Meanwhile, back at the ranch...
Just kidding. Sort of.
What has been happening outside of the little love nest in the woods? Here you go!
|
Bonds of Blood and Magic | ||||||
|
Category: Post-HBP Characters:Harry/Ginny, Severus Snape Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama, Fluff, Romance Warnings: Mild Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Violence/Physical Abuse Rating: PG-13 Reviews: 932 Summary: A few days before Bill and Fleur's wedding, Harry vanished. Two weeks later, Ginny disappeared, also alone and without a trace. Someone has stepped out of the shadows for a moment, moved some pieces on the board, and changed the rules of the game. Hitcount: Story Total: 407087; Chapter Total: 15356 Awards: View Trophy Room Author's Notes: |
Previous Next |
|
||||
|
On 31 July, late in the morning, Luna sat sprawled in a bean-bag chair in her loft bedroom staring at her ceiling mural when she felt her DA galleon heat up. She wore it in a pouch that hung from a cord around her neck, which was long enough to suspend it below her breasts so no one could see it. She pulled the pouch out of her blouse, ripped it open, and grabbed her coin. It was her link, her symbol, of having friends. She wore it constantly, and never let it out of her sight. She immediately understood Harry’s emergency message, and laughed at the cleverness of whoever sent it. She bounced up from her chair and ran downstairs to find her father. “Daddy, guess what! I’m not going to Hogwarts this year!!” Xenophilius Lovegood didn’t look nearly as excited as his sixteen year old daughter, until she mentioned that maybe they could go on an extended Snorkack expedition. Of course, she’d need to be able to come back if Harry needed her to fight Death Eaters again. They immediately began making plans. *** Hermione felt the gold galleon in the pocket of her jeans heat up, like it had so many times during fifth year. It hadn’t carried a message in so long, she jumped from the surprise. Her parents looked across the breakfast table at her questioningly, as they saw her face pale. “H … Harry! He’s alive!” Then her face clouded, and she started digging in her pocket. “Or Ginny is…” “What is that, Hermione?” asked her father when she pulled out a large gold coin. “Oh, it’s a … way of sending messages to other members of the DA.” “The … DA?” “Our dueling club at school, Dad. Really, it’s more than that, but that’s what we call it.” “So, Harry might be alive, or Ginny. How would that tell you?” “Because there are only two master coins — mine and Harry’s. I don’t know if he had his when he disappeared, or if Ginny had it, though.” “If it’s Harry’s, why would Ginny have it?” Hermione rolled her eyes. “Harry might have given it to her, because she’s his girlfriend.” ‘Whatever he might have said at the end of the year,’ she added to herself. “Ah. Well, what does your messaging penny say?” “It’s a galleon,” she replied distractedly. She read the message on her coin again. “It says, ‘All — do what free elf told HP year two.’” She furrowed her brow. “Kind of cryptic isn’t it?” asked her mother. “Not really, it’s pretty clear.” “What? That’s clear?” “Well, only if you know who and what it’s talking about. The ‘free elf’ is a little house elf named Dobby. Harry tricked his owner into freeing him at the end of our second year. He’s the only free elf I know who likes it, and he’s the only one who told Harry anything in second year.” “So, HP is Harry Potter, then?” asked her father. “Right.” “So, what did he tell him?” prompted her mother when Hermione didn’t say anything more. “Oh, sorry. He told Harry to stay away from Hogwarts, that it was too dangerous to go there…” Mr. and Mrs. Granger exchanged a look, and then Mrs. Granger asked, “So, what are you going to do?” “Oh, I wasn’t planning to go this year anyway, Ron and I were going to help Harry instead. I wonder why everyone else is supposed to stay away, though …” She held her galleon in her hands, closed her eyes, and concentrated for a moment. “Hermione?” said her father. “Yes?” “Are you alright? You kind of disappeared there.” “Oh. No, I was sending out a message.” “Without your wand?” asked her mother in surprise. “Sure, you don’t need a wand for everything. I set these coins up so Harry and I could send each other messages, or the whole DA, without using our wands. We just have to concentrate on them, with the message that we want to send. It can’t be very long, but it’s very secure and an instantaneous way to notify everyone of what to do at the same time.” “So, what did you send out?” “I asked who has Harry’s coin, who’s sending out the warning.” “Who got that message? Everybody?” “Not everybody, no, I sent that message just to Harry. Or whoever’s got his galleon.” Mrs. Granger watched Hermione clean up after their breakfast. Really, it was dead useful having a witch around. She sighed as the last damp dishtowel flung itself into the bin, and then she left the room in search of something to occupy the rest of her morning. Hermione was too distracted by the coin she hardly set down to be good company. Hermione checked her coin again, but the message area, where the serial number resided on a normal galleon, still only showed the numbered code that told members of the DA that it belonged to her. She took out a book and sat at the table with a cup of tea, reading. It was nearly an hour before she got a response to her query. Her galleon warmed in her hand, and she gasped as she read the new message: HG — HP w/ G. Imprtv all DoM obey last. Reply. She concentrated on her coin again, after a moment’s thought. Her coin now read: HP — wilco. Only DoM imprtv? Moments later, a new message appeared. HG — ALL DoM imprtv. All mgls if pssbl. Bad. HP — ruok? HG — we r safe. U? HP — I m Safe. HG — rents? HP — safe. She sent out another message. All — obey last msg. DoM+mgls IMPRTV. HG. Hermione’s mother walked back into the kitchen where she’d left her daughter nursing a cup of tea. She watched as her daughter alternated between reading her coin frantically and closing her eyes in concentration for several minutes. Finally, Hermione set down her coin on the tabletop and reached for her wand. “Hermione, what’s going on? Who has Harry’s coin?” Hermione was startled to see her mother there. She’d been so hyper-focused on her conversation that she’d not even noticed her enter the room. “Oh. Harry has it. Ginny is with him, so I guess they both have it.” “Are they okay? Where are they?” “He says … they’re safe, but that’s all.” “Well, I’m sure that Molly will be glad to hear that, at least.” “Right. I should send Ron a message, then.” She picked up her wand, conjured her Patronus, and sent it out the window in a silver streak with a message to the new Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Her mother shook herself at the strangeness of it all. The surgery she’d spent twenty years building with her husband was closed, which was enough to make her cry when she was alone. She didn’t know where she was but they were hiding in a safehouse full of complete strangers. Her daughter was an adult witch assigned to guard the safehouse as a member of an insurgent group which sent secret messages on coins and with whispy-looking ghost animals. She sighed, made herself another cup of tea, and went to the sitting room where she’d been trying to learn to knit. She was shortly drawn back into conversation with one of the other women in the safehouse, a woman named Petunia who had a terribly fat and unpleasant husband. They usually ignored everyone, but Petunia had discovered that Mrs. Granger was a dentist, and had taken to speaking to her after breakfast about why they were in ‘this awful freak house’ and other such nonsense. Mrs. Granger only listened to her to pass the time. Twenty years as a dentist gave her quite a bit of patience at listening to other people complaining, and it took her mind off her own worries. *** Molly lay in her bed at the new Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. Depressed didn’t even begin to describe how she felt. Her whole family, minus the missing Percy, Harry, and Ginny, were stuck in a dreary, broken down castle, otherwise known as Auchindoon, which sat in apparent complete ruin near Dufftown, Scotland. Of course, it wasn’t as ruined as it appeared. It had a number of repelling charms on it, and only a few of them applied to Muggles. She hoped that they weren’t to stay long, regardless. Cold stone and misty highland valleys weren’t her favorite environs. She preferred a warm southern farm. Her farm. Her home, not this ruined fortress. It made 12 Grimmauld Place look positively inviting and home-like. ‘Ginny, where are you?’ The possibility that she was dead was clear, and horrifying. It had been two whole days since she disappeared without a trace. But she almost preferred … dead, to the other fantasies plaguing her mind. Things like Death Eaters and dungeons … She fell into a drowsy state, remembering that horrible day. The Weasleys had scattered about the Burrow after dinner. Molly was cleaning the kitchen, and Arthur was in his study reading about aeroplanes. Ginny was in her room moping. Ron sat in the sitting room near the Burrow’s front door with his battered chess set, looking at different patterns and moves. Hermione, visiting from her parents’ hideout, was also in the sitting room absorbed in a book. Bill and Fleur disappeared up the stairs as they had every evening since they arrived, and no one expected to see them again that night. Fred was in the twins’ old room messing about with an invention they’d abandoned in third year, but George was sitting in the kitchen talking to his mother. In spite of the flat over their shop, the twins still came by several times a week for their mother’s food, and usually stayed the night. They were, really, clinging to their family and familiar places, like everyone else. Only Ron noticed Ginny run down the stairs and out the door, but when she didn’t come back after a quarter of an hour, he got worried and grabbed Hermione to go look for her. When she wasn’t in any of her usual haunts on the grounds, they went back inside to tell Ron’s parents. After that, things got a bit … noisy. Molly checked her clock, but it gave neither comfort nor clue. Instead of ‘at home,’ or ‘mortal peril’ like most of the other clock hands, Ginny’s joined Percy’s at ‘lost’. Percy’s face on his clock hand looked angry, but Ginny’s just looked confused. “Where could she have gone? What is that girl thinking?” ranted Molly. Arthur attempted to comfort her, but she was having none of it. Everyone, including friends and family from all over Great Britain, searched until well after midnight, when Arthur finally called a halt. “Right. Everyone, it’s late, we’re all exhausted, and it’s quite clear that she isn’t here. Thank you, everyone, for helping us look. Let’s get some rest, and try again in the morning.” They started searching again at first light, but Ginny Weasley was, like Harry Potter before her, simply gone. Now, the Burrow stood empty and lifeless. Ginny’s hand on the clock face never moved. Molly couldn’t decide if that was a good sign, or not. Molly jerked awake as running feet and shouts came closer to the chamber she occupied with Arthur, whenever he wasn’t at Muriel’s working on the wards. Two of her boys rushed through her door, flushed and excited. “Mum!! Ginny’s alright! So’s Harry!” they shouted. “What? How … What? What makes you say … How do you know?” She clutched her hands to her chest, not daring to believe that her most desperate hopes might come true. She turned and grabbed for her clock, but tears of frustration were all it gave to her, as Ginny’s hand on the face was locked on the same spot, and her expression was just as confused as the day she disappeared. “Hermione just sent us a message saying that they’re both safe,” said Fred, breathless from their sprint. “Hermione? But where are they? How does she even know?” “We don’t know where they are, actually, but …” Ron started, but his mother interrupted. “What did she say?” “Just that they’re safe, and …” Fred turned to his brother. “Oi! Ron! Congratulations! You beat me and George dropping out by six months!” Ron blushed as Fred continued, “No fireworks, though. Lost some style points there.” “What’s all this?” Molly asked sharply. “Two dropouts in the family are quite enough, Ronald.” “But it’s not safe. Harry said so,” he said stoutly, sounding perfectly righteous. ‘Wasn’t planning on going anyway, not Hermione, Harry and me,’ he thought to himself. ‘Now she can’t yell at me about it.” That last thought was a bit too smug, and it showed on his face. Molly looked suspiciously at Ron’s expression. She’d have the truth of this sussed out before dinner, unless she missed her guess. “But what about Ginny and Harry?” “We don’t know, Mum. Hermione didn’t say anything, except that they’re safe.” “Well, thank Merlin. At least, we can hope now, right?” she asked, looking for reassurance from her boys. They looked at each other in shock, but then turned back to their mother. “Of course, Mum. Hermione wouldn’t say so unless she was sure,” Fred said confidently. “Right. You know how she is, always checking everything three times,” Ron added. Molly burst into tears, and they folded her into hugs, patting her back. *** “Neville, don’t be stupid. Of course, you’re going to school. This is your seventh year. You can’t get a good job without NEWTs, and you can’t possibly think that you’ll pass any NEWTs without as much time at Hogwarts as possible. If I could make you go for an eighth year, you would be going for that as well.” “But, Gran…” “No, Neville. You’re going. What would your parents say if they knew I let you drop out of school for your last year? This isn’t even to be discussed.” “No, Gran! You are not using them like that!! I’m not going, and you can’t make me!” Augusta Longbottom, were you to ask anyone who knew her, was not a witch to cross. She was certainly not the witch to stand for her grandson shouting at her. Neville was far from a stupid wizard, and he knew his Gran better than anybody. So when her face clouded in fury after his last statement, any normal person watching would have expected him to immediately apologize and back down. Normally, Neville would never have said anything like that to his Gran. Normally, if he had, he would have wet himself at the look she was glaring at him. But this situation was not, for them, normal. Neville, at seventeen, had never really rebelled at anything his Gran told him. However, he was no longer the easily intimidated little boy he’d been for most of his life, and he’d just gotten a confirmation message that he needed to find somewhere else to be this year from one of the people he trusted most in the world. “Oh, can’t I,” Mrs. Longbottom said in a low, deadly voice. “No. I’m the head of the family now, and I can’t go. I have to … take care of some things that are more important.” “What could POSSIBLY be more IMPORTANT than your EDUCATION?!” she exploded. “Gran, remember back when I helped Harry at the Ministry, at the end of fifth year?” he asked, trying to remind her both of a time when she said she was proud of him, and to drive home the point of his argument. “What has that got to do with you finishing your schooling?” Her voice was cold, and he shivered inside, but tried not to let it show as he pushed on. “I just got a message from Harry and another from Hermione saying that anyone who helped Harry at the Ministry needs to stay away from Hogwarts, because it’s too dangerous for us to return this year.” Mrs. Longbottom had no response to that. Her mouth gaped open for just a moment, before the training of a lifetime forced her back into proper decorum. Encouraged by her silence, Neville continued, “The last time I got a message from Harry, Death Eaters invaded Hogwarts and murdered Dumbledore. Now, I don’t know if Harry will need me to help him fight Death Eaters again or not, but I’m not going to go someplace where I won’t be able to help Harry if he needs it. This year isn’t about school. It’s about helping Harry. He’s not going to school, so I’m going to make sure that I’m available for him.” With that, Neville strode out of his home and across the grounds to his favorite greenhouse, where he had some pruning to do. It always centered him to work with plants. Their personalities, if you could call them that, were usually more soothing to be around than humans, especially his Gran. He’d just won, for the first time, a disagreement with his Gran, and he needed to process what that meant for him. *** a/n: Translation of message terms: DoM=those who went to the Department of Mysteries with Harry at the end of fifth year imprtv=imperative rents=parents mgls=muggleborn members of the DA msg=message ruok=Are you okay? wilco=I will comply. |
| Reviews 932 |
Previous Next
|
