Ch 4 Coming Anyway
After her first punishment with Lupin, Ginny had hoped she wouldn't ever be punished again by him. It was a wish she found in years to come would certainly not come true. In fact it only took another week for her to get on Lupin's wrong side again.
It had been a hard day of work. It was Ginny's second time ever to see a unicorn, but this time it was a dead one. As part of Lupin's job they had to burry and hide the body so muggles would never find it. There had also been a huge mess where some wizards had been camping, and left a lot of things like wizard candy, books about creating a muggle camping experience, and even a floating chair. It took them a long time to get everything cleared up.
When they both returned to the house, they were fairly worn out. They both collapsed onto Lupin's small lumpy couch and relaxed a few moments. Ginny thought she would sleep well that night.
"Ginny," Lupin said, getting her attention. Ginny looked at him. "I know you probably aren't going to like this, but tomorrow is a day you are going to need to take off."
Ginny was quiet for a moment, letting this bad news sink in. "But why?" she asked in a half whiny voice.
"I can't tell you that. This is one of those times I need you to just listen to me and respect what I am saying. Can I trust in you to listen to me, and just not come tomorrow?"
Ginny looked away from him, not wanting to answer. She hated the thought of having to spend all day at home again. Ron wasn't even any fun to talk to. Ever since she had gotten him into trouble he had been a little mad at her.
"Ginny, I mean it. I need your word that you will stay away from here tomorrow." Lupin was still looking at her intently.
"Are you going to be here tomorrow still?"
"The answer to that question does not matter, and doesn't make a difference for what I am asking of you."
"But then you are going to be here. Can't I just come and visit with you tomorrow then, even if you can't work for some reason." Ginny looked down at her feet, wishing her pleading would just once have an effect on the man.
"Ginny," Lupin said sharply. Ginny looked up at him. "Please just tell me you won't come here tomorrow."
"But I still want to come to your house. Just for an hour. I just don't want to stay home all day."
"I want an answer now, or I am trying to see if you answer better after an hour in the corner," Lupin warned.
Ginny still didn't answer. She was more stubborn than even she realized sometimes.
"Alright, I want you in the corner," Lupin began.
"Ok ok, you win. I promise I won't come here tomorrow," Ginny mumbled quickly. She did not want to stand in that corner.
"Good," Lupin said. "And now that it took you ten minutes to give me that answer, you can still go stand in that corner for ten minutes," Lupin said pointing to the corner.
"Aww, come on. I answered you, and it didn't take me ten minutes either," Ginny whined. "I don't want to stare at the wall."
"Why do you always have to make things difficult? You can go there and stand for just ten minutes, or I will force you there for an hour. You have three seconds. One," Lupin looked straight at Ginny and put his hand in his robes. "Two," He pulled out his wand and pointed it at her. "Thr-"
Ginny gave a snarl and jumped off the couch to stand in the corner.
"That's what I thought," she heard Lupin mutter from behind her.
When Ginny returned home that day she was not in a good mood. She argued with her mother about every little thing, and spent most of the night moping in her room. She felt so angry at the moment. She did not want to stay home tomorrow. The more she thought and stewed about it, the more she decided she was going to go to the woods for a walk tomorrow anyway.
The next day, Ginny had still not completely decided that she wanted to go to the woods. But it only took her mother telling her to help her with every little chore in the house for Ginny to announce that she still had to go to work. So around ten, Ginny was out of the house, and found herself flying to Lupin's house.
Once she had arrived she suddenly felt she didn't want to be here anymore. Now the memories of her unpleasant paddling were finally coming back to her. She stood for a moment looking around, and was just thinking she might go back home afterall, when Lupin's door banged open. Terrified, Ginny saw a very angry Lupin striding toward her.
"Inside," he told her simply. His quiet voice did not hide his anger.
Nervous, Ginny ran in front of him and entered the house. Lupin came in right behind her and closed the door. "Get in the corner," he said in that same calm deadly voice.
"How long," Ginny whimpered quietly. She didn't dare argue when Lupin was acting like this.
"You can spend the hour in the corner like you should have yesterday," he said shortly.
Without a word of complaint, Ginny turned and walked to the corner. She knew she had screwed up. She had promised Lupin she wouldn't come, yet here she was. It was Lupin's first rule for her to listen to him and be truthful. She had to admit he had the right to be angry.
Ginny could hear Lupin pick something up and set it on the table. She couldn't help herself, even though she knew very well she shouldn't, she turned to see what he was doing. What she saw made her insides feel as though they had turned to ice. Lupin had just set the transfigured paddle on the table.
"No, Lupin please," she cried before she could stop herself. "Please can't you let me go home after my hour is up?"
"If I were you I would turn back around before another second goes by," Lupin growled.
Ginny began to cry silently and faced the empty wall again. It wasn't like this was a complete surprise. Lupin had warned her about this just last week. Now she had to stare at a blank corner for an hour, and anticipate that dreaded paddle as soon as she came out.
Seconds seemed longer than hours. Eventually Ginny had stopped crying and just felt miserable and scared. She shifted her weight, rocked on her toes, listened to Lupin turning pages of a book and tried to imagine what it might have been about, picked her nails, and did anything to try to take her mind off her upcoming paddling.
Finally, when Ginny didn't think she could stand still any longer, Lupin called her out. When she turned she saw him sitting at the table, paddle already in hand. "Come here," he said still in the same hard but calm and quiet voice."
Trembling and starting to cry a little again, Ginny inched toward him. It took a lot of will power for her not to plead or run away. But she really felt she deserved it this time. She wanted the guilty feeling to go away.
Finally, after walking a mile, Ginny was only three feet from Lupin. She stopped there, having trouble making herself move the rest of the way. She knew in just a few moments she was going to be in pain.
Lupin motioned to her with his finger, "Come the rest of the way Ginny," he said softly.
"Please, just don't do it too hard," Ginny whimpered quietly.
Lupin only motioned again, so Ginny took a deep breath and went the rest of the way to him. She was once again pulled over his lap, and once again pinned down by his arm.
Almost at once the stinging fiery pain of the paddle lit into her. She squirmed and grabbed the leg of Lupin's chair. She couldn't believe she had let herself be in this position. It had been entirely preventable. Her tears were now coming hard and fast. Lupin also seemed to be paddling harder and faster.
After about two minutes she had been sure Lupin would have been done long before now. She began to fight hard to get up. She would have also been begging for him to stop, but she was crying too hard to form words. Any attempt to avoid the next crack of the paddle was prevented by Lupin's restraining arm, and the paddle hit right on its mark every swat.
Not able to take any more, Ginny reached back impulsively and tried to shield herself. The only thing that happened was Lupin grabbed her wrists and held them behind her back and out of the way. Then the paddle continued to blister her.
Ginny stopped struggling and went limp. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't move, talk, or protect herself from this pain in any way. All she could do was cry harder and hope beyond hope it would end.
Then suddenly it did. It took Ginny a few minutes to realize he had finished, because her bottom was hurting so much now without being swatted. Still she just stayed over his lap and cried, and he let her stay there. Finally when her sobs had subsided, he helped her up.
"I had to be hard on you today, because this is a serious problem," Lupin said gently. "You broke a promise, a very important promise that I asked you to do to stay safe."
"I'm really s-sorry," Ginny gulped, wiping tears out of her eyes. She meant it too, she had felt bad about breaking his trust like that.
"You're punished and forgiven," Lupin said, holding his arms out. "Just please don't make me have to be that hard on you again."
"I won't, and I'm really sorry," Ginny said, running into his arms and hugging him.
Lupin held her for a few minutes, then pushed her back so he could look into her face. "You know, I still have to send you back home," he said gently. "I told you, you weren't supposed to be here today, and I did mean it."
Ginny nodded. She had a pretty strong feeling she wasn't going to be allowed to stay here.
"I can bring you home with side apparition, if you think that would be easier than sitting on a broom all the way home," he offered.
It was a difficult choice. On one hand she would have to sit on a hard broom all the way home on a terribly sore and throbbing bottom. But on the other side along apparition was unpleasant too. Her father had made her do it with him once, just in case of an emergency, so she'd know what it was like. But in her tired and weak state from crying, struggling, and fighting against Lupin, that didn't seem like a good choice either.
"I'd like the apparition, "she decided. "It's faster."
"Alright, then I'll come back to get you tomorrow, since you won't have your broom," he said.
He led her outside by the hand, and stood just a few steps from the door. "Got a good hold, and are you're ready?" he asked.
Ginny nodded, and took a deep gulp of air so she could hold her breath. Then she was being squeezed from all sides, and just as she thought her head would explode, there was a pop and she was home.
"I'll see you tomorrow," Lupin said. Then with another pop, he was gone. Ginny starred sadly at the empty space, then slowly dragged her feet to go inside. She was going to go upstairs and go to bed. She would probably tell her mother she didn't feel good so she could be left alone. At that moment, she didn't mind the fact that there was nothing to do, and nowhere to be.
