It was so familiar, so achingly familiar for him to kiss her. But these kisses were gentle, not the almost harsh kisses of her experience with him, and oddly unsettling.

Ginny clung to him tightly, her fingers spreading over his bare back, feeling the familiar play of muscles under his scarred skin, the heat of his body so close to her…

But when he touched her intimately, a shock of searing fear blotted out the passion she felt, and she was suddenly screaming, pushing him away, her entire body trembling from head to toe.

“Don’t! I can’t bear for you to touch me! Oh God, just don’t touch me!”

“Ginny—”

“No! Oh God, no!” It was a sob, a plea. Revulsion and misery clogged her throat and tears spilled from her eyes.

“It’s all right, Ginny,” he said in the same soft tone that she was growing to hate. “It’s all right.”

“No! It’s not all right! Don’t you see? I’m ruined! I can’t feel what I should feel. I don’t feel anything but fear, shame for what’s happened to me….” Her breath caught in a half sob of anguish. “And I feel that it was partly my fault, that I should have somehow been able to stop him, to get away from him.” Sitting up, she hugged her knees to her chest, rocking back and forth in the dense black night that hid her. “You’ll never know what it feels like to be degraded like that, to be forced to submit to things that no one should endure—”

“Ginny, I understand.”

“No, you don’t! How could you? How could you know what it’s like to feel so helpless, to know that you’ve done your best to escape and it’s still not good enough?”

“I know.” There was a peculiar note in his voice. “I know more than you think.”

Shivering, she shook her head, copper strands of hair sticking to the wet tear tracks on her face. “No, I don’t think you could…”

“Did you choose to be with Luna?”

“No! Oh, how can you even suggest it—”

“I’m not suggesting it, Ginny. I’m pointing out that you had no choice in the matter. Don’t you think I know that? Don’t you think I know how it is to feel powerless? I was chained in the dark like an animal, treated worse than an animal at times. I know what it feels like to be forced to the brink of madness.”

“That’s not the way it was—Oh God, it was worse than being chained…” She choked on a half sob, shuddering.

“No? Then tell me how it was, Ginny. If that’s not the way it was for you, explain it to me so I’ll understand.”