Realization

Disclaimer: I don\'t own any of the Harry Potter characters, settings, ect. I owe it all to JK.

A/N: Please review. I know it\'s going slow, but I\'m getting to the good stuff soon. Please review. Don\'t make me beg...

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TWO
Ginny found herself bound by ropes, curled on the floor in the fetal position once she regained consciousness. It took her a moment to realize that she was blind-folded, covered entirely by a heavy cloak, but wearing only her knickers and a bra, what she had been sleeping in. She could hear muffled voices that she vaguely recognized but couldn’t quite place. She remembered firing off hexes and getting hit with a Stunning spell. She suddenly remembered who hit her with the spell, and why she had screamed.
She felt the hardwood floor beneath her move as a figure approached her. Bracing herself for whatever lay ahead, Ginny focused on feigning unconsciousness. She felt a hand seize the cloak and snatch it off of her almost naked body. She felt an involuntary chill sweep through her.
“So, and yes, I know you’re awake, you know why you are here.” His cold voice shot through her like knives. She shivered again as he leaned down and spoke into her ear, breath playing across her neck. “You have something my master wants, blood traitor. I know you know exactly what it is that I want. And I shall keep you here until you deliver it to me.”
Ginny let out a gasp of horror. How could anyone know? She had guarded the secret so well.
“You are wondering, no doubt, how I know all this, correct, blood traitor?” He paused, giving her a chance to answer him, even though he knew she wouldn’t. “I will take you silence,” he sat her up, fingers caressing her arms, sending chills down her spine, “as a yes. I know your overwhelming tendency to put on a show of Gryffindor bravado.” He hissed all of this with his lips inches from her ear. His hands slowly traced up her arms, fingertips caressing all of the skin he could reach. His hands ran across her shoulders and up her neck. They reached the blindfold and he removed it ever so gently.
Ginny kept her eyes shut tight. She had a good idea of what he wanted her to look at and didn’t want it to be there.
“Look,” he said, his voice full of malice. When she did not respond he put his hands on her cheeks, forced her head slightly to the left and said again in a more commanding tone, “Look.”
She knew what was there already, so what was the point of looking? She didn’t want to writhe with grief against her captor, or cry out in fear, or struggle against the ropes which bound her wrists and ankles. If she didn’t see it, she wouldn’t react.
“Gin…” Without opening her eyes, she struggled against her captor and her ropes.
“Open your eyes, little girl,” her captor whispered in her ear. His hot breath sent another chill down her spine. How could he touch her, torment her like this? “Open your eyes or I’ll kill…”
At this, Ginny’s eyes snapped open and fell upon the limp, battered forms of Fred and George. Her eyes filled with tears and she cried out with rage, “You, you, how could you?! Give me back my wand! If you want what I’ve got so bad, then fight me for it, you lying, cheating, cowardly-“
At that, he stuffed the blindfold into her mouth to silence her and listened to her muffled insults and threats.
“Don’t call me a coward, blood traitor,” he whispered into her ear dangerously. “May I remind you that you had your chance to fight and lost. I know you are used to being saved by the ‘Chosen One’. You are out of practice. If you survive, you should think of studying up. Now, are you quite finished threatening me?”
She nodded and he slowly pulled the gag out of her mouth.
“You want to save the idiots, don’t you?” he asked.
Tears fell from her eyes again as she looked at Fred and George. “Yes,” she whispered.
“So, are you willing to cooperate, submit to the Dark Lord’s will? It’s the only way to save them. I’ll leave you to think on that.”
And with that, he blindfolded her again, fingers lingering on her skin, rose, crossed to the door, and left closing the door with a snap after a moment.
As soon as she heard the door close, she began to pull herself by her bound wrists in the direction she knew Fred and George were. Now that he was gone, she could hear their ragged breathing. She reached up to pull her blindfold off, but couldn’t. He had tied it too tight. She couldn’t reach around her head properly with her bound wrists either.
Instead, she reached out and grabbed her closest brother. She heard him moan in pain as she shook him.
“Come on,” she whispered, “come on! I need your help. You need my help. Come on!” Suddenly she seized his hair by instinct and began to feel for his face. It was George. She could just tell. “George…”
“Gin, I can’t…” He let out a moan.
“George, can you move your hands?”
“Yes.”
She reached for his arms and found his wrists. She pulled them up till his hands were on her cheeks. “Okay, George. Reach behind my head.”
“Come closer,” he whispered.
She bent further over him, supporting her weight by placing her hands on his chest. His hands slowly but firmly moved behind her head and grasped the knot. He slowly began to untie it, pulling with a majority of his remaining strength. Finally after several minutes he managed to pull her blindfold off.
They locked eyes for a brief second before his fell closed and he slumped unconsciously, his hands falling from her face. She let out a wail of sorrow that she quickly stifled, knowing that loosing it would not get them anywhere.
She surveyed the room and began the slow process of unbinding her ankles with her wrists still bound. Finally, she was able to release her feet and push herself up off the floor onto shaking legs.
She crossed to the nearest boarded-up window and peered out of a crack in the boards. She saw that night had thickly fallen on a wild moor lit by an almost full moon.
She turned abruptly to face the twins with a growing sense of dread. She saw blood beginning to pool beneath their unconscious bodies. She took in the rest of the room and realized there was a potions cabinet.
Ginny rushed to it and yanked it open to reveal over twenty unlabeled bottles. Though the room was lit by several candles, the bottles remained untouched by the light. She reached for one but could not come within less than two inches of it.
Though her wandless magic was only a few steps behind Harry’s, she did not want to risk her or her brother’s lives by trying to do any kind of spell in her weak state. Ginny felt utterly powerless and she sank onto the floor in a heap. She could think of nothing else to do but call her captor back into the room.
She summoned all the courage she possessed and stood, calling out, “Snape!”
He stepped into the room and looked her over, glad to see she had enough strength to free herself as much as she could, though he concealed these thoughts behind his mask of coldness. Then he glanced at her bothers. Their state was not life-threatening. She should know by now not to trust everything she sees around her Potions Master. But, he had to remind himself she was still a girl. Then he really looked at her, and she shrank under his glare, suddenly very aware that she was only wearing her knickers and a bra. She was well-figured for a sixteen-year-old, having filled out in all the right places.
She suddenly became incredibly self-conscious and shrank from her defiant offensive stance into a self-protective stance. There was something not right about the way he was looking at her, like he hadn’t seen a woman in years, with a wild gleaming hunger in his eyes. It only flashed across his face for an instant, but it was long enough for Ginny to notice.
When he saw her shrink away from him, he spoke. “Don’t fear me, Ms. Weasley. I’m not here to hurt you.”
“Then why were you threatening me earlier?” she asked warily.
“The Dark Lord was here. In order for me to be entrusted with your care, I had to show him, while he was here, that I would be cruel. You should know me, great actor and loyal spy.”
He pronounced this coolly, but she could see and hear the regret in his display. She almost believed him.
“Why, then, did you kill him?”
“Because he asked me to,” Snape said simply.
“And why should I believe you?”
He considered her for a moment and then said, “Albus.”
The door behind him opened in a flutter of wings and a magnificent red and gold phoenix flew into the room.
Ginny let out a cry of surprise. “Fawkes?”
“No,” said Snape. “This is Albus.”
The phoenix gave him a look, at which Snape nodded. He moved from the room and returned levitating a couch on which was laid three pairs of wizard’s robes. He set the couch down and handed Ginny the smallest set of robes.
She threw them over her head and sank onto the couch. She again looked around the room, eyes falling on her brothers. Remembrance flooded back into her overwhelmed mind.
“Fred! George!”
“They are quite alright, I can assure you,” he cut across her renewed shrieks. He placed his thumb and forefinger on either side of the bridge of his long hooked nose.
This earned another look from the bird.
“Oh, alright, you aggravating old man! Miss Weasley, your brothers have simply taken a heavy sleeping potion. And before you interrupt,” he pressed on, he had seen her eyes lingering on the blood and her mouth begin to open, “that is not real blood. I did not torture them for the information I currently have either. They sought me out. They are cleverer than I remembered, having figured out about my secret pact with this crazy, agitating, annoying old man.”
He gestured at the phoenix, who glared sternly at him.
“Perhaps Hagrid was a big help to them. He heard part of our pact and turned to your brothers after Albus’s death. And don’t ask, I have no idea why Hagrid turned to them. As I said, they sought me out and found me grumbling at Albus. They knew I could be trusted. We set up your elaborate kidnapping, we set it up so it looked like they were dissatisfied with Moody’s role as leader of the Order and were looking for a way out. The Dark Lord was too wary of the pair, however much they might entertain him. He has heard tell of their cleverness from too many Death Eaters and would never allow a Weasley to permeate his ranks in more than an informant capacity. He is under the impression since I killed Albus, that I am very loyal and that your brothers are loyal as well. He set up the false torture scene to get you to submit to his will. Now, do you believe me?”
She looked from his deep black eyes to the phoenix, whose eyes she suddenly saw for the first time. They were periwinkle blue and twinkled at her. Exactly the way she remembered Dumbledore’s eyes twinkled down at her during her first five years at Hogwarts. The phoenix winked at her.
She nodded at Snape. “Yes,” she choked out.
“Good,” he said. He settled himself on the couch next to her, turned slightly to face her. “Now, we have some very important matters to discuss, Mrs. Potter.”