Author's note and disclaimer:

J.K. owns Harry Potter. 'Nuff said.

Welcome! I am glad you're here, really.

I didn't title the chapters because I am lazy. No other reason, just lazy.

This is the longest installment as far as word count goes, there's about the same number of chapters but a lot of them are longer than any of others have been thus far. Except for this one. This one is rather short.

This was most definitely the most difficult installment to write not only because it is the finale but because of the intensity and darkness of some of it. I worked pretty hard on it, I really hope you find it satisfactory.

Warnings: Torture, violence, and non-graphic depictions of rape and its consequences.

Anyways, enough with my rambling! Here goes!

-Chapter 1-

Early Friday morning Ginny dragged her trunk and Quaffle's empty cage out of her room at the stadium dormitory to the double-decker parked outside. She was slightly worried that Quaffle hadn't returned yet from the night before when she had sent a letter to Harry. She went into the bus and up to the second level where the beds were and after pushing her trunk under her bed she lay down on. She heard a couple of the other girls coming up the stairs.

"I still can't believe she showed up here yesterday."

"Yeah, I know. You think Ginny saw her?"

"Don't think so, she didn't say anything."

Ginny sat up when the girls got to the beds. "Aislin, Willow, what are you guys talking about?"

"Shite, Ginny, we didn't know you were up here…" said Aislin, startled.

Aislin was a tall, slender girl who was two years younger than Ginny. She was quick on her broom and would make an excellent Seeker but insisted on the thrill of being a Chaser. She was a Metamorphmagus and had changed her short spiky hair color to red, white and blue from its normal black. She hadn't gone to Hogwarts but instead a small private school in Ireland that Ginny hadn't ever heard of. When she failed to make Ireland's national Quidditch team she tried for England instead.

"We were talking about…uh…well…Heddwyn said he saw that Granger girl up here yesterday. Looking for you," Willow said as she rummaged through her trunk. She was a rather small girl, perfect for her position as Seeker although at this point she was just a reserve. Like Ginny she had flaming red hair and plenty of passion behind it. After learning Willow's history the first time they met four years ago Ginny had acted as sort of a surrogate sister for the younger redhead.

Willow was the same age as Aislin but was actually from the United States. She was expelled from the Salem Witches Institute the summer before she was to finish school because she hexed a Muggle for teasing her younger sister. Willow's parents, both pure bloods and high ranking officials in the United States Ministry of Magic, used their status to have her transferred to Hogwarts for her final year of education. When she decided on a professional Quidditch career Willow's parents sent all of her belongings to her along with a letter indicating she wasn't to return home until she decided on a "more suitable career path". Willow played for the Chudley Cannons and as a result she and Ginny didn't get to see each other much but they did write as often as they could.

"Oh. H-How'd she look?" Ginny asked.

"Dunno, he didn't say. He's a guy, you know they don't notice that stuff." Willow kicked her shoes off and stretched out on the bed to the left of Ginny.

"You gonna send her a letter before we leave?" Aislin asked as she put her trunk under the bed on the other side of Ginny. "You can use my owl if you want."

"No. I still have a lot of thinking to do. I mean…she thought about shagging my brother. That's not something you get over in a few days."

"Oh come on Weasley, don't tell me you haven't thought about shagging any girls since you've been with her." Aislin sat at the foot of Ginny's bed.

"That's totally different though…I never snogged any of them."

"He kissed her, remember? It's really not that different, Gin. Would you have reacted the same way if it had been someone she saw from across the room?"

"I-I…you are totally missing the point, Aislin. She…it was my brother…"

"It's however you want to deal with it but you know I'm right."

"Hey, if you want your brother to be distracted I'll take him off your hands!" Willow grinned. Ginny threw a pillow at her and laughed. The rest of the team started filing in, most everyone headed right to a bed and went back to sleep. Quaffle flew into the open window by Ginny's bed carrying a flat rectangular parcel. Ginny took the parcel and he flew to his cage and fell asleep. Neither the parcel nor the letter attached had any writing on it. Ginny opened the letter first, she immediately recognized Hermione's writing.

12 May, 2006

Good luck, remember you promised to come back to me alive.

Love Always,
Hermione

Ginny tossed the letter on her bed and looked at the package. She untied the string and unwrapped the paper. She recognized it as the back of one of Hermione's canvases and flipped it over. Ginny traced her fingers over the image before her. The painting was of Hermione, Lennox and Ginny. Hermione was holding Lennox on her hip and looking at him with a smile; Ginny was standing behind Hermione, her lips gently touching Hermione's cheek, with her arms wrapped around the brunette's waist. There wasn't much room for background on the small canvas but what she saw they were in a forest, a house was in the top right corner.

Ginny stared at the painting in her hands, she didn't know how long she was dazed but she was broken from it by turbulence from the bus taking off. She looked around, everyone else was asleep. She quietly pulled her trunk out from underneath her bed and put the painting letter inside.

Alright so we have a couple of new characters here! To answer your question, yes, Willow is a bit of a shout-out to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is not a crossover by any means, I just thought it'd be fun to give a wink and a nudge to another awesome fantasy series.