Forever With You
Chapter Ten: Another Prisoner
It was cold, very cold. The sound of dripping water echoed around the room and it was so very cold. Ginny finally awoke partly because of the loud echo and partly because she was convulsing because of the cold. She was lying on the ground, which was stone like and clammy. At first she thought she had sleep walked to the dungeons, but she wasn't known to sleep walk.
Ginny slowly tried to sit up but her body ached. She finally reached a sitting position and she wiped the dirt from her hands and looked at her surroundings.
She was definitely in a dungeon of some sort, but it didn't look like it was at Hogwarts. The room was very small, probably no more than ten feet by ten feet. The walls were short also, and Ginny suspected that if she jumped she'd be able to touch the stone ceiling. There were only three walls of stone, and the third was an opening, covered by strong steal bars running vertically and horizontally. There was a small cot sitting against one wall that had a shaggy looking blanket on it, and opposite that was a round pot with a piece of cloth covering it. Ginny didn't need the flies hovering over it to tell her what that was supposed to be used for.
The bars were as cold as ice and when Ginny put her hands on them she immediately backed away as if she'd been hurt. She edged closer to the bars, this time keeping her hands away, and looked out. Directly across from her was a similar room, but it was uninhabited. She looked to the left and saw a long hall stretching forever with other openings in the wall that were the front of rooms. To the right she could just barely make out the end of the long tunnel like hall and a steal door was etched in the wall. There were torches up and down the hall, casting eerie shadows on the wall. It was silent…and cold.
"Hello?" Ginny cried a little quietly. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Is any one there?"
Ginny thought she heard the sound of feet shuffling, but then again it could have been her own breath. She tried a few more times to catch someone's attention but it was no use. She seemed to be completely alone somewhere far from Hogwarts and the safety of friends and family.
Out of pure curiosity, Ginny checked all her pockets searching for her wand, but it of course had been taken from her. Lucius must have pocketed it before dumping her in this place. Ginny's first instinct was to sit down and sob until she collapsed, but she was surprised at what she did do.
Instead of sitting around, doing nothing, Ginny began searching the room for any sign that she could escape. She measured the size of the room with her feet (9 feet wide and 8 and a half feet long.) Reluctantly she placed her hands on the bars and shook each one, inspecting the areas where they protruded from the wall. Everything seemed tight and secure, but Ginny knew that humans must have built this cage and humans were undeniably flawed and so were their creations.
~*~*~
Ginny had lost track of all time. She didn't know how long she had been there, but she was hungry and thirsty and suspected it had been at least twenty four hours since she'd first come here. She was beginning to feel exhausted from staying awake and the hunger pains kept her from sleeping more than fifteen minutes at a time. She was sitting on the cot, which smelled like stale rotten food, with her head in her hands trying to concentrate on something other than her hunger.
"Fly past the opposing chasers…dodge the bludgers and ram into the seeker…throw the Quaffel and…and…" She gritted her teeth as another stab of pain shot through her middle. "…and a goal is made…"
A noise was heard. It was the door! It had been opened and now footsteps were coming towards her. Ginny refused to look up, she didn't want her captors to see her in pain. A pair of footsteps stopped outside of her cell, but she heard other footsteps walk further down the corridor.
"Virginia." Ginny would know that oily voice anywhere.
Concentrating on the sound of the other footsteps, they stopped and the dangling of keys was heard.
"Virginia Weasley."
One of the other cells was unlocked and voices were heard. Muffled, she couldn't make them out!
"Look at me now!" Lucius yelled and Ginny felt something hot hit her and an unexplained urge to look up took over.
"That's much better." Ginny would have loved to slap that evil smile off of his face. "Did you know, Virginia, that the average person could live thirty days without food? But more than three days without water could kill someone. It wouldn't take much to have you killed."
If Ginny had any spit in her mouth, she would have spat at his feet. She resorted to just glaring at him.
Lucius snapped his fingers and out of the corner came a rather large man in dark robes. He handed Lucius a goblet, then backed away.
"You can have water, if you want." Lucius maneuvered the cup through the bars.
Ginny looked from the cup, then up to Lucius. She didn't move or make any attempt to. Lucius' smile turned to a frown and he dumped the contents of the cup on the ground, and dropped the cup itself, the sound echoing loudly off the walls. Another snap of his fingers and two more men came from the other side of the hall. They followed Lucius out of Ginny's sight. The footsteps grew fainter and then she heard the door slam shut.
Ginny rushed towards the cup, scraping her knees on the stones. She picked it up and saw that a few drops of precious water were resting at the bottom. She tipped the cup and the water entered her mouth. For the first time she had been there she began to cry, but no tears came…she had no water left for tears. She threw the goblet against the wall, it bounced off then rolled towards the chamber pot.
"Who's there?" A small squeaky voice asked.
Ginny immediately stopped her crying and stood up, pressing her body against the bars and looked down the hall.
"Hello?" She asked.
"Who are you?" The voice asked.
"I'm Ginny…who are you?"
"I'm Lisbeth."
Ginny could see a couple of arms stretch themselves outside of the bars of a cell a few yards away. She could make out a little girl with curly brown hair standing close to the bars.
"How old are you?" Ginny asked.
"I just turned eleven…where are we?"
Ginny's heart went out to the poor girl. She didn't know whether if she were happy she was no longer alone, or if she were sad that someone else was sharing her fate.
"Do you go to Hogwarts?" Ginny didn't know any first years.
"No…what's Hogwarts?"
"Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Did you go to another school?"
"Witchcraft? Wizardry? What's going on? Where are my parents? I want my Mother!" The girl began to sob.
Ginny's eyes opened wide at this news. "You mean…you're not a witch?"
"I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Who are your parents?"
"Martha and Robert Halaway…my Dad's Prime Minister of England and he'll come and take those bad people to prison."
Ginny fell against the wall and collapsed. She had heard that last time Voldemort gained power was marked by many disappearances, but no one mentioned Muggle kidnappings. This time he must want to take over not only the Magical world, but the Muggle one as well.
~*~*~
Lisbeth's birthday was just last week and she recounted the party details. All her friends had showed up and she had gotten everything she asked for. She related the last twelve hours. She had been at home, doing homework, then watched a movie. After that she went up to her room and went to bed. She woke up because she thought she heard something large drop on the ground near by. She looked at her clock, the illuminated numbers read four thirty at night. And that was when she felt someone grab her from her bed and she couldn't remember anything after that until she woke up in the cell.
Ginny tried to explain what was going on, but Lisbeth found it hard to believe. Witches? And Wizards? That was only fairy tale, fantasy book stuff. Nothing like that happened in real life. But Ginny told her that Witches and Wizards had been living peacefully along side Muggles for centuries, every once in a while a power hungry Witch or Wizard would try to usurp power and Muggle deaths by magic increased, but they all had been stopped.
"But You-Know-Who is the worst."
"Why do you call him 'You-Know-Who?'"
"Because…everyone is afraid to speak his name."
"But you don't remember the last time he tried to take over…so why do you say it?"
"I guess…because everyone else does." Ginny paused to reflect. "Aren't there evil men in your world that people are afraid to speak their name?"
"Well, maybe some people are…the weak ones. But the British are born free to speak whatever name they want to. We fight for our freedom and stand up to those who try and take it. We just learned about World War II; there were a lot of evil men doing evil things; Hitler, Musolini…and then later, in Russia, Stalin. Bad things are happening now, too. But we're not afraid…we even fought a war to free people from another country in the Middle East. People were afraid to speak their feelings about their government leader, but afterwards they pulled down his statue and destroyed it."
"Really?" Ginny was impressed. She thought that Muggles were practically good for nothing and lived very sheltered lives because they had no magic.
Ginny found it very comforting to speak with Lisbeth, and she guessed the feeling was mutual. She had forgotten about her hunger momentarily, but after so much talking she could feel her mouth dry up. She was about to ask Lisbeth if she could stop talking for a while when she heard the door open again.
Ginny motioned with her hand for Lisbeth to back away from her bars and she did the same. She had just sat down on the cot when the same large man from before stood outside her cell. He laughed when he saw her, his broken teeth protruding from his mouth. But Ginny wasn't paying attention to his face, she was looking at what was in his hands.
"Hungry, are yeh?" He said. "Would yeh gi'e me a kiss ef I gave yeh somethin' to eat?"
"I'd rather starve." Ginny said, still not keeping her eyes off the tray of food.
"Meybe the lit'le one would."
"You stay away from her!" Ginny stood up and ran towards the bars.
"Keep yer distance." The man barked. "Now back 'way from da bars."
Ginny reluctantly backed away then watched as the man pulled a key ring from his belt and open the door. He haphazardly dropped a goblet of water on the ground, then shut the door. Ginny's heart sunk…she wasn't getting food? Ginny walked towards the bars and saw the man open Lisbeth's cell. He put the plate of food and another goblet of water in her cell, then shut the door. As he walked by he glared at Ginny, winked, then continued on his way.
Dropping to the floor, and scraping her knees again, she grabbed the goblet and drank its entire contents. It was only after she had emptied the goblet that she wondered if the water had been spiked with a poison or drug. Ginny took inventory of herself; heart worked, mind worked, eyesight worked. Maybe it wasn't spiked.
"I can't eat this!" Lisbeth said in disgust.
"What is it?"
"It looks like it's been left out for days!"
Ginny's stomach growled…she'd have eaten anything at the moment, whether it's been left out or not. Maybe the food poisoning would finish her off.
"I'm sure they've kidnapped you for a reason and aren't ready for you to die yet. I'm sure it's safe to eat."
"No way!"
"Lisbeth," Ginny stopped, trying to collect her thoughts. "Soon you'll be so hungry you wouldn't mind eating…worms. Now I suggest you eat it so you'll never reach that stage of hunger."
There was silence, then Lisbeth said, "It tastes gross."
"Um, would you mind…throwing a bit my way?" Ginny bit her bottom lip and looked towards Lisbeth's cell.
The little girl appeared, and her arm reached outside the bars. She threw something in the air and Ginny reached out her arms to catch it, but it landed at her feet. She bent down and picked it up. It looked like meat that was undercooked and had the faint smell of decay.
"Three second rule." Ginny said before popping it into her mouth.
~*~*~
"Oooh," Ginny groaned. "I shouldn't have eaten that."
Her stomach felt even worse than when she was hungry. Lisbeth was trying to comfort Ginny, but the pain was so strong, and a headache had formed, that everything that was going on around her was blocked out. Then something happened that made her situation ten times worse. She vomited the contents of her stomach, and was surprised she had that much stuff in her before.
"I feel fine." Lisbeth said. "And I ate what I threw you."
"I was already deprived of food."
"Oh."
Ginny crawled to her cot and laid down, wrapping the coarse blanket around her. She just wanted to sleep and never wake up again. Perhaps this was all a dream and she'd find herself in her room, probably late for first class. But the pain was too real.
Hours must have gone by. Lisbeth would try and strike up a conversation, but Ginny was in no mood to participate. She could only lie there and stare at the impenetrable bars, and wonder if anyone was searching for her.
~*~*~
Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had spent the last two days awake, waiting for news of their daughter. When they had received the news that their daughter was missing they had gone directly to Hogwarts. Fudge was there, in Dumbledore's office, looking nervous. Dumbledore was seated at his desk and as Mr. and Mrs. Weasley sat he began.
"The last person to see her was her friend, Lisa. She left the Gryffindor Tower at about six in the evening. When she didn't return, Lisa came to me. We instigated a search of the castle, which took all night. By morning no trace of your daughter was found, and we notified the proper authorities who then started a search of the grounds and surrounding areas. That is when I owled you. I was reluctant to speak to you until now because we wanted to make sure she hadn't wondered off." Dumblore stopped and studied the people in front of him then rested his gaze on Fudge.
"Yes, well," Fudge stood up, his hat clutched in his hands. "We have found no trace of your daughter and suspect…fowl play."
Mrs. Weasley sobbed onto her husbands shoulders.
"Do you know who took her? Was there a ransom?" Arthur asked.
"There was no ransom, and we do not know who—" Fudge was interrupted.
"It was Voldemort." Dumbledore said. "You tried to cover up the previous disappearances, Fudge, but it'll do nobody any good to deny the facts." He looked towards the Weasleys and said in a softer tone, "Virginia is not the only one, although the first to be taken from Hogwarts. I believe someone she knew lured her outside of the grounds, where my magical protection stops, and took her."
"Did you talk to this…friend of hers?" Arthur demanded.
"Yes, Arthur, and she has been in hysterics ever since she came to me. Other Gryffindors can vouch that she had been in the common room the whole night."
While the Weasley's, Fudge and Dumbledore were speaking in the Head Masters office, the students of Hogwarts were sitting quietly at breakfast. Everyone knew by now that Ginny had been taken. People averted their eyes when Ron entered the room, all afraid to look at him because his grief was so great. Harry and Hermione tried to comfort him, but he shook them off.
Ron sat, staring at his food, not moving at all.
"You need to eat something." Hermione persisted.
Silence.
"Ron, you haven't eaten since…since we found out about…"
Silence.
"Why?" He finally asked. "Why not me? Why Ginny? Why didn't they take me instead? Or Percy? He works in the Ministry and he has a Father that works in the Ministry…isn't that like double points?" Ron began to cry. "Why Ginny?"
From across the hall a certain boy watched as practically the whole school mourned. Well, he said to himself. I tried to warn her. But no matter how much he tried to justify it, it was his fault. He should have missed his meeting with his Father and escorted Ginny back up to the castle. He knew his Father had been after her for months. Wanted her to be the first student to go, but was very angry when Draco said he couldn't get her alone and that she wouldn't be leaving Hogwarts for the Christmas Holiday.
In truth, Draco had been alone with her plenty of times. He could have handed her over to his Father any time he wanted to. But he didn't want to and he didn't know why…and it made him scared.
Disgusted with himself, he stood up and walked out of the Great Hall.
(Ok, I think I got all the symbols out. I have no idea how they got in there, but it must have been from the transfering of my text from Word to Notepad. I'll check in on it! Thanks for telling me about it!)