CHAPTER TEN: COLLECTED

After their first date, Ginny and Harry saw each other nearly every day. Every moment she spent with Harry brightened Ginny's world, and she slowly began to forget all the reasons that she had been determined to stay away from Harry—well, mostly, she reassured herself that those reasons no longer mattered.

A month after their first date found Ginny locking up the store, making sure all the nighttime security measures were in place before she exited the front door. As she exited into Diagon Alley, a chilly breeze ripped through the alley. Goosebumps appeared underneath her thick jumper and cloak. The weather had taken a turn for the worst throughout the day, and Ginny was almost certain it would soon snow.

She hadn't played in the snow in so long and she thought it would be a fun memory for her to make with Harry should the weather permit. But maybe she could stand for it to be a little longer before it snowed—her winter boots were worn out and she needed new ones she couldn't quite afford. She might be able to if it weren't for school, but she was trying to make small payments to Gringotts to keep the accrued amount down at the end of her training.

She had been going to curse-breaking school while manning Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes in the evenings and on weekends. Her help allowed Ron to spend more time with Hermione, who had apparently been his girlfriend for around a year. She wasn't sure how he'd managed to keep that one a secret from everyone in the family, but Ginny did commend him.

Ginny pulled her cloak more tightly against her body, wishing she'd worn her leather jacket. She should have known better than to skip the weather forecast on the wireless before she'd left the house this morning.

Shaking her head at herself, Ginny hurried towards the apparition point, not liking the way the shadows in the alley were looking. They seemed extra ominous tonight—it felt like an omen that she didn't want to know the outcome of.

She knew Harry was working a late shift tonight, so she would be alone at her flat. They'd been dating for a few weeks, and while they weren't ready to get married, things had become rather serious, rather quickly. Ginny didn't mind in the least; she enjoyed Harry's company, and she was finding more and more that she wanted to share with him about her days—even the boring, noneventful ones like today's.

She had gone to class this morning and they had covered yet more basics that she had learned from Bill long ago. The instructors had informed she and her classmates that the first month of classes would be mostly Defence Against the Dark Arts review and some spellwork that they taught Aurors in the academy.

Harry really enjoyed asking her about her classes and what she was learning, and Ginny loved to tell him about it. He was a great listener, and he always helped her if she was struggling with a spell that she hadn't encountered before. She thought he would make a good teacher but didn't share her thoughts.

Ginny wondered if she should stop for takeout on the way home or if she should eat the leftovers from the meal she and Harry had made the night before. She really didn't feel like re-heating the paella. She also thought that some sushi sounded bloody delicious. Damn Harry for getting her hooked on the food!

Something behind her clacked against the cobblestone-lined street and Ginny stopped where she was, listening. All was quiet again. There was no one else about in the alley. Everything was still. Too still, she thought. The moon shone down overhead, bathing everything in a soft, silvery light.

She continued, and as she passed Eeylops Owl Emporium, she realized that she was indeed being followed. She decided to ignore it—perhaps against her better judgment—and ducked into a side alley that would lead her back to her brothers' shop. She could use her key to make her way up to Ron's flat. He had limited floo access (it only could access the Ministry of Magic's Magic Reversal Squad and the Burrow), but Ginny thought that if she hurried, she may be able to give whoever was following her the slip and just go to her parents' house.

All thoughts of sushi were forgotten as she scurried down the alley, looking behind her and seeing a shadow at the entrance. She broke into a run, in sight of the shop's back door. Almost there, she told herself. Push yourself.

She finally reached the door, the footsteps behind her growing louder as the shadow got closer. She fumbled with the keys, trying to fish the correct one out of all ten keys on the ring. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," she muttered. "Bloody hell, you fucking key."

She looked over her shoulder, hand trying to jam the key into the lock.

Ginny dropped the keys and cursed again, wondering if she should blast her way through the door and up to Ron's flat.

Her heart was pounding in her chest and she was sweating. Her hands were clammy as she tried to grasp onto her wand, but it slipped, too.

The shadow was upon her and with a strange whooshing, it was in front of her.

"Stay away," Ginny warned the shadow, hand shaking as she reached for her wand.

"Don't even try it, little witch," the shadow told her.

Ginny knew the voice, she realized. He was one of Doru's men.

"Why are you here?" she asked him.

His face became visible, and she flinched. He was paler than she had remembered, and something seemed… heart-stoppingly different.

"What's happened to you?" she asked, still receiving no answer from him.

Her mind flashed back to that strange dream she'd had at the beginning of the month, how Doru had been… drinking blood from her. Her hand traveled to her neck, feeling for the abnormalities that she had been so sure would have been there the next morning. Nothing was there, now, either. Still, Ginny felt a strange sensation underneath her skin when her hand made contact.

"Why are you here?" Ginny repeated, a strange feeling overcoming her. A headiness she'd felt only the day after that dream, but never again.

Doru's man smiled at her and a chill made its way up Ginny's spine.

"I'm here for you, of course," he told her, smile even more cold. "Master Doru hasn't heard from you in a while and you owe him a painting."

"No," Ginny said. "I'm done. I'm not working for Master Doru anymore."

"No one is ever done working for Master Doru," he began to reach out for her. Ginny's hand struggled against the doorknob, praying for her magic to open it through sheer will.

It opened, finally, and Ginny clicked it as quietly as she could.

"Don't even try it, deary," he warned. "You're coming with me."

"The hell I am," Ginny swore. She threw the door open behind her and then closed it as quickly as she could, but before it could close all the way, he placed his foot between the door and the frame.

"I don't think so."

He pushed the door open and she couldn't hold him off. She fought him tooth and nail, but he managed to get hold of her neck and the world began to darken around her. As a last ditch effort to defy him—and Doru—Ginny slipped one of her shoes off onto the floor of the store. She needed them to know she hadn't just taken off. They had to find her.

His grip tightened and Ginny went limp.

She woke up gradually sometime later, head pounding as if it had been hit by a bludger—and she knew what getting hit by a bludger felt like. She groaned and tried to sit up, finding herself unable. She tugged on her arms and feet and realized that she was tied to a chair. It wasn't the worst chair, she supposed, to be tied to—but she'd rather not be tied up at all (unless it was Harry doing the tying).

"Aww, she's awake," a feminine voice said.

Opening her eyes completely, it took Ginny a moment to make herself focus. When the witch who'd spoken came into focus, she saw that it was Morana who stood in front of her.

"Why?" she asked. Her voice felt raspy, as if she'd been asleep for longer than she had realized.

"Why are you awake?" Morana asked liltingly. "Why, because O'Malley was a good boy and didn't kill you."

"You know what I mean, Morana," Ginny argued, head throbbing.

"You reneged on your deal with Master Doru," Morana explained. "That's unacceptable."

"What was unacceptable was being used," said Ginny. "I'm not a puppet."

"You were a puppet when you needed the potions," Morana said. "But Master Doru kindly got rid of your addiction."

"Got rid of?"

Morana shook her head. "Are you truly so dense to not realize what he is? How powerful he is? Everything he can do for us?"

Ginny had heard this kind of talk before with Death Eaters and she wished she had realized what she was getting into sooner. Her judgment had been so clouded by the pain of her crushed dreams.

"If he's so powerful, why isn't he here, as well?"

"He is attending to other matters, but will be here soon, cousin."

"I'm not your cousin," Ginny told her. She had been dying to say it for so long but had known it would never help her.

"You will be. You're destined to be."

Ginny had no idea what Morana was on about and wondered if she was on some potions of her own. She didn't reply.

They sat in silence for a long while, Ginny still tied to the chair and Morana pacing about the room. Ginny took the opportunity to observe everything she could about the room she was being held in.

It was the same room which she had accidentally found Doru in in her dream—though Ginny was beginning to suspect that it hadn't been a dream at all. As Ginny remembered more and more details of the dream, horror grew within her. Who had been the girl she'd found him drinking from? Was she alright? And what had happened after Ginny had blacked out? How had she made it home?

She felt dirty, remembering his lips on her neck, and the way that he had kissed the skin right between her shoulder and neck before he had bitten her, teeth delicately biting into her skin, slicing through layers and layers before he had begun to… to, what? Drink her blood? Ginny tried to remember. Had he drank her blood? All she remembered was reliving her last years at Hogwarts.

Think harder, Ginny urged herself. Pushing past the memories of the Carrows, she tried to picture what had happened while his teeth had been inside her skin.

He had drank her blood, she realized, sickened. He had taken it from her, and she hadn't been able to stop him. She remembered fighting him before she was finally able to push him away, and she'd tried to kill him. Merlin, no wonder he was angry with her. She had tried to kill what had to be an immensely powerful vampire.

How would she get out of this?

If only Harry knew she was here, Ginny thought.

She had never been reliant on someone else to save her before, however, and she knew that she couldn't fall into that habit now.

She watched Morana as she continued to pace, hands laced together behind her back, dark hair a curtain covering the side of her face. "Why do you work for Doru?" Ginny couldn't stop herself from asking as she observed the witch.

Morana froze in the middle of the Turkish rug and turned to face Ginny. "He saved me," she said simply.

People like Doru didn't save witches and wizards from the goodness of their hearts, Ginny thought. "What happened?" she asked.

"Well, I was a little girl, on the continent. My parents had been murdered by a vampire, and I was about to be, as well. Just when the vampire—her name was Carmilla—had nearly drained me dry, Master Doru walked in and pulled her off me."

"Why?" Ginny asked.

Morana shrugged. "I have never known—only that he killed Carmilla and took me under his wing, hiring private tutors to teach me magic and other basics like maths and reading. He brought me up in this manor, taught me the trade of his business, and I became his potions master as I passed my NEWTs."

"So, it's been your potions you've been feeding me," Ginny realized.

Morana nodded. "Yes. Master Doru made sure they were the highest quality for you."

"You mean the most addictive," Ginny spat.

Morana shrugged again. "Maybe so. You were already addicted when you found your way to us—otherwise you never would have approached me in the first place."

Ginny shamefully realized that Morana was right.

"Then again," Morana continued, "We also did make sure we made ourselves easily available to you once you were out of hospital."

The door opened with a loud creak and Ginny turned her head to see who had entered.

It was Master Doru. He looked younger, more refreshed than she remembered him looking the last time she had seen him. He looked less monstrous, too, but Ginny knew now that it was a ploy.

"Now, now, Morana, are you going to tell Ginevra all our secrets?" he chastised.

Morana's eyebrows furrowed and she bowed lightly. "Only what you would tell her if you'd been in here with her questions, Master."

"She didn't learn her lesson the last time about asking questions, hmm?" asked Doru, drawing ever closer to Ginny.

She turned away from Doru, avoiding eye contact. "Evidently not," Ginny told them acerbically.

"Well, it matters not," Doru announced. "I have plans for you, young Ginevra."

Ginny glared at the floor, still refusing to look in his eyes.

Doru moved closer and his hand began to reach for her. She struggled away, trying to pull back as far as she could in her restraints. He grabbed her chin, pale hand cold against her skin. He forced her gaze upwards into his, and she immediately closed her eyes.

"Now that won't do," he commented. "Open your eyes, Ginevra."

Ginny ignored him, clenching them tightly shut.

"Morana, if you would," Doru commanded.

Ginny heard Morana step forward, and then a brief rustling before, "Imperio."

Ginny's head became light, and her heart was calmer than it had been in a while. She couldn't remember what she'd just been doing, or why she felt like she should be worrying.

Ginny, you should open your eyes, a voice from her subconscious told her. Ginny didn't see why it wouldn't be a bad idea. Afterall, it was so much work keeping her eyes shut like this… she began to open her eyes. She saw a pair of cold, black eyes in front of her and something began to rise up within her. Don't fight, the voice commanded. It will ruin your peaceful calm.

Something didn't feel right, though, another voice was warning her.

The eyes were so cold—they reminded her of something from long ago. She could almost hear the sound of a snake slithering around her on wet cobblestone. There are no snakes here.

Something was happening, Ginny was sure of it. The light feeling was dissipating from her mind and she felt as if she was waking up.

"Ginevra, you will stay calm," the owner of the eyes told her.

She was no longer struggling physically. The eyes disappeared from in front of her, moving towards her neck. No, no, no! Ginny thought.

She couldn't move. She felt his teeth sink into the same spot as before—this time there was no shuffling of memories or the feeling of dreaming. Instead, it was all a strange bundle of pain and pleasure. Shameful pleasure from enjoying the pain; it seemed unnatural for her. She felt herself growing weaker, and near the end all the tension left her body as her head lolled back against the chair.

Now, there was something at her mouth. Something tangy—rich and metallic—was pouring into her. She didn't want it—she wouldn't! She couldn't fight, beginning to cough and splutter, and then it was in her throat, and she could no longer fight it, or anything else that she had been struggling against.

Ginny was so full, she felt she might be sick. The room was spinning around her, and she didn't recognize the people in front of her any longer. She wasn't sure she even knew her own name right now. Just the unsettling feeling inside her; her stomach was pitching about, roiling and she felt like retching, but she still couldn't fucking move.

She began to gag, and the man with the cold, scary eyes told her, "Now, Ginevra, it is time to sleep."

The feeling didn't calm within her, but the world did go black, and she was left to her thoughts for a few moments before everything went quiet.

When she awoke, the world wasn't as cold as she remembered. She no longer sick feeling, either. She was extremely thirsty, though. Her throat burned and all she wanted was a glass of water.

She blinked her eyes open, hoping to find water nearby. She only found Morana. At first, Ginny was glad to see her, ready to ask her for water—or tea, if that was all that was available—until the moments before she had been compelled asleep came back to her, with that same, dream-like quality the last time Doru had drank from her, had. This time, though, Ginny was certain that none of it had been any sort of nightmare… No, it was her life.

She was stuck in Doru's manor, and it seemed she had been forced to drink his blood. Her stomach roiled again, and she began to heave, soon realizing that nothing was coming up. Her stomach was empty.

Merlin, she was so thirsty.

"Water," she finally croaked.

Morana shook her head. "No, you no longer need water."

Ginny looked at her from all fours, realizing only now that she was no longer bound.

Everything stopped within Ginny, and she became intensely aware of the sound of Morana's heart beating.

"I'm thirsty," she told Morana.

"Yes, I'm sure you are. Follow me," Morana held out her hand, and confused, Ginny took it. Morana helped her up and Ginny clumsily got to her feet. Morana continued to hold her hand as she guided Ginny out the door of the room to another part of the manor.

It was only a few rooms down. Morana opened the door and ushered Ginny in. On the four-poster bed was a woman—Ginny could tell she was a Muggle—laid out in a dress that looked similar to what Ginny had been wearing when she had found Doru with that girl. She was on the bed, a dreamy expression on her face as she reclined against the pillows.

"Go on," Morana told Ginny.

Ginny looked back and forth between Morana and the girl before she closed her eyes and listened. Their hearts were both beating, but the woman did seem to be calling to her for some reason. Hypnotically, Ginny walked towards her and climbed up onto the bed and couldn't help herself as she straddled her hips.

The woman smiled at her. "Let me help you," she told Ginny. "Come here," she opened her arms and pulled Ginny gently to her bosom.

Ginny listened to her heart for a moment before she moved to the woman's neck and sniffed. She couldn't help herself as she nuzzled in and bit down, her lifeblood a balm to Ginny's burning throat. The woman moaned beneath her, but Ginny paid her no mind.

Finally, sated, she pulled away and saw that the woman had fallen asleep.

She climbed off her and wiped away the liquid that had fallen down her chin.

She looked at the blood that had trickled down the woman's neck and onto her collar and Ginny realized what she had done.

"No," she said aloud.

"Yes," Morana told her, pulling her close to her body. "Yes, cousin. I told you, this is what you are destined for."

Ginny shook her head as tears threatened to fall. Her hair fell into her face, and she remembered all the times she had seen it before—it had never looked so red. There were so many different shades of colours in her hair that it amazed and overwhelmed her.

"I'm not destined for this life," Ginny argued.

"You have always been meant to be here with Master Doru and I."

Ginny pushed Morana away with all her might and Morana stumbled backwards onto the flagstone floor, throwing her hands beneath her to break her fall.

Ginny could smell that she had scraped her palms. She could also smell Morana's new fear. Her fear filled her, and it made Ginny feel powerful. She could do anything to the witch, she realized. Morana was at her mercy, now, the way she had been at Morana's mercy before.

Morana scrambled to her feet and tried to run for the door, but with new-found speed, Ginny beat her to it and blocked her path.

"Who's in control now, bitch?"