Harry and ginny

Hogs-mead

Christmas was coming quickly and Harry still didn't know who had taken the girls.
Though sometimes he wished they were still missing.
Every time Harry would walk by that group, they would make either sad or angry faces. They would purposely try to get close to Harry, just to dramatically ignore him.
Harry was so tired of them trying to get his attention that he walked straight into Ginny in the hallway.
"Sorry bout that" Harry said, helping her pick up her fallen books.
Once the books were all picked up, Ginny asked, "how's life been? I see you have an entourage following you around." She motioned to behind Harry. Harry looked back and saw Christine and Sarah glaring at him and stalking away.
Harry sighed. "Yeah. Sometimes I wish they'd leave me alone."
"Sometimes?" She asked.
"All the time."
She laughed. "Yeah. It's not easy. One time this guy tried to give me chocolates with a love potion in it! Can you believe it! And it was little
Devin who gave it to me. He's like 4 foot 3!"
Harry laughed. "Well at least he's not purposefully trying to get near you for the purpose of letting you know that they're avoiding you."
They both laughed. When they finished laughing, no one said a word.
"So, are you going on the hogs-mead trip tomorrow?" Harry asked.
"Umm, yeah I think so." She replied.
"Me too." Harry said. You wouldn't want to go with me would you?"
"Sure!"
Harry sighed, relieved.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" She asked.
"Yeah. I guess you will."
Harry couldn't go to sleep that night. He couldn't believe he finally was going to be alone with Ginny for more than a couple minutes! Ginny was all he could think about. After time and time again of Ron trying to... Ron!
Oh how could he be so stupid! Ron would never allow Harry to be alone with Ginny. Especially when he thought that him and Harry were going to hogs-mead together.
Harry spent all night thinking of a plan. The only solution he could think of is either pretending he had a cold and telling Ron he couldn't go, or try to be with both at the same time. He chose the sick option.
In the morning, Harry got abruptly awoken by Ron jumping on his bed.
"Wake up mate!" He said. "Hermoine's got something to tell us. She said it was urgent."
Harry quickly got up, got dressed and hurried down the stairs.
"What's up?" Harry asked when they found Hermoine sitting on one of the big chairs.
"I think I know who took the girls." She said. "You know how you told us Christine told you that it was like a "shadow"? Well it just came to me while I was reading a book. It says right here that Shadowen, a type of creature that can be found in all of England, are creatures that morph into shadows when being stealthy. They are known to obey anyone who pays the right price, and if the price is good enough, they are willing to go as far as killing to meet the assignment their master has given them."
"Could it be possible that Voldemort got control of them or persuaded them to join his side?" Ron asked.
"Wait.. what kind of payment do these shadownens ask for?"
Hermoine looked solemnly at them.
"They ask for a body sacrifice in return."
Harry was shocked. Could someone they know have been killed right under their noses?
"And another thing," she continued, " I found that the shadowen are created when.."
"Look," Ron said, interrupting, "If we don't leave soon, we'll be late to hogs-mead. So maybe we should talk about this later."
Harry sighed. He totally forgot to play sick this morning. Plus he was late to meet up with Ginny. He had no idea how to get out of it. Harry didn't know how, but he was determined to get through today successfully.
"Ugh!" Harry said, trying to sound convincing. "I totally forgot about  homework I had to finish."
"Well that's all right mate." Ron said. "Finish it after."
"No you don't understand. It's from Snape's class and it's due in a couple of hours. I'll meet up with you guys later ok?"
As the two of them walked off, he snuck his way to where Ginny was.
"Hey. Sorry I'm late. There was something I had to do before I left."
"Tell me about it. Just yesterday madam pomfry asked me to weed her whole garden in just two hours without magic!" She said.
"What did you do?" Harry said with a snicker in his voice.
"I may have told a couple classmates that the Woodward plant was jinxed  and would turn whoever touched it into sand."
"Why was that so terrible?" Harry asked.
"It wouldn't have been, if Woodward wasn't the plant we were taking a test on. Let's just say they didn't do too well and when madam pomfry found out, she wasn't too pleased."
Harry laughed. They talked on and on about different things. Harry had a blast. Once they got to hogs mead, they went straight to a sweet store. After many cheesy jokes and a lot of cavities later, they went to get butterbeers.
Harry thought nothing could go wrong.
Then Harry looked up.
There, sitting on the other side of the building, was Ron and Hermoine.
"Ugh, I'll be right back. Got to go to the Lou."
Harry went the direction to the bathrooms, took a sharp turn, walked hidden behind some fake plants, and made his way to where Ron and Hermoine were sitting.
"There you guys are!" Harry said. "Been looking everywhere for you!"
They sat down for a while, and then they got up to leave.
"I have to do something real quick. You go on without me."
They left with a weird look on their faces. Harry ran back to where Ginny was sitting. She had already payed for the butterbeers.
"I'm so sorry, a bunch of people crowded around me and I just escaped."
She shrugged and they both walked out of the building. Harry froze when he saw Ron and Hermoine. He should've know that they would've waited for him. He grabbed Ginny's arm and started walking the opposite direction.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Yeah there are just people I'm trying to avoid."
"The 'crowd'?"
"Yeah"
They walked around for a bit. It was going fine until Harry saw Ron and Hermoine just up the path. He stopped suddenly.
"What?" Ginny asked.
"I totally forgot my wand! I'll go get it."
He dived out of the way just as Ron and Hermoine passed. He made his way over to an abandoned building, snuck in, and finally was able to breath.
But not for long.
Voices in the building knocked the breath out of Harry.
"I told you they'd be helpful." A muffled voice said.
"You were right." A mature voice said back. Harry immediately knew who it was. Lucious Malfoy.
"When will we get our reward?" The muffled voice said back.
"You know we have the girl in our custody already. When you have completed the task, and only when you have completed the task will you get your reward."
Harry picked up his courage and looked towards where the voices were coming from. At first it looked like just Lucious was talking to himself, but when Harry looked more closely, he could make out a shadow. For a shadow, it had remarkable features that you could make out. It had sharp edges and a detailed face.
Harry tried to get a closer look, but stumbled on some boxes, causing a loud crash.
Harry tried running, but stopped as he bumped into a shadow.