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Closure

"Harry that's just not possible." Albus told him after he had related what had happened at the Styx. "the dead can't interact with the living unless they choose to remain earthbound as a ghost."
Harry sat with his parents, Sirius and Dumbledore in the living room of Godric's Hollow. At least he though it was Godric's Hollow, it had never occurred to him to ask, and now that it had, there was a more important issue to discuss.
"Possible or not, it happened. I followed them upstairs. They even said that they thought they had heard me. But that's no the point. Hermione is right. The prophecy said that 'Either must die at the hand of the other.' Voldemort didn't kill me. Lucius Malfoy did. That shouldn't have been possible. He shouldn't have..."
"Harry," Sirius interrupted. "It's done. It did happen. You can't undo it."
Harry turned to look at his godfather. "Take me to the Fates, Siri. I want answers, and you four don't have them."
Sirius nodded.
"I'm going, too" James said, as his son and best friend rose, heading out the door.

**

Ron woke first. His back was sore from sleeping sitting up, and his shirt was almost soaked through from Ginny and Hermione's crying. He looked at the clock on the table beside the bed. 2:47am, they had slept almost five hours. Harry had been dead for almost 20 hours. This time yesterday, Ron and Harry had been asleep in his room at the Burrow. Now everything was different. In a single moment he had lost his best friend and his world had been thrown askew. Ron chocked back a sob, trying not to wake the sleeping girls.
Hermione woke anyway. "What time is it?"
"Close to 3." Both Ron and Hermione were surprised when Ginny answered.
"I thought you were asleep."
"Can't." she sniffed. "When I close my eyes I see him fall."
Ron shifted and pulled his little sister into his arms and held her as she cried. Hermione rubbed her back and tried to whisper reassuring things, but the effect was ruined as she too was crying. The three held on to each other, desperately trying to find some since in what had happened.
Finally Ron spoke. "Let's go down stairs. I'm not hungry, but we should at least try to eat something. We didn't at all yesterday."
The girls nodded and the three headed down stairs.

**

Ginny sat alone in the living room in front of the fireplace, tears rolling down her face again. She thought back to the conversation she had walked out on earlier in the kitchen. Ron and Hermione had just managed to convince her that life must go on, no matter how hard it would be, when they were told that the adults had arranged a pyre for Harry for ten o'clock this very morning. It was now five o'clock. It still didn't seem real to her that Harry was gone. In five more hours it would seem very real. She stared into the fire. It was beginning to die. She thought about trying to find another log to throw on it, but decided that letting it burn out seemed more fitting. It was a good representation of how she felt inside; alive, but smothering.
She stared. Watched as the last of the fire disappeared and all became ember. Watched the embers glow, fade and then disappeared. All that was left was the skeletal pieces of wood. As the fire die, her tears lessoned. She felt empty, hollow. But she did not have the luxury of falling apart. First, she would say goodbye to the love of her life and then she would go to war. She thought this battle plan sounded ludicrous, she was sure it would get them all killed. 'But then' she thought with a derisive laugh 'at least I'll be with Harry again.'

**

Hermione had walked out of the kitchen only moments after Ginny had. She thought about joining Ginny in the living room, but she didn't seem to want company. Hermione wondered through the house not really seeing where she was going. What the hell were the adults thinking to ask this of them? She wondered through the study. The fancy quills and ornate bottles of ink seemed to comfort her somehow. She wondered on. This was a kamikaze attack and they all new it. It was reckless and unorganized and... 'very much something Harry would have suggested.' She smiled to herself with that thought.
Hermione stopped and looked around, seeming to take in where she was for the first time. She had never been in this part of the house before. She vaguely remembered going up about three sets of stairs so she must be on the forth floor. The forth floor... Remus had put Harry somewhere on the forth floor. Hermione turned slowly and walked down the hall. She needed to see him. Ginny had seen him fall. Ron had gone up the stairs back at the burrow. She began opening doors slowly afraid of what she might find, but needing it all the same.
She found him behind the third door she opened. The sight of him laying on the bed so still stole her breath. She griped the door handle as tightly as she could, gazing ahead transfixed. When her breath returned, she stepped resolutely into the room and shut the door behind her. She walked to the bed and knelt beside it, slowly reaching out and taking his hand. A fresh flood of tears washed down her face when she felt how cold and stiff he was. She collapsed, half on the bed and half on the floor, clutching his hand and crying.

**

Ron shook his head in disbelief. Both girls had fled from the room. He couldn't believe that the Order had made decisions this monumental without the three of them. Harry would have flown into a rage had he just heard all of this. Ron raised his eyes to the table and glared at each of the senior Order members in turn.
"You want us to do what?" Almost every one of the adults shrunk under his intense gaze, and no one answered. "You didn't just ask us to burn our best friend then run off and get ourselves killed in some insane suicide mission, I know you didn't." Again he was met with silence. He turned as slammed out of the room, and ran up the stairs to the second floor room he and Harry had shared. He slammed the door shut behind him.
"Harry, mate, you helped me out yesterday. I sure as hell could use you help now." Ron looked around the room willing something to happen. But nothing did. "Please Harry. We'll fall apart with out you."
Ron let his head fall into his hands and wept.

**

The kitchen was silent after the kids left. Finally, after what seemed like ages Moody spoke, "You were right, Dung. It was too much."
"And you're not giving those three enough credit, Mad-eye." Tonks retorted, "They're stronger than you think."
"They're still just kids, honey. I thought I would die too after James and Lily... and then Sirius and Peter. Hell I wanted to die." Remus shook his head ruefully.
"But that left you alone. They have each other. They'll pull through. I know they will."

**

When the fire had burnt out completely, Ginny rose and walked from the room and up to the second floor. They would win tomorrow or die trying.

**

When her last tear had fallen, Hermione stood up and let go of Harry's hand. She walked out of the room resolute. They might all die tonight, but they would go out in a blaze of glory.

**

Ron raised determined eyes to the girls as they walked into the room. Each bore the same look. They would do what must be done, no matter the cost. If they lived, they could fall apart when it was over.
"It's suicide, you know that right, what their planning" he asked when Hermione had shut the door.
"Yes. But do you have a better idea? Moody is right. Voldemort in mortal. If anyone other that Harry could kill him, it's now." She replied.
Ron nodded, but Ginny spoke. "Let's do it. Let's Give 'um hell"

**

Tonks was the only one not surprised when a few hours later the three kids returned with an impressive aura of determination about them.
"I told you they were made of stronger stuff than you gave them credit for." She said to Moody.
"If we're going to do this. Go get Harry and do it now. Time's wasting." Ginny said after all the eyes in the room had returned to her and her friends. "don't misunderstand, none of us are ok. If you are going to do this, do it before our resolve fails. Do it now."
Remus nodded and left the room the get Harry's body while Arthur made portkeys to take them to the Burrow.

**

The party arrived and walked to the pyre Tonks and Shacklebolt had setup only hours earlier. Remus had wrapped Harry's body in a shroud before arriving. This was going to be hard enough without everyone having to actually see him. Remus carried Harry to the pyre and laid him across it. He turned to look at Bill and Charlie, who were supposed to light it, but what he saw brought tears to his eye anew. Ron, Ginny and Hermione each had a torch in their hands.
"It should be us." Ron told him before he could object to the change in plans.
The three of them walked towards the pyre and set fire to it. The rest of the Order sobbed, but the three of them had no tears left. The group watched as smoke billowed upwards. A spell had been cast on the pyre to contain the smell, but the smoke was still oppressive. Finally, the smoke thinned, the pyre started to crumble, and nothing was left but ash.
"Well," said Ron, the first to speak since the fire had been lit. "Let's go die. What's the plan?"