Ron Part 5: Horror Scene

A/N: All hers.

It was getting dark. Some students were lounging on the grass, bored with all the booths. Others had gotten frustrated at the ring toss, as the pole for tossing the rings around seemed to have been a transfigured kangaroo, and was still hopping a bit when thrown a ring. But still others were enjoying the booths, particularly the dunking booth where Dumbledore was dripping wet, but still giggling excitedly. Hagrid and I had finally completed setting up HIS contribution. I ran across the grounds to tell Dumbledore. I waited patiently while he wrung out the hem of his sopping robes, straightened his spectacles, and broke away from the long line of students.
"We're ready, Professor," I informed him, smiling.
"Yay!" he cried happily, and a little childishly. "Alright! Back in your lines everyone! First years over by that stump. Second years beside them. There you go!"
He turned back to me. "Thank you, Mr. Weasley. Please inform Hagrid that we are on our way to his hut."
I turned and ran back to the hut. I opened the door. "Hagrid, they're coming!"
"Great. Now, go ter the edge of the forest, and tell them what to do."
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I stood in front of the many heads. "Okay... um... we're going to do this in small groups. If you are a Hufflepuff first year, please follow Hermione to the other side of Hagrid's hut." I watched them file away. "Er- First year Gryffindors... follow Terry, please. And First year Ravenclaw... follow Mal- Draco. First year Slytherin... Hannah. Oh, Hermione's back. Second year Slytherins follow her."
Soon everyone was in the groups on the other side of the cabin. The teachers, teachers' helpers and I walked over and heard Hagrid giving rules. All the students looked terrified. I could dimly hear Draco calling me a muggle-loving idiot, but I was too absorbed in what Hagrid was saying to really care. I had NO idea Hagrid cared that much about safety rules...
"And, I guess that's about' it. So firs' year Gryffindors are gonna follow Professor McGonagall into the forest..." Hagrid instructed everyone, and soon, Hogwarts school was following Hagrid, Hermione, and I into the forest.
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A/N: Gotta stop for a second. I'm halfway in the middle of a serious case of writer's block BECAUSE I have so many ideas, and NO idea which one to use first. Okay... here we go...
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Hagrid's tour was AMAZING! He showed us unicorns, centaurs, and more things I'd never even heard of! (Even though I had seen it all while helping him set up!) I went a bit pale when Hagrid showed us three giant spiders. One of them (I swear, it HAD to be Aragog!) winked at Harry and I as we were leaving. But over-all, it was fantastic! That's the only word for it.
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A/N: I'm SOOO sorry about all the time changes. It is now the day of the 7th year graduation. (Which means I only skipped 3 days, anyway.)
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"Bye, Ron! Wish I could watch," Ginny called as we strode away from the portrait hole.
She had been waiting for us outside the common room. I could tell she was almost as excited as Harry and Hermione were, but at her words, and her little wink in my direction, I felt the knot in my stomach tighten. Once we reached the Great Hall, Dumbledore told us to sit in the chairs in front of the staff table. Harry and I sat on either side of Hermione. (He instructed us to sit boy-girl-boy-girl. Honestly, as Hermione would say. As if we're young enough for that!) Hermione was bouncing in her seat restlessly. Her fingernails dug into my hand.
"Hermione!"
"Oh, sorry, Ron."
Harry was looking a bit pale, realizing he was probably going to be brought up a lot.
"So... you have all completed seven years of Hogwarts training," Dumbledore's deep voice boomed. "I would like to-"
He paused as a shattering crash sounded outside, and screams sounded from the direction of Ravenclaw tower. The lights went out and the room was plunged into semi-darkness. Harry's face turned even more pale. He knew, I knew, and from the look on Hermione's face, we all knew, this was it. The BIG moment. Harry could have stood up and drawn his wand, and no one would have been surprised. But he didn't. He just sat, trembling in his seat, waiting. The door burst open. I had never actually set eyes upon this man, so I was incredibly terrified. His face was powder-white. His red, fiery eyes erupted into an unknown world of hatred. HIS hatred.
"Harry Potter," he hissed. "I am here. To kill you."
Harry turned even more pale, which I had thought up until that moment was entirely impossible. But I was wrong. He stood up slowly and drew his wand.
"As if," said a sarcastic voice from the doorway.
I looked away from the terrible creature, now drifting towards Harry to see my own sister standing in the doorway, holding a long, green snake writhing in her grasp. She threw it on the floor at Voldemort's feet, where it landed with an unearthly thud. I felt Hermione shudder and shrink back in horror.
Once it had landed, Ginny said coolly, "That yours?"
I stared. Harry stared. Hermione stared. Flitwick fell off his chair. Ginny began advancing on Voldemort, what seemed to be absolute fury bursting with every step she took.
"Ginny?" my voice wavered a little. This was a mistake. Voldemort whipped his head around and stared in my direction. Hermione gasped. His eyes had no pupils.
"Professor Dumbledore." Ginny addressed him as though the most evil wizard- even person- in the galaxy wasn't standing here in a room threatening to blast the person she was desperately in love with and maybe her best friend and brother into tiny little bits. "There are death eaters in the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff common rooms. I thought you might like to know."
Then, instead of leaving, she continued to walk towards the place I least wanted to be at that moment. She stopped only two feet away from him. He took a little step back.
Harry seized this opportunity by raising his wand to kill Voldemort, but Voldemort saw this, and stopped him very simply.
"Avada Kedavra," he said, a bit lazily. But I winced. His voice was the most terrible noise I had ever heard.
Harry fell to the floor, and I thought for a horrible moment that he was dead. But, Hermione rushed into the aisle and I realized, when he sat up, he couldn't possibly be. But I'd seen the curse hit him directly, and with amazing force. I could only stare. I could tell Harry was brain storming for ideas. Suddenly, he began to speak in the language he hadn't spoken in for five years- Parseltoungue. The snake, (which I realized must have been the famous Nagini) raised her head, turned, and began to advance on Voldemort, but Voldemort did the same as Harry, sending Nagini back in Harry's direction. I watched this go on for a while- Harry- Voldemort- Harry- Voldemort. I looked around desperately. How long could this go on? I noticed Ginny, who was now looking rather pale. And, for some reason, she screamed. The snake stopped moving. Harry and Voldemort stopped hissing. The whole hall looked toward Ginny. But Ginny seemed unaware of this. She was staring at the Slytherin banner hanging over one of the tables. I saw nothing there to scream about. Harry jumped up and raised his wand.
"No, Harry! Not yet!" I heard Ginny scream.
Harry yelled something I couldn't hear. I saw the green light again, but this time, it seemed to be twisting, spiraling around in the air. I saw it open a hideous mouth, and I realized, it was in the shape of a snake. And it was facing me. But not heading towards me. Just... facing me. The last thing I could remember thinking was: *This is not the Avada Kedavra curse.* As I fell to the ground, I heard one other person do the same. But I did not recognize just who it was.
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When I awoke, I was surrounded by a green mist. I could see... they couldn't be snakes, and yet I couldn't see what else they might be... all around me. Like the one I had seen when Harry had cursed Voldemort. But, they had TWO heads. One on one end, and one on the other. The first thing that occurred to me was that the other one could have had another head I couldn't see. Each head was whispering something. A name. The right one was saying one name, and the left head another. Then, I realized what the two names were. I passed out again.
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When I awoke for the second time, the mist was gone. I was in a bed in the hospital wing. I breathed a sigh, not of relief, but of anticipation. I had so many questions, and only a snake to answer them. A SNAKE TO ANSWER THEM??? I looked down on the floor. Nagini was looking up at the bed.
Feeling a little foolish to be speaking to a snake, I said, "I wonder what you're doing here."
"Well, maybe you could try asking me, as I'm the most likely person to know!" she snapped back.
"You can talk?" I said, taking points off myself for my lack of originality.
"All snakes can talk, stupid." Nagini replied. "But most humans are too idiotic to understand them."
"Are you trying to tell me I'm a Parselmouth?"
"Well, that would explain why you're hissing, now wouldn't it?"
"I am?"
"Yes, you are."
"But- I've tried to talk in Parseltongue loads of times, and I've never been able to."
"Well, you've just recently been given the ability."
"Oh."
"Now, your first question is probably 'What was that big snake thing?'."
I nodded.
"Well, Harry DID try to kill Voldemort with the Avada Kedavra curse. Unfortunately, sometimes those curses go very, very, wrong. Not bad, just wrong. Different than the owner intended, that's all. Harry, obviously intended to kill Voldemort. But... well... the other person you heard hitting the floor was NOT Voldemort."
"Wait a minute. How do you know I heard someone else hitting the floor?"
"I can read your mind," the snake replied casually. "Anyway, do you have any idea who DID?"
"Read my mind, you say?"
"Yes, yes. ALL snakes can read humans' minds. Anyway, do you know?"
"No... just tell me, okay?"
"Alright, alright. But I don't know if you're prepared for this information. Ginny."
"What?!?"
"The other person was Ginny."
"So?"
"So she saw the other end of the snake."
"So?"
"Now, I'm going to tell you something. But I don't want any interruptions."
"Okay."
"Well, obviously you remember what happened in your second year."
"Kinda. Duh."
"NO interruptions! Anyway, since then, Ginny has never been quite the same. I know she seemed the same. But, something very strange happened that year. Half of her was taken away, and filled in with something more dangerous and powerful than you know. She was not expelled, but that doesn't mean the new half had gone away. If she were then to be re- sorted, there would not be a proper house for her, and she would have to go back home. You must have noticed that when Harry said the spell, it was not the usual curse. You see, he and Ginny are connencted by something much more powerful than evil. And when Harry did the most Slytherin thing that is possible, she was afraid. That he would become like her. He didn't, though. You see, in the end, the strongest connection always wins. And that was you, Ron. Not Harry. That is both fortunate, because you and her share a different kind of love than her and Harry, one based upon truth and bravery, but also unfortunate, because now, the other half that Voldemort contributed to her is not in her or Harry. She is now relieved of evil."
"So you're saying that now I..."
"Because you were so good to her, and gave her more love than Harry ever could give her. You and her were joined from the start. You had more time to build up that kind of love than Harry had time to build up the other kind. You see, your own goodness has made you the opposite of good. You are now like she was."
I wanted to ask one more less complicated, less intelligent question. "So... what WAS that thing... the snake, anyway?"
"Have you ever noticed a snake's shape? It's long, round, skinny. The snake sucked half of Ginny through one mouth, and for a moment you had three halves in you. That's why the pressure knocked you out. But then, it sucked out one of your good halves to give to your sister. Now she is perfect, and you are not. The snake is love and hate."
"But... Ginny's a Ravenclaw..."
"You think Gryffindor's the only house that can possibly hold any love, eh???" Nagini hissed, obviously furious at my stupidity. "Well, let me tell you a story about Ravenclaw, idiot boy. Really, I believe I DO hold some truth when I say that the female gender is far superior to the male gender. Rowena Ravenclaw, a dear friend of my original master, Salazar himself, was the only link from Slytherin to Gryffindor, and from Godric to Salazar as well. She was like you, I might say. Half evil, half... not. And I am NOT saying Slytherin is evil. Some are, some aren't. Anyway, Rowena was kind to everyone, she may even have been what held Hogwarts school together. No one ever knew how she later died, except Slytherin and myself."
"How?" I said, getting impatient.
"The first one of the four to die was Gryffindor. Followed by Hufflepuff. Ravenclaw was still working at Hogwarts. Of course, Slytherin and I had left Hogwarts years ago. But one night, while everyone was asleep, she went looking for the chamber. Slytherin, trusting her, had told her about it. He had never forbidden her to go, or else I'm sure she wouldn't have. Being headmaster of the school, she knew no one would ask her what she was doing. She found it, right where you and Harry Potter found it years ago. And she slipped in. The basilisk found her and killed her instantly. Although he had not been born yet, the whole chamber spoke the name Voldemort. They knew he was coming. Her very presense passed the half to Voldemort's name, and when he was born, he recieved it. He passed it on to Ginny, but he was so evil it made no diference. He will always remain the same. Evil. Then, just last night, Ginny passed it on to you."
"Wow. I never knew that about-"
"Ewww!!!"
"What is it?" I asked, sitting up.
"A spider," Nagini said in disgust. "All snakes HATE spiders!"
"Me too!" I knew that from the positive tone in my voice, she believed me.
She thumped her tail down on it. I smiled. I liked this snake.
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"So... why are you here? Just to fill me in?"
"No, actually. I'm here to help you get rid of that half stuff. Since I'm already 100% evil, it'll just disappear or good," Nagini replied, looking strait into my face.
"I don't get it." I didn't get it. "If you're so evil, why are you helping me?"
"I like you, that's all."
"Thank you."
"And the fact that if I am more evil than already am, I'll be able to get away from my previous moron owner completely."
"Who'll be your owner now?"
"I dunno. Has to be a parselmouth. Once I've been Slytherin and Voldemort's pet, I don't think I can adapt to anything else," she replied.
"Hey, Nagini. Am I still a parseltongue?"
"You're talking to me, aren't you?"
That's when we both knew. We were made for each other.
"I know about your owl. I can even read people's minds when they're not actually thinking something, but it's in their head somewhere. I'm really sorry. And to think one of my kind got him."
I grinned. "Well, now he won't be jealous."
"That's for sure."
"This is so totally cool."
"English."
"Oh, sorry."
"That's better. Now what did you say? Parseltongue, please."
I just smiled. I knew she didn't need it repeated. Not because she could read minds. Because we both knew what each of us was saying: Friends? Friends.
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