Chapter 1- Nightmares do Come True

Hello again! Well finally I have got my act together and started writing the sequel to The Ultimatum, I've missed this story whilst I've been dealing with that little thing called reality but I am now on holiday until February so I have the time to write it. I don't think you need to have read the first one for this to make sense but it might be a good idea none the less.

Disclaimer: I got sick of constantly writing these last time so take heed that this disclaimer applies to the entire story. I own none of the rights of Harry Potter, you can take that whole milarky up with JK and WB. I simply like to write about the characters and I am in no way am under the delusion that I actually invented them.

Forward to the story!

Last night she'd dreamt she went to Hogwarts again.

Many of her old friends had drifted back and forth into focus in her dream discussing issues that had affected her so long ago but one person stayed in focus beside her the whole time. A person she wasn't supposed to remember at all. Perhaps when your conscious self tries so hard to forget someone the sub-conscious feels it has to pick up the slack and introduces them into your dreams as often as possible.

Waking up she found herself believing she was back in the hallowed halls of Hogwarts but, as had happened many nights before, reality crashed down on her and she bit into her pillow to stop herself howling out in misery. Only at night would she let herself do this, only at night would a little part of her deep down manage to scramble to the surface and yell until it's little voice was sore. During the day time the voice didn't have a hope of being heard but when darkness enveloped her Ginny was at its mercy.

Ginny grabbed her jacket and spun around trying to find her bag.

"Late, late, late, late." She chanted to herself in an undertone. She eventually located her bag and, looking inside, checked that all the stuff she needed for work was there. Seeing that her diary was missing she dropped her bag again and raced into her bedroom. It was lying on the floor by her bed where she'd been double checking her appointments for the next day before going to sleep. She snatched it up and, going back into her lounge room, shoved it in her bag.

"Okay, I'm ready!" she grabbed a pot of floo powder off the mantle piece and was about to transport herself to Diagon Alley when she heard a soft noise and theatrically slapped a hand to her forehead.

"Oh sweetie, I almost forgot you!" she cried scooping up the baby and balancing him on her hip. "Come Mr Jemmy Thomas we are hideously late...again."

She grabbed a pinch of floo powder and threw it into the fire shouting "Diagon Alley!" as she stepped into the gently tickling flames. As she whizzed along she kept track of the fireplaces and when she saw the one she needed she flung herself forward. Tumbling out of the fireplace Ginny just managed to catch herself before she fell over taking Jemmy with her. The baby looked up at her with wide brown eyes and then gave a little sneeze which made her smile.

"Little bit of soot?" she asked wiping some grey smut off his tiny, upturned nose.

"Ginny Weasley, late again?"

Ginny grinned as she turned around, "So it would appear Harry, are you going to tell my boss on me?"

Harry Potter pretended to consider for a moment and Ginny added, "Because if you do I'll have to point out to him that you're hanging around here yet again trying to pick up little tidbits of classified information. Honestly Harry, I hate to burst your bubble but you don't actually work here!"

"My job is protect you all. I need to know what's going on in the world. Us Aurors cannot simply rely on our fantastic intuition to know where there's trouble. I have diplomatic immunity." He said drawing himself up to his full height and looking down at her with his brilliant green eyes.

"Not from me, you don't!" A voice suddenly boomed from behind him and Harry spun around guiltily.

"Oh come on Colgan you know this office just wouldn't be the same without me." He replied cheekily although Ginny could tell he was feeling a little intimidated by her huge boss.

"Yes, maybe my writers would actually get some work done!" Colgan bellowed, "And it's Mr Theron to you, you may have defeated Voldemort but in this office my word is law and I'd thank you to remember that Mr Potter!"

Harry shrugged, "Alright Mr Theron, I'll pop back in later then. Bye Gin." And with a slight pop he disapparated leaving Ginny to face her red-faced boss.

"The Daily Prophet does not run on your schedule Miss Weasley!" he said sternly steering her towards his office, "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times getting here on time is easy. Just get up earlier!"

Ginny nodded, her eyes downcast. "I'm sorry Mr Theron but with Jemmy here..." she indicated the baby on her hip with her head and Colgan's eyes softened slightly.

"And how is the wee lad this morning?" he asked fondly taking the baby off her and swinging him around so the little boy squealed with laughter. Ginny's boss set him down on his large table and handed him a roll of spellotape to play with.

"He seems fine but I can tell he's missing Dean, so am I come to that." Ginny sighed,

"Couldn't be helped Miss Weasley." Colgan said brusquely, "Dean's job is to go where I send him and he is by far the best photographer I have so I couldn't have anyone but him go to snap the signing of the giants-wizardkind pact."

Ginny slumped down into the chair in front of his desk and began to try and disentangle Jemmy who had managed to spellotape his hands and feet together and was rocking backwards and forwards in some distress.

"Yeah I know." She said feeling a flash of pride as he called her fiancé his best photographer. "So what do you want me for?"

Colgan sat on the big leather seat where he spent most of his day. "What are your plans for today?" he asked.

"Well," Ginny flipped open her diary and notebook and bit her lip, going into professional mode. "I have a meeting with the minister for magic at 1 to discuss the implications of assigning counselor wizards at Azkaban and whether this is the start of a new, softer, age for the prison. And then at 3 I'm going to snoop around backstage of the Fateless Kneazles concert and see if I can score an interview." She grinned wickedly, "They've never given one before but I was once told I could charm a boggart into turning into the thing I like the most so I thought I'd give it a go." Ginny shut her diary and notepad and smiled at her boss.

"But apart from that I'm going to be in the office writing up the report I began yesterday on the fad for children to have dangerous plants as pets." She'd really enjoyed researching that one as she had got to visit Neville Longbottom who was now an expert in herbology and, amongst other things, ran a chain of shops selling unusual plants although, he assured her, he never sold anything dangerous to minors. He had been very helpful in explaining the new culture of having plants rather than pets and they had chatted for several hours over a large pot of tea.

She was brought back to the present by Colgan's deep voice beginning to talk again.

"Well done Miss Weasley I have been very impressed with your work here ever since you started as an assistant. You gone up the ranks faster than I think I've ever seen anyone do because your wit and vibrant writing style draws readers to you. This is why I'm going to assign a very difficult case to you."

Ginny sat up straighter glowing with pleasure at his words and eager to learn about the case he was referring to. "Go on!" she said enthusiastically.

"I've had handed to me some very interesting information about one of the most prominent businesses in our wizarding society. A file from Gringotts bank was sent to me by the head goblin detailing a secret room in the London complex. This room was the ultra secure vault where extremely precious, some might even say priceless, items were magically banished to in the period between 1750 and 1810. After this time knowledge about how to banish items to this ridiculously protected room and how to find the vault at all was destroyed and erased from employee memories. All except this one file it seems. Now if this room could be found the story would be huge, wizarding artifacts from all over the globe are stored there as well as some exquisite jewelry with most interesting properties."

Ginny's eyes were almost popping out of her head by this stage and she could barely contain her excitement.

"And you want me cover this file?!" she asked her heart almost jumping out of her chest.

"No, I just wanted to dangle it in front of your face and then take it cruelly away." He snapped.

Ginny gaped. She was fairly sure that her boss was joking, but with Colgan you could never be quite sure.

"Of course I'm giving it to you Miss Weasley!" he bellowed.

Jemmy squeaked and his face crumpled like he was about to cry. Ginny hurriedly shushed him and then grinned at her boss.

"I ...well I...don't know what to say." She stammered

"For such a good writer you seem to spend large amounts of your time being fairly inarticulate Miss Weasley. Look, the representative from Gringotts bank is waiting in your office, he has studied the file carefully and I personally believe that he holds information which could be integral to finding this secret room. You and he are to work together until you find this room, understood? Go, introduce yourself and then get on with cracking this thing. I want you and him to devote all your time onto this project, forget everything else, it's unimportant in comparison." He dismissed her with a wave of his hand and Ginny, scooping Jemmy up with her, fairly skipped from the room.

"Oh Heather!" she called out as she caught sight of one of the apprentices the Daily Prophet had taken on that year. "I know this is unfair to ask but could you watch Jem for a minute while I go and meet this Gringotts representative?"

Heather beamed and dropped the parchment she was reading. "Absolutely!" she said, "I'm proofreading one of the articles but I know it's pointless as Colgan will go in and change it all anyway!"

Ginny grimaced her sympathy, "I had to do that a lot my first year here too, makes you think that all that time spent at Hogwarts is kind of unnecessary if you learn so much and nearly kill yourself studying for exams and then you're treated like a moron here! Still, I promise you it gets better. I'm going to need a lot of help with my case load since I'm taking on this new one so I would really appreciate your help."

Jumping up Heather nodded her head vigorously, "That would be great Ginny!" she enthused, "Oh, here let me take him from you." she cuddled the little baby against her shoulder and then gestured towards Ginny's office door. "You'd better get on. I had a peek at him earlier, he's gorgeous. Lucky you!" she winked and sashayed off before Ginny had time to open her mouth and remind her she was engaged.

Smoothing down her grey skirt suit Ginny thanked Merlin that she actually looked professional that day. There had been times when she'd sauntered into the office in the mornings with bits of breakfast or Jemmy's spit up over her outfit.

Taking a deep breath she turned the handle of her office door and stepped inside. The room was small but airy because of the large windows across one wall which Ginny liked to keep open as much as possible letting the sounds from the street below waft up into her office. The walls were a light purple which gave the room enough character to make up for the fact the only pieces of furniture were a large desk, a small book case and three chairs. On the wall was a single picture of a stormy sea which emitted a low ocean roar which she found helped her work.

This picture was the focus of the Gringotts representative as she walked into the room. He was staring at it very intently with his arms crossed but Ginny gave him no more than a cursory glance as she closed the door and, grabbing a glass off her table, went to her water cooler for a drink.

"I'm so sorry if I've kept you waiting. I'm Ginny Weasley and I'm so excited to be working on this project. Would you like a drink?"

She turned around again to see the man's reaction and saw that he had turned to face her.

Shock hit her like a bolt of lightning and she gave a small involuntary scream before dropping the glass she was holding and causing it to smash into small glittery pieces across the floorboards of her office.

Alright hands up all those who caught the 'Rebecca' quote from the very beginning. I think that is the best bit of that book so I thought I would nick it for the purposes of the beginning of this story!

Anyway I hope you liked it. Three guesses who the Gringotts representative is! And Jemmy? Well you'll just have to wait and see.

Please review, it would mean an awful lot to me :)

Cheers,

Jess/star123