8 – Coup de grâce.

End of May – 1998

Ginny's mind was racing.

According to Harry's projections, there were two more Death Eaters covering the perimeter of the Forest. The Malfoys must have been assigned to the function in an unfortunate last-minute coincidence, but Ginny did not think they had increased the number of patrolling Death Eaters. Their presence had been just a stroke of misfortune.

Trying to deflect her thoughts from Draco and his father, she focused on finding out how the others were doing.

She walked with firm strides through the forest, this time taking the lead in front of Percy, who had become much more alert after being stunned by Malfoy. They did not dare to exchange a word for fear that it would attract unwanted attention.

They stopped suddenly when heard footsteps approaching. With their wands raised, they jumped over the bushes where they had hidden momentarily, ready to attack whoever got in their way. They came face to face with George and Angelina, in a position very similar to theirs. Ginny could not help noticing the strangeness of pointing her wand aggressively at George, and seeing him point his at her.

George looked gutted. "Merlin's pants, it's you!" He said lowering his wand and letting out a sigh of relief. "There's no more time, we need to find the others." He got straight to the point and his face was livid. "A Death Eater ran away. At this point, our operation would be more secret if we'd sent a howler to Voldemort."

"First, we need to get our head on straight, find Dean and Lee and then-" Percy started saying and Ginny noticed George go even paler. Percy probably observed the same thing because he did not finish his lecture on 'how we should organise ourselves in critical situations'.

"Lee is dead. The Death Eater who ran away from us was the responsible for it." It was Angelina who explained, giving George's hand a little squeeze.

It felt like his mind was elsewhere as he seemed to drift off momentaneous. Ginny knew how much that loss meant to George, especially after Fred.

"Dean returned to the castle with Lee's body. By now, Charlie and the Order must already be evacuating the castle. We thought it was the best thing to do." Angelina continued in an apologetic tone.

"I'm so sorry, George." Ginny went over to her brother and rested her head on his shoulder. "I know he was a good friend to you."

Coming back to himself, George gently detached himself from the two girls who surrounded him.

"The best I can do for Lee – and for Fred - is to keep fighting." He said smiling sadly and looking at the still dark sky. "It's an offense to their memory if the world continues to be so pitifully dull."

They stared at each other for a moment, hoping that the silent companionship could somehow comfort them.

Then, Percy cleared his throat to get everyone's attention. "Now that a Death Eater has fled and our offensive is no longer so secret, we have to decide whether to go back to the castle or look for Harry and the others."

Ginny looked at the face of each member of her small group and their expression already revealed every answer that Percy's question demanded.

They were going to stay.

Ginny was almost out of breath when she reached Aragog's clearing. Like everyone else, she had been aware of Ron and Harry's little adventure in that place, at a year she would rather erase from her memory.

Involuntarily, she remembered when the two twats arrived at Hogwarts with her father's old Ford Anglia in her first year. The car now lived somewhere over there, in the Forbidden Forest, and she wondered where exactly a rusty enchanted car would choose to stay.

Her speculations were interrupted by Angelina. The young witch raised her index finger to her lips in a signal for them to stop moving forward, in silence. There were noises of spells being cast and growing screams from the clearing; surely Harry and the others were already there, fighting. Ginny's stomach was in knots.

They had the element of surprise on their side and just needed to decide how to take advantage of it. And, obviously, that was exactly what they did not do.

With a considerable amount of bitterness, in the future Ginny would always remember that day as a clear example of an action that should not be taken on impulse.

She never knew who had taken the initiative, only that, in the next moment, they were running madly towards the place where the sounds of spells being cast and occasional screams came from.

Sporadically, Ginny felt her feet getting stuck in some roots, but even stumbling, she kept running as if her life depended on it.

And, indeed, it depended.

Getting closer to the center of the battle, George, who was running ahead of her, threw himself on the ground, rolling on the grass to avoid a spell that had his head as target.

"Fuck!" It was all Ginny heard from her brother before she jumped over the fallen figure that was swearing shameless. She had not needed to help him: she saw out of the corner of her eye that Angelina had already protected him against the attacks. Then she took the lead with Percy by her side, her wand at hand and her heart in her mouth.

They reached the core of the clearing where the battle was going on and Ginny held her breath.

The scene was chaotic: there were spells crossing the air; pairs, trios, dueled desperately. She registered that Voldemort was standing in the background of the clearing, with livid scarlet eyes fixed on nothing more than Harry Potter and one more time the twinge of fear hitting her was so sharp she gasped.

Harry, on the other hand, was trying to reach the dark wizard, but his efforts were always hindered by some Death Eater.

Ron followed suit, back to back with Harry, forming a position that guaranteed reasonable protection for both of them. Two masked Death Eaters dueled with them, insistently looking for a breach that would end the boys' advance.

Hermione was in a similar situation, her countenance typically focused; Ginny knew from experience that the Death Eater that was dueling with her would be in trouble soon enough. Neville had the most complicated situation: he had two Death Eaters with him, and he looked ready to succumb.

Given the current layout of the battle, considering that Voldemort had not even deigned to raise his own wand yet, they would have had no chance if only the four of them had remained fighting. More than never, Ginny was happy to have decided to stay and fight.

After a moment, George stood side by side with her and Percy, his face contorting in a mask of anger that would never suit him.

"Rockwood! Come here, you bloody arsehole!" He shouted and headed for one oily-haired Death Eaters that was dueling Neville.

Ginny realised that George's anger meant that this was the Death Eater who had killed Lee and he had opted to warn Voldemort instead of calling for reinforcements on top of the Death Eaters who were already in the Forbidden Forest.

A small consolation, but a consolation nonetheless.

At least the Death Eaters seemed to have been taken by surprise; the things from their makeshift camp were scattered on the floor, sometimes providing shelter for the duelists, sometimes acting as obstacles to the intense movement. Percy and Angelina bolted in the same direction as George, looking for others targets. Ginny took a deep breath and moved on, letting the adrenaline drive her movements.

She was so absorbed in the battle that only realised she would be attacked when was too late and a very heavy body crashed into her, knocking her to the ground and pinning her body with its weight. Ginny lost her breath and her eyes filled with water when her back hit the floor. Raising her head painfully, she recognised Gregory Goyle, who was trying to immobilize her using his strong arms.

Once he succeeded, he inhaled her perfume breathing down her neck and murmured in her ear, hoarsely. "I've always wanted to know how your scent was."

She took advantage of his distraction to struggle harder and dug her nails into his face. Goyle squirmed in pain and backed away from her, somewhat surprised by her reaction; Ginny rolled on the grass to get rid of him completely.

"And I've never wanted to even come near you, you bloody arse-licker." She stood up quickly, but stumbled when he grabbed her ankle, furious at being scratched by her.

"You slag!" That was all he said when he started to pull her down. She almost fell again, and when Goyle prepared to project himself to knock her down one more time, he was hit hard by a spell and fell backwards, unconscious. Ginny turned around to see where the spell came from and spotted Harry, who even from a distance tried to check whether she was okay. She nodded slightly and he turned to resume his main objective - to reach Voldemort.

She walked through the clearing trying to get closer to Ron and Harry and when it dawned on her, she was beside Hermione, dueling with an unmasked Death Eater she already knew. Mulciber had been one of those who had chased Ginny and the others at the Ministry of Magic, two years earlier.

She attacked her enemies fiercely, as though she were taking all the anger of the past year on them, as if Mulciber personified all the wrong things in her life. Hermione kept pace with her, but never with the same bluntness. Ginny almost yelled at her when the older witch cast a Freezing Charm.

"Hermione, you need to be more objective!" She said in exasperation, as they hid behind a half-destroyed camp tent.

"I'm trying!" Hermione answered hastily, almost in the same tone. "I just can't concentrate properly with Harry there, needing help to fight Voldemort and-" She did not complete her reasoning when they had to bend down at the same time to dodge a spell that had been cast in their direction.

"Harry has to do this alone, you know. The prophecy..." Ginny said trying to hide her own insecurities on the matter. She did not have to finish the sentence - everyone there was already well aware of the prophecy that involved Harry and Voldemort. "Let's go!" she shouted suddenly, pulling Hermione by the hand when the makeshift hideout would be targeted once again.

Now out in the open, Ginny ran hand in hand with Hermione. She only stopped momentarily to cast a spell towards a Death Eater who was dueling with Angelina and then turned her attention to Harry and Ron, who had knocked over one of their enemies. Now her brother was dueling with the one who was left and Harry was making his way resolutely towards Voldemort.

Ginny was forced to return to the matter of her own survival when Hermione pushed her hard causing her stumble, almost tripping over her own legs; in the next instant, a curse that surely had been aimed at Ginny grazed Hermione instead, making a deep cut on the brunette's left arm.

Hermione looked in amazement at the arm bleeding profusely.

"It's Dark Magic..." she stammered, raising her wand feebly, undecided about what to do. Not for the first time, Ginny imagined that Hermione had so much knowledge that, at times, she did not know which part of that encyclopedic mind of hers to access in order to answer a question that was too specific.

Hermione bit her lower lip and became more introverted, an expression that Ginny knew meant that she was thinking frantically about how to fix it.

In four strides, Mulciber had reached Hermione and put his wand sadistically against her chest, as a precaution against any movement Hermione might make.

Ginny was not close enough anymore to hear what he said almost in her friend's ear, but she could see when Hermione released her wand in surrender and how the object seemed to fall in slow motion at her feet.

Mulciber tilted his wand at a better angle; Ginny saw his lips starting to move and suddenly the world stopped. She was aware of what was coming next and she also knew that she could not handle it one more time.

Not Hermione, not Hermione.

"Hermione, no!" She voiced her thoughts and ran towards Mulciber. She threw her body against his with such violence that she managed to knock him over and his wand fell a few centimeters away from them both.

After rolling on the ground with the man, she managed to place herself on top of the Death Eater, straddling him. Since she knew it was a momentary advantage given the physical difference between the two, she pointed her wand unceremoniously at his face. She was staring down at the man's hateful countenance, which was now tense with worry.

Fear in someone else?

For once, Ginny was bewildered by being on the other side of the coin. Even if she did not want to or could not show it, she and her friends were always the ones who were afraid. But she did not want to be afraid anymore.

She wanted the Death Eater to disappear with the others. A drop of cold sweat ran down her face the moment she realised she wanted Mulciber to vanish, to cease to exist.

The reverie prevented her from seeing the Death Eater's hand seeking his wand discreetly. She did not have time to think properly when she finally observed with her peripheral vision that his hand closed around the wand and was getting ready to lift it. Ginny was aware that if he handled the wand as he pleased, it would be the end of it.

Then Ginny leaned down and almost whispered, her long red hair falling around her face, creating a curtain cutting Mulciber and her off from reality. "Avada Kedavra."

And her eyes closed along with Mulciber's, at the same time.

She remained like that, eyes closed, on top of the inert body for what seemed like a millennium, long enough for her to understand the new dimension of her life: she had acted exactly like the people she hated, like the ones she devoted her strength to fight against.

Where was the rationality of that? Where was the clear distinction between right and wrong? The image of Neville saying 'we don't kill' came to her mind and her stomach sank.

Yes, they do.

"Ginny, come on!" Hermione lifted her up quickly by the arm, as if the image itself were aggressive, as if she did not want to see her friend there for another minute, over the Death Eater's dead body. And then Hermione added quietly, a bit embarrassed. "Thanks."

Ginny nodded sadly. She knew that she had done what Hermione could not have.

She might had become corrupted to a point that could lead her to cast doubt upon various aspects of her own ideals. And it could, in a way, keep her away from Harry... She touched the mokeskin pouch with his belongings she carried around her neck and looked at Harry, only to find him dueling with Voldemort. The dark wizard seemed unusually more restricted in his movements, as though his previously unshakable confidence was no longer entirely with him.

She shook her head to get rid of those doubts, it was not the place nor the time for it. More Death Eaters had arrived in the clearing; one of the bastards must have called for backup.

"Shit," Ginny murmured, knowing the situation would potentially get worse now. She let herself be carried away by Hermione, who looked paler by the minute. They were stopped by a black-haired and hard-featured Death Eater who was promptly stunned by Hermione.

"Ginny, I need to stop somewhere safer to fix this mess," Hermione pointed out the cut that was still bleeding on her left arm, looking worse and worse. "I can't keep fighting like this."

"Bloody hell!" Ginny was alarmed when she noticed the depth of the cut. "There's shelter over there." After looking around, Ginny pointed to a large stone at the back of the clearing. They ran towards it, dodging occasional spells. Protected by the stone, Ginny managed to cast some spells at the Death Eaters while Hermione murmured the healing spells on her arm.

From where she was, Ginny could see Voldemort and Harry still dueling fiercely while her brothers and friends had a hard time dealing with the growing number of Death Eaters.

Interestingly, neither side dared to interfere in the battle between the two most famous wizards, as if that were something only the two of them could share. And some of those people really knew the truthfulness of that idea.

"Hermione, we have to go back!" Ginny exclaimed before disarming one of the Death Eaters who was approaching George from behind. "At this rate, I don't know how long we can stand it."

It took a minute for Hermione to answer, seeming to come out of a trance and looking at her arm with a resigned expression. "I'm done. It's the best I could do under these conditions." She said getting up and Ginny nodded in relief, seeing Hermione was back to sounding like herself.

"I'm sure the best you can do is more than enough." Ginny said and Hermione smiled at her.

"I'll help Ron to protect Harry, you help the others." Hermione commanded and Ginny was glad to obey.

Hermione ran towards the place Harry and Ron were and Ginny stayed close to the edge of the clearing, dueling with as many Death Eaters as she could; After a few moments Percy joined her, trying to speak as he dodged and cast spells beside Ginny.

"Ginny, we must retreat!"

"No!" She said through clenched teeth, "We can't give up now! We're too close!"

"We're too close to our deaths! We don't know how many Death Eaters can still show up!" He pulled his sister out of the way of a spell and threw a hex over her shoulder. "This was supposed to be a surprise attack! Now we've been hemmed in, outnumbered, and we're out of courage to do what must be done."

Ginny jerked Percy's arm away. She wanted to scream that she had had the courage to take a necessary drastic stand, but her voice got stuck in her throat.

What would everyone else think about her?

Suddenly, she realised she had no desire to know.

Reluctantly, she knew Percy had some reason: if using the Killing Curse was the price to end all these atrocities, Ginny was willing to pay it, but would the others be, too? She gazed around at her friends for the answer; some of them seemed to have reached the same conclusions as her: there were more dead bodies of Death Eaters scattered across the clearing.

Out of the blue, the image of Blaise Zabini appeared in her mind saying that the world was not exactly divided between black and white as she thought. Had she really lived so far from reality until that very moment?

Suddenly, an extraordinary silence spread over the clearing, paralyzing all the movement there and instinctively Ginny's eyes searched for Harry. He was on his feet, visibly tired. His face was dirty, his clothes were torn and his expression did not reveal the whirlwind of emotions he must have been felling. His wand was raised, pointing at a target, half lying on the ground.

Ginny's heart skipped a beat when she realised that it was really Voldemort who was on the floor, weakened, waiting for the sentence that would end all their suffering.

Waiting for a sentence that was taking too long to come.

The tension was so latent that Ginny had to remember herself how to breathe. Everyone else were standing in a similar situation, waiting for the outcome of the confrontation. Friends and enemies, side by side, forming an audience full of fear and expectation.

For the second time in that battle, Ginny was unable to distinguish opponents, classify conduct. Everyone had their destiny equally at stake at that moment, and that thought sent a chill down her spine.

Harry stood there, still as a statue. And then, as if he already considered himself a moral winner, he hesitated.

Voldemort smiled.

"This hesitation in doing whatever the situation demands is exactly what push us apart, Harry." Voldemort's voice echoed while he tried to get on his knees. Although weakened, Ginny trembled when she heard it. Instinctively she knew the feeling was also shared with everyone else around them. "And at the same time, it is what unites us. You reveal your selfishness by refusing to kill me and that makes you more similar to me than you dare to imagine."

"Shut up!" Harry spoke through his teeth, one hand pressing his wand so hard that his knuckles were white.

The red eyes shone with frightening intensity. "See, you dragged your friends here, knowing what they would find in the end. How many of them have already died, Harry? From your expression, I would say not many yet. But fear not: all of them will inevitably succumb, thanks to you. Because what you do to repay their noble sacrifice is just that: hesitating in face of me, when you have the chance to put an end to the bloodshed."

"SHUT UP!" Harry screamed in an explosion that only reflected the pain his internal conflicts had caused him for so long.

If the Earth was still rotating, it did not matter anymore because at that very moment Ginny was sure that time itself had stopped.

The instant Harry closed his eyes to contain his frustration and shouted, Voldemort stood up with surprising agility and everyone around them seemed to come out from the voluntary enchantment that had kept them all motionless.

The movement of the Dark Wizard's wand had a clear objective and the curse that would be shot from it within seconds would hit Harry squarely in the chest.

Ginny did not know exactly how, but she recorded the whole scene as in a Muggle film, which would torment her dreams for years to come.

Ron punched a Death Eater who was approaching him and knocked over another one, eager to stop Voldemort.

Hermione screamed and tried a Protective enchantment that would not stand a chance against a Killing Curse.

George was not close enough to stop anything, but even so, he ran to try to stop any Voldemort's action. And, with him, was Ginny's hope, her heart in her mouth.

But Neville was closer. Close enough to realise Voldemort's intentions before anyone else, even before Harry. Then, without even hesitating, he threw himself in front of Harry just as the jet of green light blasted from Voldemort's wand.

It looked like a Dementor had drained all hope in the Earth at that time.

Both boys fell flat on the ground, lifeless.

Neville had tried to use his own body as a shield to protect Harry, but his sacrifice had been in vain, the Killing Curse had somehow hit them both.

Neville's body was laying on top of Harry's, in a strange huddle that made Ginny's stomach churn and she could not even move, cry beside the person she loved, beside a dear friend of hers.

Seemed almost amused, Voldemort peered at the tip of his wand and absently said, "Two hippogriffs with one stone. Better than I dared to expect using Lucius's wand."

With that, he conveyed the impression to lose all interest in everything else around him.

His greatest objective had been achieved.

Soon after, it all happened like a dream for Ginny. She heard a sound like a horn. She felt Percy's arm around her waist and then he was carrying her as if she weighed nothing. She could only contemplate from afar Hermione kneeling by Harry and Neville's bodies, while Ron chased away with lethal curses any Death Eater who dared to get too close to them.

"It's a bloody nightmare." She babbled to herself, while Percy threw her unceremoniously into the Ford Anglia that had belonged to their father.

Even for objects, old loyalties died hard.

She did not even see what happened next. She did not see George protecting Angelina and heading for the car while Percy cast spells from the driver's seat. She did not see when the car started moving, leaving the Forbidden Forest behind. She did not see when the Order of the Phoenix came to their rescue, too late.

She had seen nothing else.

Harry Potter had died. And, with him, the best part of Ginny Weasley as well.

N/A: To all the people who are commenting, my sincere thanks. Your comments may seem like a small kindness, but to me it means A LOT.

Thank you so much for encouraging the authors of the stories you enjoy.