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Chapter 18: Back to Normal and A Meeting Between Them
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Hermione woke up in her room at the Burrow. 6 o'clock. She remembered the events of the day.
They had broken into Voldemort's dwelling place and saved Ginny. Not even a single encounter with Voldemort... it was strange.
Well, things were back to normal. They were greeted at home with much joy and happiness at the arrival of Ginny. In the process, Hermione and Ron had made up.
Now Hermione looked over to her right. Ginny was breathing lightly. Every now and then, she would take a drink of something out of a small bottle. Hermione had asked what it was, and Ginny told her that she was drinking a potion that would cure shock. It's not every day one gets kidnapped by Voldemort. Ginny didn't talk much after the rescue, though, and neither did Harry...Hermione understood, though. She knew Harry would recount the details with her and Ron later. She got out of bed to finish her Potions book... after all, school started tomorrow.
Down one floor, Ron woke up. He heard the sounds of Hermione's footsteps upstairs. He really did love to hear them in the morning, even though he hated getting woken up by them so early.
He felt so strange, almost as if he had exposed his secret to someone... but he would remember if he had, wouldn't he?
If Hermione really did love Malfoy, he thought, she wouldn't care if I really did... have feelings for her.
Ron remembered painfully the fight he had with Hermione yesterday. He felt awful about it. He wanted to tell her how he really felt about her... but he couldn't. He wouldn't let himself do it. He couldn't handle it if he found out that she was in love with Victor Krum, or Malfoy... at least Hermione said that she could forgive him. She even said that she worried if she would ever see him again while she was with Harry and George.
Malfoy. Something about him struck a chord with Ron, more than usual. He felt like something had happened, like he had told him something he shouldn't have...
He only remembered being with George, setting off fireworks, and then leaving with the rest, Harry saying that they had outsmarted Voldemort... or something... it was all very fuzzy to Ron.
But he didn't care... Fred and George were back at the shop, making Galleons, Ginny was back, mom and dad were happy, Harry wasn't dismembered by Voldemort, and Hermione was still ok...
Ron sighed happily at the thought of her. He turned over in bed and tried to go back to sleep, at least for another hour or two...
Meanwhile, Harry woke up. He was not in bed, but still in the dungeon (home-made in a basement) where he was immobilized. He looked across the room, realizing that he was in chains. He saw a red-haired girl, crying, in the corner.
"Ginny?" Harry asked, heart racing. "Is that really you?"
"Yes," said she in a quiet whisper that echoed around the cavernous basement. She was in chains as well.
"Ok, so, to make sure, I'm going to ask you a question. What's your favorite cough drop?"
"Strawberry ice cream."
"And your favorite hex on Malfoy?"
"The Bat-Bogey Hex."
"Ah, Gin, that's really you," Harry said relieved. Then he remembered that she was crying.
"Gin, what's wrong?"
"Harry..."
"Yes?"
"We're never going to get out of here, are we?"
"I wouldn't say that," Harry mumbled.
"Well, you're in chains, Harry, wandless, and so am I. What the heck are we going to do to get out?"
"Well... I don't know. But feeling sorry for us isn't going to help," said Harry, checking to see if he really was wandless, which he was.
"Well," said Ginny, "how are we going to get out of here?"
"Well... I guess we have one way out of here that won't involve running into twelve trillion armed Death Eaters, a hungry snake, and a sick Voldemort. But, of course, it'd be hard, since I've never tried it before..."
"You don't mean...?"
"Yeah, I do..."
"But you've never tried it before. You wouldn't even know the basics of Apparating."
"This is true."
"And people have been dismembered trying."
"This is also true. Unless you have a better idea, then we're going to be stuck here."
"Why don't we steal a Death Eater's wand?"
"Hm... well, I suppose that'd be easier than attempting something that could possibly dismember me."
"Yeah, exactly what I was thinking," said Ginny sarcastically. "Look, if we're going to get out of here, we need to take a few risks. Are you with me?"
"Yes."
"Ok. Now, let's make a plan that's better than your one that got you here."
"Gee, thanks for your confidence in me, Gin."
"I do admit, it must have been a little hard to find this place, since you were looking for something vaguely around London..."
"How did you know that?"
"Voldemort was shooting the breeze with Bellatrix."
"Oh. Did you know that she--"
"Drank Polyjuice Potion to look like me? Yes. I bet you don't know that she right now is in my house disguised as me and MacNair as you."
"Er...I do now."
Ginny laughed. "The 'chosen one' doesn't even know Voldemort's plan as well I do!"
"Yeah..."
"Hey, Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"You know, you have really nice eyes."
"Thanks, Gin. You do too."
"Thanks." Suddenly, Ginny turned her head quickly to the door.
"Someone's coming!"