“Ah, Bellatrix, my faithful one!” Voldemort patted her on the head as she knelt before him, “of course, you may. I always reward those who do what I ask, without question.” He was glaring at Wormtail now. “Dumbledore’s fools took your double for the real thing! Wont they be surprised when it turns out to be a very confused muggle suffering under the imperious curse!” they all laughed.
One of the death eaters pushed Ginny to the floor in the corner near Harry. He stared at her as she began to sob, calling his name softly. he crawled over to her and whispered in her ear furtively, “Ginny, don't react in any visible way, please, they think I’ve escaped!” She sobbed harder which was a good enough non-reaction for him so he held her hand and kept talking, “now, I still have my invisibility cloak and I'm going to put it over both of us as soon as they stop paying attention. I am going to get you out of this room-at least, hopefully out of the house alltogether-and then I am going to come back here and fight them!”
She gripped his hand, “no, please! Oh, Harry!” she sobbed, the death eaters all laughed again.
“She’s already started to lose her mind!” one of them said as they lowered their hood, it was Lucius Malfoy. The third one also lowered his hood and harry gasped as he saw Draco standing there, next to his father.
Harry was filled with rage. The five people who had done the most damage to his life were all here, in one room, and he was the only one who could stop them once and for all. He wasn’t sure how he would do it, only that he would or he'd die trying.
The death eaters had turned their attention to Wormtail. It seemed as if he had disobeyed Voldemort in some way earlier that day and they were avidly discussing the brand of torture they would use on him as punishment once this whole thing with ‘the Potter boy’ was over. Harry had a pang of pity for him but saw this as his chance to get Ginny out.
He quickly tossed the cloak over the both of them. Ginny looked at him as if he were an angel sent from heaven. She kissed him softly on the cheek and slowly began to calm down.
Harry whispered as softly as possible, “ok, Ginny, I need you to calm down because we are going to have to be silent when we get out of here, ok? See that door there? We only have to go about two yards away and then we’re practically home free! Now, lets just calm down and then on the count of three we will make a brake for it, yeah?” He smiled and hugged her as she nodded. She took a few calming breaths and nodded again, indicating that she was ready.
They stood up, slowly, their eyes never leaving the group on the other side of the room. They took one tentative step towards the door. Harry tapped her and mouthed the words, ‘one, two, three, go!’ and they made a tiptoed dash for the door, expecting to hear shouts behind them at any moment.
They made it to the doorway safely and Harry practically pushed her around the corner. They had made it out of the room and were safe, for the most part. She hugged him and kissed him on the cheek and before they knew it, they were struggling for air from the passionate kisses they were sharing. Harry pulled back.
“Wait, you still aren’t completely safe!” He gestured for her to go down the hallway. She followed and they were about to enter and open doorway as they ran into something they couldn’t see.
At first harry thought it was a barrier of some kind but then he heard it fall to the floor and groan. It was a person! Harry immediately pushed Ginny against the wall and flattened himself there also.
“Who’s there? Harry?” It was Neville. Harry realized he was holding his breath. He also realized that Ginny would probably be bruised where he was gripping her arm. He let her go and breathed a sigh of Relief.
“Yes, Neville, it’s me, Ginny’s here too. How did you get in?” He said in a loud whisper. He could hear the death eaters laughing again.
“I came in through the window, following your team’s capture. I’ve been looking for a way out ever since the black team left with the captured death eaters. I think I’ve found one!" Harry saw the door they had been heading for was being pushed open. “There’s a window in here, it appears to be unprotected, they probably didn’t even know about it because it was behind one of these storage shelves," He took a deep breath, trying to lower his voice, realizing he had gotten slightly frantic, "I wanted to come back and get Tonks and the rest of your team out. Then I saw that they had Ginny and I wasn’t sure what to do!” Neville pushed them into the room, and removed his hood after closing the door. “But, er, I-is Ginny, I mean is she Ok? They didn’t... hurt...her did they?” he asked, genuine fear and concern in his eyes.
Ginny stepped from under the cloak, “I’m fine, Neville, really. Harry got to me before they could do it.” She placed a comforting hand on where she assumed his shoulder was. They all knew what ‘it’ referred to, though Ginny still didn’t know about Neville’s parents.
Harry nodded and glanced at the door, “I have to get back in there. Neville, you take Ginny--”
“No!” they both practically shouted.
Harry stared at them, wide eyed, “what?! Ginny, you have no wand! You need to get out of here regardless!”
Neville stepped forward, “Well, I can help you! Here, you give Ginny your cloak, so she can escape. Then you storm in there wand blazing, and I can sneak in undetected! I can jinx and curse them from different areas of the room, I can help the injured by getting them conscious or putting shield charms on them. And if you concerned for my safety, I promise I’ll run away if they seem to know where I'm at. Harry, I WANT to help, I NEED to, and I know you can use a hand. Besides, HER time has come.” He narrowed his eyes, dangerously.
Harry sighed before removing the cloak, “Alright, Neville, but any trouble and you need to get yourself out of there, straightaway!” He gave Ginny a hug and a huge kiss (causing Neville to clear his throat, “um, Harry shouldn’t we get going? They are going to realize she’s gone any moment now”). He then practically pushed her out of the window, watching as she ran off into the night, safe at last.
Harry turned from the window with gave determination etched across his face. He was just about to reach for the doorknob when he heard a great mass of shouting and running. They had noticed that Ginny was gone. He listened hard as they started searching the house. Someone walked past the door at a near run and Harry held his breath. They continued on though, and ran up the flight of stairs nearby. He took a deep breath and opened the door a crack. The hallway was empty.
He broke into a run and headed straight for the room where Voldemort was--straight into Wormtail. He felt himself gripped by the shoulders and dragged into the room.
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