After the bizarre meeting between Blaise and his long-lost sister, after the completely insane alliance and companionship between Charlie and Draco Malfoy, time began to blur for Ginny. She was back and forth between Hogwarts and the Academy and Cambridge, taking injured people to safety and keeping up the protective Charms.
Every few minutes Ginny received a dull blow to her gut as she saw something that reminded her that Fred was gone, forever. He was not the only one. The news spread about Remus and Tonks' deaths shortly after the escape from the orphanage and Celeste had a panic attack that caused everyone around her to suddenly become depressed and afraid. Blaise led her to a corner and calmed her down. After that, Ginny began to avoid going inside the Academy.
Sometime during that night Blaise had a stroke of genius and invented a protective spell whose effects did not wear off because of the transportation tunnels. It allowed them all to relax a little. Neville went inside to join the Healing efforts. That left Ginny, Charlie, and Draco Malfoy guarding the tunnels and receiving the injured.
“You should get some rest, Ginny,” Charlie said. “Go inside, help them with the Healing a little bit and get your energy back.”
Ginny shook her head. She could not go in there. If she did then Celeste’s uncontrollable calming spells would affect her. She did not want to be calm. Fred was gone. She did not want to relax while there was still a single Death Eater walking around.
Harry killed Voldemort sometime during the night and more people, both injured and volunteers came from Hogwarts. The war was not over yet. People were still dying, screaming in pain, hearing about loved ones who had passed away. Ginny succumbed momentarily to her parents’ hugs, but she broke away quickly when they moved to go inside. She turned away and strode off through the Cambridge tunnel.
“I’m just going to check on the Muggles!” she called. No one tried to stop her, but, even more unnervingly, Draco Malfoy nodded briskly in confirmation.
…
Dean smiled encouragingly at Luna. Ever since he had agreed to go with her she had taken him on the most insane missions imaginable. They had chased after several impossible creatures, some of which actually turned out to exist while others were just mundane badgers and things that Luna referred to by exotic names. And now here they were, alone on a London rooftop with a pile of mad ingredients such as badger whiskers and mandrake toenails.
Despite the complete impossibility of their mission, Dean could not help encouraging Luna. There must be some reason why she was in Ravenclaw. This had to work. Voldemort had been destroyed hours ago, but the world was still dark. The perpetual night had still not lifted.
“What should I do?” Dean asked, watching as Luna arranged her ingredients.
“Do you have the Potterwatch password?” Luna asked dreamily. Dean nodded and extracted his tiny radio from his pocket.
“Engorgio!” it grew back to its normal size and he switched it on and muttered the password.
“… the hundreds of people that have been flocking to Hogwarts for the past couple of hours to share in the victory over Voldemort.” Lee’s voice said from the wireless. “It is a great victory, a time of relief and new beginnings, but it is also a time of grief for many. Let’s take a moment of silence to honor the dead.”
Luna and Dean observed the moment of silence, their eyes meeting across the pile of ingredients. Dean was not sure what his face looked like; so many emotions were running through his head, but Luna’s expression was one of single-minded determination. She really believed this would work.
When the moment of silence was over Luna began giving out brisk instructions. Dean had never particularly enjoyed potions class, but it hadn’t been his worst subject either. He chopped and mashed and sliced and crushed, listening to Lee’s commentary all the while.
“And here are the names of those known to have lost their lives in the Battle of Hogwarts…”
Luna began adding the ingredients to her cauldron and Dean settled back to watch, his heart thumping loudly.
“… Colin Creevy…”
Luna gasped and Dean felt his heart sink into his feet. A depressing chill was seeping into his body. He strained his ears, hoping that this was the only name he would recognize.
“…Davies…”
Luna did not look up, but Dean was almost sure that Davies had been a Ravenclaw. “Could you pass me the crushed Horklump Fangs,” Luna said, not taking her eyes off the potion.
“Ah… yeah,” he said, "hang on." He picked through the jars and mortars carefully until he finally located the crushed fangs of what Luna referred to as a Horklump. The mundane looking creature had been vicious and had bitten Luna on the arm, but she had simply smiled at this, saying that allowing it to bite you was the only way to extract the fang. Dean shook his head as he passed it to her and, before he could sit back down he was dealt another blow.
“…Remus Lupin…”
“No,” Dean breathed. He closed his eyes and prayed as hard as he knew how for this pain to end. Professor Lupin had just had a baby; a baby that would never know its father. Soon Tonks’s name joined the list and Dean moved to turn the wireless off. He did not want to know.
“Wait, Dean!” Luna said, “Please leave it on.”
Dean sighed and nodded slowly.
…
“Ginny!” Ginny turned away and squeezed between the crowd of Muggle patients.
“Ginny!” Charlie was shouting now. “I don’t deserve to be ignored!”
It was true. Ginny wasn’t in the mood to listen to reason, though. She squeezed past Hannah, who allowed her to pass. At least someone understood her need to get away. The faces around her began to blur as she ran. She had never lived through anything worse than this victory. Tom may be dead, but the darkness he had conjured still settled over the world. The people he had killed would never come back. Even the scar on Ginny’s shoulder was still there.
She reached up a hand and squeezed her left shoulder. It was still alive. How could Tom be dead and his mark still be a living part of her? A pair of wide eyes assaulted her. She stopped in her tracks and stared down at the girl to whom the eyes belonged. Something weird was growing out of her leg, something tentacly and disgusting, and there was some kind of silencing spell cast on her because she opened and closed her mouth over and over, but no sound issued from it.
Ginny knelt before her and pulled out her wand. “Don’t worry,” she said untruthfully. “It’s all over, the people who did this to you are gone and I can help you.” Taking a deep breath Ginny cast the simple spell to give the girl her voice back. A sharp intake of breath. Ginny smiled.
Now to heal the mess that was her leg. It was quite revolting. Just what Ginny needed right now. She lost herself in examining the slimy tentacles from all angles. She tried a few simple healing spells first, but as she had predicted they did not help. Someone had come up behind her. “Finite Incantatem!” Ginny said.
It did not even stop the rapid growth of the tentacles. She would have either take the girl back to the academy or try a spell she had never used before. Ginny did not like to use spells that she had only read about – not on people.
“Ginny,” Charlie said from behind her. “Everyone’s worried about you, especially Theo and Blaise.”
Blaise! She remembered him holding her hand, showing her the quick, sharp movements for one of his spells. That day, they had used it to cure Theo of a weird growth coming out of his neck that had been caused by a combination of a couple of different hexes. She smiled encouragingly at the girl again and lifted her wand.
“Expurgo auctus extraneus!” she watched in fascination as the tentacles began to shrink back into the girl’s leg until all that remained was a tear in her jeans.
“Thank you!” the girl finally found her voice again.
Ginny smiled.
“Ginny,” Charlie said, “If you don’t come back with me I’m going to have to drag you back. Mum’s going to have a cow and Blaise seems to think it’s him you’re avoiding-”
“That’s stupid!”
“Well, he’s making everyone else completely miserable and I think if Ron shows up he might kill all three of the Slytherin boys before we can stop him.”
“Nice try,” Ginny said. “We both know the protective spells around the place prevent anyone doing fatal or very harmful spells. Besides, Ron’s still running around after Harry bleeding Potter.”
“George needs all of us right now, even you, my little Slytherin broom-thief.”
Ginny leapt to her feet before she knew what she was doing. How she could still get upset by such a silly taunt, after all that had happened…
She nodded and allowed Charlie to lead her back through the streets of the Muggle city and then through the tunnel. She threw up on the dry grass in front of the Academy. Someone had put up a sign.
“The Nott, Weasley, Zabini Healer’s Academy,” Charlie read out. “I think Ron might have a heart attack before he can actually kill anyone. Mum turned green when she saw it and Bill actually punched Malfoy in the face when he saw him putting it up, though I’m not sure if that had anything to do with the sign itself.”
The weird calming enchantment hit her as soon as she stepped through the door. They passed the children’s ward and Ginny stopped a moment to listen to a young boy telling the other children a story. He had bright eyes that stared weirdly off into nothingness. “Is he?”
“Blind? Yeah,” Dad said, stepping out of the ward. “Ron found him weeks ago. His name’s Liam.”
Charlie stepped back and allowed Dad to engulf Ginny in a warm hug. “I’m so proud of you, Ginny.”
When they broke apart Ginny let her feet guide her to the familiar room in which they had always played Chess. There were too many people there. Theo was rummaging through the potions cabinet feverishly and Blaise was pacing angrily. Malfoy, his arm still scaly, was standing with both hands on the back of Ginny’s favorite armchair and Celeste was cleaning the room with a toddler hanging off her leg. What was even more infuriating was that they were all doing this matter of factly as if nothing unusual had happened. The rest of Ginny’s family, except for Ron, of course, was huddled around George in a corner. Even Aveline bloody Zabini was skulking about in a corner.
“You know,” Malfoy said to Blaise. “You’re the only one that calming spell doesn’t affect.”
“Yeah?” Blaise began with a hint of angry sarcasm in his voice.
Ginny’s eyes met Celeste’s at that moment and the blanket of calmness shuddered and faded. George began to sob in pain.
“Blaise,” Celeste said, warningly. As if she had known him all her life. Ginny wasn’t sure if she was angry at the girl or not, but she had certainly unnerved Celeste who turned and left the room through the side door.
Ginny was so busy watching Celeste leave that she did not notice Blaise approaching her until he was close enough to whisper to her. “My sister thinks you’re avoiding her.”
He was hurt. Nothing in his voice or features suggested it, but Ginny knew.
“It’s just her bloody spell,” Ginny said quickly, “And Fred and…”
Suddenly, Blaise’s arms were around her and his comfortable smell filled her head and Ginny was crying for the first time since Fred’s death, for the first time in months.
