Chapter Four
Prelude to a Murder
"Ginny! Go!" Harry yelled, pushing her back, away from the advancing Death Eaters. Voldemort was coming up fast, full of rage and hatred.
"No!" she said. "I'm not going to leave without you!"
"Dammit, Ginny! It's Voldemort! He's going to kill you! You have to get away!"
"I know it's Voldemort, Harry. And what do you think he will do to you when he gets here? Invite you to a tea party?"
Harry groaned in exasperation. "You can't die here, Ginny, cowering in and old shed, dying for nothing. You have to go, and live to fight another day."
"You can't tell me what I can and cannot die for, Harry. That's my decision, not yours."
"Your mother would kill me if she knew I let you stay here with me," Harry protested feebly.
"What she doesn't know won't hurt her," Ginny snarled.
"What about Ron and Hermione?"
"What about them?"
"Someone has to go tell them where Voldemort is, so they can warn the Order."
"Why don't you go do that then?" Ginny asked icily. "And I'll follow."
"And lead Voldemort right to them? I don't think so."
Ginny had him in a corner. There was no way he could make her go, and she knew that. "But-" he started, but was cut off as Ginny kissed him fiercely, hands around his neck. It was more intense than anything she had ever done before, more serious. He kissed her back, and he felt tears on her face as she held him to her tightly. They broke away as footsteps and shouting drew nearer, coming up the hill towards the shed they were in.
"Last chance, Ginny," Harry said.
"I'm staying."
Harry managed to push her down behind a crate just when the door burst open, and he was face to face with Lord Voldemort.
"Ah, there you are, Harry. Hiding in a shed. How heroic." Mocking hatred dripped off of every syllable. "Where's the other one?'
Harry's stomach flipped. So he had seen Ginny. "What other one?" he asked defiantly.
"Don't lie to me, Potter," Voldemort snapped, and, before Harry was ready, penetrated his mind with Legilimency.
No…Harry thought, trying to clear his mind and shut Voldemort away, but thoughts of Ginny swam unwillingly to the surface of his mind. Sitting by the Lake at Hogwarts, walking around Diagon Alley, how she looked at Bill and Fleur's wedding, and finally, kissing her in the shed not more than a minute ago.
"Ah," Voldemort cackled. "Where is your little friend now?" Harry looked unwillingly down behind the crate, and discovered that Ginny wasn't there. He could see the faint outline of a trapdoor, and looked back at Voldemort again.
"I don't know," Harry replied defiantly.
"DON'T LIE TO ME."
The words were spoken with such force that Harry was forced backward-and he seized his chance, jumping into the now open trapdoor and shut it.
"Ginny!" Harry said despairingly. She kissed him and dragged him forward, through the supports of the old house-shed, stopping just before they came out into the open, looking out from under the building. They lay on the dirt, panting slightly, listening to the angry footsteps of the searching Death Eaters.
"What are we going to do?" Ginny asked. "We can't go out, they'll see us from the window. And it's only a matter of time before we're caught here. "
"I don't know, Ginny," Harry said. "I just don't want anything to happen to you-"
"Will you stop worrying about me for once?" Ginny asked impatiently. "I have been taught how to defend myself by the best teacher I could find."
"Who was that?"
"You, Harry! I mean, honestly…"
"Yeah, but still-"
Harry stared back at Ginny's hard, blazing look that he'd fallen in love with, and could think of nothing to say. A large pair of feet thudded onto the ground, inches from their hiding place, startling them both.
"I can't find them, Master!" A booming voice shouted. "They're not outside! They must have-"
"They can't have Disapparated, fool! This is Hogwarts, or what's left of it!"
So he was going to die here, thought Harry. Crouching under the ruins of Professor Sprout's greenhouses. Well, not if he could help it.
"What are you going to do now?" Ginny asked him.
"I have no idea."