The Veil of Memories

Chapter 24

Out of the Fire

Rage coursed through Hermione's veins; rage that seemed so unnatural, so unlike her, but that now completely consumed her nonetheless. It was the part of her this school had created, the part of her this monster had unleashed.

"Well, well, Miss Granger," said Snape, smiling thinly. "I see you've finally managed to drop the pretense of being the respectful, obedient teacher's lapdog. Personally, I prefer you better this way."

"If I had a wand in my hand right now, I'd hex you to pieces; do you know that?"

"You know, I believe you would." Snape's eyes grew ominously larger. "If only Professor Dumbledore could see you now."

"You didn't leave this school because you didn't want to!" Hermione cried hoarsely. "You enjoyed whipping Dean, didn't you? It must be a bit of crushing come down knowing you can only take away house points now. Merlin, this school must have been like a fantasy come true for you!"

"I assure you it was anything but. Now if you wouldn't mind, Miss - "

Snape let out a yelp as Hermione pushed her foot into his stomach again.

"You don't think I didn't notice how cruel you were to Harry all those years! To all of us! Just because of - of a stupid, childish grudge against his father! You thought you could get away with it, didn't you? Just like you think you'll get away with all of the abuse you've inflicted in this school! Well, you're wrong! I'm not a little girl anymore. I'm of age; I'm a witch! And if we ever make it out of here alive, I'm going to make life very difficult for you and neither Dumbledore nor anyone else is going to be able to stop me!"

There was a sound of a loud explosion outside and the sharp crack of an electrical fizzle. Neither Hermione nor Snape needed anyone to tell them that the black nothingness had reached the fenced perimeter of the school.

"I daresay he won't, Miss Granger," said Snape icily. "Especially if you manage to kill us both while the world collapses around us. But by all means, take - your - time. After all, revenge is very sweet today."

Hermione took her foot away.

"Get up!" she ordered. "Get yourself up!"

Snape looked up at Hermione for a moment, then hoisted himself to his feet with his hands. He calmly adjusted his robes, then suddenly took hold of the collar of Hermione's sweatshirt and pulled her toward him.

"Let go of me!"

"Not until I've made one thing very clear, Miss Granger. I could care less what you think of me but if we're going to get ourselves and everyone else out of this school in one piece, you are going to listen to me and do exactly as I tell you, is - that - understood?"

"Maybe," said Hermione defiantly.

Snape twisted the fabric of her sweatshirt more tightly in his fist.

"Yes," said Hermione, very reluctantly.

"Good."

Snape shoved Hermione back away from him and gave her a narrow smile. "And for what it's worth, Miss Granger, you may fancy yourself a grown-up witch but you know nothing of what I do or why I do it."

"Whose fault is that then?" Hermione shot back. "Maybe if you'd even once told us - "

"And why ever would I want to do that, Miss Granger?"

Without waiting for a response, Snape moved toward the outer door and opened it. Hermione paused for a moment then followed.

***

"Ow! Let me go!" cried Ron. "Look, I know large brains don't always come with large bodies but surely you must have noticed the great big black thing that just swallowed up your guard tower!"

"Shut up!" yelled one of the guards. The two others continued to tie his hand behind his back and push him forward to the school. Ron could see out across a path to the front entrance. A courtyard was off to one side. A number of teachers and students were gathered out in a sort of playing area, huddled together. Many of the students were crying, especially the younger ones, and all of them were pointing to the thick nothingness that had completely surrounded the school. The sun had been blotted out now and the sky was an inky black. The school lights had come on briefly but then they, too, had fizzled when the black thing had hit the outer fence and caused all the eckel-tronics to burn out. Now there were only a few lights coming from several small torches the Muggle nuns were carrying in their hands.

"We're taking you to Headmaster Snape," said one of the guards.

"Oh - never thought I'd be so glad to see him."

"You won't when you meet him," said one of them nastily.

"I daresay you're right," replied Ron, sighing.

They marched him up toward the entrance of the school. A severe-looking nun with piercing grey eyes and a tight frown came out to meet them. Ron thought she looked a bit like the evil twin sister of Professor McGonagall.

"We found him prowling around the entrance, Sister Barnes," said one of the guards. "He was carrying this." He held up Ron's wand.

Sister Barnes looked like a fisherman who had just felt a tug on his pole.

"So! Another sorcerer."

"Yeah, that's right," said Ron. "Pity your grounds have vanished. I imagine it would have been quite good fun to burn me at the stake."

"This one has Satan's arrogance, too. Bring him into Headmaster Snape. We'll get to the bottom of this - "

"That won't be necessary, Sister," said a familiar voice. "I am already here."

Ron turned to see Snape emerge creepily from behind the darkened entrance to the school. Hermione was behind him.

"Ron!" she cried out.

"Hermione!"

Ron tried to move toward her but the guards restrained him.

"Let him go," said Snape, with great reluctance. He spotted the wand in the hand of the guard. "I see that unlike your witless girlfriend you have managed to keep your wand intact - such as it is."

Before anyone else could say anything, Snape snatched the wand away.

"Headmaster," said Sister Barnes. "Faced with such evil, I do believe his Holiness would not disprove if we tortured the truth from these - aaahh!"

Sister Barnes put her hands to her mouth and stepped back in shock as a bright light shot out from the end of Ron's wand and blanketed the courtyard in light.

"Sonorus," said Snape, ignoring her. "This is Headmaster Snape. All teachers and students will gather quickly in the outer courtyard and form a single line. Oh, and all the guards, I suppose. All Hogwarts students will report directly to me."

There were further murmurs of confusion and panic among the students and teachers, but under Snape's impatient stare, they slowly managed to form themselves into a line. Ron could see Filch doing a lot of the ordering work and watched as he shoved three protesting nuns into their correct place. He'd forgotten the old Hogwarts caretaker was even here.

"H - H - Headmaster," said Sister Barnes, her eyes still filled with alarm. "I - I - I don't understand. What - what are you - "

Snape turned reluctantly to look at Sister Barnes as one might regard a persistent mosquito.

"I suggest you follow the queue, if you don't want to get yourself killed, that is, Sister. It makes no difference to me."

Sister Barnes put another horrified hand over her mouth but started to walk toward the line.

"How are you planning to get us out then?" asked Ron.

Snape ignored him. Ron watched as the other Muggle-born students approached.

"Dean!" he cried out. "Are you all right?"

Ron watched as Dean walked toward them. His eyes widened only briefly as he saw he and Lavender holding onto each other for support. Lavender looked as though she'd been crying and Dean seemed stunned.

"Ron," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Rescuing you, mate."

"Hermione!" a little girl's voice cried out.

"Arabella!"

Hermione quickly grabbed her young friend into a hug.

"Oh, Hermione!" she said sobbing. "None of it was true. I - I never murdered my father - h - he's still alive and he isn't a drunk. It was all - "

She buried her face in Hermione's sleeve, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I know, Arabella. I know," she said.

The chatter of reunion stopped as Snape cleared his throat. He drew his wand through the air and conjured several everlasting candles which hovered in front of them.

"You will spread out through the line and use these to help the Muggles and yourselves leave the school," he said dispassionately. "In answer to your question, Mr. Weasley, if you look closely, you'll notice that a small window of the vortex still remains."

Ron and Hermione quickly looked over at the nothingness that was sweeping over what had once been the school's playing fields. Ron watched as it noisily carved up a sort of cement court with two baskets hanging from either end, but in the middle, there was a narrow strip where the cement remained intact. It seemed to move forward with the rest of the nothingness. Squinting, Ron could just make out the fuzzy, multi-colored grayness, but it was much narrower than the wide expanse that had stretched out before them up at the meadow. Ron reckoned it was only the width of about four people across and about as much high. It was also very difficult to distinguish the grey from the colorless background.

"What is on the other side?" asked Snape.

"It's a sort of cave-like thing down in Voldemort's base," replied Hermione. "It's underground, underneath a lake."

"Is there a way out?"

"There's a passageway leading out under the lake and up into a meadow."

"Death Eaters?"

"Could be."

"Very well. Finch-Fetchley, Creevey, Creevey, and Summers, you will go to the head of the line with me. We will take care of any Death Eaters and prepare a safe passageway for the others. Brown and Thomas, once we are in the passageway, you will keep guard and make sure that the Muggles can proceed safely to the meadow. Weasley and Granger, you'll be responsible for staying behind to make sure that the last of the Muggles get out of this school."

"Hang on a minute!" said Ron. "We should go first; we're the ones who know the way out!"

"Surely even someone of your limited articulatory abilities will not find it impossible to describe the route in detail to me, Mr. Weasley. If not you, then perhaps Miss Granger. She has on many occasions proved herself capable of considerable loquacity." He looked significantly at Hermione.

"But - "

"This is not a discussion, Mr. Weasley. You will do as I say. And try not to get yourself killed. Your mother is a difficult enough woman as it is."

***

Harry was sitting on the floor in the corner of his solitary cell when he heard the familiar popping sound. Wormtail now stood at the other end, his wand in hand and a greedy look in his eyes. Harry had tried to steel himself to strike at the moment his would-be executioner entered the room but now that the time had come, he found himself barely able to stand.

Even as Wormtail leveled his wand at Harry, he thought little about himself. He was going to kill Ginny first; that was what he had said. That was what he had told the Death Eaters when he had separated her from him. Had he now already finished that task? Was Ginny even now lying dead in another cell, killed by the same cold-blooded murderer who had betrayed his parents?

Harry forced himself to his feet, fighting an overwhelming surge of nausea as he did so. Just as he had faced certain death those years ago when a re-awakened Voldemort had challenged him to an impossible duel, Harry was certain that he wasn't going to give Wormtail the satisfaction of watching him grovel and suffer. He was going to face death standing up - just like his father and mother had, just like Sirius had and, though he tried not to think about it, just like he was sure that Ginny might have done as well.

Wormtail watched as Harry got to his feet but did nothing.

"Come on, then!" said Harry. "You're not afraid to kill me, are you? Just one little curse and it will all be over. Won't your boss be a bit impatient if you stay down here too long and miss the big moment upstairs?"

But Wormtail continued to stare at Harry unmoving. So he planned to toy with him then. To draw out the agony. Well, Harry wasn't going to let him. In fact, this might be the very -

Harry's thoughts came to a quick end as Wormtail flipped the wand around in his hand, walked straight up to Harry, and offered him the handle end.

Harry looked back at Wormtail, slightly stunned, but not so stunned that he failed to take the wand away from him.

"You once saved my life," said Wormtail finally, in a thick, grudging voice. "I owed you a wizard debt. That debt is now repaid."

Harry continued to stare at Wormtail in disbelief. This wasn't possible. This didn't - this didn't make sense.

"What are you after?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing. "You didn't think much about your wizard debt when you tied me up to that gravestone and left me to Voldemort or when you tried to curse me in the original room!"

Wormtail screwed up his eyes into an expression of rat-like defiance but the corners of his mouth began to twitch. He moved his hands together and began to fidget uncomfortably.

"He - he - he's going to kill us all!" he moaned suddenly. "He's mad! I - I - I know about the prophecy. Y - you're the only one who can stop him!" His voice descended to a pitiful whine. "You've got to stop him!"

"It took you long enough to figure it out."

"I never wanted to serve him!" Wormtail declared fervently, his eyes suddenly widening. "I - I didn't have any choice. I never wanted to be a Death Eater; he forced me to betray your parents! And then everyone thought I was dead; what could I do but go back to him? But now - "

"Now you realize he's going to kill you, anyway," Harry finished. "And you want to keep me alive to finish him off."

Wormtail nodded and began to whimper softly again.

But far from taking any mercy on his parents' executioner, Harry shoved Wormtail back against the wall of the cell and poked the wand into the side of his neck.

"You want me to stop Voldemort?" he hissed. "You know what? I don't care about stopping Voldemort. I don't care about any prophecy and I don't care about saving the world! I only care about one thing - and that's Ginny! So if you've killed her, then you're going to die here and now very slowly. Do you understand?"

Wormtail let out a soft moan.

Harry fought off another wave of nausea. Goddess, no, he thought; please, no; let him have spared her; please let him have spared her!

"What did you do with Ginny?" he demanded, poking the wand further into Wormtail's neck.

"I - I - I didn't kill her!" Wormtail managed. "I gave her a Portkey and she left. I - I thought it might be - might be important to secure - secure," he began to sob, "your c - c - cooperation."

"Very good, Peter," said Harry, but he didn't take the wand away. "Now where did she go? Tell me where she went!"

Wormtail shook his head.

"The Portkey I gave her took her back to one of the upward-leading staircases. There she could have escaped out to the surface, and to safety."

But Wormtail still looked hesitant.

"But?" prompted Harry.

"I - I - I didn't want her to stay around!" Wormtail protested. "If anyone sees her, the Dark Lord will know I've betrayed him. B - but she - she said - she said she was going upstairs - t-to the cavern. She said was going to stop the Dark Lord's p - p - plans herself!"

"What?"

Harry looked searchingly into Wormtail's eyes. He knew he still might be lying, but a sickening instinct told him that he was not. He finally moved the wand away from Wormtail's throat.

"All right, first I'm going to look for Ginny. Once I'm certain she's safe, I'll do my best with your boss."

Wormtail began to sob pathetically. He placed his hand on Harry's arm.

"Wonderful boy!" he moaned. "Brilliant boy! You - "

"Get off!" shouted Harry, shaking his arm away. "You have a Portkey for me as well?"

Wormtail reached into his cloak and pulled out another piece of fading grey cloth.

"This will take you into the corridors that face onto the cavern," he explained. "He still has Death Eaters on guard. You'll have to be careful."

"And you? Won't Voldemort sense you've betrayed him?"

Wormtail reached into his pocket and pulled out another piece of cloth and with it, another wand. His whimpering faded and his face took on a malevolent smile. Harry wondered, as he had many times before in his encounters with Wormtail, whether his cowering had all been an act.

"I will take care of myself," Wormtail replied. "Just do as I ask and spare me. After that, I do not care what happens to you or your girlfriend. I'm far better at Occlumency than he knows. I wouldn't have made it this far otherwise."

I wonder, thought Harry, but he nodded.

"All right," he said. "Then tell Voldemort you killed us both. That way he won't be on the lookout."

Wormtail nodded. "Agreed. Good luck, Harry Potter."

Harry pressed on the cloth and felt the tugging at his hip. The cell disappeared around him.

***

"Are you all right?" whispered Dean as they ushered the Muggles out through the corridor under the lake.

"Not really," Lavender replied, clutching hold of her stomach. "That vortex was awful."

Dean put his hand on her shoulder. "Not as awful as being chewed into pieces. You saw what that other thing was doing."

"Do you think these things will really hold up?" asked Lavender, looking warily at the conjured wand in her hand, one of several Snape had made for them.

"He said they had a few spells in them," said Dean, trying to sound encouraging. "And we haven't had to use one yet." He looked down at the pile of unconscious Death Eaters that spread out into the down-winding corridor at the juncture where they were keeping guard. They had found them like that as soon as they'd come out of the vortex. Dean guessed it had been mostly Snape's work.

"Oh, Dean, I feel so confused! I really believed - I don't know what to think now." Lavender clutched her stomach again.

Dean looked around behind him. Most of the Muggles seemed to have made it out of the vortex now. He gestured to two of the nuns to make their way down the corridor. They looked down at the stunned Death Eaters, crossed themselves quickly, and followed on.

"Look," he said. "Let's move out of here. Nearly all of them are out now and Ron and Hermione will be watching for the ones at the end."

Lavender nodded and allowed Dean to steer her away up the passageway. They followed the Muggles to another level path that went underneath the lake. The path ended at the bottom of a steep staircase and they slowly began to climb. A light at the top grew ever brighter until finally they emerged out of a kind of trapdoor into the still bright early evening sunlight. Once their eyes had adjusted, they found that most of what had once been the students and staff of St. Brutus's School for Criminally Incurable Girls and Boys were milling about chaotically in a meadow on the edge of a lake.

"Are you all right?" asked Dean again, as Lavender looked a little dizzy. "We're safe here; it's going to be OK now."

"Thomas, Brown," said a curt voice.

Dean looked up to see Snape walking toward them.

"Most of the Muggles are up," said Dean, looking a little coolly at Snape.

"Good. Potter and Granger?"

"They're still on the other side," said Lavender.

"Very well," said Snape laconically. "You will both remain here and help to take care of the Muggles. There may still be some Death Eater activity in the area; I advise caution." He took Ron's wand out of his cloak.

"What are you going to do then?"

"That's none of your concern, Mr. Thomas. If I have not returned with the hour, you are to take charge of leading the Muggles around the lake and out over the hill on the south side." Snape gestured with his wand. "One other thing: under no circumstances is anyone to follow me - especially Weasley and Granger. When they arrive, they are to remain here. Is that understood?"

Dean and Lavender both nodded.

Without acknowledging them further, Snape turned around and disappeared back down the passageway into the ground.

As soon as he was gone, Dean looked back to Lavender.

"Come on," he said. "Let's find somewhere for you to sit down and rest."

"I'm alright," Lavender insisted. "I just need...." Her voice trailed off and she frowned.

"What is it?" asked Dean.

Lavender's blue eyes looked back into his.

"You remember her now, don't you?"

"Remember who?"

"You know who."

Dean looked back at Lavender. He did know who. But he bit his lip and said nothing.

***

Hermione watched as the nothingness tore through the prison building that had once been their school. She coughed as large chunks of plaster and concrete filled the air around them. A hissing noise broke out and water from a burst pipe underneath the school began to seep out into what was left of the courtyard. The area around them was now barely larger than the size of the old netball court but the vortex was still holding up. All the children had left the school now. Only the nuns and she and Ron remained.

"I reckon ol' Snape wanted to do us in," said Ron, coughing himself.

Hermione shook her head. "He just wanted to see us suffer for as long as possible, that's all. Though I don't suppose he would have minded."

"M - Miss Granger!" said a frightened voice. "I - I don't - I've never actually traveled by t - t - television before!"

"You'll be fine, Sister Owens," said Hermione. "Please trust us. Now come on."

Sister Owens was the last one in the line - or so Hermione thought. She motioned to Ron to stand in front of her and then she brought up the rear. The blackness was closing in all around them now. Still, she was certain they could make it, just so long as they -

"Hattie!" said Sister Owens suddenly. "Hattie, quickly!"

Hermione turned around to see that Sister Barnes remained standing in the courtyard, slightly to the side of the line. Her arms were folded in front of her chest and her eyes held an expression of defiance.

"I am not going, Constance," she declared.

Oh, bloody hell, thought Hermione.

Ron stopped and turned around but Hermione shoved him in the back.

"Get in!" she cried.

The circle of nothingness around them continued to close. The air was thick with the remains of the concrete courtyard now and their clothes were all covered with a layer of fine white dust. Hermione guessed their universe only stretched about three meters in any direction now. Worse, as she looked up, she could see that the opening into the vortex was closing fast. It was barely the height of a person.

"Hattie!" Sister Owens cried out again. "Hattie, please! You'll be killed!"

"Do you not see with your eyes what is happening, Constance?" came the strident reply. "This is the work of Satan! He wants to drive us from this school, from our work, from our re-education of these unfortunate delinquents. His agents are everywhere: this girl, the boy - even Headmaster Snape was his servant. But we must stay; we must fight the forces of darkness!"

"Hattie, no!" Sister Owens remonstrated over Hermione's shoulder as she tried to push her toward the rapidly shrinking opening. "We have been deceived, yes, but Miss Granger is trying to help us! She's risked her life, can't you see that? This isn't a real school, after all; we don't belong here! Search your memories, Hattie!"

"I belong wherever the Lord takes me!" Sister Barnes retorted shrilly. "And He has commanded me to remain here! He does not want me to follow this sorceress!"

"But how do you know - "

Hermione had heard enough. She forcibly shoved Sister Owens' head down and pushed her through the remaining opening, then followed quickly behind her. At the very last second, just before she had passed completely into the swirling grayness, she felt something spray across her shoulders and face. Already inside , she looked back into the closing world that had imprisoned her for so long and immediately wished she hadn't. The universe was not even large enough for one person to fit inside now but one person still tried to remain there. Sister Barnes continued to stand defiantly in the courtyard as the blackness closed around her. Her skin and blood blew away into the vortex until finally only a skeleton stood in its place, its teeth clenched in precisely the manner of the deputy Headmistress of St. Brutus's School. Somewhere in front of her, Hermione could still hear Sister Owens screaming. She held tightly onto the nun as the vortex began to buffet them around and closed her eyes tightly. They were leaving.

***

Snape ducked quickly into an alcove at the side as the party passed. They all looked a complete mess, especially Granger. She was covered from head to toe with what appeared to be dried blood. Both she and Weasley were comforting one of the nuns. It was obvious to Snape that one of them hadn't quite made it. A Muggle, no doubt. No matter. He had far more important things to worry about now.

He waited until their voices had completely subsided and the corridor grew eerily quiet, then he made his way past the now sealed-off entrance to the vortex and down into the bowels of the Dark Lord's underground base. He walked slowly forward with practiced stealth.

Snape had suspected the Dark Lord's plans as soon as his memories had returned. And now that he had seen this base, he knew exactly where he was and what it was he was doing. It had been Voldemort's most secret project even in the years of the First War when he had found out about the secret work of Grindewald and the other Dark Wizards before him. It was they who had calculated that the gateway needed to be placed precisely here, at the bottom of this lake, in order to penetrate into the world beyond. It was a plan Snape himself had once believed in and dreamed of but as his knowledge of the Dark Arts had matured and his disenchantment with Voldemort and the Death Eaters had grown, Snape had come to dismiss the plans as a deranged fantasy. He had never reported it to the Order even long after he had fully committed himself as their spy. As far as he'd been concerned, the lunacy had hardly been worth mentioning.

But Snape now realized that he had been wrong. Very wrong. Voldemort had already shown what he was capable of with the bubble world, a world into which he had banished Snape by effortlessly conjuring the nexus triangle. And Snape now had little doubt what his final plans were. And considering his decision to collapse the bubble world and the absence of Death Eaters guarding the perimeter of his complex, Snape also guessed that the Dark Lord's plans were very close to fruition.

Snape didn't know where Dumbledore and the rest of the Order were and, at this point, he didn't very much care. He knew how to stop Voldemort and he was going to do it - alone, if necessary. He had made Granger and Weasley stay behind because he knew they were going to try and follow him. And that was the last thing Snape wanted.

Snape moved to another wall as the sound of footsteps grew nearer. A masked Death Eater was approaching.

"Bole?" said the Death Eater cautiously. "Bole, where are you? The Dark Lord is expecting your report on the Granger girl. Where have you - "

Snape stepped out into the corridor, his wand raised. The Death Eater gasped and went for his wand.

"Pr - Pr - Professor Snape?" he declared. "But you - "

"Montague, isn't it?" said Snape icily. "I recognize your voice. Quite a promising career if I remember correctly. A pity you made the wrong choice. Avada Kedavra!"

Montague tried to shield himself from the curse but it was too late. A green light emerged from the end of Snape's wand. He was dead well before he had hit the ground.

Yes, Snape decided. He certainly didn't need the likes of Gryffindors at his side. The time for compassion and softness had passed. It seemed that what he'd told Granger back at the school was true, however: revenge was very sweet today indeed.

***

After pressing onto Wormtail's Portkey, Harry had found himself in another set of passageways. The corridor in which he'd found himself standing led in two directions and he chose the one that led deeper and toward a very faint light. After several more minutes of walking through ever-brighter passageways, he found himself in another alcove looking out into the cavern. Poking his head cautiously through the small opening, he found that he was two sides of the pentagon away from the mezzanine control area and diagonally opposite where he and Hermione had first looked into the cavern. He was also much lower down: the mezzanine area was slightly above him. He could just about make out Voldemort standing over the controls. Wormtail and one other Death Eater with a horrible emaciated face stood next to him.

Harry could see why Wormtail had picked this particular spot. The strange tangled structure that stretched out through the heart of the cavern obstructed its view from anyone standing on the mezzanine. Peering further out into the cavern, Harry also noticed that part of the material stretched and curled very close to the alcove where he was standing. With great caution, Harry reached out a finger toward the substance and then withdrew it, deciding it was better not to take the chance. The material didn't come from this world; there was no telling what the magical consequences could be of coming into contact with it. Still, one strand of the substance led in a convoluted path to a point just under Malfoy's control area. Clearly, Wormtail had meant for him to take that path.

Still, that would have to wait. His first priority was finding -

"Harry!"

It was only a whisper but Harry would know anywhere that it was Ginny's voice he was hearing. He wasn't at all sure where it was coming from though. He looked back and forth down the corridor in which he was standing but she was nowhere to be seen.

"Down here!" said Ginny's voice again.

Harry cautiously looked back into the cavern. No, she couldn't be... she wouldn't.....

"Straight down!" said the voice.

Harry walked right to the edge and looked down. There was Ginny, about ten feet below him, standing on a narrow ledge of the other worldly substance which plunged down below her to a very significant depth.

"Ginny!" he whispered back. "What are you doing down there?"

"Stay there!" she said. "I'm coming up."

"No, don't move! Don't try to climb on this stuff; I'm coming down to you!"

Ginny cupped her hands to her mouth to talk up to Harry again but she stopped as Harry cautiously walked out of the alcove. Taking care to keep part of the structure between him and the control area so that Voldemort couldn't see him, he carefully tried standing on the structure. The material was hard and it seemed it could support him; there didn't appear to be any adverse magical effect from standing on it, but he could feel that it was very brittle and some parts of it were sturdier than others. Climbing around on it seemed as about as safe as moving about on the thin upper branches of a tree that stretched up to an impossible height.

Harry nervously maneuvered himself down toward the ledge where Ginny was standing, placing his hands and feet over jagged bits of the substance that jutted out from its main thicker branch-like parts. He took care to try each one before he stepped on it and one broke off and fell far down into the depths below. Harry winced as it made a clattering noise all the way down, but looking cautiously around from his hiding place, it seemed that Voldemort and the other Death Eaters were still focused on their controls.

"Careful!" said Ginny as he got closer.

Finally, Harry reached the ledge where Ginny was standing and she helped him down into a safe position facing her. He instantly pulled her into a tight hug and let out an immense sigh of relief.

"I never thought I'd see you alive again," he said.

"Oh, Harry, neither did I. I - I couldn't believe he just let us go like that. I - I - "

She released from the hug and looked up at him.

"He said he wanted you to kill Voldemort."

Harry nodded. "Yeah. He told me he was getting you out safe, though, but you don't look very safe here."

"Well, I - I think he might have been. I came out at a passageway just in front of the staircase going up. I think it might have led right out of here but I - I walked away from it and followed the light down to here."

Ginny bit her lip nervously and Harry sensed she knew he wasn't going to like what she had just told him. And she was right.

"Why, Ginny?" he asked. Without waiting for her response, he took hold of Ginny's shoulders. "Look, never mind why, you're safe now. I'll help you climb up to the alcove just above us and then you can find your way out or you can just stay there until all this is over."

But Ginny shook her head.

"Harry, I can't. Don't you understand? Tom's plan is nearly complete: he's going to complete the magic and punch a hole through the gateway. Can't you feel it?"

Ginny gestured at Harry's feet. Now that she had drawn his attention to it, he could feel a low rumbling vibration coming up through the structure.

"The pentrax frame is gathering energy. It won't be very long now!"

"You don't know that, Ginny. Look - "

"But, Harry, I do!"

Harry looked at her quizzically. "How?" he asked.

Ginny looked back at him a little strangely. She absently fingered something around her neck. "I don't know, Harry," she said. "I - I honestly don't know but it's true; you've got to believe me!"

Harry put a hand on her shoulder again.

"Alright, I suppose we haven't got much longer but I'm going to stop him, OK?" He looked closely into Ginny's eyes with what he hoped was a very convincing expression. "I'm going to stop Voldemort and then we can both get out of here and leave all this behind us."

"But Harry, you can't do it all on your own! Think about this carefully: we don't know what happened to Hermione or any of the others. As far as we know, you and I are the only ones who can stop this. You're going to kill Voldemort and I'm going to destroy the gateway."

"What? How?"

"I'm going to climb up to the top and try every good curse I can think of."

Harry glanced upward to the tattered veil hanging from the stone archway so many stories above them.

"No!" he said instinctively. "No, it's too dangerous. There must be another way!"

"There isn't any other way, Harry! I've thought it all through. Neither of us knows how to do a Killing Curse so Sirius's idea is out, but we could still destroy the gateway. Remember what Lupin told us: it was built by wizards so it must follow that it can be destroyed by wizards. Lupin even said it would have been far better off if it had been. And then Tom will have no means to break into the other world!"

"Alright, then. I'll destroy the gateway."

But Ginny shook her head yet again.

"No, Harry!" she said. "Remember the prophecy: you're the only one who can destroy Voldemort. He's still weak, Harry: he doesn't have all of his powers back yet. Dumbledore said so! And then I'll destroy the gateway."

"I don't care about any prophecies!" said Harry, feeling his frustration mounting.

"Alright, Harry, then just think it through clearly: I certainly don't have the magical skills to deal with Tom, but I can get up to that gateway. I've always been good at climbing; there are trees all over the Bur - "

"This isn't a tree! A - and this isn't - Ginny, please, I - I just want you to be safe. If anything happened to you, I - I - I just - I don't know if I could - "

Ginny touched her hand to the side of his face. "Harry, neither of us is going to be safe if the world comes to an end. We've got to do this. We've got to stop this. And then we can be with each other. We can live the rest of our lives together, if that's what you want."

Harry ran his fingers through Ginny's hair and looked closely into her soft brown eyes. "Of course it's what I want," he said tenderly. "And I'm going to do it. I'm going to stop him. For you. For us."

Ginny looked back at him. She cusped her hand to the side of his face as tears pooled in her eyes. For a moment, he thought she was finally going to give in but then with a stubborn sniff, she shook her head again. Beside himself, Harry tried to think of another way to persuade her to keep herself out of harm's way but before he could do so, Ginny herself spoke.

"Harry, you don't know what it felt like that night down in the Chamber when I woke up and found you standing over me. You saved my life, Harry. Without you, I wouldn't be standing here right now."

"And I'd save it again and again!" said Harry fervently. "I - "

But Ginny put a soft finger to his lips to silence him.

"H-H-Harry," she said, sobbing. "I kn-know, I know you would. But saving my life again isn't going to save me." She pointed to her heart. "The real me, the me that has never quite made it back out of the Chamber of Secrets."

"I - I don't understand."

Ginny looked down for a moment. It seemed she couldn't quite meet his eyes.

"Harry, you - you know what he did to me. I told you. I was like his puppet, his doll. I couldn't stop him from making me kill the roosters, setting the basilisk on the mudbloods, and - and finally I - I - I couldn't even stop him from doing what he wanted to my own body. And even after you stopped him, Harry, I - I still felt so empty. I felt so defeated. I - I couldn't - and then - and then when he came back, I - I knew I had to do anything I could to stop him. That was why I had to go with you to try and rescue Sirius. That was why I had to stop him last year in the original room and - and that's why I have to stop him now. I - I have to show him that my mind and my body belong to me and that - and that everything he did to me will come back to hurt him. Even if you could stop him by yourself, Harry, I - I still won't be anything but a - but a hopeless, stupid, little girl who always has to be rescued by others. And I don't want to be that, Harry. I - I can't live like that anymore." She finally looked up. "Do - do you understand?"

Harry looked back down at her. He still wanted to think of some way to stop her, some way to keep her safe. But in the end, he did understand. He understood perfectly. And though it seemed like the hardest thing he had ever done, Harry bowed his head and nodded.

Ginny reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

"Thank you, Harry," she said. "I knew you would understand. I love you and we'll be together - forever - I promise."

Ginny moved away from Harry and placed her foot back onto the jagged edge of the spiraling structure. Harry watched, feeling very helpless, as she slowly began to climb.