~Dear Diary~
"Ginny, wake up," a low voice said urgently from across the room. "It's time."
Ginny snapped awake immediately and tensed for half a second before she recognized Sirius. It took another few seconds to realize that there was currently only one thing Sirius would risk taking human form in the Burrow to tell her it was time for. She slipped out of her bed and grabbed her coat and shoes. She was already wearing jeans, having gone to bed half-dressed every night since christmas in preparation for just such an opportunity.
Resuming dog form, Sirius led Ginny down the stairs and out into the night at a fast trot. Ginny broke into a jog to keep up with him.
As soon as the Burrow was out of sight, Sirius transformed. "We have an hour, if we're lucky. Lucius and Narcissa came back somewhat tipsy from the Greengrass's New Years party, and - you'll never believe this - forgot to seal the property wards! This is our chance to get into Malfoy Manor uninvited and undetected."
"Why an hour?" Ginny asked as Sirius rapped her on the head with his wand and she felt the cool trickle of the Disillusionment Charm taking hold.
Sirius repeated the charm on himself. "They left that elf of theirs at the party with Draco, but I didn't overhear much beyond that and the word 'hour' so I'm working with a best guess here."
Ginny took a slow breath. "There's no way to know when or if we'll get a better opportunity. We have to try."
"I figured you'd say that," Sirius chuckled darkly. "Let's do this."
"You should side-along me," Ginny said. "I want to be fully rested in case everything goes horribly wrong and we have to fight our way out."
Nodding, Sirius pulled two vials of Polyjuice out of his pocket and handed one to Ginny, just in case their Disillusionment Charms were dispelled and someone saw them. Ginny downed the vial immediately and felt her body begin to shift. The hairs in the potion had belonged to a pair of muggles, a young boy and his mother.
Luckily, the boy was slightly smaller than her, or walking would have become uncomfortable. Feeling her ovaries mutate and drop down out of her crotch was bad enough without suddenly being made aware that her jeans were too small in the most unpleasant way possible.
"Heheh, squish," Sirius snickered as he examined his polyjuiced chest, glancing sideways at Ginny.
Ginny smirked. "I'm not going to say it."
"Drat. And I had a brilliant pun lined up and everything," Sirius sighed.
"There is no such thing as a brilliant pun," Ginny said.
Sirius made a grumbling noise. "You sound like James. I'll have you know puns are a perfectly valid form of humor."
"Whatever you need to tell yourself."
"I assure you I am in no way bitter about certain words that my name may or may not sound like," Sirius pronounced.
"Fine, enough about puns," Ginny said. "Time to be serious."
Sirius dropped his forehead into his palm. Ginny grinned.
With a roll of his eyes and a smile, Sirius gripped Ginny's shoulder and took a long breath before disapparating with Ginny in tow. They reappeared just outside the Malfoy Manor property line. Silent and fast, Ginny led the way through the illusiory front gate and up the long stone path.
Moving in tandem, using mostly the sound of their footfalls to keep track of where the other was, Ginny and Sirius skirted the hedges edging the property before making for a particular side enterance. A silent Alohamora! took care of the unwarded lock, and the pair of them slipped inside.
The hallway was dim, paneled in polished ebony that glinted in the weak light spilling out from the kitchen. Sirius moved ahead cautiously while Ginny turned and shut the door behind them as quietly as possible. The manor was silent, and Ginny let herself hope that they might actually pull off the heist without being noticed.
Without moonlight to cast a shadow, Ginny lost sight of Sirius and had to follow him purely by the faint sound of his footsteps. The drawing room was pitch black. None of the candles or lanters were lit and it was generally a bad idea to go shining a lumos all over the place when stealth was the primary goal. She heard Sirius pause in the doorway and halted beside him.
It took several precious minutes for their eyes to adjust and the black void to resolve itself into a room.
Sirius went straight to the concealed trapdoor as Ginny carefully levitated the rug that hid it. He knelt and started murmuring spells under his breath. Ginny put her back to the nearest wall and stilled herself, straining her senses for any sign of interuption.
Sirius had been working for about five minutes when Ginny heard a noise. She froze, not even breathing as she listened. It was coming from above them, a soft creaking and faint rythmic thumping. Ginny blinked. If she didn't know better -
There was a rather distinct feminine moan.
Right, well now she knew what the Malfoys were doing. Sirius was too focused on his spellwork to pick up on the barely audible sounds. There was a shimmer around the trapdoor, and as Ginny watched it intensified.
It was another two minutes at least before the wards on the compartment shattered with a soft woosh and Sirius slumped back to catch his breath. Ginny moved forward and focused on the distorted outline of Sirius' head. He nodded. Ginny dropped to her knees and carefully levered the compartment open.
She swung herself down onto the narrow ladder and slid into the darkness, silently lighting her wand as she went. Her feet hit packed earth and she turned to the shelves lining the walls of the small space. Wandlight swept over a great variety of dark trinkets as Ginny searched. She was careful to touch nothing.
It didn't take her long to spot the innocuous-looking little black book. It called to her, creeping in and tugging at her soul. Ginny shuddered as she picked it up and aimed her wand at it.
"Gemino!" she whispered.
A duplicate diary fell to the floor. Ginny stuffed the real one into the inside-pocket of her coat and placed the duplicate on the shelf. She was not the same little girl who'd been taken in by Tom Riddle. There was no affection or attachment to the cursed diary in her heart this time, nor any fear; only contempt and hatred.
She remembered watching through Tom's eyes as Harry slammed the basilisk fang through the cover. She remembered the incredulous shock Tom felt, giving way quickly to terror as Harry destroyed him. Now it was Ginny's turn.
Ginny threw herself up the ladder and out next to Sirius. "I've got it."
He immediatly shut the trapdoor and started chanting under his breath, slowly building up new wards to replace the ones he'd dismantled. Ginny renewed her levitation charm on the rug, which was starting to droop towards their heads.
Building up the replacement wards was quicker than tearing down the old ones, especially since both had to be done quietly, but it still took several minutes. Sirius' voice sounded strained from the effort, but he didn't falter.
Finally, Sirius finished his work and sagged back. He scooted out heavily from beneath the floating rug. Ginny grinned. They'd done -
Light flared, momentarily blinding Ginny as the lanterns in the room lit themselves.
"Homenum Revelio!" a woman's voice hissed softly.
Ginny spun, wand snapping up. "Stupefy!"
Narcissa Malfoy, standing at the foot of the staircase and wearing a gossamar nightgown that looked like it cost more than a Firebolt, ducked the stunner and screamed, "Finite Incantatem!"
"Stu - " Sirius' spell cut off as their Disillusionment Charms broke with a sound like a shattering bell. It felt like being encased in ice and then hit with a hammer. Having that charm forcibly dispelled hurt. That would have been good to know before they planned this! Ginny fell, landing hard on her back as her negated levitation charm dropped the hovering rug right on top of her.
Ginny's wand slashed up. Diffindo!
She twisted her legs up through the gash in the rug, shifting her weight to her shoulders and launching herself backwards. She cleared the rug and wrentched herself upright, thankful that her polyjuiced body had short hair. Ginny's wand lashed out, catching Narcissa's stunner and redirecting it towards the celling. If she'd had her normal hair, it would have blocked her vision just long enough for that spell to have hit her.
"Stupefy!" Sirius cast, while Narcissa was focused on Ginny.
Narcissa tried to deflect it, but she was too slow. The spell connected, knocking her back against the stairs. She crumpled, sliding down to the floor. Her opulent nightgown snagged on the steps and tore as she fell, baring the woman's lower body.
Footsteps echoed down from above. There was no way Lucius hadn't heard the fight. Ginny and Sirius locked eyes, sharing the same thought. Fuck.
"Go go go!" Ginny yelled, running at and passed Sirius towards the door they'd come in through.
"Protego!" Sirius shouted from behind Ginny as Lucius appeared in the stairwell. "Keep running! I'll catch up!"
Ginny vaulted out of the house and sprinted across the entirely-too-vast lawn. The sounds of battle followed her, but Ginny knew that Sirius could catch up to her easily in his dog form. She heard the grunt of pain and the thud of Lucius hitting the ground and glanced over her shoulder.
Sirius transformed and bolted after her while Lucius was dazed. Still running, Ginny aimed her wand at the front gates, which had shifted to their solid state. "Reducto! Bombada! Reducto! Bombada! Reducto! Reducto! Reducto!"
The enchanted metal dented and bent under her onslaught, which was focused on the lower left corner of the gate. Her aim was less than perfect from such a distance and while running, but a hole was starting to appear as she drained her magic reserves. With her immature magical core, she only had a dozen or so good spells in her before she exhausted herself.
"Claustraedis Malfoy Mactaperio!" Lucius bellowed, thrusting his wand at the sky.
Thanks to Bill, Ginny knew enough about wards to recognize that incatation. Lucius had just set the wards to full hostility against anyone not of Malfoy blood.
Bloody fucking shit! Ginny thought. He's trying to kill us!
A shimmering glow formed in the air above the Manor and spread outward like a ripple in a pond, arcing downward in a dome shape towards the edges of the property. The wave swept over Ginny's head with an ominous thrumming sound.
Ginny was nearly falling down from magical exhaustion as she dove through the jagged hole she'd made in the front gate. A torn spur of metal gouged through her jeans and dug a bloody slice out of her thigh. She collapsed to the ground outside with a screech of pain and twisted around to look for Sirius.
The dark shaggy shape that was Padfoot raced in a zigzag as Lucius hurled spells after him, tearing up furrows in the expansive lawn. The wave of magic defining the wards swept downwards like a crushing celling of invisible doom, seconds from slamming down on Sirius.
Something else Ginny knew from Bill hit her like a bludger to the head as she watched Sirius close the distance to the gate. Sirius and Narcissa were related by blood. If the wards touched Sirius first, they'd kill Narcissa too, but if they touched Narcissa first, they'd spare Sirius and Lucius would have a major clue as to who actually tried to rob him.
Sirius shot through the hole just as the wards slammed down, transforming and landing hard on his shoulder in the gravel as he slid into Ginny. He grabbed onto her and twisted them into the pressing darkness of apparation.
An impact. Cold grass. A voice shouting her name.
"Ginny, come on, you gotta drink this. Come on Ginny," someone murmured, sounding an awful lot like George.
"What do we do?" a very similar-sounding someone asked with an edge of panic. "She won't swallow the blood-replenisher!"
There was a sharp stinging pain in her leg, which roused her enough to notice something hard and glassy pressed against her bottom lip. Blood-replenisher, he said, which probably meant she was bleeding. It was probably a good idea to drink that potion. She was so sleepy and sluggish, though. The prospect of lifting her head and opening her mouth seemed as daunting as giving Hagrid a piggy-back ride.
"Keep trying," Sirius' voice growled. "I've got to focus on closing this wound. I think the gate must have had a curse on it. The edges already look infected. Make sure you give her the blood-cleanser too."
Ginny tried to speak and succeeded only in making a tiny moaning noise. George heard, though, and gasped. He lifted her head and repeated his earlier plea. With a herculean effort, Ginny made her muscles move and swallowed the trickle of potion George poured into her mouth.
Two more potions followed the first one before Ginny passed out again.
Ginny woke slowly to dappled winter sunlight filtering down through sparse leaves and branches. She blinked at the pale morning sky and turned her head to look around her. She saw the familiar clearing and Sirius dozing under the nearest tree. Her head spun as she sat up and she groaned.
A circle of damp grass surrouned the blankets Sirius must have conjured for her, where the warming charm had kept the snow from landing. It was piled up by inches in a perfect circle around her.
Ginny lifted the top blanket and saw a large white bandage wrapped around her right thigh. She prodded it curiously; it didn't hurt too bad. Grabbing her jeans from where they were folded up next to her, Ginny stood carefully and put a bit of weight on her injured leg. There was a bad twinge, but it held. She'd have to be careful to hide her limp, though.
Ginny blanched at the thought that followed that. "Shit. Mum must be going mental by now."
"Nah, Gred 'n Forge went'n 'r distractin' 'er," Sirius mumbled blearily.
"What time is it?" Ginny asked as she pulled on her jeans.
Sirius blinked at her and lurched up, cracking his head on a low-hanging branch. While he clutched his head and started swearing, Ginny laughed so hard she lost her balance with her jeans half-on and fell down. Thankfully she fell on her uninjured side, or it might have hurt. A lot.
Ginny finished pulling her jeans on and stood back up. The next thing she knew Sirius was hugging her.
"Damnit Ginny! I swear if you ever make me worry like that again," Sirius said, letting go of her.
Ginny chuckled weakly. "No promises, Sirius, but thanks. Where's the diary?"
"In the nook next to The Package," Sirius told her, running a hand through his hair. "Bloody hell, that was a close one."
"You seem to have done a pretty nice job patching me up," Ginny said.
"Yeah, well, that's thanks to Moony," Sirius said. "I got pretty good at fixing him up after a full moon. Never had to deal with curse damage or an infection, though. If we hadn't had that emergency kit..."
"But we did, and I'm okay," Ginny said with a smile. "And we pulled it off! There's a good chance the Malfoys won't notice anything missing or anything amiss. I think they'll assume that Narcissa caught us before we had a chance to do or take anything."
Sirius nodded in agreement. "And it's after ten, by the way. We should really get you back to the Burrow before your mum finishes yelling at the twins."
"Right, remind me to thank them for taking that one for the team," Ginny said with a grin. "I'm not sure I can walk that far right now, though. I'll need some form of transportation..."
"Ginny, why are you looking at me like that?" Sirius asked. "I do not like that look. I really do not like that look that is on your face right now..."
Several minutes later, a laughing red-headed girl of eleven rode a disgruntled-looking grim out of the forest.
Winter break was over, and Harry couldn't help smiling about the wonderful christmas the Weasleys had shared with him. It had been like nothing in his life before. A happy family. A home with people that actually wanted him around, even if he wasn't one of them.
Harry, Ron, and the rest all piled into the enchanted car for the trip to King's Cross, and for once Harry felt like he belonged. Ginny slipped into the back seat next to him as Mr. Weasley climbed into the driver's seat. She winced slightly as her right leg bumped up against his left. She'd told him she'd gotten hurt a little bit but didn't want her mum to find out and fuss over her because she was just fine, thank you very much.
Mr. Weasley started the engine and drove them out towards the highway. Ginny leaned into his side, and Harry didn't think twice about it. He'd gotten used to her, and had come to admit that a part of him enjoyed the closeness. Hungered for it, even, like a starving animal that was suddenly getting regular meals.
There was a bit of light-hearted bickering between Ron and Ginny as they drove, over Ginny's claim that the Harpies wouldn't take any of the Cannons' players even if they were women, which quickly devolved into them climbing over Harry to get at each other and Harry laughing as he dodged.
"Alright, settle down back there if you please," Mr. Weasley said.
Harry grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, Mr. Weasley."
"You don't need to apologize, Harry," Ginny said. "You just happened to get caught in the crossfire. It was all Ron's fault."
"Yea - hey!" Ron exclaimed, to much laughter.
A short while later, Harry had a thought. "Do you think they'll have replaced Professor Snape yet?"
"I'm sure the school board is doing its best to find quality instructors to fill in for both of our erstwhile Professors," Percy pronounced from the front seat.
"I've heard rumors that Professor Dumbledore is bringing the previous potions Professor out of retirement," Mr. Weasley offered. "I don't know how reliable those rumors are, though."
"I'm just glad we don't have to put up with Snape anymore," Ron said.
Harry frowned. "He tried to protect us, at the end, though. He died fighting Voldemort. Maybe he wasn't as bad as we thought."
No one had anything to say to that. After a bit of silence, Harry looked down and saw that Ginny's hand had snuck into his. A short while later they were pulling into the parking lot at the train station. Everyone piled out of the car and gathered up the luggage, and before he knew it they were back on Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters.
"Thanks for having me, Mr. Weasley," Harry said.
"Of course! Any time, Harry," he replied.
"You'd better be coming over this summer, Harry," Ginny said as she gave him a firm hug. "I'll hex Ron if he forgets to invite you and then invite you myself if he does."
Harry chuckled. "I'll miss you, Ginny. Promise to write?"
"Only if you promise, too," Ginny said with a grin.
"Every week," Harry promised.
Ginny gave him that blazing look that made his stomach feel all fluttery and hugged him again. "Have a good term, Harry."
Ron got a one-armed hug from Mr. Weasley and waved goodbye as he and Harry dragged their trunks onto the train.
Back at a much quieter Burrow, Ginny hugged her mum, went up to her room, and found her spare quill and ink. With the writing items safely in her pocket, Ginny went out into the garden and jogged to the treeline.
Her breathing was labored. She could make her injured leg move like it normally did, but it hurt quite a bit and took a lot more effort than usual. Catching her breath, Ginny slowed and hobbled the rest of the way to the clearing.
Sirius was waiting for her, diary in hand. He handed it to her.
Ginny looked down at the diary in her hands for a long moment. "Let's go."
On a stark mountainside miles and miles away, Ginny and Sirius apparated with two quick cracks that echoed off the rocks. Sirius hung back while Ginny stalked down to the scorched area where the other horcruxes had died. She set it down on the rock and opened it, pulling out her quill.
Hello Tom, she wrote.
Hello. You feel familiar, yet I do not recognize you, he wrote back. What is your name?
My name is Ginny. Would you like me to tell you what I'm going to do today?
Tom's words appeared quickly. I would like that, Ginny. Please tell me.
I'm going to kill you. Ginny finished with a flourish and apparated back to Sirius.
He raised his wand between his hands and breathed the sound of Fiendfyre. A great beastial shape of dark fire exploded into being and crashed down on the flapping diary. Ginny basked in the dieing screams of the evil thing with grim satisfaction as the firey force raged across the bare rock of the mountain, leaving the charred remnant of the diary laying lifeless upon the smoking stone.
It was over. Once Sirius sent The Package to finish off the cup, all that remained between her Harry and a happy, peaceful life was the fragment in his scar. Ginny breathed a long sigh of relief as she picked up the remnant of the diary.
The easy part was done. Now it was time to involve Dumbledore.
(A/N: So, a number of readers have pointed out that I've forgotten Nagini. Actually, I haven't. Nagini didn't become a horcrux until some point between books three and four, after Wormtail helps Voldemort attain a rudimentary physical form. At this point, Nagini is just a snake, and in no way a horcrux.)