Fidelius

~~~~~

Ginny sat fingering her necklace as she stared longingly out the window. She could see the other students running around in the snow, engaged in a quite intense snowball war. She sighed. Draco had coaxed her into coming inside after a half an hour because of the baby. He didn’t want her to get too stressed out during the fight, or hit by a snowball. She knew he was right, but she didn’t have to like it.

It was easier to handle all of the taking it easy when she had the next week to think about. They were going to perform the Fidelius Charm at the start of the winter holiday, which was just five days away, to give them a few weeks to figure everything out without having to worry about school. Then they would be owled all of their assignments to keep up with the rest of their classes.

“Hey beautiful,” she heard someone say, breaking her out of her thoughts. She felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her ever-growing stomach.

“Hey Draco,” she replied.

“What are you doing here in the dungeon corridor?”

“Just watching the people outside. There were too many annoying brats in my common room playing Exploding Snap for me to think properly.”

He laughed. “Well, I hope that you don’t get too angry for me distracting you right now,” he said before turning her around and kissing her gently on the lips. As the kiss grew more passionate, he was interrupted by a sharp pain on his left inner forearm.

“Damn it!” he swore. There was only one thing that could mean.

~~~~~

“Ron! Ron!” Ginny yelled to the mass of students running through the snow.

“Ginny! What the hell are you doing out here? What’s wrong?” he yelled back from across the grounds.

“You have to come here.”

Ron hurried over to the doorway near where she was standing. Hermione and Harry shortly followed him with worried looks on their faces.

“Are you okay? What are you doing in the cold? You know it’s not good for you,” Ron said frantically.

“It’s Draco,” she said in an almost-whisper. “His Dark Mark burned.”

“WHAT?” Ron yelled.

“Keep your voice down!” Ginny hissed. “And let me finish! He’s being called, but he won’t go until we put the Fidelius Charm on me. He wants me to be safe.”

“We have to go to Dumbledore. And Flitwick, so he can perform the charm,” Hermione said, being the one, as usual, to come up with the most logical thing to do.

“Draco already went,” Ginny said. As she looked at Hermione, she could have sworn she saw the slightest bit of disappointment on her face at the though of being the second to figure out a plan. Ginny continued, “He had to go quickly to give Dumbledore enough time to set up the Portkey to the place where we were going to stay.”

“Now that I think about it, where were you going to stay?” Ron asked.

“There’s an old abandoned house near here. It’s on the edge of a small town that almost no one has heard of, so he won’t even think to look near there. It’s close enough to the school that we can easily owl Dumbledore if anything went wrong. I’m just glad they started to put up small protection wards already.”

“Could we talk on the way to the office? Making V-Voldemort wait longer for Draco to come will not make him happy,” Hermione said, determined to say the name. She sensed that this conversation could go on for a while if they didn’t get going.

~~~~~

“Wait! Draco isn’t here yet! I need to say good-bye in case...it takes him a while to get back!” Ginny said, her voice faltering slightly. She was standing in the doorway of the house that would keep her safe. Ron, Hermione, Harry, Professor Flitwick, and Professor Dumbledore were standing in the front walkway.

“We don’t have any more time,” Professor Dumbledore told her calmly. “I know you wanted him to be here, but he may have had to go already. Voldemort’s pull is extremely strong. It would have been hard for him to resist it as long as he did. And if this is the case, it is even more imperative that we finish this quickly.”

“Fine. But I am doing it in protest,” she said grumpily, bracing herself for the spell.

“INCANTESIMO SEGRETO” was all she heard before a sudden wave of cold air passed through her body. She felt extremely light and distant, almost as if she wasn’t there. She heard faded voices, muttering that they couldn’t see her. It must have worked. She was safe.

But Draco wasn’t. He was out risking his life with the most powerful Dark Wizard in the world. She sank to the floor, feeling more alone in this one instant than any other time in her life. As the tears came, she felt for her necklace to reassure her. But it was gone.

~~~~~

A.N: “Incantesimo Segreto” means “Secret Charm” in Italian.

~~~~~

On to The Dark Lord
Back to The Safe House