Blackness. My old friend. We were getting to be pretty familiar these days. So was the feeling of total helplessness. Body-bind again. The cool breeze, though, that was a new one. I groaned softly, trying to fight off the last of the poison. I was in as tight a spot as I'd ever been, and when you've built your career on getting into tight spots that was saying something. I could hear voices murmuring. More than one. I thought I could hear Ginny's low whisper but I couldn't be sure. The potion was taking its sweet time.

I managed to crack one eyelid. Blurry shapes in front of me. Could've been anywhere. Nothing to do but wait. And think.

She'd double-crossed me. It stung more than I'd thought it would. I'd suspected her a little right from the beginning. I decided I had. Made it easier to take. But why? I didn't think she still had anything going with Pansy Malfoy. I couldn't say why I thought that, it was just a feeling. Like that little prickle at the back of my mind, only this time I decided to listen. Still, it didn't make the shit luck of it all any easier. Not that luck had anything to do with it. But why? That was the part that hovered just out of reach, like a rune with one of the lines drawn crooked. I thought as hard as the potion would let me, but I was stumped. I loved her. That was what hurt the worst. I knew it was a mistake. It had always been a mistake. But I hadn't been able to help myself.

I tried my eyes again. They were feeling a little more cooperative. The blur was coalescing into the far wall of Ginny's bedroom. I must still be on the bed. That would mean the cool breeze was from—Merlin's balls. I strained my eye in its socked. Rewarded with a sharp pain. I'd felt worse. Like what I felt as I took in the sight of my clothes still piled on the floor. At that point, the hierarchy of betrayal took on a whole new look. A doublecross was one thing. Immobilizing me naked on the bed right after you'd double-crossed me, that was something else entirely. The voices were getting clearer. It was definitely Ginny. Sounded like Pansy Malfoy as well. Couldn't make out what they were saying, but it sounded nice and cozy.

There was another voice. Male. Familiar again. I strained my ears but I still couldn't quite make it out.

"I think she's coming to," Ginny said. There was a smile in her voice. Malicious. I blinked again, hard. Everything snapped into focus. I was there, on Ginny's bed. Naked. Frozen stiff. She was standing on the other side of the room. She'd had the courtesy to dress herself, at least. Pansy Malfoy stood next to her, arms folded, staring at me with one eyebrow cocked like I was the latest broomstick propped up in a shop window. Take it in, you fucking bitch.

Neither one of them had their wands drawn, and I couldn't tell if Ginny's was strapped to her leg. Not that they'd need them. Would've made me feel better in a perverse way. A little more formidable.

I heard a scuffling sound by the doorway and strained my orbs once again, trying to make out who it was. The man, I guessed. He hovered just out of sight.

"Darling," Pansy simpered, crossing to him. At least she wasn't looking at me any more. Ginny, on the other hand, circled around the bed like a vulture.

"Nice of you to join the party," she murmured. She flashed her teeth. Not a smile. I struggled to speak. I didn't know what I'd say, but I figured it wouldn't be proper in mixed company anyway. Ginny sat on the edge of the bed next to me, her eyes suddenly dark and serious. "I'm sorry," she said quietly so the others couldn't hear. I'll bet.

I was in a bind. Literally. Figuratively it could've been worse. Ginny could've just pulled out her wand and with a little breath she could've sent me home down the lazy river to join all my old friends. Dumbledore. Fred. Hell, even Crabbe. But she'd chosen to keep me around. Why? Why had I gotten mixed up in whatever this was anyway? It's not like anybody needed my help to bilk Harry Potter out of a few Galleons. It's not like I was crying out for some two-Knut dame to break down my door. Sure I'd gotten a couple of nice nights out of it, but on the whole the arithmetic was shady.

And what was Ginny doing in this whole business anyway? It's not like she needed the money. It was probably her money anyway. She'd done just fine for herself. The briefcase? But she could get it any time she wanted it. She said herself she'd be able to figure out how to get at it. And with Harry out painting the town Gryffindor red with his boys, she seemed to have all the time in the world. What was in it? The curiosity was killing me. Ginny's eyes on my body were killing me. Everything was killing me, I just wasn't dead yet.

"Is it time?" Pansy's voice. Hard. A muffled yes from the mystery date. "Let's go, then," she whined. "Let's just get it over with."

"Not yet," Ginny said suddenly, her voice louder than it needed to be. She caught herself. "A few minutes couldn't hurt anything," she finished, a little softer.

"Well hurry up," Pansy snapped. "Someone could catch wise."

I found myself wishing they'd hurry up too. Suddenly that lazy river was looking mighty nice. After all, what did I have? A shitty flat and a broken heart. Not a lot to build a life on. I looked hard into Ginny's eyes trying to figure her out. Trying to figure anything out. Trying to tell her to just go ahead and Avada Kedavra my ass into oblivion, since she'd taken care of everything else so handily.

Ginny looked at me strangely before she sat up. Like there was something she wanted to say.

"Hold on," the muffled voice said. Ginny looked over at him and I could feel the heat from her eyes. It was nice. I was freezing.

Suddenly my jaw seemed to melt a little. My tongue flopped around uselessly inside my mouth for a second and I realized someone had knocked the charm back a little. "What the fuck is this?" I rasped. "Ginny, what the fuck are you doing?"

"It's not me, Hermione, I don't--" she started. Interrupted by the gentleman caller. How chivalrous.

"Ginny's just been . . . erm, tying up a few loose ends," he said. Pansy howled with laughter. A little much, I thought. Ginny was a much better actress. But something—

I realized with a thunderbolt who was talking to me. No way. No fucking way.

Harry Potter strode into my line of sight.

"All those months in the woods and I never once saw you naked, Granger," he said, malice oozing off him like grease from Malfoy's hair. "Pity." I wanted to spit at him but it was clear from the way the saliva gurgled in my throat they hadn't bothered to lower the charm enough to allow me even that simple pleasure. I coughed with difficulty. Found myself wanting a drink. Even Ginny's poisoned firewhisky. Potter walked around the bed, examining me. I felt lower than a flobberworm with a head cold.

"I've got one up on you then, Potter," I said as nastily as I could. Not my best retort, but I had to start somewhere.

"Yes, well," he said dismissively. "Ginny, be a darling and fetch me my wand."

Ginny shot him a cold look. Set her lips thin. Stalked out of the room.

"She's such a good girl," Harry said almost fondly. "So useful."

"Not your girl, Harry," I said.

"Not yours either," he smirked. "She doesn't belong to you, remember."

Of course I remembered. Of course it was him warning me to stay away from her. Of course he had enchanted his voice so I wouldn't recognize it, the bastard was supposed to be rotting away in some dank cellar somewhere. But if she was a part of this plan why had he gone to all the trouble?

"Had to keep you interested, didn't I?" He smirked again. Of course he'd had ample training in mind-reading. Probably picked up a few tricks from his tricks along the way, too. Have to make sure they're not out to steal his gold.

"I would've stayed interested, Potter. A girl like Ginny, you stay interested without any help."

"That's where you and I differ." He leaned close and flicked something off my collarbone. I could feel his breath. I would've shuddered. I would've punched him in the mouth. "A fly," he said. "Don't want to make you look silly."

"What's this all about?" I said again, trying to make myself sound a little more forceful. Pretty tough to sound forceful when you're immobilized from the neck down, but I was doing my best. "It's your fucking money. It's your fucking briefcase."

"That may be," he said. "But I had to make it look like so much more. That briefcase," he leaned close again. I tried to keep down my nausea. Didn't want to meet old Mad-Eye with a gullet full of vomit. "That briefcase can't just be opened."

"So it's a pretty nice one, then? Dragon skin and goblin fittings? Saving it for a special occasion?"

He hit me across the face. Hurt like a bastard. That bastard. I could feel blood oozing out of my nose. Could taste it on my tongue. Pansy gasped a little.

"What is contained in that briefcase is more important than you or I could ever be, Granger," he hissed.

"More important than The Boy Who Lived? The Boy Who Lived And Went On To Be A Dirty Doublecrossing Shit?"

He raised his hand to hit me again and Ginny shouted from the doorway. He smiled a little. Raised the hairs on the back of my neck, that smile. At least I figured it did. "Yes," he said, his voice pinched. "More important than that."

"So what is it? Come on, Potter, it's pretty clear you're going to off me anyway. Let's have it."

Harry just smiled again. "It really is a shame we didn't get to know each other better out there," he said. The slimy fuck. "Pansy, darling, don't you think so?" Pansy crossed next to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. Made my skin crawl, I guessed. At least the skin on my face.

"Oh, I don't know," she said sweetly. "You'd have to ask Ginny."

I wanted to strangle both of them with my bare hands and to hell with a wand. I wanted both of them to look into my eyes as I did it. They were just that kind of people.

"Fuck you," I croaked.

"You had your chance," she shot back. I had to admit it was a pretty snappy retort.

Harry stood up sloughing Pansy off like an old boomslang skin. "My wand, Ginny." She gave it to him, but I could see that her hand was trembling. Her other hand drifted down to her thigh. Fingers twitching. She must have her own wand snapped safely against her skin. I caught Ginny's eye. Not hard to do. She was looking at me. A pleading look, I would've said if she hadn't poisoned my whiskey and bound me up naked on her bed. But there was something in that look, something that made me want to play for time. Maybe Dumbledore and the others could wait a while. Play another hand of Exploding Snap, or whatever it was they did over there. Take some time before dealing me in to the game.

"So Potter," I called after him. "You didn't finish telling me why you kidnapped yourself. Unless it was just because even you were tired of being around you."

He stopped. Turned back. His eyes were almost black. Never a good sign. But my ploy seemed to have worked. I figured it would, since the bad guy can never resist the opportunity to brag.

"I needed it to look that way, Granger," he said silkily. His fingers sliding up and down his wand. "The briefcase won't open unless I'm in mortal danger."

"But you were never in mortal danger." This seemed obvious enough even for Pansy, who was looking interested.

"It won't open," he said, "unless it thinks I'm in mortal danger."

"And how, pray tell, did you go about doing that? Faking your own kidnapping wouldn't fool a Hufflepuff."

"Fooled you, didn't it? More importantly, it fooled Ginny. At least for a while. And the spell I put on that case included her. It wouldn't open until one of us believed my life was at stake."

"Touching," I spat.

"Isn't it? She believed it just long enough for the enchantment to break. Until I had Pansy here send her a little love note filling her in. Once she knew the plan I must say she quite took to it."

"Five days later?" I asked. Eyes back on Ginny. She was bright red. Still clawing at her leg. Shook my head. Would've. "So she brought me in. What the fuck for? So your life was allegedly at stake. Just open the goddamned case already and be done with it. I was doing just fine without all this shit, thanks."

"Ginny?" Harry said. She opened her mouth a few times. Good impression of a goldfish.

"I . . ." She didn't seem to be able to continue. Harry pointed his wand at her. The blush was sucked back into her cheeks in an instant. She was dead white. Took a deep breath. I suddenly wanted to kill Harry even more. I wish I knew a little necromancy. I wanted to kill him and bring him back to life so I could kill him again. Even his zombie corpse. Even though Ginny had screwed me but good, I still held that little flickering flame for her. Right in the part of my brain that controlled stupidity.

"Ginny?" he said again, bearing down slightly.

"Ron," she cried finally. "I did it because of Ron."

I would've frozen if I wasn't frozen already. Ron. Her brother, who I'd loved and left. All because of her.

"It's not my fault what happened to him," I said quietly. "If it's anybody's fault it's those two." Harry. Pansy, who was trying to slink away.

"I know that now!" she all but shouted. "I know! But Hermione, when Pansy told me what was going on, I was still so mad at you. I wanted to kill you. You didn't see him," she said, tears starting to gather in her eyes. "You didn't see what he'd turned into. My brother, Hermione!" she cried. "I loved him, and you didn't see it, but . . ." She broke down. Fell to the floor. I didn't think she was acting now. If she was it was to make Olivier throw down his CBE.

"So you just thought you'd use the opportunity to take care of a few outstanding problems?" Nothing like kicking a girl when she's down. I ought to know.

Ginny didn't say anything. She was crying too hard. She must've saved up all those sobs over all the years that I'd known her when she never shed a tear. She'd cried more in the past two days than the past decade.

"Answered all of your questions?" Harry snapped. He was clearly itching to get down to business.

"What's in the case, Potter?"

"Ahh, the case." I wanted to slug him right in his melodramatic kisser. "It contains something more powerful than--"

"You and me and baby makes three, yadda yadda yadda. What's in the fucking case?"

He smiled again. That same creepy smile. Stroked his wand. "A spell. A very ancient, powerful spell. A spell that will cause all the good works--" his mouth twisted at that—"done by all those well-meaning witches and wizards fall into dust."

"So you're bringing back the big man?" I said. I didn't even bother to be shocked. I'd wondered before if Harry might have gone a little mad with power. And seeing as how I was all but dead already it didn't seem worth the effort to get worked up.

"Don't be stupid, Granger, it doesn't look good on you."

"What then?"

"Voldemort is gone. Nothing will bring him back. And this spell, this set of spells, will make him look like Flitwick in the scheme of things."

All right, maybe my stomach got a little cold at that one.

"That's why it was so well-protected. Dumbledore's last gift to me. I put the enchantment on it because if I was ever in mortal danger Ginny was to destroy its contents. That was how it looked on paper, anyway."

"Cozy," I muttered.

"It's easy to be nonchalant about it when you're going to miss all the fireworks," Harry said coolly. "And on that note," he raised his wand.

"No!" Ginny cried, struggling up from the floor. She'd used her time down there to fish her wand out from under her skirt. She brandished it at him. The room exploded in action as much as a room with three people and one mannequin can. Harry whirled around to face her. Pansy screamed and dove behind him. He kicked at her and she yelped like a struck puppy. Pulled out her own wand. Probably a reflex, since she didn't seem to know who to point it at. Ginny leapt onto the bed, her body shielding mine, still pointing her wand at Harry.

I needed a drink like Merlin need a fucking pointy hat.

"Hermione," Ginny said still looking at Harry. "Hermione, I'm so sorry for all of this. I'm so sorry. I love you, Hermione, I swear it. I never would have gone along with this, I wasn't thinking."

I was. I knew she was thinking it was just like Ron all over again. I don't know why I went along with it, Hermione. I don't know why I did and I'd take it back in a second if I could.

"Get away from her, Ginny," Harry barked. His voice was cold as ice. Colder. It would've frozen water and made the ice cubes break out of sheer terror. "Get away from her. I will kill you."

"I know. I don't care. If I have the chance to get you first I'm taking it," she said. Like a whole different woman. Nothing timid. Nothing remorseful.

"I mean it, Ginny. Nothing must stop me."

I stepped out of my body then. Watched everything happen. Harry talking like he was in a bad movie. Pansy cowering down low, her wand vacillating between targets. Ginny straddling me, wand arm straight and unwavering. She loved me. My hovering consciousness was able to drink that thought straight down without worrying about how many bodies would be slumped in this room in just a few seconds. That thought would push my little boat calmly down the river to the grand old cardroom where my friends sat waiting. They'd probably have good scotch there. And Ginny loved me, and she was sorry.

And then, in a flash, it happened.

If I could slow that flash down, it would've looked like this: Ginny dropped her arm to my body and shouted. Suddenly my limbs were loose and fluid. I called for my wand, don't know what possessed me to do it, but sometimes you just know. In that second there was a terrible scream that filled up more time than standing in the queue at Gringott's. It filled up that whole moment.

Harry's lips moving. Pansy's too. Except her wand was pointed at him. He was making those words that strike fear into a witch's heart just before those words strike you dead. Couldn't tell what Pansy said, but her white light knocked his green light off course and it slammed into the mirror on the wall next to the bed. Flying glass everywhere. Harry on the floor, not moving. Pansy shaking like a leaf. And Ginny.

She was warm in my arms. Warm and sweet. At first I couldn't tell what it was that was making everything so warm and I thought it must just be her. Then I tore my eyes away from hers, wide and unblinking. Blood everywhere. But she hadn't been hit.

"Ginny?"

Nothing.

"Ginny?" I was getting a little panicked. I realized the blood was hers. Shards of glass from the mirror protruded from her body like little icebergs. She coughed. More blood.

Pansy screamed again. Dropped her wand. Harry started to stir and I whipped my wand to face him and fired off something, anything to keep him down. "Call somebody," I hissed at Pansy. "Go!" She nodded and bolted. I hoped she'd do it.

"Ginny?"

"Hermione?" she said weakly, her voice faraway. "I'm so sorry."

"Don't waste your breath on it," I choked. I held my wand over her and tried to pick out the shards of glass. I didn't have much time. My hand was shaking hard.

"I love you," she whispered. More coughing. Merlin, I had to stop the blood. But I couldn't. She was too broken. My little broken doll. I kept trying to pull the glass out of her, to stanch the bleeding. She was getting lighter.

"Don't go, Ginny," I mumbled feverishly. "Don't go, I love you."

But I could see her getting into her little boat. Climbing into it. Stepping in daintily, just like a lady. I saw her turn back and wink at me, lifting a cigarette to her lips. Just like a dame.

I leaned over and kissed her lips. Still warm. Still soft. Still my girl.