Name: Air Elemental
House: Gryffindor
Challenge: Quarterly challenge, History and Mythology.
Chapter Two: In which the Weasleys get a shock
It was the summer holidays, and the Weasleys had been told to clean their rooms before Harry and Hermione arrived.
“I’m sick of looking at a pigsty every time I walk in there,” Mrs Weasley had complained.
“Why can’t you do it, Mum?” Ron had whined.
“You’re old enough now to clean your own rooms, and no magic allowed,” she’d added as the twins, Ron and Ginny had ascended the stairs. All four of them groaned.
So here Ginny was, clearing out her old toy box. She’d unearthed some items that she loved as a child, and some she had despised. It was hard work. That’s when she came across it.
It was just sitting in her hand. It’s ruby sparkling in the sun. The amulet.
I don’t remember owning this, she thought, holding it up. It seemed to be calling her, telling her just to put it around her neck. It was very tempting.
No! Ginny came back to her senses. She remembered what happened last time she used an object that she though was harmless. Wearing an unknown amulet around your neck was much more dangerous than writing in a diary.
“Ginny, Ron, Dinner!” Mrs Weasley called from downstairs. Ginny dropped the amulet back into the box and ran downstairs, almost colliding with Ron.
“Watch where you’re going!” he cried out.
The twins were already downstairs eating. Mrs Weasley handed them a pot of soup each and they sat down.
“We’ve finished,” said Fred proudly.
“It wasn’t hard at all,” said George.
“But there’s two of you!” complained Ron.
Dinner passed without incident, and Ginny totally forgot about the amulet. After dinner, Mrs Weasley sent them back upstairs to finish tidying their rooms. Fred and George couldn’t help but smile as Ron and Ginny stomped up the stairs in disgust.
“I hope Mum and Dad don’t open our cupboard,” Fred laughed, “I don’t think they’ll be impressed with our tiding philosophy.”
“What? Shove-everything-in-the-cupboard-until-the-thing-explodes?” asked George, chortling.
There was a loud clatter upstairs.
“FRED! GEORGE!” yelled Mrs Weasley. “GET UP HERE NOW!”
“Uh oh!” somehow, Fred knew that they were in a lot of trouble.
*****
It was late at night. Ginny was asleep soundly in her bed. The curtains were wide open, revealing a brilliant indigo sky. The stars shone peacefully and the waning moon just touched the treetops.
Shining in the moonlight, the amulet lay in the toy box. Loki was bored. He wanted to have some fun.
Slowly, the amulet rose up out of its resting place, making no sound. It slowly glided across the room towards Ginny’s bed. Ginny rolled over in her sleep, unaware of the floating amulet that was hovering above her head.
An owl hooted outside. Ginny sat up, surprised. Suddenly, the amulet dropped from its position and the chain fell over her head. The amulet hanging around her neck, Ginny screamed.
*****
Walk into a ward at St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, and you might see all sorts. Perhaps a man who’d been bitten on the behind by a dragon, or maybe a witch who’d turned her ears into muffins. But in this particular ward was a red-haired girl lying unconscious in a bed. An amulet curled around her neck. Also in the room were her anxious parents, three of her brothers, a girl with bushy brown hair, a black haired boy with glasses and two healers. They all crowded around her.
“Are you sure you can’t remove the amulet?” asked Mrs Weasley.
The healer shook his head, “We’ve tried everything. Nothing works. She’s in a very stable condition, though, so she should be fine for now.”
“This is all my fault,” whispered Mr Weasley, hoarsely, “I should’ve gone straight to the ministry with Loki’s amulet.”
“Loki?” said the girl with bushy hair. “As in the Norse Loki?”
“The very same, Hermione,” muttered Fred.
“Don’t blame yourself, Dad,” added George. “We’re the one’s who found it in the first place.”
There was a knock on the door, and Bill and Charlie ran into the room, almost slipping on the floor.
“Ginny!”
“Is she OK?”
“Will she be alright?”
“We’d better go,” said Hermione, to the black haired boy, “come on, Harry.”
Harry and Hermione tiptoed out of the ward and closed the door behind them.
“Poor Ginny,” said Hermione, “I hope she’ll be all right. If she’s still not well when we go back to Hogwarts, I’ll have a look in the library. That must have something about Loki’s Amulet.”
“Yeah,” muttered Harry. He felt sorry for Ginny.
They turned the corner into another long corridor. At the far end was a man giving directions to a familiar round-faced boy holding what looked like a small orchid.
“…and just turn right and it’s the third door on your left,” concluded the man.
“Thanks,” said the boy, and Harry recognised him.
“Neville!” he called out. Neville turned around and hid the orchid obviously around his back.
“Oh, hi Harry. Hi Hermione,” he said, blushing slightly.
“Hi Neville, on your way to see Ginny?” asked Hermione.
Neville nodded, “Erm…yes, I’ve just been visiting with my gran so I-I thought I’d just go visit Ginny.”
“I suggest you go visit her later,” said Harry, thinking about how embarrassing it would be for Neville if he walked into Ginny’s ward, with an orchid, in front of the Weasleys.
“We’re heading for the café,” said Hermione, “do you want to come?”
“OK,” agreed Neville, and they headed for the staircase.
*****
“Look.”
“What?”
“Look!”
George groaned and got out of his bed. It was three a.m. What did Fred want?
Fred unlatched their bedroom window and a tawny owl flew in. Fred ripped off the note and the owl flew back out the window. George watched it go.
“Hey, it’s from Dumbledore!” cried Fred, passing the note to George.
Dear Mr Fred and George Weasley, it said.
Please meet me at the Hippogriff hotel in Hogsmeade tonight at three-thirty. Take a change of clothes each and your wands. It’s urgent that you attend.
Yours sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore.
“What time is it?” asked George.
“Ten past Three, we’d better get going.”
“Hold on, should we wake up mum and dad?”
“Nah, we’ll leave them a note,” a mischievous grin spread across Fred’s face as he grabbed bundles of clothes and shoved it into his bag, “can you go downstairs and get some food?”
*****
At exactly three-thirty in the morning, Fred and George arrived in a large reception area carrying two heavy bags. The reception area was small yet grand. Velvet seats lined the walls and a large oak desk was placed opposite them. Through the window, gently rising sunbeams were only just visible beyond the horizon. The room smelt of luxury.
“Good morning, Fred and George,” said a voice beside them. It was Dumbledore. “I’m glad you came. I was rather worried that the owl might not make it, but you’re here now. Would you like to take the lift or the stairs?”
“Er, we don’t mind sir,” answered Fred.
“The lift it is,” said Dumbledore, pressing the lift button. With a merry chime, the lift doors opened and they stepped inside.
“How come we’ve never seen this place before?” asked George, thinking about the Marauder’s Map. It had everything on it, but not this hotel.
“This is the Minister of Magic’s privet hotel,” explained Dumbledore, as the lift rose up. “It’s normally unplottable, but I managed to persuade Fudge to put it on the Floo network for twenty minutes.”
The lift doors opened. They had arrived in a lavishly furnished room. Fred and George gazed around in wonder.
“Wow!” whispered Fred.
“Sit down,” offered Dumbledore. They all sat around a small coffee table. Dumbledore conjured three drinks and a plate of ginger biscuits. The twins snatched them up immediately.
“As we know,” said Dumbledore, “your sister is in a coma due to Loki’s Amulet. The only way for her to wake up is for Loki himself to release his amulet.”
George nodded, sipping his drink.
“Now both of you have worn the amulet,” Dumbledore continued, “George for only a few seconds, Fred for at least twenty minutes.”
“Hold on,” said Fred, intrigued, “you said we were possessed by Loki, so…”
“Only you two know where he is,” said Dumbledore, smiling.
George felt a horrible sinking feeling, “But we don’t.”
“Oh, but you do,” Dumbledore smiled.
George sighed. Dumbledore’s face became serious.
“I wouldn’t be asking you to do this if I didn’t think you had the courage to do it,” he explained, “but I want you to travel to Loki’s location and persuade him to release your sister.”
Fred spilt his drink down his front, “What? Is that possible?”
“Of course,” Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled.
“Loki’s not going to just let her go, though, is he?” pointed out George.
Dumbledore reached down the front of his robes, and pulled out a piece of neatly folded parchment.
“Here,” Dumbledore gave it to the twins, “give him this, and he’ll agree to it.”
George opened the parchment and read it.
I, Albus Dumbledore, will give you my soul in exchange for Ginevra Weasley’s.
“We can’t let Dumbledore give away his soul like that!” whispered George.
“We’ll think of something different along the way,” Fred whispered back. “We have to accept this. It’s the only way we can save Ginny.”
The twin’s turned to face Dumbledore.
“We’ll do it,” said Fred.