Night had fallen on Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The children were all safely tucked up in bed and Hagrid was on a bit of leave after the small service they'd held for Grawp. As Harry had requested, no one was near the forest.
'Okay, let's see if my instinct is correct' Burnout thought, approaching the edge of the forest.
Burnout transformed into robot mode, scanning the outer rim area he was near. He picked up faint signals and trace elements of Energon. Cybertronians were here, of that he was sure. Although there was not enough for him to determine whom it was. Using a stealth shield he borrowed from Drift, Burnout became invisible and entered the forest.
'Following the scent, Primus even Bluestreak could follow this trail' Burnout thought this was too easy.
However Burnout was able to stop following the Energon trail when he heard irritated voices and one that sounded just a bit, afraid. Limberly jumping over rocks and tree trunks, Burnout came across a sight that looked comical to him.
There were several dead spiders that were larger than normal around them. In the centre of it all, sat Vortex and Blast Off, covered in webbing. Burnout could now see why Vortex had sounded troubled: his rotor blades were all stuck and couldn't move. And it also appeared that Blast Off's hands were stuck inside the rotor assembly as if trying to pick the webbing out.
"Oh come off it, Blast Off, we look stupid and yo know it" Vortex whined.
"Shut up you Pit Spawned rust stain" Blast Off muttered, trying to pull his hands free from the back.
"Well, well, well. This is a most interesting predicament you both find yourselves in" Burnout said, uncloaking himself to the two Decepticons.
"Well, our target has presented himself to us; we are unfortunately very busy at the moment" Blast Off suddenly tripped back, his bound feet not allowing him to stabilise himself.
The grip it turned out created by the webbing and Blast Off's own strength and bulk was stronger than what held the rotors to Vortex's back in robot mode. The fall causing the rotor assembly to be ripped off Vortex's back and Blast Off to fall and damage his knees.
"OW, SLAG. WHAT THE PIT?" Vortex was in agony.
"Interesting, you both seem to need a surgeon. Here I stand and not really inclined to do a damn thing" Burnout walked casually around them.
"For Primus sake, help us, you're a surgeon" Blast Off hissed.
"You know well and good what I am. And in the very nature of your oily brother, I will offer you an agreement" he looked at them both, green optics glowing.
"State your terms" Blast Off said, hating to hear Vortex's agony.
"I will repair you both, and in exchange I want two things. The first, is I want you not to report my location to your comrades. The second, is if I ask it of you, you will perform any one task I designate" he explained.
"SOLD" Vortex yelled, all the while punching a log to divert his pain impulses.
Burnout looked at Blast Off, wanting his agreement too. Blast Off nodded. Letting out some air of his hydraulics and groaning, Burnout made his way over to Vortex. While Blast Off was able to switch off his pain since it was minor, Vortex's damage was severe and dangerous to block, indeed the pain was probably the only thing keeping him online.
"Okay, this may take a while Vortex, and I don't have much in way of raw materials" Burnout muttered, inserting a probe to a small outlet on the side of the helicopter's neck.
Vortex went limp almost immediately. He was in stasis lock; he could be worked on with little trouble like that. Then he went over to Blast Off and used a heat gun to melt the webbing so he could retrieve the rotor assembly and blades as well.
"How are you planning on getting raw metals? There is none for miles in this cursed land" Blast Off asked.
Burnout said nothing but walked over to one of the dead spiders. He then injected it with a hypodermic syringe. Blast Off watched in part fascination and part horror as the spider's flesh was slowly but surely eaten away and replaced by sheet metal.
"These self reproducing nano bots are amazing. They consume the dead cells and produce what ever I program into them as a waste product: in this case, Cybertanium alloy" he knelt down and cut of a piece and threw it to his patient.
"Now do we have an agreement?" he asked, staring straight at Blast Off.
"Yes, yes we do" Blast Off muttered, genuinely affirming the idea.
Burnout spent two hours gently extracting and reattaching Vortex's rotor assembly and blades. The internal wiring alone was a nightmare at the best of times in a surgery but in the field, well, Blast Off learnt that sailors held no lamp to doctors in the colourful language subroutine. Once he was double sure that Vortex would be ok, Burnout brought him out of stasis lock.
"Oh slag, I feel as if I got stomped on by Trypticon, but I've no longer got searing pain in my back and hand" he noted.
"Good. Now, Blast Off, lets take a look at those knees of yours" Burnout moved over to Blast Off, motioning to Vortex.
"Vortex, lift him up would you" Burnout asked.
"Okie Dokie" the somewhat happier interrogation expert said.
Using Vortex as a leaning post, Blast Off stood up and let Burnout repair the damage to his knees. After a bit of testing they were both up and running. Burnout half expected them to turn on him: he was right, as soon as they were able the both dove for him. He nimbly jumped up and avoided them and then pressed a button on his forearm. As soon as he did that, both of the larger Transformers stopped moving.
"As I said before, you know very well what I am. You were stupid enough to let me work on you" he said, enjoying how foolish both of them looked.
"You devious glitch" Blast Off muttered.
"Now I want an Oath from both of you: you will not reveal that I am here, and that you owe me a favour. Got it?" he snarled.
"You have our oath" the replied in unison.
"Good" Burnout released them from their immobility and turned back on his stealth shield.
As he left the forest, Burnout considered his position: he'd helped them and extracted a favour from them. They knew that as long as they made no active moves against the humans or other Autobots then in turn they'd be left alone: after all, the planet they were on had no quarrel with Cybertron and it would not endear them any to the humans if they brought their war here.
'The sun's coming up' he noted as he reached the edge of the forest again.
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Rally and Drift were bored, really, really bored. In a way the peace of this planet was a little unusual to them, having known war and death all their life. Not that there wasn't war going on here, from what their intercepted audio visual transmissions told about this planet was that war was plentiful on this planet, just isolated rather than global.
"Hey Rally, wanna go for a drive down to a city?" Drift asked his sister in a dull tone.
"Sure, you know where one is?" she replied sarcastically.
"I will in a minute" he muttered, walking over to a console.
In the months and days they'd been here, with Dumbledore and Tonks' help they'd managed to construct a small computer terminal with satellite uplink equipment. Though Earth's own satellite communication network was small, it was enough for them to plot their trips using Taggart's Crossing as a starting point.
"I can now see why Long Barrel was leader of the battalion" Rally smirked as her brother was frustrated by human technology.
"Ha ha slagging ha, Rally. Now lets see, using that town as our guide…there we go" he said proudly, pointing the map.
"Glasgow huh, fair enough" she said, heading to the door and transforming to car mode.
'Pesky wrench' he thought, downloading the directions to his navigational computer.
Transforming and bolting out of the door to catch up and eventually lead his sister, Drift relished the actual roads they were using. Smooth tarmac felt good after the abusive cobblestones of Hogsmeade. The sun was up and warm on their alt modes, holographic drivers created for reasons of stealth.
"Think Burnout will be slagged off that we left without him?" Rally asked, smirking at the sun.
"Nah, miserable old clanger wouldn't come anyway" Drift dismissed his sister's concerns.
They drove for almost five hours, hitting top speed on all the roads, using signal scramblers to confuse speed cameras and other anti speeding devices. They soon arrived in Glasgow, the night just beginning. There were young people out and about, al the fancy cars making their appearances. Rally and Drift were given very appreciative looks as they made their way around.
"We're smoking" Drift observed as they pulled to a stop, setting their hologram projectors to the maximum hard light range.
"Smoother than the Tritanum Fields. Lets rock and roll bro" Rally smirked, generating a new, more revealing outfit.
"Oh man, don't be doing that madness" Drift pleaded, already seeing the human males and a few females give his sister an appraising look.
Their hologram maximum range for soft light was over a mile, hard light was about one hundred yards. They'd managed to find parks outside a club so they were able to enter. After paying in printed money they'd made at base, they entered the club. It was more of a pub really: lots of wooden furniture and leather. Stain and polish adorning every surface and a smell of beer.
"Reminds me of the Two Moon Tavern on Praxis" Drift said, ordering a beer.
Since they were hard light holograms, they were able to make the appearance of drinking the alcohol but would not get drunk. While Drift made his way to the dance floor, Rally spied the last person she expected to find here.
Remus Lupin sat in the pub, on a corner table, drinking what appeared to be Guinness out of a pint glass. Rally recognised him, and most members of the Order of the Phoenix thanks to a few photographs of Tonks and Harry's, just as a precaution.
'He looks lonely. A bit of company is in order I think' she though, buying two pints of the Irish beer.
Walking gently over to his table she placed one of the glasses in front of him, making Remus look up in surprise. Rally gifted him with a small smile; she understood the look he had on his face.
"Penny for those thoughts of yours?" she asked softly, sitting down across from him.
"Just a few decisions to make, the hard kind. The kind that probably shouldn't be decided with this" he held up the glass to emphasis his point.
"Perhaps, you look a man torn. Gotta name, handsome?" she asked, smiling a little brighter.
'Who is this woman?' Remus thought, gingerly sipping the beer she gave him.
"Remus is my name, what about you?" he asked back, throwing caution to the wind.
"Raelene, but my friends call me Rally" she buried the truth inside of a lie.
"Well, which one do I use?" he asked, feeling more at ease.
"Since you look like you need a friend, you're more than welcome to use Rally" she replied, drinking her beer and winking over the glass at him.
Remus considered the woman in front of him. She was as tall as he was with bright blue eyes and Mediterranean looks about her, skin the colour of caramel. But he also saw a tough, muscular body that was both inspiring and desirable.
"I don't get it, young women for some reason find me attractive and I'm damned if I know why" Remus suddenly blurted out.
"What makes you think I'm young?" Rally felt her spark get a little warmer: he was a sweet man, if a little self-effacing.
"Well there was this young woman who had a small interest in me, but I think that has waned a bit. And now there's you" he said, blushing a little.
"I'm older than I look, Remus, I'm a solider" Rally again hid the truth in a deception.
"A solider huh, you ever been in combat? Or are you a new recruit?" Remus found himself a little intrigued.
"I've been around, see this scar, shrapnel mines" Rally pointed to a small scar she'd given her left forearm.
"And what is the story behind your scar?" she asked, pointing to a long one down his left cheek.
"An encounter with less than savoury people, but you should see the other guys" he said, marvelling at the easy banter he was having with this woman.
Drift watched from afar, slightly diverted from the two women he was charming with a curious eye. He knew that Remus Lupin was werewolf; a sickness that apparently caused what he saw as genetic mutation on the rays of the full moon. He also knew, from Harry's own theory that Remus wasn't sure of himself, nor thought himself deserving of love due to said disease; afraid he would hurt those he cared about.
'You won't hurt her, friend, not in a million years' he thought as he tuned his attention back to the two women.
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The night wore on; the beers were hearty and the songs loud. Remus had long since departed the pub, a promise of another meeting from Rally in hand. Drift and Rally spent the rest of their time on the dance floor. Once it hit 1:00am though, they thought it best to leave. Making like drunks the stumbled out of the pub and into their cars.
"Excuse me sir, ma'am. Are you planning on driving home tonight?" a policeman's thick accent hit their audio processors.
"Uhhhh, yeah" Drift said, making his hologram stumble into the car.
"I don't think so. Both of you step out of your cars please" his partner, a woman said as she produced a breathalyser.
With a quick glance, Rally and Drift turned over their engines and with perfect timing, sped out of the street. The police were now on their radios calling for a pursuit car. Not too soon after, it caught up with them.
"Well, this is one hell of a way to finish and evening" Drift muttered as they both skidded around a 45degree corner at about 45mph.
"Shut up and loose them, we need to hit some open road and turn the limiters off" Rally replied as her engine and turbo revved to their restricted maximum.
The turbocharged Ford Focus police car was gaining slowly until they hit some open motorway. Rally and Drift both then turned off their alt limiters used their Cybertronian powered engines to their true capacity. With a roar unheard of in any other kind of car, they sped away from the Scottish Police force.
"Sierra Bravo to Sierra Control, I don't know what the hell happened, but we lost them, they accelerated away from us, presume use of high powered engine modifications. Pass on their details to the surrounding areas" the pursuit driver had slowed and pulled over.
"Copy that, return to base" his central station responded.
'Those were some premier league toys, where the hell would they get tunning like that?' the Police Officer thought.
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Rally and Drift had changed their license plates to something else, and added some decals to the sides and bonnet of their car mode to avoid detection on the journey back to Hogsmeade. When the arrived, Burnout had not yet returned so they transformed and cleaned themselves up without incident.
'The perfect hack' they thought with glee as they settled down to their recharge berths.
Burnout entered to see his two compatriots in recharge on their berths. He shrugged, removing the stealth shield and placing it in a storage cabinet, along with other equipment and weapons. It had taken several weeks to get the computers up and running, copies of their operating systems held in auxiliary memory banks of their own. Help from Tonks and Dumbledore had provided the raw materials for their systems.
'We can start work on the refinery soon' he thought with pride.
His two companions came online soon after that and greeted him cordially. Burnout said nothing but swivelled in the chair he sat on and looked at them both with hard optics. They both asked what they had done. In answer to their question he activated a screen capable of receiving human television waves. On the screen came the visage of both Rally and Drift being chased by police vehicles.
"Would either of you care to explain this, or shall I let my imagination circuits run a little haywire with this?" he asked in a stony voice.
"Uhhh" Drift looked confused while Rally had the good sense to look abashed.
"You can't be that angry" she ventured.
"Really, well let's find out, Rally, let's see if I have it in me" he said, standing up and managing to make them both step back despite being about a third their height.
"YOU COULD HAVE GOT US BUSTED" he yelled at them, his Irish voice nearly breaking from the forced volume.
"But we didn't as we escaped" Drift replied, not quite getting it.
"You disabled your alt limiters. You went faster than any road based vehicle can conceivably go" he snapped.
"WHAT SLAGGING DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?" Drift was still a bit tired and frankly angry that Burnout was curbing his fun.
"Because you fool, if we're intelligent enough to hack this stuff, what makes you think the Decepticons who're here won't either? Did you stop and consider that?" he looked at them both: they remained silent.
"Thought not" he muttered.
"Speaking of Decepticons, what was in that forest Harry sent you in to?" Drift asked.
"There were traces of Cybertronians, but I didn't find anyone there. My guess is they came, saw the humans and no technology and bailed at that point" Burnout lied, waving his hand and showing his irritation at them for their recklessness.
"Oh, any ideas who?" Rally was intrigued.
"Probably one of our erstwhile pursuers, I couldn't tell which ones though" again he lied.
"Oh, okay" Rally seemed defeated.
"Listen, the message needs sent out again. Can you do it because I need some slagging recharge" he asked with a grin.
"Sure, get rested" Rally said as Burnout walked towards the berth and lay down on it.
'Repeat the lie often enough, and it may as well be true' Burnout thought with a heavy spark and fell into a deep, troubled recharge.
Vortex and Blast Off kept a low profile for the next few weeks, eventually moving out of the forest to a more secure location in a mountain range area to allow them to use solar collectors to keep energised. This alleviated suspect happenings and night time wanders to the forest.
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Harry was in the Three Broomsticks, Hermione and Ron were getting the Butterbeers so that left Harry with Luna and Ginny, an uncomfortable position for him since he and Ginny hadn't spoken more than a few words to each other since the beginning of term and talking Luna could be tiring.
"So, enjoying your classes?" Harry ventured, trying to be civil.
"Fine thank you" Ginny replied, her tone flat.
'Wow, did it go down a few degrees in here or is it just me?' Harry wondered, wincing a little at her tone.
To his immense relief he was spared further silence by the return of Ron and Hermione with the drinks and snacks. Sighing in relief he reached for a drink and took a hearty swig. He looked out of the window and recalled a conversation he'd had with Tonks about a week and half ago.
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Tonks and Harry lay on the large couch in the house in Hogsmeade that they'd hid her and the Autobots in. It was another Hogsmeade Weekend and Harry had arranged to meet her here and have a day with her. It had been a most interesting experience.
"Something on your mind?" Tonks asked, planting a kiss on the back of Harry's neck.
"Yeah. The day you left, Burnout made me an offer" he said, turning his head to face her.
"What kind of offer, have I got competition?" Tonks giggled at her joke.
"Very cute, but no. He offered to use Autobot technology to make me stronger" Harry then proceeded to explain what Burnout had offered.
"Wow, that's, that's Merlin damned incredible" Tonks sat up and looked across the room, seeing Burnout mixing some chemicals for reasons unknown.
"Yeah, yeah it is. I just don't think I'll do it. I mean it would be dangerous for one thing and I wouldn't be able to play Quidditch" Harry leaned up against her.
"Well I won't say it's a bad offer. I can't imagine how much I could accomplish with those kinds of abilities" Tonks said, imagining herself as a superhero.
"Yeah, guess it just seems too unreal for me to take the offer" Harry shrugged, squeezing Tonks' hand.
"Well, unreal seems to be your state of being. Look at ya, sixteen with an older woman for a girlfriend, destined to destroy a Dark Lord and friends with aliens" Tonks whispered.
Harry paid the words no heed but suddenly turned around pounced on Tonks, pinning her to the couch with a grin on his face. Tonks raised and eyebrow at him before Harry descended on her, giving her a passionate kiss that soon moved from her lips, soft as ever, to her jaw and neck. He gave the sensitive skin on her jaw and neck feather lite kisses and the occasional gentle nip. Tonks groaned and smiled.
"Well fuck me, Harry, what have you been reading?" she asked as he gently ran his tongue over her throat.
"The Hogwarts library is very extensive. Very, very extensive" he almost growled against the back of her ear.
"Well I'm glad to see you taking some of your studies seriously" she giggled, trailing her fingers down Harry's stomach which made Harry giggle too.
"Some studies are much more interesting. Especially since the practical applications are so, enjoyable" Harry hissed.
"No bonding on the couch, you know the rules. I so much as hear a zipper, I'm coming in there with a hose" Burnout called, sensing the increase in pheromones, sweat and body heat.
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Harry was drawn from his reverie by being shaken lightly on the shoulder by Ron.
"Spacing out again mate?" he asked, smiling knowingly.
"Sorry, totally zoned out" Harry said, allowing a smile to grace his features.
"You look like you'd rather be in your dream land than with us" Hermione gave him a critical look.
Harry was about to refute it when he stopped: he would much rather be with Tonks right now. Ron and Hermione were starting to pay each other that special kind of attention that was typical of a fledgling relationship and he felt like a third wheel.
'That developed on the quiet' he mused.
"I just got, stuff, on my mind so if I'm a bit distant I'm sorry" he said.
Hermione shrugged and returned to her conversation with Ginny and Luna. Ron on the other hand, slid Harry a chip packet and gave him a huge smirk.
"Who is she?" he asked.
"I don't know what you mean" Harry said, innocuously drinking his Butterbeer.
"Whatever you say pal. Just let us meet her at some point, okay" Ron said, seeing no reason to press his friend.
Harry frowned at the ceiling; Ron's new powers of perception and deduction were strange and downright disconcerting. Still, to be fair it wasn't as if many things caused him to become a total space case in the company of his two closest friends. Turning his head to look at the window, Harry saw Draco Malfoy and his two cronies, Crabbe and Goyle.
'Where the hell are they going?' he mused as he saw them enter the post office.
Draco had retrieved some kind of a package, what kind it was he could not say since it was still in a box. The three Slytherin boys disappeared around a corner, most likely to engage in troublemaking or to discover the origin or contents of Draco's package.
"Silly wankers" he muttered, taking a drink
"Who?" Hermione asked.
"Draco, along with Tweedle Dee and Dweedle Dum just got something from the post office and disappeared down that alley way.
"That's not a good sign, with them at least" Ron said.
"Let's follow them" Ginny suggested.
"I'm with Ginny on this" Hermione said, looking around for support.
"I'm out" Harry got up and began walking to the bar.
"Harry, what if he's up to something dangerous?" Ginny asked.
"I don't care; it's his prerogative to be stupid and dangerous. Aurors can take care of it. Bail" Harry continued to the bar.
"Lost your Gryffindor courage, Harry?" Ginny sniped, earning her reproachful looks from the others.
"Nope, it's called being pragmatic, Ginerva. I put you all in unnecessary danger, I refuse to do so a second time. If you go charging into a fight, guns blazing, you'll only get fragged" Harry replied coolly, disappearing into the throng.
"Luna, Hermione. Could you please give me and my sister some privacy please" it wasn't a question.
"Yeah, sure, lets go find Harry shall we Luna" Hermione saw that there was things to be discussed between brother and sister.
Once they were gone, Ron took several breaths and a long swig of his Butterbeer. Then he placed both of his hands on the table and looked his sister directly in the eye.
"Ginny, this bullshit has to stop and it has to stop now" he said calmly, colour rising to his face.
"Excuse me Ron, since when did my behaviour become your business?" Ginny asked, clearly offended.
"If you and Harry have shit you need to work out, fine, find a quiet room and hash it out. Verbally, physically or sexually I don't give a rat's arse. But I'm jack of you two fighting all the time you're in the same room" Ron snapped.
"Well Harry needs a behavioural adjustment too. I was just worried about him and I made a legitimate point about Tonks and he jumps down my throat" Ginny was almost growling.
"Ginny, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, I know this. I'm not a fool though; I know what you're shitty about and unless you intend to face it, shut up about it. Tonks saved his life, and you go and insult her. What did you expect him to do?" Ron reminded Ginny of the circumstances surrounding her and Harry's last real conversation.
"Now you think on that because I've exhausted all the smart things I know so I'm getting more drinks" Ron also stood.
"Also, you gotta know I'll back you, Ginny. Harry's my friend, but you're family" Ron spoke one last time before he walked away.
Ginny sat at the table, the other patrons of the Three Broomsticks milling around her, all their talking becoming nothing more than a sort of buzzing, droning noise in her ears while she sat and contemplated the words spoken to her by Ron, in an unusual show of intelligent speech.
'Hermione's been rubbing off on him….ewww, double entendre involving my brother' she grimaced and let loose a giggle.
Ginny decided to let Harry be for the day. She'd cut pretty close to the bone, and if she'd mentioned Sirius it may have resulted in bloodshed and property damage. Sighing she decided to go for a walk, clear her head and maybe think up a way of apologising to Harry without loosing too much of her pride and dignity.
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She slipped out of the Three Broomsticks without being noticed, though not a terribly difficult task on its own given the amount of patrons in it. Still, as Ginny stepped into the cold, biting air, she considered herself lucky to have friends as she did. All of them were batshit crazy in one way or another, but they'd stood by her thick and thin.
Ginny's wonderings took her to one of the less populated areas of Hogsmeade. She leaned against the side of a building and took a deep breath of the chilled oxygen.
"Well, look what we have here boys, the Blood Traitor" Draco's pseudo sophisticated drawl grating her nerves like sandpaper.
'Bugger' Ginny thought irritably.
"What do you want ferret?" Ginny asked, well aware on how Draco hated the nickname after Barty Crouch Jr, masquerading as Mad Eye had transfigured him into one.
"Oooh, this one has some teeth" Draco seemed to take the insult in his stride, but Crabbe and Goyle had seen him feel the sting.
"And I've got a wand and a temper, dickhead, so if you value your ability to wank, you'll piss off and leave me be" Ginny snapped, wand in hand.
Draco said nothing, but scowled and raised his hand. He held a piece of metal that Ginny could best describe as a tube on a handle. Not knowing what it is however, would prove to be Ginny's downfall: the item in question was a revolver.
"I hate Muggles as you know, but it must be said, they come up with some amazing inventions" Draco smirked, waving the item around like a toy.
Draco was also ignorant of the item's function and as a result had no respect for it. Ginny tuned to walk away, the sheer obnoxiousness of him was nauseating. In his arrogance, Draco pulled the trigger. The bang was deafening and Ginny was not prepared for searing pain to erupt in her left shoulder blade, a few inches above her heart.
"MORGANA'S TITS!" Goyle exclaimed.
"We're out of here" Draco threw the weapon away and he and his friends bolted in the opposite direction.
Ginny hit the deck pretty hard, her wound bleeding, not heavily thankfully. The bullet had lodged itself in her shoulder blade, making arm movements impossible. Feebly, her strength fading fast she got her wand and tried to cast a spell, any spell to get some attention and hopefully some help.
"This, really hurts" she mumbled weakly, tears streaming down her face.
Her pain was too great to allow her to think clearly and she dropped her wand, and her eyes fluttered shut, going into shock.
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Harry had been standing outside with Ron and Luna while Hermione sourced some books when Harry heard a very faint bang. Most of the Hogsmeade patrons thought it was a student letting off a firework for some fun and ignored it, however, it sounded eerily familiar.
"Did you hear that?" he asked Ron.
"Probably just a firework" he dismissed, going back to his window shopping.
Harry wasn't convinced and began walking towards the direction he heard the sound from. His friends, seeing little else to do, followed him. After pushing their way through the crowds, they got to the less populated area. Harry was about to call it quits when he and everyone else heard a low moan.
"Someone's here" he muttered, drawing his wand.
"GINNY!" Ron suddenly saw his sister and sprinted forward.
Ginny had begun getting a bit pale and had passed out from the pain. Her back was covered in blood from the wound and the gun lay on the ground, still warm from the shot.
"Don't touch that" Harry snapped, seeing Luna approach it curiously.
"Hermione, transfigure us a box or something to put it in" Harry quickly turned to his friend who would understand the nature of it.
"What the hell happened" Ron was getting frantic, putting his jacket around his sister.
"She's been shot, that thing is a gun, a Muggle weapon" Harry muttered.
Harry considered his position: Ginny had been shot with a gun, and was now in shock from blood loss and pain. St. Mungo's may not know how to treat such a wound and the closest Muggle hospitals were in Glasgow and no one could make the trip. Sighing and taking in the sight of his fast panicking friends, Harry decided to let it out.
'Burnout and the others are gonna skin me alive for this' he thought blandly.
"I know where we can take her" he said.