Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. sobemosob
Hazardous Sanity
Chapter Seventeen: Going After Harry
If heaven and hell decide,
That they both are satisfied,
Illuminate the No's
On their vacancy signs,
If there's no one beside you as your soul embarks,
I'll follow you into the dark.
I'll follow you into the dark.
-I'll Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie
Ginny hesitantly closed the door softly behind her. Ron was ahead of them, his fiery hair already at the end of the corridor. She made to follow, but as she did, Hermione abruptly stopped and ran back towards the empty space of wall where the room of requirement could be found.
"I'll be right back," she whispered hurriedly, already walking past the wall a second time.
"Hermione, Ron is-"
A door appeared and Hermione ran into it, ignoring her friend's urgent whisper. The door slammed loudly and disappeared. Ginny winced at the sound and scanned her surroundings. Ron was nowhere to be seen, and there was a sound of footsteps, quick and with purpose coming from behind her.
I have nowhere to hide! she thought, her head whipping around in search of a suitable hiding spot.
The footsteps stopped, and she knew she was in plain sight.
"Well, well, well…"
"Go away, Parkinson," Ginevra barked. She didn't even need to turn around to figure out where the pompous voice had come from.
"No, I don't think I will," Pansy replied and walked around to face Ginny.
"The whole school is looking for you. They say you have a letter from Potter, and all of wizarding Britain has been searching for him for ages now. I wonder what the school will give me when I turn it in and save the day…" The Slytherin looked contemplative.
Ginny narrowed her eyes. "Nothing, because there is no letter."
Pansy looked shocked for a moment, but quickly regained her composure. "There is, and I bet you have it on you, too. Now the only choice I need to make is whether to bring you with me in bloody pieces or not. I'm sure no one would mind. Who cares about a dyke, anyway?" She asked softly, raising her hand and brushing the side of Ginny's cheek.
Ginny stepped back. Her face was glowing a bright pink. "Don't touch me, Parkinson."
Pansy's mouth twisted into a cruel grin. She stepped closer, brought up her hand again, and kept it uncomfortably close to Ginny's face before dropping it. "I know what you are, Weasley. I know what you've been infesting our school with your lust for smooth female flesh. You must be so happy, sharing a room with other girls… Oh wait, you killed them, didn't you?"
Pansy was walking around her now. They were close, almost touching. Ginny could feel Pansy's blond hair tickle her neck. It gave her goose bumps. How badly Ginny wanted to strike out and hit the other girl, but it would jeopardize everything. Hermione would never forgive her.
She would never forgive herself.
Suddenly there was a wand pointed at her face. Ginny tensed. Her hand tightened its grip around her own wand in her robe pocket.
"I guess this is the end of your little adventure. Hand over the letter if you don't want to be permanently injured," Pansy commanded.
Ginny could see the malice in those icy blue eyes. It made her shiver slightly. Her fingers curled around a piece of folded parchment, and her other hand kept its steady grip on her wand. She took out the parchment obediently and Pansy ripped it out of her grasp. The wand never moved from her face. Pansy giggled.
"Stupid, gullible Gryffindors… Stup-"
A voice called out "Stupefy!" from behind her and at the same moment that the red light hit her, a broom came crashing down on her head. Pansy hit the floor with a "Thump!"
Behind her was Hermione carrying three brooms. Two under her left arm and one still clutched in her right hand. Ginny looked around for the spell caster and saw someone she never would have expected.
"Malfoy?" she exclaimed in confusion. "Why the hell-"
Draco pushed past Hermione and grabbed Pansy, lifted her up to a standing position, then levitated her away. Ginny and Hermione watched him, astounded. Why was Draco Malfoy helping them? It made no sense! Hermione seemed to come to her senses first and awkwardly threw her leg over a broom. She was lifted a few inches so only her toes skimmed the marble floor.
Ginny blinked up at her, still shell-shocked.
"The castle has charms on it so students won't fly brooms inside of the corridors. They don't disable them completely in case of emergencies, but they are really weak," Hermione said as she handed Ginny one of the brooms. "I made the mistake of thinking of brooms when I really should have thought of enchanted brooms. It took me quite a bit of trouble to find just one before realizing that I could just mentally request them."
"Hermione," Ginny said as she was lifted off of the ground.
"Yes?"
"Shut up."
Hermione glowered at her before they took off down the corridors. Besides not being able to pick them up very high, the speeds were pretty adequate for weak charms on the already usually slow and weak school brooms. They caught up with Ron coming back for them within minutes.
"We've only got half an hour now," he informed them grumpily and took off at the highest speed available.
There were children milling about. Younger students who wanted to explore the castle a bit before dinner. They exclaimed over the crazy older students riding brooms in the castle. Ginny thought she heard a few teachers call their names, but all she heard was a constant mantra in her head:
Gotta get to Harry. Gotta get to Harry. Gotta get to Harry.
As she held on to her broom, things began to unfocus. Her broom began to shake in a very unstable manner. Ginny's vision began to spin. Circles and blurs, the screams of students. They seemed so close, yet a minute later so far. Her grip became unnaturally tight and her legs clamped together in an effort to control whatever was happening. Her mouth filled with an acrid taste. She swallowed but the bile just rose up again.
Take deep calming breaths. Calm down. Calm down. Calm down! What the hell is wrong with me?
She was spinning. Her broom was spinning and she hadn't even realized it. A red pony tail whipped her in the face with every turn and her hands held on for dear life. Somehow, her legs became loosened from their vise-like grip and now they were splayed out in the air, being thrown around in the air like a rag doll's. Ignoring the vomit rising from her stomach, Ginny opened her mouth and let out an unearthly scream.
"GINNY!"
Somebody's voice. A female, was calling to her. But Ginny couldn't see. Everything was moving to fast, her eyes watered from being hit with her hair, and her brain rattled in her skull as she continued to spin on her broom. The taste of bile was choking her now. Filling her nostrils and burning her throat. The broom apparently had enough of the ride and finally successfully bucked her off. She opened her mouth to scream again but winded up retching.
Ginny tumbled in the air and for a brief moment, everything was calm. She could feel the wind coming up to meet her, feel the drying tears on her face, hear her heart beat once, twice and it felt like she was flying. All sound was turned off in that instant. But then the earth came back to her with a startling intensity. She hit the ground and suddenly the sound was too loud and pushed in on her ears. There was pain again.
"GINNY!" Hermione screamed at her right.
Ginny groaned, turned on her side, and threw up again. Tears leaked freely from her eyes. People were pulling her up. Two people. Hermione and Ron. There were voices attacking her ears and grass under her hands. She dug her nails into the dirt to relieve the feeling that she was falling off of the face of the earth. Hermione was talking about how Ginny didn't dip toward the floor when she came to the staircase, she just stayed at the same high height, so her broom reacted badly and began spinning. Ron had the doors open already, so she just kept flying straight and went past them.
"C'mon, Ginny. We need to go," Ron whispered and began pulling her gently.
Ginny kept her eyes shut and her breathing even. She held tight to Ron as Hermione continued babbling reasons for the broom's behavior. A calmer part of Ginevra's mind recognized it as her guilty conscience needing reassurance. Well, Ginny knew a lot about guilty consciences, and she decided if making long drawn out excuses and theories made Hermione feel better, then she might as well let her at it.
Ginevra was half carried, half dragged towards first what she guessed was the edge of the forbidden forest. They pulled her along it, presumably to keep hidden, until Ginny felt she had enough strength to open her eyes and stumble the rest of the way.
They were almost there when she realized she was clutching Hermione's hand in her own.
What happened back in the room of requirement this morning? she thought to herself. I don't understand. One minute we were talking normally and the next we were snogging. Hermione wanted to tell me something… but Ron interrupted her. What did she want to say to me?
"Here we are," Ron said softly.
They stood there looking at the whomping willow.It's branches perfectly still, almost innocent seeming. But Ginny knew the moment they got into close range the things wouldn't seem so innocent anymore. She shivered slightly and leaned into Hermione.
Ron looked back at them. He looked frightened, but forced a large grin on his face.
"No use waiting here, is it? Here goes nothing…"
His words didn't process until a minute later, when he was already running top speed toward the willow. The two girls' jaws dropped and Ginny felt Hermione's nails dig painfully into her hand.
"What is he doing?" Ginny whispered, astounded, more to herself than to her friend.
Hermione threw off Ginny's hand. She still seemed to be shocked.
"RON!" she screamed, and stumbled over her first step before running after him.
"Hermione! NO!" Ginny yelled at her and easily caught up. She grabbed Hermione from behind and prevented her from moving.
Hermione thrashed in her arms. "Let me GO! Ron can't just run up to the whomping willow! He'll be killed!" Tears splashed down her cheeks as she said this.
The creaking of wood startled them both, and they looked up in horrified fascination as the whomping willow began to move.
A/N: I am so very, very sorry for the late update. I honestly didn't know it's been this long until today. I had a chapter that was almost ready for the net in September, but then my computer got all its files erased. That includes the next chapter of Shards of a Diamond, and its revision I started. Doesn't matter now, I suppose. I want to finish this story before Christmas, which really shouldn't be that hard. The story is nearly complete now and all my artistic blocks are going away.
Speaking of art, I'm asking for any fans of Hazardous Sanity, or ANY of my fanfiction really, who draw that would like to make some fanart. I'd be very interested in seeing some and may even make a gallery for it. If there is enough response for HS, I will rewrite this story entirely. Edit it and polish it. Then I'll make a website for it with the illustrations in chapters. Wouldn't that make a neat little project?
Next chapter should be coming sooner than this one did, and reviews make me work even faster. -hint, hint, nudge, nudge-
Oh, and yes. Some mysterious happenings in this chapter, eh? What's up with Draco, I wonder? Theories are always fun to read! I wonder who'll actually get it... Hmmm... Or who'll try and kill me for the cliffy... Heheh.