Silk and Brocade

Chapter 1- Never Trust a Fortune-teller

It was Saturday morning. A crowd of cheerful students was gathering in the Entrance Hall to have their permissions checked, before leaving for another Hogsmeade weekend. Ginny Weasley was patiently queuing with her fellow Gryffindors, throwing a look every now and then at the Ravenclaws in search of her friend Luna. The two girls had agreed to meet there to go to Hogsmeade together. Once outside, Ginny craned her neck over the crowd of boys and girls, but there was no sign of Luna.

"Ginny, we're leaving. Are you going to come with us?" one of her girlfriends asked.

"Just a second, I was supposed to meet Luna," Ginny replied.

"Ginny Weasley?" inquired a fifth year Ravenclaw. "I have a message for you from Lovegood. She's not coming because she doesn't feel well," the girl quickly told her and walked away, before Ginny even had the time to thank her.

Ginny was quite taken aback by the rude manners of the girl, but even more, she was irritated by the detached tone in her voice. It seemed evident she did not care much about Luna.

"Ginny!" one of her friends called her impatiently.

"Coming!" she said, hurrying to join them. "Sorry, girls," she quickly apologised.

They were happily walking around the various shops in the wizarding village, when their attention was caught by a brightly coloured tent.

"Look, a fortune-teller!" one of the girls said, pointing at it.

"The sign says it costs two sickles. Why don't we give it a go?" another girl suggested.

"Don't tell me you believe in that stuff!" Ginny exclaimed, amused.

"Of course not. But it's so cheap that it seems worth a good laugh," her friend replied cheerfully.

"All right, then," Ginny agreed, and they joined a small crowd of giggling girls standing outside of it.

"One at a time, dear ladies," a tall man with a green turban on his head instructed them in an unctuous voice.

One by one all the girls entered the tent from the front, and exited it from the side. In the great confusion and general excitement, nobody seemed to have taken notice that a few girls had not left the tent before the tall man called the next one in. When finally Ginny's turn came, she curiously stepped in. She found herself facing a beautiful gypsy woman sat at a three legged round table, with a shiny crystal ball on it. The woman ceremoniously invited Ginny to take seat on a stool. The woman made some strange movements with her hands over the smooth surface of the sphere standing on a serpent shaped base, whispering words so lowly that Ginny failed to catch them no matter how she strained her ears. The gypsy nodded to the man standing by the door of the tent, and instructed Ginny to fix her stare into the misty orb. The girl did as she was told. After a few seconds of gazing at the spiraling fumes within it, she began to feel dizzy. Her eye lids suddenly became heavy, and Ginny had trouble keeping them open. She started to sway dangerously, then her sight went blank as she lost consciousness.

"It's seven with this one. We're done here," the woman said to the man, with a devilish grin on her beautiful face.

"We'd better leave this place then," the man said, with a satisfied smirk.

***

When Ginny woke up half an hour later, she found herself in a strange circular room. The walls were white and richly carved with geometric motives. There were brocade drapes hanging on them, and the floor was covered in richly embroidered silk cushions. She immediately realised she was not alone in the harem-like room. There were six other girls in all, some were her age, others older. They all looked clueless or deadly scared. But what astonished Ginny the most were the clothes they were wearing. They were all dressed in odalisque tight attires, and she saw she had a green one on too. Another strange thing she noticed was that those other girls were all extremely beautiful, much more than she considered herself to be. She felt like she was standing in the backstage of a beauty contest, in which she humbly felt out of place.

"Do you know where we are?" Ginny asked to the others, alarmed.

"No, we've woken up just a couple of minutes before you," a pale blond girl said, shivering.

"Not in Hogsmeade, of course," a black haired girl snarled, showing annoyance rather than fear.

Ginny slowly stood up, and started to inspect the room. The place seemed to have been carved in a single block of fine alabaster, and there was no trace of any window or door. Frustrated by the uselessness of the task, Ginny took seat on a big cushion in a corner, and started to think about the events that had put her in that absurd situation.

"Hell, I've been such a fool to fall in a stupid trap like this," she angrily thought. "What was I thinking? I've sold myself for two bloody sickles. Am I really so worthless?" she reproached herself. "Why? What will be of us?" she thought in despair.

As if answering to her last question, a door suddenly opened in the carved wall, and a woman came in. It was the same woman they had previously met in Hogsmeade disguised as a gypsy. She was now wearing a black cloak, she held a mask with slits for the eyes in her left hand, while the slender fingers of her right one held a wand.

"Well, well, well. What a nice bunch of little dollies we have here!" the woman drawled maliciously. "Stand up, you'll be the special guests to a party we've organized just for you," the woman told them, staring at them with an evil grin on her beautiful face.

The girls stood up hesitantly, exchanging questioning looks. Anxiety was plastered on everybody's face, because nothing about that woman seemed to announce anything good to come. Ginny had her eyes glued on her, as her brain was working furiously to figure out why that face looked so strangely familiar.

"I know I've seen her before, but where? And when?" she forced herself to think.

The woman waved her wand with a flourish, and a golden chain erupted out of it, wrapping itself around the girls' wrists. The astonishment on their faces at the sight of that unexpected enforcement of their imprisonment caused the woman to give a loud, mirthless, mad laughter.

"Bellatrix Lestrange!" Ginny realised, as her eyes opened wide in shock. "Gods, no! We've been kidnapped by the Death Eaters. What do they want from us? Are they going to kill us?" she anxiously thought.

"My Master doesn't like to wait. Get a move on," Bellatrix sneered, annoyed.

She waved her wand once more, causing the chain to spring to life, dragging the girls out of the room. No matter how hard they tried, the girls' efforts could not resist the invisible force that led them down a dark, twisting stone corridor. They emerged in a large hall, covered in blinding white marble, and Bellatrix led them to the centre of it.

"Master, your slaves are here," she said, reverently kneeling down before a cloaked figure sitting on a jewel encrusted throne.

"Very well, Bella," a cold voice hissed.

Ginny squeezed her eyes to better adjust them to the bright light of the room. Her stare followed Bellatrix's words. She felt her heart skip a bit when she saw none but the legendary dark wizard - Lord Voldemort - standing right in front of them. She felt her knees go weak and had to move closer to the huddled, scared girls for support. Her eyes then scanned the room and she realised they were surrounded by a group of cloaked and masked Death Eaters.

"My dear servants," Voldemort said standing up, "these delicious treats are my gift for seven of you, as a reward for your loyalty to me," his voice hissed, as his malevolent red eyes wandered around the room.

He walked to the centre of the hall to have a better look at the girls. Bellatrix kissed the hem of his cloak, as soon as he was close to her.

"Nice, a very nice lot. Maybe I should consider keeping one for myself," Voldemort hissed lowly, as his hand reached up to cup a brunette's chin. The poor girl's face turned ash white, and she looked as she was going to faint any minute.

"Let's see who can be the perfect match for my most faithful supporters," he sneered, with a devilish glint in his eyes.

"Ginny Weasley?" Snape wordlessly asked himself, as his mind registered the shock of seeing a familiar redhead among that night's victims.

He had been standing there, half in shadow, right behind Voldemort's throne. He had been listening to Voldemort's rants, without caring much about the innocent captives' fate. It was not the first time he assisted to that kind of parties but, up to then, the thing had never raised any interest in him. But this time, the sight of one of his favourite students threatened to crack his mask of coldness.

"This is bad. This is no normal party at all, and the experience she's going to face will tear her to pieces," he thought with concern. "I must do something to save her from her awful fate, but what?" he wondered with growing anxiety, as he observed Voldemort examine the girls.

"What do we have here? A little red tigress, I see. I guess you are Arthur Weasley's only daughter, yes, the precious daddy's pearl," Voldemort sneered, as he stopped in front of Ginny, who stared back at him defiantly.

"Even if I die tonight, I'm going to be brave till the end," Ginny inwardly spurred herself, fighting hard to suppress the shivers of fear that coursed up and down her spine.

"Idiotic Gryffindor braveness!" Snape angrily thought. "What does she think she would obtain with that attitude? I must make my move, and quickly too!" he considered, realising the dangerousness of the situation.

Snape knew by experience that Voldemort was going to use Legilimency to question his servants' loyalty and investigate their possible deviations. Therefore, the only way he had to save Ginny was to lead Voldemort to give her over to him. As soon as Voldemort took out his wand to perform his favourite spell, Snape started to fill his mind with lustful images of him and Ginny together. Voldemort assigned a girl after the other to as many Death Eaters, till only Ginny was left.

"Curious! You've never showed much interest in my little entertainments so far," Voldemort hissed amused, staring at Snape, "although I must admit that you would be the most fit to tame this little, daring tigress."

"Thank you, my Lord," Snape said bowing down on one knee, immensely relieved that his desperate plan had worked.

The Dark Lord dismissed his servants, except the ones spending the night there to enjoy their rewards. The girls were all taken away in separate directions, between screams, tears and hopeless attempts to free themselves from the merciless hold of the magical ropes now binding them. Ginny managed to keep herself under control, as two men led her into an empty bedroom. They freed her from the rope, before leaving the room. In an impetus of desperation, Ginny threw herself at the door.

"LET ME GO! PLEASE, LET ME GO!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, banging her fists against the hard wood of the door.

She soon gave up the hopeless rebellion. There was nowhere to go, and surely the room had to be warded against any escape. She explored her surroundings in the little time that passed before the arrival of her winner. The room was quite large, very luxurious, holding the same Arabian style of the room in which she had been kept captive at her arrival. There was a small fountain in the middle of it, pouring crystal clear water. The walls were draped in rich, oriental curtains. The floor was covered in carpets and silk and brocade cushions. The only pieces of furniture were a wide bed with ivory silk sheets, an Ottoman couch and a vanity desk. Ginny's legs went weak again, as she realised the only use that room could have.

"Oh, my. I'm going to be raped!" she whispered in a chocked voice, as tears formed in her eyes. "No, I don't want to loose my virginity like this. This must be all a nightmare!" she sobbed, as her hands gripped at her hair in despair.

The sudden sound of the door handle turning, as the door creaked open, snapped Ginny out of her thoughts. She sprinted up on her feet, instinctively grabbing the first object her hands could reach. In that moment a tall, cloaked, masked man entered the room.