A/N: Okay, well starting from now, I'm going to be posting chapters less often. Up until this point, I had all my chapters pre-written so I just posted them whenever I felt like it. I'm a slow writer, so there will probably be 2-day-long to week-long period between each new posting. Just felt like letting anyone who reads this fic know.
"Gah! Remind me again why we're doing this, James?" came Ginny's voice from the foot of the dark staircase in the Gryffindor common room. It was 1 AM and James had just awoken her and told her to follow him downstairs.
"Shh, keep your voice down," answered James in a whisper, "and we're doing this because we have to find a cure for your disease."
"Couldn't we wait until the sun came up to do it..."
"The library is always too busy during the day," he replied matter-of-factly. "Which is why we're going to sneak in right now. Now shush, and follow me."
Grudingly, Ginny obliged and crept after James through the dark shadows of the sleeping castle. They reached the huge library, and once James had muttered "Alohomora!" and unlocked the door, wandered into it.
The tall shelves filled with dusty volumes loomed over them menancingly as they split up and began to search for anything that might help them. After a few moments, Ginny whispered, "James, I found one!"
"What row are you in?" came the answering voice from somewhere to her left.
Looking up, she spotted the number "19" on a sign hanging above her and read it out loud. Soon, her companion arrived with 2 books in his arms. "Took these just in case," he said in response to her questioning look.
They settled themselves down at a low, round table near the entrance. Each took a book, and soon, the library once again became silent (save for the quiet breathing of James and Ginny) as they became engulfed in their reading.
"Hey look at this," Ginny said 15 minutes later. She held up her book, pointing the lit tip of her wand at the words on the page she was turned to. The title of the page read, An Unnamed Terror: The Rarest Disease Ever. "I think this is about mine. It says that this is the rarest disease known to wizardkind, it's not contagious, it..." here she squinted her eyes, for the words on the page became smaller with each passing sentence "...has no cure unless..."
"Wait a second," interrupted James, "unless??"
"OH MY GOD," Ginny shrieked, not bothering to keep her voice down. "It says that -" she lowered her voice back down to a whisper "- there is one cure for it, but it's one of the most trickiest things to create. It's an amber-coloured crystal which, if worn by the one with the disease, will continue to restore their magic as the disease eats away at it so they can continue to live a normal life."
James, who had been listening to Ginny intently, jumped up in ecstasy at these words, knocking his chair down in the process. "Read that again, Ginny," he said, his voice full of awe.
"There is one cure for it, bu-"
"No, no, stop there. That's good. What...are you KIDDING me...I can't BELIEVE..."
"I know, James, I can't believe it either! But how are we going to make this stone? There's no list of..." Ginny stopped as she turned the page. On the other side, a long list of 20 or so ingredients to make the crystal had been printed. A lump in her throat grew with each passing line she read. These are really rare ingredients, she thought numbly to herself. No, more than rare...they're impossible.
"What's wrong?" asked James frantically. He had sensed her tensing up.
Ginny's eyes shone with tears as she looked up at him. "James...these ingredients are impossible to attain. There is no way we will be able to make this."
"No, we will. I promise, we'll find a way."
Before James could elaborate on his statement, one of the magnificent oak doors of the library opened and a figure appeared in the doorway, holding a lit wand. "Who's in here?" called out the voice of the librarian.
"Crap!" exclaimed James in frustration. He quickly reached over and tore out the page from the book Ginny held, then grabbed her hand and made a run for it. The two of them veered out of the beam of light cast by the librarian's wand, and escaped through the back door of the library.
"Are we safe?" gasped Ginny as she tried to catch her breath.
"Yeah, I think she went back to bed," the other student replied as he ventured a cautious look into the library. Much to his relief, everything was dark and silent once again. "Come on, we'd better get back before we get into any more trouble."
They took another few seconds to regain their breath then, with James clutching the ripped-out sheet of paper tightly in his fist, hurried back to their common room.
-----------------
The first thing Ginny took note of when she went downstairs to the Great Hall the next day was the not-so-subtle tension between Hermione, Sirius, and Remus.
"What's going on?" she whispered into James' ear as she sat down next to him.
"Hermione yelled at both of them for being immature at Hogsmeade yesterday...in front of the entire Great Hall," he murmured back with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"Like everyone doesn't hate us already, she had to go and make a scene?"
"Yep. Hey, it was entertaining," he replied with a slight smirk. "They both deserved it."
Ginny shrugged, and looked around. Their group had significantly decreased in numbers - Peter (to no one's surprise) was not there again, nor were Lily and Draco. Merlin knows what they could be doing, she thought sarcastically. However, as she looked beyond their little huddle, she saw that the majority of the students at their long house table kept shooting death glares at them, and that everyone to their immediate right and left had shifted as far away from them as possible. On the other hand, the other houses, including the supposedly kind-hearted Hufflepuffers, all looked positively gleeful.
"Oh, I forgot to ask you," said Ginny to James. "Did you guys get any attacks from people when you headed back to the common room last night?"
"Eh, only a few," he answered. "Nearly got hexed by Sparticus Humnley, but luckily Wimble was passing by and gave him a detention for practicing curses in the hallway. How about you girls?"
"Nothing except a handful of glares. I guess we deserved them," she said with a sigh.
"Ah, don't worry about them," James said lightly, smiling at her. "Anyway, d'you want to meet today after classes to try to find some way to - he gestured at his pocket in which he had put the ingredients list for the crystal - obtain some of these? I think I might just have a few connections."
"Oh?" Ginny replied, cocking an eyebrow. "What could those be?"
"I suppose you'll just have to come by later today and check them out. Meet me in the common room at 5:30 PM today." He winked at her, then got up and left.
Shaking her head, Ginny took one last gulp of pumpkin juice then picked up her bookbag. She said good-bye to the three who remained at the table, and followed James out the doors.
