AN: I had this chapter done faster
than usual- then again, that's because I had absolutely nothing to do since
my blisters popped and I can't walk properly- it's like a double limp type
thing. I've decided, after I'm finished with the whole fanfic, that I will
go back and re-edit this story from front to back and fix any small typo
or grammarical error that's there. So please stop picking on me! Lol. I'll
shut up now. Remember- REVIEW....or else... (not that I can really do anything
to you, but still...)
Dealing with Danger
by: Adel Swiftrider
"Don't worry, I'll save you...just hold on..."
Ginny clung to those words- she was certain it had been Draco. So far, nothing had happened to her, but she knew it was too much to hope for to come out of this experience unscathed.
Huddling in the back corner in her prison cell, she brought her knees up so she could rest her chin upon them.
Suddenly, she heard the large dungeon door clang open as a small procession of five Death Eaters entered. The one in front pulled back the hood of his cloak to reveal the cruel faced Lucius Malfoy under it. Instinctively, Ginny curled up tighter in a futile attempt to hide from him.
"Tsk, Tsk, Miss Weasley," Lucius said, slipping a key in the lock on her door. "Where's your family pride?" With a small 'click,' the door unlocked and was immediately opened. "Look at you," he spat, walking towards her. "A pathetic, sniveling little wench."
"At least I'm not as desperate for power as you!" Ginny said, looking him straight in the eye. "If it weren't for You-Know-Who, nobody would so much as glance at you."
"What did you say, little girl?" he asked, grabbing her neck and hauling her to her feet.
"I said that you're a desperate and pathetic fool!" she answered, her Weasley temper getting the best of her. Lucius didn't take to it too well. He slammed her head into the stone wall. Hard.
Ginny saw red dots for a moment before Lucius' face appeared in front of her again. She felt something trickling down her neck but wasn't able to reach behind herself as Lucius, glaring at her intensely, barked orders for two of the men to take her.
She was half dragged, half carried to another chamber. Groggily, she tried to see in the light, but having been in the dark for so long, the brightly lit room stung her sensitive eyes.
Squinting, her eyes began to adjust to the lighting as she started to make out the blurry images of a table, some lit torches, and various weapons with other things hanging on the walls. She felt her hand and feet being bound and was too weak to resist. When she looked at her bindings, she was attached to chains extending from the ceiling and the floor.
Ginny closed her eyes, wishing this was just a nightmare. When she opened them again, she was face to face with Lucius again. Making sure she was watching him carefully, Lucius backed away before walking over to the desk. Opening a drawer, he pulled out a small glass case. Gently, he removed the cover and lifted up a small, sharp dagger. The small hilt was engraved with the Malfoy dragon and it's blade gleamed wickedly, as though it had a mind of its own and was anticipating Lucius' plan.
Ginny felt her heart beat faster as she stared, fearful of what was to come. Lucius was smiling. That was definitely not good.
Circling around her, he tugged at her Hogwarts robe. "Get rid of it," he ordered. It disappeared seconds later to reveal her clothed in the usual white blouse, gray vest, tie, skirt, knee high stockings, and shoes.
"What are you going to do?" Ginny said, eyeing the dagger as it was brought close to her face.
"Oh...just a little something," Lucius answered in a low voice. "To remind you not to mess around with Malfoys." He tore off her left sleeve, revealing her pale arm. He it from its bindings and grasped her wrist tightly with his free hand. Ginny's eyes widened as she realized what he was planning to do.
His cruel smile widened as he pressed the edge of the blade against the soft, white skin. Ginny wanted to pull her arm away from him, but she knew it if she did, she'd end up with a huge gash down her arm.
Refusing to give them the satisfaction of hearing her scream in pain, she bit down on her lower lip while Lucius began to etch a dragon into her arm with the dagger. It seemed like eternity and by the end, Ginny's mouth was filled with the salty taste of her own blood.
Lucius re-chained her arm and stepped back to admire his handiwork. Then, thinking of a new idea, he walked to the wall behind her and grabbed a leather whip with a metal tipped end. Casting another spell, Ginny's gray vest and tie disappeared. A feeling of dread flooded her senses as her body tensed up.
Walking behind her, Lucius clenched the weapon tightly in his hand as he prepared for the first blow. "My dear Miss Weasley," he said, "We're going to have a little...fun." Almost immediately, Ginny found her back firing up with excruciating pain from the first hit. He hit her five more times in different places. Too weak to stand, Ginny hung limply from the chains as the dug into her wrists.
"That should teach
you never to associate with my son again," Lucius snarled, stopping his
thrashings. Ginny waited for more, but when none came, she gave a small
sigh of relief. Then, unexpectedly, Lucius lashed out again, hitting her
in the exact six spots he had slashed before, re-opening the wounds. Ginny
screamed- the pain too much for her to handle. As he continued his relentless
beating, she mercifully passed out.
"Hurry up Ron," Hermione whispered. "We don't want to lose Harry and Malfoy." She could barely see the two lights ahead of them.
"I'm trying to go as fast as I can," Ron said, irritated. Then the other two lights started to descend and Ron quickly followed.
Draco and Harry were waiting for them, only their heads visible. Off in the distance, the large gates enclosing the Malfoy Manor were visible in the moonlight.
"Why are we so far from the house?" Ron asked as he touched solid ground. They were in a large field with a forest next to them.
"The Manor is guarded by all sorts of spells and curses," Draco replied. "We have to enter through one of the secret passages." He walked towards the edge of the forest. They followed him into the woods as he eventually stopped before a large, wide tree. Making the three turn away, Draco pressed a small knot in the base of the tree. Part of the trunk pushed out and slid to the side, revealing a dark, downward spiraling staircase. "Follow me." Draco took the lead once again and disappeared down the stairs.
Reluctantly, Harry followed with Ron and Hermione sticking close.
"Board your brooms again," came Draco's voice as they entered a stone-walled tunnel
A short while later, they came to a large wooden door. "Leave your brooms here," Draco ordered and they placed them against the wall to the side of the door.
Fumbling around under his cloak, Draco pulled out a small key. Pulling his hood over his head, he waiting for the others to crawl under with Harry before slipping the key into the lock. The door clicked open and he stuck his hand out so they could follow him in.
They were already close to the dungeons, Harry could tell. They began passing empty cells shortly. Then, the sound of footsteps came from the other end of the dungeons. Draco quickly drew in his hand and held his breath. Soon, his father and a group of Death Eaters appeared and passed the invisible teens without noticing them.
Once Draco was sure they were gone, he brought his wand out.
"She's being held in the torture chamber," he said, deducting that from the direction his father had just been coming from. "It's at the end of this hall."
"Well, don't just stand there!" Harry snapped. "We have to go get her!"
"Right." Draco immediately set off running followed closely by the trio. He entered the chamber cautiously. Spotting Ginny, he ran over to her, pulling off his cloak.
"Petrificus Totalus!" Hermione's voice rang through the room. Looking behind himself, Draco saw the frozen body of a Death Eater. He hadn't noticed him when he'd entered. I hope he didn't see me, he thought grimly.
Returning to the young girl before him, his eyes filled with shock as he saw the condition she was in. "Ginny," he said hoarsely. Her eyes fluttered momentarily as he quickly unlocked the chains binding her and caught her in his arms.
Ginny moaned in pain as Draco lowered her to the floor while the others circled around. "Draco...," she whispered feebly. "Is it really you?"
"Yeah," he answered, cradling her head. "It's me."
"I knew you'd save me...I knew-" She lost consciousness as her head rolled back in his arms. Draco shook her, almost violently trying to revive her.
"Ginny!" He cried out. "Ginny! No!"
"Malfoy!" Hermione grabbed his arm. "Calm yourself. We have to get out of here and get Ginny back to Hogwarts."
Draco nodded silently and grabbed his cloak with a free hand, draping it over himself and the unconscious form of Ginny. As they were leaving, he pulled out his wand quickly and muttered, "Obliviate!" towards the frozen Death Eater before leaving.
They quickly exited
the same way they came in. Climbing on board their brooms, Harry took the
lead while Draco, protectively holding Ginny, brought up the end. They
sped off as fast as they could to get back to Hogwarts.
Madame Pomfrey was quite startled to be woken up in the early morning hours with three Gryffindors and a Slytherin barging in with the limp body of Ginny Weasley. The only thing that shocked her more was the condition that Ginny appeared to be in.
Her white blouse was torn, almost to shreds as the blood from the deep whip cuts clung to the material. Her left sleeve was missing where the arm was covered in blood and an engraving of a dragon could be seen. Then there was the back of her head where there was a large bump and red droplets were dripping from her red tresses.
Madame Pomfrey hurriedly ordered Draco to place Ginny on one of the beds before ushering them out so she could take care of Ginny.
Draco paced back and forth as they anxiously awaited news of Ginny's state. Harry was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed tightly while Hermione sat beside Ron, reassuring him Ginny would be fine.
After what had seemed like ages, she emerged out of the room. With her lips pressed tightly together, she approached the small group. "Miss Weasley has suffered very severe blood loss from wounds on her back, arm, and head. "I've treated her the best I can but she'll need a good, long rest. As for the rest of you-"
"I'll take it from here, Poppy." Dumbledore had appeared behind the four. "Follow me." He retreated to his quarters, giving the password ("Ice Mice") and ordered them to sit.
"Professor, I can explain," Draco immediately said.
"Go right ahead," Dumbledore said, staring at him intently.
Draco started from when he'd first been assigned to work with Ginny on their DADA project (conveniently leaving out their shared kisses) to the time when she'd woken up in the Infirmary and they'd broken up and then to when she was kidnapped during the blackout. He proceeded to tell Dumbledore about how Pansy Parkinson had told his father about them and to the night's rescue efforts.
"I see," Dumbledore said when he was finished talking. "That's how it went? That's how it all went?" Draco nodded. "Why didn't you come to me or one of your other professors?"
Hermione answered for him. "We didn't want to get into any more trouble that we were already in. And we didn't want Mr. Malfoy to discover Mal- Draco here was helping us."
"I understand your reasoning, but you still should have had better judgment than to go off on some heroic antic that could have ended up with all of you dead," Dumbledore scolded.
"But it was my sister, Professor!" Ron exclaimed, jumping to his feet. "Everything we did was in order to save her life!"
"Ron!" Hermione tugged him back down and shook her head warningly.
"Mr. Weasley, I know you care deeply for your little sister, but that's not an excuse for putting your lives danger," Dumbledore said, "Voldemort planning his new ritual-"
"What ritual?" Harry interrupted, speaking for the first time.
Dumbledore silently berated himself for letting that slip. I must be getting old. Then he shrugged. "We don't know what ritual exactly, but we do know it's based on a very old prophecy. For some odd reason, we can't find it in our archives anywhere."
"What kind of ritual?" Hermione asked.
"We think it involves a sacrifice, but nothing's for sure," Dumbledore answered. Shaking his head, he realized he'd digressed from the original issue. "Anyway, as a result of your impulsive, foolhardy actions, I am forced to punish you with a two weeks of detention to be served with Madame Pompfrey and twenty house points off for each individual."
"But Professor-" Ron tried to protest but was prevented when Hermione covered his mouth with her hand.
"Yes sir," she accepted quickly, not wanting to get into anymore trouble. "May we be released now?"
Dumbledore nodded and they set off immediately for the hospital wing. Halfway there, Draco stopped.
"What is it, Malfoy?" Harry asked carefully.
"Maybe it's best if I don't see her," Draco answered hesitantly. "It wouldn't look right to the rest of the school. If it got out that I was with Ginny again, my father would be very suspicious and Ginny would be in danger once again."
"Fine," Hermione said. "You go on back. I'll update you on her condition." Draco looked at her gratefully before disappearing under his cloak with his broomstick and leaving the trio.
"Harry, Ron, maybe you guys should go too," Hermione suggested, "After all that flying and excitement, you guys are probably tired."
"What about you?"
asked Ron. "Aren't you tired?"
"No," Hermione
replied, "If anything should happen, I'll contact you two immediately."
"Alright. Thanks 'Mione," Harry said, giving her a quick hug before stepping back and allowing Ron to do the same.
"We'll be back in the morning," he whispered and kissed her quickly on her forehead before setting off with Harry.
Tonight has been full of excitement- it's almost too much to take in, Hermione thought, At least Ginny's safe.
However, back in
her bed in the Infirmary, Ginny was trapped in another one of her haunting
dreams filled with her visions of the mysterious girl, the Death Eaters,
the Dark Lord, and finally, her near death experience in the Malfoy dungeons.
NOW I ORDER YOU TO REVIEW!!! Have a
nice day!
Adel Swiftrider