Ginny didn't bother wondering how Voldemort had managed to get in past the Anti-Apparition barrier.
"Stupefy!" she shouted.
Voldemort laughed that high, cold laugh as her spell hit him and vanished. "It is not as easy as that, Weasley," he said. "Crucio!"
Ginny shrieked and fell hard on the stones.
"Stop it!" yelled Harry. "Stop it now!" he demanded, pointing his wand at the imposing wizard.
Voldemort broke the curse and turned to Harry. Ropes shot out of the end of his wand to bind Harry. He turned to the two girls and did the same.
"I do not need your physical cooperation in this," he said, picking up their wands. Ginny's he retrieved from Malfoy's robes. He turned back to them.
"Ginny Weasley," said Voldemort softly. "So impressionable--so wonderful to work with."
"What do you mean?" cried Harry.
"Your dear friend has been helping me with a little bit of research for my latest project. She's very efficient; she found the person I needed much more quickly than I was expecting."
"What did you do to her? How did you make her cooperate?"
Ginny silently wished herself into a hole. The last six months of hard work seemed so far away, so vague and veiled. Suddenly her motives didn't make sense--why hadn't she done more to prevent it? Why had she cooperated?
"What did I do to her?" Voldemort was saying. "It isn't what I did to her, Harry Potter, but what she did to me. Yes, Ginny Weasley," he continued. "Your life-force once brought me back to life; I know about the diary. You can't help but cooperate with me. You're a part of me," he said, in a deadly whisper.
"And now," he continued in a more normal voice, "I will explain what we are doing tonight."
Where's Dumbledore? Ginny thought wildly. Why haven't teachers come swarming up to see what's going on?
She listened with half an ear as Lord Voldemort explained the magic of the Four Founders. It was the same speech he'd given her over tea so long ago. She focused on trying to think of a way out of their situation, but most of the possible solutions involved having her wand, and that wasn't available. She couldn't move anywhere--not even wriggle, because of the way the ropes were tied.
She heard Laura whimpering as Voldemort explained how she was the Heir of Ravenclaw.
"And I must thank Harry Potter here for preventing the failure of tonight's work," he was saying. "For if young Laura had managed to commit suicide, this would not be possible." Voldemort drew his wand and held out their three in his other hand. "You have two choices, my young friends, when I give you back your wands. First, you can cooperate with this work--it will go much more quickly and I might perhaps let you live afterwards." He laughed. "The other choice is for me to put all of you under Imperio, but that would result in a far inferior working. In addition, you'll probably lose your minds during the spell. Choose!"
Ginny thought hard, and could hear Harry beside her muttering under his breath. She knew he could resist the Imperius Curse, and Voldemort knew it, too. But she also knew a bit more than Harry about multiple-wizard workings, and knew that it was a very different form of Imperius that was used--a very old, almost lost, variant which, once the spell was started, had never in history been thrown off.
"I'll never cooperate with you," came a little voice. She'd almost forgotten about Laura.
"Nor will I," said Harry fiercely.
"That will not be a problem," said Voldemort. "And you, Ginny Weasley?"
Ginny took a deep breath. She knew it would be the right thing to do to not go willingly; then she could say truthfully that it had not been by choice. But if it ever came to that--if they got out of this alive, even!--she would probably already be sent to Azkaban for even doing his stupid research. What was one more thing?
"I'll do it," she said. Harry sputtered. "I'll already be in trouble for starting this whole thing," she said flatly.
Voldemort smiled and handed her back her wand. "Imperio Omnis!" he intoned, and Harry and Laura both went slightly limp. Voldemort handed them their wands, and they waited placidly.
"By the blood of Salazar Slytherin," he began.
"By the blood of Helga Hufflepuff," Ginny said.
"By the blood of Godric Gryffindor," came Harry's voice, distant and strange.
"By the blood of Rowena Ravenclaw," Laura finished.
"We call on the power given us by our forebearers."
A powerful wind nearly swept Ginny off her feet, and she felt the tingling of old magic down her back.
She could see Hogwarts' fundamental magic, a gauzy film over the dark turret, surrounding her in colorful swirls of distinctive power. She saw the quietness of Hufflepuff, the twisting wiles of Slytherin, the rashness and pure strength of Gryffindor, and the solid intelligence of Ravenclaw. Only now they were Helga, Salazar, Godric, and Rowena, close friends, family, welcoming. Pulled by Lord Voldemort's will, the four of them threaded their way through the enchantments holding the castle together. Centuries of use had worn down the physical foundations--without these bindings, the castle would fall into the ruin the Muggles perceived it to be. Starting from the top down, Voldemort began unknotting and shredding the spells.
Ginny felt Harry trying to fight it. But this was no standard Imperius Curse; his very blood was cooperating. He was a part of the castle, and as Dumbledore had said at the very beginning of the school year, "Hogwarts cannot protect you from its own."
Her outside ears heard a loud crash as North Tower fell. Ginny suffered a brief pang of grief for Professor Trelawney, but then was distracted as Voldemort pulled at Gryffindor Tower. All her friends, her brothers, were inside. She sobbed, wishing yet again that she'd never gotten involved.
Then there was something else--another force, awakened, powerful, angry. Where was it coming from?
"Who is this?" Voldemort shouted over the din. "How did they get in here?" He turned away for a moment from his destructive path to send a random curse towards the new power.
Ginny heard herself scream as a great pain ripped through her. The baby! He was tearing at its newly awakened force, trying to squeeze life from it, trying to wrench it out of their working. But the child would not leave the circle. By being a part of her, it could not leave.
Ginny was struck with an idea.
She wrenched the child's power into her own--
A--
The beam from her wand changed direction, changed color--
va--
Along her path, she swept up Harry into the drive--
da--
He was a part of her, their mutual life-debt stronger than Voldemort--
Ke--
but Laura was physically seized by Voldemort, pushed in front of him--
da--
Ginny couldn't stop--
vra!
There was a high shriek, and Voldemort disappeared into the darkness.
Ginny fell to the stones heavily, her womb rippling in pain. "Harry," she moaned. "Help me..."
Harry rushed over. "What is it?"
"The baby--"
"Oh, my god, you're bleeding--"
"Where's Laura? What happened to Voldemort?"
"I think--I think we killed her..."
Ginny moaned, in pain and sorrow.
"There's nothing we can do now, Ginny. Voldemort's gone--I don't know what happened. But we need to get you to the hospital wing. Can you walk?"
Ginny shook her head, and Harry picked her up and carried her to the tower door. Somewhere along the way other people joined them, words of worry and hope and comfort on their lips. But she couldn't tell who; everything was blurry.
Most of her consciousness was on the child. It had been awakened by the powerful magic they had been working. It lashed out now, angry and violent. She was dimly aware of various objects, mostly windows, exploding around her as she was carried through the school.
Gentle hands placed her on a bed. Harry was explaining to the gathered teachers what had happened, but all she could feel was the raw power from the child.
"Drink," said a quiet voice, holding a phial up to her lips. It was cool and sweet, and her consciousness settled slightly.
"He's angry," she whispered to Professor Snape when she recognized him. "He wants to go back to sleep."
"Shh, child," said Madam Pomfrey. "You're going to be fine."
Ginny screamed as a contraction rippled across her womb.
"Is there nothing to do, Poppy?" asked Snape in a quiet voice.
"I'm afraid not," said Madam Pomfrey, almost whispering. "If the child comes out, it comes out. We do what we can."
Ginny screamed again. Shh, shh, she said to the angry little thing. Go back to sleep.
But it struck out at her, and she felt another contraction ripple across.
"It's coming out," said Madam Pomfrey.
"That's mine!" shouted a new voice. Lucius Malfoy, short of breath, came running into the Infirmary. Ginny's letter was still clutched in his hand. "The little brat is my grandchild!"
"Please, Mr. Malfoy, this is a hospital!" exclaimed Madam Pomfrey. "You can't just--"
"I can do anything I please," said Mr. Malfoy. "Get out of the way, Severus!"
Professor Snape had interposed himself between Malfoy and Ginny.
"Give the girl some room, Lucius," said Snape, struggling to hold him back. "We will deal with it when the child is born--"
"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Harry angrily.
Malfoy fell.
"Thank you, Harry," said Snape, with genuine gratitude. He grabbed Malfoy by his feet and dragged him into Madam Pomfrey's office, locking the door as he returned.
Ginny fainted with pain and anguish.
She woke in the Hospital Wing to the noise of lots of people trying to be very quiet.
"Can we see her?" Ron.
"Please, we'd like to see if she's all right." Hermione.
"That's my daughter in there!" Her father.
There was the sound of footsteps, and the curtains around her bed were parted to reveal a small army of redheads, plus one bushy-haired girl and a black-haired boy with worried green eyes.
For a moment no one said anything, then her mother, who had tears in her eyes, grabbed Ginny and held her tightly.
"I'm so sorry," Ginny said, crying. "I should have told you earlier, I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking-"
"Shh, shh," said her mother comfortingly. She patted Ginny's hair. "It's all right."
"Where is it?" Ginny asked.
"Oh, Ginny," said her mother sadly. "It was--it was stillborn. Madam Pomfrey had to do a Muggle Caesarian, since she couldn't Apparate it out--"
A powerful wave of sadness swept over her. She gasped, feeling desperately empty and alone. She felt like throwing up, but her stomach, apart from feeling like it had no muscles, was empty. Her breath came in gasps, short and shallow.
For six months she'd had a little new person inside her, keeping her company, making her sick, but always there. A high, keening noise escaped her as she rocked back and forth.
"It's going to be all right," someone said. Hands held her; people clustered all around her, their presence warm and comforting.
She calmed down enough to ask about Laura.
"Professor Sprout is with her parents," said Harry gently. "I know how you feel."
Harry did know how she felt, she realized. He'd been through the same thing, almost. "And Percy?" she asked.
"I'm here, Ginny," said Percy very quietly. "I don't know where I've been for the past year, but I'm here now." She looked at him quizzically. "It's a long story," he sighed.
Her brothers--all six of them--clustered around the bed, looking worried. Fred and George were uncommonly quiet.
"What, no toilet seats?" she asked half-jokingly.
They grinned briefly.
"We're just amazed that you didn't come to us for help," Fred said.
"Yeah, you know we would have clobbered Malfoy for knocking up our little sister," George said, cracking his knuckles.
"None of that, boys," said Mr. Weasley. "Ginny, there are legal routes that can be taken against Draco Malfoy. When you and Harry were kidnapped, we'd had no proof, only your word, so we couldn't ask for an investigation. But now, if you'd like--"
Ginny shook her head. "I just want to forget about this."
Harry placed a hand over hers. "I'm here for you," he said, kissing her on the cheek. There was a chorus of sighs and sniggers from the surrounding redheads as Harry held Ginny tightly.
"That's enough, you two," said Mrs. Weasley, gently pulling Harry off of her daughter. "I'm sure Ginny needs to rest."
"No, I want to know what's happened--where's Dumbledore? And all the teachers? What happened?"
Her family and friends started telling her, in bits and pieces, and she finally got the whole story.
Lucius Malfoy had indeed intercepted Ginny's letter home. But him meeting her at the Tower, though not an original part of what seemed to be Voldemort's plan, had in fact fitted in well.
Percy, who had been under a milder form of Imperius--suggestive, but not commanding, he explained--had been told to get Ginny up to the Astronomy Tower at sunset. Malfoy intercepted them, made Percy stun Ginny, and had taken advantage of being there a little early to take care of a the matter of Ginny's baby.
Draco Malfoy had started a fight with Harry and made him worry about Ginny, so he'd looked her up on the map to find out where she was, and had come up to the Tower just in time to stop Malfoy.
Laura Madley had received a letter late in the afternoon telling her that she would take part in a grand Dark ceremony. If she refused, her parents would be killed. So she had come up to the tower to escape her summons the only way she knew.
But, separate as all these events seemed, they had fit perfectly into Voldemort's plans. He was a shrewd judge of character, Ginny knew. Quite possibly he'd known that Laura would rather commit suicide than be a part of the spell.
Voldemort had been let into the castle by Cho Chang and Draco Malfoy, who were currently being questioned by Aurors in Dumbledore's office.
And Voldemort had arrived at the Astronomy Tower at the perfect time.
Meanwhile, when the wards, set by none other than Bill Weasley ("Dumbledore knew something was coming," Bill said, "just not exactly what, and not exactly when"), registered Voldemort's presence, Dumbledore had herded all the students into the Great Hall while the castle was searched. Because the Great Hall was still standing without the help of magic, it hadn't even been in danger during the work. And, because the spell had only been in place for a short time, only North Tower and Gryffindor Tower had been destroyed.
No one knew exactly what had happened to Voldemort. Harry thought that he'd vanished, just like the night his parents were killed. Ginny wasn't so sure of it. Laura had been the one hit by the curse, not Voldemort. Ginny suspected that he'd Apparated out while the wards were all in a shambles.
Hermione tutted about Hogwarts, A History, but Ginny stuck to her hunch.
"Well, we'll see eventually if he resurfaces," her father said.
Ginny remembered something. "Dad," she said, "Malfoy mentioned that all the mail to Ministry officials was being intercepted. Was that why you were so worried about Fudge earlier this year?"
Mr. Weasley nodded. "I knew that my letters were being tampered with, both incoming and outgoing. But there was more than that. What I was really worried about was my office being searched. There's a new Public Information Act, which gives Fudge the right to search any Ministry office that he has reasonble suspicions about. It was passed because of worry over Voldemort's spies, but it gave too much power to the wrong man." He sighed. "Hopefully, that's all in the past."
Madam Pomfrey stuck her head around the curtains. "Professor Dumbledore is here to see you, Miss Weasley. I'm sorry, but the rest of you will need to leave."
With a chorus of good-byes, her family left, promising they'd be back soon.
Albus Dumbledore entered, looking grave. Behind him came Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy, and Alastor Moody.
"Well, girl," said Moody. "There's a lot to talk about, isn't there?"
Fudge wanted to hold a formal investigation into Ginny's use of the Killing Curse. Fortunately, though, both Cho and Malfoy confessed to having let Voldemort into the castle, so Fudge had to let it go.
"But, I mean, Albus, that girl--what's-her-name, Laura--she's dead!" he exclaimed.
Dumbledore gave Fudge a piercing look and the man quailed slightly, but continued, "I'm sorry, Albus, but I really don't like this. It was an Unforgivable Curse, there's no doubt about it. No, no, I don't like this at all."
Ginny had had enough of Fudge's incompetence. "Do you like the fact that Draco Malfoy raped me? That I gave birth at fourteen to a stillborn, premature baby because of all this? Do you like that I had to do research for Voldemort because of a little black book that Mr. Malfoy--" Malfoy's lips tightened, but he kept an expressionless face "--dropped in my cauldron my first year? Do you?"
"That's enough, Miss Weasley," said Dumbledore sharply. Ginny fell silent. "There are a lot of crimes here that have gone unpunished--Draco Malfoy's two attacks on her--"
"Two?" said Fudge.
"He--" Ginny began, but Dumbledore waved her silent.
"Draco Malfoy knocked Miss Weasley out of the Quidditch stands, causing her to fall fifteen feet onto her head. She nearly died," Dumbledore explained. "The only punishment was Draco's removal from the Quidditch team."
"I explained that that was an accident," said Lucius Malfoy smoothly. "Draco had a new broom that he hadn't flown in a match yet. It was quite irresponsible of him, but it was completely accidental, I assure you."
"See, Albus, it's--"
Dumbledore made another gesture of impatience. Ginny had never seen him so worked up before. "All I am saying, Cornelius, is that Miss Weasley's claims against Draco Malfoy have not been brought properly to justice."
"Your problem, Cornelius," Moody interrupted gruffly, "is that you never look further than the next opportunity to increase your popularity. But we're getting off the subject here," he said. "The question we need to address is: Should we punish young Ginny here for single-handedly foiling an attack on the school? I think not."
Put that way, Fudge had no choice but to agree, and left, muttering darkly. Lucius Malfoy shot Ginny a contemptuous glare, and swept out after him.
"Well, girl, if I were minister, I'd give you the Order of Merlin, Second Class at least. But what a price!" Moody sighed. "I'm terribly sorry, girl, terribly sorry. You've got a good family, though, and they'll take care of you. Don't ever doubt it. Your father, especially--you're his little girl, his only girl. He'll watch out for you."
Ginny blushed and thanked him.
After a few more words with Professor Dumbledore, she was finally left alone. Madam Pomfrey bustled in with a dose of Dreamless Sleep, and Ginny fell into blissful darkness.
For days the school was buzzing with excitement. The various versions of what had happened--a lot of it speculation by the ghosts and portraits, who had felt the surging magic--circulated wildly. Some of them were completely off the mark--such as the story that Harry had fallen for Laura, and Ginny had killed her in spite, and taken out the two towers just for fun. Some of them came awfully close to the truth, especially those of people who knew that Cho Chang and Draco Malfoy had been expelled for helping an intruder to enter the castle.
The story about Cho and Malfoy took a while to surface. Ginny could understand Draco Malfoy wanting to let Lord Voldemort into the castle--not only would he be able to do something hideous, he'd be put into favor with his Dark Lord. But Cho Chang had never before been suspected of even sympathising with the Death Eaters.
Then Hermione asked around her Arithmancy classmates. It turned out that Cho had figured out Ginny's pregnancy--a lot of the school had, actually--and had thought it was Harry's child. It wasn't surprising, since that's exactly what Ginny had been trying to do. But, unwittingly, Ginny had helped along another part of Voldemort's plan.
Laura's parents came and heard Ginny's story. They didn't weep, but Mrs. Madley understood Ginny's own personal grief--she'd almost lost Laura to a similar fate. "At least it was with reason," said Mr. Madley quietly before they left.
The Malfoy family silently disappeared after Draco's expulsion. Fudge blustered and blew, but couldn't do anything when Malfoy Manor was searched under "reasonable suspicion." It was found to contain a large collection of illegal Dark objects, and Lucius Malfoy, already in disfavor with most of the Ministry, contributions-to-St.-Mungo's-be-damned, was declared a fugitive on the run, awaiting trial if he ever returned to Britain.
A few days after the attack, Harry's scar exploded in pain. "So he's still out there," Harry said when he told Ginny what he'd seen. "Not even harmed, though it looks like he's lost some followers."
Harry and Ginny had patched things up, mostly. Ginny felt Harry was right to be upset at her over the pregnancy, and he admitted that he still was.
"But," he said, kissing her neck gently one afternoon by the lake, "you've been through way too much for me to stay angry with you very long. And"--he looked at her lovingly as he spoke tentatively--"maybe, in a few years, when you're ready, I can replace some of those bad memories that Malfoy left?"
Ginny bit her lower lip, then smiled. "I'd be glad of that," she said. "When I'm ready."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione took their OWLs; Fred and George stumbled through their NEWTs. Charlie decided he'd stay in England for a while ("I haven't really met the Welsh Greens," he said with a wink, but Ginny knew he was staying for her.) Bill and Fleur left for France for the summer to muster up support in Europe against Voldemort.
Ginny and Bill got to talk once before he left. Bill apologized for the Obliviate, which Ginny vaguely remembered.
"I'll forgive you if you tell me everything that you erased!" Ginny exclaimed, only halfway angry.
Bill chuckled. "Let me explain from the beginning. Dumbledore's trying to get as many avenues of support as he can. First, Europe has ignored Voldemort for too long. The Malfoys are supposedly hiding somewhere near Russia, and where they go, the Dark Arts are not too far behind. So Fleur and I will be visiting some European Ministries to gather support for England. Rather like what Hagrid and Madame Maxime have done with the giants.
"Secondly, Dumbledore wants to tap Muggle technology to try and fight Voldemort when the time comes. So Dad gets to tinker legally--he's quite happy about that, but not about the potential for destruction that he's uncovered.
"We're going to have a civil war on our hands, since Fudge is still in office. He'll never admit to being hoodwinked by that--that slippery-tongued devil. He'd rather let the blame fall on Malfoy than have his position threatened. It won't be too long now before people divide up. I think, though, that Dumbledore has a strong following, and we won't have a long fight.
"I have to apologize to you," Bill said, suddenly serious. "I knew you were pregnant when I did the wards. Dumbledore told me--I needed to know that so he could be alerted to exactly where you were." He spoke in a rush. "I set the wards to awaken the child."
"You what!"
"I set the wards--"
"I heard that! Why did you do it? If that hadn't happened--"
"Ginny, the plan was only to distract Voldemort with something unexpected! There were a whole bunch of us in Hogsmeade, waiting to fly up to the castle to save you three from whatever spell he was using. But you and Harry managed it well all on your own. I didn't know what it would do to the child, honestly. I'm sorry."
Ginny sat still for a minute. It was true that she wished she'd been able to carry the child to term. But, all things considered, it would have been hard to raise it, even with her mother's help. And if she hadn't had the extra burst of power from the baby, she couldn't have stopped Voldemort.
"You're forgiven," she finally said quietly.
Bill left, promising to write often.
Ginny sighed sadly. She supposed they'd done the right thing. Voldemort wasn't dead, wasn't even defeated, but he had definitely been delayed, and that was worth something.
Author Notes: I've been planning to write a sequel to this for a while, but it's low on my list of priorities. Meanwhile, take a look at my other stories!