A/N: Continued thanks to all those who left reviews and to my beta readers Anne and Marian for their help and support.
Chapter 16: The Heroic Thing
Worried beyond reason, Ginny immediately reached out to Maeven and was shocked by the response.
It was like being struck full force in the head by a wall of unadulterated fear and panic. Running across the room, she grabbed her wand off of her nightstand and urged Maeven to calm down.
After several moments of soothing thoughts, the phoenix was stable enough to allow Ginny to see what was going on.
Closing her eyes, Ginny pushed open their connection and felt herself rushing forward briefly before coming to an abrupt stop. When she reopened her eyes, she was able to see things as Maeven saw them.
They were perched on a tree, and Ginny could see the pale lights of Hogsmeade in the distance. Finally understanding why she'd been so cold before, she instructed her Familiar to cast a heating charm. Surprised and mildly apologetic, as phoenixes are much more resilient to cold than humans, Maeven complied. Ginny almost immediately felt her fingers warm.
Below, Ginny could see two figures that she instantly recognized as Harry and Professor Lupin.
Long ago, shortly after she'd first received Maeven as a volunteer, Ginny had asked the bird to protect not only herself, but also her family and her friends. Unfortunately, after getting through her six older brothers, her parents, members of her extended family, and half of the students in Gryffindor, Maeven had started to look vaguely anxious and ill.
So, instead, Ginny decided to limit the bird's attentions to her immediate family and Harry. And Hermione. And Neville. She had to stop at Neville because Maeven had started to give her that exceptionally aggravated look again.
Ginny could only assume that that's what had drawn Maeven out of the castle in a hurry-when she sensed that Harry had left it.
The two men walked along quickly but silently, Lupin slightly leading the way, looking over his shoulder every so often as though afraid they were being followed.
Maeven's fear increased as soon as they crossed below the branch and Ginny frowned. Were Harry and Professor Lupin being followed? Did Maeven know who was responsible for this? What was Harry doing outside of Hogwarts in the first place?
She was surprised to sense a vague level of irritation and impatience in the bird's response.
The phoenix tugged insistently at Ginny's mind, much like a child against her mother's apron, and it took her a long while before she understood what was happening. Looking down, she saw a set of gold threads, thin but clearly present, stretching from Maeven to Harry below.
A feeling of horror crept into her when she realized that, despite the obvious strands connecting Maeven to Harry, there was absolutely nothing whatsoever between Harry and the man he was with.
A chill ran down her spine when she realized that, whoever that man was, he most certainly was not Professor Lupin.
Ginny had no sooner formed the thought in her mind before two other figures emerged out of the woods and into the clearing. Harry stepped back and drew his wand, but he was struck almost immediately in the chest by a bright blue light shot by the imposter and fell stiffly to the floor.
The imposter's form suddenly shifted and became lankier and taller. His hair was a pale blonde, vaguely reminiscent of Draco Malfoy's, but Ginny had never seen him before. One of the newcomers was also tall, but a bit bulkier, and older. His hair was dark brown shot through with a few gray streaks.
The third figure, unfortunately, was hooded.
Her heart leapt to her throat in fear as all three quickly swarmed Harry's prone body.
This was...well, this was bad, to put it lightly.
Ginny had no delusions of grandeur or heroism. Her job was definitely not to play the complete idiot by rushing down to save Harry. For heaven's sakes, at least at the Ministry she'd had several of her friends by her side. Here, she was completely alone and she wasn't even sure she could effectively fight through Maeven even if she wanted to.
Her job, a simple but very vital one, was to go and summon the cavalry, something she was gladly going to do. First, though, she wanted to see how badly Harry was hurt because she knew she could do so from the safety of their overhead position.
Ginny concentrated hard, forcing Maeven to narrow her gaze on the group below.
Within seconds, her eyes refocused and Ginny could see the small party as though she was standing right in front of them. Unfortunately, the hooded figure had turned and was speaking to the other two men and Ginny missed getting a look at its face.
"I left him back in his bedroom," the imposter was saying. "He's suspended in the middle of the room...quite brassed off...it wasn't easy, you know."
The murmured response was too low for her to hear, so she turned her attention on Harry instead, praying that whatever he had been struck with had simply knocked him unconscious and that she would still be able to discern some signs of breathing.
Much to her surprise, she found that not only was Harry alive, he was also quite awake. While his body was frozen in some sort of body bind, his eyes were still active and they were gazing up in utter terror. Ginny's heart skipped a beat in sympathy and she looked over her shoulder, expecting to see the group coming back, but instead found them still deep in conversation.
A slow, sinking feeling invaded her stomach when she looked back at Harry and realized that, no, he wasn't looking through her.
He was looking at her.
Quite understandably, Harry looked about as pleased to see her, as she herself was to be there. In fact, he was jerking his eyes leftward almost to the point of appearing to seizure and Ginny got the message loud and clear.
RUN.
Trying to calm her nerves, Ginny nodded at him, and attempted to give him a look conveying that she most certainly planned on it and was going to go for help and for him to calm down. She pushed to the back of her mind why it was that she was visible to him. Perhaps it was some sort of bond they'd created. Perhaps it was the fact that Maeven was allowing them to connect. Perhaps-
"Hold."
She froze, thoroughly horrified, at the sharp command that had issued from directly behind her.
Perhaps it was that she was visible to everyone.
She caught the look of complete devastation swimming in Harry's green eyes before he slid them shut in defeat.
"Turn."
Not daring to move and yet not daring to stay still, Ginny turned very slowly in compliance with the speaker's instructions. Coming face to face with the hooded figure, she plunged into a complete insensible panic.
Bellatrix Lestrange smiled back at her, her face slightly illuminated by the moonlight. She would have been stunningly beautiful if not for the almost vicious contortions her mouth went through in order to produce something that resembled a smile.
Holding a dark, reddish-brown wand directly at Ginny's chest, her black eyes glittered as she regarded the girl carefully.
"If it isn't the littlest Weasley."
Bellatrix somehow made her last name sound like a curse and, beneath the fear, Ginny felt a small spark of anger ignite.
"Perhaps we'll be able to kill two birds with one stone." The smile dropped off of her face as suddenly as it had appeared. "Won't Lord Voldemort be pleased?"
The anger quickly dissipated back into fear and Ginny tried to force herself to be calm and reasonable. While she was not sure how on earth Bellatrix could see her, she knew that, contrary to all appearances, there was no way she was actually standing in front of the woman. With Hogwarts' anti-Apparition wards in place, even Professor Dumbledore couldn't Disapparate in and out of the castle.
This meant, quite naturally, that Ginny was not standing on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, as she so keenly believed she was, but instead, was still physically in the safety of her dorm room back in Gryffindor Tower. Meaning, she had access to help, meaning, there was still some semblance of hope.
Ginny forced herself to focus and could feel some slight tension tying her to the ground. She pushed against it in an attempt to break herself free, but whatever was holding her in place was strong and simply wouldn't budge.
Having wasted a few precious moments on these thoughts, she quickly opened her mind to call for Maeven and realized that the bird had been trying to contact her ever since Ginny had appeared in front of Harry.
Maeven was terrified, and rightly so, so Ginny had a good deal of trouble understanding what had happened. Ignoring the bird's attempt at an explanation because there simply wasn't time, she managed to force a message through, instructing Maeven to release her from their link so she could go and get help. With Ginny's mind engaged through Maeven, she could not see where she was going. To be perfectly honest, Ginny wasn't even certain she could instruct her body to move back at Hogwarts.
The response, however, was less than satisfactory. After a beat of dead silence, Maeven started to explain again and Ginny, finally starting to understand the gravity of their situation, realized that the bird was roughly as clueless as she was.
In other words, she was stuck.
Ginny engaged in a repeat attempt to push against the invisible bonds that held her to the ground but to no avail.
Maeven's mind alighted on what she was doing and they both tried again but even their collective efforts failed to produce any results.
That settled it.
FLY.
Ginny screamed the command mentally at Maeven, thoroughly startling her phoenix, but it was effective. The bird quickly took off from the branch she had been perched on and began flying as fast as she could in the direction of Hogwarts.
It was possibly one of the worst moments of Ginny's life when Bellatrix's eyes flickered overhead and, with a cunning that could only result from years of practice, simply retrained her wand at a spot in the air and spoke a curse Ginny didn't recognize.
The bright flash of heat that engulfed Ginny was enough for her to know that Maeven had been struck. The heat got so bad that it burned parts of her skin, but just as it reached an excruciating level, it disappeared.
Almost instantly, she could hear the angry, frightened cacophony of Maeven's infant mind and it made her feel sick. In her haste to send for help, she'd never bothered to instruct her Familiar to cast a concealing charm on her bright purple feathers. It was the sort of mistake a second year would make and Ginny felt incredibly foolish for it.
It was the sort of error that might well cost all three of them their lives.
"Find it," Bellatrix said in a quiet, deadly voice, and one of her companions ran in the direction where Maeven had fallen. Bellatrix trained her wand back on Ginny almost instantly and was smiling again. "Clever little thing, aren't you?" Her eyes never leaving Ginny's, she inclined her head towards her remaining companion, the handsome blonde man who had masqueraded as Professor Lupin. "Did they ever...?"
"No." The man shook his head.
"You're certain?" Bellatrix asked.
"Perfectly," the man responded.
"Good. Stupefy."
With barely enough time to react, Ginny froze and squeezed her eyes shut against the impending darkness. The stream of energy whipped right into her chest. And then it went through her chest, with only a mild tingling sensation in its wake. She spun around and saw it strike the tree right above Harry's head, narrowly missing him.
The man let out an involuntary yelp of surprise and Bellatrix made a hissing noise. "She's projecting herself from somewhere else. She's got to be close by. Find her." Bellatrix took a few steps forward, and Ginny watched as the dark-haired woman leaned slightly to the left to get a look past Ginny at Harry's prone form. Ginny dared to follow her gaze and saw Harry giving the woman a defiant, angry look.
Bellatrix's gaze flickered silently back to Ginny. "He's looking for you, you know," she said slowly. "It's only a matter of time until we find you."
Ginny took an involuntary step backwards.
"So why are you still here?"
She didn't bother to respond, as it was clear that Bellatrix had asked the question to herself. Before the woman could venture a guess, they were interrupted.
"Found it!"
Ginny watched in dismay as Maeven was carried over, her pale, wrinkled skin almost glowing in the moonlight. The man quickly placed the struggling chick in Bellatrix's black-gloved hand.
Ginny felt Maeven recoil, disgusted by the dark magic seeping through the leather.
Bellatrix stared down at the bird and raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating." She looked back up at the young Gryffindor. "I've always wanted a phoenix."
Ginny's own hatred towards the woman was doubled by her Familiar's, as the chick was still connected to her mind and was listening to the conversation.
Breathlessly, the other man returned and shook his head, indicating he hadn't been able to find her. Bellatrix frowned-an expression that seemed to come more naturally - and pinned Ginny with a look.
"Tell me where you are, little girl, or I'll have to punish you."
This, Ginny knew, was an empty threat at best. The single advantage to being stuck in this ghost-like state was that Bellatrix couldn't touch her.
A moment of silence passed and, with no preamble, Bellatrix turned her wand on Maeven.
"Crucio."
Maeven started trembling violently in Bellatrix's hand and Ginny could feel flashes of pain running through their connection and striking her indirectly. Her phoenix was making a high-pitched squealing noise that echoed around her head and made the physical pain so much worse. It was like Ginny's heart was being ripped out of her chest in agony of what was happening to her Familiar.
After what felt like several minutes, but what really could have only been a few seconds, Maeven stopped twitching and Ginny's mind cleared. She could still sense Maeven trembling in response to the attack, but phoenixes recovered very quickly and hers was no different.
Bellatrix looked up at her, black eyes devoid of all emotion. "Shall we try this again?"
It was terribly hard for Ginny to believe that this...this thing...was actually related to Sirius Black. Beautiful, wonderful, generous, fierce Serious Black whom she ached for now more than ever; and she was standing face to face with his killer. Pushing away her anger, because she knew it wouldn't help her now, Ginny's mind raced over her options of escape and one suddenly struck her.
Could Maeven mentally contact Fawkes somehow?
A tentative possibility arose between girl and Familiar.
Bellatrix hadn't survived as long as she had because she was stupid; she caught the silent, split-second interaction and instantly turned her wand back on the phoenix.
"No-wait-please!" Ginny cried, but Bellatrix ignored her.
"Crucio."
Acting purely on instinct, Ginny reached forward mentally, thrust as hard as she could into her connection with Maeven, and felt the full blow of the curse pass through her bird directly into herself. Instantly regretting the hasty decision, she couldn't stop herself from letting out an ear-splitting scream from the enormous amount of pain that pounded through her.
It was like scalding hot water had been poured down her throat and she felt as though her ribs were breaking inside her chest. She wasn't altogether certain that they weren't. Suddenly, Ginny knew she wasn't impervious to attack, even in this state and, judging from the look on Bellatrix's face, she wasn't alone in that realization.
Tossing the phoenix to the ground, Bellatrix, pointed her wand at it.
"Crucio!" she shouted.
Maeven managed to hop desperately out of the way and the force of the curse singed the grass where she had been just moments before.
Ginny's heart was pounding in time with the pain in her head and she could do little more than watch her phoenix jump erratically back and forth, as Bellatrix tried to hit her. A sick, sadistic look had entered the dark- haired woman's features and Ginny realized that she was enjoying this twisted sport.
As Maeven was yet quite small and couldn't hop particularly fast, it was only a matter of time before she would be struck again. A split second before it happened, Ginny braced herself against the impending pain, and Maeven tried to tamp down on their connection to dampen the effects.
Ginny was somewhat ashamed that she couldn't even bring herself to stop her phoenix from trying to act as a shield. The heroic thing would have been to force herself to take the full blast of the curse again, but Merlin, it hurt so much.
The effect felt just as brutal as the first time, even with Maeven sharing some of it, and Ginny felt herself grow dizzy and nauseous.
Struggling to stay awake-for what, she did not know- she looked over at Harry and saw him staring back at her, tears sparkling in his green eyes. Once he saw that she was looking at him, however, he jerked his eyes upwards and Ginny's gaze instantly fell on the spot where Bellatrix's attempt to stupefy her had stripped some of the bark from the tree over his head.
Much like when she played chess, Ginny's mind started rapidly clicking forward and backward, trying to put together a line of strategy.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix said again, but Maeven rolled out of the way, giving Ginny a few more precious seconds to think...
"He's suspended in the middle of the room...quite brassed off..."
"Did they ever...?" "No." "Good. Stupefy."
Ginny looked at Harry and then at Maeven and prayed silently that she was right. If not, she was possibly making the most idiotic mistake of her young life.
As there wasn't time to doubt her logic, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to do what she had to if she was struck again, Ginny took a deep breath and seized on Maeven's attention. She passed the information along to her Familiar who, unquestioningly, started hopping again with almost desperate enthusiasm. The fact that the phoenix had suddenly found a definite direction did not escape Bellatrix's notice.
"Crucio!"
Ginny saw the curse hurtle towards her phoenix and she felt the bile lurch up the back of her throat. Sweet Merlin, she couldn't endure it again. She just couldn't.
For one blinding moment she felt a horrible, painful kinship with whatever Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom had endured. It was awful. The most awful thing she had ever experienced, and, even so, she knew she'd only had the smallest taste of what they'd gone through. It made her sympathy and grief for them that much more piercing.
Maeven took a particularly impressive leap away at the last moment, falling mere inches away from Harry's head.
Merlin, how she longed for Neville! Or Ron! They'd know what to do. She longed desperately for the safety of her brother and her best friend.
"Get it!" Bellatrix shouted and her two companions rushed forward, lunging for Maeven.
With no other way to help, Ginny held her wand tightly , and waited for her single chance. She could only hope that if she could access her wand through Maeven, then the opposite was also true.
Moments later, Maeven alighted on top of Harry's head. Ginny's eyes caught on an odd circular glow from under Harry's shirt but didn't have time to dwell on it. Instantly, she unleashed her curse.
"Stupefy!"
She felt the magic flow through her - it was weak, but there was no way to help that, she was simply too injured. With her consciousness slipping, Ginny forced the magic through herself into Maeven and Maeven passed it directly into Harry.
Perhaps it was that Maeven managed to amplify it, or perhaps it was Harry's willingness to accept it, but whatever the case, his eyes instantly slid shut.
If Ginny was waiting for something impressive to happen just then, she most certainly wasn't disappointed.
No sooner had Harry's eyes closed than a bright red and gold shield shot out, emanating from his chest. It was rimmed with letters that Ginny was not able to read properly at such an angle , and there appeared to be a gleaming red phoenix embossed on the front of it.
As it turned out, Ginny didn't have to read the letters as someone else read them for her.
"HARRY POTTER...." a voice bellowed, "IS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX."
Bellatrix and her two lackeys jumped at the sound.
Ginny, in a state of detached hysteria, almost cried from joy. In what had to be one of Dumbledore's most brilliant touches, the voice was unmistakable.
It was her mother-in full Howler mode.
Hatred burning in her eyes, Bellatrix trained her wand on Maeven and fired. But Maeven was sitting with Harry, well behind the shield and, though it trembled on impact, it held.
In fact, it gradually started to glow even more brightly. The brilliant red phoenix that marked the front of it started flapping its wings harder and harder until suddenly, it burst through.
"Fawkes..." Ginny whispered, staring at the brilliant bird. Briefly, she thought she saw something flicker in front of her eyes, but shook her head to clear her vision.
She had never seen the phoenix in full battle mode and it was an impressive sight. Having spent years at Dumbledore's side, Fawkes had attained an agility and precision that was truly intimidating. She could sense Maeven's gaze trained on the other bird as well in awe and admiration.
Moments after Fawkes appeared, Ginny heard a series of pops.
"You stupid arrogant little-"
Nymphadora Tonks ran past Ginny, her wand trained at Bellatrix. Even as she was running, she was transforming and Ginny stared, open mouthed, as she charged at Bellatrix in the form of Sirius Black.
"I will kill you for this!" Tonks screamed in her own voice, which trembled with such anger that Ginny flinched.
Bellatrix blanched slightly before recovering and aiming her wand at Tonks.
"Expelliarmus!"
Sweet Merlin, it was Fred. Ginny spun around and saw him fighting off one of Bellatrix's men while George set himself against the other one.
Curses began to fly all around her, and Ginny didn't even hear the others Apparate, but was alerted to Professor Lupin's arrival by the animal-like scream he let out before plunging past her in Tonks' direction.
Her father ran after him, wand drawn, shouting "Remus! Remus, no!!"
Kingsley Shacklebolt was crouched over Harry's unconscious form and Ginny felt almost weak with happiness when he picked up Maeven.
She turned back to the fighting and saw Tonks hurl herself against Lupin to force him out of the way just as Bellatrix shot off a particularly vicious red stream of light. Unable to move fast enough, they were both struck by the curse, although Lupin took the brunt of it.
He fell sideways with a sickening thud and knocked his head twice against the ground before coming to a halt. Bellatrix took the momentary distraction as her chance to disappear and did just that.
Tonks, clutching her side, quickly melted back to her normal figure. She hovered over Lupin, her trembling fingers grazing repeatedly over his unconscious features. Ginny's father waved his wand, muttered a few words Ginny couldn't hear, but then nodded.
"He'll be all right. We need to get him to Poppy."
Her vision flickered again and this time Ginny discerned, quite clearly, her dormitory room. Abruptly, she was back in the field again, although it was becoming harder to see. Whatever was holding her down had started to dissipate.
"Tonks!" Kingsley held Maeven up. "Look at this."
It occurred to Ginny then, that none of them could see her anymore. It made sense, given the increasing lightness she'd felt the moment she saw that Harry was protected, but now she rather wanted them to be able to see her. To know that she was all right.
The relieved look on Tonk's face abruptly disappeared. "Oh no."
"Ginny?" Her father stood up and started running around the area, shouting her name. "Ginny Weasley!"
Ginny saw Fred and George, who had subdued their opponents in record time, look anxiously at her father. Duel looks of concern crossed their faces.
Ginny tried to call out to them, but even as she opened her mouth, she felt the warm, inviting darkness envelope her.
"Dad?" she whispered, just as she lurched forward, finally fully back in her room.
Someplace, deep inside her mind, she thought she heard the sound of sirens wailing, but there was little she could do to silence them or, for that matter, to stop herself from falling.
The edge of her night table rushed up into her vision at a frightening speed, but just before her head struck the side, Ginny felt herself being jerked upward by strong hands.
At that moment, pure relief was all she felt as the last of her consciousness ebbed out of her.
She thought she glimpsed the kind blue eyes of Neville Longbottom gazing down at her, right before her world faded to black.
End Chapter 16
Chapter 16: The Heroic Thing
Worried beyond reason, Ginny immediately reached out to Maeven and was shocked by the response.
It was like being struck full force in the head by a wall of unadulterated fear and panic. Running across the room, she grabbed her wand off of her nightstand and urged Maeven to calm down.
After several moments of soothing thoughts, the phoenix was stable enough to allow Ginny to see what was going on.
Closing her eyes, Ginny pushed open their connection and felt herself rushing forward briefly before coming to an abrupt stop. When she reopened her eyes, she was able to see things as Maeven saw them.
They were perched on a tree, and Ginny could see the pale lights of Hogsmeade in the distance. Finally understanding why she'd been so cold before, she instructed her Familiar to cast a heating charm. Surprised and mildly apologetic, as phoenixes are much more resilient to cold than humans, Maeven complied. Ginny almost immediately felt her fingers warm.
Below, Ginny could see two figures that she instantly recognized as Harry and Professor Lupin.
Long ago, shortly after she'd first received Maeven as a volunteer, Ginny had asked the bird to protect not only herself, but also her family and her friends. Unfortunately, after getting through her six older brothers, her parents, members of her extended family, and half of the students in Gryffindor, Maeven had started to look vaguely anxious and ill.
So, instead, Ginny decided to limit the bird's attentions to her immediate family and Harry. And Hermione. And Neville. She had to stop at Neville because Maeven had started to give her that exceptionally aggravated look again.
Ginny could only assume that that's what had drawn Maeven out of the castle in a hurry-when she sensed that Harry had left it.
The two men walked along quickly but silently, Lupin slightly leading the way, looking over his shoulder every so often as though afraid they were being followed.
Maeven's fear increased as soon as they crossed below the branch and Ginny frowned. Were Harry and Professor Lupin being followed? Did Maeven know who was responsible for this? What was Harry doing outside of Hogwarts in the first place?
She was surprised to sense a vague level of irritation and impatience in the bird's response.
The phoenix tugged insistently at Ginny's mind, much like a child against her mother's apron, and it took her a long while before she understood what was happening. Looking down, she saw a set of gold threads, thin but clearly present, stretching from Maeven to Harry below.
A feeling of horror crept into her when she realized that, despite the obvious strands connecting Maeven to Harry, there was absolutely nothing whatsoever between Harry and the man he was with.
A chill ran down her spine when she realized that, whoever that man was, he most certainly was not Professor Lupin.
Ginny had no sooner formed the thought in her mind before two other figures emerged out of the woods and into the clearing. Harry stepped back and drew his wand, but he was struck almost immediately in the chest by a bright blue light shot by the imposter and fell stiffly to the floor.
The imposter's form suddenly shifted and became lankier and taller. His hair was a pale blonde, vaguely reminiscent of Draco Malfoy's, but Ginny had never seen him before. One of the newcomers was also tall, but a bit bulkier, and older. His hair was dark brown shot through with a few gray streaks.
The third figure, unfortunately, was hooded.
Her heart leapt to her throat in fear as all three quickly swarmed Harry's prone body.
This was...well, this was bad, to put it lightly.
Ginny had no delusions of grandeur or heroism. Her job was definitely not to play the complete idiot by rushing down to save Harry. For heaven's sakes, at least at the Ministry she'd had several of her friends by her side. Here, she was completely alone and she wasn't even sure she could effectively fight through Maeven even if she wanted to.
Her job, a simple but very vital one, was to go and summon the cavalry, something she was gladly going to do. First, though, she wanted to see how badly Harry was hurt because she knew she could do so from the safety of their overhead position.
Ginny concentrated hard, forcing Maeven to narrow her gaze on the group below.
Within seconds, her eyes refocused and Ginny could see the small party as though she was standing right in front of them. Unfortunately, the hooded figure had turned and was speaking to the other two men and Ginny missed getting a look at its face.
"I left him back in his bedroom," the imposter was saying. "He's suspended in the middle of the room...quite brassed off...it wasn't easy, you know."
The murmured response was too low for her to hear, so she turned her attention on Harry instead, praying that whatever he had been struck with had simply knocked him unconscious and that she would still be able to discern some signs of breathing.
Much to her surprise, she found that not only was Harry alive, he was also quite awake. While his body was frozen in some sort of body bind, his eyes were still active and they were gazing up in utter terror. Ginny's heart skipped a beat in sympathy and she looked over her shoulder, expecting to see the group coming back, but instead found them still deep in conversation.
A slow, sinking feeling invaded her stomach when she looked back at Harry and realized that, no, he wasn't looking through her.
He was looking at her.
Quite understandably, Harry looked about as pleased to see her, as she herself was to be there. In fact, he was jerking his eyes leftward almost to the point of appearing to seizure and Ginny got the message loud and clear.
RUN.
Trying to calm her nerves, Ginny nodded at him, and attempted to give him a look conveying that she most certainly planned on it and was going to go for help and for him to calm down. She pushed to the back of her mind why it was that she was visible to him. Perhaps it was some sort of bond they'd created. Perhaps it was the fact that Maeven was allowing them to connect. Perhaps-
"Hold."
She froze, thoroughly horrified, at the sharp command that had issued from directly behind her.
Perhaps it was that she was visible to everyone.
She caught the look of complete devastation swimming in Harry's green eyes before he slid them shut in defeat.
"Turn."
Not daring to move and yet not daring to stay still, Ginny turned very slowly in compliance with the speaker's instructions. Coming face to face with the hooded figure, she plunged into a complete insensible panic.
Bellatrix Lestrange smiled back at her, her face slightly illuminated by the moonlight. She would have been stunningly beautiful if not for the almost vicious contortions her mouth went through in order to produce something that resembled a smile.
Holding a dark, reddish-brown wand directly at Ginny's chest, her black eyes glittered as she regarded the girl carefully.
"If it isn't the littlest Weasley."
Bellatrix somehow made her last name sound like a curse and, beneath the fear, Ginny felt a small spark of anger ignite.
"Perhaps we'll be able to kill two birds with one stone." The smile dropped off of her face as suddenly as it had appeared. "Won't Lord Voldemort be pleased?"
The anger quickly dissipated back into fear and Ginny tried to force herself to be calm and reasonable. While she was not sure how on earth Bellatrix could see her, she knew that, contrary to all appearances, there was no way she was actually standing in front of the woman. With Hogwarts' anti-Apparition wards in place, even Professor Dumbledore couldn't Disapparate in and out of the castle.
This meant, quite naturally, that Ginny was not standing on the outskirts of Hogsmeade, as she so keenly believed she was, but instead, was still physically in the safety of her dorm room back in Gryffindor Tower. Meaning, she had access to help, meaning, there was still some semblance of hope.
Ginny forced herself to focus and could feel some slight tension tying her to the ground. She pushed against it in an attempt to break herself free, but whatever was holding her in place was strong and simply wouldn't budge.
Having wasted a few precious moments on these thoughts, she quickly opened her mind to call for Maeven and realized that the bird had been trying to contact her ever since Ginny had appeared in front of Harry.
Maeven was terrified, and rightly so, so Ginny had a good deal of trouble understanding what had happened. Ignoring the bird's attempt at an explanation because there simply wasn't time, she managed to force a message through, instructing Maeven to release her from their link so she could go and get help. With Ginny's mind engaged through Maeven, she could not see where she was going. To be perfectly honest, Ginny wasn't even certain she could instruct her body to move back at Hogwarts.
The response, however, was less than satisfactory. After a beat of dead silence, Maeven started to explain again and Ginny, finally starting to understand the gravity of their situation, realized that the bird was roughly as clueless as she was.
In other words, she was stuck.
Ginny engaged in a repeat attempt to push against the invisible bonds that held her to the ground but to no avail.
Maeven's mind alighted on what she was doing and they both tried again but even their collective efforts failed to produce any results.
That settled it.
FLY.
Ginny screamed the command mentally at Maeven, thoroughly startling her phoenix, but it was effective. The bird quickly took off from the branch she had been perched on and began flying as fast as she could in the direction of Hogwarts.
It was possibly one of the worst moments of Ginny's life when Bellatrix's eyes flickered overhead and, with a cunning that could only result from years of practice, simply retrained her wand at a spot in the air and spoke a curse Ginny didn't recognize.
The bright flash of heat that engulfed Ginny was enough for her to know that Maeven had been struck. The heat got so bad that it burned parts of her skin, but just as it reached an excruciating level, it disappeared.
Almost instantly, she could hear the angry, frightened cacophony of Maeven's infant mind and it made her feel sick. In her haste to send for help, she'd never bothered to instruct her Familiar to cast a concealing charm on her bright purple feathers. It was the sort of mistake a second year would make and Ginny felt incredibly foolish for it.
It was the sort of error that might well cost all three of them their lives.
"Find it," Bellatrix said in a quiet, deadly voice, and one of her companions ran in the direction where Maeven had fallen. Bellatrix trained her wand back on Ginny almost instantly and was smiling again. "Clever little thing, aren't you?" Her eyes never leaving Ginny's, she inclined her head towards her remaining companion, the handsome blonde man who had masqueraded as Professor Lupin. "Did they ever...?"
"No." The man shook his head.
"You're certain?" Bellatrix asked.
"Perfectly," the man responded.
"Good. Stupefy."
With barely enough time to react, Ginny froze and squeezed her eyes shut against the impending darkness. The stream of energy whipped right into her chest. And then it went through her chest, with only a mild tingling sensation in its wake. She spun around and saw it strike the tree right above Harry's head, narrowly missing him.
The man let out an involuntary yelp of surprise and Bellatrix made a hissing noise. "She's projecting herself from somewhere else. She's got to be close by. Find her." Bellatrix took a few steps forward, and Ginny watched as the dark-haired woman leaned slightly to the left to get a look past Ginny at Harry's prone form. Ginny dared to follow her gaze and saw Harry giving the woman a defiant, angry look.
Bellatrix's gaze flickered silently back to Ginny. "He's looking for you, you know," she said slowly. "It's only a matter of time until we find you."
Ginny took an involuntary step backwards.
"So why are you still here?"
She didn't bother to respond, as it was clear that Bellatrix had asked the question to herself. Before the woman could venture a guess, they were interrupted.
"Found it!"
Ginny watched in dismay as Maeven was carried over, her pale, wrinkled skin almost glowing in the moonlight. The man quickly placed the struggling chick in Bellatrix's black-gloved hand.
Ginny felt Maeven recoil, disgusted by the dark magic seeping through the leather.
Bellatrix stared down at the bird and raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating." She looked back up at the young Gryffindor. "I've always wanted a phoenix."
Ginny's own hatred towards the woman was doubled by her Familiar's, as the chick was still connected to her mind and was listening to the conversation.
Breathlessly, the other man returned and shook his head, indicating he hadn't been able to find her. Bellatrix frowned-an expression that seemed to come more naturally - and pinned Ginny with a look.
"Tell me where you are, little girl, or I'll have to punish you."
This, Ginny knew, was an empty threat at best. The single advantage to being stuck in this ghost-like state was that Bellatrix couldn't touch her.
A moment of silence passed and, with no preamble, Bellatrix turned her wand on Maeven.
"Crucio."
Maeven started trembling violently in Bellatrix's hand and Ginny could feel flashes of pain running through their connection and striking her indirectly. Her phoenix was making a high-pitched squealing noise that echoed around her head and made the physical pain so much worse. It was like Ginny's heart was being ripped out of her chest in agony of what was happening to her Familiar.
After what felt like several minutes, but what really could have only been a few seconds, Maeven stopped twitching and Ginny's mind cleared. She could still sense Maeven trembling in response to the attack, but phoenixes recovered very quickly and hers was no different.
Bellatrix looked up at her, black eyes devoid of all emotion. "Shall we try this again?"
It was terribly hard for Ginny to believe that this...this thing...was actually related to Sirius Black. Beautiful, wonderful, generous, fierce Serious Black whom she ached for now more than ever; and she was standing face to face with his killer. Pushing away her anger, because she knew it wouldn't help her now, Ginny's mind raced over her options of escape and one suddenly struck her.
Could Maeven mentally contact Fawkes somehow?
A tentative possibility arose between girl and Familiar.
Bellatrix hadn't survived as long as she had because she was stupid; she caught the silent, split-second interaction and instantly turned her wand back on the phoenix.
"No-wait-please!" Ginny cried, but Bellatrix ignored her.
"Crucio."
Acting purely on instinct, Ginny reached forward mentally, thrust as hard as she could into her connection with Maeven, and felt the full blow of the curse pass through her bird directly into herself. Instantly regretting the hasty decision, she couldn't stop herself from letting out an ear-splitting scream from the enormous amount of pain that pounded through her.
It was like scalding hot water had been poured down her throat and she felt as though her ribs were breaking inside her chest. She wasn't altogether certain that they weren't. Suddenly, Ginny knew she wasn't impervious to attack, even in this state and, judging from the look on Bellatrix's face, she wasn't alone in that realization.
Tossing the phoenix to the ground, Bellatrix, pointed her wand at it.
"Crucio!" she shouted.
Maeven managed to hop desperately out of the way and the force of the curse singed the grass where she had been just moments before.
Ginny's heart was pounding in time with the pain in her head and she could do little more than watch her phoenix jump erratically back and forth, as Bellatrix tried to hit her. A sick, sadistic look had entered the dark- haired woman's features and Ginny realized that she was enjoying this twisted sport.
As Maeven was yet quite small and couldn't hop particularly fast, it was only a matter of time before she would be struck again. A split second before it happened, Ginny braced herself against the impending pain, and Maeven tried to tamp down on their connection to dampen the effects.
Ginny was somewhat ashamed that she couldn't even bring herself to stop her phoenix from trying to act as a shield. The heroic thing would have been to force herself to take the full blast of the curse again, but Merlin, it hurt so much.
The effect felt just as brutal as the first time, even with Maeven sharing some of it, and Ginny felt herself grow dizzy and nauseous.
Struggling to stay awake-for what, she did not know- she looked over at Harry and saw him staring back at her, tears sparkling in his green eyes. Once he saw that she was looking at him, however, he jerked his eyes upwards and Ginny's gaze instantly fell on the spot where Bellatrix's attempt to stupefy her had stripped some of the bark from the tree over his head.
Much like when she played chess, Ginny's mind started rapidly clicking forward and backward, trying to put together a line of strategy.
"Crucio!" Bellatrix said again, but Maeven rolled out of the way, giving Ginny a few more precious seconds to think...
"He's suspended in the middle of the room...quite brassed off..."
"Did they ever...?" "No." "Good. Stupefy."
Ginny looked at Harry and then at Maeven and prayed silently that she was right. If not, she was possibly making the most idiotic mistake of her young life.
As there wasn't time to doubt her logic, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to do what she had to if she was struck again, Ginny took a deep breath and seized on Maeven's attention. She passed the information along to her Familiar who, unquestioningly, started hopping again with almost desperate enthusiasm. The fact that the phoenix had suddenly found a definite direction did not escape Bellatrix's notice.
"Crucio!"
Ginny saw the curse hurtle towards her phoenix and she felt the bile lurch up the back of her throat. Sweet Merlin, she couldn't endure it again. She just couldn't.
For one blinding moment she felt a horrible, painful kinship with whatever Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom had endured. It was awful. The most awful thing she had ever experienced, and, even so, she knew she'd only had the smallest taste of what they'd gone through. It made her sympathy and grief for them that much more piercing.
Maeven took a particularly impressive leap away at the last moment, falling mere inches away from Harry's head.
Merlin, how she longed for Neville! Or Ron! They'd know what to do. She longed desperately for the safety of her brother and her best friend.
"Get it!" Bellatrix shouted and her two companions rushed forward, lunging for Maeven.
With no other way to help, Ginny held her wand tightly , and waited for her single chance. She could only hope that if she could access her wand through Maeven, then the opposite was also true.
Moments later, Maeven alighted on top of Harry's head. Ginny's eyes caught on an odd circular glow from under Harry's shirt but didn't have time to dwell on it. Instantly, she unleashed her curse.
"Stupefy!"
She felt the magic flow through her - it was weak, but there was no way to help that, she was simply too injured. With her consciousness slipping, Ginny forced the magic through herself into Maeven and Maeven passed it directly into Harry.
Perhaps it was that Maeven managed to amplify it, or perhaps it was Harry's willingness to accept it, but whatever the case, his eyes instantly slid shut.
If Ginny was waiting for something impressive to happen just then, she most certainly wasn't disappointed.
No sooner had Harry's eyes closed than a bright red and gold shield shot out, emanating from his chest. It was rimmed with letters that Ginny was not able to read properly at such an angle , and there appeared to be a gleaming red phoenix embossed on the front of it.
As it turned out, Ginny didn't have to read the letters as someone else read them for her.
"HARRY POTTER...." a voice bellowed, "IS UNDER THE PROTECTION OF THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX."
Bellatrix and her two lackeys jumped at the sound.
Ginny, in a state of detached hysteria, almost cried from joy. In what had to be one of Dumbledore's most brilliant touches, the voice was unmistakable.
It was her mother-in full Howler mode.
Hatred burning in her eyes, Bellatrix trained her wand on Maeven and fired. But Maeven was sitting with Harry, well behind the shield and, though it trembled on impact, it held.
In fact, it gradually started to glow even more brightly. The brilliant red phoenix that marked the front of it started flapping its wings harder and harder until suddenly, it burst through.
"Fawkes..." Ginny whispered, staring at the brilliant bird. Briefly, she thought she saw something flicker in front of her eyes, but shook her head to clear her vision.
She had never seen the phoenix in full battle mode and it was an impressive sight. Having spent years at Dumbledore's side, Fawkes had attained an agility and precision that was truly intimidating. She could sense Maeven's gaze trained on the other bird as well in awe and admiration.
Moments after Fawkes appeared, Ginny heard a series of pops.
"You stupid arrogant little-"
Nymphadora Tonks ran past Ginny, her wand trained at Bellatrix. Even as she was running, she was transforming and Ginny stared, open mouthed, as she charged at Bellatrix in the form of Sirius Black.
"I will kill you for this!" Tonks screamed in her own voice, which trembled with such anger that Ginny flinched.
Bellatrix blanched slightly before recovering and aiming her wand at Tonks.
"Expelliarmus!"
Sweet Merlin, it was Fred. Ginny spun around and saw him fighting off one of Bellatrix's men while George set himself against the other one.
Curses began to fly all around her, and Ginny didn't even hear the others Apparate, but was alerted to Professor Lupin's arrival by the animal-like scream he let out before plunging past her in Tonks' direction.
Her father ran after him, wand drawn, shouting "Remus! Remus, no!!"
Kingsley Shacklebolt was crouched over Harry's unconscious form and Ginny felt almost weak with happiness when he picked up Maeven.
She turned back to the fighting and saw Tonks hurl herself against Lupin to force him out of the way just as Bellatrix shot off a particularly vicious red stream of light. Unable to move fast enough, they were both struck by the curse, although Lupin took the brunt of it.
He fell sideways with a sickening thud and knocked his head twice against the ground before coming to a halt. Bellatrix took the momentary distraction as her chance to disappear and did just that.
Tonks, clutching her side, quickly melted back to her normal figure. She hovered over Lupin, her trembling fingers grazing repeatedly over his unconscious features. Ginny's father waved his wand, muttered a few words Ginny couldn't hear, but then nodded.
"He'll be all right. We need to get him to Poppy."
Her vision flickered again and this time Ginny discerned, quite clearly, her dormitory room. Abruptly, she was back in the field again, although it was becoming harder to see. Whatever was holding her down had started to dissipate.
"Tonks!" Kingsley held Maeven up. "Look at this."
It occurred to Ginny then, that none of them could see her anymore. It made sense, given the increasing lightness she'd felt the moment she saw that Harry was protected, but now she rather wanted them to be able to see her. To know that she was all right.
The relieved look on Tonk's face abruptly disappeared. "Oh no."
"Ginny?" Her father stood up and started running around the area, shouting her name. "Ginny Weasley!"
Ginny saw Fred and George, who had subdued their opponents in record time, look anxiously at her father. Duel looks of concern crossed their faces.
Ginny tried to call out to them, but even as she opened her mouth, she felt the warm, inviting darkness envelope her.
"Dad?" she whispered, just as she lurched forward, finally fully back in her room.
Someplace, deep inside her mind, she thought she heard the sound of sirens wailing, but there was little she could do to silence them or, for that matter, to stop herself from falling.
The edge of her night table rushed up into her vision at a frightening speed, but just before her head struck the side, Ginny felt herself being jerked upward by strong hands.
At that moment, pure relief was all she felt as the last of her consciousness ebbed out of her.
She thought she glimpsed the kind blue eyes of Neville Longbottom gazing down at her, right before her world faded to black.
End Chapter 16