Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, places or objects related with Harry Potter, that's J.K. Rowling's.
"Hermione! Hermione! Please open up the door!" a red haired girl cried while knocking her best friend's door. "You have been locked in there for almost four days! Get out now!" Her temper was rising. "I'm tired of doing all the cooking and cleaning by myself, come out and help me!"
"Gin, I'm in the middle of something right now, I'll go and help you later," Hermione answered, trying to avoid Ginny.
"What in the name of Merlin are you doing?" Ginny desperately asked.
"Nothing, it's nothing, I'm just reading some books," Hermione answered, a little nervous.
Ginny opened the door, and to her surprise, she found that the room was a mess; books everywhere, pieces of papers, and lots of ingredients dispersed all over the place. "What the hell is all this? Thank Merlin you were just reading a book!" Ginny covered her nose. "What is that smell?" She looked over to where a cauldron lay. "I believe we finished Potions lessons about two weeks ago, give it a break, 'Mione."
Hermione closed the book she was reading, 'The Missing Shadows,' and walked over to Ginny. She looked like if she hadn't taken a shower in three days; her hair was all messed up, and her clothes were all covered with green stains. "Gin, I told you I was in the middle of something." Hermione changed her voice to a more casual tone. "I am trying to make this new potion Slughorn taught me before we left Hogwarts."
"So, Professor Slughorn taught how to do an old socks smell potion?" Ginny said with a tone of sarcasm in her voice. "Do you really expect me to believe that lie? Come on, even Ron can make up better lies." Ginny closed the door and stormed out of the room saying things to herself like, "Does she think I'm her personal servant?" and "What the hell is she hiding?"
Ginny went down to the kitchen to make herself some lunch. She felt totally alone; Harry was gone and so was her brother. Her mother and her father were all day out. Now that Dumbledore was gone, the Order was having more trouble than ever; they didn't have a leader, so it was very hard to get to an agreement on most decisions, researches, missions, and all that stuff she wasn't allowed to hear. Fred and George were at their shop, trying to cheer people up, something that they had found impossible lately.
Bill and Fleur were also working for the Order; they had gotten married three weeks ago. The ceremony had been quite simple and held on a little chapel on Muggle Paris. The reception was in Fleur's house in Paris as well. Ginny thought it was quite funny, since everyone talked like Fleur, and Ron was hypnotized by her cousins, which made Hermione so jealous she had yelled at him all the night, but nothing had worked until he saw her dancing with some French guy who said stuff like, "vous êtes belle." He went nuts, and Hermione had no other choice but to dismiss the French guy. Ginny laughed to herself, and then she sighed; all this nostalgic thoughts made her think more about Harry. That night they had danced together, he had been very sad for some reason which she didn't understand at the moment. Now she did. That had been their last night together.
The mood in number twelve, Grimmauld Place was depressing; everyone was scared, Mrs. Weasley cried all nights. She didn't expect Ron or Harry to runaway like that. Only Hermione and Ginny knew where they were heading when they ran away: Godric's Hollow. They both left without saying anything, they left Hermione behind, and Ginny had to stop her from leaving. She had promised Ron that she would do anything to keep Hermione behind. He was afraid of the danger she could have been in if she had gone with them. But now the most difficult task was to keep herself behind. She would have given anything to know where Harry and Ron were. She needed to be with them. She felt useless and overprotected but, overall, she felt afraid of a fatal ending. Her eyes watered, and she was yearning to cry but couldn't allow herself to do that. She had to be strong for her family, for Hermione, and for Harry.
Mostly, Ginny would have been happy that Hermione was around, but this wasn't one of those moments. Hermione seemed like an invisible person; she passed her days reading without talking to anyone. All this was seriously depressing. But now a feeling of curiosity surrounded Ginny. What was Hermione really doing upstairs? she thought. Obviously, she wasn't going to tell her easily, but she, Ginny Weasley, was going to find out even if she had to make Hermione drink Veritaserum.
It was almost two in the afternoon when Hermione heard someone calling her name. It was Ginny informing her that lunch was ready. But wait a moment, wasn't she mad at me? Hermione thought for a second, but she was so hungry that she decided to forget about that.
When Hermione reached the kitchen, she noticed that it was all clean and tidy, which made her felt guilty. The food smelled delicious. Ginny had made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, bread, and pumpkin juice. Hermione didn't resist, so she went down and took one of the chairs from table, sat, and begin to eat desperately. This is awkward, Ginny should be really mad at me, she knows I'm hiding something, Hermione thought while she was enjoying her lunch.
Then, Ginny stopped eating and drank a sip from the pumpkin juice. "So, you have been working on something for almost four days upstairs. Are you planning to tell me, or are you going to keep me working like and House Elf for the next two months?" she asked Hermione challenging her.
Hermione swallowed. "Ginny, I'm sorry, it's not my intention to keep you doing all the house duty by yourself." Ginny rolled her eyes. "It is just that I'm working on this new potion, you know. It is great to be able to do magic outside of Hogwarts, I am already seventeen."
Ginny's temper was rising. "Thank you for the reminder, but I'm getting tired of your damn lies and you avoiding the cleaning and cooking; so unless you tell me what the hell you are doing upstairs, I'm going to make you drink Veritaserum, and then I'm going to starve you to death," she finished, almost screaming to Hermione.
Hermione choked, and then she stood up. "Yes, you can starve me to death, but let me remind you again that you are not allowed to make magic outside Hogwarts!"
Ginny was red in the face. "I do not need any wand to brew a potion. Anyway, that's not the point; the point is that you're a liar and that you do not trust me." Ginny was left without words. She wanted to cry, she was not able to hold it anymore. She began saying between sobs, "Here in this place no one trusts me, everyone thinks that I am not capable of doing anything useful, and everyone wants to overprotect me. I have to pretend that I understand, but guess what, I don't! How dared he leave me like this! I don't know if he is alright or if he is trouble, and it's only been sixteen days since he left! Merlin, I hate him!" She collapsed and started to cry desperately.
Hermione ran over to where her friend was and hugged her. She knew it was Harry whom she was talking about. "Gin, I know it is hard, but you know I'm here. We have to face this together. On the other hand, I am sorry, I didn't want to lie to you, but I thought it was the best if I didn't tell you. I thought you would try to stop me." Silence fell between the two of them.
Then, Ginny stopped crying and asked Hermione, "What are you exactly doing upstairs?"
"It is hard to explain, but please, Ginny, don't try to stop me again," Hermione said, remembering when Ginny stopped her from running away to Godric's Hollow. Ginny nodded at this. Then Hermione continued. "Basically, I have brewed this potion that can tell me the exact location of Ron and Harry in this exact moment. It is called the Lost and Found Potion. Usually, it is used to find lost objects, but I have been trying to make it work on humans."
"WHAT! How…? And does it work?" Ginny said with an incredulity tone in her voice.
"Well, I haven't got good results in the human part yet. According to Mysteries of the Magic by Peter Roninhall, this potion will not work on humans because most of the times, these persons that we try to find don't want to be found," Hermione said, disappointed.
"There has to be someway, maybe I can help you." Ginny made a pause. "If I'm allowed to, of course," she finished with an innocent voice.
"Of course you can, but don't you dare to stop me if you change your mind," Hermione said, threatening.
"Mmm... OK, deal?" Ginny asked.
"Deal," Hermione responded.
Author's Note: I hope you enjoyed the story, chapter two will be up this week. Please leave me a review! I'll be very happy if you do it! Thanks!