A/N: This chapter has been beta read. Thank you, Lord Otello.

Chapter 23 – The Dark Lord

Ginny was in a nightmare. Nothing of that was real, it couldn't be. She didn't know how she got there. She just remembered being in the Burrow's garden, enjoying a bit of the sun from the beginning of the summer, when everything went dark. When she woke up, she was there. In the beginning, she was more confused than scared, until her kidnapper introduced himself.

'Hello, Ginny!'

It was an odd little man. He had a squeaky voice and his features resembled a rat.

'Don't be scared.' He said. 'After all, we've known each other for a long time.'

'I don't know you.' She retorted.

'Ah, actually, you do. You called me Scabbers.'

Ginny's breath was stuck in her throat. 'Peter Pettigrew...' She concluded.

'Well done, Ginevra.' Another voice echoed, she didn't know where it came from. 'Very astute.'

Ginny glanced at Pettigrew. 'Who's talking?'

'My Master.' The rat seemed to be afraid.

'Voldemort?'

Pettigrew flinched when Ginny pronounced the name. She didn't know exactly when she had stopped using the name You-Know-Who, but Harry used the Dark Lord's name with ease and it seemed silly to her to be afraid of someone's name.

A man partly cropped out from the shadows at the other side of the chamber. 'You dare to use the name of the most powerful wizard of all times?'

The face of that man was not natural. Ginny couldn't describe it. It wasn't human.

'It's just a name.' She answered. 'Why have a name and not use it?'

'Do you know whom you're speaking to?'

'I've my suspicions.'

'And aren't you afraid?'

'Yes, I am.' She admitted.

Voldemort took a step forward, leaving the shadows. His body was on the wrong side, or was his head?

'If you're scared, then why are you so calm? I don't have many childhood memories, but I remember other children cried when they were frightened.'

'Then, you just met weak kids.'

'Intriguing.' He said, approaching. 'You have an interesting mind, Ginevra. You are powerful, fearless, daring, and intelligent. You know you aren't powerful enough to challenge me, but yet you'll keep doing it.'

All of that was true. She knew everything was lost, when she realised she was Voldemort's prisoner. She didn't know what he wanted and it didn't matter, because she wouldn't do anything he ordered her.

'Tell me, Ginevra,' He demanded. 'Will your friend Harry Potter be such an extraordinary child like yourself?'

'No…' She replied. 'He's better!'

'Let's find out… Reveal him.' He commanded.

Voldemort turned his bizarre body around and Ginny discovered that on the other side there was a man. She understood it, at that moment. Voldemort didn't have a bizarre body, he was living in the body of the other man. That man aimed his wand to a point some meters away from her, and Harry's body showed up. Her heart stopped for a moment. For a second, she thought he was dead. No, he couldn't be dead, he seemed to be asleep. She ran towards him.

'Harry!' She called. 'HARRY!' She tried to shake him, but he didn't wake up.

'He won't wake up… yet.' Voldemort stared at her once more.

'What did you do to him?' She asked, adjusting Harry's glasses that were askew on his face.

'It doesn't matter. What matters is what he is going to do for me… and you will help me.'

Ginny, impassive, heard Voldemort speaking about a magical mirror and the Philosopher's Stone, that Harry had to get the stone to him and Ginny had to convince Harry to do it. When Harry would get the stone, Voldemort would take it and would return to the power.

'I'll never do that! It's betrayal!'

'Think, Ginevra, no one needs to get hurt. He'll think you're alone; tell him you need to get the stone and take it to Dumbledore before someone steals it. He'll do it, because that's what a student of Dumbledore would do.'

'Harry is smarter than that.'

'We'll see… Use the Imperius.' He ordered.

Ginny didn't know what an imperius was, but she knew it hadn't worked. Voldemort's harbourer cast a spell, she felt a weird sensation of peace for a few seconds, but then a voice echoed in her heard, telling her to betray Harry. Her answer was definitive, Never. That occurred twice more with the same result. Oddly, Voldemort seemed satisfied with that.

'Amazing…' He said. 'You are a treasure, Ginevra, but your loyalty to Potter won't do you any good.'

'Why are you trying to convince me? I thought someone like you would have other ways to do it.' She remarked by impulse.

'I do have, but I'll give you a last chance. It would be lamentable to destroy a witch with so much potential. You can be a powerful addition to my circle in the future. Think about it, Ginevra, you can have everything… just chose to be loyal to me.'

'Never!'

'A pity… Wormtail,' He said, 'you know what to do.'

Then the pain began.

Ginny didn't know for how long that lasted. Time was no longer an important concept, nothing was important. Only that pain existed… and Harry. Among the physical and emotional pain, the few coherent thoughts she had were about Harry. What would they do to him? Would they hurt him too? Would they convince him to get the stone?

She felt useless, worthless. If Harry got the stone, it would be her fault, because she was a weak, useless girl, who couldn't defend herself. She didn't even try to defend herself! She could have attempted doing wandless magic. She had been doing magic for months, but never defensive spells, just simple and common spells. She didn't believe a Bat-Bogey Hex could solve her problem. But she should have tried.

Those thoughts came in a fragmented and incoherent form. The pain overcame everything. After a while, she could no longer control her own body. She was uncontrollably quivering and couldn't stop crying. She hated crying, she didn't want to cry, but it was impossible to stop. What would her parents say if they saw her like that? Would they miss her when she was dead? She wished she had had a chance to say goodbye… There was a moment she thought the time to die had arrived… Everything fell silent and the pain was decreasing… It still hurt, but she was feeling at peace…

Someone was speaking to her. She wasn't understanding, nor did she want to. She didn't want to think, she didn't want to listen, she didn't want to move. Someone made her move, changed her head's position and a face appeared at her front. It was a boy and he was crying… Had they hurt him too?

'Please, Ginny, talk to me!' He shouted.

Suddenly, everything returned. Harry! It was Harry. He was fine. The whole urgency in doing something to help came back.

'Harry…' She tried to say. Her voice wasn't working properly, but she had to try. 'Don't do… Don't do what he's saying… Don't do what he wants… He'll come back…'

She saw that horrible man appearing behind Harry. She wanted to warn him, she wanted to scream, she wanted, but her body wasn't complying.

'Calm down, Ginny… Everything will be okay. Pettigrew can't hurt you. I'll take care of you.'

Harry thought she was talking about Pettigrew?

'It's not Pettigrew…' She tried to warn him. 'It's him…'

She was so weak. She wanted, she really wanted to help Harry, but she couldn't. She couldn't move, her muscles weren't responding. Her eyes were closing without her permission… It seemed that her mind was shutting down. She didn't remember anything else.

Minerva had never been as terrified in her whole life as she was in that precise moment. Not even in her worst nightmares, she could imagine something like that could ever take place at Hogwarts.

When Hermione Granger and her friends came looking for her to alert her about Harry Potter's disappearance, she had been sceptical at first. The boy probably was just enjoying the summer's sun, isolated somewhere in the grounds as he sometimes did. It was not until the girl began telling her restrict information that she began to worry. However, one crucial piece of information almost made her heart stop.

'Professor,' Miss Granger said, 'we checked the corridor of the third floor to be sure. Someone did something to put Fluffy asleep and the trapdoor is open. Someone is trying to get the stone in this precise moment and we believe it's You-Know-Who.'

Quickly, Minerva reunited a team. Filius, Severus, Pomona and Rubeus came, but Quirinus wasn't anywhere.

'We have to ensure the stone's safety.' She notified the other teachers. 'Someone might be trying to steal it and has maybe made a student hostage.'

'Which student, Minerva?' Filius asked.

'Harry Potter.'

It wasn't necessary to say much more for them to understand what those circumstances implied. The action was quick. Each member of the team knew exactly how to deactivate the protection they had put. Just Quirrel's troll caused them a bit trouble, but quickly they dealt with the creature. When they arrived in the last chamber, none of them could believe in what they were seeing. Quirinus Quirrel's disfigured corpse lay on the stone floor. Harry Potter was unconscious and a few meters away another child was passed out on the floor.

'Who's that girl?' Pomona asked.

Minerva recognized the girl. 'She's Ginny Weasley… What's she doing here?' She asked herself.

'Someone else is here…' Severus told them. 'I can't believe it… It's Peter Pettigrew.'

The Head of Slytherin seemed absolutely shocked. Minerva approached. Everything was getting worse by the minute. Harry told her about Pettigrew and she didn't appreciate his worries. Look at what that brought them. She needed to act fast.

'Filius, Pomona,' She commanded, 'take the children to Poppy immediately. She must solicit support from St Mungo's if needed, but ask her to do the most possible here. We don't know who else is involved in this.'

'Severus,' She continued, 'Call the Auror Department, tell them we capture Pettigrew and he has to be taken to justice. I have evidence that he's an illegal Animagus and forged his own death after he participated in the Potter's murder… And now, everything says he is involved in the kidnapping of two children.'

Severus stared at her, astonished. 'He participated in Lily's murder?' He asked.

Minerva nodded. 'A bit of Veritaserum might be handy.' She suggested.

A/N: Hey! Here's the chapter I promised to post. The next chapter's title is Magic.

See you in the next chapter,

Inês