PhoenixSong.net :: A Harry/Ginny Fanfic and Fanart Archive

Author: Kathryn

Story: Hogwarts Rebellion

Part: 10:The Forbidden Forest

Rating: Teens

Setting: DH-interview

Status: Completed

Reviews: 13

Words: 5,452

Updated: March 5, 2009, 8:35pm

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10:The Forbidden Forest

Disclaimer: 'Any people, objects, places and so on that you recognise belong to JK Rowling. I'm just having fun playing in her sandbox for a while.

The sword was pulled from her hand as quickly as Snape had said her name, so that Ginny found herself grasping at thin air as she tried to keep hold of it. Mere seconds later Neville's and Luna's wands as well as her own were taken and caught in Snape's greasy hands. Likewise the three of them were guided back up to the office as if they were being forced. It was almost like they were puppets whose strings Snape controlled. Ginny found her body moving at a fast pace that she had no control of.

She turned her head round to quickly glare at Snape before she found it quickly twisted back to the front, leaving her eyes on the circular office wall. She could only hope that she had managed to convey all the hatred and disgust in that brief look that she had given Hogwarts' chief Death Eater and for one brief moment she wouldn't have minded the slimy Slytherin having access to her mind. She would love for that Death Eater to know the fine details of the disdain in which she held him, without having to shout them aloud and earn detention. Even Snape couldn't give her detention for her thoughts.

Not yet, anyway.

As she got further up the stairs, she realised that the former headmasters' portraits were now no longer feigning sleep. She could clearly see the blue eyes of Albus Dumbledore looking at her. She sent him a questioning look. She was longing to ask him questions, to shout at him about what his trust had led to. Briefly, a bitter satisfaction filled her body. At least Dumbledore would be able to see what his trust had led to.

"Miss Weasley," Snape said again as they reached the circular office.

"Professor," she spat with as much scorn in her voice as she could muster, as she spun round to face him.

She may not be able to do much to help her current situation but she could at least show the evil git the contempt that he deserved. Risking a glance at Neville's and Luna's faces she could see they clearly felt the same. If they were going to go down, they would go down fighting. There was no way she was going to give Snape any information that she didn't have to.

Turning back to look at him, she could see a mixture of fury and frustration on the Hogwarts head teacher's face although the strange thing was that despite the nature of their crimes, Snape did not look as angry as he had after the fatal Quidditch match earlier this year.

Maybe, just maybe, if she played this well she might not be in that much trouble. She might be able to talk all of them out of this; get things to work in their favour a bit.

Ginny forced herself to drop her mutinous glare as she adopted a composed face, a face that showed very little emotion except maybe innocent denial. The very face she had so often used on her mother to get out of trouble.

She was very prepared to play dumb and ignorant to the fact they may have broken the smallest of school rules.

"Is there a reason you have become a brunette?" he asked as he waved his wand to change the colour back to red.

"Fancied a change," she shrugged as she forced herself to smile at him, "but I'm happy to be a redhead again."

"The Slytherin robes," Snape sneered back at her as he gestured to her clothes, "Are you finally embracing your pure-blood roots?"

"Hardly." She could not keep the jeer out of her voice, but seeing Snape's eyes flare, she forced herself to adopt a plainer, bored tone. "Just thought I'd see if I looked good in green." She offered the headmaster a small shrug as she continued, "They are the Harpies' colours."

She dared a glance up at Snape's face, risking the chance of making eye contact. Snape was glaring straight at her and not paying too much attention to either Neville or Luna. He clearly thought that she was the bigger threat right now. Ginny risked a closer look at Snape's face trying to second guess his emotions and possible actions towards her. The smile on Snape's cold face was clear. He was clearly enjoying himself.

"More dreams that won't come true, Miss Weasley. Just like those dreams you have concerning Undesirable Number One." Snape gloated as shock ran through Ginny. Was Snape really aware of her dreams of Harry? Had he looked that far into her mind or had he just guessed? Either way, it was not a good sign. If it was the latter, Snape knew her too well and it was the former that was cringe worthy. She didn't want even some of her closest friends knowing about her dreams. "But before we talk through unfulfilled dreams, are there any more comments you wish to make on your current appearance?"

"Not that I can think of," she forced herself to smile back at the headmaster.

Snape paused, looking her up and down once more, weighing his options for a final time. Ginny gulped; he was clearly about to pass sentence and despite her bravado, she was nervous, so nervous that she could feel the goose bumps forming on her skin and hear the pounding of her quick heart over the deafening silence that had filled the room.

"Good. Now that matter is concluded, let's move on to the more important discussion," Snape drawled, "What brings you, Longbottom and Miss Lovegood into my office?"

"A dare," Ginny spoke quickly while Neville nodded his head in agreement.

"A dare," Snape sneered, "just like when you set off several stupid pranks so that you were able to break into Amycus' office?" Ginny realised their mistakes even as Snape was talking. They should not have done a trial run since obviously that would put them on guard about possible other attempts to break into the Hogwarts Death Eaters' offices. "Did you not think that it would be at all suspicious to do that again? And yet you took such a risk, knowing we were already alert to these pranks for just a dare?"

"That's right," Neville agreed, stepping forward.

"I see," Snape stroked his wand as he patiently gained all the information he needed, "and whose idea was this dare?"

"Mine," Neville said before Ginny even had a chance to speak.

"I very much doubt that; you do not have the brains to accomplish any type of plan. I believe that this screams 'Weasley'. The Weasley brats may be delinquents but they are not brainless, Longbottom," Snape mocked. "However, that is really beside the point. Much more important is the reason you attempted to steal the sword of Gryffindor."

"Just part of the dare," Ginny shrugged, repeating the line that they were all going to stick to, "since we are Gryffindors we thought the sword should be in the tower instead of the snake's lair."

Just then the office door opened again and if it was at all possible Ginny's heart plummeted further. She hardly needed to see the Carrow siblings right now. Granted, the pair of them where no worse than Snape. In fact they were much tamer but for the fact that the pair of phoney Hogwarts professors were more eager to unleash the Unforgivables on their students.

Ginny felt a shudder run down her spine at the thought of being subjected to the Cruciatus curse again. Amycus Carrow really took delight in torturing her and she had yet to find an answer to the pain and that was even without thinking about what sick looks the pig faced bastard was going to give her.

"Ah, they are here," Amycus Carrow said as he walked into the office and saw the three of them standing in the centre of the room.

"We thought that would be the case after we looked in our own offices." Alecto Carrow continued her brother's train of thought. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at the three Dumbledore's Army leaders in turn. "Have you found out why they were in your office? Looking for more cards?"

"Or even an historic sword," Amycus' lustful eyes fell on Ginny and Ginny was more than a little tempted to send the Death Eater back a two fingered salute. "What was the girl's excuse?"

Sense took over her natural instincts as another shiver ran down Ginny's spine and she forced herself to keep her mouth firmly shut. As much as she wanted to scream at the disguising Death Eater what a sick bastard he was, she knew it was in her best interests to stay quiet now. She needed to limit the amount of trouble that she was in, not add to it.

Snape spoke in a bored tone as he turned to his fellow death eaters and muttered, "A dare, apparently."

"Do you believe any of this, Severus?" Amycus Carrow asked, with clear doubt in his voice. "Do you want me to get the real reason out of her?" He stroked his wand. "The Cruciatus Curse is a weakness of hers."

"No, no, that will not be necessary," Snape purred as he lovingly stroked his own wand. "And I would like to hear all the lies first, in order to see how many things I have to punish them for. You see, I know exactly why they are here." Ginny looked up in shock, desperate to know how much Voldemort's right hand man already knew, hoping she had not given too much away. He could not; he must not know any more than he already did no matter what it would cost her to keep him out of her mind. She would not give Snape any further knowledge that he did not have already. "It is clear from the Weasley girl's useless mind that she was intending to steal the sword to give to Harry Potter. Looking into that worthless mind it is clear that the girl is in love." Ginny dropped her gaze instantly. "Are you aware that Harry Potter is Undesirable Number One?"

Ginny gulped but forced herself to answer in careful tones. "I believe that is what the Ministry and Prophet are claiming."

"That is the case, Miss Weasley, and not just a claim," Snape sneered. "Potter is as worthless as I always knew he was and now, thanks to those fine institutions, the rest of Britain are aware of that fact too."

"So, does she know where Potter is? If she was going to give him the sword, she must know." Excitement was growing in his voice. "Where is he, Severus?"

Panic flooded through her. She knew that it was irrational, but she couldn't help feeling that she was about to give Harry away as both of the Carrow siblings turned to look at her with greedy looks in their eyes. As their eyes narrowed her heart quickened. She couldn't bear to be the person who gave Harry away and right now it didn't matter that she didn't know anything.

She kept her eyes looking down at the floor, hoping, no matter how futilely, that that would stop Snape having access to her mind. If only there could be a form of the Fidelius Charm to protect ones thoughts as well as ones locations.

"No, she is as clueless on that as with so many other things," Snape said and she could swear that a genuine smile crossed his lips for the briefest of moments. "She has no idea where Potter is."

Ginny chanced another glance upwards to see Amycus Carrow pouting. He looked like an overgrown child who had just broken his favourite toy and Ginny could tell that a two year old style tantrum would not be far off.

"I don't understand," Amycus looked truly confused. "If they don't know where he is, how were they going to get the sword to him?"

"I believe that is why I called the girl � called all three of them, in fact � clueless," Snape jeered and there was no doubt about Ginny's suspicions, he was smiling. "In fact, with these brains leading the little rebellion, I doubt that we have anything to worry about."

"Good." Alecto laughed, a laugh that was echoed by her brother with his pig-like tones. "So what are we going to do about our little crime of breaking and entering?"

Ginny gulped, once again attempting to push any fears into the pit of her stomach. She was a Gryffindor and the key quality to Gryffindors was bravery. She was going to fight this face on and not run away like a small child. She could handle whatever they wanted to throw at her. She'd cope, just like everyone else fighting this war was, because despite everything they did to her, she was still safe. She did not have a massive reward hanging over her head in return for her death.

They were not going to hurt a pure-blood that much; that went against their beliefs.

"Well, we have breaking into the office, lying to the headmaster, stealing of Slytherin robes and using Weasley products. I think a week's worth of detention each would be fair," Snape mused. "Yes, seven nights of detention will fit nicely."

"Yes, yes," Alecto agreed. "Seven nights of the Cruciatus Curse."

Ginny could feel her whole body shaking and she was unable to do anything about it. While she may have started to build up a level of resistance to the Cruciatus Curse and not suffer as she had done in that first lesson, she doubted that resistance would hold if she was subjected to Snape performing that curse for hours at a time, seven nights running.

Maybe the best things she could hope for was to pray that she would just black out and end in the hospital wing.

"No, no, I was thinking about something more dangerous and more painful; something that may lead to several nights in the hospital wing. Seven nights in the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid, I think," Snape mused. "Yes, seven nights in the forest."

"What?" Amycus asked in amazement.

"You do not think it is suitable? Have you spoken to Dolores Umbridge recently? The forest can be quite disturbing." Snape turned his attention back to Ginny, Luna and Neville. "The detentions will start tomorrow night. Be at the entrance for six o'clock in the evening, sharp. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Professor," the three voices answered.

"You are all dismissed, go back to your common rooms," Snape said as he gave them back their wands.

They headed back to the common room without talking to each other. They didn't need to dwell on their failure, especially when they had been so close, and Ginny didn't want to think about the week's worth of detentions in the forest.

The Forbidden Forest was not the place it had been in previous years. As well as the centaurs now running riot there, there were large man-eating spiders that had taken over huge parts of it as well as other creatures that would be fit to study in their old Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons when Lupin was teaching them. Even Hagrid, who usually dismissed dangerous creatures as just high spirited, had stopped taking his classes in there for safety reasons.

Lessons on Tuesday sped up, almost as if someone knew she was dreading the trip to the forest and was playing with the time and before she knew it, the lessons had ended. Ginny quickly forced down an early dinner before taking her bag back up to her dorm room. Quickly and without much thought she changed into jeans, a jumper and an old pair of trainers. Pulling on her cloak and pocketing her wand, she caught her reflection in the mirror. With the exception of her hair, she was wearing clothing that would help her blend very quickly into the forest should she have to. She frowned at her hair � red was such an obvious colour � before pulling out a black beanie hat to cover her main distinctive feature. At six o'clock she stood in the entrance with Neville and Luna while Snape watched over them.

Glancing out at the dark forest, she shot Neville and Luna a nervous smile. They were going to be fine. Things may not be easy but she could handle the forest, they all could. Maybe she could even handle it better after what she had already suffered this year. It could not be any worse than the silence of the dungeons and it definitely could not be worse than performing the Cruciatus Curse on Luna.

Ginny felt her spirits rise as she saw the large figure of Hagrid approaching them. There was something about the Hogwarts game keeper that was very reassuring. The reassuring feeling grew stronger as he smiled at the three D.A. leaders, a smile that soon faded into a frown as Hagrid saw Snape.

"All right, Ginny, Neville, Luna," Hagrid said as he met them with a forced grin.

"Hi, Hagrid," Ginny replied and her greeting was echoed by the other two.

Hagrid took a couple of steps nearer to them, pulling a large crossbow off his back from where it had been held in a sling.

"Here," Hagrid said as he offered Neville a crossbow.

"He has a wand, he won't need that," Snape interjected, taking the crossbow out of Neville's hands. "I'll be back in the morning and don't you think just because I will not be entering the forest myself that I will not be watching."

"Right then," said Hagrid, "Now, listen carefully, 'cause it's dangerous what we're gonna do tonight, an' I don' want no one takin' risks. The forest ain't the same no more. Follow me."

Hagrid led them to the very edge of the forest. Holding his lamp up high, he pointed down a narrow, winding earthen track that disappeared into the thick black trees.

"Over there, look at that," said Hagrid as the three of them looked in the direction he was pointing, "See that silvery stuff shinin' on the ground? Tha's unicorn blood. There's a' least one unicorn in there bin hurt real bad by summat. They're disappearin' all ter time now. We're gonna find the poor things an' put 'em out of their misery." He looked at the three of them and then at the path. "So it's gonna be me an' Ginny go one way an' Neville an' Luna go the other. Now, if any of us finds any hurt unicorn, we'll send up green sparks, right? An' I'll do what needs doin'. If anyone gets in trouble, send up red sparks, an' we'll all come an' find yeh � so, be careful � let's go."

The forest was black and silent. A little way into it they reached a fork in the earthen path and Ginny and Hagrid took the left path while Neville and Luna took the right.

They walked in silence, their eyes on the ground. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot of silver-blue blood on the fallen leaves. In those moments, Ginny could see Hagrid's face; a face that looked older than she had ever seen it and her forehead was creased with worry lines.

They walked past a mossy tree stump. Ginny could hear running water; there must be a stream somewhere close by. There were still spots of unicorn blood here and there along the winding path.

A shudder ran down Ginny's spine which she was sure had nothing to do with the cold December night time weather. The Forbidden Forest didn't feel the same but then none of Hogwarts felt the same anymore. Why should the forest be any different? She wrapped her arms round her stomach, fighting back the feeling of apprehension as she walked on.

"You all right, Ginny?" Hagrid whispered breaking the silence but before she even had a chance to reply, they both heard a strange noise. "GET BEHIND THAT TREE!"

Hagrid seized Ginny and hoisted her off the path behind a large oak tree. He pulled out an arrow and fitted it into his crossbow, raising it, ready to fire. Something was slithering over the dead leaves on the ground. Ginny could feel her heart pounding so hard it was almost as if her very life depended on the quick and frantic beats of it to survive. She tried to calm herself down, taking a couple of long, slow, deep breaths as Hagrid squinted up the dark snow coated path, but after a few seconds, the sound faded away.

"Knew it," he murmured. "There's summat in here that shouldn' be."

"There are some things in the castle that shouldn't be there either," Ginny muttered back in reply.

Hagrid looked down at her again. "You all right, Ginny? Yer very quiet."

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied automatically with the answer she had given to that question all year, despite however she might actually be feeling.

"Yer mum's worried, yer know. Never seen her like this," Hagrid told her. "She's always askin' at meetin's how yer holding up. It ain't easy watchin' them target yer from afar, with nothin' she can do about it. It's even 'arder when yer know that yer letting them target yer too." Ginny hung her head, suitably ashamed. "We all want to do summat, but there's no point doin' things just for the sake of it."

"I know," she muttered.

Hagrid smiled down at her, happy that he seemed to have made his point. "So why did yer go for the sword?"

"We wanted to get it to Harry." She looked around. "Dumbledore had willed it to him, so it must be important."

Hagrid dropped his voice. "Do yer know where he is?"

"No," she admitted, "I was going to worry about that later."

They stood still for a moment in absolute silence. Not moving, just looking into each others eyes as if the information could be shared between brown and black without the need for words. It must have worked somehow, too, as Hagrid sent her a pitying look before placing his hand on her shoulder blade as he guided her on.

"E'll be alright, Ginny," Hagrid said sensing the worry in her tone. "Born survivor, Harry, an' I recon 'e's gonna come back fer yer, quite looking forward to finishing this all off and going to yer wedding in a few years. Not seen a witch an' wizard more suited fer each other since James an' Lily then yer and Harry."

Ginny found herself wishing that people didn't have to keep bringing this up. Even if she now knew that her denial of the fact that she may just have been falling in love was a lie. She couldn't let herself get her hopes up for anything these days, especially not about anything concerning Harry.

"It was just a few months, Hagrid, and you don't get love out of a few months," Ginny said softly, "but I hope you're right, I hope he's going to get out of this okay and then we'll see what happens next."

Ginny took a couple of steps forward so she could be walking ahead of Hagrid. She was not sure she could continue this conversation which could lead into very dangerous territory and get her to admit to feelings that she didn't even want to admit to herself yet. She wanted to be alone and no one was going to stop her.

The shade of the trees directed her route as she kept walking aimlessly. She wrapped her arms around her as she walked not holding her wand up as she should, a chill filling her insides. Her arms provided a protection from both the cool air on the outside and the sense of dread that she was fighting against inside herself.

The rest of the detention went on without anything remotely exciting happening and at two o'clock in the morning she met Luna and Neville at the edge of the forest. The three of them headed into the castle and back to their respective towers and dorms. It was nearly three in the morning when Ginny finally settled into her bed for another night of restless sleep.

At seven the next morning, feeling more than a little tired, she got out of bed. She dressed in a daze only giving half answers to Demelza's questions before heading down to breakfast.

Once in the Great Hall, Ginny forced down a couple of pieces of toast and a mug of coffee as she watched the post owls arriving. It took her a while to see Errol and Fred's owl Tudgay (named after the Puddlemere United Chaser) flying toward her through the masses of owls that now arrived at breakfast.

She let the pair of owls pick at toast as she removed each of the letters from their legs.

Ginny,

We have received the letter from your headmaster and, while we love you and will support you in anything you do, we urge you to be careful. I couldn't bear to hear that my baby, my little girl, has been hurt. We have suffered so much already, just keep your head down, please, Ginny.

Your mother has taken ill. She is so worried over Ron that her health has taken a battering. There is still no improvement there. We had thought that things would have progressed one way or another but we are all taking faith in the unknown. Business with Fred and George is booming and both Charlie and Bill are doing well.

Once again, we love you. Please look after yourself, my little princess. And we really, really can't wait til you get safely home to us at Christmas.

We all love and miss you,

All my love,
Dad

The familiar wave of guilt hit her. She knew her actions were increasing her parents' worries and they already had too much to worry about such as what Ron, Hermione and Harry were doing and most of her other brothers fighting in open warfare. She knew they were counting on her to keep safe at school. She also knew that she should calm down her actions, she should ease their worries but she could not just sit in lessons and act like a good little girl while she did nothing.

She had to force herself to open Fred's letter, it was much easier to fight all this when she wasn't reminded of the pain it might be causing everyone at The Burrow and if Fred had taken the unusual step of writing to her to discourage trouble making, it must be bad. Not that she should have expected any less after Snape had written home after the trip into the Headmaster's office.

Hey, Spitfire,

Your new antics have reached the wider world; even people just coming into the shop have mentioned it. Good show. Of course that means Mum is flipping. Remember the toffee incident! That will look like canaries to you but we have your back. We couldn't live without our Spitfire, so don't let anyone take her away from us.

We look forward to seeing you a few weeks.

Look after yourself, Ginny.

Love,
Fred

Ginny pocketed her post before heading up for Wednesday's lessons. She didn't want to focus on the letters for too long. She didn't need a reminder of how much this year was the dogs. The rest of the week was quiet and Ginny did her lessons and detentions without complaint. The least she could do was not worry her parents by giving them any further news of her being in trouble while she was still serving detentions so she reluctantly bowed to the D.A. pressure by keeping a low profile.

As always the Carrow siblings targeted her in lessons, Amycus having great amusement at placing her under the Imperius Curse. His amusement turned to disgust as she managed to fight against the pure-blood sentiments that he wished her to utter. While Alecto Carrow had started dissecting Harry's family tree, especially his maternal line to explain exactly why the lack of proper blood status had led to him becoming Undesirable Number One. The detentions were long and more than a little worrying as she listened carefully for noise but they caused no more pain than a couple of cuts, even more embarrassing gasps and screams at the sights in the forest and some more worry lines etched across her face. In fact if she hadn't been so tired because of them she would have coped reasonably well.

The D.A. meeting on Saturday was very subdued. They hadn't expected to get caught in the way that they had and they knew that they were suffering for their actions both in and out of lessons. Temporarily defeated they decided to go back to the simple measure of writing graffiti on the school walls and spell practice in the Room of Requirement while they came up with further plans that might work and still avoid detection.

Ginny was more than a little relieved when it was Monday night. Maybe tomorrow she would finally be able to get some sleep. She might even be able to hack into the backlog of homework she now had forming after spending all her time in the forest, lessons or Room of Requirement. It would be good to be able to rebuild her energy before they tackled their next offensive.

Again, she met Hagrid, Neville and Luna at the entrance to the castle. This time as she went down to the forest she was relieved as Hagrid explained that she would be paired with Neville in the forest. On their previous detentions Hagrid had usually chosen to partner with either herself or Luna, and Ginny had found the nights that she had walked with Neville much easier. Not that the forest itself had been any safer, it was just that she had an understanding with Neville; she was an equal with him and he didn't pressure her to answer questions. In so many ways this year Neville was becoming her rock.

The pair of Gryffindors trudged through the snow, making sure to keep their wands raised as they looked for any hurt unicorns occasionally fighting back the odd yawn. Neville was clearly as tired as she and that was making it even harder to stay alert to any of the creatures in the forest that would like the taste of human blood.

She turned and shot him a smile, "Not much longer, Neville."

"Yeah, and then we go back to our quiet lives," Neville joked as he smiled back at her.

"Baa," she found herself actually laughing as she took a couple more steps forward, "I've heard that quiet lives are very much overrated."

Neville laughed as he paused to stretch. "Be nice to try it for a while."

"Gee, Nev, you can't quit on me for the quiet life, you'd get bored after this year of, hmm, adventure." Ginny offered in a joking fashion as she bent down to examine what looked to be the silvery colour of unicorn blood and her tone quickly changed. "Looks like another one's been hurt."

Neville squinted into the dark path. "Think it must have gone now." He sighed as he kept looking back down the path and she continued to look at the blood. "SHIT! Ginny, Run!"

"What?!"

But she didn't need Neville to give her an answer. She turned around quickly to see a spider emerging near her from the dark. A huge, monstrous spider which was the size of her dad's old car was just feet away. In fact, if the spider had wanted to, the huge thing could reach her with just one reach of its giant legs.

"SHIT!" she shouted as she spun on her heels to run.

Shouting had not been a good idea as it had alerted the beast to the human prey so nearby. Just as she started to move she felt a strong crushing grip round her right leg that cracked as Neville caught her hand and pulled her out of the beast's grip.

She was aware of Neville raising his wand as, uneasy on the snow-coated ground and her possibly broken leg, she slipped and everything went black as her head slammed onto the path.

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