Chapter 15
"Ankle Problem"
Harry couldn't make it out, but he thought there was something wrong with Hermione. While they waited for the hour when they would be whisked off to wherever the Portkey might bring them to, which was only about less than thirty minutes away, she was uncharacteristically quiet.
From Harry's vantage point looking out of Percy's room window, Ginny was out and sitting down at the picnic table on the grounds of the Burrow deep in thought as well, but she looked calm and at peace with herself. Hermione, on the other hand, looked troubled. She hadn't gotten out of Percy's room since dinner, and she was seated at the study table, staring at her wand and bowler hat that were placed on top of it.
Harry couldn't help it, so he approached her, limping. "Hermione, what's wrong?" he said as he settled himself down on an old chair.
She didn't look up at him, and kept staring at her wand. "I think I'm losing my confidence," she said quietly. "I couldn't transfigure the tea cup properly into this bowler hat. It's never happened before. I tried to do some simple spells minutes ago, too. Some don't work at all - I don't understand why - "
"People make mistakes, Hermione," said Harry. "Even someone as perfect as you," Harry tried to flatter her, but that didn't make her feel any better.
"We're going to a dangerous place in less than an hour, Harry. What if I don't deliver when a simple spell might count?"
"I guess you'll just have to concentrate a little more," said Harry thoughtfully. "That's what you keep saying to me when I don't do spells the way they're supposed to work, right? So what kind of spells did you try that didn't work?"
"The banishing spell, for example" Hermione said as she stood up and walked towards a chair in the middle of the room. She pointed her wand at it and muttered, "Reducto!" The chair flew aside and landed hard on the wooden floor like it was supposed to do.
"That was perfect!" Harry said while clapping his hands. "See? Probably you weren't concentrating enough." Still there was something much deeper bothering Hermione because instead of smiling, she slumped back on her chair.
"Is everything all right there?" called Mrs. Weasley from the bottom of the stairs.
"Oh, we're just fine here, Mrs. Weasley," said Harry loudly so that she could hear him. "We're just practicing some more spells…sorry!"
"Don't worry, I don't mind, dear," answered Mrs. Weasley.
"You believe in superstition, Harry?" Hermione asked hesitantly when Mrs. Weasley seemed to have gone down again.
"Not at all," Harry replied. "Wait, don't tell me you think - "
"Yes, I never make mistakes when using magic, at least after I master it. When I do, something bad usually happens."
"I never knew about that, and I've never known you to be superstitious," said Harry. "Then again, I don't remember you making any mistakes with magic at all except when you start learning about it like you said, so how can you think about signs and omens?"
"Remember the Polyjuice Potion back at second year? After that, I got petrified, remember?" said Hermione, her eyes widening as she tried to prove her point.
"Yeah, I couldn't forget it," said Harry, laughing a bit. "Sure, you goofed right there big time, but don't forget it was the first time you ever tried to make the potion, too, so I think that doesn't count. Besides, the potion worked the way it was supposed to - only that you added the wrong last ingredient."
"Yeah, maybe, but I'm having a bad feeling about this," said Hermione as she exhaled lots of air. "I having this nagging feeling about something going wrong - for me, at least."
"Then you think we should call it off?" said Harry slowly. "You're starting to scare me again."
"No, of course not," Hermione said gently, bowing her head. "I think we should be extra careful out there, Harry." However, Harry didn't really believe Hermione was being superstitious. He saw right through her that she was scared of facing up to Voldemort, at least about the possibility of it.
"That's true for excursions like where we're going," replied Harry after a few seconds, reaching for her chin to lift her head gently to look into her eyes. "Hermione, I know you're dreading to meet Voldemort. You don't have to be ashamed to admit it."
"That's part of it. What's it like when you face him?" Hermione said quietly as she looked up at Harry.
"Scared at first," said Harry, looking around the room as he searched his mind for his past encounters with Voldemort. "But then I'd begin to wrack up the courage to face up to him. If you just give up easily, you're good as dead. But if you decide to fight him and live, you'll never be the same - but you'll emerge a stronger wizard."
"Everybody says no one who has crossed him ever survived," said Hermione, shuddering a little. "You're the only one who had met him three times and lived. I don't know if I could do that at the first time."
"Look, I'm no better than you, yet I'm still alive, see?" Harry said reassuringly. "Together, we can survive him. Like I said, we only need to get Ron and get out. For all we know, he might not be even there at all."
Hermione smiled a little and breathed deeply as she tried to recompose herself. "Yeah, I know we can't leave Ron there all by himself. The thought of it is so much to bear. I'd rather die without one of you." This brought a big smile for Harry.
"Me, too," said Ginny suddenly, leaning against the doorway. "Sorry about being abrupt, but it's almost time. You're not alone, Hermione, I'm also scared to go. But I feel responsible for what happened to my brother - taking part of this is the least I could do."
"If it makes you feel any better," added Harry to Hermione, "I've never been this scared since the Tournament last year, too -"
"Oh, what am I thinking?" said Hermione. "If I'm keeping us scared all the time I don't think it will do us any good, of course. Sorry."
"That's rubbish," Harry laughed. "The feeling won't go away, at least until everything's over. It's more dangerous trying to deny it. We'll get over it - I promise you."
"Dad's getting jittery, too," said Ginny. "He's a big boy, mind."
"How'd he handle it when he realizes we've gone instead of him?" asked Harry.
"I think it would be time to change the house's leaky roof, then," Ginny said, laughing nervously. "He'll blow his top, I'm sure, but that's nothing to worry about than what we're about to do."
"Two minutes to go," announced Hermione. "Make sure we have everything we need. Wands at the ready. Hands on the hat. On, on." Harry stood up and put on his robe, the same robe he wore from Hogwarts. He hadn't cleaned his pockets ever since; his wand was in one of them, and the pocket portkey he had completely forgotten he'd ever owned. The three of them touched the bowler hat and waited.
"Oh, there's one more thing I forgot to do," Hermione said suddenly, with twenty seconds left to go. Harry and Ginny stared at her breathlessly, knowing that she might be left behind if she didn't hurry up for whatever she had remembered to do. Hermione held out her wand and pointed it on Harry's ankle and muttered "Emendo!"
Harry's ankle healed instantly. Before he could exclaim something at Hermione, the portkey activated, and they were spinning…spinning…
-o0o-
Thud!
Harry, Hermione, and Ginny popped in and landed hard on the soft green grass. They had been whisked to the Portkey's destination successfully. The place was exactly what it looked like in the map. There was a small-dilapidated shack in the center of the forest clearing, about fifty feet from a small outhouse just beside Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Darkness had fallen, and they could hear nothing but the wind and innumerable animals or insects making their own noise.
Harry tried to get up as quickly as possible and he hissed, "Hermione!"
Hermione, who was also trying to get up at the same time, looked a little apprehensive. "Harry, I know what you want to say, and I'm sorry! I had to do it!" she said, keeping her voice bossy but quiet.
"You knew how to fix my ankle all along and you didn't tell me?" he said incredulously.
"I couldn't let you go alone!"
"I can't believe you lied to me!"
"I never lied to you, Harry," Hermione now with an imploring look on her face. "I just - I just kept quiet about it! For good reason - "
"Same thing!"
"Harry please - "
"SHHHH!!!" interrupted Ginny. "Keep it down, you two. I think I see someone coming." The three of them ran quickly behind the outhouse and peered around it, trying to take a good look of whoever was coming.
"It looks a lot like Graham," Harry said quietly. The man walked nearer to the shack, which was illuminated inside by a few candles, and he took out from his pocket some keys and unlocked the padlock on the front door as he stepped on the porch. Seconds later he cursed loudly, slamming the door behind him and walked off towards the forest, fuming mad. He was only around for a short time and he seemed not to be coming back.
"Was that him?" asked Ginny, looking up at Harry as her head was at the very bottom of the stack of three.
"It was him," said Harry, narrowing his eyes. "I don't know what made him angry. "As if he was expecting something and it didn't come."
"The door was locked from the outside," said Hermione from behind. "You were supposed to land inside that shack, Harry. It was definitely a trap - not an exchange as we were led to believe!"
Harry pretended not to hear Hermione, and he walked off toward the shack after a good five minutes without saying any word. Ginny wanted to say something to Harry, but Hermione stopped her. Both of them followed Harry, but they were the only ones who seemed to be doing it cautiously - he just walked straight to the shack recklessly, wand pointed down on the ground.
Harry went inside the shack first, and looked around. Despite it being old, it looked like someone who was living alone might be comfortable with it. There was a made-up bed at the corner, a small dining table with a single chair, a stove and a chimney, and a little pantry that apparently was well supplied with food. A plaque on the wall with Graham's name on it told Harry that this was really the Death Eater's house.
"Let's start looking for clues," said Harry without looking at either Ginny or Hermione. "I want to find something that'll help us find where Ron is."
"I'll keep a look-out for anyone at the porch," said Hermione. She waited for an acknowledgement from Harry, but she didn't get one to her dismay. She was getting increasingly hurt about Harry snubbing her. Ginny felt there was something getting wrong between them, but she couldn't say anything.
It only took a couple of minutes to turn the whole shack upside-down and they didn't find anything. Harry expressed his disappointment loudly to himself, while Ginny was careful not to talk out of fear of a sudden outburst from him. This wasn't the Harry that she knew, but she understood how it felt when two best friends had some kind of a fight - neither one would say sorry first.
Hermione just walked in casually towards the bed and looked under it. She ran her hands on the underside and soon enough she fished out a piece of parchment and unfolded it. "If you allowed yourself to relax, Harry," she said gently, but enough to get back at him, "you'd remember to look at the obvious places."
She placed the parchment on the table and it was some kind of a map showing the path to a place called Xanthius. They didn't know what the name was for, but if it weren't for the stamp of the Dark Mark on it, they might have thought this was insignificant. There was a long pause when nobody seemed to want to talk. Obviously, there was now a strain in the group this early on the mission.
"Harry, again I'm really sorry," Hermione started. "But you must understand - "
"I understand better than you do," Harry interjected, and Hermione fell silent. "You didn't act like a best friend when you kept quiet - "
Harry stopped talking and shut his eyes to try to calm himself down because he felt that he was really overacting. Hermione let out a dry sob.
He allowed himself, rather reluctantly, to think about it. Of course, Hermione kept something out from him that he thought best friends weren't supposed to do, but he slowly realized that Hermione meant well. He remembered he was being stupid back at the Burrow, insisting that he'd go rescue Ron alone, even with a broken ankle. Even without the broken ankle it was still stupid to do so, and Hermione was right. It was very difficult to admit even if he saw what might have been if he just went alone: the spot where the portkey pointed to was inside the shack that was locked from the outside. It was undeniably a trap.
Pride had gotten the better of Harry, he admitted to himself, and he failed to see reason (or refused to listen to reason) why Hermione had to keep quiet about knowing how to fix his ankle until the last minute. If she had done so, then he could have been a real goner earlier. Now he felt extremely stupid again for being so insensitive to her, who was as always unfailingly loyal to him, and he should have thanked her for being so rather than rebuking her. What he did wasn't right, and like pulling his own teeth out of his gums, he had to say sorry.
Harry looked up and opened his eyes slowly to say, "Hermione, I'm so sorry for -"
He stopped as soon as he opened his mouth. Hermione wasn't there where he had last seen her. Ginny wasn't around inside the shack, either. Harry ran out to the porch, and he saw Hermione running towards the forest with Ginny running after her a few feet behind her, calling her name.
"Oh, Hermione," Harry moaned, and he sprinted after her, Ginny in between them. As soon as Hermione disappeared into the thick grove of trees, Ginny stopped and stomped her feet on the ground, looking incensed. She then saw Harry almost a few feet up to her, and she didn't wait to tell him with gritted teeth, "Harry, you're such a JERK!"
"I know! You don't need to tell me twice," he said with concern drawn in his eyes and screeched to a halt beside Ginny. "I see she took it so hard."
"Of course! She was just trying to protect you! Like all best friends do! Where do you suppose she's going?" said Ginny looking at the edge of the forest where she last saw a glimpse of Hermione's bushy brown hair disappear.
"Somewhere alone where she could cry all day," said Harry knowingly. "C'mon, let's go after her before she gets lost in the forest!"
They both started to run calling after Hermione. The forest was thick, and Hermione could have turned direction a few times already to avoid the thick tree trunks. They didn't stop calling her name, Harry saying sorry hundreds of times. It took them a good ten minutes of repeating the process until they started feeling tired and panic to set in.
"Arghhh! What're we going to do?" said Ginny. "Instead of just rescuing Ron, we'd have to look for Hermione, too."
"Oh, this is all my fault!" Harry wailed, pounding on a tree, bruising his knuckles. He leaned against it, sliding his whole body to the ground despite the rough bark.
Just then, they both heard a high-pitched scream that seemed to come from just within a hundred feet through the forest, followed by a deep growling sound.
"Oh, no!" said Harry. It was definitely Hermione, and she was in trouble. Harry and Ginny looked up, trying to figure out which direction it came from. Hermione screamed a second time, which helped Harry find her bearings.
"This way, to the west," Harry said, and without waiting for Ginny's reply, he ran again, dodging thick trees, going up and down the mounds of thick roots. Hermione screamed again, and this time, Harry and Ginny were sure they were going the right direction because the sounds became louder.
"Hermione, we're coming! Hold on!" Ginny called. She and Harry had their wands out, ready for anything.
The forest seemed to be thinning a little, and they got out into a hollow, a very wide hollow. Hermione was at the center of it, down on the ground on her belly, and was inching herself away as she looked back to a very large and angry fully-grown dragon.
"It can't be a Norwegian Ridgeback!" said Harry weakly. "I wish it were only a Troll!"
"Can we stop it?" asked Ginny urgently, as the dragon was stomping dangerously towards Hermione, almost on top of her. Hermione had her wand pointed at the dragon, but didn't seem to perform any spells. It only meant one thing: she was absolutely petrified with fear - just like the old times.
"Aim for the eyes! Let's use the Conjunctivitus Curse!" Harry said.
"What, give the Dragon a pink eye?!?" Ginny said, puzzled.
Ignoring Ginny, Harry took a few running steps nearer that Dragon and pointed his wand at its right eye. "Conjuctivus!" Pink light whooshed from the end of Harry's wand and hit its mark. The Dragon screamed as it tried desperately to rub its burning eyes with its scaly wings. Getting the idea, Ginny tried the same spell on the left eye, but the Dragon saw her and dodged the beam of light.
The Dragon screeched, snorting out a large ball of fire towards them, and Harry managed to perform a very effective shield charm just in time to deflect it away harmlessly.
"A second layer of the charm would be a good idea!" said Harry to Ginny. "Then we'll get close to Hermione and get her." Ginny nodded and wrapped herself and Harry with it. They started to move towards Hermione, who was still on the same spot under the towering Dragon. She had already fainted. The Dragon snorted out a few too many fireballs towards Harry and Ginny, but they had no effect. They were getting closer to his prey, and there was only one thing it could now.
To Harry and Ginny's horror, the Dragon clasped Hermione with its large claws, trapping her inside of it, and began to flap its large wings. Hermione didn't scream now, and Harry hoped she wasn't dead. The Dragon was obviously trying to get away!
"NOOOO!" Harry screamed, and he tried to slow it down with the Impediment Curse, but all it could do was just slow it down, not stop it. It was just too big for him. The Dragon gained altitude, holding Hermione with its claws, and began to pick up speed until it was only but a dark patch against the moonlit night. Ginny was left frozen, her mouth hung open as she just stood there, staring up to the sky, shocked at what had just transpired. Harry fell to his knees and dropped his still-smoking wand on the soft green grass, lost for words.
-o0o-
In Xanthius, the door in Jack's room clicked and opened. There were two Death Eaters with their masks on standing along the corridor and looking inside. "Mr. Chadron, come with us," one of them said.
"Say hello to You-Know-Who for me, Jack," said Ron, who was listening in and peeking at the small barred window. Jack didn't answer, stood straight, and let himself be led to wherever the Death Eaters might be bringing him. They didn't hold him, but they occasionally steered him along a few passages. Finally they had reached a large anteroom after they climbed up the stairs. They didn't have to wait for something else; the huge oak doors opened by themselves. He could recognize it was a throne room through these doors, and he could make out someone sitting on the large throne with a scepter. It was none other than the Dark Lord himself.
Yet he wasn't like Jack had pictured him. He looked like a monster - like a snake. And he didn't look happy at all. In fact, he was looking daggers as he was being brought in front of him.
"Is it he?" Voldemort said slowly, and Jack Chadron couldn't understand why he was getting afraid.
"Yes, this is Jack Chadron, my Lord," said another Death Eater with his mask on and he was standing beside Voldemort. It was his benefactor, Lucius Malfoy. Another Death Eater was also standing beside Voldemort. He looked the same as the others who had their masks on, and the only thing that made him stand out was that he had a silver hand.
Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it to Malfoy. "Crucio!"
Malfoy slumped down on the cold stone floor screaming in pain. Jack opened his mouth in shock. Voldemort allowed about a minute of subjecting Malfoy to agonizing pain before he spoke. "Didn't I make it clear that I do not tolerate failures, Lucius?" he said lazily. All the other Death Eaters in the throne room, about seven in all, were visibly shaking. Especially Jack.
Lucius' agony had stopped the moment Voldemort let go of his curse. "Because of your miscalculation, Lucius, the Mudblood lover Dumbledore is not dead as we speak. You deserve more of that."
"Y-yes, m-my Lord," said Lucius, his white long hair astray, and grunting as he still lay down on the floor. "I beg your forgiveness."
"I expected success above all else for that task, simple as it was," Voldemort said, as he shifted his stare at Jack, who was now kneeling double bent in front him, his crutch lay forgotten on the floor. "Harry Potter is not here in front of me as I had envisioned. Instead I see a lowly student who foolishly thinks he is worthy enough to serve me, but yet had failed me right from the start."
"I-I am your most f-faithful, my Lord," Jack said, looking up at him, wracking up the courage to speak. "I d-did everything for you!"
"Silence!" Voldemort commanded. "Your ineptness has forced me to deviate from my grand plans. That, itself, does not prove your worthiness to me. Crucio!"
Jack was almost certain he'd never ever be subjected to this terrible curse, not from the Dark Lord, at least, but the reality of it was so overwhelming. Voldemort didn't let him take a breath, and he lost count of the time as he agonized in extreme pain. It looked like ages until he was let go by Voldemort, for he was subjected to it to the threshold of death if it went on for more than a second too long. Jack just lay there on the floor, like Malfoy, fully conscious, but in extreme pain that usually lingers with the Crucatius Curse.
"You, too, deserve more than that, Chadron," Voldemort said, sniffing. "I never needed any of your services, you worthless fool! And never will be; however, I have some uses for you. That time will come and it will mean the end of you. Foolish of you to think ahead of me and assume how I 'reward' my faithful. Take him away!"
With the wave of his wand, two startled Death Eaters obediently went to Jack Chadron and dragged him back towards his cell. The moment Jack Chadron had dreamed of meeting Voldemort only lasted less than five minutes, and it was the five minutes that he'll never ever forget. He'd been had by Lucius Malfoy.
As soon as Chadron was out of the chamber, Voldemort pointed his wand at the still-slumped Malfoy and forced him to stand up painfully. "You have miscalculated again, Lucius," he said as Malfoy rose slowly. "Using others to do what I require of you was not what I had in mind. You know I demand your direct participation on these noble tasks I give to you. It's not a sign of a faithful servant, hiding behind the cloak of anonymity in case something goes wrong. Yes, that will spare you of the wrath of the lesser wizards, of Mudbloods - but not mine. Do I have to remind you who is the greatest sorcerer in the world?"
"No need, my Lord," grunted Malfoy painfully as his toes skimmed the floor. "You are undeniably the greatest sorcerer ever known in history." He wanted to remind Voldemort that he actually said he didn't care how he did his task as long as caused the death of Dumbledore, but he decided against it. His method failed anyway.
"Very good," Voldermort said as he straightened up on his seat. He released Malfoy from his spell. "But not so many people will believe it while Albus Dumbledore keeps on breathing. I've missed my best chance of taking care of him once and for all, and that will change everything that I have expected to happen supposedly by this time." Malfoy didn't want to say anything anymore.
"Will you be willing to give up your - let us say - years of investment on that big head Chadron, in service of me, Lucius?"
"Yes, I do, my Lord," said Malfoy in a heartbeat. "Wholeheartedly."
Voldemort laughed. "It pleases me when people forget their former burden in a snap of my finger. That will be enough for now." He turned to Wormtail. "I believe you have someone for me?"
"Y-yes, my Lord," and Wormtail strode to the chamber door and opened it. Daedelus Lowrie walked confidently towards Voldemort and bowed curtly in front of him. He didn't look like a Death Eater as he wasn't wearing the usual hooded robes and mask.
"You may speak, Daedelus," said Voldemort.
"Thank you, my Lord," said Daedelus. "May I present to you my most trusted assistant, Graham Denton. He has someone that Harry Potter cares for."
Voldemort shifted expectantly on his seat. Graham went in as he was announced, dragging Ron with him by the arm, whose wrists were chained in front of him. Ron saw Voldemort for the first time ever, and he opened his mouth in horror but no sound came out. Harry had never described to him how Voldemort looked like, and for good reason. He was just too horrible to talk about.
"Ah, you're Arthur Weasley's youngest son," Voldemort said. "I welcome you to my newly built abode, the Xanthius," he mocked as he waved his hand around. "Feel honored as you are the very first of your kind to see it." Ron didn't feel like it, but he was not stupid to say so.
"My Lord," Daedelus continued, "we have felt that it is of your utmost priority that Harry Potter must be brought to you, therefore we have taken the initiative to help make it much easier and possible with the capture of Weasley's son, and I hope we have your blessing."
"You're turning out to be a good servant, Deadelus," said Voldemort, which gave Daedelus a big smile, and sneers from Malfoy and a few Death Eaters.
"We believe that Harry Potter and a few of his friends have already arrived in the grounds of Xanthius," said Deadelus, and Ron snapped his head at him; Voldemort was pleased with the news. "Our skillful divinatory is happy to report that one of them has apparently been captured and eaten by a dragon, and that certainly would diminish his will to fight you while he mourns his first loss."
Ron shook when he heard that. He had no idea who Deadelus was referring to. He didn't know who else would come with Harry aside from Hermione. It could have been Fred or George, but still one loss is one too many, and he cared for any one of them. But what he feared most for was Hermione. He didn't want to believe it just yet - maybe the Death Eater was just trying to look good to Voldemort, but the power of suggestion was just too awful to ignore. What if it were true?
Voldemort laughed heartily. "I see I won't be disappointed tonight as I believed so earlier. Good work, Daedelus. Brave of Harry Potter to come and confront me for this worthless boy; only foolish." He turned his gaze to Ron. "That is only the beginning when you go against me, Weasley, there will be more to come - I'll make sure you witness it for Harry Potter soon when he falls."
"Shall we capture him now, my Lord?" asked Daedelus. "We have already pinpointed his location, and are ready to move once you give the word."
"Not yet - allow him an hour to grieve, not that I care about his feelings, but it will surely torment him more. It will make him feel weaker, and that will be an advantage for me. He has nowhere else to go, but here, in Xanthius.
"You may go now, Daedelus," concluded Voldemort with a wave of his wand. "I will tell you when to move, and bring him to me. You must realize what will happen to you if you fail such a very simple task."
"We do, my Lord," said Deadelus bowing with Graham and they left. Two other Death Eaters dragged Ron back to his cell. There, he spent his time alone worrying -and dreading - who might have died for him.
-o0o-
It's been more than an hour since they had lost Hermione. Harry and Ginny hadn't exited the hollow ever since, and they both just sat there, now hugging and staring at the bright night sky thinking about her.
"I can't believe she's gone, Harry," said Ginny, as new tears fell down on her cheeks. Hermione's wand lay on the ground in front of them.
Harry kept silent, throat to tight to speak. His mind replayed, over and over again, vivid memories of his times and adventures with Hermione. He couldn't believe it, either, of course. He wanted to think that Hermione had somehow survived somewhere, but knowing dragons, there was no chance at all she could have escaped, especially without her wand. Dragons are vicious, dangerous creatures. They were known to eat even human beings; the thought of that happening to his best friend was very difficult to accept.
What's worse was that Harry firmly believed he was the reason why this happened. If he hadn't overacted over a simple thing like his ankle, which would have been easily settled by a mere smile to Hermione, this would not have come to pass. Worse still, that with their years of companionship, trials, triumphs, and her recent sacrifices to help clear him and Ron for the Ministry, the last thing Hermione may have thought was that he was angry and ungrateful to her. And that was why he could not bring to forgive himself, now or ever.
Harry just wanted to go home. He wanted to forget everything - everything that had ever happened to him for the last five years. He wished he never knew Hermione or Ron, and believe it all were just a very good dream to have been away from Privet Drive. He didn't know what to do next at the same time.
He had at the moment lost his determination to rescue Ron and he really felt it would have been better to die right now - he didn't care at all for anything else anymore. For few more minutes, Harry and Ginny kept staring outward.
"Harry, I know how you loved Hermione," said Ginny, breaking off from him. "But please stop blaming yourself. Ron still needs our help - if we just give up then, well, Hermione's life would mean nothing."
"I feel lost, Ginny," Harry sobbed. "It wouldn't have happened if I didn't act so childishly."
"She'd want us to save Ron, too, I know it, Harry," Ginny said. "You care for your other best friend, too, right? If you'll call it quits now, then you've lost another one. Will that make anything else better for you?"
"No, but it'll never be the same without Hermione either" Harry said, wiping tears off his cheek. "I'm so afraid of being reminded of her when I'd be with Ron."
"Harry," Ginny said, looking at Harry straight into his eyes. "If you give up on Ron now, believe me, it'll be worse for you. At least he'd be there to help you heal. Please, Harry, my brother is in mortal peril, and we have to save him - for Hermione - for all of us! Even if we die in the process - I don't care - at least we didn't fail him. Right?"
"Die - " Harry said quietly. Dying would be good, he thought again. At least that would end his misery once and for all. Hermione had said she'd rather die without either him or Ron, and she probably knew what she was talking about. But Harry didn't want to take his own life with his own hands - he knew it was absolutely wrong to do so. He simply had to present himself to Voldemort - he would be more than happy to do it for him, and that would certainly be the end of everything. However he didn't have the chance to dwell further in his death wish.
Ginny screamed, startling Harry. They both weren't alone now and were flooded with light. About more than dozen hooded and masked figures were closing in on them. Ginny stood up and reached for her wand frantically inside her robes, but she was caught in a stunning spell from one of the Death Eaters, and Harry felt her collapse on the ground. Harry earlier had been wishing he'd be dead, but seeing Ginny now defenseless in front of him now gave him second thoughts.
He didn't want them to get to her even if he knew it was he who they wanted. Harry didn't want her to suffer the same fate as Cedric Diggory, his former rival in last year's tournament that Voldemort had ordered killed. It took a moment for Harry to realize again that he had failed Hermione and Ginny. He should have led them to safety at the very start, and his selfishness had endangered their lives. Still, he had to do something - anything!
He knelt down beside Ginny and tried to lift her with one hand and point his wand with the other to their attackers - maybe there was still a chance that he could get out with her, but the Death Eater with the silver hand - Wormtail - denied him that, disarming him, sending Harry down painfully on the ground. Harry had managed to say sorry to an unconscious Ginny before he was forcefully lifted up on his feet and brought to Xanthius with her.