Separate Ways

She cursed him silently as she dressed. Quietly, in the dark, so as not to wake her roommates. She cursed him in every language she could think of, as she grabbed her broom from the corner where it sat and dove out of the tower window, mounting her broom in midair. She questioned his parentage, his intelligence, his hygiene, and his overall quality as a human being. But she never once questioned his future. He would not die tonight. She would not let him.

He was in danger, and she could feel it. She'd grown used to it by now, but she'd never be numb to it. She could feel his fear, his peril, his fury, his power.

Her very being called out to him -- not her heart or her body, for she'd found that others could answer those needs -- her life itself. Once, he had done this for her -- had rushed blindly into the dark to save her life from unspeakable evil. Now, when he was in danger, she could not ignore it. She had tried. He was always in danger of something, it seemed. For weeks, months at a time, he'd be in danger of a mean trick by a classmate or a complex plot by the Dark Lord. In the five years since it was forged, she'd learned out of necessity to read these sharp tugs and gentle pulls on the thread that connected them. She could tell now when he was in grave danger and when he was merely facing a nasty hex. Tonight was the strongest she'd ever felt the connection -- meaning that this was the most danger he'd been in since they'd been bound together. What really frightened her, though, was that she could sense him consciously calling out for help -- something she'd never felt before.

"Hold on, Harry," she pleaded out loud, her words disappearing into the wind. "Hold on. Help is on the way."

The door opened halfway, and Gabrielle's small pointed face poked through the opening.

"'Ungry?"

Ginny held a finger to her lips and motioned the other girl into the office. Leaning over the desk, she scribbled furiously on a spare piece of parchment and held it up.

LISTEN. NEW SECRETARY INTERVIEW.

She pointed towards the door that led to Charlie's personal inner office..

Oddly -- for it had been Gabrielle who proposed an elaborate plan to eavesdrop on the men's quidditch strategies -- she frowned and pointed to the door, shaking her head vigorously so that her bobbed blonde hair swept against the side of her head in one smooth sheet.

Ginny ignored her and leaned back in her chair, cocking an ear in an attempt to hear what Charlie was saying to the friendly middle-aged witch he was interviewing for the position of his secretary.

All she heard, however, were a few rustles of paper and ... what was that? She tipped her chair forward as quickly as she could, trying to look as though she'd been doing anything other than listening to her brother's conversations.

Gabrielle, however, didn't move a muscle. With her sense of fun, Ginny had thought Gabrielle would jump at the chance to trick Charlie. Instead of helping Ginny hide her eavesdropping, Gabrielle froze in place, standing stock-still just inside the door. When Charlie emerged from his inner office and began to move towards the exit with the heavyset witch he was interviewing, Gabrielle only looked at the floor.

Charlie walked purposefully towards the door and would have bowled her over if she hadn't taken a step backward. He walked on as though she weren't there at all, telling the secretary that he'd better walk her out to make sure she could find her way.

Ginny, forgetting her first days already, scoffed at this. It wasn't difficult, after all. Surely Charlie had time to stop and say hello like a decent person, not just ignore people and brush on by them without saying a word.

When she looked back at Gabrielle, the other girl's cheeks were flushed and she was still staring at the floor. Clearly making an effort, she lifted her head to look at Ginny, and curved her lips in a pale imitation of a smile.

"Lunch, yes?" she asked.

"Erm, yes. All right. I just need to get my bag..." Ginny trailed off, knowing she was babbling but feeling the need to fill the silence anyway.

"Great catch last night," said Ginny as they left Charlie's office and walked around the corner to the dining hall. Gabrielle waved her hand dismissively and scoffed.

"Really, it was," insisted Ginny. "I thought for sure you were going to crash into that tree." She grinned to herself, remembering the look on the opposing seeker's face as he pulled up short and watched Gabrielle fly through the branches of the ancient tree and emerge on the other side with snitch in hand. "That other seeker certainly seemed impressed."

"'e's worthless," muttered Gabrielle.

"So? We won, right?" Ginny asked, but Gabrielle only gave her a withering look.

Ginny just shrugged and helped herself to some sandwiches. Seekers could be such prima donnas sometimes.

After an oddly quiet lunch with Gabrielle, Ginny returned to the large secretary's desk in Charlie's outer office. She filed four memos, scheduled two appointments, and looked up some information on impotence in Romanian Longhorns in an enormous book. After a quick knock on Charlie's door, she stuck her head

"I have that information you wanted about Longhorn breeding."

"Good, good," replied Charlie absently, without looking up from his paperwork. "Can you floo it over to Ed Lee at the Fireball Reservation?"

"Sure," said Ginny, as she closed the door behind her.

She knelt in front of the fire, tossed in some floo powder, and handed the memo over to a Chinese girl who looked every bit as bored as Ginny felt.

Too bad we can't chat, she thought, brushing the magical ash from her clothes.

Seating herself at the desk again, she began flipping idly through the thick volume on Longhorns still open on the desk in front of her. Drawings, charts and diagrams on every page illustrated the best ways to care for, feed, and control the dragons while ensuring the keeper's safety. Next to every article or picture were notes in Charlie's cramped handwriting.

She wondered why he had bothered to study all about dragons if all it got him was a job where he could never leave his desk. Of course, was reading too, and she had barely even seen a dragon yet. Certainly she had no need for the fire-protective gear the book was describing.

When her brother's voice called her name from the inner office, Ginny looked up with a start. How long had she been absorbed in the book? Long enough, she realized, for several memos to arrive and set up a flight pattern around the office.

Ooops, she thought. Oh well, I'll just deal with them after I see what Charlie wants.

Before she could make it to the inner door, though, Charlie came bounding out.

"Get your coat and your wand," he said, rushing past her. He was already standing in the hall by the time she managed to comply.

"I'm taking you out to see the dragons," he explained, bounding ahead of her up a narrow flight of stairs. "And to show you where you'll be working next week."

She felt a wave of energy flow through her and a smile spread across her face, and she rushed up the stairs after Charlie.

"So you found a secretary?" she asked, as he led the way through the warren of tunnels.

"Better: an assistant," he said, smiling broadly, "I'll actually be able to get back out with the dragons, play quidditch... my scars are looking terribly faded lately." The smile slipped off his face for a moment, and he said bitterly, "Who knows, maybe I'll even have time for a social life."

It seemed the last comment had not really been directed at her, so Ginny said nothing.

Reaching the top of the stairway, they stepped outside. The Reserve was located in a high mountain valley, in the middle of the native territory of the Romanian Longhorn. The air was thick up here, and cool even in the summers. Few wizards anven fewer muggles lived in the surrounding mountains. Still, Ginny drew in a deep breath and turned to her brother. She smiled at the understanding she saw in his eyes.

"Perfect quidditch weather," he said, looking around as though he hadn't been outdoors in a long time.

Looking around, she could barely believe this was only her third time on the grounds of the reserve. The first two times, she'd been delivering urgent memos to the supervisors -- the flying memos that were favored at the Ministry were impractical out on the grounds, as they too often caught fire or were mistaken for snack food.

They walked past the smaller habitats of the Welsh Green and Hungarian Horntails, and Charlie pointed across the valley to area that housed the shimmering blue-gray dragons.

"Those are the Swedish Short-Snouts," he said shortly.

"Oooh, they're beautiful," said Ginny, squinting at the shimmering forms.. "That's where Gabrielle works, right?"

He paused, and just when she was certain he hadn't heard her, he said, "Yes."

He steered her toward a well-worn path leading over a low hill. When they reached the top she saw another valley at least as large as the first, furnished with low brush, large rock outcroppings, and inhabited by several groups of dark green dragons with long glittering horns.

"Longhorns," she breathed, entranced.

"Someone's been doing her homework," Charlie said, half teasing and half admiring.

"Look--" She pointed toward the closest group, where a young dragon was spreading his shiny green wings and lifting awkwardly off the ground. He flapped his wings and flew around in a crooked circle before crash-landing back to the ground.

"The Longhorn Keepers work with breeders and magizoologists to study the calves," Charlie said, indicating the young dragon, who was now trying to escape the tongue-bath his mother was giving him. "They're endangered, y'know. We breed them here."

Ginny stared at the dragons in rapt admiration, hearing Charlie's words but not listening, not paying any attention at all until she realized he was waiting for a response from her.

"...What?"

"Wanna work here?"

"YES!"

She soared through the air, feeling as though the magical connection were pulling her towards him. She landed roughly near the old paddock outside Hagrid's small stone hut. The huge gamekeeper had been gone now for nearly two years, and his tiny home had fallen into disrepair. Its proximity to the Forbidden Forest made this a dangerous location, but she knew that Harry came here from time to time. There was no question that he was here now.

She steeled herself, taking a deep breath and gripping her wand tightly. This was it-- this was the moment they'd all known was coming. No matter what lay behind that door, it was her responsibility, her destiny to go in.

She walked quietly toward the door, wand at the ready. When she neared the door, a crash sounded to her right as the leaded glass window shattered. Through the gaping hole left in the window, she heard a high pitched laugh that chilled her to the bone.

The laugh stopped and a voice said coldly, "This is it, boy. Your life ends now."

As she wrenched open the door, she heard several voices screaming spells.. She opened her mouth, lifted her wand -- and the world went black.

She opened her eyes in the hospital ward to see Harry at her bedside. She smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Hey."

"You're alive," she said. It was the all she could think, on seeing him.

"So are you," he replied.

"But how?" she asked, her forehead furrowing.

He laughed a little, and she suddenly realized how long it had been since she'd heard him laugh. It was a wonderful sound. "Fred and George's spell reflectors, mostly," he said, "and Hermione's Binding Hex."

She closed her eyes and turned her head away. So after five years of waiting, of running toward danger, of worrying about him... after all that, she'd failed.

Yes, he was still alive, and yes, she supposed they must have won, but she'd celebrate later. Right now, she would be selfish and mourn.

He had come charging in to save her once, but in the end she had been nothing more than a tagalong. She owed him her life, but despite her best efforts, it was a debt she could not repay.

The night before she was due to start her new job with the Longhorns, Ginny made the long climb up from the underground dormitories to the small quidditch pitch. She arrived early, and spent some extra time stretching, knowing that her excitement about working with the dragons would make her muscles especially tense.

Gabrielle soon joined her, and began stretching. After a brief greeting, Gabrielle lapsed into silence. Ginny frowned. This had become a frequent occurrence recently, and she wondered if all was well with her friend. Just the day before, the other girl had acted strangely when Charlie had taken one of the rolls she liked.

Something was definitely wrong, and Ginny resolved to ask her about it. Other players had begun arriving on the pitch, though, so it would have to wait until after the match.

"Weasley!" a man's voice called out, and Ginny looked up automatically. Her brother was striding across the grass towards the small group of guys assembled on the opposite side of the pitch. He was carrying a battered red and gold duffel bag in one hand and a sleek racing broom in the other.

He meant to play.

Ginny watched him set down his bag, smile and say something to one of his teammates. He pulled shin guards from out of the bag and began buckling them on.

Her mind was racing. Charlie was actually going to play! She'd only seen him play in an actual game one time, when Bill had brought her to a game at Hogwarts, but she'd heard of his abilities her whole life. She'd never imagined playing against him. She couldn't wait.

Beside her, Ginny heard Gabrielle gasp. She turned to look and realized her friend was frozen in place.

Her mind raced from the odd encounter in Charlie's office to yesterday's lunch to Gabrielle's comments about the men's seeker.

"Non," Gabrielle said softly, to herself more than to anyone else.. "No, I cannot, I will not, I have to go--" Without a direct explanation or goodbye to anyone, she walked off.

Stunned, Ginny leaped up and ran after her friend, finally catching up with her near the entrance to the subterranean dormitories. Gabrielle stopped with her back to Ginny, and spoke in the direction of the closed door.

"I can't talk to you about him," she said, her voice catching on the words a little.

"You don't have to," Ginny replied softly.

"Why did you follow me, then?"

Without speaking, Ginny stepped around Gabrielle to bring them face-to-face. She wrapped her arms around the other girl's petite shoulders and gave her a firm squeeze, until she felt her reciprocate weakly.

"And," she said, "we still have a match to win."

Gabrielle smiled at this, but looked uncertain. "Non, I cannot..."

"Of course you can!" Ginny was growing more and more exasperated by the moment. "Aren't you the one who's always complaining about terrible opposing seekers? Now you have a chance to play against a good one, and you run off?"

Gabrielle was plainly considering it, but after a long moment of silence, she said, "Non, your brother--I cannot be so close to him--"

There's definitely a story here, thought Ginny, but she kept her curiosity to herself.

"Well, you know," she said slowly, "I have a lot of brothers. You've even met a couple of them, right?"

Gabrielle nodded.

"Just imagine that he's one of them," she said. "Tell yourself it's Bill out there."

At this Gabrielle laughed. "You really want me to play, don't you?"

"Yes. If you don't, I'll have to take your spot, and Charlie will never let me forget it if I lose to him."

Gabrielle scoffed. "You would not lose. Their chasers cannot compete with ours. It's pitiful, really."

"But we'd be down a chaser, with me in as seeker," Ginny reminded her.

Gabrielle said nothing.

"Look," Ginny said, desperate, "I don't know what happened between you and my brother, but I'm sure he was an idiot - it runs in the family."

Gabrielle laughed. "Even you?"

"Even me." Most definitely me. "But whatever it was, I'll buy you a drink after the game to make it up to you."

"You're not going to let me alone, are you?"

"No."

"All right. I will play."

The feeling was the worst when she couldn't do anything about it. It grew stronger and stronger until she felt like she couldn't not go to him.

She was in the stands, bundled in red and gold against the driving rain, screaming "Go, go Gryffindor!" at the top of her lungs when they appeared. Silence swept the stands as each of the hundreds of spectators stopped cheering. It seemed as though even the wind had forgotten to howl. She felt a wave of cold that drove right through her layers of clothing, through her skin and into her mind, and she heard the rustle of dry paper and the scratch of a quill. Then she felt the magic begin to pull her straight up into the air. Harry was calling to her from high above the pitch. He needed her help.

"Ginevra, you can tell me anything," came Tom's voice in her mind. She covered her ears with her hands, but they didn't block out the sound.

She was sitting toward the front of the stands, in the inferior lower seats left for the second year students, but her heart was telling her to climb higher. To go nearer to him.

She began to climb, feeling cold taking over her body and ink seeping into her skin. The connection was tugging at her even harder now, making her ribs ache and her feet move up the stairs on their own.

Halfway up the stairs, she looked up. In the top row of seats was an enormous black dog, sitting very still in the midst of the storm. The wind was beating silently at her cloak, the rain running down her scalp and across her face in icy rivulets. She heard Tom's voice in her head, soft and deadly, and she watched the dog in front of her. Was she really seeing it?

Her feet continued to climb towards the dog, but it was almost as though her body and her mind were operating separately from one another. She felt drained of all hope, all happiness... but her body was still moving upward, trying to reach Harry. That magic held an inherent hope in it -- that she would be able to reach him and pay back her debt -- and for a moment, she held on to that.

The magical thread that bound her to Harry was still pulling her upward, and without her broom, she had no way of reaching him. Her body ached, crying out for her to go to him.

Suddenly, the connection snapped. She felt the crowd around her come to life. Dumbledore was down on the pitch, next to... Harry.

Harry, who was lying on the ground, his body twisted unnaturally. Harry, who up until a moment ago, had been tugging at her from high above the pitch. Harry, whose life no longer needed saving.

She sat down on the steps then, and cried in the pouring rain.

It was not a great game. Many of the players were like her: they'd played on a team in school, but were out of practice now. This game was just for fun, anyway. No one was really taking it all that seriously -- no one except the two seekers.

Charlie and Gabrielle circled silently like birds of prey above the laughing, shouting, cheering crowd of the other players. They flew as far apart as possible, not speaking to each other, or even looking at each other unless absolutely necessary. When the snitch was spotted, both seekers turned their brooms downward in perfect unison and went into a heart-stopping freefall. Ginny sat back on her broom and watched, her mouth open in surprise and the quaffle forgotten. The snitch fluttered its tiny wings and moved teasingly to the edge of the makeshift pitch. Instantly, Charlie shifted out of his freefall to speed across the pitch, towards the snitch. Gabrielle, sensing his change in direction, moved just a moment later, but the damage was done. Charlie came up triumphant, the tiny snitch wrapped in his freckled fist.

Gabrielle sank to the ground and walked alone off the pitch, wiping her eyes. Ginny flew after her, catching up easily, and floated alongside her friend as they talked.

"Don't go -- they owe us now."

"I don't even like beer," Gabrielle said vehemently. "And I hate ze-- ze--" She stopped, searching for the right word.

"Consol--" Ginny started to suggest.

"Ze prize of consolation," Gabrielle interrupted, as though Ginny had never spoken.

"You've given them that consolation prize..."

"Nevair! I would nevair--" Gabrielle stopped, and seemed to realise where she was. Blushing prettily, she began again. "Non-- I think," she gulped, "I think I will not have ze drinks tonight."

Ginny shrugged, halfway wondering if they'd even been talking about the same thing, when she saw a figure running toward them. It was Charlie.

He caught up to them and stood gasping for breath for a moment. Gabrielle must not have seen him coming; she looked at him in surprise. It took a moment for her to compose herself as well.

"Here-- uh, this is for you," Charlie said, handing her the snitch in his hand, its wings now folded docilely into its round body.

"For second place?" Gabrielle asked angrily.

"No! No, I uh..." Charlie trailed off, looking questioningly at Ginny.

Suddenly she blushed to the roots of her hair. She hadn't even realized she'd been listening to what was probably going to be a very personal conversation. Muttering her apologies, she turned and flew off. In the distance, she could hear their voices rising and falling, but she could no longer make out the words.