Chapter 21: Back to School

It took about six hours to get back to Hogwarts, so it was getting dark as they drove past the road into Hogsmeade. "It'll be good to get back won't it Gin?" Harry asked his girlfriend, she nodded. "I miss our friends. Things have been pretty quiet though."

At that moment, they heard a huge thump against the side of the car. It rocked and then they were hit again, even harder than before and the car left the road and spun into the air, clashing into a pile of rocks about thirty feet away. For a while, there was no movement inside the car, Harry was squashed up against one of the cracked door panels, Ginny plastered facedown against him. Sirius was lying upside down against the other door. "Famous last words." Groaned Harry as he returned to consciousness. He looked down at Ginny, he shook one of her shoulders gently. "Ginny are you okay?". Ginny stirred, moaned and then sat up, leaning against Harry. "Are you okay?" he repeated.

Ginny thought before answering, "I'm a little bruised but I'll be fine." Sirius began to stir. "What hit us?"

Harry shrugged, "Let's get out of here and find out. How's Worthington?"

Sirius peeked at the driver. "Not good. He's still unconscious and he's bleeding heavily. We've got to get him medical attention and quickly." Harry nodded, he tried the door, it wouldn't open. "It's jammed. Alohomora!" Nothing happened. He pressed his hands against the wood. "Pellere! Pellere!" With a agonising shriek, the door flew off it's hinges and they were able to get out.

Ginny looked around, "I don't see anything that we could have hit. I wonder what could have made us come off the road?"

Harry looked pointed behind her. "He did!" The other two Animagi turn to see what he was pointing at. A huge shadowy figure climbing down the hill from the road. It was a mountain troll. "I'll handle him!" Harry told them, in a flash he transformed to his lion form and ran towards the figure. Before they could think of following, six figures melted out of the shadows and surrounded Ginny and Sirius.

"Vampires." Sirius growled and he transformed too. Ginny gripped her wand. "Arcessare sword!" Her silver blade appeared in her hand. She lunged at the closest vampire, he deflected the blow with his staff and then counter-attacked. Ginny spun on her left heel and planted a hard side-kick in his stomach and then slashed at him with her blade, the vampire dodged but the tip of the blade scored his shoulder cutting through one of the big muscles. He swore and dropped his staff, he tried to move away but he turned to dust as Ginny's sword penetrated his chest. Sirius was menacing one of the other vampires, slashing at him with his huge paws. Harry was busy dodging attacks from the troll, he wasn't having much trouble, trolls are big and strong but also extremely stupid. Unfortunately, they are also rather resistant to Stunners and physical injury, so Harry was forced to keep dodging as he tried to come up with a new plan. Mare, Padfoot! Stunners don't work, neither does the Impediment Jinx. Any ideas?

"Paralyse it!" yelled Ginny as she jump-kicked a tall black, skinhead vampire in the head sending him flying into a small bush. There was an explosion of dust as one of the branches pierced the vampire's heart. Good idea! Harry agreed. Petrificus Totallus!" The troll froze, groaned and then fell stiff as a board to the ground.

Harry transformed back to human immediately. He pointed his wand at the last of the vampires. "Iaculari!" The vampire screamed and disappeared in a ball of flame. They regrouped beside the limo. "Are you both okay?" They nodded. Harry sensed someone behind him, he turned and saw three black-robed Death-Eaters pointing wands at them. Before the Animagi could react the Death Eaters did, "Stupefy! Expelliarmus!" Sirius hit the ground, unconscious and Harry and Ginny's wands flew out of their hands. "We've got you now Potter. No wand, nothing can save you know." sneered the lead Death Eater.

Harry raised his hands as if in surrender. "I've got news for you."

"I don't care. Ava.."

Harry was quicker. "STUPEFY!" he roared and Stunners shot out from both his hands and knocked out the dark wizards. "I don't need a wand." He turned to Ginny, "Can you revive Sirius? I'll call for help." Ginny nodded and turned to the fallen wizard. Owl. It's Lion, are you there?

I hear you Lion. What's up?

Padfoot, Mare and I were passing by Hogsmeade on our way up to the castle, when we were ambushed.

What! Are you okay?!

Mare and I are fine, Padfoot's Stunned. But we do need someone with medi-wizard training though, Warrington our chauffeur got hurt bad when the car tipped over. Can you ask Cat to contact the Ministry and get them to send a Hit Squad to pick up the three Death Eaters who attacked us?

Will do. Anything else?

Yeah. Ask her to get someone to come and pick up a mountain troll too. I'm on it.

Don't come down here yourself, I'll see you when I get up to the castle.

Okay.

Sirius groaned as Ginny helped him sit up. "What happened?" "Three Death Eaters followed the vampires. They Stunned you, I managed to Stun them with wandless magic." Harry told him.

Sirius nodded and was about to say something else when there was a flash of light and Dobby appeared with Neville, Neville was carrying a black medi-wizard's bag. He regarded the three Animagi. "You three look okay. Who's the casualty?" Harry motioned him towards the car.

Neville winced. "This is not good." He tried to open the door, it wouldn't budge. Harry reached out for it, motioned Neville to stand to one side. "Accio driver's door!" The door flew off it's hinge's and Harry caught it.

After a few minutes work, they were able to ease Worthington out of the front of the car. The damage to the car itself was minor, some dents and scratches, bucked doors, a couple of broken windows. Sirius said he would join them later, he transformed and headed into Hogsmeade. "Dobby, can you Apparate Worthington and I to the Infirmary?" "Certainly Mr Longbottom sir. If that is okay with Harry Potter?" Harry nodded and the three Disapparated. "Let's follow them." suggested Ginny taking Harry's hand. He nodded and they Disapparated too.

They reappeared in the Infirmary, Madame Pomfrey and Neville were already working on Warrington. Hannah came over to check them over. She was just finishing when Hermione and Ron burst into the room. "Are you okay?" asked Hermione, a worried look on her face.

"You're both fine." Hannah announced, "Some food and a good night's sleep should sort you out. But you can get that just as easily out of here. I think you can go?" She turned towards the matron, "Madame Pomfrey, can Harry and Ginny go now. I've checked them over and they seem fine?" The older woman looked them up and down, "You look okay to me. Get out of here, I've got real patient's to attend to."

Harry nodded and slid off the bed. "Dobby!" The house-elf scurried across from the corner he had been standing in. "Yes Harry Potter sir. What can Dobby do for you sir?" "Could you sort out our luggage please? Some of it is still at Mr Weasley's house, could you get that too?" The bat-eared elf nodded vigorously, "Of course Harry Potter sir. Dobby is glad to be of assistance." And he disappeared in a flash of light, "Hannah, could you let me know if Warrington's condition changes? And tell Mr Weasley too" She nodded. "Of course Harry."  With that, the four friends left the Infirmary. "Where do you want to go?" Hermione asked them. "Let's go to the Tower. I'm hungry, but I'm sure Winky can get us something from the kitchens." Hermione nodded and led the way to the main stairway.   Moment's later, they arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait, "Australis Crux." Hermione told the picture and it creaked open allowed them to climb into the Tower.

As it was quite late in the evening, only a few die-hard students, mainly fifth years, where in the Common Room, and they were all too busy studying to notice Harry and his friends slipping through the room and heading up the staircase to Harry and Hermione's rooms. When they came into the sitting room, their other friends were waiting for them, Harry collapsed onto one of the sofas and Ginny curled up in his arms. Hermione ducked into her room to find Winky. Tom was the first to speak, "So Harry how did it go? What was it like?"

Harry sighed. "It was fun. Tiring but fun. We won of course, did you know that?" His friends shook their heads. "We did. 260-10."

"Great! England's in the Finals. Yes!" Tom mused for minute, "Who are we playing in the Final?"

Harry shrugged, "I don't know. We had the first match." Ginny turned to look at her friend, "Bulgaria or Peru. Sullivan announced it at the end of the match."

Ron grinned, "I hope it's Bulgaria. I can't wait to see Vicky's face when you beat him to the Cup again." Hermione elbowed him in the ribs, "Oww! What was that for!" "For being such an idiot Ron." Hermione told him, "I'm with you now. You don't have to be jealous of Viktor any more."

"Besides." added Harry, "Don't be so sure I'll beat him Ron. Okay I'm good, but so is he. And he's played in a World Cup Final before. I haven't."

"We believe you Harry." Ginny told him. "You do it. You're the best."

"Thanks Ginny." Said Harry and leaned down to briefly brush her lips with his.

At that moment, the stairway door creaked open and Sirius walked in. Harry got up pushing Ginny into a sitting position. "Well?"

"We got them all. Minerva contacted Arthur and Cygnus and a Hit Squad and three Hunters have arrived from London and taken the Death Eaters and the Troll away."

"Hunters?" asked Harry.

"They're like the Hit Squad. They report to the Department of Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures."

"Who were the Death Eaters who attacked us?" asked Ginny.

"Avery and Nott, two of the His Inner Circle, and Flint…"

"Marcus Flint!" exclaimed Harry.

Sirius nodded. "He was one of Rockwood's Unspeakables. "Why?"

"Nothing. I was just surprised that's all. Flint only left Hogwarts four years ago. I was expecting that he'd be recruiting so early, though I'm not surprised he was."

"They don't do it often. But the Flint's are quite close to several of his Inner Circle, including Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle, so they moved early. That and he was an Unspeakable anyway."

Harry nodded, he was about to say something else, but he was distracted by Winky and two other House Elves appearing with trays of food. They put them down on a low table in the middle of the room, they bowed and left, the two Hogwarts disappeared in a flash, Winky went back into Hermione's room. Harry, Ginny and Sirius tucked in, none of them had eaten since that morning and Harry especially had had a busy day. Ron and Roger, always willing to eat, plucked a few delicacies of the trays and joined them.

After they had finished eating, Harry yawned and stood up. "I'm going to hit the sack. I've had a long day. Does Professor McGonagall want to talk to me?"

"It can wait 'til morning Harry. Get some sleep."

Ginny followed him to his door, Harry opened his arms and held her in a tender embrace for several minutes before he broke away, kissed her good-night and opened his door, "Night Everyone." He called over his shoulder. His friends all wished him good-night. Mare. Will you be okay tonight? he asked. Ginny thought for moment, I think so Lion. I'm back in a familiar place with my friends. If you can't sleep, come up. But I think we should sleep apart if possible now we're back at Hogwarts. I think there's a rule about it somewhere. I could ask Owl? she suggested mischievously.

Absolutely NOT! said Harry, horrified. Rules aside. I'd like to keep our relationship secret for a bit longer.

 Okay. Night Harry.

Night Ginny. Harry closed his door behind him and walked over to his drawers, Dobby had already put his things back. He managed to undress and put on a pair of pyjamas before he fell into bed. He was asleep almost instantly.

A/N: Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far. I appreciate it. I would also like to reply specifically to some of the comments made:

Lucky_Gurl: Thanks! That was certainly good for my ego! In fact, I have plotted out another story, provisionally titled Ginny Weasley and the Boy-Who-Lived, which will be a sequel to Blood, and I may also do a 'new generation' fic, with the Potters, Weasleys and the other kids of JK Rowling's characters (and possibly some of my own too).

Aishnkatie: Sorry you don't like R/H, I wrote it that way because it's the way I think will happen in JKR's books and because I thought it would keep the group together better, besides Ron clearly does fancy Hermione. Look how angry he was when Krum 'stole' her for the Yule Ball. As for the Mummy characters (or least a descendent of them), I used her because I wanted someone who knew about magic but could still teach them the 'Muggle' ways of fighting that they needed against the vampires. Sorry if you don't approve. I hope you'll stick with me though.

Buttercup: Sorry if I'm not writing fast enough for you. But as I have said, I'm pretty busy at the moment with exams. Hopefully I should be able to find enough time over the summer to finish Blood though, and maybe make a start on Ginny. Stick with me, please.

X: Sorry about that, but I thought against the odds that they were fighting against, there was no way everyone was going to survive. What did you think of it otherwise?

Mistress Cresacre: Sorry about the confusion. I meant to put something in about that earlier. Thanks for pointing it out. I hope Ginny and Tom conversation at the end of Getting back to normal explained it for you. If not let me know and I'll try to explain it further, feel free to review agin or e-mail if you have any more questions.

Kasey: Glad you like it. Sorry about not including Snape. I can't stand him, and I can't write good nasty dialogue. What did you think about how I killed him? Review or e-mail.

Wizards: Sorry about killing a couple of the good guys, as the saying goes, "In war, people die." And sometimes they're not the one's we want to.

Dumbledore: As you can see, I have continued. What do you think of it now? I'm glad you could get a visual of the scenes. That was exactly what I was aiming for.

Sara Hillen of Gryffindor: Thanks for you comments. What do you think of the rest?

Okay everyone. Bye for now. I'll post again as soon as I can. It's the Hogwarts Quidditch Final next. Until then, have fun. Keep safe, see you soon and as always, please review (either on FFN or by e-mail to behomuk@yahoo.co.uk).