Subplot

21 - Ginny

They had to decide what to do now, and the closer Drifter came to Hogwarts, the more Ginny realised that the decision was hers to make. "Go and see Sirius about it," Varlerta had said. Sirius ... For a sweet minute, Ginny imagined herself running to his quarters in the west wing, tearfully collapsing in his arms and being comforted by him. Of course, by the time he'd have the story out of her, it would be late, very late ... too late to rescue Varlerta. Sirius would be grief-stricken, just like Neville and her, but he also would be free ...

Ginny chided herself for being so heartless and shallow. Varlerta had taught her so much, had done all she could for her apprentices, had often been patient and usually good company. The teacher had let her practice on her drum set in the evening even though she probably would have liked a bit of quiet after a long day of teaching. She had left some very informative Muggle books about the 'facts of life' on a shelf for Ginny to nick instead of embarrassing her student by lending her them directly. Varlerta just didn't deserve to be left to her fate just because a stupid and faithless teenager, a girl that didn't deserve the name Weasley, had developed a hopeless crush on an adult, Ginny thought contemptuously. By the time Drifter's wheels touched the lawn near Hogwarts' front portal, she knew what she had to do.

As soon as the car popped into visibility, she quickly opened the door and got out. Neville did the same. He looked pale and frightened. Ginny realised he would have to be told what to do. Sending him to get Snape did not sound like a good idea at all; she would have to assign the easier task to him. Ginny pulled his sleeve and hurried towards the castle with him. "Neville, do you know where Sirius sleeps?" she asked and magically opened the front door, another little thing that Varlerta had taught her, probably in disregard of some school rule.

"Yes," Neville replied. Even in this one-syllable word, the quaver in his voice was well audible.

Ginny tried her best to keep her voice firm, trying to make him believe she knew what she was doing. "You have to get him out of bed and tell him what happened. I want him down here half an hour ago. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, ma'am," Neville replied obediently and ran up the staircase that led towards the western wing.

The Entrance Hall was empty and sparely lit. A look at her watch told Ginny that it was much later than she would have thought. Maybe Drifter had flown home another way to confuse pursuers? Now wasn't the time to wonder about it. She ran down the winding stairs to the dungeon, willing herself not to think about where she was going. "If it looks really bad...." It certainly had, there were no two ways about it.

Sooner than she would have liked, she found herself outside Snape's private chamber, in front of a plain, wooden door marked with a green serpent. She forced herself to knock.

Snape opened almost immediately. To her relief, not the least to the relief of her sense of aesthetics, he was fully dressed in one of his no-nonsense black robes. Out of his pale face, his black eyes stared at her as if she was some obscure insect, even too absurd to serve as a potion ingredient. "Miss Weasley," he hissed. "What in the world possesses you to disturb me in the middle of the night?"

Ginny found it hard to catch her breath. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw scrawny Mrs. Norris shoot out between Snape's legs and dart off into the corridor. "I'm sorry, Professor Snape, but Professor Varlerta said I should go to you for help. The Death Eaters caught her, and I think she's in a lot of trouble."

Snape's face was completely expressionless. "What happened?" he asked.

"They set us a trap at the stone circle. She told us to stay in the car while she checked things out, and to go for help if something happened. Please, Professor Snape," Ginny pleaded, "she said you could help!"

"How many Death Eaters did you say there were?"

Ginny hadn't said anything about their number, and was pretty sure that Snape was perfectly aware of this. "Ten, maybe twelve," she said in a small voice.

Snape stared beyond her for a moment, then reached into his chamber for a black cloak and a small, black leather case. Without a word he closed the door behind him and followed Ginny out to the car.

Leaning against Drifter, Neville and Sirius were already waiting for them. When Snape recognised them, he snarled at Sirius: "You? What are you doing out here?"

Sirius' eyes narrowed; he tapped his wand against his palm. "Trying to rescue Professor Varlerta from the Death Eaters. What brings you out here at this hour, Snape?" Ginny could see the muscles around his chin contract. He's even handsome when he's angry, she thought.

Snape snorted and cast Ginny a hateful glance. I should have told him that she asked for Sirius as well, she thought. Snape will kill me for this someday - if the Death Eaters don't kill us first, that is.

"Oh, are you? Shouldn't you better hide upstairs in your room?" Snape spat at Sirius. "I've got to find some decent wizards to take with me. I don't think we can overcome a dozen Death Eaters with losers like you!"

Nobody had the right to insult Sirius like that, Ginny thought, altogether forgetting that she was talking to her teacher. "He's not a loser, and Professor Varlerta said he knows how to handle trouble, and she said we can't ask Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall, and I think we'd better hurry up, and...."

Snape crossed his arms before his chest. Ignoring Ginny, he turned to Sirius. "Attack them with two wizards?" he asked. "This is madness, Black, and you know it!"

Probably unconsciously, Sirius assumed the same posture. "Scared, Snape? Maybe it's you who should stay here. I know what I have to do." Then he turned to Ginny. "There can be no question of 'we', young lady. You two are going to bed, right now!"

Ginny stretched herself to her full height. "Of course we are coming with you," she replied defiantly. "Strengthening and Shielding others are the things Neville and I are trained for. That's what we are going to do tonight!"

She tugged at Neville's sleeve. "Of course, of course," Neville added, though he did not sound like he meant it.

Sirius shook his head. "Over my dead body, Ginny," he replied.

"You'll never find the stone circle by yourself, and you won't be able to fly Drifter," she argued. "Let's go, I think we don't have any time to lose."

Her last words must have done the trick, because Snape just bit his lip and nodded. When Ginny opened the car's door, all three males followed her hint. Sirius sat down on the passenger seat, while Neville and Snape scrambled into the back. Ginny took her place behind the wheel; she could feel the knees of Snape's long legs poking into the back of her seat. While she nudged Drifter into the air and into invisibility, she could hear the teacher mumble: "Madness, utter madness."

Now that they were on their way, Ginny realised that Snape probably had a point there. They were crazy to attempt this, and maybe none of them would come back alive. Had anyone of them done some serious thinking instead of plunging into a pride-ridden argument, they wouldn't be here now, but would wait for a squad of trained Aurors to sort things out. Not even Neville, who probably was at least as scared as she, had dared to point out the insanity of their undertaking. Ginny shook her head. Seeing the ground fade into darkness far below her, she decided there was no way of turning back now. She heard Sirius' irregular breath next to her. It occurred to her that normally having him so close would have made her giddy. Behind her, she could almost feel Snape and Neville hate each other in silence. "Hurry, Drifter," she whispered to the car. In the darkness, she had no perception of speed or time, but she was sure the car would give its best.

Finally, Drifter landed near the stone circle. Invisibly and noiselessly, the car rolled towards the place where Ginny and Neville had seen the Death Eaters Apparate. The full moon shone; somewhere in the back of her mind, some part of her realised that they had already missed the short time of the lunar eclipse they had looked forward to so much. Most of her head, however, focussed on the discovery that the moor site was again deserted. There was not a Death Eater in sight, and neither could they see anything of Varlerta. Ginny heard Sirius swear beside her. When he abandoned all caution and got out of the car, the other three followed him. The stone circle lay before them in the moonlight, without a trace of anyone. They took her away, Ginny thought and felt her heart sink. What were they to do now?

Sirius bent down and pried something out of the moist grass: He had found Varlerta's wand. With the edge of his robe, he wiped it clean and put it into his pocket. "Do we have any chance at all to find her now?" he asked no one in particular.

"Let's try Lizard's Tongue." Snape's voice came out of the darkness from behind her, an eerie reminder of Potions class. "It wouldn't surprise me if they had rebuilt that place. It used to be a place to take prisoners, and it's not too far. If they have her with them, they can't Disapparate or use a Portkey very well, so I guess they'll have some other means of transportation, a magic carpet or something like that."

Sirius looked at Snape; Ginny thought she could see disgust on his face. "Can you lead us to this place?"

"I suppose so," Snape murmured and started back towards the car. The others followed.

"Let me get into the passenger's seat, Miss Weasley, so I can give you directions." Snape opened Drifter's left front door. Ginny let Neville and Sirius into the back, got in and started the car. "Give directions then, Professor," she said, realising that she sounded sarcastic rather than polite.

An eye on the compass, Snape told her where to fly. Ginny remembered what Ron had told her: Snape had once been a Death Eater. He must remember the place called Lizard's Tongue from those days, she thought; he probably had flown there on broomstick before. Suddenly a lump of panic formed in her stomach. Could she trust Snape, or would he betray them to the Death Eaters as soon as they got there? Ginny clenched the Steering Wheel so hard that Drifter's engine complained, but she resisted the urge to turn around to Hogwarts immediately. Varlerta asked for Snape, she thought. She wouldn't have done that if Snape was a spy of You-Know-Who, would she?

"Descend onto that hill," Snape told her after a while. "Be sure that the car makes no sound and leave it in its Invisibility Drive."

Ginny and Drifter complied as well as they could. Noiselessly they landed behind a few ragged trees that offered a minimum of concealment. Looking downwards through the branches, Ginny could discern some sparsely lit windows some way off. There was a building ahead, and she was quite sure that this building was not an isolated country inn. Somehow, approaching it and knocking on the door seemed not a good idea at all. I am likely to throw up or wet myself if I don't manage to keep my fear in check, she thought.

"When we get out, we'll be visible," Sirius whispered. "Let me take a look first. I've got Harry's Invisibility Cloak with me."

Taking the Cloak had been a fabulous idea, Ginny thought admiringly. Trying hard to make no noise whatsoever, she got out of her seat and crouched down on the floor to be inconspicuous. She saw Sirius' silhouette disappear below the Cloak and felt rather than heard him pass her. She would have liked to tell him that he should be careful, but knew that would have been silly as well as too risky: The less noise they made, the better.

Only a slight draught on her face alerted Ginny to the fact that Snape had opened the passenger's door and was crouching on the floor as well. Seeing him through the invisible car was strange indeed. "Do as I do," the Potions Master mouthed towards her. Ginny realised that he was smearing his face and hands with dirt so they would not shine in the dark. Now Neville appeared at her side with an audible clatter that sent adrenaline running through her veins. She put her finger to her lips and pointed at his face, inducing him to imitate Snape's and her behaviour. Then the three of them leant against the invisible car, hoping their meagre concealment of trees and dirt camouflage would suffice.

Waiting for Sirius to return was torture for Ginny. What if the Death Eaters had Invisibility Revealing Spells, what if they caught and killed him? Would they have any Dementors with them who might suck out Sirius' soul? To take her mind off these horrible thoughts, she watched Neville and Snape suffer their form of anxiety next to her in their flimsy hiding place. Neville, she knew, was close to being scared out of his wits. He was chewing his fingernails, something he did not usually do; his eyes were fixed on the lights of the building nearby. Professor Snape stood rigid as a statue, but something in his scarcely lit face told her that his calmness was nothing but an outer mask. When he suddenly turned around to look behind him, he started Ginny and Neville rather badly. Ginny felt as if her heart would stop; she expected that a group of Death Eaters had Apparated behind their backs. When she turned to see Sirius take off the hood of the Invisibility Cloak, she felt relief hit her like a sudden bout of flu. He had made it back to them safely!

"She's alive, I've seen her," Sirius whispered to Ginny and Neville, ignoring the adult wizard that stood beside him.

"Did they....?" The urgency in Snape's voice as well as his reluctance to finish his sentence sent Ginny's imagination on the most horrible path. She did not want to think about such things now or she would indeed throw up.

"Did they - what?" Somehow, Sirius managed to snarl at Snape with minimum volume but maximum aggression.

"Did they - hurt her?" Contempt and plea mingled oddly in Snape's question.

"What do your kind do to women they capture?" Sirius asked, keeping each syllable short as if hoping that he could keep the hems of his words out of the mud. He took a step towards Snape, his body poised and his wand in his hand, ready if Snape attacked. They were angry enough to duel here and now, Ginny thought, but surely this was not the time and place for something like that?

"Did they hurt her, Black?" Snape hissed. As the two wizards faced each other like stags challenging each other to fight, it suddenly occurred to her how alike they were: Two tall, thin, black-haired males in their late thirties, dressed in dark wizards' robes, their faces pale in the light of the full moon, their eyes bloodshot and not exactly sane-looking - both baring yellow sets of teeth at one another in utmost loathing. Then Sirius gave Snape a wicked grin and spat:

"They didn't hurt her yet, Snape. I listened to them talk. They said they were to deliver her unspoilt for now. Does that word mean anything to you, Snape? I mean, you are sure to be acquainted with the difference between spoilt and unspoilt from your former career, and how this difference is brought about, aren't you? I bet you know exactly what they yet have in store for her."

"They are not my kind," Snape replied softly and turned his gaze to the floor in a gesture of defeat. "Let's just get her out and get this over with."

Sirius wanted to reply, but Ginny had heard enough. Suddenly she felt more angry with both of them than she had ever thought possible.

"Will you two immature idiots stop indulging in your personal rivalries and come up with a decent plan of how to rescue Professor Varlerta any time soon now?" she heard herself snarl in a voice she did not recognise as her own. Sirius and Snape just stared at her, apparently lost for words for a moment. In for a Knut, in for a Galleon, Ginny decided and banned all thoughts of the fact that she had just called Hogwarts' most feared teacher an immature idiot.

"I thought you had come here to rescue her," she whispered. "Do you know how to proceed, or do I fly back to Hogwarts to get some real men to do the job?"

"We have no time for this," Snape answered her, ignoring her insults. "I suggest the following plan. Black will describe the layout of the re-erected building to us. He will tell us where the Death Eaters are and where he and I sneak into the building. You and - Neville -" it was the first notice Snape had taken of Neville that night, and Ginny realised that he did so quite reluctantly - "you two will take the Invisibility Cloak, try to get as close to the building as possible and protect us with your little Shielding tricks."

"Ginny and Neville will stay in the car, Snape," Sirius objected in a barely audible voice. "There is no way that I will let two adolescents sacrifice their lives for me!"

"Oh, you would rather be curse fodder, Black? Running up for the first prize in the martyr contest once more?" There was a trace of the blackest of humour in Snape's voice; Ginny could not see his face clearly in the darkness, but was sure his lip was curling evilly. "If you do not value your life overly highly, you may have a point there, but if you had done a minimum of thinking, you would know that for all your noble character, dead wizards won't rescue anybody. They -" Snape waved his wand at Ginny and Neville with a depreciatory gesture - "didn't come here to hide, they came to help. Well, we've got a job for them."

Before Sirius could protest, Ginny replied: "That sounds like a good plan, Professor. Tell me what to do." She nudged Neville into nodding agreement.

"The floor is Black's then," Snape breathed at her and made a mock-inviting gesture. "So what did you see, Black?"

Sirius' jaw tensed up; it was plain that it didn't suit him to take orders from Snape. Ginny's heart missed a beat when Sirius cast her a sidelong glance before answering Snape:

"They keep her in the room at the far end of the building, over there." He pointed a finger at a lighted window. "She's tied up and gagged and has probably been beaten a bit, but seemed conscious and not badly hurt. I counted ten Death Eaters in that room and the one adjoining it. They are wearing hoods and don't look like they are going to relax any time soon; from what I gathered from their conversation, such as I could overhear, they are expecting someone to come and fetch her."

"Then we have no time to lose," Snape said hoarsely. He took his black leather case out of the car and handed each of them a small bottle.

"This will slightly better your chances to come out of this alive," he said, opened his bottle and drained it in one draught.

Ginny felt a slight resentment at the fact that the Potions Master did not tell them what kind of potion they were supposed to drink, but a look at Neville's and Sirius' face told her that arguing would only make matters worse. Either they trusted Snape, or they Transfixed him and tried to rescue Varlerta on their own, such was the score. To set an example, she uncorked the bottle and drank the bitter-tasting potion. Sirius shrugged and did the same, and after a short moment of hesitation, Neville followed suit as well.

"We will crawl up to that building until we are about twenty feet away and hope they won't notice us," Snape told Sirius without looking at him. "I'll throw this at the window," he held up another bottle. "It will cause a small explosion and startle those within, but won't harm us because the potion I just gave you will protect us. We will have to be very quick then. Transfix them, Stun them or use Lacera, just blow everyone out of the way. Never stand in one spot for as long as a second. They won't get any Avada Kedavra ready in time if we keep moving. What we'll have to deal with are medium-strength curses of all different kinds. That's where you two come in." He turned to Ginny. "Can you deal with that?"

"We'll try," Ginny replied in a small voice, though she knew that the odds were not in their favour. Medium-strength curses - Varlerta had told them that in a year or so, they might attempt a Shielding against such attacks. Neville, she noticed, did not look up at all but kept glancing at his feet.

"You two will be invisible, but of course, as soon as you do audio magic, they may try to locate you through the sound you are making. Do not at any rate use your instruments before I make the window explode. Keep on moving, do not stay in one spot or forget to Shield yourselves - if you are dead or badly hurt, you will not be of help to anybody."

Ginny nodded to Snape to show him she had understood. Then she went to open Drifter's boot to take out the large Shaman drum. Touching the instrument gave her a pang: She had packed it to partake in an exciting and empowering ritual, and now would need it in a matter of life and death. What's more, Neville and she hadn't had the chance to gather the extra power of the lunar eclipse or even of the full moon on the night that they needed it most.

"Ginny, can you work Valerie's wand guitar?" a voice murmured over her shoulder. She turned and looked into the dirt-smeared, oddly thoughtful face of Snape.

"Wand guitar?" It was the first she had heard of it.

Snape shrugged. "I feared so. Well, leave it, then - it's too dangerous if you do not know how to use it." When Ginny gave him a questioning look, he replied in short hand: "Unicorn hair worked into its neck. Come on, no time to lose."

Meanwhile, Sirius had dirtied his hands and face as well; Neville had assembled his traverse flute and was holding his wand in his other hand. Sirius gave her the Invisibility Cloak.

"It will cover both of you if you are careful. Please, don't take any unnecessary risks and make sure you don't get killed." He made Ginny's heart rather sea-sick by hugging her around the shoulder very briefly. Then Sirius Transformed into a dog, something Ginny had never seen him do before, though of course she knew him in his canine shape. Snape and the dog carefully crawled towards the building, closely followed by Ginny and Neville who huddled beneath the Invisibility Cloak.

"I will Shield Sirius, you will Shield Snape," Ginny whispered to her companion. She knew that due to Neville's dislike of Snape, this was not exactly a perfect constellation, but there was no way she would leave Sirius' protection up to Neville. "Let's both set a bit of our attention aside to Shield ourselves." She knew this might be beyond their abilities, because they had never attempted to do two things at once. However, they had to try. Neville nodded vigorously, almost causing the Cloak to slip of their shoulders.

The teacher and the dog seemed to melt into the darkness and were soon out of their sight; if Sirius hadn't pointed out which window they were approaching, the two apprentices would not have known where to go. Ginny felt Neville close to her under the Cloak. She smelt the acidic odour of fear, but did not know if it he or she herself was emitting it. If we only come out of this alive, she thought right at the moment when straight ahead, the window exploded in fire and glass shards. Several men shouted or screamed; she could see Sirius and Snape climb in through the broken window, wands in their hands.

Ginny started beating her drum, willing herself to stay calm enough to build up the regular heartbeat rhythm that would carry her magic through to protect Sirius. On her right, Neville put his flute to his lips. While his first eerie notes pearled into the night, Ginny felt the Cloak slip again. Without breaking her rhythm, she squared her shoulders to keep the Cloak in place. She knew it was endangered of slipping down again. Gathering up enough strength to serve as a Shield for Sirius, keeping on the move and staying hidden below the Cloak was more than enough to hold her attention, Ginny realised. There was no thinking of trying to Strengthen anyone else, let alone build up another Shield for Neville and herself. She could only hope that Sirius and Snape kept the Death Eaters so busy that they wouldn't find time to search for the two audio magic apprentices or blast a couple of curses at them.

Through the broken window, the brightly lit room was well visible, but it was not easy to make out what was happening. Hooded shapes ran here and there, shooting off brightly coloured flashes every couple of seconds. The air was filled with booms and bangs; curses hissed, and flashes sizzled softly. Ginny focussed on Sirius. Some time around February she had found out that she could actually see her magic if she concentrated on her inner rather than physical eyes. A faint, coppery glow floated around Sirius; it pulsated with each beat of her drum and flared up each time a curse hit it. It would probably not have sufficed if Sirius hadn't dodged most attacks rather skilfully: He jumped to this side or that, his eyes always on his many attackers. Two or three of the Death Eaters were down, Ginny realised. That was good, but not good enough; Snape and Sirius were still hopelessly outnumbered, and any moment it might be one of them who dropped to the floor, Stunned or maybe dead.

Without interrupting his playing, Neville nudged Ginny in the side. She understood: They had to get closer to the window even if it was dangerous, because half of the time they could not properly see what was going on. Getting closer was dangerous, and surely the Death Eaters must by now have heard the strange music they were making; one of them might attempt to finish off the two of them any minute. Neville took over the decision by taking a few steps forwards. Ginny had to follow if she did not want the Cloak to slip off her. At the window, the two of them had a much better view of the room inside. Finally, she could make sense of the whirl of flames, flashes and dark, moving figures in front of her eyes. Sirius and Snape were moving back to back now, both shooting fire and flashes from their wands. They had found a common rhythm to coordinate their bodies and magic, protecting each other. Of course, Ginny thought if one of them got hit, the other didn't stand much of a chance of escaping this inferno alive. This, however, might be said for the four of them as well: They all had to depend on each other. For the first time, Ginny saw Neville's magic as she saw her own: A silvery-green haze fluttered around Snape's body, absorbing the menacing flashes that were hurled at it. Where the backs of the two wizards touched, his Shield was mingling with the reddish Shield she was drumming up around Sirius.

Both adult wizards were attacking rapidly, forcing the Death Eaters to dodge their curses rather than finding the time to attack properly. With an oddly detached pleasure Ginny noticed that their Shields did not only work quite well, but also seemed to blur the shapes of the two wizards in the eyes of their attackers, which made aiming curses at them trickier. Now there were only five Death Eaters on their feet, Ginny realised, and for the first time she felt hope rise in her. They might actually succeed! Ginny steadied her beat, anticipating the next attack on Sirius. The more she concentrated on his body, the more she felt as if she actually was him. Her Shield moved with him each time he moved a limb, and joined his defence spells whenever he managed to Counter an attacking curse in time.

Ginny's attention was exclusively focussed on Sirius; when a large, hooded Death Eater suddenly stood in front of them, she took an enormous fright as she had not seen him approach. The Death Eater pointed his wand at the two of them and shouted: "Perzepté!" A yellow light flared up, and when the eyes behind the black looked right into her face, Ginny knew without the shadow of a doubt that he had seen through the Invisibility Cloak. The Death Eater raised his wand again, pointed and took a deep breath. This is it, Ginny thought: We are going to die now.

Right in the middle of the "Avada," a black cloud formed around the Death Eater, constricted and imploded in a flare of non-light. Ginny found it hard to stay on her feet and keep the drum in her hands, let alone make sense of her perception. She saw Snape stand right beside the window, pointing his wand at the cloud until it dwindled to nothing, leaving not the faintest trace of the Death Eater that had disappeared in it. Before either she or Neville could properly set up their Shields again, another Death Eater aimed a curse at Snape and hit him squarely. Snape shot a ball of white-hot energy back at his attacker before sinking to the ground. Blood trickled out of his half-open mouth, forming a puddle next to his face; his eyes were closed, his right hand lax, barely holding on to his wand. Ginny forced her attention back on Sirius. He needed her magic protection, and if Snape was hurt or dead, he needed it more than ever. He had to fight the remaining three Death Eaters single-wandedly now, and if she wasn't mistaken, these three were the toughest of the group, the most ferocious fighters of them all. Sirius fought with his wand, with his arms and his legs. He cursed one Death Eater, then kicked another into the stomach with a wide swing of his leg, and jumped out of the way of an attacking curse before he even had both of his feet on the floor again, it seemed. A distant corner of Ginny's mind admired him, but most of her concentrated on keeping him alive.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ginny saw Neville's silver-green haze of magic, rippling through the air like the tunes he was playing. He was not Shielding Snape anymore, she realised. This might make sense if Snape was really dead - but what was Neville doing with his magic? Hardly daring to take a fraction of her attention off Sirius even for a moment, Ginny permitted herself one quick glance at Neville's magic. Sprawled on a large chest in the corner, Professor Varlerta was fighting against her magical bonds. Her gag was off, and she was humming loudly to Coax off the silvery cords that held her arms and legs. Neville was Strengthening her, sending her energy to support her in her attempt to free herself. If Varlerta's bonds were off, she might be able to help Sirius, Ginny realised. Neville's idea was pretty good then - if these last two Death Eaters didn't manage to kill Sirius first.

"Expelliarmus!" It was not the first Disarming Spell the attacking Death Eaters had tried; so far Ginny's and Neville's Shields had prevented them from working. When one of the remaining two Death Eaters tried to disarm Sirius, Ginny felt the force of his spell on her own body: This attacker was stronger than the others had been. Keep up the beat, she told herself. It worked; Sirius still had his wand and was shooting something corrosive-looking at the other Death Eater. "Expelliarmus!" This time, the Disarming Spell was directed at Snape who was still lying motionless on the floor, unprotected by any Shield because Neville was supporting Varlerta now.

"Nice try, Crabbe," Snape murmured. His wand had not left his hand. Though his face was a bloody mask and he seemed to have difficulties with focussing his eyes, he tried to pull himself up to his knees. Sirius, Ginny reminded herself, but gave Neville a nudge, hoping to turn his attention back to Snape. Meanwhile, Sirius had put the startled Death Eater out of action. There was only one of them left now.

"Drop your wands, or she'll die!" The last of the Death Eaters stood in the middle of the room, his wand pointed at Varlerta's temples. The witch was kneeling on the floor, still bound with magical cords; the Death Eater had trapped her between his knees. Around the two of them, there was a magical Shield - a real Shield, not a colourful haze Coaxed into protecting those inside of it, but a solid, glassy looking device of defence. Varlerta had once demonstrated such a piece of advanced magic to Ginny and Neville. It had taken her an hour to conjure it up. This Shield was by far stronger than Varlerta's, Ginny knew by looking at it, and it had taken the Death Eater only a few seconds to produce it. Their troubles were by no means over yet; the wizard under the hood had to possess great powers indeed.

"Let her go, Nott," Snape croaked, still kneeling. "Leave her, and you'll walk out of this free and alive, I promise on my honour. Hurt her, and probably neither of us will."

"You promise on your honour, Snape?" Nott laughed. "The faceless traitor promises on his honour? I'll save that joke for your conflagration - after we have cut your body and soul into pieces and extracted from you all the information we may find useful. The Dark Lord will personally savour your screams, tonight or some night soon." He made a fist of his left hand and slammed it into Varlerta's face, maybe to get Sirius and Snape to do something stupid.

"You are protected for now, but how will you get out alive?" Snape retorted calmly. Sirius stepped behind them, his wand in his hand. Ginny concentrated on Shielding him as well as she could. Try to become one with the drum, she told herself and fell into a slow, trance-like triplet rhythm. 'The skin on your palm is the skin on your drum. The skin on your palm is the skin on your drum.' Hollow sounds filled the air, but Ginny was straining her ears to hear beyond them.

"I will get out, Snape, don't worry," Nott laughed. "First of all I will eliminate the cute little mascots you have brought for your protection." He shot a curse straight at the two apprentices behind the broken window. Neville must have caught Nott's words faster than Ginny, because he drew his Shield away from Snape and around the two of them. In spite of this, Ginny felt herself freeze. The curse worked much like Icy Fingers, but its main effect was not its dreadful cold but its Transfixing effect. Ginny felt the drum slide out of her fingers and knew that Neville's flute must have done the same. It is over, she thought once more.

Nott pointed his wand again, this time at Sirius. "Expelliarmus!" For once, he succeeded: Sirius' stumbled backwards; his wand flew out of his hand and passed the magical Shield unhindered. Nott caught it deftly and got ready to attack the defenceless Sirius now, but suddenly his eyes widened in incomprehension: Varlerta, Ginny realised, must have gotten a hand free. She had slipped it upwards, right into Nott's groin, and now she was squeezing, tearing and pulling with all her might. Nott bent over with a groan of utmost pain and lost control of his solid Shield; Ginny and Neville could suddenly move again. While Snape was scrambling to his feet, Sirius jumped up, retrieved his wand and shot a curse straight into Nott's face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room didn't quite look as if it had come out of an ad for interior decoration, Ginny thought wryly. Walls and furniture were scorched and dirty; so were the nine motionless figures on the floor. Sirius had spelled away Varlerta's bonds; now he was helping her up. Her face was swollen and slightly bloody. Probably her nose was broken, Ginny thought, but otherwise the witch seemed alright. Snape was nudging the Death Eaters on the floor with his foot, maybe trying to find out who was dead and who was only Stunned. He thoughtfully rubbed his toes over a dark spot on the floor, making Ginny wonder what had happened to the Death Eater he had made disappear without a trace.

She felt like vomiting, crying and laughing at the same time. To give her attempts at composure a bit of time, she scrambled inside through the broken window. She had to take care not to cut herself on any shards, which was not easy, because her aching hands made her clumsy. Neville followed her. He looked dazed and unbelieving, mirroring Ginny's own feelings in his face. If she didn't misunderstand matters, they had just done it. The four of them had battled with ten Death Eaters and had won. Varlerta was free.

Still rather wobbly on his feet, Snape was looking down on the Death Eater called Crabbe, probably the father of the former Slytherin student, as Ginny realised with a shudder. The Potions Master sneered, murmured "iacet, tacet, placet, Braindead," and then averted his face from the figure on the ground. Ginny did not understand Latin, but somehow Snape's words sounded very much like an epitaph. "Are they dead or Stunned?" she asked no one in particular.

"They are only Stunned, Ginny," Sirius replied very quickly. Even more than the rest of them, he was very sweaty and very dirty, but he did not seem badly hurt. "Let's get out of here. They said they were expecting people. We don't want to be surprised in this building."

No one had any objection to this, so they all climbed out of the window and somehow made their way back to Drifter in spite of their bad shape. When they had arrived at the car, Varlerta put one hand on Ginny's shoulder and the other one on Neville's. With a voice that was slightly nasal, she said:

"Kids, I'd like to thank you for saving my life. Let me say that you did a great job at magic tonight and that I'm extremely proud of you." Then, to everyone's profound embarrassment, she kissed both Neville and Ginny on the cheek. When Varlerta turned to Sirius, Ginny held her breath. "You, too, Sirius: Thank you. I will never forget what I owe you." She kissed his cheek as well, but to Ginny's relief, neither of them lingered on this, if only due to the fact that Varlerta's face must hurt her considerably. The teacher then turned to Snape and put a hand on his arm.

"Verus, thank you for saving my neck tonight."

The Potions Master turned away from her and shook off her arm. The movement almost threw him off balance; he only caught himself on Drifter's invisible roof just in time.

"Will you not let me thank you?" With her smashed-in nose and her pleading eyes, Varlerta was not a pretty, but a rather moving sight, Ginny thought. Snape however did not seem moved in any way.

"It was your usual irresponsible folly that brought you into the power of the Death Eaters tonight, Professor Varlerta," he replied coldly.

Varlerta looked down at the ground; Ginny thought that in the moonlight, she could see tears blink in the teacher's eyes. Then Varlerta swallowed and looked up at him again. "I still thank you for saving my life," she said, this time with a steely quality in her voice.

"I will Disapparate to the Ministry and inform Hawks," Snape croaked. "Somebody has to take care of this mess." He indicated the house below by pointing his chin.

"Verus, please. You are in no condition to Apparate - you can hardly walk!" Varlerta sounded worried.

"Would you please mind your own affairs, Professor Varlerta?" Snape snarled back. "This might even induce you to manage them acceptably in the future. Someone certainly has to get them. Need I mention to you that I am the only one of this group who has ever learned to Disapparate, or that, strictly speaking, both you and Black are wanted dead or alive by the Ministry?"

Even with his last dying breath Snape would find a way to hurt someone, Ginny thought. The Potions Master disappeared on the spot, though not without flashing back into visibility for a second once or twice, to Ginny a sure sign that he was indeed not quite fit enough to Apparate.

Sirius handed Varlerta back her wand. She tapped Drifter's roof with it to make the car visible. Then Sirius helped her into the backseat and slumped down beside her, much to Ginny's displeasure. Neville for once got to sit in the passenger seat, while Ginny took her place behind the wheel. "Take us home, Drifter," she said, and the car rose into the air. "That's my girl," Varlerta murmured proudly, almost a smile on her discoloured face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Neville still slept in the car, Sirius and Ginny helped Varlerta onto one of the sofas in the music lab and promised her that they would go and get Madam Pomfrey for her. Sirius pulled the Invisibility Cloak around his shoulders until only his head was visible. "I'll go and wake her," he told Ginny. "Will you please stay with Professor Varlerta?"

"Sure," Ginny said and sat down beside her teacher. The adult witch looked at the ceiling for a minute, then reached out for the remote control of her stereo - her all-time remedy, Ginny thought. The noisy Sonic Youth CD that had already been in the player wasn't anything Ginny would have chosen to ease any pain, but who was she to argue? Varlerta hit the remote control's forward button until the song Tunic played. Then she related to Ginny the story of an American easy listening singer and drummer who died of Anorexia and to whom she said this song was dedicated. Ginny had never heard of her and felt that Varlerta was only blubbering incoherent nonsense to let out some tension or maybe to avoid the subject of tonight's outing.

"You see, this woman was such a great musician, and they made her insecure by saying she was fat and everything. - By the way, don't you think it strange that the Death Eaters knew when and where to find us? I mean, they knew who I am and were specifically out to get me. - Anyways, these people told Karen Carpenter that she should not play the drums on stage, because people expected her to stand up there as front woman -" The more Varlerta talked and warned Ginny of the dangers of Anorexia and of 'not being who you really are', the more Ginny had the impression that the teacher was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She's in shock, she reminded herself. More than ever she had the impression that their relationship was not a one-sided teacher-student-relationship, but that Varlerta sometimes needed at least as much looking after as her trainees did. Suddenly the teacher half-grinned at her, but then became serious again. While fingering the bulging clay amulet she usually wore hidden under her robes, she said:

"Ginny, I'm really sorry about tonight. I shouldn't have drawn any of you into this, and I just wish that I could turn back time. I would certainly make sure that neither Neville nor you had to take part in such a fight, or witness one."

Her earnestness made Ginny think of the Death Eaters who of course had only been Stunned. She shook her head. "It's alright," she said, but in her heart, she knew that it was not, that this night would probably haunt her all her life.

"Ginny, will you take the large Shaman drum?" Varlerta asked. At first, Ginny did not understand what she meant; then she replied:

"Oh, no, I can't do that. It is much too valuable!"

Varlerta laughed as well as she could. She made a face at the pain it caused her, but then stopped, maybe because making a face hurt as well. "Hardly any gift is too valuable for someone who saved my life, don't you think? I wish I had something of equal value to give to Neville, but maybe one day I will. By the way, somehow I think this might not be the last time that the two of you will have to save my life, so I better keep you well-equipped, don't you think?"

Ginny did not know what to reply to that, even though the thought of owning the large Shaman drum made her rather happy. She was saved from answering by the arrival of Sirius, Madam Pomfrey and Neville, who must have woken up in the meantime.

"Children, children, what have you done this time?" the matron said in dismay when she got a good look at the four of them, and Ginny was sure that by 'children', she did not only mean Neville and her.