Harry Potter and all characters, etc. belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.
If You Can Help Her – Chapter 47 – A Pleasant Trip to Hogsmeade
The weeks went by quickly after Hermione's birthday. Ron and Ginny both got their licenses in Side-Along Apparition. Quidditch practice, as well as the quartet's other training, was progressing well. It was now late October, and the day of the first Hogsmeade visit of the year.
Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione boarded a thestral-drawn carriage. The couples were sitting together, Harry and Ginny (as usual) holding hands. Ginny was wearing her dragon hide jacket, and her brooch was on her shirt beneath it. She was wearing some of the special perfume Harry had given her. Harry was wearing his dragon leather vest and some cologne that protected from minor hexes like the perfume he'd given Ginny for her birthday. Harry had insisted on spraying some of his cologne on Ron, and Ginny had done the same with Hermione before they left.
"I'm surprised that Dumbledore let us go to Hogsmeade," commented Ron.
"We talked about it at the last prefect meeting," explained Hermione. "There are several aurors stationed there today, and the prefects have been given emergency portkeys to the hospital wing to distribute, in the unlikely case of an attack."
"Why didn't you tell us about it before now?" asked Ron, and then looked at his sister, "And why doesn't Ginny look surprised?"
Harry looked at Ron funny. "We were told not to frighten people by letting them know about the portkeys; and how on earth do you expect me to keep a secret from Ginny?"
"Must be nice to date someone who doesn't keep secrets," he grumbled, looking at Ginny.
"Who knows, maybe one day Hermione will save you from a big spider and you can get a bond like ours," Ginny answered.
"Ha ha, very funny," he responded sarcastically.
"We're here," announced Hermione. The carriage stopped and they got off. "Remember Harry and Ginny, we meet at the Three Broomsticks at noon."
They nodded and the two couples went their separate ways. As Harry and Ginny made their way toward Honeydukes, they heard their friends arguing about whether to start at the Quidditch supply store or the bookstore.
'Those two will never change,' thought Harry amusedly.
'I was surprised about his comment on our bond. I wonder if he's jealous.'
'I wouldn't blame him if he is,' thought Harry. 'This bond with you is the best thing that ever happened to me.'
'Me, too.' Ginny squeezed his hand tighter. "We're here. Now you can buy me a box of chocolates."
Chuckling, they walked hand-in-hand into the famous candy shop, where Ginny persuaded Harry to lighten his money sack significantly. He then took her to the flower shop, where he bought her a dozen yellow roses. He knew that red were supposed to be romantic, but he thought the yellow ones were pretty, and didn't think he should let tradition control his purchases.
They visited several other shops, nodding at the aurors they walked past, shrinking down their packages as they went so that everything but the flowers (which Ginny was carrying) was in one bag in Harry's possession. They walked around the village slowly, talking both verbally and nonverbally, as they enjoyed the day together.
"It's been awhile since we've made up poems about each other," remarked Harry, "and I've been thinking up a new one."
She smiled as her face turned slightly pink. "Have you?"
"Yes."
"Then let's hear it," she giggled.
"Your eyes are as brown
As dark caramel
Your hair is as red
As a fresh-picked apple
Our bond is my life
Want you for my wife
Without you I think I'm in Hell."
The fourteen-year-old girl gazed into Harry's eyes when he got to the line about being his wife and continued staring at him silently.
Harry nervously cleared his throat. "Well, er, I know we're young, and um, that's not an official proposal with a ring. I'm planning to wait a few years for that. But I think we both know that with our bond we will one day get married. I just want to say that I want that more than anything. It's not something I feel forced to do. Just holding your hand is a privilege. Being bonded with you is a…blessing I could never deserve. I can't imagine not being with you. I love you."
Ginny blinked back tears that threatened to start falling down her cheeks. "I love you, too; and I unofficially accept your unofficial proposal, and look forward to the official one – when it's time. I don't remember how I ever lived without you in my life, and don't want to be reminded." She moved her face toward his and puckered her lips.
"BOOM!"
Their lips hadn't met before they heard a loud noise nearby. They looked around to see that a giant had just hit what used to be the entrance to the Three Broomsticks with his club. A nearby auror was running toward the giant until she was hit from behind by a green light. Both teenagers pulled out their wands instantly while the young woman fell lifeless to the ground.
"Reducto!" Harry shouted as he aimed his wand at the source of the death curse. He didn't see anyone there, but knew all about ways to be invisible.
He heard the sound of his blast hitting someone and saw an arm become visible and fall to the ground while blood seemed to appear out of nowhere.
Ginny fired a, "Reducto!" where the murderer's chest would be and a female wearing a Death Eater uniform appeared and fell on her back, dead.
"Crucio!" Harry heard a man's voice shout just before he fell in agony.
As Harry writhed on the ground he heard the same voice shout, "Tell the Dark Lord I've got Pot…"
The pain ended as Harry watched the man's wand hand blown off his arm by Ginny's spell. As he got up, he noticed several firefights happening all over. He couldn't count how many Death Eaters were nearby, fighting students and aurors. He could also see at least five giants.
He was about to start fighting another enemy when Ginny shouted, "Remember your prefect duties!"
Harry dodged a curse as he shouted, "Stay with me!" He blasted toward the latest foe but didn't wait to see if they were hit. He and Ginny ran into the Three Broomsticks, which no longer had a door.
What they saw wasn't a pretty sight. A giant was inside and had apparently wrecked almost all the tables and chairs as he walked toward the students huddled in a far corner. His back was to the new arrivals. Harry saw five students lying on the ground, unconscious or worse. He pulled a length of rope out of his pockets and put it in Ginny's hand, leaving his hand to linger on hers.
'I'll distract the giant. You get to those students, summon the unconscious ones, and make sure they all grab the portkey and then activate it with your wand. I'd ask you to leave with them if I thought you would.'
'At least you know better than to ask. Be careful.'
'You, too.'
They separated and Ginny ran toward the huddled students. The noise obviously got the giant's attention, since he turned around and roared at the redhead while shaking his club threateningly.
Harry shouted, "Reducto!" and landed a hit on the right side of the giant's face. If it had been human, it would have been fatal. However, the spell resistance of the giant's thick skin reduced the effect down to the equivalent of being hit with a small stone. However, the blast did have its desired outcome. The giant turned its attention on Harry as a red sore appeared on its cheek.
-IYCHH-
At the same time, Ron and Hermione were just outside Honeydukes. They'd been nearby when the attack occurred, and they both knew it would be full of kids. Ron was stopping Death Eaters from getting inside while Hermione gathered the children and sent them back to the castle with one of her portkeys. She figured it was faster than the secret passage, and it wouldn't be a good idea to let so many kids know about it, anyway.
Once they had disappeared, Hermione joined her boyfriend in time to see evil incarnate silently appear and begin strolling toward the Three Broomsticks. Hermione hoped she was wrong with her guess about why Voldemort was headed toward the pub. After barely dodging a death curse, she turned her attention back to the other attackers, hoping Harry would be all right, and wondering if Ginny was still with him and had not gotten separated in the chaos.
-IYCHH-
Ginny reached the students quickly and pointed her wand toward the fallen. "Accio students." Although she was concerned that moving them could be dangerous, she realized that leaving them there was even more hazardous to their health.
While the five summoned victims were headed toward them, a third year girl asked, "Is that Harry Potter?"
Ginny grinned briefly as she watched Harry skillfully injuring the giant from afar while carefully avoiding its club. "Yes, and this is a portkey that will take you all back to Hogwarts." She gave them one end of the rope. "All of you grab hold of it." They all complied, and Ginny tied the other end around each of the unconscious, but still breathing victims. Making sure she wasn't touching the robe with her skin, she put the tip of her wand on the portkey. "Activate."
A moment later, Ginny, Harry, and the giant were the only occupants of the room. She shot a, "Reducto!" at the monster's heal at the exact moment Harry did the same to its head. The giant collapsed to the floor.
Harry pointed his wand at the club their enemy had just dropped. "Wingardium Leviosa!" The club floated to the ceiling right above the giant's head under Potter's direction. The Chosen One moved his hand down fast, releasing the club to drop hard onto the fallen giant's head. It was now out cold. They breathed a sigh of relief for a moment until Harry's scar began to prickle.
Harry pulled out the new wand he'd gotten from Ollivander and turned around quickly to see his nemesis' red eyes staring toward him.
"Avada Kadavra!" Harry dove to the ground as a green beam of light shot toward his former location. "Hello, Harry," hissed the vile creature.
"Hi, Tommy-boy." Ginny could feel how terrified Harry really was, but knew that he wouldn't give Riddle the satisfaction of seeing the fear.
"Don't call me that! Crucio!"
Harry barely managed to move away in time, but got a powerful, "Reducto!" out that managed to scrape Tom's left arm. He now had a good gash near his elbow. Too bad Harry had been aiming at Riddle's chest.
Wordlessly, a purple beam shot out of Voldemort's wand and hit Harry's right foot, slicing it and causing him to yell out in pain.
"Crucio!" Tom shouted, seeing his advantage. Harry was unable to move out of the way this time and was writhing on the floor in pain.
"Reducto!" shouted Ginny, who'd been silently watching, hoping for a moment like this when she could provide surprise help. It had been difficult to think while feeling some of Harry's pain, but she was determined to help him this time. The beam made direct contact with Riddle's wand hand, knocking off two fingers and causing him to drop his wand, ending the torture curse on Harry.
Tom turned in fury to see who his assailant was as he wandlessly summoned his wand to his left hand. Harry was still recovering from his ordeal. "Miss Weasley, I see you wanted to do the honors. If I'd known you were here, I would've allowed it." He then attempted to possess her again. Ginny felt her brooch heat up slightly on her shirt as rage began to show once more on Tom's ugly face.
"What have you done? How!" His face calmed down again. "Crucio!" Now, Ginny was on the ground. A smile spread across Tom's face as he shouted. "O'Mally! Get in here and take the Weasley slut away and have some fun, but bring her back to headquarters alive! Ahhhh!"
When Harry was released from his torture curse, it had taken him a minute to stop shaking badly and realize what was going on. He'd dropped his wand, so he pulled out his gun. His hand was still a bit shaky, but he aimed it at Voldemort and fired, hitting Tom's leg, causing him to fall.
As a masked Death Eater walked into the remains of the Three Broomsticks, he saw the girl shaking on the floor and grabbed her, apparating them both away.
-IYCHH-
The fighting in the streets was ferocious, but Ron and Hermione had managed to avoid getting more than a few scratches since they were mostly rescuing kids that were hiding from the magical terrorists. By now several of the faculty had joined the fray and the tide had turned. They'd seen McGonagall take down a giant as well as a few Death Eaters. Flitwick was winning a duel against five of the masked terrorists. Suddenly the remaining Death Eaters stopped and disappeared noiselessly after muttering something, quite obviously activating portkeys.
"Come on, Ron. I think Harry's in the Three Broomsticks with V-Voldemort."
-IYCHH-
Harry, still on the ground, felt Ginny's terror and knew what was about to happen, and he also saw that Voldemort was on the ground. For a moment he didn't know what to do. Riddle shot an orange beam at Harry, pulling him out of his stupor in time to dodge and Harry shot his right shoulder. Riddle hissed, "Activate C," and disappeared.
Harry frantically searched for his wand, finding it as his two best friends appeared in the doorway. He stood up limply as he decided to do something he never thought he'd do – ask for help. "Ron, Hermione! They've got Ginny! I can apparate one of you with me! Hurry!"
Both his friends moved toward him until Ron insisted, "She's my sister! I'm going!" and grabbed Harry's arm.
Hermione thought of suggesting trying all three of them, but knew it would be disastrous if they ended up splinched. She whispered, "Be careful," as they disappeared with two small pops.
-IYCHH-
"This will be fun!" said O'Malley as he tortured Ginny on the floor of his house. Even though it wasn't secure like headquarters, he preferred the privacy for now. He was a recent recruit and was excited to enjoy the spoils of war. He had Ginny's new wand in his pocket, and in his enthusiasm he didn't check her for other weapons. "I'd better let it up before you lose your mind. It's no fun if they don't know what's happening." He then levitated her trembling, but angry body to his bed.
Ginny's mind went through her different options, and she made her decision while the Death Eater undressed himself. She pulled her original wand out of its holster with a trembling hand and aimed it at her attacker.
"Where did you get that?" the now terrified man shouted as he looked up from his pile of clothes. His wand was in his pants pocket, and he was caught literally with his pants down.
Using both hands to steady her original wand, Ginny shouted, "Reducto!" and hit O'Malley square in the chest with a powerful blast, putting a hole through his body. He was dead before he hit the ground as his insides spread out on the floor.
At that moment, two pops sounded together and she pointed her wand at the new arrivals to see it was, "Harry! Ron!" She ran into their arms crying.
"I guess you took care of things," commented Harry as he looked at the corpse on the floor. He was immensely relieved to see that she was all right. He took a deep breath. "Let's get out of here."
-IYCHH-
They got Ginny's new wand as well as O'Malley's before they left via portkey and landed in the hospital wing. All the beds were filled, and they found out that Madam Pomfrey was using a few nearby classrooms to tend to other wounded.
In total, twenty-one students would have to stay at least one night under her care (Harry's foot was healed quickly and he didn't have to spend the night there). Six students and three aurors were killed. Five aurors were injured. Thirteen Death Eaters were killed, and another twelve were captured. Ten giants were overpowered and taken to a special prison that Minister Bones had built for them.
Hermione had found Ginny's bouquet and the bag Harry had been carrying in the Three Broomsticks, and brought them back to the castle. A few of the roses were stepped on, but were easily fixed with magic. The bag was completely untouched by the battle.
-IYCHH-
The next day, while Harry was in Dumbledore's office reporting to the headmaster about his part in the battle, he declared, "If that coward hadn't gotten away, I could have killed him! I need to be able to stop him from escaping!"
"Based off of what you've told me, he probably has several portkeys on his person at all times, and you would have to put up a ward against portkeys, which is rather difficult to do, especially in the middle of a battle. I will look into other options. However, I don't believe that you could have killed him yesterday."
Harry looked offended. "I was winning, sir!"
"Let me rephrase. Even though you most likely would have prevailed in that fight, I don't believe he was capable of dying at that time."
Now Harry was confused. "What do you mean?"
"Harry, Voldemort has been obsessed with immortality for over half a century, and has studied it a great deal. When he was sixteen, he split his soul and created what is known as a Horcrux, which at the time made it impossible for him to die. That is one of the reasons he didn't die when you received your scar. Fortunately, that particular object has been destroyed."
Harry put his hand down after realizing that he'd touched his scar when it had been mentioned. "You were able to destroy that Horcrux thing, then?"
"No, my boy, you were," answered the headmaster with a twinkle in his eyes, "over two years ago."
He looked confused for a moment, until comprehension dawned on him. "The diary?"
Albus nodded. "The diary."
"Well, er, that was destroyed. But what's to stop him from making another one? How do we know he hasn't?"
"He did try to make another Horcrux once, out of a ring that once belonged to Salazar Slytherin. He nearly died from it, and ended up with no powers for a month. He, of course, didn't inform his followers, but a few guessed and soon learned the dangers associated with a muggle pistol. Once he'd gained his powers back, he was able to determine that after all that, he had failed to create a new Horcrux. A soul can't be split like that more than once."
"But you said he couldn't have died yesterday, but the diary's gone."
Dumbledore sighed. "I'm afraid so. The limited intelligence I've been able to gather leads me to believe that now, every time he's going to leave the safety of his headquarters, he goes through a ritual that grants him approximately twelve hours of immortality, just in case he receives a fatal wound.
"This ritual involves capturing a muggle and using a perversion of the soul bond with him. If Tom's body is killed during those twelve hours, his spirit will possess that victim, and he has made preparations to make that body magical and more suited to his purposes. If Tom's body isn't killed, the victim dies from the strain the ritual puts on him within thirteen hours."
Harry wanted to be ill. "He, he kills someone new every time he leaves his home?"
"I'm afraid so. Therefore, the only ways to kill him would be to either surprise him before he has performed the ritual or to somehow capture and hold him for twelve hours."
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"I didn't expect him to attack so soon. I am…"
"Sorry? Look, I'm the one who has to kill him! Wouldn't you think it would help if I knew how?" He was getting angry and beginning to yell, but soon felt a soothing emotion coming from Ginny. "Well, this is a lot to take in. You already know what happened after Voldemort escaped, so I don't think you need to hear that again. May I be excused?"
"Of course. I understand that this is a lot of information to absorb at once. I shall look into ways to stop Tom from using his portkeys."
-IYCHH-
A few minutes later, a pale-looking prefect with green eyes and black, uncontrollable hair walked into the Gryffindor common room and took his girlfriend's hand. 'Ginny, I just found out something about Tom's diary that Dumbledore never bothered to tell us.'
-IYCHH-
Author's note: I know I took the easy way out of the diary's explanation, but I hope you like the way Tom has his immortality now.