"Mommy's alright, Daddy's alright
They just seem a little weird
Surrender, surrender
But don't give yourself away
Whatever happened to all this season's
Losers of the year
Every time I got to thinking
Where'd they disappear"-Surrender, Cheap trick
*****
Ginny sat in the high arched chair, fidgeting in the uncomfortable silence that was only interrupted by the rhythmic thumping of a contraption that sat on the Headmaster's bookshelf behind the gilded chair that sat the current Headmaster. It felt odd being in the office, nothing had been removed or added to make it clear that Dumbledore was no longer there, instead it was like a still portrait-everything frozen in time-the only things truly gone from this room was the wise man who sat behind the desk and his trusted bird.
"Do you know why you're currently here?" Snape drawled with an annoyed tone, he had his fingers interlaced together, holding his chin as he intently stared at the only remaining Weasley in the school.
"Not willing to hex my friends in Defense, breaking students outta barbaric detentions with the Carrows for the past two weeks....refusing to allow the Carrows to hex unsuspecting students whenever they please in the Great Hall," Ginny ticked them off her fingers indignantly. "Stop me when I'm close to the answer."
Snape's upper lip curled back, a guttural sound leaving his throat as he rolled his eyes.
"Honestly, it should've been sooner. You know with only having been back to school for less than a month," Ginny shrugged. Her eyes moved just above Snape's shoulder, the sword of Gryffindor sitting in a glass case just behind him.
"Your insolence knows no bounds," Snape snapped at her, his cold eyes flashing with warning, "I feel that I will finally breathe easy on the day that no more red hair graces these halls."
Ginny smiled proudly, enjoying pissing off the Potions master in front of her.
"I know what you did." Ginny stated simply, Snape's back elongated in response, sitting taller in the chair, allowing her to elaborate as his expression remained etched in stone. "You're the one who took Harper's memories when she was taken to Malfoy Manor," her tone matter-of-fact.
"What of it?" Snape asked, clearly admitting to the obvious statement.
"Why? Why do that, why show someone an ounce of sympathy like that when you've allowed Death Eaters into this place and do nothing to stop them from terrorizing the students on a daily basis," Ginny paused, trying to gather her thoughts she'd waited all summer to ask, "then to go and trip her up with your own wand....make it look like an accident so she had an easy out."
"There are things in this world that are beyond even your understanding, Miss Weasley." Ginny felt a chill go down her spine, he leaned back in his chair with a great sigh.
"It doesn't make sense, not unless you're still a double agent," Ginny shook her head. "But what confuses me the most, is why keep the memories for all that time? You knew my brother was hurting, you knew her friends were in pain, you could've given them some form of comfort a lot sooner."
Snape let out a long breath, the gentle ticking from a trinket behind her shoulder filling the void.
"What good are memories of a dead girl? Tell me, how would you have mentally handled a box of personal items and later given the news that it's the very last remains of her?" Snape asked, Ginny looked at the floor, biting her lower lip as she imagined the pain George would've gone through having been given the memories and not the girl of his dreams-he would've potentially gone mad.
"Then...who's memory did you give that showed how her memories got destroyed? My parents said Harper did it herself but then there's a memory of you helping her, it doesn't line up."
Snape's stoic expression didn't falter, instead he stared at her in an uncomfortable silence for several minutes.
"Her memories were a liability to herself and the Order."
"Then why didn't you just take her outta there instead? You left her to the wolves like it was nothing-"
"You'll have a month's detention with Alecto, starting tomorrow," Snape cut her off, picking up a black eagle feather quill and beginning to write immediately, ignoring the question.
"Just tell-"
"Out."
He waved his arm at her, dismissing her and halting all conversation in the process. Ginny huffed, folding her arms and sinking deeper into the chair with a glare.
"Out!" Snape hissed, moving his hand the chair spun quickly to face the exit. Ginny glared, grabbing her bag and hurriedly leaving the room.
The door slammed shut behind her, descending the spiral staircase and hurrying to Gryffindor tower before the Carrows or a pompous Slytherin found her. Returning to Hogwarts had worried Ginny, but taking the secret passages that the twins drilled into her all summer long, gave her a small comfort. The castle didn't have the same carefree air it had during her time here, this year was cold and deadly-as cold and deadly as the dementors that haunted the Forbidden Forest.
Outside one of the windows, Ginny noticed two dementors at the edge of the forest, floating freely as if waiting for some form of command. A shiver went down her spine much like it had her second year of school each time she saw one of the hooded figures creeping around the edges of the forest. With a quickened pace, Ginny continued on her way to the tower where her friends would hopefully be waiting for her.
"So? What happened?" Seamus asked hurriedly, the shadow of his black eye from this morning shining in the firelight, having gotten it from Alecto for coughing during Defense.
"I saw the sword," Ginny confirmed.
"You're certain that it's there? It's not faked?" Neville asked.
Ginny nodded, she planned to get brought to Snape, wanting to see how his security was for the Headmaster's office as well as confirm that the sword was there. "It's there. Now...we just need a plan."
Lavender sighed heavily, shaking her head, "professor Trelawney says that a better day will come! We just have to hope-"
"-There's no time for hope though, Lavender," Pavarti said as she patted her friend's hand. "If Ginny thinks that the sword will help Harry in stopping him....then we need to come up with a plan."
"Wish the twins were here...they'd know exactly what to do," Seamus muttered, rubbing the back of his neck as he glared at the fire.
Ginny cleared her throat, feeling a slight twinge of jealousy from the comment, "I may not be Fred or George. But I've learned plenty from them, and if there's one thing I've learned: anything is possible. We can do this!"
The small group looked unconvinced, Ginny huffed loudly as she stood with her hands on her hips. "Give me a few days. I'll have a plan."
"What happens if your plan doesn't work though, Gin?" Pavarti whispered, her eyes going big.
"Remember how we said we'd hide out in the Room of Requirement at the start of term if things went south?" Everyone nodded, "we already planned to reinstate the DA, doesn't matter if its now or later."
"That's all grand...but how are we going to go about all this?!" Seamus whined.
"The room...the school will show us how, the founders made this school as a home to teach us magic. The school isn't going to allow its students to fall like this," Ginny nodded confidently.
"Even so....if we got the sword....how do we get it to Harry? Do you even know where he is?"
"No, but I have an idea on how to find him," Ginny thinking back to Harper's scrying. Trelawney couldn't resist helping Lavender and Pavarti—her favorite students-if they asked to learn something more advanced, what was Sybill to do other than oblige?
Everyone gave strained smiles as they nodded, Ginny's mind working overtime as she went through a dozen plans on how to get the sword and how to protect the students of Hogwarts from the torturous Carrows.
"Give me a couple of days."
****
"This concludes our first broadcast of Potterwatch, we'll be back with another installment as soon as possible. For now, good luck, stay safe, and remember you are not alone. Next time's password is moony."
Fred turned the microphone contraption off, Celeste stretched her arms over her head with a yawn.
"This is a brilliant idea, getting the information out there like this," Celeste said, a contemplative smile on her face.
"I hope this works," Fred muttered, cleaning up the equipment, placing it in his rucksack as George helped clean up the radio parts strewn across the table.
It was early October, the world was turning darker and darker by the day. People referred to as Snatchers appeared shortly after the news of the Muggle registration act was announced, people rounding up known Muggleborns and blood traitors, and bringing them to the Ministry just for a profit.
Kingsley had confirmed the taboo on Voldemort's name, accidentally summoning a group of six snatchers and Death Eaters on himself while checking the security of a safe house Angelina and Harper finished setting up. He was lucky to survive the accidental ambush but compromised one of the safe houses that the girls had worked to secure and tie into the ever growing network. The girls worked tirelessly to make sure that four safe houses had two runners to keep the cluster protected and well stocked. Harper has asked to be a runner for a quadrant that would be close to where they were staying, but George refused-Celeste took charge of the area instead.
"It'll work, we just have to keep moving. Can't let them trace us," George said with a tight smile.
"Hope we can do another in two weeks," Lee added. "Make it biweekly or something, keep everyone up to date."
"Do many people know about it?" Celeste asked, pulling her hair in a bun before digging through her purse for something.
"We....don't know exactly," Fred admitted. "We hope that Ted is out there spreading the word...." George made a face, wrapping a cord around his forearm and tucking it away in his rucksack.
"Tonks' father?" Lee clarified, Fred made a noise in confirmation.
"He was muggleborn, Death Eaters were in the area and he...sped off."
"Doesn't help that Andromeda is a direct sister of Lestrange's," George muttered with a shiver.
Celeste's eyes went big as she nodded, a guilty expression on her face for having opened a can of worms.
"Is Tonks alright? With a baby...I'd imagine that's gutting."
"Lupin moved in, things have settled but you can feel it's eating at her," Fred nodded.
"Well...luckily we've setup more than forty safe houses, he's bound to hit one of those," Celeste pursed her lips. Trying to be optimistic.
"A Slytherin being optimistic about this situation was not on my Bingo card...." Lee attempted to joke, pretending to hold a paper and look for a square to check off.
Celeste swung her purse at Lee, causing him to fall off his stool with a laugh.
"I'm a half-blood you twit. Just because I look fabulous in green doesn't mean I enjoy watching the world burn."
"No, just taking jabs at red heads whenever possible," George snorted.
"Literally everyone does that to you, Weasley," Celeste scoffed, shaking her head slightly.
They heard a bang of the front door opening, getting to their feet and backing toward the back of the room, everyone held their wands out as Angelina came into view, huffing as she doubled over.
"Harper. Vision."
"Shit."
George tossed his rucksack at Lee and hurried out the door, heading outside the barrier and disappearing with a sharp crack. Running through the trees, he made it to the clearing in time to see Tonks leaning over a shaking Harper.
"George! I-I-I don't know-we were just coming to-will she be alright?!" Tonks stammered, her hands hovering over Harper's body, uncertain how to help.
"Just a vision," George nodded, crossing his legs as he sat down beside Harper's body, taking her right hand in his as she continued convulsing, her back arching ungodly high as she shuddered.
"What do we do?" Tonks asked.
"Unfortunately wait until its over," Harper's eyes rolled to the back of her head, something George was never use to seeing as the whites of her eyes seemed to shine brightly.
Tonks took a calming breath, slowly sitting down in the grass on the opposite side of Harper as they waited.
"Oi! What's going-Harpsichord?! Is she alright?!" George's mouth made a firm line as Charlie appeared, running forward and taking a spot beside Tonks.
"Harper is fine, Charlie. Just a vision, hopefully it'll pass soon," George explained, pushing the fringe from Harper's face.
"Poor thing," Charlie frowned, his eyes turned back to George as he smiled. "The girlies asked for my help with some safe houses near a supposed camp of snatchers, couldn't turn them down."
"Oh lovely," George smiled, knowing that Charlie was going to do everything in his power the take the piss outta him while he was around.
"Oh you know you love having me around," Charlie grinned.
"Not sure if that's the word I'd use," George snorted, shaking his head.
"George?" Harper's voice was very soft, her head lulling to her left. He gave her hand a squeeze, she returned it-weakly.
"Let's get you to bed, love," George smiled, effortlessly scooping her into his arms, her arms weakly going around his neck, walking through the house.
"I'll tend the herbs!" Tonks called behind them.
"Did I have a vision?" Harper whispered, her head bouncing against his shoulder as he carefully walked toward their room.
"Yes, are you alright, love?" He asked, getting to their room and gently setting Harper on the bed. George moving to sit behind her, keeping his arms around her.
"Yeah," she gave a tired smile, looking up at him, "I need to write a letter though." She began to move against him, attempting to sit up.
"What's going on?" Taking her shoulders in his hands, keeping her against him as she moved.
"Erm I saw red hair....I need to write—"
"Harpsichord, just stop for a moment," George soothed, running his hands along her arms.
"What if Ginny is in trouble?!" Harper turned to face him.
"I'll get you things in a moment, just take a deep breath," he smiled, pressing his lips to her temple.
Harper frowned, sighing deeply, she turned onto her side and pressed her face against his chest, her fingers making a circle on his stomach.
"Thank you for coming to the rescue, George," she smiled up at him, the gold flecks in her eyes melting in the brown irises.
George smiled, resting his cheek atop her head, his arms going tightly around her. "Anything for you, gorgeous," summoning a paper and pen, holding them out to Harper. "And I will get this out immediately."
****
Ginny had a very flimsy plan, as instructed, Lavender and Pavarti went to their favorite Professor and asked to learn about scrying. They would wait for dinner, sneak into the office, retrieve the sword, and stash it in the Room of Requirement until Ginny could get it to the Order to get to Harry. That was the plan, there was no going back from this.
"You're positive he's gone?" Pavarti asked, the four Gryffindors casually walking to the Head office. Their footsteps seeming to echo loudly in their ears, portraits around them were busy celebrating a lovely autumnal equinox, too busy to notice the small group with a nefarious plan.
"Yes, and Peeves is providing distraction just to be safe," Ginny nodded. Wishing she had been gifted the Marauder's map for this very moment.
"Dittany," Neville said to the stone gargoyle, immediately coming to life and jumping to the side to reveal the spiral stairs.
The office was quiet and dark, the portraits of professors of the past all dozing, Ginny and Neville had just gotten behind the desk when they heard a soft chuckle.
"My, what students get up to these days," the portrait of Phineas Nigellus Black laughed, amused at watching four students attempt to steal a school relic. "Oh don't let me stop you! This has been the most amusing thing since those Weasley boys attempted to flood the office with that everlasting bubbles idea."
Ginny and Neville shared a look before smashing open the glass case the sword was sitting behind, Ginny reached for the sword, waiting for something to happen when her fingers touched the goblin made steel. Lifting the relic from the brackets, Ginny looked toward Neville and the others, giving a shaky laugh.
"Well, let's go!" Seamus hissed.
Ginny and Neville wrapped the sword in a blanket, Ginny wrapped her robes over the sword before the group had hurried out of the office and down the spiral staircase. They were halfway down the stairs, they could see the feet of the stone gargoyle, what they also saw was a tall black figure emerging from the shadows of the gargoyle.
"It's a shame that Miss Nonemacker wasn't here in person to give you a proper warning," Snape snarled, his upper lip pulling back as he sneered at the children. From the folds of his robes he revealed a crumpled letter, opening it before leaning down so that the letter was eye level with Ginny.
Ginny felt her blood stop, freezing in her veins as she looked at the very familiar script.
Don't you dare, Ginevra Weasley
Please. Don't do anything dumb.
Just run, it's not worth it.
I promise the sword isn't worth it.
Just trust me and run.
"I hope that whatever you planned to do with the sword was worth it in the end," Snape continued. The anger in his eyes was so intense, Ginny felt as if she were going to burst into flames.
Snape lifted his wand, pointing it right between her eyes.
"Crucio"
****
George looked over the yard and then up at the roof and back through the trees, frowning, he apparated to the roof. He looked around to see Harper leaning against the chimney with a book and a thick blanket wrapped around herself. He smiled, thinking how pretty she was sitting content with a book in her glasses she tried to avoid wearing.
"There you are! You look very content up here, Harpsichord," he grinned, joining her against the cold brick.
Harper smiled, leaning into his side and kissing his cheek before she turned back to her book.
"This came for you," George held out the letter.
With a small gasp Harper snatched the letter away and ripped it apart as she opened it.
"Don't know what's going to happen when we get married....but I know keeping a secret from you will be impossible," George snorted, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.
"We're getting married?" Harper laughed, her face blushing slightly.
"Of course! One day..." he grinned.
"I require a two year minimum before a proposal, Weasley," Harper said, her face getting redder.
George's smile flattered slightly, his heart stopping as the memory of the last time she'd made that joke rang through his head. It felt like ages and ages ago now, so long ago George wasn't certain if he had dreamt it while she was gone.
He was absorbed in his own head he jumped when Harper's hand touched his cheek. They weren't sitting on the roof, they were in a borrowed bedroom of Grimmauld place, Harper's eyes weren't completely hardened from the past but soft—carefree.
"Did I say something wrong?" She whispered, her eyes were big behind her glasses as she watched him with concern.
"Just a bit of deja vu, love," giving a shaky breath as he smiled, taking her hand in his and pressing his lips against her knuckles. "Who's the letter from anyway? Is it from Ginny about your vision?"
"Oh....it's from Ginny....." Harper gave a strained smile, averting her gaze.
"Everything alright?" Harper made a strange noise, getting to her feet and holding out a hand for his. "Come on....what did you write to her anyway?"
Harper bit her lower lip, tears sprung to her eyes as she gave a shaky breath, George quirked an eyebrow at the response. Harper hadn't divulged the vision she'd had recently, and he didn't pry, knowing Harper would share the information when she was ready and if she felt it was necessary. "Girl stuff...."
George frowned, his brow knitting together as he watched Harper nervously put the letter into her book. With quick thinking, George snatched the book from Harper and hurried to the opposite side of the roof as Harper protested profusely.
"No! You really shouldn't read it!"
H
I didn't get your letter in time
I'm sorry, we dared.
I'm alright. Hope I see you soon
G.
George looked from the letter to Harper who walked slowly toward him, muttering under her breath as she grabbed back her things.
"What happened? What was your vision about, Harper?" George asked, a slight panic in his voice, Harper gave a sad smile and wrapped her arms tightly around his torso.
"Let's sit back down, love," her voice soothed. George felt cold as they went to sit back against the chimney, Harper wrapping the blanket around them and slowly going over everything she'd seen and what she'd written to Ginny.
"Well....this just proves they're searching all mail going into the school again," George shuddered with a faint smile.
"I'm sor-"
"She didn't get the message in time, that's not your fault, love," George kissed her forehead, his hands taking her face gently in his hands, his thumbs moving along her jaw. "Ginny's strong, you know that...we'll see her soon."
Harper nodded slightly, giving a tight smile and rested her head against his chest, pulling the blanket closer around her. George's arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her tightly against him, resting his cheek against the top of her head and looking toward the forest around them-watching the sky turn a dull orange.