Harry Potter was in a state of panic.
Grave thoughts encircled his head. His wand was clutched tightly in one hand while the other held onto Ginny's free hand unbashfully. Her other hand was grasping her wand as tight as Harry's.
They've been separated from the other four. Ron, Neville, Hermione and Luna were pushed by an unknown force into a different chamber while the force thrusted Harry and Ginny into this one.
The room was filled with multiple rows of unlabeled jars. The contents ranged from glowing to pale and bright to faded.
The room was silent and it was the reason why Ginny heard his rapidly fastening heartbeat. She dropped his hand and drew it around his ribcage. Without dropping her wand, she drew him in a hug worthy of Mrs. Weasley.
"Harry, take a few moments to breath in okay love? Then we'll find the others. Remember what I told you? Anything is possible if you've got enough nerve. Calm down Harry."
Inspite of himself, he calmed down and wrapped his own arms around her small frame. Ginny was a head smaller than him so he was able to lay his chin on her head. He breathed in her strawberry scent mixed with a little grime and dust but it was comforting all the same.
He disregarded the way the word 'love' made his stomach contract and grasped her hand once more. Their footsteps sounded in sync, echoing around the seemingly empty room.
Oh, they truly don't know the extent of the truth behind Ginny's advice.
• ~|~ •
Vincent Crabbe (Senior, Of course) snorted at the stupidity of these mere teenagers. Word was sent from Malfoy that the other four were currently held and binded together at the death chamber. After being excessively tortured, they would throw them into the veil of death.
At the moment, Crabbe was hiding behind a shelf containing numerous jars of unknown substances waiting for the perfect time to ambush the pair and secretly gloating that The Dark Lord trusted him enough to participate in this mission which only his inner circle was said to perform. The Lestrange brothers, Bellatrix, Lucius, Yaxley, Goyle and him.
He heard muffled footsteps approaching and smiled maliciously, showing his crooked, yellowing teeth to no one in particular. Something bright and sickly green caught his attention. He looked up and spotted a translucent container illuminating a gut wrenching shade of green. He licked his lips and levitated the rather large container over the hallway. 'It won't hurt to cause Potter and his little slut pain, right? Who knows what kind of pain this unknown substance might bring.'
• ~ | ~ •
"Gin? What room are we in?"
"I'm guess we're in the room for unknown substances?"
"The room of whazzawhatnaw?"
"Harry.." Ginny said patiently, "..this is the Department of MYSTERIES. No one really knows what goes on down here except for Unspeakables and the Minister. My dad heard a rumor that there are eight sub-departments but all content is unknown."
Harry took a shuddering breath and exhaled. Looking over at Ginny, he smiled slightly. Several strands of hair have escaped her loose ponytail. You could see the amount of determination set within the depths of her brown eyes.
As if sensing his gaze, she looked up and smiled back, squeezing his hand in the process.
Reaching shelf number 97, they turned and Harry looked over at Ginny who started chuckling.
"What's so funny?" he asked not a little irritably.
She giggled some more let go of his hand to pull her hair loose. "Don't you find it funny that for a Department that's supposed to be Mysterious they arrange the stuff inside by color and shade?"
Raising an eyebrow, he scanned the hall they were in- greens. Grinning and shaking his head, he silently concluded she was right. The hall was literally aranged starting from the darkest shades of green from the right to the lightest to the left. It was pleasing to the eyes.
He scanned it once more and spotted a rather large container floating mid-air at the center of the hall. He swallowed and held out his arm infront of Ginny to stop her from walking to it. He quietly pointed to the jar and motioned with his head to go to a different aisle.
• ~ | ~ •
Groaning, Crabbe Sr. slapped his forehead a bit forcefully. 'You idiot! You could've atleast dissolutioned it!' he thought frantically to himself. Drawing his lips into a tight line worthy of Professor Mcgonagall, he levitated the container back to its shelf and turned around, only to be stunned and binded to the ground by several, thick, slimy vines.
• ~ | ~ •
Ginny padded over to the unconscious man and pulled a face of disgust. "I have no idea who's more stupid and ugly, the one who came after or the one who came before. Like father like son, I suppose."
Harry walked up next to her after checking their backs left and right. "I think it's genetic but I guess Sr. is just a tad bit smarter because of experience. Either way their both dumb as a rock."
"Oh I don't think it's only Vincent whos as dumb as a rock." said a voice in the shadows.
Harry and Ginny whirled around so fast that the latter almost tumbled. All color drained from each of their faces as green and brown met bloody red. His slitted nose and high, hollow cheekbones lifted to create an evil, gut-wrenching smile.
"Harry Potter, what a pleasure to see you again."
"I wish I could say the same." Harry spat sarcastically. Ginny rounded on him and at his audacity to be sarcastic infront of one of the most evil wizards of all time.
Voldemort's red, blood shot irises swerved from Harry over to Ginny's petite frame. The way his eyes raked her slender legs, over her petite waist, chest and face made him see dots in his vision. He felt hot, seering anger at his forever enemy and at the way he seemed to treat Ginny as 'eye candy'.
"I see you've brought company Potter, a pure-blood at that. Shame you had to pick a half-blood, maybe after this you'd like to bare my children? How powerful our children will be with me as the father and the seventh child and first girl in seven generations as their mother." He grinned seductively, well, as seductive as a man with snake like features could get.
"Go to hell Riddle! You hypocritical half-blood bastard!" Ginny spat hotly, although her face was pale in fear, her eyes were blazing and her jaw was set.
Voldemort raised his pale eyebrows at her, "I see we've met before judging by your information on my past. I don't go by that name any more young lady, I thought you were more knowledgeable than that."
Ginny laughed and it was Harry's turn to look at her as if she's lost her mind. "The only pathetic one here is you, Tom. No matter what you say, no matter what you do, you'll always just be Tom Marvolo Riddle. Stop being such a pussy and accept it."
Harry couldn't believe her nerve, yet he felt so very proud of her for standing up to her demons. He wished he had a camera right now, to capture this moment and tell several generations in the future of Ginny Weasley, who so confidently stood up against Voldemort.
It seems that Voldemort could not quite believe her nerve either and began to utter words and wave his wand. He was struck suddenly by two curses.
"Reducto!"
"Bombarda!"
The spells kept on hitting Tom in rapid succession all the while Harry and Ginny ran the opposite direction.
"POTTER!" Riddle screamed. He waved his wand in a swift 'w' but it missed and hit the shelf behind them. Jars of swirling and glittering yellows came crashing down on them.
They could not quite believe their luck, because one particular container hit them and gave them an increased amount of stamina, speed and jump boost.
Hurriedly making their way over to the oranges, they started to slow and catch their breath for they seemed to have lost him. Turning into the Red aisle, they come face to face with the very person they were trying to loose in the chase.
"I'm sick and tired of you always running and getting away from me Potter! I'm ending it now and the world will see how much of a fraud you are! The world will now fear the name of Lord Voldemort." he spoke calmly, almost waiting to see if they would do anything.
"Avada Kedavra"
Out of impulse, as if the actions weren't his own, Harry summoned jars and containers of every kind in the path of the curse which was rapidly hurdling towards them. Bits of glass and metal exploded around them, littering the halls. Liquid and smoke enveloped them, like a tiger catching small mice in it's paws.
Where a Weasley and Potter once stood, now only thin particles of air.