DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own anything Harry Potter affiliated. If I did, I
would be sending this off to a publisher...not posting it online.
CHAPTER FOUR: MEMORY LOSS
Ron wasn't having any luck in finding even a shread of evidence that Ginny had been anywhere near where he was searching. He had now been looking for over an hour and a half, but on foot. Hermione didn't have much luck keeping his family inside the castle for more than ten minutes. As soon as his dad saw him in the air, he grounded him. Literally. Him and Hermione were now stuck on the ground, and his father had taken his broom to fly to Hogsmead and start searching for Ginny there.
It had been a long night, but he was glad that he was at least with Hermione. Even though he felt guilty and responsible for Ginny's disappearance, her presence made everything better. "I'd feel a hell of a lot better if I could just find Ginny."
"I know the feeling," Hermione responded.
Ron blushed. He said his last thought out loud, "I've never seen her that angry. It's as if she wasn't herself."
Hermione was on the same page, "Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but she was different." She had stopped searching the brush to look at him. She started to smile at him, but it turned into a look of surprise. Instead of looking at him, she was now looking over his shoulder into the forest. Ron looked confused until he turned to see what she was looking at. Out of the Forest was a large shaddow, walking towards the castle. Hermione quickly turned the light coming from her wand towards the object, "Harry?...Harry!" She was so happy to see him, but fear struck her as he fell to the ground. Both Ron and Hermione sprinted to the place where he landed in the grass. They became suddenly overjoyed when they came close enough to see that Ginny was with him.
That was until they saw the state they were in. Both looked filty and were bruised everywhere. Their clothes were torn and almost falling off in places, and neither of them were wearing cloaks. They were freezing, and not to mention bleeding from the head in numerous places. Ron just looked at them.
"Ron!" Hermione snapped into action, "Go get your mum and whoever else you can find. We've got to get them inside!" Hermione knew by the looks of it that there wasn't much time for them, but she was afraid to move them incase she hurt them more. She was even scared to cast a spell. The only thing she could think to do was send up a signal. She quickly cast a spell and the air above her was filled with red sparks. "Ugh! I wish I could apparate right now," she sighed, looking in every direction, waiting to see signs of people.
It was less than a minute after she had sent up her signal when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Mrs. Weasley running. "Quick! Over here, come quickly!" Hermione was so glad to see her, that she hadn't noticed the other Weasleys landing around her. She became startled by the sight of other people approaching her.
"What happened?" someone demanded. "What did you find?" Mrs. Weasley finally reached the edge of the forest and got a good look at the two children lying there in tatters. She snapped into action and started yelling orders for everyone. "Fred! Fly to Hogsmead and find your father. Get him back here A.S.A.P. George, Bill get Ginny, while Persy and I get Harry. We need to get them inside, now." She paused to breathe, but barely. "Charlie, go and find Hagrid. He's somewhere inside the forest. Alright? Let's go!" They all sprung into action at the sound of her last words.
"Mrs. Weasley?"
She was carefully lifting Harry's limp body off the ground. "Yes, Hermione?"
"What can I do?"
"Oh, yes..." she let out a slight grunt as she started walking towards the castle under the weight of the teenaged boy, "Run ahead of us and have Madame Pomfrey ready. Then inform the Headmaster that we've found Ginny."
She didn't even stop walking to confirm, she just started running. If this is what she could do, then she would do it. By the time she reached the hospital wing, she was completely out of breath, and Madame Pomfrey couldn't understand a word of what she said. "Hermione...What is wrong? Here, drink this," she said as she conjured a glass of liquid out of thin air. It wasn't water though. It was some sort of light fluid that made her lungs suddenly fill with air. She instantly stopped panting and was able to speak clearly.
"We found Ginny Weasley, or should I say Harry did, but they've been hurt really bad. It looks as if they've been attacked by something. The rest of the Weasleys are bringing them here." Hermione felt completely refreshed. She could not only speak clearly but think clearly, as well.
"Thank you for the warning, Miss Granger. Please go and inform the Headmaster of...."
"That will be quite alright, Poppy." A grand voice filled the room. Hermione couldn't help but turn to look at who is was. "Mr. Weasley has already informed me of the situation." Professor Dumbledor made a grand gesture of his arm as Ron walked out from behind him.
Hermione was confused. 'How did he get here?' she thought. "Ron? I thought that you went looking for someone to..."
"I did," he explained, "but when I saw your sparks, and my mum runing in your direction, I came straight up here to tell the Headmaster." Ron seemed calmed, 'He must have had a drink of the same potion I did,' Hermione thought, but before she could confirm her suspicions Bill and George rushed into the room with Ginny, followed closely by Molly and Persy with Harry. The room suddenly turned into a frenzie, with both Madame Pomfrey and her assistant shouting orders over eachother at the bystanders. It took 45 minutes for the room to turn silent again, but when it did, it was only because Ginny had woken up. Harry was still unconscious.
Everyone gathered around Ginny as soon as they were able to. She looked almost blinded. "Too much red," she groaned, covering her eyes and laughing at herself. One by one, the Weasley's gingerly hugged her, except Ron, who had moved to the wall fathest from her. He sat next to Hermione. Neither of them wanted to upset her by their presence in the room, but Ginny wouldn't have it.
"Where's Ron?" She asked. From the sound of it, Ginny wasn't angry at all.
"Over here," he said, pulling Hermione to her feet with him. They slowly made their way towards her bed, waiting for her switch to flip, and her to start yelling. "Look, Gin." Ron took a deep breath, "Before you say anything, I just want you to know that I'm sorry," he looked at Hermione, who took over.
"We're both sorry, and we know that Harry is, too. We all just wanted you to have a good time tonight, that's all."
Ginny was confused, "What do you mean?"
"The three of us realized after you left, that what we did was wrong, no matter what our intentions were," Ron sounded like a Hallmark card, as Hermione would later point out (although he didn't know what a greeting card was), but it didn't change Ginny's expression. She still looked confused.
"I still don't have a clue about what you are talking about, and why am I here?"
"You don't remember?" Was all that Hermione could manage to say.
"Remember what?"
Now Hermione was the one that was confused, "The row we had at the Christmas Party..."
Ginny cut her off, "The Christmas Party? But that's next week," she looked around the room at all of the concerned faces, "isn't it?"
"Ginny, dear," Mrs. Weasley said , gingerly taking her hand, "what is the last thing you remember?"
"Well, I just walking back to the school after Quidditch practice," Ginny suddenly gave a look of horror. "Why?"
Professor Dumbledor quickly stepped in with another question, "Miss Weasley, would you mind telling me today's date?"
"It's the 17th of December Professor," Ginny said quickly, not knowing that she answered wrongly.
"Oh dear," was all that Madame Pomfrey could mutter before following Dumbledor into her office.
"Mum?" Ginny was growing more and more confused by the second, "Why am I in the Hospital Wing?" The Weasley's looked at eachother. What to say...the wrong thing would send her panicing, but saying nothing would make her even more worried. They had to tell her something, but what? Seeing the looks on her parents' faces, Ginny grew anxious. "What has happened?"
"Well, dear," Molly said, feigning a smile, "you were attacked. Harry found you in the Forest." It was vague, but exactly enough information to keep her satisfied.
"But how did I end up in the Forbidden Forest?" confusion set it again.
It was Ron who fielded this one, "We don't know, Gin."
"Well, where's Harry? He must know where he found me! That might clear something up," Ginny skipped straight from confused to paniced.
"He can't tell us anything at the moment, Ginny," Hermione saw the look of fear the crossed Ginny's eyes, "He hasn't woken up yet."
"What happened to him?" she was absolutely stricken with guilt, "How deep into the Forest was I?"
No one answered. No one knew the answer. All they could do was glance back and forth between eachother nervously. "From where I found these, too far." An entire room of heads turned towards the door.
Molly was the first to respond, "Oh, Hagrid! Thank goodness Charlie found you," she gave a sigh of relief, "who knows what the Centaur's would have done to you if you were in there too long."
Something clicked inside of Ginny's head, "Wait a minute, mum," she said, as she pushed herself to a sitting posistion, "is the whole family here?"
"Of course we're all here," Charlie said, just entering the room. "You knew we were coming, Gin." He didn't catch the looks that the rest of the room was giving him. 'Good thing he didn't say it was Christmas,' was on the minds of everyone in the room.
"But you were all planning to come for Christmas," she made is sound as if she were having to state the obvious, "why are you here a week early?"
This time he caught the look from Percy, who was standing behind Ginny waving his hands and mouthing to him, 'Just play along with her.' He didn't understand what he was playing along with, so he decided to leave out as many details as possible. "We all came to help look for you, Gin." He came closer and took her hand, "What, did you think we'd leave you lost to die?" Charlie gave a little chuckle, and played around with her until she smiled. "That's better."
"But, where's Dad?" She said, looking to her mother, "And George, too."
"Oh, they went to Hogsmead to see if anyone there knew something about your..." she couldn't think of the right word. The truth would be too confusing, but she couldn't not tell her.
"Disappearance?" Hermione offered.
"Thank you, Hermione," she gave a short smile, "but they should be back in a short time."
"We don't need a short time, mum." Mrs. Weasley was surprised and thankful to see both her husband and her son approaching the bed.
"Well, I'm sorry to say," Madame Pomfrey said, re-entering behind the Headmaster, "but Ginny does need a short time, in the least, to rest." Everyone had their eyes on the pair as they joined the circle of people surrounding the young girl. "And, by the looks of it, you all could use a good nights sleep, as well."
Everyone nodded and said their goodbye's to Ginny, who laid back down, falling asleep the instant her head hit the pillow, before anyone could offer her a potion. But Madame Pomfrey didn't want to rejoin the others so soon out in the hall. Something funny was going on, and she intended to do a little sloothing of her own.
"Ginny...Ginny, dear wake up," the woman gently shook the fifth year girl, trying not to hurt her, "there is something I must ask you...."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! I now know why everyone blackmails people for them...it feels so good to get them! I'll keep the chapters coming. I'm writing one or two a night, but with the storms that are hitting my area, it might be touch and go. Thanks again!
CHAPTER FOUR: MEMORY LOSS
Ron wasn't having any luck in finding even a shread of evidence that Ginny had been anywhere near where he was searching. He had now been looking for over an hour and a half, but on foot. Hermione didn't have much luck keeping his family inside the castle for more than ten minutes. As soon as his dad saw him in the air, he grounded him. Literally. Him and Hermione were now stuck on the ground, and his father had taken his broom to fly to Hogsmead and start searching for Ginny there.
It had been a long night, but he was glad that he was at least with Hermione. Even though he felt guilty and responsible for Ginny's disappearance, her presence made everything better. "I'd feel a hell of a lot better if I could just find Ginny."
"I know the feeling," Hermione responded.
Ron blushed. He said his last thought out loud, "I've never seen her that angry. It's as if she wasn't herself."
Hermione was on the same page, "Yeah, I don't know how to explain it, but she was different." She had stopped searching the brush to look at him. She started to smile at him, but it turned into a look of surprise. Instead of looking at him, she was now looking over his shoulder into the forest. Ron looked confused until he turned to see what she was looking at. Out of the Forest was a large shaddow, walking towards the castle. Hermione quickly turned the light coming from her wand towards the object, "Harry?...Harry!" She was so happy to see him, but fear struck her as he fell to the ground. Both Ron and Hermione sprinted to the place where he landed in the grass. They became suddenly overjoyed when they came close enough to see that Ginny was with him.
That was until they saw the state they were in. Both looked filty and were bruised everywhere. Their clothes were torn and almost falling off in places, and neither of them were wearing cloaks. They were freezing, and not to mention bleeding from the head in numerous places. Ron just looked at them.
"Ron!" Hermione snapped into action, "Go get your mum and whoever else you can find. We've got to get them inside!" Hermione knew by the looks of it that there wasn't much time for them, but she was afraid to move them incase she hurt them more. She was even scared to cast a spell. The only thing she could think to do was send up a signal. She quickly cast a spell and the air above her was filled with red sparks. "Ugh! I wish I could apparate right now," she sighed, looking in every direction, waiting to see signs of people.
It was less than a minute after she had sent up her signal when she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. She turned around and saw Mrs. Weasley running. "Quick! Over here, come quickly!" Hermione was so glad to see her, that she hadn't noticed the other Weasleys landing around her. She became startled by the sight of other people approaching her.
"What happened?" someone demanded. "What did you find?" Mrs. Weasley finally reached the edge of the forest and got a good look at the two children lying there in tatters. She snapped into action and started yelling orders for everyone. "Fred! Fly to Hogsmead and find your father. Get him back here A.S.A.P. George, Bill get Ginny, while Persy and I get Harry. We need to get them inside, now." She paused to breathe, but barely. "Charlie, go and find Hagrid. He's somewhere inside the forest. Alright? Let's go!" They all sprung into action at the sound of her last words.
"Mrs. Weasley?"
She was carefully lifting Harry's limp body off the ground. "Yes, Hermione?"
"What can I do?"
"Oh, yes..." she let out a slight grunt as she started walking towards the castle under the weight of the teenaged boy, "Run ahead of us and have Madame Pomfrey ready. Then inform the Headmaster that we've found Ginny."
She didn't even stop walking to confirm, she just started running. If this is what she could do, then she would do it. By the time she reached the hospital wing, she was completely out of breath, and Madame Pomfrey couldn't understand a word of what she said. "Hermione...What is wrong? Here, drink this," she said as she conjured a glass of liquid out of thin air. It wasn't water though. It was some sort of light fluid that made her lungs suddenly fill with air. She instantly stopped panting and was able to speak clearly.
"We found Ginny Weasley, or should I say Harry did, but they've been hurt really bad. It looks as if they've been attacked by something. The rest of the Weasleys are bringing them here." Hermione felt completely refreshed. She could not only speak clearly but think clearly, as well.
"Thank you for the warning, Miss Granger. Please go and inform the Headmaster of...."
"That will be quite alright, Poppy." A grand voice filled the room. Hermione couldn't help but turn to look at who is was. "Mr. Weasley has already informed me of the situation." Professor Dumbledor made a grand gesture of his arm as Ron walked out from behind him.
Hermione was confused. 'How did he get here?' she thought. "Ron? I thought that you went looking for someone to..."
"I did," he explained, "but when I saw your sparks, and my mum runing in your direction, I came straight up here to tell the Headmaster." Ron seemed calmed, 'He must have had a drink of the same potion I did,' Hermione thought, but before she could confirm her suspicions Bill and George rushed into the room with Ginny, followed closely by Molly and Persy with Harry. The room suddenly turned into a frenzie, with both Madame Pomfrey and her assistant shouting orders over eachother at the bystanders. It took 45 minutes for the room to turn silent again, but when it did, it was only because Ginny had woken up. Harry was still unconscious.
Everyone gathered around Ginny as soon as they were able to. She looked almost blinded. "Too much red," she groaned, covering her eyes and laughing at herself. One by one, the Weasley's gingerly hugged her, except Ron, who had moved to the wall fathest from her. He sat next to Hermione. Neither of them wanted to upset her by their presence in the room, but Ginny wouldn't have it.
"Where's Ron?" She asked. From the sound of it, Ginny wasn't angry at all.
"Over here," he said, pulling Hermione to her feet with him. They slowly made their way towards her bed, waiting for her switch to flip, and her to start yelling. "Look, Gin." Ron took a deep breath, "Before you say anything, I just want you to know that I'm sorry," he looked at Hermione, who took over.
"We're both sorry, and we know that Harry is, too. We all just wanted you to have a good time tonight, that's all."
Ginny was confused, "What do you mean?"
"The three of us realized after you left, that what we did was wrong, no matter what our intentions were," Ron sounded like a Hallmark card, as Hermione would later point out (although he didn't know what a greeting card was), but it didn't change Ginny's expression. She still looked confused.
"I still don't have a clue about what you are talking about, and why am I here?"
"You don't remember?" Was all that Hermione could manage to say.
"Remember what?"
Now Hermione was the one that was confused, "The row we had at the Christmas Party..."
Ginny cut her off, "The Christmas Party? But that's next week," she looked around the room at all of the concerned faces, "isn't it?"
"Ginny, dear," Mrs. Weasley said , gingerly taking her hand, "what is the last thing you remember?"
"Well, I just walking back to the school after Quidditch practice," Ginny suddenly gave a look of horror. "Why?"
Professor Dumbledor quickly stepped in with another question, "Miss Weasley, would you mind telling me today's date?"
"It's the 17th of December Professor," Ginny said quickly, not knowing that she answered wrongly.
"Oh dear," was all that Madame Pomfrey could mutter before following Dumbledor into her office.
"Mum?" Ginny was growing more and more confused by the second, "Why am I in the Hospital Wing?" The Weasley's looked at eachother. What to say...the wrong thing would send her panicing, but saying nothing would make her even more worried. They had to tell her something, but what? Seeing the looks on her parents' faces, Ginny grew anxious. "What has happened?"
"Well, dear," Molly said, feigning a smile, "you were attacked. Harry found you in the Forest." It was vague, but exactly enough information to keep her satisfied.
"But how did I end up in the Forbidden Forest?" confusion set it again.
It was Ron who fielded this one, "We don't know, Gin."
"Well, where's Harry? He must know where he found me! That might clear something up," Ginny skipped straight from confused to paniced.
"He can't tell us anything at the moment, Ginny," Hermione saw the look of fear the crossed Ginny's eyes, "He hasn't woken up yet."
"What happened to him?" she was absolutely stricken with guilt, "How deep into the Forest was I?"
No one answered. No one knew the answer. All they could do was glance back and forth between eachother nervously. "From where I found these, too far." An entire room of heads turned towards the door.
Molly was the first to respond, "Oh, Hagrid! Thank goodness Charlie found you," she gave a sigh of relief, "who knows what the Centaur's would have done to you if you were in there too long."
Something clicked inside of Ginny's head, "Wait a minute, mum," she said, as she pushed herself to a sitting posistion, "is the whole family here?"
"Of course we're all here," Charlie said, just entering the room. "You knew we were coming, Gin." He didn't catch the looks that the rest of the room was giving him. 'Good thing he didn't say it was Christmas,' was on the minds of everyone in the room.
"But you were all planning to come for Christmas," she made is sound as if she were having to state the obvious, "why are you here a week early?"
This time he caught the look from Percy, who was standing behind Ginny waving his hands and mouthing to him, 'Just play along with her.' He didn't understand what he was playing along with, so he decided to leave out as many details as possible. "We all came to help look for you, Gin." He came closer and took her hand, "What, did you think we'd leave you lost to die?" Charlie gave a little chuckle, and played around with her until she smiled. "That's better."
"But, where's Dad?" She said, looking to her mother, "And George, too."
"Oh, they went to Hogsmead to see if anyone there knew something about your..." she couldn't think of the right word. The truth would be too confusing, but she couldn't not tell her.
"Disappearance?" Hermione offered.
"Thank you, Hermione," she gave a short smile, "but they should be back in a short time."
"We don't need a short time, mum." Mrs. Weasley was surprised and thankful to see both her husband and her son approaching the bed.
"Well, I'm sorry to say," Madame Pomfrey said, re-entering behind the Headmaster, "but Ginny does need a short time, in the least, to rest." Everyone had their eyes on the pair as they joined the circle of people surrounding the young girl. "And, by the looks of it, you all could use a good nights sleep, as well."
Everyone nodded and said their goodbye's to Ginny, who laid back down, falling asleep the instant her head hit the pillow, before anyone could offer her a potion. But Madame Pomfrey didn't want to rejoin the others so soon out in the hall. Something funny was going on, and she intended to do a little sloothing of her own.
"Ginny...Ginny, dear wake up," the woman gently shook the fifth year girl, trying not to hurt her, "there is something I must ask you...."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews! I now know why everyone blackmails people for them...it feels so good to get them! I'll keep the chapters coming. I'm writing one or two a night, but with the storms that are hitting my area, it might be touch and go. Thanks again!
