Here it is....sorry it took so long....I know it's too long but I promise it's good....
Chapter 16 – A good day
It's strange how fast time passes, but it does. Before I knew it, we were days before Christmas. Our resistance group wasn't going so well. Neville wanted to think that things wil get better and that our missions had a purpose and I wanted to believe him, I really did...but...but when the people you send to write slogans get caught and the next time you see them are awfully tortured well I guess that can bring you down. Truth be told more and more of the students were trying to resist, to fight back. We were trying. But that's the thing, we were only trying and even if we had gotten tougher through the unfortunate events of this dark year, not all of us were willing to get tortured. Even I caught myself sometimes thinking just how reckless and dangerous some of the things we did were and worrying about what will happen if I get caught. And some of my wounds weren't healing so fast.
But enough with the dark stuff, honestly that's the only thing anyone I know talks about anymore; who got tortured last night and if that kid that got chained was released yet. As I said Christmas is coming. It's weird, really. How can a world that has almost succumbed to evil completely still have Christmas? I guess it's only until Voldemort bans them.
I'm going home tomorrow. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On one hand I can't wait to get away from this place even if it's just for a few days but on the other I know that even a few days break can harm our cause and after all I'm not exactly ready to let my parents know what's happening in Hogwarts. Or how many times I have gotten myself tortured. Gee that would be a great conversation issue on the Christmas table.
Anyway, as I said time passes and I was home after a lot of time, which seemed double than any other year somehow. Bill and Fleur said they wouldn't come. That cow, she probably wanted my brother all for herself for the holidays; well I guess, I have to forgive them it's their first Christmas as a married couple and I guess they deserve some time on their own away from my crazy family. Percy of course wouldn't do us the honor of spending his precious time in our little, lopsided, perfect in my eyes Burrow. Charlie couldn't come all the way from Romania again since he had already taken so much time off during the summer for Bill's wedding. And Ron...I wondered where Ron could be. Was he okay? Was he with Harry and Hermione? Did they even know it was Christmas or you don't get that kind of luxuries when you're fighting evil?
So it was me, Mum and Dad and the twins. What exactly happened to my huge family? Where was everybody? Umph.... I guess I'll have to do with what I have now don't I? And let's see what did I have? Mum was super sad, she tried to hide it but I could tell. Well, when you have so many kids and you only get three home for Christmas that is understandable. She also worried about Ron. Fred and George told me that during these past few months she's been constantly sending them letters asking if they had any news of our brother. And she always carries that stupid clock of hers around. Every person of my family is on that clock and by looking at the hand that depicts every person you can tell where they are. Mine says home now, but the twins told me that while I was at school it was on Mortal Peril and mum couldn't understand why. Short joke here.
My dad looks...tired. That's the word. They make him work full time those days and I think I know why. They want to keep a close eye on him. I mean it's no secret we are blood traitors or that Harry Potter is associated with us. I wonder how the Ministry's like those days; probably as bad as Hogwarts.
The only two things that stayed as they were before were of course my two crazy, twin brothers. I know that they too are worried and scared by the way things are going but they showed nothing of it. Everyday they tried to get my mum angry and succeeded, which was good because it gave her something else to think about. They also tried to keep us entertained like only they knew how and they had a new trick from their joke shop every day. Oh God, what would I do without those two?
Every morning I would stand in my bedroom, looking out over the Quidditch pitch that I had grown up with, wishing for those days, missing the simplicity of it, the ease. Everything had been so much easier, so much simpler, there had been no fear, no danger to cause fear. Everything had been perfect in hindsight. In those days of course, it hadn't seemed that way. But Percy had been there, he had been utterly annoying, but he completed the family. And there had been laughter and food and no worries. Harry had been there. And every time I would feel my eyes stinging with tears as I remembered Harry soaring around the Quidditch pitch and Hermione trying to keep up while we laughed at her and Ron's tall silhouette leaning against the doorway of his room, taking more space there with every passing year and Harry helping him clean up his room just in time for mum's inspection. And then, there were those few weeks last year, of sheer heaven, when I had really had him and I had known what truly felt to be in love. Fear was consuming me as I thought of them risking their lives.
So Christmas came and Christmas passed...
There we were again, in the train station waiting for Hogwarts Express to take me back to hell...oh sorry I meant Hogwarts. My mum was crying, mostly because the day before she had overheard me and Fred talking about the Carrows and the things they did to us; she didn't want me to go back and I couldn't really blame her, she had already one child whose fate was doubtful, she couldn't do with another. Thank God for my dad, who had managed to soothe her enough so she could actually say hello to Neville and Luna when they came next to us.
Luna's dad was waiting a couple of meters away, looking just as peculiar as ever. But there was something different about him. It was like he was worried, afraid that something bad may happen and he kept on looking around like expecting danger to emerge at any moment. I guess that is understandable when you think of all the stuff he writes for the new Ministry and the fact that he has declared an open alliance with Harry Potter.
“How was your Christmas, Ginny?” Luna asked me. To anyone else she would seem unaware of the fact that her father fret no so far away from her but I knew better. Luna could internalize brilliantly but I knew that she was just as much worried for her father as he seemed to be for her.
“Well, it was...quiet”, I replied. Yeah...I never thought I, of all people, would describe my Christmas as quiet.
“Mine too”, Neville said making a face. “Gran brought over some of her friends and they made me play pinnacle with them”.
“Okay, I guess you win”, Luna laughed.
“Yep, Nev, the award of the most silly Christmas goes to you”, I pitched in.
“Nothing like the support of good friends”, Neville grumbled.
“Honey, I think it's time you get on the train”, my father said behind me.
“Oh”, I said turning to look at him and mum. This was going to be harder than I thought. I was certain that if my mum started crying again, I, Ginevra Weasley, was going to burst in full blown tears right there in front of all of our classmates. But somehow she must have sensed that because when she walked to me she appeared to have put her determined face on. And that's one of the numerous reasons that I love my mum so much.
“Ginevra”, she said and I cringed. I hate it when she calls me with my full name. “You take care baby and make sure that you stay safe”.
I wanted to tell her that I was making no promises but I found myself nodding. She turned to Neville and Luna.
“Make sure you stay safe too”, she said. “Heaven knows we don't need more kids in danger”.
“Don't worry Mrs. Weasley”, Luna smiled. “We'll be alright”.
“Yeah”, Neville nodded. He looked uncomfortable but yet determined to keep us safe. My mum smiled at them and then turned around to hug me one more time before I got on the train. I didn't know it then but it would be the worst train ride of my life.
“Sorry, I just figured you'd have heard something during Christmas”, Neville apologized.
I shouldn't have snapped at him the way I did, but when he asked me if I knew whether Ron was okay or not and if Harry with him I just felt angry. Angry with him, with me and with them for not doing something to let us all know that they were still out there, that they were still fighting, that they weren't...dead.
“No, I'm the one who's sorry Neville”, I shook my head. “It's just...I know nothing...I have no idea where my brother is or whether Harry and Hermione are with him”.
Luna placed her hand on mine and when I looked at her she smiled.
“Don't worry I'm sure if they were dead we'd know”, she said.
“That's reassuring”, I grumbled. But in my gut I knew she was right. If anything bad happened to them it would be the biggest news everywhere.
“We need to form our new plans”, Neville said.
“What new plans?” I asked confused.
“New year, new and improved DA”, he smiled.
“Daddy thinks we should give up”, Luna said.
“What!?” both me and Neville yelled.
“But he's the one who's saying that we shouldn't give up and that we should help Harry as best as we can”, Neville complained.
“I know”, Luna nodded. “But he's worried. His writing attracts many haters; he's worried that the Death Eaters are going to corner him”.
“So you're going to stop participating in DA?” I asked her, but when she looked at me straight in the eye I knew that my Luna, my brave, courageous, weird Luna would never give up.
“No”, she said simply. “I will not abandon my friends when they most need me because I'm afraid. And both you and Neville and Harry, Ron and Hermione are my friends, so if I have to fight, I will fight”.
“You're a great friend Luna”, Neville said seriously. The three of us stared at each other and I swear I could hear their thoughts. We weren't going to give up whatever they throw at us, we weren't going to stop fighting, we were going to fight the Carrows and Snape, we were....Boom!
The door of the compartment opened and Colin Creevey fell on the ground.
“Ouch!” he complained.
“Colin, what are you doing?” I demanded.
“Sorry, Ginny, I was just coming to tell you lot that we're slowing down”, he said.
“Slowing down?” Neville repeated confused. “But we're nowhere near the castle yet”.
“I don't like this”, I said ominously.
“Me neither”, Colin nodded and I had to roll my eyes at him.
BOOM! The train stopped abruptly and we all lost our balance. I flew over to the other side landing on Neville and Colin fell on top of Luna.
“What the hell was that?” Neville asked looking around. I got up and stared out of the window. I couldn't see anything wrong besides the fact that he had stopped in the middle of nowhere until I saw a couple of black cloaked man climbing on the train.
“Death Eaters!” I hissed.
“Death...Death Eaters?” Colin asked tremulously.
Before I could reply and before any of us could react the door of our compartment flew open. About three or four Death Eaters stood there, all wearing masks that hid their faces. My hand went to my wand but I didn't drew it, not yet. This had happened during the last ride too, they were just searching for Harry.
“I'm sorry”, the Death Eater who stood forward said. “But we have a private invitation to the Malfoy Manor for one of you”.
The Malfoy Manor. Rumor had it that Voldemort's Headquarters were there. The blood drained from my face. They must want me, I thought. Amycus hadn't believed the story I had told him about Harry dumping me because he didn't care. Who knows what he reported back to Voldemort. That must be it.
“Take her”, he ordered. I flinched but the Death Eaters that walked inside the compartment went straight for Luna. No. No. Her father was right to worry after all. What he write was dangerous for the new regime and he would have to pay the price with his daughter. No. My mind started working again somewhere about then. I drew my wand and stunned one of the Death Eaters closer to her.
“Leave her alone!” I yelled.
The one a the door the gave the orders disarmed me before I could do anything else but Neville had taken care of the other Death Eater who came inside. Then both he, Luna and Colin pointed their wands at the Head Death Eater and yelled the stunning spell. He flew to the wall behind, slid on the ground and stayed there unconscious. I ran and took my wand from him, then I turned to the others as students came out of their compartments looking for the cause of the disturbance.
“We must get Luna off the train”, Neville said. “NOW!”
I grabbed one of her hands and Neville grabbed the other and we started running down the hall, pushing students out of the way, Colin running right behind us. I wanted to turn and tell him to stop following us, that he'll get himself in danger, but there was just no time.
“WAIT!” Luna yelled at last.
“What?” I asked out of breath, as I tuned to look at her. We were almost close to the back exit of the train but she had stopped on her tracks, not allowing me or Neville to drug her any further.
“This is crazy”, she said and I took a moment to think how funny that word sounded coming from Luna. “We can't run on the train forever and you certainly cannot get yourselves in serious trouble for me”.
“Are you kidding?” Neville asked.
“Luna we are not letting them take you!” I snapped.
“You can't turn them on you, Ginny!” she said. “Think of your family, you, yourself said that they've been trying to find an excuse to bast you all. They'd be more than glad to take you along with me”.
“That's why we have to get off the train”.
“And then what?”
“Then...I don't know...I guess we run for it”, I replied.
“Ginny, you know as well as I do that we can't do that. We were just saying that Hogwarts needs us. And it can't have all of us, it could at least have you two”.
“NO!” Neville snapped. “Luna we are all in this together and they are not taking you!”
“We'll see about that!” a voice behind me and Neville said and we turned to see the Head Death Eater walking towards us with his wand drown and pointed at us. We raised ours.
“Wait!” Luna yelled again. “I'll come with you, there's no point for a fight!”
“Luna, no!” I yelled but as she made to walk towards the Death Eater, Colin jumped out of nowhere and gave the Death Eater a great push. I think he was just trying to make him lose his balance and drop his wand, but he didn't calculate his power well and the Death Eater slammed against one of the windows, which smashed because of his weight, lost his foot and flew out. We were all stunned by what had just happened, but I knew that we had stopped in the middle of a bridge, which meant that the man was probably dead.
Suddenly we were surrounded by the rest of the Death Eaters, who didn't hang about to talk, they just started shooting spells at us. Neville grabbed Luna and pushed her down the hall, while I grabbed a petrified Colin. We turned the corner only to face a couple of more Death Eaters. That's the bad thing with those guys, they just keep coming and coming, they have no end. I raised my wand to yell a curse, but someone stunned them for behind. They fell face down and we faced Seamus and Parvati, looking back at us.
“What's going on?” Seamus asked. The Death Eaters that were following us from behind were catching up.
“Run now, explain later”, I said and we sprinted down the hall. Neville opened the door of one of the big compartments and walked in.
“Come on, we'll open the windows and climb out”, he said. As the rest of us were ready to get in and help him, Luna let out a scream. I turned to see her on the floor, getting drugged by a lash tied around her leg, the end of it in one of the Death Eaters' hands.
“Luna!” I screamed and grabbed her wrists. My friends tried to help me, but the rest of the Death Eaters stunned both Parvati and Colin. Seamus shot a curse at the Death Eater with the lash, but he avoided and one of his companions stunned Seamus too. Neville managed to take that one out and then turned and tried to open the window.
“Neville, leave that! Help me!” I bellowed, my voice hard from agony. The Death Eater that was drugging Luna was as strong as a bull.
“Let go, Ginny”, Luna said.
“No!”
“You have no choice”, she said. “You can't fight all of them. Let go of me!”
I knew she was right, I knew we were trapped on the train and I knew that we couldn't run around on it forever...but I just couldn't let another of my friends go and I couldn't bear the thought of Luna in Voldemort's hands.
“NO!” I yelled again. I realized that Neville wasn't helping me and I turned to scowl at him, but I saw him lying on the floor, blood running down his head. “No!” I yelled again.
The Death Eater the had gripped Luna was walking casually towards us now and I knew we had lost. They would take her. I did the natural thing, I charged at him. I swear I heard him laugh as he dodged my curse and before I knew it his spell had thrown me backwards inside the compartment. I fell on the floor beside Neville, my head spinning and before I lost my consciousness I thought I heard Luna yelling my name.
When I woke up the first thing that came to my mind was just how mad my mum was going to be and the second...
“Luna!” I yelled sitting up faster than my headache could take. My hand flew to my head and I felt a bandage fasten around it.
“Hey”.
I looked around and saw Neville sitting on the bed beside me. I was in the Hospital Wing, in Hogwarts.
“Luna?” I asked him. He lowered his eyes to the floor and I felt like someone had just gave me a punch in the stomach.
“I'm sorry Ginny”, he said pathetically. “The Carrows wanted to punish us for the commotion we made, but Snape didn't let them and send us here”.
I could tell he was trying to change the subject to make me feel better and under normal circumstances I wouldn't have followed but there was just something strange in his words.
“Snape didn't let them punish us?”
“Yeah, apparently he didn't want word to get out that one of the Death Eaters was killed by a bunch of students, it wouldn't do for his prestige in the Death Eater hierarchy”, Neville explained.
“Killed?”
“The one Colin threw out of the window”, Neville said and pointed to the other side of the room, where Colin was sitting on a chair with his eyes fixed on the ground.
I wondered how Colin must feel. Whatever he was, he was a person. A human. And he was dead and I knew Colin would blame himself even if it was an accident. And it didn't even worth it, they took Luna anyway.
“I could have saved her”, I said and Neville turned to look at me. “I don't know if I can live with that”.
“I don't have an answer to that, Ginny”, he sighed and I turned my welled up eyes at him. “Maybe there is nothing that I can say that can take away that feeling you have. You wanna know that what we did was for all the right reasons, but with that pain in your gut, the weight on your shoulders the best you can come up with is that it was a good day of fighting” .
I sighed and turned my eyes to the ceiling as I felt hot tears running down my cheeks.
“There are so many changes in you, Neville”, I said. “Things no one could have ever have expected”.
“As hard as the changes have been, Ginny, we have to know that there has been a reason. All these happened for reason otherwise what's the point?”
“What reason?” I asked him. “Luna could be dead by now!”
“She's not”, he said shaking his head. “I refuse to accept that”.
I sighed and wiped my tears off, then I turned my eyes at Colin. He still sat there looking at nothing.
“I should talk to Colin”, I said. “I should tell him that what he did, he did it for his friends and that is the best reason to fight”. I got up and looked at Neville again. He had tears in his eyes too now. “It was a good day of fighting”, I said and I walked over to Colin.
-Angie-