Chapter 7
After lunch Harry and Ginny returned to the park. While they were walking slowly along the shores of the lake and discussing what they should do now, Ginny was seized once again by a feeling of unreality. Still a part of her could not really fathom that she, together with the young Lord, was thinking about a way to defeat the Dark Side.
And that she had indeed told him the few things she knew about the Order. But now there was no going back. She had decided to trust him unreservedly. Thoughtfully looking at the glistening water, she said,
"Since we need help from the Order anyway, we should go to Hogwarts as soon as possible. Then we can develop a plan together with the Order."
Harry stopped in his tracks and looked at her.
"Don't you think that it is a bit dangerous for me to walk straight in there? When they recognize me, they surely won't welcome me."
Against her will Ginny had to smile,
"No, probably not. I think it would be best to speak to Albus Dumbledore first. We shouldn't have much difficulty convincing him that you are on our side. And then…"
"You believe that it will be so easy to convince him? That the great wizard who resisted Voldemort for so long will trust me?"
"He will listen to you, Harry."
Harry gave a quiet laugh.
"But trust me, he won't. Be that as it may, I think we could risk it to sneak out of the castle for a short time. I only hope that Dumbledore will really agree to make common cause with me."
"At any rate, he will listen to you. But regarding the other members and my family…" Ginny said and stopped.
She foresaw difficulties. She knew that all powers of persuasion would not help either with some Order members. And her family surely also would not incline readily to trust Harry.
"Somehow we will manage it. Once Dumbledore is on our side, the others will follow him," Ginny said and cast a sidelong glance at Harry.
"You said earlier that you already had an idea how we could defeat the Dark Lord."
Harry shook his head.
"I have thought about different possibilities. But in my opinion it would be most promising if we managed to smuggle the members of the Order into the castle, sometime in the night or early in the morning. No-one would expect an attack within the fortress. We would completely surprise Voldemort and his followers. Above all it has the advantage that we could defeat the entire Inner Circle at the same time, too."
Ginny sighed.
"The plan is good. But to get the members of the Order and my family to go willingly into the castle will be everything but easy. They will say that it is a trap. And how do you actually want to get them into the castle?"
"That is no problem. There are various ways. First we'll have to convince the Order. Everything else will turn up," Harry said and added after a moment,
"If you see your family again, will they let you go back with me? We can't afford Voldemort getting suspicious. And if you are not there anymore he will surely wonder where you have disappeared to."
"I know, Harry. I'll come back with you, no matter what my family says."
To her astonishment Ginny realized that she really meant it. Whatever would happen when they would go to the Order, she would return with Harry.
"What if they try to arrest me? That could get rather precarious, especially, if they are many to attack me. Otherwise, I could surely escape. But then we would have to flee together."
"You need not fear an attack, Harry. Dumbledore would never allow such thing."
"I don't know him, Gin. And I will neither trust him nor will I rely on him."
Harry's face turned cold and as he spoke now his voice had an icy edge.
"Everyone can betray you, even if you trust them."
Ginny paused and looked at Harry.
"You don't have to trust everyone," she said understandingly.
"But you could start with trusting me, Harry."
A strange expression appeared in Harry's emerald eyes. It was impossible to interpret it.
"Do you trust me?"
It was a justified question.
"Yes," she said slowly.
"If I didn't trust you, I hardly would have told you about the Order."
With difficultly she withstood his gaze.
"Don't you hate me?"
"Why should I hate you?"
"I raped you."
Ginny averted her eyes and looked at a little butterfly that flew from flower to flower.
"Did you? You've saved me from that terrible Death Eater; you fetched me out of this cold awful dungeon. You were gentle to me – something that my captor would never have been. You never tortured me, you never hit me and you allowed me to write the letter to my family."
She looked up at Harry and gravely said,
"You have given me back hope, Harry. Do you know what this means? No, I don't hate you. And I trust you, Harry."
Suddenly she smiled.
"If I can trust you, you can trust me, as well."
Standing close to each other, their eyes locked. Finally Harry inclined his head.
"Then I will try to, Ginny."
They walked on, and for a while, they sauntered silently through the park. Ginny hung onto her thoughts. Only gradually she truly became aware that she would see her family again; perhaps not today or tomorrow, but certainly sometime in the next days. With a light heart she walked with Harry towards the fortress that even in broad daylight seemed to be gloomy.
As they approached, Ginny's eyes fell on a black-haired woman, who was hurrying across the lawn.
In the next instant she stopped and dropped to her knees. While she didn't budge, Harry marched towards the stranger, grabbed her arms and yanked her roughly close to himself.
"Bella, how nice to see you," Harry said in a silky voice.
The woman flinched imperceptibly.
"My Lord," she replied softly.
As Harry lifted her chin, Ginny saw the fear in Bella's dark eyes.
"You surely know where the students of Hogwarts are kept prisoner, don't you?"
"Yes, my Lord. They…they are in a cell in the southern dungeon, next to one of the torture rooms, my Lord."
"I see. Thank you, Bella. You may go," Harry said, releasing her.
Bella curtsied deeply, stepped back and rushed away in the opposite direction.
Ginny looked at Harry and shrunk back unintentionally when he turned to her.
"So, now we at least know where your classmates are held prisoner," Harry said.
"What did you do to her to make her be so afraid of you?"
"Let's say I wasn't as gentle with her as I was with you."
"Why? What did she do to you?"
"Nothing. She did nothing to prevent it."
"To prevent what?"
"The murder of my mother."
Harry's tone warned her not to ask more and so she was silent. The previous evening was still fresh in her mind.
When they reached the castle, a house- elf awaited them already. The elf had hardly told them that the Dark Lord wished to speak with his son as Harry nodded wordlessly and went to the stairs. With an uneasy feeling Ginny followed him. She was indeed not bent on meeting the Dark Lord a second time, but since she was curious and as she admitted to herself also worried about Harry, she didn't ask him whether he could not bring her to his rooms beforehand. And Harry didn't suggest it either.
Shortly afterwards, they entered the study of the Dark Lord. Voldemort was sitting behind a tremendous desk made from black wood and while Harry stepped to him, Ginny stayed in the background, hoping that Voldemort would not notice her.
"You wanted to speak with me?" Harry asked.
The Dark Lord looked at him silently. Then he imperceptibly tilted his head.
"Yes, Henry, I did. For today I planned a little attack in Hogsmeade. My followers shouldn't get out of practise, after all. And you shall fight at my side, Henry.
Together we will be invincible, and if the Order of the Phoenix hurries to the rescue of the villagers we will finally make it clear to Dumbledore and his pitiful Order that they will never win the war.
Today, however, I want to capture as many of Dumbledore's fighters as possible. If we should succeed in minimizing the Order so far that it is unable to fight anymore, the rest of them should easily give up when they know that the life of their family members and friends depends on their decision."
"As you wish. I think it should be amusing," Harry replied in a cold voice.
The Dark Lord smiled.
"I do not doubt that. Meet me in two hours in the great hall."
"I will be there, Father."
Harry had hardly closed the door behind them when Ginny turned to Harry.
"We have to warn the Order!"
The grip with which Harry seized her arm was painful.
"Be silent!" he hissed and dragged her forwards.
Ginny stumbled, but steadied herself again. She heard voices, approaching steps and called herself a fool. Seeing Harry the two Death Eaters bowed and remained in this position until they had passed them.
"Do you think they heard me?" Ginny asked as soon as they were in Harry's chambers.
"No, I don't think so. They were too far away," Harry said and went to his desk.
"Come. As a precaution, you can write a short note. Who knows, whether Snape managed to inform the Order."
After Ginny had written a few lines, Harry took the letter, gave it to his phoenix and opened the window.
In the meantime Ginny thought of the forthcoming fight. Hesitantly, she asked,
"Harry, you won't kill anyone, will you?"
"If I can avoid it, then I won't. Furthermore, he wants to take prisoners; you've heard him.
And if all goes well, we can try to sneak out of the castle after the attack. If we capture many people, Voldemort will be busy with torturing them, probably the whole evening."
Glad, that they would go to Hogwarts already today, Ginny was about to nod as a terrible thought occurred to her. She froze.
"What if my family is taken prisoner? If he kills them, while we are in Hogwarts?" she asked in a shaking voice.
Expressionlessly, Harry looked at her.
"We will see," he said finally.
"In the evening we still can decide whether we go to Hogwarts or not. To think about this now is pointless."
That might be right, but for Ginny it was impossible not to think about the fact that her parents and brothers would be also present at the fight.
As Harry began to hiss, she was distracted. Seconds later his snake slid into sight. The reptile had obviously hidden under the table. After a brief conversation that Ginny just found eerie, the little snake disappeared in the direction of the door.
"What did you say to her?" Ginny wanted to know.
"I asked Diamond to find out in what condition your classmates are. Perhaps we can help them, after all," Harry said, opened one of the drawers of his desk and fetched out a black shining wand.
"I thought you didn't need a wand?" Ginny asked, while forbidding herself to hold out high hopes. Hopefully the snake would return soon and bring them news.
Harry put his wand into one of his pockets, turned around and shrugged with his shoulders.
"No. Not normally. But if I have to fight for long periods of time, it is easier with a wand. Otherwise I quickly tire."
Suddenly Harry's face darkened.
"He wants to test me and I don't like this thought at all."
It took a moment until Ginny realized of what Harry was speaking.
"Why would he do that?"
"I told you that Voldemort doesn't trust me, Ginny. He thinks the fight will show if I am on his side or not. Who cares? I can't do anything about it.
By the way, can you make me a rough sketch of Hogwarts, Gin? If we really go there today, I want to know how I can escape, if something should go wrong."
Ginny nodded and shortly afterwards she bent over a sheet of parchment. While she was trying to draw the sketch as accurate as possible, she casually asked,
"Why does the Dark Lord call you 'Henry'?"
She had noticed it yesterday already and she had wondered about it.
"My mother called me thus. Voldemort, however, didn't approve the name, so he called me 'Henry' instead," Harry replied and studied her drawing.
"Are there any other exits?"
"Wait, Harry. I haven't finished yet."
After Ginny had put her quill aside, she explained her sketch to Harry. A soft hissing interrupted them. Watching how Harry picked his snake up, Ginny could hardly curb her impatience. Finally the incomprehensible conversation between Harry and the little reptile was over.
Harry looked at her.
"Two of your classmates have been killed. They tried to flee. The other three students are alive. They have been tortured, however."
Shocked, Ginny clapped a hand to her mouth.
"Please, Harry. We have to rescue them! Otherwise, they will be killed as well! I could never forgive myself if I didn't try everything to help them. Besides, do you remember the Muggle family? The two little children? We have to help them, too, Harry!"
Wordlessly, Harry stared at her. Then he stood up.
"Well all right then. We will help them. As far as the children are concerned, we'll have to find out first where they have been brought to. Come, we must hurry. Voldemort doesn't appreciate it at all if you keep him waiting."
As they reached the dungeons, Ginny was seized by icy coldness that couldn't be necessarily put down to the fact that the air was damp here.
She inched closer to Harry and fought against the urge to turn around and to leave this place as quickly as possible. The screams, which were echoing through the dungeons, made her realize once more how just much luck she had had. Finally, Harry stopped before a cell and raised his hand. The door glowed shortly in a silvery light and then opened without a sound.
Ginny swallowed and followed Harry inside.
In a corner she spotted two girls sitting on the ground. One of them was holding a little girl in her arms. She seemed to be unconscious. At their entrance, the older ones looked up. Their eyes were strangely dull.
"Ginny?"
The voice was raspy, and Ginny needed a moment to recognise the battered and bruised girl.
"Katie!"
Quickly, Ginny kneeled down and tried to hide her shock.
"Are you able to go? Come, we'll bring you into safety."
Katie and the other girl, whom Ginny now recognized as Cho Chang, flinched back as Harry bent down and picked up the unconscious child. Cho still tried to hold onto the little girl.
"No, you don't need to fear Harry. He is helping us. Come," Ginny said hurriedly and seized Katie's arm. Katie immediately froze.
"Come, quickly," Ginny urged and helped Katie up.
"Help, Cho. I'll manage," Katie rejected her help while she held onto the wall, swaying slightly.
Cho's face was ashen as Ginny finally succeeded in helping her onto her feet. She laid an arm around Cho's waist and supported her.
They left the cell and went slowly along the deserted corridor. Harry had stopped in front of an inconspicuous door and waited for them. Shortly before they reached Harry, Ginny heard footsteps. The black-haired woman, who they had met in the park earlier, came into view.
The little girl floated suddenly in mid air. Harry strode to Bella and pushed her brutally against the wall.
"You won't tell a soul that I took the prisoners from Hogwarts out of their cell, Bella. If Voldemort should ask after them, tell him they are all dead. You know what will happen if you disobey me, Bella," he whispered, and Ginny felt an icy shiver running down her spine.
"Yes, my Lord. I…I won't tell, my Lord."
"Good," Harry said and let go of her.
Then he picked up the girl again and kicked the door open with his foot.
"Quick, go upstairs."
Fearing that Cho would faint any minute, beads of perspiration formed on Ginny's forehead.
The spiral staircase was narrow. Every two steps they had to pause. Over and over again, Ginny cast a glance back at Katie, who went behind her. Katie's face also had lost all colour by now.
As they finally reached Harry's chambers, Ginny sighed, relieved. While she led Katie and Cho to the armchairs, Harry cautiously laid the small girl on the sofa. He took her hand in his and for one instant the girl was surrounded by a golden light.
"She will sleep now," Harry said and stepped to Cho, whose eyes were closed.
As the light of Harry's magic faded away, she looked up, blinking.
Katie flinched back in her armchair as Harry stepped to her. She looked to Ginny. Only when Ginny nodded, she allowed Harry to take her hand.
Having taken care of Katie, Harry straightened and said,
"Gin, I have to go now. If you need anything, call one of the house- elves."
Harry was nearly at the door as Ginny called him back.
"Take care of yourself, Harry."
Silently they stared at each other.
"I will," he said at last and left the room.
As Ginny turned around again, she noticed that Katie was looking at her.
"He is the young Lord, isn't he?" Katie whispered.
"Yes, but you can trust him. Believe me. He saved me, and without him you would be still in the dungeons," Ginny said.
She called one of the house-elves and shortly afterwards Katie and Cho were covered with warm blankets. While Katie and Cho were trying to eat something despite their exhaustion, Ginny looked after the child who still hadn't wakened.
"Anne is still so young, and the Death Eaters raped her, as well, Ginny. They hurt her so much and tortured her with the Cruciatus Curse," Katie said softly.
Ginny bit her lip. As she was cleaning the dried blood from Anne's face, she felt tears burning in her eyes. Her hand trembled with suppressed rage. She gently brushed a strand of hair out of Anne's face and sadly shook her head. What kind of a person would hurt an eleven-year-old girl in such a way?
