The Choice

The Choice

Two weeks before the end of sixth year...

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

The words tore through the still evening air. Harry felt his heart leap up his throat as the sickening green slashed across the sky and claimed life.

Albus Dumbledore died with a smile on his lips.

The screams of the students echoed Voldemort's screech and Harry felt himself run forward through the haze. He caught Dumbledore's body as it fell, hardly believing what was happening. Dumbledore was lighter than Harry thought he would be.

Gently, he lowered him to the ground.

"Don't be dead," Harry pleaded, knowing - but not wanting to know- that it was helpless. "You can't. You CAN'T!"

But even as he yelled it, Harry knew what Dumbledore had done. The answer was in those benign blue eyes that seemed to twinkle even in death.

Unable to look at them, Harry turned away.

His heart burned.

McGonagall dropped to her knees next to him and caressed the beloved face; then broke down, sobbing the same word over and over again.

"Albus. Albus."

Harry stood up, pulled his wand from his robes, and turned away from his headmaster.

This had to end.

Now.

"I see Dumbledore was not as curse-proof as everyone believed him to be," Voldemort crooned. "Pity. I was rather looking forward to the challenge."

"Idiot," Harry spat. "He wanted you to kill him. You can't touch Hogwarts now."

Something that looked suspiciously like fear crossed Voldemort's face. It was, however, quickly replaced by malice.

"Oh, really? Well, now that does put a damper on my plans." Those merciless red eyes sneered. "Nott!" he barked suddenly.

A tow-headed, gray-faced wizard stepped forward, trembling. "Y-yes, Master?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw a tow-headed Slytherin boy blanch.

"Walk through the front doors," Voldemort ordered.

Nott looked scared out of his wits to obey but even more scared to refuse. Harry shot him a scathing look as he passed. He could only imagine what sort of thing would happen to Nott but he was hard-pressed to work up any feelings of pity. Nott has chosen his loyalties a long time ago.

Gingerly, Nott reached out and opened the great front doors. They opened without qualm. Nott slumped obviously with relief. Voldemort smirked and gestured for Nott to continue. Nott took one step over the threshold.

And screamed.

Gold lightning bolts struck out and wrapped around him. With force that crackled, they whipped out and threw Nott into the air. He landed at Voldemort's feet, twitching. Voldemort kicked him aside.

"Dad!" the tow-headed boy cried and started to run forward. His friends held him back. Harry dimly registered that Draco Malfoy was one of them.

Then he turned back to Voldemort and arched a brow. He didn't say a word but Voldemort got the message. His lip curled.

"We'll take Hogwarts another day. In the mean time," Voldemort sneered, "there is something else we can take care of."

Harry didn't need an explanation. A second later, his wand was curving in a graceful arc, red light shooting out of it. "Deftectimus!"

The shield would last six minutes.

He turned to the students.

"Everyone, inside!" he shouted. "Everyone," he stressed, looking Malfoy straight in the eye. There was quiet for a few moments and then everyone started shuffling and muttering. Through the murmuring, Harry could hear Ginny's calm voice ushering first and second years through the doors. Some, however, were not moving.

"Everyone inside," he ordered again.

"No, Harry."

Harry turned. Neville Longbottom was striding towards him, wand clutched determinedly in his hand. In front of him was Ron and next to him was Hermione.

"We're not leaving you," she said.

"Yes, you are," Harry said, angry.

"No."

"We're not going anywhere."

"This is my fight!" he shouted. "I'm the only one who can kill him and I will and you all are not in this. You're not."

They ignored him and continued walking.

"Remember what happened last year?" he burst out. "All of you nearly died because of me. Sirius did die because of me. It's not happening again. Inside!"

"Since when do I take orders from you?" Hermione retorted. "You might be the one in the Prophecy, Harry, but you are not going to take on Voldemort with no one beside you."

Harry let out an exasperated sigh and opened his mouth to tell them to get the hell away when another voice drawled,

"Can it, Potter. We're staying." And Zacharius Smith took the spot next to Neville.

"Ditto, Harry," said Dean Thomas, taking the spot on Hermione's other side. Seamus joined him. Wordlessly, Ernie MacMillan and Luna walked up and joined Zacharius. The Creeveys marched up next to Seamus. Lavender squeezed in between them. Mark Evans walked forward from the back wearing a glare that dared Harry to contradict him. Cho, Terry Boot, Anthony Goldstien, and Michael Corner soon joined them, followed by Justin Finch-Fletchley and Hannah Abbott. Jack Sloper joined the throng, Pete Hooper on his heels.

Harry gave up on convincing them and turned back to face the Death Eaters. The thing to do was kill Voldemort straight off before he had a chance to hit any of them. He could do it. He'd been in training all year.

The red shield flickered. Harry saw Voldemort tense on the other side. Harry tensed and raised his wand to shoulder level.

Not long now.

"Harry, no!"

The voice was insistent and breathless and Harry turned disbelievingly towards it. Ginny was rushing towards him, her hair blowing around her face and her breath hitching.

"You can't."

He couldn't?! What the hell did she mean he couldn't?

"He killed your brother."

"I know he did," Ginny said, her eyes full of tears. "But you can't kill him now, Harry. Not like this."

"I can kill him exactly like this." Harry's voice was cold. "I've been trained for it."

Ginny flinched but kept her eyes locked on his.

"It'll kill you," she said frankly.

"No, it won't. Didn't you listen to the prophecy?" he demanded.

"Yes!" Ginny exclaimed. "That's what I'm trying to tell you. Neither can live while the other survives. He's in you. You kill him now, like this, with so much hate, and you'll die. You can't destroy part of him, you have to destroy all and part of him is in you. He's alive in you, Harry."

"Then I should die, too! If I've got that in me than I should be killed right along with him."

"But you're not him. Look. All I know is this isn't right. Voldemort cannot be killed with hate. Can't be killed by someone who - who - he'll take you down with him. He will."

"Then I'll die!" The words wrenched from him. He didn't care. He was sick of all this. Death was nothing. "It doesn't matter what happens to me! Why can't you all understand that?! I can stop it. Now. No one else has to die."

"Harry, we need you."

He just looked at her.

"I'm serious. The wizarding world needs you. You're the only who can - there's no one else people will-"

He knew what she was getting at.

"You don't need me." His voice broke on the words. "The world has plenty of other people who can do what's needed. Your dad. Remus. The Order. Hermione. Ron. Every last one of them who refused to go inside. I have to do this, Ginny."

And he turned away from her, unable to stand the pain in her eyes.

The shield now flickered continuously. Again he raised his wand to shoulder height and waited. Through the shield, his eyes met Voldemort's and he couldn't resist a victorious sneer. Voldemort was going to pay. His parents. Cedric. Sirius. Parvati and her family. Shacklebolt. Percy. Dumbledore. And all the ones before...

"I love you."

The words broke through his wall of thoughts and pierced him. He closed his eyes against it. Against the voice he knew. The voice he...

The grip on his wand loosened ever so slightly.

Painfully, he turned to Ginny.

She gazed back at him unflinching. A single tear lay like a piece of glass on her cheek, her siren red hair waved like a banner in the evening wind, and her eyes...her eyes were fixed on his. And what he saw in them shattered whatever was left of his heart.

His hand dropped to his side.

She loved him.

Another tear left her eye and trickled down her cheek. To his right, Harry heard someone give a dry sob. He turned to see Hermione bury her face in Ron's shoulder. Ron just looked back at him and Harry could've sworn he heard his friend's voice in his head. "You do what you gotta do, mate. I'll be here no matter what. But I wish you'd stay." Harry looked at Dean and saw Dean shake his head. Neville whispered "Harry, no..." Other people were muttering. Hermione seemed to pull herself together suddenly and straightened up, wiped her eyes and looked at him. Her face said the same thing Ron's did.

Harry turned back to Ginny, pleading with her wordlessly. He had to do this. Didn't they see? He could end it. He could end it!

The shield suddenly shone extra bright and then extinguished. Time seemed to hang suspended in the brief instant his eyes met those pitiless red ones. Then Voldemort's wand raised ominously and came down. "Ava-"

But the words were already out of Harry's mouth.

"Directo Ressimini!"

The Extinguishing Spell. With a few custom modifications made by Dumbledore.

With a snap, Voldemort and his Death Eaters disappeared. Harry didn't know where they'd gone. Dumbledore was never very specific. He only knew it was a long way away, where Apparating was impossible.

But they'd be back.

Useless, his hand fell to his side.

There was total silence.

One by one, he felt people go inside. A few students were hurt; they needed tending. The professors, too, were being taken to the hospital wing.

Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and looked into the gray eyes of Zacharius Smith. "It was right, Potter," he said, then turned and sauntered off.

Hermione hugged him tightly and Harry let her but made no move to return her hug. He felt numb. Nothing registered. Ron hugged him, awkwardly to be sure, but he did. Again Harry made no move to return it but he did meet Ron's eyes as Ron drew away. Ron understood.

Lavender kissed his cheek. Hagrid ruffled his hair.

Ginny, however, stood in exactly the same place, in the exact same way. There was a deep sadness in her brown eyes. "I'm sorry, Harry," she said quietly, her voice breaking. He turned away from her.

McGonagall had yet to leave Dumbledore's side. Harry watched through a fog as Snape lifted McGonagall to her feet and handed her off to Sprout before sadly levitating Dumbledore and floating him into the castle. He cast a last glance at Harry, nodded curtly, and shut the doors.

Alone, Harry dropped his wand and buried his face in his hands. Noiselessly, he slumped to the ground.