||Now It's Just Us||

Chapter 37

There was someone banging on the front door. 

"Harry?" 

Ginny's voice came out small and terrified. She was holding onto Harry's wrist with a firm grip. Harry swallowed and put on a brave front. He grabbed his wand tightly in one hand and got off the bed. Ginny didn't let go of him.

"Harry wait, we don't know who it is," Ginny grabbed hold of his arm with her other hand.

"Potter!"

They both stilled at the voice, because they recognised it. Harry's face paled when he feared the desperateness and fear in his voice. Ginny released her hold on him and threw the covers off herself.

"Theodore," Ginny breathed, voicing Harry's thoughts, "something's happened Harry, I-"

"Come on," Harry pulled her out behind him, and they descended the stairs together, each clasping their wands with so much force that their knuckles were white. Their footsteps sounded much too loud in the silence of the house.

"State your name," Harry said when they had reached the front door and stood facing it. Harry pointed his wand at the door.

"It's me, it's Theodore," he said desperately, his voice cracking with all the yelling he had been doing, "Theodore Nott, I work at the Ministry, Archives department."

"What's my patronus?" Ginny asked, making sure to be loud enough.

"It's a horse!" annoyance laced his voice now, "Open the fucking door before j break it down!"

Harry muttered alohomora and the door opened. Theodore stumbled in, looking very red in the face. On further observation, Harry saw that he was red in the face. Scarlet, was a better way to put it.

He was covered in blood. His hands were dripping with it and the front of his shirt had large smears all over. His face was smeared with it as well.

"Theodore!" Ginny gasped as Theodore fell to his knees and began sobbing uncontrollably. Harry quickly locked the door and recast the wards. 

"She's gone, she's dead," he bawled, years streaming down his face and leaving clean tracks of skin in between tbe blood, "someone killed her. Potter, do something!"

Theodore lunged at Harry, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. Harry was momentarily shocked and had nearly hexed him out of reflexes.

"Theodore, just tell us what happened!" Harry said, taking Theodore's bloody hands off. His hands had smeared blood onto Harry's nightshirt, leaving two sinister prints on it. 

"Pansy!" Theodore said desperately, as though unable to understand why the two people in front of him couldn't grasp the meaning of what he was saying.

"Come on," Harry said hurriedly, turning to Ginny. He summoned their cloaks and fasted his own around his neck.

"But Harry we-"

"Come on, Ginny," Harry's voice came out fiercer than he had wanted. But Ginny threw her cloak around herself. Theodore clasped both their hands, the grip slipping because his hands were slick with the crimson liquid. They apparated. 

The front door of Pansy's home was ajar, and Harry rushed inside. He heard the other two walk in behind him, and heard as Ginny gasped and ran over to stand beside him.

Pansy lay on the floor, her night shirt ripped, her limbs askew. There was a dark stain on the carpet next to her, and Harry spotted a goblet near it. It was mostly pumpkin juice. The carpet under her was steadily darkening as it collected blood. Her right arm was stretched out, and on it was a message carved into her flesh, very vivid and very visible: you've been warned. The letters were etched roughly into her skin, the edges frayed and jagged.

"Who?" Ginny sobbed hysterically, stumbling several steps back and walking into Theodore. He steadied her. Silent tears full of rage and misery streamed down his face, but he wasn't bawling anymore. His fists were clenched, his jaw twitched. Harry knew that if he got to know who had done this, that person would suffer a fate worse than death. 

"I don't know," Harry said, his voice near a whisper. The blood filled the room with a metallic odor, and it was highly disturbing, "who else did you tell, Theodore?"

"Nobody, I-" his voice cracked, "I directly went to your place."

"The Ministry doesn't know," Ginny said, making her way to the door, "we have to-"

"No," Harry said immediately, "we are not pulling them into this."

"What?" Ginny shrieked, looking at him incredulously, "Why?"

"Because I think they may be involved in this…" he struggled to find the right word without being insensitive, "whatever this is."

"I'll kill them all," Theodore gritted out, "I'll kill each and every one of them and I'll enjoy doing it."

"Wait," Harry said calmly, "we don't know for sure. But I assure you that whoever did this, you will have your go at them."

Theodore only nodded tensely and looked away, unable to look at Pansy's mangled form anymore.

"People knew that Narcissa came to see me that day," Harry said gravely, "she was supposed to meet Pansy. And Pansy surely had to tell her assistant or whoever about where she was going."

"It's a possibility that someone from the Prophet or the Ministry followed her," Ginny realised, tapping her foot furiously and looking around as though hoping for answers to appear on the walls.

"They must have heard them talking, and whoever this is clearly doesn't want us to find Malfoy and Hermione," Harry said darkly, "so…"

He trailed off, unable to say it. 

The image of Pansy's dead form was etched into every nook and crevice of his mind, and it clung to his eyelids parasitcally, forcing his mind to begin fabricating blames to place on himself.

"Let's take care of her," Ginny said softly after a minute of silence had passed.

They cleared the blood up, and Harry closed her eyes. It was a thing in which he had been influenced by Luna. Theodore carried her in his arms once she had been wrapped in a white cloth. Several times, Harry heard Theodore whispering words that includes his vows of revenge and that he would always love her.

Harry cast a last look around the place, looking for any giveaways or signs to lead them in the right direction. There were none.

"She wanted to be left in the sea," Theodore said, his voice heavy, "I- I want to carry it out."

"Sure," Harry said, "do you want us to-?"

"Please," Theodore said, tears brimming his eyes again.

Ginny nodded. They both grabbed hold of his shoulders and he apparated them to a cliff overlooking the sea.