“Bloody hell! I’m tired of this!” A man yells storming into the Rebellion’s Head Quarters.
The few people sitting in the room look up at the man. His bright blue eyes are full of anger. He’s running his hands through his shaggy blond hair. Everything about the man seems disheveled. Honestly, he looks completely different from the last time anyone saw him.
“What is it this time?” Ginny Weasley asks glaring at the man.
“I’m tired of living in a bloody hole in the ground! Just because that evil snake rules the world doesn’t mean that we should be stuck here! We need to do something! He can’t kill us all!” The man roars.
“What do you think we’ve been doing?!”
“Obviously not enough!”
“Both of you stop. We don’t need to be arguing amongst ourselves.” Albus Dumbledore says calmly.
The fiery redhead and the irritable blond both glare at each other, but stop arguing. They sit down and look at the wise old man. Recently, Albus has become the leader of the Rebellion. Originally he had planned to stay out of the war, saying that he’d only put the Rebels in more danger. Eventually Ginny had talked both Albus and his brother, Aberforth, to join the Rebels in their fight against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Three more people enter the small room as Albus stands up. These three sit down quickly. They stare at their leader intently. Albus is, after all, by far the wisest and strongest wizard involved in the Rebellion. Unfortunately though, he’s only You-Know-Who’s equal and not stronger than the evil wizard.
“Matthew is right. We need to do something,” Albus states making the blond smirk, “however, we need a plan first. Does anyone have any ideas?”
“Yeah. I say we march right up to Snake Face and take him down.” Matthew Creevey says.
“Oh yeah. Let’s just ask him to kill us you bloody idiot.” Ginny sneers.
“We could sneak up on him. Ambush him.” Colin Creevey whispers timidly.
“We need to take out the Death Eaters first. They’d kill us before we got anywhere near him.” Hermione Granger states matter-of-factly.
“We could use a distraction.” Ron Weasley smiles.
“We can’t afford to lose anyone else, Ron! The distraction would just end up dead! Oh wait, maybe you should volunteer Matthew.” Ginny smirks.
“In your dreams Weaslette.” Matthew rolls his eyes.
“Alright the lot of you just stop arguing. This isn’t helping anything.” Aberforth Dumbledore says making an appearance.
“I still stand by what I said years ago. If we took out Hogwarts, he wouldn’t have any more followers.” Matthew whispers.
“There are always people who will follow him, whether they attend Hogwarts or not.” Albus says.
Matthew shakes his head and stares at his feet. The room goes quiet. Everyone knows that no matter what they do, people will still follow You-Know-Who. He’ll always have followers that are willing to die for him. Even now, more people are signing up to join the ranks of the Death Eaters. Some do it because they fear for their lives, other are just evil and willing. The most well-known Death Eaters being the insane Bellatrix Lestrange along with the Malfoys.
Ginny Weasley shakes her head. The Rebellion has suffered a lot in the last few years. They always seem to be arguing about one thing or the other. Matthew and herself are constantly arguing, mainly because of a failed relationship from their Hogwarts days. At one time, Ginny was madly in love with Matthew Creevey. The key word being was. Now she just couldn’t stand the git.
Hermione, Collin and Ron stand up and head to their beds. It’s obvious that nothing is going to be accomplished tonight. Aberforth and Albus retire also. Only Ginny and Matthew are left in the small room. Neither of them even looks at the other.
Sighing, Ginny looks at Matthew. She gasps when she sees his blue eyes trained on her brown eyes. Matthew stands up and walks across the room. He puts his hands on the back of the chair Ginny is sitting in and hovers over her. Slowly he leans down and whispers in her ear.
“You know you still want me.”
“I definitely do not!” Ginny tries to sound forceful, but the words come out as barely a whisper.
“Whatever you say Weaslette.”
Matthew walks back to his seat and sits down. He smirks at the now agitated redhead. Ginny Weasley bends down and throws a rock at the irritating blond. She would love to curse him into oblivion, but Albus made all of the Rebels swear not to use magic on each other. Something about they didn’t need to be dueling in the compound.
“So you never said what information you managed to gather.” Ginny sighs, knowing that they should at least try to be civil.
“I didn’t get much. He’s still patrolling the school every so often. Students are still getting tortured. Really nothing new, except for one thing.” Matthew answers whispering the last part.
“Well what is it?”
“It’s not good Ginny. I don’t think you want to know.”
“Just tell me you annoying git!”
“Just remember that I warned you.”
“Just tell me already or I swear I’ll…”
“He murdered your parents.”
Ginny stares at Matthew. She doesn’t believe him. Unfortunately, she knows that that’s something the irritating male wouldn’t lie about. Matthew has to be telling the truth, even though she hates to admit it. He can’t be lying, but that doesn’t mean she has to like it or even believe it.
“Are you sure?” Ginny breathes.
“Positive.” Matthew whispers.
Matthew stands up and walks to his bedroom. He knows that Ginny just needs time to let the information sink in. Unfortunately, all he wants to do is run back to her and hold her against him. Deep down he just wants to make her pain go away. Honestly he only argues with her because he knows that she no longer has feelings for him, even though he still loves her deeply.
Ginny stares at the floor. She can’t believe that her parents are dead. They had been in a safe place. Hell they had a secret keeper and everything. Their secret keeper had been Remus Lupin. All Ginny can think about is why? How could Remus betray them?
Ginny starts sobbing. She wraps her arms around herself, although she desperately wishes she was in someone else’s arm. A certain blond comes to mind, but she pushes the thought away. He doesn’t have feelings for her anymore. In fact Matthew bloody Creevey had been the one to break up with her. Some rubbish about her being a distraction and distracting him from what he needed to do. Secretly Ginny knew it was better this way. This way neither of them would be hurt if something happened to the other. Well, at least he could go on if something happened to her. If something happened to him… well Ginny didn’t know what she would do.
The door to the bunker opens and more people walk in. Ginny looks up into the faces of George, Fred, Bill, Charlie, and Percy. Her brothers sit down in the seats spread out in the bunker. None of them says a word. By now all of them know that their parents are dead. Everyone just stays quiet as silent tears race down their cheeks.
The door opens once again and a haggard looking man enters the bunker. Ginny and the rest of the Weasleys stand up once they see the man. They all draw their wands and point them at the man’s heart. Remus Lupin throws up his hands in surrender. He betrayed his friends and he knows that he deserves whatever these children are going to do.
The Weasleys all open their mouths to say the curse, but stop when someone steps in front of their target. Everyone lowers their wand, except for Ginny. She raises her wand slightly, just so it’s trained on the intruder’s heart. Remus stares at Matthew, unable to believe that the boy would protect him.
“Put it down Gin.” Matthew whispers.
“No. Now get out of the way.” Ginny growls.
“Gin. Put it down.”
“No. Now move.”
“Gin. You have to understand.”
“Understand what? He betrayed my parents! He’s a bloody traitor!”
Matthew sighs and runs a hand through his hair. He didn’t think this would be easy. In fact he didn’t originally plan on saving Lupin. Remus deserved whatever he was going to get, but Matthew couldn’t even imagine Ginny killing someone. At least he couldn’t see her killing an old friend.
Sighing, Matthew walks up to the fiery redhead. He places his hands on her upper arms, hating the feelings the small contact sends through his body. There is no way Ginny loves him and his body needs to understand that. Matthew looks down at the 25 year old woman in front of him. She honestly does look ready to kill, but he knows that she won’t hurt him. At least he hopes she won’t.
“Ginny love makes people do crazy things.” Matthew breathes never looking away from those big brown eyes.
“What are you going on about?” Ginny rolls her eyes trying to fight the urge to kiss the 27 year old man in front of her.
“You have to understand that Snake Face was torturing Tonks. It’s heart wrenching for any man to watch the woman he loves get tortured.”
“Enough to betray your own friends and practically give them to You-Know-Who?”
Matthew cringes. Right now he knows that Ginny is angry enough to be calm. He’s never seen her like this before, but it’s enough to terrify him. Carefully Matthew places his hand on Ginny’s wrist. At first she resists, but eventually Ginny lets Matthew lower her wand. The sparks that the contact had sent through her body made her want to slap herself. She should not be feeling this way about the bloody git in front of her.
“If I was being tortured would you give him what he wanted?” Matthew sighs in her ear.
Ginny stops breathing at the question. She isn’t sure if she would, but she knows she’d volunteer her own life in exchange for his. However that isn’t how Snake Face works, so he’d just kill both of them. Shaking her head, Ginny looks into those lovely blue eyes. Deep down inside, she hates herself for her response.
“Absolutely not, for two reasons. 1) You aren’t that important, and 2) I don’t give a damn about you.”
Matthew cringes. Her words struck him like a knife and cut their way through his heart. He hopes desperately that she’s lying. However he knows that she doesn’t care about him. That much is brutally obvious. Sighing, Matthew turns away from her and walks back towards Remus.
“Just get out of here.” Matthew whispers to the older man.
Remus nods and quickly hurries out of the compound. Matthew closes his eyes and listens to five people go to their rooms. He turns around to see Ginny still standing and staring right at him. Slowly Matthew walks right up to her. Ginny inhales sharply as Matthew brings his lips within only an inch of hers.
“I might not give up information, but I would definitely die for you, Weaslette.” Matthew breathes.
Ginny stares at his back as he goes to his room. She falls to her knees as something hits her. For the first time in years, he had actually called her Gin. It used to be all he would call her, but after the break up and everything with the Rebellion he had just been calling her Weaslette. Tears start to fall as Ginny realizes that that is what he just called her. Her heart threatens to stop beating when his words finally sink in. Immediately, she regrets what she said to him. If he did have feelings for her, she definitely ended them with those seven words.
Matthew stares at the ceiling. He closes his eyes and listens to Dennis and Colin’s soft snoring. Sighing, Matthew rolls over and looks at his younger brothers. Colin is 25 and Dennis is 23. Both of them are, in Matthew’s opinion, too young to be involved in this war. Unfortunately, Colin and Dennis follow Matthew everywhere. What they don’t know is that Matthew promised their parents that he would watch over his brothers just before Snake Face killed them.
The door to Matthew’s room opens. He instantly draws his wand and aims it at the door. His heart stops when he sees the long red hair. Matthew pretends to sleep as Ginny enters the room. Even though his heart his racing and threatening to make his breathing sporadic.
Ginny walks over and sits on the edge of Matthew’s bed. She knows that he isn’t really asleep. Carefully Ginny puts a hand on his shoulder. Matthew opens his eyes, but refuses to look at her. He instead stares at a crack in the wall. The fact that he won’t look at her breaks Ginny’s heart.
Sighing Ginny lies on the bed next to him. Matthew never sleeps under the covers, which Ginny never did understand. At one time he told her that covers just got in the way if you needed to make a quick escape. She had agreed with him, even though you can still apparate under the covers. Ginny smiles at the memory. It had been a fond one, mainly because she had kissed Matthew for the first time after their short conversation.
“I didn’t mean it.” Ginny whispers as a tear slides down her face and lands on the pillow.
“It sounded like you did.” Matthew sighs angrily.
“I really didn’t. I was just upset. You have to understand.”
“Understand what? That you don’t give a damn about me?”
With that, Matthew rolls off of his bed and exits the room. He needs to get away from Ginny Weasley before he does something stupid. Unfortunately, she follows him out of his room. Matthew groans and runs out of the compound out into the cold night air. Ginny runs after him because she knows that it’s dangerous to be out this time of night. The Death Eaters are probably on patrol by now.
“Run!!” Matthew screams grabbing Ginny’s hand and running as fast as he can.
Ginny let’s go of his hand and the two run as fast as they can. Both of their hearts are racing, though Ginny isn’t exactly sure why. She knows automatically when she hears the cold sadistic laugh of Bellatrix Lestrange. Instantly Ginny starts running even faster. If Lestrange catches them, they’ll both die a very slow and painful death.
Matthew turns his head and swears loudly. Lestrange has a broom and is quickly catching up. He looks at Ginny and knows that he has to save her no matter what. Quickly Matthew grabs Ginny’s hand. She looks at him and almost cries at the look in his eyes. Those blue eyes are filled with guilt. Ginny knows that she’s going to hate Matthew for whatever he’s about to do.
“I love you,” Matthew whispers, “Blimey!”
Ginny screams as she’s instantly apparated back to the compound. She curses Matthew over and over. He’ll be dead by morning. Everyone hears her screams and comes out to see what’s wrong. It’s several minutes before Ginny can even speak. She’s so angry that Matthew actually used the word to apparate her straight back here.
“What’s wrong Ginny?” Luna Lovegood asks in her soft voice.
“She has him. Lestrange has Matthew. He… he saved me using the code word. She… she’ll… she’s going to kill him.” Ginny cries.
The tears start flowing and Luna wraps her arms around her best friend. Ginny cries into Luna's shoulder. She cries because she knows that Matthew is a dead man. Deep down inside Ginny also hates Matthew for saving her. If it was her choice, they would die together. Now she’ll never get to say goodbye to her blue eyed Prince Charming. She’ll never see him again. Her heart clenches painfully as the truth hits her. She will never ever get to tell Matthew Dylan Creevey that she, Ginevra Molly Weasley, is still desperately and madly in love with him. The truth hurts so much that Ginny actually passes out from pain. Pain that is far deeper than any physical wound she has or ever could acquire. A pain that is even worse than the Cruciatus curse, by about ten times to be exact.