A/N Thanks again to reviewers. Sorry for slower update, had visitors.

Well they follow your advice and get on the broom. But oh...poor Ginny!

The red-eyed creatures grew closer. They moved with stealthy caution. Their stares did not waver from Harry and Ginny's horrified forms.

Harry's brain finally unfroze. Broom, he thought. He pulled Ginny onto the broomstick and thrust upwards. It wobbled slowly off the ground. Harry cursed it. Damn, damn, damn….

Worse: the movement stirred the creatures into action. The Disillusionment charm clearly had no effect on them. Or, possibly, they hunted by smell. However that might be, they certainly realized that Harry and Ginny were attempting to make their escape. They flung themselves forward. As the broomstick sluggishly rose through the trees, one of the beasts surged forward in a mighty leap and clamped its jaws around one of Ginny's dangling legs.

She yelled in pain. The weight of the creature hanging from Ginny's leg bore the broomstick back down to earth. Harry and Ginny toppled onto the loamy ground of the forest. The massive teeth of another beast closed around the broom handle. Harry distinctly heard it snap.

The red eyes were all around them now. They made no further move to attack, but merely circled them.

Damn………Harry considered and rejected all possible spells he might use against them. There were just too many of them, and they could spring too quickly. By the time he had immobilized one, or even two, another could be ripping their heads off.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Ginny demanded raggedly, clutching her leg in her hands in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

"They're keeping us here," Harry said slowly. "They're keeping us here until someone else can get here…"

Unfortunately, he had a good idea who that someone might be, or at least who they probably worked for. He chose not to dwell on that reflection. "How's the leg?"

"Hurts." Ginny's voice betrayed her pain. "It's OK, though, don't worry, I'll be fine..."

"Let me see."

Harry brushed the wound gently. Ginny's breath sucked in. It was a serious injury. Harry's hand came away wet with blood; he could smell its metallic tang. She would not be able to move very easily, and certainly not fast.

Not, from the look of it, that they were going to get the opportunity to move anywhere.

The creatures appeared to have settled in for a wait. They were sitting all around them. They made no further move to harm them, but continued to stare at them.

"You know, Harry," Ginny gasped out through gritted teeth. "I think at this point we might want to risk some magic. I mean at least then there is a chance the right people will get to know where we are…"

She was right, of course. Harry tried to think of a spell that would not alarm the creatures into precipitate action. He quite liked his legs just where they were.

Light, he thought. Light would be good. "Lumos Major," he murmured.

Of course, the spell meant they could now see the beasts clearly in the blue-white light streaming from Harry's wand. Harry wondered whether this was in fact a good thing.

They were hounds, huge, and coal-black. They were gaunt and savage, and the red eyes hungered for them above enormous, slavering jaws. Harry had never seen their like. Beside him, Ginny swallowed and caught her breath. She pressed rather more closely against Harry's side.

"I'm sorry," she whispered now. "It's my fault we're here. I'm sorry…and..thanks, Harry. Thanks for catching me."

"It isn't your fault," Harry told her, meaning it. "You were just unlucky. And, hey, of course I was going to try and catch you. Do you really think I was going to let my best friend's little sister fall into an exploding house and a nest of Death Eaters?"

Ginny did not reply, with the careful silence of someone not saying something. Harry, misreading the reason for her lack of response, hurried on.

"You know, Ginny, I should be apologizing to you. I think it's me they're after," he said to her.

It was an awful thought, but it couldn't be coincidence that the Weasleys had been attacked just after he had arrived. A depth of pain and guilt accompanied this realization. Harry packed it carefully away; he would agonize about it later. If there was a 'later', of course. "Try not to worry, Ginny, maybe they won't be interested in you at all…"

He was lying, naturally. His memory played back, again, that well-worn image. Cedric in the graveyard. Voldemort's thin, high voice. "Kill the spare." The green flash, and the blank look of surprise on Cedric's young, dead face. An image of Ginny's face, flat and staring, floated across his mind. It was difficult to imagine Ginny stilled in that way. She was one of the most animated people Harry knew; even her hair seemed to crackle with vitality.

Damn, damn, damn….


Arthur Weasley's head appeared in the kitchen fire at 12, Grimmauld Place with the customary popping noise. He looked harrowed. All those in the kitchen clustered forward. Was there news?

"We've got a fix," he told them tersely. "They've used some magic. The idiots in the Underage Magic division have already dispatched the owl. We need a team to go pick them up…"


It made Harry want to laugh hysterically. In the light of his illumination spell, they could see the owl hovering uncertainly above their heads. It clearly did not want to come lower and get within reach of those giant jaws encircling Harry and Ginny. Eventually, it made up its mind to perch on a branch, and managed to detach the letter from its own leg. The envelope floated down. Harry opened it.

Dear Mr Potter,

It has come to our attention that you performed a Major Illumination charm at approximately seventeen minutes past nine this evening.

It is acknowledged that this breach of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery did not take place in a Muggle-inhabited area, nor in the presence of Muggles. This mitigates the severity of the offence. However, our records show that this is not your first violation of the rules regarding proper use of magic. We will therefore be proceeding with this case, and you are required to attend a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Magic at 10am on the fourth of January.

Wishing you a merry Happy Christmas and happy New Year!

Yours sincerely,

Mafalda Hopkirk

Improper Use of Magic Office

Ministry of Magic

"Right," Harry muttered. "Now I'm worried!"

He tore the letter into pieces and shoved it in a pocket. But hopefully, it had at least alerted their friends as to their whereabouts. There were a number of members of the Order working at the Ministry, who would always be alert to any eventuality involving Harry Potter or Ginny Weasley - not to mention Percy and Mr Weasley. Assistance should soon be on its way. Harry only hoped the help arrived before…anything else.

He and Ginny huddled together. Ginny was shaking badly, and Harry suspected she was suffering from shock as a result of her leg injury. She was certainly very cold, and they were both still wet through from the earlier rain. He kept his arm around her shoulders; the flower scent of her hair contrasted with the fetid odour wafting to them on the breeze.

They were cramped, wet, scared and cold. They knew the hounds must be pinning them down like this for a reason. Their fear increased as they waited to find out just what that reason might be, and who or what might next arrive.

When the masters of the hounds did turn up, ghosting through the trees on silent feet, both Harry and Ginny were astonished. These were not, as far as they knew, creatures of Voldemort. They had never seen the beings before, but they had seen pictures of them. They had studied them in their Defence Against the Dark Arts classes.

Ginny was rigid in Harry's arms and they both stared at the new arrivals with sagging mouths.

Vampires.


"I will need to go with the team," Snape stated.

"It won't be safe," Lupin pointed out. "If Voldemort's agents are about, they might recognize you. It won't help you if Voldemort realizes you've gone on another rescue mission to fetch Harry."

"The possible nature of the threat is such that you may well need me. Believe me, I have no actual desire to put my neck on the line for Potter."

"Stop arguing," Mrs Weasley cut in, frustrated. "Just go."

Snape folded his arms and watched sardonically. The youngest Weasley brat was obviously dying to protest his inclusion in the rescue team. He managed not to strangle Potter on a daily basis during term-time at Hogwarts. What made Weasley think he would massacre the boy under the very nose of Albus Dumbledore? Of course, failure to think was one of Weasley's besetting sins. He doubted he was actually capable of it.

Miss Granger, on the other hand, had a very thoughtful expression on her face. Doubtless, she was trying to figure out why Snape's presence would be so necessary. Snape admitted to some slight uneasiness. Working it out was not beyond Miss Granger's abilities, if certain fragments of information came her way. She was actually gifted with something approaching real intelligence. He supposed the world did owe her some sort of compensation for being born an insufferable know-it-all. Not to mention the teeth.

However, the werewolf, damn him, had been right to note the dangers of Snape being recognized. The Dark Lord was already growing mistrustful of him. Snape drew the hood of his robes forward to obscure his features as much as possible. It really would be better if he were not obliged to go along. Aside from anything else, he was tired. The Death Eater mission against the Weasley house, a rapid debriefing to the Dark Lord afterwards (who had sent him on his way suspiciously quickly), and now this…

Snape sighed. It was going to be a long night. With the prospect of Potter's company at the end of it, just to round the whole thing off with joy.

As there was little time to gather reinforcements, it was in the end just Lupin, Bill, Dumbledore and Snape who Apparated to the co-ordinates provided by Arthur Weasley. They were also worried about involving anyone else in case it would inadvertently alert the traitor.

They materialized in the depths of a forest. They had chosen to arrive a small distance away from the place they believed Harry and Ginny to be. This would enable them to assess the situation, in case they would be confronted with more than just Harry and Ginny.

An arc of light shone through the trees. Silently approaching, the members of the rescue team saw that the light was surrounded by hell hounds, glaring menacingly at an apparently empty space in the centre of a circle. Luckily the team members were upwind of the creatures, who were in any event focused intently on their allotted task.

The masters of hounds had also, it seemed, arrived. There were three of them, and they were standing looking down with folded arms. The light caught on their faces.

Snape suppressed a hiss. They had been right.

Vampires.