Chapter 19:

Author's Note: I'm back again! It's not that long of a chapter again, but I'm working hard to update as often as I can. Please, please review! I'm sorry for not leaving the usual messages to my faithful reviewers in the last chapter, but I was a bit pressed for time. They are right here, though you might want to avoid this section if you haven't reviewed before:

Cariel- Thank you so much! I'm really glad that you like it! I'm sorry you had to wait so long! I hope you like this chapter!

Mione Weasley/Sylvia Malfoy- My bestest best best coolest reviewer ever! I'm so sorry for making you wait such a long time! *sobs* I've just been so busy. It's no excuse, I know, I should Ron, Hermione, and Draco ahead of my personal/academic life any day of the week, but I've been neglecting my duties. Forgive me! Anyway, I assure you, they will get together write soon, but it takes a while, they are serious people when it comes to relationships, and if I do decide to write a sequel, you can be sure that Draco and his wife will have very pretty babies! Hehe…anyway, please read and tall me what I'm doing right and wrong, I depend on you, dear friend!

Hermiones-Twin- Well, I'm sorry my updates haven't been "soon" but I'm glad you like the story! Thank you for the review!

Sela- Aww! I feel so fuzzy inside! Thank you for the wonderful review, here's the next chapter…I hope you like it! Thank you for the reviews!

bumpersticker86- Lol! That's so cool! I made someone laugh! *grins unavoidably* I'm sorry for taking so long to update, but as usual, my life has decided to be a living hell. Sheesh! Okay, well, I hope you like this next chapter!

Michemix- Hehe…three months with so little chapters? Well, I have to apologize then, but I'm very glad that you like my fanfic! Please continue to read and review, if you can still forgive me for not posting the next chapter for such a long time.

owlpost1992- Hey! I'm sorry for not posting the chapter in such a long time! I decided that they should call him Pettigrew because only Voldemort would have known that nick name, not everyone. After all, the teachers at Hogwarts never knew his nickname was Wormtail. Bye! *bumps back*

Gigaku- Wow! I'm glad you liked that! I thought it was funny, I just couldn't resist putting it in there. Sorry for the long delay in posting, but enjoy!

Grintsgrl- Yay!!! I'm so glad that you like my fanfic! I suppose you happen to be a devout shipper of Ron and Hermione as I am, right? Well, I have to apologize so much for not posting sooner, but I have continued my story finally, and I hope you like it just as much as the last chapters! Thank you for the fantastic review!

CurlsofGold- I'm so glad you've come to review me again! I'm so sorry for the uncalled-for delay and I sincerely apologize. I hope you like this next chapter! Not a lot of shippiness for R/Hr, but if you like G/H then this is great!

LizWeasley221- Thank you for reading, and that is probably one of the best reviews I have ever received. I was getting annoyed myself with all of these one chapter fics where all of the sudden, Ron and Hermione fall in love and kiss and so on. That isn't what happened for the first four years of their education at Hogwarts, why would it happen in one to two nights? It wouldn't. Thank you so much, and please continue to read!

fleurfan- Ooh! I'm so glad you like it! By the way, I love Fleur too, she's awesome. Please keep reading, and thank you so much for the review!

jessica- Well, you find out in this chapter where they find Ginny, I hope you like it! Lots of good H/G fluffiness, if that's your thing. Thank you for the great reviews!

leigh-Woohoo! Go HP! Only 49 days left! My dear friend, go check out the news at the Leaky Cauldron, JK is doing a reading and ten Americans will be able to go, it's a contest though. But I just wanted to let you know! Bye!!

Amandah Leigh-By my calculations, which could be wrong, Dennis arrived at Hogwarts in Harry's fourth year, and Harry graduated when he was 17. If that is correct, then when Harry is 22, it means that Dennis can be 17 or 18, depending on what time of the year it is. So, if you find me wrong please inform me of that, and I will try to edit things a bit. Thanks for reading, and many thanks for the thought-provoking review!

cool123321- Thanks! Please keep reading, and thanks for the review!

Lady Russell Holmes- Thank you for the review! Have fun reading this chapter!

You may resume your regular reading schedule now, thank you for your scrolling time.

Disclaimer: I know I don't own any of the rights to J.K. Rowling's great story, Harry Potter, but I must stress the horrid things that Warner Bros. doing in massacring the books just to make movies. Warner Brothers is taking out Oliver Wood, yes, Wood, and quidditch from the third movie! Will we stand for this kind of action? I think not!!!! Please, visit your nearest HP fansite and sign the "It's the Wood that Makes it Good" petition. Thank you very much, and if you happen to see a Warner Bros. employee, either kill them or get me their license plate number.

A Proposal in the Last Five Minutes

Lucius launched into a beautifully descriptive, flowery, totally improvised speech about what had happened to them when his "filthy son" had attacked them, and how Lord Voldemort had come and put them right (and alive) again. He added that the Dark Lord had destroyed his poor excuse for a child and the two others that were with him, a "disgraceful mudblood" and "that son of Arthur Weasley, the lover of all mudbloods and muggles."  He told Peter that they were still looking for the terrible Potter and that they should not kill him, but bring him to Voldemort so that He could carry out his insightful plans of what to do with him. He went on talking without any visual appearance of stopping any moment in the near future. Goyle was very impressed.

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Meanwhile, out by the depths of the house, far from where Draco, Ron, and Hermione would be, Harry struggled to remain as quiet as possible in his anxiety. It was no easy feat.

"Alohamora," he muttered almost incomprehensibly to the doorknob. With a short burst of red from his wand, the lock sprang from its socket and with a satisfying click! the door opened with a slight creaking noise. Harry tiptoed inside and closed the door behind him quite carefully. He looked from one gray and dull hallway to the next. Both looked very long indeed for such a normal house. He realized that, like Mr. Weasley's car in second year, this house was magically expanded on the inside.

It was huge, perhaps just as large as Malfoy Manor from what he had heard of it, but not as open. Oh no, this house seemed to be tangled into a knot or maze of hallways stretching and turning this way and that. There was only one desperate way he decided to try in order to get to Ginny that had helped him quite well when he was in his fourth year. He placed his wand in the palm of his hand, looked at it for a moment, and then whispered softly,

"Point me to Ginny."

Just when Harry was going to give up and put the wand back in his pocket to sieve through all of the hallways, the wand gave a twirl. It went faster and faster, then stopping, turned the other way and another way, it finally, gracefully stopped and pointed to the hallway on Harry's right side. Grinning hopefully, Harry lunged down the corridor. He checked doors right and left until a fluttering sound caught his ear. He hurried to a nearby window just in time to see an owl swoop across the sky and over the wood. This owl gave him a sense of foreboding, for some strange, evil reason that Harry did not know. He shook the feeling of, and getting rid of the distraction, tried another door on his left.

A long, narrow staircase descended in front of him. Harry could feel something here and used the spell to point him towards Ginny once again. When it told him, he rushed down the stairs that creaked and cracked with age behind him. When he reached the foot of the staircase another long hallway went on before him. He decided it might be deep enough and far enough away from Wormtail to actually call her.

"Ginny," he said quietly. He heard movement come from one of the rooms behind the heavy doors down the hall. He briskly walked towards it, and knocked delicately on the door.

"Gin?" He said, a little bit louder.

"Harry?" He heard Ginny's sobbing voice cry faintly from behind the door.

"Alohamora!" He said, pointing at the door. Nothing happened. Of course they wouldn't make it that easy, Harry thought to himself.

"Damn it!" He almost shouted, "How am I going to get in?" Suddenly an idea came to him. Searching his pockets, Harry found a few pieces of paper and an old bobby pin that Ginny had asked him to hold for her, a long time ago. He took it out, and fumbling around with it, stuffed it into the key hole frantically. He remembered the summer before his second year at Hogwarts once again, when the Weasleys had rescued him from the Dursleys with a bobby pin and a turquoise ford Anglia.

He turned the pin back and forth gently, struggling to keep his patience. The tumblers finally moved and the lock fell open. Harry opened the door and rushed into the room to see Ginny sitting helplessly on the floor with a tear-stained face. In front of her was the piece of paper with which she'd been writing to them. She looked up.

"Harry!" She said with a strangled cry. "I thought I'd been imagining you again." They embraced each other with a tight hug. Harry had her close to him, his arm around her, holding her, and his other hand stroking her bright red hair. He rested his head on her shoulder, right against her delicate neck. It was so wonderful, she had been all that he had thought of since Draco, Ron, and Hermione had found him. She had had thrown her arms around him. She showered his untidy, jet black hair with soft kisses, rejoicing that he was alive and he had found her.

"Ginny. I'm so glad you're alive," he said, voicing her thoughts. "We weren't careful enough. But that doesn't matter now, does it?" He smiled warmly in her presence.

"I knew you would find me, Harry. It doesn't matter. We're together." She sighed in relief and stayed as close as she could to Harry.

"Yes. We're together…together at last…Ginny?" he asked, looking at her brilliant blue eyes and freckled face.

"Yes Harry?" She asked, smiling back at him.

"I love you."

She grinned widely at this and gave him another hug.

"I love you, too."

"Marry me, will you?" He said hastily, taking her hands in his. This was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with: she was sitting there in front of him, completely brave, completely ready to give her life for him. He wanted to give his life for her.

"Of course. I've been ready to say yes since I was eleven."

They shared a long, sweet kiss and held each other closely. But Harry rapidly remembered Ron, Draco, and Hermione.

"We have to go, Ginny." He pulled back and got to his feet, running a hand quickly through his black hair. "We have to get out of here. Ron and Hermione and Draco are causing a distraction for us. Let's go!" He gave her his hand, and with just one question springing from her mouth ("Draco?"), they ran out the door of her dark, cold room. They hurried though the long hallway and up the dangerously noisy, cracking, old stairs. Until-

"Hold on. Who are you? Oh, I see. You are the Potter boy."

They had been stopped by who appeared to be the butler of Wormtail. He said this gravely, but he seemed rather sad. "I'm sure," he sighed, "that master Pettigrew would want to see this. You had better come with me." He took Harry's wand from him, who let him. The surprise and pity he had for this man kept him from harming him. But as soon as he realized what he'd done, panic filled his bright green eyes. He clutched Ginny's hand protectively. Keeping close, they reluctantly followed Harold to where Wormtail was listening in fear to his three friends.

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It had been a long while and Goyle was wondering how Harry was managing all on his own. He glanced at his watch subtly by crossing his arms across his chest and giving a menacing glare to the coward in front of them. He was quite frightened himself now, though. In only five minutes, the Polyjuice potion would wear off. Crabbe looked a bit panicky, too. He seemed to be taking it out by acting really angry at Peter. Lucius was finishing his speech now, though, so Goyle surmised that he knew what was going on.

He was standing only a foot away from Pettigrew, looking down his nose in contempt at the small, nervous man Lucius held his wand aimed at him, threateningly getting closer or farther, and whishing around, this way or that, in accordance to what Lucius was saying. Peter began to beg him.

"Yes, b-b-but what did I do? Why are you here? There are plenty of-of other loyal death eaters who would enjoy this privilege. I-I-I mean, this isn't the, uh, er, why would you need to tell me this?"

"Because, Pettigrew!" Lucius exclaimed in slight annoyance and amusement at the same time. He waved an impatient hand.

"If we conquered death, shouldn't' you have the right to do so also? It is only just for one so magnanimous as you were in the situation our Dark Lord was in before. You saved him from that place! You should be the first to undergo the process…after my friends and me, of course. It was only a necessity to bring us back. You are the true one who deserves it." Lucius raised his eyebrows slightly, and with a sinister smile, stepped back to aim his wand at Peter's heart.

Peter wrung his hands and shook his head in fear and desperation. "I-I-I, of course I would, Lucius. When I die of natural causes it will be a g-great feeling to be raised by the Dark Lord, so I think I would b-better appreciate it later than at this particular moment-"

"SILENCE!" Lucius commanded ferociously.

But at that particular moment, Harold the Butler opened the door to the parlor with a serious frown on his face, deep set in his wrinkles of age. In front of him were Ginny and Harry, clasping each others hands tightly. It was easy to see that they were quite frightened, but a trace of a smile crossed Harry's lips when he caught sight of Lucius, Crabbe, and Goyle.

"Harry Potter!" Wormtail suddenly said with glee, sliding out from the direction of Lucius's wand while they were gaping in shock at seeing Harry and Ginny. "And the Dark Lord himself will be here, too!" He laughed and added under his breath, "I will be prized above all the Death Eaters." He grinned at the seemingly helpless couple.

Ron and Hermione whipped out their wands at the same time and pointed them at Wormtail, but suddenly, they started to shrink. They shrank until they became their normal (A/n: Normal?) selves, Ron glad that he no longer had Crabbe's toenails, Hermione glad that she was feminine again. Draco shrank also, the wrinkles in his face disappeared, and he became less evil and stony looking. Wormtail was shocked and fidgeted wildly as the others held their ground.

Except for Harry, that is.

He suddenly fell to the floor with a powerless groan, clutching his forehead in pain. Ginny dropped down next to him, trying to help. Hermione knew what was wrong. Voldemort had read that letter, and in a burst of anger, was quickly on his way there. There isn't much time left, then! She ran up to Wormtail, and, pointing her wand straight between his eyes, said quite clearly, "Give. Me. Your. Wand."

He took it out with a fretful gulp, and shutting his eyes tightly, handed it over to Hermione. Draco took up a task also; he walked over to Harold quite calmly and said, "We're going to write a letter to Dumbledore Give the wands to Ron."

He indicated Ron, who was standing on the other side of the room, serving Hermione as backup. Draco glared at Harold treacherously, as he hesitated. He threw the two wands, which landed perfectly in Ron's pocket, and left with Draco on his heels.

Suddenly, Wormtail lashed out at Hermione, who backed up in surprise. Ron attacked in a rage, kicking and punching him violently in a number of places that weren't quite appropriate. Wormtail squeaked and tried to fight back before (quickly) losing his consciousness. Ron shoved the motionless rat of a man into a corner of the room. Then he took the two wands out of his pocket and tossed them to Ginny, who was helping Harry out of his stupor of pain. He looked at Pettigrew, and with a loud laugh said,

"I've been waiting to do that for a long time!"

~Evyfleur