A.N: This quote belongs to Ed Sheeran, and I think it's so fantastic. Like I said, I've been listening to too much Ed Sheeran lately.
It hurt to walk away from the people he loved, it really did. It felt like he was jumping off a cliff; because there was this horrible sensation in his gut, and he was stuck in limbo, waiting to hit the ground.
Harry moved throughout the castle, swiftly and silently. Every time he would trip over a dead body, every time he stood in a splatter of blood, he forced himself to carry on, telling himself that what he was doing would prevent more of this bloodshed.
Ironic really. Voldemort promised he would cease the murdering, if he could just murder Harry. Either he had a very good sense of humour, or he hadn't realised.
The crestfallen expression on Hermione's face when he had said his goodbye had felt like a punch to the gut. And when Ron gave him a nod of the head, and bit back the tears, Harry couldn't remember the last time he had felt so guilty.
That's all he had been doing, Harry thought bitterly. Feeling. Why couldn't he just accept the fact that this was his duty, what Dumbledore wanted him to do? Defeat the Dark Lord. This was what he was destined for ever since that night his parents died. They died, so he could live. That's what Harry was doing now. He's dying, so his friends, and the people he loved most, could live.
Finally, he could feel the ground coming up to greet him, until he spotted two figures, alone, on the steps. Harry froze, dead in tracks, and took a sharp intake of breath.
A dark-skinned girl was sat on the bottom stair, crying her eyes out. She was dressed in tattered Hufflepuff robes, a huge gash up her leg. It looked really nasty, seeping blood at an alarming rate. She must only have been a first year - why wasn't she with the other?
But then, it was who she was with now that made Harry stop, and question ever jumping off the cliff at all. The girl who he hadn't said goodbye, the girl he hadn't told he was leaving. Ginny Weasley.
Her blue jeans had scuff marks where her knees were, and her blue hoodie had countless stains decorating it - ash, blood, mud. Her fiery long hair was darker than he remembered, and her bright brown eyes lighter. She was pale too, which made the open cuts on her cheek and her chin look even more worse. She had countless scrapes on her hands too, which she used to tuck the girls hair behind her ear.
Harry's breath caught in his throat when she began talking, and he immediatley felt like he was drowning. This was the girl he . . . he loved. He loved her, and he hadn't ever once told her. He was going to die, and she didn't know how he felt about her. As soul-crushing as it was, Harry resisted from taking the cloak off and running too her - however strong the urge was.
Instead, he listened.
"Amelia, everything will be okay" Ginny muttered, wiping tears from the girl stained cheeks.
"I'm a Muggle-Born . . . what will happen if . . . if . . . " the girl stuttered, her voice trembling.
Ginny wrapped an arm around her, bringing her as close to her body as she could. She rubbed the girl's back, comfortingly.
"I promise that it won't ever come to that" she told the girl, in a determined voice.
"But what if it does?" the girl breathed, scared.
"If it does, then I will protect you. I will make sure no harm comes to you" Ginny promised.
How was it, surrounded by rubble and desctruction, Ginny could be so brave, and so honest, Harry thought to himself. And the fact that this girl - a girl she probably had never even met before today - believed Ginny, and trusted her, was marvellous. Amelia clutched onto Ginny, and cried. Ginny simply hugged her back, and told her that she would look after her.
"I lost my brother today" Ginny whispered, to the girl. "He was this amazingly optimistic person, who could always make me smile. There wasn't anyone who met him, besides maybe a few of the teachers, who didn't like him."
"Fred" the girl chirped up, smiling. "My brother was best friends with him and George."
Lee Jordan's little sister.
"Yes, Fred. He was loved by my whole family, by his friends, by the people at this school. We still . . . I still love him, although he's not here now. But I have him my memories, and he's never going to leave them. And I still remember this thing he said to me, when I was in my first year. I was sat in a hospital bed in Madam Pomfrey's, and he smiled, and held my hand. He told me that 'everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end'. And that's what I'm telling you, in your first year, sat here on the steps, now. Promise me you won't forget that?"
"I promise" the girl nodded.
Harry closed his eyes, and he prayed that he would always stay in her memories. Silently promising Ginny that he won't ever forget what she said either.
