The Sight Of Eternity With You

(Don't) Surrender

"Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away
Whatever happened to all this season's
Losers of the year
Every time I got to thinking
Where'd they disappear"-Surrender, Cheap trick

*****

Ginny sat in the high arched chair, fidgeting in the uncomfortable silence that was only interrupted by the rhythmic thumping of a contraption that sat on the Headmaster's bookshelf behind the gilded chair that sat the current Headmaster. It felt odd being in the office, nothing had been removed or added to make it clear that Dumbledore was no longer there, instead it was like a still portrait-everything frozen in time-the only things truly gone from this room was the wise man who sat behind the desk and his trusted bird.

"Do you know why you're currently here?" Snape drawled with an annoyed tone, he had his fingers interlaced together, holding his chin as he intently stared at the only remaining Weasley in the school.

"Not willing to hex my friends in Defense, breaking students outta barbaric detentions with the Carrows for the past two weeks....refusing to allow the Carrows to hex unsuspecting students whenever they please in the Great Hall," Ginny ticked them off her fingers indignantly. "Stop me when I'm close to the answer."

Snape's upper lip curled back, a guttural sound leaving his throat as he rolled his eyes.

"Honestly, it should've been sooner. You know with only having been back to school for less than a month," Ginny shrugged. Her eyes moved just above Snape's shoulder, the sword of Gryffindor sitting in a glass case just behind him.

"Your insolence knows no bounds," Snape snapped at her, his cold eyes flashing with warning, "I feel that I will finally breathe easy on the day that no more red hair graces these halls."

Ginny smiled proudly, enjoying pissing off the Potions master in front of her.

"I know what you did." Ginny stated simply, Snape's back elongated in response, sitting taller in the chair, allowing her to elaborate as his expression remained etched in stone. "You're the one who took Harper's memories when she was taken to Malfoy Manor," her tone matter-of-fact.

"What of it?" Snape asked, clearly admitting to the obvious statement.

"Why? Why do that, why show someone an ounce of sympathy like that when you've allowed Death Eaters into this place and do nothing to stop them from terrorizing the students on a daily basis," Ginny paused, trying to gather her thoughts she'd waited all summer to ask, "then to go and trip her up with your own wand....make it look like an accident so she had an easy out."

"There are things in this world that are beyond even your understanding, Miss Weasley." Ginny felt a chill go down her spine, he leaned back in his chair with a great sigh.

"It doesn't make sense, not unless you're still a double agent," Ginny shook her head. "But what confuses me the most, is why keep the memories for all that time? You knew my brother was hurting, you knew her friends were in pain, you could've given them some form of comfort a lot sooner."

Snape let out a long breath, the gentle ticking from a trinket behind her shoulder filling the void.

"What good are memories of a dead girl? Tell me, how would you have mentally handled a box of personal items and later given the news that it's the very last remains of her?" Snape asked, Ginny looked at the floor, biting her lower lip as she imagined the pain George would've gone through having been given the memories and not the girl of his dreams-he would've potentially gone mad.

"Then...who's memory did you give that showed how her memories got destroyed? My parents said Harper did it herself but then there's a memory of you helping her, it doesn't line up."