"Come sit, Harry dear." Molly ushered him to the squashy old sofa. Ron hovered in the background, with a look that could kill on his face.
"Mum." he said sharply.
"Ron." she replied, "Is there a problem?" the tone of her voice warned him off continuing what he was going to say.
"Nothing." he muttered.
Harry felt his face heat up. Mrs Weasley was treating him like a son even after everything he'd done, and he knew Ron hated that. He could almost feel the anger coming off him in waves.
"So," Molly said, reverting back to her kindly, mothering voice. "Why are you here, not that I'm not thrilled to see you of course."
"Ah." Hermione said, "This might be difficult to everything explain, or at least, hard for you to accept..."
Hermione went on to tell Molly about her having seen Ginny, and how they all thought she was still alive. Ron occasionally said something, but Harry stayed silent. Hearing it again now, it sounded mad. Who would ever believe them?
Molly let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding once they'd finished their recounting of the days events.
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"And you really think she's alive?" she asked, looking at each of them in turn. Hermione nodded, and Ron said he trusted Hermione's judgement, for which he was rewarded with a shy smile from her.
"What about you, Harry?" Molly asked again.
Harry looked at the floor. "I - I think I do."
"Then, what are we going to do?"
"I'm going to go in there, and I'm going to get her." Harry stated, standing on one side of the kitchen table.
"Haven't you been listening to us?" Ron said angrily.
"Yes, I have, but there is no other way. And I don't see why you should object to it. It's not like you care whether I live or die!" Harry yelled.
"Calm down, both of you." Hermione ordered. "Harry, Ron does care whether you live or die, even if he won't admit it. Ron, he's going to do it whatever we say."
"Wait, you're siding with him?" Ron asked, gob struck.
"No. I'm just being realistic."
"What if he puts Ginny in more danger?" Ron said.
"More danger than what? Living with a group of Death Eaters."
Ron and Hermione argued for another five minutes, seemingly having forgotten Harry was in the room. It was like, they were alive when they were together. They bounced off each other, and however unlikely it was, they were a perfect fit for each other.
"Come on, Harry. Lets go get what you need, and leave Ron to sulk here on his own."
Hermione stalked off, and Harry followed her out. As he passed Ron, Ron grabbed his arm.
"You better bring her back." he whispered.
"I will." Harry paused, "You'd do the same thing if it was Hermione."
Ron glared at him as he walked off.
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Selene sat on her bed, brushing her hair slowly. She was putting off going back downstairs. Narcissa was down there, and she was acting very strangely. She wanted Selene to do her make-up, and Selene just really didn't want to. In the last few months, she'd changed. Her dreams were getting stronger and more frequent, and there was that incident with that man in the street...
Life was so confusing, she felt in a daze most of the time. She'd sit at dinner, and Avery, Narcissa and the rest would be chattering away, and suddenly Selene would be somewhere else, sitting with a different family, round a vastly different dining table. Her world was so very small, every time she picked up a newspaper, someone would take it from her, and she rarely left the house. It was bad enough that she couldn't remember her childhood, now she could barely remember what had happened the day before. Avery said it was a symptom of the injury she had sustained when her parents died. What that injury was, she couldn't recall.
Apparently, she had attended Durmstrang and had been their most promising young Death Eater. Selene stood up, and assessed her reflection in the mirror. She ran a hand through her vibrant red hair. She didn't feel evil, she didn't feel anything. In everything she did, she felt strangely detached. She took no pleasure from watching people suffer, but neither did she object to it. She didn't laugh at jokes, or ever smile. It was like being stuck, between life and death, heaven and hell, here and there. Where ever there was. She heard Narcissa call her name.
"Selene, darling. Where are you?"
She left her room, and descended the staircase.
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Arthur paced the room. He had arrived home from a quite horrible day at the Ministry, and had been met with the sight of Harry and Ron have a yelling match in the living room. He was surprised to see Harry, he hadn't seen him since... everything had happened. Molly had quickly bustled him out of the room, and had told him what was going on. It was too much to take in.
Harry was planning on sneaking in, and effectively kidnapping this woman who may or may not be Ginny Weasley. How could she be? Wouldn't someone have seen her in the last ten years, it didn't seem likely she could have lived under their noses all this time. It was pretty obvious, though, that there was no talking Harry out of it. He had that slightly possessed look about him, the he had had when he been tracking He-who-must-not-be-named down. There was no stopping, or talking to him when he was like this.
Hermione had gone through the plan a dozen times. Harry would, wearing his invisibility cloak which he handily kept with him at all times, go into the Death Eater Headquarters and get Ginny. It wasn't a great plan, or even a good one, just about a million things could go wrong. If someone caught him, that would be it. Harry refused to let anyone come with him, he was afraid someone else would get hurt, Hermione thought. He didn't seem to understand that, she at least, was willing to do what it took to get Ginny back. She'd been a terrible friend, and it was time to make up for that.
"Are you sure you won't let me come, Harry?"
Harry shook his head sadly. "I'm sure. Look, Hermione, I know what I'm doing is incredibly dangerous,"
He shot Ron, who was standing on the other side of the room fuming, a withering look. "But I need to do this, maybe I'm being selfish, but if I could find her, I might be able to stop tormenting myself. I don't know..." He trailed off, studying shoes with faux interest.
"Oh, Harry!" Hermione cried, wrapping her arms around him. "There's nothing for you to torment yourself about, Ginny loved you, you couldn't have stopped her from following you. She was as stubborn as you, that's why you were perfect for each other."
She pushed him back slightly, "I want you to know, there was no excuse for how I ignored you all these years. You're my best friend, and I forgot that - we all forgot that, and I'm sorry." Hermione breathed in deeply, "Let's find Ginny."