Search:

SIYE Time:11:56 on 28th March 2024
SIYE Login: no


A Secret Heart
By Starbuck23

- Text Size +

Category: Post-HBP
Characters:None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Angst, Drama, Fluff
Warnings: None
Rating: PG-13
Reviews: 18
Summary: *** The author has been reminded via the e-mail address on file that this story is listed as incomplete and has not been updated in over 2 years ***

When Harry, Ron and Hermione are taken captive by Death Eaters, Ginny must strike an unlikely bargain to get them back- and discover just how far she's willing to go in the name of those she loves.
Hitcount: Story Total: 14004; Chapter Total: 2187







ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter


Chapter Five: The Grange

The first thing that Ginny became aware of through the fog of sleep surrounding her was that, wherever she was, it was warm…and comfortable. Someone was humming softly, a sweet melody that was almost familiar. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

It was very bright. At least, a lot brighter than she remembered it being when she’d last been conscious. She tried to sit up, but immediately regretted it as a pounding headache overtook her, making her groan painfully. She shut her eyes quickly.

‘I wouldn’t sit up too fast, Ginny. Your head probably feels as if it’s been hit by a Bludger.’

Hesitantly, she opened her eyes, searching for the source of the voice. There across the room, filling an old wardrobe with what appeared to be robes was Hermione, still humming quietly.

Ginny touched her forehead gingerly, sitting up more slowly. With a smart tap of Hermione’s wand the wardrobe doors closed and she sat down on the bed next to Ginny, picking up a foul looking vial of grey potion from the bedside table. She held it out expectantly.

‘It’s a Pepper-Up Potion,’ she said simply. ‘It’ll help restore some of your energy.’

Cringing, Ginny downed the potion in one gulp, gasping as the spicy liquid made her eyes water. Almost instantly, however, she felt what must have been some colour returning to her cheeks.

‘Thanks, Hermione,’ she said earnestly.

‘How do you feel?’ the older girl asked, returning the empty glass to the table.

‘As though I’ve been hit in the head with a Bludger,’ Ginny said. Hermione smiled at her faintly. ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s early, probably about six. Ron and Harry are still asleep, I think,’ she answered, conjuring a steaming mug of tea and then taking a long draught before setting it down. ‘You’ve been out of it for a while.’

‘How long is “a while,” exactly?’ Ginny asked reluctantly.

Hermione grimaced. ‘About twenty-four hours, actually.’

Ginny’s mouth dropped open. ‘A day?’ she said in disbelief. ‘I’ve been asleep for a day?’

Hermione nodded apologetically. ‘Yes. But after two Stunners like that, it’s no wonder. A grown wizard wouldn’t be able to stand down that much force without feeling it afterwards, let alone someone your size.’ She paused, picking absently at the quilt beneath them.

‘You were lucky,’ she said more quietly.

Ginny dipped her head, meeting her friend’s eye. ‘You mean I was lucky you were there.’

Hermione gave her a watery smile, her brown eyes shining. ‘You’re lucky I even remembered the proper spells, I was in that much of a panic. It was so stupid of me.’

‘Hermione,’ Ginny said firmly. ‘You were brilliant as usual, I’m sure.’

‘Right,’ Hermione answered weakly.

For a brief moment they simply looked at one another. Then without warning, both girls suddenly flung their arms around the other’s neck, choking back an identical sob. Ginny hadn’t realized just how badly she’d been in need of her best friend’s company until now. Hermione, it seemed, felt the same.

‘Oh, Ginny, I was so frightened,’ Hermione said, wiping the tears from her eyes. ‘When that Death Eater attacked you, it was terrible. There was just so much blood everywhere, and nothing seemed to help it, I think Dolohov must have modified the cutting curse to keep it bleeding or something.’

Something in Ginny’s brain suddenly clicked. ‘Dolohov? Antonin Dolohov? The Death Eater that attacked you in the Department of Mysteries?’

Hermione nodded grimly, and her features turned hard. ‘Yes,’ she answered, staring ahead, lost for a moment in some distant memory.

‘But wasn’t he in Azkaban with all the rest?’ In her muddled state, Ginny could not quite put all the pieces together.

Hermione shook her head, and sighed. Ginny thought she seemed weary, more than just someone who simply hasn’t been getting enough sleep lately. She wondered what things Hermione could tell her, things she likely didn’t want to hear but needed to know of all the same. All the dark and painful things they had been forced to endure since she last saw them. Hermione would tell her- but not now. Not yet.

She looked up abruptly as she realized that Hermione had pushed something at her, and gasped when she saw it.

Smeared across the front page of the Daily Prophet, in grisly black letters, read the words, “AZKABAN OVERUN AGAIN: DEATH EATERS STAGE REBELLION FROM INSIDE AND OUT.”

She could only gape at Hermione, wide-eyed. ‘When did this happen?’ she asked unbelievably.

‘The night before last, apparently,’ Hermione said. ‘The same night you rescued us from Grimsby, in fact. It seems that’s why the Death Eaters were so slow in getting there when you activated the barrier, and it’s probably the reason there weren’t more of them there to begin with. The Order said that--’

The bedroom door suddenly flung wide open as Ron came barging into the room, successfully drowning out whatever Hermione had been about to say.

‘Well, it’s nice to see that you two have caught up and all,’ he said, taking in their puffy eyes and red faces. ‘But did you really have to fall all over each other to do it? You’d never catch a bloke getting all worked up like that.’

‘Ron!’ Hermione cried indignantly, tossing a spare pillow at him crossly, which he deftly avoided. Ginny could only laugh.

‘It’s nice to see you too, Ron,’ she said wryly. ‘And yes, I do feel fine, thank you for asking. Of course you’re welcome for saving your sorry arse, it was no trouble at all, really, I don’t mind nearly bleeding to death.’

To her surprise, his expression turned quickly serious. ‘You’re darned right you don’t mind,’ he said, sitting down heavily next to Hermione. “You had us all in a right state back there. What were you thinking coming after us like that?’

She might have laughed aloud, had his face not been so stern. ‘Are you joking? Ron, what else was I supposed to do, wait around until Voldemort came knocking at the door?’ she asked incredulously, her voice harsher than she’d intended. ‘Until you all showed up dead somewhere?’

An awkward silence fell between them. She felt the frustration building in her deflate suddenly as Ron’s face seemed to soften as well. He looked at her solemnly.

‘I’m serious, Ginny,’ he said, quieter than before. ‘You could have really been hurt.’

Without thinking, she grabbed her brother and buried her head in his shoulder. Ron returned the embrace swiftly, enveloping her in his long arms like when they were small together and she’d been hurt or afraid, when that had been enough to fix everything. But there seemed to be more to him now than she remembered, as if he were more solid, stronger than before.

Or perhaps the difference was something far less tangible, she realized. Perhaps he had, like all the rest of them, simply been forced to grow up much faster than he should have in the time they’d been gone. She wondered if he could see a similar change in her.

Ginny looked up suddenly at the sound of a small sniffle, only to find Hermione beaming at them with watery eyes.

Ron groaned, releasing her. ‘See, I told you she gets worked up over nothing,’ he said, gesturing at Hermione.

‘You’re a complete prat, Ron, you know that,’ Ginny said, swatting his arm reproachfully.

‘You two are absolutely impossible,’ Hermione sniffled, though she was smiling broadly. ‘Come one, let’s go have some breakfast, shall we? Ginny, you must be starved.’

‘I am,’ Ron quipped cheerfully.

‘Yes, well, that’s nothing new,’ Hermione said wryly. ‘Where’s Harry, Ron?’

Ginny felt her stomach plummet, though she wasn’t exactly sure why. She hadn’t even considered Harry yet, let alone what he thought of their newfound arrangement.

‘I dunno,’ Ron answered, stepping towards the door. ‘He was already gone when I got up, I suppose he’s out for a run or something.’

‘Right, well, he can just eat when he gets back. Come on, Ginny,’ Hermione said, leading them out of the small bedroom. Ginny followed, realizing suddenly that she had no idea where they were.

‘What is this place, anyway?’ she said.

‘The Grange,’ Hermione answered, clearly pleased at the thought. ‘Or at least, that’s what we’ve taken to calling it. I’m not sure what it was before.’

In the faint light, Ginny found herself standing in a cozy cottage sitting room. There was a single sofa and a company of old, but comfortable-looking armchairs all arranged around a cheery hearth, where a small fire was already spitting. Ron walked past her into the tiny kitchen, which couldn’t have been more than three paces across and was flanked by a scrubbed oak table. She looked back down the corridor, where the loo and second bedroom hid behind closed doors, she guessed.

Ginny couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face as she took the place in. It was clear that Hermione Granger lived here.

There was paper everywhere. Heaps of tattered parchment perched on chairs and tabletops, all full of scribbled notes, while piles of books lay stacked on almost any available space. There was hardly any bare surface at all through the collection of massive tomes and slender notebooks of every shape and colour imaginable, it seemed.

‘What, did you take the whole library with you?’ Ginny said cheekily, looking at Hermione.

‘Well,’ she said, blushing. ‘We’ve been doing research.’

Ginny smiled. ‘Right.’

But despite the disarray, there was still an order to it, she thought. It had none of the Burrow’s confusion, which she guessed was Hermione’s doing. The piles of books and paper were neatly stacked, tended with what was obviously well worn care. Ginny fell in love with it instantly.

Ron lit the stove and set the bacon to cook, then sat down at the table and began cutting toast. Hermione followed him in well-practiced rhythm, setting a pot of coffee to brew with a tap of her wand. Ginny sat down between them, feeling her stomach growl as she caught the smell of the bacon frying. She hadn’t eaten anything since the day before yesterday.

‘Since when do you cook breakfast?’ she joked, looking at Ron. ‘Or cook anything, for that matter? Is the world as we know it about to come to an end?’

‘Very funny,’ he scoffed. ‘I’ll have you know I’ve got plenty of hidden talents, actually.’

‘Yes, perhaps I’ll get Hermione to tell me about some of them,’ she quipped, grabbing a slice of toast.

Ron sputtered, nearly choking on the bread he’d been eating. He turned a bright shade of red before scowling at her. Hermione just smiled shyly.

Ginny laughed, feeling suddenly more at home than she’d done in months. She thought it was the first time she had felt truly at ease since this whole ordeal had begun. She heard a door open and shut behind her and turned to look, still laughing.

And froze. The laughter died in her throat as she saw him.

He looked- different. She almost laughed, but it was the only thing she could think of. He seemed much older than she remembered. She had expected him to, but it wasn’t the same somehow.

His scruffy jeans and t-shirt were stuck to him with sweat, hinting at the smooth, well-defined muscles underneath. His hair was even messier than usual. He had been riding a broom- his eyes had the same wild look they always did after he’d just plummeted headlong towards the earth.

His eyes. They had always been her undoing, and his downfall. They usually gave away much more than he wanted to, and she could read everything in them, every hope and fear, whether he wanted her to or not.

Now they were skimming quickly over her, taking inventory of every bruise and scratch. She watched them linger at the thick bandage at her neck, causing her heart to beat a little faster. Finally though he seemed satisfied, and caught her with that same piercing stare.

‘Hi, Ginny,’ he said quietly.

‘Hello, Harry.’ Her lips hardly seemed to move at all.

Everything she’d managed to convince herself in his absence fell away in a heartbeat. That their separation really was for the best. They’d hardly had anything to begin with, so it wasn’t nearly as bad as everyone made it out to be. She could stand to be near him without breaking, they were strong enough. They could act like friends again.

They were all lies.

She drew a few quick breaths, and wondered if he’d noticed. Maybe she had been strong enough once, she thought, but not anymore. Not when she knew the difference.

He was still watching her, studying her, and again she felt her resolve start to slip away under his gaze.

‘Harry…’ she began, suddenly feeling an overwhelming need to tell him everything. But she didn’t get the chance.

A sudden crack split the air between them, and the tiny cottage for a moment was illuminated by an unearthly green light. But quick as it came it was gone again, leaving them in a muffled silence.

Everyone looked around dazedly, searching for the source of the light. Harry, Ron and Hermione had drawn their wands in perfect harmony.

There, sitting in plain sight on the table, was an envelope with no name on it. Ginny blanched at the sight of it. She did not need to open it to know who it was for.

‘Where did that come from?’ Ron asked warily, noting the lack of an owl, while Hermione waved her wand wordlessly over the envelope.

Ginny grimaced, feeling a nervous squirming settle in her stomach. She’d known she would have to tell them about Malfoy eventually. Her ‘accident’ in the storehouse had bought her a little more time, but it seemed that patience was not one of Malfoy’s virtues. There’d be no getting out of it now.

‘It’s all right,’ she said reluctantly. ‘It’s for me.’

‘What do you mean, for you? No one knows you’re here,’ Ron said snappily. Under ordinary circumstances she would have laughed at her brother’s trademark obliviousness. Harry and Hermione, however, were not as slow putting it together.

‘Ginny,’ Hermione said, and Ginny could almost see the wheels turning in her head as the truth suddenly occurred to her. ‘Ginny, how did you know where to find us?’

Dawning came suddenly over Ron’s face, and they all looked at her pointedly. Though she hated it, she couldn’t quite meet their eye.

‘I was…told…by someone where to find you,’ she said, sitting down wearily at the table.

‘Told by whom, Ginny?’ Hermione asked. She glanced briefly between her brother and Harry as Hermione sat down next to her, as if she could somehow gauge their mood. But their faces were unreadable.

Ginny sighed, bracing for the worst. ‘By Malfoy.’

‘Malfoy!’ Ron yelled, a shadow passing immediately over his face. ‘You actually went near that double-crossing snake?’

But Hermione’s astute brain was still whirring a mile a minute. ‘Ginny, why would Malfoy tell you where to find us?’ she asked, looking worried now. ‘Voldemort would kill him if he knew he’d given our location away.’

But Ginny stayed quiet, wishing suddenly there was a better way to explain herself. But there was no changing it. She glanced quickly at Harry’s face to find he was still watching her, though his face had become almost pained. That he had said nothing worried her more than anything.

‘We made a bargain,’ she said finally. Their faces blanched almost simultaneously.

‘What kind of bargain?’ Hermione asked again, her voice almost disbelieving by this point. Ginny looked again at Harry, pleading with her eyes for him to understand, before she turned back to Hermione.

‘An Unbreakable Vow.’

Instantly, the room went quiet. For a second the only sound she heard was her own uneven breath, until everything suddenly erupted at once.

‘You did what?’ Ron bellowed, jumping from the chair. His face was a livid shade of red.

‘Ginny, you can’t be serious,’ Hermione wailed. ‘Don’t you know what that means? An Unbreakable Vow is permanent, there’s no going back on it.’

‘Of course I know what it means,’ she snapped indignantly, feeling entirely put out now. Just like Fred and George, they were treating her like some unwilling child incapable of rational thought or action. She had honestly expected more of them. ‘I’d hardly have done it otherwise.’

‘Oh, Ginny, that’s not what I meant, it’s just a shock that’s all,’ Hermione began placatingly, but again she was rudely interrupted.

‘Are you bloody mental?’ Ron shouted at her, his ears now a brighter shade of red than she thought she’d ever seen before. ‘You made a bloody Unbreakable Vow with Malfoy? You’re out of your mind!’

Her face flushed with anger. ‘I’d say I was quite in my mind, actually, considering you three ran off and got yourselves captured by Death Eaters!’

Ron opened his mouth as though to yell again but clammed up quickly, sputtering. ‘Well- well, that’s hardly the point, now is it! What the bloody hell is the Order going to think? And Mum! Never mind what she’ll do to you!’

‘Frankly, I don’t care what anyone bloody thinks,’ she snapped back. This was a hundred times worse than when Ron had found her and Dean snogging. That, at least, she had understood. But she couldn’t deny that his dogged stubbornness now hurt more than she’d like to admit. ‘It was the only chance I could see, so I took it.’

‘It was a stupid thing to do, Ginny.’

Ginny whipped around towards Harry, fixing him in her sight.

‘What?’ she asked. She couldn’t keep the hurt from her voice now.

‘It was stupid, Ginny. Malfoy would tell you anything to get what he wants, you know that, and you almost got yourself killed because of it. And now you’ve got no choice but to do whatever he wants.’

Every word he spoke seemed to cause him pain, though the sight of it on his face did nothing to lessen her own. She knew he was torn between want and reason, but she suddenly didn’t care. Harry, who should have understood better than anyone what it meant to take a risk for the people you love. It was a betrayal she had honestly never expected.

She felt utterly defeated. There were tears burning in her eyes, and she swiped at them angrily. She would not cry in front of him, not again.

‘All right then,’ Ron said grimly, as if Harry’s words decided the matter. Ginny could only stare at them in vague disbelief. ‘As soon as we can, we’ll rendezvous with the Order so they can take you home, Ginny. Then we can put all of this behind us.’

‘No,’ Hermione said suddenly, stepping towards them. ‘The Order already knows she’s here.’

‘Hermione,’ Ron began, but she stopped him.

‘Ron, she can’t go back. Voldemort already knows she’s the one who rescued us. If she goes back to the Burrow, she’ll be putting herself and everyone there in danger.’ Hermione stopped, staring at her. ‘This is the only safe place for you now, Ginny.’

Hermione looked back at Harry and Ron implicitly. ‘Remus agrees with me.’

Ginny shook her head, feeling weary and confused. ‘Remus? What does Remus have to do with it?’

But Hermione glanced away, as if she couldn’t stand suddenly to meet Ginny’s eye. When she finally looked up, Ginny saw that her face was full of regret.

‘The Order knows you’re with us because Remus told them. I spoke to him last night. Ginny, Remus knows about this place, that we’ve been staying here. He’s our Secret Keeper.’

Hermione’s words were like a punch in the gut. ‘Remus?’ Ginny asked, stunned. ‘Remus knows you’re here?’

Hermione nodded pitifully.

‘And he’s known all this time?’

Hermione could only nod again miserably. ‘Ginny, we had to tell someone-’

The knot in her throat was painful. ‘Just not me,’ Ginny said roughly.

‘Ginny, please-’

But Ginny stopped her, beyond caring what was right anymore. She felt like she might be sick on the spot.

Though it was the last thing she wanted to do, she felt herself seeking out Harry’s eyes, almost unwittingly. And though she’d expected nothing different, it made her heart clench wretchedly to see the grief in them.

She couldn’t take it any more. The pity on their faces was too much to bear. Turning, she wrenched open the back door and fled.



A/N: I know this seems like a horribly pitiful reunion for Harry and Ginny after all the trouble she went to, but I promise it won’t last! Lol. This just seemed right somehow- like it shouldn’t be too easy. Anyway, thanks to everyone who’s been following so far, you’ve no idea how encouraging your comments are. And thanks to Chi.




Reviews 18
ChapterPrinter
StoryPrinter




../back
‘! Go To Top ‘!

Sink Into Your Eyes is hosted by Grey Media Internet Services. HARRY POTTER, characters, names and related characters are trademarks of Warner Bros. TM & © 2001-2006. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R. Note the opinions on this site are those made by the owners. All stories(fanfiction) are owned by the author and are subject to copyright law under transformative use. Authors on this site take no compensation for their works. This site © 2003-2006 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Special thanks to: Aredhel, Kaz, Michelle, and Jeco for all the hard work on SIYE 1.0 and to Marta for the wonderful artwork.
Featured Artwork © 2003-2006 by Yethro.
Design and code © 2006 by SteveD3(AdminQ)
Additional coding © 2008 by melkior and Bear