Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I do, however, own this story. Steal and I shall kill you until you die! Heehee. And yes, I am aware that that last statement made no sense.

Hazardous Sanity

By Emerald Riddle on 6/05

Dedicated To Sarah, because I know you want to kill me right now.

Chapter Twelve: Using Your Eyes

Keep the mask aligned

Get it up in time

There's a space between valleys

and try and catch a vibe

Make a circle square, a rectangle curve

Use a smile as a noun and I think like a verb

Run quick switch sides

The Used

Just as Ginny came into the unrelenting darkness, she was released. Everything seemed to shatter as she fell, and fell, and fell… Her screams of horror and anguish, her screams at Tom Riddle, at Voldemort, echoed and reverberated… She hoped that her screams would haunt him eternally. It was a thought that didn't earn as much satisfaction as she thought it would.

Thoughts… What were thoughts? In the swirling vortex of blackness she was floating in, fast then slow, did thoughts exist? Ginevra was thrown to and fro, her stomach objecting strongly to the treatment it was being subjected to. As Ginny was beginning to wonder if she was to dwell eternally in the circular flowing doom … it stopped and she dropped quite suddenly.

Soon she fell onto a hard surface; a very real surface.

Her feelings were conflicted. She was happy to be back in a form of reality, but at least in the darkness she needn't face it. She just floated and jerked around… not making any conscience decisions of her own.

She looked at her surroundings. From what she could see, and from her dizziness she could see very little, she was in a room of some kind. With a carpet, presumably.

Oh, how very specific, Ginny thought to herself sarcastically, trying to distract her stomach from heaving up… Heaving up what? Had she eaten today at all?

No.

Instead of heaving up, her stomach gave a hungry growl. She was starving, and decided to concentrate on that. She was afraid of what lay before her.

"I would watch where I step, weasel. There are potholes everywhere. Some are right in your face and you don't even know it."

I do know it, Malfoy. I just wish I didn't.

There was a sound of someone scrambling on metal, and then cursing violently. It seemed that somebody was trying to get up the staircase, a male most likely, and repeatedly failing. It was if it was happening in another lifetime, the soft string of curses and the sounds of footsteps and nails against metal. Her breath hitched in fear, for she knew she should move, she could move, but she was afraid to move. She was afraid to see what her counterpart murderer has done.

But the smell of death, a smell she knew well by now, was not in the air. Though the acidic smell of blood lingered in her nostrils.

Not daring to look at the bed she was sitting near, Ginny got up and walked out of the seventh year girls' dorm.

Look back, look back. Ginny you have GOT to look back.

No, Ginny thought, almost choking on a dry sob. I don't need to see what I have done, for I am already trying to live with it.

You'll never know if you DON'T LOOK!

I will know. I saw the future already; I know what is in store for me. A lifetime in Azkaban and watching my friends die… The less horror I see, the more convenient for me.

The other voice's protests slowly died away as she walked toward the staircase. A pair of gleaming green eyes looked up at her and she wheeled.

A flash of bright green light enveloped the death eater Harry, and he slumped to the ground.

His eyes remained open, reflecting the chaos of death all around him.

"Oh, God…" Ginny moaned, her stomach hurtling to the ground. Could she trust Harry after what she has Seen? Was he just another Dark Lord on the verge of emergence?

"Ginny," the voice called up. It was rough and unsteady. "What have you done?"

This time, Ginny did choke on a dry sob.

"You have to let me up Ginny, please!"

Should I trust him?

No.

Ginny looked into the bright green eyes.

Yes.

'Wait a sec…" Ginny was not sure of what she was doing but-

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

Harry looked startled as he began to levitate higher and higher until he landed at the top of the stair case with a light thump.

He rushed over to Ginny instantly. She held her wand in her hand tensely. They stared at each other for a few moments before he spoke again. "Oh God… Ginny… What have you done?"

A slight pang of irritation mixed with guilt hit her over the head. 'I didn't mean to, Harry! I didn't want to! Please, understand me! It was-"

A sudden realization dawned on Harry. "Lana."

Ginny felt a ray of hope. She may be able to fix this yet. Well, she thought sadly, glancing over her shoulder to the seventh year girls' dorm, most of it.

Harry's demeanor changed instantly. "Are you all right? Gin, we have to go to the hospital wing!"

Ginny felt a wave of weakness engulf her. She was so… tired. "But why, Harry?" she asked, near tears. "There's no way she's still alive…"

Harry looked at her incredulously. "What are you talking about, Ginny? Look at your hands!"

Ginny, who was still lost, glanced down at her hands. She nearly passed out from the sight. Blood, still very fresh, trailed down her hands and dripped off of her fingers.

"Oh, my Lord."

This blood… Hermione's blood. On my arms, my hands, my fingertips. Oh, my God. Her blood flows on my skin as if it were my own.

The thoughts, so poetic and tragic, made tears sting her eyes.

How had I not noticed this before?

"Harry, what are you talking about?" Ginny sobbed, afraid to wipe away the tears with her bloody hands. "She's dead! Hermione's dead and this blood is the proof of it! The proof of my red handed guilt! My disgusting betrayal!"

Harry seemed to be confused for a moment. Then his expression formed into one of shock, then of sadness… then finally anger. Which Ginny was dreading.

"Use your eyes, Ginny! Look at your hands and tell me what you see!"

Though she looked down, she saw nothing different. Just the same, tragic ending she fought so hard to stop.

"Don't you see, Ginny? Don't you see what Lana has done? She has not killed Hermione, she's killed you."

Ginny glanced down again and noticed something. The blood was trailing, yes, and it shouldn't be trailing. If it was Hermione's blood, wouldn't it have dried by now?

So if it's not Hermione's then… A sharp pain traveled up Ginevra's arm, bringing her to her knees. It's mine. She turned her arm over, and surely enough, the wrist was cut down almost to the bone and a long gash trailed up each underside of her arm.

It was like everything was shoved upside down.

Harry watched her. "Then… this means that Lana Gwen… was on our side? She killed herself, you, to save Hermione. Maybe even the wizarding world…" He seemed puzzled. "I thought it was you…"

The world was fading very quickly, and Ginny had just enough energy to ask "What?" and listen.

"She had to kill Hermione, but she didn't wan to do it… Ah. I understand now! She tricked Voldemort-"

"Harry…"

Harry looked down at her weakening form.

"Oh, My God! I'm so sorry," he said quickly and Ginny heard no more.

"I had thought you were finally listening to sense, Lana," the Dark Lord growled. "But apparently I was wrong.

The world was fading beneath their feet, as Ginny's mind and soul slowly drifted away.

"They will pay for your wrongdoings, I swear to you."

Lana Gwen shifted on her weakening knees, the strength she once had so much of failing her.

"You spilt your pure blood on that, that vile creature! That mudblood filth! I have to admit, you tricked me for a short while."

Lana fell to her knees, feeling drowsy and very, very heavy. She barely heard his next words.

"But you had to know it wouldn't last."

Then his voice was gone, and Lana Gwen found herself feeling twisted and wrong. As if she was being shoved into a space too small for her size. She was being morphed, squished, and lengthened, until she was snapped apart and she saw Ginny. They stared at each other for a moment.

"I don't know whether to love or hate you," Ginny said.

"You love me, you hate me, you are me. So do neither. I don't exist, not really," Lana replied.

Then Lana held out her hand, and Ginny took it. Soon the hand became one, and soon did their bodies. Their minds blended and each felt complete again. But the darkness overwhelmed the overused mind and body, and unconsciousness took over.

Her body felt impossibly heavy. Even though she tried, she could barely move her eyelids. Ginny hovered somewhere between life and death. A thin, fragile line ready to snap at a moment's notice. Sometimes she slept calmly, others she was awake but not coherent enough to speak. It was weakness. The weakness of imminent death.

When she passed out she was very near death, but now she seemed to become stronger… Was it minutes or weeks when she first found the blood on her arms? Time didn't exist. It was only pain, horrendous pain and waiting… waiting… Was she to die or was she to live?

Ginevra waited in the dark once more.

A/N: Yes, I know, this was quite short. But this chapter took a lot out of me and it said all I really wanted it to say. The next chappie should be longer, and it shouldn't take too long to finish either. I hope that you all enjoyed this and remember! Reviews feed my muse .