Narnia and Harry Potter 4 EVER - I completely agree; it must give you a bit of whiplash. Haha. Thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter.

Candid Serenity - Zabini's twin will come in to it after they go back to school, probably, but I'm not sure exactly when. Draco / Hermione action won't be that far into the story because I like getting into the action quickly without having to wait. I can't wait for that either. Thanks for the review, I hope you like this chapter.

Pain

Hermione:

"School in only three weeks," Ginny exclaimed happily as we made our way out of the Leaky Cauldron and into the crowded streets of Diagon Alley. She twirled excitedly for a moment before being shoved 'accidentally' from behind by a surly Wizard wearing a bowler hat. Before I could snap at him, however, Fred's hand moved into my own, preventing me from doing anything.

A couple of days after the Malfoy's fateful visit to the Burrow – Arthur had refused to tell us why they were there – Fred and I had come clean to his family, who were thrilled about the two of us dating. Molly had been especially proud and every time she saw the two of us together she would 'aww' loudly, causing us to break off from whatever we had been doing. To be honest, it was getting rather annoying, and George wasn't helping any. He would snigger whenever either one of us entered a room. He had been doing it since he had found the two of us snogging in their bedroom. That had been mortifying.

"Where do you want to go first?" Harry asked, breaking me from my thoughts and I turned to see the other five of them – Harry, Ginny, Ron, Fred and George – only to see that they were staring at me in confusion. Under their scrutiny I blushed a brilliant shade of red that could have even rivaled Ron's hair but didn't explain what I had been thinking about. That would have been embarrassing.

"Where do you want to go first?" Harry repeated, sounding slightly annoyed, and I realized with a start that he had asked a question, one that I hadn't bothered to answer.

"Well, we do need to get our school books," I said quietly, knowing exactly how that would be taken, "And we need to get out of here as soon as possible." I shivered as I glanced around the dilapidated street, even Weasley Wizard Wheezes was closed as Fred and George had refused to let us come to Diagon Alley by ourselves (for some reason I believed it was more for my benefit than the others as I was a Muggleborn and, therefore, they would want to kidnap – or worse, kill – me.

The usual groans followed my sentence but no one said anything against it as I made my way towards the store. Entering, I noticed that it was eerily quiet; painfully so as many people refused to enter Diagon Alley and got their school stuff via Owl. However, Owl post was a luxury the Weasley's couldn't afford and although I would definitely agree to pay for it, and I knew Harry would too, they wouldn't allow it. Henceforth here we were, attempting to buy school things while hoping not to be Avada Kedavraed at any given moment.

"Let's buy our stuff and get out," Ginny whispered in my ear as she followed me away from the others, shivering at the slightly dead look in the shopkeeper's eyes. He used to be so friendly and kind, but the war had changed him as it had everyone else and now he was merely a shell of who he'd once been.

"Agreed," I hissed back as I grabbed a book off the shelf and put it on top of my already growing pile.

"Seriously?" my best girl friend whined, "Do you really need A Guide on How To Train Your Pet Dragon?"

"It might come in handy."

"For Hagrid maybe."

"Okay, I see your point," I conceded, putting the book back with a sigh. Even I had to admit that that was taking it a bit far; I didn't even like Dragons. I suppose it would make a good Christmas present for Hagrid.

"Let's go," Gin murmured as we made our way to the checkout and paid, glancing around with a suspicious air as we did so. I couldn't see our boys anywhere so we decided to wait outside for them to arrive, chatting delicately. My back was to the store so I didn't realize that anything was wrong until Ginny was pulling me down sharply.

As it so happened I felt something heavy and sharp hit me on the back of my head, propelling me forward as a wave of dizziness surrounded me. I could hear my name being screamed somewhere to my left and it sounded suspiciously like Ginny, but my vision was slowly going dark. I muttered something under my breath, attempting to get the world to stop spinning, but that just made it worse. I let out a strangled choking noise before my world went black.

XxX

Ginny:

Ginny watched helplessly as Flourish and Blotts, the shop her brothers and boyfriend were in, exploded from my inside out. Hermione was still rambling on about something unimportant and didn't realize that anything was amiss, so Ginny took it upon herself to grab her best friends hand and drag her down, away from the debris.

At first she thought that she had succeeded, but then Hermione gave a pained moan, her hand flickering up to the back of her head before coming back covered in blood. Ginny's eyes widened in horror as her best friend swayed weakly, her eyes scrunched up through the pain.

"Mione? Hermione?" Her voice had risen to a terrified squeak as Hermione collapsed on the ground, one hand on her stomach and the other out to the side. Her breathing was extremely labored, and seemed to be getting even more so as the terrified redhead watched.

"Fred? George? Harry? Ron?" she couldn't see any movement from inside the shop, but a moment later there was a series of pops and members of the Order of the Phoenix: Remus, Sirius (who had survived the Veil at the Ministry of Magic), Tonks, McGonagall, Snape, and a few others arrived on the scene.

"Professor," Ginny croaked as Minerva McGonagall looked her way. Shock registered over her lined face for a moment before she gasped, eyes wide.

"See if everyone is okay," she demanded and the others disappeared inside the ruined shop while she grabbed the unconscious girl and apperated away, leaving Ginny to wait in the sidelines.

It was only moments before Remus and Sirius appeared once more. Sirius was helping Ron, who'd broken his ankle when the shop had exploded, but the others were all unharmed aside from a few burns and scratches. Ginny still had tears slipping from her eyes and almost immediately the four men were at her side demanding to know what was wrong and shouting that the Order members should have checked that she was okay before coming in to get them.

Finally it was Fred who asked the fateful question: "Where's Mione?"

XxX

Fred:

As his sister's tears became uncontrollable, Fred felt utter fear grip his heart. Okay, so he wasn't in love with Hermione, but he definitely liked her as more than a friend and seeing the tears dripping from his sister almond-coloured eyes made him nearly delirious with worry.

"Gin, what happened?"

His voice was low and dangerous, and his bloodied fingernails were scratching uselessly at the floor as if searching for something to hold on so that he did no fall. His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly and he would have reached over to shake his sister if George hadn't placed a warning hand on his shoulder. As Fred turned to look at him, he shook his head and allowed his twin to lean his head on his shoulder in order to still his own shaking.

"She…I couldn't stop it…blood…" Ginny gasped randomly, attempting to form coherent sentences but not being able to through her heart-wrenching sobs.

"She is in shock," said a remarkably calm voice from behind them. The person would have looked just as calm as her voice suggested if it wasn't for the different emotions flashing in her eyes: pain, disbelief, sadness, hope, caring…

Professor McGonagall only raised out one hand to the youngest Weasley child and, still sobbing uncontrollably, Ginny took her hand, allowing herself to be pulling into a strong embrace by the woman she had admired for many years. The hard planes on McGonagall's face softened somewhat at the clearly distraught nature of the small sixteen-year-old.

"Where's Mione?" Ron asked after they had been silent for many moments.

A hard expression came upon McGonagall's face as she said the two words the teenagers before her had been hoping she wouldn't say. "St. Mungo's."

Without waiting, Fred apperated himself to the Hospital and demanded to be let into her room. His family and everyone else waited outside to give him some time alone.

As he saw her lying pale and still on the bed, a bandage wrapped around her head, he allowed a lone tear to fall from his eye. Fred felt about a dozen emotions filter through his body in the span of about a minute.

First he felt almost gut-wrenching sadness for the young girl lying as though dead on the starch, white Hospital sheets. It was a suffocating sadness that left him almost breathless as he took the seat beside her bed, taking a freezing hand in his larger ones.

Then he felt utter guilt at not being able to protect her. He was her boyfriend, he was supposed to stop her from getting hurt, but he had been so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn't even noticed when the shop had exploded. If George hadn't been there he would be lying beside Hermione, possibly in even worse shape.

Then he felt slight happiness at the fact that she was hospitalized so she could not possibly get hurt even more until she awoke. Everyone knew that Harry drew trouble to him like a magnet and if she was in Hospital then she was not around him so she would be okay.

That led to even more guilt as she could be dying for all he knew and he was feeling happy about it.

Finally the sadness came back and he gently moved her hair away from her face as he breathed deeply and placed a kiss on her forehead before leaving the room, not looking back.

XxX

Draco:

I took a deep breath as I finished telling Blaise, Pansy, Daphne, Millicent, Crabbe and Goyle (who were definitely smarter than they looked) about me being a Veela and the potion required to find out who my Mate was.

"Well, you can get asphodel, Wartizome and Unicorn blood from the shops, although the Unicorn blood will have to come from Knockturn Alley…" Pansy began before stopping as she noticed the crazy look she was getting from Blaise.

"He'll have to get all the ingredients from Knockturn Alley; the Apothecary in Diagon Alley has been destroyed."

Pansy just rolled her eyes at the derisive look in my best friends eyes and changed the subject of the conversation with a flourish.

"So, do you know who the mysterious Zabini is yet?"

Blaise's features instantly softened at the thoughts of a sister he had yet to meet (well, he had met her but just didn't know who she was). I tried to put myself in his shoes. I knew that if I had a long lost twin sister I would do everything – everything – in my power to get her back. My only hope was that Blaise didn't hurt himself in his search. And, anyway, he'd find out who his sister was 'when the time was right' as Dumbledore put it. It seemed unfair to me how not even Blaise's parents could know who their own child was, and had to live in the fear that the Dark Lord would find her before they did. I couldn't even begin to fathom what they must be going through.

"Well?" Daphne asked, pulling me from my thoughts and I noticed that the others were all staring at me.

I opened my mouth to ask what the question had been, when a terrifying pain shot through my head. I groaned and raised my hand to it, feeling nothing. I could hear frightened screams and yells as I attempted to keep my grip on reality instead of sinking into the nightmares that hid in the darkness.

I felt myself being lifted up into the air (probably a Levitation charm) but I didn't really care. The excruciating pain had spread to my chest. It felt worse than the Cruciatus Curse (and, trust me, I had been put under that a lot when dear Aunt Bella had been living with us). White-hot needles pierced my skin as scarab beetles burrowed underneath; fire roared in my stomach and a brilliant white light shone from beneath my closed eyelids.

Then it all went black.

XxX

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that the pain was gone, leaving me a little light-headed but fine all the same. A light was shining behind my closed lids but I didn't want to open them just yet. Instead, I listened into the conversation happening around me.

"He's been out for an hour."

That was Mother, and she sounded scared witless. I could just imagine her biting her perfectly manicured nails as her eyes trained themselves upon my face incase I showed any sign of waking. I tried to make my breathing deeper so that they could not tell that I was awake and it seemed to work as I never heard Father, who seemed a lot less worried.

"He should be waking soon. He was feeling part of what his Mate was feeling, which must mean that she is terribly hurt. It is a Veela trait."

My eyes flickered open with shock and I bolted up in bed, startling both of my parents, who were immediately by my side.

"What?" I gasped, eyes wide, not caring that I had just woken up after an hours sleep. "Veela trait? Can't I just be normal?" The last bit was said in a whisper but from the glare I received from Father it didn't seem to be so quiet. "Wait," I said suddenly, shocking them even more, "You said that I'm feeling part of what my Mate is feeling. Does that mean that she's even more injured than I am?"

"Unfortunately so," was the ominous reply from Mother, whose face had gone extremely pale.