Disclaimer: All rights are reserved for JKR. Although, I'm seriously surprised they're all hers. I mean come on, ever read LOTRs? I digress, on with the story!
Chapter Eleven
Duck and Cover Would be the Best Option
As Fudge rambled on about what charges the group would be facing as a whole, then as individuals, the Aurors led them out of the room and down one of the many winding hallways. With the first step she had taken Ginny had blocked Fudge's annoying voice from the depths of her mind. There had to be some way out of the corner they were all blocked into. And Fudge blabbering on about how they would all be sent to Azkaban was not helping Ginny's concentration in the slightest.
Tap
Hermione was shaking as she kept glancing at the Aurors who stood next to her. After being a slave in the Malfoy household for so many years she was no stranger to harsh beatings. At the moment she was not help to Ginny who was trying desperately to see some small flaw with Fudge's reasoning; she couldn't. The twins and Ron were looking rather downtrodden, as they were powerless to do anything. Ron occasionally glanced back at Hermione, which kept Ginny giggling much to Fudge's dismay.
Tap
Hearing about how they were all going to be charged with breaking an entering, Ginny glared at Fudge. It had to be at least the fifth time he had mentioned that in the past five minutes. They'd been walking down the hallway for perhaps ten.
Tap
"Shut the bloody hell up already!" Ginny snarled. Fudge stopped, flabbergasted at what the girl demanded. Being the all holy Minister of Magic, Fudge was not used to being spoken to in such a tone of voice.
"Excuse me?" Fudge asked. He wasn't sure he had heard the girl right. After all, he was getting older and his hearing might have started to go. Just might, he wasn't ready to admit that he was having trouble with any bodily function. Admitting sickness or loss of anything was weakness in Fudge's eyes, and he didn't want the public to see him as weak.
Tap tap
"Shut the bloody hell up," snipped Ginny, "You heard me the first time! Maybe if you took time to listen to people rather than yourself, the magical world wouldn't be facing the problems with Voldemort that it is at the moment. Merlin forbid you actually do anything with your power as Minister. Oh wait, that doesn't include throwing large Ministry functions, or banning dangerous beasts such as werewolves from existing!"
"What would you know," Fudge scoffed, "You're just a slave-"
"Technically we're free," interjected Hermione as she looked around to see what the tapping sound was.
"Sorry, you're just a former slave. Which means you're unintelligent. What would you even begin to know about the vast complex working of this fine Ministry?" posed Fudge. He drew himself up as if to gather all of himself together in an attempt to look more important than he rally was.
"First off, you dimwit, I wasn't a slave until after I turned twelve. Considering you won't be able to do the math, I was free twelve years; as opposed to the five years I was a slave. And to save your fragile brain from doing simple arithmetic, that's seventeen years total," Ginny snarled. She stared at Fudge with great dislike burning in her eyes. In his poor attempt to show that he was not afraid of the young redhead, Fudge tugged on the collar of his shirt, muttering something to one of the Aurors next to him.
Tap, tap, tap
"Just because you were free means nothing-"
THUD
Hermione let out a sigh of relief as the annoying tapping finally stopped. Half frightened, Fudge gave a look behind the group only to have his face pale. Whatever it was that had stopped behind them seemed to be Fudge's worst nightmare.
"I zink dat zees poor children zhould be let go," a soft yet firm voice suggested. Jumping slightly at the noise, Ginny turned around.
Behind them was an elderly lady. If it was even possible, she looked seemingly older than Dumbledore. Her long silver hair had been carefully braided and pulled around the top of her head. The mysterious women stood up straight with a solid oak staff in one of her hands. It had been the stave she was walking with that had made the tapping noise through the stone hallway.
Fudge did not look happy to see the woman. She smiled at Fudge as her looks gradually began to change. Her silver hair changed to golden curls that hung down her back. The elderly lady's face slowly lost its wrinkles at it quickly began to look younger.
"Finally! I did not zink zat de zpell vould lazt zo long!" the stave wielder declared.
"Amilee, you are not needed here," Fudge sighed. The lady, Amilee, tilted her head to the side looking over the group.
"But, Minizter, it looks like zey are freed zlaves. And, if I'm not miztaken, they are mine to deal vit," Amilee reasoned. Muttering curses under his breath, Fudge threw his hands up in the air as a sign that he had given up.
"Do with them what you will," snarled Fudge, disappointed he wasn't able to throw anyone in Azkaban for the day. "Then find some spell that helps with your accent!"
"I told you, it doez not always work like dat," Amilee smiled. Fudge just seemed even more angry that his employee was having trouble with her sentences, as he crossed his arms.
"You are Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny Weazley?" Amilee asked the redheads. The four nodded. "Dat must make you Hermione Granger? Well den, I do believe that you have zome rightz now dat you are free. Dose rightz Minizter Fugde probably forgot to mention."
"Wait a minute," said Fred.
"Haven't we always had rights?" questioned George.
"Even as slaves."
"We had some form of rights."
"So what, they sucked."
"They were still rights!"
"Now you're saying we never had rights to begin with?"
"Sheesh, what is the world coming to?"
"You mizunderztand me," chuckled Amilee, "You have always had rightz, but as newly freed zlaves you have a whole other set of rightz."
"That makes sense," Hermione observed. The twins sent her a harsh glare, as they couldn't go on with their bantering.
"That iz good," Amilee said, "Zince most of you were free you can go back to your lives as long as you have no other interaction with fellow or former zlaves and owners. Az long az a family member comes to claim you within two hours of getting your wandz you are free to go. That means in zix minutes, since Fudge has been leading you around in zircles."
"What!" the Weasley's exclaimed as they glared at Fudge. The Minister of Magic made a poor attempt at looking innocent as a slight smirk appeared across his face.
"Az for you, Hermione," Amilee began, "You were never considered a free vitch to begin vit. Az vit de two hour time limit, zome family has to claim you to them. If you are young enough it can be as an adoptive child. But zince you are over the legal wizarding age of seventeen, it has to be through marriage."
"I'm never going to be free," Hermione realized. Tears started to well up in her eyes as the dream of being free had quickly slipped out of her grasp.
"Well, in that case I'll just be taking them along," Fudge said merrily. He started to walk by Amilee, but fell flat on his face as he tripped over her walking stave.
"Not zo fast, Fugde," Amilee said slyly, "I have two notes here." She held up to pieces of parchment that had some kind of ink smudges on them. Ginny hoped that those smudges were writing.
"Oh?"
"De notes are from two families. One if from a Mister and Misses Bill Weazley zaying, that dey will be here to pick up dere former zlave as they have zeen to it dat she vill be placed in a marriage. De other is from a Mister and Misses Arthur Weazley, vhich vas taken from a Howler, that dey are here to pick dere children up now. And if the misses catches zight of you, you will be vishing that you had crawled back into the hole you had come from. I will take dem back to the entrance now."
Grumbling, Fudge pushed past Amilee, giving a signal to the Aurors to disappear. When Fudge was gone, Amilee smiled quickly at the group before taking off down the hall.
"Quickly now! We only have a few precious moments to get you back to your families before that spell wears off!" Amilee announced. The twins looked at each other before joining their siblings and Hermione running after the odd girl.
"How did you loose the accent?" Hermione panted as she attempted to keep up with Amilee.
"Easy, living in England most of my life," laughed Amilee, "My parents are French and German. I visit my grandparents in France and Germany often. Fudge doesn't like when I come back with a slight accent, so I just keep it all year round to annoy him. Combing the two accents drives him nuts too. He's placed me in a few programs to rid me of the letters and words I don't pronounce to his liking, but for some reason the problem doesn't go away. Enough talk, follow!" If possible, the girl tore down the hallway even faster. Knowing they would be lost if they didn't follow her the group sprinted as fast as they could to keep up.
The hallways quickly started to look familiar again. Paintings on the wall had come to life, each one saying some comment on the newly escaped slaves. Some were of congratulations, others were of death wishes. It really didn't matter, seeing that if they didn't get to the main entrance within the next minute or so they were back to being slaves again.
Coming to a stop in the main lobby, the group panted. They were not used to running that fast for such a long time. Amilee on the other hand seemed just peachy, as she quickly regained her breath.
"MY POOR DARLING CHILDREN!" an overly excited Mrs. Weasley proclaimed as she set sight eyes on her youngest children for the first time in five years. She tearfully engulfed an unsuspecting Ron in a hug, before moving on to the twins and Ginny. While the Weasley children were busy dealing with their mother Hermione slowly walked over to Bill and his wife.
"Mum! Please stop with all the embracing and such," Ron moaned as his mother proceeded to hug him for the tenth time.
"Ronald Billius, I haven't seen you in five years! I think that allows me to shower you with all you've been missing over the years," Mrs. Weasley huffed as she started to look over Ginny.
"Ron, listen to your mother," advised Mr. Weasley as he hugged the twins. Lowering his voice he added, "She's been rather emotional since we got the owl saying you were a wanted slave."
"Bill, when did you marry?" Ginny asked as soon as her mother was done with her inspection. Bill smirked as he gave his wife's hand a squeeze.
"It's been about two years since the wedding," answered Bill, "and another two months since the birth of your first nephew. Pardon my manners, this is Fleur, your sister-in-law." Timidly, Fleur smiled at Ginny. The blonde was nothing like what Ginny had imagined her older brother marrying, but as long as the boy was happy, she wasn't going to complain.
"Nice to meet you, Fleur," Ginny said as she looked her sister in law over. A confused looked appeared on Fleur's face as she looked at Bill.
"Oh! Yeah, Fleur doesn't speak much English, and what little she does speak isn't good," he explained sheepishly. He muttered a translation to Fleur who smiled and nodded at her.
"So you had Hermione as a slave?" Ginny asked as her mother was fusing over the boys. Bill nodded as Hermione had started a conversation in French with Fleur. "Who exactly is she marrying?"
"That I can't tell you," answered Bill, "Mum will later, or rather, after I tell Mum, she'll tell you. It would just be too much excitement in one day for her. Plus I really don't want to have to deal with her yelling at me because I had part in an arranged marriage. You know how Mum feels about those. Says people need to figure out who they love, not be forced into it."
"She does have a point, but without that arranged marriage, Hermione would yet again be a slave," Ginny pondered, "So when was my nephew born and what's his name?"
"Always changing the subject," chuckled Bill, "Well, Jacques William Weasley was born March 29th, otherwise known as Jake to all but his mother, who is still having trouble saying Jake. You'll meet him when you come over one of the times to help Hermione with her wedding."
"Fine by me," Ginny said cheerfully, "So, what's new in the world?"
"You really want to know, Gin?" sighed Bill. Rather confused, Ginny nodded. Slaves weren't kept up on what was happening outside the home. Masters and guests alike were careful in what to say around the slaves, as if something that would slip out of their mouths would spark a slave rebellion. "Someone has stepped up to take Voldemort out."
"What?"
"Some crazy guy has come forward with a plan to get He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named out of power, and well out of the picture in general. This isn't just another crazy-ass maniac who is dead set on attacking He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, he has a plan, and a good one at that. The guy's constructed a group of the best fighters in England and has been training with them. There's going to be a big battle, Gin, with death. A lot of it."
"Have you told Mum or Fleur you're going to be in the thick of it?"
"No, and you aren't, either."
"And why not?"
"Let's just say I know you did more than just kiss Harry Potter."
"What how the heck did you find that out?" questioned Ginny, "Well, who says what you think I did is actually what I really did?" With a smirk on his face Bill bent over and whispered something in his sister's ear. Ginny's face went white as Bill had been well informed, then it went to a red, as she was embarrassed her brother had found out what she did.
"Fine," Ginny huffed. Her brother did have the upper hand on that. She wasn't in any power to be ratting him out.
"Let's just say in a week, you're going to be asking Mum quite a few questions about boys," Bill said nonchalantly. Arching her eyebrow Ginny inquired further, but Bill just shook his head.
"Wait a minute," whined Ginny, "Mum will talk to me for hours seeing as I haven't had 'the talk' yet. And you know that. It'll probably go longer if I'm asking about a boy! Fred, George, and Ron are going too, aren't they?"
"Damn it, you're too observant."
"With Hermione in your house, Fleur will be distracted because Hermione will have to ask someone about the wedding preparations. Not to mention if you're gone a few days you'll send Fleur over to mum for one reason or another and claim you're on business."
"That's not a bad idea, actually. Didn't have a plan to tell Fleur where I was going."
"Just be glad you have me."
"Oh I am, Gin, I am," muttered Bill as she gave his sister a hug.
"Just don't get yourself killed," Ginny whispered as she hugged her brother tighter. Bill laughed as he let Ginny go. Mrs. Weasley grabbed Ginny away from her older brother, looking her over for any unusual marks, making comments about how thin she had gotten.
With the attention off of them the twins started to walk out of the Ministry with their younger brother and father behind them. Fleur and Hermione had already vanished, leaving Ginny to her mother's lecturing.
A/N Well high shame on me. I keep forgetting to thank someone for an important input to the story. Ya'll remember how Ron was Umbridge's slave? Yes, (nod and smile) good. That idea was all thanks to Tawa bids you a good day. The gal deserves credit for giving me a few ideas of where to place Ron, but I used that one. I encourage you all to check out her stories too, they are in my opinion rather addicting.
Also, this might seem like the end, but oh, not it's not. The chapters go on. On another note, I have another story posted, if you'd like to check it out for me and a.) tell me how good it is, or b.) laugh at it. Feel free to do so.