As I said over in the last chapter of Noticing, I only had one chapter left for that work so I decided instead of my usual alternating, last week would be the final chapter for it. Now, I'm back onto this one as my only current work.

Enjoy.

"C… he… me?" Ginny was still groggy but she was sure somebody was talking.

"Huh?" Ginny managed to get out, despite her mouth feeling like it was stuffed with cotton.

"Can you hear me? The other voice was louder now, clearer. It was female, and coming from behind her, but that was about all Ginny was able to figure out for the moment.

"Yeah." Ginny groaned and tried to move but that impossible due to her hands being bound behind her back by heavy ropes. "Where are we? And why can't I see anything?"

"I have no idea." The other girl shrugged. "There's no light, so I have no clue how long we've been here, either. A while, I think. You've been out cold."

"Hold up, who are you?" Ginny winced when she felt a sudden pain in the side of her head. With her hands tied, she couldn't check for certain, but it almost felt like somebody had ripped a chunk of her hair out. It must have been done by whoever threw her in here.

"Astoria."

"Astoria Greengrass?" Ginny had heard the name, but didn't really know the girl other than the fact that she was in Slytherin and was a year below her class.

"Yes." Astoria confirmed. "And you?"

"Ginny Weasley." Ginny starred hard into the dark, thinking that she might be able to see if her eyes just adjusted, but it was futile. Wherever they were, Astoria was right. There wasn't the tiniest bit of light to be had. She might as well have been blind. "What's going on?"

"They must have snatched you, too." Astoria said. "And before you ask, I don't know. Last thing I remember was walking down the hall before I was hit in the back by a stunner. I was somewhat hoping you might know something."

"Afraid not." Ginny said, her hands moving behind her back, something Astoria noticed.

"What are you doing?"

"Hand on… a… little…" Ginny grumbled, voice filled with exertion right before her hands slipped free from her bonds.

"Wait…" Ginny could hear the disbelief in the other girl's voice. "How did you do that?"

Ginny shifted onto her knees, rubbing her sore wrists before turning around to work on Astoria's own bindings. "Please, I'm a Weasley. Do you have any idea how many times Fred and George's pranks have had me trussed up like a turkey? These knots are amateur."

While the knotwork had indeed been amateur just as she said, somebody had been smart enough to make up for it by enhancing them with a little bit of magic. While it did slow Ginny down somewhat, it wasn't good enough to stop her.

Once again, it took a little time working without being able to see, but eventually Ginny had the other witch freed.

Ginny tried to help Astoria to her feet, but the other girl let out a sharp cry of pain before falling back down. Only Ginny's hold had stopped her from hitting the stone floor.

"What's wrong?" Ginny cursed the dark, not for the first time.

"My ankle." Astoria whimpered when, Ginny assumed, she tried to put weight on it again. "I think it's sprained really bad."

Fantastic, Ginny bemoaned internally.

"Sit tight." Ginny helped Astoria back down. "I'm going to have a look around and see if I can figure out where we are."

Astoria didn't say a word, but Ginny took it for granted she was nodding.

Ginny blindly groped about in the dark, taking careful steps, until she felt her outreached hands touch a wall. A wall that felt like smooth and solid stone. Ginny felt up the surface, even jumping to see how far she could reach, but couldn't find the ceiling.

Ginny helped Astoria crawl over to the wall and had her wait there. Taking more careful and measured steps, following the wall as she did so, Ginny made her way around until she literally bumped into Astoria again. With that in mind, Ginny was able to deduce it was a small room with no windows or any other markings. Other than a sold wooden door, which naturally was locked tight.

Of course, it was locked. While Ginny might not have had Harry's awful level of luck, she still hoped whoever kidnapped them had been a bumbling moron. Yes, it was a bit of a stretch and a pipe dream, but Ginny preferred to be optimistic.

Speaking of Harry…

She'd left her treacle tart dessert gift in her trunk, and was eternally grateful for the preservation charm her mother had cast before sending it. She'd been planning on waiting for the right time and thanks to said charm, assumed she had plenty. Who would have thought she'd need it instead because she was kidnapped?

Come to think of it, she still needed to work on her speech. Simply telling Harry about how she broke up with Dean so she could be with him with the obligatory 'I'm sorry' just seemed woefully inadequate. Yes, she'd gotten his favorite dessert for him, but in her eyes, it wasn't enough to apologize for what an awful person she'd been.

Ginny continued mentally kicking herself for her immaturity. Oh, she wanted to date Harry? Well, then let's go date Dean instead, and make the raven-haired boy jealous! Yes, such a bloody brilliant plan! Sweet Merlin, not only was she badly immature, but utterly stupid as well. For crying out loud, this is the kind of thing children do!

Serves her right for listening to the advice of other girls in the school. Next time, she was trusting only her parents and maybe Bill and Charlie. Everybody else would just give shoddy advice they thought was the best ever.

A tiny part of Ginny was telling her she should just stay where she was and wait. Harry and Ron, probably more Harry, was likely already on the way to rescue her. She was certain that any second now, her future boyfriend would be blasting the door off its hinges and sweeping in for a dramatic rescue.

The memory of the last time Harry had done that for her sprang to mind, and instantly had Ginny scowling and stamping that idea down hard. Harry had already risked life, limb, and awful death by basilisk venom just to rescue her once.

Ginny had gotten to play the damsel in distress already, and had since grown to find the very idea repulsive. Sure, it would be great if Harry could come on and save her again, but Ginny was not willing to just sit like a weeping little demure princess waiting to be saved.

Oh, no. Today, Ginny Weasley was going to save herself, if she could.

A glance over in Astoria's approximate direction had Ginny amending her previous thought. Maybe today, she'd be the one saving others. While she was wary of trusting the other witch, she was a Slytherin after all, Ginny just didn't have it in her to abandon another girl to whatever fate awaited them.

Compounding this was that Astoria was younger than Ginny. The redhead witch could remember many times growing up about hearing her parents berate her brothers about looking after Ginny because she was the youngest one of the group. Oddly enough, her brothers actually heeded their parents' words. Even Fred and George, in their own strange way, always looked out for her.

Was this what being the older sibling felt like?

Ginny once again shook her head to clear it. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts, they had more important business to get to.

Too bad Ginny still had no idea who it was that abducted them. It had been done right inside Hogwarts, too, so either somebody had a secret way into the school nobody else knew about, or someone strong enough to brute force their way past the wards while at the same time not alerting, anyone. The latter of which Ginny figured would take somebody of Dumbledore's level of power or the dark lord himself.

Whatever the reason for their kidnapping, Ginny highly doubted it was for something as trivial as a surprise birthday party.

No, whatever awaited Ginny and Astoria couldn't be good, and if the redhead had her way, both witches would be long gone by the time they figured out whatever that was.

Ginny was plotting her next plan of action when she heard the telltale sound of the door unlocking.

"Come on." Harry groaned, gripping his hair and almost tugging it out. "Think!"

Harry was once again poring over the Marauder's Map, looking for some kind of clue or hint. He had decided to change tactics, and see if instead of Ginny and Astoria, search around the school for any names that he didn't recognize or didn't look like they belonged.

So far, once again, he wasn't having much luck.

"Harry." Hermione slipped into the seat beside him. "Take a break, you're just driving yourself crazy at this point. How many times have you looked at that thing?"

"I know. Too many." Harry sighed, letting his body go limp and his head fall onto his girlfriend's shoulder. Hermione wasted no time in wrapping an arm around him, her fingers soothingly running through his hair.

"It's time we went to McGonigal." Hermione said with an aura of absolute finality. "We've tried everything, and came up with nothing. It's time to get some real help."

"I know." Harry repeated with a sigh before looking around to see if anyone was close enough to hear. It was too close for his comfort so he changed out a single word. "As soon as Ron and Ginny get back from their latest detention, we'll all go together."

"Should be perfect." Hermione agreed before switching her voice over to a soft whisper with her lips right beside his ear. "Her potion should be wearing off about now, so the timing should be perfect."

Harry was nodded in agreement when something caught his eye. It wasn't the fact that he sat up so suddenly that had Hermione on high alert, but rather the way he yanked himself free from her hold. Something she knew he enjoyed too much to want out of that badly.

"Harry?" Hermione was sitting up too, now. It wasn't until she followed her boyfriend's eyes that she found what had enraptured him so badly. She almost couldn't believe what she was seeing herself. Good thing Ron wasn't here, otherwise the boy would have a smart comment about Hermione's jaw being on the floor for once.

Right there, on the Marauder's Map, were the names Ginny Weasley and Astoria Greengrass.

I would like to point out that, yes, I know this is a bit shorter than normal. However, I really wanted it to end on that particular cliffhanger, plus it's been a long and stressful week and I have another coming up. So I had almost no time to write anything and was lucky I was able to get this far along.

Otherwise, this story wasn't going to be updated until next weekend, and seeing as how I already skipped one week for my other work, I couldn't stand the idea of doing that again. Hopefully this will be enough to tide everyone over. Only one or maybe two more chapters left.