Chapter 30
Dedicated to: No one in particular
Harry stayed in his dorm, sitting on his bed with the curtains drawn. He flipped through his photo album. There was no presence of Nellie in the book at all. Hagrid had said years ago when he gave this to him, that he had sent letters to all his parents friends. Maybe one of them had known, but he wouldn't be sure. Harry thought about going to the Owlrey and sending a letter to Sirius, in case he knew any names of his parents other friends. And if he had known anything about Nellie.
Meanwhile, other problems were happening in the Gryffindor Tower. Hermione had comforted Harry and brought him to his room, and then went back to hers. She came down a moment later.
"Ron, Ginny's locked herself in her room." Hermione said, leaning against the doorframe leading to the Girls Dormitories.
"She did?" Ron said, looking up from his homework.
"Yeah, didn't you see her come in?" Hermione asked.
"No, I was in the bathroom." Ron said.
"Well, try to talk to her." Ron nervously followed Hermione up the stairs and to Ginny's dorm.
"Gin? It's Ron and Hermione. Can we come in?" Ron asked, knocking on the door. There were creaks on the floorboards and the door open a crack. Ginny's face looked tired, like she had been crying.
"What's wrong, Gin?" Ron asked. "It's not Malfoy is it? He didn't hurt you, did he? Did he do something mean to you? Because if he did, I'll bash his face in." Ginny shook her head.
"He didn't do anything." Ginny said.
"Then what happened?" Hermione questioned.
"I don't want to talk about it." Ginny said, and shut the door on them. The door locked.
"Ginny! Ginny, wait! Tell me what's wrong!" Ron yelled through the door.
"No! Leave me alone!" Ginny said. Wooden bars magically made their way across the door, blocking any entrance. Ron sighed.
"I guess you know about Malfoy and Ginny, too." Hermione said.
"Yeah. Ever since Spring Break. You?"
"Since Spring Break." Hermione said. They grinned at each other.
"Did.... Um... Anything happen while Draco was at your house?" Hermione asked.
"Well.... I don't think so. Dad was kind of mad. Mom was shocked, and everyone else was too. I think Draco tried to use the loo without the seat and his pants down, but I'm not sure." Ron said, holding a hand up to his chin and pondering the situation.
"Then he shoved me into the doorframe. And the next morning he was gone and Ginny stayed in her room." Hermione had a weird look on her face. Ron gasped.
"You don't think..." Ron said.
"He's cheating on her? For all we know, he loves her very much."
"We?" Ron asked.
"Harry knows too. Draco came to us for help." Ron stared down at Hermione.
"Help? What kind of help?" Ron questioned.
"He wanted to know where Sirius was."
"Why? If something happens to Sirius, it'll be bad." Ron said, clenching his fists.
"No! He was really concerned. Remember in our 3rd year when Draco knew that Sirius was Harry's Godfather before Harry? He's known for years! His father had told him that he was Harry's parents secret keeper."
"Everyone knows that." Ron said. "But why would he want to talk to Sirius? Maybe he wants to keep You-Know-Who from finding his family.
"That can't be right. His family is involved with Voldemort." Ron cringed. "You remember 5th year?" Ron bowed his head.
"But why?" Ron said. A flapping of wings drew his attention. He turned around and Pig collided with his forehead.
"Ow!" Stupid thing!" Ron said, rubbing his forehead with one hand, and holding Pig with the other.
"Maybe it's from Leila!" Ron said, grinning big and opening the letter.
"Hey!" Ron said.
"What?" Hermione asked, looking over his shoulder.
"It's from Sirius! Guess Draco didn't kill him after all." Hermione hit him in the shoulder. Ron's eyes narrowed as he read on.
"What? What's he talking about?" Ron said. Ron turned and faced Hermione.
"Me and my whole family are under the Secret-Keeper spell!"
**************
Harry wasn't surprised at the news.
"Why else would he want Sirius' help? He explained to us why he wanted to know where he was. He just didn't say that was what he was going to do." Harry explained, fingering his leather photo album.
"Uh........" Ron said, scratching his head.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hermione said after a moment of silence.
"What?" Ron asked.
"Harry was cry-"
"Dumbledore took me to a graveyard." Harry said, trying to prevent Hermione from revealing all his sobbing.
"There's a graveyard here?" Hermione asked.
"The entrance is hidden in a tree."
"A tree?" Ron asked.
"Yeah. A tree. My parents are buried there."
"Oh." Hermione and Ron said.
"And... there's a grave... With no body." Harry looked down.
"How could that be?" Ron asked.
"People thought that the person was dead. But she's not."
"Well, who is she?" Hermione asked. Harry swallowed.
"Nellina."
"Is she hot?" Ron asked, blinking. Hermione hit him.
"You have a girlfriend." Ron went red.
"Oh. Yeah. Well, you never know..." He shrugged. He turned to Harry. "Does she have a last name?"
"It's Potter. Nellina Potter. My sister."
"You have a sister?" Hermione asked.
"Yeah." Harry laughed softly as to not show much emotion. "I didn't know I had one either. But I do."
"So she's not dead? You-Know-Who didn't get her?"
"No. That's why the grave has no purpose. In the ruins of my house, there was no body of her."
"Do you know where she is now? Did Dumbledore tell you?"
"Yeah. She's here. But not now."
"What do you mean by that?" asked Hermione.
"She's here at Hogwarts. But not now. Voldemort has her."
"Well, we have to go get her then!" Ron said, standing up and holding his arms up in a fighting stance. "We'll save her from You-Know-Who and you'll have your sister back!"
"You said she was here at Hogwarts. Who is she?" Hermione demanded, her hand on Harry's arm.
"Don't you guys get it?" Harry said, standing up as well. "The names! It's all in the names!!! Nellina! Nellie! Nellie is my sister! She looks like my mom!!! Look!" Harry flung open the photo album to a single picture of his mother.
"See? See the hair! The face! It's her!" Harry jabbed at the picture. Hermione put a hand over her mouth.
"Does Neville know?"
"I don't know. And now Voldemort has her."
"But he can't make his way in the castle!" Hermione said.
"It's because she goes to him! She's a Death Eater!" Ron gasped like a girl.
"She's gonna kill you! Quick! Hide under the bed!" Ron took hold of Harry's shoulders and tried to push him on the floor.
"No! She would have had plenty of chances to kill me! Voldemort is using her! She's bait! A reason for me to go to him! To get her back! A chance that he has to try to kill me! Remember what I told you Sirius said? A week! We have 5 days left. The Ministry wizards are going to be here in 2 days, and then we're going to save our world."
"Wicked...." Ron said. "I mean, that's bad. I'll get my friends to help me."
"But Ron. We ARE your friends." Hermione said.
"My other friends." Ron said, rolling his eyes. "I need to go now." He added, looking out the window. He left the room.
"So... What are you going to do now? Now that she's with him?" Hermione asked, rocking back on her heels.
"I'm going to kill him." Harry said, staring at his wand that was lying on his bedside table.
"Harry..." Hermione said.
"No. I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to murder him."
"Harry don't..." Hermione said.
"No, Hermione." Harry said. "I am. I'm going to murder him."
*************
At Voldemort's mansion, all his followers were camping in his house in many of his guest rooms. Late at night, somewhere around 2 in the morning, Draco Malfoy was up, writing frantically on a piece of parchment by candlelight.
"What do you think you're doing?" asked his father. Draco stood up from his chair and turned and faced the shadowy figure that was his father.
"I was... just..."
"I know what you're doing." Lucius said. "You're writing to that girl. Our Master doesn't like that. Burn the letter, now."
"No." Draco said.
"What did you say?" Lucius said, stepping forward, more in the light.
"I said no. I'm not burning Ginny's letter."
"You will burn it now!" Lucius said threatingly at his son. Draco's voice shook as he answered.
"No." Lucius slapped his son forcefully across the face. Draco's head snapped to the side.
"Burn it." Lucius said, before going back next door with his wife. Draco held up a hand to his face. It burned harsh, but harsher than what he had to do. He scribbled a quick note on the letter, before rolling it up. He silently called for Harvey. Harvey fluttered to the window. Draco tied the letter to Harvey's leg and sent him off. Draco then took his quill pen and scribbled nonsense on another piece of parchment. Lucius opened the door.
"Are you burning that damn letter?" He barked.
"Yes father." Draco said, holding up the fake letter to the candle. Lucius stood in the doorway and watched the letter curl up in the flames. He shut the door. Draco carried the candle to his bed. He crawled in the bed and blew out the candle.
Ginny was awakened by a tapping on her face, thinking it was one of her roommates, she hit the object poking her. Something pulled on a curl of her hair.
"Ow! Stop it!" Ginny said, only to find Draco's owl Harvey staring at her with his creepy bug eyes. Ginny took the letter from Harvey. He perched himself on her knee and preened himself. Ginny opened the letter.
'Dear Virginia,
We're stationed in Voldemort's fortress. We're staying here for a while. He's not happy. I've asked Harry's Godfather to protect your family. Ron and your father know. Now you do. It's late here and I'm trying to write everything that I can before my father finds me writing notes. All anybody can talk about is the upcoming duel. Voldemort has a great army. He hopes to-' The letter cut off. Scrawled near the end of the letter were the words: '4 days. Draco.'
Ginny rolled up the letter and stuck it under her pillow. Harvey hopped onto her headboard and reached out his beak and pulled on her hair again.
"Fine!" She hissed at the bird. "I'll write a response." Ginny silently got out of her bed and got out a piece of parchment and a quill pen.
'Draco,
Got your letter. 4 days it is then.'
Ginny paused, thinking of something else to write. Harvey pulled on her hair again. She swatted the bird away. Harvey nipped her hand. Ginny pulled a red curl close to her face and looked at it. She reached back into the drawer on her bedside table with the ink and parchment and brought out a pair of scissors. She pulled her hair up like she would if she was putting it in a pony-tail. She looked at herself in the mirror. She pulled a small strand of curl loose. She cut it off. She tied the end and rolled it up with the letter. She gave the letter to Harvey. He flew out the window. Ginny felt her hair, then she felt under her pillow for Draco's letter. She fell back asleep.
Draco woke up when the sun rose. He would have to work on the caravans today. Voldemort had informed them what he wanted them to do yesterday evening. His parents were going to be in a meeting with Voldemort, along with other Death Eaters. The younger ones had been stuck with caravan duty. Draco ran his hands through his hair and pulled on a black robe. Harvey hooted from the window. Draco went over to Harvey and took the letter from him. Out fell a short curl from Ginny's hair. Draco held it up to his nose and breathed in her scent. He fingered it lovingly, like he liked to do whenever they met throughout the school. There was a rap on his door. Draco shoved the letter in a drawer and stuffed Ginny's hair in his robe pocket.
"Up, boy!" Lucius said, opening the door. "It's off to the stables for you!"
"Yes father." Draco said and hurried out the door.
Stay tuned for Chapter 31. We're nearing the end!
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