Disclaimer: Everything you recognize belongs to Queen Rowling. Everything else is mine. This is also my first fic so please be nice if you review. Thanks!
Chapter 3
Silence. Then suddenly everyone jumped into action, guests running around trying to find partners before disapparating out. Ginny saw Harry and Hermione running towards Ron before disapparating away. Think about them later, She thought. They got away, that's the main thing. We have more urgent matters right now. Ginny reached into her bra for her wand (What? Standard place to keep wands when one doesn't have a bag or a pocket - All witches know this). Fuck being underage, Ginny would rather defend herself.
She used a severing charm to rip the tight skirt of her dress (feeling a weird sense of sorrow at having to destroy such a nice item of clothing) and kicked off her heels so that she could run. She ran to the rest of her family and members of the Order who had stayed behind to help, and stood beside them, wand at the ready.
Death Eaters started apparating in. A whole fuck ton of Death Eaters actually. Shit, Ginny thought, they were majorly outnumbered. Oh well, it's not like an unfair fight was a new occurrence for them. There seemed to be a silent stand off between the Death Eaters and the Order, until simultaneously they all raised their wands and shouted a variety of spells. The dueling began.
At first, Ginny found herself not really aiming for anyone in particular, just the nearest Death Eater to her. That was, until one levitated a table into her. Luckily she saw it in time and reduced it to a pile of dust. I mean, a table? Seriously? Raising one eyebrow at the Death Eater, in a 'oh yeah? That's the way you want to play it? Ok' gesture, She conjured a flock of canaries just like Hermione had taught her. She circled them around his head a few times, distracting the Death Eater before instructing them to dive at him and peck his face and any other part of his body they could reach. Whilst he was trying to protect his face with his arms, Ginny stunned him. Hearing a noise behind her, Ginny spun around and rapidly threw up a shield charm before taking out the next Death Eater. She looked around, running to offer to help to her father who was dueling two Death Eaters at once. However, she got halfway there when she lost her balance, fell flat on her face and watched her wand roll across the floor. Looking over her shoulder, she saw a Death Eater standing over her, looking pleased with herself. Fuck, a trip jinx. Ginny knew what was coming next and could do nothing to prevent it.
Ginny found herself, she didn't know how much time later, lying on her side with her hands and feet bound. Her family and the Order were next to her in similar positions, sporting varying degrees of cuts and bruises. Ginny sat up carefully, making eye contact with everyone to ascertain whether they were all ok. She allowed her fear and panic to rise for just a moment before taking a deep breath and pushing into a box in the back of her mind and locking the lid. Instead, she looked defiantly towards the Death Eaters, who noticed her challenge and walked towards her. Grabbing her hair, they dragged her to the center of the room. Ginny bit back a scream and struggled. She knew there was no way she was going to be able to loosen their hold and that her behaviour would probably make everything worse but fighting, even slightly, gave her a bit of control. Pride is a funny (or stupid) thing. Although, bizarrely, she thought that she should probably stop struggling as she didn't really want to pull out all her hair.
The Death Eater backhanded her across the face. Ginny's head snapped to the side and she stifled a scream. She would not give the asshole the satisfaction of seeing her in pain. It's what Harry would do. She slowly turned back to look him in the eye, allowing as much hatred into that look as possible. Another Death Eater saw it and walked up to Ginny, grabbed her face hard in his hand and screeched about lack of respect, spitting in her face. Tossing Ginny aside, the Death Eater used her wand to make several incisions on Ginny's stomach, legs and chest. Again, Ginny bit her lip to muffle her screams. As she was lying on the ground, trying to breathe through the pain, she decided that maybe pride should take a back seat for now. She still refused to cry – that shit would have to happen later. Ginny winced as she crawled back to her family.
The Death Eaters stayed for hours interrogating their hostages about information on the Order and more importantly, Harry, Ron and Hermione. Luckily everyone knew about Ron's supposed suffering from Spattergroit and the Ghoul seemed to fool the Death Eaters. Hermione had already told them that she had 'gone abroad with her parents' and according to everyone, no one had seen Harry since that night a few weeks ago at the Dursley's. The lies were already planted. Apart from the incident at the beginning, none of the Death Eaters targeted Ginny specifically about her and Harry's relationship. This was good, it meant that either they did not know, or that they were saving the torture for when she got to Hogwarts, which was not so good. It was horrible to watch these 'interrogations' but what Death Eaters have never understood is the lengths people will go to for family. No matter how much pain the Death Eaters inflict on them, the Weasleys will never betray Harry, Ron and Hermione because they are family. Finally the Death Eaters left with an ominous, "We'll be going now. Thanks for the information. Be careful going to work in the morning, dangerous times." Translation: "We're going but we'll be back because we didn't get what we wanted. Watch your back because we are watching you."
Nobody moved or spoke for several minutes. After several moments, Molly jumped up and ran towards her only daughter, asking if Ginny was all right and suggested they levitate her to her bedroom, then began muttering about blood replenishing potion and a calming draught or dreamless sleep potion. Ginny declared adamantly that she could walk but would need help. Fleur suggested that she help Ginny to bed, whilst Molly retrieved all the potions she needed. Molly nodded, the boys just stood helplessly, not knowing how to help. George decided to break the tension the only way he knew how:
"Oh come on, it's only a few cuts. I had my entire ear lobed off (geddit). Merlin, you're such an attention seeker Ginny!"
Ginny knew that he was only trying to cheer her up, despite the terrible joke, so she forced a laugh and let Fleur help her up the stairs.
"I'll let Harry, Ron and Hermione know that everyone is mostly ok." Said Mr Weasley, "I reckon they're at Grimmauld Place, even just temporarily." The others nodded in agreement.
Molly came up moments later with a handful of bottles. Between them, Molly and Fleur helped heal Ginny's wounds.
"You will have scars sweetheart." Molly told Ginny.
"I don't care. They are a sign of strength. A sign that I survived something and came out stronger because of it." Molly leaned down to carefully hug her daughter, with tears in her eyes. She sat back and stroked Ginny's cheek.
"You did so well today. I love you."
"Thanks mum, I love you too. Can you tell everyone else that I'm ok but I just want to sleep."
Molly nodded. She looked sadly at her daughter, stroked her cheek one last time and left the room, instructing her to drink the Dreamless Sleep potion. Ginny carefully propped herself up on her elbow and downed the shot of analgesia, followed by a glass of dreamless sleep potion. She settled back down onto her pillows and slipped into sleep with tears silently streaming down her cheeks.
Several days later Remus Lupin found himself storming out of number 12 Grimmauld Place, slamming the door on the screams of Mrs Black's portrait. He was shaking, he couldn't remember the last time he had been this angry. He couldn't believe he had jinxed Harry – but Harry had deserved it surely? Harry didn't understand it at all; the situations were completely different. The child would be better off without a Werewolf for a father, it would grow up in a loving environment – nothing like Harry had. Harry had turned out well despite everything though right?
A lack of anywhere to go, Lupin found himself wandering aimlessly around muggle London until he stopped outside a record store. Walking in, he perused the titles restlessly. He was usually able to find solace in music, however now it just reminded him of all the times he and Tonks had just sat quietly listening to records (she had inherited a love of muggle music from her dad) or else having lengthy discussions with Lily about muggle music versus magical music with James and Sirius listening in with amusement. Suddenly he knew where he wanted to go. He walked out the store without buying anything and, finding a deserted alley, turned on the spot.
With a crack, Lupin found himself standing at the entrance to the cemetery in Godric's Hollow. He opened the kissing gate and wandered down the familiar path towards the graves of his best friends. He sat down, cross-legged on the grass in front of the graves thinking, as he did so, that he should get a headstone for Sirius.
"Hi James, Lily and Sirius if you're there, which you definitely are. I'm sorry I haven't been here in a while. I've been a bit busy," Lupin began, "Ok that's a lie." He paused and looked around. The beautiful weather seemed to mock him. He sighed and turned back.
"I've done a lot of questionable things in my life, but the last month or so has probably been the worst. I married Dora against my better judgment. You all know what has happened by now, the child will be cursed I know it. I can't subject my child to that. I know what you're thinking, 'Remus you're a moron'…'don't be such an idiot Moony'… 'even Prongs managed it Moony, you can't possibly be any worse'. " Remus smiled slightly and ran a hand through his greying hair.
"You're right there Padfoot, but James didn't really get a chance. The opportunity got taken away from him and Lily and as a result, Harry was left with strangers" Lupin mused. "That's essentially what he said to me himself. 'Parents shouldn't leave their kids unless they have to'. The situations are completely different though –I would be leaving for the child's own good. I don't want it to be associated with the prejudice. I don't want it to hate me." Lupin paused, "Is Harry right? Do think the child would hate me more for leaving or for remaining and passing on this curse?" He asked, staring at the letters on the headstones hoping that they would reform and tell him what to do. Lupin sighed, ran his hands through his hair again and sat there for a long time as darkness fell around him.