Disclaimer: Just playing with the characters JK so generously created. :). Read the whole first chappy before you decide whether it's good or not, pleaaase. R&R? :).
I seem to be getting a lot of views for chapter one but no one seems to be reading beyond that. Is it possible for anyone to tell me why? :(.
Reunion
Soft words barely carried from what was left of the doorway of the derelict cottage Draco Malfoy had found refuge in, but he heard them as if they had been whispered in his ear.
He turned to look at the girl who had spoken them slowly. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her hair a bloody, matted mess and her eyes, brown and wide with fear, but so empty, seemed to look through him instead of at him, reminiscent of their time at Hogwarts but for far different reasons.
She blinked, eyes coming into focus and her mouth finally curved into a small smile as she saw him. He was equally as dirty, equally as bloody, and, whether he knew it or not, his eyes were just as empty.
"You can come in," he gestured finally, and she noted his voice had lost its drawl and was almost... Pleasant. "I'd offer tea, but…"
She nodded in response to his offer and a silence fell.
"I meant what I said you know, when I said I loved you. Seeing you with the… With Weasley, it broke my heart,"
"Most people doubt you have one," she murmured.
"And you're not most people… Hermione," The addition of her name at the end made her look up at him, scrutinising him.
"That's the first time you've called me by my given name," she noted, "even whilst you were declaring your love,"
"It's a nice name,"
And that's when she laughed. Really laughed. She let go and let her mirth control her because it was better than feeling nothing.
"The whole world is in disarray and here we are discussing love. As if there's a future to it!"
"I believe love will prevail,"
Draco's words shut her up instantly. "Who are you, and what have you done with Draco Malfoy?" she asked in disbelief.
"I AM Draco Malfoy," he replied, not at all affronted by her reaction.
"Strangely, I don't find that hard to believe. You've changed,"
"So have you,"
"I didn't swap sides," she pointed out. "I haven't changed that much,"
He smiled slightly. "I'll make you feel again, I promise,"
She didn't have a chance to reply as a movement outside made her swing round, wand out, ready to attack.
"It's only Blaise and Red," Draco told her, adopting Blaise's nickname for his girlfriend, as both figures stepped into the cottage.
"Hermione!" a voice squealed and something small shot forward to hug her.
"Ginny?" Hermione questioned almost incredulously.
Ginny stepped back. "Yeah, it's me," she answered quietly. "If you're here, does that mean..?"
Hermione didn't know whether to nod or shake her head. Words seemed the best option. "Harry's not dead, as far as I know, but they found us, Gin, after you left and I ran. What good was I if I was also captured?"
Ginny accepted this. She had done the same. "And Ron?"
"He died a hero, Gin…"
Blaise caught the small girl as she fell to the floor weeping. He cradled her and murmured soft, comforting words and Hermione looked on.
"Is she the last Weasel…y now then?" Draco whispered to Hermione, and she was surprised to see the emotion on him, the sorrow for the wretched girl etched into his face.
"The last one alive and sane, yes," Hermione whispered back, ignoring the ache as she thought of George and Mr. Weasley in the Janus Thickey Ward at St Mungo's, the only survivors, if that's what you could call them, of a brutal attack on the Burrow.
"How, when..?" Hermione questioned, gesturing at Ginny and Blaise. Draco looked down at them with a small smile.
"They've been together almost a year, Granger. I don't know how you could have missed it,"
She looked at him, disapproving of his belittling of her even now, but soon realised he was only being honest. "Oh,"
"Blaise was never the keenest to become a Death Eater. That's why he left school as soon as the threat became a possibility. I suppose he was running, but in this game, if you don't run you don't survive,"
"And when we were attacked the first time, Ginny ran too. It was the only way she'd ever find him," Hermione realised.
"It took me months," Ginny whispered throatily. "I was just about to give up when an owl found me with a letter from Blaise, telling me where to meet him," a tear ran down her cheek and she hugged her boyfriend tightly.
"Not many people know who or what I am," Blaise explained as Hermione looked at him. "I was able to get quite close to Death Eater activity and eventually discovered that Red had run but hadn't been found. So I took an owl and I wrote her, hoping it wasn't too late," The tall boy bit his lip. "We almost got captured at our last location, it was a narrow escape, and that's how we gained Draco here,"
"It's not fun being a third wheel," Draco mumbled, and both girls managed a short laugh whilst Blaise rolled his eyes.
"I had to get out," Draco ended. "It was driving me mad, especially knowing you are a much better person than all of them, and you have muggle heritage," he told Hermione softly.
"There are lots of people missing," Hermione ignored Draco's last comment, not sure how to respond. "If we find some of them, we can build a resistance,"
Ginny untangled herself from Blaise and stood up. "Like who?"
"Luna went missing after they killed her dad, but I know the Death Eaters don't have her as I heard one of them ask another whether the Lovegood girl would be at the Burrow when they attacked as he "wouldn't mind a bit of that"", she recalled with disgust. "Seamus went into hiding with Ernie, Hannah, Lavender, Parvati and Padma when the school was attacked, Susan never came back to school and I heard somewhere she was hiding out with Wayne Hopkins, Anthony Goldstein and Lisa Turpin, Mandy Brocklehurst, Terry Boot and Michael Corner were last seen together fighting the Death Eaters in Hogsmeade before they vanished…" Hermione counted the students off on her fingers.
"What about Neville?" Ginny asked. "Dean? Justin?"
"Neville's still at the school, says as both you and Luna are missing he's the only one left to protect it and he's not going to leave the rest of the students at the mercy of the Death Eaters,"
Ginny nodded, smiling slightly at the boy's courage.
"As for the others, I really don't know, Gin. They both had to run, considering their non pureblood status,"
Both Slytherins cringed at this.
"Oh, and weirdly enough I heard from Dennis Creevey that his brother had been residing with Theo Nott since the attack,"
"Theo was even more reluctant to get involved with You-Know-Who than Blaise," Draco said. "If that were possible,"
Ginny grinned. "He must be having some fun with Colin,"
Hermione bit back a laugh. "Colin's grown up a bit since you last saw him,"
"I think we all have," Ginny replied. "I don't suppose you have the DA coins on you?"
"Sorry, Gin, they weren't the top of my priorities when I was running for my life," Hermione instantly felt sorry for her sarcastic reply but Ginny brushed it off.
"No matter, we'll just send a patronus,"
"Isn't that going to be very dangerous?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Ginny responded. She didn't elaborate and instead dug a small piece of parchment out of the pocket of her robe and disappeared through an archway into another room.
"Okay then," Draco followed her, and Blaise and Hermione shrugged at each other before doing the same. Hermione found that, strangely, she trusted Zabini even though this was the first time she had ever spoken to him. And Malfoy, well, he intrigued her. For the sake of the wizarding world, they all had to put aside their differences and learn to live together. It seemed Hermione was the one finding this the hardest, she realised, scowling to herself.
Through the archway they found Ginny bent over a small table, scribbling on the parchment with a broken quill.
"What are you writing?" Blaise asked her, and she finished with a flourish before rising to face them.
"What we want the patronus to say," She waved the parchment at them. "Now, who will each of these groups trust the most?"
"Theo will trust me the most," Blaise answered quickly. "We often discussed how much we hated being involved in this. And no offence to any of you, but he's still a Slytherin and hates Gryffindorks, and you were never very high on his like list, Draco,"
"You're dating a Gryffindork," Ginny told him dryly.
"He doesn't know that," Blaise replied.
"Yet," Draco smirked. "What's he going to do when he finds out? He'll hate all of us,"
"We need Colin. If Theo deflects, we kill him. If he decides he just doesn't want to help, he can stay but he gets no extra protection, agreed?" Ginny said. Receiving nods, she moved on.
"The Gryffindor group, Parvati and them?" she asked.
"Me," Hermione raised her hand, then looked at it quizzically and quickly lowered it.
"Alright," Ginny carried on. "Mandy, Terry and Michael?"
"I got on quite well with Boot and Corner," Draco told them.
"And that's why you refer to them by their surnames?" Hermione asked.
"I said I got on with them, not that we were best buddies," Draco retorted.
"Okay, fine! I only wanted one of us to be able to do one each so we could all do it at the same time and so the Death Eaters couldn't report seeing just one patronus in several places," she explained.
"Would it not tip them off seeing four?" Draco asked.
"They're that smart to work it out?" Ginny answered sceptically.
"Never underestimate your enemy," Hermione told her, and Ginny sighed.
"We're going to have to be smart. We'll need to like encode the message or something so only the person we are sending it to can receive it, which means we're screwed if the person we choose is dead or separated. We can't risk this more than once,"
"Then I suggest you choose a boy," Draco said, and before either girl could argue, he added, "Because IF they had been caught the girls would either be the ones killed or captured for… You get the point,"
"None of the boys would leave the girls behind!" Hermione argued.
"They would if they had no other choice," Draco replied darkly.
Fear settled in Hermione's stomach and she once again realised just how much danger she was in. How much danger they were all in.
"That leaves me with the others," Ginny carried on. "Now, what I have written here is a simple message telling the others, that we, Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger, have been reunited, along with a couple of others and we are trying to find others who are in hiding to help build our defenses for survival. Although it is dangerous to find our way back together, it is in all our best interest to try and regroup for there is strength in numbers,"
"A bit detailed, don't you think, Red," Blaise asked her.
"And where are our mentions?" Draco added.
"That's not exactly what it says," Ginny replied impatiently. "I was trying to get across to you what you should be saying to these people. And you really think anyone but the people assigned to you, Malfoy, would trust you enough to come straight to you?"
"Well, no," Draco admitted and fell silent.
"The point is, you have to remember to say in your patronus, that Hermione and I are together and looking for other survivors in hiding. If it is possible, they are to try and find their way to Spinner's End as soon as they can. Apparition is dangerous but if needs must… Tell them to stay safe. And they must be willing to fight," Ginny said with determination.
"Save the fighting talk, eh, Red?" Blaise grinned at her. She blushed before stepping back and indicating for the others to do the same.
"Are we all ready? Have you chosen who to send the message to?"
"Seamus,"
"Boot,"
"Theo, obviously,"
Ginny gave her boyfriend a dirty look. "Susan," she finished. "And Luna," she added as an afterthought and before anyone could argue she had conjured her first patronus and sent it. Her second was whisked away with the other three and all they could do was wait.
"I thought you said it was too dangerous to send more than one!" Blaise was understandably angry with Ginny.
"But Luna is important to the cause!" Ginny yelled back at him.
"So is Harry fricking Pothead but I'm not about to go sending him a patronus when I know he's on his own!"
"Save it, Blaise," Ginny told him gently. "Save it for when we face him and take it all out on them when the time comes,"
Blaise looked at her before turning and stalking out of the room. Draco shrugged, then sat himself on a sack.
"What? You're not going to go after him?" Hermione asked.
"Two things, Granger. Male and Slytherin,"
"But…"
"He's right, Hermione," Ginny cut in tiredly. "Even if he went after him, Blaise would only tell him to fuck off and he'd mean it,"
"Mmm," Hermione said thoughtfully. "Why does Spinner's End sound familiar?"
"Snape," Draco only had to say one word and it came back to her.
"He's dead then?" she asked, slightly sad at the thought.
"Not the last time I saw him," Draco replied. "He knew of my desire to leave and told me this was the best place to come if I ever needed help. When we were discovered before I told Blaise and Red and we came here,"
Hermione was fascinated at the thought of being in her former Professor's home and was itching to explore. Seeing as both Ginny and Draco were now silent and staring into space, each lost in their own thoughts, she walked through to the living room and stared at the book clad walls in awe. Though most were bound to be dark books they were probably still worth a read, especially since they were fighting the darkest wizard of all time.
"I can help you look through them, if you like," Draco said from behind her and she nodded without turning to look.
"No time like the present,"
She once again looked at the walls of books in front of her and had no idea where to start. Draco however began walking along the wall, pulling books of interest off the shelves until he ended up back to her, ten or so heavy books weighing down his arms.
"Put them down before you hurt yourself," she admonished. "And thank you," she added sincerely.
He smiled a little and lowered himself to the ground until the books tumbled out of his arms and fell safely to the floor. He then sat with them and pulled a particularly heavy one towards him, flipping the pages and muttering to himself. Hermione watched him for a while before pulling a smaller book towards her and reading the title apprehensively.
"Secrets of the Darkest Art" written in silver calligraphy stared back at her and she flipped open the cover. The two spent the rest of the daylight hours reading through the books and as the sun went down Hermione slammed shut the book she was reading and sighed desperately.
"I already know everything this book has about horcruxes!" she cried, clearly frustrated.
"Horcruxes?" Draco asked her, and an idea hit her.
"I know what we need to do!" she said excitedly and pulled him to his feet before going to find Ginny and Blaise. She found them curled up together, half naked and half asleep. She grinned at them a little before prodding Ginny awake and telling her she had a plan.
"About time!" Ginny exclaimed. "I was beginning to think I was going to have to do all the work," She dressed herself, perfectly at ease with both Hermione and Draco being able to see her naked form as she did so. Blaise only pulled a pair of dirty boxers on before indicating Hermione to continue.
"You-Know-Who split his soul into eight with the use of Horcruxes. As far as I know, two of these have already been destroyed; the diary and the ring. That leaves six more, including You-Know-Who himself. As there's no way we can kill him six times we must find the rest of the Horcruxes,"
"And how do you propose we do that?" Draco asked her blankly.
"The ring was a family heirloom and the diary was his own, they were of significance to him. Before Dumbledore died and Harry went missing they were in search of Slytherin's locket. I believe that at least two others are items of one of the founders, specifically Helga Hufflepuff's cup. It was stolen from the Smith family after the murder of Hepzibah Smith, making it likely she was the murder needed to turn it into a horcrux. However, I have no idea where it could now be. The other is probably an item of Rowena Ravenclaw's, but there is very little about her in any of the books I've read," Hermione frowned. "I suspect that Dumbledore was right in assuming that his snake is also a horcrux as she is unusually close to him at all times. And the final horcrux is most probably Harry himself," she finished, breathing heavily.
"How do you know all this?" Blaise asked.
"Harry told me, albeit reluctantly. I persuaded him that if anything happened to him then I could at least carry on the horcrux work, just in case. And now aren't we all glad I did?"
They nodded in silence. "So, where do we start?"
"The snake comes last. As soon as he knows she's dead, he's going to know we know about his horcruxes and he'll make sure they're even more protected. That's pretty much suicide,"
They all agreed with that statement.
"The last I heard about the locket was that Fletcher of the Order had stolen it from Kreacher, meaning it could be anywhere by now," Hermione sighed.
"This is a mammoth task!" Draco said, clearly irritated.
"Ready to give up already, Malfoy?" Hermione spat at him, well aware that his observation was correct.
Draco looked at her. "No,"
She looked away, stunned, and Ginny continued.
"We could always go to Fletcher," she suggested.
"We'd never find him," Hermione sighed again.
"I think we need to infiltrate the Ministry," Blaise said suddenly.
"Are you mad?" Draco asked him.
"Quite possibly," Blaise responded. "But think about it. They'll have a lot of the information we need,"
"And we're in Snape's house! Think of all the potion supplies he has, and the spells!" Hermione joined in enthusiastically. "Ooh, do you think we could brew a Polyjuice potion and disguise ourselves as Ministry members?"
"How would Polyjuice potion be of any help to us?" Draco asked.
"It's a very complex potion designed for humans to allow them to assume the form of somebody else. For it to be successful you have to combine a piece of the person you want to imitate with the potion before drinking it. Nobody in the Ministry would imagine we would be of such ability to carry it off," Hermione explained.
"Complicated," Blaise remarked.
"Do you think you can do it, Granger?"
Hermione smirked at Draco and then let out a snort of laughter.
"What's so funny?"
"I brewed it in second year, when Ron and Harry infiltrated the Slytherin common room to determine if you were Slytherin's heir,"
Draco frowned. "I don't know who's more mad, Blaise or Granger," he muttered to himself.
"You're the one talking to yourself," Ginny told him grinning. He scowled at her.
"Back to it, we need a plan,"
"Remember, we should have quite a few others to help us with this in the next couple of days,"
"We need a plan first!" Hermione almost yelled exasperatedly. "There's no point saying we have all these people to help if we don't have a plan for them to help with in the first place!"
"So, start thinking," Hermione glared at Draco, but conceded he had a point that if anyone could work out what they needed to do, it would be her.
"Come on, we are four of the brightest students in our years," Ginny said. "If we can't think of something, what chance does anyone have?"
"That's the spirit," Blaise hugged her to him.
The four settled into silence, each lost in thought. None of them seemed to have any idea where to go from here and it was getting them down. The small joy they had found in their breakthrough was quickly dissipating and instead of concentrating on possible ways to succeed in winning the war, thoughts were focused on the when rather than if of their captures and imminent deaths.
Hermione finally had a eureka-moment and looked up, eyes shining. "We already have the plan!"
"Huh?" All three of her companions looked at her blankly.
"Infiltrate the Ministry with the use of Polyjuice potion and find out as much as we can, whilst whoever is left here will practice their battle skills. We're going to need everything we've got to win this."
"That's it?" Draco asked, skeptical.
"What do you mean, that's it?" Hermione replied heatedly.
"It's just, kind of, short," Draco explained.
"Well, see if you can do better," Hermione sniffed. "Or better yet, see if you can do it on your own, Mister this-plan-is-far-too-simple-to-work,"
"This plan isn't simple," Ginny butted in thoughtfully. "There's a lot of complicated work involved. Fuck this up and we fuck everything up,"
Hermione blanched at her friend's language, but turned back to Draco and smirked. He rolled his eyes, and both Blaise and Ginny quietly laughed at their interaction.
"Sooo, what do we do now?" Hermione asked.
"Brew the Polyjuice," Blaise said confidently.
"You know it takes a month to brew?"
"We'll probably need that time to plan everything anyway,"
"Argh, why is this so frustrating!" Malfoy cried out, and not even Hermione could muster a positive response. Instead she sighed and said:
"The quicker we get on with it, the quicker it will come around. And hopefully that will be fast enough,"
"Fast enough?" Malfoy retorted, eyes flashing. "Do you know how much damage they can do in one month? My family is out there!"
"And they've been covering their own backsides well enough since before you were even born, you ignorant toad," Hermione yelled back. "Jeez, Malfoy, I know you're worried and scared, but no more than the rest of us. So stop fucking moaning and just get on with it." She finished with a snarl and stalked out of the room.
Ginny grinned and Blaise raised an eyebrow.
"She certainly told you," Blaise commented as Ginny said "And that, ladies, is how it's done,"
Malfoy flipped them both off and disappeared in the opposite direction.
It was only later, when he had calmed down a bit, that he thought about what Hermione had said about horcruxes and the founders of Hogwarts. Thinking back over the years he was sure he remembered his aunt Bellatrix bragging about old Voldie giving her both Gryffindor's sword and Hufflepuff's chalice and that they were safely stashed in her vault at Gringotts. He smirked as a plan formulated, having finally got one up on the evil old bitch.
The Malfoy family had, for generations, handed down a locket that had a lock of hair from every surviving member of the family safely stowed in it, and having been given it for his seventeenth birthday Draco had been told by his mother exactly whose hair it contained. Since it had been Narcissa and not Lucius to have handed it down to him, his mother had proceeded to put in a lock of hair of her only non-disgraced living relative, his dear old Aunt Bella. And she just happened to be the only brunette in the locket.
Eager to inform the others of his ingenious idea he returned to the main living area and was pleased to discover that Blaise and Ginny were both fully clothed and had blacked out the windows in order to light candles and were reading some of Severus' texts. Only Hermione was missing and it soon became evident why. From the direction of the kitchen came a humming sound followed by the delicious smell of something cooking. Draco's mouth drooled a little at the thought of cooked food, and Ginny sent a crooked smile in his direction before hiding it.
"I cannot believe how much of a mess that kitchen was," Hermione started, walking into the room. "Did Snape never eat when he was home?"
"Apparently not," Blaise returned, stretching and yawning sleepily.
Ginny poked his exposed stomach and giggled, then stood and walked to Hermione.
"Let's see what you've done with it then. We've been living off cold food,"
"If you insist," Hermione smiled, leading her friend into the small kitchen.
"Definitely an improvement," Ginny commented. "What are you cooking? It smells wonderful,"
"You have your mother to thank for that," Hermione smiled sadly. "She taught me every holiday I was at the Burrow after I said I couldn't cook for peanuts,"
"Hopefully you're channeling her spirit," Ginny let a single tear drop down her cheek before wiping it away. "How long?"
"Only a couple of minutes. Clear somewhere to eat. Or even find something to eat on and with?"
"My pleasure. My, Hermione, I sure am glad you're here,"
"Me too," They hugged briefly before Ginny found some old plates and cutlery and started cleaning them using a wand she had stolen from a Death Eater, thus making it less likely anyone would know it was her using it. The Death Eater had no need for it anymore, but Voldemort need not know that.
Minutes later they settled down to the first cooked meal they had had in months. Hermione had done well with what she had found and when finished the four of them sleepily made their way back into the living room. Winter approaching, it was getting cold and they feared that smoke from a fire would be seen, so resignedly agreed to huddle together to keep warm.
Malfoy took this time to tell them of his earlier breakthrough and was rewarded with sleepy compliments. He felt a sense of pride at having finally been useful for something.
"When we go to Diagon Alley to break into Gringott's, you don't think we'd be able to pick up some clothes and stuff too, do you?" Hermione murmured sleepily.
"Why not do it sooner?" Ginny asked. "We're going to need them, especially if the others are in the same condition,"
"Dangerous," was the only word Draco contributed to the conversation.
"Zabini, you're the one least sought after," Hermione sat up suddenly. "It would be easiest for you to retrieve your money from Gringott's,"
"I think it would be slightly suss if I then went and bought dozens of brand new robes for both sexes," Blaise replied sarcastically.
"Oh, a few glamour charms will fix that," Hermione waved airily. "We'll be there too, just hidden 'cause everyone's out to kill us,"
"She has a point," Ginny mumbled tiredly. "We can fix ourselves up with glamour charms but not to go to the highest security building in the country and get away with it,"
"So I'm just going to spend all my money on people I don't even like?"
"We'll pay you back after we end this," Hermione said firmly, leaving no room for discussion. As they were all pretty much asleep anyway no one had the strength to argue, and not ten minutes later they were all soundly asleep, huddled under a couple of Snape's old cloaks that they had found hiding in what they presumed was his bedroom.
Ginny woke first the next morning. The sun was weak through the window and she was reminded that it was nearing the middle of October. Thankful that it no longer snowed so much this side of Christmas in the UK, she carefully avoided the other three on her way to the kitchen. She stifled a laugh at the three of them curled together, Hermione between the boys and looking very comfortable, and instead moved to inspect what she had to cook with. Growing up with her mother, and knowing the next few months until Voldemort was defeated would be tough, she knew food was important, and she looked round in distaste. Did Snape ever cook when he was home?
She flicked her wand a few times, "Scourgify" spilling from her mouth almost subconsciously and she finished with a small smile. The place still looked dingy and dark and dirty, but it was clean enough to work in. She left the house and found the only shop still open in the run down estate Spinner's End was situated in, relieved to find it stocked bacon, sausages and eggs. Grabbing some milk as well, she went to the counter and carefully counted out the only money she and Blaise had left from the last time he had been to the bank. She understood why he was so reluctant to go back, last time had been a close escape too, but they needed the protection to survive, and this time there would be three of them there to defend him if and when everything went wrong.
Giving the cashier a small smile and a thank you, Ginny left, balancing her items in her arms for the short walk back. She found the boys awake when she returned and they gave her an appreciative look before she disappeared into the kitchen to get started. She had just finished cooking the bacon when Hermione appeared, her hair less bushy and more resembling a bird's nest. She seemed not to care however, and set to boiling the kettle for cups of tea. Somewhere in the small pack she had brought with her she had a stash of tea bags, and if she could muster the strength to smirk she would have as she remembered Malfoy's offer yesterday.
The four had not even sat down to eat when there came a loud noise from outside, and instantly the four of the them stood, backs to each other and wands out. Their eyes strained to see anything through the dim lighting of the house, but they all caught the shadow that moved round the house, disappearing round where the door was.
Breath held, hearts' thumping, hands' shaking and eyes squinting the four shuffled to the where the kitchen joined the living room and stared at the door. Despite their shaky hands they all took aim when the shadow appeared in the doorway.
"I will kill you, Creevey, if this is not the right house," they heard someone snarl. "You passed third time lucky eight houses ago!"
"Well how am I supposed to know what house it is? 'Spinner's End' is hardly an exact location," someone replied as the two figures appeared in the living room.
By now the four had worked out what was going on, and lowered their wands.
"Nott, welcome to Spinner's End," Blaise said as he stepped forward.
Nott looked up in surprise and scowled at him. "I didn't even want to come. This little brat made me!"
"You know full well I can't make you do anything!" Colin spat back at the moody Slytherin. He caught sight of Ginny and ran forward. "Oh, Ginny, I heard about what happened! Are you okay?"
"No," Ginny replied honestly, ignoring Nott's deepening scowl as he also caught sight of her, Hermione and Draco. "But I've never been more determined to bring the bastard down,"
Half an hour later they had divided the food into six equal portions and Ginny and Blaise were busy explaining to Colin and Nott what the plan so far was when there was another movement from outside. This time it was quieter and only Hermione heard it until she shushed the others. Once again they formed a circle facing outwards and looked carefully to see who was coming.
The shapes of Seamus Finnigan, Hannah Abbott, Lavender Brown, Parvati and Padma Patil brought up by Ernie Macmillan appeared and for the second time that morning tense breathes were released.
Help had arrived.