Ginny Weasley and the Darkest Hour

Prologue

"Daddy, do I have to eat all of my broccoli?"

Dean Thomas looked at his daughter Adrianne and smiled. "I'll make a compromise with you. If you eat half the broccoli, you can get your dessert." Adrianne thought this over for a minute, then nodded her head. She then proceeded to dig into her broccoli, eating it as fast as she could in the hopes for the promised dessert. Across the table, Dean's wife Lauren smiled at him, then got up to grab the freshly baked pumpkin pasties off of the counter. As she set them on the table, Dean took in the fresh smell, and let out a soft moan of satisfaction.

After finishing the half of her broccoli, Adrianne quickly reached over and grabbed the first pasty she could get her hands on. She gobbled it down, then reached for another. After having her fill, she said, "Now can we go outside?" Dean knew what she really wanted. For the past few weeks, he had been teaching her to play football, and the four-year-old had taken naturally to it.

"Alright, you go grab the ball, and I'll meet you out there in just a minute," Dean said.

As Adrianne was hurrying out of the room, Lauren called out, "Only half an hour, then you need to be getting ready for bed!"

"Oh I'm sure she'll be ready to come in by then," Dean said.

"And what exactly makes you think I was talking to her?" Lauren asked, smiling and wrapping her arms around her husband. Dean kissed her slowly, then just rested in her embrace. The moment was nearly perfect, the life he had always dreamed of.

After a half an hour of playing, in which Adrianne scored on him four times (only two of which he intended to allow), he carried Adrianne upstairs to her bedroom. The girl was exhausted from the game, but as Dean was tucking her in, Adrianne said, "Daddy, can you tell me another one of your stories about Harry Potter?"

Dean looked at her. He didn't like to tell the stories from back then very often. The wounds were too fresh. Too many people were gone. Still, he knew the stories held a great deal of allure for his children. He looked back at Lauren, who was standing in the doorway. She nodded at him.

"Of course honey," he said. "Let me tell you about the house elf and the dungeon. Once upon a time, daddy was being held in a dungeon by some very evil men. The men were called snatchers. I was in the dungeon for several days, and I wasn't sure I was ever going to get out. Then one day I heard the door creak open, and two men were tossed in."

"I looked at them to try and see who they were, and was shocked to see none other than Harry Potter and Ron Weasley! And this is back when they were being hunted by all the bad wizards in the world. But even though things looked bad, I knew Harry. He would find some way of getting us out of the dungeon."

"All of a sudden, there was a crack in the room, and a house elf named Dobby appeared!" Adrianne smiled at the mention of Dobby. At Shell Cottage, Harry had told Dean some stories about Dobby, and he had faithfully passed them down to his daughter, who loved stories of the elf. "Dobby came to rescue Harry Potter and his friends, but Harry was too noble for that. Instead, Harry insisted that Dobby save me and the other people in the dungeon first."

"Dobby apparated, and took me to a beautiful place called Shell Cottage. So I wasn't there for the next part, but I heard all about it. Dobby went back to the dungeon to rescue Harry and Ron, but they weren't there. So he went upstairs, and found that the bad guys were holding them, along with their friend Hermione Granger. So Dobby bravely risked his life, and managed to get the three of them out of danger and bring them to Shell Cottage."

"And what happened to Dobby then?" Adrianne asked, just as she did every time he told this story.

"He finally became a free elf." Dean kissed her on the forehead. "Good night, Adrianne," he said, tucking her in.

Just as he was walking away, he heard his daughter speak again. "Daddy, when do I get to go to Hogwarts and learn to be like you and Mommy and Harry Potter?" Dean grimaced. He hated getting this question from his daughter. He hated to lie to her, but he couldn't possibly tell her the truth. Not yet. She was too young.

"It's a long ways away," he finally said. "Don't worry about it now." This seemed to placate her, and she closed her eyes to go to sleep. Dean walked out of the room. As he was going through the door, he felt Lauren's hand grasp his.

"We'll have to tell her one day," she said.

"She's not ready. We'll wait til she's older. Until she can understand…"

Lauren looked at him sadly. "Until she's old enough to understand? I don't know if she'll ever truly be old enough to understand. I'm not even sure I get it, not yet."

Suddenly, they both heard a violent knocking on the door. They looked at each other with confused expressions. "Are you expecting anyone?" Lauren asked.

"You know that no one knows we're here," Dean said in an agitated tone.

"It couldn't be…it couldn't be his people, could it?" Lauren asked.

"No," Dean said, relaxing a little. "They couldn't have come this far. The French Ministry wouldn't allow this kind of intrusion. It must just be one of the Muggle neighbors." Dean walked downstairs and went up to the door. He opened it, and was startled to find six men standing there, all wearing identical silver and dark green cloaks.

"You can't be here," Dean said, half trying to convince the men and half trying to convince himself. "The French Ministry protects…"

One of the men held up his hand. "There is no French Ministry," he said. "Not anymore. Minister Lecroix is dead. Rabastan Lestrange has officially been appointed as acting Minister." Dean's heart sank at the news, but he tried to keep up a brave façade.

"You mean Lord Voldemort is in charge of France now," Dean said. He knew it was a mistake as soon as he said it. He heard one of the men cry "Crucio" and he doubled over in pain. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see Lauren covering her mouth. He knew she would be screaming, except that she did not want to wake Adrianne and have her see her father like this.

"You know the law," said the man casting the curse. "You are not to use that name. We'll overlook it this one time, but I would urge you not to repeat your mistake."

One of the men who had been standing near the back walked towards the front of the group now. He pulled a piece of parchment out of his cloak, and began reading. "Dean Thomas, you and your family are under arrest for violating Article III Section I of the Muggle-Born Registration Act. You will be taken to a nearby detention center, then shipped off to the nearest Muggle camp." Dean knew it was coming the moment he had opened the door. He had been waiting for this day in fact for several years. Still, hearing the words read off the arrest warrant stung. They had gotten lucky for years, staying in various hiding spots.

Suddenly, Dean heard a voice at the top of the stairs. "Daddy?" Adrianne said, her voice robbed of its usual cheer and filled with terror. He had protected her this long, but now reality was settling in.