Disclaimer: This is J.K. Rowling’s stuff and anyone crazy enough to try to take it as their own is just dumb.
Ginny was standing next to Harry, holding his hand when Lupin was found. She squeezed his hand and she let go of it so that he could go to his guardian. It was one of the first real smiles she had seen on his face since the day he had proposed to her. For a second, she thought it may even have been the happiest he looked since she met him. Her brother, Bill, patted her shoulder as he walked past to see his friend for the first time in months.
That was the last thing she remembered. Suddenly her happy moment was gone and all Ginny could see was blackness.
She woke to pain beyond anything she had ever experienced. She screamed and tried to call out to Harry with her mind, but found a solid wall between his thoughts and her own. Not soon enough the pain subsided and she could breathe a shaky breath. Again pain came, but this time in a different form. Out of nowhere a boot collided with her stomach and the wind was knocked out of her. Ginny recoiled and felt the boot hit her again, this time with at least three sickening cracks from her ribs.
Once again, she was placed under the Cruciatus Curse, laying on the cold stone floor screaming into the night. The pain stopped increasing but it didn’t quite go away, when the curse was lifted. It scared her when she found that it was hard to breath and she was losing consciousness. She used every ounce of control she possessed to stay awake.
Somewhere above her, Ginny could hear a soft laugh, but she couldn’t quite determine where it was coming from. She gathered that the laugh was coming from a woman, and this woman found torture very funny for some odd reason. The only person that Ginny could think of to fit this description was Bellatrix Lestrange.
A few minutes later her suspicions were confirmed when there was a popping noise, and a cold voice yelled, “Bella!”
“Yes, my Lord?” Bellatrix answered.
“Who has Potter?”
“No one at the moment my Lord. He still has not come for the girl.”
There was a moment’s silence where Ginny supposed he was considering his other options. “Are you sure she is the one he will come after? How do you know we have the right girl?”
“Our spy at Hogwarts has confirmed it my Lord.”
Silence ensued, and Ginny could hear what could only have been Voldemort’s footsteps pacing the room. “Do you remember what to do?” Ginny heard him ask.
“Yes,” Bellatrix replied. “First, get Potter confined to interrogate him to see if he knows where it is. Second, if he doesn’t respond, torture the girl in front of him. Third, if he doesn’t know about it, you kill him, even though you’ll never be able to fight fairly. Avoid that at all costs. If he does know where it is, we have him take us to it so he can get the power he needs to have a fair duel between the two of you. Lastly, kill the girl in front of him.”
Ginny took a sharp intake of breath at this, which put pressure on her lungs and cracked ribs, causing yet more pain.
“What did the letter say that you sent to him?”
“We have the girl you are looking for. The longer you take to find her the worse her suffering will be. Qui vous aimez toujours mourra. You should know that by now. Not So Sincerely, You Know Who.”
It was then that Ginny started to ask herself if she was going to die. This was the dream Harry had told her about; the dream that led up to her death. Silently, she began to cry, begging the wall between her and Harry to crumble.
“Perfect. I will be waiting upstairs. I’ll send Lucius and Severus down here. Keep one of the three of you hidden in case Potter springs up an attack and two of you can’t handle him...oh, and I’ll know when Potter is here. I will hear his thoughts, no need to tell me.”
Ginny was alone with Bellatrix for what felt like forever before someone apparated into the room. A second person did the same a few moments later.
She heard Bellatrix’s cold voice say, “One of us needs to keep hidden for a surprise attack on Potter.”
“I’ll do it,” Ginny couldn’t mistake Snape’s mumbling. The greasy haired git, she couldn’t help but think.
“Fine by me, but stay hidden. There can be no mistakes.”
The room was silent and dark except for the crackling and dim light coming from the fireplace in the opposite side of the room. The sound of the fire had almost lulled her to sleep until the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy startled her back to consciousness.
“Where’s Potter? His girlfriend here will die of loneliness before he arrives.”
“Calm down Lucius. The Dark Lord said he would come. He’ll come.”
“How can you have so much faith in him, Bella? How do we know if something went wrong in the plan? We could be down here waiting for Potter to show up and for all we know half of our team is dueling with Ministry officials. How do you know the Dark Lord wouldn’t leave us for Azkaban just so he can escape.”
“How can you even think such things? Of course the Dark Lord wouldn’t abandon us. Don’t lose your faith in our master so quickly, Lucius. He needs us to fulfil his plans after all.”
Only a moment later Ginny heard the sound of a door handle turning. “Aha! See what I told you? Here comes the boy now,” Bellatrix announced happily.
Ginny heard the door slam open along with the sound of Harry’s voice yelling, “WHERE IS SHE!?” Her heart began to pound with worry, suddenly wishing he had never come at all, because she knew he had come to his death.
Why weren’t we stopped by anyone on the way down here? Wouldn’t they have thought to guard a prisoner? Where did Ginny go? Wouldn’t she answer my thoughts if something was wrong? Why did I let go of her hand? Frighteningly, he was pulled from his worries by the sound of Ginny, screaming. He took off running in the direction of the most terrifying sound he had ever heard.
The noise of agony stopped after Harry entered the first door in the chamber. Not knowing where to go next he began to search every room he found. After the third room, he came back out into the hallway to find a green mist hanging in the air. Slowly it formed itself into the words he had heard Bellatrix Lestrange say to Voldemort months ago in a dream. It seemed so surreal to him now that he wasn’t sure he wether or not to believe what they were telling him.
The longer you take to find her,
The worse her suffering will be.
Qui vous aimez toujours mourra.
You should know that by now.
Not So Sincerely,
You Know Who
The sickly green mist of the letters formed the dark mark just in front of Harry and he let out a gasp trying to cut through it with his wand. As eerily as it came, it dissipated, and the image of Ginny laying on a cold stone floor formed in his mind.
Suddenly Harry heard Ginny scream again and he took off after it. The shriek led him all the way down the hall to another one, similar to the corridor Lupin was found in. The only difference was that this one was four times the size. Again the screaming stopped, and Harry no longer knew where to go. He searched room after room and cell after cell until he felt that Ginny must have been taken somewhere else.
The second after he lost all hope, he felt his scar start to twinge. Abruptly Harry turned and started walking. He didn’t know where he was going but he knew that wherever it was, Ginny would be there. He brought himself to a solid wooden door, no different from any of the others and pressed his ear against it. He could hear muffled voices that he couldn’t identify specifically but he knew he recognized them.
Harry pulled out his wand, pushing aside the growing pain in his head. He composed himself and shook the door handle to check if it was locked. As fast as he could, Harry threw the door open and shouted, “WHERE IS SHE ?”
The moment he did, a number of hexes and curses came flying at him. He dodged and blocked them all until he realized where he was. The second he started to turn around to hex Snape, Harry was hit from behind.
“Congratulations Severus. You’ve caught him. Well done indeed,” Bellatrix complimented as Harry searched the room for Ginny, only able to move his eyes. He spotted her laying on the cold stone floor in the opposite corner from him. He watched as she took a slow, shaky breath; the same shallow breath she took in his dream, nearly a year ago.
Snape cast ropes around Harry and enabled him to talk again. Before Harry could say anything Snape’s cold voice demanded, “Tell us where it is Potter. Tell us now or your little girlfriend here will be in misery.”
There was a split second of panic where Harry wondered what he should do. In his dream, he hadn’t known what ‘it’ was. Knowing now, did he dare tell them? No, he thought. Go along with the dream, and if it ends the same way then so be it.
“I don’t know what ‘it’ is,” Harry lied through his teeth.
“Dumbledore must have mentioned it to you by now,” Snape reasoned. He raised his voice at Harry and roared, “WHERE POTTER?”
“I don’t know what you are talking about ” Harry retorted in anger. Snape looked over to Malfoy who began the Cruciatus curse upon Ginny.
“No ” Harry shouted loudly. He had forgotten this part of the dream and hadn’t put it into account. He couldn’t stand Ginny to be tortured before her death. He couldn’t stand for her to die.
Ginny screamed in agony. It was unbearable to watch her writhe around on the floor, screaming and crying. “STOP ” Harry yelled.
“Tell us where it is then,” Snape said shortly.
“I will do whatever you want. Just stop hurting her.”
“Talk to me Potter...for once I’m interested in what you have to say,” Snape curtly acknowledged.
“I don’t personally know where it is, but I know who does.” The second it came out of his mouth, Harry knew he had said the wrong thing. He couldn’t just tell some Death Eaters that Lupin was the secret keeper and the only person that could tell them where the Potter Manor was.
Harry must have paused too long because Snape edged with bitterness in his tone, “Keep going.”
The only thing Harry could think of that could buy him time was bribery. “Let Ginny go and I will tell you. If you don’t, I won’t let a word slip from my lips.”
Snape sighed and rubbed his temples as if asking for patience. “Lets try this again Potter....We are the ones with the power. We have the Weasley girl...and you.”
Again Snape nodded at Malfoy. The curse hit Ginny again and she screamed.
“Stop it!” Harry hollered. No one was listening. “Stop now ” Ginny only shrieked louder.
Without warning the door was kicked open, and Ron ran in; Hermione on his heels. Together, Ron and Hermione easily outmatched the three Death Eaters with curses, jinxes, hexes and spells. Ron had Snape stunned and pinned up against a wall, Hermione had Malfoy in a Full Body-Bind so he now lay face down on the ground and Bellatrix was unconscious from a stray stunner. The second all three Death Eaters were bound Hermione rushed over to Ginny and Ron untied Harry.
“Are you alright mate?”
“Don’t worry about me,” was all Harry could say as he also ran over to Ginny. “Is she....?” Harry asked Hermione as he knelt down beside Ginny, taking her hand.
“She’s alive, but“” Hermione was cut off by the rest of the Order bustling into the room.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Fourteen hours later Harry was sitting by Ginny’s bed at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries. He had been there for the last twelve hours when the healers had told him and her family that after healing her cracked ribs, Ginny was in perfect condition but they couldn’t figure out why she wouldn’t wake up. So he sat beside her, holding her hand, telling her everything would be alright, and asking her to wake up.
Of course Harry wasn’t the only one who sat with her. He was just the only one who stayed the whole time. Tonks came in telling Harry that Lupin would be fine but they were keeping him overnight just in case, and that was where she would be if he needed anything. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had both come, but Mrs. Weasley had frequent visits to the Visitor’s Tearoom to compose herself, her husband tagging along. All of Ginny’s brothers minus Percy had stopped in for a while and Hermione kept pacing from Ginny’s room to the end of the floor and back, not able to sit and look at her best friend lying in a hospital bed.
At the moment Harry was alone with Ginny, because Ron had gone to talk Hermione into getting some fresh air. He was pleading with Ginny again. Just wake up, was all he kept thinking, and all he’d tell her was how much he loved her and how much he wanted her to come back to him. Harry squeezed her hand lightly for what must have been the thousandth time, with no reaction, and laid his head down on her bed.
What if she never wakes up?
In desperation, Harry squeezed her hand once more.
~A/N: I’ll let your minds wander...no quote this time. Only one chapter left *Tear*