Harry Potter and the Fortress of Woe

Ron’s gaze flickered through the barely lit hall, flooding his brain with surreal images. He was standing in a hall crafted mainly out of white marble, which was currently hosting at least five hundred people huddling tightly together. The room was completely bare except for the black coffin, which was lying on top a small platform at the other end of the hall. A soft glow emanating from the plain white walls illuminated the room, dousing it in soft, soothing light. Ron could see Rufus Scrimgeour, who had been until then talking quietly to his git of a brother Percy next to the single door of the room, starting to walk towards the front of the room and knew that the ceremony was about to start. All these people had come to witness the burial of his best mate.

Ron shook his head, still unable to believe that Harry was indeed gone. To him the whole scene appeared like a dream, surreal and unsubstantial, and he expected to wake up and to find himself in his bed in the Gryffindor dorm at every moment. It had only been a single week. A single week had passed since his best mate had vanished, seven mere days since the last curse of the Hogwarts skirmish had been fired and already the Ministry was burying the world’s saviour. Anger flared in Ron at the Ministry’s extraordinary haste, but he knew that there was not anything a longer search would have changed. Nothing was known about the final battle between Harry and You-Know-Who, only that his demise had saved the life of all of Hogwarts’ population. The Death Eaters seemed to have felt their master’s life ending and had fled the battlefield head over feet, abandoning their almost successful attack immediately.

As the Aurors had searched the Fortress of Woe some hours later, which had somehow been rendered visible by something which had transpired during that fateful evening, the only thing they had found was an empty and thoroughly demolished building. Being unable to find either Harry’s or You-Know-Who’s body, the Ministry had declared both of them dead after a week of searching. The Death Eaters had scattered into all winds and the second war had finally been over. Still the victory was tainted by the causalities of the attack on Hogwarts and of course by Harry’s disappearance.

Ron sighed as the memories of this wretched night started to come back. Instead of giving in to them, however, he forced himself to pay extra attention to his surroundings, hoping that it would help him to block the unwanted memories. He tightened his grip on Hermione’s hand and her reassuring squeeze eased his tension a bit. Even though Hermione and he had not exchanged a single word since they had entered the hall together almost an hour ago, Ron knew that it was her presence which kept him from falling apart completely and he hoped that he had the same effect on her. In this madness, Hermione was an island of normalcy, logic and calm and Ron was more than a little grateful for it. The emotional Wronsiki Feint Ron and his family were currently put through was mind rocking and even though she was affected as well, Hermione seemed to be coping quite well with the situation. Well, at least better than the rest of them.

A muffled sob, reached Ron’s ears and he knew without doubt who had uttered it: Ginny, who was standing two rows behind him and was probably just getting comforted by his mum. She had chosen the most inappropriate time to wake up: directly in the middle of the battle for Hogwarts and the news of Harry’s disappearance and most likely death had been extremely hard on her. Ron had no idea how it must feel to wake up only to find out that the person you had been fighting for to see again was gone and most likely currently rotting in the ruins of the Fortress of Woe. Ron could not remember seeing her smile in the week since Harry’s departure and while he and the rest of his family had been delighted about her recovery, Ginny’s obvious sadness was wearing them all down. His baby sister had spent most of the week in her bedroom and Ron suspected that she had been crying most of the time, judging at how red her eyes were looking all the time. He had also watched her playing with the silver ring Harry used to wear and which he had probably given her as he had dropped off the goodbye letters and even a person with the emotional range of a teaspoon – as Hermione had put it a few years ago – Ron knew what that meant: that she missed him terribly. Ron was not sure anymore how much his family knew about his best mate’s and his sister’s relationship; sure it had been mentioned in an issue of Witch Weekly, but his mum had stopped reading that since his fourth year and he was the only one left at Hogwarts except for Ginny, who had once told him in very clearly that she wanted him to bugger off.

So he was caught between two women you should not mess with: his mother, who was asking him more and more questions why Ginny was so much more distraught about Harry’s absence and his sisters who would without doubt curse him with her infamous Bat Bogey Hex should he say a single word about her and Harry’s relationship. Of course it was unfair of Mrs. Weasley to compare Ron’s and Ginny’s grief, for while Ron was not hiding in his room most of the time, did not mean that he was not suffering under his best mate’s disappearance. Quite the opposite was true, in fact, but at the moment Ron was still too much under shock to believe that Harry was really gone forever. His best friend, who had survived all of his terrible encounters with You-Know-Who dead? Impossible! Harry was a fighter, he was surely going to come back, he had done things much more unlikely in the past, hadn’t he? He was surely just licking his wounds and when they arrived back in the Burrow after the ceremony was over, he would stand there in the kitchen, smiling the exhausted smile he always wore when another adventure was finally over and everything would be fine, wouldn’t it?

Oh who was he kidding? He was standing here on the funeral of his best friend and was still in denial over his death! Ron had seen pictures of the Fortress of Woe in the Daily Prophet and no one, not even Harry would have survived whatever had destroyed most of it. But still, a small part of him was still hoping beyond hope that Harry had made it and that this whole funeral would turn out to be the joke of the century in a few days. But until this happened, the ceremony which was apparently going to start in a few minutes, gave Harry’s supposed death a certainty and finality it had been lacking before. It marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new one, which in Ron’s opinion was going to suck royally. He had had so many fantasies about his life after the war and almost all of them had included Harry in some way. How was he going to marry Hermione without Harry as his best man to keep him halfway sane? Who was going to take care of his sister other than his trusted friend – a git like Michael Corner? Sighing, Ron realized that he was really going to start crying if he stayed on this train of thought. More to distract himself than out of interest he started to scan the hall around him looking for any familiar faces.

There was his family of course, who was standing in a neat line two rows behind him and Hermione. He could see, Ginny crying quietly, while his mum tried to calm her, he could see Bill and Charley who were discussing something with a grim expression on their faces, his father, who was looking older than Ron had ever seen before, and the twins, who looked so alien with completely sober faces, that he nearly had not recognized them. Ron also spotted Tonks, standing alone next to the door, her hair back to mousy brown and her mouth a hard line. Ron now remembered that Remus had not been allowed to enter the hall, due to being a werewolf, which of course had caused Tonks to nearly curse the arrogant guard. However in the end Remus had agreed to wait outside, which was probably why the otherwise so cheerful Auror looked as though she was going to slaughter the next unfortunate being who dared to speak to her. While entering, he had seen McGonagall entering the hall as well, and he wondered if all of Hogwarts’ staff were present. Well, at least all of them who were left. Almost instantly, Ron’s thoughts rushed back to the night of the attack – he remembered.

- - - - -

It had all started like perfectly normal evening. Hermione and him had been heading down to dinner, but had opted to visit the Hospital Wing on the way, both because they wanted to visit Ginny and because Harry was most likely in there standing guard over her prone body. Ron could remember that they had been discussing about whether pushing Harry to spend more time away from Ginny or not, and that an argument had been brewing between them as they had finally arrived at the Hospital Wing. Instead of finding their best friend sitting next to Ginny’s bed, they only encountered the still unconscious Ginny. However, the three letters lying on her prone legs caught their attention immediately.

“What do you think this is about?” asked Hermione as she picked up one of the sealed enveloped and scanned the title. “Ron it’s addressed to me!”
“Go on, open it”, he answered, bewildered at this fact. Who would leave a letter to Hermione on Ginny’s bed, rather than giving it to her in person? It better not be some secret admirer, because Ron would…
“Oh my god!” exclaimed Hermione, clapping her right hand to her mouth. “Ron, you are not going to believe this: it’s a letter from Harry! He has left to hunt down Voldemort and says goodbye to me just in case he does not make it!”
“What!” shouted Ron. “Why on earth is he leaving now and without us? I thought we were supposed to help him defeating that bastard!”
“Quick, if we are fast enough we may still caught him while leaving the castle; it can’t be long since he left the letters here!

Ron agreed and they dashed down the numerous spiral staircases leading to the castle’s entrance as quickly as they could. However, instead of finding Harry sneaking out, they encountered a crowd of people flocking around the main gate, which a ghostly pale Hagrid had just been busy barring. Before they had the chance to inquire what was going on, Headmistress McGonagall’s sharp voice sliced through the buzz of conversation which filled the entrance hall like a warm knife through butter.

“Hagrid, would you be so kind to explain why on earth you are barring the door?” she asked her fellow teacher who was just busy adding a few armour suits to the barricade he had erected.
“They are coming, headmistress!” answered Hagrid, turning around and abandoning his work for a moment. His eyes were wide and had a slightly deranged look in them, but his voice was clear as he evaluated his statement. “The Death Eaters are attacking Hogwarts!”

For a few heartbeats absolute silence filled the hall, a few moments of calm before the storm broke loose. The headmistress was the first to regain her composure.
“Alright then, all students return to their common rooms immediately. The staff will try to prevent the enemy from entering the castle as long as possible. We are going to need help, Filius be so kind and contact the Ministry and any other friends and be swift this is going to be nasty. Honestly attacking a school – the world has become a bad place to live in indeed.”
“Professor, we want to help, we are going to fight with you!” said Ron, anger coursing through his veins at the thought of getting dismissed like an incapable child. “You are going to need every help you could get!”
“No, you certainly won’t do such a thing Mr. Weasley”, replied the headmistress in her sternest voice. “While I am very sure that you can hold your own in combat, you still are a pupil and it’s my job to protect you. I can’t fight while having to worry about any of my pupils getting killed and heard, so you are going to stay out of danger as long as possible. Where is Mr. Potter by the way?”

“He left the castle earlier tonight”, answered Ron through clenched teeth. “He is going to end things with You-Know-Who tonight.”
“Good, though we could need him here as well”, replied the headmistress, just a mighty blow caused the front door to shake alarmingly. “I think that is the signal for you to return to the safety of the common rooms. Off you go, and don’t worry; we only have to endure long enough till the Ministry sends reinforcements, everything will be fine.”
“Like hell, it will be fine”, muttered Ron under his breath, unwilling to avoid the fight. However, he complied as Hermione dragged him away from the entrance hall back up the stairs leading to Gryffindor Tower.

As they entered the tower together with their fellow housemates, Ron immediately sank down in a chair next to the fire, his face scrunched up in anger.
“I just can’t understand why McGonagall does not want us to fight!” he exploded as Hermione sat down in a chair opposite of him. “I don’t believe this rubbish she said about her duty to protect her students, I mean where was her desire to protect us during all the shit Harry had been put through during the last years? I don’t remember her raising any objections as Harry had to attend the Triwizarding Tournament with fourteen! So why is she acting all protective now?”

“Ron this situation is completely different”, answered Hermione patiently. “You have to admit that most students would only be standing in the way if they became involved in the fighting and while some of us are quite capable at fighting that does not mean that everyone should be placed in the line of fire. Besides, her strategy is pretty good. If the Death Eaters managed to enter the castle they still are going to have to force their way into the common rooms one at a time, which makes it very easy to defend them. This way most of the pupils are going to be unharmed as the Ministry arrives.”

Ron had to admit, though grudgingly, that Hermione was right once again. He did not like McGonagall’s decision, but it made sense.
“Alright then, I will stay put, but I want to make it absolutely clear that I was against this plan from the very beginning”, he said, leaning back in his armchair in a vain attempt to become comfortable.

Is there a saying that the worst part of a battle is waiting for it? If there is not there should be one. Ron did not know for how long they had been waiting in the common room, huddled together like a group of animals in a storm, listening to the sounds of battle which constantly grew louder. The tension in the room made him even more apprehensive than before and by the time a tremendous crash announced the destruction of the main gate he was itching to join battle.

“That was the main gate,” whispered Seamus Finnigan. “It can’t be long now till they will barge in here.”
“Yeah, and we will be ready to meet them”, replied Hermione as calmly as she could, which was extraordinary clam considering the situation. “The Ministry is going to arrive soon and then all of us will be saved. We only have to remain clam and everything will be alright.”

The fact that Death Eaters had infiltrated the school stirred something in Ron’s brain. Suddenly he remembered that there was one Gryffindor except Harry who was not in the safety of the common room.
“Hermione, Ginny is still lying in the hospital wing, we have got to go and fetch her!”
“You are right, how could we forget about her?” replied Hermione, paling visibly. “We have to go and fetch her right now!”
“Right,” agreed Ron, grabbing his wand. “Let’s get moving. If we are lucky we will have her safe here in the Common Room with us before the Death Eaters managed to infiltrate the castle.”
“You can’t go out there right now!” interrupted Dean. “The castle is possibly already swarming with Death Eaters and you two are only getting yourself killed or captured if you are going out there yourself!”
“So your suggestion is to leave Ginny lying there on the silver plate?” barked Ron at his housemate, whom he liked a great deal less since he had gone out with his precious sister. “Sorry, I won’t let this happen. The Death Eaters are not going to know what hit them, Hermione and I are a force one should recon with.”
“Dean’s not wrong”, added Neville. “You two are not nearly enough to make sure that Ginny is saved. Take me and the rest of the former DA members with you and we should make strong enough a troop to get her back to safety.”

While most of the present former members seemed to agree with Neville, Hermione had completely different an opinion.
“No, Ron and I are going alone,” she said firmly. “We need the rest of you to defend the tower which is more important than Ron’s, Ginny’s and my fate combined. Also I would like to get Ginny as stealthily as possible, which is kind of hard with a group of more than twenty. Don’t worry, we don’t plan to get involved with the Death Eaters, should we encounter them we simply are going to use some spells to confuse them and retreat to the common room as quickly as possible.”

The plan did not sound as easy in Ron’s ears, but he agreed with Hermione. There was no point in running through the corridors in a horde except that their combined footsteps would alert the Death Eaters almost instantly. Their fellow Gryffindors protested, but after another of Hermione’s patented glares of death all of the agreed to let them go. The two of the quickly but quietly left the room and started the journey towards their hospital wing.

Ron did not remember much of the way to the wing, which probably was due to the fact that all of his brain had been focused on taking in his surroundings and looking for foes rather than on memorizing them. All he could come up with there the sounds of the distant battle, screams, bellowed incantations, the crackling of flames, splintering wood, the dull sound of a body hitting the ground, which were muffled by the castle’s thick walls but still quite audible and grew louder with each step towards their goal, because the entrance hall also lay in this direction. He had been that focused on spotting any possible nearby enemies that for a few moments he had even forgotten about his fear for his sister, for Hermione, for Harry, for himself and when the entrance to the hospital wing came into view, he could not believe their luck. He knew that Madame Pomfrey was gone, fighting with the rest of the staff, so the only person in the wing was his sisters. Only a few minutes more and they would be safely on their way back to Gryffindor tower. Just as he only ten feet away from the door leading to the matron’s realm, a movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. To his horror Ron watched a group of two Death Eaters coming around the corner of the corridor roughly thirty feet away.

For a moment time stopped. Both parties simply stared at each other in utmost surprise, the fact that they should be fighting each other forgotten for a few heartbeats. Fortunately Ron recovered first. Knowing that he and Hermione would not be able to reach the entrance to the hospital wing before their enemies would open fire, he decided that they had to overthrow them before saving Ginny. Ron remembered a lesson Harry had once taught them during a PFT lesson: when a fight was unpreventable, strike first, strike hard, strike true. Snarling he raised his wand and sent a Cutting Charm straight at the left death eater’s throat. His move caused all other present people to jerk out of their paralysis. Hermione followed his example by sending a powerful stunner at the very same Death Eater he had attacked, but their foe blocked both of their spells with a simple shield charm. His colleague, who not needed to defend himself against any enemy spells, reacted in standard Death Eater fashion: he whipped out his wand and cast an Avada Kedavra at the nearest enemy, which happened to be Hermione.

For a brief moment Hermione seemed to be rooted to the spot in terror, but then she snapped out of her daze and nimbly sidestepped the deadly curse a few seconds before it would have hit her in the chest. Ron breathed a sigh of relieve at her escape, but the ugly truth that the corridor they had chosen as impromptu fighting ground was not nearly wide enough to dodge two Avada Kedavras, did not escape him. As long as only one of their foes fired the lethal curse they were fine, but as soon as both of them resorted to the use of their ultimate weapon they were dead. It was of course safe to say that Ron did not like the odds the least bit. As much as he hated to leave Ginny in danger, he would have to retreat and lure the Death Eaters in a more favourable environment. Thank god they did not know that his sister was lying helpless only separated to the combat by a set of wooden doors.

“Hermione!” he hissed not loud enough for his foes to hear, but loud enough for her to understand him. “We have got to retreat; we can’t dodge more than one Avada Kedavra here. Let’s lure them up the next stairs and ambush them there, we will finish what we came for later!”
Hermione nodded her agreement and the two started to retreat while firing stunners and cutting curses at the Death Eaters, hoping to keep them too busy defending themselves to use their Unforgivables. Their progress was slow, excruciating slow and after roughly thirty feet of progress, Ron realized that they were not going to make it. Already his wand arm was tiring and his whole body was aching and protesting against how quickly he depleted his magical energies. It only took one glance at Hermione to know that she suffered the same and while their foes were also starting to show signs of the strain of almost constantly active shield charms, they were tiring much slower than they were. They were still keeping their distances and were now standing roughly twenty feet away, with the door leading to the hospital wing another ten feet behind them and with Ron and Hermione standing close to the end of the corridor. Ron knew they could try to run for it after disappearing behind the corner, but he was fairly sure that he did not have the endurance to outrun his enemies. Still, it was worth a shot. However in this dangerous situation a completely unexpected helper arrived.

Ron caught the movement at the very edge of his vision, but as he realized what it was he had to restrain himself from calling out. The door leading to the Hospital Wing had opened and a single figure had slipped out as silent as a ghost. She was only wearing a hospital gown, her face looked tired, she was thinner than he remembered and her fiery hair was a mess, but her chocolate eyes shone clearly and determined. Just as the Death Eaters had deflected the next of Ron’s and Hermione’s curses and their shields had vanished, Ginny cast a silent stunner at the foe standing closest to her and caught him straight in the back. As he hit the ground his colleague turned around to see where the stunner had come from, but in the process exposed himself to Ron and Hermione who did not let this chance pass unnoticed and sent him into unconsciousness with two stunners in his back.

Ron was amazed and overjoyed to see his little sister finally awake after her long coma, but this was not the time to celebrate it, especially because he could the voices of more Death Eaters coming up the stairs leading to this very corridor.
“Run!” shouted Ron and the three turned on their heels and stormed back the way towards Gryffindor tower. A few curses were hurled their way as they ran for it, but fortunately none of them was hit. Even though Ron had not considered it possible they were actually able to outrun their foes, despite their less than optimal physical situation and arrived at the portrait of the pink lady completely exhausted but otherwise unhurt. Entering the common room, they braced themselves for the nerve grating hours of waiting.

- - - - -

The sound of the Minister clearing his throat caused Ron to slip out of his memories. It had not been long till the battle for Hogwarts had been over, after they had fetched Ginny. Approximately half an hour later the Aurors had finally arrived and while the battle had been long and bloody they had been successful, though their victory was based on the face that the Death Eaters had depart in fright as they had felt their master’s demise, leaving only the Dementors and Werewolves behind, which had been no match for the Aurors. Still the blood toll had been high, only half of the hundred Aurors who had entered the field left the battlefield still alive. The Hogwarts’ staff was also less numerous than it had been, their heroic defence had not left them unscathed. Professor Sprout, Slughorn, Trelaneway and worst of all Hagrid had paid their involvement with their life. Ron sighed at the thought of another funeral to attend, but knew that he owed it to each of them, particularly to Hagrid. The only bright side was that Harry had died without the knowledge that the gamekeeper was dead, for it would have pained him severely. A small part of Ron considered it highly ironic that he had been able to find a bright spot in his best mate’s premature death, but the beginning of Scrimgeour’s speech spared him of any more ponderings about the subject.

“Welcome Ladies and Gentlemen,” said the Minister, starting what clearly was supposed to be a very long speech. “Despite the gruesome and sorrowful reason for this ceremony, I am overjoyed by your numerous presence and I am sure if our saviour, young Mr. Potter would be able to be here, he would…”
“…be amazed at how quickly the Ministry declares people dead who have risked everything to safe this sorry country.”
Ron could not believe his ears. He recognized the voice, having heard it countless times: it was Harry’s voice! Enormous, all consuming hope and joy washed over Ron, but it was short lived as he realized that he could not actually see his best mate, who was suppose to be somewhere in the room, having just commented on the Minister’s statement. For a few heartbeats the whole hall searched in vain for the source of the offensive comment, but then Harry Potter appeared in a flurry of silver fabric as he pulled his invisibility cloak of him. He looked horrible. His full body dragon armour had been pierced in several places, exposing the bandaged skin beneath. He obviously had received some medical attention, but still looked dead on his feet with dark rings under his haunted looking eyes and a sunken, pale and tired face. A gasp went through the crowd, but Harry ignored it, fixing his piercing stare on the Minister, who had turned around in confusion at the rude interruption of his carefully prepared speech, and continued speaking.

“I came here today to show the world that I am still alive, even though many people had been stating the contrary in the past few days and to tell everybody that Voldemort is now, finally and forever, dead. I apologize for the scare I gave everyone who cares about me in the last few days, but the battle with Voldemort has taken a much greater toll than I expected and I needed the past week to at least halfway recover from it. Finally all of my dues are paid and it is time to start finally living my own life. And now, I am going home!”

With these words Harry Disapparated, leaving a completely stunned hall behind.

- - - - -

Harry reappeared in the Burrow’s familiar kitchen, immediately grabbing the sink for support. He felt dizzy and the pain right above his right hip started to flare once again. Harry cursed; the painkiller potion must have stopped working. He produced a small vial filled with emerald green liquid out of his tattered vest’s pocket, uncorked it and swallowed the content in one go. It could not be long now till the Weasleys arrived and for a moment Harry had been sure that he had seen Ginny standing in the crowd with them, but he did not allow himself to belief this till he saw her in person. While he was waiting for both his makeshift family to arrive and for the potion to kick in, Harry thought about how extraordinary the last few days had been.

- - - - -

He had woken up this very morning in an unfamiliar flat and found a man in his thirties with a pleasant but premature lined face gazing tiredly at him.
“Ah good, you are awake,” he had said, raising his hands to show Harry that he was no threat. “My name is healer Fitzgerald, normally I work at St. Mungo’s but a mutual friend convinced me to call in sick and to use the last six days to stitch you back together. He can be very persuading if he wants to be.”
Just as Harry wanted to ask whom he was taking about, he saw a jet black figure standing on the flat’s balcony, idly scanning the horizon. He recognized it: Sandro the shade assassin. Before Harry had the chance to comment on this, the healer had already whipped out his wand and had cast a diagnosis spell on him. While Harry still did not like the situation very much, he decided to let the man do his job.
“Alright then”, said the healer, after having finished his examination. “Most of your wounds are almost perfectly healed by now, and your right kidney has grown again nicely. You will still be in pain for a day or two and feel weak, but otherwise you are in perfect health. I strongly recommend rest and as few use of magic as possible because your magical reserves still stored in your body are dangerously low. Oh, that reminds me…”

He opened a bag which had been lying at his feet and rummaged through it till he came up with two vials filled with green liquid and two filled with blue and gave them to Harry.
“The green ones are painkillers and the blue ones will help you regenerate more quickly”, he explained. “Take a painkiller if the pain returns and a blue one each day before going to bed. These are standard potions available in every apothecary so if you need more, simply send someone to get them. Oh, and there is something that might interest you in today’s Morning Prophet.”

He fished around in his bag till he came up with the newspaper and gave it to Harry, who gasped in shock as he read the headline. He quickly scanned the article and discovered that he was about to get buried and declared dead today, because nobody had been able to find his body during the last week. Anger flared in Harry at how quickly the Wizarding World had abandoned him and at Sandro, for he apparently had not bothered to tell anyone that Harry was still alive. Just as he was about to jump up from his bed, grab his wand, which he had spotted lying on the floor next to it, and confront the assassin with this fact, the door leading towards the balcony opened and the person in question entered the room.

“Ah Harry, you are awake, how delightful!” said the assassin with the eeriest grin Harry had ever seen. “Then my job here is finally gone and I can start the holiday I surely have deserved after fifty years of non-stop working.”
“Not so fast”, Harry heard himself snarl, and his wand was in his hand with a split second. “You still have to explain to me where I am, what has happened and why I am still alive.”
“Ah, of course, how thoughtless of me”, replied the assassin, completely unfazed by Harry’s wand. “Well, as you surely recall Snape cheated me way back in December and I do not take things like that kindly. I wanted revenge. Well, Snape is or rather was only a pawn, so my true target was going to be Lord Voldemort himself and after some research and a few more dead Death Eaters I found myself slipping into the Fortress of Woe on the very same day you entered it, full of wonderful dreams of my vengeance. Well, I was severely disappointed, for the whole part of the Fortress I explored was devoid of anything to kill.”

“Therefore , I left again, but spotted your impressive lightshow before I finally departed. It did not escape me that you were I trouble and I decided that there would be no greater way to take revenge at Voldemort than by making sure that his nemesis survived. So, I quickly entered the tower, grabbed you and got you out just in time, brought you to the healer and made sure no one damaged you while you were healing. And well, here we are.”

Something stirred in Harry’s brain at Sandro’s tale and suddenly he remembered being dragged down the stairs of Voldemort’s tower at frightening speed. The memory was fuzzy, except for the very clear memory of the pain, but Harry knew that the assassin was telling the truth.
“Still, why I did it took a week to stitch me back together and why did you not tell anyone of my survival?” asked Harry, not yet completely satisfied with the shade’s explanations.
“Well, I am not really proficient with healing spells, but I think it is due to the fact that you lost a kidney which had to be replaced.” answered the assassin. “It takes time to grow these things and I did not contact anyone because I did not know whom I should contact and whom I could trust. So, if you are finished whining, could you please get your arse out of here? I think you have a funeral to attend.”

Harry did not need to be told twice. Waving weakly in thanks at the healer, he took the invisibility cloak out of his pocket, threw it over him and Disapparated to his own funeral.

- - - - -

Harry smiled at the thought of having visited his own funeral and still living to tell the tale – fate really had a strange humour. The sound of Apparating caused him to jerk out of his musings and his hand immediately went to his wand. It took Harry a second to realize that the Burrow was still protected by an abundance of wards and that no Death Eater would have been able to simply pop in here. Shaking his head at himself, Harry pocketed his wand again, but vowed to stay alert, well as alert as the now slowly fading pain above his right hip allowed him to be. Just in this moment the door leading to the kitchen banged open and Harry looked into Ron’s thoroughly shocked face.
“Hey Ron”, was all he managed to say, before his best mate was roughly shoved aside and something that looked like a red whirlwind hurled itself at Harry, nearly knocking him flat. Suddenly he realized what or rather who it was.

“Ginny?” he heard himself say incredibly, just as she started sobbing against his chest. “Ginny, you are awake!”
Ginny only response was to hang even more tightly at his chest, which slowly started to rake fiery tendrils of pain through his still injured kidney, and was still crying in what he hoped was relief. Cursing inwardly at having to deal with a crying girl in his situation, but overjoyed to see her awake and uninjured, Harry decided that he had to do something.
“Shh, Ginny”, he whispered into her ear, while putting her arms around her. “Everything is alright, I am here, slightly scratched but here and I am not leaving again. Voldemort is gone forever, we are finally safe. It is only a matter of time until the remaining Death Eaters will be captured and then this nightmare will finally be completely over.”

Harry was not sure if Ginny had even heard one of is words, because if only she seemed to cry harder. While wishing once again for a Girl-English dictionary, Harry decided for a more radical curse of action. With one of his hands, he gently forced Ginny’s head up, till she was finally facing him. He could read disbelief, fear and a bit of hope in her eyes, apparently she was not sure whether he was real or not and was fearing to wake up from a dream every moment. Deciding to show her that he was very much real, Harry bent down and kissed her, not giving a damn that most of her family had in between entered the kitchen. After a few seconds of shock, she kissed him back and Harry felt a wave of almost unnatural giddiness flow over him. He was finally free to live his life like he had always wanted to, the girl he loved was awake and the megalomaniac dark wizard who had troubled him all his life was currently busy rotting in the remains of his fortress, could life really get any better?

A polite cough caused Harry to remember that there were other persons in the room as well. He and Ginny broke apart and Harry quickly scanned the faces of his pseudo family to find out how they reacted to his and Ginny’s relationship. Bill and Charley had averted their eyes in disgust, Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley were beaming in delight, Fred and George looked as though Christmas had come early, which caused Harry to strongly suspect that he was about to receive serious teasing from the two of them, while Hermione and Ron, who had known about Ginny and him all along, were looking simply relieved to see him alive and well, though he thought he could see the ghost of a smile on Ron’s face.

“Harry!” said Ginny, interrupting his examination with a barrage of questions. “Where have you been? Why did you not send word that you were alive? Oh, we were all so worried. What happened to Voldemort? Did you meet Snape? How did you…”
“Stop, please”, replied Harry as another wave of pain washed over him. He had not realized how exhausted he was before; but now he hardly was able to keep his eyes open. “I am exhausted and in pain and while I would love to tell you what has happened to me, I am afraid it has to wait for another day.”

This short statement was all it took for Mrs. Weasley to jump into full protective-mother-mode and after shortly scolding Ginny for putting him under so much stress, ordered her to take him up to bed, of course causing much sniggers from Fred and George and dark stares from Bill and Charley in the process.
“You will only put him to bed, will you Ginny?” asked Bill suspiciously, but before Ginny had any chance to explode at her oldest brother, Ron interrupted.
“Don’t worry Bill, Harry over there is in no condition to seduce anyone or to get seduced”, he said and in the process clapped Harry on the back. “Hey mate, great to see you alive, we already feared you had snuffed it this time.”
“Don’t get your hopes up Weasley, you don’t get rid of me that easily” replied Harry gruffly. “I am too stubborn to die.”

“You probably are”, answered Ron laughing. “And you are at least a bit mental or you would not have chosen Ginny as a girlfriend, the only girl who is at least as stubborn as you are and of course a master of the infamous Bat-Bogey-Hex.”
Fortunately for Ron, Ginny chose to ignore his last comment and instead focused on getting Harry to bed. Five minutes later, Harry found himself lying in the bed in Percy’s old room, safely tucked under the blankets after drinking the restorative potion. The painkiller was finally kicking in and Harry felt the tiredness starting to overwhelm him.
“So you are back for good, aren’t you?” asked Ginny, grinning at him like a Cheshire Cat.
“Yeah, and I am not going to leave again, ever”, Harry managed to say before finally drifting off to sleep.


The End


final author’s note: I am sorry at how long it took to finish this chapter, but I fell ill in the final week of my exams and only recently recovered enough to continue writing. For those of you who are wondering, yes there will be a sequel and I hope that you will enjoy that as well. Stay tuned, I will probably upload the first chapter in a week or so. Oh and Uforce thanks for the information, give BLZF my best regards. So long, and thanks for all the reviews.