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Author: Jai-kun Story: Neither Can Live Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-DH Status: Completed Reviews: 9 Words: 23,072
Harry had no idea where he was going when he'd stepped into his apparition. He hadn't had a destination in mind, only a single deliberate, determined thought. I have to get to Ginny. This was, perhaps, why his apparition felt completely different than the others. He didn't feel as if he were being squeezed through a tube three sizes too small for him. Instead he felt as if he were being stretched to limitless dimensions, pulled like taffy until he was so thin he would separate and leave bits of him behind. It wasn't painful as much as alarming. The feeling of alarm began to grow as he realized he had been... wherever one goes when they apparate for far longer than he'd ever been before. He felt warmth in his below his belt, and at first had the sudden thought that he'd done something embarrassing in his trousers, but his body began to contract toward the warmth and he put the thought out of his mind. Before he understood what had happened, he was breathing air again, on knees that were once again skin and bone (and scraped from falling) and feeling hard floor beneath his hands. He wanted to sink to the ground, take a moment and let his wobbly limbs catch up, but a horrid thought had entered his mind a half a second later. What if he'd splinched himself? He forced his hands to search, but nothing seemed to be missing, right down to his eyebrows. The only thing that was left was the shaky, stretched out feeling, and he allowed himself the time to recover. A painful flash of memory from the ‘dream’ he’d had that night drove him to push himself up along the wall, gritting his teeth against the image. He stood still, reaching for his wand, swallowing against a lingering dryness. Moody would have had kittens for all the stealth and vigilance Harry was neglecting. As it was, Harry was all too pleasantly surprised not to be in several bits across the Isles. He listened, pressed against a wall with what seemed to be felt or velvet lining it, turning his head in the pitch dark room to listen for odd noises and determine where he was. He became aware of a soft breathing, as if someone were asleep, slow and steady, and he approached it, hoping his eyes would adjust enough that he wouldn’t have to cast a light to see by. Wherever this room was, it was cut off completely from any source of light. He could hear the breathing nearer to him now, which meant he must be getting closer, but who it was and what their intention would be if awakened was another matter. He was moving very slowly, a skill learned from years of having an invisibility cloak. However, even an invisibility cloak couldn’t compensate for unfamiliarity of terrain, and his feet, as if guided by magic, found a squeaky floorboard. Harry stopped dead. The sound of breathing sped up, and a voice croaked dryly, "Who’s there?" Harry had never been so silent. He willed himself not to breathe, hoped, desperately, that his heart’s pounding was not as loud in the room as it sounded in his ears. The voice came again, as if through gritted teeth, "who’s there," and Harry finally recognized it. "Ginny?" A sharp breath was taken in, and Harry flicked his wand, whispering "Lumos." Ginny was there, in the center of an otherwise bare room, squinting against the sudden light. Harry came closer and moved his wand so that the light showed his face more clearly. He took in the wild hair, the pale face that brought her freckles into stark relief, and knelt down to examine her closer. He wasn’t prepared for Ginny to lunge, snarling, against her bonds, and he fell backwards, losing his still lit wand on the floor. "Get away," Ginny was growling, struggling against her bonds. "I don’t care whose face you take, I’m not telling you anything!" She struggled harder against her bonds, flinging her head back and forth, struggling with all her might to get loose of the chair. "Ginny," Harry called, trying to remain quiet and still be heard over her increasingly loud cursing. "Ginny, it’s me! It’s Harry!" "Bollocks!" She glared, positively shaking, angry tears streaming down her face. "Harry couldn’t be here, he doesn’t know where I am! He doesn’t even know I’m gone!" Harry stared at her, reaching, slowly, for his wand, and Ginny narrowed her eyes. "I’m not saying anything, and when I get out of here—" "You told Romilda Vane that I had a Hungarian Horntail tattooed on my chest!" It was a wild, desperate try, and Ginny scoffed. "Romilda Vane, the Gossip of Gryffindor? Pull the other one!" Harry grabbed his wand and stood, tenderly. He approached Ginny cautiously, casting about in his mind for something no one else would know. "Um, you use a potion your mother brews in your hair. It smells different for everyone." Ginny didn’t look convinced, but didn’t respond. She glared at him with her jaw set. Then he hit on it. "I saw a vision of Voldemort’s snake attacking your dad. I was inside the snake. We overheard Moody talking about it with your folks, because everyone thought Voldemort was possessing me..." At once Ginny’s face went slack and she gawked up at him, no longer straining against the ropes that held her. "What are you doing here," she whispered incredulously. "How did you know how to get here?" Harry busied himself with untying her wrists, which were now scraped and bleeding from her struggles. Her ankles were the same. "I... I don’t know." "You don’t know?!" Ginny was staring at him as if he’d grown a second head, and Harry in trying to find a suitable answer, decided that a second head might just have been sane in comparison. "I saw..." He sighed, finally reaching around her to untie the rope across her chest. "I saw Malfoy bring you before Voldemort... only... I was Voldemort." Ginny shuddered against him. "I saw him... he was going to kill you, and he put the Cruciatus curse on you, and..." Harry swallowed. "I was just going to get away from the house and work out a plan to try to find you, but... I apparated and the next thing I knew, I was here." Ginny gaped at him, her face paling. "S-so, you came here, all alone, to try to get me out? No one else..?" She seemed to think better of continuing, but the knowledge that they were quite alone hit Harry like a punch to the gut. Quite aside from the fact that everyone would likely be furious if they managed to beat the odds and get out of this situation alive, they were alone in a stronghold of the Dark Lord. Harry’s face paled and his stomach clenched. Ginny took his hand, closing her eyes in a valiant effort not to panic. Harry could only admire her strength of will when she opened them again with the fierce look that meant no one would stop her. However, the next words she spoke caused him to close his own eyes. "I don’t have my wand. "Right then," he said, still taking strength from their gaze. "Do you know what room we’re in? What this place is?" "I heard them talking," Ginny said in a low voice. "This is Malfoy Manor. One of them said that they keep all the stuff they need to get rid of here." Harry looked at her. "They, who’s they? And why were they talking in front of you?" "Because I was pretending to be unconscious of course," she said with a lazy wave of her hand. Harry noticed, when it stopped, that her hand was shaking slightly, and reached to take it. Ginny looked at him and blushed, then cursed under her breath. "You know this is likely a trap, don’t you Harry?" "Of course it’s a trap. You wouldn’t be alive if they weren’t planning on using you." Harry had moved to the door and crouched next to it, peering through a keyhole to the other side. It was no use, as it was dark, and once again he found himself wishing that he had his invisibility cloak. Finally, he reached back, taking Ginny’s hand and drawing her next to him. "We’re going to have to find a way out of here," he whispered. She nodded, and he flicked his wand. "Nox." Ginny held him back as he reached for the door. She was suddenly closer and whispered in his ear, sending shivers trilling down his spine. "Wait a few moments. Let your eyes get used to no light." She must have sensed the look on his face, because it was too far to dark for her to have seen it normally. "You learn quite a bit when you sneak out at night to teach yourself to fly, and from brothers like George and Fred." Harry nodded, swallowing against the feeling of her hand against his, feeling the calluses that catching and throwing a quaffle had brought to her hand. It was odd, yet comfortable, knowing that many girls would have been horrified at having such hands. On Ginny however, it seemed natural, that her hands would be strong and shown signs of use. He sighed against his thoughts. "Let’s go." He felt Ginny nod, and opened the door, slowly, wincing against the quiet creaking noise the hinges made. Ginny had been correct. With his eyes now more used to the dark, he found that he could see shapes and outlines decently well enough to tell a doorway from just a section of a wall, and to see when a corner was coming up. Remaining low, the two crept down the hall, ears and eyes alert to anyone who might come along. A noise down the hall caused Ginny to stop Harry again, quickly pulling open a door and yanking Harry into it, almost causing him to cry out. The door closed silently, and Ginny and Harry held their breaths, listening, praying that whatever would pass hadn’t heard the scuffling their frantic bid to hide had caused. It appeared that they hadn’t. Footsteps came slowly up the hallway, and a thin beam of light shone under the door. Whoever was attached to it, however, simply passed by, unaware of the teenagers willing their heartbeats to slow on the other side of the door. Harry moved to open the door again, once the light had passed, but Harry’s hand on his arm made him pause as her breathing started to quicken. He had been about to ask what was wrong when a stifled giggle came from her mouth. "Wands," she whispered, and Harry looked, seeing vague, boxy shapes stacked almost as high as the ceiling taking up half the room. "Light your wand and cover it with your hand," she ordered frantically, and Harry obeyed warily. Ginny stood and walked to the boxes, slowly, almost reverently, and started searching through them. "What was it he’d said," she muttered, picking up a box, looking at the label, and casting it aside. "What was it? What if it’s not here?" She was talking to herself in a strained whisper, almost whimpering as box after box was stacked as quietly as her trembling hands could manage to her side. Harry began to worry that the Cruciatus curse had somehow been set on her too long as the whimpers grew frantic and more noticeable. "Ginny?" Harry stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "Ginny, your wand, it’s-" "Here, somewhere." She hadn’t snapped, but the tone of her voice brooked no argument. "The wand I’ve been using isn’t mine, it’s Mum’s Mum’s from her school days. Mum took me before I started school, but couldn’t afford Ollivander’s price at the time. I’d always hoped that I could go back, maybe after school, and get the right one. Grandmum’s wand always felt... sticky; as if the magic had to get past something when I used it." Her words were rushed and clipped as she set aside more wands, and then she hissed, panting. "Here!" She pulled a wand out of its box and gave it a swish. Out poured whispers of music, and Ginny’s eyes lit up in the muted glow from Harry’s wand tip. "Holly, dragon heartstring, 11 3/4 inches, just like he said..." She was fairly dancing, and Harry suddenly remembered her dismay at hearing that Ollivander’s shop had been abandoned. Harry took her hand, causing her to look at him with a start. "If we get out of this, and Ollivander turns up, I’ll pay him myself. But let’s go, OK?" Ginny shook herself and nodded, her step more confident. The door opened, however, and two shapes silhouetted against the black opening, until two bright lights emitted from two more wands. For a wild moment, Harry dared to hope that they’d been saved. However, after the spike of pain faded from the sudden light, he met the crazed stare of Lucius Malfoy, looking much the worse for wear, and Peter Pettigrew’s ratty face staring at him in horrified shock. "I told you, Wormtail," Malfoy gloated. "I told you I heard a scuffle. Marvelous, marvelous, Potter did as I thought he would. Had the Dark Lord only listened-" Pettigrew said nothing, his free hand running in an agitated manner down his robes before coming up to wipe sweat from his upper lip. "What ever shall I do with you, Potter," Malfoy continued. "The Dark Lord wants you for himself, it’s true. But I, too, have suffered at your hands. Look at me, Potter." He spat as he spoke, and Harry’s lip curled. "LOOK at me! Everything is taken away. My son, my wife, my home, used for, for castaways. Do you know why these wands are here, Potter?" Malfoy’s hand waved wildly behind the two teenagers, and he began to pace, "Because none were right for the Dark Lord. None would respond as well as his own wand, if at all. He wanted to prevent what had happened at the cemetery... but no. Nott was punished accordingly, and they all ended here, where once my family lived and breathed and ate and talked." Harry watched as Lucius Malfoy’s face contorted, his entire body trembling in rage. He brought his wand up, but felt it jerk from his hand and into Pettigrew’s. Harry glared, but the other wizard would not look at him. "You have taken everything. I would have almost thanked you, Potter, had the Dark Lord not seen fit to release me from Azkaban. That capture would have at least spared me watching my honor fall in his sight, my son disgraced and-" He shook his head, gritting his teeth. "But what shall I do now? I owe you something for all my pain, and the Dark Lord only wanted you alive..." His eyes fell on Ginny, who was trembling in fright to Harry’s left, her lips quivering. "Yes, of course. I could prove I was right and hurt you all in one go. Yes, how poetic." Malfoy’s grin widened and he giggled, causing Wormtail to step slightly back from him. The blond wizard raised his wand toward Ginny, who began to dive to the side, when Harry shouted, "NO!" It was confusion, then. Wormtail brought his own wand up to point at Harry, and Harry thrust his hand forward, wildly calling out the first thing that came to mind. "Expelliarmus!" Malfoy and Pettigrew flew backwards, shouting in shock as their wands flew from their hands, and Harry’s flew to his. At the same time, a beam of red light slammed into Pettigrew’s chest, changing his course and causing him to hit the wall with a dull thud. Harry grabbed Ginny and ran between the two prone wizards, not bothering to douse his wand, and a sickly yellow bolt passed over his head to pulverize the plaster in the ceiling. Ginny kept up, pulling her hand from Harry’s to allow them both to sprint faster. They flung themselves down a narrow staircase and into a parlor, casting about for another doorway. There was one directly across from them, and they hurtled toward it, only to have it open when they were still feet from it. A large, hulking man stepped in, and Harry recognized him from the fight on the tower at the end of term. They fired off quick curses, which were blocked as Malfoy stumbled into the room. Harry and Ginny stood back to back, panting, wands raised at the two death eaters circling them, turning to keep them at bay. Then another set of doors opened and a lumpy looking wizard crashed through. "Where’s Wormtail?" "Down," Malfoy gasped. "The girl stunned him." Harry and Ginny turned, their wands flicking back and forth frantically, trying to point everywhere at once, and Lucius laughed. "No hope, Potter. You meet the Dark Lord at dawn and the girl..." He grinned, his lip twitching in mirth. "Wormtail told us what happened when the Dark Lord first came back, Potter, did you know? We know what his first command was that faithful night. Do you remember?" Harry turned to Ginny, pale and trembling, and pulled her into his arms. "I’m sorry," he whispered, as Malfoy gloatingly continued from behind her. Ginny spun in his arms and held him as well. "Me too." "He said," while Malfoy laughed enjoying the next words, "’Kill the spare!’" As Lucius began to speak the words of the Killing Curse, Harry made his decision. He shifted his weight, trying to spin Ginny out of the path of the curse to take it himself. At the same time, Ginny leapt up and tried to use her weight to stop him, knocking Harry’s glasses askew. And then the world went black. A/N: OK. This is slightly longer (I think) than the other two because I didn’t want to add another chapter to a story that’s already lengthened beyond my expectations. I apologize if it seems rushed! I think there will be one more chapter and an epilogue after this, but, as my muse is flighty, don’t hold me to it. As always, thanks to Tanaxanth, without whom this would be a mess of hard to follow twisted paths in the hedge-maze of my mind.
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