DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter or any Characters/Events mention through out the series up to HBP.
Chapter 4: The Burrow
After hearing about the increase of Death Eater attacks Harry, Ron and Hermione decided it was time to return home and make sure everyone was alright. They had managed to destroy the sixth and final Horcrux, Nagini, with the help of Draco Malfoy. By the time they had gotten there it was already too late. The Death Eaters were in a vicious battle with the Weasleys and various members of the Order of the Phoenix. Harry saw the leader of the Death Eater's group. Although he still had on his mask, his hood had fallen off his head and the greasy black hair was unmistakable. It was Snape. Harry ran, instinct and emotion had completely taken over and he swore he would avenge the death of his friend and mentor, Albus Dumbledore.
"Stu-," Harry began, "Crucio!" Harry was hit from the side and was completely knocked off his feet. The pain he felt was intense.
"STUPIFY!" both Ron and Hermione shouted at the same time, two red streams of magic slammed into the Death Eater, knocking him back hard, sending him crashing into other Death Eaters. The rushed to Harry's side.
"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked him, but before they could get an answer Harry was up and moving again.
"Retreat! Bring the girl!" the heard someone shouting. In the distance one of the Death Eaters had someone over their shoulder, with a crimson trail flowing behind him.
"GINNY!" Harry shouted, and rushed after her, only to be suspended in the air by his ankle.
"Potter, if you wish to see her again, you will come alone," Snape said taunting him, before apparating with the rest of the Death Eaters.
Harry cursed himself. He was too late. After using the counter-curse he stormed up to the Burrow where Ron and Hermione had gone. The place was a wreck, and Harry looked to the special clock Mrs. Weasley had in her kitchen. He watched as the hands on the clocks went from mortal danger to home. All, that is, except Ginny's. She was still in danger and again it was completely all his fault. He swore nothing would happen to her and he failed. For the first time in Harry's life, he felt that he had truly failed. He had failed his friends, the people who had considered him family, and most of all, failed her. Sickened with himself and the carnage around him he made his decision.
"Harry? It's not you're…" Hermione never got to finish, as Harry turned to her and said with anger in his voice, "He's mine," with that final word to Hermione he apparated.
"Harry…"
"Hermione, what's wrong?" Ron asked her, "And where's Harry, we need to figure out how to get Ginny back?"
"He's gone."
"Gone where?"
"Voldemort," when she said this Ron and others nearby flinched at the name, but they all understood what she had meant. Harry Potter was now confronting his destiny whether he was ready or not. Mrs. Weasley was hysterical at this point, more worried than she'd ever been her whole life. Her thoughts were solely on her only daughter and the boy who has been like a son to her for the last 6 years when he first came to her house when Fred, George, and Ron had stolen the car to take him from his dreadful Muggle relatives.
"Is he bloody mad? He's mental! After all we've been through together, he just left us here!" Ron was furious at Harry and worried about both Ginny and Harry. "Who knows how many Death Eaters You-Know-Who has waiting for him!"
"This was something he felt he had to do alone," said Lupin.
"Nonsense!" it was Mrs. Weasley's turn to be angry and worried, "He needs all the help he can get! We should be there for them!" she was sobbing more uncontrollably now.
"Molly, he shoulders enough guilt as it is already," Lupin told her to try and calm her down, "With everything that has happened with his parents, Sirius, Dumbledore and Cedric Diggory, he's held it all in. Ginny was just the final straw. If anything happened to any of us, he'd completely lose it."
"You can tell by he walks," Said Mad-Eye Moody, "His footsteps are heavy; he walks with the burden of the world on his shoulders."
Hermione stood by the window staring out into the darkness. She looked confident as ever, but her eyes betrayed her. Ron sat in the nearest chair, his hands covering his face. In the months it took them to destroy all of the Horcruxes, both had changed dramatically, and had come to rely on Harry in the most desperate of moments. Lupin walked over to Hermione, while Mr. Weasley tried to comfort his wife.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," Lupin said, trying to reassure himself as much as Hermione.
"He will be, he always is," Hermione said after a brief silence, "He always is, no matter what happens. Harry always comes through."
"Did you notice it too, before he left," Hermione nodded, "I've seen that look twice before, it was the look he had when Bellatrix killed Sirius, and again when Snape killed Dumbledore."
"He blames himself; he always does," said Hermione to the werewolf, "It was the same when he came out of the maze with Cedric's body, and it was the same look he had when Dumbledore finally told him why Voldemort killed his parents. Nobody sees it, because he holds it all in, not even Ron. Even all the times we got hurt trying to help him, he blamed himself. He just carries on like normal, holding in all that pain."
"It's almost as if Harry expected us to rely on him," observed Lupin.
"That's because we do rely on him!" the pressure was finally getting to her, "Dumbledore even depended on him! The Sorcerer's Stone, The Chamber of Secrets, and the basilisk, the Tri-Wizard Tournament, not to mention the Quidditch and house cups!" Hermione was already yelling by this point, "Everything that has happened has always revolved around one thing, Harry Potter! And it's all because of a stupid prophecy that was made almost before he was even born!"
Everybody was now looking at her questioningly. Even Ron was surprised by the sudden out burst. "I thought that the prophecy was lost before anyone got to hear it," said Arthur Weasley. Before Hermione could answer there were two loud pops as two people apparated into the room. It was Fred and George Weasley. Both had worried looks on their faces.
"Sorry, we just heard!" said Fred.
"Is everyone alright?" asked George.
"What about Ginny, we heard she was captured!"
"And Harry is he alright too?"
"No word yet," said Lupin.
"As we got here the Death Eaters were leaving, as soon as Snape ordered them to retreat, they all apparated. None of us knows where they went, we never did find out where they were hiding," explained Ron.
"Harry knew, he went after them," said Hermione, "A few minutes after they left, he apparated as well, without telling us a thing."
"That selfish prat!" exclaimed Fred.
"He couldn't possibly save her alone!" exclaimed George.
"He's…"
"Mental!"
Before anything else could be said, they heard a loud explosion. Those who were able ran to the garden outside to see what was happening. Off in the distance, there was a green flash of light, and the sound of a woman screaming. "Ginny!" Fred, George and Ron said in unison. The dark mark filled the skies, brighter than ever. Nobody could believe it, it was if time stood still. "Oh Harry…" Hermione's eyes filled with tears. Ron put his arm around her; his eyes began to well up as well. No body wanted to even think Harry had failed to rescue Ginny, knowing exactly what the alternative was.