Chapter Thirteen
Ginny groaned as she opened her eyes to a seemingly lighter shade of gloom. Everything seemed to ache, but at least not as much as before. Ginny tried sitting up a little. There was a definite strain, but the pain was bearable. Gingerly, Ginny lifted herself up and walked shakily over to Nigel who had his eyes closed and was meditating.
"Nigel, how bad was my wound?" asked Ginny. She knew he wouldn't be startled. Nigel was meditating to try and sense how many foes there could be in a one kilometer radius.
"Bad, you're lucky the shuriken didn't nick your intestines. Mainly a flesh wound though. Are you alright?"
"I'm fine. Look it's 5:30 in the morning already. We should get going," said Ginny, rummaging around carefully in her bag for a biscuit.
"Ginny, it was only with sheer magic I managed to heal your wound so fast and so well. It's not a good idea to…" but Nigel trailed off. Ginny was giving him her 'I hear you but I'm not listening,' looks.
"I can deal with pain. In another two days we will be right on the outer edge of Voldemort's lair. We can start devising a plan to get in sooner. Anyway, we can't stay here any longer," said Ginny evenly.
"Okay, but tell me if it hurts too much," sighed Nigel, as he packed up all the gear. Ginny stooped down to pick up her bag, when a sudden jab of pain was felt by her. Wincing, Ginny ignored it and hoped Nigel didn't see.
Not long after, the pair set off towards the direction of Voldemort, both secretly glad nothing but a couple of bats disturbed the eerie peace of the forest.
Finally, the pair reached a tame amount of trees, and the area reeked of dark magic. Nodding to each other, Ginny and Nigel silently took a break. Nigel silently crept into the trees, returning soon after nodding in affirmative that there were guards standing by an entrance.
Ginny looked down at her watch, noting they had one day to figure out how to get in and infiltrate the place. For the moment, being as quiet as possible was the way to go since the guards were only about ¼ of a kilometer away.
"Nigel," whispered Ginny. "The guards are young males right?"
"Yeah, three of them. They're really beefed up, look ready to kill."
"But they have testosterone and are probably horny as fuck. Hopefully they aren't screwing each other in the arse, I know how boring it can be to be a guard."
"Ginny, don't tell me…" but Nigel couldn't bear to go on.
"I have feminine wiles and I am going to use them!"
"Arrgh Ginny! You can't be serious? Are you crazy?"
"Yes, I am. I am also a 24B with curves," retorted Ginny, ripping her hair from her hair-tie and quickly running her fingers through it.
"They'll kill you on sight!"
"Not if I'm already dead."
"What?" exclaimed Nigel softly, remembering to keep his voice down.
"Not really dead, I'll just do a spell which makes me translucent, but still visible. Don't worry, I know a couple of permanent but reversible levitation spells. Think about it, this will be much easier than trying to take them on by force, and as disgusting and odd as you may find it, I've always wanted to try and disarm somebody using my feminine wiles."
"Okay," replied Nigel slowly. "I don't' like this, but I guess we have nothing else so we've got to plan how we're going to this then, don't we?"
Kelly looked warily at Draco before saying "Draco, there is no way we can get past those guards, that seems like more of a main entrance. We'll be killed."
"I know, we'll use a spell to get in instead," replied Draco softly, while healing a small cut on his forearm.
"Draco, enchantments, protecting the whole building."
"Yeah, I know. But I have dabbled in Dark Arts before, easy to believe yes. I know things that most, and I seriously mean most wizards don't know. They're using pretty standard and ancient enchantments, but I know something that can overthrow that," said Draco.
"I see where you're going with this. What did you have in mind?" replied Kelly cautiously. She knew how boys liked to blow things up, even this moody bastard wouldn't be much different.
"Blow it up. Part of the wall where the soldiers are anyway, and we can silence it, they won't know a thing."
Kelly sighed at how stereotypically male he was but agreed to help him, as she saw no other alternative. She was uncomfortable at the thought of Draco once being on the other side, knowing their secrets. Voldemort trusting him. But reality came back to her and she began to relax again and began to focus on the dangerous task ahead of her.
Draco sat down and flexed his wary muscles. They finally made it to the border of the lair, over half a year's hard work. He took a moment to contemplate what has happened and what was to come. On the set day, everyone would find some way of getting inside that lair and wreaking havoc. Silent messages would be posted onto the wall, so only the trained eye could tell they were significant, and what it said.
It would all ultimately lead Harry to Voldemort.
Ultimately, it would either be Harry or Voldemort.
Sighing, Draco's thoughts drifted over to Ginny. He missed her so much; it was as if he was empty until he saw her. Wrenching his thoughts away from Ginny's ever-flowery smelling hair, he concentrated on the task on hand. Telling Kelly about the uber-ancient spell that would explode atoms at an utter of a few words.
At the crack of dawn the next day, Ginny used a spell which tore her robe around the cleavage area and tested to see how much bra it would show. Satisfied the right amount of bust was showing, she pointed her wand to herself and muttered "permanate reversibale translutencie appliqué." The effect was immediate. Ginny stuck her hand out and saw it, but also saw through it to the earth litter on the floor.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" murmured Nigel, and he watched as Ginny silently rose off the ground. He flicked his wand slightly at the desired height, where Ginny's feet where dangling a foot off the ground. Ginny looked like a real ghost. Her determined eyes could easily have been mistaken for sad ones, her artfully torn robes looking morose.
Of course Nigel didn't look at her chest too much. If he did, his heart would start beating extremely fast.
Ginny nodded and floated off in the direction of the guards. Her appearance was extremely eerie, to the guards they thought it may have been a trick of their eyes. Soon, they realized it was only a ghost.
A drop dead gorgeous female ghost who's robe seemed to be falling off her shoulders, revealing large.. endowments. The guards were immediately distracted as Ginny glided closer and closer until she came face to face to them.
"Hello boys," uttered Ginny seductively, "I don't seem to know where I am." Ginny subtly brushed her fingers over shoulder and discreetly swept a sleeve of a robe off her right shoulder. The guards grinned disgustingly and crowded around Ginny, totally forgetting their positions.
The middle guard reached his hand out but before he could, Ginny flicked her hair with her finger, signaling to Nigel that he should attack. Immediately, one stunning spell after another hit the two guards, rendering them useless and unconscious.
In that moment, when the middle guard realized what had happened, Ginny had punched him in the face hard so that he became unconscious, and spirited all three away to the Ministry.
Nigel apparated right next to Ginny and handed over her sword. "You alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, fine," muttered Ginny. She reversed the translucent spell and got Nigel to reverse the levitation one.
"Ready?" quipped Ginny, bringing her wand out in front of her.
"Ready as I'll ever be," replied Nigel, bringing his own wand out as well. With that, Ginny and Nigel used a series of complicated spells which would trick the enchantment in believing they had authority to gain access and they surged inside.
Draco and Kelly stood side by side, concentrating hard. They both faced the six guards and chanted the short but complicated spell in unison.
The effect was immediate. Ten meters of solid metal wall and six guards were blown apart by the sheer force of the spell. After waiting a few seconds for some of the debris to settle down, Kelly and Draco dashed inside.
Meanwhile, hundreds of other pairs of Aurors forced their way inside the lair, causing disruption and havoc.
Kelly and Draco were met immediately with Death Eaters who were throwing curses at them left, right and centre. They sprang into action, taking down many of them as they wandered through the lair. It was dimly lit and slimy.
Just like how Voldemort likes it.
After hours and hours of dueling and slaying Death Eaters, many Aurors had secured a perimeter around the whole lair. Yet, they still were to find Voldemort and his most elite inner circle of members.
After Draco had helped secure a perimeter, his eyes caught hold of red hair in the dim light. He was about to call out to her but she disappeared around the corner before he could do anything about it.
Ginny meanwhile had been searching for Draco in between fighting. Still, the matter of finding Voldemort was stronger. The lair was a maze of corridors, rooms, hallways. Nothing seemed as it was and it took extreme concentration to remember where you were. Eventually, Ginny and Nigel bumped into Harry, Amanda, Draco and Kelly.
Ginny and Draco looked at each other, and it seemed an age before they looked away. The two would have started a conversation, but Harry started speaking in parseltongue to a statue that looked like hundreds of snakes entwined together.
Finally, cold fear gripped Ginny. This was it, this was when Harry and Voldemort would end it all, and she was stuck in the middle.
News soon spread of the discovery of Voldemort's whereabouts, and many Aurors flocked by Ginny and her group. The statue started untwining at Harry's demands, and suddenly floated and crashed onto the floor, the shards of metal sticking into a panel of walls, making them melt away.
Inside, there seemed to be a kilometer by kilometer stone floor. Perfect for dueling. Eerie green flames erupted from black slimy cauldrons and further in. The room seemed to be deathly dark and their seemed to be no ceiling.
Right at the end, there was a line of fifty of the most powerful Death Eaters of all time. In front of them, stood Lord Voldemort.
Ginny gasped in spite of herself. He looked so ugly yet so powerful. His face was red and distorted. He seemed shorter but more menacing. He could have been another species.
"Welcome, to my…" but Voldemort never finished because he launched a sneak attack. The whole room was suddenly a blur. Ginny joined everyone in a mass duel, while Harry headed straight for Voldemort.
Ginny dueled and dueled and dueled. She did not heed the yelling and screaming in the background but concentrated on killing the death eater in front of her. She ignored her pain and other people dying around her. She was way too caught up. These Death Eaters were much stronger and better than the Death Eaters Ginny normally faced, and they were putting up a lot of fight.
It seemed that two hours later, only a handful of Aurors including Draco, Ginny and Harry were left, but even more Death Eaters had died. Two Aurors went for three existing Death Eaters but only managed to kill two.
The third one lowered his hood to reveal a creepily grinning Lucius Malfoy. He had noticed the youngest Weasley and intended to make his way to destroy her.
Just as Harry motioned for Godric's sword and Ginny threw it to him, Lucius pointed his wand at Ginny and uttered "Avada Kedavra!"
Just as Draco screamed "No!" The spell hit Ginny in between her shoulder blades, and her final breath was a gasp of surprise. She crumpled to the floor and unadulterated anger surged through Draco. Never had he hated his father so much.
Draco gave a roar and charged at his father, taking him by surprised. Strength and lamentations of Ginny flowed from him as he rammed Lucius into a wall. Draco was too angry to hear a loud crack which belonged to Lucius neck. He was dead. Draco continuously beat his father with his bare fists, tears falling from Draco's face to Lucius's.
Perhaps if Draco kept beating up his father, Ginny would come back to life. Lucius needed to feel his pain… soon Draco was pulled off Lucius's limp body and was firmly held. It was Harry, looking at Draco with great pain evident in his face. "I killed him, Draco… but…"
"Merlin, Ginny! I have to see her!" rasped out Draco, breaking free from Harry and dashing to where she lay. Someone had straightened her up on the ground among the other Aurors who had fallen. Draco picked up her upper body and blinked away the tears. She was dead. It was the final blow to Draco. She looked so peaceful and Draco could have sworn she was only sleeping. Except this time, there was no steady rise and fall of her chest, no colour in her cheeks. Ginny's hair was still as blood red as ever, but Draco would never have the pleasure of running his fingers through it ever again.
"Ginny… how could you leave me? You promised!" whispered Draco desperately to Ginny. He thought, for some crazy moment Ginny would wake up and tell him she hadn't left her, that she was right there. But she never said that. She continued to be dead weight in Draco's arms.
It was at that moment, everything died inside Draco. He had nothing and no one anymore.
Hey, I hope you are enjoying my fanfiction. This has been a sad chapter, but thus is the plot. Please review, luv Jess.