Disclaimer: J.K.'s

A/N: Yes, it's another chapter! We have also changed our summary - thanks to MormonMaiden for the good advice.

11– The Plan

In which Ginny takes drastic action and Ron shows some moral fibre – well, a little anyway.

Harry woke up a few hours later, and was a bit surprised to find himself lying in a hayloft. He had vague memories of walking to the old barn, supported by someone… but who?

He thought about it for a few moments. Then he sat up so quickly that he hit his head on the ceiling.

"Ron? Ginny?" he said, rubbing his head. "How can I get down?"

"There's a ladder a little to your left," called out the voice of Ginny.

He peered over the edge of the large pile of hay, and saw her mop of red hair in the dim light. She looked up at him, grinning.

"Do you think you can make it down by yourself, or are you going to pass out again?"

"No, I'm fine," Harry quickly reassured her. This was not entirely true; he was weak with hunger and completely exhausted, despite having slept for what was probably several hours. All the same, he felt extremely cheerful – giddy, almost. He honestly hadn't thought he would ever get to see her again.

"Well, I'm glad. The way you collapsed on us like that, we almost thought there was something wrong. And you do look a mess. Would you like to have a sandwich?"

"Oi," said Ron, sticking his head out from behind a bundle of hay. "You didn't tell me about any sandwiches."

"Well, I'm telling you now."

"Thanks," said Harry, relieved. "I'm starving."

"Figured as much," said Ginny, beaming at him.

Soon they were all sitting together, eating in comfortable silence. After a while Harry noticed Ron was staring at him in disbelief.

"What?" he said.

"I still can't believe you're really alive. But I told you so, didn't I?" said Ron, glancing at Ginny.

"Well, how was I supposed to know?" she replied. "But you are alive, Harry."

"Yeah. I know," said Harry, feeling very awkward.

"It's just… we thought you weren't."

"I understand."

"No Harry, you don't. We… we thought you were really gone."

"Gone. Yes, I know."

"Both you and Hermione," said Ron. "By the way, where is Hermione?"

Harry swallowed the last piece of his sandwich, before beginning to explain.

"You just left her there?" said Ron, after he had finished. "He gave you back your wand. Why didn't you attack him?"

"He made sure I wouldn't. He told me the house would seal itself off if someone attacked him within its walls."

"And you believed him?"

"Well, I've read about that house, haven't I? He put all sorts of traps in it."

Ron, who had after all experienced many of these himself, had nothing to say to that.

"We have to go back for her," he muttered instead.

"We can't. There's no way we are going to get back inside that house if he doesn't want us there, and besides, we need his help."

"Why do we need his help? Can't we just stun him and search the house for that bloody potion?"

"Well, obviously we can't," said Harry, who was beginning to get irritated. "It could be hidden anywhere, and we won't be able to get inside the house to begin with."

"Actually, Ron can," said Ginny. "I don't know how he did it, but that's where he stole our time-turner."

"Oh yeah, your watch, Harry," said Ron, handing it to him. "It's probably stopped working though."

"My watch?" said Harry. He stared at it. "You found this in the future?"

"Yes," said Ron. "I broke into the Malfoy manor to find a time-turner, and I saw your watch, and I thought that was really strange, so I pocketed it. The old Malfoy wasn't too happy. His portrait I mean," he said when Harry looked at him blankly. "He was a nutty bloke, wasn't he?"

"Yes," said Harry slowly. "Yes he is."

They were silent for a few minutes, all of them deep in thought.

"Well," Ginny ventured after a while. "We – I mean, me and Harry – could go to the goblins, and you could go to the house… but not free Hermione."

"Yeah, because that wouldn't be completely pointless," said Ron.

"No, hear me out. If someone goes there, and obviously you're the best choice since the house likes you, then if the Malfoy goes back on the deal you could jump out of your hiding place and surprise him."

"Surprise him? But how… how is that going to help any?"

"Because it…" Ginny fumbled for words. "It gives us the element of surprise!"

"What, the element of – that never works, Ginny!"

"You could attack him from behind or something! Look, I don't know," she said, running a hand through her hair. "I just think it might be a good idea to have someone in there that he doesn't know about. Besides, you could look in on Hermione."

"Right. You might want to bring her something to, er, eat," said Harry. "Besides, I think the Malfoy took my invisibility cloak as well and I'd like to have it back. Maybe you could look for it too?"

"Oh joy," said Ron glumly. "Is there anything else?"

"Actually, I think you should just go with us instead," said Harry. "We could probably use your help better with the goblins. I don't think the Malfoy will go back on his word anyway. Whatever else he did, at least he was honest with us."

"No, I want to go," said Ron. "I want to know if Hermione's okay. Besides I just remembered, I have an idea of where the cloak might be. No guarantee, but I can take a look."

Harry was genuinely grateful.

They began to discuss plans. It was agreed upon that the first thing they had to do was get some more appropriate clothes for Ron and Ginny. They couldn't go wandering around in their modern attire so near a Muggle village in the sixteen hundreds.

"Speaking of which," Harry said, "Where are we now? There weren't any farms in Porthleven, were there?"

"No, we followed the path inland for a bit and found this place," said Ron.

"But don't any Muggles live here?" Harry asked, suddenly wondering why they hadn't been found and chased away yet.

"We put some simple wards around the place so that we wouldn't get found out. We had to stay somewhere, didn't we?"

"I suppose so…"

"Hey," Ginny said. "Do you think the farmer has some clothes we could nick?"

"Ginny," said Ron. "Don't you think that's a bit… wrong?"

"Why? It's just clothes, and needs must. You stole the ring and the broken time-turner from the man at that furniture shop, and you told me he said they were really expensive."

"Yeah, but those weren't really his, were they? They were mine and Hermione's."

"After four hundred years? That's debatable."

"Look," Harry cut in. "Your clothes are rather nondescript as they are. Maybe we could just change them a bit so that they could fit in more."

"Alright," Ginny said, sighing. "But it would be nice to have some real period costumes."

"We can visit Dawn's when we get back," said Harry. Ron shuddered.

It was easy enough to fix Ron's outfit since it was practically ancient already. Ginny's was more of a problem, because her skirt was far too short and they didn't know any good lengthening charms. In the end she discovered an old forgotten-looking apron hanging on a peg in the back of the barn, and, after cutting it into strips using Ron's pocket knife, they magically attached it to the hem of her skirt and re-coloured it. It still looked rather strange, but was at least appropriately modest.

By now it was mid-day, and they decided to get some more sleep and set out at nightfall. So they ate some more sandwiches, and made themselves comfortable in the hay.

Some hours later, they were rudely awakened. Harry sat up straight when he heard the loud yelling coming from outside.

"OPEN THE DOORS IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL SMOKE YOU OUT, YOU SPAWNS OF SATAN!"

"They must have discovered the wards," said all three in unison.

"We have to get out," said Harry. "Is there a backdoor to this place?"

"No," said Ron.

Standing up and gathering their belongings, they all watched the doors apprehensively. The people outside seemed to be trying to force them open with a kind of battering ram, judging from the sounds.

"Needs must," muttered Ginny finally. She took a step forward, raised her wand and shouted, "Reducto!"

The doors blasted open and the muggles were thrown backwards. Before any of the dazed farmers had time to react, the three had dashed out and were running at a headlong pace away into the night.

Once they were safely hidden in the cluster of trees at the crest of a hill, they stopped and caught their breaths.

"Are they following us?" Ginny gasped, clutching a stitch in her side.

"No," said Ron, peering back. "They're walking around down there with their torches, but they seem a bit disorganized – I think you really scared them."

"Yeah, that was a powerful reductor curse," said Harry. "I've never seen one like that."

"Adrenaline-driven I think," said Ginny, looking rather pleased.

"Right," said Ron, after shooting one last glance at the distant mob. "Does anyone know which way Malfoy manor is?"

"We're near the cliff now," said Harry. "The landscape's a bit different of course, but I think it's off to the right."

"Where's the goblin cave?" Ginny asked him.

"It's in the other direction, but it should be close. We ought to get going."

"Yes," said Ron. "You two be careful, okay?"

"Of course. And one thing," said Harry. "Find an animal or five, to take to Hermione. I think she might be a bit weak."

"An animal?"

"Yes, you know. A bird or a rabbit or something. Anything with blood in it."

"Oh… yeah, alright. Well, 'bye then."

"Have fun."

"Take care, Ron," said Ginny, hugging him quickly. "Say hello to Hermione from us."

And they parted.