Chapter Six: Fading Stars

Ginny sighed and wiped sweat from her face. She wanted to call out to see if Ron was around, but couldn't seem to make her throat work. She stood, and felt the warmth of the floor beneath her feet. She heard the patter of her feet on the floor as she crossed the room to the door and opened it.

Quiet. Why is it so quiet?

She climbed to Hermione's dormitory. Maybe she's asleep, Ginny thought. But the door was open, and the room was empty.

Where are they? They wouldn't have left me here and gone somewhere else, would they? Maybe they're in Harry and Ron's dormitory. Yes. She'd go there.

But when she swung open the door with the creak of something ignored, that room, too, was empty.

Maybe they'd gone to get some food. Hope they got some for me if they did.

She thought about checking the kitchens, then frowned down at her pajamas - a sky-blue flannel gown that was too small and patterned with strange wiggles and zigzags. She had loved it when she was eleven. Three years ago.

I'll have to change. Then I'll go to the kitchens and see if Ron and Hermione are there.

She started to shut the door of Harry's dormitory, but something caught her eye. A little leather-bound book on Harry's bedside table. It's none of my business what he -

Never mind.

She walked over and picked it up, sitting on his bed. She flipped to the middle and drew in a breath.

Oh, Harry. Your parents.

His father smiled at her, then grinned at the small baby in his arms. The red-haired woman - Lily Potter - had an arm around James and was laughing so hard she was crying.

Ginny slowly flipped through the pages. All of them showed Lily and James, and some showed Harry too. One showed another man. Sirius Black? And Lily and James too, wearing a beautiful white dress and a tuxedo. They were all grinning madly. Harry's parents' wedding.

But on the last page was a picture that made Ginny cry.

She remembered it being taken vividly. She remembered Colin's lit-up face when Harry asked him to do it.

She stood a bit in the background. Harry was talking to her and Ron and Hermione. It had been the second of September. The weather had been gorgeous. They were all wearing their school robes, out on the front lawn. The Quidditch pitch was visible behind them. They had all been happy - not careless by any means, but Harry for the moment wasn't thinking about the Dark Lord, which was a definite improvement.

A teardrop fell on Ginny's lap, narrowly missing the book. She closed it and set it where it had been, and cried.

***

Ron woke with a guilty start. He rubbed his eyes and glanced around the room.

The mediwizards had given them permission to stay with Harry.

Sirius' head was on his chest; he was curled into a ball against the wall by the side of Harry's bed. Hermione was next to Ron's chair, her head resting against its side. Lupin and Bill had gone, and Dumbledore had left right before Ron had fallen asleep.

He stood slowly, making sure not to wake Hermione, and walked over next to Harry. He looked both older and younger. His face was stripped of its pain and worry and fear and tenseness. But Ron could see Harry's burned hand on the covertop, and the muscles tensing and loosening in his wrist. His breath was slow and hard and jagged, and as Ron watched he shook his head back and forth three times. It reminded him of the summer after his second year. The first night home, he had snuck into Ginny's room to watch her sleep, and she'd been muttering and shaking her head. After Riddle, he had hoped she might be able to get beyond what he left her, the black spot where his trail went alongside hers. But she hadn't.

Ginny.

Oh, no, Ron thought with a moan. How could I do this? I forgot Ginny! She doesn't know where we are.

Do I go back and get her? Do I Call the common room? Do I wake Hermione and have us both go back to Hogwarts?

I'll go back and get her. All right.

He shut the door behind him quietly. A mediwizard sat writing something on a scroll. He walked up to the man, who glanced at him.

"If one of them wakes up, tell them I've gone to get Ginny." The man nodded, and Ron headed back to the first-floor fireplace.

***

Ron tripped and landed painfully on the common room floor. He coughed and looked up. Ginny sat in a chair before him. An uneaten plate of food was next to her. She was fast asleep.

Should I wake her?

Yes. Of course.

He tiptoed over to his little sister and shook her shoulder gently. Her brown eyes opened slowly, and she stood.

"Where the hell did you go?" she demanded.

"St. Mungo's," Ron replied, half wearily, half irritably.

Ginny covered her mouth. "They found Harry?" she asked through her fingers.

Ron nodded. "But he."

"Why didn't you take me, Ron? God, you're such a.a.I care about him too, you know! It's not just you! You and Harry and Hermione - well, you could have told me! I thought he was still out there, somewhere, cold and alone and dying of whatever poison they -"

"How do you know about the poison?"

"Voldemort told me."

Ron shuddered, not looking at her. "You say it like he's a student or a mediwizard or someone you talk to all the time. We thought if you saw what Harry's like you'd think of him, and we didn't want you to.cross with him again or whatever. It's dangerous!"

"Well, I don't care. I'm going to see Harry now."

"He's asleep."

"All the better."

"So are Sirius and Hermione."

"I haven't met Sirius yet. I'm going. I can think of Voldemort, you git, just not..."

"All right, all right. Let's go."

***

Sirius was still asleep, but Ron was gone. Hermione stood and looked around. Harry hadn't woken yet either. She glanced out in the hall. A mediwizard glanced at her. "He went to get someone named Ginny."

"Oh. Thanks."

She sighed and went back into the room. Harry's face was white, and without his glasses his age was unreadable. He could have been anywhere between twelve and twenty. She sighed again, heavily, and sat down in Ron's empty chair to wait.

After about two minutes, Ron and Ginny eased the door open. Ginny covered a gasp with her hands. Hermione heard a little moan from the red-headed girl and nodded hello to her. Ginny shot Sirius a glance, then looked back to Harry and sank to the floor.

"He's dying," she said after a minute.

Hermione nodded.

"How long does he have?"

"Six.maybe seven days. He'll go into a coma in two or three and." Hermione stifled a sob and couldn't finish.

Ginny nodded, unbeilievably calm, not shaking. Her eyes were anguished, but she seemed otherwise normal. She wasn't crying. She rested her chin on her arms on the bed near Harry's head.

"He asked if you were coming," Ron added, his voice consticted and quiet. "When we first came in."

"Yeah, well.I talked to him, when he was a prisoner. Dumbledore.does anyone know what the poison is?"

Hermione shook her head, back and forth, several times.

"And it's killing him." No one answered; it wasn't a question anyway. "Voldemort wanted it to be slow. And since we don't know what it is, we don't know if there's an antidote." Her voice was flat now. "Harry didn't say anything about it?"

"No. I doubt they told him what it was." Ron tried to steady his voice.

"Have Mum and Dad come?"

"No," Hermione said. "But I expect they will."

Ginny nodded, lifting her head off her arms. "Well, then, there isn't much we can do until he wakes up, is there?"

Ron's eyes flashed, but he didn't say anything. Hermione shrugged her shoulders, the expression on her face one of both confusion and sadness and helplessness. Sirius stirred a bit, shifting his head and muttering something incomprehensible, but didn't wake. Harry lay still, and Ginny returned her eyes to him.

Chapter Seven: Playing With Fate

Harry's dreams were troubled, and when he awoke the sense of helpless anger didn't fade. Ginny had come. She, Sirius, Ron, and Hermione were all asleep. Ginny's outstretched hand was very close to his, her knees tucked beneath her on the cold floor and her head resting against the bed. Sirius was by the head of the bed, curled up against the wall, tossing his head back and forth. Ron and Hermione - well, Hermione was sitting in the chair Ron had been occupying when Harry fell asleep, and Ron was in the position Hermione had been, next to the chair. Hermione's right hand was entwined with Ron's right, and her left hand was on his shoulder. His other hand was on top of her left hand.

Sirius shifted and muttered something, then gasped and woke. His expression melted when he saw Harry was awake.

"Hey," Sirius whispered. "How are you?" Harry noticed how careful he was not to wake Ginny.

"I'm all right, I guess." His speech didn't reflect his words; his voice was almost inaudible and still very raspy. "You?"

"You are such a prat," Sirius muttered. "Always worrying about other people. Never caring about yourself."

"No time to care about myself," Harry said dryly. "I'm s'posed to save the world."

"Yes, well." Sirius sighed. "You're lucky your friends care more than most friends do. You'd never have made it this far otherwise."

"I know," Harry agreed. "Like when I was going through the tasks. Never could have gotten through it without them. I mean, I understand Ron's point of view. He didn't see what reason anyone else would put my name in for. Wasn't his fault."

"That's not what I mean," Sirius said irratibly, and Harry let out a croaky half-laugh.

"I know," he said after a minute, his voice sober now. He sighed heavily.

"This Ginny?" Sirius asked, indicating her and breaking an uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah," Harry said, and smiled through cracking, dry lips. "Pretty, huh?"

Sirius nodded. "You like her? Because, well, Hermione seems to have been claimed."

Harry laughed again. "Yeah, I guess I do. She always understands, you know? She never asks about what happened. I mean, I did like Cho Chang, and we're friends too. But I understand that too. It's too painful for her. Because seeing me reminds her of Cedric. And neither of us want to betray his memory. But we're friends, because I understand what she's feeling. Ginny, though.she's different. She's met Tom Riddle. And, well.it really comes back to the understanding. This year, it's been more the four of us than the three of us. Ron and Hermione understand when I can't answer questions, or I need to be alone, but no one understands like she does. I can talk to her when I can't talk to anyone else, and I think it's the same way around."

Sirius nodded, and didn't say anything. Harry continued.

"And Ron and I.well, when we thought she was dead in our second year.it was indescribable, the feeling I felt. That nothing would ever be happy again. That the sun shouldn't shine again, and tease us with its joy. That the stars shouldn't come out at night, because they'd be looking on a world without Ginny."

"I know that feeling," Sirius said quietly, his throat dry. Harry didn't have to ask him what he was talking about, who he meant.

***

"Master."

Voldemort turned quietly away from the window.

"Yes, Lucius?"

"Master, forgive me for my curiousity. What would we have done if the boy had not spilled the bowl?"

"We would have had an accident, and it would have tipped over and fallen onto his hand, Lucius. The same means would have been acheived. But he was bound to tip over the bowl.the silence we kept, and the chant.he thought, of course, that it was a spell to strengthen me. So he decided to heroically prevent it. He understood, of course, after he ran. I am sure that will torment him until his death. Or at least, until he becomes comatose." Voldemort laughed coldly. "It was easier than I thought. He killed himself. It was not I who truly did it. I am not bothered by that. Once Harry Potter is dead, my true power will be freed, and I will regain that which he took from me. I will recapture that fool Dumbledore. It was too easy, the first time. It will be harder now, much harder. But the death of the last Potter will tear at him so. I've done worse than kill him. I've hurt him. And I wish to continue hurting him. I will kill him slowly. I will kill the students, those who he loves the most. Then I will put him under the influence of the only remaining strain of the Imperius Potion - he would be able to throw off the curse. And I will force him to kill his friends, one by one, letting him know that each is his fault, lastly Severus Snape, who betrayed me. Then I will burn his school before him and throw him, under the Body-Bind, into the licking fingers of the remaining flames of Hogwarts."

***

Ginny woke slowly, and kept her eyes closed. She didn't move. She heard two voices; one she had never heard before, that of a deep-voiced man, the other Harry's rough whisper.

"Well, she's the sort of person who can't really hate. Ron and Hermione can, but Ginny.I think there's only one person she hates, and that's Riddle. She hates him the same way I hate him. I mean, it's more personal than the way other people hate him. He tore our lives apart. You can see it in her eyes, sometimes, and tell that she's thinking about him. She's been separated from the world the same way I have. And she's very pretty; she always has been. I was drawn to her from when I saw her at King's Cross the first time. But the biggest part of it is how we understand each other's hate as much as we understand anything else, and like no one else can."

Then Sirius' voice answered. "I wish I could say I know what you're talking about."

Harry laughed hoarsely. "To know what I'm talking about you'd have to hate someone an awful lot."

"Well," Sirius said, and his voice changed dramatically, becoming sharp and harsh. "Peter. But even you don't hate him the way I do. I know how much you hate him for what he did. But.I don't know how to put it."

"I hate him because he stopped me from knowing my parents, because I never did. But you knew them, and loved them.I know, I know. I can't hate him as much as you because I don't know who my parents were. And we both hate him for the lives he gave us.Azkaban, and the Dursleys. Seems a bit silly, really. On your part. The Dursleys are angels next to dementors."

There was a silence. Then Sirius spoke again, changing the topic. "I want to meet the Dursleys."

"Yeah, so you can turn them into bats."

"I was thinking more along the lines of pigs."

"Ferrets," suggested Harry, and laughed. Ginny had to hold her breath to stop at least a smile.

"Mongooses. Mongeese. Mongoose. However the plural goes."

"Potatoes."

"Lobsters."

"Ballons."

"Come on now, enough with inanimate objects, that's murder, and from experience, I can tell you that the sentence is not pleasant. Spiders."

"Aardvarks."

"Squirrels."

"Fine. Squirrels."

"All right. I'll have to arrange a meeting."

"Uncle Vernon works from nine to four at Grunnings. Drill company."

Sirius laughed. "Righty." Then his voice became sober. "I hope you'll get to watch it."

"Listen, Sirius," Harry said quietly. "I'm not going to die. I'm going to be fine. Dumbledore will find the antidote."

Ginny stirred, pretending to wake sleepily. She did her best bemused-blink and lifted her head off the covers. "Harry!" she said, and did a fake yawn and a fake guilty face. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Ginny. Oh. This is Sirius. Ron told you about the whole thing, didn't he?"

Ginny shrugged. "I know he didn't do it. Don't know the whole story. But now doesn't seem to be the time.oh, look at Ron and Hermone!" She giggled, genuine amusement making her brown eyes sparkle. Sirius grinned.

"Nice to meet you, Ginny. Harry's told me a lot about you." Harry looked mortified, and tried to hide it. Ginny felt her heart leap.

The door opened, and a mediwizard came in. Ron and Hermione were woken when the door shut loudly behind him. He looked apologetically at them, and they shrugged.

With a sideways glance at Sirius - Harry and Dumbledore had both vouched for his innocence, and the officials had agreed not to tell the Ministry - the mediwizard spoke grimly. "Mr. Potter, I'm afraid we have some bad news."

He proceeded to tell Harry and the rest that they had no record of this poison or any possible antidote.

Chapter Eight: Remember Again

It was two days later that the foursome - Sirius, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione - lost their hope for a miracle.

Harry's waking time had become gradually less and less, and every time he fell asleep they wondered if he would ever wake again. Meals were brought to them in Harry's room, and the hospital officials gave them extra cots, as they refused to go back to Hogwarts.

Easter holidays were almost over, and Dumbledore was frantically searching for some record of the poison. He would come to check on Harry once a day. No one had seen him so worried or powerless-seeming before. Word had not leaked out to the public yet of Harry's poisoning yet, which surprised them all.

All the Weasleys had been around at one time or another. Percy had come, sober and shooting questions about the poison at every mediwizard he saw. Fred and George had visited twice, both silent and troubled. Ginny had thought that the second time, when Harry was asleep, Fred had almost been crying.

Her heart ached for her parents, who had sat by Harry's bedside for three hours and talked to him while he was awake. Her mother was constantly on the edge of breaking down, and her father was pale and anxious and worried out of his mind. She had never seen him this way.

There had also been other, completely unexpected visitors. Just the previous morning, Viktor Krum and Fleur Delacour had walked in together. Ginny had no idea how they had found out, although she had a strange suspicion that Hermione might have told Krum. Fleur had been fairly subdued, asking him if he was all right, making sure he wasn't too tired to talk. Krum had talked about Quiddich, and asked Harry if, when he recovered - Ginny noted the definate when, not if he recovered, and the confidence in the almost-twenty-year-old's voice - he'd like to practice a few times with Viktor and his team. The tall young man also mentioned that he had played in a match against Oliver Wood, who after the game had been moved permanently to the English team even though he'd been soundly defeated. Viktor added that the Bulgarian Chasers hadn't been able to make any goals and it had been a 150-50 game lasting a total of ten minutes. Their visit seemed to have the prospect of cheering Harry up.

However, he still slept through a great deal of the day. The poison was multiplying in his blood, and with each hour he grew weaker. His face bruised from nothing, and his eyes reddened, and his lips became sore and swollen. He talked less and less, and his voice faded to a fragile, faint whisper.

***

The mediwizards had told Ginny what she wanted to know, and what she didn't want to know. They were the same thing.

"You'll know when he slips into the coma," the sandy-haired young man had told her softly, putting a big hand on her shoulder gently. "I'm really sorry. But if he's your friend, you'll know. The others will too. That's the way it is with magic-induced stasis. Those who love him, all of them, will feel it. It'll hurt. It's going to feel like someone betrayed you, and then you'll probably just feel cold and alone. Talk to the others. It might help you share your pain."

But she knew that when the time came she wouldn't be able to.

She had trouble speaking. There was only one window into Harry's room, but when she looked out it at night she could watch the moon rise. She didn't leave the window until it slipped out of sight above her.

The days were cold and long, and Ginny felt empty wherever she was. Harry's going to die. Harry's going to die.

She had given up all hope, and she wondered if the others could see it.

She stared out at the near-full moon and watched it rise with an eerie sense of deja vu. She remembered suddenly sitting in her dormitory and staring at the moon and crying the night she realized she was the one attacking everyone. Was this like that? Would she be able to live without Harry? No. No, she wouldn't.

I hate you, Tom, she cried out to no one in her mind. I hate you for ruining my life again.

The moon rose slowly and mournfully.

***

The mediwizard was right. She could tell.

They were gathered together in Harry's room, silent as always, the four of them, Harry, and now Lupin. The professor looked tired, more tired than any of the rest. Of course; the full moon was approaching.

Ron was asleep on his cot. Harry was staring at the ceiling. Lupin and Sirius were talking so quietly that no one could even hear their voices. Once in a while, Harry's reddened eyes would flicker across the moon. It had been a long time since he had spoken, and Ginny knew the time was approaching.

He blinked tiredly, wearily, and gave a small, regretful sigh. Hermione's eyes were huge and terribly sad. Not taking her eyes off Harry, the bushy- haired girl gently shook Ron's shoulder. Ginny watched them, and saw Ron follow Hermione's eyes.

Sirius suddenly took a shuddering breath and he met Ginny's eyes. Lupin closed his and nodded. It was almost time, and they could all feel it.

Ginny and Sirius and Lupin came to one side of Harry's bed, Ron and Hermione to the other. Harry's swollen lips twitched, and his eyes shimmered with the same unshed tears that the rest of them were trying to blink away. Harry reached out his hands, and Ron took one of them, Sirius the other. Hermione buried her face in her hands.

"I'm sorry," Harry whispered. Sirius shook his head, and touched Harry's cheek, releasing his godson's hand. Harry reached up slowly and touched Ginny's shoulder. She bent her head over him, and he lifted his head up and kissed her forehead. A tear fell on his cheek, one of Ginny's. Harry's eyes closed, and he slipped into blackness. The rise and fall of his chest became more even, though still hard. "No," Sirius moaned. Ginny buried her face in Harry's pillow, his black hair tickling her forehead where he had kissed her. She heard Ron's torn whisper. "Harry."

"No," Sirius whispered again. Hermione's sobs and Lupin's silence made everything worse, and Ginny felt the sense of emptiness the mediwizard had warned her about.

***

"It's happened," the mediwizard said quietly, and Dumbledore closed his eyes. "I know," the old wizard sighed. "I felt it."

"I'm sorry," the mediwizard said. "You still haven't found anything?"

"I.have a way I might find something." Dumbledore sighed. "But I'm not sure, and it is very risky. It could kill him if I did it."

"If you don't, he'll die anyway," the man sighed. "We can't do anything. What do you suggest?"

"A spell, one that will allow us to look into his memory. Very unstable, and not thoroughly tested. But I can't think of another way to find it. What it was. I might also try a Pensieve with what the young Weasley girl saw and heard."

"I suppose it's the only thing to do," the mediwizard breathed sadly. "The five of them are still in there with him - they're all completely distraught, of course. The boy, the redhead, said the last thing Mr. Potter said was an apology."

Dumbledore nodded. "That's very like Harry," he said wearily. "He cares more about other people's feelings than he does his own."

***

"Anything," Sirius said quietly. "If there's even the smallest chance we could help him - we'll do anything."

"I need your permission, as his godfather, to do what I need to do. But I need to make sure you understand. Even if it works, it's explosive, and if I cannot contain the power of the spell, it will seep into Harry. If this happens he could die. We'll see things exactly as he saw them. I need to make sure I time it right as well - if I activate his memory of unconciousness, I will be stunned and the energy will surge into him without me sharing it, and that would kill him instantly."

"He's going to die if we don't find the antidote, and if this is the only way to do anything." Sirius took a deep breath. "I." He let the breath out and closed his eyes. "All right. Do what you need to. But is there any way to have someone else share the power of the spell? So it doesn't go into Harry?"

"There might be.if we both used the same wand, held it at the same time.but it could hurt you, and if you try to take too much.it is complicated, and quite dangerous."

"Could I try it with you? Please, Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore nodded slowly.