I looked at the boy in front of me. His large sad eyes staring up at me. I knew I could never kill him-could never kill anyone in the name of the Dark Lord. Some how it felt as if I had always known this, but I just pushed it aside, never thinking I would be asked to do such a thing. No my role was only to marry a pureblood and have lots of pureblood babies. But that was not so, because here I was being told to kill an innocent muggle boy to prove my loyalty to the Dark Lord. I continued staring into those sad, frightened and lonely eyes. They were resigned. The boy knew that he was staring death in the face. I was death. I was the one this boy was terrified of. I could not kill him. My lips parted, but no sound came out. I heard a clatter as my wand dropped from my hand and hit the stone floor. I turned, slowly to face the man sitting in a high backed, throne-like chair. "I-" my voice stuck, I tried again, "I can't." I said, "I won't." I heard several people gasp, I didn't turn to look at Lucius, or any of my friends. The man in the chair looked at me with his cold eyes, and my blood turned to ice.
"You won't?" His voice was high, and instilled fear in my heart. I tried to shake my head but my body was frozen, it would not move. "Crucio." The way he said it would have suggested he was merely bored. But I had no time to think about that because I was on the ground, and my body was no longer frozen. It was writhing, like some grotesque snake. Every fiber of my being was screaming in pain, and so was I. It sounded inhuman, and I could barely believe the sound was coming from me, but it was. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a matter of seconds the curse was lifted, and I was left panting on the ground. I attempted to stand, but my muscles would not support my weight. So instead I stayed on the ground, trying to recover and watching the man. "How about now?" He asked, in his hissing snake-like voice, "Will you kill him now?" I looked over at the boy, if anything he was even more terrified than before, his wide eyes fixated on me. I knew that no matter what they did to me, I would not be able to kill this boy. I did not have the strength. And how would I be able to live with myself, knowing I had taken such an innocent life. No. There was nothing they could do to make me change my mind. I guess I was more like a Gryffindor than I thought. I looked back at the man and shook my head, my voice failing me. "Very well." His voice was still calm, yet this was almost more terrifying then anything. "If she is refusing then there is no need for me to stay," He said as he rose from his throne-like chair, and called a hooded man over to him, "She is yours to do with as you wish, let's see if we can persuade her to change her mind." The man turned to look at me and smirked an ugly, malicious, terrifying smirk, and the Dark Lord swept from the room.
I stood frozen to the spot, not daring to think what was going to happen to me. The man started making his way towards me and I backed away, but with a flick of his wand I could no longer move. It was then that I realized that my wand was laying abandoned on the ground a few feet from me, where I had dropped it when I had decided I could not kill the boy. Now my fear grew still, I was without my only weapon. I was practically useless. It was only when the man began removing his robes that I realized his intentions, I started struggling against the magic keeping me in place, much more frantic then before. I was by no means a virgin, but this, this could not be happening. But it was. Before I could do anything he was upon me. My hands were bound and well as my feet, but I was fighting as though my life depended on it, which it probably does because I'm not so sure that I'll be getting out of this alive. Tears were streaming down my face and I cried out for help from anyone, but no one came to my aid. I searched the masked people until I found Lucius platinum blonde hair, which matched my own, he was just standing there watching. Why wasn't he doing anything to help me? I'm his sister. His own flesh and blood. But no he was just standing there. I called to him, "Lucius, please!" I cried, "Please Lucius, I'm your sister. Help me, do something, anything. Don't just stand there!" but he did. He was not going to help me. A Slytherin through and through. I was sobbing hysterically now. There had to be someone who was going to stop this man, but they all just stood there and let him continue. I searched for my friends, surely they would do something. "Regulus, please!" I could not be sure, but I thought I had found him, or there was someone else who appeared to be having a hard time not coming to my aid. Maybe I was just imagining it, I hope I was not. "Severus!" He had to be here too, and I was grasping at straws now. Did I have no one who cared for me? I suppose not. They all stood there and watched while I cried out desperately for help. No one even silenced me, did they enjoy my screams?
When the man finished I was sure it was over. Sure that nothing more could come. But I was wrong, because after him was another man. I do not know how many men there were, but I continued to cry and beg and plead and shout for help and mercy. And everyone else continued to watch, and do nothing. At last there were no more men. I just laid there, the spells binding me had been removed, but I could move. My body would not permit it. I heard footsteps, and someone grabbed a fistful of my hair, pulling me to my feet and even a bit off the ground, I could not see who it was but I could see a man in front of me- or at least the part of him that was not covered by his mask. He brought his face close to mine and asked me in a low threatening voice, "Are you ready to kill that boy now?" But I could not, I knew I could not. My sense of self-preservation had left me as well, I suppose it knew a lost cause when it saw one. And because I could see no way out of this other then death, and I just hoped they would kill me quickly I found some hidden mine of courage within my body, looked him straight in the eyes and said in an even voice,
"I will never kill anyone for that coward." It came out of nowhere, but before I knew it, my head had whipped to the side from the force of his hand. There was a stinging on my cheek from where one of his rings had cut into my face. The man holding me threw me to the ground. Before I could react my head had connected with the stone, I saw little white dots around me and the world seemed to be spinning. I slowly lifted a hand to my head and it was met with a warm gooey substance. I pulled my hand back down to eye level, it was bright red. Blood. I was laying there trying to collect myself, and come up with some plan or something, but I didn't have a chance. I didn't hear who said it, but my body exploded into pain again, not as powerful as the Dark Lord, but a scream was still wrenched from my throat. I could do nothing other then scream. My mind could not form words, all it could do was process the incredible amount of pain it was in. And suddenly it stopped. I was breathing hard, a bloody, crumpled mess on the floor. When I gained the energy to lift my head I saw that they were laughing. They were standing there laughing, as if the pain they were causing me was all some big joke to them. This is what I would have become. I remind myself. And then my heart sank, because the person walking towards me now was incredibly familiar. Even if I hand't been able to see his hair that was the exact shade as mine, I would have recognized him. I had known him all my life, grew up in the same house as him. I recognized the way he held himself and the way he walked. And if that wasn't enough, I sure as hell would have recognized his voice.
"You disgust me." Lucius spat out. And I never expected to feel physical pain at his words, but I did. "How dare you? How dare you dishonor the name of Malfoy with your actions. You are nothing to me. Not my sister. Not even a spec of dirt in my room." I flinched at the words. How could this be? This was my brother. He had never been particularly kind to me, but he had done things-little things- to show me he cared. He was always there, like a rock I could lean on if I needed to. Although I rarely did, Malfoys were raised to be independent and to need no one. People were dependent on us, not the other way around. But if I had needed him, he would have been there. But no longer. I never expected this emptiness that came with this realization. I was honestly and truly alone. But he was speaking again, and even though I did not want to hear what he was saying, I could not block it out. "How dare you do this to me? I was the one to get the Dark Lord to see what an asset you could be. And you go an embarrass me like this? No, no! This will not be tolerated, crucio." I was struck again, with wave after wave of pain as Lucius unleashed his fury on me. This could not be real, but it was. The pain was a testament to that. This kind of pain could not be imagined, it was only felt. I was screaming, and my body was moving into unnatural positions trying to escape the pain. But there was no escape, no respite, it simply continued, hitting my body and cause more screaming, more writhing. I could hear nothing. Nothing except my own tortured screams, echoing off the walls and bouncing back to me, sounding distorted.
And then it was over. And I lay, trying to recover while tears streamed down my face and I had no control over them over anything. My body was shaking and I could not stop it. I could only lay there and wait, wait for my ability to do anything normal to return to me. Wait to for whatever was going to happen to me next. Wait to die. I was just laying there on my back. Everything seemed so silent except for my screams which were still ringing in my ears. When I was able to again comprehend my surroundings I saw that Lucius had returned to his spot in the circle, but I no longer wanted to see him, so I turned my eyes to the men torturing me. They were just standing there, I suppose they had gotten bored with me just screaming and writhing on the floor. I hate to see what they have in mind for me next. Maybe they will just kill me, but I doubt I could get so lucky. Then one man stepped forward, with an evil glint in his eyes.
"This is a spell I learned recently. The person made it up themselves. Clever little bugger he is. Let's see how well it works shall we? Sectumsempra." He made a motion with his wand and pointed it at me. Then came the pain. Not the full body, consuming pain of the Cruciatus Curse, but a much more specific pain, I felt as if the skin on my chest had been split open, and when I looked down I saw, in fact, that it had. The blood had already soaked through the tattered remains of my robes, and there was a giant, bloody X on my chest. I had already lost some blood from the wound on my head from where it had collided with the stone floor. But I was losing blood fast, I slumped to the ground. I could hear the all laughing and then it just stopped.
"What was that?" I heard someone say. I didn't catch the reply but I heard someone leave the room. The people who were left did not pay me much attention. They were preoccupied with something else. And then the person was back. My head was fuzzy and I could not entirely hear what he was saying but my brain was able to process the word 'attack'. And then more people were rushing out of the room.
My eyes found the little boy. He was frozen, staring at me. Whether from some spell or simply his own terror I have no idea, but he was there, and he was alive. It was worth it then, my dying. He had his whole life ahead of him, mine was so fucked up already I don't think I want to know what would happen if I lived. I would be locked up in some basement perhaps, and only see humans when they were bored and wanted to torture me- no. I was glad that I was dying, it was best this way. My vision was becoming darker. There was barely anyone left. Then I saw the boy be hit with a blast of purple light and he crumpled. I hoped he wasn't dead, but the remaining men were leaving, and one of them made sure to give me a good kick in the ribs as he passed. It hurt, but I was mostly numb, the world was slowly becoming darker, darker. And then I was enveloped by the blackness.
Author's Note: I know it's pretty dark, but it has to be in order to set the plot for the rest of the story, So, what did you think? Love it? Hate it? Let me know by leaving a review! =] Also, you may have seen this on HPFF, but due to their super annoying moderators the torture scene had to be modified, so this is the original version, and that is the less intense version. Just so you know.