Ginny's Sixth Year

Chapter 8

When I walked into Dark Arts, Luna had saved a seat for me. 

"What happened to you last night?" she asked.

"I had detention with Professor Carrow. He cast the—"

"Good afternoon, class," Carrow interrupted. He had the same look pasted on his face as he had last night. "Yesterday, we learned how to cast the Imperius Curse. Today, we will learn what it can do. We practised silly thing yesterday. The Imperius Curse is not generally used for entertainment. Miss Weasley?"

"Yes, Professor?"

"Come to the front, please."

I knew better than to disobey him. I shot a worried look at Luna, seeing that she wore the same expression.

"Imperio," Professor Carrow said quietly, like he had cast this spell a thousand times before. Honestly, he probably had.

The floating sensation came back to me. Listen to my lesson while doing anything else I tell you to, the voice said. Immediately, I could hear Carrow teaching the class.

"The Imperius Curse gives the caster total control of the victim. The victim can often do the impossible while under this curse. Whatever you want the victim to do, he or she will do it. Miss Weasley, here, is under this curse. I could make her punch one of her good friends, couldn't I, Miss Lovegood."

I had no choice. I walked up to Luna and hit her as hard as I could. 

"I could also make her do harm to herself. Under the Imperius Curse, you feel no pain." Carrow then cast the Imperturbable Charm. "Why don't I make her stab herself?"

"No!" Luna screamed. But it was too late. I had already picked up the knife; I was waiting for more instructions. 

"Why don't we start with her left shoulder?" Carrow exclaimed. I cut my left shoulder. Blood flowed out of the wound, but I couldn't feel a thing. 

Carrow was not satisfied with one cut. He kept going until almost the end of class. I could hear Luna screaming in the background. Finally, Carrow released me. Pain flooded my arm and overloaded by senses. I crumbled onto the ground, my robes sticky with blood. Sooner or later, I would bleed out and die. But every minute until then would be agony.

"Class dismissed," Carrow spat, "and don't come back in here until next class." No detention, thank Dumbledore. As soon as Carrow disappeared into his office, Luna came running toward me. She rolled me over onto my back, and stared me straight in the eyes.

"Are you alright, Ginny?" she asked timidly, clearly not wanting to overstep any boundaries.

"I'll be fine," I responded weakly. 

Carrow reappeared in his doorway. "And if I catch you in the hospital wing, Weasley, you can be assured that your punishment will be worse than today and yesterday combined." With that, Carrow disappeared back into his office.

"Um...okay...so...spells..." Luna muttered to herself.

"Ha-Harry t-t-told me about this one spell—Vulnera Sanentur. I think you say it twice. Try that," I offered.

"Vulnera Sanentur." Luna sang just as I had. The bleeding slowed, though it didn't stop. "Vulnera Sanentur," Luna said again. The wounds began to heal. "Is it working?" she asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is. What do you say we go to supper? I'm starving." 

Luna looked at me and smiled. She was obviously proud of herself, as she should have been. However, the deep gashes hadn't healed all the way, so I would have to come up with a cover story. The bleeding had also only slowed. I went to my seat, grabbed my things, and walked out of the room. Luna followed close behind me, making sure I was alright every few steps. It got rather annoying, actually. But I was glad to have someone there with me. 

We eventually reached the Great Hall. I sat down hard on the wooden bench across from Neville, but I paid him no attention. The owl I had used to send my letter was back with a response from the twins.

Ginny,

This is Fred and George. You can tell it's us because you purchased a Pygmy Puff with a 10% off coupon you got for being our sister. Thanks for the letter, by the way. Fred's in trouble because we read it over breakfast and he spat his coffee all over Dad.

This is out of your hands, Ginny. If anything else happens, we need to know immediately. We will bring this up in the Order meetings, but we will say that you heard rumours from friends. It is more important than ever that you write us. We assume that the consequences will be extreme if you go to Madame Pomfrey, but make sure to take care of yourself. We love you, Ginny. We couldn't bear to lose you.

I suppose you want to hear how George is. He's less holey, but his ear won't heal. You're making it sound awful, Fred. George, you lost your ear! I'm fine, Ginny. Don't listen to Fred.

Stay safe Ickle Ginnykins,

Fred and George

I have no idea why, but hearing that Fred and George were doing well made me feel so much better. I decided to write them back immediately.

Dear Fred and George,

It's Ginny. You can know it's me because I have been the family champion at Exploding Snap since we started having the tournament in 1989. Thank you so much for your letter. The last paragraph made my day. 

I hope I caught you before that Order meeting you were talking about because I want to ask you to not mention my name in the meeting at all. 

I stopped writing for a moment, realizing that my wounds had not entirely stopped bleeding, and I was dripping blood all over he parchment. Fred had a thing with blood. After deciding to make Fred tough it out, I kept writing.

And that leads me to my next point. My detention today was the lesson for Dark Arts class. Under the Imperius Curse, I was forced to stab myself over and over to demonstrate the power of the curse. But don't worry, Luna figured out a way to sort of patch me up before I bled out and died, obviously. 

I paused again, thinking about the pain I was in at the moment. I had been barely holding in my tears for the last half hour. Thinking about what I was about to write, I finally resorted to something that I hardly ever did, crying.

If you know any pain-killing spells, I would love to know them. I wish I could come home. I miss you.

Ginny

The parchment was soaked in a considerable amount of tears and blood. I gave the owl a little bit of my food and sent her on her way again. 

I looked up at Neville. He looked a little surprised at the dead-serious expression plastered onto my probably disgustingly dirty face. I was madder than he had ever seen me. "I have an idea," I whispered. "Common room, asap." Neville nodded, still a little shocked. I swiftly stood up and left the Great Hall. I needed a different set of robes.