Harry opened his eyes. He wasn't dead. His chest ached. He felt like someone had thrown a big rock at his chest and survived. Ginny was leaning over him, watching him with glossy eyes.
"I think I'm resistant to the Avada Kedavra curse," Harry said weakly. Ginny sniffed and laughed at the same time and hugged Harry tightly.
"I thought you were dead," Ginny with a broken voice. Ginny hugged him again, this time a little longer and a little tighter. Harry touched her hair gently with his fingers and thought he must have been crazy to ever have let her go.
Hermione dreamed. She dreamed that she was kidnapped by two men. She dreamed that they took her to a house with yellow and white roses growing in rows outside. She heard them talking.
"Do you have the girl?" said a voice, this one wasn't a man's. It was a woman's.
"Yes," one of the men answered. Hermione felt a hand brush her cheek. "She's pretty."
"Put her in the basement," the woman said. She seemed to be the boss.
"Are we ready to take this to the next level? Did it work at Diagon Alley or whatever they call that place?" the other man asked. His voice was more high-pitch and he almost sounded like a woman.
"Like a charm," the woman answered and Hermione heard them all laughing. An iron door closed behind her. Hermione stirred. Her body was aching. It wasn't a dream.
Ginny helped Harry back to the cottage. They had trouble finding it at first but Harry performed the point me spell which lead them to the right direction. Harry's anger with Ginny had disappeared with the murder attempt, as was Ginny's. They even laughed together as Ginny told Harry funny stories about how the twins teased Ron when they were little.
Dusk had turned to night and it was difficult to see where there were going. The only light came from Harry's wand.
"I can lit my wand as well," Ginny said when Harry almost stumbled for the fifth time.
"No, you don't have to," Harry said but Ginny took out her wand anyway. Somehow she had forgot to hold a wan because she dropped it.
They both reached for it in the dark and Ginny's hand touched Harry's. The world stood still. Ginny thought she saw something in Harry's eye that she had seen the night in the common room, right before he had kissed her for the first time. Harry didn't remove his hand. He grabbed Ginny's hand and gave her the wand.
The cottage wasn't far and once there were inside Harry took a hold of Ginny's hips and pulled her in to him. She held her breath as his fingers brushed her lips softly. The moonlight reflected in Harry's eyes and Ginny thought she could see his soul. Harry leaned in and kissed her lips gently, but broke away and let out a small laugh.
"What?" Ginny said slightly annoyed.
"Nothing," he said smiling . "Your hair just tickled my neck. And you look cute when you are annoyed." Ginny smiled too and moved a little closer to Harry. She wanted to hear his heart beat. "When you smile too," he added.
Harry laced his fingers with Ginny's and kissed her again, this time more passionately. Ginny opened her mouth and let his tongue slid in.
Harry led them to the bedroom, without removing his lips from Ginny's. They both fell on the bed and Ginny helped Harry removed his shirt. She kissed his stomach, then his neck and then on the mouth. Soon there wasn't a single thread of clothing between them, but it still wasn't close enough.
The sun was shining when he woke up. Ron looked around confused. Where was he? Where was Hermione? He got up and saw that he was in the same garden where he had passed out and Hermione had been kidnapped. His back hurt from sleeping on the hard lawn. He got up and walked on to the street, to see if he could find someone who had seen Hermione but the street was deserted.
He walked past Hermione's house and saw thought the kitchen window that Mrs. Granger was cooking. He felt a pain in his stomach. Someone took their daughter, he thought. The last thing he wanted to do, was ask Mr. and Mrs. Granger for help.
He needed to contact someone. Harry or Ginny, but he didn't have paper or an owl to send the message with. As if someone had heard his thought he saw an owl sitting on a mailbox. He didn't have anything to write on but he found a piece of gum wrapper on the ground. He tried to explain as much as he could with the small piece he had and gave the wrapper to the owl.
"Bring me a reply fast," he said and the owl flew away.
It was the sun burning on Ginny's face that woke her up the next morning. She was alone in the bedroom. She blushed as images of last nights happenings flooded her mind. She felt different Did she look different?
Ginny got up and saw that a small mirror hung on the wall beside the bed. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and smiled. She definitely wanted to have another night like that with Harry. Her smile faded. What if she was really bad at it? What if he didn't want her anymore? Ginny looked trough the crack of the bedroom door and saw Harry sitting in the kitchen happily eating breakfast. Had he done it before? She hadn't asked.
Ginny put on her clothes and walked to the kitchen.
"Morning," Ginny greeted Harry. What was she supposed to say? Nice moves last night? No.
"Morning," Harry replied in a casual tone. "You slept so peacefully, so I didn't want to wake you up, but we need to go now. We can't stay here if there are Death Eaters nearby. We need to find Ron and Hermione as well." Ginny nodded and poured herself some milk. She brought the glass to her lips and studied Harry. She tried to read his mind, find out what he was thinking.
Harry noticed that Ginny was staring and said, "What?"
"Nothing," Ginny said and quickly looked somewhere else. Harry finished his breakfast in silence and leaned forward to kiss Ginny on the lips.
"I'll just go outside and collect all our stuff," he said and when they had kissed, he left the kitchen. Ginny didn't know what to interpret it to.
As Harry packet outside the kitchen an owl flew through the kitchen window and a piece of gum wrap landed in front of her. Someone had written on it and she recognised the handwriting as Ron's and hoped that he and Hermione weren't in trouble.
Ginny's expression became more and more troubled as she read Ron's note. She turned the piece of paper, scribbled a few lines at the back and sent it away with the owl. She had the feeling that the worst had yet to come.
As he waited for the owl to return Ron sat down on the pavement. He had no idea what to do. Hermione's was gone. He didn't want to think about what was happening to her. He didn't want to think about anything. His head was hurting from worrying and thinking too much.
Ron had only sat for a few minutes when the owl came flying back. The owl dropped the note on the ground and Ron read it.
Ginny had written the note and wrote that she and Harry would travel to home and that they would meet there. Home? Why hadn't he thought of that. His whole body was exhausted and he only hoped that he wouldn't splint himself, when he Apparated home to the Burrow.
Fleur: How can you love and hate a person all at once? I wanted nothing more than to find Bill and rip his head off, for leaving me like he did. I have never been so humiliated. I was ready for the happiest day of my life and it was taken away from me my heart with it. I walked alone in our apartment in my wedding dress and cried for days. It was pathetic. No matter how much I try to hate him, the thing that hurts the most is that he isn't with me.
When Hermione managed to open her eyes, it felt like she had slept for days and had nightmares about two men and a woman. She was lying on a cold stone floor. She felt dizzy and couldn't see clearly. She shut her eyes tightly and opened them again. This time she could see better.
She was in a cell with metal bars, probably underground, but she couldn't tell because there were no windows. A man was sitting on a stool looking at Hermione. Hermione tried to sit up and get a better look at the man. His hair was short and dark and he seemed to be in his forties or maybe it was just the presence of a beard that made him look older. There something familiar about him, Hermione thought. She had seen him somewhere before.
"I know you," Hermione said and then realised something. The man standing on the other side of the bars was his neighbour. She had seen him only a few times at a distance, but her parents always told her about "pleasant Mr. Walters", who lived across the street and always came by with pastries. Then he remembered a letter that had come with a package she had received from her mother on Easter. "Mr. Walters baked these. They are so delicious and sugar free as well. He really knows how to make food that tastes good in your mouth and is gentle to your teeth. He is really a nice man."
"You have been spying on me?" Hermione said in disgust. "And you sent me cookies? Did you put something in them? I ate those!" Mr. Walters didn't answer.
"Mark!" he shouted and the other man came running down the stairs with a syringe in his hands. "Give her the injection. She is getting too chatty." This Mark opened the cell door and entered. Hermione struggled to get away from his grip but failed. She felt a little pinch on her arms and then she felt pain in her whole body, like her veins were on fire. All she could hear was her own piercing scream.