“Ginny! Watch out!”
Ginny Weasley dodged as a large part of the wall fell in on itself, almost collapsing on her. Coughing due to the thick, black smoke, she blindly reached out and tried to locate her friend. Flames were all around them, engulfing anything that came in its path. Finally, she was able to see the silhouette of a girl.
“Are you okay?” Ginny asked, grabbing Hermione’s arm.
“I’m okay. Ron and Harry have gone to try and find a way out,” Hermione said, trying to sound calm, but her voice was shaking with terror. Please let them be alright! she wished to herself. The mere thought of either of them getting hurt sent daggers into her heart. Suddenly, they were both thrown to the floor by an unknown weight. A split second later, the ceiling toppled onto them. Ginny coughed violently as the dust invaded her dry throat and lungs. If we hadn’t been on the floor, we could have been killed! Ginny jumped as the weight on top of her moved. Ginny’s eyes were streaming due to the dust, but she could just make out a figure with dark hair standing up.
“Harry?” Ginny croaked.
“No; not Harry,” said an unknown voice. A woman’s voice. Instantly, Ginny scrambled to her feet and her hand automatically flew to her pocket. But there was no wand. The Death Eaters had taken it when they had tricked them in there. Instead, she backed away and collided with Hermione.
“We need to get out of here ”the whole house is gonna collapse soon! Follow me!” the woman said. The woman had long, brown hair, a heart shaped face and a worried look in her brilliant eyes. They were the brightest shade of blue Ginny had ever seen.
“How can we trust you?” Ginny asked accusingly, in spite of the timing.
“Look, I just saved your bloody life”” the woman started hotly.
“Calm down, we just don’t know who to trust these days,” Hermione said quickly, her eyes darting round the burning room. The woman looked a bit calmer.
“Sorry, I’ve been through a lot to get here and when I’m in a house that’s about to collapse, I tend to get slightly stres”” the woman started, suddenly stopping and looking behind Ginny.
“Are you all okay? Who are you?” Harry said, coming up beside Ginny. Ron rushed over to Hermione and held onto her hand tightly.
“We’re fine,” Ginny said.
“And you are?” Harry asked, looking at the woman. She seemed to shake out of her reverie very suddenly as Harry addressed her.
“My name’s Holly. I would love to give you all my life story, but I don’t think we have enough time, if you don’t want to get burnt to a crisp!” the woman called Holly snapped, sounding sarcastic and tense at the same time.
“Okay, okay we’re moving. Which way?” Ginny said, scanning the room for an exit. Holly started to sprint away from them, quickly looking over her shoulder to check that they were following. They ran to keep up with her, dodging the blazing parts of wood. It felt like something out of a Muggle action film, jumping away from falling debris and parts of the wall. Holly stopped suddenly, causing Ginny to collide into the back of her.
“Why did you stop?!” Hermione said frantically. The flames were increasing rapidly. Then they were hit by a wave of heat. In front of them was a ten foot wall of fire, threatening to spill forward and swallow them all up.
“Aguamenti!” Holly yelled. A fountain of water rushed out of her wand. There was a loud hiss as the water extinguished the inferno.
“Good thing you’ve got your wand,” Ron said. It wasn’t long before the flames were small enough to allow them to rush through the doorway. After what seemed like hours, Holly finally ripped the front door open, allowing everyone to pour out. Whilst the others were panting for breath and coughing up smoke, Holly had already run off. Ginny looked up and spotted four Death Eaters. And Holly was running towards them. Within seconds, she had stunned three of them. The fourth one took one last look at Holly, then Disapparated.
“Come back and fight, you cowardly, scummy piece of”” Holly yelled furiously, stopping suddenly when one of the Death Eaters stirred. In a flash, she had knocked him unconscious again and walked back to the shocked onlookers.
“Your wands?” Holly said, producing four wands in front of them.
“When…where…how…” Ron stuttered weakly, amazed about how fast and efficiently she had done that.
“One of those Death Eaters had them. Thick as mud, they are. They’re the same Death Eaters that trapped you, I think they wanted to watch you burn in the house,” Holly said as she handed them back their wands.
“Oh… wait, how did you know we were trapped by Death Eaters?” Harry asked, eyeing her with suspicion.
“Yes and why did you help us?” Hermione added.
“What I’m about to tell you might seem unbelievable, but it’s true,” Holly said, looking nervously at each of them.
“What?” Ron asked.
“I’m from the future,” Holly said, looking anxiously around for eavesdroppers. Everyone froze and stared at her.“How far in the future?” Hermione asked, her voice very high pitched.
“Oh…about 20 odd years,” Holly said quietly.
“What?!”
“I told you that it would be hard to believe,” she mumbled.
“But…how…why?” Ginny asked weakly.
“Could we please go somewhere a bit more private? You don’t know who could be listening,” Holly said uneasily.
“But-” Hermione started, but Holly cut her off.
“I’m not saying anymore out here, for all we know some Death Eaters could be still floating around and I don’t even want to think what would happen next,” Holly said sharply.
“Where shall we go?” Hermione said. She was keen to find out more about this most unexpected occurrence, but she could tell from the look in Holly’s eye that she would not say another word until they had left.
“What about my place?” Harry suggested. Two years ago, Harry had bought a house that was just down the road to where his parents used to live. He said he liked living close to them. Holly nodded in agreement.
“Everyone up to Apparating?” Ron asked. Everyone nodded.
“Holly, why don’t you side along with me, you don’t know where I live,” Harry said, outstretching his hand.
“Okay, thanks,” Holly said, sounding faintly flustered.
“I’ll send a message to the Order to tell them about the gits over there,” Ron said, pointing his wand towards the Death Eaters. Without another word, Ron conjured a Patronus. A minute or two later, two wizards appeared.
“Everyone okay here?” one of them asked.
“Yes, we’re fine, thanks to this young lady here,” Harry said, gesturing towards Holly. “She got us out of that house and caught those Death Eaters. Unfortunately, one of them escaped.”
“Thank you very much, but may I ask who you are?” the man said kindly.
“We’re not sure yet, we’re going back to Harry’s if you need us,” Ginny said, looking at Holly with a suspicious look on her face.
“I will,” he said, smiling at them and then dashing off to the Death Eaters.
“Ready to go?” Hermione asked, sounding slightly impatient. She wanted to find out more about this woman. Harry took hold of Holly’s hand and they all Disapparated, questions spinning around in their heads faster than when using Floo powder.