We're getting pretty close to the end now...I hope you're all ready for it.
Buffy stood in Dumbledore's office. "On his way here?" she asked, breathless. "Now?"
"Now," Dumbledore said. "The Ministry in London is gone. Wiped out. Everyone was killed, and now he's coming here to do it again."
Dumbledore, for the first time ever, looked flustered. He was rushing about his office, looking at charts, and seeing whether or not things were in place.
"We're not ready," he said. "Our defenses aren't fully prepared, we don't have as many troops as we should, the hospital isn't built, the artillery hasn't even begun to arrive..."
He cast around. "And the most important thing of all..." He stopped hurrying around. "I need to see Craig, Ginny, and Harry, right away. Craig first."
Buffy looked at him and didn't know what to say. "Uh..." she stumbled. "Craig's...indisposed,"
"You don't want to tell me that," Dumbledore said, dangerously. Buffy took a step back.
"He went crazy on us out in the woods," she said. "Attacked us. Probably would have ended up killing a few of us too, but something stopped him. He's in the hospital wing now."
Dumbledore rushed back around his desk. "We don't have time for this," he said. He tapped his wand against a specific section of the map of Hogwarts on his desk. "Poppy, I need to see Craig in my office now, regardless of whether or not it will hurt him."
"But Dumbledore," came the voice of the nurse. "This boy needs to rest. He is not well, and shouldn't even be standing, let alone..."
"I don't care," Dumbledore said. There was the sound of a stifled gasp from the other end, and finally an affirmative.
Next, Dumbledore tapped on the kitchen. "Dobby," he said. "Bring Harry and Ginny to my office, as soon as possible."
He didn't wait for a reply; one wasn't needed. The elf was more than reliable. "Buffy," Dumbledore said. "Get Grimshar and as many your commanding officers as you feel in necessary and meet me in the Great Hall in half an hour. We need to talk, fast."
"I'll put in a call to Angel and see if I can get some reinforcements, too," she said.
"Excellent," Dumbledore said. He wasn't listening to her. Craig had just walked through the door.
He was supported by crutches. He looked at Buffy, but couldn't look her in the eye. She left.
"Voldemort is coming here," Dumbledore said. "Can Harry and Ginny still make it?"
Craig's eyes, usually so intense, were dull and distant. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe."
Dumbledore slammed his fist down against the table. "Damn it, Craig! Can it work?" he asked.
Craig didn't answer.
Dumbledore crossed around the table and shook Craig violently. "Snap out of it!" Dumbledore hissed. "I don't care what has happened to you tonight, snap out of it! We need you to focus!"
Craig seemed to come back into himself. "Huh?" he asked. "Where am I?"
Dumbledore related the events in London to Craig. "Can Ginny and Harry still manage?" he asked, once more.
Craig considered for a moment. "Yes," he said, finally. "They can. I think the bond is strong enough.
"They're soul mates."
When, drowsily, Harry and Ginny walked through the door to Dumbledore's office, the sight that met them stunned them. Craig stood before Dumbledore's desk, his clothes ripped and battered, and a series of large gashes covering his face. Dumbledore looked as though he aged several centuries since dinner.
"What's wrong, Professor?" Ginny asked.
"What isn't wrong would be a better question, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said. "What I have to tell the two of you here will be shocking. It might disgust you a bit. But remember that it is for the common good.
"The basics, the things you already know: Harry defeated Voldemort fifteen years ago. I've been making plans since then for when Voldemort was to return, because it was prophesied that Harry was the only person alive who could defeat Voldemort, and whoever wins their personal battle, wins the war.
"And now, the things you don't know: the key the magical world is here at Hogwarts. It's not so much a tangible thing as it these grounds themselves. This is the most magical place on Earth, and whoever controls it can control the world.
"Voldemort understands this. He wants Hogwarts, but Hogwarts is fundamentally a force of good; he can't use it. But Salazar Slytherin left a way for Hogwarts to be subverted, if the need ever arose.
"There is a place, at the exact bottom center of the lake, where the ground flattens out and the water becomes air. There is a pedestal there. If this pedestal is filled with soil from the mouth of Hell, than a Hellmouth will open under Hogwarts, destroying the castle and transferring its power to whomever was responsible for the mess.
"The pedestal cannot be destroyed. However, it can be sealed away in the Astral Plane. This can only be done while someone is performing the ritual to raise the mouth of hell. Voldemort will be there tonight, performing the ritual. Since sending him to the Astral Plane is technically killing him, and since there's no way back from there once the ritual is complete, Harry must be the one to perform the ritual.
"And the ritual can only be performed by a vampire."
Dumbledore gave this all a while to sink in. "A vampire?" Harry asked, dumbstruck. "I'll have to be a vampire?"
"There's more," Craig said. "You're really going to hate this part. We've been monitoring your relationship for the past few months. It was destined to happen. Well, sort of...Harry needed to fall in love. Once you're a vampire, you'll be evil. The only thing that can ever make a vampire good is if it has a soul. The magic's that gave Angel his soul are gone; we can't simply make you a vampire and give you a soul. Instead, you have a soul mate. The two of you are going to share a soul."
Silence descended on the room. Dumbledore was trying to gauge whether or not the truckload of emotional burdens he'd just dumped on the two teens was going to break them; Craig was wondering whether not they were going to ask him why he was involved at all; and Harry and Ginny were absorbing.
Dumbledore looked up at the clock on the wall. "I have a meeting that I must attend," he said. "I want the three of you there, too."
He rose from his desk and left. Blindly, without really feeling, Harry and Ginny got up too and went after him. Craig took a deep breath. He shut the door behind himself as he left.
Buffy looked around at those assembled in the Great Hall: Giles, Faith, Grimshar, a wizard lieutenant named Ain, McGonagall, and Snape. She checked the clock. Nearly midnight. In fact, Buffy made every little observation that could distract her from the incredible badness of their situation.
Dumbledore arrived, followed closely by Harry, Ginny...and Craig. Buffy shot a look at Faith, but it was too late.
"What's he doing here?" Faith asked, gesturing at Craig.
"Craig will be a major part of the defense of this castle," Dumbledore said. "It is only fair that we include him."
"Defense?" Faith asked, and Buffy attempted to kick her under the table. "He's better at killing everything in sight."
"We don't have time for this!" Dumbledore yelled, surprising everyone. "You two will get along. Period."
Faith was shocked. She'd only known the old man for a few months, but a few months was a long enough period of time to convince her that he was way out of character.
Faith nodded. "Sure," she said. "If you say so."
"I do," Dumbledore said, more gravely than angrily. "To business. Voldemort's forces are on their way here. Grimshar, tell us what we know about the army."
Grimshar stood. He smiled - his smile was terrifying to any who didn't understand what he was doing. "We knew there'd be vampires," he said. "We didn't know how many until now. Sixteen hundred. That's right, kiddies; they outnumber us almost two to one, and that's just the beginning. After the vampires there are other types of demon. As many as twelve hundred. And finally, Voldemort's Death Eaters and Giants: mercifully, there are only about a hundred of each. If you add it all up, they've got three thousand, six hundred troops, and we have about nine hundred."
"Four to one," Giles muttered. "Good Lord..."
Grimshar's awful smile returned. "Yeah, chances are you'll be meeting him pretty soon."
Dumbledore cut in. "Grimshar, what are our current defense capabilities? I want to know everything."
Grimshar lost his humor in a hurry. "Albus, if he arrives before dawn, we're in trouble. If he arrives before next week, we're in trouble. If he arrives before next year, we're in trouble. Nothing is where it needs to be. None of the magical wards have been tested. Most of them are fresh off the Ministry ship lines, and we all know just how effective the wards at the Ministry must have been."
"Can we hold out under a full scale assault?" Dumbledore asked.
"For a while," Grimshar said. "But that's all we can do: hold out. In the end, they'll wear us down. They'll win. As long as we're all there is, they'll win."
Buffy jumped in. "I talked to Angel," she said. "He's pulling every string possible to get us some reinforcements, but mobilizing armies from across oceans isn't easy. He can send aid, but the big guns won't arrive for a while."
"How much can he send, when all is said and done?" Dumbledore asked.
"Two thousand units, tops," she said. "That's the best he can do."
Dumbledore nodded. "If we can hold on, weaken them for a time, then maybe we can throw them back eventually. But none of that really matters."
Jaw's dropped. "What?" Ain asked, confused beyond all belief. "Did I misunderstand you?"
"You did not, lieutenant," Dumbledore said. "I said that none of it matters. It doesn't. What matters is whether or not Harry can defeat Voldemort. If he does, than we will win. If he does not, than we will lose. Period."
Slowly, everyone turned to Harry and stared at him. He shrank in his seat a bit. "Okay, make me feel more uncomfortable," he said.
They snapped out of it and focused on Dumbledore. "So what is our goal?" Faith asked. "What are we fighting to do?"
"Keeping the demons off the students and out of the castle," Dumbledore said. "If they get in, than we'll have a slaughter that no one will be able to clean up after, and they could even destroy the castle. We can't let that happen. If we lose, nothing matters anyway, but we won't give up. If we win, we'll need the castle and its resources to rebuild the magical world."
"Right," Faith said.
Just then, an owl swooped into the hall. It carried a piece of red parchment in its talons.
"That's a lookout," Dumbledore said. "His army is less than ten miles away. They'll be here in an hour."
McGonagall spoke up for the first time. "Shall we evacuate the students to the Great Hall?" she asked, sounding remarkably well composed despite the mayhem that was going to be erupting soon.
"Yes," Dumbledore said. "Grimshar, Ain, I need you to get the Ministry garrison mobilized. That bird was from the northern lookout, so go take your troops there and set up a line of defense. Buffy, take the Slayers there too; lend a hand wherever possible. I'll leave the tactics up to you; just don't let those demons through! They don't reach the castle under any circumstances. Harry, you, Craig, Ginny, and a small group of the Slayers will go to the lake and prepare for the ritual. I'll go with you to show you how its done and...and to prepare your body for it. Okay. That's it. Let's go." Harry shuddered. He felt Ginny's hand snake into his under the table. He felt like leaning on her shoulder and crying.
As everyone got up to perform their specific duties, he held Ginny's hand tighter. "I'm going to die tonight," he said.
"No, you aren't!" Ginny said, with soft conviction. "You are not going to die! Do you remember what I told you about hope?"
"Ginny, they're going to make me a vampire," Harry said. "You have to die to become a vampire."
"Oh, yeah," Ginny said. "Well, you'll still be you; we'll be sharing a soul."
"Do you think that this will work?" he asked.
"It has to," Ginny said.
McGonagall's magically magnified voice came through the loud speaker. "All students are to report IMMEDIATELY to the Great Hall. No delaying, no fussing, NOTHING. Any infractions of any severity will be dealt with very harshly. I repeat, all students report IMMEDIATELY to the Great Hall."
Harry and Ginny stood apart from the door, to make sure they weren't hit too hard by the crowd. Dumbledore sat at the Head Table, waiting for the team of Slayers that would accompany them to the lake to arrive.
The students began arriving quickly. All were still dressed in their night clothes. Ron and Hermione spotted Harry and Ginny and rushed over.
"You two look like you've just been through a battle," Ron said.
"No, the battle hasn't started yet," Ginny said. "It's coming up though, if you want to wait for it."
"What?" Hermione asked, going very pale.
"Voldemort is coming," Harry said, dully. "And I'm going to stop him."
"Harry, that's ridiculous!" Ron said. "Dumbledore won't want you throwing away your life like this..."
"Dumbledore is the one whose putting me up to this," Harry said.
"This is part of the plan?" Ron asked, aghast.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Are you sure?" Ron asked, scared positively shitless.
"Yes!" Harry said, hoping that he'd gotten some measure of finality into his voice to mask the fear. Harry saw Neville, Luna, and several other members of the DA hurrying over.
"Harry, we've heard rumors that You-Know-Who's coming," Neville said. "He's on his way now."
"That's right," Harry said.
"And you're going to fight him," Luna said.
"That's right," Harry said.
"We want to help," Neville said. "The DA is behind you."
Harry looked out at the small crowd that had been attracted. They were looking intently at him, obviously afraid, but just as obviously determined. For the first, and he could guess only, time that night, Harry smiled. "That means a lot to me, really, it does," he said. "But this isn't your fight. It's mine."
"And we're your friends," Hermione said. "We want to help you."
"There's nothing you can do," Harry said. "The ritual involved can only be performed by me, and..." he trailed off. Dumbledore was signaling him that it was time. A group of Slayers waited by the door, with Craig. "It's time for us to go. Ginny?"
"Yes, I'm with you," she said. As they left the crestfallen DA behind, she said. "I'll be with you forever."
"Let's just work on tonight, shall we?" Harry said.
"Sounds like a plan," Ginny said.
The troops took up their position in the north. Faith surveyed the Slayers to make sure they were ready. She stopped at Maria.
"Ready to fight, Maria?" she asked.
Maria nodded, her face set. She swung her mace in small circles, keeping loose. "Bring it on," she said.
"That's my girl," Faith said.
Grimshar came up to Faith. "Are all of the Slayers in place along the line?" he asked.
"Yeah," Faith said. "They're ready to go."
"Do you think this is going to work?" Grimshar asked. "With the boy?"
"It has to," Faith replied, simply.
Everywhere, at that moment, people were asking others, "Do you think it'll work?", in reference to Harry's fight with Voldemort. And everywhere, the answer was, "It has to".
Nowhere, though, was the question as stressed over as it was in the mind of Albus Dumbledore as he taught the ritual of salvation to Harry Potter.
"Do you think you can do it?" Dumbledore asked.
"It seems fairly basic," Harry replied, fighting to keep his nerves and his nausea down. "I can do it."
Dumbledore fished in a pocket and withdrew a large blue capsule. "Here," he said. "Take this. It will make you rise as a vampire faster, rather than having to wait hours."
Harry took it and the glass of water Dumbledore summoned out of thin air. He swallowed the pill.
Dumbledore considered Harry for a moment. He'd never given the younger boy...man a choice in this, and Harry had never asked for one. He knew that he had to do this. He'd grown up.
Damn.
Dumbledore withdrew two things from his robes: a knife and a large red vial.
"Slit your writs, Harry," he said. "And once you've bled enough, drink this."
Harry took the knife, and, trembling, cut his wrists. He cringed a bit as blood started to flow out of him. He felt himself getting light headed quickly. As consciousness began to fail him, Harry's last sight was of Ginny's tear streaked face.
As his eyes closed and darkness enveloped him, he pressed the vial to his lips and drank.
When Harry Potter picked himself up off the ground, he wasn't on the lake shore anymore. He looked around. He was in a bubble the size of a small room. In the center of the bubble, next to him, stood a pedestal.
Harry reached a hand up and felt his face. It had gone bumpy. His scar was stretched a bit. He lowered his hand a little and felt his long, sharp fangs. He was vaguely aware of a slight burning in his chest, near his no-longer-beating heart: the soul he shared with Ginny.
Harry Potter had become a vampire.
Another cliffy. Y'all be proud of me; I wrote this in exactly three hours and twenty two minutes. As always, leave your reviews and criticisms and all. I want to hear it. Oh, one last minor, unimportant detail. The next chapter is the last official one of the story, though I might do an epilogue if I feel like it (I'm gonna feel like it, so don't worry). Tootles.
Buffy stood in Dumbledore's office. "On his way here?" she asked, breathless. "Now?"
"Now," Dumbledore said. "The Ministry in London is gone. Wiped out. Everyone was killed, and now he's coming here to do it again."
Dumbledore, for the first time ever, looked flustered. He was rushing about his office, looking at charts, and seeing whether or not things were in place.
"We're not ready," he said. "Our defenses aren't fully prepared, we don't have as many troops as we should, the hospital isn't built, the artillery hasn't even begun to arrive..."
He cast around. "And the most important thing of all..." He stopped hurrying around. "I need to see Craig, Ginny, and Harry, right away. Craig first."
Buffy looked at him and didn't know what to say. "Uh..." she stumbled. "Craig's...indisposed,"
"You don't want to tell me that," Dumbledore said, dangerously. Buffy took a step back.
"He went crazy on us out in the woods," she said. "Attacked us. Probably would have ended up killing a few of us too, but something stopped him. He's in the hospital wing now."
Dumbledore rushed back around his desk. "We don't have time for this," he said. He tapped his wand against a specific section of the map of Hogwarts on his desk. "Poppy, I need to see Craig in my office now, regardless of whether or not it will hurt him."
"But Dumbledore," came the voice of the nurse. "This boy needs to rest. He is not well, and shouldn't even be standing, let alone..."
"I don't care," Dumbledore said. There was the sound of a stifled gasp from the other end, and finally an affirmative.
Next, Dumbledore tapped on the kitchen. "Dobby," he said. "Bring Harry and Ginny to my office, as soon as possible."
He didn't wait for a reply; one wasn't needed. The elf was more than reliable. "Buffy," Dumbledore said. "Get Grimshar and as many your commanding officers as you feel in necessary and meet me in the Great Hall in half an hour. We need to talk, fast."
"I'll put in a call to Angel and see if I can get some reinforcements, too," she said.
"Excellent," Dumbledore said. He wasn't listening to her. Craig had just walked through the door.
He was supported by crutches. He looked at Buffy, but couldn't look her in the eye. She left.
"Voldemort is coming here," Dumbledore said. "Can Harry and Ginny still make it?"
Craig's eyes, usually so intense, were dull and distant. "I don't know," he said. "Maybe."
Dumbledore slammed his fist down against the table. "Damn it, Craig! Can it work?" he asked.
Craig didn't answer.
Dumbledore crossed around the table and shook Craig violently. "Snap out of it!" Dumbledore hissed. "I don't care what has happened to you tonight, snap out of it! We need you to focus!"
Craig seemed to come back into himself. "Huh?" he asked. "Where am I?"
Dumbledore related the events in London to Craig. "Can Ginny and Harry still manage?" he asked, once more.
Craig considered for a moment. "Yes," he said, finally. "They can. I think the bond is strong enough.
"They're soul mates."
When, drowsily, Harry and Ginny walked through the door to Dumbledore's office, the sight that met them stunned them. Craig stood before Dumbledore's desk, his clothes ripped and battered, and a series of large gashes covering his face. Dumbledore looked as though he aged several centuries since dinner.
"What's wrong, Professor?" Ginny asked.
"What isn't wrong would be a better question, Miss Weasley," Dumbledore said. "What I have to tell the two of you here will be shocking. It might disgust you a bit. But remember that it is for the common good.
"The basics, the things you already know: Harry defeated Voldemort fifteen years ago. I've been making plans since then for when Voldemort was to return, because it was prophesied that Harry was the only person alive who could defeat Voldemort, and whoever wins their personal battle, wins the war.
"And now, the things you don't know: the key the magical world is here at Hogwarts. It's not so much a tangible thing as it these grounds themselves. This is the most magical place on Earth, and whoever controls it can control the world.
"Voldemort understands this. He wants Hogwarts, but Hogwarts is fundamentally a force of good; he can't use it. But Salazar Slytherin left a way for Hogwarts to be subverted, if the need ever arose.
"There is a place, at the exact bottom center of the lake, where the ground flattens out and the water becomes air. There is a pedestal there. If this pedestal is filled with soil from the mouth of Hell, than a Hellmouth will open under Hogwarts, destroying the castle and transferring its power to whomever was responsible for the mess.
"The pedestal cannot be destroyed. However, it can be sealed away in the Astral Plane. This can only be done while someone is performing the ritual to raise the mouth of hell. Voldemort will be there tonight, performing the ritual. Since sending him to the Astral Plane is technically killing him, and since there's no way back from there once the ritual is complete, Harry must be the one to perform the ritual.
"And the ritual can only be performed by a vampire."
Dumbledore gave this all a while to sink in. "A vampire?" Harry asked, dumbstruck. "I'll have to be a vampire?"
"There's more," Craig said. "You're really going to hate this part. We've been monitoring your relationship for the past few months. It was destined to happen. Well, sort of...Harry needed to fall in love. Once you're a vampire, you'll be evil. The only thing that can ever make a vampire good is if it has a soul. The magic's that gave Angel his soul are gone; we can't simply make you a vampire and give you a soul. Instead, you have a soul mate. The two of you are going to share a soul."
Silence descended on the room. Dumbledore was trying to gauge whether or not the truckload of emotional burdens he'd just dumped on the two teens was going to break them; Craig was wondering whether not they were going to ask him why he was involved at all; and Harry and Ginny were absorbing.
Dumbledore looked up at the clock on the wall. "I have a meeting that I must attend," he said. "I want the three of you there, too."
He rose from his desk and left. Blindly, without really feeling, Harry and Ginny got up too and went after him. Craig took a deep breath. He shut the door behind himself as he left.
Buffy looked around at those assembled in the Great Hall: Giles, Faith, Grimshar, a wizard lieutenant named Ain, McGonagall, and Snape. She checked the clock. Nearly midnight. In fact, Buffy made every little observation that could distract her from the incredible badness of their situation.
Dumbledore arrived, followed closely by Harry, Ginny...and Craig. Buffy shot a look at Faith, but it was too late.
"What's he doing here?" Faith asked, gesturing at Craig.
"Craig will be a major part of the defense of this castle," Dumbledore said. "It is only fair that we include him."
"Defense?" Faith asked, and Buffy attempted to kick her under the table. "He's better at killing everything in sight."
"We don't have time for this!" Dumbledore yelled, surprising everyone. "You two will get along. Period."
Faith was shocked. She'd only known the old man for a few months, but a few months was a long enough period of time to convince her that he was way out of character.
Faith nodded. "Sure," she said. "If you say so."
"I do," Dumbledore said, more gravely than angrily. "To business. Voldemort's forces are on their way here. Grimshar, tell us what we know about the army."
Grimshar stood. He smiled - his smile was terrifying to any who didn't understand what he was doing. "We knew there'd be vampires," he said. "We didn't know how many until now. Sixteen hundred. That's right, kiddies; they outnumber us almost two to one, and that's just the beginning. After the vampires there are other types of demon. As many as twelve hundred. And finally, Voldemort's Death Eaters and Giants: mercifully, there are only about a hundred of each. If you add it all up, they've got three thousand, six hundred troops, and we have about nine hundred."
"Four to one," Giles muttered. "Good Lord..."
Grimshar's awful smile returned. "Yeah, chances are you'll be meeting him pretty soon."
Dumbledore cut in. "Grimshar, what are our current defense capabilities? I want to know everything."
Grimshar lost his humor in a hurry. "Albus, if he arrives before dawn, we're in trouble. If he arrives before next week, we're in trouble. If he arrives before next year, we're in trouble. Nothing is where it needs to be. None of the magical wards have been tested. Most of them are fresh off the Ministry ship lines, and we all know just how effective the wards at the Ministry must have been."
"Can we hold out under a full scale assault?" Dumbledore asked.
"For a while," Grimshar said. "But that's all we can do: hold out. In the end, they'll wear us down. They'll win. As long as we're all there is, they'll win."
Buffy jumped in. "I talked to Angel," she said. "He's pulling every string possible to get us some reinforcements, but mobilizing armies from across oceans isn't easy. He can send aid, but the big guns won't arrive for a while."
"How much can he send, when all is said and done?" Dumbledore asked.
"Two thousand units, tops," she said. "That's the best he can do."
Dumbledore nodded. "If we can hold on, weaken them for a time, then maybe we can throw them back eventually. But none of that really matters."
Jaw's dropped. "What?" Ain asked, confused beyond all belief. "Did I misunderstand you?"
"You did not, lieutenant," Dumbledore said. "I said that none of it matters. It doesn't. What matters is whether or not Harry can defeat Voldemort. If he does, than we will win. If he does not, than we will lose. Period."
Slowly, everyone turned to Harry and stared at him. He shrank in his seat a bit. "Okay, make me feel more uncomfortable," he said.
They snapped out of it and focused on Dumbledore. "So what is our goal?" Faith asked. "What are we fighting to do?"
"Keeping the demons off the students and out of the castle," Dumbledore said. "If they get in, than we'll have a slaughter that no one will be able to clean up after, and they could even destroy the castle. We can't let that happen. If we lose, nothing matters anyway, but we won't give up. If we win, we'll need the castle and its resources to rebuild the magical world."
"Right," Faith said.
Just then, an owl swooped into the hall. It carried a piece of red parchment in its talons.
"That's a lookout," Dumbledore said. "His army is less than ten miles away. They'll be here in an hour."
McGonagall spoke up for the first time. "Shall we evacuate the students to the Great Hall?" she asked, sounding remarkably well composed despite the mayhem that was going to be erupting soon.
"Yes," Dumbledore said. "Grimshar, Ain, I need you to get the Ministry garrison mobilized. That bird was from the northern lookout, so go take your troops there and set up a line of defense. Buffy, take the Slayers there too; lend a hand wherever possible. I'll leave the tactics up to you; just don't let those demons through! They don't reach the castle under any circumstances. Harry, you, Craig, Ginny, and a small group of the Slayers will go to the lake and prepare for the ritual. I'll go with you to show you how its done and...and to prepare your body for it. Okay. That's it. Let's go." Harry shuddered. He felt Ginny's hand snake into his under the table. He felt like leaning on her shoulder and crying.
As everyone got up to perform their specific duties, he held Ginny's hand tighter. "I'm going to die tonight," he said.
"No, you aren't!" Ginny said, with soft conviction. "You are not going to die! Do you remember what I told you about hope?"
"Ginny, they're going to make me a vampire," Harry said. "You have to die to become a vampire."
"Oh, yeah," Ginny said. "Well, you'll still be you; we'll be sharing a soul."
"Do you think that this will work?" he asked.
"It has to," Ginny said.
McGonagall's magically magnified voice came through the loud speaker. "All students are to report IMMEDIATELY to the Great Hall. No delaying, no fussing, NOTHING. Any infractions of any severity will be dealt with very harshly. I repeat, all students report IMMEDIATELY to the Great Hall."
Harry and Ginny stood apart from the door, to make sure they weren't hit too hard by the crowd. Dumbledore sat at the Head Table, waiting for the team of Slayers that would accompany them to the lake to arrive.
The students began arriving quickly. All were still dressed in their night clothes. Ron and Hermione spotted Harry and Ginny and rushed over.
"You two look like you've just been through a battle," Ron said.
"No, the battle hasn't started yet," Ginny said. "It's coming up though, if you want to wait for it."
"What?" Hermione asked, going very pale.
"Voldemort is coming," Harry said, dully. "And I'm going to stop him."
"Harry, that's ridiculous!" Ron said. "Dumbledore won't want you throwing away your life like this..."
"Dumbledore is the one whose putting me up to this," Harry said.
"This is part of the plan?" Ron asked, aghast.
"Yes," Harry said.
"Are you sure?" Ron asked, scared positively shitless.
"Yes!" Harry said, hoping that he'd gotten some measure of finality into his voice to mask the fear. Harry saw Neville, Luna, and several other members of the DA hurrying over.
"Harry, we've heard rumors that You-Know-Who's coming," Neville said. "He's on his way now."
"That's right," Harry said.
"And you're going to fight him," Luna said.
"That's right," Harry said.
"We want to help," Neville said. "The DA is behind you."
Harry looked out at the small crowd that had been attracted. They were looking intently at him, obviously afraid, but just as obviously determined. For the first, and he could guess only, time that night, Harry smiled. "That means a lot to me, really, it does," he said. "But this isn't your fight. It's mine."
"And we're your friends," Hermione said. "We want to help you."
"There's nothing you can do," Harry said. "The ritual involved can only be performed by me, and..." he trailed off. Dumbledore was signaling him that it was time. A group of Slayers waited by the door, with Craig. "It's time for us to go. Ginny?"
"Yes, I'm with you," she said. As they left the crestfallen DA behind, she said. "I'll be with you forever."
"Let's just work on tonight, shall we?" Harry said.
"Sounds like a plan," Ginny said.
The troops took up their position in the north. Faith surveyed the Slayers to make sure they were ready. She stopped at Maria.
"Ready to fight, Maria?" she asked.
Maria nodded, her face set. She swung her mace in small circles, keeping loose. "Bring it on," she said.
"That's my girl," Faith said.
Grimshar came up to Faith. "Are all of the Slayers in place along the line?" he asked.
"Yeah," Faith said. "They're ready to go."
"Do you think this is going to work?" Grimshar asked. "With the boy?"
"It has to," Faith replied, simply.
Everywhere, at that moment, people were asking others, "Do you think it'll work?", in reference to Harry's fight with Voldemort. And everywhere, the answer was, "It has to".
Nowhere, though, was the question as stressed over as it was in the mind of Albus Dumbledore as he taught the ritual of salvation to Harry Potter.
"Do you think you can do it?" Dumbledore asked.
"It seems fairly basic," Harry replied, fighting to keep his nerves and his nausea down. "I can do it."
Dumbledore fished in a pocket and withdrew a large blue capsule. "Here," he said. "Take this. It will make you rise as a vampire faster, rather than having to wait hours."
Harry took it and the glass of water Dumbledore summoned out of thin air. He swallowed the pill.
Dumbledore considered Harry for a moment. He'd never given the younger boy...man a choice in this, and Harry had never asked for one. He knew that he had to do this. He'd grown up.
Damn.
Dumbledore withdrew two things from his robes: a knife and a large red vial.
"Slit your writs, Harry," he said. "And once you've bled enough, drink this."
Harry took the knife, and, trembling, cut his wrists. He cringed a bit as blood started to flow out of him. He felt himself getting light headed quickly. As consciousness began to fail him, Harry's last sight was of Ginny's tear streaked face.
As his eyes closed and darkness enveloped him, he pressed the vial to his lips and drank.
When Harry Potter picked himself up off the ground, he wasn't on the lake shore anymore. He looked around. He was in a bubble the size of a small room. In the center of the bubble, next to him, stood a pedestal.
Harry reached a hand up and felt his face. It had gone bumpy. His scar was stretched a bit. He lowered his hand a little and felt his long, sharp fangs. He was vaguely aware of a slight burning in his chest, near his no-longer-beating heart: the soul he shared with Ginny.
Harry Potter had become a vampire.
Another cliffy. Y'all be proud of me; I wrote this in exactly three hours and twenty two minutes. As always, leave your reviews and criticisms and all. I want to hear it. Oh, one last minor, unimportant detail. The next chapter is the last official one of the story, though I might do an epilogue if I feel like it (I'm gonna feel like it, so don't worry). Tootles.