AshenWolf: I feel so honoured that you not only put me on alert, but on your favourite story list as well! Thank you so much! And I'm sorry for leaving you at a cliff hanger, but it had to happen. The story just wouldn't have been as good with hearing the ranting from the adults' point of view. I'm also sorry to say that we don't get a Harry breakdown in this chapter, instead we get Redhead Ramblings (which is my alternate title for this chapter ). Will Harry break down? Yes, he will, eventually, and it will be quite the show!

Siriusly-0bsessed: Did it really make you go teary-eyed? Wow. I knew it was sad, but I didn't think it was that sad! I feel radiant to know that my story affected you so much. Also, I'm sorry at leaving you at a cliff hanger as well. Please don't hate me for this chapter!

Night-Owl123: Thank you! I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long for the update?

RyanKathrynCelia: Thank you!

ginnylilianpotter: Oh no! I wouldn't want to make you go insane! I hope I didn't wait too long for updating. I just wanted to make sure that all of Ginny's rants were perfectly worded. Why did I make Ginny so talkative? Well, Ron always said that she was and I imagined if she was hysterical she would act like this. Not to mention that it was fun to write. Thank you for the compliment! I hope I don't have to go into hiding…

Chapter Five: What Is Real and What Is Not


When Harry awoke in the strange room, he immediately groped for his wand only to find that he was no longer wearing his robes let alone carrying his wand. He had swallowed nervously before looking around the room. There was only one other person in the room and that was a woman. She was humming to herself as she sat in a chair by his bed and reading.

The woman had very long brown hair that looked very curly. It was pulled back into a messy braid. At first glance the woman looked very tanned, but then he noticed that the tan was actually freckles and her skin colour was actually quite fair. He could see that she had long eyelashes and when she finally turned to look at him, he also saw that her eyes were crystal blue. She smiled at him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked.

He didn't answer. He gave the blue room a curious look before asking, "What happened?"

"Well, after you memorized the address, you fainted—from shock I suppose—and we brought up here to this room."

Harry swallowed. Yes, he had passed out from shock, but not because the house had appeared. It was who he had seen. He knew that he must have imagined it as it was impossible that those people were standing there, but it had seemed so real. He took a deep breath. There was only one way to find out if he had imagined it or not.

"This is the Black Estate, yes?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Who owns the Black Estate?"

"Sirius Black," the woman said promptly.

Harry jumped up, startling the woman. "What?" he cried.

The woman also jumped up. He saw that she was nearly a foot shorter than him. "You need to rest. You lie down right this moment. I don't know what I said to upset you so much, but frankly, I don't care. Now lie back down." She reminded him of Madam Pomfrey from Hogwarts.

A thought suddenly entered his head. "Where's Ginny?" he asked.

"Who's Ginny?" asked the woman.

Harry felt panic enter his stomach. He ran past the woman and threw open the door. He ran out into the corridor and looked both left and right. There was scarlet carpet on the floor, the same as in the room, but the walls in the hallway were white.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" the woman cried, running after him.

"Where's Ginny?" Harry bellowed.

"Harry?" a girl cried. Harry recognized the voice right away. It was Ginny.

The other woman would not let him go, however. She ran after him even as he threw open random doors looking for the redhead. "Where are you going—hey!" He opened another door and saw Ginny sitting in a bed draped with purple sheets. He stepped inside. "Get back here, you're not well yet—"

SLAM!

Harry locked the door before falling to his knees beside her bed. "Do you have your wand?" he asked. She shook her head. "Then they'll probably come barging in here any minute."

"Perhaps they'll give us our privacy?" she asked hopefully. Harry didn't think they would. He listened intently. There was nothing. After nearly five minutes of just sitting there, Harry's knees were starting to hurt, so he stood and sat beside Ginny on the bed. There was another silence.

"How are you feeling?" Harry asked lamely.

This, however, seemed to set Ginny off because she suddenly jumped not much unlike Harry had a few moments before, and cried, "How am I feeling!? How do you think I'm feeling!? I woke up in a strange house in the same room with people I believed to be dead! You want to know who those people were, Harry? Well, the one that first got my attention first was your potential twin, but then I thought, wait a minute, Harry doesn't have a twin. So who could he be but your dad? But, of course, your dad is dead—and wait, so is your mom, but there she was standing right next to your dad as if it was normal for dead people to roam the earth.

"Then, next to her smiling that silly lopsided grin that I still remember from two years ago was Sirius-I thought he was dead-Black. Well, I learned from experience that where's there one pup, there's the other and 'lo and behold there was Remus Lupin back from the dead! And oh so bloody soon! As if that isn't enough, mind you, standing beside him was Peter Pettigrew not only alive—oh no, not only alive—but happy and content and friendly! I swear, Harry, he looked nothing like I remember him, but I'd bet my wand that was Peter Pettigrew any day.

"Oh, what a lovely dream, Harry—because this has to be a dream to have them all back and smiling—but I don't want to wake up! Don't tell me to wake up, Harry, because I don't want to. I want to stay in this glorious dream for eternity. And don't you tell me that I shouldn't want to stay here because I didn't know any of them as well of you, because that would be a load of dung!

"Who helped Sirius clean that horrid house that they called a headquarters? Me and Remus! That's right! Before Hermione came it was basically just the three of us cleaning, because men were too above cleaning. I was a Weasley woman so of course I had to clean—none of my brothers even thought of cleaning. It was too below them. Men don't clean after all! And when I pointed out that Sirius and Remus were cleaning as well they just said that it was Sirius's house so he had to and that Sirius was Remus's best friend so of course he would help. Bloody useless brothers! Had to my arse! But the point is that during that time I got to know Remus and Sirius!

"And then when Sirius died—did you know that I cried just as much if not more than you? I cried too, Harry, but oh no, you never asked! Then in my fifth year I had to train with Remus—it wasn't just you, Harry. You weren't the only one with the private tutor; he was my private tutor as well. After all, Tom Riddle didn't want to just kill you, he wanted to kill me too because I was too strong to just keel over and die the moment I got my hands on that stupid diary. So I got to know him just as well as you!

"So I do have a reason to be upset—or happy—or I don't even know what I'm supposed to be feeling right now. I'm just so bloody confused. Bottom line is, don't wake me up from this dream if this is a dream because this is a wonderful dream and I want to keep dreaming it. Or if I'm insane then just tell me I'm insane then I can continue being insane and enjoying being insane in my insane little dream. Dreaming. Insane. Whatever. Either way, I'm happy, and just leave me be. Please!"

There was a long silence where Ginny plopped down on the bed beside Harry to catch her breath. Harry stared at her wondering how she had said all of that without having to stop for a full pause to breathe. He smiled at the thought of how Hermione had first introduced herself but suddenly frowned. Thinking of Hermione hurt too much.

"Ginny?" he asked tenderly.

"I'm sorry, Harry," she wailed suddenly. "I didn't mean to go off on you like that. It's just all of this got to me and I needed to get all of that off my chest. So, you were there and I just thought you'd listen. I didn't think of the fact that I'd be nearly blaming you for everything and nothing at the same time—"

"Ginny?" he interrupted, sensing another tirade coming along.

"Yes, Harry?"

"You're not dreaming and you're not insane, or at least if you are then so am I." He took a deep breath. "I saw the five of them as well. Right before I passed out. It was too much to take in, I suppose, with everything that had happened in the last week."

"Has it really been a week?" asked Ginny, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Unless I've got my dates messed up, then yes it has," muttered Harry.

"Too much has happened, Harry," sighed Ginny. "Just too much has happened."

"What do you mean?" he murmured.

"What do I mean?" she repeated hoarsely. "What do you think I mean?" She stood again and began to pace the length of the room. "In less than seven days, my whole family has been killed, but I wasn't. Why? Because I was too slow to get there to die with them. Did you know that I was at the base of the Astronomy Tower when it was destroyed? I had decided to check on the twins—you know, because they were attacking the Death Eaters from above with their inventions and just regular spells—when suddenly I felt the building begin to shake. I ducked into the closest classroom, cast a shielding charm over my head, and waited for the ceiling to stop falling. Once it did, I walked out of the classroom to find the Astronomy Tower gone. I couldn't believe it—Fred and George couldn't have been in there when it happened, but I did a body search just in case and there they were—bloodied and crushed. And I—I just wanted to scream."

Harry swallowed. He hadn't known, truly he hadn't. She wasn't done, however, and continued on.

"I had to tell my parents. I had to let them know. I didn't want them to find out from the taunts of Death Eaters. I could already see it in my mind—they would mention the twins' deaths and my parents would hesitate and the Death Eaters would strike. I couldn't let that happen. I was crying—oh, Merlin—I was crying so hard as I ran through the corridors. I knew where they were—they were helping the other sixth years escape from the chaos—they were on the third floor with Charlie and Tonks protecting them. I was running down the stairs from the forth to the third when I finally saw them. I was just about shout out to them when I saw several flashes of green light and—they just died without a second thought. They just fell over dead. I heard laughing as I stood there—I was frozen, I didn't know what to do. I had seen people die before, of course, but never my own family. I ran down there to make sure—I don't what I was trying to make sure, but the only thing I remember was that I saw Tonks and Charlie dead as well—then I lost it. I now know what people meant by revenge is sweet, because I wanted it. Oh, I wanted it so bad."

The way she was talking nearly made Harry shiver but he caught himself before he did; she gave a hollow sort of laugh through her tears and continued in a harsh voice that he had never heard come from her.

"The next few days, I got my chance and I took it. I became a good for nothing murderer again and again and again. I never once stopped to feel remorse; I never once stopped to feel guilty. Then when Malfoy was killed by his own father—I was so shocked, I didn't know what to do. I should have hit him with a curse—any curse—right then, but I didn't. Bill did, and he paid the price for it. Malfoy killed Bill and Fleur all in one stream of curses. He hadn't seen me or I would have been dead, but I then hit him with a Stunning Hex. I wanted to kill—you have no idea how much I wanted to kill him—but I couldn't. I just stood over him with my wand outstretched ready to once again repeat those two dreadful words, but I couldn't. That's when I broke down and fell by his—not my mother's or my father's or my brother's, but by Lucius-god damn-Malfoy's side and cried. That's when you defeated Voldemort."

He stared at her. He couldn't help it; his mouth had fallen open in shock. She was still pacing and her tears were falling faster than ever, but she didn't even seem to acknowledge them.

"I knew that you had defeated Voldemort the moment the Death Eaters began to run, and I wanted to go to you. You have no idea how badly I wanted to go to you. As I was running toward where I knew you and Voldemort were duelling however, I saw Percy's body and I stumbled. I went onward, however—then I saw Ron's and Hermione's bodies. It was too much, Harry. I felt my mind go numb with shock. My whole family, Harry—my whole bloody family was dead. Then you weren't anywhere to be found either and I thought—I thought you had been killed as well. I panicked. I began to tear through the whole castle looking for you until I remembered Dumbledore's office. I didn't want to go in there. Losing Dumbledore had been our first loss in this battle, and I couldn't help but cringe at the thought of going up there, but I had to find you. I had to make sure you were alright. I couldn't take another breath not knowing whether or not you were living. So, I went up there, and I found you, and Remus, and…"

She suddenly fell to her knees and began to sob. Harry was shocked for a moment before getting to the floor beside her. He pulled her toward him and this time it was Ginny clinging to Harry instead of the other way around. Her tears quickly began to dampen his borrowed robes, but he didn't care. He rocked her back and forth whispering in her ear.

THUMP!

Harry and Ginny started and they flew apart. The abrupt sound hadn't come from inside the room. They shared a look before nodding at each other. Slowly and quietly they stood and tiptoed toward the closed door. As Ginny furiously wiped her tears away, Harry reached toward the knob nervously.