She stood there, watching and waiting. In her right hand, she was holding an unusual sword. Brimming with the Star Power, it had guided her to this spot. Somehow, she knew she was going to save her beloved today. Ever since she had been given the Star Power, she had been working to overthrow what Riddle had put in place.
With a nimbleness assisted by the Star Power, she leaped from the top of the tree she was in and landed on top of a large rock. Her armor made her look like someone out of the Tales of Merlin, and it was a necessary disguise. It hurt her to know that the one she loved probably thought she was dead, but that was also necessary to the disguise. Her enemies feared death more than anything else, and in this climate especially a dead woman with a sword was more at liberty than a girl in hiding.
Ginny Weasley removed her helmet and created an aura of illusion around her. Her read hair fell down to her shoulders, her brown eyes were red with exhaustion, and her lips were cracked with thirst. She wanted nothing less than to slice away the enchantments that she could feel dividing her from Harry, but the sword, her connection to the Star Power, told her that they would fall soon enough without her.
She drew a cup of water and drank quickly, then put her helmet back on. It had been months since she had been 'killed' getting Luna to safety, and she was sure that Ron had told Harry and Hermione about her death. She'd been to visit Bill and Fleur shortly after Ron had left there, since it had been Bill's idea for her to 'die' in the first place and from there she'd been bringing bits of news back to the two of them.
If only she could have told Ron, too... then Harry might know that she was well...
She was shocked out of her reverie when she felt the Taboo being breached. Right in front of her, large as life, was the Tent. The sword flashed in her hand, and she knew that the time to fight for her love had come at last.
This time, the Snatchers would be driven off without their prize.
The Snatchers had surrounded the tent silently and almost instantly. Ginny counted at least five of them, and one of them - Fenrir Greyback the Werewolf – held his hand to the sky. His raspy voice gave Ginny the chills as the piercing whistle of a Sneakoscope broke the silence. "Come out of there with your hands up! We know you're in there! You've got half a dozen wands pointing at you and we don't care who we curse!"
Ginny tensed, ready to strike, but a voice in her head whispered not yet. She waited. There was a bang from inside the tent, and Greyback dropped his hand as to signal a charge. The instant his hand dropped, the Snatchers – a total of six, counting Fenrir – swarmed the tent. Ginny could hear Greyback threaten to savage Hermione, and even as she felt sick to her stomach, the voice in her head still said not yet.
Someone yelled out an order to search the tent. Ginny strained to listen to what was said. How the Star Power could tell her to wait when the boy who stole her heart away was about to be sacrificed to Voldemort, she couldn't understand. All she knew was that the Star Power knew what it was doing. Everything was ruled by the stars. If they said to wait, then she would wait.
Greyback growled when he saw Harry. "I'll be needing Butterbeer to wash this one down. What happened to you, ugly?"Ginny winced in pain, trying her hardest not to cry out as Greyback kneed Harry in the chest. "I said, what happened to you?"
Harry muttered something that Ginny couldn't hear properly. Get closer. A Snatcher, who Ginny recognized as Travers, said "Yeah, looks like it."
Greyback snarled at Harry for his name, and Ginny wasn't sure whether to laugh or groan when Harry replied "Dudley."
"And your first name?" Greyback barked. Two or three of the Snatchers snickered.
"I – Vernon. Vernon Dudley."
One of the snickering Snatchers pulled out a pad of paper as Greyback turned to him. "Check the list, Scabior." Ginny felt the sword throb in her hand, and knew the spells to cast. Silently, she pointed the sword at each of the Snatchers and bound them with an Undetectable Anti-Apparition Jinx. It was a very draining thing for her to do, as since the Sword didn't have an organic or magical core of its own it had to draw from Ginny's power directly. Closing her eyes to catch her breath, she listened as Harry told Greyback where the Slytherin Common Room was located. She smiled to herself even as she made a mental note to ask Harry exactly how he came to know that piece of information.
A yell from the tent drew everybody's attention, and Ginny felt the Star Power urge her towards the group. Now was the time to act. One of the Snatchers had discovered the Sword of Gryffindor in the tent... but how had Harry gotten that out of Gringotts? Unless...
She shook her head and darted behind Greyback. The werewolf tensed when he felt the point of a sword at the back of his head. Instinctively, he spun around and flynned Ginny's sword back with the Sword of Gryffindor. The five Snatchers panicked momentarily, then each grabbed a prisoner and held their wand to a throat.
Greyback and Ginny both focused intently on their duel. The Werewolf was stronger and faster than Ginny, but he lacked the skill to hit a quickly moving target. And, despite Ginny's apparent lack of a wand, both combatants dueled with both steel and spells, each parrying the other's blows, each dodging the other's spells.
One of the Snatchers took an opportunity to blast a Stunner at Ginny, but he did not expect her to reflect the spell back to him with her sword. Unfortunately, Greyback took the opportunity and tore the helmet off with his hands. Ginny's red hair fell down to her shoulders once again, and three of the prisoners gasped involuntarily. Greyback took a step back as well. "You... but I killed you!"
His hesitation cost him dearly. Ginny lashed out at him with the Sword she had, and it seemed as though the air itself had become part of the blade. The shockwave ripped a slash through Fenrir Greyback, as though he had been sliced up with Sectumsempra. Though blood splashed everywhere, the wound was sealed up almost as quickly as it had formed, leaving a long scar across the werewolf's chest. He staggered in pain, and dropped to his knees.
The remaining Snatchers all pressed their wands to their hostages' throats. Ginny did not look away from Greyback. Raising her sword, she held it up to his throat. "I would give you a chance to escape alive, but I know that you wouldn't show that same mercy to me." She pressed her sword against his jugular vein. "I have been hunting Harry Potter for months, and I'm not going to let some two-bit Snatchers steal my prize. Leave, and I'll forget that you were here."
The Snatchers all started in surprise. Ginny Weasley hunting down Harry Potter for the reward? No, it couldn't be... Fenrir Greyback had exploded her when they had been ordered to capture Luna Lovegood. This had to be someone else.
"If you do not leave, then I will simply inform the Dark Lord that you willingly stood between him and Harry Potter." She held a finger over her right arm, where the Dark Mark would have been if she had one. As one, the Snatchers dropped their hostages and moved towards Fenrir. With a slash at the group, a wave of red light washed over the Snatchers, and they all fell unconscious. She staggered her way to Harry's side, gasping for breath.
"Goblin, take their wands. Ron, Hermione, Dean, start packing the tent, we don't have much time before they'll wake on their own, doing a group weakens the effect by that much. Harry, please say something."
Harry mumbled something incoherent as the others followed the orders given to them by this armor-clad woman. Even Griphook the Goblin followed the orders of this mysterious person, though more because it meant his survival more than anything else. Whoever this woman was, she was as ruthless as any goblin.
The tent was packed quickly, wands were distributed, and the Snatchers were starting to awaken. Ginny quickly pointed her sword to the sky, and in a flash of silver light, the Snatchers were left on their own.
Ginny looked around. They had been brought to Shell Cottage by the Star Power. But they were not yet inside the range of the Fidelius Charm, and she was not the Secret Keeper. Only two of them, herself and Ron, could go into the cottage and alert Bill of their presence. Ron decided that he would be the one to go, as it meant being useful (and it also meant not having to see Ginny and Harry kissing). Hermione, Dean, and Griphook waited for Ron at the edge of the Fidelius Charm's boundary, giving Harry and Ginny a little privacy.
Ginny was nervous, much more nervous than when she had first taken up the Starlight Sword. Harry didn't want to meet her eyes, either. She swallowed her nerves and tried to start.
"Harry, I-"
"Ginny, I-"
Together, they paused, blushed, and started again.
"Ginny, I'm sorry."
"Harry, I'm sorry."
Again, they both spoke at the same time. Harry blinked. "What are you sorry for? I was worried out of my mind that something bad had happened to you; Hermione and I hadn't heard anything about you since before Ron left us, and he wouldn't say anything to me about you ever since he came back."
It was Ginny's turn to blink. Ron hadn't said anything? "I... I'll explain it later, I'd rather only tell it one more time. What do you have to be sorry about?"
Harry shrugged. "For trying to break up with you. Ever since we left the Burrow, I'd been afraid that you'd die, or that I'd die, or that we'd survive but you'd have married someone like Zabini Blaise before the war ended."
Ginny couldn't help but laugh. "I've been in love with you for my whole life, you noble prat. Do you really think that I'd stop loving you just because Riddle is out to kill you? I may have been a little angry at you for doing it, but I always knew why you did."
"Ron claiming that I was messing you around didn't help me any."
Ginny sighed contentedly. She needed to get to sleep, and fast – and now that Harry was there beside her, she thought she could do just that. "I forgave you for it a long time ago, Harry." She yawned. "That damn sword takes a lot more out of me than my wand ever did. I'm sorry if I fall asleep on you, Harry."
She could hear Harry grin. "I don't mind; you'd make a better blanket than Ron does."
The next thing she knew, she was lying on one of the couches in Shell Cottage. Her sword was under the couch, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were all sitting on the floor discussing... something.
Ginny yawned herself awake, which the alleged Trio took to be their cue. Each of them turned towards Ginny, who blinked. Ron looked halfway between furious and eternally grateful, Hermione looked curious, and Harry... well, the look Harry was giving her made her very happy that Harry was still in love with her.
Ginny sighed in resignation. "I guess I should start at the beginning, shouldn't I?"
Ron nodded. "Bill told me you'd been killed." Ron said, ignoring the looks from Hermione and Harry. "I thought she had been killed. I didn't say anything when I got back because I thought… well…"
Ron stopped, realizing just how stupid what he was about to say would have been, and nodded at Ginny for her to continue. Bill and Fleur were tending to Dean and Griphook, who were in separate rooms.
"It all starts with that sword under the couch, the Starlight Sword. Harry, you don't know what it's like at Hogwarts right now. Death Eaters training purebloods how to torture Half-bloods and blood-traitors…" She took a breath, and continued. "It was Neville who found it. The Sword. It was in the Room of Requirement one day, when we were planning how to get the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry. I think the Room gave the sword to me."
Ginny pulled the sword from under the couch and held it out for the other three to see. "When Neville picked it up, he started to talk to somebody that wasn't there. Something about Ravenclaw, I think. The next thing I knew, he had thrust the sword into my hands, and was telling me that it was my destiny to have it. I told him he was spending too much time in detention and tried to get him to go to Madam Pomfrey."
The blade of the sword caught the firelight, and Ginny kept on telling the story. "As soon as we tried to take the sword out of the Room of Requirement, it disappeared. I don't know how, but I knew that the time wasn't right for me to carry that sword in the open air. Anyway, after that we tried to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Snape, but he caught us and sent us to detention with Hagrid." She frowned at that.
"I've been wondering about that." Hermione said. "Why would he send you to Hagrid for detention when there are plenty of Death Eaters there to torture students?"
Harry shrugged. "What are the detentions like?"
Ginny shuddered at the memory. "The teachers are supposed to send us to Amycus or Alecto Carrow for detention, but nobody but the Carrows and Filch sends us to the Carrows if they can help it – and that includes Snape. If you get one of the Carrows, then you get used as target practice for the Dark Arts classes." Nobody really had to ask what she meant by Target Practice. "Everyone else just tries not to assign detentions anymore, and the only reason we got sent to Hagrid was because Snape told everybody that we weren't serving an actual detention… I think he called it a 'Reparative Project,' and that was enough for the Carrows."
Ron looked at Ginny. "So why did Bill told me you'd been killed?"
Ginny laughed. "It was Bill's idea for me to do that. When I showed him the Starlight Sword and what I could do with it, he suggested that I try and help you out with it. The problem was, was I couldn't exactly not go back to Hogwarts the following semester. It was just sheer dumb luck that Greyback had been told to capture Luna – we fought, and I did what Wormtail did to Sirius, faked my death. We got Luna out safely, and the first thing I did was to make sure that Luna and Xeno were safely behind a Fidelius Charm – I'm their Secret Keeper, so there's no chance of Xeno blowing the secret when he's out shopping. They're with Dad at the..."
She stopped suddenly. "Well, that's odd. Remind me to ask Flitwick about overlapping Fidelius Charms once everything's done. Anyway, they're hiding with Dad and everybody else."
Ron frowned. "So what's the deal with the sword, anyway?"
Ginny shrugged. "The Starlight Sword? I'm not certain about the details, but the night after we found it, I showed it to Professor Flitwick. Apparently, the sword was one of the earliest experiments combining magic with muggle technology – this being made back in the Days of Merlin, so Muggle Technology means catapults and chain-mail armor. Flitwick went on about how the Starlight Sword is part of why we use wands that are organic, but the upshot of what he said was that I can use it as a wand, but that it would be a lot more taxing on my magical core since there's nothing living inside the sword."
"So, that wave of red was a stunner?" Ron asked.
Ginny nodded. "With the help of the Star Power, I was able to turn a stunner into a Blanket Stun Wave. The problem is that the Star Power conflicts with magic, so while it can spread the effect to more targets,"
"It means the overall effect is weaker." Harry finished for her, remembering what she had said before. "The Patronus Charm is the same way – the more Dementors, the more I have to put into the spell to make it work against all of them."
"Professor Flitwick said something to me about the Patronus Charm, but I don't remember exactly what. I can't do a Patronus with the Starlight Sword, at any rate." To demonstrate, she held the sword aloft. Screwing her face up in concentration, she practically yelled "EXPECTO PATRONUM." Nothing. Not even a spark. She took one of the wands that they had scavenged from the Snatchers, and did the same – this time producing her usual Patronus.
"I can still do magic with the sword, but some spells – the Patronus charm among them – I can't make work properly. Probably because I don't have enough raw power to cast those spells without an Organic Core Wand to help me."
She put the sword away, and looked at Harry. "I know what you're hunting. I know why you can't talk about them. I think I know where one of them is hidden, but we can't confirm it without showing the Sword of Gryffindor to one of the top Death Eaters."
Bill came into the room, accompanied with Griphook. "And if it really is where the Sword said it is, then we now have a way to get it out. And with my help, we might be able to do it without ever being noticed."