A/N: I'm super sorry that it took me so long to post this; I never never never meant for it to go almost a month between chapters! Probably everyone who was reading this story lost interest because it was taking so long, it would serve me right! ...ok, end of house-elf-worthy apologies...deep breath... By the way, this is (barring unforeseen circumstances!) going to be the next to last chapter, just so you know. Enjoy!

Warning: Swearing and mention of lesbianness. If this bothers you and/or you aren't allowed to read stuff with swearing in it, then please go somewhere else! (well, I used to be not allowed to watch movies with swearing, when I was like, 14, so you never know (it was pretty lame, though : P))

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, I'm only borrowing them for a while! No infringement intended to JK Rowling or any of the associates she makes large amounts of money off of.

Chapter 5 - Of Giants and Squid

Ginny kept her wand out cautiously, and scrambled down the side of the rock. She found the stunned witch in an awkward, unconscious heap at the bottom. The rock above her was not steep, so she had slid down rather than fallen when hit by Ginny's spell, and looked relatively free of injury. Not wanting to take any chances, Ginny dragged her inert body to the nearest tree, and tied her to it securely, before stopping to contemplate what to do next, now that she had gotten rid of the immediate threat. She was tempted to just leave the other witch there and run after Hermione right away, but this was something that needed to be done right.

Ginny waved her wand, and conferred for a few moments with the silvery white swan that billowed out of it. The swan swooped off, and Ginny crouched down on her heels in front of Wanda, and waited patiently for her to revive.

In a matter of minutes, the American witch woke up. She went to rub her head with her hand, but found it bound to the tree. She shot Ginny a stare that became even more venomous as she realized that she was completely tied up against the tree.

"Let me go! You have no right –" she sputtered, but Ginny cut her off.

"I have every right, actually. You were the one who was threatening us, if you recall."

Wanda opened her mouth to speak, but Ginny silenced her with a wave of her hand. "I'm not done talking. Will you be able to stay quiet by yourself, or will I have to use force?" Ginny had a cold glint in her eye that the other witch obviously took seriously, for she mutely shook her head in response to Ginny's question.

"Good. Now, as I was saying; I believe I was fully justified in using force to stop you just now, and I'm sure the groundskeeper will agree with me when he gets here. But first," she said, ignoring the rebellious look in Wanda's eye, "I have a few questions for you." Seeing Wanda's mouth draw into a tight line, she added, "And if I don't get answers, I might just throw rocks in the lake until the giant squid comes up to see who's bothering it. It has really long tentacles; I think it could easily reach this far." She eyed the distance between them and the shore calculatingly.

Wanda turned a shade paler. Clearly, being investigated by an annoyed giant squid while tied to a tree was not her idea of a risk to take lightly. Ginny smiled.

"Good. Now, my first question is, how long have you known Hermione?"

"Longer than you have, slut," she sneered.

Ginny sighed inwardly. This was not going to be easy. She selected a fairly large stone from the ground, fixed Wanda with a you-made-me-do-it glare, and lobbed the stone far out into the lake, where it landed with an audible plunk. Wanda craned her neck to try to see behind Ginny, and make sure no monsters were rising up from the lake yet. Ginny turned back toward the tree and said, conversationally, "Let's try that again. I've known Hermione for seven years; and how long have you known her for?"

"A year," admitted the other witch sullenly.

"And how long ago did she dump you?"

"What are you talking about, she never-" Wanda started to rant again, indignantly.

"You're not fooling anyone, just cut it out. Remember, I know Hermione, and I'm not stupid. I'm surprised she even went out with you at all, but I know she's way too smart to stay in a relationship with someone as abusive as you."

"We didn't break up! We're going through a rough patch, that's all," said Wanda, retaining her offended air.

"Uh-huh," Ginny replied sarcastically. She didn't bother to hide her look of disgust. The Hermione she knew was far too good a reader of people to be taken in by this crazy woman for very long. On the other hand, the fact that they had been a couple at all concerned Ginny, and not just because of Hermione's apparent lapse in her ordinarily good judgment. Who knew what kind of harm this unstable woman could have inflicted, thought Ginny, reflecting on the way Hermione had run in terror earlier. She felt a pang of guilt at not going after her right away, but the need to get back at the despicable creature who had mistreated her friend won over. She was almost done here, and then she could go to Hermione.

Suddenly impatient, she snapped at the other witch. "I can't believe you, saying you and Hermione were still together – the nerve! Did you think I wouldn't see right through that? Hermione is a good, loving person, and far better than you deserve. She would never have treated someone she was seeing like that; I don't even want to think what you must have done to make her run away like she did."

She paused for breath. Her voice had been growing louder and shriller, but she didn't care. Damn, it felt good to get this out of her system. She continued, consciously lowering her voice to what she knew was a dangerous and threatening tone. "And if you ever go near her, you're going to have to deal with me first, you understand? Hermione means far too much to me for me to even think of letting someone like you anywhere near her. She doesn't want to be with you, you should be able to see that! And if you ever need any help remembering, I'll –"

Wanda's face suddenly turned white again, and she was looking over Ginny's shoulder. Ginny turned to follow her gaze, and saw a huge, hairy man approaching. Or at least that's what Wanda must have seen; Ginny saw the Hogwarts groundskeeper and her friend, Hagrid. He came up to where they were standing, and gave a hearty welcome to Ginny, who had called him.

"Hi there, Ginny!"

Ginny smiled at Hagrid. "Hi, Hagrid, thanks for coming so quickly! I was just finishing here."

"Not a problem! I was nearby anyway; Madame Sprout said she saw some pixies while she was cataloging wild herbs around here, and I thought I'd come by and see if there really were any. Yeh needed help?" he added, seeming to remember his reason for coming there.

"Yeah, I do…I found this witch trespassing on school grounds, and she threatened my friend and me at wand point. I had to stun her and tie her up before she did anything else," Ginny explained, gesturing toward the tree where Wanda was tied.

Hagrid grunted and looked the intruder over. "Yeh did right, Ginny. She's a dangerous one, this, I can tell by her look." Coming from Hagrid, this meant a lot. "I'll have to throw her out and write her up for trespassing, so we'll know it's her if she tries it again. Tha's bout all I can do, really, since she's not a student," he said regretfully.

Just then, there was a loud crashing sound from the general direction of the rocks, and Hagrid added hastily, "I brought Grawp w'me, he loves going around on the grounds so much, and there's really no harm in it at night, eh?" He smiled benevolently. "Grawp, come here and say hello to Ginny!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "I'm sure he'll be thrilled to see you!" he added, in an incrementally quieter tone, to Ginny.

Ginny somehow doubted this, seeing as she and Hagrid's giant half-brother had never actually spoken, but she was looking forward to the effect seeing Grawp for the first time would have on Wanda. She was not disappointed. Moments later, the giant lumbered up, an idiotic grin spread over his face, holding up one massive fist triumphantly. Wanda's mouth opened in a silent scream.

"I got icky!" he said, waving his fist to Hagrid, apparently unable to pronounce any close approximation of "pixie." Then he seemed to notice Wanda, who was petrified against her tree. He went over to her, all else forgotten, and let a bedraggled, minute figure fall from his hand and clumsily flit into the gloom. Wanda backed against the tree in abject terror, as though she wished to be absorbed into the trunk, but her bonds prevented her from getting any further from the approaching giant. He crouched down on all fours, and reached out an inquisitive, truck-like hand toward her.

"Hagger?" he asked uncertainly, clearly unsure of what to make of this new feature of the landscape. Hagrid moved to pull him back, but Ginny stopped him.

"Hagrid, let him...we both know he's not going to do her any real harm, but she doesn't know that. It can't hurt to shake her up a little before you throw her out, right?" Ginny said, persuasively.

Hagrid didn't seem to catch the gist of what Ginny was saying. "Oh, he won't hurt her! Jus' curious, he is," he said reassuringly. But as he didn't move to stop the giant, Ginny didn't see the need to enlighten him.

Grawp was apparently very curious. He broke the ropes surrounding Wanda effortlessly with one finger, and picked her up between his thumb and forefinger to bring her closer to his face. The witch was apparently unable to move from fear, and had turned white as flour. He turned her around, inspecting his new find from all angles, and deposited her in his other hand, where she landed in a heap. At this point, Wanda regained use of her muscles, and began to scramble to get off the enormous hand, but Grawp only closed his fingers, caging her in. There was a muffled yell and a flash of light from inside the fist as she apparently cast a spell in self-defense.

"OOOOOWWWW!!" Grawp howled with an intensity that left Ginny momentarily deaf, and reflexively flung the offending load from his stung hand, with astounding force. The struggling figure flew in a great arc out over the lake, before landing with a barely audible plunk in the water. Silence fell on the shore as the two humans followed the invisible path through the air with their eyes, to a place near the center of the lake where concentric ripples were slowly spreading. Grawp, heedless to the consequences of his action, was alternatively shaking his hand in the air and attempting to suck on the stung fingers, and whimpering quietly.

Hagrid turned to the giant and broke the silence. "Go get her, Grawp! You know better'n to throw things in the lake!"

Grawp removed the hand from his mouth, and mumbled in a voice like tumbling boulders, "But…but….Hurt!" He looked so genuinely offended that Ginny couldn't help but feel sorry for him, although she was sure that whatever spell he'd been hit with couldn't have had much effect on someone his size. She looked out to the lake, and was relieved to see from the violent splashing coming from the spot where she had disappeared, that Wanda had not drowned. Getting thrown into the lake by a giant was a better revenge than Ginny could have come up with herself, but she never intended to let her adversary come to any permanent harm.

In the meantime, Hagrid seemed to have persuaded Grawp to obey him, and the giant gamely plunged into the dark water and began swimming out to where the witch was still thrashing about. Ginny waited to see that Grawp had indeed succeeded in retrieving her, and when he turned to swim clumsily back to shore with his burden, she was satisfied. The incident with Grawp had no doubt shaken Wanda up more than Ginny could have done herself, and Ginny really had no more to say to her. Finding Hermione was her biggest concern now.

"Thanks for coming to help, Hagrid," she said, looking away from the lake. "I really appreciate it; who knows what she would have done otherwise…"

"Yeah," said Hagrid, "Jus' look how she hexed Grawp! That's a right dangerous one for yeh…"

Ginny waved goodbye to Hagrid and smiled as she walked off toward the castle. Trust Hagrid to call a human dangerous, and not the giant who had thrown her into the middle of the lake…

HHH

Ginny stood on the lawn in front of the castle with her hands on her hips, and began to work out what to do next. She knew where Hermione would most likely have gone if they were both still students, but both the dorms and the library had already been closed for the summer. Since she clearly wasn't outside in plain sight, she must have done some creative thinking and hid somewhere else in the castle. Ginny had already wasted enough time dealing with Wanda, and was not about to spend unknown amounts of time inefficiently searching the castle for her friend.

Accio broom, she cast, hoping that her parents hadn't left yet. Her broom was with the rest of her belongings, in her parents' room in the Hogsmeade inn, waiting for them to take it home when they left tomorrow. She was not disappointed, though, for in a few minutes her broom came flying up from behind the trees. She didn't even wait for it to stop moving, but instead jumped on when it came close enough, and sent it soaring upwards again. Next stop, the owlery, she thought, gleefully. Her last-minute plan for finding Hermione was one worthy of her brothers or Harry, but knowing their plans, it would probably work, too.

She reached the owlery and skidded through one of the high windows, which were luckily built large enough for an owl to come in and out even carrying a large parcel. She came to a halt and whistled for Pigwidgeon, who was still here rather than in his cage with the rest of her things, because her mother had refused to sleep in the same room with him for even one night. He came fluttering down from his roost an instant later, and pecked Ginny affectionately on the hand.

"Want to go on an adventure tonight, Pig?" she asked. He chirped, with decidedly un-owl-like energy. "Oh crap, I forgot parchment," she exclaimed, when she realized she now had an owl but no letter to send. She dithered for a minute, unsure of what to do – was it worth the time to go get parchment and a quill, or was a letter even really necessary? – but a sudden brain wave saved her from having to decide. You are a witch, Ginny, use your magic! she chided herself, as she looked around for something to transfigure into parchment. In the end she settled on an end of brown paper which had probably fallen from someone's poorly-wrapped parcel.

She quickly transformed it into a length of parchment, and a discarded owl feather into a makeshift quill, and began to write. She finished quickly – writing came easier to her when she was saying what she meant, and she was finally sure that what she had to say would be well-received on the other end. And if it wasn't, then she would be very curious to hear Hermione's story behind tonight's events….

She tied the letter to Pigwidgeon's leg, and told him to deliver it to Hermione Granger. He fluttered in a small, frenetic circle, and then took off through one of the windows. With a deep breath, Ginny mounted her broom and took off after him, knowing she would have to fly very well and very fast, at night, to have a chance of keeping up with her owl. It would be worth it, though, if it succeeded in leading her to Hermione….

Clearing the roof of the owlery, she caught sight of a tiny shape dashing in a strange zig-zag pattern against the sky, and put on a burst of speed, determined not to lose sight of her unwitting guide.

-конец-

A/N - Oh noes, another cliffhanger! Truly, it is the only good way to end a chapter in my opinion...and I'll try and post the next chapter before December, but I give no gauruntees...finals time is coming up already! runs and hides Oh, right, and if you review I'll love you forever. Please do!

I have arms - Yay, I like making people sit on the edge of their seat! ...hopefully it was in a good way...

spencerandash4ever - and you're actually an awesome reader for having reviewed! I hope that I can update soon too; every day I do, but then life happens...arg... (ps do you watch South of Nowhere? is it a good show? people tell me it is)

odin jonothan - thanks for the review, here's your cookie! I did take a look at your fic, but I have way too many ideas of my own right now to even start thinking about other people's...hope your writer's block goes away though!

HPequalsgreatlit - I'm so glad you're enjoying it! I, for one, like angsty cliffhangers, but then again it's not so cliff-hanger-y for me because I already know what's going to happen...bwahahaha...so anyway, it's good to know that people for whom it is a real cliffhanger enjoy it too! lol

Richal - here you go! this story is ending, soon, just so you know...don't know how much more you had in mind, there...

Ginnys-lost-twin - Oh no, I didn't update soon! Did your face freeze in the depressed fishy shape? (I really hope not, that would place an awful burden of guilt on me for not updating sooner!!) That was probably one of the best reviews I ever got, just so you know...lol. I mean, come on, who bothers to do singing story reviews anymore?? It's a disgrace!

chibichoco - Thanks! I'm glad you think it's cool, it's good to know that what I'm trying to do is actually working!

Razor bladed heart - Thanks! Also, you get major points for having reviewed almost all the chapters! (chapter 2 doesn't really count because it got hardly any reviews anyway. whatevs!)

ogis - Merci mille fois, c'est vraiment gentil de ta part! and no, I could not, that ship is just too awesome to leave alone! again, you get awesomeness points for being the première à laisser un review for le chapitre: )