The Battle of Loch Lomond

Ginny Weasley touched down wearily, sliding off the slick handle of her Cleansweep Twelve and almost falling straight to the ground, unable to stay upright without using her broom for support. Ginny had been on the run for days, and this had been her first moment of respite, it seemed, since she had left the Burrow. After escaping Robards and his Auror, Ginny had flown north for endless hours, at one point getting so cold she was sure she had reached Norway, as her broom handle began to freeze up, causing her to turn back, eventually touching down somewhere in the north of Scotland. The first night had been extremely tense. Ginny had cast every protective enchantment she could think of around a clearing in a small forest, and set up her tent, daring to only conjure a small fire for fear of being seen. Since then, Ginny had flown from coast to coast across the north of Scotland, and each time she had took to the skies she had encountered either a team of Aurors, or a group from the WULF. Ginny had taken to flying under Harry's Invisibility cloak, but it didn't quite cover her broom entirely, and with every passing minute Ginny felt the entire weight of the Ministry hovering over her head.

The WULF, she felt, were easier to deal with. Many of them were as incompetent with their wands as they were on their broomsticks. The more skilled magicians within the WULF would not be wasting time up here chasing Ginny around when their organisation had more sinister things to be doing. But these WULF initiates were becoming increasingly irritating; even if she could outfly them, it took just one idiot in a mask to get off a lucky shot and knock her off her broom. Ginny's biggest fear came from the Ministry itself, whom Ginny was sure were still somewhere overhead. As she'd learned from a copy of the Daily Prophet she'd managed to snatch from a cottage somewhere outside of Thurso, she had been made the Ministry's second ever Undesirable No.1, and the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was taking things incredibly seriously. Not a day had yet passed where the Auror Department hadn't caught up with her, and they were becoming more and more difficult to escape. The Ministry had sent out their most elite witches and wizards, the very best at both spell work, and in flight. It was during a very close encounter with this elite team of Aurors that Ginny had truly begun to realise what Harry. Ron, and Hermione had really gone through during their time hunting Horcruxes. It hadn't been some fun adventure off in the woods, although Ginny had never entertained that idea, and it certainly wasn't something you could prepare for, no matter how much you packed into a bag.

Ginny's supplies were dwindling, she hadn't eaten a proper meal for three days, she had two Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder stones left, and, stupidly, Ginny hadn't thought to pack any muggle money into her bag. With her face now plastered across every copy of the Daily Prophet, and presumably every poster in Diagon Alley, and Hogsmeade, it would be far too dangerous to walk into a wizarding shop, and far too dangerous to return to her family. But, with no muggle money, she couldn't buy herself any food from the Muggles either. She truly was in trouble, and genuinely had her doubts about whether or not to continue. Maybe, if she turned herself in, she would be able to convince the courts of her innocence, and walk freely, continue her hunt for Harry. But deep down, Ginny knew that there was no way that she would walk free now, not least after assaulting the Head of the Auror Department and half a dozen of his Aurors in the following days. But beyond that, Ginny could sense that something was off at the Ministry; Kingsley had slowly been losing his grip on the Auror Department, and as a result, seemed to be losing control of the Ministry itself. Whatever was going on down in London, it wasn't simple.

Just as Ginny had finished casting protective enchantments around her campsite for this evening, she heard a crackling sound that caused her to jump back into the trees. Hurriedly, Ginny summoned her broom to her side, and wrapped herself in Harry's invisibility cloak, her wand drawn at the ready, her breath held tight in her chest. Not ten metres from her campsite, six Aurors landed on the ground with a thud that Ginny felt shoot up through her feet and all the way up her spine. The biggest of the six motioned to his comrades, and the group spread in large circles, working silently, their movements practiced and precise, like a pack of wolves quietly stalking their prey. "There are enchantments here," the large wizard whispered, holding up a hand to halt the other Aurors, whilst producing his wand in the other. Seconds later, the Auror produced a fierce bolt of lightning that crackled and sparked against Ginny's shield charms. With a final crack, Ginny's protective enchantments fell away, and now the only thing hiding her from the Aurors was Harry's cloak. "She's here!" The big Auror cried out across the forest. Now the team were being less stealthy, and simply crashing through the undergrowth, firing off spells in seemingly random directions, and calling out to her, teasing her about how she was finally about to be caught.

"Hold it lads, hold it!" the burly Auror cried out, "this is why Carrick failed to catch her." The Aurors returned to the clearing, regrouping with their leader, giving Ginny the chance to try and creep silently backwards out of range. "We need to smoke her out, don't let her creep away. She'll be using that damned cloak for cover."

"Smoke her out sir?" one of the younger Aurors asked.

"Aye lad," the leader replied with a grin, "follow Avery, he'll show you what we mean." Once again, the Aurors spread out into the trees, treading carefully. A few moments later, Ginny realised exactly what the lead Auror had meant as the forest around her was suddenly ablaze with great balls of fire that completely encircled her would-be camp. Realising at once that she couldn't possibly stay in the forest, Ginny reached into her bag and pulled out another one of Fred and George's tricks. She hurled the Decoy Detonator as far into the trees as she could, and then began to run in the opposite direction. A moment later, the sound of a loud air-horn cut through the air, and a cloud of black smoke puffed out across the clearing. Two of the Auror's rushed towards the smoke, but their leader called them back. "No!" he bellowed, "It's just a distraction, think men, why would she throw out a cloud of black smoke? To let us know where she is? No, it's to draw away our attention. Search the other side of the forest, and keep the fires burning!"

Now Ginny really had to move, and she was crashing through the undergrowth with reckless abandon, trying as best she could to put as much distance between herself and the fire, not to mention the team of Aurors behind her. But as far as Ginny could see in any direction, the forest was engulfed in flames, even the Auror's would have to leave soon. Reluctantly, Ginny hid behind a tree and whipped off Harry's cloak; by now it had become a hindrance, and she would need to fly at her very best to escape this time. Checking the forest behind her for Auror's, Ginny mounted her Cleansweep and kicked off hard, clearing the forest canopy in seconds. Ginny heard a flurry of shouts from below as the Auror team spotted her escaping, and so she flipped the switch on her Broom Broom Kit, turning on the turbo fan beneath her brooms tail, and rocketing high, high into the air. Ginny aimed for the clouds above her head, hoping to gain some form of cover in the fluffy grey skies. She looked below to check on the Auror's in pursuit, but what she saw left her puzzled. Instead of following her, the Auror's were still circling the forest on their brooms, not bothering to pursue her at all. Ginny was sure that they hadn't missed her, so why weren't they following her? Once she broke through the clouds, the answer to her question became clear.

Almost as soon as the handle of her broom broke through the top of the clouds, a red curse whizzed over the top of her head, missing her by inches. Ginny looked on in horror as a team of around twenty Auror's descended on her from all directions, each of them riding a fleet of sleek, black, Nimbus Two-Thousand-Five-Hundred's. It was clear now that the Auror's in the forest had set her a trap, one which she had fallen right into. Now here she was, facing down a team of battle-hardened Auror's who were far more skilled at magic than she was, riding brooms she couldn't even hope to outrun. Ginny wheeled to the left as a flurry of curses were fired at her chest. She needed to think of something quickly, or she wouldn't last another second against the Auror's. Deciding to at least buy herself some time, Ginny dipped back into the clouds to give herself some cover, weaving left and right to avoid being hit by the bombardment of spells that rained down from overhead, but unable to see ahead of her. After nearly colliding with one of the Auror's who had followed her into the cloud, Ginny pushed her broom into a straight nosedive. Now she was hurtling towards the ground, aiming straight for the group of Auror's in the forest. Deciding that she would indeed have to fight back, Ginny released her wand from a holster on her wrist and fired a Deprimo charm at the nearest group of Auror's. Ginny watched squeamishly as the two Auror's who had been caught by the spell were forcefully slammed to the ground, leaving their broomsticks in splinters.

Pulling up hard, Ginny narrowly avoided colliding with the ground, and now was darting back towards the fire. Curses whizzed over her head, and Ginny knew that eventually one would find its mark. Seeing no other option, Ginny fired a jet of water from the tip of her wand to clear a path through the fire, and began flying through the smouldering trees, her eyes watering from the smoke that filled the forest. Many of the Aurors followed her into the burning forest, but with so many trees in their way, they couldn't bring their brooms even close to top speed. Now, it seemed as though the chase would become a game of who blinked first. Ginny darted left and right, narrowly avoiding tree trunks, and low hanging branches that would at best injure her, and at worst kill her. The Aurors were still hot on her tail, and despite the constant threat of the trees, were swiftly gaining ground. Ginny dared a glance backwards to see, to her horror, a rugged, battle-hardened Auror reaching out to try and grab the tail of her broom. Ginny turned at the very last second, and swerved to avoid a tree trunk that lay in front of her. The Auror intent on snatching her broom from under her, wasn't so lucky, and Ginny felt squeamish as she heard him hit the tree with a sickening, bone-crunching thud that seemed to shake the entire forest. One of the Aurors stopped to check on his fallen comrade, leaving the rest to pursue her through the trees. A curse split a tree trunk right in front of her, and Ginny wheeled far off course to avoid a volley of Stunning Spells that had been cast from one of the Aurors further back. Ginny heard another two thuds as the Aurors tried to follow her through the trees, and despite the fact that they were hunting her down, she felt a pang of guilt that so many witches and wizards would be hurt just doing their jobs.

But, as she'd reasoned with herself before, she wouldn't find Harry in Azkaban, and so she would need to keep going, keep flying, keep fighting. No matter the cost, Ginny needed to outrun the Aurors. As the trees mercifully began to thin again, Ginny pulled up into the sky and pressed her broom forward, pushing it to its absolute limits. She shot over a steep hill rocketed high into the clouds. The team of Aurors chasing her had thinned, but they were still persistent in their chase. Ginny bobbed in and out of the clouds trying to scour the land below for any possible means of escape. All that lay beneath her at the moment was a large loch, dotted with small islands. As the Aurors drew closer once more, Ginny began to realise that she really was running out of options. No spell she knew could fend off an entire troop of elite Dark Wizard Catchers, no Darkness Powder would save her in the skies, and no Cleansweep could outrun a Nimbus. Ginny's eyes became teary as she flew, realising that finally, she may be caught. The Aurors no longer cast curses at her; they knew it was only a matter of time before their superior speed caught up with her, and with no thick forest below, where was she to hide? Ginny racked her brains, thinking of anything that she could do to block the path of the Aurors who, by now, were only a few metres behind. Finally, an idea formed in Ginny's mind, one that she was incredibly sceptical of carrying out, but seemingly left with no options, Ginny pointed her wand towards her bag and cried out, "Accio Wildfire Whizz-Bangs!" Ginny's bag flew open, and a cascade of fireworks poured itself into the sky. Ginny fired curses at a few of the rockets, eventually hitting one, which exploded, causing a chain reaction which lit the sky. As Ginny dived out of the way of the enormous explosions of colour, she almost giggled with delight as the Aurors tried to fight through the barrage of rockets and Catherine wheels. An added bonus of George's biggest fireworks was that any attempt to vanish them, or otherwise stop them from exploding would only cause them to multiply, and grow bigger, and louder. Ginny fired jinxes and hexes at a rapid rate towards the fireworks, and soon the whole sky seemed to be on fire.

But then, just as Ginny thought the fight had been won, and had turned to make her escape, one of the Aurors finally locked onto her, and Ginny cried out in horror as she was hit with Expelliarmus and her wand went spinning from her hand and fell away to water below. Ginny dived, pushing her broom as fast as it could possibly go, trying in vain to save her wand. But it was no use, Ginny could no longer even see her wand, and her broom wouldn't dive fast enough to catch it. As she began to pull out of her dive, Ginny shed a tear as she thought back to the day she had visited Ollivanders to purchase the wand, and the joy she had felt when it had chosen her, and then all of the learning, and all of the battles, and all of the adventures she had taken it on since that day. To her, and to most witches and wizards, a wand was not just an instrument, but an extension of herself, a partner. Now that partner was gone, and Ginny had lost another piece of herself.

The loud boom of a firework snapped Ginny out of her trance as she turned to see the entire sky filled with a bright yellow glow. Flying was becoming seriously dangerous now, and Ginny tried to put as much distance between herself and the fireworks that she had tossed into the sky. Through her frequent backwards glances, Ginny could see that at least two Aurors' robes had caught fire, and a third was being hounded by a pink Catherine wheel. A fourth, the one who had knocked Ginny's wand from her hand, was still intent on his pursuit though. He tried, and tried to break through the impenetrable wall of fireworks, but his efforts were in vain. Once again, Ginny thought she had succeeded in her escape, but once again she was in for a nasty surprise. As another rocket sped towards the fourth Auror, he hit it with a non-verbal spell that Ginny had never seen before. As she watched, the rocket changed direction, and thrust towards her at alarming speed. Ginny turned, and pressed her broom for more power, but wherever she went, the firework followed, getting ever-closer. This time, Ginny had no wand at hand to turn it around, and with a horrifying thump the firework buried itself in the tail of her broomstick, and then exploded. For what seemed like several minutes, Ginny was completely unaware of what was happening around her. She had been totally blinded, and her ears were ringing like church bells. She could smell burning, and her back was in a great deal of pain. When she finally came around again, dizzy and disorientated, Ginny realized that she was falling, fast. Ginny pulled up hard, but the power in her broom was no longer there, and manoeuvring was almost impossible. Glancing back, Ginny could see that the tail of her broom was on fire and a great plume of black smoke trailed behind her. There would be no saving her broom. Struggling to stay upright, Ginny aimed for a small island in the distance, hoping that against all odds, she could crash land at least close to the shore. High above, the Aurors retreated in pain and frustration at being thwarted once again.

Many Hours Later…

Gawain Robards rose from his office chair in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and walked the few paces to a mahogany drinks cabinet, and began to pour himself a drink from a bottle of pricey single malt whiskey. The Foe-Glass on his desk swam with the dark shadows of his enemies, but none were close enough to trouble him now. Next to the Foe-Glass sat a Muggle television set, constantly tuned to the BBC News channel in case things such as freak weather events occurred; unexplainable to Muggles, but usually a good indicator of a magical mishap. Today's news report was of particular interest to Mr. Robards, and he listened intently to the broadcaster on screen.

"Police are today investigating a forest fire in Scotland inside the Loch Lomond National Park which destroyed half an acre of forest, and took fire crews nearly three hours to contain. So far it is believed to be the result of an unauthorised fireworks display above Loch Lomond, which went disastrously wrong. Eye-witnesses recall seeing a sky ablaze with colour, in a display of fireworks that went on for nearly two hours. Police and Fire crews could not locate the launch site for the display, and the National Park remains closed at this time…"

As Robards sipped at his whiskey, a single knock on his door interrupted the broadcast. "Enter," he commanded. The door to his office swung open, and Carrick, an older, grizzly Auror stepped through, closing the door behind him. His robes were badly burned, and his face and hands were covered in black marks. His expression was a furious one, but his shoulders slumped, knowing that he, as the most senior Auror on the team would have to report to Robards and bear the bad news. "I just watched a fascinating report on the Muggle news about a firework display above Loch Lomond that got dreadfully out of control, set the place ablaze. Did you hear anything about it on your travels, Carrick?"

"She won't evade us for long now," Carrick hissed back, "her broomstick is nothing but a charred log. We have Aurors stationed all around the Loch. With your permission, I am going to tighten the net around her until she is forced to give herself up, or defeated entirely."

"I want you to hold that thought Carrick." Robards replied sternly, "As much as I appreciate this tactical victory, I want to be certain that we will have her this time. You will wait on the shores of Loch Lomond until I have assembled the Dementors of Azkaban to join us. It is imperative that we do not lose her this time."

"There is one more thing sir," said Carrick, reaching into his robes and producing a sleek black wand. Presenting it carefully so as to show that he was offering no threat, "One of the young lads went into the water to search for her. He managed to recover this." Robards took the wand and rolled it lightly between his finger and thumb. He cracked into his first genuine grin in several long months.

"She has no wand," he laughed, "we cannot possibly lose."

Authors Notes

Hi Everyone,

A little bit of bad news. I had been working very, very hard on this story, but unfortunately, Microsoft Word quit on me, and six of the chapters I had written were lost entirely. I'm at a complete loss as to how my saved work has disappeared, and I've been doing my very best to recover as much work as I can. This chapter might be a little rough, as it was written mostly from memory. I am re-writign most of the chapters, as it seems like a necessary step now, but obviously this is time consuming and a little soul-crushing too. I will post them as soon as I can. Thank you guys for your patience, and I hope you can understand. I hate to let you guys down, but sometimes things like this happen.

Regardless of that, I hope you did enjoy this chapter, I hope you're glad to see Ginny back, despite the trouble she's in! If you did enjoy the chapter, and you would like to be kind and leave me a review, I have, as always, a couple of questions for you!

1. What will Ginny do now? Can she still somehow escape Robards and his men?

2. What other spells/gadgets/WWW products would you use to make an escape?

3. Are you excited/scared/nervous for the return of the Dementors?

4. The next chapter was going to include Quidditch Tryouts, but as it's been a while since I updated, and Gabrielle is obviously skilled enough to make the team, shall I skip them in favour of some more meaningful content? (I had a small subplot planned, but I may scrap it unless everyone really wants it to feature.)

Thanks again for reading guys! I love the support for the story so far, and I hope to see more people leaving their thoughts!

IronManRidingaNimbus.

PS, what do you guys think of the new cover for the story? (You might have to zoom in on it a bit!)