Chapter Text
There was a rift in the tree, in which Ginny could see the beating heart of what she had done, what she had crawled out of- the rift undulated, almost breathing. Alive.
Ginny whirled around.
Inside this dark forest, suddenly filled with fog, and spores- she hadn’t meant to create this- this place , had it been Tom? Where was he?
“Harry?” Ginny called, and noticed the way that her voice seemed to echo, not necessarily bouncing off a wall, but travelling, and continuing to travel, throughout the plane. But what had filled her with dread also filled her with fear, and desperately, she whirled around, for the doorway which had once been there, but the whole place was dark.
The gateway sealed.
“HARRY?”
She was alone. It was silent, there- except for a dull, throbbing pulse that she could feel, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She fell to her knees beneath a tree, finding it within herself a reason to cry- she was trapped here, perhaps it had been of Tom’s own making, perhaps not, but trapped, nonetheless.
She was no longer inside the Chamber. Harry was gone. She was alone.
It took a few minutes for Ginny to realise that she could see her own breath. Her hands were stiff, here, not cold- but even as she lay on her side on the ground, in abject misery, she was startled by a low growl.
Ginny scrambled to her feet, feeling ice cold fear wash over her body, maybe stammering, “No, n-no-”
That had been the wrong thing to do. The terrible monster opened its gaping mouth to reveal rows and rows of teeth, stopping to roar, in front of her, its face shaped somewhat like a flower.
Ginny didn’t scream, she didn’t think - she just turned tail, and ran.
But the monster was faster. It had long, humanoid legs, which it used to entrap her between the trees. Ginny screamed as its claw brushed her side- and rolled out of the way. The forest floor around her was covered in wet goop- and at a first glance, she thought that it might have been sap, but altogether it was of a different ooze.
Slime.
She was pinned against the tree roots before Ginny had the sense to attempt to try and use her magic- but she was winded, winded , and scrambled backwards before the monster could get any closer. Ginny just managed to get to her feet before it was after her again.
Ginny was on the run, the world around her frozen and still. She could hear blood roaring inside her ears as she breathed, in and out, in and out, running as fast as she could, passing trees which loomed over her head like shadows. Everything had gone quiet. She seized up, and turned around.
The Gorgon reared in front of her, its terrible mouth looming like an open gate.
Ginny shot an arm out, as it let out a screech that was altogether inhuman. She gasped, pushing as hard as she could, but even she could not take it down, winded as she was, from defeating the Basilisk. She had fallen from a nightmare into something worse. The wild magic surged around her, in front of a split in the seam of the forest- a tree, which seemed to be pulsing like the rift she had arrived here from.
“Please,” Ginny gasped, crying. Sweat and tears were falling, snot dribbling down her face. She was freezing, soaking, maybe even bleeding- but that did not stop the monster from converging on her, even as she collapsed, from the effort. It opened its flowery mouth, and although not much ran through Ginny’s mind then out of shock, she thought that this could just be the end.
But the Gorgon seemed to find its attention elsewhere as there was a whistle of something not quite like wind, rustling through the trees. This world was silent, yes, but could this be another creature making a call? A faroff cooing sound, distant, futher away than Ginny could even pinpoint.
And then, as fast as it had went after her, the thing was gone, scampering away on its strange human-like legs- even though there was something distinctly cold-blooded about it. Reptilian. Like the Basilisk.
Ginny was not going to take any chances. She crawled through the tree root- the rift, with a throbbing, pulsing ooze, and emerged on the other side covered in slime, dirtied, into not the Chamber of Secrets, but another forest.
Ginny wanted to scream in frustration.
She was covered in blood. And slime. Coughing, choking, she stumbled to the ground- kneeling, she tried to catch her breath. She could feel it all over her- the smell of gore and death, she could feel the slime covering her ears, the blood dripping from her nose, blood that didn’t belong to her soaking her top, her arms, her trousers. She could feel darkness, running through her heart, the thumping and stuttering organ beating in her chest and in her brain. The adrenaline, along with the coughing, was enough to make her cry. She couldn’t breathe. There was a buzzing sound.
What was that place? That terrible, rotting world, that had looked not like the earth, with its floating specks of dust and silence? Silent, except for a dull, throbbing pulse that she could feel, that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, it felt like Tom .
The dark presence there made her shiver, and she didn’t dare make a noise as she found that she could not breathe, the thick air and fog making her choke. She remembered finding the opening, remembered climbing through it, only to not find the Chamber, and her school, but what looked like the Forbidden Forest. Woods.
Darkness. Trees.
Dirt. Soil.
Ginny was choking. She stifled her coughs as she drew herself to her feet, the warm but cold air around her reminding her of the earth. She looked with her eyes around at the woods- it looked different than the trees of the Forbidden Forest, and she was lost. Her wand was gone, and Ginny realized it must have been left in the Chamber when the snake- that monster, was after her, and she had been running. She had prayed, more than anything, and thought, more than anything, and screamed and cried but she had still heard Tom’s laughter in her ears. And then a cracking, rumbling, crumbling sound. As the walls split open, revealing pulsing, red and blue ooze. As Ginny stumbled through the crack and left the Chamber behind, she could feel the air around her splintering.
Had she really done that? Was it her fault?
And then she thought of the wild magic again and she had no one there to ground her- not Harry, he had been taken by that thing. By him. No Harry.
Ginny was alone. She had to get back there, she had to save him. Before the swell of panic could bubble in her chest, Ginny whirled around, hearing the strange buzzing noise again. What could these be? Insects?
She shuddered, and began a slow, stumbling walk through the woods. In the darkness. If she was lucky enough, and she hadn’t banged her head on the Chamber wall when Tom got ahold of her, she would be able to find the school. All it took was for her to reach one of the common paths that the others use to navigate the forest and she would be able to find the other side.
The forest did not hum, like she expected it would, like it usually did. A magical forest had life to it, that which she could feel . This place did not.
Ginny shivered and carried on her slow stumble through the woods, cold and dizzy, despite the unusually warm air. The insects were still buzzing.
The blood was starting to dry, but the slime and mucus that covered her hair, her body, and her clothes, was everywhere. She was freezing. She felt as though she had developed a cold between then and now. There was a tickle in her chest and a tightness in her throat. She could taste blood in the back of her throat, from the nosebleed.
Ginny walked for what seemed like hours. The woods were pitch black and twice she changed direction, wondering if she was going in circles. There were roots she almost tripped on, and twice she had to lean up against a tree, for another hacking cough.
She swiped her lips after a particularly bad one and it came away black. She squinted harder and realized that it was not blood, but something else. A sediment.
She plodded on further. She had no wand on her, no way for her to tell it how to guide her. She tried searching for the direction of Hogwarts School in her brain but came up empty handed, frustrated, and tired. She could not remember. She was exhausted. She had killed the snake, slayed the beast in that underworld, when the walls started crumbling, and crawled through a tree to escape. And she couldn’t breathe, she was covered in slime and blood from the monster, and had no idea where she was.
But soon enough the trees began to thin. Ginny tried to move faster, towards the light, and stumbled past the last tree only to find-
A house. She was standing in the back of a house, in the blackness. The woods behind her seemed to lead to nowhere, and she looked behind her, as if to be sure, that she was alone. Perhaps whoever lived there would be able to tell her where she was-
But something strange seemed to happen. No sooner than the moment that Ginny stumbled out of the woods and towards the house- a little one-story thing, by the looks of it- its lights started to flicker. No, not flicker, flash. With no clear pattern or explanation.
Curious.
Ginny used the treeline to cover herself as she moved from the back to the sides- peering through the windows- it didn’t even look like a house at all. It looked dreadful.
Someone had hung Christmas lights everywhere, and those could be seen flashing from as far away as she hid herself, among the trees. The other lights inside were glowing yellow, then fading, then dramatically flickering. Flashing.
And soon enough, Ginny heard a cracking sound. The sound, as loud as thunder, like the building’s roof was caving in. And a loud roar.
Another monster- not dissimilar to the one that she had barely escaped from that other rotting world- was converging. The lights flickered. Ginny could barely see what was going on, but even still, she hid.
Until she heard the screams.
And several loud popping sounds.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. Bang.
Then, snarling. The roar of that unworldly creature.
Bang.
Then, silence.
Ginny stumbled forward, at that- she could not discern what could have made those terrible noises- but she knew that monster was her responsibility. It must have been the same one she had run from- and failed to kill.
And from the looks of the two strange boxes on wheels, sitting haphazardly outside the strange little house, these were muggles. Muggle cars.
Muggles.
This was her fault, and she was the only one who could help them fix it.
She was in full view of the house now, when the door suddenly opened and a boy tripped out the door. A teenager. Maybe slightly older than her brother Percy. He didn’t see her, as he fumbled with some keys. They must be for the room on wheels- presumably, he was trying to escape.
Ginny got close enough to him and the strange box- until the lights began to flicker again, and he stopped trying altogether. It was only a few moments before he realized Ginny’s presence.
“Stop,” Ginny said, very quietly.
The boy blinked in confusion. She saw fear in his brown eyes, but yet a certain determination, too. He straightened up. Perfect.
“I can help,” Ginny took a very slow step forward as she said this, cautiously, toward the house. “But I might need you when we get there.”
“But you can’t go in there!” The boy blurted out, “That- that thing- and my girlfriend-”
Ginny nodded. “I know,” she said, though she didn’t. She had to remain confident, in order to get this muggle to trust her. He was a lot older, and even he was scared.
“Take my hand,” Ginny said, offering it out to him. He eyed it surreptitiously, and she turned to the house.
The lights inside seemed to swell. It would not be long until that thing returned. It seemed to have an unknown power to shift between worlds, but if Ginny could first hold it, and suffocate it for long enough with her magic, it would die.
Like the Basilisk.
The boy seemed to have made a decision in the brief lapse of time, in which Ginny held her hand out to him, staring at the house, where his friends must be. He stepped forward, and must have chosen to put his trust in her, because the feeling of a bigger hand in hers encouraged her, as she strode to the front of the house.
Bang, bang, bang, bang. Bang.
The cry of a girl, and she could feel the boy’s hand tense.
Ginny gave a jerk of her head, and the door opened without her touching it.
She stepped over the threshold, the strange friend she had made just behind her.
The scene inside was horrible, and worse than she thought. The house was destroyed. What she had thought was a window was actually a hole in the exterior wall, and part of the ceiling had caved in.
The monster had its terrible mouth on another boy, and Ginny sent it flying- both looked up in fear, a pretty girl and the boy, which distracted her.
“Jonathan!” The girl was screaming.
The Gorgon twisted, struggling to get free, but Ginny had it within her grasp.
She stepped closer to it, thrusting all of her power into the move as she twisted its neck, and as quickly as the action took, it fell, dead.
Then, there was silence.
“ Steve! ” The girl gasped- and the other muggle boy who had been inside looked relatively fine- he was standing.
Ginny dropped the boy, Steve’s hand. The other three looked not much older than Percy, but they could be seventh-years, or even just out of Hogwarts, if Ginny had to wager a guess.
Steve was the first to approach the Gorgon’s dead corpse, tentatively, he nudged it with his shoe. Then, the other two edged forward, their eyes wide as they took in the thing. Ginny swiped more blood from her nose and felt rather unsteady on her feet.
“Who are you? ” The girl turned, and her face was a mixture of relief, disbelief, and awe.
Ginny considered them, and wondered if she had accidentally re-emerged into her own world in the wrong place- maybe Ireland, where all the vowels sounded pale and lilted. But these people sounded much different than the likes of Seamus Finnigan, and Ginny tried to place their accent, their words, but somehow found that she couldn’t.
“You just killed that- that thing,” The other boy, Jonathan, stuttered. Everything they said sounded very flat, now that they were no longer in the thick of a fight. Ginny found herself squinting at them.
She knew that she must look a sight, standing there, in this strange house, its walls covered in letters and strings of Christmas lights, the roof half-caved in. Dust everywhere. She was covered in blood and slime.
“You’re not here with Eleven, are you?” The girl stepped forward, and her eyes went down to a small metal object, held in her hand, before she placed it, very carefully, as if it were made of gold, on a solid surface. No, not as if it were made of gold, but dangerous. Very dangerous.
“Who’s Eleven?” Steve’s eyes went to that other girl.
When Ginny still didn’t speak, the other girl turned to him nervously, and said, “Nobody.”
Ginny stared at them both, but just then, the lights, which had gone out when she killed the monster, seemed to slowly light up, one by one. Starting in the far hallway.
She was not the first to notice it. Jonathan treaded very lightly into that hallway, where an ominous looking trap was laying set, probably for the monster.
Ginny followed him, and Steve and that girl fell silent.
Watching the lights light up slowly, one by one.
“Do you- do you think there’s another one?” Steve whispered anxiously, and the other girl looked scared. Jonathan looked nervous, but still, he led the way. Ginny tilted her head and walked along the trail of lights, to the far hall, until they began lighting up in the opposite direction.
Backwards.
And then the trail finally ended for good, back in what was the sitting room. On top of the dead body of the monster, its reptilian body limp and covered in slime.
“I think-” Jonathan frowned, then stepped in the middle of the room. He was facing the door.
“ Mom .”
Jonathan’s words were left hanging in the air as Steve and the other girl stood behind him. Ginny peered toward the door curiously, but there was no one there.
“I don’t think it’s dangerous,” said Jonathan, turning to the others, “It’s my mom and Hopper. Has to be.”
“Why would they be in here? Are they checking for Will?” The other girl- Ginny still didn’t know her name- asked curiously.
“Possibly,” said Jonathan.
Steve looked the most confused out of any of them, but as Ginny stood beside him puzzled, Jonathan and the other girl turned around, and seemed to notice them.
“It seems that we have some explaining to do,” said the girl, looking at Steve. “But you have to promise, Steve, not to tell anybody. ”
“That goes for you as well,” Jonathan said, this time directly addressing Ginny, who tilted her head at them. “Got it?”
Ginny nodded in confirmation.
“We’ll explain on the way,” said the girl. “The kids are still trapped inside the middle school. We have to tell them that it’s safe.”
“Wait, what?” Steve looked between them, looking horrified. “There are others involved in this freak show?”
Jonathan looked resigned as he began collecting miscellaneous objects that could be used as weapons- a crowbar, and a bat with metal sticking out of it- and laid a tarp over the body of the Gorgon. The girl picked up the strange metal object, which made a strange clicking noise, making Steve and Jonathan flinch, and Ginny eyed it, as well as them, curiously. She didn’t understand muggle weapons sometimes- if only she had her wand, then she could fix the roof and window for them while they got ready.
She knew, of course, that they would have to be Obliviated anyway, and if she could help fix this mess, maybe she wouldn’t get in too much trouble with the Ministry when they came by. But she suspected that she was in enough trouble as it was.
“My brother, Mike, and his friends,” The girl said as she opened a box of something and began dropping them into the small metal object. “We left them at the middle school. Didn’t want them getting in the way.”
“You left them to fend for themselves?” Steve asked accusingly. “There could be more of those- those things! ”
“As far as we know, there’s only one,” Jonathan said, slinging something which looked like some sort of muggle potion around one of his shoulders, held in a large cannister. Gasoline.
“It took those missing hunters,” The girl said. “And Barb. From your pool. It can smell blood from miles away.”
“ What? ” Steve looked horrified.
“That’s why we called it here, to try and lure it into a trap,” The girl explained. “It’s from a different- place. Jonathan’s brother, Will, got lost in it. He’s still there now.”
“We wanted to give Chief Hopper and my mom enough time to find him,” Jonathan said, quietly. “This place- it’s sort of like another dimension. It’s got to do with Hawkins Lab. They opened a sort of gate...”
“ Hawkins Lab? ”
“And Will fell in,” The girl added. “Weeks ago. The same time B-Barb went missing.” Her voice sounded incredibly shaky. Ginny had the distinct feeling that this Barb didn’t make it.
“I’m sorry,” Ginny spoke up, for perhaps the first time. The other girl’s eyes were watery.
“Wait, you mean-” Steve swallowed, his eyes betraying all of his anxiety and, perhaps a little bit of denial, “Barbara’s dead? That thing actually killed her?”
“Yes,” The girl whispered.
Steve let out a puff of air, then, and ran a hand through his hair. He looked like he couldn’t believe it. But as the truth set in, Ginny watched him swallow. “That’s- yeah. Uh. I’m so sorry, Nance.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” The girl said, with finality. “Mike and the others are still in danger.” She turned to Jonathan, who was busy shoving an incredibly tiny object in his pocket, unrecognizable to Ginny. She tilted her head at it.
“Ready,” said Jonathan.
“Let’s go,” said the girl. “Steve, take her and go. Go home. Don’t talk to anybody about this, alright? It’s important.”
“Wait, what?” Steve frowned. “But your brother and the others- I’m not leaving, Nancy. Whatever this is- we’re doing this together, okay?”
“Steve.” Nancy said, looking very frustrated.
“I want to come, too,” Ginny said, quietly. She stepped forward, as all three of them looked at her. “I could be useful.”
Nancy shook her head. “We can’t ask you both to risk-”
“Nancy,” Jonathan interrupted, “We’re running out of time.”
“Please go home,” Nancy pleaded.
“If this girl has anything to do with the Lab, they’ll find her and hunt her, like Eleven,” Jonathan said, rather quietly. “We shouldn’t take that chance- it’s risky. We’ll have the lab on our backs. They’re already looking for Mike.”
Then, to Steve, Nancy turned around and said, “Steve. This is more important than some heroic deed protecting my brother. Take her, and go. Hide. Pretend that nothing happened, like everything’s normal. If anyone asks you anything about us, don’t answer them.”
“The last time you saw Nancy was Friday evening,” Jonathan nodded.
Steve looked like he wanted to protest. “I don’t understand,” he said. “What’s so important about-”
Nancy and Jonathan exchanged a look. “He’s got to know, Nancy.”
Nancy growled in frustration. “Fine! Steve, what we just witnessed were superpowers . Little girls aren’t supposed to be able to melt Demogorgon’s brains with their mind!”
Steve blinked and risked a glance at Ginny, who stood, rather quietly.
“One of them escaped from Hawkins Lab,” Jonathan explained. “Nancy’s brother Mike was hiding her in their basement. She can do the same things as her. ” He was referring to Ginny.
All of this, however, was news to Ginny- the fact that there was another witch nearby had been completely unknown- but it didn’t sound like these muggles understood what she could do.
“What is your name?” Steve turned to Ginny, and she blinked.
“Ginny,” she said, without thinking- as she usually did, not think , because what if she gave these muggles her real name and then she got into big trouble? More trouble than she was already in now? She’d already broken the Statute of Secrecy, for Merlin’s sake! And- and those attacks- Tom-
It was definitely safe to say that Ginny would end up expelled from Hogwarts, maybe even put into that Azkaban Prison that her father always talked about, if she was found. Maybe getting lost was a good thing.
What on earth was she thinking, anyway? Of course it wasn’t.
“Ginny,” Steve repeated. He seemed to detect the nervousness on her face. “Okay, so are you- involved with this lab thing they’re talking about?”
“Steve!” Nancy protested.
“What?” Steve turned to Nancy and Jonathan. “I think it’s important to know before I decide to go on the run with her or something.” He turned to Ginny again. “ Are you?”
Ginny hadn’t even stopped to consider this Hawkins Lab that these muggles were talking about. What was that about? It didn’t sound good. In fact, it sounded dangerous, like muggles dissecting witches and wizards for the hell of it, but what choice did she have?
“Er-” was Ginny’s answer instead- a safe answer, even though it was more of a question. She hated how scared her voice sounded. “No? No.”
The two muggles- Nancy and Jonathan, they seemed to give a sigh of relief. But Ginny felt the need to say something, so she tripped forward. “B-but- if they found me, it’s not- what I did, I’m not supposed to- I’m not supposed to talk about it, it’s dangerous- if they knew-”
“But if they did find you,” Nancy ventured.
“Not safe,” Ginny whispered, but even if that wasn’t enough, her terrified expression seemed enough to convince them to help her, even though evading muggle scientists was never first on her list of concerns. It was now. She hoped that this wasn’t a different dimension but as each piece was coming together, she was less and less sure that the magical world even existed. She could have ended up in a place where magical beings were persecuted, and hunted into extinction!
“Right,” Jonathan interrupted. “Nancy and I will go to the school and check on Mike and the others. Steve can take Ginny-”
“My parents are home!” Steve stuttered. “How am I supposed to-”
“Your house is the only place the Lab isn’t watching,” Nancy reasoned. “If any place is safer, it’s yours.”
“Or here,” Jonathan offered weakly.
There was a pause.
All four of them looked around, at the caved-in ceiling, the hole in the wall, considered the freezing temperature and the letters on the walls, and collectively (silently) agreed. No one was staying here.
“The floors are coated in gasoline,” Nancy hissed. “We are not leaving them here!”
Jonathan shrugged. “It’s out of the way,” he said. “It takes someone four minutes to get down the road. If they show up here, it gives them time to get to the woods.”
“Steve’s house is in Loch Nora,” Nancy argued. “It faces the woods, too.”
Steve looked from Nancy, to Jonathan, to Ginny, who had begun to peer around the room aimlessly, attempting to block out the argument. She had to figure out exactly where she was. Even- when she was. She could have ended up anywhere.
“Look,” Steve sighed. “We’re running out of time, like you said. I’ll take the kid to- to-”
He trailed off, and then nervously, he asked another question. “Is anywhere safe?” His voice was unnaturally high in pitch, betraying his obvious anxiety. Ginny sighed. It wasn’ t fair to drag the muggles into this- but seeing as they already seemed to know much more than she did, she had clearly misjudged them.
“ No ,” Nancy and Jonathan turned on him together.
Nowhere was safe. Somehow, Ginny couldn’t see how it couldn’t be. It’s not like the muggles made the walls have eyes! Or did they?
How much did they really know?
She found herself wondering that, even as the other two teenagers- Nancy and Jonathan, collected the last of their strange muggle weapons, and swung open the door, to face the night. Ginny was behind them, following, for she didn’t know whether it was smarter to follow them or to try and gather more information about where she had landed, first.
But there was one thing she knew for certain- these muggles needed her for protection. She would have to worry about everything else later.
“Take her to your place,” Nancy instructed Steve, “And we’ll radio you when we know they’re safe. We’ll have to- to use something, a-”
“A code word,” spoke up Jonathan, tossing Steve another very strange but box-like device. He looked to be thinking on the fly- making it up as he went along, a fevered frenzy to his words- “Code Red if we need help, and you’ll know where to find us. All clear if everything’s fine, and you stay where you are.”
“Got it,” Steve said, opening the door to the strange box on wheels- the car. Ginny knew that there was a better word to describe it- something about the model, or something- it was on the tip of her tongue, just there, but she’d completely forgotten. Her father had explained them to her- a while ago, but there definitely was a word- like their Ford Anglia, it had a name-
But she didn’t have time to think about it when that boy was waiting for her, and so she climbed inside. But even Steve seemed to be waiting for something- and as a moment passed, he continued to stare at her expectantly.
And then an unfamiliar word- which he spoke with such derision- “Uh- Seatbelt? ”
Ginny stared back at him. “What’s that.”
Steve laughed nervously- a staccato sound that was all together too high in pitch- but even as Ginny continued to stare, mystified, at him- for she did not know why she unnerved him- it had been just a simple question, he leaned over her body. She froze.
And then he strapped himself in, like he had already trapped her, and as Ginny stared, he seemed to turn a knob as he somehow started to make the car move. But there was no magic at play here. She stared widely at the little buttons on the dash, wanted to reach out and touch them, but was worried that she’d get into trouble.
And then they were whizzing down a lane- the trees looking like blurs of shadows, and darkness. Darkness and trees. Ginny stared nervously, wondering why she was trapped in the seat, or why muggles seemed to want to do so- after all, Steve was strapped in too. Her father had only ever used the car for experimenting with it- although, they’d used it to get to King’s Cross back in September. That felt like a lifetime ago. She’d been crammed in the back with her brothers and Harry, as impressive as the engorgement charm was, it had been noticable. But after all, the Weasley’s Ford Anglia could fly.
“So- uh-” Steve swallowed, not looking at her, as he seemed to perform a very impressive maneuver- at least, to Ginny, anyway- “Where do your folks live?”
Ginny had never heard that word before- folks. She took it to mean parents, but this boy had a very odd way of speaking. Nothing of it really made sense, not to her. All of it sounded so- wrong.
“Devon,” she said, keeping her eye out for any sign of recognition- a sign, perhaps, even though she knew it was not there, in the hopes it might be able to tell her where they were. Steve seemed to nod, as if he had a faint guess of where that was, but it just wasn’t dawning on him. Like he thought he knew, but didn’t.
Just a guess.
“Is ‘that far?” Steve said. He had a strange nonchalant way of speaking- in which he dropped the first word or syllable of a sentence- it was odd, and just something that Ginny had noticed from speaking to him for these few words alone.
“I think so,” Ginny shrugged, keeping her voice inflected. Pale. Vowels flat. Just until she figured out what the hell was going on.
“What the hell are you doing out here, then?”
She watched the trees bleed by for a few more moments before replying. “I got lost.”
“Lost?”
Steve was looking at her now, Ginny could tell. She turned back over, shifted her body uncomfortably against the seatbelt. Turned toward him.
For a lack of anything better to say, she nodded. Confirming his suspicions. She watched it wash over him, as he frowned, and she turned back to the window. The fewer words she said, the better. The fewer words she said, the better chance she would have at not breaking the Statue, at him leaving her alone and then going their separate ways. But only when she found out where she was.
The space around her was silent for a moment, until her ears picked up a garbled noise coming from the device Jonathan had thrown at Steve. Radio static.
Steve noticed it, too. He kept one hand on the wheel- was it right to call it a wheel?- and clicked a button on the thing. Voices came through. Crackling.
“ Co- er- ad- ” Ginny and Steve leaned in slightly, though the garbled message seemed to make little sense. “ Co-de-d- ”
Then, the line seemed to become clear. “ Code Red- ”
Ginny’s blood ran cold. This was the code word- and from the look on Steve’s face, he knew it, too. Inside he made a vicious swerve- and Ginny startled. “Keep ahold on that,” Steve said, thrusting her the strange muggle device.
Ginny pushed a button, and asked, hesitantly, “What’s going on? Nancy?”
Although it didn’t seem to be Nancy- the voice on the other end seemed more like a boy’s- panicking. “ Code Red, Nancy, Jonathan! The bad men are here! They’ve found us!”
Steve looked over at her expectantly, as more darkness and trees rushed by. “What are they saying?” He asked, urgently. “Is it Nance?”
Ginny shook her head, hesitantly. “A boy-”
“Hello?” she asked into the device again, and no one answered. It seemed as though that boy had abandoned it. There was a loud crackle, and then everything went silent.
“We have to help them,” Ginny whispered, turning to Steve. He nodded, and as they made another sharp, violent, turn, they emerged next to a very strange building. A school.
Ginny struggled to get herself free of the belt clipped over her and almost tripped out of the thing, as she opened the door. “Hey, wait! ” Steve called after her, but she was already gone.
She stilled, hearing more bang, bang, banging sounds, like before- and wondered what that curious noise could be. Shrieks.
She strode up to the nearest entrance, blasted the door open with her mind, and came upon, immediately, two men who wielded yet more strange muggle weapons. They were dressed in black and aimed their weapons at her- and Ginny swallowed nervously.
Behind them, she could see down the corridor- there were four children, crouched in a circle, surrounded by these people on all sides. A grey-haired man who immediately struck Ginny as dangerous stood apart from the soldiers, dressed in white.
As fast as she made the decision that these people were dangerous, the faster Ginny released the wild magic, sending both of the muggles nearest the door flying. Heaving for breath, she stumbled toward the muggle kids- they were around her own age, and they all looked terrified. Facing down the man in white.
“Give me the child,” He spoke in a voice that was softer than Ginny expected, but it was impatient. One muggle child was collapsed on the floor. The muggle kids barely looked up to see Ginny before she knew what to do.
Her mind seemed to go strangely… blank. White-hot rage took over, white noise, white heat, as it surged forth, and when she seemed to come to, Steve was beside her, holding her hand, and the grey-haired man was dead.