Thanks to everyone sticking with this story. I really appreciate all your reviews, story alerts and private messages. Before we start, I just have a couple (important) thanks to dish out. Witchofdarkness13, for catching my uploading fail earlier this week. I really appreciate it. Laughandlove, for reminding me how to spell Fleur (I double checked it in this chapter), smkffnut for giving me your insight on Hermione, and I think you will see why when you read this (this was already written, but you inspired some tweaking) and ShePotter, I am glad you like it!
but the most important thank you goes to ObssessedRHShipper, who offered to be my beta for this chapter! Hopefully she will stick with me past just this chapter, and hopefully it will make this a better story and more enjoyable for those of you who are reading it. Words can't express my gratitude.
Chapter 7: Left Behind
As Hermione was moving the unconscious but still living intruder to the chair, Ginny's attention fell on the obviously dead man lying in the living room. Her eyes widened and she let out a gasp in recognition. She walked over to him quickly, with George following closely behind.
"This is the man who came to my house. He's one of the ones who threatened Lily and me," she said quietly. George glared down at the body lying by their feet and found himself thinking it odd how much he wanted to kill a man who was already dead. But this man had threatened not only his baby sister, but his niece and nephews as well. It made George's blood boil.
"Bastard," George whispered. "He must have dropped Harry off somewhere before coming here for Ron." Ginny nodded in response. After another second, George turned to walk away from the body, but instead of following him, Ginny reached down and opened the front of the man's robes.
"Gin…" George started, but as she pulled a wand from his robes, George abruptly stopped talking.
"It's Harry's," she stated, her voice uncharacteristically soft as she stared at the famous phoenix feather and holly wand. She was staring at it so intently; it was as if the wand was going to confess to her where its master had gone. "That bastard took it from Harry," she finished, her voice still soft.
"Gin, we will get him back. You know we will." George said, placing his arm on his sister's shoulders. "You will be able to give him his wand back, and he'll be thrilled that we have it. You know that man can't separate from his wand for a minute without acting as though he left his arm behind," George said, in an attempt to lighten the mood with a reference to Harry's paranoia, which despite the years that had passed since the war, had not let up much.
Harry still carried the wand with him everywhere, occasionally hexing people who had the misfortune of catching him by surprise. George actually suspected he slept with it, although certainly Ginny would know better than he would.
"I had thrown my wand down when I went to pick up Lily. She was being fussy. This never would have happened if I hadn't put it down." Ginny said, talking more to herself than to George. She had a contemplative look on her face. "Usually I always have it in my pocket," she said quietly.
"You can't blame yourself, Gin," George responded. "You had to put it down when you picked up the baby. Look, your outfit has no pockets!" He was right; Ginny, expecting a busy day with five children, had been wearing yoga pants that didn't have any pockets and an oversized Harpies t-shirt.
"No pockets," she repeated.
Suddenly, the contemplative look was washed away and replaced with rage. Before George could even figure out what was going on, Ginny abruptly turned around and rounded on Hermione and Bill.
Hermione had been restraining the unconscious man, while waiting for Kingsley to arrive with the Veritaserum. Bill had sent patronuses to James Winslow (Ron and Harry's team leader with the Aurors), and Neville, who unofficially kept account of the Order and DA members, as well as Arthur Weasley.
A separate patronus had been sent to Fleur and Angelina to let them know what had happened. Almost immediately after Harry had been taken from the Potter home, the eagle patronus Bill had sent out at Hermione's arrival at Shell Cottage informed Ginny of the attack there as well. Ginny had dropped off her children with Angelina, and she and George had apparated to Ron and Hermione's. Fleur and Angelina were no doubt clawing at the walls for information, but were restrained by all the children whom they were keeping safe.
Bill had sent out these messages while Hermione had checked the restraints again out of nerves more than anything else. Bill knew that a plan of action had to be implemented at once, before the press found out and the entire wizarding world went into a panic that two thirds of their heroes had been kidnapped.
Ginny rounded on Hermione, with such anger radiating from her it was surprising that her red hair was not smoking. "You just left him?" she spit out, her words like venom, catching Hermione by surprise.
"I… what?" Hermione started before biting her tongue. Ginny was hotheaded at the best of times. 'She is scared and lashing out,' Hermione said to herself, trying to calm herself down. She hadn't thought her heart could speed up any more than it had since she saw Ron disappear, but now she could feel it pounding through her entire body at the hate in Ginny's voice. Hermione took a deep breath and turned toward Ginny.
"How could you just leave him? Outnumbered?" Ginny said, voice rising. Hermione could feel the walls closing in on her. The room seemed to be getting smaller, and the air was getting thicker and harder to breath.
Hermione's first instinct was to fight back. She had a million things to retort. Specifically, she could start screaming that if Ginny hadn't been so unprepared, then perhaps she and Harry could have fought off his captors instead of having to surrender willingly. Or perhaps, Hermione could remind her that while she had gotten her children to safety, Harry's attackers had actually been able to threaten his children; from the sound of it, James actually had been restrained by one of them. Or maybe remind her that the only reason Ron was so badly outnumbered was because they had finished up with her and Harry so quickly.
Before either Bill or George could figure out what was happening, both women had their wands drawn on each other. George looked positively terrified at the two witches, which under any other circumstance Bill would have found funny. Ginny had always been a force to be reckoned with, but Hermione certainly didn't help take down Voldemort by smiling at him.
"Ginny..." Bill said, causing both women to turn to him. "Don't say something you're going to regret."
"Regret? She left your baby brother alone and outnumbered. Had she stayed it would have been a fair fight! She is a great dueler! She had her wand!" Ginny retorted, differentiating Hermione's choice from hers. Despite her angry words, Ginny turned away from Hermione and looked at Bill. Hermione followed suit.
"I had a wand on me and my baby; she was too worried about saving herself."
That was the last straw. Hermione did not deserve nor could she take the abuse from Ginny anymore.
"Do NOT talk about what you don't understand, Ginny, and don't you dare doubt my love for Ron. I would have gladly died for him, and he knows that, and that is why he blocked me from getting back into the house. We had a plan!" Hermione finally spoke back, her voice even like ice.
"My mistake…" she started and Ginny's eyes widened at the word, "Oh yes, Ginny, I made a mistake." Her even-toned voice began breaking down slightly. "I shouldn't have come back. Ron blocked me from getting back for a reason. I think… I think I distracted him…" Tears began to pour out of Hermione's eyes, and Bill wrapped her into a hug.
"Oh my... Bill… It's all my fault. He was fine until I had to start screaming his name," Hermione said, choking back sobs.
As Bill was comforting Hermione, the crack of apparition startled the four friends.
"I knew there was something wrong when Potter was late for their presentation. Potter is never late." Through the still broken front door came Kingsley Shacklebolt and James Winslow. Hermione knew who Winslow was, but had only interacted with him on a few occasions. Kingsley sighed audibly when he entered the home.
As he surveyed the damage, Hermione watched him closely. He was the Minister of Magic, but even with his increasingly busy schedule, Harry Potter would always come first. She knew that Kingsley also put Ron and herself first too, not just because of being the 'heroes,' but also because they had grown to be very close personal friends with the man.
Everyone watched Kingsley waiting for instructions. Hermione was digging her nails into the palm of her hand. Ginny was shuffling her weight from one foot to the other. George was looking anxious to get started while Bill had the stoic look of someone who couldn't afford to show any emotions at the moment.
Winslow was clearly itching to alert the Auror department head, which was the normal protocol; however, he knew the Minister's orders came first.
Perhaps sensing Hermione's anxiety or Winslow's desire to get started, Kingsley spoke in the calming tones that Hermione had grown to trust. "I think we should give it 24 hours to find them before we alert the entire Auror division and inevitably the press." he began.
"Winslow, you bring what's left of your team here to trace the spells and see what evidence you can find." Kingsley paused, glancing over the body that was still in the corner. "Have someone try and find out as much as they can of the dead man."
Turning to Ginny and Hermione, he spoke again. "I need you two to give the Aurors a complete description of what happened. They need to know anything you can remember about your attackers."
Ginny nodded, but Hermione spoke. "Minister, I want to be there when you interrogate him." She motioned to the man who was in the chair.
Another crack indicated the arrival of Neville and Arthur.
"What's going on? What's the plan?" Neville asked as soon as he and Arthur entered the room.
"We are going to find out what happened." Kingsley spoke. "And we are going to start with him." he said, jerking his wand towards the unconscious man.
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