There was a moment of painful silence as Hannah and Ernie’s eyes met across the room. Then Susan barreled across the room and hugged Hannah tightly. “Oh, Hannah, how could you leave us? We were so worried! Zach nearly killed Ernie and Ernie nearly killed himself with worry. McGonagall spoke to Zabini and they brought in Professor Lupin to open that room and a little boy called Liam and-”
“Breathe, Susan!” Ernie said. He was now standing just behind Susan and still staring intently at Hannah’s face.
Susan relaxed her grip on Hannah and retreated.
“I’m so sorry, Hannah-” Ernie began, but Hannah discovered, as he said it, that she did not want to hear an apology. An apology would not change anything.
She shook her head and pulled her friend into a tight hug. She could sense some communication happening between Ernie and Mahmoud behind her back. When she extracted herself from the hug she looked from one face to another. She almost laughed.
“These are my friends in the Muggle world,” she said, pointing to each one in turn. “Emmett, Malaika, Millie, and Mahmoud.”
“And this is Ernie, one of my oldest friends, and this is Susan, the only person that kept me sane during the year before I… ran away.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Ernie said, with an air of forgiving Hannah which she found very annoying. “You’re back now.”
Hannah frowned and Mahmoud slipped a hand into hers. He did not speak or protest, allowing Hannah to tell them herself.
“Actually,” she said slowly, but confidently, “I haven’t come back to stay. I’m staying in the Muggle world now…”
Ernie loudly inhaled a sharp breath. Susan’s eyes suddenly widened. Even the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws who hadn’t been paying much attention began to listen now.
“I just need to speak with McGonagall… Neville’s gone to get her for me.”
The silence that followed tasted very bitter. She had known this would happen. She had not wanted to see her friends for fear of this moment.
“Where’s Zach?” she asked suddenly.
“Come on, Hannah, you know the bloody idiot didn’t want to be part of the DA anymore this year.”
Hannah shook her head. She had hoped they would have come closer in her absence. Zach had been so lonely. “But he’s alright, isn’t he?”
“Yeah,” Susan said. “He even helped Neville and me the other day.”
Hannah looked around at Millie, Malaika, and Emmett, who were busy touching things and talking to DA members. She closed her eyes and powered on against the silence. “And Bl- Zabini?”
The look on Ernie’s face now was worse than it had been when they had fought. It was betrayal mixed with a lack of recognition. Their friendship, she realized, was not going to be mended. “Zabini’s dead,” he spat. “Him and his friend Nott both died trying to kidnap Ginny.”
Hannah closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She felt Mahmoud’s arms wrap around her shoulders. He was still there, behind her, supportive, even though she was sure he had no idea what was happening.
“Hannah!” Susan said suddenly. “Why are you wearing that ring?”
Despite everything, Susan still sounded happy. Hannah could not manage a smile, but she opened her eyes and examined the ring on her finger, comparing it again with the simpler ring on Mahmoud’s finger. The answer was obvious, and somehow Susan still managed to become excited.
She launched into another long tirade and Hannah felt the breath slowly being sapped from her as she listened. It had only been a few short months, but the distance that had grown between her and her friends was insurmountable. Even though Susan was happy and excited for her, Hannah found it was no longer comfortable to listen to her oldest friend.
Neville’s new, serious voice saved her. “It’s too dangerous to meet in here, but McGonagall’s going to meet you in the Shrieking shack!” he announced.
“Oooh,” Millie said excitedly. “Is it haunted?”
Hannah smiled.
“Just give me a minute,” Neville said. “I think I can get the room to make a passage for you, that way you won’t have to walk through Hogsmeade again.”
…
Ginny sent another stunner and then dove behind something large. She took in a sharp, quick breath and then jumped back out to send a more powerful spell at her opponent. One of Blaise’s spells.
The Death Eater was gone.
She turned on another Death Eater without wasting time, but the hairs were rising on the back of her neck. Soon all of them had disappeared and she was left amidst the fire and rubble and injured Muggles. She knelt beside a little girl with wide, tearful eyes and began mumbling gentle nothings that reminded her of her mother. Ginny had always felt suffocated at home, but now that she was alone she felt as if part of her heart had been hollowed out.
“It’s going to be fine,” she whispered as she bandaged the girl’s wounded arm. “See, it doesn’t hurt a bit because you’re strong, but next time you see those big masked men I want you to find someplace to hide.”
The girl nodded, revealing a large bruise on the side of her head. Ginny examined it more closely and the girl cried out in pain. “I’m sorry!” Ginny said, trying to keep panic from her voice. “What’s your name?”
“D-Daisy.”
“That’s a very pretty name,” Ginny said, leaning closer and looking at the wound without touching it this time. It was a deep one. If she bandaged it the Muggle way or used some of her simple surreptitious spells the girl’s head might get infected and it could harm her brain. Ginny looked into those wide, trusting eyes and wished she could leave this to Blaise or Theo. She wasn’t made to watch people suffer, or to be responsible for other lives. Theo always said that life sent you what you weren’t ready for – that it was a constant test of will and strength.
Ginny glanced around at the Muggles milling about and helping the injured. It was too quiet and open now; there was no screaming and no battle chaos to cover her spells. Thousands of years of secrecy and hiding weighed down on her shoulders, but she knew that it did not matter. None of it mattered if she let this little girl’s life be destroyed. She hoped she was good enough to perfect the spell.
Something sharp stung at her leg, but she ignored it and closed her eyes to remember the spell.
“Are you ok?” Daisy asked.
“Yes, yes, of course,” Ginny mumbled as another sharp stab drew her attention. Blaise’s face swam before her mind’s eye all of a sudden and she remembered something he had said about cleansing spells and disinfecting spells. She bit her lip and opened her eyes again.
“Tergeo!” Ginny said, pointing her wand at the wound and watching the dirt and blood siphon away into her wand. The wound looked even more frightening clean than it had when it had been filthy.
“Repello Bacterium!” she said, watching the effects of her spell carefully although she knew full well that bacteria were not visible. She used several more of the wound cleaning spells Theo and Blaise had taught her and then reached into her pocket for the bottle of salve she kept in there.
Daisy was whimpering now. Ginny stuck her hand into her pocket and it came into contact with something small and hot. She closed her fingers around the phial of salve and the same sharp, hot pain dug into her palm.
“Hang in there,” she said, not entirely sure whether she was speaking to the little girl or to herself. She put the phial down next to her knee and looked down at her burning palm. The DA coin. Hogwarts.
Ginny’s heart was racing. She fumbled with the phial, her hands suddenly large and clumsy against her new urgency. Finally, she managed to open it and dab some of the salve on the girl’s wound. Taking a deep breath she whispered a simple healing charm “Episkey!” and watched the wound close itself up. There would be a scar there, she was not, after all, Madame Pomfrey and she could not invent spells like Blaise, but she was sure it was quite clean. The rest would have to be left to the Muggle Healers. Ginny had a war to fight at Hogwarts. The DA was calling.
She took the girl to one of the Muggle nurses and slipped away quickly. Looking down at her disguised body Ginny wondered if this was really it. Her heart wanted it to be some kind of spectacular battle. Her heart wanted this life on the run to be over. She wanted this to be the reason for the Death Eater’s sudden disappearance from this battle. She wanted to be able to lift her disguise and fight beside her friends once more.
She shook her head. This was not the time to dream. She had to find a way to get into Hogwarts first. She would have to Apparate somewhere in the magical world and find out more information about what was happening at Hogwarts. She raised her wand.
“Not so fast, broom-thief!”
…
Zach knew something was happening in the castle. Longbottom and the rest of the DA always kept an eye out for anyone else who needed to take refuge with them, but tonight they had allowed that fifth year girl to be tortured half to death and they still hadn’t come to her aid. Tightening his grip on his wand Zach watched Crabbe and Goyle kick and drag the girl down the hallway.
He could not wait much longer. Soon the two Slytherin bullies would either reach the approving arms of the Carrows or throw the girl outside Hogwarts like they had tried to do with the Creevy brothers.
“Come on!” Zach whispered. “Where are you, bloody Gryffindors?”
The problem was that if he stepped in now he would have nowhere to go but to the arms of Longbottom and MacMillan. McGonagall was outside the Castle and Sprout was in a meeting with Snape. Zach did not trust Flitwick, in fact, he wasn’t even sure he would trust McGonagall and Sprout if they were available.
Crabbe let out a loud, demented sort of laugh as he began to shove the girl down the stairs.
Zach took a deep breath and raised his wand, preparing to come out from behind the corner. Just then, Amycus Carrow came running blindly down the hall. He bumped into the Dissillusioned Zach, but he did not stop or do anything. He was gripping his left forearm and muttering dire warnings.
Passing by Crabbe and Goyle and stepping on the girl’s hand – probably on purpose – as he pelted down the hall, he called to the two Slytherins to get a move on. Zach furrowed his brows and watched as the boys stopped their bullying and looked down at their own forearms. “Why isn’t mine burning?” Goyle said in the tone of a petulant child.
“Doesn’t matter,” Crabbe said. “You know what this means. It’s our chance.”
They left the girl shuddering and sobbing on the steps and began to run up the staircase to the seventh floor. Something was definitely going on.
Zach waited until their footsteps had died away and then he ran to the girl’s aid. He had always been exceptional at Healing spells and now was the time to put it to the test. In war, there came a moment for every person to choose sides. In this war you were either with the Death Eaters or Potter and his worshippers or you were a coward. Well Zach was going to invent a fourth option for himself. He was going to be on the side of the injured. Healing was, after all, the only thing he was actually good at – other than losing his friends, of course.
The problem with healing was that it required concentration, space, time and materials. “Ferula!” he conjured a splint and then treated the girl’s most obvious wounds, resisting the urge to clap his hands over his ears.
The Dark Lord’s hissing, blood-stopping voice was issuing from within Zach’s own brain. The girl was moaning limply in pain, clawing at her ears. He had to stop her from going into shock and then he had to find some herbs and potions to cure her with. She was on the thin, painful line between life and death.
Zach wanted to scream or hit something - anything that would get that dreaded voice to stop. He cast a shield charm on the girl and then picked her up in his arms, his wand still held out awkwardly in his right hand.
Finally, he found an alcove to hide her in on the fourth floor. Her breathing was becoming very shallow. “Anapneo!” he said, pointing his wand at her. There was no obstruction in her airway to clear. The life was simply fading out of her.
Zach needed help.
He stowed his wand in his pocket and ran towards the Great Hall with his hands clamped over his ears.
…
Ginny had never before felt paralyzed like she did now. She watched Charlie, Charlie who had kept her secret for so long, as he ran off, leaving her behind in here where she would be “safe.” She looked across an insurmountable distance into Tonks’ eyes and saw indecision shining back at her. Or perhaps it was the same paralysis. Harry hadn’t even bothered to ask how she was doing. She had left behind her love for him months ago, when she realized he was going to go off on his adventure without her – without considering that she may have something to contribute to this war. Why, then, did it still hurt so much that he had been one of the many voices calling for her to stay locked up in the room of requirement?
She had just been reunited with her entire family, even Percy, but she felt dead. She was useless. Her mind was casting around desperately for something that she could do, but it kept coming back to Blaise’s smile and Theo’s comforting presence. They had been the only ones to understand and support her need to fight. Even as she yelled at them and called them cowards they had been planning for her safe journey, packing her a journey bag of treasures to take with her. They had understood that she needed to be in the thick of action in order to feel truly alive, but she had not stopped to understand their own choice in this war. She had not helped them with their dream as they had helped her.
And now the most brutal battle yet was being waged at Hogwarts and people would need a place of healing and safety to go to. She had to help Blaise and Theo start the hospital. It had to start taking in patients tonight.
She marched up to the door of the Room of Requirement only to find that it had opened of its own accord. Ron, Harry, and Hermione stood there looking back at her, and through the haze of battle she understood that they needed the Room of Requirement. So now whatever they needed to do in there was more important than her precious safety, but they expected her to wait outside like a good little baby so they could let her back into her prison when they were done.
Ginny turned and ran; Harry’s desperate shouts of “You have to come back in!” dying down behind her. Blaise needed to learn new spells in order to make his protective enchantments work. The Hogwarts Library would provide all they needed. She tore the bookshelves upside down, wondering why Madam Pince hadn’t murdered her yet. She summoned and shoved book after book into the enchanted pouch the boys had given her. Finally, even the enchanted, mokeskin pouch was beginning to feel heavy so she turned tail and ran towards the Hospital Wing.
She knew, as soon as she exited the Library, that someone was watching her, dogging her footsteps. She would shake them off after she was finished with the Hospital Wing. If Madam Pomfrey was inside there would be a short, probably chaotic shouting match in which Ginny would be able to stun whoever it was that was following her.
…
Zach watched Ginny Weasley, who was supposed to be dead, as she combed the deserted Hospital Wing in search of something. She picked up the occasional phial or pouch, but it was clear that whatever she was searching for was still eluding her. At least she was being more careful with the Healing supplies than she had been with the Library.
“Bloody Hell, Zabini,” she shouted bad-naturedly, kicking aside a bucket that had tripped her up. “Why couldn’t you just come here yourself and get the bloody book.”
A shiver ran up and down Zach’s spine. The newspaper images of Ginny’s dead body lying next to Zabini’s and Nott’s corpses were still fresh in his mind, and yet here she was, very solid and alive and talking about the Slytherin boys as if they were her old friends.
Zach watched in fascination as Ginny tore apart Madame Pomfrey’s personal library, taking every single book the matron owned and stuffing it into one of those pouches. He clutched his own book tightly to his chest. He had been at the Library looking for something about curing coma when he had seen her.
“Theo’s going to love this!” Ginny exclaimed, stowing several jars into her pouch as well.
It occurred to Zach then that this might not be Ginny at all. It could be a death eater in disguise, and the Zabini and Nott being referred to might be the dead boys’ parents. He knew no reason why a Death Eater would be looking for books and simple healing potions at a time like this, but he would watch carefully and see.
He watched her run down the stairs and then out through the grounds into the middle of the battle. He fought hard to keep up with her as she floated with ease through the chaos as if she had been made for fighting. Death Eaters fell before her one after the other, some of them screaming in pain and others simply dead.
What intrigued Zach more – and helped him keep up – was the fact that Ginny would occasionally stop to cast a healing charm on someone or to drag an injured person to a more sheltered place. She conjured splints and administered calming draughts and even used a coaxing Healer’s voice. The Ginny he had known did not stop for anything in the midst of her rage.
Finally, she stopped in a quiet hallway next to the dungeons. Moving aside a tapestry that hung on the wall, Ginny revealed a tiny alcove. It was barely big enough to fit a little first year, and it ended in a wall of solid, thousands year old stone. Ginny, however, was eying it very carefully. She looked around her hastily as if to ensure that no one was there and then dropped to her knees before the alcove.
The sounds of battle floated down to them, but there was a still silence about the place as Ginny summoned one of her recently stolen books and began to read. Zach was beginning to tire of watching her when she looked up from the page.
“Good!” she mumbled. “Accio Mirror!”
She caught the small object expertly as it zoomed out of her pouch. Looking into it, Ginny hesitated for the first time that night, but then she shook her head and began to speak.
“I’ve found them – all the books you could need and more. And I’ve got healing spells from the Hospital Wing, too. There’s a battle here, so you need to work fast. I’m going to make a gateway from here to you, so you have to reinforce the usual protective charm system.”
Zach was not close enough to see or hear the other party, but Ginny was nodding now. Finally, she stowed the mirror away and stood up. He watched in awe as she preformed a spell so impressive Zach had never imagined it to be possible. The inside of the alcove was transforming into a tunnel before his eyes.
When she stopped the stone seemed to go back to normal, but if Zach tilted his head a little he could still see the hidden portal shimmering from behind this illusion. He waited with bated breath for her to attempt to walk through, but instead she turned around and raised her wand.
“Get out, whoever the hell you are and explain why you’ve been following me!”
Zach gulped with sudden fear, but he steeled himself and stepped out of the shadows. He countered the disillusionment charm he had earlier placed on himself and stepped forward. “Would have been smarter to kill me before making that tunnel thing, Weasley?”
“What do you want, Smith, I thought you had already run away to safety with the first years?”
“I need help for a person in coma and I need people with me now that I’ve picked a side in this war.”
“And what side would that be?” her eyes were narrowed at him suspiciously, but he knew she already knew the answer.
Zach took one more step closer, wondering how close she was to hexing him. “The side where I can actually do something good,” he replied. “I’m a decent healer, but no one can heal the world alone and I’m not quite ready to follow Harry Potter around like a tame puppy.”
