Harry Potter and the Simulacrum Seal

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Death of Lord Voldemort

'Here. Satisfied?'

The locket shuddered in Harry's hand, and he knew it was the real thing.

'Thanks,' he told Malfoy absentmindedly. His attention was already fixated upon the locket.

'We have questions,' said Remus, looming behind Malfoy.

Malfoy glowered and silently allowed himself to be led away. Harry, Ron, and Hermione listened as he descended the stairs, and only after his footsteps receded did Hermione ask, 'How should we destroy it?'

'We could try the Fred and George way,' said Ron with a wry grin - a grin that dropped instantly as he remembered that George was gone.

'Yes, perhaps,' agreed Hermione quietly, placing her hand on Ron's and giving it a gentle squeeze.

Harry felt that he had the Felix Felicis to thank for the locket, and he wished he'd thought to try it some months ago. If he could retrieve the locket this easily, then he realized that this was probably his best chance to finish off all the Horcruxes once and for all. 'We need to think about Nagini.'

Hermione, as usual, seemed as though she'd considered everything already. 'If we take Felix Felicis and Ron and I focus on finding the snake, I think we can kill it.'

With a stiff squirm, Ron made it obvious - at least to Harry, who knew him well - that the idea caught him by surprise, and he didn't like it. 'Ron?'

'I think we could be doing something more useful,' said Ron with guilty reluctance, not looking at Hermione. 'We'll be needed in the battle...we can always kill Nagini after.'

'There are plenty of people capable of fighting,' Hermione pointed out. 'Destroying the last Horcrux would be a major blow to Voldemort. It might even affect him psychologically and give Harry an edge.'

Harry realized then why Hermione was so keen on her and Ron being the ones to find Nagini: it would keep Ron distracted from Snape.

'I guess so,' muttered Ron. 'Fine.'

Harry was about to lend his own voice to Hermione's cause when a niggling, irritating detail scratched at the back of his mind.

'My mum has seen this locket.'

He dropped it into his pocket; the chain left a slight burning sensation in its wake as it slid out of his hand. 'I want to ask her about the locket - her simulacrum, I mean. If I'm going to get anything useful out of her, it'll be tonight.'

With determination, Harry hefted the bag onto the bed. The locket was taken out of his pocket and slammed onto the bed with finality, and he pretended to try to open the bag.

'Hello again,' said the simulacrum woodenly. Harry wanted to see it with that sparkle again.

'This locket - you've seen it. I need to know what happened when you found it.'

'Why?'

Not this again, thought Harry. He'd hoped that the Felix would make her overlook her persistent demands to know his motives. 'I have a friend. Her name is Ginny. She's in trouble, and I have to help her.'

She nodded respectfully, and Harry was hopeful. 'How do you expect that what I know will help her?'

'Voldemort has her, so I need to rescue her from him. If you know anything that can help at all - please share it.'

The sparkle in her eye was so close to human that Harry's breath caught in his throat. 'That isn't the answer to everything I have to share - but I can show you something that will aid you.'

She pointed her hand to the bed, and a thin black appeared as if it had always been there. Harry felt a surge of triumph.

She smiled and disappeared. Hermione's hands were already gripping the book like a prized treasure, and he and Ron sat back while she skimmed through it. They watched her become entranced until Harry couldn't take the suspense any longer.

'Well?'

'Oh Harry!' she declared with a beaming smile. 'This is...it's very complicated, but I think it's something that can entrap Dementors! If we get the Order to work on this, we can completely nullify their influence on the battle!'

Harry felt like he was flying - that would put the odds far closer to even. 'Do it.'

'I'll need help, and we'll need supplies -'

'The whole Order'll work on it if you need them!' Ron was happier than Harry had seen him since Ginny's capture. 'That's brilliant!'

Harry had to agree. Thanks Mum.

***

He stared at the locket settled upon the floor of the attic, flustered by impatience. After all the time spent searching for it, destroying this next-to-last Horcrux seemed like an annoying formality to Harry now. His duel with Voldemort was so much more important and difficult that this was as dull as studying for an exam by comparison.

'Emulsum magicum!' said Hermione, trying the same incantation that had woken the dark magic in the Cup. Ron and Harry brought forth their Patronuses in anticipation.

And nothing happened.

'Bloody hell,' muttered Ron, as itchy to get the matter done with as Harry was.

'Any other ideas?' asked Harry.

'Plenty.' She eyed it grumpily, no doubt wishing she was with the others who were working on the Dementor Net.

The Patronuses vanished, and Harry unconsciously lowered his wand. 'Like what?'

Hermione opened her mouth, but that was all he saw before his body was smashed into by what felt like a heavy burst of water and drawn down.

'Harry!' he heard, and then he heard nothing at all but the furious swirling of water around him. He couldn't breathe, and his eyes were stinging with something venomous.

The agony was sharpened when he opened his eyes. He was trapped in a thick black substance that grabbed at his arms and tore at his skin. As his heart pounded, he caught a glimpse of the locket in the centre of the darkness, and with it was a wispy silver face that reminded him at once of a Patronus. It was smiling at him unpleasantly, and he was sure he knew the face...

Harry's instincts kicked in. With great effort, he raised his wand until it was pointing at the face. He pushed away the pain of his burning skin and cried out, 'Expecto Patronum!'

The stag erupted from his wand, but the face didn't stop smiling. Harry watched in dismay as the stag struggled against the same blackness Harry was trapped in, but he pushed the stag onward with all the force of will he could gather.

Gradually, after what seemed like an eternity, the smile upon the ugly face disappeared as the stag fought toward the locket. Harry thought he saw two other silver lights converging on the face, but he couldn't be sure - sparks were shooting off behind his eyelids as his struggle to breathe stretched on.

Harry was dizzied and tired and burning with pain. He didn't see whether the stag completed its task before his eyes closed...

When Harry opened his eyes, they fell immediately upon the locket. Its remains were evaporating like boiled water and tinted the air with flecks of gold.

There was something wrong; the pain wasn't gone. Harry realized as soon as he tried to push himself up that there was something very wrong with his wand hand.

As he hissed in pain, two pairs of arms dragged him up. 'Thank goodness! Oh, your hand!'

'It's all right,' he said. And, indeed, when Harry looked at it, it wasn't as bad as he'd expected. It was bleeding from deep scratches, but that was nothing compared to the charred bone that Dumbledore's hand had become. For that, at least, he was grateful.

'I thought the Felix Felicis was supposed to make us lucky!' cried Ron as he looked upon Harry's hand in horror.

'He's lucky to be alive!' retorted Hermione, grabbing Harry's arm by the wrist and examining the injury. 'Go get someone who can heal him!'

'What happened?' he slurred, stumbling until his knees hit the floor. He coughed up some of the black ooze.

'The spell worked, I think, but it waited to catch us unawares,' she told him when he had quieted and stopped shaking. 'You were drawn in, and all Ron and I could do was send our Patronuses after you. We're lucky it worked.'

Harry reluctantly agreed that luck had much to do with it - but the event also served as a sharp reminder that luck wasn't everything. He stared at his hand, and he realized that if he made a stupid mistake like that when he duelled Voldemort, he would end up dead.

But that wouldn't matter to Harry as long as Ginny lived.

***

The renewed skin on Harry's hand tingled. Nature's sounds of night had never seemed so loud. Chirping, crunching, and buzzing set Harry's nerves on edge. He shifted, standing right on the spot where Ginny's wand had been found, waiting for the enemy to appear.

Ten fifty-two, he read off his watch after much squinting. Hermione kept bumping up against Harry's shoulder as if checking that he was still really there.

There was a small core of Order members standing with him - the others were setting up the Dementor net at the edges. Ministry contingents led by the remaining Aurors, along with Scrimgeour himself, were placed strategically around the area. Harry recalled the deployment map in his mind, and as he waited, he turned to face the spots where the Order members he knew were mixed in. Tonks is southeast, Bill is south...

At exactly ten fifty-nine, Harry heard the first sound of Apparition. They arrived in quick succession, and it sounded like popcorn popping. Occasionally he caught glimpses of light from wands, but whether they were from friend or foe, he didn't know, so he didn't fire off any curses.

The battle flared. Harry heard screams of alarm and shouts for backup, and he saw distinct flashes of multi-coloured light all around him. A nearby tree burst into flames, lighting up the area; dark silhouettes scrambled in patches of forest and small groups of opponents faced each other in the open, their wands shooting spells of all colours - but mostly green, the colour of the Killing Curse.

But it was all taking place away from the centre of the field, where Harry was waiting. Where was Voldemort?

At forty-five seconds past ten fifty-nine, the world around Harry changed. The screams seemed louder, his senses sharper, and a bluish fog settled upon the ground up to Harry's knees.

He smiled as something inhuman screeched in alarm off in the distance. The Dementor net was working.

Just as he reached that conclusion, the clock struck eleven. A white light blinked from the ground at his feet.

Harry looked down and saw a golden snake curled up with its head reared. It was so still that he would have thought it was a statue if not for its long, twitching tongue.

Touch me, and you will find my master, it hissed.

'A Portkey,' he said aloud. Someone grabbed his arm; by the shape of the hand, he was sure it was Hermione.

He leaned down until he was close enough to reach out a finger and touch the snake's snout. A group of hands mimicked Harry's action, encircling the now silent snake. He wasn't sure exactly who all the hands belonged to, but he knew Ron and Hermione were with him, and that was all that counted.

'Hold on.'

Harry's touch triggered the Portkey. The sounds of the battle around him abruptly halted.

***

The cold of their new location smacked Harry from all directions. The ferocious winds were all too familiar from his trip to Durmstrang. He was sure they were far north.

He looked around for enemies but saw no one, so he focused on rounding up his forces, whoever they were. Ron was helping Hermione to her feet. The next person Harry spotted was Neville, who pushed himself off the ground a foot away. Harry was glad; he'd trust Neville easily with his life.

To Harry's consternation, McLaggen was striding toward him from only slightly farther away. He would rather have had someone more reliable at his side, but he wasn't in a position to pick and choose now.

Luna was moving toward him as well, and Harry frowned deeply. That wasn't right at all; Luna had been setting up the Dementor net.

'What are you doing here?' he asked Luna in confusion as she smiled up at him.

'I like Ginny. I want to help you rescue her. I Apparated to your position after the Dementor net started to work.'

'I heard them shrieking,' commented Hermione with a shiver. 'It sounded ghastly.'

Pleasantly, Luna told them, 'The Dementors are part non-corporeal, but as they were drawn to the net, they became completely solid. As soon as that happened, their bodies gurgled and silvery clouds burst from their mouths. Then they deflated and ended up as a puddle of -'

'We need to get going,' interrupted Ron, looking at Hermione's disgusted expression in sympathy.

'Where's Voldemort?' demanded Harry. He shouted, 'I'M RIGHT HERE, YOU COWARD! SHOW YOURSELF!'

'He isn't here.'

Harry turned, and there was Snape, standing in a place that had been unoccupied only moments before. He was alone. Harry automatically grabbed Ron's wand arm and held it down - Ron shot him a look of surprise, but he didn't struggle.

'Where is he?'

In a tone of sharp urgency, Snape stated, 'We need to have a discussion. You can't face him tonight.'

'I have to - he has Ginny.'

Snape's frustration mixed with furry as he asked, 'Would you destroy your chances of ever defeating him for the life of that girl?'

'I'd do anything for her,' said Harry without hesitation. 'Tell me where she is, and we'll let you live.'

Ron's eyes bulged in indignation. 'No!' he cried. His hand broke away from Harry, and he yelled, 'Ava -'

'Expelliarmus!'

Ron's wand flew in the air. He turned furiously to face Hermione. 'WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!'

'I won't let you do it!' she protested fiercely.

'THERE'S NO TIME FOR THIS!' yelled Snape in such desperation that even Ron stilled in shock. 'He'll become suspicious soon! I must eventually take you to his side, Potter, unless you gain the good sense to -'

'I will save Ginny!' he interrupted. 'Enough! Take me to him!'

'She will die no matter what path you choose! Face him now and you will suffer a fate worse than death!'

That was enough to catch Harry's attention, and he was going to ask what Snape meant - but then he heard a far-off hiss as clearly as if it were shouted into his ear.

He'd never recognized a snake's "voice" before, but he knew this one: it was Nagini.

'Nagini is near,' he told Ron and Hermione. They both understood what that meant - Hermione appeared hopeful, while Ron, picking up his wand, was bitter.

Harry wasn't sure if they'd still be friends after this, but he needed Ron's loyalty for one more night.

'The snake is a decoy,' said Snape warningly. 'It's meant to draw the others off so that I can lure you to the Dark Lord!'

'For once he and I are in agreement, then.' Harry took a determined step towards Snape. 'As much as I despise you, I would rather face him now.'

He turned to Ron. 'Destroy the Horcrux,' he ordered, and he took a step forward, hoping Ron would obey.

Surprisingly, it was Neville who dared to disagree with him. 'You can't go with Snape alone!'

'This is my fight. I'm prepared.'

'There's nothing in the prophecy about you having to face Voldemort without any backup,' Neville insisted, coming toe-to-toe with Harry. 'I'm going with you.'

Harry shook his head. 'No; I need you here. I want you to be in charge; lead the others and kill Nagini.'

'But -'

'Please, Neville - I need you to do this. It will help me more than you know. When you're done, come find me.' That was the only compromise he could offer, and his eyes begged Neville to take it.

Neville stared heatedly at Harry, but eventually he said in a low voice, 'Yes, sir.' Then he saluted and walked back to the others.

'We're leaving,' Neville told Ron authoritatively, picking him out as the most likely to disobey. 'Let's go.'

For a moment, both Ron and McLaggen looked ready to mutiny, but Hermione drew her wand and said something Harry couldn't hear; after that, they seemed to fall in line.

Harry didn't watch them after that; his path had diverged from theirs.

He hadn't been so close to Snape since before he'd turned traitor and murdered Albus Dumbledore. Thoughts of the murder made Harry wish dearly that he didn't have to bypass bringing Snape to justice this time; he promised himself that he wouldn't let him escape justice once the battle with Voldemort was over.

The ex-professor's hand gripped his shoulder like a vice. 'You're making a mistake,' Snape said; coming from him, it sounded like a plea.

Harry was tired of words. 'Take me to Ginny.'

Snape shuddered and gasped, looking as if he were fighting something deep inside him. Hatred enveloped his eyes. 'So be it, you bloody hopeless fool.'

Harry heard Luna call, 'Good luck!' Then Snape Apparated them both away.

Their landing was light; Harry didn't feel disoriented at all. Without another word exchanged between them, Snape was gone.

Harry's eyes honed in on Ginny. She was tied tightly to a thick pole a short sprint away by magical bonds that glowed bright red.

Standing directly beside her was Voldemort. He ran as fast as he could toward them, but he was stopped a few meters away by an invisible barrier that refused to be dispelled - and no spell could get past it to cut the rope binding Ginny.

'Harry Potter,' croaked Voldemort, and it was then that Harry got his first real look at his opponent since his fifth year. His stomach rebelled at the sight, and he swallowed back the vomit that rolled into his mouth.

It was the most disgusting thing Harry had ever seen in his life. Voldemort looked more like an Inferius than a man; his skin was so riddled with decay that Harry could see bone peeking through the gaping holes. Many of Voldemort's teeth had rotted out of his skull. But the smell was even worse, like a corpse in its most offensive stage of rotting.

Ginny looked like she was going to puke. Harry knew he would if he were that close to it.

'What happened to you?' he blurted out. He tried to stop breathing any more than he had to.

'This is because of you, Potter,' he rasped. Harry saw that Voldemort was not very steady on his feet; he really did not want to see what sort of decrepit, despicable creature of decaying flesh and bone was covered by those robes. 'Enough; let us finish this.'

And, without any further warning, Voldemort held a knife to Ginny's throat and slit it.

'NO!' Harry yelled in horror.

The bonds holding Ginny up unwound and disappeared before they hit the ground. Ginny fell to her knees, her hands moving to cover her neck. But it wasn't enough; blood flowed freely over her hands and fell in a torrent onto the ground.

Harry saw fear in her eyes before they fell dark. Her bloody corpse sprawled onto the ground.

It was a feeling unlike any he'd ever experienced before. As tears rolled down Harry's cheeks, he understood true hatred for the first time. He raised his wand at the despicable thing that had murdered Ginny, and, consumed with grief, he yelled out the one spell that could blast through the barrier:

'Avada Kedavra!'

Voldemort was smiling when he was engulfed by the green light. His body hit the ground, but Harry only saw the first signs of its dissipation into dust - in moments, he was at Ginny's side, staring into her dead eyes.

'Ginny? GINNY! Please, no!'

He fell to his knees and, his robes soaking in her blood, pressed his face into her hair as uncontrollable sobs overtook him.

'Come back, please, Ginny,' he choked out, his arms tightening around her body. 'Please, no, please...'

Her muscles suddenly clenched, and she gasped loudly for air. Harry was sure he was dreaming. He shifted to look into her face, and though her eyes were closed, she was clearly breathing in and out. Her chest rose and fell strongly.

Harry's gaze was drawn to the deep cut on her neck; it was magically healed, and no trace of it remained except the blood that covered them both.

It was a miracle.

Hope welled in Harry's chest, and his hand touched her face affectionately. 'Ginny?' he whispered.

Her eyes opened, and she smiled.

Then Ginny's hand grasped Harry's neck with inhuman strength. Bright red eyes and a twisted smirk foreign to her face unravelled his hopes and stoked unimagined fears in his soul.

She got to her feet and held Harry in the air by his throat.

'This is all I imagined it would be,' she - no, he - declared with deranged glee.

Harry was thrown several feet. He slammed into the ground and coughed violently.

'You have no idea what has happened yet, do you?' he asked rhetorically. Ginny's voice nearly squeaked with excitement. 'Avada Kedavra!'

Harry's body was wrapped in a dull ache. Something strange inside him was tugged insistently, but like chewing gum stubbornly clinging to the underside of a desk, it refused to budge. The pressure receded, and Harry opened his eyes.

He stood up; he had somehow moved a few feet away.

Then Harry stared down at his own corpse in muted horror. A few seconds later, it dissolved, just as Voldemort's body had before.

'What is this?' he asked in a shaking voice. He looked into Ginny's face, which was now being worn by his greatest enemy.

'You're still alive, Potter,' Voldemort answered. He rolled Ginny's eyes. 'More precisely, your body was killed, and you were provided with another.'

Harry examined himself; he still looked the same. He hadn't invaded anyone else's body - how was this possible?

'You are part of the grandest manipulation of magic in all of history. Go ahead, try to kill me! I'll be resurrected, just as you were - but in this girl's body, of course.'

He examined Ginny's body with disdain. 'It will do, I suppose. My magic is still intact.'

Within moments, Harry found himself tied to the same pole Ginny had been before. Voldemort paced around him with a triumphant smile.

'You do deserve an explanation, Potter. For providing me with true immortality, I am willing to grant you that much.

'Even before I discovered that you knew of my Horcruxes, I was dissatisfied with the arrangements I had made to protect myself from death. Being incorporeal for a decade was a shockingly unpleasant experience. I understood, then, what the witch Boudica had warned me of. I did not wish to pay such a high price for immortality again.

'The bare bones of this new connection were forged in Godric's Hollow all those years ago. Surely you have wondered why you possess Slytherin's gift, the ability to speak and comprehend Parseltongue? It is something shared between us: the part of my soul recently torn by murdering your mother had not scarred over yet when the Killing Curse bounced back, and while the rest of my soul managed to escape, a small part of me was drawn into you. It did not make you a Horcrux, for the proper rituals weren't followed, but it did join us in a base way that I couldn't hope to replicate with another.

'But there was still the trouble of the prophecy. It was only after procuring the full details of it from your mind that I realized our true potential together. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives!

'The choice of words is critical, Mr Potter,' he told him as if he were a professor stressing an important detail. 'It precludes us both living, but it does not preclude us both surviving. Though one of us still had to die...'

His smile broadened across Ginny's cherry-red lips, and he leaned in closer. 'Your blood was destroying me from the inside out. I did not expect that when I used you to resurrect myself years ago. Your mother's love was in your blood, and it was eating me alive. Thus my physical "death" was inevitable.

'The other parts of our connection were added a few moments ago. When you used the Killing Curse to end my life, your soul was torn by the act. I killed you in turn, and as your soul left your body, I snatched the torn part of it for myself - which, incidentally, took much more forethought than your accidental procurement of part of my soul when you were but a child.'

The blood drained from Harry's face in fright as he realized what Voldemort had done. He continued, 'There was a missing glue required to bind your soul to me enough to survive death. A Horcrux requires a bond of blood - of murder - but that would not be sufficient. I needed something stronger - and that's where this came in.'

He pinched the flesh on Ginny's arm.

'Love,' whispered Harry brokenly.

'Very good. Yes: love. It took me a long time to discover what your mother's love accidentally caused, and though I do not comprehend the mechanism, it was simple enough to repeat the process. Your pathetic love for this worthless girl has allowed me to bind part of your soul to this body, into which I've poured the last of my essence.

'Our life energies are bound now. It is in every way superior to a Horcrux; we do not require resurrection rites after death, for we each only need to borrow automatically from the life energy of the other until our footing on the material plane is secured. No matter how many deadly spells I sustain, your presence will bring me back, over and over.'

His smile turned cruel, and Harry was afraid of whatever he was thinking. 'I intend to remove your limbs and hang your torso and head above the fireplace in my Ministry offices. I shall have to sew your mouth shut so you don't irritate me with your chatter, and perhaps I will remove your vocal chords entirely.'

With a thoughtful look that Harry had always thought looked pretty on Ginny but that now repulsed him, Voldemort added, 'You don't need ears or eyes to live, either...'

Harry pictured his life as a stump hanging on Voldemort's wall and shuddered. Voldemort's eyes in Ginny's face glinted heartlessly.

'Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some Aurors to kill with impunity. Stupefy!'

Harry only felt the depths of his hopelessness for a few short moments before he was knocked out.

***

He bubbled back to consciousness slowly. Memories filtered in, and he could only accept small amounts of them at a time. Once he had absorbed the entirety of the horror, he listened to what was going on around him. It was mostly a mash of voices, but soon he clearly picked up part of a sentence:

'Healer, a new patient has been registered -'

He was in St Mungo's. How had he gone from being tied to a pole in the middle of nowhere to St Mungo's?

I won't find out until I open my eyes, he realized. But he didn't want to live - or survive - in a world where Ginny was dead and a monster wore her body. He didn't want to live in a world in which he shared his soul with Voldemort and sustained the eternal life of his greatest foe.

I don't have a choice. With his last ounce of courage, Harry allowed his eyes to open.

He was in a curtained cubicle within a very busy ward. Gurney wheels squeaked across the floor just outside, the occasional moan pierced the air, and mediwitches were speaking in soft voices to injured patients.

'You're awake.'

Harry was startled, and his eyes snapped fearfully to the source of the words. 'L-Luna?'

She was almost invisible in the darkened cubicle corner. 'Hello Harry. How are you feeling?'

'I don't feel anything.' His body was fine, but he felt numb inside. 'What happened?'

Luna took a deep breath. With precision that sounded rehearsed, she responded, 'We found Nagini and killed her. Then we spotted red light, and we Apparated toward it and found you with Ginny.'

Harry bolted up. What if they had mistaken Ginny for...Ginny? 'No! You don't understand -'

'I do understand,' Luna insisted forcefully enough to quiet him. 'We could tell right away that she wasn't acting normally. Ron ran up and tried to hug her.'

Harry's stomach plummeted.

'I think he took her by surprise. She only stabbed him. He's recovering.'

He swallowed and discovered that his mouth was very dry. Then he sat back in bed and let Luna's words wash over him.

'Neville, Hermione, and Cormac managed to keep Voldemort occupied while I Apparated away with you. They were lucky enough to evade most of his spells thanks to the Felix Felicis. Then Cormac got to Ron and escaped. Apparently he - or she, I suppose - was very angry by then.'

'So everyone escaped alive?'

'No; Neville is dead.' Luna paused, and began again quietly, 'The Order is going to pick up any body parts they can find as soon as possible for a funeral. And Hermione...'

Luna's carefully measured speech broke down. Quietly, she said, 'Hermione's not doing very well.'

'What happened to her?' Harry demanded to know.

'She was injured by some spells. She...she's blind, and one of her arms is...they aren't sure about whether she'll keep it.'

His chest tightened and he stared up at the ceiling, not knowing what to say.

Without prompting, Luna added, 'The battle was going well for our side. We killed a lot of Death Eaters; they'd been counting on the Dementors, and they didn't have a chance without them.'

'He doesn't need the Death Eaters anymore,' said Harry, his dry throat making his words come out in croaks. 'He doesn't need an army. He can't be killed. He doesn't even need Horcruxes anymore.'

'What are Horcruxes?' asked Luna curiously.

Harry stared at his lap. In a horrified whisper, he realized, 'It doesn't matter now.' They had destroyed all the Horcruxes, and it had all been for nothing.

He was very glad that Luna didn't pressure him for more answers. 'You're right that he couldn't be killed. When he entered the battle, it went badly for us right away. He was hit by the Killing Curse at least once, but when his body fell - well, Ginny's body - he reappeared a moment later.'

In a strained gesture, Luna pressed her hand into Harry's and squeezed. 'Remus was captured. We're not sure how safe Grimmauld Place is now, but Tonks says he won't talk.

'No one's sure how Voldemort became so unstoppable. I think the Minister wants to talk to you about that. The Order, too,' she whispered, her eyes staring sadly into his.

'I should check on Hermione,' declared Harry, not ready to talk yet.

Luna bit her lip. 'I don't think that's a very good idea.'

'Why not?'

She leaned in so close that Harry could smell the onions in her earrings. He supposed she was trying to be kind and sympathetic, but he had no room in his heart for it. 'Hermione's not acting very kindly - she's been traumatized by what happened, and she's taking it out on Ron. And Ron is mad at, well...'

It took a moment for Harry to understand. 'Me. Oh.' Of course Ron would be furious with him. It was his fault that Hermione had been so badly injured. It was his failure. Yet somehow the fact that Ron was angry with him came as a shocking blow, and he found he couldn't take anymore.

'I don't think he'll be mad at you for very long,' she commented. 'He's really just mad at the world.'

Harry didn't find that very comforting. 'Can you do me a favour, Luna? I know I don't have a right to ask, but could you not tell anyone that I'm awake yet?'

One of the nice things about Luna was that she didn't need feelings explained to her. She smiled in understanding, patted Harry's hand, and rose from her chair. 'I'll look in on Hermione and tell you how she's doing.'

Luna left, and Harry was alone. In his lonesomeness, he was overwhelmed by an unexpected burst of emotion. Ginny! He couldn't hold back a loud sob. Ginny was gone.

He had failed everyone. Harry turned over in his hospital bed and wished that he'd never woken up.

He wished he'd never lived at all.