Disclaimer – most characters not mine, never have been!
Chapter 3 - Letters
Ginny surveyed her large sitting room happily; the long room was packed with furniture, photos and ornaments, and the warm colours of red, cream and gold that decorated the room, made her feel right at home. After having been made to stay in bed for almost a week she was extremely pleased to be back in the rooms, which she noted were more or less how she had left them. The house elves had kept them clean and dusted in her absence and only the large stack of mail on her desk alerted her to their presence.
Deciding that the stack of mail could wait, she toured her sitting room. The room was very long and had two very large windows that had a breath taking view of the gardens and playing fields. She opened the windows wide to let some fresh air in, four or five children were running in the field with a football and in the gardens two women sat on a bench enjoying the sun - one hugely pregnant and the other holding small bundle in her arms.
The house and grounds were found in the base of a small valley, in the middle of two rather large mountain-like hills. As it was only possible to enter the valley from one side and due to the house being surrounded by trees, Silver Birch was extremely protected.
At the moment, the sun was peaking over the mountain, shining directly in to the gardens and it looked as if it was being taken advantage of as clothes hung from the lines blowing in the gentle morning breeze.
The only other two rooms that really belonged to her were her bedroom and her bathroom; the bedroom had an interconnecting door into Percy's rooms – or more exactly into Amy's room. Amy was both her niece and her goddaughter; they were extremely close, as Death Eaters had killed Penelope when Amy was only a few months old and Ginny was dying to see her small daughter, as she had not for almost a month due to her injury.
She wandered aimlessly into the sitting room and feed the two sleeping owls on the perch next to her desk. She charmed a heatless fire in the grate so that she could be contacted easily, and dejectedly eyed the pile of mail. Fortunately she was saved from the lengthy chore by a knock at her door, and without waiting for an answer a small girl flew into the room and spotting Ginny, attached herself to Ginny's legs.
Ginny laughed happily and pulled the little girl into her arms, hugging her tightly.
"Don't you never do that to me again, go away for so long! I didn't think you were ever gonna come back! And Toby said that his Mam said you were in the hospital wing, but not working – that you were dying! That you got blowed up and then a vampire sucked all your blood! But I said that you wouldn't die coz you never said goodbye, and dat you promised my dad that you'd protect me for ever and ever…" The girl said pulling away, slightly out of breath.
"Amy! Slow down, I'm alright!" said Ginny smiling at the girl, who looked back at her innocently. The little girl's grey eyes were wide as she looked at Ginny, her short ginger hair was stuck up all over the place and her face was covered in dirt. Ginny examined the girl, she was a very pretty, slight thing who spent most of her time fighting and playing with the boys – much to her Percy's eternal disapproval. He light-heartedly blamed Ginny's influence on his daughter, saying that had he been left to raise her he might have had a little lady as a daughter, but he would never in a thousand years stop Ginny and Amy seeing each other. Percy had more than once told her that he could never pay her back for everything she did for Amy.
"You're not gonna die?" the little girl asked softly.
"No, I'm not going to die," She replied firmly. The little girl let out a dramatic breath,
"That's good," said Amy, who then ran to the open window and peered out, "Can I go play?"
"Did your Dad say you could?" asked Ginny suspiciously.
"Well... he never said no," she replied sheepishly.
Although Ginny didn't want her to go, as she hadn't seen her in so long, she didn't want to be selfish. She briefly wondered whether Percy had said no to her being allowed out to play, before giving Amy her consent, to which Amy gave a dazzling smile and hugging Ginny again sped from the room, promising to return to have lunch with Ginny.
Ginny was about to start reading her mail when a knock at the door sounded, she opened it to see a box with legs.
Further inspection actually revealed that it was in fact a house elf carrying a box of the many cards, toffees and flowers she received while in bed. Thanking the house, she happily distracted herself for another half an hour decorating her mantelpiece and desk, routinely smelling the roses Neville had sent her.
Neville Longbottom, who was in charge of the many gardens, fields and greenhouses found on Silver Birch Grounds, found it extremely amusing that Ginny had hated being confined to her room while she was ill. But as his job required his constant attention, there was little he could do but send her fresh flowers every day.
Her friends, with the help of Professor Snape had eventually explained that the arrow that had pierced her right shoulder had indeed been poisoned, with an extremely new type of potion called the Sang-sentir Poison. Which effectively quickens the blood and heightens the senses to such an extent that the victim dies of either hyper-stimulation or of blood poisoning, due to the nature of the ingredients. Apparently, Cassie told Ginny, no one had survived the potion as of yet because even in small doses it was lethal and they were trying to work out how Ginny had managed to survive, in the hope of helping others in the future.
Professor Snape had visited Ginny three times during her recovery, much to her surprise. The last two visits had seemed on trivial matters, which caused Ginny to wonder about his motives, as she sure that he was not coming to Silver Birch to check on her health. Maybe he was just checking out the place for Dumbledore, because as of yet no one from the Order of the Phoenix but Snape had been permitted to enter Silver Birch.
Except a few of Silver Birch's spies positioned in the Order of the Phoenix, of course.
The Order of the Phoenix was lead by Albus Dumbledore, who had gathered willing witches and wizards together to fight against the Dark Wizard, Lord Voldemort and his supporters. Most of its members were more or less known by name, but not officially – for security. It was said that James and Lily Potter were members themselves when they were alive, and now their son Harry was one of their leading –and most hunted – members.
Ginny eventually started the pile of mail, sitting at her desk with fresh ink and parchment; she started to make her way through the pile, sorting them into business and personal. After several pieces of junk mail, three letters from her mother, two from Hermione, one from Ron, two from Charlie, three from Bill, two from Fred, four from George, one from Harry, and a few from various friends that she hardly spoke to; she finally came across two rather unusual letters.
One letter was written on Black Parchment, tied with a green ribbon and had a green wax seal. Ginny examined the emblem on the seal closely, before very carefully, placing the letter back on to the desk, as if the roll of parchment might explode at any moment.
Pulling out her wand, she checked for every known transportable curse and hex she could think of. Then, wary of having found none, she carefully opened the letter in front of her.
As she broke the seal, the wax turned into smoke and a ghost of the skull with the snakes tongue lingered for a few minutes in the air.
She shook away the smoke with a cough, and started to read the green scrawl before her -
Dear Friend,
If you have received this letter, you have in your care one 'Miss Blaise Zabini.' The merciful Dark Lord, Voldemort, has need to speak with her. It would be in your great interest to relate to him of her whereabouts. The Dark Lord will reward you for your service.
If you find that you are unable to submit to his wishes, you may find yourself in the Dark Lord's displeasure.
I am sure that you realise the importance of never displeasing the Dark Lord and that we will be receiving your owl shortly with the required information.
Merely address your letter to The Dark Lord and your owl will not lose its way.
Yours trustfully,
A 'Friend'
Ginny snorted in amusement and picked up her quill and a plain piece of parchment, and scribbled a hasty reply.
Dear "'Friend,'"
I am well aware of the implications of displeasing the dark lord, which is why you will understand, that I disclose the following information –
Sod Off.
Yours faithfully,
A '"Friend'"
Then without any more consideration, she poked one of the owls awake and sent the reply.
She was not at all bothered by the arrival of the letter, as she held quite a few similar ones in her possession. As Silver birch was of course somewhere to hide out from the Voldemort and his cronies, it was expected that they should be threatened every now and then into turning someone over.
Silver Birch actually housed mostly women and children, most of which had been raped and abused by death eaters and usually left pregnant to die somewhere. However, cases varied and they had quite a lot of victims here that were particularly sought after by Voldemort – such as Dennis Creevey, who was targeted as both a friend of Harry's and a Muggle-born, who stayed with them after the death of Colin, his brother, or Neville Longbottom; who was sought out as heir to the Longbottom estate. Padma Patil was also a resident at the house; her sister, Parvati, had apparently joined with Voldemort's side. And while Padma refused to be bullied by her sister into doing the same, her life was in danger. Padma had a small son called Toby who was Amy's best friend - he had been bitten by a werewolf during a Death Eater attack. It was Percy who had rescued her and her small son, and Ginny who had saved the little boy's life – as the wound had been life threatening.
Cassie's crime was that she was Muggle-born, Blaise's crime was that she had just betrayed Voldemort, herself and Percy's crime was that Ron was best friends with Harry Potter and that their family was very high ranking in the Order of the Phoenix. And that they were a pure-blooded family that refused to join the Death Eaters.
She reached for the second letter, this one addressed -
Miss. Virginia Weasley,
Virginia Weasley's Office,
S. B. House,
Unknown location.
And expecting to see the Hogwarts crest printed on the back of the envelope she was slightly startled to see some sort of bird, a phoenix she wondered. So, curiously, she opened the letter after first checking for hexes.
Dear Miss Weasley,
I hope that this letter finds you once you are well enough to read it and that you are in good health. I hope you do not mind that a contact of mine has informed me of the situation regarding your present location and those whom in you have in your care. I do, understandably, not want to mention much by letter in case of interception.
I must say I am extremely pleased that you have taken it upon yourself to help the unfortunate people at your home, and would like to offer my services to help you to continue doing so. I understood from your brothers that you were working in the muggle community – as I believe in their sincerity on the subject I must assume that they are not aware of any of this, and if this is the case, you have my promise that it will remain so.
I would beg one favour of you though, I would like to invite you and company to dine at Hogwarts so that I may be a complete menace and satisfy my curiosity, and maybe the situation can work to both our advantages. But do not feel that you owe any explanation – despite what my associates may have implied.
On a lighter topic, I understand that your apartment was recently blown up. I do hope that there was nothing of great importance within, but I understand that Mrs. Weasley is quite anxious about the whole ordeal – I hope that you do not mind that I told her that a friend of mine had seen that you were well and recovering in secret. Fortunately, I was absent when four of your older siblings arrived at Hogwarts demanding more information. Professor McGonagall was kind enough to inform them that you would be in touch with them as soon as you were able.
Yours attentively,
Albus Dumbledore.
Return to Hogwarts, she mused, now there was something to look forward to at last. Before she could write a reply however, she realised that this was a decision that she could not make off her own back- she would first have to consult the other Owners of Silver Birch House.
* * *
Author's note –
Chapter 4 is already on its way, (am happy just to get chapter 3 out of the way!) and soon we'll learn the identity of all 5 owners!
I'll try extra hard to get the next chapter up if you can guess who the owners are!!
This has been a hell of a chapter, you have no idea how many times I've rewritten and edited it. It looks nothing like the original, but hopefully its written better. There maybe a few errors in there, but until my beta gets back from Rome there's not a lot I can do!
Thank you to the following people for reviewing –
Zenia, animegirl-mika, emma – talent! I hope I can keep your good opnion!, stormyfire, LadyRien from Morg – What's wrong with Ginny? Cassie is cool though I agree! (thanks Aranel!!), Silverflamewolf2 – am glad you found my fic too!, GoddessTeasha – am honoured thanks!