Ginny disappeared after dinner. Harry stuck around to help Rania with the washing-up, scrubbing plates with forced energy.

Bill couldn't think of a thing to say to him, so he didn't. All the things he normally would have said to another man who'd just been in a fight with his girl--she's absolutely wrong, don't listen to a thing she says, that's just the way women are--didn't apply here, because from the sound of it Ginny was absolutely right. She was too sensible to flare up over nothing. If she was mad, she had good reason.

Studying him, Bill debated whether to let Harry take off his glasses before he beat him to a pulp.

Ellie went to Harry as he was drying his hands. "I'm really sorry," she said again. "I never should have opened my big mouth. Do you want me to talk to her?"

Harry hesitated a moment, obviously wavering, then straightened his shoulders. "I should talk to her. We need to have this out."

"You're sure? Because--"

"No, I'm sure." He looked past Ellie at Bill. "If I'm not back by about midnight, leave my body for the scavengers."

Bill almost smiled at that, but he stopped himself.


* * *

Harry came back several hours before midnight, shoving the tent-flap aside in a furious motion that told everyone it hadn't gone well at all. Conversation died, and Bill gave him a cold look.

Harry didn't seem to notice. He dropped backward onto his bunk, bouncing slightly. "Why," he said to the slats above him, "do we need women? Why?"

"I'm right here," Bill said. "And I once turned my brother into a warthog for putting her stuffed unicorn on the roof of the henhouse. Just remember that before you say anything else."

"Yeah," Harry said, and put his pillow over his face. After a moment, he lifted it. "Which brother was that?"

"Fred," Bill said, and, reaching over, pushed the pillow back onto Harry's face. He felt very noble for resisting the temptation to keep pushing. Ginny might want him back eventually.

Dan, cleaning off an artifact they'd pulled out that day, called Yves over to see, and soon everyone's attention was on the painted figures moving around on the vase. About half an hour later, someone called out, "Knock knock," from outside. It was Ginny's voice.

Everyone looked at Harry. He pushed the pillow aside and looked at the tent flap with his brows drawn together.

If Ginny wanted to see Harry, nobody would be able to stop her. Bill cleared his throat. "Come in, we're decent."

She poked her head in, and her eyes darted around the room. Her mouth tightened slightly as she met Harry's gaze.

"Who are you looking for?" Bill asked.

"Harry, of course. Come on, we need to talk."

Harry's eyes darkened, but he got to his feet without a word and followed her out.

This didn't look good. Bill waffled for a moment over whether to intrude, then decided that after the two installments of the fight they'd had already, they didn't need another. Or at the very least, they needed a referee. He didn't care if Ginny took Harry's entire skin off, but he was damned if he was going to see her hurt again tonight.

The pair were walking so swiftly that they were already several feet away from the entrance to the tent. Bill took a few running strides to catch up.

Ginny was speaking in a low, urgent whisper, but somehow, it didn't sound angry. "Rania was having a look at the translation, and she got it wrong the first time. The ceremonies are meant to be performed at the half-moon, not the full moon." She was hurriedly braiding her hair back out of her face.

"The half-moon? Why?" Harry reached in his pocket and gave her a hair tie.

She fastened the bottom of her braid in quick, neat movements. "Border time. Things can go either way--"

Harry glanced up quickly, and the light pouring from the half-moon high overhead glinted on his glasses. "It's tonight."

"And I can't find her anywhere."

Harry swore. "You're sure she heard?"

"It was right after I came back, and then she got the sudden desire for fresh air."

"Have you--?"

"Just before I came for you."

This didn't sound like a couple in the middle of a bitter argument. "What's going on?" Bill said loudly.

Ginny stopped short and whipped around. For a moment, in the moonlight, her face looked feral, nothing like the sweet little sister he'd always known. "Bill!"

He folded his arms. "Something strange has been going on with you two ever since you got here. And I want to know what it is."

"Go back, Bill, please. This is going to be--"

"No," Harry said.

They both stared at him.

The moonlight glinting off his glasses, he said quietly, "I think he should see, love. Remember who we're dealing with."

"See what?" Bill said loudly.

Ginny didn't answer him.

Harry said very softly, "He was in the Order."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then let out her breath and turned. "Bill," she said. "Whatever happens, trust in me."

"What's going to--"

"Please. I've always trusted you, haven't I? You've always taken care of me."

"Yes, but--"

"Now I'm asking you to trust me."

Bill didn't understand any of it, but Ginny's eyes pleaded with him. "All right," he said.

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Come on, then."

Before Bill could ask anything else, they both leapt from a standing start into full-out runs. Startled hesitation left him several strides behind. He'd never expected this turn of speed from little Ginny. Harry, yes, he had legs like a bloody thoroughbred's, but not Ginny. The boys had always had to wait for Ginny.

They were heading straight for the entrance to the great pyramid. Still moving, Harry and Ginny pulled out their wands and lit them. Taken by surprise again, Bill had to fumble for his own wand, and they were inside the pyramid before he'd managed to light it.

In spite of the darkness, the way was familiar to him from months of excavation. They were headed for the newest chamber. Halfway through, Harry slowed. "Quiet now," he muttered to Bill.

Silent as ghosts, they moved with maddening heel-toe care through the twisting turning corridors. As they turned the second-to-last corner, Bill noticed a sickly green light spilling around the last corner, and his stomach tightened. Nobody was supposed to be in here. Nobody was supposed to use the excavated areas for magical purposes.

Harry and Ginny extinguished their wands with a murmur.

The last corner, and they were staring down into the new chamber. A figure stood outlined against the blaze of green light. Her voice echoed weirdly in the chamber. Without a word, Ginny slipped sideways along the wall and seemed to dissolve into the shaodws.

Bill was still staring after her when Harry said, "That's enough of that, I think. Expelliarmus!"

When her wand spat out of her fingers, the woman in the center of the chamber spun, so the light spilled across her features. Just as had happened outside with his sister, Bill didn't recognize her face for a moment. Then-- "Ellie?"

If it was Ellie, then it was all right. She wouldn't do anything wrong. She must have her reasons. Bill put his wand back into his pocket, but Harry shifted forward.

Ellie stepped back, then darted for the other exit. Ginny stepped out of the shadows and straight into her path. "Don't even think it," she said. "Or you'll have to figure out how to run with a Tarantallegra curse."

"Ginny!"

At the sound of Bill's voice, Ellie spun, hope blooming on her pretty face. "Bill! Oh, Bill, thank god you're here!"

Bill tried to step forward, but ran square into Harry's hand. The younger man held him with almost no discernable effort, even though Bill was pushing with all his might. "Ginny, it's Ellie," he said. "Stop that! Harry, give her wand back, it's Ellie--"

"That woman," Harry said, "is not Ellie Jones."

"What? Are you mad? I introduced you just a few--"

"Ellie Jones never existed," Ginny said. "This--" she shook her wand gently, keeping it trained on Ellie the whole time, "is a Death Eater."

Ellie? A Death Eater? It couldn't be . . . Ginny had to be mistaken . . . heat stroke . . .

"Bill," Ellie said in a tremulous voice. "You don't believe them, do you?"

"I--I--"

"I don't know why she's lying but--"

Lying? "Wait--" Bill said, and felt something like a fog clear away in his mind. "Wait. Are you accusing my sister of lying to me?"

"I don't know why, sweetie, but maybe she's jealous of me." Ellie looked kindly at Ginny. "Honey, I know it's hard when your brothers fall in love, and you're not their princess anymore, but trust me--"

Bill's hand closed around his wand. "Who are you?"

"Bill!"

"Her name," Ginny said, "is Marisa Alfonse. She's especially well known for her Love Charms."

"She's quite right, by the way," Harry added. "A Love Charm very rarely forces the victim to do anything they weren't at least slightly inclined to do in the first place." A quick flick of his wand, and she was tied in several lengths of thin cord, ankles and wrists. "The more slight the inclination, the better the charm. Marisa was a real champ at ferreting out the tiniest of impulses." He gave Ellie/Marisa a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Couldn't resist the chance to set us all straight about your favorite subject, could you?"

Bill's brain, floundering like a nonswimmer in deep water, caught randomly at one thing. "You mean you made that story up?" His stomach felt like he'd swallowed a chunk of ice.

"No," Ginny said. "But we already knew what she told us about Love Charms. Harry was right. We had that fight a long time ago."

She jabbed Marisa in the back with her wand, and the other woman took short, stumbling steps, fettered by the ropes. When she would have fallen, Ginny caught her elbow and held her up with no gentleness.

"Bill," Marisa said, tears shimmering in her eyes. "You don't believe them, do you?"

The cold had spread to his brain now. Just the way it used to when he'd been in the Order, his mind detached itself from his emotions. He would feel later. "If they're wrong," he said, "what were you doing here tonight?"

She sighed. "I was just--I work for a museum. Maybe it was wrong of me to lie to you, but we so wanted this first."

"None of that now," Ginny said coolly. "You didn't want artifacts to put behind glass. You wanted power. It's all you've ever wanted."

For half a moment, Marisa's eyes went as hard as marbles. Then she looked down, her long lashes forming a fan against her cheeks. When she looked up again, her eyes were as dewy and soft as a fawn's. "Bill," she crooned. "Please."

He stared down at her, feeling his newfound resolution waver. Pretty, sweet Ellie . . . she couldn't have lied. She couldn't have.

"Bill," Harry said. "Neither of us are as good at disrupting spells as you are. Can you do something about hers?"

I'm asking you to trust me, Ginny had said.

"Bill?" his sister asked.

"Bill?" Marisa crooned again.

"No," he said to her.

Her face twisted into something ugly and hard, and he knew at once that he'd been right.

Shutting out the curses she snarled, he looked past her, at his sister. "I'll try."

His throat felt dry and scratchy, as if he'd had strep throat. Stepping into the middle of the chamber, he cast a quick Mirothaumos spell. He could see the shape of Marisa's spell now, twisting and intricate, and somehow very, very old. This was not all Marisa's magic. She'd merely tapped into it.

And in the center, there, something was taking shape . . .

He swallowed hard, feeling beads of sweat break out on his forehead. It's just another curse to break. You've done this. You can do this.

No time to be delicate--the spell was racing toward fruition. He'd have to break it outright and weather the blast. Weak points--just give him one weak point and he could do the rest--

There!

"Everybody down!"

He broke it, reached in, yanked, and turned the spell inside out. The magic, suddenly released, whipped loose and threw him to the floor in a roaring blast of red. He skidded and fetched up hard against the wall. Stars exploded before his eyes and pain in his head.

Then everything fell dark again.

Bill lifted his head, blinking away the purplish spots that floated on the darkness. His joints wobbled as he levered himself up. "Ginny? Harry? You two all right?"

"We're fine," Harry said, lighting his wand and showing Marisa flat on her stomach. He and Ginny knelt on either side of her as if they'd been holding her down.

Ginny got to her feet, then came to Bill and helped him up. He held onto her, as uncertain as a baby learning to walk. "Are you all right?" she asked him.

"Hit my head, but I'm not bleeding."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know."

Bill looked across the chamber at the woman on the floor. She was still dark-haired and pretty, but her face was completely different. Instead of sweetness and amiability, her features radiated cold, frustrated fury. When she met his eyes, hers were filled with contempt and loathing.

There was nothing of Ellie left in that face.

Ginny looked at her too, then squeezed Bill's hand, a silent gesture of support and understanding.

"Come on," Harry said, none-too-gently dragging Marisa up by her ropes. "We should have some visitors fairly soon."