The Power Within

Ginny sucked in a sharp breath when Harry launched himself at her. It took her a moment to register what was happening before she wrapped her arms around him and rested her chin on top of his head. She hoped that he couldn't distinguish her falling tears from the rain. After all, he had obviously turned to her for support, not pity. He wouldn't want her to be crying along with him. She tried unsuccessfully to suck back the tears falling onto his raven hair, but she couldn't, and resolved to let them fall. Harry was shaking uncontrollably, and she could feel his tears sliding down her neck. She tried desperately to bite back the sob rising within her throat, but it bubbled forth regardless, and Harry only clung tighter. He had his hands tangled in the folds of her shirt, and was not about to let go anytime soon.

The storm was getting heavier, and the rain was coming in torrents. Even the weather seemed to be grieving with Harry. Ginny was drenched and shivering, but she didn't care. If this was when and where Harry needed her, she wouldn't dare leave his side. Ginny sighed; she hadn't even noticed that her heart had opened up completely for Harry. She knew then that she could never convince herself that she didn't love him, she would always be his, although he may not feel the same.

The storm started to subside as the two teenagers clung to each other in the garden. Harry's sobs had stopped and Ginny could no longer feel his hot tears of despair on her neck. Harry was now just holding onto her for dear life. She decided to break the silence.

"Harry," she started before faltering.

He let go of her and looked at the ground.

Ginny felt a part of herself go when he let go of her. She desperately missed the contact. She berated herself for letting her personal feelings get to her when Harry was obviously in so much pain.

"You know I'm always here for you," she whispered softly.

Harry continued to stare at the ground. She hoped he was at least listening.

"You know, in case you ever do decide to talk about all of this," she said shakily.

He still did not respond.

The rain had stopped, and it was silent.

"I remember what I felt like after the... chamber," she struggled, tears involuntarily rising to the surface with memories of the shame she had felt.

"I wanted to die," she continued, "after everything I had done. I was so ashamed. People were hurt..."

She cast a glance at Harry.

"You almost died," she choked, "all because of me!

"I know our situations are different, but they both hurt us in their own way, all of our problems boil down to one person... Voldemort."

Harry turned his head slightly.

"It isn't your fault you did those things," he said softly.

Ginny nodded.

"Exactly."

She glanced at him.

He was oblivious to the statement he had just made.

Ginny cleared her throat and pressed on.

"Are you going to continue to beat yourself up for something that is out of your control?" she asked gently.

Harry looked back down at the sodden cement.

"If it isn't my fault that Tom possessed me, then how is it your fault that... that all these things happened?"

She paused, expecting a response. When none came she continued.

"You see, Harry, that was something I just had to accept after my incident. Some things in the universe are just... out of our hands. As soon as I accepted that I was able to move on. I mean sometimes I still feel the shame of what I did, but I know that it doesn't do to wallow in the past. Life goes on."

Harry sucked in a deep breath and ran his hands through his hair before removing his glasses. He met her gaze, his eyes forceful. Ginny couldn't see the clouded façade she had become so accustomed to, instead his eyes were open, bearing his soul.

"Unfortunately, my whole life is in the past," he stated simply, "It was signed away years ago."

Ginny stared at him in bewilderment. He was speaking as if it were the truth, not an invention of his grief and suffering.

"Why is that?" she asked softly.

Harry breathed deeply, closing his eyes for a moment before continuing on.

"Do you remember the prophecy from the Ministry of Magic?" he asked.

Ginny nodded.

"Yes, I thought Neville smashed it by accident," she said.

"He did, but Dumbledore knew what it said."

Ginny's eyes widened.

"Did he... did he tell you?" she asked.

Harry nodded, looking uncertain as to if he should continue or not.

"Look, Harry, you... you don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to, you don't have to tell anyone, we'll all wait for you," she reassured him.

"No, I want to," he said before pausing again.

Ginny decided to wait in silence for him to continue.

"It was made by Professor Trelawney at her interview for Hogwarts. Dumbledore heard it," he said slowly.

He paused again and Ginny waited.

"I can't really remember what it says exactly, but it basically says that in the end, I have to..." he trailed off and swallowed hard.

"To... kill Voldemort..."

He was interrupted by Ginny's sharp gasp.

"Sorry... go on!" she apologized.

Harry took a moment before continuing.

"Or he has to kill me. Neither can live while the other survives... I do remember that much," he said sorrowfully.

Ginny raised her hands to cover her mouth.

"Oh, Harry!"

Her cry was muffled in her hands.

He looked at her again; his eyes vulnerable and lost.

"So it all is my fault. If I had never been born then there wouldn't have been a prophecy," he said, anger rising in his voice again.

"If I had never been born, I wouldn't have had to be surrounded by people who tried to protect me from Voldemort. My mum and dad never would have gone into hiding, and they never would have died," he spat bitterly.

Ginny reached out to him, taking his hand in hers. She hoped he wouldn't shake it off like he had before; she just wanted to help him get through what he was currently telling her.

He looked down, but didn't move his hand away. When he spoke again, his voice had taken on a calmer tone.

"We would have never gone to the Ministry and Sir..." he swallowed, shutting his eyes tightly.

"Sirius wouldn't have died either," he finished sadly.

Ginny squeezed his hand reassuringly.

Harry was staring hard at the ground and his hand was shaking in Ginny's.

Ginny felt a tear slip from the corner of her eye and begin to etch a hot path down her cheek.

Harry's eyes found hers once again.

"Why does it have to be me? Why is the target on my back?" he whispered.

This statement caused even more tears to fall from her eyes. She couldn't control herself in the presence of Harry Potter. Especially when he was looking at her with that lost expression, an expression that said he just wanted to give up, that it would be easier that way.

It broke her heart to see him like that, she knew she loved him and always would. He had so much on his back, how would he ever cope with it all?

'Because he's Harry Potter... that's how,' she told herself.

She couldn't believe everything he had just told her. He was a marked man, to be murdered or to murder.

Ginny was frightened by the new feelings bubbling inside her. She had always known she had liked Harry. Liked had somewhere along the line leaked into love, a silly love, a teenage crush love. But what she was feeling now was unconditional love. She would do anything for the torn boy sitting next to her, even lay down her own life if it would help make his just a little longer, if it would give him the time he needed to defeat Voldemort she would do it. She would go to the ends of the earth and even further for him. She loved him. That she knew, and although the prospect of loving someone like Harry Potter was frightening, she knew that in the end it would be for the best as long as her love could help him in his fight.

Ginny was so overcome with emotion that she reached out and threw her arms around Harry's neck. He stiffened at the contact, but soon he relaxed into her.

"Harry, don't worry about all of this. You're one of the greatest wizards of our age! Probably the best since Dumbledore!" she breathed in his ear. "Everyone around you loves you, Harry. And if we all keep loving you and believing in you, you will be able to conquer Voldemort... I know it!"

Tears were still streaming out of Ginny's eyes, when Harry pulled away and looked at her.

"That would make me a murderer, Ginny. Is that any better than me being murdered?" he asked pathetically.

Ginny thought about that statement for a moment before continuing.

"I don't think you'd be a murderer, Harry,"

He looked at her, confusion written all over his face.

"How would me killing Voldemort not make me a murderer?" he asked.

"Because, Harry, murder... consists of... of... killing something precious. When you kill something you are taking a life away from this world, taking it away from all the people who love it. When you murder you're sending a soul to the other side because of your hate and anger towards that soul," she stated philosophically, hoping she was making sense.

Harry still looked confused.

"But, Voldemort doesn't have a soul... at least not in my opinion anyway! He sold out to the devil years ago. Now he's just a shell with poison where his soul should be. He has no soul to send to Hell, it's already there... waiting for the rest of him. All he has left in him is his lust for power. Harry, that quest for power needs to end. Your death would be far worse than Voldemort's, because you were saved out of love. You can feel it in your veins," she said, tracing a blue vein on Harry's wrist with her fingertip.

"It's what drives you, Harry. Love... not power. That's the difference between you and Voldemort. He would kill to have the power to kill more, you would kill to end that power, to end the suffering, and avenge the deaths of those that loved you, those that HE took away because of his lust for power. You shouldn't feel bad about spilling his blood, Harry."

Harry looked at her and nodded. He seemed to want to believe everything she had said.

Ginny had more that she wanted to say, but did not get around to it. Because at the same moment she opened her mouth to speak, Harry flinched, bringing a hand up to his scar briefly, before passing out cold on the pavement.

Ginny shrieked. That was something she hadn't expected.

"Harry," she said tentatively, prodding him in the arm, "Are you alright? What happened? Harry?"

But Harry was unresponsive.

Ginny continued to call out his name for a good quarter of an hour before his eyes fluttered open.

"Harry?" she asked.

He sat up, kneading his forehead with his fingers.

"Harry, what happened?"

He slowly put on his glasses and looked at her clearly through them.

"He's angry," Harry stated simply, "He is VERY angry."

"Did you see anything? Where was he?" Ginny asked quickly.

"He was alone in a forest of some sort, I couldn't really tell where, all I could tell was that he was very angry."

Ginny's eyes widened.

"Well, what about your Occlumency, I thought it was supposed to keep him from getting to you?"

"Like I said, he is VERY angry," Harry repeated.

Ginny nodded.

"Come on Harry, I think we better go in now... visiting hours are almost over, we will have to floo back soon," she said, climbing to her feet and reaching out a hand to help Harry up.

Harry took her hand and stood up, brushing off the dirt from his pants. Not that this action did him any good as he was soaking wet and was only smearing the mud all over himself.

The pair walked back through the double glass doors and into the hospital, where a passing orderly wasted no time in reprimanding them for dripping water on the carpet.

They continued walking and were about half way back to Hermione's room when Harry reached out a hand and stopped Ginny.

Ginny looked up at him.

"Ginny, I just want to say... thanks... for listening, and staying with me back there," he said shyly while looking at the floor.

"No problem, you needed that,"

"I'm glad someone knows about the prophecy now," he said, and then seemed to be hit with a sudden realization.

"Ginny, you have to swear that you won't tell anyone about it," he said quickly.

"I swear," she said softly, before giving Harry a quick peck on the cheek.

As soon as she pulled back she could feel her cheeks starting to burn, and knew they were turning Weasley pink. She cursed her heritage.

"I... I... I am sorry about it all... that you have to go through all of this," she stammered.

Harry nodded.

"Thanks," he muttered.

They continued down the hall. Each lost in their own thoughts. Ginny kept sending quick glances at Harry. She wondered what was going through his mind.

Her lips were burning from the kiss she had given him. She silently cursed the Weasley name and the trademark blush that came with it. She could feel the blush creeping back into the apples of her cheeks at the thought of her lips making contact with his cheek. To Harry it had been an innocent, friendly, sisterly kiss. But to Ginny it was much more than that. She only wished that someday Harry would be able to see an action like that for what it was. Who she was; Ginny, a fierce, independent, courageous and fiery girl. Not Ron Weasley's baby sister that was just along for the ride.

Ginny continued to ruminate about her feelings, staring at the floor to keep Harry from seeing the pink of her cheeks and the desire which she knew would be present in her eyes if he were to look into them.

It wasn't until she heard the distant call of her name that she looked up, only to find her mother scurrying towards them.

"Ginny! Harry! Thank Merlin I found you!" Molly said in relief as she reached the pair.

"Why are you all wet?" she asked rhetorically before continuing on with her thought, "Oh, never mind that, something terrible has happened!"

Ginny gasped, remembering the pain she had felt through the amulet.

"What happened to Remus?" she asked slowly.

Molly went from looking worried to stunned.

"How did you know something happened to Remus?" she asked her daughter.

"I just had a feeling is all," Ginny replied.

Molly still looked floored as to how Ginny knew anything about what had happened but was quickly snapped out of it by Harry who inquired as to what really happened.

"Mrs. Weasley, what is it? Is it serious, is he... dead?"

Mrs. Weasley just shook her head.

"Follow me you two, Tonks is in the waiting room, she'll tell you all about it," Molly said, as she scurried off down the hall, leaving the pair with no choice but to follow.

They emerged from the lifts on the main floor and entered the general waiting room.

Tonks was on the far side of the room sitting in a chair Indian style. Ginny noted that she might have a tendency to let her appearance resume it's original style when she was upset. Tonks looked very much like a member of the Black family. Her long hair was jet black and stringy and her face was adorned with high cheekbones and a long nose. Her pale grey eyes were filled with grief and worry.

Molly led the pair over to where Tonks was sitting.

"She knows more about the situation than I do," Molly said, "She was there."

Tonks looked up at the pair and gestured for them to sit.

"I'm going to go, I now have two patients to worry about. This war is going to be the end of me!" Molly said before sweeping off towards the lifts.

Harry immediately piled the questions onto Tonks, who held up a hand to silence him.

Instead of asking what they wanted to know about it all, Tonks closed her eyes and took a deep breath and started the story.

"The Order got a tip today that some Death Eaters were planning on taking over an old safe house from the first war to convert it into a hot spot for Voldemort to meet with his followers. We assume that they could get in because of Peter; he knows the locations and codes of all the old safe houses. I guess he thought that if the Order had been safe there, that Voldemort would be too."

Harry clenched his fist, seething. Ginny could tell that he was thinking about the trouble Peter had caused for them all.

"So Dumbledore gave the go ahead for us to go down there and check it out, he hoped we'd get there first. But we didn't, the Dark Mark was over the house when we arrived. It was horrible. I have never seen anything like it, there was blood everywhere!" Tonks said distantly.

Ginny swallowed hard.

"They hadn't used Avada Kedavra, they had slaughtered them the Muggle way. Three of them... or at least all we could find are the parts of what we thought to be three of them. Teenagers, about your age Harry," she whispered, looking into his green eyes.

Harry bowed his head, no doubt blaming himself for what had happened. Ginny reached over and placed a tentative hand over his. She hoped that this would not undo all the progress they had made earlier.

"So we went further in, and left Remus out to guard the doorway, we thought for sure if there were Death Eaters, they would be inside. I was scared about what we were going to find in there. But we didn't find any Death Eaters or dead teenagers. We did find one girl in the corner. She wasn't breathing and was turning blue, so we shook her until she started breathing again," Tonks continued.

Harry and Ginny exchanged a worried glance, why did this sound all too familiar?

"We were trying to figure out what do with her when Remus ran in yelling for us to be on alert. Behind him were at least fifteen Death Eaters. There were only five of us there. I was so worried. Kingsley told me to hide the girl so I carried her away, and Remus and Kingsley were heading up the fight with the Death Eaters. So I find a closet in the next room and put the girl in there and when I came back in the main room.... well... it was horrible," Tonks stammered, tearing up.

"What happened?" Ginny asked, she was on the edge of her seat with anticipation.

"When I came back in, one of the guys was laying into Remus with Crucio. No one was helping him because they were trying to ward off about five of them apiece! I ran over and tried to stun the guy, I just wanted a moment to get the curse off of Remus. But this guy was really good at dodging what I was throwing. Kingsley was beating off the ones that were trying to get in through the back and the other two, new members, you don't know them, were throwing curses left and right. There weren't enough of us! I was sure we were goners, but all of a sudden the one I was fighting with called out for them all to stop fighting. He said that they had to leave because their Master wasn't happy."

Ginny sucked in a breath. Tonk's entire story up to that point fell perfectly in line with the night's events. Remus being cursed; Voldemort being upset. Ginny and Harry had both been on the receiving end of these occurrences.

"Go on," Harry urged.

"Well they turned to leave, but before they did I saw long silver hair coming out of the back of the mask of the one who had been cursing Remus."

Harry closed his eyes and grimaced.

"I matched appearance to voice. It had to be... that voice, I'd know it anywhere. If it wasn't Lucius then I must be insane! So we went and got the girl, who was coughing up a lung, and Remus who was unconscious, and brought them here as fast as we could," she finished lamely.

Ginny and Harry stared at Tonks in silence.

"It must have been really painful for him," Ginny said, recalling the pain she had experienced earlier.

Tonks nodded.

"How is he?" Harry asked.

"He's recovering fine so far. They will have to do some mental tests to make sure everything is still working properly, but he isn't a complete loony like some of the people that have had to endure the curse as much as he did," she explained.

Ginny thought sadly about the Longbottoms who were sleeping a few floors above them, victims of the darkness.

"What about the girl?" Harry's voice roused her from her thoughts.

Tonks looked at them sadly.

"She didn't make it. They think that she may have been under the same potion as Hermione."

"Do they think she was under it long enough for the antidote not to work?" Ginny asked.

"That, or someone out there has made a slight variation of the original so that the antidote wouldn't work. We are all hoping that it was the first option," Tonks admitted.

"I hope so too! What if they administer the antidote on Hermione and it doesn't work?" Ginny asked.

"Well, I guess all we can do is wait for now, and hope that that isn't the case!" Tonks said.

Harry was being unnaturally quiet.

"Should we tell Hermione?" Harry finally asked.

"She has the right to know, someone is going to have to tell her. I don't much fancy seeing Ron's reaction to the news though," Ginny said, "Who do you reckon did this to Hermione, Tonks?"

Tonks looked contemplative for a second.

"I don't think we have much of a way of finding out. Hermione saw the person, so it is safe to assume that they were under polyjuice or something along those lines."

"If they were trying to kill her, why would they give her a potion that had an antidote?" Harry wondered aloud.

"That's what I'm worried about," Tonks said.

"What about the dead ones at the safe house?" Ginny asked, "What happened to them?"

"I don't know," Tonks said, "The Ministry is on it right now, but I don't know how much they can be trusted at this point in time."

Harry and Ginny nodded in agreement.

"I mean, those idiots are definitely hiding something. Lucius Malfoy escapes from Azkaban and the Aurors aren't even put on high alert? Something strange is going on... I don't like it!" Tonks spat.

"Yeah, something is going on up there, anybody with eyes can see that," Harry said bitterly.

The three quickly lapsed into silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts.

"Madam."

A voice roused them from their reflections.

Ginny looked up to see an orderly bending over Tonks.

"Madam, the man you arrived with is requesting you," she said.

Tonks smiled slightly.

"Sorry guys, I have to go see him... you know, make sure everything is alright," she said as she stood.

Harry and Ginny nodded.

"Good luck with Ron!" Tonks called out to them before disappearing into the lifts.

Ginny turned to Harry.

"Well if he can remember Tonks he must be alright," she said.

"Yeah," Harry said half heartedly, as if not truly convinced.

"We better go see Ron and Hermione. You know what we have to do."

Harry nodded.

They walked up to Hermione's room in silence, both dreading what they had to tell her and Ron.

Ron and Hermione were having a conversation when they entered.

"Hello you two. Where have you been?" Hermione asked at the same time Ron asked, "Why are you wet?"

"We have some bad news," Ginny said before launching into the story that Tonks had just told them.

When she was finished, Ron was bright red and Hermione was ghastly pale.

"You mean that the antidote may not work?" Hermione whispered.

Ginny nodded.

"THOSE BLOODY BASTARDS! I AM GOING TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM, I AM!" Ron screeched, finally losing his cool.

He quickly turned on Hermione.

"I'll kill them for you! I swear, they'll pay for this!" he vowed.

Hermione blanched even more and closed her eyes while drawing in a long breath.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Now we wait," said Ginny.