Jericho

Part II

Ginny Potter/Emily Watts

The Burrow

1:45 PM

Ginny

Ginny wanted to turn the TV off. In the last half hour, they had pretty much said the same details over and over again. Lee would offer some of his own commentary at times, but he was primarily just running a live feed from one of the muggle TV channels, so it was just not providing any new information.

The reports were focusing on the cause of the explosion at the Ministry. The current theory was that a gas line running above the Ministry had ruptured causing a massive explosion. Ginny was not sure if that was what the Ministry actually believed had happened, or if something else had caused the explosion and the gas line story was just a cover.

Ginny was happy to learn that all of her family had been accounted for, all except her prat of a brother, Ron. He still had not turned up. Ginny was fuming to herself, "If he and Hermione had gone some place to make up, she would kill the both of them for putting the family through this worry. Ginny felt there was no excuse for not contacting the family. Even if they might have had no way of knowing what was going on.

Deep in her heart, Ginny knew that was not the case. Her brother and sister-in-law were at the damn Ministry. Knowing the two of them, they were caught up in helping and neither of them had thought to let the family know they were unharmed. That would be typical of the two of them.

Ginny's attention was drawn back to the TV when Fleur asked,

"Isn't that..?"

Ginny tuned out the rest of Fleur's question when she saw to whom she was referring.

On the screen, Emily appeared to be kissing a man that was lying on the street, Ginny just stared for a couple of seconds, not believing what she was seeing.

"That cow." She hissed as she got up and left for the kitchen. She couldn't believe what she had just seen. She is an actress, she thought, nothing should surprise me when it comes to her.

Ginny kept dwelling on the fact that she had been hexed by Emily. Although Harry called it pepper spray, Ginny knew a hex, and that was a hex. Since that time, she had a bit of an attitude when it came to Harry's ex. Ginny then heard the sound of someone apparating into the back yard. She quickly got up and headed to the back door.

Emily Watts.

Emily started to protest once she realized what George intended to do. Before she was able to finish voicing her objections, she felt a squeezing sensation in her stomach and the inside of the tent disappeared. A second later, she was looking at the Burrow. She whirled around.

"George, why did you bring me here?" She tried not to sound worried. Ron had told her that none of the Weasleys knew what Ginny had done last week. She really did not want to have another confrontation with Ginny. She knew from Ron that Ginny had been a tad angry with her. Emily did not regret what she did; Ginny had no right to come to her flat and start hitting one of her guests. George seemed surprised by her worried tone, but he did not say anything immediately.

After a brief pause, he answered.

"You looked like you needed…"

"What the hell is she doing here?" Ginny's harsh voice interrupted.

George looked surprised at Ginny's harsh tone, as he answered.

"I ran into her on the street outside the ministry. She was…"

"I know what she was doing," Ginny interrupted harshly. "Why didn't you just stay with that man you were snogging? Why bother us?"

"Snogging?" George asked, clearly confused, "What the hell are you talking about, Gin?" His last words had a hint of anger in it.

"It's all over the TV," Ginny answered back. "She was snogging some poor bloke on the street."

Emily had no idea what Ginny was talking about, and then she remembered shouting at a photographer while giving a man CPR. Emily did her best, but could stop herself from letting out a quick laugh before she answered Ginny.

"Ginny, why don't you quit before you embarrass yourself again."

Her answer only caused Ginny to become even angrier.

"Embarrass myself?" The redhead fired back, "I'm not the one that was snogging some poor bloke on national TV."

Emily just gave Ginny the sweetest smile she could.

"First of all, if I were to snog a bloke, he certainly would not consider himself to be a poor bloke," Emily paused briefly before adding, "Just ask your husband."

Ginny saw red at Emily's last statement. Emily did not give her the chance to answer back.

"Now, if you had bothered to join in Luna's first aid training, you would know I was not snogging that man, I was performing CPR."

Ginny

Ginny glared at Emily, as she tried to figure out exactly when she had lost control of the situation. Probably when the tart had mentioned Harry, she thought. She needed to regain the upper hand quickly. Ginny knew most of her anger was at the fact that Emily had beat her when she had gone to her flat the other day. She just caught me by surprise, Ginny told herself. I won't let that happen again. She had thought that mentioning Emily's snogging session on TV would put Emily in her place. That did not work out the way she planned. Ginny searched her mind for what she knew about CPR, and then shot back without thinking.

"So you were saving the poor bloke?"

Emily looked away from her when she finished that statement; Ginny could see tears forming in her eyes. She had not expected her statement to get to the muggle girl.

"Actually, the man died." Emily said softly.

"So you killed him?" Ginny stated immediately. Emily looked as if Ginny had slapped her and turned to George.

"George, please get me out of here."

George just glared at Ginny.

"Nice," was all George said.

Ginny felt her triumphant smile go away at George's response; she felt a stab of anger at her brother for siding with Emily. Ron had already sided with Emily, and had not spoken to her since she confronted Hermione about leaving him. Now it seemed George was also turning against her. What is it with this bitch? She thought. She just looked at George.

"Oh, come on. Not you too?" She asked, not realizing the can of worms she was opening.

George looked at her, clearly confused.

"What do you mean you too?"

"You'd better get the princess out of here. She is starting to…" Ginny quickly answered, trying to change the subject.

"Talk to Ron lately?" Emily interrupted her angrily.

Ginny was taken aback by the question. Emily knew that she and Ron were not speaking. She also should know that none of the other Weasleys was aware of the rift between her and Ron. Ron had not said anything because he did not want the rest of the family to know he and Hermione were having problems. She had not said anything because…well, that really didn't matter she thought. Now Emily was telling the family about the rift between her and her youngest brother.

Ginny started to turn away. Best to end this now before anyone decides to ask questions.

As she turned, she practically ran into her mother. Molly was looking between her and Emily, and then she asked.

"Ginny, what are you and Ron fighting about?"

"We're not fighting," she answered immediately. To be fighting, we would have to be speaking to each other, she thought as she tried to get around her mother.

In the meantime, she could hear George and Emily whispering back and forth. It sounded like Emily was also trying to avoid the subject as well. Emily must have failed because George looked at her and asked.

"What did you do to Hermione?"

Ron Weasley

Ministry of Magic

Atrium

1:55 PM

Ron watched as the last of his group exited the stairwell. Ron sighed, It had been a long afternoon. Looking at his watch, he was surprised to see that it had only been just under of couple of hours. Damn, he thought, It seemed like a lot more time had passed. Hermione started to head for the door, and he stopped her. He wanted to make sure everything was okay, before she stepped out. She gave him an angry look, but he was thankful that she did not argue with him.

Ron was the first to step out into the atrium and he stopped dead in his tracks. Ron felt his heart quicken as he stared at the carnage that was in the space that used to be the atrium. As he scanned the atrium, it was clear that there had been some kind of explosion. Ron could make out at least six areas from which blasts had originated. This was no accident, he thought to himself as he finished looking around.

"Look what the cat dragged in," a familiar voice came from behind him. Ron turned around to see Harry quickly approaching him and Hermione.

Harry gave Hermione a brief hug, and then shook his hand.

"Any more below?" Harry asked.

"Not sure," Ron answered, . There were many areas in the lower floors that he was not able to get to. "We could not get to anything below the level where the atrium floor collapsed down to." Ron paused still taking everything in. "How bad is it?"

Harry sighed.

"Casualties are high. Over two hundred dead, and over a thousand injured."

Ron tried to hide his shock.

"Any idea what happened?" He asked.

"Right now, the best theory we have is a gas main exploded." Harry answered.

Ron looked around the atrium again. Nothing Ron saw led him to believe that this was caused by a gas explosion.

"Gas explosion," Ron answered skeptically. "Gas explosion, my ass."

"Ron, what are you on about?" Harry asked, concerned.

"Harry, look around. Tell me what you see?" Ron asked.

Harry

Harry stared at Ron, not sure what he meant by that. Ron must have seen Harry was confused because he asked him to look around. Harry looked and he could see the rescue teams working on getting the injured out of the atrium. Most of the critically and seriously injured had been evacuated, so the pace was a bit slower now. He could see where the gas main had exploded, causing the floor to collapse forming a crater that went down at least four floors. If what he learned from Ron and Hermione was correct, the crater went further down than that. He looked around and saw several more areas that appeared to have been damaged by secondary explosions but nothing really out of the ordinary.

Seeing that, Harry did not seem to get what he was trying to say Ron said.

"There was more than one explosion." Ron stated.

"You had the main explosion and then several secondary explosions after that." Harry answered.

Ron continued to look over the atrium. What he saw and what Harry was telling him just did not match. If it had been a gas explosion as Harry said, then there would have been just one massive explosion. There would be no secondary explosions because the gas would have been used in the first explosion. A gas explosion would only have one blast area. Ron counted at least six. In addition, with a gas explosion, the blast damage would have started at a fixed point and worked its way out; that was not the case here. Ron was by no means an explosive expert, but what he saw around him resembled bomb blasts, not breached gas lines.

"This was no gas explosion." Ron said more to himself than anyone else.

"What are you on about, Ron?" Harry asked. Ron did not hear him. He was turning his mind back to what he had learned in the states after September 11th. He continued to look around the atrium, now trying to find anything that might be out of place, and hoping his theory was wrong…

Hermione Weasley

Hermione watched as her husband continued to study the Atrium. She knew better than to bother him when he was like this. Ron was in full inspector mode. Well, that was what she called it. She knew Ron was trying to put the pieces of a puzzle together in his mind, and when he was doing this, it was best just to let him think things through.

She also tried to figure out what he was thinking by going over what Ron had said to Harry. He seemed to be concerned about the fact that there was more than one explosion. He doesn't think this was a gas explosion, she thought. Hermione started to go over the possible causes of an explosion on this scale in her mind. She looked around one more time and did her best to hide her fear as she realized that Ron thought this was not an accident but a deliberate act.

Ron Weasley

Ron finished looking over the atrium for the third time. He was now convinced that the explosions were from bombs, and not from any kind of gas leak. That meant someone had to have set the devices in the lobby. Ron continued to look around; if someone had set explosives, then they may have set additional devices to do more damage as rescue workers arrived. He was now looking for secondary devices. After a few more scans, he finally spotted what he was looking for.

Near the wreckage of the fountain of magical brotherhood was a garbage bin. What caught Ron's attention was the bin was completely undisturbed. Ron quickly started towards the bin, and Harry quickly following him asking,

"Ron, what's going on?"

As he got closer to the bin, he cast a quick spell to detect any magical spells on the bin, and found that it was protected by a shield. Ron stopped dead in his tracks. He did not want to get any closer to the bin. If the bin turned out to be what he thought it was, it might have a proximity fuse and there was no need to take any chances. Ron heard as Harry and Hermione approached him from behind. He turned to face them and he spoke louder than he had planned

"Don't come any closer." Harry and Hermione stopped dead in their tracks.

The atrium needed to be evacuated before the device he had found went off. Ron debated for a few seconds then held out his hand "Harry, I need your radio."

"Ron, what is it?" He asked as he handed the radio to him.

Before he keyed the radio, he cast the strongest shield spell he knew around the three of them, and then he spoke.

"Inspector 101, Flashpoint."

Flashpoint was the code for a bomb threat.

The radio answered back,

"101, what is your location."

Ron quickly advised central of his location, before he gave the following command,

"Central, initiate an evacuation of the atrium and have Scotland Yard dispatch a bomb squad to this location."

Harry just stared at Ron as he finished issuing his commands.

"Inspector Weasley?"

Ron looked up as Sergeant Doyle or Boyle. Actually, Ron was just too tired to care when the bomb squad approached him. Ron did not answer; he just nodded.

"The device has been disarmed." The sergeant paused briefly before continuing, "You lucked out. That was a powerful device; if it had gone off..."

Ron did not pay attention to the rest of what the sergeant was saying. He did not need him to tell Ron that the casualties would have been devastating had the last device gone off. Ron was not sure why the device did not go off, but he knew the last bomb was meant to kill those trying to rescue and treat the injured.

"Bloody hell," Harry said as the sergeant left.

Ron sighed, as he looked at his best mate.

"That about sums it up."

Harry looked at Ron for a minute then the two of them heard Hermione laugh as they started to play rock-paper-scissors. Ron smiled as he covered Harry's hand with his. "Paper covers rock, mate."

Harry sighed and then asked, "So what do I tell Kingsley?"

Ron looked over Harry's shoulder to the crater where the Ministry atrium was, and answered. "Tell him someone has just declared war on the Ministry."

Ron then stood up, took Hermione's hand, and dissapparated.