Playing with Fire

Chapter 76

Barty pretended as if he didn't see Ginny standing in the room, her hands tied behind her back, awaiting her execution. He just pushed past her and he fell down in one of the large fauteuils in front of the fireplace. He swung his feet over the armchair and he then looked at Hermione expectantly. Hermione exhaled deeply before she could even speak up. She tried to give Ginny a smile, but it probably looked more like a painful grimace.

"He wants me to kill you," Hermione explained.

"Then why are you here? To say you're sorry?" Ginny snapped, not even returning Hermione's attempt for a smile in the slightest.

"No, I'm here as your friend. I don't want to kill you," Hermione said.

"Oh, come on, you and I both know that you would do anything for that sick psychopath you call your husband," Ginny hissed, nodding with her head in the direction of Barty, who was pretending not to hear anything of the conversation.

"Please don't say things like that. It's not fair," Hermione said softly.

"Not fair?! I am only stating facts here. He is a murderer. He killed my brother, he delivered Harry to You-Know-Who, and you just helped him! Even worse, you married him! Even much worse, you got a child with him!" Ginny exclaimed. "Congratulations by the way for delivering that hellspawn of a child to this world, the poor thing is probably cursed in every possible way with psychotic parents like the two of you."

Hermione could take a lot of verbal abuse, she could even understand it since Ginny had lost so much already, but the way Ginny talked about her child was not something she could forgive anyone.

"I dare you to repeat yourself," Hermione said calmly, though she ft anything but calm.

Ginny took a step closer to her, her eyes full of fire, just like a perfect Gryffindor would.

"What makes you think I'm scared of you? I'm going to die anyways. You say you're here as my friend, but the Hermione I knew died with her two best friends. All I see now is a Death Eater, who is just as much as capable of cold-blooded murder as her deranged husband," Ginny hissed.

"At least my husband doesn't let me down the way you do," Hermione said. "You're right, the Hermione you knew is dead, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have been friends."

"We're enemies. You disgust me," Ginny spat venomously.

"I wanted to help you, I truly did, but know I think I will rather enjoy killing you. I don't need your friendship, I have someone who loves me to death, and that's all I need," Hermione whispered, as she fought to keep the tears away.

"Yeah, loves you," Ginny honed. "Maybe that's because you probably suck his dick three times a day. The minute you stop, he'll lose interest in you and he'll throw you away like a cheap toy. You and your child. And I can't say that you don't deserve that."

Hermione felt her blood boiling even more. First she had let Ginny get away with insulting her child, and she would be damned to let her get away with this insult as well. She struck the red-haired girl hard in the face, and Ginny fell down to the floor, blood flowing out of her nose. Hermione waited for a moment before she nodded at the two guards who had been standing quietly at the door to help Ginny up her feet. While they obeyed her and violently yanked the girl back on her feet, the blood now flowing down all over her clothes, Hermione noticed that Barty had jumped out of his comfy seat as well. And the fury on his face made her feel safe. She loved that face, it meant that he was going to stick up for her, that he was going to protect her. While he was walking over to the spot where Ginny was being held up by the the two guards, he put up a hand to stop Hermione from interfering. Not that she was planning on interfering. On the contrary.