Chapter 14: Yet E'er the Sword Cool in the Sheath
Ginny stretched her arms out over her head. The edge was close, so close... She hooked an arm over and pulled herself onto the platform. Once standing, she realized that her feet were on top of the table from the Integrated Magic classroom. It wasn't just carved from a single block of wood -- it was still attached to the original tree. Harry was standing opposite her and facing away, looking out over the lake.
"Harry."
He turned slowly, eyes glassy and blank. "He killed him."
"No, Ron's all right," she said. "At least, he'll be all right if he gets help soon--"
"Dumbledore."
He wasn't making any sense. "What?"
"We were in the forest and Dumbledore blocked the curse and it hit Lucius Malfoy instead. And then Voldemort started yelling and killed Dumbledore." Harry didn't blink and his voice was flat and cold. "Voldemort made all the trees angry. They were shaking their branches at him. He took my wand again. Everything exploded and he Banished me. And then I was here." The fire in the forest was spreading, and Harry's glasses reflected the red flames, white lightning, and blue and green and purple from skirmishes below. "And now you're here." He twisted back to look out over the grounds.
"Yes, I'm here," she reassured him. "But we have to get down." She peered over the side, and the view made her dizzy; the trip down would be worse than the trip up. She looked past Harry to see a thick cloud of black smoke rising from across the lake. The tops of the trees tipped over, bent by a strong wind. "We should hurry."
Ginny watched, mesmerized, as the cloud flew before the wind in a bubbling sphere. When it drew near it began to change and thin out. Yet, instead of breaking apart, it stretched into the long, ropy form of a basilisk. The serpentine cloud rushed toward them, and they ducked as it drew its head back as if to strike before shooting between them.
After circling the table the basilisk dove and the miasma solidified into human shape as it landed near the edge. Voldemort's mouth widened in approval at Ginny as the last of the smoke disappeared. "Virginia. Success at last. A bit out of order -- I would have liked Dumbledore to watch his precious Potter die -- but I suppose one can't have everything." He crossed the distance between them and kissed her cheek with cold, smooth lips. "In recognition of your efforts and tireless devotion," he paused for effect, "I shall let you help."
Voldemort took her by the shoulders and spun her around to face Harry. "First, there is an Unforgivable Curse you must know. It's called the Imperius Curse. It will make Harry do anything you want, absolutely anything. Would you like to try it, Virginia?"
Ginny looked at Harry desperately. Light reflected in his lenses and it was impossible to read his expression. She hoped he would see her; she hoped he would see past her Mark. "Yes, I'd love to try it, my lord. But I don't know how. I've never seen it done," she lied.
"It's simple enough. You point your wand and say Imperio! Then, Harry will do whatever you ask of him. He will kneel before you as the lowest slave does. He will beg mercy, if that is what you wish."
She raised her wand and pointed it at Harry's chest, then took a deep breath. "Imperio!" Harry didn't move.
"Well done," Voldemort commended her, clapping her on the back. "Now, what shall we have him do first? Should he declare his undying allegiance to me? Kill a few of his closest friends? Or, perhaps we should not waste words. Yes, quick and clean this time. There is one last thing I think you'd like very much, Ginny. Why don't you have him kiss you goodbye? I know how long you've been pining for Potter."
Ginny used her gentlest voice in the hope that Voldemort would not sense her fear. "Come here, Harry," she said. He walked the few paces with his arms held stiffly at his sides. "Kiss me."
At her command, Harry bent and pressed his lips against hers. Some disconnected part of Ginny's brain shrieked in laughter at how utterly impersonal it was to be kissed, finally, by Harry Potter. There was no warmth or passion there, only physical contact. As Harry drew back Voldemort patted her shoulder and said, "There, now he's your sweetheart."
"No." Ginny lifted her fist in front of her and smiled. "He's family." Keeping it tight against her body to remain out of Voldemort's vision, she opened her hand to reveal Ron's phoenix pin.
Harry's eyes glinted as he sprang into motion without pause, seizing the pin.
Ginny ducked instinctively as Harry lunged forward, the pin's point whistling past her ear. She dropped to her knees and tilted her head up in time to see him plunge the pin directly into Voldemort's unhealed eye. Harry's face was contorted in fear and rage. There was a ripping sound, quickly covered by an unearthly howl from Voldemort, then Harry pulled the pin out and slid to one side to miss the splattering blood that fell in a veil of red tears. Harry's expression was mild when compared to Voldemort's fury.
Voldemort groaned with rage. "Enough of this!" he shouted. "Avada --" Harry fell to his knees, flinging one arm up, and as he did he fumbled with the pin and dropped it directly onto the crystal dome embedded in the center of the table.
Once, that dome had prompted George and Fred to see into the future; now it was the source of the most beautiful music she had ever heard, like organs and flutes and uillean pipes all at once as it opened and a great light rose toward the heavens. Even Voldemort was transfixed, his undamaged eye open and his cloak fluttering in the breeze that caught at the edges. Caught at the edges and pulled forward, she realized.
Past the Quidditch pitch, a group of wizards began to raise a shield of light. Ginny wondered if Lee Jordan led the Defense Against the Dark Arts class toward them. They would be too late for whatever happened, good or ill.
Her own feet were sliding almost imperceptibly toward the shaft of light, and she concentrated on moving backward very slowly so as to seem to be standing still. Harry was still on his knees but he no longer watched Voldemort because the light was shifting and twisting. The vague outline of a figure formed in the center.
Harry's righteous anger changed to utter shock. "Professor D--" Harry said, but the rest was caught by the cry of the wind that rose as the figure reached out and grabbed Voldemort by the arm.
"No," Voldemort shouted, leaning back, but the luminous figure merely pulled harder. Voldemort stumbled forward and was pulled into the light with a pop. The music sounded sharper, distorted, then ended with a final chord. As Voldemort disappeared, the beam of light retracted into the dome while a last ring of light burst forth, blasting both Harry and Ginny off of the table.
Ginny saw her feet against the sky and Harry's mouth open in an o as his arms swung wildly. She saw the bronze trunk of the tree crumbling and disintegrating and the tabletop tumbling down. She saw that there was no way she would survive this.
Time slowed, taunting her. She saw herself running across the grass with her wand raised, swishing and flicking to rival Professor Flitwick, and realized that it was Susan Bones instead. From Ginny's perspective, Harry reversed direction as Susan's charm slowed his descent. It was right that Harry should be saved. Right that she had done what she had to do. Right what Susan was doing. Harry was blessed, and the wizarding world still needed him. She tried to relax and looked at the sky one last time, wishing it could be blue instead of tinged with night.
Draco was performing a spectacular Wronski Feint above her. How odd, she thought to herself in bemusement. That certainly was not Draco. Draco was far away. Draco would not be caught dead on an old school broom like the one he was riding now.
He was practically close enough to touch her before she let herself believe it was real. He reached for her hand and caught her by the elbow, and her nails raked his arm as she slipped through his grasp. He was reaching out in the same posture he used when he followed the Snitch. Was she the one he was Seeking?
She closed her eyes. This was it, and she resigned herself to her fate. She felt his hand again, and this time his grip was true if a trifle sweaty, but she knew they were too close; he'd never be able to slow them enough to keep her from hitting the ground without tearing her arm off. Her muscles tensed in anticipation of the impact.
"Ginny," Draco shouted. "Both hands."
With a burst of energy she pulled her other arm up and managed to take hold of the broom handle. She didn't know what Draco did or how he did it but they were flying sideways, still slowing, and as they neared the grass she finally let go, landing on her back not ten feet from the top of the Integrated Magic table which was now flat on the ground. Draco spun off into the air.
She had had the wind knocked out of her. Ginny pulled in half-breath after half-breath as darkness crept into the edges of her vision. She couldn't wait, though, and she sat up still gasping.
On the other side of the table, Harry lay with his head in Susan's lap. His eyes were closed and his face was grey with exhaustion.
In another time, in another universe, she might have been the one to cradle and comfort him, to go on with him in that time after the end. She had chosen something else. She was never meant to be a hero. But she was deeply relieved that Harry was.
The dawn was breaking on the horizon and it silhouetted two figures coming toward them. Judging by the shadows, it was Hermione; she supported Ron as he walked, wobbling, beside her. Ron used the Gryffindor sword as a cane. Ginny's first instinct was to get as far away as possible, but Draco landed next to her.
"You might as well stay."
As soon as he said it, she wanted him to take it back. She wasn't sure why he said it, exactly; perhaps he had more faith in her than she deserved. And in the end, she was glad, because Ron's face told her all she needed to know. He believed in her. Hermione, too, looked at her warily but didn't confront her again. Harry moaned and they ran to him, distracted, helping him to sit up.
"Is it done?" Harry asked groggily as Susan smoothed his hair back from his forehead.
"It's over, it's all over," Ron said, staring at Harry with admiration. Hermione knelt to give him a fierce hug, and Ron took his hand and helped him to stand. Harry started to glance over his shoulder at the castle, but stopped himself from doing so and stepped onto the table instead.
"Hogwarts," Hermione said as her gaze went to the place Harry refused to look. "It's over, too."
"No!" Harry grabbed Hermione and Ron's hands. "We'll rebuild. Everyone will rebuild. Hogwarts is ours. Wizards will come from all around the world to help. You'll see. They're coming already."
Ginny studied Harry where he stood at the center of the table, hair blowing back from his smudged face. He was right, Ginny knew. She could see Neville and Cho holding hands and coming over the rise. A group of students in navy robes ran behind Lee, and wizards Ginny recognized from trips to Hogsmeade were brushing themselves off and checking on their comrades as the Darkness Charms disappeared. Susan got to her feet and joined the trio on the table.
Wizards were coming, but some would never come home again. Ginny realized with a sharp pang that Ron didn't know about the twins, and that she had no idea if anyone else in her family was even alive. Ron needed to know what had happened, but she wanted to give him this glorious moment of triumph, this release from the fear that had followed them all for so many years.
Ginny walked a few paces away. There would be time enough to tell him. Time enough to mourn for all the things that would never come to pass, for all the things the dead would never do, for all the sunrises they would never see. The sunrise this morning was, to her bitter amusement, a deep orange-red and the most beautiful she had ever seen.
Draco followed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and she leaned her head back and let him take her weight for just a moment before she remembered. "Draco, Harry said something..."
"Dumbledore killed my father, I saw," he murmured into her hair. "Don't tell me that you're sorry. My father killed my mother. He was going to kill me. It's a relief."
Ginny twisted in his arms to look him in the eyes and saw that he meant what he said. The sadness was still there, but muted. She wouldn't add to it by telling him that Lucius had wanted to kill her too. "I missed you," she said instead.
Draco raised an arm to pull her cloak up where it fell off her shoulder with a wry smile. "I missed you too. And I think that's my cloak." His sleeve fell away and she could see that his arm had three angry red lines where her fingernails had scratched him when he slowed her fall.
"You're hurt." She reached for his arm, but he drew it away. "Let me see." He shook his head. "If you don't get it taken care of, it could scar."
"Better a mark that I chose than one that I didn't," he replied, and kissed her.
It was everything she had dreamed it would be, warmth and comfort and safety wrapping around her. Draco's kiss brought her home. His hands were in her hair, and she linked her fingers behind his nape. After a moment, she drew away, hiding her face against his chest. It would get worse before it got better, she knew. The longing and loss would hang over them for years to come. But there, in the morning light, she could see the road stretching out before them. They had fought for and earned their victory.
She had brothers to find, parents to face and beg forgiveness from, and a future to find. There was knowledge to record and work to be done, and only the bravest and most ambitious would meet the challenge. As they reluctantly parted, she realized that the Dark Mark had faded from her arm. A clean slate.
They smiled hesitant smiles at each other and went down to join the others, a little apart but hand in hand, never realizing that two pairs of eyes watched their every move.
***
In the years after, the castle was rebuilt as Harry foretold. It was never quite the same as it had been before, even in the parts that were restored, but it was home to Muggle-born and pureblood alike. The Sorting Hat, destroyed in the fire, was replaced by a new hat each year, enchanted specially for the purpose. The Great Hall was hung with portraits to honor the witches and wizards that had joined together to move stones, to share tales and spells, and to ensure that their very culture survived. The ceiling never was re-enchanted, but one always had interesting company at meals. In any case, no magical star on the ceiling could rival the glory of the luminaries on the walls.
The most mysterious part of the castle, though, was in the entrance hall. The top of the Integrated Magic table refused to be budged, so the floor had been built around it. Before the walls could be erected a thin but wiry tree sprouted through the crystal dome and reached toward the sky. There was nothing to do but leave a portion of the roof open to the heavens.
There was one thing, though, that remained constant. After the great tree that the table had been part of disappeared, all of the other trees that had been planted about the grounds for decoration were petrified. They were frozen in the state they had been in at the time of the battle -- some partially charred, some ever in full bloom. Some tried to remove them, but the roots were so intertwined within the earth that one could not simply keep the good and remove the bad. It was all or nothing.
The tree in the entrance hall was the most interesting of all. Its branches were a soft bronze and its leaves were always green even when autumn and winter covered the land. It gained the nickname of The Prison Tree, although no one seemed to know the story behind the term.
Some said that if you turned your head just so it looked like there were faces on the glossy bark. Others said no, there were no faces, only eyes. Everyone, though, thought that its two largest branches seemed to be tangled in perpetual, motionless struggle, one with two blue knots and one with two red.
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Harry Potter is the property of JK Rowling and her publishers and moviemakers. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Although there is more to this story, this is where it ends for me. A creative writing project turned into an outline preparation drill and the slimmest idea became a novel; I've learned many things and still have miles to go. A warm thank you to Fuu_Fan for some last minute spell checking, to Calliope for some early thoughts, and to thecurmudgeons for endless beta reading. Without these folks I'd have many more errors and make far less sense. I hope you enjoyed this story. Thanks again for the wonderful reviews.
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Draco and Ginny belong to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury, Scholastic, Warner Bros and various other corporations. They are being used here without permission and/or affiliation with the above. None of the authors listed here make any profit from these stories.