Disclaimer: anything you recognise isn't mine – god bless JK!!

 Chapter 8– Beyond the Grave

Reminder: I didn't kill myself, I had no reason - I needed answers, and Hogwarts was the place I would find them.

*~*~*A Question of Murder *~*~*

            I closed my eyes, and felt the familiar rush of air as I transported myself to the Great Hall….. usually I would flick straight to the Gryffindor common room, call it habit if you would, but with Cedric I didn't want to do that, even I we were both dead I wasn't about to be responsible for showing a member of Hufflepuff the location of our house.

            The silver moonbeams picked out the desks in the darkened hall, and I was thankful that the sky had been bewitched, as the moons glow offered the only light.

            I looked around the hall, it was funny how different it looked in the night time, during the day it was always busy, whether it was during meal times or otherwise.


            In the moonlight it had taken on an eerie silence and offered none of its usual cheery atmosphere.

"Let's get out of here" said Cedric, and I could see that he was also finding the atmosphere in the hall unsettling; I nodded and headed for the doors, once again using habit, because I still had difficulty remembering that I now had the ability to walk through walls.

            The corridors were also devoid of any life, but here the cracking of the wall torches added light and warmth, well metaphorically speaking of course, I couldn't feel little things like hot and cold anymore.

            "Where now?" asked Cedric

            "We should find Jane" I replied, "She might know something"

            I turned and began heading to the library, last time I had wanted her she had been there, it was a small possibility I knew, but I didn't have any sort of idea where else to look.

            I marched down the corridors, taking the necessary turnings and never coming into contact with anyone, alive or dead.

"must all be sleeping" I muttered to Cedric, who was following closely behind.

            He said nothing but continued to follow me in silence, until we finally reached the large library doors. Unsurprisingly they were closed, Madam Pince having gone to bed herself. Remembering my early hesitations I braced myself and walked through the door.

            The Library was in complete darkness,

"Jane?" I called, "Jane are you here?"

            There was no response,

"She's not here Gin?"

"How would you know" I snapped at him,

"Well she might be dead, but she still needs light to read" he replied teasingly,

            I realised he was right, She wouldn't be here, so where else could she be?

"Do you know where the Ravenclaw common room is?" I asked Cedric,

he shook his head "Nope"

"me neither" I replied, my hopes dashed.

"Would she be in McGonagall's class?" asked Cedric, "I've seen her there occasionally"

"well we've nowhere else to try, why not?" I concluded and turned towards the staircase to make my way down to the second floor where the transfiguration classrooms were, Cedric dutifully following behind me.

            As we walked through another empty corridor on the first floor, I heard the first voices of the night, and turning the corner I recognised the stone gargoyle that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office.

            The voices were muffled, coming from the other side of the stone giant, so that I could barely make them out.

The guardian grated open, and panicking I jumped backwards knocking over Cedric in my haste to avoid being seen.

            For a moment I had forgotten I was invisible, and Cedric now sat on the floor where I had knocked him chuckled,

"Nice one, Weasley! Send me…"

"Shhhh!" I interrupted trying to hear the voices from beyond the doorway,

"As I said Albus, Ginny Weasley would not have killed herself" floated McGonagall's voice,

"And as much as it pains me, I am inclined to agree" finished Professor Snape.

            They were talking about me? Now maybe I would start finding some of these answers, it occurred to me that I should not be eavesdropping on the conversations of Professors, but I pushed the nagging thought into the back of my mind, I'm dead now, what harm could it do?

            "Whilst I am in agreement" concluded Dumbledore, " It still does not explain how she was found alone at the foot of the astronomy tower, with a broken neck"

            Hang on a minute, broken neck? What did they think I did? Jumped? I couldn't have jumped, someone must have pushed me.

            A chill rushed over me, as I remembered my earlier experiment, the way I had tipped myself over the edge of the sill, the way I had plummeted to the floor, and they way I had never come into contact with the ground, finding myself instead in the common room. Had I repeated my death? Was the falling not an idea, but a subconscious urge to repeat my unlikely fate?

            Cedric had risen, and now stood behind me...

"Broken Neck?" he asked... "That's a very muggle sort of way to die"

            I nodded slowly still finding it all too much to take in, not only was it a very muggle sort of way to die, it was also the perfect disguise as a suicide, making me look like I jumped off a tower, broke my neck on impact…

I turned to Cedric, "I didn't kill myself" I insisted adamantly.

He rested his hand on my shoulder, "I believe you Gin, but who are you trying to convince? Me? Or yourself?"

I pushed his hand away, "You think I did it don't you?" I yelled,

He looked taken aback, "Well Gin,"

"Get away from me!"

 I yelled on the brink of tears,

 "I don't need people like you around me, I didn't kill myself and if you don't believe me you don't know who I am"

he took a step back "Gin?" he said warily,

"Just leave me alone" I spun around, my voice having lost its volume but none of its venom.

"But Gin" he continued

"Get away!" I yelled

The tears now fresh in my eyes, I turned ready for the pleas, the arguments, but all I saw was an empty corridor steeped in shadows, he had obviously heeded my words and left.

Turning back to the entrance to Dumbledore's office I realised the older, or was it  alive? wizards had now gone, leaving me alone in the corridor.

I sank to my feet and buried my head in my arms, and wept, for the life I had never had the chance to truly live, for the love I had found when it was too late, and for my death, my curse, an eternity of loneliness.

*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*

I don't know how much later it was that I left that spot, but I found myself sinking back into my old habit, wandering the halls of Hogwarts, lost in my own thoughts.

At some point during the night I had began to consider Cedric's words, and had slowly realised that they really did make a lot of sense.

I was certain that I hadn't killed myself, what would have given me reason to do something like that, but the entire time I found a nagging voice in the back of my head undermining my thoughts, but you don't remember….

That was the problem, I didn't remember, my death or any of the events leading up to it, it suddenly occurred to me that I could have killed myself, but I still couldn't see a motive or a reason.

I broke out of my thoughts finding myself stood on the precipice of the window in the astronomy tower. Once again I had ended up here, drawn subconsciously once more to the scene of the crime, to the place of my death.

I stared at the ground and had a nagging question inside that I couldn't quite grasp, I pushed it aside, instead thinking of what could have brought me to this, what would have pushed me to the point that I felt death could be my only exit.

I was plunged into a flashback

"Ginny no" shouted Harry stepping back in the mud, his arm held in front of him as if protecting him from something, a flash of light hit him, and he fell backwards sliding down the muddy bank, towards the great lake, his expression one of fear and something else that I didn't recognise, the rain beat on his almost still form as he led there, "Gin" he murmured, his head tossing about as he clasped his hands to his stomach in pain..

I was thrown out of the memory as quickly as I had slipped in, and it was in a flash of memory that I realised Harry had been led in the Hospital ward the day my parents identified my body.

"No" I muttered to myself, "I couldn't have…. "


But the cold truth of the matter, the evidence was all too clear, I had attacked Harry.

I Ginny Weasley attacked Harry Potter, the boy who loved me -- heck, I deserved to die.

[A/N – thought I'd leave it on a cliff-hanger!! Darlon, thanks for the advice, however I will not be rewriting the early chapters, the whole point of the early chapter is that its tense, hurried, she doesn't have time to stop and think…. Adding detail would remove from the sense of urgency I was trying to convey. – more soon]

Luna