FIC: 'The Road Trip' by Rumpelsnorcack
To:ladysugarquill
Title: The Road Trip
Author: rumpelsnorcack
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Rating: G
Word Count: 4,653
Summary: On a road trip, Harry and Ginny stumble across a mystery. Obviously they have to investigate it ...
Author/Artist's Notes: Many many thanks to lorelaisquared for the original brainstorm and to lyras for the wonderful beta help. I'm sure I'd still be mired in the middle of it without your help!
The cool spring air whistled through Ginny's hair; she threw her head back and revelled in the feeling.
'This is almost as good as being on a broomstick!' she shouted to Harry over the roar of the wind in her ears as they sped along the wide open road.
He grinned, his expression one of satisfied smugness, though he kept his eyes on the road ahead of him.
'Muggle traditions not all that bad then, huh?'
Ginny snorted. 'I never said they were; I just said it would be faster to Apparate or even go by broomstick ...'
'Road trips are a grand tradition,' Harry said, 'and there's no other way we could spend so much time together, anyway.' This time he did look over at her, though his hands gripped the steering wheel convulsively, and Ginny's heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes.
'I know,' she sighed, dragging her eyes away from his. 'What with my Quidditch and your Auror commitments we never do seem to have a lot of time alone.'
'Exactly.' The smug tone was back along with a cocky grin which again did warm melty things to Ginny's insides. It really wasn't fair how attractive Harry was, she thought. He didn't seem to realise the effect he had on her - and on so many of the other women who crossed their paths.
'Where are you playing this time? London?' Harry's voice cut into her thoughts, and Ginny shook her head to remove the images of a naked Harry which were just starting to intrude into her thoughts.
'Harry!' she laughed. 'You're not seriously telling me we're on this trip to get to my game and you don't even know where we're going?'
Harry shrugged. 'It's tradition! You just drive and end up where you end up. Hermione told me - she's got loads of books about it.'
'At least we have time - and we can Apparate if need be.' She gave him a fond smile and stared out at the road ahead of them.
It had been far too long, she realised, since she and Harry had spent much time together. His Auror training had a punishing schedule, keeping him out until after midnight several nights a week. There was barely time for a murmured hello before they slipped into bed, and since Ginny had to be up before dawn for Quidditch training she wasn't ever at her best when he got home from work.
She smiled slightly, then reached over to squeeze Harry's knee. He smiled back at her and swooped down to give her a small kiss which promised better things to come as soon as they reached whatever destination he had in mind. Caught up in the moment, neither of them noticed the slight dip in the road until it was too late and the car had spun out of control, barrelling off the road and coming to rest against a nearby fence. Smoke began to billow out from under the bonnet and Harry hastily scrambled out his door, dragging Ginny behind him.
'Well, this is just great,' Ginny muttered as she stared at the car in exasperation. 'I thought Dad jinxed this thing so it wouldn't do that.'
Harry looked slightly sheepish and said, 'I might have asked him to take that jinx off it.' He caught sight of Ginny's expression and added, 'it was meant to add to the experience - you know, added spice of danger and all that ...' He trailed off as Ginny started to giggle.
'I think we need to go over to that house over there and see if they have one of those telephone things Muggles use,' she said when her giggles had subsided. 'Because I can only assume that you ignored Mum's advice to take a portable fireplace?'
Harry's expression said it all and she sniggered again. 'You could just send one of those Patronus signals,' she added.
'Or we could think of this as an adventure,' Harry said. 'Go to the house, act like Muggles, and get a mechanic to deal with this car. We'll be on the road again by morning.'
'Yeah, but which morning?' Ginny muttered as she led him across the field towards the house.
***
'Hello? Anybody here?' Ginny called as she pushed the door open. Knocking had proven to be futile but the door hadn't been shut properly and swung slightly every time she had knocked so they had decided to enter.
The hallway was small but cheerfully painted in tones of yellow. The place was immaculately presented with nothing out of place, yet there was a thick layer of dust over it all. It looked as if it had been uninhabited for months. They walked slowly into the first room they came to, but now Ginny had the urge to whisper. There was something stifling about the house as if someone was waiting for them just out of sight. Ginny shuddered, then gasped as she turned around.
'What? What is it?' Harry had his wand out and his voice was a rough whisper in the dusty sunlight.
'This is a wizarding house,' Ginny said. 'Look at these books - Beedle the Bard, A History of Magic; even that Dumbledore book by the Skeeter woman.' She looked around thoughtfully. 'I wonder where they went. It doesn't look like it was a quick exit, but they haven't been back in ages.'
'They have a house elf,' said Harry after inspecting a small basket behind a chair in the corner of the room. 'But it can't be here either, otherwise the house wouldn't be in this sort of state.'
'That's so weird,' Ginny said. 'Though, I guess if they were on holiday they might take the elf with them. Still ... why leave the front door unlocked?'
'I don't know. Maybe we should look around some more just in case they're stuck in some spell or something,' Harry suggested.
Ginny shuddered again and the feeling of someone - or maybe something - waiting for them intensified.
'I don't really like it here,' she said, 'but I think we probably should take a look. It's not really wrong - you're an Auror -'
'Trainee Auror,' Harry corrected her.
'You're a trainee Auror, so you should, you know, do some Auroring and figure this out. Kingsley would want to know about this, right? And in the absence of a portable fireplace we should gather all the information we can ...'
Harry sniggered. 'You don't sound like you don't like it here,' he said with a smirk. 'You sound like you want to rip the place up for clues.'
Ginny ignored his barb and led the way upstairs. The rest of the house was much the same as the ground floor and by the time they reached the attic Ginny was almost bored, despite the sense of someone waiting for them in the house still nagging at her. She didn't expect to find anything when Harry pushed the door open and slipped into the room ahead of her.
There was a crashing sound and muffled swearing as Harry fell over something in the sudden gloom as the door swung shut behind them.
'Lumos,' he whispered pointing his wand into the gloom as Ginny giggled again behind him. Her giggle cut off quickly as she realised what it was that he had fallen over. Sitting in a row, blank eyes staring up at a mirror, sat an elderly man and woman, a younger girl and the tiny form of a house elf still wearing a teatowel knotted at its shoulder. They all looked as if they were in great terror, but none of them had tried to look away.
Harry inspected them carefully. 'They're still breathing,' he said in wonder. 'They're not dead, just ... sort of sleeping.'
He looked up at what they had been staring at and suddenly his manner changed. 'It's beautiful,' he whispered, inching closer to the mirror's frame. Images began to flicker slowly in its depths.
'Ohhhhhhh,' breathed Ginny, staring up at the ornate mirror in awe, 'this is one of the Mirrors of Power.'
'Huh?' Harry said, eyes still drawn to the images flickering in the mirror.
'The Mirrors of Power. You know, like the mirror of Erised. There are four of them. Erised, Egdelwonk, Efil and Noissap.' She stopped and gave Harry a wink. He dragged his eyes away to stare at her for a minute until he realised what the last one meant and gave her a saucy grin of his own.
'Which one do you think this is?' he asked, a hint of hope in his voice.
'If you actually paid attention to anything,' Ginny smirked at him, 'you'd see it has words around the edge. I suspect that will tell us.'
Harry rolled his eyes at her, but obligingly whispered 'lumos' again and lifted his wand in the air. They saw she was right - the words were faint and seemed to fade away if they looked at them full on, but they were definitely there.
'Efil ni og lliw uoy erehw dna morf emoc evah uoy erehw wohs I' Ginny murmured the words softly as Harry's wand illuminated them. 'Life. It's the Mirror of Life.' She felt suddenly scared as she looked up at the ornate gilding surrounding the mirror.
'I'm not sure we should do this,' she said. 'This is the most powerful of all the mirrors.'
'Dumbledore said the mirror of Erised could suck away your life with desire for what it showed,' said Harry.
'Yes,' said Ginny seriously. 'And this one is worse. It can drive people to suicide when they see what their lives have been and where they will end up. Those people back there are clearly in its thrall.'
'I managed to use the other one to defeat Quirrell; I can deal with this one.' Harry confidently stepped up to the mirror and the images that had been slowly flickering started to pick up pace and colour. Ginny could see Harry's body stiffen as he looked into the mirror's depth. Shielding her eyes she stepped over to him and pulled him away. He resisted, but she clung on and finally managed to drag his gaze away from the images. Ginny could see tears leaking out from behind his eyelids and she wrapped him in her arms.
'Ginny,' Harry said, 'we need to do this together. I think it will be better if you're with me - and I want to get past the ... well, the past. I want to see what's going to happen.'
Thinking back to some of the experiences she'd had in the past Ginny shuddered but nodded. There was no point, after all, in trying to hide from who she had been. Taking a deep breath, and holding onto Harry's hand she stepped up towards the mirror and opened her eyes.
A scream was wrenched from her throat before she could stop it. She was staring into Tom Riddle's eyes as her own body froze while Harry fought a basilisk nearby. Ginny couldn't move to help him and she felt all the terror of that day again with the added fear for Harry's safety.
The images that had seemed to flicker so fast now slowed to a crawl. Ginny tried to squeeze her eyes shut but her body refused to co-operate. In slow motion she watched as the blinded beast attacked Harry over and over again while Riddle taunted him. Tears leaked from her eyelids as she was forced to watch as Harry's arm was sliced with the basilisk's fang and he began to weaken.
Desperately, Ginny pulled her head away from the images in the mirror but she felt herself drawn back into it. She tried to resist but realised that Harry was still peering into the mirror with a vague expression. She reached out to him, took his hand firmly in her own and forced herself to look into the mirror again.
It was several years later, Ginny was pleased to note, and she was at a party with Neville. People were dancing and she could see Michael Corner giving her approving glances from the next table. Oh! she thought, smiling a secretive smile to herself, this is the Yule Ball. I liked the ball - it was heaps of fun. Wondering why the mirror was choosing to show her this memory, Ginny looked around for Harry. There he was, sitting in a corner, his foot kicking idly at the floor as Ron stared moodily out to the dance floor beside him. Ginny grinned. Neville swung her out onto the dance floor, trying desperately to be suave. This time, Ginny kept her eyes fixed on Harry and barely noticed as Neville repeatedly stood on her toes and apologised profusely each time.
This was a huge step for me, Ginny thought to herself. Look at me - Harry barely a blip on the radar, and Michael being so interested in me. She smiled at Michael as Neville took her hand and led her back to their table. Harry, she noted again, wasn't looking happy. Parvati had deserted him and he was stuck talking to Percy. As they sat down, Michael left his table and slid into the seat next to Ginny's. Ginny gave up on wondering why she was being shown this particular memory and just enjoyed herself. Michael was, as remembered, fun and funny and he kept Ginny and Neville in stitches all night. Ginny would have been perfectly happy to stay here in this memory forever, but suddenly she felt an insistent tugging, turned and saw Harry glowering at them.
The images flickered again and Ginny found herself in the Room of Requirement watching as Hermione cast a Patronus. Michael was next to Ginny, his face screwed up in concentration as he tried to follow suit. Ginny glanced over to where Harry was teaching the class and her heart clenched as she saw him cast a furtive look at Cho. His eyes were intense and she recognised the look in them - it was the look he used when he looked at her now. Ginny felt a sudden surge of jealousy that she didn't recall feeling at the time. I wish he'd never looked at anyone else that way, she thought. It feels wrong that he felt that intensely for someone before me. Ginny stopped the thought in its tracks, laughing to herself. She was one to talk - here she was, remembering herself at this meeting with Michael and she was upset that at the same time Harry hadn't been mooning over her?
It was still difficult to figure out what the mirror was trying to say about her life with this set of memories and instead of fully focusing on this one, Ginny tried to work it out. Now she realised that she could feel Harry's hand in hers. It was a very slight pressure, but it was there. For a moment she felt disorientated - seeing Harry at a distance and yet feeling his hand in hers - and then she realised that the mirror wasn't telling her something about her life, but rather about the one she shared with Harry. None the wiser, but sure she was on the right track, Ginny settled in to watch the memories she was shown in more detail.
The memories began to swarm and Ginny couldn't tell if it was because she or Harry or the mirror had decided to whisk them past so many events - Harry and Cho together, her break up with Michael, the time with Dean (which she was delighted to see involved a lot of sour-faced Harry staring mournfully in her direction), and several sweet moments when she could see Harry had begun to make a play for her and she was trying to ignore her feelings for him. It was still puzzling - there was no real pattern to the memories. It was as if the mirror was showing them a series of random snapshots from their lives and nothing that had any point to it. Okay, so most of them involved some sort of romantic feelings - that seemed logical since this appeared to be about the two of them together. Of course the other strand that appeared too was the danger that always surrounded them. One moment from her seventh year haunted her as she watched it.
Harry and Ron were helping her mother plan for Bill's wedding, and were none too happy about it. She could see them muttering together as she covertly watched Harry through the window of the lounge from her vantage point outside. Ginny grimaced. What on earth had she been thinking? Harry had said they couldn't be together and she had ... what? Given in to his wishes? Oh yes, there had been that kiss on his birthday (and hang on - why had the mirror not shown them that memory? That would have been more fun to revisit than this one) but as a general rule she had stayed out of his way. She could feel the old bitterness towards Harry's misplaced nobility creeping back in and a deeper annoyance at her old self. Why on earth had she not dug her heels in and insisted that he spend some time with her?
Suddenly she felt a squeeze on her hand and she paid attention to the Harry in the memory. He was staring down at her with an expression of such pain and loss that Ginny's heart twisted. He had been expecting to die at this point; it was obvious to her now. She had known at the time that Harry was cutting himself off to try and protect those around him. What she hadn't realised until now was that he had also been protecting himself.
As soon as Ginny had made the leap, her brain settled and she knew that all the other memories they had been in were showing her the same thing. In every one of them Harry was trying to protect his own sense of self. In some that was by trying to protect others, and in others it was by distancing himself from the people around him. She thought back to what she had seen of him at the ball - she understood for the first time that his aloofness there was because he had deliberately kept himself apart from it all. He could have enjoyed himself with Parvati, but instead he had withdrawn to the safety of Ron and worshipping Cho from afar.
It also explained why the mirror hadn't shown the kiss they had shared on his birthday - that was the one time that she had broken through to him and his own emotions had been just as raw and just as open as her own. The mirror was never going to show it because it didn't fit what it wanted them to learn.
Returning to focus on the current memory, Ginny watched it with sad eyes. Here Harry was - absolutely convinced that he was going to die so here he did both. He cut himself off from everyone except Ron and Hermione who had so obstinately refused to allow him to go off alone and he did it out of a misplaced attempt to protect them all from worrying about him.
The world began to shift again and came into focus in the Room of Requirement. Ginny found herself tumbling into the room through the hole to the passageway to the Hog's Head. Harry was looking at her with that mixture of joy, pain and fear and suddenly Ginny knew this was a very bad memory to be looking at.
She knew what was coming and despite the future being so tantalisingly close, Ginny took a firm grip on Harry's hand and forcibly tried to drag him away from the mirror. She could feel him resisting and the images in the mirror began to glow brighter, the colours almost unbearable in their intensity. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, whispered, 'forgive me Harry' and hit him as hard as she could in the chest.
She heard his breath wheeze out and his resistance lessened. With all her might, Ginny pushed him aside. He fell to the ground, gasping for air and she reached up to grab the top of the mirror's frame. She was barely able to reach it but it was enough. Jumping a little, and swinging her legs off the ground to give her a bit more force, she managed to drag the mirror off balance. She let go just as it tipped and pulled Harry out of the way as it crashed to the floor.
'What did you do that for?' Harry demanded, massaging his chest where she had hit him.
'I didn't want to see you die again ...' Ginny whispered, staring at him. 'I've come so far since that day, managed to get over it. I don't need to go through that again.'
Harry gaped at her. 'But ... the future was so close,' he said, sadness in his voice at the lost opportunity.
'Harry, look, I get it now. But we don't need to see the future. We're together, and none of that stuff matters anymore - it's all over; we don't need to protect our emotions anymore. As long as we head into it together it doesn't matter what the future will be.'
'There is no future in there,' a querulous voice said from behind them. They both spun on their heels to see the people from the house staring at them.
'Um ... we were driving and our car's broken down. We wanted some help ...' Ginny floundered a little as she tried to work out what to say to them to explain what she and Harry were doing in their house.
'I want to thank you for breaking us out of that spell,' the old woman said as she climbed awkwardly to her feet. 'I don't know how long we'd been there, but it must have been a while.'
'Wait, what do you mean no future?' Harry said
'Just what I said. Everything we saw in there was from the past. Sometimes we were young, and Bedelia here was just a baby. Other times we were old and wrinkled, but always ... always we saw what had already happened. I always hoped - maybe the next one would be what was to come, but it never was. I think I'd have stayed there forever if you hadn't tipped the mirror over.'
'But the legend has it that it shows your future -' Ginny said.
'And that's why it's so dangerous,' said the old man, coming to stand behind the woman. 'I don't think I could have done what you did - I didn't have the strength to break out of it. I kept hoping ...'
'Hope,' said Harry, nodding. 'Yeah, hope can be a terrible thing.'
'Oh Harry, don't say that,' Ginny cried. 'Hope for the future is brilliant - so long as you don't let it take over.'
'Yeah. Yeah, maybe.' Harry looked around. 'Ginny, do you think this dust has got deeper since we started looking at the mirror?'
Ginny followed his glance and winced. 'Yes, I think so. How long have we been here?'
'I don't know,' he said. He looked over at the old couple. 'Do you have a wireless somewhere?'
The younger woman, Bedelia, nodded and led the way down to the lounge. She pointed her wand at the box in the corner and a cheerful voice warbled out, 'and that was Celestina Warbeck with her newest song, Me and the Ancient Warlock. Her album will be released on the 27th of May which is ... yes, it's tomorrow. I know we're all looking forward to it eagerly in the studio -' The voice burbled on, but no-one in the house was paying attention anymore.
'The 26th of May?' Ginny asked in horror. 'That means I missed my game; it was yesterday. Oh, Gwenog will be furious ...'
'I'm thinking perhaps we should leave the car and Apparate directly to the Harpies' headquarters,' Harry suggested. 'And we should send your dad here to get to the bottom of that mirror and what it's doing in this house.'
The house elf, which had been dusting vigorously around them, looked suddenly guilty and sidled out of the room muttering something about refreshments.
'Definitely,' Ginny agreed. 'I'm not looking forward to this interview -'
After thanking the family and repeatedly refusing the house elf's offers of tea and biscuits, Harry and Ginny Apparated away from the scene.
***
'Missed again, Harry,' Ginny called as she grabbed the quaffle as it almost whisked past her towards the goal. 'You're not trying hard enough.'
'Yeah, well, I'm a Seeker not a Chaser. You should be doing this and I should be guarding the goal.'
'You heard Gwenog - I'm to practise other positions and you're to help me.'
Harry sighed and flew over to Ginny. He leaned off his broom to give her a quick kiss which warmed her to the bottom of her toes. She smiled at him, then zipped past him to put the ball into the opposing goal.
'Hey! That's cheating,' Harry yelled as he chased her.
'No, it's called taking advantage of the other player's weaknesses,' Ginny teased him.
Harry opened his mouth to retort when they were interrupted. 'Oi, you two! Get down here!' Gwenog yelled. 'There's someone here to see you.'
Ginny squinted down at the ground.
'Dad!' she shouted, aiming her broom downwards and drifting to a halt a foot above his head. 'What are you doing here?'
'I can't talk to you when you're hovering like that. Could you land please?'
Rolling her eyes Ginny did as he asked, with Harry touching down just a second after she did. Gwenog left them to it, heading to the other side of the pitch where several other players were doing some drills with a snitch.
'So, what's up Dad?'
'I just thought you'd like to know what was going on with that mirror. Apparently the elf overheard the old couple wondering what was going to come of the young girl when they got too old to look after themselves. It knew where the mirror was kept and managed to Apparate with it into the house.' He sighed in exasperation. 'I've made it clear to them that it's dangerous and shouldn't be played around with.'
'Where is it now?' Harry asked eagerly.
'Somewhere it won't be any more trouble,' her father said. 'It's under lock and key. We tried to destroy it, but its magic is too powerful. Pity. It's more trouble than it's worth.'
'Oh, I don't know,' Ginny smiled at Harry. 'It certainly got us to slow things down a little.'
'Yeah, I've stopped training quite so intensely,' Harry said. 'I get to take weekends off now that I've talked to Kingsley about the amount of time I was spending away from home.'
'And I've started inviting Harry to help me with my training,' Ginny smiled again. 'We're spending more time together - and it's because of what that mirror did for us.'
'Even so,' said Arthur. 'I can think of easier ways to learn to take it easy.'
'Since when did Ginny and I ever take the easy way out?' Harry asked, a smirk on his face.
'That's true.' Her father smiled at them indulgently. 'I'd better be off, Ginny.' He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. 'I have to take a, what did Harry call it? A road trip? That car isn't going to recue itself.' He looked excited.
'Take Mum for a spin, Dad. She might enjoy some time out, too. Just try not to run yourselves off the road.' Ginny winked at him as she kicked off. She waved and sped off down the pitch, with Harry in hot pursuit.
Title: The Road Trip
Author: rumpelsnorcack
Pairing: Harry/Ginny
Rating: G
Word Count: 4,653
Summary: On a road trip, Harry and Ginny stumble across a mystery. Obviously they have to investigate it ...
Author/Artist's Notes: Many many thanks to lorelaisquared for the original brainstorm and to lyras for the wonderful beta help. I'm sure I'd still be mired in the middle of it without your help!
The cool spring air whistled through Ginny's hair; she threw her head back and revelled in the feeling.
'This is almost as good as being on a broomstick!' she shouted to Harry over the roar of the wind in her ears as they sped along the wide open road.
He grinned, his expression one of satisfied smugness, though he kept his eyes on the road ahead of him.
'Muggle traditions not all that bad then, huh?'
Ginny snorted. 'I never said they were; I just said it would be faster to Apparate or even go by broomstick ...'
'Road trips are a grand tradition,' Harry said, 'and there's no other way we could spend so much time together, anyway.' This time he did look over at her, though his hands gripped the steering wheel convulsively, and Ginny's heart skipped a beat at the look in his eyes.
'I know,' she sighed, dragging her eyes away from his. 'What with my Quidditch and your Auror commitments we never do seem to have a lot of time alone.'
'Exactly.' The smug tone was back along with a cocky grin which again did warm melty things to Ginny's insides. It really wasn't fair how attractive Harry was, she thought. He didn't seem to realise the effect he had on her - and on so many of the other women who crossed their paths.
'Where are you playing this time? London?' Harry's voice cut into her thoughts, and Ginny shook her head to remove the images of a naked Harry which were just starting to intrude into her thoughts.
'Harry!' she laughed. 'You're not seriously telling me we're on this trip to get to my game and you don't even know where we're going?'
Harry shrugged. 'It's tradition! You just drive and end up where you end up. Hermione told me - she's got loads of books about it.'
'At least we have time - and we can Apparate if need be.' She gave him a fond smile and stared out at the road ahead of them.
It had been far too long, she realised, since she and Harry had spent much time together. His Auror training had a punishing schedule, keeping him out until after midnight several nights a week. There was barely time for a murmured hello before they slipped into bed, and since Ginny had to be up before dawn for Quidditch training she wasn't ever at her best when he got home from work.
She smiled slightly, then reached over to squeeze Harry's knee. He smiled back at her and swooped down to give her a small kiss which promised better things to come as soon as they reached whatever destination he had in mind. Caught up in the moment, neither of them noticed the slight dip in the road until it was too late and the car had spun out of control, barrelling off the road and coming to rest against a nearby fence. Smoke began to billow out from under the bonnet and Harry hastily scrambled out his door, dragging Ginny behind him.
'Well, this is just great,' Ginny muttered as she stared at the car in exasperation. 'I thought Dad jinxed this thing so it wouldn't do that.'
Harry looked slightly sheepish and said, 'I might have asked him to take that jinx off it.' He caught sight of Ginny's expression and added, 'it was meant to add to the experience - you know, added spice of danger and all that ...' He trailed off as Ginny started to giggle.
'I think we need to go over to that house over there and see if they have one of those telephone things Muggles use,' she said when her giggles had subsided. 'Because I can only assume that you ignored Mum's advice to take a portable fireplace?'
Harry's expression said it all and she sniggered again. 'You could just send one of those Patronus signals,' she added.
'Or we could think of this as an adventure,' Harry said. 'Go to the house, act like Muggles, and get a mechanic to deal with this car. We'll be on the road again by morning.'
'Yeah, but which morning?' Ginny muttered as she led him across the field towards the house.
***
'Hello? Anybody here?' Ginny called as she pushed the door open. Knocking had proven to be futile but the door hadn't been shut properly and swung slightly every time she had knocked so they had decided to enter.
The hallway was small but cheerfully painted in tones of yellow. The place was immaculately presented with nothing out of place, yet there was a thick layer of dust over it all. It looked as if it had been uninhabited for months. They walked slowly into the first room they came to, but now Ginny had the urge to whisper. There was something stifling about the house as if someone was waiting for them just out of sight. Ginny shuddered, then gasped as she turned around.
'What? What is it?' Harry had his wand out and his voice was a rough whisper in the dusty sunlight.
'This is a wizarding house,' Ginny said. 'Look at these books - Beedle the Bard, A History of Magic; even that Dumbledore book by the Skeeter woman.' She looked around thoughtfully. 'I wonder where they went. It doesn't look like it was a quick exit, but they haven't been back in ages.'
'They have a house elf,' said Harry after inspecting a small basket behind a chair in the corner of the room. 'But it can't be here either, otherwise the house wouldn't be in this sort of state.'
'That's so weird,' Ginny said. 'Though, I guess if they were on holiday they might take the elf with them. Still ... why leave the front door unlocked?'
'I don't know. Maybe we should look around some more just in case they're stuck in some spell or something,' Harry suggested.
Ginny shuddered again and the feeling of someone - or maybe something - waiting for them intensified.
'I don't really like it here,' she said, 'but I think we probably should take a look. It's not really wrong - you're an Auror -'
'Trainee Auror,' Harry corrected her.
'You're a trainee Auror, so you should, you know, do some Auroring and figure this out. Kingsley would want to know about this, right? And in the absence of a portable fireplace we should gather all the information we can ...'
Harry sniggered. 'You don't sound like you don't like it here,' he said with a smirk. 'You sound like you want to rip the place up for clues.'
Ginny ignored his barb and led the way upstairs. The rest of the house was much the same as the ground floor and by the time they reached the attic Ginny was almost bored, despite the sense of someone waiting for them in the house still nagging at her. She didn't expect to find anything when Harry pushed the door open and slipped into the room ahead of her.
There was a crashing sound and muffled swearing as Harry fell over something in the sudden gloom as the door swung shut behind them.
'Lumos,' he whispered pointing his wand into the gloom as Ginny giggled again behind him. Her giggle cut off quickly as she realised what it was that he had fallen over. Sitting in a row, blank eyes staring up at a mirror, sat an elderly man and woman, a younger girl and the tiny form of a house elf still wearing a teatowel knotted at its shoulder. They all looked as if they were in great terror, but none of them had tried to look away.
Harry inspected them carefully. 'They're still breathing,' he said in wonder. 'They're not dead, just ... sort of sleeping.'
He looked up at what they had been staring at and suddenly his manner changed. 'It's beautiful,' he whispered, inching closer to the mirror's frame. Images began to flicker slowly in its depths.
'Ohhhhhhh,' breathed Ginny, staring up at the ornate mirror in awe, 'this is one of the Mirrors of Power.'
'Huh?' Harry said, eyes still drawn to the images flickering in the mirror.
'The Mirrors of Power. You know, like the mirror of Erised. There are four of them. Erised, Egdelwonk, Efil and Noissap.' She stopped and gave Harry a wink. He dragged his eyes away to stare at her for a minute until he realised what the last one meant and gave her a saucy grin of his own.
'Which one do you think this is?' he asked, a hint of hope in his voice.
'If you actually paid attention to anything,' Ginny smirked at him, 'you'd see it has words around the edge. I suspect that will tell us.'
Harry rolled his eyes at her, but obligingly whispered 'lumos' again and lifted his wand in the air. They saw she was right - the words were faint and seemed to fade away if they looked at them full on, but they were definitely there.
'Efil ni og lliw uoy erehw dna morf emoc evah uoy erehw wohs I' Ginny murmured the words softly as Harry's wand illuminated them. 'Life. It's the Mirror of Life.' She felt suddenly scared as she looked up at the ornate gilding surrounding the mirror.
'I'm not sure we should do this,' she said. 'This is the most powerful of all the mirrors.'
'Dumbledore said the mirror of Erised could suck away your life with desire for what it showed,' said Harry.
'Yes,' said Ginny seriously. 'And this one is worse. It can drive people to suicide when they see what their lives have been and where they will end up. Those people back there are clearly in its thrall.'
'I managed to use the other one to defeat Quirrell; I can deal with this one.' Harry confidently stepped up to the mirror and the images that had been slowly flickering started to pick up pace and colour. Ginny could see Harry's body stiffen as he looked into the mirror's depth. Shielding her eyes she stepped over to him and pulled him away. He resisted, but she clung on and finally managed to drag his gaze away from the images. Ginny could see tears leaking out from behind his eyelids and she wrapped him in her arms.
'Ginny,' Harry said, 'we need to do this together. I think it will be better if you're with me - and I want to get past the ... well, the past. I want to see what's going to happen.'
Thinking back to some of the experiences she'd had in the past Ginny shuddered but nodded. There was no point, after all, in trying to hide from who she had been. Taking a deep breath, and holding onto Harry's hand she stepped up towards the mirror and opened her eyes.
A scream was wrenched from her throat before she could stop it. She was staring into Tom Riddle's eyes as her own body froze while Harry fought a basilisk nearby. Ginny couldn't move to help him and she felt all the terror of that day again with the added fear for Harry's safety.
The images that had seemed to flicker so fast now slowed to a crawl. Ginny tried to squeeze her eyes shut but her body refused to co-operate. In slow motion she watched as the blinded beast attacked Harry over and over again while Riddle taunted him. Tears leaked from her eyelids as she was forced to watch as Harry's arm was sliced with the basilisk's fang and he began to weaken.
Desperately, Ginny pulled her head away from the images in the mirror but she felt herself drawn back into it. She tried to resist but realised that Harry was still peering into the mirror with a vague expression. She reached out to him, took his hand firmly in her own and forced herself to look into the mirror again.
It was several years later, Ginny was pleased to note, and she was at a party with Neville. People were dancing and she could see Michael Corner giving her approving glances from the next table. Oh! she thought, smiling a secretive smile to herself, this is the Yule Ball. I liked the ball - it was heaps of fun. Wondering why the mirror was choosing to show her this memory, Ginny looked around for Harry. There he was, sitting in a corner, his foot kicking idly at the floor as Ron stared moodily out to the dance floor beside him. Ginny grinned. Neville swung her out onto the dance floor, trying desperately to be suave. This time, Ginny kept her eyes fixed on Harry and barely noticed as Neville repeatedly stood on her toes and apologised profusely each time.
This was a huge step for me, Ginny thought to herself. Look at me - Harry barely a blip on the radar, and Michael being so interested in me. She smiled at Michael as Neville took her hand and led her back to their table. Harry, she noted again, wasn't looking happy. Parvati had deserted him and he was stuck talking to Percy. As they sat down, Michael left his table and slid into the seat next to Ginny's. Ginny gave up on wondering why she was being shown this particular memory and just enjoyed herself. Michael was, as remembered, fun and funny and he kept Ginny and Neville in stitches all night. Ginny would have been perfectly happy to stay here in this memory forever, but suddenly she felt an insistent tugging, turned and saw Harry glowering at them.
The images flickered again and Ginny found herself in the Room of Requirement watching as Hermione cast a Patronus. Michael was next to Ginny, his face screwed up in concentration as he tried to follow suit. Ginny glanced over to where Harry was teaching the class and her heart clenched as she saw him cast a furtive look at Cho. His eyes were intense and she recognised the look in them - it was the look he used when he looked at her now. Ginny felt a sudden surge of jealousy that she didn't recall feeling at the time. I wish he'd never looked at anyone else that way, she thought. It feels wrong that he felt that intensely for someone before me. Ginny stopped the thought in its tracks, laughing to herself. She was one to talk - here she was, remembering herself at this meeting with Michael and she was upset that at the same time Harry hadn't been mooning over her?
It was still difficult to figure out what the mirror was trying to say about her life with this set of memories and instead of fully focusing on this one, Ginny tried to work it out. Now she realised that she could feel Harry's hand in hers. It was a very slight pressure, but it was there. For a moment she felt disorientated - seeing Harry at a distance and yet feeling his hand in hers - and then she realised that the mirror wasn't telling her something about her life, but rather about the one she shared with Harry. None the wiser, but sure she was on the right track, Ginny settled in to watch the memories she was shown in more detail.
The memories began to swarm and Ginny couldn't tell if it was because she or Harry or the mirror had decided to whisk them past so many events - Harry and Cho together, her break up with Michael, the time with Dean (which she was delighted to see involved a lot of sour-faced Harry staring mournfully in her direction), and several sweet moments when she could see Harry had begun to make a play for her and she was trying to ignore her feelings for him. It was still puzzling - there was no real pattern to the memories. It was as if the mirror was showing them a series of random snapshots from their lives and nothing that had any point to it. Okay, so most of them involved some sort of romantic feelings - that seemed logical since this appeared to be about the two of them together. Of course the other strand that appeared too was the danger that always surrounded them. One moment from her seventh year haunted her as she watched it.
Harry and Ron were helping her mother plan for Bill's wedding, and were none too happy about it. She could see them muttering together as she covertly watched Harry through the window of the lounge from her vantage point outside. Ginny grimaced. What on earth had she been thinking? Harry had said they couldn't be together and she had ... what? Given in to his wishes? Oh yes, there had been that kiss on his birthday (and hang on - why had the mirror not shown them that memory? That would have been more fun to revisit than this one) but as a general rule she had stayed out of his way. She could feel the old bitterness towards Harry's misplaced nobility creeping back in and a deeper annoyance at her old self. Why on earth had she not dug her heels in and insisted that he spend some time with her?
Suddenly she felt a squeeze on her hand and she paid attention to the Harry in the memory. He was staring down at her with an expression of such pain and loss that Ginny's heart twisted. He had been expecting to die at this point; it was obvious to her now. She had known at the time that Harry was cutting himself off to try and protect those around him. What she hadn't realised until now was that he had also been protecting himself.
As soon as Ginny had made the leap, her brain settled and she knew that all the other memories they had been in were showing her the same thing. In every one of them Harry was trying to protect his own sense of self. In some that was by trying to protect others, and in others it was by distancing himself from the people around him. She thought back to what she had seen of him at the ball - she understood for the first time that his aloofness there was because he had deliberately kept himself apart from it all. He could have enjoyed himself with Parvati, but instead he had withdrawn to the safety of Ron and worshipping Cho from afar.
It also explained why the mirror hadn't shown the kiss they had shared on his birthday - that was the one time that she had broken through to him and his own emotions had been just as raw and just as open as her own. The mirror was never going to show it because it didn't fit what it wanted them to learn.
Returning to focus on the current memory, Ginny watched it with sad eyes. Here Harry was - absolutely convinced that he was going to die so here he did both. He cut himself off from everyone except Ron and Hermione who had so obstinately refused to allow him to go off alone and he did it out of a misplaced attempt to protect them all from worrying about him.
The world began to shift again and came into focus in the Room of Requirement. Ginny found herself tumbling into the room through the hole to the passageway to the Hog's Head. Harry was looking at her with that mixture of joy, pain and fear and suddenly Ginny knew this was a very bad memory to be looking at.
She knew what was coming and despite the future being so tantalisingly close, Ginny took a firm grip on Harry's hand and forcibly tried to drag him away from the mirror. She could feel him resisting and the images in the mirror began to glow brighter, the colours almost unbearable in their intensity. Ginny squeezed her eyes shut, whispered, 'forgive me Harry' and hit him as hard as she could in the chest.
She heard his breath wheeze out and his resistance lessened. With all her might, Ginny pushed him aside. He fell to the ground, gasping for air and she reached up to grab the top of the mirror's frame. She was barely able to reach it but it was enough. Jumping a little, and swinging her legs off the ground to give her a bit more force, she managed to drag the mirror off balance. She let go just as it tipped and pulled Harry out of the way as it crashed to the floor.
'What did you do that for?' Harry demanded, massaging his chest where she had hit him.
'I didn't want to see you die again ...' Ginny whispered, staring at him. 'I've come so far since that day, managed to get over it. I don't need to go through that again.'
Harry gaped at her. 'But ... the future was so close,' he said, sadness in his voice at the lost opportunity.
'Harry, look, I get it now. But we don't need to see the future. We're together, and none of that stuff matters anymore - it's all over; we don't need to protect our emotions anymore. As long as we head into it together it doesn't matter what the future will be.'
'There is no future in there,' a querulous voice said from behind them. They both spun on their heels to see the people from the house staring at them.
'Um ... we were driving and our car's broken down. We wanted some help ...' Ginny floundered a little as she tried to work out what to say to them to explain what she and Harry were doing in their house.
'I want to thank you for breaking us out of that spell,' the old woman said as she climbed awkwardly to her feet. 'I don't know how long we'd been there, but it must have been a while.'
'Wait, what do you mean no future?' Harry said
'Just what I said. Everything we saw in there was from the past. Sometimes we were young, and Bedelia here was just a baby. Other times we were old and wrinkled, but always ... always we saw what had already happened. I always hoped - maybe the next one would be what was to come, but it never was. I think I'd have stayed there forever if you hadn't tipped the mirror over.'
'But the legend has it that it shows your future -' Ginny said.
'And that's why it's so dangerous,' said the old man, coming to stand behind the woman. 'I don't think I could have done what you did - I didn't have the strength to break out of it. I kept hoping ...'
'Hope,' said Harry, nodding. 'Yeah, hope can be a terrible thing.'
'Oh Harry, don't say that,' Ginny cried. 'Hope for the future is brilliant - so long as you don't let it take over.'
'Yeah. Yeah, maybe.' Harry looked around. 'Ginny, do you think this dust has got deeper since we started looking at the mirror?'
Ginny followed his glance and winced. 'Yes, I think so. How long have we been here?'
'I don't know,' he said. He looked over at the old couple. 'Do you have a wireless somewhere?'
The younger woman, Bedelia, nodded and led the way down to the lounge. She pointed her wand at the box in the corner and a cheerful voice warbled out, 'and that was Celestina Warbeck with her newest song, Me and the Ancient Warlock. Her album will be released on the 27th of May which is ... yes, it's tomorrow. I know we're all looking forward to it eagerly in the studio -' The voice burbled on, but no-one in the house was paying attention anymore.
'The 26th of May?' Ginny asked in horror. 'That means I missed my game; it was yesterday. Oh, Gwenog will be furious ...'
'I'm thinking perhaps we should leave the car and Apparate directly to the Harpies' headquarters,' Harry suggested. 'And we should send your dad here to get to the bottom of that mirror and what it's doing in this house.'
The house elf, which had been dusting vigorously around them, looked suddenly guilty and sidled out of the room muttering something about refreshments.
'Definitely,' Ginny agreed. 'I'm not looking forward to this interview -'
After thanking the family and repeatedly refusing the house elf's offers of tea and biscuits, Harry and Ginny Apparated away from the scene.
***
'Missed again, Harry,' Ginny called as she grabbed the quaffle as it almost whisked past her towards the goal. 'You're not trying hard enough.'
'Yeah, well, I'm a Seeker not a Chaser. You should be doing this and I should be guarding the goal.'
'You heard Gwenog - I'm to practise other positions and you're to help me.'
Harry sighed and flew over to Ginny. He leaned off his broom to give her a quick kiss which warmed her to the bottom of her toes. She smiled at him, then zipped past him to put the ball into the opposing goal.
'Hey! That's cheating,' Harry yelled as he chased her.
'No, it's called taking advantage of the other player's weaknesses,' Ginny teased him.
Harry opened his mouth to retort when they were interrupted. 'Oi, you two! Get down here!' Gwenog yelled. 'There's someone here to see you.'
Ginny squinted down at the ground.
'Dad!' she shouted, aiming her broom downwards and drifting to a halt a foot above his head. 'What are you doing here?'
'I can't talk to you when you're hovering like that. Could you land please?'
Rolling her eyes Ginny did as he asked, with Harry touching down just a second after she did. Gwenog left them to it, heading to the other side of the pitch where several other players were doing some drills with a snitch.
'So, what's up Dad?'
'I just thought you'd like to know what was going on with that mirror. Apparently the elf overheard the old couple wondering what was going to come of the young girl when they got too old to look after themselves. It knew where the mirror was kept and managed to Apparate with it into the house.' He sighed in exasperation. 'I've made it clear to them that it's dangerous and shouldn't be played around with.'
'Where is it now?' Harry asked eagerly.
'Somewhere it won't be any more trouble,' her father said. 'It's under lock and key. We tried to destroy it, but its magic is too powerful. Pity. It's more trouble than it's worth.'
'Oh, I don't know,' Ginny smiled at Harry. 'It certainly got us to slow things down a little.'
'Yeah, I've stopped training quite so intensely,' Harry said. 'I get to take weekends off now that I've talked to Kingsley about the amount of time I was spending away from home.'
'And I've started inviting Harry to help me with my training,' Ginny smiled again. 'We're spending more time together - and it's because of what that mirror did for us.'
'Even so,' said Arthur. 'I can think of easier ways to learn to take it easy.'
'Since when did Ginny and I ever take the easy way out?' Harry asked, a smirk on his face.
'That's true.' Her father smiled at them indulgently. 'I'd better be off, Ginny.' He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. 'I have to take a, what did Harry call it? A road trip? That car isn't going to recue itself.' He looked excited.
'Take Mum for a spin, Dad. She might enjoy some time out, too. Just try not to run yourselves off the road.' Ginny winked at him as she kicked off. She waved and sped off down the pitch, with Harry in hot pursuit.