Ok, this is it. Last chapter. It's done. I had originally wanted to do soooo much more with this story, but ultimately the goal was to finish it before Half Blood Prince, which, as of this moment, will be released in 10 days, 16 hours, 13 minutes, and 42 seconds (eep 2 numbers!). Soooooo I've decided to end it here. Also, it is currently 7:45am and I've not gotten any sleep. That's my excuse for this chapter. Enjoy.

Ginny was dragged back to the room where the Dark Lord waited.

"You are dismissed."

The Death Eater who had brought her bowed to his master and left. Voldemort stood in front of Ginny and glared down at her in mild amusement.

"So, you're the one who opened the Chamber of Secrets."

Ginny raised her eyes to look into his. "I'm not afraid of you."

"Aren't you now? Well, I guess we'll need to remedy that. Crucio."

Ginny's body twisted in pain as the scream she was fighting to hold back escaped in the form of a strangled whimper.

"Do you know why you are here?"

The girl did not respond as she struggled to lift herself from the floor.

"You hold within you the memories of my 16-year-old self. A part of my soul is inside you."

"You have a soul? Hah!" Ginny spat out weakly.

"And until I get it back," He continued, ignoring her comment. "I have no hope of reaching my full power. Since the diary that once held it has been destroyed, the only way I can get it back is to retrieve the memories from your mind. Unfortunately for you it will most likely result in your death. Well, really it will only leave you with permanent brain damage, so my killing you would only be doing you a favor."

Harry and his friends wandered through the labyrinth of long, dank corridors as they tried to find their way to Ginny. They hadn't gone far when they ran into two hooded figured. The Death Eaters didn't put up much of a fight; they were greatly outnumbered. One was stunned and left there, while Fred held the other at wand-point and forced him to lead them to Ginny.
Voldemort lifted his wand and began to whisper the words that would give him everything he desired, and….

…And that was that. Voldemort cast the spell. They were too late. Harry and the others entered the room just in time to see Ginny collapse to the floor. There then glowed a light so blinding that everyone in the room was forced to shield their eyes. The light faded quickly, and once it was gone Voldemort's maniacal laughter echoed all around.

"It's done! Nothing can stop me now!"

But Voldemort is the villain in our little story, and villains always meet their demise. You see, so ecstatic was he over regaining the last bit of his soul, that he let down his guard for a moment to rejoice. He had not seen the newcomers enter the room, nor did he so much as have time to blink in reaction when Harry cast "Avada Kedavra"; the killing curse.

As Voldemort's corpse slumped to the ground, Death Eaters swarmed in from all sides. By this point, the Death Eater that they had left stunned had regained consciousness and alerted the others. The Dark Lord may have been dead, but his followers were not about to give up without a fight. Harry noticed none of this. As his friends began to fight the Death Eaters, Harry found his way to Ginny's side. He leaned over her body to see if she was alive. She was breathing, but just barely. Her pulse was very weak as well.

Harry silently asked himself the question that had plagued him since he was old enough to understand the Dursleys' cruelty; Why? Why did all these bad things happen? More importantly, why did they keep happening to him? Harry cradled Ginny's head in his lap. A war was raging around him, but all he could hear were these questions racing through his mind.

Karri set down the book she'd been reading. For three years she'd wondered what had happened to her friends. She'd not heard a word from them since Ron and "Jayne" had left to rescue Harry and Ginny. Not long after, Mrs. McBride entered a long period of financial difficulties, and in the end it was decided that Karri would do better living with her Muggle father, who had then moved to Australia. With no more than rushed long distance phone calls to keep in touch with her witch mother, Karri was cut off from the wizarding world. It wasn't until the release of the seventh and final book in the Harry Potter series three years after the events took place that she discovered what had happened to her friends (and she was, of course, overjoyed at the fact that she herself was a character in her favorite series). The last chapter of the book explained everything that had happened after that fateful night.

As soon as Mrs. McBride's letter reached Dumbledore, he dispatched the Order of the Phoenix. They arrived in time to help finish off the Death Eaters, who either died from injuries sustained in the fight, or were hauled off to Azkaban. None escaped this time – not even Lucius Malfoy. Ginny was taken immediately to St. Mungo's. Her condition did not improve, and she remained in a coma for three days until she died.

The story's end described the joy of the wizarding world at the death of their greatest enemy. Once again they began to worship Harry for his heroics. Unfortunately, the book did not go into much detail about what happened to Harry, Ron, and Hermione afterwards. So, upon completing the novel, Karri decided to do her own research. A visit to Hogwarts and a meeting with Dumbledore (yes, she did go all fangirly upon meeting him, and everyone else she encountered at the school) cleared everything up. Ron and Hermione had recently wed and were living in Muggles in an undisclosed location. Harry she found in a small wizarding town outside of London.

HARRY JAMES POTTER

The Boy Who Lived

Hero

His final resting place was right beside Ginny. Dumbledore had explained to Karri what was deemed too "dark" for a children's book. He'd never liked the attention he received for being "the famous Harry Potter". That, together with the grief of loosing Ginny and the idea of "what might have been" tormented Harry until he took his own life one Halloween night – the anniversary of his parents' death and his ascent to fame.

When Karri returned to her home, she destroyed all her beloved Harry Potter books and merchandise. As she had lain flowers on the graves of her friends, she knew what Harry had desired above all else – not to be "The Boy Who Lived", star of his own book series, and hero to the world, but to be an average kid. He wanted to be someone known for his personality, not his scar.

THE END.

Bet you didn't see that coming!