Ron started awake, with a scream, his head splitting and heart pounding – it was the Christmas attack all over again! He looked around wildly and raced over to Neville. This was during the Astronomy OWL, and most of the students were finishing up their star charts, up on the top of the tower. "Neville!" He grabbed the other boy's arm. "We have to go! My dad's been taken hostage!"
"Mr Weasley, sit down. There is an exam in progress!" Professor Sinistra quickly swooped over to separate the boys.
Neville looked over at Ron with annoyance. He had never really liked Ron, but the way he had acted when everybody thought that Harry was dead… He tamped his anger down. 'It's not his fault. His father let him grow up as a spoiled jerk, and I'm just tired.' He took a slow breath – it had been a long day, as he had also been cramming for the History of Magic OWL tomorrow - before turning back to his paper. He was almost done, and Ron had probably just had a nightmare – everybody (except the professor) had seen him nod off.
Ron allowed himself to be led back to his workstation. But after a few moments during which he scribbled almost illegibly he pushed his parchment aside and ran out. He raced down to the Gryffindor dorms, slamming the portrait so hard that the Fat Lady looked incensed, "Ginny! I need your help! Dad's been taken by Death Eaters!" Ron ignored the curious looks directed his way.
Ginny started up. She had been sitting with Colin on the loveseat. "Are you certain?" The room was half empty, as all of the younger students had already gone to bed.
"Yes! it's just like when he got bitten by the giant snake. It's even the same place!"
Ginny wasn't certain what to believe, but it was her dad. "Ok. Let's go."
"I'll go with you," Collin interjected, "let me just put my camera away." As always, it had been resting on the table next to him. He raced up the stairs, returning a minute later, pulling a sweater on.
The remainder of Gryffindor watched in bemusement as the trio ran out the door. "It's almost curfew," Cormac McLaggen called out after them. He wasn't certain where they were going, but he was certain that it make for an awesome story tomorrow. The Weasleys (well, the Gryffindor editions) were trouble magnets par excellence.
"How are we going to get to the ministry?" Colin asked as they raced to the closest stairwell.
"George showed me a secret passage from just outside the DADA classroom to Honeydukes – it's how he smuggles in all the goodies that he sells." The two fourth years followed Ron. They were almost to the classroom when Ron threw out a hand. "Hide!"
As they pressed into a dark nook by a statue, Ron pointed ahead and whispered, "I just saw Umbridge go into her classroom, and the door s still open. If we use the secret passageway, she will see us!"
"So what do we do now?" Ginny asked.
"That depends on what your goal is." Ron leaped up and almost shriek at the lilting vice. He turned to see Luna standing behind them, watching them with bemusement.
"We need to get to the Ministry, to rescue my dad." Ginny explained.
Luna nodded. "This way." If Ginny needed her help, he wasn't going to ask questions. Maybe that way Ginny would be a little bit better of a friend. She led the way back in the opposite direction. Ginny followed promptly.
"But the secret passageway," Ron whined, looking between his sister and the spot opposite the DADA classroom.
"Is not what you need. You don't actually need to get out of Hogwarts. Instead you need to procure transportation to the Ministry. That is where the thestrals come in." Luna led the way down and out towards Hagrid's hut.
The group was just coming out of the castle when they almost ran into Neville and Hermione, coming back from the Astronomy Owl. "Where are you going? Curfew is in a few minutes."
Ron and Ginny explained, each talking over the other. Neville looked at the group. Ron was an idiot, and Ginny could take care of herself, but he was worried about Luna. He sighed. "Right, I'll come with you."
"Has anybody actually tried to contact Arthur?" Hermione was ever the voice of reason.
"The only floo is in the Headmaster's office," Ron countered. And now that it was demesnes of the Pink Toad, it was under lock and key. "There's no way we're going to be able to get in."
"Yet it behooves us to try. If we go all the way to the ministry and it turns out that he's safe at home..."
"He's not!" Ron interrupted desperately. Besides, they were already out on the grounds, and going up to the Headmaster's office would waste a lot of time, even if they COULD get in. Though given that Umbridge was down in the Defense classroom, maybe they could find some way to break in...
"Hey, what are you guys doing?" Neville turned to see Draco and two of his Inquisitorial squad buddies coming there way as they did a circuit of the Hogwarts grounds.
"No more time. Luna, lead the way to the thestrals!" Neville took off running after the Ravenclaw girl. One of the Inquisitorial Squad cast an Impedimenta jinx, which went wide as the caster had no practice casting on the run (and not enough brains to pause for a moment). Ron turned around and retaliated with a tripping hex, and Ginny followed up with an incarcerous, nether of which hit their marks either, but at least they slowed their pursuers as they dodged out of the way (unnecessarily).
The teens were huffing by the time they reached the thestral paddock. One of the Inquisitorial Squad boys had gone back for reinforcements, and they were now exiting the castle in force.
"Everybody, pair up and get on a thestral!"
"Help, I can't see them!" Ginny replied.
"Here, I'll guide you," Luna helped each of the teens up onto one of the skeletal horses. It was a good thing that they were very placid creatures, as Neville and Ron were trading spells with the Inquisitorial squad the whole time.
Finally, everybody except for Ron and Neville were mounted. Ginny reached down and pulled her brother up as her thestral took off. Luna galloped hers over and attempted the same with Neville, but her arms were too weak – he slipped out of her grasp and landed on the ground as her mount also flew into the air.
He glanced up the way they had come – several members of the Inquisitorial Squad were coming down down the rocky slope behind the quidditch pitch. One had twisted an ankle and was sitting on a boulder massaging it, and two others were incapacitated, tied up with conjured ropes.
'The Quidditch pitch!' Neville raised his wand. "Accio broom!" Harry was always complaining how the Gryffindors never bothered to lock their broom locker unless he did it for them. 'Now would be a really bad time for them to start locking it!'
A moment later, a broom swooped into his hand. Neville wasn't the flier that Harry was, but he was pretty reliable, and he swooped up into the air, following the quickly disappearing figures on the invisible flying horses.
'Damn. I should let Harry know what's going on.' But there was no way he could get to his mirror while on a broom. 'I'll do it once we land.'
\*/
Harry had just finished brushing his teeth when the two way mirror buzzed. "Hey, Neville! How was your Astronomy OWL?" Harry had just flooed home from taking his in the wizarding Shadow Tower of London, which rose 8 floors above the Tower that muggles could see (and was an actual tower) - and he couldn't wait to tell Neville all about it.
"Harry, that can wait." Neville looked to be on a city street. "Ron says that his father is being held hostage in the Department of Mysteries, and he's taking a bunch of guys to rescue him. I'm coming along to keep them from doing anything stupid. Get dad and the Order to come down as soon as they can."
"Can you ask Ron to wait? Dad's home, so it won't take long."
"No, the idiot isn't listening – he's just run down to the Ministry entrance, and half the group followed him. Look I got to go, or Luna might get hurt."
As soon as the mirror clicked off, Harry tossed it on the bed and ran for his father's study. "Dad! Dad. Call the Order of the Phoenix together! Ron is doing something stupid!"
Within minutes, James was calling Sirius and explaining the situation to him while Harry repeated it to hims mother. Once James was done, he ended with, "I'll call Shacklebolt and Alistar, you get Remus. Lily's trying to find Albus."
Seeing the rescue party starting to come together, Harry ran upstairs to his room and grabbed a handful of coins and slipped several of the potions that he had made as part of his lessons into his pockets. By the time he came back downstairs, Remus was already at the front door.
"So, what's the plan?" Harry asked.
Remus looked in surprised, "James, is Harry coming with us?"
"Absolutely not." Lily replied as she came down from James' study, followed by Dumbledore.
James pulled his head out of the living room fireplace long enough to bark out an agreement before floo-calling the next person on his list.
As more people arrived, Harry stood tentatively at the edge of the crowd. He wasn't certain who all of his friends had gone with Ron, but he knew that Neville was there. There was no way that he was going to let his brother get himself injured. Nev might think he was really smart, but when it came to this sort of thing, he was as dumb as a Weasley. Harry ran upstairs to his room and grabbed his broom before darting into his fathers study. He pulled open the bottom drawer of his desk – inside was his dad's invisibility cloak. He grabbed a pinch of floo powder and tossed it in, "Tower of London!"
\*/
Ron ran like his life depended on it. Because it did.
Everything had gone wrong. They had arrived at the ministry to find it empty, and had had no trouble making their way down to the ninth sub-basement, where the Department of Mysteries was located. And then the Death Eaters had ambushed them in the Hall of Prophesies. Ginny had managed to duck under a bookcase and knock it over, giving the other teens a chance to flee.
Now, Ron, Ginny, and Luna were running through the Hall of Brains (though that probably wasn't it's official name). Ron wasn't certain where the other three had gotten to. "This way!" Ron called as he pulled open a door. "No, up, here!" Ginny clambered up onto a worktable and yanked out the grate over a vent. "After me!" She jumped up and pulled herself in.
Luna froze, not certain what to do – there was no way she could pull herself up like that.
"Here, let me give you a hand," Ron turned to the petite Ravenclaw. But just then the door behind them opened to reveal Jugson.
Ron cast an Impedimenta hex and ran for the other door, leaving Luna to her own devices.
The Death Eater dodged the poorly aimed hex and retaliated with an Expelliarmus aimed at the dithering girl who was blocking his way.
Luna stumbled backwards into the work table as her wand flew out of her hand. Her head hit the glass case of brains as she slumped to the ground, unmoving.
"There's another one up in the duct," Jugson called over his shoulder as ran after Ron.
He cursed as he stumbled over the blond girl, almost face planting before he regained his balance.
\*/
[[earlier]]
Neville tried to slow the Death Eaters down, casting several Stupefies at them as they chased after Ron out of the Hall of Prophecies, but then a pair broke off to attack him and it was his turn to run.
As he did, he saw Collin standing behind a bookcase, uncertain what to do. "Run!"
Collin nodded and turned to run down the next aisle… Only to come face to face with Dolohov. Before Collin could think of what to do, Dolohov jabbed his wand out and snarled a word in Latin. Collin's stomach exploded in a spray of blood and gore.
The suddenness of it shocked Neville, but his legs never stopped running, carrying him on autopilot for the door.
By some miracle, he made it to the round room of doors that acted as the foyer to the Department of Mysteries, and here he found Hermione.
"I don't know which door is the exit!" She wailed.
Neville Colloportus'ed the door he had come in through and turned to look at the others as they spun around. "It doesn't matter. Any door that is isn't Colloportus'ed is good enough."
He pulled one open and the two teens ran into a dimly lit corridor.
\*/
[[earlier still]]
"Now hand over the prophesy like a good boy."
Hermione looked up in horror as a pair of Death Eaters stepped out from the shadows as soon as Ron picked up the prophesy orb.
She had never been very good at making quick decisions, and this was something that she had never, ever prepared for. 'This is exactly the situation that Professor Umbridge said we didn't need to know how to deal with, as we would never find ourselves in.'
"Run!" Ginny yelled as a bookcase at the front of the aisle toppled, momentarily blocking off the Death eaters.
Hermione ran, her heart hammering. She hadn't been this scared since third grade, when Wendy Harrington and her goons had threatened to knock her off of the sidewalk into the street on the way home from school. She had never told her parents about that, because she was too embarrassed. 'Why am I thinking of that right now?' Hermione remembered the way back to the foyer, but as soon as she stepped into that round room, everything spun, and memory served no benefit.
As she stood, dithering, a door slammed open, scaring her half to death, but it was only Neville.
He took the lead, racing through the unknown passageway.
"I don't think this the right direction."
"Do you have a better idea?" Neville wasn't in the mood for a casual discussion. If Hermione didn't have something to offer, she should just shut up and let him think. It was hard enough to do that with the huge quantity of adrenaline coursing through his body.
"There was a sign for the Department of Education that way," Hermione pointed down a corridor that branched off to the left. "And I know that there's an exit from there."
Her parents had come here with her when they first received her Hogwarts letter, to clarify a few things. (Her parents weren't ones to leave their only daughter's education to the whims of some bureaucracy, not without getting involved).
"Ok. Let's go." Neville changed direction and ran down the new corridor. The Department of Education should be several levels up from the Department of Mysteries, but that didn't mean anything at the Ministry of Magic.
\*/
[[now]]
"Are we all here?" James demanded. The waiting was killing him – Neville was out there, with a bunch of yahoos from school, running into who knows what.
"I think so," replied Lily. Sirius was there with Remus, and Alistar had called in his apprentice, who had shown up with Bill Weasley of all people. James had been able to get in touch with Shacklebolt as well, and Albus rounded out their numbers.
"Ok, remember the drill. We'll split into pairs to search, non-Aurors pair with Aurors. If you need help, trigger your beacon, and somebody will portkey to your location." James distributed the beacons and portkeys to each member of the team. The beacon was a simple leather bracelet with a charm on it, and the portkey was a pendant. The portkeys were keyed to go to any active beacon within a half mile.
"Lily, Alistar. Sirius and Remus, Tonks and Bill," James counted off teams. He didn't like keeping romantic couples together, but nobody else knew Bill at all, and that could slow communication and endanger the team. "I'll go with Shacklebolt, and Albus will be backup."
"Let's go." Sirius threw floo powder into the fireplace, "Ministry of Magic, emergency over-ride Huffling Snodgrass. Auror office."
Remus quirked an eyebrow at the choice of passwords but didn't say anything as Sirius redirected their floo to the Auror department, on the office chance that the Death Eaters had booby trapped the main arrival point.
\*/
Ginny shimmied into the ventilation duct. It was tight squeeze, even for a petite 14 year old.
"Come outta there!" A gravely voice called from below the vent. Ginny's felt like ice water had poured into her bowels. She jabbed her wand between her legs and cast a Bat-Bogey hex back down behind her, but there wasn't enough room for the wand movements, so all she produced was a sickly greenish flash of light.
"Hey, Crabbe, I got one up here!" Came the amused reply, "and she's spunky!" The vent was too high up for him to easily cast spells down it so Goyle stood on tip toe and hooked his elbow up over his head, but he couldn't get the motions right from that angle. He looked around for a book or something that he could stand on to get a little extra height.
Ginny shimmied faster, not caring that she was tearing skin off of her knees and elbows as she tried to escape. She finally managed to make it around a bend and above what must be another room. Here the duct forked with one leg continuing on, while the other led to a portal to the outside, which was letting in the fresh air. Ginny desperately ripped at the grate covering that leg of the duct, tearing her fingernails in her panic before she remembered her wand.
Climbing through the portal, she found herself on a narrow ledge along the Shadow Tower of London. It was just wide enough to let her slide 5 feet to the left, to a closed window which she alohomara'ed open.
It took her two tries, as the wind at this height was brisk, and kept threatening to rip her off of the wall. Only her experience in climbing kept her from plummeting to her death.
Finally, she forced the window and slipped inside into a dark, empty room. She dropped to the floor and scuttled backwards until she had her back to a corner. Her first thought was that she had made it out alive, which was immediately followed by twisting, vicious sense of shame that she had left Luna behind. 'I didn't even try to stop and help her'. Silent tears ran down her face.
\*/
As Neville turned the corner, he almost hexed the figure coming from the other direction before he recognized Ron.
"Where are Luna and your sister?" Neville asked as the three momentarily paused in their flight to take stock.
"I don't know. They were behind me, but they got separated. We should keep going – there's a Death Eater not far behind!"
Neville nodded. Now wasn't the time to talk about where the others were, especially not with what had happened to Collin. He took a moment to look at the signs. "The Department of Magical Law Enforcement is this way." The sign pointed to a set of stairs. "I know my way out from there." He took the steps two at a time.
Hermione nodded. That was better than her one half remembered trip to the education department (and which, despite the signs, they had not been able to find). At the top of the stairs, Neville ran to the left, but Ron turned right.
"Where are you going?" Hermione followed after him.
"It's safer if we split up – there's more chance of us getting out while the Death Eaters try to figure out which group to follow."
Hermione didn't understand that logic, but she knew that her brain wasn't working properly right now, so she followed after the Boy Who Lived.
They had been walking for several minutes when she finally asked, "Do you know where you're going?"
"Yeah, I think so," Ron replied. He was pretty certain that he had seen an 'emergency exit' sign pointing in this direction. The problem was that since most wizards could apparate (at least to their own home), wizarding buildings didn't have clearly marked fire exits.
"This looks like a dead end," Hermione pointed down the path that they had been following. It led into a large room filled with a maze of cubicles, some the regular size, while others reached almost to the ceiling. "Let's go back."
A sudden boom echoed through the building. "What was that?" Ron asked, crouching down and pointing his wand in all directions.
"I don't know. It sounded like an explosion."
"Do you think it's Voldemort?" Rn whisper in terror.
"Maybe it's the Order coming to our rescue. Neville did call them when we arrived."
Ron was just opening his mouth to reply when they heard somebody approaching from the way they had just come. "Neville?" He called out tentatively. The deeply spaced night- lighting was too dim to see anything.
But then the figures past under one of the lights - it wasn't Neville – it was a pair of masked Death Daters.
"Stupefy!" Ron yelled out, but the Death Eater ducked aside and retaliated.
A moment later Hermione followed up with a tripping hex before stepping backwards behind a cubicle wall.
Soon, both teens were retreating into the office maze as they fired off spells to slow down their pursuers.
But Hermione was right – the cubicle room was a dead end, and they were being forced further and further into it, away from the single exit.
One of Ron's spells clipped a Death Eater, sending his mask flying. "Why you!" Nott snarled, raising his wand when he was hit in the side of the head by a Bombarda. The other Death Eater immediately raised a shield as he whirled around, looking for the source of the attack.
\*/
Harry flew down the side of the Tower, racing for the entrance to the Ministry – it was close enough that you could see it from the Tower. Once in the telephone booth, he calmly pronounced, "Harry Potter, to see Neville Longbottom." A visitor button klanked into the tray as the booth lowered into the ground. As it did, he threw the invisibility cloak over himself and tried to mount his broom in the crowded confines. He wasn't quite able to do it, but as soon as the door opened into the atrium he stepped out and kicked off the ground, floating up into the air. He carefully tucked the cloak around his legs and floated across the foyer. As he passed the grand mirror, he realized that the ends of the broom were sticking out from under the cloak. 'Oh, for...!' Harry landed and shrank the broom so he could put in his pocket. 'And it had seemed like such a good idea.' He sighed and walked carefully into the Ministry. While he was invisible, he was not silenced, and certain detection charms would still spot him (at least according to his father – he had never before had a chance to experiment with cloak).
Neville had said something about the Department of Mysteries, so Harry stopped by the directory to check. 'One floor down'. The quickest way to get there was to use the lift, but Harry didn't want to be trapped in a little room with nowhere to duck or hide if there was a Death Eater waiting at the bottom. 'It's one floor – I'll take the stairs'. He drew his wand and started down the closest set, stepping carefully so as not to make a sound, and holding the cloak tight about him.
Several minutes later, he reached the next floor. It had taken much longer than expected – either the ninth floor was much further below the eighth, or the stairs had skipped the ninth floor, and he was actually Merlin knows where. As soon as he stepped out of the stairwell, he started looking for any sign. He finally found one, saying, "Auror Office." Harry groaned, 'I knew this place looked familiar.' His dad had told him that all the stairs were all magicked to go to specific floors, and if you didn't know your way around you would quickly get lost on them, but he hadn't realized that a DOWN staircase could bring you UP six floors.
He was just turning to head back up the stairs when he heard an explosion from an office down the hall.
Harry carefully crept towards the source of the noise. As soon as he was able to peer inside, he got down along the floor and peered in really low. Inside there were a pair of masked Death Eaters rummaging through a blasted-open safe, picking out charred papers.
"You put too much power into that spell," one of them grumbled.
"I did not. It must have been spelled to explode if somebody forced it open." The other replied before throwing the badly damaged pages to the ground in frustration. "At this rate we're going to have nothing to show for the mission." Returning to the Dark Lord empty handed was not something that engendered long life.
The first Death Eater shrugged, "Maybe we can go help look for the kids. I saw a couple run to this floor."
"Kids," growled the other. "Pewling little rats. And we aren't allowed to Avada Kedavra them until we have the Boy Who Lived."
Harry had heard enough. If some of his friends were on this floor, he would start his search here. He silently withdrew.
\*/
Harry was just heading back to the the Auror's department when he spotted another pair of Death Eaters skulking down a corridor. 'Maybe I should stupefy them.' But if he missed, he would have a fight on his hands, and he wasn't here to fight the Death Eaters but to make sure that his friends were safe. He was just turning to leave when he saw a fight break out. The Death Eaters rushed to one side as a spell flashed by them. 'That must be Neville and company!' Harry made his way to the end of the short corridor. Spells were splashing all over, so he didn't dare charge in as yet. When the fighting shifted out of the passageway, he ran to the far end, but the Death Eaters and their opponents were gone.
The room at the far end was a maze of narrow aisles between cubicles. There was no way for him to sneak up on the Death Eaters in that mess. Harry took out his broom and unshrunk it. Once he was floating near the ceiling, well above the cubicles, he could see Ron and Hermione facing off against the two Death Eaters. Ron knocked the mask off of one, revealing Cantankerous Nott. The vicious old man was just raising his wand to cast at Ron when Harry's carefully aimed Bombarda caught him in the side of the head.
As the other Death Eater whirled around, looking for this new attacker, Harry pulled his cloak tight about himself and drifted his broom deeper into the shadows so that the protruding ends wouldn't be visible. Sirius had impressed on him that Voldemort's lieutenants were all skilled duelists, and Harry had no interest in dueling somebody on Sirius's level.
But there were may ways of fighting that did not involve dueling. When the Death Eater was looking the other way Harry flicked a handful of knuts at him, transforming them into sickles as they flew – the sharp and pointy kind.
The Death Eater leaped out of the way of the attack at the last minute, throwing himself to the ground so hard that his mask came of revealing Rastaban. He quickly rolled to his feet, staggering slightly from where one of the sickles had bit into his thigh. He still wasn't certain where the attacks coming from, though, as Transfiguration didn't leave a tell-tale flash unless you over-powered it.
Ron took the opportunity to cast a stunner at the Death Eater, but it was a feeble spell that the dark wizard easily batted aside with his wand.
But before he could do anything else, the sickles turned into cobras and slid towards him.
Rastaban growled in frustration and dispelled them, but then almost lost his footing as a tripping jinx from Hermione caught his right leg.
A sudden indoor windstorm picked up papers from the surrounding desks and threw them as Rastaban, who conjured a flame to disperse them. But the flame had no effect on the steel darts that had replaced the papers and flew towards him, forcing him to shield. He stopped most of the darts, but a couple slipped through, one sliding across his ribs, leaving a painful gash, and another burying itself in the meat of his upper arm. While the pain was distracting him, a second tripping jinx sent him staggering, which is all that saved his life as the desk he had been standing next to just missed biting his leg off. He kicked hard, ripping his leg free the clutches of the desk, leaving part of his pant-leg behind. The now bare leg was bleeding profusely from several deep scratches.
And Rastaban still had no idea who his third opponent was, or where they were.
Seeing the Death Eater on the ropes, Hermione and Ron stepped up their assault, paying less attention to hiding.
Rastaban gave a roar of frustration as he cast a purple curse at Hermione and ran for the exit.
Hermione screamed in pain as a bubbling goo splashed across her torso and neck, all the way up to her cheek.
"You bastard!" Ron yelled and raced after the injured Death Eater.
Harry took a split second to assess the situation and landed next to Hermione. "Aquamenta!" The gush of water washed off most of the goo, but where it had hit skin it refused to come off. Hermione was gasping. As she lay slumped on the floor. Harry couldn't tell if it was from pain or if she was having difficulty breathing.
In a panic, Harry rummaged in his pockets for anything that could help – he pulled out the soothing potion that he had made earlier this year. It was supposed to be drunk, but maybe.. Harry crouched down next to Hermione and dribbled it over her neck and face and the last little bit over her right hand, which she had used to desperately claw at her burning face. He spread it with a wadded up parchment, spreading it to wherever the goo was. The bubbling subsided, revealing red and raw flesh underneath. Hermione was breathing in small desperate gasps, and her eyes were staring up at the ceiling, not focusing on anything.
Harry took Hermione's good hand. "It's me, Harry. You're going to be ok." He avoided looking down the to the left, where he could see Nott's lower body just visible past a cubicle wall.
Hermione clenched down so hard on his hand that all of his fingers were mashed together. He had been planning to just reassure her for a moment and then go look for Ron and the others, but there was no way he could leave her now. Harry made himself comfortable next to her, "My father and the Order are coming. Just hold on for a little bit. We'll get you out of here and take you to St. Mungos. They'll fix you right up."
Hermione's breathing calmed down, becoming slower and deeper. "Harry? It hurts," she rasped.
"I know. Help is coming." Harry patted her clenched hand with his free one. He didn't dare touch any other part of her, partly for fear that he had missed some of the goo, and partly because any motion caused her pain.
"I can't see. Harry, I can't see."
"There's nothing wrong with your eyes – they look as good as ever. It must be a side effect of that spell. Don't worry, St. Mungos will be able to fix it." Harry didn't know if that was true, but there wasn't any damage to her eyes, so the chances were good. "You have very nice eyes, you know," he rambled as he quickly tried to think of something to distract her from her situation.
They sat like that for a good half hour. Part way in, Harry heard a loud crash, and the sound of spell fire, but then it got quiet.
Eventually Bill Weaselly and Nymphadora Tonks found the two of them.
\*/
James glowered at his son. He didn't know what to say. On the one hand, he was proud of how he had gone on ahead to fight for his friends (and of how well he had done it). On the other, his boy had directly ignored his instructions and placed himself in an extremely dangerous situation!
Lily was also feeling conflicted, but her way of responding was to alternate between berating Harry and hugging him. Harry was not enjoying either one, but he was too shell shocked to complain.
Neville had managed to make his escape by going to bed as soon as they got back, saying that he was too exhausted to talk. Harry didn't take the easy way out – he wanted to know what had happened to all of his friends, especially...
"They just found Ginny!" Lupin floo'ed in. They were all gathered at Grimauld place, which was acting their staging area as the Order helped search for the missing teens and coordinated with the Ministry and the media.
And there was media – Voldemort had come out of hiding to help his Death Eaters, just in time to get into a dual with Albus. And the entire spectacle had been seen by Ministry officials that had come in response to the various alarms that the fighting had triggered.
"Is she ok?" Harry freed himself from his mother. "Should I go visit her?" Harry felt guilty. He had been present as the other teens had been brought out and taken to St. Mungos. He had insisted on staying and exchanging a few words with each, to reassure himself that they were still alive. But after an hour, he had relocated to Grimauld Place, with Ginny still missing.
"No. She and her brother are going home to rest." Remus responded, "And Arthur said that he was going to lock down the Burrow and not take any visitors for a while. I think nearly losing yet another child has been very traumatic for him.
"Wouldn't it be for any parent?" Lily attempted to pull Harry in for another hug, which he just managed to avoid.
"So Ron is done speaking to the reporters?" The Boy Who Lived had taken the opportunity to present his take on what had happened.
"Yeah. He spoke surprisingly well, calling for unity against Voldemort. I think Albus had coached him."
Harry nodded and yawned. It was past midnight, and the adrenaline that had been fueling him had run out.
"You should go to bed." James finally spoke. "Come on, I'll walk you up to one of the guest rooms."
As Harry went into the guest room, James added, "You did the right thing. Both you and Neville. I'm proud of you. Just don't scare me so much next time, ok?"
"Ok."
Inside the room, Neville was still awake, staring up at the ceiling lost in thought.
"Hey."
"Hey yourself."
"That was pretty awful."
"Yeah." After a moment, Neville added, "I saw Collin die."
Harry nodded. "I don't know what to say to that." Or to the fact that he had killed a man. Cantankerous would have killed Ron if he hadn't interfered. It was clearly the right thing to do. But he still felt... He didn't know how he felt.
"Me either. I'm glad everybody else is going to be ok."
"How is Luna – I saw you talking to her."
"She took a nasty blow to the head, but the healers said that she's going to be fine"
"Maybe she'll stop obsessing about all her weird creatures."
Neville snorted, "Maybe."
The conversation (if you could call it that), died down for several minutes before Harry added, "they found Ginny"
"Yeah, I heard."
And that was that - there really wasn't much to talk about. At least not that the two Potter boys were ready to deal with.
\*/
Ginny lay curled up on her bed. It seemed like she had been doing a lot of that lately. The trip home had been horrible.
Colin was dead.
One of the Aurors had mentioned it when she had pressed him. But her father had whisked the entire family away before she could find out any more. When he was in this sort of mood even Bill didn't argue with him.
Once back at the Burrow, Ron had paced, ranting about how incompetent Fudge was, and how it was all his fault, and how if the Ministry had accepted that Voldemort was back last year when he had warned them, then none of this would have happened.
And he wasn't wrong, but he was also missing part of it. The fact that what had happened had HURT. But all he could think of was what the Minister should do next. Bill wasn't much better – he was in the floo as soon as they got back, communicating with the Order as well as messaging other warders about coordinating repairs to the Ministry.
And her dad had taken a potion for his migraine and collapsed in bed. He didn't deal well with stress.
Ginny forced herself up out of bed and shambled down to the kitchen. 'If I stay in bed, I'll never get up.' She poured herself a glass of milk and found an unopened tin of cookies. They were the cheap butter cookies from Christmas that nobody liked, but she pried it open and had a couple as she half listened to her brothers in the other room.
Suddenly her head whipped around as she have heard Bill say something into the floo. She raced into the living room, "what's this about Harry?" She demanded. She knew that Neville and Luna were ok, and that Hermione was at St. Mungos. But what did Harry have to do with this?
"He showed up with the Order – he helped out." Bill responded.
"Was he hurt? Is he ok?" A kid like him fighting against Death Eaters was insane. Hopefully he stayed back.
"He's fine." Ron interrupted. "I saw him after it was all over at the Ministry – he was just checking on everybody, making sure that they were ok."
Ginny's shoulders relaxed back down. "Oh. That makes sense." That sounded like him - Harry was a good guy.
"Hey, Ron. Dumbledore wants to talk to you. He's going to come though."
Ron immediately lost all interest in Ginny, straitening up and adjusting his clothes. "He must want to start planning the war against Voldemort!"
\*/
"Hello Miss Granger. We're going to have to sedate you so that we can start regrowing your skin. Don't worry, it's pretty straight forward, but you'll probably have a reddish discoloration from the spell.
"What about my eyes?" Hermione didn't care about that – she had long ago accepted that she wasn't going to win any beauty contests.
"We already took care of that, but it will take a while for them to get back to normal - you will probably need glasses for the next few months"
"Ok." Hermione paused, "Are my parents here?"
"Yes, you can see them, I mean talk to them, after the operation."
"Then let's get started."