Thanks to my wonderful Beta christyannb94 !

Enjoy!
_

Scaring darkness away, yeah

9

02. August 1996

The gates opened and he he greeted Miranda Bell as he exited the elevator at the second level. As a secretary at the Witch Watcher's Office he didn't envy her for her job in times like this. The workload exploded since the mass breakout of Azkaban in January. Since both of them worked for a sub division in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement all of them had their work cut out.

"Good morning Miranda! How're you today?" She smiled tiredly at the man in front of her. Behind glasses, friendly blue eyes, which her daughter's boyfriend inherited, looked at her. His tall thin build was towering her but not threatening.

"Oh, hello Arthur! I haven't seen you. As good as it can be I suppose. It's a lot of work, as you probably know yourself and yeah…" Miranda retorted and tried to straighten out a pile of paperwork she carried with her. "Are you sure that it's alright with you and Molly when Katie stays the last week of summer? I heard about Ginny and…,"

Arthur smiled at her and gestured at the paperwork she carried. "May I?" He cast a non-verbal organizing charm and handed her the neatly stack of paper.

"It's no bother at all Miranda. We will be at the train station either way, we still have to see our youngest off to school, so don't worry. We're just helping each other, no harm done."

"I know thank you Arthur. I'm sorry I have to finish this ridiculous amount of paperwork before noon. See you around!" Miranda smiled gratefully at him and rushed into the elevator.

Just as he made his way down the corridor towards the Office for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts his mind wandered to his youngest. His only daughter which at the moment was nowhere to be found.

He and Molly talked about it - a lot and abundant - and they agreed that wherever it was, Ginny was safe. They didn't need proof for that. After raising seven children they knew better than to doubt their parental intuition. In the back of his mind a voice was telling him that something was off, but he couldn't grasp it.

Lost in his thoughts, he didn't notice the man leaning against his desk as he entered his office and hung up his cloak behind the door.

"Hi dad!" Arthur was jolted out of his mind and swirled around, wand at the ready.

"Merlin, Bill! Don't scare your old man like that!" Arthur breathed out relieved as he recognized his oldest son standing in his office.

"Didn't mean too, sorry. I just came to talk."

"What is it, son? If this is about your girlfriend, you know that your mother is dying to get to know her and so am I," Arthur responded and smiled proudly at his son. Molly and him did a pretty good job raising their first boy he thought.

"No, it's about Ginny. Do you believe me when I tell you that she's safe where she is right now and that it's for the best she's no longer at the burrow? I know it sounds nuts but…She's kind of with me and…"

"Son, it's okay! I understand and I assume you have your reasons for not bringing her home. I trust you! Merlin, who am I not to trust my own son I raised to become such a fine young lad!" Arthur sat down at his desk and smiled up at Bill. "Your mother I know that something isn't right. We don't know what it is but knowing that you and Ginny are safe at least is a crumb of comfort."

"It won't be long till it's over and Ginny will be back home. I promise!" Bill told his father and smiled encouraging at him.
Bill took a good look at his father's office; it's been a while since the last time he was here.

The wall behind Arthur's desk was covered with Muggle pictures, including some of Muggle cars (one of which was a disassembled motor), Muggle post boxes, which Arthur appeared to have cut out of a Muggle children's book, and a diagram of how to wire a plug.
Bill just strated to say goodbye to his father as the office door opened and Mr. Perkins, Arthur's assistant walked into the room. He mumbled an unintelligible 'morning' and sat down at his own desk.

"Tell her that we love her, would you?"

"Sure, dad. See ya!"

Ginny's left hand searched for Harry's next to her. There was nothing.

Her eyes flew open and she panicked.

It was all just a dream and he was gone. He never told her that he loves her and that he wants to marry her. Everything he did and said was gone. All his kisses and words of love. Gone.

She was worthless. He was right. Tom was right.

She started to cry and somehow, she couldn't breathe. There was no air to breathe for someone like her.
She was worthless and just a waste of air.

"You're worthless!" Toms words echoed in her mind. "No one's able to love you, Ginevra."
She couldn't breathe.

Harry walked out of the bathroom as he found her. Ginny was crying, gasping for air and shaking like mad.
The room was only lightened by the descending full moon that shone through the windows and bathed the whole bed into a glooming light.

"Ginny?! Baby, what happened?" He rushed over to her and framed her sweaty head with his hands. "Look at me, Baby!"
Ginny's eyes were still wide open without any focus.

She still couldn't breathe. Seeing her like this scared him more than anything else he ever experienced.

"Anapneo!" Harry tried to free her lungs so that she could breathe but there was no change.
Thankfully his mother made them all visit a first aid course when they were younger. Harry opened her mouth with his hands and performed rescue breathing on her.
He started breathing for her.

After two more breaths he felt her inhaling on her own and stopped. His heart was racing like after riding a hippogriff.

"Baby? Ginny, can you look at me? Please!" He brushed her hair away that stuck to her sweaty forehead.
And then her eyes focused on him. They looked like a fire would burn up in her beautiful chocolate brown eyes. Her chest still heaved heavily.

"Harry," she breathed out. "You're back."

"I just went to the bathroom, love." Harry sat down on the bed and pulled her into his lap to hold her against his chest. "I never left you. I will never leave you, Ginny."
Suddenly he felt something pulling on his heart. He couldn't promise her that. He still had the horcrux inside of him and had to die. It still looked like he would have to leave her. How could he put her through this?

Ginny held on tightly to Harry as he rocked her gently in his arms.

"Everything's fine, love. I'm here." He drew small circles on her back. "I'm not leaving you, baby. I love you."
Ginny looked up at him with watery eyes.

"Promise me?" Her voice sounded so small and helpless.

"I promise that I won't leave you and will do everything to keep it that way."
He kissed her sweaty forehead and felt both their heartbeats calm down again.

"I love you with all my heart." He wiped away her tears with the pad of his thumbs. "You're my life."

"I heard Tom." They sat together in the hammock on Harry's balcony and watched the sunrise.
Both of them couldn't go back to sleep and as it was already half past five when they relocated outside.

"He can't get to you," Harry said and planted a kiss on her head that was tucked under his chin.

"I will protect you with my life."
They fell silent again and shared soft kisses every now and then.

"I think Dumbledore's spell also kept memories of Tom away. I hadn't had any dreams like that; or heard his voice or remembered anything at all; but now…it's seems like it's all coming back to me." Ginny broke the silence. Her voice nothing more than a whisper.

"I'm starting to remember what he told me. The things that he made me…watch. I…he…" Ginny began to tremble in Harry's arms and all at once he felt pain, anger and shame engulfing his whole being like he never felt before.

"I just don't understand how this even could happen. How was he able to possess me like that?" She carried on and looked at Harry. And all at once it was her turn to be engulfed by pain, anger and shame but she knew these were his emotions; not hers.
Ginny's eyes widened and she sat up straight. "Don't you dare Harry James Potter! This wasn't your fault, it was…"

"Everyone's fucking fault! Yes! It's my fault. It's Rose's fault. It's Ron's, Fred's, George's and Percy's fault. All of us should have tried harder to be there for you, to be more adamant when we realised something was off with you and this diary. We all thought you bought the diary yourself just like the others all the years before. You always wrote in those flippin' things and we thought nothing of it." Now it was Harry's turn to tremble.

"Every time one of us tried to take the diary away from you, you became mean to that person and even cursed Ron with that famous bat-bogey hex of yours. He stayed at the hospital wing for two days. You pushed all of us away and we were so hurt that we thought you just needed some time to cope with everything; the school; those despicable girls who were mean to you. And the moment we realised we should talk to our parents it was…it was too late and …you were gone." Harry finished and buried his face in Ginny's hair. There was nothing more soothing for him than to have her so close.

Ginny began slowly telling Harry everything she could remember. How she thought the diary was a gift from someone. How Tom was so nice to her and interested in everything she told him. How she slowly started to forget parts of her days or what she did. How Tom began to show her his school years.
And then she started to tremble again as she told Harry how Tom made her watch. Every time Ginny tried to fight the diary, Tom would show her terrible things. How he tortured other kids. How he made a third year Ravenclaw boy torture his eleven year old sister. How he raped younger students. How he made the same third year boy rape his eleven year old sister while he watched.

He threatened her that he would make her do all those things too, if she would keep fighting him; and every time she lost the battle much faster.
Both of them sat on the balcony in silence; every now and then Ginny told piece by piece what she started to remember and Harry listened.

04. August 1996

The next two days went by rather uneventfully. After Ginny talked about what happened she became more determined to never let anyone have this much power over her. She started her mind training with Severus and Harry was ordered to take it slow with his work out due to his injuries.
Ginny and Rose also managed to talk James down to start teaching them to become animagi.

Life settled down in his usual chaos in the Potter household again. There were moments when Ginny missed her own family terribly but knowing that sooner or later she would have them back was comfort enough for her right now.

After her panic attack the other morning, Harry and Ginny talked to his parents and told them about it. They agreed that it would be alright with them if Harry and Ginny would have a little "sleep over" every now and then.

Rose couldn't suppress her teasing comments sometimes.

She understood that Harry and Ginny needed their time to collect themselves she wasn't angry with them for not spending that much time with her.

Instead she and Susan spent a lot of time together and neither of them complained that much about it.
But today they had the whole 'Girls-Day' to themselves.

"And you're sure that Professor Dumbledore doesn't let a Baku reside at the Burrow?" Luna asked a third time.
After talking it through everyone deemed it to be safe to bring Luna to the Den as Ginny really missed her and wanted to tell her what happened; Colin already called her on the phone after she wrote him a secured letter with the Potters phone number.

"Baku? The chimera thing with an elephant's trunk, rhinoceros' eyes, an ox's tail, and a tiger's paws? Or was it the one with the two serpent tails?" Susan asked more amused than interested. She really liked Luna and she had to admit that many of her crazy ideas weren't that far off, but sometimes it was just...Luna.

"In fact, yes, exactly that's a Baku, the one with the elephant's trunk. Japanese wizards assume that they eat nightmares but can also eat memories away. I mean a spell would really need to be really really powerful to work that well, wouldn't it?" Ginny, Rose and Susan just stared at her. The four of them sat in Rose's room on the floor in a circle with some chocolate covered fruits and juices in front of them. Susan was braiding Rose's hair while Luna showed pictures from her last Australia journey.
After her mother died when she was nine, her father, Xenophilius Lovegood, and she continued to travel the world her mother loved so much.

"If I'm honest, I couldn't care less what he let reside anywhere or what spell he uses it's just flippin' wrong what he's doing," Ginny answered very clinical as she viewed the pictures Luna showed around.

"Luna, what are you doing upside down on that tree?" Rose asked after Ginny handed her one of the pictures.

"Oh, daddy and I wanted to try a new method to get near to some Billywigs. Daddy thought if we look like we were levitating, they wouldn't sting us. We couldn't use magic as they would sense it so….but the whole time we were kind of giddy so probably we've been stung already. In the end we haven't seen any Billywigs but you know, seeing the world upside down for along time gives you a whole new perspective on certain things," Luna explained while her voice became more and more dreamy towards the end.

"I've missed you so much, Luna!" Ginny exclaimed and almost squashed the blonde witch while hugging her, maing Rose and Susan laugh out loud.
The girls talked more about everything and nothing. Boys, their families, the upcoming school year but always dodging the issue of the ongoing war.

Due to how many people stayed for dinner this evening they were all gathered in the dining room.

Everyone who was there for Harry's birthday was there, and Severus and Charlie.
The latter delighted Ginny a lot. She flew right into his arms the moment he walked into the room.

They hadn't seen each other in three years, except the short intermezzo Charlie had at Hogwarts during the Triwizard tournament; and the only correspondence was confined to exchanging letters every few weeks.

"You!" A livid Lily Potter interrupted their greeting. "How dare you to bring a dragon into this house! Your mother would give you hell, young man!"

"It's good to see you too, Lils! And don't I know it, but like they say it: No harm, no foul!" Charlie retorted calmly, very well used to emotional outbursts from red headed women, and greeted a still fuming Lily with a kiss on her cheek.

"'No harm, no foul' - we'll see about that. Wait till your mother hears of this shenanigan! But it's good to have you here, short muffin!" Charlie just shook his head but loved to hear her using his nickname the marauders gave him years ago.
When he was younger he was crazy about Lily's blueberry maple muffins; so much so, that at his sixth birthday he ate so many of them that he had a long talk on the big white telephone. And short because he was rather short.

After Charlie and Ginny caught up and Lily gave Charlie a piece of her mind, Charlie told everyone about their Parvusdragons at the reservoir.
She and Harry discussed how they should name him but couldn't agree on one name the other day.

In the end Ginny named him Tantus and told Harry that he had to live with it. He just said that in naming their kids, he wouldn't give in that quickly.
Just the fact that he considered having kids with her made her giddy.
As tea and pudding was served James and Amelia started to update everyone on what's happening at the ministry since they last came together.

"Sirius and I just need two more votes for sure so that we can let Fudge be removed from office," James finished after he went through all the members of the Wizengamot they had on their side.

"There's now just the problem with our new candidate," he continued but was interrupted by Sirius.

"It's not a 'problem'." Sirius said annoyed. "The fact that Amelia is pregnant won't change the mind of those we got on our side."

"Yes, but it'll change how people will see her," Severus threw in and received a deadly glare from Sirius.

"They will ask if a heavily pregnant and mother-to-be can lead a world heading to war. Granted, you two and Amelia changed a lot in our political system but not directly in the people's head. Either way, Fudge wouldn't still be in office."

"Severus is right," Lily said.

"But nevertheless Amelia is the best choice for the job. When it'll come down to it, people vote for her. Not even Dumbledore or Augusta would vote against her as it's also in their own interest."

"And I told all of you that just because I'm pregnant and a mother-to-be, I'll still meet my responsibilities," Amelia said and looked from one to the other.

"It'll just be one month before and after the delivery that I won't be active in the office. But those two months my very qualified assistant will take over."
A long time ago they all agreed that Arthur Weasley would be the best choice as Amelia's assistant when she'd get into office. He had a brilliant mind and the sense of justice and loyalty a Ministry of Magic they wanted to build needed.

"Alright, so is anyone against it, that we make our move the next session of the Wizengamont in November?" All around the table, everyone shook their heads no.

"How's the horcrux front?" Ginny asked and Harry tensed up immediately.
She sensed his discomfort and laid her hand on his thigh.

"Sorry, I just..."

"It's okay." He gave her a weak smile and brought their joined hands to his lips.

"Dumbledore still doesn't know for sure what they are. He has his presumptions. One more far away from the truth than the others," Severus answered and looked directly at Harry.

"He assumes that the Longbottom boy could have a part of Riddle's soul inside of him, but the lack of connection the boy shows towards Riddle is irritating him."

"Riddle, at the same time, doesn't know anything about the state of his soul pieces. He hasn't told anyone about them and seemed to be sure that no one would ever find them."

"Idiot!" Dora and Ginny said at once and had to laugh.

"Either way," Severus ignored their comment and continued. "The curse Dumbledore was hit with is still spreading."

"What curse?" Ginny asked, confused.

"Dumbledore was looking for a horcrux. He made it to the place the horcrux was located but Tom placed curses on it and around the place," Bill explained.

"Just a fully trained curse breaker or the person who did them could break through the curses. Dumbledore is powerful but there are things even he doesn't know."

"What does the curse do?"

"It's killing him," Bill answered flatly.

"And I can't even feel bad for him." Bill's comment received understanding nods and grunts.

"He did things to our family that I could never forgive him for, and somehow he deserves it."

"He's got a year left at the most," Severus added.

"Does that mean that the spell he put the Burrow under will break?" Ginny asked already thinking ahead.

"Yes, firefly. The spell would break the moment he dies." Bill smiled weakly at her. "But with you here I think we can finally start to make Dumbledore see reason."

It was a bit later that evening that found Ginny browsing through Harry's bookshelves. He was in the bathroom getting ready for the night. Ginny went first so she was now looking for something to read.

Her eyes fell on a book that laid on top of some others. Ginny took it out and read the title.

"The Kamasutra," Ginny read out loud and turned the book over.
The red cover with its golden ornaments held nothing but the title.

She shrugged and walked over to the bed and settled down at what became her side of the bed.
Ginny took the book and read the first page. With every word of the introduction her eyes got a bit wider and it dawned on her what this book probably was about.
She gulped and haphazardly turned to another page. The position the people in the picture were in just didn't look physically possible to her.
The way he held her...and how she bent...

Just as she stared at another page, she randomly opened up and turned the book around so that she could decipher anything, the door to the bathroom opened and Harry walked towards the bed.

"What are you reading?" he asked and settled down next to her.
Ginny didn't hear him before but now she came out of her state and quickly shut the book before he could get a glimpse at it and shoved it behind her cushion.

"Nothing." She felt herself blushing so furiously that she was sure he could see it even in the dim light.

"Come on, love. It can't be that bad," Harry said, nuzzling her neck and fishing at the same time for the book under her cushion.
She just started to say something as she felt the book escaping her grip.

"No, Harry really it's..." but too late.

"The Kama..." Harry started to read the title but stopped.
Ginny already pressed a cushion to her head and just wanted to disappear. She expected an embarrassing silence but instead she heard him laughing out loud.
Not believing his reaction she took the cushion from her face and stared at him.

"That's not funny," Ginny said, irritated, and threw the cushion at him. "I mean, this is your book. So why do you even own something like that?"

"Dora gave it to me with other books on..." he held up a picture that looked much more like a workout exercise than two people having sex. "…body and mind training."

"Still not funny!" she said now also laughing.

"Look at that, this is not even possible!" She showed him one of the pictures that caught her attention earlier.

"You're right. Most of these positions can't be comfortable," Harry said and turned over another page as they still laughed.

"All of those position in there..." Ginny said through the laughter as they continued to look through the book.

"Oh look!" Harry pointed at one picture. "This looks feasible."
Ginny snorted, took the book away to lay it on her night-stand and straddled him.

"Yep, that's easy." She wrapped her arms around his neck.
Harry placed his hands on her hips and drew her closer to him. They closed the little distance between them and kissed each other passionately.

"Easy and good," Harry said as he planted open mouth kisses down her throat and over her collarbone.

At the same time somewhere in the countryside of the lovely county of Wiltshire, a lonely fox made its way through the dense undergrowth.

This was the place of his anger. Every time he chased his easy prey they just disappeared into thin air right in front of him. He never did another step forward.
Ever since he was born, he learned that this forest was special. Things just disappeared or appeared, or strange lights flew through the trees.

He hadn't had anything to eat the last three days so he was really desperate to see what would happen if he took that step forwards and disappeared. He would be where all his prey ended, wouldn't he?

So the lonely and very hungry fox did one step more and a chill ran down his spine. Everything looked just the same with the exception of that huge stone house that stood there in front of him.

He knew this forest in and out and never saw this house.
He skulked carefully towards the house. His senses caught the smell of fresh meat and the promise of a rich meal.
After a few steps he pricked up his ears. There was something moving behind him across the ground.

The last thing the lonely and hungry fox saw were two yellowish green eyes with a huge jaw beneath that welcomed his meal with beautiful long fangs and a slithering tongue.

Now he was really where all his prey ended.

Lord Voldemort watched his beautiful snake enjoying her meal from the window of the huge ballroom inside of Malfoy Manor. Behind him his inner circle was gathered around.

"You all did well tonight. Tonight, you rid the world of poor excuses that called themselves human beings. You helped our world to become a better place." He turned around and his burning red eyes sparkled from the fire that lit the room.

"It won't be long now till the boy will join us. The chosen one, as he is called these days, will join our ranks sooner than later. Everyone who believed in him shall kneel down at my feet. Dumbledore, that old fool, will be the first one to do the honour." Lord Voldemort walked towards the middle of the room.

"Together with the help of your grandson, I will destroy Harry Potter. All of you fools followed Dumbledore blindly. But he was wrong." With a motion of his wand he caused the old and beaten form raising from the floor so that he could look into her eyes.

"You and everyone else believed him that your grandson would be anything special, but he isn't," Lord Voldemort laughed manically into the face of the form that used to be once a feisty and stubborn Augusta Longbottom.

"Not yet at least."

"Yaxley, take some of her hairs and bring them down to the lab." Everyone in the room watched as Yaxley ripped out a handful of the woman's hair. Her lips trembling from avoiding crying out in pain.

"You can join the others with Bella when you're done." Lord Voldemort added and Yaxley walked out of the room.

"Wormtail, take her to her room." The little man levitated the old woman out of the room and passed Severus who just walked into the room.

"Ah, Severus. Yaxley just brought some new hairs form our guest to your lab. They should be enough for another month." Severus walked with his usually stoic face towards his place.

"I think you don't mind that I inform you that you can't join Bella and the others tonight. But I think Narcissa would be there if needed."
Lord Voldemort despised all this physical desire. For him it was just a waste of time and energy, but he had to admit that even he gave in and spent the night with Bellatrix every now and then.

Bellatrix gave herself to everyone. Narcissa was more difficult.
He just started to use her for his followers after her husband failed him again. The little Malfoy brat would be just as useless as his father, so he didn't even try to involve him in anything.

"Thank you, my Lord." Severus hated to play the role of his loyal servant.
He had to play it, but he hated it.

"Now leave me alone!" Voldemort ordered his followers out of his sight.
Most of them followed Bellatrix while few others made their way home.

Severus did neither. He walked through the huge manor towards the east wing.
After a meeting of the inner circle she would always wait for someone in her room. Especially after a successful mission like today.
He knocked on the door and without waiting for a response he walked into the room.

Like always she sat in the armchair by the fire and read a book. She looked up and her face lit up. Severus never did anything to her. To her it even felt like he was scaring darkness away sometimes.

"How many tonight?" she asked as she closed the book and watched him sitting down in the other armchair.

"None. They all followed Bellatrix." He watched her carefully.
He knew that she stopped loving her sister a long time ago.

"How was your day?" Severus asked and Narcissa had to smile at that.

He and Draco were the only ones that managed to make her smile these days.

She called her house elf to bring them some tea and biscuits and she lost herself in their conversation.