The night was chilly, dark storm clouds passing by the full moon. The wind rustled the trees and screamed out to her, calling her name with the instruments of nature.

Ginny could see her breath in front of her, a steamy white cloud that disappeared within moments of arriving among the icy wind. Though her cloak provided some warmth, she still felt cold and frozen through the fabric.

Casting a simple warming spell over herself, she carried on. She hadn't taken the time to put on shoes, and so she now walked amongst the forest barefoot. She had apparated there instantly, though she wasn't sure where her thoughts might take her. She had to find the pond, and she could only hope that the unicorn was there so she could ask it how she could help.

She was still missing key points in the puzzle: why did a unicorn reflect the memories of a woman? And why was this unicorn asking for her help; why could she hear it?

The trees began to mold into eachother, her weariness melting into a sheer exhaustion that crippled her. They became nothing more then black shadows that embedded themselves in the ground and shaded the path she was walking on from the moon.

Suddenly the road widened and grass replaced dirt and the moon glowed brightly upon an open clearing. This is it..Ginny thought quietly, stepping out of the trees.

Her heart fell as she saw the unicorn was not there...and the first thought that came to her mind was that she would have to keep going through the woods, searching, before she saw a pool of silver in the moonlight.

Stepping towards it, she bent down to have a closer look. Oh my god...this is unicorn blood, she thought. Nothing but unicorn blood could take on that property of silver and liquid, and yet not harden or become destroyed by anything that touched it.

Ginny looked on and saw that the blood streaked into a trail that lead down deeper into the woods. She stood up quickly and followed it, jogging now, her breath fast and her heart racing. The unicorn was in trouble, and she had to save her.

The trail suddenly stopped after a few hundred yards, where another pool of blood was lying at the heart of a group of circling trees. She felt her heart stop. She knew then that the unicorn had been taken somewhere, that she was mortally wounded...that she may be too late to save her.

* * * * *

"Have you found anything yet?" Ginny asked Hermione impatiently, who was currently tracing her finger down the columns of last weeks Daily Prophet.

"Shh...and no." Hermione glanced up, catching a glimpse of Ginny's stressed eyes before she covered her face in her hands and began to rub her temples. Ginny had come to her that morning, panicky and grief stricken, and had explained everything.

That everything had included, of course, the dreams, the unicorn, and Voldemort. The Voldemort part did the trick, as Hermione immediately suggested they go to the public library and search through the newspapers kept there for any recent sightings of him or the deatheaters.

They had already searched through 12 newspapers, dating back to 2 months before, and nothing had come up. No sightings had been reported, and no deatheater rallies had been disbanded. It was almost eerie that nothing had come up; in fact Hermione was even shocked about it, and little shocked her anymore.

"Ugh...what are we going to do then? I have no idea where he could have taken her." Ginny said after a long pause, brushing the stray strands of red hair out of her face. "What should we do Hermione?"

Hermione always had the answer to every question Ginny had ever asked her, but for once Hermione looked just as stressed and plussed as Ginny did. This new puzzle, however simple it could be, was turning out to be a difficult treasure hunt.

"Maybe we should check the muggle newspapers..." Hermione said, folding up the Daily Prophet she was reading and standing up, heading towards a tall shelf that held stacks of some recent muggle papers. Pulling down a stack, she brought it over to the table and handed a few papers to Ginny.

Searching through them, Hermione threw aside dozens of newspapers before a small column caught her eye.

"Gin...Gin look at this." she said, holding up the paper so Ginny could see, before beginning to read off the column. "Strange Sightings In Little Hangleton. Last night, strange lights were reported by the Riddle House, which has been unoccupied for over half a century. The lights, which have been described as large and oval like, were seen hovering around the house by dozens of residents of Little Hangleton at around 2 in the morning. When police went to investigate the mysterious lights, nothing could be found in or outside the house. When a search was conducted the next morning, nothing was discovered, much to the dismay of Little Hangleton residents, who claim to have seen strange sightings such as this one before, always at the abandoned Riddle House. A continued search could not be conducted inside the house due to the lack of a search warrant."

When Hermione had finished reading, she looked up at Ginny who's mouth was hanging open.

"Riddle House...of course! Of course he would go back to his old house, wouldn't he? It's just the place!" she began, before she bit her bottom lip in confusion. "But what about the lights? What were they?"

Hermione looked just as confused, but began to flip through the newspaper some more, looking for any other strange occurances in Little Hangleton.

"Hmm...look at this." she said after flipping a few pages, "Man Missing. Edward Scaldington, last seen in Little Hangleton, has reportedly gone missing after being gone for several weeks. His wife reported his disappearance after he supposedly 'did not return home after two nights of being gone'. Scaldington worked in Real Estate, and his wife told police that her husband was on business in Little Hangleton, viewing a house that one of his clients was interested in purchasing. The police have no leads yet as to what the whereabouts of this man might be. If you have any information regarding this case, please call 1-100-5695."

There was a short pause, as both women took in the information they had just received.

"Do you think there's a connection?" Ginny asked, looking at her friend.

"There's only one way to find out. We have to go pay a visit to Voldemort's hometown."

* * * * *

Draco paced the room, his hands folded behind his back, his face dark and stressed.

"Why today? Why ever?" he said, stopping and glaring at Ginny, who was standing in front of him, her arms folded and her head cocked slightly to the side, a sign that she was impatient and angry.

"Because I have to. You don't seem to want to understand that!" Ginny shouted, anger fueling her voice. She glared at her husband, who had stopped pacing and was now looming over her.

"You don't have to, you don't have to do anything!"

"Oh shut up Draco!" she yelled, a bit angrier then she intended. "You know just as well as I do that if I don't do anything someone is going to die! Do you expect me to live with the fact that I did NOTHING?"

His face dropped slightly, and she saw the glint of anger flicker in his eyes. He looked away from her for a second, considering his options.

"I'm going with you."

"What? Why?"

"Because I vowed to protect you the moment I gave myself to you, therefore I'm coming too." Draco said, finalizing the situation without even saying so. Ginny knew this was true just as well as he did.

She felt her heart go numb for a moment, her eyes glaring into his and softening up a bit. "Are you sure? You don't have to...I'll be fine by myself."

"I'm sure, and don't try to hold me back because I know exactly where your going."

"How do you know where Little Hangleton is?"

"I've been there."

Ginny felt a chill shoot down her spine and land in her stomach, a thick ball of anxiety that burst upon arrival. Of course...the deatheaters had for sure rallied there...she thought, a sickening feeling covering her. Draco had been part of that, whether he had done so of his free will or not, he had done some of the evil things Death Eaters were hated for. And it was all a dead man's fault.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to clear her mind of the nasty and grotesque images that kept springing into her mind. A loud knock at the door caused her to jump and her eyes to flash open. She looked at Draco for a moment, and saw that his eyes were still on hers.

"I'll get that..." Ginny muttered, wandering over towards the door. Opening it, she saw Harry and Hermione, both shaking from the chilly night air. "Hey...guys..." she said, a tad taken off guard at Harry's prescence. Apparently Hermione had invited him along as well, or perhaps he had pulled a Draco and forced an invitation.

"Come on, we don't have much time...we could already be too late." Hermione said, noticing Draco still standing in the center of the living room, his eyes on the wall. "Is he okay?" she asked, nodding towards Draco.

Ginny just nodded and stepped towards Draco, grabbing his arm and leading him towards the door. Draco looked like he was in a kind of trance, as though he had been revisiting a rekindled memory that he wished he didn't have to remember. They apparated to a forest outside Little Hangleton, and proceeded into town.

* * * * *