AN: Sorry for giving you a longer wait than usual between chapters. My schedule changed recently, giving me less time than usual to write. Updates will probably take longer than they used to, but I still have no plans to abandon this story.
Year Four, Part Five
"That was good," Bellatrix said with an approving smile. "But you need to get it faster. Try again."
Straightening her back with a click, Ginny nodded, concentrating again.
Gripping her wand tightly, she spun, vanishing and reappearing before the crack of her Apparition had died down.
She'd landed about twenty feet behind Bellatrix, who was already turning to face her. As soon as she appeared, Ginny's wand flashed, a Stunner flying from the tip.
The instant the spell had left her wand, she followed it up, casting a Shield Charm and immediately sending an Explosive Hex, a Disarmer, and a Cutting Curse at Bellatrix in quick succession.
The ground in front of her shield rose in a swirling torrent of dirt and dead leaves which crashed forward, sticking on her shield as if it had been made of glass.
'She's blocking my vision!'
With a growl, Ginny sent another Cutting Curse flying toward where Bellatrix had last been.
Almost instantly, a bright blue spell shot through her shield, smashing it apart and hitting her in the shoulder.
Ginny was thrown back a good few feet, coming to land with a stone pressing roughly between her shoulder blades and her arm still vibrating with the force of whatever spell had hit her.
She scrambled to her feet, brandishing her wand and sending a Stunner as soon as she could.
With a loud, shrill laugh, Bellatrix slashed her wand through the air, making Ginny's Stunner veer off course.
Before Ginny could respond, Bellatrix waved her wand again, and something gripped Ginny's midriff tightly, squeezing the air out and throwing her harshly onto the ground.
She rolled over onto her back, frantically trying to breathe, but her lungs stubbornly refused to take in air.
Panicking, she managed to get onto all fours, spots beginning to dance in front of her eyes as Bellatrix walked toward her, still laughing.
She dropped onto her chest, blackness creeping into her vision, hysterically gesturing to her throat and to Bellatrix, silently begging the older witch to help.
With a last full-bellied laugh, Bellatrix waved her wand again, and air rushed into Ginny.
She fell to the ground, relieved tears filling her eyes, too happy to be breathing to even wonder why Bellatrix had kept the spell going for so long.
She took another grateful breath, her chest trembling with it, and then rose, taking Bellatrix's hand and pulling herself to her feet.
"You might think I'm being too harsh on you," Bellatrix said, her voice tempered with a gentle tone that Ginny hadn't heard too often before from her. "But I mean to see you fulfil your potential. You have the intelligence, you have the talent, and you have the will. I will not see Aurors take you. It is better that I'm harsh on you now, so that you can be harsh on our enemies later."
"I-I guess so."
"Trust me," Bellatrix said, her fingers dancing along the back of Ginny's neck. "It's for the best."
"Yeah. You're right."
"I always am, dear. So trust me when I say that one day, they'll all be almost as afraid of you as they are of me."
Ginny paused her steps for a moment, focusing on the large house with unseeing eyes.
Was that what she wanted? To be an object of fear, to be spoken about in the same hushed and terrified tones as the Dark Lord and the rest of the Death Eaters were?
'They already hate me, after Luna. They must.'
"It's alright," Bellatrix said softly, her hand resting on Ginny's shoulder. "It's better to be feared than scorned. If they want to hate you for what you believe in, they deserve to have their hate thrown back at them tenfold."
"It's just...hard, sometimes," Ginny whispered, staring at her shoes. "To know that-that they all hate me."
Bellatrix's arm snaked its way around Ginny, pulling their bodies close together.
"Poor baby," she said, hugging Ginny tight. "It gets easier. You're doing the right thing, and if they hate you for it, they deserve all the pain that you can bring them. You know that you're doing the right thing, don't you?"
"I-I do."
"It will get easier," Bellatrix said. "I promise."
"Honestly," Dolohov said, "As much as anything else, I'm just looking forward to walking into the Wyvern and ordering a drink again, like a free man. One of Quentin's Iced Hippogriffs, no more of this elf-made shit."
Ginny nodded with the rest of them, murmuring assent and acting as if she knew what exactly they were talking about.
She was sitting in the Headquarters' large kitchens along with pretty much all the other escaped Death Eaters. The timorous old House-Elf, Mimsy, had announced lunch and disappeared, probably trying to avoid having to deal with Mulciber again.
"Bullshit," Rowle growled, "You're not thinking about the bar, you're thinking about his whores."
Dolohov chuckled along with the rest of them, but continued as soon as the laughter died down.
"If Azkaban hadn't killed my sex drive," he said with a wink and a nod of his head in Ginny's direction, "You'd all have heard her screaming my name by now."
Ginny blushed, instinctively looking away.
"Aww," Mulciber said, fake pity dripping like honey from his voice. "You've embarrassed her. What's the matter, Weasley? Afraid we've been staring at your tits or something?"
'Show them you're strong. That's what they need to see.'
She forced herself to meet Mulciber's eyes, twisted her lips into a painful leer.
"You can look as much as you want," she said, somehow managing to keep her voice from shaking. "But you'll have to keep them in mind for when you're alone."
Still maintaining that lecherous grin, she curled her hand into a slightly open fist and began to shake it up and down.
The room erupted into laughter, with even Mulciber joining in, though the smile never reached his cold, blank eyes.
"I still can't believe fucking Snape turned traitor on us," Travers said, shaking his head and clapping Ginny on the back, "would have been a good entrance for you."
"He got what was coming to him," Bellatrix muttered darkly, sliding into the chair next to Ginny's. "And before you know it, Potter will too."
"Tell us about the brat again," Rabastan said, "How he looked when he realized what you really wanted."
Still smiling slightly, Ginny began to talk, explaining, in minute detail, how the whole disastrous kidnapping attempt had gone, from the moment Harry had first walked down the stairs, up until she had to Apparate away.
In retrospect, knowing that Harry was aware of her plan, his expression when she'd got him with the Body-Bind was actually close to hilarious.
The others seemed to find it funny as well, all of them cracking up laughing when she described it.
Eventually, she finished her story, her voice trailing off as she told about her escape.
This was the part that she dreaded about it, having to tell the part where she failed and ran away like a coward.
But, just like the previous two times she told it, there was no mockery aimed at her for her failure, no disgust in their voices.
Oh, they spat and cursed out Snape, but they seemed to still accept her amongst them, even if not completely.
It was strange, almost surreal, how she had always felt more of a stranger with her roommates than she did with these people, people about whom she'd grown up hearing scary stories from her brothers.
"Pity you went for that girl instead of Moody," Dolohov said wistfully, "You never know, you might have been lucky."
Gibbon snorted, shaking his head.
"More like Moody would have cut her in half."
"He's only human," Dolohov answered, cracking his knuckles menacingly, "He's bound to fuck up sooner or later. And when he does, I'll stick that wooden leg so far up his ass he'll choke on it."
"Thank you for that, Antonin," Rookwood said, startling Ginny with the harshness of his rasp. He barely ever spoke, and when he did, his voice sounded like something had died in his throat. "I've always wanted a mental image of Alastor fucking Moody being sodomized. I don't know how I managed until now."
"I'm just saying, that fucker killed Evan-"
"He killed a lot of us," Jugson said quietly, making everyone look at him; he usually spoke even less than Rookwood.
"That he did," Bellatrix grimly, "And soon he'll get his just desserts. All of them will."
"It can't happen too soon. Waiting to get people in position and take care of Potter is all well and good, but it needs to happen already."
"It will," Bellatrix said confidently, nodding to Mulciber, "The plan-"
"It's your idea, isn't it, Weasley?" Mulciber interrupted.
"Mostly," she said with a shrug.
"I hope for your sake it works," Dolohov said.
"The Dark Lord thinks it will," she said. "And I know Potter. It will work."
"If it doesn't," Mulciber said, grinning again, "We'll just have to find another use for you. I'm sure I'll think of something."
Cackling wildly, Bellatrix leaned over, twining a strand of Ginny's hair around her finger. "I'm sure if she ever has the misfortune of seeing you naked, Jared, she'll be far too busy laughing to do anything else."
A fleeting look of furious hatred flashed across Mulciber's face before it was replaced with a smile, his eyes still glittering dangerously.
A chill shot through Ginny, the laughter around her suddenly sounding tinny and dull.
'I'm going to have to be very, very careful around him.'
Dolohov caught her gaze and, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, nodded, a compassionate look on his face.
"Tell them about Barty," Bellatrix said, giving a small "How he helped the Longbottom boy to come out of his shell."
Chuckling, Ginny joined the conversation again, ignoring Mulciber's stare and pushing her worries to the back of her mind.
The hare twitched again, its hind legs feebly trying to jump even though it lay on its side, its torso rising with extreme slowness.
"You see," Bellatrix said poking it in the thigh with her wand, "it takes a long time to die this way. It's not so clear on an animal like this, but it can feel its organs slowing down. If you ever do it to someone, they'll be willing to do whatever you want to make it stop."
Chuckling darkly, she rose, waving her wand again.
The hare spasmed, its legs shaking madly as it emitted a high-pitched keening noise.
Then it jumped up, waggled its long ears, and bounded off into the woods.
"It's easy enough to reverse, as long as you do it in time. No lasting damage either. Of course, they usually forget their promises as soon as they can breathe again."
"So what do you do then?" Ginny asked.
"You repeat it. It's good because it's slow. If you're doing something like this, you have time to play around, to take as long as you like. You want to make sure that they're completely broken, that they won't even think about disobeying you or lying. You take your time."
"Why not just use Veritaserum?"
"Veritaserum," Bellatrix sneered. "Oh, it's very useful, but it takes a month to make, and you only get a few doses at a time. There are ways to get around it too, Occlumency and antidotes, but even more than that, it doesn't help. The Veritaserum will wear off, and you can't give it too often or they develop an immunity, and Veritaserum doesn't break someone the way my methods do. And Veritaserum is exceptionally boring."
"I guess so."
"It really is. There's no room for finesse, no room to have fun and experiment. Not to say that it doesn't have its place."
"Tell me," Bellatrix asked after a minute of comfortable silence. "Are you ready for tomorrow night?"
"I think so," Ginny said, butterflies suddenly appearing on her belly. "I think I am."
"The muggles should be easy enough," Bellatrix said in a gentle tone. "But your brother…"
"He probably hates me," Ginny sighed. "Like the rest of them."
Shrewd eyes glinted, needling in on Ginny and examining her closely.
"Focus on that," Bellatrix said. "Keep it in mind, how much he hates you. Take that hatred and turn it back on him."
"I will. It should be easy. It's just...he's my brother."
"Family is important," Bellatrix said, her eyes distant, "But some things are far more important. If your family wants your mercy, they should deserve it."
Ginny nodded, lapsing into silence.
"You'll do wonderfully," Bellatrix said, "I believe in you."
She winked then, tangling her hand in Ginny's hair again.
"You're too delicious to disappoint me," she said, "So see that you don't. I'd hate to have to hurt Mulciber for you."
Ginny felt the blush starting, but forced herself to meet Bellatrix's eyes anyway.
"Should-should I be worried about him? He seems-"
"Not at all," Bellatrix said, shaking her and sending her mane of hair flapping wildly behind her. "I made it clear to him that you are not available for his desires. He won't do anything to you, not unless you show him that you want it."
Ginny stopped walking, her jaw dropping as she stared at Bellatrix.
"Th-thank you," she said fervently. "Thank you! He was-I was afraid-thank you."
"As long as I'm around," Bellatrix said, "You don't have to fear him."
Luna walked up to her, a sad smile tugging at her lips.
"I never thought that you would kill me," she said, shaking her head softly and speaking in much the same tone as if they were discussing another one of her father's theories.
Ginny looked around in dismay, her heart thumping in her chest.
A thick mist coated her surroundings, tendrils of it extending and twisting oddly, giving the place an odd, half-formed look.
"This is a dream," she said.
"Is it?" Luna asked, looking interested. "I've never been in a dream before."
"Stop it," Ginny moaned, "go away. You're dead, just go away!"
"You killed me for nothing," Luna replied calmly, "I thought you loved me. I was never afraid of you. I was always afraid for you."
"You tried to stop me, it was your fault! You gave me no choice!"
"All I wanted was to save you. I loved you. I thought you loved me too."
"I did," Ginny whispered, "but you interfered."
Luna drew closer, teardrops glistening on her eyelashes.
"Liar," she said, moving in and pressing her mouth to Ginny's.
Tears pricked against Ginny's closed eyelids as she responded, her hands flying up to grip Luna around the waist and pull her closer.
Even if it was just a dream, it felt so good.
Luna stopped suddenly, taking a step back.
Opening her eyes, Ginny gasped, her hand flying for a wand that wasn't there.
As she watched, the skin withered and turned to dust as the hair sloughed off of Luna's head, the grinning skull below slowly coming into view.
Thick, dark blood began to pour from her empty eye sockets and her mouth opened, a dried-up husk of a tongue flashing over empty gums.
"You didn't love me," the Luna-thing said, "You don't love anyone. A monster like you can't."
"I did! I did! This is a dream! It was all your fault!"
It stepped closer, bleached-white bone gleaming as a skeletal hand rose, reaching out towards her face.
She landed on the floor with a thump, the blanket twisted around her legs and her heart pounding so hard it felt as if it would burst.
She lay there for a few minutes, the moonlight shining through the window shimmering through the tears in her eyes.
Slowly, she got up and lay back in bed, taking deep breaths and forcing the tension out of her body.
"Just a dream," she muttered, "just a stupid, meaningless dream. It was her fault, it was her fault!"
When she finally fell back asleep, her sleep was fitful, thin, and blessedly dreamless.
When Ginny woke up again, Bellatrix was in the room, leaning over her and staring intently at her face.
She yelped, lurching back and catching a wallop on the back of her head from the wall.
"What are you doing?" She snapped, rubbing her head furiously.
"Just checking to see if the spots had come back," Bellatrix replied, wholly unruffled. "The Dark Lord said that they might. They haven't."
Still scowling, Ginny sat up, glancing at herself in the mirror across the room.
True to Bellatrix's words, the spots that had appeared on her face the other night had not made a resurgence.
It wasn't exactly surprising. After all, the Dark Lord himself had removed the strange itchy pustules that had covered her face and spelt out the word 'sneak' when she'd been talking about the DA.
As far as they'd been able to figure, Hermione must have cursed the parchment she'd made the whole DA sign.
Whatever it was, it didn't matter. The Mudblood's spell was clearly no match for the Dark Lord.
"What's got you so grumpy today?" Bellatrix asked, dropping onto the bed.
Ginny shook her head, tearing her attention away from the mirror.
"Bad dreams," she said. "And bad sleep."
"Poor baby," Bellatrix said, reaching out and stroking Ginny's hair. "Tell Bella all about them."
Sighing, Ginny began to explain the dream she'd had; how Luna had appeared and berated her before kissing her and turning into a skeletal mockery.
By the time she was done, Bellatrix's face seemed to glisten through the tears.
"Poor baby," Bellatrix repeated when she had finished, "But only to be expected. She was your first kill, wasn't she?"
"No. There was Higgs. I never had bad dreams about him."
"That doesn't count. That was like squashing a mosquito. A disgusting insect that thought to do you harm. But this girl, this Luna. You really did love her, didn't you?"
Ginny nodded, something thick blocking her throat.
"Shhh," Bellatrix said, pulling Ginny and holding her tight against her chest. "It's all right. You did the right thing."
A sob tore its way out of her, and like a dam wall breaking, Ginny began to shake with her tears, weeping unrestrainedly into Bellatrix's robes.
"Let it out, let it all out," Bellatrix crooned. "You'll feel better soon."
Eventually, Ginny pulled away from Bellatrix, barely noticing the enormous damp spot her crying had left on the front of the older witch's robes.
"Thanks," she muttered, not quite able to meet Bellatrix's eyes.
"Just remember that you made the right choice," Bellatrix said. "It will make it easier."
"The Ageing Potion will be ready today, right?" Ginny asked, eager to change the subject away from Luna.
From Bellatrix's half-pitying, half-disdainful glare, she knew exactly what Ginny was trying to do.
"This afternoon. Remember, you're not to eat or drink anything before it."
"I know."
"Make sure you do. You can't mess up the spell. He'll be furious."
"I know. I won't mess it up."
"You had better not," Bellatrix warned. "Now that I'm finally getting used to you."
Ginny got up, and paying no mind to Bellatrix's presence, began to strip out of her pyjamas, pulling some underwear and a set of jet-black robes out of the chest of drawers set against the wall.
"Cissy's meant to be buying you some new robes today or tomorrow," Bellatrix said from behind her. By the sound of it, she was smirking. "Not that I wouldn't prefer for you to have no clothes at all."
Blushing, Ginny pulled her panties up, her fingers shaking slightly as she picked up the bra.
There'd been a lot of comments like that, since she'd moved into the Dark Lord's headquarters. The men were the worst culprits, but Bellatrix seemed to be as quick with a leer and a dirty joke as even Mulciber and Rabastan were.
At the thought of Mulciber's empty eyes, she shivered.
From Bellatrix, the comments made her blush and wonder. From the men, they made her stomach clench up.
But when Mulciber looked at her and said those things, it made her want to run and hide.
She didn't even need to think about it to know that Mulciber would make Higgs look like a caring, gentle lover.
Not that she could run, really. Since she'd been healed, she'd been spending as much time with Bellatrix as possible, but even so, she couldn't just avoid the rest of them completely.
There was Mulciber, Rabastan, and his weird, creepy brother Rodolphus, who could usually be found talking with each other, often in the forested area behind the large house. There was Rookwood, who was in the library every time Ginny went in. There were Dolohov and Travers, who seemed to spend all of their time duelling or eating.
There was Jugson, Rowle, and Gibbon, none of whom spoke much.
There was Pettigrew, who acted as if he was terrified of everyone else and crept around the house looking like he would burst into terrified tears at any moment.
And there was Bellatrix, who sometimes treated Ginny like a friend, sometimes like a child she'd been hired to look after, and sometimes like an object of utter scorn.
All in all, life at the Death Eater headquarters was nothing like Ginny had been expecting.
Frankly, she hadn't thought about it that much, how it would be on a day to day basis. She'd been too busy imagining the glory she'd get after bringing Potter to the Dark Lord to wonder about it.
If she had, she'd have imagined it entirely differently.
She certainly wouldn't have imagined it as being like a holiday.
Whenever he wasn't meeting with non-fugitive Death Eaters like Lucius Malfoy, the Dark Lord was sequestered in his study, reading books on magic whose subjects Ginny couldn't even understand and making plans that were revealed to nobody.
Meanwhile, the rest of them were left to just...entertain themselves. It was wonderful, in a way, having no expectations of her, nothing she needed to do.
At least, nothing to do yet.
In the meantime though, she'd just been settling in.
It had only been a week or so since she was healed and woken up from her coma, but Ginny already felt more at home in the Death Eater headquarters than she could ever remember feeling at the Burrow.
Even the other Death Eaters were welcoming, their uncomfortable comments notwithstanding. They were a lot better when Bellatrix was around, seeming to be slightly afraid to say anything too harsh, but they seemed happy to have her as one of them even when Ginny was alone.
She'd faced a few comments aimed at her family, but those had mostly stopped after Bellatrix told the others about the idea Ginny had suggested to the Dark Lord.
Ginny did keep getting the feeling that they were reserving judgement on her, particularly Mulciber.
More than all of that, Bellatrix had made Ginny feel at home.
She mostly stayed with Bellatrix, talking with and learning from the older witch. They spent hours together at a time, with Bellatrix explaining the foundations of dark magic and using animals they found in the woods to demonstrate its capabilities.
They even duelled, pretty much every day, always ending with Ginny splayed out on the grass and Bellatrix cackling in the background.
This morning wasn't the first time that Bellatrix had woken her up, and it wasn't the first time she'd comforted Ginny after a nightmare.
Even after all that, Ginny was still unsure exactly how Bellatrix viewed her. Sometimes, she was sure that Bellatrix was flirting with her, and that her lewd comments were more than just dirty jokes told reflexively.
She found it very hard to imagine though. Bellatrix was old enough to be her mother, not to mention the fact that she was apparently married to Rodolphus, no matter how little time they spent with each other.
Still, Ginny couldn't quite get the idea out of her head, and to be honest, wasn't sure if she wanted to. The more time she spent with Bellatrix, the more she realized that Barty hadn't once exaggerated how incredible she was. If anything, he'd understated it.
She was brilliant, smarter than anyone Ginny knew besides the Dark Lord, and she could understand Ginny in a way that no-one had since Barty. Oh, when it came to her feelings about her family, Bellatrix seemed lost, but with regards to anything else, Bellatrix understood her.
More than once, Ginny had wondered if she dared to do it, if she should just try and kiss her and see what would happen.
But then Bellatrix would make a mocking, hurtful comment, and Ginny would be left beyond confused.
And when they were duelling, Bellatrix seemed to take far too much joy out of hurting her.
'It's because she's never seen me succeed in anything,' she thought, pulling her robes closed around and nodding at her reflection. 'After tonight, that'll change.'
As if the thought had been audible, Bellatrix said: "You've got a very big day ahead of you. You should probably relax a little."
Turning around to face her, Ginny asked: "I thought you were coming with tonight?"
"Of course I am. But you'll be the one actually doing it. I'll just be there to witness."
"Well, I'm not going back to bed now."
"Of course not. But it's a nice day. Come," Bellatrix beckoned to her and began walking to the door. "Let's go outside."
Her throat dry as sand, Ginny coughed, wishing that she could just have a sip of water.
Bellatrix was drinking, droplets leaking off of her conjured goblet and falling to the ground.
Ginny still couldn't drink anything, not until she'd had the Ageing Potion and done whatever it was she needed for the Trace to be removed.
Agreeing to a duel definitely hadn't been her best idea. Her whole body was aching even after Bellatrix's healing charms, and her stomach cried out to be filled.
"You're getting better," Bellatrix said, lowering the goblet. "Why, another few months and you might resemble a challenge."
Ginny just nodded, not even feeling energetic enough to bristle up at the insult.
"Don't worry. It's only another hour until you can take the potion. You need to do it at midday."
"I'm fine," Ginny said. "Just thirsty."
"You'll be alright," Bellatrix said flippantly, walking over to where Ginny sat and dropping onto the grass beside her. "In Azkaban, they sometimes went days without feeding us."
"That's terrible," Ginny whispered.
"It is what it is. They wanted to hurt us, to punish us for our loyalty."
Bellatrix cackled suddenly, frightening a pair of swallows out of the trees.
"Well, we showed them! We'll see who's scared once they know the truth, once we have power again! They'll all see the rewards for those of us who were loyal, who never lied about our part!"
"And even you," Bellatrix continued, placing a hand on Ginny's shoulder. "You'll be rewarded too. After everything you went through for him, you'll be almost as high as me."
Ginny nodded tiredly, a smile cracking through her exhaustion.
"I've been thinking," Bellatrix said, her voice dropping into a low, sultry tone, "about a nice present for you, after he gives you the Mark. I think I'll give you that boy's parents. Would you like that?"
"Higgs?" Ginny whispered.
"Of course. Who else?"
'Why not? If you could kill Luna, if you can kill Percy and Hermione's parents, you can certainly kill them.'
"I think I would. I don't know."
"It must have been horrific," Bellatrix said softly, leaning right up to Ginny. "Having to do what he wanted. Did you know that you liked girls already?"
Ginny shrugged, trying to throw her mind back to that time.
She could vaguely remember daydreaming about Harry, before Tom had shown her the truth. And she could clearly remember dreaming about Tom.
"I don't know what I like," Ginny said. "I think-I think I might like boys also."
"Really?"
"I used to-used to dream about To-The Dark Lord. The memory of him, from the diary. I think-I only realised last year that I even like girls also."
"Some people like both. By the time I was ten, I knew I only liked girls. The thought of a man…" Bellatrix shook her head, an expression of utter, total disgust flickering across her face.
"But you-" Ginny goggled, "You're married!"
"Of course I am. I wanted a baby, and after Andromeda ran off with her mudblood, someone needed to keep up appearances."
Laughing at Ginny's shocked face, Bellatrix continued.
"Rodolphus isn't so bad, as men go. He shuts up when he should, and he knows what's important. He's loyal to the Dark Lord. And I taught him that I'm not interested in rutting with him."
"But-you said you wanted a baby-"
"There are ways to do that without having to act as their toys," Bellatrix spat, rubbing her belly with a faraway look in her eyes. "If it works. If it lasts for more than a month or two. If the baby isn't a weak, disgraceful-"
"So you and Rodolphus...You never-"
"He wanted to. Oh, he wanted to."
Bellatrix laughed again, twirling her wand through her fingers.
"He didn't press it, at first," she said, speaking mostly to herself. "And I was good to him. I found him girls that he could use as he wished, as long as it was out of the public eye. We even shared them, sometimes. But he wanted me. I was his wife, he said, and he wanted me."
"What did you do?"
"I took it off," Bellatrix said, "Wand and snitches both. I took it off and fed it to him, and I taught him to know his place. No babies for Bella, not from him."
"And he didn't fight back?" Ginny asked, caught somewhere between horror and fascination.
"He tried," Bellatrix said with a smirk, giving her wand a twist and making a rock explode a small distance away from them. "But I was always better than him. He learned his place, and a month later we went to Azkaban. I think it broke him, actually. His…loss, the Dark Lord's disappearance, and then Azkaban. He's just a shell of what he once was. Once upon a time, he'd have already had you eating from his palm."
Ginny thought of the strange way Rodolphus had of staring into space with his mouth half-open and his fat tongue resting on his lower lip, the way his fingers always shook and his eyes were always leaking.
A shell of a man indeed.
"Why did you even need to marry? If you could...have a baby without fucking them-"
"Because of Andromeda," Bellatrix hissed, her wand suddenly rigid in her hand. "Because Blacks do not have children out of wedlock. Because one of us could do as we wished, but two would be too many. Because Andromeda was a Blood-traitor slut and that meant that I had to keep to expectations."
"Did you ever have any girlfriends at school?" Ginny asked, "Wouldn't you have to keep them secret?"
"They were always secret," Bellatrix said, a touch morosely, "Always. It would not do for my... proclivities to be known."
Bellatrix shook her head then, her hair fanning out around it.
"It's time," she said, standing up and nodding at the house. "Let's get you ready for action."
The writhing finally stopped, the strange sensation of her body being pressed and stressed and pounded ending as suddenly as it had begun.
Slowly, she stood up, looking down at herself and shaking on unsteady legs.
It felt bizarre, like looking at a stranger even though she knew it to be her body.
Her robes were far too small for her; her arms and legs poked out by several inches, and if her collar was any tighter around her neck she'd have been on the floor gasping for breath.
Her height wasn't the only thing that had changed; her hair had grown, hanging down to the small of her back, and her breasts seemed to have burst from her bra.
'At least I know I'll be bigger,' she thought, clamping down on the mad urge to laugh and continuing to eye her changed body.
From what she could see of them, she'd be growing quite a bit of hair on her arms and legs. Her body seemed to have filled out, her hips rounded and her belly slightly plump.
She ran her fingers over her legs, feeling muscles that hadn't been so pronounced before drinking the potion.
The Dark Lord stood halfway across the room from her, with a smiling Bellatrix at his side. As Ginny looked up, the older witch winked at her.
"A normal Ageing Potion will not remove the Trace," the Dark Lord said, "An altered one, however, will. Now to ensure that the Trace does not fall upon you again once it wears off."
A hint of cold amusement entered his voice, a slight sneer pulling at his lipless mouth.
"You will experience some discomfort. Prepare yourself."
With no more warning than that, he waved his wand.
Discomfort did not even begin to describe it.
Something seemed to thrash inside her belly, like a taut rope that had suddenly come loose.
Intense, horrific pain flooded through her as an enormous invisible hand gripped her around the midriff, squeezing the air out of her and dropping her to the carpet.
Black spots danced before her eyes as she forced her mouth open, compelling her lungs to take in air.
Her arms twisted strangely, her legs spasming against the floor as something, some intangible, powerful force moved through her, squeezing her limbs one at a time and seeming to stretch out her every cell.
The pain changed, becoming almost as overwhelming as that of the Cruciatus and she screamed, her throat feeling like it was going to tear.
Time swept over her, no sensation registering in her mind except that force moving through her and a feeling as if her blood had turned to ice.
When the spell was removed, she lay there for a few minutes, her cheek pressed to the shaggy carpet beneath her, her limbs jittering uncontrollably.
However long it had gone for, it had been enough for the Ageing Potion to wear off. The sun still shone through the windows, but it was heading towards the horizon.
She rose slowly, ignoring the enormous holes in her robes that she'd apparently ripped in her squirming.
With Bellatrix by his side grinning madly, the Dark Lord nodded at her, a small smile forming on his serpentine face.
"Eat," he said, "and rest. Tonight, you will have the chance to prove yourself."
Steeling himself, Harry entered the Common Room and immediately made a beeline to where Ron and Hermione were sitting.
Hermione greeted him softly when he arrived, but Ron just continued staring into the fire with a muscle in his clenched jaw twitching.
"You're right," he said, "I think we should start the DA again. We can meet tomorrow night. None of the other houses has Quidditch practise then."
Ron nodded, some of the tension melting out of his set shoulders before returning a moment later.
"Good," Hermione said fervently, "They've all been asking me. I'll spread the word tomorrow morning."
'Sirius was right. I need to do this. I need to say it.'
It was only the long conversations with Sirius through the mirror that had given him the courage to even think of it, but now that he had, he had no choice.
"Ron," he said quietly, "I'm sorry. I've been a really selfish, shitty friend lately. I'm sorry, mate."
Like before, the tension vanished from Ron, a startled, happy look flickering across his face.
"Git," he said fondly, "Don't worry about it. I understand."
"I should have at least tried to talk to you," Harry continued, not looking at Hermione's pleased expression. "I know that whatever I'm feeling, it must be worse for you. I should have-"
"Yeah, but then you'd lose your brooding look. Just don't fall into yourself again, and it's alright."
"I won't. And I should-"
"Please don't start giving me all that," Ron said, "I get enough pity from the rest of our roommates, don't you start too."
"Fine," Harry said, grinning despite himself, "Wanker."
Hermione slapped him lightly on the arm, but Ron chuckled.
"How's your family doing?"
Ron shook his head, his attention going to the fire again.
"Fred and George barely talk," he said, "and when they do, half the time they're talking about catching her, the rest about dealing with the Slytherins who keep making stupid comments. Charlie's...Charlie. He's coming back to England in the next few days. Bill says that mum and dad are doing a bit better."
He scowled, his fists opening and closing.
"At least, they were."
"What happened?" Hermione whispered, looking as if she, like Harry, was dreading the answer.
'It can't have happened too long ago,' he thought, 'Otherwise she'd already know.'
"Apparently we all have to be on our guards," Ron said bitterly. "You Know Who sometimes makes the-the new Death Eaters prove that they're more loyal to him than anything else. Even-even more than to their families."
"God, Ron," Hermione said, "that's terrible."
"Fucking hell," Harry muttered.
"Yeah. The Burrow's safe, and me and Fred and George are here. But...dad tried to warn Percy. Percy sent him a howler."
"No!"
"He did," Ron said, nodding at Hermione. "I can't really imagine she'd actually do it, but it'd serve him right if she-if she attacked him. Smarmy git."
"Fuck, Ron," Harry said, "That's horrific."
Ron gave a little, hollow laugh, continuing to stare resolutely into the dancing flames.
"It is what it is," he finally said. "I just-I wish it would all turn out to be a mistake, you know?"
"Yeah."
Shaking his head, Ron stood up.
"It'll be good to have the DA going again," he said, "If I-if I ever see her again-I need to know that I can hold my own. I need to-"
Ron squeezed his eyes tightly shut, his fists clenching again as something in his voice cracked.
"I'm going to bed," he said a moment later, his eyes opening again. "It's good to have you back with us, Harry."
"Please," Hermione's mother begged, "Please, just-"
Bellatrix slashed her wand through the air, sending the Muggle woman flying backwards harshly. She crashed into the wall, knocking into a shelf and sending books and family pictures in silver frames careening down.
On the floor, Hermione's father pushed himself to his knees, coughing heavily and pressing his hand to his side, where Ginny's Bludgeoning Hex had broken his ribs.
It had been easier than Ginny thought it would, even with the targets being muggles. They'd Apparated right in, disturbing the couple as they sat in the living room and read.
It had been the work of less than a minute to show them who they were dealing with.
"You've never used the Cruciatus on a person," Bellatrix said, "have you?"
Ginny shook her head, staring down at the spluttering man at the floor and trying to sort through the mass of emotions whirling up within her.
"Take whatever you want," Hermione's father said, "Please, just-"
Bellatrix reached out, her hand running gently through Ginny's hair.
"Just do it," she said, "Hurt him."
Ginny raised her wand, her heart thumping in her throat, her hand trembling.
"Please-leave us-"
"Take all that delicious anger you have," Bellatrix whispered, moving closer to Ginny and stroking the back to her neck. "All that pain from how your family treat you, all that hatred. Let him feel what you feel, show him agony. His daughter is friends with Potter, let her suffer. Do it. Make him scream."
'He's just a worthless Muggle. Luna was important to you, and you killed her when needed. Do it.'
"Crucio!"
He started howling, falling to the floor and rolling around, his voice sounding like a dog in pain.
"RICHARD! STOP IT, PLEASE-"
Ginny ended the curse, a feeling of utter power and control coursing through her.
He continued to scream, still writhing on the floor with his body jerking around like a live wire.
"PLEASE, STOP-"
"Her too," Bellatrix whispered.
She felt incredible, the tinge of revulsion that had plagued her earlier having vanished, fierce, furious joy making her heart swell.
A grin pulled at her lips, a giggle bursting out of her.
"Crucio!"
Bellatrix cackled wildly, fisting Ginny's hair and pulling her close as Hermione's mother began to wail, falling to the floor beside her husband.
A puddle formed under the shrieking Muggle, the acrid scent of urine filling the air.
Leaning against Bellatrix, Ginny began to laugh, the thought of Hermione's expression when she would find out what happened to her parents suddenly hilarious.
'What is wrong with you? She's just-'
'She's a dirty Mudblood, and she's friends with Harry! She deserves to suffer!'
Bellatrix threw her arms around Ginny, pulling her into a close embrace, her breasts pushing up against Ginny's side.
"Wonderful," she whispered, her breath hot against Ginny's ear. "But we'll have plenty of time to play another time. Tell them why you're doing it and kill them."
Almost regretfully, Ginny ended the curse and stood, sneering down at the muggles.
'Disgusting animals. They don't deserve to live. If I could kill Luna, I can definitely kill them.'
"This is all your daughter's fault," she said, aiming her wand carefully. "She made the wrong friends. Avada Kedavra!"
Unable to help herself, she opened the drawer next to Percy's bed, absentmindedly scratching her left arm.
She felt her nails break the skin just above her elbow and grimaced, pulling up her sleeve and eyeing the bead of blood making its way down her bare arm.
Her skin would not be bare for much longer, she knew. Only one more thing to do, and she would finally get what she wanted, what she needed so badly.
Only one more death, and she'd finally be Marked, her allegiance proudly declared to all who cared to look.
She wouldn't have that strange feeling of being the odd one out when she was with the other Death Eaters, wouldn't have to suffer through their calculating looks, not when they could see that she was one of them in truth.
And maybe, after one more murder, Bellatrix would see her as something more than a girl who she had to train.
Just one more death.
They'd decided not to go after Charlie in Romania. Unlike Percy, Charlie was very much a part of the Order of the Phoenix. It was more than likely that he'd managed to convince some of his co-workers to join, and the chance of them ending up in a fight was too high, not to mention the chance of Charlie having moved back to England.
She and Bellatrix had arrived in Percy's apartment close to half an hour ago, and he still hadn't walked in. His roommate, a wizard Ginny vaguely recognized from Hogwarts, had been there, but Bellatrix had killed him in the blink of an eye.
Then they'd prepared the apartment, setting up Privacy and Anti-Apparition Charms.
After that, boredom had claimed Ginny, and she'd started looking around.
She knew that going through his stuff was dumb, that it'd make it much harder for her to emotionally distance herself from what she was about to do, but she just couldn't help it.
Bellatrix's preening, flirty comments weren't helping either. As much as Ginny appreciated them, all she wanted was to keep her mind empty, to just not think about what she was going to do when Percy got home.
She turned her attention back to the drawer, pulling out Percy's old Head Boy badge and glancing at it before tossing it onto the bed.
His Prefect badge was pulled out next, followed by the letters he'd received when he'd been appointed Prefect and Head Boy.
Snorting, she tossed them next to Head Boy badge, picking up the next sheath of parchment, which seemed to letters of recommendation from teachers at Hogwarts and people at the Ministry.
She was just adding those to the growing pile on the bed when something buried at the bottom of the drawer caught her eye.
She pulled the photograph out, her breath catching in her throat and tears springing up in her eyes.
It showed her and Percy standing in front of a pyramid with their arms around each other's shoulders, both of them grinning at the camera with their hats perched jauntily on their heads.
A strip of spellotape ran down the middle of the photo, covering where Percy had clearly tried to tear her out of the picture before regretting it.
'It doesn't matter,' she thought, blinking furiously, 'The Dark Lord said I must do it. I need to do it. I need to! He hates me, anyway. He must hate me.'
She tore up the photo, ripping it into as small shreds as she could before dropping them to the ground.
As she began to stand, the sound of footsteps drew near, Bellatrix appearing at the door to Percy's room.
"Quickly," she hissed, "he's almost here!"
Ginny jumped to her feet, pulling out her wand and hurrying toward the older witch.
"How do you-"
"I looked through the door! He's just down the hall!"
As they walked into the sitting room, they heard the sound of a key turning in a lock.
Ginny stiffened, raising her wand, and the door opened with Percy walking through.
He had time to take one look at them, his jaw dropping and a large black briefcase falling from his suddenly limp hand, before Bellatrix slashed her wand through the air.
Percy's wand flew from his pocket toward them, the door slamming shut behind him.
From the corner of her eye, Ginny noticed Bellatrix catching the wand and pocketing it.
"G-Ginny-" Percy stammered, paling rapidly and raising his empty hands, "You-she-you-"
She kept her wand raised, aimed directly at his chest. The tip made figure eights in the air with the shaking of her hand.
"Do it," Bellatrix urged, "Don't think, just do it."
"G-Ginny-don't-whatever it is, we can-we can talk-don't-I love you-don't-"
"Lies," Bellatrix purred. "He hates you. They all do. The Dark Lord doesn't, and he told you to do it!"
"What-I don't-please, please-"
She closed her eyes, shaking her head and trying to banish the sudden barrage of images assaulting her.
In her mind she saw Percy, helping her learn how to read and do sums. Percy, telling off Fred and George when they'd stolen and hid her toy dragon, Percy apologizing for not looking after her enough during her first year at Hogwarts, Percy, sending her a signed photograph of the Holyhead Harpies.
'I can't do this, I can't do this-'
'You have to. Don't you want to be accepted by them? Don't you want to show how loyal you are?'
"Ginny, I promise, I can help-I won't tell anyone-"
'He hates you. They all do. He doesn't want to help you. He'd send you to Azkaban as quickly as Barty's father sent him.'
Hatred bubbled up in her, turning her belly to a pool of acid.
"Do it, love. Kill him, and the Dark Lord will trust you as much as he does me. Do it."
Her eyes flew open.
Percy had dropped to his knees, his hands clasped before him, his face a picture of misery with tears streaming down it.
'Disgusting. Look how weak he is. Disgusting.'
"Don't," he whispered, "Ginny, I'm family, don't-"
"I have a new family," she said, forcing herself to smile. "And you aren't in it. Avada Kedavra!'
His wail almost drowned out her incantation, but the spell shot true, hitting him in the chest and dropping him like a sack of potatoes, cutting his voice out the instant it struck.
She didn't even have a chance to think about what she'd done before Bellatrix grabbed her roughly, one hand seizing her around the waist, the other tugging at her hair.
Bellatrix twisted her around, pulling them tightly together and pushing her face up to Ginny's.
Ginny didn't hesitate. With her heart beating a thousand miles per hour and her belly fluttering, she moved forward, kissing Bellatrix.
Taking Ginny's eagerness entirely in her stride, Bellatrix pressed forward, her hand stroking its way down to squeeze Ginny's ass, her tongue flickering onto Ginny's as their lips glued together even tighter.
All thought vanished from Ginny's mind, nothing but the overwhelming, incredible sensation. It was nothing like she'd experienced before. There was a wildness to it, a primaeval lust, a feeling as if Bellatrix was going to swallow her whole.
Moaning into Bellatrix's mouth, Ginny moved, melting into Bellatrix, her hands beginning to roam the other witch's body.
She reached under Bellatrix's robes, animalistic fervour claiming her, nothing in her mind but the need to remove their clothes and revel in sensuality.
With a wide grin and a mad fire in her eyes, her face transformed into something young and wild and beautiful beyond description, Bellatrix pulled away, laughing as Ginny moaned and took a step forward.
"We'll have all night for that," Bellatrix said, her voice a lecherous promise, "But first, we need to see the Dark Lord."
She tapped Ginny on the arm, her smile widening.
"Let's get that taken care of," she whispered, "and then we can carry on where we left off. My beautiful, brilliant baby. Come."
With a wave of her wand, Bellatrix removed the Anti-Apparition Charm.
Ginny nodded, the fire of need burning even hotter in her heart.
With a twist and a crack, they Apparated away.
She did not spare a glance or a thought for the corpse on the floor.