With Tired Eyes, Minds, and Souls We Slept by QuIDdITch_PlaYA
Chapter Notes: Note: Remember after chapter 1, when I said this story would be more light-hearted? Well, I lied. Just a quick warning, there’s a lot of emotion in here, along with a err”minor”character death. >_>
“Ginny, honey, your parents are expecting us soon,” Harry called.
“I know. Hold on!” Ginny replied, while struggling to dress a four-month-old Brian. “Now, now, dear, it’s just a sock.”
The infant whined and squired under her grasp, while his twin sister giggled from the crib.
“Brian, sweetie, we’ve got to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for supper,” she said, trying desperately to get him to keep his clothes on his body. “Oh, Merlin!” she cried exasperatedly as he flung his sock across the room again.
There came a crash from down the hall that distracted her completely from her fruitless attempts to fully dress her child.
“Harry?” she called anxiously. There was no answer for a moment, and Ginny was about to call again when she heard footsteps approach quickly. Harry came in, slamming the door shut behind him, wide-eyed and pale.
“He’s here, Ginny! McLaggen’s here.”
“What? Oh, no! No, this can’t be happening,” she cried, panicking.
“Take Alexandra and Brian. I’ll hold off McLaggen while you get to the Burrow.”
“I can’t leave you here alone!”
“I’ll be fine, just go!” He ran from the room, leaving her with a passionate kiss and a quiet “Be careful.”
With a heavy heart, she grabbed the twins and prepared to Disapparated. She stopped just as she felt the familiar squeezing feeling. Harry’s words from the memorial that took place months ago echoed in her head.
“My father told my mother to take me and run. Voldemort killed him immediately before turning his wand on my mum.”
She wasn’t going to let him be killed. She wasn’t going to lose him to this mad Death Eater, not after everything they had been through together. With a heavy heart, she set Alexandra and Brian into their crib before swiping tears from her eyes. Throwing one last look back at the crib, she waved her wand over the door so that only her family would be able to enter if- Merlin forbid- anything happened to her and Harry. As she ran down the hall, she could hear Harry and McLaggen already exchanging blows.
“You’re not welcome here, McLaggen,” Harry said in an unnaturally calm voice. A picture frame on the mantle shattered from his jet of red light.
“I never was welcome with you, Potter.”
“You’re right. Because I always knew you were a good for nothing ba-“
McLaggen fired a spell that left a crater in the wall over Harry’s left shoulder.
“I just never thought you’d sink this low,” he finished.
“STUPEFY!” Ginny screamed, desperate to help Harry.
McLaggen blocked her Stunner with wide-eyed surprise.
Harry’s face had paled considerably. “Ginny, what are you doing here?”
“I can’t leave you here,” she whispered, a slight hint of desperation in her voice.
Harry’s half-hearted protest was cut off by a jet of green light cast by McLaggen that whizzed over the top of Harry’s head.
“Is this really the life you want, Ginny?” the Death Eater called mockingly.
“Yes,” she replied coldly, shooting another spell in his direction. She exchanged a long, meaningful look with Harry. “Yes, it is.”
With surprising speed, McLaggen moved across the room. Before she could react, Ginny found herself in his grasp, his arm across her throat. “You and I are meant to be together,” he hissed in her ear, causing her to tremble slightly. Harry’s eyes were filled with fear as he tried to aim at McLaggen. McLaggen, however, sneered gloatingly over Harry’s predicament, using Ginny as a shield.
Ginny struggled to free herself from his grasp, but he held her wand hand pointed away from him, straight at Harry.
“Let me go!” she screamed, feeling his wand digging into her neck.
“We could have shared something special, if you hadn’t chosen this Potter scum.”
“What do you want with her?” Harry shouted, glaring at his enemy. His wand hand was trembling with immense fury and panic.
His question was ignored when McLaggen pressed his lips to Ginny’s cheek.
“STOP!” she cried, fighting back tears of shame and fear. She hated being so afraid and helpless at such a dire moment.
“I love you, Ginny,” Harry whispered, half hoping that it would fix everything.
“I love you, too, Harry,” she replied through her tears. McLaggen’s wand was still pressing painfully into her skin, and his hot breath sent shudders down her spine.
“I’ve done everything to be with you, Ginny,” McLaggen said. “I’ve been following you for years, so I could get close to you. I saw when you were weak, after Potter broke your heart. I helped you that one time, didn’t I?”
Ginny shook her head furiously, refusing to reply. Her entire body was trembling horribly now. His arm was beginning to cut off her oxygen.
“I was so close to getting you, but you took him back. You took him back, Ginny, and broke my heart.”
“You don’t have a heart, McLaggen,” Harry said, now desperate to save his wife. “You survive purely off of your ideas of revenge and these unrequited notions of love.”
“SHUT UP, POTTER!” McLaggen roared, with irrational fury. With a slashing of McLaggen’s wand, Harry was thrown backwards. He hit the wall, his head hitting it with a sickening crunch
“NO!” Ginny screamed, thrashing violently against her captor’s vice-like grip. She stared in horror at her husband’s bleeding, lifeless form. “HARRY!”
She was thrust unceremoniously against the opposite wall, where McLaggen forced his lips on hers. “When I erased your memory, I did it for you. I knew he would break your heart one day. You just didn’t get it.”
She struggled to pull her wand hand, which was now pointing uselessly at the ground, away from his grip, but it was impossible. However, using the instincts that she had developed from growing up with her brothers, she brought up her leg to where she knew it would hurt him most. Her knee connected with him, and he recoiled, cursing furiously.
Her wand hand now victoriously free, she pointed it at the man who had terrorized her nightmares for nearly a year. However, in her panic she realized that she could no longer think of her incantations.
With a surprising amount of force, she cried the spell that she associated most with Harry- the first spell he ever taught her. “EXPELLIARMUS!”
The spell sent McLaggen cascading backwards into the china cabinet, but Ginny paid no attention to him. She was already at Harry’s side, using the healing spells that she used for him not too long ago, the night that he had died- for the first time.
Once the wound on the back of his head was sealed, she levitated his limp form up the stairs. She could hear McLaggen clambering from the drawing room as she unlocked the door to the children’s room and laid Harry on the extra bed they kept in there. She was about to reseal the door when it crashed open. The force sent Ginny flying through the air. Bright lights erupted before her eyes as she hit the wall forcefully. However, she still gathered her strength and stumbled to her feet.
“Don’t you dare touch my family, McLaggen,” she hissed furiously, fighting back her fear.
“I wouldn’t dare, dear Ginny.” However, as he spoke he made his way toward the crib where her babies cried loudly.
“Don’t touch them!” she screamed, sending a stunning spell his way.
He blocked it with ease and laid a hand on Brian. “You could have had me, Ginny. Instead, you chose Potter. Now you can’t have either of us.”
McLaggen raised his wand, pointing it at the bed. He was going to kill Harry.
“NO!” Ginny screamed. “Not Harry, please. I’ll do anything.” She sunk to her knees, tears pouring down her face again. Her wand clattered across the ground, but she didn’t care. She couldn’t lose her family. She only hoped that Harry would understand.
McLaggen scooped up her son and held him in his arms. Brian cried loudly in his arms, squirming for release from the stranger. His sister was wailing from the crib.
“Please, don’t hurt them,” she whispered in defeat. She had failed her children and her husband.
“Come with me, Ginny. Forget Potter. We can raise this family on our own.”
Ginny hesitated. “Please, just don’t hurt him. I’ll do whatever you ask.”
As if to show his faith in her, he handed the squirming, crying baby to his mother. Ginny caressed her baby fondly. “Brain,” she whispered. She reached tentatively for her daughter in the crib, whose screams had subsided into hiccups. She had to know that her children were safe.
McLaggen stood aside to let Ginny by. She looked up at him in shock and saw, to her surprise, an emotion on his face that she hadn’t seen there in a long time. She saw, as apparent as day, a look of kindness and admiration. She knew that he was awed by the thought of perhaps raising a family. This suddenly humane expression on the face of the man who had troubled her and Harry for so long floored her more than anything that had happened the whole night. The moment passed quickly, however, when voices were heard the hall.
“Harry?” Hermione called fearfully. Recognition dawned McLaggen’s face, and the kind expression left his features immediately.
“Ginny, where are you?” Ron’s voice floated down the hall.
“You called for them?” he said, narrowing his eyes at her. He swatted her outstretched arm away from Alexandra.
“No! I didn’t,” she cried. She clutched her baby boy to her chest, wishing she could hold her daughter as well. “They were expecting us at the Burrow tonight. I didn’t call them!”
“You lying little-“ He was pointing his wand at her, then at Alexandra in the crib, then at the door where Ron and Hermione would be entering.
“Please,” she pleaded desperately, “don’t hurt anyone else.”
“I thought you would understand me, Ginny.” He looked completely mental. His wand was rested, not on Ginny, but on the bundle in her arms. “I thought you would be able to find me.”
She turned her body in an attempt to shield her son. She was struggling to fight back her own tears again. “I can’t love a killer.”
She could hear the pounding of Ron and Hermione’s feet down the hall. She prayed that they would come and help her soon enough. McLaggen was still pointing his wand at her baby, his eyes glinting horribly.
“Avada Kedavra,” he hissed, his voice filled with malice. Ginny screamed in horror. She tried twisting her body further to protect Brian, but too late. The jet of green light struck him, and suddenly he stopped crying. His squirming ceased and his tiny heart stopped beating.
“No,” Ginny whispered in horror. McLaggen was standing over her with a look of self-satisfaction and madness. She sunk to the ground, her entire body shaking horribly. “Please wake up, Brain. Honey, please.”
Ron and Hermione burst into the room. Ropes flew from Ron’s wand and bound themselves around McLaggen. Hermione’s wide eyes rested on Ginny’s crumpled form and rushed over to her.
“Harry,” Ginny sobbed, “help him please.”
Hermione looked like she wanted to protest, but the stricken look on Ginny’s face told her not to argue. She ran over to the bed where Harry lay.
“You’re under arrest, McLaggen,” Ron replied, scowling. He looked as shocked as Hermione, but his Auror training had at least attempted to teach him to show very little emotion.
“Fine,” the Death Eater said sneeringly, “do with me as you will, but I will kill you. I’m more powerful than you could ever dream.”
“You’ll never get near me or my family.”
“Potter said that too, Weasley, and look at what I did to his darling son.”
Ron’s face fell slightly at Ginny’s sobbing figure. He swore angrily and said in a deadly voice, “You’ll pay.”
“Do you really think you can beat me, Weasley?” McLaggen taunted. “Face it. You’re nothing compared to Potter, and I finished him without a problem.”
“That’s a lie!” Ron yelled, his face glowing red with fury.
“No, it’s not. You can’t kill me, can you? You can’t even protect your family.”
Ron swore again, now at himself. He had allowed McLaggen under his skin, which was against the number one rule for Aurors. He tried to gain control over his emotions but too late. He raised his wand to strike at McLaggen, but he was interrupted by Harry.
“Don’t-“ he said, rising slowly from the bed. He was pale, and his eyes were bloodshot, but his expression was alive with fury. “This is my fight.”
Ron looked startled, but he lowered his wand and stood aside without protest. Harry’s sad eyes were boring into the body of his sobbing wife. With a horrified expression, his gaze moved from her to the wailing Alexandra, and terrible truth dawned on him. His eyes burned even brighter as he turned back to McLaggen.
“DAMN YOU!” he yelled. “HOW COULD YOU KILL HIM!” He raised his wand and cried, “Ultionis Veneficus.”
He watched as the spell that he had used only once before, against Voldemort himself, took its toll on McLaggen. It had been an ancient spell that made the victim suffer from every emotion that the caster had suffered at his hand. It had killed Voldemort because of the pain Harry had suffered emotionally. He hoped that it would affect McLaggen in the same way. He hoped that McLaggen felt the wrenching pain that his heart felt at that moment.
There was a strange, almost vindictive, expression on Harry’s face as he watched the Death Eater before him scream in agony. Then the screaming stopped, McLaggen stared blankly at Harry for a moment, and then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and closed. The Death Eater hung limp and lifeless against his bonds.
“Ginny,” he said in a quiet voice, the Death Eater forgotten. He gently lifted Alexandra out of the crib and sat next to his wife. Ginny sobbed against his shoulder, cradling her lifeless child in her arms. As he stroked her hair comfortingly and listened to his daughter whimper in confusion and fright, he let himself go. He cried for Ginny, who would probably live with guilt over Brian’s loss for the rest of her life, and for Alexandra, who would never get to know her brother. Most of all, he cried for Brian, his only son, who never had a chance to live.
A/N: Well, thoughts anyone? Is it too melodramatic or fast-paced? Please let me know!
I really appreciate everyone’s feedback. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :]
Just a status check… There’s probably two or three chapters to come, depending on my plans. I think most likely two. In one chapter, there’s going to be the aftermath of McLaggen’s attack. This might be divided into two depending on how the writing goes. The final will be an epilogue. I’m not sure about sequel to this story. I’m leaning towards no right now to be honest (The phrase ‘Quit while you’re ahead’ comes to mind). You’ll know soon, if I don’t clear it up in any author responses :] (sorry for the smileys in all the wrong places)
~QP