Footsteps To Valhalla

Hello all! Welcome to Chapter Six, at long last! Finally I've managed to get the quartet back together again, so the stage is actually set for some philandering and proper Horcrux activity!

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-- CHAPTER SIX --

Calm Before The Storm

Harry and Kasim spent the morning up on the Ridge, staking out an area for some extra alarm wards. The night-time attack during Harry's patrol with Nick had made all the Aurors nervous, and there were rumours that Nick had been in touch with Bucharest. An atmosphere of intense secrecy and clique-ish mutterings had descended on the camp ever since, and Harry had a bad feeling about it. It still felt as though things were being kept from him, and if there was a serious risk of an ambush he ought to know enough to be prepared.

"Nothing to worry about, Harry," Kasim had said, bracingly. "Bucharest always gets the jitters after something like this."

But it still seemed to Harry that there was something else - something more disturbing - behind that unprovoked, one-man attack the other night.

Ron thought so too.

"If this had been London-based," he'd said, "Kingsley, Moody and the whole department would have been up in arms by now. I mean there might be weird secrets and stuff, but at least everyone could sleep soundly in their beds knowing somebody was taking proper care of the situation."

There had been no sign of their mysterious attacker up on the Ridge. Presumably Nick had had him moved and transferred to the Holding Unit at Bucharest. But Harry had noticed a small track leading up through the undergrowth on the hillside from the valley below, where the bleak hideaways nestled in the ravines. In the light of day the place didn't look half as sinister as it had the night he and Nick had been ambushed, but it was strange that nobody seemed to be about.

He was still thinking about it when he and Kasim parted company back at the camp. Charlie was sitting near the open hearth, mending some leather harnesses with his wand, and Harry went to join him.

"Anything going on?" Charlie asked, as soon as Harry had sat down.

Harry shook his head. "Nothing at all."

He almost wished something would happen. Waiting was even worse than fighting, especially given the present situation, and whenever Harry thought of what he was putting on hold to be at the camp a mild wave of panic washed over him.

"Don't be too impatient, Harry," said Charlie, as though reading his thoughts. His smile was enigmatic. "Things don't happen out here in the same way they do back home."

Harry grinned. "Yeah, it wasn't what I was expecting."

"It never is. Nothing ever works out the way you imagine it will. When I was seventeen I applied for a job at the Ministry like Dad!"

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "You did?"

"I knew it was what Mum wanted, and Bill had gone straight into a high-powered trainee position with Gringotts, so it seemed like a good move at the time."

"You'd have died of boredom," laughed Harry.

Charlie smiled. "I know. Fortunately they rejected me because I didn't have the right NEWTs or work experience, and I sort of fell into this job by accident. I knew within two weeks that I'd found my vocation!"

"Bet you never thought you'd be living in one of the most hostile regions of Europe and hosting a team of Aurors, did you?"

"No," chuckled Charlie, "it never crossed my mind."

Harry glanced over at Kia, who was examining the contents of some supply boxes with a couple of the other women. They were laughing over something, and the corners of Charlie's mouth tilted upwards almost imperceptibly.

"You're happy here, though, aren't you?" said Harry, reflectively.

"Oh, God, are you kidding?" replied Charlie. "Happier than I've ever been. I mean, look at my life - I've got a job that I love, a great girlfriend, a beautiful home, and a - "

He paused, and Harry looked up expectantly.

"And a really worthwhile role to play in this damn war," Charlie finished.

"You're glad you got mixed up in it, then?"

Charlie smiled enigmatically. "Aren't you?"

What a question, thought Harry. Had there ever been a time when he hadn't been mixed up in it? He'd been mixed up in it practically ever since he was born.

Would I change everything if I could go back? It was a question he had taken to asking himself a lot lately, as he began feeling more and more just what he had given up to be an Auror. His life was full of politics now, and tactical strategy, and midnight rendez-vous, and constant looking over his shoulder for what might be coming behind him. He found himself worrying about where his best friends had been and what they were doing, hating himself for not being able to be omnipresent. When was the last time he and Ron and Hermione and Ginny had sat down and enjoyed an evening together which was not tainted in some way by the war and the headlines of the Daily Prophet?

He looked up, and saw Charlie watching him steadily. Somewhere Kia's lilting laugh sounded.

He wasn't the only one. Every Auror and Order member in the world had hostages to fortune - and in many ways Charlie could claim to have more to lose than most. His lifestyle, overtaken by war business; his girlfriend, there on the front line with him; the distance between him and his family, always living in fear of not knowing what might have become of them.

"Yeah, stupid question, isn't it?" said Charlie. "If we weren't here, doing this, we'd be sitting at home worrying and waiting before getting blown up anyway. It's better this - "

Suddenly he broke off, his eyes fixing on something over Harry's head in the distance. A hot, red flush began to creep over his skin.

Harry turned to look -

- and his lungs constricted. Strolling blithely towards them, as serene and unflustered as though they were taking a leisurely walk down Diagon Alley, were Ginny and Hermione.

Charlie was on his feet while Harry was still staring and mouthing incredulous noises.

"What the HELL are you doing here?" he demanded of his sister, drawing himself up to his full height and raising his voice so loudly that most heads in the immediate area turned to watch the scene.

"And good morning to you too," said Ginny, cheerfully. "Hello, Harry," she added.

Harry glared in stunned silence, but it registered in his reeling brain that Hermione was loitering slightly behind Ginny and looking rather uncomfortable. It hadn't been her plan to turn up in the flesh unannounced.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" thundered Charlie, again.

Ginny didn't appear in the least cowed.

"Just passing through on some Bureau business," she said, lightly. "We've been at the Wizard Consulate in Bucharest."

"We?" repeated Charlie, casting a suspicious glance at Hermione.

Hermione had the grace to blush.

Ginny, utterly unashamed, beamed at her brother.

"I needed some help, and Hermione very kindly offered her services. So be nice to her, even if you are going to get all cross and unreasonable with me."

Harry had heard enough. Having got at last to his feet and regaining the use of his tongue, he exploded.

"UNREASONABLE?" he burst out, glaring. "Ginny, this is a front-line outpost! You shouldn't be here!"

Her eyes, sweeping around to look at him, were ice-cold and narrowed. When she spoke her words were clipped. "So your job is more important than mine, is that what you're saying?"

Harry gave her back scowl for scowl. "Don't turn this around on me."

"What Bureau business?" Charlie wanted to know, folding his arms. "How long are you supposed to be staying?"

"Oh, not long," replied Ginny, airily. "Only until I've got the information I need."

Oh, very nicely done, Miss Weasley, thought Harry, as she cast a quick, meaningful glare in his direction.

Charlie's temper cooled in far less time than it would have taken Ron's. He reached out a hand and ruffled Ginny's hair playfully. As they exchanged their usual brother/sister repartee, Harry turned his attention to Hermione, who was looking extremely wary.

"Now, before you get angry, Harry," she began bravely, despite taking a step backwards, "you ought to know that we're here for very good reasons and we won't be going until you've told us the truth. All of it."

"Before I get angry? I'm already angry! You can't be here - you're not authorised!"

Hermione swallowed, but persisted. "And you should know too - Neville's here."

"WHAT?"

"He was at the Floo Port waving off his grandmother and he saw us. He wanted to come too, and we honestly tried to put him off, Harry, but he grabbed my elbow and fell into the flames and got carried along with us. Kia's looking after him - he was a bit shaken up."

The situation could not conceivably get any worse. Harry clenched his fists at his sides. "Great. Fucking brilliant."

Hermione cast a sideways glance towards Charlie and Ginny, and lowered her voice. "We had to come. The pair of you were being unbearably secretive, and we made a deal, remember? No secrets."

"This is different. I'm at work!"

"So why is Ron here?"

Somebody hailed Charlie from the direction of the enclosures, and he excused himself and began walking rapidly away. Harry turned narrowed eyes upon Ginny.

She folded her arms and matched his thunderous expression. "You needn't get so agitated, Harry. We're here, end of story."

Whether it was her outright audacity in coming or her unshakable air of indifference that made more fury bubble up inside him Harry couldn't tell, but before he knew what he was doing, he was shouting as he hadn't shouted since Fifth Year.

"...NO REGARD FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY...DRAGGING HERMIONE INTO THIS...WE PROMISED WE'D EXPLAIN..."

"Harry, for crying out loud, calm down," Hermione interrupted, forecefully. "People are starting to look at us."

"Of course they're going to look at us! Do you really think they're going to believe some ridiculous yarn about Bureau business in Bucharest?"

"Frankly, yes," retorted Ginny. "And you can stop talking to me like Ron, please."

Harry began to pace urgently up and down, running tense hands through his hair. He took some deep, calming breaths before speaking again, while Ginny stared stonily at him and Hermione wrung her hands.

"OK," he said, at last, much more sedately, "but why the hell did you let Neville come along too? Neville, of all people!"

"You don't mean that, Harry," said Hermione, frowning. "Neville's feeling pretty depressed at the moment what with his grandmother being on his back day in and day out, so I think you should give him a break."

"Yes, but why did you bring him?" Harry almost wailed. He felt like Cassandra - talking and talking and nobody paying any attention to what he was trying to say.

"We didn't bring him," replied Ginny, "he fell through the Floo with us by accident."

"You should have been more careful!"

"Oh, no," muttered Hermione, at his elbow.

Harry turned in the direction she was staring. Ron was approaching, storming along with long strides and looking positively dangerous. By the time he reached them he was almost purple with rage.

"You! YOU?" he blustered.

"Oh, don't you start too," sighed Ginny, rolling her eyes.

He did, though, and went on long enough and loud enough that even Harry started to feel his ears ringing. It took Kia's intervention to calm him down.

She inserted herself expertly between Ron and his sister, and held out a hand with a broad smile.

"You must be Ginny," she said, happily. "I'm Kia."

"Oh, hello!" exclaimed Ginny with delight, and her face immediately lost its thunderous frown. She shook Kia's hand and at once launched into conversation while the boys stood struck dumb.

"And this is Hermione, am I right?" asked Kia, turning her smile to Ginny's partner in crime.

"Oh, what IS it with women and rubbish social formalities?" seethed Ron, gritting his teeth.

"It's called manners, Ron," answered Kia, without looking at him.

Harry almost cracked a smile as Ron's face fell and its colour receded. He had always been very fond of Kia, and she'd never berated him before.

"Come on," Kia went on, taking each girl by the arm. "I'll find you a tent and set it up, and we can have a drink and a chat before dinner."

The three of them went off, leaving Ron and Harry standing side by side with their arms folded.

"This is insane," said Ron, shaking his head violently.

"You're telling me."

"What are we going to do?"

Harry shrugged. "Bang goes the secret, just-in-case night-time trip to Ban Tarka. We'll never get away with three of them here."

"Three?" repeated Ron, his eyes widening.

***

"The boys weren't too pleased about Neville being here, were they?" observed Hermione, as she and Ginny unpacked their bags and settled into their tent. It was a nice, cosy one nestled in the trees next to one of the streams that fed the lake, not far from Harry and Ron's and Kia and Charlie's on the other side of a rough-hewn bridge.

Ginny snorted as she flicked her wand, causing her small bag to double its size and transfigure into a full wardrobe. "Nothing much pleases them these days."

Hermione gave a sigh. "Harry looked about ready to murder us."

"Me," clarified Ginny, with her old smile. "Funny, isn't it, how both of them always assume I'm the ringleader in our little plots." At the look on Hermione's face she amended her statement. "Yes, all right, I generally am, but that doesn't mean I might not be led astray by someone else one day."

"I'd like to see that," Hermione chuckled.

She fingered a pretty vase that was sitting on a large Queen Anne coffee table, and used her wand to produce an enormous, fragrant spray of chrysanthemums, all pinks and whites. They matched the décor inside the tent, which was, like all the others in the camp, deceptively small from the outside but in reality the size of a spacious sitting room. The two beds were plump and wide, covered in pink cushions and surrounded by gauzy drapes.

"Do you know what annoys me?" muttered Ginny, shaking out a pair of linen trousers with unnecessary enthusiasm. "The way they always look as though their plans have been ruined whenever we interrupt them. As if we'd be a handicap!"

Hermione nodded. "It's rather galling, I must admit."

"They're up to something. What the hell are they planning? I thought we'd established that the base is a no-go."

"We had."

Ginny flopped onto her bed with a long sigh, and swept her hair out of her face. "And what are we going to do about Neville?"

Hermione considered. "If the worst comes to the worst," she said, thoughtfully, "Petrificus Totalus has worked well in the past."

Ginny cast her a deeply impressed look, and Hermione smiled innocently.

"I'm having a corrupting effect on you!" Ginny laughed.

They spent the next hour settling in, exploring the little cubby-holes in the tent and working out what to change into for dinner. Neville popped in once or twice. Kia had found him a bed in one of the empty dragon keepers' tents, and he didn't seem to realise what a walking, talking liability he was. The dragon park fascinated him, and he seemed blissfully unaware of the fact that he'd walked straight into the middle of a war zone.

While Ginny splashed in a warm bath Hermione wandered outside to have a look at their surroundings. It was getting dark, and over in the central part of the camp the braziers were bursting into flames. She stood for a while on the bridge over the stream, watching the water and listening to the noise it made running over the pebbles. It seemed such a cruel shame that a place as pretty and peaceful as this was at the heart of a bitter struggle between warring factions. It was almost impossible to believe, with the crickets singing and the sound of happy laughter carrying from the camp on the breeze.

A noise disturbed her, and she turned around to see Ron coming out of his tent across the way. He stopped and ran his hands through his hair, holding himself taught. Hermione recognised the signs immediately - something had made him cross and he was trying to calm himself down.

"Ron?" she said, tentatively.

He jumped and looked surprised when he noticed her, and although he couldn't quite manage a smile he still strolled across to join her on the bridge.

"What's Neville doing here?" he asked, in the cheery voice that dripped with sarcasm.

Hermione felt her spirits fall like lead. He was cross with her.

"We explained about that before - it was an accident. He wouldn't let go of my arm."

"Well, he's buggered things up nicely."

Hermione cast him a suspicious look. "What things?"

He was getting better at backtracking, but he didn't fool her. "I just mean he doesn't know what he's walked into," he elaborated.

"I know, I was just thinking that."

He stood rigidly beside her, staring out at an unspecific point in the distance, hands in pockets. She watched him sideways for a moment, wishing she could read his face. He was so far away these days.

"Ron, are you all right?" she asked, softly. "I mean, really all right?"

He laughed, but it was rather a horrid, hollow laugh. "I honestly don't know," he replied. "All I know is that my sister is a monstrous, little fiend and neither of you should be here."

"Why?" Hermione insisted. "Why shouldn't we but it's all right for you?"

"It's Auror stuff. You aren't Aurors."

"Ginny's a Bureau agent, Ron, and you're not an Auror either."

"I'm half an Auror, that's different, and I'm not here for that."

Hermione felt herself growing frustrated. He was beginning to sound like Harry - reticent and infuriatingly cryptic. "So why are you here?" she demanded. "Not for a nice social call on your brother or your best friend, that's for sure."

"I'm here because I need to be here, and that's all."

Something about him as he said it made her unaccountably worried. He was fidgety - almost nervous - and his tone was the same as the one he had used to her the night they and Harry had lunch at the Gallery Restaurant.

"You'd tell me, wouldn't you, if anything was wrong?" she persisted.

"Don't get all motherly, Hermione," he snapped. "I can't stand it."

Why was it that Ron could manage to hurt her in one brief sentence mere minutes into a conversation? She fought to keep the tears back that prickled beneath her eyelids. Did he realise? Did he deliberately mean to distress her? She had never been able to tell.

"I'll get out of your way, then," she said, getting her voice under control.

He didn't try to stop her as she walked away towards her and Ginny's tent, but she thought as she ducked under the flap that she'd heard him give the bridge railing a heavy kick.

***

It was almost entirely dark by the time the girls emerged from their tent for dinner, and the sky was covered in white stars. The flames from the central fireplace looked mystifying and entrancing, and as a cool breeze danced upon her bare arms, Ginny felt that her goosebumps were not entirely due to the chilliness. There was something about a wild, threatening landscape like this one at night, with the moon overhead and firelight the only thing that seemed to stand between oneself and whatever horrors the darkness hid.

Ginny caught Harry's eye as she sat down between Hermione and Charlie. Behind his glasses his green eyes were fixed upon her, slightly narrowed beneath a distinctive frown. They seemed to reflect the amber flames - a product of the magical eeriness she had noticed before. Her heart skipped a beat.

It was Ron who broke the spell. He arrived looking cross and irritable, and plonked himself down next to Kasim.

"I'm starved," he announced, without even sparing a glance for his sister and their friend.

"You'll have to wait like the rest of us," said Charlie.

As the plates were passed round, Ginny took the time to glance about her. It was a new, fascinating experience for her, and every face - except Ron's and Harry's - was smiling welcomingly. Various people were eager to meet her and Hermione, and to ask about their business in Bucharest. Ginny nodded and replied without giving anything away, almost delighting in Harry's increasing tension.

Serves him right, she thought to herself.

Neville had cheered up tremendously since being dusted off and refuelled by Kia, and was chatting to one of the dragon keepers about a newly-hatched Persian Wivern up in the hills. Adventure clearly suited him, and Ginny found herself regretting her sharpness with him at the Floo Port. His eyes were bright, and he seemed a far cry from the pallid, desperate young man she had known in London, who hated his job and his life.

Beside her, Hermione seemed a little downcast.

"What is it?" Ginny asked, giving her a gentle nudge.

"I just wish we could all get along," sighed Hermione. "I hate being at odds with the boys."

She jerked her head towards Harry, who, between mouthfuls, was still staring mutinously at Ginny. "He's going to be annoyed with us for ages."

"With me, not you," Ginny pointed out. "He knows I dragged you here."

He was justified, but it annoyed her to think that he mistrusted her so much. She stabbed her fork viciously into her leg of chicken.

Some time later Charlie dusted the crumbs from his lap and stood up in one fluid motion.

"Right, well, Harry and I have got to love you and leave you," he announced, stretching his arms above his head.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"Regular patrol, that's all," replied Charlie. "Work stuff. Ready, Harry?"

Harry got up too, with a nod. Something in his expression told Ginny that this was not a dragon-related patrol, and when he picked up a kitbag lying underneath a nearby tree her suspicions were confirmed.

She stood up and walked over to him.

"What are you really doing?" she asked.

Harry waited until he'd strapped on his arsenal belt before replying, with only the briefest sideways glance at her.

"Work," he replied, curtly.

His tone made her frown. "I gathered that. Specifically."

"Specifically I'm going to the perimeter to make sure the seedy Death Eater inhabitants on the park outskirts aren't planning anything vaguely resembling another attempt at mass-murder, and to knock off one by one any scouts who might decide to curse me in the back like last night."

He spoke very quickly in a monotone, clearly hoping to throw her off questioning him - but she caught his arm as he made to leave.

"Wait a minute!" she exclaimed. "What do you mean, like last night? What happened last night?"

"What I said," Harry replied.

His indifference infuriated her.

"Harry, for God's sake stop being so annoying! Who was it? What did they do to you?"

"Don't know, on both counts. Can I go now?"

Ginny hung on to his elbow with both hands, feeling hard muscle just above them that she didn't remember being there before. It was an unsettling observation.

"No you bloody can't! Tell me!"

Harry glanced towards the fireplace and then back to her, dropping his voice to an intense pitch. "Nick and I were watching the settlement. We were spotted. Someone followed us back up the crag and hexed me in the back. While I shook it off and got back up he had Nick in a stranglehold. I picked up my wand and blasted him."

Ginny stood in stunned silence trying to assimilate the account, delivered so emotionlessly and so unlike Harry. He hiked his kitbag over his shoulder and drew close to her ear.

"Welcome to Ingrisfeld," he murmured.

Ginny watched him go feeling suddenly numb all over. He'd never been like that before; so coiled and phlegmatic. It was wrong - horribly, horribly wrong. What was happening to make him behave like that?

***

Harry kicked off his boots straightaway when he got back to his tent, wishing his back didn't ache so badly. He sat on the edge of his bed and rubbed the sore muscles, wincing.

He and Charlie had tramped along the usual route for four hours and had seen nothing. The little lights in the valley were the only sign that there was life down there, and it made him feel uneasy. It felt like the calm before the storm.

Ron was flaked out in the other bed, tangled in his sheets. He wasn't snoring like he usually did.

Harry climbed under his covers, but he knew he wouldn't sleep. The girls' coming had disturbed him, although it was utterly typical and he might have guessed Ginny would try some stunt like this. He berated himself sternly for his lack of foresight.

And now, of all times, when the camp was bracing itself for a new series of dangerous events. How absolutely like Ginny - to barge in where no-one else would dare, regardless of rules, regardless of her own safety. Hermione ought to have stopped her.

He turned over into a more comfortable position.

But nobody could stop Ginny. She was infuriating and reckless and ...

Suddenly, as though every thought, every activity inside his body had ceased, a silence came crashing down upon him. It felt like being suspended, or turned off, and his eyes widened as something began to as make itself felt somewhere deep inside of him. Something vaguely familiar which he'd forgotten about, that had lain dormant for a long, long time.

Anger and firelight had made her hair glow and her eyes shine. With all her little muscles coiled up tightly as she faced him in a fury, she'd looked like a warrior Athena - all passion and fire and potency. The memory made him feel heated.

He turned over again, to stare up at the highest point of the tent roof above him. It was enchanted to be transparent, and showed the night sky as though he was asleep on the ground outside.

That's all done with, he told himself, with a growing sense of impending dread. It finished, years ago.

But you didn't want it to, did you? said a little voice in his head.

Harry closed his eyes and willed himself to go to sleep. He wouldn't think about her. He wouldn't think about anything. It was just a silly trick of the moon and an over-active imagination.

***

After a fitful few hours of sleep, disturbed by strange dreams that seemed to centre around a combination of dark paths through the brush, masked figures materialising out of nowhere, and Ginny, Harry was woken not long after dawn by something prodding him in the side. He rolled over, dimly aware of the earliness of the hour and the throbbing ache in his back.

"Harry!" said a firm, feminine voice.

"Kia, I'm sick of being dragged out of bed after four hours' sleep by people poking me!" he mumbled, sleepily.

"I'm not Kia."

Harry opened his eyes and turned over. Even without his glasses on he knew that sillhouette - just as he knew the soft perfume that had wafted over him.

"Ginny?"

"The very same," she said, handing him his glasses.

As she came into focus he saw Hermione standing in the tent doorway, keeping a look out, and Ron spreadeagled on his bed beside her. Both of them were in pyjamas, and after realising that Ginny was actually sitting cross-legged on the end of his bed Harry was only too aware of the fact that he was shirtless.

"Right," said Ginny, fixing him with a stern expression he felt sure she'd been practicing in front of the mirror, "we want some answers, Harry. Right now, while everyone's still asleep. What's going on here?"

Out of the corner of his eye Harry saw Hermione prod Ron disdainfully with her foot. He opened one bleary eye and gazed around, letting out a loud yelp when he saw who had woken him.

"Can I at least get some coffee first?" moaned Harry, as Ginny raised an expectant eyebrow.

He didn't really want any, but neither did he particularly want to hold this conversation - which he'd been putting off for as long as possible.

Hermione foiled his attempt at further procrastination by instantly producing a coffee pot and large cup with her wand. He looked across at her with weary indignation.

"All right, you win," he sighed, flipping back the bedclothes.

He felt extremely self-conscious as he got out of bed and hunted about for a shirt, and he could almost hear Fred's jesting voice in his mind: "Prude!"

By the time he'd located one and got it on, and Ron had been sufficiently revived with coffee to be aware of what was being said, the girls were sitting side-by-side and waiting patiently for him to begin. After a deep breath, he filled in the blanks for them - the history of the base as Kasim had related it to them; their idea that there may have been a Horcrux in it before the raid, which would explain its absence on Ministry files; the existence of a network of support in the area for Voldemort since the last war, and its revival in recent years. He carefully left out the details Nick had given him a few nights earlier, about the actual nature of that network and its relationship to the camp and the people inside it.

Hermione had listened with her head on one side and her lower lip between her teeth.

"I think we should find Ban Tarka and have a look at it, just in case it can tell us anything," she said.

Harry looked across at Ron who rolled his eyes.

"That's exactly what Ron and I had proposed to do before you two came barging in with Neville!" Harry pointed out.

Ginny looked up at him. "He wants to help."

"No!" said Harry, more sharply than he intended. He thought he saw Ginny flinch momentarily, but decided afterwards he must have imagined it. "You shouldn't have come," he added.

"We told you yesterday, Harry, we made a pact about this," Hermione reminded him. "We said we would keep nothing from each other if it concerned Voldemort and the Horcruxes. This does, so you should have told us all instead of sneaking Ron out here and hoping you'd get your dirty work done quickly before we noticed. What do you take us for?"

Harry was a little taken aback by her tone. Hermione didn't often lose her temper.

"Look," said Ron, "Harry has a job to do here which is serious enough without the Horcruxes, and he's not bound to tell anyone about it."

Ginny gave a snort. "You mean like I wasn't 'bound' to tell you about my job in Egypt?"

"That's different."

"No, it isn't. Harry and I have done exactly the same thing - we've kept our work to ourselves, except Harry told you and not us, which is unacceptable. What if you needed help and no-one knew what you were up to?"

"We didn't want you involved," said Ron.

Ginny glared at him. "Oh, so the rules apply to us and not to you, is that what this is?"

"All right, that's enough," said Harry, deciding to put an end to the argument. "We need to make a new pact, otherwise we'll never get anywhere."

He took a deep breath. He knew it was doing away with his only loophole as far as keeping the girls out of his mess was concerned, but they would give him no peace otherwise.

"If I promise to keep all three of you informed about any work-related stuff that is important to the Horcruxes, will you promise not to do anything or go anywhere to do with them without asking me first?"

Ginny raised an eyebrow. "'Asking' you?"

"Problem?" enquired Harry, frowning.

"We promise to tell you," Ginny replied, coolly.

"Ginny - " he began, tensely.

"Please, not another row," begged Hermione. "I don't think I can take much more of this."

"Let's just get one thing straight before we go any further," said Harry. "First of all, all three of you have to remember that this is my problem. I'm the one Dumbledore took into his confidence; I'm the one he took to the cave in Sixth Year; I'm the one the prophecy was about. This is my job, and although I've admitted I need your help I don't want any of you taking risks in this. Is that clear?"

"You've said all this before," replied Hermione in a small voice.

"Yeah, well, now I'm saying it again. Is it clear?"

"You've heard all our arguments before too."

"In fact," added Ron, "this whole conversation is getting incredibly boring."

"I just don't want anyone getting hurt!" exclaimed Harry, losing patience.

"Oh, for God's sake, we know that!" said Ron, standing up and looking cross. "But you said yourself that we're here to help. So let us help."

The look on his best friend's face reminded Harry too late of the reason why they never talked about this. Four years ago Harry was all set to head off into the world alone to do the job Dumbledore had meant him to do, and he had been dragged back by two friends who refused to let him walk away from them just when he needed them most. He'd understood why they did it, and why they had offered themselves up as aides during what would turn out to be the most difficult years of Harry's life. Ginny had done the same when he had told her. He had argued against all of them, but they'd won in the end. Ever since he had tried hard to keep them shielded from the worst moments, but he was discovering more and more every day that it was getting harder.

I won't let them get hurt, he told himself. I won't. Anything but.

"All right," he said, at last. "No more secrets."

"So we're staying," said Hermione, with satisfaction. "We'll look for Ban Tarka all together. At least that's settled."

***

Nothing else felt very settled, though, as the afternoon approached.

Kia popped into many of the tents at midday to invite various people to one of the lodges for a friendly little gathering - something which everyone seemed to receive with mixed feelings.

"What's she up to now?" Ron demanded. "D'you think she's trying to keep tabs on us?"

Harry looked up from his book and stared at him. "Why would she be trying to keep tabs on us?"

"I don't know - but Charlie's starting to ask some really weird questions."

"Like what?"

"About Ginny's so-called Bureau business in the city, for a start."

Harry didn't answer, so Ron stomped about the tent for a while, muttering to himself and relieving his feelings, before disappearing for a word with Kasim. A 'word', Harry reflected, probably meant one of Kasim's vile-smelling Moroccan cigarettes - a Muggle habit he had been unable to kick in the wizarding world. Apparently they calmed the nerves, but Harry had little desire to test Ron's claim.

He sat on his bed a little longer, trying to carry on reading. The book soon slipped from his hands, though, as Ron's departing words relived themselves in his head.

Bureau business, Bureau business. Obviously Ginny had made up the tale to excuse her sudden appearance at her brother's camp, but something still niggled at Harry about it. Was it that he didn't like the idea of Kia or Charlie asking questions about what she was doing here, arriving out of the blue with Hermione not long after Ron had turned up unannounced and never gone home again?

He didn't, certainly. They still hadn't found any more out about Ban Tarka, let alone got there to see it. If the girls hadn't burst in and raised suspicion he and Ron could have gone there and come back by now, maybe with some important information that could help them.

But there was more to it than that. He'd tried to deny it to himself - that he hated not knowing what Ginny's work really was. He hated it that he couldn't keep an eye on her as he could with Hermione and Ron, and he hated it even more that he didn't have the right to ask her about it.

Feeling a dangerous train of thought coming on, he tossed his book aside and swung his legs off the bed. A walk - he'd go for a walk. Anything to not think about Ginny.

***

The lodge Kia had invited them all to was set back further into the trees than all the other tents, on raised pilings that gave it the best view of the lake and the ground beyond in the entire camp. Kia had magicked a set of fairy lanterns around the balconies and overhangs, and decorated the interior with garlands and flowers fit for a dinner party, not a simple gathering of friends.

Hermione gasped in delight when she began climbing the wooden steps up to the entrance, with Neville just behind her. It was so simple and unembellished, but the atmosphere was perfect - snug and inviting and friendly - just what they all needed at this time.

Kasim was already there, sitting on the balcony surrounded by a group of girls and looking very pleased with himself. He gave her a wave when he caught her eye.

"What's all this in aid of?" Neville murmured in her ear for the third time. He kept fiddling with his shirt collar and was looking rather nervous. Hermione patted him reassuringly on the arm.

"Just a friendly get-together, I think," she said, also for the third time. "What are you worried about?"

He gave her a queer half-smile and shrugged. "I dunno. I get the feeling nobody really wants me here."

Hermione didn't know what to say. It was true, but it seemed heartless and unkind. "Don't say that," she said, awkwardly.

Neville laughed bitterly. "Ron has hardly spoken to me at all since we got here, and although Harry tries to pretend he doesn't mind I can see it in his eyes that he's angry."

His voice became impassioned, and Hermione glanced anxiously in Charlie's direction. He wasn't far away, standing in conversation with Jax Dawlish and a pretty woman whose name Hermione didn't know.

"Be grateful neither of them have tossed all three of us out before this," she told him, deciding that a bracing approach would have the best effect.

Neville didn't reply. His shoulders sagged, and he looked more than ever like the frightened, stammering boy of their Hogwarts days. Hermione's kind heart filled with pity for him.

"It'll be OK, Neville, I know it," she said, affectionately. "Things will work out."

"You think?"

She smiled at the way his face lit up, child-like. "Yes, I do."

He brightened at once, and joined cheerfully in the conversation when Kia came up to them, leading a tall, serious-looking man with her. Hermione judged him to be somewhere in the region of thirty, although slightly wavy hair falling across his forehead gave him the look of a much younger man. He moved very quietly and gracefully, obeying the pressure of Kia's arm without any break in his balance.

"Have you met Rick, Hermione?" Kia asked, sunnily. Hermione shook her head and smiled politely. "Rick Savage, one of our resident Aurors."

His grave-looking face broke into a grin, and suddenly he didn't seem so grave any more.

"Savage," Hermione repeated. "I've heard of you."

"Oh, has Charlie been saying rude things about me?" he asked, in a chuckly, pleasantly-resonating voice.

She found herself laughing softly. "No, not at all."

"Hermione - that's a beautiful name," observed Rick, amiably. "Shakespeare."

"My parents are Muggles," Hermione explained.

"Ah. So's my mother."

"Are you close with her?"

He shook his head. "Not really. She doesn't understand about my job, which makes it kind of hard to get a conversation going."

Hermione could appreciate that. While the legal profession was something common to both worlds, which her parents were always keen to chat to her about, one could hardly explain away a career as an Auror as being a wizard policeman.

"So," Rick went on, smiling, "on the understanding that you probably know quite a bit more about me than I do about you, what brings you to Ingrisfeld?"

Oh dear.

"I came with Charlie's sister, Ginny."

"Oh, yes, The Fiend."

Hermione laughed. "Is that what people are calling her these days?"

Rick chuckled too. "She always was. I was at school with Bill, and I went to stay with the family when she was little. God, she drove us all distracted! I gather she hasn't changed much."

"You'd better ask her brothers that!"

She hadn't noticed Kia slip away, and only dimly registered the arrival of Harry and Ginny a few moments later. Neville had gone off somewhere too. It was only when she caught sight of a shock of red hair near the doorway that she actually began to take notice again. The eyes beneath it were levelled in her direction, and they were scowling.

***

It's not great, but it will have to do, Ginny told herself, glancing critically at her reflection in the mirror. She had put on the nicest things she had brought with her - a pair of well-fitting black trousers and a slightly revealing cream top which tied around her neck, halter-fashion, and again at her back. Ron would say that far too much skin was showing, but since the alternatives consisted of old camisoles, jeans, and oversized shirts she had a feeling he would hold his tongue tonight. Besides, she would wear what she liked.

A group of girls came hurrying across the bridge as she emerged from the tent, giggling and huddling together like teenagers. Anna was among them.

Ron can't be serious about that, she thought, disdainfully. Not after Lavender.

"Even he ought to have more sense than that."

"Who?"

Ginny hadn't realised she'd spoken aloud. She nearly jumped out of her skin, whirling around and whipping out her wand before she realised it had been Harry's voice. He was standing behind her, obviously on his way to the lodge too.

"Woah, careful!" he exclaimed, taking a step back as her wand tip grazed his chest.

"Don't creep up on me like that!" she said, confusedly.

"Sorry. What were you thinking about?"

He started walking again, and she fell into step beside him, stowing her wand away again.

"Ron, if you must know. Are he and Anna - well - I mean, are they - ?"

"I don't know," replied Harry, shaking his head. He sounded fed up, which made her convinced that he was telling the truth.

"But she's an utter imbecile!" she exclaimed.

He laughed, and the sound pleased her so much that she turned to look at him. He almost looked his old self - behind his glasses his eyes were brighter than before, and there was a new spring in his step. But he was still holding his shoulders rigid, and that unfamiliar line between his brows had not completely faded yet.

"And Lavender wasn't?" he chuckled.

Ginny grinned. "Why does he do it? Everyone knows that he's crazy about Hermione. Except Hermione, of course."

"That's why he does it," replied Harry, gently. "It relieves his feelings."

Ginny frowned and gave a little snort. "Why doesn't he just tell her?"

"I dunno. He has his reasons."

"Don't you two ever talk about stuff like that?"

"Not if we can help it."

For a moment Ginny debated telling him about a certain conversation she and Hermione had had back at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, when Hermione had revealed the extent of her and Sam's massive fight before he disappeared to Ireland. It might do some good if Ron got to hear about it, as Ginny was quite convinced that her going out with him had contributed largely to his moodiness of late.

But something made her hold back. This seemed a weird conversation to be having with Harry, of all people. She wasn't sure if she liked it very much.

They walked in silence for a while, under the trees. The sun was sinking behind them, casting a soft, dusky light over the landscape and lengthening their shadows. Ginny stared at them on the ground, listening to the sound of their footfalls.

"When are we going to Ban Tarka?" she asked, suddenly.

Harry's rhythmic step faltered slightly, but he showed no other sign of annoyance.

"Not now," he replied. "It's not the right time."

"What's going on? There's something horrible happening, isn't there? I can tell. Everyone's on edge."

"I know."

He didn't say more, but Ginny noticed the tell-tale set of his chin. He was worried too.

Ron caught them up before she could ask any more questions.

"You smell terrible," observed Ginny, wrinkling her nose against the pungent aroma of smoke that was coming off his clothes. "Mum would kill you if she knew."

Ron looked sulky. "Yeah, well, she's not here, is she?"

"Have you heard from her since you got here?" asked Harry.

Ginny shook her head. "She knows we're here because Charlie said he owled her as soon as we arrived. I expect she's saving it up for when we get home."

"Yeah, when will that be, Gin?" inquired Ron.

"As soon as we've done what we said we were going to do. We all go back together."

Harry opened his mouth to argue, but since they had almost reached the lodge he didn't have time to get very far. Kia waved to them from the balcony and beckoned them up. Ginny waved back and ignored him.

He caught her arm just as she set foot on the first step.

"Look, be careful tonight, all right?" he said, very seriously. "Like you said, something's wrong here at the moment and it might not be a good idea to ask too many questions."

"I'm a Bureau agent, Harry - it's my job to be subtle."

"I'd rather you weren't subtle at all," he said. "Just be careful, OK?"

The last sentence came out much less sharply, and she looked curiously into his face. His brilliant green eyes had a faintly familiar look about them. She nodded.

Neville called to them, brandishing a glass and beaming ear to ear. He seemed to have got talking to one of Anna's friends, and she was loitering nearby looking uncertain about whether or not to pursue him. She was the plainest of the group, and clearly unsuited to Anna's brash, flirtatious habits.

Ginny scanned the scene for a sight of Hermione, but didn't see her until Harry nodded towards a corner of the room. She was looking very pretty, and standing rather close to Rick Savage, who was smiling at her in a manner that made Ginny instantly suspicious. She whirled round, with the intention of heading Ron off before he saw and got agitated - but she was too late.

***

It wasn't long before Ron and Anna had disappeared into a dark corner, leaving Harry to lurk near the doorpost and wonder if there was going to be a scene. Hermione, still being monopolised by Savage, kept stealing frowning glances in their direction, and Charlie too seemed to sense an atmosphere. He and Kia wandered up to Harry and asked what was going on.

"Don't ask," said Harry. "It's a long, boring story."

"Hey, I was twenty-one once too, you know!"

"What were you like when you were twenty-one?" asked Kia, with her lilting chuckle.

"Don't ask," replied Charlie, with a grin at Harry. "Let's just say I did a very stupid thing at my twenty-first birthday party which set the tone for the rest of the year."

Kia demanded to know what it was, and Harry felt himself becoming a bit of a third wheel as Charlie responded to her teasing with playful ripostes.

"OK, OK," Charlie laughed at last, "I promise to tell you. One day. When I'm very drunk."

Kia had to be satisfied with this, and she turned her smile on Harry.

"What did you get up to at your twenty-first birthday party, then, Harry?"

"I haven't had it yet."

"When's your birthday?"

"July 30^th."

Kia and Charlie exchanged incredulous glances, and Harry started to think he had missed something.

Then Charlie burst out laughing and smacked him on the back. "You prat, Harry! Today's the 30^th!"

"What?"

"It's your birthday! You're an idiot, Harry, how can anyone forget their twenty-first?"

He was as genuinely shocked as they were, and laughed with everybody else as the news passed around. Kasim pressed a drink into his hand, and Hermione extricated herself from Savage long enough to exclaim:

"Oh, Harry, I forgot! I quite forgot! We all did! Oh, I'm so sorry."

"It's all right, don't be silly," he laughed, giving her a quick hug. "So did I."

Neville was looking confused too.

"Does that mean it's my birthday too?" he asked, curiously.

"Yes, I guess it does," grinned Harry. "Happy birthday, Neville!"

"I don't believe it!" said Charlie, shaking his head. "I just don't believe it."

Kia gave Neville a big hug, and he blushed to the roots of his hair.

Next to Harry, Hermione gave a little sigh.

"Funny how this doesn't feel like the real world at all, isn't it?" she said, in a reflective voice. "I keep feeling that when we get home it will all be just as we left it, and no time will have passed by at all."

Harry knew exactly what she meant. Birthdays and regular things didn't seem to have any place out here, where they were all engaged in war work and trying to solve one chaotic problem after another. One tended to forget that there were much-beloved people back home, living the same old life in the same old ways.

"How's Seamus?" Harry asked her.

Hermione's eyes dropped. "Not well. He's in no danger now, but he won't ever be the same again."

"Damn."

"They're doing all they can, Harry."

"Yeah, well, it shouldn't have happened."

She was quiet for a moment, watching Neville blush with pride as Ginny gave him a congratulatory kiss on the cheek.

"It was Bill they meant to get," Harry went on, feeling his old anger swell up inside again. "Bill and Nick. Because of what's happening here. They know something, or they're too close to something, that means Voldemort has to kill them."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Do you think it's got something to do with Ban Tarka?"

Harry shook his head, lost in thought. "I don't know. I wish I did."

They couldn't talk about it much more, for Ginny appeared with Neville, and he began to witter on about how he liked all the people here, and how he hoped Harry knew how grateful he was that he hadn't just packed him off home straightaway. He knew he was in the way, and that he ought to go home and get out from under everyone's feet, but he was just so pleased to be doing something for a change, and to really feel involved in what was going on outside his four office walls.

"Of course I'm glad to have a job, and everything," he went on, excitably, "but it feels absolutely the least important thing right now - especially after what happened to Seamus, and with you and Ron being out here doing official things and saving the world, like you always did. I know I'm pretty useless all round, but you know, don't you, that I'll lend a hand in anything you have to do?"

It became clear soon enough that Neville wasn't really expecting an answer, for he carried on at once, talking at top-speed. Harry found his attention wandering.

On the other side of the room Jax Dawlish flung open the tent flap and began scouring the room, looking uneasy. He caught Nick's arm and said something to him, urgently. A chain reaction took place, as whatever he had said was passed around among all the Aurors and Order members present.

Beside Harry, Ginny laid a hand on his arm and followed the direction of his eyes. She felt it too. So did Ron, for he disentangled himself from Anna and walked briskly across to join them, keeping an eye on Dawlish and the other Aurors all the while.

"What's going on?" whispered Hermione.

Harry shushed her, and went to the doorway. Outside in the camp the Aurors were gathering and conferring urgently in the amber glow of the braziers. Nick caught Harry's eye.

"Trouble, Harry," he said, seriously. "We need to get organised. We - "

His next words were drowned out by the sudden roar of a long-distance spell. It came in a streak of red light across the valley from the North Hill, cannoning into the trees and setting the timber alight in a burst of flames.

Automatically everyone ducked, and Harry grabbed the nearest female arm, which happened to be Ginny's.

"Fuck!" he breathed. "It's an attack."

They all stared at each other for a brief second in stunned shock, and then Nick began bellowing orders, directing the Aurors to their pre-planned posts and telling the keepers to get under cover. Someone shot an Illuminata spell over the surrounding area, giving a boost to the moonlight and the braziers so anyone coming over the hills and from the woods could be spotted earlier. It wasn't much help, but at least it showed that someone was on top of things.

Within seconds everything was chaos. Clusters of people began emerging from tents and gathering together with panic written all over their faces. Some of the girls began screaming in hysterics as the sound of spell-casting grew louder.

"Harry!" yelled Charlie, thrusting his way through the throng, looking fraught, "where are the girls?"

"We're here," came Ginny's calm voice behind Harry.

Harry felt his chest constrict. Instinct was pressing him to grab both girls and Neville and lock them up somewhere safe until the attack was over, but the functioning parts of his brain indicated that none of them would stand for that.

Kasim came towards them from the direction of the Anvil.

"They're coming over the peak, where we were yesterday, Harry," he said, breathlessly. "They've used the bloody tunnels again!"

"How many?" Nick demanded.

Kasim gave a shrug. "I'd say that the whole valley has emptied and is heading this way."

"Shit," said Charlie, looking over his shoulder. "Right, where's Dawlish?"

He and Nick dashed off into the darkness, with Kasim at their heels, and Harry was just about to follow when he felt someone grab his arm from behind.

It was Ron.

"Where's Neville?" he asked.

Harry glanced around in panic. The noises of curse blasts were getting even louder. At any minute the camp would be overrun with Death Eaters.

"He was here, seconds ago!" he exclaimed.

"Oh, no!" breathed Ginny.

She was white-faced, and behind her Hermione was trembling. Harry felt his Auror instincts click automatically into gear.

"OK," he said, "Ron, go and look for Neville. Don't stop, don't do anything else until you've found him."

Ron nodded, his wand gripped in a white-knuckled hand. As he disappeared, Hermione turned a look of stunned reproach to Harry.

"On his own?" she exclaimed. "Harry, you can't! What if something hap - ?"

"Nothing's going to happen to him," said Harry, sharply. "He knows what he's doing. You two are coming with me."

For once Ginny didn't object. Hopefully she was sufficiently speechless at her brother's unhesitating obedience to be shocked into emulating him, thought Harry, distractedly. At least Ron knew not to argue in a crisis.

Hermione gave a little cry as an explosion sounded very close, and the sky was momentarily lit up by a bright light. Harry looked over towards the far side of the camp. Dark-hooded figures had appeared, coming from all directions and blasting their wands at everyone in their path. The noise was horrible.

"Trees," shouted Harry, to the girls. "Now!"

It wouldn't give them much cover, but keeping the girls out of the line of fire was the most important thing. If only he could get them to stay put he could go and find Nick and the others and help.

It wasn't far to the edge of the woods. He caught Hermione's arm as she tripped over a root and hauled her along, trying to watch all angles at the same time. He kept the centre of the camp within sight at all times, aiming to skirt around the back and re-emerge on his own from the other side. He winced as he saw Proudfoot blasted full in the chest and sent sprawling on his back twenty feet away. Ginny gasped.

Harry led them over to where a large tree trunk had fallen and they ducked down behind it.

"Oh, this is horrible!" breathed Hermione, covering her mouth with her hands.

Ginny laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"All in a day's work for you though, isn't it, Harry?" she said, with narrowed eyes.

She was going to be difficult, he could tell. Over the top of the trunk he saw Charlie reappear, with a large gash across his cheek, barking out instructions. With his history of training and experience, the situation didn't look good.

"You stay here," Harry ordered, getting to his feet.

Ginny did too. "What?"

"I said, stay here. Leave this to me, OK?"

"No, it's not sodding OK!"

"Look!" exclaimed Hermione, suddenly, pointing.

Harry looked. Hermione had spotted Neville, standing beside a large oak and looking all about him in terror. He was uncovered and a sitting target.

"We need to help him!" cried Hermione, scrambling to her feet.

Before Harry could grab her she was halfway across to him.

"Shit, shit, shit," he swore, under his breath. "Ginny, stay here, do you hear me?"

She didn't have a chance to reply. Harry felt a hard blow in his left shoulder, and he span backwards onto the floor. Hot pain lanced through him, and he was dimly aware of Ginny's scream before he managed to turn onto his side and aim his wand at the offender. The body dropped like a stone.

"Are you all right?" gasped Ginny, as Harry struggled to his feet.

He nodded, feeling the force of the blast all the way along his left arm.

"Will you do as I say or not?" he demanded.

She shook her head. Behind her he saw three more coming straight for them from deep inside the wood, and he pushed her out of the way to get a clear shot. The Death Eater's curse missed him by a mile and ricocheted off a nearby tree leaving a smouldering mark.

"Damn it, Ginny, are you trying to get yourself killed?" he yelled.

"I can help if only you'd let me!" Ginny yelled back, furiously. Her eyes widened. "Look out!"

Something dropped on him from above, knocking him to the floor again. His wand clattered out of his grasp. A strong set of fingers pressed into his throat, cutting off the air and making Harry's head swim. The man weighed twice as much as he did, but his grip was clumsy and Harry found himself easily able to use fists and legs to disentangle himself and roll away, despite receiving a painful blow to the side of his head and another in the solar plexus. He tasted his own blood in his mouth.

Through the smoky haze that swam in front of his eyes he thought he saw Ginny aim her wand with both hands at his attacker, her face grim with concentration and impassivity. A grunt sounded, and then a thud as the man fell motionless to the ground.

Harry stared. She looked like a pagan goddess, her fiery hair whipping about in the wind and her body standing straight and graceful and utterly, utterly unafraid.

He gave himself a shake. How was it that despite his various stinging injuries and the inappropriateness of the moment he could still manage to become grossly over-imaginative when it came to this startling woman?

"Ginny, for God's sake!" he hissed, through gritted teeth.

"Oh, don't thank me for saving your ass, Harry, please!" she snarled, sweeping her hair out of her eyes. "And stop treating me like I'm nine years old!"

He was saved from answering by the sound of another loud explosion at the camp, but what followed was even worse and made his blood run cold.

Hermione screamed.

***

Ron swore hard as he plunged through the thickening smoke against the stream of people heading out of the camp for the woods.

He had circled the tents as soon as he left Harry and the girls, and found no sign of Neville. People were everywhere, some of them calm, some utterly panic-stricken, and as Ron ran flashes came into his mind of what it had been like last time - the same mass confusion, and the feeling of something menacing pressing in on one from the shadows. There were no kids here this time, thank God. It had been one of Charlie's principle conditions for letting everyone stay.

Charlie himself sprinted past him at that moment, yelling something incoherent that Ron took to be a warning to get out of the centre of the fighting. He vanished almost at once, swallowed up by the fog.

There was still no sign of Neville, nor of Harry and the girls. Ron hoped Ginny had had the sense to do what Harry told her.

He careered into a figure coming the other way, and inhaled a mouthful of some foul-tasting smoke that set his head reeling. He didn't see the Death Eater until a sharp pain seared across the top of his left arm, the curse missing his more important organs by mere inches. He swung quickly behind an outhouse out of sight to get his breath back and wait until the pain eased and his head stopped spinning.

Idiot, he berated himself. Should have kept a better lookout.

"Ron, for heaven's sake!" exclaimed a woman's voice.

Kia was running up to him, dirty and bruised, with Elphias behind her. She grabbed him by the shoulders. His arm was still stinging and felt like it was on the point of falling off altogether. If he could only manage to form a coherent sentence through the thickness in his brain he could tell her to stop shaking him.

She seemed to gather the worst by his lack of response.

"What did they do to you? Never mind, come on - we need to get to the trees!"

She steered him, and by the time they reached the edge of the forest Ron had regained his faculties.

"Where's Neville?" he demanded. "He was right beside us!"

"I haven't seen him," replied Kia, breathlessly. "If he's got any sense he'll go to ground."

"He hasn't, that's the problem!"

Ron was starting to feel a swell of fear now. Neville wasn't clever in a crisis, unless there was someone beside him to tell him what to do. He was their responsibility, after all, since the girls had let him trot along after them.

In the privacy of his own mind Ron cursed his sister's lack of judgement. It was one thing to walk blithely into a war zone herself and start acting like she was in charge, but quite another to involve someone like Neville. And Hermione was almost as bad!

She should have stopped it, he thought, urgently. Why didn't she stop it?

Still none of them were anywhere to be seen, and the braziers in the camp were almost entirely obscured by the smoke and fumes from curse blasts and burning buildings. Ron strained his eyes to catch a glimpse of someone.

That was when he saw it.

A beautiful, glorious sight amid all the flames and thick fog. Hermione had been wearing pink that night, and the colour was like a beacon.

She was on her knees, bending down over a fallen figure. Dust and mud streaked her face and clothes, and it wasn't until she looked up and saw him that he realised he was already halfway to her. A spell whistled past him, and he aimed a direct blast at its originator. The figure crumpled.

"Hermione, get out of the way!" he yelled to her.

"Oh, Ron, it's Neville!" she cried, in terror. "I can't wake him up!"

Ron ducked as another figure came towards him, using a left arm twist that Harry had taught him, since his right was numbed by pain and was pretty much useless.

"Hermione - !"

It happened in a flash. Ron saw the curse hurtling towards her before she did, but he was too far away to deflect it. It hit her on the side of the head, and sent her sprawling onto the ground beside Neville's unconscious body.

"Hermione!"

Kia's frantic appeals were lost on him as he raced across to where his beloved lay. He forgot his own pain as he fell to his knees beside her and pulled her into his arms.

God, she felt so small, so delicate. He could encircle her whole body with one arm.

"Hermione! Oh, for God's sake, say something to me!"

Ron had never been so terrified in his life as in those few moments before her head moved against his chest and her eyelids flickered. He let out the breath he had been holding in and got to his feet, pulling her up with him, cradling her in his good arm.

"We need to get under cover."

He pointed his wand at Neville's limp body and muttered an Evervate spell. It was unlikely to be much use against a sophisticated Dark Arts spell, but it might get him sufficiently to his senses to stagger along into the forest with them. Fortunately its effect surprised Ron.

Neville mumbled incoherently for a few seconds before sitting bolt upright and exclaiming in surprise.

"What's happening?"

"Come on, follow us!" called Ron.

He half-supported, half-carried Hermione to the edge of the woods, guiding her to a rocky outcrop which would offer them some protection.

"What is happening?" Neville demanded, his voice slightly hysterical. He was shaking, and the sight of Ron's mangled arm and Hermione's wilting body seemed to make it even worse.

"It's a long story," replied Ron, since it was clearly not the moment for an explanation. "If we get out of this in one piece, we'll tell you later."

Hermione made a little noise against his chest, and tightened her arms around him. He could tell she was frightened and trying not to show it, despite the effects of the spell on her.

"It's all right," he murmured, soothingly. "We're OK here."

A few moments later Ron heard Harry's voice somewhere nearby, barking out instructions with an authority to rival Nick's. He grinned.

"Never knew he had it in him two years ago."

The smoke and darkness was still as bad as ever, but in the light that there was Ron could see the hooded figures moving back towards the hills. Charlie was near the bank of the lake, calling the others to him and ordering them to regroup and fan out to see them off properly.

"They might be back," Ron heard him say. "Kasim, take a group south and watch them over the perimeter."

The fighting had eased off now, and it seemed safe to re-emerge. Ron told Neville to head down to the lake and join Charlie and the others, and was pleased when Neville obeyed without question. He was looking thoroughly shell-shocked.

Ron watched him go, and caught sight of a second head of fiery red hair and knew that Ginny was safe.

She'd survive anything, he thought to himself, grimly. Despite herself.

"What's happening?" murmured Hermione, weakly.

Ron straightened up slowly, still holding her in his arm.

"It's over," he said. "Let's find the others."

He guided her a few steps, and she smiled up at him. Her face was as white as a sheet.

"Glad I came to this party."

Ron smiled back. "I'll bet. Are you OK?"

"I think so. What hit me?"

"Just a stunning curse, I think. Can you walk?"

She tried, disengaging herself from him a little, but she wobbled on the first step and fell straight back into his arms with a little gasp.

"Woah, it's OK!" said Ron. "I've got you."

Her big, brown eyes were gazing up at him appealingly. He could feel every contour of her body as he held her.

He'd been waiting all his life for a moment like this one.

He didn't know how long he'd stood there staring down at her, but it felt like hours.

Almost without realising what he was doing, he lowered his head.