Disclaimer: this work borrows from the world of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books; some plot elements, characters, and concepts are hers.

For the Life of our Friend

Chapter 1: The End.

Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody stalked silently down the passageway between two 10-foot tall hedges that formed the walls of the maze he was currently in.

This maze strongly resembled the maze that had been set up for the TriWizard tournament seven years ago, it was outside, made of hedge, and had numerous traps and magical creatures inside it, and he could honestly say that he was hunting the most vicious opponent that he had ever faced, and she was somewhere in this maze.

Moody quickly whirled his magical eye, taking a 360 degree look at his surroundings, not that it would do much good.

The witch he was currently hunting had found a way to obscure herself from his eye, making him unable to see her unless he had a direct line of sight.

It was good to know that he could still see her if she wasn't hiding behind something, but it unnerved him to be unable to see her through the walls of the maze.

He tightened the grip on his wand. 'Constant Vigilance' he thought to himself as he took another look around, and slowly continued forward.

'Well well, looks like she got Tonks already.' He thought to himself as he carefully rounded the corner. 'Gotchya!' he thought to himself.

There, vaguely visible to his magical eye was the faint outline of a woman. "Finite Incantatem, Petrificus Totalus" He muttered, flicking his wand.

"You need to watch your back girl" He said gruffly, his face split into a wolfish grin.

"Petrificus Totalus" A young voice said behind him, and he felt a line of cold steel lightly brush his neck.

"I did mad-eye, you fell for a decoy and attacked your teammate" A feminine voice whispered in his ear.

Then Moody noticed that the woman standing in front of him was not his quarry, but his fellow Auror, Nymphadora Tonks.

His magical eye whirled and he found himself looking into the chillingly cold eyes of Ginerva Weasley, the only witch who ever truly scared him.

"Congratulations Mad-Eye, there is a deduction for friendly fire." She said with a wolfish smile. "stupefy."

As Moody dropped to the ground unconscious Ginny quickly stunned Tonks and re cast the hybridDisillusionment Charm and Confundus Charm that seemed to have some effect on Moody's magical eye.

She ran quickly and quietly down the corridor that Moody had come from. 'Two down, one to go.' She thought to herself. 'If I can just get Shacklebolt I'll win this round'

She quickly looped around the maze, casting the four point charm periodically to tell her which way Shacklebolt was.

She quietly turned a corner, and there he was, she crept up behind him, and slowly extended her wand, then fired two stunners into him from less than a foot away, causing him to crumple to the ground.

She breathed a sigh of relief.

Minerva McGonagall, headmistress of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry watched silently as Ginny levitated the three stunned and petrified aurors out of the maze.

"Well done Ginny" She said, giving the young woman before her a rare smile.

With a flick of her wand she revived the three aurors.

"Moody, Tonks, Shacklebolt, thanks for coming, I think that's enough training for tonight."

She turned to Ginny. "Miss Weasley, if you have a moment, I would like to speak with you in my office."

Ginny nodded, and they quickly entered the castle and made their way to the stone Gargoyle that guarded the entrance to her office.

Flashback

Ginny followed Headmistress McGonagall up the stairs to her office.

McGonagall had something she wanted Ginny to see, but wouldn't say what.

Ginny couldn't really bring herself to care, Harry was dead, so nothing really mattered any more.

Sure, he had killed Voldemort, and destroyed the last horcrux in the last battle, but it had also killed him, Harry Potter.

Why did he do it? Why not just remove Voldemort from his body? Ginny didn't understand.

She numbly followed the Headmistress into her office and sat in a chair in front of her desk.

Ginny idly wondered what the stone bowl full of silver light that McGonagall set on her desk was.

"Ginny" she said softly. "Tap it with your wand.

Numbly Ginny did as she was told. Why did it matter, anyway?

More importantly, he was there, warm, and smiling and alive.

"Ginny, If you're seeing this, a lot of things have changed." He said. " If you see this, I'm dead, and Voldemort with me."

He took a deep breath, and continued.

"You may be wondering why I did it, why I killed myself after I killed Voldemort.

The answer is, I was a horcrux" he said bluntly.

"A piece of Voldemort's soul was fused to mine when he fired that killing curse at me, and as long as I was alive, Voldemort would be able to come back."

He sighed, fighting tears. "I couldn't let you live in a world were he existed. Much as I wanted to spend my life with you, I knew we couldn't have peace if he was still out there, and you deserve peace.

I won't tell you not to cry, you need to grieve, but I want you to let me go.

Ginny, I was sentenced to death when I was a year old, and you deserve better than that.

I want you to find someone you can love, I want you to have a full life, and I want you to be happy.

I'll wait for you on the other side.

I love you."

And with that the memory ended.

Once again Ginny entered the Headmistress' office, and sat down.

McGonagall sat behind her desk and studied the young woman in front of her for a moment.

Nodded at whatever she found there, she looked at her hands for a moment, then sighed, and leveled her gaze to meet Ginny's,.

"We're ready" she said firmly. "Tomorrow we go to get him back."