There was a stiff knock at the door suddenly.
" Hey you guys?" It was the sound of Ginny's voice.
" Hey Harry is almost done cooking."
She was talking rather loudly through the door. Granted, she could have stopped there, but felt the urge to fill in the entire story.
"... He had to take over because Ron managed to catch his shoe on fire. It was quite funny. See Ron thought that if he added some more wood to the fire, it would cook faster. But when it wasn't working as immediately as he wanted, he tried his wand. And well, needless to say everything out here smells like burnt rubber. Hey! Are you even listening to me?"
She was caught off guard by the door swinging open, revealing Draco and Hermione, both with equally large smiles on their faces, holding back the laughter. When they entered into the main room, it was extremely obvious that the spell Draco had used on Hermione's scar worked as well as they had hoped. Now normally, If Harry was there, he'd tell Ginny not to make a big stink over it, but he was outside, tending to dinner.
" Oy! That's wonderful looking. WAY better then I pictured it. The flowers look amazing." Ginny said, touching Hermione's shoulder with care. " Can I go next?" she asked"...ohhhh!! I am gonna go tell Ron he can finally get that pygmy puff!!" And with that, Ginny tore out of the cottage, headed for the fire pit.
When Hermione and Draco came out onto the beach, to join everyone else, they heard Ron scoffing at his sister in disgust.
"Three years later and you are STILL on about that?" He said, rolling his eyes at Ginny, who was stifling the a great case of the giggles.
" Oh I think that would be wonderful. That or a Mackled Malaclaw. Either way, it would be superb." Luna said, looking dreamingly off in the distance.
Ron went a little pink, and mumbled something about pygmy puffs under his breath.
Laughing, Harry turned to Draco, " Looks great. Really."
Complimenting his work, and in the mean time giving Hermione a vote of confidence. In a few moments time they group was now sitting around the table in the cottage, eating away at their delicious meal.
" So 'Mione" Ron said, with a full mouth, " Ow's the creet church coming?"
Putting her fork down, and giving Ron a sidewards glance, Hermione answered, " Creet church?"
After a heavy swallow, Ron corrected himself, " the research"
Hermione jumped a little, " Oh it's going good. Well sort of good. A few of the words they use can be translated easily enough. Blood, Life, Death, Light, Dark, all the normal usual things you would tend to find. But some of the other ones are a bit tough. There is this one word. Bleetatesh. It's has a few roots. It either means " let blood run" or " sacrifice the first". Which ever it is, this is turning out to be a very dark book indeed."
With that she returned to her food, adding only, " It's a bit trickier than I had hoped."
" Hey" Draco said, rubbing her back a little, " It's your first day. Don't be so hard on yourself."
He threw her a smile, but she refrained from looking up from her plate.
Ginny, sensing the tension, interrupted the awkward silence. " So, what's on the agenda for tomorrow?"
Later that night, Harry lay in bed, a pen in hand, doodling on a piece of paper.
" Whatcha up to?" Ginny said, entering the room and brushing her hair out.
Sitting on the bed next to him she could see an elaborate drawing, simple, but elaborate.
" Draco gave me a good idea. You know, after losing so many people in my life. I really think I want them immortalized. This was just a rough sketch." Harry proceeded to stop drawing, and hand the paper to Ginny.
It was a collage of things. To Ginny, everything was immediately recognizable. A buck with great antlers, for his father James. A gentle looking dog, for Sirius. A fierce wolf, for Lupin. A few small potions bottles, obviously for Snape. A beautiful flower, which Ginny chalked up to be a Lily. An adorable portrait of Hedwig. Eyes that eerily resembled Dobby's. A deep looming F over a W, with sparks around it. And a pheonix underneath it all, under which were the words, Constant Vigilance. There was however, a noticeable empty spot towards the middle, that took Ginny's attention.
" Harry, what goes there?" She pointed the hole out.
" Tonks...I can't figure it out. I mean there is no one word in the whole world to describe such a wonderful person like her." Harry said, straining a little.
Ginny smiled, " Harry my love. I think that if Lupin could talk to us both right now he would say it would be an insult to Tonks if we didn't use an umbrella" She grinned wildly at Harry.
Tonks constantly falling over the umbrella stand at Grimwold place was something Harry was sure he'd never forget.
" so.." He said, sitting up next to her, " What would you get? I mean, if you were to get one?"
Ginny began to twist her fingers in her hair, " you know, not a day goes by that I don't think about Fred. I loved my family fully and equally, but we all had our special moments. When I was really little, Fred and George were my protectors. They were so excited to have a little sister. George was more brotherly, showing me how to make little bombs to throw at the gnomes in the garden, making them jump and scream. Teaching me how to get burn marks off my dresses so Mum didn't see. That type of stuff. But Fred,...Fred was different. "
"...He was my best friend. The love of my life. When ever I was sad, he was the first one to me. "Petit Ange"..little angel..that's what he used to call me. Then I got older and started to have friends other than my brothers. We grew apart. He hadn't called me that in years. Then um, the night at Hogwartz, He was me in the hallway, yelling at me to hide. I told him I could go back into the room in just a moment. Then he just grabbed me, hugging me very very tightly. His body was moving oddly, I remember thinking, " is he coughing?" It only makes sense now that he was crying. Running his hand over my hair he just kept saying " petit ange please, stay safe for me. I just don't know what I'll do if anything happens to you." Ginny trailed off. still twirling her hair.
" I want to be that angel Harry. I want my wings. "
Without another word, she took her slippers off and climbed into bed. Harry soon to join her. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the night. they just laid there, hugging each other. Each mind filled with sorrowful memories of loved ones.
In a dark and mangy looking old house, several small, dim lights are on.
" My lord, Nott and Jugson are here for you." said a short man, with dirty looking clothes, as he bowed.
Lucius, waving his hand in a welcoming way, said, " Let them enter"
Two men, looking both exhausted and worried, entered the room.
After a quickly bow, Lucius turned to them both. " Well?"
" We're still looking my Lord. But as of yet, still we cannot find them" The man on the left spoke, but was refusing to look Lucius in the eyes.
" He's right my lord", said the other one," We've got many many people looking for them. Even Rodolphus and Rabastan, the Lestrange brothers, are helping us now. We will find them my lord, it's just taking some time."
The death eater peaked at the end of his sentence, as if afraid to speak it. Lucius took his long pale hand and reached into a large bowl of grapes, pulling several out and devouring them.
" Well, under normal circumstances, I would be, what is the word, pissed off, right about now. However, lucky enough for the two of you, I'm not. See, as of right now, TIME...we have. But that is not to say, we will not always have this luxury. The prophet that was brought to me has said that soon enough it will occur and that is when we must extract the specific."
Lucius Malfoy stood at this, walking lazily over to his two death eaters, who were both staring at their feet.
" Now understand this" He said, grabbing one of the death eaters by the back of the hair, pulling so far back the man was having a hard time breathing.
" If I hear one more thing about them escaping you. These..CHILDREN...you will regret ever stepping foot in front of me. Do you hear me?"
Both men grunted a yes, and Lucius let go of the man, flinging him to the floor.
" Now leave me. Go and find some useful information. Track down family, friends, hell if someone in Diagon Alley said they saw one of them I don't care. But caution gentlemen, we don't want them to know we're closing in just yet." With that, Lucius stepped out of the room, leaving the two men to stare at each other in anguish.
"Arrrghhhhh" a voice screamed.
It was a large dark field. Large fires all around, creating a circle. In the middle a woman was screaming. Her hair matted with blood.
" SOMEBODY HELP ME" she screamed, " OH GOD! ARRRRGHHHHHHH!!"
She was thrashing around like mad, but it did no good. She was tied to a large metal spindal on the ground. The woman was now crumpled on the ground. There was a shrill laugh in the distance, causing her to fling her head up, revealing a face. Hermione was screaming pure bloody terror now.
" No please don't! " she yelled, " Why would you take it from me? Why won't you let us be? ARRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
"...ARRGHHH" Ginny sat bolt upright in bed, Flinging Harry awake.
" Whoa whoa whoa,what the fuck ?" Harry raised himself on his elbow
Ginny was panting and crying, unable to catch her breath. Coming to grips with the horrible scene she had just awoken from, she fell into Harry's arms, sobbing.
" Horrible...blood...so much blood..Hermione...oh my god..."
With a bang, the door to the bedroom barged open, Ron and Draco entering with their wands up.
" Blimey Harry, what's going...Ginny?" Ron ran to his sisters side, " Ginny what's wrong?"
For the first time in what seemed like a long time, Ginny let go of Harry and, throwing her arms around Ron, gave him a heavy strong hug.
" I dunno what happened.She jumped awake, started spitting out words and shit. Hey...Hermione?" Harry said, noticing her absence.
" She's on the couch. I told her not to move while i got up to check it out." Draco said, turning to wave Hermione into the room.
" what's going on?" Hermione and Luna both entered the room slowly with caution.
Ron, looking grim, pulled his sisters weeping head off of his shoulder, calling to her softly, " Ginny,...Hey..Gin...what's the matter?"
Extracting a deep breath from the air, Ginny lifted her head, still crying.
" Something is wrong with me. I saw Hermione and she was covered in blood and crying. someone was trying to hurt her. oh it was awful. just awful." she sobbed.
Draco spoke loudly over Ginny's cries. " This is what happened the other day isn't it? When that girl was here, and you started picking on her. Does your family have any second sight in it?" He asked, turning to Ron.
" Not that I know of..." Ron said, but was immediately cut off by Ginny, who quickly stopped crying.
" Our great aunt Maddie used to say she could see things. She claimed she had the ability to find things that were lost."
Ron spat back. " Oh yeah. Wasn't she the one who said that Mum and Dad were going to have a girl."
" yes" Ginny said, " but she was also the one who claimed her cats held conversations with her"
They all moved into the living room, while Luna prepared a large brew of coffee, which was well needed. Harry fetched Ginny's blanket, a dark green Holyhead Harpies one, and wrapped it around her tightly. She seemed to be shivering out of fear, seeing though it was a warm summer night. Ron went to the kitchen, helping Luna with the coffee and soon they were all sitting around drinking it, not a word to be spoken. Taking a loud sip out of her cup, Ginny hiccuped a little, causing everyone to smirk.
" so did it hurt?" Ginny asked, moving her face in Hermione's direction.
" Did what hurt?" she answered back, not to sure of what Ginny was speaking of.
" The spell Draco used on your scar. Did it hurt?" Ginny repeated, bringing her cup up once more.
" Oh that." Hermione said, pulling her shoulder round so she could see it better.
" Not even a bit. Actually I found it quite relaxing. The best way to describe I guess would be like getting into a nice warm bath. By all means, when it was over it hurt a little, but no more than say, a sunburn. If you don't touch it right off the bat it's fine."
She was now tracing the flower closest to her with her finger.
" You still thinking about getting one?" Draco asked Ginny, putting his cup down.
" Yeah." She said, turning to Ron, " Angel wings" she paused, " for Fred."
Ron said nothing, but a very depressed look came over his face. Luna could sense the tension, and took his hand on her own.
" SO..." Draco interrupted, cutting the silence in two, " Would it be possible, I mean to say, if you could...tell me what it was that you saw?"
Ginny raised her head a bit to Draco's height, his face showed nothing short of a mixture of true concern and minor responsibility. There was a look of " Sirius" proportions in his eyes, making Ginny smile.
After a good hour of going over repeatedly what she had seen, in great detail, she stopped talking and began to stare at her feet. Harry scooted himself over a little closer, wrapping his arms around her body and leaning his head on her elbow, causing Ginny to let out a slight purr.
" What I don't understand, not that there was a whole lot to understand in the first place." Ron started, " in your um, vision, Hermione said " why would you take it from me" ...take what?"
Ron was now scratching his head.
" Ginny.." Hermione spoke quietly, and to the point, " could you, um, ya know, see where the blood was coming from? On me that is"
Taking her finger, Ginny stirred her coffee, then placing her finger into her mouth to remove the coffee on it she said, " no. There was a small cut on your face, but there seemed to be way too much blood for it. "
" Was there anything unusual. Well ok, I know the whole thing was a bit strange, but was there anything that sticks out in your mind more so." Luna said, dreamingly tracing Ron's fingers with her own.
Ginny turned her face towards Harry, biting her lip and coming very close to just getting lost in his eyes, just as she always had. Harry watched as her face went from a straining thinking face to suddenly shock with her eyebrows almost hitting the ceiling.
Keeping eye locked with Harry she spoke, " Hermione was sitting funny. With her hand..."
She placed her hand in an odd sort of manor mid-waist and several inches from her body,
" here"
Ginny's eyes flicked to several points in the room before turning her head and landing them on Hermione.
" Why would you take it from me..." Ginny whispered, " why don't you let us be" Everyone looked from Ginny to Hermione, then back again,
" Not it...but whom!"
A small tear came out of Ginny's eye, running to her lip and getting stuck, and began to pool. Harry's eyes quickly turned to Draco, who in turn, after becoming wide eyed, turned to Hermione. Confused and bewildered as to why everyone was staring at her, she gave a heavy shrug back to him.
Bowing his head a little, Draco brought his hand to Hermione's belly and whispered, " get it?"
Suddenly Hermione threw her head back in utter surprise. " GET IT?! What's to get? No! It's not possible. You have to have sex for kids. and I don't know about all of you, but that's a bridge I'm yet to cross."
Ron and Harry blushed a little, Hermione was kind of screaming at them.
" you're all crazy. I can't be pregnant!"
With a smile Ginny turned to her friend, " Hey kiddo, not to say you're going a little over board with the convincing and whatnot, but I never said that you were. In my dream you had a baby, but that was my vision, There is a difference between them and reality."
Hermione muttered something about " barely" and stood, sulking off to the front porch.
Ron took a leaping jump onto the seat next to Draco, cornering him in a sort of way. Draco bit his lip and raised an eyebrow to him, in a questioning way. In turn Ron leaned in a little, as if pressuring Draco to answer some unbeknownst yet obvious question.
" HEY! " Draco said, a bit of anger in his voice, " Come on now. What you think just because I probably could that I would? Yeah I bet that is what you all think isn't it. pfft"
Draco stood and pulled his hair out of his eyes, " I love her by all means, but like she said, that's a bridge yet to be crossed."
" oh" Luna said suddenly, as if just joining the conversation,
" you mean sex. Oh yes, Ron and myself have done that. It's not quite what I expected. My father told me that doing it causes terrible boils on your legs and I should never try it ever. However I did find it quite enjoyable and Ron well, he did seem to enjoy it. I think that is why he made that noise like he did. and well, I don't have any boils, do you ron? no I thought not. Hmmm I should write to father and tell him he was misinformed."
Without a word, or even a look to each other, Harry and Ginny rose and joined Draco by the door, pushing him out as if to hurry to get threw it.
" Was it something I said?" Luna asked, grinning at Ron, who was now a bright shade of scarlet.
" No love" he said, kissing her forehead and listening to the ever growing giggles and laughter outside, " they're just being gits"
The next few days seemed to fly by like a blur for all of them. A constant motion of Hermione with her books, Draco and Harry practicing spells, Luna humming, Ginny keeping quite quiet and to herself, and Ron, continually starting the food on fire. After a week had passed they were, sadly, not as far along as they had hoped to be. Hermione hadn't even been able to translate a page, let alone a full sentence yet. This was proving far more difficult than any of them imagined. The group was losing their stamina, the proof was on their faces. They all looked tired and beaten, like it was the great battle again. The happiness had left the cottage. One evening, about a quarter to 6, they were all about to sit down to a nice meal, the first Ron had yet to burn or melt.
" I have to admit Ron, this does look very tasty." Hermione said, sounding the happiest she had in days.
" Yeah. Good job mate" Harry added,smiling, watching Ginny waft the smell her way.
Luna suddenly went straight as a board, jerking her head in the direction of the front door.
Draco stopped mid bite, " What Luna?"
Everyone turned to her, eyes wide.
" I hear something. Out there. " Luna said, pointing at the door
" It's getting closer."
With a sideways glance at Harry, Draco stood, Harry following suit. As they approached the door, Draco was still chewing a piece of potato he'd managed to get into his mouth, while he drew his wand. With a nod to each other, Harry yanked the door open, both brandishing their wands.
From behind them, everyone else could see them relax their stance, lower their wands, then with a look backward, they parted. On the step of the door lay a tiny gray owl, disheveled looking and exhausted.
" Hey Ron, isn't that?"
" PIG!" Harry started asking but Ron interjected, jumping from the table and retrieving the owl from the door step.
" Oh boy, he looks terrible." He said, placing Pigwidgeon on the couch.
Luna went to the kitchen to get some water and a chunk of meat from the table. There was a letter attached to his foot. Hermione unrolled it, reading quickly out loud.
I want to you know that we are safe. but you are not. If we found you...so can they...
-mum and dad
There was a sudden clang of plates and shuffling of chairs at the table. Without a word Ginny went to the kitchen, packing up whatever she could. Hermione went to the couch side and grabbed all of her books. Within moments they were all standing in the living room, bags on their backs, their faces strewn with fear and anxiety.
Draco spoke first, " So...any ideas?"
Harry, pulling his bag on better over his shoulder said, " well..maybe. "
He looked to Hermione, " If we went back out to the desolate mountains and forests we hid in last year, we were okay out there for a while. If it hadn't been for that spell on Riddle's name ( he spoke cautiously in case it still worked) they would have never had found us."
He looked at them a little harder now, " so what do you think? eh?"
" Yeah Harry, that's a great idea, I still have the tent." Hermione said, swinging her back pack around into view.
" Alright then, that about covers that." Said Ron.
The group pressed together, Luna petting Pig with comfort. The gorgeous warm breeze and the smell of the ocean was quickly replaced with a bitter coldness and a severe wetness.They were standing in the middle of a vast valley, close to the edge of the forest , in what seemed to be the middle of a torrential down pour.
" OH YEAH!" Draco yelled over the pouring rain, " THIS IS MUCH BETTER!"
" Sarcasm isn't exactly helpful right now" Ginny yelled back, looking around, and pointing.
" Hey look there,under those trees we can get enough cover to set out the tent"
They quickly all dashed towards the offset of trees on the edge of the valley. As quickly as they could, Draco, Harry and Hermione threw up the tent, then waved everyone inside. Pulling out her wand, Ginny got a fire going soon and managed to get some more light into the tent. Mean while Harry and Hermione went back out side, this time in their coats, and performed several protection charms around the area.
" That'll do for now" Harry said, ducking back into the tent.
He had only been outside for a moment but the cold air had chilled him so deep it took him a rather long time to warm up by the fire, and even considered crawling into it.
" Hey so, this sucks" Ron said, with his head pointed towards the ceiling, listening to the rain still coming down rather hard outside.
" What do we do if the bottom of the tent starts to flood?"
" Um" Harry said, turning to Draco and Hermione, who were sitting on the floor in front of the fire together, as they both shrugged.
" I think that's something we'll face later.
The tent still smelled the same as the last time there were in it, the only difference was, since there were more of them this time, it seemed a bit brighter, and a bit cleaner really.
--
A few hours later Draco suddenly shot awake. A little confused as to where he was, he stood, rubbing his eyes. Being quiet he strolled around the tent in it's vastness, looking around a bit. In the back corner, behind a tapestry, Ron and Luna were curled up in a sort of ying yang pattern.Using each others legs as pillows, Pig curled up,perched on the bed post by Luna's head, obviously favoring her now.
With a smile he turned, and headed towards the other tapestry. Pulling it back only slightly he saw Harry laying in bed with Ginny strewn over him. Harry's eyes were open, staring at the fake window next to the short make shift shelf.
Noticing Draco, he turned his head to him, giving him the " hey" head nod. Draco waved and turned away again. Walking back to where he started he saw Hermione was curled up on the couch. Why hadn't he seen her there before. As he walked towards her, she moved her feet so he could sit with her.
" Is this going to be some sort of trend. Where ever we go, we get the couch?" Draco asked, half kidding, half extremely serious.
" No. there's more beds. There's bunks behind that shelf there, and I think one over there. " Hermione said, pointing in a nondescript direction.
" Oh." Draco said, straining to see what she was pointing at. " Why are we still sitting here then?" He asked, the curiosity leaking out of his mouth.
" Oh no reason. we can go lay down if you want "
Hermione began to sit up off the couch when Draco stood, taking his arms under her, and lifted her up into the air.
She strained to hold her giggle in as to not wake up anyone else. As He laid her down atop the bed behind the final tapestry he pulled himself on to the bed next to her. The moonlight bathed across her face, letting him see her beautifully. She could see the way he was looking at her, that look of just taking her all in.
She smiled, " Do you know how wonderful you are?" She asked, smirking at him now.
" oh jeez" he said, grinning like crazy , unable to hold it back.
" don't say that. I'm not that great"
Pushing her hand onto his chest she rolled her eyes, " You're absolutely mad. You are the greatest ever"
" Sure..." He said, " Whatever you say" He leaned close to her.
" Are you picking on me?" She asked, turning her head a little, looking through little slit eyes.
" No of course not... " He smiled, leaning even yet closer.
" You're not funny" she smiled back.
" I'm not being funny. I'm being serious" He said, his face so close to her now, she could feel his breath on her lips.
" Oh yeah. Mr. Serious"
She managed one last deep breath in before his lips plummeted onto her own. Kissing him was like plunging your head into a cold shower, your body into a hot one. She could feel her heart pounding with excitement. Nothing in this world felt as he did, when he held her close. Running his hands up and down her back, she could feel the goosebumps forming on her arms, sending a chill all over. With one hand he held her, the other hand came to her face, tracing her jaw line with his finger. His button up shirt fell onto her body, so she reached up and unbuttoned it, revealing his warm hard chest and stomach to her. His body was so ripped, as she ran her hands on him, it truly felt like little speed bumps, she even made a little noise in her head as she did it.
Bump bump bump bump bump bump, she muttered.
As they kissed, harder and harder, he brought his hand down to her waist, pulling her in a little more tightly, a little more strong. Her stomach was turning and twisting into knots. Her body had never felt like this. She wasn't really too sure what was going on with her. She never felt the need for someone. The want for someone, to yearn, to crave, even the hunger was enough to drive her mad. The last thing she remembered was the feeling of Draco's warm hand running up the inside of her left thigh.
The sudden screech of Pig in the kitchen awoke all of them in a panic. Harry ran out in his boxers, wand out,looking a bit silly really.
" whuzgoenon?" Ron yawned, entering the kitchen.
After a glance around Harry said, " must be nothing, I think Pig is finally feeling better that's all. Go back to bed guys, it's not worth all of us to get up now"
" Sure it is. We get to see Ron's Chudley Cannon's underwear." Draco said, laughing " I'd pay to see that!"
He was suddenly hit in the butt by Hermione's flying shoe.
" You should see the one's with the big gold RW on the back of them. I like those ones"
Luna's voice suddenly emitted from somewhere unseen. There was such a silence, which was quickly broken by laughter, several snorts and something that sounded like choking.
A/N First off I would like to say sorry for taking so long to write this chapter and get it up on here. Complete and total writer's block. Also would like to add...the choking sound is not Ron choking Luna in any sort of sense...it's someone laughing and laughing so hard they start to choke. I like to think it's Harry maybe...