Devils and Dust

Chapter one


Got my finger on the trigger,
and i don’t know who to trust
when i look into your eyes
there’s just devils and dust
we’re a long long way from home
but home’s a long long way from us
feel a dirty wind a blowin
devils and dust

i got god on my side
and i’m just trying to survive
but if what you do to survive
kills the things you love
fears a powerful thing
it can turn your heart black you can trust
it’ll take your god-filled soul
fill it with devils and dust

Excerpt from Devils and Dust by Bruce Springsteen

Ginny woke slowly, her eyelids feeling heavy, as if weighted by lead. It took her several moments to clear the fog of confusion from her mind.

As a cold chill raced through her fingers she looked down at where they lay, pale against the dark stone floor.

Stone floor? she thought in confusion.

The last she remembered she\'d been in her bed at home, anxiety about the upcoming school year and the war keeping her up late until she\'d finally succumbed to the inevitable shut down of her body from sheer exhaustion. There had been many such nights in the last few months. The war was heavy on many people\'s minds, and as the number of kidnapings increased, the fear that she\'d tried so hard to battle seemed to creep in more and more.

After hours of tossing and turning, finally the thought of returning to Hogwarts, the one place it seemed in the whole world that might be safe, had eased the fear that gripped her mind enough to let her fatigue slip into it\'s place and take her away into the blissful respite of sleep. But she was not at Hogwarts.

A quick glance around the dark room confirmed that what she had feared so much had come to be. She had been captured.

Before she had time to fully process this, a door opened a few feet away from her and she brought her cold hands to her face in an attempt to shield her eyes from the bright light. As her eyes became more accustomed to the light she slowly lowered her hands and took in the face of her captor.

It was none of the many faces she\'d imagined, stirring restlessly in her bed at night. Many faces had appeared in her nightmares. Tom had been the most frequent, as senseless as the possibility was. And Voldemort, who Ginny had never actually seen, but who Harry had described to her one night in flat tones, was also a face that haunted her dreams. There had been others, Lucius Malfoy and various death eaters whose pictures she\'d seen in the paper.

But never in any of her nightmares had she imagined this face. He was in the year ahead of her at school and she\'d only just turned fifteen. He was a child, just as she was. He was a schoolmate, from the safe place. He couldn\'t be here. He couldn\'t be someone who could do the horrible things that the rescued captives had described.

But his presence said otherwise and forced her to except the horrible reality of it. The fact that someone so young was actively participating in this war, made the fear and sadness consume her as she had never let it before. This war wasn\'t some political adult situation that would be fought and won for her. It wasn\'t something that she could avoid and watch safely from a distance. No one could escape from this seeping sickness that had infected their world. Least of all herself, since she\'d been captured, snatched from her warm safe bed.

Captured. The reality of what that meant finally sunk in and she scrambled away from the door pressing her back into the corner as if she could seep through the wall. As if being five feet away from him would make any difference.

She was caught, and totally in his power. And in the short seconds it would take him to cross the room, she could be dead. And if not dead then raped or tortured.

Mere feet. She was mere feet away from death, when just a few hours ago she\'d fallen asleep with the surety that she would be going to Hogwarts, where she would be miles away from conflict. Where she\'d be safely sheltered from the effects of the war and the only way it could touch her would be through the newspaper as she shook her head sadly at the rising death toll, before returning to her homework.

But no more. It would be her death that young students read about sadly. She would be nothing more than a number. She closed her eyes to the sight of her captor, trying to make it all go away. Trying to make it so that she was back safely in her room. But his cold voice slashed through her fantasy ripping it to shreds.

\"Get up.\"


Her eyes flew open, but the rest of her body stiffened. She had no doubt that she should obey him, her fate now depended on his good humour, but fear locked her mind and her limbs.


His eyes narrowed and he walked slowly toward her, stopping in front of her and crouching down until her fear glazed eyes were level with his.

“A trouble maker are you? Or maybe you’re just deaf.”

He grasped the front of her cotton pajamas lightly in his hand, and then abruptly stood, pulling her up roughly along with him, and slamming her back into the wall.

“You should listen very carefully to what I’m about to say, because this is the last time I will say it. You will obey us, immediately and without hesitation, or you will be killed. We have no use for disobedient slaves. And that is what you are, a slave. You belong to us. Do you understand me?”

She nodded her head slowly and a smile lit his face. A smile she’d seen many times across the lunchroom. Then, without warning, he brought his hand sharply across her face. She would have fallen back from the blow but she was still pressed against the wall. As it was, she could only shudder as the pain swept through her.

“You will answer when asked a question. Anything else would be impolite. Now, since you’re new I’ll be kind and repeat myself, but this is the last time I will. Do you understand me?”

“Yes,” she breathed sharply, looking directly into his eyes. She didn’t dare look away. She needed to be able to anticipate his reactions, so that at least she could be prepared the next time he hit her.

The next time he hit her. Already she was becoming used to the fact that she would be hit. And she had no doubt that there would be more horrifying things to come.

He smiled again. “There now, that wasn’t so hard was it?”

“No,” she answered quickly.

“Good. Very good. You might survive the day after all.” He pointed towards the open door. “Time to join your fellow slaves.” He swept a hand grandly in front of her. “Ladies first.”

The gesture was boyish as was his smile, and she couldn’t understand how the studious and she’d thought, quite nice boy had come to this. She knew she shouldn’t ask. She knew that she would likely be punished for it, but she had to know.

“What made you do this, Justin? I thought Hufflepuffs were supposed to be loyal.”

He straightened abruptly and she cringed as he stepped toward her. “Oh we are. And I’m just as loyal as the rest. And the dark lord values loyalty. Enough questions.” He gripped her tightly by the back of the neck and shoved her through the open door. “Welcome to your new life.”

When she passed through the doorway and saw a room full of women, all dressed in the same drab brown colored robes, her anxiety doubled. She’d grown up as the only girl in her family and she was used to being surrounded by boys. Even when she’d gone to Hogwarts she’d found herself being drawn more toward boys as friends.

At the thought of her brothers she felt such a rush of fear that she turned to Justin, not thinking of the consequences, and asked, “ What happened to my family? Was I the only one taken?”

An angry expression settled on his face and in the space of a few breaths, he’d cursed her with Crucio.

The pain was paralyzing, her whole body stiffened with the force of it and she fell to the floor. After a few seconds, which had seemed like hours to Ginny, he lifted the curse. He then bent down over her as she lay on the floor, her body contorted in reaction to the pain.

“Slaves do not speak unless spoken to. Is that understood?”

Her body was still trembling from the pain of the curse, and she knew that she could be killed if she disobeyed again, but she had to know.

She had seen the way his gaze had flicked to her pajama top, which had come unbuttoned as she had thrashed on the ground in pain. She knew that he wanted her, and that he would want to keep her alive so he could have her.

Even though the idea frightened and sickened her, she realized that it gave her some leeway. She didn’t think she could survive the hell that she knew was to come if her family had been killed. The idea of them safe and happy gave her something to cling to. It meant that maybe she could escape and go back to the way things had been.

It took her a few more moments to force her mouth to form the words. Her body was shaking so violently with the after shocks of the pain that when she finally was able to force out the words they were as shaky as the rest of her. “I understa-a-and. But please, I ha-a-ave to know.”

He studied her face for a moment, as if deciding something, before he spoke.

“You were the only one taken. Lucius was amused at the idea of the panic your kidnaping would cause among your family.”

Then he added, in a deceptively cheerful tone, “And with any luck, they’ll be killed in some ill-advised rescue attempt.”

Her reaction was instinctive and her hand was halfway to his face before she could even think to stop herself. But he’d seen the look in her eyes and he stopped her hand well before it came in contact.

He crushed her fingers in his hand as he leaned toward her, but after the pain of Crucio she barely felt it.

“If the punishment for speaking out of turn is Crucio, what do you imagine the penalty for striking one of us would be?”

She knew what he meant. Death. And it was no idle threat. She knew that he could end her life at any time he chose. The thought effectively quelled her and she rose slowly to her feet.

Suddenly everything was so simple. Her world had been narrowed down to one principle, one goal, one choice. She would survive this, no matter what she had to do. She would live.

She’d be damned if her last days would be spent in a death eater prison camp. If she had to bear Crucio everyday for the next five years, she would do it. Because she knew that no war lasted forever. Eventually they all came to an end. And she knew that when that time came it would be the Death eaters that would lose.

So she would obey. She would throw her pride on the ground beneath her feet and stomp it out of existence if need be. Pride could always be regained and it would serve her no purpose if she were dead.

He smiled as he saw the acceptance in her downcast eyes. You could always tell when someone was broken, when the last vestiges of hope were beaten away and they realized that the person they used to be was dead.

It usually took longer, and he was vaguely surprised that she had been cowed so easily. But then again, the children always caved sooner. And she was still a child ,even though she was only a year younger than him. He’d only been an active participant in the Dark Lord’s cause for a few months, but the things he’d seen and done had aged him quickly.

Not so quickly as it would age her though. The life of a slave was much more trying than the life of a servant, and he knew that any innocence that she had left would soon be taken from her. And he would be the one to take it.