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When Dark Falls by MithrilQuill

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Ginny understood simultaneously that the Muggle World had been hit much harder than the wizarding world, much harder than she could possibly have imagined, and that it was not her place – not her fight. She walked among them, each day in a different disguise, moving from city to city, and she watched their tears and their battles and their suffering. She even went to Cambridge to see the rebuilding and strength of Muggles that she had heard of on Potterwatch.

Her time in Cambridge was, perhaps, the most depressing thing she had ever experienced.

She was in a very drab Muggle disguise, with graying brown hair and some wrinkles that Theo had taught her to make. Stepping through pools of blood and over rubble and smoldering embers, Ginny looked and looked for something awe inspiring. She saw Muggles carrying lamps and patrolling the streets. She saw the doctors arrive in their emergency cars and take care of patients.

Ginny crept as close as she dared to one of the makeshift hospitals and watched the doctors operating those strange electrical contraptions that were supposed to save lives. She helped where she could with a surreptitious healing charm here and an obvious one there. She fought Death Eaters head-on some days, covering people’s escapes. She sat in huddled groups of people who had recently been made homeless and she accepted their food and spoke to them.

Mostly she fought, because that was what she had left her friends to do. Theo and Zabini were not there now, no one that she knew was there, so she had only herself and her own thoughts. She could not lie to herself. No matter how hard she fought, no matter how many Death Eaters she killed or injured one day, there were always more the next day. No matter how many brief smiles she put on children’s faces, or how many people she helped save, there was always a new tragedy to make these achievements look like children’s games. The Muggles were slowly being crushed by a falling curtain of darkness and despair that they did not even understand.

If this was what resilience and strength looked like then they were all doomed. Ginny left Cambridge after only two days and nights there in search of something more useful, more lasting; that she could do. The trio had already attacked several important places such as the Ministry and Gringotts, but that did not seem to have changed much. She knew where Malfoy Manor was, and she also knew where the completely insane Bellatrix Lestrange had lived before her time in Azkaban.



The door opened almost as loudly and forcefully as it had shut minutes, or hours, or days ago. Hannah’s brain was not functioning properly. She knew that she should stop sobbing hysterically into Malaika’s shoulder. She knew that she should look up and meet Mahmoud’s angry gaze just as defiantly as she had met Ernie’s weeks ago.

She couldn’t do anything.

Mahmoud was panting loudly, as if he had been running. She wondered what it was he had come back to say to her and wished he would just say it and leave her to her lonely misery.

“There you are!” Malaika said, as if several minutes hadn’t passed. Perhaps they hadn’t. Hannah had never been good at judging time and she wouldn’t be when she was this upset.

“She’s been crying ever since you left! Thinks you’re angry at her or something stupid like that, I tried to tell h-”

These words brought Hannah’s slow brain jolting back into action. A well of anger rose up inside her. Of course he was angry. How could he not be? Her head snapped up and she interrupted Malaika.

“Of course he’s bloody angry!” she yelled, “They killed his entire family! He was blamed for it, because people like me are going around erasing everyone’s memories of magic! I had the power to stop it, everyone thought so, but I just ran away!”

She was eye to eye with Mahmoud now, but she could not comprehend the puzzled look on his face. She did not break his gaze, even though Malaika was saying something and Millie sounded excited about something. She did not give in to the urge to steal a glance at Emmett’s face.

Mahmoud moved closer to her and took her hands in his. He took a deep breath and then suddenly dropped her hands as if they had been burning hot. His hands came up again and hovered awkwardly in the air between them. Finally, he let out a short breath and spoke.

“Marry me,” he breathed, as if in a great hurry. “You’re the strongest, most principled, most beautiful person I know. Will you marry me?”

Hannah looked down at his hands to find a simple ring shining up at her. “It was my mother’s,” he said.



Arthur had never actually been inside the orphanage, and the Death Eater siege it was currently under made it even harder to contemplate going in there. He drew his clock closer around himself and checked on his Disillusionment charm. Remus had not been able to come himself, but Arthur had promised to ensure the safety of the Muggle children and the young witch who was protecting them. He couldn’t deny that he was also rather fascinated by the fact that the young witch, Celeste, had chosen to live as a Muggle.

He paced the surrounding alleyways, squinting through the darkness to try and find some opening through which he could enter without alerting the Death Eaters. One of the back alleys had been left pretty much unguarded. There was a small house between this alleyway and the orphanage, but he would deal with that when the time came. Arthur pulled out his wand and looked around him, checking again for Death Eaters. He stood still and waved his wand around the alley. He could not detect any hidden enchantments in the alleyway. It seemed the Death Eaters had really made the mistake of not guarding this alleyway.
Arthur stepped closer to the house that stood between him and the orphanage, stowing his wand, but a movement somewhere above made him stop. He pulled his wand back out and held it at the ready. There did not appear to be anything now, but Arthur knew better than to ignore his own senses. He waved the wand in the general direction of the movement he had seen and, sure enough, it revealed several concealment charms.

Stepping back Arthur repeated the process on all the roofs, but there was nothing there. He pulled a miniature broomstick out of his pocket and cast a Disillusionment charm. Then he tapped it and enlarged it again. There was no time to waste if a Death Eater was hovering so close to one of the windows of the orphanage.

Arthur jumped on his broom and flew up, scanning the rooftop with his eyes and various revealing spells. His eyes proved, again, to be quicker. Someone was only a small leap away from letting themselves in through one of the orphanage windows.

Flying low, Arthur landed a couple of meters behind the person only to find that it was no Death Eater, but the equally unpleasant personality of Aveline Zabini. The thought of what she could be doing near a Muggle orphanage sent chills up Arthur’s spine. Her son’s recent death had provided the media, for the first time ever, with a picture of the woman in a disheveled, discomposed state. Arthur clenched his first at the thought of how and where Zabini had died… his body had been found right next to Ginny’s.

Swallowing the lump in his throat Arthur moved closer and decided that it would be much safer to allow her to enter the Orphanage first, opening a way for him to follow, and then deal with her inside where the Death Eaters could not become involved.

Finally, Zabini finished undoing the protective charms on the window and, much more quickly and agilely than Arthur had anticipated, she leapt in through the window. He leapt in after her, stumbling a little and getting an unpleasant view of the drop. Aveline Zabini was already on the other side of the empty room, heading, no doubt, to where she could do someone harm. Arthur followed her, but more slowly, making sure to close the window and renew the protective charms around it. By the time he was finished the spells he had lost her.

He closed his eyes momentarily and focused on her image in his mind, whispering “Point Me!” His wand obliged and, running now, he soon found her on the staircase. Arthur followed, wondering why the Orphanage was so empty.
His question was answered immediately when another protective charm stopped Aveline in her tracks on the fourth to last step.

“Stop right there!” Arthur called. “I will not allow you to harm anyone in this place!”

By the time she turned around Arthur had already cast a protective shield around himself and sent an anti-Dissapparition Jinx at her. She snorted when she saw him and he had time to send a Truth-Inducing charm at her.
It hit her exactly on target in her neck and seemed much more alert now. “Very impressive, Arthur,” she said, licking her lips as if tasting something new. “An interesting spell, but I was not intending to lie or deceive tonight! No, tonight, there will be nothing but the truth!”

“Why have you come here?” Arthur said, scanning his surroundings and planning his attacking spells so that they did not harm the people sheltered downstairs. He found himself much calmer now, and it interfered with his feeling of readiness for battle.

“I’m here to see and speak with someone called Celeste,” Aveline Zabini hissed. “I’m afraid I can’t promise that what I have to say will not harm her. If you intend to fight me, I suggest you get it over with quickly, I don’t have all day.” She was trying to put on a strong, bored face, but Arthur could see reflected in her eyes the same dismay that he was beginning to feel himself at the unnatural calmness that had settled over his heart. Something very powerful was at work here.

They fired a couple of sluggish spells at each other, which missed and were absorbed by the walls. Arthur was now looking around in alarm and Zabini had turned back around to examine the protective charm that kept her from the people below.

It was then that a very calm and unnecessarily cheerful young woman about Ron’s age stepped into the entrance hall below. She looked up at both of them with a smile and wiped her hands on a dirty apron she was wearing. There was a spot of cookie dough in her hair and another on her cheek. The light smudge of dough made her beautiful chocolate-colored skin stand out even more.

Arthur took a few steps down the stairs, coming level with Aveline Zabini who was staring, transfixed, at the girl. No doubt she had never seen anyone do something as natural and messy as bake cookies with young children. Arthur smiled at Celeste, his wand still pointed rather pointlessly at Aveline Zabini.

“Celeste,” Arthur’s head turned sharply towards the woman beside him. She had whispered the name as if a deep connection or recognition could exist between them.

“You must be Mr. Weasley!” Celeste continued cheerfully, rather undaunted by Zabini’s continued stare and the strange voice in which she had spoken.

“Please come in, both of you!” Celeste said, gesturing towards the open door she had just stepped out of.
Arthur moved forward, but he had enough presence of mind left to utter a warning. “We’re not here together,” he said, “That is to say, I don’t think this woman is here to help you, Celeste, she has ties to Death Eaters – Remus must have tol-”

“Yes,” Celeste said stonily, “He did tell me about them… not that I’d need it after what they’ve done.”

The air in Arthur’s lungs turned to ice. He had come here knowing that the Orphanage was surrounded and everyone in it in danger, but he had not stopped to wonder what horrors they had already done. Now, at the expression on her face, sickening images of blood and torture came to his mind.

Zabini was following Celeste through a doorway. Arthur rushed in after them, but there was no one in the room besides a hunched over young man whose back was turned to them. The powerful calming spell began to take effect again. Arthur hovered near the doorway and watched Celeste calmly take a seat on one of the couches.

“What is it that you want from me?” she asked Aveline Zabini directly. She was fingering a colorful bracelet on her right wrist and Arthur was reminded rather forcefully that she did not have a wand. Zabini had killed seven husbands and she was a known Muggle-hater.

“I have already received the reassurance I came for,” Zabini said in a slick voice, but her wide eyes betrayed her as she continued to stare at Celeste like someone who has just seen a ghost. “But there are many things that I have taken from you and now I come knowing that it is too late to give them back.”

Celeste stood abruptly and the hairs on Arthur’s neck stood on end. He raised his wand and pointed it directly at Zabini’s back. The young man reacted even more forcefully to Celeste’s change of mood. He leapt to his feet and his hunched shivering became violent shaking. He turned to face them and pulled out his wand, pointing it protectively before him.

It took Arthur many painful seconds to place this drawn, shaken face as the face of Draco Malfoy. Voldemort’s most deadly and most insane Death Eater. In the past few months the young Malfoy had proven himself to be even more vicious and crazy than his aunt Bellatrix Lestrange. And yet, looking at the young, pale face Arthur could not help feeling pity. He did not like to think what horrors had been inflicted on Malfoy to make him into a madman. He liked seeing him here in the orphanage even less.

“Don’t come near me!” Malfoy said, his eyes fixed on Aveline Zabini.

“Draco,” Aveline began, but Malfoy’s shaking intensified and he shook his head vigorously.

Celeste was now looking from one person to the other with mild puzzlement, but the calming spell was beginning to take effect again. She stepped closer to Malfoy and, before Arthur could call out a warning, she placed an arm around his shoulder.

“That young man is a mass murderer and completely insane,” Zabini began, but Celeste shook her head sadly.

“Why are you here?” she demanded again.

Malfoy’s shaking had subsided, but he was still staring at Aveline Zabini and he raised a pointing hand again. “You killed him! He loved her and you knew he didn’t want to and you let them send him to kill her!”

“What are you talking about?” Celeste said, now sounding exasperated.

“B-Blaise. He never wanted to be a Death Eater. The D-Dark Lord sent him to kill Ginny Weasley and he didn’t want to do it, and she didn’t help him!”

Arthur’s grip on his wand tightened. He stepped closer and asserted himself into the conversation. “That’s right,” he said. “My daughter was killed in a house with the strongest magical protections around it. I will not allow that to happen again to any child if I can help it. I want both of these Death Eaters out of here immediately. This conversation can be continued when all the children of the orphanage are safe.”

“But they’re not safe!” Malfoy shrieked again. “Not when she’s here! She killed her own son – what kind of bloody mother is that!”

“That’s right,” Aveline said with a hint of laughter in her voice. “I killed my own son even before he was born. I killed his father first, like my previous six husbands and then I looked down at myself and couldn’t stand the sight of my bulging belly so I killed the baby inside it. And then after I killed him I came looking for another baby to raise, to right the only wrong I ever regretted. I found this orphanage and there was powerful magic coming from inside it so I came inside and found you!”

Celeste took a shuddering breath and stepped back.

“I found you and I found your brother and I knew that I couldn’t raise a girl, that she would become like myself – that she would be weak like me – so I only took the boy. I took Blaise. And he was a perfect son. Then the Dark Lord took him from me so he could die a murderer.”

Having finished her confession she collapsed into an armchair and allowed her wand to fall to the ground. All four of them watched it roll across the floor.

“Why are you here?” Celeste repeated in a hollow voice.

“To see Blaise again,” Zabini whispered. “To reassure myself that you, at least, remained safe away from my influence… ”

“But I’m not safe,” Celeste said. “And I want you to leave.”



“So you don’t know how to do magic anymore?” Millie asked.

“Of course she knows how to do magic!” Emmett said, “How else do you think she made that fiery cloak. The question is can you make them stop?” he asked.

Hannah, Mahmoud, and Malaika all began to shout at him simultaneously, but he took this with a long-suffering air and waited until their voices died down.

“I will never intentionally do magic again!” Hannah said with finality.

“I didn’t ask you to do magic,” Emmet replied. “I asked if you could make them stop doing that thing – erasing people’s memories.”

“Even if I could reverse the spell I wo-”

“That still wasn’t my question!” Emmett said. “What use would it be to reverse the spell for one or two or a hundred people? I know about it, but that hasn’t exactly saved the world, has it?”

“For once in your life, you’re making some sense,” Malaika said. “So what-”

“I’d need to get back into Hogwarts,” Hannah interrupted a little excitedly. “Ginny could help me contact someone in the Order… if we explained to them…”

Emmett leaned forward in his seat, his eyes wide with excitement now. “And can you do that without magic?”

“Maybe… If I go in the daytime before the curfew charms are up in Hogsmeade. There are secret passages that lead into the castle… but I’d probably just get myself caught or killed before I could talk to anyone.” She said the last phrase with the air of someone who has already decided, but doesn’t want others to put their hopes up.

Mahmoud took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“We’ll come too!” Millie said excitedly. “I want to see Hogwatts too!”

“This isn’t a picnic,” Malaika began.

“But they’ll have to hear from Muddles like us before they get convinced to stop doing it!” Millie insisted. “And you’ll need me to convince people you’re not up to anything suspicious – people never suspect cute little kids!”

Mahmoud could not help the bubbling laugh that escaped his lips. The world had suddenly become brighter and more amusing ever since Hannah had smiled back at him.



Celeste excused herself, after making sure that Arthur Weasley and Draco were in separate rooms and would not murder each other, and went upstairs to check on the windows. Arthur had showed her a new protective spell that she could use – one that warned the caster when it had been breached. She peered through windows and checked and double checked empty rooms.

They were still lurking outside; sometimes they saw her at the window and jeered.

Celeste swallowed back the useless tide of anger and disgust that had welled up inside her. She closed her eyes and focused on the spell, pointing her hand out the window.
When she was finished casting it on the attic window she turned to go, but a shadowy movement outside caught her eye. She stepped closer and peered out through the window. The strange woman, Arthur had called her Aveline Zabini, was still hovering just outside the protective barrier, like someone at an unfamiliar crossroads.

She shook her head and turned back to go downstairs again. This was not time to feel sorry for herself; there were so many others depending on her now. Even the women that had cared for her when she was young were now looking up to her for direction in this suddenly more frightening world.

She found Arthur hovering near the doorway of the kitchen, pacing back and forth and sneaking glances at the pale, blond young man who was hunched over the table.

“Thank you again for coming, Mr. Weasley.”

“Please call me Arthur,” he said, shaking himself into alertness. “The first thing we need to do to make sure everyone is safe is to get him out of here, Celeste.”

Draco’s head had perked up again, and Celeste grabbed Arthur’s arm and gently steered him away from the kitchen and into a small office. The children could be heard fighting and laughing from next door. Their voices would cover the conversation.

“They’ve sent him in here to torture us or something,” Celeste said. “It’s not as if I trust him. But he was a real mess when he came in. I think it was – the sight of the baby affected him… anyway, if we send him out we’ll have the full might of his friends out there to contend with. Right now, they’re not really trying. They want something from us first, that’s why they’ve sent him in here.”

Arthur shoved his hand into his pocket and drew out a wanted poster. Straightening it, he held it before Celeste’s face. “I don’t think you understand what he’s capable of.”
There was a long silence in which Celeste wondered what to say. It would sound arrogant if she said that he couldn’t do any harm while he was under the effects of her spell, but she did believe it to be true. And somewhere deep inside, she felt pity for the young man.

“Was my brother like him?” she asked suddenly. “Did he…”

She found she could not continue with her question. Swallowing back the stinging pain behind her eyes she waited for an answer – or a miracle.

“I didn’t know Blaise very well,” Arthur replied. “He was a handsome young man and he was in Slytherin house – no doubt due to the effect of Aveline Zabini. I never heard that he was a bully or that he had killed anyone or committed crimes, but he did join the Death Eaters. They found him dead in the attack on my daughter Ginny… I am sure if he had known you – if he had been brought up by someone other than that woman…”

Celeste shook herself and wiped the tears that had begun to pour down her cheeks. “Is there anywhere safer for us to go?” she asked, turning back to Arthur.

“I’m afraid that I don’t know anywhere big enough to hold everyone. All our safe houses are constantly under attack and most of us are on the run. We’ll need to find and protect a new place – my wife, Molly, is working on that right now, but until then we’ll have to sit tight and figure out how we’re going to get everyone out safely when the time comes.”

“Can’t we use one of those Portkey things?” Celeste asked.
Arthur shook his head. “Not with the Ministry in its current state, no.”



Hannah had never thought she would be entering Hogsmeade again, much less with an escort of Muggles. Keeping a tight, almost desperate hold on Mahmoud’s hand, she led the way through the nearly empty streets. A couple of hags walked by and a small group of Goblins were arguing loudly in front of Scrivenshaft’s. Hannah could see the sign of Madam Rosmerta’s pub swaying in the distance. She drew her hood down lower over her face and turned into the Hog’s Head.

Mahmoud held the door open for Malaika and Millie and then stepped in, letting the door close behind him. There was only one customer in there: a rather mean-looking wizard who was muttering drunkenly into his cup. They sat down around a table and Hannah ordered some Butterbeers, wondering how she was going to pay for them. She doubted that the owner of the Hog’s head would take Muggle money and, except for the fake DA galleon, she had no Wizard money left.

Millie was swinging her legs, her eyes shining excitedly. It was clearly difficult for her to contain her excitement at the things she was seeing. Hannah looked from Mahmoud, who was eying his butterbeer suspiciously, to the owner of the pub, who had begun to argue with the drunk wizard.

She went over the words in her head again and again as she watched the argument grow into a full-fledged fight. Finally, the owner threw the wizard out and slammed the door decisively behind him. Hannah sighed in relief; at least there wouldn’t be an audience to give them away when she tried speaking to the man.

She lifted her head and began to stand when the barkeeper’s striking blue eyes met hers.

“What on earth are you doing back here, girl?” he demanded loudly. “I thought you were the smart one – the one that knew what was good for you and escaped!”

Hannah fell back into her seat and stared at the intelligent blue eyes that would pierce through any lie she could come up with. For some odd reason they reminded her of the few uncomfortable times she had been in Dumbledore’s office.

“I – I need to speak to someone in Hogwarts,” she said truthfully. “Or to get a message to them. Can you help me with that?”

“Who?”

Hannah swallowed.

“Ginny Weasley,” she said. “Or Neville Longbottom.”

The man frowned at her for a few moments before replying. “Weasley’s dead, but I can bring you Longbottom. You’ll have to come upstairs and keep quiet; it isn’t safe for you in here.”

He led them upstairs into a small room and then left them alone. Hannah began to pace nervously, trying not to think about Ginny Weasley. The fiery Gryffindor girl had been one of the leaders of the DA; she had been like a friend to Hannah. She would not ask about Ernie or Susan or Zach. She did not want to be told that they too were dead. It was so much easier to deal with the loss of her friends in the distance of the Muggle world, but here…

Suddenly, the door opened again and Neville limped in. “Hannah!”

Before she knew it he had wrapped his arms around her in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re alive, Hannah!” he said, finally releasing her and stepping back to study her face. “We thought you were dead for sure, or captured!”

Hannah swallowed nervously and introduced Malaika, Millie, Emmet and Mahmoud. She fidgeted nervously with her new ring and then paced again before turning back to Neville and stopping his long tirade.

“Neville,” she said gently. “I’m not coming back. To the Wizarding world I mean. At all. I just – I need to speak to someone from the Order. They’ve been wiping Muggles’ memories and they need to stop, people need to understand what they’re facing. They need to remember the signs of danger, the faces of Death Eaters… anyway, can you help me get into contact with them.”

Neville frowned in concentration. “We’re all hiding out, Hannah, in the Room of Requirement. That’s how I got here – there’s a secret passage between the Room and Aberforth’s pub. He gets us food and things.”

“But – you mean Snape and the Carrows…”

“Yeah,” Neville said grimly. “It’s getting worse, but we’re safe in the Room. Anyway, come back to Hogwarts with me – all of you – and we’ll try to get into contact with McGonagall.”

“I – why don’t we just wait here…” Hannah tried.

“Are you mad? Susan would kill me if I didn’t let her see you – not to mention Ernie. He’s been beating himself up over his fight with you… come on, that way you’ll be able to meet McGonagall much faster!”

“Please let’s go!” Millie said excitedly.

Hannah sighed.



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