"Hello, may I help you?" Hermione heard the woman's voice just as the jewelry shop's door swung shut behind her.
"Yes, please. My boyfriend bought me this bracelet for Christmas and the chain got broken, so I was hoping you could fix it?"
"Of course we can, let me take a look," The woman took the broken chain and began examining it and Hermione observed her while she worked. She was quite stunning, with a willowy figure, deep brown hair that hung in curls down her back, and a slight tan that brought out her already vivid blue eyes.
"Mm-hmm, yes, I believe we can repair this," The woman smiled at her.
"Really? Thank you so much, ma'am," Hermione beamed.
"You're welcome. And you may call me Elizabeth."
"I'm Hermione."
"I had a feeling you might be," Elizabeth nodded her head and smiled a little.
Hermione scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion, "You did?"
"Yes, my husband is the one who helped your young man pick out this bracelet for you. Normally, I wouldn't know who someone was if I'd only heard about them, but you are just as described."
"Ron told you about me?"
"He told my husband about you and they had a long conversation. Darcy, my husband, was reminded of himself when he met your Ron and told him a little bit about our story when we were your age. He told me everything later on and you matched Ron's description of you, so that along with the uniqueness of this bracelet let me know who you were. He loves you very much, you know."
Hermione blushed, "I hope so."
"He does, I can tell. And that other young man who came in here with him that day is very much in love, too," Elizabeth rummaged under the counter while she talked. "Bright green eyes, glasses, and very messy black hair. I helped him pick out a gift, too."
Hermione laughed, "That's Harry and he's dating Ron's sister. Took him months to work up the nerve to kiss her and he only did it when he got jealous of another boy."
Laughing, Elizabeth laid out a piece of cloth on the counter and placed the two broken ends of the bracelet together on top of it, "Yes, well he couldn't stop talking about her or how beautiful she is." Waving her wand over the chain, Elizabeth muttered some words under her breath and Hermione watched as the two broken ends joined together.
"Here you are, good as new," Elizabeth handed the repaired bracelet to Hermione who hugged it to her chest.
"Thank you so much, ma–I mean, Elizabeth. How much do I owe you?"
"Actually, because the bracelet is so new I have to send an owl to the creator letting them know the chain needs to be altered before they begin selling them, so you don't have to pay me anything."
"Wow, that's very kind of you. Um, if you don't mind me asking, what was you and your husband's story?"
Elizabeth gave a slow but radiant smile, "Well, we were just your age…"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"What do you want, Cho?" Harry could feel his temper starting to rise already. She'd tried talking to him when he was in line with Ron at the Three Broomsticks, but he'd shrugged her off. Why couldn't she just leave him alone?
"I want to know why you keep ignoring me? Is it because of that little girlfriend of yours?" Cho's eyes flashed with annoyance.
"Her name is Ginny and she didn't do anything," Harry saw Seamus and Lavender stop walking when they heard Cho's voice, which was on the verge of yelling.
"Then what is it? Are you trying to make me jealous by dating her?" Cho moved closer to Harry as she spoke and crossed her arms.
Harry had enough, "What do you want me to say, Cho? That I wish it was you I was dating? That I'm not in love with Ginny and I can't stand the sight of her?" Realizing he was shouting, Harry lowered his voice, "I will never say that. I love Ginny, I never liked you."
Anger filled Cho's eyes but when she turned away and looked over Harry's shoulder they flashed with satisfaction. The air around them had gone very quiet and Harry got a sick feeling in his stomach as he turned around. There, standing twenty feet from him was Ginny. Her eyes were rimmed red and a deep sadness had overcome her face. Harry stood frozen, realizing that from where Ginny was standing the only part of his and Cho's argument she heard was him saying he didn't want her.
"Ginny," he whispered in a strangled voice. Harry watched as if in slow motion as Ginny took off the promise ring he'd given her and dropped it on the ground. Then she turned and ran down the street.
"Ginny, wait!" Harry bolted after her, running into several people but not bothering to apologize. He reached the alley he'd seen Ginny disappear into and ran in but she wasn't there. There was a tall stone wall that blocked off the other end of the alley and there were no side doors anywhere. The hair on the back of Harry's neck stood up and he took out his wand as he stepped into the alley. Lying just beyond the entrance was a long thin piece of wood that Harry immediately recognized.
"Harry! What's wrong, what happened?" Somehow Hermione had appeared behind him with Ron at her side.
Harry could only stare straight ahead and he heard himself speak as though from far away, "Sh-She's gone. Someone took her, Ginny's gone." Hermione's eyes widened and Ron paled as Harry held up the piece of wood he'd found that he knew was Ginny's wand.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Harry, please sit down," Hermione pleaded in a tearful voice. It had been four hours since Ginny had disappeared and Harry had been pacing in front of the fireplace of the Gryffindor common room since they'd gotten back from Hogsmeade. Harry was only able to give a brief description of what had happened but it was enough for Hermione, who had turned and run to find Professor McGonagall. The students were quickly gathered and brought back to the castle immediately where they were told to go to their common rooms and stay there. Within three minutes of entering Gryffindor Tower, Dumbledore and McGonagall had arrived, asking everyone except Harry, Ron, and Hermione to go to their rooms, and had Harry explain everything that had happened and everything he'd seen. Dumbledore had remained deceptively calm but those around him could feel the anger radiating off of his body.
"Harry, may I have Miss Weasley's wand?" Harry placed Ginny's wand in Dumbledore's hand and watched as he rolled it between his long pale fingers. Then he closed his eyes and held the wand still between both hands while he whispered under his breath. A steady glow began to emanate from Ginny's wand until Dumbledore stopped speaking. His solemn eyes fell on Harry, "I'm afraid Miss Weasley has indeed been taken. I do not know where but I do know by whom."
He didn't have to say the words aloud, everyone knew by his tone who had stolen Ginny and he'd left the room with the order that McGonagall bring all of the teachers to his office. This left Harry, Ron, and Hermione alone in the common room. Hermione sat beside Ron and held his hand while he stared into the fire and Harry continued walking back and forth.
"Harry? Harry!" Hermione yelled.
Harry stopped pacing and raised tortured eyes to Hermione's face, "It's my fault."
A tear slipped down Hermione's cheek as she shook her head, "It's no one's fault, Harry."
"If I hadn't yelled at Cho, she wouldn't have run. Now three of the most dangerous wizards in the world have her and we don't know where she is." Tears brimmed in Harry's eyes and threatened to spill over. He was distracted from it as a sharp pain seared across his forearm and he reflexively covered it with his hand.
"What's wrong with your arm?" Hermione saw him rubbing the spot absentmindedly.
"Nothing, it's just been hurting a little."
Hermione sat up straighter, "What do you mean it's been hurting?"
"It's not a big deal, there's just a pain every once in a while," Harry resumed his pacing. Where would they have taken her? Why did they take her? It would have been just as easy to take me.
Hermione's voice interrupted his thoughts, "When did it start?"
"I don't know, a couple of hours ago," as he finished speaking, another sharp pain cut across the upper half of his other arm. He grabbed the spot automatically but kept his steady pace in front of the fire.
"Was that it again?" Hermione asked.
"Yes," Harry was starting to get annoyed. Why couldn't she focus on Ginny?
"Was it happening this morning?"
"What does it matter, Hermione!? It's just a stupid pain, it'll go away!"
Hermione moved to stand in front of Harry, forcing him to stop and face her. He was caught off guard by the urgency in her eyes, "Harry, listen to me. Did the pains start before or after Ginny was taken?"
Harry's face paled and he noticed that Ron started paying attention when he heard his sister's name, "A-after, I think."
Hermione's eyes filled with tears and she bit her lip. She gave a short sniff, "Harry, I-I think it's the Cordis Bond."
Ron came to stand beside Hermione and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "What's the Cordis Bond?"
Looking Harry in the eyes, she began to explain, "When two people who are soulmates have found each other and are truly in love, a magical bond is formed between them. Should they be separated and one of the two be in pain the other will feel what they feel but to a smaller degree."
"So the pain in my arms is what Ginny is feeling?" Harry whispered.
"It hasn't made any sense why they took her when you would have been just as easy to get to. The only thing I can think of is that she has something they wouldn't be able to get anywhere else. I think they took Ginny to get information from her."
"What do they want to know that she could tell them?" Ron asked.
"I don't know," Hermione admitted. "Harry, did she ever say anything to you? Did you two ever talk about Voldemort or the Death Eaters?"
"No, no I–," Harry stopped speaking as he remembered a conversation they'd had weeks before.
"What is it, Harry?" Hermione asked.
"I didn't want any secrets between us...I told her about the prophecy."
Hermione covered her mouth with her hand as Ron shook his head, "That doesn't make any sense. You told us about it, too, so why did they take Ginny?"
"Because they thought they could isolate Harry by taking someone he loved. They knew he might push everyone away to keep them out of danger. Because they thought Ginny would be easy to break, so either way they'd win," Hermione sniffed again and wiped her eyes.
Ron had turned very pale and Harry's hand started to shake. That night none of them went to their rooms, they all stayed in the common room together. Harry didn't bother changing out of his clothes, he wanted to be ready to leave the second they heard anything.
"I just wish we knew something...anything," Ron said dully.
"She's alive, Ron, we know that," Hermione told him.
"But where is she, Hermione?"
Hermione looked at him sadly, "I don't know."
Ron sat up straighter, "What about the Marauder's Map? What if they stayed close to the school?"
"They aren't at the school, Ron. The alley they took her in was blocked on the other side so they would have had to apparate and you can't do that on school grounds."
"The Podial!" Harry jumped off the couch, Ron's comment about the Marauder's Map bringing back a memory of the compass-shaped Christmas gift that Ginny had given him.
"The what?" Ron and Hermione asked in unison. Rather than answer them, Harry ran up to his room and rummaged around in his trunk. When he found what he'd been looking for he hurried back to Ron and Hermione, holding the small object out to show them.
Ron's eyes went wide, "Is that the clock from the Burrow?"
"Sort of, Ginny gave it to me for Christmas. It's called a Podial and all you have to do is say the name of someone and it'll tell you if they're at any of these places." Before either of them could say anything, Harry took a shaky breath and said, "Ginny Weasley." Harry, Ron, and Hermione held their breath as the hand of the Podial began spinning. After what seemed like an eternity the dial came to a stop where it rested on the words Mortal Peril.
Ron slumped back against the couch in defeat, but Harry was filled with a mixture of anger, panic, and despair, "No! No, no, no! Tell me where she is!" Tears began sliding down his face and he felt a pair of arms wrap around him in a hug. Hermione didn't say anything, she just hugged him in that way that only your best friends and the people you love can, the way that lets you know you can keep crying and they won't say a word to you. After a few minutes, Harry leaned back into his seat and Hermione returned to her spot on the other end of the couch next to Ron and held his hand while he gazed into the fire.
Hermione and Ron eventually fell asleep while Harry hovered on the brink. Just as his eyes would start to close, a new pain would slash across his arms that lingered and was ten times worse than the first few. Later that night, those pains were replaced with a new kind that overtook his whole body at once. He felt as though he were on fire and all the air had been squeezed from his chest. This pain lasted for several minutes and happened at steady intervals throughout the rest of the night, leaving him with dark circles under his eyes in the morning. The students slowly came down from their rooms and went to breakfast, none of them bothering to talk to Ron or Harry both of whom were lost in their own thoughts. Hermione was just starting to replay the events of the day before in her mind to make more sense of them when a shiny silver object came to a stop in front of her, hovering several inches in front of her face.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Ginny had woken up on the hard, dirty floor of an abandoned house. Cobwebs hung from every corner, dust had settled over everything, and one of the windows had been broken. Tilting her head slightly, Ginny stared at the shattered window as it looked oddly familiar. Comprehension dawned on her as she realized where she'd been taken. Taken. Someone had grabbed her from the alley. The alley she'd run into after hearing Harry say he wished he'd never been with her. Tears gathered in her eyes as she remembered everything Harry had said to Cho. Before she had time to think about it further, three pairs of shoes entered the little room.
"Oh good, you're awake," The decidedly hideous face of Bellatrix Lestrange came into her sight.
Ginny refused to show any fear, "What do you want?"
"My, my, aren't you the brave little witch," The arrogant voice of Lucius Malfoy spoke next.
"You know, Lucius, I think this one might turn out to be my favorite. A pure-blooded witch who defends filthy mudbloods and protects the enemy of our master, it'll do her good to be taught a lesson."
"There is nothing you can teach me that I would want to know," Ginny spat.
Bellatrix's hand cracked against Ginny's cheek, knocking her head back and leaving a sharp sting of pain. "Don't talk to me like that, girl," She hissed.
"See, you have something that we want," Malfoy said smoothly. Seeing the confusion on Ginny's face, he continued, "A reliable source tells me that you are dating Harry Potter. That being the case, we have come to the conclusion that he would have told you about a certain prophecy."
Malfoy caught the flash of understanding in Ginny's eyes before she could hide it and smiled, "Yes, I thought so." He continued talking as if he were simply giving a lecture to a group of students, "I'm prepared to make a deal with you. Tell us what the prophecy said and you'll be free to go. If not, then I'm afraid I will have no choice but to hand you over to the care of…" He let his words fade away as he gestured to his right where Bellatrix stood, now holding a shining silver dagger.
Ginny knew what choice she was going to make and what the consequences were going to be. She steeled herself and glared at Malfoy, "You better hope she's good at what she does because I will never tell you what you want to know."
Anger flared in Malfoy's eyes, "Very well. Bellatrix…" Malfoy gestured the witch forward.
The first cut to her arm stung, but she'd grown up with six older brothers and had gotten her fair share of injuries from playing outside or from being a test subject for the twins' experiments. When Ginny didn't flinch, Bellatrix cut her arm twice more in quick succession, "Tell us the prophecy and all of this goes away." Ginny knew that they weren't going to let her go whether she told them what they wanted to know or not. By now, Dumbledore and the Order would know that she was gone and be looking for her. She just had to hold on until they came for her. Bellatrix continued to question her about the prophecy, receiving the same answer from Ginny every time. After the sixth cut, Bellatrix hissed in frustration and went to the other side of the room to get something.
"Maybe I can get her to talk," a deep voice said. Ginny turned her head to see the man that had come in with Bellatrix and Malfoy. He was standing guard by the door and had yet to say anything since they had been there. Ginny hadn't seen his face as he was constantly standing in the shadows but Bellatrix's response to his comment brought a new wave of anger and defiance that crashed over her, "She's mine, Antonin!" Antonin Dolohov, the man who had taken part in torturing and murdering her uncles years ago.
Bellatrix returned with a small jar in her hands, interrupting Ginny's thoughts, "This is Raexian venom. Do you know what that is? No, I didn't think so. It's a creature that lives in the deepest part of every forest, where the trees are so thick that no sunlight can enter. They're rather harmless unless they are attacked. Unfortunately for the attacker, a single bite from the Raexian will fill their body with enough poison to kill twenty men."
Ginny forced her heart to slow down, "I thought you weren't going to kill me. Are you giving up so soon?"
Bellatrix's eyes hardened, "No, there's no need to kill you just yet." She took her dagger and dipped it into the jar in her hands, "This is just enough venom to cause pain that is much more severe than what I've already bestowed on you." She knelt down next to Ginny's ear and whispered, "Tell me, what is the prophecy?"
Staring straight ahead, Ginny answered in a flat, uninterested voice, "It wouldn't matter if you knew the prophecy or not, you're still going to lose." Shrieking with rage, Bellatrix delivered two cuts to Ginny's arms.
Ginny bit the inside of her cheek to keep from screaming in pain. It felt as if someone was slowing sawing into her arms and as the feeling started to lessen, Bellatrix's face would appear in her vision, "What is the prophecy?"
"There is nothing you can do to make me tell you," Ginny spoke from behind clenched teeth. This was the sequence of events for the next couple hours, Bellatrix would ask about the prophecy, Ginny would refuse to answer, and the poisoned dagger would be slashed across her arm. Although she could feel tears brimming in her eyes, Ginny wouldn't let the Death Eaters have the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
It was starting to get dark out when Malfoy stepped forward, "We are running out of time!"
Moving out of the dark corner by the door, Dolohov took out his wand and pointed it at Ginny, "I'll be interested to know if you'll scream as much as your uncles did." Without waiting for a reply, he shouted, "Crucio!"
Ginny was on fire, she was sure of it with the way the white-hot pain was coursing through her body. The pain from the dagger and venom had been nothing compared to now. She could only pray to have back the pain she felt after falling from her broom, every nerve ending felt as though it was being individually burned. Then it was gone. She lay there gasping for air, only catching the last part of what was being said around her, "...the prophecy?" Three pairs of eyes watched her. When she didn't say anything, Dolohov brought his face down until it was only inches from hers, "So now that we've got that out of the way...what was the prophecy. The gleam in his eyes was replaced by images of her uncles, Gideon and Fabian. Using all of her strength, Ginny whipped her hand up and clawed him down the side of his face. He reared back and held his hand against his face. He removed it to show three deep, bloody scratches and with a powerful roar Dolohov drew back his wand. The last thing Ginny saw was a streak of red light.
