Searching For Love: Chapter Seven
(I don't own any copyrights to the Harry Potter series or anything to do with it).
I need to make a correction known to all of you reading this. In the last chapter, Ron said something like, 'and than you guys can get married, and than Hermione and I can get married', well, this is a typo because I had already written that Hermione and Ron were married and expecting their first child. Ron and Hermione are married. Sorry, and please keep reading!
"How do you know she was after Rachel?" Hermione probes, seating herself on the worn sofa next to Ron; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley take seats in large armchairs opposite of me.
"She told me," I answer honestly, "she said she was looking for 'the baby', although I don't know why."
"I still think we should be trying to figure out how she's alive," Ron says, "I mean, I can't be the only one of us who's a little confused as to how she survived the—" He stops, and swallows, looking at me worriedly.
"It's alright," I tell him, "I'm just glad she's alive. I'll take what I can get!"
"I have to do everything, don't I?" Hermione lectures us, and we turn back to her. "I've been analyzing the samples we took from Voldemort's castle, and I've found some very interesting things about them."
"Such as--?" Ron pushes impatiently.
Hermione turns to me and her brown eyes study me.
"Harry, can you stand on the opposite side of the room?"
Wordlessly, I do as she asks. She stands across the room from me and produces the shards; they glitter evily in the sunlight streaming into the room through the large living room windows. With a flick of her wand she levitates them before her, and aims them for me.
"Hermione?" I ask nervously, but she bites her lip in concentration.
"Just don't move," she says.
Before I can blink, she launches the shards at me; Ron shouts in alarm, and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley leap off the couch. The shards surge towards me, I feel them pierce my body, and than they seem to flow through me, like water; they bury themselves in the wall behind me, and dissolve into black wisps of smoke.
"It's just as I thought," Hermione announces, "the stone spike that stabbed Ginny, was a fake, it probably passed harmlessly through her body. We were meant to think she had died."
"But that still doesn't explain all the blood, or how she appeared to be dead," I reply.
Hermione shakes her head, and sighs.
"Harry, that sort of thing is easy to replicate with powerful, dark magic's. The point is that Ginny defiantly didn't die when the stone spike pierced her body."
"Than we go back to the hospital," I announce, and everyone looks at me startled, "that's where I lost her! Something happened there; someone orchestrated her fake death."
"Alright," Hermione agrees, but than she staggers a bit and Ron leaps forward to steady her."
"You're staying here," I hear him speak tenderly to her.
"I'm fine," she protests, but Ron shakes his head and kisses her softly, lovingly.
"You're not ok," he replies firmly, "you're exhausted. You've been up all night taking care of Harry and me."
"I need to help," she whispers, but he silences her.
"Than help us by staying here, where nothing can hurt you," he replies, "for my sake?"
She nods, and Ron kisses her once more; he turns back to me.
"I'm ready when you are," he says.
St. Mungo's is as busy as ever; the entrance is full of the sick and injured, on their way to get treated. We head back to the maternity ward, and poke around for a bit, without finding anything or anyone who is really willing to help.
"I think that nurse is giving you the evil eye," Ron whispers as we rest in the waiting room, "she's been giving you the evil eye for the past ten minutes!"
"You too!" I reply, "but it's probably because she doesn't like us poking around here. Have you noticed how everyone is so unhelpful?"
"Yeah—" Ron begins, but suddenly we hear a woman scream.
"What do you think--?" I don't have time to say anymore, because the doors to the maternity ward are suddenly blasted off their hinges; Ginny saunters in, wearing the same black, tight leather. Surprise plays in her beautiful dark eyes when she sees us, and than she is cool and collected again.
"Well," she says, "I didn't expect to find you boys here today. This should be fun!"
"Ginny—" I beg, but she waves her hand and a force slams me into a wall.
"No time to talk today," she sounds almost apologetic, "today is strictly business."
"Can't you remember me?" Ron begs her, taking a step towards her.
Pain is searing in my head again; looking at her only makes it more intense. Once again, she puts her finger to her lip and taps it seductively.
"Yes, I remember you," she replies, and Ron's eyes widen.
"I remember thinking that I took care of you last time, but apparently I didn't do a good enough job; a mistake I don't mean to replicate."
She raises her wand, and begins muttering the words to the killing curse, lightning streaks from her wand, but Ron curls in on himself, preparing for death, but the curse does not go through.
"So you want to play?" She whispers, a cruel smile spreading across her face.
Before she could kill Ron, I raised my wand and blasted her wand from her hand, leaving her bleeding badly, but the pain doesn't seem to be affecting her. I stand with my wand tip just pressing into her throat, and still she smiles at me!
"No, I really don't," I reply with a cold conviction, and she seems to relax, "but I will, if I have too." I blast her backwards, off her feet, and she hits the wall; I hear a bone snap somewhere in her body. My heart breaks at the thought that I could hurt the one person I love more than anything in the world.
"But you can't kill me," she replies leaning heavily to one side, "because if you do, you'll never—ah, but never mind that. You're too late!" She steps backwards, and seems to disappear in a cloud of black.
"Ginny!" I beg, but she salutes me, and disappears.
"Someone help! I think he's dead!" A woman's voice rings out in the sudden silence. Ron and I both look at one another, and dash towards the sound of the voice.
Inside one of the rooms, a nurse bends over the body of a doctor. He's been blasted through the chest; his skin is charred and black, his eyes stare lifelessly at the ceiling. A horrible smell pervades the room.
"Is this what she meant?" Ron asks me, "do you think she was just distracting us, so someone else could kill this guy?"
"But who was he?" I wonder aloud.
"He was a delivery doctor," the nurse replies shakily, "he once delivered the great Harry Potter's child…"
Ron and I look at one another, speechless. Why would Ginny want to kill the doctor that delivered Rachel?
