Summary: Ginny Potter, entranced by a Horcrux, picks it up. Not all objects are harmless.
Author's note: This is the edited version. I wrote this over 2 years ago, and after several, "mixed" reviews, I decided to put it on hiatus. Now it's being revamped, and I have an outline for myself to follow plot wise, so this story WILL go somewhere, eventually, ok? Cool. Chocolate Chip cookies to my 3 people who have this story on alert even though "This. Story. Is. Trash." (:), carolquin, .sarcasm, and the triscuit.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story. They belong to J. K. Rowling, Warner Bros., Scholastic, and Bloomsbury. I only own the crappy plot that I wrote as a teenager.
Prologue
Harry Potter tore through the halls of Hogwarts. All he knew was that he had to get to her. All he could think about was getting her away from it, getting it out of the school, but she was all the way in the Headmistress' office.
Harry raced up the moving staircases, having to stop only once while he waited impatiently for a staircase to move into the correct position after he almost fell off the end of an open platform.
When the staircase was still far enough for people to consider Harry mental, he leaped from the platform, and landed on the bottommost step, barely staying on his feet. He sprang up the steps, nearly losing his balance as the staircase locked onto the platform he had previously vacated.
On the third floor, he shouted the password to the painting of a rather frazzled-looking woman milking a purple cow, and darted though the opening it revealed. In the passage he slowed down just enough to navigate the twists, turns and forks in the path of the tunnel.
He clambered out of the back of a statue in the sixth floor corridor, and fell into a couple snogging. They were too shocked to even realize that it was their defense professor who was barreling away down the hall.
Harry was losing steam, all thought focused on Ginny and Hufflepuff's cup. It had more fatal curses than the Opal necklace, and a really nasty parseltongue compelment charm to boot. Once she stepped foot into the office she was a goner, but Harry didn't acknowledge that part of his subconscious.
Harry stumbled as he heard the screaming choking the life out of the hallway between him and the office. The Gargoyle jumped to the side as Harry flew past it and up the spiral stairs, bumping into the walls from his speed and the movement of the steps.
He burst into the room and let out a panicked whine as he saw the intense pain written on her face. She was writhing in the air about a meter from the ground, a thick green smoke issuing from the goblet clutched in her hands.
He rushed over to her and pulled her back to the ground by her robes. He grabbed the Horcrux and wrenching it from her grasp finger by finger, he flung it across the room.
She seemed possessed by the object, and looked at Harry with hatred. She took a step to the left and bent her knees, Harry copying her. Her hair pooled around her face obscuring her eyes from Harry. She dove for the Horcrux, and Harry dove for her. He flipped her over and pinned her hands above her head with one hand. Ginny wriggled, and tried to free herself, but Harry slipped his wand from his sleeve and without out another thought, uttered the spell, "Stupefy."