Ginny and Luna had hobbled back towards their Common Rooms before their next class and were about to part ways when Ginny clenched tightly on Luna's arm.

"I can't go in the Common Room. My brothers might see me like this. I-. They-. We-." She paused for a moment to collect herself before she finished. "They can't know this is happening." She gestured lamely to the spots still protruding from her face, sore with a dull throbbing.

Ginny wasn't sure why she didn't want them to know, but she was positive that if they did it would be bad. They hadn't looked out for her last year, and she certainly didn't want them to start now. Her Mum would say otherwise, of course, but something deep inside her revolted at the idea of going to them for help with something so insignificant as a few school bullies when they couldn't have been relied upon to recognize what had happened with Tom.

Maybe Ginny wanted to prove to herself that she didn't need them to look after her, to prove that the year before was just a fluke. Maybe she wanted to spite them, as if they didn't deserve to look after her because they'd failed the year before.

Whatever the reason, Ginny knew she didn't want them involved. This was her problem now, hers and Luna's.

"Try a Finite?" was Luna's quick response.

Both girls tried, in vain, to vanish the pimples plaguing Ginny's face. She sighed and allowed Luna to lead her by the hand to the library for some research in counter-curses and anti-jinxes.

In the end, they were lucky enough to only miss one class before they had countered and vanished the unsightly mess on Ginny's face. Unfortunately, their triumph was short lived.

Their days became plagued by minor instances of bullying. Trips, falls, spilled pumpkin juice or books. Small, inconsequential things hounded them everywhere. They'd randomly break out in dance or fall prey to fits of giggles in the hallways. It was worse when they weren't together, when they could be cornered alone, so they took to staying by each other as often as possible. They'd mostly been doing it anyways before, regardless. They had a tendency to keep to themselves, but now it was for safety as well as companionship.

They escaped their torment during the week by spending as much time in the library as they could. They always grabbed a table in plain view of the librarian Madam Pince, as she "had no time for hooligans or tom foolery in MY library!"

On the weekends, they continued their wanderings and explorations. Hogwarts was a castle designed for far more students than they currently had, and there were many unexplored and abandoned areas for them to discover.

On the positive side Ginny was getting better at keeping her eyes open, at dodging, and better at skirting the truth so her brothers didn't find out about anything. Though she doubted if 'better at lying' was really such a positive, she was desperate to look at the bright side of the situation. And at least with all the dodging during the week in addition to the exploring they were doing on the weekends, Ginny was finally getting to enjoy the benefits of some of the physical exercise she'd been missing since the summer. Magic was mentally exhausting enough to help her sleep, but her body craved more action than walking to and from class would give.

After three weeks of adjustment, Ginny was comfortable enough in their new arrangement, avoiding bullies and countering curses, to bring up a potential new project for her and Luna to work on. It was something she'd fretted over since the Summer, a small idea dangling in the back of her mind. Her idea wasn't wrong, or bad, or anything like that. It just wasn't overly common, maybe slightly taboo. Or at least, that's what her Mum had always said.

She waited until they were alone, in an abandoned corridor looking for a secret passage that was supposed to be behind the seventh suit of armor lining the wall. Unfortunately, there were only six suits of armor in the hallway, and the two of them were beginning to run out of ideas.

"Halloween is in a week." Ginny broke their silence as they searched.

"Mmm, so it is. Are you dressing up?"

"Dressing-? No, Luna. Why would I be?"

"Apparently some Muggles dress up and go out to receive sweets. For free, Ginny. They get sweets for free."

"Luna, the Halloween feast is supposed to have a bunch of sweets for pudding. We'll be getting sweets anyways. We wouldn't need to dress up."

"Well, I suppose, but would those sweets be free?"

"Uh, maybe? I mean… you wouldn't have to pay for them."

"Didn't I already pay for it by paying for the tuition?"

"We didn't pay for the tuition, our parents did. Which makes it free for us?"

Luna let out a large, overbearing sigh. "I suppose you're right."

Ginny just rolled her eyes and didn't even try to stop her lips from curling up. "But that's beside the point. I brought it up because, I, uh, well." Ginny paused. She couldn't figure out the way to come out and just say what she wanted to say.

The roundabout way might work.

"Did I tell you about our first day in Egypt?" As normal, Luna didn't even bat an eye at the apparent pivot in the conversation. They were both used to it; every conversation they had together ran like a stream, meandering and curving, and occasionally there would be a fork and they'd go down an offshoot before meeting up again to the general current.

"I don't think so? I imagine it was unbearably hot. Did you see any Heliopaths?"

"No, I wasn't looking for any. But, I did see a traditional Solstice ritual performed."

"Oh? Was it fascinating? Was it done in customary garb? Who performed it?"

"It was performed at Dendera. We-,"

Ginny paused as she felt Luna's hand grasp her arm, just shy of uncomfortably tight, and she noticed how wide Luna's eyes had gotten.

"Was it wonderful?" Luna breathed. She leaned forwards and her eyes shone bright. "It's supposed to be nearly impossible to get in. I've even heard that they have people who still follow the religion perform the ceremonies."

Ginny heaved a sigh of relief. Luna's obvious interest made her feel so much better, and far more secure in her request. She doubted Luna would be like Percy or her Mum, but she'd still had that lingering fear skulking about.

"It was one of the best things I've ever witnessed." Ginny spoke softly, but with surety. "And I-. Well, I was thinking that-. I just thought-."

Luna stared at her, wide eyed and patient. Ginny took a deep breath. It was a simple question; why couldn't she do this?!

Breathe in. Breathe out. It's Luna. You trust her.

"Would you like to hold a ritual for Samhain with me, after the feast on Halloween?"

Ginny held her breath, and wouldn't look up at Luna, staring resolutely at the floor between them. Relief washed over her as she heard the smile in Luna's voice when she responded, "I would love to."

They retreated back the way they came, trying to find if there had been a mistake in their directions, as their conversation retreated back into silence.

The smile on Luna's lips was full and bright enough that Ginny read it with ease. I really love having a friend.

Ginny's bump into Luna's shoulder gave her own message loud and clear as well. Me too.

Alas, it wasn't to be.

They spent all their time in the library the following week doing research for the ritual. Books upon manuscripts upon scrolls of different cultural rituals, their uses and meanings, and the historic meaning of Halloween, or Samhain, filled their every waking hour.

Ginny's head felt bloated from all the information, but it felt surprisingly good to be studying something she was interested in for a reason other than classes or homework. She hadn't been sure that this would even be something she would really want to do, but she just couldn't get the beauty, the majesty, of that ritual in Egypt out of her mind. The closer they drew to Halloween, the more information they learned about the how and why of seasonal or holiday rituals, the more sure she became.

The halls of Hogwarts seemed to only be getting darker and more foreboding as the year went on. A storm had begun to brew, as nasty as any roiling potion, quite literally right outsidethe castle, and hadn't broken since it began. Ginny could nearly feel the chill creeping in through the walls from the veritable army of dementors she just knew was lurking beyond the grounds.

It was for that reason that they decided in short form to practice one of the Bonfire Rituals of Celtic origins that was designed to repel evil spirits. It was difficult to find actual examples of this, as most of the books on rituals were in the Restricted Section. They had to resort to searching history books and books for other subjects that alluded to rituals; often times the examples provided gave just enough information to be useful. They were lucky enough to find one after three days of dedicated searching and ignoring homework.

By Friday night everything was complete. They had found a room, gathered their materials, and then spent all of Saturday running through the motions, practicing, memorizing. They resigned themselves to being incredibly tired on Monday and went to sleep giddy.

They spent Sunday, October 31st, Halloween, Samhain, The Big Day together. Last minute practice in the morning, and then relaxing the rest of the day.

The Great Hall was decorated with wanton disregard for any sense of good taste. Orange and black streamers were strung haphazardly and covered up most of the ceiling. Floating pumpkins swirled about the room, lazing in between the drifting candles. The Bloody Baron seemed to be taking great delight in scaring all of the First and Second years as often as possible.

Ginny and Luna ignored it all and kept making eye contact throughout the feast. Ginny was worried the girls sitting around her would hear her heart hammering in her chest, she was so nervous. Although she did let out a huge guffaw at the look on Luna's face as all the tables were filled with piles upon piles of sweets.

All their plans were ruined, though, as Ginny headed up to her Common Room after the feast. Long scratch marks tore across the portrait of the Fat Lady, from frame to frame, and she could hear sobbing in the distance. A large group of her fellow Gryffindors surrounded the portrait, all the students clustered together, clamoring for any information on what had happened to their beloved guardian.

Ginny's heartbeat thrummed through her body, and the words spoken around her blurred together as her ears felt full. This was an attack. Something had attacked the Fat Lady, and the Professor's didn't know what, or who, or why. She felt her body tense, and the sweat pool on her back; her fingers tightened around her wand and her jaw clenched as her eyes swiveled back and forth.

All it took was two simple words to break her out of her stupor. It was two words that struck at her heart, they could have been shouted or whispered, Ginny didn't know. She wasn't sure who had spoken them; the Fat Lady, a student, the professors. They were the only two words that penetrated Ginny's fugue, and they shot a spike of icy fear straight through her soul.

"Sirius Black!"

If Ginny had thought that the appearance of Sirius Black would give her a reprieve, she was only partly right.

The bullies did manage to leave Ginny and Luna alone for about two whole days, a new record since the bullying began in earnest, after the news broke that Black had managed to infiltrate Hogwarts. But after those two days, the bullying picked up worse than before. It was possible that the bullies were attempting to prove they weren't afraid of Sirius Black by picking on them. Maybe the bullies were just trying to distract themselves.

It didn't matter why, in the end. All that mattered was that the minor hexes and jinxes in the hallway were more frequent, and more vicious.

Ginny and Luna took it all in stride. They had each other, and that was enough. No amount of tripping, or bruises, or missing papers could get them to back down. Ginny took any opportunity she could find to fire off hexes or jinxes of her own back at the bullies, but it wasn't easy. The bullies were older, smarter, and faster than her. Stronger, with more power in their jinxes and an easier time countering Ginny's spells. Nevertheless, she persevered.

Ginny and Luna had debated at length whether they would attend the Gryffindor vs. Hufflepuff Quidditch match (previously Slytherin, until poor injured Draco Malfoy needed 'extra recovery time'). Surprisingly, it was Ginny who was adamantly against it, and Luna who argued that they should attend. Years ago, their roles had been reversed as Ginny had tried to play "Quidditch" in the yard growing up, while Luna had wanted to play "Snorkack Hunters Extraordinaire."

But Ginny, much as she loved flying, loved Quidditch less than she used to. It wasn't the focal point of her life any longer, and it certainly wasn't her lifelong goal to become a famous Quidditch player. She didn't know what she wanted to do anymore, but she doubted she could muster up enough effort to care about Quidditch.

She missed flying, desperately, but didn't want to fly just to try and win some silly game. After her experiences the year before, Quidditch just seemed so... unimportant.

As usual, Luna won their argument through a series of twisting and turning logic that Ginny couldn't quite follow the next day when she reconsidered it.

The cold of the air as they sat in the stands was only marginally cut down by their huge woolen scarves, jumpers, and jackets. Ginny resolved herself to learning a Warming Charm as quickly as possible, so as to not die of hypothermia every time Luna dragged her to one of these games. Ginny hated the cold.

She was surprised to find, about halfway through the game, that she was indeed having more fun than she expected. She and Luna shouted their heads off for Gryffindor, Luna wore Gryffindor colors, and everything was going well.

Ginny's face was bright red, from laughing just as much as from the biting wind.

It changed in the blink of an eye. The world went from crazy, and uproarious, and madly phenomenal to hectic, and panicked, and insanely terrifying. Dementors, dark floating specters of death and despair, creeped towards the pitch, but were noticed too late. Frost covered and killed the grass beneath their tattered robe-like appearance, the storm clouds darkened and thickened in the skies above, and screams tore through the stands as children wailed in terror.

I've missed you, Ginny the sibilant hiss ran up her spine. Don't you miss me? You know we made such a good team. Just lissssten to me, Ginny, and I can help you with your little bullying problem.

Ginny reached out and grasped Luna's arm tight, and she didn't know if Luna's whimper was from the force of her grip or the Dementor's drawing near.

In the moment, she didn't really care.

Weak, stupid, useless little girl.

They're right, I'm nothing more than Ickle Ginny Jitters.

You should just let yourself go, Ginny. You don't deserve to keep on living; you needed someone to save you. You should have died in that Chamber. You were barely good enough to be a sacrifice to bring me back, and look at what you've done since you escaped me. You couldn't even save your little friend Luna from her bullies - you just got yourself bullied instead!

Ginny felt hot tears rush down her face as the world around her faded, darkness creeping in. She wasn't sure, but she thought she heard someone shout her name right as everything slipped away.

Ginny was coming to hate the hospital wing. It was, very likely, her least favorite place in Hogwarts.

Well, second least favorite.

But the point remained the same! Waking up to too bright light, and the sharp pungent odor of flowers and disinfectant was unsettling. As she was finally released, with the order to eat more chocolate and mumbling from Madame Pomfrey about "irresponsible, idiotic bureaucrats," Ginny went back to her life.

She wanted to feel like nothing had changed. She wanted to act as though life was back to normal, or at least the sad approximate of normal that she and Luna had cobbled together. Sadly, she couldn't. In the span of one week, she had been harshly reminded that most of the problems she had been worrying about were, in the grand scheme of things, rather pointless.

Dementors on the grounds. Madmen on the loose. An unsecure school.

Yes, bullies were the least of her problems.

But, they were the only problem she could feasibly deal with. Keeping their attention divided so that they weren't solely targeting Luna was about the only thing she could do that made her feel like she was making a difference, the only thing that made her feel useful, so she kept at it.

Until one day in early December, they upped the ante. She awoke that morning as she always did, with a flick of her wrist to dispel her Silencing Charm. She showered, and dressed, and got ready for breakfast. b

But her shoes were missing.

At first, she was sure she'd just misplaced them. She ignored the niggling doubt that the bullies had stolen them; they weren't allowed in the Gryffindor Common Room. It wasn't possible that they had stolen them!

But as the allotted time for breakfast came and went, and her first class neared closer and closer, she had to give up. So she ran through the hallways at a breakneck speed, socks smacking against the cold stone floor, and rushed into Transfiguration just in time. Professor McGonagall gave her a dirty look but started the lesson as normal.

The lesson was boring. Ginny didn't much care about the different things which affected what made a certain transfiguration easier or harder to accomplish. Symbolism, Similarities, Animate/Inanimate. Her only concern with all that was knowing it well enough to pass her exam and get an O on her paper. But it was one of the classes she put the most effort into, if only because it was one she knew Tom hadn't enjoyed. It was just a small thing to remind her she was different from him.

It was harder to concentrate than normal, though. Her feet were cold. The class couldn't end soon enough. Just as she was packing to leave, however, she heard Professor McGonagall call out.

"Ms. Weasley, a word before you leave?"

Ginny finished packing and padded over to the Deputy Headmistress's desk. The soft padding of her feet against the stone floor was much louder than she'd have liked it to be. She'd have thought walking in socks would be harder to hear, and it was quieter than her shoes, but the difference in noise was startling and attention grabbing. She firmly did not glance at her shoeless feet, even once.

"Would you care to tell me why you chose the coldest day we've had all term to forgo a rather important part of your uniform?"

"I couldn't find my shoes this morning, Ma'am."

McGonagall's expression was pinched, and Ginny was torn. She both desperately wanted to spill all her secrets, to let McGonagall know about the bullying, about her and Luna, about Kim, Felicity, and Olivia, and just about everything.

But another part of her viciously knocked that idea away. Why hasn't she seen it already? It's been nearly two months, and she hasn't noticed even once!

"All parts of the uniform are a requirement for students. Not adhering to dress code is an offense I could take points for, Ms. Weasley." Ginny's spine straightened, and her jaw creaked.

Conversely, Professor McGonagall's face softened. "Also, I wouldn't want you to come down with anything. As it gets colder, forgetting your shoes or other items of the uniform behind may adversely affect your health. I'm your Head of House; I want you to be able to come to me. I care about your health and wellbeing."

And that was enough - proof that a teacher was paying attention and that they cared. Even if it was two months late, it was enough to make her consider spilling everything. The words sat on the tip of her tongue, bursting to get out, when McGonagall continued.

"Is it Ms. Lovegood? I know you've been spending more time around her this year than last, and she's always been something of an… odd girl. You don't need to copy her or pick up her bad habits. Much as I'm glad she's got a friend, if you're picking up her peculiarities you might be better finding friends within the girls of your own house?"

Ginny's knuckles strained as she gripped her wand. The words which had just a moment ago been ready to slip out were sucked back in and put once again under lock and key.

"Even if you did merely misplace your shoes, the girls in your dorm have said that you spend most weekends missing from the Common Room, spending time with Ms. Lovegood. You should really consider branching out. I know Ms. Marigold was asking after you, specifically, last weekend. She was wondering if you wanted to talk about the upcoming Quidditch game."

It was as though someone had cast a Freezing Charm on the veins in Ginny's body. Her blood froze solid and chilled her to her core. It was an odd feeling, this cold fury, so unlike any anger she'd felt before. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips barely moved as she whispered back to McGonagall.

"My shoes have not been misplaced, Professor. And I did not leave them behind. They were stolen. My only pair of shoes, taken from me. The only person who could've done it was a fellow Gryffindor. Must have been a girl, too, as I leave my shoes in the same spot, by my bed, every time I take them off. So, no. I don't see myself spending time with potential thieves anytime soon. Luna has never stolen any of my things, you see."

McGonagall's face turned a rather frightening shade of reddish purple, and her lips pursed and thinned considerably.

"25 points from Gryffindor for disrespect. 5 from Gryffindor for a failure to adhere to the dress code. An additional 5 for every day you fail to do so."

Ginny merely turned on her shoeless heels and stormed out of the classroom. If the Professors didn't want to help her, then that was fine by her. She didn't have any help the year before with Tom, and she didn't need any help now.

She staunchly ignored the voice inside her head reminding her that she had needed to be saved the year before. That she hadn't been strong enough, powerful enough, good enough.

As every class went by, Ginny's anger froze to a deeper and lower temperature. She'd never enjoyed the feeling of being cold, not since the Chamber, and she certainly didn't enjoy this cold fury. It became more and more uncomfortable the greater it became. But it was far better than feeling afraid of the cold. With every teacher who didn't stop her to ask about her lack of shoes, every trip she experienced, every call of "Look, Jitters lost her shoes! Now we won't know if she's jittery because she's scared or because she's cold!", with every moment that passed. Ginny became more and more furious.

Luna's response was merely a morose "I'm sorry. I didn't realize Gryffindor had a nest of Nargles lying about in the tower."

"Neither did I, Luna. Neither did I."

That night, she went to every floor of the Girl's Dormitories, and issued the same monotone message.

"If one of you took my shoes, I need them back. I don't know what Felicity, Olivia, and Kim did to get you to steal them, but because you stole them, we lost 30 points today. And I'll lose at least 5 more every day you don't have them returned. I don't mind walking around in socks, and I could care less about points at the moment. But I thought you might. So just let me know where they are, and all's forgiven, yeah? Yeah. Brilliant."

The next morning, before breakfast, there was a note sat primly atop her trunk telling her where on the third floor her shoes had been stashed.

She skipped breakfast to retrieve them, using a Levitation Charm to bring them down from their high up hiding space.

They'd poured pumpkin juice in her shoes, likely the day before, and they still were wet and incredibly sticky.

Ginny muttered a quick Scourgify and vowed to get better at the Cleaning Charm if this was going to be a common occurrence. Along with the Warming Charm to keep warm, and all the other small bits of convenient magic she always felt her hand moving to cast., before realizing she didn't actually know the spell. Her "to-do" list was getting quite long.

The shoes still squished slightly with each step.

Only a few weeks left until we get a break she thought to herself. We can handle just a few weeks.

The last weekend before the Christmas Break was a Hogsmeade Weekend. Ginny and Luna weren't allowed to go, obviously, but Ginny had managed to badger Fred and George into agreeing to getting her a few sweets. That mostly meant that she had given them a few of her Galleons still stashed away from her summer work and told them to bring her some sweets and keep the change.

As a result, Ginny and Luna had decided to spend some time out on the grounds, enjoying the snow. It wasn't a pretty day out, by any means, still overcast and stormy. But the snow was pristine, and the girls were tired of the dank halls of the castle. They weren't allowed to enjoy as much of the grounds as normal, with a large part of it being patrolled by Dementors, but the foul creatures tended to stay mostly near the Forbidden Forest. It gave them plenty of safe room to stroll on a bright sunny day.

Luna, thankfully, had managed to get a semblance of a Warming Charm to work well enough that they could enjoy their walk. Combined with Ginny's, they were quite comfortable. They only paid partial attention to the road leading from the village to the castle, which was why they didn't notice as a spell came hurtling at them.

Ginny felt her legs trip, the way they always did when she got hit with the Tripping Jinx, but she wasn't expecting it like she did in the hallways. In the hallways, she was on edge and her trips only made her stumble. Instead, she went flying forwards and fell flat on her face into the snow. She heard a light thump as Luna fell right after her.

"Oi! Jitters and Loony! We got a bone to pick with you!" Came the nasal sound of Kim's voice.

Ginny swore under her breath as she felt her Warming Charm fade, and her clothes become cold in addition to being soaked through. This was going to be terrible.

"What do you want, Kim?" Ginny had thought, for a while, to try and retaliate by giving the three girls stupid nicknames of their own, but that had quickly turned out to be a very, very bad idea. It turned out that Kim hadn't enjoyed being called 'Ickle-Kimmy-Pimples.' After that, the Pimple Jinx had become a favorite of Kim's, and it had taken Ginny six castings of the Anti-Jinx to undo the one she received that day.

"We saw you handing over some Galleons to your brothers. We figured you probably had some extra to spare for your favorite upperclassmen, don't you Jitters?"

"Come on, Jitters, we know you probably stole it to begin with. Your family is too poor to afford giving any of you an allowance, never mind ALL of you. So give us what you've got, and we'll make sure not to rat you out!"

"See what good friends we are?" Olivia piped up. Felicity just scowled as the other two bantered; she was the least talkative, and the most violent of the group.

"I didn't steal it! And anyways, I gave them all of what I had. So just leave us alone!"

As always, Luna stayed out of the way and didn't speak up. She always apologized afterwards, but Ginny continued to brush her apologies away. Luna had had to endure a whole year of bullying alone. Ginny knew what it felt like to be alone and refused to let it happen to Luna.

Also, in the deepest part of her soul, Ginny would admit to herself that she rather liked being the one doing the saving rather than being the one who got saved. Even if she wasn't all that good at the saving bit, based on the fact they were still both being harassed.

None of that mattered to the bullies though.

"Of course you didn't, Jitters! You'd be too scared to steal anything. Look at you, you're even shaking now just talking to us!" Kim pointed out

Which of course had nothing to do with the wet clothes, or the biting cold seeping into her due to a failed Warming Charm.

"It was probably Loony that stole the money. She's so crazy she probably - Expelliarmus!" Olivia's wand whipped out and flashed towards Luna. Ginny snapped her neck to look and saw that Luna's arm and wand had been raised. It was the first time Luna had ever dared to fight back.

"Tsk tsk, Loony, you should know better. I think she needs to be reminded of her place, don't you, girls?" The evil looks on their faces didn't inspire confidence in Ginny, but what worried her more was the fact that the three girls didn't shout the same incantations.

"Stimula!"

"Stimula!"

"Diffindo!"

Ginny heard the harsh sound of the Severing Charm being sent underneath the shouts of two Stinging Hexes. Her eyes went wide, and she dove as fast and as hard as she could to intercept the spells aimed at Luna.

Pain blossomed across her chest and shoulder. She wanted to let out a scream or a yelp, but she bit her lip and did everything in her power to swallow it. She could feel something warm dripping down her shoulder. She couldn't tell if the throbbing on her chest were the spots where she'd been stung by the two Stinging Hexes, or the throbbing of her heart as it pumped blood through her veins only to drip down her arm.

She looked up at Luna, who stared down at her wide eyed and frozen in shock. She turned her head to stare at the three older girls, ignoring the sharp twinge it sent down her shoulder. The one girl who'd sent the spell, Felicity, was staring at her with an unreadable expression on her face. The other two girls kept frantically looking between Ginny and Felicity, stunned speechless with mouths agape, horrified. She made eye contact with each of them one after another.

"This changes everything." Were the only words Ginny said, before she let her head fall back into Luna's lap, and watched the clouds slowly roil above her. Her blood dripped onto the ground, and the scarlet drops painted rivers down the white canyons of the snow. She felt disconnected from herself, but distantly felt the sharp sting of her arm contrast the throbbing uncomfort of her two growing welts.

She listened, faintly, as the bullies ran back to the castle, and she closed her eyes. She felt Luna wrap her arms around her, holding her tightly, and tried very hard to convince herself that the hot tears streaming down her face were Luna's, and not her own.

Ginny was only thankful she hadn't woken up in a hospital bed. Luna had forced her to go see Madame Pomfrey about her shoulder, though, and the medi-witch hadn't taken the excuse of "ran into a suit of armor, you know, the one with the giant sword and spikes on its shield?" very well.

Luna had grasped Ginny's hand tightly and made her promise that they'd meet up later that evening, after curfew, in one of the abandoned classrooms they had found. Ginny had no problem promising something so easy, and sneaking out was only marginally more difficult. She grumbled all the way there, stepping quietly and checking corners twice, wishing she had an invisibility cloak like the one she'd heard Ron mention he'd used with Harry and Hermione.

After long minutes of sneaking, which had felt like hours, Ginny slipped into the room to see Luna already sitting there, leaned up against a window and staring at the stars. No lights were on, and Luna's hair was reflected in the faint light of the growing moon.

"You know my Mum died." Luna spoke into the darkness, before Ginny even had a chance to say hello.

Ginny didn't respond. Luna's voice was softer than normal, devoid of any of her normal curiosity or joy, inflectionless. Ginny didn't trust herself to speak.

"I saw it. My Dad doesn't know that I was there. It was a spell gone wrong, they say. That without the shield she'd put up, the explosive spellfire wouldn't have been fatal. It kept the spellfire contained, you see, and all the magical backlash was amplified by not being able to disperse. It might have ruined our basement a bit, but it certainly wouldn't have killed her. That's what all the Healers said, anyways." Luna paused, and took a shuddering breath, louder than any word she'd spoken since Ginny entered.

"But Mum was brilliant, you know. Everyone says so. She must have known how bad the reaction was going to be, or rather how bad it wouldn't be. She was smart like that. It always boggled the Aurors that came to ask questions about it. 'Why would she put up a shield? She must have known it'd only make it worse.' I'd hear them whispering about it to each other when they didn't realize I could hear them."

She paused again, for a moment or an hour, Ginny wasn't sure. However long it was, Ginny held her breath the whole while, made not a peep. Luna was sharing something special, and precious, and Ginny refused to interrupt it.

"I wasn't supposed to be in the lab with her. I just didn't want to be alone and Daddy was off on a meeting for the paper. I wasn't. Supposed. To be. There. But I was bored, and lonely, and I-. And my Mum loved me."

That admittance caused Luna's voice to break, for the first time leaving the dead monotone that was so unlike her, and Ginny desperately wanted to step forwards. Wanted to hold Luna, wrap her up in her arms, and tell her it would all be okay. But her feet were stuck to the floor, as though by the most powerful Sticking Charm in existence. So instead she stared, kept her lips shut, and waited.

"She threw up the shield for me. It was a split-second decision. I did some research, last year when we got to Hogwarts, going over old copies of the Daily Prophet to find the article on it, then reading as many books as I could. I don't understand everything, but I know for sure I wouldn't have survived. I was so young; the explosion might have actually done quite a bit of damage to me. I'd likely not have survived, even though she would have. If I had survived, I'd have endured life-threatening damage, of a permanent nature, to both my body and my magic. I'm not sure which idea scared my Mum more, but in that moment, she had to make the decision."

That was what broke Ginny. The casual way that Luna discussed her own demise. As though she'd agonized over it, contemplated it, wondered if it was what her Mum would have hoped for or feared of in that moment. As though she'd wished it had happened. The longing mixed with a terrible, visceral fear. Ginny clenched her hands as she realized that, more than anyone else, Luna could understand, at least in part, what Ginny had experienced.

Ginny felt a yearning, a longing, to talk to Luna about her own experiences, but felt it only for a moment before she mercilessly quashed the thought.

How selfish. How small. How petty. Luna needed her, and Ginny needed to let go of her own problems for one Merlin-forsaken minute to help her only friend.

"My Mum's dead, and it's mostly my fault. If I hadn't been there, everything would have been fine. But I was selfish. I was silly. I was useless. I am useless. And I know that they're right; I'm at least a little bit Loony. So, you don't need to stand up for me; I'm not worth it. It's okay. I don't want you to get hurt for me either."

Luna turned, and she looked like she'd melt away into the moonlight, ethereal hair floating between the stars and bright eyes that matched the moon.

She looked like just a light touch would shatter her, so Ginny didn't even consider running to hug her or hold her like she wanted to. Instead, she whispered the only words she knew she could say with confidence in that moment.

"You are worth it. You're worth it to me." It came out as a whisper, only just barely there.

Luna didn't react, didn't move, didn't even seem to register. Ginny nearly thought she'd spoken it too quietly to hear. Right as Ginny was considering repeating herself, Luna spoke up again.

"What about you?" Her words punched Ginny in the gut, cut her fiercer and deeper than Felicity's Severing Charm ever could.

"I-." Ginny licked her too dry tips and swallowed. "Last year-." Deep breath. In. Out.

Luna just stared, and it calmed Ginny slightly. No judgement, no prying too deep. Just the facts. Luna wasn't going to care. They'd still be friends.

She hoped.

"I found a Dark Artifact. It was… It belonged to a boy named Tom. He was nice. Kind. Sweet." Ginny didn't want to admit the next words but felt an intense desire to tell the truth, at least to Luna.

"He was my friend."

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"He was Voldemort."

Luna didn't gasp. She didn't jump, didn't startle, didn't react. She only blinked a little faster as she readjusted to that burst of spellfire Ginny had dropped on her.

"He talked back to me, through my diary, and he started getting into my head. It was just so lonely for me here, and it was hard for me to make new friends with anyone except for him. But he was always there, and always willing to listen, and always so helpful. Or, he started out that way.

"He made me open the Chamber of Secrets last year. I don't remember all of it, have gaps in my memory, but I remember enough. He made me try and kill all those people. I wasn't strong enough to stop him. Wasn't strong enough to stand against him. Wasn't strong enough to not crave his attention, and his affection, and his kind words."

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"He took me into the Chamber at the end of the year and told me. Told me how he used me, how useless I was, how he hated every minute he had to talk to me. He started sucking my life, my soul from my very body. Tried to fuel his resurrection with my death. I don't know that for sure, mind, but that's what it felt like. It's the only explanation I've come up with that makes any real sense. Why else would he spend so much time with me?"

Luna's eyes were hard as flint, daring her to keep speaking. Refusing to let her stop.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"I gave up. I let him win. I was going to die. Then Harry came and saved me. My only happy thought as I lay dying was that at least I wasn't hurting anybody else, that my death was worth it if I was the only person who ended up dead. When Harry appeared, though, when even my death wouldn't stop me from ruining everything, it nearly broke me. And in that moment, I desperately wanted nothing more than to not die, if only so I could have a chance to try and fix it, fix all of it, every single thing I had messed up. But in the end, I wasn't strong enough to save myself."

The silence hung between them, a palpable thing, like the darkness between the stars.

Ginny couldn't say how long it lasted. Like at first, it was Luna's lilting voice that cracked the hushed room.

"I have an idea." she murmured, as she pulled out a book with a bookmark in it from her bag a few feet away. She opened the book to the marked page, and turned it around, handing it to Ginny. Ginny looked down in confusion. As she recognized the book, her confusion only deepened; what idea could Luna get from one of the many books they'd used to research different magical holidays that fell on Samhain, and their historic relevance?

She peered at Luna, waiting for an answer, who just gave an agitated tap to a specific annotation on the page she had opened to.

It should be noted that there are many different types of bonds or connections that may be created between two wizards, or perhaps between more than two. Unbreakable Vows are some of the deadliest of these, but all bonds carry within them an inherent chance of danger, as it ties the life of one wizard to another. Even something as simple as a blood-brotherhood ritual, of which there are many variations from so many cultures, could be dangerous. This is not to discount the danger of bindings between wizards and other inanimate objects, such as magical contracts, but-

Ginny stopped reading then and looked up at Luna. Was she suggesting what Ginny thought she was?

Luna's expression was guarded, as she confirmed Ginny's thoughts "Are you interested in forming a blood pact?"