(It Ends) Tonight
The sun was setting behind the trees, casting the forest in a strange glow. The rain had ceased and the ground was still damp. Tall trees surrounded the small child who sat with a damp bottom on a rock, watched at a distance by a woman with fire red hair. There was silence all around them; the woods were eerily quiet. There was stillness about the air as the red head finished the last marks on the parchment and fastened it to the leg of the large barn owl before it took to the sky in a hurry to return to the ministry where Harry would be waiting. The red head pursed her lips displeased at the notion that Hermione would probably be there, holding his hand.
"Your mum and dad will be here soon, Ava," Ginny called to the toddler who had taken the opportunity to pick up a leaf that had fallen next to her. The child looked up, hopeful.
"Ma? Daddy?" The child inquired. Ginny laughed; her laugher warm as she crossed the clearing to where the child was perched on the boulder.
"Yes, you mum and your dad," Ginny said coaxing as she waved her wand over Ava's grass stained jeans, the stains dissolving instantly. Ginny had barely been able to snatch Ava from her yard, the mother had looked away for just a moment and Ginny had scooped her up and appirated there to the forbidden forest. It seemed fitting that the place that Ginny had once feared now brought her so much strength and comfort.
Ginny continued to circle the child, murmuring slightly as the child watched her with curious eyes. Ginny knew it would be long. The letter should be arriving at the ministry and she knew it wouldn't take long until Harry and Hermione arrived at the gate of Hogwarts. Ginny waited. She had gotten used to waiting. She waited in school for Harry to notice her. She waited when he, Ron, and Hermione had gone off to fight the Dark Lord. She laughed. They thought that they had won.
"They thought that they were smarter, better, just because they were older," Ginny murmured as she picked at a small scab on her arm, the blood rising to the wound and spilling over on her skin like a red tear drop.
Ginny heard movement in the woods around her and she froze, her wand raised. The child didn't notice Ginny's movement, instead transfixed on the leaf as a tiny green inch worm crept across it.
"Ginny?" A voice asked just beyond the shadows of the trees. Ginny felt her heart soar. She would have known that voice anywhere. She watched as he slowly walked out from behind the trees, his hands raised in an unthreatening manner.
"Harry!" Ginny said unable to suppress her excitement. She wanted to run at him, but she remained at the rock, next to the child. "Where is Hermione? I know I told you to bring her. By now you know why she is here."
Ginny nodded her head toward the brown haired girl who seemed to look right at Harry. Deep with in his own soul, he felt the pull of his paternal instincts though up until recently he hadn't even known he was a parent. He stepped forward, arms reaching for the child but was stopped by Ginny, her wand raised.
"Ginny, you are sick, you need my help," Harry murmured.
"Where is my dear old best friend? Hermione?" Ginny called into the darkness. The child looked up at Ginny with a curious look on her face. Hermione stepped out of the woods and for the first time laid eyes on her daughter. Memories flooded Hermione like a tidal wave causing a sob to escape Hermione's body, echoing over the night filled woods. The area seemed to glow around them, and Harry could see that the fireflies had swarmed in a giant circle around their heads.
"Ginny, please," Hermione said as she stepped forward.
"No, damn it! He was mine!" Ginny screamed at Hermione as she flicked her wand, sending Hermione ricocheting off a trunk of a tree. Hermione fell to the ground and groaned, struggling to stand.
"Ginny, let Ava go and you and I will talk," Harry said quietly, trying to keep his voice calm as he inched forward.
"No, I can't stand the thought of you and her ending up together," Ginny cried out. The child's bottom lip began to tremble and Ava begun to cry. "Shut up!"
"Ginny. Hermione and I aren't going to end up together," Harry said as he stepped closer to Ginny. "Hermione is with Draco now. Remember? They were holding hands in the ministry?"
"Stop talking to me like I am a child, Harry," Ginny said angrily as Draco and Ron stepped out from the woods. She became enraged. "I told you to come alone. Do you ever listen?"
"I know," Harry murmured softly. "I tried to tell them to stay, but you know how people always stop to look at a car accident, same thing. I guess that they are hoping you will off me so that they can slide in and take my spot."
"Ginny, don't do this or I will tell mom," Ron threatened. Harry cringed as he heard Ron join Hermione against the ground at the base of the tree. Harry was at a loss. At this rate, he, Ginny, and the now silenced baby were going to be the only conscious ones.
"Can we talk?" Harry asked her quietly as he sat down where he stood just moments before. He racked his brains, not sure where he was going with this. Ginny looked at him uncertainly before she sat down on the rock next to the child who seemed to be getting redder and redder with anger and tears.
"What do you want to talk about?" Ginny asked. She still had her wand pointing at Harry.
"Why did you go to Sydney?" Harry asked as he took his own wand and created a little ball of light that he began bouncing on the end of his wand.
"Hermione was my best friend," Ginny said simply. Harry didn't look up at her. He continued to bounce the light ball, making it twinkle and spark.
"What are you hoping to get out of taking Ava from the muggle woman's house? What do you hope to accomplish?" Harry asked. He let his eyes fall on her face.
"Do you know what they did, Harry? They lied to you, they lied to you about all this," Ginny said as she swept her hand in front of her.
"Ginny," Draco drawled as he came closer. Ginny's fury flared.
"Don't get me started on you," Ginny snapped as she stood and pointed her wand at Draco. "I told you to do one thing and you manage to fuck it all up, Draco. I even showed you how to do it, and you couldn't get that right. You are a terrible wizard. No wonder you never made Auror."
"What are you talking about?" Draco asked as he stepped back, not wanting to be too close incase Ginny's wand went off.
"Do you really think you could have created a memory like sleeping with Hermione all by yourself?" Ginny said laughing. "Come on. You are a Mudblood-hating, pure blooded wizard. You and a Mudblood? That's too rich. I bet that your Mummy and Daddy have a laugh about that one."
"Ginny, please lower your wand," Harry coaxed as he, too stood.
"Stop Harry," Ginny said frustrated. "I know I am never going to have you, am I?"
"No," Harry said closing his eyes. "Look Ginny, you are sick. You have a part of Lord Voldemort's soul attached to your own."
"That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of," Ginny growled. She shook her head. "No, look Harry, this is all me. This is who I am. I loved you. I waited for you, and you used me and cheated on me with her."
"Did you know Hermione was pregnant?" Harry asked as he stopped moving towards Ginny.
"No, that actually came to a surprise to me," Ginny replied, the anger escaping from her voice. "I thought that Draco had actually managed to get her, but then the numbers didn't add up, and the memories were vague and vapid. When I saw her, I knew. I didn't want Hermione to keep it, because I knew you would put two and two together if you saw the baby on a daily basis, so I filled that bushy head of hers with horrors and drove her insane."
"What do you mean you filled her head and drove her insane?" Harry asked as his arms crossed his chest. He glanced over at Ava who was sucking her thumb now, watching Ginny with keen interest.
"Do you think that nerdy little book worm could actually go through with all those murders?" Ginny laughed callously. "She couldn't even stand up to you when you were obviously wrong."
"I was wrong?" Harry asked as his temper flared. "You killed a baby and made her believe she had done it all."
"Yes, and I would do it again. You were mine, Harry, and she contaminated you with knowledge and understanding. Hermione couldn't kill anything if her life depended on it," Ginny said infuriated. She strolled over to the child and touched her head with her hand.
"Ok, so all of this was you?" Harry asked as he wracked his brains. They were in a sticky spot and he had no idea what to do. He had to keep her talking while he tried to figure out a plan. He glanced at Ron and Hermione unconscious in a heap behind him, and he hoped that they were ok.
"She may be the brightest witch of her time, but she and I are no longer equals. I bested her. She is going to die tonight, so are you, Harry, and so is Ava," Ginny told him as she brought her wand down to the child's face. The end began to glow hot.
"Wait!" Harry yelled.
"Well, what is it?" Ginny asked crossly as she pulled back a moment, releasing the child's hair from her grasp. The child slowly slid away.
"Well, aren't you going to tell me how you did it?" Harry asked as he thought about every villain movie had ever seen. They did their evil monologue thing, stalling, and the hero always prevailed. Harry's heart fell, this wasn't a movie, and this was real life.
"What does it matter?" Ginny snapped as she stepped toward the child.
"I have to know, did Draco and Hermione ever kill anyone?" Harry asked quickly. Ginny turned back to him and laughed.
"I already went over that. Weren't you listening? God, you are stupid and pathetic," Ginny said unsympathetically. "Just ask what you really want to know. You want to know if they ever slept together, don't you?"
"Well," Harry hesitated. He had rather not really have that information confirmed. Ginny laughed and seized Draco with her wand and brought him between Harry and her own self.
"Draco, once cast now release, thoughts and dreams, say your peace," Ginny murmured as she waved her wand in a big circle over Draco's head. Draco looked at Harry a moment; his eyes slid out of focus and then back into focus. Ginny looked at Harry, a cruel smile on her face. "Did you ever sleep with Hermione Granger?"
The silence was deafening. Harry could feel his heart thumping in his chest, echoing coldly against the walls of his rib cage. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, despite the coolness of the air.
"No," Draco said quietly. He looked like a crushed man and the past years memories, real and false, flooded his mind. It looked rather painful and Draco's face reflected.
"That can't be true!" Ginny screamed as she flung Draco against the tree. She forced her gaze at Harry, her breathing coming in gulping breathes. "I set it up perfectly. He should have been able to complete the plan perfectly."
"Maybe your plan isn't so perfect," Harry suggested. She looked like she could shoot flames out of her eyes.
"My plan was brilliant! You would think Hermione and Draco were together and you would come running to me!" Ginny shouted as she began to pace.
"What happened? Why make Hermione and Draco think that they had killed?" Harry asked as he watched her. "Why make them think that that D'Agostinos' baby was possessed by the soul of Lord Voldemort. I killed him; he can't come back, Ginny."
"I know that, Harry," Ginny sneered at him as she tapped her wand against her thigh, deep in thought. "I didn't know what else to do, and they still couldn't kill him. Weak, pathetic, unimaginative…"
"So you killed the baby?" Harry asked as he edged closer to the toddler. She looked at him, her eyes trained on him. "Then you made them believe Hermione had done it."
"I had to, I needed them to be bound to each other," Ginny said. "Why do you think I made them think that they had signed an unbreakable vow with Shacklebolt? I modified their memories so that they would modify yours, only I had to go back behind them, and do it right. Neither Draco nor Hermione were very good at obliviations."
"But what about Ava? Draco sent me to find Ava," Harry said as he came with in reaching distance of Ava.
"Apparently I was off my game a few times and the spells broke," Ginny said as she realized that Harry was too close for comfort to Ava. Ginny summoned the child as Harry dove for her. "You can't win this one, Harry."
"Listen, Gin, give Hermione the baby and you and I can just go," Harry said quietly as he watch his daughter squirming in Ginny's grasp. Ginny looked at Harry hopefully.
"No," Ginny decided. "You only promise to stay as long as it takes you to kill me."
"No, Ginny, I am not a killer," Harry said coldly. "You are."
"I only did what I had to do to ensure my love," Ginny said with an almost pleading voice, wanting Harry to understand she did this all for him.
"Do you have your love, Ginny? No. And do you know why?" Draco moaned as he pulled himself straight. He cradled a broken arm but still had his wand pointing at Ginny. "Because you over estimated your own powers and underestimated other people's powers."
"Give me the child, Ginny," Hermione said as she stepped forward, her arm stretched out for the child.
"Let Shacklebolt's death be the last blood you spill," Ron begged. Four wands were fixed on Ginny, her own wand on the child.
"Kill me," Ginny taunted. "Azkaban or death, it is all the same."
Ginny raised the wand again, pointing it at the small child who now looked at her as she hung by her arm from Ginny's hand. Her bright green eyes mirrored Harry's and Ginny could feel herself shaking.
"Stupify!" The four shouted in unison. Four stunning spells hit Ginny head on, sending her flying back. Ava tumbled to the ground, her cries piercing the once eerily silent night. Harry gathered the child up in his arms; trying to comfort her while Draco bound Ginny with ropes that seemed to snake from his wand.
"Mum is going to flip out when she finds out," Ron murmured as he looked over at his sister. Harry nodded, having quieted the toddler. He walked over to Hermione.
"I remember everything," Harry said quietly as he passed the child into her mother's arms. Hermione held the child to her, fighting weakly against the tears that poured down her face.
"I remember everything, too," Hermione whispered as she stroked the child's soft brown curls.
A/N: Ok. That is it. That is the end, in all its flawed imperfection. That is all I wrote, and while a good many of you thought it sucked and I suck at writing, this isn't for you. This is for those of you who have stuck with it from start to finish. I am not sure if you want an epilogue, so for now… I will pass on one. Maybe if enough people want to know what happens next, then, maybe I will write one. It has been… an experience, to say the least. Thank you for reading.
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