Everything hurt.
Everything.
And she couldn't see.
Great. She thought, falling into a terrible mood somewhere between the aching and the soreness and the pain that spread from her ribs every time she took a breath.
Cleaning her eyes with the back of her hand she sat up as high as she was able. Death Eaters were standing around her, and her face was covered in blood.
Ginny cleaned her face with rushed strokes, trying to feel a bruise, a cut, something that was not the pain of the Bracelets being away from each other manifesting itself on them. Pretending that it was them that were in need of each other. Her fingers couldn't find anything, not even the smallest cut.
He would better hurry the fuck up.
"Well, well," the Death Eater sitting on a chair to her right started, "we were starting to think you would die of blood loss before we would have a chance to speak with you." Ginny ignored him, letting herself lay on the ground again, breathless from the effort of hoping it was not the bracelets making her bleed. "That would be very inconvenient to our plans. Why are you even bleeding? Is it part of the spell that bonds you with our beloved Minister?"
She closed her eyes, feeling her cheeks warm, tears of blood running down her face again.
The Death Eater that seemed to be in charge exchanged some words with another man, about how things were going in the Ministry and she seemed to recognise his voice, but was not sure.
She guessed they were going to try to use her against Voldemort. She didn't mind, she did not like him enough to desire him anything good. This was actually a good plan, but if they were covering up their identities, pretending to be Death Eaters, they were probably willing to go the extra mile.
Or he obeyed or he was gone. Probably gone, by making her gone first. She guessed she was going to be a much easier to kill them him.
She was not sure how she felt about that part, but if he didn't come soon, it wouldn't make a difference the way she would go.
The spell that had put her unconscious was wearing off and she opened her eyes again.
The Death Eater rose from his chair and walked to her, kneeling to see her better. "We have all been quite curious about what is exactly going on here." He said, touching her face lightly. "Did he saw something on you and wants you to fall in love with him?" He crooked his head, she couldn't see her eyes, covered by the mask. "Is there really a curse?" He pulled her hand, touching the bracelet around her wrist.
"I am sorry to break your romantic dreams..." Ginny took back her hand, raising on her elbow. "It is a curse." She gave him an annoyed smile. "No love or aspirations to leave the world behind to have children and live in a cottage."
He laughed at the image of Voldemort surrounded by children. "You spoke about it?" He asked, amused.
"We are trying not too." That made him laugh again.
"My friends in the Ministry tell me that you-know-who is a similar state to you," She could sense he was smiling under the mask, "crying blood for almost half an hour. I suppose you have not been trying hard enough to break the curse."
"We were almost killed by Goblins, doesn't that count for something?" She asked him, cleaning her face again.
"Barely." He got up to his feet and stepped back. "We have been waiting for you to wake up to check a small theory of mine." He waved and the Death Eaters opened a door hidden away behind a tapestry. Through it, a cage levitated to the room, slow and steady, with a drugged, very large snake inside.
Nagini was barely able to lift its head from the cage, drowsily looking from one side to the other, confused and scared. Despite being smart, it was just a serpent, an animal that tended to be more scared of humans than the contrary. Without her Master, she was lost.
The cage stopped in the middle of the room, in front of her. One moment the serpent was inside its prison, the next it was floating in the air and in the other it had lost its head.
The Death Eater caught the head with the point of Gryffindor's sword that he used to decapitate the animal, and looked down at her. "Did you felt this?" He asked, bending down to have a good look at her. "Nothing?" He asked when she continued to stare at him. "Bring me the Cup." He requested, putting his foot on Nagini's head to get his sword back.
In a fluid movement he cut part of the Cup, the ghostly figure Tom Riddle appeared over it, a ray of light cutting him on the diagonal, from his shoulders to his middle. The figure didn't react, simply disappearing into the air.
"Interesting what this one did," He said to the wizards around him. "I wonder if the other ones will give us a show too."
"You found his Horcruxes?" She managed to say, surprised.
"Not an easy job, let me tell you. We were curious to see if you could feel their destruction, but it looks like he can't." He told her, disappointed. "Not many more to go, just the Locket and the Diadem." He took the diadem from his robes and looked at it, tilting his head. "Here, hold it." She put it on her hair. "Looks nice."
He looked down at her, smiling behind his mask.
"How do you feel about it?" He asked. "Those this upset you?"
"Not at all." She let herself fall to the ground again, covering her eyes with her arm. "I would cheer if I was not in pain."
"Really?" That surprised him. "You don't care?"
"You have my entire support to use me to bring him down," Ginny muttered.
"You are joking." He looked around the room, everyone was taken aback by her words.
"I told you, we are cursed," she smiled without looking at him, "not in love."
"That is something I was not expecting to hear."
"I am into much pain to care about your expectations." She growled, turning to her side, her back to the Death Eater. "You are all dead when he gets here."
"What makes you think he will be able to get here?" He turned around, waving to the wizards around him. "These are just some of man guarding you, some that believe we can bring that madman to the ground!"
"He will find a way. A mountain full of Goblins was not able to stop him, you are not going to even be able to stand a chance." She cleaned her eyes again and looked over his shoulder, a warning in her bloodied eyes that made his skin crawl.
There was more to it then he knew. Clearly.
The idea had come from Snape. He had known what they should do the moment Voldemort and Ginny had arrived at Hogwarts. Snape wrote to a couple of people, both among the Death Eaters as well as the Order of the Phoenix, being careful to keep the subject away from Molly Weasley.
She would not like what he was thinking to do with her daughter, but he had hoped she would, one day when things were better and the world less cruel, understand.
Fortune had provided them with a one in a lifetime opportunity to control Voldemort, to make him bend to what needed to be done or finish him altogether if he decided to disagree with them.
Snape made sure to contact the right people, the ones unhappy with the situation, that wanted the world as it was before, not use Voldemort to do something else, to pursue their one ideals of power in a less violent way.
He had slowly figured it out and was quick in sharing the details with his accomplices. How Lord Voldemort and Ginevra Weasley were sharing one room and he was having all his meals with her. He had not dared ask the librarian what he was looking for, or go through her records to see what books he was checking out, crazy as that woman was with her books and her records, she would no if anyone touched it. But as the Director of that school, the house elves owned him their full obedience and he took full advantage of it.
He called one of them, the smallest that worked in the kitchens, and told him to stay behind after leaving their meals in the room. To stand in a corner, invisible and quiet to wait and see.
Later at night, they would meet in the dungeons, away from the portraits as there were many important figures around the castle that couldn't be more proud of that old student's work. The minimum thing, and Voldemort would know he was being spied on.
The small elf told him about how they would, some times, sit in the floor with e sigh, her legs laced with his as they ate and spoke smoothly to each other. Voldemort avoiding to tell her how he was doing in the library, preferring to ask her about her family.
When they were done, she would hold his ankle under his trousers and pull him to a hug. He would go away after that and leave her to collect the dishes from the floor.
The small elf was there when Voldemort said he was going into Slytherin's Chamber. Snape had sent him there to watch, after his Master opted for having dinner with him instead of the red haired girl he had not seen since the first day they arrived.
Snape didn't waste time, bringing a small painting of fruit and flowers with him, he forcer Salazar Slyherin himself to say the words that would open the Chamber, he found the library and put it on fire.
That Molly Weasley forgave him for that.
But Molly never had a chance to tell him what she thought about what he did to his daughter.
Voldemort came to his senses in a jail cell of the Auror's ward.
He was laying on his stomach, the side of his face that rested against the floor was warm and wet.
Everything hurt.
He pulled himself to sit against the wall and cleaned his face for the best of his abilities, drenching the sleeves of his coat with the blood that had been running from his face.
Annoyed, he remembered that he never asked about the details of how they escaped the Goblins. Maybe it was time to review his decision to not prioritise his failed plans.
He looked outside, to the room full of Aurors. They were starting to notice he had awaken, some left, others smirked at him. None had any idea of what they had done.
With effort, he got to his feet and hold the bars of the door that separate him from them.
They should be crazy to think this was enough to keep them safe from him.
Slowly, he regained focus, he started to feel furious, tricked.
He was furious with them, for letting this happen, he expected better of his followers. He offered protection and expected protection. Still, somehow, the men he left to guard her and not be enough to ensure her safety.
Unless they were the ones behind kidnapping her.
He was particularly furious with her, for somehow, becoming his weakness. For being useless and not being able to protect herself. Failing meant they both were put into danger.
He suddenly lost the strength of his legs, falling to the ground against the bars. A sensation of dread falling over him, consuming from the inside. He knew the feeling, he had felt it before and it was with some strength that he keep the growl that threatened to leave his throat to himself.
They had killed Nagini, his Horcrux was gone.
He wondered if she could feel the pain of a part of his soul dying.
He doubted, maybe after their souls were bounded. Voldemort pressed his forehead to the cold iron of the door he hold. If they didn't kill her first.
If they didn't die first from the lack of closeness, he corrected.
Would that actually be that bad?
It would take care of the nonsense of being bound to the girl.
He could return, he had more Horcruxes.
The feeling of losing another Horcrux made his decision for him. They had found another piece of his soul. He was not going to risk having them destroy what had been so hard for him to create.
He would not die today.
With difficulty he rose again. Closing his eyes, cleaning his face again, he felt the magic around him. Breathing in, breathing out and the door exploded from its hinges and flew across the room, landing on top of some inattentive Aurors.
He let himself loose to what the Bracelet around his wrist demanded. It was indifferent at this point, their goal was the same. It even made him more powerful, fighting to recover what was rightfully his.
He didn't spare anyone that crossed his path. Being careful enough to leave as much Aurors alive as possible. He needed them when he came back.
The Death Eaters, only in appearance as he could not feel his mark on any of them, were ready for him when he finally appeared in the door of the library.
He crossed a look with Ginny, she was sitting on the floor, her face bathed in red and Ravenclaw's Diadem rested on her hair. She radiated. He could sense her magic synchronising with his, he could almost hear her hearth fall in place with his, he could feel the lust she was feeling from finally being in the same place as he.
He hurt.
She hurt.
They couldn't take the pain much longer.
The Bracelets started to burn on their skin.
He bit his lip to hid the smile from his mouth and then he went in.
Wand-less, Ginny hid away as he cleared the path to reach her.