Driving Miss Weasley by BigFatMaybe



Summary: It should have been a simple task. Escort Ginny Weasley to her Quidditch match. But it all changes when Harry Potter rents the wrong car. What started out as a simple road trip between two friends and past lovers quickly turns into a hellish game of cat and mouse, and Harry and Ginny find themselves running away from a mysterious and deadly group of mercenaries, through a Scotland plagued by a mysterious infestation of Dark creatures.
Rating: R starstarstarstarstar
Categories: Alternate Universe, Post-Hogwarts
Characters: None
Genres: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: None
Series: Elder Tales
Published: 2017.08.28
Updated: 2017.09.08


Driving Miss Weasley by BigFatMaybe
Chapter 2: Chapter 2
Author's Notes:

For some reason, they didn’t see Savage’s car anymore the rest of the afternoon. They tried to stay alert but it was hard to do so with the steady, neverending stream of cars that passed by. But the anxiety ate at Harry, and he couldn’t stop thinking about what could have possessed his colleague to try and ambush them, and whether there was something very bad happening at the Ministry. Ginny, in an effort to keep their nervousness in check, decided to chat about Quidditch to keep him from fretting too much. She talked about the uncertain mood in the Harpies team now that Gwenog Jones, the head coach, had announced her retirement after this season. Seeing as the Harpies were still in a race for the title with the Appleby Arrows, every game counted and Ginny found herself and the team spending more time than ever on the training pitch.

“Everyone hates Gwenog at this point,” she said. “I mean, we love her–”

“Especially you,” Harry added, remembering the life-size poster that used to hang prominently in their living room.

“Maybe,” Ginny hid a smile. “But she deserves her last title, you know? She’s a club legend, she deserves it.”

“Oh, definitely. But do you think you can win it this year? The Arrows have never been better.”

“Yeah, I know. But we will win, Harry. I just know it, this year is our year,” Ginny declared.

They drove on, further into the highlands, and there was still no sign of Savage.

“How’s the Auror work going?” Ginny asked.

“Oh, well, as you can see, it’s going pretty well,” Harry said. “I’ve taken the task of escorting some pretty Quidditch player to her next game, and aside from a rogue wizard chasing after us and having illegal weapons in the boot, I’d say I’m doing fine,” Harry said. “What do you think?”

“Oh, I think you’re wonderful, Auror Potter,” Ginny said, her lips twitching.

“Thanks!”

“So how’s the Auror work going?” She held up her finger to cut Harry off. “And no jokes this time, Potter.”

“No jokes? Ginny, you’re starting to sound just like Julie!” Harry said. Ginny’s suddenly thunderous expression told him he’d definitely crossed a line with that remark. He cleared his throat.

“Anyway,” he said. “Until recently, it was going really well. The team’s finally decently competent, Ron’s a lot calmer in the field, now that he and Hermione are engaged and with Kingsley as Minister I don’t have to worry too much about politics anymore.”

“But…?” Ginny pressed.

He sighed. “It started with this odd message we received, maybe a few months back. Some wizard in Fort William, farther north from here, said he saw masses of Dark creatures swim by his house one night. Grindylows, Red Caps, even a Sea Serpent, he said. You can see why we’re a bit sceptical. It’s unheard of. Anyway, we went to this man’s house and apparently he was quite old and not exactly sane anymore. I was there with a rookie, his name’s Bennett, and we just wanted to leave, but then he became desperate. Poor Bennett was pretty unsettled by him,” he said. “So then we decided to place a few monitors around the water that would alert us if magical creatures came near it. Sure enough, when I go into my office the next morning, the Detectometer on my desk was completely stuffed with notifications. Apparently, at least a couple dozen of Dark creatures swam past the sensors that night.”

“So what next?” Ginny asked.

“Well, next thing we needed to do was find out what was making them behave like that. But that’s a bit hard to do in a Muggle area, so we didn’t make much headway in the case. And then the reports of these horrific accidents started to trickle in. Lots of tourists and some pretty well-known filmmaker from America all died in a few days along the water. All ripped apart by those Dark creatures. By the way, that rookie Bennett had to be there at every scene, poor bloke. He chose the wrong time to join us.”

“Get to the point, Potter.”

“Patience, Weasley,” he said. “The strange thing was, the first time I was there at the scene of one of those killings, something really odd happened.”

“What?”

“I’m getting there,” he said. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I suddenly really wanted to jump in the water. It was next to a river, you see. But it almost felt like I was being held under the Imperius curse. And if Ron hadn’t been so attentive, I would have jumped in the water without hesitation.” He shivered. “Given the amount of Grindylows there, that wouldn’t have ended well.”

“I’ll have to buy Ron a good lunch soon,” Ginny said. “Do you know why that happened to you?”

“That’s the mystery. We don’t know. We scanned the river for any spells or enchantments, but there was nothing. I was the only one affected too. So I went back to the Ministry and apparently someone had told Amelia Bones what happened. She came into my office just after lunch that same day and more or less forced me to stay away from the case.”

“So I’ll need to buy her a good lunch too, then. Isn’t she retiring, by the way?”

“Not until there’s a decent replacement for the head of the DMLE,” Harry said. “She’s seen what happens when you let incompetent people lead the Ministry, so I think she decided she wouldn’t resign until after her successor is appointed.”

“And who might that elusive successor be?” Ginny teased.

“Well, me, of course, if she had her way. But could you really see me in her position? That much office work would make me barmy in less than a week!”

“Even more barmy than you are now?” Ginny asked.

“Just a bit,” Harry said, smiling slightly.

“So is that why we’re doing this road trip instead of a quick Apparition? You got kicked off your main case?”

“Well,” Harry hesitated. “I mean it does leave me with more time for now, but, erm…”

“Or is it because you couldn’t resist me?” Ginny mused.

“Erm… Yeah, I guess I can’t,” Harry said. “In a… friendly way of course!”

“Yeah, of course.”

The sun hadn’t shown itself since they’d entered the Scottish Highlands, and their spirits were dampened by the happenings of that day, not to mention the endless traffic jam they found themselves in due to an accident further ahead that blocked off the whole road. Finally, when they arrived at a town called Glencoe, they were too hungry and tired to continue. They hadn’t seen Savage ever since that incident at the petrol station, and so they thought it safe enough to escape the jammed road and seek out a restaurant in the area. They found a small, inconspicuous place just off the route, parked their car out of sight of the adjacent road, and went inside.

It wasn’t really anything special, Harry thought as he closed the door behind them. The central room was dimly lit and strewn with dark wooden tables and chairs, about half of them occupied by other guests. The small stereo set in a corner played pop songs that Harry remembered from his childhood at the Dursleys. A bar laden with whiskys and other liquors stood at the far end, and the gruff looking bartender behind it nodded at them when they entered. They greeted the man back and sat down at a table as far away from the main road as possible. A waitress arrived at their table almost immediately.

“Can I get ye some drinks?” she asked them after she’d handed them the menu.

“I’ll have a Coke, please,” Ginny said. Harry ordered the same. The waitress nodded, wrote it down and disappeared through a door behind the bar.

“So, Miss Weasley,” Harry said. He leaned back in his chair. “This has been a while.”

“Yeah. Yeah, it has,” Ginny said. She smiled at him, and then ducked behind the menu card. Harry did the same and neither said anything for a while.

“The salad looks good,” he commented eventually.

“Hmm.” Another moment of silence.

“Salmon would be nice, too.”

“Or the pulled chicken.”

“Oh, yeah, good one. Those pastries on the side sound tasty.”

Again a pause. Then they looked up at the same time.

“Steak?” Harry asked.

“Steak,” Ginny agreed.

The waitress came to their table not long after with their drinks. “Can I get yer order?” she asked.

“Two steaks, please,” Harry said. “And…”

“Extra chips, please,” Ginny finished.

“How d’ya want yer steaks?”

“Medium, please,” Harry and Ginny said. The waitress finished writing and left again.

“I’ve been thinking,” Harry said. He remembered to stop himself from casting a Muffliato around the table.

“Have you?”

“Yes. We need to figure out what we’re going to do now.” He sipped his Coke. “Calling the Aurors is out of the question, obviously, so we’ll have to go on by ourselves for now. That was what we agreed on, but it’s not really a well thought-out plan.”

“But we can at least contact Ron, right? He won’t have anything to do with this,” Ginny said.
“We don’t know anything, Ginny. For all we know someone’s monitoring the Aurors, maybe they’re even stalking them. We can be sure that they’re monitoring us as well. But for all we know, Ron could be watched, he could be poisoned, he could be Imperiused, or worse. The Auror handbook actually covers a scenario where one of your colleagues turns on you. And that chapter concluded that you should consider the entire office compromised until you’re absolutely certain it’s not.”

“Yeah, but you wrote that handbook just about singlehandedly,” Ginny said. “I know you and Ron were both assigned to it, but I know my brother well enough that he didn’t write a single page.”

“Ron helped!” Harry protested. Ginny gave him an exasperated look. “Okay, I wrote it, and Ron gave helpful suggestions. Happy?”

“Yes,” Ginny said sweetly.

“Anyway, regardless of whether I wrote it or not, I still think it’s best not to try to contact anyone, not even Ron or any of your brothers.”

“You’re the Auror,” Ginny said. “So we just drive on to Portree and see what happens once we get there?”

“I guess so. I don’t really know what else we can do.”

“We can eat those incoming steaks, for starters,” Ginny said, nodding at the waitress approaching their table. The restaurant may have looked a bit uninspiring, but the sight and smell of a steaming, juicy steak on the table in front of him made Harry’s mouth water. They tucked in immediately.

“Oh, it’s been too long,” Ginny moaned after the first bite. Harry fully agreed with her. They didn’t say much during their meal. Ginny occasionally stole a chip from Harry, despite the extra portion she’d ordered for herself, and all too soon their plates were empty. Outside, the weather had taken a turn for the worse and sleet whipped past the small windows of the pub. The hilltops in the distance were fully hidden behind low-hanging, iron-grey clouds, but inside, Harry and Ginny, to the voice of George Michael, leaned back in their chairs to give their bulging tummies more space. But Harry didn’t allow himself to feel drowsy, even though the smooth saxophone in the background was making it very difficult for him not to.

“I wonder what Savage is up to,” he said.

So I’m never gonna dance again…

“Mmm?” Ginny obviously was obviously too busy with the afterglow of their meal. As much as Harry enjoyed the sight of her, blissfully content as she looked, they had a serious problem they needed to address.

“I said I was wondering what Savage is up to.”

“Mmm, don’t ruin the moment, Potter.”

We could have been so good together…

Harry decided on another tactic. “I want to ask you something very important, Ginny,” he whispered, feigning nervousness. That did the trick. She finally opened her eyes, and for a moment Harry couldn’t look away from her tender gaze, and her soft, warm, and so inviting smile. The saxophone wept dreamily in the background, and a glow spread through his chest as he gazed at the woman he should have moved on from so long ago.

“Are you going to talk?” she asked amusedly.

“Hmm? Oh right, yeah.”

“You were saying you wanted to ask me something very important?”

“Yeah. No, I didn’t,” Harry stammered. “I just wanted you to wake up.”

“Well, it worked,” Ginny said. She leaned forward and put one elbow on the table. “Are you sure you don’t have anything to tell me?”

“Are you disappointed?” Harry asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“I might be, Potter,” she said. Then she seemed to wake from her drowsiness. Her playful look noticeably disappeared again and she leaned back in her chair, away from him. “So why did you want to wake me up?” she asked.

Harry leaned back as well. “Well, I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but we’re being chased by a dangerous wizard. As much as I want to stay here a bit longer, we need to get a move on.”

Ginny sighed. “You’re right. I mean, I’d love to take a quick nap here, but that’s not the best idea right now. Who’s paying?”

“That’s a perk of this job: the Ministry’s paying for us,” Harry said. The room didn’t seem so toasty warm as it did a minute ago, and Harry wished Ginny hadn’t stopped her teasing. He scooted back his chair, stood up and moved to the bar at the far end of the dimly-lit room to pay for their meal.

A little while later they walked across the car park towards their car, both lost in their musings. The spring evening was quiet, and the rain seemed to have finally stopped. Harry wondered why Ginny stopped her flirting just now. Did she not like him anymore? Or was it because she didn’t want a relationship? Should he even read that much into it? But he stopped himself from pondering those questions too much; they had more important things to think about at the moment, after all.

“I asked the man at the bar about the traffic,” Harry said, breaking the silence between them. “He said the whole road’s blocked due to the accident. We’ll have to follow the nearby loch all the way to go around it.” They reached their car and stepped in.

“How long will that take?” Ginny asked after closing her door.

“At least an hour.”

“And how long until the road opens up again?”

“We don’t know. But Ginny, it’s late, we’re both tired and in danger, and we don’t know what’s happening. We could also find a secluded area and stay there for the night.”

“Trying to get me all alone, I see,” Ginny quipped, but without much conviction. “Would we sleep in the car?”

“You underestimate me, Ginny,” he said, and with a dramatic flourish he conjured from under his seat a small plastic bag with a drab logo on the side. Ginny regarded it with a disenchanted look.

“I had Hermione do her Undetectable Extension charm on this,” Harry continued. “There’s a tent in here I loaned from a colleague in the office. I haven’t seen it on the inside, but he said it’s big enough for the two of us.”

“And that colleague of yours wasn’t called Savage by any chance?”

“No, don’t worry. It was some young bloke from another team. It should be safe, I think. Besides, we won’t have to use any magic to set it up, so as long as we stay hidden from the main roads, there’s no way Savage will find us that way.” He kept the fact that the tent was originally made for that bloke’s honeymoon to himself. He hoped the interior wouldn’t be too mushy.

“Alright then,” Ginny said. “Where do you want to set it up? I didn’t see many forests when we drove here.”

“No, me neither. But I asked the man at the restaurant, and he told me there’s plenty of forest further around the loch.”

“So let’s go there, then.”

“Let’s just hope Savage doesn’t have the same idea,” Harry mumbled, and he started the engine.

-----

In the end it took them more than half an hour to find a suitable area. Eventually though, Ginny spotted a dense birch forest further up the hill, and after some careful manoeuvring, Harry managed to bring the car up the fairly steep hillside and into the cover of the trees. When they finally managed to set up their tent, the sun had long disappeared behind the hills at the seaside end of the loch, and the cold gusts of wind spilling over the hilltops made them glad to finally be able to enter their tent.

“Fancy place,” Ginny commented, looking around the modest living room and kitchen. “Not much worse than my apartment.”

“I’ve grown too used to Grimmauld Place myself,” Harry said. “I’ve become a snob.” He walked into the kitchen.

“Do you think there’s something in the fridge?” Ginny asked him.

He opened the fridge. “No, there’s nothing here. I did find some tea bags and a kettle, though. Would you like some tea?”

“That’d be lovely, thanks,” Ginny replied.

Harry busied himself with the kettle, and a while later the two sat next to each other on the black leather couch, a candle peacefully burning on the small coffee table in front of them.

“What a day,” Ginny commented.

“Yeah.”

“Thanks for the tea, by the way.”

Harry hummed in response.

“It’s hard to imagine that I’m still playing a game in two days,” she said thoughtfully. “Seems so far away now, doesn’t it?”

Harry didn’t reply.

“Are you awake?”

“Only because you can’t shut up,” Harry joked.

“Never lost your tact, I see,” Ginny tutted. She seemed to consider something for a brief moment. Then she leaned over and set her mug on the table. She shifted in the couch and slowly settled against him, her head leaning on his shoulder. That same, familiar warmth settled in Harry’s stomach, and he wrapped his arm around her middle.

“I’ve missed you,” Ginny murmured, her eyes closed. A lump formed in Harry’s throat.

“I’ve missed you too.” He tightened his grip slightly, and felt a faint glimmer of hope inside him. Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t all lost yet.

“Come on,” she said, halfway through the candle and long after their mugs were empty. “Let’s go to bed.”

Harry felt a reaction in his groin instantly. “You mean…”

“What?” She sat up and turned towards him.

“You mean, um…”

Ginny continued to stare at him quizzically, but then the penny dropped. “Oh! Harry, I didn’t mean…”

“No! No, me neither,” Harry said quickly.

“Oh. Good.”

“Separate beds?”

“Yeah.”

They got up, blew out the candle, set the mugs in the kitchen and moved towards the bedroom, but Ginny froze in the doorway.

“What’s wrong?” Harry asked.

“Well,” Ginny began. “The interior choices are… special.”

“How so?” he asked.

“Take a look,” she said, and she moved aside to let him in.

Harry didn’t know exactly what to expect from the tent when Samuel from the Auror office lent it to him, but he didn’t expect the bedroom to be furnished as a marital suite that was far more extravagantly decorated compared to the living room. The carpet was soft and white, the walls were plastered and painted in a light, heavenly blue colour, and white see-through curtains hung in front of the luxuriously paned windows. On the bedside desk lay a box of ornately decorated chocolates, but the large, two-person bed, covered with red and white linens and countless pillows caught Harry’s attention the most.

“Stylish,” he said.

“You could say that,” Ginny said, her voice brimming with anger. She pushed him outside the bedroom. “Did you know about this, Potter?” she demanded, putting her hands on her hips in a scarily accurate imitation of her mother.

“No, I didn’t! I hadn’t even looked inside this tent before today!” Harry protested.

She advanced on him. “Right, and I’m supposed to believe that? Is that what this ‘road-trip’ is about?”

“No!” He stepped back and gripped the armrest of the couch in anger. “Ginny, that’s absolutely not what this is about!”

“Did you think this was a funny way of trying to get us back together, is that it?”

“What? Come on, you know me better than that! How could you think that of me?”

“Yeah, I thought I did too when we moved to Grimmauld Place together! Turns out you loved hunting Death Eaters more than anything else.”

Harry huffed in annoyance. “I did what I had to do! Or did you want those Death Eaters to walk around freely? Killing more Muggles? Didn’t you want the Carrows locked up immediately, after their year at Hogwarts?”

Ginny’s eyes widened for a moment, and took on a dangerous glint. “Don’t you dare use that on me, Potter. And I know what you did was important, in fact,” she poked him in the chest, “I completely agreed with you! I still do! It just didn’t work out between us, and I moved on.” Her voice promised imminent violence. “We broke up years ago, and I moved on. I thought you were smart enough to do the same.” Alarmingly, she grabbed her wand from her jean pocket.

“I did!” Harry said. “Or has it escaped your notice that I had a girlfriend until very recently? And don’t point that wand at me!”

“Oh yes, and you were blissfully happy together, weren’t you?” Ginny argued, her voice rising, and her wand still loosely pointing in his direction, occasionally shooting out sparks. “Is that why she cheated on you? Honestly, anyone but you could see that the bitch was completely wrong for you, and you broke up months ago, so don’t give me that shit about a bloody girlfriend!”

“Enough about Julie!” Harry roared. “This has nothing to do with her! Besides, you don’t hear me talking about that annoying git Mark either, do you?”

If possible, Ginny’s expression became even more furious. “You’re damn right I don’t, and you’ll never mention him to me again if you know what’s good for you! I decide who I go out with! Not my parents, not my brothers and least of all you, with this bloody tent of yours!”
They stood there, panting at each other. Harry felt heat rising in his cheeks, and he breathed in deeply to calm himself down.

“Ginny,” he said, harsher than he intended. He took another breath. “Ginny, I promise you that I didn’t know about this. I should have asked Samuel about it, but I honestly didn’t think of that.”

Ginny sighed, and she shook her head. “Right. Well, think better next time. I’ve got a game to play in a few days, remember, and I just can’t deal with this now.”

He wanted to argue about that, but he stopped himself before he opened his mouth. “I can sleep on the couch if you want to,” he suggested instead.

“That thing is not nearly long enough for you,” Ginny said. “Honestly, it’s fine. The bed’s plenty big enough for us two, so let’s just get this over with.”

“Right.”

Brushing teeth had never been more awkward. The romantic furnishing apparently continued into the bathroom, and even though the tent wasn’t so luxurious that it contained a Jacuzzi, the slightly pink sinks sprinkled with rose petals, and the large walk-in shower did enough to create a very romantic mood. Obviously the majority of Samuel’s bed had gone into the two rooms the newlyweds spent the most time in. Harry tried not to meet Ginny’s big brown eyes in the ornate mirror above the sink, and decided to closely inspect the specks on the ceiling instead.

“I want to get up early tomorrow,” Harry said as they exited the bathroom again. “We should be in Portree before noon if we do, and then we’ll still have plenty of time to poke around and maybe try and find out what’s going on with Savage.”

“Fine by me.”

“I’m just saying it so you know you can’t sleep in tomorrow.”

Ginny grunted in response, but didn’t say anything further. Their argument from before still fresh in their minds, they changed into their nightclothes and stepped into the oversized bed, each on their own side and with a considerable distance between each other. Harry wanted to wish her goodnight, but it didn’t feel right after their argument. He switched off the lights without further comment. He placed his glasses on his bedside table, turned his back to Ginny, sighed deeply and quickly slipped into a deep sleep.

-----

Before he opened the front door to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Harry looked at his watch again. He wished it was lying, that it was somehow broken and that it wasn’t really almost nine in the evening. But the battered gold watch Mrs Weasley had given him for his seventeenth birthday had never missed even a second, and that wasn’t any different now. Harry really was in deep shit, and no fluke would help him out this time. With a dreadful feeling in his stomach, he pushed the key inside the keyhole, turned it, and slowly opened the door.

The corridor was dark and empty, which wasn’t too unusual, given that Mrs Black’s volatile portrait still hung here, but the whole house seemed more quiet than usual. He hung his coat up, and the door closed behind him on its own accord with a soft click. He felt like there was something about the atmosphere in the house tonight that made him feel on edge, like he was an intruder in this eerie quietness.

He stepped into the kitchen and looked around. None of the lights in the large room were on, but Harry couldn’t bring himself to turn them on. Only a small fire burnt in the hearth to his right, but instead of giving off warmth it seemed cold, dead. Near it, in her favourite sofa and with her back turned to him, sat Ginny.

“I left you some supper,” she said without looking up from the fire. “It’s still on the stove, you’ll have to reheat it.” Harry heard his own sadness reflected in her voice.

“I’m sorry,” Harry said. His voice cracked.

Now Ginny did move. She unfolded her legs, stood up, and slowly walked towards him.

“You’re late again,” she said softly. She stopped right in front of him and crossed her arms.

The fire reflected faintly in her brown eyes, but her look was as cold as the house felt. He turned to the stove, just so he wouldn’t have to meet her gaze anymore, waved his wand to turn on the small kitchen light and started to reheat the simple potato dish that was still in the pan.

“It’s the damn case, Ginny,” he said. Ginny scoffed in annoyance behind him. “No, seriously, we’re so close to finally catching Yaxley, but he’s smart. We’re doing everything we can to at least get a window of opportunity to track him down, but that just takes a lot of time. I’m sorry.”

“Are you?” Ginny asked softly. Harry stirred the dish one last time, let go of the ladle and turned back to her.

“Am I what?”

“Are you really sorry, Harry?” she asked again, louder this time. “Cause showing up this late so many times is a very funny way of showing it.”

“I am doing everything I can, Ginny,” Harry said in a controlled voice. “I hate this just as much as you do. Fuck’s sake, I’m up to my neck in this mess! I asked Robards for more Aurors but he refused, and the longer we wait, the less likely we are to catch the last of those bastards!”

“You keep talking about your case, Harry, but what about us? When are we finally going to have a night where we don’t talk about your paperwork, or the Death Eaters? When are we finally going to have a night when you’re even there for dinner?”

“After we catch Yaxley! I promise you, Ginny, after we’ve caught him, I’ll… I dunno, I’ll take a week off.”

“Not likely, Robards is too much a dictator for that.” Ginny spoke his thoughts.

“Maybe,” Harry said.

“Definitely.” Her look of controlled anger was then replaced by a more uncertain one, and that only made Harry’s trepidation grow.

“But say that you do get a week off. What happens after that, Harry?” she asked. “Another case? Maybe a snatcher who escaped punishment? One of Voldemort’s cronies who fled to the continent?” Harry began to smell the potatoes behind him, but he ignored them for now.

“I have to do this,” he said plainly. “There are Death Eaters still out there, and I have to find them.”

Ginny nodded. “I know you do, and for some stupid reason that’s part of why I love you,” she said, and her eyes grew misty. “But I’m so goddamn tired, Harry. I’m tired of never knowing when you’ll be home, I’m tired of having to tell everyone that I’m fine, just because everyone expects us to be this amazing power couple who are always happy together. But I’m not fine, and I’m just so fucking tired of us fighting. I… I can’t do this anymore.” A single tear slid down her cheek and landed on her green Harpies sweater.

Harry said nothing, and he leaned back against the counter. He was stunned at this much emotion coming from her usually so strong girlfriend, and he genuinely didn’t know what to do.

Ginny took a deep breath and straightened herself. “I talked to Ophelia, from the team, and she said I could sleep at her place for a while,” she continued. “I’ve packed already. I’m sorry, Harry.”

-----

Harry woke up with a jolt. For a moment he didn’t know where he was, or why he woke up so suddenly. He reached for his glasses next to him and put them on. The room slowly came into view the more he blinked, and then he remembered the tacky honeymoon bed they were lying in. He shifted to look at the woman next to him. The pale moonlight shone on her fiery hair fanned around her, and she looked adorably innocent in her sleep. He leaned on one elbow and simply watched her as he listened to her quietly whistling breath.

Then he heard the voices.

“Well, there’s the car,” he heard someone say outside their tent. “I’ll be damned, blocking the road actually worked.”

“What the fuck is this tent? Looks like a bloody house on the inside or summin’!” Another man said.

“Does it matter right now?” Harry recognised him as Savage. “We’ve got little time, so let’s go in. We can discuss interior designs later. Oh, and one last thing, lads: no fuss, no fight, and no killin’. The less bodies we leave behind, the better this thing goes. Now move it!”

Harry then realized he had only a few seconds left to act, and he sprung into action, throwing his covers off him and grabbing his wand as he got up. No time to get dressed. He soundlessly summoned his cloak and his old Firebolt, and he laid them on the bed. A crash from the other side of the tent made him look around, but the door to their bedroom hadn’t opened yet. He looked back at the bed and blinked in surprise. Ginny, the cloak, and the broom were gone. And then the door burst open. In a blur of shouting, running, and a sharp hit to the back of his head, Harry found himself dragged by his shoulders outside the tent. He’d lost his wand in the struggle before he had the chance to cast a single spell. He felt raindrops land on the top of his head and in his neck as they exited the tent.

“Try anything and you’re dead, Potter,” Savage snarled, walking ahead of them.

“You know this bloke, Cal?” one of the men dragging him along asked.

“Yeah, he’s another copper, know him from work. Cocky little shit, this one,” Savage replied. “Where’s your girlfriend, Potter?”

“Long gone,” Harry grinned despite a splitting headache and a bleeding lip. He was pushed into the back of one of the cars parked in front of the tent. As they slowly descended the steep hill towards the road below them, Harry was bound, blindfolded, and had a tape stuck over his mouth by the men on either side of him. At least Ginny’s safe, he thought. The car sped up, and Harry leaned back in his seat.


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