Ginny nodded and lay back down on her bed while Hermione left. She then proceeded to sob herself into a haunted sleep.
"Ginny we need to get ready. We've leaving in a little bit to go head them off," Harry whispered to the redhead on his chest.
"I wish we could stay here like this forever Harry, but I guess today we can't. We can do this for the rest of our lives though." Ginny said looking up into Harry's eyes and smiling.
Harry smiled at her optimism and stubbornness, he had always loved that about her. No matter what was going on, she saw the best in it. She could've been holding an injured body that seemed beyond repair and state with honesty "I can do it, I can fix him."
He got up and got dressed and helped Ginny with her things. When she was about to leave the tent, he pulled her back to him and kissed her softly and with passion. After ending the kiss she looked up at him with eyes full of love and smiled her quirky smile.
"You can say goodbye to me Harry, but I refuse to say it back." With that she left the tent to get some food.
As Harry stood there watching her shadow retreat, he knew today would be the hardest day he'd ever endure, and probably his last one.
He ducked out of the tent and put on an optimistic smile to fool the others. He walked over to Mrs. Weasley and had some porridge in the frigid silence that had fallen around them. It seemed everyone knew the choices of what would happen and figured if they didn't talk at all, nothing bad could possibly happen. Everyone knew the possible outcomes of this final confrontation, both good and bad. But by not talking about it, none of the bad ones could possibly happen.
"Come on everyone, it's time to head out now," Mr. Weasley announced to the group. He then flicked his wand and magically everything was packed up into a miniature box that he put into his pocket.
With that everyone congregated into a group and started walking the distance to the Death Eaters' camp. Ginny walked next to Harry holding his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze every now and then to remind him she was there. Next to them walked Ron and Hermione, who gave Harry furtive glances just to make sure he was still there.
In front of them walked the Weasley clan with the four other siblings and parents. Lupin walked next to Mr. Weasley whispering plans and hopes. Following behind were the rest of the Order and students from the DA who insisted on fighting in the war.
The oddly assembled group hustled along wanting to head the Death Eaters off so they would have the advantage of attacking the Death Eaters before they were alert enough to know of the assault. The only reason they knew where Voldemort was located was because Draco had finally come to their side looking for revenge against the people that had sacrificed his parents. When he had come in front of the Order, Harry had taken pity on him, knowing what it felt like to be an orphan, even if Draco had chosen to fight with Voldemort at first. In the end it didn't matter who had he believed in at the beginning, but who he fought with at the end.
They finally came upon the Death Eaters' camp and huddled together far enough away so as to not be noticed by the enemy.
"Gather around everyone!" Mr. Weasley said. "We have been in our share of battles against the Death Eaters, but today is different. Today we will also face You-Know-Who. If we can defeat him then today this war will be over, and it will end for us in victory."
After a round of nodding and murmurs of support, everyone reached for their wands. And with that, they attacked the campsite.
And what a mess they caused. Tents were thrown revealing the unmasked Death Eaters, and beams of light emanated from wands as spells were cast everywhere. Harry ducked green lights while he searched for his destiny in the field. It seemed unsurprising no one had uncovered Voldemort yet - he was probably waiting for his minions to wear down the competition. Harry looked over to see how the others were doing and stupefied a Death Eater coming up behind Ginny. With that he jumped head first into the battle, figuring the less Death Eaters left after Voldemort was finished, the better.
After evading numerous spells, hexes, and curses - and issuing plenty of his own - Harry heard a familiar voice screaming his name. Harry watched in slow motion as a cloaked and hooded figure strode towards Ginny. The sounds of the battle around him seemed to diminish to mere whispers as he listened to the words coming from inside the hood. The figure turned towards him for a fleeting moment, and Harry saw something like a smile play on the mouth of a man who seemed more snake-like than human. Then, in the blink of an eye, a wand was pointed at Ginny's throat.
Harry then did the only thing he knew to do.
Ginny woke in the morning with drops of perspiration on her brow. Immediately she started crying again and yelled out Harry's name. She yelled his name over and over, waiting to see him appear before her, but it didn't happen. Instead Hermione appeared, and wrapping her arms around Ginny she began rocking her.
Once Ginny gained as much of her composure as she saw possible, she left Hermione's embrace and headed to the bathroom. She closed and locked the door and turned on the warm water in the shower. Ginny removed her clothes and looked in the mirror at herself for the first time in a long while. She saw her face had become gaunt and her bones now protruded from her chest and hips. At first she assumed it was because during the war she had barely been able to tolerate food due to her high strung nerves. But since making the effort to eat under the reproachful stares of her friends and family, she'd found couldn't keep anything down even if she wanted to. After getting fed up with her image she stepped into the warm water of the shower and let it mingle with a fresh torrent of tears.
Hermione sat on her bed after getting dressed and waited for Ginny to get out of the shower. Today was the day that she was going to get the story out of Ginny no matter how hard it would prove. No one knew what had really happened to Harry except that he and Voldemort were dead. The only thing Ginny had said since was that it was her fault. Hermione couldn't see how Voldemort killing Harry was Ginny's fault, but that's what Ginny insisted.
Hermione waited for a while until Ginny emerged from the bathroom. She had to hold back a gasp when she saw Ginny in muggle clothes instead of her robes. How could I have not noticed how frail she has become? Hermione asked herself. Instead of asking aloud, she just gave Ginny a concerned look. Ginny tried to smile at Hermione, but it just looked like she was in a serious amount of pain.
Before Ginny had a chance to shoo Hermione away she had been grabbed by the wrist and was being pulled down the stairs to the common room.
"Please Hermione, I just need to be let alone," Ginny begged Hermione, but Hermione hadn't seemed to hear her.
"We're going to breakfast, and then we're going on a walk so that we can talk Ginerva." Hermione said this with a tone that said there was no getting out of the plans.
Ginny walked, or more so got dragged along, with her head down. She didn't want to see the sympathetic looks the other students were giving her. It had been a week since they had come back to school and she was still getting looks, but she suspected they wouldn't stop anytime soon. It's not everyday you're dating "The Chosen One" and he dies in the epic battle to destroy Voldemort.
They arrived at the Great Hall before she even realized it. She could feel the eyes boring into her skin as she walked by. For once, she didn't even feel like raising her head up proudly because there was nothing to be proud about in her eyes, she had lost too much to feel anything but numb.
Hermione pulled Ginny down onto the bench next to her and started piling food on Ginny's plate for her. Ginny stared at the eggs, pancakes, and toast like they would eat her and felt disgusted. If people had told her last year that she would go days without eating and still have felt nauseous at the sight of food, she would've laughed in their face.
Ginny put her fork into the eggs and pushed them around staring at them in disgust until someone cleared their throat in front of her. She looked up to see Ron looking at her with a worried expression on his face.
"For Merlin's sake, Ginny, you need to eat something before your body finally just swallows you whole."
Ginny looked back down at the eggs and put a small portion on her fork and ate it. She then put a feeble attempt of a smile on her face and looked up at her brother as she swallowed.
"Oh now that won't do Gin," Ron said to her with a determined look. "I won't let you leave this table until you've cleared your plate."
Ginny looked at her brother like he had sprouted another head and looked back down at the plate of food. She thought she was already going to vomit with that one bite, but decided to at least try to eat; maybe it was just the nausea getting to her again.
After eating a pancake and half of her eggs she looked back up at her expecting brother with a green tinge to her face. With that she got up and ran outside to vomit. Hermione looked at Ron with her eyebrows furrowed together with concern, not noticing someone had followed Ginny outside.
"She's letting herself waste away since she feels so guilty, Ron. We have to do something."
"Yes, but nothing seems to work with her. She was stubborn and sarcastic before…well…you know." Ron hesitated as he remembered what had taken place. "But now she's stubborn in her guilt, and we don't even know the full story of what happened."
"I'm going to see if I can at least talk to her, or have her say something other than how guilty she feels," Hermione stated definitively while standing. She leaned over and kissed Ron and went outside.
Hermione found Ginny outside sitting on the bench next to Harry and Dumbledore's tombs. She remembered how Ginny insisted that Harry wanted to be laid to rest next to Dumbledore when something happened. It made her wonder if Harry knew that he was going to be killed.
Before Hermione could reach Ginny, she saw a blonde-haired boy walk over and sit next to Ginny and hug her. She had to blink a couple of times to make sure that she wasn't imagining Draco hugging a Weasley.
Hermione stood there watching the odd couple for a few more minutes waiting for Draco to do something offensive, obviously he couldn't realize that he was holding a Weasley. Even during the time he stayed with the Order he still had snide remarks to say about Hermione, but he just cradled Ginny in his arms stroking her hair and whispering something in her ear. Seeing that everything was all right, she walked back inside to tell Ron.
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