My how this chapter has blossomed! First draft took a day to write, came in at around 4500 words, and blended a bit of action with some quirky plot twists. Editing took more than a week, transformed the tone, added a great deal of character and nuance, and clamoured for a new title.
If editing continues to take 5-10 times as much effort as drafting, it may slow the production turnaround a bit, but I hope you find that the results justify it!
A quick pointer I mentioned earlier to MollyandArthur, and will reiterate here: this chapter contains a long dream sequence that looks closely at the Lanossea character through Ginny's eyes. Have any of you had dreams in which you are playing another character -- not yourself? That is what Ginny is experiencing, and it can be a little jarring because Lanossea's personality is both similar to, and different from, Ginny's. This 'overlapped character' experiment is going to become increasingly important to the plot in future chapters. Note that the same thing technically applies to Harry and the Publican, but is less challenging because their personalities are nearly interchangeable.
Chapter 3. Never Let Fall (August 8-9, 1995)
A long sleep had cured both exhaustion and delirium, but the woodland princess was in no mood for celebration.
"I failed!! " Her roar echoed on distant hills as she ran east along the Roman road. "How could I be so weak?!"
Despite breath ragged from exertion and shouting, she was not quite done with either. As the second shout cut across echoes of her first, she pitched all royal etiquette to the wind, yelling, "Melltith o waed budr!"
Yet, the crass raving was far from senseless. At the moment, polite discretion was worth far less than clear headed concentration, and the latter was impossible until she conquered her rage. For this, she knew of few ways better than torrid physical exertion and some low-brow Gaelic obscenities.
Finally, she took a deep breath, and indeed, the red haze did begin to lift from the princess's (and Ginny's) eyes. At last she could condense her energies into steely determination, assess her failure, and find ways to fix it.
Her failure, of course, had been the inability to deliver an message.
The task should have been perfectly straightforward for someone of her very capable means, but something had derailed her, and she was determined to make amends for whatever damage had come of it. Unfortunately, Ginny had almost no idea what that damage might be.
As she ran, she wracked her brain, trying to piece together the princess's fragmented memories of the previous afternoon.
The first troubles had emerged while collecting medicinal herbs by the river. Hearing a sudden loud thrashing of bushes, she had rushed up the bank to discover one of her mother's warriors staggering along the woodland path. Bleeding profusely from a gash on his leg, he'd beckoned to her, falling at her feet as she reached him. With his limited remaining strength, he'd begged her to run to the nearest post house along the Roman road to find a courier to deliver a message to the Publican.
Alarmed by the warrior's severe loss of blood, she had sought to treat his wound but, in desperate agitation, the man had urged her away, swearing that the message was far too crucial to wait!
Seeing no choice, she had accepted the scroll and sped through the woods like the fleetest of deer. Upon reaching the road, she had aimed for a destination less than two leagues west.
Appallingly, she'd fallen short!
She had little sense of what had gone wrong, and the memories shed no light. One moment she had been alert and focused, running nimbly along the road, taking heart at passing a milestone that placed her at less than a league from her destination. Confoundingly, her next clear recollection was waking up by the river, panicked by a certainty that she had failed.
Between those two points, Ginny could draw only on vague, disparate scenes clouding her mind. There had been a crazed, swirling scene of destruction... searing images of a vile reptilian face... reverent recollections some young man with a strange foreign-sounding name... and a glimpse of a mysterious object of power – a weapon referred to as the Elder Wand.
In addition to that tangled weave, somewhere in the midst of her bizarre palsy, she knew that fate had dealt her the strangest twist in a very odd day: the one person who arrived to lift her stricken body from the roadway was none other than the man her message sought – the Publican himself!
No wonder she felt like cursing! Blessed with a perfect chance to salvage the quest and hand him the precious parchment, she had forgotten her task, forgotten the note, and had instead babbled incoherently.
Inexplicably, she had barely even recognised him – gazing in confused reverie, as if he was part of her bizarre dreams, and completely forgetting what he truly was to her...
A family friend.
Yes, as a girl playing at the king's feet, the princess had been fascinated by the Publican – a rare foreigner who visited frequently, charming her and her sister (Princess Heanua) with exquisite gifts and tales of extraordinary sights and kingdoms far away beyond the southern sea. As a maturing young woman, she had grown more reticent around the Publican, speaking little, and instead watching him furtively from dim corners of the long house. She had studied his bearing and manner (foreign, but distinctly charming), and observed how her father, the king, had always treated him with deference, proclaiming him a brilliant negotiator – competent, considerate, and worthy of great trust.
Most recently, she had come to understand and value that trust. Her family owed great gratitude to the Publican, in particular since he had acted with decisive efficiency after King Scavo's death to secure the Proconsul 's recognition of Iceni sovereignty for her mother, the widowed queen.
All of this history made yesterday's insanity unfathomable. To have failed to recognise a proven ally and confidante? To have failed to complete a simple mission? To have lolled about in bewildered fugue?
She could imagine only one plausible explanation: black magic! She must have been overcome by some nefarious dark enchantment – an evil spell afflicting her with a thick cloud of confusion, amnesia, wild infatuation and paralysing grief...
Grief?
Yes, that had been the worst and most confusing part of yesterday's spell – an agonizing, almost paralytic anguish.
But what had she been grieving over?
In the vague shimmer of half-forgotten dreams, Ginny recalled the imagined death of an imaginary youth. She remembered almost nothing of the young man... except for his eerie resemblance to the Publican, and an unusual (if still resonant) name.
Harry.
The name still brought strong unresolved emotions; still be powerful enough to flummox her. Perplexed, Ginny took another deep breath and shook the images from her mind.
It must have been a powerful spell!
She knew that confounding enchantments of such magnitude, while rare, were not unheard of. As part of very rigorous magical instruction, her grandmother (the princess's mentor) had spoken in hushed tones of how some wicked yet formidable Druids and Druidesses (especially among wilder tribes such as Brigantes, Ordovices, Silures, and fearsome Picts of the far north) would invoke such odious dementia in times of warfare, and sometimes even as unethical ploys in diplomacy. Ginny was aware that the spells were very challenging both to cast and to deter, but she had trained at length to detect, and find the strength to resist, such magic.
Yet, she had somehow still failed. As a figure of strength and power; as a perfectionist daughter of an uncompromising mother, there was NO GREATER SHAME than to succumb to some rogue enchantment while on a crucial quest!
On my honour, I will redeem myself!
Or die trying!!
An oath like that was no idle boast. The princess had no doubt that peril lay ahead of her, and she would not shirk from it. Yet at times like this, she made herself hearken back to her dear old grandmother, whose treasured voice echoed once again through her mind...
Only die for your honour when you cannot live for your ideals.
With those sage words, she completed the stormy cycle she'd experienced many times – blind passion moderated by deliberate calculation; her mother's fiery will bending to her grandmother's wisdom; a wild rush into the fray giving way to a cagey hunter's stealth.
Ginny slowed to a walk, disillusioned herself, and slowed her breath.
The frenzied run had already brought her close to her destination, so mad haste was less important now than girding her energy for the challenges ahead. It was also time to think, because she still hadn't answered the one crucial question.
What is the crisis??
Memories of the previous day had produced little more than confusion. She'd learned nothing on the road – it had been quiet this morning; no traffic to suggest recent or ongoing combat or clashes between the tribes. Scanning the landscape offered only ordinary sights, sounds and smells.
Then, in the cultivated calmness of her mind, Ginny remember the silver brooch!
Still clutched firmly in her hand, she raised the winged badge and examined it carefully. The beckoning call it emitted to her was clearly magical. The magic was unlike any she knew from her own people, but since the physical craftsmanship was Roman, perhaps the magic was Roman as well?
Running through her mind, she recalled her grandmother once telling her about a form of Roman magical object called a cupla mysticum – a magical tether used for long-distance communication. Since many Roman leaders and merchants traveled far from home, such cuplae were sometimes exchanged among family members, friends or lovers at times of parting. Supposedly, most cuplae could only convey basic emotions (love, empathy, longing), but her grandmother had believed that well crafted tethers might convey information about the owner's location and situation.
Nodding, it was now clear to her that this brooch was such a cupla. Furthermore, logic suggested to Ginny that the Publican had given it to her as a token of comfort, to reassure her that he truly did plan to return.
The intense foreboding now emanating from the cupla, suggested that the man was very likely being prevented from keeping this promise. The cupla was thus not helping to 'reassure' anyone, but might it instead give the means to 'rescue'? Could the brooch somehow help her to complete her task and hopefully also rescue the Publican?
By the seeds of Amaethon, please let it be so!
Running her fingers along the smooth polished surface, she absorbed the basic sense that the Publican was in mortal danger, but more detail was needed. With concentration, Ginny let the magic flow into her mind, absorbed the bitter music of the brooch, and felt herself imagining...
... cold stone floor; throbbing pain; tight cords.
Yet, more than anything, the brooch was tugging at her, pulling her in a direction that was all too alarmingly familiar. With ever-increasing strength, the cupla was leading her inexorably back toward her own home.
With mounting trepidation, Ginny now understood. The Publican was very likely now swept up in whatever turmoil had struck the village – the same unknown fracas that had driven her to dash out yesterday with the message...
Message?
She stopped and ran her hands frantically over the fold in her shift and located it. She whipped out the scroll, and having quietly discovered years ago how to break her mother's magical seal, quickly snapped it open. It had not been intended for her eyes, but she read it anyway.
Esteemed Publican,
Unforeseen Roman incursion!
Violates Iceni sovereignty.
Leader brandishes wand?
Request guidance.
Please hasten!
- B
Romans?! Romans had invaded Iceni territory?? That makes no sense!
Indeed, why would the Romans attack? The Iceni had maintained honourable and friendly relations with them for nearly all her lifetime. The foreigners from across the water had rarely caused the Iceni any problems, and had often proven helpful, providing tactical support to the Iceni during the occasional hostilities (minor border skirmishes with the Catuvellauni, and the occasional raid by splinter groups of rogue Brigantes) that might disturb the kingdom.
The Romans did not attack allies; that was simply not the way they behaved! Unlike many Brythonic tribes (especially in the unruly north and west), the Romans had a rigid code of conduct that made them very predictable. The foreigners never struck without warning; they were renowned for engaging in extensive and deliberate diplomacy (or at least bloodless intimidation) before launching any form of incursion. If the Romans had felt any legitimate tension with the Iceni, Ginny was certain that the Publican would have promptly informed the queen.
Whatever the crisis, Ginny was convinced that situation must have only worsened in the time since the queen had written the hasty note. If memory of yesterday's wounded warrior was not proof enough, then surely the brooch's urgent pull was confirmation. Yet, for all that warning, Ginny's greatest fear was still the unknown.
Why? What? How?
Who is alive? Who is dead? Mother? Heanua?
To those questions, she needed answers, and the only way to find answers was to follow the brooch into peril. It was time to judge things with her own eyes.
Having crossed the bridge over the Little Ouse, she entered what Roman treaties had long recognised as Iceni territory. She then veered immediately off the road and onto the woodland path that followed the east bank of the river, leading to the small border outpost where her family had long preferred to dwell.
Pausing for a moment to look and listen, she saw placid tendrils of smoke rising from the vicinity of the village. At first blush, this might seem a good omen – preferable to towering pillars of black (devastation) or nothing at all (desolation). However, equipt with the princess's knowledge of the times, Ginny took no comfort, because the Romans rarely signalled their victories with barbaric lust or wanton destruction.
Romans differed greatly from the Brythonic tribes by favouring cold power over heated passion. Romans often let conquered foes keep their homes and lives – this bought gratitude, and gratitude bought peaceful submission, and with peace came power.
Yet make no mistake. Romans were still to be feared... by opposing leaders! From tales of less peaceful regions, Ginny realised that if the Iceni ever raised arms against the Romans, the worst punishments would be levied not on troops or villages, but upon the royalty. Her mother, her sister and she herself (if caught) would suffer the reprisal. And while most Brythonic tribes would offer the mercy of a quick death, the Romans had a penchant for... humiliation.
Fighting back a shiver at the untold risks lying ahead, she decided to be cautious. Disillusionment was useful, but she would need even greater stealth. Approaching within two stadia of the village walls, she abandoned the path, and instead cut through the underbrush, quietly as a lynx.
Avoiding the southerly route to the main gate and long house (her normal destination), she made for the hill above the northwest corner of the village. This brambly route would be less-guarded, and also afforded a better view. In particular, climbing up the tall trees on the hilltop would let her spy directly down into the village.
One of these trees (as she knew from daring childhood exploits) could also provide an unconventional way over the palisade walls. Several long, stout branches arched over the walls, directly over the roof of the stockade. Not only did the stockade have floors similar to what she'd sensed in her vision, it was the strongest and best-fortified enclosure in the village, and thus the most likely place for an enemy to hold important prisoners such as the Publican, as well as her mother and sister... if they were still alive.
Yet, for all those factors conspired to lead Ginny north, there was one force pulling even more. The closer she got to that corner of the village, the more compelling was the brooch's call.
Cresting the hill, she peered through a break in the leaf-cover to glance at the stockade. From this distance, it was tall enough to be seen above the palisade and was easily recognizable as one of only two stone buildings in the village. She couldn't yet see any unusual activity about the building, but this merely suggested that anything of possible interest was likely taking place down at ground level, blocked from view by the tall upright logs of the palisade.
About one hundred feet from the structure, she paused and found the tallest tree in the stand. Stowing the brooch in a secure fold, she quietly scaled the trunk to a height twice the log wall, and gazed down into the village. The central square was a hive of activity, but not the usual, friendly sort that she was accustomed to. Rather, it was swarming with fully armed Roman Legionaries.
However shocking her mother's message had been, was clearly accurate – Romans had come to the village in unprecedented numbers, and were behaving in every way like efficient conquerors. Some of the soldiers were performing what seemed to be harmless camp-breaking activities (gathering materials and supplies; packing them onto ponies and into wagons), but many others were plundering treasures, and shamelessly carting off village food reserves from the granary and cellars.
Pulling her eyes away and taking a deep breath before anger could distract her, Ginny settled on her course of action. She braced herself very carefully in the crook of a large branch, and reached once more into the fold in her shift to touch the brooch.
He is alive. He is close.
The cupla also verified that the Publican remained in great danger. Ginny assessed the stockade, counting four sentries posted outside – one for each of the stout stone walls. That level of security further confirmed that the Romans were holding prisoners.
She then turned her thoughts to the air around her. The late morning warmth would mean no fire in the hearth. Perfect! Like many Celtic buildings, the stockade had a smoke hole on the roof – an excellent way to enter without being detected by guards on the ground.
After another minute of scrutiny, she spied her old route – a solid overhanging branch of a huge beech tree. It was rooted outside the village walls, but spread broadly across the defenses, and gracefully shaded much of the stockade.
Her greatest remaining concern was how to deal with any guards inside the building. A strong armed presence would make it difficult for her to reach the floor and move about the building without raising the alarm. Fortunately, for even that contingency, she now had the makings of a plan.
She clambered down the lookout tree and made her way over to the old beech. It came as no surprise to her that the lowest thirty feet of trunk had been stripped bare of branches. Her people loved trees and rarely cut them down without good reason, but of course they would have anticipated precisely the infiltration she was now about to attempt. No point in making it easy!
Fortunately, unlike the vast majority of prospective interlopers attempting to breach the walls, she had a wand. Quickly conjuring a series of small handholds running up the tree, she ascended with ease and made her way carefully and silently along the large overhanging branch. Once she was positioned above the near side of the stockade roof, she paused to scan the edge of the village square. Since Ginny doubted that this daring feat could be accomplished by stealth alone, she needed to sow a bit of... chaos.
Near the edge of the square, her eyes latched onto a tethering rail to which many of the Roman horses were hitched. Taking her best aim with a Reductor curse, the rail collapsed into a pile of splinters. Several stinging hexes later, and the square erupted into a frenzy of panicked, whinnying horses being chased by angry, confused soldiers.
Far above all of this bedlam, she conjured a rope, lashed it tightly to the branch, and scrambled quickly down to the roof. She ran nimbly over to the smoke hole and peered within. As hoped, the guards inside had grabbed their weapons and were staring distractedly out the south doorway, probably trying to determine whether their camp was under attack.
Ginny examined the three Romans carefully. Two of the men wore conventional Legionary uniforms with standard-issue weaponry – she assessed them as being common, non-magical soldiers. The third, however, had no armor and bore only a dagger on his belt. He also had a cape of fine cloth – among Romans, she recognised that as the mark of either a noble... or a wizard.
Trusting her guess, Ginny took aim at the caped man with a stunning spell, and he collapsed between his two comrades. The two soldiers spun about in alarm... then pitched forward onto their faces, stunned before either could so much as whimper.
Ginny rapelled quickly down through the smoke hole. Once grounded, she paused for a moment to magically bar the entrance and summon the fallen wizard's wand, then dashed from the central hearth toward the cells at the eastern periphery, cancelling her disillusionment charm as she went.
"Emaculo." It was a young woman's voice; a brave yet urgent whisper.
As if rescued from fire by a gentle summer's stream, Harry's cheek suddenly felt cool. A sensation of calm spread outwards, over his head, down his shoulder, chest, arms and legs, soothing his blistered legs...
And he opened his eyes.
"G-Ginny?" It came out as a pathetic croak. He coughed, shook the fog from his head and focused on the face in front of him. "Lanossëa! Please pardon me your majesty – I know not where that name...?"
Ginny? The princess blinked at the sound of yet another peculiar foreign utterance that had haunted her dreams, but she pushed the mystery from her mind and concentrated on severing the Publican's cords.
He stretched his arms gratefully for a moment, but then directed his attention back onto his rescuer. “You should not have returned here, your majesty."
His admonishment was mild and clearly ambivalent, but she couldn't help rolling her eyes at the typical Roman paternalistic condescension. She glanced up and down his grimy, bloodied face and body. "Can you get up?" she asked, looking for more wounds to heal. To her trained eye, the damage, although extensive, seemed superficial.
He braced both arms against the floor and pushed. A stab of pain tore through his side – apparently a cracked rib that she had missed – but he pushed past the discomfort and reached a stable sitting position. Ginny extended her hands to him; he grasped them and found himself surprised by the strength with which she helped raise him to his feet.
Ginny pressed a wand into his hand. He scrutinised it for a moment, then nodded. A pang of regret over the loss of his own wand (likely confiscated and destroyed) crossed his mind, but was replaced by gratitude to a young woman who was clearly as industrious as he had always remembered her. “Thank you, my princess.” A smile flickered across his features for a moment before the gravity of their situation weighed upon his mood.
“If memory serves me, the queen and your sister are in the west cell block.” Harry gazed thoughtfully through the open cell door. “I will go release them, if you can arrange some sort of escape for us.”
Ginny was about to protest any plan that withdrew her from the action, but Harry raised a finger. "Please understand.” His voice was gentle, yet firm and instructive. "This is not about your safety, my safety or that of your family – the stakes are far too great in this and we must act with wisdom and caution. Nobody is aware that you have returned here. Is that correct?”
She nodded.
“If nobody knows that you're here, then when you escape, nobody will know to come after you.” Harry paused to see that she understood. “You may have given us the glimmer of hope that we may all break away from here, and perhaps even evade pursuit, but our path is fraught with peril. It is absolutely essential that we have, at minimum, one uncaptured person who can find a suitable authority and recount exactly what I am now about to tell you!”
Ginny's eyelids flickered at the earnest and sobering request. Despite a visceral compulsion to personally free the queen's and Heanua's from captivity, she knew his logic was best, so she nodded. “Agreed. So what information would I convey?”
Grasping her shoulders, he fixed his eyes on hers, boring deeply. “Lanossëa, you must be aware that this Roman Century has trespassed into Iceni lands in defiance of established treaty. This incursion is an illegal provocation, and may be part of a plot to destabilise all of Britannia.” His voice dropped to the faintest whisper. “The Proconsul is away, distracted by campaigns in Wales. Someone must get word to him before the whole land explodes into war and turmoil!”
Ginny nodded, wide-eyed. Petty conflicts were not rare in Britannia, but for the entire island to erupt into mass conflict seemed a nearly inconceivable horror.
“If you find your way clear, but cannot free us,” Harry continued, “then please flee from here with all haste and do not return. If you are the one to bear witness to these crimes, you must only communicate with people we can trust without question. Do not take the road to Camulodunum from which these scoundrels came. Instead, you must follow the river upstream to Camboricum. The garrison there is rigorously loyal to the Proconsul and not under the sway of any treachery. Is that clear?”
“Yes.” Ginny met Harry's deep, intense eyes with her steeliest gaze.
After thanking her once again, Harry disillusioned himself. Ginny did the same, and both stealthily exited the cell.
Harry's eyes swept the main central chamber of the stockade, noting with satisfaction the three stunned Romans sprawled on the ground by the south door. A faint noise nearby alerted him to Ginny's mode of escape – a stout hemp rope twitching as she clambered up to a thick blackened beam just to the side of the smoke hole high above.
Mirabile! She's making for the roof!
Nodding to himself, Harry rushed to the western cell block, where he immediately identified the two cells that had been barred. As he opened the first door, he recognised none other than Queen Boadicea of the Iceni – as bruised and bloodied as he himself had been, yet very alert, and defiant as a caged tigress.
As Harry swung open her cell door, the queen whipped around. Despite her bound hands, she was clearly ready to tear any invisible intruder to shreds... with her teeth if need be!
Harry hastily dropped his disillusionment charm, and held out his palms in a universal sign of capitulation. Still glaring in agitation, the queen exhaled and allowed him to slice through her bonds.
Signalling silently to the queen that he was going to open the other cell, Harry crossed to over release the queen's eldest daughter, Heanua. Harry knew her as a tall, willowy blonde, renowned throughout the land as a figure of great beauty. But what he found there, crumpled upon the stone floor, drove a spike of iced rage deep into his soul.
Stooping to lift the girl's nearly-lifeless body, he determined that she was not dead. Her heart was still beating, and breath still rattled through her slackened mouth, but nearly every ounce of spirit within the girl seemed to have been mercilessly crushed in ways that Harry wished he could not imagine.
Anywhere else, under any other circumstances, Harry might have raged or wept, yet reason prevailed. Revenge or healing (or both) might come later but, for now, the sole priority was escape – as quietly and speedily as poss-
“Heu! Ostium nullo introeunte. Aperire!”
Harry loosed an expletive as Roman soldiers outside the stockade tried to break down the barred door. With a hasty spell, he braced the girl's broken bones, conjured a blanket to cover her supine form, and hoisted her over his shoulder.
“Make haste and follow, your majesty!” he called across the corridor and led the queen from the cell block toward the rope Ginny had left dangling from the roof.
Harry had just conjured a makeshift stretcher for the semi-conscious girl, and was preparing to levitate her toward the roof, when he heard the stockade's door splinter. He drew his wand, ready to blast the first person through the entranceway, but instead he heard a frantic cry from outside...
"Ignem! Muros ignibus uri!"
The pungent smell of smoke wafted past, and Harry exhaled in relief as he guessed the source. "Lanossëa, bless you and your penchant for chaos!" The Roman soldiers outside apparently now had concerns more urgent than learning how the stockade door had gotten jammed. With any luck, the distraction would give him time to escort Heanua and the queen at least as far as the rooftop.
Pointing his newly-acquired wand at Heanua, Harry cast a Roman-era levitation spell. “Attollo! ”
Heanua's stretcher jostled a few inches off the ground, but faltered. Feeling a sudden strain, Harry carefully withdrew the spell to set her back onto the floor, then paused and stared dubiously at his wand.
“The fault is not in the wand,” Ginny called softly from the roof. “The fault is Heanua herself. Our bodies have been conditioned to resist spells cast by others. The resistance can be overcome, but only with effort. I will lend my power to yours and we will lift her together.”
Harry nodded, and cast his levitation synchronously with Ginny's. Somewhat strenuously, they managed to raise the queen's eldest daughter upwards, through the hole, and into Ginny's waiting arms above.
Harry ushered the queen onto the rope, waiting nervously for two long minutes as she struggled up to the roof. Making another scan of the stockade's interior and seeing no immediate threat of discovery, he finally turned and climbed up to join the others.
Reaching the rooftop, he glanced around, and spotted the second rope hanging down from the beech branch high above. With a deep breath, he scrutinised the three females, trying to evaluate their readiness to undertake a final harrowing scramble to freedom.
Ginny's keen eyes were upon him, as if she was reading his mind. If not for the urgency of the situation, Harry would have grinned, admiring the fierce competence writ upon her face; knowing for certain that at least one person in the party could tackle the trembling high-wire with aplomb.
The queen, however, was a mess, glancing distractedly about at the flames ravishing her village, the ancestral home of her family, the favoured haunt of Icenian royalty for three generations. It was unclear whether she understood that the blaze had been set not by Roman marauders, but rather by her own enterprising daughter, but the woman was bereft, unfocused, and a poor candidate for high acrobatics.
The older daughter, Heanua, was in worse condition yet. Still bound to the brace; she had achieved some marginal consciousness, but remained dazed and mostly unresponsive.
Ginny's eyes met Harry's, and he now guessed that, through the tethering powers of the brooch, she must have fully grasped his concerns. Together, they stood in silent deliberation, negotiating a viable plan.
After a moment, Ginny's eyes flickered along an airborne path over the palisade.
Harry nodded in agreement.
"We must work together." Ginny contemplated her family members, estimating their weight and magical resistance. "Others must not see them, but we ourselves must keep them in sight or else the levitation will fail.”
Harry's eyes swept the surroundings and tapped his head. “Notice-me-not charm.”
Ginny met his eyes squarely and silently assented. “Mother, please join Heanua.” She attempted to catch the queen's attention; gesturing toward the princess's supine sister.
The queen gazed at the inferno for another several seconds. Finally, she wrenched her attention away from decades of obliterated memories, and nodded mutely without meeting Ginny's gaze.
As soon as the queen had knelt at Heanua's side, Harry drew his wand to cast the spell. “Non vigilate!
To Harry's and Ginny's eyes, the spell had no effect – they were fully aware of the presence of the queen and Heanua, and could still see them perfectly. To any other person who might gaze in their direction, however, the queen and her daughter had suddenly become so inconspicuous as to be invisible. The most observant and magically attuned of onlookers might penetrate the simple spell, but there would be little chance of such acuity from the scurrying Romans below, most of whom were still distractedly trying to salvage their wagons and supplies from insidious magical fires.
Harry and Ginny proceeded to train their wands upon the two females, levitating them carefully through the air and past the village wall. As soon as the queen and Heanua were just about to pass out of site beyond the palisade, Harry had an awful thought.
“Jupiter! How are we going to land them blindly beyond the wall? We could kill them if we misjudge the ground!”
With a start, Ginny grasped the dilemma.
Harry stared at the tall and completely opaque wall. “Can you visualise everything over there precisely? The ground; the locations of all trees, rocks and shrubs?”
Ginny frowned in deep thought. She did have a rough recollection of the terrain and vegetation beyond the wall, and knew there might be some bushes with the right density to cushion a twelve foot drop. Unfortunately, the tense, chaotic circumstances (nearly one hundred angry Romans clamouring in confusion below; more than a third of the village now engulfed in raging flames) were fraying her concentration. “It's very risky.” She shook her head. “We should find another way.”
"Right." Harry thought for a moment. “I'll try to hold both of them where they are, if you can climb back over the branch. As soon as you can see the ground on the other side of the wall, cast your spell to lower them to safety, and I'll rush across to join you.”
Ginny pursed her lips. "You believe that you can hold them?"
Harry shrugged. “I have no choice.”
Still maintaining her share of the levitation spell, Ginny paused for a moment to size up the Publican. She knew that levitating one other magical being was difficult enough with the conflicting magical forces, but simultaneously levitating two would be prodigious. She doubted realistically that she herself could hold both her mother and sister aloft for more than a few seconds... but she recognised that the Publican had many more years of magical conditioning. And she had to admit that she had never, not even from her grandmother, felt a healing spell quite as powerful yet gentle as the one he had cast on her yesterday.
With great care, ready to reverse course at the slightest sign of weakness, she withdrew her levitation spell.
Harry's incantation held; the queen and Heanua remained motionless just past the walls. A droplet of sweat formed on the Publican's brow, but he did not falter.
“You are powerful indeed, Publican.” Ginny smiled, betraying carefully hidden admiration, yet as she grabbed the bottom of the rope, she couldn't stop her gruff royal pride from reasserting. “But this is the last time I run away and leave you to do the saving.”
“We must each take our turns. You've saved enough people for one day.” Harry's eyebrow was raised in wry humour, despite increasingly ragged breath. “Now go, and be quick.”
The statement was wasted; the princess was already gone – more quickly and nimbly than he would dare have dreamed.
Less than a minute later, Harry felt a wholly welcome tremble in his wand – a sign that Ginny had taken control of the queen and Heanua, and was guiding them to safety. In relief, Harry lowered his wand and tucked it into his belt. He permitted himself three deep breaths, then scrambled up the rope.
As a greying Roman Publican, the man clearly lacked the agility of a lithe woodland princess, but his years as a hands-on administrator deep in the more rugged imperial provinces had honed his physical strength, and this stroll along a swaying tree branch was not the first delicate balancing act he had ever undertaken. Nonetheless, as a precaution, he conjured a series of ropes hanging from higher branches to serve as handholds to temper the precarious risk.
He had just reached the last of his conjured supports, and was looking ahead in grateful anticipation to grasping the main trunk (now merely eight feet away) when he heard a loathsome voice yell, “Publican!”
“Maledicit!!” After completing the levitation, Harry had obviously not remembered to disillusion again and now he'd been spotted... by the treacherous Legate!
As the Legate spat out a killing curse, Harry was still grappling for his wand. As the roiling green hex surged up from the distant village square, Harry knew he had time enough for one spell; something to buy time for the others to escape.
“Dormias! ” His stunner flashed across the sky. The two incantations, green and white, crossed in mid flight. Both were perfectly aimed.
Off-balance, with no room to side-step and no time for even the simplest spell, his eyes turned away from imminent doom...
He glanced earthward...
He glimpsed shimmering red hair — his last hope now; his best hope forever...
He leaped!
Sensing the peril with an instant to spare, Ginny raised her wand.
Few people had ever heard of a spell that might safely catch a wizard plummeting from that height. Fewer still could have cast one. Many of the finest wizards and witches would have stood there, aghast, frozen, helpless...
Not Ginny.
Encyclopedic knowledge was irrelevant, because she knew with all her heart that she would never let Harry plunge to his death. She understood equally well that Lanossëa could not let the Publican perish this way.
Ginny was certain that there would be no broken body; no bitter tears spilled upon the forest floor.
What Ginny could not guess was where... or when... would he land?
"... Because if it does, I am the true master of the Elder Wand." The young man's calm declaration whisked aside Ginny's disorientation; rivetting her attention.
Opposite them from across the Great Hall, she could see doubt quiver through the abominable scaly features of their enemy. There was a flicker of pain... but Riddle's response was predestined. He must proceed, and could only hope that dark secrets from the depths of time were still in his favour.
All uncertainty thrust beneath his grisly veneer, Voldemort's voice tore across the Great Hall at Hogwarts, sibilant, like steam on flaming brimstone...
"Avada Kedavra! "
"Expelliarmus! "
The opposing spells clashed in a scintillating plane of white light...
Yet, in an instant, all magic of hope and honour dissipated. A universal truth was proved false; a cherished balance had shattered; the pulsing white fulcrum between the green and red spells vapourised, and a lurid tongue of bitter death – the vomit of hell – slashed unchecked across the Hall...
The bold and selfless young man, the icon of love and sacrifice, began to crumple...
“No.”
Ginny's note of defiance, low yet firm, swept through the chamber like light from a solitary candle.
And everything froze.
No sound. No motion. Obedient to her command, every student, teacher, Order member and Death Eater alike, stood in rapt, statuesque attention. Swirling dust and smoke hung like delicate veils draped across the static, prickling air...
Ginny blinked and stared for a moment... but now was not the time to question how she, seemingly, had managed to stop time.
Instead, she ran to Harry.
She refused to see the terrible contortions of his body, locked on the cusp of tragic demise. She dared not gaze to his face, lest she find pain or defeat. Rather, she gave every devout fraction of herself to his irrepressible eyes.
Frozen but for his gaze, Harry met her with a nearly mystical tenderness; a falling knight glimpsing his grail...
Ginny did not quake in desolation or scream in fury. She didn't sink despairingly to the ground, even though she understood that Harry, and all the light that stood behind him, was a single heartbeat from catastrophe.
This was, after all, only a dream.
Wasn't it?
Even so, as she peered into the deep green, her own eyes began to mist... because this was so much more intense than any dream.
“Why am I here?” she asked quietly. “Why me? This is your story, Harry, isn't it? Your dream? Your future? Your fears?”
She was met with a silence, absolute but for the undulations of her own breath and heartbeat.
“I hope that didn't sound petty, I... I...” Ginny faltered, struggling to express feelings too abstract for words. After a moment, she marshalled her most neutral expression and resolved to try. “What I mean to say is that, of course I will always be here if you want me. You realise that, right? It's just that this is... hard for me to understand. What am I supposed to be doing? Why am I here? I feel as though I'm only now finally beginning to get to know you, and...”
Ginny's breath caught, and she needed several seconds to re-compose herself.
“Harry, I really want to get to know you, but... it's just that everywhere I go...” Ginny paused in inarticulate confusion. “Everywhen I go?” She shook her head. “Bollocks, I'm making a complete mash of this, but the point is, every dream seems to end like this. Why do you always have to go and d-die?!”
Ginny shuddered. Silent, tremulous sobs were poised to course through her chest when-.
“No.”
The voice was Harry's... but it was thin like a breath of wind. It came not from his rigid mouth, not from his frozen body, nor anywhere within the silent hall at Hogwarts. The voice seemed to come from deep within Ginny's own mind... and yet she was certain she had not imagined it.
Wide-eyed, Ginny stared uncomprehendingly into his eyes. “N-no? You don't have to die?”
There was no response.
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, well that's a daft question. We all die someday – I realize that! But, no, it doesn't have to end this way?”
Silence.
Guided by some deeply buried instinct, Ginny lifted her gaze from Harry's eyes and took a tentative step backwards, absorbing the entirety of her friend's face.
Although Ginny's sight was still misted, she could tell that Harry's expression was perfectly placid, oblivious to his precarious stance. Everything about his face could have been ensconced in restful slumber... except for those brilliant eyes, shining at her with care and compassion; following her, curiously, expectantly.
Ginny took two more steps back, and let her gaze drift across his entire form.
Harry was older than she knew him to be. He had gained at least two inches in height since their summer at Grimmauld Place. He was as slender as ever, but he had musculature, strength, and maturity. He was on the verge of true manhood.
Or the brink of death...
Either outcome hung on his next heartbeat. Would he stand or would he fall?
Ginny shook her head softly, releasing two small teardrops that had been clinging to her lashes. “Harry,” she whispered, “I will not let you fall.”
After awakening back in the darkness of Grimmauld Place, Harry lay in bed brooding over his grim yet vaguely hopeful dreams. He pondered the girl who seemed to appear in a lot of them. After a few minutes the dreams began to fade, but his thoughts of the girl did not, and he wondered if he ought to check on her. He was just about to push back his covers, when...
“Harry?”
He blinked. It was a girl's voice, but not the one he'd been thinking of.
“Hermione, is that you?”
The only response was the sound of Ron snorting loudly and thumping about in his bed.
Harry waited a moment, then tried again, this time dropping his voice to a faint whisper. “Hermione, you can come in.”
Hermione's face appeared in the doorway, but she still didn't reply. From the weak flicker of a downstairs lantern, Harry saw her watching Ron, apparently ensuring that Harry's best mate was really asleep. After Ron rolled over and resumed his normal rhythmic rasp, Hermione beckoned quietly.
Harry nodded and rose carefully, following Hermione into the corridor... where Ginny was waiting.
Hermione gave Ginny a quick smile, waved her friends adieu, then tiptoed her way back downstairs.
Ginny, meanwhile, signalled to Harry, and led him up the adjacent staircase to the third floor. Harry followed unquestioningly, as she steered him to the library, back to the same ottoman where they had chatted the previous afternoon. She patted the seat next to her, and he took his place at her side.
The two teens sat in thoughtful silence for a time, gazing out toward the distant street lamps on Highgate Hill.
“Errr...” Harry loosened his throat. “Why did Hermione...?”
Ginny shrugged. “I was going to sneak out of the room to come find you, but she woke up. She said it would be safer if she was the one to knock of your door.”
“Safer?” Harry gave her a puzzled look. “Oh, you mean because of Ron?”
“Uh huh.”
Harry nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah. I can't pretend to know what's bugging him, though I imagine deep down he has good intentions.”
Ginny sighed. “Yes, I'm sure he does, but that's not what I came to talk about.”
Harry nodded again, waiting for her lead.
“Harry, are you dreaming about me?”
Harry's eyes widened. It the past, he'd never have imagined a sharp-witted girl like Ginny might ask something so unguarded without a zinger ready to fly. But this was no longer the past. It seemed the beginning of a future, new and uncertain, and Ginny's question was completely serious, and required a serious reply.
He took a moment to respond, and his words were cautious. “Er, yes, I suppose I am. They're odd dreams, and you're there for a lot of them. At least I think it's you...”
“What am I like?”
Beautiful... smart... powerful...
Harry blinked. Would this new future be one where he could actually tell a girl that?
But not yet. Not to a girl who seemed interested in being his friend. Instead, he scrounged through the partly-fading dreams for something more... appropriate.
"Uhhh.. Well, sometimes you're definitely you, the Ginny that I know, except you're maybe a few years older. Other dreams, have someone who reminds me a lot of you, but she's... different. More hardened, more stoic, but deep down she's no less kind.”
“That figures.” Ginny laughed – a soft puff of breath that stirred the stray lock of hair hanging down her forehead.
Harry glanced at his friend, seeing a distant look in her eyes. Distant, if vaguely amused.
After a moment, Ginny emerged from her reverie and seemed to study him. “Yes, well in my dreams, you're definitely you. In some dreams, you're calmer, more composed... but deep down the real you is no less sweet.”
“I'm flattered... I think.” Harry grinned at her. “But you're serious though? You're dreaming of me too?”
She nodded.
"Er..." Harry chewed his lip for a moment. “I know this is round the twist, but do you reckon we're, uhhh... having the same dreams?”
Ginny shrugged. “I was wondering that too. If so, what could it mean?”
“Yes, I wonder. If Sirius heard about this, he'd take the mickey something fierce and tell us it's all 'teenage hormones'.”
"I'm sure he would." Ginny rolled her eyes. “Which is why we're NOT discussing this with Sirius.”
Harry chuckled for a moment, then fell sober. “Well, if this is truly what hormones do, I reckon I'll take a pass. These dreams are hell!”
Ginny thought for a long time before answering. “Yes, the dreams are definitely harrowing, but don't you think there's also something right about them?”
“Right?” Harry ran a hand through his hair. “Well, maybe so. Even the scary ones seem kind of... I dunno. Useful? After my heart stops bloody thumping, I feel as though I've accomplished something. It's as if, even though we're trapped in this filthy hole iding while the world outside falls apart, the dreams let us escape; fight for justice; feel meaningful. You know, my overall outlook on life may have actually improved a bit since...”
“Oh? You noticed that too?” Ginny winked pertly, then fell solemn again. “Dad once told me that our most complicated dreams help us to sort out problems we didn't realise we had, and find solutions we'd never have guessed.”
“Hmmm.” Harry pursed his lips. “Yes, that could be.”
“If so...” Ginny's voice dropped to a breathy whisper. “If so, you seem to be sorting through some rather heavy stuff, Harry.”
Harry shrugged. “I guess that's life, yeah?”
“Your life, perhaps.” Ginny found his forearm and gave it a squeeze. Then she stifled a yawn. “Well, I suppose I should let you get back to sleep, you reckon?”
Harry nodded passively. He stood up and, without conscious thought, extended his hand to help Ginny to her feet. She did not let go. Instead she led him, hand-in-hand, back down to the second floor landing.
Before they could part, she stopped and reached for his other hand. Pulling him around to face her, she gazed searchingly into his eyes. "You know, almost nobody at Hogwarts has a clue what it's like to be 'Harry Potter'. They see a side of you in the corridors, and they get another angle from the crazy headlines, but everything in between is a complete mystery." She shook her head. "It feels so strange to be given a glimpse."
Harry bobbed his head slightly.
“But why me, Harry?” she whispered. “Why would I be the one to share your dreams?”
“I have no idea.”
Ginny knew his answer was a typical male reflex denial. Yet, as her friend stood gazing blankly past her shoulder, she could somehow tell that there was another response forming; one that was worth standing in the darkness waiting for.
Harry's features did slowly school themselves. His eyes met hers. He took a breath, and the words emerged, slow and halting.
“Ginny, I-I think it's because you... will never let me fall.”
Stop, whoa, halt! That's the end of the chapter!
What follows below is an old unimproved version that I simply can't get rid of. I've tried! Please skip along to chapter 4.