The Pink Daggers
Chapter One
The Last Night
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I do not own anything even remotely related to Harry Potter...wish I did! All the characters belong to JKR but the story is all mine – SilverWilver -
Story Rated M for violence, language and sexual situations. This story was written pre-DH but has been altered for consistency.
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I'm not sure of the exact moment it happened, all I know is that night...that crazy ass night changed my life, or should I say death? Fuck, I don't know. Everything has been so messed up. I don't know my right from my left anymore. I blame him, I blame him for everything. I shouldn't be this way, but now that I am what do I do about it? Cry? I don't think so. That's not me, I don't cry. I don't complain. And I sure as hell am not about to start now.
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It was never easy being the youngest of the Weasley family but nothing could prepare me for this. I read once that the number one thing people fear is public speaking. Coming in at a distant second is death. People would rather die than get up and talk. I'd like to think that I don't fear anything. After what I and most of the wizarding world have been through it's hard to think anything could get worse. Of course that was before what I have come to call "My Death Day." Everything changed then. I take fear a lot more seriously now. I don't fear death or talking or even spiders, the thing I fear most is myself.
I'm strong willed and always have been. I have to be. After Dumbledore died the world changed, a war was upon us. It started off small, a death here and there, acts of hate. But then it grew. Large groups of Death Eaters were attacking muggle towns and villages. If a muggle was where they shouldn't be you could be sure that trouble was to follow. I sat back and waited, going to Hogwarts as Harry, Ron and Hermione went about their silent quest to bring down Voldemort. We didn't really see much of each other as they were never home and I was always at school. It killed me more and more every day, not knowing where they were.
As the death toll rose it became more and more important for the job to be finished, but nothing is ever as easy as we would like it to be. Most of the wizarding locations of England were destroyed including Hogsmead, Diagon Alley and a good portion of Hogwarts. Everyday we were bombarded with news of more and more deaths, most of them were our friends and relatives. Harry however didn't let us down. He attacked Voldemort before he knew what hit him and with a flash, he was gone. It was all sorta anti-climatic in my opinion.
We have spent the past few years rebuilding and recovering from the destruction that was left behind. The Death Eaters didn't stop right away and ended up having to be hunted down and imprisoned one by one. We have all been suffering to build lives for ourselves. Harry went on to join a newly formed, non-ministry ran group of Aurors who's goal for now has been to hunt down any remaining Death Eaters. Hermione was offered a top job at St. Mungos while Ron and I have been helping to rebuild George's joke shop in Diagon Alley It's been hard without Fred.
"Ginny will you hurry your ass up! I'm tired of waiting for you!" Ron bellowed from downstairs. "George is waiting on us!"
Ron always got impatient when he knew Hermione was going to be around. But today was worse than normal. Hermione had been so busy working at the Psych department at St. Mungos that she hadn't been around the Burrow for nearly a month. Ron was going through what I call Hermione withdrawals. Hell, even I was having them by now. I missed her too, the know-it-all.
"I'm coming Ron, calm down." I shouted out my door as I run a brush through my hair one last time.
It's been over two years since Diagon Alley was destroyed by the Death Eaters. It's taken George, along with the rest of the shop owners that long to rebuild. Finally after working my ass off, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is ready to reopen. The whole family is coming out to celebrate. Many of us have not seen each other for a long time...we have all been living our lives and trying to move on from everything that happened.
After a few more rounds of arguing, Ron and I arrived in Diagon Alley dressed as well as we could. The aftermath of the war left everyone, not just us, hurting for money. Our family had invested so much to help out George that we have gone without a lot for a long time. But my family doesn't complain about such things, we get by with what we have. I managed to fashion a simple black dress out one of mum's old dress robes. I'm surprisingly good at sewing charms. Ron however looked worse for the ware in dad's old dress robes, the pants were so short you could see his shocking red leg hair sticking out, nasty looking if you ask me.
"Ginny! Ron! Over here!" Mum shouted as she came walking towards us as we exited the back of the Leaky Cauldron. "You won't believe the crowd that's here, it's amazing! I still can't believe we are the first shop to reopen."
True enough a large crowd of smartly dressed witches and wizards stood all around Diagon Alley looking into the windows of George's shop. Large Grand Opening banners had been hung all over number ninety-three, each sign was flashing a different color and shouting out comments to the crowd that awaited entrance. I couldn't help but laugh when I approached one sign that announced, Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes is the greatest joke shop in the world! If you disagree we will cover you in bubtuber puss.
"Man! I think every magical person in England is here tonight!" Ron announced to dad who just caught up with us.
"It's a big deal Ron. This is the first building other than Gringotts to reopen since the end of the war." Dad stated with pride dripping from every word. It amused me how proud he was of George now, compared to how he reacted when he and Fred first bought this place. It's amazing how things change.
"Has anyone seen George yet? I thought we would get a chance to see them today." I had been looking for him all day at home but I guess he had a lot of last minute chores to do. I tried jumping up and down over the crowd to look for him but being short that really didn't accomplish much.
"I think he is inside. He said he had something big planned for when they opened the doors." Ron said as he looked around the crowd.
I caught one glimpse of pure joy on Ron's face before I noticed why and then he disappeared. Hermione was sitting on a bench, somewhat away from the gathered crowd. The moment Ron spotted her he took off, not caring who he pushed molested or toppled on the way. Yes it was true that Ron had feelings for her but you don't go through everything they did together and not be forever connected to each other. I think they could find each other if they were blindfolded and placed at opposite ends of the earth. I found it sweet, romantic and frankly annoying all at the same time. Don't get me wrong I was happy they were so close it just only reminded me how lonely I really was.
I wanted to go join Ron and Hermione but mum's grip on my arm kept me in place. I think she was slightly nervous that George would pull something dangerous with his opening, trying to honor Fred as much as possible. I could cut the tension around her with a knife which just made me smile. To see her worry about the little things again was refreshing, for so long all she thought about was death. Now she started getting upset when I left the tea kettle on and it boiled over the stove. It was great to have her back.
"Ladies, Gentlemen and any other creature out there I thank you for coming to the reopening of my shop!" George's voice boomed over the crowd and caused everyone to jump. Of course I knew what was going on I spotted him right away, George was sitting on the roof of the building looking down at all of us but it was amusing to watch everyone else frantically search around for the location of the voice. "Oy! I'm up here!"
Once the crowd figured out where he was, George continued. "I have a demonstration for you." And without warning large amounts of fireworks shot off from the top of the roof lighting up the entire street. Bits of rubble still stood everywhere but for the most part most of the shops had been put back together. The reflection of the various shapes and sizes of explosions off of the shop windows was almost poetic and ironic at the same time. The last time that such lights and sounds happened on this street, it was falling to the ground. The crowd didn't gawk over the site, most were speechless. It was as if George was giving everyone closure on what happened here. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
As I watched a large blue pinwheel whiz through the sky the only thing I could think about was that last day that Diagon Alley stood in all its glory. I had been here, we all were here. Harry had gotten word that a Horcrux could be in Gingotts and he had been devising a plan to get it or at last resort, destroy the place, which he did. To this day we still don't know who found out about what they were doing but somehow the Death Eaters knew. Instead of attacking him personally they just went crazy and destroyed everything in sight. Six muggles, twelve wizards and three goblins were killed that day along with the spirit and last hope of every magical person alive. I think everyone felt safe as long as we still had places that were strictly magical, once that barrier had been crossed hope faded. It lowered everyone's moral so badly that it's a wonder any of us are still alive.
Suddenly the doors to the shop swung inwards and the light inside flickered on to reveal rows and rows of tricks, treats and other baubles. I smiled as people entered the shop, chatting happily as they fawned over the goodies. Ron and I had spent the past week placing products on the newly built shelves taking special care to color coordinate everything by size, product and danger level. It had been a long road to get back to this point but it was worth it. Seeing people smile again was worth it. The sudden feeling of being normal again was worth it. Everything was just...well almost...perfect again. Soon the other shops of Diagon will open again to be shortly followed by the re-opening of Hogsmead shops. Life was getting back to a bearable point, suddenly life didn't seem so bad anymore.
Instead of cramming myself into the store, I choose to stay outside. After all I'll be sick of the place before long. Ron and I will both be working there after today, tonight however was all about George and he deserved it. So I stepped out of the way and pushed through the crowd to find Ron and Hermione who were happily talking to each other, I'm not even sure if they noticed that the store was now open now, nor did it seem like they cared much.
"Hey guys."
"Oh, hey Ginny!" Hermione said with a huge grin then stood up to hug me.
Okay, I'm not into chics or anything but it sure did feel good to hug her. You know that feeling you have when you see someone for the first time after a long time apart? That's how it was, I was just happy that she was safe, alive and most of all here. I could really use some time to talk to her. I love my family but there are just things you can't talk to family about, I need my best friend back. "God it's good to see you."
Sadly Hermione let go and sat back down, "You too Ginny. I'm so sorry that I haven't been around, life has just been crazy you know..."
"I know, I know what you mean very well." That was an understatement.
"So, Ron was telling me that you will be working at the shop with him and George." Hermione said with an air of disapproval.
I knew it, she was going to get on me for not doing more with myself. "Don't start Hermione. You know I didn't get to finish school. I'm not going to work here forever just until I can save up some money, get my own place and try to do something with myself."
"Do you still want to be a writer for the Prophet?" Hermione asked.
"I have submitted three articles already and none of them have been published. I may still try to get on at the paper but I'm out of shape, I need to see about taking some classes on writing or something." That was a lie, my writing skills were fine and I never submitted anything to the Prophet. I just didn't want Hermione to know that I have no desire to do much of anything. No, that's not right. My real problem is that I want to do everything and I don't know where to start. With the world starting over I have my pick of anything I want, and frankly I'm a little scared to pick something.
I could tell that Hermione wanted to argue with me more but was holding back, instead she turned her attention to Ron. "Well, I haven't seen the store yet. Let's see if we can squeeze in and take a look."
Ron jumped and held a hand out to her. Hermione took it and pulled herself up then turned and smiled at me. "I'm staying at the Burrow for a few days Ginny, we can talk more later."
"Sounds good." As long as you don't talk about my career.
I watched as they walked hand-in-hand into the crowded shop and ducked as one of the shouting banners swung loose and flew over top of the. I laughed as the banner fell to the ground and started shouting in a muffled voice, Weasley's Wizards Wheezes has wonderful windows. I took a moment to amuse myself by saying that phrase ten times fast, I messed up on the sixth try.
I still had no desire to fight the crowd inside the store but I didn't want to head home by myself just yet so I decided to take a walk. I wanted to check out the progress of the other shops, see how close they were to opening. Flourish and Blott's looked like it would be opening soon, the inside was completely rebuilt but not a book was in sight. The cauldron shop was still missing a roof and the windows were boarded up. Madam Malkin's had a large red sign with the date of her opening only a week away. I made a mental note to stop by for the opening.
As I crossed the road towards a store that was damaged I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. Leaning up against a bent lamp post, with his back to me, was a man with long black hair and floor length black robes. His big leather ass kicking boots were just visible under his robes as the wind blew around. He had his arms crossed, looking dead serious about something. He defiantly didn't belong here, just the way he stood screamed trouble. Something was familiar about him however, like someone I knew from a past life but it was hard to tell from behind. He had what muggles would call a Gothic air about him, his brooding presence sent a chill up my spine.
Wait...maybe it's not the stranger that's giving me the chills. Something isn't right here, everything is getting dark and cold. It's the middle of summer, it shouldn't be getting like this. All the lights on the street seem to be getting dim or am I just fading? I can't tell, my mind isn't thinking right. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in the back of my neck and my head was pounding. When I fell to my knees I could see a pair of black gloved hands come around my neck from behind and someone was breathing on my hair. With a sharp intake of breath from my captor something sharp pierced my neck again, I could feel my body fade as I lost a vast amount of blood. In the distance I heard someone scream, was that my mum? I can't tell. The stranger I saw by the lamp post came running towards me, sparks shooting from his wand. As my body went limp and my heart slowed and I caught a gleam of light off the strangers glasses. My last thought before I died was that stranger and his big green eyes.