In the window, he could see a blurred, shadowy reflection of an all-black figure.
/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*/*
Part of the plan had come to Harry while he was talking to Audrey Greengrass. The hearing in July had forced him to confront things publicly that he'd never planned on. That had opened the door for him to continue confronting the demons that tormented him privately, culminating in a night at Sunrise Cottage. Harry confessed something to Ginny that had taken him ages to even recognise as a fear– he hadn't known that part of Tom Riddle had lived inside him for practically his whole life. Once they'd talked about that, the last barriers that had separated them disappeared.
It'd been far too long since they'd been back to Weymouth. And even though he didn't think he should take her into Sunrise Cottage, they could certainly go to the beach. Maybe, if nobody else was around, they'd even be able to forego bathing suits. The prospect made Harry smile to himself.
The rest of the plan actually came to him when he saw Ginny and Astoria laughing at something Luna had said. She looked so beautiful and happy, and he decided that he couldn't possibly wait to buy a ring for her. It would be hard enough waiting until their anniversary to propose– he'd made that decision a couple days prior– but getting the ring would tide him over for a bit. Hopefully.
Once the first people started leaving, Harry finished up a conversation with Dean about Muggle football. Harry understood more than most people in their world would've, but Dean was going on about how he'd seen the best match of his life in Birmingham yesterday between a team from Manchester and a team from London. Harry hadn't really worked out why they were playing in Birmingham, and he didn't get a chance to ask. Dean was very enthusiastic with his description of a stunning goal that had won the match for the Manchester side, and it did sound exciting, even if Harry was still partial to a brilliantly scored goal in Quidditch. He also didn't ask Dean how he'd managed to get in to see the match, but he was fairly confident that it had involved more than a small amount of magic.
Ginny seemed very excited about his idea for their night in Weymouth. She was so happy about it that he had half a mind to just leave with her right then, but he didn't want to put off buying a ring anymore now that he knew Arthur and Molly were happy for him to propose.
He was relieved when Ginny didn't press the issue of where he was going. He needed it to be a surprise that he had the ring at all when he did propose. Instead, she just told him to hurry up so he wouldn't be late to dinner.
He laughed as he bent down to kiss her, still relishing the feeling every time. "I'll be there. Don't worry. I love you."
"I love you too," she replied with a bright smile.
Still grinning, Harry began walking away from everyone. "Happy Birthday, Astoria! Thanks for inviting us."
"Of course! I'm just really glad you could make it!"
"So am I. I'll see you next week," he said. She smiled and nodded at him, and he continued leaving the living room when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"You leaving?" Owen asked.
"Yeah. Got something to go do," Harry replied a little vaguely, not wanting to risk anything getting back to Ginny.
"Without Ginny? Seems like you two are never apart," Owen joked.
"Not usually, but… I'm sorta working on a surprise for her," Harry explained.
"Oh, nice! So are you going back home, or…"
Harry chuckled at Owen's not so subtle prying. He was as bad as Ginny. There wasn't any harm in telling him a little bit about what he was doing though. "I'm going to Diagon Alley. Don't tell Ginny though. She'd probably figure out what I'm doing from that alone."
Owen laughed and clapped him on the back. "Your secret's safe with me. D'you want a drink to take with you? I can go grab you something."
Harry shook his head. "Nope, I'm good. Really need to get going. I'll see you next week though. Take care, Owen."
Owen nodded and clapped him on the back once more. "Yeah. I'll see you, Harry."
Once he reached the door, Harry looked back and saw Ginny watching him. She gave him a small smile that he easily returned. Merlin, he loved her. He forced himself to leave the room though because he could've just stayed there looking at her for ages if he'd let himself. He had something to do. There'd be plenty of time to look at her tonight.
Since it wasn't possible to apparate directly into Diagon Alley, Harry had to apparate from the front lawn of the Greengrass estate to a Muggle alley a couple blocks away from The Leaky Cauldron. He decided that he didn't want to deal with people stopping him to talk, especially while he was trying to get to the jewellery shop, so he threw the Invisibility Cloak on and snuck into The Leaky Cauldron when a portly, balding wizard threw the door open. As his luck would have it, that wizard walked straight through the pub to the brick wall behind it. A moment later, Harry was in Diagon Alley.
He'd been to the shop once before, under the cloak, when he'd been looking for something for Ginny for her birthday. This store was where he'd found her Snitch earrings. It had been right after his hearing, and his fame was, unfortunately, at its peak, so when he'd returned to Diagon Alley to buy them, Ron had actually gone in and purchased them with Harry's money.
It had been a while since then, but he knew that the shop was about halfway down the alley, just before a small side street. Sure enough, he found the small shop very quickly. The sign above the door read Ellison's Enchanting Jewels. That was exactly what he was looking for.
Harry almost opened up the door while still wearing the cloak. Thankfully, he remembered and ducked around the corner to remove it. Before he took it off though, he decided, without much thought, that it might be a good idea to have Ron and Hermione's advice on this. So he sent them both Patroni, asking for them to meet him in Diagon Alley when they got off work. Then he removed the cloak and stuffed it into the bottom of the mokeskin pouch tied around his neck before quickly walking back to the storefront and opening the door, eager to make it in before anyone saw him entering a jewellery shop and started gossipping about it.
Of course, in his haste to make it into the jewellery shop, he'd completely forgotten that the store owner would likely be very surprised to see him in their store. Sure enough, the elderly man behind the counter stared at him with wide eyes, apparently shocked that he was in the store.
"Clark, have you seen our–" a woman's voice began asking as she walked from the back of the store towards the counter. "Oh," she gasped, seeing Harry.
"Er– hello."
"You're…" the man, Clark, began, and Harry nodded.
"Yeah…"
"What are you doing here?" Clark asked.
Harry thought that was sort of obvious. "I'm looking to buy something."
"Oh, Clark. Get over yourself. He's a bit of a fan," the elderly woman said apologetically to Harry. "Welcome to our store, Mister Potter. I'm Susan, and this is my husband, Clark."
"Pleasure," Harry replied, shaking her hand. She smiled very kindly at him.
"Yes! I'm Clark. Sorry about that. Just wasn't expecting it," Clark said, coming around to shake his hand too.
"No problem at all. I'm not wanting to disturb you at all. I just…"
"It's no disturbance at all, dear," Susan assured him. Harry was quickly growing fond of the woman. "Can we help you find something?"
Harry looked between the two of them and decided that they seemed very trustworthy. "I– d'you mind if I ask you not to tell anyone I was here? I don't really want it in the papers."
Clark mimed zipping his lips. "Not a problem at all."
"We're happy to deal in discretion," Susan assured him. "We've never let slip to anyone that we supply the Minister with toe rings."
Harry couldn't help laughing, imagining Kingsley coming into this store and shopping for toe rings of all things. Susan and Clark both laughed too. Their laughs were slightly crackly and out of breath, but they still seemed so full of joy.
"That was a joke," Susan wheezed once they stopped laughing.
"I figured," Harry replied, still grinning at it. "Although I now know what I'll be getting him for Christmas this year, so thanks for that."
"We're happy to help," Clark joked. "But you can rest assured that nobody will know you were here. In fact–"
Clark raised his wand and flicked it towards the door. Harry heard it lock as the curtains pulled themselves shut.
"Now we won't risk being disturbed. So how can we help you, Mister Potter?"
Harry took a deep breath. "I'm looking to buy an engagement ring."
They both smiled widely at him. "That's wonderful, dear!" Susan exclaimed, patting him on his arm.
"We can certainly help you with that," Clark added. "We have a wide variety of rings to pick from, and it's simple enough to make modifications if there is a change you'd prefer."
Clark and Susan led him over to a long, glass covered case. Clark wasn't kidding about having a lot of rings. There must've been fifty in the case, and Harry really had no idea what he was looking for.
"Er– what do people usually look for in rings like this? I don't really have much experience buying jewellery," he admitted.
"That's no problem at all, dear. There are many things people will consider when looking at rings. Of course, there's the diamond, which is rather complicated in and of itself, with the 4 Cs. There's the setting of the diamond, the inclusion of any side stones, the band style, and the band metal."
Harry's head was swimming in confusion very quickly. "Sorry… the four Cs?"
"Cut, clarity, colour, and carat weight," Clark answered. "At least, that's what Muggles use to describe diamonds. With magic, we're able to make all our diamonds colourless and free of blemishes, so you really only have to decide on what you want the cut of the diamond to be– that's the shape– and how large you want it to be."
"Okay… I didn't even realise there were different options for the shape. I guess you can cut it into any shape?"
"We can. But there are several options that are very popular. We have a board over here that shows those possibilities." Clark gestured along the board as he talked. "Round cuts are a classic, but ovals and pears are also very common variations on the round style. Then there are more squared off styles, like the cushion, radiant, emerald, and princess cut you see here. Heart shapes also seem to come and go as a trend."
Harry's head was already spinning as he tried to imagine what Ginny might prefer. She often did like for things to be out of the box, but he knew that she also had a soft spot for classically romantic things as well. Going with his instinct, he said, "I think the round one looks good."
"That's a great choice," Susan promised him. "And carat weight really comes down to you selecting how large of a diamond you'd like." She waved her wand and another board appeared, with a variety of round diamonds of different sizes on it. "We advise people to imagine the diamond's size relative to the woman's hand."
For comparison, Harry held his own hand out, easily able to picture Ginny's hand over his. He decided that a slightly smaller one would probably be a good choice, considering how small her hands were. Once he selected the stone he liked, Clark and Susan showed him a section within the case that held round diamonds already on rings.
"Do you want to include any stones to accent the diamond? There's a few options here that show some different ways that we can add additional stones to the ring. Some people choose to add coloured jewels, while others add more diamonds, and many choose to let the diamond stand alone. It's really up to you."
Harry's eyes were drawn to a ring with a round diamond surrounded by several tiny jewels. Some of the jewels were blue, while others were red. He pointed at it. "Can you tell me about that one?"
"A halo design. That one in particular has eight small gemstones surrounding the round diamond. Each of these gemstones can be customised, but one or two stones keeps it clean without distracting from the diamond."
Susan added, "This is just a model we made, but the gems used are the birthstones for January and March. Sometimes, couples like their birthstones to be added, so this shows that possibility."
"Birthstones? Is there just one per month?" Harry asked. He'd heard the term before but really didn't know much about it.
"Yes. We have the stones for each month on the wall over here," Susan said, guiding him to a small diagram on the wall, showing twelve different coloured gemstones with a month written underneath each of them.
"No way," he whispered, grinning at the diagram. "So the July birthstone is red, and August's is green?"
"Correct. July's birthstone is ruby. August is peridot," Clark answered from memory.
"Those are kind of our colours," Harry said, amazed at how things had worked out like this. "Would it be possible to see what they'd look like instead of the blue and red ones?"
"Definitely. I'll just take this into the back to make that change, and I'll return in a moment."
While Clark was gone, Susan showed him several different options for band styles and metals. Harry decided on a yellow gold band for the ring, thinking it would look good with the three different jewels he'd selected. And even though he hadn't thought too much about ring design until very recently, he did know that he'd always imagined a gold ring on Ginny's finger, and he thought it would look great on her.
Harry instantly liked a unique band style she showed him, with infinity symbols flanking the setting. Susan told him they could place stones within the holes made by the symbols or on the band itself. He asked Susan what she thought about it, and she said that with their birthstones already in the setting, it probably would become too much to put more coloured gems on the band. Instead, she recommended placing small diamonds on one one the curves of each infinity symbol.
She waved her wand and showed what she meant. Harry could see small, glowing diamonds coming out of the setting along one side of the symbol, curving to meet with the other side before finishing the infinity symbol halfway down the band. Immediately, he knew that she was right.
Since Clark hadn't yet returned, she went to find him in the back and have him finish the ring now that Harry had made decisions on all of the facets of the ring. While he waited, he could feel his heart pounding in anticipation. He thought he could see it in his mind, but he couldn't wait to see it physically. It had to be perfect for Ginny.
He was impressed that it only took five minutes for them to both return. Clark was holding a small, glossy wooden box that looked like it might have been made out of holly, like his wand, although he couldn't be completely sure. He wouldn't have even known that his wand was made of holly if Ollivander hadn't told him all those years ago.
"Are you ready to see the ring?" Susan asked, beaming with excitement. Harry could only nod, unable to speak as he watched Clark slowly open the box.
There, nestled into white velvet padding, was the ring. And it was truly the ring. Everything about it was perfect, encapsulating their love from their birthstones to their commitment to being together forever. Harry knew immediately that this was the ring he'd propose to Ginny with. It was the ring she'd wear for the rest of her life. It almost took his breath away.
"It's perfect," Harry finally said.
"It's truly one of a kind," Clark replied. "But it is beautiful."
"She'll love it," Susan told him, and he smiled, feeling for a moment like she was an elderly relative encouraging him in the pursuit of love.
Harry had asked Ron and Hermione to meet him in Diagon Alley. He'd wanted their opinion on any ring he picked out, but he hadn't told them what he was doing, wanting to surprise them. He just hadn't expected the ring to be so perfect. He could surprise them with the ring he'd already bought just as easily as the ring he was about to buy because there was no way anything about this design was changing. This was the ring.
"I'll take it," Harry said, still grinning as they calculated the price. He wouldn't have even heard the amount, if it hadn't been less than he'd been expecting. He raised an eyebrow at Susan. "Are you sure that's the right price?"
Susan just smiled. "Quite sure," she assured him, and he nodded gratefully.
He honestly didn't need a discount, but he thought it would be incredibly rude to tell her that, so he accepted the gift from these two amazingly kind people who had spent a lot of time helping him make the perfect ring.
Once he filled in his Gringotts account information, Clark handed him the ring box and shook his hand. Harry moved his wand to his back pocket to make room for it in his front pocket, next to the Pocket Portkey from George's shop that he always carried with him.
"Thank you both so much. I would've been totally lost without you."
He wasn't even taken aback when Susan hugged him. "We were honoured. Good luck with the proposal, dear."
Still smiling, he nodded. "Thank you. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes," he promised as he opened the door and walked out of their shop, realising it was probably past closing time for them considering the sun was setting now and the street was practically empty other than the long shadows being cast by the buildings. More people should be like the Ellisons, he decided as he started to walk away from their shop, not bothering to put on the Invisibility Cloak, considering how few people were out.
Unable to help himself, like every other time he was in Diagon Alley, he went across the street to look in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. The store was closed, but he still admired the broomsticks for a moment, even though the featured broom was still the familiar Firebolt. He was about to turn away when something caught his eye.
In the window, he could see a blurred, shadowy reflection of an all-black figure. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up as the figure moved. Reflexively, Harry shoved his hand into his pocket, but his wand wasn't there.
He didn't have time to think about anything. He knew that he had less than a second to spare, not enough time to pull his wand out of the back pocket he'd moved it to. So his fingers closed around the only object that would help him.
He crushed the Pocket Portkey, picturing the side street next to the Ellisons' shop. He felt a pull in his gut at the same time that he heard glass shattering. Then he was standing at the entrance to the street. The Portkey didn't work as well as he'd hoped, but it'd bought him a second, and that was all he needed to pull his wand out.
He threw a shield around him as his attacker cast a spell at him, but he was taken by surprise when two more spells also hit his shield and ricocheted. In his peripheral vision, more figures materialised. Keeping his wand raised, he slowly stepped backward into the side street, surveying the situation.
His attackers were content to let him corner himself. There were four of them, dressed in black. With their wands pointed at him, they all simultaneously lowered their hoods, and Harry tightened his grip on his wand as his stomach dropped. To his left was Amycus Carrow and Travers. On his right was Alecto Carrow. And in front of him, grey-haired, wild-eyed, and sneering, was Augustus Rookwood.
"It's over, Potter. You'll come with us, and tonight, you will die," Rookwood taunted.
"We're gonna kill you!" Amycus laughed sadistically.
"Didn't anyone tell you the Death Eater party was in Azkaban?" Harry responded, eyes darting around, looking for a weakness. If he tried to disapparate, they'd curse him while his concentration was on that. Rookwood was smart. Travers was angry. Alecto was smart and angry. At least Amycus was stupid.
"There's about to be a lot more Death Eater parties," Alecto promised. "As soon as you're out of the way."
"I'm not going anywhere," Harry said. Then he flung his first stunner at Travers, who deflected it at the last second.
Immediately, lights began flashing all around him. He ducked and rolled, seeing that some of the lights were the unmistakable and unblockable green of the Killing Curse. He trailed shields behind him as he sprinted to take cover behind an ice cream cart that Florean Fortescue sometimes set up on the far side of Diagon Alley.
Spells and curses shook the cart, but somehow, it stayed intact, protecting him for the moment. He couldn't pull the Invisibility Cloak on. There were too many of them– they'd find him. There wasn't another option but to fight back.
When he dared, he'd poke his head above the cart and shoot stunners, but they were unfazed, slowly moving closer to him while firing curses over the cart. They'd be there in a matter of seconds. And Harry needed a plan.
Amycus had to be the first one to go. He seemed to be the one using the Killing Curse most frequently, and Harry couldn't defend against that. Rookwood admonished Amycus, shouting, "We need him alive, you idiot!" Amycus didn't stop though, which was a real problem.
Assuming that they kept the same formation, Harry crouched, getting ready to run, and threw the cart towards the side where he thought Travers and Amycus were. He immediately put a shield up to the right, knowing Alecto and Rookwood would be attacking without the cart in the way.
The shield held against their curses– he didn't know why they weren't casting Killing Curses, but he wasn't complaining. When Amycus and Travers ducked under the flying cart, Harry fired a stunner that blasted into Amycus' face, throwing him backwards. Then Harry was running again, rolling out of the way of a– was that a bolt of lightning?
As he weaved away from them, down the empty side street, he chanced a look back and threw a leg-locker under his arm. Alecto deflected it easily, straight into Travers, who tumbled to the ground.
"Motherfucker–" Travis cursed before lifting the curse on himself and rejoining the fray.
Harry sprinted past a flash of silvery light coming from the other direction, rounding the corner back onto Diagon Alley with a significant lead as a bright purple curse shot past him and shattered another window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. He was about to disapparate when he saw something that took him by such great surprise that he stopped in his tracks. Florean Fortescue was pointing his wand directly at him.
"Florean, run!" Harry yelled, but Florean shook his head. Without saying a word, he fired a jet of orange light that Harry jumped out of the way of.
Harry didn't have time to think. The three Death Eaters were on his heels. Florean deflected his first stunner, but he wasn't quick enough for the second one, which took him to the ground in a heap.
Harry started to pull Florean out of the way, so they wouldn't find him, but loud footsteps made him start running again. He made it twenty feet before Rookwood apparated in front of him.
"It's no use, Potter. We'll take you quietly, and nobody else has to get hurt."
Harry looked around. "There's nobody else here," he responded, his mind racing as he tried to stall while thinking of another plan.
"No. But we do have people who know your friends. We've been watching you all year, Potter. Every single move you've made in the past year, we've known about."
Harry's blood ran cold. He spun around, brandishing his wand to keep Alecto and Travers from advancing too close. "You're bluffing," he accused.
"Am I? You just took out the old man, one of our many spies. But I assure you, there are more."
Harry snapped his head around to look back at Rookwood, who had an impossibly smug smirk on his face. "You're lying."
"No. I assure you I'm not. I've always been a bit of a specialist with the Imperius Curse. I've heard from Travers that you know a thing or two about that."
Travers practically growled as he inched closer to Harry. Harry didn't have much of a plan, but he did have one idea.
"You know he's dead, right? Voldemort's not coming back like before. Everything you're doing– it's all a waste. You can't bring him back."
Harry continued spinning around, keeping an eye on all three of them. They were forming a triangle around him, with maybe twenty or thirty feet separating each of them from him. It wasn't a lot, but it would have to do.
"You know nothing of the Dark Lord's powers. He will rise again!" Alecto cried.
"He won't," Harry said, having no idea where the calm in his voice was coming from. His heart felt like it was about to leap out of his chest. "Even if you kill me, you won't be able to bring him back. So maybe you should leave before things go from bad to worse for you."
Rookwood chuckled. "You are brave, Harry Potter. But your time has run out."
Harry didn't wait for them to attack. He threw a Body Bind Curse and a shield at Rookwood as he ran for the space in between Travers and Alecto. At the last possible second, he dropped to the ground in a roll, feeling the sizzling heat of two curses flying over him.
Alecto was able to duck under Travers' curse, but Travers took a cut to the face from whatever curse Alecto had used. "Damn it!" Travers roared.
Harry stopped running after putting a bit of distance between himself and them. If he kept running, they'd just apparate again. At least now he wasn't surrounded.
While Travers continued firing spells at him, Alecto and Rookwood switched to a different tack. Harry ducked under a Cruciatus Curse from Travers and saw a large wooden crate flying at him out of the corner of his eye. Reflexively, he transfigured it into a pillow before throwing it back at them, transfiguring it into a large boulder just before it hit them. Rookwood blasted it apart.
Harry had to roll as Travers got fed up and cast a Killing Curse, ignoring Rookwood's angry shout, but then he levitated another cart and shot it at them. Travers was clipped by the cart and dropped to the ground yet again. Harry was stupid though, watching the cart's path. He didn't see the Cutting Curse from Alecto until it was too late and a gash was cut into his stomach.
He didn't feel anything, but he doubted that would last for long. He could see his grey shirt darkening by the second.
"Stupefy!"
Harry jerked his head up as he heard a familiar, crackling voice. Clark was standing on the doorstep of his shop with Susan, pointing his wand at Travers, who had been rising from the ground but was now unconscious.
"No!" Harry shouted, seeing Alecto turning her wand on the elderly couple. His shield got there just before her curse, but they were both blasted back into the store from the strength of his shield. And Harry was defenceless when a bolt of lightning caught him in the shoulder.
He dropped to his knees, tasting smoke. His entire body was buzzing. He couldn't feel anything. His wand had dropped out of his hand. With every fibre of strength he had, he picked his wand up again and started to rise before another Cutting Curse caught his leg.
Harry almost screamed. He definitely felt that, and he was pretty sure he'd see bone if he looked at his leg. He was on his knees again and had just looked up when he saw a barrel flying at him. He transfigured it into feathers that billowed around him.
He was running out of strength. He waved his wand and caused the feathers to blow back towards Rookwood and Alecto. He couldn't run away, so his best idea was transfiguration. The feathers picked up speed before he took a page out of Grimhall's book and transfigured each of them into blades.
Rookwood's shield deflected almost all of them, but one got through and pierced Alecto's shoulder. She screamed loudly and ripped the knife out, letting it clatter to the cobblestone.
Rookwood shot another bolt of lightning that Harry had to lay flat on the ground to avoid. When he started rising again, a third Cutting Curse caught him, this time on the chest. He thought he heard a crunch as the curse ripped through his shirt and blood spurted out. He faltered and pressed a hand to his chest, but somehow, he managed to stay on his feet, even though every shallow breath he took caused more blood to soak his shirt.
Then Alecto was running at him, probably knowing he physically couldn't flee. Rookwood threw a large ceramic pot at Harry to distract him from her attack. Instead of transfiguring it, he diverted its path downward, and Alecto had to change course to avoid being hit by it.
She was mere feet away from him, raising her wand with a twisted sneer. "Crucio!"
In the split second that he had, he fired the first curse he could think of. "Sectumsempra!"
Then he was on the ground, his body exploding with agony. His bones were burning from the inside out. His muscles were constricting and then… it stopped.
Harry's head was light as he sat up. He saw Alecto's wand and her… severed hand in front of him. She was on the ground, with wide cuts along her face, holding her arm and screaming with all the vitriol and hatred in the world.
Harry did the only thing he could think of to protect himself. He threw her wand– with the hand still attached– twenty feet to the side.
"Bastard!" Alecto spat, trying and failing to get to her feet.
Everything was foggy, and he barely had time to transfigure the next pot into a stuffed animal– it was a lion for some reason– before it would've crushed his skull.
Harry could barely breathe as he stood back up, shaking uncontrollably. "It's over, Rookwood," he managed, unsure if he even believed that himself.
Rookwood laughed. "You're going to come with me, Potter. You're going to help me bring the Dark Lord back. And then you'll die."
"Fat chance," Harry spat, even though he was pretty sure Rookwood could take him if he wanted. He had no strength left.
That problem wasn't helped when Rookwood sent another blast of lightning at him, straight into his chest. He flew backwards several feet before tumbling along the ground, scraping against the stones on the street and losing his glasses somewhere. The wind was knocked out of him, and he gasped for air. He couldn't tell if any was coming into his lungs though. Everything screamed in pain. It felt like he'd been hit by another Cruciatus, only this one wasn't stopping.
Harry heard a scream and realised it was him. And it was weak. He was pretty sure he was dying.
"Expelliarmus!" Harry cast vainly. Rookwood swept it aside with disdain.
"I thought you might have a problem with lightning, Potter," Rookwood growled, stepping over Alecto, who was slowly crawling towards her wand. "So now, you will come with me, or I will unleash even more terrible pain on you, and my spies will kill everyone you love."
Harry couldn't process any of that. Rookwood might've been lying, but he couldn't even remember what Rookwood had just said anymore. Something about lightning? He heard noises somewhere near the entrance of Diagon Alley. There may have been screams, or voices. All he could hear now was… nothing. There wasn't even a ringing in his ears. It was just silence.
He was slipping out of consciousness. A glint of metal made his eyes widen slightly. The face of his watch had been cracked in the fight. He must've been hallucinating because he thought he could see Ginny's face in it, even though that should've only been possible when he used the spell. She was smiling at him.
He couldn't die like this. But he couldn't stand. He pushed himself up to his knees one final time, determined to fight.
Rookwood smirked, but he was distracted by streaks of light flying past him. Harry couldn't hear who was responsible for those. Rookwood decided to take care of all the problems at once. He conjured a circle of knives around himself and launched them outwards. Two came straight for Harry. He was able to change one into a feather, but he was far too slow for the second one. He saw the handle of it sticking out of his stomach, even though he didn't feel anything.
Everything was tingling again. Every second he kept his eyes open was another battle, and he was running out of time. Rookwood looked at him, ignoring whatever or whoever was behind him. He had the look of a man with nothing to lose, and Harry understood what was going to happen, as slow as everything felt to him. The former Death Eater didn't care about taking him alive anymore.
Harry cast a desperate stunner at Rookwood just as he threw his entire body into a curse, opening his mouth in what Harry had to assume was a blood curdling scream. With blinding speed, electricity crackled and a massive jet of lightning shot out of his wand. Harry didn't know how that was possible. He suspected he'd never find out.
He couldn't raise a shield in time. He barely had enough time to close his eyes as the bolt raced towards his face. He saw Ginny, running toward him with a blazing look in her eyes. Then she was overtaken by a bright white light. Everything exploded, and then it was dark.
HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG
Harry was in mortal peril.
Everything sounded muffled when her dad asked, "What's wrong?"
He put a hand on her shoulder when she didn't respond and followed her line of sight. He stiffened when he saw what she was looking at.
"Ginny. Ginny. Ginny!"
Her dad grabbed her shoulder and turned her so she wasn't looking at the clock anymore. "Ginny. You need to listen to me."
Ginny blinked, took a shallow breath, and nodded, even though everything still felt garbled.
"Do you have any idea where he is?"
"No– I– he told me it was a surprise. He didn't tell me where he was going."
"Did he tell anyone? Does anyone know where he is?"
"I don't know! I– I don't think so. Dad–"
"What's going on?" Ginny's mum asked as she came in from the kitchen.
"The clock," Ginny said shakily, unable to say what it said. Her mind was racing as she tried to think of something. Where would he have gone? He said he was surprising her.
"Maybe he's in Weymouth! He said we were going to go there tonight after dinner," Ginny suddenly exclaimed.
"But what's– oh, dear," her mum gasped in a horrified voice, dropping a plate of food as she did. "Arthur, surely this thing has to know where he is!"
Her dad shook his head. "It only knows what he's doing. Ginny, if you think he's in Weymouth, we'll go there. Molly, you have to stay here in case he comes back. Send Patroni to the family, Andromeda, Amelia, anyone you can think of."
Ginny's heart was pounding, and she knew this whole thing was even worse than she'd been afraid of when her mum nodded and immediately began sending Patroni out, without even telling them to be careful.
Her dad guided her to the door and then they both ran outside to the edge of the wards. "You have to side-along me," he said. "I don't know where it is."
Without hesitation, Ginny grabbed his arm firmly and spun on her heel. The grass gave way to sand, and they were standing on the beach.
"We're going to start looking, but send Patroni to your friends. Maybe he told one of them at that party. And send one to him. If he can get word to us, we can find him."
Wordlessly, Ginny sent doe after doe, starting with Harry, and then to everyone who was at Astoria's earlier in the day and to everyone else she could think of. Neville, Hannah, Lee, Demelza, Emily, Natalie, Ritchie, Jimmy, Zoe, Dennis. Every professor at Hogwarts. All of them would help if they could. She even sent one to Kingsley.
Between sending Patroni, she and her dad called out for Harry as they ran up towards the cottage, not seeing him anywhere on the beach.
"Homenum Revelio," Ginny cast on the cottage, using a spell Harry had taught them earlier in the year. She turned back to her dad with fear in her voice. "Nobody's in there."
"Is there anywhere else he would've gone? Do you have any idea what he could've been surprising you with?"
"I don't know!" Ginny screamed, unable to hold in her fear and stress and worry. She almost started pulling her hair out. The last time any of them had been in mortal peril, Riddle had still been alive. Why was Harry in mortal peril now? And where was he?
Her dad grabbed her by the shoulders and bent down to look her in the eyes. She could see how scared he was too. He was deathly pale, and his eyes were wide. "Ginny, you need to listen to me. Breathe. You have to breathe or we won't be any help to him."
Ginny nodded, letting a shaky breath out and inhaling slowly. Her next breath was a little less shaky. "Okay," she said. "I'm okay."
"Good. Now think. You know Harry better than anyone. If anybody knows what he'd be doing, it's you."
Ginny closed her eyes, running through everything that she could think of about what had happened in the last few days. He wouldn't have gone to see Teddy without her. He knew Ron and Hermione were at work. Harry had talked to Ron and Hermione about proposing to her. Or at least, she was pretty sure he'd talked to Ron. She didn't know if he'd talked to any of her other siblings about it yet. And if he was going to pick which one to talk to next, it would be Bill. He probably would've thought it was important enough to separate after Astoria's party, and he would've told her after he proposed.
Her eyes snapped open. "Shell Cottage. I think he went to see Bill."
Her dad didn't question her at all. "I'll see you there."
They both spun on their heels and went from one beach to another, landing on the powdery sand outside of Shell Cottage. Without talking, they started sprinting up to the cottage and almost collided with Bill and Fleur, who were running out the other way.
"What's going on?" Bill asked immediately. "Mum's Patronus said Harry's in danger."
"Has he been here? I thought he might've come to talk to you," Ginny gasped, desperately hoping she had guessed right. But the look on Bill's face told her she had been wrong.
"What? No, he hasn't been here. What would he need to talk to me about? And how do you know he's in danger?"
"His hand is pointed to mortal peril on the clock," her dad answered gravely, and the colour drained out of Bill and Fleur's faces.
"I thought he might've been talking to you about proposing to me," Ginny said without thinking, needing to throw everything out in hopes of figuring out where he was.
Bill shook his head grimly. "We talked about it the night we went to the pub."
"He talked to your mother and I about it a couple days ago," her dad added.
Ginny felt a painful twist in her gut. He'd been doing it without her knowing, trying to surprise her. But if he'd already talked to all of them, maybe he'd decided that was good enough. "Did he say anything about buying a ring?"
They all shook their heads. "There eez a jewellery shop in Diagon Alley," Fleur said, looking lost and hoping that would offer some help.
"Maybe he went there, if he was surprising you," her dad said.
Ginny nodded. "Might as well check. We have to find him."
They were about to disapparate when a Patronus appeared in the middle of them. When Ginny saw a bear, her heart dropped, fearing the worst– that Harry's hand had moved off the clock, that they were too late.
Her mum's frantic voice said one word. "Hospital!"
They exchanged terrified glances before a much smaller Patronus replaced her mum's. It was an otter.
She could tell Hermione had been crying. "Come to Saint Mungo's. It's Harry."
All of them disapparated instantly.
Ginny landed in the alley that housed the secret back entrance to St. Mungo's. Bill, Fleur, and her dad were nowhere to be seen, and she realised that was because none of them had any reason to know where this entrance was. She'd only ever been here with Harry.
She didn't have time to cry or worry. She had to find out where he was. She climbed into the dumpster and found herself in an out of the way corridor in St. Mungo's. Ginny's first thought was to find Amelia's office. She'd be able to help her find out where Harry was.
Somehow, Ginny mostly remembered the path as she dashed through the corridors even though it'd been nearly a year since she'd been here. She heard quite a bit of activity behind a locked door. Since she couldn't see what it was, she continued on. She hated being here. It reminded her of Harry's panic attacks and Emily being stuck in here for weeks. But she continued searching.
She took one final left and found Amelia's office. Her door was wide open, and there was a mess of papers on her desk. Her cup of Muggle pens had tipped over, scattering them over the papers. It looked like Amelia had left in a hurry.
Ginny wasn't going to find her in the empty office, so she tore back out of the office, refusing to stop when a reclining security guard shouted at her. She looked down every corridor as she ran but didn't see anything. Her only idea was to go to the reception area and hope somebody would take her seriously when she asked where Harry was.
She sprinted down several flights of stairs before reaching the ground floor. There were signs now, pointing toward reception. She hit the final door at a sprint, throwing it open with a forceful bang. The reception area was crowded, as it had been whenever Ginny had been here before. Everyone in the area seemed terribly shaken up, likely suffering from their own magical maladies. She didn't see anyone from her family, so she didn't spare a second glance to everyone waiting as she walked up to the receptionist.
"Do you know–"
"The door you just came through. Second door on the right," the receptionist interrupted her quietly.
"You know why I'm–"
"Yes. And we're trying to be discreet about it. Through that door, then the second door on the right," the receptionist whispered firmly. Ginny thought she saw a trace of sympathy in her eyes as she turned and quickly retraced her steps.
The second door was unmarked, but Ginny immediately opened it, desperate to find Harry and her family.
Part of that wish was granted, though Ginny almost wished it wasn't when she saw them.
Charlie was the first one she saw, sitting with his fists clenched, looking like he couldn't decide if he should punch someone or break down crying. Percy and Ron looked shellshocked, sitting next to him, like they couldn't wrap their minds around whatever they knew that she didn't. Hermione was sobbing into Ron's shoulder, and Ginny could see, though it made her nauseated, that they both had blood on their hands. Next to Hermione, her mum was crying on her dad's shoulder. The two couples would've been mirror images of each other, except that her dad had tears streaming down his face too. Fleur somehow managed to still look beautiful while she was crying, holding hands with Bill, whose expression looked a lot like Charlie's, but with his scars standing out palely against his face. And George was still dressed in his magenta work robes, with his head in his hands. Bill had an arm around his shoulders, and Ginny could see that George's shoulders were shaking, crying like he'd lost another brother.
"What happened?" Ginny forced herself to ask. Half of them didn't even register that she'd said anything. The ones that did looked at her like she was a widow. Her stomach twisted and her heart leaped into her throat. "He's not–"
"Ginny…" her dad began in a strained voice.
She shook her head, gritting her teeth. "Don't. He's not… he's not…"
"Let's talk outside," he said as another tear slid down her face.
Ginny thought she was going to be sick. She rushed out of the door, looking for the nearest loo. She sprinted down four corridors before realising she'd run in a circle and the loo was right next to the room she'd come out of. Suddenly though, she didn't feel like she was going to vomit. She could barely breathe with the vice-like grip that her fear had on her heart. She leaned against the wall outside of the room and slowly slid down until she was sitting on the floor, leaning her head back and refusing to think about anything at all.
The door opened moments later and someone sat next to her. She didn't bother looking to see who it was.
"He's alive," Bill said plainly.
Ginny exhaled slowly and nodded. She breathed again and opened her eyes. Bill still looked angry and confused and hurt. "Then why's everyone acting like he isn't?"
Bill ran a hand through his hair. Then he rubbed his chin several times before answering. "It's bad, Ginny. It's really bad."
"How bad is it?"
"Ginny…"
"How bad is it?" Ginny repeated, holding herself together as well as she could, even though every part of her threatened to fall apart.
Bill sighed. "I– we don't know exactly how bad it is. They haven't talked to us yet. But… all we could get out of Ron and Hermione was that he wasn't breathing when they brought him here. The Healers did fix that before any of us got here, but that's all we know. Well, that and… you saw they're covered in blood."
Ginny bit the inside of her cheek and continued staring at the white wall opposite her. "Ron and Hermione found him, then? What the hell happened?"
"I don't know. I wish I had actual answers. Believe me, I do. He was attacked. That's all I know. I'd assume Aurors will come by later to talk to us."
"He's going to be okay, right? He's always okay."
She looked at Bill for the first time since he'd joined her and saw the uncertainty on his face. He couldn't promise that Harry would be okay. They didn't even know what he needed to recover from. Bill seemed to consider his words very carefully before answering.
"I think… if anyone could possibly recover from whatever Harry's fighting, it's him. You know him, Ginny. He's not gonna give up without fighting with everything he has."
Ginny nodded before leaning her head back against the wall again. The only problem was that she didn't know how much he'd already had to fight. What if this time he just didn't have anything left to fight with?
She and Bill sat together in silence for a long time. Nobody else came out to check on them. She suspected they were in the same positions they'd been in when she'd first gone into the room.
Hurried footsteps coming down the corridor pulled Ginny's attention away from the blank wall. She looked up and saw a woman with green robes and brown and grey hair walking towards them. With such a severe expression on her face, it took Ginny a moment to recognise Amelia.
She stood up immediately. "Amelia! Do you know what's–"
Amelia placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let's go inside and I can tell your whole family."
She held the door open for Bill and Ginny. Ginny's stress and anxiety weren't alleviated at all by Amelia's refusal to assure her of anything. Bill sat back down between Fleur and George, and Ginny took the spot between Hermione and her mum. Ginny braced herself as Amelia pressed her lips together gravely and clasped and unclasped her hands.
"Harry is… stable," she said with more than a little hesitance. "However, he is injured."
That seemed like an understatement based on how everyone, especially Ron and Hermione, were acting.
She heard herself asking the same question she'd asked Bill. "How bad is it?"
Amelia hesitated once again. "I'm only permitted to tell you, Ginny. In his medical documents, you're listed as his next of kin. And I will tell you every detail if you request it. It's not legal for me to keep it from you. But it's not good."
Ginny shook her head. "I have to know."
Amelia sighed sadly. "Step outside with me, then."
"I'll tell you all everything," Ginny promised as she followed Amelia back into the corridor.
Ginny looked up at Amelia once they were alone. "Are you positive you want to know? I promise you that we'll give him the best care possible regardless, but… never mind," Amelia said, seeing Ginny's resolute expression.
"I have to know," Ginny repeated firmly.
"I know. Harry was brought in over an hour ago by two of his friends. He was covered in blood on his torso and legs, and he wasn't breathing."
Ginny's mouth was dry and her palms were sweating as she tried not to imagine what Amelia was describing.
"We were able to revive him by providing a small, controlled electric shock to his heart."
"So he's awake?" Ginny asked, unsure why she was allowing herself to be hopeful at all.
Amelia shook her head. "Harry hasn't woken up. He's dealing with several different and significant injuries. The least severe is that his leg was severed halfway through by a Cutting Curse."
Amelia said it so clinically that it took Ginny a moment to understand. "Did you just say his leg was severed halfway through?"
She nodded. "The cut stopped about halfway through his bone."
Ginny gritted her teeth together and tried to swallow the lump in her throat. "And that's the least severe?"
Amelia nodded again. "We've repaired most of the damage in that leg already. There's a decent chance that he'll have a limp for a while if– when he starts walking again though. More critical is his internal injuries in his abdomen and chest. Like on his leg, he took one Cutting Curse to his stomach and another to his chest. The problem is that there are much more important parts in those areas than the leg. One of Harry's lungs was punctured, and he has a small gash in his heart. He's being prepared for an operation right now since that is the most pressing issue. Then we'll repair his intestines, which have been severely lacerated. He lost a significant amount of blood too, so as soon as those repairs are complete, he'll be on Blood-Replenishing Potion for a while."
Somehow, it really had gotten worse. The injury to his leg didn't seem nearly as bad as this. "What's the operation? You're not going to cut him open again, are you?"
Amelia grimaced. "He's… already open enough without us making any more incisions. Frankly, we haven't seen many injuries like these before. So I'm using all the medical knowledge I have from both the Muggle and magical worlds."
"Okay," Ginny said, nodding and not needing to know any more about how they were planning to heal him, as long as they did. "Thanks for telling me."
Amelia's expression became even sadder. "Ginny… that's not the worst part."
Her stomach dropped again, and she forced herself to breathe as Amelia continued.
"We don't understand how, but Harry has three large burns that appear to be electrically induced."
"Electric?"
Amelia nodded. "Like lightning."
"He was struck by lightning?" Ginny asked, louder than she'd intended, judging by the way Amelia glanced around to ensure they were still alone.
"I don't know. All I know is he clearly bears the visible signs of it. That's the reason his heart stopped in the first place. But… we talked about Harry's unique condition in the fall, when he had his traumatic panic attack. His nerves and brain are uniquely susceptible to electric pulses, and if he was hit by some sort of electric pulse three separate times… we're still trying to find out what that means. Harry's in a coma for now, but we're–"
"He's in a coma?" Ginny interrupted, her voice breaking as she said the horrible word.
Amelia pressed her lips together and nodded. "He is. I don't know how long it'll last. But… this is worse than the panic attack in the fall, Ginny."
Ginny didn't have anything to say. Didn't know what she could possibly say. Everything felt like it was bouncing around in her head uncontrollably, and all she wanted to do was get her hands on whoever was responsible for this. He must've been attacked while he was unarmed, probably didn't even have a chance to draw his wand. It was a miracle he was alive, but still… this was horrific.
Amelia wrapped her in a hug. "I'm so sorry. None of you deserve this. But I promise I'm going to do everything I can."
Ginny nodded and cleared her throat as Amelia stepped back, wiping her eyes quickly. "Thank you, Amelia. Just… please let us know if anything changes."
She nodded solemnly. "I will." And then she turned and walked back to wherever Harry was, leaving Ginny to break the news to everyone.
Nine pairs of eyes were looking at her the second she opened the door. "What'd she say?" Charlie asked before the door had even closed behind her.
Ginny moistened her lips and breathed several times as she worked out what to say. She couldn't possibly make it through telling them everything. She just needed to tell them the important bits.
"He– Harry's about to be operated on for– for some really bad cuts to his chest and stomach. She said he had some internal injuries that they were going to be trying to fix. His leg was really messed up too." Ron winced at this, and she guessed that he'd seen what Amelia had described. "But she said he'd be fine with that, other than maybe limping for a bit."
"The worst part is… Harry's got burns on him that Amelia said looked like they'd been caused by something like lightning."
Hermione broke into a fresh wave of tears. Ginny clenched her fists and continued. "Because of his history with the Killing Curse, Amelia thinks his brain and nerves are vulnerable to electric pulses like that. Whatever caused those burns stopped his heart until he got here, and it's put… he's in a coma because of it. And they don't know if or when he'll wake up."
Everything was silent. What could any of them say to that? Dully, she walked back to her spot between her mum and Hermione. All they could do was wait, and right now, they didn't really have anything positive to be hopeful about. He might never wake up again. She did her best to force the thought out of her mind, but it kept pushing back, waging war against her will.
It must've been ten or twenty minutes of complete silence before there was a knock on the door. Instantly, all of them jerked their heads up, hopeful that they'd be receiving some positive news.
The Healer that opened the door was much younger than Amelia. Ginny didn't recognise her, even though she was likely only a few years older and recently graduated from Hogwarts. She looked like she was delivering terrible news, and Ginny involuntarily braced herself, even though she was certain that any truly bad news would be given to them by Amelia.
"We've just begun the first operation. These are the personal effects that were on him," she said gravely, holding out Harry's wand, mokeskin pouch, watch, and something Ginny didn't recognise. Since he was the closest to the door, George stood and took them.
"We're doing our best," the witch promised before closing the door.
George shifted the items from his left hand to his right as he made to bring the items to Ginny. But the object Ginny didn't recognise slipped out of his hand. As it fell, she saw what it was– a small, wooden box.
She immediately stopped following the fall of the box, snapping her eyes towards the door. She refused to look down when she heard the box hit the floor. And she definitely refused to look when she heard the distinctive sound of metal rattling on the floor.
It felt like the entire family took a collective, silent gasp. Her mum and Fleur burst into a new wave of tears. With a shaky voice, Hermione said, "Ginny…"
Ginny shook her head several times, squeezing her eyes shut. She heard movement to her right and, a second later, Ron said, flatly, "I'll keep it."
She opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't. She didn't think there was a dry eye in the room, and now, they really were all looking at her like she was a widow. Even Charlie, who hadn't known that Harry wanted to propose and would've given him endless shit about it, looked heartbroken, with tears leaking out of his eyes, devastated at how things had turned out.
She had guessed right, in the end. She still knew Harry better than anyone. Because the last thing he'd done before all this had happened was the most romantic thing he'd ever done for her. The proof was sitting in Ron's pocket, less than three feet away from her. And there was no way she would ever look at it if Harry wasn't putting it on her finger.
All their planning about the future had evaporated in a flash. There wasn't any guarantee that Harry would even survive his current operation, let alone all the other things he was dealing with. In a single moment, they'd gone from soon to be fiancees to back where they were when Harry was in Hagrid's arms at the battle.
And Ginny couldn't fight it any longer. The tears she'd been holding back came rushing like a flood. She stumbled out of the room, unable to cry in front of her family, and collapsed on the floor, sobbing for what was and what could have been.
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A/N: Let's all just pretend that we didn't just read the saddest line I've ever written so I can make it through this A/N without too many tears! Deal?
At the start of the chapter, it's mentioned that Dean saw a Muggle football match. In the interest of historical accuracy, that match was the FA Cup semifinal between Manchester United and Arsenal and did actually take place on 14 April, 1999, one day before Astoria's birthday. I've mentioned before that I'm a Manchester United fan, and this reference, along with the nod to Ryan Giggs' incredible goal, is the closest I could get to mentioning the legendary 1999 treble season for United. As this is such a happy chapter, I wanted to be sure to put it in! And as further proof of the universe working in weird ways around this book, I'm lucky enough to be seeing my first ever Manchester United match in person just two days after posting, which is absolutely insane!
I spent far too much time thinking about and drawing sketches for a possible engagement ring for Ginny. Like, I can remember spending a couple hours looking through various jewellery websites to try and 'design my own' engagement ring until I found things I liked a lot and combined them into the design Harry goes with. I really hope I did a good job simplifying everything because I didn't want the design process to be something that felt overwhelming for readers who don't know anything about ring design like me before writing this. Of course, I was brutally punished for all this research when I received targeted ads for months about jewellery and wedding stuff, which definitely got annoying, but it was a nice change of pace from the typical baby ads from my research for Teddy!
Something I really liked about the ring design was the inclusion of their red and green birthstones, since it does really fit them and their colours. But, as a small easter egg, the birthstones on the model ring Harry sees are for January and March, which make them Lily and James' birthstones. It was my tiny way to have them there in that important moment!
I'm finding very little to talk about in this note while trying to dance around the obvious stuff. I did mention in the last note that I had a reason for choosing 15 April as Astoria's birthday, and the real reason had everything to do with what happened to Harry in Diagon Alley. I'd known for a long time that 15 April is considered a very unlucky day in a very unlucky week in world history, so when the timeframe matched up for Harry's attack to be on that day, it was kind of a no brainer. And I'm really not kidding about 15 April being unlucky… feel free to Google it- that day and the rest of the week have seen some really terrible things happen, including Abe Lincoln dying, the Titanic sinking, and Notre Dame burning, among a lot of other things. So for something really bad to happen to Harry, it felt like a sadly fitting day.
Making Amelia a Healer in the spell damage ward was a very intentional choice way back in like Chapter 11 of SoR. I do mean it when I say I make decisions very intentionally and stuff can become relevant wayyyy later! I felt like Ginny having a personal relationship with Harry's primary Healer for this portion of the story added a really interesting layer to everything, so I felt like the best way to do that would be to make his future Healer someone who could be knowledgeable enough to serve as a kind of psychologist for him earlier. And now we all know his Healer too, which is just so fun!
The last thing I can mention is just bringing something full circle that absolutely none of you will remember. Back in Chapter 21 of SoR, I mentioned in the A/N that I found a major plot hole right before posting it that would've messed up a lot of things down the road if I hadn't. In that chapter, the names of all the captured Death Eaters are listed in the Daily Prophet, and Rookwood was somehow on that list. Nobody would've remembered regardless, but I remember noticing that and being absolutely stunned that I'd read the chapter so many times and missed something that obvious. And, of course, the four Death Eaters in Diagon Alley have been mentioned several times as being on the run in the past year… found them!
There's still a lot to come, so I'm trying to avoid talking about everything as much as possible right now. All I will say is that I am possibly more proud of this portion of the story than any other part I've written so far. None of this was easy to write, and I know it's not easy to read, but… yeah, I don't really have any consolation to offer right now, but yeah!
I also didn't plan on this chapter being released right before Christmas, but here we are. So… hopefully the holidays cheer you all up at least! I'm so very grateful to all of you for being such a bright and joyful part of my life, and I'm wishing you all the happiest of holidays!
Coming Friday: Helpless- He was always too heroic.
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Guest: Haha thank you for calling out those jokes! I especially loved Tonks' too- nymphadora would be a great name for a plant!
Padfoot-Prongs05: Honestly, I haven't considered changing my posting schedule at all, mainly because I really am enjoying only posting once a week. It's a lot more work than I think people realise to get each chapter posted, and it kind of stresses me out to imagine posting at a faster rate than I'm writing because the last thing I want is to run out of chapters to post and have to take a hiatus to get ahead again. And from a practicality standpoint, it was already much more challenging than usual to get this chapter posted because I'm on vacation, so it would be way worse right now anyways. All I can say is that the waits are there to build the suspense and make you really feel the same sort of emotions Ginny's feeling right now, and it'll be worth the wait!
And to everyone else who commented: I know I kind of left you all on another cliffhanger, but I hope the chapter was at least entertaining for you all, even if we still don't have any resolution yet!