CHAPTER 21
Traps and Traitors
Before Ginny was able to prepare herself, Harry had opened the door and rushed into the other room. She raced after him, but the door was already closing when she reached it. She tugged at the handle and slipped through the opening as she struggled to pull her wand from her pocket.
Once through the door, she immediately spotted a pair of wizards standing in the center of the room. One was wearing long blue robes and the other's were brown and trimmed with gold. Somehow they hadn't noticed her or Harry yet. They were staring at a door on the other side of the room. Maybe Harry knew what he was doing, after all.
He already had his wand drawn and was pointing it at the wizard in blue. Ginny still hadn't gotten her wand out of her pocket. It seemed to be stuck somehow and she didn't have time to figure out just why. Just when she pulled it free, she heard the door to the Death room slam shut behind her. A second later, a loud rumbling filled her ears as doors began spinning all along the perimeter of the room.
The noise caught the wizards' attention immediately and they whirled about with their wands drawn. Harry fired a stunner off, but the wizard in blue was too quick. He put up a Shield Charm, deflecting the red beam into the ceiling. The wizard in brown fired a curse in response, but Harry sidestepped it nimbly and Ginny was forced to dive to the floor to avoid it.
As she scrambled back to her feet, her wand sprung loose from her pocket. She regained her balance and tried to decide just which wizard to hit first. Harry didn't seem to be aiming his wand at either of them. Instead, he was striding toward them with his wand at his side. Ginny raised her wand and waited for some clue to what Harry was trying to do.
The wizard in blue had his wand trained on Harry and was shouting some command that Harry was completely ignoring. With a lightning quick upward slash of his wand, the other wizard's wand was wrenched from his grasp and sent sailing across the room. It struck the spinning wall of doors and shattered, scattering splinters of wood across the floor.
The wizard in brown didn't waste any time watching what had happened. He quickly raised his wand and shouted something that chilled Ginny's blood:
"Crucio!"
Ginny raised her wand, but paused as she saw Harry's arm slash back across his body. The brown-robed wizard's arm bent as though connected to Harry's wand by an invisible cord. When he finished his curse, his wand was pointed at his comrade.
It took only a fraction of a second for the blue-robed wizard's screams to fill the room. He dropped to the ground as if he'd been struck in the knees, and continued to convulse even after the other wizard had broken the curse.
The wizard in brown turned back toward Harry with a murderous scowl on his face. He stepped back and away from his partner, preparing to attempt another curse. This time Harry struck before he could even open his mouth. He didn't say a thing, but a flash of light filled the room. Suddenly her wand hand was scorching hot. It felt like a flaming knife slicing into her palm. She dropped it instinctively and heard her own scream of pain blending with the cries of the remaining wizard.
Ginny looked down at her smoking wand, then up at Harry. He was already casting another spell. His wand strobed twice and two long rope-like shapes sprung from it's tip. To her surprise, they flopped onto the ground, growing and curling into a pair of huge snakes. They slithered toward the two wizards with startling speed, first curling around their legs and eventually wrapping around their chests as they struggled to get away.
For a brief moment, Ginny felt a stab of panic at the realization that Harry might be killing them. She heard herself shouting, "Harry, no!" but he ignored her. The snakes cared even less. They curled and knotted around the wizards' arms, preventing them from moving or fighting. Then, just as they tightened around the men's necks, they froze and their skins seemed to dry and lose color. After just a few seconds, they looked as though they were nothing more than stone sculptures.
Ginny slowly bent down to pick up her wand. It was hot, but no longer painful to hold. She stood up and stared at Harry in shock. He was still standing in the same place he had summoned the snakes, but he had lowered his wand and he seemed to be rubbing his forehead with his free hand. In front of him, the wizard in blue had stopped struggling and was staring at him with an expression that seemed to match how Ginny felt.
"Potter, is it?" the wizard asked hoarsely. "Never imagined I'd see you use the Imperius Curse. And to use it to force another wizard to use the Cruciatus? The Ministry cannot overlook this. It'll be Azkaban for you when they catch you. Albus would be so disappointed in you. You're no better than—"
"Stupefy!" Harry shouted, then turned and stunned the other wizard as well. He walked over to pick up second wizard's wand and quickly broke it in half.
"Harry?" Ginny called out. "Was he right? Did you use the Imperius Curse on that wizard?"
Harry kneeled on the ground pressing his palm against his forehead. "No," he answered in a muffled voice. "I didn't cast the Imperius Curse, and I didn't make the other one cast the Cruciatus Curse. I just... took control of his arm for a bit. If it had been him, he'd have known it wasn't the Imperius. When you're hit with the Imperius Curse it doesn't hurt."
Ginny walked forward and surveyed the pair of wizards on the floor. Both of them were wrapped tightly with enormous stone snakes. The snake wrapped around the one in brown had bitten down on his arm, sending a small trail of blood dripping to the floor. She inched forward and carefully touched the snake. The surface was smooth and shiny, almost as though it had been polished. It felt real enough that she backed away, worrying that they might suddenly come alive again.
"How did you do that?" she asked while still staring at them. "I've never seen that before."
"Neither have I," Harry replied weakly.
Ginny turned to look at him. He was still kneeling with one hand pressed across his forehead, but he had twisted his head to look back at her. "I've never seen it done, I mean," he explained. "I saw it described in a book, but that was only one snake and, well... I never got it to work until now."
"What's wrong with your scar?" Ginny asked hesitantly.
"It's nothing," he replied. "We need to get moving. It won't be long before the other two make it back from the Hall of Prophecy." He pulled his hand away from his forehead and Ginny felt her jaw drop. Harry's scar was inflamed and smudged with fresh blood.
"Oh my god, Harry! You're bleeding."
"Oh, you noticed that, too?" he said as he looked at his hand in disgust.
She rushed toward him. "What's happening to you?" she asked.
"I'm bleeding," he replied flatly. "I'm pretty sure we already went over that."
"But why?"
"Right now, I'd guess it's got something to do with the fact that I had to fight two wizards without any help."
"I tried to help," Ginny snapped. She held her wand hand up and showed him the pale line of the burn cutting across her palm. The skin all around it was just beginning to redden and she could feel a burning tingle spreading across her hand and down to her wrist. In an hour, the pain would be intense. For now, it was still mostly numb, and she was quite thankful for that.
"Oh," Harry grunted. "Sorry about that. I guess I hoped it wouldn't affect you quite that much."
Ginny watched as a fresh drop of blood collected at the bottom on his scar and then slowly began rolling down toward his nose. "We need to do something about your scar," she said. "That's not normal, Harry. I know there's something you're not telling me."
"Yes, well I always did like how clever you were," he said with an uncomfortable smile. "And I'm sure there are twelve ways that Hermione could patch us both up, but if we don't move fast, I'm certain that she'll never get the chance to try them." Suddenly, he closed his eyes tightly and pressed the tip of his wand to his scar.
"Astringo!" he said with gritted teeth. Ginny saw the muscles on the side of his jaw tense for a moment, then relax. He pulled his wand away and blinked a couple of times.
"Alright, that should work for now," he said as he rubbed part of his cloak across his forehead. "Now we need to get moving."
"Where are we supposed to go?" Ginny asked as she stared around the room. The doors had all stopped and there was no way to tell them apart. "We don't even know which one we came from. How are we supposed to get anywhere?"
"Relax," Harry said calmly. "This isn't the first time I've done this. Pull on your hood and duck."
Ginny saw Harry flip his hood up over his head and stab his arm into the air. At the last moment, she reached for her hood and dropped to the floor.
"Micopulvis!"
A sharp explosion like the shattering of a crystal ball echoed off the round walls. A second later, she felt a strong hand grip her shoulder and pull her back up. As she moved, hundreds of tiny points of light tumbled off her shoulders and arms like beads of water off the back of a swan.
The whole room seemed to be covered in the small sparkling points of light. At first, they seemed to be almost blinding, but the light was growing softer already. Harry was already dashing off, leaving a wake of swirling specks behind him. He walked toward the walls and then began spiraling around the room. It took Ginny only a second to see what he was doing.
As the glowing points faded, they began falling off the doors. Some of them stuck longer than the others, and the ones which remained were spelling out recognizable words: Time Room, Space Room, Hall of Records. Ginny's eyes stopped for a moment on one door: Death Room. Harry had skipped right over it and stopped at another one.
"Come on!" he shouted. "This is the one."
Ginny ran over to the door he was standing in front of. The sprinkles were fading quickly now, but she could still make out the words: East Corridor Offices.
"We're leaving?" she asked. She knew the East Corridor. It had an exit very close to the staircase they had climbed down to enter the Department of Mysteries. Hermione had always told her to take that way out whenever she left. It was less busy than the main corridor, and she was less likely to be hassled by overzealous guards.
"We're not leaving yet," Harry replied, "but we're probably in for a bit of a fight. You might want to get your wand ready this time. I promise I'll try not to make you drop it again. Now, stay close to me and don't let anyone sneak up behind us."
Harry turned the door handle, and put an arm out to keep Ginny behind him. Slowly, he pulled the door open but remained just out of the doorway.
"Who's there?" a voice shouted from inside the corridor.
Harry ducked and spun around the door. Ginny heard a muffled shout as the room was lit with a bright purple flash from just inside the corridor. A second later, Harry's head poked back around the door.
"The path is clear. Follow me."
Ginny walked around the door to stand in the doorway. Only ten or fifteen feet down the hallway, she saw the fallen bodies of three wizards. Two of them were still clutching at their wands. Harry was standing over them and quickly breaking all of their wands.
Ginny tried to control her surprise. "Do you have to do that?" Ginny whispered. "Isn't it enough that they're stunned?"
"No," Harry said flatly. "I know what you're thinking, Ginny. I know it's horrible, but it might be our only chance. I can't have them running up behind us. This will make them waste time finding new wands. These are only spares anyway."
With a silent gesture from Harry, she allowed the door to close behind her. Only seconds after the door clicked shut, the narrow corridor echoed with the sound of the doors spinning in the room behind them.
Ginny followed close behind Harry as he walked along the wall of the corridor. He always kept to the right hand side and walked with his wand extended in front of him. At every corner, he would stop and press himself against the wall, listening for any sounds that might be ahead of them.
Ginny could hear the sound of boots pacing some of the other corridors, but they only ran into one hapless wizard. He was old and obviously not one of the guards. Harry had stunned him, but didn't break his wand like the others. Instead, he shrunk it to the size of a toothpick and hid it in the one of the man's pockets.
As they walked, Ginny began to feel more and more familiar with her surroundings. There were corners and doors she knew she'd seen before. She tried asking Harry where they were going again, but he ignored her. They were moving much slower now. As they approached the next corner, Ginny realized that she knew exactly where they were. The path which led off to the left would take them past a pair of staircases, through an old iron gate and then up a short flight of stairs to the foot of the stairs which would lead them back to the lifts. It wasn't the shortest route, but the alternative would have taken them past Reynard's office.
"I thought you said we weren't leaving?" she hissed.
"We aren't," he growled under his breath. "Now be quiet."
He inched toward the corner and stopped within inches of the sharp corner. Ginny walked up behind him and pressed herself against the wall like he was. She looked back behind them, confident that Harry would take care of anything ahead of them. In the silence, she could hear the sound of more boots running. This time, however, there were also sounds of battle. As they waited, she felt a faint jolt through the wall behind her and the sound of a far-off rumble. It sounded as if they were in the middle of a battle.
"Harry," she whispered as quietly as she could, "I think I hear footsteps coming up behind us." Harry nodded, and she added, "I think they're fighting."
"The Brotherhood is here," he said in a low voice, "and they're waiting for us."
Ginny pointed toward the left passage, hoping Harry would understand her question. He shook his head and pointed toward the right passage. Ginny took a moment to try and understand what he was planning. The right passage led back into the Department of Mysteries. Before she had a chance to ask any more questions, there was a loud crash from the passage Harry had just pointed toward.
Shouts filled the hallway and Ginny pressed herself against the wall again as a pair of silver jets of light streaked past them. After another series of shouts and bright flashes of light, the corridor quieted back down. Ginny could now hear a number of people walking across crumbled rock.
A voice echoed down the corridor: "The Brotherhood is here. They brought the Brotherhood again. Send a memo to the Aurors! Tell them we need every last one of them down here as quickly as they can get here!"
Before they could even react, a pair of footsteps was running toward them. Harry aimed his wand into the opening to the corridor and waited. Ginny readied her wand, aiming just in front of Harry's chest. The wizard reached the corner in seconds and ran past without so much as looking down the darkened corridor to his left. They waited for the sound of the footsteps to die off, then Harry turned toward Ginny.
"It's time."
He ducked down and spun across the narrow space between the corner and the far wall. His back slammed against the flat stone just in time to dodge a ball of red sparks. The moment it passed, he pushed off the wall and disappeared around the corner.
Ginny felt torn about what to do. Should she stay where she was and watch for other wizards, or should she try to help Harry? She heard his voice echoing down the corridor, followed by a flash of bright light and more shouting. Before she was able to make a decision, a wizard came running down the left corridor. He didn't see her until it was too late. Her stunner struck him directly in the face and he dropped to the floor immediately.
There was a second man behind the first, and Ginny was forced to duck under her Shield Cloak as a bolt of sparks exploded against her shoulder. The heat of the hex seemed to spread through her. With an enraged cry, she turned and aimed her wand at the second wizard.
"Petrificus Totalus!"
The curse slammed into his chest and sent him flying backward, striking the wall before falling stiffly to the floor. Ginny stepped out into the corridor finally, not to check on Harry but to see how many more wizards might be coming. Luckily, she couldn't see any more.
"Check them!" Harry shouted from behind her.
She whirled about and found him standing some distance away, with the unconscious bodies of one witch and at least four other wizards behind him. "One is stunned, the other got the full body bind," she replied. "I can stun the other one, but he's not—"
"No," Harry interrupted. "Check them for chains around their neck. Do they have talismans?"
Ginny ran over to the stunned wizard and pulled down the front of his robes. She couldn't see any chains around his neck, so she walked over to the second wizard. As she approached, his eyes shifted to watch her. It felt creepy so she stunned him quickly. She quickly checked him for a talisman, but found nothing there either.
She collected their wands but couldn't make herself break them. Instead, she simply pocketed them and began walking back toward Harry.
"No rings," she said. "They're not Brotherhood members. They must be the first Aurors."
Harry had been watching the far end of the corridor, but he turned back to her to reply. "The Aurors couldn't get here that fast. They're Brotherhood wizards, they've just taken their talismans off. It worked. They don't know why we're here."
"What worked, Harry? I don't even know why we're here," Ginny said. "It's only a matter of time before this place is crawling with Aurors and this is going to be the first place they start looking."
Harry pressed a finger to his lips with one hand and held up two fingers on the other hand. He turned and pointed down the corridor. The message was clear: more wizards were coming. Ginny took a moment to listen down the other passages. She could hear boots running down stairs from one, and when she checked the narrow corridor they'd come from, she saw another pair of guards running toward them.
"Four more coming," she whispered as she ran toward Harry. "If we go now we can reach one of the staircases to the upper level. It should buy us some more time."
"We're staying here," Harry replied stubbornly.
Only then did Ginny realize just where they were. Harry was standing only feet from a small alcove cut into the corridor wall. She walked toward it and saw a heavy wooden door set in the middle of the darkened space. She had been there before. A gold plaque was affixed to the door and written across it in a flowing script was a familiar name:
Hermione Granger
She pointed at the door and whispered, "You think it's safer in there?"
"No, I don't," Harry replied quietly, "that's why we're out here."
The footsteps from further down the corridor weren't quite as far away anymore. Harry motioned for Ginny to join him in the darkened alcove. It would provide some amount of cover, though not nearly as much as she would have hoped. As Harry fired off the first hex at the newcomers, Ginny felt less like a thief and more like a rabbit hiding from the wolves.
As Harry traded curses with the four wizards at one end of the corridor, Ginny concentrated on keeping the other two at bay. In order to get the best angles on either side of the corridor, they were forced to aim across each other. Harry dropped down to one knee to try and let them fight without blinding each other with spell flashes.
Ginny got a good look at the two wizards fighting her. They both looked to be Department of Mystery guards. One was a tall woman with flowing blonde hair, and the other was a stocky man. The man was the slightly easier target. He moved slower and had more trouble stepping around the other bodies. However, his presence seemed to distract the woman, so Ginny focused on her first. If she could disable her, the man would be easy. However, after a number of failed attempts, she was ready to reverse her strategy and try for the easier of the two.
Suddenly an opportunity presented itself. The blonde witch had walked forward along the wall and was crouching on the floor between a pair of fallen Brotherhood wizards. Ginny could just barely see one of her feet. If she inched a little closer to the corner, she would have a clear shot. She decided it was worth the risk and slid as close to the corner as she could and extended her wand. The witch was still crouching, and she hadn't even noticed Ginny.
"Stup—"
Before she could finish the spell, she felt something curl around her waist and violently tug her away from the corridor. A fraction of a second later, the small section of wall she'd been standing by exploded, showering the corridor with bits of stone.
Harry had pulled her away at the last moment. The guards must have been hoping she would do that, and she'd fallen into their trap. Now they had lost both shelter and time. Ginny tried to compose herself and prepare for the battle to inevitably resume.
"How's your Shield Cloak holding up?" Harry asked.
"One hit only, I think," she replied.
"Alright. Right now, there are too many of them to deal with. Do you think you can drop at least one of them?"
Ginny nodded.
"We need to move fast before they surround us," he said urgently. "Are you ready? One, two—"
A loud explosion filled the corridor and Ginny recoiled as the floor and wall outside the alcove were showered in orange sparks. More voices echoed down the passage and a pair of curses shot across the space in front of her, going right to left. The guards were being attacked.
"More Brotherhood wizards," Harry explained. "This is getting a little out of hand."
A hail of curses shot back across the opening, headed in the opposite direction of the earlier volley and accompanied by the sound of someone collapsing onto the floor.
The next round of hexes consisted of only a single beam of red light. The moment it faded, Harry spun around and aimed his wand around the corner.
"Expelliarmus!"
There was a panicked shriek as a wand clattered across the floor nearby. A second later, it was hit with a ball of fire. Before the flames could consume the wand, its owner had been struck by multiple hexes and had fallen limply to the ground.
The corridor to the right was now silent, but from the left they could still hear sounds of battle. It was hard to tell how many of them there were, and just who worked for whom, but none of them were there to help Harry and Ginny and their numbers were dropping. That, at least, was reassuring.
"This is taking too long," Harry growled. Without giving her any warning, he ducked and scrambled out into the corridor and aimed his wand toward the noise.
Ginny knew when she left Gringott's that morning that she might be walking into a battle. Yet, somehow, this was not at all what she'd expected. It had the same cramped, chaotic feeling of fighting inside Hogwarts, but she'd never felt quite this confused and outnumbered before. None of that mattered at the moment, however. She was there and Harry needed her help. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her hood over her head, gripped her wand tightly and charged out into the corridor after Harry.
The reality of the battle was both more and less worrisome than she'd imagined. There was only a single guard standing near the intersection of corridors that she and Harry had hid behind only a few minutes ago. Around his feet were his three fallen companions. Harry had already stunned one of the Brotherhood wizards farther down the corridor, leaving one more beyond the guard and two down the side passage.
The guard spun around and ran toward Harry with his wand drawn. Ginny reacted without thinking. "Incarcerous!" she shouted. Thin cords shot from the end of her wand and wrapped tightly around the guard's legs and waist. He was quickly brought to an unsteady halt. For a moment he simply stood in place, struggling to keep his balance. Finally, a hex struck him in the back of the head and he dropped to the floor like a falling tree.
The Brotherhood member behind the wizard had a clear shot now, and fired a hex toward them. It missed both of them by a few feet, and Harry answered with a Full-Body Bind, sending him crashing to the ground. Now there were only two of them. Ginny felt a tingle of excitement at the realization. They were fighting and winning. The other two wizards couldn't know just where they were. They had the advantage.
Harry pressed himself against the wall and Ginny did the same. They waited silently for the other pair of wizards to enter the corridor. When they did, they would have a clear shot. Their silence seemed to spur their quarry forward. The echoes of their footsteps was growing louder and more defined.
Harry stunned the first wizard the instant he stepped around the corner. The second one saw his partner hit, and managed to dodge Ginny's hex. He quickly twisted and fired a curse back at the two of them as he stumbled over the bodies of the fallen combatants. She took aim and fired a second stunner at him, but missed his back by inches. As Harry turned his wand on the man, Ginny felt herself being ripped from the floor and violently thrown forward as a searing heat spread across her back.
She felt herself drop onto the floor and tumble across the bodies. The skin on her back felt like it was on fire, but she knew she had to get up. She could see the wizard in front of her dropping to the ground, but there must be at least one more wizard in the corridor.
Ignoring the pain in her ribs and back, she pushed herself onto her knees and looked back toward Harry. To her horror, she saw a tall wizard in grey robes standing less than ten feet from Harry with his wand already aimed directly at him. Harry had frozen. He simply stood where he was and stared at Ginny as though her eyes might show him some solution.
The Brotherhood wizard behind him slowly walked toward Harry, keeping his wand pointed directly at him. Ginny carefully climbed to her feet. She recognized the wizard. His name was Razvan Lupescu. She'd met him several times already, and that could only mean that he was one of the more powerful Brotherhood members.
She was still holding her wand, but she wasn't sure what Lupescu would do if she made any threatening gestures. He stared back at her. Not until she began slowly walking toward him did he finally speak.
"Miss Weasley, there is still time for you to escape," he said.
At the sound of his voice, Harry's eyes twitched. "Good morning, Razvan," he greeted the wizard with derision. "Still haven't found a replacement for Tiberiu, then? Or are you having trouble finding volunteers? I hear wizards who murder their partners often have that problem."
"Enough, Harry," Lupescu growled. "He was broken and corrupt. I cured him. I freed him from the prison you constructed in his mind. I will never forgive you, but I will have my revenge. It is over, Harry."
"No," Ginny croaked. She leveled her wand at Lupescu and continued walking forward.
"You are in danger, Miss Weasley. You have precious little time to escape," he said. "Please, leave now while you can."
"You're the one who should think of escaping," Ginny replied. "I won't leave without Harry, and the Aurors will be here shortly."
"No Aurors will come," Lupescu said in a cold tone. "The messenger... did not make it. Now run off. Harry and I have business to attend to."
Ginny shook her head. "I'm not going without Harry," she said solemnly. Every Brotherhood member she had talked to had acted the same way around her. For reasons no one could explain, they valued her life over their own. Now was the time to see if they valued her life over Harry's death.
"If you kill him," she said as she stepped forward again, "I won't escape. I will stand here and fight until the Aurors are forced to kill me. I won't stop. Even if they capture me, I will fight until my death. Kill Harry, and you'll be killing me." It had worked. She could see the uncertainty behind his eyes. "If you fail to kill Harry today, there will always be other chances. If I die today, there will be no second chances."
Lupescu stared silently at her for a moment, then spoke slowly: "Once Harry is dead, there will be no more danger. We must restore the balance. After that, nature will run its course. Your life is your own. I leave it in your own hands to do with it what you will."
The world seemed to slow to a crawl. Lupescu's eyes slid from Ginny to the back of Harry's head. Ginny tried to aim her wand but she couldn't seem to move fast enough. Lupescu has already begun speaking some incantation. Ginny's mind raced, trying to think of the fastest spell she knew. She wasn't fast enough, though. Before she could open her mouth, a blinding light burst forth from behind Harry. The look of shock and confusion in Harry's eyes was the last thing she saw before her vision was flooded with the amazingly bright yellowish light.
The flash of light was more than any spell she'd seen before. It was painfully bright, and Ginny stumbled about for a moment, trying to blink the spots from her eyes. She felt herself strike one of the walls and leaned against it to try and get her bearings. She saw flashes of light and spinning shapes everywhere. At first, she thought she could see Lupescu's silhouette, but it seemed to split and swirl into two different shapes. Then suddenly there were three. She held her wand out in front of her, waiting for her vision to return so she could hex the first person she saw.
She closed her eyes and covered them with her hand. The shapes were still dancing, but now they were darker. She opened her eyes and found that she could see the blurry glow of the torches along the darker walls. Suddenly the light from one of the nearby torches was eclipsed. One of the shapes was walking toward her.
"Stay away from me!" she shouted. "Petrificus Totalus!"
At the last second, a hand had latched onto her wrist and wrenched her arm down and to the side, sending the curse into the floor.
"Relax, Ginny!" a familiar voice said. "You're safe."
"Hermione?" Ginny coughed. "Where— How did you— Harry! What happened to Harry?"
"I'm alright," Harry said weakly. Ginny turned her head toward the source of the voice but she couldn't see much more than a large dark blob where the floor should have been. Then part of the blob elongated into a tall dark shape. Harry. Ginny launched herself at him and was rewarded with the comforting feel of his arms wrapped around her.
"Nobody panic," Hermione announced. "We've still got a conscious Romanian." A few seconds later, Ginny heard Hermione stun Lupescu. Ginny saw a darker shape moving back toward her. "Is everyone alright?"
"I think so," Ginny answered. "I still can't see very well, but it's getting better." The dark shapes were slowly coming into focus. She felt as though she could almost see well enough to walk.
"How about you Harry?"
"Vision's a bit spotty, but not bad beyond that," he replied. "How did you know we were here?"
"It was a lucky guess," Hermione said flatly. "Why don't we step into my office? That's where you've been trying to go all morning, isn't it? Is there some reason for that?"
Harry let go of Ginny and wrapped one arm around her shoulders instead. "Well, I assumed we'd end up waiting for you. I know how much you love books, so I figured you must have something interesting to read," he said with a trace of sarcasm.
"Come on, then," Hermione replied with frustration. "Let's get you something to read."
Harry helped Ginny walk the short distance to the small alcove they had been hiding in earlier. Hermione opened the door for them and the three of them slipped through the doorway. Once inside, Harry began rummaging through his robe pockets. Ginny squinted into the dimly lit room and found the fuzzy shape of a chair. She stumbled toward it and sat down. The moment her back touched the chair a wave of pain and heat exploded from the point of contact. The Shield Cloak hadn't been able to fully block Lupescu's curse, but at least it kept her alive and conscious. She could deal with the pain. She could fight through pain, but without her vision, she would be useless.
"Here," Harry said softly, "Drink this —and, er, this one, too." Ginny felt him put a pair of small vials into her hand. She squinted at them but couldn't see nearly well enough to read the labels.
"What are they?" she asked.
"Doxy venom and Flobberworm gravy," he answered with obvious sarcasm. "Just drink them." Ginny held them close to her eyes, but she still couldn't make out the script on the tiny vials.
Harry sighed in frustration. "It's a Quick Healing potion and a Pepper-Up Potion. Together they should let you see a little better."
Ginny quickly pulled the corks on both of the vials and drank them at the same time. Between the pain shooting down her arm from her burnt hand and throbbing pain from her back, she didn't even care about the taste. A gentle boiling sensation filled her stomach then traveled up her chest until she felt steam shooting out of her ears. When it passed, she opened her eyes and found the room in sharp focus, though everything still felt a little brighter than it should be.
"Are you done, now?" Hermione asked in a voice filled with frustration. "Did you want to take some time for morning tea, or are you going to tell me why you're so bloody eager to come here when I told you they were watching this place."
"I told you already," Harry said as he stood up. "I was looking for something to read."
Hermione glared at him. "Now is hardly the time for jokes, Harry. This whole level is crawling with wizards right now. The Brotherhood is here now, too. But you expected that, didn't you, Harry?"
"Yes," Harry answered flatly.
"You didn't set up the decoy at Gringott's so you could sneak in. You could have done that this morning. You set it up to make the Brotherhood attack there first. You didn't need the distraction, you needed the time. You needed to keep them busy while you did something else. This what you really wanted?" she asked as she slapped something heavy down on her desk. She lifted her hand to reveal a talisman consisting of a single golden ring passing through three silver spheres.
"Is that all you came for?" Hermione asked sharply. "You walked into the biggest trap you could find in order to steal something you could have found on any of the Brotherhood wizards."
"They know I'm collecting the talismans," Harry replied. "They've stopped wearing them."
"They only stopped wearing them today," Hermione told him. "They're not here to stop you from getting Charlie's ring. They're useless. They don't do anything. They don't care if you have one. You don't need it. It was nothing more than a story you could tell us to make us help you. You never wanted the ring. You lied to us, Harry."
"It wasn't a lie," Harry said firmly. "I did come for the ring. It—"
"You're lying!" Hermione cried. "You came here for the wand, didn't you? You did something with it. You stole it but you never took it with you. You wanted it for yourself, but not as much as you wanted to make sure that Grigore never got it. Why do you want it? Do you think that you'll be more powerful with both wands? Or are you afraid of it? It's the brother to your wand. It would be the only wand that could stop you, no matter how powerful you became."
Harry stepped away from her. "Listen to what you're saying, Hermione."
"I am listening. Since the moment you Apparated onto Grimmauld Place I've been waiting for you to give me some explanation for why you're doing any of this. There's too much you're not telling us. Why do you want the wand? Why does everyone say you're dangerous, if you haven't done anything yet? Why did you join the Brotherhood and what made you run away?"
In a single smooth movement, Harry raised his wand and pointed at Hermione. Her jaw dropped in shock and she glared at him with a betrayed expression, but Harry was unmoved.
"Check her, Ginny," he commanded.
Ginny blinked her eyes a few times, wishing that this was some bizarre dream and that she might wake up and find herself on the cold floor of some battle-scarred corridor. When that didn't happen, she stood up and walked across the room.
Hermione was standing completely still with her eyes locked firmly on Harry. Ginny gently pulled down the fabric which covered the back of Hermione's robes. She was already turning to tell Harry that she hadn't found anything when she felt a strand of metal pressing against the tip of her finger. Her stomach tightened into a ball as she slowly pulled the chain out from under Hermione's robes. At the end of the loop, she found another golden ring talisman.
The moment she saw it, she dropped it as if it would burn her. She pulled her wand and aimed it directly at Hermione's head. "She's another impostor, Harry!" she called out.
"No. She's not," Harry replied. "This is the real Hermione." He dropped his wand and collapsed into the chair in front of Hermione's desk. He stared up at her with a dead look in his eyes. "What did he tell you? Did he say that Ginny was in danger? Or Ron? Did he tell you that he needed your help to save them?"
Hermione kept staring back. "He said that someone was trying to trick Ginny. He said they had been corrupted, and that they were using her to try and gain even more power than Voldemort had."
"You were the one being lied to," Harry said. "Grigore is trying to use you just like he used Henri D'Anneau."
"I want to believe you, Harry," she told him. "I know that I can't trust him, but after all the lies and secrets I don't know if I can trust you right now, either. If you would have told me that you needed to find Voldemort's wand, I would have helped you without any questions. Why couldn't you trust us?"
"I do trust you," he replied. "It's Reynard and Scrimgeour that I don't trust. Scrimgeour doesn't have a war to fight anymore. Everyone is going to start seeing how selfish and manipulative he is. That is, if Reynard hasn't overthrown him by then. Don't forget that you work for him. If I had told you why I needed to come here, there was always a chance that he would find out. I couldn't risk that,"
"So you are here for Voldemort's wand," Hermione stated, though it sounded more like a question.
Harry nodded.
"And it's somewhere nearby?"
"Yes," he answered. "That alone should prove that what they told you about me was wrong. I didn't come here that day to take the wand for myself. I came to keep it safe. The Death Eaters can't have it. Everyone agrees on that. It would only encourage them to even more violent measures. I can't trust Grigore with it. He's likely to sell it to the Death Eaters for some favor. And I don't trust Reynard with it, either. He couldn't stop us from taking it the first time, and even if he could, he and Grigore are too friendly for me to feel it would be safe in his hands."
"So why not simply destroy it?" she asked. "If you truly didn't want it and didn't trust anyone else with it, why not incinerate it and be done with this whole business?"
"Voldemort is dead. His soul was shattered and destroyed. He has no more life to return to. His wand is all that is left, and yet the Death Eaters still believe they can resurrect him," Harry explained. "Why would they believe me if I simply told them I had destroyed it? Would they believe me if only a couple of them saw it? So long as it exists, they have something to chase after. If it were destroyed, there would be nothing that you or I could do to convince them that it no longer existed."
"So you hid it?" Hermione remarked incredulously.
"I put it somewhere safe," he corrected. "I put it in the last place anyone would think to look, and I trusted the only people who would ever stumble across it."
"Then why come looking for it?" she countered. "If it's hidden so well, why is the Brotherhood here looking for it?"
"Because I put in the last place anyone would look, and they've looked almost every other place. I don't think Grigore ever thought about it until yesterday," he explained. "I would never have put the wand anywhere near Ginny. It was too much of a risk. It wouldn't be safe at Gringott's, and I couldn't endanger all the students at Hogwarts with it. The Ministry was the only place secure enough to keep it safe, but that wasn't enough so long as everyone knew it was there."
"Oh my god," Hermione gasped as she stared at him. "You never really took it, did you? You wanted to come back here because the wand never left this room, did it?"
"If I would have been caught, the only thing I had to bargain with was the fact that I didn't have the wand," Harry said with a faint smile.
"Where is it?"
"I had to put it someplace where you wouldn't find it," he said almost apologetically. "I don't want you to take this personally."
Hermione only glared at him. "Where is it?"
Harry stood up and walked over to the small hollow between Hermione's desk and the large oak wardrobe. He reached down and picked up a large book with a rounded spine. Ginny recognized it as Harry set it down on the desk. It was Fanciful Flying for Frightening Situations, one of the books Ron had given her.
The realization of what Harry had done struck her as he opened the book. Many of the pages were still sticking together in large clumps. Of course Hermione had never read it. She had barely touched it. After the book was open, Harry reached into the small space between the spine and the page binding, and pulled out a wand made of dark wood. Slowly, he turned and offered it to Hermione.
"I don't know how you want to explain this to Ron," Harry said softly. "If you don't trust me, then you can take the wand yourself. All I ask is that you don't give it to Grigore Tarus or the Death Eaters. That is all I ever wanted."
Hermione stared at the wand for a moment, then looked up at Harry, then dropped her eyes back to the wand. "I don't want it," she said. "The Brotherhood will know what I've done. It wouldn't be safe with me."
"Alright," Harry said with a slight nod. He slipped the wand into a pocket inside his robes, then took the talisman from the desk and dropped it into the same pocket.
He looked down at his watch. "The good news is that we're still right on schedule. The problem would be that my schedule assumed that we'd be able to wait here until a minute or two before Ron came down for us. I had hoped that it would be some time before the alarms were raised. Then when the new shift of guards showed up, we were going to slip past them in the confusion. That plan would have given us another twenty minutes to wait. I don't think we have half that time until Reynard or the Brotherhood realize where we are."
"Well, we can break into another one of the offices and wait there," Hermione proposed. "They're not going to check them all."
"If they can't find us for twenty minutes, they'll seal off the level," Harry announced. "We either need to create some sort of diversion or find some other way out. Of course, if we find some other way out, we've got to find a way to get word to Ron before he charges into the trap we're setting."
"I could send him a memo when we find a way out," suggested Hermione. "Well, I suppose I'd have to send it to the guard, but all it would only have to tell him to go back to Gringott's."
"Hold on," Ginny said. Somehow, they had overlooked a much simpler solution. "If we can send a memo to Ron, why don't we just ask him to come get us right now? Whatever he's got planned, it couldn't take all that long."
Harry and Hermione stared at Ginny for a few seconds, then turned and stared at each other. "Do it," Harry said.
Hermione sat down at her desk at began scratching out a note to the guard in the Entrance Hall. Ginny stood behind her, reading the note over her shoulder. It didn't need to be much, as Hermione had said. She simply told him to pass on a message to Ron saying that she needed to speak with him immediately. No matter what happened, it couldn't put them in any worse of a situation than they were in at the moment. Hermione signed her name to it, since Ginny's name already carried a sufficient amount of suspicion with it.
When she was finished, she tapped it sharply with her wand and the parchment leaped off her desk, folded itself several times and flapped off toward the door. When it reached the door, it flattened itself and slipped under the crack above the floor.
"How long do we wait now?" Ginny asked.
She was answered by a pair of sharp knocks on the door. Harry's head jerked around to stare at it. Ginny felt her heart pounding in her chest. Now they were stuck in the one place Harry had been trying to avoid. None of them moved. They stayed frozen in place, as though whoever had knocked might go away if no one answered the door.
"Harry," called out a firm voice, "we need to talk."
Harry stood up and whispered, "Dragomir." He walked toward the door and gestured for Ginny and Hermione to hide along the wall near the door where they couldn't be seen. Ignoring the growing pain in her hand, Ginny gripped her wand tightly and strode toward the wall. She suppressed a gasp of pain as her back pressed against a large wooden bookcase.
Once they were hidden from view, Harry walked to the door and opened it a few inches, just wide enough for Ginny and Hermione to overhear what was being said. "If you're here to borrow sugar, I'm afraid I'm fresh out," Harry remarked.
"I'm in no mood for jokes, Harry," Dragomir replied. "Two men died last night. One of them was trying to help you."
"I'd probably be more apologetic if your friends hadn't killed one of my friends."
"That was a most regrettable situation," Dragomir apologized. "We did everything we could, but we are not powerful enough to stand up to Grigore. You didn't have to set up the diversion. It was a useless feint. You could have trusted us to slow the others down."
"That's just the thing, though," Harry argued, "I can't trust you. I don't know what you're up to, and you refuse to help me."
"Enough, Harry," Dragomir growled. "Is she in there?"
"Yes, Hermione is with me."
"I don't care about her. Is Ginny with you?"
"Yes," Harry replied.
"And the wand? You've got it with you now?"
Harry paused a moment before answering. "Yes. I have it."
"Then you need to leave as quickly as you can," Dragomir told him.
"An amazing idea," grunted Harry. "Are you two going to escort us?"
"You know we can't do that, but if you give me the wand I'll see what we can do. Perhaps a battle in the Hall of Prophecies would—"
"No," Harry answered sharply. "I'm keeping the wand."
Ginny could hear the frustration in Dragomir's voice. "Harry, please. Even the smallest token of trust—"
"I said no, Dragomir," Harry interrupted. "Did you stop the memo?"
"No," the other wizard said defeatedly.
"Then we won't be needing your help," Harry shot back. "Tell any of your friends to stay out of my way and everything will be fine." Dragomir didn't respond for quite some time. Harry remained at the door staring through the opening until a response finally came.
"Alright," Dragomir sighed. "There are two pairs of guards between here and the lifts. We took care of the others. If you're ready to go now, we'll see that no one stumbles across your path. "
"That's very kind of you."
"I am not your enemy, Harry," said Dragomir. "I have put quite a lot of trust in you. Many of us have. It would make things much easier if you would show some sign that our trust is not misplaced."
"You may not be my enemy, but you're not my ally either," Harry replied, sounding almost threatening. "If you want proof that you can trust me, then you're just going to have to live with disappointment. You can't trust me. I will stop Grigore. So long as you're not trying to stop me, you can trust that I won't turn on you, but when Grigore is gone, don't expect me to ignore everything you've done."
"If that is how it must be," Dragomir said disappointedly. "We have argued quite enough. When will you be able to escape?"
"As soon as you leave," Harry answered.
"I wish you luck, then. Give Andros and me some time to get clear of the area, then leave as quickly as you can."
Harry closed the door and looked over to where Ginny and Hermione were standing. The expression on his face was uncertain and yet stoic, as though he were waiting for either of them to complain about how he had handled the situation. He relaxed when neither of them did.
"Where are we supposed to go after we get out of here?" Ginny asked. She hoped that Harry's passive agreement with Dragomir meant she might have some time to figure out what was going on before it had already happened.
Harry frowned at the door then turned back to Ginny and Hermione. "We go back to Gringott's. After that, I don't really know." Harry explained that he had never really been given enough time to formulate a real plan for stopping Grigore. This was mostly because he never really knew what it was that Grigore was doing. "I think I know, now," he told them.
"Well, what is it?" Ginny asked.
Harry gave Hermione a strange look. "Do you know?" he questioned her. "How long have you been a member?"
"I don't know," she said with a touch of shame. "Maybe a month. Maybe longer. I had been talking to the Brotherhood for a long time. I had been helping them find all of Voldemort's old hiding places. The Ministry won't send Aurors outside Britain. The Brotherhood doesn't really care about borders. I didn't meet Josef until a few days before Ginny went to Giza."
"It was Josef?" Harry remarked. Ginny caught a tense twitch in his eye as she said the name.
"Yes. He told me what I'd really been helping him with. He said they were trying to stop a terrible wizard —not a dark wizard, though. He said that it was something much worse and that Ginny was in danger."
"And you decided to join them?" Harry asked, letting a little anger escape into his voice. "You work for the Department of Mysteries! How could you not know about what they were doing? How could you not know they were responsible for Giza?"
"I never said I didn't know," Hermione argued. "What was I supposed to do, Harry? I'm not blind. I can see what Reynard is trying to do. I've spent days tracking the Death Eaters despite being ordered not to. I know what they're trying to do. I knew the Brotherhood had done some horrible things, too, but they've done good things as well. I knew Grigore was up to something, but I didn't know he was their leader. I thought they were trying to stop him. By the time I realized what they really stood for, it was too late. All I could do was try to keep Ginny away from them. I was trying to help, Harry, I swear."
"Well, now's your chance to really help," Harry said with a little bitterness. "Did Grigore tell you why he's interested in Ginny?"
"I didn't even know he was involved until he found me while I was in Albania. I only knew a small number of the other members. I have no idea why he's interested in her. Maybe it's only because you're interested in her and he's convinced that you're evil? I don't know. When Josef found me Saturday morning, he only told me that Ginny was in grave danger and that I should do whatever I could to keep her safe."
Harry let out a frustrated sigh and stared at Hermione. "Fine," he said flatly. "We need to get going."
"Hold on," Ginny complained. "You're not going to tell us why I'm in danger?"
"I will, but not here," he said as he pulled another Shield Cloak from his bag and tossed it to Hermione. "You might want to replace yours as well, Ginny. It's time for us to get out of here."
Ginny groaned in frustration, did as Harry suggested, and stuffed the old cloak into her bag. Harry opened the door a crack and checked the corridor. After a few seconds, he opened it wider and led them out into the empty passage.
Now that the battle was over, the scene in the corridor seemed much more disturbing to her. Unconscious bodies were lying everywhere. They stepped over them, making their way past the side passage and along the much less cluttered corridor, which would lead them back to the lifts.
Just past the two staircases leading to the upper level offices, they reached a corner and stopped abruptly. Harry leaned against the wall and gestured to Hermione and Ginny to stay back. Ginny guessed that they had found the first pair of guards.
Hermione leaned across Ginny to tap Harry on the shoulder. "I'll take the first one if you two can handle the second," she whispered. After a moment of consideration, Harry nodded. Hermione stood up straight and tidied her robes. She took a deep breath and then strode around the corner with a brisk, purposeful gait.
"Stop!" one of the guards shouted. "I'm sorry Miss Granger, but this area is off limits. You need to go back to your office."
"My office?" she scoffed. "You haven't seen my office, have you? The corridor is filled with bodies. I'm not going back there."
"Well, er... I suppose you should report to Reynard's office, then. He'll make sure—"
"Stupefy!" shouted Hermione.
Before the body had even hit the floor, Harry was spinning around the corner with his wand raised. Ginny dashed after him. She turned the corner and found Harry firing off a hex at the remaining guard. To her horror, it simply bounced off his cloak. Before she or Harry could comprehend what has just happened, there was a bright flash of light and a fountain of sparks as a hex struck Hermione in the chest and knocked her backward into Harry.
Together, they crashed to the floor and Harry's wand skittered off down the hallway. Without a thought, Ginny found herself aiming her wand. Apparently, the Ministry still had a few Shield Cloaks. Luckily, she knew the manufacturers.
"Expelliarmus!"
Shield Cloaks didn't help against spells like that, and within a second, the wizard's wand was sliding across the floor toward her feet. They stared at each other for a brief moment, before Ginny aimed her wand again.
"Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"
The first two beams bounced off her target uselessly but the third dropped him to the floor immediately. Ginny picked up his wand and then helped a thankful Harry and Hermione back to their feet. Now all they had to do was take one of the lifts to the Atrium and make it past the gate to the Entrance Hall. It sounded so simple, and yet she remembered the scene from the Spectrecorder. She hoped that Ron had received the message and that he had some brilliant plan to help them.
They moved quickly along the wider passage, up the stairs until they came to the last corner between them and the lifts. The three of them stopped just short of the corner.
"What do we do now?" whispered Ginny. "How do we know when Ron is coming?"
Harry simply held up his finger, indicating that she should be silent for the time being. Ginny frowned, but did as he asked. She understood a moment later as her ears picked up the sound of a number of wizards arguing.
Her first reaction was outrage at Dragomir and Andros for lying to Harry. Then, as she listened closer, she got a better idea of what was going on. Some of the wizards were Aurors. They were arguing about something happening in the Entrance Hall. Ginny turned to look at Hermione and found a proud smile stretching across her face.
"They're having problems in the Entrance Hall," Harry whispered. He was smiling, too. "I can't quite make it out, but it seems that none of the Aurors can make it into the Entrance Hall. I don't know how long we should—"
Harry paused as new shouts echoed down the corridor. "Come on," he said. "I think that was our signal."
Ginny followed Harry and Hermione as they ran out into the corridor. She looked down the hallway to the small room where the lifts were and found something that was difficult to describe. There were two guards and three Aurors standing and staring at one of the lifts. It was open, and some sort of black fog was spilling out of it and filling the room.
Ginny immediately remembered the black mist she had seen behind the veil in Romania and paused. Harry didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. He stopped a second later to stun one of the Aurors. Hermione took his lead and did the same to one of the guards.
The remaining wizards scattered, uncertain whether they should be more afraid of the escaping thieves or the mysterious black smoke pouring from the lift. The guard decided to run from the smoke, while the Aurors tried to seek some shelter from another pair of hexes from Harry and Hermione.
Ginny took aim at the guard, and shouted, "Stupefy!" He collapsed and rolled across the stone floor. One of the Aurors aimed a hex at her, but it missed. Ginny aimed her wand, then nearly dropped it in shock as a bolt of light struck the Auror making his arms and legs stiffen as he toppled over.
Harry, Hermione and Ginny all shared surprised and confused looks. When Ginny turned back to the black cloud, the last Auror had turned to it as well, obviously deciding that it was the greater threat. He fired a curse into the dark fog, but nothing happened. He tried another with the same effect, but the moment he tried the third, a tall figure strode through the swirling haze.
Ron leveled his wand at the incredulous Auror and shouted, "Somnus!" After the Auror collapsed, he looked over toward Ginny and the others. "Come on," he called out, "I don't know how long it's going to take them to figure out how to get rid of this."
Ginny, Harry, and Hermione quickly ran the last distance to the lifts, stopping as the fog swirled about their legs. Hermione kneeled down and ran her hand through it. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder?" she asked.
Ron nodded. "At first, I had brought it as a last resort. When I got your message, I figured it meant that it was time for desperate measures. I didn't expect it to come with me in the lift," he said with a nod behind him. "It was bloody useful though. It's filled the whole lift area in the Atrium Level. I think I stunned six or more Aurors from inside it before I came down here."
Ginny looked at the other lift doors and tried to guess where she'd find the darkened one. As she walked forward, the world was suddenly blotted out around her. A few steps later, her left hand struck something cold: a metal grate. She stepped into the lift, but tripped over something soft and heavy on the floor. "There's something on the floor," she called out. "Watch your feet. I'll see if I can move it out—"
"No!" Ron cried. "It's my bag!" Ginny felt him slam into her. "Keep the grate open!" he said from somewhere beneath her. Ginny reached out and caught the grate, which was already starting to close. The moment she touched it, it began to open again. "I should have said something about that," Ron said, now from someplace above her and to one side.
After gathering everyone into the lift and verifying everyone's location, Ron let the lift close and begin the ascent. Ginny searched for the wall behind her, making sure to keep her throbbing back well away from it. After a short time, she felt the lift stop moving, and heard the sound of the grate open.
"The trick is to not forget what direction you were traveling in," Ron whispered. "Now everyone hold someone else's hand and follow me. Ginny felt someone's hand wrap tightly around hers and smiled as she recognized it as the feel of Harry's hand. "Watch your step as we go," Ron whispered. "There are stunned Aurors lying about. We should come out of this just before the gate. I hit the Entrance Hall with some of the powder as well, but there should be a small patch of light somewhere between here and there. It'll be easier to Disapparate there."
Ginny felt Harry's hand tugging at hers and she began walking to keep up with him. She tried to remember just how far it was from the lifts to the gate. She'd walked it many times, but in the impenetrable dark it felt like she must have walked that distance twice already.
She heard Harry stumble ahead of her, and she felt someone's leg on the ground where she had planned on stepping. She tried hopping over it, but found that she had actually managed to hop right on top of the poor man's body. Her knee buckled, and she tumbled onto the ground. As she fell, her hand was wrenched from Harry's grip.
"Ron, stop!" she called out as she tried to stand up again. A voice answered, but it was not Ron.
"Ginny Weasley!"
Ginny recognized Harrington's voice immediately, but didn't know just how to respond. Why was he there? If she talked to him, he would know that she was one of the people who had robbed the Department of Mysteries. Of course, he probably already knew that if he was here.
"Come out, Ginny," he called. "Walk toward my voice. I'm standing in front of the gate. There's no way you can get past me. And please don't fight. You've created quite enough trouble for yourself already. Don't make it worse than it needs to be."
"It's not what it looks like," Ginny replied as her mind tried to anticipate all the things Harrington might say.
"Then explain it to me!" he shouted back.
Ginny began walking toward the sound of his voice. She heard Harry swearing under his breath and calling for her to stay where she was, but she ignored them. Harrington wasn't the sort of man who would lie. If he said that he was guarding the gate, then he was. Perhaps she could reason with him, or lie to him, or —if it came to that— hit him with a curse.
"We came for something of Charlie's," she told him. "It belonged to Charlie, and now it belongs to my family. We haven't stolen anything."
Behind her, she heard Harry, Hermione and Ron whispering emphatically. It seemed as though some of them were following her.
"I'm not interested in that, Ginny," he replied. "I'm worried about you. I've been doing some research of my own. I'm afraid of what you might be getting yourself involved in."
The darkness around her melted away quickly revealing Ferdinand Harrington standing right where he said he had been: in the middle of the path through the gate. What he'd neglected to mention was the pair of Aurors flanking him. They had their wands drawn and pointed at her.
Harrington was staring at her with a desperate intensity. "Come here quickly, Ginny," he urged her. "More Aurors are coming. I can keep you safe. We'll find a way to keep you out of this. Come with me, now. Let the Aurors handle them."
Ginny stood and stared back at him. "No. I'm staying with them."
"They're using you, Ginny. Don't let them frighten you," he begged. "Josef is not the wizard you think he is. He and the others do not care about you. They only care about what they can get by manipulating you. Please. Don't let them deceive you. I'm here to help you."
Ginny looked at Harrington and then the Aurors. He was right, for the most part, but he didn't know that she wasn't with the Brotherhood. She couldn't very well tell him that Harry Potter was standing behind her.
"Please Ginny," he begged. "I don't want to have to resort to hexes, but I will if I have to. For your own sake, I can't let you leave the Ministry."
"I'm sorry you feel that way," she replied. Her wand flashed out quicker than she realized it could, and before anyone could react, she had stunned one of the Aurors. She dodged the other one's hex and raised her arm to fire another hex only to find that her wand was leaping out of her hand. She watched in frustration as Harrington caught it and held it in his left hand.
"Ginny!" she heard Ron shout. "What's happening?"
"There is an Auror," she called back. "And Harrington has my wand."
"You must listen to me, Ginny," he persisted. "Josef is up to something. Tarus, too, though I don't even know if they're working for the same goal. They're all selfish and power-hungry. He'll turn on you as soon as you stop being useful. Help me stop him. Help me stop Reynard and his thugs. It won't be easy but we've got to try.
"Incarcerous!"
Ginny's head jerked to the side and watched as loops of cord shot at the second Auror. They wrapped tightly around him and bound him to the golden grate to the side of the security gate. A second later, Harry stepped out of the murky darkness, followed by Hermione and Ron.
Harrington stared at the four of them with surprise, but his amazement upon seeing Harry was nearly humorous. He looked down at Ginny's wand in his hand and then back at Harry.
"We know about Tarus and Josef," Harry said. "We're going to go stop them, but we can't do it this way. If you're truly worried about Ginny's safety, you need let her go with me."
"It— No— It can't be you," Harrington stammered. "How could you be alive all this time and tell no one?"
"It was necessary," Harry offered in explanation. "And it still is necessary. If we stay here, then we lose every advantage I've worked for months to obtain. If I reveal myself to everyone, the Brotherhood will retaliate. If you want to help, you need to let us go."
Harrington looked back down at Ginny's wand. Slowly, he offered it back to her. Carefully, she reached out for it and took it from his hand gently. Harrington then turned to stare at Harry and the others. The concerned look in his eyes fell away, and he turned back to Ginny.
"It seems that you've been doing fine despite everything I've done to try and help you. I suppose I need to have some trust in you," he said. His expression became slightly more melancholy, but the speed of his voice picked up. "I can't guarantee you any protection," he said. "I will do what I can to salvage your career. Just know that once you walk though that gate, you're beyond any help I can give you."
"I know," Ginny told him.
Harrington nodded and then raised his wand, making Harry flinch. Harrington gave a quick smile and then turned the tip of it toward himself.
'What are you doing?" Ginny asked anxiously.
"The Aurors know why I'm here," he said. "If they found out that you escaped while I could still fight, they would haul me into a courtroom and send me to Azkaban for the rest of my life. This way I have an excuse and if they check my wand, it will only confirm my story."
Then he closed his eyes, and shouted, "Stupefy!"
His unconscious body crumpled to the floor, sending his wand rolling across the polished floors. Ginny stood where she was, watching him and wondering just how he could have changed so much in just a few months.
"Come on," Harry reminded them all. "We need to go. Everyone meet at the flat in Gringott's. We've still got a lot of work to do." They quickly stepped through the gate, and Disapparated.
Author's Notes:
Another chapter down. leaving only four chapters left in this part of the trilogy. We're slowly learning what everyone is actually like and who they really care about. It's all spiralling toward some end, and its not far off now.
