Once and for All

Chapter 24

"NO!" Harry yelled in horror seconds after Ginny disappeared. Finally freed from the spell, he rushed to the spot where she had been. How could he have been so stupid? He had trusted this psychopath.
    He grabbed the desk in an attempt to calm down, but with his whirling, angry mind all he could think about was that the owner of the desk, his own boss, had taken Ginny. He had lead her right to her kidnapper.
He smashed his fist against the desk, ignoring the pain that shot from his hand. "We need to find him fast," he growled.
"How?" Dean asked, annoyed. "He took our wands."
"Well we need to find some way, you lazy git!" He shouted at Dean, who looked stunned at Harry's outburst. "He tortured Seamus for days to find information about her-how much more do you think he'll-he'll..." Harry struggled to finish the sentence, but then eventually gave up.
"Not all of them," Luna said from across the room.
Confused, Harry turned to her along with the rest of the group. "What?"
"He didn't take all of our wands. I left mine outside."
"Why in the world would you do that?" Hermione exclaimed, clearly bewildered.
"He took Draco's wand when Draco was snooping around his office," Luna reasoned, nodding at the desk where there was, indeed, a wand resting. "so I figured that it would be unwise to bring mine in. Plus it's bad luck to bring wands into a place of wizard bargains, because the monster Wuikagla will come after you. That's why Daddy says those in the Treasury Department leave theirs outside-it's a traditional curtesy. Draco must have forgotten he took it."
"Brilliant," Harry said as everyone stared at her in confusion and admiration. "Get it before someone takes it. Dean, grab Draco's, will you?"
After she left the room Ron muttered to Harry, "I'm seriously beginning to wonder if her dad's messing with her on purpose."
"Nah, her dad's nuttier than she is," Harry admitted, not realizing his tone had taken on a twinge if fondness. "Either way, I don't know what we would've done without her." He then turned to the quieted person in the group. "Seamus, do you remember where the place was?"
Seamus didn't have to ask which as he but his lip uncertainly. "Kind of," he admitted finally. "But I only know the inside of the room. If we disapperate, we're going to end up inside of that room."
      "So we can't sneak up on them, we don't know the terrain we're fighting on, and could easily become trapped," Hermione listed off.
      "Fantastic," Dean muttered.
       Harry turned to him furiously. "If you've got a better plan, say it or so help me I'll stick Draco's wand right up your-"
"We're wasting time," Hermione interrupted. "Seamus, try to remember the room. Harry, come and help me try to find Whiffler on this map. I'd like to know exactly where we are before we land in enemy territory."
    "Whatever you do, hurry up," Ron snapped angrily. "We already lost Fred-I'm not losing her too!"
This finally seemed to shut everyone up as Harry nodded quickly before rushing over to look at the map. "Hang in there, Ginny," he muttered. "We're coming."
                            *****
Ginny
      Ginny hadn't been aware that she was screaming until the pain stopped, and her screams echoed throughout the house. The pain had been unlike anything she had ever felt-like a thousand knives digging into every inch of her body, splitting it apart excruciatingly slow. Now she finally understood how it had driven the Longbottoms to insanity. It had ripped their minds to shreds.
        "Where is it?" He asked again, and with shaking arms she pushed herself up off the ground and glared at him. "I-don't-know." She growled at him.
      With a hard expression, he pointed the wand at her again, and the knives returned along with a burning, stinging feelings, like she was burning up from the inside out. Her body was on fire. Everything burned-even her eyes. She only realized she was screaming when her throat became scratchy and parched as a desert.
     He repeated this question three more times, and each time she repeated the same answer. After the third time, she growled in frustration, "For the last time, I don't know anything. You're wasting your time."
     Whiffler glanced at her with a look she didn't like. "Hmm. Maybe I am."  He then pointed his wand at the mirror, which opened to reveal a map behind it. A map of... "the Ministry?" She whispered, confused. How did he have one? And even if it was real, why keep it in an interrogation room?
     "Usually this is kept in my...other office," Whiffler admitted. "But I thought it might become useful today." He stared at her curiously. "Why did you hold on to the broom at the game?"
    Taken aback at the randomness of the question, she had hardly time to think before he gave a maniacal laugh. "Of course-you didn't hang on because you were stubborn, or even strong. You hung on because you cared, and didn't want to hurt your family. Yes," he added as she gave him a perplexed look. "I am experienced in the art of Occulmency. But that is beside the point." He then pointed his wand back at the map, which zoomed in to his office at the Ministry. With a start, she saw names clustered in the room, like the Marauder's Map. The names of her friends... and Harry. "Your friends are still trapped inside. If you don't tell me where the weapon is, they'll burn alive."
     "You can't do that from here," she denied.
     "Usually, no. But the map is a...unique design. If you watch here, I can transport things to and from my office through this." He pointed the wand at the chair, and with a sinking heart Ginny saw it disappear, then reappear in the map. "I can also enchant the office from here, as you will see momentarily." He flicked his wand at the office, and Ginny inhaled sharply as the paper began to burn. "You have roughly one minute before your friends burn. I'd suggest you talk fast."