Thanks to Maggs for an excellent beta!
xxxxxxx
2.
The following day, Renaldi and Malfoy walked down the dungeon corridor talking about his first official interrogation subject. Yesterday had been a trial, a trial in which Draco had performed very well.
"We cannot tie this 'Ginevra Wood' directly to the explosion, but we know where her sympathies lie. She is a member of the Order of Phoenix and has been an accomplice of a group which calls themselves Dumbledore's Army."
"So you think she knows who orchestrated the explosions?" Draco asked, hands behind his back, mentally preparing himself for another interrogation.
"That, my friend, is exactly what you will find out," Renaldi smiled and put a hand on Draco's shoulder. Draco nodded as they came to a stop outside the dungeon that held his next subject.
Renaldi left and the guards outside of the door nodded to Draco. He turned the doorknob and stepped inside. There was a young woman sitting in the chair in the middle of the dank, cold room. He lit his wand brightly and held it to her face, blinding her until her eyes adjusted from the dark to the harsh light.
"Ginevra Wood, I'm going to ask you some questions. If you refuse to cooperate, I am going to hurt you. Do you understand?" He asked regally, placing his parchment on a small table and waiting to write her remarks.
"Nobody calls me 'Ginevra,' Malfoy. You of all people should know that," Ginny said as she looked up him, squinting in the light from his wand.
Draco looked up suddenly. "What? You don't remember me? Am I so different from the little girl in the corridors of Hogwarts who used to hex you until bats flew out of your nose?"
Draco frowned, bending down slightly so he could look into her face. "Weasley?"
"Yes- Ginny Weasley."
"But… this says you're called Wood now?"
"Yes. I was married to Oliver Wood. I have been a widow for three years now."
Draco frowned again, but he was slightly impressed. He'd never liked any of the Gryffindors but he had admired Wood's Quidditch skills.
"Remember all the times someone would send hexes your way in the corridors or in the Great Hall? And you had no idea who it was?"
"That… that was you?" he half-smiled, remembering the tripping jinxes and gale force winds that would blow his books out of his hands, etc.
"My friends would ask 'why must you pick on Draco Malfoy?' And I would answer, 'because he ignores me.'"
Draco thought about this. He realized that he had ignored her. He always messed with her brothers, Potter, even the Granger girl. But he left Ginny alone. Even after the nasty bat-bogey hex his fifth year, he had not extracted revenge.
"You had enough attention with all of your friends… and your charm," he said, adding that last part without thinking about it. He knew Ginny Weasley had been popular at school. Boys from his own house had made remarks about her looks, and girls from his house had been jealous of her- especially that idiot Pansy Parkinson.
"Such things matter little to children, but then you always were older than your years, weren't you, Malfoy?" she said, smiling sweetly.
Draco smirked. It seemed she was going to attempt to use her charm on him now. "And here you are, in trouble with dark people," his demeanor changed to the business at hand. "Tell me what you know about the explosions, Ginny."
Ginny simply smiled and looked Draco squarely in the face.
"Tell me or I swear I will hurt you," Draco warned.
"Oh, I know you will, Malfoy. This is not my first interrogation by Death Eaters." Ginny lifted her bound hands and pulled her robes away from her shoulder. Not understanding what she was doing but curious, Draco moved his wand so he could see the bare skin she had uncovered. It was discolored and looked as though it had been melted.
"This is where they burned me with acid- a Muggle liquid," she said coolly. She put out her hands, palms up and he could see dark scars in the middle. "They pierced my hands with curses. Would you like to see the soles of my feet? Where they flayed the skin off?" she challenged. "These are the handiworks of your friends, the people you swear allegiance to. They are using Muggle torture methods, yet they claim to hate Muggles and muggle-borns."
Draco winced, trying to mask his disgust at both what had been done to her and what methods were being used. The Death Eaters had punished him before, here and there for minor infractions. "If you were innocent…" he paused, he had been about to say he was sorry. No, that would not do. "This explosion is a serious matter," he bent down to her, his eyes pleading for her to cooperate. He had no desire to torture her, but he would if he had too.
"Go on, Malfoy. Do your work. I'm not going to tell you anything," Ginny said calmly, not taking her eyes from his. He saw the defiance and resolve and realized she was telling him the truth. She would not tell him a thing. He would have to try force.
He pointed his wand at her and silently preformed Legilimency. He was inside her head easier than he thought. He saw himself, through her eyes. It looked like he was in his fifth year. They were in the Great Hall. He was currently taking a drink of his pumpkin juice and suddenly it was as if someone smacked the bottom of his glass and juice slammed into his face and dribbled down his chin as his glass struck the table and shattered. This event sent everyone around him into fits of laughter.
He could see himself looking around angrily, trying to find who'd done this to him. He could see her eyes move to focus back down on the book in front of her. He broke free of her mind. So she was exceptionally skilled in Occlumency then. She would let him see only what she wanted. He could try harder. But first, he found himself recalling his version of that memory.
As soon as he'd wiped the juice from his face with a cloth, he'd looked around scowling, for his hexer. His eyes had immediately landed on Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, who were all laughing madly. He had stood and stomped from the Great Hall, growling his revenge under his breath. Had he chosen to look around any further, he'd have seen Ginny Weasley, head buried in a book, the only person in the Great Hall who was not laughing.
"Let me see what you know, Ginny. I can force this if necessary."
"I'm very skilled, Draco. And one does not always keep one's memories lying around for any old witch or wizard to see. That is why one has a good pensieve, you know," she grinned slyly at him.
"If you won't tell me and you won't let me see, then I am going to hurt you," he said and stood.
"I know."
xxxxxxx
Ginny lay on the cool dungeon floor, the blood from her nose now dried to her face. Blood from her other cuts had dried on her arms and legs as well.
Draco hadn't actually hurt her, though his wand hand been raised. He had been called away when it seemed there was a more pressing interrogation and someone else had taken over for him. This wizard had hit her repeatedly and kicked her. He had cut her with curses. Ginny never made a sound.
Draco returned and said he would take over. What he actually did was sit on the floor, across from where she lay sprawled, having been knocked out of her chair by the other interrogator.
"Draco, you can help me," she managed, through the spit and blood trailing from her mouth. "I know what is in your heart. I know you only do this because you think you have no choice."
Draco reached for his wand. "You know nothing!" he hissed, angry that she apparently did know.
"I know that you wouldn't kill Dumbledore. Not that you couldn't but that you wouldn't," Ginny managed to get to a kneeling position.
"How do you…?"
"Harry was there, under an invisibility cloak. He had been petrified by Dumbledore and saw the whole thing. Dumbledore knew Harry might try to interfere, so he froze him. He saw everything."
Draco gaped, not having known this.
"He also said he had seen you crying in a bathroom one day. I befriended Moaning Myrtle and she told me things about you too- how you talked to her, confided in her, and cried to her. Hateful, dark people do not cry, Draco. Remorseful, good people cry," she whispered.
Bothered by her keen sense of him and the things she knew, even after all this time, he rose and left the room. She knelt on the floor, hands bound, dirty and hurting, but smiling. She knew that she had broken down a bit of that wall. And if she could break it entirely, she might just get out of here alive and be able to save Draco as well.
xxxxxxx
Ginny fell into sleep only to be awoken by the sound of the metal door creaking open. She rose to her knees and squinted, looking about. She could see his hair reflecting in the light from the hallway and his dreadfully obvious Malfoy nose: long, pointy, and aristocratic.
A cloth landed in her lap and she unwrapped it to find a piece of dry bread. As she was terribly hungry, she didn't care whether or not it was stale. She looked up at the figure she could barely see, as the dim light in the room had long since burnt out.
"Thank you," she said with her mouth full. She had been prepared to go at least a few days without food.
He snarled a reply that sounded like 'you're welcome,' and left.
xxxxxxx
The interrogations went on for the next few days as Draco tried to break into her mind, but could not see more than she was willing to show him. However, he did not let anyone else in the room with her and he did not hurt her further. He justified this to himself by thinking eventually she would grow to trust him and would tell him what she knew or let him in, either way would do the trick. Draco continued to sneak food and drink in to her when he could. This went on for what Ginny judged to be about a week.
Finally Ginny spoke. "Why are you doing this? I am not going to tell you or anyone else anything. And I have proven that you can take nothing. Why don't you just let them kill me?"
He was shocked by this suggestion and by the look he saw in her eyes. She was serious. "You… you want to die?" he asked quietly, kneeling in front of her.
"I am not afraid to die, if that is what you are asking," she nodded.
Draco thought this over in his head. The Ginny Weasley he had seen at Hogwarts had once been so lively and joyous. Her smile lit rooms. He remembered being thoroughly annoyed by her bell-like laughter, which echoed throughout the corridors and the Great Hall. He was actually probably quite jealous, he realized, having not near as much to laugh about as the carefree redhead.
He thought long and hard as neither one of them spoke. Finally she broke the silence. "I know what I see in you. You were given the chance once. I am offering it to you again. Come to our side, Draco Malfoy."
Hearing her say his full name took him by surprise. She seemed so honest, so sincere in her offer. "You can get me out of here. I know you can. I can take you with me. I know where our camp is and I can explain you to my compatriots," she said in a whisper, calm and firm.
Draco ran a hand through his hair, looking at the ground, not daring to look at her. He shook his head. "There is nothing I can do. I know that something big is about to happen and I don't think your side will win out. If I want to live, I have to stay where I am," he said and stood.
"But what are you living for?" she asked, pleading with him, knowing there could not be much.
Draco sighed and turned from her. "I…" he began but when he found himself about to apologize yet again, he turned and left her dungeon without looking back.
Over the next day or so Ginny continued to plead with Draco to help her, join her cause, set her free. He knew she would be good to her word and not let her side harm him, but he just didn't see the point. If he wanted to live, it was best to stay where he was. He just wanted it all to be over and hopefully go on to some semblance of a life, though part of him knew life would never be as it once was. He also had a plan and in order to see it through, he needed to remain where he was.
xxxxxxx
Draco opened the door to Ginny's chamber, once again carrying food in for her. It must have been early in the morning. He handed her another piece of dry, stale bread wrapped in cloth.
"I am sorry, this is all I could find. I'll try and bring you some fruit later on," he had kept bringing her food and water when he could manage it, hoping she would just comply. "Are you ready to talk?"
"That depends on what you'd like to talk about, Malfoy. Books? Weather? Since I've seen neither locked in this cell for weeks, I'm afraid my conversation will suffer."
"Ginny, we have two suspects in custody. Have a look at these photographs. All you need to do is nod. If you prove you are willing to cooperate, I think I can get them to free you," he knelt down in front of her, holding the two moving photos out to her.
Ginny slid one of her bound hands on to his, which were holding the photographs of two men she vaguely recognized, who were turning for the mug shots. "Then I won't have these visits to look forward to anymore," she smiled and he frowned.
"This isn't a game, Ginny."
"Yet you keep playing it, pretending to be something I know you're not," she said softly, looking into his eyes. He knew deep down that she was right. He did not understand how she knew and that frightened him even more.
He dropped his hands and his head, silently cursing himself as well as her as he stood. He left her without another word.