Chapter 10

The Plan

Numbly, Harry sat, or rather dropped to Ginny's bed and let his head drop into his hands. Hermione and Ron stood outside the door silently watching, their hearts wrenching at the pain Harry, and the two of them as well, were feeling.

"Ron . . . we've got to find her. It's been almost a week, and the Aurors have absolutely no leads. Not to mention the fact that she's pregnant! We can't just sit by and let her stay gone. Who knows what happened the night she left? She could've been threatened or something, we don't know what happened," Hermione whispered, pulling Ron away from the door so they could give Harry some privacy.

"I know, Hermione. But what can we do that the Aurors aren't already doing? Hell, we've even got the Order out looking for her."

After the defeat of Voldemort, the Order of the Phoenix's members had all agreed that they'd keep in touch just on the off-chance that something would happen, and they were certainly glad of that now.

"I don't know . . . something tells me we need to go back to the Bahamas. I mean, why would she come here?" Hermione came back with, trying desperatelyto get Ron to agree with her.

He looked at her and sighed, running a hand through her brown locks, no longer as bushy as they'd been when he first met her. "Maybe you're right, 'Mione. Maybe we do need to do something ourselves. I'm not sure . . . but d'you think we should tell Harry about this, or just do it alone? And I don't want you in any danger."

"We should tell Harry, definitely," she answered, touched at his concern for her through all this. "And I haven't forgotten that she's your sister, you know. You've got to be feeling horrible, you don't need to put up your guard around me. I love you, I can tell you're hurting terribly."

Ron looked down at her, smiling gently. "It never ceases to amaze me how intuitive you are, love."

Hermione reached up and placed a soft kiss on his lips, then walked back over to peek in on Harry. He'd laid down on her bed, propping one arm behind his head, and he was staring blankly at the ceiling.

"I'm worried about him," she told Ron, as they started down the stairs to speak to Arthur and Molly about their plan. "I understand that he's hurting something horrible, but it's not healthy for him not to speak about it."

"We just need to find Gin, that's all. Besides, it's what Harry does when something like this is going on, you know that. Never speaks a bloody word."

Harry lay on Ginny's bed, listening to Ron and Hermione speak in hushed tones outside the door. He closed his eyes against the pain tearing at his heart, and a lump formed in his throat when he spotted Hermione look in on him. He glanced discreetly at her stomach, which only served to remind him of Ginny again.

A thousand thoughts raced through his mind. Of course, he wasn't going to just let Ginny leave him, no matter what had happened that night. He didn't know what was going on with her, but he sure as hell knew that he wasn't going to let her run away from it. Whatever happened, he'd promised her they'd get through it together, and he wasn't backing down on that vow.

"So, if you don't mind me asking . . . where's the father of your baby?" asked Charlie out of the blue one day as he and Ginny sat down in the lobby, chatting idly.

"Umm . . . that's kind of personal. But don't think for a moment that he didn't love me," defended Ginny, automatically replacing Michael with Harry as the baby's father in her mind.

"Oh," replied Charlie awkwardly. Suddenly, he stood and extended his hand toward Ginny, who took it and pushed herself off the couch they'd been sitting on.

"So, Taylor, you hungry? I thought maybe we could go get something . . . but if you don't want to, I understand, we can just stay here and eat — "

Ginny cut off Charlie's ranting and said, "If you don't mind, I'd like it if we could just eat here. I'm not feeling too well."

Every time someone addressed Ginny as Taylor it took her a moment to realize they were talking to her. "Let me just go change, and I'll be back down. We can eat in the restaurant down here if that's okay," she continued.

"Yeah . . . I'll be waiting here," answered Charlie.

Ginny made her way up the stairs and to her room, sliding the key and opening the door when she got there. She pulled open the closet door and ruffled through the clothes for a moment before sliding out a short, lilac colored sun dress. Harry had bought that for her a short while after he'd first found out about the baby. She slid it over her head and smiled at the little bump sticking out in the middle. It wrenched her heart every time she felt the baby move at all because all it made her think about was Harry.

But somehow she knew Harry would find her. Not that she particularly was wishing for it, because that meant it would put him in danger. She wanted him to find her, of course she did, but she'd rather sacrifice her own happiness than have him in any more danger than was necessary. After all, hadn't he done the same for her for so many years?

She piled her auburn hair atop her head and secured it with a clip before slipping on a pair of sandals and heading back downstairs. Before she even made it down the first flight she heard a loud crack of thunder outside and lightning lit up the floor-length windows in the lobby. Great, she thought. Thunderstorm, just another thing to bring my mood down.

She continued down the stairs and saw Charlie waiting at a table in the little restaurant that was meant for visitors. Silently, Ginny wondered if she was being fair to him. What would happen if he developed a crush on her? He really was being so sweet and nice and she didn't want to hurt him. But what else could she do? Harry was her soulmate, there was no interfering with that.

As she approached the table, rain started falling on the roof and streaming down the windows, blurring the sun setting below the horizon. Something was happening. There was no question about it. To Ginny, an electric charge seemed to materialize in the air around her, and the hair stood up on the back of her neck. It wasn't a feeling of evil, however. Something was going on, and she wasn't sure what. The only thing she felt sure of was that it was nothing to harm her.

Ginny glanced at Charlie, who seemed slightly nervous and she wondered if he felt it too.

She sat down, placing a hand over her abdomen and feeling slight movement. She was three, nearly four months along, but not too far enough to feel a lot of moving around. Again, the feeling washed over her that something was transpiring. Rain fell in thick curtains down the window now, and the feeling became so strong she actually had to stand back up and look around.

She looked at Charlie apologetically before grabbing her light sweater and bolting. Somehow, some way, she knew she was going to be found tonight, whether she liked it or not.

"Still think this was a bloody good idea!" shouted Ron over the pouring rain and pounding thunder.

Hermione glared at him from under the meager protection her umbrella offered and yelled, "Yes! Always return to the beginning if you want to get to the end!"

Ron just glowered and stood there looking confused for a moment.

"God help him," muttered Hermione under her breath, whacking Ron across the head once for good measure.

"What'd you do that for? Have you gone mental?"

"Just follow me, this is where we were last with her. We should be able to find something the Aurors missed. They weren't there with us after all," Hermione scowled.

"Yeah, well I hope this works, 'Mione."

"Me too, Ron. Me too."