Year Six, Part Two
As suddenly as she had passed out, Ginny awoke.
There was no period of confusion, no mental stutter as she tried to figure out what had happened.
The adrenaline thrumming through her must have sped her mind up, because she realized immediately what the situation was.
'They got me,' she thought, keeping her eyes closed and body slumped. 'They've taken me. Fuck, fuck, fuck! Oh, fuck!'
It felt like she was in an armchair. Her hands and legs were definitely tied tightly down, and she was in a sitting position.
Around her, she could hear what seemed to be an argument taking place.
"I don't want the two of you in here! We need to actually get answers, not just-"
"FUCK THAT!"
'Was that Ron?'
"You know what she's done to my family," her brother continued, talking so quickly and heatedly she could barely make out individual words, "I'm fucking staying, and you can't make me do otherwise!"
"Can't I?" Moody asked, his voice dangerous.
Ginny fought off the urge to cackle madly.
Here she was, conscious for less than two minutes, and she'd already found cracks in their group.
But, funny as it was, Ron's words stung.
If he hadn't befriended Potter, none of her family would have been stupid enough to join the Order. It was his fault she'd had to kill them.
'Who does he think he is, talking about me like that?'
"Ron, mate, Moody has a good point."
Her blood boiled at the sound of Potter, her hands almost curling into fists.
Somehow, she managed to show no outward sign of her fury, just continuing to sit there like a lump.
"How about this," Potter continued. "You stay, but if we think it looks like you're losing control, you leave. Deal?"
"Fine, but-"
Someone whispered something harshly, too low and quick for her to make it out.
Whatever it was, it shut Ron up, making silence fall on them.
'Ok,' she thought, forcing her panic to recede. 'Ok. They've got me. We're probably in their hideout in Wales. No-one knows where I am. Bella will still come, she'll find me somehow, she'll-'
But Bella had left.
Wherever Bellatrix was, Ginny could safely assume that she didn't know that Ginny had been captured. Hell, even if she did, she probably wouldn't care.
The Dark Lord was out of the country, and wouldn't want to be disturbed.
There was no-one coming to rescue her. She was entirely alone.
She almost sobbed at the realization, before cold fury seeped through her.
'I'll kill them all. Fuck, I'll make them wish I killed them!'
'You won't get anywhere if you don't think it through. Think! There's at least four of them. I don't know anything about the setup of the room, of this whole place. I'll need to make it up as I go.'
She was just deciding to open her eyes when Hermione spoke, her words making Ginny's panic come to the fore again.
"The Veritaserum should be working by now. Let's wake her up."
'They gave me Veritaserum? Fuck, fuck!'
But...Bellatrix had made Ginny take Veritaserum once just so she knew what it felt like. She could clearly remember the strange sensation she'd experienced. There'd been no fear then, no worry.
It had felt similar to the Imperius, in that everything had seemed to just be perfectly right.
She didn't feel anything like that now.
"Rennervate!"
A jolt ran through her, her eyes flying open immediately.
Finally, she saw the place where she was being kept.
She appeared to be in a living room of some sort. As she'd thought, she was seated in an armchair. Tightly wrapped cords kept her arms and legs in place.
It looked reminiscent of Grimmauld Place; the same style of carpet adorned the floor, and she recognized one or two of the portraits.
What pulled her attention, however, was not the decoration.
No, it was the five people standing in various positions around the room.
All of them were staring at her, their wands clutched tightly in their hands.
Moody looked much as he usually did, his face twisted and furious. His normal was facing directly at her, while his magical one was rolled up to the back of his head.
Hermione and Ron were standing beside him. She looked almost like a statue, her face entirely expressionless. Ron, though…Ginny had never seen him like this. His face was contorted with tears gleaming in his eyes. His ears were bright red, his shoulders shaking.
Ginny almost laughed at the sight.
She would have, if she didn't want to kill him so badly right then.
Potter was standing next to them, his face drawing her eyes. His chin was set, his face harrowed.
She barely even noticed Shacklebolt and Black, so focused was her attention on Potter.
"You bitch!"
Something slapped into her, smashing her head into the back of the chair and leaving her ears ringing with dots dancing before her eyes.
Dimly, she could hear Moody shouting at Ron, berating him for attacking her.
"You think that will work?" She asked softly, shaking her head and forcing the pain away. "You think that you'll get me to tell you anything?"
Why would they need to torture her, anyway? If they'd used Veritaserum, she'd be spilling everything with just a question.
Then it clicked.
She opened her eyes again and sneered, staring directly at her worthless blood-traitor brother.
"You knew I was awake. You didn't actually give me Veritaserum, you just wanted to make me think that you had. Idiots. You're all such-"
"You're going to tell us what we want to know," Moody interrupted. "The only question is whether you'll make it easy on yourself."
Ginny couldn't help it. She burst out laughing, cackling madly at their confused faces.
"You-you think you scare me," she managed, "you think-"
And she was off again, shaking and writhing against her bonds and laughing as heartily as she ever had.
"You seem in good spirits for someone tied up, outnumbered, and kept captive."
Her laughter cut off as if Sirius had turned off a tap with his remark.
"You-if you let me go, I'll let you die. I'll kill all of you, I swear-LET ME GO! WORTHLESS BLOOD TRAITOR FUCKS! LET ME GO, LET ME GO, LET ME GO, LET ME GO!"
Moving as quick as thought, Sirius stepped forward, his hand shooting back and forth across her face.
He stepped away, leaving her cheeks burning from the slaps and immediately, Moody slashed his wand through the air.
Terrible pain consumed her, a feeling as if her blood had been transfigured into petrol and set alight.
She was screaming, arching her back and straining against her bonds, the ropes cutting into her arms and legs and adding to the orchestra of torment.
"Kingsley," Moody snapped, his voice barely recognisable to her as the surcease from pain flooded her, "Now!"
Shacklebolt moved toward her, his wand rising even as he gripped her chin and forced it up, locking eyes with her.
She realized what he was about to do in the instant before he incanted, an icy calm and trained instincts taking over.
'So you want to play with my mind?'
"Legilimens!"
Immediately, she emptied her mind, all thoughts and emotions vanishing.
She could sense what he was trying to get, in rough strokes, at least. Memories of the Dark Lord kept trying to rise.
'So you want to see what I know?'
A chuckle escaped her as she reached into the recesses of her brain. She didn't allow him to take over, no.
She chose which memories he would see.
First, she called on what she had done at the Burrow a few months previously, allowing the scene of her brother and father's deaths to play out.
Then, with his tugging growing more and more insistent, she pulled up flashes of memories; memories of her and Bellatrix experimenting on the muggles they'd kidnapped for that purpose, images of Aurors and Order members alike dying before her wand.
His will pressed harder on her, the memories she was trying to conjure up flickering and almost failing, snatches of conversation with the other Death Eaters pulling themselves in.
Gritting her teeth, she brought all her mental fortitude to bear, concentrating with everything she had on remembering what she had done to the Higgs'.
She let their screams ring in her ears, grinning as she dwelled on the exquisite agony she'd wrought upon them.
Shacklebolt flinched back from her, his face pale and tight.
"You people," she laughed, "you think that you know how to inflict pain. You know nothing! I'll keep you alive for months! You'll beg me to kill you!"
"Nothing," Shacklebolt muttered, "she's an Occlumens. Nothing but...memories of her torturing and killing people."
"You're not going to get anything out of me," she said, laughter still bubbling up. "Unlike you all, I'm not a traitor! Go on, try! Whatever you do to me, I've done far worse! You can't get me to talk!"
She began to shake with mirth again, blood dripping down her arms and legs where the ropes had cut into her.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She shrieked, Potter's stupid living face suddenly filling her with as immense rage as ever she had felt. "YOU FUCKING HALF-BLOOD ASSHOLE, IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT! YOU SHOULD HAVE LEFT ME TO DIE IN THE CHAMBER!"
Potter staggered back as if punched, his face going white.
Sirius slapped her again, her head rocking with his hand's motion.
"Nothing you've done is anyone's fault but your own."
"It's his," she snarled, jerking her head toward her worthless brother. "If he hadn't befriended him…blood-traitor! You had to pull our family even further down! You and your Mudblood whore!"
Ron was crying, tears running down his splotchy cheeks.
"They'd have done anything for you," he blubbered. "Mum and Dad-we all would have! We'd have done anything to help you!"
"You will. You'll die for me. You'll all die. When-when I've killed the rest of you, when I'm the only Weasley left, then our family will mean something!"
Ron's face twisted with furious anguish, his wand flying up.
"Stop it!"
At Moody's growl, he paused, his eyes twitching.
"So that's how it is," Ginny said. "You're his dog. You can't even stand up for yourself. You're a useless, worthless, slimy little-"
Her voice died as Ron reached into his pocket and pulled out her wand.
"Do you remember when mum and dad got this for you?" He asked, a tremor in his thick voice. "They were-they were so proud."
She couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but watch in mounting terror as he seized her wand in both hands and snapped it.
She screamed, howling her pain to the uncaring room as she once again strained at her bonds, with the sound of the wood snapping reverberating through her entire being.
Her wand. He'd snapped her wand.
Eleven and a quarter inches, yew and dragon heartstring.
Yew, just like the Dark Lord's.
And he'd snapped it.
With a horrific, triumphant laugh, Ron threw the pieces at her, one of them bouncing off of her forehead.
A reddish-black haze stole over her vision, furious heartbreak blotting out all thought.
She was screaming, screeching out mingled curses and threats and useless incantations.
Someone slapped her again, making her bite her tongue as her head snapped back.
"I'm going to make you eat your Mudblood," she cried, shaking her hair from her eyes and focusing on him again. "I'll-I'm going to invent new things just to do them to you! You fucking useless bastard-"
"Shut it," Moody said, jabbing his wand at her.
Immediately, her mouth clamped shut, ignoring all her orders to speak.
"Listen to me. You claim to have seen people tortured-"
"She has," Shacklebolt muttered. "I've never seen anything like that, she's as bad as the Lestranges."
"Then you know that you'll break eventually. You won't be able to keep strong forever. You'll break, and you'll tell us exactly what we want to know. So, do yourself a favour and save yourself the pain. Here's your last chance to answer some questions without being forced to."
He jabbed his wand again, and the pressure around her mouth vanished.
Ginny spat at his feet, blood from her bit tongue mixing in and giving her spittle a pinkish hue.
"I'll die before I say anything. I was ready to die for him when I was eleven years old. That, at least, hasn't changed."
"You're just making this harder on yourself," Moody sighed, pushing himself up from the sofa and raising his wand again.
Ginny shocked herself by laughing.
"You're making it all harder on yourselves," she cackled. "If you want to survive, you should let me go now. And then run as far away as your cowardly legs can take you. When I get out of here-I'm going to kill you all. I'll make you kill each other. I'll flay you, I'll break you-I'LL MAKE YOU WISH I KILLED YOU!"
"You're not fucking getting out of here, can't you-"
"Shut up, Weasley," Moody growled at her brother, "Don't interact-"
"How could you?" Ron spat, ignoring Moody completely and taking a step forward, Hermione remaining in the same place with the same blank face. "How the fuck could you do it? How? HOW?!"
"It was easy. They were disgusting blood-traitor abominations, just having the same name as them was sickening! I laughed when I killed dad, I laughed! I'm going to break every bone in your body, I'll make you kill your Mudblood, I'll-"
Ron's face had gone slack and pale when she spoke about her family. Now, it was glowing a bright red.
His eyes bulging, he raised his wand.
"CRUCIO!"
She screamed again, that wonderful, horrific torment consuming her.
Dimly, she was aware of spasming in the chair, of her head colliding over and over again with the headrest, of the bonds on her arms cutting deeper into the skin.
And then it was over.
Still shaking, she looked up, barely noticing Moody shouting at her brother and gesticulating wildly.
"You can't even do that properly," she hissed, her voice feeling garbled. "Merlin, I'm going to enjoy putting you out of your misery."
Ron raised his wand again and Moody shoved him roughly.
"Go join Tonks and keep watch!"
Ron slashed his wand through the air and something shot toward her, smashing her in the face and breaking her nose.
Ron's wand flew from his wand toward Moody. An instant later, a Stunner crashed into him, dropping him boneless to the floor.
"Get him out of here," Moody snapped, gesturing to her brother's unconscious form. "Before he does something even more stupid."
Hermione nodded and raised her wand to levitate Ron away.
"Kingsley," Sirius said with a note of urgency, "now."
Again, Shacklebolt approached her and seized her chin, the blood dripping from her nose immediately making speckles on his skin.
"Legilimens!"
As before, his eyes swallowed her, her memories beginning to rise.
But she was too out-of-sorts to fight him off and clear her mind, her thoughts too subsumed by pain and rage to banish.
She saw herself being woken up after her fight with Bellatrix, saw Yaxley telling her how the Dark Lord had gone and wanted only to be disturbed if Potter was found.
She saw herself talking to Dolohov, debating what their lord was after and how quick it would take him to get back once they found Potter.
'No, no, no, he's winning, he's winning! I need to do something!'
Without thinking of it, without giving him the chance to see what she would do, she acted.
With a growled curse, she smashed her head forward as far as she could go, crashing right into his face.
She heard a crunch as her forehead knocked into his nose, heard his yelp.
"FUCK OFF! ALL OF YOU, LET ME GO! LET ME GO LET ME GO LET ME GO!"
"Stupefy!"
Kingsley's spell hit her and she fell into unconsciousness.
Bellatrix grinned at the looming house, tugging absently on the leash she held.
Behind her, the Muggle girl stumbled soundlessly, Bellatrix's silencing charm keeping her no doubt pathetic cries for mercy from being heard.
After two months, she'd finally returned.
It had been difficult to make the decision to do so. Wonderful as her plan was, it felt too much like crawling back, especially since she doubted Ginny would admit she was wrong and beg forgiveness.
Still, she had very little choice. She'd managed to stay away for two months, keeping herself busy and simply living alone in the wilderness, but she couldn't stay away forever.
The Dark Lord would happily allow her the time for herself, but sooner or later he would want her to do something, and if she wanted him to see how dedicated she was, she needed to be there for that.
Even putting aside the Dark Lord, if such a thing were possible, there was still Ginny to look forward to.
During her time away, Bellatrix had come to the conclusion that she wanted her baby. She did. Even if it meant that she had to be careful with how she spoke, even if she had to avoid difficult topics until her baby was strong enough to deal with them.
She wanted her baby, and Bellatrix always got what she wanted.
The problem, of course, remained. Ginny might think that something in their relationship had changed. She might even be so deranged as to believe she was in charge now.
And she might want an apology, or something equally absurd and likewise unlikely.
To that end, Bellatrix had decided on a plan of action. She would return to her baby and would give her a nice present. If Ginny chose to view that as an apology, well, that could work. Then, before Ginny had time to take control, Bellatrix would show her that nothing had changed. She would be gentler than she had in the past, obviously, and would be careful not to push at her baby too much, but she would make sure she knew that nothing had changed.
She tugged on the leash again, sighing and turning around to view her new pet a moment later.
It was a sixteen-year-old Muggle girl, a pretty enough thing with wonderful blond hair and bright blue eyes. Bellatrix had stumbled upon her a few days previously when she'd broken into their home.
She'd broken the girls' parents too, but they were just worthless muggles, with no redeeming features.
The girl, though, was pretty. And so Bellatrix had decided to keep her, to use her as appeasement for her baby.
The leash was connected to a necklace tied tight around the girl's throat. She'd placed a rather brilliant charm on it too if she said so herself. Whenever she was forced to pull on it, the girl experienced a painful electric shock.
She was wearing nothing else.
"Keep up," she hissed, "or else."
Tears cascaded down the Muggle's face, but she nodded.
"And now," Bellatrix mused, "I come home."
She pushed the door open and, with another tug on the leash, entered the room.
"I'm back," she called, barely able to keep her excitement down.
Strange, that she should feel so excited. She usually only felt this way before a battle.
Well, it might turn out to be a battle after all. If Ginny still thought she was better than her, Bellatrix would have no choice but to teach her otherwise.
"Cooee. Is anyone heeeere?"
Her voice echoed through the safehouse as if it were a tomb.
Unease started to grow in her. Grimly, she drew her wand.
"Bellatrix? Is that you?"
Dolohov stepped out of the reading room, his face far more drawn than usual, his wand in his hand.
He gaped at the sight of her, his confused eyes darting between her and her gift restlessly.
"Did you have anything to do with it?" He asked, raising his wand. "Fucking hell, Bellatrix, did you-"
"If you keep your wand pointed at me, I'm going to pierce your heart with it. Put it away and stop babbling, idiot."
Dolohov didn't listen. His knuckles were white, his eyes narrowed.
"Did you have anything to do with it?"
"Anything to do with what? Put your wand down, Dolohov, or I swear you'll regret it. And before you carry on with your nonsense, tell me. Is Ginny around? I have a gift for her."
She tugged sharply on the leash, making the Muggle fall over.
He lowered it suddenly, a shocked expression flickering across his face for a moment.
"You don't know," he whispered. "You really don't know. You just happened to come tonight-what are the chances?"
That terrible feeling continued to grow inside her, like icy fingers were gripping her heart and would, at any moment, squeeze tightly.
"What don't I know?"
He just continued to stare, shaking his head. That icy hand began to squeeze and a horrific certainty filled her mind.
"Where's Ginny? Where is she? DOLOHOV, WHERE IS SHE?!"
"Gone," he said. "The Order...they got her in Diagon Alley today. Witnesses saw Moody and that Shacklebolt, and-"
Bellatrix spun, too furious to think, needing, more than anything, to vent her sudden wrath.
Screeching, she slashed her wand at the Muggle, not even aware of what she was casting.
The girl exploded in a spray of blood and viscera, splattering Bellatrix's face and robes along with the rest of the room.
"Where are they? Where are they?!"
"We don't know. Probably in that hideout of theirs in Wales, the one under the Fidelius."
Furious, she screamed again, waving her wand and throwing the Muggle's corpse against the wall.
"What did the Dark Lord say?"
"Damnit, Bella, you've been gone for so long... The Dark Lord's out of the country."
She twisted around so quickly her back clicked.
She must have looked terrifying, because Dolohov took a step back, his hand twitching in an abortive movement, as if he had been about to raise his wand before thinking better of it.
"He left a few days after you and Ginny had that fight. He said-"
"We need to summon him," she said, pulling her sleeve back. "Why the fuck haven't you? I'm-"
"NO!"
Her finger hovered an inch away from the Mark, tantalisingly close.
"Why not?"
"He said not to," Dolohov said hurriedly, "Not unless we've got Potter's location. He said no matter what, we aren't to call him for anything else."
"But-"
"Nothing! He was very, very clear, Bella. If you call him for anything else…"
Dolohov trailed off, shaking his head.
"We have to do something," she cried, "I won't leave her with them. We need to-you said there were witnesses, I can-"
"They have a safe house with a Fidelius Charm on it. You can torture as many people as you like, it won't change that. There's nothing we can do, not unless their Secret Keeper changes sides. Bella-"
She spun again, jerking her wand toward the Muggle's corpse.
Huge, hungry black flames leapt over it, consuming it in an instant, not even leashing a spot of ash behind.
But her rage was not quenched.
With another shriek, Bellatrix thumped her hand into the wall as hard as she could.
She pulled back and punched again and again, feeling as if she, as the Muggle had, was going to explode.
Her knuckles were bleeding, her thumb twisted and out of place.
The pain cut through her terrible rage, allowing her to think clearly again.
"There's nothing I can do," she whispered, her voice a hoarse mess.
She stared at the door, wanting nothing more than to march out and loose Fiendfyre on this whole ungrateful, miserable country. She would kill them all, every last witch and wizard who had been there in Diagon Alley and had allowed them to take her baby.
"She's a resourceful girl," Dolohov said. "Damn near brilliant. She'll make it out. We just need to be here for her when she does. She'll make it out, Bella."
Of course, she would, Bellatrix had no doubt of that.
But they would torture her. Even now, they probably were trying to get information out of her baby.
No-one got to do that to Ginny, no-one but her.
The soft sound of the door closing broke through the strange liminal space Ginny was inhabiting.
She thought it had been several hours since she'd been stunned. The pains throughout her body had woken her up a few times. Her arms and legs burned where the cords were tied; every time she moved them, the cords bit deeper into her skin.
She looked like a mess, she knew that. Her face was covered in dried blood, as were her hands and feet.
Each time that she woke, she began to drift between rage and fear.
She'd get them all back for this. Somehow, she'd get out, and she'd make them pay. She'd keep them alive for years, making every one of their waking moments feel like a lifetime of suffering.
By the time she was done, they'd regret ever being born.
But that all depended on her getting out. She needed to escape, to find a way to leave this place. She was outnumbered and tied up, kept in some place she didn't know the location of, and nobody was coming to rescue her.
Unless...unless someone had seen them kidnapping her, and had witnessed Potter's presence.
If they had, maybe someone would summon the Dark Lord. They didn't know Potter's location, true, but she could still hope…
Hell, she could summon the Dark Lord herself. She couldn't quite be sure that it would work through the Fidelius, but it was possible.
Of course, she'd need her hand free for that. Try as she might, and she had, she just couldn't reach the Mark with her chin. Besides, she was reasonably certain it would only work if she used her hand.
Still, she could hope that the chance would come, or that someone else would have summoned him.
She could still hope, much as it felt like she was grasping at straws.
The problem, she knew, was that they wouldn't give her a chance to escape. She'd tried wiggling her hands, using the blood the ropes brought to the surface as a lubricant to try and wrench her arms free.
It had led to nothing. The only chance she had would be if they somehow screwed up badly enough that she could break free of her bonds. Even then, she'd be unarmed, but that way she'd at least have a chance.
But now, the door was closing.
She cracked a stiff eyelid, the light burning against her retina.
The Mudblood was standing there, waving her wand around the room.
'Privacy charms. Looks like the Mudblood's come to play.'
Granger walked until she was only a few feet from Ginny. She stopped then, cocking her head to one side and fixing Ginny with a cold, analysing stare.
It began to make Ginny quite uncomfortable, like she was a bug in a specimen jar.
"Here to get revenge for your parents?" Ginny finally asked, breaking the silence. "You should thank me for what I did."
Granger just continued to stare, not even blinking.
"I did you a favour. I severed your ties to the Muggle world. Now, you could-"
"Crucio."
Agony consumed her. It was far worse than Ron's pitiful attempt at the curse had been. She could feel it in every inch, that terrible burning, breaking feeling.
She was screaming and shaking, her torso and head wiggling uselessly like a fish in a net.
And then it was over.
Ginny caught her breath, forcing, by sheer willpower, her shaking to subside.
"Why don't you try something I don't like in bed?" She spat.
Still entirely impassive, the Mudblood raised her wand again.
"Crucio!"
She bit down hard on the inside of her cheek as she tried, and failed, to trap the scream.
She could barely think through the pain. All she knew was the torture, the torture and an undeniable wish for it to end, for it to stop.
When it did, it took her longer to calm down. Tears were flooding down her face, blood leaking out of her mouth.
"Y-you fucking b-bitch," she stuttered, unable to keep her voice straight with the aftershocks of hellish torment still running through her. "Do you think I'll b-beg? I'm not your fucking Muggle parents!"
"Crucio!"
It was worse, now. The pain was clearer, any mental blocks she'd erected to distance herself from the situation long eroded.
This was agony the likes of which she had never experienced, agony which even Bellatrix had never wrought upon her.
Dimly, she was aware of her bladder releasing its contents as the pain drove all her ability to control herself from her mind.
It took a while for her to realize when the curse had ended. Her mind seemed hazy, her thoughts wispy things that she couldn't quite grasp.
'If she keeps this up much longer, I'll end up like the Longbottoms.'
It was enough to make her laugh, really. After everything she'd been through, she was being broken by her brother's Mudblood whore.
Granger frowned at the sound of her mirth, the first expression to cross her dirty face since they'd started.
And suddenly, Ginny's fury returned in an almost overwhelming rush.
She strained at her bonds again, feeling the slickness of her bloody arms against them.
The Mudblood stepped back hurriedly, moving just out of reach of Ginny's teeth.
How dare this worthless creature even think to raise her wand against her?
"I'm not going to kill you," she cackled, savage joy filling her even as her tears turned Granger into a kaleidoscope. "I'm going to k-keep you, you're not too ugly, B-Bellatrix and I will pl-play with you whenever-I'm going to break you, please, I'll kill you, just let me go, let me go, please let me go!"
Granger's frown disappeared, the corners of her lips rising for an instant.
"Crucio!"
Something seemed to snap in Ginny's mind.
Thought fled, all knowledge and memories vanishing.
She was hanging in a glittering pitch-black place, stars surrounding her like diamonds poured onto a dark velvet sheet.
Pain suffused her. It was her, and she was pain. She was nothing, nothing but an infinitesimal speck screaming into the endless void of torment.
For how much time she hung like that, spinning through the unknowable pain, she didn't know.
An eternity passed, and then gleaming light stabbed into her eyes.
Slowly, she swam back into herself, her identity reasserting.
She was.
Everything hurt, her whole body shrieking. She was still shaking and sobbing, letting out whimpering cries.
'How long did she hold the curse for? She almost-she almost broke me.'
A cold sweat broke out on her forehead, the realization of what had just almost happened to her chilling her to the bone and overshadowing even the pain for a moment.
She'd felt her mind slipping away from her. Fucking hell, she had felt her sense of self disappearing, felt her capacity to think and be vanishing in a haze of agony.
Suddenly, Granger seemed far more terrifying than she had up until then.
She'd almost cast Ginny into insanity, almost ruined her as certainly as a Dementor's kiss would have.
'This can't be happening, fucking hell, oh fuck, she's going to do that to me! She's going to break me, and there's nothing I can do about it!'
The Mudblood was still staring at her, but now she was smiling in cold satisfaction.
"I cannot tell you how much I hate you," she whispered. "Not just for what you did to my parents. But for turning me into someone who enjoys this. I've been looking forward to this for so long... I used to be happy!"
She slashed her wand like a knife, and the sleeve fell away from Ginny's left arm, a long, thick cut opening where it had been severed near the shoulder.
Granger's attention moved from Ginny's face to her arm, a strange, viciously hungry smile appearing.
"I understand that you all need to prove yourselves before you can get one of these. Is that what my parents were? Just a way for you to prove your loyalty?"
Ginny shook her head, those despicably weak cries still escaping her.
"Fu-fuck you. Fuck you. Fuck-NO! NO, PLEASE-"
Granger lowered her wand, her eyes burning.
"Is that what my parents were?" She repeated.
"No. No. That's what he was, that's what Percy was. Please, no more, don't-"
She was babbling, cringing and hating herself for her weakness even as the words spilled from her mouth.
She couldn't let Granger curse her again. If she put her under the Cruciatus even just one more time, if she held it just a bit longer than she had…
Her mind gibbered at the very thought.
Granger whipped her wand again, making something slice deep into Ginny's cheek.
Blood shot out in a hot spray, splattering across the Mudblood's face.
"Shut up. Unless you're answering my questions, you're going to shut up. Do you understand?"
'Just go along with it. Give her whatever she wants, she's insane, just go with it! You won't be worth anything to anyone if she ruins your mind. Wait for an opening and play the coward.'
Ginny nodded frantically, her mouth shutting over an aborted shriek.
A cold, dark corner of her mind opened up, images of Granger writhing in the worst pain Ginny could imagine. She'd make the Mudblood beg for what she'd put Ginny through.
But she could only do that if she survived long enough.
She could only do that if Granger didn't destroy her mind first.
She had no choice. Weak and despicable though it was, she'd have to give in, she'd have to tell the Mudblood what she wanted.
'As long as she's not asking about his plans. If she's asking about the past, it's fine, I have to do it, I have to protect my fucking mind!'
"So why did you kill them? Why my parents? WHY DID YOU-"
Granger broke off and rubbed at her eyes, her chest heaving as she took a deep breath.
"Why did you kill them?"
"I-we-I wanted to hurt Potter. I knew if we went after his friends it'd hurt him. I wanted to hurt him and-and-and maybe make you abandon him."
Granger just stood there, her face impassive once more.
"What you did-," she finally said, "You're a monster. You have no idea what you put me through. You took something from me...I'm going to show you what it feels like."
Ginny laughed again, unable to help it.
"You-you can't. I killed my family. There's just mum and Ron and the twins, and if I get out of here, I'll kill them too. You can't get me. You can kill me-"
"And I will," Granger said, Ginny's blood turning to ice at the calmly stated promise. "But first…"
She bent over, stretching out a finger and running it along Ginny's skin just outside the outline of the Dark Mark.
"I wonder how much this means to you. Let's find out."
'What?! What's she-'
And then she felt it. A horrific, terribly agonizing slicing sensation on her arm, only a few inches above the Mark.
Ginny began to scream again as she realized what was happening, watching with unbelieving eyes as the Mudblood got to work.
She held her wand just above Ginny's skin. The tip was glowing a blindingly bright blackish-red.
She began to move it along Ginny's arm.
And wherever the wand was aimed, a gash appeared in Ginny's skin.
It was incredibly deep; she would have been able to tell that much just from the colour of the blood that began to emerge.
It didn't just cut her arm. No, it ruined it, simultaneously slicing and burning, the topmost layer of skin bubbling up and melting. Less than a second had passed and already the area of skin in line with the Mudblood's wand looked more like a mangled, overcooked lump of meat than anything else.
With dawning horror, she realized what the Mudblood was doing.
She was going to cut his Mark out of her. She was going to remove it.
And the pain was unbearable. Oh, it was nothing compared to repeated applications of the Cruciatus, but it was enough to drive her into mindless action.
She began to squirm again, shaking and writhing in her seat.
The bonds around her wrist kept her lower arm roughly in place, but she moved enough to throw Granger's aim off.
"STOP! STOP, STOP, PLEASE-"
Growling, Granger bent closer and dug her fingers deep into Ginny's arm.
Ginny shrieked, her voice growing hoarse at her non-stop screaming.
She could feel the Mudblood's fingers inside her, as she tried to rip out the hunk of flesh on which the Dark Mark stood.
And then she noticed it, her mind miraculously clearing enough for a plan to present itself.
The Mudblood's head was only a few inches from hers.
Without giving herself a chance to think about it, Ginny acted.
Slamming her head forward, she clamped her teeth shut around the Mudblood bitch's ear.
The salty tang of fresh blood filled her throat, her teeth grinding against each other through cartilage.
The Mudblood reacted immediately. Screeching, her wand spun around, a Blasting Hex spitting from the tip.
Ginny flew across the room, her ribs cracking.
Bits of wood and metal shattered and flew as she crashed into the wall, an enormous bang sounding.
Granger's severed ear fell from her mouth in a torrent of blood.
Dazed, she lay there for a moment, barely even noticing that she was no longer sitting.
Then it hit her.
The chair had broken in the crash. There were pieces of wood still tied to her arms and legs, but she was free.
She jumped to her feet, ignoring the terrible burning feeling from her arm.
She fell over almost instantly, her legs tingling like crazy.
An electric green curse shot over her head, strange bluish-green flames erupting where it hit the wall.
'TRY TO KILL ME?!'
Somehow, she pulled herself to her feet, and with a bloodthirsty howl jumped and launched herself instantly toward the Mudblood.
Granger shrieked, jabbing her wand toward Ginny with a terrified, furious expression.
Something sliced deep into her side, but Ginny was already in motion.
She crashed into the Mudblood, bowling them both over.
Granger was cursing and trying to raise her wand, but Ginny was faster.
Blood poured down her arm, the chunk of flesh where the Dark Mark stood shaking and almost falling out.
She managed to roll out of the way of Granger's hastily cast curse, a tongue of flame licking the floor where she had been a moment earlier.
Her lips peeled back in a savage grin as she dived forward again, her hands outstretched for Granger's throat.
Twisting, Granger moved out of the way and scrambled to her feet, incanting even before she was standing.
"Avada-"
Ginny punched the Mudblood as hard as she could in the face.
A Killing Curse shot right past her, coming so close to Ginny's leg that she felt the air of its passage.
But she was too far gone to think about such things. Something had seized control of her, a bloody-minded, prehistoric part of her brain, focused on nothing but her survival in this mad fight.
Granger was clearly disoriented from the punch. She was blinking furiously and trying to back away, her wand shaking so badly Ginny was sure that if she even managed a spell it would miss.
Ginny seized her hair and, with a feral screech, dropped to her knees and pulled the Mudblood down, slamming the bitch's head into the ground.
She raised her head again and slammed it, raised it and slammed it.
Granger's feet drummed against the floor, and Ginny did it again. And again.
Then, cackling, she picked the Mudblood's wand off the floor and stood, nearly falling over.
Her thoughts were coming sluggishly, everything she saw seeming to be tinged with grey.
'Lost too much blood,' she thought fuzzily. 'I need to go before I collapse.'
"I'm taking you with me," she cackled, looking down at Granger's unmoving form. "You had better not be dead. Fuck, that hurts."
Her arm was a mess, a huge piece of flesh looking like it would fall out at any moment.
She stared at it for a moment in horrified shock.
The Mudblood had cut along the Mark itself. Ginny couldn't possibly trust that it still would work to summon the Dark Lord, not with it looking like it had been stuck into a grinder.
She could feel blood soaking into her clothes from dozens of small wounds. More than that, the cut in her side felt almost as bad as what Bellatrix had done to her a few months previously.
Right then, Ginny didn't care. She felt like raising her arms to the sky and roaring in bestial triumph, like declaring her supremacy to the world at large.
She wanted, in fact, to stalk through the rest of this house and end all of those who'd thought to capture and torture her.
'If I do that, I'll just pass out and die. I need to go. Now. I need to fucking go!'
"I'd better not splinch myself. Fuck, you'd better not be dead. I'm going to destroy you for this."
Raising her wand, she cast the most powerful Explosive Curse she could.
A large section of the wall shattered, disintegrating from the force of her spell and blowing outwards.
A wave of cool, crisp air blew in. Ginny couldn't think of anything that had felt so good before.
"Let's go. Let's go. Chances are her silencing charms aren't that good. They probably heard something."
She gave up on dragging the Mudblood outside after her first attempt made dark spots appear before her eyes.
Cursing, she levitated the bitch, pushing her outside and limping, followed her.
Then, with a giggle she spun, grabbing Granger by the shoulder and pulling the bitch along with her into Apparition.
"We need to go after her, we need to-"
"I told you from the beginning," Moody spat, interrupting Ron's half-begging, half-commanding speech. "I said this was a bad idea. You couldn't keep your anger in check. And neither could she, and now-"
"DON'T YOU FUCKING PIN THIS ON HERMIONE!"
"If she'd just-"
"This is helping no-one," Sirius cried, slamming his fist on the table. "We need to work out what the fuck we're doing! We don't have much time before they start on Hermione, so-"
"We can't go after her," Moody said. "One, we don't know where their hideout is. Two, we don't know if she's even there. Three, we don't have enough people. Going to rescue her isn't an option."
"We can't just leave her! We can't, you-"
Harry lowered his head, shutting their voices out and focusing on his confused, frantic thoughts.
God, who'd have thought that everything would go so badly?
They'd only discovered what had happened less than an hour previously. As far as they could tell, at some point the previous night, Hermione had gone into Ginny's room, and then…
Well, they had no idea what had happened next. There was clear evidence of a fight having taken place, but no clue as to how it had started or what had actually gone on in there.
All they could be certain of was that Hermione and Ginny had vanished.
And that it was incredibly unlikely for Hermione to have set Ginny free.
Privately, Harry thought Moody was right. Hermione must have gone in to torture Ginny, to punish her for what she'd done to Hermione's parents.
Something must have gone wrong. If they'd left, there was no way it was with Hermione having chosen to do so.
And now, he had a hellishly difficult decision to make. He knew what to do, the idea having come to him in an icy flash.
But could he do it? Could he, in effect, abandon Hermione?
He had to. It wasn't like he was signing her death warrant. He was just...pushing off rescuing her until later.
With tears in his eyes, he pushed himself to his feet and walked forward, interrupting their argument.
"Kingsley," he said, "you're certain that they'll summon Voldemort if they know where I am?"
Kingsley nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing.
"It was very clear from her memories. Both Dolohov and Yaxley told her so. But what-"
"Hermione has her DA coin with her," he said, not meeting Ron's eyes. "I tried to summon it twice. She has it. And if they have her, they have it. I'm going to send a message on it, telling all our allies to come to Hogwarts."
"Harry," Ron said desperately, "they could kill her, they could-"
"I know. But we don't have any other choice. This way...maybe they'll be too distracted to focus on her. It's time to finish this."
Grimly, Moody nodded.
"He's right," Sirius said, leaning over to Ron and clasping his shoulder. "He's right."
Ron's face was contorted with utter anguish, making him look more like a wounded animal than a person.
Slowly, looking like he would be sick, he nodded.
"Let's finish this."
Ginny gasped, consciousness hitting her like a sledgehammer.
Everything hurt.
She seemed to be in her bedroom. She was lying in her bed in a soft white robe, and she was alive.
Merlin, she'd never been so happy to see this place before.
Faint, confused memories assaulted her; she could vaguely remember arriving at the safehouse and dropping to the muddy ground, screaming and crying.
And then...nothing. She must have been found, otherwise she'd have died with no-one but the unconscious Mudblood to keep her company.
Someone must have found her and healed her.
Grimly, she pulled back her sleeve and stared, horrified.
Someone had healed her, but her arm looked like something from one of the Dark Arts books she'd studied. The skin was all blackened and covered in enormous ugly blisters, and she could clearly see where the Mudblood had cut her.
It had been healed, but it looked monstrous, like the flesh had been removed, ground, and minced before being placed back into her arm.
The Dark Mark was a misshapen mess, only even recognizable from the faint green of the snake.
'It can be fixed. It can be fixed. Merlin, I'm alive and free, I can deal with this.'
"You're awake!"
She just gaped as Bellatrix barrelled toward the bed, too shocked to react as she was seized in a tight hug.
"Never, never do that to me again! Do you know how worried you had me? Oh, my baby girl-"
"B-Bella? You-what? You're here?"
Bellatrix released her and sat on the bed. With a smile, she reached out and ran a hand through Ginny's hair.
"I came back last night. And you were gone. But then-then you came back. I'm so, so proud of you. My brilliant girl, I'm so proud of you."
Tears pricked up at the corners of Ginny's eyes, her heart swelling.
She couldn't stay mad at Bellatrix, not after everything she'd been through. Their fight seemed like a tiny thing, like something that didn't even matter.
How could it matter? A paltry few hours before, Ginny had been certain that she'd be tortured into insanity before being murdered. How could something as meaningless as an argument matter when compared to that?
"You healed me?"
Bellatrix nodded, a shadow passing over her face for a moment.
"Dolohov helped. The arm was the hardest to do, but the cut in your side would have killed you quicker. I'm very impressed, love. I imagine there is a fascinating story attached to this."
"That Mudblood cunt. Is she still alive?"
Smirking, Bellatrix nodded.
"You have no idea what you've given us with her. I'm sure you want to play with her, but you'll have to wait. We searched her when we put her in the dungeon. And we found this."
Bellatrix put her hand into her pocket for a moment. When she removed it, she was holding a gleaming gold coin.
'One of those DA coins. Holy fuck, they're still using them.'
"Look at it," Bellatrix chuckled, "Potter's last message is still there."
Her fingers trembling, Ginny took the coin, and read.
"We're going to hit them where it hurts. We're taking Hogwarts. We expect them to have reinforcements. We need every wand. Every one of you, we need you. Harry."
"We need to tell the Dark Lord," she whispered, pain forgotten in her excitement. "Merlin, Bella, we need to summon him!"
"Already done, nearly an hour ago. He'll be here soon. And then...well, are you up for a battle?"
'I'll have to use the Mudblood's wand. Fuck it, it's mine now.'
"I'm going to kill them all," she hissed, "I'm fit to fight."
Laughing, Bellatrix hugged her again, their lips crashing together for a moment.
"Of course you are. Finally, we're going to kill that half-blood brat. And when we're done, we'll have time to punish that uppity Mudblood bitch."
"You-you won't leave again, will you?"
Bellatrix shook her head quickly, looking almost apologetic.
"Definitely not. I'll be with you forever, love."