Entry 2

They apparated in front of a large, gloomy-looking house, sending murky shadows out from its frame to give them ample cover in case anyone happened to look, though at the moment there was no one around to do so. The Death Eater who had been clutching Ginny's arm so hard that he probably had bruised it, promptly picked the bound teenager up and threw her over his shoulder, her head buried in his stomach. The two adults in front of him had already started to make their way to the house, without a sparing glance behind them, and after shifting Ginny on his back to balance the weight load, the man followed closely after them.

Ginny didn't have an opportunity to observe her surroundings as she was carried into the house; her face was pressed into the man's musty black cloak and she was fighting just to take in a fresh breath of air. She felt the man begin to climb underneath her, his legs bringing themselves up dangerously close to her face, threatening to kick her in the head with every step. Finally, they reached the top of the creaking stairs and Ginny felt a whoosh of air pass her ears as a door opened in front of her.

She was dropped, tumbling over backwards as the man pushed her legs from off his back. The girl landed on a hard and lumpy surface, staring into the Death Eater's upside down face and watched as he pulled out a wand, her reflexes too slow to do anything more than just let her lie there. He pointed his wand as her and Ginny felt the magical ropes that had been binding her loosen. She struggled her way out of the ropes as the spell keeping her mouth shut was removed as well.

She turned around on what she had just discovered was a very hard and lumpy bed, and faced the man, now sitting upright. She met his eyes just in time to hear him warn her, "Don't even think about trying to escape. This place is filled with Death Eaters, your room is locked with enchantments, and even if you did somehow manage to get outside, we're twenty miles from the nearest place of residence—muggles mind you, so they wouldn't be much help in any case. And if you try anything funny," the man leaned closer, the same hungry expression showing in his eyes that was in his voice, "It'll be my pleasure to make you pay."

The man left his last sentence open, obviously trying to frighten her more by not telling her exactly what he was thinking of doing to her. However, his effect alone wasn't as frightening as his effect with the other Death Eaters. Besides, Ginny had to stand up for herself; if she let herself be pushed around now, there was no way that she could ever gain the power and recognition that she was looking for, that she would have when she became a Death Eater. If she became a Death Eater. It seemed highly improbable now that she had been captured by them, but Snape had said that he wanted to take her to Voldemort and see how he wanted to deal with her. If she could somehow convince the evil wizard, though she had no idea how, she might be able to succeed in still becoming a Death Eater. The alternative was probably to be killed, so she had nothing to lose, really.

Ginny crossed her arms. "Don't worry, I wasn't planning to escape. But normally when a person leaves a threat open like that, it's because they can't think of anything to do to the person that they're threatening," she informed him boldly.

"Oh I can think of plenty of things to do to you," he assured her, his upper lip curling up, baring his teeth in a malicious grin.

Ginny maintained her arrogant stance, despite the fact that fear was slowly creeping back into her. The man started laughing and backed up until he was outside the room, his hand on the door that he had carried her through.

"Sweet dreams," he grinned at her before turning around and halfway closing the door behind him. Then he paused and looked back at her, pulling something out of his pocket. "And we're keeping this, so don't even think of trying magic." In his hand he showed the witch her own wand. She gasped and automatically felt her pockets for a wand that she already knew wasn't there. She hadn't felt him take it from her. She didn't know how he could have done it while she was bound, and didn't think that he could have taken it from her earlier without her feeling it.

Rather than answer the question that was showing so blatantly on her face, the man turned around and this time closed the door behind him completely, leaving Ginny alone in total darkness.

x x x x x x x x

She woke up, not knowing how she had managed to fall asleep at all. Her mind had been plagued by fear and regret, consuming her thoughts completely. The fact that she was in a foreign room on a very uncomfortable bed, in pitch blackness, with a house possibly full of Death Eaters didn't help much either.

Ginny sat up, rubbing her cramped neck from sleeping in an awkward position and to her dismay, found that the last events hadn't been a nightmare at all. But in a way, she was glad that it hadn't been. Going downstairs to face her family's chatter and warm breakfast would have felt fake to her, especially after a dream where her darkest wish had almost come true.

Thinking of that, Ginny buried her head into her arms to think. Her darkest desire had almost been fulfilled, and if she pulled herself together it still would be. After all, maybe she could convince Voldemort to make her a Death Eater. She had no idea how to persuade him that she was meant to be one, but she figured that she would find out a way before the time came. She only need to stop thinking so much like the child of a family of muggle lovers and start modeling herself as someone worthy of joining Voldemort's army.

A sharp knock sounded, seeming to come from the locked door that led to her room. She took her head out of her arms and looked in front of her. Then she turned her head all around her, not being able to see a thing. The room was windowless, and thus there was still absolutely no light in it; it was as pitch black as when the man had left her in there earlier. As a result, Ginny didn't know what time it was. It may have only been a couple of hours since she had fallen asleep or a complete day. The darkness was also disorienting, causing her sense of direction to fail her, and she wasn't entirely sure of where the sound had originated from.

Before she could estimate exactly where she was in relation to the door, she heard a creak, and the room flooded with bright light as the door opened. The sudden appearance of brightness burned Ginny's retinas like fire, and she shut her eyes, the pain still not receding despite this action. Underneath her eyelids, she could still see orange, and then the color turned to bright red as more light filled the room.

"Cut out the bloody lights!" she yelled at the person causing her current blindness.

"Oh shut up, Weaslette," came the belligerent reply. "You might be able to see in complete darkness but I certainly can't."

The Death Eater closed the door behind him and Ginny involuntarily gasped, somehow managing to control the groan that was urging to come out of her as well. She opened her eyes, blinking in the new array of lights that had sprung up. Her eyes landed on the culprit, who was of course, none other than Draco Malfoy. A son from a long line of purebloods well known to have turned into dark wizards, and a tormentor of her family for years. He had transfigured a string of lights around the room, that were floating on thin air, and were the source of the sudden light that had illuminated the room.

The two glared at each other for a minute before Malfoy shoved a tray of food in her face. "Here's your food," he said bluntly. He pushed the food tray on the bed and turned to make his way out.

Ignoring the food in front of her, Ginny blurted out, "What are you doing here?"

The boy turned halfway around and stared at her, raising an eyebrow. "It should be obvious."

She glared at him. The other adults might think that they were better than her, but she wouldn't allow this twerp to think so as well. She told herself to calm down. It would do no good to attack Malfoy, especially since she was currently lacking a wand, and as he was now a Death Eater, attacking him around other Death Eaters might seem hostile towards them. It would significantly lower her chances of becoming one of them to null.

"I meant, why did they send you up here?" she explained herself, keeping a lid on her anger.

Once again, he gave her a look that said that the answer was obvious. But instead of saying that, he answered, "I have the least seniority."

Ginny frowned in confusion. "There are plenty of new Death Eaters. Surely they have less seniority than you—"she stopped as a flash of realization came to her.

"It's because you couldn't kill Dumbledore, isn't it?" She laughed at him. The fact that he had failed at something so badly that it put him on iffy terms with Lord Voldemort was amusing to her, especially since he always seemed to exude the belief that he was better than everyone else. She ignored the fact that it was because a good person had died that this had happened, and turned her heart cold to the hard fact of his death.

"The oh-so-great Draco Malfoy couldn't even kill a little old man," she taunted, well aware that Dumbledore certainly hadn't been a "little old man" but figuring that it would only make Draco's pride hurt worse.

"It's not as easy to kill someone as you may think," he replied to her icily. "And exactly why are you here, Weasel?"

Ginny ignored the slight on her name and told him proudly, "I want to become a Death Eater."

The smirk that had been creeping up his face stopped and retreated back down. Then the boy started to laugh. "That's hilarious. Truly, why are you here?"

Unbeknownst to her, the former Gyffindor's eyes turned hard, and she replied coolly, "I'm serious."

Malfoy's new smirk dropped, just like his former one had, and he stared at her contemplatively. It reminded Ginny of the way that the reaction that the older Death Eaters had the night before, when she had told them the same thing. After staring at her a few moments, he said seriously this time, "And why would you want to become a Death Eater?"

Before either of them could say another word, the door to the room opened again, but this time the girl's eyes had adjusted enough so that the new light wasn't blinding. Both of the teens looked at the new arrival, who sneered at Malfoy, ignoring Ginny completely. "I sent you up here to feed her, not to flirt with her. Get downstairs. You have other work to do."

Malfoy glared at the brown haired man contemptuously, and then turned on his heel and walked out of Ginny's cell, without sparing any look backwards. The new Death Eater glanced at Ginny, and then walked out himself, closing and locking the door behind him. It was an attribute to how much things had changed that someone was actually ordering Malfoy around, and that he felt obliged to follow them, and even do work. He was no longer a big shot anymore; he was an underdog, even among those who should seem to respect him as a more experienced Death Eater. Ginny promised herself that if she joined them, she would never let that happen to her. She would do whatever it took to succeed.

Luckily, the lights had been kept on this time as the Death Eaters had walked out of the room, so Ginny didn't have to sit in a pitch black room by herself again. It also allowed her to actually see her surroundings, and she glanced around the room as she ate, distracting herself from the unknowns that her food tray contained—a very undercooked sausage, cold toast with something that she hoped was jam on it, and a gray substance, which partially resembled grits but smelled more like rotten cabbage.

Her room consisted of a bed in the middle of it, that she was sitting on right now, and it actually took up most of the space within the room. The rest of the room was sparsely furnished with a large chest to her right, with broken handles and shelves in it, and a tiny dresser to her left, dusty and covered with spiderwebs. If she were afraid of spiders like her brother was, she might have been a little intimidated by that fact, and the fact that at any time someone could come up here and cut out the lights, putting her back in darkness and allowing whatever to crawl on her at will. But she wasn't, so she ignored it, storing it in the back of her mind.

On the walls, there were crooked portraits hanging from nails in the wall, some looking like they would completely fall off for lack of support in the wall that they were held on. The walls were made of rotted wood, boards missing and black spaces visible from where Ginny sat. She frowned, thinking that they put her in an unused and unrepaired room on purpose, almost as if they didn't truly care about what happened to her or not. It wasn't a very comfortable thought. But if they were unconcerned about her, it also didn't seem like they would try and torture her for information on the Order or the Ministry any time soon. She didn't have any to give them, which would have only made it more painful if they had decided that she was no longer needed.

Ginny shook her head. They said that they would talk her to Voldemort, so they wouldn't kill her anytime soon. She would just have to wait patiently until then, biding her time in the pitiful room, and hoping that she didn't go crazy from boredom before that time came.