Chapter 20:

Guilty Without Trial

"'Sentence first – verdict afterwards.'"

Ginny's disciplinary case was assigned to none other than Rabstan Lestrange, who took the task upon himself with diligence, and was destined to fill it almost perfectly.

That evening, which was to be the first of countless days of punishment, her educator welcomed her at the Headmaster's office with a number of Cruciatus curses. The pain lasted forever, a nightmare from which she couldn't wake up, even when she added to the pain of the curse as she dug her nails into her palms to stop herself from screaming. When it stopped she was laying on the floor, confused and relieved. For a short time she could not remember where she was, who she was, and certainly not why she deserved that kind of pain.

Lestrange knelt beside her and studied her face. She could faintly feel his hands on her skin, as if she had lost the small sensitivities of the skin after the painful experience that shook her nerves.

"Remember," said a voice from an unclear source. Only hours later, when she had recovered and began to think clearly, she realized that it had been Snape speaking. "Make her regret what she did – make sure she will not even consider doing it again. But most importantly, you need to show the other students what is the fate of an disobedient student. Start the display tonight, strike the iron while it is hot."

"I know that, Severus. And if you're going to suggest that I'm not supposed to use her for my personal pleasures during the process, I'll tell you you don't have to worry – I have a much more enjoyable toy, with much simpler instructions. Anyway, I'm not a man who reuses other people's belongings. Especially not whores, and especially not Potter's."

Then he turned back to Ginny. His hand moved from her face to her neck, and as he spoke, she felt he was beginning to strangle her. "You crossed the line this time, love. I had great plans for you, you know. Your situation could have been much better - and you certainly wouldn't have gotten here – if you had just tried to listen to my proposal, and realized that there was another, better way to live life."

Ginny wanted to tell him that she would rather die than live by his way of life, but she could barely breathe with his hand around her throat. The world was spinning around her – she was sure he was going to choke her to death – but then he let go.

"It's time you got what you deserve," said the second voice, which was Snape's. "If not for the serious crime you committed – breaking into the office of a school Professor and trying to steal his personal property – then because of the stupidity of that decision, and the thought that you could escape it without punishment."

Then the curse struck her again. All her breath and blood drained to her head, and she fainted.

She was floating in a sea of haunted dreams for what seemed like an eternity to her. When she awoke, her whole body trembled with cold on a hard stone floor, and the muscles of her hands and feet were heavy and stiff. At first she was too confused to focus, sure she is still in some nightmare. But after a while of drifting between waking and sleeping, she realized that she was lying on the floor in the dark Entrance Hall, her hands and feet in chains that glowed ominously in the darkness. The castle was set in a ringing silence, and she was completely alone.

She sat in the dark for a long time, her head empty, not fully aware of her condition. It wasn't until the distant start of dawn crept into the high windows that she thought of her mother and father, and of Harry, and began to cry uncontrollably. She would give everything for someone, anyone, to hold her lovingly and make her feel protected for only a moment.

The day had risen and her tears had dried up in defeat until students and teachers began to arrive at the Great Hall for breakfast. Everyone, without exception, stared at her as they passed. She could only imagine how miserable and filthy she looked, after the pain she had experienced and the long stay on the floor. The humiliation was almost unbearable.

Most of the looks were filled with pity, in others there was fear, in others disgust, and quite a bit where of mockery and clear satisfaction. Professor McGonagall arrived early, stopping at the bottom of the stairs as soon as she saw her. She stared at her in shock, her face as pale as ice, and at once the shock turned to rage.

"Ginevra," she said in an authoritative, steady voice. "Miss Weasley. You will not undergo this treatment a moment longer."

She straightened her back and climbed back up ostentatiously. But Ginny remained shackled all day, and for many more days to come.

Slughorn turned green when he saw her, and gave her an apologetic look as he hurried into the Hall. Her female classmates from Gryffindor gaped with appalled looked and walked away quickly, staring at each other and at her. The DA members treated her with a mix of pity, rage, shock and pride. Seamus and Michael Corner yelled at the Death Eaters who were guarding her to release her, and Ginny had to see them get punished for it. Neville looked at her sorrowfully, closing and opening his mouth, wanting to say something but not knowing what he could possibly say. Ginny gave him a gentle look, and before the Death Eaters drove him away with treats, she saw him mouth silently, "Stay strong..."

At breakfast, Ginny heard Snape speak to the students, who were listening to him in a dead silence: "The student who is chained outside the hall is being punished for a severe crime. In her vanity, she had tried to break into a teacher's office and rob him of his personal property for the sole benefit of her own enrichment. She shall stay there, and the punishment shall continue until she expresses enough remorse for her actions, and until her comrades stop pulling dangerous and childish pranks that ruin this ancient castle and violate our daily routine."

Ginny had some quiet during the morning, since all the students were in class. Some Death Eaters amused themselves with cursing her until they were called to deal with a disciplinary problem in one of the classrooms and left in disappointment.

During lunch she received a number of spits from strange students and a slap from a Slytherin who called her names and blamed her for everything that was happening. She absorbed all that in silence, surprised by her own apathy and her ability to pretend that she was merely a spectator to the wretched, humiliated creature bound to the floor. Maybe it was because she knew that no matter what they did to her, she would never regret what she did, and would take every opportunity to escape and break into Lestrange's office for the third time, this time to free Betty. The encouraging glances she got from DA members who passed through to the Great Hall filled her with renewed hope each time after she had suffered a verbal or magical abuse, a spit or a kick.

Before dinner (Ginny still hadn't received any kind of food, but in any case she felt a tremendous disgust that wouldn't have allowed her to eat) she saw Ursula. The girl looked like a boy dressed up as a school girl, carrying a number of thick books close to her breast. Ginny was surprised when she dared to come close to her, despite the Death Eaters in the Hall, who had prevented it from all her allies during the day. But they were engrossed in a game of dice and didn't notice her, or maybe they just assumed that since she was a Slytherin she was only interested in torturing her a bit, and that was all right.

She stood over her, behaving naturally, as if she had bumped into her by chance on the way to dinner.

"How are you getting along?"

"Could be better," Ginny replied. That was the first time she had spoken since the torture the night before, and she realized her throat was dry and hurting and her voice hoarse, as if she had been screaming for hours. "You still want to switch places with me?"

"Less than before, but the answer is still yes."

"Hey, you!" The Death Eaters noticed that Ursula was talking to Ginny. She ignored them.

"Why?" Ginny asked bitterly. "Would you like to be here instead of me? Does it look fun to you?"

"Hey, no talking to the prisoner! You hear me?"

Ursula glanced toward the approaching Death Eater as if he were nothing more than an annoying fly.

"I'll tell you some other time. Soon," she said and walked away.

The days passed. Students and teachers and Death Eaters went through the hall every day, going in and out of the Great Hall, looking at her, sometimes spitting and cursing, sometimes smiling in pity, noticing her less and less as time passed.

Then curfew would come, and Ginny would be left alone again in the dark. Every night she felt as if years had passed since the night before. She would lie on the floor, but she would rarely fall asleep for more than a few hours. The hunger and the thirst that the tiny food portions wouldn't suffice troubled her, the weariness drove her mad, and the fear, the humiliation, and the pain pecked like noisy birds in her head, never letting her rest. At first she had refused to take food from the Death Eaters, but it wasn't long before she couldn't stand the emptiness in her stomach anymore; Then she would cup the food expectantly when it reached her and nibble it carefully, like a frightened little animal.

She would bury her head between her arms and forced herself to think encouraging thoughts. After the first few days, the hopes that Neville and the other DA members would free her had lost their taste, so she started looking for sources of comfort that couldn't be taken away so easily.

Harry was the first thing she thought about. She decided to stop fighting the memories and the dreams because they were far better than reality. She relived every moment, even the most insignificant, she could remember from her time with him, from the first ones to the very last. She conjured the happy moments when she had realized that he had a smile that was meant only for her, the quiet moments in when he told her how beautiful she was to him. She remembered the moments of passion, when she realized how much she loved him, and how much he loved her, and the gloomy moments when he would sink into a melancholic, thoughtful silence that even her kisses couldn't pull him put of. These thoughts warmed her heart from the inside, though outside it was still frozen. She could pretend that it never ended between them – that every minute he would break in and save her, as always, despite her constant refusal to be the damsel in distress. Because in the end, she could never resist him. Not when she proved to herself, time after time, that she wasn't strong enough to save herself.

She had lost the count of nights in which she was bound to the wall, when an unusual occurrence disturbed her routine of despair. In the darkness, she noticed a movement on the far side of the hall. At first she thought she was imagining it. But it wasn't a dream; Someone was moving toward her with no sound, as if on the paws of a cat. The person didn't seem threatening, so Ginny just watched him move in the dark. As he approached her, the faint moonlight that entered the hall illuminated the figure. It was Ursula, carrying a picnic basket.

"Good night," she greeted her naturally.

"What are you doing here?" Ginny asked incredulously. Her voice, now used only to shout from pain, was rough and broken.

"I promised you an answer to the question of why I would have wanted to take your place. I keep my promises." She sat down next to Ginny, as if she weren't tied at all, but sitting with her in a perfectly innocent picnic in the moonlight. "I brought some refreshments. I didn't know what you liked, so I brought a little bit of everything... Excuse me if I'm too excited, the truth is that I don't get to have conversations with real people on a regular basis. Not with their consent, anyway."

Ginny would have talked to everyone and eaten anything at that moment. Ursula, who actually didn't look excited at all, took two beautiful crystal glasses out of the basket and filled them with a rosy liquid. Ginny gulped two whole glasses of the sweet liquid before she quenched her thirst, then watched Ursula fill her glass for the third time and turn to arrange fresh colorful cakes on a floral plate.

"Aren't you afraid they'll catch you?" Ginny asked, nibbling a biscuit. It was the most delicious pastry she'd ever had in her life.

"Not at all. I'm in Slytherin, and I have a perfectly clean record. If I get caught I'll probably be punished, but it won't be so bad. Not like this, anyway – " She gestured to the shackles as if they were nothing special, like a cheap jewelry.

They ate the cakes and fruit that Ursula brought silently for a few minutes. Ginny filled up quickly, as if her stomach was suddenly smaller, and after a few minutes she turned to lean against the wall and watch Ursula.

The girl tolerated her gaze for a while, then said, "Do you find me interesting?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare – "

"It's fine. Answer my question."

Ginny wasn't sure how to react. "I think you're... Unusual."

"Worthy response," Ursula praised her calmly. "I know it's sincere. As I've told you, when you look like me, you learn to use your senses more effectively – including the sixth sense, which allows me to know when a person is telling the truth."

"That sounds useful."

"It is. And it's not just with words. I can see a couple of lovers, and know whether he really loves her or just wants a trophy, and whether she really loves him, or is just looking for a status. I know when a student obeys the Death Eaters out of fear, or out of a genuine desire. It comes from reading. I read a lot, and that how I study human nature."

"That's... an interesting hobby."

"You're lying. You think I'm strange."

Ginny felt the edge of a smile tickling her lips. That girl might have been genuinely insane, but oddly, she was the best company that she had had in a long time. She was acting as if everything was alright, and that she truly believed it was. It reminded Ginny of Luna, and the thought gave her comfort.

"You're right. I'm sorry," she said honestly.

"Don't be sorry. I owe you, in a way. I've been studying you for a while."

Ginny wasn't exactly surprised. On a normal day she might have felt uneasy, but it wasn't one of those days.

"For how long?"

"A little over a year. From last fall. In fact, at first I didn't think you would be interesting at all. I knew your face from every center of social activity in school. You seemed like someone that dispenses her feelings unconsciously, and such people are rarely interesting. But then Harry Potter became interested in you. And since I was interested in Harry Potter – whom I think is a tragic figure at its best – I became interested in you too. After very little watching, I understood why he was giving you these distant looks, and what was the meaning of the spark in his eyes when he spoke to you. Under the whole social show, you had the potential of a true literary heroine."

"You were following Harry? Following both of us?"

"I don't define what I do as following. I was conducting a study," Ursula said without a trace of embarrassment. "A study of human emotion and behavior."

"So why did you say you wanted to take my place? Because of Harry – ?"

"Merlin, no! Have you ever seen a Healer fall in love with the disease he's studying? A Herbalist that that is attracted to a plant that he cultivates? No, I have no such affection for the people I'm studying. But you – you have so hidden depth. You are an inexhaustible fountain of frenzy and emotion. There is so much war inside you that I think even you don't know the true depth of your own personality. Behind the average temperament girl who gets everything she wants lies the figure of a desperate human who lives in constant fear, seeking restlessly a refuge for her pain and fear, which is always so close..."

Ginny concluded that Ursula was definitely insane. She was sitting right next to her, how could she talk about her like a character form a book? In a way it was the coldest thing someone could do.

Swiped by her own enthusiasm, Ursula went on the confess, "Sometimes I pick up a quill and write about you. Not stories or plots, just what I've learned about your character, piece by piece. Your own character is a story, unfolding and twisting as the plot progresses, yet remains wrapped around its original and stable spine. I hope I'm not alarming you?"

"You're scaring me a little," Ginny admitted, because she knew the other girl valued honesty more than anything.

"I apologize. I wouldn't have told you all this if there wasn't a purpose for it. No, I'm not going to give you words of encouragement or advice. I have real help for you."

Suspicion had arisen in Ginny like a snake's head. She didn't know how much Ursula had discovered about her place in the DA and the Order of the Phoenix from her mysterious surveillance; It could be a trap, she might have been sent by Lestrange to learn the resistance's secrets.

"I know I don't encourage confidence," Ursula continued in her pointed, businesslike manner. "But I can prove to you that my intentions are good. I've already helped you twice before."

Ginny knew at once what she was talking about, but wasn't about to let herself be tricked. "Go on," she said carefully, wanting to see how much she knows.

"I gave you a clue in the form of a note that yours and Harry Potter's favorite secret passage hadn't been discovered yet, and that it could be used actively. I couldn't risk that the message would be revealed, so I encrypted it in the last date you both visited there. I knew it, I had been watching you that day."

The pieces of the puzzle began to come together. Ginny motioned for her to continue.

"And when I found out about your plan to help muggle- born students escape, I knew you would never succeed when the Death Eaters were on guard, so I created a diversion, not a very sophisticated one, but it was good enough."

"Could you help me the third time?" Asked Ginny, excitement and hope building up inside her. "Could you help me escape?"

"Not tonight. But I won't let a personality like yours go to waste. I guaranty that you'll soon be free to live your life. Your story isn't over yet."