Saying it was an odd scene was an understatement. Harry, who had been nearly screaming in anguish a moment before, now lay face down on the ground, unmoving. A few feet away Ginny was sprawled on the ground as well, and further down were Ron and Hermione, Ron still unconscious, and Hermione shaking slightly, cradeling his head in her arms.

No one had yet moved, and it was silent in the corridor except for the distant echoes of the battle coming from down the staircase. The war must have just entered the castle.

The group was knocked out of their stupor when a loud crash resounded at the bottom of the staircase. Ginny jumped and scrambled over to where Harry lay, while Hermione stood and faced the stairwell, her wand ready.

But it was not a Death Eater that had made the noise, and Hermione breathed an audible sigh of relief as Neville peaked around the corner, wand up and as ready to fight as they were.

"Oh," He said, as he echoed Hermione's sigh, "I was looking for you guys!" His eyes darted quickly around the scene. "What the hell happened?"

"We were-" Hermione took a deep breath as she started to explain, but Ginny interrupted.

"Attcked." Ginny finished. Hermione sent her a quick puzzled look, but said nothing. "It was... a dementor. Two of them. Harry got one with his patronous, but another came up behind him and caught him off guard, and he blacked out. And Ron couldn't make a patronous, and instead his wand backfired him into the wall, and now he's passed out, too, so Hermione got rid of that one..." Ginny said this all very fast, as if it might be more convincing this way. It wasn't.

"Oh," said Neville. "Right."

"But anyways, that doesn't matter, we need to fix Ron's elbow and wake Harry up. We should go to the room of requirement right away."

She didn't need to say it twice, as Hermione bent down and started to heave Ron on her shoulder. Ron started to wake.

"Wha... What... Harry!?" Ron shouted, sitting up much faster than he should have and looking around. His arm buckled beneath him and he groaned. "Oh Gods... my fucking arm..." he moaned.

"Here, Ron, let me see it." Hermione pushed up the bloody sleeve of his robe and gasped in horror. His bone was cracked cleanly down the center of his elbow, smooth as if a knife had sliced through butter. The skin around the cut was a sickly green color, and it wasn't pouring blood as any normal wound this devastating would.

Ron paled instantly at the sight and his eyes started to roll back into his head, falling into unconsciousness again.

"Ron! Ron!" Hermione moved the sleeve back down and slapped him on the cheek until he started to come to again. "Let's... Let's just get you up to the Room of Requirement for now, we'll take care of it then..." Her voice sounded hopeless, she had no idea to deal with a curse like that.

Ron nodded weakly and stood, clutching his elbow close to his body.

"Hermione," Ginny started, "How are we going to move Harry...?" Hermione skillfully flicked her wand and Harry floated a few feet in the air as if suspended on a stretcher. Ginny stared.

"I could have done that, I suppose..."

"Right."

"Can we just go already?" Neville prompted impatiently. The war sounded louder now, the echoes more resounding.

No one answered, they only stared to jog down the hall all at once, panic etched on all their faces. Even Harry's was not peaceful in his unconsciousness.

The hall seemed to stretch on forever. Ginny seemed hyper aware of her own uneven breathing, and could swear that she could hear the heartbeats of those around her. Neville was leading the way, which she was thankful for, because her mind was reeling and she was not at all focused on which way she was going. Harry soared along beside her, eyes closed and unaware. What had just happened? Harry seemed possessed... and what he had said... Ginny swallowed and felt her throat tighten. Well, she didn't want to think about what he had said.

They reached the hall where the room of requirement lay hidden. Neville, having gotten there first, stated pacing back and forth frantically, and murmurred under his breath. "We need a place where death eaters can't get us... we need a place where death eaters can't get us..."

They all became less tense as the door appeared. Ron reached for the handle with his uninjured hand.

"STUPEFY!"

Ron jumped out of the way just in time. A streak of red soared over his back and collided with the wall behind him.

"GET IN THE ROOM!"

Neville grabbed the person nearest to him, who happened to be Ron, and swung the door open with such force that it slammed against the wall behind it and threatened to break the hinges. He flung Ron inside, and motioned for the others to follow. Hermione quickly entered after Ron, but as soon as she passed through, another spell fired at Neville, and he was forced to slam the door shut and dodge it.

"I FOUND HIM!" A Death Eater whom they did not recognize bellowed. "HE'S BY THE ROOM! HE'S RIGHT HERE!"

"Ginny- Take Harry- Run!" Neville told her urgently. "Run now, I'll-"

Before he could say more, several other death eaters arrived, some by the way of the first one, two others came the way the had, by staircase. They were surrounded.

It took Ginny a moment to find her nerve. She put her back to Neville, facing the two new arrivals, as he faced the other three. They're wands were out and ready, and Harry lay between them.

It was a moment before anything happened.

Then, suddenly., spells were everywhere. Ginny and Neville dodged lights of red and green, and fired their own in response. It was very difficult to fight off so many, and they quickly began to lose ground. The death eaters closed in on them, it was pointless.

"STOP IT! STOP!"

Nearly everyone stopped despite themselves, for Harry had suddenly screamed out in agony.

"Harry?"

The hovering charm wore off, and Harry was on knees, screaming in absolute suffering. "STOP IT, STOP IT, YOU FOUL, YOU EVIL-"

"Harry!" Neville tried to grab him by his shoulders and help him up. Ginny had no chance to warn him, and Harry stood and shoved him as hard as he could, Neville flew directly at the Death Eater who had first found them, who looked bewildered for a moment, and then quickly stunned him with a silent spell.

"NEVILLE!" Ginny screamed. What would she do now?

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" Harry roared as he clutched his head in pain, pulling at his hair with great force.

"Harry! Harry! It's me, Ginny, please Harry, stop, please..." She noticed that when she stood close to Harry, no one seemed to want to attack. Why? Why protect Harry?

She boldly put both her hands on his cheeks, flinching just in case. He was breathing rigidly between his clenched teeth, but his grip loosened and he opened his eyes.

Ginny quickly masked a horrified face. They were not his eyes. The were rimmed in his usual green, but the were corrupted at the core with blood red. The two colors mingled together, it was the most disturbing thing she had ever seen.

"Ginny..."

Ginny just nodded vigorously and smiled with a huge weight of tension lifted off her. He smiled back and grasped her, completely unaware of the current scenario.

"Ginny, thank God, thank God.." He muttered into her hair as he breathed in her scent. He felt almost normal right now, as he stood holding Ginny, the one person he loved more than anyone... He almost felt like he was Harry again...

But the moment ended all too quickly. Harry winced as a searing pain cut across his forehead, and he tightened his hold on Ginny as he knew what was coming.

He abrupty turned and faced the death eaters blocking his path.

"MOVE." He said with malice and authority. He didn't know what else to do, really, and to his pleasant surprise, they quickly got out of the way. Either these were his least impressive followers, which may have been true, since he recognized none of them, or they just didn't want to risk hurting their master in some weird way through him.

He grabbed Ginny's wrist and they began running. Where, Harry didn't know. A common room? The closest one was Slytherin, and Harry doubted Voldemort would have too much trouble getting in there. Perhaps one of the secret passages that led to Hogsmeade? Or to the Shreiking shack? He started heading that way, unable to think of anything else. It was worth a shot.

After a minute of pure sprinting, Ginny started lagging behind. She had already been running around a lot more than Harry, and she was almost to her limit.

"C'mon Ginny, we can't stop, we need to keep running!" Harry urged. The war was raging on the floor below them. How much longer would they hold off? Who was winning? Harry shoved teh questions from his mind.

Ginny wiped her damp forehead with her sleeve. I know. I'm trying." She started to run again, when an explosion of bricks sounded down the hall.

"Shit." Harry voiced his thoughts out loud. He somehow wasn;t surprised though, when he turned to face Voldemort, who didn't look out of breath at all, but had somehow not been far behind them all this time.

He shoved Ginny behind her protectively, and held his wand up, though he knew how little that mattered.

"Harry, why are you fighting so hard? What are you fighting for? You already know you will lose."

Ginny, had been gasping for breath a moment before, seemed to freeze at the sight of Voldemort. Harry stepped closer to her instinctively.

"I will not lose. And I will fight because I do not BELONG to anyone. You will never control me." He refused to reply in parsletongue, though it too effort not to, Voldemort looked so serpentine.

Voldemort held no expression. His lips barely parted, "Really? You'll forget how well i know you, Harry..." It was barely a whisper, but his words became perfectly clear as he turned his gaze to Ginny.

Harry looked from him to her, and noticed Ginnt meeting his gaze with terror filled eyes, unable to look away. She began to shake.

"Ginny," Harry said, shaking her. She still couldn't look away. Harry grasped her started walking away from him.

"Stop! Leave her alone!"

Voldemort smirked and advanced, wlaking slowly and tauntingly. Harry whipped his wand out, and Voldemort responded so quickly it was frightening.

'EXPELLIARMOS!" They both yelled simaltaneoulsy. Both their wands flew from their hands, but it seemed to happen as Voldemort planned. He took another step towards them, Harry now wandless.

"SHIT." Harry voiced his thoughts again, realizeing how stupid that had been.

Ginny was uncontrollable now. She lost the power to stand and fell to ther knees, clutching Harry for support.

"GINNY! GINNY, SNAP OUT OF IT!" He faced Voldemort, as he tried desperately to pull Ginny to her feet, but ended up sinking with her.

"STOP IT!" His voice held much less anger now. It was a plea. "LEAVE HER ALONE, I'LL DO ANYTHING, LEAVE HER ALONE!"

He knew what these words meant, and Voldemort laughed.

He spoke directly to Ginny. "Yes... I thought you would remember me well." Harry suddenly knew what memories in Ginny he had been bringing up. He should have known. "You were quite useful... but rather dull... though you were eleven, not a very exciting age.. I supposed you are much more interesting NOW..."

Harry nearly vomited as he prosessed this. "Oh God, leave her alone, please, I'm begging you..." His voice almost broke. he sounded utterly pathetic.

He was ignored. "This is somewhat sentimental!" He jeered. "A raven haired man and a red headed woman, pleeing for safety... well, minus the baby. Ah, but I don't have time to waste on such FOND times." He turned his gaze back to Ginny. "A purebood, talented, good-looking... yes, I daresay we could find a use for you..."

"NO! NO, PLEASE! LEAVE HER BE, ANYTHING BUT THAT!" He held her far too tightly, he had managed to tear her gave away from him, her head now buried in his shoulder. he picked her up and stepped farther away from him, until he felt the heard wall collide with his back. Please, he though wildly, let something happen, let the fight make it over here, let a giant smash the wall, let SOMETHING happen, anything, not Ginny, not her...

Voldemort smiled malicioulsy. "I see..."

He turned and started to walk away. Harry's heart continues to pound. No way. No fucking way he just left them. But before he could relish in his disbelief, Voldemort had turned back around, only leaving to go retrieve his wand. Fuck.

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R&R!!!!