O that 'twere possible,
After long grief and pain,
To find the arms of my true- love
Round me once again!...
A shadow flits before me-
Not thou, but like to thee.
Ah God! that it were possible
For one short hour to see
The souls we loved, that they might tell us
What and where they be.
By Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Chapter XXVIII: Headlines
There was a gathering in the Great Hall of Hogwarts. All two hundred and eighty seven hostages had returned for a meeting to discuss a story for the press conference to be held later that day.
"I still can't believe you did this!" Ginny yelled at Harry and Charlie.
"Look, we're not going to reveal you," said Harry. "We just needed to discuss a plausible story with all the others and we think that you should talk to them."
"No," said Ginny. "I never wanted this to happen."
"Just talk to them, Ginny," said Charlie. "You saved all their lives, maybe they would like a chance to thank you."
"I don't need thanking," said Ginny. "Freeing them was all the thanks that I needed and seeing the smiles of their families in the Prophet a couple of days later. That was enough."
"Tell them that," said Harry. "They just want the best for their hero."
"What about you?" Ginny asked, looking straight at Harry.
"I want the best for you," said Harry. "I love you, and I want people to know what a wonderful, wonderful person that you are."
He squeezed her hand.
"You are amazing," said Harry. "Why can't I tell the world?"
"Because that's not what I want," said Ginny. "I am a Weasley. I grew up with hand-me-downs. I didn't have anything that was brand new as much as Mum and Dad could get away with it. We have never had a lot of money, and that is something that I'm not ashamed of, but you know what the Prophet is like Harry! They will tear that to pieces, say I did it for money and for glory."
"Nobody will think that, Ginny," said Charlie. "Not anyone who knows you at least."
"Oh no," said Ginny. "Look at what happened to Harry a few years ago. Some of the people who he had shared a dorm with for four years believed the newspaper not the person. In this world the Prophet is the bible. If you tell them I will hex you into the next dimension."
"And I won't put that past you," said Harry. "I won't tell, unless they stared heaping the gratitude on to me, the press I mean."
"Harry..." began Ginny.
"No," said Harry. "No one is going to praise me for what you did."
"Please don't," said Ginny.
Harry sighed and held her close.
"I love you so much," he said. "I don't want you to sell yourself short."
That afternoon, the Great Hall was filled with students, general public and reporters from all over the world. Ten of the hostages sat along the staff table with magical megaphones in front of them whilst the others stood in a large group behind. Ginny was sitting inconspicuously amongst the other Hogwarts students. Dumbledore rang a large bell and called for silence.
"May I have your attention please," he called.
Silence fell throughout the room.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said Dumbledore. "It is my pleasure to introduce to you, from left to right, the hostages from the Final Battle: Mrs Carol Sweeney, Mr Dean Thomas, Miss Parvati Patil, Mr Charlie Weasley, Mr Severus Snape, Mr Harry Potter, Miss Nymphadora Tonks, Mrs Angela Freeman, Mr Michael Corner, and Mrs Carrie Wright."
There was a small applause.
"If you would please remain silent while the spokespersons are speaking, I'm sure that they will be happy to answer any questions once they are finished," finished Dumbledore.
"Thank you, Professor," said Harry. "Thank you all for coming today. We have chosen to hold this conference today to explain to you all how we managed to escape from the Death Eaters that were holding all of us hostages during the last eight months. We would like to explain to you, first of all, the conditions in which we were kept. Mr Charlie Weasley."
"After we were captured from the battlefields we awoke in dark, damp holes in the ground," began Charlie. "We believe that these prisons were dug magically and the entrances could also be concealed at will. We were wandless, of course, but our captors carried a prisoner's wand with them at all times. We each had a personal wand bearer, for want of a better expression. The Death Eaters dressed as muggles and for the large part went unnoticed. From what we can gather they killed any muggles who dared to question them. They weren't as lucky as us. Miss Nymphadora Tonks."
"They would bring us bread and water three times a day," said Tonks. "Under usual circumstances they would open the entrance, place us under the body bind curse before coming down with the food. They would remove the curse once they were out of harms way. The bread and water were always fresh. They didn't seem to want to hurt us. Mr Severus Snape."
"Most of the prisons held two to four people," said Snape. "I myself was imprisoned with Mr Dean Thomas and Miss Parvati Patil. At least there was someone to talk to. The prisons were probably the worst part of the experience. The earth all around you was damp, when you laid down you were cold. You didn't have a change of dry clothes. There wasn't space to walk around properly, although there was quite a bit of headroom. The higher the roof, the higher it is to climb out. Mrs Carrie Wright."
"The smell started to get quite bad after a while," she said. "What some of did was dig a fresh hole everyday, use that as a toilet, make sure it was quite deep of course, then fill it in the next morning. That did seem to work. It did reduce the smell, but of course, with four people who haven't showered in months, festering sewage, all encased in damp earth, it's never going to smell like wild flowers. Mr Dean Thomas."
"They would move us around a lot," said Dean. "We think it was to stop us getting any ideas about escaping. We wouldn't have time to plot anything, because we'd be with different people every few weeks. They'd always move us at night. We'd be blindfolded, then they'd lead us up and down mountains. We'd walk miles on those nights; all you'd want to do for the next few days is sleep. Mr Michael Corner."
"The nights when they moved us were always the worst," said Michael. "You didn't know if they'd walk you or your friends off a cliff, or how many mountains you'd have to climb. Bread and water is alright, but it's not the most satisfying food in the world and many of us were quite weak. Then you'd arrive in your new prison, surrounded by two or three new people and you'd have to start all over again. Sometimes they wouldn't move everybody, and that made moving doubly difficult. It's hard sticking together in that kind of situation, but when you're moved to a hole where the people have already been through so much together, it's hard for them to accept you. In those times escape was just a distant dream. Mrs Angela Freeman."
"The winter was the worst," she said. "The cold seeped into your bones. The ground always seemed damper and after living of little food for several months your immune system is crippled. With no wands and no potions you can't fight the illness magically, and your body can't fight it because you're too weak. I'm just glad that many had escaped before the winter set in, or I'm sure that some of us would not be here today. Mrs Carol Sweeney."
"Sometimes we'd here unfamiliar voices outside," she said. "And all your hope for rescue would come flooding back. More often than not it was more Death Eaters, just discussing something or other. There was nothing more satisfying though, than hearing the Death Eaters converse in anxious voices because some more of their colleagues and hostages had gone missing. It was a ray of sunshine for us to know that at least some were going free. Miss Parvati Patil."
"Despair and hopelessness are the worst feelings in the world," said Parvati. "I don't know of anyone who could have experienced them like us. We went to hell, and yet we came back. We walked through the jaws of death, and yet, we're here to tell the tale. There is one person, in this room today, who deserves a lot more thanks than they are willing to let us give them. Mr Harry Potter."
"Thank you, Parvati. Escape seemed like a distant dream for so many weeks," said Harry. "Charlie and I tried to escape, the Death Eaters found out and we were separated. They kept me alone for over four months. Those damp muddy walls soon become your home, it's surprising really, but part of me still misses them. I survived the winter, but only just. I'm not going to lie to you about how we all escaped..."
"Did you save them?" interrupted a reporter.
"No," said Harry. "I was the last to be freed. The person who saved us was never a hostage..."
There was a scraping of chairs at the back of the hall and the sound of footsteps just before the door banged shut. Harry leapt over the table and sprinted down the aisle.
"Where's he going?" asked another reporter.
"To catch the person who saved our lives," said Snape.
"Who?" asked one of the students.
"Wait and see," said Tonks.
The crowd waited with baited breath for what seemed like hours. The doors flew open with a crash and Harry Potter stood there, his hand clasping another hand very tightly. Everyone stood as Harry and the mystery person began to walk through the room.
"Please welcome," said Snape. "Ginny Weasley."
A tumultuous applause began very slowly, but built up and built up until Ginny couldn't even hear herself think. Flash bulbs were going off in all directions. She walked past the rows of Hogwarts students and found Joanne throwing her arms around Ginny's waist.
"They all love you, Ginny," said Joanne. "I had no idea what you saved them from. You're a true hero."
Ginny's eyes filled with tears. Joanne hurried back to her seat as Ginny and Harry made their way towards the staff table. Lavender Brown had gotten a chair for Ginny in between Harry and Snape and as they reached the table a shaky Ginny sat herself down. Harry squeezed her hand as she looked into the crowd.
"Thank you," she said.
The people quietened down.
"Thank you," said Ginny. "I don't really know what to say."
She looked at Harry.
"Why did you go to save them?" shouted a reporter.
Harry nodded to Ginny, still holding her hand reassuringly.
"Well," began Ginny. "I was told in a roundabout sort of way that two-hundred-and-eighty-seven people who were presumed dead from our side, weren't actually dead at all. What you have to understand is that I had lost many people who meant a great deal to me. My brother Charlie, Tonks, Dean, Lavender, Parvati, people who I'd known for many years, Harry, who, well, that's complicated, but the point is that I had lost many people who I loved. I was hurting, and when I realised that some people were still alive, I thought that maybe I could stop some people from going through the pain that I was going though by sending their loved ones home. So that's what I set out to do."
"Where did you go?" asked another reporter.
"I went to Diagon alley, got some money then went out into muggle London. Quite by chance I was passing a newspaper stand when I noticed the headlines all saying that there were five dead in as many days, in a place called the Lake District in Cumbria. I thought that that would be as good as any place to start a search, so I signalled the Knight Bus and ended up in a town called Keswick. Somehow, I managed to stumble across a wizarding family there and I stayed with them, until my search was over."
"How did you know what to look for?" asked a third reporter.
"I didn't. I bought some maps of the area and asked the family who I was staying with for some advice. I looked for more secluded areas where there would be less people walking, places with natural caves and disused slate quarries or mines where it would have been easy to imprison people. I can't quite remember how long it was until I actually found somebody."
"How did you manage to subdue the Death Eaters and get them picked up by the Ministry?"
"I would spot a suspicious looking group of walkers. They weren't particularly well disguised and also they were very edgy. The sound of birds hooting would cause them all to jump. I'd stun them for a distance, move over to them, and then point my wand to the ground. In most cases a hole would just open up and there'd be a group of grubby looking people down there. I'd help them all out, take their names so I could keep track of the numbers, and then I'd bind the Death Eaters with invisible rope. Sometimes I'd walk down with them, sometimes I'd just leave it to the hostages. I told them to send up red sparks when they reached a road. I knew that the Misuse of Magic department would be there in a flash. It worked every time."
"How is it that nobody knew about you?"
"People just assumed that I'd been kidnapped to. I'm the Minister's daughter so that reason is perfectly plausible. The people I freed and the family that I stayed with agreed to keep my secret, so nobody knew."
"How far did you walk?"
"Two thousand miles," said Ginny, glancing at Harry.
"What, exactly, is your complicated relationship with Harry Potter?" asked a female reporter.
"We're..." said Ginny. "We're just friends."
Harry squeezed her hand again.
"Why did you not want anyone to know what you did?" asked another reporter.
"I didn't want people to think that I'd done it for money or fame," said Ginny. "I did it because I wanted to save those people, you know, to do my part for our side. I never wanted anything to come of it, other than two-hundred-and-eighty-seven people being reunited with their loved ones, whoever they were."
"Thank you for all your questions," said Harry. "I'm glad that you could all make it today and I hope that you have found our explanations satisfactory. I will now hand you over to Professor Albus Dumbledore."
"Thank you, Harry," said Dumbledore. "If I could ask the students to return to their common rooms first of all, then the members of the press could join me in this room off to the right. Supper for the students will be sent up to the common rooms. The house elves will provide food for our guests here in the Great Hall. Prefects, if you will be so kind as to lead your houses out, thank you."
The students filed out of the hall in a buzz. Ginny stood up to join them but Harry stopped hr and pulled her back to her seat.
"Whoa, whoa," he said. "Where do you think you're going?"
"To the common room," said Ginny. "Like Professor Dumbledore said."
"You're staying down here with us," said Harry.
"Professor," said Ginny. "I would feel more comfortable going upstairs."
"I know you would," said Harry. "But that lot through there," he pointed to the room where the press were gathered. "Will want to take countless photographs of you, of all the hostages, possibly of you and me together, and they'll also want to organise exclusives for whatever publication they work for. You're in for a busy night."
Ginny groaned. Harry slipped his arm around her waist, hidden by the chair and the table from anyone's view.
"Don't worry," he said quietly. "I'll help you through it."
"I know," said Ginny. "I don't know whether I'm pleased or mad that you told them."
"You're pleased," said Harry, lowering his voice. "You love me too much to be mad at me."
"I suppose you're right," said Ginny.
"So, we're just friends then," said Harry.
Ginny glared at him.
"You know I only said that because we agreed..."
"I know, I know," said Harry.
"I love you," said Ginny in a whisper.
"I love you too," whispered Harry.
His fingers moved to the ring on her left hand. Ginny smiled at him and Harry smiled back. Keeping their secret was the most important thing. Nobody could know about them, not until they were ready to tell.
A/N Update time was too bad I don't think. It's definitely been worse. As usual, I would like to thank all of my reviewers for their comments. Seeing as so many seemed disappointed with the news of only about three chapters to go, I decided what I will do. The main story will finish in two or three chapters time, but I will do a few chapters of Flash Forwards to the future, detailing important events in the lives of our favourite foursome. How's that sound. There won't be a sequel, but you will get to find out a bit about what they go on to do. Anyway, please review. Your comments mean so much to me.