A Cry for Help
Unseen and Uncalled For
Ginny lay in her room at the Burrow. She wasn't going to sleep, but a bit of rest was required after the amount of packing she had just done in a very short time. She lay on her bed staring up at the ceiling, occasionally brushing her fiery red hair out of her eyes when it fell over freckled face. She didn't really want to return to Grimmauld Place, she hated being reminded of Sirius. She knew that no one knew it, but she missed him a lot. She had always been good at hiding her true emotions. That was until Harry came along. When she first set eyes on him she had instantly fallen in love. She had recently gotten over Harry, or at least she thought she had. She wasn't obsessed with him anymore, but she still wished she had someone to distract her from him. She would continue to wish, someone was bound to come along eventually. Maybe her fifth year at Hogwarts would turn out to be a good one.
Ginny heard her mother call from downstairs, and a moment later Fred and George came bounding into her room.
"Come on Ginny, time to leave." said Fred.
"Wouldn't wanna be late!" came George loudly.
"Ok, ok I'm coming" she said, getting up slowly and stretching. "George" she said as the twins were leaving. "Will you take my trunk down for me?" she said trying to stifle a huge yawn.
"No problem" George took out his wand, levitated the trunk and steered it down the stairs in front of him. Fred followed, and Ginny went behind him. They walked down the crooked staircase into the kitchen. It was cluttered with Hogwarts trunks and owl cages. She saw near the fire that her parents and brothers had already started to leave. In turn the each yelled out '12 Grimmauld Place' and disappeared behind a fresh sheet of green flames. Slowly the kitchen became less cluttered and when their mom reached the fire she beckoned Ginny over to it.
"Alright Ginny, your turn" she said, gently ushering Ginny towards the fire. She grabbed her floo powder and stepped into the warm, soothing flames.
"12 Grimmauld Place!" she yelled, and before her eyes, the familiar kitchen of Grimmauld Place materialized before her. She saw the rest of her family hustling around trying to get their luggage put away. Fred then came into the room from behind her with her trunk on top of his. She took Hermes' cage from him and led him to her room. Once they had their stuff put away and George came to join them they made their way downstairs. The rest of the family had now unpacked and Lupin was in there with them.
"Hello Ginny" he said smiling his usual modest smile. Fred and George greeted him and he nodded back.
"Early supper tonight I'm afraid." Lupin said, looking at them, "The Order has a meeting that can't wait." They nodded and went over to help their dad with the other trunks. As the afternoon wore on people started arriving for dinner. First to arrive were Kingsley and Tonks. Who's arrival was alerted by Tonks knocking over a tall candle holder in the main hallway. As usual greeted by the frantic deluded screams of Mrs. Black. A little while later Moody arrived. And then, to Ginny's surprise, Hermione. Soon after Hermione arrived though, Lupin left. And soon after, returned with Harry. Shortly after they arrived dinner was ready. Ginny sat between Hermione and Tonks, watching and laughing out loud as she would change her hair and nose on command. Ginny loved when Tonks would give herself Dumbledore's long silver hair and beard.
Ginny looked around the kitchen, remembering when Sirius was still here. The thought of him still made tears sting in her eyes. She always loved having Sirius around, he always lit up the room, but she had to move on, she just had to.
The food was just as good as always and they all sat eating their fill. Half way into dinner Bill and Charlie arrived a few hours earlier than they had expected to. Everyone got up to greet them and they both hugged their entire family, including Ginny. They all sat down and Ginny looked on as her two brothers filled their plates until they looked as if they might break under the pressure. It was apparent that most of tonight's meeting didn't deal with very serious information. Because Ginny, Harry, Hermione, the twins and Ron, weren't asked to leave until at least an hour and a half after they had started eating. The adults were quietly discussing something when they all got up after being forcefully told they had to leave by Mrs. Weasley. Ginny had gotten up and turned around to leave when she heard a gagging noise and then a scream coming from somewhere behind her the table. She turned around and her eyes widened in shock at the scene that was playing out before her.
Lupin had gotten up and was clutching a profusely bleeding shoulder. He was shaking violently and just as Bill, Charlie and Mr. Weasley shot up to help him, he fell to his knees. Gasping for air.
"Remus! Remus what's wrong!?!" Charlie cried as they tried to bring the shaking man back onto his feet.
"Help" Lupin choked as others came over and they all set him down on the couch. Mrs. Weasley tried to fix his wounds, but they wouldn't heal. Ginny watched as her mother cried trying to help her bleeding friend. Lupin began to shake again and Harry and the twins tried to help keep him still. After about a minute or so Lupin stopped shaking, a thin line of blood ran down from his mouth. He had been knocked out.
Ginny sat on the chair nearest the couch he lay on and watched his whole body heave as it tried to take in air. Suddenly Kingsley burst into the room, Ginny hadn't even realized that he had left. But she felt extremely relieved to see Dumbledore walk in behind him. Dumbledore walked over to the couch where Lupin lay and Ginny watched as he tried to revive him. He pulled out his wand and Lupin's face suddenly sprang awake.
"What happened Remus?" he said quietly, kneeling down beside Harry at the couch.
"I..I don' know." he said, struggling to steady his breath. "It was like... like someone was shaking me, and...and"
"And what Remus?" Dumbledore said in a fatherly tone.
"I don't know" he said, "but it hurt." Lupin said weakly. His wide amber eyes closing slightly out of exhaustion and pain.
"He needs rest" Dumbledore announced. Ginny got up to go back into the kitchen as Bill and Charlie slung Lupin's arms over their shoulder's to help him upstairs to his room. Lupin said he didn't need any help but they had insisted and they knew he was too weak to go up by himself. Ginny followed her mom and dad into the kitchen and was surprised when they let her come in. She had figured that they would not allow her to be in there when they discussed what had just happened. She didn't know what to make of the whole situation, she just wanted Lupin to be ok.
Ginny sat down beside Hermione, and Bill came and sat on her other side. Dumbledore stood up. His light blue eyes sweeping gently over all of them. "What just happened?" Harry blurted out suddenly.
"I'm afraid I cannot yet tell you" Dumbledore said gravely, "For I haven't yet heard the whole story of what it is that happened." Mr. Weasley explained how Lupin started shaking and then collapsed on the couch. Ginny was still a bit shaken by it all when her and Hermione went to bed. Mrs. Weasley had asked that they leave when they started talking about the events of that night.
"So what do you think happened?" Hermione asked in a serious and worried tone as she lay down on her bed.
"I don't know" Ginny replied truthfully. "But I wish we could help him."
"I know" Hermione sighed "he was normal all the way leading up to that."
"Poor Lupin" Ginny sighed.
"Did you actually see how he hurt his shoulder?" Hermione whispered.
"No" Ginny replied, curious now that she remembered, everything had happened so fast she hadn't had time to think of that before. "Did you?"
"Yah" Hermione said, sounding worried. "It looked like some invisible person stabbed him or something."
Ginny was confused, and her face must have shown it because Hermione then said, "I know, I don't understand either"
Ginny sighed to herself, "I hope it isn't anything serious, that was really uncalled for."
Hermione nodded in agreement, laying her face on the pillow. But then Ginny's head jerked upwards as she heard a loud 'thud' come from upstairs and many sets of footsteps rush up to help.
"Uh oh" Hermione said, looking scared, "he's at it again."