To Die Trying

The events leading up to the destruction of the wizarding world, one might reason, began immediately following the death of Professor Albus Dumbledore. Hogwarts was closed thereafter and the light that seemed to keep witches and wizards together grew dimmer by the day. Tracing backwards in history, we can also assume that the death of Harry Potter was the Dark Lord's second stepping stone. While Harry Potter did manage to destroy a sufficient number of Horcruxes, the final showdown with the Darkest Wizard proved too much for one boy and the Boy Who Lived did not live twice around. Memories of the last, great war, the War of the Wands, were donated by various witches and wizards to create the Archive of Ages, the most accurate depiction of the war still in existence. The following memories once belonged to Miss Ginny Weasley.

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"You can't do this to me!"

"Don't you understand that I haven't got a choice? It's not as if I want to--"

"Oh, don't think you can feed me that, Potter! You've wanted to go since you discovered you were a wizard. It's what your entire life has been building up to!"

"You think you know me so well, Ginny? You think I want to jump in front of a wand for the honor of a Ministry that never believed in a single, moral concept in all the time we've been fighting Voldemort?"

The raven-haired boy threw his arms into the air and turned away from the scowling red head. Ginny had her arms crossed over her chest and the expression on her face could only be interpreted as one thing; she was mad. Very mad.

"Don't pull your morality card out of your pocket, Harry," she said angrily. "You can't honestly expect me to stay here and wait while you go and get yourself killed. I won't do it. I'll follow you anywhere, even if it means jumping with you."

Harry stood on the other side of the room, his hands firmly on the back of a wooden chair. He was studying the grain in the floor, hoping that it would tell him what to say. He looked up at her at last and said, "I can't stop you from going Ginny, I know that, but you must understand that I have to go. It's the only way."

Ginny's angered dropped and she was suddenly the helpless, twelve-year-old girl who sat on the floor in the Chamber of Secrets. "I know..." she whispered, hugging herself slightly. "I know you have to. I knew it from the beginning, but that doesn't make me hate it any less."

Harry walked across the room and kissed Ginny gently on the forehead, promising her that everything was going to be okay. He held her close, the top of her head fitting perfectly under his chin and his fingers in her hair.

The door opened and a thin, round-faced boy peeked into the room, looking rather harassed. The boy looked at them and said, "We've got to go, Harry. The Order's moving out now."

Harry nodded and said, "I know, Neville. We're coming."

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The darkened field where the battle was being held was as silent as a Dementor's walk. Even the animals knew that the ground would soon be tainted with blood and they wished to have no part in the struggle between humans. At one end of the massive clearing, Voldemort stood with a magnificent array of Death Eaters and magical creatures from the vast reaches of the world. Trolls thumped the ground with their clubs and giants reared their ugly heads to roar at the opposing army. A great many centaurs stamped their hooves into the earth and at least a dozen dragons took flight, their Riders commanding them higher into the air.

Likewise, the Boy Who Lived stood with an army of his own with centaurs to match and a wide variation of goblins, elves, and his own magical flock of dragons. Charlie Weasley kissed his sister softly on the cheek before pulling himself astride a Hungarian Horntail that was a bit on the large side. Ginny turned from him as he rose into the air and, together with his fellow Riders, filled the sky with sickly, black smoke so that even the light of the full moon couldn't shine through. Ginny squeezed Harry's arm once as they stood at the front and looked out at the raging band of creatures ahead of them. He didn't turn toward her, but his expression changed from one of determination to one of angst.

With both sides yelling their individual battle cries, Ginny couldn't help but feel as though she was a rock in the middle of a constantly flowing stream. Everything seemed to be going by her so quickly as if she and Harry were going in slow motion. From somewhere in the sky, a river of fire fell slowly to the ground, scorching an area the size of a Mountain Troll into the clearing. As if it were some sort of signal, Harry and Ginny took a collective breath and yelled at the tops of their voices, "FOR LIFE!"

Across the field, even over the vast distance, Ginny could see Voldemort silently raise his arm and throw it in front of him as he commanded his army forward. Gripping her wand tightly in her fist, Ginny screamed again and both armies began to close the distance between them. The earth shook with the footfalls of the giants and the sky was flooded with brilliant blasts of fire that shone even through the smog. Arrows flew from the sky, striking anything without a wand and flashes of light were absorbed by bodies or rebounded by charms and thick skins. Somewhere, someone screamed as an Acromantula grabbed him from behind, and a giant roared in agony as he erupted into flames. A hoard of Dementors descended from the hill and began to attack anyone they could reach, friend and foe alike.

Ginny turned her wand on a group of them, sending a bear Patronus ambling through their number like a large, furry battering ram. When she turned back around, she found that she'd lost track of Harry. She cursed, but ran to help Neville fend off a group of Death Eaters who had surrounded him. A jet of fire singed her robes, but caught a group of garden gnomes that had been gnawing on the knees of a menacing-looking centaur. Now that time seemed to have caught up with her, Ginny's blood was pumping through her temples so that she couldn't hear the battle going on around her. She followed Neville through the carnage and, sending spells and curses over her shoulder for good measure, began picking through Voldemort's forces mercilessly.

Suddenly, seemingly for no particular reason at all, Neville stumbled to the ground, his knees making violent contact with the fire-barren earth. He cried out and clutched his forehead with both hands, reminding Ginny strongly of Harry's headaches. She rushed to him but his cries had subsided and his hands were no longer on his face. They were planted flat on the ground; Neville's face to toward the ground. Looking around nervously, Ginny placed a hand on Neville's back and he looked up at her. Ginny could see right away that something was wrong--terribly wrong. In the center of Neville's forehead, for all to see, was the vague impression of a lightning bolt-shaped scar.

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