Ginny paced the confines of her cell; it must have been days since she arrived here. She had no idea, the muggle light bulb that lit her cell never turned off and no one had come in since she had touched that horrible cursed door when she had awoken. There was a glass of water that refilled itself on one side of the room together with a plate of sandwiches that never emptied. She didn't know when to sleep or to eat. With nothing to occupy her mind she grew bored and frustrated, frustration had led to desperation and in her desperation her mind went over all the possibilities of why they had taken her.
Her imagination created horrible scenarios. What if she was being held for a dark ritual for Voldem - Tom to use her once again? He would take over her mind and force her to do horrible things to her family, or use her body as a disguise and infiltrate Hogwarts, gathering information in order to defeat what resistance there was to him. Maybe it was all a game and they were simply playing with her, seeing how much time she could spend in solitary confinement before she broke and lost her mind. Maybe afterwards they would take her for their sadistic games. Torture and rape were common place in this circle, she was sure that they could do much worse.
In one of her lowest moments where the silence and solitude were driving her insane she wished that they would take her out of her cell even to inflict pain and play with her body, if only to take her out of this personal hell. At that moment all over her feelings built up into a crescendo inside her and she let out a scream. It was long and loud and made her throat sore even before she finished, everything that she was feeling at that moment was forced into that scream and when it finished she started to cry.
She cried and cried but when she brought her hands up to try and wipe away her tears she noticed blood on her arms and down her legs. Wondering what had caused her such injury she noticed shards of glass everywhere. The glass of water to the side of the room that had never emptied had exploded.
Wandless Magic.
That was what she had just made happen, her emotions had built and built and when she had unleashed it in that scream she had made the glass explode. If she could channel her emotions… her mind opened to the possibilities of this new development.
, ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,
After the ritual, Draco had returned to Hogwarts and, under strict instructions from Hughes, tried to act like everything was as it was before Ginny had been taken. He felt about as successful as a fish trying to talk, but his act seemed to be fooling everyone else, they all went about their business as if nothing had happened, they seemed to him like ants and he was reminded of Mirhe and Vehka. Was this what they had meant when they said that she would need his protection? He hoped that he was doing what was best to keep her safe.
While he was walking out of his History of Magic class he heard his name being called.
"Malfoy, wait!" Sarah shouted over a sea of second years moving in the opposite direction.
He didn't stop and Sarah had to run to catch up with him.
"Didn't you hear me back there Malfoy?"
"I did," said Draco without stopping, "I'll leave it to you to figure out why I didn't stop to chat."
Sarah ran before him and stopped right in front of him. "Look, I don't know why you're going on with this pretence that everything is normal but anyone who knows you and Ginny, and that includes me, can see that it's a farce."
"Yes, because you know me so well." He said with sarcasm before walking around her and continuing on his way.
"You can't just pretend she's not gone you know; we have to do something." Sarah said.
Draco just kept on walking, he was trying to do something and he didn't need some stupid little Gryffindor making things more difficult. Sarah just looked back at him with a muted sort of anger. It didn't matter, she told herself, she still had Jenny and they would work something out together.
Draco was relieved to turn the corner and be out of sight of Sarah but no sooner had he escaped from her view did he run into Alastor Moody, the Auror, no, the professor who had been responsible for the most humiliating experience during his time at Hogwarts. The knowledge that it hadn't actually been Moody himself who had turned him into a bouncing ferret did not quash the instinctual urge to back away.
"Good afternoon, Auror Moody" he said, hoping to get away with a polite greeting and nothing more.
"Mister Malfoy, I'm glad I've run into you, we need to speak."
Draco did not let his displeasure show on his face. Instead, he let a respectful mask slide over his features. "Oh? What about?"
"I need to ask you some questions in relation to Miss Weasley's disappearance."
Took you long enough, thought Draco. "Of course, I'd be happy to assist."
"We could carry out the interview now, if it's alright." Moody made it sound like a request but Draco knew that he was expected to agree.
"Of course, where would you like to have it?" Moody indicated that Draco was to follow and they walked down the hall towards the library. Once inside they entered one of the small study rooms, he noticed that it was the farthest one from the door, the one that Ginny had hid herself away from him when she had needed time to "think".
They sat on opposite sides of the table and Moody drew out a sneakoscope, his wand and a small metal object that he set on the desk.
Draco watched as the objects were set out on the table, this was too easy, a sneakoscope? He could get past one of those lying through his teeth. They were like muggle lie detectors, make yourself believe the lies that you were saying were true and the sneakoscope wouldn't pick up a thing.
Moody tapped the metal object with his wand before beginning. "Case: 316G, interview with Draco Malfoy, Tuesday 12 February 11:36 am." He paused before continuing. "Mr. Malfoy, where were you on the afternoon of the 9th of February 2004?"
"In Hogsmeade." This wasn't a lie, he really was in Hogsmeade.
"Why were you there and what did you do?"
"I wanted to walk around and get a butterbeer, a small escape, so to speak."
"I see, and did you meet anyone there?"
"No." At this the sneakoscope picked up a bit before settling back down again. Damn, he would have to try harder to cover things up, doublethink was the technique his father had trained him in, a childhood activity where he would try to get away with obvious lies by making himself believe the lies were the truth.
Moody glanced up at him but didn't say anything. "What do you know about Miss Weasley's whereabouts?"
"I haven't seen her since last week." The sneakoscope stayed mute.
"Ah, and have you been looking for her?"
"No, we had a disagreement and she made it quite clear that she didn't want to see me again so I haven't made the effort of looking for her."
Moody looked at him intently, as if trying to decipher the truth from the expression on his face, before finally saying that the interview was over and tapping the metal object once again with his wand. "Well, if you haven't seen her and haven't heard anything then I suppose there's nothing more to discuss. I may have to contact you again for further questioning though."
Draco simply nodded as Moody swept out of the room. He gradually let his mind relax, he told himself that it was for the best, he was lying to keep her safe. He groaned, everything was practically perfect last week and now everything couldn't be further from it.
, ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,. .- -* *` `*~-. ., ,
"Jenny!" Sarah called across the Great Hall, "Jen!"
Jenny turned and saw Sarah, coming to sit next to her before the food appeared on the table.
"Well, what did you get out of Draco?" Jenny asked in a whisper.
"Nothing, he wouldn't even stop" she whispered back
"So we go with plan B"
"We don't have a plan B" Sarah hissed.
Jenny shrugged it off, "small hitch," she said.
"Small hitch? What do you mean, Jen? Did you find something out?" Jenny was now digging into some steak and kidney pie. She had spent the greater part of her afternoon trying to get into the Slytherin common room under Harry's invisibility cloak (that she had stolen) without anyone noticing, Draco and the Golden Trio included.
"Well, I know I said I'd only eavesdrop but I got sick of listening to their bitchy little conversations."
"So, what did you do? What did you find out?" Sarah prompted.
"Well, I cornered a fourht year and grilled him."
"And?" Sarah was growing frustrated.
"And I wiped his memory afterwards…"
"Isn't that illegal?"
"But, I found out that their stronghold is in Wales and that to get there all you have to do is apparate about 20 km north of Cardiff."
Sarah looked at Jenny incredulously, "Um, hon, we can't apparate, remember?"
Jenny gave one of her crazy, goofy, wide smiles that the serious student hardly ever used. "You can't," she said, "but I can."
.
A/N: I have taken time out of my busy schedule of revision for my impending A-level exams to give you this chapter *yay, cheers for procrastination*. Sorry that it took so long to get out. Re: kvarmish's review, I have reread chapters 3 and 4 and have realized that they are actually quite cringe-worthy, almost Sue-worthy if you ask me. Therefore I will be rewriting them in the future but right now I just don't have the time, and if either of my parents caught me so much as reading fan fiction I might as well jump off of a cliff, but hey, on the bright side, at least then I wouldn't have to sit my exams. Anyways, if you feel like it, leave a review, if you don't feel like it then don't.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, and I'm not trying to make money off of this. I'm quite sure that if I printed this off and tried to sell it no one would buy it (except me, cuz I love it, it's my baby). Oh yes, and doublethink is a concept stolen from Nineteen Eighty-Four by… someone who's name I can't remember but was involved in British politics prior to and during WW2.