Year Five, Part Six
The sea crashed against the rocks, a cold spray of salty water flying up and colliding with the edges of the Dark Lord's shield.
Azkaban was as dreary and bleak as Ginny had imagined. An enormous squat black fortress, it stood perched on the crumbling island like a vulture.
It was comprised of enormous black stones, each of them covered in obscure runes that Ginny couldn't recognize at all.
Something about the strange symbols hurt the eye, making Ginny feel dizzy whenever she tried to focus on them.
The prison emanated a gloomy sense of unknowable horror. Even just looking at it, Ginny felt tiny and weak, her life a matter of no significance.
Everything seemed darker there too. Even though it was a cloudless night, a pall covered the sky, the moon and stars providing barely any illumination.
The air felt like ice, far colder than even the night and sea should have caused.
'Fucking hell. I think I'd go mad if I had to stay here for a while.'
Beside her, the Dark Lord whipped his wand like a lasso and hissed out an unfamiliar incantation.
The shadows around him condensed, an enormous snake appearing beside him formed from dark fog that seemed to suck at the weak light around it.
Nagini rose, baring her fangs at the newcomer.
"The Patronus is not the only defence against Dementors," he said, noticing her stare. "Much as the Ministry would have you believe it is. They wish us to be too afraid to even meet with our natural allies."
"What is it?" She asked, entranced by the strange appearance of the misty snake as it coiled around Nagini, both of them hissing softly.
"A spell of my own devising. Perhaps one day I shall teach it to you."
"I-I would like that, my lord."
His head snapped up and to the right, the two snakes at his feet mirroring him instantly.
She felt the Dementor's presence before she saw it.
Her blood turned to ice as a cold pit of dread opened in her belly and a series of memories flickering before her eyes like photographs, none of them staying for more than a second or two.
Luna was falling to the muddy ground, her eyes empty and dead.
Percy was begging her not to kill him.
She was waking up in the Chamber of Secrets, with Potter comforting her and saying that he'd killed Tom.
Higgs was pumping into her, grunting and moaning.
She was lying in the grass outside the Death Eater hideout, having failed to capture Potter.
The Dark Lord's conjured snake suddenly rose into the air, pulling her out of her thoughts and back into reality.
It slithered in front of them, hissing softly, that strange darkness misting off of its form.
It didn't give off warmth like a Patronus, instead emanating a total sensation of numbness that cut off the Dementor's effects so suddenly Ginny gasped.
She then noticed the Dementor. It was hovering a few feet away, prevented from coming closer by the Dark Lord's spell.
The Dark Lord stepped forward, his gleaming eyes level with where the Dementor's should have been.
Ginny waited patiently, her wand at the ready. He'd warned her about this beforehand, telling her that he and he alone would be negotiating with the creatures and that she was to stay out of it.
Still, if the thing showed any sign of betraying him, well…
Frankly, she didn't know what to do. She couldn't cast a Patronus, and had no idea what the Dark Lord's spell even was. Nevertheless, she was quite certain that even a Dementor would be scared off by Fiendfyre.
Neither the Dark Lord nor the Dementor moved an inch, both of them simply standing there and staring at each other.
The air between them grew thick and hazy, the heady scent of ozone filling her nose.
Abruptly, the Dementor turned around and glided back toward the prison.
"The Dementors will begin destroying the Aurors," the Dark Lord said, finally turning to face her again. "And will then return to Britain. We will redeem the prisoners. Come."
They walked toward the prison, the Dark Lord moving smoothly over the uneven, rocky ground, while Ginny's feet seemed to find every crack and hole in the ground.
They stopped outside the prison doors. They were enormous, dwarfing even the Dark Lord's tall figure.
The doors were hanging wide open, revealing a long stone hallway. There was a metal gate halfway down the hallway, with an empty guard hut beside it.
From within the prison, screams began to sound, blood-curdling wails of agony and fear.
As they stood there, an Auror came running backwards down the hall, a Patronus leaping from his wand.
With a lazy gesture, a Killing Curse shot from the Dark Lord's wand, smashing into the Auror's back and dropping him bonelessly to the floor, his Patronus vanishing as he died.
The ground rumbled as the Dark Lord waved his wand, stone and dirt pulling itself together and rising, taking the shape of a monstrous four-legged beast with enormous curly horns.
He jabbed his wand forward, sending the creature bounding into the prison, its footfalls sending tremors through the ground.
Responding to her master's hissed command, Nagini slithered forward, following in the earth-golem's wake.
He waved his wand and a series of flaming balls appeared, immediately arranging themselves on the ceiling just ahead of the entrance.
"Come," he ordered as he began to walk, entering the fortress.
Gritting her teeth, Ginny followed.
The globes the Dark Lord had conjured moved with them, sliding across the roof and casting blazing light upon the prison.
The hallway seemed endless once they were past the abandoned guard post and the dead Auror, the ceiling slowly getting shorter and shorter until it was just clearing the Dark Lord's head.
After a few minutes, Ginny realized that if not for the lights he had created and strange glow of the snake he had conjured, she and her lord would be standing in pitch darkness.
From the distance, the screams were still echoing, although Ginny now fancied she could almost make out words.
'Must be some of them who managed to get Patronus' in time.'
As they walked, Ginny began to feel something, as if the prison itself was breathing and murmuring something just on the edge of hearing. It snuck into her mind, a creeping icy feeling of despondency and hatred, that pit opening up in her belly again.
It was as if all the heartache and anguish she'd ever experienced was surrounding her, myriads of invisible demons just pressing her to give up and give in, to just sit down and weep.
"You can feel it, can you not?"
"I-I can, my lord. What is it?"
"It is a marvel. Not even I know precisely what Erkizdis did. However, the effects are readily experienced."
He glanced over at her, a sneer tugging at his lipless mouth.
"At least, they are readily experienced by those who have not mastered the art of Occlumency. Even now, hundreds of years after his death, the emotional onslaught his experiments created still continues."
"It's terrible," Ginny whispered, unthinking.
"It is a marvel. The suicide rate among Aurors unlucky enough to be stationed here long term is over fifty times that of the rest of their miserable force. It is not merely due to Azkaban's security and location that there have been so few escapes. It does not take long for one to lose all motivation in this place."
The Dark Lord finished talking just as they neared the end of the hallway. Another metal gate stood open, next to yet another abandoned guard post.
Three Aurors lay on the floor, all appearing to be sleeping.
Ginny knew better.
Past them, there was a third open gate, and beyond it was the prison proper.
The loud shouting in the prison died almost instantly as Ginny and the Dark Lord entered, with one cry of "IT'S THE DARK LORD!" echoing around the room.
It was an enormous, cathedral-sized room, easily as large as Hogwarts' Great Hall. Cells lined the walls, with stairs leading up to the two large balconies that ran around the walls and allowed access to the higher cells.
It was hard to tell from she was standing, but it seemed like most of the cells were empty.
The strange snake he had conjured hissed loudly and sprung forward, rising up before the Dark Lord.
An instant later, Ginny saw why.
A Dementor was gliding across the floor, that terrible cold emanating from it.
As before, the Dark Lord stepped forward and met its eyeless gaze, the air between them growing thick again.
While they engaged in whatever method of communication it was they were using, Ginny took the chance to look around, paying closer attention to an empty nearby cell and trying, with all her might, to ignore the terrible feelings Azkaban had instilled in her.
The cell was tiny, smaller even than her bedroom had been at the Burrow. A small, heavily barred window in the stone wall afforded a view of the waves crashing up against the island's rocky coast.
There was a small cot up against the wall, just about big enough, she estimated, for someone slightly taller than her.
There was a single moth-eaten blanket and a pillow that looked like it was made of bricks.
In the corner of the cell, there was a gleaming steel bucket, the blue paint on it having almost entirely peeled off.
Other than that, it was empty.
"Is he-is he here to let us out?"
Ginny jumped at the sudden whisper, her wand rising with the incantation of a Killing Curse jumping to her lips.
Heart pounding, she located the source of the sound and lowered her wand, taking a step closer.
The wizard who had spoken was in the cell to the left of the empty one she'd been examining.
His emaciated arms were poking through the bars, his face twitching restlessly.
"Is he-"
The wizard broke off, giggling insanely.
"Yes," Ginny said. "We're here to rescue you. All of you."
He just continued to laugh, tears streaming down his face.
"To me."
Ginny left the cackling wizard, turning back to her lord at his call.
He was standing in the very centre of the room, the black ghostlike snake coiled at his feet once more.
Of the Dementor, there was no sign.
As she drew close to him, the Dark Lord suddenly rose gracefully into the air, his wand stretched out toward the far wall.
He continued to rise as if hoisted by invisible cables until, when he was half-way to the ceiling, he stopped, hovering in place instead.
"You all know who I am," he said, "and indeed, I have come to release you from this damnation. However, your freedom will come with a price. I demand obedience. If I release you, you will serve me. There will be no turning back. If you think to agree and then flee, you will find yourself wishing you had chosen otherwise. You will serve me, or you will remain here. You have ten minutes to decide."
With that, he dropped back to the ground, ignoring the mutters and cries his speech had roused and striding over to a small door set in the wall with Ginny following.
The door opened up to a tunnel with a steep downward slope. After a few minutes of walking, they came to another door, a thick piece of metal that looked like it could have withstood an army.
It was a pity, therefore, that it had been ripped from the hinges and left lying on the ground.
Through the open doorway was a large room, with two thick doors set in opposite walls.
The earth-golem was standing on all fours just in front of one of the doors, a low rumbling growl vibrating from its throat.
Nagini was coiled on the floor, her eyes trained on the door.
The rest of the room was a scene of carnage. At least eight bodies lay in varying states of disarray, some looking to have been bitten by Nagini, others to have been mauled by the golem, and yet others simply lying there with blank faces.
There was an overturned table on the floor, a pack of cards scattered around the room, and several broken chairs.
"When the door opens," the Dark Lord said as he strode over to Nagini, "You will open fire. Everyone within is our enemy."
Nodding, Ginny raised her wand, while the Dark Lord twisted his own through a series of elaborate gestures.
For a long moment, nothing happened.
And then, with no warning, the door vanished, a blindingly bright jet of light making spots dance in front of Ginny's eyes.
Before they'd even cleared, before she could even see what was going on inside the room, she acted.
A Killing Curse spat from her wand, followed immediately by another, and then a third.
The earth-golem leapt into the room with its claws waving, and the Dark Lord released another spell, something that made the entire prison shake.
There was one long, drawn-out wail from within the room, and then everything fell silent.
Walking forward, Ginny made out the bodies of four Aurors. The golem was still savaging one of them, unspooling his intestines as it tore at his belly.
Another flash of light occurred behind her, making Ginny spin around.
The Dark Lord was standing with his wand stretched out toward where the other door had been, and what was now an enormous corridor.
On both sides of the corridor, she could see cells set in the walls. They seemed far more secure than the other cells she had seen; the bars were thicker and closer together, with strange runes engraved into the metal.
From each cell came a chorus of cheers and cries of gratitude.
"My friends," the Dark Lord said softly, the cacophony dying the instant he began to speak. "It is time for you to be imprisoned no more."
The shouts that followed were deafening.
"I did it!" Hermione exclaimed breathlessly, holding up the golden coin and tapping it with her fingernail. "It worked!"
"So now everyone who's got one of these can send messages with them?" Asked Sirius.
"Yes. And it means-"
"We've got a network of people looking out for us," Ron finished, smiling grimly. "Any Death Eater goes near Diagon or any of the major centres, we'll know about it. This is going to make life far easier."
"Aren't most of your club at school?"
"No," Harry answered, leaning forward. "At least a third of them were meant to be finishing now. But I don't really see the Death Eaters just casually doing their shopping. Do you?"
"Course not. But if the Ministry falls, they won't be hiding anymore. And we'll have enough people scattered around that we'll find out where they are."
"Not to mention, if the Ministry does fall, it'll be useful to have information from inside Hogwarts. Good work, Hermione. Impressive."
Hermione nodded at Sirius' compliment, barely even smiling.
"You're set on capturing one of them," Sirius asked, glancing at Harry for a moment before turning his attention back to Ron and Hermione. "Aren't you?"
"Don't tell me you're taking Moody's side," Ron accused. "You said you thought it was a good idea!"
"I still do. I'm just worried-"
"We're not going to-"
"We're worried that you're going to go after Ginny and ignore everything else," Harry interrupted. "We should get a Death Eater if we can, but it doesn't need to be her."
"She killed my parents," Hermione said, her voice entirely expressionless.
"And she as good as did mine. We're not just going to let her go."
"I'm not talking about letting her go if we can get her! We're just saying that if we're looking out for a Death Eater it doesn't have to be her specifically!"
"It doesn't," Ron agreed. "But you know, we aren't going to fucking rest as long as-"
"Maybe you should try and remember what happened last time you ran after her without thinking!" Harry snapped, jumping up. "Fucking hell, you can't just-"
"We're going to kill that bitch, and if you aren't helping-"
"Harry, she killed my parents! How can you-"
"SHUT UP!"
They fell silent at Sirius' shout, Ron still looking furious while Hermione's face went blank again.
"Listen," Sirius said. "I'm with you guys. We get her, if we get the chance. But if the chance comes up for another Death Eater, we take it. You've got to remember that while Voldemort is still around, nothing will ever finish. If we get her, but it makes us lose the war, would it be worth it?"
Scowling, Ron shook his head and dropped back into his chair.
"Good. So, we just need to think things through. We need to have plans ready, in case one of them is spotted, alone."
Sirius held up his hand as Ron opened his mouth, hurriedly continuing to speak.
"If they're in a group," he said, "all it takes is a second for one of them to summon Voldemort. We can't risk that, not if there's so few of us. You know Moody won't sign off on this, so it's just the four of us for now."
"With them having infiltrated the Ministry so deeply," Harry asked, a horrible thought occurring to him. "We've got to worry about the Trace, don't we?"
"Only until your birthday. That's next week, isn't it?"
"Yeah, but can't they extend it?"
Shaking her head, Hermione answered.
"No. The Trace is an immensely complicated magical working. They can't alter it for individuals."
"That's something," he sighed. "At least. I still think that if we can set up defences at Hogwarts and get Voldemort to come there-"
"It's an option," Sirius said. "But not a real one until we know what's going on. If the Ministry does fall, Voldemort will take over Hogwarts. We'd have to have control of it for your plan to work. And we'd need a way of getting people in and out."
"It's still an idea."
"That it is. We just need to make sure that our ideas aren't half-assed."
"And for that," Ron sighed, "we need to wait and see."
"It will be done tomorrow, my lord."
A round of cheers went up around the room at Yaxley's announcement.
Grinning, Ginny nodded across the table at him, quietly relishing the fact that she was still seated at the Dark Lord's right.
The table had been enlarged since the Azkaban raid a month previously. It was slightly disconcerting to look down and see such a long stretch of seats, but it was comforting.
At the very bottom of the table, Lucius sat beside his son, with Narcissa on his right.
The Malfoy patriarch hadn't spoken much since he'd been freed. He usually sat as he did now, his right sleeve flapping pointlessly and his face long and wan.
It had been quite shocking for him when they'd gotten back to headquarters and Ginny had cursed Draco in front of him. Frankly, she had meant it to be shocking.
Even now, he didn't look as if he believed it. Every few seconds, he stole a glance at his son and flinched, the sight of Draco's ears and clothes seeming to offend him.
"Excellent. Excellent. Well done, Yaxley. And then Hogwarts will fall into our hands. Rookwood, you are prepared to take on your role as Headmaster?"
"Gladly," Rookwood responded, "my lord."
"Good. And our new Dark Arts and Muggle Studies professors are prepared as well?"
Jugson and Rowle both nodded, Jugson looking far more pleased about the prospect than Rowle.
"You all have your orders for tomorrow," the Dark Lord continued. "I expect them to be carried out to the fullest. I want Potter's location."
Gritting her teeth, Ginny banished the sudden nerves that fluttered in her belly and nodded.
She would carry out her orders, no matter what it took. Her family would have Potter's location, or at least something close to it.
She'd do what she needed to.
"Tomorrow, we will finally take control of this country," the Dark Lord whispered, the soft sound carrying through the room and igniting a thread of excitement within her. "Tomorrow, we will take what is owed to us."
She stood on the small hill near the Burrow, with Bellatrix standing beside her and gently stroking the back of her neck.
Slowly, she forced her breathing under control, forced herself to relax.
The moment she'd crested the hill and saw her old home, her knees had almost given out and terrible anxiety had flooded through her.
She'd prepared herself for facing her parents and whichever of her siblings were around, but she hadn't prepared herself for the sight of the house.
In the two years since she had last been there, so much had changed for her.
And yet, the Burrow looked exactly like it had when she'd last seen it.
At this very moment, she knew, houses belonging to members of Dumbledore's Order were being broken into all around the country.
It was only fair, really, that she should have to deal with her family.
'They're just stupid blood-traitors,' she told herself. 'I don't care about them at all. I don't. I cared about Luna, and I still killed her when I needed to. I don't care about them, and even if I did, I'd still do whatever I have to. I can do this. I can do this.'
"I can do this," she muttered, her wand creaking under her grip.
"You can, love," Bella whispered. "You can."
Ginny nodded, that terrible feeling slowly ebbing away.
Still, she could feel a thick tension within herself, like there was a wire stretched as taut as possible in her chest.
"Rowle's coming," Bellatrix said, "are you ready?"
"I am. I'm fine."
Bellatrix chuckled softly, her hand still on Ginny's neck.
"Good. You know, I really can't believe you grew up in a shithole like this. How did you manage?"
"I managed fine. Why isn't he hiding?"
Rowle walked through the Burrow's garden, making no effort to stay out of sight. Since he was visible, he'd obviously removed the Disillusionment Charm. As he drew closer, Ginny made out the laughter etched into his face.
"Stunned them already," he called cheerily, "Only the three of them. No other humans in the house. I'm ready when you are."
For a moment, Rowle's face was blotted out in a red haze. Blood rushed in Ginny's ears, a terrible fury overshadowing even the tension she was feeling.
"You did what?"
"Stunned them," Rowle shrugged. "They were sitting around the kitchen table, not even bothering to look outside. Got them all before they even realized anything was up."
Ginny's wand snapped into position, the incantation springing to her lips with no thought required.
"CRUCIO!"
Rowle dropped to the grass, his limbs shaking as he rolled over and wailed.
"You were just supposed to look!" Ginny cried, ending the curse, "You weren't meant to do anything, you stupid-"
"Why are you doing?!" Bellatrix hissed, seizing Ginny's shoulder. "It's fine! It's better this-"
"He shouldn't have! They're mine-they-"
Ginny shook her head, that sudden anger seeping out and leaving a confused jumble in its wake.
Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes, that tension in her feeling like it was going to snap.
"Sorry," she said, walking over to Rowle and helping him up. "Sorry. Just-leave them to me. Leave them to me."
"N-no problem," he stammered, "I thought-"
"Come on," Ginny called as she began to walk toward the house, focusing with everything she had on not thinking, not feeling. "Let's do this."
The outside of the Burrow may have been the same as Ginny remembered it, but the inside seemed to have changed almost as much as she had.
'Mum must not have been cleaning,' she thought, 'Fucking hell.'
Thick piles of dust had built up in the corners of the room, and some mould had formed on one of the walls. Many of the photographs had broken frames and ripped edges. Looking closer, Ginny noticed with a pang that there were no more pictures of her in the lounge. In fact, she seemed to have been torn out of any family photographs.
'Don't think about it, don't think about it, just do what you need and get out.'
As if she was in a trance, Ginny walked around, trailing her fingers over furniture and watching as her childhood played out before her eyes.
There was the coffee table on which she'd chipped a tooth when she'd been chasing Ron and tripped. There was the bookshelf she'd knocked over with a fit of accidental magic.
There was the rocking chair her mother had always sat on while knitting the annual Weasley jumpers.
There was the clock, with its hand for each family member. A large crack ran down the glass cover. All the hands were pointing at 'Mortal Peril.'
Well, all the hands except hers, Charlie's, and Percy's. Those were nowhere to be seen.
"Love? Come, we need to actually do what we came here for."
Slowly, she walked to the kitchen, feeling almost as cold and empty as she had in Azkaban.
Her mother, father, and Bill were all unconscious.
Bellatrix and Rowle had propped them up on some chairs and taken their wands. The three pieces of wood were sticking out of Bellatrix's pocket.
'Don't think, don't feel. I don't care about them, I don't! They're just blood-traitors! Just stupid blood-traitors!'
"Let's go," Ginny said, raising her own wand. "On three. One, two, three. Rennervate!"
Immediately, her mother blinked, waking up, with Bill and Ginny's father doing the same on her sides.
Her father was staring at her through blood-red, bleary-eyed, looking exceptionally confused.
As she looked at them, a torrent of memories tried to rise, snatches of their voices as they spoke about how much they loved and cared for her.
The sight of them and the sound of their remembered words set her aflame. She could think of nothing, nothing but the urge to run, the urge to stay there and punish them. She was shaking, she realized, her breath coming in short gasps.
She took a deep breath, emptying her mind.
"Get out!" Her mother cried, voice choked, "Get out of here, Ginny, you are-"
"Shut up! Shut up, don't say my name!"
"Please," Bill begged, "please, don't-"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
She took another breath, feeling Bellatrix's comforting presence right behind her and forcing herself to relax.
That urge to lay waste to her family grew stronger, all but overpowering her.
"Where's Potter? Where is he?"
"We don't know," Bill said immediately, "we don't-"
"And Ron? And their Mudblood? Where are they? WHERE ARE THEY?"
"You did this," her mother spat, staring at Bellatrix with deepest loathing in her eyes. "You dirty bitch, you stole my daughter!"
With a wild screech, Ginny slashed her wand through the air and tore open a deep gash in her mother's cheek.
"Shut up, shut up!"
The blood running down her face and her wide eyes made her mother appear quite insane. She bared her teeth, looking like she was going to leap from the chair.
"GET OUT!" She screeched, "YOU LEFT US, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE HERE!"
"We don't know! I promise, Ginny, we don't-"
Spinning, Ginny shrieked out a Cruciatus, sending it into Bill and smashing him off of his chair.
He fell to the floor where he writhed and screamed.
"WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO?" Ginny cried, ending the curse and turning back to her parents. "DO I HAVE TO KILL MORE OF YOUR CHILDREN TO MAKE YOU TELL ME? WHERE THE FUCK ARE THEY?!"
"We don't know," Bill repeated, his voice mushy from the curse's aftereffects. "We can't know, it's a Fidelius. Please, Mum's not in her right mind, please, just-"
"I'm going to kill you," her mother sobbed, "you were my daughter, I loved you!"
Her face was twisted in perfect anguish, the words she was saying seeming to hurt her as much as they did Ginny.
Her father, however, was staring at her, an expression of shocked recognition on his face.
"Ginny?" He asked, his voice sounding oddly disjointed. "Is that really you?"
The tension in her making her feel like she was going to explode, Ginny tossed her head back and screamed wordlessly, a non-verbal Cutting Curse flinging itself toward her father.
It missed, slicing open a hall in the wallpaper.
"It is you," he said, as if he hadn't noticed anything. "Ginny, I love you, I'm so-"
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
The Killing Curse struck her father right in the chest, his body careening onto the floor.
With a loud wail, her mother launched herself from her chair, arms outstretched toward her husband's corpse.
Screamed, Ginny snapped her wand forward and hit her mother with a Blasting Hex that smashed her into the wall.
Someone was laughing, cackling insanely. After a moment, she realized it was her.
She was laughing, and yet she could taste the salty tears streaming down her face.
"CRUCIO!"
Again, Bill screamed, his body spasming like he was having a fit.
"WHERE'S YOUR FIANCÉ? COULDN'T YOU HAVE FOUND A HUMAN GIRL? DO YOU HAVE TO LOWER OUR BLOOD EVEN MORE? FUCKING TRAITOR BASTARD!"
With every screamed word, she slashed her wand, cut after cut opening on Bill's groaning form.
"WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE ARE THEY? WHERE THE FUCK IS POTTER?"
"They're under the Fidelius," Bill moaned. "Somewhere in Wales. Please, that's all we know. Please, just leave us!"
She put him under the Cruciatus again, his agonized screams filling the kitchen once more.
"TELL ME WHERE HE IS! WHERE IS HE?!"
Her mother crawled over to him, waving her arms and mouthing out something frantically.
She could just barely make out the sound of her mother begging over Bill's pain.
Laughing, she ended the curse and faced the woman who had given birth to her, catching sight of Bellatrix and Rowle as she did.
Bellatrix was watching it all with a wide smile, looking prouder than Ginny had ever seen her.
Rowle, on the other hand, looked like he was sickened.
"Where are they?"
"Leave us alone," her mother sobbed, her voice so thick that Ginny could barely make out what she was saying. "Just leave us! You've got nothing to do with us anymore, just leave us alone!"
"Where. Are. They?"
"Even if I knew," her mother declared defiantly, her eyes burning, "I wouldn't tell you. TRAITOR!"
Ginny's wand tip made figures of eight in the air as she aimed and yelled out the curse.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Her hand was shaking so badly that the spell missed. Instead of her mother, it hit Bill.
For a moment, Ginny just stared, feeling like she was going to explode.
'I've murdered half my siblings,' she realized, and laughed again.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID!" She shrieked suddenly, "LOOK! YOU MADE ME DO IT, YOU STUPID BITCH! LOOK WHAT YOU DID!"
She raised her wand again and stopped, all at once a thousand memories of her mother cramming her mind.
'I can't, I can't, I can't!'
The need to leave thrummed in her, the urgent necessity to not stay in the house she grew up in for a moment longer.
If she stayed, even just long enough to end her mother's miserable life, she'd go mad, or explode, or that tension in her would snap and kill her.
"Let's go," she said, turning away from the horror she had wrought, her gorge rising. "Let's get out of here."
"Love, you should-"
"LET'S GO!"
Suiting action to word, Ginny ran out the back door, not even pausing for long enough to cast the Dark Mark before disapparating.
"Fucking useless," Ginny spat, pacing restlessly in her room, "bitch, it's her fault, I should have-how dare they-somewhere in Wales, fucking hell!"
Giggling, she turned around and waved her wand, a Blasting Hex throwing Draco into the wall again.
He barely even reacted. All he did was groan and try to curl himself into a ball once he had come to rest on the floor.
"I don't care about them. They're not my family anymore. They cast me out, they took me out of their pictures and clock. They deserved it."
Draco moaned, blood pouring out from the dozens of cuts and gashes dotting his body.
When Ginny had arrived back from the Burrow, she'd run straight to her room, avoiding everyone.
That tension had been driving her mad, the terrible icy cool in her stomach making her feel like she would go mad.
She'd thought of grabbing the knife, then, of grabbing it and slicing it into her skin and feeling the sweet relief from thought and feeling the pain would bring.
For the first time in ages, she'd thought of it.
She'd decided, however, that there was a better way to release her tension.
And so, for the past hour, she'd been toying with Draco.
"Crucio!"
Draco's screams were far softer than when she'd started, his voice already hoarse.
"Fucking piece of shit," she said, ending the curse and giving his shaking body a kick. "I don't know why I even let you live. What's the fucking point? Why shouldn't I just kill you?"
Draco just continued to sob pathetically, blood and snot covering his face.
"I did the right thing. No-one can doubt it anymore. No-one can possibly think I'm not the most dedicated. It doesn't even matter. They don't matter. THEY DON'T FUCKING MATTER!"
Taking a deep breath, she leaned against the wall, forcing her mind to clear.
"I don't care. I don't care anymore. I'm going to do whatever the fuck I want. I'm going to kill them all. All of them."
"That sounds like a lovely idea."
Ginny spun at the sudden speech, her wand flying up as her heart started racing again.
Bellatrix was standing in the doorway, her eyebrows arched at Ginny's wand.
"Are you going to curse me, love?"
"No."
When Ginny lowered her wand, Bellatrix entered the room.
Sighing, she nudged Draco's back with her foot.
"Get out. Now."
Trembling and whimpering, Draco pushed himself to his feet and began to limp toward the door.
"Wait," Ginny called.
Draco turned to face her, starting to cry in earnest again.
"Go to your father," she ordered. "tell him this is all his fault. Tell him the way I'm treating you is his fault. Tell him how much you hate him."
"Dr-Draco will do that, m-mistress."
"I'll know if you don't. Go on, get the fuck out of here."
When the door closed behind Draco, Ginny dropped into her bed and giggled, that twanging tightness in her chest making her feel like she would lose her mind.
"Oh, love," Bellatrix said softly, walking over and sitting beside her, gently running a hand over Ginny's back.
"You did well. You did."
"Thanks," Ginny whispered, the scene from the Burrow starting to play in her mind again, a shiver running through her.
"We left your mother alive," Bellatrix said. "So that next time, when you're not too weak to do what needs to be done, you can finish it."
Ginny raised her head, her blood suddenly aflame.
"When I'm not feeling so weak?"
Bellatrix seemed not to notice Ginny's change in mood.
"Well, you couldn't quite kill her, could you? I understand it is hard, but you can't allow your weakness-"
"You understand nothing!" Ginny cried. "Your muggle-loving sister is still alive! How dare you-"
"Shut up. Shut up about-"
"NO!"
Ginny jumped to her feet, her body shaking with pent-up fury.
"You've had years, years to kill her! Her, and her daughter, and even though they're part of Dumbledore's gang you-you fucking left them! Don't call me weak!"
Bellatrix moved almost too quickly for Ginny's eyes to track. Her hand shot out, whipping across Ginny's face and leaving burning pain in its wake.
"Shut up," Bellatrix hissed. "Stupid little girl, you don't know-"
"No! How dare you! What have you done for him in the last fifteen years?! I've sacrificed everything! I killed Dumbledore! And you think he still trusts you more than me! You-"
Bellatrix slashed her wand, a Cutting Curse leaping from the end of it.
Ginny just managed to twist, the Curse slicing open her shoulder instead of her throat.
Pure fury overtook her, the tense wire in her chest snapping.
"AVADA KEDAVRA!"
Roaring, Bellatrix summoned the bed into the path of the curse. It exploded when the emerald jet hit it, shards of wood flying everywhere.
Immediately, the pieces all flew at Ginny. Her hastily cast Shield Charm only stopped half of them. The others flew through and crashed into her, leaving cuts and bruises, with one of them impaling itself deeply into her arm.
Snarling, she leapt forward, ignoring the pain. Blisteringly fast, she waved her wand, sending spell after spell at her lover. Killing Curses, Explosive Hexes, and Severing Charms flew with equal measure.
Something hit Bellatrix, bowling her over and making her head collide roughly with the wall.
"Fucking bitch!" Ginny spat, "You call me weak, when you-"
She lurched, a terrible agony registering in her torso as a hot wetness spilt over her waist.
She looked down, expecting what she would see but still being shocked by it.
Her belly had been torn open. Thick, dark blood was pouring out, the undulating coils of her intestines just visible through her ruined flesh.
The strength fled from her legs, dropping her to her knees.
"Little cunt," Bellatrix growled, standing up once more. "Cruci-"
Ginny snapped her wand, putting all her strength into the Blasting Hex.
It smashed right into Bellatrix' chest, sending her flying straight through the wall as if it were made of paper.
'Come on, come on!'
Ginny began to run her wand over her belly, muttering out the incantation for the healing spell Bellatrix had taught her. The skin started to knit itself together, but blood was still seeping quickly through and her vision was growing dim with every passing second.
Someone let out a shocked exclamation behind her.
Turning her head took the last of her strength. As she took in the sight of a bewildered Dolohov, Ginny fell over, a last laugh tearing itself from her throat.
She could feel the blood bubbling out of her mouth with her spittle, could taste it on her lips.
'I couldn't kill my one mother,' she thought, 'And so my other one had to kill me.'
And the darkness claimed her.