Trapped Behind the Window

Trapped Behind The Window

What if you slept?

And what if you dreamt?

And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven

And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower?

And what if, when you awoke, you had the flower in your hand?

Ah... what if?

- Coleridge (1772 - 1834) English Romantic poet, critic and philosopher

Chapter 11

"No, Harry. We can't risk it."

"Ginny, it's only for a bit-"

"No, I said. It's not safe to use them."

"Come on! Nobody's going to notice that little bit of magic! There's so much of it done in this house every day anyway!"

"No, Harry. You know it's unreasonable."

"I already did some magic with it when I sealed the letter and nobody seems to-"

"Seems to, nobody seems to have noticed, Harry! I'm sorry, but I forbid you to use your wand; and if it's only for a minor thing like light. The ministry has ways to detect simplest charms if they want to and you should know best! Don't you think they've found a way to do the same?"

"Oh, come on. They all carry wands, they will hardly notice one spell out of order, will they now?" Harry persisted.

"You've already done one out of order, it's definitely enough!"

"But, look, Gin, we're going to starve to death or freeze to death-"

"No, Harry. Now give me-" Ginny stopped abruptly in the middle of her sentence, eyes open wide with fright, listening intensely. Harry had heard it as well. A familiar clicking noise.

Somebody was entering through the door to the dungeons.

"Quick!" Ginny breathed and grabbed his wand, flinging herself into a shadowy corner and hiding it along with hers, the inkbottle and quill. She covered the spot with dirt - it was lying all around the floor of their cell - and moss she had picked from the walls earlier on. Before the person entering had come into sight, Ginny was already sitting back next to Harry on the bench, doing her best to look tired and exhausted, depressed and frustrated from their imprisonment in the damp and dark.

"Lumos," the cold, menacing voice of a woman sounded. Little blue fires erupted on torches that were attached to the dark walls of the corridor, adding on to the more than glum atmosphere of the place. The woman was hooded - like all others were most of the time - wearing black robes and carrying a little tray. She placed it on the floor carelessly and turned around again without a single word. When she reached the door, she waved her wand and all torches except two went out, barely illuminating the thick darkness around. The door closed behind her with a metallic click.

After sitting in silence for a while, recovering from the shock of nearly being caught, Ginny spoke again. "She must think she's pretty damn cool, her. I'd like to know what level she is? First? Second?"

"Low-rank Death Eater," Harry mumbled with disgust. "Sometimes I prefer the high-ranked ones. The ones that have only been admitted - they have no idea what they are letting themselves into. They have no idea. And when they finally realize the errors of their ways, it's too late. They bite off more than they can chew."

"Yes, but they're good enough to guard this place," Ginny mumbled. She pulled the tray closer and looked at it. "Oh, wonderful. A bit of bread and water. Perhaps it isn't that important for you to be alive, Harry, after all. Because it does look as if they want to starve us to death."

"Perhaps they want to kill me, so Voldemort will kill them in return - it would be a way out of their obligations, after all. I'm sure Voldemort would have a fit if I died before he could kill me. I'd like to try, but as I wouldn't be able to see the effects... too bad."

Ginny nodded, but wasn't really taking in much of what he was saying. "I know that you are trying to keep away from a specific subject, Harry," she said matter-of-factly.

"What makes you think... that?" Harry flinched.

"Do you realize how bloody close that was?" Ginny asked angrily, ignoring the food. "If she had appeared only a few seconds earlier... or if you had been doing magic when she arrived..."

"Yes, I know. I'm sorry," Harry admitted awkwardly. "It's just frustrating to sit here, knowing we could be doing something useful, but that we are not allowed to, for our own good. It's like being locked up at the Dursley's the whole summer."

"Don't apologize," Ginny said, squeezing his hand. "Nothing happened. But that was only because we were damn lucky. We have to be really, really careful. Believe me, if I did what I wanted to, I would take my wand, march right out of the door, up through the corridors and leave, stunning anybody that's in my way."

"And get caught in the middle of it and get sent back down," Harry concluded.

"Yeah, well... I know my plan isn't very good and that's the reason why I haven't used it. There are too many guards all around and all about this stupid house to get out. All their fucking-"

"Ginny!" Harry exclaimed, laughing. "Your mum will kill me when she hears all the bad language you've been picking up."

"She might try, yes," Ginny grinned. "But as I was saying: the security measures around us are simply too high to risk anything, any escape, even with our wands - we would be caught again before we'd even have seen the front door."

"Yes, I know. An escape might be possible in theory, but in praxis it looks quite different. There are simply too many of them to manage to flee. Experience shows that after all," Harry said.

"It's been a long time since we started an escape..." Ginny said thoughtfully.

"Yeah, well, we're planning one now, aren't we?"

"True. And this time we will get out!" Ginny said happily. She leant forward and picked up a piece of bread, her expression weary and sad again. "I wonder who was in Section A today, preparing our food."

~

They were still sitting next to each other, increasingly nervous, when Harry first heard it. A low, melodic tune, soft and harmonious... music was coming from somewhere, a thing Harry hadn't heard in months. He squinted through the dimly lit corridor, but couldn't see anything approaching. The eerie, unearthly tune grew louder and louder until it was impossible not to hear it.

"What is this?" Ginny whispered.

"Quiet," Harry mumbled. "Fawkes is coming."

He had recognized the phoenix's song at once. Fawkes was coming! Their salvation... Kreacher had really managed to deliver the letter! They were saved... a swooping sensation, like being on a roller coaster with triple looping overcame Harry. Suddenly, a flash of flames erupted from nowhere, only a few inches from his face. He jumped back in surprise and shock, looking around frantically - the flames had disappeared again! Had something gone wrong? Had Fawkes sensed some kind of danger?

And then he saw it - a single, golden feather with red streaks, floating softly to the floor. Quickly, Harry caught it in his hand, but the second he closed his fingers around it, it burst into flames yet again. He yelped in pain and tore his hand away, about to curse whomever had placed that particular charm on it, when-

"Look - there, on the floor," Ginny choked, pointing at the ground with a shaky finger. "It came from the flames."

And on the floor, Harry beheld a letter, the red wax seal facing up. Quickly, he bent down and picked it up carefully in case it decided to burst into flames again; but, to his relief, it did not. The parchment was very thick and the familiar touch of a friendly letter made Harry's heart beat faster.

Their response.

Their salvation.

Ginny pulled him back up onto the bench next to her, eyeing the letter with great anticipation.

"What's that crest?" she asked curiously.

Harry looked closely at the red wax seal and smiled. "A moon crescent."

"Moony," Ginny breathed.

Harry turned the letter around slowly, his hands trembling as he broke the seal with his fingers, unfolding the piece of parchment. There were only a few, short lines on it in very shaky writing and the ink was smudged in a lot of places as if it had been written in great haste. Ginny bent closer towards Harry, reading the letter silently to herself.

Dear James,

Fawkes will know when the coast is clear. We will get you out straight away, but can't come personally - the place is guarded most heavily. Fawkes will bring more instructions. He will come shortly. Don't waste any time.

Moony.

"But we still don't know how," Ginny mumbled, re-reading the letter again and again. "We're not supposed to waste time, but if we don't really know what we're supposed to do... this is going to be close, so close... why didn't he explain more? I don't know how this is going to end, Harry."

"I don't know either, Ginny. I don't know. But I'm sure they've found a way to get us out. I think that it's safer to not write more."

"Yes, evidently-" Ginny looked up from the letter, startled. "Harry! Can you hear it? That's the phoenix's song again," she whispered urgently.

Harry listened for a few seconds until he heard the unearthly song as well, then started to fold the letter hastily, stuffing it into one of his pockets. "Get out our wands, Ginny. Quick."

Ginny jumped up and snatched their wands from the shadowy corner, hurrying back over and thrusting Harry's into his hand. "There," she said, sitting back down nervously. "I didn't know that by 'straight away', Lupin actually meant 'straight away'..."

The song was getting louder and louder, filling their hearts with hope and joy, with the knowledge that it would be over soon, so very soon... but the phoenix's song was not loud enough to drown out the noise of a clicking lock. Harry jumped up, panicking.

"Somebody's coming!" he exclaimed.

"Oh no..." Ginny mumbled, getting to her feet hurriedly as well, squinting down the corridor, clutching her face. "Oh no, oh no... not now... Fawkes, hurry up, please..."

"What's this noise down here?" a man's voice sounded.

Suddenly, the song stopped, interrupted by another burst of flames in front of Harry's very nose, except that this time, no feather fell to the floor but a thin, golden necklace along with a letter.

"Don't touch the chain yet," Harry whispered hurriedly, tearing the letter open. "Might be important. We have no time to waste. Someone's coming, we must leave at once, we can't make any blunders."

Ginny nodded nervously, listening to echoing footsteps coming down stone steps in fear that were drawing nearer all the time, nearer and nearer, while she scanned the contents of the letter with Harry.

James,

Chain is pre-arranged Portkey. Tap twice and say 'Portus'. It will bring you straight back. Act quickly, Fawkes is keeping an eye about, but someone must have noticed something is going on.

Moony.

"Too right, someone has noticed..." Ginny muttered.

"Prisoners! What was that music?" the voice yelled.

Ginny froze in shock. The voice was so much nearer that she had thought... panic, panic as never before spread through her body, making her feel totally numb... not now... they were so close to getting out.... Luckily, Harry who still was thinking clearly and rationally picked up the necklace immediately and slipped it over Ginny's hand, making sure it would not come undone. "Ready?" he asked.

Ginny nodded. "Hurry up!" she breathed, with a frightened glance over her shoulder. The person was still not in sight, but the pace of the footsteps seemed to be quickening.

"Lumos!" the voice said and the lights flickered back on, casting the glum light around their prison. Now he would be able to seem them any second... any second now....

"Come on!" Ginny whispered, panicking even more.

"Here it goes," Harry mumbled, holding Ginny's hand with the chain in his left hand and tapping the golden necklace with his wand twice. "Portus."

The necklace glowed in a bluish light for a few seconds as Ginny turned around and saw a darkly hooded person rushing towards them, wand out, ready to use it, ready to stop them from escaping... she closed her eyes in fear, clutching her wand even more tightly....

Come on... get us out....

"Hey! What's going on here? What do you think-"

But then Ginny felt the familiar, powerful jerk from behind her navel... the ground vanished from underneath her feet; she was spinning wildly, hand in hand with Harry, away from a place they both desperately wanted to forget about... finally escaping from behind the window.