Malfoy reached in front of Ginny and dumped all their food on to one large plate. “Take it.”
She reached for it, her broken-nailed fingers closing around the plate, but she paused as she focused on him. “You really are here.” And she began to laugh.
This time it was Ginny who grabbed Malfoy, gripping him tighter as she felt him tense up.
“I didn't believe it! They said they had taken the Malfoy boy prisoner because his mummy was making plans to escape with him!” Queens laughed harder, and her voice was so rough and scarred, it sounded as if she had been smoking since the day she was born. She stepped closer to Malfoy, and while he didn't flinch, Ginny felt her body screaming to move out of the demented woman's way. “Do you know what they did to your father, boy? Do you know what they're going to do to you?”
Her blemished skin was all that filled Ginny's vision, even though she knew she should just let go of Malfoy and move the children to the other side of the room, she couldn't. But even without glancing at them, she knew the children were doing just that.
“I really don't give a shite,” Malfoy told her, in a tone of voice so bored and detached, Ginny believed him.
“Know what I think the best part of all this is?” She circled them closely; Ginny could feel the woman's rancid breath on her skin. “You're standing here holding hands with the Weasley bint. I'm sure your mum will rejoice in her prison cell when I report that to her.”
“Ey!”
The momentary fear Queens' presence held over Ginny was broken as Zipes came back through the door.
Queens turned around, reluctantly taking her inhuman eyes off Malfoy. “Where'd they get all this food?”
“All that food?” he snorted, brushing the snow out of his beard. “It's jus' a crumb! Scraps they found in the yard.”
“Why do you give them a fire?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.
“Cause I want to eat,” he told her calmly. “And you're takin my food.”
The expression on Queens' face as she glanced at the plate in her hand clearly said she knew he was right. “Give me the other plate,” she hissed at Ginny.
Malfoy dropped her hand, so swallowing hard and trying to refocus her courage, Ginny did as she was told. She watched with a heavy heart as Queens divided the food between her and Zipes before storming out of the cottage and slamming the door behind her.
“Take this,” Zipes muttered, shoving his plate at Ginny. “Give it to the kids.”
It didn't escape her that he couldn't meet her gaze.
Ginny stood perfectly still, staring at the plate, and then she began trembling so bad the food nearly fell to the ground.
Snatching the plate from her hand, Malfoy scowled at her before dividing up what was left for the remaining children and Tyger.
She knew she should comfort the children, they were crying into their pitiful lunches, but Ginny couldn't function properly. Marylynn had just died. No funeral, no goodbyes, just dead and gone and they might as well forget her. And now Goldflower, she was gone too. Maybe she wasn't dead yet, but she was as good as dead and everyone knew it.
“You should have eaten something,” she said quietly as Malfoy sat down on the bed across from hers.
“I'm fine,” he muttered. “I'll eat dinner.”
She nodded, unsure of what to do. While she had known all along that her captivity would end badly, it wasn't until Queens arrived and took Goldflower away, just moments after Marylynn had left them, that it really hit her. She was going to die. She was probably going to be tortured first. Maybe raped. Maybe passed around among the Death Eaters and raped multiple times. Or maybe just murdered; a quick and simple Avada Kedavra. Or not. It could be something long and drawn out and cruel. Before she'd been captured, she'd heard dark rumors of prisoners being skinned alive.
When the sun set and it was time for dinner, Ginny still hadn't risen from her bed, and she had no intentions of doing so. She couldn't. Instead, she just rolled over and looked the other way when the children stared at her with their big, wet eyes.
When Malfoy tried to make her eat, she closed her eyes and whispered “Please go away.”
“I'm not leaving. You're going to eat.”
“You didn't.”
“I just ate dinner.”
“We're going to die.”
“Everyone is, eventually.”
“I'm just not ready yet. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone.”
“Yeah? Most people don't,” he said harshly. “Eat. You aren't going to starve to death.”
“Why would you even care?” she snapped back, tired of him, tired of the cottage, tired of being needed. She wanted her mum. She wanted someone else to take care of her.
“Because there are four little kids staring at me like I'm their saviour! I can't do this! You're the one who is doing this, not me!”
She opened her eyes and tried to focus on his spoiled, bratty face. “Malfoy, find your balls, please.” She sat up in her bed and looked around. Just as he said, the children were staring at them, while Tyger was tucked in her bed already, facing away from them. Zipes had already disappeared into his little room. “Let's just go to bed,” she told them. “I'll get the dishes in the morning.”
“Can we push our beds together?” Jeanne-Marie asked quietly. “I don't wanna sleep alone.”
“Sure,” Ginny said tiredly. “That's fine.”
She thought they would push their own beds together, but instead, Wilhelm helped them pushed his bed against Draco's and even Tyger shoved hers against Ginny's, so all their feet were lined up facing the fire place.
“Ginny?” Victorine asked quietly.
“Hmm?” she said absently, trying to hold herself together.
“Can we put our bed between yours and Draco's? I don't want to sleep on the end.”
She blinked at the pretty girl who was holding hands with her twin, wishing they didn't look so pale. They got enough sleep, but a lack of nutrition left dark circles under their eyes, and with the winter sun constantly hiding behind the clouds, their skin was quickly becoming as pale as Malfoy's.
“That's fine,” Malfoy said roughly before Ginny could come up with a tactful reply. He stood up quickly and dragged the bed until it was positioned between theirs, then shoved his bed against hers. “Is this okay?”
Ginny was tempted to ask him if Queens had accidentally given him a personality makeover, but she didn't have it in her. Instead she gave Victorine a wobbly smile, and lay back down, trying not to think of the horrible day they'd had.
“Thank you Draco,” she heard Victorine whisper as she made room for her sister in the small bed and pulled the thin blankets around them.
“Ginny?” This time it was Wilhelm, sitting up from his spot on the other side of Malfoy.
“Yes?” She tried to keep her voice steady.
“Can you tell us a story? I know you don't want to, but it always makes everyone feel better.”
“Of course,” she told him, even though her voice caught in her throat. “How about Cinderella?” She took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. “The wife of a rich man fell ill. When she realized that the end was near, she called her only daughter to her bedside...”
Halfway through her fairy tale, Ginny could hear the peaceful, even breathing of the children, so she quit talking. She wished she could find sleep so easily.
“Hey.”
Her entire body tensed up at Malfoy's voice.
“Aren't you going to finish?”
So Ginny continued the story, talking without thinking until the end. “On the day of the wedding to the prince, the two false sisters came and tried to integrate themselves and share in Cinderella's good fortune. When the couple went to church, the elder sister was on the right, the younger on the left side: the doves pecked one eye from each one. Later, when they left the church, the elder sister was on the left, the younger on the right. The doves pecked the other eye from each one. And so they were punished for their wickedness and malice with blindness for the rest of their lives.”
“Those stories have terrible endings,” Malfoy said after a long pause, his voice breaking through the flickering darkness.
“I know.”
“Why do you tell them those kinds of stories?” For once his voice didn't sound harsh or angry or even judgmental.
“They're they only ones I know,” she told him, keeping her voice low. “And I think they like them.”
“They do.”
There was a long silence and Ginny concentrated on the firelight and shadows dancing across the walls.
“It's like you said, they want to know that terrible things are going to happen to the people who hurt them.”
Ginny gave a short, bitter laugh. “Isn't that how the world is supposed to be?”
“It's supposed to.”
Ginny rolled to one side, facing the twins. She could make out Malfoy's form on the other side of the girls. “Is what Queens said true?”
“Yes.”
His answer was simple, and she had expected everything except simple. It caught her off guard. “I'm sorry,” she told him finally, her stomach clenching uncomfortably.
“Don't be. You'll think I'm mad, but it's almost been better here than it was at home.”
Something that would have been laughter in any other situation caught in her throat. “You are mad. I heard you live in a mansion. Look around you!”
“The Dark Lord has been staying at the Manor.”
“At your house?” Ginny asked, horrified.
“That's what I said,” he confirmed. “It's less stressful here, except for the issue of dying. But with him at my home, that was always a possibility.” His bed creaked as he moved.
“I don't want to die.” She felt the tears on her cheeks before she even realized she was crying.
“None of us want to.”
“I tell the children not to be afraid and they believe me, but I don't believe myself.”
There was a long silence. “You should get some sleep.”
Ginny stared at him, but it was impossible to see what he was doing with the twins between them. “Good night.”
“Good night Ginny.”
For the next few weeks, Ginny threw herself into inventing chores to keep everyone busy around the small cottage. It was easier to keep busy with newly invented things to do than to have to think about what had happened and what was going to happen. While she was sure Tyger and Malfoy knew exactly what she was doing, they played along. She made brooms out of leaves and twigs so the twins could sweep and dust the cottage. She showed Tyger how to make simple cleaning and medicinal potions, even though she wasn't as good at potions as Ginny was. She had Malfoy and Wilhelm hand grinding certain leaves and roots to fertilize the seeds they had just planted. Zipes tried to avoid her, because when she managed to corner him, she couldn't stop herself from asking him why and where and when and how, and he didn't want to answer any of them.
“I tole' ya,” he said, stuffing his pipe with cheap tobacco. “I don't know 'xactly what happens to 'em.”
“Where do they go, though?” she pressed, peeling tava beans to add to their stew. “You have to know something.”
“I know,” he finally said wearily. “But you don't wanna know. It ain't good.”
She finally looked up, staring him in the eye. “I know I'm going to die. I know that. I don't want to die, but I know that I will, unless a miracle happens. But I don't believe in miracles.”
Zipes suddenly looked years older. “It's not a pretty death. There's no set way of killin' but most people just give up in the end. They can't handle it anymore.”
“Handle what?”
“The pain. The torture. The... anythin'. Their bodies can't take it.”
All this time she'd thought she wanted answers, but as they came to her, she realized she'd been better off not knowing. “I'm scared.”
“What about those things ya tell the children? Ya don't seem scared then,” he told her, taking out his pocket knife and slicing the tava roots for their dinner.
“They're just stories,” she said heavily, nibbling on the tava bean pods and deciding they were edible. “They don't mean anything.”
“Everyone counts on those stories, ya know.”
“I know.”
“Even Malfoy.”
Ginny glanced up at him. “Queens said that Malfoy was here because his mum wanted to escape with him. And he told me it was true.”
Zipes nodded. “Doesn't surprise me. His mum doesn't care 'bout the Dark Lord, jus' 'bout her son.”
“Queens said they were doing terrible things to his father.”
“Why would ya care?” Zipes looked at her suspiciously. “Everyone knows what his father did to ya with that diary.”
She shuddered. “I still don't like people being tortured.”
“I didn't think you 'n Malfoy would get along.”
“We don't. He's a total arse.”
“Uh-huh. That's why he does all those things you ask him?”
Ginny shrugged causally. “He just does what everyone else does.”
“Right.”
“He does.”
“If ya say so.”
“I do.”
There was a long silence before Zipes spoke again. “I can't get ya anymore seeds. Anymore anythin', really.”
“What do you mean?” Her head shot up from the Katterpod root she was smashing.
“Queens accused me of favorin' you all.”
Ginny's brow creased. “She did? To whom?”
“Recently, at a meetin'.”
Ginny was torn between laughing over the fact that the Death Eaters held meetings like they were some sort of incorporated business or telling him to man up and ignore the bitch. “I don't think trying to feed yourself is favoring anyone,” she told him, trying to sound reasonable. “You're just using us for the labor, right? Any self-respecting Death Eater would do it.”
“You always make light of things, don't ya?” he asked, looking at her sadly.
She bit her lower lip, hesitating for a split second. “Get us out of here.”
“What?”
“All of us can leave. I can give you the exact coordinates of my parents' house and the Order will take us all in. It'll be days before anyone even notices that we're gone.”
“Are ya serious?”
She nodded. “Why are you even doing this? Being Pureblood doesn't really make one person better than another. Witches are witches and wizards are wizards.” She drummed her fingers along the scuffed counter top. “Have you ever been to Germany?”
“No.” Zipes looked confused.
“My parents took us there once when Bill was doing this temporary stint in Germany. We went on a tour of the concentration camps that are left from the Muggle's second Great War. This group called the Nazi's decided that this other group, the Jews, were basically the root of all evil. They killed over six million Jews, a lot of them in these horrible camps. I think I cried for three days straight. We saw these pictures of Nazi military men and women smiling and just hanging out like everything was fine, even though they were murdering people every day. There were piles and piles of bodies, but I guess they believed it was okay, because they honestly thought they were better than them.”
“I've heard of it,” Zipes told him, his voice stiff.
“Just think about it. The Order will hide all of us. You know they will.”
“Why would they wanna help me?” Zipes scoffed. “I cast my lot with the Death Eaters.”
Ginny locked eyes with him. “Is that still how you feel?”
Later that week, Zipes told Ginny to make sure the others were constantly prepared. She assumed he meant for travel, and that was easy – there was nothing to pack, nothing to consider taking. They wore everything they owned.
“I'll be back,” Zipes told Ginny after a late dinner. “Make sure things are in order.”
As he disappeared out the front door, Ginny's heart soared. He was going to take them to the Burrow. They would be free. She'd have her family back. She debated on telling Malfoy, but decided to keep the news to herself, just in case.
The day wore on and Ginny's stomach ached with anticipation. That night she would be sitting at her dining room table eating dinner and surrounded by her family.
But Zipes didn't return. The following afternoon Queens appeared, and all Ginny's hopes disappeared.
“What do you think you're doing?” she asked Ginny in her cold, cruel voice.
“Gathering things to make dinner,” Ginny told her evenly, suppressing her disappointment and fear. “I assume you want to eat.”
“I'll eat anyway,” she hissed, leaning close to Ginny.
“I know the Death Eaters can't feed you,” Ginny said calmly. “But I can. So it'd be in your best interest to let us finish what we're doing.”
Queens' black eyes narrowed. “You shouldn't be outside.”
“There are wards,” Ginny said, hoping she sounded reasonable, even though she was afraid for the fate of Zipes. “We can't leave.”
For several days, Queens just watched them under a silent eye. But then she began trying to slip into their daily routines, telling Jeanne-Marie to get back in the cottage when she slipped on a patch of ice in the yard.
“She's fine,” Ginny told Queens calmly. “We need her. She's good at gathering the tava beans.”
“I said get inside,” Queens screamed, pointing her wand at Jeanne-Marie and using Crucio on her.
“Stop it!” Victorine screamed, throwing herself at Queens. “Stop!”
“No,” Ginny shouted, running towards them, ignoring Malfoy's warnings.
Everything after that happened so quickly, Ginny wasn't sure what happened. There was a scream of Avada Kedavra, and more screams from Jeanne-Marie, and then there was more pain than Ginny could imagine or even bear. As the skin on her back split open, Ginny fell to her knees, unsure of what was going on. The pain doubled, tripled, multiplied, pain on top of pain, but it still wasn't registering with her. She toppled over, landing on Victorine, hoping that she could shield her from any further harm. Somewhere, someone was screaming. Their screams made Ginny's ears and throat hurt. Somewhere else, something pale tried to rush her, but as quickly as it came, it was flung out of her sight.
Ginny's mind faded into nothingness.
She reached for it, her broken-nailed fingers closing around the plate, but she paused as she focused on him. “You really are here.” And she began to laugh.
This time it was Ginny who grabbed Malfoy, gripping him tighter as she felt him tense up.
“I didn't believe it! They said they had taken the Malfoy boy prisoner because his mummy was making plans to escape with him!” Queens laughed harder, and her voice was so rough and scarred, it sounded as if she had been smoking since the day she was born. She stepped closer to Malfoy, and while he didn't flinch, Ginny felt her body screaming to move out of the demented woman's way. “Do you know what they did to your father, boy? Do you know what they're going to do to you?”
Her blemished skin was all that filled Ginny's vision, even though she knew she should just let go of Malfoy and move the children to the other side of the room, she couldn't. But even without glancing at them, she knew the children were doing just that.
“I really don't give a shite,” Malfoy told her, in a tone of voice so bored and detached, Ginny believed him.
“Know what I think the best part of all this is?” She circled them closely; Ginny could feel the woman's rancid breath on her skin. “You're standing here holding hands with the Weasley bint. I'm sure your mum will rejoice in her prison cell when I report that to her.”
“Ey!”
The momentary fear Queens' presence held over Ginny was broken as Zipes came back through the door.
Queens turned around, reluctantly taking her inhuman eyes off Malfoy. “Where'd they get all this food?”
“All that food?” he snorted, brushing the snow out of his beard. “It's jus' a crumb! Scraps they found in the yard.”
“Why do you give them a fire?” she demanded, her hands on her hips.
“Cause I want to eat,” he told her calmly. “And you're takin my food.”
The expression on Queens' face as she glanced at the plate in her hand clearly said she knew he was right. “Give me the other plate,” she hissed at Ginny.
Malfoy dropped her hand, so swallowing hard and trying to refocus her courage, Ginny did as she was told. She watched with a heavy heart as Queens divided the food between her and Zipes before storming out of the cottage and slamming the door behind her.
“Take this,” Zipes muttered, shoving his plate at Ginny. “Give it to the kids.”
It didn't escape her that he couldn't meet her gaze.
Ginny stood perfectly still, staring at the plate, and then she began trembling so bad the food nearly fell to the ground.
Snatching the plate from her hand, Malfoy scowled at her before dividing up what was left for the remaining children and Tyger.
She knew she should comfort the children, they were crying into their pitiful lunches, but Ginny couldn't function properly. Marylynn had just died. No funeral, no goodbyes, just dead and gone and they might as well forget her. And now Goldflower, she was gone too. Maybe she wasn't dead yet, but she was as good as dead and everyone knew it.
“You should have eaten something,” she said quietly as Malfoy sat down on the bed across from hers.
“I'm fine,” he muttered. “I'll eat dinner.”
She nodded, unsure of what to do. While she had known all along that her captivity would end badly, it wasn't until Queens arrived and took Goldflower away, just moments after Marylynn had left them, that it really hit her. She was going to die. She was probably going to be tortured first. Maybe raped. Maybe passed around among the Death Eaters and raped multiple times. Or maybe just murdered; a quick and simple Avada Kedavra. Or not. It could be something long and drawn out and cruel. Before she'd been captured, she'd heard dark rumors of prisoners being skinned alive.
When the sun set and it was time for dinner, Ginny still hadn't risen from her bed, and she had no intentions of doing so. She couldn't. Instead, she just rolled over and looked the other way when the children stared at her with their big, wet eyes.
When Malfoy tried to make her eat, she closed her eyes and whispered “Please go away.”
“I'm not leaving. You're going to eat.”
“You didn't.”
“I just ate dinner.”
“We're going to die.”
“Everyone is, eventually.”
“I'm just not ready yet. I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone.”
“Yeah? Most people don't,” he said harshly. “Eat. You aren't going to starve to death.”
“Why would you even care?” she snapped back, tired of him, tired of the cottage, tired of being needed. She wanted her mum. She wanted someone else to take care of her.
“Because there are four little kids staring at me like I'm their saviour! I can't do this! You're the one who is doing this, not me!”
She opened her eyes and tried to focus on his spoiled, bratty face. “Malfoy, find your balls, please.” She sat up in her bed and looked around. Just as he said, the children were staring at them, while Tyger was tucked in her bed already, facing away from them. Zipes had already disappeared into his little room. “Let's just go to bed,” she told them. “I'll get the dishes in the morning.”
“Can we push our beds together?” Jeanne-Marie asked quietly. “I don't wanna sleep alone.”
“Sure,” Ginny said tiredly. “That's fine.”
She thought they would push their own beds together, but instead, Wilhelm helped them pushed his bed against Draco's and even Tyger shoved hers against Ginny's, so all their feet were lined up facing the fire place.
“Ginny?” Victorine asked quietly.
“Hmm?” she said absently, trying to hold herself together.
“Can we put our bed between yours and Draco's? I don't want to sleep on the end.”
She blinked at the pretty girl who was holding hands with her twin, wishing they didn't look so pale. They got enough sleep, but a lack of nutrition left dark circles under their eyes, and with the winter sun constantly hiding behind the clouds, their skin was quickly becoming as pale as Malfoy's.
“That's fine,” Malfoy said roughly before Ginny could come up with a tactful reply. He stood up quickly and dragged the bed until it was positioned between theirs, then shoved his bed against hers. “Is this okay?”
Ginny was tempted to ask him if Queens had accidentally given him a personality makeover, but she didn't have it in her. Instead she gave Victorine a wobbly smile, and lay back down, trying not to think of the horrible day they'd had.
“Thank you Draco,” she heard Victorine whisper as she made room for her sister in the small bed and pulled the thin blankets around them.
“Ginny?” This time it was Wilhelm, sitting up from his spot on the other side of Malfoy.
“Yes?” She tried to keep her voice steady.
“Can you tell us a story? I know you don't want to, but it always makes everyone feel better.”
“Of course,” she told him, even though her voice caught in her throat. “How about Cinderella?” She took a deep breath, trying to clear her mind. “The wife of a rich man fell ill. When she realized that the end was near, she called her only daughter to her bedside...”
Halfway through her fairy tale, Ginny could hear the peaceful, even breathing of the children, so she quit talking. She wished she could find sleep so easily.
“Hey.”
Her entire body tensed up at Malfoy's voice.
“Aren't you going to finish?”
So Ginny continued the story, talking without thinking until the end. “On the day of the wedding to the prince, the two false sisters came and tried to integrate themselves and share in Cinderella's good fortune. When the couple went to church, the elder sister was on the right, the younger on the left side: the doves pecked one eye from each one. Later, when they left the church, the elder sister was on the left, the younger on the right. The doves pecked the other eye from each one. And so they were punished for their wickedness and malice with blindness for the rest of their lives.”
“Those stories have terrible endings,” Malfoy said after a long pause, his voice breaking through the flickering darkness.
“I know.”
“Why do you tell them those kinds of stories?” For once his voice didn't sound harsh or angry or even judgmental.
“They're they only ones I know,” she told him, keeping her voice low. “And I think they like them.”
“They do.”
There was a long silence and Ginny concentrated on the firelight and shadows dancing across the walls.
“It's like you said, they want to know that terrible things are going to happen to the people who hurt them.”
Ginny gave a short, bitter laugh. “Isn't that how the world is supposed to be?”
“It's supposed to.”
Ginny rolled to one side, facing the twins. She could make out Malfoy's form on the other side of the girls. “Is what Queens said true?”
“Yes.”
His answer was simple, and she had expected everything except simple. It caught her off guard. “I'm sorry,” she told him finally, her stomach clenching uncomfortably.
“Don't be. You'll think I'm mad, but it's almost been better here than it was at home.”
Something that would have been laughter in any other situation caught in her throat. “You are mad. I heard you live in a mansion. Look around you!”
“The Dark Lord has been staying at the Manor.”
“At your house?” Ginny asked, horrified.
“That's what I said,” he confirmed. “It's less stressful here, except for the issue of dying. But with him at my home, that was always a possibility.” His bed creaked as he moved.
“I don't want to die.” She felt the tears on her cheeks before she even realized she was crying.
“None of us want to.”
“I tell the children not to be afraid and they believe me, but I don't believe myself.”
There was a long silence. “You should get some sleep.”
Ginny stared at him, but it was impossible to see what he was doing with the twins between them. “Good night.”
“Good night Ginny.”
For the next few weeks, Ginny threw herself into inventing chores to keep everyone busy around the small cottage. It was easier to keep busy with newly invented things to do than to have to think about what had happened and what was going to happen. While she was sure Tyger and Malfoy knew exactly what she was doing, they played along. She made brooms out of leaves and twigs so the twins could sweep and dust the cottage. She showed Tyger how to make simple cleaning and medicinal potions, even though she wasn't as good at potions as Ginny was. She had Malfoy and Wilhelm hand grinding certain leaves and roots to fertilize the seeds they had just planted. Zipes tried to avoid her, because when she managed to corner him, she couldn't stop herself from asking him why and where and when and how, and he didn't want to answer any of them.
“I tole' ya,” he said, stuffing his pipe with cheap tobacco. “I don't know 'xactly what happens to 'em.”
“Where do they go, though?” she pressed, peeling tava beans to add to their stew. “You have to know something.”
“I know,” he finally said wearily. “But you don't wanna know. It ain't good.”
She finally looked up, staring him in the eye. “I know I'm going to die. I know that. I don't want to die, but I know that I will, unless a miracle happens. But I don't believe in miracles.”
Zipes suddenly looked years older. “It's not a pretty death. There's no set way of killin' but most people just give up in the end. They can't handle it anymore.”
“Handle what?”
“The pain. The torture. The... anythin'. Their bodies can't take it.”
All this time she'd thought she wanted answers, but as they came to her, she realized she'd been better off not knowing. “I'm scared.”
“What about those things ya tell the children? Ya don't seem scared then,” he told her, taking out his pocket knife and slicing the tava roots for their dinner.
“They're just stories,” she said heavily, nibbling on the tava bean pods and deciding they were edible. “They don't mean anything.”
“Everyone counts on those stories, ya know.”
“I know.”
“Even Malfoy.”
Ginny glanced up at him. “Queens said that Malfoy was here because his mum wanted to escape with him. And he told me it was true.”
Zipes nodded. “Doesn't surprise me. His mum doesn't care 'bout the Dark Lord, jus' 'bout her son.”
“Queens said they were doing terrible things to his father.”
“Why would ya care?” Zipes looked at her suspiciously. “Everyone knows what his father did to ya with that diary.”
She shuddered. “I still don't like people being tortured.”
“I didn't think you 'n Malfoy would get along.”
“We don't. He's a total arse.”
“Uh-huh. That's why he does all those things you ask him?”
Ginny shrugged causally. “He just does what everyone else does.”
“Right.”
“He does.”
“If ya say so.”
“I do.”
There was a long silence before Zipes spoke again. “I can't get ya anymore seeds. Anymore anythin', really.”
“What do you mean?” Her head shot up from the Katterpod root she was smashing.
“Queens accused me of favorin' you all.”
Ginny's brow creased. “She did? To whom?”
“Recently, at a meetin'.”
Ginny was torn between laughing over the fact that the Death Eaters held meetings like they were some sort of incorporated business or telling him to man up and ignore the bitch. “I don't think trying to feed yourself is favoring anyone,” she told him, trying to sound reasonable. “You're just using us for the labor, right? Any self-respecting Death Eater would do it.”
“You always make light of things, don't ya?” he asked, looking at her sadly.
She bit her lower lip, hesitating for a split second. “Get us out of here.”
“What?”
“All of us can leave. I can give you the exact coordinates of my parents' house and the Order will take us all in. It'll be days before anyone even notices that we're gone.”
“Are ya serious?”
She nodded. “Why are you even doing this? Being Pureblood doesn't really make one person better than another. Witches are witches and wizards are wizards.” She drummed her fingers along the scuffed counter top. “Have you ever been to Germany?”
“No.” Zipes looked confused.
“My parents took us there once when Bill was doing this temporary stint in Germany. We went on a tour of the concentration camps that are left from the Muggle's second Great War. This group called the Nazi's decided that this other group, the Jews, were basically the root of all evil. They killed over six million Jews, a lot of them in these horrible camps. I think I cried for three days straight. We saw these pictures of Nazi military men and women smiling and just hanging out like everything was fine, even though they were murdering people every day. There were piles and piles of bodies, but I guess they believed it was okay, because they honestly thought they were better than them.”
“I've heard of it,” Zipes told him, his voice stiff.
“Just think about it. The Order will hide all of us. You know they will.”
“Why would they wanna help me?” Zipes scoffed. “I cast my lot with the Death Eaters.”
Ginny locked eyes with him. “Is that still how you feel?”
Later that week, Zipes told Ginny to make sure the others were constantly prepared. She assumed he meant for travel, and that was easy – there was nothing to pack, nothing to consider taking. They wore everything they owned.
“I'll be back,” Zipes told Ginny after a late dinner. “Make sure things are in order.”
As he disappeared out the front door, Ginny's heart soared. He was going to take them to the Burrow. They would be free. She'd have her family back. She debated on telling Malfoy, but decided to keep the news to herself, just in case.
The day wore on and Ginny's stomach ached with anticipation. That night she would be sitting at her dining room table eating dinner and surrounded by her family.
But Zipes didn't return. The following afternoon Queens appeared, and all Ginny's hopes disappeared.
“What do you think you're doing?” she asked Ginny in her cold, cruel voice.
“Gathering things to make dinner,” Ginny told her evenly, suppressing her disappointment and fear. “I assume you want to eat.”
“I'll eat anyway,” she hissed, leaning close to Ginny.
“I know the Death Eaters can't feed you,” Ginny said calmly. “But I can. So it'd be in your best interest to let us finish what we're doing.”
Queens' black eyes narrowed. “You shouldn't be outside.”
“There are wards,” Ginny said, hoping she sounded reasonable, even though she was afraid for the fate of Zipes. “We can't leave.”
For several days, Queens just watched them under a silent eye. But then she began trying to slip into their daily routines, telling Jeanne-Marie to get back in the cottage when she slipped on a patch of ice in the yard.
“She's fine,” Ginny told Queens calmly. “We need her. She's good at gathering the tava beans.”
“I said get inside,” Queens screamed, pointing her wand at Jeanne-Marie and using Crucio on her.
“Stop it!” Victorine screamed, throwing herself at Queens. “Stop!”
“No,” Ginny shouted, running towards them, ignoring Malfoy's warnings.
Everything after that happened so quickly, Ginny wasn't sure what happened. There was a scream of Avada Kedavra, and more screams from Jeanne-Marie, and then there was more pain than Ginny could imagine or even bear. As the skin on her back split open, Ginny fell to her knees, unsure of what was going on. The pain doubled, tripled, multiplied, pain on top of pain, but it still wasn't registering with her. She toppled over, landing on Victorine, hoping that she could shield her from any further harm. Somewhere, someone was screaming. Their screams made Ginny's ears and throat hurt. Somewhere else, something pale tried to rush her, but as quickly as it came, it was flung out of her sight.
Ginny's mind faded into nothingness.
Leave a Review