Chapter Ten: That Lonesome Road

Harry and Ginny continued along the passageway until the ground shook, bringing with it an ear-splitting roar.  Pieces of the ceiling began to crumble onto their heads causing Harry to push Ginny to the floor in an effort to shield her from the rattle of stones falling from above them.  Once the quake had passed and the sounds stopped reverberating through the tunnel, the pair looked up to assess their surroundings, brushing dust from their hair and faces.

“What was that!” exclaimed Ginny in confusion looking to Harry for an explanation.

“My second failed objective,” announced Harry hollowly.

“Was that…” asked Ginny in horror.

“Yes,” replied Harry.  “That was the explosion.  We must be nearer to the Third-Floor corridor than I thought,” he said sadly.

“He’s gone, then,” murmured Ginny as she realized what explosion Harry was referring to.  She began to cry in earnest and covered her face with her hands as she wept freely into them.

“Yes, he is,” announced Harry as he, too, began to cry, causing tear marks to form on his dusty face.  “I’m so sorry, Ginny.”  Harry thought of the expressions on the Weasley brothers’ faces as they had come to the realization that Fred was gone.  He remembered the pain from the discharge, blowing him backward into the wall as stone and shrapnel from the blast showered over his head.  He remembered Ron’s wail of fury and grief as Hermione tried to comfort him behind the tapestry…

Ginny’s breath caught in a hitch as she wiped hot tears from her cheeks.  “Fred wouldn’t have wanted you to do anything different,” she insisted.  “They knew why they were coming here tonight, y’know,” said Ginny as she sat trancelike on the damp passageway floor.  “They were coming to defend the school and help you take on V-V-Voldemort.  All those months they helped Lee coordinate Potterwatch…they knew what they were doing.”

“They organized Potterwatch?” asked Harry numbly.  “I know we heard them on the Wireless but I didn’t know they actually had a hand in it.”

“Who do you think bank-rolled it, Harry?  It certainly wasn’t my parents…” said Ginny.  “When you three went away they were desperate to make some sort of contribution to the war-effort.  Mum was always on their case for being too young and they vowed they were going to make a difference.  Tonight?  When they heard you were back tonight?  They didn’t walk…they ran to get here.  We all did.  We all knew exactly what was happening the first time we heard Voldemort’s demand from the gate.  Any of us could have easily turned round and went home.  We didn’t.  Both Fred and George understood there might be consequences for being here tonight.  But they didn’t care…just like I didn’t care.  They wanted to help you take down that bastard or die trying.”

Harry coughed uneasily at Ginny’s admission.  He had no idea how to respond.

Ginny continued to recollect.  “You three were gone — Fred and George knew why.  They might not’ve understood exactly what you were up to, but they knew you were gone to try to get rid of You-Know-Who.  Any of us could’ve died at any time along the way — with the Death Eater attacks and all the shuffling around they were doing with Potterwatch.  They loved you and their goal was to stand behind you wherever you were, to show how much you meant to them. 

“The stark reality is that our entire family is defined by our service to the Order.  Fred dying had nothing to do with you — but everything to do with his right to stand up for what he believed,” said Ginny forcefully as she looked Harry deep in the eyes.  “You are not to blame for what happened here tonight.  Fred knows that…and George does, too.  It’s just going to take some time for all of us to remember, I reckon.”

Harry sat with his knees in his chest and his head tipped back upon the wall, tears still coursing down his face.  Ginny looked over at him and grasped his hand, bringing it up to her mouth and lightly kissing his knuckles.  “It’s not going to be easy, these next few days…” Ginny stated blandly.  “Earlier — what you said earlier about death — was that true?”

“Yeah,” said Harry quietly.  “It was easy…scary easy.  It would’ve been so simple to just move on,” he admitted.  “But Dumbledore was there…we talked about things.  I mean,” explained Harry, “it’s like I was weightless.  My glasses were gone but I could see clearly.  I felt this amazing lightness, like nothing could hurt me.  Whatever I wanted was instantly there — it was like being warm and safe but in a totally different kind of place.  It’s so hard to describe.”

“You need to tell Mum and George this,” urged Ginny.  “Knowing about this will help them to feel better about Fred.”

“Do you believe we’ll all end up together — in the end, I mean?” asked Harry almost inaudibly.  “Because I saw my mum and dad and Sirius…Moony, too.”

“What do you mean?” scrutinized Ginny.  “How could you see all of them?  When did you see them?”

“In the forest on my way to meet Voldemort.  I worked out the riddle Dumbledore put on the Snitch.  ‘I open at the close…’  I figured it out as I walked into the forest.  I realized I wasn’t supposed to be able to open it until I was about to die,” said Harry numbly.  “When I figured out what Dumbledore meant I was able to open the Snitch.  Inside was the Resurrection Stone.”

“This is the stone from the ring Hermione told me about?” asked Ginny as she moved around to sit directly in front of Harry.

“Hermione told you about the Stone?” asked Harry dully, lifting his head from the wall so he could look directly at Ginny.

“Yeah, she did,” disclosed Ginny, “while we were in the Library.  I guess you could say she gave me the short-version. That’s when Hermione explained about the Horcruxes and the Hallows — because I didn’t realize exactly what I had done at first, but she did.  She was already in the Library agitated about the Time-turner and trying to come up with something to keep you from doing what McGonagall had in mind.  Then I realized what happened when I took your wand and was desperate to find you so that you wouldn’t pull some stupid, noble stunt and come back here by yourself.”

“I guess I’m good at stupid and noble, huh?” asked Harry with a thin smile.

“You wouldn’t be a Gryffindor if you weren’t,” replied Ginny smiling back at him.  “But look who’s right here with you?  I reckon I’m as stupid and noble as you are…my whole family is.”

“That’s right,” chuckled Harry quietly, “you’re all Gryffindor…there’s not a Hufflepuff among you.”

“Rotten prat,” said Ginny as she cuffed Harry in the arm.  She lifted Harry’s arm and put it about her neck so she could snuggle into him and laid her head on his shoulder.  Harry sighed.  “So what did the Stone do?” asked Ginny gently.

“It brought them all back,” answered Harry.  “They weren’t exactly ghosts, but they weren’t solid people, either.”

“You mean like Tom?” asked Ginny.

It took Harry a moment to understand what Ginny was referring to, but when he did he nodded affirmatively.  “They were almost exactly like Tom,” winced Harry.

“Yeah, well,” scowled Ginny, “I don’t reckon I’ll ever forget what Tom was like,” she said like she had a bad taste in her mouth.

“I’m sorry, Ginny,” apologized Harry as he squeezed her hand, “I forget what it was like for you.”

“What?  Having Tom in my head?” laughed Ginny wryly.  “I think you know what it’s like to have Tom in your head.”

“You know what I mean,” insisted Harry.  “I’m sorry you had to go through all that.”

“I know, Harry,” replied Ginny.  “Tell me more about what happened with the Stone.”

“Well, my mum and dad, Sirius and Lupin were all there and they walked with me back to the clearing where Voldemort was hiding.  I don’t think I could’ve made the trip without them.  It’s like they held me up or something.  They told me how proud they were and how I was such a brave person…Sirius told me dying was easy.  If he hadn’t said that I think I might not have had the guts to go through with it.”

“You said Lupin was there…where was Tonks?” asked Ginny.  “Shouldn’t she have been there, too?”

“I didn’t think about that, y’know?” replied Harry thoughtfully.  “I reckoned since it was just the people who were close to me…but you’re right.  Tonks should’ve been there with Moony.  I don’t know how I missed that.”

“Do you think if you tried it again Tonks would be there this time?”

“I don’t know, Ginny,” answered Harry.  “I accidentally dropped the Stone as I walked into the clearing.  I didn’t go back for it.  That’s what Dumbledore was talking about earlier in the office.  He thinks I should go back for it.”

“Why?  What will it do now?” asked Ginny.

“Well, whatever it is Dumbledore thinks it will be, what did he say, ‘a prodigious comfort to a number of people.’  What sort of word is prodigious, anyway?” asked Harry.  “Who uses that sort of word?”

“Apparently Dumbledore does,” laughed Ginny.  “And apparently he thinks it’ll be that sort of comfort.  Do you suppose he means for us to talk to Fred?”

“I think that’s exactly what he means.  I’m not sure how I feel about it, though.”

“Why?” asked Ginny.

“Don’t you reckon it’ll be hard?”

“Of course it will be!” sputtered Ginny.  “But wouldn’t you like to at least get a chance to say goodbye?” she asked, her eyes begging him to see her reasoning.

“Nothing good can come from having that stone back, Gin,” pleaded Harry resolutely.  “You said it yourself…we need to let him go.”

“We will let him go,” beseeched Ginny.  “We’re just going to talk to him one last time.”

“I don’t know, Gin.”

“Think of Mum…we could show it to Mum couldn’t we?” asked Ginny.  “Don’t you think it would help Mum and Dad — and George — to know he’s all right?”

“Probably…”

“That’s it, then,” decided Ginny.  “We’re going back for the Stone.”

“Oi,” sighed Harry.  “That means you want to take the long walk with me,” he said as dread filled him.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to see what happened?” asked Ginny.

“I did,” admitted Harry.  “I’m just not so sure about actually doing it now that we’ve been through all this.  Everything seems so much more dangerous than I expected.  I don’t know if I want to take you back into the clearing now, Ginny.  What if something goes wrong?”

“It won’t.  I won’t let it.”

“Seeing what happened when Voldemort shot that curse is not as important as keeping us both safe,” insisted Harry.

“Will you be all right with that?  The not knowing?” asked Ginny pointedly.

“I don’t know,” said Harry petulantly.  “I just don’t know if I want relive that walk anymore.  It just doesn’t seem as important now as it did earlier.  I’m here now, right?  So who cares what happened in the forest?”

“Maybe I care,” said Ginny carefully.  “Maybe I care because I know it’s going to bother you.  Maybe I need to see what happened so I can get that awful picture out of my head of Hagrid carrying your dead body out of the forest.”

“Was it bad?” breathed Harry hugging Ginny tightly to him.  “I mean, was it as bad as it sounded?”

“How could you even ask me that?” demanded Ginny as she loosed his grip to look him full in the face.  “Of course it was bad!  It was awful!  Mum had to hold me back from running out and cursing V-V-Voldemort myself!  All I really remember is something breaking inside me — like I lost my mind…all I wanted to do was go to you.”  Ginny dropped her face into her hands once more in a torrent of tears.  “Seeing you — it was altogether different than seeing Fred.  When I saw Fred my heart was broken.  When I saw you, well, it’s like my whole mind was broken.” 

“I’m sorry you had to go through that Gin,” apologized Harry as he kissed the top of her head.  “At least it’s over now.  We don’t have to worry about him coming back for me.  It’s all finished.  I can move on.  I honestly didn’t believe I’d be here talking about this now.  I never really believed I could do it…”

Ginny looked at Harry in surprise.  “You didn’t?”

“No, I didn’t,” answered Harry honestly.  “That’s why I didn’t allow myself the luxury of staying with you.  I thought it would just make it that much more difficult for me, and you, in the end.”

Ginny looked like she’d been smacked.  “All those D.A. meetings…the Department of Mysteries….going off on that hunt — you mean to tell me you really didn’t think you could do it?”

“I’m just a kid, Gin.  He was the darkest wizard of our age.  So what if there was a prophesy?  I reckon not many people thought I could do it — you saw Snape’s face earlier.  He didn’t believe I could do it.”

Ginny stopped to consider Harry’s confession as new grief swirled through her body.  Hearing him say he’d never really believed himself capable of defeating Voldemort struck her deep and explained much of Harry’s past behavior.  “Dumbledore thought you could do it,” she insisted.  “I know he did.”

Harry was staring blankly at the wall across the passageway.  “I suppose he did,” he said.  “I never really knew it until the end, though.  I wasn’t sure that’s what he believed until he met me in King’s Cross.”

“Are you going to tell me about that?” asked Ginny gently.

“Not now,” answered Harry as he pulled out his pocket watch again.  “We only have half an hour or so until Voldemort calls a stop to the fighting.  If you really want to take that walk I reckon we need to figure out how to get out of this passageway.”

“If we go now there’ll still be fighting in the school, right?” asked Ginny.

“Yeah…along with Trolls and Acromantulas…lots of fun stuff to dodge I reckon,” answered Harry with a scowl.

“Can’t we just use the Time-turner?” asked Ginny.  “Can’t we just fast forward a bit so the fighting will be over?  Won’t that help us get out safely?”

“I suppose so,” answered Harry, running a hand through his hair.  “That will work!  Let me think about this for a second.  Ron, Hermione and I were in the Shrieking Shack when Voldemort put a stop to the fighting — that’s when we got Snape’s memory.  Then we came back to the school and I went straight-away to Dumbledore’s office to view the memory.  That took until almost half-past two.  I reckon that gives us, what, an hour or so?”

“Yeah, more or less,” agreed Ginny.  “What happens after you finish viewing Snape’s memory?”

“I talk to Neville about Nagini,” remembered Harry, “and I see you with the girl on the lawn.  That’s about it until I get into the Forbidden Forest and figure out what to do with the Snitch.”

“Is the Snape’s memory still in Dumbledore’s pensieve?” asked Ginny.

“Er…yeah, I reckon it is,” said Harry.  “I mean, it wouldn’t be there now — technically I haven’t brought it back to the office yet.”

“I understand that,” said Ginny.  “When we’re done with the walk I want to see the memory.  And then we need to make sure we bottle it back up and take it with us.  No one else needs to see it unless you say it’s okay.”

“You’re right.  We’ll get it,” agreed Harry.  “I owe him that much,” he said as he smiled at Ginny for her thoughtfulness.  While he sat rubbing circles on the palm of her hand, a low growl rumbled around them.

“Harry!” exclaimed Ginny.  “Was that your stomach?”

“Uh, yeah?” answered Harry bashfully.  “I was wondering if you wanted to call Kreacher for a sandwich before we did this…”

“How can you think of food at a time like this?” groaned Ginny as she looked into his resigned face.  “Right…I forgot.  You’re best mates with my brother — he could eat whilst he was sleeping and still wake up hungry.”

“Doing this the second time isn’t at all the same as it was the first time round,” stated Harry.  “I suppose we do have the Chocolate Frogs…”

Ginny rolled her eyes.  “Kreacher!” she called in exasperation.

A sharp ‘Crack!’ echoed through the tunnel as Kreacher appeared before them with a bow.  “Mistress has called me?”

“Ugh, Kreacher, you’ve got to quit calling me Mistress — how about Ginny for now?”

“Yes, Mistress Ginny,” answered Kreacher as Ginny rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air, “how may I be of service?”

“Your Master thinks he needs a sandwich,” answered Ginny.

“Then my Master shall have one,” affirmed Kreacher as he Apparated away.  Ginny turned to Harry with a smirk, giving him a wink and a nod.  A few seconds later, Kreacher Apparated back with a tray full of sandwiches, crisps and two goblets of cold pumpkin juice.  “I am bringing enough for both Master Harry and Mistress Ginny, I think,” said Kreacher.

“Thanks, Kreacher!” grinned Harry as he promptly stuffed a ham sandwich into his mouth and pulled a handful of crisps from the tray.  “You’re the best.”

“You is being too kind,” said the elf as he disappeared with a loud ‘Pop!’

Ginny shook her head at Harry in disbelief as he munched happily on his sandwich and crisps, stopping only to slurp on the pumpkin juice.  “We really should take these with us, don’t you think?” she said.

“Er, right,” Harry said as he grabbed a second sandwich and stuffed it into his pocket.  “You don’t want one?”

“I don’t think so…” said Ginny uneasily, standing up and brushing herself off.  “I still don’t see how you can eat…”

“Well, I could take you back a few weeks to the tent and you’d figure it out pretty quickly, I reckon,” said Harry cheekily with his mouth full of sandwich.  “But I get it — you want to get this over with, right?”  Ginny nodded affirmatively.  Harry looked at his pocket watch again and then stuffed it back into the pocket of his jeans.  He stood up then and pulled the Time-turner from his robes.  Stepping in close to Ginny, he pulled the necklace over her head and spun the hourglass almost one full revolution.  “That should do it, I reckon,” said Harry as he pulled the watch out again.  “Let’s go.”

The pair moved quickly through the remainder of the secret passageway, stepping carefully over stray stones and rubble until they came to the back of the statue of the hump-backed witch in the third-floor corridor.  Harry pulled out the Invisibility Cloak and pulled it over them, stepping out into the hall as he pulled Ginny along with him.  They moved stealthily down the staircase to the Entrance Hall, eager to get out of the castle.

There was no one around.  The castle was empty except for the crowd congregated inside the Great Hall.  Harry stopped and looked at Ginny.  “Are you sure you want to do this?  I don’t have to, y’know.  I’m okay with going back now,” said Harry meaningfully.

“Oh!” Ginny squeaked, pointing toward the door.  “There you are!  Look!  You’re talking to Neville!  We’re going!” she said in a fierce whisper as she dragged him down the stairs and into the Entrance Hall in a rush. They stopped several metres short of where the past-Harry and Neville stood just outside the doorway having a conversation Harry remembered all too well.

“…I might be out of sight for awhile.  You know Voldemort’s snake, Neville?  He’s got a huge snake…Calls it Nagini…”

“I’ve heard, yeah…What about it?”

“It’s got to be killed.  Ron and Hermione know that, but just in case they — just in case they’re busy — and you get the chance — ”

“Kill the snake?”

“Kill the snake,” Harry repeated.

“All right, Harry.  You’re okay are you?”

“I’m fine.  Thanks, Neville.”

Ginny felt Harry shudder as she watched Neville grab the past-Harry’s wrist.

“We’re all going to keep fighting, Harry.  You know that?”

“Yeah, I — ”

Harry froze as Neville patted his past-self on the shoulder and then moved on to look for more bodies.  Harry stood rooted next to her wide-eyed, like he was seeing things for the first time.  “Harry, come on!” she whispered in his ear.  “We have to get out of here!  Someone is going to bump into us!”  Sensing Harry’s reluctance, she pulled him along with her into the darkness.

“Where did you go?” whispered Ginny as she surveyed the grounds.  Bodies of the dead and injured littered the landscape and people were moving here and there to transport them into the castle.

“I put my Invisibility Cloak back on and went that way,” pointed Harry, turning Ginny toward Hagrid’s Hut and another scene she remembered well.  “Gin, I’m not sure about — ”

“We’ll go wide,” said Ginny lovingly.  She pulled Harry along slowly by her past-self and the dying girl on the lawn as she whispered into his ear, “Why?”

“I almost didn’t make it past you,” answered Harry.  “Seeing you there with that girl almost stopped me from going into the forest.”  Looking at the past-Ginny now, he noticed she had looked up from her spot on the grass as if she’d heard someone pass…  The thought sent chills down his spine.

“I felt you there, Harry,” said Ginny quietly as they walked, noticing what Harry was looking at, “if that’s what you wanted to know.  I don’t know why or how, but I sensed you there.”  Ginny squeezed Harry’s hand and then brought it to her mouth and kissed it.  “Remember what I said earlier?  We’re just looking at the past now, right?”

“Yeah — I suppose so,” said Harry as they continued their trail toward the forest.  “This was the hardest part, Gin.  I knew I was going to die.  I thought Dumbledore kept me alive this long to sacrifice me because of the Horcrux.  I could barely put one foot in front of the other.  I was so scared.  All I wanted to do was run back and have you beg me to stay.”

Ginny squeezed Harry’s hand again.  She wasn’t sure what to say.  “I love you, Harry,” she managed through the gulp in her throat.

“I love you, too, Gin,” croaked Harry as he stopped and wrapped his arms around her, burying his nose in her soft hair and breathing in her strawberry scent.  Feeling her warmth brought tears to his eyes.  “I did this for you…if I had a glimmer of hope at all that I would live through all this, it was because of you,” he said planting a soft kiss on her forehead.

Ginny wrapped herself tighter around Harry and praised the gods she was only witnessing the past.  Shaking off the emotion of the moment, she kissed Harry lightly and pulled him along again.  “We’re going to get too far behind,” she said sweetly, “we’ll have time for all this later.”

The pair walked along slowly listening for the rustle of footsteps in front of them until they heard the past-Harry stop.  “This is when I open the Snitch,” said Harry quietly as they heard mumbling and saw a faint light flicker ahead of them.  After a few minutes the footsteps began again and the pair continued their walk into the forest.

They walked silently for several minutes, stopping only to make sure they were a safe distance back from the past-Harry, but not so far back that they fell outside the Stone’s protection from the Dementors flying overhead.  They walked along that way until they saw the flare of two wands directly in front of them and the Death Eaters Yaxley and Dolohov emerged from behind a tree.  Harry stopped abruptly and stepped in front of Ginny, miming for her to remain silent.  He crouched low to the ground, bringing Ginny along with him.

They heard Yaxley and Dolohov discuss going back to camp and Harry nodded to Ginny in reassurance.  Ginny was shivering again, not sure why she was so keen to make the trek into the forest after all.  The Death Eaters finished their conversation, turned and began to walk deeper into the forest.  Rising slowly, Harry pulled Ginny close to him and whispered very quietly into her ear, “We must be very quiet now.  We’re going to stay a ways back, all right?”  Ginny nodded blankly and followed Harry’s lead, trusting him completely.

Harry and Ginny followed the Death Eaters further into the forest, carefully watching their steps and hanging back far enough so they could see but not be heard.  Ginny gave a slight gasp when they reached the edge of the clearing and she witnessed the past-Harry stuff the Invisibility Cloak beneath his robes.

“It seems I was…mistaken,” said Voldemort.

“You weren’t.”

“HARRY!  NO!  NO!  NO!  HARRY, WHAT’RE YEH — ?”

“QUIET!”

Ginny watched the scene in horror as the Death Eater Rowle silenced Hagrid, who was bucking against his bindings to the tree, screaming at past-Harry.  She watched as Voldemort eyed past-Harry with contempt as he stood before him resolutely.

“Harry Potter.  The Boy Who Lived.”

Ginny felt her stomach drop and then Harry freeze beside her as she watched the eerie, green curse hit past-Harry’s chest and send his body falling to the forest floor, face-first in a rumple of robes, making a ghastly crunch as it hit dry leaves and twisted into an unnatural position.  What she didn’t expect, though, was the collective gasp and thunder through the crowd of Death Eaters as Voldemort swayed and lost his footing, losing consciousness as he also fell to the ground.  Shouts rang through the clearing as Voldemort’s loyal followers rushed to his side.

Bellatrix Lestrange was the first to reach him.  Stricken, she conjured a cloth and water and began to mop the evil man’s forehead, crooning to him under her breath like a lover.  When others tried to help she challenged them with panicked, wide eyes, not willing to share the role of nursemaid.  Voldemort gasped for air and then rolled his eyes awake, pushing aside Bellatrix’s ministrations.

As the crowd murmured and backed away from the tyrant, Harry pulled Ginny further back into the woods behind a tree and cast the Muffliato around them.  “That’s it,” whispered Harry in case the Muffliato didn’t work, “all that’s left is Narcissa telling him I’m really dead.”

Ginny clung to Harry in horror at what she had just witnessed.  “How did you survive that?” she cried into his shoulder.  “My Gods!  How did you have the courage to do that?”

Harry buried his head in her hair and held her tight.  “I thought of you.  At the very last…when I saw the curse coming…I was thinking of you and how your lips felt on mine,” admitted Harry as he gave Ginny a smoldering look.

Ginny gasped into Harry’s chest at his admission and then looked up to find she was swimming in the sea of Harry’s eyes.  She grabbed him by the back of the neck and pulled him down to her, kissing him fiercely.  “It really is over now, love,” she promised as she kept him nose-to-nose.  “He’s gone.  We both watched it happen in the Great Hall.  I think I’ve seen all I need to see.”  She released him and wrapped her arms securely around his neck.

“Except one thing,” murmured Harry.

“What’s that?” asked Ginny as she still hung from Harry’s neck.

“You wanted the Resurrection Stone,” he breathed into her ear.

“I did, didn’t I?” uttered Ginny into the safety of Harry’s chest.  The scene going on around them in the forest had wiped her memory clear of why she had trekked back to the clearing in the first place…

“Accio Resurrection Stone!” whispered Harry clearly.  The crowd in the clearing was still cheering as Voldemort stood desecrating the past-Harry’s body, throwing it high into the air as he wielded the Crucio curse.  Other Death Eaters were releasing the silenced Hagrid from the tree, preparing him to carry the body back to the school.  The Resurrection Stone landed softly at their feet and Harry picked it up quickly and stowed it in his pocket.  He pulled the Time-turner from his robes and placed the chain over Ginny’s head and once more rolled time forward away from the terror in the forest.

Chapter Ten Author’s Note:

I’ve been wondering about Chapter Thirty-four of Deathly Hallows:  The similarities between it and Part VI of Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner are striking.  I’m including a snippet of that Part, the stanzas for which I named this chapter:

And now this spell was snapt : once more
I viewed the ocean green,
And looked far forth, yet little saw
Of what had else been seen--

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head ;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

But soon there breathed a wind on me,
Nor sound nor motion made :
Its path was not upon the sea,
In ripple or in shade.

It raised my hair, it fanned my cheek
Like a meadow-gale of spring--
It mingled strangely with my fears,
Yet it felt like a welcoming.

Swiftly, swiftly flew the ship,
Yet she sailed softly too :
Sweetly, sweetly blew the breeze--
On me alone it blew.

The entire text can be found here:

http://etext.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Rime_Ancient_Mariner.html