A/N: My apologies to anyone getting multiple alerts. I blame it on my connection.
CHAPTER 2 Get it over with
Ginny counted three days passing through the window before Draco returned. She spent the entire first day and a good part of the second day trying to get out of the room. It was impossible. She spent the third day livid, making plans to kill Draco Malfoy if that was the only way out of the room. Sully brought her three meals each day, and a snack of some sort before in the evening, but she could hardly eat, as it was only her rage that was keeping her up.
The third day, Draco brought her dinner. He set a large tray down before her without speaking, then snapped his fingers and instructed the two house elves who appeared to put the bags on the bed.
Ginny had spent the day practicing what she was going to say to him, and now that he was here in front of her, she just wanted to throttle him.
"I assumed you were about the same size as my mother, so I had her seamstress make you some clothes," he told her without looking at her.
"What are you playing at, Draco?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady.
"I thought you might like to change clothes," he replied evenly.
"That's not what I mean. Why am I here? Why not let me go warn my family?"
"Warning them won't do any good. You said it, where would your family go to hide?"
"Dumbledore could hide us," she said desperately. "He's got hiding places. I've got to warn them!"
"You seriously think the Dark Lord doesn't have his own spies in the Order?"
"Well," she fumbled, his words surprising her, "I'm sure, but-"
"Listen to me! They want Potter, of course, but they want your family first. Not only would it hurt the Order, it would crush Potter. I was a fool to warn you. This is the only way."
"I'd rather be dead with them, than alive without them!" she spat at him.
Draco finally looked at her, giving her a long look, a look one might give to a child who does not understand the seriousness of what is going on. "This is your home now," he said finally. "You aren't leaving."
Ginny tried to count to ten, tried to beg herself to be reasonable, and screamed, "You sodding arse! You can't kidnap me!" She picked up her dinner tray and flung it at him. "I hate you! I hate you!"
He barely managed to duck the tray and its contents, and in one move he crossed the room and grabbed her by the wrists. "I'm risking my own life to save yours. I don't expect you to believe me now, but soon you will."
She struggled to break free, refusing to let his words hurt her, refusing to believe him. "I hate you! You bloody bastard. You're probably going to kill me, aren't you?"
Draco's ice colored eyes bore into hers as she struggled fruitlessly to get away. "You have no idea. Why the fuck should I help you? I have no reason to, but I am. Think about that."
"Let go!" Fear was wrapping its humid body tightly around her. His eyes were narrowed and piercing, and his jaw was set. She was positive he was going to kill her, or slap her at the very least. It was hard to breathe with him pressed so painfully into her, and she strained uselessly to break his grip.
Instead he tightened his grip on her wrists and shoved her into the wall. "You're not leaving. Not unless this war ends or I die, which ever comes first."
"I hope you die!" she spat, straining against him uselessly.
He let out a cold, hard laugh. "Ironic, don't you think?"
"Just get it over with you fucking Death Eater! Rape me and kill me or whatever you have planned. Just do it!"
His grip on her wrists became so tight she couldn't feel her hands, and he knocked her head against the wall as he trembled with a rage so violent she could feel it radiating from his skin.
Oh gods, she quaked. He is going to kill me.
After a moment he let out a sigh of disgust and released her wrists, shoving her back slightly as he did. "One day you'll thank me."
"For what?" she screamed at his retreating back. "For kidnapping me? For keeping me away from my family so you can kill them?"
The door snapped shut behind him and she was left in silence. She stood in the stillness and rubbed her wrists, concentrating her anger on the furious red marks his fingers had left, and refusing to allow tears to fall.
Several minutes later Sully popped into the room bearing another tray of food and meekly placing it before her. "Master said to brings you this," she nearly whispered before beginning to clean the mess Ginny had made.
"How do I get out of here?" Ginny said softly, collapsing to the edge of the bed.
"Sully is a good elf, Missus," the elf said flatly. "I has always served my Master since he was a brand new child."
"Do you know why he brought me here?"
"To keeps you safe."
"But my family, I need to warn them!"
"I don't knows about that," the elf said, standing up straight. "Shall I draws your bath?" Without waiting for an answer she quickly went to the restroom and Ginny could hear the water.
She hadn't bathed since she'd been locked in the room, and although Ginny refused to believe that her situation was permanent, she decided that a bath would be good. Maybe it would clear her mind.
Sully gathered her soiled clothes with disdain and then helped Ginny into the bath. "Now you must eat tonight, Missus," she intoned. "Master says so."
"Sod him," Ginny muttered.
Sully looked fearful. "You must."
Ginny eyed the elf and hoped Draco wouldn't take her actions out of the creature. "Alright then," she sighed.
"I will gets you some cream for your wrists. They will be as good as new."
"No," Ginny shook her head. "Leave them. I need to remember why I hate him."
Sully shook her head disapprovingly and asked, "Will there be anything else tonight?"
"No. I'm fine, thanks."
Ginny sunk lower in the tub as the house elf disappeared, hot tears burning at her eyes. She wasn't going to stay here. She was not. If she had to kill Draco Malfoy with her bare hands she would, but she wasn't staying. The tears slipped down her cheeks as her adrenaline left her and the memories of Draco's actions burned into her mind. It hurt to flex her wrists and she could see the bruises forming, deep purples and browns.
****
Ginny didn't see Draco for days after that. She watched out her window as the days passed and grew longer. The tree branches outside her window seemed to bow underneath the weight of the humidity and the ferocity of the sun.
Every day she climbed out of bed with a fresh resolve to find a way out of the room, out of the house, and back to her family.
Every day she had failed.
Every day she racked her brain for a plan of escape.
Nothing worked.
That morning, when she had woken, she hadn't jumped out of the bed and begun pacing the room, trying to doors and windows. They would be locked, just like always. Instead, she stayed in the bed, staring up at the ceiling and wondering what Draco planned to do to her. She wondered if he really was going to just keep her prison or if he had other things in mind.
Instead she reached behind the headboard of the bed and made the 42nd tick mark in the wall. She'd remembered to count the days 42 times. The other days were lost.
She thought about her mum and her father, wondering if they were still searching for her. She wondered how long it had taken them to realize she wasn't coming home. She wondered if anyone had any clue at all about where she was.
Ginny refused to get out of bed when Sully came bearing breakfast, stating flatly that there was no point. "I have no where to go. I'm staying here."
In the afternoon Sully returned, bringing lunch and a great stack of books. "Master says to brings these for you."
Ginny stared at the books but did not move. She had no interest in books.
She slept. Weak from hunger and exhausted from fear, she slept. She lost track of the days and saw no one but Sully. When she was awake, she lay in the bed and stared out the window, getting out of bed only for wobbly trips to the loo.
****
Ginny didn't actually see Draco, but she knew he was there. She found single flowers lying on the bedside table, new bubbles and salts for the bath, strange Muggle toiletries since she no longer had her wand, and more books. One morning she woke to find a strange, flat contraption mounted on the wall across from her bed. Sully explained that it was a Muggle television and showed her how it worked. Ginny left it on continually, craving the faux human interaction.
She surmised that she had been there for about two months when she finally turned off the telly and dragged herself out of bed. She rang for Sully to bring her toast to nibble on, and then took a bath while Sully nearly smothered her with attention, pleased she was no longer in the bed.
Ginny grimaced as she caught a glance of herself in the mirror, dark circles under her eyes and her ribs clearly visible through her skin.
Sully shook her head as she toweled Ginny dry. "You needs to be eating."
Ginny didn't answer right away. "Can you glamour these circles away?"
"Yes, Missus."
The clothes Draco had brought Ginny hung loosely on her, so Sully took up the seams as Ginny attempted to do something with her hair. "Oh sod it!" she sighed emptily, smacking the brush down on the table. "Why am I doing this? He's going to say no!"
Sully didn't answer, but she picked up the brush and secured it into a loose ponytail.
"Is he here?"
"Master?" the elf squeaked.
"Uh huh."
"Yes, he is home."
Ginny glanced one more time in the mirror. "Will you ask him to come in here?"
"Yes Missus." Sully disappeared with a pop.
Ginny sagged against the window, exhaustion taking over her body. She refused to give in, and sat in the tall stiff chair at the vanity, but Sully didn't return. Finally, after what felt like hours, Ginny gave up and crawled into her bed, unwanted tears threatening to burn her eyes. He wasn't coming. She should have known.
When she woke, the light from the setting sun cast strange orange shadows across her room and it took her a moment to realize that Draco was sitting there. His eyelids were heavy as he looked at her, and she noticed that he held his right arm away from him as if it were painful.
He looked . . . broken.
Suddenly she lost her nerve. "Are you okay?"
He didn't answer, just glared at her and grimaced.
Panic welled up inside her. "Is it my family?"
"No," his voice came out in a hiss.
Slowly, carefully, Ginny rose from her bed and edged her way to where he sat, and knelt in front of him. Fleetingly she wondered why he wore the button down shirts in the middle of the summer. She began to reach for him tentatively. Her fingers trembled as she rolled up his sleeve until she saw it.
Burned into his pale flesh was a charred black skull; she could see the tender pink skin around it, signifying that it was new. She could almost smell the fear and pain and burning skin. She had to look away.
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