"You're all here," Alecto began, walking along the line as Amycus leered at them from behind, making Ginny's skin crawl, "to find out what happens to filthy little blood traitors who give us lip."
"Some of them already know," Amycus added, grinning evilly. "But if you do, keep quiet. We want it to be a lovely... surprise. Alecto, I believe it's your turn to do the honours."
Ginny had heard tales of the Carrows' punishments from some of the other ex-DA members, but until now, she was yet to experience them for herself. She was not looking forward to it. She shuddered as Alecto withdrew an old-fashioned looking whip from her desk drawer. There were plenty of magical methods for torture, but Ginny guessed that they didn't give the Carrows nearly as much pleasure as launching the whip forward with all of their power, hearing the impact on the person's flesh, knowing they'd worked to produce those screams.
Ginny waited as Alecto travelled down the line, lashing each person across the face. Ernie... Hannah... Luna... Seamus... Ginny flinched, hearing each of them scream in agony. The tension and dread built in her body until her turn arrived.
The pain was sharp, sudden, and it felt like her face had split in half. It took all of her strength to keep herself from crying out, but she managed it. She'd promised herself that she wouldn't scream. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction.
Alecto stopped dead. "Feisty one we've got here, Amycus," she sneered, looking over at her brother. She handed him the whip. "Why don't you try and get a sound out of her?"
"Okay," he accepted, the cruel grin spreading back across his face. "I like a challenge."
Then he struck the whip across her face again, harder than before and on the other side, so both sides of her face were throbbing. Amycus struck her again and again, until every inch of her face burned. She still managed to keep quiet, though. She looked up at the Carrows, pure hatred in her eyes.
"Oh, I'm bored of this now, Amycus," Alecto complained. "Move out the way. Crucio!"
That was what broke Ginny. She doubled over and lost control of her body; a strangled cry finally escaped from her throat. It felt like hot knives were being repeatedly plunged into her back.
A smile broke onto both of the Carrows' faces. "That's more like it," Alecto said, almost greedily.
Neville was the last in line. They Crucioed him straight away; past experience told them that the whippings had no effect on him. He didn't scream.
"You'll pay for this," he said quietly, his voice shaking. The Carrows only laughed.
"Learn to keep your mouths shut, and you won't be here again," Amycus declared, addressing the whole line. "Now get out of my sight."
Obedient, for once, the six students scurried out of the door, although Ginny made sure to throw the Carrows a disgusted glare. Without speaking, they parted with the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaw, and Ginny, Neville and Seamus made for the staircase up to the Gryffindor common room.
Ginny never thought that she could hate the Carrows more than she had before, but she did. She felt hatred so strong that her vision almost blurred around the edges from thinking about it. She and her friends were human beings, and deserved to be treated as such. Seamus stormed ahead, looking angrier than Ginny had ever seen him. And Neville... she looked at Neville and saw not the round-faced, innocent child who had asked her to the Yule Ball because he had nobody else to go with, but a man. She saw the hard determination in his features, and felt the air of defiance radiating around him. He really had changed.
It seemed like an eternity, and the tension between them never disappeared, but eventually they reached the portrait hole. Seamus gave the password flatly, without emotion in his voice, and Ginny and Neville exchanged looks. Seamus was usually the cheerful, lighthearted one.
They made for the staircases up to the dormitories, and Seamus entered the boys' one, without saying a word to either of them. Neville, however, lingered.
"You okay?" he asked nervously.
"I'm fi-" Ginny started to say, but why should she lie to Neville? "No, not really," she admitted.
"I'm sorry," he said uneasily. "The pain lasts for a while, doesn't it? Are your legs still shaking? There's a spell you can-"
Ginny shook her head. "It's not the pain - trust me, I've learnt to deal with pain over the years," she said darkly.
"What is it, then?" Neville asked, clearly confused.
"I... I screamed," Ginny whispered, fighting back the tears that were threatening to fall. "I promised myself I wouldn't scream."
Understanding dawned in Neville's eyes and he was silent for a moment. "I remember thinking that. It's hard not to, the first time. And the couple of times after that. But you get used to it."
Anger started to rise up inside Ginny again. You get used to it? It was wrong that Neville was talking about his beatings so casually. Nobody should have to get used to torture. "I... I just feel so weak," Ginny confessed despairingly.
"You are not," Neville protested immediately, looking her straight in the eye. "It was impressive, the amount of resistance you had."
"You didn't scream at all," she pointed out.
"I know," Neville said, almost proudly. "It's the best I've done so far. I'm kind of making it into a competition with myself. It... it makes it more bearable." He sighed, and paused for a minute. "When will it stop, Ginny?" he asked desperately.
Perhaps it was the hopelessness of their situation that made her do it; before Ginny could think about what she was doing, she was kissing Neville gently, and he was responding. It was warm, comforting: Ginny was letting Neville know she was there for him, and Neville was doing the same for her. She'd never had a kiss quite like it - the kisses with Michael and Dean were just clumsy or indifferent, and this was nothing like the passion and fire she'd experienced with-
Harry. She pulled away, her hand jumping to her lips in horror. "Shit. Sorry, Neville, that wasn't meant to happen."
Neville gave a sad smile. "Harry?" he asked knowingly.
"Harry," Ginny confirmed, collapsing into an armchair and burying her face in her hands. She was disappointed with herself. Should she not have learnt by now, at the age of sixteen, to think before she acted?
Neville sat down tentatively in the chair next to her. "Remember the Yule Ball?" he asked suddenly.
"Of course I do," Ginny told him, surprised. "It was sweet of you to ask me to it, Neville," she smiled. "I wouldn't have been able to go otherwise."
He shifted awkwardly. "Yes, but the thing is, I didn't really ask you just because I needed a dance partner. I asked you because I was in love with you."
She hadn't seen that coming. Ginny mentally kicked herself. To be fair, she'd only been thirteen at the time, but she thought she was clued in on that stuff. She should have at least figured it out retrospectively. "I... I'm sorry," she said, not really sure what else to say.
"Oh, there's no need to apologise!" he laughed. "I've moved on. No, what I was trying to say is when you said yes to me, I thought there might be a chance for us. I was going to tell you how I really felt at the end of the ball."
"And why didn't you?" Ginny interrupted curiously.
"Because it was a good night, don't get me wrong, but... you couldn't take your eyes off Harry."
Ginny didn't say anything, unable to look Neville in the eye. It was true.
"It's always been Harry for you, hasn't it?" Neville said simply.
Ginny nodded. "Ever since I was eleven," she told him finally. "It's awful, but Michael and Dean... they were just distractions. Distractions from the fact that Harry had never, ever noticed me in the way I wanted."
"But then he did," Neville reminded her encouragingly.
She sighed. "Yeah, he did, and it was great for a while," she said. "But all the time I knew it was almost too good to be true. I shouldn't complain; this is what happens when you're dating the Chosen One, or whatever the hell they call him now. But I miss him, Neville. I miss him every day, and I'm scared."
Neville put his arm around her, and this time there was nothing romantic at all about the movement. "He'll come back," Neville promised. "You know he will. He always does. He'll come back here and get us out of this mess."
Ginny relaxed onto his shoulder. "I hope so," she sighed. "But then... everything's changed. For him and for me. Maybe he'll get back and he won't want me anymore. I have no idea how long he'll be, and we're not officially together now anyway, so I don't know why I thought it was so wrong to..." She gestured over to bottom of the staircase where they'd just kissed.
"No, it's understandable," Neville assured her. "You just want to wait, just in case. Ginny, I won't lie to you... I don't know what Harry will feel when he gets back, but I do know - and today you proved it - that you're a strong woman, and whatever happens, you'll get through it."
Ginny smiled. Those words were exactly what she wanted to hear. "Thanks, Neville," she said gratefully. "You're a good friend."
A/N: For Women's Football in the 2012 Hogwarts Games, which I was given the pairing for, and for the Pairing Diversity Boot Camp, with the prompt "retrospectively".
Thank you to my lovely beta, kci47, and as usual I am not JKR. :)