It was ten o clock in the morning when Ginny and her partners apparated into The Golden Sun, a well known pub and dinner on the outsets of Kent. She couldn't hide the eagerness that she felt, she was so incredibly close to finding Harry she was sure of it, and Ron kept shooting her questioning glances.
An hour ago back in Eddie's department, they had made contact with Rosie and Theo, went over their plans and evaluated what kind of arsenal to bring. Traditionally a wizards only choice of weapon was a wand but Ron wasn't as strong on tradition as he was with staying alive.
Their second year on the job when he had just barely come away from a duel with his life he had considered giving up the Job. Loosing another child would destroy their mother, she had thought of Harry like a son, and he didn't want to be the cause. He had wanted Ginny to leave too but she had refused. Hunting dark wizards was the best way for her to find Harry. Where the Death Eaters were, so would Harry be and she was not giving up.
Since he was obviously still an Auror and all of them still alive some compromise had been met. Funnily enough the solution had come when Kenneth had begged them to take him to a muggle picture show. Their father had jumped at the chance so they had ended up dragging him along for the novelty of this thing called a MOVIE.
It was basically one big picture projected on a screen. Ginny had been impressed with the artists ability to give his photograph such a wide range of movement even switching backgrounds. Other people from other photographs joined the subject of the main photograph and a story unfolded. At least that was the only way she could explain how they did it, although muggles weren't supposed to know how to do Magic. Her dad had explained that this was the one area of their lives that Muggles seemed to be magically capable. They called it Movie Magic.
This particular movie, had been a photograph about a man named James Bond and he was something called an Agent. She didn't know what that was but she could glean two things, that in the Muggle world this Bond, did what the Aurors did in her world. He caught the bad guys.
And he never only used one weapon. He had a Varity of gadgets and knick naks to inflict harm and therefore was always a step ahead of everybody else. She and Ron had looked at each other and grinned.
Their agreement to involve muggle weaponry in their arsenal was a major part of their success as Aurors. Wizards always thought if they could disarm you, that if you no longer had a wand you were helpless. Then they would gloat and cackle about how they were going to kill you. Then Ron would whip out a gun, or a knife or some other weapon and the shock on their faces was usually the last expression they made.
Wand fighting was still there best and first line of defense, to use her knife Ginny had to be at close range putting her at too much a disadvantage. True a bullet might work faster then a spell but you had to reload a gun after a while.
Putting the two together however had not only kept them alive it had made them the best at their Job.
Ginny was marching into a pub wearing jeans a halter top and over jacket looking girlishly casual with her wand lazily sticking out of a pocket, and not a threat to anyone. Little did the man who was leaning against the bar counter dressed just as causally talking to another man and the man behind the counter know that beneath her jacket and shirt strapped to her side was a lethal arsenal of knives.
Ron and Eddie looked just as unthreatening but both were carrying pistols. It gave them a sense of confidence. Wizards never expected them to fight back with anything but a wand.
Damien looked up from the bar and the conversation he was having. He was wearing a dark pair of black slacks and a simply rather form fitting white t-shirt. His hair was in dire need of combing and he was grinning at something the man had said to him. He was only twenty four, really too young to be wrapped up in political scandal and suspected of murder, she thought to herself.
He looked like a university student on a holiday, or a young wizard taking his coffee break before heading back to his job. Studying him as they approached Ginny felt a pang of loss and a slight twist in her gut.
How was it possible he could look so much like Harry? The two could have been twins except for the missing scar and the differences in age. It was hard to compare the two, people changed physically a lot in eight years. A man of twenty four was a lot different then a boy of sixteen. Still if she could imagine the boy of her memory in full adulthood she would have sworn he would look a whole lot like Damien.
But that was neither here nor there because how on earth could she know that for sure? For all she knew Harry could have hit a sudden growth spurt, his hair could have started to thin, and his teeth get just a little crooked. It was probably because she had never gotten the chance to see Harry reach adulthood, and because she could not compare the two men that her senses constantly screamed at her. It was more then likely that if she could compare the two she would be able to note several differences and not be bothered by a passing resemblance.
First you have to find him.
And she would. She would save him from the clutches of evil, as he had once saved her.
Damien smiled at them in greeting waving them to come closer. "Ah, good you're here. For a moment we were worried you wouldn't make it."
Ginny felt a pang of loss when the man beside him turned and she recognized his blonde hair and blue eyes. Twenty three year old Benjamin Lautfon, whose gentle spirit and uncanny insight had made him the beloved youngest in his family and a wonderful friend to have. He had attended Hogwarts in her year in the huffelpuff house. Ben, well the Ben she knew before he took up with Damien, always had a smile for everyone and always had an open ear to listen and a shoulder to lean on.
When Ginny and Ron would eat with Eddie at his parent's place back in the early days when they had first partnered with him Ben had always asked them how their cases were going. They fed him the same lines they did all their families, but Ben always saw through them. He had an ability to look through the mask and see the hurt beneath it and was always lending whatever comfort he could.
That's why it was such a shock, and such a hurt when he took up with Damien. At first Eddie had thought it was just another one of his brothers lost lambs, someone he thought he could save. Ben had the rather destructive habit of caring too much, Eddie used to joke that he would try and hand feed a crippled Dragon if he thought it couldn't feed itself. Damien was definitely not crippled and probably just as dangerous, he had warned Ben away, trying to warn him that not everybody was worth nor needed saving.
Ben had not only insisted on remaining friends with him but over time he had begun to change. They had all seen the coldness creeping into his eyes, the small smiles that chilled his family. They had noticed the simmering violence in his glances, the secretes that he kept, and the lies that he spun. Until he had without a word to anyone sold his apartment and said he was committing himself to his cause and that until they saw the importance of it he wasn't going to have any contact with them.
She glanced at Eddie saw the flicker of surprise at seeing his brother, he had known Ben was with the Désir D'Âme, but had not expected him to be here. She saw the flinch, the pain, and then the anger as his eyes quickly flick to Damien, then saw him mask it just as quickly.
"Ben? What are you doing here? I thought you had told the family you wanted nothing to do with us anymore." Eddie asked. Although there was a slight note of hurt in his voice it was an acceptable reaction of an older brother facing a wayward younger sibling.
Ben nodded stiffly looking not at all pleased to be where he was. He looked like the last thing he wanted was to be in Eddies presence, in fact he was shifting like he was getting ready to storm out but Damien had laid a staying hand on his arm.
"Don't look at me; it wasn't my idea for me to be here. You and the family made it more then clear where you stood on the Désir D'Âme, the way I see it we aren't a family anymore." Ben retorted his eyes shining with resentment at Eddie.
She knew that must have stung and Eddie allowed some of it to show, as he responded. He shielded his words, not able to say all that he would like to say. After all they were supposed to appear interested in joining.
"We were worried about you. I've seen what happens to some of these rebel groups, a lot of them are just junkies and we didn't want you mixed up in that crowd. And you have to admit it's a dangerous claim they were making. We didn't want you to get hurt, not to be apart from us."
Ben snorted as if he didn't believe a word of it trying to jerk his arm loose of Damien's hold. Damien shot him a look, as if pleading with him to stay calm. "Ben he's your brother and families get worried. He's right. We are up against a lot and it is dangerous. Since he's here now this is our chance to prove that our cause is just and worth the sacrifice. Family ties are too important to cast away on bitterness and misunderstanding"
While Ben struggled for calm Ginny tried to figure out why she didn't buy this scene. Ron and Eddie were. Although Eddie was still hurt and furious he believed that Ben was young and hot headed and that the two men were friends. It wasn't anything in their voices or their actions that gave them away.
It was superb acting. But it was just that acting. It wrung false with her because of one little thing.
Sometimes when they were laying on the grass, in the makeshift tent in the wilds hunting horcruxes she had lain with her husband. When she was scared and weary Harry would hold her and they would whisper their dreams and plans for the future. He would look at her as he talked, and it was not a sugary googol eyed look of a love besotted young man. No they were both far too tired and weary for such naive innocence to creep into their gazes.
It had been laced with pain, shadowed with a slight bitterness but at its core was a connection. It spoke of something deep and possessive and buried within its center was the knowledge that he cherished her. That he would never give her up, and that in the midst of so much darkness he was clinging to her.
Nothing in it that anyone else seeing it would peg as being romantic or even friendly, just a look he sometimes got that she had been able to read there in his eyes.
When Damien looked at Ben it was there. She didn't know the how or why of it, didn't know why Damien would cherish and protect Ben whom was neither a blood relation nor for all accounts particularly close to him. Neither did she know why she kept trying to read Damien by comparing every look and Glance to Harry. It was probably both unhealthy and dangerous. Unhealthy to keep comparing him to Harry because over time she might just convince herself that he was Harry, and dangerous because she would be reading him wrong and that was dangerous to the extreme in her job.
Even still she couldn't shake the notion that she was indeed reading him correct. Ben sighed glancing at his brother wearily.
"Well I'm glad you're finally willing to listen to Damien." Ben turned to Damien then, "well is that enough then? I have to get back to work."
Eddie couldn't resist asking hopefully, "Where do you work?"
"I'm not sure I'm ready to tell you that yet. when you and the family finally see all the good Damien is doing maybe then." Ben answered firmly.
For a moment the two brothers faced off both equally stubborn and tightlipped, there was such a quiet sense of loss that Ginny felt a pang in her chest. They had been so close…until Damien.
Damien sighed shaking his head as Ben turned and left with a wave. Damien shot Eddie a sympathetic look, which Ginny could see he was hard pressed not to return with a glare.
"I'm sorry about Ben, he is carrying a lot of bitterness at being misunderstood. he'll come around I'm sure Eddie." Damien apologized.
The two men stared each other down, Damien sounding completely sympathetic, yet a small glint of mockery in his eyes betraying him.
The message in them was clear.
He is loyal to me now.
She saw Eddie grit his teeth and had to admire his skill when he nodded sagely and said. "We are beginning to think we made a mistake by judging to quickly. We are truly hoping you can offer us the proof we need."
Damien nodded, "Of course," He glanced at a clock on the wall. We had best get going. We are going to meet a young woman, a good friend of mine. Her name is Martha" Damien spoke as he waved them out of the pub and began to walk. Ginny wondered why they didn't just apparate but resisted asking.
"I thought we were visiting Lucian?" Ron inquired in confusion.
"We are going to his residence but Lucian will be at work at this time, probably with your wife." Damien clarified rising one brow a hint of amusement flickering in his eyes at Ron obvious tensing of his body.
She could tell her brother didn't like Damien even mentioning Hermione. To divert attention from Ron's slip Ginny spoke, "Martha…Lucian has a girlfriend, that's right Ron don't you remember how Hermione used to tease him about it."
Lucian had mentioned his girlfriend a few times in conversation and now that she recalled she was named Martha. Ginny was suddenly apprehensive, they had suspected that Damien had some dire plans for Lucian after all he was on the ministers board. But tampering with an un named woman of no importance? It didn't add up.
Damien's eyes flickered to her and she immediately felt a jolt of sensation. It was both fear and heat, she couldn't deny that he seemed to radiate a kind of tension that hadn't yet failed to burn her. His glance was proprietary and it was amused. His heavy lidded eyes seemed to mock her beneath his lashes, as if he was privately delighting in some secrete. As if he was about to lean closer and whisper it into her ear.
She shivered and she saw him grin.
Then the moment was broken as he easily changed his expression to idol friendliness and anticipation for the visit ahead. "Martha is a sweet girl." He said, "Kind of timid really, got involved with a blighter who trussed her up a bit and liked to see how black and blue she could turn." Damien's eyes narrowed and his tone grew cooler.
His obvious dislike for this man and the unfair treatment to Martha was evident.
"That's how I found her, at the mercy of that animal. I made it clear he was never to come near her again and she's been like a little sister ever since. About a year ago she got involved with Lucian. They moved in together six months ago and they've been happy. A week ago she sent an owl begging me to come talk to her, that their was something about Lucian that was upsetting her. That's why we're going when he's at work" Damien explained.
Eddie raised an eyebrow. "Why are we here then?" gestured around to where Damien had led them. It appeared to be a Muggle street corner with a signpost.
Damien grinned. "To catch a trolley."
-&-
Ron had taken the Muggle trolley before, in his line of work he had experience a lot of things the average wizard would never. The fact that Damien Lestrange seemed to enjoy the experience however was baffling. He couldn't figure what the man was playing at. They could have apparated into Lucian's home in Essex within seconds but instead they were leisurely reclining in chairs that were less then comfortable as the clanking vehicle moved along. What kind of man was he? Rebel leader with a ruthless under core?
Damien had his knee's propped up against the seat in front of him with an arm lazily flung around Ginny's seat as the two of them talked. Ron felt a pang in his chest, as well as mounting confusion and fear. It was uncanny how much he looked like Harry. Ron had roomed with and lived with him for too many years to discount that had he pictured how Harry would grow up to look, Damien would be it. He had seen Harry in all sorts of moods, including leisurely. His mind presented him with an image, a taunting image that dared him to believe.
The three of them were in the Gryffindor common room working on a rather dreary potions essay. Hermione was bent over her parchment murmuring to herself in concentration her quill jotting furiously over the page. Ron glanced at her with envy, then rather despondently at his own sadly blank roll of parchment.
Harry had his chair pulled up near the table, was leaning back deep into his seat with his knees braced against the table edge. His parchment and quill was in his lap still untouched, one arm dangled over the arm of the chair the other reached up to run through his hair a small secrete smile on his lips.
Ron rolled his eyes. "Honestly mate, you're going to fail potion's if you keep going on like this. Between detentions with Snape, Lessons with Dumbledore, and Dates with my sister you need all the time you can get and you're wasting it.
Harry had just grinned at him glancing at Ron's blank essay rather pointedly. "I'll get to it, and besides with both know whatever we don't finish Hermione…"
"Don't even think it Harry. The two of you have got to start doing your own work. At least make the effort…" Hermione had interrupted exasperated.
"You're just going to leave me out in the cold then. You heard Ron, with all the stuff on my plate I haven't anytime to complete schoolwork." Harry protested grinning beneath his hands.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "I might be more inclined to be sympathetic if you could at least manage to write your name at the top. Seeing as you have nothing better to do then to stare into space, and think about the next time you'll see Ginny."
The three of them had broken into laughter as Harry had pointedly scrawled his name at the top then gave a heartfelt sigh as if the effort had been overly taxing. The memory as well as his friend's obvious happiness and contentment in that moment both warmed and chilled him. Perhaps it was absurd, Harry hadn't been the only person in the world to sit like that when they were at their leisure, half the population probably did.
The fact that Damien was leaning like that with his arm almost around his sisters back, his head bent just so as he watched her, some secrete smile teasing his mouth and laughter to a joke the rest of them weren't in on dancing in his eyes, was really what was causing his unease.
Looking at them for a moment Ron saw the future they had all dreamed they might have, but deep down had known was not going to happen. In this moment Damien was so perfectly Harry, sharing an afternoon with his wife and friends, all that was missing was Hermione and maybe a kid or two in tow.
And yet the image was shattered by the creeping sense of danger, the small trickle of unease that refused to let Ron go. His instincts were screaming at him, and he would head the warning.
-&-
This man is so complex, Ginny thought to herself as Damien continued to tell her about Martha's history and how they had become friends. When they had first sat down she had been surprised by the way he relaxed into the completely muggle setting and experienced a rather funny jolt in her stomach when he had leaned back into his seat propping his knees up with a sigh.
She refused to think on what that meant, and instead concentrated on what the man was saying. She was irritated with her inability to really do so because his arm was draped across the back of her chair, and she swore she could feel the heat of his skin even through the leather of the seat.
He smelled like some sort of spice, it was musky and rather pleasant and it made her nose twitch every so often as if she needed a constant whiff of it to assure herself, that yes he looked and smelled that good.
Attraction to a suspect was hardly unheard of, but nothing Ginny had ever had to deal with. Point blank she just hadn't been tempted by another male since Harry, noting their attractiveness yes, but never had she had to constantly battle for focus in their presence.
What kind of man involved himself in extortion and murder, yet befriended young and abused young women. She sensed that this part of his tale was true, that he was not lying about Martha's experience and how he had come to know her. While it warred with what she suspected to be his true nature, she was slightly appeased by the continued notion that even here Damien was keeping secretes. The picture of a platonic and brotherly friendship didn't fit. Lovers…
It was the most likely prospect and more then likely exactly what Damien was glossing over but for reasons she couldn't understand the thought left her distinctly unsettled. It left her angry for no truly well thought out reason, and rather desperately wanting to change the subject.
If some poor curvy needy little leach was what Damien preferred then… She halted her venomous line of thought ashamed at her unfairness towards the unknown other woman. She had been through a lot, and not every woman was an Auror, the fact that she needed Damien to slay her demons for her was not a discredit to her.
And why did she care anyway? Her own hostility towards them as a couple was surprising and rather daunting.
"Am I boring you?" Damien asked jolting her from her thoughts.
"No. I was just wondering why the trolley?" Ginny asked glancing around them.
A faint smile was teasing the edge of his lips, and Ginny was once again struck with the sense that he was enjoying some private joke. He had a lazy air of anticipation about him and a hunters gleam in his eyes despite his relaxed stance.
Did she really want in on his little secrete? She wondered with a chill.
"Magic is all well and good, but sometimes I enjoy being amongst muggles. They are simple minded things really. Caring nothing but for themselves and their mundane lives. Amongst them sometimes I can pretend to be just as simple. I can pretend that I am not who I am, that I have some meaningless job to get to, or a grocery list to compile."
Ginny stared at him with growing fascination. Truth. For the first time since she had met him she couldn't sense one lie in what Damien had said. He was gazing around him with an almost mocking glance, it was both obvious he detested Muggles and at the same time there was envy.
It was an interesting desire to have. To be simple.
She knew all to well, had gazed into a mirroring pair of green eyes, and listened to a heartfelt plea from a sixteen year old boy as they sat beside the bank of the lake. World peace could wait, fame was unimportant; all Harry really wanted was simplicity. No fear or raging anger, no great destiny and no more dark connection to Voldemort. Some tiny part of her further warmed to him. She clamped down on her emotions, refusing to go where they were prompting her. That was the most dangerous thing she could do.
-&-
When the knock on the door came Martha was ready, and she knew Ben was ready. After meeting with Damien at a pub in Kent he had Apparated to the waiting point. As soon as the clock hit eleven Lucian would come barging in and the fire works would begin. She felt anger brewing inside her, but knew she could do nothing at this point to alter Damien's plans. The Weasley slut would have to be taken to Lestrange hall.
She was dressed for her performance in a white clingy sun dress and light strap sandals. Her attributes while modestly covered due to her role, were clearly on display. With her wide chocolate eyes and petite frame she was the picture of womanly innocence. She sneered gleefully into her reflection as she headed to answer the door. She always had men eating out of the palm of her hands. A few trembles and sighs and they could be led just about anywhere. Damien had taught her this, she would never be the weak creature she had been before. Damien had brought her from the shadows and introduced her to a world of pleasure and power, and in this world only the most cunning survived.
She had become a tigress and he was her chosen, no woman especially not Ginny Weasley was going to take him away.
She opened the door tentatively keeping her eyes down in the perfect picture of shyness. As planned Damien was there with three people in tow. She let her eyes widen in joyful welcome grinning from ear to ear.
"Damien!" She threw her arms around him, delighting in the feel of his skin touching hers. The knowledge that these arms had both held in passion and strangled in murder never failed to excite her.
"I was afraid you weren't coming. I've been so frightened." She said letting a visible shiver go down her spine. She disengaged from his embrace to see him smiling warmly down at her. As agreed it was a purely family oriented smile as if she was a little sister instead of a lover. A secrete thrill of delight bubbled inside her. If these fools knew all the ways that she knew Damien…
"Of course, I came Everyone this is Martha. Martha this is Eddie, Ron and Ginny." Damien gestured in introduction wrapping a companionable arm around her waist. Martha nodded in sunny greeting at all of them but her eyes were only for the willowy red head.
What did Damien see in this little twig? Ginny wasn't exactly tall and wasn't exactly thin either. She was one of those women with mediocre curves, compared to her anyway, and enough grace to pull it all off, she supposed. Her legs were fit and shapely she would grant her but they were, in Martha's mind, far more suitable for combat then any sort of bed pleasure.
Her hair was her best feature, if that hot headed mess could be called hair. Yet Damien was burning for her. She could see it in his eyes, shielded beneath the polite charm but she had seen his passion rage and knew the signs to look for.
He had burned for Charlotte too, another red head. Perhaps it was just a new taste for him. That little whore had gotten exactly as she deserved. She watched Ginny's eyes flicker and linger to the arm Damien had wrapped around her waist and she grinned even brighter.
The woman wanted him that was no surprise. Oh and she'd get him, a measly little thing like her wouldn't last five minutes with Damien. She almost purred.
You can take him but can you handle him? I don't think so, I'm going to help him burry your pieces and when he gets over this new fetish with redheads guess who he's going to come back too?
She flashed Ginny a friendly smile, her lips ever widening as she lead them all inside snuggling closer into the crook of Damien's arm.
Me.
-&-
She was a horrible person Ginny decided. Martha screamed innocence and vulnerability, the poor girl was in over her head and every male in the room seemed to jump to reassure her. Her own brother a married man looked ready to propose if it would comfort the young woman.
Eddie was gazing at her sympathetically and even patting her knee as she talked of her former boyfriend and how the Désir D'Âme, specifically Damien, had given her something to live for and a cause to fight for.
And yet Ginny found herself reacting to every glance and heartfelt admission with disdain and barely veiled mockery. She was acting like a jealous house wife, allowing this unfounded and dangerous attraction to color her perception of an innocent woman. As Martha talked she had to struggle not to roll her eyes and say, oh please.
"I didn't think I would ever trust another man again, not intimately anyway…"
oh sure, if you expect me to believe you haven't had your sex kitten claws all over him…
"…But Damien kept building my confidence…"
I just bet he did, I bet you waited all of a day.
" I met Lucian about a year ago. He was so handsome and so kind, but Rod was that way too. At first I was afraid to trust him"
Lucian's as harmless as a field mouse, Damien looks about as dangerous as a pit of vipers. I pity your perception skills.
"But he was so sweet and so gentle and Damien urged me to give him a chance. I was so glad I did, he's been nothing but good to me and he really is a wonderful man. I really believe he loves me." Martha sighed.
Ginny frowned, Martha looked troubled by this and Ginny was apprehensive. She had expected Martha to berate Lucian's character feeding them some wild story about illicit activities and abusive mistreatment, her wide eyed innocence and obvious inability to do anything but lean on a man making her story irrefutable.
Instead everything she said about Lucian was true; making her realize yet again she was being unfairly cruel to what was really a rather sweet if timid young woman. If she recalled correctly Lucian had confirmed as much, he was crazy about the shy young flower he had taught to love and trust again.
Did he know his man shy girlfriend had slept with Damien.
JUST STOP IT! What on earth is wrong with you? Why do you even care?
She mentally berated herself as Martha continued.
"Lucian is very high up in the ministry as you know, and he has some very passionate opinions about the Désir D'Âme."
Damien laughed his lips twisting into an iron clad smile, "We're definitely not friends that's for sure."
Ron nodded speculatively, "He doesn't know you were one of them does he?"
Martha trembled shaking her head. "I was afraid. I love him terribly and he has shown me nothing but love but the way he talks about us. The minister will stop at nothing to stop us from stirring up what they see as trouble. Lucian and the minister are very close, the minister has been here and they have stayed up long into the night whispering of ways to deal with the Désir D'Âme. I became to frightened to ever admit the truth. I don't want him to hate me or feel I have deceived him deliberately. I am afraid of what he would do."
The young woman looked so lost and forlorn, Ginny's angry resentment melted away with shame. Regardless of whatever relationship had developed between Damien and her, it was obvious where her affections now lay. As friendly and gently as she could Ginny lay a hand on Martha's shoulder.
"I know Lucian, he might be a little upset but he would never hurt you. He talks about you a lot and I get the sense he really does care for you."
Martha flashed her grateful smile, just as there was the sound of clattering coming from the study. She had her wand in her hand and had taken a defensive position almost instinctively; she noted out of the corner of her eye that her partners had done the same. Martha had jumped and Damien had gripped onto her waist tighter keeping her in her seat murmuring something soothing into her ear.
There was the sound of a sigh and a masculine sounding cuss as something thumped. Who had just arrived and why? Ginny wondered watching the door with a heightening sense of danger.
Had it been a trap then?
She mentally went through ways of escape and closed room combat in her head.
"Martha? Martha are you still in?" Lucian's voice carried from the parlor and instantly Ginny relaxed. A man had to the right to floo into his own house.
Martha however looked even more frightened and Ginny realized that this did not look good for her at all, to have the leader of the Désir D'Âme sitting on her couch in his absence. Ginny shot her a reassuring glance as Lucian strolled in.
He was dressed for work and looked immaculate as always except for his hair. It had the sloppy tangle to it that a mans hair got when it hadn't been washed that morning nor combed. There was something slightly glassy about his eyes as if he hadn't gotten enough sleep the night before. Perhaps that was the reason for his early return from work, he looked as if he could use a good days worth of sleep.
He blinked owlishly at them. He had been warned of Damien's bringing them to his residence and so should not be overly shocked. He was blinking at Martha as if he had never seen her though, no one had known of Martha's involvement with the Désir D'Âme. She hoped her friend would keep his head, Damien was the guilty party here not some girl he had befriended and duped.
"Martha what's going on here?" Lucian growled.
Martha flinched and Ginny felt the need to defend her. "Lucian we've just come to talk to her. She was afraid to tell you because…"
Lucian to Ginny's surprise didn't let her finish. He was glaring at Martha with such intensity a shiver went down Ginny's spine.
"All this time you've been one of those war mongering malcontent little beasts! You duped me, I allowed you to touch me!"
Martha started to tear up and Eddie surged to his feet clearly just as shocked by Lucians abnormal behavior as she was. "Calm down a moment Lucian. I realize you feel upset but the girl…"
"…Intends to hand me over to her little leader." Lucian interrupted with a sneer, glaring at Damien who had slowly risen to his feet. There was a gleam of determination and rage in Damien's eyes as the two men faced off.
"Upset Lestrange about the Johnson girl? She got what she deserved." His eyes flew to Martha with burning rage. "When you oppose the ministry justice will be served. You made a fool of me you little whore, and you're going to get the same!"
Of all of the things she expected to happen to have Lucian fly at Martha in a rage with the clear intention of chocking her. Martha shrieked in terror pleading for mercy as Lucian's hands wrapped around her throat, the rest of them instantly leapt to her defense but Ginny was closer. She grabbed onto the back of Lucian's shirt hauling him off the sobbing woman.
Lucian snarled whirling around, and at first Ginny expected him to throw a punch or raise his wand but he instead latched onto her as if he was giving her a bear hug. She began to struggle but she could already feel her matter being tugged into a nameless void she knew all to well.
-&-
Just like that. One minute his sister had been in the room forcing Lucian away from the sobbing Martha the next the two of them had disappeared with a pop.
Ron stared in shock at where they had been. Lucian was just one lone man, and he didn't even know if the man had his wand on him. Ginny was an auror and could take care of herself, yet still he worried. Where on earth were Theo and Rosie? At the first sign of trouble they should have been here.
Ginny could get hurt, or die or worse.
His eyes flew to Damien. He didn't believe for one moment his sisters' disappearance was coincidence. His eyes narrowed and he wasn't shocked to hear a low growl explode from his throat.
From where he sat comforting the shaking and trembling Martha Damien looked up the light of challenge in his eyes. Ron would have gone for his wand but Damien had one of those too. He drew the pistol instead effectively blowing whatever cover they might have had.
"Where. Did. He. Take. Her?" He bit out each word slowly and forcibly, cocking the loaded weapon to let the other man know he meant business.
Eddie casting all pretenses aside shook his head at Ron. "You can't draw a weapon on him Weasley, he had nothing to do with Ginny's disappearance…on the surface. The chief would have your resignation papers on the front desk before dawn if you touched him without proof of foul play."
Damien's eyes narrowed furiously. "I knew you were auror's every fool knows that but you were investigating me? I brought you here out of trust and you were going to arrest me!" He demanded furiously.
"That's right now where is she?" Ron demanded refusing to back down.
"I don't know ask your little ministry pal! You probably should have made sure he wasn't raving mad before you trusted him. I obviously don't have her! You heard him he as good as admitted the Ministry was behind Katie's death, maybe when it's your sister who burns you'll open your eyes to the corruption in the ministry." Damien sneered.
Ron actually squeezed the trigger blind rage and fear for his sister driving him. Eddie sensing the worst thankfully reached out and jerked Ron's arm back and the shot rang wide.
Damien sneered at him clutching Martha tightly to him. "You Auror's are nothing but the ministries lackeys. Go ahead and kill me but a new leader will always take my place. The people won't stand for tyrannical rule any longer."
And just like that Damien and Martha were gone.
"ARE YOU NUTS? You're shooting him would have…" Eddie immediately began to berate him but Ron wasn't listening. Ginny was gone and Lucian had taken her. Lucian had all but admitted to the ministry's involvement in Katie Johnson's death and he had no reason to lie. The knowledge that Martha was one of them had caused him to snap, and he had Ginny.
-&-
As soon as they appeared in their new location Ginny was grabbing Lucian's arm and flipping him over on his back. She stepped back raising her wand instantly but to her surprise he didn't get up. Lucian lay on the ground glassy eyed and pale, sickeningly pale.
Ginny was struck with a wave of confusion and fear at the ghastly pallor of his skin that here in the brilliant daylight was made even more evident. His hair was not just messy she could finally see it was torn in patches with dried blood mingling at the roots.
He lay as broken as a dead thing.
His limbs looked so stiff and lifeless…he did look dead.
Had she broken his neck when she flipped him? She wondered in horror, slowly creeping towards him. She placed a hand on his brow and snatched it away at the incredibly cold chill to his skin and the unbelievable stench that was beginning to fester in the air around him.
Dead. And he had been dead for quite a few hours it seemed.
She began to choke in revulsion as it dawned on her the impossibility of his walking and talking while being dead, unless.
She shivered as the word came to her mind, Inferius.
A spell that terrible and that dark had not been seen since the days of Voldemorts first rein, and the fact that someone had not only killed Lucian but used his corpse to spread blame and distrust in the ministry sickened her.
And to get you. He got you here didn't he?
Ginny scrambled away from the useless corpse in sickened terror realizing the truth, and that she was in danger. She turned and ran straight into a solid person.
"Easy there." A voice said steadying her.
Ginny felt a slight twinge of relief as she recognized the golden hair and blue eyes.
Ben.
Relief was replaced far two quickly with growing alarm as she took note of her surroundings for the first time. The field was nondescript, and looked to be in the middle of no where. Lucian's sole purpose had been to transport her here, and Ben was no longer dressed in causal clothing. He was decked out in the crimson robes of the Désir D'Âme, that so reminded her of blood.
She didn't take time to think about it, or to reason that despite the argument with his family that Ben was still just a kid, there was no explanation for it but she knew she had to act fast.
Ben acted just as fast wrenching her arm in a punishing grip forcing her to drop her wand. She swept her foot behind his ankle and jerked for all she was worth, and he crumpled with a satisfying crack, and a scream of pain from him.
She dove for her wand where he had tossed it but to her surprise he completely and robotically ignored the obvious brokenness of his ankle grabbing her around the middle. Before she could reach for another weapon she heard another voice.
"Petrificus Totalis"
Ginny instantly felt her body and her captors seize and lock. As they fell to the ground, Ginny heard the third presence cast the releasing charm and Saw Ben move to catch her falling body.
She still couldn't move could only stare in shock and growing terror as Ben glared down at her.
A moment later Damien came into view his eyes laughing down at her.
She knew the punch line to his joke, and she had been right. She didn't like it at all.
A/N: wow…this was a long one. That's why it took me so long to write, I wanted to get it just right. I'm so excited to get ready with the next one Ginny's in Damien's hands now and well things are about to get more explosive.
A warning for the next chapter: I in no way support rape or any other sort of sexual violence and if this sort of thing will offend you I advise you to skip the next chapter. Some people have been through it and I know people with loved ones who have suffered it and it's neither fun nor a joke, nor to be used lightly. Harry's character has no morals and I couldn't in the context of the story see him asking for permission.
However I really don't wish anyone to think I take this issue lightly or bring back unwanted feelings or emotions in an unwary reader. Don't worry it shall get better, Damien is a beast yes but even the Beast had a beauty to bring out the prince in him…it just takes a bit of time.
Wishing everyone well.
