Trapped Behind the Window

Trapped Behind The Window

There's a place so dark you can't see the end
Skies cock back and shock that which can't defend
The rain then sends dripping acidic questions
Forcefully, the power of suggestion
Then with the eyes shut, looking though the rust and rot and dust

A small spot of light floods the floor
And pours over the rusted world of pretend
The eyes ease open and its dark again

From the top to the bottom
Bottom to top I stop
At the core I've forgotten
In the middle of my thoughts
Taken far from my safety
The picture's there
The memory won't escape me
But why should I care

In the memory you'll find me
Eyes burning up
The darkness holding me tightly
Until the sun rises up.
- Linkin Park, Forgotten

Chapter 7

Two men had come charging into the room not long after the sun had completely risen. Without even bothing to shout at them, without even bothering to make any comments - something that was quite unusual - they just levitated both of them into the air with their wands and an evil, satisfied grin. Ginny remembered desparately trying to grab Harry's hand as they were flown through the white corridors, every now and then having their heads or hands and legs bashed against the walls, much to the amusement of the men under them. The men with the wands, the men with the power. The power to control everybody in the house.

They passed the kitchens and various other doors Ginny was well accustomed to, until, suddenly, both men dropped them to the floor without a warning.

Ginny bit her tongue in effort to not cry out loud as a deep, throbbing pain spread from her elbow to the very tip of her fingers; she had not landed on the floor well and was just hoping that her wrist was not broken. She felt the tears stinging in her eyes, but swallowed them. As the negative thoughts about their prison started returning to her mind, Ginny pushed herself up angrily, facing the two men that were about twice her size. But she didn't care. Without even bothering to think about what might happen, she threw herself straight at them, like a vicious dog.

"Ginny! No!" she heard a voice yell as someone grabbed her around the middle and tried to pull her away.

"Let go at once!" she cried in frustration and tried to push away the hands that were clutching her tightly. "Stop it! I don't need a wand, I can hurt them without a wand!"

She managed to kick one of the men hard in the shins. He swore heavily, clutching his leg. A triumphant "Ha!" escaped her, still struggling under the effort to break lose.

"Waddiwasi!" the other one yelled. With an enormous force, Ginny was thrown backwards with Harry, crashing against a solid stone wall behind them. He slid to the floor with her, still holding on tightly. Luckily enough she had stopped fighting to get away. Harry groaned as he felt a sharp pain between his eyes, feeling drousy and weak. And then his vision became blurry... she seemed to be okay, yes, she was okay... but his head had hit the wall... dark... black... pain....

As if from far away, he heard someone say "Colloporto."

And with that in mind, Harry blacked out.

~

Ginny got up from the floor, trembling with hate and anger. The men had already disappeared a while ago, leaving them to themselves. She banged her hands against the iron bars in frustration, receiving a hollow, metallic echo as reply. Great. Locked away in a cell. Couldn't even see a glimpse of the sun - sometimes they could at least see a little of it in the room. But here? And she was on her own on top of it all, considering the fact that the limp fingure on the thin bench next to the wall, Harry, was the only person who kept her sane and that he was unconscious. It had cost her quite some effort to heave his body from the floor onto the bench. She had been worried that he was hurt, but there was no cut, no nothing; he was breathing normally. She couldn't do anything else but wait for him to wake up.

Ginny shivered and sat back down on the floor, observing the surroundings. The walls were made of big stone bricks; green moss and slimy-looking alges grew on them and the floor was filthy, full of dust, dirt and old spiderwebs. It reminded her a lot of Hogwarts, especially the dungeons. Merlin's beard, how long ago was it now that they had been captured? How long had they already been prisoners? Since... Ginny frowned, trying to remember. Since the Hallowe'en feast. Yes, the whole school had been assembled in the Great Hall, happily chattering and eating their way through the feast as all doors leading to and from the room had burst open, flanked with Death Eaters. Some stood guarding the doors, the others flooded in, fighting with the teachers, the older students, randomly taking hosts and passing them on to the Death Eaters outside... but one host had not been taken randomly. The reason why she had been captured, the reason why so many students were taken away, the reason why the Death Eaters had come at all was lying next to her, knocked out. And, Ginny added as an afterthought, one of the reasons she was still alive and not a slave. Well, she wouldn't necessarily have been taken away, if she hadn't fought at Harry's side bitterly. But what choice had she had? Nobody had noticed that both of them had suddenly been surrounded by Death Eaters. Yes, she had been the only one to notice it was him they were looking for. The other DA members (they had still been called the DA, although Umbridge had been replaced and the teacher after her had actually stayed more than only one year; she had still been teaching in Ginny's sixth year) - well, the other DA members were trying to protect younger students all around, they just hadn't realized.

Ginny leant her head back against the cold wall and shut her eyes. The last few things she remembered from that night was being dragged out of the Great Hall and suddenly seeing Ron turn around, starting to run towards them, but he had been at the other end of the Great Hall. No chance of catching up. And then the doors had closed, blocking everything from sight.

A soft groan from beside her made Ginny open her eyes quickly. She got up and knelt down beside the improvised bed, wiping away Harry's sweaty, wet hair from his forehead to reveal the scar. He still seemed to be unconscious, or at least sleeping. With a trembling hand, biting her lip, she traced the lightning bolt softly and his eyes suddenly flew open. He took a while to adjust to the surroundings, blinked and sat up gingerly. Ginny looked up at him, worried. He still seemed to be very confused.

"Lie down," she whispered and pushed him back down with her hand on his chest.

"Gin? Where the heck are we?" he asked, ignoring her words completely. "And what are you doing on the floor? Your hand is freezing cold. Come here."

He pulled her up and she sat down next to him, immediately being wrapped tightly into the thin, ragged blanket she had placed over him earlier on.

"You're the one that hit his head against the wall and was knocked out. I think you should lie back down with this blanket," Ginny said and tried to pull it off; but he did not want to hear of it.

"No way. You look pale and are shaking like a leaf. Don't you even think of taking it off," Harry said. His arms slung themselves around her waist and he pulled her closer to him, resting his chin on her shoulder. "So where have they put us?"

"I don't really know," she answered truthfully. "Looks like a kind of dungeon. Never seen it before - and we've been around this house for a while."

"The nasty people with the bad behaviour go into the dungeons. I feel like being in the middleages."

"Well, you better get used to it. I don't want to know when we're going to get out of here again."

"And still, they haven't separated us..."

"You seem to be calling for it, Harry. Don't paint the devil on the wall, please. Even if they could do with a bit of colour," she said and smiled weakly.

"Already back in the mood to make jokes?"

"Curiously enough, yes."

~

But a whole day later, they weren't in the mood to make jokes anymore. They just sat or lay next to each other closely, eyes shut, not speaking, barely breathing. Although outside summer was approaching, down in the dungeons, their breath rose infront of them as white mist. They had found a few more blankets in the morning after waking up and had taken them almost gratefully. However, food was something they had not been given at all. So, on top of becoming increasingly depressed, they were also too weak to even move much at all. Ginny started wondering if they might have simply forgotten about them; after all, she had never known about this place before. Perhaps nobody thought of coming down here from time to time. Perhaps they had been forgotten. The first day, she had got up a few times and tried to see down the corridors to their left and right. But it was extremely dark down where they were; and since they never heard any noises, they had concluded that nobody else was rotting away here like them.

That was the reason for of them both to jump as a metallic clicking noise sounded. Ginny could not exactly tell what time of the day it was; without windows and clocks, it was hard to keep track of the world outside. A thin ray of light slipped into the darkness, illuminating a door and its frame. Ginny waited, holding her breath. Who was going to come in? But after a while, the door was closed again. Nobody had come in.

Or so it seemed.