Chapter 2

Chapter 2

They went back to work after dinner. For Hermione, the dinner break was just a break, since she didn't eat. She stood there in the middle of the field, with the other women and slammed her pickaxe into the ground. They could barely see eachother through the brown smokey dust, rising from the ground. It wasn't long until the river was big enough. They'd be finished within the year.

Hermione couldn't remember the date. The weather was hotter than ever, so she guessed it was summer, but who knew these days.

"Join the others over there!"

They turned around and saw a nervous girl approach them. Her hair was long and red, and Hermione recognized her instantly.

"Ginny!"

She ran up to her, feeling like her belly was about to expload, but kept going. They hugged, and before she knew it, she felt a burning pain run through her body. A Deatheater had whipped her across the back.

"Back to work, Granger!"

"Yes, sir"

She was so angry with herself for obeying the orders, yet she did. Every one of them.

"You're looking thin, Granger. If you don't eat, I'll feed you personally!"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir"

She grabbed Ginny by the arm and took her to meet the others.

"Tell me this is a nightmare" Ginny said with a gasp, as she looked over the field. Hundreds of wizards and witches were prisoners there, all dressed in vests and shorts, and no shoes. They were all dirty and thin.

"I wish it was" Hermione answered. "You'll meet your brothers in the morning" she continued and picked up her pickaxe again. Ginny lifted the one she had received high above her head and let her pickaxe strike to the ground.

"Are they okay?" she asked nervously.

"Well" Hermione began, still chopping the dry soil. "I think so. They've been concerned about me lately, all three of them. I've had stomach ache the entire day, and I can't eat anymore. Not after Seamus found half an eye in his soup..."

Ginny's eyes grew wider and she stared at Hermione.

"I'm going to die here"

"Sorry to disappoint you..." Hermione groaned, as her tool was becoming heavier. "... but we're not able to die. They've hexed us. We're unable to hurt ourselves in any way. Only they can" She looked towards the guards, pacing around. Ginny swallowed.

"So, what are we working on?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"See that..." Hermione pointed towards the side of the field where the men were building houses. "... that's where some foreign Deatheaters will live. Building is the men's job, we're digging the river"

Ginny stared at Hermione.

"You seem so calm about this"

Hermione looked into her eyes, and Ginny noticed the spark in the hazel brown eyes was gone. Beneith the dirt, she could see thin white scars across Hermiones cheeks and left eyebrow.

"I though I had seen enough pain when we just had fought the war. The truth is, there is nothing like 'enough pain'. There's always pain here, Ginerva. Believe me when I tell you that" Ginny swallowed once again and looked at the men working some meters away from them.

"Have everyone been... tortured?"

With 'everyone', Hermione understood she was talking about her brothers.

"In one way or another. They used the Cruciatus curse on Fred on the first day here, because he held Angelina. She was scared and it was during work. Ron has been burned across his chest, but he wouldn't tell me why, and the worst thing that ever happened to George was.." Hermione froze, remembering his screams. "... he was punished with twenty blows... whipped"

Ginny flinched.

"What had he done?" she said quietly.

"See the guard with the thick scar across his cheek..." Hermione told her, nodding towards a middle aged fat guard. Ginny nodded. "... he raped a girl here, and George pulled him off of her"

Ginny looked away. They had been punished for doing the right thing.

"GINNY"

The twins and Ron came runing towards her. She knew they'd get punished for approaching the women during work, and stepped backwards.

"Don't! They'll punish you"

"I don't care"

Fred embraced her in a loving hug. All three of them had removed their vests in the heat, and she could feel thin scares all over his skin. He pulled back to let his brothers hug her, before the guard saw them.

Ginny wanted to cry when she felt thick swellings down George's back, and she knew it was the scars from him being whipped.

She finally got to hug Ron and she saw tears in her brother's eyes.

"I 'm not going to say 'Welcome to the prison camp of Azkaban', but I'm happy to see you" he said. Now, the guards had spotted them and Ginny started shaking with fear as two of them approached the group.

"You three!" one of the guards yelled, pointing towards Ron and the twins. "What do you think you're doing?"

"She's our sister, sir" Fred said.

The guard looked at Ginny, then back at the others.

"I let you go this time, but this time only!" he spat and Ginny let out a silent sigh of relief.

"Thank you so much, sir" Fred said and the guards went back to their possitions.

"We'll see you in the morning" Ron said, and the three young men headed back to work.

That night, Hermione was scared. Her belly ached even worse and she knew it would be impossible to work in the morning, since she could barely move.

"Where does it hurt?" the dreamy and kind voice of Luna Lovegood asked. Hermione pointed towards the side of her belly. Luna smiled, and Hermione didn't know why.

"I believe you've got appendicitis. It can easily be fixed, but since I don't have my wand, I need someone else to strengthen my power"

Hermione just stared at the blonde girl. She was about to perform wandless magic on her. Luna waved towards Cho and Ginny. Both of the girls left their beds and joined Luna on Hermione's.

"What are we going to do?" Cho asked and Luna smiled at them.

"Just put your hand on my shoulder and visualize in your mind you charing your powers"

Cho and Ginny stared at eachother, before putting their hands on Luna's shoulders. Hermione held her breath. Luna put both her hands on Hermione's belly, and closed her eyes. A yellow smokey light started to shine around her hands as the pain slowly faded away.

"GET UP!"

Hermione almost fell out of the bed. The guard had slammed their bunker with his whip.

"Yes, sir" mumbled hundreds of female voices at once.

"The Dark Lord has given you a very generous offer today!" the guard began. His eyes searched around the room. "If you complete the work today, you will be awarded with the ability to get yourself cleaned up, and the day off to socialize with whoever you want tomorrow. A soap and a toothbrush will be given to everyone we believe deserves to have it"

Hermione swallowed. It was impossible to complete the river on a day. Many of the women looked troubled at first, but remembering their award made them stronger.

"GET UP YOU STINKIN' RATS!"

"Yes, sir!"

The men flew out of bed and stood up. The concrete floor was strangely enough quite cool that day.

"I've got an offer for you. The Dark Lord has, very generously, offered you to have a day off and ability to clean up tomorrow... if you're able to complete three of the houses today!"

Fred looked at his twin, and then at the other men around him.

"We'll never make it" he heard Ron whisper beside him.

"Yes, sir" the men said in chorus, before they were alloud to leave for breakfast.

"How's your stomach today?" Ron asked Hermione, after he and his brothers joined a few women at a table.

"Luna fixed me" Hermione answered happily, taking a spoonfull of the hidious porrige. She managed to swallow it with a few gulps of water.

"Remind me to thank her later" Ron said. Hermione smiled. She wanted to kiss him so bad. It had been over two years since she had, and she thought she could wait a little longer, at least until she could use a toothbrush.

"So, have you had the offer as well?" Hermione asked. All three of the Weasley brothers nodded.

"We must finish three houses today"

Hermione stared at them, her eyes grew wide.

"Oh"

"And you?" George asked.

"We have to have the river ready" Ginny said. Her brothers stared at them.

"But that's impossible"

"So is finishing three of those houses"

All of them let out a sigh.

"We have to do it. It's well worth it!" Hermione said, as they got up to work.

"Then I hope we'll see you in the shower tomorrow" Fred said with a corky smile. Hermione couldn't be mad at him for the comment. They would be able to hang out for a day, all of them, and she would be able to freshen up and be with Ron.

That day was different from the others. It was freezing cold and they hoped no snow would come or that the soil would freeze. It was quite dark outside, and the Dark Mark made everything shine in a spooky green light.

The women worked hard, half of them used spades and shuvels, and the other half used pickaxes. They worked faster, but had aching muscles just after a couple of hours. Now and then, they looked over to see the men finish the first house, then start on the second. The river was long and wide enough, but needed to me half a meter deeper.

"Imagine a hot shower in the morning" Angelina began with a smile. "I'm going to brush my teeth at least ten times, then I'm going to take care of Fred's aching muscles with a nice massage, and hope for a nice reward"

She winked at Hermione and they giggled.

"Maybe I'll take the shower with Ron" Hermione said with a giggle and Angelina nodded.

"Unfortunatly, I believe they'll watch us so nothing like that will happen"

"I'm not feeling so comfortable showering with my three brothers... I mean, yuck!"

Ginny shook her head.

"You don't have to look at them, Ginny. Besides, they're your family, what's the big deal?"

"That is the deal! They're my family, they haven't seen me naked"

The girls just laughed.

"I don't think they'll look at you. Katie, Angelina and I will be in there, and I guess, or hope, that they'll look at their girlfriends rather than their sister" Hermione said, and Ginny smiled.

"You're right. I forgot about that"

"Look!" Seamus yelled and pointed at the women. "They're almost done!"

The men looked, and saw the river finished, apart from it needing to be a bit deeper.

"We'll make it. Let's get a move on!" George said and lifted a pile of wood up to Dean Thomas, who was sitting on a wall of the half done house. Their arms were aching and the cold was biting their skin, but they kept going.

"Let's split up!" Fred suggested. "A third of us stay here and finish this one, and the rest starts with the third?!"

"Sounds good to me" Seamus agreed and waved towards a large group of men carrying wood.

"I'm gonna have a nice shower, make sure I smell good, and then I'm gonna spend every single minute with Katie" George said. Fred laughed.

"Yeah, but don't forget, we promised Hermione we'd all hang out for a while tomorrow"

George gave him the thumbs up and continued with his work.

At dinner time, both the women and the men were almost finished with what they needed to get their award, and knowing they would make it, made it harder for them to stay away from eachother.

Hermione ate quite alot that time. She knew Ron thought she looked thin and unhealthy, and even though the slimey rice and equally slimey, smelling fish tasted so bad, she ate.

"Compared to what we usually get, this wasn't too bad" Ron said, and recieved a nasty look from the women opposite him.

"I believe Vold-, I mean You-Know-Who is trying to buy us"

Everyone looked at Ginny for saying that.

"It does make sence" Fred mumbled.

"GET OUT AND GET SOME WORK DONE!" the voice of one of the guards yelled, and the sound of hundreds of chairs scraping at the floor echoed, and everyone left the dining area.