“Did you hear about that massive terrorist attack last week?” Alexa said worriedly, “I was reading the papers yesterday. Some military base was bombed and they still haven’t found who did it. A bunch of people were killed. There were a bunch of Aurors that went to respond to the attack and they were all killed in the explosion too.”
“Who could it be?” Ginny asked, “Surely they must have some idea who could have done it? It’s been a week, people can’t just get away with things that big without anyone figuring it out. Especially if the Aurors are on it. They should be able to get to the bottom of things quickly with their magic.”
“Peter Pettigrew would beg to differ,” Jack said.
Ginny looked at him.
“Okay, maybe people can be wrong,” Ginny conceded, “But they’ve got to have some idea of who could be behind it? At least for everything with Pettigrew I could see why they would think it might be him. Even if… You know what. But they really don’t know anyone that could be behind it?”
“Not that they’re telling the papers,” Jack said, “But they probably know and just aren’t telling the public. National security and all that. It might have been a wizard that did it. That would explain why the Aurors showed up there so quickly.”
“Well, I’m sure the Aurors will handle it,” Alexa said with some false cheer, “We’re safe here at Hogwarts, so we won’t have to worry about it.”
Like Alexa’s words had summoned something, they suddenly heard upset shouting and an argument around the corner of the hallway.
The three of them went silent and hurried their pace and rounded the corner. A distraught Hermione was babbling at Umbridge who looked skeptical and arguing with the girl.
“Be quiet you little mudblood, I can’t even understand what you’re saying!” Umbridge said in annoyance, before pausing and stiffening as she seemed to realize what she had said.
Hermione turned as she saw Ginny, Jack, and Alexa round the corner to witness the confrontation. Hermione’s eyes zeroed in on Ginny.
“Ginny!” She said in desperation as she ran towards them. “He has Ron! Some man claiming to be Voldemort has Ron! Eric went after him, Voldemort just abducted Ron and told Eric to meet him at the great hall! Eric cast some weird spell that stopped Voldemort from grabbing me too. Umbridge won’t listen to me, we have to save them! Eric and Ron are going to get killed if we don’t call the Aurors or get the teachers to go help them!”
Voldemort has Ron… Ginny thought in shock.
“Umbridge is useless,” Alexa said after she recovered from her shock, “Who’s a good teacher we can go to?”
“Snape and Flitwick,” Jack answered quickly, “They fought well at the Halloween riot with the Mad Potioner. They’ll be able to do something.”
“I’m going,” Ginny announced, “I’m not leaving it up to Eric to save Ron.”
“Okay. Hermione, you go to Snape or Flitwick and tell them okay?” Alexa said as Ginny started to run, “Go, Hermione!” Alexa called as she started to run after Ginny along with Jack. Hermione shook her head and ran in the opposite direction ignoring the red faced Umbridge shouting at Hermione to listen to her and explain what was happening.
As they rounded the corner and kept going to the great hall, Ginny finally registered her two friends following her.
“No! Stop, go help Hermione! Get help!” Ginny shouted and waved off her friends. She also tugged hard for Fawkes now that she had a moment to think.
“No, we’re coming with you!” Alexa said as she pulled out her wand with a determined expression on her face, “We’re not letting you go in there alone!”
“NO! Get back!” Ginny screamed, “I… I can’t. I can’t lose any of you. Please, I can’t risk it. I’m powerful, I’ll do it. Please, please go help Hermione. Call for help. Just… Whatever it is, you two have to stay safe.”
“But Ginny…” Jack protested.
“There’s no time!” Ginny said, “You’re not strong enough. You’ll just get hurt! I can’t let you get hurt. Not again. So go! Go!”
Her two friends hesitated, but Ginny finally used her cloud of magic tendrils to grab them and gently shove them backwards away from her. Alexa and Jack stumbled back slightly from the force of her push.
“You better be okay!” Alexa threatened, a series of expressions flashing over her face rapidly, “Promise!”
“I promise, Alexa,” Ginny said quickly, “Now go.”
With one final moment of hesitation Jack nodded to her and grabbed Alexa’s hand. Jack dragged Alexa away and the two started running the other way back towards Umbridge. Alexa glanced over her shoulder looking worried before turning back and taking her hand from Jack’s as the two of them started running through the corridor at full speed.
Ginny turned back around and kept running towards the great hall. Fawkes appeared in a burst of flame and let out a loud cry.
“Apparate me into the great hall Fawkes!” Ginny said, “Voldemort is in there with Ron! We’ve got to save him!”
Fawkes let out a questioning chirp.
“Yes, let’s go. There’s no time!”
Ginny’s world was engulfed in flames and the next moment she was in the great hall. Before she could even blink her world was filled with green light and Fawkes was swooping down in front of her to take the green beam aimed at her chest. Another green beam was sent at her, and Ginny had the awareness this time to use her magic tendrils to disrupt its spell structure before it could hit her.
“You too?” The sickeningly familiar Voldemort said from where the Headmaster’s chair and professor’s table should be. Right next to him was a large device made of plastic and metal with a little panel with levers and buttons on the side. A five feet by five foot cube. Ginny saw a tether of magic weaved between Voldemort and the large device as well.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Her brother Ron lay tied up and gagged with rope on the floor a few feet on Voldemort’s other side. All the tables in the hall were cleared out, with Eric standing a dozen feet to her right.
“Yeah, now she’s here you’re double screwed Voldy!” Eric shouted, “What were you monologuing again? Please continue.”
“Ah yes. You’ve been a pain in my side for too long Eric Potter! You’ve ruined everything. Everything! I’ll make you rue the day you dared defy me or think you were greater than Lord Voldemort himself! When this nuclear bomb goes off, this whole castle will be reduced to dust. All I have to do is send a command down my magic bond and the bomb will explode. You'll all die along with your little red headed friend that I’ve captured. Shame I couldn’t capture that mudblood girl in time too… I wanted you to see them as they drew their last breaths…”
“And as I was saying before…” Eric said, “Nukes are no joke. I’ve read up on them. How do you know they won’t dissolve your soul too? Are you absolutely sure you’ll resurrect after if you set it off? You don’t seem the type to sacrifice yourself for anything. Let alone just to kill one person that you hate. Is it worth the risk?”
Voldemort stood there and Ginny could see that he was hesitating slightly now, looking between Eric and the bomb.
Ginny stood frozen in place, carefully worming her magic tendrils towards where Ron lay tied up on the floor and gagged. Eric seemed to have something planned based on the way his magic tendrils were spreading out and surrounding Voldemort on all sides.
She had to get Ron out of the way of whatever Eric was planning before she could focus on Voldemort and the bomb. Ginny’s magic tendrils had crept halfway the distance to Ron.
“Maybe I should kill your friend first then?” Voldemort said, letting his wand drift over to point at Ron, “Perhaps I’d like to do some damage to you first just in case these are my last actions.”
“Whatever,” Eric said dismissively, “That guy? Annoying as heck, keeps talking about Quidditch non-stop. You’d be doing me a favor.”
Ginny shot a side eyed glare at Eric before keeping her magic tendrils moving forwards to surround Ron. Eric’s magic tendrils had completely surrounded Voldemort in a rough sphere for the whole conversation. What was Eric waiting for?
“You know…” Voldemort drawled as he stared at Eric with a thoughtful expression, “With you, it’s genuinely hard to tell if that’s true or not. But just to play it safe…”
Voldemort drew his wand back and everything seemed to happen at once.
“Avada Kedavra!” Voldemort chanted and sent the strongest killing curse that Ginny had ever seen straight towards Ron’s chest. There was no time to move Ron away, the charm was too close to him. Ginny sent all of her magic tendrils darting forward all at once to stop the killing curse and disrupt it. But it was powerful and she was having trouble disrupting it with how much raw magic was pulsing through the green beam. Ginny was weakening it, but she wasn’t fast enough. Eric’s tendrils were nearby, he could come and disrupt it if he helped her.
But instead of jumping in to disrupt the killing curse sent towards Ron, Eric’s tendrils all moved to the other side of Voldemort. All of Eric’s tendrils latched onto the thick connection between Voldemort and the nuclear bomb. They all paused for a single instant to organize themselves in a spiral shape along the bond before with a massive pulse of Eric’s magic, he severed the bond between Voldemort and the bomb completely in one coordinated strike.
Ginny wasn’t fast enough. She didn’t disrupt the killing curse enough. It hit her brother in the chest and the boy went limp to the floor, his eyes glazed over and his body still as the waves of green light from the killing curse washed over him.
“NOOOOOOO!!” Ginny screamed in disbelief as she watched Ron die.
“I can still press the button with a single spell!” Voldemort shouted hysterically, “I don’t need that bond to kill you all!”
Voldemort waved his wand, but before he could finish Eric’s tendrils all lanced in and covered Voldemort’s body. With a few gruesome cracks and snaps, Voldemort’s body was twisted and broken until his lifeless body fell to the floor as Eric released it.
“Well, dealt with him again,” Eric said casually, “That really escalated fast. He went from almost poisoning bystanders to trying to blow up the entire castle.”
Ginny ran forward and knelt over Ron’s body, quickly undoing the ropes and gag around him. With a single poke of her magic, the summoned ropes just disappeared into raw magic again. She reached out with a trembling hand and put two fingers to the side of the neck.
She waited. But his eyes were open and lifeless. She already knew. Ron was dead. Her brother was dead.
“Such a shame,” Eric said in what Ginny was sure he thought was a sympathetic tone, “I’m sorry you couldn’t save him in time.”
“Me?” Ginny said, her head suddenly snapping around to Eric, “ME! I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE HIM?! YOU LET HIM DIE! I WATCHED YOUR TENDRILS ONLY INCHES AWAY FROM THE CURSE LEAVE TO DISRUPT VOLDEMORT’S BOND WITH THE BOMB! You- You let him die. He was your friend, how could you do that? Why did you wait, you could have disrupted the bond at any point. WHY DID YOU WAIT?!”
“Hey!” Eric shouted defensively, looking annoyed, “I was busy saving all of our hides in case you didn’t notice. Voldemort was about to blow us all to smithereens! If I’d done it while he was paying attention then he could have still sent through the order while I was disrupting it and blown us into little bits. He had to be distracted in order for it to work.”
“D-Distracted?” Ginny said in a faint voice, her eyes going between Ron’s limp body and Voldemort’s mangled and twisted one.
“Distracted?” She said again, her mind not able to process what Eric was trying to say.
“Yeah, when Voldy went for the killing blow it was the perfect time to break his magic bond with the bomb. He wasn’t focused on the bond at all.”
“Distracted.” Ginny said as a deadly calm washed over her, “Voldemort was too distracted murdering Ron to defend the bomb. Is that what you’re saying?”
Eric snapped his fingers and pointed at her, and let out a relieved smile. “I knew you’d get it. That’s it. I thought you’d be able to handle it, but… apparently not. But it’s not too bad. One life instead of all of us instead. I’m sure it’s what he would have wanted. Plus he’s not even your real brother, Harry. It’s sad, but it’s not like he was your real family. If that makes you feel any better about it.”
“He was my brother. A brother who would have wanted to not be murdered.”
“Well of course, that’s-”
“He wanted his friend to try to save him. Spare a few of his magic tendrils to save his life instead of making some flashy spiral shape so you’d feel extra cool when severing the bond.”
“Hey now, that’s-”
“He WANTED A LOT OF THINGS! AND YOU LET HIM DIE! YOU KILLED HIM!”
“That’s not fair, I was only-”
“No, no, NO!” Ginny said, her sudden calm immediately bursting into overwhelming rage, “I’ve had enough! You killed my brother! Because you thought he wasn’t important enough. You had enough time for fancy shapes, you had enough to save him! I’m going to kill you Eric, and stop you once and for all! You won’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again! Voldemort was here for you! You! All of this is because of you! Die!”
Eric raised his hands defensively, although he appeared to relax and smiled a bit, “C’mon. We both know who’d win in a fight that-”
Ginny’s dozen magic tendrils ballooned to two hundred in a massive plume around her and Eric’s eyes widened. In quick bursts of magic, over forty little Chompers appeared all around Ginny.
Ginny pointed her finger at Eric, her vision blurry through her tears and the bounding drum of her rage in her head and turning her vision of everything around her red.
“CHOMPERS, GET HIM!”
Her little minions charged almost as one in a giant wave of snapping jaws and leaping forms all intent on ripping and tearing into Eric.
“Oh shit,” Eric said with wide eyes right before Ginny’s constructs descended on him en masse with wide open maws filled with gleaming white sharp teeth ready to rip and tear.