Thank you for the favourites, follows and reviews! Yep, not the best time for Dumbledore to drop that bombshell but he didn't have anywhere else to go!

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

Ginny was silent for a long moment. She had no idea what to do with this new information. Nor did she have any idea why Dumbledore had kept it from her. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"I wanted the other horcruxes destroyed first. I didn't want to distract you from finding them."

It was a pat answer, meant to keep her quiet. Ginny suspected his motivation was a lot more complex than that. She also suspected he'd told her now, in the middle of a battle, so she wasn't able to press the point. She hoped they'd have a chance to discuss it later. "You said that Voldemort doesn't know about it. How does it exist then?"

Answering that question, with simple facts, was something Dumbledore obviously found more comfortable. "The night Voldemort tried to kill you, the night he killed your parents and two of your brothers, he was preparing to make his final horcrux. He had performed all the rituals and his soul was split by the murders he committed there. When his body was destroyed, that segment of his soul ended up in you. It lodged in the scar left by his curse."

Ginny touched the scar nervously, thinking of the link Voldemort had mentioned. The scar wasn't just a reminder of what he had done to her family, it was a part of him. "How do we destroy it?"

If Dumbledore had looked evasive before, he looked even more so now. "As we have just seen, if a horcrux is a living being, then it will die if that host dies."

Ginny waited for him to go on. He didn't. "I hope you're not planning on doing that to me."

Dumbledore was quiet just long enough for her to feel uncomfortable. "It would not be my preferred method,"he concluded.

Ginny accepted the reassurance, slight though it was. "Could we use the Sword of Gryffindor?"

"Stabbing your skull with a sword could be as dangerous as hitting you with a curse."

"Well…what about the basilisk fang then?"

"If we use that, then the basilisk venom will enter your blood stream. It would kill you in minutes. However, there is a potential cure. Phoenix tears. If we could use my pet phoenix Fawkes…"

Harry knew he shouldn't be there. He had seen Hermione and Neville tackling Nagini, doing what Dumbledore wanted them to do and what Ginny wanted them to do. He could have helped, or he could have helped in one of the other parts of the castle where his friends were fighting. But instead he was there, on the steps leading to Dumbledore's office, standing guard over the person who meant the most to him.

He was beginning to think it was a pointless duty he'd set himself, that no-one was coming, when he saw movement further down the steps. It was Voldemort, leading four Death Eaters. "Dumbledore will be in the office,"Voldemort was saying. "Weasley too probably. We will take them both together."

Harry knew he didn't stand a chance against the four Death Eaters, let alone Voldemort. He thought of running to the office and giving a warning, but if he did that, there was a chance there wouldn't be time for Ginny or Dumbledore to do anything. Their best chance of survival was if he could slow their attackers down. He stepped out of the shadows. "Stupefy! Impedimenta! Bombarda!" His barrage of spells worked better than he could have expected. Two of the Death Eaters were sent flying off the stairs, landing heavily on the ground down below.

Voldemort glanced up and saw Harry. "Confringo,"he snapped. There was an explosion, taking out a huge chunk of the wall around Harry. When the smoke cleared, Harry was buried under rubble and still. Voldemort nodded with satisfaction and he and his two remaining followers went on.

They had a plan. It wasn't much of a plan and it was almost certain to get Ginny killed, but at least it was better than being completely certain. "We'll need to get to the dungeon,"Dumbledore noted. "Slughorn's office is there, he still has the basilisk fangs we took from the Chamber of Secrets. I can summon Fawkes when we get there."

They turned to go and then there was a shout of "Avada Kedavra!" Ginny saw a flash of green. She saw Dumbledore's eyes fix on her. There was compassion there, and fear, perhaps more for her than for himself, and maybe just a touch of surprise. And then he was dead.

He fell, and behind him Ginny saw Voldemort, flanked by two Death Eaters. She almost couldn't bring herself to be afraid, so shocked was she at what she had just witnessed. Voldemort sneered at her. "And Ginny Weasley as well. Crucio!"

And then Ginny was screaming. A scream so hoarse it was virtually silent. She was bowled onto her back, her body arcing with pain, feeling as though every inch of her was on fire and being stabbed repeatedly at the same time. She tried to focus on anything other than the pain but all she could hear was Voldemort's voice, his horrible triumphant voice.

"It hurts, doesn't it, Ginny Weasley? Hurts as much as what you have inflicted on me. The constant humiliations, all because of you. The years of endless nothingness, all because of you. The belief that you are something special, rather than the mistake you are. I wish I could do this for hours, watch your mind slowly break from the pain, watch you plead for the mercy you know I do not have. But what I wish more than ever is for this to be over. For no-one to ever tell me again that Ginny Weasley, a pathetic girl thrust into the spotlight by happenstance, will defeat me."

The pain stopped and for a moment Ginny thought she might actually be safe. "Avada Kedavra." She saw the green flash of Voldemort's spell streak towards her. And then she saw nothing else.