Disclaimor: Writing for fun, nothing here is mine!
Harry was filled with a brief feeling of relief as he watched his friends disappear, knowing that they were now safe, at least for the moment. He had no doubt in his mind that they would make it to St. Mungo’s. Ron would do anything for Hermione; even overcome his sense of self-doubt. It wasn't hard to see how they felt about each other.
Along with doing anything for one another, Harry knew Ron and Hermione would do anything for him. They had shown their commitment to him every step of the way, this past summer standing out especially as they had been inseparable since leaving Hogwart's after Dumbledore's funeral. Now, with everything that had happened today, Harry felt a sickening guilt curling through his body. Hermione was injured. Ron had lost a brother, and his home and the rest of his family were in danger. This is the price of my friendship, Harry thought darkly as the Death Eaters swarmed closer.
The rage that screamed through Harry's blood as he took aim at the nearest Death Eater was replaced with a horrifying sense of satisfaction as he watched the man fall to the ground with a pained yell. He quickly aimed and brought down another, dodging a blaze of red light as he moved. Harry felt like a man possessed, moving with the swiftness and strength of a wizard twice his years. It was the frustration, the loss, and the sense of injustice catching up to him. He needed to prove once and for all that he wasn't just "The Chosen One" by destiny. No, he was fighting by choice. He was fighting because he wanted to bring Voldemort and his supporters down, once and for all.
Battling forward, Harry faced two Death Eaters alone, completely void of fear, his penchant to bring down more enemies growing startlingly strong as he sliced his wand through the air. It was easy to bring down these attackers. They had no faces, no names. Just figures in black cloaks and masks. To think of them as anything more than that would make them human, a classification Harry suddenly felt they no longer deserved.
As he brought both of his assailants to the ground, Harry heard a heart-stopping scream rip the air. Ginny! Harry reeled about, desperately scanning the battle for any sign of her. Slashing his wand like a sword through the air, Harry toppled his foes one after another as he raced toward another scream in the distance. Clearing the fog, Harry saw her. She was putting up a spectacular fight, thrashing wildly against the three Death Eaters that were dragging her deeper into the trees.
Ginny’s face was contorted with anger, her arms flailing as she lashed out at the closest attacker. Her dress was ripped, almost indecently, at the shoulder, and her left leg was saturated in blood. Nevertheless, Ginny was holding nothing back, scratching and kicking in every direction, desperate to avoid the fate that might await her if they made it to the trees.
The rage Harry had been experiencing turned quickly to protectiveness. He thought of nothing other than saving Ginny as he raced across the yard, firing wildly at her captors. He brought down two easily, taking aim at the third as he slowed down beneath the trees, when he was suddenly aware of movement all around him. Four black figures had emerged, as if out of thin air, surrounding Harry under the shaded tree. Ginny had been carelessly discarded, hit ruthlessly across the face and chucked out of the way. She was sobbing angrily, her face set with a determination that both frightened and awed Harry as he prepared himself for the coming attack.
“I told you using the girl would work,” a rather large Death Eater grumbled to his companions. Harry knew the voice. He’d been there the night Dumbledore had died. Harry grimaced then, knowing full well he’d walked straight into a trap. He was at a loss. What spell could he use against five Death Eaters at once?
One of the men standing before him suddenly let out an agonized cry, tumbling to the ground. Ginny, wandless, had used the only weapon she could find, determined to keep fighting to matter what. Harry saw as the man fell that she’d stabbed him in the leg with a rather jagged looking stick.
“Very clever,” said one of the Death Eaters, turning quickly and waving his wand at Ginny. Her body went rigid, and an anguished scream left her lips.
“NO!” Harry shouted, advancing forward. His steps were cut off as the remaining three Death Eaters turned their wands on him, sending him to the ground as well with the Cruciatus Curse. Painful didn’t describe it. Harry had never before experienced such a bone-ripping sensation. Somewhere inside himself he could hear Ginny's screams fade, as his own continued to rent the air. No, he pleaded in his heart. Not Ginny. NO!
A deafening crack ripped the sky, and the world went dark.
Slowly sensation started to return. It was an odd feeling of weightiness and fatigue. Harry opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to his surroundings. He was inside a small building now. It looked very familiar.
“Harry?” came a soft and anxious voice above him. As Harry’s eyes focused in the darkness, he saw that it was Ginny. Wordlessly he sat up, ignoring the wrenching pain in his body as he pulled her close, thankful she was alive.
“How?” he said over and over, pulling Ginny onto his lap.
She pulled away slightly, pressing her hands on either side of Harry’s face. Her eyes were bright for a moment before she softly leaned in and kissed Harry tenderly. Harry didn’t resist, the blessed feeling of her warmth soothing him deeply.
“I thought I’d lost you,” Ginny finally said, her tone thick. “When all three of them attacked you, I thought…” Ginny paused, unable to voice her fears. “I don’t know how you did it, Harry. They released me from the spell, and they all turned on you. I thought they were going to kill you, but then something strange happened.”
“What?” Harry asked, extremely confused. Whatever it was, he could see Ginny didn’t want to tell him.
“You cast a spell, Harry. I don’t know how you did it, but somehow you cast a spell. You didn’t even have your wand in your hands.”
“What spell, Ginny?” Harry asked, suddenly alarmed
“You brought down half the tree,” she whispered quietly. “It shattered completely. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” Ginny softly stroked Harry’s cheek.
Harry looked at Ginny’s eyes, the reality of her words setting in. Harry knew he’d done the magic out of desperation, to save her. He took a deep breath, screwing up the courage to speak. “I killed them. Didn’t I?”
Ginny’s eyes watered slightly and she turned her head away from Harry. Harry felt his insides turn violently, and he struggled to keep a hold of himself. He pushed Ginny from his lap, needing to get away. He stood up and the world spun. He now knew where he was. He and Ginny were in the broom shed. Harry tried to make it out the door, desperately yanking on the door handle.
“Harry, no, we can’t go outside! Not yet!” Ginny urged, pulling on Harry’s arm.
Harry spun, the sickness rising inside of him. He crawled to a corner and wretched, before sitting with his back to the wall, his hands clutching his pallid face. Ginny knelt beside him, conjuring a cup of water and affectionately helping him take it.
“It wasn’t your fault,” she whispered in his ear. “They might have killed us, you know that. You didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Wouldn’t I have?” Harry asked, looking Ginny in the eyes. “I was certainly enjoying attacking everyone before I came for you.”
Ginny looked at Harry’s green eyes searchingly. “Never, Harry. You’re not the sort.”
Harry felt a weak smile stretch across his face, grateful to have Ginny beside him. “I see you got your wand back,” he said, indicating the wand in Ginny’s hand.
“No, they broke mine,” Ginny said fidgeting with the wand. “It’s his, actually.” Ginny pointed across the shed.
Harry turned and started. Somehow he hadn’t noticed the unconscious Death Eater bound to a chair in the far corner of the room.
“Most of the tree missed him,” Ginny explained. She then told Harry how she herself had passed out shortly after the tree had fallen, only to wake up some time later to find all their captors dead, save one, and Harry still out cold. Not knowing the status of the battle, and being so far from the house, Ginny had decided the shed was the safest place to wait for Harry to awaken. “I was thinking that maybe he knew something, Harry. Maybe he could tell us why all of this is happening. I put a silencing charm on the shed. No one should notice us.” Ginny looked slightly alarmed at what she was suggesting.
Harry sat for a moment, thinking quietly. He then slowly rose from the ground, walking confidently towards the bound man before him. “Ennervate!” Harry muttered as he reached the man’s side. The Death Eater stirred, and then began pulling violently on his ropes, grunting loudly. “Scream as much as you want,” Harry mumbled menacingly in the man’s ear. “No one will hear you.”
Harry conjured up a chair and placed it lithely before the captured Death Eater, sitting on it casually and leaning forward on his knees. “So,” he began, twirling his wand in his hand. “Are you going to make this easy on yourself, or are you going to resist?” Harry sounded very brave, but he certainly didn’t feel it. The thought of torturing someone made him sick, but he knew they needed answers.
The Death Eater said nothing, sitting higher in his chair, his best attempt at a proud, arrogant pose. “Ginny, you sure you want to be here for this?” Harry asked in earnest, staring at the man before him.
“I’m not leaving,” Ginny replied, a note of finality in her tone.
“Have it your way,” Harry said, to both Ginny and their hostage. He drew his wand and aimed it at the Death Eater’s right arm. Purple flames erupted from the tip of Harry’s wand, setting a large potion of the arm ablaze. Harry held back a cringe as the man screamed, knowing he had to look impassive. He and Hermione had found the spell for the fire over the summer. It burned with tremendous heat, but required no fuel. The amount of pain the captured hostage was feeling was anybody’s guess, but Harry knew that no permanent damage would be done.
It took some time before the Death Eater gave in, panting deeply and begging for Harry to stop. Wanting to hear his words clearly, Harry stood and removed the mask, gasping with shock as a familiar face met his eyes. Marcus Flint, the old captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team sat before him, looking pale and defeated. Harry shook his head in disbelief and returned to his chair.
“Why did you attack today?” Harry asked, anxious for answers.
“Because we knew you would be here,” Flint replied with a scowl.
“How did you know?” Harry continued.
“We have our ways,” Flint said with a smug look on his face. Harry raised his wand threateningly. “Alright,” Flint said, panic flashing across his face. “We have a source in the Ministry. I don’t know who, so don’t ask! The Ministry has been keeping tabs on you. Wants to know what you’ve been doing,” Flint said, twitching against his ropes. “Scrimgeour told them to do whatever was necessary, so they have been. Even putting people under the Imperius Curse to get information.”
“That’s why they took Percy,” Ginny suddenly said in a hushed voice. Harry gazed at her startled face, imagining she was probably right. Percy loved rules. He wouldn’t have approved of people using Unforgivable Curses, even if they were trying to do the right thing. If he’d found something out, he would have gone straight to a superior. Apparently he’d picked the wrong one.
“So Flint, what was it that Percy knew that was so important?” Harry questioned.
“Do you really have to ask,” Flint said gruffly. “The Dark Lord wanted information about you. Your movements, your plans, your strategies.”
The word strategies lingered in the air, echoing through Harry’s mind. Oh no… “What strategy?” Harry finally asked, apprehension in his voice.
“Your battle strategy, Potter,” Flint replied angrily. “Your plan to protect yourself. Very clever, if I do say so myself. We had to come up with all sorts of ways to trap you. I imagine things are getting rather ugly out there, seeing as you are nowhere to be found.” Flint grinned wickedly.
Harry leapt to his feet and started towards the door. “I have to go, Ginny. Now!” Harry said in a rush as he reached for the door handle.
“Wait! Tell me what’s going on!” Ginny demanded stepping in his way.
“Ginny, move,” Harry growled threateningly.
“Don’t take that tone with me, Potter!” Ginny warned. “We are in this together whether you like it or not! That’s my family out there, and I have every right to fight! Now tell me what in the hell is going on!”
Harry glared at Ginny, his jaw clenched. He knew she was right, and besides he would probably need her help. “We need a plan,” Harry said turning away from the door and gazing around the shed, his eyes resting on Marcus Flint. “Don’t get too comfortable, Flinty, we’re far from finished,” Harry said in a dark tone. Flint twitched visibly.
Harry turned towards Ginny, taking her by the arms. “I did something really stupid, a few months ago,” Harry told her, a sense of guilt consuming him as he gazed at her puzzled face. “I’ll explain everything to you, but you have to promise me something before I do.”
“What?” Ginny asked.
“Say that you’ll promise to do whatever I tell you, no matter what. That you will follow my orders completely, no questions asked,” Harry told her, feeling remarkably like Dumbledore on the night he died.
“But…” Ginny began to protest.
“Promise!” Harry interrupted. “Promise me, Ginny,” he whispered, softening the grip on her arms.
Ginny looked thoughtful for a moment. “I’ll promise if you do something for me first.” Harry waited for her to continue. “Tell me what was going through your mind under the tree.”
By the look on her face, Harry could tell she already knew the answer. He gulped deeply and took a steadying breath. “I was thinking how much I love you,” he finally said. Flint made a sound of disgust behind them. Ginny, however, only smiled knowingly, pulling Harry to herself for a kiss.
“I promise,” she whispered against his lips as they parted a moment later.
Harry nodded, taking her hand in his and turning to face their hostage. “We’ve got work to do."
Ron listened quietly as Hermione rapidly told him her theory, the memory of a conversation from months ago slowly replaying through his mind. He remembered parts of it clearly. Harry had been worried about people leaking information. He’d made up a battle plan, some strategy he pretended he was going to use should the need ever arise. Ron remembered thinking at the time that the plan wasn’t so bad. Basically, Harry had lied, saying that if he ever found himself being sought out by Death Eaters, he would take Polyjuice Potion and become someone else. Someone he'd arranged with to switch places, their identity hidden, so that he could move about undetected, or even escape should the battle get out of hand. He and Hermione had brushed the incident off at the time, confident that no one would believe the plan to be real, and even if they did, that they would never be so foolish as to tell anyone else. Apparently, given the situation and Hermione’s suspicions, they had been dead wrong.
“So you think they are rounding us up, searching for the person Harry made himself look like?” Ron asked incredulously. The idea was too strange for words. “Then why haven’t they just killed everyone then? Why haven’t they just finished us off?”
“I don’t know, Ronald,” Hermione said in an exasperated tone. “Maybe they want to catch Harry alive, bring him back to Voldemort. Ron, honestly, when are you going to start saying the name?” Hermione scolded as Ron twitched. “It would explain why there were searching for you in such large groups. I don’t know why they’d want to capture Harry rather than kill him, but whatever their reasoning, Harry may have accidentally saved everyone’s lives with that lie he told,” Hermione finished, her eyes wide and intense.
“How do you figure that?” Ron queried.
“Well, if they don’t know which person he turned into, then they can’t kill any of them. Can they?” Hermione replied thoughtfully. Ron nodded his head in agreement.
“So… where IS Harry?” Ron questioned after a brief pause, hoping Hermione might know this answer as well.
“Hiding I expect. He must have realized they weren’t going to hurt anyone so long as they believed he was one of them. Oh Ron, he probably doesn’t know who to trust! Someone out there might have been the leak! They may be biding their time till he reveals himself! Ron, he needs us, we have to get back out there,” Hermione said, a look of determination on her face.
Ron was suddenly consumed with fear as he gazed at Hermione. The Death Eaters weren’t afraid to kill people earlier, he thought darkly. They saw Harry and I talking, they fired a Killing Curse at me. They saw Hermione and I leave… “I can’t let you go out there,” Ron said desperately, suddenly fully understanding the danger they were in.
“What?” Hermione said, a distinct mark of anger in her voice.
“Don’t you get it, Hermione? The last time I saw Harry was before I Apparated you to St. Mungos! They think you left the fight. If you go out there they’re going to assume Harry made himself look like you! No one else knows you’re here, and it’s going to stay that way!”
Hermione looked both scared and defiant. “Well if they saw me leave, then they saw you leave, too! Who knows when Harry hid himself, they might be expecting it to be YOU! Why else were they all after you when I arrived? I’m not letting you go out there alone!”
Ron felt furious. “Hermione, the only thing that’s kept me going this far was knowing you were alright!”
“Well the only thing I could think of was getting back to you!” she responded, equally enraged.
Damn it, Hermione, Ron swore in his mind, wishing desperately he had room to walk away from her. He raised his hands in frustration, using all his self-control to keep from shaking her until she understood. Hermione responded accordingly, her eyes blazing as she pulled herself to full height, gripping Ron by the front of his robes.
“I’m going,” she said defiantly.
“No, you’re not!” Ron said stiffly.
“Yes I am, Ronald Weasley, and you can’t stop me!” she replied, tugging roughly on his robes.
“Oh yes I can!” Ron said, thinking quickly of a way to keep her out of sight and quiet as he stared her down.
“No! You can’t,” Hermione was now pointing her wand at him.
Ron felt like screaming. Like breaking her wand in two and knocking her out cold till this whole mess was over. Instead he settled for grabbing her roughly and cursing under his breath before kissing the hell out of her. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to be doing at that moment, but Ron never claimed to be brilliant. And besides, Hermione, who was brilliant, didn’t seem to mind. There was no sense in fighting her on this. He knew she was right. Harry needed both of them right now.
“Come on,” he said gruffly as he pulled away from the kiss, taking Hermione by the hand. With one last fleeting glance at her face, Ron reached out and opened the door.
Senses by Gryffinpuff
Chapter Notes: This chapter is 90% about Harry and Ginny (hope you enjoy it PotterFan22!!). The chapter title is a little silly, but the chapter itself is not! The action in this section is a bit darker (but not too dark!) at times than most of the story up until this point, just for fair warning. Enjoy!!