Chapter Five: Phoenix Rebirth
"Voldemort is attacking Hogwarts."
The quiet words stop my blood in my veins. It can't be true. Hogwarts is supposed to be safe, a haven. It's not a target for the most evil dark wizard since Grindlewald. My baby brother and sister are there. Surely they'll be all right.
I look over at Charlie, and see the same look of horror on his face that must be on mine. Ron and Ginny are trapped, and we can't get there fast enough. Fred and George are here too, and I have never seen their faces so serious. Even Percy has lost the pompous look he normally wears like a second skin. We have reason to be worried.
Not only are Ron and Ginny there, but so is Harry, and Hermione, and others we have all come to care for in the time that has passed. Bloody hell, has it really only been seven years since I got a letter from an over-excited baby brother, telling me that Harry Potter was his new best mate? I almost regret that, now. Just being a Weasley would have made him a target. As Harry's best friend, he'll be a prime target. I can only hope that the teachers will keep Ginny out of it. They need the seventh years, but Ginny, while powerful, is only in her sixth year. She doesn't know enough. And being Harry's girlfriend, she's prime Death Eater fodder.
I can't stand all this speculating. We are being given instructions, told to Apparate to the edge of the Hogwarts grounds and fight our way in. There are over six hundred of us, many with family trapped in the school. We could turn the tide. I only hope we can get there before everyone else is dead.
I look at my brothers and nod. We will be in the first assault. If anyone can get through, it will be us. We all swore when our sister was born that we would protect her. I know Ron is doing his best.
We arrive in one group, even Charlie hitting the correct apparition point. Ordinarily, one of us would have teased him about it, but this isn't ordinary. Two of us are in trouble. Charlie, Percy and I start to move towards the castle, but Fred and George shake their heads at the same time. Even when they aren't trying, those two think alike.
"We need to be sneaky. We can take the passage through Honeydukes. We'll end up in the castle with no problems. Even Wormtail couldn't divulge the location of it, since Sirius memory charmed him," George said with a grimace. That memory charm was what cost Harry's godfather his life.
"Good plan. We'll follow." Charlie looked like he wanted to argue with me, but surprisingly, it was Percy who decided it for us.
"You know the passages better then any of us. I never thought I would be grateful for all that trouble you two got up to, but I am now. Lead on." The fact that Fred and George don't even rib Percy on their way to the front of the pack shows me how nervous they are.
Slowly, we make our way through the door, and down the passageway. Already, we can hear screaming and cries. We pulled ourselves through the one-eyed witch. A cry that sounded scarily like Ginny echoed through the walls and up four flights of stairs.
"Duck, Ron, duck!" I stopped walking, my legs locking. The rest also seem to be struck by momentary immobility. Then, a screaming that could only be Hermione, a horrible loud lamenting that shook me to the core, filled the air. Abrupt silence cut the cry off, and we all surge forward. People are dying, had already died. And we are still too far away. The battle noises have stopped.
The silence is more terrifying then the noises of battle. I know that I have just heard my baby brother die, and that I am too late to save him. I motion for Charlie and I to take the main doors, Percy to grab the back, and Fred and George to go to the side. They obey.
With a deep breath, I look into the battleground.
My goddess, my goddess! I will never forget this sight as long as I live. All activity has stopped. Everyone has paused, and is watching the scene unfold. I can tell that it is almost over. Ginny, our little Ginny, is standing in front of Harry, leaning against him with her wand held on Voldemort. Her red hair is fanning out in the magical breeze, and her beautiful face is still with peace and concentration. She and Harry are both glowing, the sheer energy they're putting off keeping them rooted firmly to the ground. I chance a glance around, and note the gruesome carpet of young bodies on the floor. Among them is Weasley red, and my heart shakes when I see the still form of Ron contorted on the ground, his hair rusty from blood. There are others, but a small cry brings my attention back to the scene being created.
The whimper is coming from the other side of the hall. I search the upright faces, and I see who made it. Who in Merlin's name let our mother in here? She's going to watch another of her babies die!
I watch helplessly as my sister drains out her life energy, desperately attempting to vanquish the evil that has dominated our lives these past years. Incredibly, she turns her face to Charlie and I. In my head, I hear her calling. I know that she will be all right, and so I try to send an answer back. I'll never know if it reaches her.
In that final moment, the last energy shapes suddenly and miraculously into a phoenix, the symbol of rebirth. As Ginny and Harry drop to the ground, their bodies intertwined, Voldemort lets out a blood-curdling scream of pain, and dissolves into dust. He is finally defeated.
The rest of the reinforcements have joined us, and so I feel warranted on running to the five square meter area that holds the bodies of not one, but four people I have loved. Have loved- putting it into past tense makes me feel ill. The look on Ron's face is resigned, and I can almost feel his relief at not living without Hermione. I think he knew this was the way that it had to be.
I hold his battered body, and the memories hit me like a flood. I barely notice Percy going to comfort mother, or Charlie joining me. Instead, I remember my littlest brother.
************
"Bills, why do you always hafta go away? Don't you love us anymore?" His chubby cheeks were tear-streaked, his blue eyes brimming.
"I need to learn stuff. If I didn't learn to fly, I couldn't take you up on my broom, now could I?" I hated leaving him, my baby brother.
"I guess not. Will you write me letters? Ones just for me, not for Ginny too?"
"I can do that, Squirt. I can do that."
************
He was the one who left this time. And I know that he isn't ever coming back. He can't write me letters anymore. Carefully, I put his body back on the ground, gently closing his lifeless eyes and straightening out his limbs. I fold him arms across his chest, and smooth his blood soaked hair. I wish my mother didn't have to see him like this.
Leaving Charlie to look over Ron, I move on to Ginny. She is still entwined with Harry, a lifeless angel. When I look at her, I don't see the messy, loose red locks that now frame her face and spread across the floor. I see small red pigtails, and big trusting brown eyes. I can't believe that the baby that held my hand so trustingly is now this beautiful, senseless corpse.
************
"Bills, where do we go when we die?" Her small face looked at me, expecting me to have all the answers. The little grave from our pet puffskein had been still fresh, as were the hexes that Ginny had somehow wandlessly cast on the twins. She looked wistfully at the little pile of earth, her pigtails bobbing.
"Well, some people think we go to the Summerlands," I had said awkwardly, not really knowing how to comfort her.
"Oh. Can we come back from there?" she asked me as she eyes the mound again.
"No, munchkin. But we can wait until the others that we care about come too, before coming back to earth as a different person."
"But I don't want to be a different person. I want to be me. Virgina Marie Weasley." Her eyes, those big brown eyes, had begged me to tell her differently.
"You'll always be Ginny to me," I tell her, and swing her up for a piggyback ride.
Her laughter had echoed on the breeze.
************
I stroke her now limp hair, and tear trails run down my cheeks as I remember our long ago conversation. Are you waiting for me up there, Gin? Will you be there when I get there?
Slowly, I detach her from Harry, and hold her slowly cooling body to mine. Her eyes are already tightly shut, and she has a triumphant smile on her face. I look up to see the tears flowing freely down my remaining brothers' faces. I know we have to move on. We must take up the torch.
I'll see you in the Summerlands, my little brother and sister. Wait for me. I may be awhile. I have to avenge you first.
The End