Disclaimer: I still only own Haven.
Heroes Shed No Tears
Part VI – Pogrebin
By VirtualFaerie
The camp was silent and the blanket of darkness that had fallen over the camp muffled all of their sounds. Draco had led the group to the stream expertly; they had gone around the New Ministry building undetected. Draco had his wand drawn the entire time, but with no lumos spell. His eyes were wary watching every shadow for a lurking death eater.
They found the stream and the twins went forward to work on the wards. They murmured spells under their breaths, trying to be as quiet as possible. Haven was holding onto Ginny’s hand while his father helped the twins with the ward. It was taking them longer than expected, and Draco kept looking around like he expected some death eaters to pounce on them.
“Yes,” the twins whispered in unison. They turned and grinned at everyone. “Come on,” they beckoned everyone and held open the ward with their wands.
Ginny, Haven and Draco slipped through first, followed by everyone else; Fred and George last, sealing the ward behind them.
They walked in silence for another half hour, the moon beaming down at them luminously, shining in all of her brilliance, giving them light to find their way. The woods nearby were filled with sounds of nocturnal creatures creeping. Haven was holding both Draco and Ginny’s hands now, squeezing tightly as he looked at the woods fearfully. While Draco just held his hand firmly, Ginny’s rubbed his palm reassuringly with the pad of her thumb.
“Gods,” Fred said finally, breaking the silence. “I think we’re far enough away to talk.”
George nodded, “The quiet was getting to me. I think that’s the longest we’ve been quiet since that invasion in Hogsmeade…” he trailed off, suddenly looking very solemn. He reached for his mother’s hand and pulled her near to him, Fred came up on her other side. Arthur had been killed during that invasion.
Percy and Ron were sleeping; Neville looked at them a bit jealously. He hadn’t had much sleep the past few days.
“Daddy,” Haven said softly.
Draco looked down at him, his sharp gaze mild, “Yes?”
“Will you carry me? My feet are tired,” Haven looked up at him pleadingly. His feet had been heavy from his boots, thunking on the ground with every step that he took.
“Sure,” Draco released his hand and bent down, hoisting Haven over his shoulder, causing him to giggle. “You can be my sack of potatoes.” Haven’s tinkling laughter rang out through the night.
“Ah! Daddy, I didn’t mean that kind of carrying. Piggy back,” Haven explained, still laughing.
“Oh, right,” Draco said and shifted Haven to piggy back.
Haven smiled, “Thanks.” He rested his head on Draco’s back and closed his eyes. Ginny looked at them, her eyes glazed over slightly, she tripped on a rock and catapulted forward. In a flash, Draco had Haven on his feet again and had caught Ginny in his arms just before she flew face first into the ground. He was breathing heavily, his hot breath on her skin made her shiver. She looked up at him slowly, her heart racing.
“I…Sorry,” she said when she noticed that everyone was watching her. “Thanks,” she said to Draco, standing up and smoothing her robes. They started walking again and Ginny glanced back at the rock that she had tripped over; it was grey and looked like it had little pieces of grass sprouting out of it. She shook her head when she thought she saw two.
Before long, Neville had stumbled over a rock that looked a lot like the one that Ginny tripped over. Only Neville caught himself before he fell. He frowned and looked around, Ginny did the same. There were these kinds of rocks everywhere, or at least there were five of them near the group. As she approached one, she stuck her foot out and kicked it.
The “rock” squealed and shot up, revealing a small gray, hairy creature. It scowled at her and rubbed its side. Her eyes widened in shock, they had learned about these in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The others popped up. “Pogrebin!” she screamed.
Everyone looked around, Pogrebin weren’t supposed to be here, they were native to Russia. But during the war they must have come to England, sensing the distressed humans. They were creatures that loved to follow people around making them confused to a point of hysteria causing them to collapse, and then it tries to consume them.
Neville and Harry stunned two of them, but the other three had gotten up. One was chasing Molly and the twins, who were currently in control of Ron and Percy. “Quick!” Harry called out as one of the Pogrebin advanced towards him, “Follow me!” Molly, the twins, and Neville ran with him, he was casting spells at the Pogrebin, trying to run backwards as well.
Draco, Ginny and Haven were backing up towards the woods as the two remaining Pogrebin pressed towards them, their shiny, sharp, white teeth bared with menacing grins. “Reverso,” Draco yelled. They rocketed back, but got back up and kept coming towards them. “Shit,” Draco cursed. “Here,” he lifted Haven off of him and handed him to Ginny. Haven was now on her, piggy back, “Hold him….”
The Pogrebin had saliva dripping out of their mouths. Haven was crying and Ginny could feel his hot tears seeping through her robes and shirt. His hands were fisted on her robes.
“Ginny….Daddy,” he cried softly. Pain shot through Ginny’s heart. She rubbed his legs tenderly.
“Exileramus!” Draco shouted. The Pogrebin shrieked and disappeared, gray smoke residing where they had been standing just moments ago. Haven was latched onto Ginny, crying quietly. Draco looked back at them, his eyebrows lowered. “Come, Haven,” he helped Haven off of Ginny’s back and held him against his chest. “It’s alright,” he soothed, rubbing Haven’s back and rocking slightly. Ginny watched them inaudibly, feeling much the third wheel.
“Damn,” he said softly. “We’re separated. I hope they find it to my mother’s house.” He shook his head, “Oh well.”
“Will we have to go back that other way?” Ginny asked fearfully. She knew that she had just developed a very large fear of Pogrebin and didn’t know if she could last through any more confrontations with them.
Draco looked at her curiously, “Scared?” There was only a slight hint of malice in his voice.
She looked at him steadily and sniffed, “Yes, actually, I am.”
The corner of his mouth quirked, “Okay then, we can go through the forest.” He shifted Haven to his back. “Just stay close; there are…well, just stay close, okay?”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ginny said walking next to him, so close that their shoulders almost touched. Ginny looked at Haven. His eyes were closed and he was snoring faintly.
“This way,” Draco said, “takes longer than the other way, but if we go in a sort of semi-circle, we’ll make it to the house okay.”
Ginny nodded. They continued walking through the forest, Ginny developed and knack of jumping whenever she heard a noise and jarring Draco’s elbow, he scowled at her, but she never noticed.
-
The sunlight was filtering through the trees before anyone spoke again, besides Draco’s irritated “Stop it” every time Ginny jumped. Ginny looked at Draco, seeing Haven sagging slightly on his back. “Do you want me to carry him for a while?” she asked as they trudged through the forest.
Draco looked at her and wrinkled his nose. “You’re too scrawny,” he said. “You’d drop him before too long.”
Ginny stiffened, “I am not scrawny.”
He didn’t even look her way, “Yes, you are.”
“I am not!” she said a bit louder. “Just because you’re taller than me…”
“Look, Weasel,” he said tiredly. “You’re scrawny, too skinny; you probably have no muscle on you. You wouldn’t be able to hold him very long; he gets quite heavy after a while.” He looked over at her; she was glaring at him, her jaw set. Haven hadn’t stirred; the excitement of the night before had gotten to him, and worn him out.
“It’s not my fault the stupid death eaters don’t know how to give people enough food,” she said angrily, kicking at a stray stick on the forest floor. “They hardly give us enough food to feed one person for a week, and they expect it to be enough for a whole tent of people?” Her eyes widened, “Oh my gods, I’m so glad I packed two bags of food.” She sighed with relief, “We have one and they have one.” She put her hand to her heart.
Draco looked at her his eyes watching her, annoyed and vaguely amused. “Relax, Weasel. I’m sure that even if they didn’t have food they’d be okay. They could eat some boysenberries or something.” Ginny wrinkled her nose at him.
~*~
It was getting dark again, and they had only stopped once to eat lunch and let Haven use the bathroom. Draco had gone with him, so Ginny figured he had probably gone too. Draco was still carrying Haven, refusing flat out to let her even try to carry him. She pointed out that she had held him while Draco was fighting off the Pogrebin, but he said the only reason he let her hold him then was because he needed both of his hands free, and he didn’t want Haven to be so close to the Pogrebin.
There were rustling leaves above their heads and glowing eyes peering at them out of the darkness. Ginny felt her feet dragging; she was so tired. Her face was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. She would have given anything for her rickety old bed back at the camp. But all there was here was the dewy leaves that rested on the floor of the forest.
“Ah!” Ginny cried out. There was a snap.
“Ginny?” Haven was suddenly alert and awake, looking around worriedly.
“Weasel?” Draco called out.
“Oh no,” she moaned. “No…no, no, no.”
“What happened?” Draco set Haven down and crouched near Ginny. A fallen branch from a tree, with a sharp limb had ripped through her robes and cut her shin rather deeply. But that wasn’t what she was moaning about.
“Not my wand,” she whispered. She picked up the two pieces and looked at them pitifully. “Oh Merlin,” she breathed. She looked at Draco with wide eyes. “Do you suppose you could heal my cut?” she asked softly.
Draco whispered a spell and the torn skin on Ginny’s leg mended. “Wow,” said Haven. “That’s cool.”
Ginny sighed, “Now I feel helpless.”
“Was that even really your wand?” Draco asked carefully.
She looked at him. “No, it was Percy’s old wand.” Draco brightened a little. Ginny scowled at him, “What?”
“There’s an Ollivander’s still open in Hogsmeade. The death eaters figured they should have a place to buy wands,” he shrugged. “We can get you a new wand there.”
Ginny smiled, “A new…” her smile faltered. “I couldn’t pay for a new wand.”
“We should start moving,” said Draco picking Haven back up.
They continued walking. “Did you hear that?” Ginny instinctively stepped closer to Draco.
It sounded again.
She jumped and grabbed his arm. He let her hold on. “Lumos,” he said. He lifted his wand up higher and peered into the darkness. He looked back at Ginny and scowled. “It was just an owl,” he said.
“Oh,” Ginny let go of his arm quickly and stepped away.
“Agh,” Draco clutched at his arm, grimacing and grunting a little with pain. He slid the fabric of his sleeve up to reveal his glowing dark mark. It jeered out at them evilly. He looked at Haven and Ginny apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick. “You’ll have to stay here. I promise that I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Ginny nodded slowly, “Alright.” Draco eased Haven off of his back and nudged him towards Ginny.
“Go on,” he coaxed. “I promise I’ll be back. Just stay right here.” He hugged Haven and kissed his forehead, then Disapparated. Suddenly, the forest seemed heavier, weighing down on them. The sounds were chilling, making Ginny shiver.
“I’m scared,” Haven said quietly.
“Me too,” Ginny whispered, hugging Haven closer.
Heroes Shed No Tears
Part VI – Pogrebin
By VirtualFaerie
The camp was silent and the blanket of darkness that had fallen over the camp muffled all of their sounds. Draco had led the group to the stream expertly; they had gone around the New Ministry building undetected. Draco had his wand drawn the entire time, but with no lumos spell. His eyes were wary watching every shadow for a lurking death eater.
They found the stream and the twins went forward to work on the wards. They murmured spells under their breaths, trying to be as quiet as possible. Haven was holding onto Ginny’s hand while his father helped the twins with the ward. It was taking them longer than expected, and Draco kept looking around like he expected some death eaters to pounce on them.
“Yes,” the twins whispered in unison. They turned and grinned at everyone. “Come on,” they beckoned everyone and held open the ward with their wands.
Ginny, Haven and Draco slipped through first, followed by everyone else; Fred and George last, sealing the ward behind them.
They walked in silence for another half hour, the moon beaming down at them luminously, shining in all of her brilliance, giving them light to find their way. The woods nearby were filled with sounds of nocturnal creatures creeping. Haven was holding both Draco and Ginny’s hands now, squeezing tightly as he looked at the woods fearfully. While Draco just held his hand firmly, Ginny’s rubbed his palm reassuringly with the pad of her thumb.
“Gods,” Fred said finally, breaking the silence. “I think we’re far enough away to talk.”
George nodded, “The quiet was getting to me. I think that’s the longest we’ve been quiet since that invasion in Hogsmeade…” he trailed off, suddenly looking very solemn. He reached for his mother’s hand and pulled her near to him, Fred came up on her other side. Arthur had been killed during that invasion.
Percy and Ron were sleeping; Neville looked at them a bit jealously. He hadn’t had much sleep the past few days.
“Daddy,” Haven said softly.
Draco looked down at him, his sharp gaze mild, “Yes?”
“Will you carry me? My feet are tired,” Haven looked up at him pleadingly. His feet had been heavy from his boots, thunking on the ground with every step that he took.
“Sure,” Draco released his hand and bent down, hoisting Haven over his shoulder, causing him to giggle. “You can be my sack of potatoes.” Haven’s tinkling laughter rang out through the night.
“Ah! Daddy, I didn’t mean that kind of carrying. Piggy back,” Haven explained, still laughing.
“Oh, right,” Draco said and shifted Haven to piggy back.
Haven smiled, “Thanks.” He rested his head on Draco’s back and closed his eyes. Ginny looked at them, her eyes glazed over slightly, she tripped on a rock and catapulted forward. In a flash, Draco had Haven on his feet again and had caught Ginny in his arms just before she flew face first into the ground. He was breathing heavily, his hot breath on her skin made her shiver. She looked up at him slowly, her heart racing.
“I…Sorry,” she said when she noticed that everyone was watching her. “Thanks,” she said to Draco, standing up and smoothing her robes. They started walking again and Ginny glanced back at the rock that she had tripped over; it was grey and looked like it had little pieces of grass sprouting out of it. She shook her head when she thought she saw two.
Before long, Neville had stumbled over a rock that looked a lot like the one that Ginny tripped over. Only Neville caught himself before he fell. He frowned and looked around, Ginny did the same. There were these kinds of rocks everywhere, or at least there were five of them near the group. As she approached one, she stuck her foot out and kicked it.
The “rock” squealed and shot up, revealing a small gray, hairy creature. It scowled at her and rubbed its side. Her eyes widened in shock, they had learned about these in Defense Against the Dark Arts. The others popped up. “Pogrebin!” she screamed.
Everyone looked around, Pogrebin weren’t supposed to be here, they were native to Russia. But during the war they must have come to England, sensing the distressed humans. They were creatures that loved to follow people around making them confused to a point of hysteria causing them to collapse, and then it tries to consume them.
Neville and Harry stunned two of them, but the other three had gotten up. One was chasing Molly and the twins, who were currently in control of Ron and Percy. “Quick!” Harry called out as one of the Pogrebin advanced towards him, “Follow me!” Molly, the twins, and Neville ran with him, he was casting spells at the Pogrebin, trying to run backwards as well.
Draco, Ginny and Haven were backing up towards the woods as the two remaining Pogrebin pressed towards them, their shiny, sharp, white teeth bared with menacing grins. “Reverso,” Draco yelled. They rocketed back, but got back up and kept coming towards them. “Shit,” Draco cursed. “Here,” he lifted Haven off of him and handed him to Ginny. Haven was now on her, piggy back, “Hold him….”
The Pogrebin had saliva dripping out of their mouths. Haven was crying and Ginny could feel his hot tears seeping through her robes and shirt. His hands were fisted on her robes.
“Ginny….Daddy,” he cried softly. Pain shot through Ginny’s heart. She rubbed his legs tenderly.
“Exileramus!” Draco shouted. The Pogrebin shrieked and disappeared, gray smoke residing where they had been standing just moments ago. Haven was latched onto Ginny, crying quietly. Draco looked back at them, his eyebrows lowered. “Come, Haven,” he helped Haven off of Ginny’s back and held him against his chest. “It’s alright,” he soothed, rubbing Haven’s back and rocking slightly. Ginny watched them inaudibly, feeling much the third wheel.
“Damn,” he said softly. “We’re separated. I hope they find it to my mother’s house.” He shook his head, “Oh well.”
“Will we have to go back that other way?” Ginny asked fearfully. She knew that she had just developed a very large fear of Pogrebin and didn’t know if she could last through any more confrontations with them.
Draco looked at her curiously, “Scared?” There was only a slight hint of malice in his voice.
She looked at him steadily and sniffed, “Yes, actually, I am.”
The corner of his mouth quirked, “Okay then, we can go through the forest.” He shifted Haven to his back. “Just stay close; there are…well, just stay close, okay?”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Ginny said walking next to him, so close that their shoulders almost touched. Ginny looked at Haven. His eyes were closed and he was snoring faintly.
“This way,” Draco said, “takes longer than the other way, but if we go in a sort of semi-circle, we’ll make it to the house okay.”
Ginny nodded. They continued walking through the forest, Ginny developed and knack of jumping whenever she heard a noise and jarring Draco’s elbow, he scowled at her, but she never noticed.
-
The sunlight was filtering through the trees before anyone spoke again, besides Draco’s irritated “Stop it” every time Ginny jumped. Ginny looked at Draco, seeing Haven sagging slightly on his back. “Do you want me to carry him for a while?” she asked as they trudged through the forest.
Draco looked at her and wrinkled his nose. “You’re too scrawny,” he said. “You’d drop him before too long.”
Ginny stiffened, “I am not scrawny.”
He didn’t even look her way, “Yes, you are.”
“I am not!” she said a bit louder. “Just because you’re taller than me…”
“Look, Weasel,” he said tiredly. “You’re scrawny, too skinny; you probably have no muscle on you. You wouldn’t be able to hold him very long; he gets quite heavy after a while.” He looked over at her; she was glaring at him, her jaw set. Haven hadn’t stirred; the excitement of the night before had gotten to him, and worn him out.
“It’s not my fault the stupid death eaters don’t know how to give people enough food,” she said angrily, kicking at a stray stick on the forest floor. “They hardly give us enough food to feed one person for a week, and they expect it to be enough for a whole tent of people?” Her eyes widened, “Oh my gods, I’m so glad I packed two bags of food.” She sighed with relief, “We have one and they have one.” She put her hand to her heart.
Draco looked at her his eyes watching her, annoyed and vaguely amused. “Relax, Weasel. I’m sure that even if they didn’t have food they’d be okay. They could eat some boysenberries or something.” Ginny wrinkled her nose at him.
~*~
It was getting dark again, and they had only stopped once to eat lunch and let Haven use the bathroom. Draco had gone with him, so Ginny figured he had probably gone too. Draco was still carrying Haven, refusing flat out to let her even try to carry him. She pointed out that she had held him while Draco was fighting off the Pogrebin, but he said the only reason he let her hold him then was because he needed both of his hands free, and he didn’t want Haven to be so close to the Pogrebin.
There were rustling leaves above their heads and glowing eyes peering at them out of the darkness. Ginny felt her feet dragging; she was so tired. Her face was pale and there were dark circles under her eyes. She would have given anything for her rickety old bed back at the camp. But all there was here was the dewy leaves that rested on the floor of the forest.
“Ah!” Ginny cried out. There was a snap.
“Ginny?” Haven was suddenly alert and awake, looking around worriedly.
“Weasel?” Draco called out.
“Oh no,” she moaned. “No…no, no, no.”
“What happened?” Draco set Haven down and crouched near Ginny. A fallen branch from a tree, with a sharp limb had ripped through her robes and cut her shin rather deeply. But that wasn’t what she was moaning about.
“Not my wand,” she whispered. She picked up the two pieces and looked at them pitifully. “Oh Merlin,” she breathed. She looked at Draco with wide eyes. “Do you suppose you could heal my cut?” she asked softly.
Draco whispered a spell and the torn skin on Ginny’s leg mended. “Wow,” said Haven. “That’s cool.”
Ginny sighed, “Now I feel helpless.”
“Was that even really your wand?” Draco asked carefully.
She looked at him. “No, it was Percy’s old wand.” Draco brightened a little. Ginny scowled at him, “What?”
“There’s an Ollivander’s still open in Hogsmeade. The death eaters figured they should have a place to buy wands,” he shrugged. “We can get you a new wand there.”
Ginny smiled, “A new…” her smile faltered. “I couldn’t pay for a new wand.”
“We should start moving,” said Draco picking Haven back up.
They continued walking. “Did you hear that?” Ginny instinctively stepped closer to Draco.
It sounded again.
She jumped and grabbed his arm. He let her hold on. “Lumos,” he said. He lifted his wand up higher and peered into the darkness. He looked back at Ginny and scowled. “It was just an owl,” he said.
“Oh,” Ginny let go of his arm quickly and stepped away.
“Agh,” Draco clutched at his arm, grimacing and grunting a little with pain. He slid the fabric of his sleeve up to reveal his glowing dark mark. It jeered out at them evilly. He looked at Haven and Ginny apologetically. “I’m sorry,” he said, his voice thick. “You’ll have to stay here. I promise that I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Ginny nodded slowly, “Alright.” Draco eased Haven off of his back and nudged him towards Ginny.
“Go on,” he coaxed. “I promise I’ll be back. Just stay right here.” He hugged Haven and kissed his forehead, then Disapparated. Suddenly, the forest seemed heavier, weighing down on them. The sounds were chilling, making Ginny shiver.
“I’m scared,” Haven said quietly.
“Me too,” Ginny whispered, hugging Haven closer.
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