Disclaimer: I own nothing, don't sue!
Rating: PG-13 for some content and themes.
Summary: "My patronus, the fluent silver otter was dying, fading more and more, growing weaker as the noise of the dementors sucking grew louder. The last image I saw before conjuring another patronus was his face, Ron's, and I knew I wasn't about to give up." Ginny is possessed by Voldermort and they have to lock her in a room to keep her from harming anyone, but, after the war is done, will Hermione be able to open the door and free her? Sequel to 'A Crack in the Door', 'The Broken Door', and 'Laying by the Door' (But you don't have to read the other three to understand this) R/H and H/G angst/drama
A/N: Ok, so this is the next part of my 'Brave Girl' series. It's a sequel to 'A Crack in the Door' and takes place the same time as 'The Broken Door' and 'Laying by the Door' do. It is not necessary to read either of these stories to understand this one, but I would suggest them if you like this one!
The Foreign Door
"Snape's getting suspicious, all the teachers are getting suspicious. Ron, you have to leave, you have to pretend she's not in there."
The words hurt coming out of my mouth.
"It doesn't matter," Ron told me "No one can open the door except Harry, remember we put that spell on it."
"Ron…We're talking about highly trained wizards here. Even if they can't open the door, they could just have a dementor guard the door, that would be even worse."
"Dumbledore would never let one of them in Hogwarts. Remember our third year, he freaked when they were on the quidditch field"
"Things are a lot different from 3 years ago."
It pained me to say so, and seeing him like that laying there shivering, some maternal instinct in me wanted to kneel down and comfort him instead of what I was actually doing, dragging him away, literally. But things really were a lot different, and Ron couldn't go on pretending that they weren't. Things had changed, People had changed and they were starting to notice that he hadn't, I suppose that's always been my favorite, and most hated aspect of Ron. He never changed from day one to now, seven years later. He was exactly the same person, just as loyal, just as caring, and strong and funny when it suited the situation, and sometimes when it didn't, but then, also just as sarcastic, bad tempered and immature as ever.
He hadn't changed. We all had, we all had to, we had to put masks on and become monsters of ourselves, or maybe ghosts… But not Ron, he never would conform. Even after everything that had happened.
"Occlumency," Harry whispered, he, Ron, Ginny and I were sitting in a circle our heads almost touching. The word made me shiver, Occlumency, Harry was teaching it to Ginny, which I could tell, could only mean one thing.
"You mean like the mind control stuff?" Ron asked nervously "Have you been having problems with-"? She said no, no she hadn't but there was always that chance, it was 'in case' that Harry had approached her with the idea and she had agreed.
"Ginny, it was just a suggestion, and if you don't want to do it anymore… I mean I think you're getting better, but for all I know I could be making it worse-" Harry muttered.
"Making it worse?" Ron asked sharply.
"Well I don't think-"
"But you don't know," I cut Harry off in a bossier voice then I had meant to use. "And that's what's making me reluctant about all this, I don't know if it's such a good idea Harry." I added softer and they all agreed albeit, reluctantly.
The conversation rings in my head, if I don't keep it occupied with a different thought it seeps through my mental threshold.
"I don't know if it's such a good idea Harry."
I was wrong. So, so wrong. And to think I had been so arrogant, so proud of myself, Hermione Granger top witch of her year. How could I have so little common sense?
Luna Lovegood was found shortly after. Dead.
In my lifetime, especially after befriending Harry, I had seen many horrifying things, but that was the worst. Her body was so twisted, a strange blue-ish tint to her skin and dark almost black blood running out of the cuts and tears all across her bare skin, as if her skin had suddenly grown to thin, for her bones.
"I did it." She had said it so quietly at first, I wasn't sure if I'd heard right. "I did it." She was chanting it, "I did it, I did it I did it!" It was so deranged, such normal words sounded so foreign coming from her mouth, taken in context.
My mind raced, blood boiled, we needed a plan and I needed a way to redeem myself. I had pulled Harry aside and we had made one, a plan, something to save Ginny… We hoped. We would make it look like she'd ran for it, off into the forest, and she'd hide. We both knew Dumbledore would know, how could we trick the most brilliant wizard of our time?
"We won't have to," Harry whispered seriously. "He'll play along… I know he will."
And he did. He played along, adverted his eyes as Harry searched for a place to hold her, as I cut away locks of her hair….
"Hermione, don't forget me ok?" Ginny breathed as I clipped away a piece of her silky red hair, tears forming in the corners of her eyes.
"I could never forget you Gin, you know that." I told her reassuringly, biting down on my lip so as not to let myself tear up. I set the scissors down and slipped the limp strands of fiery red hair into my pocket.
"I know, just- just don't forget the me before this happened…" She trailed off taking a deep breath, "Remember who I was before I was a- a puppet, for You-Know-Who." She said, I sat down on the bed in front of her, watching the silent tears run down her face, and took her shaking hands.
"Ginny, you're not his- his puppet. You're still Ginny to me, I couldn't forget the Ginny you were, you are, never."
"Hermione, tell Ron I love him, and I'll miss him and my parents and Fred and George, and Bill, Charlie and, and even Percy- Tell Percy…" She whispered. I nodded hugging Ginny and blinking my own tears away, forcing myself to be strong, we had to be strong.
"I will, I promise," I told her trying to keep the quavering out of my voice.
"Hermione, don't forget me ok?"
No one noticed as we put the plan into action, it was as if we were isolated, prisoners of our own misfortune, the whole school seemed to watch from a distance as we grieved, shielding their eyes as Ron and I set up "evidence" that she had run away, turning away as Harry shut the door. Even though I wasn't there, I could imagine how it sounded the second it closed, the loud clunk of it shutting and click of Harry setting the lock in place, only to be opened after she was free from His possession- the Dark Lord's.
"Where are you going?" Ron asked quietly. I turned catching his gaze, they were red, his eyes, red and squinted.
"Outside." I mumbled hoping he wouldn't follow.
"Can I come-"
"I'd rather be alone." I cut in sharply, feeling Ginny's soft red hair in the palm of the hand I had hidden in my pocket.
"I don't want to be alone." He finished slowly. I bit my lip nervously.
"You won't want to come with me, really, not now-"
"Please?" I stared at him for a second, unable to say no I just shrugged and he sighed deeply, following as I walked silently outside and to the forbidden forest. I pulled the hair out slowly staring at it for a second before turning around.
"We have to make it look like she ran away…" I started holding up the hair to show him. I avoided his eyes as he took in what I was holding, what I was going to do. He put a hand to his face, over his mouth, a deep sound rising from the back of his throat.
"Ok," He gulped. I walked softly checking, scanning the area constantly for other students, or worse, professors. I let a few strands fall softly to the ground making sure to be sparse, too many in one place will look fake, suspicious. I tangled a few strands around a thorned branch at head height. My breath caught in my throat as a thorn pierced my thumb. Ron's hand landed heavily on my shoulder.
"Are you ok?" He asked in a low gravelly voice. I nodded biting my lip. It didn't hurt, I could barely feel it but somehow there were still tears in my eyes as I watched the red liquid smear between my thumb and forefinger. I turned holding out Ginny's limp red hair for him to take. He swallowed again staring at the hair as if it were hundreds of red spiders, he put out his large calloused hand and let me drop the soft strands into it. He took his other hand off my shoulder grabbing my bleeding hand and looking at it. "We're doing the right thing, aren't we? It's better this way, right?"
I nodded biting my lip.
"Yeah, we just have to wait it out, we have to be-" I cut off as he pulled the thorn from my thumb quickly, but still carefully, as if he'd done it loads of times before.
"Strong." He finished glancing down at the red hair and walking deeper into the forest, letting me trail behind him by our entwined hands.
It seemed like mutiny what we were doing to her, I guess it really was mutiny, but it had to be done. Ron was furious when Harry told him what we had done. Harry had locked Ginny in an old abandoned room down in the dungeons. Putting a spell on the door so that no one but him could open it.
"So what? We just leave her to die?!?" Ron had screamed. Harry had grabbed him shaking him slightly.
Would you rather she go to Azkaban?"
"Just until things get better." I had cut in pushing between the two of them. But from the look on Harry's face I knew they weren't going to, not for a while.
Ron convinced a house elf to magic some food to her once a day, we had all agreed to that but it wasn't enough for him, for any of us really. It hurt, like a disease hidden deep beneath the surface that just grew, grew and got worse and worse. We all handled it our own way Harry closing off constantly in a state of half sleep mumbling to himself and wanting to be alone. I suppose I did something similar, sitting off by myself in the library, reading furiously researching, looking wide-eyed for some sign, something that would tip me off on when he was going to strike; But the books that had always been my friends all the sudden had turned into something foreign the words turned into mindless dribble. I was on constant surveillance of the school watching silently as Draco Malfoy strutted the school, taking note of everything from his happiness to his anger. It had to mean something, it had to.
Ron handled it in his own way too, by not handling it at all. He'd sit next to that horrible door. Skipping classes and just standing there, staring at it with this expression something I had never seen upon his face before, so foreign to me, and then he'd just drop down beside it leaning his head against the molding. I tried to ignore it at first it hurt to much to acknowledge, it hurt to much to see. It wasn't long before it was whole days that he'd be there, skipping class, skipping food… Skipping me. I remember those few nights he'd come back to his room bleary eyed and staggering. Sometimes I would go over to him and try to say something comforting, but mostly I would just sit there, in a chair next to the fireplace and stare at him. He was addicted to it; and I missed him. Eventually I would just start walking down there just to see him, as hard as it was. Occasionally Snape would pass by and mutter something foul or give us detentions that I would attend alone, Ron ignoring them.
"You can't skip detention Ron," I mumbled leaning my head against his shoulder. He sighed.
"It's not important anymore, school isn't important." He replied.
"Just come… For me-" I tilted my head up staring at him as he squinted his eyes in thought.
"No, no, I can't."
"You have to… Snape's getting suspicious; all the teachers are getting suspicious. Ron, you have to leave, you have to pretend she's not in there." I was in tears. I stood up angrily, angry that his stubbornness could ruin our plan, that I had to sit by the door just to see him, that I was so invisible to him, that I had to comfort him when I felt so sick myself. That my comforting wasn't enough for him- that I wasn't enough for him.
It happened so unexpectedly, everything had seemed so normal, almost too normal and then Hogwarts was bombarded, students started dropping to the ground, dying all at once and the noise was deafening, screams, cries, yells, and it all finally made sense.
We apperated to the Riddle house, we didn't even have our licenses yet, but we had been studying up on it secretly, our own little DA meetings. The tension was thick when we finally got there, excitement, and fear, and something else I can't explain Harry was in his element, it would be over, at last and he was ready for it, so ready. Getting into the house was too easy; we knew he was waiting for us, teasing us with his lack of defense. I couldn't breath each step seemed to echo louder then the one before it. And Harry just got faster, he was running Ron right behind him, confidant, loyal, but I could tell he was scared to, his fists were clenched so tightly I was afraid he was going to draw blood from pushing his fingernails to hard into his hand.
It was horrible, horrible and at the same time so right, so perfect, it was the first time Harry was Harry again, if he could just win, if he could just really do it, then it would only get better, it had to get better. The boys were sprinting when the Dementors swept in filling all the space around us, cutting me off from the other two, making me wish I had been able to keep up with there long strides. My head seemed to turn inside out all my worst thoughts pouring out, encircling me. I tried to conjure a patronus but the words were stuck in my throat, by the time I had finally croaked the incantation there were too many. My patronus, the fluent silver otter was dying, fading more and more, growing weaker as the noise of the dementors sucking grew louder, as the images, the horrible fears grew worse. The last image I saw before conjuring another patronus was his face, Ron's, that look he got when he was looking at the door and I knew I wasn't about to give up, not if that would be the result.
So many things happened all at once, so fast it was hard to keep up. I remember when the death eaters started rushing toward us. There faces shadowed in black cloaks that they through back, no longer willing to hide their faces. I was fighting with a male death eater that I recognized from school as Marcus Flint, my knees buckling at the last second as I realized how many were going to die, how many I, myself would have to kill.
Throwing the limp, heavy body to the ground I turned looking for Ron, for Harry. He was running, Harry was, a look of anger, confidence, and determination shining on his face a girl death eater was after him from behind but he didn't notice, or maybe didn't care, I dodged in front of a girl screaming curses, jinxes, every thing that came to mind until she had stopped moving.
For a while all I could hear was the sound of curses coming out of my mouth and bodies hitting the ground.
"Hermione!" Ron yelled pointing to the corridor that Harry had just disappeared down and we went, running as fast as our legs would take us, knowing we had to help Harry. I was crying, I hadn't even noticed it before but now I felt the tears warm and salty on my cheeks and I couldn't make it stop, I couldn't stop crying, in my blurred vision I could see Ron a ways down the corridor and then someone else running out of a side hall and chasing after him.
I screamed something, I'm not sure what and then just as Ron's body was hitting the ground, I cursed him, the words leaving my mouth seemingly, in slow motion a scream was echoing throughout the house and I knew that Ron and I were too late, Harry'd done it himself, in the end, he had done it again, all by himself. Happiness and amazement coursed through me as the words of the curse sent jets of green light out of my wand- "Avada Kedavra!"
The last thing I remember was Lucious Malfoy hitting the ground.
The room in St. Mungo's was white and clean smelling, Mrs. Weasley was sitting in the corner of the room when I woke up.
"Oh Hermione, dear," She cried as I sat up, her face was tear stained as she sat by my side.
"How are the others?" I mumbled, wincing at my growing headache.
"Haven't woken up yet, said you'd most likely be the first awake," She said quickly, hugging me.
"But they will, will wake up?" I asked slowly. She looked down at me smiling, and nodded.
After taking some potion for my headaches the questions started, so many running through my head that I was having trouble getting one out before the next one started. I learned that my parents had gone missing, along with Tonks, Kingsley, Neville, George, Percy, and Charlie, and that Dumbledore's body had been found, unscarred, just dead.
The words hurt, hearing all the missing people, some of them probably dead, all hurt.
I visited both Ron and Harry's rooms staring at there pale skin caked with blood, burns, scars; but it didn't matter anymore because we had won, as long as they could pull through, as long as the others could be found, as long as Ginny was still alive.
"Where are you going?" Remus Lupin asked after I'd changed back into my regular clothes and pulled the wand from the pocket. I ran over and hugged him.
"Home," I replied softly. He gave me a questioning look but let me go walking into Harry's hospital room.
Getting on Hogwarts grounds wasn't easy, the place was overrun with security sent by what was left of the ministry, but I managed. It was probably the worst thing I'd ever seen, the once tall stone walls were crumbled dust and rock, wizards were walking back and forth levitating dead bodies from under rocks to big towering piles of blood, flesh and rotting bones.
The only thing left was the dungeons, after finding a crumbling staircase leading down to them it was only a matter of minutes before I found the door. Even after standing by it, sitting by it, laying by it, even sleeping by it, it still looked so foreign to me. I felt frozen standing in front of it, imagining Ron lying there, imagining Harry shut it, imagining Ginny behind it.
I bit my lip trying to calm myself, I raised my wand slowly.
"Aloha-" I cut off, the words I knew so well, were all of the sudden so foreign, and what if she wasn't in there? What if the death eaters had broken in? Stolen her? And then just resealed it? "Al-" what if she was dead? What if we had won minutes too late? Seconds? Hours? Days? What if she'd died the day we'd locked her in? "Aloham-" I couldn't open it anyways right? We'd cast that spell so only Harry could so why bother, right? Why not go back to St. Mungos and wait for Harry to wake up, wait for Ron, why do this when it'll only make it hurt that much more?
I was crying. I hated it but I couldn't stop, I was laying by the door the door that had always looked so foreign, so wrong, the door that didn't belong.
"Hermione, don't forget me ok?"
A/N Continued: Please review! If you had problems understanding this I would suggest reading 'The Crack in the Door' which is the first part of this series. Once again, please review! Criticism is welcome! :)