At about nine o’clock in the morning, Ginny Weasley woke with a start, breathing heavily. Her nightmare had seemed so real; Harry had lost his memory, as he had in reality, but he never regained it. Then, in the dream-Hospital-Wing, Voldemort had appeared and killed Harry as she was forced to look on. Of course, she had tried to save Harry, but had been unable to move for some reason.
But it was just a dream, she told herself firmly. No use worrying about it. With that thought in her head, Ginny stood up and stretched, glancing at the empty hospital bed before her.
Wait! Empty? she thought frantically. She looked at the bedside table and saw that Harry’s glasses and wand were gone. Then, looking back at the bed, she noticed that the sheets were not thrown back the way they would have been if the bed’s occupant had gotten out of the bed willingly. In shock, Ginny screamed. Just as her panic reached its peak, she fainted in a very uncharacteristic show of weakness and fear, only vaguely aware of waking the entire room.
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“What happened?”
“Where’s Harry?”
“What’s wrong with Ginny?”
“I couldn’t find him anywhere!”
“Quiet, she’s waking up!”
Ginny blearily opened her eyes. She was lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing with Ron, Hermione, Remus, and Professor Dumbledore standing over her.
“Ginny,” Remus addressed her gently. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah,” she answered, rubbing the bridge of her nose and wondering how she had gotten such a horrible headache. “What happened? How long was I out of it?”
“You fainted about ten minutes ago,” the werewolf responded, studying the girl intently.
“And actually, Miss Weasley,” Dumbledore chimed in, “we were hoping that you could tell us what happened.”
Suddenly, all of the memories of that morning came flooding back into Ginny’s head; waking up, finding Harry’s bed empty, seeing his wand and glasses missing, and noting the odd formation of the sheets. “Harry!” she cried out suddenly, sitting up straight and causing her head to positively throb. “Is he okay? Did you find him?”
“Well,” Remus began, “we looked all over and no, we did not find him. Did you see anything?”
“Only that he was gone,” Ginny replied quietly. “Where could he be, though? He was still too weak to walk very far and his sheets would have been folded over if he left willingly…” She trailed off, not able to explain exactly what she meant. After a few moments of quiet pondering, Professor Dumbledore seemed to understand what she had said, although no one else did, and broke the silence.
“I need to see to something, if you will all excuse me,” he said urgently, turning on his heel and leaving the Hospital Wing. The others watched him go, hoping against hope that he would be able to find out what had happened to Harry.
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Ten minutes later found Remus, Ron, and Hermione pacing the floor of the Hospital Wing, nervously awaiting the return of the headmaster. Ginny, on the other hand, was sitting on the same bed that she had woken up in, lost in thought as she tried to sort out her chaotic swirl of thoughts.
Why is this affecting me so badly?
Because he’s your friend, she answered herself as if the answer were more obvious than the nose on her face. Ginny frowned.
So are Ron and Hermione, but look at them! They didn’t faint but I did…
Then maybe there’s more to your feelings for Harry than you thought.
What? That’s ridiculous. I got over him ages ago!
Did you? Did you really? How was it that her subconscious mind seemed to think more logically about confusing matters than her conscious self did?
Yes! Maybe… sort of… not really… Ginny couldn’t help but be honest with herself. She hadn’t gotten over Harry, even though she had tried so hard to do so. After all, she had to admit that seeing Harry and Cho together was one of the hardest things that she had ever had to deal with.
Well then, there’s your answer! Her subconscious was speaking as if this was the most simple thing in the world. Ginny, however, was feeling rather confused.
There’s my answer to what?
Her subconscious sighed. Someone’s feeling a bit thick today… So, let me spell it out for you: You still like Harry, therefore you are even more worried than Ron and Hermione are about him. Do you get it now?
But- Before she could respond to herself, however, Professor Dumbledore arrived in the Hospital Wing, an unbearably grave expression darkening his features. The others stopped their pacing and, in Ginny’s case, internal confrontations and turned to look at the headmaster.
“What is it, Dumbledore?” Remus asked, worried by the headmaster’s rather solemn entrance.
Dumbledore sighed wearily. “I have closely examined the school’s wards. Any intrusions, however unlikely, would have been recorded, so to speak, by the wards. While they cannot say who or what may have entered the school, they can give a short analysis of the person or thing.” He paused here, knowing the reaction that he would definitely receive from Remus at his next pieces of news.
“What is it, Headmaster?” Hermione asked quietly, unable to stop herself.
Looking directly at Remus, Dumbledore continued. “Around midnight last night, a Portkey was activated inside the school. I was able to trace it from this room to an area outside of the school’s wards.” Remus paled.
“Where was the Portkey supposed to go, sir?” Hermione spoke again, her voice barely above a whisper; she now knew why Ginny had said that Harry’s bed had seemed so neat when he had clearly left it.
“Unfortunately I do not know, Miss Granger,” the headmaster replied, now looking at Hermione. “The destination of the Portkey would only be traceable if it transported the user, or users in this case, to an area within the boundaries of the wards.” There was a short pause.
“What aren’t you telling us, Professor?” Ginny asked, unable to ignore Dumbledore’s look of concealed information; she knew it well, as it was the same look that her mother wore whenever she refused to let them listen to the Order meetings. Dumbledore sighed, knowing that he would not be able to hide this last part from the three students.
Looking back at Remus, he continued to reveal the final piece of information. “After the incident with Sirius and Peter two years ago, I reconfigured the wards to be sensitive to any animagus other than Professor McGonagall being inside the school.” He paused, steeling himself for the worst. “There was one in this room at midnight last night.”
Remus paled further and his eyes grew wide. “Pettigrew.” His whisper was not a question, for he knew already that it was his old friend. He sank into a chair, lost in his thoughts. How could that rat have betrayed them all? He was responsible for the deaths of Lily and James, the imprisonment of Sirius, and the emotional pain that not only himself, but Harry as well, had had to endure. How could their unbreakable friendship have gone so far astray? Peter, now such a poor excuse for a friend, had ruined many lives in the course of a single evening and felt not even the slightest bit of remorse for it as far as Remus knew.
And now, as if that wasn’t enough, he had kidnapped Harry and could have taken him anywhere. Remus’ fear suddenly gave way to anger as he thought of the man who had ultimately ruined so many lives. Only one question remained in the werewolf’s mind: How could he? He was brought out of his dark musings by Professor McGonagall entering the Hospital Wing.
“You wanted to see me, Albus?” she asked, her voice uncharacteristically soft. Dumbledore looked at her, the twinkle in his eyes extinguished.
“Minerva, alert the Order.”
And there you have chapter five, everyone! I know it is a bit different and I still left you hanging, but the next chapter will show Harry’s fate. By the way, the interior monologue with Ginny was an idea I got from a one-shot I wrote. Everyone talks to themselves and even answer back when they are stressed or upset (as weird as that may sound), so I thought it would be a good touch. Well, I hope you enjoyed chapter five (another tough one for me to write). Yes, if you didn’t notice, this story will include some mild H/G shipping, but it will not be a huge point. There will be a few parts where this is included but that’s all. Thanks for reading and please review!
~Moony
Cruciatus Cursed by Moony 62442
Chapter Notes: Alright, guys, here’s chapter five! Again, not mine; JKR’s. I left you with a pretty gruesome cliffie, so I doubt anyone’s reading this A/N. Therefore, on with the show-er-story… yeah, that’s about right. Please review!