If the Fates Allow

Chapter 19

He Who Cannot Be Harmed

Do not stand at my grave and weep;

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glint on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain;

I am the gentle autumn's rain.

When you awaken in the morning's hush,

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft star that shines at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry.

I am not there. I did not die.

(Mary E. Frye)

A week had passed since Elysium's glorious victory over Tartarus, and life in the Underworld started to get back to normal - as far as life could be normal there, and as far as it could be called 'life', since with the exception of Harry, Hades and Persephone no one was alive there.

Well, anyway, life for Harry in the Underworld was pretty much enjoyable. For a couple of days there weren't any training sessions, because there wouldn't be another Quidditch match for about a month and even the slave-driver Godric agreed that his team needed a bit of leisure time.

So Harry spent his days with his family, Daffy included. Two days after the match Linda paid him a visit and told him with a pale but determined face that she supported him in his plans, even if those included the possible sacrificing of their daughter. 'My little angel would be much happier here with us than with my father,' she had said and Harry's heart lifted a bit - just a little bit. He knew what great deal of courage and resolution this young woman must have needed to utter those words, for every mother would want her children to live and prosper... but Linda knew that if she wanted her father stopped and the world saved, then it might require certain sacrifices.

Harry caught himself growing more and more fond of the young woman - he no longer cared that she was Voldemort's daughter, for she was as different from her father as night was from day. He no longer blamed her for seducing him, for he knew she had done it under compulsion, while trying to fight her father's will... she just hadn't been strong enough. But then again, she had only been a fifteen-year-old girl, totally subdued by the might of the evilest wizard in the world... it had been a wonder that she had ever dared defy him at all.

Definitely it couldn't have been easy for her, and Harry respected her for having enough spiritual strength to say 'make the right choice, Harry. At all costs.'

And Harry was determined to do just that.

If only Cedric would return soon, so that he'd be able to leave the Underworld and let his friends and Ginny know that he was alive... and to face Voldemort...

Even though he was enjoying his stay in the netherworld, he longed to go back to world of the living. He felt that every day spent down here was a waste of time. The only good thing in being in the underworld was seeing his parents, Sirius and Daffy, and understanding how and why Voldemort was using Amrita. Now that he knew the truth about Umbridge's quill and its real purpose, Harry felt he'd explode if he remained one more day, sitting and laughing, yet not doing anything against the Dark Lord's terror. Every morning, he went to the Queen of the Underworld to peruse the newspapers, searching for signs of Voldemort striking again. Up till now he hadn't found anything suspicious, but he decided to follow the news. Luckily Persephone was always willing to share her newspapers with him, so that he didn't need to nick them out of bins like he had done after Voldemort's resurrection. However, the tension was almost as bad as it had been back then. The Disneyland attack had been horrible enough, and Harry still kept wondering why the Dark Lord had attacked the Diggorys. Did it have something to do with Mrs Diggory being a Papafotiu by birth? What could Voldemort want from the Papafotius? No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't manage to find out.

He had even asked Julius Caesar how long it had taken him to give his beloved Cleopatra some spiritual encouragement when he had left the underworld so many centuries ago. 'Well, I only needed a couple of weeks,' Julius had replied, 'but I don't know how long it'll take Cedric Diggory to help his parents. My Cleo wasn't in such a bad condition as they are, poor things...'

So all Harry could do was wait for Cedric to return and hope that Cedric had kept his promise and visited Ginny and told her that Harry wasn't really dead.

* * * * *

"Look what Uncle Sirius is making for little Daphne!"

"Oooooh, this is beauuuutiful!" Daffy cheered as Sirius showed her a bunny-figure that he had shaped of pasta. They were kneading homemade bread.

"Sirius, don't fool around with the dough, will you?" Lily said in a slightly reproachful voice, but as she caught her granddaughter's eyes she simply couldn't feel resentful anymore. She loved this little girl with all her heart. After she had had Harry, she had been dreaming about having a little daughter as well, but she never had a chance, for fate - and Voldemort - intervened. Now she felt as though she had got the daughter that she had always been dreaming of.

"Bunny-shaped bread! Isn't it great, Lily?" asked Daffy, who for some reason, just couldn't make herself call Lily 'Granny', nor James 'Grandpa'. Perhaps it was because they looked about the same age as her father? Well, after all, everyone in the underworld looked the age they had died at; no one ever grew older. For Daphne, Lily was pretty much like an aunt and James like her father's twin brother. As for Uncle Siri... he was most definitely the coolest person she'd ever met, 'Daddy' included!

"Yes, it's nice, honey, but I'm not sure it can be sliced properly when it's baked." Lily smiled down at her. "Please, knead the dough back into its bread-shape, will you, Sirius? And take care of Daffy a bit, I've got to go and hang these out to dry." She pointed at a basket full of freshly washed clothes.

"Aye," Sirius grunted, somewhat miffed and went to ignite the logs in the oven so that it'd be warm enough by the time he needed to put the pasta into it, and then returned to kneading the dough. He had made bread on several occasions, but there had never been a little child around before, and he had never had to take security measures like closing the oven door before he put the bread in. Lily had always told him he was very careless with housework, but as long as he was willing to help her with the housework at all, she had let him do it in his sloppy way.

"Can I help?" the little girl asked hopefully.

"No, sweetheart, you can't help me, but you could go and help Lily with the clothes or just grab a toy or play with something, okay? I expect your dad and James will be back in a couple of minutes, then they can play with you."

"Okay." Daphne pouted and grabbed her ball. She had been very happy to be with her family, but now that no one could entertain her, she wished she were back in the kindergarten with the other children. She started bouncing the ball in a bored way, until she realised that bouncing it off the wall was almost as good as throwing it to one of her playmates. She started throwing it against the wall and catching it every time it bounced off. Soon she was laughing whenever the ball hit her in the face or just didn't find its way back to her hands. She threw it particularly hard against the wall, and it ricocheted off it, zooming over Daphne's head and towards the oven. It stopped right in front of the oven's open door. The little girl, whose sense of danger hadn't developed yet enough, went after it, not caring that the flames in the oven were almost long enough to reach beyond its open door.

Sirius, firm in the belief that the child was having fun with her ball, kept kneading the bread, humming something, when suddenly there was a cry:

"Daffy!"

He swerved around to see that Harry jerked the child out of the way of a particularly long flame that hit him instead.

"Harry!" James ran up to him - they had obviously just arrived when the child behind Sirius' back had approached the oven.

Lily dashed into the kitchen. "What happened?"

"Nothing, just my idiot of a godfather let the door of that stupid oven open, and let Daffy play around it! She almost got scorched!" Harry snapped, cradling his daughter in his arms. "All right, sweetie?"

"I'm all right, Daddy. But you... you got burned!"

"Have I?" asked Harry, smelling the air. "Well, something definitely got burned."

"The sleeve of your shirt!" said Lily amazedly. "There's a huge hole in it, but your skin... there's no scorch-mark on it."

"Really?" Harry took a glance at his sleeve. "Hmm, really."

"Good reflexes, Harry," his father patted him on the shoulder. "Pity you had left your wand upstairs, you could have just extinguished the flame... really, Sirius, why on earth did you let my granddaughter play around this dangerous thing?"

Sirius tried to grin sheepishly, but James' look was peremptory. "Sorry. I haven't really got used to taking care of infants... it won't happen again, I promise."

"Perhaps I was lucky that I was brought up by the Dursleys and not by you?" Harry frowned at his godfather. "Clearly you wouldn't have taken any better care of me."

"Look, I'm really sorry... I never thought she'd go near that stupid oven," Sirius apologised.

"It's okay, just... take better care of her," Harry said, sitting down, taking Daphne into his lap. "She means so much to me... I know she can't die again, but I don't want her harmed..." Especially not after what she went through - he added in thought.

"How come you didn't burn yourself, Daddy? Remember when I burnt myself with the candle on my birthday cake? It hurt so much!" asked Daphne, her curly-haired head resting on his chest.

"Well... that's something I don't understand." Harry shook his head. "Actually I was quite surprised at the match that the boulder-Bludger didn't do me any harm... I barely even felt its impact. And now, I didn't feel the flames burning me... if they burnt me at all."

"They must have. Your shirt is in a terrible state, there's an ugly big hole in it," his mother replied with a worried expression, tossing the bread into the oven and closing its door.

"You know, I think I should ask Dumbledore. Perhaps he knows the answer... or if he doesn't, then Hades will surely know..." Harry said. "It's most intriguing, though..."

* * * * *

"...and, to express our respect and gratitude towards him, I hereby unveil this monument."

Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic, pointed his wand at a tall object covered with a white veil, making the veil tumble down to the ground, revealing a life-size statue of Harry Potter.

Some of the people in the crowd gasped, some let out a small sob, while still others just took their wizard hats off and gazed up at the stony face of the statue reverently. For a minute or so only, sniffs and the scratching of journalists' quills could be heard, until the Minister spoke up again.

"As his best friend Ronald Weasley has told me, the Boy Who Lived once told him that the only happy times of his life had been spent here, at Hogwarts. So let his statue remain here till the end of times - here, at Hogwarts, where he was always so happy. Let it stand here for-ever, looking at the Quidditch pitch, where he won so many matches as the Seeker of Gryffindor... Since we cannot visit his grave - for he has none, let this place symbolise Harry Potter's grave. Let his monument serve as a memento to all of us, that even the greatest may fail and none of us is immortal... Let us remember Harry Potter, who has managed to set an example for all of us in every respect," here a snort could be heard, coming from a certain Professor Snape, who turned on his heels and marched away, "his bravery, his willingness to help and his huge heart were the characteristics that highlighted his short life. Let us remember him as a hero, a good friend and very fine wizard."

Ron swallowed the lump in his throat when Kingsley said 'a good friend', and offered Hermione a tissue to dry her eyes.

The Weasley parents, the twins and Percy were standing behind Ron and Hermione. Mrs Weasley silently crying. Not even Fred and George seemed themselves today; anyone who'd known them would have said that they'd never seen these two pranksters so broken before.

"Farewell, our dear investor-friend," George muttered. "We have to thank you for our fortune, old buddy..."

"Yeah. Hope he can see us and hear us from up there." Fred pointed at the sky. "Hey, Harry, we'll name our next invention after you, okay?"

Percy didn't utter a word, just stared at his shoes, as though not feeling worthy to be here. He had long regretted siding with Fudge and working against Harry so many years ago... Harry had been right, he'd been telling the bloody truth, after all...

Remus and Tonks were holding hands, neither of them crying, but both of them very pale. No one had ever seen Tonks with dark hair, but for the memorial she decided to not wear pink or violet - for once her hair was not spiky, but elegantly flattened and jet-black.

The one sniffing and blowing his nose in the loudest way was Hagrid, his shaggy beard soaking wet with tears. Hedwig was sitting on his shoulder, her head bent, her amber eyes cast down in grief.

"Let me ask Minerva McGonagall, Harry's one-time head of house, and current headmistress of the school to say a few words," continued the Minister.

Minerva, with an unusually pallid face, climbed the steps to the small dais from which Shacklebolt had been speaking. "I don't even know where to begin..." her voice was slightly wavering, although she wasn't the type whose voice ever faltered. "I... I remember the first time I saw Harry; it was on the day his parents had been killed. Albus had taken him to his foster parents, and I expressed to him my worries that the Boy Who Lived might not be in good hands with those Muggles, for he was to become a real legend... and all that Albus replied was that it would be enough to turn any boy's head, being famous before he could walk and talk, being famous for something he couldn't even remember... And well, Albus had been right to place Harry under the care of his relatives, for the next time I met him, when he came to Hogwarts, I got to know him as a brave, upright, generous boy, whose heart was definitely in the right place... he was famous, yes, but he never got a big head, he remained as modest as no one else could have been in his place..."

Hagrid, who was standing next to Ginny, whispered in a raspy voice: "Can't stand no more of this, it's heart-wrenchin'! Also, I gotta go back ter teaching... fifth years are waitin' fer me, I'm showin' 'em Thestrals today... so, see yeh, then," and with that he ambled away. Hedwig took wing and soared from his shoulder to sit on Ron's, clearly interested in the rest of the memorial. Ginny stared after Hagrid for a while, then directed her attention back to the Hogwarts headmistress.

"...I feel honoured to have had the chance to teach him," Minerva finished her speech, her eyes looking peculiarly wet as she descended the stairs.

And so it went: wizard after wizard, witch after witch emerged on to the dais to say some nice words about Harry. Ginny was starting to feel dizzy at all the stupid babble and when Dedalus Diggle began to tell anecdotes about Harry recognising him in the Leaky Cauldron after he'd once met him in a shop, Ginny decided she'd had enough.

She made her way through the endless sea of people, accidentally stepping on the foot of Florean Fortescue, who had already given a detailed report on what sort of ice creams Harry had preferred. She muttered an apology and elbowed her way out of the crowd, not even looking at Cho Chang Corner and her husband. Cho opened her mouth to greet her as she passed by them, but Ginny deliberately pretended not to have noticed her there, since she was mad enough at Cho for her soppy account of Harry's cute but slightly awkward ways of courting. Well, with me he'd never been awkward, had he? Ginny thought bitterly as she walked across the lawn. Bet you just couldn't handle him, Cho... she added in a mocking sort of way.

Without truly realising where she was going, she just let her legs take her wherever they pleased and after about half an hour she realised that her legs had felt like taking her into the Forbidden Forest. Not too deeply into it, just to a small clearing near the forest's edge.

She well remembered when she'd last been here: Hagrid had tried to show her and her fifth-year mates the Thestrals. She and Luna had exchanged impish grins back then - they had both ridden a Thestral, after all...

Now there were students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff, standing in a circle around Hagrid and half a dead cow. Some of them gasped as small chunks of meat got torn from the cow and disappeared into the thin air.

"Well, can anyone see 'em?" Hagrid asked in a much less enthusiastic way than he had had when he'd taught Ginny and her mates about these bizarre creatures.

There were again a few students who raised their hands, looking around to see who else had done so. They looked slightly taken aback when they realised that most of their classmates hadn't raised their hands.

"But why can I see them if the others can't?" enquired a Hufflepuff boy with a nervous expression.

"Because on'y such people can see 'em who've seen death already," Hagrid replied with a sullen expression.

"Can you see them, Professor?" a Ravenclaw girl asked.

"Yep, I can." Nodded Hagrid. "Seen me dad die when I was twelve. Now, the good things about Thestrals..."

While Hagrid embarked on describing the wonderful properties of these invisible-to-most-people animals, Ginny was starting to feel more and more frustrated. Why had she come here in the first place? Surely her legs couldn't have brought her here of their own will? When Hagrid had told her that he'd be teaching a class about Thestrals, she just shrugged as though she hadn't cared, but somewhere deep in her subconscious, something had started to nag her to go and have a look at them. She'd always wondered what they could look like... she should be able to see them now, shouldn't she?

Yet, she couldn't see them.

No matter how hard she strained her eyes, all she could see was Hagrid, the students and the cow whose flesh had vanished to reveal its whitish ribs.

Ginny closed her eyes and pictured Harry falling into the Styx, then opened them to look at the Thestrals - only they weren't there. Or... well, they must've been there, but she still couldn't see them.

Harry falling into that dratted river... Harry drowning, thus dying... she repeated in herself, her hands balled into fists...

She opened her eyes again...

"This can't be true!" she shouted, losing her temper.

That was only when Hagrid noticed her. "Ginny? What are yeh doin' in here?"

"Hagrid! Are the Thestrals still here?" she asked desperately, running up to him.

"'Course they are, there." The Care of Magical Creatures Professor pointed to the left - but there wasn't anything... was there?

"I can't see them!" Ginny said hysterically. "They surely can't be here! This must be a ruse, I should be able to see them!" she grabbed Hagrid's waistcoat, "I saw him die, Hagrid! I bloody well saw him die, yet these stupid horses still remain invisible! Why???"

"Ginny, Ginny." Hagrid gently peeled her hands off his waistcoat and put his own on her shoulders reassuringly. Ron had told him that Ginny had been there when Harry died, but he hadn't gone into the details, so all Hagrid knew was that it had happened somewhere in Greece. "Calm down," the gamekeeper said soothingly.

"How can I?" she hissed, not caring that the students were staring at her with a 'she must've gone mad' expression. "I saw him die, yet I can't see these things! I want an explanation, for heaven's sake!"

"Ginny... yeh know... There's a funny thing with 'em, Thestrals. It's not a rule that yeh have ter see 'em if yeh've seen death, at least not righ' after it... it has ter... sink in."

"It HAS sunk in!" She stamped her foot. "It happened almost two weeks ago, and it's not like I haven't accepted the truth yet! I saw him die and I bloody well understand that he's dead! He's gone, he snuffed it, he's kicked the bucket, and he'll never come back, okay? HE IS DEAD! I KNOW HE IS! So - why - can't - I - see - them?" she pointed at the blank point where Hagrid had said the Thestrals were.

The gamekeeper shook his head. "There might be exceptions ter all rules... yeh might be an exception, I don' know."

"But I want to know..." Ginny said, this time rather whispering than shouting, her voice beseeching and desperate.

"Well..." Hagrid scratched his jaw, then turned to the students. "Lesson over fer today. You may go. And don' leave the path we came here on!"

After the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws departed, Hagrid led Ginny to a fallen trunk. "Here, sit down, an' let's talk."

* * * * *

"So, you're saying you should have been burnt but you weren't?" Hades asked, leaning back into his throne-like chair and examining Harry's features.

"Yeah. And I was badly hit by that Bludger directed at me by the Borgia woman, but I barely felt it, and it didn't do me any harm," Harry replied.

"Could it be, Hadie?" Persephone knitted her blonde eyebrows.

"Well, it must be." The King of the Underworld shrugged.

"What?" demanded Harry, squinting at Dumbledore, who was standing next to him and smoothing his long white beard contemplatively. To Harry it seemed as though Albus had known something, perhaps he had known the answer to Harry's question when Harry had asked him, but Albus had still advised him to go to Hades and ask him, too. What could be that thing that Dumbledore knew/suspected but didn't tell Harry?

"May I try something?" asked Hades.

"Er," Harry looked at his parents, who shrugged with bewildered faces. "Okay."

"First of all: I do not want to hurt you, boy," the King of the Underworld said, "but it seems there's only one way to be sure of this..." He pointed his index finger at Harry, sending a blue flame at his chest. It had happened so fast that Harry couldn't have jumped aside, even if he'd wanted to. Everyone around him gasped as the flame ruined the front of his shirt, but the skin beneath it remained intact.

"Hm... most curious," Hades said. "Do you know what sort of a flame I just sent at you?"

"How could I know?" Harry frowned.

"That was a Blue Arrow Flame, an exceptionally dangerous weapon. It's a bit like my brother Zeus' lightning, just not lethal. It's used by some of the Gods to hurt someone badly, but not kill them... It should have burnt a deep hole into your chest, young man."

Lily paled at the mere thought of her son getting a huge hole into his chest and grasped James' arm.

"Then how come it hasn't harmed him?" Sirius interjected.

"Well, if I'm not mistaken, it's because of the Styx," Hades replied.

"The Styx?" Harry's eyes widened, while Dumbledore let out a murmur sounding like 'I thought so'.

"Have you heard of Achilles, Harry?" Persephone asked.

"I s'pose I have." The young wizard nodded. "He was some warrior besieging Troy, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was. He was said to be invulnerable, because his mother, the Goddess Thetis, had bathed him in the River Styx to give him protection against injuries. There was only one single point on his body that hadn't submerged into the river: his heel, where his mother had been holding him, hanging him into the water. And it became his undoing: he was injured on his heel and bled to death. But you..."

"But I..." Harry breathed, barely believing what Hades was suggesting. "But I fell into the river... and my whole body got soaked in it... does this mean...?"

"We think it does." Persephone nodded. "Look at this," she bent down and fished a flimsy magazine out from a whole heap of newspapers. "Tear it." She handed it over to Harry.

The young wizard tried to tear it, but the thin paper just wouldn't rip. He looked up, directly into the beautiful queen's eyes. "This... this has come through the Styx, hasn't it?"

"It has." Nodded Persephone. "Everything that comes through the river becomes resistant to all outer harms."

"This means I can't... can't be harmed?" Harry whispered.

"Yes and no," said Hades. "You can't be stabbed, shot or cursed to death... you can only die of age, illnesses or poisoning, but no outer impact."

"This is creepy," Sirius breathed.

"It is," agreed Harry. "I can't be killed by Avada Kedavra, either?"

"No, you can't, for it belongs into the category of outer harms," Albus replied.

Harry stared at the magazine that he was still gripping tightly, exhilarated and shocked at the same time. "I'm invulnerable."

* * * * *

"So... so yeh had sort o' eloped with him?" Hagrid asked, his huge arm around Ginny's shoulder as they were sitting on the trunk. Ginny had just finished telling him the story of Harry dying, but she had been careful to leave out the fact why she and Harry had gone to the Row of Gods. She was aware that the story seemed full of plot-holes without it, but she knew Hagrid well enough to be wary about telling him things he might blab about when being drunk or just inattentive.

She nodded. "Sort of. But of course Shacklebolt didn't tell this to the press... what would they say about the Boy Who Lived?" A sad little smile appeared on her face. "I think the Minister wanted to keep Harry's image in the memory of wizardkind as the noblest man on Earth. And well... he was noble. Just not in all respects. He was... he was human like all of us... he had his faults. But don't think he seduced me, for I went with him out of my free will..."

"'Course I never thought he did." The gamekeeper shook his shaggy head. "But I still don' understand what yeh two were doin' near the River Styx..."

"Well, Hagrid, I'd... I'd rather you didn't ask," she replied vaguely, not looking at his face.

"Oh. Okay. 'Course you have a righ' ter have secrets. I understand it, I do. I was just wonderin', was there a cute three headed doggie, too?"

"Oh yes, there was," Ginny said, happy to have an opportunity to change the already awkward conversation to something else. "He was called Cerberus."

"Bet the little one looked just like me Fluffy," sighed the half-giant. "But, back ter yeh an' Harry, I really don' understand how come yeh don' see them Thestrals, 'specially if yeh say his death has sunk in... I just keep sayin' there's an exception ter every rule, an' yeh might be one, too. By the way, what has yer husband said to yer elopin' with Harry? If that's not too much o' a tactless question ter ask... "

Ginny shook her head, chewing her lower lip. "No, I suppose it's not tactless. Draco was livid with anger, of course. He thought Harry and I had cheated on him... well, Harry told him we hadn't, before he died, but..." She looked up at him, contemplating whether to say it or not, but with Harry dead there was no use telling lies about their relationship, at least not to their best friends. She had told Hermione too, after all... "...the truth is that we actually did."

Hagrid's eyes popped and he stared at her for a while, and finally let out a chuckle. "Why am I not surprised, eh?"

Ginny shrugged, not knowing whether to feel embarrassed or relieved that she'd confided in him. "I know I've committed... adultery, but... heck, I don't regret it! Does that make me a scarlet woman? Somehow I don't care if it does... I loved Harry with all my heart, and I'm glad I gave myself to him before he died. At least I have a beautiful memory of it... and I'll be able to remember it even when I'm old and grey-haired, sitting in a rocking chair, knitting shoes for kittens..."

"...watching your several grandchildren play around you." Hagrid nodded with a small smile.

"No. I'll never have grandchildren," Ginny whispered. "Nor children. I'm barren, Hagrid."

The gamekeeper knitted his bushy eyebrows. "S'rry. I never knew."

"It doesn't matter anymore... the only man I would have loved to have children with is dead." She bent her head and hid her face in her hands. She felt like crying, but the awaited tears just refused to come. She still hadn't shed a single tear, although two weeks had passed since the tragic events. "I loved him so much..." she muttered. "Still love him."

Hagrid gently stroked her hair. "I know. I remember yeh in yer first year at Hogwarts... yeh came to me cabin every day, hopin' ter catch a glance of him... I never thought... never thought it'd all end like this."

She threw herself into his embrace, and he just rocked her. "Cry, cry, little one. It helps."

"I can't..." she moaned, screwing up her face, trying to force a single tear out of her eyes, but it just wouldn't come.

Suddenly something fluttering and twittering made her look up. It was Hedwig, madly chirping and making circles above them in a nervous way.

"She's tryin' ter tell us something." Hagrid rose to his feet. Suddenly there was a bang, coming from the direction of the school park. "The ceremony! Holy Screwts, what's goin' on there?"

Ginny didn't answer, but started running, her wand drawn. Hagrid hurried after her, and with his long strides, managed to overtake her in no time. In about ten minutes they reached the edge of the forest to see smoke blurring the sky. Harry's wonderful statue had exploded into a dozen pieces and something greenish hovering above it...

The Dark Mark.

Under it, a furious fight was raging. Curses zigzagged everywhere. Ginny could barely make out who was sending them at whom... Then she spotted a redhead engaged in a duel with a highly familiar woman who had long, black hair...

"Bellatrix," Ginny whispered. "You're not harming my brother, you foul, evil..."

Without thinking she hurtled towards them, sending an Impediment jinx at the female Death Eater.

For some seconds Bellatrix Lestrange froze, and this gave Ginny a new idea... She'd seen Harry do it in Atlantis, after all... why shouldn't she try it?

"Tempus glacietur!" she shouted at the crowd, managing to freeze about half of them in time. Surely if it had been Harry casting the charm, he would have frozen everyone, but since it was the very first time Ginny had tried it, she had done pretty well. Those, who hadn't been frozen stopped their fight for a second, gaping at the frozen ones.

Ginny felt some sort of exhilaration that wanted to burst out of her, she felt like shouting 'I've done it', but she could never even let out a victorious yelp, for a flash of light issued from the smoke and hit her fair and square in the chest.