A/N Hello there! Soooooo. Thanks for all the reviews! They made my week! :) Let's see here. I'm sorry if I've disturbed you in the past, the disturbing-ness is now over. This is a filler chapter, so next chapter should have some more meat to it. And I just wanted to let ya know that now since school's started I do all of my writing at night. Like anywhere from 9-12. So some weird stuff comes out of my brain at that hour...XD. Anwayyyy. Is anyone excited it's almost pumpkin season! OMG I literally cannot wait to eat pumpkin everything. And fall. I can't wait for the rain. Rain is perfect writing weather. Sorry I'm getting off track. If anyone has anything they would like to see in this fic in the future lemme know and I'll see what I can do. Uhmmmm. Was that all? Wait a second. Almost 20,000 hits! *wipes away tears*. Thank you so much! And sorry if the time line get's a bit confusing once again. Oops. Let's see here. I think that's all. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I love reading your reviews! Stay safe! :)

Thank you to KK and PearlM21 for being amazing reviewers! If I was able to put a heart emoji here I would.

Chapter 24

Ginny

She didn't know what to do first. Two people were staring at them very creepily from the window, someone had started to pound on the roof, and she'd just heard a guttural scream from outside the house. She wanted to run out of the house and go get the others, but as if sensing what she had in mind, her mother was holding her in a firm grip.

"Mum! Lemme go!" She gasped tightly.

"We're leaving now. I'll send a message to-Malfoy?!" Molly called after Draco as he raced out the front door. Bloody hell...Did he want to die?

Ginny wriggled out of Molly's grasp and rushed after Draco. Damn…he was really fast. She raced down the street, following his blond head booking it towards Merlin knew what.

"Are you insane?" She screamed down to him. He ignored her, and continued his run, turning a corner. She nearly hurtled past it, when she was forced to stop dead in her tracks. There was Lyra's body. Bellatrix was fighting Lupin and Snape, and Hermione was holding Harry. Draco rushed to their side, and Ginny followed his lead.

"Harry." She gasped, putting a hand hesitantly on his back. Hermione looked at her desperately. Ginny glanced from where the adults were fighting, to Lyra's body, and then to Harry, Hermione, and Draco.

"She's dead." Harry murmured, gazing up at her with a blank expression. "It's my fault."

"No it's not!" Draco snapped. "No one forced her to come with us-" Hermione shut him up with a stern look and he started to turn a faint shade of pink.

"But she only did that because she got too close to me!" he insisted. "I should've kept my distance, should've-"

"No, Harry. Because you were nice to someone who was hurting just as much as you doesn't make it your fault that she died. This is Voldemort's fault for being a murdering psycho. Not yours." Wow. Ginny wished she had the same way with words that Hermione had.

"And Bellatrix's." She couldn't help but add.

"Bellatrix killed Lyra?" Harry's head snapped to where Snape and Lupin had corned her.

"Yeah, uh, yeah." She said, stumbling over the words.

"I wish I was the one to kill her." Harry said, no emotion in his voice. She stared at him, trying to think of something to say. She turned to Hermione, hoping she would be able to find the words. She seemed to be trying, opening and closing her mouth.

"No, no you don't want to have that kind of guilt on your chest." Ginny stared at Draco in shock. If she hadn't seen his lips move she wouldn't have believed he'd said it. Hermione's eyes brightened and she moved to push a kiss to the side of his head.

"Oh my God." Harry muttered.

"What is it?" she asked. He pointed wordlessly behind her. Molly had joined the fight.

Snape

He was starting to get very very tired. Tired of everything. Tired of fighting with the wolf. He felt like he was going to pass out from sheer exhaustion. He nearly toppled over when a head full of red curls pushed him out of the way. He stumbled back to his feet, his mouth dropping open in shock.

"Mummy's come to play!" Bellatrix said, wiggling her eyebrows. Using the distraction, Snape took a shot at her, a bolt of green light shooting from his wand and hitting her in the forehead. Her face was still laughing when she crumpled to the ground.

Now all he wanted to do was sleep for a million years. Lupin nodded at him, and lifted his chin in the direction of the group of kids huddled together. Molly was already hurrying towards them. Snape sighed heavily.

"Let's get out of here."

"Yeah…" Lupin looked like he wanted to say something else, but Snape walked past him and over to where the others were.

"Oh my we need to get all of you to Madam Pomfrey immediately!" Molly was saying.

"How are you Harry dear?" She cocked her head at him expectantly.

"Uh…" He turned red.

"Oh of course! You need some food! Come along now." She grasped Harry's arm and looked to Snape. He nodded, running a hand along the base of his neck. Molly extended her hand for Ginny to grab and said,

"You two take the rest of them to Hogwarts."

"Don't worry Molly." Lupin said with a small smile. Harry opened his mouth as if to say something but then shut it decidedly. In a crack they disappeared and Granger and Draco were left. The girl glanced from him to Lupin, and went to stand next to him.

Draco held out his (one and only) arm. Snape flicked out his wand and they too disappeared with a crack.

After the usual twisting and turning they arrived right outside the gates of Hogwarts, Lupin and Granger were already there. Lupin's patronus was making its way up to the castle, it's glowing form illuminating the early night light.

"Can I get my arm back?" Draco asked stiffly.

"What?" He asked, shaking himself.

"My arm." He repeated.

"Oh. Yes." He didn't know what else to say. He was so damn tired.

Harry

There were too many people around him. Mrs. Weasley, Dumbledore, Ginny, Ron, Madam Pomfrey...he wanted to tell everyone to go away but all the words had escaped him. He didn't want to see anyone. He wanted to mourn the death of his friend in peace damnit. Harry wasn't sure he could refrain from exploding any longer when Madam Pomfrey yelled,

"Everyone out! Out! Yes, that means you too headmaster!" She practically shoved Dumbledore out the door, then strode to Ron and pushed a finger to his chest.

"Out. You can come see them later." Ron opened his mouth to protest but he was already out the door. Molly was hustling Ginny over to a bed, and gave Madam Pomfrey a glare that could cook anyone.

"I wasn't going to ask you to leave." Madam Pomfrey said, rolling her eyes. "Here." She pointed to a bed on the opposite side of the room. He crossed it without hesitation and flung himself into bed. He really wanted to sleep forever.

"We're going to regrow your bones tonight, and give you some new skin. I'll remove that once you've taken this." Madam Pomfrey nodded at his silver arm. She handed him a potion, dark liquid swirling inside. Dreamless sleep. He downed it in one gulp, the last thing he saw was Ginny watching him with wide eyes from the bed across from him.

When he woke, the room was dark and the only thing he could see was Ginny's silhouette watching him from across the room. She was sitting up, her knees drawn to her chest, head resting on them. He blinked at the pain in his arm. Harry glanced down at it, his skin was there. Though his arm was a bit limp.

"Harry." He nearly fell off the bed. Draco had bolted upright in the bed next to him, blond hair shining in the dark.

"Oh you're awake!" Hermione was on the other side of Ginny, shaking her head.

"What's going on?" He asked hesitantly. His brain was still foggy with sleep.

"Nothing." Hermione said, she climbed out of bed and went to sit on the edge of Draco's. Ginny came and sat next to him.

"That's the thing. No one will tell us anything!" Her voice rose slightly and Ginny hurriedly made a shushing motion with her hand. Hermione glanced over at Madam Pomfrey's office and quickly cast a charm over where they were.

"I asked Snape about what they were going to do since now they knew where Voldemort was hiding, but he said he didn't know. I mean he has to know something!" She crossed her arms and sighed. Harry found he no longer cared about this situation, he just wanted to go back to sleep and pretend everything was fine. Maybe he'd dream about a time when Snape wasn't his dad, and Sirius was still alive.

"Dumbledore was really worried about something." Ginny said slowly. That caught his attention.

"What?"

"We don't know! He wouldn't say, he wanted to ask us questions but Madam Pomfrey shooed him out." Hermione said. Draco had yet to say anything, he was staring out the window.

"I wonder what he's going to do about it…" Ginny said, biting her lip.

"Well if no one's going to tell us anything we'll need to figure it out ourselves." Hermione said stubbornly.

"Okay well we don't know they're not going to tell us something." Ginny replied.

"Something. Exactly. They'll tell us something, but not everything because they don't think we can handle it. Which is bullshit because we were the ones who were down there in the first place!" Hermione was clearly very pissed off about this. No one said anything and the silence rang through the empty room. Ginny's head was drooping so Harry tapped her on the shoulder.

"Mmm?" She slid down and laid her head on the space below his arm. He leaned his nose into her hair and drew in a long breath. At least Ginny was still here.

Draco

"Wake up. Wake up. Draco!" A hand was shaking him awake.

"Mmmm?" He opened his eyes, trying to blink the dryness out of them.

"Wake up." Hermione repeated. He realized that she was inches away from his face, their noses were brushing.

"What is it?" he asked slowly.

"Dumbldore is arguing with someone in her office. Ginny and Harry are already listening. They didn't wake us up." she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"What does he want?"

"I don't know, that's why I woke you up." She tugged his hand, and jerked her chin to where Harry and Ginny were practically pressed against the door. He swung his legs out of bed, and let her lead him to the door.

"Morning." he said.

"Shhh." Ginny hissed with an eye roll. Harry moved to make space for them and Hermione and Draco took the spot next to him.

"You can't take them back there!" It was professor Mcgonagall's voice.

"I made sure they were gone."

"I don't care if you used all the detecting charms in the whole damn world, you're not taking them back there!" Her voice was shrill.

"And they need to rest! You can't just take them whenever you feel like it, these children have been through a terrible ordeal-" The rest of what Madam Pomfrey was saying was muffled.

Ginny crossed her arms and set her jaw firmly.

"Children. God." she muttered under her breath. Draco felt inclined to agree. They were nearly adults for Merlin's sakes! And there was no way in hell he was going back to the village with a bunch of people who didn't say a thing.

"I need to talk to them once they wake up." Dumbledore said. For a moment no one said anything.

"Fine." Madam Pomfrey snapped. "But you only have 15 minutes."

"Don't worry Poppy." Dumbledore said quietly.
"Where's Severus?" Broke in Mcgonagall abruptly. "Shouldn't he be here too?"

"You know there's no way Severus would stay here unless he was nearly halfway to the grave. And probably not even then!" Madam Pomfrey said.

"He blames himself." Dumbledore said. Draco could almost imagine him shaking his head.

"Of course he does." sighed Madam Pomfrey.

"He can't just hide from his problems." snapped Mcgonagall. Beside him Harry stiffened. Problems?

"Minerva." Dumbledore said in a gentle voice.

"What? He's always done it, avoided something until it disappears. Well this time it's not going to."

"Oh my God." Hermione said. Ginny hit her arm and pressed her other hand to her mouth in a silent warning. Draco glanced at Harry's gradually widening eyes. Had Snape told the professors about him being Harry's dad?

Snape

After Poppy had practically shoved the bone growing potion down his throat he'd left the hospital wing with no shortage of furious looks from Poppy. Wisely she didn't say anything about his leaving. There was no way he was going to stay there, he thought to himself miserably. He was sitting in his office, tapping his fingers on his desk. He knew he should be sleeping, he'd barely slept in however long he'd been down with Voldemort. He hadn't exactly been paying attention to the days. But now that he actually had time to sleep he couldn't bring himself to. He didn't want to surrender himself to the darkness that might give way to horrific dreams. So he stayed in his chair, tapping his fingers on the desk and feeling his arm grow back bit by bit.

He must've fallen asleep at some point, because the next thing he knew someone had their hands on his desk. For a moment he flashed back to the moment the Weasley girl had her hands in the same position. Yelling at him about what a terrible father he was. As if he didn't already know that. This time it was Minerva.

"What?" He snapped.

"Is it true?" she demanded. Was she going to yell at him too?

"Is what-"

"You know what I'm talking about." Her catlike eyes narrowed in on him. Of course. Harry.

"Mmmmm. Yes." he said after a moment. "How did you find out?" As far as he knew, no one else was aware. Except-

"Dumbledore." Snape wondered when the hell the old man had found out. He'd been dropping hints for a while it seemed...but how did he know?

"Right." He swallowed. "If you'll excuse me, I was rather busy." Sleeping. Although now he certainly wasn't going to be able to with all, well, everything on his mind.

"Dumbledore wants to talk to you. About what happened." Of course he did. Dumbledore always wanted to talk about something. He especially loved talking all that he was doing wrong, or...feelings.

"Fine." He dragged a hand down his face and sighed. Minerva gave him one last scrutinizing look before stalking out of the room. A couple seconds later Dumbledore walked in, eyes nearly completely absent of their usual twinkle.

"My dear boy…" Dumbledore started. Bad news usually started with "my dear boy". Snape didn't say anything, just motioned for Dumbledore to sit across from him. He knew he must look like a wreck. He'd showered briefly before stumbling to his office, and he'd been sitting here for Merlin knew how long.

"I need to know what happened." Snape found he didn't particularly want to talk about "what happened". Especially since it was his fault for letting two teenage boys stay with him for two weeks. They would have been better off with someone who wasn't destined to screw up over and over again.

A/N So nothing much happened here. Filler chapter. EEEEEE. Bellatrix is dead though. So that's fun. Next chapter will be more full of...stuff. Okay that's all. Please please please review! Thanks again! :)