Prisoner in Her Own Home

Ginny sat on her bed, hugging her knees to her chest, no-longer bound, but still very much a prisoner. She forced herself to retreat into her mind-scape to keep the tears from welling up.

Her parents had locked her bedroom door from the outside. She was grounded. Grounded—"until you come clean, young lady,"—her mother had said. They had apologised for the legilimency and putting her through several hours of massive discomfort, but the apology had been weak and was immediately followed by another interrogation about the evil dark wizard trying to corrupt her, and how they just wanted what was best for her. As though they hadn't just tried to force the information from her by mind raping her.

She felt miserable. She wished Harry were here. He always made her feel safe, something she no longer felt in her own home.

She heard a small click, and the door creaked open.

The twin's heads peeped around the corner. They scuttled in and closed the door behind them.

She stared at them over her knees.

"Well look who it is, George."

"The mistress of mind magic herself, Fred."

The two stood to attention, and gave duel, theatrical bows with lots of extraneous hand waving."

Despite feeling terrible, she couldn't help but giggle.

"You are very impressive, Little Sister."

"Indeed, oh brother of mine. The tales of your magical prowess have spread far across these lands—"

"—Straight to the ears of these two humble rapscallions."

Fred shook his head. "Knocking a fully trained mind-healer out of your head, and onto the floor—"

"—Striking down the defeater of You-Know-Who with accidental magic."

She managed to suppress a frown. Oh how badly she wanted to land another dozen stinging hexes on that fraud.

"—And above all, succeeding in sneaking around, learning all that, and who knows what else, without Mum and Dad finding out—"

"—Until your favourite person in the world squealed on you."

This time she did frown.

"No worries, Little Sis. You have clearly shown to have what we need—"

"—And we would like to formerly invite you to our merry band of pranksters… The Hogwarts Buccaneers."

She stared at them. "You don't care about the evil, dark-wizard corrupting your innocent baby sister?"

They frowned.

"Of course we care."

"But, it would be hypocritical of us to not take your side."

"Besides, we figure the best way to protect our little sister is to make sure the trouble she gets up to—"

"—Is the kind that doesn't end with her being used as potion ingredients in some hideous dark ritual."

Ginny's eyes widened. "They're not really saying that are they?"

"No. But it's pretty close."

She pursed her lips. "You don't expect me to betray my… err… version of the 'Hogwarts Buccaneers' do you?"

Their faces lit up.

"Betray?"

"Another prankster group?"

"Never," they declared in unison.

She smiled. Harry didn't really know much about the twins. She was sure he'd like them. But getting them on the inside of Harry's circle wouldn't be easy. Harry was the most paranoid person she'd ever met. Given what he'd gone through, she couldn't blame him.

"Anyway. Chatting about your deeds of myth and legend isn't what we're here for."

"Oh?" Ginny asked.

"Yeah. We're giving you a heads up."

"Downstairs, that healer, Tonks, is talking with Mum and Dad about the possibility of using veritaserum."

Ginny's eyes widened in horror.

"They're really not sure about it, but apparently, as head of a pureblood house, Dad can request some from the ministry, and have a specialist handler administer some to a member of the house."

"But, he's more than a little bit uncomfortable with the idea. Especially after what happened with the legilimency."

"Mum is a bit more enthusiastic."

"It also wouldn't be cheap."

"Just thought you should get some warning, Little Sis."

"We'll keep you updated."

They left, and closed the door behind them.

Ginny started to sweat. Veritaserum? They wouldn't. Would they? Her breathing became strained. She started to shake.

She didn't have a defence against veritaserum. If they gave that to her and asked the right questions, she'd squeal all of Harry's secrets. Her mind flooded with images of Harry in Azkaban, all skin and bones, wearing rags, eyes dead to the world. Her chest tightened.

Tears of frustration and desperation welled up in her eyes. She looked down at the ring on her pinky. The hand it was attached to was trembling.

She should have alerted Harry already. She should have alerted him the moment she realised they knew about the broomstick. She should have alerted him the moment they started to pump her for foreign magic. But she hadn't — so desperate she'd been to prove she could handle it herself.

And now it was so time-critical she didn't know if Harry could even get here in time.

She focused her magic into her right pinky and pulsed it into her ring. Long long short, short short short, long long long, short short short.

She collapsed side-ways on the bed, rolled into a ball, and gazed towards the clock.

…

…

The second-hand moved.

....

Join my P*atreon right now and enjoy more than 60 advanced chapters.

Link: p*atreon.com/Divine_Quill (Remove the *)

FREE members get up to 2 chapters for FREE.