Chapter Thirty-Six: Vengeful

Time seemed to stop as the room spun around her. Bellatrix Lestrange stood tall, her face showing open shock and indignation as she remained in her spot between her husband and his brother, Rabastan. They both looked more amused in their shock, but not enough to rule out the possibility of them being scared. Augustin stood in front of a desk, looking at Ginny with outrage. The person Ginny was most afraid to see was standing next to Draco and Narcissa with a very gleeful look on his twisted and animalistic face.

"And here I was, thinking that all the children had gone . . ."

"Not now, Fenrir," Augustin said.

Harry stepped forward suddenly, bringing everyone in the room into immediate alertness. In one swift movement, wands were raised and pointed expertly, everyone now with narrowed eyes. Ginny felt her heart thumping painfully in her chest as she stared at Bellatrix, who was looking directly at her.

"This is definitely the next best thing, I would say," she said to her husband. "We can get rid of these brats and take Potter instead."

Augustin looked slightly worried, "We weren't told to take care of anyone other than Severus. We have a mission, and I think we need to stick to it."

Rodolphus let out a soft laugh. "The Dark Lord is never against the casualties of a mission."

"Exactly," said Bellatrix. "He probably wouldn't even think twice about these children being dead. As long as we bring back Severus, he won't mind."

Harry spoke angrily from next to Ginny. "You're not killing any of us."

The adults laughed. "Is that so?" asked Bellatrix with a raised eyebrow. "I think someone needs to take a nap . . . you're a bit cranky this evening, Potter."

She laughed menacingly and looked back at Ginny, who was glaring at her. She clicked her tongue softly, her face showing the same vane of haughtiness that it usually did. Ginny gripped her wand tighter, not even noticing the numbness that was creeping through her hand. Neither of them broke the stare for fear of action from the other.

"I suppose you think you have some score to settle with me, do you?" Bellatrix said finally. "You, after all, seem to be cut from the same filthy cloth as the rest of them. So, what is it that you want now, girl?"

Ginny felt herself sneer. "You have no right to speak to me."

The air grew thicker as Bellatrix became incensed. "I would like to know why you believe that, you blood-traitor."

"It's simple," Ginny said with surprising calm, "you have no right to speak to me after what you've done. It might not be as simple as trying to kill me or my friends, or aiding in the capture and holding of me, but it's still something that separates us. I can't name it."

Ginny heard a slight whimper of worry from behind her, but ignored it. She had said what she wanted to say. She didn't care about the repercussions of her words. Slowly, she turned to look at Harry. This was a mistake.

"Ginny, don't turn your back!" Harry yelled as Bellatrix threw her arm back.

A blind surge of pain shot through her as she fell to the floor. Ginny yelled in agony at some unknown horror that had befallen her, not sure what to call what was happening. All she heard around her were yells and curses, hexes and grunts of pain. She breathed in deeply as the pain stopped, the room spinning around her as her vision returned. She felt a hand go under her arm, pulling her up roughly and standing her.

She looked into Harry's eyes, but only briefly. He turned back to the battle that had seemed to come out of nowhere. Sighing for a moment, Ginny did the same, turning to look once more at Bellatrix, whose face was twisted as she threw a Cruciatus in their direction. Hermione, quick to the draw, knocked the spell before it could reach its target. Sending a quick Binding curse back, Hermione snarled slightly as Bellatrix deflected it.

In a haze, Ginny remembered Draco and his mother. She looked past Augustin and made a run to Draco and Narcissa, hoping that a very distracted Fenrir wouldn't notice her. She streaked past him, kneeling down quickly over Draco. He looked her in the eyes, his own dull and wide. Ginny smiled at him in a pained sort of way, trying to find a way to undo his and Narcissa's bindings.

"Don't worry about us yet," Draco said forcefully. "Get rid of the rest. I can handle this for now."

"Draco, you must be delusional," Ginny said, looking at him oddly. "You can't get out of here on your own. I can help you . . ."

Draco's eyes got wider, "Look out!"

Ginny yelped as Augustin came at her. With an outstretched hand, he pulled her up to him, grabbing her chin roughly with his hand.

"You should have known better," he said viciously. "It would have had to be you that would run into a room without checking it first. You were never that smart, were you?"

She tried to spit at him, but he had her chin too tight within his grip. She managed to grunt out a harsh, "Screw off!"

He laughed at her mockingly. "No, no, none of that. You wouldn't be propositioning me in front of all your friends here, would you? How would they like that?"

No one else seemed to notice her dilemma, so Ginny attempted to take matters into her own hands. Jabbing at him quickly with her wand, she was disabled by his hand roughly twisting that arm behind her back. She yelled in pain, tears springing to her eyes as she arched her back to relieve some of the hurt. She heard Draco attempt to yell for help. Fenrir turned slightly, giving Draco a harsh kick in the ribs.

"How would you have reacted," he said suddenly, "if you weren't saved that night, I wonder?"

Ginny grimaced as he brought his face closer, grinning at her madly. She closed her eyes as he continued to taunt her. He was trying to explain himself to her, she thought with disgust. He was trying to give her the same justification he must have given himself. She opened her eyes to see Harry over Augustin's shoulder, looking at her with terror. She sent him a helpless look as she continued to struggle against Augustin. Harry ran at him.

"I'd imagine it would have continued, considering the disadvantage. After all, you are weak-minded and weak-willed. We all know that," he spat. "Too bad you aren't a trollop on top of it . . . would have been much easier then. Can't say it would have been a pleasure for me," Augustin continued, oblivious to the fact that Harry was right behind him, listening. "I take pleasure in the finer things in life, and you, I'm afraid, don't fit into that category. Whores and tarts are usually of very low quality, and I doubt you would have been any different."

Harry looked murderous. Ginny yelped once more as Augustin twisted her arm suddenly, looking at her fervently, "Of course, I can't say that would have stopped me. I did, after all, have my eye on you ever since the night you were brought in. A girl is a girl, no matter what family she's come from."

He smirked at her, leaning in closer. "Relief is relief, and that's all I needed."

Ginny closed her eyes as she saw Harry raise his wand. The whole room stopped moving for a moment, Ginny hearing the protests of her brothers as they seemed to have heard what Augustin had said to her. She heard a deep yell, then felt Augustin slump against her, arm falling free. She opened her eyes hesitantly, screaming as she saw Augustin staring lifelessly back at her.

"Let go of him," Harry said tersely, his chest rising and falling deeply as he stared at Augustin with a mix of hatred and horror. "Let go of him."

Ginny did so without any thought, jumping back as Augustin sunk to the floor in a massive heap. She looked around at the room, everyone standing in their spot, motionless, all staring at the body on the floor. Bellatrix suddenly screamed.

"Father!" She yelled, running to the corpse.

Bellatrix kneeled down next to his body, looking nothing like Ginny had ever thought she could. Her eyes were wide with fear and anguish, her mouth open and nostrils slightly flared to keep herself from crying. She looked up at Harry in anger.

"How dare you, Potter! I'll kill you!" She leapt up, lunging at him with her hands out like claws. Harry jumped back mechanically, pointing his wand at her.

From behind Harry, Rodolphus and Rabastan pointed their wands at his back. Ginny yelled for him to duck as they both prepared to murder him. A blast of light forced her to close her eyes as the twins and Hermione all started yelling, then everything got very quiet. Ginny heard Bellatrix shriek again as she opened her eyes.

Rodolphus and Rabastan lay on the floor, unconscious but still alive, Bellatrix now kneeling over her fallen husband. Ginny turned around to see the twins, irate, with their wands pointed at the two fallen men. Hermione had her face covered. Harry walked to Ginny, looking at her with guilt in his eyes.

"I . . . I shouldn't have killed him," Harry said. "I just overreacted. I just . . ."

Ginny shook her head. "No, don't feel sorry for him, Harry. You can work past it. He deserved what he got."

Harry only nodded slowly, looking away from Ginny. Hermione and the twins moved quickly toward them, Hermione to Harry and the twins to their sister. Ginny heard a faint shuffling from behind her and, thinking it was only Harry, ignored it. Just as Fred put his arm around her shoulder in a brotherly half-hug, someone yelled:

"Stupefy!"

Ginny turned around quickly, watching as Bellatrix fell to the ground in a heap. Ginny looked past that sight to see Draco standing, wand raised, looking very shocked. Harry looked around, then spotted Draco also. He bit his lip slightly, eyebrows knitted together as he turned to the twins.

"Bind them quickly," Harry said to them. "We can't waste any time."

Ginny ran to Draco immediately, almost collapsing into him as she crashed into his outstretched arms. He held her firmly, his arms around her just as tightly as hers were on him. She felt him whisper something into her hair, but she couldn't hear it. She couldn't hear anything at that moment. She could only feel. Draco shook her slightly, jerking back, but still holding her to him. Ginny turned as footsteps began to echo through the dungeons.

"Harry!" Yelled Lupin from the hall, "Where are you?"

Lupin came bounding in. Just as he made it to the door, he froze on the threshold. Ginny's eyes widened as Harry grabbed Hermione quickly, pulling her out of the way as Fenrir moved swiftly to the door, pushing Fred down harshly along with George. Draco grabbed Ginny and pulled her close to him as Fenrir laughed maniacally.

"Looks like I finally have a reason to join in the fun," Fenrir barked at him, grabbing Lupin by the collar and dragging him into the room. He pulled Lupin's face level with his, leering. "Did you miss me?"