Sorry I didn't respond to all your wonderful reviews last chapter. Alright, here's this chapter. Yes, the ending is sort of like that scene in the Matrix, on re-reading I just realized that, but, whatever. I really hope you enjoy this chapter, because I really enjoyed writing it, I think it's one of my better ones.

Chantal – Thanks! What story is yours, I'd love to check it out!

SmacksKiller – Heh, glad you enjoyed it.

write-me – Wow, thanks for putting me on your favorites, now I feel special. I love your work, keep it up.

Anonymous80 – Thanks for reviewing… hope you get a chance to read the rest.

graphicrockstar – Cool, thanks for reading, you rock my world. And, yeah, I'll change that someday.

bukbeke – Amazing, I'm glad you reviewed. I was originally going to have some of the new characters play a bigger role… some of them will, certainly… but decided to keep it true to the original series.

Chapter 20: Wilderness

            Harry wasn't exactly aware of what happened next. The next thing he was aware of was his face stinging as branches scratched violently across it. His chest hurt from running, his skin was caked with dried blood and dirt. His left arm hung limply by his side, and, when he tried to force it to move, pain shot through him. Panting, he collapsed on the cold, hard ground, dimly thankful that Lockhart wasn't there – that arm had already lost all its bones and had them painfully regrown overnight.

            "Harry? Harry? Is that you?" a girl's voice said from nearby.

            Harry let out what he hoped was a groan of assent because his mouth didn't seem to be working right.

            A broomstick hit the ground nearby, and a small, tomboyish body collapsed beside him, tailing a ponytail that shone with a faint red even in the nearly complete darkness that surrounded them the forest.

            "Ginny?" Harry croaked.

            "I'm so…so glad…so glad I found you…"

            A head-shaped object hit the ground beside him.

            "You…you've got bad breath."

            Harry gave a feeble laugh, pain slashing through his body once more.

            "Where…" Harry began.

            "Don't know…Death Eaters…Went after you and Ron…"

            "What are you two doing here…partying without me?"

            Harry feebly raised his head and saw Hannah Abbot. Her black Quidditch robes were trailing off her, torn and ripped, and she clutched the broken handle of her new Silver Arrow X she had bought for the tournament. Blood seeped from the corners of her mouth, but she looked in better shape than either Harry or Ginny. Harry let his head drop to the ground, watching a nearby worm worm its way through a pile of fallen leaves.

            "Here," she said, tapping both of them with her wand. From the point her wand touched him, Harry felt terrible, heart-rending cold expand in a network. He heard Ginny screaming next to him in pain, begging Hannah to take away the pain. The icy web extended throughout his body, congealing in a thick syrup of freezing nerves in his broken arms.

            "Hannah!" he cried, unable to take it anymore. This was nearly as bad as the Crucias curse.

            Then, the cold was slowly replaced by warmth, spreading in the same manner as the cold. The warmth was refreshing, healing. Once the whole process was over, Harry felt as if he was covered in a warm blanked. Harry wanted nothing more than to fall asleep right there, but he knew that he had to get out of there. He pushed himself off the ground and stood. Then, he looked down in amazement – he had used both arms.

            "You… you healed me?" he asked Hannah, as Ginny's screams were washed away into moans of pleasure.

            "Not well… But both my parents are healers, so they helped teach me magical first aid. Only, I can't use it on myself. LUMOS," she added as an afterthought.

            Harry blinked in surprise, as the forest clearing became awash with brilliantly shining light from the tip of Hannah's wand. Ginny was lying on the ground in a pool of blood that had been flowing from her abdomen. Despite Hannah's healing, she looked terribly vulnerable. Her robes were even more ragged than Hannah's, and her skin was a white that Harry thought only paint in Aunt Petunia's house could achieve. Hannah looked enervated to the point of half-death, and her skin was a startling shade of yellow-grey. The forest around them looked more forbidding than the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts. Gargantuan trees overhung them trailing long, sinuous vines that swung ominously, occasionally lashing at them and whipping back with an audible crack when a particularly strong gust of wind stirred them. Through the dense foliage, Harry could see nothing more than a few trees in, but what he saw wasn't good – carved on many of the larger trees were the same runes and markings Harry had seen underground in the catacombs under Hogwarts.

            "What do you think they are?" asked Hannah, motioning to the symbols.

            Harry wondered… could the Cult of the Spider exist here as well?

            "I don't know…" Harry lied.

            "Well, anyway, it's no use standing around here," Hannah said. "ENERVATE!"

            Ginny rolled over in her sleep. It took three more castings of the spell before Ginny grudgingly awoke and followed them crashing through the forest.

            "Where exactly are we going?" she yelled over the crunching of their footsteps, brushing a thorny branch out of her face so it whipped back and tore at Harry.

            "To find the others!" Hannah yelled back.

            "Well, we're certainly making enough noise for them to find us!"

            She was right. Ron, Ernie and Adrianne emerged from the thicket, beating down branches with their broomsticks.

            "It looks like the whole team's here!" said Ernie, half-smiling.

            "Ron! Ron! You're okay!" yelled Ginny, rushing over to Ron and hugging him.

            "You're sounding more like mum every day. Hey, Harry, why'd you run away from Neville and I?"

            "To tell you the truth, I don't know… I just felt this impulse…"

            "You ran right at You-Know-Who, yelling and screaming," Ron said grimly, disentangling himself from his sister. "Your wand was shooting so many sparks I thought it was Guy Fawkes Day!"

            "Seriously? I don't remember any of this!"

            "I didn't see what happened next… the next thing I knew, everyone was running towards the forest. I went, too… the Death Eaters were chasing people… and then the Dark Mark appeared."

            "And…how about my Broomstick?" asked Harry, already knowing the answer.

            "It was… er… sort of… annihilated… in some of the fighting."

            "So, that makes two broomsticks," Harry said bitterly, remembering when his Nimbus Two Thousand had been snapped in his third year. "And this time, there's no Sirius around to buy me another one."

            "There might be," said Ginny. "Remember the letter?"

            "Yeah, but why hasn't he ever tried to contact me some other way?"

            "I don't know… maybe he can't."

            There was a short pause. The six of them all looked at each other.

            "Hey, what's with these markings on the trees?" asked Ernie suddenly.

            "Hey, Harry, these are the same as-"

            Harry stamped on Ron's foot and pointed at the others.

            "Same as what?" asked Ginny.

            "Well tell you later," muttered Ron.

            There was more silence. They heard the distant howl of a wolf and watched a squirrel run nimbly across some overhanging branches.

            "Well," Adrianne said finally, "we're not getting all the way back to England on our own. Let's try and find a teacher or something."

            They all nodded and proceeded onward through the forest. Maybe it was just Harry's imagination, but he thought the forest was getting thicker and more menacing with every step. Hannah's light was no longer sufficient without the help of the moonlight, so all six now had their wands lit, occasionally sending up sparks in case anybody saw. Finally, they simply couldn't take it anymore.

            "Can we rest?" panted Ernie from the ground – he had just tripped over a tree root.

            Grateful for the excuse, all of them plopped down by a tree and sat for a while.

            "Can any of you sixth years conjure water?" asked Adrianne, who was only in her fourth year.

            Ron made a feeble motion with his wand, but the man who had once conjured a Finder Fairy was only able to produce a feeble shoot of water that flew out of the end of his shining wand and soaked into the ground. They lapsed back into the forced, stressful silence. There was one thing on each of their minds: Where theinsert explicative here are we and how the insert same explicative here are we getting back to school?

            Just then, they heard the crunching of leaves followed by four voices that Harry was loath to hear: both Malfoys were talking in bored, drawling voices followed by a panicky Crabbe and Goyle. Somehow, however, even hearing the Slytherins was calming. They fought their way through the branches (who did quite a good job of fighting back) over to the light.

            "Oh," said Devin, hoisting himself over a patch of mushrooms, "it's you."

            "It looks like your whole damn team is here now," added Draco.

            Crabbe and Goyle looked very much relieved to see the other team members around.

            "Well, what's happening?" demanded Ernie rudely. Apparently, the Hufflepuffs didn't like the Slytherins any more than the Gryffindors did.

            "Manners, Macmillan. Back there," he pointed behind him, "there's something of a battle going on."

            "Where can we get back to school?"

            "How should I know?"

            Ernie and Devin looked swords at one another for some time – daggers weren't sharp enough.

            "Well, it'll be safer if we go together," Ginny said finally.

            "Go where?" sneered Draco. "Back there?"

            "Yes, back there. That's our way out."

            They all looked at each other. Amongst the chirping of crickets, they now heard faint screams.

            "Well, I'm going, anyway," said Ginny. "Suit yourselves."

            "I'm going with you!" cried Ron fiercely.

            "Me too," said Harry. He thought he sounded sort of lame beside Ron.

            "It'll be safer if we're together," agreed Adrianne.

            They looked at the others. Ernie looked uncertainly around. Hannah stared defiantly at the ground.

            "I'm going to be with you, Hannah, whatever you choose to do," he said quietly. The others turned their heads to watch in amazement. Hannah slowly looked up at him. Her eyes were welled up with tears.

            "When I first got to school," Hannah said shakily, "I can remember… I can remember when I put on the sorting hat."

            Harry watched her. She was trembling; every word seemed to be reawakening something deep within her. Harry blinked back tears of his own as he watched… he had never seen Hannah like this, her feelings naked. Tears made lines of cleanliness through her blood-covered and dirty face.

            "It told me… it gave me a choice."

            Harry suddenly felt something he had never felt before. He felt as if he knew what Hannah was going through – he remembered Cho crying the previous year in the Room of Requirement. But Harry felt something else between Hannah and Ernie – it wasn't just love. It was friendship.

            "It told me that I could be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff… It said if I chose Ravenclaw, I would go on to become a w-world famous healer…"

            Harry knew how hard this all must be for her to get out. Every word seemed to be a struggle, yet it was something that she had wanted to get out since she had heard it. Her hands were now clenched together up by her breasts; he looked somehow pleading and small to Harry.

            "And it said if I c-chose Hufflepuff…I would find f-f-friendship and love….I…I"

            But she couldn't say any more. Ernie held out his hands, and she fell limply into them, shuddering with each violent sob, tears dripping down her face. Ernie's face was unreadable. He unconsciously ran his hand down her hair.

            "I understand," he said quietly. "And I'll be here for you."

            Ginny was crying, too, but she was smiling and Adrianne was watching with rapt interest. Ron's eyes were misty, and Harry assumed he was dreaming of what it might be like with whoever he loved. Crabbe and Goyle's mouths were hanging open slightly more than usual. On the other hand, both Malfoys looked bored.

            "We're ready whenever you're done with this mushy shit," Draco drawled while Devin gave a huge fake yawn. No one responded.

            It was a while longer before Ernie and Hannah broke apart. Hannah's face was tear-streaked, but she was no longer crying. Ernie was smiling in a slightly bewildered way, and Harry thought Ron had a run for his money at being the most clueless person at Hogwarts.

            "Let's go… together," Hannah said.

            Ernie nodded dreamily.

            They all looked over to the four newcomers. Crabbe and Goyle shifted their enormous weight from foot to foot.

            "I'm going," Crabbe grunted finally, "I want to get back."

            "Me too," rumbled Goyle.

            "You know your fathers are probably out there… do you want to fight against them?"

            "We're a team," said Crabbe. "We worked together on the Quidditch pitch earlier, and we'll work together now."

            "Father won't stay with The Dark Lord," said Goyle slowly, forming together a sentence longer than any Harry had heard him say before, "not after this."

            They all looked uncertainly down at the Malfoy twins. Both didn't seem too keen on being left alone in the middle of the forest.

            "Go on, then," spat Draco. "Get out of here. If father or the Dark Lord kills you, the world will be better for it."

            They looked at each other and then began, ripping apart ivy as they progressed. They walked in silence (well, they did have Crabbe and Goyle breaking every twig, so silence wasn't exactly the perfect word) as they plodded on. However, before they were more than a few paces in, they heard a voice call out from behind them.

            "We're with you too," said Devin simply, picking himself up.

            "What?" snapped Draco. "Dev, have you lost your mind?"

            "What father is doing is wrong and you know it," said Devin. He didn't shout it; it wasn't a threat. It was simply a statement.

            "Yeah? You want all those mudbloods running around, huh? That's just what you want, isn't it?"

            "Dray, come on. I've had enough of this… it's murder."

            "And when have you been so afraid of that, huh? Go on, then, follow Potter. The two of you deserve to die."

            Harry couldn't believe his eyes – how quickly Draco had turned on his own brother. Apparently, Devin couldn't either.

            "What?"

            "Father sent you away to that school of yours to knock this nonsense out of you. But, apparently, all those galleons were wasted."

            "Dray…"

            Devin seemed lost.

            "Yeah? What? What are you going to say now? That Granger is your girlfriend?"

            Harry and the others watched dumbly, all looking a bit Crabbe and Goyle-ish.

            "Dray, just come along with us. It's not like we'll be cursing father or anything!"

            "Go away. I don't want to see your ugly face again."

            Deafening silence echoed among the trees.

            "I'm not leaving you here," Devin said finally.

            "Oh? Little Devin cares so much about his brother now?"

            "You're coming."

            "Make me."

            There was a second's pause then…

            "I'm sorry, Dray… STUPEFY!"

            The trees glowed red for a second with the light of the spell and then Draco remained sitting, his head lolling to the side.

            "Devin, you…" began Harry.

            "LOCOMOTOR TWIN BROTHER!"

            There were no words to describe how Harry suddenly felt towards Devin. But Harry realized words weren't needed. In that clearing, he had watched two lovers' first kiss, and two brothers betray each other. That's just the way life is, thought Harry dully as he plodded along behind Crabbe and Goyle, who were more effective than any number of machetes for clearing the trees.

            As they walked, the shouting became louder and louder as the arcane symbols on the trees became fewer and fewer. A few curses and hexes flew through the air nearby, singeing trees, and, once, making Adrianne give a great, high-pitched yelp and show her skill at acrobatics as a yellow spell exploded right next to her, making a very confused squirrel's ears to grow past the earspan of even Dobby. They began to half-run, brushing wildly past bushes, wands at the ready. Only Ernie and Hannah, invigorated by their newfound love, still had the energy to keep their wands alight. The others held their wands limply by their side. Hannah had abandoned the broken pieces of her useless broom, and Devin, Ernie and Adrianne had all cast aside their healthy ones. Ron and Ginny both occasionally seemed to extend their hand to do the same, but each time a vision of their mother's face appeared in the air before them, and they quickly retracted their hands as if they had been stung by a particularly potent nettle.

            They finally, after what seemed like an eternity of walking, but was probably only twenty minutes, saw a flickering green light through the trees. Pushing themselves out, they found themselves in the thick of a raging firefight. Ministry wizards wearing brilliant blue robes were dueling masked Death Eaters. Voldemort was nowhere in sight, but the Dark Mark was, giving off the terrible, glittering green light that bathed the courtyard where the World Cup had been only the previous day. The Hogwarts students quickly dodged back into the relative safety of a nearby, grassy clearing in which lay the bleeding body of a dead Ministry wizard.

            "I feel sick," Adrianne said hoarsely, and she ran off into the forest, retching. Harry didn't feel too good either.

            Harry kicked the body aside into the undergrowth, and thy all sat down (except for Draco who floated down), and Devin heaved a sigh.

            "Right, we have to get out of here," Ginny said matter-of-factly.

            "Well, duh," said Ron, trying his utmost to sound casual. "I think we need to get back to the place we came from. That genie might take us back."

            "So, how are we going there?" asked Hannah, curling up into Ernie's arms. Harry watched enviously, thinking of Annette's warmth, how she had made him feel so, totally, lost into her love.

            "Shield," grunted Crabbe. Apparently, he had used his daily quota of complete sentences.

            "Right," said Harry thoughtfully, wishing Hermione was there more than ever. "We need some way to cover ourselves."

            "Well…" began Ron hesitantly, "there are other uses of Ronlius Weaslium…"

            "What do you mean?" Harry asked as the rest of the party stared at Ron in bewilderment.

            "I mean, it can make clouds as well as destroy them."

            "So you're saying," Devin said slowly, "that we cover ourselves in a big cloud. Okay, first, how will we see where you're going?"

            "Well, they're not that thick… unless you want them to be."

            "Okay, second, won't it look just a little weird for a cloud to be floating around?

            "Well, if it's a black cloud, not many people will see us, and those who do will be too involved in the firefight to care."

            It sounded like a brilliant plan to Harry.

            "Well," said Ginny, jumping up eagerly, "let's go get Adrianne."

            They all got up, though much slower than Ginny, and called out for Adrianne who came back a pale shade of green. Hannah and Ernie flicked off their wands with a whisper of "NOX" and the world went completely dark. Their eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and they were surrounded by eerie shadows and multicolored light from the firefight outside. Devin once again magicked his brother into the air.

            "RONLIUS WEASLIUM!"

            It got quite a bit darker and wetter.

            "Come on," whispered Ron. They picked their way carefully through the forest, wary of gigantic roots and low branches. Upon emerging, they broke into a run, feet pounding towards the still-glittering sign that had once read "ENTRANCE HALL" and now read "DARK WIZARD ESCAPE". They were only faintly aware of the yelling and shouting behind them.

            "Ginny!" yelled Ron, pulling his sister aside seconds before a curse flew straight by her.

            "We're almost there," panted Harry. He immediately regretted the waste of breath.

            From behind them, Hannah screamed. They turned and saw through the swirling black mist that she had slipped on a muddy patch of grass and fallen heavily.

            "Hannah!" yelled Ernie, extending his hand. The others stopped and waited for them - the cloud couldn't move without everyone in it. And then Harry heard what he feared most.

            "ARACHNIDORA!" said a whiny voice behind them.

            A sticky spider web flew into the air, and everyone except Draco (whose body floated disconcertingly a few inches from the ground) and Hannah were pulled in. The cloud dissipated instantly.

            "Not trying to run away, are we?" asked a Death Eater, his malevolent smile apparent even from under his mask.

            "Yes, we are!" yelled Harry, gesticulating as much as possible while covered in the sticky web to Hannah, who, thankfully understanding him, rolled aside into even darker shadows.

            "Children… from Hogwarts no doubt… Oh, but look… My lord will be very pleased about this catch, yes he will.

            Harry saw a glint of silver, reflecting the terrible green of the Dark Mark blazing far above them, emerge from under the Death Eater's robe.

            "Wormtail!" gasped Harry.

            "Yes…" sneered Wormtail.

            The man who was responsible for his parents' deaths stood in front of Harry.

            "I'll kill you. I'll fucking kill you!" said Harry dangerously, struggling against his bonds. He hadn't felt this angry since Bellatrix had murdered Sirius.

            "Really? I'd like to see you try."

            He then turned around. He was muttering, walking around them, touching his wand to different places on the web. Wherever his wand touched the web nearby glowed orange. Harry assumed that he was trying to levitate them all at once.

            "Now," said Wormtail, circling them, "the prophecy says that the only person who can kill you, Harry, is the Dark Lord himself."

            He held his wand out dangerously.

            "But I beg to differ. Let's see if this prophecy of yours comes true."

            Harry felt every hair on his body raging with anger.

            "Well," he said, "maybe I'll have a bit of fun, first. Maybe one of your friends wants die?"

            "NO!" shouted Harry.

            "Or maybe this will work…"

            He smiled evilly, pointing his wand directly at Harry. Harry couldn't think through the white-hot anger which seared his soul.

            "CRUCIO!"

            Harry felt pain sear through him, pain he had experienced once before in the graveyard where Voldemort had risen back to power. Between pain and anger, Harry was completely unaware of what was going on. He felt every muscle being ripped apart, his whole body twitching. He felt his burning mouth open in protest, but no sound could contain the pain that was burning white-hot within him.

            "Is that enough for now?"

            The pain eased away, leaving a hollow, empty sensation. Harry was crying, screaming, he didn't know what. He forced himself to stop, to focus, to look. In back of him he could feel the kicking of the other trapped bodies, and in front of him he saw the face of Peter Pettigrew, who had removed his mask and cowl and was smiling sickeningly.

            "Well, now, I think I've had enough fun for one day," he said. There was a triumphant air about him. "Let's see if Miss Trelawney was right, shall we?"

            Harry watched him, panting. There was nothing more to it; this was the end of his life, the end of everything. He remembered think before, how he had been thinking of how he could finally see Sirius… was this the time? Had his wanderings in the forest been nothing more than a prelude to his true end?

            "Do you believe in fate, Harry?"

            Did he? As angry and exhausted as Harry was, this kick started his brain into action: would the prophecy protect him? Would he live through this? But did he want to believe in fate: After all, he wanted to feel like he was in control of his own life.

            "Yes," he said through gritted teeth.

            "Well, then," he said with a smile, "In that case, the only way you're going to die is if the Dark Lord shows up behind me and kills you first."

            "Yeah?" spat Harry. "Then do it. Get it over with. Kill me."

            Wormtail's smile broadened.

            "As you wish."
            He pointed his wand at Harry. Harry watched the trees rustle, the world go by… only hours ago, he had been playing Quidditch, having fun... And now he was going to die. Ron was behind him, he assumed he had a few seconds in which to say goodbye, to tell him to tell Hermione goodbye, to tell Annette he always loved her, to tell Luna to take that lobster out of her hair…

            "AVADA KEDAVRA!" Wormtail said, with a note of finality.