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Chapter 4
Ginny thanked her lucky stars for the existence of Neville Longbottom as the content of her school trunk were turned over in front of her.
"And that? What is that?"
"That would be my cauldron. For potion class," she answered the woman, barely managing to contain her eye roll. Alecto Carrow seemed stupid and crazy enough to singlehandedly confirm Tonks's theories about the consequences of generations of inbreeding in pureblood families.
"What about this?" she shouted, holding a small bottle.
"Ink. To write essays." She wondered for a second if the other woman knew how to write. She stifled a yawn.
It was barely six in the morning when the Death Eater had barged in the sixth year girls' dormitory. It was only thanks to Neville that she had been in her bed then. He had woken her up at five, sending her back to her own dormitory, in case anyone, in particular the nosy Heather, noticed she had spent the night somewhere else. She'd thought he was paranoid, but when Carrow had started emptying the contents of her trunk and interrogating her, she'd made a mental note to pay more attention to what he said.
"Right," Carrow answered, clearly disappointed. She looked like she'd finally finished her inspection. Ginny felt slightly insulted that the Death Eater had seriously thought she'd be stupid enough to have anything illegal in her trunk that wouldn't be transfigured or properly hidden.
The fact was, there were many illegal things in her trunk, but thanks to the combined efforts of Tonks, the twins and Fleur, it would be close to impossible for Carrow to find anything. It turned out her new sister in law was not only very good at glamour and concealment charms, she also knew many others for which the counter-charm had to be said in French. Fleur had been added next to Neville in her mental list of people she wouldn't underestimate again.
"If you are quite finished harassing my students, I would like to get some breakfast while the castle is still quiet. Miss Weasley and Miss Smethley might even have time to get some more sleep." Professor McGonagall had refused to leave the room while the interrogation took place. She'd answered Carrow's barely veiled threats with the glare that kept her classes perfectly silent. The Death Eater hadn't tried to push her luck.
"I've got my eye on you Weasley. Blood traitors like you won't have it easy anymore around here, mark my words."
Ginny stayed silent, thinking that with all the tongue-biting that she would need to do all year, she'd be lucky to still have a tongue by the following June.
"What was she looking for?" Heather asked avidly, as soon as the door closed behind Carrow and McGonagall.
"How should I know? She obviously didn't find it, whatever it was." Cutting the conversation short, she went in the bathroom. If Heather was going to try to talk to her all year, she'd need to come up with better escape routes than hiding in the bathroom. But, more urgently, she thought under the shower, she needed to find out of she'd been the only one targeted by Carrow's little search and interrogation act. If that was the case, she was in more danger than she thought.
She'd figured Harry's great act of nobility – dumping her – would at least ensure that she wouldn't be in the spotlight anymore than his other friends. Had she been wrong? Maybe Death Eaters still thought she knew more about Harry's whereabouts than she'd said in her interrogation after the wedding raid.
She needed to come up with a contingency plan if they did come after her. She wouldn't be much help to the first years or her family in Azkaban. She would have to start inspecting the secret passages the twins had told her about and see how many of them the Death Eaters knew about.
Brushing her hair, she prepared her battle plan for the day. While walking between classes, she'd try to take the long way whenever possible to discreetly check the passage. In classes, she would try to sit by Luna whenever possible to exchange the latest information and find out what the mood was in the Ravenclaw common room. At meal times, she would try and sit by younger students, and find out if any of them were bullied by their Death Eater teachers or older Slytherins. They were bound to be really annoyed not to have had anyone sorted in their House, and they did have a tendency to take these kinds of things out on easy targets.
Pleased with herself, and feeling better now that she knew she was going to act on something, Ginny almost ran out of the dormitory, passing right by Heather and walking down to the great hall for breakfast.
Professor McGonagall was already there, and passed her a list of classes.
"Please pick the classes you will take this year Miss Weasley. These will be the ones you take your NEWTs on. I have been told to remind you that Dark Arts and Muggle Studies are mandatory classes this year," McGonagall said, clearly not pleased to be told by anyone what she had to do.
Besides the two mandatory classes, Ginny signed up for Potions, Herbology, Care for Magical Creatures, Transfiguration and Astronomy. McGonagall took her list, then tapped a piece of parchment with her wand. Ginny's new schedule appeared automatically on it. She took it with a smile of thanks. McGonagall went on to take something out of her pocket.
"You won't take it personally, Miss Weasley, when I tell you I would rather be handing this badge to another student today; but in his absence, you are by far the best Quidditch in Gryffindor House."
Ginny silently took the Quidditch Captain badge from her Head of House.
"I trust that you will do you best to ensure certain former Slytherin teachers will have one less reason to gloat this year."
"We'll get the Cup, Professor, I promise," she answered with a wide smile.
She refused to feel guilty for taking the badge from Harry. Quidditch was her life more than it had been Harry's. She was still looking forward to the introduction to Gwenog Jones Professor Slughorn had promised her the previous year. If things ever went back to normal, she'd fly with the Harpies. That childhood dream was right up there with marrying the Boy-Who-Lived, and Ginny Weasley was damned if she'd let idiotic Death Eaters get in the way of her dreams.
The Great Hall slowly started to fill up. Neville practical ran towards her when he came in. The rumour mill had been even faster than usual, and all of Gryffindor Tower knew that her trunk had been searched that morning. After she filled him in fully on what happened, and expressing her concerns, which he shared, over why she had been targeted, they agreed to pass the message around that if anyone did have anything illegal on their school trunks or room, they ought to hide things well.
Their conversation was cut short when Heather appropriated herself the seat next to Neville and started to flirt outrageously with him. Neville was clearly not used to flirting, and looked completely confused at to what he was supposed to do. He looked at his friend quite desperately when Heather started batting her eyelashes. Ginny did a remarkable job of not cracking up and laugh in the face of his confusion.
"Neville, didn't you say you wanted a word with Lavander before class?"
"What? Oh, I mean, yes, you're right, Ginny. Lavender. I needed to talk to her. Now. Soon. Uhm. Let's go."
They practical ran out of the Hall together and Ginny finally cracked when they arrived on the stairs, out of view from everyone.
"Oh, your face Neville, it was priceless!" she said, short of breath from laughing.
"What was that? How does she even know my name? More importantly, what is her name?"
"That was Heather. I think she's trying to find out where Harry is. She was very, very friendly to me last night. Though not quite as friendly as she was to you right now. Anyway, come on up, we'd better inform Lavender she's your alibi."
Lavender found the entire story quite hilarious and offered to pretend to be Neville's girlfriend in order to keep Heather off Neville's back. He blushed, and refused as politely as he could while stuttering madly.
Laughing with Neville and Lavender had put Ginny in an excellent mood. It was, unfortunately, short-lived.
As she made her way back from Potions class just before lunch, she noticed the mood in the corridors was subdued. She walked in the Great Hall, and was struck by how dark the atmosphere was. She could almost touch the tension in the air. No one she knew was at the Gryffindor table, so she just sat by a group of third years and introduced herself.
"Do you know what happened?" she asked bluntly. Now was not the time for flourishes.
"Yeah, it happened in our class," a boy answered. Ginny recognised him as one of the new students. He was positively green.
"Which class?"
"Muggle studies. Carrow, she was saying those things about Muggles... Horrible things, frankly disgusting. One of the students, a Hufflepuff, she told the entire class Carrow was lying, and..."
The boy turned even greener.
"She tortured her," finished another girl. "With Cruciatus. None of us could do anything to help."
Ginny paled. This was happening much faster than she'd anticipated.
"How long did it last?"
"About a minute," the boy answered. "Longest minute of my life."
"Where is she now? The girl?"
"In the Hufflepuff common room, her friends brought her there. Carrow forbade them from bringing her to the hospital wing."
Cursing quietly, Ginny thanked the third year students, and left the Great Hall. She went to pick up two things in her dormitory, and then made her way downstairs, towards to entrance of the Hufflepuff common room near the kitchens. The potion she needed was in her bag, disguised as a bottle of ink. Ironically, it was the same one Carrow had interrogated her about that very morning.
She waited a few minutes, before a group of Hufflepuffs arrived her way. She breathed a sigh of relief recognising Hannah Abbot and Ernie MacMillan. They both looked extremely worried.
"Ginny! What are you doing here?"
"I heard about what happened. I have a couple of things that can help her feel better. Can you let me in?"
Ernie and Hannah glanced at each other for just a second, before Hannah nodded.
"Alright."
The Hufflepuff common room looked strangely similar to its Gryffindor counterpart. A small group was gathered around a fluffy looking couch. A girl was lying there, white and shivering.
"Make way!" Ernie said loudly. Ginny went to kneel next to her.
"Hi. My name is Ginny," she said gently. "I'm here to help you feel better. What's your name?"
"Rose," the girl whispered weakly.
"That's a lovely name. I have a few things to make you feel better. This is a Sleeping Potion," she said, taking out the ink bottle and tapping it with her wand. "You need to get some sleep to have the effects of Cruciatus pass faster, but your body's reaction to Cruciatus is to stay awake. So with this potion, you'll sleep faster. Once you wake up, use this."
Ginny took out a box that looked blank, until she tapped it with her wand.
"This is a Patented Daydream Charm. If you use it after you wake up, it will make you feel happier, and you'll be able to avoid a few nightmares. And remember to eat lots of chocolate," she finished with a smile.
The girl nodded. "But what about my classes this afternoon?" Rose asked quietly.
"What do you have this afternoon?" Hannah asked.
"Herbology and Transfiguration," another third year student answered.
"If your classmates tell them what happened and where you are, Sprout and McGonagall will understand that you missed class. They won't penalise you, and we'll help you study for what you missed," Ernie said.
Looking relieved, Rose took the Sleeping Potion from Ginny and drank it all in one go. As the poor girl fell asleep, Ginny discreetly turned towards Hannah and Ernie. Hannah looked back with an eyebrow raised in silent question. She looked down, and Ginny saw a golden galleon in her left hand.
"Try to talk to Neville or Seamus in class, they'll be able to answer all your questions," Ginny answered in a murmur. "I have to go, I can't stay here too long, the Carrows are already keeping an eye on me."
With a small nod, the two Hufflepuff prefects saw her out of their common room.