Chapter Seven: The Chase

Author's Note: Thank you so much for all of the reviews.


Ginny didn't want to stop or slow down for fear that she might have to look at Harry or Hermione again. She pulled the Christmas sweater her mother had sent on and then stacked her red and yellow Gryffindor one on over that. She threw the matching scarf around her neck and slipped into her Quidditch gloves.

She just needed to get out of the school, clear her head and get some fresh air. Everywhere she looked, in every bed, she could just picture writhing there…laughing at her. She wanted to cry, but the tears wouldn't come.

What had happened last night? I thought she and I were…

Pushing the thoughts from head Ginny grabbed her Nimbus 2000 and turned to head out of the door.

No, they might run into me that way.

Pulling the goggles down over her brown eyes and raking the red tendrils of hair out from under them, she took a deep breath and tried to think of a way out that didn't involve running into anyone. Ginny glanced to the window and sighed. "Reducto!" she said swinging her wand at the window.

The resulting curse must have been affected by her anger because an entire chunk of the wall burst away. She shook her head silently and tucked the wand back into belt. Getting a running start she mounted the broom and tumbled from the castle tower, kicking the ledge to propel her away from the wall.

With a shudder the broomstick kicked to life and she pulled away from the wall to swing out over out around the school. When she glanced back she could see a figure that looked to be Snape running to the edge of the castle where the hole was. It almost seemed like she could hear him yell. "Ten points, Miss Weasley," it could have been her imagination, either way she didn't care.

She circled the school one quick time and passed over the edge of the Forbidden Forest on her way back to the lake. The chilled air whipped through her hair and flakes of snow stuck to her goggles momentarily before falling away. Even with the two sweaters she could feel the wind biting at her skin and normally she would have headed back in but she didn't want to be in the castle right now.

It felt as if she didn't want to be in the castle ever again.

The Nimbus sputtered as she rounded the Quidditch pitch. Ginny glanced down and she could almost see the day that she had watched Hermione score those goals. In all honesty she had been trying to stop them, at least to some degree. She had underestimated Hermione…

and it seems after what she and Harry did, you never really knew her at all…

She headed north over the rocky hills and swooped out to pass the castle again, Hogwarts stood snow covered in the distance. As she stared back toward the school her vision blurred. Ginny rubbed her hand up under her goggles to wipe the tears way and the cold stung her face until it actually iced over on her skin.

What's wrong with me, I'm so stupid to think that Hermione and I could have been anything.

She was passing the lake when the tears came full stream and she was forced to pull the goggles all the way up onto her head. Ginny rubbed the sleeve of her sweater across her face and sniffled. Voices of people she knew and her own voice assaulted her from inside her head now.

"Hermione chose me because you were just so utterly terrible and pathetic to her she couldn't bear to deal with it," came Harry.

"If I wanted a relationship, not a charge I was forced to look after," Hermione said.

"You've been nothing but a rotten, ungrateful daughter since the start, Ginevra," her mother's voice echoed inside her head.

Ron scoffed. "You're an evil bitch of a little sister and a slag to boot, way to do the family proud," he said.

The voices muffled together and more flooded into her head, joining the chorus.

"I've never been so disappointed by a student in my house," said McGonagall.

"…the most disgraceful pupil to enter these doors since Tom Riddle…" came Dumbledore's voice weaving itself into the others.

"And you call yourself pure-blood…it's no wonder the hat saw fit to sort you into another house…" Snape said.

The air was like daggers now and she felt too heavy to keep the broom aimed correctly. She shuddered, her eyes burning with tears and when she glanced back to see the school in the distance she saw something else.

Wretched black forms with ragged cloaks were gaining on her with boney, black skinned hands outstretched for her. Ginny stifled her next sob and banked hard to the right, she would need to gain ground on them before she could land because they'd over take her on the ground. She passed the side of the tower where she'd left, but Snape must have repaired it.

Straightening herself on the broom, Ginny pulled the goggles down. The voices still burned and taunted inside her head. "Shut up!" she screamed.

Those creatures, it has to be then. It just has to.

Clutching the broom tight with one hand she grabbed for her wand with the other and spun back to fire a spell. "Stupefy!" Ginny sent a jet of red light back into the black figures. But they didn't seem to react in the least. She leaned the broomstick forward to pick up speed now, going into a dive.

Maybe I can feint them…make them crash.

She went into a rotating dive toward the iced over lake and pulled up so late that her foot hit the ice surface. The pain rocketed up her leg and she fought to control the book and keep herself steady on it.

Each movement of the broom hurt her foot now. The creatures were still following her and too close for her to attempt to land. She didn't want to lead them to Hogsmead but she definitely didn't want them to catch her.

the Forbidden Forest!

Banking left and then right she worked her way toward the forest line across the lake, in the thick trees they would have to slow down and dodge the huge trunks. It was a risk but if she could escape the woods and head for the Astronomy Tower or Owlery she would have time to get in doors before they could gain on her. That's if her leg cooperated.

Ginny hit the tree line and branches snapped and slapped at her as she passed through them. She raised her wand at a tree as she passed. "Reducto!" the tree snapped at the base and fell to the side blocking the path she had taken. Behind her the cloaked flying creatures moved to go around the downed trunk.

She wove around another trunk quickly and whipped her wand at the underbrush. "Waddiwasi!" the sticks and debris on the forest floor flipped up into the air to obscure the path. The figures were forced to decrease their speed.

Ginny fired a few more curses back to break the trees and even one to start a fire but they kept coming. Nothing seemed to faze them. She looked to her front and there was a flash of white as a powerful beast darted out in front of her and turned to run ahead of her. She pulled her Nimbus to the side to avoid the collision but the bristled end of the broom caught a tree and she was thrown to the ground.

Her wand skittered over the forest floor somewhere and the black hooded figures inched in toward her. The voices flooded back now, calling her a failure and taunting her. She tried to crawl for the wand but her foot burned with pain, it had to be broken.

There was the heavy steps of something large nearby. Ginny wrenched her neck up to see what appeared to be a huge white steed standing majestically at her side, its nostrils flared in the direction of the hooded figures. It must have been the same thing she saw dart out in front of her. And then she noticed the horn jutting from its forehead.

A unicorn.

The unicorn cast a comforting glance down at her and then it charged the cloaked creatures, breaking through their ranks. Obviously thinking they had found a better prey, they turned and chased after the unicorn until the galloping steps meshed into the other sounds of the forest.

Ginny fell onto her chest and dragged herself across the frosty ground toward her wand. She was soaked and her broom had broken on the impact. Repairing bones was a skill that she didn't feel comfortable even attempting on herself.

She glanced up at the sky, thankful for the unicorn. But she could still hear the voices and feel the cold prickle of those creatures on the back of her neck. The wind picked up, rattling through the skeletal tree branches and shaking snow loose, there appeared to be a storm blowing in.