Parvati, Lavender, Lizzie and Grace were sitting on Lavender's bed in the Gryffindor girls' common room, chatting and minding their own business, when out of nowhere appeared a Gryffindor boy, a Slytherin girl and two others lying on stretchers in midair.
Not surprisingly, Grace stepped back and shrieked before realising who it was. 'Harry?' she said. 'What's going on?'
'Explain in a minute,' said Harry, breathless. 'We've got to get these two to the hospital wing.'
He rushed down the stairs with Andromeda, both holding their wands over the unconscious Neville and Ginny. Every now and then Ginny would open her eyes, but on the whole she remained oblivious.
They burst into the hospital wing, where Madam Pomfrey was leaning over a rather frightened-looking first-year, wielding something like a glass dagger. Madam Pomfrey turned around at once, and when she saw Neville and Ginny, she dropped the glass implement in shock. It shattered, but she paid no attention.
'Are those – are those the missing students? What's going on?' she asked frantically, lifting first Neville, then Ginny onto a couple of empty beds close by. Harry didn't reply until she had finished mixing some sort of scarlet potion in a tiny jar.
Harry explained, with some input from Andromeda, as Madam Pomfrey tilted Ginny's head back and poured the red tonic into her mouth. It took some time, and when they finished, Neville too had been dosed with the medecine and the first-year, who had begun to look relieved, was being threatened with a spare glass thing.
'Goodness knows, we should have more safety restrictions in this school, what with You-Know-Who around again…' she murmured. Then she looked worried. 'Where are the other two? Who were the people they went with? Oh, dear, we must go and see Professor Dumbledore.'
It was even colder in the windy air than it had been on the ground, thought Hermione, gathering her robes as tightly as she could around her, whilst gripping the back of the broomstick with her other hand. Luckily, the blonde woman was an efficient and gentle flier – Ron was hanging onto the brown-haired man's broomstick for dear life as it swerved and dipped in the grey sky. Neither knew where they were going. The three people had told them they worked for the Ministry, but they knew no more than that.
Eventually they alighted in front of a short one-storey building in the middle of a Muggle town. Cars swept very close by, and Hermione marvelled at the lack of care they were taking not to be seen landing on broomsticks… but then she noticed what she thought at first was a kind of whirlwind-snowstorm surrounding them, and realised that this little building was concealed from the outside world.
Hermione and Ron followed the Ministry workers inside the building, Ron looking very green. It was pleasant inside, with a roaring log fire in the corner and a few armchairs spread across the green-decorated room. A large desk was situated in front of the doorway, and it was here that the Ministry workers stopped to talk to another wizard wearing dark purple robes. Ron and Hermione went to stand by the fire and listened.
'Who are they?' asked the wizard at the desk. He was shorter than the other man but just as broad. 'What's going on, Essa?'
'It's a long story, Algie,' said the black woman, leaning against the desk and sighing. 'A good one though. We've recovered the missing Hogwarts kids.'
'What? Those are them?' Algie said, with a shake of the head towards Ron and Hermione. 'Why've you brought them here?'
'Oh, those aren't them,' said the other man. 'Harry Potter and some other girl have taken them back to Hogwarts-'
'Brian, are you telling me that you entrusted two traumatised, possibly ill kids to two other kids, and brought these two, who I still don't know, to me, why?' Algie looked despairing. 'No – don't try to make sense of that sentence. Tell me exactly what happened.'
'We would have, if you'd stop interrupting,' said the blonde witch mutinously, but a sharp 'Kate!' from Essa, the black woman, silenced her. Essa was apparently the other two's superior.
'We arrived in Ralassar, and after a lot of inaccurate interpreting from Brian here, we figured out that there was a wood in the north where they're all afraid to go. No one lives up there – that they know of, anyway. We flew around a bit and eventually caught sight of a little wooden shack. Anyway, touching down, we saw those two-' another flick of the head at Ron and Hermione – 'with Harry Potter and this other black-haired girl. And there were the two missing kids on floating stretchers. They went back to Hogwarts, and we brought these two here with us.'
'But how did they get back to Hogwarts? And how come they couldn't go with Potter and the others? And how the hell did they get them out?'
'One: they had a Trekkator.' Algie looked gobsmacked. 'Two: because they couldn't all get back using the Trekkator. Three: I don't know any more than you do about that one. I couldn't see him anywhere.'
'Ask them!' said Kate, pointing quite openly at Hermione and Ron. All four wizards headed towards them. Hermione sat down in an armchair. This was going to take some time…
Harry and Andromeda remained in the hospital wing while Madam Pomfrey hurried off to fetch Dumbledore. She returned with the headmaster in under five minutes, and it was Andromeda's turn to explain what had happened. There was nothing more to be done except wait for Ron and Hermione to return, so Dumbledore sent off an owl to the Ministry telling them the news, and asking for the immediate Floo powder journey of Ron and Hermione back to Hogwarts. Then Harry and Andromeda were told to go to bed, so they separated and returned to their respective common rooms.
The next morning, Harry awoke to see Ron in his bed, apparently flat out. But he couldn't wait to hear what was going on. He woke his friend and they went down to the common room. Hermione was already sitting by the fire.
They assembled and it became clear that none knew all the details of what had happened the previous night. So Harry went to get Andromeda, and when she returned, they spoke for almost half an hour, ironing out every crease in the story. 'How's Ginny?' Harry asked finally.
'She's all right,' said Ron, sounding happier than he had for days. 'She'll have to stay in the hospital wing for a week or so, just to make sure – but Madam Pomfrey said there'd be no long-term effects.'
And, every one feeling light and happy, they went to eat breakfast.