Chapter eight: Cataclysm
"Has it had any effect? The introduction, did it work?"
"For God's sake Blaise, baby steps! We need to go slow. He's already suspicious and we need him to come along of his own free will. We can't barge in there and just take him. The baby didn't sway him much, he doesn't appear to have those inherent fatherly feelings you were hoping for. And now the Mudblood's interferring too. She suspects something. She's smart, she'll find something. She's not letting go of this."
"So get her out of the way. How much of a problem could she be to take care of. We need him here as soon as possible. The Dark Lord is getting impatient and so am I. It's taking too long."
"Very well. We'll take care of her."
"Are you going to hurry up or what?" he teased through the locked door.
"Yeah yeah," she muttered.
Trying to put mascara on neatly was difficult enough without someone timing you while you were doing it. She pulled back from the mirror, satisfied with the effort and shoved the mascara back in her bag. Ron had been the sweetest she had ever seen him. Picking her up from work, reserved seats at a restaurant and now surprise tickets to a play as well!
She loved plays and she knew he knew, but she had never actually expected him to take her to one. Too bad the unexpected rain had spoiled her hair and make-up, she thought as she gave herself another critical look. She looked good for someone who had run halfway through the city during a storm.
"Listen, the actors aren't going to wait with their first act because you're still in the loo," he said again.
She wrinkled her nose at him through the door and finally stepped out.
"W-Where did you get that dress from!" he gawked confused.
"Don't you just love being magical," she whispered. "Come on, let's find our seats."
He nodded with a dazed smile and clasped her arm around his.
"You look amazing," he said as he pecked her cheek.
"And you are amazing," she whispered back. "Now shush. It's starting."
"Pansy, darling. It's late. Shouldn't you be going. You've got more to do today."
"Oh, let it go, love. It's not as if we're on a tight schedual here. We've got time. And I know how I would like to spend it," she said seductively.
But her lustful flirtations were brushed off impatiently. "Later. First you'll do your duty. Do what you promised. And leave him here, you've no need for him this time."
"I'm not leaving him in this dump. Not with you. His father's keeping an eye on him tonight. So it's just you and me all night. Better think of something for us to do by the time I get back or you're not getting anything from me."
She got to her feet and walked away with a determined sway of the hip.
"Harry! Come on! We've got to hurry up. He can't keep her out all night."
Harry panted, pausing halfway down the stair, leaning the heavy box he was carrying on one of the steps. "Ginny, I know you want to help your brother, but this was not what I had in mind when you asked me if we could spend some time out of the house together."
She smirked. "Well, what you have in mind and what I say hardly ever mean the same thing. Just one more box and we can go home."
Harry sighed and nodded. He knew better than to argue with his wife when she had a plan like this. He lifted the box again to proceed down the stairs.
"What's in this anyway?"
"Candles. Lots and lots of candles."
Harry rolled his eyes over the top of the box and sighed again. "And what exactly is this plan of yours? To set their house on fire?"
"Well it'll certainly have a nice glow when they come back. Oh, just stop whining already. You're doing your brother-in-law a favour. He wouldn't have asked us for some help if he didn't think it was necessary," Ginny said merrily. "He just wants to spend some romantic time with Hermione. Is that so bad? They've both been really busy, they need this to relax. Besides, when was the last time you did something like this for me?"
He knew she was teasing him, but he snarled all the same. "Let's just finish up, okay? Perhaps I've got a little surprise for you at home that's been waiting there for hours."
She turned around and looked at him surprised. "...Really?"
He grinned. "Like I'm going to let your brother out-charm me. I know how to do sweet things too, you know."
She blew him a quick kiss. "I guess I'd better hurry up then."
With a flick of her wand all the candles flew from the box he was holding, nearly causing him to topple backwards, and found themselves a place in the room. With another flick all of them started to burn brightly.
"I think that will do," she said with a satisfied grin. "Don't want to overdo it. Come on, then. I want my surprise."
Harry took her hand and walked out the front door. "Alright, if you insist-"
"Well well, what have we here," a long drawn voice said.
Harry froze and stopped in his tracks. "Ginny, get back inside!"
"Ron," she whispered. "I've got to go to the bathroom...Can you watch my purse?"
He took it silently with a frown on his face as he tried to understand what was going on on stage. He loved Hermione very much, but he would never understand her love for Muggle plays.
'Trying to create magic where there is none, waste of time,' he thought dully, not sharing his father's fascination at all.
Hermione edged past him and found her way to the corridor outside. She let out a soft sigh. It was so hot in there. She pulled her dress straight and looked around for a sign to point her to the lavatory. She saw a young man at a receptiondesk and hurried towards him.
"Excuse me," she said with a polite smile. "I was hoping you could help me. I'm looking for-"
"You won't need to be looking for anything soon," he said sharply as he turned around.
She recognised him immediately and backed away. "...Nott..."
"Surprised you remember me. Am I supposed to be charmed?" he said coolly. "Now come with me unless you-"
"I'll do no such thing! What are you going to do. Hex me? Here?"
He smiled nastily. "Don't tempt me."
She looked around nervously. Her wand was still in her purse and she had left that with Ron. Wasn't there anywhere she coud hide, anything she could duck behind? She cursed her eveningdress for being so long she couldn't run in it. If there was just a way she could call Ron!
"Ginny, get back into the house!"
"But wh-"
"Don't ask, girl. Your husband tells you to," a voice said coldly. "So now I see who calls the shots in your marriage."
Ginny looked around, finding herself cornered with her back to the wall. Four wands were pointed at her. She looked at Harry, who tried to back away from them so he could shield her.
"Go back inside. Dive if you have to. Just reach for your wand and get out of here," he whispered.
She wanted to object but couldn't as she was pushed backwards suddenly. Stumbling over the threshold of the house, she fell onto the hard wooden floor. Not thinking, but doing as she had been told, she reached for her wand and Disapparated. She'd have to trust Harry on this one...He knew what he was doing, right?
But she couldn't help noticing the sudden eary dark cloud through the window the second she disappeared.
Hermione eyed the boy with the wand in front of her. It was obvious he had the upperhand in the situation. She was hardly in a position to object to anything he said. She let her eyes travel down to the floor.
'Not even a rug,' she thought desperately, hoping to escape the way Muggles kept doing in movies.
She looked back at him defeatedly. Without her wand, she was powerless.
"Fine," she said coarsely.
He flicked his wand, wordlessly making clear that she needed to start moving towards the door. He followed her closely, just keeping enough distance so it wouldn't look too suspicious. When she set one foot on the wet cobblestones outside the theatre, she halted.
"Keep moving," he hissed, steering her into the direction of a darkened alley across the street.
Hermione kept her eyes on the ground, almost expecting a spell or an incantation to hit her from behind. The footsteps behind her stopped and she stopped too, not daring to turn around and piss him off.
"Aren't you frustrated?" the boy drawled. "Bested by someone less acknowledged, less accomplished than you?"
Hermione gritted her teeth. If she was going to be harmed or killed, she wouldn't want to have entertained him in any way.
"Not talkative? Oh well, that doesn't really matter. I suppose you wouldn't want to dignify me with an answer."
"Why don't you just get on with it," she said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "If you're going to kill me, then do so. Don't attempt to bore me to death with some monologue."
"Stupefy!"
The cry came sooner than she had expected, believing he would still have tried to boast some more. What surprised her even more was that she could still move, that she hadn't been hit by the spell at all. But what had surpirsed her the most was that the voice had been a female one.
She threw herself to the side and snapped around, staring a frozen Theodore Nott in the face. From behind him, Ginny appeared.
"Hermione, we've got to get back! Harry!"
Hermione followed the redhead dazed, stumbling past Nott clumsily. "Wait! We need to get Ron first, he's still inside! And he's got my wand!"
"But we need to get to Harry!" Ginny screamed loudly. "We were attacked and-"
"First Ron," Hermione said, forcing herself to be calm and think. "Without Ron's and my wand we can't do a thing. And what about him? We can't leave a frozen body here in a Muggle alley, people will see."
"That spell will lift on its own. Where is Ron?"
"He's still in the theatre...We can't barge in there!"
"You don't have to!" said a male voice, obviously panting from running. "What are you doing here? And why is Ginny here?"
Without answering, Hermione snatched her purse from him and turned its inside onto the ground to find her wand.
"How did you know to come and find me?" she asked Ron once she had found it.
"You hadn't come back...and even you don't need twenty minutes to go to the loo."
"Come on!" Ginny yelled impatiently. "We've got to go! Now!"
And before they could stop her, she had Disapparated again.
"They were at our place," Ron said as he grabbed Hermione's hand and Disapparated the second after his sister.
When they reappeared in the garden of their home, they were just in time to hear Ginny scream. Fear filled Hermione's heart as she realized that the Dark Mark was hovering above their roof. Ron rushed past her and ran inside to find his sister crouching next to a body stretched out on the floor.
"Is he..."
"He's stunned, I think," Ginny sniffed.
For the smallest moment in time, she had thought he was dead, but the beating of his heart had put her at ease. Hermione edged her way into the room too.
"How many people were there?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know...a few, I don't remember..."
"Then let's get him to St. Mungo's. We need to know what happened to him."
And quietly she wondered why he had been left alive at all.
