Recently, Ginny Weasley had started walking around the woods near the Burrow; there was no real reason for this sudden obsession with walking, but it helped to clear the head and living in a house with so many siblings had always been a little hectic and with no escape. Ginny was out on one of these escapes, as a precaution dressed in Muggle clothing: a pair of light coloured denim daisy dukes and a tight fitting pastel blue vest top. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary so far.

It happened suddenly.

WHIZZ! THUD!

A silver dart, fletched with red feathers, whistled past her, nearly hitting her. Startled, she hesitated a brief moment before she dropped into cover, but as she dropped towards a depression between two tree roots she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and felt her body turn to limp rags, her control over her movements draining. She slumped to the floor. As she fell, her head flopped to one side and she saw a second dart embedded near the carotid artery. She landed, unconscious, on the wet, loamy ground, her head striking a tree root as she landed, completely out from the dart.

When she woke up, she was lying on a stone flagstone floor, her hands fastened behind her back by a pair of chrome plated hinged handcuffs, locked on tight enough to prevent her rotating her wrists. Her mouth was covered by a wad of duct tape, with one strip long ways across her mouth and three strips vertically to prevent her easily removing the gag from her mouth without her arms free. Her left ankle was attached to a ball and chain, preventing her moving fast or with her hands free. Tight and cold around her neck was a blackened steel neck collar, which prevented her leaving a space described by her neck collar's five foot blackened steel chain. .

Several hours later she heard and felt a massive thud, followed almost instantly by the slightly wheezy barking report of a Muggle metal wand she had seen them using to shoot at birds with. There were several similar reports, then a new clattering noise that sounded like someone violently shaking a can full of gravel. There was a yell of agony which was quickly cut off, then a deeper booming report. The two sounds played a duet for several moments then ended with a scream. She heard more volleys and screams moving steadily closer to her.

There was an ear splitting duet as the sounds reached the stairs outside her cell. It stopped almost instantly without a scream with the clatter of a pan being dropped on a stone floor. The door was opened. A black helmet appeared briefly, before disappearing again. As it vanished, she heard voices starting up, muffled and obscured by the thick oak door, followed by several people running back up the corridor.

Several minutes later, a different head came round the door and Ginny got her first look at one of her rescuers. It was a woman, wearing dark, coarse looking, well-tailored clothing. The chest area was bulky, and her gloved hands held a weapon; it was not aimed at her, but she could tell it could be aimed instantly at her head. The woman knelt down, gently prised the gag from her face and introduced herself in an almost friendly voice, hinted with a Chinese accent, alien to Ginny's ears.

"Hi there, my name is Li."

"Ginny Weasley."

Li was slightly built, with features befitting her Chinese tones and Special Forces clothing covering her skin. Ginny relaxed as her hands were freed and she was given a drink of cool, fresh-tasting water from a canteen.

"What happened to you?" Li asked Ginny.

"I was walking though a wood near my home when I was knocked out by something and I woke up here. Where is here?"

"In a Norman keep style folly about ten miles from where you were picked up." Li's calm speech didn't seem to fit the situation.

"How do you know that?" Ginny asked.

"I was watching. Now, do you want out?" came the reply.

"Definitely."

Li carefully helped to her feet, supporting Ginny as she felt dizzy; the effects of the tranquilliser were still wearing off. Li knew all too well what getting to your feet after several hours in a prone position felt like after a "prank'' during Alpha Force's training for a rescue- the hostage scenario where the other four members had decided it would be very amusing to visit the pub before rescuing her. As a result, she had been manacled to a radiator for 18 hours after she was supposed to have been rescued.

Her mood had not been the best when she was finally rescued as she had concussed several other members of the team with a frying pan. She guessed that Ginny would want a similar or worse revenge.

Ginny, meanwhile, was content to return to The Burrow and put her parents' minds at rest; it would also console her boyfriend, Harry, who was staying with them at The Burrow in preparation for their wedding.