Ch 11
"Leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata" Hermione recited. Ron repeated it.
"No." she said irritably. "Its leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata. You have to put the emphasis on the first syllable. Again."
Ron: leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata
"Now you've got the rhythm all wrong. Its leche. Pan aceite. Ensalada. Salchichas una. Patata"
"How long have we got left?" Draco asked.
Hermione held up her watch. "Three hours."
Ron swore. "This is the last spell I have to learn, right?"
"Yep. This one's the hardest so you have to concentrate, particularly on the last part. Again."
"Slave driver."
"Slacker."
"Cruel taskmaster."
"Lazy-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Draco screamed. "If I have to listen to one more of these soppy, affectionate mock arguments I will scream so loud your eardrums will burst."
"I agree." Harry said. They were all back in the kitchen, eating muffins that the fascinated house elf kept bringing them as an excuse for eavesdropping.
"Would you prefer it if they really were fighting?" Ginny asked.
"They are pretty scary when they fight." Harry agreed. "Like during the Sorting Feast last year, when Hermione took offense to a comment Ron made about her timetable."
"And she picked up a silver platter full of baked tomatoes and threw it at his head." Draco said. "Then she tried to stab him with a barbecue fork."
"I've still got scars." Ron said.
"Oh, I didn't actually get you." Hermione snapped.
"Wow. You have a worse temper than the Hermione I know." Ginny said, slightly frightened.
.....................................................................................................................................
"One hour left." Ginny said, glancing at her watch.
"Would you stop with the countdown-to-Armageddon thing?" Ron asked.
"Is it just me, or is time moving faster than it usually does?" Harry asked.
"It's just you. I think that time is moving unbearably slowly." Draco said.
"What, you're looking forward to a painful death?" Harry asked.
"No, but I'd like to get this over with one way or another. The waiting is killing me." Draco explained.
"You think the waiting is killing you? Just wait until the cursing part. Then you'll really know death." Ron said.
"Cheerful, aren't you?" Fred or maybe George Weasley said. The twins' faces bore identical proud smiles. "Nobody will be caught unawares tonight." George (Fred?) announced. They were no longer carrying the white hats. Fred still had his clipboard, and George was now wielding a Quidditch bat. He solemnly offered it to Harry. "This is my lucky bat." He said, serious for possibly the first time in his life. "I've only been injured six times since I started using it." He placed it carefully on Harry's outstretched palms.
"Do you really think we'll need that?" Hermione asked.
George nodded. "Spells are good, but sometimes brute force is the only effective method."
...................................................................................................................................
Inside the teacher's lounge was a staircase that, according to the nameplate, led up to Professor Riddle's office. They stood at the bottom, knowing that they had to go up, but nobody made any move to do so.
Harry was holding the bat so hard that his knuckles were snow white. "I remember this feeling." He said softly. "Once my father bought a bomb car because he wanted to go on a real muggle holiday. The car yard was at the top of a really steep hill. On the way down dad realised that the breaks didn't work properly. He panicked and lost control. That's what it feels like today. Like we're helplessly waiting to hit something that will kill us."
"You're still alive." Ron pointed out. "What happened that day?"
"Dad remembered that he's a wizard. He pulled out his wand and saved the day."
"Well, we're about to pull out our wands and save the day." Hermione said.
Harry took a deep breath and stepped up onto the first step.
"Careful. There might be trip wires or alarm triggers." Ginny warned.
"There'll at least be a creaky board." Hermione said.
"A creaky board?" Harry asked.
"Sure. World's first early warning system. Still very effective, cheap and impossible for the intruder to detect." Hermione said.
"So what are we supposed to do? Step on the skirting boards?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"Good idea." Hermione said.
.....................................................................................................................................
"Here comes that onrushing doom feeling again." Harry said, reaching for the doorknob of the little wooden door at the top of the stairs.
"Do we have to go via the door? It's probably password protected." Ron said.
"Well, its not like we can walk through the wall." Draco pointed out.
"Yes we can." Ginny said.
"How?" Ron asked.
"My walking-through-walls amulet." Harry explained. He pulled it out of his pocket and put it on. He took Ginny's hand. She stared at him, puzzled for a second, then realised what he was doing. She took Ron's; who in turn linked arms with Hermione. Draco looked a bit upset when Hermione grabbed his hand, but her said nothing.
Passing through a wall was much like the chilly, tingling feeling of passing through a ghost, except without the chill or the tingling. In fact, Ginny felt nothing at all. It was like passing through thin air.
She didn't know what she expected to find inside. Black drapes maybe. Symbols painted on the floor in the blood of an innocent. Cages hanging from the ceiling perhaps. Candles and bubbling cauldrons full of foul concoctions. There were none of those. Never in her wildest imaginings (not that she had allowed herself to spend time thinking about what might be in Voldemort's office. It was scary enough without dwelling on it) had she considered that it might be set up like a private movie theatre.
This frightened her more. Evil-arts cliches she could have handled, but the surround sound system, wide screen TV, comfortable armchair and popcorn machine chilled her.
"My god." Hermione whispered. "He's gonna sit up here and watch the students die." The nausea in her voice echoed Ginny's own feelings.
"Where is the sick bastard?" Draco asked.
"The sick bastard is behind you." It wasn't like the deceptively kind voice of their DADA teacher. It was low and threatening, like the hissing of a snake preparing to strike. He seemed to float forward, and Harry and Ginny drifted apart involuntarily to allow him through.
He draped himself across his armchair. "I see you like my cinema. It's state of the art, top of the line wizard technology. Compared to this beauty, muggle televisions are obsolete pieces of junk." He picked up his wand. "Shall we see what's going on in the dining room?" he asked. "Activus."
The picture was indeed superior to the few televisions Ginny had seen in her short life. It was like they were in the dining room, watching the students file in and find seats, grim expressions on their faces. None of the usual chatter could be heard, save for the occasional short burst of nervous gossip from Lavender.
Ginny tore her eyes from the screen and looked around at the other items in the room. Most were fairly mundane- a desk, a bookshelf, a fireplace. The walls were bare, except for what appeared to be a black clock hanging above the television. Ginny looked at it more closely and gasped in horror.
"What?" Harry demanded, looking fearfully at the clock.
"I'm not certain..." Ginny said. "I've only ever seen a non-functional model in a museum, but I think that's..."
"A DeathWatch." Voldemort said proudly.
"One of the more macabre novelty items available in the wizarding world." Hermione explained. "It.... It...sets off an alarm and reads out a name if someone dies within a 500 metre radius of it."
"Would you kids like some popcorn?" Voldemort asked. "The show's about to start."
On the screen, Professor Snape rose to his feet and held up his glass. "A toast." He said. His voice seemed to fill the office, because of Voldemort's high quality sound system. The focus on the screen was on the teachers. About half of them looked puzzled. The other half beamed with excitement. "A toast to Hogwarts, a fine school with a fine Headmaster. A Headmaster who has served here for many years. Here's a toast to the end of that service."
Confusion swept over the room at those words. The end?
Like a magician pulling roses out of thin air, Snape's wand appeared in his hand. (he'd been hiding it up his sleeve.)
"Avada Kedavra." He said softly, pointing the wand at Dumbledore.
The DeathWatch buzzed shrilly. A sweet, female voice, the kind you'd expect to hear if your phone call could not be connected, said:
"Albus Dumbledore."
While the non-evil population of Hogwarts was still frozen with shock, Snape raised his glass as high as he could. "A toast!" he shouted triumphantly, his voice echoing in the silent hall. "To our Dark Lord!"
That was obviously the signal, as the Slytherins shouted "To our Dark Lord!" and leapt to their feet, wands at the ready.
"Yes, to me, to me!" Voldemort shouted ecstatically.
Hermione was the first to find her voice. As the first curse, a cruciatus, was flung across the hall, she managed to say "Usted tiene una enorme espinilla sobre su nariz."
"What?" Voldemort asked.
"Usted tiene una enorme espinilla sobre su nariz." Hermione repeated.
"Do you really think that spell will work?" Voldemort asked.
"Atrás. Atrás. Atrás. Adelantus." Hermione tried, moving on bravely.
"Nope." Voldemort said gleefully. Onscreen panic ensued. Somehow, the long heavy Ravenclaw table had been turned on its side, and several students were trying to shield themselves behind it. Those that had some degree of protection were crying, praying and confessing their love to their crushes. Those who were unprotected were too busy dodging, defending and attempting the occasional attack to do anything of the sort.
"Mi manzanus de herrerus es ácidus." Ron said.
"No." Voldemort said, reaching for his popcorn bucket. "And you've got the emphasis all wrong anyway."
The Death Eaters well and truly had the upper hand. The good guys onscreen had resorted to defending themselves by throwing chairs at the bad guys. This tactic was actually working quite well.
"Sodomita esto. Me quedo sin." Draco said desperately, staring at the screen. Goyle was teasing a first year with the Imperius Curse, making her do the splits, an exercise she wasn't used to judging by her pained expression.
"You too Draco?" Voldemort asked over the buzz of the DeathWatch as Susan Bones joined Dumbledore. "You were my most promising young follower in the other timeline. But here, your head is filled with nonsense about good and evil. I blame Potter."
BUZZ "Justin Finch-Fletchley.
"Leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata" said Ron.
"Oh, do be quiet." Voldemort snapped. "I can't hear the terror."
"That was the last spell." Ginny whispered, her heart sinking. "We're still in this timeline."
BUZZ "Cho Chang"
BUZZ "Minerva McGonagall"
BUZZ "Blaise Zabini"
"Blaise was one of the bad ones, right?" Hermione asked. She was crying. Crying out of frustration, fear and grief for her classmates. They were falling faster and faster, the death toll read by that terrible clock.
BUZZ "Neville Longbottom"
BUZZ "Colin Creevey"
BUZZ "Mandy Brocklehurst"
BUZZ "Lavender Brown"
There were some white hats left on the screen, but their wearers were fighting a losing battle.
"I grow bored." Voldemort said, taking another handful of popcorn. "Its no fun watching other people wreak havoc."
BUZZ "Morag MacDougal"
"Its much more fun to do it yourself." He said sadly. "I should be out there, but its too dangerous." Then a wicked grin spread across his face. "I know what I can do!" he said cheerfully. He whipped out his wand and shouted "Avada Kedavra!"
BUZZ "Harry Potter"
A piercing scream filled the room. Ginny never figured out if it was her or Hermione. Maybe it was both of them.
"Harry!" Ginny shouted.
"That was remarkably easy." Voldemort said, kicking Harry's body for good measure. "No mummy to save you this time Potter."
"You killed Harry!" Ginny screamed.
"Gee, I hadn't noticed." Voldemort snapped.
Quivering with rage, Ginny surprised even herself by picking up the Quidditch bat Harry had dropped.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Voldemort sneered.
"This." She said. She swung it in a wide arc. It connected with Voldemort's crotch with all the force she could muster. He screamed like a girl and fell to his knees. She swung it again, and it slammed into his left temple. He dropped like a stone.
"You think I've lived with George and Fred for fourteen years without learning how to swing one of these properly?" she asked, panting. Then she dropped the bat, crumbled to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably.
"She killed Voldemort." Ron said, his voice respectful, awed and slightly scared.
As if reinforcing this, the DeathWatch buzzed. "Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Voldemort, The dark Lord, You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"All that, and he was killed by a lump of wood." Hermione said. Then she snapped and copied Ginny, collapsing into the chair and sobbing. Ron sat beside her and wrapped her in a hug, rocking her gently. "It'll be okay." He whispered. "It has to be."
Draco was also crying, but trying not to show it. His shoulders shook gently and he wiped the tears away as soon as they fell. He refused to make any noise.
The buzzing of the DeathWatch reminded them that the end of Voldemort was not the end of the danger.
BUZZ "Vincent Crabbe"
Draco picked up the discarded bat and smashed the clock. It wheezed one last name (Terry Boot) and fell silent. Then Draco turned on the television, reducing it to a pile of wires and glass, as if by destroying it he could stop what was going on onscreen. He pushed over the speakers, ripped the books off the shelf and threw the popcorn machine out the window.
"Trashing the room isn't going to help, Malfoy" Ron said.
Draco ignored him and began raining blows down on the desk in the corner. The desk must have been cheap or old or both, because it splintered and snapped in two pieces, then three then four. Draco yanked out the drawers before reducing the chunks of desk to a pile of splinters. He then went through the drawers, throwing important documents and letters onto the fire. The stapler, hole punch and sticky tape followed the popcorn maker out the window. In the bottom drawer there was nothing but a large hourglass. Draco flung it against the wall, shattering it.
Hermione looked up. "Was that a Time Turner?" she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"You'd know better than me." Draco said, picking up a random book and ripping the spine off.
"Surely Voldemort wouldn't use something as simple as a Time Turner to alter the past." Ron said.
"Simple, but effective." Hermione said. Her bushy hair was lifted by a light breeze.
"What happens when a Time Turner is destroyed?" Ron asked. The breeze picked up the pages of the book Draco had destroyed. It also picked up the sand from the Time Turner, whipping it into their faces.
"I'm not sure." Hermione said. "But I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that.." her words were whipped away by the wind that was blowing inside the small office.
.......................................................................................................................................
Ginny woke up with a scream. She was plagued by many nightmares in the days following Voldemort and Harry's death.
Often in the nightmares Draco didn't find the Time Turner and they just stayed there until Snape came and killed them.
Sometimes she dreamed that destroying the Time Turner didn't set things right. Instead, it meant that they would be forever stuck in the other timeline where Harry was dead and they were hunted and killed one by one by Death Eaters.
Her mother raced into her room, dressed in a fluffy pink dressing gown. She sat on the bed and gave Ginny a big hug. "Shhh." She whispered soothingly. "Destroying a Time Turner reverses any effects it may have had on the course of time. Harry is alive and well and he owled Ron yesterday. Dumbledore is the very much alive headmaster of Hogwarts and your DADA teacher is a perfectly normal young woman named Madame Nettoye. She has shown no tendency towards killing anyone and she spends all of her time talking about how much better things were at Beauxbatons. Everything is okay with the world."
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
A/N: It's not over yet. There are still some loose ends, like Ron's speech and of course, Dumbledore has to explain everything that is still a mystery and say something wise. This is the second last chapter.
"Leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata" Hermione recited. Ron repeated it.
"No." she said irritably. "Its leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata. You have to put the emphasis on the first syllable. Again."
Ron: leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata
"Now you've got the rhythm all wrong. Its leche. Pan aceite. Ensalada. Salchichas una. Patata"
"How long have we got left?" Draco asked.
Hermione held up her watch. "Three hours."
Ron swore. "This is the last spell I have to learn, right?"
"Yep. This one's the hardest so you have to concentrate, particularly on the last part. Again."
"Slave driver."
"Slacker."
"Cruel taskmaster."
"Lazy-"
"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Draco screamed. "If I have to listen to one more of these soppy, affectionate mock arguments I will scream so loud your eardrums will burst."
"I agree." Harry said. They were all back in the kitchen, eating muffins that the fascinated house elf kept bringing them as an excuse for eavesdropping.
"Would you prefer it if they really were fighting?" Ginny asked.
"They are pretty scary when they fight." Harry agreed. "Like during the Sorting Feast last year, when Hermione took offense to a comment Ron made about her timetable."
"And she picked up a silver platter full of baked tomatoes and threw it at his head." Draco said. "Then she tried to stab him with a barbecue fork."
"I've still got scars." Ron said.
"Oh, I didn't actually get you." Hermione snapped.
"Wow. You have a worse temper than the Hermione I know." Ginny said, slightly frightened.
.....................................................................................................................................
"One hour left." Ginny said, glancing at her watch.
"Would you stop with the countdown-to-Armageddon thing?" Ron asked.
"Is it just me, or is time moving faster than it usually does?" Harry asked.
"It's just you. I think that time is moving unbearably slowly." Draco said.
"What, you're looking forward to a painful death?" Harry asked.
"No, but I'd like to get this over with one way or another. The waiting is killing me." Draco explained.
"You think the waiting is killing you? Just wait until the cursing part. Then you'll really know death." Ron said.
"Cheerful, aren't you?" Fred or maybe George Weasley said. The twins' faces bore identical proud smiles. "Nobody will be caught unawares tonight." George (Fred?) announced. They were no longer carrying the white hats. Fred still had his clipboard, and George was now wielding a Quidditch bat. He solemnly offered it to Harry. "This is my lucky bat." He said, serious for possibly the first time in his life. "I've only been injured six times since I started using it." He placed it carefully on Harry's outstretched palms.
"Do you really think we'll need that?" Hermione asked.
George nodded. "Spells are good, but sometimes brute force is the only effective method."
...................................................................................................................................
Inside the teacher's lounge was a staircase that, according to the nameplate, led up to Professor Riddle's office. They stood at the bottom, knowing that they had to go up, but nobody made any move to do so.
Harry was holding the bat so hard that his knuckles were snow white. "I remember this feeling." He said softly. "Once my father bought a bomb car because he wanted to go on a real muggle holiday. The car yard was at the top of a really steep hill. On the way down dad realised that the breaks didn't work properly. He panicked and lost control. That's what it feels like today. Like we're helplessly waiting to hit something that will kill us."
"You're still alive." Ron pointed out. "What happened that day?"
"Dad remembered that he's a wizard. He pulled out his wand and saved the day."
"Well, we're about to pull out our wands and save the day." Hermione said.
Harry took a deep breath and stepped up onto the first step.
"Careful. There might be trip wires or alarm triggers." Ginny warned.
"There'll at least be a creaky board." Hermione said.
"A creaky board?" Harry asked.
"Sure. World's first early warning system. Still very effective, cheap and impossible for the intruder to detect." Hermione said.
"So what are we supposed to do? Step on the skirting boards?" Harry asked sarcastically.
"Good idea." Hermione said.
.....................................................................................................................................
"Here comes that onrushing doom feeling again." Harry said, reaching for the doorknob of the little wooden door at the top of the stairs.
"Do we have to go via the door? It's probably password protected." Ron said.
"Well, its not like we can walk through the wall." Draco pointed out.
"Yes we can." Ginny said.
"How?" Ron asked.
"My walking-through-walls amulet." Harry explained. He pulled it out of his pocket and put it on. He took Ginny's hand. She stared at him, puzzled for a second, then realised what he was doing. She took Ron's; who in turn linked arms with Hermione. Draco looked a bit upset when Hermione grabbed his hand, but her said nothing.
Passing through a wall was much like the chilly, tingling feeling of passing through a ghost, except without the chill or the tingling. In fact, Ginny felt nothing at all. It was like passing through thin air.
She didn't know what she expected to find inside. Black drapes maybe. Symbols painted on the floor in the blood of an innocent. Cages hanging from the ceiling perhaps. Candles and bubbling cauldrons full of foul concoctions. There were none of those. Never in her wildest imaginings (not that she had allowed herself to spend time thinking about what might be in Voldemort's office. It was scary enough without dwelling on it) had she considered that it might be set up like a private movie theatre.
This frightened her more. Evil-arts cliches she could have handled, but the surround sound system, wide screen TV, comfortable armchair and popcorn machine chilled her.
"My god." Hermione whispered. "He's gonna sit up here and watch the students die." The nausea in her voice echoed Ginny's own feelings.
"Where is the sick bastard?" Draco asked.
"The sick bastard is behind you." It wasn't like the deceptively kind voice of their DADA teacher. It was low and threatening, like the hissing of a snake preparing to strike. He seemed to float forward, and Harry and Ginny drifted apart involuntarily to allow him through.
He draped himself across his armchair. "I see you like my cinema. It's state of the art, top of the line wizard technology. Compared to this beauty, muggle televisions are obsolete pieces of junk." He picked up his wand. "Shall we see what's going on in the dining room?" he asked. "Activus."
The picture was indeed superior to the few televisions Ginny had seen in her short life. It was like they were in the dining room, watching the students file in and find seats, grim expressions on their faces. None of the usual chatter could be heard, save for the occasional short burst of nervous gossip from Lavender.
Ginny tore her eyes from the screen and looked around at the other items in the room. Most were fairly mundane- a desk, a bookshelf, a fireplace. The walls were bare, except for what appeared to be a black clock hanging above the television. Ginny looked at it more closely and gasped in horror.
"What?" Harry demanded, looking fearfully at the clock.
"I'm not certain..." Ginny said. "I've only ever seen a non-functional model in a museum, but I think that's..."
"A DeathWatch." Voldemort said proudly.
"One of the more macabre novelty items available in the wizarding world." Hermione explained. "It.... It...sets off an alarm and reads out a name if someone dies within a 500 metre radius of it."
"Would you kids like some popcorn?" Voldemort asked. "The show's about to start."
On the screen, Professor Snape rose to his feet and held up his glass. "A toast." He said. His voice seemed to fill the office, because of Voldemort's high quality sound system. The focus on the screen was on the teachers. About half of them looked puzzled. The other half beamed with excitement. "A toast to Hogwarts, a fine school with a fine Headmaster. A Headmaster who has served here for many years. Here's a toast to the end of that service."
Confusion swept over the room at those words. The end?
Like a magician pulling roses out of thin air, Snape's wand appeared in his hand. (he'd been hiding it up his sleeve.)
"Avada Kedavra." He said softly, pointing the wand at Dumbledore.
The DeathWatch buzzed shrilly. A sweet, female voice, the kind you'd expect to hear if your phone call could not be connected, said:
"Albus Dumbledore."
While the non-evil population of Hogwarts was still frozen with shock, Snape raised his glass as high as he could. "A toast!" he shouted triumphantly, his voice echoing in the silent hall. "To our Dark Lord!"
That was obviously the signal, as the Slytherins shouted "To our Dark Lord!" and leapt to their feet, wands at the ready.
"Yes, to me, to me!" Voldemort shouted ecstatically.
Hermione was the first to find her voice. As the first curse, a cruciatus, was flung across the hall, she managed to say "Usted tiene una enorme espinilla sobre su nariz."
"What?" Voldemort asked.
"Usted tiene una enorme espinilla sobre su nariz." Hermione repeated.
"Do you really think that spell will work?" Voldemort asked.
"Atrás. Atrás. Atrás. Adelantus." Hermione tried, moving on bravely.
"Nope." Voldemort said gleefully. Onscreen panic ensued. Somehow, the long heavy Ravenclaw table had been turned on its side, and several students were trying to shield themselves behind it. Those that had some degree of protection were crying, praying and confessing their love to their crushes. Those who were unprotected were too busy dodging, defending and attempting the occasional attack to do anything of the sort.
"Mi manzanus de herrerus es ácidus." Ron said.
"No." Voldemort said, reaching for his popcorn bucket. "And you've got the emphasis all wrong anyway."
The Death Eaters well and truly had the upper hand. The good guys onscreen had resorted to defending themselves by throwing chairs at the bad guys. This tactic was actually working quite well.
"Sodomita esto. Me quedo sin." Draco said desperately, staring at the screen. Goyle was teasing a first year with the Imperius Curse, making her do the splits, an exercise she wasn't used to judging by her pained expression.
"You too Draco?" Voldemort asked over the buzz of the DeathWatch as Susan Bones joined Dumbledore. "You were my most promising young follower in the other timeline. But here, your head is filled with nonsense about good and evil. I blame Potter."
BUZZ "Justin Finch-Fletchley.
"Leche pan aceite ensalada salchichas una patata" said Ron.
"Oh, do be quiet." Voldemort snapped. "I can't hear the terror."
"That was the last spell." Ginny whispered, her heart sinking. "We're still in this timeline."
BUZZ "Cho Chang"
BUZZ "Minerva McGonagall"
BUZZ "Blaise Zabini"
"Blaise was one of the bad ones, right?" Hermione asked. She was crying. Crying out of frustration, fear and grief for her classmates. They were falling faster and faster, the death toll read by that terrible clock.
BUZZ "Neville Longbottom"
BUZZ "Colin Creevey"
BUZZ "Mandy Brocklehurst"
BUZZ "Lavender Brown"
There were some white hats left on the screen, but their wearers were fighting a losing battle.
"I grow bored." Voldemort said, taking another handful of popcorn. "Its no fun watching other people wreak havoc."
BUZZ "Morag MacDougal"
"Its much more fun to do it yourself." He said sadly. "I should be out there, but its too dangerous." Then a wicked grin spread across his face. "I know what I can do!" he said cheerfully. He whipped out his wand and shouted "Avada Kedavra!"
BUZZ "Harry Potter"
A piercing scream filled the room. Ginny never figured out if it was her or Hermione. Maybe it was both of them.
"Harry!" Ginny shouted.
"That was remarkably easy." Voldemort said, kicking Harry's body for good measure. "No mummy to save you this time Potter."
"You killed Harry!" Ginny screamed.
"Gee, I hadn't noticed." Voldemort snapped.
Quivering with rage, Ginny surprised even herself by picking up the Quidditch bat Harry had dropped.
"What are you gonna do with that?" Voldemort sneered.
"This." She said. She swung it in a wide arc. It connected with Voldemort's crotch with all the force she could muster. He screamed like a girl and fell to his knees. She swung it again, and it slammed into his left temple. He dropped like a stone.
"You think I've lived with George and Fred for fourteen years without learning how to swing one of these properly?" she asked, panting. Then she dropped the bat, crumbled to the floor and began to sob uncontrollably.
"She killed Voldemort." Ron said, his voice respectful, awed and slightly scared.
As if reinforcing this, the DeathWatch buzzed. "Tom Riddle, otherwise known as Voldemort, The dark Lord, You-Know-Who and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named."
"All that, and he was killed by a lump of wood." Hermione said. Then she snapped and copied Ginny, collapsing into the chair and sobbing. Ron sat beside her and wrapped her in a hug, rocking her gently. "It'll be okay." He whispered. "It has to be."
Draco was also crying, but trying not to show it. His shoulders shook gently and he wiped the tears away as soon as they fell. He refused to make any noise.
The buzzing of the DeathWatch reminded them that the end of Voldemort was not the end of the danger.
BUZZ "Vincent Crabbe"
Draco picked up the discarded bat and smashed the clock. It wheezed one last name (Terry Boot) and fell silent. Then Draco turned on the television, reducing it to a pile of wires and glass, as if by destroying it he could stop what was going on onscreen. He pushed over the speakers, ripped the books off the shelf and threw the popcorn machine out the window.
"Trashing the room isn't going to help, Malfoy" Ron said.
Draco ignored him and began raining blows down on the desk in the corner. The desk must have been cheap or old or both, because it splintered and snapped in two pieces, then three then four. Draco yanked out the drawers before reducing the chunks of desk to a pile of splinters. He then went through the drawers, throwing important documents and letters onto the fire. The stapler, hole punch and sticky tape followed the popcorn maker out the window. In the bottom drawer there was nothing but a large hourglass. Draco flung it against the wall, shattering it.
Hermione looked up. "Was that a Time Turner?" she sniffed, wiping her eyes.
"You'd know better than me." Draco said, picking up a random book and ripping the spine off.
"Surely Voldemort wouldn't use something as simple as a Time Turner to alter the past." Ron said.
"Simple, but effective." Hermione said. Her bushy hair was lifted by a light breeze.
"What happens when a Time Turner is destroyed?" Ron asked. The breeze picked up the pages of the book Draco had destroyed. It also picked up the sand from the Time Turner, whipping it into their faces.
"I'm not sure." Hermione said. "But I'm pretty sure that I read somewhere that.." her words were whipped away by the wind that was blowing inside the small office.
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Ginny woke up with a scream. She was plagued by many nightmares in the days following Voldemort and Harry's death.
Often in the nightmares Draco didn't find the Time Turner and they just stayed there until Snape came and killed them.
Sometimes she dreamed that destroying the Time Turner didn't set things right. Instead, it meant that they would be forever stuck in the other timeline where Harry was dead and they were hunted and killed one by one by Death Eaters.
Her mother raced into her room, dressed in a fluffy pink dressing gown. She sat on the bed and gave Ginny a big hug. "Shhh." She whispered soothingly. "Destroying a Time Turner reverses any effects it may have had on the course of time. Harry is alive and well and he owled Ron yesterday. Dumbledore is the very much alive headmaster of Hogwarts and your DADA teacher is a perfectly normal young woman named Madame Nettoye. She has shown no tendency towards killing anyone and she spends all of her time talking about how much better things were at Beauxbatons. Everything is okay with the world."
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A/N: It's not over yet. There are still some loose ends, like Ron's speech and of course, Dumbledore has to explain everything that is still a mystery and say something wise. This is the second last chapter.