Had Ginny...

She turned back to look at the dried blood on the black floors. Ginny stood onstage in her white dress, splattered with red. She turned her spotlit face to look at Hermione, and dried blood trailed down from her temple. Her hair wild. Her eyes dead. They'd left her bloody. Like a gladiator. Forced to entertain.

Had she killed that guard?

Hermione watched as Ginny turned back to the howling crowd, setting her face against the harsh lights.

"Mulciber, we all know you don't have that kind of gold!" Bagman's voice cut through the pounding in her ears. The Death Eaters laughed. "Only serious bets here, gentlemen!"

Ginny was being auctioned. Then her.

She'd missed it. She'd missed the entire Auction. She wouldn't know where everyone ended up. Where Luna was sent, or Ron and Neville. She'd have to gather the information as best she could, and hope for a rebellion.

She turned back to the stage as the gavel banged.

"Sold!" The audience erupted. "Ginevra Weasley, love of the late Harry Potter, sold to Aron Avery for 28,550 Galleons!"

Her stomach heaved, and the guard at her right propped her up.

Such a lot of money. An insane amount. She wondered if she'd really fetch her appraised price—33,000 Galleons.

The noise from the crowd deafened her momentarily, and then she knew her concussion wasn't healed. She watched with a spinning head as several guards marched onstage – none of them her guard – and secured Ginny's wrists. Ginny kept her head up, eyes high on the balcony as Macnair and Avery came forward.

Avery's smug thin lips smirked at the crowd. Macnair produced a scroll from his robes, and the yelling intensified as Avery took the offered quill.

Ginny jerked her arm, wincing as Avery signed his name on the scroll. The brand on their forearms must change to reflect ownership.

Avery turned to the crowd, grinning wide with crooked teeth. He slapped Ginny's backside, and Hermione watched her teeth clench.

Her head pounded as Macnair escorted Avery back offstage to settle his debts. As the guards turned Ginny and forced her offstage, Hermione wondered if there was something she'd missed. If there was something she could have done differently.

Maybe they shouldn't have ceased fighting in the courtyard once Hagrid appeared with Harry's body. Shouldn't have given Voldemort an audience. Shouldn't have put all their faith in Harry.

Maybe she shouldn't have followed Narcissa Malfoy around the castle. She should have stayed and taken cues from McGonagall. Maybe they would have been able to attack again.

They escorted Ginny toward her, and as her bottom lip trembled beneath somebody's dried blood, Hermione decided her only true mistake had been not killing Dolohov in the Ministry corridors.

She should have killed Dolohov, and then Yaxley, and then taken whoever was still alive and escaped. She should have let Luna die. It was probably for the best.

She looked over Ginny's face for the last time, and watched her lips mouth, I will find you.