Hi All,
Welcome to chapter 26 of Little Red Bird, the summer holidays begin for Ginny and co. Thanks for showing it love.
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Disclaimer: All HP rights and characters owned by JK Rowling, and fics are created for entertainment only
"I'm done!" Ginny picked her plate and deposited it in the sink before disappearing back upstairs into her room. She would need to plan something, this was not how she anticipated her holidays.
Meeting up with Bella and Cissa that night, she requested Narcissa to somehow get the lottery payment delayed, which was honestly not a problem for the Malfoys given their general distaste of Weasleys and a way for Lucius to get under the skin of his nemesis Arthur Weasley.
It took a few days but Narcissa finally confirmed that the payout would happen only in the second week of August, giving them only a week to spend in Egypt, which suited her just fine. Besides it would give her some time to meet her brother Bill. It wasn't as if she didn't want to go to Egypt, just that she wanted to spend as much time as possible at Lestrange Manor, the place she called Home, and learn more combative magic and becoming an animagus.
Today however Ginny was excited for very different reasons and she stepped out of her bath at the Manor refreshed and dressed up in a pair of fine dragon-hide pants, protective vests and gloves. It was reinforced to withstand some amount of spell damage and she knew she'd need every bit of protection at hand.
Holstering her white yew wand on her right hand and her other dagger on her hips she proceeded towards the dungeons for her practice.
Instinctively she ducked right when the door opened and a spell collided with the stone wall behind her. She barrel rolled into the room flicking her wrist to unsheath her wand. It was a huge circular room with two passages at the end leading to the holding cells and a cluster of training dummies littered around the room. She dived to the side when another spell hit the spot she crouched earlier and fired off a stunner in the direction of the attacker.
She was confused, Bella usually attacks first and then taunts her, but there was a barrage of spells thrown her way by the attacker whom she couldn't identify due to the death eater robes and mask. She tried to dodge as many spells as she could while trying to return fire, a few of them grazing her shoulder and hips drawing blood.
After a while, trading spells back and forth were taking a toll on her, she was exhausted and frustrated at not being able to land a solid spell. She felt tired with the blood loss and decided to go on the offensive for a final attack. The attacker stood near the wall on the far side and their movement though graceful was in a pattern which didn't quite change.
Ginny aimed for the wall behind the attacker and shot a Bombarda followed by a smokescreen spell. From the grunt of pain she knew she hit the mark when the debris from the wall collided with her target, she charged forward pulling the dagger out and tackled the masked attacker to the ground pinning their hands and body beneath her legs.
Ginny used her wand to clear the smokescreen all the while keeping the dagger near the attacker's neck by her other hand. "Yield! You aren't Bella, she's much more vicious and unpredictable with her feet movement, whoever you are, you're good, but I've got you at my mercy."
The attacker nodded and a distorted voice came through the mask, "I Yield! Just remove the dagger, it's dangerous."
"Excellent! Now to see who you are." Ginny took the golden mask off to reveal a smirking Narcissa. Ginny felt her own smile fade, it's generally not a good sign when Narcissa's showing emotions, usually someone ends up in pain. "Why are you sm-", her query was cut off midway when she felt immense pain shoot through her body and her nerves felt on fire. She fell off to the side convulsing when Bella's grinning form came into her view holding up the cruciatus on her.
Ginny gritted her teeth through trying not to show pain, however after an uncertain amount of time she screamed hard and her voice echoed through the dungeons before falling unconscious. The next thing she knew she was lying on her back in her own bed.
She opened her eyes groggily when Narcissa held Ginny's nose and shoved a potion down her throat. She realized what it was instantly from the fiery and peppery taste, within a few moments she felt the difference and sat up a bit straighter in her bed. Looking around she found Bella sitting on one of the armchairs towards her right side and Narcissa stood holding her wand on her left side.
"You were out for an hour, Ginny." Narcissa remarked, running a few diagnostic spells on her.
"You cheated! I would have won in a fair fight!" Ginny replied indignantly glaring daggers at a smiling Bella.
Bellatrix got off her chair and settled next to her on the bed, "Well, there's no incentive to play fair now, is it? You do whatever it takes to win."
"I wasn't talking to you Bella, however that cruciatus was stronger and harder to bear than I expected."
"Calm down, little birdy. I was merely testing how much you've improved and I'm proud of you. I bet even the harshest of Dark Lord's punishments you'd be able to withstand in a couple of years if you progress at this rate." Bellatrix seemed every bit unapologetic.
"Now, now Bella. This is not the time for such morose talk." Narcissa chastised before taking the chair next to her, "Ginny dear, I'm impressed with the way you handled the fight. Your spells were mostly light and non-lethal though the power behind them was potent. The ritual has paid off I see, now you're ready to move on to the dark spells."
"Thanks Cissa, you really think so?" Ginny felt a rush of pride fruitlessly trying to maintain a stoic facade.
"She really doesn't dole out praises until she means dear. Cissy, tell her about the gift." Bellatrix replied unable to contain her excitement.
"What gift? What's the occasion? Cissa?" Ginny was confused, there was no special occasion nor was there any particular reason she could think of.
Narcissa gave Bellatrix a look, "And here you told me 'Don't look over excited'. You really are a child sometimes Bella."
Ginny watched both of them bicker back and forth before she decided to interject, "Cissa, what's the surprise? Come on, that's enough stalling."
"Very well, as I said, you need to move on to practicing darker spells and we need test subjects since it's not safe to try those on us. So, I decided to bring in some live targets." Narcissa said it nonchalantly as if discussing the weather.
"Live targets… you mean… Do you mean humans?" Ginny asked unsurely.
"Not exactly humans, little bird. Just some filthy muggles." Bellatrix pitched in.
"They aren't really innocent either, quite a few tried scamming or conning Lucius in his business on the muggle side." Narcissa gave a slight lopsided smile.
"So are you up for it?" Bellatrix stood up straightening her dress.
"One last question. Did you nab them for me or were their fates already sealed." Ginny directed her question towards Narcissa.
"Oh, dear Lucius gave them to me as a gift, to play with. They are as good as dead dear." Narcissa picked up her dragonhide gloves from the bedside table nearby.
"We won't be duelling again, would we?" Ginny asked, looking at her own pair resting on the table alongside her wand.
"Of course not, what made you say that?" Narcissa replied, putting on her pair.
"Well, I haven't seen you wear gloves generally and the only time you wore them was during the duel… so…"
"Let's just say she hates getting her hands dirty. Right Cissy?" Bellatrix cut in while Narcissa simply flicked her wand to hit Bella with a stinging hex on her thighs.
"Fine, fine, don't start a fight. I'm coming." Ginny holstered her wand thinking for a moment before putting on her own pair of gloves. She would hate to dirty her hands with muggles, though she was nervous as hell.
It's one thing practicing cruciatus with Bella, but trying it on unwilling participants, it made her part nervous and part excited. She remembered the power she held over Creevey and Finch-Fletchley and it always sent tingles through her. She was looking forward to practicing dark spells, they always gave a euphoric feeling as magic of the most malicious order coursed through the practitioner's body.
She reached the dungeons and moved towards the passage with a lit hallway. The moment she entered the hallway screams from the cell at the far end echoed in her ears. She turned her head sideways to see the cells if they held any other prisoners, however she couldn't really make out if any other cell was occupied or not.
She stepped into the cell and stood next to Bellatrix who was perched near the wall next to the metal doors. A man in his 30s stood chained in the middle of the cell, wearing some sort of garb covering his lower half of the body. He looked ragged and extremely… muggle to her, nothing special, pretty ordinary. No wonder they needed so many inventions to do what the wizards and witches could do with a simple flick of the wand.
She watched in amazement as Narcissa simply flicked her wands in intricate patterns non-verbally making him stand feet wide apart and hands extended towards his sides as tight as the chains allowed.
"Why isn't he speaking? I could hear his screams coming down the hallway, but he hasn't spoken a word since I've entered." Ginny remarked looking curiously at the chained-up muggle.
Narcissa simply pointed her finger towards a corner and in a metal bowl was a ripped off human tongue. Ginny was horrified at the gruesome sight and couldn't resist the bile in her throat. She had enough time to turn sideways before she hurled the contents of her stomach. Bellatrix patted her back soothingly as she dry heaved and called for her elf to clean up the cell and retrieve a pepper-up potion along with applying some cleaning charms in Ginny's mouth to remove the horrible after taste.
Ginny leaned back her head into Bella's shoulders holding on for support, her elf quickly cleaned up the mess and removed the metal bowl that caused it. After having a dose of pepper-up potion she relaxed and gained some much needed strength. "Why?"
"Sssshhhh… That bloody filth there insulted dear Lucy… and maybe a few colourful words about the Malfoys. Cissy's in a dark mood, even I wouldn't cross her now dear." Bella mock whispered while Narcissa tortured the man with a dark bone-shattering hex to the man's knees.
Ginny ignored the screams, "You look anything but scared, Bella. I'd go as far as to say you look positively gleeful."
"I rarely get to see Cissy in such a mood. Looks like you won't be getting any training done today, you might as well enjoy the show. Oh yes, now that's a plan." Bella snapped her fingers to call on her own elf to set up two chairs and some refreshments.
"What… no, Bella! Cissa sto…" Ginny's words died in her mouth with one glare from Narcissa before she turned back to the prisoner.
Ginny plonked down on the chair crossing her arms feeling slightly chastised.
Bella held out a bowl towards her with a cheeky grin, "Popcorn?"
"Why can't we start on the animagus training?" Ginny asked with an exasperated sigh.
"Because I'm enjoying the show, now shush little birdy. Watch and learn, this is perfect. Go Cissy!" Bella cheered on excitedly.
"Ughh, fine, hand me that butterbeer." Ginny leaned back with a chuckle at Bella's antics.
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