The Process of Elimination (Who am I?)

Chapter 2.

So you think you know me.

You really think you know me?

Ha! You don't know a thing.

Not a damn thing.

You thought you had me all figured out, didn't you?

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you don't.

Not really, anyway.

Some of you said I was Snape. Ha! You were wrong. Or were you? Some of you said I was Draco or Hermione. Good guesses. But...well, I could be one of them...fits the profile, doesn't it? But no, I don't think I'll tell you just yet.

Most of you said that Harry was too obvious. Was he really? I mean, he's so obvious that most of you think that I wouldn't be him because he's too obvious.

Or was he?

Maybe I knew that you would all suspect that he's too obvious, therefore I am him...or am I?

I could be Ron, couldn't I? Ron never gets any glory...don't you think that he deserves the spotlight? He feels pain, too!

Or what about Neville? Only one of you suggested Neville...after what happened to his parents, don't you think he's hurting, too?

What about Cho?

Or Parvati?

Dean? Seamus? Justin Finch-Fletchley? Crabbe? Goyle? Madam Hooch, for the love of God!

Hmmm...

Well, the only way you can really know for sure is if you read on and find out...

Now, where did I leave off?

Oh, yes, that's it!

§§§

I had just finished slitting my wrists- no, don't worry, I won't kill myself. I didn't want to die.

Not then, anyway.

Then McGonagall showed up. She walked up to me, and I cursed under my breath, quickly shoving the blade into my robes pocket.

"What do you want?" I said icily.

"You should really go to the hospital wing," she said softly. I turned away.

"Leave me alone," I replied.

"Mada-"

"Look," I said, through clenched teeth, turning back around. "I'm not going to the damn hospital wing! Pomfrey can't help me anymore!" I turned back to face the lake again. "No one can," I mumbled. I felt her step up to me and put her arm around me. I shrugged her off, spinning on my heel and storming back to the castle, to my dormitory, leaving McGonagall stranded by the lake.

§§§

I arrived at my common room a short time after and plonked down into an armchair. I leant my head back onto the headrest, dreaming about better times, dreaming about the past, dreaming about what I could've done to save her...

The sun was high in the air; the little fluffy clouds in the distance barely touching the horizon. I looked over to her and smiled. She smiled back, before stretching and yawning.

"This is nice," she mumbled. I smiled and closed my eyes.

"Mmmm," I mumbled, nodding in reply. I dozed...just taking in the warm sunlight, the beauty of spring, trying to forget the fact that the NEWTs were just a few weeks away. I felt a sudden chill and shivered.

"You're so lucky," I said. "You have ages until you take your NEWTs!"

There was no reply.

"Ginny?" I called out. Still no reply. I opened one eye and peered out. Where Ginny's head had previously been laying was now just flattened grass. I opened both eyes and sat up.

Ginny was sitting upright on the grass, her face white and stricken, her eyes wide. I looked to where she was looking and gasped.

"Crucio!" cried a cold, high voice. The pain seared through my head, traveling like a lightning bolt through my body. I cried out, falling back onto the grass and seizing up in pain. It hurt so bad...I just wanted it to end! The pain subsided momentarily and I pulled myself up, my body pulsating with the aftereffects of the pain. He was staring at me, his gaze cold and unforgiving, his wand pointed cruelly at my heart. I glared at him hatefully.

"Well, well, well," he said bemusedly. "Two birds with one stone! Let's see how your precious friend Potter likes it when I kill two of his little friends...maybe it will serve as a reminder as to which of us is the greater!" He smiled evilly.

"Avada Kedavra!" he cried, a jet of bright green light shooting out of his wand and heading straight towards me like a bolt of lightning. It all went in slow motion...my life didn't flash before my eyes or anything pathetic like that...I just didn't want to die...I loved Harry too much...

"No!" screamed Ginny, leaping up and pushing me aside. The spell completely missed me...and hit her instead.

"Ginny!" I screamed, scrambling to reach her lifeless body. I shook her, willing her to wake up, refusing to believe that my friend was dead...she was like a sister to me...and now she was gone. A lump formed in my throat and tears trickled down my cheeks as I looked up to Voldemort. I was scared...so scared...he pointed his wand back at me and grinned evilly, showing rotting, decayed teeth. I squeezed my eyes shut and transformed.

I had become an Animagus- nobody but myself, my parents and Dumbledore had known. They had wanted me to transfer to Durmstrang or Beauxbatons, just in case just in case something like this happened- but I loved my friends too much to leave them and refused.

So I had told my parents that I would become an animagus. And I did.

I studied hard for two years on top of everything else- and then it happened. I did it. I became an Animagus.

I opened my eyes and grinned inwardly at the horrified look on Voldemort's face. I spread my wings, ruffled my feathers and took off, soaring up and into Dumbledore's open office window, leaving a Livid Lord Voldemort in my wake.

Yet little did I know that Voldemort had just mumbled a curse- a little concoction of his that I would have until the day I died to serve as a reminder that no one escaped Lord Voldemort- not really, anyway.

§§§