A/n: general warning for torture.
The Longbottom's security is rather tough. Rabastan supposes with the Dark Lord hunting them, their security had to be good. But ultimately, it isn't something that the four of them can't handle.
It takes several long minutes to get through them. They are rewarded with two unarmed Aurors for their efforts. Rabastan would laugh at how confident they were that their wards wouldn't be breached but he's too busy staring at Alice.
The two of them were obvious just awoken. Her blonde hair, that usually lays in neat curls around her shoulders, is tangled. But what gets him is her blue eyes that pierce through his very being.
After a quick, but brutal duel, the two of them are kneeling in front of Rabastan and the others, wandless and vulnerable. Alice sneers up at Rabastan. "Them, I knew would come. I wasn't expecting you."
Bellatrix backhands her for the comments. "You're only to answers our questions."
While his eyes never leave Alice's face, he notices Frank move to protect Alice from his peripheral. Alice laughs. It's just as beautiful as Rabastan remembers.
"I'm sure you know that we'd die before telling you anything," Alice snaps.
All hell breaks lose the next moment. Alice screams. Frank dives for Alice, begging for them to stop. Rodolphus pulls Frank away from Alice. It happens within seconds.
Alice's screams dies off moments later. Rabastan finally breaks his eyes away from the blonde to look between Bellatrix and Barty. Barty is holding his wand and Bellatrix smirks.
"If you don't want another taste of that, I'd answer the questions," Barty says.
Alice is panting. It reminds Rabastan of a different reason why she would be panting like that. He tries to block those thoughts out, but he hasn't been this close to Alice in years.
Bellatrix eyes dance between Alice and Frank, trying to gauge who would break first. "What happened to the Dark Lord?"
"We haven't heard anything," Frank answers.
His voice draws Rabastan's attention away from Alice for the first time. He sizes Frank up. Frank is barely taller than Alice, but much shorter than Rabastan. There's nothing memorable about him.
This is what Alice chose over me, he thinks. He feels anger course through his body. He pulls out his wand before he consciously thought to.
Frank screams.
Rabastan draws pleasure from his screams, draws pleasure from knowing he has the man Alice chose over him at his mercy.
"We, for once, don't actually know anything," Alice says. Her voice is surprisingly steady for someone who had been screaming in pain minutes ago. "Frank wasn't lying."
Rabastan watches as Bellatrix rises her hand to backhand her again. Barty beats her to the punchline. She is screaming again. This time Frank is too busy trying to breathe to beg them to stop.
"You really shouldn't be snippy with your interrogators," Bellatrix snaps. "I'm only going to ask once more. What happened to the Dark Lord?"
Rabastan notices the way Alice tightens her jaw. She has something to say, he knows, but she isn't going to say it. There's a part of him that admires the bravery that she has always shown.
Bellatrix taps her wand against her lips. "We tried it the nice way. Barty, Rabastan, loosen their lips. We'll see what they really have to say after a few rounds of the Cruciatus curse."
Rabastan holds his wand at the ready. He meets Alice's eyes. There's a fire in them that was what drew Rabastan in, all those years ago. He can see a hint of fear in them. It seems out of place.
He pushes that thought to the back of his mind. He pulls at the anger the mere sight of Frank invokes.
Frank is screaming again.
Rabastan can feel Bellatrix behind him, her hand on his shoulder, her lips near his ears. "Come on, Rabastan, is that all you've got? I know you can make him scream louder," she whispers, her breath tickling his ear.
He knows that the Cruciatus curse needs to really be felt to be effective. The anger of the sight of Frank isn't enough.
He thinks back to the day that Alice ended their secret relationship. She had said that did he really believe they would survive the war, being on different sides.
He casts it again. Frank's body convulses and his screams get louder. If he strains, he can hear Alice's matching screams. But he doesn't want to hear that.
He never actually wanted to hurt her. Physically, at least. He knows, deep down, that watching him torture Frank hurts Alice. But he's bottled up this anger for too long to actually care about anything other than making Frank scream, making Alice watch as he does.
Rabastan lets his curse end. Frank is shaking. He wants to kick Frank and ask Alice if this is really who she chose, someone so weak. But he doesn't.
Bellatrix asks again.
Alice shakes her head. "You're a monster," she manages to say in between sharp breaths.
Bellatrix thinks it's aimed at her, but Alice is looking directly at him when she says it. Rabastan doesn't respond to it even though it makes his gut twist. They were a secret, after all.
Bellatrix tsks. "Another round, then."
That's all the invitation Rabastan needs. He finds all the hatred he can muster for Frank, all the hatred he can muster for Alice not choosing him when he loved her.
Frank screams even louder this time. He screams and screams and screams and it's music to Rabastan's ear. Rabastan doesn't care about answers anymore. He just wants to make Frank hurt, much like Alice had hurt him.
He feels a hand on his wand, forcibly lowering it. He looks up to meet the eyes of his brother. Rodolphus is searching for something; what that is, Rabastan doesn't know.
"They can't answer if you continuously attack them," he says evenly.
Rabastan wants to argue, but that would give away everything. He's spent years hiding the relationship he had with the blonde Gryffindor. He doesn't need to let the secret out now.
This time when Bellatrix asks, Alice is sobbing. She is rocking back and forth. Frank isn't in much better shape. His breath is ragged and he's shaking violently.
There is no answer.
Rabastan raises his wand to cast the spell again, but Rodolphus pushes it back down. He takes this time to really look at Bellatrix. She looks distraught.
"Look at what you've done!" she exclaims.
Rabastan tightens his jaw. It's Barty that laughs; it's a sound just shy of manic. "You were the one that wanted us to torture the information out of them!" he argues.
Bellatrix is in Barty's face a moment later. "I wanted answers to why our marks stopped moving! They are no good to us like this."
Rodolphus puts an arm around Bellatrix's waist, pulling her away from Barty. There's the distinctive sound of Apparation. There's so many Aurors that there's no way that the four of them could get away; they might take out quite a few of them, but not enough.
Rabastan knows when he's been beaten. He drops his wand. He takes one last look at Alice. She's still as beautiful as he remembers. But she's still sobbing and rocking.
He doubts that she'll ever recover from this. Rabastan feels satisfaction at knowing that if he can't have Alice, no one else can.
Then, an Auror stuns him and collects his wand.