Chapter 26
()()()
Narcissa Malfoy never thought she would see the day that she would be standing where she currently was, her life and potential happiness resting in the hands of the people on the other side of this door. She had been fighting down the bile in her throat when she realized all that had occurred between her family and theirs.
There was a chance that they did not know the full extent of it.
No.
She was sure that they did not know the full extent of it. Arthur Weasley was many things, but a good actor was not one of them. There was no way that man knew the role her husband had played in the loss of his only daughter's life.
Narcissa herself was not entirely sure about all that had come into play with that situation. All she knew were the basics; Lucius had given that girl something belonging to the Dark Lord, the girl had been possessed and caused havoc at Hogwarts and it ended with her being consumed by the Basilisk that was found dead at the end of Draco's second year.
That was all that Lucius had told her, so it must have been all he knew as well.
Now she desperately needed the Weasley family's help if she was going to escape the country with her son and have both of them remain alive.
Snape would not have given her the message like this if now was not the time to flee.
Stilling her quivering chin she raised her hand and struck the door in three successive raps.
There was some movement that she could hear on the other side of the door before it was pulled open and a young ginger man stood before her with his wand pointed directly in her face. "Petrificus Totalus," he cast his spell as soon as he had the chance. He quickly looked behind her and though no one was there he cast several more curses and hexes into the night to no avail before throwing up a shielding charm.
Narcissa stood there like a stone, unable to move, her eyes wide. She could not fault the young man for it, it was a wise move to immobilize your enemy before they could do you any harm, but she had limited time and now limited movement. Her eyes were the only part of her that were able to wander.
"Ron?" a woman's voice called from behind the glaring young man. She tried to remember what his name was, but every time Draco spoke of this one, best friend of Harry Potter, he referred to him as the Weasel King, or some such name, so she could not think of it.
"Malfoy?" Molly Weasley nearly screamed. "What are you doing here?"
"I've petrified her mum. Can you check her over for her wand?" the man asked, his own wand not lowering even a fraction.
Molly Weasley patted her down and withdrew her wand from her pocket, she then released her sons spell and held her own wand on her.
Narcissa sucked in a deep breath. "The snake is dead," she said quickly with no time for preamble. "I have been told you are to lead me to my son." She then handed over the slip of parchment that Severus had given her.
Call for Albus to confirm her story. The snake is dead, Draco is healed. Get them out. It is my final request- SS
()()()
Harry was at the second floor now and feeling around for the panel that would lead to her closet. It was only fair that he be the one to sneak down to her bedroom tonight. They could trade off on it so she wasn't always the one that had to get through this narrow passageway in the dark first thing in the morning for the duration of his holiday.
Smallest price to pay in his opinion for them to fall asleep and wake up together.
He was chewing his lip and trying to figure out the way to get the infernal panel to let him in when Ginny did the task for him from the other side.
"I would have gotten there eventually," he said in a fake pout.
"Sure you would have," she told him with an equally fake patronizing manner with a single nod of her head.
He stepped properly into her closet and they reset the panel before he followed her into the bedroom, not even making it to the bed before he collected her up in his arms and began kissing her. Being alone with her again was like being allowed to breathe again, and now he was going to be with her all summer too!
Ginny giggled against his lips as they walked back towards her bed clumsily. She was tugging at his shirt, and he at hers. The steps they had taken last night were clearly still on the table, and tonight he was hoping she would let him get under that last scrap of fabric that she had covering her breasts. It was so minuscule and so tantalizing.
They tossed their shirts to the floor before tumbling down together on the bed. He was just about to begin the slow process of working his hand up her side in a way that he was hoping she would find a natural progression when he was jolted back by an invisible force.
There was an enormous eruption of pain in his head and he cried out, his hands coming to clutch at his temples as they somehow tried to stop his skull from splitting in two as it was surely about to.
"Harry!" he could hear Ginny calling his name in a panic, but it sounded like it was coming from a great distance. Harry's eyes rolled back in his head as the pain became too much for him.
When he came to again it was due to a shock of cold water hitting his face.
"Oh, thank Merlin," Ginny said breathlessly as she hugged him.
Harry was in no state to be hugging anyone though. Quickly as he could manage he pushed her away and turned his head away from her, his supper making a reappearance on the bed spread beside him.
"He's angry about something," Harry gasped between bouts of regurgitation.
"Voldemort?" came Sirius' sharp voice.
Harry didn't even question his Godfather's sudden appearance in Ginny's room, he just gave an affirmative groan as his stomach contents finished making their appearance and tried to deal with the nausea.
Ginny's hand was rubbing up and down his back and she banished the vomit.
"Oh my God," Sirius said in awe under his breath, staring blankly at Harry and clearly just realizing something.
Harry sat up properly and accepted the damp flannel that Ginny handed him, pressing it to his face while she pressed another to the back of his neck.
"Oh my God, what?" Ginny asked Sirius.
He looked hesitant to give an answer to that. "There. There was something that Snape eluded to. I suppose we'll-"
CRACK
"Master, there is missus Weezy and former mistress in the hall," Dobby told Sirius in a panic.
Sirius stood and bolted out of the room.
"Former mistress?" Ginny repeated quietly. "That must mean that they are moving Malfoy tonight. Do you think that was what Riddle was angry about?" she asked Harry.
Harry didn't know if talking was a good idea. His head was still pounding like crazy. The most he managed was a slight groan that he attempted to make sound like he didn't agree with that assessment. If Voldemort was this angry it had to be something bigger than Draco Malfoy not following orders. Sirius said it was something to do with Snape. Maybe he found out that Snape was double crossing him and about Malfoy.
"Lay back," Ginny told him. "I'll go and get you something to make your head feel better."
He kept his eyes closed as her gentle hands encouraged him to settle down on the mattress.
"I'll just be a moment," she whispered.
"Find out," he managed. Laying down like this seemed to have given him a small amount of energy. He wasn't overly concerned about his nausea in this position.
Harry felt her give a kiss to his forehead, inexplicably it did make him feel a little better. There was this little bit of warmth that radiated out from where her lips had been pressed to his forehead and it soothed the pain in his head slightly. He heard the door of her room open and close again and was able to drift off to sleep for a moment.
"Yes, but why is he in Ginny's room?" it was the whispering voice of Mrs. Weasley that woke him the next time. She sounded distant and like she was trying not to wake him. If that was the case, they probably should have held this conversation elsewhere.
"Mum, relax, would you? What kind of girl do you think I am?" Ginny replied indignantly. "We were just talking a bit more before bed."
"And that required him to have his shirt off, did it?" Mrs. Weasley said back.
"He got sick on it, alright? I managed to get it off the bed well enough, but his shirt was slightly damp after I cleaned it. I was going to get him another one, but there were a few other things to focus on," Ginny lied expertly.
"It's true, Molly," Sirius told her calmly. "I had blasted him with a shock of cold water to get him awake after he'd blacked out."
There was a huff of disbelief that came from Mrs. Weasley at that. She wasn't wrong about her conceptions; she had raised several children and had enough experiences of her own to piece together exactly what had been going on before Harry had his link with Voldemort making him pass out.
"What happened," he asked the three of them. Cracking open his eyes he confirmed that it was, in fact, just the three of them.
"Harry," Ginny cried softly in relief and hurried over to him. "How are feeling? I've got a potion here for you to help with any more head pain you might be having."
He let her assist him with sitting up. His head was still spinning slightly from the attack but the pain wasn't as bad as he'd felt before, he wasn't going to be turning down the potion though. She held it out for him and he took a swig of it, relaxing as he felt it slide down his throat and spread out his body and up to his head. It was like a hood was being pulled over his head and with it soothing relief. He gave a groan of appreciation.
"Better now, thanks," he said, opening his eyes properly and looking into their faces.
The expressions of concern on their faces weren't only there because of him, that much he could tell.
"What happened?" he repeated.
Sirius came to the bed and sat down, resting back against the pillar on the corner. "Snape is dead."
Harry's jaw fell open. "What?"
Ginny settled down on the bed beside him, ignoring her mothers slight pursing of her lips at how intimately the two of them were sitting, him with his shirt still missing.
"Apparently he got Nagini. That would be what your scar hurting was about," Sirius told him. "He gave a note to Narcissa before he went to see Riddle and sent her to the Burrow so Molly would bring her here to get her son."
"He killed the snake?" Harry asked dumbfounded. Snape killed the snake right in front of Voldemort and got himself killed for it? He sacrificed himself? "I didn't think he had it in him," he said in awe.
"Nor did any of the rest of us," Sirius agreed quietly. "Narcissa and Draco have left to a property of theirs in a foreign country. I can't tell if Dumbledore knew about the extent of Snape's plan beforehand, but from what I can tell he had expected it would be a possibility."
"So, the experiment then," Harry started, "it worked? You got the Dark Mark removed from him?"
"We did," Sirius nodded. "It took a few cycles, but the skin finally grew back without the Mark reappearing."
Harry just kept nodding slightly. He couldn't believe it, Snape sacrificed himself and now there was just Voldemort left to kill.
"Harry dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked, coming forward to check his temperature with the back of her hand. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah," he said automatically before doing a mental check to see if he actually was feeling better, but he was.
"Then let's get you up to your bed so you can get a good nights sleep," she told him kindly.
Harry blushed because he knew the real reason behind her suggestion. Half-naked in bed with your girlfriend is not the ideal way in which you want said girlfriends mother to find you.
Sirius and Mrs. Weasley helped him into his room, though he really didn't need the help physically, but their support on either side of him was a comfort. Ginny stayed in her room, leaning against the door frame and giving him a weak smile and a wave as they went up the stairs.
Mrs. Weasley gave him a kiss on the forehead and a pat on the cheek once he was in his room before disappearing back down the stairs, no doubt to talk to Ginny before she left to head back to the Burrow, but Sirius was intent on tucking him in, something Harry had only ever had Madame Pomphrey do for him before.
"Soon, Pup. Soon we'll be done with this bastard forever, and we'll talk more about it in the morning. Right now we all just need to get a decent amount of sleep. I anticipate a large Order meeting tomorrow, and you are damned sure going to be sitting in on that."
"Sirius," Harry felt a swell of emotion coming up with how much he could hear Sirius cared about him in his proclamation, that sensation of tears rising up to his eyes was threatening. "Thanks."
Harry watched as Sirius' jaw tightened and he leaned forward, placing a kiss to the top of Harry's head, something he had never done before. It didn't have the same effect that Ginny's kiss had, but it was a milestone moment.
Sirius got up to head out, but before he closed the door to his room though he turned back. "If Molly catches the two of you getting up to trouble again, you're on your own," he said with a wink, and shut the door.
Harry couldn't help but give a slight chuckle at that. Sirius must have known that Harry and Ginny hadn't simply been talking, but he seemed to trust them enough to let them put their own restrictions of their developing physical relationship. He was sure that it wasn't because Sirius didn't care, he must have simply known that they weren't messing each other around, that this relationship Harry and Ginny shared was more than a teenage romance.
His mind was going over what it must have been like for Snape to simply walk up to Voldemort and cut off his snake's head. The different scenarios about how it might have happened kept rolling through his mind. For nearly a half hour that was all he could do, just stare up at his ceiling and replay it over and over again. One time Snape and the snake were in a room alone, another they were facing off in a corridor and Snape had to do some kind of Imperius type mind-meld with the snake to get it to kill itself.
Then he heard Ginny coming in through his closet and let out a sigh of relief. He had been beginning to wonder if he was actually going to wind up spending the night alone in his bed with his thoughts not letting his brain shut off.
She didn't say anything as she climbed under the sheets with him and snuggled up against him. For a minute they simply lay there, enjoying the embrace of each other. It was insane to him how comfortable he found sleeping beside her to be. Before he'd experienced it over the Christmas holidays he had always assumed that couples who shared a bed would need a larger bed to try and gain distance from each other. That each person would have some kind of off-putting habit they did in bed, like how Ron was a really loud snorer. Perhaps one person would kick, or their breath would feel uncomfortable against the others neck, something.
Now, he had only spent two nights sleeping beside Ginny but thus far he hadn't found any thing about their sleeping arrangement that might one day be requiring her to move to the other side of the bed from him.
"Sirius said there would be an Order meeting tomorrow that he is going to make sure I am sitting in on," Harry whispered to her.
"He better, or he and Dumbledore will have me to deal with," she whispered back.
Harry started chuckling silently at that. No doubt Ginny could be very intimidating, but the picture of her in front of Sirius and Dumbledore attempting to tell them what was what seemed a little far fetched.
Though, he suddenly recalled the image of her in the room with Burke sprang to his mind. Ginny could very much be a force to be reckoned with. "I really hope that doesn't have the same effect on them as it did on me," he muttered thoughtlessly.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know if there's a term for it, but closest I can come up with is scare-roused?"
"What?" Ginny asked, with a huff of laughter.
"That time with Burke," he explained. "My God you were so hot." He was smiling now as he had no reason to be embarrassed about it. She had liked him too at that point. To think that they could have been together since before then, but they had wasted so much time.
"I'm glad I 'scare-rouse' you," Ginny snickered. "It let's me know now the state you'll be in after any fights we have, and exactly how it is I'll win those arguments."
He turned his head and buried his nose in her hair. "Any chance we can pretend we were just fighting then?" he asked hopefully.
"Are you sure?" she asked in concern. "You must be incredibly tired."
He shook his head slightly. "No, I can't get my mind to turn off enough to sleep."
Her hand wandered from his hip up to cup the side of his face as she drew even closer and brushed her lips against his. "Let me help you with that then."
()()()
Considering the major incident that had occurred the previous day, Ginny had rather expected that the house would be overflowing with Order members coming through looking for updates and to learn when and what the next mission would be and how they could help.
But that didn't happen.
Because it was Monday and people had to work and couldn't drop everything for the secret organization they were a part of.
Plus, how many of them actually knew what had happened? There must have only been a few witnesses, Riddle probably wouldn't want it announced, and the two Malfoys were off on some exotic beach or something hiding out until the end of the war.
All day long Harry and she had been waiting for their opportunity to jump in on the Order meeting that Harry should absolutely have been in on. But it wasn't called until after dinner time. His anxiousness to get this next step figured out was rubbing off on her too.
The snake had been the last Horcrux and the Order had lost their last source of information that could forewarn them about what Riddle was up to. If he realized that Snape knew the significance of the snake then there was a chance that Riddle was going to go and check in on all of his other Horcruxes that were stashed away.
What if he found out that they were all gone and destroyed and then he made more?
Could he even make more?
Perhaps they should put decoys back in the locations they had found them, like Regulus Black had done, but a convincing decoy this time, not one with a taunting message.
Then again, with Riddle being human once more, what was to stop someone from simply going up to him and killing him?
Perhaps Dumbledore could go to Malfoy Manor and simply take care of it?
All this and more were the ideas and questions the two of them were passing back and forth while they waited for news of what was to come. Sirius had been visiting with them after breakfast, but then he left the house all together to take care of something and wouldn't tell them what.
When he came back it was closer to dinner and the two of them had been left to their own devices the whole day. Not knowing when they would get interrupted next, nor by whom, the two of them actually wound up having a very productive day of completing essays interspersed with their theories on what would come up later to try and keep their brains busy, but also making sure they were both available to come immediately when called.
After dinner their waiting and wondering was rewarded as they were both invited to sit in on the Order meeting; Ginny was only allowed to do so reluctantly by her mum and dad after she argued how she would find out what was said from one person or another, so they could suffer her nagging now, or they could suffer for as long as it took for her to get her answers after the meeting. (She was rather surprised that method worked.)
Furthering their surprise was seeing Ron and Hermione were invited as well. The two of them were seventeen now though and proper members of the Order.
Dumbledore sat at the center of the elongated table so everyone could see and hear him. "I have called this meeting to confirm to everyone that we have lost Severus Snape, the Daily Prophet will be reporting that he passed in a potions accident in his own home from an experimental potion he was working on."
For a moment Ginny was surprised. She would have thought it wouldn't need to be announced that Snape died yesterday, that everyone would have already been informed. It should have been something that he could have sent out on the Protean Charmed coins.
Had Dumbledore really wasted that much time, nearly 24 hours, just sitting on that information? That was the last Horcrux that was destroyed now. Ginny understood needing time to assemble a plan of attack, but the Order members could have each been coming up with their own idea's for how to go ahead in this time so they could contribute to possible flaws in others plans.
She turned to give Harry and Sirius an incredulous look. Harry looked as surprised as she that the information hadn't been known to the others yet, but from his expression Sirius knew that it hadn't been shared knowledge. Ginny narrowed her eyes at him and shook her head slightly with her shoulders raised as though to ask why. He caught her gaze and simply pursed his lips.
That meant there was some reason at least for it.
"With his passing we are somewhat limited in knowing Voldemort's movements. The true story of how Severus Snape lost his life was through sacrifice. He died a noble death after taking down one of Voldemort's last defenses. Though his decision is one to be revered, we must act fast if we are to try and bring down Voldemort once and for all as we no longer have our inside man. Thus, I would like to make sure that all of you are prepared to attempt to take his stronghold."
Dumbledore let everyone absorb that information for a moment.
Harry clenched her hand tightly as they too understood what he was saying. He wanted them to storm Malfoy Manor and take Voldemort down once and for all. If that worked, it meant that the two of them would be free. She wouldn't have to hide anymore and he wouldn't have the threat of Tom Riddle trying to kill him because of that stupid prophesy.
"If there are any that are not willing to participate, there is no shame. I will ask that you please leave now though." He paused for another moment, but there was no movement from anyone present. "Thank you," he inclined his head.
"Right then," Sirius stood up. "Voldemort is staying in the Malfoy Manor." He went to the board and tapped it with his wand to reveal the layout of the Manor. "We know that there are six hidden entrances into the Manor itself from the Malfoy's former House Elf. The plan we have will involve us breaking into seven teams and infiltrating the Manor."
"Why seven?" asked one of the twins.
"One of the teams is going to be walking in through the front door," Sirius told him, a slight smirk on his face.
"A distraction then," Ron leaned forwards.
Sirius nodded. "The goal is to take down as many Death Eaters as possible and then incapacitate their leader."
"Incapacitate?" Mundungus asked incredulously. "Why ain't we just offing 'im?"
"We want to make sure that he doesn't have any more fail safe's in place," Remus told him. "We are fairly certain we have destroyed them all, but we want to make sure. If that isn't the case than he may simply be able to go into hiding again."
Ginny's brow creased at that. She had naively believed that the six Horcruxes had been all he'd made so that it was seven pieces of soul, but he was right, there could be another one. Did that mean that they would simply be locking Riddle up if they caught him?
"Each team," Sirius started again, giving a slightly apologetic look at his Godson, "is going to have a Harry Potter in it."
"What?!" Harry asked, the same question echoing in Ginny's head. "How?"
"Polyjuice," Sirius told him straight. "Each team will have a Harry Potter amongst them to distract the Death Eaters keep them as separated as possible."
"No!" Harry said in horror. "You can't ask people to be a target like that! I won't have it."
"Right, well it isn't really up to you," Sirius told him. At the same time Hermione, who was seated at the other side of Harry from Ginny reached her arm up and yanked out several hairs from Harry's head.
"Ouch! Hey!" he turned to glare at her.
"Sorry, Harry. But this is happening whether you like it or not," Hermione told him firmly. "And I volunteer to be one of the decoy's." She put the hairs into a container she pulled from her pocket and slid it across the table to Remus.
"What?! You can't! You could get hurt if they think you're me," Harry argued.
"We could all get hurt, Harry. This is war! And truthfully, going in looking like you would probably be more to our advantage. It's just You Know Who that wants to be the one to kill you, the Death Eaters would be afraid to do anything more than give you a nosebleed," Hermione told him.
Ginny hadn't thought of that. They would be afraid to hurt him.
"I'll be a Harry too," Ron told Sirius.
"And I," the twins said together.
"I weel az well," Fleur told him.
"Less likely to ge' 'urt, may as well throw my 'at in too," Mundungus offered.
"That's six," Sirius wrote their names down, ignoring the sputtering protests that Harry was making.
"What about-" Ginny started.
"NO!"
She gave a jump as that resounding answer came at her from all sides. It was followed by a chorus of 'you're staying here' and 'still underage' and 'if you think for one second' and 'too dangerous'. Her brothers, her parent's, Harry and Sirius, Remus, Tonks and Fleur were all laying into her for even attempting to be part of this plan.
Ginny found her eyes settling on Dumbledore, who's own seemed to be twinkling slightly with amusement.
"It's like they like me or something," she told him glibly.
"You are very likable," he told her easily.
She managed a huff of amusement. "Fine," she told them all. "I'll stay here. But there needs to be a better form of communication between each of the teams. The coins aren't going to be any good for keeping each other updated, and you can't exactly send out your Patronus' with out giving away your location."
()()()
Harry listened carefully as the meeting carried on about the plan of attack on Malfoy Manor that was to be taking place the next day.
The next day.
He couldn't quite wrap his mind around it. This was all happening so fast. This time tomorrow there might be no more Lord Voldemort. He was amazed and completely riddled with anxiety over it. All he wanted to do right then was sit down with Ginny and his friends and talk this through with them.
They were all dismissed with the order to get some rest immediately, as the attack would be taking place only nine hours from then. Harry stood, but Dumbledore called his attention and clearly wanted him to hang back.
Hermione had immediately latched on to Ginny, this being the first opportunity they had had to talk properly face to face, and Ron was following them out, casting an inquisitive eyebrow at Harry. Harry just inclined his head, telling Ron to go with them.
"Harry," Dumbledore said to him importantly as the last person left the room. "Please take a seat, there is something I have to tell you." He waved his wand and there was suddenly no external noises that could be heard. It was like someone had boxed his ears and made everything dead quiet.
This was not comforting.
Harry had had a few one on one's with Dumbledore before and they usually had him walking away feeling rather shaken. From the way this one was starting it was clearly going to turn out the same way.
"I have been keeping something from you and considering what it is we are about to do I believe now is the time to share it." He was sitting rigidly in his chair and grasping onto the ends, all daunting signs to Harry. "I have told you that I was the one to hear the prophesy about yourself and Lord Voldemort."
Harry's mouth wasn't cooperating right then and all he could do was nod.
"Well now it is time for me to tell you the power that he knows not," he said importantly. "It is love, Harry."
"Love," Harry repeated slowly.
"Yes, love. When your mother died to protect you she called forth a very ancient form of magic and that is what protected you when he tried to use the killing curse on you."
"You've told me this before," Harry said in confusion.
"Yes, but what I haven't told you is that when Lord Voldemort's curse rebounded on himself, he accidentally created a seventh Horcrux. His soul was so fragile then that it ripped once more with out his meaning to. That piece of soul then latched onto the only living thing in the room with it." His periwinkle eyes were focused so hard on Harry's then, but hearing this made Harry's eyes go unfocused as the information sink in.
"I," was all he could say.
"I hoped that it would not be true, but all the signs have shown us otherwise," Dumbledore told him sadly.
"Signs?" Harry asked weakly.
"Parseltongue does not run in the Potter line, your shared consciousness, the way your scar hurts when he is in your presence."
"I'm a Horcrux?" Harry asked, his head lowering down slightly as he started listing forwards.
"I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't want to tell you until you absolutely needed to know. I had hoped that you would have a somewhat normal childhood. Clearly that has not been the case, but I didn't want this information weighing on you. With the mission tomorrow though," he waved his hand slightly.
"With the mission tomorrow, what?" Harry asked, looking back up at him. "That's why you wanted to incapacitate him? Because you knew there was another Horcrux. What does this mean? That someone has to kill me? That He has to kill me?"
Was he going to die tomorrow?
Had everything Dumbledore had done up until that moment with him been simply getting him prepared for this?
"I have to go," Harry stood up. If these were going to be his final moments then he didn't want to spend it in this room with him. Dumbledore had been someone he looked up to, now he was just feeling betrayed by him.
"Harry," he started. "I must ask you not to tell them."
"Secrets are your thing, not mine," Harry spat.
"Please," he insisted. "Think of how they will react."
Harry gave the man a hard look. He was right. Harry hated that he was right. Sirius would probably try and get him out of there, call the whole of the Order back in so that they could strategize and make sure that Voldemort was simply locked in a cage until the end of time. Hermione would probably fall to pieces. Ron would just start insulting Dumbledore and commiserating.
And Ginny.
Harry didn't know what Ginny would do. Probably decide she was going on the mission and attempt to take Voldemort down with her bare hands.
What choice did he have though? Voldemort was going to keep trying to take over the Wizarding world, then the Muggle world and killing anyone that got in his way, including everyone that Harry loved.
Had he been raised for this purpose? Had every decision Dumbledore made for him been leading up to this eventuality. "Is this why my life was crap?" he asked absently, then it all came at him, all the time's he had been mistreated growing up, every time he felt unloved and downtrodden. It had been Dumbledore that stuck him with the Dursleys.
He glared at the man before him. "Is this what you were hoping for?" he asked loudly. "Did you stick me with those relatives of mine and hope that when I found out I was a wizard and there were people who might actually care for me, is this what it had been for? Perhaps if the Chosen One is humble, or someone who is so overwhelmingly grateful for a hand knit jumper, maybe he'll be the type that's willing to be a sacrifice?"
"Harry, no!" Dumbledore protested. "I didn't think that the Dursley's would be unkind to you. I am very disappointed with the way they treated you."
"Why though?" Harry asked sardonically. "You didn't try to get Snape to stop being a miserable git and look how that turned out. He's dead and took down a Horcrux with him. Now it's my turn."
"Harry, we can try and capture Voldemort. See if we can find another way! I am quite certain he doesn't know. It is just the prophesy he is aware of, not the cause of your link to him."
"Oh, well now I feel loads better." He stood up, "if you'll excuse me. I'm not very interested in spending my precious last few hours in here with you." And with that he stormed out.
After shutting the door to the room he stood in the corridor with one hand on the door knob and closed his eyes. It was a dangerous mission that a lot of them would be undertaking tomorrow, there was always the chance of injury or even casualty among them, but to know that you were going in with your prospect of coming out being so bleak.
He knew what Voldemort was capable of though.
Snape had made the sacrifice, now it was his turn.
Snape had had the opportunity to live though, he had simply wasted it.
Harry hadn't been wasting it. He was trying to get through school, build a proper relationship with the only proper parental figure he'd ever had. He just wanted to spend time with his friends and snog his girlfriend! Was that really asking for so much?
"Harry?" Ginny said his name softly.
Harry opened his eyes and watched her walking towards him. He couldn't tell her, Dumbledore was right. He couldn't tell any of them.
"Are you alright?" she asked, wrapping her arms around his waist and peering up at him.
He lowered his forehead to hers and simply let that energy she had flow over him and calm his whole body. He let out a big sigh and felt his muscles relaxing.
"Where did everyone go?" he asked.
"There are a few still in the kitchen, but Tonks kicked most everyone out. Demanded they all get some sleep in preparation for tomorrow. Four a.m. isn't that far away."
"No, it isn't," he said sadly, tilting his head forward to give her a small kiss.
He tried to pull back, but her lips simply followed him, not breaking their contact and slowly coaxing him into giving her a proper kiss.
"Was he telling you to be careful?" she asked, guessing at why Dumbledore had kept him behind.
Harry gave a great sigh. "Among other things," he told her truthfully.
"Well, come on then," she said quietly. "If I'm not going on the mission tomorrow, I may as well help you fall asleep tonight."
That sounded perfect to him. His potential last few hours on Earth, he was going to spend it with her in his arms.
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