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Ginny listened to the movements above her head as the Deatheaters started to disabled all of the curses and alarms that locked the grate above them. Reflexively, she stepped back when she heard the framework squeak loudly in protest. She was stopped short when she found herself backed up against a hard form, Draco. She started to pull away when he grabbed her and pulled her back against his chest.
"Don't show fear. If you do, it will only be worse." Draco warned as breathed the words into the air directly above her head. Ginny started to tremble.
"I can't help it." she let out a choked whisper.
"Yes you can. Only allow the Dark Lord to see your fear. Nobody else, do you understand me? Nobody else." He demanded quietly as he griped her arms with painful intensity. Ginny gave a jerky nod.
"Yes." She whimpered.
"Good girl. It won't be as bad if you do. The Dark Lord loves being deferred to. Even if it only has to do with fear. Besides, if you didn't show your fear to him, well, he would make you." She was turned around and he tilted her face up to look her in the eye.
"Listen," he said whispered hurriedly, as the people above them finally removed all of the spells on the opening. "If I don't come back down here with you, remember what I've been teaching you. Don't give them the pleasure of breaking you." His hurried instructions worried her.
She had opened her mouth to ask what he meant by that, when he clamped a hand over her lips. Sharply, he shook his head, pointed up above them, and released her. Dumbfounded, she watched as he silently drifted back into the shadows as the Deatheaters above them wrenched open the grate.
"Lumos" Ginny heard a familiar voice cast the light spell directly above her head.
Ginny found herself blinking against the bright light that shone down upon them. After staying in the near dark for so long, the glaring light was making her eyes water. She blinked away the tears that formed and tried to look anywhere but up. Even with her eyes closed, the light burned into her eyelids.
"Ah, how nice of you to send room service to fix our lighting problem." Draco drawled from his side of the room. "I would award you appropriately; however, I seem to have misplaced my wand."
Ginny drew in a quick breath as she stared blindly in his direction. If she wasn't mistaken he said 'Show no fear' not, 'Make them as mad as you possibly can'. She held her breath as she waited for their response to his mocking humor. She didn't have to wait for long, in fact, she didn't have to wait at all.
"Crucio" snarled an angry voice from above them.
Cringing, she waited for Draco's scream of pain. It never came, but what she did hear was a loud grunt; which sounded remarkably like the one he given when she had pulled his hair. She managed to squint through the light to see him. He knelt upon the floor hunched up as if he was trying to conserve body heat. His arms and legs were shaking, she noticed, and beads of sweat where starting to appear upon his forehead and temples.
"It would seem," Draco half gasped, half gritted. "That your ability to successfully perform the Cruciatas curse has greatly improved Wormtail. However, that is not exactly saying much at all." He mocked even while he was doubled over in pain.
Ginny's gasp was thankfully covered by Wormtail's bellow of rage. She knew who Wormtail was. She couldn't count how often she had heard Harry spit out his name as a curse. Not that he didn't have good reasons. She herself had never seen the face of the betrayer of the Potter family. Now that she knew she was about to have the very dubious honor, she rather wished that he would remain faceless for the rest of her life. For that matter, she wasn't exactly looking forwards to meeting You-Know-Who face-to-face either.
Pettigrew still had Draco under the Cruciatas when she felt herself inflicted with the full body bind curse. She watched helplessly as the floor rushed up to meet her unprotected face. Mentally she steeled herself for the impact… that never came. She stared at the floor, which she hovered a few inches above, in disbelief.
"Take care with that one." A familiar voice sneered. "The Dark Lord wants her in top form for tonight's exhibition."
Ginny would have collapsed out of relief, had she been able to move at all. As it was, she had a few minutes to remove the joy from her face. Snape had found her. Elation rose up within her. In no time at all, she would be reunited with her family. After that, she would be safe at Hogwarts. Joy filled her with hope, until reality pulled her back down again.
Unblinkingly she stared at the stone floor, Snape couldn't rescue her. Well, at least not now. First, it was nigh impossible for him to get her out of a building filled to the brim with Deatheaters. Not to mention, evade them all after the escape. Second, as much as she would like it, she was not important enough to risk his status as a double agent. Unfortunately, she knew she was not worth that particular compromise. Professor Snape had been able to save whole families by playing 'both sides'. To risk all of that to save one person; well, at the risk of sounding like a Slytheren, her possible death would be the lesser of two evils. Not a very cheerful thought.
In her helpless position all she could do, aside from thinking depressing thoughts, was listen to the Deatheaters prepare to remove them from their cell. The labored breathing from Draco finally quit, and Ginny could only guess that Pettigrew had concluded the curse, if only to allow the prisoners to be withdrawn from the cell. With an ease that spoke of copious amounts of practice; the people above them soon had the ends of their chains freed from the wall and had them levitated up out of the dark barren cell.
Within a few seconds of reaching the hallway, Ginny found herself in a standing position holding the loose length of her own chain. Also, she realized, the full body bind curse had been lifted. She could move around on her own. Well, as much as the hand clamped painfully upon her shoulder would allow. Behind her, she heard the distinctive sound of flesh hitting flesh.
"On your feet betrayer. The Dark Lord has a special treat in store for you as well." The taunts behind her made her stomach clench with fear.
With the optimal amount of pushing and badgering of the two prisoners, Ginny and Draco found themselves being marched forwards down the hall that was almost as dark and damp as the cell had been. Three Deatheaters accompanied them on their march to Voldemort. One with each of the two captives, and one preceding them. Presumably to support either of the escorts if they had problems with their captive. She had no idea which one was Snape.
The one before her kept his hand wrapped around Draco's pale neck. Occasionally he would wrench it about suddenly from one side to another. The whole purpose of this exercise, Ginny surmised, was to make sure that he didn't forget that he was a lowly prisoner now, and not the son of a wealthy, and powerful man among their ranks.
She and her escort were last in line. In fact, she noticed, they were getting further and further last in line. They were slowing down to put distance between them and the others. She sucked in a breath. Professor Snape she thought.
"Remember your lessons." Hissed a deadly soft voice behind her, confirming her suspicions. "Do not allow your thought to betray us. Both our lives rely upon it." Great way to calm her fears, she thought sarcastically.
The rest of her trip down the long hall was spent sorting through her mind and locating only the bare necessities to hide from the Deatheater's 'Dark Lord'. In the end the only things she decided to hide was her knowledge of Snape's role in the Order and of the Order in general. She knew that Voldemort had to know about the existence of the Order, but any information he didn't have, she was not about to hand him.
After having delivered his warning, Snape urged her to speed up. They slowly caught up with the rest of the group as they winded their way through the veritable maze of corridors. She soon gave up on trying to memorize all of the turns they took; she suspected that they may have circled around more than once, probably to keep them lost and confused. Eventually, they emerged into a more used hallway. Torches glowed at regular intervals now, and the air didn't smell quite as musty here.
Sooner than she would have liked, Ginny found herself in front of a set of enormous oak double doors. Without anyone saying a word, she knew that behind the oak paneling lay everything she had ever hoped to avoid. She took a deep fortifying breath as the Deatheater in the lead brandished his wand and, with a flick, opened the gates of hell.
The room was enormous. Huge archways rose up to support a roof that had long ago fallen to the ravages of time. Ginny could see the night sky shining down from above them. The stone walls were undecorated save for the huge stained glass windows. She looked at them and bit back a gasp when she realized that they weren't in a castle at all. The Deatheaters had found an ancient cathedral church to use as their main base.
Ginny hadn't known exactly what to expect from the Deatheaters when they entered, but this, was certainly not it. She had expected to arrive in the midst of screams, chaos and cruel mocking laughter. What she was confronted with however, couldn't be further from the truth.
The first thing that came to mind was order. Deatheaters moved in perfect silence as they formed a human formed aisle for the newcomers to walk down. To the right and to the left dark robed, white masked, figures lined the walkway in a perfectly spaced formation. On occasion, she would notice an empty spot that looked as if it were simply waiting for the missing member to arrive. As they progressed further into the room, the dark members would silently close up behind them. The only direction left to go was forwards.
Ginny reminded herself of the advice Draco had given her. Show no fear. She clenched and unclenched her hands before her. On either side, Deatheaters watched on in thinly veiled anticipation. They were anxious for the blood to start flowing. Her steps faltered.
She couldn't do this. She was a Gryffindor yes, but still… Her heart began pounding and she started to pant for breath. She couldn't get any air, she was suffocating. Before a full-scale panic attack could consume her, she felt the hand clamped upon her shoulder give a light squeeze of reassurance. Snape, she wasn't alone. Ginny clung to this fact with all the tenacity she could muster. She remembered Draco's words, 'Don't give them the pleasure of breaking you.'
Since she and Snape were last in line, she didn't get a glimpse of Voldemort until the procession had spread out before him. The Dark Lord sat in a chair that sat upon a raided dais, draped with blood red velvet. He acknowledged the escorts with a slight tilt of his head. In return the three death eaters bowed low to their lord, dragging the two teenagers down with them.
Unable to look away, Ginny gazed upon the mockery of human life that was Voldemort. His abnormally white skin pulled too tight over his bones, and his face reminded her of reptile. Catlike red slanted eyes watched everything carefully and his slit like nostrils would flare every now and then, as if searching for the smell of fear. Terrified she watched at his eerily glowing red eyes fixed upon her.
"Ahhh, thank you for joining us for our little celebration." Voldemort stood from his chair upon the dais and approached Ginny. "I have waited for you. Yes, I have." His long pale fingers griped her jaw and wrenched her face up. He forced her to meet his red gaze.
Instantly Ginny felt Voldemort's assault upon her mind. She allowed her fear to flood her brain. Unmercifully he sorted through her mind looking for something, but she had no idea what. She watched as he brought up memory after memory. Playing Quidditch, talking with Ron, Harry and Hermione. Images flashed randomly one after another until he found what he was looking for. Her first year.
Tears dripped down her face as he forced her to relive that horrible year. The confusion, pain, horror, and fear welled up inside her. Again she opened that horrible book, again she would awake to find out she had no memory of certain hours. Again, she went down to open the Chamber of Secrets. No, I won't do it. Yes, a voice whispered, you will. No, no…
"NO!" Ginny screamed into the silent room. Voldemort released her suddenly and she crumpled at his feet crying.
"It would seem, that the little muggle lover still has enough resistance left within her to defy me." Voldermorts dangerously soft voice echoed around the room. "Why don't we see if we can soften her defiance with a little, entertainment shall we?" He bared his abnormally sharp teeth in a parody of a smile and turned to Draco.
"Ah, yes. You. I must congratulate you. For such a long time you have defied me." With a snap of his fingers, he motioned for two Deatheaters to step out of line. "Hold him."
Ginny watched as the two dark cloaked figures grabbed onto Draco. He fought wildly, his feet lashed out at anyone he could make contact with, and Ginny saw him bite hard enough to draw blood on one Deateaters hand. The battle showed no sign of letting up until Wormtail bared his silver right hand and wrapped it around Draco's throat, slowly squeezing off his air supply. He unwillingly stopped struggling as he received less and less air to breath. Roughly, they bared his left forearm for their Dark Lord. During all the commotion, she found herself jerked up to a standing position.
"You have had the chance to accept the dark mark on two occasions." Voldemort began as he extracted his wand from his robes. "Both times you foolishly refused. This time you will receive the dark mark. You were pledged into my service upon your birth. You belong to me, and I will mark what is mine." He wrapped one bony hand around Draco's wrist and placed the tip of his wand against his exposed forearm.
Ginny watched in horror as a writhing blackness oozed from the tip of the wand. When it dripped on his arm, Draco gasped in pain. The stench of burning flesh filled the air as the dark blob fought to enter under the skin to the vulnerable forearm. Just as Ginny was about to close her eyes to the horror, she spied a green and silver shadow creeping along the bottom of the arm. Fascinated she watched as it crouched in readiness to spring. The moment the acidic darkness breached the skin Draco let out a howl of agonizing pain.
He jerked wildly in the Deatheaters hold. They had to recruit another member to hold him still as the dark mark branded itself to him. During the mild struggle, Ginny lost sight of the little dragon. However, when it reappeared she was not the only one that noticed it. Suddenly, bright ink flames covered Draco's arm, startling everyone who was close. As the flames died down Ginny spotted the little fighter attacking the darkness that was attempting to invade it's territory.
Fearlessly it clawed and snapped as the writhing darkness took the form of a long black snake. The two tattoos fought fiercely, rolling in a multi colored flash of ink across Draco's arm. Ginny watched on in amazement. She had never even heard of something like this happening! As suddenly as the fight began, it was over. With an agile lung, the little dragon caught the snake behind its head, and snapped the snake's neck. Then, to everyone's surprise, it began to eat the snake.
There was a long pause as the dragon finished the snake, and then marched victoriously over to the spot the snake had entered and lay down. The green and silver dragon then eyed everyone as he fearlessly blew black ink smoke rings at one of the world's greatest, and evil, wizard.
(Author's Note)
Hi, I know that it has been a while, but I wanted this chapter to be worth reading. (I also have about half of the next one written as well)
Er… I have a question to the long time members of I was looking into posting a new story when I double-checked the rules of posting FanFiction, I discovered that, after I posted this one they made a new rule that prohibited separate chapters for author notes. Should I reload every single chapter, or should I just delete the whole story and repost it? I am unsure what the correct procedure would be, so… if you know, let me know ok?
Anyway thank you readers and reviewers! You make this worth doing! Hugs for everyone!
Questions? I answer!