Chapter 11:

Hermione walked straight to her room, where Ginny laid on bed with tear-stained cheeks and swollen eyes.

"There's been a sighting of White Walkers beyond a place called The Wall. I am going to check it out."

Ginny's head immediately snapped up and she rubbed her eyes dry. It took her a few minutes to gather herself but at last she managed it. "When are we leaving? And how are we going to get there?"

Hermione stopped looking into her beaded bag to confirm about all her essentials, and turned her head upwards to look at Ginny instead. "You want to come?"

"Of course!" Ginny replied instantly. "That's why we are here, right? And all this unused magic in me is only aggravating me more, if we go then I can even use off the access, it'll take off the edge, at the very least.

"Are you sure?" Hermione asked, still looking doubtful.

For reply, Ginny got off the bed and dusted her dress. "Give me ten and I'll be ready."

"There's a picture of The Wall in a book in the library, we'll have to use that as a reference point and apparate. Hopefully, even Lord Stark will be there, so we can speak to him and leave right from there."

"Be back in a flash," Ginny nodded and moved to the washing area of the room to freshen herself up.

Hermione watched her go with a small frown but said nothing, instead continued looking into her bag. One could never be too careful, she always believed.

"WHAT!" Robb could just not believe what he was hearing from his father. "You let them go? All by themselves? To The Wall? The place that's full of thugs and rapists? All without an escort? Why?"

"That was the reason of their visit, wasn't it?" Ned calmly replied.

"But father…"

"Robb!" Ned massaged between his eyes. "They will be using magical transportation. They don't need escorts, any and all of us would've only been a hinderance for them. I sent a letter with them explaining everything to Benjen, he'll make sure they are alright, he is after all, a Stark – bound to protect them while they are here.

"But…"

"If there's nothing else, Robb, I'll see you at dinner tonight," Ned, finally having had enough through the day, cut his son short and left the room for a long walk around his lands, the only thing that always managed to calm him down and help him think.

Truth be told, he wasn't comfortable with the two witches travelling by themselves either but they had refused to take a muggle along, not wanting to complicate their sensitive mission and he had had no choice but to let them go, he'd almost forced them to see his brother while at The Wall and handed them a letter to take to him, explaining everything to him through it.

Ned Stark sighed and kept walking, letting the familiar breeze take his worries away. Uh, if only…

Ginny and Hermione landed on their feet and shivered like tongs hit on bells.

"COLD!"

"Fucking cold!"

With shivering limbs, they kept an arm draped around their middle as they fished out the heaviest cloak from their bags and set several heating spells on it and on themselves before they did anything else.

Then, they looked around, their eyes widening in marvel.

"This is…" Ginny tried but couldn't find words potent enough to describe the majestic sight of the iced wall that surrounded them.

"Can you feel it?" Hermione whispered, awe and reverence coloring her tone and making it go all soft. "The magic… even the air's thrumming with it."

"The wards are very strong. Stronger than I've ever seen. Even Hogwarts before and during the Battle is nothing compared to this," Ginny agreed.

"All protective. And very specific," Hermione whispered, her wand already at work as she drew small patterns in the air, trying to identify the wards.

Ginny shuffled a few feet away and began her own work, both witches working in silence as they tried to understand the magic in The Wall.

"Unbreachable," Ginny whispered after a few long hours, the sky dark on their heads.

"Almost," Hermione added thoughtfully. "Pure, unadulterated magic can still bring fractions of it down. But nothing besides it," she confirmed.

"What is pure, unadulterated magic?" Ginny up-turned her eyebrow quizzically at the elder witch.

"The innate magic that magical creatures yields – like centaurs with their astronomy, unicorns with their blood, Phoenix with its feathers and dragons with their fire, to name a few."

"Do those creatures even exist in this era? I've only ever read accounts of Targaryen dragons but even they have been gone for hundreds of years."

"Hmm.. And to my knowledge, it's only the Dragon fire that is strong enough to take this place down, and even that will only be in parts. The wards are too strong for the whole thing to crumble easily."

Ginny agreed. Her scans of the wards had shown similar results. "Time to get in and see Lord Benjen." Ginny then scowled as a memory flashed in her mind. "Let me also see what is so special about the Night's Watch that Jon…" she trailed off sniffling and Hermione squeezed her shoulder in comfort. Ginny flashed her a small smile that looked more of a grimace. "I hope I get over him soon enough. I can't.. I can't go on like this, Mione."

"It'll get better," Hermione patted her back.

"It better," Ginny huffed, "Or I'll put all my brothers on his case and be done with him for good."

They started walking slowly towards the entrance at The Wall, hoping there'll be a guard there to take them to Lord Benjen Stark. They didn't really want to apparate at the top, not knowing how many muggles would be by the edge and neither fancied the idea of camping in the deep snow.

"That bad, eh?" Hermione winced.

"It's like I'm 10 again and in love with a guy who broods so much better and is far more impractical a choice than Harry ever was. And my feelings are just multiplied a hundred times over. I never realized it until I heard he'd been with a whore the night of his birthday, and then we fought and he kissed me and I.."

"Wait.. What? Jon kissed you? Then why have you been moping?" Hermione asked incessantly.

"I don't want to talk about it," Ginny hung her head low and walked faster, to get away from the conversation.

Hermione looked from the back of her red-headed friend to the footprints she was leaving on the snow, sighing then, she traced her steps.

In all his time with The Watch, Benjen Stark had seen a fair deal of folklore come to life but when two witches from the future turned up at Castle Black with a letter from his brother, he started questioning his own sanity, until he read Ned's letter and understood that their family stories, weren't simply legends after all.

Every legend has a grain of truth in it, he acquiesced grudgingly.

"So, my ladies, how can I help you?"

The ladies in question straightened and cleared their throats making Benjen inadvertently brace himself. He just instinctively knew he was not going to like what was coming.

"We'd like a room for the night, if you please," the red-haired witch, Ginerva, requested formally.

"And we'd like to know the location that the man who was .. – the deserter, as they called him at Winterfell.. we'd like to pick their trail and need to know which way he was headed."

Lost in thought, Benjen nodded belatedly. "I can have the location by sun up at the morrow, you can stay at the Castle Black for the night, but I must warn you, most men of The Watch now aren't real gentlemen, and I would like for you to keep your rooms bolted at all time during the night."

"We can protect ourselves, Lord Stark."

"Thank you for your concern though."

That done, Benjen Stark led the two witches out, towards the visitor's rooms and showed them one that would be sufficient for them for the night.

"Light the fire and keep the door bolted. I'll come for you in the morning," he said in lieu of goodbye and was gone in flurry of black coat.

"Long nose, black hair, black eyes, black flurrying coat, cryptic talks, remind you of someone?" Hermione joked and pulled a small smirk from Ginny in response.

"I've got some canned soup with me. Let's heat that up, eat and sleep. Something tells me we're gonna have a long day tomorrow."

Ginny nodded and flicked her wrist to get the logs in the fireplace to burn and started a slow fire. Then she waved her wand in the air and placed a handful of heat charms in the room, while Hermione spelled the soup cans to heat up and then passed a can and a spoon to Ginny, both beginning their slow work on the hot soup, alternating between blowing off the steam off the thick concoction and warming their hands on the hot metal.

And to think winter hadn't even started yet!

The first light of the morning sun got a sharp rap on their door by one Lord Benjen and he summoned them to a hall closer to the visitor's side of the castle for the briefing in the morning.

"That team had started due north from the East side of the castle. It has been eight days since they left and if one of them made it to Winterfell, it would mean that they stumbled upon whatever they saw about two days after they left the Castle. That should put those things in.." he drew an imaginary circle with a long stick on the large map he had brought with himself, "somewhere around this area. If we leave now and ride through the night, we should be there by noon tomorrow."

"Did he just say we?" Ginny whispered to Hermione.

Hermione nodded her answer. "Am sorry, Lord Stark, but we can't pull you out of your duties here at Castle Black. We'll be fine by ourselves. Just point us in the right direction and we can take it from there."

"I can't leave two young women unescorted to go beyond The Wall. There are things other than the prophesized White Walkers that lurk in the beyond. The Widlings for one are neither a welcoming nor a very forgiving bunch. It's best if I come along."

"But we ca…"

"My Ladies, I understand this is your mission, but I have some duties too. Not just as a man of the Night's Watch, but also as a Stark, I'm bound to protect you, so I will come along. Now that, that is settled, I'll have food sent over to your chambers. Break your fast. We'll leave shortly." And with that, Benjen was gone.

"I'll bet you my best broom that this guy is Jon's favorite one in the family!"

Hermione turned to look at Ginny curiously, "Why do you say that?"

"Brusque, curt, painfully gentlemanly yet has a Merlin may care attitude. He's got have gotten it from somewhere and it's not from Eddard Stark."

"I've heard their sister was the same."

"Hmm.. could be her then. But he's never really met her has he? But Lord Benjen has definitely been around most if his impressionable life. My money's still on him."

Hermione nodded thoughtfully. "You always turn conversations to him these days…"

"I've heard that happens in lo…. FUCK! Did I just….." Ginny slapped her mouth close with both her hands. "Oh by the Founders, but I'm doomed! How did this happen, Hermione? How could I have been so stupid?"

Hermione turned and took the shuddering form of Ginny in her arms. "Stay strong, Gin. Now's not the time. We have a mission to complete, a world to save. Later, we'll knock some sense into the brute. I promise I'll help you smack him, prank him, whatever you want…"

Ginny hiccupped but gave a small watery smile. "Won't my brothers be proud," she sniffled as they walked into the room.

"They sure will be," Hermione agreed, transfiguring a kerchief from some freshly fallen snow and handing it over to Ginny.