Chapter Fifteen

Flight of Darkness

A corridor.

Stone walls.

A door.

Wooden.

Engravings of-

A room.

Large.

Dark.

Red.

Eyes.

Cold.

A smile.

Evil.

She smiled.

He smiled.

They smiled.

Purple light

Hermione felt her self pulled sharply from Ginny's mind and stared down at her still form in shock. Ginny's eyes were open, cold and harsh with a strange redness surrounding the pupil. She smiled. He smiled. They smiled.

'Did you think it would be that easy?' a guttural voice snarled from Ginny's lips. Hermione had only a second to allow her eyes to widen before she was slammed against the wall by a burst of raw power from Ginny's hands.

'Damn mudbloods,' the guttural voice muttered, as blood ran from Hermione's cracked skull. 'Always in my way.'

Ginny stepped over to Hermione's body and kicked it slightly with her foot. Hermione's head lolled to one side revealing a lot of blood before she slumped completely to the floor.

'Dead,' she said with a satisfied smirk.

She glanced down at herself and tutted in revulsion. Plaid pyjamas. She strolled over to her closet and threw open the doors. She rifled through the articles of clothing before, disgusted, she withdrew a green dress complete with straps. Once dressed, she surveyed the room. Collected her wand and pushed her feet into a pair of sandals. Without looking back at the room, or at her dead best friend by the wall. Ginny Weasley jumped from the three story window, upon landing she glanced behind her at the window and saw a woman with red hair and another with pink hair staring down at her; turning her back on them she sprinted across the lawn, over the fence and out past the wards of The Burrow.

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By the wall he found him, with his head between his hands and his shoulders shaking from his sobbing. The rest were still in the kitchen staring at the corpse of Luna, whose blood had dyed the table a deep red. Harry knelt next to his friend and placed both hands on his shoulders.

'It will be okay Ron,' he murmured. Ron lifted a tear stained face to see Harry's.

'How can it ever be okay again?' he choked out, 'they killed Luna. Luna. The purest of all of us. Without her, it will be like an endless night.'

Harry looked down for a moment, words failing him. He found himself glancing back at the table where Luna's body lay. Her sheen of blonde hair was shining brightly from the firelight and she looked peaceful in her rest.

'Every night has its dawn Ron. The sun will rise again and we will go on; and Luna will be in every sunrise.'

Ron raised his head to look at him in hope.

'How much worse can it get?' Harry jested sadly.

'Not much more,' Ron replied ruefully.

A sharp scream from upstairs shook them out of their grief.

'The girls.' Harry shouted, pulling Ron to his feet and racing up the stairs. At the top of the stairs they saw Mrs Weasley leaning against the wall with her face pale and tears dripping from her chin.

'Mrs Weasley, what's happened?' Harry cried as he ran up the last flight of stairs. Mrs Weasley simply pointed mutely into the room.

Harry and Ron pushed their way past her to enter the room. Harry saw the empty rumpled bed, the hastily rifled through closet, the open window and finally the cracked plaster which ended behind a body which Tonks was bent over.

'Who is it?' Harry asked quietly.

Tonks moved aside slightly to reveal Hermione lying beside the wall, her curly hair damp with blood. Ron let out a low moan behind him and ran to her side, he gathered her up in his arms rocking her softly with sobs wracking his body.

'Is she-' Harry asked gruffly.

'No,' Tonks replied quickly, trying to pry Ron from Hermione's still form, 'she is barely alive and need medical attention. Now.' She stressed.

'I'll take her to Saint Mungo's.' Ron said, 'Harry, give me the portkey.'

Harry withdrew his wand and murmured the summoning spell. A portkey emerged from one of the rucksacks in the corner. He tossed the broken glasses to Ron who disappeared with Hermione the moment his skin made contact with them.

'Where's Ginny?' Harry asked, the second they were gone.

'Gone,' Mrs Weasley replied hoarsely from the door.

Harry wheeled around to face her.

'What?' he asked.

'Tonks, Tonks and I came up stairs to check on them and, tell them about Luna; after Tonks had gotten through all of your enchantments on the door we saw her, we saw her-,' Mrs Weasley broke into a new flood of tears.

'We saw her jump from the window.' Tonks finished for her, 'we ran to the window to try to levitate her. But she landed like a cat and looked back up at us briefly. Harry her eyes were red.'

'Red?' he asked, not sure if he heard her right, 'are you sure?'

'I know my daughter Harry,' Mrs Weasley said inching further into the room, 'her eyes were red and the look she gave us from the ground was just horrible.' Mrs Weasley shuddered.

Harry strode to the window and gazed out of it, searching for a flash of red hair.

'Then what happened?' he said.

'She ran, ran over the fence and through the wards.' Tonks reported.

'How long ago?' he asked still gazing out the window.

'Five minuets by now, tops.' Tonks replied, 'can't you access her through your freaky mind thing?'

'She's blocking me out,' Harry said, banging his fist against the wall in frustration. 'What is she doing?' he said through gritted teeth.

'Could anything have set this off? Anything we don't know about?' Tonks asked, raising one pink eye-brow.

'Hermione,' Harry whispered with wide eyes. 'Hermione will know.'

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It was cooler outside than she had first thought; the dress now clung to her body due to the soaking it had received when the heavens opened as she made her way to Malfoy Manor. At the gates she waited, standing demurely with her head tilted to the side, gazing at the approaching figure of Draco Malfoy.

'Blood traitor,' he spat, 'why are you here?'

'Let me in Draco,'

'Why are you here?' he whispered, 'leave, quickly.'

Ginny's lips tilted upward slowly.

'Why on earth would I want to do that? I want to see Voldemort.'

The gates swung open flattening Draco against the wall.

'How dare you say his name you nasty little Blood Traitor!' screeched a hideous voice from the steps leading up to the grand doorway. Ginny glanced up, somewhat boredly to see Bellatrix Lestrange stalking down the steps raising her wand.

'CRUCIO,' she screamed.

The Unforgiveable Curse hurtled towards Ginny who stood her ground. A moment before the curse would hit, Ginny waved her wand and it dispersed.

'Lovely to see you again, Bella.' Ginny said, as she stepped over the threshold closing the gates behind her with a deafening clang. 'Why is it, everytime we meet, your always throwing an Unforgiveable at me?'

'Perhaps it's due to your treacherous, disgusting blood.' Bellatrix snarled at her.

'Could you not like me, given the chance Bella?' Ginny asked coyly.

'Of course, like a basilisk likes an acronomtula' she cackled.

'Charming,' Ginny smiled slightly. 'This isn't getting us anywhere. I'm here to see Voldemort.'

'You won't make it past the stairs,' Bellatrix threatened.

'Really?' Ginny snarled.

Bellatrix saw the redness around Ginny's pupils broaden slowly until her entire eye was a shocking red. It was the same red she saw in her masters eyes, before and after he killed. She faltered at the site of it and lowered her wand, the moment she did, the redness from Ginny's eyes diluted until there was only a red lining surrounding the pupil.

'Wise decision, Bellatrix. Now, take me to your master.'

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'Hermione Granger,' he said again, 'she arrived here only five or ten minuets ago.'

'I am sorry Mr Potter, no Granger exists in the wizarding world,' the plump receptionist said again, 'There is no registration of her birth.'

'BECAUSE SHE IS A MUGGLE BORN!' Harry bellowed. The plump witch drew back in shock as sparks flared from Harry's fingertips. He took a deep breath in and checked his anger.

'She is a Muggleborn, so there wouldn't be a registration of her birth at this hospital. She was brought in by Ron Weasley ten minuets, a blow to the head. Hermione Granger.' He said again, slowly.

'Weasley?' she asked.

'Yes, Ron Weasley brought her in.'

'Yes we have a Ron Weasley. On the ground floor, Artefact Accidents. Ward B, bed twelve.'

'Thank you,' Harry said earnestly before dashing off in that direction. If Hermione had found something during the time she and Ginny had been connected then he may have a way of finding Ginny. He reached ward B in a matter of minuets and strode quickly to Hermione's bed. She was sitting up, and the blood had been cleaned from her hair, she looked well enough; a little pale perhaps, but whole all the same. Ron was seated beside her on the bed, holding her hand as they spoke quietly.

'What happened?' Harry asked, wasting no time. 'Are you alright? What happened Hermione?'

She looked at him sadly with tears glistening in her eyes. Ron also looked towards him with tears falling freely down his face.

'Ginny, she pushed me from her mind Harry, and when we woke, her eyes were red. She looked at me, without pity or friendship. Then she cast me into the wall and I don't remember what happened after that.' Hermione stopped talking abruptly and looked down.

'What is it Hermione?' Harry asked urgently, 'you have to tell me everything.'

Hermione looked up with tears openly pouring down her face.

'The further I dove into her mind, the darker it became. I, I pulled something from the depths of her subconscious to the forefront of her conscious. Replacing the Ginny we all love with something that has been hidden in her mind since her first year. A part of Voldemort he left behind that has merged with Ginny's darkest longings and desires.'

'What does this mean?' Harry asked hoarsely.

'Harry. This part of Ginny that I brought forward is part her and part him. Together they make a Horcrux unlike any of the ones we have been hunting; it is not fully Voldemort nor is it fully Ginny. Ginny is partially in control over what is happening to her, but it is the darker side that is dominating her. That's probably why you can't access her thoughts.'

'How did you know that I had tried-'

'Because you're here talking to us instead of chasing after her.' Ron interrupted him.

'Harry, we have to find before she does something really bad.'

'Like what?' he said worriedly.

'Like going to Voldemort bad.'

'Why would she do that?' Ron demanded.

'The bond between them will be pulling her to him.' Hermione replied. 'We just have to pray that they stay apart until we find her.'

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She gazed up at me from the floor, her red hair glowing in the candlelight and her green soaked dress sticking to her a luscious body. Her beautiful chocolate had the red lining about them he had come to admire during her first year.

'I have returned my Lord.' She murmured seductively from the floor.

He rose from his chair and slowly descended the dais down to her; his eyes captured by hers. He reached forward and using her chin, slowly pulled her to her feet.

'Call me Tom again,' he whispered before pulling her delicious mouth to his.

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