The Forgotten 7th Year

20 Questions

Ginny's POV

I woke to someone tapping my shoulder. With bleary eyes I gazed up. An all too familiar, wheezy giggle made me bolt awake.

"I found you, Ms. Weasley. You can never hide. Never, ever hide from us. We'll always find you. Crucio!"

I screamed and tried to roll away, but Amycus was on the other side, and he added his curse, making my very core feel as if it were about to explode at any moment. It was agonizing, and every particle seemed to be dying, every nerve unraveling until the only thing in the world was this torture. I tried to curl into a ball, but even that was too much. All I could do was scream until my voice failed. Then I couldn't even do that.

George was shaking me.

"Ginny are you ok?"

Crap

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was asleep, so I'm a little grumpy, but I'm fine." I tried to laugh it off.

"You were screaming."

Oh. Welp, maybe keep laughing?

"No I wasn't, or I don't remember. It was probably just a nightmare, but I don't remember dreaming anything." Of course I remember it. I remember it all in vivid detail.

"You never have nightmares, what's wrong?"

"Why would anything need to be wrong. It was just a bad dream. I don't understand why you're making such a big deal about this."

Quick as lightning, he grabbed my hand, and put two fingers to the pulse on my wrist.

"Your heart is pounding." I yanked my hand back as if the damage hadn't already been done.

"Maybe it's because I'm being interrogated. Why can't you just trust me?"

"But according to you this is nothing, and there's nothing to hide. So there would be no stress, and therefore no rapid heartbeat."

I glared mutinously.

"Are you going to tell me, or should we play 20 questions."

I didn't answer, and kept glaring.

"Ok then. Question one, does it involve Hogwarts?" I considered shaking my head. Shutting him out just like I had been doing all Easter. But I couldn't keep hiding anymore.

Slowly, trying not to let my lip tremble, I nodded. His jaw clenched. "Does it involve the new teachers?" I nodded. "Did they hurt you?" A moment of hesitation.

"Yes." I practically sobbed.

"Someone's going to die." He muttered. "How badly."

"That's not a yes or no question, and the rules of twenty questions state that you can only-."

"Right now, I honestly don't care. You can tell me, and then I'll go kill them, or you don't, and I'll kill them anyways."

I allowed myself a small smile, he always could make me smile. But it vanished almost instantly.

"Ginny, it's ok. You can tell me." I pursed my lips.

"I really can't." The very thought scared me witless.

"You really can. I won't change how I act, or judge you, or do anything else that might convince you not to tell me." I said nothing. "You can trust me."

I can

"The Cruciatis Curse." I spat the word out as if holding it in my mouth any longer would hurt. And in a way it did. Holding it in for this long had hurt me. "And not just that, she cut me. Knives. I wasn't the only one, Neville, Luna, Rolf, she burned the side of Hannah's neck, broke Anthony's wrist, and whipped Seamus. Padma has a scar and so does Sally-Anne. They did it to Mcgonagall in front of me. And..."

And somehow, even after I'd told him all this I couldn't tell him about Amycus.

"And that's what I've been having the bad dreams about. So, is this, 'traumatic enough for my current state,' do you think?" My voice dripped with sarcasm, even though it wasn't him I was angry at.

I was crying now, and I tried to force the emotions back into their submissive ball. But they fought against my efforts to subdue them, and the tears continued.

"B-being silly. He'd gone as white as a sheet.

"Ginny, you are most certainly not being silly. That's..." He shook his head, apparently at a loss for words. "I knew something had happened, but I never thought... I didn't want to think..."

He surprised me me by wrapping me in a hug.