Author's Note: I am so sorry about the delay – as I had already told you, I went on a three-week-trip to China in the beginning of June, and on the very evening I got back, I got pneumonia and ended up spending a few days in hospital. It has taken me this long to get well enough to start writing again.

Chapter 11

The Dead

Harry ran through the corridors blindly, knocking over students who happened to be in his way. He didn't stop to apologise, in fact he hardly even noticed what he was doing; not even Pansy Parkinson's shrill cry as he sent her down a flight of stairs made him slow down. Only when he reached Professor McGonagall's old office did he stop, panting. He thrust open the door without knocking and burst into the room. Tonks was sitting at her desk and looked up at him in surprise.
'How could you?!' he shouted.
Tonks looked at him, uncomprehendingly.
'How could you not tell me?'
'What are you talking about?' said Tonks.
'Ginny! How could you not tell me about Ginny?' Harry roared.
'But Harry – '
'You knew she was alive! You knew and you didn't tell me!'
'I don't understand what you mean Harry,' Tonks said quietly. 'Why wouldn't Ginny be alive?'
Harry stared at her, incredulously.
'Why wouldn't – she was dead! I saw her!'
Tonks took a deep breath.
'Why don't you ... calm down, Harry,' she said. 'Sit down and tell me exactly what you're talking about, because you're not making any sense.'
'Don't you tell me to calm down!' Harry shouted. 'Ginny was DEAD! I saw her body and I talked to the Healer who tried to save her life ... Why do you think I left the magical world? Why do you think I left and never got in touch with anyone again? And here I come back, after fifteen years, and find out she's alive and well and married to Colin Creevey! How is it possible, tell me that!?' He sat down, glaring at Tonks.
'But Harry ...' Tonks looked at him helplessly. 'Are you saying that you thought all this time that Ginny was dead?'
'She was dead!' Harry snapped. 'I told you: I saw her body at St Mungo's and she was definitely dead. No pulse. Cold. Dead.'
'But ...' Tonks looked utterly bewildered. 'When did this happen?'
'That day, of course,' Harry said, annoyed that Tonks seemed so slow on the uptake. 'The day I fought Lucius Malfoy. Why do you think I went after him in the first place?'
'So that was the day you died,' Tonks said slowly, 'or so we thought, anyway. That was about three months before Ginny woke up from her coma.'
'Well, she wasn't just in a coma when I saw her!' Harry said angrily. 'I checked to make sure she was really dead ... I'm not a fool, Tonks! I held her dead body in my arms.' He shuddered. 'I'll never forget it.'
'Harry, I swear to you, Ginny was in a coma – only that. That was all there was. She was in mortal peril, but she never ... Don't you think the Healers would have told Mrs Weasley if she had almost died?' Tonks looked imploringly at Harry, who looked down, shaking his head.
'I'm not making this up, Tonks, and I didn't imagine it. You don't imagine things like that. I loved Ginny. You have no idea what it felt like to lose her – no idea!'
'I think I do, Harry ...' Tonks said quietly.
Harry looked at her again, and with a jolt he remembered how Remus Lupin had died in the final battle against Voldemort, only a week after Harry had found out that he and Tonks were engaged to be married.
'I'm sorry, Tonks,' he said heavily. 'I didn't mean to ...'
'That's allright,' Tonks said quickly. 'Well, that explains why you left, anyway. I did wonder how you could do that to Ginny ... but if you thought she was dead ...'
Harry suddenly realised why Tonks had reacted the way she did when she found out that he was alive. You hurt a lot of people ... some more than others, she had said. She had been talking about Ginny, not about Mrs Weasley or anyone else. Harry sighed deeply and asked the question that was haunting him the most:
'Why? Why did this happen?'
He and Tonks sat there, staring at each other, both knowing that there was, of course, no answer to such a question.
'Which Healer did you talk to?' Tonks asked after a short while. 'Was it the ordinary one?'
'Yes,' Harry said emphatically, 'Augustus Pye.' He cleared his throat, not noticing the strange look on Tonks's face. 'In fact, I was quite mad at him ... thought he'd been dabbling in Muggle medicine again; I knew he had done it before ...'
'Augustus Pye!' Tonks said. 'Of course ... of course, that must be it ...' She looked at Harry again. 'Harry, Augustus Pye was killed by Death Eaters that day! But since it was the day we thought you died, his death passed by almost unnoticed. It was never properly investigated.'
'So you think ...' Harry said slowly.
'It must have been the Death Eaters,' said Tonks. 'They must have planned all this for some reason ...'
'Yes, that makes sense,' said Harry. 'That explains why Malfoy was expecting me. He wanted me to go after him; that's probably why they did it. They must have put Pye under the Imperius Curse or something, and ordered him to kill Ginny ... But that doesn't explain why she's alive now.'
'Maybe ...' Tonks thought for a while. 'Maybe there was more to the plan than that, but it all went to pieces when you killed Malfoy.'
Harry nodded dully. All of a sudden he realised that he didn't really care how or why it had happened; all he could think about was that Ginny had been alive all along, and he had spent the last fifteen years mourning her for nothing.
'Harry, I have to go to class now,' said Tonks. 'Will you be all right? Would you like me to stay with you?'
'Don't be silly,' Harry muttered.
'How many classes do you have today?'
'I only had one; the timetable still hasn't been changed to make room for all of the Defence Against the Dark Arts classes, so I have the afternoon off.'
'Well, good,' said Tonks. 'Then you can ... you know ...'
'Yeah ... I suppose I will ... I'll see you at dinner.' Harry got up swiftly and left the room, without looking at Tonks again.

Harry walked slowly to the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher's office. His brain repeated the same phrase over and over again: Ginny is alive, Ginny is alive, Ginny is alive ... But he couldn't feel happy about it. Not only had he lost Ginny that time, many years ago, but now it felt like he had also lost the fifteen years that they ought to have shared, not to mention the fact that he had lost the girl who ought to have been his wife to Colin Creevey.
He opened the door to his office, thankful for some peace and quiet. He needed time to think. Soon, Lily would be back from Hogsmeade, and he had to spend some time alone before he could face her. Lily – his daughter. His and Cordelia's. He would never have had her and John if he and Ginny had married. He would have had other children, perhaps. Children like Ronald Creevey. What would it have been like?
His thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice. 'Hello, Harry.'
He looked up, startled. A woman with dirty blonde hair and protruding, slightly mad-looking eyes was standing in front of him, smiling dreamily. She looked almost exactly like she had fifteen years ago, when he had last seen her. Luna Lovegood.
'It's good to see you again,' she said, walking towards him.
Harry burst into tears.