Disclaimer: This is one. I don't own Harry Potter, or Ginny Weasley, or almost any characters here.

Chapter 5

The silence in the Muggle Studies classroom could rival the one Snape used to have in Potions by just raising an eyebrow. The rumour of what their new teacher had done to the Hufflepuff girl had gone round the school twice and back. Mouth firmly shut, Ginny tried to convey all her hatred to Alecto Carrow with her glare. If only looks could actually kill – the witch standing in front of the class would have been killed instantly by most of the class.

Even Luna looked hateful, which Ginny realised was a complete first. At the worst under Umbridge, Luna had looked merely intrigued by how low the woman who stole Dumbledore's job could stoop. When they were battling Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, Luna had been focused and intense, but still not hateful. She'd observed the Death Eaters like she might look at a particularly disgusting creature Hagrid had presented them – with an eye keen to try and find the good in them. But, Ginny figured, even someone as good as Luna was bound to find her limit and see someone as pure evil one day. Apparently, the limit was somewhere around torturing a defenceless thirteen year old girl.

"The way the idiots this morning behaved, I don't have much hope none of you here know what Muggles are really like, do you?"

Carrow's voice was crude, and sounded dirty. It contrasted so much with the tone of voice of other teachers in the school, who often sounded severe, yet carefully constructed. Alecto Carrow sounded – stupid. Not just uneducated – Ginny knew better than to think that intelligence and education were necessarily intrinsically linked – but plain dumb, as if she'd never had an original thought of her own before. It was likely to be the case, too, when she thought about it. Traditionally, Pureblooded women were actively encouraged not to think for themselves. That had changed in recent years, but many of them hadn't received the memo.

"I'll be teaching ya how it is they really are then!"

Rolling her eyes, Ginny mused that the woman probably wouldn't know how to use her own brain even if she had received that memo.

"You!"

Ginny froze. Maybe she shouldn't have rolled her eyes.

"Whaddya know 'bout Muggles?"

"Muggles are humans who do not have Magic." Ginny thought of stopping there – it was a perfectly reasonable answer – but the thought that Carrow might be satisfied with her answer riled her up. The moment Carrow was satisfied with her, she'd know she had done something wrong. "They're perfectly similar to wizards and witches in every other way."

Carrow glared at her.

"That's what I thought. You've been brainwashed, all of you. Muggles are not similar at all to wizardkind. Tell me, Miss... Weasley. Have you ever met a Muggle?"

The faces of Mr and Mrs Granger flashed in her mind – a kind lady who didn't see her as the girl who'd set a giant monster on half the school population, and a nice man who'd looked positively bemused that her father had never seen a television before.

"Yes, I have. Very nice people. Unlike some wizards and witches I've met." Carrow looked at her in the eyes, and held her gaze. Ginny almost snorted. No one had ever won a starring contest against Ginevra Weasley.

The class was ever more silent than before, if that was possible. Second by second, Ginny felt all her good intentions and nice promises to Neville and Seamus fly away. She suddenly felt a strong kinship with Rose the Hufflepuff. There was something in Carrow's eyes that just begged her to cause trouble. She wondered for a second if that was how Harry felt when he dealt with Umbridge.

Carrow turned around, and the class let a breath out as one. The first storm has been weathered –

"Crucio!"

Ginny didn't even have time to register that Carrow had turned around before the curse hit her. She felt as if all her bones were being cracked as one, and then pierced with a thousand needles. She didn't even try to hold back her scream – there was no point trying to hide pain like this. Something in the back of her mind told her that even though it felt like it, the pain wouldn't kill her. The back of her mind had never been so far away, though. All she could think about were the thousand knives now stabbing her heart.

Suddenly it stopped.

Somehow, she'd ended up on the floor. She starred at the ceiling as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world. She didn't think she could ever move her head and look at anything else. Her lungs remembered they needed air, and she took a deep breath, that brought some residual pain in her ribs.

"So, anyone else wanna tell me about Muggles?"

The class went from bad to worse. Ginny spent most of it leaning heavily on her desk, after Luna helped her up. She wasn't surprised when Carrow didn't allow her to leave the class to go rest. Though no one else got Crucioed – Ginny quickly realised that treatment was reserved for her – several students got slapped in the face, and Luna got her lips Cursed shut. Ginny was fairly sure she knew the counter-Charm, and Luna didn't look like she cared much. She was breathing a sight of relief when she left the class, and crunched her eyes shut when Carrow called to hold her back.

"You think you're so smart, don't you... But none of your Order people are here now to protect their precious ickle baby Weasley, are they?."

She obviously was expecting an answer, and just because of that, Ginny held back all the smart replies and insults just edging on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she resumed their starring contest.

"That behaviour of yours, trashing around the floor of the classroom earlier, does not befit a Pureblood young lady. Detention, tonight, eight sharp. You'll be keeping company to Miss Rose Winters."

Without waiting for more, Ginny practically ran out of the classroom. She wasn't surprised to see Luna waiting outside, with Neville pacing next to her. The moment the door closed behind her, she dropped the façade she'd managed to hold most of the class and fell on the floor.

"It's alright Ginny, we'll get you to the common room," Neville said quietly.

"I'll tell McGonagall where you are, Ginny. She'll understand if you miss Transfiguration," Luna added.

Silently praising the stars for such amazing friends, she let Neville half-pulled her towards Gryffindor tower. Seamus met them half way, and for once, she didn't feel like accusing him of showing off when he simply picked her up and carried her up the rest of the way. Without even asking, he brought her up to the boys' dormitory, and gently put her down on Harry's bed.

Almost immediately, Parvati came in with a bottle of dreamless sleep potion that she swallowed without a word. Before sleep overtook her, she whispered, "I have detention at eight. Make sure I'm awake for it, please."

She was already awake when Parvati came back in the room to tell her it was time to go. She offered a sandwich. Ginny barely managed to eat half of it before she felt sick. She wished she had time for a Daydream Charm, like she'd given to Rose. Maybe later.

Rose was already waiting in front of Carrow's door when she arrived. The girl was shaking with fear. Ginny looked down at her own hand and realised her fingers were trembling too. She made a fist to stop the reaction and smiled at Rose as if she got Crucioed every day by her teachers and this was really no big deal.

"Let's do this, shall we?" she said, and knocked on the door firmly. A voice inside signalled for them to enter.

She was surprised to see not Alecto but Amycus waiting by the desk.

"Ah. Our two delinquents. I've heard you were needin' some discipline. You'll be getting a bit of a head start in class. Take you wand out Weasley."

Ginny did as she was told, practicing her death glare on Carrow. She wondered for a second if she was supposed to learn to deflect curses, but it seemed unlikely Death Eaters would ever teach her to defend herself.

"The wand movement you'll be needin' is a straight slash. The incantation is Crucio. Now go on and practice on your little friend."

Ginny froze. He didn't actually expect her to...

"Whatchya waiting for?"

Apparently he did. Rose looked at her, shaking more than ever, obviously wondering just how far Ginny's principles went, and if she was about to get tortured for the second time in a day.

"No."

"No what?"

"No, I won't do it."

"Alright then. We'll be teachin' ya the other side of it, since you haven't learnt."

This time, Ginny saw it coming. She felt herself crumble to the floor as the curse hit her. The pain was worse, if possible, than the first time she was cursed, because her bones were still hurting, and she was still so tired. But another part of her, somehow completely detached realised that while the residual pain from the previous time made it more painful, Amycus's curse wasn't as strong as his sister's. What he lacked in strength, unfortunately, he made up in length. It lasted much longer than before. The detached part of her brain wondered if the two things were correlated, and then marvelled that she was even thinking about that while the main part of her brain was begging to just be killed right now and let the pain stop just stop please oh Merlin please just stop.

It stopped, finally. She didn't even try to open her eyes to send Carrow her death glare. She let him gloat – let him enjoy seeing her at her weakest, because she knew what didn't kill her would only make her stronger. She knew right then that it would happen again that year, because they weren't just torturing students to make an example – what example was there to make of her in front of just one other student? – but because they enjoyed it, in the sickest way possible.

They wanted to see them crumble like she just had, but most of all, they wanted them to give up, to stop hoping, to stop thinking that they would win this war.

She'd let them see her crumble; she might even let them hear her beg when it got really bad, but she wouldn't let them make her lose hope.

"That'll be all for today. Get out."

She managed to get on her feet, with Rose's help, and the younger girl all but dragged her out of the room. They walked down the corridor, and when they passed an empty classroom, Ginny opened the door, shoved Rose in it and locked the door behind them. She almost fell back on the floor and lay there for almost a minute before asking: "Are you alright Rose?"

"Am I alright? Ginny, I should be asking you this! You took that curse because you refused to do it to me! Why did you do this?"

"I'm not about to stoop to their level. I'd rather be hit by them a thousand times than to do this to you. I'd like to think I wouldn't do it to anyone, but after today... well, I'm not a good enough person to say I wouldn't ever do it to them."

Rose nodded silently. They both lay on the floor without a word for several minutes before Ginny spoke again.

"Hey, Rose?"

"Mmh?"

"This morning, when you told your class that Carrow was lying about Muggles..."

"Stupidest thing I've ever done."

"Why did you do it?"

The other girl sighed.

"It just felt so wrong not to. My mother's half-blood – her father is a Muggle – and we see her cousins very often. One of them's a doctor – that's what Muggles call Healers – and he's really, really smart. Not just book-smart, you know, but also with a lot of common sense, and he's really kind, a very nice person. And Carrow, she was saying all these things, and she's obviously not half as smart as him, and I just had to say something. You know, not just because people in the class might believe her, they're not like that – but because it felt like I was almost betraying my Mum's cousin by not speaking up. You know what I mean? You probably don't – I'm just really stupid for doing things like that, my mouth just starts running, and I can't stop it. You're too smart to do things like this..."

"Hardly. And you're not stupid. Those things, they need to be said. Just, next time, let someone else say it. I can't really recommend getting tortured twice in a day."

Rose snorted. Ginny turned her head to look at her and was struck by how young the other girl looked. Was this how her mother felt when she looked at her children asking to fight, and turned them down because they were too young? But when he was Rose's age, Harry had already faced Voldemort three times, survived a killing curse and killed a basilisk. Age didn't mean much in a war, and the Carrows had proved that again today. Plus, Ginny's mission had been to protect first and second years. Rose didn't fall in these categories anymore.

"Hey, Rose? Have you ever heard of Dumbledore's Army?"

The Hufflepuff perked up.

"Are you kidding? Who here hasn't heard of it?"

Ginny smiled.

"Do you want in?'

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Yes! Of course!"

"Alright." Ginny smiled again. "I'm warning you, for now, it's going to sound a lot cooler than it is. But if you want in, here's your first mission: tell Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones to meet me at the Quidditch Pitch tomorrow morning at seven sharp. Tell them to bring brooms too. Don't tell them what just happened in detention. As a matter of fact, don't tell that to anyone." She sat up. "And for now, let's go to bed. I'd say we both need some sleep."

She walked back Rose to her common room, and then started walking towards Gryffindor Tower. She saw Terry Boot in the distance, looking positively depressed. She waved, but he didn't see her. She noticed the Head Boy badge on his chest and marvelled for a second that Malfoy wasn't carrying it. Oh, well, she thought. Minor miracles.

She didn't dare go to boys' dormitory to sleep in Harry's bed that night – the morning's raid was only too fresh in her mind – and shut the curtains around her bed with a snap when Heather started babbling at her. She took the Daydream Charm with a sigh of relief, and dreamt of a house full of children with red hair and green eyes in a small cottage by the sea.

Author Note:

Several things:

- Sorry for the delay in updating. Life caught up with me, and I had less time on my hands to write properly.

- Many thanks to all my reviewers!

- Someone requested longer chapters. If that's something other people want, I could try to group more chapters together when I update – but that means less frequent updates. Any preferences?

- I wrote a one-shot that somewhat fits with the mention of Terry Boot at the end of this chapter called "You can't always get what you want." You can find it on my profile. I haven't yet decided if it will be part of the main storyline here, or just a side mention, but it's definitively part of the same universe.

Thanks for reading!

M&T