- x -

Ginny awoke when the first rays of sunlight began streaming in through her bedroom window. It didn't immediately register that something about the angle of the light and the softness of the bed linen was wrong.

She felt almost drugged. She knew she hadn't been, but the worry, the fear, and the attempt to share a bed with a constantly-moving two-year old boy left her with almost no sleep. The little rest that she'd managed was light and only due to sheer exhaustion.

She found herself very much amazed that she'd made it through the night unscathed. Lucius had, for some bizarre reason, not pressed the matter when she'd denied him. Somehow, she could not quite accept her good fortune.

Alex stirred as the morning light brightened the cheerfully decorated room, smiling when he saw her.

Despite the direness of her situation, the sight of her sleepy-eyed little boy comforted her. "Good morning, my little love," she said warmly. Alex's restless tossing during the night had been a mixed blessing. It had left her with little rest, but she needed to feel the warm comfort of her son beside her to know that he was safe.

He smiled sleepily at her and she found herself smiling back, momentarily letting herself forget about where they were. It was almost a happy moment, but it didn't last long.

"I see you are awake," a gruff voice said from the doorway.

Ginny turned her head to see Lucius, already quite awake and meticulously dressed, as was usual for him. He gave her a cold smile.

"I suggest you get dressed, Ginevra. We have a busy day ahead of us."

She wanted to retort something about not being willing to do any such thing, but Alex chose that moment to yawn, stretch and smile widely at Lucius. Arguing in front of the child would likely only cause problems, and she didn't want to do anything that might cause Lucius to separate her from her son. She held her tongue.

She was, without a doubt, emotionally spent.

Dropping her chin in resignation, she began to slowly move covers aside and reach for her dressing gown. When she turned back toward Lucius, she saw that her son had hopped off the bed and was holding a soft toy and eagerly smiling up at the man. Her breath caught in her throat. The picture, if taken out of context might have been described as sweet but, for Ginny, it was nothing but alarming. She scrambled off the bed, her sudden movement catching Lucius' attention.

"So glad that you decided to join us, Ginevra," he said smoothly. For the second time, she was at a loss for words, looking to snatch her son away from the man who she clearly saw as a threat, yet, not willing to act rashly in front of the child.

"I didn't sleep well last night," she responded sarcastically, attempting to keep the topic as neutral as possible.

"Was the bedding not to your liking, perhaps?" he asked, his tone mocking, knowing that the linens were among the finest made, as if he was well aware that the rough sheets and harder mattress in her own home could never compare. She ignored his tone, and simply responded, "Sleeping with a two year old can be a challenge."

Lucius gave a small sniff of disdain. "He's too old to be crawling into bed with his parents, although I'll make an allowance for the unusual circumstances," he retplied. "And if you require a bed partner, perhaps we should consider a proper alternative."

The insinuation immediately brought thoughts of Draco, and how she desperately missed sleeping next to the man she considered to be her true husband. She wondered if she'd ever see him again.

Lucius walked away from the child, who had lost interest in the adults in favor of the small arsenal of toys splayed around on the carpet. As he approached her, calmly and surely, she realized that he was once again playing one of his games of intimidation, toying with her emotions, watching how he could manipulate her by implying threats against her or her loved ones. He didn't have to lay a hand on her to be cruel.

"I mean, my dear wife, that it is time for us to give a proper example for our son and share our bedroom."

She felt fear, dread and a sense of oncoming defeat. He'd done nothing yet, but she doubted that he would have brought her here without some sort of plan. She wondered how long it would be before her family discovered she was missing and, more importantly, she wondered how long it would be before they might be able to gain entry to the well-warded manor. She had to stall for time, if not for her own safety, then for the sake of her son.

"I … I'm not sure I understand why you'd want that, or what that would accomplish. I am a prisoner here, nothing more. Sooner or later, someone will come to retrieve me."

He smiled, his plans already laid, she was certain. "Why would they retrieve you if you have no desire to leave?"

She barked a harsh laugh. "Surely you must be joking, Lucius."

"Then, you wish to leave Alex with me?"

She felt the blood drain from her face. She'd feared that he would try something and, worse, she feared what his reaction would be when he discovered Alex's true parentage. If pressed, she would tell him the truth, but only if she felt that Alex wouldn't be in danger. "I do not," she said, as forcefully as she could manage.

Alex looked up from his toys, the brewing argument drawing his attention and she was well aware of the fact that Lucius wanted her son much more than he wanted her. But she also knew that he very much wanted his perfect family.

He spoke calmly, but his voice held a hard edge. "Legally, Alex is my son and he will remain with me. Don't be so foolish as to think that I haven't already secured the appropriate paperwork. If you choose to leave, I will not stop you, but you will leave alone."

"He's …" inot your son/i. She stopped herself from speaking the words, although every part of her wanted to tell the truth. When he'd caught her with Draco, he'd threatened to kill her child if he suspected the child was Draco's, and, while Lucius seemed to be happily bonding with Alex at the moment, she wasn't certain that it would be enough to protect the boy from the elder Malfoy's cold anger should he find out about Alex's real father.

Lucius didn't seem bothered by the fact that she'd failed to complete her sentence. He merely seemed confident that he had full control of the situation. Looking at her somewhat chastisingly. "Come now, Ginevra. This is not a conversation to be had in front of the child," he stated. Snapping his fingers, he summoned a house elf and ordered it to watch over Alex. "We will discuss this in my room."

She bristled, readying herself to argue about leaving Alex, but he glared at her. "There are some lessons that neither of us wish Alex to learn just yet."

His words and mannerism implied that he wouldn't hesitate to use physical force against her, even in front of Alex. She looked toward her son and gave a defeated sigh. Oddly, she agreed with Lucius. She didn't want Alex to learn such a lesson just yet either.

She looked toward her sweet little boy, who had taken notice of the elf and moved to play with it as if it was another child. Lucius frowned at the action, but motioned for Ginny to follow him into the adjoining room.

As soon as he closed the door behind them, she allowed herself to speak her mind. "You know perfectly well that I won't leave him," she told him firmly. Her success in walking away from him the previous evening giving her the courage to continue her rebellion. "I am his mother and I have a right to keep him with me."

Lucius merely looked annoyed, as if he'd been expecting her tirade. "We will not have this conversation, Ginevra," he said with annoyance. "The contract that you signed with me states that I have a right to my children, in accordance to traditional marital law. You are my wife and you will obey me in this matter."

She seethed with fury. He was using the damnable contract against her again and she was fully sick of it. Her voice rose and she nearly shouted back at him. "I signed that contract under duress, because you held the lives of my family hostage! I'll be happy to fight you on this Lucius. I will not submit to this or to you any longer."

He raised his cane and, for a brief moment, she thought that he would strike her, but instead he only gripped the ornate silver head of the item fiercely as the anger flashed in his eyes. She shuddered with relief.

"If you strike me again, I'll make sure that the Aurors are informed. There are laws now."

He snarled in response but, then, his look changed to an evil smile. "I thought we had reached an equitable agreement, Ginevra. We'd been getting along so well before you left. Tell me, who helped you to plan your escape?"

The sudden change of topic took her aback. "Does it really matter?"

"I will find out everything, with time. Don't worry, I am quite certain Draco was involved. I only want to know tto what extent and how it was achieved." He studied her further, as if she were some sort of laboratory specimen. "I'm rather interested in how he got past the wards. You both have proven to be quite clever, and I rather find that quality to be an admirable trait to be passed down to my progeny."

"Wonderful," she said, disgust evident in her voice.

He seemed to come to a conclusion, still not approaching her but walking toward his desk. "I am willing to move forward, dear wife, but I cannot have you corrupting my children. You are far too much trouble as it is."

He appeared contemplative for a moment and then opened one of the drawers in the desk. Extracting a vial of smokey gray potion, he turned back to her. "I'd like for you to drink this."

She backed away slowly, her eyes focusing on the little vial with fear and knowing that no good could come of her drinking it.

"I don't care for what you'd like for me to do."

Somehow, she knew that this was the potion that Lucius had been working on with Lestrange, the one that they'd tested using captured Muggles. It had been the central focus of Lucius's work for months, and she'd caught small snippets of conversations on several occasions when the two men were discussing its development.

The potion was intended to destroy a person's memories and make them pliable for whatever personality traits that a good Legilimens might want to impress upon the victim. Draco had suggested that if she stayed that they would eventually use the potion on her. He'd been right. She now understood that it had probably always been Lucius's goal to use the potion on her once it was perfected. The only reason that Lucius had never attempted to give it to her sooner was because they wouldn't risk using it on her while she was pregnant. Draco had known that. It was why he knew she'd be safe, at least until she gave birth.

A cold chill ran ther her body. She'd seen the effects of that potion once, shortly after Draco had been banished from the manor. She'd been wandering around the mansion for no unusual reason and she'd accidentally found one of the Muggles that they'd experimented on. The sight had haunted her for weeks.

"Come now, my dear. You will consume it, whether or not this is done with or without discomfort to you is your choice."

She looked desperately toward the door, hoping beyond hope that the Aurors might have found their way to the manor, but the house remained just as haughty and silent as it always had. Surely, there could be some sort of charges levied against Lucius for kidnapping her, at least enough to delay him taking custody of Alex. At the very least, if she was forced to remain married to this man, she might be able to find a way for Alexander to live with his real father, but only if she could keep her mind intact.

As Lucius stalked toward her, she realized that she was running out of time and she had no means of escape. He approached slowly and methodically, forcing her to back into a wall, a chaise blocking her escape toward her own room.

"If you take it willingly, I will not harm the child."

The words ripped her thoughts away from any plans for escape. "What?"

Lucius gave an evil smile, knowing that he had total control due to her one weakness.

"Alexander will need an initiation into the Dark ways soon enough. If he survives, it will only make him stronger."

"You wouldn't!" Panic rose. Her heart pounded and her palms became damp with a fearful sweat. She looked about wildly, wanting to escape, desperately wanting to get back to her son. Her vision started to blur with unwelcome tears. Her worst nightmare was becoming reality and she didn't know how she could stop it.

He spoke again, laughing slightly at her reaction. "Of course I wouldn't. Ginevra, don't be a fool. But I will kill Draco, and I do know that you are quite fond of him."

Then he stepped closer, holding the potion bottle out. She needed to buy time and she had run out of words to create a diversion. If she took the potion, she was quite certain that all would be lost.

She sobbed, staring at the little bottle in fear, and shook her head, hoping beyond hope that he might take pity on her. "I don't want to forget..."

"We both know that it will be best for all of us if you do."

She made a run for the door, hoping that she might be able to get to Alex and at possibly escape to another part of the house, buying time if Lucius had to search for her. Her only small advantage was that it appeared that Lucius didn't wish to appear violent in front of Alex, at least not while he was working to establish a bond with the boy.

Unfortunately, the long dressing gown that she wore limited her movement, causing her to trip when she tried to leap over the chaise.

He was standing over her only a moment later as she struggled to pick herself up. She rolled into his legs, hoping to trip him, or at the very least, force him to break the vial. It almost worked - he fell - but the thick carpet cushioned the glass from breaking.

Still on the floor, she cursed and scrambled toward the bottle, hoping to crush it. But as her fingers curled around the glass, his hand wrapped around her wrist in a painful grip, forcing her to release the bottle.

Placing his knee on her arm, he used his body weight to pin her to the floor as he grabbed the vial, uncorking it quickly before she could wriggle out of his grasp.

"I do not wish to harm you, Ginevra. This is for the best," he said calmly. Too calmly. In a moment of frightening clarity, she realized that he truly believed that he was doing her a favor.

His knees were on either side of her body, pinning her arms to the floor so that she could do little more than attempt to kick at him weakly. He was too heavy for her to move and she cursed herself for not being stronger, faster, or cleverer. Ignoring her struggles with a disturbing lack of emotion, he quickly managed to pry her mouth open and pour the contents of the vial in. She tried to spit it out, but he dropped the empty bottle and held her mouth closed. Eventually, a few drops dribbled down her throat when the reflexive urge to swallow overcame her will.

She'd lost.

The sorrow at the realization overwhelmed her. She didn't know exactly what the potion's effects would be, but she knew she didn't want to face them. She closed her eyes, allowed one tear to escape, and closed her mind just as she'd done night after night in this bedroom two long years ago, shutting the real Ginny Weasley away into the dark recesses of her mind for the last time.

- x - X – x -

Ron Weasley stared hatefully at the man seated in the interrogation room, then turned his angry glare toward his long time friend, motioning toward the man they now held in custody. "I can't believe you didn't tell me about him, Harry."

"You know that if I did, you would have done something to give away the fact that we were watching him," Harry replied, somewhat condescendingly.

The tone in Harry's voice made Ron more angry, and he shouted at his longtime friend, "He was watching my brother's house for a month! Damn right I would have done something, and my sister wouldn't have been kidnapped!"

"They would have just found another way, Ron. This way, we can use him as a witness," the dark-haired wizard explained, his voice still patient, despite his friend's obvious fury.

"You used my sister as bait! You knew something would happen to give her away eventually. How could you, Harry?"

Harry turned to his friend, looking slightly guilty. "She wasn't exactly bait, Ron. I would have preferred if we could have used a decoy instead of Ginny, and I would have preferred if Ginny didn't draw them out just yet, but you know that something like this had to happen so we could catch Malfoy in an actual crime."

Ron pointed a finger vehemently at the suspect that they had in custody, his voice shaking in anger toward his friend. "But he hasn't said anything yet! Why aren't we on our way to Malfoy Manor right now?"

Harry remained disturbingly calm and professional while responding to his friend's emotional accusation. "Because we can't get a search order without just cause. This man has to tell us that Malfoy was the person who hired him and that she was taken there, possibly against her will."

The redhead's blue eyes narrowed. "There's one problem, Harry. He's not talking."

Indeed, the suspect seated in the chamber looked annoyed and slightly concerned, but he hardly appeared to be intimidated by his situation, and he most certainly didn't appear to be willing to give them any information. Officially, he'd been doing a job legally and had been paid quite well for his efforts as an investigator. He was loyal to his employer, likely because he'd been well-paid.

Unfortunately, there was no proof that Ginny and Alex had been kidnapped. They needed this man to confess that he might have taken part in an illegal activity, and Harry Potter was far too honest and just to use questionable means to make him talk.

Ron glared at his friend, obviously still furious but clearly at a loss for words.

The redhead was readying himself to emit another blast of heated curses at his soon to be former friend, when the sound of the door opening distracted both men from their argument.

Draco Malfoy's solid form filled the doorway, a dark cape swirling from his shoulders making his build seem broader than Ron remembered.

It was if the atmosphere in the room had changed. There had been tension before, but now, it felt as if the air had become charged with electrical energy, as if lightning was about to strike.

Taking in the formidable sight of his former adversary, Ron suddenly realized that the young Malfoy bully that he'd once despised no longer existed. The man who entered was large and imposing, his eyes dark and smoldering with anger. Although he was neatly dressed, he no longer wore the expensive clothing of a rich, spoiled boy, but that didn't seem to matter. His bearing alone gave him a commanding presense. He was dressed in black, which drew attention to his light blond hair, making his eyes stand out against his pale features, and his cape swirled a round him like black smoke adding to the ominous effect.

He looked every bit the righteous hero of the final battle coming to claim vengeance.

The blond glared angrily as he loooked at the occupants of the room and Ron shuddered involuntarily as that piercing, furious gaze passed over him. He found grateful when the attention of those eyes landed squarely on Harry instead of himself.

Ignoring all the others in the room, he strode purposefully toward Harry, his eyes locked firmly onto his target. "This wasn't supposed to happen this way, Potter. We weren't ready."

Harry stood rigidly, clearly intimidated by the taller man, but held his ground. Then, the dark-haired wizard nodded to the other Aurors that were presen, and, without a word, they exited the room, some looking worriedly at the pair, but not questioning Harry's silent order. Ron watched the interaction, speechless.

After the others had left them alone, Harry answered, "Ginny got a bit impatient and gave herself away." He said the words firmly, but Ron noticed that the confidence in the tone of his voice seemed to waiver.

Malfoy seemed unaffected by Harry's response, as if he'd expected such a statement. The anger in his eyes remained. "And why are you here? You were supposed to summon me so we could start breaking into the manor. Bill had to send me word that she'disappeared and that Alex was with her."

The stubborness in Harry's eyes returned at Malfoy's accusing tone. "We need probable cause, Malfoy. There's no proof she was kidnapped and there's no proof she's located there. We could ruin everything if we don't handle it properly."

In that moment, Ron saw the blond's face twist into the vicious sneer that he remembered so well from his school days. However, he happened to agree with Malfoy's anger, so, this time, he almost welcomed the echo of the old school rivalry. "Then get your probable cause!" Draco growled at Harry.

Ron almost smiled because, for the first time since they'd brought the suspect in, he felt like he had an ally in the room. He decided to interject, pointing an accusing finger at the man seated behind the glass of the interrogation room. "He's right there, Malfoy. We just need to get him to admit that they took her and where."

Harry looked at his friend in alarm. "Ron, he can't. He's not an Auror."

Draco lifted an eyebrow in question and looked at Ron, who nodded firmly. Then blond then turned back to Harry, and stated with utmost certainty, "Oh yes, I can. My wife and son have been kidnapped. I dare you to stop me."

Harry took two steps in the direction of the angry young man, but Ron grabbed his arm to stop him. The dark-haired wizard looked back at his friend, obviously bewildered over the idea that Ron would side with Malfoy. The pause in Harry's movement gave Draco enough time to enter the interrogation room uninhibited.

He walked solidly up to the man in the chair and took out his wand, causing the suspect in the chair to swallow nervously. Draco gave him his coldest smile. "You know who I am?"

"Yes," he replied, and for the first time since he'd been brought into the room, the man dropped his smug look of self-confidence.

Draco leaned over the seated man and dropped his voice to whisper chillingly in the man's ear. "Then, you do know that I spent quite a lot of time with Death Eaters, correct?"

The prisoner nodded, uncertainly. "I know you were touted as some sort of hero at the final battle."

"I'm no hero," Draco replied smoothly. "Not for you, anyway."

The prisoner looked confused and then straightened in his chair, his arrogance returning. "I don't need a hero. I've done nothing wrong."

Draco turned for a moment, looking disdainfully at the man. "Oh, yes you have. You seem to have something to do with the disappearance of my family. I can guarantee that once I'm done with you, you'll wish you had one." He turned and looked over to the two Aurors standing outside the room. Ron was standing behind his friend Harry, his wand drawn. Potter, much to Draco's amusement, looked nervous and a little helpless. Ron gave him a curt nod of approval and Draco returned a wicked smile. He turned back to the prisoner, letting the man see all the anger in his eyes.

"Let me make this perfectly clear," he said coldly to the prisoner. "Living with Death Eaters, you learn a lot of ways to obtain information. There's one spell that is particularly effective. It allows me to incinerate various body parts. So, you can either tell me where my wife and son are, or you can choose where you want me to start."

Seeing what Draco was about to do, Harry took a step forward to stop him but was abruptly pulled back by his best friend. Shortly after, a small puff of smoke rose from the prisoner's shoe followed by a scream of pain and fear. Then, the man couldn't seem to name Lucius Malfoy quickly enough.

For most of his life, Ron Weasley had hated Draco Malfoy with a flaming passion. It was only after Draco's selfless contribution to the final battle that the blond had earned Ron's grudging respect. Then, after two years of making his sister happy, Ron had managed to tolerate him as part of the family. But, now, seeing Draco in front of him, fearlessly defying a roomful of Aurors for the sake of saving his family, Ron found, for the first time in his life, that he actually liked the man.