Disclaimer: I can’t believe that you still think I’m trying to pass this off as my own...
What if she never wakes up?
In desperation, Harry squeezed her hand once more. And once more there was no reaction. Harry sighed and leaned back in his chair, still not letting go of his fiancé’s hand.
Mrs. Weasley was right, Harry thought to himself. She said to never let go of Ginny’s hand, and I did. Look where she ended up...
The door creaked open and Ron came back in followed by a very distraught Hermione. Harry knew he should say something to her, but he wasn’t sure what was appropriate.
“She’ll be okay, Hermione,” was all he could say but he knew that his voice sounded false even to himself. She just nodded her head as she sat down opposite him and curled her legs to her body. Ron sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder and she laid her head on his arm.
Harry watched as Hermione fell asleep, tears still sliding down her face. After that he and Ron talked a bit about nothing particularly interesting. Soon the boys both fell silent and Ron too slipped off into sleep. It was in that moment, that Harry had felt the most alone in his entire life.
It was in that moment that he realized that he was in a silent room and had no one to talk with.
No one to laugh with...
No one to cry with...
No one to hold...
No one to love.
It was in that moment that he realized that he needed Ginny more than anyone could ever imagine. At the thought, Harry laid his head down on his arm resting on the bed, pleaded Ginny to wake up, and cried silently to himself
The first thing Ginny noticed was that she was flying; no, she was falling; or was she maybe just floating in one spot? She couldn’t really tell. And everything was white; that was the next thing she noticed. It was rather disturbing.
For the life of her, Ginny couldn’t figure out where she was or why she was there. Think backwards, she told herself. She thought so hard she made her brain ache, and all she managed to think of was yelling.
A man yelling; No two men. There were two different voices.
And then a girl screaming.
She was the girl. But she couldn’t stop. And she couldn’t figure out why she was screaming.
She pushed herself farther back and she distinctly heard one of the men yell for the other to stop. Stop what?
She stopped screaming. Did the man tell me to stop? Ginny asked herself. Asking herself made her start to lose the men’s voices so she tried to concentrate on them once more.
But she lost them, and she felt the floating feeling again. She didn’t like it; it was too chilling and silent. She forced her mind to go back to where the yelling was; all she could get to was the screaming. Then the screaming stopped and multiple voices were yelling, shouting, and shrieking all at once. Ginny tried to hold on to them but there was too much going on and she lost them once more to the white abyss. She couldn’t move or speak there. She felt numb. Ginny tried everything she could think of but there was no escape. She tried going back to the yelling men but she couldn’t.
Very quietly a voice came and left. She tried to grasp onto it but it slipped right past. There it was again, but this time she caught it. It was Harry, and he was saying her name. He was telling her that he loved her. He wanted her to come back to him. She wanted to yell back to him and tell him that she couldn’t no matter how much she wanted to. Ginny needed him to rescue her.
She kept focusing on his voice, every word and every syllable he spoke. Each one he made got stronger and louder. Ginny could only hope that meant she was getting closer to him. Slowly she felt the numbness leaving her. It started at her toes and slowly crept it’s way up her body until the very fingertips of her hands could feel the soft sheets beneath one and a warm hand that she knew very, very well, clasped in the other.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Harry still lay crying, silently aware of his forlorn, when he felt the fragile hand that lay in his gently press against his skin. He lifted his head up in hopes that his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. He watched as the eyes of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, fluttered open.
She looked up at him, smiled and said in a hoarse whisper, “You saved me. I knew you’d save me Harry. You called me and I came back to you.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next morning Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sent back to Hogwarts for their exams week. The Cruciatus curse took a toll on Ginny’s body so she was going to end up taking her theory portion of her O.W.L.’s while still in the hospital and then once she was physically able to, take her practical portion at the Ministry.
The school year ended the next week and it was no surprise when Gryffindor won the House Cup...again. The train ride back to London wasn’t quite as exciting as the one before it because Ron and Hermione both had to patrol nearly the entire time and with no Ginny to keep him company Harry sat with Neville and Luna talking about nothing particularly interesting.
Once they were back in London, Harry and Hermione said goodbye to Ron as he headed home to the Burrow with Charlie. The Weasley’s would be there until Ginny was ready to leave the hospital, then they all would join Harry, Lupin, Tonks and Hermione at Grimmauld Place.
Earlier in the year Hermione had owled her parents regarding the summer, and they had decided that it would be safest for Hermione to live in a house that was invisible unless you knew it was there. In the meantime, Hermione’s parents were going to visit with her aunt and uncle in New Zealand.
The second they got to Number Twelve, Harry asked if they could go and visit Ginny, because he hadn’t seen her since the day they had brought her to St. Mungo’s. Hermione and Tonks offered to stay behind to “tidy up” a bit. Harry thought they were crazy because he had never seen Grimmauld Place look so...there really was no other word for it: clean. He could see his own reflection on the banister for Merlin’s sake. Tonks insisted that there was loads more to do and she wanted to get started on it right away, so Harry didn’t object. He and Lupin then flooed to the hospital.
Once they arrived they followed the signs to the Spell Damage floor and found Ginny’s room. Actually they followed Ginny’s angry voice to her room. Harry and Lupin stood in the doorway and watched as someone other than Harry was targeted with Ginny’s stress.
“I know I can’t walk by myself! Just let me wheel myself around for a while. I need to leave this room! I’m going insane!” Ginny argued with her nurse from the wheelchair she was sitting in.
“Now Miss Weasley, you know very well that I cannot let you leave the room alone. And I don’t apprec-”
“Oh, Merlin! I’m fifteen for crying out loud! I’m not a child.”
“But you aren’t an adult.”
“Come on, Doris. No one has to know about it, just five minutes by myself.”
“Ginevra Weasley I could lose my job if I did. No, you may not go alone. That is final!”
“Ugh! Fine! I’ll just sit here and rot until the day I die.”
“And I’ll see to it,” Doris said with a note of finality as she finished changing the bed linens. She changed her demeanor and asked Ginny, “Now, are you going to sit in bed or let me push you around for a bit?” When she turned her head back towards her patient she noticed the two men standing in the door smirking. “Or maybe one of your friends wants to wheel you to the tea room?” The nurse inclined her head to the door and smiled.
Ginny turned and smiled too. “Harry!” He walked right over to Ginny and made up for not being able to kiss her for the last two weeks.
“Ah. The boyfriend,” Doris stated with no emotion.
“Fiancé,” Ginny corrected when Harry pulled away. “I don’t wear this rock for nothing.” She looked up at Doris and asked with a pleading face, “May he please escort me to the top floor?”
Doris just laughed and waved them away. “So much for wanting to be alone,” the nurse added with a half smile.
Harry smirked again and looked at Lupin. “You coming?”
“Who me? Nah. I think I’ll have a nice chat with Nurse Doris here,” Lupin said sitting down and getting comfortable in the chair opposite the bed.
Harry walked around to the back of Ginny’s chair and wheeled her out the door saying, “Suit yourself.”
Harry pushed Ginny to the lift that would take them up to the Visitor’s Tearoom. Once the doors of the lift came to a close Ginny tried to stand up but Harry pushed her back down. “Oh no you don’t. I heard every word of that conversation, and you even admitted that you couldn’t walk.”
“Harry, I was just saying that to get the slave driver to let me go. Here I’ll prove it to you.” Ginny made a show of standing up while Harry walked around the front of the chair to catch her, knowing full well that she wouldn’t be able to take a very stable step. “See?” Ginny announced proudly, carefully balancing her weight and trying not to show the strain on her face.
Harry gave her a half smile, took a step backwards, and said in a tone that she wouldn’t be able to turn down, “But you see, you’re only standing. I bet you can’t walk to me without falling.”
Ginny’s face fell slightly, but she recovered quickly. Slowly she shifted her weight onto one foot and even slower lifted her other foot off the ground. She placed her foot on the ground a few inches farther in front of where it was, lost her balance, yelped, and started falling.
Very delicately, Harry caught her around the waist and set her back in the wheelchair as the lift doors opened. “I figured as much,” he muttered under his breath.
Ginny just moaned and said, “It’s so unfair! Lupin was there loads longer than we were, and he was under the curse plenty more times than I was, and yet he got to leave the day after we rescued him.”
Harry sighed slightly as he pushed her to an empty table. “Well Gin, Lupin is over twice your age, he’s been placed under the curse plenty more times before he was kidnaped, he weighs more than you, and he’s learned how to reduce pain. It just takes more of a toll on your body because you’re petite.”
Ginny put her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands. “I don’t care. It’s still unfair that I have to stay here ‘til I die.”
“Ginny, you are not going to die from recovering in a hospital.”
She pulled her hands away from her face and looked him dead in the eyes. “But I’m so bored. You can only read Witch Weekly so many times before you’ve memorized it. I’m so sick of the colors, white and lime-green; I feel nauseous looking at the walls. I can’t practice any of my practical O.W.L.’s because I’m not allowed to do magic outside school, and to top it all off, I now have a headache.” Ginny placed her head on her arms on the table and asked, “Do you ever feel like crying but you just can’t get yourself to do it?”
Harry stared blankly at her and rubbed her back. “No, but I think I understand where you’re coming from.” He waited until Ginny sat back up again before telling her the good news. “Well, I can at least fix one of those problems.”
“Can you really or are you just pulling my leg? Because I’m not really in a very good mood today.”
“No, I’m not kidding, I really can help.” Harry reached into his back pocket and pulled out a letter. He cleared his throat and read aloud:
This document hereby grants temporary exclusion from the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, to Ginevra Molly Weasley while under supervision of any adult witch or wizard to practice for her Practical O.W.L.’s.
This document becomes invalid after Ginevra Molly Weasley’s term in St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries.
Amelia Bones
Head of The Department of Magical Law Enforcement
A genuine smile crept its way to all of Ginny’s features. This brought a smile to Harry’s own face as he handed the document to Ginny. She took it gratefully and reread it to herself before saying, “I’m going to get this framed! This could totally have improved my whole entire lifetime.”
“Why your whole life?” Harry asked confused. “It only lasts until you leave.”
Ginny sighed and said, “Harry, I’ve already said I’m going to be in this hospital and rot until the day I die.”
Harry just shook his head and laughed.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The next day found Harry and Lupin sitting in the drawing room in Grimmauld Place, discussing their trip to Potter Manor over a game of chess.
After settling in at Number Twelve, Lupin would ask Dumbledore to lift the wards on Potter Manor. Then Lupin and Harry would leave for Potter Manor by car. It would take over half the day to get to the manor; they’d spend a full day and the next morning there and then take another half day to get back to London.
Potter Manor was located on the far north tip of the Scotland Highlands on the Balnakeil Bay outside of Durness. Lupin had told Harry on countless occasions that it was the most beautiful place he had ever been to, and was once again in the process of doing so.
“During the day when the waves climb up the beach, and the gulls call across the bay....Bishop to C4, check...Or at night if you look up at the sky....” Lupin paused here to reminisce.
Harry just smiled and said, “Don’t worry Moony, you’ll see it again soon enough. Ha! Castle to C4.”
The use of his old nickname pulled Lupin out of his reverie. “Since when do you call me ‘Moony’?”
Harry just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know...it just sounded right. Should I not?”
Lupin looked into the glass of wine he was holding as he slowly answered, “You should. It could bring some youth back into me.” There was a pause then a smile spread across Lupin’s face as he declared triumphantly, “Queen to C4, checkmate.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
A week and five days before Harry’s seventeenth birthday, he and Lupin sat in the kitchen at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. It was four o’clock in the morning and both men were fully awake, dressed, and ready for the day’s events. The Ministry car they had rented for the occasion had been packed up with plenty of food, butterbeer, and a couple changes of clothing. Harry had the directions and Lupin had the keys. Before they left the kitchen they had left Tonks and Hermione a note, telling them when to expect them home.
As they sat in the car, Harry felt a sudden surge of adrenalin. The excitement about where they were going, what they were doing, and what they were going to find once they got there was overcoming him with suspense. Lupin’s feelings were almost mutual except for the fact that he was nervous about seeing his best friends’ house after nearly seventeen years.
Unknown to him, Harry had lived at Potter Manor for half a year before moving to Godric’s Hollow. Lupin wondered to himself if Harry would remember any of it. He could remember it so distinctly that he was sure some of it must have stuck with Harry. Lupin could almost smell the salt water bay just thinking about it. He could see the crisp white paint and the pale blue shutters on the house. The pillars that stood guarding the yew double doors with ivy engravings, and real ivy climbing up them. The flowerbeds outside the windows and the veranda that wrapped around the second floor. The quidditch pitch-sized backyard with its flower garden that led right up to the beach of Balnakeil Bay. A sight that he couldn’t and would never erase from his mind.
“Moony? Are you going to start the car?” Harry asked from beside him. Lupin shook himself out of his trance. He had forgotten what he was doing for a moment. “You alright?”
Lupin smiled to Harry and said, “Of course I am. I’m just thinking.”
Harry made an over dramatic moan. “Again, with the thinking?” he asked with a sarcastic smile. “What about?”
“Just about where we’re going.”
“Well, if you start the car and get going then you won’t have to recall the past, you can just look for yourself.” Lupin didn’t put another thought to it and turned on the ignition.
They had been driving for an hour before the sun showed it’s rays over the hills. Another hour and the sky was a clear blue; Summer reflecting in its cloudlessness. They drove through the day without a stop, thanks to the magical gas tank that never emptied.
By the time they arrived in Durness, both men were worn from the car ride. After driving through the city, they drove further north to the road around the bay. Eventually, the route changed from pavement to gravel and dirt. After being on this dirt road for forty minutes, and passing nearly as many signs that said various things along the lines of “Danger” and “Dead End” or “Private Property,” they drove up to a large iron wrought gate. As they neared the gate the doors swung open instantly and they drove up the roundabout driveway.
As he put the car in park, Lupin felt a sudden jolt of euphoria, and remembrance. The last time he had driven up this road, had been the week after Harry was born. There had been a big celebration, and it was one of the happiest moments of his life. Seeing his friends’ such great spirits made the whole war go away for that one day. The amazing memory passed through him as he looked to Harry who seemed to be mesmerized with the front door of the manor.
“Harry?” Lupin asked quietly. Harry tore his gaze from his window to look at Lupin. “Are you ready?”
“I suppose I have to be now that we’re here,” Harry answered with an uncertain smile.
“Any idea what we’re supposed to be looking for?”
Harry shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders. “It.”
After driving on the gravely road for forty minutes, and passing nearly as many signs that said various things along the lines of “Danger” and “Dead End” or “Private Property,” they drove up to a large iron wrought gate. The doors swung open as if they knew who was in the car. Although I wouldn’t put it past them to know, Harry thought to himself. Lupin pulled the car up to the front door and Harry couldn’t help but gaze at his parents’ former home.
He hadn’t even noticed that Lupin had parked the car. Harry looked from the third floor windows and turrets, to the second storey veranda, finally landing on the double doors that led to the manor, and the intricately carved, iron house-number; 4739.
“Harry?” Lupin asked quietly. “Are you ready?”
Harry knew he wasn’t, but there was nothing left to do, and nothing holding him back. “I suppose I have to be now that we’re here.”
“Any idea what we are supposed to be looking for?”
Harry could only dignify that question with the answer of a shaking head, shrugged shoulders and the spoken word, “It.”
Lupin made a small, and slightly uncomfortable laugh at Harry’s expense. Harry returned the favor as he unbuckled the safety belt and stepped out of the car. He opened the door of the back seat to grab his bag, and started to head towards the door.
When he turned the door handle, it opened surprisingly easily, seeing as it hadn’t been used in almost seventeen years. The entrance hall was nearly the size of the one at Hogwarts. As Harry set down his overnight bag, he began to wonder about the enormity of the manor. Seeing as it would be his in just over a week, Harry figured that he should get to know everything in the house, top to bottom.
Looking around, Harry saw a family portrait on the wall to the left of the doors. His mother was sitting in a chair, holding a small bundle of messy black hair. Behind her stood Harry’s father, one hand on his mother’s shoulder, the other loosely at his side, holding his wand.
Suddenly, Harry had an idea of what they were looking for. He felt Lupin’s presence behind him, and he began asking, “What happened to my parents wan-?”
He was interrupted by two loud snapping sounds and a small but crisp voice exclaiming, “Master James returned to us he has! And brought Master Remus he has too! Did I not tell you they would return, Toby?”
“It is Master Remus, but it is not Master James, Sophie. Master James had no green eyes.”
Harry had turned around in a flash to discover two house elves wearing, what looked like, silken window hangings, wrapped like togas; one red and one blue. “If it is not Master James,” said the elf, whom Harry presumed to be Sophie, “Then who is he?”
“I’m Harry. James and Lily are my parents,” Harry said, politely disrupting their conversation.
“You can’t be Little Master Harry! Just a baby he was and a full grown man you are,” Toby said, lacking confidence.
Sophie looked into Harry’s face, which Harry thought an odd thing for a house elf to do, and smiled with glee. “Look at the eyes of him, Toby. They look like Mistress Lily’s. It is Little Master Harry! Only not so little anymore he is.”
“You is right Sophie! Come, I will show you to the guest livingroom.” Toby led them to a spacious den, just to the left of the entrance hall. “Tea? Please let me get you some.” He and Sophie then disappeared with a snap.
“House elves?” Harry winced at the thought of Hermione finding out that he would soon come into the inheritance of two of them.
“Yes, I’m afraid so. There used to be more, but I will assume that these two are the only ones who stuck around this long. Even house elves give up on the families they serve if they are away too long.” Lupin shook his head and looked out the door to the entry way. “You were asking me a question before they popped in. What was it?”
Harry, who had completely forgotten his half finished question asked, “What happened to my parents wands?”
Lupin had just opened his mouth to answer when the two elves reentered the room with a snap, tea and biscuit tray in hand.
“We brought the baggage to the bedchambers. Will the Masters be needing anything else now?”
“No, thank you,” Lupin replied shaking his head. Once they had disappeared again, Lupin turned his attention back to Harry to answer his question. “They are here in the house somewhere...why?”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
On one side of the mantle, a silver box engraved with a single lily; on the other, a stag carved into a gold box. Both were long and narrow, and inlaid with scarlet silk. While the contents of the boxes were the same in one way, their differences outnumbered the similarities. In the silver box, a ten and a quarter inch twig of willow wood. A hippogriff talon hidden in its core. Harry was once told that it was swishy and very good for charms.
The golden box contained a slightly longer stick of mahogany. At eleven inches, it encased ashwinder ashes inside its core, and Harry could tell by looking at it, just how pliable it was.
Not quite knowing what to do next, Harry lifted his mother’s wand out of the silver box, then his father’s out of the gold. His hands began to move closer to each other as if they were made of magnets. Harry did not try to stop it, simply because he couldn’t. The magic that was being created between the two wands was a power so strong, Harry knew he would never be able to bring an end to it willingly.
When the wands were only a few centimeters apart, they stopped pulling closer and began to grow hot. Instinctively, Harry let go of them, but instead of falling, the two wands hung in midair. As if they suddenly turned into rubber, the wands twisted about each other like two children playing a game of tag; then ever so slowly, they tightened around each other creating a spiral of red and white wood. Now as one wand, it floated its way into Harry’s wand hand. It held so much power, it tingled his fingers down to the bone. To most wizards, a new wand would seem strange and unfamiliar, but holding that wand in his hand felt like the most natural thing Harry had ever done.
He then knew what this wand was for. It was the wand that would help him destroy Voldemort. Because of his brother wand, any spell Harry used against the Dark Lord wouldn’t work. To defeat him, Harry knew he needed a different wand, but it needed to be just as powerful as the one in his pants pocket. If the wand chooses the wizard, like Mr. Olivander said, then his wand should be the strongest source of power for him. Although, he thought. They don’t make wands with two different cores.
Harry wondered about the difference in the magic inside the wand in his hand and the wand that has been there for the last six years. He looked around for anything he could cast a spell on, settling on the wood in the fire place. Before the word incendio even left his lips, the thought was sent to his parents’ wand and the wood began burning bright with orange flames. With wordless magic, there was a lot he could do. Harry smiled at his new possession. This legacy would be secret to all but the few who knew where he was right now. This would become his weapon. A power that he could hold over Voldemort. He couldn’t have this dynasty. The only person in this battle that could, was Harry. It was the dynasty of a head boy and girl. It was a dynasty from two aurors. It was the dynasty of the people who had thrice defied Harry’s greatest enemy. It was the dynasty of a husband and wife. It was a dynasty from his parents. It was a dynasty of something they left behind.
It was the dynasty of the wand.
fin.
~A/N: So it’s over everyone. Did you enjoy it? I sure know I did. I’m really sad that it’s over but There is good closure to this story but also a few loose ends to tighten up in the sequel. Yes, I’m writing a sequel. No I do not have a title picked out for it yet. I’m not planning on working on it until this summer but I’ll be working on other side stories that have formed in my mind in the meantime. I’ve got a challenge for you. The house number, 4739, has a certain significance. The first three people who can figure it out will get a first look at chapter one of the sequel before I submit it to the public. Good luck with that! UPDATE! I have my three winners: abbs866, wonwon_hermy, and binteridhwan. I'll keep the three of you updated with my story progress. thanks to those of you who tried!
I want to first of all thank my sister, Natalie, for being editor and fellow plotter. We’ve had some great times going through some of these chapters. I also want to thank my readers and reviewers for keeping me in high spirits while writing. Without you I’d have no reason to write. I lastly want to thank Mugglenet Fanfiction for the use of their sight.
For those of you who are hoping to read other work by Lady Snuffles, be looking out for the next chapters of The Perfect Mistake and a one-shot entitled Ellie’s Special Day.
Harry Potter and the Dynasty of the Wand by Lady Snuffles
Chapter Notes: Last chapter everybody! We pick up right where we left off, so if you really want a recap go back and read the last section of chappie eighteen.