A/N- Not a long one, I'm afraid, since you've waited so long for it. For that you have my apologies, but keep in mind that since this story started I've moved four times, had three different jobs and lived in three different cities, along with going to school. It takes a lot out of a girl!

Chapter 7

Later that night, Bill showed the others the maps of passageways hidden underneath the sands. Several of them outlined dead ends, but some appeared to trail into other pyramids, and one in particular seemed to lead straight underneath the Sphinx. Bill had laid in supplies, and had started to modify the entire underground area to be both unplottable and Muggle-repellent. The purpose for this was two fold. One, the Gringotts goblins were starting to want a more secure place to hide the new, high security vaults people were opening up. Two, they figured it would make a good bolt hole for any employees needing somewhere to escape, saving them insurance fees.

Bill started to gesture, illustrating his plan to everyone as he thought it out. The tactics involved reminded everyone painfully of Ron, since Bill's style of defence and attack was very similar. After all, Bill had been the one to pass his grandfather's chess set on to Ron after he felt his younger brother had sufficiently mastered the game.

Pushing thoughts of the baby brother they needed to rescue out of his mind, Bill finished outlining the plan. There was only one flaw- the bait they needed to draw out the new faction was precious. There was no time to make a doppelganger, no time or margin for error. The bait had to be a Weasley and had to have some sort of connection with all the missing members. That meant Charlie was going to somehow have to look vulnerable, and was somehow going to have to find a way to let the enemy know it.

Ginny went white as soon as Bill began to mention bait. Bait was something to be put on the end of a fishing line, a worm or a grasshopper or some other lower form on the evolutionary ladder. As the calmly discussed the need for Charlie to do something stupid, Ginny excused herself from the table. With a slight nod, Hermione got up as well. "We're going for a walk around the cabin. We won't be long, we won't be late, and yes, we are taking our wands. Does that about cover everything?" Without another word, both witches slipped out the door.

"I don't like this, Hermione. I don't like this at all. I've already lost my parents and at least two of my brothers. The chances of getting Ron and Blaze back are minimal, and even if we do, who's to say their the same people they were when they died? Necromantic rituals can enslave, but they can also wipe a personality completely clean and then remake it into someone who's a stranger in a familiar body. I know that you and Charlie felt Ron and Blaze, but what happens when we kill them? What if all we're doing is opening ourselves up for another attack, and risking Charlie in the bargain?" Ginny was pacing, her face reddening, and Hermione looked at her with the deadend eyes of someone who was used to facing things that she'd rather not.

"Ginny, we have to do all we can to get them back. Too many spells can be done against living family members from enslaved or- or- dead ones, and none of us will ever be safe without finding them. Besides, if we just gave up, if we just left them to whatever horrible fate they're in, would we ever be able to forgive ourselves? Would we ever be able to live with the fact we could rescue them and DIDN'T? Charlie wants to do something stupid to get their attention, fine. But we can damn well make sure that he's covered. They just won't know he's covered, you and I can cloak."

Ginny nodded. Hermione's logic made sense, as always. It was difficult not to hate the brainy witch sometimes, but Ginny was one of the few who knew how hard it was for Hermione to learn to think under pressure. It was a hard won skill that had saved a lot of lives- including Ginny's.

Remembering the war and how much it had cost them strengthened both women's resolve, and they walked back into the cabin feeling stronger then they had since the attack on the Burrow. It wasn't until they went back into the cabin that Hermione realized that Ginny still had a secret, and they had become so caught up in what they were discussing she forgot to ask about it. Just once, she thought to herself. Just once I want the world to be normal enough that prying secrets out of my best friend would be all I'd have to worry about. She knew better then to ask for that world to happen without a price, but why was it always the people she loved that had to pay it?

Hermione came back to the present, realizing the men were staring at her expectantly.

"I'm sorry, did you ask me something? I'm afraid I wasn't all here," she said absently.

Harry looked back and forth from Bill to Hermione twice, and then raised his eyebrow that suddenly reminded her of Snape before a particularly nasty inquisition.

"I was just wondering, now that you're both here, when the hell you and Bill decided to get married, where the hell it came from, and why the hell you didn't wait for us to arrive to prank you?" While his tone was light, the questions being voices were not, and Hermione knew that she would have to go for a walk with her best friend around the cabin as well. Soon.

Bill shifted on his chair, moving the attention off of Hermione and on to himself.

"I married her to protect her, and keep her close. I also married her so that she would have some stability when the baby came, and some live in help when she needs it, and I married her because I damn well wanted to. Happy?" He shot a look at Hermione, who's eyes were tearing up. It told her he'd married her for another reason, as well, and that reason shook her to the core.

He'd married her because he'd fallen in love with her, and didn't want to let her go. She could see it on his face, and so could everyone else in the room. Harry sat back down and was promptly backhanded by Ginny, while Charlie was still trying to process the sudden changes happening to the group in front of him.

"I'll never catch up with all of you. You move faster then a bloody Ridgeback, and for reasons that are even more convoluted." Hermione giggled, a slightly watery sound but one that broke the tension. Bill reached over and squeezed her hand, and she laced her fingers with his. He wasn't Ron. He couldn't be. He was his own unique person, and she realized that she was growing to enjoy that. Bill had his own quirks, and she was falling in love with each of them.

As the guys debated on what needed to be done and how, Hermione and Ginny busily came up with their own plan. The men had decided both women were to stay as far away from the battlefield as possible, with Ginny being just close enough that a telescope charm would tell her if she needed to Apparate and heal someone. The women had decided to make use of a highly classified spell a Muggle born wizard had come up with. None of the men knew about it, so they wouldn't be looking for it. Ginny and Hermione were going to Cloak. It had taken Hermione some time to explain to Ginny that they weren't actually going to be invisible, they were just convincing the atoms around them that they weren't actually there and to move normally. Essentially, they were setting up a mirror effect that hid them better then even invisibility because the slight distortion of looking through something wouldn't be there.

When the final plan was nailed out, the exhausted travellers made their way to their respective sleeping bags. Bill and Charlie looked the other way when Ginny climbed into Harry's, and Harry and Charlie looked the other way when Hermione followed Bill into his room. Wryly, Harry remembered all the times he pretended not to notice Ron's bed hadn't been slept in. All the times he saw Hermione sneaking out of his room after nightmares had kept him up until dawn. All the times that he had covered for his two best friends absences for hours, only to have them arrive back flushed and happy several hours later with clothing slightly askew. He had even surreptitiously found a unicorn, then pointed it out to his friends to watch their reaction. He still wished he hadn't been quite so relieved when it let Hermione near. Maybe, if it hadn't been for his slight disapproval of their carrying on in front of him, they may have had more time.

Another far more disturbing thought crossed his mind a moment later, though. If they managed to rescue Ron, who would Hermione choose, and would the other step down? And if the thought upset him, what would it do to Hermione?