Part Two: In The End
The call had come to Privet Drive at midnight, three days after they arrived. The launch day was late, hampered by command line problems when no one could find Ginny, Harry, Ron or Hermione. They had very carefully made sure that their last place to hide was known only by the four of them, and so Remus was forced to wait for Hedwig to arrive in order to send word of the gathering place.
They packed their worn and stained bags one more time, and quietly made their way on foot out the door. Much to Harry's surprise, his Aunt Petunia had enveloped him in a teary hug before he left. She made Ron, Hermione and Ginny promise that if any of them were left, they would let her know if Harry didn't survive. Then she turned to Harry, and kissed him on the forehead.
"I know I haven't been a mother to you Harry, and for that I can only blame myself. But stay safe, and come to see me when you finish."
They turned, and used their hard learned silent apparition to move them to the beginning of the final battle.
When they reached the battlefield, Ginny turned to Harry and pulled him into an embrace that neither wanted to end. Despite their goodbye the night before, neither one of them was willing to admit that they were likely to be permanently separated. He had tugged one of the shorn locks, kissed her hard, and then the four of them strode to the front of the warriors. It was time for the ending, be it good or bad. All knew that before the dawn bodies would be scattered across the ground. Intellectually, they knew that their own bodies could be among them. None of them wanted to accept that fact in their hearts. If one of them finished the battle dead and cold, they would worry about it then.
She didn't know if it was Harry's kiss or the anticipation of battle that had her blood singing through her veins. As they approached the nest of Death Eaters, all Ginny was aware of was the sheer strength of the magic flowing through her. She could feel the power flowing off their army in waves. If she reached out, she could pick out individual threads of magic- threads from her father, her brothers, her classmates. And she could feel the threads of magic emanating off of the Death Eaters, more sickly and sluggish, yet still more powerful then their own.
When the alarm went up through the trees, they were ready. An entire set of guards fell before anyone on the other side had a chance to react. The strength of the perverted magic fell slightly, and Ginny began to weave the threads of magic together. She shot off three spells quickly, and then fell back towards the end of the fighters. She climbed up into a tree, and worked the threads of magic around her.
It would have been better if she could have used the main strands of people's magic, but they needed them to fight. Ginny was forced to use the offshoots that were being subconsciously sent out, making the entire process longer and more involved. It produced a stunning effect, or would have if anyone but her had been able to see what was happening. She finally understood why her final training had been the completion of that bloody cloak. The threads of people's essences worked themselves over and under, around and through each other. It was like nothing was being manipulated, no young woman was sitting hidden high up in a tree gently manipulating threads of magic as her face shone with light. Her hair grew back in the charge and blew gently in the magical breeze. If it hadn't been for the screams of the dying and the missing threads of those who were already dead, Ginny would have been overjoyed to have this many threads to play with.
She tried to keep herself separate from the battle. She knew that she would be no help if she were to be killed, or if she were to become distracted by one person's death. Even as the threads of magic she was tying blinked out of her hands, she continued on. No more then a flinch was granted as Neville fell and his unyielding thread disappeared like fairy dust. She tried not to cry out in grief as at least one of her brother's strands staggered, grew taught, and then went limp before disappearing. She had used Harry's thread as the working point, because his own magic protected him from all but Voldemort himself. Her own thread was needed to shield her as she worked. As long as her love survived this battle, her net would capture and destroy all the suffocating dark magic, along with whoever owned it's particular thread. She shaped the completed web as a Phoenix, and gently tossed the gleaming strands at the battle.
She watched as her net encircled the battle. It covered the area, the trees and rocks and bushes slipping through it like smoke. When it hit people, she watched as the thread tightened and grew brighter. The people fuelling them stopped and staggered slightly as they felt a bit more magic drain out of them.
The web continued to contract, and the sweet high notes of the Phoenix's song filled the air. The Death Eaters, terrified, began to attempt an escape. They struggled and fought against the restrictive bonds, unable to fathom that their magic was being eliminated in much the same way.
Ginny stopped watching when she noticed that Voldemort was not in her web. He had somehow escaped. She had only her own magic to draw on, only her own threads to weave another web with. It would have to be enough. The effort involved would have dire consequences. That didn't matter to her then. Not if it meant everyone else was safe. Weaving as she ran, she could feel her newest web wrap around her like a cloak. If she could get close enough, she could throw her web at Voldemort and have it too tight for him to do anything before her magic drained out of her. It was they only plan she had.
She located them in the middle of Voldemort's throne room, Harry was battling with everything he had, but it was obvious to her that the thread sustaining the main web full of Death Eaters was draining more magic then he could afford. Slowly, she circled the chamber, and made her way stealthily behind the throne, behind Voldemort. She dropped the completed, roughly woven net of magic on to him, chanted the activation, and watched in satisfaction even as his wand was snapped to his side and her web began to cut into him. She fell to her knees as more and more magic drained from her body.
"Ginny?" Harry asked urgently.
"Escaped the web. No others left. My own magic…my own." Ginny gasped.
"But that will kill you! You said, Dumbledore said, that to use a single person's magic in a web would drain them so utterly they would die!" Harry cried, as he watched the life drain out of her.
"Harry, I love you," she said softly, as she felt Voldemort's last struggle begin. The web outside was still clearly in action, because Harry flinched suddenly. An idea crossed his mind. He held out Ginny's small had, and used a sharp piece of stone on the floor to gash open her palm. The sudden pain made her eyes flicker open to see him cut his own. Clamping his bloody palm on hers, he smiled.
"Now we're linked. You're drawing on both our magic." Ginny's eyes widened. She could feel a little strength returning, but it was clearly at Harry's expense. He staggered, and fell to the floor beside her. The life was quickly draining from his eyes, and Ginny could feel his thread growing weaker.
"Ginny, I love you," he said in an eerie echo of her words from minutes before.
"Harry, no!" she cried as his head fell into her lap.
As Ron and Hermione looked frantically for their friends, as the web containing the death eaters blinked out, its work finished, and as Lord Voldemort gave a scream of anguish, Harry's thread tightened, stretched, and went slack before shattering in a burst of light. Ginny held him in her arms as Voldemort laughed in triumph even as the last draining threads of Ginny's web consumed him. She looked muzzily at the pile of robes on the floor, and the body in her arms, and fainted.
*
Ron tenderly cradled his baby sister in his arms as he carried her out of the room. He placed her carefully on a pile of blankets away from the fighting, cast a concealing charm on her, and went to find Hermione to break the news. He had been the one to find Ginny with her body wrapped around Harry's. For one horrifying minute, he had thought they were both dead. It would take a while before he accepted Harry was gone.
Ron had hidden his baby sister well when he was forced to leave her. He had set the concealing charm to only allow Hermione and himself to see her. And so no one heard Ginny's screams for death and release. No one knew when her own magic finally ebbed out. And when she drew a last, gasping breath in preparation for never breathing again, no one was there to hold her hand and tell her it would all work out. For her, they didn't need to. She already knew. And when Hermione found the girl huddled in the blankets, peaceful at last, a tattered little diary sat next to her. Never to be finished, it would be cherished anyway.
The bodies of the Death Eaters were piled like so many carcasses, waiting for identification. Family laid out the fallen fighters in rows, marking respect for the friends and family that had been lost. More then one family had been completely wiped out. Ron carefully sidestepped the plot that held three brothers and his mother. Molly had been caught when she threw herself in front of Bill. He had survived, but she caught the curse full on. Fred, George and Percy were laid out beside her, and Ron decided that there was a person missing. He walked back to where he had grabbed his sister from, and lifted the corpse still on the floor. Harry's palm was still covered in not quite coagulated blood, and Ron held his body close as he carried him over to the Weasley plot, and lay him tenderly next to Molly. He looked up to see Hermione with his sister in her arms.
"I'm so sorry, Ron. I was too late. I just found her." Hermione's face was streaming, and she saw the other bodies on the ground.
"Oh, goddess, Harry too?" she cried. Ron could only nod as he held her, and though neither knew it, both were promising themselves that they would live the lives their best friends should have.
The End