Chapter Thirty-Two
Destroying The Wand.

After an hour had passed, Mcgonagall returned to her office where Harry, Ron and Hermione were sat, despite Harry and Ron's attempts at conversation Hermione had brushed it off with a few words and they remained silent. The three of them realising that Harry was doing something dangerous without them, and the tension in the room was unbearable. Mcgonagall had not changed a thing in Dumbledore's office, which Harry noticed after looking around. Hermione had been clutching his hand with a firm grip the whole time. As Mcgonagall walked in Harry saw she had hold of a clear liquid bottle, which was bubbling at the surface. "Here, take this. It's more potion for shock from Madame Pomfrey." She pushed the bottle towards Hermione who shook her head slightly, leaning on Ron's shoulder.

"I'm not in shock." Hermione said bluntly pushing the bottle back into Mcgonagall's hand. Harry who thought he had never seen someone more in shock opened his mouth to say something but closed it as he thought of Hermione's reaction.

"Very well then." Mcgonagall said strolling next to Ron who was sitting with his arm around Hermione. Harry saw Mcgonagall slip the bottle in Ron's robes and he looked up at her giving her a slight nod showing he understood. Hermione hadn't noticed any of this, as she didn't seem to be paying attention to anything at all. Her face was still expressionless. "I do have some good news for you all, I spoke to Alastor a few minutes ago and they've found the spot where the death eaters have been apparating to get into the school." Mcgonagall informed them sitting at her desk. This was the best news Harry had heard all day.

"That's great, at least they won't be able to get in easily anymore. How'd it go with Scrimgeour professor?" Harry asked as Mcgonagall took a bottle of what appeared to be Madame Rosmerta's mead out of her desk and pouring it into a glass.

"He say's he had no control over when the letter was sent." Mcgonagall made a disbelieving noise taking a big gulp of her mead. "And he wanted to see you. Something about you agreeing to do something with the Ministry." Mcgonagall finished the rest of her glass in one and slammed it on the desk looking up and narrowing her eyes at Harry to see his reaction.

"Well…yeah I did actually." Harry said remembering his meeting with Scrimgeour.

"Only because he threatened to sack my dad!" Ron said angrily clenching his free hand that wasn't joined to Hermione's. Mcgonagall's eyes widened.

"I've never heard such blackmail. Don't you worry Potter, this will be sorted my way." Mcgonagall had a slight look of fury in her eyes.

"But professor really I don't want…" Harry began but was cut off by Mcgonagall.

"I don't want to hear any more talk about it Potter. Leave it to me." Mcgonagall said in a voice that sounded final. Harry wondered how exactly Mcgonagall would get Scrimgeour to change his mind about this. After a while Sturgis Podmore and Julian Eccledon arrived at Mcgonagall's office to escort Hermione and Ron out of the school. The both of them didn't seem too eager to leave Harry and made him promise to update them by owl the second anything happened. When they had left Harry strolled up to the owlery to send a letter to Aberforth. He caught sight of Fallon, Aberforth's big black owl and took a pen and parchment scrawling a quick letter.

A.D.
I don't suppose you would have heard, it will probably be in the Prophet tomorrow but Hermione's parents have been

Harry paused. To write it made it real. He at the moment was pushing away his usual guilt he felt when something like this happened. As it had happened to Hermione he felt it was more unbearable than usual. He gave his head a shake trying to ignore his feelings and write on.

Murdered by death eaters, or Voldemort himself. Her and Ron have left to go to the funeral.

Harry again stopped and felt more guilt welling up inside. I should be with her. No, I need to destroy the horcrux as soon as possible. Even Hermione said that's more important. Harry argued with himself. He carried on writing.

It's just me doing the thing that we need to do. I had this vision before Hermione's parents were killed. It was like I was in a room with Voldemort; obviously I wasn't actually in the room. Anyway, he told me if I didn't give him the thing then he would do something I wouldn't like. Well he made his point didn't he?
Take care.
Harry.

Harry re read the letter, hard as it was with his scruffy writing as he had written it so fast. Fallon stuck out his leg and Harry tied the letter to it. "Take this to Aberforth." He muttered stroking the owl before watching him take off. Right, I need to do this now before Voldemort does anything else. Harry shuddered at the thought and headed quickly up towards the common room where the horcrux was stored safely in his trunk. He arrived to see Ginny playing exploding snap with Seamus. When she saw him she said something to Seamus that Harry couldn't hear and walked over to Harry who was now at the bottom of the boy's dormitory stairs.

"I heard." Ginny said grimly.

"You did?" Harry said bewildered. "Never mind that, anyway I can't stick around I've got stuff to do."

"How is she?" Ginny asked ignoring Harry's previous statement.

"Not good. Actually worse than I expected." Harry said sincerely. "Her and Ron have gone for the funeral. They should be back after it though."

"And you didn't go?" Ginny said raising her eyebrows. Harry who had realised he'd just talked himself into a trap thought of any way to get out of it but couldn't.

"No." He said stiffly, and turning to walk up the stairs. Ginny followed walking next to him.

"Why?" She continued.

"Like I said, stuff to do." Harry continued up the stairs.

"Stuff that's more important than Hermione… Hermione who's one of your best friends, Hermione who is one of the most important…"

"Ok, ok, I get your point!" Harry protested stopping her from carrying on. Ginny's face had a look of triumph as she went to sit on the end of his bed. Harry stayed standing as he told her about the vision he'd had earlier that day and why the horcrux needed to be destroyed immediately.

"Then I'm coming. No way are you destroying it alone." Ginny said firmly standing up and folding her arms. Harry laughed slightly and shook his head.

"No way."

"The more time you stand here arguing with me the more time will go by. And I can argue for a long time when I'm arguing about something I feel strongly about. So I'm coming." Ginny said reaching for her wand and pointing it at Harry. "Or I'll skip the arguing and just hex you instead."

"Gin, please don't do this." Harry pleaded putting a hand on her shoulder.

"If you think I'm going to let you do it alone. You must be thicker than my brother. With the locket if it hadn't of been for Ron and Hermione you would have died. Right?" Ginny said with a tone that sounded so determined, Harry knew he would never be able to convince her not to go with him. Ginny shrugged Harry's hand off her shoulder a look of resolve on her face.

"Fine. But anything bad happens to me, I want you to just go ok?" Harry said sternly.

"No, you're the most important person in this war. We know that from the prophecy." Ginny said this as if it was obvious. Harry had to admit that she was right as hard as it was. He bent down to open his trunk and searched for the wand eventually finding it at the bottom.

"Rowena Ravenclaw's. Didn't know a wand could be a horcrux." Harry spoke more to himself examining the wand and putting it safely in the front of his robes as Ginny watched standing behind him. As much as he didn't want Ginny to come he knew he would need her if he didn't have Ron and Hermione. "If anything happens to you…" Harry began as he stood up and turned to face Ginny who he was surprised didn't seem at all anxious considering they were about to try and do something extremely dangerous.

"Don't even think about it, just do it." Ginny said putting an arm around his neck and kissing him. What Harry felt was relief, like Ginny had just taken all his nerves and guilt and smashed it into tiny pieces as he kissed her, he melted into her wrapping his hands around her waist. He didn't know how she always had this effect on him but somehow she did. They finally broke apart and Harry picked up the marauders map and put the invisibility cloak over them both. They walked in silence hand in hand checking the map occasionally. When they finally reached the outside of the room of requirement they walked past it three times thinking of what they wanted as Harry had done many times before.

I need to find somewhere we won't be disturbed, somewhere with space, somewhere safe from being interrupted.

Harry walked past three times with this thought in his head and then saw the door appear from nowhere and he and Ginny entered. Harry was now feeling nervous again and saw Ginny looking slightly worried. It was deadly silent; the room was brightly lit and empty, with a few cushions on the floor. Harry and Ginny walked over to the cushions and sat down. Harry pulled the wand out of his robes not having a clue what to do next. He was thinking hard and he knew Ginny could tell this so didn't speak as to not interrupt his thoughts. "How to activate it? But once that's done the problem is destroying it. Ok so they all work by sucking out the soul…and joining it with Voldemort's soul. He has to have some way of making it work." Harry voiced his thoughts aloud feeling he was getting nowhere. "But does it have to be activated to destroy it?"

"What about the unforgivable curses? That's the most evil you can do with a wand right?" Ginny suggested.

"You know, there's no way we are going to be able to work this out by sitting here. Let's just do it and handle everything as it happens eh?" Harry said not sure that this was a good idea. But it was the best one he had. Ginny nodded. Harry waved the wand and muttered a simple spell standing up. "Lumos." Light came out of the wand. He then tried Ginny's suggestion and pointing the wand into thin air concentrating on the most hateful thought he had at the moment. Voldemort had killed Hermione's parents. He knew without a doubt the spell would work, he shouted aloud "Crucio!" and was instantly thrown backwards by an invisible force banging into the wall. He heard a scream. Was that Ginny? He instantly forgot this as the room he was in faded away. It was pitch black wherever he was. Harry tried to speak and stood up waving his arms around frantically into the darkness not moving his legs even an inch. Stepping out of the darkness was not Voldemort as he was now, but the Voldemort as he was then. Harry saw the Voldemort that he had seen in his dreams, the one that had murdered his dad. There wasn't much of a difference between the two, but he looked more human. Harry could see how Voldemort had been destroyed the night he had tried to kill him.

"There's no mistaking who you are. Harry Potter." Voldemort spat walking slowly closer to Harry. The wand in his hand began to shake violently as Voldemort moved closer, Harry now feeling a shooting pain going up his hand trying to keep his grip on the wand and ignore the pain as it got worse each second. Harry tried not to yell out knowing he had to do something before the power of the horcrux took over. He stumbled to the right diving around the room to get away from the image of Voldemort, which Harry could tell was not yet solid. He knew the moment it was, it would be too late and much harder for him to do anything. He looked down concentrating with all his might to keep hold of the wand and saw something happening, cuts were appearing down his hand and wrists but no blood was pouring out, as it should have been. Harry gasped with pain and closed his eyes still stumbling around the room wildly looking for something, anything to help him. "Ah yes, it's working." Voldemort said watching Harry with pure victory in his tone. Harry couldn't reply even if he wanted to, the pain in his arm was something he had never felt before.

"Avada Kedavra." Harry croaked falling to the floor now clutching his arm with his other hand. All he wanted was for the pain to stop but now it was impossible to let go of the wand in his hand. His attempt at firing a killing curse at the image of Voldemort he knew was pathetic, but all he could think about was the pain, let alone trying to perform a killing curse. The wand now issued a light that was going straight towards the Voldemort across the room who Harry saw put both his arms out to each side and closed his eyes with a look of pleasure as the light fell into him.

''Love is a power he knows not.'' Harry heard a strong voice in his head.

"Dumbledore?" Harry whispered spread on the floor wishing for the pain to stop. He knew what he had to do; if he didn't succeed at this he would fail Dumbledore. He would never see Ron and Hermione again. Or Ginny. Love filled him inside and the pain began to fade away, he closed his eyes and in seconds felt lips on his and opened his eyes. Ginny pulled away from him, a mixture of fear and relief on her face. Harry was still lying on the floor clutching the wand, the pain in his hand not totally faded away. He examined the wand and saw a tiny crack around the middle. His hand, which had now looked a little, like Dumbledore's had the previous year, but not even half as bad. It was a shade of grey in places and still had cuts where blood was now pouring out.

"Harry are you ok? What happened?" Ginny asked concerned helping him get to his feet and walking him over to the cushions where they both sat down. Harry let go off the wand and watched it fall onto the floor. He explained to Ginny what had just happened.

"I heard Dumbledore…he saved my life." Harry finished bewildered putting his hands through his hair; blood was still trickling slowly out of the cuts on his hand, pain still shooting up it. Ginny caught sight of it and gasped.

"Dumbledore is dead. You probably just remembered something he told you that's all. Your hand looks awful." Ginny said taking it in hers and getting a closer look.

"It's nothing Ginny." Harry said pulling it away from her. He didn't know what had happened to it, but he knew it wasn't nothing. It throbbed and he tried to ignore it his curiosity taking over.
"Now you tell me what happened." Harry said looking interestedly at Ginny.

"You're going straight to Madame Pomfrey with that when we get out of here." Ginny said sternly.

"OK, fine have it your way." Harry said knowing there was no point arguing with her.

"Well you couldn't see me at all; you were stumbling around the room like a maniac. What you saw, it must have been inside your head but somehow real, if that's possible. Then you fell to the floor and I could see you were getting weaker. I didn't know whether to touch you after what happened to Hermione with the locket. But then I remembered the whole 'power of love' thing and just…well…kissed you. The horcrux made this big bang after five seconds. Anyway…it worked! We did it!" Ginny laughed and hugged Harry who hugged her back grinning and full of relief that another part of this mission was now over.