A/N—This chapter goes back to the beginning of the story. Before Ginny went on her mission. I haven't decided yet, but I may just do each chapter back and forth. Make it a challenge, lol.

A Light in the Darkness

Chapter Two
The Beginning

"Please," I begin my begging yet again. "I'm doing no one any good just sitting around here all day long!"

The most powerful wizard in the world merely stares at me with impatience. "Ginevra," he says, (full name is never a good sign to a positive answer) "You are doing plenty of good here at headquarters. Why, without you no one would ever eat and then where would all be? You keep everyone's spirits up, that's so much more important than you know."

"Don't patronize me," I snap, "I have spent every moment that I haven't been at Hogwarts inside this bloody house! I am sick of being treated like a house elf; I have more skills than cooking and being the resident clown when Fred and George are unavailable."

"I know," he says, attempting to mollify me, "you are a very talented young witch and you will get your chance to prove yourself in this war. I only ask that you remain patient until that time."

I glare and stalk out of the room, I am by no means dumb enough to promise to be patient and wait for an opportunity to fight back. I've been waiting since I was eleven years old! However, while patience has never been something I have enjoyed putting into practice, anything worthwhile is always worth waiting for.

Storming up the stairs in childish rage I pass Ron in the hallway.

"Oi Gin," he calls, "can you get dinner started sometime soon? We're all leaving tonight." The ladylike gesture of my middle finger being raised while I walk away was the only response that he receives.

I remain locked in the room that had been given to me years ago when our family first came to the Order's headquarters. Harry, Hermione, and Ron have left for undisclosed reasons that are blatantly clear to me—they went on a mission.

They were always on adventures and missions; they were always trusted to fight for the light. They were never kept in the Black's onetime home like prisoners, they were allowed to help. What is the difference between them and me? Why are they seen as responsible and trustworthy and I am seen as a silly little girl?

There was a time when they fought to allow me to go with them. Well, actually just two of them fought for my freedom, Ron felt I was better off where it was "safe". There was a time when Harry was interested in me, a time when I was so sure that he had loved me. That was over now though, we were over. I wasn't bitter…well; perhaps I was a little bit. I knew exactly why I got treated as a child; I acted as such when Harry told me that it was over. So I threw one little insignificant object at his head…not like he didn't deserve it.

I wanted action. I wanted to help. I just wanted to do…something, anything. Besides cook and clean that is. Something that mattered, something that people would respect me for. Something that Harry would finally respect me for. I have no chance of doing that locked in here. With a grim determination I climb off of the comfortable bed and make my way downstairs hoping that Dumbledore is still here. Perhaps if I explain to him how mature I am now he will finally allow me to help.

No one is in the living room, which is odd. There are always people constantly crawling all over this house, gets on my nerves a bit actually. Walking into the kitchen I find a large group of people at the table. How odd, they aren't even eating, they are…crying?

"What's going on," I voice loudly.

My mother walks up to me with tears streaming down her face, "Oh, Ginny!" She cries as she throws her arms around me and breaks off into sobs. I awkwardly place my arms around her and pat her back. I cast a questioning look toward my father as he comes and pries my mother off of me.

"Ginny," he begins carefully, but my mother's hysterical crying drowns him out.

"What is going on," I ask again, feeling panicky.

"It's," my mother hiccups here but continues anyway, "It's Harry!"

"What about him," I ask, but already know. Something horrible has happened, I have seen my mother like this only once before and that was when Grandma had passed on. But surely…

"He," I begin softly; "he's going to be alright, isn't he?"

I see the tears in everyone's eyes and see them averting my gaze. There is my answer. He isn't going to okay. "He's gone, isn't he?" My father gives me a weak nod in confirmation and I tear through the house back up to my room.

I hold in the tears until my door is safely shut behind me. He is dead, Harry is dead. I slide down to the floor and feel the sobs overtake me. I have been so horrible to him in the past few weeks since we broke up! And now I will never get a chance to apologize, never a chance to make things right.

I begin crying harder as I realize that I will never see him again. I will never see his green eyes light up when someone asks him to play Quidditch; I will never again get to have the feeling of his arms being wrapped around me. I will never know if he has ever loved me at all. We will never have the opportunity for reconciliation, we will never be anything because now there is just me…and I feel so empty without even the hope of him.

A gentle knock on my door interrupts my hysterical grieving. I pause in my crying and look towards the door, willing whoever is behind it to just go away, to leave me to my mourning.

The door opens without my permission and Dumbledore comes inside. The sight of evident tortured pain on his on features fills me with more sorrow.

"I realize that you're upset," he begins in a strong voice.

"How?" I croak out between tears.

He closes his eyes and sits on the bed, looking defeated. "I believe that we are both familiar with Tom."

"Voldemort," I whisper, "so he was the one who…who—"

"I believe it was through Tom, the work of one of his agents—a young Mr. Malfoy whom with you are also familiar. Voldemort has much trouble fighting Harry himself, their wands clash. He had to build up power in another, and allow that person have the element of surprise in their attack."

I tilt my head down in disbelief. Malfoy killed Harry, it doesn't even seem possible. Then again, it has yet to seem real that Harry is dead. "What about Ron and Hermione?" I whisper.

"Captured, we believe."

"Not dead?"

"No. We would know if they were dead—your mother's clock. How long they stay alive without our help, though, we do not know."

Unable to take the strength of Dumbledore's gaze on me any longer I shakily walk to the bathroom that joins my room and shut the door without a word of explanation.

Half slouched over the sink my weak arms can barely hold my body up. I lift my head up to face the mirror that rests above me. I look like shit. I look the same horrible way all people do when they cry in a hysterical manner, that red eyed, pale cheeks, quivering lip, running nose look. And I don't care.

Ever since I discovered that I had been graced with good looks I had held a great amount of pride in them and the things that they could do for me. I always thought that if I were beautiful enough Harry would love me the way that I had always loved him. So I flaunted my beauty, dangled it in front of him and waited for him to notice me the way that he noticed Cho. And one day he did. One day he looked at me as if I was the most beautiful girl in the world and he kissed me soon after…But Harry grew up. He told me when he broke up with me that beauty didn't matter to him like it did to me. He called me immature and superficial and I hated him for it, mostly because I agreed with him. He said if he were going to have a relationship during this war then it needed to have substance and the woman needed to understand things past hair charms. Someone like Hermione, he reasoned. I sneered in jealousy and called Hermione ugly. And I'll never forget his words to me after that. He said "And that is exactly why I don't want to be with you anymore, Gin. You can't see inner beauty in anyone. Hermione is one of the best people I know, and there was a time when you would have agreed. You may be beautiful in the mirror, but you have allowed your soul to become ugly and tainted."

Overtaken by sudden exhaustion my arms slip and I fall hardly to the cold bathroom floor. I wipe my eyes of tears as I know that if the situation were reversed Harry would be damned if he were weeping for me. I doubted he would even care, he wouldn't even notice that I was missing. After all, I'm just an immature girl with an ugly soul. He'd probably think that the entire world was better off without me.

He condemned me in his eyes and that was it. He cast me from his life without waiting for an explanation. I don't want to miss him; I don't want to cry one more tear over him. I am weak though, and my feelings betray me. He was wrong. I do care for people other than myself and things other than my looks. I cared for him. I loved him.

Finally feeling composed enough to leave the cramped bathroom I face Dumbledore yet again. He looks up at me expectantly as I walk to stand beside him.

"This is a difficult time for you," he begins, "as it is a difficult time for all of us. I have something to ask of you, though, something that can no longer be delayed. I need to you go on a mission for me."

A/N- Killing people off by the second chapter, that is a record for me. Ahem, I mean how horribly sad, let us all mourn the passing of Harry who died for the greater cause…the plot of my story.

Thank you so much to all of you that reviewed the first chapter, it was greatly appreciated and the feedback was much more than I expected. I will be hopefully updating again soon, depending on how much I feel like procrastinating on schoolwork, lol.

Oh, and so that everyone can feel interactive with the story I'll be posting a body count at the end of each chapter. Lol, you may find this to be sick, twisted, and somewhat wrong. But I tend to kill off a lot of people and this way everyone can keep up with how much causality is encountered. This was inspiration from watching Freddy vs. Jason where I counted 18 deaths, I found this to be a commendable figure and decided to see what I could do, lol.

Body count: 1