The dawn rose along with the entire troop of the Order of The Phoenix overlooking the sunrise from the Hero's Cliff. It had been a ten minute trek to the cliff but from the highest place, one could see Voldemort's army nested among the closing valleys.

Ginny had been by her brother's side all along, using a broomstick to reach the cliff instead of climbing. The fliers were ordered to give a ride to one defender at the time of the battle so that they could concentrate on attacking whilst controlling the broom rather than be worried about defending themselves. Ron was, therefore, accompanied by the bushy-haired witch, Hermione. Ginny was going solo, as she was to switch to attacker on ground should the Death Eaters gain the upper hand.

"There they are!" Somewhere to the front, Harry shouted. Ginny flew down, to keep close to the ground.

"And they are resting. I think it's the right time to sneak up on them," Sirius said. The other leaders agreed and so, the Order stomped forward with determination to set an end to the rule of evil once and for all.

The valley the Eaters were camping in was nested within two cliffs. The cliff to the left was Hero's Cliff, whilst the right one lead to Godric's Hollow; it was presumably from where the Dark Lord was coming.

With the advantage of the still dark skies, the Order managed to get deeper into the attacking territory before they were found by a werewolf with sharp senses: Fenrir Greyback. Remus, being a werewolf himself, had already anticipated this and thanks to the way he had taken a longer route to step into the valley, the Order had managed to gain a upper hand. The Eaters, now alerted, hurried to get into en garde but the Order held the advantage of having already been ready for a war.

The battle timely ensued, the atmosphere filling with the sounds of firing spells, swords and shields clashing against each other in a fight of metal, falling bodies, agonized screams, wreckage of camps, blasts of boulders and so on.

Ginny felt the cold war wind pinch her guts, igniting a sense of strong determination in her heart, as she flew over the fighting mass down, aiming hexes at the foes with practised mastery. Her aim was proving to be set with just as much fire as she had, further boosting her confidence.

Below her was her brother and Hermione. Flying lower to the ground, Ron was aiming exceptionally well with Hermione putting up defensive shields as when required. The brunette was helping the other fliers who were close to them as well. Ginny was not included in this. She needed no defenses to win this battle.

The Eaters, sensing trouble from the skies to be more worrisome, started firing at the fliers instead of the Order fighting on the ground. Ginny did a barrel roll, just in time, to save the tail of her broom from catching fire. "Stupefy!" She smirked devilishly when her stunning spell hit the Death Eater who had tried to set her broom on fire.

"Watch out, Weasley!"

"Protego!"

Ginny wheeled around in the pink skies to witness Cho Chang setting a shield to her broom.

"Bombarda!" The ground beneath her exploded into cracks, taking several of the foes down as the allies clinged to nearby vegetation. "Careful there, mate!" Cedric Diggory's shouts echoed as he flew past her. Cho winked from behind him, giving her a good luck smile. Ginny grinned in silent gratitude and forced her mind to concentrate. This was not the time for her to lose the boundaries of self-confidence. 

The end of her arrogance came when she started working her magical core off. "Reducto! Stupefy! Bombarda!"

"Expulso!"

Those with evil might fell stunned or injured by the blast that Ginny's and her flier friend, Dean Thomas's, combined spells created. They exchanged a non-verbal 'good going' before parting. During the course of the battle, the youngest Weasley teamed up with several fliers, attackers and defenders alike. Cedric and Cho had once again helped her out and she had retaliated against the offender by teaming up with Seamus and Ron. Hermione and Parvati had also put up shields to protect Ron and Seamus respectively.

Everything was looking up, but just as the sun rose, their hopes of a free kingdom started dying.

Ginny had been circling the battlefield, trying to find the right terrain to blast and take the gathered Eaters down the pit of Earth when Sirius' command of stop echoed in her ears. Expecting it to be a good news of Voldemort surrendering, she took to the ground. The High army was assembled, protected by a circle of girls who were putting up defensive charms. Ginny's inquisitive eyes sought Harry's pained ones for a second before he turned away: something that indicated the battle going wrong.

"What is it, Chief?" Lee Jordan, an excellent attacker who used his amplified voice as a strategy to take down foes, asked from a corner.

"The King has been kidnapped by Bellatrix Lestrange earlier this dawn. . . She managed to track him down despite the Fidelius by using the Veritaserum to break the truth out of Dawlish. The man was killed by magic binding within himself and Dumbledore was left defenseless." Remus' fury and disappointment was buried under the mask of calm that his voice achieved, but the Order had already started protesting.

"Where's the King now?!"

"We need to rescue him!"

"There's no point in fighting anymore! Don't you all realize that we've been at this for hours and haven't managed to near the — the Dark Lord!"

"We can't give up just yet!"

"Chief Potter! What do you propose we do?!"

The mass cacophony was quieted down when a hiss, as sly and sinister as that of a reptile, echoed throughout. All the heads turned to where the earth had rose to resemble a dais, thorns and mushy undergrowth covering up its base. Upon the makeshift dais stood a handsome man with dark intimidating eyes, his wand pointed at the King, Albus Dumbledore. "I do not wish to witness magical blood spilt. If you know what's good for you and your King, accept my reign and bow your heads in defeat, for Lord Voldemort knows what is the good for the Magical Kingdom more than His Majesty ever will."

And panic strung a cord in the Order's magical cores.

As the chapter title implies, this is the beginning of the end. A couple more chapters for the book to finish!

Oh, and you can expect a lot of cliffhangers from henceforth! ;)

Your thoughts on this chapter? You know where to tell!

Thank you for reading!

Miyoko x