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SIYE Time:6:51 on 29th March 2024
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Framed
By MichiganMuggle

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Category: Post-DH/AB
Characters:None
Genres: Action/Adventure, Romance
Warnings: Dark Fiction, Death, Extreme Language, Mild Sexual Situations, Negative Alcohol Use, Rape
Story is Complete
Rating: R
Reviews: 193
Summary: After the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry Potter is training to be an Auror, and he is finally back together with Ginny Weasley. But when a young woman dies of poisoning at the Ministry’s Midsummer Ball, Harry is the first suspect, and he can only uncover the true murderer by working with his childhood rival, Draco Malfoy.
Hitcount: Story Total: 56136; Chapter Total: 2338
Awards: View Trophy Room




Author's Notes:
Life is crazy. My stepchild is flying to another continent BY HERSELF today. As she is sixteen, I am very nervous about this. And I’m actually somewhat surprised this chapter did not take me as long as the previous two to complete. Even though, it did take me longer to edit. The word count on this indicates I made a good decision in splitting “Difficult Girls” into two parts. Chapter 10 had a lot of exposition, as I felt it was needed to introduce readers to Death Eater Hogwarts, but this chapter definitely has much more happening. And yes, we finally get back to Romilda. I know you have all missed her.




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Chapter 11: Difficult Girls, Part II

October 3, 1997, 8:10 p.m.
Room of Requirement, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Ginny lounged in the Room of Requirement with Luna and Neville after dinner on an unusually quiet Friday evening. The room was decorated with soft couches and end tables, with a fire in an ornate fireplace. If Ginny ignored the radish garlands and Atlantis travel posters that had no doubt been Luna’s doing, it was perfect. Luna was creating an intricate series of plaits in Ginny’s hair while Ginny and Neville helped themselves to the ginger biscuits that Mrs. Weasley had sent her in the morning post.

It was the most peaceful moment she’d had since before Bill’s wedding. At first, the school year had been tense due to fear of the unknown. It then it became more fearful when the unknown became the known. Terry Boot may have been the first of the Carrows’ victims, but he was far from the last. Even after Snape’s return, the use of the Unforgiveables in student discipline had continued. Ginny who was doing her best to remain unnoticed by the Carrows, or as unnoticed as it is possible for a redhead to be, had only experienced it once. She had asked the She Carrow a question on an assignment and her request for clarification had been interpreted as sarcasm by the older witch. The Death Eater had only used the Cruciatus for a moment, making a point before moving back to her lesson, but Ginny had still felt as if each nerve in her body was on fire.

But at the moment, things were fine, or as good as they could be under the circumstances. No one had experienced unusual punishments that day. The house elves had made Ginny’s favorite roast chicken for dinner, and when most of the students had gone back to their common rooms for the evenings, Ginny and her friends had headed to the Room of Requirement. Ginny liked the feeling of breaking rules when she was actually not breaking any rules at all by being in this secret room. Curfew was more than two hours away, but most students rarely strayed from their common rooms when not in classes, the library, or the Great Hall these days. The Carrows, while sloppy as teachers, were diligent in patrolling the corridors and inventing new rules for students to unknowingly break.

Ginny was sick of her common room. She’d previously loved the Gryffindor Common Room, as it gave her a place to chat with her friends and to celebrate Quidditch wins, but once people found themselves crammed in there due to necessity rather than choice, it had lost its charm. Everyone was sick of each other and fights were frequent. Parvati Patil and Seamus Finnegan had gotten together and broken up a record three times in the past month. Pippa and Martin were in competition with two break ups in the same time frame. Ginny wished they would date people in other houses. Then they would never get sick of their significant others because they would never be able to see them.

“What did you want to talk to us about, Ginny?” Neville said, pushing the plate of biscuits away.

The seventh year had lost quite a bit of weight over the last year, and Ginny had noticed he now physically pushed food away when he was done eating, as if removing temptation. With the loss of weight and shyness, Neville was getting hopeful glances from girls these days, but he hadn’t seemed to notice the effect he had on females. While Ginny hoped her friend would get a girlfriend, she had to admit there were few girls she would consider worthy of him. Neville was a bit like Luna. He had been bullied and excluded, but Ginny had never known him to plan revenge or even hold grudges. To Ginny, who thought of her temper as a family pet that habitually ran away from home, this was the attitude of a saint.

While she knew Neville was resilient, she worried the wrong girl might take advantage of his kind nature. Lately, she had noted that Lavender Brown had been eyeing Neville, which could only be a disaster. Even Ron, who lacked Neville’s consideration of female feelings, had nearly drowned in Lavender’s neediness. The sweet-faced Hannah Abbott, on the other hand, would be a perfect complement to Nev. She would do something to encourage that, she decided.

“Can’t I just enjoy an evening spent with good friends?” Ginny asked.

“Demelza, Pippa, and Gemma are your good friends,” Neville said. Ginny noted that he did not mention Holly, even though she had always been her closest friend at school. “We are the people you get into trouble with.”

“Oh, nonsense. I adore you both,” Ginny said.

“But there is something you want to tell us,” Luna said, fastening the plaits into a crown on Ginny’s head.

She hoped whatever Luna was doing to her hair was not too Guinevere in nature, and as soon as she thought it, a hand mirror appeared on the end table to her right. She picked it up and was surprised to find the twisted hairstyle was flattering.

“Thanks, Luna. That’s really pretty.”

“My mum used to do my hair like that. Sometimes, she would put daisies from our garden in the plaits. It’s too hard to do with my own hair,” Luna said, waving her now-free hands over her blond head. “Does it have to do with Harry?”

“My hair?” She wondered for a moment if they thought Harry was breaking into the school to see her.

“No. The thing you are being so mysterious about,” Neville said. “I too suspected it has something to do with Harry and his equally missing friends. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy spending my evening with you two. Especially when the alternative is watching Seamus and Parvati fight and snog. But I wish you would spit it out.”

She sighed. “There is nothing to spit out. Or, at least, I am not sure I should involve anyone else.”

“Does it have to do Harry?”

“Yes.”

“Does it involve you doing something dangerous?”

“Most likely.”

“Then you need to tell us. When doing something stupid and reckless, there is safety in numbers. Luna and I can handle it. It can’t possibly be worse than breaking into the Ministry, can it?”

“I don’t know.”

Theoretically, it shouldn’t be worse. It did not even involve leaving Hogwarts, but if they got caught, she didn’t know what Snape might do to her. Or to them, if Luna and Neville helped. Would they be punished by the Carrows? Or handed over to You-Know-Who? She knew Harry would want her to keep out of You-Know-Who’s notice. It was why he had broken up with her. But she couldn’t avoid every situation that might attract his notice, especially if it might possibly help Harry.

“Tell us,” Neville said.

“I don’t want to put anyone else in danger.”

“We would be putting ourselves in danger,” Luna said.

“It would put you in danger. But it might put others in danger too.”

She had fixated on the Sword of Gryffindor ever since Harry’s birthday. Harry said he had no idea why Dumbledore had wanted to leave it to him, and Ginny knew he was telling the truth. Harry was a good liar. Like her, he could look someone in the face and lie, but while he kept his face and voice composed, his body went rigid. She had observed him enough to know when he was telling the truth and when he was lying, and he was telling the truth about the sword.

A sword, a children’s book, a snitch, and a deluminator. A sword and a snitch. A deluminator and a book. A snitch and a deluminator. A book and a sword. A sword and a deluminator. A book and a snitch. A deluminator. A sword. A book. And a snitch.

She had pondered all of these items individually, as a group, and in various combinations, but she could not work out their purpose. At the time the sword was forged, Beedle the Bard had not yet been born, the deluminator had not been invented (in fact, it might have been an invention of Dumbledore’s), and Quidditch did not yet exist in its current form. The Tales of Beedle the Bard did mention a sword, the sword of Sir Luckless in The Fountain of Fair Fortune, but not snitches or deluminators. It was like a puzzle with a trick answer. Or a very obvious answer that was hiding in plain sight.

The more she thought about it, the more certain she felt that the deluminator, the book, and the snitch would not serve their purpose without the sword. The sword somehow brought it all together, and they did not have it. Ginny knew it was most likely still in the headmaster’s office, but she did not know how to get in there. If she did manage to get the sword, she still had no idea how to get it to Harry.

She’d spent most of her library visits researching the sword rather than studying for her classes. As a result, her grades were slipping but so were everyone else’s so she blended in with the crowd. The sword was forged by Ragnuk the First specifically for Godric Gryffindor in 972. It was made of pure goblin silver, decorated with large rubies and an engraving of Gryffindor’s name. It was mostly a reflection of wizarding honor, as wizards dueled with wands and not swords, but it had been used to slay two dangerous beasts. In 1159, a descendent of Gryffindor used it to save a village from a manticore, and in 1993, Harry had used it to slay the Basilisk of Hogwarts. It had gone missing for most of the 14th century, stolen from Gryffindor’s descendents who were at that time living in Godric’s Hollow, but it was later purchased on the black market in 1398 by a famous alchemist who gave it to Hogwarts where it had been ever since.

She didn’t know if the sword’s significance was due to its ownership by Gryffindor, or because it was made of goblin silver, or because of its history. She suspected it had powers that were still unknown. Perhaps You-Know-Who could only be killed with goblin silver? His appearance could only be the result of Dark experiments he had done on himself, and perhaps they had left him only partially mortal, and she knew goblin silver was an unusually pure substance.

“But is he more in danger if you don’t get help?” Neville pressed, bringing Ginny back to the present.

“He’s at a disadvantage,” Ginny said. “Or so I suspect. I don’t know if he’ll be in more danger than he currently is.”

“I don’t know what is going on with Harry, Hermione, and Ron,” Neville said. “No one does, right? They live and breathe secrets. But I am pretty sure Harry is the key to everything, chosen one or not. And I am positive that I don’t want him at any type of disadvantage.”

“Neville is right. If we lose Harry, we lose our greatest hope” Luna said, but she said it as dreamily as if she had been discussing types of chocolate.

Ginny knew deep down that Harry’s mission had to remain as secret as possible. But, as she didn’t know any details, could she possibly endanger him? She trusted Luna and Neville both. Surely, it wasn’t any more dangerous for them to know about the sword than it was for her.

And it was possible that Dumbledore’s will wasn’t even all that secret. A sizeable portion of the Magical Law department must have known that he had left the sword to Harry, and most likely, any curious and resourceful Ministry official could uncover that information.

“All right.” She sighed. “I don’t know much, but what I do know, I will tell you.”

She explained about Dumbledore’s will, the ownership dispute over the Sword of Gryffindor, and her plan to steal the sword from Snape’s office.

“Supposing we work out how to make this happen,” Neville said. “How will we get it to Harry?”

“That might be more difficult than getting it out of Snape’s office, which, in and of itself, is near impossible,” Ginny admitted. “I think the twins might be our best bet. They don’t know where Harry and the others are any more than I do, but they have a network available that I lack.”

Or at least, she hoped they did. Before she went to Hogwarts, George told her of a secret radio program that he and Fred, along with Lee Jordan and some members of the Order, hoped to start. If they managed it, surely they could share some message that only Harry and the others would understand.

She had a favorite daydream in which she gave the sword to Harry himself over the Christmas holiday, with the help of the twins. While dreaming about this reunion got her through many a Carrow class, she knew the possibility was unlikely and that Harry might even be unwilling to meet her, as he had thoroughly avoided her ever since Ron had caught him kissing her in her bedroom. He had not acknowledged her in any way at Bill’s wedding, even though she did catch him staring at her a few times. Also, she knew he needed the sword now, not two months from now.

Ginny and her friends discussed the matter of getting into the headmaster’s office. There would be a password. Likely either a rare potions ingredient or some term only a Death Eater would know. They all agreed that while a password would have been sufficient for Dumbledore, Snape would never stop there.

They brainstormed some ideas, discarding most of them. Finally, it was settled that Luna, a Ravenclaw through and through, would get the book work and she would research wards and other security spells. She would need to do all of her research in the library, without checking books out, since it was suspected that Madam Pince supplied the headmaster with a list of books checked out by students, flagging anything suspicious. Meanwhile Ginny and Neville would practice Disillusionment Charms and take turns skipping class to stand guard outside the headmaster’s office, waiting to hear someone say the password.

Once they had the information needed, they would break into Snape’s office, again Disillusioned, on the first evening he was away from the castle. They would duplicate the sword, taking and hiding the real sword in the Room until they could pass it along to the twins. It was far from a perfect plan, but it was far better than some of the crazy schemes Ginny had thought up on sleepless nights.

“We have a good plan,” Luna said. “This calls for a toast.” Three small glasses appeared next to her, and Luna reached for a bottle that had been next to her all evening.

Ginny and Neville exchanged a glance, and Ginny could see that Neville too had read the bottle’s label earlier that evening.

“Luna, my beautiful friend, you aren’t really proposing a toast with earring cleaner, are you?” Ginny asked. She didn’t care if it was some harmless herbal concoction from the Lovegood’s garden, essence of chamomile or some such; she wasn’t drinking it. She wasn’t sure why the Ravenclaw had brought it to their gathering, but she figured her radish earrings must have caused a minor infection and that Luna needed to reapply frequently.

Luna stared. “Why would I give you earring cleaner? That would be poisonous.”

“That’s what’s in your little bottle,” Ginny reminded her.

Luna continued to look puzzled. “No, it’s not.”

“Luna, I can read it from here. It says ‘Earring Cleaner,’” Neville said.

She blinked. “Yes, it does. Is that why you thought it had earring cleaner in it?”

“Doesn’t it?” Ginny asked.

“No, it doesn’t. I would never drink earring cleaner. It’s most unhealthful. This is Gurdy Whisky.”

“Gurdy Whisky?” Neville asked. “Why doesn’t it say so? Otherwise, someone might clean their jewelry with it.”

“I didn’t think Filch would let my trunk pass inspection if it said ‘Gurdy Whisky.’ Do you think Filch would let me have Gurdy Whisky? It would make things much simpler if I didn’t have to mislabel my things.”

“So, let’s get this straight,” Ginny said. “You smuggled in whisky at the start of term by disguising it as earring cleaner?”

Luna nodded. “I thought Filch might not know what earring cleaner smells like. He’s very devoted to his job, but he is easily confused, isn’t he? We don’t think much of Mr. Filch in Ravenclaw.”

Neville grabbed the bottle from Luna’s hand and sniffed at it. “You could get drunk just by smelling this!”

“You drink it, Neville,” Luna said. “I don’t know what happens if you inhale it, but I don’t recommend it. It’s much more pleasant if you sip it.”

Ginny suppressed a laugh. “So, we’re 100% sure this is alcohol and not jewelry cleaner?”

“I don’t know if anyone can ever be 100% certain unless they have never left their Gurdy Whisky unattended,” Luna said. “I do leave this in my dormitory during classes. I suppose someone could come into my dormitory, pour my whisky into another bottle and pour earring cleaner in this one. But why would someone do that? Did they find out this isn’t earring cleaner?”

Ginny did laugh that time. “One way to find out, Luna. Let’s drink it.”

Luna poured them all a glass, all the while muttering about how if someone did break into her dormitory and switch out the contents, they would have to be both female and a current Ravenclaw, which would narrow things down considerably.

Ginny’s first thought was that Gurdy Whisky was the worst thing she had ever put in her mouth, tasting a bit like sauerkraut infused firewhisky. Then the buzz started, and she decided she had judged it too harshly. The second sip was much smoother than the first. By sip number three, she didn’t have a care in the world.

“Luna, where did you get this? This is the most alcoholic thing I have ever had in my life, and my Great Uncle Algie is terrible at keeping track of his firewhisky bottles,” Neville said.

“You steal your uncle’s whisky, Neville?” Ginny asked, unable to process the idea of Neville Longbottom, Whisky Thief.

“He once dangled me out of a two-story window,” Neville said. “He owes me. Plus Christmas dinner is really dull at Gran’s house.”

They didn’t talk much about the Longbottom family, but Ginny had always suspected Neville had it almost as difficult at home as Harry did at the Dursleys. Even his gran, who was his guardian, hadn’t given him much attention until he broke into the Ministry at the end of his fifth year.

“Daddy distills it,” Luna said. “We give all of our friends a bottle at Christmas.”

“Better than a Weasley family Christmas card,” Ginny said, as Luna refilled their glasses.

There was a series of drunken toasts, where they drank to their plan, to their health, to Harry’s success, to Mrs. Weasley’s baking and Mr. Lovegood’s distilling, and then finally Ginny decided she had the perfect toast.

“May our dragons be swift, our rainbows bright, and our enemies stupid,” she declared, raising her glass. The whisky sloshed down her hand as she did so. Oops.

“Inside joke?” Neville asked, as both girls went into giggles. Normally, Luna was the last person to stop laughing at any joke, but Ginny didn’t couldn’t stop giggling, even after her sides hurt. He stared at the girls a moment, and then said, “I hate to break this up when you are both so happy, but curfew is in fifteen minutes. We really should leave now.”

After leaving the room, they parted ways. Luna headed west to Ravenclaw Tower with the Gurdy Whisky tucked under her arm, while the Gryffindors went in the direction of the Fat Lady’s portrait, with Ginny swaying the entire way back.


October 20, 1997, 2:13 p.m.
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, just outside the headmaster’s office

This was just as interesting as History of Magic class, Ginny thought from her place behind a statue on the seventh floor, where she had a clear view of the gargoyle that guarded Snape’s office. She had Disillusioned herself after relieving Neville of his post, so unless someone also hid behind the statue, bumping into her, she could remain undetected as she stared at the stone wall for the next two hours.

Luna’s preparation for the break in had gone well. She said she had identified 40 possible protective charms Snape could have put on his office, and she felt confident she could get past 38 of them.

Ginny and Neville’s job of spying on Snape’s office to learn the password had not gone well. After they developed their plan, Snape had left the castle for eight days, returned for two days, then left for another four. They figured it was unlikely anyone would dare enter his quarters in his absence, so they hadn’t bothered to stand guard. When he returned, either Ginny or Neville had stood guard at all times when they thought Snape likely to be going to and from his office: during class periods, immediately after meals. They hadn’t caught him once, but they had missed seven classes between the two of them.

Ginny was beginning to suspect that Snape knew another way into the office. Perhaps the entrance with the gargoyle was strictly a visitor’s entrance, and the headmaster had his own way of accessing his office and living quarters.

Fearing she might fall asleep staring at the grey stone wall, she began mentally reviewing for her upcoming Muggle Studies examination.

When the Holocaust began, Adolf Hitler was the Muggle leader of Germany. He created concentration camps in 1933, the first of which was in the town of Dachau, to house the types of Muggles he did not approve of. These included the homeless, disabled, Gypsies, and most famously Jews. The concentration camps were work camps, but the Muggles who ran them also conducted grotesque medical experiments.

“You need to get your house under control, Amycus!”

Ginny started, forgetting all about Muggle Studies and World War II. That was definitely Snape’s voice around the corner.

“The girl was asking for it, Severus. And boys will be boys.”

“I may need to send Miss Cartwright to St. Mungo’s if she fails to make any progress in the hospital wing. Was she asking for that? Do you think her pureblood parents will be happy when they find out what happened?”

“It is too bad they picked a pureblood,” Amycus said.

“This will not happen to any other student, pureblood or otherwise. If it does, I will hold you–bezoar–personally responsible.”

The entrance opened, and Ginny could hear Amycus say, “We don’t know that they were Slytherins. It could have . . .” before the entrance closed again.

What had that been about? Aimee Cartwright had been in the hospital wing for a week, and it was well known that she was unconscious. There were whispers that the He Carrow had gone too far in a detention, but no one could work out how she had gotten into detention as Aimee was quiet, studious, and rule abiding.

Aimee had only been in trouble once, having been caught in the Astronomy Tower with her boyfriend last year, if one believed the rumors. Given there were also many rumors about her and Harry in that same Astronomy Tower (and the Quidditch pitch and various broom closets and even Hagrid’s hut), Ginny wasn’t sure she did.

Perhaps there was no detention. If she correctly understood Snape’s and Carrow’s conversation, some boys–most likely Slytherins–had injured Aimee. But what had happened to her, and why couldn’t she wake?

Oh, Merlin. She had missed the password. She hadn’t heard a password while they were talking, and she had no idea how to tell Neville she’d failed.

Oh.

Bezoar. Bezoar was the password.


October 30, 1997, 11:38 p.m.
Gryffindor Common Room

Of all of the frustrating things about Professor Severus Snape–and the things were numerous enough to fill a book–Ginny found she was most annoyed by his timing. When she and Neville needed him to be there so they could learn his password, he was gone for nearly two full weeks. And once they had his password, he seemed settled in for the term.

She’d tried to tell herself that it was a good sign. If Harry, Ron, and Hermione had been caught, Snape would have been summoned to the Dark Lord. Plus the delay had allowed Luna to work out how to get past the 39th of the 40 possible protective charms. But Harry was stalled as long as he didn’t have the sword. She knew it, even as she didn’t know how she knew it.

Finally, Snape had been absent at both lunch and dinner that day, indicating he was out of the castle. She just hoped his absence did not mean anything had happened to Harry or to any members of the Order. Taking immediate advantage of the situation, she, Neville, and Luna all agreed to meet in front of Snape’s office at midnight.

She wished she felt more confident about it. Conditions couldn’t have been better. Setting off a dungbomb had effectively cleared out the common room. Ginny made a mental note to thank Fred and George for their new alternative packaging for dungbombs; the package labeled Madam Florence’s Magically Sanitary Napkins had not enticed Filch to investigate any further. Professor Sprout was on duty for patrolling the corridors that evening, and Ginny felt certain the Herbology teacher would merely send them back to their dormitories with a verbal warning if she caught them out of bounds. The original Hogwarts teachers were no longer reporting discipline matters back to the headmaster.

“Ready?” Neville asked her.

They had both done Bubble-Head charms as the dungbomb Ginny selected had been a particularly large and powerful one.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Ginny said.

“Let’s meet Luna then.”

Ginny didn’t have Harry’s experience with being out of bed after curfew, or that of Ron or Hermione. It often amazed Ginny that Hermione Granger had more experience with breaking school rules than she did. As a Weasley, she should have broken twice as many rules as Hermione had.

But it was only her third time sneaking out at night. The first time, she had done a late night kitchen run with Fred and George in her third year. And she and Dean had once snuck out in her fifth year. But those had been very different times. Although she was Disillusioned, she felt exposed and noisy as she tiptoed through the dark castle. She regretted the dinner she’d had that evening, as it was threatening to come back up. She reminded herself that she was a Gryffindor and a Weasley, and no greasy haired Potions Master turned Dark Headmaster was a match for her. How many bad schemes had Harry pulled off through sheer nerve? She could do this.

As they neared a staircase, Ginny heard a female shriek from a floor or two below them. She grabbed Neville’s arm. Luna.

“I don’t think that’s her, Ginny,” he whispered. “It didn’t sound like her, and Ravenclaw Tower is to the west. I doubt she took the scenic route.”

Ginny knew it wasn’t likely, but if Luna had encountered someone on her walk to the headmaster’s office, she could have taken a circuitous route. Or she might have done so if she thought a specific path was good luck or something Luna-ish like that. She didn’t loosen her grip on Neville’s arm. Someone was in trouble, she felt certain of that, and she worried it might be Luna.

“It’s someone else caught by Professor Sprout,” Neville whispered. “You know Sprout; she’s reasonable. She’s probably giving her a lecture and then sending her back to bed. I don’t even hear anything anymore.”

Ginny listened. Neville was right. It was silent. If the Carrows had caught someone, they would have made a lot of noise about it.

“Okay, let’s go, but if Luna isn’t there, I am heading down there,” Ginny whispered.

They walked on, Ginny worrying that they might have made a terrible mistake. The corridor seemed endless in the dark, and she felt as if she had already been walking so long that she could have made it back to England already.

When they neared Snape’s office, she walked into an invisible wall.

The wall sounded strangely like Luna in pain, and Ginny realized she had walked directly into her Disillusioned friend.

“Shhhh!” Neville said behind.

“Sorry,” both Ginny and Luna whispered at the same time. Ginny rubbed her nose, which had collided with Luna’s chin. Yet another disadvantage of being short. The wetness on her hand confirmed her suspicion that her nose was bleeding. She’d worry about that later. She was so grateful it had not been Luna who was caught.

And whoever it was, she would be fine. As Neville said, Professor Sprout was fair, and she’d want to protect the girl from Snape and the Carrows. The girl’s capture would mean Professor Sprout would be less likely to come down this particular corridor, as she would probably accompany the girl back to her house to make sure she stayed there.

But that didn’t mean it was wise to linger here.

“Bezoar,” she whispered.

For a moment, she thought that Snape had changed the password, which was a fear that had plagued her ever since she learned the password. But then the entrance behind the gargoyle opened. The three of them did not hesitate to climb the staircase, which instantly began moving. The moment the entrance closed behind them, they risked some light and then removed their Disillusionment charms.

“Lumos!”

The staircase brought them to a large door.

”Alohomora,” Ginny said, and she was amazed when it worked.

Her relief was short lived. As soon as they entered the headmaster’s circular office, books flew off the shelves and began pelting them.

”Immobulus! Oww!” Ginny had been struck in the face with 40th anniversary edition of A History of Magic, one of the book’s fattest editions, before it stilled and then dropped on her foot in slow motion.

Luna uttered a few incantations, and the books all zoomed back to their original position on the shelves.

“That wasn’t one of the forty,” Luna said, rubbing her arm where she had assaulted by half a dozen potions books. “It turned out all right, though.”

Neville who had also been hit in the head with a heavy book looked as though he wanted to disagree.

Taking advantage of a moment of quiet, Ginny looked around the office. She had been in this office twice before, once after the opening of the Chamber of Secrets and once when her father had been attacked by Voldemort’s snake. As a result, she had never been fond of this room, associating it with tragedies, but she had never found it to be frightening before because it had always been Dumbledore’s place.

In some ways, it looked the same: lots of books, lots of portraits of dead headmasters and headmistresses. But there was a new darkness. The large window that looked over the Quidditch pitch now had heavy, dark curtains. Fawkes, of course, was gone. In place of Dumbledore’s pretty silver instruments, Snape had brought up his jars of pickled potions ingredients. Like having Snape at the center of the high table in the Great Hall, it was quietly wrong.

She spotted the sword. It was being kept in a glass case, and it looked just as grand as it did when she was a first year. She took a step forward, and for the second time that night, she had the feeling of walking into an invisible wall.

This time the wall was not solid, like Luna. It was like walking into a rubbery barrier that propelled her backwards. Once she regained her balance, she extended an arm in front of her, trying to determine where the barrier began. She prodded it with her finger. It was cold and kind of jiggly like jelly, but it was strong. She couldn’t break past it.

“I think it’s a Shield charm,” Neville whispered.

Fortunately, that was one of the 39 enchantments that Luna knew how to get past. Next was a humming noise that made them all sleepy, and her dreamy friend was prepared for that, as well. Then the last challenge was to acquire and duplicate the sword.

“Get it, Ginny,” Neville said. “This is your moment, not mine or Luna’s.”

The case opened with a simple Alohamora..

Accio, sword!”

The sword came to her, but not in the manner she had expected. She had to jump to the side, to avoid getting jabbed in the stomach. The sword went for a new attack, this time at neck level. She dodged it again.

“Immobulus!”

Nothing happened, and the sword continued its attack. And then Ginny remembered something she had read in her research. The sword required an act of bravery from a true Gryffindor before it could be yielded.

She stepped directly in the path of the sword, causing Luna to shriek, and grabbed the hilt. It was hers.

She placed the sword in front of Luna, who said, "Geminio.”

Luna’s duplication charm had been so successful that Ginny would not have known which sword was real and which was fake if she had not had one hand still on the hilt.

“Let’s get out of here.”

Luna placed the fake in the case and closed it back up.

After a glance around the office to make sure they were leaving it as they found it, they headed down the stairs, Ginny in the lead with the sword. Her mind was so fixed on getting the sword to the Room for concealment that it did not immediately occur to her that the gargoyle entrance should have been closed until she walked directly into Amycus Carrow just outside the entrance. The Carrow was accompanied by Severus Snape.

The He-Carrow grinned at Ginny. “Headmaster, if I may, I have some ideas of what to do with these Undesirables.”

Looking at his pleased, doughy face, Ginny’s stomach turned. His hands were like steel in their grip, even though he did not give the impression of being a particularly strong man.

“Thank you, Professor Carrow,” Snape said in his driest tone. “But I am perfectly capable of deciding appropriate punishments in my own school. Accio, sword.”

The Sword of Gryffindor zoomed out of Ginny’s hands and into the headmaster’s. She was displeased that it did not try to attack him as it did her.

“See you in the morning, Amycus.” The headmaster’s tone was stern, but the Carrow did not move. “Kindly let go of Miss Weasley, Amycus.”

Once he let go of her, Ginny let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.

“Up!” Snape made a gesture towards the staircase, and the three students scrambled up to his office.

With the He-Carrow dismissed and everyone assembled in the headmaster’s office, Snape just stared at them. Ginny was all too aware of how bloody, bruised, and frightened she was. Her hair was falling out of its hasty ponytail and she had never felt smaller. She almost wished the He-Carrow was still there. His glee for pain was ghoulish, but he added a certain level of absurdity to the situation that would have dulled the fear somewhat.

“You made it further than I would have thought. Your work, I am guessing, Miss Lovegood? Longbottom here is not known for his intelligence, and Miss Weasley, while more clever than her brothers, lacks the subtlety and patience to learn how to get past protective charms.”

Ginny stole a glance at Luna, pale, still, and innocent, and she blurted out, “It was my idea. All of it. Neville and Luna only came along to protect me. The only rule they broke was being out of bed.”

Neville and Luna protested, but Snape kept all of his attention on Ginny.

“Just a nighttime stroll, Miss Weasley? It seems like an unusual destination. And you just happened to pick up a priceless school artifact along the way? What, may I ask, were you planning to do with the Sword of Gryffindor?”

She knew he had to be aware of Dumbledore’s will and what she would want with the sword, but she was determined not to give him the satisfaction of telling him. She raised her chin. “Fencing, sir.”

“Fencing?” He said the word as if it was something truly distasteful. It probably was to him, as it was a Muggle sport.

“It’s what one does with swords, is it not?”

Snape swooped bat-like to his desk and pulled a small vial out of a drawer. He raised the vial so they could all see it. “Do you know what one does with this?”

“Make someone drink it?”

“Ah, the legendary subtlety of Gryffindor House. Yes, this recently deregulated potion is meant to be drunk and generally either force or stealth is involved as very few drink it willingly. I trust you’ve heard of Veritaserum?”

She didn’t answer.

“You can tell me the truth, or I can administer this to you. And to your friends.”

He stared at her, and she suddenly remembered that Snape was an Occulumens. Between his ability and his knowledge of the situation, she knew further evasion or lying was pointless.

“We wanted the sword because Dumbledore had left it to a friend in his will. The Ministry did not heed his wishes.”

“And how were you going to get this item to your friend? Is he here in this castle?”

“No. I hadn’t figured out that part yet,” she admitted.

He continued to gaze at her, as if drinking in her knowledge–or lack thereof–of Harry’s whereabouts.

“So, if I were to search this castle, I wouldn’t find your friend?”

“No. I don’t know where he is.”

“Details, details, Miss Weasley. Traditionally one plans a crime before committing it.”

For the next twenty minutes, Snape insulted their intelligence, their planning, and their loyalties.

And then he sent them to bed.

The three of them exchanged glances.

“What is our punishment?” Ginny demanded.

Snape gave her an evil smile, “Come and see me after breakfast tomorrow. I need to reflect and decide what would be most appropriate for the crime.”


October 31, 1997, 6:42 a.m.
Gryffindor Girls’ Dormitories

In spite of not making it to her bed until 2:00 a.m., Ginny was awake early. She’d had strange dreams. In one, she was on trial for stealing a school thestral in her fourth year. Vincent Crabbe was the Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot and he’d had the Dark Mark on his Ministry robes. In another, she was hiking through the Forbidden Forest with a teenaged Snape and a young Filch, and Snape was gently instructing her on how to tell poisonous mushrooms from edible ones. In the final dream, she was telling Harry she had failed in stealing the sword, and he told her that was fine and everything was occurring as prophesied. He said all this in a dreamy voice and then he asked her if she had tried the Gurdy Whisky.

Then she was awake, and early morning light was streaming through the windows. Around her, girls were sleeping peacefully and she wondered if they had noticed that she had been gone last night. She tried to go back to sleep but kept fretting over the events of the previous night, until she decided she would prefer to fret while standing upright.

In the light of morning, she knew Snape’s delay tactic had been effective. He had known what their punishment would be all along; he just wanted to extend the punishment with a sleepless night. She just hoped he gave them to the She-Carrow rather than the He-Carrow. Alecto was equally vicious, but Ginny was more concerned about the way the He-Carrow looked at her body and she remembered his hands on her shoulders last night.

She got up and began gathering her things for the shower. Snape would not see her looking scared or defeated. She was going to look amazing at breakfast and walk into the Great Hall with her head held high. Once in the shower, she began to relax and feel like herself again. It was very possible that Snape might try to keep the events of last night quiet. He wouldn’t want to draw attention to the sword any more than she did.

She spent considerable time on her hair and makeup, realizing the irony of making herself pretty for a man who could not be bothered to wash his hair. Ginny didn’t normally wear much makeup. Mascara and cherry-flavored lip gloss were all she typically bothered with, but she pulled out the shadows, blushes, and eyeliners she typically reserved for special occasions. Gemma and Pippa would be proud, she thought, as she applied blush.

Finally, she stepped back. Perfect. The dark circles under her eyes were hidden, and her cheeks glowed. No one would ever know how little sleep she’d had, yet she didn’t look conspicuously made up either.

“Morning,” Demelza said, yawning as she entered the bathroom. “Where were you last night? Pippa was very curious. She was speculating that you and Chris had become an item, so I told her you were in Lavender and Parvati’s dormitory.”

“Me and Chris?”

“He fancies you, in case you didn’t notice. That’s why he’s always hovering over your shoulder.”

“Oh, shit. I thought he was just lonely, with Ritchie not coming back and Martin ignoring him to hang all over Pippa.”

“You really didn’t notice?” Demelza leaned against the wall, studying Ginny closely.

She shook her head. “I haven’t been noticing boys lately.”

Thinking about a specific boy, yes, but she was less interested in the boys who were around her.

“So, I am guessing you weren’t snogging a cute boy last night?”

“Definitely not.” She hesitated, and then added, “Mel, I did something really stupid last night. And I’m in trouble.”

“In trouble with who?”

“Snape.”

“Shit, Ginny.”

“I know. I really need some coffee. I barely slept last night. Will you go down to the Great Hall with me?”

Demelza nodded. “Sure. Just give me ten minutes.”

The nice thing about Quidditch girls was when they said ten minutes, they meant ten minutes. Pippa would have been in the bathroom primping all morning, but Demelza quickly showered, dressed, and put her long dark hair into a plait.

“So, what happened?” Demelza asked as they swiftly walked down the stairs to the common room.

“Neville, Luna, and I broke into Snape’s office. We thought he was out of the castle, but then he and the He Carrow caught us.”

“Ginny, I knew you had nerve, but breaking into Snape’s office? What were you looking for? Wait, were you,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “spying for the Order of the Phoenix?”

“No, no, my mother would kill me if I did that. Can you keep a secret?”

“You know I can.”

“Dumbledore left Harry something in his will, but Harry never got it. I was going to retrieve it for him.”

They walked through the common room and out the portrait hole.

“What did Snape do when he caught you?”

“Nothing yet. There was a series of insults, ranging from the subtle to the ridiculous, but he said he would let us know what our punishment is after breakfast.”

“Is that why you are up so early? To get it over with?”

“Exactly.”

They were quiet down the next few flights of stairs. When Ginny reached the fourth floor, she turned around the corner and immediately tripped over something large, landing on the ground.

At first, she thought there was a dead body. Dark hair completely covered the girl’s face. Crawling toward her, Ginny gently moved the long dark curls back. She gasped when she saw the girl was Romilda. She placed two fingers on the side of her neck and was relieved to find a pulse.

“She’s alive. Mel, will you get Professor McGonagall? Madam Pomfrey too.”

As Demelza ran back up the stairs, Ginny took in Romilda’s torn clothing and knew it indicated rape. She also knew that you were supposed to leave a crime scene intact and not touch anything. But Romilda in that moment, with her pale skin and shallow breathing, was the most vulnerable thing Ginny had ever seen in her life, and she could not just leave her like that.

She adjusted Romilda’s clothing to cover her fully. Her skirt had been flipped up, and there were no knickers underneath. She had seen Romilda traipse around the girls’ dormitory in her expensive bra and knicker sets often enough to know that Romilda loved her lingerie and she would have never left Gryffindor Tower without her knickers. She had been proud of her beauty and her new womanliness.

Someone had stolen her knickers as a trophy. Someone who wanted to take away Romilda’s pride in her own body and sexuality. In that moment, Ginny could not think of a more terrible thing to take away from someone than ownership of her own body and sexual choices.

Ginny pulled her cloak out of her bag and covered Romilda with it, thinking she must be cold on the stone floor. How long had she been there? She suddenly remembered the feminine shriek she had heard the night before. Could she and Neville have saved Romilda? They had been so intent on getting the sword–the sword that they had failed to steal–that they had refused to believe someone was in danger.

She lifted Romilda’s head slightly to put her book bag underneath as a pillow and wondered what she could do to make the girl more comfortable. She knew all of the feminine gentleness in the world could not undo the brutality she had suffered at the hands of a boy, but gentleness was all she had to offer Romilda.

“Who did this to you, Romilda?” she whispered as she moved herself into a sitting position next to the unconscious girl.

She didn’t have to question what had been done to her. But why was she unconscious?

And had this also happened to Aimee Cartwright?



Author’s note #2: In Deathly Hallows, Griphook says that Ginny and her friends smashed the case when they stole the sword. As the story is third or fourth hand at that point, it is possible that the goblin just liked the idea of the case being smashed. Personally, I feel Ginny and her friends would have tried to cover their tracks, not wanting Snape to know the sword was going to be given to Harry. I also like the idea that Luna might have made a copy so excellent, that even Snape was impressed and had it put into Gringotts.
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