A/N: This story is rated M. Content warning: Sexual content (erotica, kidnapping, humiliation), strong language

Chapter 3

"And then there were three. Go Gryffindor!" The voice was unbearably upbeat.

Ginny stood with her palms still on the invisible wall, staring at the spot where Luna had vanished, before she had marched in robotic fashion behind a secret door beyond her reach. Ginny had no idea how long she stood there. It could have been mere seconds or several minutes. She was dimly aware of Hermione's hand on her shoulder.

"Ginny...?" Hermione called tentatively.

Ginny turned slowly, taking deep breaths and trying to keep herself steady on her stilettos. Hermione was looking at her worriedly, her mind clearly whirring to assess Ginny's state of mind. Romilda eyed her nervously from the far end of the corridor.

Making sure not to break into a run, she took several deliberately shaky strides forward before launching herself savagely at Romilda. She caught the taller girl by surprise, who clearly did not expect such strength from someone of her stature. Knocking her flat on her back, Ginny flailed away wildly and furiously, eager to punch, strike, and slap as much of Romilda Vane as possible. She was vaguely aware of Hermione screaming in protest somewhere behind her, and of Romilda roaring in defiance, from somewhere behind a tangled mane of curly black hair.

With a sudden strength Ginny could not have had the foresight to expect, Romilda seized both of Ginny's wrists and twisted violently until the smaller girl toppled to the floor. Now it was Ginny who was pinned helplessly on the marble floor, staring up at an infuriated, wild-eyed Romilda.

"If you ever fucking touch me again," screamed the stronger, suddenly far more terrifying woman. "I'll bloody that pretty face of yours so badly, even your precious Harry won't recognize you. Don't test me on that, you little- HEY!"

Hermione had reached under both of Romilda's arms and was desperately trying to pull her off of Ginny. "Please, stop! You must stop! Listen to me!"

It took Ginny's and Hermione's combined strength to force Romilda away until it long last, Ginny found herself being helped to her feet, Hermione standing defiantly between her and an incensed Romilda.

"Of course you'd take her side!" Romilda appeared quite deranged as she screamed at Hermione. "You saw what she did!"

"Listen! If we don't work together we'll never get out of here! We have to cooperate!" Hermione was pleading, near the point of tears.

Ginny was beside herself. "What I did? You foul bitch, that was my friend you cheated out of that race! It should have been YOU!"

A sadistic smile had appeared on Romilda's face as she took a measured step forward, clearly meaning to knock Hermione aside and throw Ginny to the ground again. None of them had a wand to arm themselves with, but in that instant Ginny did not care how much bigger or stronger the other girl was. All she knew was that Romilda had taken Luna away from her, and for that, Ginny swore up and down that she would never forgive her.

Hermione struggled, bracing Romilda with one arm and holding Ginny away with the other. "Will you both please just listen! Romilda, I... there was something written there. Under your skirt, I mean."

Romilda took a step back at last and looked down her nose at Hermione. "What? What was that you said?"

"When you pinned Ginny, your skirt sort of, well, fanned up and there was something written there. Honest!" she added, when she saw the confused look on Romilda's face. "It's not a trick, I swear. Look!"

"Where? On my ass?" Romilda twisted and turned, trying to get a better look to no avail. Finally, she allowed Hermione to approach her and lift the skirt up to inspect it for herself. Ginny stepped forward, her desire to pummel Romilda overshadowed for the moment by her curiosity.

Sure enough, there on the right cheek of the silk panties was printed in tiny black lettering: 'Property of Jimmy Peakes', and right below that, '5 of 6'.

"Who the hell is Jimmy Peakes," demanded Romilda when Hermione said it aloud. "And since when the fuck am I his property?"

The name stirred something in Ginny's memory. "Peakes... Peakes..."

The other two girls looked at her expectantly, the intensity of the previous moment forgotten.

"I think I... Yes, I remember him!" Ginny vaguely recalled that name from her days at Hogwarts. But, it couldn't be...

"Took you long enough." The voice announced its presence. "I knew you girls were more than just pretty faces."

Without warning, a panel on the wall revolved to reveal a large rectangular screen. It flashed to life and, all at once, Ginny had a face and a name to put to the voice that had tormented them. His facial features broad, pale, and smooth, Jimmy Peakes looked down at them with bright blue eyes and a wide smile. His hair was short and sandy brown, combed clumsily to one side. A light stubble hid a somewhat weak chin, and below his neck Ginny noted a pair of broad, prominent shoulders.

It was none other than Ginny's fellow Gryffindor, the student who had served as Beater on the Quidditch team after her brothers had left the school. Ginny could not help but feel a definite sense of anticlimax.

"You...?"

"Me," he finished simply.

"I don't understand. I haven't seen you in years."

"You know this pervert?" snapped Romilda.

"She does indeed," answered Peakes. "But not half so well as I know each of you. We go way back, and we had some good times together. Remember the Quidditch Cup, Ginny? I'll never forget it."

"Hey, I do remember you!" gasped Romilda. "I tried out that year for Quidditch and saw you make the team! Let us the fuck out of here!"

The face on the screen turned nonchalantly toward Romilda. "This is the second time I've had to ask you not to curse, and there will not be a third. We have another task to get to, and we're behind schedule as it is."

"Hold on just a moment," interjected Hermione, taking several steps toward the screen. "We were in Gryffindor together. Why are you doing this to us? We want to go home and see our families!"

"All in good time, Hermione," he answered her patiently. "We can discuss all of this soon, I promise you. Only one of you is going home tomorrow, so there are some tough decisions ahead. On that note..."

Suddenly, the screen revolved back behind the wall panel and was gone. Ginny was dumbfounded. Someone she barely remembered going to school with, someone she hadn't seen or heard from in a decade, had taken it upon himself to kidnap her and five of her classmates and dress them up like frivolous sex objects. Why? Romilda had an even foggier memory of Jimmy Peakes than Ginny did, and Hermione had virtually none at all. What was his plan?

"Back to business!" Peakes' voice declared, resonating from the walls. "Follow along if you please."

A blue path once again illuminated the marble floor, and a large oak door at the nearest wall creaked open. Stepping inside, Ginny and the others found themselves stating down a small flight of stairs that led to a rich and extravagant banquet hall. Everywhere there were tables with half a dozen place settings each, ornate candelabras sitting as centerpieces. Ginny noticed that the dining room seemed to be separated into three equally sized sections by tall dividers. Long rectangular tables with several covered trays were lining three of the four walls in the enormous room. Ginny already had a good guess as to what task lay ahead.

"Welcome to the fourth task. We are in the home stretch!" Jimmy Peakes' voice echoed around the room. "Here we will challenge your memory and efficiency skills, as well as your ability to multitask. There are three sections, each with nine tables. At each table is a list of dinner orders, and each entree is to be assembled and placed in front of the appropriate seat. All three sections should look identical by the time you are finished. Be careful now, as once you place a finished entree at the table, you cannot undo it later. The maid who serves the fewest correct orders by the end of the hour will be eliminated. Good luck and please remember, no running. Begin!"

At once, the blue light split into three pink paths, each one marked by a name. Ginny immediately set down her own route, down to the far left of the banquet hall. Hermione's led to the center, and Romilda the far right. Even in the midst of her frantic determination not to finish third, even now with the unexpected reveal of their captor's identity, Ginny could not bear to think what would happen should Romilda advance to the final task. The thought of seeing Hermione curtsy like a meek, subservient maid and strut off to serve as Peakes' personal eye candy was too much to bear. And what would it feel like, she found herself wondering, to be suddenly trapped in her own body and forced to primp and pose in this demeaning attire while she dusted an endless array of bookshelves? She shuddered and refused to think on it any further. All that mattered was that Romilda be forced to pay for what she had done to Luna, and with that she allowed her vengeful fury guide her forward.

She reached the first table and took a quick look at the list of entrees. She tried to pick it up to carry with her but found it as stubbornly stuck to the table as the fetish costume was to her own skin. She would have to trust her own memory, she knew at once, and quickly scanned the list. It seemed fairly straightforward, but she had a feeling that such ease would not apply to all nine tables in her section. When she thought she had a reasonably good assessment of what the first table needed, she headed for the long end table and began removing the lids from the covered aluminum trays.

She was greeted with the aroma of piping hot roast beef, spiced pork chops, and shepherd's pies. She marveled at the mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, corn, and green beans. Bright cranberries and other immaculately arranged fruits tantalized her eyes. Hot dinner rolls fresh out of the oven and angel hair pasta filled her vision as she drank in the entire glorious sight. Her mouth was suddenly watering as she realized how hungry she was. But now was not the time to get distracted. She began shoveling generous portions onto plates and carried them two by two back to the table. She was extra mindful of the stilettos now. If she fell, she knew she would be done for, and Romilda's smug laughter would echo through the hall until the humiliation overcame her. She refused to let that happen. Spite could be a powerful motivator, and every step of the way she was sure Hermione was already several steps ahead of either of them. All she had to do was beat Romilda.

Keeping her head down and quietly repeating aspects of each dinner order helped her memorize them, and before too long she had completed three tables! She hurried eagerly to the fourth and... was stunned to find an array of needlessly complex orders, each with its own stipulations and special requests. Her heart hammered in her chest. None of it seemed reasonable, and the words on the page appeared to swim and contort before her very eyes. She would have to take things one order at a time now to avoid making any mistakes. That would cost her quite a lot of speed...

She began to make her way back to the array of covered trays when she thought she heard a faint whisper from the other side of the divider.

"Ginny!"

"Hermione...?"

"Yes, it's me," she hissed softly. "Listen, there's a kind of pattern. You don't even need to look at most of the list for every order! See, every third order has a specific combination of roast beef and cranberries, and one of every six is vegetarian! Every table follows those two patterns at the very least, and there might be more! Just hurry!"

The sound of clicking heels told her that Hermione had left in the opposite direction to avoid drawing suspicion, but Ginny could head a more distant pair of heels that told her Romilda couldn't possibly have overheard anything. She hurried back to the end table and remembered something Peakes had said before the task began: 'All three sections should look identical by the time you are finished.' If that was true, then the patterns Hermione had identified in her own section should hold true to her own. To Ginny's immense delight, she found that it was true! She swelled up with pride and gratitude and doubled her efforts to finish the fourth, fifth, and sixth tables even faster than the initial three. All she had to do now was hope she could finish her final three tables as efficiently, and pray that Romilda's pattern recognition abilities were lacking.

The final three tables turned out to be the most complicated. Every order had multiple exclusions and allergy notices, and requests for half of this portion or double of that one. Ginny took several minutes to stare at the order sheet, clinging to her trust in Hermione's advice. Before too long, she saw that many of the orders were actually identical, but with the entree items listed in a different order seemingly for no other reason than to confuse her. It was a very obvious trap meant to slow her down, but Hermione's tip had allowed her to suss out the rest of the orders easily. She took three more trips to the food trays, once again filling up two plates at a time, taking special care to identify each order seemingly meant to throw a wrench into the patterns. Soon enough, they began to form patterns in their own right, and by then, the ninth and final table was miraculously easy. It was as if Ginny had taken a good hearty swig of Felix Felicis.

"Ten minutes, ladies!" came Peakes' warning call. But Ginny was already wrapping up her final table and heading back to the entrance at the top of the stairs. Hermione was there waiting for her, beaming with delight. Ginny grinned slyly, trying to downplay the whole affair. The two of them stood there for a minute or two, looking down at a frantic Romilda, who was running back and forth to deliver the exact portions of each meal to her final few tables. There was a wide-eyed desperation in her that was visible even from this distance, and for half a heartbeat Ginny felt a stab of pity for what was about to happen to the dark-haired amazon. Then she remembered Luna, and felt ever so slightly better.

"Time's up! Back to the entrance please."

Romilda looked around in bewilderment, then realized with dismay that she was the last to finish her task. She walked nervously to rejoin her fellow maids, knees shaking as she went, where she would await judgment.

"You have all done very impressive work, and don't worry, none of this food will go to waste. However," Peakes' voice lowered dramatically, "one of you has assembled more orders incorrectly than either of your coworkers. Who could it possibly be..."

A brief silence followed, but Ginny felt less tension than she had all day. She and Hermione exchanged a brief smile and nod.

Romilda did not let that slip by unnoticed. "What was that?" she barked.

"What was what?" Ginny asked innocently.

Romilda looked positively beside herself, looking wildly back and forth between the pair of them. "You... both of you... You cheated! I KNEW IT!" And she took several threatening strides toward Ginny, looming menacingly as she went. "You think you can just-"

The rest of her tirade was abruptly halted as she suddenly stood ramrod straight, an inch from Ginny's face. Her hands were folded delicately before her and the gold charm around her neck glowed pink. Aside from the look of rage in her eyes, she looked uncharacteristically submissive with her demure smile. Ginny did not budge in the slightest, but stared up at her in triumph. True, she had to admit she would try to rescue the girl should she win this little contest, but in the meantime, she decided that Romilda Vane could stand to be taken down a peg. A period of menial servitude ought to look good on her.

"I'm sorry, Romilda," Peakes said with a laugh. "but someone with your track record is in no position to accuse anyone else of cheating. Please make your way to the lobby, dear."

Romilda curtsied politely, turned, and strutted directly at a nearby wall, her hips swaying and her long, sultry legs crisscrossing as she went. A hidden door whisked open to admit her, and slid behind her at last, leaving only Ginny and Hermione left behind.

"Well girls, we're almost done. Onward, if you please."

A blue light illuminated the marble floor once again, leading around the banquet hall and out to a very wide corridor. Ginny and Hermione walked side by side, knowing the end was in sight. This could very well be the last they saw of each other for some time. Ginny thought that if she was meant to be one of the final two competitors, she was secretly glad that Hermione Granger was the other. That made all of this oddly easy...

Ginny felt a soft hand close around her fingers. She looked up and there was Hermione's warm, soft smile. She squeezed her hand in return, and together they took the final march down the end of the long, straight hallway that led to one enormous mahogany door. It was elaborately carved and featured a single, golden handle.

"Well, it has come down to this," came the melodramatic voice of Jimmy Peakes. "The two of you have demonstrated your exceptional ability to follow orders, perform extensive labour demands in an efficient manner, move quickly under physical restraint, and your memory skills are to be congratulated. I must say I am impressed, and anyone would be lucky to have either of you serving as a maid. Unfortunately only one of you gets to walk out of here tomorrow, and our fifth and final task will determine who that is."

Ginny and Hermione clasped each others' hands tighter and looked anxiously at the door ahead.

"This task is the simplest of all. Using any means you can think of without resorting to physical confrontation, the two of you must agree on which one of you will walk out that door to freedom. Only when both of you have reached common ground will the door open to admit the winner. I wish you luck, and may the best maid win!"

Peakes' voice was gone, leaving the room in awful silence.

Ginny did not expect anything this cruel for their final task, but all the same she knew exactly what to do. In a way, she knew it from the moment it had come down to the two of them. "Go on Hermione, you should win."

"What? No!" Hermione retorted in an instant, releasing Ginny's hand and staring at her incredulously. "I couldn't possibly! It should be you!"

"Hermione, you're the brightest and most brilliant witch I've ever met. There's no one who has a better chance of getting to the bottom of this than you. I... I'm glad it's you here with me."

Hermione was shaking her head vigorously. "Oh, Ginny... Please don't make me do this. You have a family! You've just had your third child!"

"So have you," responded Ginny calmly. "You should be with him. Go home, say hello to Ron for me, and find out as much about this creep as you can. We have a name now, at least."

Hermione gulped, fighting back tears, and pulled Ginny into a tight and desperate hug. Ginny hugged her warmly in return, half-wishing Hermione would hurry to the door before she lost her nerve.

"I will see you again," Hermione swore. "All of you."

"I know you will. I'm ready."

Ginny watched in terrified, shaking silence as Hermione wiped away a tear and turned away at last, walking with her head held high toward the massive door that would lead her to freedom, and away from this awful nightmare. Placing her hand gently on the golden handle, she turned it and gave it a slight tug as the door creaked to life and opened to admit her. From where she stood, Ginny could see only a dim antechamber on the other side. Hermione Granger gave her one last look of longing that was filled with promise, smiled bravely, and closed the door behind her until Ginny heard its definitive click.

Ginny turned, facing down the length of the hallway they had just traversed. Balling up her fists, she took a deep breath and prepared herself to be immobilized and forced to smile and curtsy without a trace of dignity.

"Do it," she spat angrily. A moment passed. Nothing happened. She was now shaking in rage and impatience. "DO IT!" she screamed at last, swearing all manner of revenge against Jimmy Peakes.

The walls came to life with his response: "The winner is... Ginny Weasley!"