"No." Hermione whispered. "No, please don't say that, Professor. Please. She's not dead. She can't be dead."
"Hermione, I'm afraid that, by the time I found her, it was too late," Professor McGonagall said gently. She had called the girl into her office right after telling Ron and sending an owl to the rest of the Weasleys.
"No!" Hermione stood. "God, why? Why didn't I talk to her?"
"Hermione, don't blame yourself. You could not have prevented this."
"I'm the reason she did it!" Hermione sobbed. "We ignored her, and we turned the school against her. God, she didn't have anyone to talk to!" She paused. "Ron. Did anyone tell Ron yet?"
"Yes, and he's resting in Professor Dumbledore's office right now."
"What about Harry?"
"No, no one's told him yet. I was planning to call him in next."
"May I tell him?" Hermione asked.
It was an odd request, but McGonagall nodded. "If it will help you, then yes, you may be the one to tell him."
Hermione ran off to find Harry. He was sitting in the Gryffindor Common Room. She pulled him into a corner. "Harry, we need to forgive Ginny."
"What? No way, Hermione. What she did was really low," Harry argued.
"You don't understand, Harry. We have to. She… She…" Hermione began weeping again.
"Hermione, what is it? What's wrong?"
Hermione swallowed roughly before going on. "She killed herself, Harry," she whispered.
"What? No way. She couldn't have."
"She did. Professor McGonagall told me. She slit her wrists."
"Oh my God…" Harry was stunned. How could Ginny have done such a foolish thing?
"We have to forgive her. We have to, or she'll float around Hogwarts forever and be miserable."
"Of course I forgive her! I mean,
she's…she's dead." He gulped. "Does Ron know?"
"McGonagall told him."
"We need to see him."
"I think Ron needs to be alone right now, Harry."
"You're probably right."
Hermione pulled Harry into a hug. "God, Harry, what have we done?"
* * *
Six redheaded Wesley boys stood around the headstone that read "RIP. Ginny Weasley. Daughter, Sister, Friend." Her parents stood beside her brothers. Molly Weasley was overcome with tears. Her husband held her. The boys tried not to cry, but it was difficult. Ron stood perfectly still, remaining in shock from the news.
"Why didn't I talk to her?" Hermione cried out. Everyone turned to watch her. "Why didn't I tell her I didn't hate her? Why didn't I tell her I forgave her? Why didn't I tell her I cared about her and wanted her to live? Why wasn't I there for her?"
"Hermione," Harry said gently.
"No! Don't try to calm me down. God, Harry, my last words to her were, 'get out.' Get out. That's the last thing she ever heard me say. How could I let it end like that? Why didn't I forgive her then, when I could have helped her? Why didn't I realize how much she was suffering?"
"Hermione, it's not your fault," Ron said suddenly. For a moment, everyone was stunned. Ron hadn't spoken since Ginny's death. "It's no one's fault except hers. I know that she needed us, but you know what? What she did was rotten, and-"
"Ron, please. You have to forgive her. Don't hold a grudge against her now," Harry said.
"She shouldn't have done it. She shouldn't have used us to get out of trouble."
"Ron, you don't know what you're saying," Fred Weasley said, trying to calm his brother down.
"She chose to die!"
"Ron!" Percy Weasley shouted. "Don't talk like this. You're upsetting Mum."
"She wanted to die and she did, and there's nothing else to say about it!"
"Shut up, Ron!" Hermione shouted at him through her tears. "You're just saying that because you're angry, but not with her, with yourself. You feel as guilty as I do. You think it's your fault."
Ron collapsed to his knees, weeping with his face in his hands. "Gods, I killed her! I killed my sister!"
"No, Ron!" Harry said, kneeling next to Ron and pulling him into a tight hug. "It wasn't your fault!"
"I should have known! She was my sister and I didn't even know she was depressed! I should have looked out for her, and instead I turned my back!"
"Ron," Hermione said gently, kneeling beside him, "This is no one's fault but Ginny's. You're right about that. She chose to die. While what we did may have been the last straw, she was already depressed. She wanted to die long before any of this happened. We can't blame ourselves, because that won't fix anything. But we can do something else. We can forgive her for what she did. We can let her know that we've let it go, and that we're not angry anymore. Can you do that, Ron?"
Ron blinked. "I forgive you, Ginny," he whispered.
Harry looked up at the sky. "I forgive you, too, Ginny," he said.
Hermione gazed up at the sky through her tears and said, "And I forgive you, too, Ginny. I just wish I'd done it sooner. God, I wish I'd done it sooner! But I can't change things, can I? I'm so sorry it ended up this way, Ginny, I am so sorry! I just hope that, wherever you are now, you found what you were looking for."
They remained there, the ten of them, as the sun began to set. A butterfly fluttered past and landed on Hermione's finger. The others watched in silence, each understanding the symbolic truth that it brought. Finally, Ginny was free.