Brilliance Explained

Harry was lifted from a light, restless sleep on Sunday morning by the icy sensation of frost in his hair. As he stirred he sensed Ginny's fingers brushing his dirty hair from his brow. He shook from the cold of the morning and placed his glasses on the bridge of his nose. With his eyesight corrected he smiled briefly at a worn and tired Ginny.

"Hi, you should have another hour or so of sleep coming, sorry if I woke you," she said wearily.

"It's fine, I was waking up anyways, how are the visitors?" he replied in a voice echoing his exhaustion.

"I stunned them again about an hour ago." She rubbed her eyes. Harry slid out from under the transfigured blanket and sat upright. "Harry, I don't mean to pester but we have to eat. I'm feeling so weak, physically and magically."

"I know that!" he snapped at her. "You know as well as I do we can't conjure food. If we have it we can transfigure it, but we have to have some to start with."

"Don't snip at me. I just brought it to your attention!" Ginny retorted loudly.

"Like I need to be told we haven't eaten in three days!" he fired right back. Harry stood up from the tent. As he stretched he could feel and hear his stiff malnourished joints pop in retaliation for being used so early in the morning. He went to check on the prisoners. Ginny glared at him as he walked by.

Later in the morning Ginny sat cross legged on the forest floor in a beam of sunshine trying to keep warm. Harry sat down next to her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell."

"I know, and I didn't mean to press you," Ginny said softly. "We're tired and hungry, so we're taking it out on each other." Their eyes met in agreement. "Do you think they know we're missing?"

"I don't know… Ron and Hermione were at the Cannons game, and I wasn't planning to visit them, so they might not know. Your Mum and Dad might know by now, since you didn't play in the game this weekend. Your team mates will know you're missing, but I don't know if they'll say anything to anybody," Harry reasoned.

The couple sat in silence for a while more before Harry spoke. "I'd like to test the wards again. Nobody's strengthened them since we got here, maybe they're weakening," he said hopefully. Together the couple ambled over to confinement wards. Harry lifted a stick from the ground and threw it to the wards. It passed through the wards without incident. Ginny smiled in hope.

"Don't get all happy." He picked up another stick and preformed a coloring charm on it turning it red. He tossed the newly charmed stick into the ward. 'Crack' the stick shattered as soon as it touched the ward's energy field. Ginny's smile faded.

"So much for that, anything magical is confined….Hmm…" he wondered. "Expecto Patronum!" Harry's stag patronus formed in the still air. With a flourish of his wand the stag charged forward. 'hisss' the silvery beast dissolved as it tried to breach the ward.

Harry and Ginny worked together trying variations of different charms to remove the wards. After spending the middle portion of the day working in futility, they returned to their concealed camp. Harry wandered off to be alone, trying to think of any way to get past the confinement wards.

Ginny heard him hurrying back towards the camp and jumped up, wand ready. "What is it?"

Harry held up his hands, a dead squirrel in each "Food," he answered.

Ginny squinted at him. "Do you know the spell to transfigure it to chicken or ham?"

"Well, no, I don't…Hey; it can't be much different than rabbit, right?"

He went off away from the camp to skin and clean the squirrels. Ginny gathered some wood and built a cooking fire. Harry returned with the strips of meat ready to be grilled. He fished a coin from his pocket and transformed it into a skewer. He threaded the meat onto the spear and then levitated it over the fire. Twenty minutes later the pair hungrily consumed the small amount of food.

The light lunch was the highlight of the day. Soon grey clouds began to hover low over the trees. What started as a mist escalated to a slight drizzle of rain. The patter of raindrops on leaves created a soothing wash of sound that enveloped the woods. Harry and Ginny rested in the tent alternating naps with keeping watch. Ginny did take pity on their prisoners and cast a shield charm to protect them from the foul weather. The rest of the day was spent whiling away the time, talking and trading naps to conserve what little energy still resided in their bodies. They were both tired, bordering on exhaustion from lack of food and sleep.

The fourth night of their ordeal was cooler and decidedly wetter than the previous three. Harry started to get tense. He stretched his muscles and flexed his arms and legs, loosening his tight joints.

"What's up?" she questioned as she observed his motions.

"Just thinking that we might be getting another visit soon… maybe tonight," he replied. Ginny pulled herself from under the blanket and began her stretching exercises alongside Harry. They waited.

"Harry, how do you think they were going to leave after they got you?"

"I'm sure they know the spell to remove the wards," he said in a monotone, standing out in the open. "Damn!" he cursed loudly. "Why can't I figure out how to get out of here? I HATE this!" He kicked at the ground, scattering stones and leaves. The moon was out but any light it provided was muted by the cloudy atmosphere. The forest remained ominously dark.

Ginny came over to him, the rain drops matted her hair down and dripped down her neck. She placed a hand on his arm. "We've tried Harry, without knowing the exact wording to recant the spells; there just isn't much we can do."

"Still, there's got to be a way!" He pulled his arm away from her touch. "How…"

"I don't know Harry. The wards cover the area completely, it's not like a set of curtains we can lift the edge of and climb under. We have to break the spells," she reasoned.

He digested her statements, when he finished analyzing her words he spun to face her, flashing an enthusiastic smile. "I love you, you know that right. And, you're brilliant…bloody brilliant." He quickly grabbed her in his arms and gave her a kiss.

"Come on!" He grasped her hand and pulled her closer to the wards.

"So I know I'm brilliant and all but explain it to me anyway." She studied him; unsure of what exactly it was that she said to trigger his lofty praises.

"Lift the ward and go under." He stared ahead in thought. "It'll work, it will."

"We can't lift the ward, its repelling all magic." She still didn't understand.

"Gin when you set a shield charm, how do you picture it?" he queried.

"Well, sometimes a bubble over me. In battle, more like a wall from the ground to above my head, curved to deflect spells away from my body."

"Exactly," he exclaimed, "have you ever cast a shield under your feet?"

"No, nobody can attack from inside the Earth," she replied.

"Right, nobody does that, the wards only go to the ground, not under the ground. We tunnel out." The solution dawned on Ginny's face in the form of a small smile. Harry continued on with the explanation. "So if the wards have… say… a four foot range of effectiveness, our tunnel has to be ten feet long and at least four feet below ground." He matched her smile. 'Now we stand a chance.' he thought.


Monday morning Arthur stopped at his office long enough to have Mrs. Glair hold or cancel all his appointments for the day. He hurried to the lifts and was quickly in the offices of Magical Law Enforcement. He was met by Sam Westin and John Dawlish.

"Sam, Arthur, here's the sorted data from the port key activations. The ones on top are closest in time and location to the carriage house, as you get deeper in the stack the locations and times get further away from the ideal." Dawlish passed Sam the reports. "Happy hunting I want to know of any developments, immediately. Now, if you will excuse me, I have an emergency to deal with."

Sam and Mr. Weasley hurried to Sam's office to analyze the data before them. By lunch time the list was marked up and divided so each time slot showed possible port keys that could have been used, the list was further broken down by which order member would investigate a particular port key. They avoided registered port keys', figuring a dark wizard was not likely to get his key registered.

Mr. Weasley summoned the members of the Order of the Phoenix, and those that could, met at the Burrow. Bill and Fleur dropped Victoire off with Molly and took the three keys with destinations to the north in Scotland. Ron and Hermione took any keys with local destinations or destinations in the southern part of England. Lee Jordan took the keys for London. George and Kate investigated three co-ordinates in France, since her quidditch team was playing in Bordeaux that week, and they would be in the vicinity. Remaining key activations were passed out amongst other order members.

The search was now on. With Dawlish's begrudging help the order could now begin the search for Harry and Ginny. Molly's only comfort was the clock in the kitchen, it still recognized Ginny as in 'Mortal Peril', but to her that was enough. She dreaded the idea of her only daughter's hand joining Fred's at 'Deceased'. It was wrong for a mother to bury her children. Molly shuddered at the possibility of enduring that anguish again.


The renewed hope Harry's revelation provided spurred the couple on to start working on their escape route. Harry found a section of forest floor with a minimum of tree roots and rocks. "Lumos!" Harry's wand tip glowed; he stuck the handle of the wand into the soft earth.

Ambient light from the rising moon was getting stronger as the clouds cleared and the rain slowed to a stop. That, coupled with their lit wands, gave enough light to work by. With a combination of magic and physical labor the pair began to burrow into the earth. Large rocks were blasted apart with 'reducto' spells; roots could be cut with a slicing hex repeated over and over in the same area of the root. Once dirt, rocks, and roots were dislodged by one of them; the other could scoop it out by hand or with a levitation charm. Slowly but deliberately the hole in the forest floor grew wider and deeper.

Hours later, during a break from digging to rest, Harry walked back to the prisoners. He found the third wizard fighting mightily at his bindings. The man's eyes burned with intensity at Harry. Harry sensed the man was trying to recall some portion of magic that might free him of the ropes. Not wanting to deal with three waking prisoners Harry picked up the rock and swiftly cracked all three of them in the head. All three men went limp from the blows.

When he returned to the dig area he appraised the situation, they'd dug about three feet down and about three feet in diameter in about two hours in the dark. After flexing his stiff shoulders he knelt by the hole, Ginny joined him. As a team, the pair resumed digging. Sleep was forgotten, their only focus was enlarging the hole. Each of them paused from the digging at various times to rest their aching muscles.

At daybreak, the hole now served as an entrance to the short tunnel. So far the tunnel ran about five feet out. The top of the tunnel was well below the four foot guess Harry made regarding the width of the ward's influence of power. Progress was slowing for two reasons. First it took longer to get the debris out of the tunnel now that it was longer. Second, the bigger reason, was that both Harry and Ginny were exhausted from the workout. Physically the two young adults were drained. Their magical energy levels had dropped dramatically too, their spells lacked strength and it was harder to focus the spells in a given area.

Ginny was sitting on the edge of the hole with her feet hanging over, resting. Harry was on his stomach inside the tunnel using his wand to direct the cutting hex on a large tree root blocking their progress. He emerged ten minutes later with the offending blockage in his hand and tossed it from the hole to the ground above. He leaned against the earthen wall trying to regain his breath.


Sam Westin sat at his desk poring over the reports as they came in from different Order of the Phoenix members. Eighteen sets of co-ordinates had been checked, each was a dead end. Even if the location was correct it was doubtful that the kidnappers would stay there. Once the port key dropped them, they could in theory apparate anywhere. It was a slim chance in hell that any of the information gleaned from these investigations would be useful, and Sam knew it. How he was going to break it to Arthur and Molly he didn't know. His office clock chimed five o'clock. He sighed heavily and gathered some papers to take to the order meeting tonight.

As he rose from his chair Senior Auror Dawlish entered his office.

"So how is the hunt for our hero going?" he asked a bit smugly.

Sam watched his boss. He knew the man didn't like Harry, and it showed. The man was oozing disdain at the fact that the world's savior needed rescuing, and that the ministry had to do it. "Well the list of port key activations is being researched, mostly by order members so the drain on the ministry isn't as bad. As you know, the trail is a couple days old so it's not much use, but we're still hopeful."

"The Order of the Phoenix is doing your work for you?" Dawlish questioned authoritatively. "Since when do the offices of Magical Law Enforcement employ a group of vigilantes to do our work?"

"I thought it would help since we're spread so thin already. I went to see if Rueben could help but nobody's seen him today. He didn't call in so he must be investigating something for another case. The new recruits aren't ready for any type of field work, what else was I to do?" Westin returned the question to his boss. "Besides, you knew Arthur was helping out."

"Just make sure that group doesn't get into anything other than this case. We don't need them meddling in everyone else's business," Dawlish directed roughly. His voice strengthened. "Its bad enough you had Arthur Weasley here without permission going through classified documents. I let it slide once, but not again. I don't care who he's buddies with."

"Yes sir," Sam answered.

Dawlish's voice calmed, "Look, Sam, I trust you, and I know you need their help. Just don't let them run amok without supervision, okay?"

"I understand sir, I'll watch them." Sam stuffed the papers into his satchel.


Most of the order was waiting at Shell Cottage when Sam arrived from his office. He gave the grim update to the men and women in the room. Minerva McGonagall spoke up first. "So as it stands now, we do not have any solid evidence as to the whereabouts of Miss Weasley or Mister Potter."

"Seems so Professor," Bill Weasley answered. Even more than eight years out of school he still referred to her as professor.

"Arthur what are we going to do? I can't go through this again, not with my Ginny," Molly nearly cried.

"I've no idea Molly. I suppose we hope Harry manages to save her again. We know they're together, well we don't know that either do we…" Arthur's stopped speaking when a silvery cockatoo patronus swooped into the cottage's kitchen.

"Dad, Bill, Ron apparate to the following co-ordinates we have a lead," George's voice emanated from the silvery bird. Bill quickly scribbled down the numbers.

The three red haired men left the cottage and quickly walked down the path past the protective wards. Arthur grabbed Bill's left arm, Ron his right, and Bill spun all three of them away in an instant.

The trio arrived and saw George and Kate crouching in the shadows behind a few large bushes. Bill led them over.

"Hi guys. This is the third location we had to check out; the other two were a bust. There's a pretty fresh trail this way." George pointed north east. "Katie and I followed it enough to see a group of men camped out, they were talking about 'the items stashed in the woods' we came back here and I sent for you."

Kate joined in, "Right now only two of the three are here, the third went to check on whatever it is that is stashed. He went north from their camp. He was walking so it can't be too far."

"The camp is about quarter mile from here. We have them outnumbered so we can outflank them." George relayed the scenario. The new arrivals nodded their understanding. Kate led them down the path towards the camped men. When they neared the camp George, Kate and Arthur circled to the right. Bill and Ron crept to the left of the camp and settled into position.

George gave the high sign and the five of them rushed the camp. With a wave of his wand Bill banished both wizards. Each man fell off his camp chair to the ground. Ron stunned one of them Arthur stunned the second. Kate and George stormed the tent. There were no other wizards present. George bound the men with the incarcerous spell and cast a silencing shield over them.

Arthur, Bill and Ron started down the path to find Ginny and Harry, leaving George and Kate to watch the captured camp.


It had taken most of the day to tunnel far enough that Harry thought it was past the boundary of the confinement wards. Once he was satisfied with its length he and Ginny started to slope the tunnel back up towards the surface. Three different times during the day either he or Ginny had to go back and stun the captives again. In their weakened state Harry and Ginny's stunning spells failed to have the power normally associated with their abilities. The interruptions slowed down the progress on the escape tunnel.

The sun was slowly falling to the horizon, shadows lengthened, another day was slipping by. Harry checked his watch.

"What time is it?" Ginny yawned.

"Quarter past four," he answered softly. He yawned as well. "See what you started." He smiled at her tiredly.

"We've been digging on and off for… Oh lord, more than eighteen hours…no wonder we're beat," she said in disbelief. Ginny rubbed her sore arms in an attempt to soothe her tired muscles.

"Time flies when you're having fun. Right?" he joked. "We're too close to stop now, I think we can be out by dark with some luck."

"Well quit jabbering then." And with that comment, Ginny jumped into the hole, and slithered back into the tunnel to dig. Twenty minutes later she squirmed from the tunnel. She emerged dirty and sweaty, breathing in gasps. "Your turn, it's hard to breathe in there."

Harry dropped in and began his stint. The minutes marched slowly along as he worked. His mud stained shirt clung to his chest, the warmth of his breath made breathing difficult. His arms grew more fatigued as he continued tunneling through the earth. He was about to ease out of the tunnel for a break when the spell from his wand broke through and he felt cool air sweep in on him. He gulped in the fresh air. "We're through!" he shouted.

"Yes!" Ginny shouted in response.

With renewed vigor, he madly clawed away the last of the dirt and stone until the opening was large enough for him squeeze through. Once the opening was large enough, he slid back to Ginny.

"Let's go!" Ginny said as Harry's dirty face appeared in front of her.

"Hold up Gin. We need to get the tent and the bottles of memories," he said calmly.

"Right." Ginny raced back and placed reduction charms on the tent and blanket. She bundled the bottles of memories, and other confiscated items inside the blanket to protect them. She transfigured a knapsack from a small money pouch taken from the third wizard and stuffed everything into the bag. She returned a few minutes later.

"Let me go first to make sure we're past the wards, then follow me out," Harry directed. Ginny nodded. Harry dropped down and slipped into the tunnel. He cautiously raised his head on the other side. He then pulled his shoulders free and moved his hands back near the wards. It was safe. He clambered out and motioned Ginny to come on.


Arthur was in the lead as the Weasley men followed the lightly worn trail. They worked their way down the trail as fast as possible without making too much noise. The trees were closer together now and the path wound around a little more. They jumped behind a large pine as they saw a lone man coming towards them. "Stupefy!" The man flew into the air, blasted up from the strength of three simultaneous stunning spells.

Leaving his sons to deal with the new prisoner Arthur raced forward to rescue his little girl. He could see objects scattered about on the forest floor, in the pale moonlight.

"Ginny!...Harry!...Hello it's me!" he called loudly. "Giii-nnyy….Harrr-ryyy it's alright, come on out…We're here!...Bill and Ron are here too." He kept calling as he continued on to the smaller camp in the woods.


Ginny climbed into the entry for the tunnel, pushing the knapsack in front of her. Just after she did so, a tall wizard in black robes swept into the area. He strode towards Harry. The man was speaking but Harry couldn't make out the words.

"Harry! Is that you? Where's Ginny?" the tall wizard called out. "Harry! Where is my Ginny?"

As the wizard neared his position he saw the thinning red hair of Arthur Weasley. "Thank Merlin you're okay, where's my daughter?" He held out his arms to Harry as he got closer. Harry smiled. Ginny started to pull herself through the tunnel. Arthur said something softly and Harry's smile left him.

"Stay in the tunnel!" Harry hissed as Ginny was ready to emerge. The hair on is arms no longer tickled, Arthur had lowered the wards. Harry pulled his wand at the same time as the approaching wizard did.

"Harry, why did you pull your wand on me? How do I know it's you? Tell me something only you would know," Arthur challenged.

"After I asked your permission to marry Ginny we got drunk on fire whiskey in the study of the Burrow," Harry answered.

"Excellent!" Arthur lowered his wand. "Now where's Ginny I'm worried about her." He started forward towards Harry again.

"Stupefy!" Harry thought, casting a non-verbal curse at the man pretending to be Ginny's father. The curse bounced off the man's shield.

Quickly the man flourished his wand. "Stupefy!" The wizard's spell careened off the shield Harry cast. The duel was on.

The man threw two more quick stunners at Harry, his shield dispersed one and he dodged the other. Harry retuned fire with a binding hex that was deflected by his opponents shield charm.

Ginny peeked from the tunnel opening, studying the battle, ready to join in as soon as she got the chance.

'Pop' the intruder vanished, only to appear behind Harry. 'Pop' Harry disappeared just as his opponent's hex flashed through the place he was standing in only moments earlier.

'Pop' the wizard was gone; Harry's disarming charm went past the wizard's previous position. 'Pop' Harry spun to the sound to his left and fired his spell "Expelliarmus!" the flash of light bounced off the tree the man was hiding behind.

'Pop', 'Pop' both duelists left and reappeared in a new place, each trying to outflank the other.

Ginny watched. "Stupefy!" she shouted, and the flash of light barely missed the wizard. "Expelliarmus!" she shot another spell nearly hitting Harry when he apparated into its path. She was getting antsy watching the war of apparition. 'Now!' she called to herself just as the dark wizard appeared. She nearly jumped, but then realized she was ready to curse Harry. 'Patience, Harry always preaches patience,' she told herself. Countering her desire to remain patient was the knowledge that Harry was tiring fast. He wasn't at his best, his apparition was slowing down; the other wizard was gaining the advantage.

'Pop', 'Pop' both wizards moved instantly again. Harry knew he was weakening when he had an epiphany. Knowing his opponent would try to out flank him he apparated to the same place, counting on the fact that the other combatant would move. 'Pop' he vanished and reappeared in the same spot. The other wizard apparated and landed in front of Harry, with his back to Ginny.

"Expelliarmus!" Ginny's disarming spell hit the man square in the back, his wand flew to her hand, as he pitched forward. She barely caught his wand in the darkening forest, and climbed from the tunnel. Harry advanced on the unarmed man. The wizard spun and wordlessly cast a curse at Ginny; she was hit and thrown backwards onto her side. She screeched in pain. Harry blasted a stunner at him but he rolled away and caught Harry with a binding hex. Harry fell to the ground.

The man grabbed a stunned Ginny, threw her over his shoulder and ran down the gentle slope firing hexes behind him as he ran. Harry removed the binding hex and chased the man down. Ginny was now fighting back; she hit him in the kidney with her left elbow and then loosed a volley of punches to his face with her right fist.

"Ow, bitch!" He tripped, dropping both of them to the turf. She ran from him, with the knapsack swinging from her shoulder. The man chased her; Harry chased him firing spells at the man's back. The three of them sped recklessly through the trees, slipping and sliding down the hill on the damp grass.

It was now fully dark, only slight moonlight lit their way. Ginny looked back as she sent a conjunctivitis curse behind her and tripped on a raised tree root. She sprawled on the ground unable to break her fall. Her chin slammed to the wet turf, her jaw ached, warm blood seeped into her mouth from a split lip. The dark wizard reached for her, but as he did so Harry tackled him. Ginny scrambled away, the ground behind her sloped steeply down. She gasped and grabbed a sapling to keep from sliding back. The dark wizard lunged for Ginny but landed next to her. She kicked at his face violently catching his cheek with the heel of her trainer.

Harry jumped the man. Harry and the other man engaged in a fierce struggle, punching each other while rolling across the ground. The wizard broke free and produced another wand from his pocket. Before he could use it Harry grabbed him again. As he grabbed the man's wrists the ground gave way and the two men slid down the steep hill fighting ferociously.

"Harry!" Ginny screamed as the two battling men slipped from view. As the men tumbled the slope of the hill steepened. Harry could feel his body slamming into tree roots and rocks. The wizard was still punching at him. He was pummeling the wizard back. Harry was in better physical shape, but was more tired so it was an even fight. The fighting lessened as the combatants focused less on each other and more on slowing their rapid out of control descent. Harry felt himself pass a ledge of rock and then felt nothing but air.


In France, hundreds of miles away Arthur, Bill and Ron charged into the camp expecting to find Harry and Ginny. Instead they found a cache of smuggled objects and restricted items. A case of acromantula venom was worth thousands of Galleons, some rare jewels oozing with dark magic and half a dozen dragon eggs, and a large amount of other more common contraband. All in all it was an impressive array, but it wasn't their friend, or their sister or Arthur's daughter. It was a bust.

Bill sent his patronus to the ministry, who in turn notified the French magical government. An hour later the thieves were in custody and the Weasley men plus Kate Bell apparated back to shell cottage to relay the disappointing news.

With that letdown Molly left the kitchen in tears and retired to the guest room of the cottage. Fleur followed in an attempt to help her with her grief. Arthur and the boys stayed up late working on other scenarios that they could use to find their missing family.


As Harry fell he could feel the other wizard next to him, above him he heard Ginny scream his name. The fall took forever in his mind; reality was it only took a few seconds. Harry's body slammed into the soft ground below, his head bounced and his eyes lost focus on the darkened sky seeing only blackness, pain engulfed him.

Ginny scrambled down the hill after Harry as fast as she could without falling. She gasped as Harry and the dark wizard fell from her sight over the ledge. She edged closer to the precipice holding onto a small tree, and looked over the edge. Thirty feet below Harry's racked body lay across his enemy's prone body, next to a creek. Neither of them was moving. She was going to apparate, but she was so tired she was afraid she would splinch. Instead she levitated the knapsack down carefully, then conjured a rope and quickly climbed down to the creek bed at the base of the small cliff to aid Harry.

The other wizard's body had cushioned Harry's fall. The man wasn't moving, and was barely breathing. His head was deformed from landing on a large rock. Harry was cut and bruised, but landing on the other man saved him from more serious injury.

Ginny assessed his injuries; the worst were some broken ribs, a severely twisted knee, and a concussion. Using her wand she cast the first healing spell and maneuvered Harry's broken ribs back into position. She placed three more healing charms, one on his knee and one on his abdomen, before concentrating the last spell on his head injuries. With the basic healing completed she cast the spell to wake him.

"Ennervate!" Ginny said, passing her wand over Harry's face. He woke slowly, in deep pain and tried to sit up.

"Arrrhh!" Harry screamed as he tried to move, his ribs popped audibly out of position again.

Ginny frowned. Her spells hadn't worked right in her tired condition. She focused intently as she recast the spells to reposition his broken ribs a second time, and mend the bones once aligned correctly again.

"Aiiyyy!" Harry yelped in anguish again. Ginny concentrated on his knee next, casting a different spell to reduce the swelling and then mending the tendons as best she could. The concussion was beyond her control. She cast a spell to reduce the headache pain a little, but it would require time and rest to heal.

Harry tried to calm his breathing, but with the rib injuries he could only take shallow breaths. Once his breathing and heart rate calmed he sat up gingerly, still in tremendous pain. Next to him, the other wizard gasped for air, convulsed twice, and died.

"Can you walk?" Ginny asked in concern.

"I can try." Harry winced. Ginny stood and helped him up. "Wait, Gin, search that guy."

She did so, retrieving a money pouch with about twenty Galleons in it, his wallet, a gold ring from his hand and a vial of dense smelling potion. Together they watched the man's body slowly morph from the image of Arthur Weasley to a wizard neither of them recognized. The blood oozing from his head seeped over the rocks.

Ginny steadied Harry's body, she stashed the new items in the knapsack and led Harry away from the body. The creek bed was strewn with rocks, large and small. The stream flowed gently along, clean and clear. At its deepest Ginny thought it was about two feet deep and it was about ten feet across. Moonlight reflected off the rippling water.

Carefully Ginny led Harry along the water's edge. Their progress was steady if not fast. The couple leaned on each other and continued to follow the creek bed as it flowed down stream. They walked for a few hours, yet it felt like an eternity. The exhausted pair was barely able to lift their feet, trudging along more slowly as time passed.

"Gin, we need to stop, we've been up for almost two days straight again. We need to rest." he choked out through strained gasps for air.

"Right, as soon as we find a good spot to hide out," she agreed, shifting her hips to accommodate Harry's added weight as she supported him. "Come on." She started forward down the creek again, supporting Harry and pulling her own fatigued body down the creek bed.

About a mile down the creek was now wider and deeper, the current picked up dramatically and they could hear rushing water. Soon they stood at the top of a small waterfall, maybe thirty feet high. Harry and Ginny attempted to bypass the cliff by apparating, but neither had the strength to do it. Instead of trying again and risking getting splinched the couple retreated and found a way down a steep hill and circling around to the base of the waterfall. This was camp for the remainder of the night. A thick grove of pine trees grew near the base of the cliff, sheltering a small area against the cliff itself. An overhang in the stone cliff wall provided some shelter from above.

Ginny levitated large soft piles of fallen pine needles into the sheltered area near the cliff base. Harry tried to pitch the small tent on the now soft forest floor. In the end Ginny had to set it up, and did so with the opening facing the cliff. Ginny gathered enough sticks and branches to keep a campfire going for the night and lit the fire with some conjured blue flames. Harry limped the circles concealing the area. With camp set up Harry and Ginny washed their hands and faces in the fresh water of the stream.

"Expecto Partonum!" Harry cast the charm. His wand tip emitted a silvery mist. Harry embedded a message to Mr. Weasley into the charm as his stag formed in the moonlight. As he finished the stag shimmered and slowly faded into an undefined mist. The remnants of his patronus dissolved into nothingness. "Expecto Patronum!" His second attempt at the patronus charm was weaker and never took its corporeal form.

"Expecto Patronum!" Ginny's voice was stronger than Harry's and her patronus flared from her wand's tip, eager to deliver the message as Ginny had instructed. Her mare neighed, tossing its head about and made to gallop off. As it left the area it too faded away leaving only wisps of silvery mist.

Ginny looked to Harry noticing the same dejected look in his eyes that she was sure her eyes held. She reached over, gently grasping his hand in hers. "It'll be okay. We're a mess honey, we need to rest and… well we need to eat too… and… lets get some sleep."

Harry transfigured a pillow from a scrap of his torn shirt. He slid under the covers resting his head on the thin pillow and held the blanket open for Ginny. She worked her way under the covers and snuggled up against Harry's body. Harry winced as she wrapped her arms around his body in a hug.

"Okay?" she asked.

"Just lots of aches and pains, that's all," he answered tiredly, sucking in a sharp breath as another jolt of pain coursed through his body.

"Should we set up watch?" she through a yawn.

"Probably, but neither of us can keep our eyes open. The concealment wards are up, we're hidden, let's just sleep." Ginny snuggled in closer and the spent couple slept solidly for the first time in five days.