Disclaimer: It's all hers. You know who I mean. (JKR for you slow ones)
Chapter Four: ExplanationsIt was insane. Incredible. Impossible. And highly unlikely.
Ginny Weasly-a pregnant Ginny Weasly- was standing in his living room, insisting that he not tell her family and friends she was still alive.
Harry stared, not listening to a word Ginny was saying. Finally he found his voice.
"Are you married?"
Ginny put her head back and laughed a mirthless laugh. Again, Harry was forcefully reminded of Sirius.
"No," said Ginny. "I'm not married. And I didn't choose this. It was…forced on me."
Harry's insides clenched. Something hot and angry filled his heart.
"Who, Ginny? I'll kill them. I will KILL THEM." Harry was so angry he couldn't think. "And I'll tell Ron and he will help. And so will the rest of your brothers and Hermione. And-" Harry threw his wand onto the couch. "I won't use my wand to do it." He stared at her, standing there, looking at him rage. "WHO WAS IT?"
Ginny sat down again.
"Malfoy."
Harry stopped. His anger vanished, replaced by a sort of freezing inside of him. It was more than anger, it And hard. He hadn't expected…but of course it would be him. Towards the end of sixth year, and all through out seventh Harry had seen Malfoy eyeing Ginny. But he hadn't done anything to stop it. Malfoy had disappeared the same night as Ginny, too. Harry had assumed he had gone to fight for Voldemort. But it appeared that he hadn't been fighting after all…
Harry knew he would kill Malfoy if it was the last thing he ever did, even if he had to track the slimey bastard to the ends of the earth.
"Tell me everything, Gin. Start from the moment you were taken."
Ginny sighed. "I was sleeping. We all were- Jessica, Alice, Mary, Kailin and I. And then, suddenly, I was gone. The only thing I remember was a blast of cold air. I think Mary screamed. They did the spell for the Dark Mark and then they put me on a broom. They Stunned me when I started struggling.
"I woke up in a cell. I was chained to the wall. And there was Tom. He just laughed when I called him a bastard. Then he used the Cruciatis on me. Well, as you can imagine, I screamed. When I stopped screaming he smiled, and asked if that was any way to greet an old friend."
Harry sat down next to Ginny. He put his hand on her shoulder. "Ginny, I-"
"No, Harry, it's alright." Ginny took a deep breath and continued. "Tom asked me if I was scared. I said no, and spat on the floor in front of me. He laughed again. Then he tortured me until I said I was scared. I didn't care what he wanted me to say, so long as he stopped. He seemed to…enjoy breaking me. When he was done, he said that he had some business to attend to. Before he left, he said that someone was there to see me. He stepped aside, and, well, there was Malfoy. Malfoy thanked him for his…generosity." Ginny clenched her fists. "Like I was a thing, a POSSESION. And then Tom left. That was the last time I ever saw him. You got him, I suppose." She gestured at Harry.
"And you can imagine what Malfoy did then. First he tortured me. His Cruciatis wasn't as strong as Tom's, but it still hurt. Like hell. I screamed and screamed. Then he stopped and told me to…ask him to come over to me. I said no. So he tortured me again for a lot longer. Finally I could barely breathe, and I screamed that I would do anything he wanted if he would only stop." Ginny laughed harshly. "In retrospect, saying that was a mistake. His eyes lit up and he asked me-with the curse still on me- 'Anything?' he said. I screamed yes. So that's how it started."
Ginny took another deep breath and went on. "After the first time I tried to kill myself. I banged my head against the wall again and again. Malfoy rushed into the cell in a rage. He started to torture me again. He was screaming about how Tom was dead and he blamed me. He called me so many names, but I didn't care. I screamed for him to stop. I had lost all my pride, but I didn't care, I just wanted it to stop. So he said what I had to do for him to stop. It hurt too much to refuse.
"The next day, he came in and Stunned me. When I woke up I was in another cell, although this one was colder and wet. He came in a while later, and told me we were in a secret hideaway of his family's. He said it was his now, since he was the last one left. Then he laughed, and tortured me again. I screamed, told him I would do anything. But this time he didn't stop. It must have been an hour later when he stopped. I couldn't move for hours. He didn't feed me, so I tried eating some bugs I found on the floor. I passed out.
"The next time I saw him, he conjured chains and chained my hands and feet to the floor. He would drop food into my mouth, and then wait for days to feed me again. He said it was because he didn't want a fat whore. He did give me water every day though.
"And that's how I spent the last few years, Harry. I was a whore to Malfoy." Ginny stood up suddenly. "NOW can I LEAVE?"
Harry leapt to his feet. "No! No, Ginny. Nothing was your fault. It was mine. I should have protected you better. But I failed…I couldn't. Nothing was you fault. He TORTURED you, Ginny. And he WILL die. He'll see how it feels to be hurt." Harry knew his eyes were alight with a burning fire.
"No, Harry." Ginny put her hand on his arm. "He'll kill you. He's become so powerful. Towards the end, his Cruciatis was stronger than Tom's. He was taking all these potions and drugs, too. He's very powerful."
"I took down the Dark Lord! I can kill Malfoy!" Harry snapped.
"No, Harry."
He wrenched his arm away and picked up his wand. "YES!"
Ginny stood looking at him. "Don't you want to hear how I escaped?"
Harry slowly sat back down. "Yes."
Ginny sat back down too. She put a hand on her swollen belly. Harry moved to help her, but she waved him off. "I'm alright." She sighed. "Well, after a few years, he started getting tired of me. I was becoming boring to him. Too predicable." She scoffed. "So he stole another girl. She was twelve. She told me. We were chained in the same cell together. She only had one leg chained. Her name was Adie.
And Adie had a muggle thing in her mouth. Orthodontia, she called it. It looked like train tracks on her mouth. Well, she pulled it apart during one of Malfoy's few days of absence. She used it to pick my locks. They weren't locked by magic because Malfoy was afraid I would use mind magic or something. I escaped and hid in an alcove a few feet away from the cell. I planned to get Adie out but she wasn't thin enough to slip through the bars." Ginny paused, and her voice caught slightly in her throat. "She didn't even know what was going on. I tried to tell her what I could, but she didn't understand. Then Malfoy came back before I could get her out. He found me missing, and he ordered her to tell him where I was. She said no. So her tortured her. She still said no, she would not tell him. And he did it again. She still would not tell. Finally, she went unconscious, and Malfoy spat on her and laughed. Then he left. I followed, meaning to kill him. But he took a right turn and I looked the other way and saw a window. I hadn't seen sky in years. It was overcast, but it was sky. My body just- revolted. I didn't want to leave…to leave Adie…but I ran and broke the glass and jumped out the window. And I ran into the woods. I left Adie. I left her, Harry!" Ginny broke down in sobs and buried her face in her hands.
Harry awkwardly patted her back. "It's okay, Gin. She'll be fine. We can go back and get her. I'll tell Andrew Kirke-he's my department head- all this, and we'll track him down. We didn't even know he was still out there, Gin, or I would have found him. He's obviously left the country, and-"
Ginny held up a hand. "I'm going to finish talking. I'm sorry to interrupt you Harry, but I need to get this all out to someone I can trust. Alright?"
Harry nodded. "I'll listen, Ginny. I'm here for you."
"Thanks, Harry," said Ginny, wiping her eyes. "Anyway, that was probably two months ago. It was very cold, and snowing. I found this cloak on the way out of the Mansion - which is what it was, a very, very large mansion, what I saw of it from the outside anyway. It's Malfoy's, I swiped it from his study, which was the room with the window.
After I left, I wandered for a week or two, just trying to get as far away from there as possible. Somewhere along the line, I discovered this." Ginny patted her stomach. "At first I was horrified. I thought about killing my self again. Then I realized something. This little one has done nothing wrong. It's Malfoy who hurt me. Killing my self – or hurting my child – would solve nothing. So I vowed to keep my son or daughter safe at all costs, and give them a good life. I begged passage to England on a ship from somewhere Slavic. Lots of fur hoods. The people reminded me of Durmstrang-you know, Viktor Krum. The captain was a muggle, and I told him the truth, that I had been kidnapped. I had to give him my ring." Ginny rubbed her left index finger, where she had always worn a thin platinum band, a family heirloom.
"So, they dropped me in London somewhere. I didn't go through Diagon Alley; there might have been people I knew. I didn't want to be seen. I planned to go into hiding somewhere in Scotland. I would dye my hair and change my name. I could raise my child away from magic until they were ready. I wasn't about to put them in danger of some old friend of Malfoy who might recognize me. I didn't think my family of friends would accept me back after what had happened. I guess I was wrong-about you at least."
Harry nodded vehemently. "Of course they'll accept you back, Gin. Ron still gets drunk on the day you got taken every year. Hermione doesn't even complain-she just sits there all day, and if you try to talk to her, she snaps. And forget about your Mum and the rest of your family. Your mum still gets all teary at random moments when she sees things that remind her of you! She hasn't changed one thing in your room. It's exactly the way you left it that year when you left for school. I had to spend the night in there this Christmas. I ended up sleeping on the sofa downstairs. It was like trying to stand in a room with a ghost looking over your shoulder."
Ginny smiled. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to interfere with your beauty sleep."
Harry smile back at Ginny. Then he gently prodded: "What happened next? How did you get the wand?"
"I found the wand here yesterday. It was lying on the path between your house and the one next door."
Harry thought this over. Then he remembered a hurried conversation he'd had the night before with his neighbor, and old witch named Mopsy. She had misplaced her wand and was wondering if he'd seen it. At the time, Harry had suspected that one of her six dogs had run off with it. It seemed, however, that Ginny had been the one to find it.
"That's my neighbor's wand. You'll have to give it back, she's going frantic."
"Of course I'll give it back, Harry. I'm not a thief."
"I know, Gin. Now, do you want to tell me how you got to Hogsmead?"
"I walked for about a week from London. Two days ago, I realized that I was near Hogwarts and Hogsmead. I figured I'd scrounge some food from the trashcans, and keep moving. You, of course, ruined my plans. I about had a heart attack when I saw you staring back at me out there." Ginny sighed and leaned back. "So, there, there's my story. What are you going to do now?" She unsuccessfully tried to hide a yawn.
Harry stood, looked at his watch, and swore. It was after ten. "You shouldn't be up this late, not in your condition," he said, helping Ginny to her feet. "I've got a spare bedroom, you'll stay here tonight. And then, as soon as possible, we'll contact your family. But first, bed."
"Whatever you saw, Mum," murmured Ginny sleepily, almost collapsed in Harry's arms. "I haven't slept in a bed in years."
"What about a nightgown?" asked Harry worriedly.
"I've stayed in theses clothes for –how many years has it been?"
"Four."
"For four years, I can sleep one more night in them. Just get this cloak off me, I don't want to touch anything of Malfoy's for longer than I have to."
"Of course," said Harry. "Ginny, I don't think you can walk up the stairs, you're practically asleep as it is. I'm going to carry you." He hoisted her up in his arms, scared and angry to fell how light she was. Ginny buried her face in his neck.
'Thank you…Harry. I trust …you…not to hurt me." And with that, she was asleep.
Harry gently laid her in the guest bed. Removing the filth cloak, he threw it to the floor, and kicked it under the bed.
He bent, and kissed her forehead. "Goodnight, Gin," he whispered. "Sweet dreams."
Then he hurried downstairs to Floo the Burrow.
A/N: Ok, I know I said that the Weasly's find out about Ginny still being alive in THIS chapter, but it didn't flow right. So that's next chapter.
And now, announcements:
To all D/G shippers: Please don't flame me!!!
To everyone who reviewed: merlindamage, taylor (heads-or-tayls), dark fire chain, toria lea, (You're email didn't work, I tried it!) Megan R (thanks for the advice!), MrsAliciaWeasley, s.halliwell24, Hina L, and nessy-poo-2008 . nessy-poo-2008 s.halliwell24,and Hina L have all reviewed TWICE!! People are following my story!!! YAY! Thank you so much!!! You guys all rock! Keep those reviews coming, please!!! And if I forgot you, I'm so sorry, email me and, as penance, I'll give you a cameo or something.
Next time: The Weaslys find out Ginny is still alive (for real this time) and Ron will get very angry. Hmmm, I wonder why?
