When Everything Breaks

CHAPTER FIVE - DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

Fred and George followed not far behind Ginny, but it was already too late. They looked up and down the Alley, bewildered.

"You think she apparated?" Fred asked. George shrugged his shoulders.

"Or walked really fast..." George said mildly.

"Hey, what's that?" Fred asked, pointing to the ground behind where George was standing. George crouched down and nearly lost his balance when he realised what it was.

"It's Ginny's wand." George snatched it up.

"What? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's still got that chip we put in it last year."

***

Draco woke with a start, his arm burned. He got up and put on his muddy shoes and damp cloak over the wrinkled clothes he had slept in. It had been raining earlier while he was out. He apparated quickly, after a quick swish of his wand to clean his sullen garments.

When he arrived at the Riddle House, it was dark and empty. He knew the box had been an instruction, but why had he been so reluctant?

***

Ginny thrashed in her spell-induced unconsciousness, a dream she could not wake from plagued her mind. She cried out, and in her dream she fell down into the darkness. As the diary slipped from her hand and hit the stone floor, it fell open and the pages began to turn.

***

"Well where's Ginny then?" Fred asked. George just looked at him silently; they didn't need to communicate their suspicions. It was as if the whole of the wizarding community had held their breath for four years, waiting for something. Without another word, both Fred and George apparated to Ginny's apartment and began searching the rooms. When she couldn't be found, they apparated to the Burrow and told Mr and Mrs Weasley. Before the night was out, the Weasley house was full of aurors and pacing family members. Nobody but Ginny slept.

***

"Ginny Weasley?" The name repeated and echoed in her mind.

"Wake up, Ginny. Wake up," she whispered quietly to herself.

"You'll wake up when I say so," the voice said. It had changed from Tom Riddle, to someone else. Someone familiar, but strange all the same.

"Who's there?" She spun around.

"There's nobody there Ginny," Harry said as he stepped towards her.

"Where have you been?" she asked, like she had asked so many times before. When they had been together, in the real world.

"I've been at work." He tried to put his arm around her and she moved out of his reach.

"No you haven't." She lost her lucid awareness; Ginny was no longer in control. If she ever had been in the first place. Harry smiled at her, like he had so many times.

"I was." She gave in; she let him take her in his arms. Forgiveness was free.

***

Harry stared into the fire, wondering how he had let this happen. Ginny was gone. And it was all his fault.

Ron almost tripped over him as he walked blindly past.

"Sorry mate. What are you doing down there on the floor anyway?" he asked. Harry couldn't look at him, at any of them. He didn't have an answer; all he had was an apology that they would never accept.

"Just thinking," he replied.

"None of this is your fault Harry. You know that, don't you?"

"Isn't it?"
"Course not. We just should have been more careful, that's all."

"You wouldn't have needed to be careful if it wasn't for me." Ron looked at him, and laughed. Half the room was staring at him in dismay but he didn't care.

"Everyone has to be careful these days." Harry looked back at Ron, and nodded half-heartedly.

"I guess you're right."

"Damn right I am, and it's about time."

The rest of the room was noisy with whispers, but nobody else had any answers either.

***

Harry was leading her down a long chamber; she looked around but recognised nothing.

"Where are we going?" she asked. They passed a sign embedded in the wall. Written slantingly were the words: 'Watch your step, lest you find something you wish you had not'. Her brow furrowed, she knew she had to remember something, but she was so exhausted. Harry stopped and she looked up, they had reached an impasse. A ragged cliff led downwards into darkness.

"We're here," he said. Ginny looked down, into the chasm.

"Where?"

"You must wake up now Ginny, someone's coming." And he jumped, taking her with him. She screamed.

***

Draco stopped, dead in his tracks. What was that? A scream in the distance. He began to walk again, faster this time, through the dank basement dungeons of Riddle House. Unaware of what he would find, but following orders nonetheless. Because he had not done so earlier, and disappointment was not a thing Volemort suffered twice.

He looked into the dungeon, and stepped back to regain his composure. He knew that red hair. Weasley red.

"Weasley?" She looked up, her mud-streaked face showing little recognition.

"I don't know where Harry is," she replied quietly.

"Ginny?" he asked, trying to focus her attention. She took a step forward. Into the meagre amount of light that shone through the single barred window.

"I know you," she said, barely above a whisper. Her throat hurt, her head hurt, and she thought a rib was broken.

"Yeah, I guess you did once." He had been almost convinced he had made the wrong decision even before he saw the fear in her eyes. Now he wished he could take it all back.

"Malfoy?" she said slowly, "what am I doing here?"

"I don't know, I only follow orders." Always, following orders without question. Only once had he faltered, and how many more times would he falter for her? For those hazel eyes, shiny with tears, and that muddy red hair that he had seen so many times but never really looked at.

"Why?"

"I just told you I don't know."

"No, why do you follow orders?" she asked. She smiled, weakly and sadly.

"I don't know that either," he replied truthfully. She watched him as he gripped his arm. Not showing that it was painful, and yet she imagined that it must be. With one last look at her in her cage, like a phoenix cornered and captured, he retreated back towards the main house.

She stood quietly for a few minutes, afraid and too worn out to fight for what she needed. She figured, and rightly so, that she was here because they thought having her would bring Harry right to their door. And, if the Order had not been around to stop him, it certainly would have. Ginny was determined not to panic, that would get her nowhere. She looked around purposefully. A grate in the ceiling. A barred window. Solid, and she felt so alone. But then, she had always felt alone.

She walked over to the window and peered through. It lead onto another room, just as dank as the one she was in, but she noticed the absence of any kind of cell door. If she could get through and into that room, she could escape.

"Who am I kidding?" she whispered. She slumped against the wall in defeat.

Hours past, her watch stopped and she lost count after three. A shadow crept across the floor to her feet and she looked up, a cloaked figure stood at the door. A mask obscured its face.

It stood motionless and silent, and Ginny waited.

"What do you want?" she finally asked. It continued to stare at her and said nothing. "I don't know where Harry is," she concluded.

"I think you do." The voice was muffled but she still heard a hint of familiarity behind the mask. Perhaps another Hogwarts graduate? It didn't seem important.

"What makes you think that I do?" she asked with a shaky voice.

"Who would know better than the woman who loves him? If only you had loved me instead." He paused and removed the mask. "But of course you went running to Potter as soon as he clicked his fingers, didn't you Ginny?"

"D-D-Dean?" she stuttered. She remembered sweet romantic Dean, now he had a scowl and a long scar running from his right eye to the base of his cheekbone.

"See now Ginny, I have a scar too."

"What happened to you?" she asked.

"I learned to hate Potter, it's surprisingly easy." I know, she thought. And yet, she said nothing in reply.

"You have nothing to say, that surprises me," he finally said.

"What can I say?"

"You can tell me where to find Harry Potter," he suggested angrily. She crossed her arms over her chest in the only act of defiance she had left and his scowl deepened.

"Very well then." He replaced the plain mask over his face and retreated back down the corridor. Ginny ventured forward to the bars and watched him as he went.

Again she was alone. She tried not to count the hours, knowing it would do her no good. What could she do now but wait?

***

Draco stared around the room blankly. His mind reeled with questions he could not answer. What could they possibly expect to get from the frightened girl he had found in the dungeons? Or did they just intend to punish Potter by killing the woman he loved without explanation? But still the most important question eluded him; what was he, Draco Malfoy, going to do about it?

He knew that this was it. He could practically see the crossroads in front of him, and still he stood and waited.

***

Harry stood abruptly, he felt so helpless. People looked around at him expectantly but he still did not have the answers the wanted. The silence seemed to weigh down on him and his shoulders sagged heavily.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked, placing his hand on Harry's arm affectionately.

"No, none of us are alright are we? I mean, why Ginny?" Harry replied, turning his back so the room at large wouldn't see him cry. He felt a soft hand on his back and sunk into Mrs Weasley's motherly embrace. Her chest rose and fell erratically with sobs against him, and he tried to ignore the nagging feeling that this was all his fault.

***

Ginny felt her eyes weigh closed as she struggled against her fatigue. It had been only four hours since Dean had left, but to her it felt like days, and it was starting to darken outside into the second night of Ginny's containment.

She dreamt she was walking through a field of swaying corn. The upper leaves brushed her hair lightly as she passed and her hand flicked up automatically in irritation to brush it away. She walked on, not knowing where or why.

As she walked, she could hear a sound in the distance. A growling, growing ever closer amidst the thick stalks of corn. She spun around at a sudden noise directly behind her and was jolted awake by rough hands on her.

"Ginny, get up," Draco hissed. Behind him, the door to her dungeon room was lying open and smoke coiled lazily from the lock. Ginny raised a hand to her head and opened her eyes slowly.

As he looked into her sleep-laden eyes he knew this was the right decision. Spur of the moment and probably terribly stupid, but definitely right. However, he hadn't really thought of how she would react in response to his act of personal defiance.