A/N: Part two…Draco will be here eventually hehe. Thank you reviewers!

A Light in the Dark

Chapter 2

Ginny woke to a pounding headache. She could barely open her eyes, but vision didn't matter much due to the fact that she couldn't focus anyways. She tried to move, but her body protested in pain at the very idea.

Where was she?

She lightly moved her hand against the ground she was lying on. Stone. Wet, slimy, cold, hard stone. Before she could think about her state any further, sleep gracefully took her.

--

Harry stared at the girl lying in his arms. He hadn't meant her any harm. What happened? His breath grew ragged as he ran faster and faster to Madam Pomfrey. He had to save her…somehow

"Madam Pomfrey!" screamed Harry into the hospital wing.

He was immediately chastised by a half-sleeping school nurse. "Young man," she whispered, "you ought to know proper behavior by now. Merlin, you're in the hospital wing! There are sleeping children here who do not need you to add to their misery."

"Madam Pomfrey, I need your help." He ran down the hall of beds, some empty, some holding a sick or injured student. Considering the drop in enrollment at Hogwarts, the number of students injured and sick seemed to remain the same.

Madam Pomfrey turned on her lantern, holding it high near her head. She peered at the figure running towards her. Then, she realized that the figure was Harry Potter, and he was holding a lifeless girl in his arms.

"Oh my," she muttered to herself.

She pulled him out of the aisle to a bed near her chambers and instructed him to place her there. She wobbled over to a myriad of shelves containing healing potions and elixirs. She grabbed about five and rushed back to the girl at the bed.

After trying different potions on the unconscious girl, rubbing some here, pouring some there, she gave up.

"Potter, get the Headmistress," she ordered.

As he walked away from her, she spoke again. "Oh, and Harry, I want you to return also. I need to know what happened to this poor darling."

Harry ran to McGonagall's chambers. Not knowing the password into her rooms, he began to pound wildly on the walls. The man in the picture his anger was directed towards began to reprimand him.

"Damn it!" he screamed. He felt horrible. Ginny was hurt and unconscious. He blamed himself. Just as he was about to curse the wall before him, a very bothered-looking Headmistress McGonagall stepped out of a walkway behind him.

"Potter, I suggest you stop whatever you may be doing before I am obliged to remove house points."

Harry turned in shock as he heard the woman chastise him. The sound of a door closing caused him to turn around to face the Headmistress.

"Potter, your wand?"

He stared down and realized he was still in position to hex the magic out of the wall. He murmured an apology and put his wand in his robes.

"Now, Potter, I assume that you did not come barraging to this section of the castle with the sole intention of battering school walls?"

"No ma'am," he spoke with a tinge of embarrassment. "I was sent to get you by Madam Pomfrey. I guess I forgot which side of the hallway you slept."

"I use a door, Potter, not a painting." She paused for a moment and changed her approach, despite the grumpiness she deeply desired to take out on the culprit of her disturbed beauty rest. "On what occasion did Poppy send you, Harry?" her voice softened slightly after she saw the concern in his eyes. Something was terribly amiss.

"Ginny Weasley is unconscious, and Madam Pomfrey can't wake her."

"Oh my," the Headmistress sighed. "Harry, hurry on to the wing. I will be up momentarily."

Harry sped back to the room. He ran to Ginny.

"What have I done?"

When he returned, he saw that Madam Pomfrey had propped Ginny up on a few pillows and had changed her into more comfortable clothing. She had books sprawled out in front of her on the floor and huddled over them intently, her lantern shaking with every movement she made. Her eyes darted from book to book, scanning the words on their pages furiously.

Harry watched, not knowing exactly what to do. He awkwardly stood next to the foot of Ginny's bed and coughed. Not a real cough, though, one of those hey-I'm-here coughs.

Madam Pomfrey looked up for a moment to see who stood in the room with her. Noticing it was just Harry, she returned to her reading.

"Where is the Headmistress?" asked the perturbed nurse.

"She's on her way."

There was more silence. Harry supposed that the she was trying to figure out what was wrong with Ginny, and she was. Very unsuccessfully was she trying to crack the case of Ginny's unconsciousness. She waited until the Headmistress arrived before she spoke again.

"Minerva, I think something is horribly wrong with this young woman."

"Well, what is it Poppy?"

"That's the thing. I don't know!"

"Oh my," whispered McGonagall. "Have you ruled out what did not cause this problem?"

"Yes, I have. I've done several tests with a few potions and the like. There was no spell, curse, or hex that could have done this to her. I checked her vitals and she appears to be fine. I'm reading up on other possibilities."

"It seems as though you have everything under control, Poppy. Why did you need me?"

"Well, I was going to ask Potter to tell his story, but I wanted another ear listening to confirm its merit."

"Alright, go ahead, Potter. What happened?" asked the Headmistress, obviously concerned with the welfare of her student.

"Wait!" exclaimed Poppy Pomfrey. She pulled a vial from an unlocked safe and poured three drops into a chalice of pumpkin juice she had acquired from the house elf Dobby. She poured some in and shoved it towards Harry. "Veritaserum."

Harry was slightly appalled that the nurse would question his credibility, but drank the solution nonetheless.

"What is your favorite color?" asked the nurse.

"Pink," answered Harry in a blank tone. "I like green, too. Don't tell anyone, though."

Poppy smiled at the unexpected answer.

"What is the meaning of this, Poppy?" asked the Headmistress in a stern tone.

"Just checking to see if it's working."

"Well, I'm sure it's fine. Now just get on with it."

"Alright. Harry, why is Ginny Weasley unconscious?"

"I don't know."

"Maybe you should let me handle this one, Poppy."

"Oh, fine, go ahead Minerva."

"Okay, Harry, what were you doing when Ginny lost consciousness?"

"We were kissing."

"Oh my!" the nurse exclaimed, staring at the very indifferent Headmistress.

"It's fine, Poppy, they're teenagers. Kissing tends to happen."

"Oh, I suppose, but how scandalous!"

"Has anything odd or out of the ordinary gone on with Ginny lately?"

"Yes."

"What?" asked the school nurse, earning her a look from the Headmistress.

"She's been having nightmares. Really awful nightmares. So bad that she couldn't get any sleep at night and would fall asleep almost anywhere. She'd just make a commotion and everyone'd stare at her."

"When was the last time this happened?" asked Minerva, resuming her interrogation.

"In the library, earlier today."

"Do you think that her nightmares had anything to do with her current state?"

"Yes."

"Why is that, Harry?" This was odd beyond belief for the Headmistress. All of this pomp just for one unconscious girl who probably took too much sleeping draught was too much so late at night.

"Because I could see her nightmares. She's in trouble."

"What do you mean?"

"Whenever she would have a nightmare, I would see it. It was like I was having a vision or something. It was bloody weird. Voldemort was in her nightmares, but he was Tom Riddle. He appeared as Riddle, not Voldemort. I think he was trying to hurt her."

"Oh dear," whispered Minerva McGonagall, Headmistress of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She regretted her title. She was afraid of how to cope with this problem. She believed Dumbledore would do a much better job. "Do you think she could be having a nightmare at this moment?"

"I'm not sure. I'm not having any visions or anything. I don't know what's going on."

"Harry, that's enough. How about you sleep here for the night," suggested the worried woman. Poppy gave him the antidote.

"No, I'm quite alright. I'll go back to the common room."

"Whatever, Potter, just don't get caught."

Harry walked out from the room. He dragged his feet all the way back to the common room. He was greeted by a grumpy Fat Lady who refused to let him in for a few moments. She chastised him for being out of the common room so late.

Once inside, Harry was greeted by his two best friends. Ron was the first to talk.

"We got worried when Ginny didn't come back."

"Yeah," chipped in Hermione, "do you know where she is?"

"She's in the hospital wing."

The two jumped to their feet immediately. Worry brewed in Ron's eyes.

"What's wrong with her, mate?" he questioned with an undeniable brotherly love in his voice.

"She's unconscious, Ron" answered Harry.

Ron ran out of the common room. What was wrong with his baby sister? What happened to Ginny?

Hermione looked at Harry and then pulled out a few books from her knapsack. She began to flip through pages rapidly.

"Don't bother, Hermione. Madam Pomfrey's already done everything the books would say."

Hermione shoved her books away discontentedly.

"Whatever, Harry."

"Trust me on this one, Hermione. Nothing in those bloody books will help."

"There's no reason to insult my books, Harry. Why won't they help?"

"Voldemort's behind this."

Hermione immediately humbled herself. "Oh. That changes things."

After a brief silence, Harry spoke again.

"Hermione…I really need to get out of here. I feel so useless doing nothing."

"I know, Harry. I feel the same way."

"Oh," he replied. Sometimes he forgot his friends had helped him through this for so long, and now he was just going to abandon them and fight on his own.

"I understand though, Harry. It's alright."

"Thanks, Hermione."

"Well, I suppose you have even more motivation to leave now."

"I do, but I'm awfully tired." He began to walk up to his dormitory when he stumbled over a bag. It was Ginny's. He bent over to pick it up, but the moment he made contact with the worn material, his scar burned and he slipped into a vision.

She was lying in a stone cell. Her vibrant red hair shone in the moonlight spilling into the cubicle from a high-set barred window.

She woke for a moment and attempted to get up, but found herself in the same position as she was before. She moaned in pain. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing deep brown irises. Tears leaked out of her beautiful eyes. She trembled in fear.

Two figures blocked Harry's view of the scene before him. He recognized the silvery long hair of the tall figure. Lucius Malfoy. The second figure wore a hood, so Harry could not distinguish who it was.

"The Dark Lord will be pleased," said Lucius.

"Yes, I agree."

Just then, a third figure slithered into the scene.

"What a magnificent job you have done, Lucius," hissed the figure.

"I am at your service, my Lord," replied Lucius as he pulled the second figure down to kneel with him.

The figure walked over to the barred entrance of the dungeon cell. "I have waited a long time for this, Ginevra." It removed a hand from its dark robes and reached out to stroke the girl's arm through the bars.

Ginny whimpered as the Dark Lord spoke to her.

Before Harry could see who the second figure was, or anything else for that matter, he was pulled back into his reality at Hogwarts.