Chapter 34

The sun was rising over the sea, it was mid January and the golden glow of sunlight was starting to return to the air. A brisk breeze was combing through the grass outside Shell cottage, as the land was starting to show signs of being half way out of the darkness of winter.

Despite the early morning gloom the windows of shell cottage were all glowing warmly through the sea mist. The front door opened and a tall figure walked out, he got to the end of the path and stopped, hesitating for a second as if he had seen something in the mist. The figure looked from side to side but then appirated with a sharp crack that was muffled by the water hanging in the air.

The atmosphere was surprisingly relaxed, given that a man had died on the floor of the kitchen in Shell Cottage only a couple of weeks before. Ginny was sitting at the table with Fleur as they tucked into a continental breakfast. Ginny was now very large and not very menuverable at all. Her long walks had become short walks round the front garden. Ginny was sorry that it was winter; she would have loved to be able to do some gardening as a payment to Fleur.

" I 'ave to go now Ginny, will you be alright 'ere alone today?"

Fleur had become increasingly worried about the infection that was growing from the wound in Ginny's side, despite their best efforts they had been able to do little to stop the spread.

"I will be fine. You have a lot of people to care for, you have to go and make other people better I will be able to amuse myself here"

Fleur forced a smile. Ginny knew that the number of patients at St Mungos were now many more than the hospital could really cope with and occasionally they were being invaded by men from the ministry who were putting very sick or injured people under arrest and taking them away. Fleur had been very upset because she knew that leaving the hospital was a death sentence for nearly all of them, but they could not resist or none of the patients they were caring for would survive.

Fleur left the house in her normally elegant fashion. Leaving Ginny alone in the cottage. Ginny felt very much like a spare part to the household. She wished there was something she could do, some goal she could work towards. Most expectant mothers would be decorating a nursery or knitting hats and booties. Ginny couldn't knit. Her mother had tried to teach her several times but it was no good she just ended up with a horrible knotted mess. And she was so uncertain about the future that she had nothing she could prepare. But Ginny had been sneakily preparing something.

Ginny cleared up after her breakfast and went out to the little workshop that was outside the back of the cottage. It was mostly glass like a greenhouse so it was very cold inside. Ginny had to wear a lot of layers to keep warm. Molly had given Ginny a very large thick grey knitted cardigan for Christmas that was more like a coat to be fair. But Ginny didn't care it was perfect and lovely and stretchy to fit over her bump. The workshop was grey inside and covered in cobwebs but in the centre was her project that she had been making. During all of Ginny's walks she had been gathering small bits of driftwood and shells. At the time she didn't know what she was going to do with them, they were just pretty, but now it seemed obvious. Over the past few weeks she had been carefully hammering and gluing the pieces of wood together to make the basic form of a crib. It had to be much larger than a normal crib as it had to fit 2 babies in it. It curved elegantly at the sides as the dark twitted wood was carefully slotted together. Ginny had never been very artistic but this was something that she really loved doing it was therapeutic.

The day went on and Ginny had made a lot of progress on her construction she had made it very generous it was nearly 3 feet wide to allow plenty of space for them. But she began to feel tired and so she hobbled back inside the cottage.

Ginny was making herself a sandwich when she heard a large crack outside, was it thunder? Her heart leapt into her mouth when she realised someone had appirated to outside the house, no one was due home? Ginny rushed to the side of the window to peep past the curtain. Her adrenaline was making her move as fast as a normal sized person she peered past the curtain and saw a tall dark figure crouched down in the front garden. Ginny was horrified. The cottage was under so many protective spells that it would be nearly impossible for anyone to get through who wasn't welcome so this person had to have strong magic and be here with determination. Her blood ran cold and her mouth went dry. Ginny turned her back, and slowly slid her shoulders down the cupboards in the kitchen so that she was sitting on the floor hidden from view. The stranger was going to be trying to come though the front door any second. She was shaking all over but she reached her hand inside her pocket and pulled out her wand. She closed her eyes, she thought back to the day she found out she was pregnant, she was feeling as equally terrified as she did then. She squeezed her eyes shut and thought furiously about what curse she would use on them when they came through the door.

She could hear the door handle rattling, and time seemed to slow for her, she stopped breathing and she was sure her heart stopped beating as well, she was prepared to kill this person to protect her family?

"Ginny?"

Bill's voice came though the door as it opened just a crack. The large lump in Ginny's throat seemed to drop into her stomach suddenly but the she felt very cross with Bill, what was he thinking he almost gave her a heart attack!

"Bill?… what the hell! I nearly died of fright! I was about to try and blow your head off! What the hell are you doing here?"

Then Ginny got a chance to really look at him, his cloak was ripped in several places and he was clutching his arm

"Bill?"

Ginny was now just as worried as she had been before he come though the door and her blood ran cold again, Bill was slipping his cloak off his shoulders and Ginny did her best to leap to her feet but it ended up as more of a slow struggle. She went to Bill to help him. He had a large wound on his arm and shoulder that was bleeding furiously.

"Oh Bill what happened tell me!"

Bill looked up at Ginny and she was shocked to see that he was grinning? He must be hysterical Ginny thought to herself.

" Harry Potter has just demolished Gringots on the back of a blind albino dragon"

He laughed as he spoke still clutching his arm

"WHAT?"

Ginny couldn't quite work out what he had just said.

"The bottom vaults of Gringots are guarded by a dragon. I had never seen it myself and to be honest I wondered if it were just scare tactics to put off thieves. But Belatirx Lestrange came in today and wanted to get into her vault. I knew there was something not right because she hasn't been seen in Diagon Ally for a few weeks. And then a few minutes later Harry, Ron and Hermione were demolishing Gringots from the ground upwards riding on the back of a massive dragon."

Ginny didn't know what to say to that, she knew that the missions Harry was performing were very dangerous but she didn't realise quite how dangerous they had clearly become.

"So how did this happen"

Ginny said gesturing to Bill's arm. She could now see that it was cut very deeply in several places she pulled a chair out from the kitchen table for him.

"Well as soon as they had gone which only took seconds, all hell broke loose trying to find the person or goblin who had let them in. ministry men seemed to come out of nowhere and started firing curses all over the place it was carnage. I managed to slip away but I got this on my way out. OUCH!"

Ginny was very gently trying to dab the wound with 'Helga's healing potion' but it wasn't really working it was reducing the bleeding but it wasn't really healing it enough, the potion was really meant for paper cuts and small grazes but his were multiple gashes 4 inches deep and 3 inches wide it looked like Bill had had an argument with a circular saw.

"Bill this isn't working, you need more than this?"

Ginny was worried the cut was so deep

"Fleur will be home soon and she can see to it"

Bill groaned

"No she can't? She is a nurse not a healer, and we are putting far too much pressure on her as it is? You need to get to a proper healer now."

Bill stood up suddenly.

"No….. we will just wait. If I go to St Mungos then I am just going to end up on the list of the missing and I am no use to anyone then. I fled the scene Gin they are bound to come looking for me, and you can't apperate it could kill you and the babies"

Ginny couldn't argue, she grabbed towels and anything absorbent and wrapped it tightly round his arm as he slumped dizzily back onto his chair. It was going to be hours before Fleur was home. Ginny went and looked though the books in the living room and the boxes of medical supplies that Fleur kept under the sink in the kitchen but she couldn't find anything better than what she was already doing. After about an hour of looking Bill was getting dangerously pale. Ginny was still furiously and franticly looking for something she could use to help but this was no ordinary wound, usual healing magic was not working on it. Ginny was in the living room flicking though the pages of a book called "Wild Herbs And Their Magical Properties" furiously looking for the words 'wound healing' when she heard a thud from the kitchen. She dashed tough to find that Bill had passed out and fallen off his chair onto the stone floor. Ginny managed to roll him over but the towel wrapped around his arm was soaking, there had to be half his blood in that one towel.

Ginny was now frantic, what could she do? She had done everything she could nothing had worked and she couldn't even call for help she was all on her own and her brother was going to die here in her arms if she didn't do something now. She was now totally frantic and panicked, she rushed outside the front door, vainly hoping that Fleur would have heard about Gringots and be rushing home right now, tears were streaming down Ginny's face and she was murmuring fast to herself shaking all over with fear. The fog outside was thick and cold so she looked around blindly hoping that somehow help would just appear out of the mist.

"HELP!…. help me please"

She managed to stammer though sobs. She stood out there in the cold still looking around wildly.

Then she caught a glimpse of some movement in the mist, had her prayers been answered? Had help come? She stumbled forwards towards it hoping to see it more clearly. But then she realised the figure was not a man, not even a person. It was a creature the same colour and texture as the ground, and it stood up out of the grass. Ginny was terrified, the creature let out a very deep reverberating rumble. Ginny thought for just a second then she turned back towards the house and ran to the door as quickly as she could. She could hear that it was running after her but she managed to slam the front door behind her and lock it, whatever it was must have been massive she felt the house shake as whatever it was hit the door and ran its claws all over it. Ginny ran and knelt beside unconscious Bill she closed her eyes there was nothing more she could do, any second that thing was going to come though the door and kill them both, but as quickly as the creature had pounced, the sound disappeared.

Ginny opened her eyes but she was rooted to she spot with fear and panic. She looked down at Bill who was lying in a pool of his own blood, Ginny knew she now had no choice she had to apperate them to St Mungos and with a sickening crack they disappeared leaving just a pool of blood on the kitchen floor and a mysterious grassy figure hunched up, stalking away into the sea mist