CHAPTER THIRTEEN: AWAKENING

Ginny was biding her time—she had been made aware that Doru would be leaving the manor tonight, and this would be her only chance to escape. She had proven to Morana that she could overpower her, but she still didn't trust that the witch would not try anything. She had shown herself to be extremely loyal to Doru's cause, and Ginny had learned long ago not to underestimate insane disciples of Dark Lords.

She listened for the sounds of movement in the manor, the flurry of activity unusual for what would usually pass for normal. Doru had them all busy preparing him and the art he would be bringing. Ginny had used the last few days to finish the fraudulent copy of Last Year in Capri, and to plan.

She watched as Doru's car left the estate through the wrought-iron gates. Now was finally her chance. She grabbed her wand that she could no longer use and made her way through the corridors, somehow knowing in her heart that this wasn't the last time she would be in this wretched hall—she would return here once more.

For once, her luck held up and her escape went unnoticed. She knew the most important thing would be to put distance between herself and the manor for now, but she didn't know where to go now that she couldn't Apparate. She supposed she could follow the road to the nearest town and find a train station to take her to London, and from there to either the Ministry or Harry's flat.

Ginny knew she didn't owe him an explanation for her disappearance, and she certainly didn't expect him to be able to help her with her predicament, but she wanted to say goodbye.

Well, want wasn't really the word, she amended. She needed to say goodbye to him. She couldn't be with him, or anyone in her family. It would hurt them too much to see her undead.

Ginny ran as far as her feet would allow her, until she reached the nearest town. The town looked entirely too sleepy for her liking. Finally, after walking the streets, she found a pub where she'd be able to stop and ask directions. She opened the door to riotous noise and found that a majority of the Muggles in the pub were focused on the tellyvision, where a bunch of men were playing football.

Many were yelling at the screen, and it reminded Ginny of watching her brothers listening to Quidditch on the wireless. She swallowed back the lump in her throat at the thought that she would never get to do so with her brothers again. She would never hear them arguing about their favourite teams, and whose team was better, again.

Ginny focused on the task at hand: getting directions to a train station. And maybe figuring out Muggle currency—she only had one Galleon on her.

She approached the bartender, a Muggle woman who looked quite sporty in a black vest top and extremely bored of her night. "That bad of a night?"

"Well, you know how it is," the woman told her. "You're either a piece of meat, or you're invisible around this lot. What can I get for you?"

Her life, Ginny thought, would be great. Instead she said, "I actually just needed directions to the nearest train station."

The bartender gave her a scrutinizing look but said, "I can give you directions, but if you needed to leave before morning, you'd have better luck with a cab."

Ginny felt her hopes fall. "I don't think I have enough money for the cab fare to London from here," she explained. "And I've got nowhere to go until morning here."

The bartender was looking her over again strangely and then glanced at her watch. "If you hurry, the last train is leaving in about ten minutes. But it's a fifteen-minute drive from here to there."

"I'll give it a shot," Ginny said, knowing it was her only chance. Perhaps she had vampire speed? It had taken her a fair amount of time to run from Doru's manor to town.

The bartender gave her the directions and wished her luck. Ginny stepped out into the night, which she suspected was chilly by the frost that was beginning to cover the ground and took off running in the direction that the bartender had told her the station would be. If only she had a broomstick, she thought as she ran, or if she could Apparate, she could have already been gone ages ago.

She made it to the station, not a bit out of breath. The ticket window attendee looked like they were about close for the night, so she shouted out to them, hoping they'd hear her from across the room. She sprinted towards him, seeing his look of surprise. "Please don't close," she begged. "I have got to get to London tonight."

He glanced at the clock, and she wondered if Muggles were fond of doing that as he turned back to her. He clicked away on the keyboard for his conpuder, and said, "It looks like you're in luck. It's running a bit behind and I've plenty of tickets to spare. The train will only take you to Euston—hope that works alright."

"Anywhere in London is fine," she told him. "How much is it?"

He told her and Ginny frankly had no idea what it meant. "This is all I've got," she said, holding up her Galleon. "It's real gold," she told him.

He took it and examined it. She prayed it would be enough money as he stared intensely at it. Ginny wasn't sure if he decided that it would work, or he took pity on her, but he gave her a ticket and told her to hurry to the platform.

"Thank you so much, sir!" Thank Merlin, too, she thought as she made her way to the platform where a few Muggles were also waiting.

She waited impatiently for the train to arrive, wishing she was already in London. If she wasn't a vampire, she thought, she could have Apparated straight to Harry's flat or the Ministry of Magic, or wherever the fuck she wanted. But, Ginny thought some more and realized that she couldn't just waltz into the Ministry—not when she was a vampire. Magical Creatures and Beings had to have special dispensation and go through a select screening process to allow them into the wizarding governmental building.

What a bleeding ridiculous statement, Ginny thought angrily as she boarded the train. She was a vampire. Surely this all had to be a nightmare, or some strange and cruel prank from George? This couldn't truly be her life now. She had so many things she had wanted to do.

She cursed her circumstances, and the series of events that had led her to this exact moment. She wanted to cry, but she had to be strong. She had no idea what she would do once she reached London, or where she would live, or who she even was without her magic. All she knew was that she wanted to repay Doru for his hand in her misfortune.

She realized, as she thought and thought about everything that had happened in her life in the last few years, that he had been the catalyst for the chain of events that had transpired.

When her train finally arrived at Euston Station, Ginny realized she needed money in order to get to Harry's flat. Hopefully, he would be there, as it was the middle of the night, she reasoned. She ran to her own flat, up the stairs, and nearly shouted the password at her door.

When she opened the door, she found her flat a mess. The box where she'd stashed her potions was out on the floor, wide open and empty. A new feeling of horror dawning within her, Ginny examined everything that was amiss. Someone had to have figured out what she had been up to before she'd been abducted—all of Ginny's dirty secrets: her secret shame, her weakness, her pain she'd kept hidden.

The pamphlet for the curse-breaking school she'd been taking classes with was thrown on the bed. With a roar of anger, she tore it apart. She would never be able to go back to those classes and she would never be a curse-breaker. All her dreams and hopes were dashed, and now all she had left was an eternity in front of her without magic.

Ginny took a few deep breaths, calming her anger before she rooted about for her money. It was one of the few things left untouched, she found. Thank Merlin, Ginny thought. She cast one last look about her small flat and said goodbye to the life she'd been leading.

It was time to look to the future instead of the past and what could have been.

She hailed a passing cab as she stepped onto the street. The driver gave her a strange look as she stepped into the cab, though he didn't question her when she told him the general area of Harry's flat. She hoped she'd be able to find it wandering the streets. They drove for a while, as Harry's flat was on the very outskirts of London, much closer to the suburbs than her own flat.

It was a hefty cab fee, she realized when they arrived, but she just handed him the right number of pounds and pence and went about her way. She wandered the streets slowly for an hour or so before she found a building that she was almost certain was Harry's. She walked up the stairs and knocked on the door, even more confident after seeing the interior of the building.

There was no answer.

Fuck thought Ginny. What was the plan now? Harry had to either leave his flat or come home eventually, she realized, so she would wait right outside the door. Even better for her that there were no windows inside the corridor, so she didn't have to worry about the sun rising soon.

She took a seat on the floor next to his door and sat still as she waited. She didn't feel the need to fidget as she once had, something that was more a bother than a relief. She drifted into an unsteady sleep as she waited for Harry.

Ginny only had hazy dreams of shadowy figures and pale potions pouring down her throat. She began to choke on them, waking herself up. She glanced around as she heard footsteps trudging up the stairs. If only she could make herself invisible, she worried.

To her luck, it was Harry that came around the corner.

"Ginny?" he asked, eyes widening in relief.

She jumped up and ran to hug him, feeling the first sense of relief she'd had since Doru's man had taken her from the shop.

"I missed you," she told him.

"How'd you escape?" Harry asked into her hair. "I didn't think anyone could escape Rabinovich."

She pulled away and looked into Harry's eyes. His green eyes widened in alarm at what he saw, and he pulled away quickly, mouth aghast. "You can't be Ginny," he whispered.

Ginny bit her lip, her fangs almost drawing blood. "It's me," she told him, reaching toward him. Harry backed away further for a moment before he straightened his back in determination.

"Come into my flat," he invited her. "And we can talk."

Ginny nodded, hair falling into her face like a curtain. Harry unlocked his door with a Muggle key and motioned for her to follow him. She felt a strange sort of sensation envelope her, making her feel much more welcome than she'd felt before.

Everything in his flat looked more vibrant than it had before. Harry immediately made his way to his kitchenette and grabbed a kettle, filling it with water before he placed it on the hob. "Vampires can still drink tea, right?" he asked.

"I'm fairly certain that we can," she said uncertainly. "But to be honest, I haven't tried."

Harry nodded at her and pulled out some loose leaves and an infuser. "Come sit with me," he invited her to his little table. They had rarely sat at the table, as it was usually covered with mail. Now, he cleared it all away, vanishing the mail somewhere else. "Any biscuits or snacks?" he asked.

"I'm alright, thanks," she told him.

Harry nodded again and began to pace about the kitchenette. The room was so small that his pacing meant more laps than it usually would. Every few moments, he would run his hand through his unkempt hair and grunt something unintelligible to even Ginny's vampiric hearing.

After what seemed like an eternity to Ginny (if that had lasted so long, she couldn't imagine how long the actual eternity in front of her would feel), the kettle finally began to whistle and billow steam. He poured the boiling water into the teapot with the infuser and grabbed some milk and honey, along with two cups.

Finally, when the tea was finished steeping, Harry poured it into their cups and asked, "So, what happened?"

Ginny recounted her tale to Harry, telling him of how she'd been leaving George's shop that night, how Doru's man had taken her by surprise, and how he had seemed to be impossibly strong and quick. She told Harry how she had awoken in Doru's manor house in Staffordshire, and how he had come in and changed her against her will.

"I know that I put myself in a dangerous situation," she told him. "By now, I'm assuming it was you in my flat, and that you know about the potions."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "I can't say I wasn't surprised."

Ginny shook her head, hair moving with her head. "I wish it hadn't been so. I wish I hadn't gotten into that situation, nor become dependent on those pain potions after my accident. It seemed almost too easy, that Morana—Doru's adopted daughter—had appeared with exactly what I needed when I was trying to salvage my career."

"Sadly, it was too convenient," Ginny explained. She bit her lip again, thinking for a moment. "They roped me into stealing those pieces of art and replicating them in return for the potions."

"And the rune?" Harry asked.

"Nyd? A moment of emotional desperation. I didn't know if I could keep going, but I was already in far too deep. And then… I met you. And you know, everything that happened between us… Before I realized that you were the one working my theft. That was when I disappeared."

Harry nodded. "I want to help you, Gin. I promise, I will help you in any way possible."

Ginny shook her head again, her emotions rising up within her chest against her will. "The only thing I want now is to avenge my own life." And you, she thought hungrily, looking at Harry. A heat was building quickly within her as she took the sight of him in and remembered how he felt inside her.

Would he want her like this? She wondered.

He didn't leave her wondering for too long, as he leaned toward her and pulled her face to his roughly. Harry bit her lip roughly, hands roving her body. She gasped, wetness already beginning to seep through her knickers.

"Harry," she whispered against his neck, fighting the urge to bite his neck. She pulled her lips away from his neck rubbed her hand against his hardness, wanting it inside her. Harry's hips thrust against her hand and Ginny shoved her hand down his trousers, rubbing his velvety hardness up and down, smearing his pre-cum around the head of his penis.

He groaned again, bucking against her. "I need you inside me," she told him. He picked her up and took her to the sofa, where he sat her down beneath him and pulled her trousers and knickers down her legs all at once, throwing them somewhere in the sitting room. Ginny didn't care where—she just wanted Harry to keep touching her.

He placed a kiss to her thigh, and then licked her clit.

"Fuck, Harry," Ginny said. "That feels so good."

Everything seemed even more intense now than it had been the last time they had joined.

Harry spread Ginny's legs further apart and gave her another long lick before his tongue was inside her and she was entangling her fists into his hair, unconsciously tugging his head into her opening, brain misfiring from the sensation. Merlin, she was soaking his sofa, she thought briefly before he did a particularly spectacular thing with his tongue that caused her legs to tremble around Harry's head, back arching and a moan escaping her mouth.

Harry kissed his way up her belly, removing her bra and blouse, suckling on her breast as Ginny reached down and took his cock into her hand. She rubbed it up and down, already imagining what it would feel like once he was inside of her. Burning with a hunger for him, she began to position him at her entrance. "Can I have you inside me?" she asked hungrily.

"Yes," Harry moaned out.

He thrust into her opening and Ginny immediately moaned as his length sheathed itself in her.

"Yes," she groaned out, panting as he began to thrust in and out, sac slapping against her arse as he hammered.

"Oh, yes," she said again. "You feel so good, love," she told Harry.

He moaned in response and brought a hand to her clit as he took her breast back into his mouth, biting and suckling on the pale skin until a mark appeared. Harry looked proudly at it for a moment and Ginny bucked up against him, needing more friction.

He began to thrust faster, hitting the perfect spot inside her as he played with her clit. Ginny was becoming unraveled, now, back arching and a stream of words she couldn't keep track of leaving her mouth as she finally, finally, fell off the cliff again and began to pulse around Harry's cock. Harry thrust a few more times, sloppily kissing Ginny on her lips before he pulsated within her, warm cum filling her insides.

His eyes squeezed shut and she watched, spent, as he came inside her. She thought she might be able to go for another round, though she understood that Harry wouldn't be able to right away.

"That was fucking amazing," she finally panted out. "There are no words."

He nodded tiredly. "Want to go lay in the bed?" Ginny asked. "When was the last time you slept?"

"Can't remember," he answered.

"Let's go," she ordered, pushing Harry off her and pulling him to his bedroom.

Harry fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and Ginny took a warm shower before she crawled back into bed with Harry. His body immediately pulled her into an embrace, and his legs tangled together with hers. With the first sense of peace she'd felt since she was human, Ginny fell asleep in Harry's arms.

When she woke, it was light out through the curtains. She turned to look at Harry, only to find he was already awake. She kissed him gently, hand finding Harry's bum and squeezing it as she pulled his body against hers.

"I want you again," she told him. Harry's eyes were full of desire, too, and his penis was already fully erect. She played with it for a moment, stroking him. He hardened further under her ministrations, and then he sheathed himself in her gently, finding that Ginny was already wet and ready for him.

Harry groaned against her mouth and kissed her again as he thrust in and out slowly. They made love gently, this time. Harry taking his time to explore her body all over again.

"Gin," he said, her name on his lips making Ginny even wetter around him. He placed his thumb over her clit and she came undone. With a moan, Harry came inside of her as soon as he felt her flutter around him.

Ginny kissed his neck sloppily and then kissed Harry on the lips, coming down from her orgasmic high. "Fancy a shower?" she asked.

He nodded and they kissed again before he pulled out of Ginny. Her legs were strangely shaky as they walked to the bathroom. While Harry used the toilet, Ginny turned on the water, setting it to hot immediately. He followed her into the shower shortly after she'd stepped in, giving her a heavy kiss.

Tenderly, Harry began to wash Ginny's back, lathering the soap against her pale and freckled skin. His hands on her skin relaxed Ginny and for the first time in days, she felt as if everything could be alright.

She washed Harry in turn before she wet her hair and shampooed it.

"I love how your hair goes from copper to auburn when it's wet," Harry told her, kissing her on the cheek and pinching her bum.

Ginny smiled at him softly without saying anything for a few moments. Then, she said, "We should probably talk about what's going to happen next."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," said Ginny. "Are we going to go after Doru? And what about me?"

"What about you?" Harry asked.

"I'm a fucking vampire, that's what!" Ginny told him. "It's not like we can keep carrying on like we were when I was a normal witch."

"We'll figure something out," Harry promised, rinsing the shampoo out of his own hair. "After we get Rabinovich. There's a lot of strange magic out there—I've seen things I didn't think possible. If there's a way to turn you back to human, we'll find it. Or, we'll make things work if we can't change you back."

Ginny really thought that if there were a way to turn vampires back into humans, it would have been discovered ages ago, but she didn't voice her thoughts. She rinsed the conditioner out of her hair and then wrung out the excess water. "I'm going to get out," she told Harry, planting a chaste kiss on his shoulder.

He nodded. "I'm going to sit under the water for a moment then I'll be out as well."

Ginny grabbed what she had come to think of as her towel since she'd began to date Harry officially and wrapped it around her body as she stepped down and out of the bathtub.

She grabbed Harry's comb and ran it through her own hair, luxuriating in the feeling. She hadn't taken the best care of herself since she'd been taken by Doru and now she wanted every single knot combed out of her hair. It seemed a simple thing, but she realized now what a luxury it was.

"Ouch," she muttered.

"Alright?" Harry asked as he turned off the shower tap and stepped out.

"Yeah, thanks," she replied. "My hair is just filled with knots."

Harry made a face, and said, "I know what that's like."

She stuck her tongue out at him, disturbed by the way her tongue scraped against her fangs.

"Once we get some clothes on, we should talk strategy," Harry suggested.

"Agreed. Will we be getting anyone on board besides the two of us?"

Harry's face looked thoughtful. "I'd like Neville to help, and maybe Ron and Hermione if they'd be up for it."

"I guess Ron could be decent—he's a chess master, and he was also one of the leaders of Dumbledore's Army at Hogwarts."

"I know—I ran a background check on him after I found him and Hermione shagging."

"That's gross," Ginny said. "But he could be good. I trust Ron with my life, and not just because he's my brother. He fought in a few battles in the war, so he can hold his own. Hermione too, before she had to go on the run from the Muggle-born registration committee."

Ginny pulled on a sweatshirt she found in Harry's wardrobe. "Hey!" he said, smiling widely.

"It's comfy," she defended herself, pulling on a pair of his pants. "And so are your pants. But I don't need any trousers, thanks."

"I wasn't going to offer," Harry replied, shaking his head in exasperation.

She stuck her tongue out at him again. "Git," Ginny said warmly.

"Witch," Harry replied fondly.

Ginny couldn't help but give Harry a chaste kiss before she sauntered into his sitting room. "Let's plan," she said, plopping gracefully onto the dining chair.

G&H

On the morning of the raid, Harry, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Neville met up at Neville's house, where Hannah had prepared them a hearty breakfast. She didn't seem entirely happy, but she still seemed willing to help feed them anyway.

"Food is Hannah's way of showing she cares," Neville confided to Harry quietly when Hannah had left the room to fetch more coffee for Harry and Neville.

Everyone was quiet and contemplative as they ate pancakes and a veg-hash with bacon. The silence reminded Ginny of those awful years she'd spent at Hogwarts, when Dumbledore's Army had had to hide in the Chamber of Secrets. Merlin, she thought. She hated that place—but it had come in handy keeping them all safe and hidden from the Death Eaters who had replaced the Carrows.

"Are we all ready?" she asked, breaking the silence.

Harry glanced up from the coffee that Hannah had just placed in front of him. "Ready as we'll ever be, I'd imagine."

Neville nodded from next to him and Ron continued to shovel in food while Hermione picked at her own breakfast.

"I'm sorry for dragging you all into this," Ginny apologized. "If I hadn't been so stupid…"

"Don't do that, Ginny," Ron said, having just finished a bite of pancake. "This wanker needs to be finished off anyway, with the way he's been carrying on."

"He's right, Ginny," Hermione agreed. "It was only a matter of time before the Ministry caught on to what he was up to."

"Aren't any of you worried about your jobs?" Ginny asked. "You know the Ministry of Magic wouldn't sanction this raid on Doru's estate."

"They might not approve, exactly, but they'll gladly rake in the confiscated artefacts that we'll alert them to when everything is done."

"Okay," Ginny agreed nervously. "Let's go over our plan again…"