Chapter Eleven: Helpless

Harry and Neville jumped back in surprise as Luna, Ron, and I spilled out onto the floor of the blue room.

"Ron?" Harry said, puzzled for a moment before he realized Ron had been hurt. We must have all looked terrible, because he immediately ran over to us. "Ginny -- are you all…"

My brother, still out of it from being blasted by a Death Eater, actually attempted to reach for Harry, but failed miserably. He ended up taking grasp of Harry's robes, nearly taking Harry down with him.

However, Harry was the most physically unharmed of the lot of us. As I managed to pull myself up against the wall, Ron began to babble on about how bad Harry had looked. I noticed that Neville's face was bloodied and mangled, looking much like I imagined my ankle felt, and I was sure that his nose had been broken. Hermione, on the other hand, was unconscious, slung over Neville's shoulder like a rag doll.

Just as I was about to ask what had happened to Hermione, another sharp pain shot through my ankle and up my leg. I had to shut my eyes just to keep from wincing in pain.

Harry looked up at me worriedly. "Ginny, what happened?"

I ignored him, needing to fight against the pain in my ankle. Becoming dizzy, I slid down the wall to keep from passing out myself; I had to remain strong for Harry. Ron and Hermione were the center of his strength, and seeing them like this -- seeing all of us hurt like this, I knew that Harry would not be able to go on much longer without falling into despair himself.

Bent over me to see if I was all right, Luna took a cue from me and began to explain the events in the planet room to Harry. He seemed very concerned for me because he insisted that we get out of there as soon as possible.

Harry pulled Ron up onto his shoulder as Luna put her arm around me in order to help me up. I tried to shake the pain off and get up -- a rather stupid idea, for I was in no condition to stand, and I fell back against Luna for support.

We had nearly reached the door when another door flew open and Bellatrix Lestrange along with two other Death Eaters burst into the room. "There they are!" she bellowed.

Dodging the spells flying across the room, Harry, Neville, and Luna, with the rest of us in tow, bolted for the door. Harry opened it, and flung Ron aside to help the rest of us through before the Death Eater's could reach us. He finally slamming the door shut behind Luna and I. Relief swept over me for a second as I heard the Lestrange woman screech in anger. With the blue room in a spin, they had temporarily lost us for the moment.

We were in the creepy brain room again. Footsteps were heard all around us as the Death Eaters were finding a way in. Instantly, Harry, Neville, and Luna unloaded me, Ron and Hermione near one of the tanks and raced around the room to seal the doors. They had almost all the doors secured when I heard Luna suddenly fly threw the air, landing on a desk in an unconscious heap like Hermione. Several Death Eaters pushed their way through the door, and multicolored streams of light began flashing back and forth before my eyes as spells flew across the room.

Harry and Neville ran back to the tanks when Ron began babbling again -- this time about the brains, and within seconds, before anyone could stop him, Ron had summoned one of the brains out of the tank. It spun in the air, tentacles of brain matter unraveling behind it, and it landed right into my brother's hands.

Harry shouted, "RON, NO!"

Before any of us realized what had happened, the tentacles began wrapping themselves around Ron's arms and legs. As soon as it made contact with his skin, Ron began to struggle against it. As my brother cried out for help, Harry attempted to dislodge the strands of brain from Ron with his wand. I screamed as they moved up his body, causing him to fall over. I watched in horror as the brain entwined around Ron like ivy, moving towards his head.

"Harry, it'll suffocate him!" I shrieked again, trying to crawl over to him, but my ankle prevented me from moving with any speed. The last thing I remember was screaming, reaching toward the brain tentacles in an attempt to keep them from strangling my brother to death, when a flash of red light filled my vision and then -- nothing.

As I drifted in and out of unconsciousness, the difference between dream and reality became a blur. I could swear that I heard Harry, prophecy in hand, screaming in anger as a woman's voice (it must have been Bellatrix Lestrange), chased him out of the room.

Waking up in the Brain room again, I turned immediately to assist Ron, but he had vanished, as did everything else in the room. As I looked around, I noticed I was completely alone, save for the brain tanks, the water in them lapping against the glass quietly.

My ankle was no longer paining me as much, and I used the surface of the tank to push myself up. It was then that I heard Harry shouting wildly in anger once more. I was able to hobble to the door without assistance, finding myself in the blue room once more. Harry dashed around the dimly lit blue room without noticing me, shouting for Sirius, though I hadn't seen him myself. Had Harry finally found his godfather?

I watched him run back through one of the doors previously marked by Hermione when I heard another voice. It was a voice much higher in pitch than Harry's, and laughing in such a maniacal way that shivers went up my spine. My heart filled with dread, trying to deny what I knew in my soul to be true, and I realized that Harry had entered the veil room.

Hurrying to the center of the blue room floor, I waited for the room to make its disorienting spin around again. I watched intently as the streaks of red cut the room in half. I had to maintain my focus. Harry needed me. The streak began to break up and the room slowed to a standstill. I pulled out my wand and hobbled though the red marked door.

The room was as empty as it was before and just as eerily quiet, but I was not alone. Harry and Neville were standing directly in front of the veiled archway. The veil seemed more tattered than before, and it no longer fluttered gently --it was flapping hard as though a wind was howling though it. Oddly enough, it wasn't fluttering outward as it was before; it was whipping inward, sucking the air into the dark nothingness behind it. What was it about this room that had drawn me in so much that Hermione herself had to drag me away from it? However, I didn't feel that way now. Something in the back of my mind told me to keep away from it.

"Harry . . . Neville," I called to them, but they hadn't heard me.

In my need to help Harry, I urged myself on, and made my way down the stairs to meet them. Taking a step forward, my injured ankle finally faltered and I tumbled down the stairway, crashing hard into the stone dais that lay in the center of the room.

Pushing myself up on my hands, I called for Harry and Neville to help me, but it quickly became a terrified shriek when I noticed several pairs of withered hands, one after another reaching for Harry and Neville though the blackness of the veil. The quiet voices I heard earlier filled my ears and the hairs on my neck prickled as though they were whispering directly into my own ear.

"Harry!" I shouted at him, trying in vain to get his attention.

This time, he had heard me. He turned around at looked at me.

"Harry," I wept now, "You can't do this. Not now. I love you!"

Giving me the same knowing grin he had in the Chamber of Secrets, the same grin that told me that everything was going to be all right, and that I had nothing to fear, Harry mouthed, "I'm sorry, Ginny." He turned back towards the veil and walked into its welcoming arms.

"NO!" I screamed. Then with all the strength I had left in me, I crawled up the steps of the dais in an effort to stop him, but it was too late. For I moment, I swore that the whispers in my ears became laughter, but just as quickly as I had thought it, they became whispers again. Harry was gone.

I looked up at Neville, still standing there in a daze staring at the veil, not realizing what had just occurred. "Neville! Why didn't you stop him?"

As if the anger in my voice pulled him from his daze, Neville acknowledged me for the first time. He bent down to help me stand with him in front of the veil. "I can't go in there," he said reluctantly. "They didn't choose me." Then he smiled and looked at the veil, still whipping madly. "At least now he can be with Sirius."

The despair I felt was overwhelming and I leaned into Neville for support. He patted my back in a comforting hug. "There, there, Ginny," he said with a tone of sadness. "Harry's not the only one they want." Neville's arms pushed me away by the shoulders and he turned me around to face the wretched veil.

Horrified, I struggled against Neville's grip as he held me in place for what I knew was coming. The whispers of souls behind the veil turned to laughter once again, but this time, a singular, high-pitched laughter overwhelmed me, and I screamed in terror as a single hand this reached for me behind the veil, grabbing my arm. Although I had never physically felt it before, I knew it all too well. A severe coldness swept though me, numbing my body. It was a feeling I hadn't felt since my first year at Hogwarts.

The hand gripped me tightly, and I could just barely make out the silhouette of Tom Riddle pulling me into darkness . . .

The next thing I knew, I found myself startling awake in the Hogwarts infirmary. Neville was there; his face clean and his nose back to normal. He sat up at my bedside as he quickly put down a copy of the latest Quibbler. "Madam Pomfrey, she's awake," he called out behind me in haste.

Still trying to gain my bearings, I looked around for Harry. "Neville, what's happened?" I asked frantically, pushing myself up with all the strength in me. "Harry! Oh Merlin! What's happened to Harry?"

"He's fine," Neville said assuredly, pushing me back down into the bed. "We're all just fine."

"Ron! What about Ron?"

"Yes, him too Gin, now lie back down!"

"Mr. Longbottom is right here, my dear, now lie down for a moment," Madam Pomfrey said in her trademark kind voice. "My, that was quite a nightmare wasn't it? Here . . . take some of this it will help you to rest."

Dreadfully parched, I drank from the cup without thinking. "But I can't rest, not yet." My eyes almost immediately became heavy, and I fought to keep them open. "I have to save him."

"Save who?" Neville asked quizzically.

"Harry . . ." I said drowsily. "I can't let him go through the veil alone. Tom is waiting for him there . . ."

I fell into unconsciousness again.