Author's Note: If you reviewed last chapter... please review again on this one, it makes me feel good. And if you didn't review last chapter... do I really need to say it...? Thanks.
A Night Without Stars
Potter47
TWO
Ginny walked slowly, meanderingly down to Hogsmeade today, because she had no reason to hurry. Most of the school had already gone down, or were at least far ahead of her on the way. Dean had left a long time ago, she had watched him with that upset look on his face that he'd worn since she'd broken up with him yesterday... And now Ginny was alone, but she didn't really mind.
It was unseasonably warm today—Ginny found herself sweating in her light jumper in the October air. She hoped it would cool down a bit, because she and Luna were going to be sleeping out under the stars again tonight... it wouldn't be right if the ground wasn't frozen and there wasn't a bitterness to the wind. It just wouldn't be the same.
Ginny stepped on a crinkly-looking leaf on the ground, and it made a satisfying crunch beneath her shoe.
"That was a good one," said a voice, and Ginny was somehow not surprised to hear it. She didn't bother turning round, because she knew it was Luna. "I hate it when you think it's going to make a nice crunch but it's really just sort of flat and slippery... don't you?"
"Hello, Luna," Ginny said, and she smiled slightly at the ground as she walked, her hands in her jumper pockets. Luna quickened her walk slightly to catch up, and then slowed down again.
"Sometimes, I think that maybe there's somebody in the Ministry that's hired to manufacture the crunchy-looking-leaves-that-aren't-really-crunchy, you know, just to be mean to the general public. He's probably sitting at his workbench right now and expertly crafting them. I wonder how much he gets paid for that?"
Ginny noticed that sometimes, by the time Luna had finished speaking, Luna had fully convinced herself that what she was making up off the top of her head was true. It was funny.
"Too much," said Ginny, playing along. "That money should be going to the Snorkack Rehabilitation Fund..."
"Yes, it should," said Luna firmly. "In fact, I'm going to write a letter to the Minister, first thing tomorrow and complain about that—"
Ginny grinned again, and brushed a bit of hair behind her ear. The two of them kept walking, and talking about nothing in particular for a long while, until eventually they had reached Hogsmeade and spotted Harry, Ron, and Hermione just outside the Three Broomsticks.
Ginny and Luna joined the others in the pub for a few butterbeers, and Luna informed Ron that he would look nice with an earring, so he should get his ears pierced. Hermione jokingly agreed with Luna and began pointing out the earrings on passing witches, noting which ones Ron should try. Ginny bit her lip to keep from spewing her butterbeer across the table. Harry was quiet, as though deep in thought.
Then, suddenly, Harry spoke:
"Do you hear that?" His face was very serious, and he spoke with an urgent tone.
The others—Ginny, Luna, Ron and Hermione—looked at him curiously. "Hear what?" Ron said, his ears still red from the previous topic. It was a good question—the pub was filled with a thousand different noises, there was no way they could have known which Harry meant—
"Those voices. I swear, I heard someone say something about kidnapping someone—"
Hermione looked alarmed. "What? Who—"
"It's probably Cornelius Fudge—" began Luna.
"Wait, listen!"
They did, but they couldn't hear anything. Then, suddenly, Harry's eyes grew wide and he put his hand to his head. "I think it's in my head..."
Ron made a face. "That is butterbeer you're drinking, right, Harry?"
"No, I mean—yes, it is, but... I mean, in my head, like... like Occlumency. Or Legilimency, whatever."
A silence fell on the table.
"But you've never just heard people talking before," said Hermione. "You should tell Dumbledore—"
Harry looked round the Three Broomsticks, surveying the people around them... Ginny did the same, and—
"My God, Bellatrix Lestrange is over by the doorway."
She shouldn't have said it out loud, because then suddenly all four of the others abruptly turned to face the door, and Lestrange noticed them. Her wand was drawn in an instant, and there was a flash of light...
"Everybody DOWN!"
The next minutes were a blur for Ginny. Afterwards, she couldn't remember experiencing the time at all, she could only remember remembering it once it had passed. Once things had calmed down, the pub was in shambles, empty and deserted, and Ginny tried to reorient herself with her surroundings...
She was on the floor, half under a tablecloth that had fallen from somewhere. Harry was beside her, his wand drawn and watching the door—Ron was next to him, and Hermione next to Ron. They were waiting for Ginny to stand again—
"What happened?" she said, then, but as soon as she was standing she felt her hand grabbed from beside her and she was being pulled along with the other three, out the door of the pub—
There were flashes everywhere, and Ginny was dizzy again. She tried to think while her feet pounded the pavement, but it was difficult... she knew that Harry had her arm, and was pulling her, and they were chasing... who were they chasing?
Time disappeared again for Ginny. The next she knew she was in the middle of High Street, far along the road, where it joined with another street. There was Lestrange, in the middle of the crossing, and—and she had Luna!
Lestrange was holding Luna tightly by the arm, and her other arm held her wand, pointed at Harry—he was facing her as well. Ginny tried to figure out what was going on—
"COME, POTTER! YOU FOR THE GIRL!"
"What?" said Ginny aloud. "What's going on?"
"LET HER GO!" Harry called back to Lestrange.
"COME WITH US AND SHE'LL BE NICE AND SAFE." Even when yelling, Lestrange's voice was nothing but a taunt.
"LET HER GO!"
"COME AND GET HER!"
Ginny felt sort of unbalanced. She wanted to lay down on the ground and just clear out her mind, sort things out... nothing made sense to her. Everything was a jumble.
"WE DON'T WANT ANY TROUBLE, DO WE? FINE—WE'LL DO IT THE HARD WAY!"
And then Ginny couldn't see—a terrible fog had burst forth from Lestrange's wand, and everything was grey... she couldn't see... she couldn't see...
A hand grabbed her arm again, Harry's hand, and they started to run...
Luna had gotten very bored of sitting on the floor. It really wasn't at all comfortable, and it was getting more and more difficult to pretend that the hard floorboards were really the frozen ground outside. She wished she could move.
She glanced at her three captors, and wished at the very least that she could develop a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, so at least she could enjoy herself. But no... this was just dreadful.
One of the Death Eaters—not Lestrange, but one of the two men—noticed that Luna was watching them, and snarled at her. When she didn't react, he looked a bit confused, and then more than a little uncomfortable under her gaze.
Luna was very tired of all this, and she wished that she knew why she was there in the first place. Why had they kidnapped her, of all people...? What good could she do them...? And why must her head be so itchy when she was unable to scratch it...?
She wished that someone would hurry up and rescue her... but then she remembered the fog that Lestrange had cast upon the village, and Luna reckoned it would be very difficult for the others to find them. If only she could send some sort of signal to them...
Luna looked around the room for something to use, but then stopped herself—even if she did find something, she wouldn't be able to do anything with it, because she was so tightly tied up. Then she had an idea.
The Death Eaters were all very anxious-looking, and all of them were watching the door with their hands resting on their wands, as though waiting for an intruder. None of them were paying attention to Luna anymore, and while she was so left alone, she began to concentrate.
Luna thought as hard as she could about the itch on the top of her head, that little tingly feeling that she so very much wanted to scratch. She focused all of her brainpower upon that thought, the thought of scratching that itch, and she began to feel the energy pool within herself, gaining in pressure as she continued to concentrate... then she ignored the building energy to devote that part of her brain as well.
Finally, and Luna was quite relieved that it had worked, a vast array of sparks shot straight out of her ears from the pressure, and while none of the sparks managed to successfully eliminate the itch, they did manage to fly off high into the air, out past the worn and crack-filled ceiling and into the sky above. If Luna could move her mouth, she would have grinned broadly.
The Death Eaters were enraged, and Luna was quite sure that one of them was going to curse her terribly, but Lestrange held up a hand to stop him—Silence, she said soundlessly. Be prepared.
The three Death Eaters were all standing now, and they tucked themselves in on either side of the doorway, so that they were invisible from the hall outside. Their wands were drawn, ready to fire upon anyone who attempted entrance.
Luna thought to herself, Well, at least something's happening now.
"Did you see that? Did you see those sparks?"
Neville was pointing out excitedly over the fog, having sprung up a moment before.
"Yeah, I did," said Harry, standing as well. "Was that the—"
"—Shrieking Shack? I think so."
"Let's go," said Ginny then, abruptly leaping from her reverie. "Let's go."
They went, and it was a painfully long way around the village. Ginny had to consciously keep herself from running, and Harry and Neville struggled somewhat to keep up with her. When they were about a hundred yards off the Shrieking Shack, Ginny noticed that her hand was sweaty on the surface of her wand, so she wiped it.
"Slow down, Ginny," said Harry. "We've got to be careful."
They walked close to the fog, so as to remain as hidden as possible. They were fifty yards away from the Shack now... forty...
Another step closer, and Ginny suddenly felt herself being toppled to the ground—the wind was nearly knocked out of her with the unexpectedness of it, and she lost her grip on her wand—
"Ginny! Harry! Neville!" said her tackler then, and Ginny was amazed to hear Ron's voice. "You're OK—"
"Get off me, or I won't be for long—"
"Oh, sorry Gin—"
"Oh, we were so worried..." said Hermione then, and Ginny finally got back to her feet and could look at the two of them, Ron and Hermione—they were dreadfully out of breath, as though they had just run throughout the entire length of the fog—
"We nearly got killed," said Ron fervently. "There were Death Eaters in there, in the fog, and we didn't see them till it was nearly too late—"
"Wait, wait, what happened?"
Hermione started from the beginning: "After we got separated—I tripped on somebody on the ground, by the way, I think, it was a body—there were Death Eaters in there... and they... well, it was a close thing."
"Hermione fought 'em off, though, really quick hexes," said Ron. He grinned slightly. "That was brilliant, you've got to teach us that, Hermione—"
"I think I sort of understand what the Death Eaters are doing now," said Hermione. "They don't want us to find them at all. That's why they conjured the fog—they want to find us, to catch us off guard and pick us off. I don't think there are too many of them here, maybe they're worried about a confrontation..."
"Why would they be worried about fighting us?" Harry said. "They're Death Eaters—"
"And you're you, Harry, and we're us, and they haven't had much luck against any of us in the past, have they?"
There was a silence for a few moments, and then Hermione seemed to remember something:
"Did you three see those sparks a few minutes ago? Ron didn't see them, he thinks I imagined them—"
"Yeah, we saw them," said Ginny. "That's where we're going, the Shrieking Shack, that's where the sparks were—"
"That's where they have Luna?"
"Yeah," said Ginny. "We've got to hurry—"
"No, we don't," said Hermione hurriedly. "They're not going to do anything to her if they haven't already—and they obviously haven't already, since she must have sent off the sparks. We have to be careful, and take our time—there are probably more of them in there, in the fog, and they might spot us out here if they're close. And more than anything, we have to stay together."
"Whatever," said Ginny. "But let's go."
When Ginny could see again, she was on the floor—she didn't know how long she'd been there. They were in Honeydukes, now; Harry, Ron, Hermione, and her, Ginny. She didn't know how they'd gotten there, but they had, and that was what mattered. It must have been the nearest building...
"What happened?"
The words came out of her mouth before she meant to say them. Harry helped her up and into a chair before speaking. She wondered where Ron and Hermione were.
The Death Eaters had been waiting, Harry told her—they hadn't meant to start a fight, but only to watch, as though they were waiting for something. They'd taken Luna in the initial assault on the Three Broomsticks—Harry hesitated a moment before adding:
"They didn't mean to take Luna... they meant to take you."
Ginny blinked. "Me?" she said. "Why me? Wouldn't they want to take you?"
Harry was silent a minute. He looked as though he were blaming himself for the whole thing... if only he hadn't mentioned the voices, then none of this would have happened... But Ginny knew that it wasn't his fault at all—if they'd wanted to go after her, then it was her fault, obviously.
Then: "Hermione thinks they wanted you as bait, so I'd go after them."
"But why not just take you?" she said, and it did seem odd now that she said it aloud: why hadn't they just taken Harry...?
Harry shrugged. "I dunno."
They were silent a moment or two, and Ginny found herself going over what he'd told her in her mind, letting everything sink in so that she could make sense of everything that had happened...
Then Ginny said: "Where is Hermione?"
"Downstairs. She and Ron are working on getting through the passageway up to Hogwarts... you knew about that, right? The passage?"
"Yeah."
"Well, it's blocked somehow, and they're trying to get through, but they haven't done it so far, as far as I know."
Ginny was starting to feel more like herself now, less confused and more... Ginnyish. Things were starting to make sense...
"Unless they just left without you," she said with a sort of wry smile. "Who needs Harry Potter anyway?" Harry returned the slight smile hesitantly. He still looked to be blaming himself. It wasn't his fault.
"So what do we do while we wait?" Ginny asked for the sake of saying something.
"I guess we just... wait, while we wait. There's nothing much to do. We've got to keep watch up here, just in case..."
"I'll look out the window, then," said Ginny. "Not that I can see much in the fog... hey, you don't have your invisibility cloak, do you? Maybe we could just hang it in front of the fog and we could see through it..."
"No such luck," said Harry.
Ginny moved a chair from behind the counter over to the window and took her position like a prison guard, watching for any sign of movement.
Harry began to pace.
After the painfully long walk to where Ginny, Harry, and Neville had met up with Ron and Hermione, the remaining space between the students and the Shrieking Shack seemed to vanish in an instant. Ginny reckoned it was because she was growing more and more anxious, wondering just what they'd do when they got there... she began dreading it, so it came all the faster.
The Shrieking Shack, being on the edge of town as it was, fell directly upon the line that divided the world into fog and not-fog. The front door and about half of the house was covered in the smokiness, while the rear was perfectly clear of it. It struck Ginny suddenly that the fog seemed to be made of the same substance as ghosts—not really literally, no, but... yes, it struck her that if a ghost had decided to step into the fog, no one would notice. That didn't make sense, but it popped into her head all the same.
It was more the type of thing that Luna would say.
Ginny swallowed, and turned round to the others, suddenly feeling that she was in charge of them, that she was the leader of the rescue. She mouthed to them silently, I'm going in first—watch my back.
Swallowing once again, Ginny put her left hand on the wall of the Shrieking Shack and stepped into the fog. She walked along the edge of the house and tried not to think about not being able to see anything... she held her wand aloft in the other hand, of course, ready to attack anything that moved. With both arms outstretched like that, she felt like she was walking on a wire in a Muggle circus... and while both her feet were firmly on the ground, she felt as though she were about to fall at any moment.
Step, step, step—
Suddenly her hand met air, so she knew that she had reached the corner of the Shack... she turned, carefully, and could suddenly feel Harry's presence directly behind her, and she knew it was him because it radiated Harryness, and it was almost as though he had a hand on her shoulder, steadying her...
Step, step, step...
She felt the edge of the front door meet the tips of her fingers then, and she stopped short—would there be a Death Eater standing guard in the doorway...? Probably... she stood there a moment, took a deep breath, and turned quick as a flash round to face the open doorway—
And it wasn't open; she wondered why she'd thought it would be. The door was closed and of course there was no one standing on the front step.
Hesitantly, Ginny put her left hand on the doorknob, and turned... it was unlocked. Without preamble, she threw the door open and pointed her wand inside—
No one, again. The front room was empty as the fog outside. She let out a breath, but in a moment the door she had flung open crashed into the wall behind, resonating with a loud bang.
"Damn it," she muttered, and she quickly moved inside the building to the fog-free front room, clearing the doorway for the others to do the same behind her... She kept her wand focused on the stairwell while they did so, for surely they must be upstairs, if Luna had shot the sparks into the sky...
Ron was the last one inside, and he closed the door carefully behind him—it was useless, really, since they had to have known they were there, what with the ruckus Ginny had caused... she wondered why they hadn't come down yet to attack.
Then there was a whisper in her ear, Harry's voice: "Maybe they think it's one of them that slammed it."
Ginny doubted it somewhat, but clung to the hope and stepped towards the stairs, leading the way once again...
Before she could reach them, however, she felt someone catch the back of her jumper—it was Hermione, and she was shaking her head fervently. She pointed at the stairs, and Ginny noticed how rickety-looking they were... sure to creak terribly, that was what Hermione was saying.
"Silencio," murmured Hermione near-silently, and then she let go of Ginny's jumper and let her proceed.
The stairs felt odd, as though they were magically cushioned—Ginny could feel that they should have creaked, and yet each step was as silent as the one before it.
When her feet had reached about two thirds of the way up, her head could see over the top step, and across the hall there was a door, which was open, and in that door there was—
Luna saw Ginny as soon as the brightness of her hair had peeked out across the hallway, in the stairwell. She knew that the Death Eaters could not see Ginny, because they were grouped around the door and waiting for someone to step inside, so they could attack—
Luna's eyes caught Ginny's as soon as Ginny's were visible, and then Luna turned her eyeballs to the right and to the left very exaggeratedly, to warn her of the Death Eaters' positions. Ginny paused a moment, and then nodded—she was at the top of the steps now, and Harry was right behind her, Hermione Granger behind him, and then Neville and Ronald...
Ginny disappeared from Luna's sight then, and Luna knew she had put herself in the same position as the Death Eaters, on the opposite side of the wall—the others quickly followed suit. Luna looked at the Death Eaters now, and they must have heard something because they looked ready to spring more than they had before...
Luna wondered if Ginny had any idea what she was doing—Luna hoped she didn't, because that would be more fun.
There was perhaps a full minute during which the opposing sides simply stood there, with their backs to each other and the wall in the middle. Then, Ginny appeared again, and she put her finger to her mouth to make sure Luna didn't speak—as though she were able—and stood right opposite Luna, about halfway between the doorway and the stairs. Ginny raised her wand—
Luna glanced at the Death Eaters once more to see if they were expecting anything, and they didn't seem to be.
—and pointed it at Luna.
"Accio Luna!"
The moment the spell left Ginny's lips, two things happened—one, Luna felt herself flying which was rather pleasant, but also short-lived—and two, the Death Eaters leapt out from their hiding spots to attack Ginny.
They didn't have a chance, however, for as soon as Luna had sped past the doorway, the other students plunged into the fray from their hiding spots, blocking the way of the Death Eaters and throwing hexes at them. Ginny caught Luna unexpectedly deftly and essentially threw them both to the floor, off to the side of the hall and out of the way.
Neither Luna nor Ginny could see anything for the next few minutes, for their heads were tucked closely to the floor, but they heard absolute chaos—the spells of seven people being fired off again and again, and then blocked, and fired, and blocked, all from such a very close range... All Luna could hear was "Protegavadexpellify!" again and again, and that wasn't a real spell.
With a final, discernable "Stupefy!" and a crack, the chaos departed, and there was a collective sigh of relief. They had managed to stun both of the men, and finally Lestrange had Disapparated.
Luna stood then, helping Ginny up with her because Ginny's arms probably hurt from catching Luna, and she brushed herself off—the dust was terrible in this place. It was only when she managed to get a particularly hard to reach patch of it that Luna realised she could move again, which was a pleasant discovery.
"Is everybody all right?" said Ginny. "Luna, you're all right?"
"I'm splendid," said Luna, stretching.
"Good."
Harry spoke then: "We should get Dumbledore... he can take these two." He gestured to the two unconscious Death Eaters."
"Yes," said Hermione. "Ron and I will do that..."
The words sort of faded into the background for Luna, because her attention was elsewhere:
"Look!"
Luna pointed to a glassless window which was not fully boarded up—the other heads in the room turned to it, and they all saw what she was pointing at.
"The fog's gone," said Ron. He turned to Harry: "See, I bet it was because Lestrange was a vampire; she's gone and taken it with her to protect her from the sun."
"There's not much use for that," said Ginny, and she walked over to the window. "The sun's setting."
Luna stood beside her. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Ginny, and then: "Red-orange?"
Luna smiled. "Orange-red."
A long time passed, and a long time had yet to do so. Ginny walked slowly now, savouring the autumnal foliage around her as she made her way to the edge of Hogsmeade.
She couldn't quite remember how long it had been since the first time they'd come here, to their spot on the edge of the village... she knew it was a year before the second time, but after that the weeks and the months and the years sort of blurred into each other, so that Ginny could scarcely recall any individual memories of the nights at all. In fact, those times that, for some reason, they could not make it, those were the ones that stuck in her mind because they were so very much the exception.
When Ginny reached the spot where the trees twined together, Luna was already laying there, her head slightly propped on a pillow of non-crinkly leaves—that was the only thing they were good for, anyway.
"Hello, Ginny," she said without looking away from the sky.
"Hey, Luna," Ginny said, gathering up her own pillow with her foot. "You're early."
"I arrived precisely when I meant to," said Luna. "If I come too late, I don't have a chance to watch the clouds before the sun goes down."
Ginny smiled. "You know, soon we're just going to be laying out here the whole day long, if you think like that. Remember when we just used to come out to watch the stars? Then it was the sunset, too—now the clouds, is it? What's going to be next, the sunrise?"
"No, because I don't have any coffee. I can't watch the sunrise without coffee, you know that."
"Of course not," said Ginny, and now she laid down beside her friend—it struck her how much longer it took her to do that than it used to. "However might I suggest such a treason?"
Luna smirked. "Quiet, Mrs-I-Can't-Apparate-On-An-Empty-Stomach."
"Look who's talking, Mrs-I'll-Just-Take-It-To-Go-Because-I-Can't-Apparate-After-Eating."
"Well at least that makes sense."
"No it doesn't."
"Of course it does."
"This can go on forever, you know that?"
"Shh, there's the first one."
There had been a time when Luna had to point at the star she meant, the first one to appear in the sky... but now both of them knew this view so well that they always knew which star the other was referring to, and they'd long-since known which ones usually appeared first.
They were silent for a long time after that, watching the different stars as they became visible to the earth, watching as the sky grew slowly and slowly darker... and then Luna spoke, and she sounded very sleepy.
"I feel sorry for anyone who doesn't do this... who doesn't look at the stars. They must feel so very lonely, don't you think? But us, you and I, Ginny..." She yawned, then: "We–w... we have a billion friends every week, don't we?"
"I suppose so."
Luna nodded then, and Ginny somehow could tell even though she wasn't looking. Luna just nodded, and nodded, and nodded to herself, and then she murmured something to herself, and nodded off. Ginny smiled to herself once again... once upon a time, they'd been able to stay up and watch the stars the whole night long... but that was a long time ago. Now they were lucky just to see the night fall.
Oh yes, they were lucky.