A/N Didn't think I would do it, did you? No apologies here. It's done, it mught not be the best ending but at least it's an ending. If you're still reading this fic, I commend you.

Chapter Seven

The setup for the big day was going to take some time. No one was sure exactly how to 'let slip' where to find them without endangering the girls. Hermione and Bill still had work to do, Hermione looking into the translations and comparing them to known prophecies and Bill going about his normal business until it was time to strike. Harry finally figured out what needed to be done, and quietly slipped away from Ginny's side a little later.

He went to the nearest wizarding post office, and sent a chatty, newsy letter to Charlie's flat with the instructions that it be delivered to the address, not the person. If he was right, their visitors would think that he and Ginny were just visiting Bill after the Burrow's destruction. He mentioned they had plans to visit some of the more interesting pyramids – ones that just happened to enclose a small area of desert almost completely. He invited Bill to join them, making sure to indicate there was some interesting news he didn't want to send in a letter. He thought about planting more, but realized that whoever was spying probably had as much experience in this as Harry himself.

The man who had been waging a bloody war for ten years looked at his handiwork with pride. Planting false information- usually through carefully edited truths filtered through his darling fiancé- was his specialty as the head of the Order of the Phoenix after Dumbledore's death. He hated the way she endangered herself, and he knew she still had to bear the hateful glares of most of the wizarding populace. Once this was taken care of, he planned on accepting the seeker position for the Swift Current Steelheads in Canada. They were battling the Moose Jaw Meteorites for the most victories ever, and the very handsome offer would give he and his soon to be wife a new start.

By the time Ginny woke, looking pale and wan but determined, Harry had already set up all the monitoring charms around the selected ambush zone. Now all they could do was wait. The letter was supposed to arrive to Charlie's flat in three days. They had already sent Pigwidgeon back to the twins with the Weasely sigil and nothing else. It had always meant 'be ready'. They would know what to do when the time came.

Charlie was growing increasingly anxious. The small intuition he was granted was driving him crazy, making it difficult to sleep or carry on a conversation. Blaze was alive, but she wasn't herself. That much was obvious since she had yet to return. His family was in danger, a plan was in place to put him in particular in a lot of danger, and there was nothing left to do but wait. He missed his wife, he missed his brothers, and he never really got a chance to say goodbye to his mother.

Really, he figured eventually he was going to have to get back to the Dragon preserve in Romania, but the thought of returning there, where he and Blaze had finally gotten together, filled him with dread. He wasn't sure if he could take the thought of going back into his one bedroom flat alone. It would, however, take him far away from England. He really liked that idea right now.

Fred and George huddled together on the dirt floor, trying to hang on to what was left of their sanity. They had learned to start pretending to go along with the indoctrination, and clung to the hope the small piece of paper that had been delivered by minute owl gave them. Pigwidgeon was once more safely away without detection, and they didn't dare attempt to include another note. They needed their strength.

Neither was surprised when the monster wearing their brother's face showed at the door. They hid any emotion behind masks as fake as his own, and nodded obediently when they were told to prepare for their first mission. This was it.

Bill looked up abruptly as the slight buzz against his skin told him the proximity warnings had just gone off. They needed to get in place immediately if they had a chance of pulling this off. He heard the quiet pops of his brother and Hermione, and felt the slight air displacement as Harry and Ginny showed off with silent apparition. Hermione had to portkey, so she was slightly of balance when she landed. He caught her and didn't let go of her hand.

"Hermione, Ginny, you know where you need to be. I've hidden your spot with the most classified spells I have, so PLEASE don't give yourselves away. Harry, Charlie, we need to go for whoever seems to be in charge for more reasons then one. They're probably controlling the snake bit, and it's highly likely they'll form the bulk of our attackers. Now, according to the proximity spells there are seven people along- with any sort of luck at all our four will be among them. Be careful. There are so few of us left."

He leaned over, and pulled Hermione close. Much to her surprise and everyone else's, he laid a gentle kiss on her lips before giving her a slight nudge towards where she and Ginny would supposedly be hiding.

"I love you," he said to her as she just looked at him, dumfounded.

"Be safe," she answered him, kissing him back. She had to stay close a little longer for their ploy to work.

Harry held Ginny for one last moment. Before she left, she whispered in his ear.

"You'd better come back, or this little one will think his daddy didn't want him."

He looked at her in amazement, finally seeing her 'illness' for what it was. She smiled, and waited for the moment when she and Hermione would need to grab their portkey.

Charlie looked across the desert at the approaching figures, and he could feel Blaze getting closer to him. The wind had picked up, and the sand was making it difficult to follow the figures moving in the distance. Hermione stood away, leaning on Bill as the feeling in the back of her mind she had always associated with Ron grew more insistent. She still didn't dare believe he was alive. He had died in her arms, and nothing short of a dark and twisted resurrection spell to reanimate his corpse could have brought him back.

The figures came close enough for them to recognize the Weasley red hair blazing, along with two men completely cloaked and unrecognizable.

"Get ready, everyone. They're coming. We kill off the cloaks first, maybe we'll be able to get our siblings back. Remember, right now, no matter what they look like, they are the enemy."

Ginny and Hermione looked at each other before Hermione cast the cloaking spell on both of them. They stayed in the shadows of the closet pyramid, out of range of any wayward spells. Ginny gasped and pointed. Seven people, hooded and cloaked had entered her range of vision. There was no way to tell who they were or who was in charge.

Then, almost as one, the small band lowered their hoods and took out their wands, clearly expecting to surprise the three men standing near one of the pyramids on the far side of the square. Ginny activated her telescoping charm, which magnified her vision so she could see what was going on as if she was only a few feet away.

There were no faces she didn't recognize, and only one that she didn't trust. How had it come to this?

She saw the twins, marching like the others, and was horrified. They had kept their sanity for so long, what finally had broken them? What had convinced them to hand their souls to this thing?

Her breath caught as they spun and took most of the non-Weasley back up in quick succession, and the quick whoop Bill let off lifted her spirits even as she looked up to Ron standing, wand in hand and eyes glowing the sickly green of the Killing Curse. She hoped like hell he couldn't see her. He seemed to be fighting whatever command was echoing in the back of his head.

She heard a scream, and saw Blaze and Charlie battling in the sand. The woman's eyes were like Ron's, and she appeared to be unable to stop herself. She fought ferociously, not holding back at all. Charlie was hampered with the love he felt for his wife, trying desperately not to hurt her even as she tried to kill him. He ended up in the sand, on his back, pleading as she stood over him with her wand trained on his heart. Charlie looked at the face he adored, and knew the person he was in love with was dead. Her personality was gone. Still, he couldn't bring himself to kill her.

As she began incanting the curse to finish him off, he stroked her leg.

"I love you. I'll see you in the Summerlands." Ginny was already up and running, running to try and save him since he couldn't save himself.

It was too late.

Green light flashed, and Charlie was still lying in the sand. He would never get up. He died with a peaceful smile on his face, knowing that Blaze wouldn't be far behind. Something told him only death would free her from the hold on her soul, and now, watching the battle take place from the other world, he discovered what it was.

Hermione cried out in horror as Charlie fell, but before she could take out Blaze an unearthly scream echoed from the only other enemy standing. The man's eyes glowed a red that eerily reminded Harry of Voldemort. Remembering how he had finally disposed of his life long enemy, he started to cast.

The man was quickly eaten in blue and violet flames, and the battle halted as the man controlling Blaze and Ron shrieked and cried as he burned, his body ashes and soul bound to purgatory.

Blaze took one look at Charlie, remembering what she did, and killed herself with a slicing charm to her throat. If Charlie was dead, then so was she. She'd see him in the afterlife.

Bill was numbed to the shock and the mayhem around him. He had blood dripping down his forehead where their enemy had gotten one luck shot off. No one noticed Ginny walk quietly over to the spot where dark ash was quickly blowing into the sand.

"Michael, how could you?" she said quietly, unable to believe that a Hogwarts relationship that ended over a Quidditch game had cost her most of her family.

The sickly green light had faded completely from Ron's eyes, and he looked around frantically for Hermione and Harry. He didn't remember much of his imprisonment. Unlike Blaze, Fred and George, he had been dead when they took his body away. The animating force they gave him to carry out their evil work wouldn't remain long, and he wanted to say good bye.

"Oy, Harry! You'd better marry her or I'll come back and haunt your skinny arse!" Harry spun around at the sound of Ron's voice, but then Hermione suddenly appeared out of nowhere, throwing herself into Ron's arms in happiness and amazement. She kissed him hard, and then stepped back as he looked in confusion at her very round stomach.

"Hermione?" he asked, terrified to hear the answer.

"The night before the battle. Remember?" she said, smiling at the man she loved and feeling horribly guilty at the same time. She loved Ron, but he was dead. The man who had been there for her, loved her, taken her in when her world was crashing deserved her loyalty and her respect.

"Do you have help?" he asked her quickly, feeling his strength fading fast.

"Bill. He's been great…and…we're married, Ron," she admitted, not understanding the relief on his face.

"I love you. I don't have much time, I'm finally going to the Summerlands rather then being tethered where I shouldn't be." He looked at his older brother, and grinned a ghost of his carefree smile. "Take care of her, Bill. Take care of all of them for me."

With that, Ron's body began to dematerialize, leaving a sobbing Hermione in Bill's arms as they watched a bright light track it's way upwards. Harry blinked the tears out of his eyes, and the light was gone.

Somehow, they would get thorough this. They had their closure. They would bury Charlie and Blaze in the family plot in England and have a proper funeral for Molly. Hermione would bear her child, and she and Bill would raise her. The four remaining Weasley's would keep the family alive.

"I know what to name the baby, Bill." Hermione said softly as they walked back to their flat, slightly behind Harry and Ginny. Fred and George were behind them, already starting to heal the damage a week's worth of intensive torture had done to their minds and souls.

"Anything you want, love," he said, hoping that she wouldn't choose Ron. He loved his baby brother, but he didn't want the child saddled with a such a painful reminder.

"Her name will be Phoenix." He nodded. Ten lions in a pride, he thought. Now, we'll regrow from our own ashes.

"Phoenix it is, then."