A sad cry filled a bedroom of the Malfoy Manor. Ginny was curled up in a corner as she watched her own tears falling onto the red carpet. She couldn’t believe the terrible thing that she was about to do. She would rather be dead, dead like so many of her friends and family members. She had sacrificed her entire life for this, everything she had ever known and loved. She had no choice, she had to do it. It was her duty.







Ginny remembered a time when she was happy, a time that seemed so far away. A year after she graduated Hogwarts, she had married Harry Potter, the love of her life. The Wizarding World was a dark and scary place and Harry and Ginny were two of the key figures in a war against the darkest wizard of all time. Despite this, they had each other and in this sense they were happy.







When they had been married for nearly a year, the Order was getting desperate to find the final Horcrux. They decided to send one of their own to go undercover and become a Death Eater. Ginny had prayed that this person wouldn’t be her and that she wouldn’t have to sacrifice the little bit of happiness that she had with Harry to become a Death Eater. However, no one else was willing to take on the job. Ginny was forced to.







After another two years of serious preparation convincing Voldemort and the Death Eaters that she wanted to join them, the plan was now about to be put into action. Ten years ago, she was Ginny Weasley, innocent eleven-year-old girl. Three years ago, she was Ginny Potter, wife of Harry Potter and a respected member of the Order of the Phoenix. Now, she was Ginny Malfoy, wife of Draco Malfoy and soon-to-be Death Eater.







When she heard footsteps coming down the hallway, she quickly stood up and wiped the tears from her eyes. The door creaked as her husband walked into the room.







“Are you ready, Ginny?” he asked.







She smiled and grabbed his arm. “I’m ready,” she said, barely able to hold back more tears. She walked with her husband to meet her fate.







Ginny and Draco apparated deep into the dark forest where the ceremony was being held. About 75 Death Eaters were standing in a circle. Draco joined the circle and directed Ginny to walk to the center.







Ginny tried to keep focused as she walked to the center of the circle. She knew that she couldn’t panic, she had to stay calm.







“Please kneel,” he demanded calmly.







She descended slowly to her knees.







“State your name.”







“Ginevra Molly Malfoy,” she declared flatly.







Ginny knew what was coming next. She pulled her thoughts together as she tried to gather all of the information she had learned from the intense Occlumency lessons she had been secretly taking for the past two years. She cleared her mind of any emotion that may lead Voldemort to her true intentions.







“Why are you here?” he asked.







“I am here to pledge my loyalty to you, Dark Lord. I wish to serve you.







“How far are you willing to go to serve me?”







“To the ends of the earth, my Lord.”







Voldemort lowered his eyes in suspicion. “Do you intend to betray me?” he asked coldly.







“Never.”







There was a long pause. Voldemort seemed to be in deep thought. “Before you receive the Dark Mark, you must prove that you are worthy to serve me. What special knowledge or service do you hope to offer the Dark Lord for giving you the honor of being among his followers?”







Ginny realized that Voldemort wasn’t about to kill her, and that she had successfully used Occlumency against the Dark Lord. When the question registered in Ginny’s mind, she felt a cold chill run down her spine. She knew that Voldemort would want information from her, and she already knew what she was going to tell him, even though it would kill her inside.







“I know where to find Percy Weasley, the Minister of Magic,” she said. About a year before, her brother Percy had become the youngest Minister of Magic of all time. There were few others to choose from.







Percy had always been her least favorite of her brothers and had abandoned their family completely, but despite this he was still her brother, and in a way she still loved him. Agreeing to kill him was more painful to her than the fact that she was actually becoming a Death Eater.







“Oh, a satisfactory offering to the Dark Lord indeed… You shall get rid of him for me.”







Ginny cringed uncomfortably. “And when, oh Dark Lord, will you wish me to perform this task?” asked Ginny.







“You shall complete it tonight, before you receive the Dark mark.”







Ginny began to think. She would probably have easy access into the Ministry. All she would have to do would be to say that she had very important business there.







“Then it shall be,” she said.







***







Ginny walked down the shabby street where the entrance to the Ministry of Magic Headquarters was located, passed the graffiti-covered walls. She stepped into the broken-down read telephone box. She picked up the phone and dialed the number 62442. The welcome witch’s voice filled the room.







“Welcome to the Ministry of Magic Headquarters. Please state your business,” she said.







“I’m Ginny Weasley. I’m here because an emergency has come up, and I need to speak to someone immediately.”







A silver visitor’s badge popped out that read “Ginny Weasley, Emergency Business.” Ginny put the silver badge on and the telephone box began to descend. After about a minute it landed in the Atrium.







Ginny stepped out of the telephone box and onto the dark-wood floor. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do next. She looked around for someone that she could talk to, anyone who could help her. At last she found the perfect person, Harry.







She ran over to him and as he heard her he looked over his shoulder. His eyes widened. “Ginny, what are you doing here? Is everything all right?” he asked, shocked.







“No Harry, it’s not. We have a problem.”







Harry looked around. “Follow me,” he said. He began to walk toward the lifts, and Ginny obeyed. They entered the lift that would bring them to level two of the Headquarters.







“Harry, what are you doing here anyway?” she asked.







“Auror business, but that’s not important. Why are you here?”







Ginny took a deep breath. “Harry, my initiation into the Death Eaters is going to happen tonight, and Voldemort has sent me to complete a task,” she said.







Harry looked worried. “What does he want you to do?”







“He wants me to kill the Minister of Magic,” she said.







“Percy?”







“Yes, of course Percy,” said Ginny, slightly irritated.







“So… what are you going to do?” he asked.







“That’s the problem, I don’t know what to do right now!”







When the lift landed and the door opened, they stepped into the Auror Headquarters and Harry signaled for Ginny to stop talking. He grabbed her arm and guided her to one of the cubicles.







“Well, you’re not really going to kill him, right?” he whispered when they were safely hidden in Harry’s cubical.







Ginny was silent for a moment.







“Well?”







“I…” She paused. “I don’t know what else I can do,” she said weakly.







“Ginny, this isn’t you. You’re not a killer!”







“I know Harry, I know… What do you think I should do?” she asked desperately.







“I have a plan. Ginny, I will bring you to Percy’s office and get you past the guards. Tell him what’s going on, and then bring him out. He and I will sneak out of the building and I’ll bring him to Grimmauld Place where he’ll hide out.”







“So, we’re going to stage his death?”







Harry nodded.







“But then guards will know that you let me in and-”







“The guards are Aurors from the Order. We can explain the situation to them.”







“But then the Ministry will know that the guards let me in!”







Harry paused to think. “What if the guards disappeared too?”







***







Ginny and Harry were on the first floor when they reached the Minister’s Office. There were three Aurors guarding the door. When the heard them coming, they looked up.







“Harry, Ginny, what are you two doing here?” asked one of them.







Harry looked around the hall, making sure no one was there. When he saw that no one was, he explained the plan to them. After several minutes, they reluctantly agreed to let her into the office. One of them knocked on the door.







“Come in,” called Percy.







The guard walked into the office. “You have a visitor, Mr. Weasley.”







“Who is it?”







“It’s your sister, Ginny.”







”What in the world does sh-? Fine, let her in.”







“Good luck,” said Harry.







Ginny smiled at him weakly and entered the office.







“Hi Percy,” she said flatly.







Percy didn’t look up from his desk. “What brings you to my office?” he asked in a business-like tone.







“Erm, Percy, I’m here for some very something very serious, and I don’t think your going to like it.







Percy looked with interest from the papers he had been working on.







“You… You’re going to have to come with me.”







Percy stared at her for a moment. “Ginny, I’m very busy. I’m not sure what it is your doing but I have no time for games.”







“This isn’t a game. You-Know-Who is involv-”







“As I said, I am extremely busy. I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” he said coldly.







Ginny felt rage boiling up inside her. She had forgotten what a git he was. “You know Percy, you’re as pompous as ever! You’ll never change!” she exploded.







“And you, Ginny, are just as silly and naive as you were when you were a child. This is your last chance to leave peacefully before a call security.”







“Your security’s gone! I was sent here to kill you!”







Percy looked up in shock. “By who?” he demanded.







“By Voldemort!”







Percy looked at her disgustedly. “You traitor… You’re a Death Eater, aren’t you?”







“Percy, listen to me!”







Percy got up from his chair and began to head toward the door, but Ginny threw herself in front of it and took out her wand. “I’m sorry Percy. I can’t let you leave. If you care about the Wizarding World at all you’ll listen to me! I-”







“And if you valued staying out of Azkaban, you wouldn’t have come in here.”







Ginny panicked. If she was sent to Azkaban, how was she supposed to help find the final Horcrux? Without thinking, she pointed her wand at him and shouted “Avada Kedavra!” She looked down at her dead brother, and she couldn’t believe what she had done.







***







Ginny met Harry outside of the Headquarters in a state of panic. Harry knew that something was wrong.







“Ginny, what’s wrong? Where’s Percy?”







“He’s dead!” said Ginny hysterically.







“What happened?” he asked gravely.







“I had no choice! He was going to send me to Azkaban! I panicked!”







Harry sighed grimly. “We should have known this was going to happen,” he said. “Ginny, I’ll take care of this. You can head back to Voldemort.”







“Thank you Harry,” she said.







***







Ginny was once again heading toward the center of the circle of Death Eaters.







“Welcome back,” said Voldemort. “I assume that you have completed your task.”







“Yes, it has been completed, master.”







Ginny cleared her mind as she prepared for Occlemency.







“And how did you do it?”







“The other side doesn’t know that I’m joining you, so they still trust me. I got into the Ministry without a problem. Finding the Minister’s office was quite easy. I killed his security guards, and then I killed him. No one knows what happened yet, and I got out without a problem. It couldn’t have been simpler.”







"Well done, you have passed the test. Please hold out your arm.”







Ginny obeyed, and Voldemort pulled up her sleeve. He tapped her arm with his wand, and the Dark Mark drew itself on the spot where the wand had touched. “Welcome to my service,” he said. “You shall receive your next task momentarily. In the mean time, you shall wait.”







Ginny was taken to a small, dark, gloomy room with a hard, uncomfortable bed and a small wooden chair. When the two Death Eaters who had escorted her to the room had left, she sat on the bed, relieved to finally be alone after the most miserable two hours of her life. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t hold back from crying.







She wanted so desperately to have her old life back. Her happy years at Hogwarts seemed so far away. Her fifth year at Hogwarts had been wonderful. It was the year that she made the Quidditch team, and the year that Harry realised that he loved her as much as she loved him, but her happiness was short-lived. The death of Dumbledore became the first of a series of painful events in her life. Ginny, like so many, had adored Dumbledore, and his death was a great loss to her. After that, Harry broke up with her. It wasn’t that she hadn’t see it coming; she knew that Voldemort had been targeting the people that Harry cared about and that they couldn’t keep seeing each other for much longer. Still, it was painful for her, and for the next two years her life, things seemed to go downhill.







Shortly after Bill and Fleur’s wedding, she began her sixth year at Hogwarts. It was a sad, lonely year for her. Most of her friends such as Neville and Luna had been taken out of Hogwarts by their parents, and Harry, Ron and Hermione had left to set out on the Horcrux hunt. The one positive thing that had happened that year was the recovery of the locket of Slytherin’s, one of the Horcruxes, by Harry, Ron and Hermione.







The next year was even worse. The loneliness that she felt had not gotten any easier, but this was the least of her worries. There were mass killings of wizards and muggles alike, and many of her friends and their families were murdered, one of them being Luna Lovegood. That year, Harry, Ron and Hermione recovered and destroyed Helga Hufflepuff’s cup.







For the next year, Ginny continued to live with her mother at her childhood home of The Burrow and mourn the death of her father. It was the year that Harry officially became an Auror. That July, Ron and Hermione got married. They and Harry decided to stay at the Burrow for a few weeks, and it was during those few weeks that Harry proposed to Ginny, and for the first time since she was fifteen years old, Ginny was happy.







They got married in mid August of that year, and Ginny joined Harry, Ron and Hermione in search for the Horcruxes. They bought their own house, although they very rarely had time to go there. Being with Harry every single day, Ginny was happier than she had been for a very long time. That year, they recovered Ravenclaw’s artifact that Voldemort had used as a Horcrux. It was a small golden statue of an owl with an ornate “R” carved at the bottom.







Only weeks before Ginny and Harry’s one-year anniversary, an emergency Order of the Phoenix meeting was called. Very little progress had been made in finding the final Horcrux, and there were no signs that progress would be made any time soon. They decided that desperate times called for desperate measures, and that they would have to send one of their own to go undercover as a Death Eater. Everyone else in the Order either couldn’t or wouldn’t volunteer, which forced Ginny to.







The year was now 2002, and during a time when Ginny had hoped and expected that Voldemort would be long dead, there was still one more Horcrux to be destroyed and she was officially a Death Eater. She dove face down into the pillow, dwelling in her agony.







She jumped up when she heard footsteps coming toward the building. It was Draco. “Ginny, the Dark Lord wants to see you,” he said. Ginny followed him back out of the small building and into the cold, dark forest.







The rest of the Death Eaters were gone, and she, Draco and Voldemort were the only ones left there. Voldemort was standing in front of what appeared to be a muggle car tire.







“Ginevra, now that you are a Death Eater you shall receive your first task. In front of me is a Portkey that will lead you to a location of a tremendously important item that you shall obtain. This item shall be on the small distant island to the north of where you shall be transported. It will be buried under the dead tree that lies in the middle of the island in a small steel box. Apperation doesn’t work at this location and you will not be allowed a wand. You will have to find another way across the lake. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”







“Yes, my Lord.”







“Well then go!”







She put her hand on the Portkey and was transported to a dark and frightening place. She was on the shore of a pitch-black, gloomy lake. She could feel drops of ice-cold rain falling on to her body and the air was filled with sounds of thunder and the roar of the waves hitting the shore. In the distance, she could see the small island that Voldemort had spoke of.







Ginny approached the lake, not looking forward to swimming across the freezing water. As she put her first foot into the lake, she let out a small shriek at the site of a strange, monkey-like creature popping its head out of the water. The creature did not look friendly, and Ginny jumped back. She knew that she couldn’t swim across the lake if there were dangerous creatures such as this one inhabiting it.







She sat down on a large rock, shivering as the heavy rain drenched her from head to toe. She sat for fifteen minutes trying to think of a way to cross the broad lake. She decided to look for something that she could use as a raft. As she looked carefully across the landscape, she saw a strange sight in the distance. It looked like a pile of rubble from a structure that had collapsed.







It took her about ten minutes to get to this area, and when she reached it she realised that it had once been a fairly large house, although she wasn’t quite sure who would want to live in a place like this. She found in this pile of debris a small door. Already weak from freezing and exhausted from the long and excruciating night she had had, she dragged this heavy door to the shore.







She pushed it into the lake and hopped onto it. The door sunk a bit, but being quite thick it was able to hold her fairly well. She dipped her hands into the freezing water, but didn’t feel much of a difference after being soaked by the rain. She began a long and painful journey rowing toward the island.







When she was about halfway to the island, Ginny stopped. It had already been three hours since she started rowing. She wasn’t sure that she could go on much longer. She was cold, exhausted, and somewhat depressed. Looking across the lake, she was sure that she would die before she reached the other side. She was tempted to give up.







Then she remembered why she was in this torturous predicament. Nothing that had led her into this situation had been anything she had done for herself. She was doing this to help save the wizarding world. She thought of her mother, Harry, Hermione, all of her brothers, her father who had died for the same cause she was fighting for, Luna who had been killed by the force she was battling, her old friends and former teachers from Hogwarts, and everyone she had ever known or loved. A rush of adrenalin rushed through her body like an electric shock, and she suddenly felt that she had just enough energy to reach the end of the lake. She began to paddle once again, and this time harder than she had ever paddled before. It only took her another two hours to reach her destination.







It was past dawn by the time she reached the island and ran off the raft, mildly grateful to once again be on land. She remembered that this item was buried under a tree. She ran to a large, dead tree in the middle of the island and began to dig.







As soon she had dug up a small black metal box, she suspected what it contained. She ran to the shore, looking for the raft. She found the large rock the she was sure that she had left the raft near, but it wasn’t there. She looked around for the raft. She couldn’t hold back an outburst of anger and frustration when she saw it about fifteen feet across the lake.







She brought herself together, trying to think of a solution. Well, I suppose it’s not that far away she thought. After all I’ve been through, I think I can handle a bit of swimming.







She ran into the river without hesitation, eager to get to the door. As she swam, she felt slimy creatures rubbing against her legs, and water was dirty and contaminated. It was tremendously uncomfortable, and it motivated her all the more to reach the “raft”, but as she swam toward it the raft kept floating in the other direction. Extremely annoyed, she began to swim faster and faster.







After about five minutes of tiring and frustrating swimming, something strange began to happen. She was lifted by a series of somewhat large waves that seemed to go in all directions. Seconds later she and the raft were being sucked in to a strong whirlpool, the center of which was the same area as the origin of the ripple. Terrified, she grabbed the door as it passed her in the whirlpool and kicked violently, attempting to escape. Her attempts barely even slowed her down from falling into the terribly powerful wave pool.







As soon as the whirlpool began to weaken, Ginny had an enormously bigger problem to deal with. It was colossal, and it was the scariest, and most terrible sight that Ginny had ever seen. It had popped out of the lake, pushing up the water with so much force that it set off an enormous wave which pushed Ginny all the way back to the island, nearly drowning her. She flew into the air and crashed forcefully onto the island as the door sailed through the air behind her. She barely had time to worry that she had dropped the black box and it was most likely sitting at the bottom of the lake.







Ginny looked at the huge creature that had tossed her ashore. She could never have imagined such an enormous creature. It was about five times as tall as the huge trees on the island and she was surprised that this lake was large enough to hold it. It was as black as the sky had been the previous night, and its eyes and stomach were blood red. It was similar in appearance to a dragon, but Ginny knew this was no dragon. It was a horrible Dark Creature that existed only to attack.







It roared so loudly that its vibrations nearly knocked Ginny off her feet, and she was sure it could be heard for miles around. Clueless about what to do next, she instinctually ran to the dead tree and began to climb it.







The mysterious and terrible creature came flying towards her rapidly. She jumped frantically to a branch at the back of the tree. Before she knew it, only the width of the tree was separating her from the creature. She could feel its breath on the back of her neck like a gust of wind on a stormy day. In a desperate and feeble attempt to injure the creature, she grabbed the pointiest branch she could find and yanked it off the tree. She turned around and jabbed the branch into its huge eye. The dragon jumped back, inhaling and exhaling sinisterly. It let out an even louder roar, knocking Ginny off the tree. She landed on the ground and jerked away violently as the dark creature banged its head against the tree, knocking it down.







As hopeless as the situation seemed, Ginny refused to surrender. She would not let everything that she had done up to this point go to waste. She hadn’t lived her life as a coward, and she wasn’t going to die like one. If she was going to die now, she was going to die fighting until the very last second.







She stood up, aggressively backing away from the creature. She dodged its attack, skidding across the ground on her stomach. When she stood up, she saw something strange in the trunk of the tree. There was something silver glittering in the knothole that was near the top of the tree while it was still standing. She hadn’t noticed this hole before, but as soon as she saw it she started to run full force toward it.







She reached her hand into the tree and felt around for the item that she had spotted. The dragon was backing up, preparing to attack. She knew that this was her last chance. If whatever was in the hole was not going to be of use to her or she could not pull it out in time, this would be the end. She felt around frantically and finally felt something cold, long, and thin against her had. She had a good guess at what this was, and if she was right, then this item could save her life. The creature was now preparing to charge at her.







She jerked this item towards herself, but it was stuck in the knothole. Without any time to panic, she tugged as hard as humanly possible. The bark that had surrounded the hole went flying through the air, and the sword burst out of the trunk.







The creature began to charge toward her. Ginny stuck out the sword and closed her eyes, hoping that the blade would block its attack so that she would be able to open them again. She felt the sword leave her hand as she was knocked forcefully onto the ground. When she opened them, she noticed that the creature was now lying on the ground, and the sword had gone through its neck. Ginny watched this awful, terrible monster as is chocked on the sword, took its final breaths and died.







Ginny paused for a moment. She began to cry with tears of joy. She felt a renewed sense of self-confidence, and she knew that if she had made it through this, she could make it through anything. It added to her joy when she saw that the black box had washed up on the shore, and she would not have to retrieve it. She had little time to bask in her glory, though. She still had to get back across the lake. She hopped on the raft and started to row once again, and feeling confident and invigorated, this journey seemed far easier than the last.







As soon as she pulled ashore, however, she realized something that caused her to panic. Voldemort had not provided her with a Portkey back. She didn’t even know where in the world she as, let alone how to get back to the forest. For all she knew, it was half way around the world from where she was. Once again, she was all alone, and more alone than she had ever been in her life.







Ginny sat for a moment to think. She had gotten out of several situations that were far worse than this one in only the past twenty-four hours. This would be like nothing. Her only option was to walk until she could find civilization.







She used her intuition to choose a direction to walk in. She began this long a tedious journey.







After she had been walking for at least two hours, she stopped to take a break. She sat against a few hard and uncomfortable rocks. Once again, she was exhausted. She figured it was about noon. She hadn’t eaten in almost a day and it had been even longer since she had slept. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could make it like this; she wasn’t even sure how she had made it this far. She did know one thing, though. After everything that she had been through that day, she would absolutely not let it go to waste by dying of starvation or collapsing in exhaustion. With that in mind, she moved on.







It took only about another fifteen minutes before she could see a wonderful sight. Not too far in the distance, she could see a small village. It was to the west, up on a large hill.







A bit later, she reached this village. In Ginny’s opinion, this was a strange area to build a village. It seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. There were no roads and no tall buildings. There were log cabins, children playing outside, several barns, a few cows, and a fenced in area for the chickens. Ginny entered this strange area, eager to find someone who would help her.







Ginny was extremely surprised when a man that she was fairly sure she recognized as Antonin Dolohov walked out of one of the houses.







“Ginny, is it?” he asked.







“Yes, that’s me,” she responded.







“The Dark Lord will be very pleased to hear that you have found your way here.”







“If you don’t mind me asking, where exactly am I?”







“This is a hideout for Death Eaters and their families. The Dark Lord was hoping that you would find your way here after retrieving the item, and it seems you have. Your husband has been waiting for you here.”







Dolohov led her to a cabin where her husband was waiting. As soon as he saw her, he ran over to her and kissed her. Ginny, Voldemort wants us to return to the forest.”







Ginny smiled flakily, just as gloomy and uncomfortable as she had always felt around the husband who she hated.







Ginny spent the night at this hideout, and the next morning she and Draco traveled back to the forest where Voldemort was hiding out.







As Ginny entered the forest with Draco, she found that Lucius Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange were now standing on opposite sides of Voldemort. Ginny had a feeling that this series of grueling tests was still not over. She suddenly felt angry. What did he want from her? She had already gone to her mortal limits to please him, and now he was going to ask even more of her.







Ginny kneeled before her master, fury running through her vanes. “Congratulations. I see you have made it back here alive.” Ginny could not look at this horrible, wicked man. She looked at the ground, not being able to stand the sight of him. She was now shaking with anger.







“Look at the Dark Lord when he is addressing you,” said Bellatrix coldly.







Ginny obeyed, being very careful not to let her anger show.







Lucius looked down at her. “Someone has deeply insulted the Dark Lord, and he has decided that they need to be punished. You are to go to their house tonight and kill them. Do not worry. We have ensured that no one will get in your way, but if they should, I would like to think you could take care of them. Now, wouldn’t you like to know who you will be visiting?”







Ginny felt a combination of anger and dread course through her. She didn’t wish to kill anyone, and those who she wouldn’t mind killing were people that Voldemort wouldn’t want dead. She knew that she couldn’t speak without sounding angry, and so she just nodded.







“You will be paying a visit to Neville Longbottom. I believe you are familiar with his home, so you should not have a problem getting there, but we have provided you with a Portkey to the city of his residence.”







Ginny sighed. She certainly didn’t want to kill Neville Longbottom, a friend from her childhood. Although, it was true that she hadn’t exactly talked to him since he had left Hogwarts during her sixth year. He hadn’t joined the Order or done anything to help in the war against Voldemort. Ginny had expected far better from him.







Then she remembered her and Harry’s original plan about what they were going to do with Percy. She realised that she could simply do the same thing with Neville. Still, it would be hard for her to interfere with the happiness he had with his wife and child.







“Ginevra, you are hesitating. Are you having doubts?”







“Of course not, my Lord.”







“Excellent, because I don’t believe that you would have liked the alternative.”







“And what do you wish to be done about his wife and child?”







“They are no threat to us. As long as they do not get in your way, you may do with them what you wish.”







***







Ginny took the Portkey that Voldemort had provided and ended up in Neville’s neighborhood, but as soon as she got there she apparated to Grimmauld Place. When she finally got to house number 12, she knocked on the door. It was Remus Lupin who answered it.







“Hello Ginny,” he said, looking somewhat surprised to see her. “What brings you here?”







Ginny peeked into the house and saw that Harry and the other Order members were there. Apparently there was an Order meeting going on. “Actually,” she said, “I was sent by Voldemort to kill Neville Longbottom, and-”







“And you wanted him to hide out here, like the guards are and you wanted Percy to?”







“Er, yeah, that’s it.”







“Well that won’t be a problem. You may tell him to apparate here.”







“Thanks Remus. I have to go now… bye.”







“Goodbye Ginny, and good luck.”







***







Ginny knocked on the door of the Longbottom home. She saw Neville’s head poke through the curtains of the front window. He ran to the door.







“Ginny! Wow, it’s been years since I last saw you!” he said. “Come in!”







Ginny walked into the house. “Nice to see you again, Neville.”







“Please, sit down!” Ginny took a seat on a small red armchair. “Honey, we have company!”







“Coming, dear!” Ginny barely recognized the woman who was coming down the stairs as Lavender Brown. It had been even longer since she had seen her than it had been since she had seen Neville. She was holding a small baby. “Ginny, is that you?” she asked.







“Hello, Lavender.”







“Ginny, I would like you to meet our daughter, Emily.”







Ginny smiled at the baby. “She’s adorable!”







“Ginny, would you like something to drink?” asked Neville. “Lavender, could you please get Ginny a cup of tea?” he asked.







“Of course.” Lavender gently set Emily on the floor, and she started to crawl around. Lavender entered the kitchen.







“So, Ginny, what brings you here?” he asked.







This was the part of the visit that Ginny had been dreading. “Neville, I’m here because I’m becoming a Death Eater.”







Neville raised his eyebrows.







“I’m undercover for the Order,” she explained, “and Voldemort asked me to kill you.”







“Ginny, your not going to kill me are you?”







“Of course not. What I need you to do is apperate to 13 Grimmauld Place, Harry will be waiting for you there. You will have to hide out there until the War is over and Voldemort is dead.”







Neville looked sad and shocked, but nodded in agreement. “Okay… If that’s what has to happen, I’ll do it. Can Lavender and Andrea come?”







Ginny smiled faintly. “Sure,” she said.







“Thank you Ginny, for saving me.”







Ginny sighed. “Please don’t thank me Neville. It was nothing.”







***







Ginny was once again kneeling before that Dark Lord.







“Your tasks for now are completed. You have proven yourself a worthy follower. You are wanted by the Ministry of Magic for the killings you have committed, so you and your husband must hide in the villiage.”







“Yes, my Lord.”







*******************************************







Epilogue: For a few weeks afterward, Ginny and Draco lived with the other Death Eaters at the hideout village. When the time was right, Ginny informed the Order of her suspicions that the black box contained the final Horcrux. A week later, every single Auror in the country came to attack the village. The Death Eaters were outnumbered and lost miserably. None of them survived, and all of them were shocked when Ginny fought on the side of the Aurors.







Ginny’s suspicions turned out to be correct. The box contained the final Horcrux, an item once owned by Godric Gryffindor. It was destroyed immediately. She and Harry were remarried, and a year later Ginny gave birth to a baby girl. She was born two months before Ron and Hermione’s first son and six month after Bill and Fleur’s daughter.







Ginny lived out the rest of her life as a generally happy person. Voldemort and all of his known followers had been killed and she had her entire life to spend with her husband, child, and the rest of her friends and family.







However, as much as she tried not to forget about the dark years of her life, she couldn’t. She always had the Dark Mark to remind her of the pain and guilt of her weeks as a Death Eater. Sometimes in the middle of the night, she would find herself back in the middle of the cold, dark lake, tempted to let herself slip off the door.