Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen: Gifts and Curses

Daphne was late in getting downstairs the next morning, still being too angry to really want to talk to any of her friends. She knew she wouldn't be able to avoid it, given the fact that the wedding would be held later that day, but before then, she was determined to stay away from them as much as possible.

Yes, it was very childish and petty of her, and she should really know better, but the fact that all of her friends seemed to have given up on bringing Ginny along on the Horcrux-hunt at the very last moment made her far angrier than it should. It was Ginny, after all, who'd come off worse by not going, and she certainly wasn't complaining; hell, she'd made the decision herself. But it felt wrong to leave her behind all the same, and the thought of leaving her girlfriend behind felt wrong in all sorts of ways. Her friends, fortunately, seemed to have realized she was in a bad mood, and they left her alone outside of the barest necessities.

About an hour before the guests would start arriving, however, Ginny cornered her. "Are you going to be like this for the rest of the day?" she asked.

Daphne shrugged. "Maybe."

"Look, do you think I'm happy with this?" Ginny asked. "Do you think I want to let you all go off doing all sorts of dangerous things while I'm at school?"

"No, but–"

"Good, because I don't. But I'm not going to come along and then get you all killed because my Trace stops you from using magic. I won't have your deaths be my fault. I'll just help Neville and Luna with the Order at school, and the four of you will take care of the rest like you always have."

Daphne could hear the note of resentment in Ginny's voice, and that spurred her on to respond. "That's just it. It's always been the four of us. This is the biggest moment for you to be there with us, like you were at the Ministry. When we were on our date in Hogsmeade, we talked about what we wanted to do, right? Well, this is our chance. This will help bring Voldemort's defeat closer in a way nothing else can. I…I want you to be a part of that, too."

Ginny smiled. "Why is it so important to you that I'm there? You'll be with Harry and Ron and Hermione, right? It's not like you can't handle it."

"It's…you just deserve it," Daphne said. "After all your training, all your improvement…no one has seen you improve over the past two years like I have. No one has been practicing with me more than you. And now, just because of this, you'd let it come to nothing? I just…I can't accept that."

Ginny laughed. "Your sense of fairness and justice is really a bit overdeveloped, isn't it?" she asked. She sighed. "Look, I really appreciate you looking out for me, standing up for me, going above and beyond to make it possible for me to join you and Harry and the others…but we have to be realistic, too. I'm not saying you have to be in a great mood for the rest of the day, or anything, but this day is Bill and Fleur's. At least try not to look like you're plotting a mass murder once the guests arrive, okay?"

Daphne looked into her eyes for a few moments and then looked away. "Fine. I'll try to look…neutral," she said unwillingly.

Ginny grinned at her. "Good. Now come on, we've got some final preparations to do."

The 'preparations' came down to putting on their fancy clothes and helping the guests to their seats. Harry, meanwhile, had taken on the appearance of a redheaded Muggle boy from the nearby village so as not to draw attention to himself, and would be going by the name 'Barny Weasley' for the duration of the festivities. Ginny, along with Fleur's sister Gabrielle, would serve as a bridesmaid.

Slowly but surely, the garden began to fill up, and people were happily talking to each other. Daphne had never been at a wedding before, but she could feel the excitement from the people around her. Had she been in a better mood, she'd probably have shared in the atmosphere, but as it stood she simply let it slide by her, secluding herself from the other guests without appearing to do so.

Fortunately, the other people were moving around enough for her to not stand out, and eventually Bill and Charlie, all the way at the front of the tent, stood up, and the crowd fell silent. It was impolite, but Daphne didn't pay much attention to Fleur when she entered, instead being momentarily stunned by how good Ginny looked in her golden dress.

Ginny clearly noticed her staring and winked at her she walked past. A bit further down, Daphne also saw her grinning at Harry, whose expression probably looked quite close to what Daphne's had looked like a bit earlier.

The same wizard who'd presided over Dumbledore's funeral now led the wedding ceremony, and after vows had been exchanged, the tent was transformed into a beautiful open dancefloor. Despite still not being in the best mood, the setting and music were such that Daphne allowed Harry — still in his disguise — to invite her for a dance, and she even had a surprisingly good time with it, too.

She'd barely stopped dancing with Harry when Ginny pulled her along instead. "It looks like the plan is working," she said with a grin.

"Plan?" Daphne asked. "Wait, you and Harry set this up!" she realized with a shock.

"Of course we did. Did you think we'd let you mope on your own for the entire duration of the party? We even asked the band to play these songs specifically because I know you like them," Ginny said.

Daphne blinked stupidly. "You went to that much trouble for me? On a day like this?"

Ginny shrugged. "Why not? Bill and Fleur won't mind, they're elated already that they're finally married. And since it's a good day for love, anyway…"

Daphne laughed. "Well…you did a good job, then. And dancing with you is always fun, anyway."

Not much later, however, a gleaming silver lynx, which Daphne recognized immediately as a Patronus, landed in the middle of the dancefloor. A moment later, it spoke with Kingsley's voice.

"The Ministry has fallen. Scrimgeour is dead. They are coming."

For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, someone screamed, and it was like all hell broke loose. People began to run, Disapparate, cast Shield Charms in all directions… There was a flash of light and a loud bang from somewhere further down, but Daphne couldn't see what was going on. She did know, however, that the defensive spells around the Burrow had broken; if they hadn't, people wouldn't have been able to Disapparate.

There was no time to waste. She grabbed Ginny's hand and turned on the spot, her mind focused on her destination…and an uncomfortable moment later she and Ginny stood in a small cubicle with a mirror on one side and an open curtain opening up into a row of similar looking cubicles. Daphne quickly pulled the curtain shut.

"What– where are we?!" Ginny asked, looking around in bewilderment.

"Clothing store in Muggle London," Daphne said. "It was the first place I could think of, and we need normal clothes, these will stand out too much…"

"How do you propose we get those?" Ginny asked. "We don't have Muggle money!"

"We do, but we won't need any right now," Daphne said. She held up the small bag she'd been wearing as an accessory for most of the day and opened it. She stuck in her arm and rummaged around.

When she saw Ginny staring at her, she said, "You didn't think Hermione was the only one prepared enough for things like this, did you?"

"And you brought my clothes too, even though you knew I wouldn't be going with you?" Ginny asked, her eyes narrowing. "Come to think of it, why did you bring me here at all?!"

"I wasn't going to leave you there when the place was under attack, and I don't care about the Trace one bit," Daphne said, finally finding the set of clothing she was looking for in the depths of the extended bag.

She pulled out the clothes and handed them to Ginny, before looking for her own Muggle clothes.

"Now quickly get changed, and then we need to get out of here. They'll have detected our Apparition, so we've got a few minutes at best," Daphne said.

Ginny didn't look happy, but she seemed to realize that there really wasn't any time to argue and quickly changed into the jeans and T-shirt Daphne had brought for her. Once Daphne was changed as well, she stuffed their dresses and fancy shoes into her bag and hung it over her shoulder.

"Come on, let's go," she said. "And keep your eyes open…we might need to fight."

Ginny nodded and followed Daphne out of the fitting room, through the store, and out onto the street, into the mass of shopping people.

"Where now?" Ginny asked.

"Doesn't matter, just away from here, and let's change directions every so often," Daphne said. She grabbed Ginny's hand and pulled her along.

Ginny, clearly still angry at having essentially been kidnapped by Daphne, quickly pulled her hand free, but at least kept following Daphne. To Daphne's great surprise, they weren't being followed yet, possibly because Harry wasn't with them and the Death Eaters would surely be going for him first. But Daphne had seen Hermione grabbing Harry and Ron moments before Daphne had Disapparated with Ginny, so they should be safe as well, even though she didn't know where they might be.

They kept walking, turning into random side streets every so often, but when no one had appeared after a few minutes, she assumed that, even if the Death Eaters had detected them Apparating into the clothing store, they didn't consider them to be a high enough priority to send people after them in a crowded Muggle street for the time being.

"So, now what, then?" Ginny asked. "Just walk until it gets dark?"

"We should probably find some kind of hotel, or something…a Muggle one, just for safety," Daphne mused.

"Safe? You can't put any defensive spells on it while I'm here," Ginny said.

"I don't think I'll need to," Daphne said. "At least, not yet. If they can't find Harry, they'll probably come after us to lure him into a trap, but until then we can probably avoid them if we try to blend in with the Muggles for a bit. I still have my debit card, and the account it's for is loaded with money. I'll withdraw some and then we'll find a place to stay for the night…"

"Daphne, I wasn't supposed to come! You shouldn't have taken me here to begin with," Ginny said. "I need to get back to the Burrow and let my parents know I'm okay, and you need to find Harry, Ron, and Hermione and join up with them."

"You're already here now, aren't you?" Daphne asked.

"That's not the point!" Ginny exploded. "I made my choice, and you should have respected it! Instead, you decided to act on your own and now we're both in a lot of trouble! You can't use magic around me, I can't use magic at all…Bringing me with you was stupid and selfish and you're a bloody idiot!"

"So what?!" Daphne shouted back. "So what if I'm an idiot?! I love you, God damn it, and I'm not leaving you on your own!"

"I wouldn't have been on my own! Most of the Order was there and the rest would have been on their way! They'd have kept me safe! Escaping with me was just about the stupidest thing you could have done! You stupid, reckless, Slytherin idiot!"

Daphne blinked at those words. "That's…"

"What you always call Harry, yes, I know," Ginny said. "I figured it was time to turn it around on you." She didn't smile. "I should head to the Leaky Cauldron. Maybe from there, I'll be able to contact someone and get back home…"

"You…you really intend to go back?" Daphne asked.

"Did you think I wouldn't? Did you think I'd make a choice as difficult as the one I made and then have it invalidated because my girlfriend couldn't respect it?" Ginny asked.

"I– Of course I respect–"

"No, Daphne, you didn't. And honestly, that hurts. Because you were always the only one I thought I could rely on to do just that. To respect my choices and to allow me to make them. Guess I was wrong."

Daphne had no idea what to say. She felt like Ginny had just pounded frozen nails into her chest. The disappointment in her voice was so much worse than the anger from moments before, and everything Ginny had just said was true. There was nothing Daphne could think to say in her own defense.

And now, apparently, she'd be left to fend for herself. It wasn't so much that she doubted her ability to survive — she had plenty of money, so neither food nor shelter should be an issue — but she didn't know where Harry was, and her attempt to save Ginny, which had admittedly also been intended to get her to come along on the mission after all, had backfired so spectacularly it might have ruined the relationship forever.

How could everything have gone so wrong, so quickly? Stupid bloody Trace! If that thing hadn't been there, there wouldn't have been an issue at all! It might as well have been a curse of misfortune, for all the harm it had already done. Wait…a curse of misfortune…

"If…if I knew a way to break the Trace on you…would you stay?" Daphne asked softly, cringing internally at the oddly high pitch of her voice.

Ginny didn't reply immediately, and Daphne got more nervous with every second that passed.

"I would," Ginny said after a few moments. "But!" she went on, when she saw Daphne's hopeful look. "You and I have some things to talk about, clearly, and if you think my mum can give long lectures…well, you've never seen me get angry. And make no mistake: I'm angry. Really, really angry. The only reason I haven't hexed you is because the Death Eaters are after us. I…I really don't think you fully realize how much you hurt me by just dragging me here knowing I'd already chosen not to come."

"I…I understand," Daphne said softly.

Ginny slowly shook her head. "I really don't think you do, just yet. But do you have a way to break the Trace or not?" she asked.

"I think so," Daphne said. "Valentina Barese."

Ginny cocked her head. "The curse breaker? But the Trace isn't a curse, is it?" she asked.

"Well, what's the difference between a charm and a curse, aside from if it's harmful or not?" Daphne asked. "And if she can't help us, you can still go back to the Burrow then and continue hating me there."

Ginny took a step closer, suddenly angry again. "Stop that right now," she said coldly. "You know damn well I don't hate you, and I'm not going to stand here listening to you tearing yourself down. I'm angry and disappointed, yes, but I also love you. Hell, I'm only this angry and disappointed because I love you.

"I know you don't exactly have the most self-esteem, but tearing yourself down really isn't going to make me, or anyone else, more sympathetic. You screwed up, plain and simple, but you can still make amends. But doing that will take time, and restoring my damaged trust will also take time. Moping is going to do more harm than good, and that isn't your style, anyway. This is a moment for you to show your strength…and then I'll help you overcome your weakness."

"W-which one of us was of age, again?" Daphne asked shakily. It was taking all of her willpower not to dissolve in a blubbering mess.

Ginny smiled faintly. "Better get that Trace broken to make it official, huh?"

Pacing's a bit…rushed this chapter, but given the events in it, I think it fits decently well, and I really didn't want to describe the wedding in great detail.

As for the chapter title…I like that song a lot and it seems to fit the chapter in a strange way.