Chapter 11– The Greater Fight
*****Ginny*****
Ron flopped onto the couch beside her. "Ginny, your boyfriend deducted thirty points from Gryffindor. We'll be last for sure this year. They can't just let a bunch of Slytherins have the power to take points, when everyone knows they hate Gryffindors," Ron complained. Hermione had settled in the nearest armchair, and Harry on the far side, looking away.
"Ron, the school is being run by an evil woman, and there's a lot worse going on outside the castle, so I'm not really worried about house points. You can actively work to get rid of her like Fred and George, or you can keep your head down and try to pass your OWLs," Ginny laid out. "And since you mention Draco, we haven't spoken in weeks," Ginny said.
That made Harry look up. Ginny couldn't decide if he was just being brotherly like Ron or if the boy had decided that he liked her when it was too late. Life would be so much easier and better if she could just… but she couldn't.
"Well, that's good- right?" Ron said, "He's a prat, and I never liked seeing you with him."
"Yeah, it's really great. My life can only be better because my future husband and I can't stand each other."
"Well, maybe you'll get lucky and he'll die young," Ron suggested.
"Ron!" Hermione chastised.
"What? We all want it to happen. I didn't say I was going to go kill him. I wouldn't. I couldn't anyway, or Ginny would be a squib and stuff."
Ginny's throat felt tight. She almost wanted to say- something. That the fight was sort of mostly her fault- was it? But she still didn't really think she could do anything else. "I've got to go," Ginny said.
Hermione was looking at her concerned, sort of- older-sisterly, Ginny imagined.
Which meant Ginny would need to avoid Hermione until Hermione got the idea that Ginny didn't want to talk and gave up. Which was not the most mature thing to do. Maybe Ginny would go find Luna. Or Colin could always be relied upon to talk and talk without the need for Ginny to say anything back.
*****Ginny*****
The last quidditch game of the year, the difference between winning the cup and losing it. If there was a chance she'd never play on the quidditch team again… she'd just have to make sure that didn't happen.
"Hey, you're sure that broom isn't jinxed?" Angelina murmured to her. The other chaser girls would hear too, but at least none of her brothers.
So everyone in Gryffindor, probably the whole school knew that she and Draco were fighting. They were two well known families in a highly unusual situation, so they made the best gossip.
"Yeah, I'm sure he wouldn't do that," Ginny answered.
"Good," Angelina answered.
Minutes later, Ginny stared at Cho Chang before they were both set to take off. This would be easier if she was still irrationally angry with the pretty, older girl. It wasn't Cho's fault that her friend Edgecombe had betrayed them all. Cho Chang probably felt more alone and friendless than ever. It really wasn't Cho's fault that she was still in mourning over her dead boyfriend, and it wasn't any of Ginny's business who Harry thought was attractive, though she was pretty sure those two were over now.
Chang was the quintessential follow-the-leader seeker, and it annoyed Ginny more than she should let it. Was it flattering that the girl thought Ginny was worth following? What did she really hope to gain by it, especially when Ginny had the better broom?
*****Draco*****
Draco's glares kept everyone away from him as he watched the Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw match. Or rather, as he watched Ginny Weasley ride his Nimbus 2001 and outclass an experienced seeker.
They'd talked about flying often, but they'd never flown together. Draco could have 'borrowed' a teammate's broom easily. His father had bought all of them, after all. His father might know that a Weasley was riding one of those brooms by now.
Weasley wasn't doing too badly this match either. The one in the rings. The beater Weasleys seemed to have finally decided to focus on the opposing chasers instead of on protecting their little sister, which helped as well. Too many Weasleys.
After Ginny caught the snitch, it was Ron Weasley that the idiot Gryffindors hoisted onto their shoulders. They had twisted Draco's lyrics as well, to say positive things, and they weren't even singing "Weasley is our Queen." Idiots. Weasley had been competent, but only amazing in comparison to his earlier performance. Ginny had talent.
*****Ginny*****
Angelina was the first to corner her after the game. "You can now afford to be distracted, and I'm not your captain anymore," she started. "I heard you convinced George to ask me out, so you'd be able to go to Hogsmeade with Malfoy," she said.
"I- did, sorry about meddling, but you have seemed happy," Ginny said.
"We're great. So great that he gave me warning of what he's doing tonight. But, since you interfered with my romantic life- it seems to me that a Slytherin who'd let a Gryffindor borrow his broomstick- isn't really as much of a little shit as he acts like sometimes."
"Yeah, he's probably not," Ginny agreed reluctantly. One of them would have to apologize eventually, because it still looked like they'd be spending the rest of their lives together. And Draco hadn't said anything to her. But surely, she was allowed a little time to just enjoy the quidditch win like a normal witch? By his birthday at the latest, she decided, they would make up.
"And you will need to get a good broom by next term, because I imagine he'll need his for the Slytherin vs. Gryffindor match," Angelina said.
"I'm sure Harry's ban will be lifted by then," Ginny smiled. "You know the curse." Though the end of the year was approaching and nothing catastrophic had happened to Umbridge yet. But Angelina had said something about tonight...
"Yes, but you'll be a Chaser," Angelina dismissed easily. "Let me know when you want to practice some chaser drills," she offered.
Of the whole day, that was the highlight.
"Tomorrow morning?" Ginny suggested.
Angelina laughed, "You can ask the other girls, but not me. If George and Fred haven't forgotten about the rest of us with their big plans, then by tomorrow morning I intend to still be drunk." Ginny was excited about all of that enough to not be too miffed that she didn't know the particulars of what Fred and George had planned. But, it would be difficult to surpass their last displays.
*****Draco*****
So, Gryffindor had won yet another Quidditch Cup, and they were having a feast to celebrate. The 'Headmistress' looked less than pleased, and had not acknowledged that it was a feast day, but the elves had prepared one anyway.
It still wouldn't put Gryffindor anywhere near being in the running for the House Cup- because several Slytherins had been given power to deduct points, and Harry Potter couldn't stop baiting Umbridge into hating him more.
But, Dumbledore could always show up on the last day, throw Umbridge in Azkaban somehow, and award a thousand points to Gryffindor if he felt like it, so Draco would not let himself care about the House Cup. It was a juvenile competition anyway.
As the last of the pudding vanished, the Weasley twins jumped up and stood on their bench.
"Thank you, thank you. We leave behind the legacy of Weasleys on the Gryffindor quidditch team in good hands," Fred said. "But it has been a great year, six out of eight members being Weasleys. Oh, excuse me, five out of eight. That must have been a prediction of the future," Fred said. Counting Potter as a Weasley, then. The other twin, George shoved his side. Most of the Gryffindor table, especially two of the chasers laughed. George was dating the captain, Johnson. "And we could still make it more!" he added.
"Sit down, Misters Weasley," Umbridge instructed after her little angry noises weren't effective.
The boys didn't just refuse to sit down, they stepped onto the long table. "And Harry, honorary Weasley. It will be good to have you back where you belong next year," George Weasley added.
"Detention for the two of you with Mr. Filch every night until the end of the year. Once more and you will be leaving this school sooner than that!" she threatened. "And Mister Potter most certainly will not be playing quidditch next year or the next!"
"Oh, just trust me about Harry. And you know, I don't believe we will be going to detention," Fred said.
"You will be expelled right now!" she declared.
"Oh, we can save you that paperwork," George assured her.
"Do you also feel that we have outgrown tradition education, George?" Fred asked.
"I believe we have, yes."
"Well, it's settled then," Fred said dramatically. Draco wondered how much of their phrasing was rehearsed."
"Come visit us anytime," George called across the hall. "Except for you, Umbridge."
"If anyone cares for fireworks, a portable swamp, or any number of other items, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley, the new home for all your pranking needs, Weasleys' Wizard Weezes!" he announced.
Umbridge tried to silence them by force, but whichever twin wasn't talking handled her little spells. But she still raised her wand against students. A moment later, she was silenced herself. It showed more than anything else that year how much every other member of the staff truly despised her.
"Get your mail orders in! Special discounts for all Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old toad! We can get them around her inspection, we promise!" George added as he took something from his pocket.
"And Peeves!" Fred piped in, "Give her hell from us!" The poltergeist saluted. It seemed mischief formed alliances.
George dropped whatever he had been holding, and half the hall filled with darkness, which was an odd scene.
With a loud pop, Draco knew they would be gone- somehow.
"How did they apparate?" the murmur of students around the hall wondered.
No one could apparate on school grounds, so obviously they did something else.
They'd used a house elf, Draco decided. They probably used Dobby, really. The noises of human and house elf apparition were roughly the same. And Draco had learned in the past year that most wizards consistently underestimated house elves. But that blackness powder was impressive.
No one could deny that the Weasley twins had style, and to do it all on the night that Gryffindor was celebrating yet another Quidditch Cup victory. They'd probably only stayed as long as they had to play for the cup.
"Expelled!" the short witch shrieked, finding her voice again. "Those boys are expelled! And I will not stand for the quidditch cup going to such criminals!" she declared. "It will be in my office until further notice!" she croaked over the noise.
But no one would listen to her. This was quidditch, and she couldn't just name a different winner because two teenage wizards had made a fool of her. Attempting to do so would just bring further attention to Gryffindor's success- which might help Ginny, Draco noted. Students would speak of that exit for generations. Those two Weasley boys had brilliant minds for business. They could quietly sit for their NEWTS at the Ministry if they wished to, but their client base was secured this way. And that blackness powder was certainly interesting.
*****Ginny*****
The year couldn't get worse. The end of the quidditch season was an amazing day, but then there wasn't even quidditch to fill the hours. Ginny had been just trying to push through until exams were over and they could leave, but first it was Dumbledore, then it was McGonagall and Hagrid. And Umbridge wasn't gone yet. Who was left who was sympathetic to Gryffindors anymore? Sure, some of the other teachers were fine, but everyone was afraid- for their jobs and their health.
And then there was this… helping Harry contact Sirius, and getting caught, and manhandled by some of Umbridge's favourites, though Draco wasn't around.
There was Snape but... he wasn't a normal Order member. He obviously understood Harry message, and… and Ginny would feel confident that he'd take care of it… if it wasn't about the person he hated most in the world, Sirius. And he didn't really have good reason to believe Harry either. Tom could get in Harry's mind. It could just as easily be a trap. Except no one had been at Grimmauld Place, and Sirius never left.
And now Hermione was leading Umbridge and Harry to some imaginary weapon. And she was here… in a room with Ron, Neville, and Luna, and the Slytherins keeping them hostage. Crabbe, Goyle, Warrington, some other big oaf Ginny didn't know, and Pansy Parkinson, swishing her wand between the four of them and holding all their wands too. If Draco had been there, Ginny wondered if he would do anything to help or hurt them.
But, regardless, they had to do this on their own.
Ginny tried to catch Ron's eye and silently communicate what she was planning. It worked for the twins. Ron was busy struggling against his captor. If the Slytherins weren't idiots, they'd have stunned all four by now. But they seemed to prefer near strangulation. Umbridge clearly didn't care what happened to the three Gryffindors and the Ravenclaw. Sibling connection wasn't working, and Luna was still staring off in another direction.
Neville. Neville was looking at her, for direction or to plan something of his own. Ginny met his eyes and darted her eyes toward Pansy.
"Parkinson," Neville squeaked. "What are you doing with these lumps? There's four members of the Sacred Twenty-Eight families in here, you and three of us you're holding hostage. Umbridge is a half-blood," he declared.
"You little blood-traitor," the older Slytherin holding Neville said, shoving him against the wall. That would hurt.
Ginny's own captor helpfully had her lifted in the air, so she could put all her effort into a well-aimed kick. Ginny was promptly dropped as Crabbe doubled over, and Ginny lunged straight for Parkinson and the wands. Pansy was still watching Neville when Ginny tackled her to the ground. Wands flew everywhere, and Ginny settled for one grabbing one she thought was Neville's.
Pansy returned physical force, hands on Ginny's face, scratching with her nails. Ginny had thought the other girl was jealous of Ginny over Draco- not that there was anything to be jealous of at the moment.
Ginny ended that scuffle with a bat-bogey hex. Warrington came at her now, apparently having abandoned Luna.
"Stupefy," Ginny sent, but the older boy blocked it.
When Ginny managed to get free, it seemed Luna and the boys had sorted themselves out. Five Slytherins lay unconscious, and Neville held out Ginny's wand to switch, bleeding pretty badly just above his eye.
"Good show," he congratulated.
"You were brilliant," Ginny said back. "Is Umbridge really a half-blood?"
"I think so," Neville shrugged. "Gran said so, and she knows everyone. Not that either of us think that's the reason to not respect that awful woman."
Ginny used the tracking spell to get to Hermione and Harry, a spell she'd learned from her mother, for finding wayward children. It had been a sweet mother-daughter moment. Long before they knew that any children Ginny had would be Malfoys.
And then it all was happening even faster. Hermione and Harry had already taken care of Umbridge. There was a lot of blood, enough that Ginny actually hoped it wasn't all Umbridge's, or she was definitely dead.
Retelling stories of their respective escapes turned into fighting over who would or wouldn't be going to London.
Harry was fine with Ron going. Ron who would still be trapped under Goyle's armpit if it weren't for Ginny and Neville. It sounded like the stupid boy was even trying to leave without Hermione, when those two would have died years ago without Hermione. Ginny was tired of being underestimated as being just the little sister.
Luna discovered the thestrals in the end, or the thestrals discovered them because of all the blood, probably. As Ginny flew her invisible steed, she gave silent prayer to who or whatever might be listening that the horse would stay invisible.
Why was she flying halfway across the country? It wasn't that she was regretting it already exactly- it was just that there was a lot of time to think, too much time. They should have flown the thestrals to Hogsmeade and taken a floo. Surely those weren't being closely monitored, and if they were… maybe they wanted attention for this mad trip. Or house elves always seemed to be the right answer, if they could risk going back to the castle.
Was she along just to not be left out?
But like Neville had said, wasn't this what they had been training for, for something real?
Because she cared about Sirius too, and knew that he meant a lot to Harry. And Harry was practically the seventh Weasley boy, even if Ginny wasn't ever sure she'd quite be able to see him as a brother, even if she didn't want to date him.
Would Draco think anything about her leaving, assuming he found out... because that seemed likely at this point, since Harry Potter was involved.
Would she come back alive? She wasn't some Girl-Who-Lived, unless it counted that Harry had saved her life before. But that was more reason to be exactly where she was.
*****Ginny*****
Ginny ran through the halls, all of them following Harry. As she fixed the badge she had grabbed to her robes.
GINNY WEASLEY
RESCUE MISSION
Ginny had already decided that it was one of her most prized possessions.
Harry tried one more time to ditch them at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries- this nobility thing was getting annoying.
She didn't know if she'd remember every detail or only the vaguest impression of the night. The damn walls moved… A room wasn't supposed to spin unless you were drunk, which Ginny had never been. And now Harry says that he's following what he saw in a dream? This wouldn't make sense when she tried to explain it to anyone else, but it was part of knowing Harry Potter. He'd been able to save Ginny's father because of a dream. Another reason she was here.
Ginny and the others followed Harry through one wrong room after another. Though, as far as Ginny knew, only Harry would know when they found the right one, and his vision had been proven unreliable already.
The room with the archway and the hanging cloth was the creepiest. It was set up for hundreds of people to be able to watch something, and Harry and Luna claimed they could hear whispering from "behind" it. Ginny wondered if that veil was like the thestrals, you could only hear the voices if you'd seen someone die. Neville hadn't said anything about voices, but he was looking… entranced, and Ginny couldn't blame him. There was something about it…
Then there was the room they couldn't open, which Luna thought must have the best hidden information beyond it- and Ginny privately agreed, but it wasn't what they were there for. Finally, there was a room Harry liked, and they raced through it, filled with clocks of all sizes and descriptions, and hourglasses too. Most alluring off all was a bell jar that had an egg in it, and then a bird, and all phases of life in between. Did the Ministry know the secrets of eternal life stranger than even the Philosopher's Stone or a phoenix?
"Keep going!" Harry called, maybe directed at her. Ginny bit her tongue and resisted snapping back.
This was apparently the room he wanted, full of shelves upon shelves of small possibly glass spheres. Mum would have gagged at how dusty the place was; it even bothered Ginny.
Hermione and Harry discussed finding the precisely right locations, but if Sirius were here, wouldn't they hear him already? Surely he'd be screaming for help or in pain?
It was all starting to feel…
"Keep your wands out," Harry hissed, as if the rest of them were idiots and didn't know that this place felt wrong. Ginny's wand had been out the whole time, and the others had done the same.
"He's right at the end. You can't see properly from here," Harry insisted when they were on the right row. Sure, Harry, sure.
"He should be near here," Harry whispered, still convinced, or struggling to be.
"Harry?" Hermione tried.
"Somewhere… here…" he mumbled. "He might be…" Harry peaked down the next row, "Or maybe…" and he tried the other side. But they'd hear someone just breathing hard, the place was so still and quiet.
"Harry?" Hermione tried a bit more strongly.
"What?" Harry snarled.
"I- I don't think Sirius is here," Hermione said gently. Moreover, he never had been there. Sirius thrashing around in pain would have done damage to this place- and there wouldn't be dust on every surface. Unless there was a useless spell that Ginny didn't know to make dust everywhere.
They needed to leave, Ginny started planning. Get to Grimmauld place and wait, because someone would come around when it was known that they had left school. Maybe Sirius was even there somewhere, asleep. Ginny hadn't really heard what had happened in the floo, but she was sure that Harry hadn't travelled all the way there and explored the whole house.
"Harry, have you seen this?" Ron said loudly. So they weren't worried about being caught anymore, apparently.
"What?" Harry asked eagerly. He was still expecting Sirius to materialize, it sounded.
"It's got your name on it," Ron answered, pointing.
Ginny crowded around with the rest of them. It was an orb like the others, less bright and more dusty than some. There was an old label that had a date older than Harry, some initials- the second set had to be Dumbledore, because no one else had that many initials, and "Dark Lord and (?) Harry Potter). Ginny looked at Luna, but the other fourth year present didn't have something to contribute like she had with the veil.
"Harry, I really don't think you should touch it," Hermione warned. Harry was going to touch it? Ginny snapped her head around.
"Why not? It's something to do with me, isn't it?" Harry said stubbornly.
"Don't, Harry," Neville begged. Ginny fingered her wand, really thinking about stunning Harry- or trying to.
The brash idiot grabbed it. When nothing happened, Ginny thought they were safe, that maybe they should take that thing and bring it to Headquarters too.
"Very good, Potter," said Lucius Malfoy. Ginny couldn't forget that voice. She spun around to meet it, glad she still had her wand. "Slowly," Malfoy warned. "Turn around, nice and slowly, and give that to me," he instructed.
Others apparated around Malfoy, all in Death Eater garb as well.
"To me," Malfoy reminded Harry, as if saying it once more would make Harry obey. Harry Potter could even fight off the Imperious Curse from Tom himself. He wasn't going to just do what Lucius Malfoy said because the older wizard asked nicely.
"Where's Sirius?" Harry demanded. Not here. Clearly. And he'd never been there. What did it take for Harry to realize this was a trap?
The Death Eaters laughed, and continued the bantering. A woman was the worst mocker. There were very few witches known to be in Tom's service. Pointless, pointless thought.
They wanted this prophecy orb thing and didn't want it to break. Did people really believe in prophecies? Had any of them met… what had those other initials been? If the prophecy had been made to Dumbledore, then it was really likely that… oh, Merlin, they were about to die because of some garbage that Trelawney made up!
"Now, now, not so fast, Bellatrix," Lucius Malfoy said, winning Ginny's attention again from her unhelpful thoughts.
"I knew you wouldn't come alone, Potter" Lucius Malfoy said. "Harry Potter doesn't do anything alone."
"You didn't seem to come by yourself either," Harry dared to say. There were eleven of them, Ginny counted.
"But I didn't think you would bring so many," Malfoy continued. "You think having more teenagers with you makes you stronger? It just gives you more vulnerabilities. More reasons to hand over that prophecy now, Potter," he declared.
"Voldemort should have just come here himself. Did he think it was more subtle to send a dozen followers in Death Eater robes?" Harry taunted.
Lucius Malfoy snarled at Tom's assumed name, but didn't yell again, "As my fellows know, the little one is set to be my daughter-in-law, by an old contract. As such, I nor my family can harm her. To be safe, I ask Bellatrix to leave her alone as well. But, of course, I cannot ask the same of anyone else," he drawled.
She was being singled out to be killed.
"And Bellatrix, I do believe the boy that isn't Potter or Weasley is a Longbottom," Malfoy drawled. Bellatrix Lestrange had tortured Neville's parents into insanity. Ginny noticed her friends standing closer around her.
How the hell could they get out of there? They didn't have a portkey like Harry had used after the Triwizard Tournament. None of them knew how to apparate. They would be hopeless at fighting their way out.
"Don't do anything," Harry whispered. "Not yet…" Did he have a plan? This was Harry's department, really. The Boy Who Lived, as much as he didn't like that name. He'd been in situations this bad before, hadn't he?
They started discussing the orb, the prophecy again. The Death Eaters really didn't want it to break. So, breaking it and accepting that the Death Eaters would kill them after that seemed like… the only Gryffindor thing to do.
This prophesy thing, maybe made by Trelawney was the reason for Harry's scar? Meaning… it was the reason that Harry was an orphan? It said something about him or his family then.
"Smash shelves when Harry says so," Hermione whispered directly in Ginny's ear. It was… better than nothing.
"NOW!" Harry yelled, in the middle of Malfoy talking, and they all sent their blasting spells in different directions.
Thousands of orbs shattered, their predictors speaking all at once. Shelves fell and the cases threatened to fall on them all. She had been stupidly staring before turning and grabbing Luna, before heading the way they'd came.
"RUN!" Harry shouted, rather needlessly.
They were all running in the chaos, Ron was close on Ginny's other side.
Ginny sent a few spells backward where she was mostly sure Harry, Hermione, and Neville weren't, and she heard one male scream. But it wasn't Malfoy. Though Malfoy himself was the least personal threat to her, he was the leader there.
There were multiple doors out of the room, because of course there were.
"This way, Brother," one of them called. Great, they had a set of brothers, maybe the Lestranges after her, Ron, and Luna. And, from the sound of it, it wasn't only two of them.
Ron picked the door and shoved Ginny and Luna along.
Silence, and a moment of total blackness until- light, blinding, spinning. Ginny closed her eyes and she no longer felt the ground.
"It's our solar system," Luna commented.
Ginny could see as well. She had paid at least that much attention in Astronomy class. Was this for more divination stuff like the prophecies? What were they made of? Ginny wondered. The room didn't feel warm, so the bright imitation sun wasn't giving off heat. In fact, it wasn't really a sphere like the others, but took up most of a wall.
"Woah," Ron said, and Ginny turned to see her brother floating sideways. What would she give for a firebolt in here- if that even worked.
"I think there's a door in the sun," Luna commented calmly. "And look, Jupiter's half in that wall. I wonder if it will disappear entirely and where it goes," she said.
"Don't care. How do we move?" Ginny said. Luna seemed to be successfully moving backwards towards the sun, so Ginny had to really squint.
"Your own breath can be a powerful propulsion, just pointing it in the opposite direction of where you want to go. I believe you could push yourself off from a planet if you were to hit one. We are lucky that they haven't removed the air from this room, don't you think?" Luna said.
Removing the air. Well, who was to say that wasn't next after the weightlessness thing? Ginny decided she would much rather die fighting Death Eaters than suffocate.
She grabbed onto Pluto, which was about the size of a snitch. It didn't move when she clutched and turned herself around it.
"Would be fun if we weren't running for our lives," Ron muttered ahead, sort of swinging from Saturn's rings.
Rings did seem like a good idea, and Uranus's thin, vertical ring was Ginny's next target. She managed to position Pluto between her feet and stretched towards Uranus when the situation went worse.
Death Eaters. Gravity. And she was falling, and grasping, and swinging, and…
Caught.
A Death Eater had jumped up, grabbed her ankle, and swung with her, and he was heavy.
There was a blast somewhere behind her, and she couldn't hold on anymore.
Ginny heard the noise before she felt it.
Pain. Pain, really, really bad pain, was all that Ginny could think about.
It was just her ankle. Madame Pomfrey could heal it in a moment. Mum could do it herself. Even muggles hurt themselves worse than that and recovered, right?
Ron scooped her up and ran.
Doors slammed, and startled shouts came from the room behind them.
"I closed both doors on them," Luna explained. "It starts the weightlessness, I think. I do hope Pluto can right itself. It is my favourite planet," she said.
Ginny just tried to concentrate on breathing.
Debris flew behind them from a blasting hex. Would a hole in the wall be as good as opening the door? Would they be running out any seco-
Ginny flew through the air again, but violently this time, crashing to the ground.
"Ron!" she protested at the same time that Ron screamed.
Ron was writhing on the ground.
Ginny was stupid and helpless.
Not worthy of being a Gryffindor or even a witch.
When Ginny opened her eyes again, Luna was pulling her up.
"Is Ron okay?" she panted.
"Looo-ney!" Ron's voice sounded strange.
"Ronald is somewhat affected," Luna clarified. "But the Death Eaters are coming," she warned.
With Luna's help, they made it through another door.
Harry, Hermione, and Neville.
She needed to warn them that Death Eaters could be right behind them, but Luna was already doing the talking.
When they were moving again, Ginny silently accepted Luna's help. She was still gripping her wand, but Ginny didn't know if she could do anything with it.
Room with all the doors again.
The first one revealed two masked Death Eaters who shouted.
They were soon in a room that Ginny finally recognized again, the creepy brain room.
But the Death Eaters found them there too.
"Get the prophesy and the girl!" Bellatrix said.
Ginny put up the best shielding charm she could manage.
PAIN. PAIN. PAIN. Ginny still managed to think that she had been stupid before to think that her ankle had hurt. She welcomed the blackness.
Ginny heard screaming and wondered if she'd been out for a second or hours.
"Get Potter!" came maybe Bellatrix again.
Then nothing but screams and blasts, but getting farther away.
"Your death would make it easy for Malfoy, eh?" a close male voice said. "Well, I never liked him." Ginny was more herself but couldn't tell if she still held her wand. "Those old marriage contracts are strict. What would happen if I gave you a kiss, you unconscious like that? I wonder if the boy's had you yet, little as you are." If he tried to touch her, she'd make him regret it before he probably killed her. Or was that just wishful thinking as she lay on the cold stone floor? "But I'd rather like to see Lucius with blood-traitor Weasley grandchildren, so I'll leave you alone."
The man walked off, and with the door open, Ginny heard the screaming more.
More voices.
She should be helping, not lying there like a worthless… something worthless. She couldn't come up with words either.
"SIRIUS!" That was Harry. Far away but really loud. "SIRIUS!"
A/N: This chapter was by far the most difficult to write thus far, which is strange, because it is the closest to canon, a few snippets taken directly, but mostly not.