Harry woke to find Ginny standing over him. "Come to bed ..." he said in his best, seductive voice.

"You're not in bed, you're in the bath, Harry," she said mysteriously. Now why would she be saying that? Odd person, Harry thought, closing his eyes again.

Now she mentioned it though, his bed was rather cold and there was something hard and angular pushing into the back of his head. Harry blinked blearily and wondered what had happened at his birthday party that might have led to a belief that the bath would be a good place to sleep and then closed his eyes again from the effort.

"Sorry Harry, you have to wake up." Ginny was so beautiful when she was determined and here she was leaning over him ... so enticing ... and Harry was about to put his arms around her waist ... but she was suddenly out of reach, and then she was pulling at the legs of his jeans until he slid down into the bath, his head clunking on the enameled bottom. "Ouch!" And now what's she doing ... don't touch those taps! ... and then cold water in his face, his eyes, up his nose ... "What did you do that for?"- then Harry noticed Ron and Hermione behind Ginny, both looking expectant.

"Kingsley needs to speak to you urgently, mate," said Ron.

And then Hermione's face appeared hovering over him. "Harry, I'm going to try something ... I'd not do this if it wasn't so important. I'm sorry, it's going to hurt, quite a bit if the book isn't exaggerating ... I need your permission, Harry." Harry nodded. He trusted Hermione. Hermione was so clever. She was such a good friend. Harry loved Hermione ... She twirled her wand in a complicated spiral over this stomach, muttering something that sounded a little like a chemical equation... She wouldn't do something that would really hurt him and ... it was quite pleasant really.

"Like little bubbles, just like drinking lemonade when the bubbles go up your no ... nooooo! Hermione! Stop it, stop it right now, that's really ... arrghh! Oh please ... oh, it's stopped. Ok, then. Where's Kingsley?" he asked, ready to disapparate at a word from Hermione, but instead she led the way downstairs.

Once in the living room, Harry took charge. "Right you two," he said glaring at Hermione and Ginny - "Out! Auror business."

Kingsley's disembodied head spoke from the fireplace: "No Harry, I want them all to hear this." He turned his head slightly to take in Harry's friends, who were standing expectantly behind him, ready to jump to his aid at the slightest hint of trouble. "As long as you all agree to abide by the rules", he continued, "... and, if you agree to come along, then you can't tell anyone outside this room - well that room and here - what you have been asked to do and where you are going."

"What about the oath?" Harry said mostly, he realised, to remind Kingsley that these weren't trained aurors he was recruiting so casually.

"What oath? - Oh yeah, of course, I'll leave that to you Harry, no time for the full protocol now ...

"We've cornered two more Death Eaters and need to flush them out. Currently they've made their HQ in Voldemort's cave, where you found the fake horcrux, Harry. We know they are currently out for the day and won't be back until around four this afternoon -"

Hermione interrupted ... "How do you know that Kingsley? Surely they're not following any predictable patterns of behaviour and -"

Kingsley said, "Intelligence," mysteriously.

"But-"

"Can't reveal sources ... need to know basis. You agree to follow the temporary protocol arrangement?" Hermione nodded, still looking rebellious, but Kingsley seemed oblivious and replied, "Good, let's get down to tactics."

Harry knew that Hermione was relentless when she had an issue and was surprised that she gave up on this so readily. Kingsley could certainly have that effect.

"You need to go in there and check the island first, Harry. We have reason to believe that they are storing some weapon or secret there. The rest of you need to keep guard by where the boat is tied up until Harry returns. Then you all need to set a trap for them when they get there. Plenty of time to sort that on Harry's return; it's barely half past seven now, so you've got all morning and half the afternoon to make all the standard checks and get ready your response. If they do come back early, Dawlish and Savage will be on guard outside the cave entrance to waylay them."

When they arrived at the cave, and Harry had let them all in with the usual spells and tokens, all was quiet. He still wasn't best pleased to be taking his friends to the place where he'd seen Dumbledore at his most vulnerable. Dumbledore had seemed so invincible and in control before that day. He'd never seen him weak or in pain before he'd taken the potion and the place brought back some really unpleasant memories for Harry.

He'd been in the face of danger with Hermione and Ron often enough before to know that his concern for them wasn't going to effect his performance; but not with Ginny, not like this, not since they had got back together. He wasn't sure whether he'd be able to keep a clear head if she were threatened and that might put them all in danger. Harry hadn't been anticipating any trouble but he realised that he'd still been tense. Putting his girlfriend at risk wasn't his idea of a fun date and this hadn't been what he'd planned for that morning.

Harry had to explain to Ginny why none of the others were able to go with him, she obviously wasn't thrilled that her boyfriend was at risk either, he'd not heard her voice that shrill for a long while, if ever. "That's just what they want, those Death Eaters, Harry, to separate you from the rest of us. Why's it always you who takes the risks?" She'd wrinkled up her forehead and there was a telltale line between her eyebrow that meant she was close to boiling point. "I'm not happy about this in the slightest."

Harry called Kreacher, in case he wasn't able to leave the island and the others needed the boat to be brought back and that seemed to satisfy her to an extent. He explained what needed to be done to the willing House Elf and they set off together towards the island.

The lake was eerie as ever. Harry didn't see any Inferi, but then nothing disturbed the surface of the blackness before them and they didn't rise unless there was some sign of the living disturbing their perpetual rest.

The landing was uneventful and Harry strolled over to the basin that the horcrux had been concealed in, wand at the ready in case of booby traps, and then there was a shout, 'Avada Kadavra!' and a bang just in front of Harry's shoulder as the spell glanced off the basin. Harry sprang forward shouting a stunning spell and then he heard a small cry and a splashing sound. No one visible - he didn't even see the Inferi rise to drag the body under. He'd been too slow and couldn't save whoever it was from a nasty death at the bottom of that stagnant lake. Harry felt responsible, despite the fact that they had been aiming to kill him a moment before they met a nasty, watery end.

And then he heard furious fighting on the other side of the lake where his friends were waiting. Harry sent Kreacher back to defend them and hurriedly got back into the boat - the return trip was tortuously slow, he imagined the scene with three dead bodies - the bodies of his closest friends and his own girlfriend, all of whom he was responsible for ... Then he saw the stricken faces of Ron and Hermione illuminated by Hermione's wand tip - Ron looking particularly pale in the poor light in the cave. No sign of Ginny and he feared the worst.

Then Hermione spoke in a shocked tone, "Harry, they took Ginny!"

Harry felt furious with Ron. And he heard shouting and realised it was his own voice, telling Ron how he'd let him down and what had he been thinking. "What were you thinking, Ron! What kind of an auror would mess up this bad - you've let us all down."

Ron looked more than uncomfortable at his words. "She's my sister, Harry. Do you think if I could have stopped them I wouldn't have? They came out of nowhere."

"There were seven of them," Hermione said visible shaking. "Binding spell Harry, we couldn't cast any spells once those were in place. Very advanced magic. Once they'd caught us unawares we didn't stand a chance." If Harry had had time to think it through and there wasn't so much at stake then he'd have agreed with Hermione. Binding spells are indeed very advanced magic and more likely to rebound on the person casting them as they are unable to shield themselves from any spells until the Bind is in place. When they work as they are designed then no one but the person casting them is able to cast any spells in the vicinity. They look like thin wispy threads that entwine themselves around the wand and the wrist of the witch or wizard that they are binding. No wonder his friends hadn't been able to defend themselves effectively. He found he was still angry though, not least because he'd not been there and was powerless to do anything now that she'd gone.

"Why didn't you follow protocol, Ron? Guard all the main exits and entrances and anywhere they could be hiding?" Harry said lamely.

"I did Harry. I was guarding the way we came in. Kingsley said they were outside and if they did come back and got passed Dawlish and Savage ... well I thought it better they got me first if I couldn't stop them." Ron hesitated. There was something that he was ashamed of anyway and didn't want to tell Harry, but this wasn't the time to discuss that.

"Hermione was guarding the way you went and Ginny ... Ginny was facing into the cave, where it was least likely an attack would come. She got distracted when we heard fighting coming from where you were, mate. And then they came from out of the darkness."

"We should have checked down the lakeside before you got into the boat ..." so that was it, Ron thought it was Harry's fault. Well that made two of them. So did Harry. He should never have left Ginny for a moment in that hellhole. If the love of his life wasn't going to be in his life again, then he'd no one to blame but himself.

Meanwhile, Ginny was being dragged towards the cliff edge by her captors. Each was masked and dressed in long robes, robes too large for the people wearing them.

"You're a bit short for Death Eaters, aren't you?" she said calmly, edging a little further from the reach of the one who had tight hold of her sleeve. A quick side step and then a twist and she'd be able to get free enough to make a run for it, though this near to the edge of the cliff, anything might happen. At least she'd stand more chance than when they got close enough to the edge to push her over. But then why hadn't they finished her off magically before now? They certainly had the upper hand from when they first clashed wands in the cave. Their combined magic was more than a match for her, now wandless, but not physically given how small her captors were and they seemed to have given up using magic for the time being.

"You House Elves or something?" she asked as brightly as she could manage in the circumstance.

There was a derisive snort in the darkness and one of them said, "Never you mind that. You concentrate on climbing, 'cos we're going down!"

They didn't get any closer to the cliff edge and Ginny didn't find a chance to put her half-baked plan into operation. Actually, after the first short descent down a fissure in the rock face, that she'd not noticed previously, they didn't go down much further. She found herself feeling her way along ledges and guessing where to out her feet in the increasing darkness. Her seven assailants were adapt climbers and she found she needed some help to find the hand holds and purchase for her feet that they seemed to find so easily and she assumed they'd taken this route many times before. Their robes, which should have been a hinderance, didn't seem to bother any of them once hitched into belts and waist bands.

And then they were plunging into a second, much smaller cave, her eyes not adjusting to the darkness again before they were crawling upwards towards a small circle of light that was getting bigger and bigger as they rose and then was directly above them. She wondered what was going to happen next when she found her hands being placed on cold metal rungs some way above her head. Someone was on the ladder a short way above her and moving slowly away from her and someone below her had taken her foot in their hands and was boosting her upwards. The ladder went down about level with her knees, if the rung she'd been guided to was the bottom one. There wasn't enough light to see how the ladder was attached to the walls, if at all, and she wondered if it was held up by magical means.

It was a long climb going up and Ginny was about to stop for a breather again when she realised that the air quality was quite different here, fresher, and she felt a breeze on her face. She glanced upwards to see the hands of two people ahead of her, were reaching down for her to grasp and then she was being hauled upwards and out of the tunnel.

They were standing in a poorly lit, circular room, not even half as wide as her room at the Burrow with a large pillar in the middle. There wouldn't be room for all the people coming up to stand in the limited floorspace and she wasn't surprised when they started to walk again. All they did, however, was to walk around the other side of the pillar to where the others coming in would be standing - only they weren't there when they came around the other side. When she heard their voices below them, she guessed that they were all moving upwards. She'd spent enough time in spiral staircases at Hogwarts to know that something magical was responsible for the physical impossibility of this.

It wasn't long before they were all standing in a large wooden room which reminded Ginny of the treehouse that Charlie and her father had built for her and Ron one summer in the woods by their home. And that's just what it turned out to be. A large treehouse with a balcony which went all round the outside and what could be dozens of rooms in the interior, judging by all the doors she saw leading off from the hallway.

Ginny had a strong feeling that she was about to find out who her abductors were and she wasn't sure whether the news would be welcome or not.