About four weeks later, the excitement of their first win had died down and everybody was back to assignments and working their butts off. Ginny had fully recovered from her Quidditch injuries- three broken ribs to be precise- and she was feeling the strain of being back in Carrow's class. Madame Pomfrey had warned her against any back chatting and the like. She had said there could be some serious damage done to her ribs if she got Crucio'd anytime soon. While they were mostly healed, they were still bruised and sore.
But one Wednesday afternoon, Ginny couldn't take it anymore. Carrow had started the lesson saying, "So class, today we will be speaking about an interesting topic." He turned to the board and flicked his wand so that it produced words on the board. The writing read: Harry Potter…how he survived the Dark Lord's wrath and why.
Ginny bit the inside of her lip and felt the skin of her knuckles tightening as she clenched them together. Colin was sitting beside her and he took one of her hands in his, squeezing it in order to get her to calm down. Carrow smirked at her and Ginny knew he was bating her. She knew he wanted her to protest. She had been very good recently, keeping her mouth closed and refusing to open it in Defense.
But Harry was a topic she had been fearing would come up. Neville and Seamus had told her how awful it was and had shown her proof of their scars. Carrow had taken to using some other spell that wasn't Crucio and which gave them physical cuts and scars on their skin.
She watched the beady-eyed man and he asked the class, "So…can anyone riddle me this? How did Potter survive?" A few hands went up on the Ravenclaw side of the classroom. Ginny glanced at a girl he nodded to for an answer. She whispered, "He was lucky." Ginny rolled her eyes. Obvious answer. Not very imaginative. Carrow smirked and chuckled, "Yes indeed Miss Knight. I do believe it was luck. Many believe there was some sort of ancient magic protecting Potter that night. Such nonsense it is! If you look in any one of those text books, you won't find the answer."
While Harry had never made mention to her of why he had survived that night, she knew it had nothing to do with luck. Harry was an extraordinary wizard. He had defeated Voldemort not once, but several times. If Carrow believed Harry survived out of pure luck then he had another think coming. She knew there was more to it, even if she hadn't been given the details.
Carrow turned to Ginny and asked gleefully, "Let's see, what those who were closest to Potter speculate. Weasley? What do you think saved him?" Immediately, all eyes turned to her. She found herself blushing bright red and she said, "I'd really rather not talk about it, Mr Carrow. Harry never disclosed anything of that nature to me." Carrow stalked up to her, beady eyes narrowed in suspicion and asked, "Really, Weasley, I do believe you're being dishonest. I mean, if Potter truly loved you, surely he would disclose this kind of information to you?"
He smiled slyly at her and Ginny felt shivers trickle down her spine. She whispered, "Um…he didn't Mr Carrow. I don't know anymore than you do." He rolled his eyes at her and said irritably, "Class, I'm going to teach you what happens when you lie to me. You should not tell lies. Didn't Professor Umbridge teach you that?" Ginny bit the inside of her lip, fearful of how this would turn out.
Carrow sighed and stroked his wand evilly, "I was afraid getting the truth out of you, Weasley, wouldn't come to this." The class was deathly silent. Nobody dared to breathe. Then he pointed his wand at her and said briskly, "Imperio!" Ginny felt a funny, nauseous sensation overcome her. She felt like she wasn't entirely in control of her own body…but then she felt she was too. Then she realized…the reason for this feeling was the potion that McGonagall gave her!
She felt her insides squirm unpleasantly, wondering what would happen now. Maybe she should just make up a lie? Ginny thought about it. What would she say? Carrow chuckled and said, "Now class, you will learn the truth…right from the horse's mouth…virtually anyway." He grinned at Ginny and said, "Now, my dear, please do inform us about how Potter has managed to defeat the Dark Lord each time? Surely he must have some sort of special weapon?"
Ginny's breath hitched! A secret weapon! That's it! She nodded vigorously, "Oh yes, Mr Carrow. There is most indeed a secret weapon. A weapon you wouldn't be able to dream about." Carrow raised his eyebrows at her and said eagerly, "Go on, Weasley." Ginny felt like laughing out loud, but she had to keep a straight face. She continued, "Oh yes…it's called a map, you see, that let's Harry know when the Dark Lord is fast approaching. This map…gives him warning and notifies him at all costs."
Carrow wasn't as stupid as he looked unfortunately for her. His raised eyebrow said as much. He laughed, "How does this…map…notify Potter?" Ginny sighed as if explaining this was futile, "Well…you see the map detects Voldemort's location. I can't really explain how it works…but it just knows where Voldemort is. It's got a tracer spell on it." This caused Carrow to laugh, "Do you really think I'd believe that garbage? That a seventeen year old wizard can perform a Tracer spell?" Ginny laughed and rolled her eyes, now beyond it. Colin was glaring at her from the seat next to her, and Charlotte and Amelia were looking rather scared too. But Ginny continued, "Mr Carrow, Harry could perform a really powerful Patronus charm in his third year. I'm pretty sure, if he wanted to, he could master the art of tracer spell any day of the week."
Carrow glared at her dangerously and he said, "I don't believe you." Ginny smirked and retorted, "You should. You've Imperio'd me, after all." The class was silent, and out of the corner of her eye, Ginny noticed Amelia and Charlotte glance at each other. She saw Romilda look at her disbelievingly and so did many of the others in the class. She was actually lying her way through an interrogation and it was working. Sort of.
That's when Carrow had had enough. He pulled Ginny by her arm and moved her forcefully from the room and into the corridor. He slammed the door closed behind him, looking pink in the face and he scowled at her, "Weasley, you're getting on my last nerve!" Ginny was thrown against the wall by Carrow and she felt her bump her head. She yelled and then she saw Malfoy walking down the passage. She felt blood at the side of her head and Malfoy shouted, "Carrow! Stop it!" She frowned as she glared at the man in front of her. She put her hand up and felt it oozing out there. She felt sick. Malfoy stormed up and glared at Carrow. The Professor shrugged his shoulders, as if in explanation and he said firmly, "Well, the girl was lying to me, Malfoy. I am completely in my right…"
Malfoy interrupted him and said fiercely, "You don't want McGonagall hearing about this behavior do you? Remember how the old witch acted last time?" This reminder made Carrow visibly cringe and he nodded, "Fine. What do we do with her, then?" Malfoy smiled cruelly, "Leave her to me." Ginny stood her ground as Malfoy roughly pulled her away from Carrow. She said angrily, "Let go of me, Malfoy!"
Once they had turned a corner into a deserted corridor, Malfoy whispered to her, "Don't ask questions Weasley. Scream." Ginny frowned and grimaced, "Wha…?" He glared at her and she said, "Who do you think you are to tell me what to do?" His glare continued and she sighed, "Fine." She faked a high-pitched scream and then she heard Carrow's chuckle echoing down the corridor.
Ginny frowned and grimaced, "What was that about?" She asked in a whisper. Malfoy grumbled under his breath, "That's me saving your butt. You could at least show a bit of gratitude." Ginny frowned in confusion, "I don't get why you're helping me, Malfoy." Draco sighed and looked away, "Let's just say I think you're being rather stupid, messing with Carrow as much as you have been, and someone needs to guide you in the right direction." Ginny couldn't help but scoff, "Malfoy, you are a fine one to talk. I know what you did last year…or tried to do. So do not try and talk to me about my morals. Don't even dare." Ginny stormed off to the Gryffindor tower.
Draco Malfoy:
She stormed off and fumed about him lecturing her. Who did he think he was to lecture her on morals! What she wasn't aware of, was that Malfoy was watching her storm off. He was wondering why on earth she kept getting herself into trouble with Carrow! Wasn't it obvious that Carrow hated her guts as it was because of her affiliation with Potter? She had to be aware of it…He had overheard Carrow bragging about his torture of the Weaslette the other day after a lesson with his sister. He had Crucio'd her purely because she had back-chatted him…or so he said. Draco had a feeling it was more to do with the fact that she and Potter had been romantically linked, and this caused Amycus to despise her.
Draco felt awful. He had been the one who's mind the Dark Lord penetrated to discover any information about Potter that might help bring him down. Through the use of Legilimency, the Dark Lord had discovered that Potter and Weaselette had been romantically involved. He had grinned at Draco then and immediately quipped, "Draco, we have a gem here! Why on earth did you never mention this to me before?! Surely this would strike you as an obvious game plan, Draco?" Draco shrugged his shoulders.
Truthfully he did think of it during the holidays…but he wouldn't dream of admitting that…although the Dark Lord probably knew that by now. This was confirmed when Voldemort smiled at him with a wicked, blood-curdling grin. He had laughed loudly and said, "Draco, I'm afraid because you withheld this information from me, you shall face punishment." Draco bowed his head and allowed Voldemort to torture him. If the students at this dumb school really thought the Carrow's torture was bad…they had never been tortured by Voldemort himself. It was ten times the pain of a normal Crucio. It was deathly.
Draco snapped out of his reverie and found he was still staring after where the Weasley girl had disappeared. It disgusted him that he had been given this mission…but he was not going to fail this time.
A/N: Hey guys…I'm really not receiving much feedback at the moment and it's really demotivating. I feel like I'm putting so much effort in and getting no response back. It's kind of making me why I bother considering this story has ninety five followers. I want to see how many people put in a small piece of effort to make this seem worthwhile.
So all I'm asking is if everyone can write one little comment it would really make my day. I even took my laptop on holiday so I could write for you guys…and for me. Please just do me this small favor in return. Feedback from lots of different people would be great.
BY THE WAY: This is not becoming a Drinny story, as much as it might sound like it is. I just had to explain what Malfoy's up to for future events of the story. I am however thinking of writing a Drinny (Draco/ Ginny) story of its own since I love the pairing. Please let me know what you think.