Author's Note: This chapter is for a good friend. Thanks KW for being a supportive friend and reader!


Chapter Ten: Till Death Do We Part



May 30, 2009-Him

Ministry Atrium

I didn't like going back to the Gala with Vivienne, but we had to attempt to pretend we were going to switch her for Ginny. Harry was going mental knowing that she was with that nutter. We had gone to St. Mungo's and Malfoy was fine. Apparently the hex marks he had received were minor. Hermione smiled at him and for the first time in a decade I didn't care. I looked at Vivienne. Hermione didn't even compare.

"I don't like something about this," Harry commented as we approached the destroyed wall. Something seemed off about the entire situation. My senses were on alert. Usually that only happened when I knew it wasn't safe.

"I don't like it, either," I agreed with him.

"I see you made the right choice," Ben's voice was heard to our left. He came through the debris and stared at Harry.

"Where's my wife?" Harry asked immediately. I knew I should be concerned about my sister's welfare as well, but for some reason I was more concerned about our situation.

Ben smiled at him. It was a creepy, maniacal smile. It gave my skin a chill and I knew something was going to go wrong here.

"Your wife will join us when you hand over my fiancée," Ben explained and I practically snarled at him.

"You must know that I wouldn't give you something without showing me that my wife is okay," Harry almost growled at him. I was concerned because the two of us sounded like animals the way we were making feral noises.

"Are all the European wizards this barbaric?" Ben asked with a degrading grin. If I had been about thirteen years younger, then I would have launched myself at him. Instead, I stood there calmly waiting for him to get to his point.

"Just show me Ginny," Harry ordered.

"Alright, Auror Potter," Ben started and signaled something. It was quicker than any of us could respond. Malfoy had grabbed Vivienne by the waist. He dragged her to Ben.

"Malfoy!" I shouted as I ran forward.

"Ron! Stop!" Hermione screamed and grabbed my arms. I paused at the shock of her grasp and looked to where she was staring. There were two Malfoys, one holding Vivienne as tightly as possible, and one battered and bruised in the same way Vivienne was floating midair.

"You didn't even know," Ben laughed at us.

We hadn't known. We just assumed that the Healers had done excellent jobs. They had gotten better at most hexes after the war.

Hermione went nutters screaming at him. The last time I saw her that angry she had given Malfoy a hit to the face. I was feeling sorry for Benjamin De Hall because as an adult witch she could do a lot more damage.

"Shut her up, or all three of them die!" Ben yelled back to us and held his wand to Ginny. Harry took a step forward. "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you," Ben threatened.

I had no idea what to do. We weren't expecting a fake Malfoy. Ben knew us better than we thought. I couldn't think much longer about the situation because Ben and everyone else disapparated. Harry, Hermione and I stood there alone.

"Fuck!" Hermione and Harry yelled simultaneously. I felt the same, but couldn't bring myself to speak. How had we lost them? How did they know how to be one step ahead of us?

"I want to know how the bloody hell they did that?" Harry spoke my thoughts.

"We have to be missing something important. What has Vivienne told us about Ben? We have to think. They've taken Draco and what about the kids?" Hermione panicked.

"The kids are with Mum. They'll be okay for now. I don't think Ben will do anything with them," I tried to calm her. I didn't feel any better than she did. I lost the one person I had fallen in love with since Hermione broke my heart. When I found him, I was going to Avada Kedavra him.


May 30, 2009-Her

Undetermined Location

Ginny, Draco, and I had no idea where we were. One of Ben's lackeys would come check on us every hour or so. Draco looked about as bad as I felt. I was sure he was hit with the same awful hex that I was.

"Get her," we could hear someone order the wizard outside the door. I knew immediately the 'her' he was referencing was me. Ben could really care less about Ginny Weasley. She was just a means to his end.

My assumption was proven correct when someone immediately came to me and forced me to move. I did not want to move. I ached all over. Where yellowing bruises were healing, new fresh purple ones appeared beside them. It was an endless cycle.

I joined Ben in a large living room area. He stared at me angrily.

"Hey Viv," he said in the charming voice that used to make me feel that fuzzy feeling. Now it just made my stomach curl.

"What do you want?" I practically spat at him. He would kill me before I ever fell for him like that again. I was already too far in love with Ron.

"You will not talk to me that way. Especially when I am the only one who can cure you and your Death Eater friend from my hex," he said as he gripped my hair to force me to look at him.

His once-handsome features just weren't the same. His whole face seemed more angular and out of proportion. I don't know if I finally was seeing him for what he truly was or if the obsessive evil plotting had turned him that way.

"You will be mine again. I have decided against disposing of you. I quite enjoy the look of you, and the position I will gain once I marry you. Oh to marry George Callaway's youngest daughter," he fantasized.

"I'm not going to marry you. I'd rather die," I told him defiantly.

"Oh yes you will, because if you don't, then your Auror friend will be the first person I kill. I was going to eventually let his sister go. I really have no concern for her. As well as I would have let Auror Weasley walk away unharmed, but seeing your attachment has made me change my mind. How could I trust that you won't be thinking about him when we're married if he still lives?" He asked, and then added,"I will kill Malfoy, though."

"Ben, do you know how crazy you sound? Your whole plan to kill all the ex-Death Eaters and pure-bloods just makes no sense!" I screamed back at him. I knew I really had no chance at rationalizing with him, but the thought of Ron dying had me trying anything.

His hand went into the air and collided with my face. I could still hear the slap echoing when my focus came back into place.

"You don't know anything! It wasn't your mother stuck in a foreign country being tortured by insane strangers!" He yelled into my face.

"Your mother is fine! She told you years ago! This is purely for you and you know it! You've become obsessed with someone else's pain for no reason!" I screamed back even though it hurt my cheek to do so. I knew a screaming match wasn't going to help me at this point, but his logic was misguided.

"Crucio!" He cursed me, and through the pain I shrieked, "You're no better than Voldemort! He used that curse on innocent people too!" My voice was choppy from the excruciating pain, but the point was made. Ben was pissed to be compared to the very person his cause was against, and stopped immediately.

"Find her a suitable room. See that she is taken care of, and notify me," he ordered someone in a manner that I could imagine Voldemort had used with his own followers.

I was levitated to a bedroom. My only thoughts were that this house belonged to someone, possibly Owen. Once in the bedroom, I hoped that Ben left Draco and Ginny alone. I couldn't bear to know that he may take his anger out on them. I didn't want Harry and Hermione to blame me if something happened to either of them.

A shooting pain coursed through my body, and I knew the hex was coming to its worst. I probably wouldn't make it much longer if I didn't get the counter-curse soon. The throbbing was so violent that it made me vomit onto the floor. I felt so tired, and before I knew it I had slipped onto the bed. I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me over.

XXXXX

I could feel a soft caress on my cheek. I opened my eyes and Ben was smiling at me, and for a few moments I thought everything had been a terrible nightmare. It was when the overwhelming pain from the bruises and my overpowering feelings for Ron came rushing back to me that I knew it wasn't a nightmare. Ben was truly a monster now, and not the man I thought I loved for three years.

"You know, you could just agree to be supportive and I can get rid of the hex for you," he said to me in his 'I am the most charming guy you'll ever meet' voice. I suddenly hated that voice.

"I like the other option better," I told him.

"Suit your self," he said as he stood from the bed and walked toward the door.