Three Months Earlier….

‘Now where did I put those boots?’ Ginny thought to herself as she looked frantically around her room, turning over her blankets and rummaging through her trunk.

She had been packing ever since she had gotten home from Hogwarts.

Well, she had been planning to pack ever since she had learned from Hermione on the way home from school that they were planning to leave to fight Voldemort after the wedding.

Without her.

But Ginny wasn’t about to let that happen. They weren’t leaving her behind, like they always did. She wasn’t going to have this be another time when she was left behind to worry while they went off to have a grand adventure. This time, she was going. She was going to do something important instead of staying behind at school. Like N.E.W.T.s even mattered when the people she loved could die at any second.

No, Ginny Weasley was not going to be the good little girl anymore.

Finally, finding her boots she smashed them into the top of her rucksack, quickly tying it closed before anything could come out. She took out her wand and pointed it at the bag, muttering the charm to magically shrink. It wasn’t as if the Ministry was going to persecute her for underage magic; they had a lot more to worry about.

She left her rucksack and wand on her desk, before standing in front of the mirror to fix her hair.

I look bloody terrible in gold, she thought, fixing her bridesmaid dress before heading towards the door.

As she opened it, she paused, deep in thought. If they believed that she’d let them leave her behind tomorrow, they were dead wrong. She’d sneak along if she had to. Persuade Hermione to help her. Whatever it took. She wasn’t letting Harry go that easily.



Especially since she knew that he definitely wanted to be with her. Every moment that Ginny’s mind was left to wander, which frankly wasn’t that often, she thought of him. And that kiss. That glorious kiss they had shared on his birthday. If he had felt half of what she had, there was no going back for either of them. No going back to being “just friends” without the awkwardness. No simple relationship could ever exist between them.

It was all or nothing.

*****
Walking down the aisle in the bright sunshine was something that Ginny had never experienced before. She kept her eyes focused on the altar ahead, not looking at anyone who might possibly be looking at her. Once she was up there, she was not aware of anything.

The ceremony passed by rather quickly for Ginny; it was just a blur in what had been the longest summer for her so far. It was probably because Ginny wasn’t exactly looking forward to the reception. It was then that she was going to tell Harry that she was going with them, no matter what. That she wasn’t staying behind. She watched Bill and Fleur dance and kept looking for Harry, but the fact that he was in disguise made it ten times harder.

Once all the ceremonial dances were over, a majority of the guests filtered onto the dance floor. Ginny danced with a few people and spent the whole time trying to pick out the Weasley imposter. She finally left the dance floor to get something to drink when he saw him sitting at a table removed from the dance floor.

She placed her drink down on a random table and began maneuvering through the crowd, purposefully dodging her Aunt Muriel. She couldn’t believe that the moment was finally here, the moment that she changed her life forever. She was going to stand up to Harry. Stop him from being the noble prat that he always to be. She was really going to go with them. The plan that had been hatching in her mind since the end of school was finally about to be executed. Ginny Weasley was going to join the famous Harry Potter on his journey to stop You-Know-Who. This was the moment that she finally let it be known that she was going to risk her life for the people she loved.

Her best friends right beside her.

She was within 10 metres of her target when all eyes, Ginny’s included, snapped toward the ghost-like Patronus that had appeared in the middle of the reception.

Ginny heard the words that the Patronus spoke but they didn’t sink in until much later. People began running in every direction. She saw Remus and Tonks leave the Burrow, running out of the tent and Disapparating along with the other guests.

Ginny then tried to focus on finding Harry. She knew that he would take this as an opportunity to start his journey without having to have the painful goodbyes, especially with her.

She snapped her head back and forth, looking through the chaos as she ran through the people trying to escape. The height of her golden heels slowed down her run as she saw the three of them, saying something she couldn’t hear.

No, was all she could think. Over and over again, the same word repeating endlessly in her mind as she sprinted in her heels. Fighting through the crowd, she was trying to make it to them before they could leave.

“Harry!” she screamed for what seemed like the thousandth time. “Ron! Hermione!” She waved her hands frantically, trying to get them to notice the frazzled redhead only a few metres away.


Ron and Harry grabbed Hermione’s hand and before she could say or do anything else to get their attention, there was a loud pop as they Disapparated away.

That was when all hell truly broke loose.

Everywhere she looked, Death Eaters and shady Ministry members came stalking toward the back of the Burrow. Ginny quickly ran towards the place where all her brothers, father, and mother had assembled, wands at the ready.

*****

Ginny felt the slap across her face rack her body but she only let her head move, and refused to let her tears fall.

“Come on, little girl, we both know that you know where they went and what they’re doing!” an unknown Death Eater screamed into her face.

“I…Don’t…Know,” Ginny enunciated, looking him straight in the eye.

“Oh, come on, you little bitch, you know something. What is their plan? To take down the Dark Lord?”

Ginny spat in his face.

“I will never tell you anything. I don’t betray my best friends.”

“But wasn’t one of them something a little more than that? Weren’t you and a certain Harry Potter a little more than ‘just friends’?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about. Harry is like a brother to me.”

“Liar!”

“Stop!” Lucius Malfoy screamed just as the Death Eater had taken out his wand and pointed it at her.

The Death Eater sighed in frustration, rounding on Malfoy. “Why?”

“We got him,” Malfoy said, smirking in triumph.

All the people in the room now looked at Malfoy, a majority of them smiling. Everyone but the Weasley’s instantly turned toward the door, knocking things over as they went, laughing at their victory all the way. She couldn’t see past the living room that they were in, so she only heard the front door open and then slam shut. The Weasley family sat in dead silence, the only noise was their ragged breathing.

That was the first time that Ginny could remember her house ever being that quiet. She looked at the surrounding redheads, and she could tell that every one of them was thinking the same as her �“ they were all furiously trying to find a way out of this nightmare.

Molly Weasley broke the silence.

“Do you really think they found them?” She sniffled as her husband went over to comfort her.

“Mum, they’re strong. Ron, Harry, Hermione, even if they were found, they would make it out. They have a lot more in them then you think. Let’s face it, Death Eaters are not exactly the smartest bunch, either,” Fred replied, trying to comfort his mum.

Ginny sat in her chair, still staring blankly as words of reassurance were passed between the family members. She was still dumbstruck; the last hour seemed to be unreal.

They had actually left her behind.

Ginny stood up, none of the others noticing as they tried to comfort their mother. She silently crept up the stairs and into her room, locking the door behind her. She slipped off her gold bridesmaid dress, putting on a pair of sweatpants. She stuck her head under her bed, reaching around and pulling out a cardboard box. Lifting off the lid, Ginny took out the green jumper, pushed it towards her nose and inhaled deeply.

She stood up, slipping the jumper over her head and hugging herself tight. A jumper of his was only a slight comfort. The smell of him barely lingered on it, the scent of her mother’s cooking and dust overtaking his. She walked over to her desk, taking the small rucksack and expanding it with her wand. She instantly began ripping things out of it. Shoes, pants, jumpers, and camping equipment went airborne as she hastily emptied the bag.

Halfway through the frantic rummaging, tears began running down her face. Tears that she had selflessly held in since Dumbledore’s funeral began pouring out. She fell back onto her bed, digging her head into the pillow, not even noticing the painful bruise that was already forming on her cheek. All the pain that she had been holding in came rushing out. The amazing birthday present she had given him had acted like a dam; it had kept back the pain she had held off in hope that she would never have to let him go.

She reached down, pulling the box onto the bed. She leafed through the items. Memories flooded back to her and the tears fell faster. She took out the locket he had bought for her one day in Hogsmeade. She unclasped it, reaching around the back of her neck to put it on. The silver chain held an ornate ‘G’ and she touched it gently.

She fell back onto her pillows. She roughly pushed the box off the bed, enjoying the noise of the contents hitting each other on the way down.

She cried herself to sleep, thoughts of her friends, especially Harry’s, safety flitting across her mind.

That was the night the dreams began.

*****

“It’s like this is another lifetime, isn’t it?” Harry said, simply, as he slowed to a stop at a traffic light.

The summer breeze was filtering through the windows of Harry’s new car, and Ginny’s hand was out the window as they drove. Her other hand was holding his as he turned to look at her.

They were both coming home from King’s Cross, Harry having picked Ginny up from the station, her trunk and other belongings were piled into the small backseat and boot.

“It seems like time is playing tricks on me. Only a year? A year since Voldemort has threatened anyone, a year since he died. It seems unreal, doesn’t it?”

Ginny nodded, staring at their clasped hands.

“Is something wrong, Gin?” Harry asked, concerned, as he pulled away from the traffic lights.

“No, it’s just really hard to believe. It seems like just last night you left to go hunt down Voldemort and left me crying in my room,” she answered, looking out the window as the scenery passed by.

“What?” Harry said, slightly taken aback by this confession.

“Nothing, it’s nothing, forget I said it,” she said quickly as Harry pulled into the long drive that led to the Burrow.

“No, Gin, I want to know,” he insisted as he parked the car then turned in his seat to look at her.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders, uncomfortably.

“Come on Ginny,” he said, reassuringly. He kissed her, gently, and said, “You can tell me anything.”

“It’s stupid really. It’s just that, the day of the wedding, you know how you left and everything…”

“Yes,” Harry said uneasily.

“Well, when you left without me, you see, I had been planning to sneak along with you guys and you left without me. It just hurt a lot more that way I guess. I told you it was nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I figured, you know, once we did get back together that it would be pointless to make you more upset about leaving me behind. Seriously, I’m fine.”

“Why did you wait until then to let it all out?”

“Because, because that’s when I realized that I loved you,” she replied simply, looking straight into his green eyes.

“You love me? You love me?” he repeated.

“Yeah, I guess that wasn’t the best way to tell you that,” she said sheepishly, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

Harry leaned forward, capturing his mouth with hers, pushing her backwards onto her seat.

“You want to know a secret, Gin?” he whispered against her lips.

Ginny nodded.

“I’ve loved you since Dumbledore’s funeral.”

And he captured her mouth with his.

“Ginny! Ginny Weasley! Come down here right now! You’re going to miss the train if you don’t hurry up!” Ginny heard her mother shout from the kitchen, but she still refused to move. From her position lying on her bed, she glanced around at her walls, the posters and peeling paint. She picked at the worn bedspread, the one that had belonged to Bill in years past.

Her eyes finally stopped as she gazed up at the ceiling, and thought about how different going to King’s Cross was going to be this year. How different Hogwarts was going to be. She was the only one left. The only one left of the Weasley clan going to Hogwarts this year. What would Hogwarts be like without my friends? Without Dumbledore? Just the thought was starting to make her feel sick, as though she shouldn’t go at all.

“Ginevra Molly Weasley! If you’re not down here in ten seconds, I’m coming up there after you!” Ginny closed her eyes and sighed. “Ten! Nine! Eight!”

Ginny rolled off of her bed and grabbed the handle of her trunk in one hand, and put Arnold’s cage against her hip, and walked out of her room, clanking the trunk down the stairs behind her.

“Five! Four!” her mother continued.

“Yes, Mum! I’m coming!” Ginny answered in exasperation as she reached the bottom of the stairs. “Can we just go now?”

Molly Weasley glanced at her daughter. “Now, Ginny, why are you wearing your Hogwarts things?”

Ginny glanced down at her outfit. She wore one of her white, long-sleeved, button-down shirts along with a gray skirt. Her Gryffindor tie was hanging loosely around her neck.

“What about it, Mum? Now I just have to put on my robes on the train. It’s less fuss,” Ginny replied. She didn’t want to tell her mother the real reason that she hadn’t worn what she would usually wear, a Weasley jumper and a pair of jeans. She had decided that morning that wearing her usual outfit was like she was trying to preserve the way things used to be. And she knew, even then, that things were going to be much, much different.

“Yes, well, I suppose so. We are just going to Side-Apparate, safer this way, now that it’s only you going.”

Ginny grimaced as her mother took her trunk in one hand, and Ginny’s in the other. They both gripped tightly as Ginny felt the familiar sensation of being stuffed through a rubber tube.

***

“Have a good term, Ginny,” Molly Weasley told her daughter, hugging her as tightly as she could. “And be careful, won’t you?”

Ginny nodded and waved goodbye. She then took her trunk and Arnold’s cage onto the train, dragging it along the corridor. She sincerely hoped that she would not run into Dean Thomas. He would soon find out that she and Harry weren’t together anymore and she really did not want to have to deal with him trying to get back together with her. It was hard enough to go without Harry. When she was with Harry, she felt like the whole world was in place. Being with Dean, after having been with Harry, just seemed like a waste of time.

“Ginny!” she heard the familiar voice of Luna Lovegood coming out of a nearby compartment.

When Luna’s head popped out of the compartment, Ginny wasn’t sure what to think. All she knew was this- it was going to be a long train ride.

***

Dinner turned out to be just as awkward as the train ride had. During the journey, Luna and Neville had tried small talk, but Ginny had been hard spent trying to reciprocate. She had spent most of the ride staring at the passing countryside and sleeping. Once inside Hogwarts, she had thought things might get better, until she had ended up in the awkward position of not knowing who to sit by. Sitting between Neville, and the infamous Colin Creevey had not been her exact plan.

Colin felt that this was the time to press her with questions about where Harry was.

“Where is he? Is he off fighting You-Know-Who? Did he decide to take a flying car again like in our first year? Are he, Ron, and Hermione planning some plot to overthrow Snape as we speak? Are they going to swoop in on brooms just like Fred and-“

“Colin!” Ginny cut him off as they food arrived magically on the plates before them. Why couldn’t he just be quiet for five minutes?

Ginny absentmindedly ate her food. She listened to the beginning lines of Snape’s speech in his normal boring drawal. Instead of concentrating on the speech she knew would be glamorizing the Dark Arts, she tried to imagine what Harry, Ron, and Hermione would be doing right about now. Where were they hiding out? Did they have a plan for taking down You-Know-Who? Did they have a plan for her? She suddenly stopped the trail of questions, realizing that she sounded a lot like Colin. She noticed at the same time that Snape’s speech had finished and stood up and stalked out of the Great Hall, beating the large rush of people heading to their Dorms.

Ginny rushed up the large flight of stairs until she reached the Fat Lady. She stared blankly at the portrait.

“Can’t you just let me in?” Ginny asked, pleadingly.

“Sorry, dear, stricter security, more than ever. The Headmaster originally decided against using passwords and such, but McGonagall felt it unsafe. You’ll have to wait for a Prefect,” the Fat Lady replied, as if it were Ginny’s fault that she was the only portrait that had to guard the entrance to some of the students’ dorms.

“But, can’t you tell I’m a Gryffindor? I’ve been through this portrait a thousand times!”

“I wish there was something I could do.” The Fat Lady shrugged and went back to sharing a glass of wine with her friend, Violet.

“Perfect, just perfect,” Ginny muttered under her breath as she sat down next to the portrait. Just as she sat down on the cold stone floor, she saw a body beginning to ascend the stairs.

And, for a moment, she swore it was Harry running up the stairs towards her. Ginny slowly got to her feet as stranger reached the top of the stairs. He was tall, less lanky than Harry, with the same black hair. His was longer, and it didn’t stick up in the back, but lay perfectly flat. Instead of emerald eyes, brown ones stood out from under the hair.

“Need the password, eh?” he said simply. “It’s ‘chocolate frogs’. McGonagall thought it would be appropriate, considering that’s not the Headmaster’s password any longer.”

“Indeed it is,” the Fat Lady replied as the portrait swung open. The boy gestured for Ginny to go in first, and he followed behind her.

Once inside the common room, Ginny said, “Thanks, who knows how long I would have been sitting out there.”

“No problem, Ginny,” he replied, graciously.

“This might side a bit rude, but, um, who are you, exactly?” Ginny asked, her curiosity taking over.

“You know me, Ginny. I’ve been in practically all of your classes since first year,” he answered as if she had just said something very funny.

“Sorry, I don’t,” Ginny responded, embarrassed.

“Zach Rosen, I’m Tory’s twin brother,” he said, nonchalantly.

“Zach? Zach Rosen? By Merlin, you’ve changed! You used to wear glasses,” Ginny started, dumbfounded.

“Oh, I got them fixed with that potion for eyesight.”

“And you were shorter than I am!”

“I had a growth spurt.”

“And your hair! It used to be less than inch long!”

“I let it grow out.”

“But weren’t you sick or something? In St. Mungos for a while, weren’t you? Didn’t you get some weird flu?”

“Um, yeah, I haven’t been back at school since March. That’s when they fixed my eyesight.”

“Well, you look, um, better, loads better.” Realizing that she had just implied that he hadn’t look the best before, shecorrected herself. “Well, I mean, you look, well, what I meant to say was-“

“It’s alright, Ginny, you can say it. I was a bit weird, and I looked awful with that hair, didn’t I? But look at you! I mean, you grew your hair out as well. Why the change?”

“Oh, well, my, uh, boyfriend, said he liked it better long so…” Ginny answered, shrugging as she took a seat on the nearby couch, and he followed suit, taking a chair across from her.

“Dean, right? Where is he this year? Haven’t seen him around,” Zach questioned, looking around as though he might suddenly appear.

“I’m not with Dean,” Ginny corrected.

“Oh, who then?” Zach asked, curiously.

“Well- well- I’m not with him anymore, but, um, Harry Potter, actually,” Ginny sheepishly answered.

“You and Harry?” he asked, unbelievingly. “You finally got him, did you? Didn’t you and Colin Creevey have a sort of Harry Potter Fan Club back in first year?”

“We did not have a Harry Potter Fan Club!” she corrected, half-laughing. “Though Colin did mention it once.”

Zach laughed out loud. “Well, I, um, better go unpack,” he said, pointing at the staircase.

“Yeah, me too,” Ginny answered, quickly.

“Well, it was good seeing you, Ginny.”

“Yeah, you too, Zach.”

With a wave, he ran up the stairs, two at time, leaving Ginny in the Common Room, slightly confused at what just had happened. She had never talked to Zach for more than a few words before, and now she had just spent the last ten minutes talking to him.

I guess Hogwarts is very different this year.

***

Later that night, Tory Rosen, Zach’s twin sister, came into the sixth year Gryffindor girls’ room.

“So, I guess it’s just the two of us,” Tory said, uncertainly, as she sat down on the bed next to Ginny’s.

“Yeah, it’s kind of weird, isn’t it? I mean, I always thought that there would be five of us in here. It just feels kind of empty,” Ginny replied, lying back on her bed.

“But it seems like the whole school is like that- well, except for Slytherin. Not a person missing there.”

“Yeah,” Ginny said. “So, I ran into Zach today, he looks better.”

“Yeah, loads, I finally got him to grow out his hair. It looked bloody awful before, didn’t it?”

“Definitely,” Ginny answered, staring at the ceiling.

“Well, I’m going to go to sleep, I’m knackered,” Tory told Ginny as she began to rifle through her trunk for a pair of pajamas. After pulling them on, Tory wished Ginny goodnight, and got into bed, closing the bed hangings around her.

Ginny closed her curtains without changing her clothes and tried to fall asleep before Tory’s snoring became unbearable.

***

There were spells flying across the dark grounds. Screams and the sounds of destruction filled the air as Ginny recognized the scene around her. Hogwarts looming in the distance, hundreds of people and bodies across the familiar grounds. It was the Final Battle.

She instantly twisted her head from side to side, looking for someone familiar.

She started running, wanting to look for familiar face. And then she found it. The lifeless faces of Tonks and her mother, frozen forever in shock on the ground, people trampling across them in their haste to stay alive.

No, Ginny thought desperately. She grabbed her mother and Tonks by their clothes and began pulling with all of her weight, trying to get them out of the way. No, I have to save them, I have to save them, I can’t be too late she thought as she desperately continued to drag them through the blood splattered grass. Tears started falling freely down her face as she continued to drag them. Then, she felt something against the back of her heels. She turned around slowly and saw the faces of two of her brothers, the twins were sprawled across the ground.

No, no, no She continued to chant in her head as she tried to get them out of the way along with Tonks and her mother. The strain was getting to be to much but she couldn’t leave them alone.

“Ginny?” the familiar sound caused Ginny to turn around

Lord Voldemort. And Harry. Lord Voldemort and Harry. Ginny couldn’t get her mind around it. It was finally here, the last moments of one of their lives. The moment that both of their lives had been leading up to.

“Harry?” Ginny asked in a whispered disbelief.

“You’ll never defeat me, Harry,” Voldemort’s voice caused both of them to turn back to Voldemort and away from each other. “You can’t even throw a curse at me, let alone one that could kill me. Oh, little Harry, do you honestly think a little seventeen-year-old boy could defeat the greatest wizard of all time? Voldemort sneered at Harry.


Voldemort’s red eyes flicked over to Ginny and he smiled. He hadn’t noticed her before.


“Ginny get out of here!” he screamed at her, pleading.

“No, Harry, I’m not leaving you!” she said, somewhat out of reflex.

“Oh, look, Harry, your little girlfriend has finally caught up to us. What you thought I wouldm’t find out about her? It’s still a wonder I haven’t gotten to her already. I wonder, does our little friend remember the Chamber of Secrets? It was all her fault after all that poor Harry almost died to save her.”

“Ginny, go now, I’ll be fine. Don’t listen to him,” Harry responded.

Ginny was about to reply when she saw Voldemort raise his wand and point it at Harry’s turned back.

“And it will be your fault that he hesitated, I really wish this would have been more difficult.”

“Harry! No!”


Ginny woke up, panting loudly. She got out of bed, her legs barely working as she walked into the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face, and then stared at herself in the mirror.

“It was a dream. Just a dream,” she told herself.