money from it, so please Mrs. Rowling if you read this
don’t sue me. A comment or two would be welcome
though.
Please, if you read, take two minutes to review.
Chapter 17: Whose Trap Is It?
The common area of the flat that Harry and Ginny shared with Ron and Hermione in the Gryffindor tower was crowded with people. Professor Dumbledore, Professor Lupin, Professor Tonks, along with Mark and Mad-Eye Moody all stood or sat in the sitting area speaking with each other in hushed voices. Dean Thomas, Professor Cho Chang, Professor Katie Bell, and Neville Longbottom were at the dinning table with Ron and Hermione. The six of them sat there in nervous silence. Every few minutes, each of them could be caught glancing furtively between the vials of potions on the table and the door to Ginny and Harry’s bedroom.
It was now the last week of March and so far everything had gone the way Ron had planned. The question was, with his and Voldemort’s plans about to collide, would Voldemort flinch? They all hoped not, that he would continue to play the game like he was in charge.
Professor Dumbledore had slowly set Ron’s plan into motion and they were about to make their opening move in a battle that was expected to last three to four weeks. Success depended on Voldemort not realizing that the battle started today, and not when Harry would show up a few weeks later.
All of them looked up when the door to Harry and Ginny’s bedroom opened. Harry followed Ginny out of the room and stood silently as he and the rest of the people watched her start to drink down the different vials of potions. Ginny set the last vial down and waited a moment. After a short time, she felt it happen.
“The connection is established, Headmaster,” she said.
It was a moment before Dumbledore replied. “Very well then. Do not over-estimate yourself, Ginevra,” he said quietly.
“I will be fine, Professor.”
“Do not over-estimate Ronald or Hermione either,” he replied, glancing at each of them in turn.
“Yes, sir,” Ginny said quietly.
Professor Dumbledore nodded at her and turned to the other occupants of the room. “It is time then,” he said. “You all know what to do. The game begins the second we leave this room and all of our lives depend on the performance you give.” Everyone nodded in reply.
“Be strong, Ginevra,” he said with a last look in her direction. He then he walked to the fireplace stepped into it and flooed to his office. With a last glance at all of them Mad-Eye followed him. Mark, Remus, Tonks, Cho and Katie all stepped forward to hug Ginny and then they too flooed to Professor Dumbledore’s office.
“I’ll meet you two at the front entry with everyone else, ok?” Ginny said to Dean and Neville.
“Ok,” they both replied. Neville stopped to hug each of them and then exited the door of the flat into the Gryffindor common room.
Dean moved to follow him, stopped and turned around to look at his four friends. The war had already claimed his best mate when Seamus Finnigan had been killed last July, and after today he was unsure if he would ever see Harry, Ron, Hermione or Ginny again.
“I…” he started. But Ginny and Hermione simply closed the distance between them and pulled him into their arms. Ron and Harry moved to do the same.
“For Seamus,” Dean said looking at each of them in turn.
“For Seamus,” Ginny replied smiling at him.
“And everyone else,” Ron added.
“And everyone else,” Dean agreed with a nod before he left the room.
Harry watched him go and when the door closed, he pulled Ginny to him and kissed her fiercely. She broke from him and settled against his chest. Ron and Hermione moved to them and they surrounded Ginny between them.
“I need to go,” Ginny whispered after a few moments.
“I know,” Harry replied.
“I will come to you, Husband.”
“I know, Gin.”
Ginny meet Dean and Neville at the front entry to the castle with the rest of the students who were going to Hogsmead for the day. The trip had been announced only yesterday, and was open only to students who were seventeen or older. Ginny, having been given the rights of an adult when her parents allowed her to marry that past spring was allowed to go also.
The trip was a concession by Dumbledore to the growing discontent of his students about the trapped nature of their school year. He had not allowed any visits to the village of Hogsmead because of the attacks of last July. But the lack of any attack from Voldemort or his Death Eaters since the school year had begun had brought cries of injustice from his students. Who had short memories.
The petition that had started in January when students returned from the Christmas holidays, had been presented to him the second weak of March, signed by almost every student from third year and above, including the members of the DA.
Dumbledore had been appropriately displeased; but had conceded to the students who were of age, that they should be able to choose for themselves. This had served to anger those students who were not of age, but Dumbledore could not let them go into the trap the rest of them were walking into.
Harry, Ron and Hermione were not going. Having the day before the announced visit, earned themselves detention from Snape for causing their cauldron to melt when brewing the combined hearing and sight enhancement potion.
Professor Snape had returned from delivering the news of the trip to Voldemort in very bad shape. Even though Snape had assigned the detention before he knew of the trip to Hogsmead. Voldemort had been furious with him. And he had punished Snape severely for his mistake.
Still, Snape had persuaded Voldemort that even though he could not change the day of the detention without raising Dumbledore’s suspicions, all was not lost. And in the moments where Voldemort had stopped sending the cruciatus curse at him, Snape had convinced Voldemort that it might be better this way anyways. That if, instead of a full out assault tomorrow, in the shadow of Hogwarts. They were to capture the girl instead. Then surely her husband and the other two would come to her rescue. If they did, the battle could occur in a place more to Voldemort’s advantage; Slytherin castle for example.
Voldemort had stopped punishing Snape at that point and given him a new task. The first major confrontation of the chess game that both Ron and Voldemort had been playing since just after the attacks of Harry’s birthday had occurred, and so far, Ron was wining.
Now, since Harry, Ron and Hermione couldn’t go, Ginny’s guard, to make it look good, consisted of Neville, Cho, Katie Bell, and Dean Thomas.
The Village of Hogsmead was crawling with members of the Order and Aurors. Voldemort would expect their presence to be heavy, given how much Dumbledore had fought against the visit in the first place.
Ginny, Dean and Neville waited patiently for Cho and Katie to finish checking each of the students going into Hogsmead out of the school. When they had, the three of them joined their other two friends. Ginny nodded to them and the five of them started for the gates of the school grounds. When they got there they were met by the twins, Fred and George, and their girls, Alicia and Angelina. Fred and George both looked like they were going to be sick.
“Gred!” Ginny shouted running out to meet Fred and crushing him in her arms. “What are you guys doing here?” she demanded as she pulled George to her.
“Change the look on your faces,” she hissed in Fred and George’s minds as she turned to greet Alicia and Angelina. “This is supposed to be fun,” Ginny added hugging each of the girls in turn and generally looking like she was up for a good time. Fred and George both smiled slightly and proceeded to try and act like their normal selves.
“Dobby stopped by the shop last night and told us about the Hogsmead visit,” Fred said.
“And how disappointed our little Gin Gin was because Snape had given not only her hubby,” George added.
“But also Ron and Hermione detention for the day and she wasn’t going to have anyone to go to town with,” Fred picked up.
“So these two gits,” Angelina said.
“Decided they couldn’t allow their baby sister to be alone for the day,” Alicia picked up.
“And decided to bless you with their presence,” Angelina finished.
Ginny, Dean, Neville, Cho, Katie, Fred and George all blinked in surprise and started laughing at Alicia and Angelina.
“What?” the two girls demanded together.
“You two have been dating my brothers for so long, that you’re starting to talk in twinsspeak,” Ginny replied, still giggling at the two girls. They looked at her incredulously.
“We didn’t, did we?” they gasped together. Ginny snorted again at their simultaneous question.
“Oh, you two are ruined for anyone else. You’ve both got no choice but to marry them now,” she teased.
“Oy, who said anything about getting married?” Fred demanded as his face blanched.
“Yeah, we have things to do,” George quickly added.
“Places to go,” Fred said.
“People to meet.”
“Joke shops to open.”
“Pranks to play,” George finished. Alicia and Angelina rounded on the twins.
“Oh, so we’re holding you two back?” Alicia started.
“Dragging you down?” Angelina added.
“Now wait…” George backtracked.
“Stifling your creativeness?” Alicia continued.
“That’s not…” Fred tried to cut in.
“Who was it that figured out how to get past Percy’s wards, Alicia?” Angelina asked.
“We didn’t…” George started.
“I think that was you, Angelina,” Alicia replied. “And who was it that finally figured out the correct ingredients for the antidote to the Treacle Too Tarts?” she asked.
“But…” Fred said.
“Why that was you, Alicia,” Angelina answered.
“Forget it, Fred,” George managed to finally get in as Alicia and Angelina started walking towards Hogsmead, all the while continuing to go back and forth with their complaints about Fred and George.
“Thanks a lot, Ginny,” Fred said as he and George set off after their girls.
“You’re welcome,” Ginny replied brightly as she stepped between her brothers and hooked her arms with theirs. “I’m always happy to make your lives difficult,” she added.
“You know you’re going to pay for this,” Fred said to her.
“Not nearly as much as those two are going to make you pay for your comments about getting married,” Ginny replied. The twins both groaned in reply.
Cho, Neville, Dean and Katie, still laughing at the exchange they had just witnessed, fell in next to Ginny and the twins as the group of friends made their way towards the villiage.
“Keep your eyes open, Cho,” Ginny thought to her.
“Do you have any idea when it will happen?” Cho asked.
“No, just be ready to fight when the time comes and make sure we stay away from too many of the other students,” Ginny replied.
Harry, Ron and Hermione sat scrubbing bed pans in the hospital wing. It was necessary for them to appear to be serving their detention; no one knew exactly where and how many spies Voldemort might have in the school. They had to play out their role, or risk that Voldemort would see their trick and change his plans accordingly.
“You can feel her?” Harry asked for the twelfth time since they had parted ways with Ginny after leaving the Gryffindor tower.
“Yes, Harry. Trust me, the potion will work,” Hermione replied. Both she and Ron tensed a moment later.
“It’s happening,” they said together.
“Cover her!” Cho shouted as she erected a shield spell to deflect the stunning spell that had been sent at her. Caught in the open, outnumbered more than three to one, with Angelina already down from a stunning spell, the eight remaining DA members formed into a defensive circle around their fallen friend.
Even before she drew her wand, Ginny cast a Phoenix charm, expanding it around the group. She did not expect to face the death spell right now, they needed her alive if they were to get to Harry. She, however, was not going to take a chance. Truth be told, Ginny almost hoped they would use the spell. She could defend against it easily enough, and it would allow her to use the spell in return without destroying her conscience.
The battle raged, spells flying furiously through the air deflecting in what seemed every direction possible. Along with the Phoenix charm and her personal shield, Ginny had erected a much larger and simpler shield around her and her friends. It protected them from some, but not all of the spells that the Death Eaters sent at the DA members.
Despite her own shield and the added protection of the one Ginny had erected, Katie fell on Ginny’s left. Ginny saw it and while she continued to use her wand in her right hand to return fire against the Death Eaters, she waved her left hand at Katie’s fallen body; moving it directly behind her and into the protection of her personal shield.
Her anger started to grow, getting the better of her, and the spells that flew from Ginny’s wand grew in power accordingly. Binding spells that overwhelmed the shields of the Death Eaters she hit, stunning spells that threw them twenty and thirty feet across the road. Chaos was starting to form in their ranks. Ginny and the DA continued to suffer also. Alicia, and Dean joined Angelina and Katie as unconscious casualties and George, while still fighting, appeared to have suffered a broken leg from a crushing spell.
Severus Snape watched the battle from behind a tree; Voldemort watched it through his eyes. “Master, what would you have me do?” he asked.
Voldemort watched, his own anger growing by the second. While his Death Eaters had effectively taken out five of the girl’s friends, their true objective was making a mockery of them. The girl fought at a disadvantage, standing in one spot; taking everything they sent at her while she tried to defend her friends. And they had yet to truly test her, much less get close enough to capture her.
Voldemort had known she was powerful. He had seen her fight before, but this was beyond what he had expected. For all the success his Death Eaters were having, they may as well have been trying to take Dumbledore. He could go himself and attempt to take her or have Snape do it.
Voldemort blinked at the loud pop coming from the battle zone in front of Snape. The Aurors had started to come to the aid of the students. And there, he saw two of Dumbledore’s Defense Against the Dark Arts instructors rushing to join the girl in the middle of the road where the attack had occurred. Voldemort was out of patience; though Snape was the highest placed, he had other spies.
“Bring her, Severus,” he replied.
Severus Snape stepped out from behind the tree sending spells at his fellow Death Eaters, several of them turned on him in response; missing him as he ran to the group of students in the middle of the road. He dashed into their midst, Ginny made room in their circle for him and continued to send spells at the remaining Death Eaters. She turned her back on Snape and a second later crumpled to the ground when he slammed a rock into the back of her head. Snape then placed the rock on her chest, touched it himself, tapped it with his wand and they were both gone a second later.
A moment after Snape had taken Ginny, the dark mark burned on the arms of the Death Eaters. One of them pointed his wand straight up, sending the dark mark into the sky. He then disapparated along with the rest of them.
Mad-Eye, along with about a dozen other Aurors dashed to the rest of the DA members. All around Hogsmead, Aurors were hustling students out of shops and back to the school.
“What happened!?” Cho demanded, as she looked around. “Why did they leave?”
“Because they got what they wanted,” Mad-Eye barked at her as he revived Angelina.
“What are you talking about? They didn’t get anything,” she retorted.
“They took Potter’s wife,” Mad-Eye replied as he moved to Alicia’s side. Remus, Tonks and all of the DA members turned to gape at him then turned their eyes to the crowd of people around them, searching for Ginny.
“Ginny,” Fred croaked sinking to his knees with his head in his hands. George simply sat where he had fallen staring blankly into space. He gasped in pain a second later when one of the Aurors set a splint spell on his broken leg.
“How?” Cho breathed. “How could they have possibly taken her?”
“None of you saw it because you were all facing the other way while you tried to defend her back,” one of the Aurors said.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” another one added. “She was covering all of you,” he said, his voice full of awe at what he had witnessed.
“It was Snape,” Mad-Eye said as he conjured stretchers for Dean and Katie. “He pretended to come to help you. When Ginny turned her back on him, he hit her with something and then took her with a portkey.”
Remus and Tonks looked at each other in horror. “Harry,” they said together.
“Mum’s going to die,” George whispered.
“Come on,” Moody growled at them. “We need to get you lot to the hospital wing.” He levitated Katie and started back towards the school.
Remus Lupin slowly pointed his wand towards the school; a silvery substance shot out of it and raced away. “You two go on ahead, fill in the blanks for the Headmaster,” he said to Neville and Cho.
They both snapped their heads up, recovering from their shock as they were addressed and slowly nodded in reply. With two loud pops, they apparated to the gates of the school grounds, and ran the rest of the way to Dumbledore’s office.
After they had left, a last Death Eater, hidden under an invisibility cloak, apparated away.
“We have an audience of at least one,” Dumbledore’s voice came into Harry, Ron and Hermione’s minds just before the door to the hospital wing opened. “Draco Malfoy is hiding in the corner just outside the doors under an invisibility cloak.”
The three of them stood up when Dumbledore and the other professors entered the hospital.
“What happened?” Hermione shrieked, rushing to George when she saw him and the others who had been injured. Harry and Ron quickly moved to their other friends.
“Where’s Ginny?” Harry asked suddenly.
“In the hallway, you must let Madam Pomphrey work,” Dumbledore replied. The three of them moved into the hall followed by Professors Lupin, Tonks, and Mad-Eye. Professor Lupin put his hand on Harry’s shoulder and started to explain what had happened.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY TOOK HER?” Harry thundered.
“She was taken in the attack today, Harry,” Dumbledore replied gravely.
“HOW? They didn’t manage to get anyone else, and she is a least ten times more powerful than the others combined!” Harry continued to rant.
“It was Professor Snape, Harry,” Remus Lupin said. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore all snapped their heads in his direction in shock at his words. Professor Lupin simply glared accusingly at Dumbledore.
“He acted like he was going to help them, then he hit her on the back of the head and used a portkey to take her, Harry,” Tonks said. Harry Ron and Hermione rounded on Dumbledore.
“I told you he couldn’t be trusted, Dumbledore,” Mad-Eye growled at him. Dumbledore staggered back and sat down heavily on the bench behind him.
Harry trembled with apparent rage, his face a violent red, an act he couldn’t have pulled off without Mark casting the Cruciatus curse at him from behind an invisibility spell. The torches lighting the hallway flickered as Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, hidden in a small alcove, directed their spells into the hallway. Lending to the effect that Harry was near losing control of his magic. Harry himself let the aura of his power escape his control and a reddish light began to glow around both of his fists as he clenched his hands at his side. The effect of it all, caused Draco to attempt to squeeze further into the corner he was hiding in.
“Good,” Dumbledore said in Harry’s mind. “He’s afraid you’re about to kill me.”
“That bastard has been after me since the day I came to this school.” Despite his body language, Harry’s voice was deathly calm. “I told you any number of times he was after me, but you wouldn’t believe me. You always think you’re right; it got Sirius killed, because you wouldn’t tell me the truth. I’m through listening to you, Albus.” Harry stalked off towards the castle doors. Ron and Hermione without a word or glance at Dumbledore followed him.
“Stop!” Dumbledore bellowed clambering to his feet. The three of them stopped and turned around.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Dumbledore demanded.
“To find my wife,” Harry replied. He turned around and started walking away again. Ron and Hermione followed him a second later.
“Let me help you,” Dumbledore called to them.
“We’ve had enough of your help,” Hermione yelled back without turning around. Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye looked back and forth between Dumbledore and the retreating backs of Ron, Hermione and Harry.
“They must be stopped,” Dumbledore said to them. Remus looked at him angrily.
“I’ll try, but they are not likely to listen to me,” he said and hurried after them, Tonks followed him.
“Alastor?” Dumbledore said.
“I told you not to trust him, Dumbledore,” Mad-Eye replied. Dumbledore shook his head.
“What is done is done. I need to go to my office and see what will be lost from this betrayal,” he said and walked off.
“I’ll come with you,” Mad-Eye answered following him.
Draco headed off in the direction that Harry had disappeared in. He rounded a corner and saw both Professor Lupin and Professor Tonks heading out the front doors of the castle. Hurrying to catch up he reached the doors and was heading down the steps when he saw the two professors catch up with Harry, Ron and Hermione.
Stopping where he was, he watched as an argument began. Shouted words, which he couldn’t quite make out, reached his ears from across the grounds. A second later he looked on dumbfounded at the fallen bodies of his two professors and the backs of Harry, Ron and Hermione as they walked off into the Forbidden Forest.
Over time, water dripping down the walls of the dungeon had left them coated with a green slime. Rats scurried along the edges of the room occasionally venturing out into the open as they spied something they thought might be food. The cold in the dungeon chilled Professor Snape to the bone in minutes as he watched and waited.
Even though she never lost consciousness, Ginny wasn’t sure how long she had been hanging limply from the shackles that were around her wrists. The chains they were attached to were short enough that if she stood up, her arms would not fall all the way to her sides. And now, as she pretended to be unconscious, those chains stretched Ginny’s arms over her head, holding her upper body arched up off of the wet, cold, stones of the dungeon floor.
Ginny knew if it weren’t for the relaxation and pain deadening spells she had cast on herself, that her body would be screaming in protest. In fact as she heard the door to the dungeon open and she concentrated her mind on keeping the act up, and registering the number of people who had joined her and Snape in the dungeon, she didn’t notice the rats that ran over her legs.
Snape moved from where he had been crouching against the wall to Ginny; making a show of checking the shackles around her wrists. He cast a spell at them that instead of reinforcing the magic around them canceled the spells keeping her comfortable. Almost instantly, Ginny’s wrists and shoulders screamed in protest.
“The Master is coming?” Snape asked.
“Wake her already,” Bellatrix Lestrange snapped ignoring his question.
“I will wake her when I’m ready, Bella,” Snape replied, Ginny recognized the familiar snarl that accompanied his words when he was speaking to someone he did not like or respect.
“Careful, Severus, your usefulness has decreased somewhat in the last few hours, as you can no longer go back to Hogwarts,” Bella replied icily.
“And you will help the Master with his potions, Bella?” Ginny didn’t see the scowl on Bella’s face at Snape’s response; instead she felt it in the woman’s mind.
“She is a fine prize, is she not?” Lucius Malfoy commented casually from the corner. “Draco will enjoy playing with her, until the Master decides to kill her.” It was all Ginny could do not shudder as she reached out and skimmed Lucius’s mind and realized he also intended to play with her.
“Yes, she will be fun for him,” Bella replied. Snape, Bella, Lucius, and the others looked at their arms in alarm and quickly dropped to the floor before the door to the dungeon they were in opened.
“Rise, Severus,” Voldemort said upon entering the room. Snape slowly rose from his knees, keeping his head bowed in deference to his master. “You did well Severus.”
“I only wish to serve, Master,”
“And you did. You will be rewarded. She still sleeps I see.”
“Yes, Master,”
“Wake her then,”
“Yes, Master. Enervate!” Snape called out pointing his wand at Ginny. Ginny started and groaned as she lifted her head from her chest. Her eyes opened and she looked around the room taking in her surroundings.
She slowly raised herself from her knees allowing her arms to come down and blood to flow back into her hands. Ginny shook her head continuing the act of clearing it, a moment later she focused on the shackles binding her. Her lip curled into a sneer and she mumbled an unlocking spell, it didn’t work, not that she expected it too, it was the wrong one.
Voldemort watched her curiously; he knew she was aware that there were others in the room. Her eyes had settled on his servants for the briefest of moments, yet she was unconcerened with them, or him it appeared. He moved forward out of the shadow he was standing in.
“Not even concerned that there might be someone here with you?” he asked in a conversational tone. Ginny looked back up to where the voice had come from. Her eyes traveled up and down his body once and then met his. Her face, gave away nothing as she gazed into the red slits of his eyes.
“Hello, Tom,” she replied.
“You have been spending too much time with that old fool that you would dare to use that name,” Voldemort replied in an evil hiss.
Ignoring him, Ginny looked down at her wrists again and grimaced; they were raw from chafing against the shackles. She muttered the healing charm she had learned from Hermione and her skin healed over, the pain subsiding a moment later.
“You are powerful, aren’t you?” Voldemort commented.
“I new your real name long before I ever heard it from Professor Dumbledore, Tom,” Ginny replied, as her eyes searched the room looking for an escape route of some sort. Snape gave away nothing at Ginny’s insolence to his master, yet the other Death Eaters shifted eagerly in anticipation of the punishment Voldemort was sure to visit upon her.
“Master?” Bella said from the floor.
“Shut your mouth, wench,” Ginny snarled at her. “Can’t you see we’re talking?” Voldemort started laughing, that someone in chains would dare to call Bellatrix Lestrange a wench, and to cut in front of his reply to his servant; he had more respect for this girl than any of these slaves on the floor in front of him.
“Insolent little…” Bella shrieked over her Master’s laughter. She was cut off mid reply as Ginny sealed her mouth shut.
“Now where were we, Tom?” Ginny asked. Voldemort stopped laughing instantly and glared at her with his red, snake like eyes.
“You were telling me how you know that name?” he replied. Ginny smiled at Voldemort, a genuine smile that threw him for a second.
“Come now, Tom, you don’t remember me? I know I was only eleven and you were only sixteen but the connection is there, is it not?”
Voldemort watched her, while she stood there looking at him without the slightest hint of fear. There was no doubt she would have to die, that much power and no fear, she would be a greater rival than Dumbledore, if she wasn’t already. A smile played across his mouth as a magical connection occurred in his mind linking what had happened with his dairy and who he was now.
“Ginevra Molly Weasley, eleven years old and in love with Harry James Potter, finds a diary,” Voldemort said to her. Ginny smiled again
“I knew you would remember me, Tom.”
“And now you have married him, you see where your love has brought you nothing, but pain.”
“Oh, it has brought me more pain than you can possibly imagine, Tom. Even you are not capable of inflicting the pain that my love has brought me.”
“Hardly worth it, would you not agree, Ginevra?”
“I would suffer it all again, and more, for one second of his attention,” Ginny replied.
“You are a fool,” Voldemort snarled at her.
“I certainly was when I loved you,” Ginny snarled back.
“SILENCE!” Voldemort screamed.
“Oh please, control yourself, Tom,” Ginny answered. Voldemort’s body shook and the torches lighting the dungeon dimmed as hatred roiled off of him. Ginny could actually feel it coming off of his body in waves at her. The cold of it, like that of a dementor, and it sent the rats in the room scurrying into their holes in fear. Voldemort cast a releasing spell at Bellatrix, allowing her to speak again.
“Rise my servants,” he hissed at them. “Bella, perhaps you would like to punish her for a time?”
“Yes, Master,” she replied, her voice heavy with anticipation. Bellatrix Lestrange moved in front of Ginny, her wand in her hand. She reached her other hand to Ginny’s chin, digging her nails into her flesh; blood began to flow from the cuts her fingernails made. Bellatrix let it run onto her hand and then licked it from her fingers. “You will pay for your tantrum you little slut,” she hissed.
Ginny sneered at her. “Make it good, wench,” she replied. Voldemort’s servants watched the exchange carefully. The girl showed no fear at what was going to happen, it scared all of them; both Voldemort and Ginny could feel it in their minds.
“By the way, Bella, which one of these insects is your husband?” Ginny asked as she casually waved her hand in front of her face healing the cuts that had been made.
Bella’s eyes opened wide and there was a murmur of surprise from the Death Eaters surrounding Ginny. It was the third spell she had cast without a wand and each had been more difficult magic than the previous. Bella raised her wand at Ginny and backed away from her a few steps.
“Why do you ask, you little whore?” she asked regaining her bravado. Ginny’s mouth twitched into a genuine smile again, while her voice took on a tone of arrogance that she had not yet reached in the exchange so far.
“I have decided to leave one of you alive for Neville Longbottom. Hhe has a right to avenge his parents, wouldn’t you agree?” Ginny replied. “So, I have decided to kill your husband the second you drop your spell.”
The spell Ginny had used to seal Bella’s mouth shut and the two healing spells she had used had put the seed of doubt in her mind. The girl had cast them, while in chains, without a wand, like it was nothing to her, she had only seen magic like that from Voldemort and Dumbledore.
Bella stared at Ginny, her body trembling with anger and fear; anger that a sixteen year old Blood Traitor had such power while she did not, and fear that the girl might be able to carry out her threat.
“I can feel the fear in her mind, Tom. A sixteen year old girl, stands in chains in your dungeon, surrounded by your pitiful servants and they are scared of her threats,” Ginny mocked him.
“Crucio!” Lucius Malfoy snarled from the side.
Despite the chain around her wrist, Ginny’s hand swished in a circle through the air creating a shield which sent the spell back at Lucius, he crashed to the ground screaming in agony for a second from his own spell.
“I don’t believe you were given the right to torture me, Lucius,” she said to him with smirk. The other Death Eaters stared at Lucius as he climbed to his feet his face red with rage. He raised his wand at her again.
“Please,” Ginny remarked, her voice one of utter contempt as she raised her hand towards Lucius. Positioning her fingers like she was about to flick a piece of lint from her shirt she waited. Her challenge to the man who had given her Tom Riddle’s diary when she was eleven hanging in the air.
Voldemort watched the exchange; actually enjoying the sparring that was going on in front of him.
“Put your wand down, Lucius,” Voldemort hissed quietly at him.
“Yes, Master,” he replied, lowering his arm.
“You were going to tell me which one is you husband, Bella?” Ginny said as she dropped her arm and turned back to her. Bella’s only reply was her wand hand starting to shake.
“No, well it is no matter,” Ginny remarked. “I will figure it out for myself then.” And then she looked around the room, her gaze stopping momentarily on each of the figures.
Voldemort watched her curiously, interested to see if she would be able to break into the minds of his servants as she indicated she could. The power required to do so without eye contact was immense. Ginny’s gaze settled on Voldemort again.
“Rodolphus Lestrange,” she said, “third from your left, Tom.” Voldemort’s mouth twitched into a thin smile. “Oh-and don’t think you can hide from me back there, Peter,” Ginny added before turning her eyes on Bellatrix Lestrange again. “I believe you have a phrase for it, how does it go? The Master always knows,” she sneered at the woman in front of her.
Bellatrix's body began to tremble even more as her fear and anger multiplied.
“I believe Tom is waiting for you to carry out his orders, Bella. Perhaps you should say goodbye to your husband before you do.”
“I’m waiting, Bella,” Voldemort said calmly from behind her. “I feel your hesitation; do I have to punish you as I did for your failure at the Ministry two years ago?”
“CRUCIO!” she shrieked, pointing her wand at Ginny.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione arrived by portkey in Dumbledore’s office after walking deep into the Forbidden Forest. Remus, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Mark were already there.
“Is she ok?” Dumbledore asked the second they appeared.
“For the moment, yes,” Hermione replied.
“Very well then, Harry, it is time,” Dumbledore replied. Harry scowled but picked up the potion vial on Dumbledore’s desk. Before drinking it down, he turned to Hermione and Ron.
“Don’t let her stay too long. Tell her I love her and that I will see her again. Remus, Tonks, I’m sorry about stunning you,” he added. Tonks smirked at him.
“I don’t fancy letting you do that to me again anytime soon, Harry,” she said.
“Right,” he replied. Harry then drank the potion down, lay down on the couch and fell asleep.
“You two are really ok?” Hermione asked. He didn’t hold much back.”
“We’re fine, Hermione,” Remus replied. All of them watched Harry as he lay there sleeping for a moment before Dumbledore spoke.
“Move him to my quarters, Remus,” he said quietly. “Tonks, you will take the first shift with Hermione and Ronald.”
“Yes Headmaster,” they both replied.
“Alastor, I need you to bring the Weasleys and the Grangers,” Dumbledore said to him.
“Already gone,” Mad-Eye replied heading for the door.
“Mark, will you go and ask the Minister to come?”
“On my way,” the Unspeakable answered as he followed Mad-Eye out the door.
“Come on you two,” Tonks said to Hermione and Ron, leading them to another room off of Dumbledore’s study. They no more than entered the room when Hermione’s body tensed and her first voice screamed in agony in her mind from the effects of the cruciatus curse.
Ginny stood in the middle of the dungeon, chains around her wrists, and laughed as Bellatrix Lestrange directed the cruciatus curse at her. After about fifteen seconds she shook her head at her supposed tormentor.
“You should have said goodbye, Bella,” Ginny remarked as she raised her hand towards Rodolphus Lestrange. The Death Eaters all began to scramble away from the direction her hand pointed. They had never seen anything like this. Bellatrix was still directing the curse at Ginny, yet she was totally unaffected.
“Do not move, any of you,” Voldemort thundered at them.
“Master, please, help me,” Bellatrix pleaded with him. Ginny smiled serenely at her.
“He has no mercy, Bella,” she said to her. Fear, unlike any Bellatrix Lestrange had ever known surged through her.
“I am not without mercy though,” Ginny remarked. Bellatrix felt Ginny’s eyes boring into her soul. “Avada..” Ginny said quietly. Rodolphus Lestrange’s body began to tremble, he started to move, but Voldemort raised his own hand hitting him with a binding spell. A green glow began to build around Ginny’s hand. Bella’s hand dropped, the spell she was casting at Ginny ended and in a room off of Dumbledore’s study, Hermione’s body relaxed and her first voice stopped screaming in agony.
“What is your price?” Bella whispered.
“You see what love will do, Tom?” Ginny asked him.
“It was always her weakness. This is nothing I did not know,” Voldemort replied.
Ginny smirked at him. “I will collect on the debt you owe me at some other time, Bella,” Ginny said without looking at her.
“I think though, that I have had enough fun for today and will be leaving now.” There was a blinding flash of white light that spread throughout the room followed by a deafening crash of thunder. Death Eaters were tossed against the walls and fell to the floor in heaps.
“Reducto!” Ginny snarled sending a crushing spell towards the spot on the ceiling where the chains that were holding her were anchored. She started to walk to the doorway of the dungeon, only to have Voldemort step in front of her.
“You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you?” he said calmly to her. Ginny raised her hand towards the body of Antonin Dolohov.
“Avada Kadavera!” the green bolt of light leapt from her hand, killing the man instantly. “Move,” Ginny said to him. Voldemort opened the door behind him and then, levitating his servants, he unceremoniously threw them from the room.
“We will wait, patiently, for your husband to come; I will take great pleasure in torturing him in front of you.” Voldemort turned to leave the dungeon himself.
“If you think I need to go through that door to leave here you are sadly mistaken,” Ginny said to him. Voldemort stopped and turned back to her.
“There is no floo network, nor can you apparate in or out of this room. Despite your ability to perform magic without a wand, it will do you no good to make a portkey as this room is protected from that also. I assure you Ginevra, you have to use this door to exit this room and even you, cannot get past everyone who will be guarding it.” Ginny smirked at him again.
“Did you ever wonder how I got to that field on Harry’s birthday, Tom?” she asked. Voldemort regarded her curiously for a moment.
“That is an interesting puzzle that has not yet been answered.”
“I apparated.”
Voldemort watched her, knowing there was more to her reply.
“From Hogwarts, Tom,” Ginny finished. Voldemort and Ginny stared at each other, Ginny, knowing the truth of the cards she held, Voldemort, trying to decide if she was bluffing. He started laughing at her.
“That is not possible.”
“It is for a phoenix,” Ginny replied. Voldemort stopped laughing and looked at her for a second. Ginny backed away from him another step.
“Goodbye, Tom,” she said. Voldemort hit her with a reversing spell and the two of them began a battle of wills, fighting back and forth, Ginny, trying to over-power him and transform, Voldemort, not letting her. After more than an hour Ginny stopped and backed further away from him.
“Now what?” she asked. “You have to keep that spell going constantly to stop me from leaving. Even you can’t keep me forever, and you know it, Tom.”
“I will have my Death Eaters use the spell to keep you here,” Voldemort replied. Ginny laughed at him.
“They will be dead as quickly as they come through that door, and you know it.”
“Then I will just kill you and be done with it,” Voldemort hissed at her, his hand coming up. Instantly there was a flaming phoenix between them.
Accio Wand! She snapped, summoning the wand of Antonin Dolohov that was lying on the floor of the dungeon. The wand flew to her hand and she leveled it on Voldemort.
Voldomort hesitated; it had been almost a year since he fought Harry and the others in the cemetery. He knew that Harry had grown stronger during that time. And this girl, he had seen the power of her spells last summer and earlier today. He knew she was at least as powerful as Dumbledore, and to engage her in a full out battle would likely bring half the castle down on the two of them. More likely she would escape.
It took almost no effort to assume your animagus form, while it took tremendous effort to stop someone from doing so. If he were to fight Ginny, he would be so distracted from preventing her from transforming that she would change and be gone. He would have lost his spy for nothing, and he knew some of his followers were already grumbling about the way Harry had escaped him at the cemetery when Cedric was killed, and the Ministry two years ago.
If any of them knew that Harry had left him unconscious on the ground last spring after rescuing the Dursleys, they would be deserting him in droves. Voldemort’s greatest power was fear and some of his followers were beginning to fear Harry more than him.
“You won’t kill me, Tom,” Ginny replied calmly.
“And why not?”
“Because Tom, I know what the prophecy says.”
Voldemort looked at her with those red eyes, trying to see into her mind. All he found was a dense white wall that drained energy from him faster than holding the reversing spell on her. Even so, he knew she was telling the truth. Voldemort conjured a chair and sat down in it.
“You have tried my patience far too long, girl. Your death will be a slow, painful, experience.”
“If anyone other than the spy comes in here, I will kill them,” Ginny replied as she sat down on the floor. “And you know that you cannot stop me while holding that spell. If you do, I will be gone before you can blink.”
“You should have just left Ginevra, your need to embarrass me, take vengeance for my diary, has left you trapped and doomed your husband.” Ginny’s only reply was to scowl at him. Voldemort’s lip curled into a smile.
“As foolish now, as you were at eleven, Ginevra.” Ginny raised her hands in front of her and the shackles that were still on her wrists fell to the floor. Voldemort’s smile disappeared.
“I’m not finished yet, Tom,” she answered.