Anger

Ginny turned her back on Lord Voldemort and made for Draco's side, hoping that they could just head out of the room and back to Hogwarts and that everything would be okay. She was dreaming, of course. Now that Ron knew the truth, or thought he knew the truth, things were likely to become hellish. If Ron knew, it meant that Ginny's family would know, and then it meant that everybody that Molly had ever met would know, and then basically, the entirety of Hogwarts would know. But even worse than that was the fact that Ron was going to bring home the news that Ginny had tortured him at Voldemort's command. It was bad enough that she was using the Cruciatus Curse at all, but the fact that she had turned her wand against her own brother was big news. And really, really bad news. The only good thing that could possibly come out of it was that Voldemort might trust her more. But she'd have to do better on her assigned mission to seal the deal.

She had known when she asked for the Dark Mark what she was getting in to, but now it simply didn't seem worth it. She hadn't learned nearly enough information to compensate for the harm that she had just caused her family. But at least she had Draco at her side.

"Do not turn your back on me, Ginny Weasley," Voldemort hissed.

Ginny turned to face him.

"I am sorry, my lord."

"Usually my new recruits ask for more opportunities to practice their curses."

"Do they, my lord?"

"Don't be impertinent!"

"That was not my intention, my lord. It is simply that I do not need to practice my curses any extra because the Carrow's are making sure that I am receiving plenty of opportunities at Hogwarts."

"Are they?" Voldemort paused. "Good."

Draco stepped up behind Ginny. "My lord, we really should be back at school. We were nearly having a breakthrough with one of Potter's friends when we were called to you, my lord. Unfortunately, he is unlikely to talk again."

Voldemort looked at him. "Who is this friend?"

"That cannot be disclosed, my lord. See, I know your methods, and it will be much easier to get him to talk again if you remain out of the picture for the time being, my lord."

Voldemort glared at him.

Ginny nodded vigorously. "In fact, if we leave right now, my lord, we might be able to catch him before he goes to bed, and it would be really great if the two of us could get him alone. I'm sure the information that he has will be helpful to you with regards to the location of Harry Potter."

"I will not be told what to do by two cheeky teenagers," growled Voldemort. "If I don't have any information by the end of the week, there will be serious consequences."

Draco and Ginny nodded. "Yes, my lord."

"Now get out of my sight," Voldemort hissed.

Back in the castle, Draco and Ginny were simultaneously relieved and anxious now that they were away from Lord Voldemort. Not only was it tedious for Ginny to maintain her facade in front of Voldemort, but it was also an emotional drain simply to be in his presence. She never quite knew what to expect. He had a way about him that was, dare she say, charming, but he was also completely evil. He embodied her every thought of what a dark wizard should be, with the exception of his charisma. He was venomous, angry, bitter, entirely cruel, and there was just that little something else...but she hated him with all her heart. Ginny found that after being around him for even short periods of time, she picked up some of his anger and his cruelty in her own demeanor.

"I fucking hate him," she spat when they were safely in the Room of Requirement.

Draco was making a large pot of tea. "We all do, darling. Even those who say they love him actually hate him." Except maybe Bellatrix, he thought.

"Yeah, but I really fucking hate him."

Draco didn't reply, but placed a steaming mug in front of her.

"I hate green tea."

"It's not green tea, Ginny," said Draco, exasperated.

"Oh." She took a sip. "I just hate him so much!" she exploded.

"Mmhmm," replied Draco, sipping his own tea.

"I mean who does he think he is? You can't just make someone curse someone else, especially their own brother!"

Draco didn't think pointing out that that was precisely what Voldemort just did would be a wise decision. He tried to change the subject. "We're going to need to get him some information. Do you have any ideas?"

"I dunno, why don't we just torture it out of someone?"

Draco sat his mug down on the table rather loudly. "I know that you are angry and upset, but you don't need to take it out on me," said Draco.

Ginny looked at him miserably. "I'm sorry, Draco," she mumbled. "It's just...I just...this was such a bad idea to begin with."

Draco softened, hating to be mad at her. "No, Ginny," he reached over and grabbed her hand, "you're doing great. If we can just make it through this, then everything is going to be fine. People will understand, at the end of all things."

"Whenever that day comes." Ginny looked at her lap. "Until then I get to be the muggle lover turned traitor who tortured her own brother."

"Oh buck up!" cried Draco. "If you feel this sorry for yourself every time we have a meeting with You-Know-Who then I'm not going to deal with it." He stood up as if to leave. "You can either calm down and think rationally, or you can count me out."

"You'd leave me?"

"If you don't start seeing sense anytime soon? Yes."

"Don't leave," Ginny whispered as Draco reached the door. "Please."

Ginny looked so small and sad hugging her knees that Draco couldn't bring himself to leave the room. His pride wanted him to continue what he had started, but he couldn't handle seeing the girl who he had such strong feelings for looking like she did right now. He walked over to a couch towards the back of the room and sat down. "Are you going to be calm now?"

"Yes," Ginny whispered.

"And sensible?"

"Yes."

"Then we need to talk, because we have no plan, and You-Know-Who needs information within three days."

Ginny walked over to Draco. "Can I just curl on you for a minute?"

"Of course."

Ginny got onto the couch and put her head in Draco's lap. She curled into the fetal position and arranged one of Draco's arms across her shoulder and in front of her body where she could lock her fingers within his. "Thank you."

Draco thought that Ginny was going to lay in his lap forever, not that he minded, but there was work to be done. Surprising him, she managed to pull herself together within five minutes and sat up, ready to talk.

"I don't know how we're supposed to get information about Harry until we hear back from the Order," she said.

"I agree," replied Draco. "It's really risky to completely make up another story for You-Know-Who. I don't think that he'd really believe it this time. I also think it's very weird that we haven't heard back from good old Lupin. Has he ever been this delayed before?"

"No, never," said Ginny. "D'you think something's happened?"

"We would have heard about it."

"Maybe it got lost in the mail?"

"Seems more likely that it would've gotten stolen."

Ginny breathed in sharply. "You don't think that a Death Eater has gotten a hold of it?"

"I don't know. You-Know-Who is good at not showing what he feels, but if he knew you were a spy, I'm sure something would've slipped out. Like the Killing Curse or something."

Ginny didn't laugh. "So you think my letter is out there somewhere? Waiting to be discovered?"

"Well, I'm sure it is. But I don't know how you're going to find it. Maybe it would be best to write again."

"But if we write again and say that we didn't get the first letter, then the secrecy of the Order has been compromised and I'm pretty sure they'll cut off all unsecure contact, meaning everything that's not face-to-face, and move to a new location. Meaning we would be completely screwed."

"So if that's not an option, then what is?"

Ginny thought for a moment. "McGonagall," she breathed.

"Excuse me?"

"McGonagall is a member of the Order. We're pretty good about relaying information to all Order members, so she should definitely know by now!"

"Sorry to burst your idea bubble, but you specifically asked Lupin not to tell anyone."

Ginny frowned. "Oh."

They were both silent for a minute.

"Well there's no harm in going to talk to her, right?" asked Ginny. "And if nothing else we can at least warn her that you've been assigned to kill her."

Draco snorted. "That'd go over really well. 'Hi Professor McGonagall, we want to know if you know where our letter is, and by the way, I might kill you so watch out,'" he mimed.

"That's not what I meant," Ginny groaned.

Draco stood up. "Let's do it your way."

"Really?"

"Yeah. We do need to formulate some sort of plan regarding McGonagall anyways. She might as well be in on it, seeing as we will have to stage her death."

"How do we prove that we're really not working for You-Know-Who? You know, because we both have Dark Marks..." Ginny trailed off.

"Did you listen to what I just said? We are going to stage her death. There will be no killing. If we were working for You-Know-Who there would definitely be actual killing."

"Ah." Ginny blushed. "Right."

Draco bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "You're cute when you're flustered," he whispered huskily. As he straightened up he offered her his arm. "Ready to go, milady?"

"Quite." Ginny slid her arm through his and Draco escorted her out of the Room of Requirement. As if it had a brain, it let them out through a door that was just three doors down from McGonagall's office.

They stopped in front of the closed door. Ginny removed her hand from Draco's arm and raised her fist to knock on the door, but right as her hand should have made contact, the door swung open and Ginny was nose-to-nose with Professor Snape.

"Oh! Uh, hello Professor Snape," she said quickly.

"What are the two of you doing roaming the halls at this time of night?"

"Is it late?" asked Ginny.

Draco elbowed her.

"I mean, the other day I lost my transfiguration textbook and it's really necessary for my homework tonight, so we came to ask Professor McGonagall for another copy."

Snape eyed Draco.

"We're partners," Ginny said quickly.

"You sure that you didn't come here looking for something else?" Snape asked, and flashed a sealed envelope at the pair.

Thank you to my awesome reviewers! Please review more! Merry Christmas, everyone!