The Healer | Part 2: The War

The Dragon and the Bank

The next week, we received more bad news. Harry, Ron and Hermione had been caught by a group of Snatchers and handed over to the Death Eaters. Fortunately, and no one was quite sure exactly how, they managed to escape relatively unharmed and were hiding out at Bill and Fleur's cottage, which was also protected by the Fidelius Charm. They had also rescued a goblin, a younger witch that I knew from my house at Hogwarts and Mr Ollivander, the wandmaker who had been missing for the better part of the year, all of whom had been prisoners at Malfoy Manor, which seemed to be the headquarters for You-Know-Who and his followers.

Unfortunately for the Weasley family, the jig was up with the ghoul who had been pretending to be Ron as he was now confirmed to be aiding Harry Potter. The rest of the family had to go into hiding. Ginny had assured them they she was already hiding out in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts along with many other 'undesirable' students. The Death Eaters posted at Hogwarts had taken to setting the Slytherin students on the rest of the school or else hunting down muggleborns or half-bloods themselves. The remaining teachers were trying their best to protect the students, but the Death Eaters were crafty. For the most part, the students seemed to be holding their own. I wondered what would happen at the end of term. How would Ginny get home safely? Well, she wouldn't be able to go home. She'd have to get to one of the safe houses. Maybe Professors McGonagall, Flitwick or Hagrid would be able to escort the students to safe locations without the Death Eaters knowing.

The answer to that question arrived late the night after we had found out about Ron's discovery.

'Ginny?' George and Fred both exclaimed as the girl in question barrelled through the front door and shut it tightly behind her. She appeared to be out of breath and her hair looked windswept. She was carrying a broomstick.

'What are you doing here?' Fred exclaimed. We were all seated in the sitting room, just about to go to bed when Ginny had arrived. We all stood up at once.

'Well, home isn't safe anymore,' she put a finger up as if counting. 'And there's no way I'm staying with Bill and Fleur or Auntie Muriel. Besides, I figured if Edith was still here, I'd at least have a good laugh.'

'What do you mean, Edith?' Fred said, putting a hand to his chest and pretending to look offended. 'It's us, your hilarious older brothers! We would have had a laugh without Edith.'

'Gee, thanks, Fred.' I rolled my eyes.

'I brought food!' She held up a large bag that looked marvellously full.

'A little warning would have been nice,' George told her.

'Why? I thought it would be a nice surprise!' Ginny grinned, taking off her coat and leaning her broomstick against the wall.

'We only have two bedrooms!' George told her.

'So?' She said. 'You two can share, you always have. Then Edith and I can have the other room.'

'She makes a good point,' Fred grinned at George, who was looking like he wanted to protest. 'And she brought food.'

With that matter more or less settled, George moved some clothes into Fred's room for the time being while Ginny took a hot shower to warm up from her flight here.

'I still don't have to like it,' George grumbled as he dumped an armful of clothes onto the floor in Fred's bedroom.

'Don't you go making a mess already,' Fred told him. 'I'm not Edith, I won't be cleaning up after you'

I couldn't even tell him it was only going to be for a little while. Ginny was likely here for good. Or at least until all of this was over, whenever that was. And I had already decided I would be moving out on my own when that happened. It had been fun living in our own little world, but it was far from proper.