Savage Love
Chapter One
"Now. This spell should wake our Sleeping Beauty."
"Father, you're completely sloshed. Get some sleep and I'll handle the girl."
"I've hardly had enough firewhisky to befuddle a houseelf! Now wake up, sunshine. What did you say her name was?"
A pause.
"It's Ginny."
"Ah, yes. A shame she has such a dreadfully plain name."
Ginny heard the voices first, initially just deep sounds that slowly focused into words. Everything felt muffled and distant but when she heard her name, she managed crack open her swollen eyelids. Her slightly blurred vision yielded an image of two figures leaning above her, all blonde hair and sharp-edged faces. A blink later and Lucius Malfoy and his son Draco came painfully into view.
Suddenly she was completely awake. Her heart leaped in her chest as she struggled to sit up and figure out where exactly she was. It was a parlor of sorts, dimly lit and decorated with sensuously dark furniture. An opulent-looking blood-red carpet graced the floor and a massive crystal chandelier hung ominously above her head. The gray-stoned walls looked ancient and there was a large and horrible red stain on the wall across from her. Ginny herself was lying on a stiff gray sofa, her hands and feet magically bound. How had she gotten here? The last thing she remembered was leaving the restaurant where she worked her summer job, about to apparate back to the Burrow. And after that-nothing.
"Hello, Ginny." Her eyes snapped to Lucius Malfoy. He leaned over her, his thin blond hair hanging down to nearly brush her cheek. There was something about the way he was looking at her that Ginny didn't like. Lucius' lips stretched into a thin smile, a dangerous glint to his eyes. "Welcome, welcome. You have, no doubt, met my son." He moved his cobra-headed scepter to point at Draco, who had moved to stand scowling a distance away, hands jammed in his pockets.
"Let me go," Ginny bit out, pinning Lucius with the darkest look she could muster. She tried to maneuver her bound hands to reach her wand-pocket but the magical ropes seemed to know what she was trying to do and tightened accordingly.
Lucius' smile grew wider. "Oh, I don't think I will. It's been quite some time since I've seen you, Ginny. And look at you. You've changed...considerably...from that wisp of a girl who used to moon over old diaries."
Ginny's blood flared at the mention of Tom Riddle's diary, the diary that he had slipped into her cauldron. "You nearly killed me," she whispered. "And if you succeed this time, you'd better watch your back. I'm not like you, Malfoy. People actually care if I go missing."
Lucius ignored this. Ginny could smell stale alcohol on his breath. "What do you think, son, of the certain developments your classmate has undergone?" He reached out a finger to touch Ginny's cheek in a mocking gesture of tenderness. "She really is quite different from her early school days." Ginny turned her face away and her eyes landed on Draco. He had made no move to reply to his father; he simply stared down at the carpet, a bored expression on his face. Ginny glared. Only a Malfoy could be bored with a situation like this, completely indifferent to the fact that his classmate lie bound and terrified on the couch before him.
"Draco?" Lucius seemed to expect a reply. He stepped away from Ginny to face his son.
Draco finally tilted his head up, his gaze barely reaching hers. "I find her physical appearance underwhelming."
A beat of silence passed and then a deep guttral sound shook from Lucius' throat. Ginny realized with a shock that it was laughter.
"You forget, boy, that I've known and raised you for seventeen years. I know when you're lying." He moved to recline on a green wingback chair, a feral smile playing on his lips.
Draco stood motionless in the corner, looking more like an angelic statue than a young man.
"Now, you, my dear," Lucius purred, his attention back on Ginny. "You are much more difficult to read. I can see fear on your face, yes, but I must admit I'm far too distracted by how very much ropes and knots become you to see much else."
Ginny grimaced. "Trust me, you do not want to do this. When my family finds out-"
"Your family? Really?" Lucius chuckled softly. "Even if they noticed one runt's absence from the over-populated litter, what could a lot of bedraggled blood-traitors do to help? It's not like they could produce ransom money."
"There's the Order."
Lucius scoffed. "If you had any idea what the Death Eaters look like now, how our numbers have grown-" He stopped. "Suffice it to say, the Order of the Phoenix is no concern of mine."
Ginny cast her eyes around the room for some kind of weapon but the nearest possible object was a set of brass candlesticks on the mantle behind Lucius. If only she knew wandless magic... Still, Draco's father was drunk, which had to count for something in her favor. Her eyes darted to Draco, but he seemed stonily sober, a blank expression on his face as he continued to stare at the carpet.
Lucius drew her attention with a movement—he had drawn out his wand. "There are so many things I could do to you with this wand," he said dreamily, almost to himself. "So many new spells I've been itching to try and so many beloved favorites I yearn to revisit. Best of all, I think, would be finding out how you react to them; finding out when and how you break." He smiled wistfully, as if he were recalling an old friend. "But I'm much too magnanimous for all that." He saw Ginny's hopeful expression and sneered. "Oh, don't think I'm letting you go, now. No, you're a gift, you see. You're for my son."
Draco shifted. .
Ginny wasn't quite sure what Malfoy meant by 'gift', but a horrible clenching feeling deep in her stomach suggested it wasn't going to be good.
Lucius turned to face his son. "You know, Draco, I've given it quite a bit of thought and I don't think I've ever actually seen you perform the Cruciatus before."
If Draco was concerned by his father's suddenly suspicious tone, he did not show it. "Duly noted."
"At first," Lucius continued, "I was troubled by this. But then I surmised that the only possible explanation was that I had deprived you of opportunities." He looked thoughtful. "I suppose I should never have allowed your mother to coddle you as she did. But now, son, you have a chance to change it all." He waved a long pale hand in Ginny's direction. "I give you target practice."
Ginny's heart sunk. She had no doubt that in this situation, she was the target.
Draco took a step towards her. With the candlelight reflecting off the edges of his hair like a halo, he looked to Ginny as if he could have been the angel of death.
"Now, son." Lucius' voice had lost all of its humor. Draco's jaw tightened and he slowly pulled out his wand, made of a shade of wood almost as pale as his own skin. Ginny's heart sunk.
Draco took a deep, steadying breath before leveling his wand at her. Ginnycaught his gaze and almost instantly regretted it. She saw only stark emptiness staring back at her. He truly was his father's son.
"Crucio."
Ginny braced herself for the worst, but it did not come. She peeked her eyes open to see Lucius standing over his son with a murderous expression on his face. "Oh no—don't tell me you can't even muster up enough hatred to cast a proper Crucio!First you botch things up with Dumbledore and now with her?" His voice lowed to a whisper. "You're nothing to me but a coward."
Draco's jaw set and when he raised his wand to Ginny again, there was an all-too-familiar sneer on his face. "Crucio!"
A/N: Sorry this took so long to update—please let me know if you are still interested in this story.