2

Every morning I lay in bed, whether I have slept that night or not, and watch the vibrant colors of the sunrise penetrate the small window in Ginny and my bedroom. In my mind I always hope that today will be the day that Harry comes. I always imagine seeing him appear over the mountains, just a black dot that grows larger against the pure white background. I watch his progress, and when he is near enough, I run out to meet him, and we hug, and we kiss, and it's all okay.

But it's just a dream.

Ginny always gets out of bed before I do, before the sunrise is finished. She slips silently out of the room, yawning and stretching, leaving me alone. I can always hear her greeting Ron in the kitchen, and then the scrape of the chair as she sits down. Then the house is silent again.

I usually wait a while to get out of bed, giving Ginny and Ron private time to talk. Sometimes I feel like I am intruding on their personal conversations when I'm around, so I try to give them as much time alone as I can.

On this particular morning, I slip out the back door after Ginny has left the room, pulling on my coat and scarf. The sky is a vibrant blue, and the Sun reflects powerfully on the blindingly white ground. I squint my eyes and head out to the forest again, trekking my familiar path.

I am welcomed into the dense forest by a gentle breeze and the sweet scent of the trees. If not for the two-feet-deep snow all around me, this would be a beautiful day. About 50 meters into the forest, I spot a white rabbit scrambling out of sight. As I pass by the spot where it disappeared, I turn my head and find a tunnel in the snow dug next to the base of a tree. I can see the rabbit within, looking out, watching me as I pass. I continue to watch it, not looking where I'm going, when my foot catches on something and I fall.

Brushing the snow out of my face, I roll to my back and look to see what I tripped on. There's something poking out of the snow, and I crawl over to see what it is.

I brush away the top layer of snow, and scream.

Two lifeless, gray, human eyes are staring out at me, surrounding a sharp nose and underneath a mop of blonde hair.

I scramble away in my surprise, and cling to a nearby tree, squeezing my eyes shut and taking deep breaths.

The eyes of the corpse are burned to the inside of my eyelids. I feel a sob escape my lips, and shut them promptly. I take a few more minutes to recover, and then crawl back over to the body.

I feel nauseous.

The man is young, maybe in his late twenties. Blue crystals have formed at the corners of the eyes and nose. His lips are bright blue and parted slightly, and his skin is a ghostly white. Gently I brush away the snow from his body.

By the amount of snow covering him, I can tell that he has not been here for long. The most recent snow came last night, which means this man died here yesterday.

He is wearing black wizards robes with no markings on them. I search his pockets to try and find some form of identification, but the only thing he is carrying is his wand which is clamped in his hand.

Sighing, I try to move him from the path, but he is heavy. Instead, I end up standing over him, looking sadly at his dead body.

I decide to go get Ron, and cover the body partially in the snow.

"Stay here," I say, not quite knowing why.

I go as fast as I can in the deep snow as I head back to the cabin. My heart is pumping hard. I haven't seen a dead body since my grandmother died, and that was when I was nine. Seeing her body was not scary or nauseating, though.

When I finally reach the cabin, I burst in through the back door.

"Ron!" I yell, running out to the kitchen.

"What?" Ron says, standing up from the table and drawing his wand. "What is it, Hermione?"

"There's a dead body out in the forest. I know for a fact it wasn't there two days ago."

"Do you know who it is?" he asks, moving out of the kitchen to his bedroom.

"No, I don't recognize him," I say.

Ron pulls on his coat. Ginny appears next to me with her coat and scarf on.

"Ginny, maybe you should stay here," Ron says, buttoning his coat.

"Don't be stupid," she says.

Ron gives her a disapproving look and then snaps his eyes to mine. "Take me to him."

I nod and lead the way out of the cabin.

It takes us a few minutes to get to the body, and when we do Ginny and Ron both take disgusted steps backwards.

"Oh, Merlin," Ron says after a moment, becoming braver and approaching the corpse. "No identification?"

"No," I answer, "nothing."

Ron sits on his heels and just looks at the guy. "Sorry, buddy. Just a few more minutes and you would have been at our place."

"Wait," Ginny says, recovering from her surprise. "What if it wasn't a coincidence that he was here?"

I look at her, and she looks back at me, and it's as though I can see what she's thinking.

Ron is clueless. "What do you mean?"

"Move," I say, approaching the body. I seize the stiff left arm, and yank up the sleeve.

"Merlin," Ron breaths again. "He's a Death Eater."

I look at Ron. "They could know we're here. We should move immediately."

He nods jerkily. "Okay. Yeah. Yeah, you're right." He swallows hard and stands up.

"We can't go back to the cabin," I say.

"I have to," Ron says. "I left a few things there."

I bite my lip as I look at Ron. We really should leave immediately. "Fine, just. . . don't linger."

We leave the body and head back to the cabin. We are just about to leave the forest when we hear a shout.

"MORSMORDRE!"

A blast of green light blinds us, and we look up to see the Dark Mark hovering above our cabin.

Ron seizes my arm and pulls me and Ginny back behind a tree.

"Burn it," an icy voice hisses.

Though I've never come face to face with the wizard, I know who it is. Only one creature on this planet has that voice, capable of chilling your blood and lighting a fire of hatred in your heart at the same time.

Voldemort is here.

Ron is still holding my arm, and his grip tightens when he hears the voice of the Dark Lord.

"Incendio!" cries several voices.

I can feel the heat from where we're hiding. They're burning our cabin.

"Burn the forest as well," Voldemort says.

"My Lord?"

"There may be more hiding in the forest. Burn it, or suffer the consequences of questioning my orders."

"Yes, my lord, beg your pardon."

The voice of the Death Eater is hauntingly familiar to me, and I can't quite place it until,

"Wormtail, you are to burn the forest and everything in it and Apparate to Hogwarts. Your blunders are many, let's see if you can't do this simple task right, hmm?"

"Burn the forest!" Wormtail yells, a slight edge of anger in his voice.

"Move!" Ron growls and drags us along the tree line. Flames erupt from the tree we we were just hiding behind, and the fire spreads quickly, leaping from tree to tree.

"We have to get to the hills," I breath in his ear. "The fire's spreading too quickly. . . we can't escape it."

He glances quickly over his shoulder where the roar of flames is destroying everything. "If they see us, we're dead."

Ginny pulls out her wand. "Well then we'd better run fast."

I glance over my shoulder also, and stop behind a large tree, and look out to the hills. "Okay, on three we run. One. . . . Two. . . . Three."

-

Harry

Lying prone on my back I can clearly see the brilliant ensemble of stars, twinkling peacefully millions of miles away. As another shudder shakes my body, I wish I was with them, close to their heat and beauty.

I know I'm going into shock. The blood from my neck is staining the snow around me a deep red, which is odd because I can no longer feel the wound. Everything feels as though it is numb.

Someone leans over me.

"Hang in there, Harry," they say, each word seeming to take a millenium to reach my ears.

I can taste blood in my mouth. Perhaps I bit my tongue when the curse grazed my neck.

"He's bleeding internally, there's nothing I can do."

My eyes roll in my head. I struggle to bring the person into focus, but everything has disappeared to me; I can't see the stars anymore. My chest heaves, and I cough, sputtering blood everywhere. I try to speak and say "Help me," but all I do is open my mouth and gag.

My body is trembling harder now.

"He can't hold on for much longer. . . ."

Even as those words are said, I feel my breathing slow down, and my whole body slack.

Someone is holding my hand, I realize, and try to grip back, but my fingers aren't responding.

No, I can't die. Not here, not now. Not after being held so long by the Death Eaters. Not after finally escaping. I can't die now. I need to see Hermione. There's so much I still need to do. Hermione needs me. I need her.

With my last ounce of strength I finally grasp the hand holding mine, and pull it to my chest, resting it over my heart.

"I'm sorry it ended this way, Harry. I'm sorry I couldn't save you."

No, no, no, no, no, stop saying that. I'm not going to die. It's not my time yet.

"I tried to stop the curse. I promise I did, but I couldn't get it. I swear I couldn't."

I know. I know, but stop talking and save me! Please! Help me!

"I'm sorry I opened those gates. I didn't want to, I swear, but they were going to kill my parents!"

I close my eyes. My mind is struggling to put together the words being spoken. I drag in a long, painful breath, as though this is the last time I'll feel oxygen in my lungs. My fingers flex slightly, still grasping the hand of the traitor, and I can actually feel my body shutting down.

I release my heavy breath, and I'm dimly aware that my hand falls to the snow. My eyes are already closed, but a whole new wave of darkness shields my eyes.

And I realize I'm about to die. Here. On the icy grounds of Hogwarts, accompanied by two Death Eaters who felt mercy for me. If I were not terrified of everything at the moment, I would laugh at the irony.

I feel terribly cold now, and feel no need to take another breath.

The end is here. I get to see my parents and Sirius again.

And then. . . I feel. . . nothing. . . .

-

-

A/N Sorry this took a bit of time. I rewrote this three times because I couldn't figure out how I wanted this chapter to go. I'm still not terribly pleased with the end result, but hey, I'll take what I can get. Review, people, it encourages me to write quicker and better.

peace

felony melanie