The fall was exhilarating, it was better than diving on a broom. Harry had always said that there was nothing like unrestrained freefall, just you and gravity, and a race to the ground. The wind whipping through your hair, stinging lightly at your face, making your eyes water, knowing that you were moving at huge speeds, and that all control was gone. That was what made it so thrilling, the lack of control, up here, falling this fast, you were untouchable, and it was intoxicating.

Ginny never heard the thud, or felt the impact, when she hit the ground moving upwards of three hundred miles per hour.

One minute she was thinking about how fun it was to fall, the next she was floating through nothingness, with only her thoughts to convince her she was conscious. She drifted in and out of a state of awareness, gently passing out of time and space. She was no longer a part of the world as she knew it, or even a part of the afterlife she had only guessed at.

Something very special and very complicated happens when a witch or wizard, or even a muggle, kills themselves. For Harry it had been different, it had been his time, he could have chosen to live, and run away, but that would have meant living beyond his time, and that simply would not have worked. No matter what had happened that day, Harry would have died by the end of it, either by Voldemort's hand or his own. The choice was the difference.

Everything was part of a vastly complex, and completely irrational plan, drawn up by the personification of fate, death, chance, and all the cosmic forces acting on our lives. The Reaper doesn't like being cheated, and being set back is almost the same. Especially someone as important to the plan as Ginny Weasley. God Damn it that Potter kid was more trouble than he was worth, even in death he was still mucking things up.

So after what seemed like an eternity to Ginny, but was not any measurable length of time to the world, Ginny found herself before The Reaper, mouth hanging open in shock.

"What is it with you muthafuckin white girls? Can't ya'll just go with the muthafuckin plan? No… of course not, 'I'm depressed! I miss Harry! Whaa!! Whaa!! Do you have any idea how much you've upset the balance of the universe? Damn!"

Ginny had thought of a lot of possibilities when she jumped, but she never thought she would find herself being reprimanded by a rapper/Grim Reaper.

"Why cant you just go get some Prozac or some shit like all the other white bitches? No… you have to be fuckin special and kill yourself, God Damn, you fuckin white people. You know what happens when a brotha dies? His ho goes and finds a new guy to live off of, she don't fuckin kill herself, and risk destroying the fabric of time and space! Shit!"

Ginny was staring, wide-eyed, in total shock; this was not by any stretch of the imagination even remotely making sense to her.

"Shit, now you just gonna stand there and stare at me for a hour, like you aint never seen a muthafuckin brotha before. You know what, I'm feeling generous today, just go find your little white boy boyfriend, and spare me the pain and heartache of having to explain the nature of the universe to you, I need to go stop everything from unraveling anyway. Shit!"

Just as soon as Ginny had found herself being shouted at by a Hip-hop icon, she was sitting in a small boat, clearly in the middle of nowhere, and very alone.

Ginny drifted, or at least she thought she did, she couldn't really tell if she was moving or not, for what seemed like eternity, not that time had any meaning here. She didn't even have the presence of mind to wonder what was going on, or when it might end or change. This place was just like that, it was like Dreamless Sleep with eyes open, time was flowing, probably, but awareness and sensation were severely cut down. Ginny just drifted, a spectator, and a very cozy one at that, watching the world turn around her, metaphorically speaking.

Ginny was so disconnected from reality, or whatever this was, that it took her a while to realize that she was no longer alone in the small boat. When she finally did notice her companion, it wasn't due to her senses heightening; it was due to a bubble-gum-pink blur, which was fairly screaming the word "Wotcher" right in her face.

HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG

Harry was happier then he could ever remember being, he was with his parents, which been his life's ambition for nearly his entire life. To make matters better, he was also with Sirius and Remus, who had become like his parents in the absence of Lily and James. Professor Dumbledore, whom Harry had always looked up to and admired, was there as well, and together they were enjoying the company of the newest member of Life's Next Great Adventure. Harry had quickly come to adore Cynthia Black; apparently you still changed your last name even if you were dead when you were married. She seemed to be a good combination of Remus' intelligence, mixed with Sirius' reckless love of all things funny.

The only person missing was Tonks, more correctly known as Nymphadora Lupin, not that Harry was going to call her that until he knew whether or not she could hurt him here. Harry commented on her absence, but his observations were casually deflected, and the subject quickly changed.

Harry's mother explained to him how she had been able to keep an eye on him throughout his life, since the dead are able to watch certain living loved ones, but refused point blank to allow him to try.

"Because Harry there is only one person that I think you will be able to see, and I don't want you to obsess over her until she dies its better that you not know."

She was, of course referring to Ginny, and she was right. Harry desperately wanted to know what had happened to her, and how she was dealing with his death. He didn't know which would upset him more, her being miserable for the rest of her life, or her getting over him, and finding someone else, and being happy with them, instead of with him. It was already weighing heavily on his mind, and he didn't even 

no yet, besides, he had only just met his mother, and was going to start it off by getting grounded, though he supposed that that would have made Sirius a very proud Godfather.

Meanwhile the original Marauders, minus Wormtail, were celebrating their newest addition, Prongs Jr., in fine spirits, which meant several bottles of Ogden's Old FireWhiskey, which was quickly disappearing, much to Lily's annoyance, given how much her son and husband were consuming.

"Oh relax Lily, the boy's eighteen, and dead." Said James to his wife's complaints. "What's the harm?"

"Yeah relax Mom," Harry paused here, he'd only used to pronoun 'mom' a handful of times, most of them directed towards Mrs. Weasley. "I've been binge drinking since I was fifteen anyway."

It was a chilling revelation to the happy crowd, and the cheer paused for a minute, as each remembered different degrees of Harry's suffering. But the dark pause was quickly ended with a rather clever joke from Harry himself.

"And I promise that Sirius had nothing to do with it. Buying and giving me the whisky doesn't count." He added the last part in a stage whisper to Sirius.

Everyone burst into laughter, even Lily, who wanted to be mad at Sirius, and Cynthia, who really was mad at Sirius. It was a happy group, drinking on the beach all night, only one person was missed, though Remus knew where his wife was, smiling to himself, at Harry's expense.

HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG

"So you took the plunge for Harry huh?" asked Tonks.

"Did you doubt that I would?" asked Ginny.

"Not really, but without knowing, that's a hefty choice."

"Without knowing what?" asked Ginny fearfully.

"Without knowing that there was life after death, and that you'd be able to see him again, and spend eternity living together, err, figuratively speaking."

"What?! We can?!" asked Ginny in shock.

"Yep, oh did mention that I'm Mrs. Lupin now?"

"No, you didn't, does this mean that I can call you Nymphadora now?" asked Ginny.

"NO IT DOES NOT! AND IF YOU MENTION THAT NAME AGAIN I WILL LEAVE YOU OUT HEAR ALONE FOR A DECADE, AND NOT TAKE YOU TO HARRY LIKE I'M SUPPOSED TO!" Screamed Tonks. She really hated her name.

"Sorry." Squeaked a thoroughly cowed Ginny.

"You better be, now, to business. According to Dumbledore, there some emotional thingee that you have to go through first, something like shedding yourself of any guilt or jealousy, some tripe like that. I don't fully understand it, so the short version is, you have to not feel guilty about killing yourself, not feel angry at anyone or anything, and not feel jealous at all."

Tonks smiled at the overwhelmed look on Ginny's face.

"I know, it took me like forever to manage it, Remus said he's been waiting ages, but I did have a lot of guilt about leaving Teddy with you and Harry, and I was pretty mad at my bitch of a cousin."

Ginny tuned out Tonk's rambling, looking inward, and trying to find out what she might be guilty or mad about. She thought she had felt guilty about leaving her family, but really she felt like she should be guilty about being selfish. That was pretty easy to dispel, but her life-long anger at Voldemort was not so easy, until she remembered Harry's speech just before their double-duel had started, he had tried to get Voldemort to show some remorse, to act a little human, then he said that he pitied Voldemort, who was incapable of a single positive emotion. Anger melted into pity, and the small boat started to move.

"Hey what the hell? It took me like ten times longer to get this damn boat moving." Stated a shocked Tonks.

Ginny smiled impishly.

"You didn't have one of the most noble and forgiving boys in the world teach you how to see the best in people." Said Ginny.

Tonk stuck her tongue out at the younger witch.

Their mock argument was cut-short by the site of land, a long white beach in front of them. It was dark on the beach, but Ginny and Tonks could see lights, probably from lit wands, dancing on the beach. There were some weird glinting lights too, shaded colors, and Ginny couldn't imagine what they were, but Tonks instantly recognized that they were liquor bottles, and smiled.

HGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHG

The sun had long since gone down on the happy party on the beach; the scene was lit by a few wands, stuck up in the sand like torches. The whisky bottles, a dozen of them, were near empty, and even Lily and Cynthia were a little drunk. Sirius, James, and Harry were the worst of all, all three were completely hammered, and boastfully trying to out-do each other with stories of Quidditch feats. Sirius was having a hard time keeping with the two Seekers.

"Oh yeah?" said Harry. "I once caught a Snitch in my mouth, upside down, while falling off my broom!"

This caused Lily, to gasp in shock, and Sirius and James to look proud as can be.

"Well I once caught one while hanging upside down by once leg in a thunderstorm." Said James.

"Got lucky…" muttered Sirius.

"I caught one about three inches from the other Seeker's head once." Said Harry.

"Not that good son." Said James.

"Did I mention that I had a broken arm and a concussion at the time?" said Harry.

"No, damn he wins." Said Sirius.

While Harry drunkenly celebrated his 'victory' Lily turned on Sirius and Remus.

"Why didn't either of you tell me about this? Or better yet, prevent it?! What the hell did we make you two his godfather and uncle for?!"

Sirius immediately sobered up, if there was one thing that could ruin a good stupor, it was Lily yelling.

"Lily you must understand, that between being in prison, and being a werewolf, and working for the Order, you know, trying to prevent Harry from being tortured and murdered, we figured that it was best to let Harry have his fun, even it was a little dangerous." Explained Remus. Not that it made Lily feel any better.

"Well why couldn't you have gotten him interested in a less dangerous sport?" asked Lily.

"Like what? Besides, he was hooked on Quidditch years before either of us met him, if you want to blame anyone, blame James." Said Sirius.

"Hey! Some friend you are, how is it my fault?" asked James.

"Because I loved Quidditch and being a Seeker since I found out you were one." Said Harry quietly.

"Hey! What the hell is that?!" yelled Sirius, pointing off towards the water.

Everyone immediately turned to look, including Harry, who strained his drunken eyes to see out into the darkness.

"Knox." Said Cynthia, and every wand light went out.

"It's a boat." Said Harry.

"It's the boat." Corrected Lily.

"And that's Tonks' pink hair." Said Remus.

"But she's already dead, so who is she bringing?" wondered Harry, straining to see, and not noticing his family, creeping back, leaving him alone with the newcomer.

When Tonks, stepped past him, going to the others, Harry's eyes watered, and he was sure that he must have had too much to drink.

"G-Ginny?" he asked, shocked.

"I knew you where waiting for me Harry."