ꜱᴇʀᴘᴇɴᴛɪɴᴇ ꜱᴇʀɪᴇꜱ | ᴛᴏᴍɪᴏɴᴇ

The Dark Lord's Heir, ch. 5

Harmony let Ginny guide her away from Scrimgeour's room. She took her to the other suite saved for the teenagers. Mercifully, no one was inside and Ginny sat Harmony down on the quilted bed. Scrimgeour's Cruciatus curse had left her feeling sore with knees shaking. Harmony clutched the edge of the bed, taking deep, measured breathes to calm the adrenaline coursing through her body.

"Did he hurt you?" Ginny asked, standing before her with arms crossed.

"My pride more than anything." Harmony looked up at her gratefully. "If you hadn't shown up, I don't want to know what would have happened. One of us would have ended up dead, certainly."

"You shouldn't have been left alone with him." Ginny's voice was edged with anger. "It was stupid of them. Of me. I saw how he took you away. I should have done something. I just figured, it's Scrimgeour. Our Minister. He protected us. How horrible could he be?"

"Ginny, it's fine." Harmony held up a hand to calm her. "At least you did something."

Ginny sighed and began pacing up and down the rows of beds.

"So...," Harmony said slowly, her eyes following the young witch, "...Harry finally came to his senses, did he? You're all going to trade me to Voldemort for Molly?"

Ginny stopped and slowly faced her. "About that..."

"What?"

"I lied."

Harmony's eyebrows rose in question. "You what?"

"Yeah," Ginny sat down beside her on the bed. "I only said that to Scrimgeour so he'd release his Cruciatus curse."

Harmony stared at her in wonderment. "I don't understand. You wanted to free me?"

"Well, yes."

Harmony let loose a small laugh. "Why? I thought you and the boys-"

"I don't care what the boys think anymore," Ginny replied angrily. Her eyes went off into a far-away look as she thought. Then she blinked and refocused on Harmony, who was watching her closely. "They're not going to let you go."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that if I hadn't come along, you would have never been freed. They would have let Scrimgeour control you, do what he wanted with you. Use you to their advantage, and then...you don't want to know what."

Harmony's hands gripped the bed tighter. "So I was right."

She jumped up from the bed and strode to the door. Ginny rushed to follow.

"I've got to get out of here."

"I know, Hermione. I didn't before. But I do now."

The two young witches left the room, eyeing both ends of the hallway before surging on. It was quiet up there by the rooms but loud laughter and clinking glasses echoed up to them from downstairs. There, they spotted Ron and George at one end of the bar, kicking back pints. Neville was quick to give the brothers refills. All other patronages were gone, including those Death Eaters from earlier. Hannah was flying about the place with her hands full, face sweaty, blonde hair a mess. Her eyes popped when she noticed the girls and came over to them. She dumped a pile of white fabric into Harmony's arms and gave Ginny a handful of candle holders.

"Make yourselves useful, yeah?" said Hannah. "I've got to close things up and Neville's off showing his lads a good time."

"Er..." Ginny began and the girls exchanged glances. Harmony was ready to dump the white fabric on the table and head straight for the door when a barrage of footsteps thundered down the staircase.