A/N: At last, the end of this story. I hope you will be happy with the ending. I discovered something funny about this fic. I wrote almost double the length, but got fewer reviews. It seems that the more chapters I write, the lesser the review I get, but what I do get more than make up for the lack in numbers.

To Mark JGC, thanks for the high complement. I hope you wouldn't find this chapter too disappointing. To Griff Girl, you should like this chapter. To the other two that reviewed, Hermione Weasley and Tinabedina, thanks.

Please, enjoy this story. Comments and suggestions are welcome at the review box.

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros. Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. The name Tel'anran'rhiod belong to Robert Jorden and the 'Wheel of Time'

What Dreams may come

Chapter 6

The start of the rest of your life

  For a long moment Ginny could not see anything. The door had closed as soon as she stepped through, leaving them all in darkness.

  "Harry? Star? Anyone?" Ginny called out, afraid that they had somehow left her behind. She took a few steps forward, and nearly jumped when she felt a hand suddenly resting on her shoulder.

  "Gee, Ginny. You have to relax a little more." The warm voice of Harry came floating from over her shoulder to her ears. "You are really tense, you know that?"

  "Then don't scare me like that!" Ginny snapped, though inwardly she was relived that it was Harry and not… "You know that since the Chambers of Secret…" She trailed off when she realized that Harry had not removed his hand from her shoulder.

  "I know, and I'm sorry." Harry said, completely misunderstanding the cause of Ginny's pause. "But it's not me that's making things this dark."

  "Oh?" Ginny replied a little absently, her attention taken up by Harry's hand on her shoulders. So warm…

  "It's Star. She said something about me still resisting the dream, and took off to drag the nightmare out of my subconscious." Harry explained.

  "Oh! Are you sure you want to show it…?" Ginny asked, trying to shake off her bemusement enough to pay attention to what Harry was saying.

  Harry sighed. "Yes, of course. You were right, back there, you know."

  "About what?" Ginny asked, a little confused at the sudden change in topic

  "That keeping it in will do me harm." Harry replied, smiling. Though Ginny could not see his face, she could hear the smile in his voice nonetheless.

  "Really?" Ginny said, running through the conversation they had just now. "I don't seems to remember saying anything about it."

  "Not with words, certainly." Harry replied, still smiling. "But your meaning is clear, when you asked me to show you my nightmares."

  "Oh…" In truth, Ginny had wanted to say that to him, but she just couldn't find the words to express it. She was glad that Harry had caught her meaning, though.

  "And thanks too." Harry continued, now in a quieter tone, almost a whisper. "For making me laugh. I needed that…"

  "You…you're wel…welcome." Ginny stammered, surprised that Harry would thank her for something as simple as that.

  They stood there in silence for a few more moments, Ginny thinking about the conversation she had with Harry. She still can't believe she managed to talk to Harry without once blushing or embarrassing herself. It had got to be some sort of record. Then she thought of something.

  "Harry?" Ginny spoke, breaking the silence.

  "Yes?" Harry's voice seems to be very, very close to her ears, which had the effect of making her heart beat faster.

  "Were you surprised to find yourself here in Tel'anran'rhiod?" Ginny asked, a little breathless, due to the distance between her head and his, which had diminished so much that Ginny could feel Harry's breath, warm like a spring breeze, on her neck. One advantage of a dreamland, Ginny noted absently, is that it is impossible to have bad breath.

  "Not really…"

  "Oh? Why is that so?"

  Harry laughed, a quiet little laugh that had just a little hint of bitterness in it.

  "I am used to having unusual things happening to me, Ginny. After four years of it, nothing really surprises me anymore. In fact, I would not be surprise if Voldemort were to pop up here somewhere. I mean, he's been after me for years…"

  "Oh, Harry…" Ginny place her hands over his, attempting to comfort him.

   Then, without any warning whatsoever, Star appeared. Ginny could just see her by the light of her glow, though the glow lit nothing else up. She seems to be standing in a black hole or something, the darkness sucking up all the light till only the glow surrounding Star could be seen.

  "Is it ready than?" Harry asked, straightening and finally removing his hand from Ginny and placing them inside his pocket, all trace of bitterness gone. Harry was now all business.

  "Yes. It wasn't particularly hard. Nightmares seldom are. They always seem to be ready to come, though yours is perhaps the most eager that I've seen." Star answered.

  "Then let us be off. Before I change my mind." Harry said, grinning a little.

  Ginny could only nod her head, her shoulders already missing Harry's touch. I guess that means that I'm still not over him yet… I just became better at hiding it. She had suspected as much, but had never really thought of it before.

  "Alright, then." Star nodded, and Ginny had the strangest sensation of falling, yet Star and Harry remained stationary. To see them standing there like that, yet feeling like she was about to drop down from them was a weird experience, to say the least.

  Then there was light, a brief flash of light, piercing Ginny's eyes for a moment. When she managed to open her eyes, Her surroundings had changed yet again. Now she was standing in what appeared to be a small graveyard, a church just visible in the gloom. It was night, and what little light there is made the place seems eerie. Ginny shivered a little in the cool night breeze. For a nightmare, this felt surprisingly real.

  A hand touched her on the arm, and for the second time, Ginny jumped. She turned around to see Harry smiling down at her. A slightly strained smile, true, but a smile nonetheless.

  "Sorry." He said, "but we're about to arrive." He nodded to the right of them.

  Ginny looked over to where Harry was pointing at, just in time to see the air quiver, a couple of tombstones away, like the movement of heated air above baked paved roads on a hot day. It seems to rush into itself, and suddenly Harry was there, along with Cedric, both of them holding on to the Triwizard Cup. She saw Cedric stand, and offer a hand to Harry, who took it and pulled himself to his feet. He seems to have injured his legs somehow, probably during the third task. Now they were talking, but they're too far away for Ginny to hear what they were saying.

  Ginny turned to see Harry behind her, staring at the scene with pain in his eyes. She turned back to see that both Harry and Cedric had pulled out their wands, and was staring at something beyond her.

  "This is weird!!" Ginny exclaimed, looking back and forth at the two Harrys.

  "What is?" Star asked, stepping up to Ginny's side.

  "Seeing two Harrys like that." Ginny replied, waving her hand towards the said Harrys.

  Star was about to reply to that, when Ginny heard a cry of pain from Dream Harry. She turned towards the scene to see that Dream Harry had collapsed, rolling about in pain. True Harry squeezed his eyes up tight. He knew what was coming.

  "Kill the spare."

  Ginny spin around; the voice was coming from behind her. She turned just in time to see a cloaked and hooded person aiming his wand and screeching "Avada Kedavra" She instinctively dodged that green jet of light, turning at the same time to see the jet of green light hit Cedric, killing him at once. Dimly, from somewhere behind her, she could hear True Harry moaning. Even though he wasn't caught up in the nightmare, but viewing it from outside, it still hurts to hear the dreaded sound of Cedric's body hitting the ground.

  The person who had used that deadly curse walked over to a marble tombstone that stood in the center of the graveyard and place a bundle that Ginny did not notice down. He walked over to the Dream Harry, still on the ground, staring blankly at Cedric's body. He dragged Dream Harry to his feet and to the tombstone. Ginny had one moment to read the name on the tombstone by wandlight before Harry was slammed onto it and chained in place. But that one moment is quite enough for her to recognize that name. The name that she feared above all else. The name that she still had nightmares of sometimes…

  TOM RIDDLE

  "Hey, you alright?" Harry was beside her, arms around her shoulders, shaking her gently. At some time between seeing the name on the tombstone, and True Harry shaking her, Ginny had fell to the ground sitting from shock.

  "I'm fine, Harry. Stop shaking me." Ginny replied, coming back to her senses.

  "Oh. Ok."

  They sat there on the ground watching the cloaked man cut off his own hand into a huge stone cauldron that he had produced from somewhere, steam pouring out in a flood, sparks flying about in a fiery display of fireworks. Now that Ginny could remember that this was just a memory, not real, it was almost like watching a movie, with an extremely good surround sound system.

  "Harry? Who is that person?" Ginny asked, pointing to the person cradling his hand in pain.

  "That's Wormtail." Harry said shortly, with such venom in his voice that Ginny was a little shocked. She had never heard Harry use that particular tone before.

  "Who's Wormtail?" Ginny asked, as Wormtail walked over to where Dream Harry was chained and nicked him in the arm, drawing a little blood from him.

  "One of my father's best friends when he was in Hogwarts, and his betrayer." Harry answered, staring at Wormtail with narrowed eyes. Wormtail poured Dream Harry's blood into the cauldron, changing the light that was shining from the cauldron from red to white.

  "What? I thought that was Sirius Black?" Ginny asked, confused. She could remember her second year, and the scare during that time, when the whole of Hogwarts was literally paralyzed with fear of Black coming to kill Harry. Coming from a wizarding family, naturally she knew the official story about Black betraying the Potters.

  "Wha… Oh." Harry seems to realize that he was talking to Ginny. "No. Sirius was innocence." Wormtail had collapsed at the foot of the cauldron.

  "What?" Now Ginny was more confused than before. Harry, seeing the confusion on her face, opened his mouth to explain farther, but was interrupted when the cauldron suddenly began to steam, a thick white steam that utterly concealed everything inside the cloud. When the cloud cleared, a man could be seen standing inside the cauldron. Wormtail hurried to his feet at some command from the tall man and pulled a black robe over him.

  Just as Harry had said, Voldemort had appeared in the nightmare.

  Ginny took just one look, and promptly turned away from the sight of Voldemort, all thoughts of Black and the mystery forgotten. Memory or not, her fear of Voldemort was too deeply ingrained in her for her to be able to look at him. She glanced at Harry, staring at his old enemy with fists so tight with tension that the nails had bitten into the flash and blood dripped out. Moving over to his side, Ginny place a comforting arm over his shoulders, and was shocked when Harry unconsciously slipped his arm around her wrist and pulled her close to him, as if seeking relive from remembered pain, gripping so hard that Ginny had to bite her lips to keep from crying out. She looked up at his face, set in an expression of both fear and hate, looking far older than his fifteen years of age.

  Turning to Voldemort again, she found that she could look properly now, feeling safe in Harry's arms, even if he was squeezing her so hard she could hardly breath. Voldemort was pacing up and down in front of Dream Harry, seemingly waiting for something, stopping to hiss something to Dream Harry, before resuming his pacing. Suddenly, the area around Voldemort and Dream Harry was hidden as cloaked and masked wizards apparated all around them. The Death Eaters had arrived.

  "His true family…" Harry murmured, remembering what Voldemort said at that time.

  "What?" Ginny tilted her head up to look into Harry's eyes, a far-away gaze in it, as he relived the scene in front of him in his mind. At the sound of Ginny's voice, however, his eyes snapped back into focus and he glance down, surprised that Ginny's voice sounded so close. When he saw just how close they were, he gave a little 'yep' of surprise and removed his hands from Ginny. Attempting to move away, however, proved to be futile as Ginny hung on to him, clasping both hands around him.

  "Ginny?" Harry asked, a little unnerved at the way she was clinging on to him. "Are you alright?" He tried to pries her hands from him, but that only made Ginny tighten her grip.

  "Please… I somehow feel safer in your arms." Ginny said, her voice, muffed in Harry's clothes, sounded like she was about to cry. On hearing that, Harry stopped, his eyes became more gentle as he felt Ginny shivered, understanding the cause of it.

  "Alright, I understand." Harry shifted his body, so that Ginny was now in front of him, leaning on his chest, in a sideways position, as if Harry was an armchair for Ginny. He wrapped his arms around Ginny, resting his head on hers.

  "Better?" Harry asked, smiling as Ginny gave a contented sigh.

  "Yes… Thanks." Ginny replied, wondering whatever happened to her. When Harry removed his arms from her, she suddenly felt very vulnerable, as if she was facing a dragon, and her wand suddenly disappeared. She had cling on to Harry in blind panic, as the unexplained fear ran rampage inside her, only to disappear when Harry replaced his arms around her. She nested herself deeper into Harry and sighed again. Well, she was not one to give up on a chance to stand close to Harry.

  Turning her attention back to the scene, she saw that the Death Eaters had gathered in a circle around Dream Harry and Voldemort. Through the gaps in between the ranks of the Death Eaters, she could see that Dream Harry was free now, his wand in his hand. She saw Voldemort raising his wand, and Dream Harry bowing slightly, against his will. Voldemort raise his wand again, and suddenly Dream Harry was screaming, the Cruciatus Curse doing its job very well indeed. Ginny felt Harry's body stiffen behind her, as he remembered the pain.

  Then it stopped, Dream Harry scrambling to his feet and failing, falling towards the ring of Death Eaters and being pushed back on his feet. There he stood, shaking in every limb. She saw Voldemort's mouth move, but couldn't hear what he said. She saw Dream Harry's face wiped blank, then suddenly shouting "I WON'T!!"

  "The Imperio Curse." Harry explained.

  Then Voldemort was raising his wand again, but this time, Dream Harry managed to roll away from the Curse, hiding behind the huge marble tombstone, as the Curse smashed into the tombstone. She watched as Voldemort stalked Dream Harry. Dream Harry suddenly jumped from behind the tombstone, shouting the disarming spell and aiming his wand at Voldemort, even as Voldemort cried out the killing curse. She watched, eyes growing wider, as the two jets of light hit each other, and changed to one single line of gold, joining the two together. Both Dream Harry and Voldemort seems to have trouble with their wands, as they struggled to stop their wands from shaking its way out of their hands.

  "Now things are starting to get interesting…" Harry said, clearly excited, his arms tightening around her for a moment. Ginny was too stunned to reply to that.

  Slowly, both Voldemort and Dream Harry was lifted off their feet, floating free from the circle of Death Eaters, coming to rest in a small clearing beyond. As the Death Eaters rushed to reform the circle, the golden thread suddenly split, as if annoyed at the persistence of the Death Eaters to surround it, sent out numerous tiny threads all over, forming into a cage surrounding Voldemort and Dream Harry. She could see Voldemort yelling something, though she could not hear what. Then a strange sound sprang up, seemingly from the cage of light. It was just about the most beautiful music she had ever heard.

  "Phoenix song…" Ginny heard Harry say, his voice full of awe.

  Large beads began to form on the thread, moving steadily towards Dream Harry. His eyes first grew wide, his whole arm vibrating along with the wand, then focused, forcing the beads to retreat away from him towards Voldemort's wand. Now it was Voldemort's arms turn to vibrate along with his wand. The first bead touched Voldemort's wand…

  Suddenly, Voldemort's wand started screaming. A dense cloud of smoke appeared as soon as the screaming stopped, taking the shape of Cedric. Behind her, Ginny could hear Harry's breath catch, and he gave a little cry, no louder than a whisper. More screams. Then, another cloud appeared, this time an old man. And yet another, a woman now.

  "Bertha Jorkins…" Harry's voice was tight with tears.

  Now another head was coming out from Voldemort's wand, a very familiar head. A splitting image of Harry. So much so that Ginny found herself looking from Dream Harry's face to the one forcing it's way out.

  "Father…" This time, Ginny felt Harry's tears on her shoulders as Harry's grip tighten with emotions. Ginny place her hands on Harry's and patted them.

  The fifth cloud was appearing from the wand, a young woman. On seeing her, Harry gave another sob, too choked with tears to speak, only to cry. Ginny didn't really need Harry to tell her though. This can only be Harry's mother.

  The shade of Harry's mother walked towards Dream Harry and spoke, then turned to Voldemort. Cedric, too, spoke to Dream Harry.

  With a yell, Dream Harry wrenched his wand up, breaking the connection between the two wands. Instantly, he turned and ran away, shouldering aside two Death Eaters, the Shades of Voldemort's victims holding Voldemort back. Dodging Curses, Dream Harry ignored Voldemort screaming at his Death Eaters to stun him. Ginny found herself holding her breath as Dream Harry dived behind an angel, avoiding the stunning jets that shot from the Death Eaters wands. He was up and running again in less than a second, stopping two Death Eaters with a wild Impedimenta Charm. He jumped over the Triwizard cup and landed beside Cedric's body. Dream Harry grabbed hold of Cedric's wrist, and summoned the cup to him even as Voldemort ran toward him, raising his wand as he ran. The instant Dream Harry's fingers touched the cup, they blinked out of sight, swept away by the Portkey Cup.

  When Dream Harry disappeared, the surrounding graveyard had also disappeared, fading into nothingness, and they were in the round room again. There they sat, neither felt like moving at all, just holding one other, each lost in the nightmare that they saw.

  "Oh, Harry… I never… I never thought it was as bad as this." Ginny said, breaking the silence.

  "So now you know…" Harry stiffed, wiping his tears on his shirtsleeve.

  Ginny turned around and flung herself on him, hugging him with all her might. Harry was surprised at first, but soon hugged her back, his hand smoothing her hair.

  "I'm so sorry…" Ginny whispered.

  "Whatever for?" Harry whispered back.

  "In the end I wasn't of any help to you at all…"

  "Don't be silly. Of course you helped." Harry gently pulled Ginny off him, holding her by the shoulders.

  "I did?" Ginny was surprised at that. "But I didn't do anything…"

  "You were there. That's enough for me." Harry answered with a smile. " You've fulfilled my wish, you know that?"

  "Really? What's your wish?" Ginny asked. Finally, she would know Harry's wish.

  "I wished that I wouldn't feel lonely any more." Harry replied, whispering.

  "Oh Harry…"

  Who made the first move, neither of them knew, but they found themselves locked in a kiss. Their first real kiss, they found it to be even better than what they though possible. Sweeter than honey, softer than silk, the taste of it was beyond anything they had ever experience. When they finally surfaced for air, both were grinning rather silly grins.

  "Congratulations." Star's voice echoed throughout the whole room.

  "Star! Where did you disappear to?" Ginny yelled, looking around the room for any sight of her.

  "My mission has been accomplished, it's time for me to continue my journey." Star replied, her voice growing softer.

  "Will we see you again?" Harry shouted, even though he had only known her for a few hours, he had already come to regarded her as a friend.

  "Maybe, Harry Potter, maybe…" came the answer, even softer now.

  "Goodbye then…" Ginny waved towards the ceiling, sure that Star could see it, even if she can't see Star.

  "Goodbye, Ginny… Goodbye, Harry… Goodbye…" Star's voice trailed away to nothingness.

  The two of them waved till they cannot hear Star's voice anymore before stopping. Harry turned to Ginny, a little red in the face.

  "You know, Ginny. I'm new to this boyfriend thing, so if I make any mistakes…" Harry wasn't allowed to finish before Ginny interrupted.

  "What? Boyfriend?"

  "Yeah… don't you want me to be…?" Harry was interrupted a second time when Ginny jumped into his arms, hugging him.

  "Of course I'll love to have you as my boyfriend!" Ginny cried. This is too good to be true…

  Harry returned her hug, smiling at the sight of Ginny in his arms. He hoped that he would not mess this up too much…

  "Guess I'll see you at the Hogwarts Express then…" Harry said, a little sad.

  "Yeah… Do you want to be the one to tell Ron, or should I do the honors." Ginny replied.

  "Hmmm… Why don't we surprise him on the train." Harry suggested.

  "Good idea. That ought to shock a few years off him." Ginny said, nodding happily.

  "I just hope he wouldn't hurt me too badly…" Harry said, a little worried.

  "Don't worry. He'll come around… sooner or later."

  They just stood there, looking into each other's eyes, each asking themselves how in the world did they get so lucky…

  "Well, see you in a week…" Harry said.

  "You too…"

  A flash of light, and they both disappeared from Tel'anran'rhiod, each to their own bodies, just waking up to a new day.