Disclaimer: anything you recognise isn't mine – god bless JK!!
Chapter 7 – Beyond the Grave
Reminder: "so what happened?" he asked, "How did you die?"
" I was hoping you could tell me" I replied
*~*~* Fighting the Demons *~*~*
"You don't remember!?" he asked, It was more of a statement than a question, I bowed my head and pulled my kneed up in front of me hugging them for comfort.
"At first I didn't"
"Realise you were dead?" he finished for me, nodding to himself.
"Is that normal?" I asked recognizing the familiarity in his tone.
He turned to look at me, "sure it is" he said with a grim smile, "When we're alive we repress memories that we find traumatic, what makes us any different now we're dead?
His words made me think of Harry, and more precisely the summer just before my sixth year. The day the Dementors openly declared their allegiance to Voldemort.
They had attacked Diagon Alley, and not just any day either, they day we were there buying our supplies for the upcoming school year.
They had appeared out of nowhere, and it was only the happiness draining from the air around us that alerted people to them, had that not happened, a lot less people would be around today to tell the tale.
I had just
been leaving Flourish and Blotts with Hermione, she had dragged me there so
that she could buy a biography she had read about in the Daily Prophet; Glover Hipworth: the Pepper of Life.
She had recently decided that she wanted to spend her life helping the wizarding world, not by healing them, but by researching cures for the worst spells and ailments, the incurables.
Ron, being who he was, supported his girlfriend's decision wholeheartedly, by sending his sister to keep her company, whilst he went to Quality Quidditch Supplies with Harry; I was silently cursing him, as Hermione rambled on about various books she had seen in Flourish and Blotts, and neither of us were altogether aware at the panic that had ensued up by the ice cream parlour.
It wasn't until someone yelled "dementors" causing a ripple to run through the crowd that we realised what was going on. Jumping into action I pulled Hermione into the doorway of Ollivander's and peered around the street looking for Ron and Harry.
As the crowds thinned I spotted Harry in the thick of the action, firing his Patronus into a sea of black cloaks ahead of him. My eyes following his stag I quickly assessed that there were a hundred or more Dementors.
Ron materialised at our side, "there's anti apparition fields up" he yelled over the noise of the crowd, "we have to fight our way out.
Hermione nodded and ran to Harry's side, her wand already in hand. I followed in quick succession, but as I drew nearer I felt a stab of cold.
I was thrown into memories of that final fight with Tom, him materialising at my side, telling me I was weak, and that because of me people were going to die, I sank to my knees overcome with fear, and was only pulled out of it by a hand on my shoulder.
Looking up into understanding eyes I snapped out of it, "fight it Ginny!" whispered Harry.
I nodded grimly and rose to my feet, pulling my wand from my waistband; I frantically searched for a happy memory, my first day at Hogwarts, that was it, I pointed my wand into the legion of shadows that were bearing down upon us, "expecto patronum" I yelled, but to my horror only a thin wisp of silver smoke came out of my wand.
I panicked, I had failed, I couldn't do it, so much for my vow to save Harry, I couldn't do a simple patronus charm. I began sinking into despair, still searching for a happy memory, but they all eluded me.
Harry still stood at my side seemed to sense my difficulty, grabbing my shoulders he turned to me "Christmas Ginny, what about Christmas?!."
Christmas? What about Christmas, nothing had happ... realization dawned on me, Christmas! And if he thought Christmas was a ha… "Expecto Patronum" I yelled confidently and a shining light burst from my wand right into the heart of the Dementors.
Harry stopped and grinned at me as a silvery panther joined Harry's stag, Hermione's Otter and Ron's fox.
Together the four creatures began to drive off the dementors, joined by more and more creatures as the wizards and witches around us realised what we were trying to do.
It was in the aftermath, when the Dementors had finally been driven off that we sat on a wall, watching the healers round up the casualties, including a very grumpy Ron who had cut his head in a fall, and an anxious Hermione, who fussed over him.
Harry turned to me, "Christmas?" he asked, I grinned at him and felt my cheeks burning.
He grinned back at me, and I ignored the urge to push his hair out of his eyes, thinking instead of their effects upon me.
"When they're near I…" I broke off,
"The chamber?" he asked.
"How did you.."
"they make you think of your worst memory" he interrupted, not seeming to want to talk about it.
"oh" I replied and sat there studying the cobbles around my feet.
*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
"Penny?" said Cedric, interrupting...
"What?" I asked confused,
"For your thoughts" he finished…
"We could do with a dementor right now" I told him,
He shuddered, "what you want one of those things for?"
"Remembering" after all, there was no worse thing than your own murder, was there?
I turned to Cedric, "I need to find out how I died, can you help me?"
He looked a little confused, "I can try, where did you die?"
The golden question, where did I die? The very first question and it hand me stumped, where did I die? How did I die? Why did they think it was suicide?
"Come on" I said rising to my feet.
"Where are we going?" he asked also standing.
"Hogwarts" I replied in a determined tone. I didn't kill myself, I had no reason - I needed answers, and Hogwarts was the place I would find them.
[A/N – sorry the chapter is so short, that just seemed like
the right place to end it, I'll get on the next one right away though!]
[Darlon – thanks
for the review, you made my day, most of what you read is all first draft,
although I do plan it in my head ]
[before I put it on paper – except in this case cause I wrote half and then
closed the file without saving by accident! :'( ]
Silvermoonluna