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Grief and Recklessness
By EROD37

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Category: Alternate Universe, Post-HBP
Characters:None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Humor, Tragedy
Warnings: Death, Disturbing Imagery, Violence
Story is Complete
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 13
Summary: This story takes places after the events in the story "Loss". The quartet retrieved the Hufflepuff cup, but lost a teammate in the process. Read how things go for the new "trio".
Hitcount: Story Total: 3978



Disclaimer: Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions in this story are my own and in no way represent the owners of this site. This story subject to copyright law under transformative use. No compensation is made for this work.



Author's Notes:
J.K. Rowling owns these characters.
As I always strive to make each of my stories stand-alone, I urge you to read my other stories first as they lead up to the events in this story. The order of these stories is as follows:

-Intervention

-Misunderstandings

-Vows and Promises

-Incompleteness

-Escape and Evasion

-Dawn of the G.S.F.

-Old Wounds

-Rescue for a Friend

-Loss

But if you do read any of my stories, or any stories by any author for that matter, please take the time to leave a review. It means the world to authors when you do this and I’m sure I speak for all authors when I say that we always find it ironic when we get over a thousand hits on our stories but only get a fraction of the reviews. Your feedback, good or bad, is always appreciated.






ChapterPrinter


Grief and Recklessness
By EROD37

“How had things gone so wrong?”


It was a question that had gone through Ginny’s mind more times than she could remember. But each time it did, the answer would bring sadness to her heart.


The Hufflepuff cup had been recovered, the horcrux within it destroyed. But its retrieval had come at a horrible price.


Hermione paid that price with her life.


Hidden in a dark corner of the G.S.F.’s tent, Ginny silently watched her brother as he strapped on his holster and slipped his wand into its sheath. He seemed to be making a point not to be heard.


“How had things gone so wrong?”


As she watched Ron, the events of the last two months replayed through Ginny’s mind. Hermione’s death marked a dark turn in the now new trio’s mission, the horcrux hunt had become a battle of survival. Not just for them, but for the entire wizarding world.


The G.S.F. began changing their tent’s location almost daily after a small group of Death Eaters made the mistake of accidentally stumbling upon their tent one evening.


It was several weeks later when those unlucky Death Eaters finally came out of their spell induced comas.


It became painfully clear that Voldemort and his minions had stepped up their attacks among the wizarding world in a desperate attempt to find the remaining members of the G.S.F.


Harry, Ron and Ginny could only stand by helplessly as they would receive small snippets of information regarding the fates of friends, classmates, loved ones, or anyone for that matter.


The Order decided to expand on Harry’s advice by placing not only the Grangers into hiding, but the Weasleys, and Dursleys as well.


The Weasley clan looked to have closed ranks in an attempt to keep one another safe as the twins closed down their joke shop on Diagon Alley.


It was as if all three families had disappeared from the face of the planet.


Tonks, after receiving word of Hermione’s demise, visited St. Mungo’s to explain to Remus what information she could regarding his helping of the G.S.F. on their last mission. She then ordered him not to return to the werewolf clan, practically threatening him with arrest if he tried to leave her again.


But not all the information they could gather was good. After discovering Hermione’s identity and not being able to locate her family, the Death Eaters started targeting people with any kind of connection to either her or the rest of the quartet.


It all started with Harry and Ron’s dorm mates. Seamus Finnigan was murdered in front of his mother. Rumor had it that of the three Death Eaters that attacked him, two were burnt to death before he finally fell.


Dean Thomas and his mother were killed while making their way to a supposed safe house. Ginny did not speak for the better part of two days when she heard the news.


Neville Longbottom’s grandmother was murdered providing her grandson precious minutes to escape. No information was available regarding his whereabouts. Ginny inwardly prayed that no news was good news.


Next came members of Gryffindor house. The Creevey Brothers, Demelza Robins, Cormac McLaggen, Lavender Brown, Natalie McDonald, Ritchie Coote, and Vicky Frobisher had all been murdered needlessly.


When this did not provide the results the Death Eaters were looking for, they murdered members of other houses with any ties to the quartet, including Terry Boot, Ernie Macmillian, Marietta Edgecombe, and Susan Bones.


When even this failed to bring the G.S.F. out of hiding, Voldemort’s forces seemingly attacked at random, killing several members of the Hogwarts teaching staff.


Including, to Harry’s utter horror, Hagrid.


Word was he had been found by Professor McGonagall and several other members of the Order. Hagrid’s lifeless body was being cradled in his brother Grawp’s arms as tears fell from the giant’s eyes.


Not far from Grawp laid the carcass of Buckbeak, it looked as if the animal had given its life to protect Hagrid. Lucius Malfoy’s longtime wish for the Hippogriff’s head had finally been granted as Buckbeak had been decapitated, his head no place to be found.


Each piece of news was like a stake to the heart of Harry, Ron, and Ginny. At one point the trio had almost considered turning themselves in to stop the murders. The only thing that stopped them was an anonymous letter sent to them via a folded paper bird which simply read,


WE ARE ALL BEHIND YOU, STAY STRONG!!!


But for Ron, Harry, and Ginny it had been Hermione’s death that was having a harsher effect on them than all of the other deaths combined.


The large tent that had been home for them since the quest began had suddenly become small as reminders of Hermione’s existence jumped out at them at every turn.


Books, with Hermione’s bookmarks, were found in various sections of the tent, as if quietly waiting for her return to continue reading where she had left off.


None of the trio could bring themselves to place them back on the shelves.


Conversation between the three teammates was sparse as they each grieved in their own ways.


Ginny recalled Harry’s unspoken decision to spend his sleeping hours, when he could sleep, in the tent’s living room. Several nights Ginny found herself comforting Harry from a reoccurring nightmare in which he saw Hermione’s lifeless eyes staring back at him through the magical barrier that had trapped her to her fate.


When Harry could not sleep she would feel his guilt as he spent that time replaying Hermione’s death in his mind, wondering if there was some way he could have done something different to save her life.


Ginny knew that the connection they shared worked both ways, for as she felt his guilt, he had to be feeling hers. She spent the first two weeks, after Hermione’s passing, crying herself to sleep over the loss of her best friend and the guilt she felt for having followed the order to leave her to die.


It had taken all of her mental strength to keep from being overwhelmed by the combined guilt.


The most dramatic change came from Ron. Gone was the jovial, fun loving, ever joking person that everyone remembered. In his place came a quiet, brooding young man who suddenly became obsessed with ending Voldemort’s reign.


Ron threw himself into both his physical and magical training. After two months he no longer looked like a taller version of Fred and George, but a bulkier, more muscular version of her brother Charlie. Many times she and Harry would enter “The Pit” to find its wooden training dummies smashed to bits. Inwardly, Ginny felt pity for anyone who crossed Ron in the wrong manner.


But while Ron may have looked physically better, Ginny knew that mentally he was suffering. He was visually growing impatient with Harry’s lack of action. He spoke to her only when spoken to and even then with just short polite answers.


Ginny could only watch as Harry and Ron’s friendship deteriorated in front of her eyes. Her brother could not bring himself to forgive Harry for leaving Hermione behind, and Harry could not allow himself to be forgiven for the same reason. It was a vicious circle; Ginny could not get through to either of them.


It was only in the last few weeks that she realized that Ron’s behavior had taken a turn for the worse. At morning breakfasts she noticed that Ron would appear each day with freshly healed wounds on the exposed areas of his hands, arms and face.


If Harry noticed as well, he never let on. Ginny, on the other hand, refused to sit idly by. She knew her brother could not have been hurting himself through his training. Neither she nor Harry had sparred with him in weeks. So she theorized that it had to be something he was doing during their sleeping hours.


Finally, as she watched Ron quietly leave the tent in the middle of the night, she discovered she was correct in her assumption. Part of her wanted to follow him, part of her wanted to wake Harry and inform him of her discovery. But it was the part of her that thought like her mother would that won out; as she magically guided a sofa in front of the tent’s entrance and sat down to await her brother’s return.


“How had things gone so wrong and what can I do to make things right?”


XXXXXXXXXX


Among the twist and turns that make up Diagon Alley there are places where the normal everyday witch could purchase magical items. Places where a wizard could get a bite to eat or grab a pint of ale. Even places where one could buy a flock of owls in which to deliver mail all over the United Kingdom.


But of all the things one could find, it was trouble that could be found if a witch or wizard wanted it or not. Take a wrong turn, lose track of time, or just not pay attention to one’s surroundings and one could very well find themselves in a situation they could find it difficult to get out of.


Harry had learned that lesson in his second year when a simple mistake in speaking caused him to floo into the wrong fireplace, ending up in Knockturn Alley.


Fortunately for Harry, when he exited Borgin and Burkes he turned to his right instead of his left, which would have led him deeper in the wrong direction. For had he turned left he would have found himself headed towards a pub that no self-respecting wizard, minor or not, should ever find himself in.


Over five years from the time of Harry’s accidental journey, that same pub found itself the focus of someone who had nothing but the mindset of not just finding trouble, but to have trouble find him.


And trouble had indeed found him; the pub looked as if a hurricane had hit it. Tables and chairs had either been smashed to bits or thrown from their normal resting areas. The bar itself looked beyond repair as it had been hit by several hexes and spells. Bottles of liquor that were once behind it, were now smashed, their contents splattered in every direction.


Lying on the floor of the pub, in various awkward positions, were the bodies of several Death Eaters. Their wands smashed to bits next to their unconscious forms.


Strangely enough the destruction itself was not without a pattern. A trained wizard would have easily seen how the magical brawl began in the pub but had been led out of a rear exit and into a poorly lit alleyway behind it.


In that very alley stood three Death Eaters each holding wands and cautiously standing their ground. In front of them stood Ron Weasley, his face had several cuts and there was a deep bruise on his forehead. But his eyes showed a seriousness that told the three wizards in front of him that he felt no pain from his injuries.


Ron was in his fighting stance as he expertly twirled his wand between his fingers, “Are the three of you just going to stand there hoping that I bleed to death from these cuts?”


None of the three reacted as Ron continued, “Or maybe you’re just trying to figure out what kind of spells I used on your five mates back inside the pub? Well, you don’t have to worry about that because I didn’t use any spells at all!”


The Death Eaters were shocked by the statement, but they were even more shocked when Ron slipped his wand back into his holster.


“I see you all need proof. I’ll just take the lot of you without using my wand.”


The Death Eaters looked to one another in hope that one of them would take the lead and attack first, but the sheer craziness of the unarmed teenage wizard standing before them kept them riveted to the ground.


He took the opportunity to taunt them some more, “What’s wrong!?! Three of Voldemort’s lapdogs can’t take an unarmed seventeen year old boy!?!”


Ron noticed the middle Death Eater’s face as it showed a flash of anger, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his wand tighter.


Ron’s face suddenly went calm.


His eyes and those of the middle Death Eater’s locked as Ron spoke two words.


“Five Seconds.”


One…


The middle wizard lifted his wand in an attempt to hex his opponent in the chest, but Ron was a split second faster as he spun placing himself inside the Death Eater’s stance, grabbing his hand in an iron grip and forcing him to unwillingly aim and fire at the Death Eater to his left.


Two…


The hex meant for Ron blasted the left Death Eater a meter into the air leaving him sprawled on the ground knocked cold. Ron then dealt with the middle wizard by using his left arm to drive a powerful elbow into the wizard’s jaw.


Three…


Ron snatched the wizard’s wand from his limp hand as the Death Eater collapsed to the ground in an unconscious heap. He turned his attention to the last Death Eater as he felt the searing heat from a spell that narrowly missed his face. With his opponent’s wand firmly in his grasp, he expertly blocked the next two spells.


Four…


Ron then fired a spell that just missed the last Death Eater’s head, blasting the brick wall behind him. The dark wizard was just about to raise his wand again when Ron placed both hands upon the wand he was holding and performed a quick pulling motion that caused the section of the wall he had just blasted to collapse onto the Death Eater.


He walked over to the last Death Eater and kicked his unconscious body, “Five…when are you prats going to learn that I don’t miss?”


The sound of a pair of hands clapping startled Ron as he dropped to one knee and aimed in the direction of the pub’s exit door.


“Very impressive, I thought your dueling skills were good after your training. But you seem to be at a whole different level now.”


Ron got to his feet and snapped the wand in his hands, “Hello Tonks, you’re here awfully fast.”


Tonks gave him a small grin, “I was on routine patrol. There have been reports of someone taking down dark wizards all over Diagon Alley over the last few weeks.”


“You don’t say.”


Tonks ignored Ron’s attempt at sarcasm, “But finding you tonight was easy. I just had to go in the opposite direction of the group of wizards running for their lives.”


Ron was just finishing up breaking the last of the Death Eater’s wands, “So are you here to arrest me?”


Tonks’ normally jovial face turned serious, “I should, considering how sloppy you’ve become in covering your tracks. I thought we trained you better than that.”


“To hell with my training,” replied Ron, staring at the ground, refusing to make eye contact with his former instructor.


Tonks’ look changed to one of sympathy, “I know you’re hurting…”


Ron turned his back, “Don’t.”


“…I miss her too…” continued Tonks as she reached out to place a comforting hand on Ron’s shoulder.


Ron turned, avoiding her touch, “I don’t want to talk about it!”


Tonks pulled her hand away, “Fine, but I think it’s fair to say that if Hermione were alive she wouldn’t want you being so reckless with your life!”


“Well she’s dead, and if Harry won’t get off his arse and do something, I will!” shouted Ron.


Tonks took a deep calming breath, “Before Moody and I began training the four of you, our biggest fear was that one, if not more of you, would get out of control…”


She continued, “…but none of you were ever under any control, were you?”


Ron stared at her but said nothing; it was all he needed to say.


“For what it’s worth, with all the Death Eaters and Aurors looking for you, maybe it would be best if you followed Harry’s lead and stay hidden for a while longer.”


Ron released an annoyed sigh, “Whatever, are you going to arrest me or not?”


“No, as far as I’m concerned the fight was over before I got here.”


With a quick flick of his wrist, Ron tossed Tonks a G.S.F. calling card and Disapparated.


“No, Hermione wouldn’t be happy at all with you,” said Tonks as she set about getting the unconscious wizards prepared for arrest.


XXXXXXXXXX


It was nearly dawn by the time Ron returned to his tent. He made it a point to secure the entrance as quietly as possible. But this did not help as he turned to find himself greeted by his sister who was wearing an angry look that reminded him of his mother.


Ginny crossed her arms, “Where have you been and what happened to your face?”


“Couldn’t sleep, I went for a run and hit a tree.”


She rolled her eyes in disgust, “Just how daft do you think I am? I know magical wounds when I see them.”


Ginny did not wait for her brother to answer, “What you’re doing is wrong. The ultimate purpose of the G.S.F. is to bring down Voldemort by destroying the Horcruxes. It isn’t to seek revenge. As much as I want to do exactly what you’re doing, it just isn’t right.”


Ron looked into his sister’s eyes, “If that’s the case, then why aren’t we doing anything about the remaining Horcruxes? Why are we just sitting here on our arses while our friends and family are being hunted down and killed?”


“You know as well as I do that the last two Horcruxes are the most difficult to locate because Nagini is usually going to be by Voldemort’s side and none of us has a clue as to what the last Horcrux is,” replied Ginny.


Ginny continued, “Everyone in the wizarding world is affected by this war. Are you going to protect everybody?”


“I’m not looking to protect everybody, that’s Harry trait. I’m just looking to make myself useful by taking out as many of those pathetic gits, who were stupid enough to have sided with Voldemort, as I can,” said Ron as he turned and began walking towards his bedroom.


Ginny grabbed her brother by the shirt and forced him to look her in the face, “This is not a game of Wizard’s Chess! You aren’t a knight on the board! I will not just watch as you try to sacrifice yourself! Getting yourself killed will not bring Hermione back!”


Ron pulled himself away, “Oh, are you planning on trying to stop me?”


From out of the darkness a voice answered him, “No, but I will if I have to.”


Ron turned to find Harry stepping into the light. Neither Ginny nor Ron knew how long he had been listening in. Harry had his wand drawn.


“Oh great, you’ll take action against me, but not against the real enemy,” replied Ron.


“No, I just don’t want to see my best mate walk down the same self-destructive path that I almost did. Hermione wouldn’t appreciate it if I stood by and watched you sacrifice yourself in her name,” said Harry.


“YOU SHUT UP! YOU DON’T GET TO SAY HER NAME!” screamed Ron as he drew his wand as well.


Ginny watched as the two friends rounded on one another. She could have easily thrown up a Shield charm, but this confrontation was a long time coming. It was something the two of them needed to get out of their systems for quite a while now.


Ron’s eyes went calm, “One minute, eighteen seconds.”


But before either of them could attack, Harry dropped his wand and raised his hands.


Ron’s face went furious again, “Come on Potter! Do something for Merlin’s sake!”


Harry shook his head, “Whatever you need to do, go ahead and do it! The two of us need to get through this! But just understand that nothing you do to me, no amount of hexes, spells or jinxes, no amount of punches, kicks or elbows is ever going to punish me as much as I’ve already punished myself!”


Harry then stepped up until the point of Ron’s wand was pressing against Harry’s chest, “Not a day has gone by that I haven’t hated myself for leaving Hermione behind! I made the decision! I watched her die! You weren’t the only one to break a promise, Ron!”


Harry grabbed Ron’s hand, guiding the tip of his friend’s wand between his eyes, “So go ahead and take out your anger on me, but Ginny is right, nothing you do is ever going to bring Hermione back.”


Ginny silently looked on as Ron gripped his wand so tight it looked as if it might snap in his large hand. Ron’s face had gone scarlet as the wand began shaking in his grasp.


The tip of the wand began to glow; it actually looked as if he would cast a spell into Harry’s face. But at the last second, Ron threw his wand to the ground and drew his fist back, looking as if he had made the mental choice of attacking Harry physically instead of magically.


If Harry feared for his safety, he never showed as his calm eyes never left Ron’s


After several more tense seconds, Ron let out a scream that was a combination of both anger and frustration. He then turned and walked over to one of the tent’s poles, smashing it to kindling with the punch he meant to hit Harry with.


Ron looked at his now bleeding knuckles, “You’re not worth it.”


He again turned and started making his way to his bedroom, when Ginny grabbed him by the arm, once more forcing him to stop in his tracks and face her.


“Where is he?” asked Ginny, directly staring into her brother’s blue eyes.


Ron looked both perplexed and annoyed, “Where’s who?”


Ginny placed her arms at her sides and in a sad voice answered, “Where’s my big brother? His name is Ron and I haven’t seen him in a long time. I really miss him and I want him back.”


For the briefest of moments it looked as if Ron’s facial features were about to soften. But before he would allow that to happen, he pushed passed his sister and disappeared into his room.


Ginny watched her brother’s retreating form as she felt Harry’s hands softly grip her arms from behind, “I miss him too, Ginny.”


She turned to face him and placed her arms around him in a loving hug, “Are you O.K.?”


Harry nodded, “Yeah, I’m actually better than I have been in a long time. I’m just sorry that it took Ron almost beating me up to get me to feel this way.”


He bent over and gave her a quick kiss, “Thank you.”


“Thank me, for what?”


“For having the strength to confront Ron about what he has been up to, you know he’s going about things the wrong way but he’s right about one thing,” answered Harry.


“And what’s that?”


“That it’s time to get off our arses and get back to our quest. No more sitting on the sidelines while the wizarding world suffers.”


“Now that the Death Eaters know our identities, it’s going to be practically impossible to act with any kind of secrecy,” replied Ginny.


Harry picked up his wand, “That’s definitely true, but we also knew it was only a matter of time before our identities became public knowledge. We can’t allow that to stop us.”


Ginny used her wand to conjure two images in the air between them. One image was a snake, which Harry took to represent Nagini. The other image was that of a question mark, which represented the unknown Horcrux.


Through their connection, Harry felt the question Ginny wanted to ask, so he answered it before she could speak, “We were all in agreement that Nagini would be the last Horcrux that we should quest for. But at this point, we have to conclude that when it comes to either of these last two Horcruxes, we have to act upon whichever of these becomes available to us first.”


Ginny bit her bottom lip, “I agree, but to go after Nagini first? After snatching up the cup, Voldemort now knows we’re going after his Horcruxes. He has got to have closed ranks around his pet by now.”


Harry waved his wand, causing the suspended images to disappear, “Yeah, and in that we may gain a chance at Nagini.”


Harry felt a flutter of curiosity through their shared bond, “What I’m saying is that Voldemort has been using every asset at his disposal to find us. Why do you think that is?”


Comprehension flashed in Ginny’s eyes, “I just assumed he wanted the rest of us dead. But now I realize that it’s more than that, he’s most likely assuming that we don’t have the knowledge to destroy the Horcruxes. He’s betting we still have them!”


Harry nodded, “Good thing you insisted we destroyed them as we got them.”


“O.K., so how do we get the location of Voldemort’s pet?” asked Ginny.


“We use Hedwig and Pigwidgeon to search for Nagini. If they have the ability to find people wherever they go, then finding that large snake shouldn’t be a problem. We use our pets to find his pet,” replied Harry.


Ginny’s eyes showed surprise, “I didn’t think you could use owls for that purpose, but if it works we’ll be one step ahead of the Death Eaters.”


“The way things have been going lately, we’ll need every advantage we can get,” answered Harry as he sat on the sofa and removed his glasses, his eyes suddenly looking glassy.


Ginny took as seat next to him, wrapping her arms around him and drawing him close, “I can feel your guilt over Ron. You aren’t to blame for his behavior. He’s just hurting over Hermione.”


“It isn’t just that. Your brother’s friendship means a lot to me and I feel like there’s nothing I can do to save it. I’ve already lost one of my best friends; I don’t think I could handle losing another.”


Ginny touched his cheek and gently turned his face to look him in the eyes, “He’ll come around. Deep down he doesn’t want to lose your friendship either, I just know it.


Ron could hear Harry and Ginny talking in the living room, but he could not make out what either of them was saying. He was in the midst of removing his clothing when something on the ground caught his eye. He bent over to pick it up and realized that he must have dropped it shortly before leaving the tent earlier tonight.


It was a picture of Hermione taken by Ron during Bill and Fleur’s wedding reception. He remembered how beautiful she had looked that night, but he also remembered how much pleading he had to do to convince her to take a picture. Eventually she conceded and he had kept it on his person ever since.


He inwardly scolded himself for leaving the picture on the floor.


Normally, Hermione’s image would smile and laugh whenever he looked at it, but lately when he looked at her, her face would change from a look of happiness to one of sadness and concern.


It had been this way since he had begun his one man crusade against the Death Eaters.


Ron found he could no longer look at her sad eyes as he fought back his tears. He put the picture facedown on his nightstand and spoke out loud to himself.


“I’ll see you soon.”


XXXXXXXXXX


Two weeks later found Ginny and Harry suiting up in their black outfits. It had been quite a while since either of them had ventured from the safety of the tent as they had patiently waited for the return of either Hedwig or Pigwidgeon.


Neither had returned, which worried Ginny to no end. Harry continually reassured her that they were under strict orders from him to not return until they discovered the location of Nagini and only in the off chance that Voldemort left her to fend for herself.


Harry and Ginny had spent the last weeks reading and dissecting Dumbledore journal in hope of turning up any hidden information regarding the mystery Horcrux. But the harder they tried to find something, the more they came up empty. It was driving them both mental with frustration.


To make matters worse, Ron had taken to avoiding them. He refused to join them in their study sessions or anywhere else for that matter. He just spent most of his time in his room or training by himself in “The Pit”.


By the end of the fortnight, Ginny was more than ready to pull the red hair out of her head. But before she could complain to Harry, he seemed to read her mind as he ordered her to don her battle gear.


Ginny gave him a smirk, “So explain to me why we are going? And please don’t tell me you’re doing this to keep me from strangling you out of sheer boredom.”


A small grin came to Harry’s face as he finished strapping on his wand holster, “Of course I’m doing this to avoid a strangling, but also because I need to get out of this tent as well.”


“So that’s why, now where are we going?”


Harry was about to answer her question when a voice caught their attention.


“Yeah, where are we going?”


Ron stood before them wearing his black battle gear as well. Ginny instantly felt Harry’s heart lift slightly at the sight of his best friend, but Ginny had grown up for years with Ron and she knew simply by looking into his eyes that he did not wish to join them for the benefit of the Wizarding world. So before Harry could speak, she spoke up first.


“Harry, could you give Ron and I a few minutes alone?”


Harry gave her a questioning look when he felt something click inside him. He then turned and walked out of the front door, saying nothing.


Ginny waited for the door to fully close before turning to face her brother, “You’re not coming with us.”


Ron crossed his arms, “Don’t you think that’s a decision that our team leader should make?”


Ginny pointed at the closed door while never taking her eyes from Ron’s face, “That’s your best friend that just walked out that door. Unfortunately, that’s how he’s thinking, like a best mate and not the team leader that he should be.”


Ron was about to make a smart remark but he did not get the chance as his sister continued to speak, “He’s willing to forgive you anything to have you back in his life, but I know you too well, and I can see it in your eyes. You haven’t forgiven him at all and it looks as if you never will.”


Ginny watched him break eye contact first, “You’re not interested in the quest anymore. If that were the case you would’ve been with us trying to unravel the identity of the last Horcrux. You’re still only interested in revenge and I won’t have you risking our lives for that particular cause. You want back on this team? Prove it, stay here and hit the books while we’re gone. Put that strategic mind of yours to good use and point us in the right direction.”


Ginny turned and was about to walk out the door when she faced her brother again, “While you’re at it, see if you can find some forgiveness in what’s left of your heart.”


Ron watched the door slam shut. He wanted to yell at Ginny for her harsh words, but he could not, for as much as he wanted to tell her she was wrong, inwardly he knew that every word she said was right.


XXXXXXXXXX


Harry and Ginny thought that Diagon Alley was a shadow of it’s former self the last time they had seen it. But what they were looking at when they apparated made their earlier opinion pale in comparison. They both knew that they apparated in the middle of the night, but it was easy to see that practically every business on the main alley had closed up as the windows were boarded up. Those that were not, looked to have been fire bombed in various attacks.


It was easy to see that the area was a ghost town regardless of the time of day. The only area looking to be in business was Knockturn Alley and even it looked to be very dimly lit.


They kept to the darkened side of the streets to keep from being detected as they knew that the only people walking around at this time of night were either going to be Aurors on patrol or Death Eaters up to no good.


Ginny followed closely behind Harry when she realized where he was leading her. She thought it best to use table talk, “Why are we going to the rear entrance of Fred and George’s shop? You know as well as I do that they closed it down months ago.”


Harry reached the rear door, “I know, but we haven’t heard from either of them and I figured this might be a good place to start looking for the family.”


A sad expression crossed her face, “I just hope everyone is doing well.”


Harry gently brushed her face with his hand. He then pulled his wand and attempted to open the door using a variety of spells. He did not show the least amount of surprise when none of them worked.


Ginny playfully slapped his arm, “You prat, did you honestly think my brothers wouldn’t put better security on their shop. Move aside, you have to think like they would.”


She tapped the tip of her wand against her chin as she concentrated on the task at hand. After several failed attempts, Harry was about to playfully slap her arm in return, when the door suddenly opened.


Harry ran his fingers through his hair, “I used every unlocking charm I knew, short of a Bombarda or my own blood to open that door. Which one did you use?”


Ginny performed a Lumos charm as she crossed the doorway, “A Bat-Bogey Hex.”


Harry closed the door behind them and looked at her as if she had a horn growing out of her forehead, “Bat-Bogey Hex? That’s totally mental; it isn’t even close to an unlocking charm. It doesn’t make any sense.”


Ginny smirked at him as she placed her hands on her hips, “When have you known my brothers to make any sense? Knowing them, they must have known that we’d eventually try to locate the family’s whereabouts. So of course they’d use the least likely spell to allow passage.”


“And seeing as you have the habit of thinking like they do, they were counting on you to figure that out first,” replied Harry.


“So maybe it made complete sense after all?” said Ginny as she pointed her wand at a nearby set of old candles.


But Harry quickly grabbed her hand to stop her from lighting them. Ginny was about to ask him why, when she felt concern through their bond. She looked up into Harry’s face and then followed his eyes to the door through which they had just entered.


From his pocket Harry pulled out an all too Familiar piece of flesh colored string that was split into two on one of the ends. Harry handed an end to Ginny as he placed the second end into his own ear. He then silently commanded the opposite end of the string to make its way towards the door.


As soon as the Extendable Ear settled into place, Harry and Ginny heard no less than three voices speaking.


“…telling you blokes, I saw this door close not more than a minute ago.”


“The door is still magically sealed. So either you’re mental with boredom and you thought you saw something or whoever just went in is still inside.”


“So let’s just force the door then.”


“Now I know you’re mental. You weren’t here the last time someone tried to force the door, were you? That bloke was in a frozen state for the better part of a fortnight.”


“So what do you want to do? There’s no way I’m reporting back to the Dark lord or that Lestrange woman that after months of watching this place that we missed someone going in.”


“Use your brain, will you? If they went in, we just have the rest of our people surround the building and then we wait until they come back out.”


Ginny felt Harry inwardly scold himself. But she was thinking exactly as he was at that moment. They should have realized that the Death Eaters would have people watching the shop around the clock. Their weeks in hiding had made them sloppy. Ginny shook her head as she realized that their small side trip might have just cost them their lives.


XXXXXXXXXX


While Ron felt physically tired, mentally he could not sleep as his sister’s accusations kept replaying in his mind. So against his better judgment he decided to follow her advice and make his way towards the tent’s library. He had not looked at Dumbledore’s journal in quite sometime, but short of anything else he had read in his life, he knew the pages of his late headmaster’s words as well as he knew the Wizard’s Chess board.


The journal itself was always left on the center of the table for any of the tent’s occupants to read. So when he entered the room, it was not the journal which caught his attention, but the clutter around it. Ron instinctively heard his mother’s voice screaming at him to clean up the mess of books on the table. But when he reached for the first book, he again realized why none had been moved.


All of the books were at one time, being studied by Hermione. Ron knew this by the odd collection of bookmarks he could find in each one. Things like pieces of paper, an old train ticket, one of Hedwig’s feathers, even a length of yarn which looked to have come from an old Gryffindor scarf. Ron caught himself laughing as he remembered the countless times Hermione had yelled at her companions when she would find books with pages folded at the corners. But just as quickly as he started laughing, he felt instantly sad as his loneliness quickly reminded him that he would never hear her yell at him again.


Without disturbing the bookmarks, Ron neatly returned the books to the shelves and then sat down to begin reading the Horcrux journal once again.


XXXXXXXXXX


For the better part of three hours, Harry and Ginny had used their time to quietly search the shop they were trapped in. Harry fondly remembered how lively the shop was the first time he had seen it, the different colored displays, and the samples which could do anything from giving someone a black eye to causing someone to sprout feathers, even the small cage which at one time housed the Pygmy Puffs that Ginny loved very much. But the shop looked nothing like that now, as its contents had been stripped to the bare walls. Harry caught himself thinking that it felt as if all the humor had gone out in the world.


Harry looked to Ginny and found her still using “Table Talk” to keep from making noise, “We’ve checked the upstairs bedrooms, the sales floor and the back offices, but we haven’t found anything. Maybe Fred and George didn’t want to leave any clues in case someone got in before us.”


“I’m beginning to agree with you. Besides, with us scampering around in the dark, we might have walked over a clue and missed it. I wish we had some of that Night Chocolate so we could see properly,” answered Harry.


Harry felt their connection click into place as Ginny answered, “Bullocks! Why didn’t I think of that before? Give me your glasses.”


He handed her his glasses and instantly regretted the decision as his vision went blurry as well as dark. But he never complained as he patiently waited to see what Ginny had in mind. She tapped her wand to the lenses and began searching the room. Several minutes later he watched as Ginny used her wand to place three very small glowing dots on the ceiling, wall and floor respectively.


Before he could pose a question, she gently placed his glasses back on his face and then pointed at the dot she had placed on the ceiling. He allowed his vision to clear and then followed Ginny’s finger to where it was pointed. What he saw astonished him.


Visible only through Harry’s charmed spectacles was a crimson letter “G”. Ginny then pointed towards the second dot on the wall which had a golden letter “S” upon it. Harry quickly understood and looked to the floor, finding a crimson glowing “F”.


Ginny smiled as she watched Harry tap the center of the “F” with his wand and then take a few steps back to rejoin her. In an instant, a small section of floor disappeared to reveal a set of stairs leading down into a cellar. Without a word between them, they took each other’s hands and made their way down.


XXXXXXXXXX


Had the journal been a chess board, Ron would have reached over and forcefully swept all the pieces off the board in anger. Instead he closed the book and slammed it to the table. It was driving him mental that Dumbledore had no clue as to the last Horcrux. Was not the old wizard supposedly “all-knowing”? How did taking hours to study mysteries like this not drive Hermione mental?


Ron was about to scream in frustration, when a loud tone snapped him from his thoughts. He recognized it sound as a perimeter alert. But unlike a shrieking siren which told him there was an intruder in the area, this tone was to alert him that a friend was entering the zone. Ron magically conjured a layout of the tent’s surroundings and found two small green dots slowly making their way towards the tent.


He knew from their size that the dots heading towards him were too small to be human. So he thought it best to go outside and meet them. Ron’s Lumos charm lit the darkness around him as he searched for the pair. As his vision adjusted to the contrast of dark and light, he found what he was looking for.


The sight caused his heart to drop.


Crashing into the ground, no more than twenty meters from his feet was Pigwidgeon and Hedwig. It looked as if the smaller bird had been carrying the larger one.


“Pig!” yelled Ron as he ran towards the fallen birds.


XXXXXXXXXX


The opening to the Twin’s shop magically sealed itself as soon as Harry and Ginny reached the bottom of the stairs. Candles around the cellar lit themselves as they area grew bright. The room itself was as bare as the shop above it with the exception of a single small green box that was sitting on a shelf against one of the walls. The box reminded Harry of one of the Twin’s original Skiving Snackboxes.


Ginny lifted the dust covered box and began to open it, when it suddenly began glowing, causing her to release it. They both watched as the box, instead of smashing into the floor, simply hovered in midair before them. The lid of the box opened and floating above the hovering box were the disjointed heads of both Fred and George.


Harry and Ginny listened in silence as Fred’s head spoke first, “Greetings G.S.F., welcome to our hidden cellar. We can only guess that if you are here then you are hoping to find the combined families’ hiding place.”


George suddenly interrupted his brother, “Hold on there, Fred. We can’t be too cautious. What if the people who found this box are not the G.S.F.?”


Fred nodded his head, “Right you are my dear brother. In the outside chance that you aren’t any of the remaining members of the G.S.F., we’ve put together a small security measure. George, would you be so kind as to explain?”


George took on an air of seriousness that Harry had never seen from the normal fun loving Weasley, “I’m going to ask one question that only a member of the G.S.F. would know. Answer correctly and you will have the answer you seek. Answer incorrectly and you’ll wish you’d never stepped foot in our shop.”


George looked over to his brother’s head as Fred took over speaking, “Basically, the entire shop has been magically set to implode if you answer incorrectly or don’t answer at all. The entire upstairs will come crashing down on top of you.”


George began speaking again, “The day that we rescued Padma from Durmstrangs, we negotiated a future percentage of earnings from G.S.F. merchandizing. How much was that percentage? You have twenty seconds to answer.”


Harry looked to Ginny, “It was thirty percent, right?”


Ginny shook her head, “It’s a trick question, let me answer.”


Harry felt her confidence through their bond. But even at that critical moment, he could not help but make light of the situation as he placed his fingers in his ears.


She gave Harry her best “I’ll kill you later” stare and turned to her brother’s heads, “The agreed upon percentage was forty percent, thirty percent when we taught you our self-defense skills. The other ten when we showed you how to duel with our wands as we do now.”


The Twins looked at one another and then back to Ginny, “You are correct. Hello Harry, Ginny, and Ron, we apologize for the test, but when it comes to our families’ well being, yes Harry even your family, we are taking no chances.”


“They mentioned Ron, even though he isn’t here. This must be a sort of magical recording,” thought Harry as George continued speaking.


“Spell-o-Taped to the bottom of this box are three pieces of an invention we like to call “Memory Gum”. Once you chew a piece it will implant the proper directions to our safe house.”


Fred spoke up next, “Memory Gum is one of our better inventions. Once the memory is implanted it is yours forever. No magical spell, charm or hex can pull it from you.”


“Not even Veritaserum will work,” piped in George.


“Once the charm in this box wears off, an entrance to a tunnel will appear that will lead you to an exit roughly half a kilometer outside of Diagon Alley,” finished Fred.


“We hope to see the rest of you in one piece very soon. Just to let you know, we’re sorry about Hermione. Mum and Dad have done all they can for her parents. Surprisingly enough, even Harry’s aunt has tried to lessen their pain, when Harry’s uncle wasn’t around of course,” said George.


“We just hope that you three make those responsible for her death answer for it. We really miss Granger, she was like another sister to us,” added Fred.


“Good luck, G.S.F.” said the Twins as the box stopped glowing and fell to the floor.


Just as they had been told, an opening to a tunnel appeared before them. Ginny collected the three pieces of Memory Gum as Harry lit his wand to guide their way.


“Time to get away from here,” declared Harry as he led the way down the tunnel.


XXXXXXXXXX


Ron sprinted back to the library with both owls in his arms. Normally, he would have taken someone who was hurt to the room the group had designated as the infirmary, but Ron knew his knowledge of animal physiology was next to nil, so he thought it best to have books on animals just within arms reach if he needed them. He gently placed the pair of animals on the reading table and removed his wand from his holster.


Pigwidgeon was unusually listless. Ron turned the bird and understood why as quite a bit of the small owl’s tail feathers had been scorched, as if a fire spell had been used to try and kill it. Ron could only assume the Pig’s speed was what saved him.


“Don’t worry Pig, a few healing charms and you’ll be back to annoying me in no time,” said Ron in his best reassuring tone.


Ron then turned his attention to Hedwig. If Pigwidgeon was listless, Hedwig in comparison was catatonic. Ron knew Hedwig never showed affection towards the smaller owl, so if she allowed Pig to carry her, then things must have been pretty desperate.


Ron prepared himself to remove the Petricficus Totalus curse he assumed was used on Hedwig, when he lifted her wing to find something that made his heart stop.


Hedwig had a small arrow through her torso! She was not petrified at all, she was dead.


Ron slumped back in his chair, his hand over his mouth. He found that he could not think straight for several moments. It was not until Pigwidgeon nipped on his ear and rubbed against his cheek that he focused again.


“I’m sorry Pig, she didn’t make it,” said Ron while softly petting the small bird’s head.


Ron’s thoughts immediately went to Harry. He knew that short of himself, Hermione and Ginny, it was Hedwig who was his best friend’s closest companion. To be honest, she was his first real companion and now she had been taken from him as well.


Through Ginny, Ron knew of Harry’s plan to use the owls to track down Nagini’s hiding place. Ron originally thought the plan absurd, but like a lot of the things since their quest had begun, he was proven wrong.


Ron knew that Harry and he were not on the best of terms at the moment, but he felt the least he could do was to try and make Hedwig as presentable as possible before Harry’s return. Again he leveled his wand as he prepared to cast a cleaning charm, when two things caught his eye. First, in Hedwig’s beak he found a plant stem. It was so tightly clamped in the owl’s mouth that Ron had to apply a bit of strength to pry it loose.


Second, he noticed that Hedwig’s feathers were coated in reddish dirt. Ron thought that she may have gotten that way when she and Pig crashed into the ground outside, but that dirt was a rich brown, not red. Ron turned to the book shelf he had just filled earlier that day and charmed a book on Herbology into his hands.


He opened it and one of Hermione’s bookmarks fell from its pages. It was a picture of himself just after winning his first Quidditch Championship at Hogwarts. He had the cup in his hands, but he was more interested in Hermione, whose smile was beaming at him from the stands. They were surrounded by hundreds of people but at the moment it was as if they were the only ones that existed as they smiled at one another.


He quickly replaced the bookmark and began rifling through the books pages. After several more minutes of looking he found the answer he was looking for. The plant stem and the red earth were not uncommon in the United Kingdom, but to find one growing from the other could only be found in one place.


Ron looked to Pigwidgeon, “The North Yorkshire Moors, you found Nagini in the North Yorkshire Moors! You two weren’t just flying for your lives; you were trying to get back to let us know you finally found her!”


Pigwidgeon feebly jumped up and down in what Ron could only guess was a positive gesture.


Ron’s mind began moving in a million different directions at once. It was the break that they had all been waiting for. But now that it presented itself, they were not together as a unit to act on it. Time was of the essence, who knew if this opportunity would ever present itself again. Ron once again looked at Hermione’s picture and came to a decision. He changed his clothes, grabbed a small amount of supplies and wrote a note to both Harry and Ginny.


“Pig, as soon as they arrive, see to it that they get this note. Do not allow them to detour, bring them directly to this room.”


The small owl’s only reaction was to take the note in his beak and stare back at his owner.


Ron took a deep breath, grabbed an old shoe from a box of potential Portkeys the group kept near the front door and walked out into the night.


XXXXXXXXXX


After just over 20 minutes of walking, Harry and Ginny finally came to a small set of stairs that immediately led to a set of what looked to be storm doors. They took position on both sides of the doors as Harry spoke.


“Not that I need to ask, but are you ready?”


Ginny never took her eyes from the doors, “Just open them, the way I’m feeling, I’d love to run into a few Death Eaters right now.”


Harry cast a silent charm and the doors flew open, he and Ginny hitting the sidewalk no less than a split second behind them. But instead of Death Eaters, all they found was an empty alleyway, empty with the exception of a lone familiar figure.


“Impressive! You two were able to avoid the traps the Twins and I had set.”


Harry did not lower his wand, “What is the most difficult thing about being in a leadership position?”


“That you will be responsible for making decisions that could very well mean life or death for those around you,” replied Mad-Eye Moody.


Harry and Ginny took a step forward when Moody lifted his wand as well, “Miss Weasley, when you and Tonks faced off in your home, what was the first insult she said to you?”


Harry felt a small twinge of anger before she answered, “She called me a stupid naïve girl.”


All three lowered their wands but did not holster them as Harry spoke, “How did you know to be here?”


“The Twins set a silent alarm that would inform Tonks if someone made it through their traps. It was designed just in case the person exiting wasn’t any of you. She couldn’t be here, so she contacted me,” replied Moody.


Ginny spoke up, “Is everything O.K. with Tonks?”


“As O.K. as things can be, she’s been a bit busy cleaning up the messes your brother has been leaving in his wake. Speaking of which, where is Ron?”


“Back at the tent, we thought it best to leave him there. He’s been a bit of a wild card lately, but then again, you already know that,” answered Harry.


Moody stepped closer and lowered his voice, “From what Tonks has told me, you two need to keep a closer eye on him. You don’t want to go losing another teammate.”


“Give him a break, He’s still hurting over the loss of Hermione, we all are,” said Harry.


Moody pointed his finger at Harry and Ginny, “Weren’t any of you listening during training? This is a war, soldiers die in war. You have to pick up and carry on!”


With a quickness that belied her small frame, Ginny threw a punch towards Moody’s face. It was only the fact that he had his hand up that enabled him to catch her small fist in his larger hand. Moody looked into Ginny’s eyes and saw a mixture of both sadness and anger.


“Is that all we are to you? Just unfeeling soldiers whose simple task is to put ourselves in danger? Are we not allowed to feel a friend’s loss? Hermione will never be a soldier to us. She was a friend, sister, and a loved one. Are you that heartless that you don’t miss her yourself? Or did they remove your heart the same day that you had your eye replaced?” screamed Ginny.


Moody gently released Ginny’s hand and looked to Harry, who was looking down at his shoes in an attempt to hide the sadness he no doubt felt at that moment. Moody slowly holstered his wand and placed his hands on Ginny’s shoulders.


“I’ve trained Aurors for many years before either of you were born. Not a day goes by when I don’t think about the witches and wizards who have died under my command. Whether you believe it or not, I think about Hermione as well. I did not mean to belittle her memory. I apologize if it sounded that way.”


Ginny took a deep breath, “How are our families?”


“Safe, the house they’re in is large enough, but to them it still feels crowded. The Order has been keeping watch over them.”


Harry shook Moody’s hand, “Thanks for the good news; it’s the first for us in quite a while. Ginny, let’s get going. Ron’s going to want to know about what we’ve found.”


Moody nodded his head, “Be careful with that Memory Gum. You don’t want it falling into the wrong hands. I’ll take a good Fidelius Charm over that stuff every time.”


Harry gave Moody a grin and in two quick apparition cracks, they disappeared.


Moody slowly began walking towards Diagon Alley as he whispered, “Yes Ginny, I miss her too.”


XXXXXXXXXX


The large gloomy three story house was as sinister looking as Ron expected it to be. Leave it to Voldemort to pick a hiding place as dark as his own soul. But it was not just the building that looked evil; the grounds surrounding it did not help to liven things up as there was a series of small forests surrounding two-thirds of the house, with a family cemetery covering the last third.


Ron hated cemeteries at night, almost as much as he hated spiders. But after spending roughly half and hour scouting the house with his Omnioculars, he knew that the cemetery would be his best way into the house.


Training had taught him that normal procedure would be to plan out the best route into and out of a target. To take the time to scout the area and avoid contact with any Death Eaters that might be patrolling the grounds. But Ron was anything but in the mood for normal procedure as he decided that if he managed to get inside and make it back out alive, and he had every reason to believe that he would not, he wanted to be able to get back to the Portkey site with little to no resistance.


The Death Eaters surrounding the house never knew what hit them as each received a separate physical and magical beating that grew more intense with each person that Ron incapacitated. By the seventh Death Eater, Ron had to force himself to not beat the man to death as he found himself being driven by the same inner fury that he carried since Hermione’s murder.


Ron made his way through the series of headstones and came to a stop behind what looked to be a family shrine. He gave himself time for his heart rate to slow, while using his Omnioculars to take one more look at the house. The thermal setting on his Omnioculars picked up no heat signatures in the house, not even Nagini’s. But Ron figured that would be the case as snakes were naturally cold blooded creatures.


“Guess I’ll just have to search for you one floor at a time,” said Ron as he sprinted to the front door and charmed it open.


The house was very dimly lit, it almost reminded Ron of the Shrieking Shack, but here the furniture was in better condition, just quite a bit more dusty, which was saying a lot for the Shack back in Hogsmeade. Ron checked each room on the first floor and found nothing. He made his way up a staircase to the second floor. The only sound he betrayed was the occasional creak from the old floorboards.


He swept each room on the second floor and again came up empty. Ron was in the last room just to the right of the next staircase when he decided to compose himself. With the first two stories clear he knew the large snake would be waiting for him on the top floor. He dropped to one knee and took a moment to wipe his brow. He knew there was a good possibility that Voldemort might have already moved Nagini, but then again, why post guards if there was not anything worth guarding?


“O.K. Nagini, it’s just you and me now,” said Ron as he slowly got to his feet.


He had taken two steps forward, when he suddenly felt something wrap around his ankle, causing him to lose his balance and fall to the floor. He rolled to his back and what he saw made him realize he was in trouble. Nagini had appeared from a hole in one of the walls. For all Ron knew, Nagini might have been following him the entire time and was just waiting for the opportunity to pounce on her prey.


He rolled to his stomach and tried to crawl towards his wand, which he had dropped when he landed on the floor, but the large snake was faster as she quickly wrapped herself around Ron’s legs. He tried to use his arms to drag himself to his wand which was only about a half a meter out of his reach, when he felt a sharp pain as Nagini bit him in his right calf. He yelled in pain as he continued to reach for his wand. Ron knew the bit wasn’t lethal, as Nagini’s breed of snake was not poisonous but a constrictor.


Ron was just within reach of his wand when he realized that Nagini was no longer just wrapped around her legs, but now around his chest, which included his left arm which was pinned to his side. He made one last desperate attempt to reach his wand. Ron just felt the smooth wood brush the tips of his fingers, when he felt the air being forced from his lungs.


Ron found he could not move or take in air, with his free right hand he tried to reach not for his wand this time, but for Nagini’s head in hopes of causing the large snake to release him. Her response was to constrict even tighter. Ron’s vision began to blur and then go black.


As he finally lost consciousness, Ron managed one last whisper with the last bit of the air in his body.


“Hermi…”


XXXXXXXXXX



A sense of foreboding washed over Ginny upon entering the tent. All seemed well with her surroundings but she could not keep the hairs on the back of her neck from standing on end. She looked over to Harry, who sensing her feelings, already had his wand drawn. The pair were about to split up to check the tent when Pigwidgeon came flying out of the rear of the tent with a letter firmly in his beak.


“Pig?” asked Harry as he was surprised to see the small owl after so many days.


He reached for the letter, but Pigwidgeon flew out of reach before he could grab it, “Pig, this isn’t the time for games, give me that letter.”


The small grey bird flew towards the library with both Harry and Ginny right behind it. Ginny was the first to enter the room, at the sight of Hedwig, Ginny released a small yelp of surprise as she placed a hand over her mouth. Harry had just snatched the letter from Pigwidgeon’s beak, when he saw his snow owl lying dead on the table.


Harry’s sadness hit her like a large wave of water as she watched him gently stroke Hedwig’s feathers. She walked to his side and could only watch in silence as he fought back his tears. He took a couple of deep breaths, and opened the letter. Ginny could tell it was difficult for him to read as his tears were blurring his vision, but before she could help, he reached under his glasses and wiped the tears away.


Harry finished reading and handed her the letter, his feelings of grief suddenly stopped, replaced by a feeling that Ginny could only describe as cold calculation. Harry did not try to shut her off from his feelings as he might have in the past; it was as if his entire demeanor had changed.


Harry spoke before she could express her concern, “I’m honestly very hurt right now. I really just want to break down and cry. But if what your brother wrote in that letter is true, we need to act quickly or we might lose another loved one tonight.”


She read the note and instantly understood Harry’s concern. There would be time to grieve later. Whether it would be just for Hedwig or for her brother as well, would be entirely based on how fast they could catch up to him. Harry grabbed an atlas off the shelf as Ginny ran to grab their backpacks from the bedroom. By the time she returned, Harry had the book opened to the proper pages.


“It’s a good thing that there is only one magical village in North Yorkshire because that’s going to make it easier for us to track Ron down. The real problem is…”


“…how far a head start my stupid git of a brother has on us. I hope he’s fine, so I can kill him myself,” finished Ginny.


Harry gave her a nod of agreement as she followed him outside.


XXXXXXXXXX


Ron found himself completely confused by his surroundings. One second he remembered being in Nagini’s grasp, unable to breathe. The next he found himself walking through a foggy haze. He reached for his wand, looking to clear the way around him, when he realized that not only was he no longer carrying his wand, but he was dressed in his favorite clothes, right up to his favorite Chudley Cannons sweatshirt. It even smelled like the soap his Mum always used to wash it.


Without realizing it, he found himself walking on a beautiful field of grass, the sun beaming down across his face. His senses went on alert for an attacker, but as he walked forward, nothing at all evil showed itself. Ron had thoughts pass through his mind that he could not ignore.


“Have I died? Is this heaven? Do I really deserve to be here if it is?”


Ron was running his fingers through his hair when he caught sight of a small cottage in the distance. He decided to walk towards it.


“No sense in doing nothing while my path has been set before me,” thought Ron.


He was roughly fifty meters from the door, when he noticed a girl and boy sitting by a tree, playing what looked like Wizard’s Chess. They both stood and faced him; Ron did not want to frighten them so he stopped walking towards them and smiled.


“Hi, I’m Ron…Ron Weasley.”


They both stepped forward each smiling back at him; the boy’s hair could easily be mistaken for Weasley red. His eyes were a beautiful brown that reminded him of Hermione’s. The girl, who seemed the older of the two, had hair that was a dark reddish brown and had a bushy quality to it. It reminded him of Hermione as well. Her eyes held a look of intelligence that looked beyond her young age; they were a color that reminded Ron of his Mum’s. Both children’s faces had a set of freckles that made them even more beautiful.


The boy’s smile grew a little larger as giggled, “We aren’t daft, and we know who you are.”


Ron laughed as he dropped to one knee so he could speak to them eye to eye, “Then you have me at a bit of a disadvantage because I have no idea who you are.”


The girl’s smile disappeared to be replaced by a look of maturity, “According to what we’ve been told, we aren’t anyone, not anymore.”


Ron’s face showed confusion, “Aren’t anyone? What the bloody hell does that mean? You’re right here in front of me, of course you’re someone.”


Ron walked forward with the intention of reassuring the children of their existence, but before he could get closer, they ran towards the cottage, stopping just outside the front door. Ron felt ashamed of himself for using harsh language in front of them.


“I’m sorry, if I scared you, I get a bit carried away sometimes.”


“Its O.K., we understand, it’s just your way. We forgive you, but you can’t come inside,” said the girl.


“Because I’m a stranger?” asked Ron.


They both shook their heads and pointed behind him.


He turned and saw a frozen image of himself back on the floor of the house with Nagini wrapped around him. His face was red and his eyes were unfocused. Ron turned again to face the children, when he felt himself being pulled backwards. He tried to move forward but he continued to fall away from them.


Neither of the children moved, their faces were suddenly sad as they lifted their hands and waved goodbye.


Ron saw the front door of the cottage open, a third sad looking figure appeared behind the children, she knelt behind them and waved goodbye as well. Sadness gripped Ron’s heart as he realized, even through the reemerging fog, who the third person was.


Ron reached out in vain as everything grew dark again.


“HERMIONE!!!”


XXXXXX XXXX


When Ron regained consciousness he became aware of two things. First, was that he would not be able to reach his wand in time to save himself. Second, was that without his wand, what he planned to do would be that much harder to accomplish.


He felt Nagini preparing to constrict once again as a flash of memory passed through his mind. He remembered lessons with Tonks as she taught them all the finer points of using Animagus Transfiguration. The other members of the quartet managed an animal form. Harry took the form of a Peregrine falcon, Ginny transformed into an African cheetah, and Hermione became an Andean Condor.


Ron remembered being impressed with the animals they became, but he was very disappointed with himself as he could only manage to transform into a red furred Weasel. It was not until a short time later that Hermione was able to show him that his form was not a weasel at all.


In actuality, he had become a red furred mongoose!


Originally, Ron knew next to nothing about the mongoose. But after his talk with Hermione about his animal form, he decided to study anything he could find regarding the Weasel-like animal.


Including, it’s natural ability to fight and kill snakes.


Ron transformed perfectly and slipped from Nagini’s grasp. The snake placed itself between himself and his wand and made a lightning fast strike. But even her speed was no match for his enhanced reflexes.


Ron could feel his dense fur ruffling as he and Nagini rounded on one another, each waiting for an opening in which to strike. Nagini took another chance and again came up empty as Ron jumped backwards.


Ron felt his hind legs back into a wall as he watched Nagini rear her head back similar to that of a cobra preparing to finish off its prey. He could feel pain in his right hind leg, but he ignored it as he realized that their confrontation was about to come to a close.


Nagini struck just as Ron leapt forward….


XXXXXXXXXX


Ha rry and Ginny knew they had found Ron when they discovered the seven Death Eaters unconscious and in Body Binds.


“From the looks of these prats, I would say Ron stopped just short of killing them,” said Ginny.


“Yeah, they don’t look like they’ll be getting up anytime soon,” replied Harry as they made their way towards the house.


“Harry, look,” whispered Ginny as she saw the front door to the house open.


They watched as a silhouette passed through the doorway and made its way towards them. Harry and Ginny came out into the open with their wands drawn.


“Don’t worry, Ginny. Other than those seven, the house is empty.”


They watched as Ron limped towards them. His face was slightly covered in blood and in his hands he was carrying something that neither Harry nor Ginny could make out.


Ginny looked furious, “Ron are you mental? You could have been killed! You know better than to go off by yourself…”


But her tirade came to a halt when she finally saw what he was holding.


Ron opened up his hands and allowed what he was carrying to fall to the ground. Both Harry and Ginny took an involuntary step backward as Nagini’s decapitated head landed at Ron’s feet.


“For Hedwig,” said Ron as he looked to his two companions.


“Merlin, you got her. There’s only one Horcrux left,” said Ginny.


Harry should have felt some sort of happiness about Nagini’s demise, but all he could feel was concern for his friend, “Ron, are you alright?”


But Ron ignored Harry’s concern, “I’m sorry about Hedwig. She was already dead before I could do anything.”


“Harry, I want you to keep Pig. Use him as you see fit,” continued Ron as he finally gained the strength to look his friend in the eyes.


Harry shook his head, “That’s not important right now. Let’s get you back to the tent so we can heal you up. Your leg is still bleeding.”


Ron looked back down at Nagini’s head, “No, I’m done with the G.S.F. I just don’t have it in me anymore.”


Ginny looked shocked, “Ron, if this is about what I said earlier to you…”


Ron shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe it’s about that, maybe it’s about hating what I’ve become. The only thing I really know is that I’m done with the war.”


“What do you want to do?” asked Harry.


Ron looked up at the sky, at nothing unparticular, “I don’t know.”


“Ron, would you be willing to take one more set of orders from me?” asked Harry.


Ron nodded as Harry handed him a stick of Memory Gum, “Chew this, and then go protect our families.”


Looking a bit confused, he took the gum and placed it in his mouth. A few seconds later, his eyes took on an air of understanding, “So that’s where they are.”


Ginny looked to her male companions, “Did either of you bring a G.S.F. card? I want to be absolutely sure that Voldemort knows we did this.”


“I have a better idea,” said Ron as he pointed his wand at Nagini’s head and screamed…


“INCENDIO!”


The head burst into flames, Ron then turned his attention towards the house, Harry and Ginny knew exactly what he had planned, and neither of them even considered stopping him. Neither of them wanted to.


“INCENDIO!”


Harry and Ginny watched the gloomy structure burn for several minutes when they realized that Ron had disappeared without saying goodbye. Harry felt Ginny’s sadness as he took her hand in his and led the way back to the Portkey site.


“What do the two of us do now?” asked Ginny as she watched Harry leave a G.S.F. card with the seven Body Bound wizards.


“We carry on,” replied Harry.


They were about to reenter the woods, when Ginny stopped and looked to the still raging fire, “I’m sorry Ron, but it just isn’t good enough for me.”


Ginny pulled her wand, and fired a spell into the sky. A bright scarlet and gold lion’s head formed above the burning house. Harry gave her a nod of approval as she spoke again.


“We may be down to two people, Voldemort. But you’re down to one Horcrux now.”


XXXXXXXXXX


Follow ing the directions implanted by the Memory Gum, Ron found the safe house with no real difficulty. He knew the house had security measures in place but he made his way through them as if they weren’t there. He made a mental note to add a better measures to the house later.


The sun was just beginning to creep over the horizon as Ron quietly made his way into the house. He told himself that he really did not want to disturb anyone’s sleep, but in actuality, he just did not think he could face anyone at that moment.


He took a quick look at the spacious house and felt a bit of longing for the Burrow.


“It’s much, but it just isn’t home,” said Ron to himself.


Ron walked into what he guessed was the living area and found a familiar person watching a muggle television, his graying red hair peeking over the high-backed couch.


“Dad?”


Arthur Weasley sprang to his feet faster than Ron had ever seen his dad move before. Arthur had his wand firmly in hand, pointed directly at Ron’s chest.


Ron raised both hands in the air, “It’s just me, your youngest son. You know, Ron?”


Arthur’s wand did not lower, “Prove it.”


Slowly but deliberately, Ron lifted his blood stained shirt to reveal an old scar along the right side of his rib cage, “I got this scar when I was six years old. You and I snuck off so you could teach me how to fly a broom. Mum was totally against it because she thought I was too young and she thought I would get hurt. Well, we didn’t listen and she was right because I accidentally smashed into a tree. You swore me to secrecy, because you knew Mum would kill us both if she ever found out.”


A smile came to Arthur’s face, “It’s good to see you, son. Is everything alright? Where are the others?”


Seeing the concern on his father’s face caused the last of Ron’s emotional defenses to fall as all he had been holding back collapsed in on him.


He felt as if he had lost everything that mattered most to him. He had lost Hermione, He had lost the trust of his best friend and his sister, he had lost his team, he had lost himself, but most of all after his near death experience he finally understood one thing…


…He had lost what was going to be his own family.


Arthur saw the sadness in his son’s eyes and closed the distance between them. As soon as he
wrapped his arms around him, Ron began weeping. Arthur wanted to reassure his son that he was with family again and that all would be well, but he just could not find the right words.


All Arthur could do was hug his boy tighter.


XXXXXXXXXX


It was just after midday as Harry sat at an outdoor table having lunch at a popular London restaurant. He was wearing typical muggle attire, looking nothing out of the ordinary. He was wearing sunglasses, which was in stark contrast to his charmed unruly blonde hair. He was pretending to read a muggle newspaper when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around his neck. The owner of those arms kissed his cheek and took a seat across from him. Ginny wore clothes similar to his, sporting her own sunglasses and charmed blonde hair.


“I have to admit, you look very sexy with bleached blonde hair. I think I love you, Draco,” said Ginny with a straight face.


Harry looked hurt, “After all we’ve been through. You have the nerve to compare me to him. Don’t you know I love you, Luna!”


They both started laughing. It was the first real laugh they had shared since Ron’s departure almost two months before. Things for the two of them had changed dramatically as they changed their operating pattern to continue on with their quest.


Going out in disguise during daylight hours was only one of those changes. Another had been working between the Muggle and Wizarding worlds as incidences involving Voldemort or Death Eaters had almost come to a stand still. It was as if Nagini’s death had caused Voldemort to go into hiding. Harry and Ginny were still having no luck in finding any clues as to the last Horcrux’s identity or location. But they both knew that they were too close to the end of their quest to give up.


Ginny took off her sunglasses, “I was thinking we could search the muggle section just outside the southern end of Diagon Alley after we eat. Maybe talk to a few…”


But Ginny stopped speaking when it became clear that Harry was paying attention to his newspaper and not her. She was about to yell at him, when she realized he was not paying attention to the newspaper either.


“Harry, what’s wrong?” asked Ginny as she reached across the table and touched his hand.


Harry gave her hand a squeeze, “Nothing’s wrong, my wife. I was just wondering what lucky star we had flying over us right now because a very important figure has just fallen into our laps.”


Ginny was about to ask him to explain himself, when she just followed his eyes to whatever he was looking at across the street. What she saw caused her heart to stop in her chest.


It was Draco Malfoy, and he was completely on his own.


Harry dropped some muggle money on the table as Ginny put her sunglasses back on her face. They both allowed Draco some distance before following him. Ginny reached for her wand but Harry stopped her, “No, we don’t want to attract attention from the muggles.”


Ginny could sense Harry’s anxiousness, but somehow he managed to remain calm. They followed their quarry for a few moments more, when he turned down a small alley.


“Looks like he’s headed towards the Knockturn Alley entrance,” remarked Harry.


“In broad daylight? That’s rather bold of him considering that he’s on the Ministry’s most wanted list,” replied Ginny as they were coming up on the same alley.


Harry grinned, “Yeah, but so are we.”


Harry peaked around the corner, he saw Draco making his way to the enchanted brick wall that was one of the gateways to the Wizarding side of the area. They pulled their wands and with one quick apparition, were directly behind Draco.


Ginny was the first to speak, “Don’t you even think about moving, Malfoy!”


They both watched as he turned around slowly, his appearance caused Harry to almost feel pity for the young wizard. Draco looked even paler than Harry had remembered him ever being. There were rings under his eyes as if he had not slept in days and he looked as he had not eaten in some time as well.


Draco had his hands raised and was about to speak, when a voice sounded from behind Harry and Ginny.


“No, you filthy traitors, it’s you who shouldn’t move.”


Harry did not have to see to know who was behind him. He would know that voice for the rest of his life. But before Harry could speak, Draco spoke first.


“What are you doing here Bellatrix? I wanted sometime to myself!”


An evil smile crossed Bellatrix’s face as she walked up behind Ginny and aimed her wand at the back of her head, “When Snape realized you had gone off by yourself, he sent me to look after you. I thought you’d be thankful that I’ve saved you from these two.”


Bellatrix continued, “Now you two, drop your wands!”


Harry placed his wand on the ground and looked over to Ginny, who was still holding her wand in her left hand, her left arm extended out at her side. Harry could not sense anything but calm radiating from her.


“Now dear, why don’t you just follow your boyfriend’s example and drop your wand?” said Bellatrix in a very annoying tone.


Time slowed to a crawl for Harry as he watched Ginny’s left hand open. He watched as the wand dropped from her palm, but at the same time he saw Ginny move with uncanny speed as she both spun and ducked at the same time. Bellatrix fired a spell that just missed Ginny’s head, while Ginny turned to not only face Bellatrix, but to catch the falling wand with her right hand and fire a spell of her own at almost the exact same time!


Lestrange never knew what hit her as Ginny’s spell sent the evil wizard crashing into a brick wall no more than two meters behind her.


Ginny walked up to Bellatrix, “I’ve been waiting ages to try that. I’m just glad it was you I got to show it off to.”


“Well Potter, I guess Snape was wrong about your wizarding skills,” said Draco, who had not moved.


Harry scooped up his wand and stepped up to Draco. Ginny was about to tell Malfoy to shut his bloody mouth when she was hit by a sudden wave of emotion that stopped her in her tracks.


Harry had his wand pointed at Draco’s face, “”Since the night of Dumbledore’s murder, not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about killing you. But for the life of me, I haven’t been able to come up with one excuse as to why I should lower myself to your level and end your miserable life.”


“Give me an excuse, Draco…GIVE ME AN EXCUSE!!!”


Ginny could see that Draco was on the verge of being consumed by his own fear. But she just could not find it in her heart to interfere.


The tip of Harry’s wand had just begun to glow an eerie green, when Draco started pleading, “Harry, please don’t!”


It was the first time since he had met Draco that he had said Harry’s first name without contempt in his voice. Harry lowered his wand and watched as Draco tried to regain his composure.


“I may not be able to give you an excuse to kill me, but I can give you a reason to spare me…


…Hermione Granger is alive.”
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