Valley of the Shadow

The battle was finally over. What Death Eaters were left had surrendered when they saw their leader fell, the heart gone out of them. Those that would have fought on had fallen earlier. All around them, survivors sat exhausted in the midst of their friends and families, the injured, the dying, and those beyond help.

Ginny Weasley was one of the dying. She had been battling with all her might, fighting her hardest, one of the six who had been fighting together for three years--herself, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Luna, and Harry Potter. A particularly fierce wave of fighting had separated them and Ginny had found herself surrounded. Bellatrix Lestrange had really worked a number on her; she had fallen, knowing she would never rise again. The sadistic Death Eater had been preparing to finish her off when Snape had finished her. He had knelt to tend to her, but she had drawn on some hidden reserve of strength and snapped at him to keep fighting, that she wasn't worth it but there were people still fighting who needed him to keep fighting too. He had listened to her and gone on.

She had heard Harry's voice, not far from her, scream a spell, and she opened her eyes as someone triumphantly shouted that Voldemort was gone. Through a haze of pain, Ginny saw Harry stagger, then collapse. No one else seemed to notice; people were too busy licking their wounds and checking for survivors.

Slowly, painfully, inch by agonising inch, Ginny dragged herself on her stomach across the ground, past dead and dying wizards on both sides, until, exhausted and every nerve screaming in pain, she was at Harry's side.

"Harry..." she whispered, reaching a hand out and placing it lightly on his chest.

He was in bad shape, almost as bad shape as she was. His scar was bleeding, he was bruised and cut in a thousand places, his heart fluttered like a bird, and his breathing was shallow and ragged. But when he heard her voice, his eyes fluttered open. Painfully, he covered her hand with one of his.

"Ginny," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

"No." Ginny closed her eyes, gathering strength for her next sentence. "You don't...need to be. You...did right."

"I don't...want to...leave you," Harry said feebly. His beautiful green eyes were already starting to cloud over.

"You're not." With one final burst of strength, Ginny forced herself forward, then collapsed against his chest, coughing weakly. She had a feeling she wasn't going to be able to move again.

"Ginny?" Harry murmured. His hand shook as he touched her temple. "You're bleeding," he said faintly.

Ginny didn't even have the strength to nod. "Bellatrix...she..." She closed her eyes, unable to finish the sentence, unable to say what Bellatrix Lestrange had done to her but needing to convey a sense of it. "I'm dying, Harry."

"No," Harry whispered. His arms somehow found the strength to clasp her protectively, as if he could give her the life that was ebbing out of his broken body. "One of us...has to live..."

"I can't," Ginny whispered. "I'm...too far...and after..." She opened her beautiful brown eyes and looked up at him. "I can't...live...without you, Harry," she managed.

Harry held her close. "Then...let's go...together," he said weakly, tilting her chin back. They kissed, one more time.

Ron, the least injured of either side but sporting a massive cut on the side of his face, was stumbling around the grounds in a bad dream, searching for his friends. Hermione had painful wounds, she was being treated then...Charlie and Percy and George would live...Luna had lost an ear...Neville had a huge wound in his leg. But Ron couldn't find the rest of his family...or Harry.

He found Harry and Ginny at last, not far from Voldemort's body, clasped in each other's arms. Ginny's bruised and bloodied head rested against Harry's tattered and torn chest; he had one thin, white hand cradling her head, the other arm wrapped around her waist. It looked as though they were sleeping, but Ron knew what had happened.

Dropping to his knees and bowing his head, he couldn't help but cry, for his baby sister and his best friend, together forever in death.