"
She was aware she was rambling and the stone wall was not going to hold much longer but she didn't care.
"Do you understand?"
Perhaps there was something in her expression that silenced them because she got four nods and then they were off running up the staircase. Tommy and John supporting Alife and Grace with her wand out. They got to the Entrance Hall just as the doors were blasted open and the four of them were blasted aside by a hail of spells. Ginny grabbed Graces head and Tommy's arm and then shoved them to one side sending shields to protect the other two just as two green lights were about to hit them. She dragged them to one side and began to duel as the four of them huddled behind her and she saw to her great feral pleasure that she was facing Antoin Dolohov the man who had murdered her uncles and whose twisted face she longed to kick.
It was a hard duel. Ginny was good but Dolohov was a wizard of both prestigious skill and no conscious. Twice Ginny had to duck to avoid death. She fell backwards landing on her knee again and feeling the agony surge up her leg. She gripped the stick of wood that was her only contact to stay alive, for Harry, for James and then…
And then…
A dementor soared through the open window and Dolohov with all the fear of a man condemned to Azkaban took his glittering eyes of her and that was the opening Ginny needed. She used Reducto which by now she was sure was her signature spell and blasted him backwards through the wall. She didn't kill him, she didn't have enough energy to kill anyone now and she lay there breathing in and out as the cold seeped through her skin down through her bones and into her very soul.
She thought of her baby boy safe at home and she tried to conjure up James and his tiny hands and feet and his perfect little fingernails but the silver doe that she created flickered feebly and then died and Ginny closed her eyes feeling so utterly exhausted and so broken and so…
And then a kitten was there staring up at the Dememntor and a rabbit, a small puff of smoke that was taking the form of a baby elephant and another that was turning into the form of a small bear. Small animals for small students who had done the one thing that Ginny had never thought that they could do.
"Come on Ginny" that was Grace and her face came into view the blonde hair that was dangling black with smoke and dust and her eyes filled with tears. "Were still here, come on you know you can do it. You taught us everything you know, everything we know, you looked after us when nobody else would and we don't hate you for leaving us then, we know you care, we know you can fight, come on were eleven we cannot hold off a dementor much longer you have to help us please!" That coupled in the form of a sob and the image that Ginny could see of Tommy straining to keep his animal that she knew the Dementor would glide over in seconds.
She didn't know how she did it but she did. She forced herself upright and thought of James in his Daddy's arms and Harry's slow smile when he saw their son and the peaceful life that could be awaiting them if only they lived through this night, this hour, this very minute.
"EXPECTO PATRONAM"
The scream came out of Ginny and so did the silver doe. She pushed herself onto her feet seeing the animal that had once been a horse and was now something else entirely she thought that nothing at this point could surprise her.
And then another thing happened.
She felt it before she heard the voice. She could feel the air go colder and then as if it echoed from the very walls of the school that she had for so long called her second home she could hear the voice of the wizard that had haunted her world for over two decades.
She listened standing here her hands curled around her wand and on the ache in her leg as he asked for Harry, as he wanted Harry. Ginny hoped someone would get to Harry before he did something stupid like go to Voldemort there and then and end this. She knew Harry, people dying for him was something he was not going to take for much longer.
There was a pause as the voice disappeared and Ginny had the sense that the Death Eaters paused throughout the castle were gone, the spells surrounding Hogwarts and apparition lay in the rubble and for one hour they were safe.
Ginny took a breath and turned around. Alfie had slumped to the floor his leg at an odd angle. John had his hands over his ears. Tommy vomited all down the floor.
"Ginny!" Ginny whirled around her wand in her hand ready to attack but she saw it was George and Angelina holding hands as well as they raced up the staircase. Angelina was holding her side and she had cuts down her face but she looked alright. Ginny smiled at her and turned to George and paused. There was something in his face she couldn't put her finger on. She knew it and George knew it as if they were standing on the precipice of something that would change their lives forever.
George's eyes turned from Ginny to the four eleven year olds behind her and he swore.
"How the fuck did they get back?"
Ginny shrugged. "I bet there's gonna be a few that did though. Harry needed the room and he kicked me out but I don't know how many people came back in. Tonks, Neville's gran and I didn't exactly keep count."
George raised an eyebrow. "Tough little fuckers to survive this long" he said under his breath, "The kids you were teaching?"
Ginny nodded.
"George" Angelina said patting him on the shoulder and then moving past him so she could go and help Alfie. "Let's get the kids into the Great Hall for some tea. I'm sure we can find something for them to do" she waved her wand and Alfie's leg seemed to straighten. He stood up winced but could walk. At least his leg was not broken.
"Your amazing you know" George said with a rather loved up expression on his face.
"Don't sound so surprised Weasley" Angelina said with a grin. "Now…Ginny who've we got here?"
"This is Alife, John, Grace and Tommy, all first years, all pro-active and enthusiastic members of Dumbledore's Army. And we agreed they would go back into the Great Hall and help the Healers and take any punishment from McGonagall that she dishes out"
"Yeah she's in one hell of a mood" George said dithering. "Turned all the desks on the fourth floor into marching armies and then she and Professor Trelawney teamed up and took down Crabbe Snr which was perhaps the strangest thing I have seen this night. Alright then kids, let's go, but I should warn you there bringing in the dead so be prepared"
There was something in his voice that made Ginny pause.
"Where's Fred?"
"I lost him somewhere on the fifth floor" George said his voice light and airy but with an undercurrent of concern in his voice. Ginny started. Somehow even in the midst of battle she had never thought of Fred and George as being separated even in the midst of battle.
"Come on" George said shivering "Let's see who made it"
They staggered into the Great Hall to see students milling about. Already Angelina had directed the students to the large fire and had them sitting down away from the dead which were in a line in the hall. The injured where up where the staff table had been and with a swoop of something unidentifiable Ginny realised that the dead in the long line were only the ones whose bodies had been found in the castle. There were clumps of students searching for more on the upper floors, in the dorms and the bathrooms and outside in the grounds.
She staggered feeling sick as she took in Lupin and Tonks pale under the light from the ceiling almost holding hands. She couldn't think about them or their baby without thinking of hers back in that stuffy house and hopefully unaware of anything that had taken place tonight. She moved past the two of them and saw several people she knew. There was Maria and Talia like Grace had said, there was Michael Corner's little sister, Eloise Midgeon, the brother of Susan Bones. So many siblings of students she knew. There were several students she knew had snuck back in determined to do their bit. Lives gone to waste. And more coming in through the Entrance Hall doors.
And then she heard it.
It was the low groan of someone dying.
It was the sound Ginny knew being a new mother herself—that a mother made when they found their baby dead. She turned something settling in her stomach that was suspiciously like dread and she found she wanted to turn and run away so she didn't have to see without seeing Percy his face ashen with grief stagger upright so that he could meet her halfway. She didn't want to see George fall to his knees as if the strings had gone out of him or the way their father had caught him looking older than he had ever done. She didn't want to see Bill clinging to Fleur like she was one of the only things he had left in this world because to see all of that was to realise that one of her brothers was missing. She knew it was not Ron lying there because the jeans were all wrong but her brain would not catch up with what her heart was telling her.
Percy caught her at the elbow and she was aware she was gasping at him tears on her face as her brother looked down at her his own grief and shock and despair etched on his handsome face.
"Who?"
She didn't need to ask, looking back she knew she didn't need to ask but she did anyway. Because asking was the only way she could confirm it and she was not ready yet to see without knowing what she was seeing in front of her.
"Fred"
Percy didn't need to say anything else. Indeed he looked like he could not form the words to say anything else. Ginny felt her heart, what was left of it break and she collapsed into Percy's arms as he lowered her to the floor wrapping his arms around her as if she was a breakable doll as she rocked back and forth her body shuddering with the grief she could cry out with.
Fred was dead.
Fred was dead.
Her big brother was dead.
The words to her did not make sense. She did not know how to forge them together.
Fred was dead. It was like a good Voldemort, an evil Harry, a stupid Hermione or even a puppy cuddling Bellatrix Lestrange.
She was screaming silently unable to say a word other than those gasping sobs. She didn't even realise that Ron was there bending his knee to see his brother's face or Hermione looping an arm around Fleur's waist as the two of them hugged. Hermione who this time last year had been commiserating with her at having Fleur as a sister in law and they had gossiped about her using words that were not kind. So much had changed in that one year. Neither Fleur, nor Hermione nor Ginny were girls anymore.
And Fred was no more.
George let out a howl that had several people looking up. Angelina, Ginny could see her face ashen with grief moved to go to him but stopped herself at the last minute instead turning back to help Demelza who was limping into the room helping a bleeding Ritche Coote. Ginny turned and staggered upright ignoring the pain in her knee, after all it was nothing to what was in her heart.
She thought she saw Harry turn and go down the corridor and she staggered upright pushing away Percy who suddenly had hands full with Ron, she staggered past Grace who was carrying a big copper kettle and pouring a mug for Seamus who was shaking so violently with the aftershocks of some spell that he couldn't hold the cup. Tommy helped him drink it while she saw Alfie stirring a cauldron counter clockwise with some healing potion and John counting the sheets they would use no doubt to cover the dead that people were still bringing in.
She staggered to the entrance hall and saw Oliver Wood carrying a body like a muggle labourer would. She saw who it was and her stomach plunged and she had to clamp her fingers over her mouth least she start screaming for real this time.
It was Colin Creevey.
The sweet boy who had sat next to her in charms on her very first day. Who had hugged her when she had attempted to apologise for her actions that year. Who had shown her how a muggle camera had worked and who had laughed with her over sweets, who had shown her how muggle buses work and who had given out cans of some coke thing that the muggles adored when he came back from the summer, who had talked about rehauling the Daily Prophet into a newspaper the wizarding world could be proud off. All of that potential gone due to a curse from a Death Eater.
Her friend was tiny in death at sixteen as he had been in life at eleven.
Ginny let them past and then staggered out into the courtyard, retched and then vomited.
She needed to tidy herself up so she staggered back in finding the nearest girls toilets, she slugged the rest of the potion down and wiped her breasts that were beginning to leak with milk for James. She vomited again retching and heaving until there was nothing left to give, drinking water straight from the tap and splashing it on her face when she was done, determined not to look in the mirror least she break down completely at what she saw and then when she thought there was nothing left she staggered back outside feeling the cool air on her face.
The stars were in the sky and she found herself staring at them though Fred could no longer see them. She felt the cold air on her face though Fred could never feel it again and she felt her heart break again and again even though Fred could never tell her it was ok. She sat on the stone steps looking over the sea of bodies littering the grounds and knew that in a moment she would have to go and see if she could identify any more. It seemed a lifetime since her brother was telling her that he understood her desire to fight, to build a better world for her son who would never know his uncle. The uncle who had held him and laughed with him. The brother who had helped Ginny to get on a broomstick and who had teased her and who had hugged her until she had felt like laughing rather than crying after the Chamber debacle. She had lost a brother and James had lost an uncle before he had even gotten a chance to know him.
She wrapped her arms around herself suddenly missing the security of her belly and felt the tears come down her face rapidly. She could give herself this one minute.
Her brother was dead.
Her brother was dead.
Fred was dead.
They had been fighting for over four hours, they only had one hour of respite and then the fighting would begin again and Ginny could lose her other brothers, her parents, her friends, Harry…
Merlin if he gave himself to Voldemort…Ginny would give the monster a run for his money if she got a hold of him. This was bigger than him. This war that they were fighting, this was bigger than Harry and Voldemort and whatever mission Dumbledore had left him. This was the fate of the world that Ginny's son had to grow up in.
And with that thought in mind she staggered to her feet feeling every bone in her body ache. She had to go on, she had to keep moving even if Colin Creevey, even if Remus and Tonks, even if Fred were dead.
She could not dwell on the fact that her baby was not yet two weeks old and had already lost an uncle. If she thought about that she'd collapse.
Instead she gripped her wand and put one foot in front of the other and went to see what she could do to help in this one fleeting put golden hour of calm before the storm.
And there you are, i hope you all enjoyed this chapter and i will do my best to publish the next one sooner rather than later as i always say.
Next Chapter-The storm before the calm. The battle begins again as a new day is born. Harry makes a sacrifice, Ginny avoids death by the skin of her teeth, the first years make themselves useful, and Molly Weasley utters perhaps her most famous line.