A/N: I woke up last Wednesday to twenty-one emails from y'all, plus another ten or so after I posted chapter one, and they've continued to trickle in over the course of the week. Thank you all so much! *beams* Knowing that others are so excited about this story is, well, exciting ;) Welcome to all the new followers, and especially to those of you who reviewed. Guest reviewers, I promise I approved your reviews, but they're not showing up for some reason :P If you'll sign in first, I can thank you personally! As wickedcml pointed out, this is the Camp NaNo fic I've talked about for … well, let's not talk about how long. My beta and I (shout-out to vancabreuniter!) have always called it Eighth Year, and I forgot that you guys might not recognize that nickname.

Story notes: The title is a quote from Harry's thoughts about Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets: "He couldn't not go, not now they had found the entrance to the Chamber, not if there was even the faintest, slimmest, wildest chance that Ginny might be alive." (Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Bloomsbury: London, 1998, p. 222.) The details of Ginny, Neville, and Luna's detention for stealing the sword of Gryffindor come from A Call to Arms by My Dear Professor McGonagall. I've said it before, I'll say it again— just go read (and review) that story right now. In addition to being well worth your time in itself, I'm going to refer to it a lot over the next few months. For those of you who haven't met Amy Green before, she first appeared in Hidden Chambers and Unseen Monsters. She also has a cameo in chapter nine of One Big Happy Weasley Family.

As I mentioned to a reviewer last week, I had forgotten how much was in these first few chapters. We're starting off with a bang, folks.


Harry woke up alone. The curtains were drawn around Dean's and Seamus's beds, and the dormitory was pitch black. He'd slept through dinner. He made a brief stop in the bathroom and went downstairs, hoping Hermione would be in the common room and could give him a fresh change of clothes from her beaded bag.

Harry was surprised to see not just pupils in the common room. He recognized Seamus's mother talking to Mr. Weasley in a corner, and Bill and Percy sat at a nearby table. Ron greeted Harry from their favorite armchairs in front of the fire.

"Morning, mate."

"Morning?" Harry checked his watch. Ten after two. Morning it was.

Ron tossed him a Chocolate Frog. "I just woke up about half an hour ago myself."

"Where's Hermione?" Harry said, swallowing the Frog in two bites and reaching for another.

"Bill said she got up a little after eleven and went to check on Ginny."

Without conscious thought, Harry's head swiveled to the entrance to the girls' dormitories. Ginny. After months of watching her dot on the Marauder's Map, after missing her so badly it was like a stomachache, Ginny was right here, only a few feet away. He suddenly wished he had forgone the Chocolate Frogs, which were behaving more like Peppermint Toads the way they hopped around his stomach.

"Harry? Harry!"

"Huh? What?"

Ron gave him a pointed look. Harry picked up his Chocolate Frog card just for something to do.

"So, what next?" Ron said.

Harry dropped Ignatia Wildsmith and sighed. "No idea. Think McGonagall would let me stay here for a while?"

Ron frowned. "Why would you want to do that?"

Harry didn't meet his gaze. He had been so focused on getting the Horcruxes, on destroying Voldemort, that he had not considered the practicalities of what he would do if he managed to succeed. "I don't have anywhere to go," he mumbled.

"Don't be a prat." Ron paused to chew yet another Chocolate Frog.

"Well, I guess I could go back to Grimmauld Place…."

Ron made a noise of disgust and swallowed. "You're coming home," he said firmly. "To the Burrow."

"I can't do that. With … Fred … and everything…."

"'Course you can. We want you there." His expression flickered slightly. "I want you there. Nobody blames you, Harry."

Harry thought they should, but he nodded anyway. If it would help Ron, of course he would go to the Burrow.

"I'm—" Ron cleared his throat. "I'm going to talk to Percy for a minute. You okay here?"

Harry nodded again, and Ron left to join his brothers.

"Have you seen Gran?" Neville dropped onto the chair Ron had just vacated.

"Not since the Great Hall. Why? Is she okay?"

"I think so," Neville said, spilling a stash of toast and bacon onto a nearby table. "She went to bed around lunchtime, and I haven't seen her since. Mr. Weasley said she was up earlier this evening, but I was still asleep. I guess we all have our days and nights mixed up. Help yourself," he added, making a bacon sandwich.

Harry didn't need to be asked twice. Confronted with the smell of bacon, his stomach had decided missing Ginny was no longer a priority.

"Where did you get this?"

"Went down to the kitchens," Neville said around a large mouthful.

Harry added a second layer of bacon. "I didn't know you knew how to get into the kitchens."

"I didn't," Neville said, taking a swig of milk. "Ginny showed me."

Harry's stomach spasmed painfully again. He ignored it and took a bite. Maybe if it were full, it wouldn't be so sensitive.

"How is she?"

"I haven't seen her since last term … but I think you knew that." Neville watched him shrewdly.

"Okay, then, how was she? What happened with the sword of Gryffindor? Did she have any other detentions? Did the Carrows torture her about ... anything?"

Neville began prepping a second sandwich. "She's a Gryffindor, Harry. She had loads of detentions."

He groaned.

"Getting the sword was her idea. She said Dumbledore left it to you in his will, but the Ministry wouldn't give it to you."

Harry nodded. "How were you planning to get it to me once you had stolen it?"

Neville gave a wry smile. "Ginny said we could worry about that once we had it."

"And your detention in the Forbidden Forest? It was like that time in first year, right? You were with Hagrid?"

Neville shook his head. "It was a full moon. Our detention was to spend the night avoiding Greyback."

Harry's jaw dropped, and his stomach followed suit. It took him several seconds to find his voice. "Don't— don't tell Ron that, okay?"

"She was brilliant," Neville said. "I don't think she was even scared, just really pissed off that Snape prevented us from helping you."

Harry knew better, but Ginny was a very good actress.

"What— what else?" Mangled by his tightening grip, his sandwich was now the approximate size of a saltine.

"She refused to curse the younger pupils. Was caught with a Daily Prophet once; I still don't know how she got that. Newspapers were banned, you know. Filch turned her in for talking to Luna between lessons. We ran into Mrs. Norris coming back from a DA meeting around Halloween." Neville licked one finger and concentrated on removing the crumbs from his shirt.

"What else, Neville?"

He hesitated. "Do you really want to know?"

Like with Dumbledore, Harry wanted the truth, the facts. "Yes. Yes, I do."

"It was Seamus who first noticed that the older girls were coming back from detentions apparently untouched. We always had bruises, cuts, rope burns, but after the first few weeks, the girls didn't have a mark. At least not where we could see." He paused to let the implication sink in. "I tried to talk to Ginny, Seamus talked to Lavender and Parvati, I even asked Luna and Hannah … none of them would talk about it. We got together with Michael, Anthony, and Ernie, and once they started paying attention, they reported the same thing. The older girls, about fifth year and up, were returning from detentions with no visible injuries." Neville vanished the rest of the food, looking nauseated. "After a while, we realized they were taking detentions for the younger girls, and the pure-blood witches were taking more than their share."

Harry felt sick and dizzy. Ginny was a pure-blood witch. Had the Carrows used that against her? Instead of protecting her, had her blood status made her a target for a different form of depravity?

"The girls must have had some kind of communication system, because all of a sudden, the pure-blood witches were everywhere, even ones not in the DA. In the Great Hall, the library, the courtyard … everywhere pupils gathered, every time Amycus and his Slytherin gang tried to intimidate, there were at least one or two pure-blood witches who would get in the way. A little while after that, they backed off. Or at least, the girls started having the same injuries that we did." Neville paused, watching Harry digest the news. "I'm sorry, Harry. You said you wanted to know."

This was worse than he had imagined, worse than Neville's account to him, Ron and Hermione on the way in from the Hog's Head, worse than his nightmares. He had been so focused on Ginny's physical safety, on separating himself from her, had assumed her pure blood would be a shield, that he had not considered her desirability to wizards who thought magical blood was ideal; he had not considered her value in promoting a pure-blood society. And she was beautiful, genuinely beautiful….

"Ginny, was she ... did they…."

"I don't think she was raped," Neville said bluntly. "I think she would have fought hard enough they would have had to have injured her for that. Beyond that, I don't know. Like I said, she wouldn't talk about it."

The last time Ginny had been quiet and reserved while at Hogwarts was when she was writing in Tom Riddle's diary.

"I wish you could have seen her this year," Neville said. "She was amazing. She stood up to Snape and the Carrows, encouraged the other members of the DA, looked after the younger pupils. She was the heart and soul of the resistance here, and she always spoke well of you. She's tough, Ginny is. She'll be all right."

"What about her friends?" Harry asked, trying to make his voice sound off-handed and casual. "Who did she hang out with?"

"The same people as always, Harry," Neville said dryly. "You don't have anything to worry about."

Harry grimaced. "We broke up."

"Not according to Ginny."

Harry jerked away from contemplating the door to the girls' dormitories again. "She wasn't supposed to say anything! I did that to protect her, to keep the Death Eaters from questioning her."

"I know, mate, and she didn't say anything. But she showed every wizard in this castle she was your girl."

"What are you talking about?"

"She must have nicked every Quidditch jersey you ever had, not to mention your old jumpers from Ron's mum. The Gryffindor one, and the one she made you in fourth year, with the dragon?"

Harry had outgrown that jumper long ago, but it would fit Ginny or even be a bit big on her. "But— but the uniforms…."

Neville laughed. "Luna said Ginny would show up to class in uniform, then casually shrug off her robe to reveal your jumper underneath. We'd be revising in the library or eating in the Great Hall, and she would reach into her bag, pull out one of your Quidditch jerseys, and pull it on over her robes. Drove McGonagall spare, she did. School record for most uniform violations in a single term."

"But Ginny is a Gryffindor, and she plays Quidditch, not to mention her brothers. How does that—"

"Harry, we're seventh years. The only Gryffindor Seeker any pupil in this school remembers, other than Ginny herself, is you. The most wanted wizard in Britain was a Gryffindor, and she goes around in his old scarlet jumper with a big gold lion on the front. Everyone knows how you got past those dragons at the Triwizard Tournament, even the little kids, and she wears a dragon jumper that matches your eyes. It was obvious."

"And she didn't— she didn't get in trouble?" Harry found it hard to believe the Carrows had allowed Ginny to do that if everyone associated it with him.

"She did. She didn't care. And she really is an amazing witch. Most of the time she hid them before anyone could catch her with the evidence."

"It's been months, though. And I kind of just … disappeared. Without saying goodbye."

"Like I said, she's been acting like your girlfriend all this time. But Harry?" Neville waited for him to look up. "No one's pulling for you, mate."

Harry sighed. Ginny was still too popular for her own good—and especially his.

()()()()

Harry stared at the entrance to the girls' dormitories yet again, willing Ginny to appear and wondering what he would say, when a brunette stranger appeared. She wore a t-shirt from a sports team he didn't recognize and baggy pajama trousers the exact color and texture of the velvet bed curtains, and she was definitely too old to be a pupil.

"Good morning," she said, walking over and taking the chair next to Harry's.

"Good morning. Who are the Austin Ashwinders?"

"American Quodpot team," she said, and this time, Harry noticed her accent. "I'm Amy Green."

He shook the proffered hand. "Harry Potter."

She grinned. "I know. Nice wand work yesterday."

"Er, thanks. No offense, but you're obviously not a pupil, and you're too young to be anyone's mum. How did you get in here?"

She had already made herself at home, turning sideways in the chair and tucking her bare feet underneath her.

"I'm with the Weasleys," she said, waving a hand to where Charlie had joined his family on the other side of the room. "I worked with Bill in Egypt, and Charlie recruited me into the Order three years ago. I just didn't want to interrupt them, and I wanted to speak to you."

In that case…. "Do you know Ginny?"

"Sure. Sweet girl."

Sweet would not have been Harry's first choice of description, unless he were talking about the smell of her hair…. "Do you know where she's sleeping? My friend Hermione went to check on her during the night, and we haven't seen either of them since."

"I slept in her dorm. Your friend has curly brown hair?"

Harry nodded.

"They're both asleep, although I don't think Ginny has slept much at all. She put up a privacy charm, but she was crying when she came upstairs. And I think she and Hermione were up talking for a while."

That fit, if Ginny woke up when Hermione went to the girls' dormitories.

"Well, speak of the devil," Amy said, smiling.

Harry turned and saw a very bushy, slightly burnt-haired Hermione making her way towards him, her mum's old University of Bristol sweatshirt pulled over her pajamas.

"Morning." She yawned, sitting on the arm of his chair. "We didn't get to meet last night. I'm Hermione Granger."

"Amy Green," she said. "Bill and I—"

"Worked together in Egypt. I remember," Hermione said. "Ginny talked about you. She had a really good time on that trip. I was so jealous."

"Pardon me, Hermione, but do you have a change of clothes for me in your bag?"

"Oh! Of course." She lifted the hem of her sweatshirt and pulled the beaded bag out from the waistband of her pajamas. "I don't really need to carry it with me, now that we're at Hogwarts and everything's fine— well, not fine, exactly, but now that we're safe, but I don't feel right without it." She pulled out a pair of jeans that, by the length of the leg, were obviously Ron's. "Oh, I'm sorry. Everything's all messed up since the dragon ride, and I haven't bothered to…." A pink pair of socks.

"What dragon ride?" Amy said.

"Accio my clothes!"

"No, Harry—"

Harry ducked as he was attacked by clothing. Jumpers, denims, pants, t-shirts, robes, socks, gloves, even an extra pair of shoes, soared out of the beaded bag until he was completely covered. Harry clawed his way free, scowling at the giggling witches. "Exactly how much of my stuff did you pack?"

"Everything you had at the Burrow." Hermione grinned. "You can go take a shower now."

Harry sorted through the pile, separating a single outfit as Amy inspected Hermione's handbag.

"Where the hell have you been!"

Ginny was awake.