Ginny woke up dazed and confused, instead of the warm, red and gold duvet she had expected to be wrapped in when she woke up, she was in an dirty room, lying on a dingy little mattress on the floor.
There were no windows and the greyish white walls made her feel slightly claustrophobic, there was a single wooden door in the centre of the wall farthest from her bed. She got up, testing her slightly sore body before walking across the room and tentatively reaching towards the door.
The wood felt warm and pleasant to the touch, but in an instant it felt like molten oil was passing over her body. She immediately withdrew her hand but the feeling of her skin burning didn't leave. She wanted to scream but her lungs would only permit harsh breaths to escape her mouth, collapsing onto the ground she tried to scratch off her own skin until the feeling slowly ebbed away. An ordeal that actually took minutes felt like it took hours.
When the torture had passed, she crawled back to the dingy mattress too weak even to nurse the scratches that she had made on her arms and across her belly with her nails.
"Quite effective, isn't it?" said a voice from the doorway that had opened unnoticed. "We were trying to find a way to stop prisoners from investigating how to get out without putting a curse on the door that would kill them. This handy one just inflicts an incredible amount of pain. Perfect for creating an impression on our prisoner's minds, don't you think?"
Ginny just let her eyes follow Hughes as he stepped towards her and crouched to bend over her and brushed the back of his hand against her cheek. "So pretty… such a pretty girl. No wonder Malfoy can't keep his hands off of you" he said quietly. She tried to push his hand away but he simply brushed her weak resistance off by forcing her hands down. She was scared of what he was going to do, what her mind told her to expect from monsters like this, but he simply considered her for a moment before he stood and walked out of the room, closing the door, leaving her with only aches and twitches; reminders of the curse.
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After quickly getting dressed Draco had run to Snape's quarters. Finding him gone he had tried to find his way to Dumbledore's office. He hadn't been there since the beginning of his sixth year and so had had some trouble finding it. However, now that he had found it, he had forgotten the password. It wasn't lemon sorbet was it? Maybe it was orange popstickle? No, but something equally muggle and totally foreign to him. Merlin, what kind of a head boy forgot -
Head Boy! He could use his password, it worked on every other door in the castle, why not this one? He was going to mutter his own personalised password when he heard laughter behind him.
"Who's there?" he said with an air of authority he had to work to put into his voice, squinting through the darkness.
"Don't worry, it's just me." Blaise Zabini stepped out from the corridor, her cloaked form only vaguely visible. "Aren't you going to put me into detention for being out after curfew?"
"Whatever Zabini, just get out here." He turned to face the statue in front of Dumbledore's office, he didn't have time to deal with her when he didn't know if Ginny was safe or not.
"Wait" said Blaise, "I know who you're looking for, but you won't get to her by going up those steps."
When Draco heard this he spun around and advanced towards her, pinning her to the wall, ready to question her about all she knew but she only laughed. "Did anyone ever tell you not to kill the messenger?"
Ignoring her statement he knocked her against the wall, then once again for good measure. "What do you know?" he asked, his anger blocking out rational thought.
"Relax Draco, I've just got a message to give, nothing more, understand?"
"Well then? What is it?"
"Hmm, I wonder, should I tell you?" she asked laughing and looking skywards as if considering her options. But Draco knocked her against the wall one more time, "Ouch, all right, all right. Don't get so touchy" the smile returned to her face as she began to speak. "Hughes has her, don't worry, he won't hurt her as long as you agree to his terms."
"And what are the terms?" Draco growled as he glared down at her smiling face.
"You have to become a new recruit for our Lord and you have to follow every order he and Hughes gives. However, every time you disobey an order he hurts her a little more, so if you go up those steps to tell our favourite headmaster who's taken her… well, let's just say you shouldn't do that, there's just no telling what Hughes could do to her, he can be rather vicious, trust me, I've seen it."
"What do I have to do?"
"You have to meet him here at noon on Saturday." She handed him a torn piece of paper with an address written on it. "In the meantime, just act like everything is normal, if they question you, just say you've broken up and act like the unfeeling prat you are. It can't be too hard, but remember, one wrong move and Ginny will have some of the worst experiences of her life." Leaning in, she whispered into his ear, "and they'll make sure she lives for a long time after that." Leaving a kiss on his cheek, she slipped from his grasp and walked away.
Draco stood there processing the information that Blaise had just given him. The fact that he had formed the conviction that he would rather die than become a death eater was inconsequential. In his mind, Ginny's life far outweighed his own. There was no decision to be made, he would agree to Hughes' terms until he could find a way to get Ginny out of Voldemort's grasp alive and safe.
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Friday passed without anyone seeing Ginny. Draco kept going to classes, if a bit quieter than normal, by the end of the day Sarah and Jenny, along with Ron were worried out of their minds. They had tried to ask Draco where she was but he just brushed them off by telling them to bugger out of his business and that where Ginny was wasn't his concern anymore.
Almost frantic, they went up to Dumbledore's office at the end of the day, using Hermione's password, were soon sitting in his office where several order members, as well as Ginny's parents, were waiting in silence. Apparently they were not the only ones to notice Ginny's disappearance.
Ron's mother beckoned him into a hug, eventually including Hermione and Harry. Jenny and Sarah retreated into a corner away from all the people they didn't know, before this they had never been drawn into the Order's circle like the others. They could see Dumbledore talking to Professor Moody softly, exchanging information. Through their intense worry, they had a curiosity about the workings of the Order, which they had no concept of the way they operated.
Eventually Dumbledore turned to the rest of them, focusing on Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, "Alastor has been conferring with ministry aurors who have been investigating throughout the school, concentrating in the lower dungeons. They have concluded that some death eater activity has occurred due to some residue left from magic performed by someone with a dark mark, but nothing else can be confirmed."
Mrs. Weasley let out a strangled sob as Mr. Weasley put his arms around her. No one else really reacted to the news but inside Sarah was bristling with frustration, were they just going to sit around here looking sad? There had to be something that they could do, she desperately wanted to go out and help her friend somehow, who knew what could be happening to her at that very moment.
"It was Malfoy, I know it was. Do you really think that it's a coincidence that he broke up with her the night that she disappeared?" Ron said. Of course, thought Sarah, this would be a typical `Ron moment'; could he be bothered to see how much they cared about each other before her disappearance? No, all he can do is point fingers, he isn't helping at all.
But Mr. Weasley was surprised at this, "Ginny was seeing the Malfoy boy?" he said.
Mrs. Weasley sat up regarded Jenny and Sarah stiffly and then turned to Ron, "Ronald, why wasn't I told about this?"
Ron backed up a bit, "I thought she had told you, I mean Ginny always has before, about her boyfriends I mean."
"And you thought that we would just let something like that pass?" she asked incredulously. "How could you have let her go around with that boy? He's the son of a death eater" her voice was rising.
"Mum, I did try to stop her but she's sixteen, what did you want me to do? Lock her in her room?"
"You could have done something, anything." She screamed. They could tell that she was slightly off balance at that moment, grasping at anything that she could blame for the disappearance of her baby. Mr. Weasley held her again, whispering shushing noises into her ear and Mrs. Weasley finally broke down crying. Everyone was silent, not knowing what to say after that outburst.
A few moments into the awkward silence the door to Dumbledore's office opened and admitted Professor Snape.
"Severus, what can you tell us? Did you find anything out?" Dumbledore asked in a rush.
"No, no one was talking this evening. My intuition tells me that whoever has taken Ginny, if in fact they have, is doing it independently of any others." He turned to Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, "I'm sorry," he said, "I can't say anything for sure."
They nodded and then Dumbledore spoke again, "Alastor, I'd like you to question Mr. Malfoy, I don't know how or if he is involved but the circumstances are slightly suspicious."
Moody nodded, "Kingsley, you'll be joining me." Another member of the order across the room agreed.
Dumbledore adjourned the meeting, telling Mr. and Mrs. Weasley that they were welcome to stay in some of the school's extra rooms as long as they needed and sent the students back to their dorms. But Sarah knew that staying in her dorm that night wouldn't feel the same, Ginny would be missing.
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Saturday, 11:51 am, Hogsmeade, Scotland.
Draco was standing outside a door to a room at a dingy and neglected little inn on the outskirts of Hogsmeade. This must be where Hughes was boarding during his stay in Hogsmeade. The life of a death eater, how attractive.
He knocked on the door and it opened revealing Hughes standing in a black cloak. "Mr. Malfoy, I'm glad to see that you made it."
"You didn't think I'd come?" He asked coldly, stepping into the room. Hughes gestured for Draco to sit down which he did in the most stable looking chair in the room before Hughes walked over to stand before him. It was then that Draco recognised the robes he was wearing. How many times had he seen his father wearing them? How could he have not recognised them? They were the robes of a death eater; Hughes intended to see Voldemort and probably wanted to drag him along. Draco's heart sank with the belated realisation that there was no way out.
"I think you know what we want from you" he said.
"I know, but I want to see Ginny first."
"Ah yes, alright, we can detour to visit her, I trust Zabini relayed my message."
"Yes."
"Then you realise that one wrong move and I can have one of my men… well, do anything to her that I want really." Hughes smiled a small sadistic smile.
Draco nodded, the knotted feeling in his stomach only growing worse. Hughes handed him some floo powder and told him to simply step into the flames, a spell he had cast would take him where he needed to go.
Instead of coming out of another fire place Draco found himself falling through the air before colliding with the floor of what he assumed was the death eater stronghold. Letting out a groan he saw Hughes land neatly beside him, not hesitating to walk away down the corridor in a direction that Draco could only hope led to Ginny.
Draco had to run to keep up, but he didn't want to lose sight of Hughes here so run he did. Finally they reached a greyish white wall with a single wooden door in the middle of it and a sleeping wizard standing, or rather sitting guard to the side of the door.
Hughes nudged the guard, waking him and told him to open the door. The guard slowly rose and performed a complicated unlocking spell and then slipped the key into the lock, it clicked and the door opened, revealing Ginny.
Draco's heart skipped a beat, she was sitting hunched and in a foetal position in the corner of the room. Her hair and clothing were ragged and worse for wear but he thanked Merlin that she appeared unharmed. He was about to step forward to hold her but Hughes held him back.
"No" he said, "She can't see you until you step through the doorway and I intend to keep it that way. The point is that she is safe and she will stay that way unless you do something wrong, understand?"
Reluctantly Draco nodded and, though it pained him to do it he took a step back. He wanted to run in and assure her that he was here, that he would do everything he could to protect her, but Hughes had just told him to step back and he was afraid of what the consequences would be if he disobeyed, he didn't want to ever find out. Hughes closed the door.
"Come now Draco," said Hughes turning and walking back the way they came, "it's time to meet your new Lord."
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After Draco had climbed up a labyrinth of staircases and passed numerous death eaters in whose homes he had spent a good proportion of his childhood, he stepped into a large hall, at the end of which sat an emaciated looking creature with red eyes as slits in his face. This, he decided, must be Voldemort. When Hughes presented him to their "Lord" Draco's feelings of dread fled leaving him to feel only numbness.
The Dark Lord considered him before clapping softly, as if in applause for Hughes in bringing him there. The three other cloaked and masked death eaters standing around looked on, observing their Lord's reaction to the catch of the day. "Well done, Hughes. I doubted you could deliver but lo and behold, you have." The rest of the death eaters murmured in agreement as Hughes tried unsuccessfully to hide his glee at Voldemort's happiness.
"Thank you, my Lord." Hughes said as he knelt on the ground to kiss the hem of his robes, "you are too kind."
"Enough" said Voldemort with a wave of his hand. Immediately Hughes rose and retreated, leaving Draco to stand alone in front of the only being that truly repulsed him. "Draco Malfoy, you have proven elusive, unlike you father you do not wish to serve me, am I correct?"
Draco didn't respond, obviously Voldemort didn't expect him to because he went on to beckon him closer. Taking a hold of his jaw, he tipped Draco's face to catch the light in different directions, "You are so much like your father was at that age, did you know that? You could have been Lucius's double… but so different in mindset." He paused, as if considering the comparison, "Hold out your left arm." Draco, knowing what was coming, willingly pulled up his sleeve and held out his arm.
Voldemort took his forearm into his hand and said, "Repeat after me; I, Draconus Adrian Malfoy, swear to serve you as my Lord and Master as long as my living body bears your mark."
Draco repeated the words, becoming sick with nausea as he did so. Then Voldemort's thumb descended onto the tender flesh of his forearm, he felt a searing burning sensation and when the Dark Lord lifted his thumb a livid black skull lay in its wake.
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A/N: Well, that's chapter 12. Sorry that it took so long to come out but I've been swamped with work, Chemistry and Biology at A-level are killers, especially with more exams coming up. Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to put out more chapters soon.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and other associated characters. I never have and, sadly, I probably never will.