|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Author: Adeline Avin Story: Après La Vie Rating: Teens Setting: Pre-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 5 Words: 31,941
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his universe all belong to J.K. Rowling. I only own it in my dreams. "It's a beautiful day outside," she whispered in his ear as they sat in the warm, empty classroom together, "Let's go sit by the lake." He shook his head, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. "Someone will see us," he protested, "What if it's your brothers who find us out there? We had a close enough call on Valentine's Day when Nott found us in the bushes." "No one will see us," she assured him, "Everyone's in Hogsmeade right now." "And they won't be back for hours," he conceded, looking pleased with the idea of it. "Let's go, then," she said, stroking a finger up and down his forearm, "I'll push you into the water." "If you do I'm dragging you in with me," he replied. She grinned at him, and he helped her off of the desk she had been seated on. Taking her hand, he led her out of the classroom. Ginny awoke to the sound of someone knocking at the door of her hotel room. She turned in her bed to look at the clock and saw that it was already four in the afternoon. She had slept for a long time. Granted, she hadn't really wanted to wake up. "It's me--Harry," a voice called from the other side of the door. "Can I come in?" "Hold on a second," Ginny called back, pulling on a pair of tan shorts and a white blouse before opening the door and letting Harry in. His hair looked even more unkempt than usual. Ginny supposed he had just gotten out of bed as well. "I thought maybe we could go down to supper together," he said politely, "seeing how we've gotten started on the wrong foot, maybe I can make it up to you." Ginny was apprehensive. Granted, he was being very courteous to her, but there was something in his manner that made her suspect he had an alternative motive for inviting her to supper. Perhaps he wanted to question her more about her 'past connections', as he had called them. If that was the case, she was not going to put up with his inquires. She would hex his head into next week, never mind that there were Smuggles staying in the hotel. She had improved her Bat Bogey hex in recent years, as well as other, more unmentionable, spells. Such things were required when you dabbled with shady people who were in the Dark Arts business, and she had been just itching to try some of them after she had been promoted to her cozy, little desk job. "This will be purely business, Potter," she replied sharply, "If you dare even to tread a toe in my past affairs-" "I'll consider myself well warned," Harry cut in. Ginny glared at him. *** Harry didn't like the cold. He had detested anything to do with the cold ever since the age of seven when Dudley had made him crawl through the snow fort he had built and then sat on it so that Harry was trapped inside. Luckily, he recalled, Mrs. Figg had seen from her window and had come to rescue him from under Dudley's ample backside. The ice cream he was eating slowly was freezing his mouth, and the look Ginny was giving him from across the table was just as cold. She hadn't yet touched her desert, a nice looking piece of hot pumpkin pie. Harry wished he had ordered the pie instead of the ice cream. "What is this, anyway?" he thought. It tasted like oranges. He stared at the funny orange ice cream for a while. "Something wrong with your sorbet?" Ginny asked. "Oh, is that what this is?" he remarked. "Thought it was ice cream." "Something like that," she replied as he finished what was left of his sorbet, "Do you want my pie? I don't think I'm really all that hungry." Harry nodded and she slid the pie over to him. He began to munch on the hot pastry contentedly while Ginny continued to give him icy looks. "What?" he asked, swallowing a large piece. "You've been glaring at me ever since I ordered desert." "It's nothing," she replied snappishly. "Finish your pie." To be truthful, Harry didn't much feel like eating the pie anymore. It tasted dull in his mouth, now, and dry. He wondered if he had ever liked pumpkin pie in the first place. He looked up from the pastry to see Ginny glaring at him once again. He glared at her, and she glared back even more fiercely. It hit him then how much she had changed. There used to be something behind those eyes that were staring frigidly at him now. What had first struck him as beauty when he had seen her after so many years, he now saw was only the remains of the fiery life to her that she had once possessed. She had been stunning once, not because of the regular beauty that most girls flaunted, but because of the passion that had seemed to drive her. Boys had flocked to her in the later years of her Hogwarts career, he remembered. Older boys had taken notice of her bright eyes and glowing cheeks, not to mention her billowing red hair and lively disposition. And she had politely turned every one of them down. He should have noticed then that something was amiss. "You don't trust me," Ginny spoke up, bringing Harry out of his recollections. "How am I supposed to work with you if you don't trust me?" "I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry lied. "I'm not stupid, Harry. I know the rumours that have been circulating around the Ministry," Ginny replied. "No one trusts me anymore." "It just seems as if you know too much about the other side to really be on ours," said Harry. "Your history isn't exactly reputable." Ginny sat very still in her chair for a few moments before replying quietly, "To me, there is no other side." It worried Harry that he couldn't tell exactly where her loyalties lay. It worried Harry that he couldn't distinguish her character. He liked to be able to read people like open books. He wanted to know whom he was dealing with. Everyone he had ever met had been so easy to dissect. Ginny Weasley was proving to be more difficult. Not that Harry minded; he was up to the challenge. 'Know thy enemy,' was the motto of any good Auror, the trouble was that Harry didn't know exactly who his enemy was. *** "Let's go to the spring ball together," she begged him. "I know you want to go. Poison in my Hat is going to be performing, and that's your favourite band." "You know we can't go together, Ginny," he sighed, reaching up to run a long finger across her cheek. He looked honestly sorry. "I know," she whispered, hearing someone walk past their favourite abandoned classroom where they had taken refuge. "It's not fair that we have to hide. I never get to show you off." He chuckled softly, he had a nice laugh, "You think I'm any happier about the fact that I can't scream from the tallest tower that you're mine?" he asked. Then he looked seriously at her. "You'd be in danger if anyone found out." She nodded. "We'll go to the Prefects' Tower that night, alright?" he said, "No one will know we're there together, they'll all be at the ball. We'll be alone for once." She felt herself shiver. They would have their cherished alone time. They almost never had time together where they weren't in constant fear of being discovered or where they didn't freeze every time there was the sound of footsteps. He was always careful about putting silencing and locking charms over the rooms where they met. He had never once forgotten but still they lived in fear that someone might discover them together. There was always the fear that someone would find out their secret. Theodore Nott and Dennis Creevey had already found out that they were together, and she had managed to swear them to secrecy, but how long was it before her family knew? "We shouldn't have to worry," he whispered to her, "I'm sorry." Ginny looked out the window in her darkened hotel room. She had hardly slept an hour and still these dreams came to her. She wasn't tired anymore. She was just too full of feelings, or was it that she was too empty? There was no time for being tired. She felt the smallest tear trickle down the side of her face and couldn't bring herself to brush it away. How long had it been since it had been his long, aristocratic fingers that had wiped away her tears? It seemed as if it had been a lifetime, and maybe, in a sense, it had been. The Ginny back then had been a very different person. She knew that well. She had been brave, daring and strong. Now any life she had once possessed seemed to be gone. Ginny saw a distant, dark figure flying on a broomstick across the moon. She admired the wizard for his recklessness, but hoped that the Muggles thought it was only a cloud. For reasons that she couldn't explain, it broke her heart not to know who it was that was flying as high as the stars while her dreams were so contained. It was at that moment that Ginny completely broke down for the first time in years and cried. *** Harry ran up the side of the hill with Ginny following close behind him. Both their wands were drawn. They had noticed movement in the old log fort, the suspected base of D.F. in Geneva, which had supposedly been abandoned for hundreds of years. Chief Morrison had said that this was where the last team had been suspicious of Death Eater activity, and the fact that there seemed to be someone living in this fort only helped to confirm their suspicions. Harry would have liked to believe what Remus had told him, but his gut now told him that something was not quite right about the fort. From the outside, it didn't look much like a base. It was run-down and old, and most likely structurally unsound. Harry now noticed something, though, that made him stop in his tracks. He turned to face Ginny. "Do you smell that?" he asked her. She sniffed the air and then wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I do, but I can't place it," she said, sniffing once more. She looked at him uncertainly. "Is that… Bundimun secretion? It smells like someone is burning it. The only time I've ever smelt that is in Potions class." "That's what I was thinking," Harry affirmed. "What I can't understand is why we're smelling it." "Bundimun secretion is used in many cleaning products," replied Ginny, "but no one would burn those. Mum always had them locked in the cupboards because they were highly…" Ginny's voice trailed off and she stared at the fort in horror. "What is it?" Harry asked, shaking her shoulders. "Ginny, what's wrong?" She simply pointed behind him at the fort, her mouth open wide. Harry turned and immediately saw what Ginny was looking at. Behind the windows on the second floor of the fort, he could see red and orange flames dancing wildly. "The fort," he gasped. "It's on fire!" "It's the Bundimun secretion. There must be Bundimuns living in the floors and walls of that fort," said Ginny frantically. "That's why it was falling apart. If something were to catch fire in there the whole building would burn to the ground!" "Looks as if that was what someone wanted to happen," said Harry, eying a distant figure racing out of the back of the fort. He made a move to go after the person but stopped when an ear-shattering scream came from inside the fort. Ginny pointed to the third floor of the building where the flames seemed to have traveled upwards. "Look there!" she gasped. Harry followed her finger to the second window from the left where the outline of a person could be seen banging against the windowpane. "You try to go after the person we saw running from the fort," Harry called out to her, immediately running towards the burning building, "I'll go get whoever's up there." Ginny took off after the figure that had already disappeared into the nearby woods. Harry knew she didn't have much of a chance of catching the person, whoever it was. As soon as he was able to gather enough concentration he would Disapparate. Harry had to think quickly. He couldn't put out the whole fire by himself and he couldn't run into the fort; it would surely collapse on top of him. He had to think of another way to get up to the third floor. Harry wondered if the person inside had a wand. He could at least put out some of the fire, but judging by the fact that he was still banging on the window Harry guessed that he didn't have any resources with him. "Okay," Harry muttered to himself, now standing at the base of the fort. "Plan, plan, oh Merlin, I need a plan right now." He could feel the heat even through the thick wooden walls. It wouldn't be long before they were in flames. Harry could hardly think with the sound of screaming still ringing in his ears. "Accio window pane!" he cried, using the first spell that came to mind and aiming his wand at the window where he could still see the person yelling for help. The glass in the window squeezed through the siding and broke as it flew towards Harry. He rolled out of the way, covering his head with his hands and barely missing being cut by the sharp shards of glass. He was immediately back on his feet and he called out to the person standing now where the window had been. "Jump down, jump down now!" A man jumped and Harry quickly cast a Softening Charm on the ground just before he made impact. Still, he could tell, the person was in pain. He was lying face down on the ground and moaning. Harry ran over to the man and deftly threw him over his shoulders, grunting a little under the weight before gaining his balance. He began to run up towards the hill just as the fort began to collapse in fiery fury. Harry laid the man on the ground carefully. He could see that the person had many burn marks on his arms and hands. He would need to be sent to a hospital very soon for treatment. The man looked as if he was over a hundred years old, and the drama of this event alone could not be very good for his health. Harry quickly did what spells he knew to reduce the pain before bringing the man back to consciousness. The man eyes popped open and searched wildly before landing on Harry's face. He sat up quickly and Harry kneeled down next to him. "I'm… alive?" he said, breathing unsteadily. "Yes, sir," said Harry, "I'm going to put you out again, and then when my partner gets back we're going to take you to the nearest hospital, but I'll need your name." "My name is David Mackenzie Kraft," said the man. "My brother and I had ownership of the fort, but we've left it unattended for many years now. I work at the Ministry." "That's enough, sir," said Harry. "You can tell me more when we get you to a hospital." Harry deftly cast a Knockout Spell on the man and he slumped back to the ground. Harry then stood and looked around, searching for any sign of Ginny. *** Ginny ran as quietly as possible through the underbrush and ducked under stray tree branches. She didn't want the person to know that she was following him. The element of surprise could give her an advantage. Ginny needed to catch up to the person very soon. If he gained his wits enough to Disapparate he was lost to her. She wouldn't be able to follow him, even with the Ministry's Apparation records. They only took records of those who were Apparating across country borders, and she doubted the person she was tracking would need to go that far just to escape her. A spell hit Ginny and caught her unaware. It had came from the bushes to her left and she immediately rolled behind a large bolder for cover. An icy sensation instantly filled her lower abdomen and she began to lose any sensation in her legs. "Crucio," a dreamlike voice whispered. The curse shot over Ginny's head, making the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She had to get out of there. The icy sensation was now beginning to rise upwards. Soon she would have no feeling in her arms and without use of her wand she was as good as dead. She concentrated all her energy on Disapparating, hoping that she would reach her mark. Ginny landed on the ground, hard, and looked up to see Harry's green eyes peering down at her concernedly. She had made it. "Death Eater," she wheezed. "There's a Death Eater in the forest. He tried to use an Unforgivable on me." "Can you stand?" asked Harry. She shook her head and he leaned down, draping one of her limp arms across his shoulders and pulling her up off the ground. "I'll take you both to a hospital," said Harry. It was then that Ginny noticed the old man lying on the ground. She thought for a moment that he was dead, his face was so white, but then noticed that he was breathing. He must have only been knocked out. Ginny felt like she, too, was trying to shut down. Her vision was starting to blur. "Ginny… Ginny…" A voice called to her, but she couldn't match it with a face. The darkness was starting to close in around her. She let go. "Ginny… Ginny… wake up, Ginny," she opened her eyes to see him peering down at her. It felt unbelievably safe to wake up and find him there with her. "I was waiting for you," she told him. "Has everyone gone to the ball?" "Yes, we're all alone," he said, "Finally." He reached down to stroke her hair. "I can hear the music," she said, then stayed silent for a while, listening. "I wish we could be there." "Why? We can have our own ball right here," he said. With a flick of his wand he moved the furniture out of the centre of the room and then kneeled before the chair she was sitting in, his eyes looking straight in hers. "Dance with me?" he asked. She nodded and he took her in his arms. They swayed across the room together, and she found herself nestling her head on his shoulder. "You're right, you know," she whispered. "We don't need the world." He kissed her comfortingly on the forehead and she could feel it in the touch of his lips that he was smiling.
|