On Different Sides

Prologue

The bustle of students through the Great Hall at dinner had been normal…Ginevra had not noticed the few students absent. The past year had been full of anxiety and tension about the Final Day. Harry, Hermione and Ron had been inconspicuously leaving their classes to take lessons from Dumbledore, Snape and McGonagall in preparation. The D.A. had even been taught the Unforgivable Curses…with Ministry approval. Fudge was a lot more amenable to changes once the blame for the destruction of Hogsmeade and Gringotts had been tacked on to him…and calls for Dumbledore to take over had become deafening. However, for that one moment she had forgotten about the ominous omens Firenze had viewed about the upcoming Last Battle. She had thought she was safe.

When Dumbledore rose to dismiss the school to their dormitories, a single student raised a hand and pulled a Death Eater mask over their face. Before anyone could react, the other hand pulled a wand from a pocket inside robes and hit Dumbledore in the chest with a silver stream of spell work. As Dumbledore crumpled, the D.A. was led by the softly worded commands of the Boy Who Lived to secure the Great Hall. When Ron and Hermione approached the Death Eater student, however, he disappeared. From there on, it was chaos.

Student Death Eaters had crumpled Hogwart’s defenses by giving away information about the school to the Dark Side. Death Eaters were leaping out of portraits and secret passageways and had access to every House dormitory but Ravenclaw. Even the teacher’s dormitory had been broken into, which meant there were teachers in Hogwarts working for the Dark Side. Though the students fought bravely, the battle was being lost…heavily. And without Dumbledore, the Light had no trick up its sleeve. It would fight until the last man fell…but there would be nothing left afterwards but victory for the Dark Side. Because they had no choice, they fought on. Students skilled in Healing were pulled out of the fighting to care for the wounded. Madam Pomfrey was hit with a crippling spell midway through the battle and the lead student of the Healing classes took over. The new Hogwarts Healer…at least in the heat of the battle…was Ginevra Weasley.

Nothing Matters Anymore

“Ginny!” Ginevra turned from a patient she had been attending to see Harry Potter’s battered figure standing before her. “Dumbledore is gone.” She bowed her head. “You can’t tell anyone. The last hope anyone has is that he will miraculously heal himself.” She sighed.

“I know, Harry. How’s the battle?” Harry winced.

“Slaughter ground. We should have been more prepared. I mean, it was obvious they would strike someplace dramatic. We should have known, but we were overconfident. I mean…it’s Hogwarts, for god’s sake. The one place Voldemort never touched. I never expected – but I should have.” He slumped onto the edge of the bed and took his head in his hands, his body trembling with stifled sobs.

Ginevra sat down beside him…after all, the patient would never feel any of this ever again, so why not? “Harry, stop blaming yourself. There were plenty wiser and warier wizards who never made the decision. You can’t do everything. You are our last hope…not Dumbledore. And you are the one who needs to live in the present, and not the past. You are the one who needs to be ready. Because you are the only one who can do what needs to be done.”

He looked at her with tortured eyes. “I am so tired, Ginny. Dumbledore…he was the man who would never fall…he was – was like a father. Sure, I hated him at times…but I loved him too. And he was the one I looked to for answers when I was lost. I am lost now, Ginny, and he isn’t there anymore. I am so tired of being the one…the only one.”

She squeezed his shoulders gently…any greater show of sympathy at this point would break him. She was a good reader of people. “We all do what we must, Harry. And you must be ready – tired or not. Just as everyone out there is ready to stand and defend you and what you stand for…you must be ready to stand for the dead – for what they died for.”

He got up and looked at her. “Ginny, when the battle is done – forget it. There’s men fighting out there for me…I must go to them. But Ginny – I lo – If I die – no. I can’t leave you with this on your mind. Just know…know that I care about you…a lot. Ginny?”

She smiled wistfully, tears filling her eyes. “I know that, Harry. I do.”

He apparated away, keeping her from having to say that she didn’t return the feelings. Keeping her from breaking a man that needed to be strong. For the first time in her life, she was glad to see Harry go. Because she did care about him, even love him…but she wasn’t in love with him.

She didn’t want to hurt him when he was already torn apart inside. When he was the only one who couldn’t afford to break. The man whose destiny, the purpose he was meant to fulfill, was more important than any emotion. The sad truth was that it would be a worthy sacrifice: his life for the Light. He knew it as well as she did.

Minerva McGonagall Summoned Ginevra Weasley to the Headmaster’s Office, the only place that remained untouched by Death Eaters except for the Ravenclaw Dormitories. Dumbledore, bless his soul, had placed added protections on the office that activated when he died…and no one knew what they were – not even the Deputy Headmistress herself.

Nevra appeared before the professor. “Yes, Headmistress?”

“How is the battle?”

“Not well. We revive the fallen as fast as we can, but there is only so much we can do before the dampers on magical output reappear. The D.A. is only able to remove the dampers for 30 minutes at a time every hour, which is as long as we have to work on patients.”

How many dead?

“32 students, 2 teachers, and Order Members and Ministry Officials I have no jurisdiction over – Ministry Healers take care of the adults, I take the kids and teachers of Hogwarts only. We can’t handle any more than our own here. We are already filled over the capacity of the Infirmary.”

McGonagall sighed. “All right, Ginny. Back to your work.”

Ginny Apparated to the Infirmary. There were three patients waiting for her, two lying on the floor, unable to stand. No one could be spared from the battle to help the fallen…that was left to the medical staff. Everyone here had their hands full with keeping everyone alive until they could be magically healed. She spoke quietly to the one half-leaning against the wall. “Just wait here. I will get a room open.”

Room 18B had just been cleared of the bodies of Luna Lovegood and Dennis Creevey. She strode in to prepare the medical supplies and make the beds and met an utter spectacle. There was a boy with his back to her, hunched over a medical tray.

“Hey, let me help you. I am a Healer here.” Ginny spoke. The boy spun instantly, needle and thread forgotten on the floor, his wand steady in his outstretched hand. Ginny put her hands up defensively. “Easy. I won’t bite. I just thought you may need help.”

The boy sighed. “I do. Thank you…I thought you may be…someone else.” He didn’t elaborate and Ginny didn’t ask. There was no time to waste and three patients waiting for a bed outside.

“We don’t need stitches. The magical dampers are lifted for a few minutes. Where’s the cut?” The boy hesitated and then pulled up his sleeve, revealing a rather ugly looking gash. Ginny winced. Then muttered the Healing Spell and watched the cut heal to a healthy pink scar on the boy’s pale skin. The magical dampers snapped back into place and Ginny could feel the added weight in the air. But it wasn’t that the dampers that stopped her in her tracks.

A Dark Mark had appeared on the boy’s arm and he couldn’t pull his sleeve down fast enough to hide it. He looked at her with silver eyes that were scared and defiant all at once.

She grabbed his wrist and spoke, “If I ever see you on this side of the battlefield again, I will kill you. Make no mistake. I don’t like ruining work I have done, so I will pretend I didn’t see that. In this war, we’re all just children trying to find the light. I can’t seem to make myself care about which side people are on, only about the fact that they are hurt. You are just as scared and hurt as the boys on our side are, so I will let you go. But I hope that you will change…that you will find the light in time before the Dark Side is destroyed.”

He looked at her, his face blank. “You are very confident. I assure you, the Dark Side has powers and allies that no one on this side ever expected, even Dumbledore or Potter. I can’t go back…I killed a Death Eater when he turned on my mother to silence her scream of pain because she would ruin an attack. However, I warn you, be careful. The enemy is stronger than you think.”

His name suddenly occurred to her. “You’re Draco Malfoy!” He grimaced, then nodded.

“I was never pledged to the Dark Side before the War began, thank the Gods. I wish you the best of luck…I really don’t know what side I am on anymore. The side that nearly killed my mother, or the side who always assumed that I was evil because of my bloodline. It really is a hard choice to make.” His voice held traces of the sarcastic bite that was his trademark back at school.

Ginny could only say the one thing that had ran through her head through this entire battle. “There is so much I should care about. The fact that we are all trying to fight for what we think is right. The fact that children are dying. The fact that we all do what we must. The courage, the despair, the death. But we have become numb. Nothing matters anymore.”

He shuddered. “All I can smell is Death, all I can see is Blood, all I can feel is Fear. I feel like I’ve lost myself in this War. Nothing matters anymore. You are right.” He turned to leave the room and turned back to face her, “I think I know what side I am on now. Best of luck, Ginny Weasley.”

He left before the fact sunk into Ginny’s mind that he had known her name…somehow.

A few hours later, the battle suddenly reversed tides. The Death Eaters, kept blundering into one another and destroying each other. They fell into every one of the ambushes set by the Light. The magical dampers suddenly disappeared, leaving Ginevra and the others free to Heal as many as they could in record speeds. When the battle was done, the casualties began flowing back…the numbers were enormous.

Hermione and Ron Weasley. Luna Lovegood. Dennis Creevey. Blaise Zabini. Parvati Patil. Dean Thomas. Michael Corner. Cho Chang. Fred Weasley. Countless others remained to be counted. The bittersweet news was that Harry Potter had succeeded in killing the Dark Lord, only to be killed by Lucius Malfoy seconds later (also now dead).

When the Minister of Magic had gone up to the Headmaster’s Office, he found Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, lying on the floor, dead. Across from her was the fallen body of the Malfoy Heir, Draco Malfoy. A bloodstained letter was found on his body.

To You,

My name is Draco Malfoy. I was on different sides of this battle. I started out a student Death Eater (not yet sworn to Voldemort) but I am now trying to save the Light. You see, the Dark Side tried to kill me when I killed a Death Eater who attempted to hurt my mother. My father probably finished the job for the man after I fled, but the point was my mother, a loyal follower, was nearly killed because she could not bring herself to send her only son into battle.

A Hogwarts Healer helped me with a gash and later found out about the Dark Mark on my arm (not the real brand but an imitation for identification’s sake) that had been covered by a glamour until the magical damper set in. She made me realize that whatever was on the side of the Light, I believed in. Because she said that in the end, we were all people trying to find the light in our lives…and I realized that wherever she was, was where the light was for me.

Without this act, the Dark Side will surely prevail. And now I don’t want them to. Minerva McGonagall has been passing information to us since she was fed information that Dumbledore was planning to allow Voldemort to attack and trap him (false information). The Dark Side promised to keep Hogwarts intact with her in charge…because of that, she became a loyal spy.

I consider my death worthwhile. I know she will defeat me…she is much more skilled than I am, though not more powerful in terms of raw magical aptitude. However, she will not destroy me before I eliminate her…the one reason the Light is losing the battle I believe will be the last in this War. And for one reason…Ginevra Weasley…I want the Light to win. This I know more truly than I have known anything in my entire life.

Though we were on different sides, she showed me something I know I believe in. Humanity...Caring…Compassion. If we can preserve that, we have won. No matter what side we are on.

D.M.