DING DONG THE BUG IS GONE!!!!! If that didn't tell you, I've been unable to load my chapters, I would have never abandoned my story so close to the end! So without further ado, the last chapter to Lessons in Life, Love, and Betrayal.

Harry looked around frantically, trying to find any trace of Ginny. He was so preoccupied in his search he didn't notice Colin regaining consciousness.

"What happened?" Colin asked weakly.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Harry replied crossly. "What happened to Ginny?"

"I don't know!" Colin said anxiously. "Did you search for her?"

"Well I only discovered she was missing a moment ago. I can't believe I left her here alone with you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Colin asked, his eyes darkening.

"It means that you're no good."

Colin let out an evil laugh. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Hey how long has that piece of parchment been there?" Colin said, quickly changing the subject.

"I don't know. I'll look at it and you go back to the Burrow and get help."

"No, I think I'll stay here and examine the parchment while you go back for help." Colin shot Harry a look, and they both reached for the parchment, grabbing it at the exact same time. Harry felt a familiar tug at his naval. The parchment was a portkey.

"Where are we?" Harry asked, looking around his new surroundings. He noticed that Colin wasn't beside him. "That's odd, he was holding the portkey too; he should be here." Harry could tell despite the darkness that he was on a cliff somewhere. He was fairly certain that he heard waves crashing in the background. He reached for his wand to supply light, but before he could he heard a too familiar voice saying too familiar words.

"Expelliarmus!" Harry's wand flew out of his hand and towards the voice. It was then that he saw a pair of gray eyes staring back at him through the darkness.

"Hello Malfoy," Harry said calmly.

"Glad you could join us Potter. Your girlfriend has been the life of the party."

"Where's Ginny?" Harry shouted, his anger growing.

"Why do you always want to rush into these things? Why can't you enjoy your inevitable doom?"

"I swear on my life, if you hurt Ginny..."

"Well, unfortunately, it wasn't I who was spending time with her," Malfoy replied smugly. "Although I am curious as to what she'd be like in bed."

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Harry screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Now Harry, do you really want to upset the neighbors?" a calm voice hissed into the darkness. Harry saw a pair of red eyes appear next to the gray ones. "You did very well, young Draco." The voice sent shivers down Harry's spine.

"I'm what you want, let Ginny go," Harry said, trying to stay strong.

"Yes, but I fear you'll be much more cooperative as long as she's here as well."

Harry felt as if a dagger had ripped through his heart. It was his worst fear; Voldemort was using Ginny to get to him. He could feel that Ginny was in pain. Just as Harry was about to break down and beg for Ginny's safety, he realized that he could feel Ginny's pain because he had wanted more than anything at that moment to protect her. Knowing that Ginny was alive and at least temporarily alright, Harry closed his eyes in concentration. He focused all of his energy on Voldemort. "I want you to suffer. I want you to feel as if you're going to explode. I want you to feel pain." Harry's thoughts were broken by a bloodcurdling scream. He had done it; he had caused Voldemort to suffer.

"That wasn't wise Potter," Voldemort hissed. Apparently, Harry had not caused him enough pain. He was about to close his eyes in concentration, when he saw something red levitating in front of him.

"Ginny," Harry whispered hoarsely to which Voldemort only laughed. She was covered in blood, the bright red stains on her clothes clashed with her red hair. Harry knew that the only way to end it all was to kill Voldemort. He tried to regain control of his emotions and focus all of his energy. "I want you to die a painful death." Harry tried repeating the words over and over again in his head, but the only response was Voldemort's evil laughter. Apparently he was enjoying Harry's futile efforts. "I just need to clear my mind of everything," he silently urged himself. But it was to no avail. He couldn't get the image of Ginny's limp body covered in blood out of his head. He couldn't keep Ginny out of his mind. She looked so lifeless hanging in the air. "I wish you could still feel what I felt," Harry thought, giving up on his efforts to block her out of his mind. He was determined, that if they were both going to die right then and there, his last thoughts would be on her and not evil. Harry tuned out the echoing laughter and focused on Ginny. "I'd give my life to save yours. I love you. I want to spend eternity with you, even if it can't be done on this earth. I want to take your pain and make it my own so you can live." Harry suddenly felt a terrible pain in his stomach. He doubled over to the ground in pain. He realized that he was actually taking Ginny's pain away from her. Harry ignored the cold laughter and continued on his quest to heal Ginny. "I want all of her suffering to end, even if it means I have to suffer in her place." Harry felt a terrible ache in his head and knew that it was working. The laughter stopped; Voldemort finally realized what was going on. "I want Ginny to have all of my power, all of my strength so that she has the strength to continue fighting." Harry could barely continue to hold his head up he was so weak. He fell backwards so he was laying flat on the ground. He didn't realize that Voldemort was having a reaction similar to his own; he only knew that anymore pain would kill him. "I love you Ginny Weasley, I love you with all my heart. I told you I'd give my life for yours; I just regret that it had to come down to that." Harry felt an unexpected pain in his scar. The last thing he knew was two blinding lights; one red, one green.

A week later, Ginny Weasley opened her eyes. "It was all a bad dream," she thought, half believing it was true, half hoping. She looked around her strange environment. She was in the hospital; it hadn't been a dream. She quickly sat up in her bed, ignoring the pain in her head. "Harry?" she called out. "Harry?" she said again, this time louder. The door opened.

"Well, it's so good to see you've decided to rejoin us," a mediwitch said entering the room. "I know there are many people anxious to see how you're doing."

"Is Harry here?" Ginny asked quickly, annoyed by the friendly mediwitch. The woman looked at Ginny confused, but before she could respond the door opened again.

"Oh my goodness! Ginny, how are you feeling?" Mrs. Weasley entered the room, followed by Professor Dumbledore.

"I feel fine Mum," Ginny lied. "Where's Harry?"

"Oh dear," Mrs. Weasley said, exchanging a look with the mediwitch. "Ginny, what do you remember about the night you disappeared?"

"Not much," Ginny said, only telling half of the truth. "I remember hearing a noise by the lake and Harry went to investigate it. I can only assume that Colin and I were hit with stunners or something, because the next thing I remember is feeling completely empty in the dark." Ginny knew she was omitting some very painful details, but didn't think her mother would survive hearing them. "Then I suddenly felt all of the pain go away, like someone had come in and just scooped it off of me. I felt a new strength inside me that I'd never felt before. It was so powerful it was almost painful. I think it caused me to black out again because this is the next thing I remember." Ginny was starting to lose her patience with her mother. "Now where's Harry?"

"Hello Ginny," Dumbledore said. "Molly, may I have a moment alone with Ginny?'

"Please don't upset her," Molly urged as she walked out of the room.

"Professor, where's Harry?"

"Before I can tell you that I need you to understand something. When you said that you felt your pain be taken away, and then you felt a new strength, I believe that was Harry trying to save you."

"So he was there," Ginny asked anxiously. "I thought I could feel his presence."

"Well that connection may have been what saved your life. I believe that Harry used his special power to heal your wounds to prevent you from dying. Doing something like that though, could leave a person completely drained and defenseless." Ginny felt her heart drop. "You know that Harry and Voldemort shared a very unique bond, they were able to feel when the other was having an extreme emotion, unless of course they took the proper precautions to block them out. I believe that Voldemort felt Harry's love for you. I believe that when Harry was selflessly sacrificing his own well-being for yours, Voldemort was feeling the emotions behind his actions. I believe that it is Harry's love for you that destroyed Voldemort."

"You mean Voldemort is gone? How do you know?" Ginny asked, trying not to assume the worst.

"Oh, apparently it was a portkey that brought Harry to you, and it brought Colin Creevey with him as well. Colin, who was still weak from having been stunned, passed out during travel. He woke up to see Harry and Voldemort both on the ground in pain."

"Harry was in pain?"

"Remember, it seems that he was replacing your pain with his strength. Colin tells us that there were then two bright lights that illuminated the sky, one green, one red."

"But what does it mean, Professor."

"Well, Colin told us that after the light was gone, you two were the only people left on the cliff. He said he took your body and brought you both back by portkey."

"So Harry's missing?" Ginny asked quietly.

"I wish that was the case. According to Mr. Creevey's testimony, it appears that when Harry destroyed Voldemort, he destroyed himself as well."

"I killed him," Ginny whispered.

"You must not think like that," Dumbledore said calmly. "Harry sacrificed his strength to allow you to live, you did nothing but accept his love. Remember, that love is what killed Voldemort; he couldn't understand the strength of your connection."

Ginny lay back down in bed and turned her back to Dumbledore as she began to cry. She curled up into the fetal position, ignoring the comforting words her professor was saying. She was vaguely aware of other people entering the room, but the only thing she knew for sure was that she had killed Harry, that he was gone.

Ginny left the hospital two weeks later, a mere shadow of her former self. She went to the Burrow, having been excused from her exams. After reliving her tale to her mother, she had not spoken to anyone about what had happened that night. In a way, she was even deceiving herself about her time with Voldemort. She refused to think about the things he had done to her. She spent most of her time alone in her room, sleeping. Being awake was too hard. Her brothers popped in and out of the house checking up on her. She didn't want to see them, yet at the same time she couldn't turn them away. It helped, knowing that they cared.

One day while she was lazily lying in bed in a state between dreams and awareness, she heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," Ginny called sleepily to the person she thought was her mother.

"How are you doing?" she heard a male voice reply from the doorway.

Ginny was pulled into awareness and she sat up in bed. "Colin?"

"Yeah."

"What are you doing here? Why aren't you in school?"

"Well, I haven't been back to school since, you know, and I've been begging your Mum to come let me see you, but she refused. I was in the middle of flooing her to see if I could come over when she found out that Professor Trounce was having her baby. She wanted to go to the hospital, but didn't want to leave you alone. So she finally agreed to let me come over."

"So Venus is having the baby?" Ginny asked, appearing almost uninterested.

"It seems that way."

Ginny fell back onto her bed so she was lying down again. She turned her back to Colin. "Well I think I'm going to take a nap now. It seems to be all I have the strength for these days."

"Ginny, are you crying?"

"No," was the only reply Colin could make out through her sniffles.

"Does me being here remind you of that day?"

"No," Ginny lied, still unable to face her best friend.

"Ginny, I know you think that Harry was the love of your life, but you have to know that I love you too. And not just like friends love each other. I want to dedicate my life to making you happy."

Ginny hesitated for a moment, carefully considering her words. "You're right; Harry was the love of my life. I told him I'd die for him, I just never expected him to have to die for me. When he died, a part of me died with him and it's going to take time for me to heal. I don't know if I'll ever be completely over it. Being with you does remind me of Harry, but not only in bad ways. You just can't ask me to love you right now, not when I'm so messed up. The best thing I can offer you is my friendship."

"I just want you in my life," Colin replied earnestly. "But I'll let you take that nap now."

"Before you go," Ginny called out to him, propping herself up on her elbows, "did Harry appear to be in a lot of pain before he, you know."

"I'm not going to lie; he looked like he was completely drained off all his energy and strength. But he did have a certain look of contempt on his face, like he was satisfied with how he was going to die."

"So you think he knew he was dying?"

Colin slowly nodded his head. "If what Professor Dumbledore believes is true, then I think he very willingly traded his life for yours; I think for him, killing Voldemort would have only been an added bonus."

"Thanks," Ginny replied meekly before lying back down. "How very Harry of me to blame myself for all of this," she thought laughing out loud. "Harry what did you do to all of us? It's funny, but I think everyone else is blaming themselves too. I think Mum feels like if she hadn't kicked us out of the kitchen none of this would ever have happened. It's the same story with Ron and Hermione, only they feel guilty for being so caught up with each other to get in trouble to cause Mum to kick us all out of the kitchen." Ginny stopped, realizing that she was talking to her dead boyfriend. "No, this feels right, it doesn't feel like he's really gone," she thought before continuing to speak. "Harry, what you did is really making everyone reconsider how they live their lives. Mum told me that Fred and George both proposed to their girlfriends; they're planning a double wedding soon. Ron told me that he and Hermione aren't arguing nearly as much. Bill and Fleur are going to have a baby even though Bill was totally opposed to having one for several more years. They joked on the Wizarding Wireless Network that they're expecting what you did to cause a baby boom." Ginny paused again, feeling her eyes swell with tears. "Why can't I just accept the fact that you're gone and move on?" she sobbed. "I don't know if I can face going back into public, knowing that people know I was there when it all happened. I just don't know how I'm going to be able to face all of this without you here to help me get through it!"

"Gin, are you calling me?" Colin called up the stairs.

"No!" Ginny called back quickly. "I've got to stop talking to myself," she added quietly. "They're going to check me back into St. Mungo's if I'm not careful." Ginny got up from her bed and walked over to her window. She could see the path they had been walking on that night. "I have to move on. I can't keep living my life like this. I'm not going to let you give your life so I can live mine in seclusion. I'm going to find a way, somehow, to make something of my life."

I hope you all enjoyed my story. Thanks for not giving up on me during my computer down period. Now there will be an epilogue to this story, which will also serve as a prologue to the sequel. That will tell you exactly what happened after the blinding lights that fateful night. As to what happened to Ginny when she was alone with Voldemort, you won't find out until sometime in the sequel. Sorry. Now please don't give me nasty reviews for letting Colin off. If I didn't, there wouldn't be much conflict in the sequel. I guess I should tell you the name of the sequel about now..... Remembering Red.