Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, it is the property of the brilliant J.K Rowling. This story is the product of her marvellous characters and world and my imagination.
Here it is, for all of you who wanted Tom to win, the Alternate Ending. Enjoy the chapter.
Alternate Ending
Alright, this is an alternate ending for all of you out there who didn't like the fact that Tom was defeated and killed. The end of this fic still has a little feeling of angst, but Tom and Ginny both survive. I hope this satisfies those of you who didn't particularly like the main ending. Enjoy
This alternate ending starts off at the end of the chapter called 'Complications'.
Ginny stood pacing the length of her room and occasionally chewing on her bottom lip in worry. She knew the final battle was taking place right that moment and she was petrified for the outcome. Every noise made her jump and she waited, terrified, for the door to open and for the victor of the battle to walk in.
She had been wearing holes in the carpet for what must have been six hours when the door finally swung open and a lone figure stood there. The figure was tall with dark hair and a thin frame, it could be either Harry or Tom and she knew for sure that her hope was all pinned on it being the bespectacled, emerald eyed saviour.
The figure stepped in to the light and she could finally see the face of the victor of the greatest wizarding war of the century.
It was … Tom.
Her heart sunk, but that meant, it couldn't be. She managed to croak out the words, "does this mean … please tell me you haven't won." Tom merely smirked triumphantly, "I'm afraid so Ginevra, you are looking at the new leader of wizarding Britain."
"No, no, it can't be, this can't be happening," Ginny was crying now, she truly was trapped forever now, no one to save her now. She dropped onto her bed in shock, "how … how many … who did the light lose?"
Tom brightened, "I was hoping you'd ask that Ginevra. Well I think you can guess that Potter died, he was never any match for me." Ginny's breath caught in her throat, Harry was dead, the only boy she had ever loved was dead and never coming back. The light's saviour was gone. Tom ploughed on, regardless of her silent heartbreak, "anyway once he and that muggle-loving fool Dumbledore was dead it was pretty clear who was going to win. I gave all those surviving a choice, join me or face the consequences."
Ginny shook her head, the tears pouring and staining her clothes, "what happened?" Tom smiled, "well for a large proportion their intrinsic selfishness came out and 90% of those not in the main group of your Order of the Phoenix surrendered and were taken off to be registered and returned to the world as good law abiding citizens. The other 10% of that lot put up a bit of a fight and I'm afraid I had to kill them."
She looked at him in shock, how could he be so callous about just killing so many people for standing up for themselves, but then she remembered he wasn't just Tom, he was Lord Voldemort. So then she asked the question she was most dreading the answer to, "what about the inner circle of the Order?"
"Ah well I'm glad you asked that Ginevra, those surviving from that group of people would certainly have put up a fight if they hadn't immediately been disarmed. They are here now, in the manor, I shall have them brought in since I'm sure you'd love to see them. Then I have a proposition for you, for it shall be you who decide their fate by your decision." Ginny didn't like the sound of that but nodded her head and Tom sent a message to a death eater.
Five minutes her door opened and two death eaters escorted a line of magically chained prisoner in, they were all dirty, covered in mud and blood, dishevelled but all looked like they had no more than superficial wounds. Tom dismissed the death eaters and stood up to survey the prisoners, ignoring their shouts and profanities when they saw him. They went silent when Ginny stood and went over to them, looking down the line with red, puffy eyes.
She knew them all of course and she cried when she'd seen them all and knew who was missing - who was dead. She saw her mother, Bill and both twins … so that meant she'd lost her father, Charlie, Percy and Ron. She was pleased to see Hermione, Tonks, Sirius and Remus among the living prisoners, all with defiant looks on their faces as they glared at Tom.
Tom pulled out a list, "I have a full list of the dead from the main Order if you wish to hear it." She nodded, she didn't want to know, but she couldn't bear not knowing. He began reading, his face showing no trace of sorrow and even some slight smugness at his triumph. Ginny found it disgusting.
She listened as Tom's baritone voice read out the dead, silently mourning for each of them; "Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, Arthur Weasley, Percival Weasley, Charlie Weasley, Ronald Weasley, Severus Snape (the traitor), Minerva McGonagall, Rubeus Hagrid, Alastor Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and Mundungus Fletcher."
By the end of the list Ginny was howling with sorrow, her outfit ruined beyond repair by tears and her whole face blotchy, red and tear stained. The same could be said for her chained family and friends, or what was left of them. Tom had done it to deliberately to hurt them, she knew that much from his sly grin. "If it makes you all feel better, I lost some of my best fighters too, including Crabbe, Goyle, Nott and Rosier. Then that one," he pointed at Hermione, "killed Bella, which would have vexed me greatly if I didn't have you Ginevra darling."
The deaths of a few death eaters did not make it any better for Ginny, though she had to admit she was pleased by Bellatrix's death, the insane woman had never liked her and after all she had done she deserved death.
Tom turned to her, "well Ginevra, it looks like you have a choice to make and you have two options. If you choose the first option then I will let you and two of your family or friends go free. You can make a new start in a new country and none of my death eaters or myself will ever bother you again. However if you choose this option then the six you leave behind will die."
He paused for effect, to allow the offer and it's consequences to sink in to Ginny's mind. "The second option is one I am giving you only due to my pleasure at the outcome of the war, inevitable as I believed it was. In this option all this lot," he gestured to the eight prisoners, "will be kept alive. We will move to another manor I own just outside London and they will live in what was the dungeon level. They will, I'm afraid, have no magic and have to live as muggles, at least for a while. Furniture and food will be provided, but they will be expected to make their own meals, I am not wasting house elves on them. You will of course be able to visit regularly."
Ginny was suspicious, the deal was a good one, much better than what she had suspected, which was for them to be killed. But there must be something else, it couldn't be that good. "What's the catch," she asked him, "this is too good to be true, there has to be a cost." Tom nodded, "of course there's a catch Ginevra, I am a slytherin after all. For this option to be viable then you have to agree to submit to me. Not entirely of course, it wouldn't be any fun if you had no fire in you, so you can argue and debate away. But I would be the final authority and if I ordered something then you would do it. You will bear me heirs, appear at public functions and so forth, the only thing I will promise is that you will never have to kill."
She thought about it, she was already pregnant with Tom's child, though he did not know yet. She wouldn't tell him for it could change the choices she was given and she didn't want that, she knew that the options she currently had were the best it would get. To remain with Tom for the rest of her life was a terrible choice, he was a mass-murderer, had killed Harry, Dumbledore, Severus and four members of her family along with countless others. She didn't want to continue being practically raped by him, didn't want to bring innocent children into the world to be moulded to evil purposes.
But … if she chose the first option she would be condemning the other six to die and how would she choose only two of them. If she picked the second option then they would all live, she could see them all regularly and maybe eventually work out a way to get them all out.
She turned to gaze upon the eight people remaining of those she loved, tears in her eyes and conflict on her face. "Don't do it Ginny," was what they said, "you've gone through too much already, if we can just have you free then it will be ok. It's too high a cost to let us all live."
Ginny looked away, it didn't really matter what they said, she'd been sold on the second idea the minute she found out it would enable them all to live. She turned her gaze onto Tom, who scrutinised her expression before his face showed pleasure, he knew her choice.
"The second option," she almost whispered it, "I pick the second option. I'll submit to you, do what you ask. As long as you let them live and let me see them I will do it." She could hear the protests from her family and friends but she just silenced them with one pleading stare. "I know you want me to be free but there was never any other option, I've lost too many other people to cope with losing more, even if I am free because of it. After Dean I promised I would never be directly responsible for another person's death and I will stick to that promise. Please don't think any less of me because of it."
Though they all still looked pained at her decision, they nodded their heads reluctantly, everyone knew how stubborn Ginny could be and they knew better than to argue with her over such a big decision. They murmured thanks to her too, after all she had just saved all their lives at the cost of her own freedom and innocence.
Ginny dropped her head as the eight remaining members of her family and friends were led out to their new accommodations. She'd always coped with her captivity by looking for the light at the end of the tunnel. There was no such light any more - Harry Potter was dead and so was Dumbledore. Anyone who might have started a resistance force was either captured or killed. She guessed she was just going to have to get used to a life of captivity.
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15 Years Later
Ginny frowned as she stared in the mirror, this hadn't been what she had expected her life to turn out like - she was supposed to be married to Harry in a world free of Voldemort and with lots of little children running round with names like Lily and James. Instead she was married to Tom, dictator of the wizarding world and father of her three children.
He had expanded his rule from just wizarding Britain all over the world and ten years after the Final Battle he officially conquered the whole world - it seemed no one breathed without his express permission and Ginny was almost grateful to be on the inside rather than following countless rules outside.
Tom was very much the same as he had been at the beginning of their marriage - she thought that the rape would stop after she had given him three children, but it seemed that in his own twisted way he loved her and actually wanted to have sex with her for pleasure. She never enjoyed it, but in the end she got used to it.
She visited the eight remaining members of the Order in their prison quarters as often as possible. They could use no magic and she couldn't take her wand with her - Tom feared she would give it to one of them and, if she had the chance, she probably would have. They were supplied with everything they needed to live the muggle way and it was lucky they had Hermione for none of them had much idea how to use muggle appliances.
None of them had ever met her two sons - Tom didn't want them 'corrupted by what remained of the light side'. Ginny herself was rarely allowed to see them, they had been taken from her as soon as they were born to be raised by nannies and taught only by Tom himself. Arcturus was fourteen and Anthony was eight, yet they acted like fully grown death eaters. She only saw them at dinner on Sundays and at formal occasions and often cried at night at what she saw - their eyes and manners were cold and they had no affection for anyone - it broke her heart to see her children like that. She sometimes wondered if it was Tom's punishment for the fact that she hid her pregnancy until after the deal to save her family and friend's lives had been agreed on with an unbreakable vow.
The one positive in her life, aside from her visits to the remaining Order, was her daughter - Sofia Molly Riddle. Tom was not to bothered by his ten year old daughter, girls weren't of much consequence as few had the personality to be a death eater. He had allowed Ginny to name the girl, though he was not best pleased by her middle name and she was allowed to look after Sofia - Tom only seeing her occasionally. These circumstances meant Sofia remained uncorrupted by the dark side and always went with her mother to see her uncles, grandmother and the rest of the remaining Order. They all loved the little girl and Molly was delighted to actually be able to see her granddaughter.
Reflecting on it all, Ginny supposed her life could be worse - she at least had her daughter, some of her family and friends and a comfortable life, which was more than could be said about many under Tom's regime. She wondered at that sometimes - why she still called Voldemort Tom - she guessed his physical appearance was of Tom and at times he could be the boy she remembered, sweet and charming.
She would never forget Harry, her father, Charlie, Percy, Ron, Severus, Dumbledore or any of the other good witches and wizards who lost their lives trying to free Britain from Tom's rule. But she had to accept her life as it was now and live for her daughter and the family and friends who remained. She had to remain in Tom's good graces to give her some influence to curb some of his more drastic rules. She had a job too, it might not involve fighting or dying, but it was something and she would do it. Yes, she supposed she was … content … in her life.
Thanks for reading 'The Tempest of Hearts, Souls and Magic.' I really hope you enjoyed the story and I loved every review you gave.
The first two chapters of my next story - a Hermione centric fic called 'Heir to the four founders' - will be up in a few hours. Check my profile soon if you're interested.