It was moments like these that brought to light just how hard life could suck. Really; this past week in particular, with all things being considered and made equal, had sucked, blown, and bitten Cassie Ravenblood in the ass with a very large set of teeth. 'It really doesn't help that my arms are killing me.' She growled as she shifted, pain shooting down her arms. It only took a few minutes for her to give up shifting about; well aware that there was absolutely no chance she would be able to get comfortable. Completely forgetting about the fact that her arms had been numb for hours, the rusted manacles clanking above Cassie's head bit into the tender flesh of her wrists no matter which position she was in. 'The bruises I will have at the end of this...'

The door to her prison opened with a very cliché ominous screech and an only slightly more original blinding flash of light (Blinding only because her cell was kept in almost absolute darkness) from the torch-lit cellar beyond. The silhouette that eventually came into focus was blessedly tall, blocking most of the light from the hall, with ridiculously frizzy hair. "Madam Lestrange, how nice of you to call." Dried drips of blood flaked off her face as Cassie made a weak attempt to smirk derisively. "A little early for your usual playtime isn't it?"

"Make no mistake filth; I will get what he wants eventually. There are far greater pains I can inflict upon you." Bellatrix hissed, her apparently constant mad rage only barely contained.

"Worse than the Cruciatus? Wasn't it you who told me that the reason it's forbidden is because it can drive a man mad with the pain?" Cassie croaked turning her head away as if in thought, but really it was just to take her eyes off the light. She had sat in the dark for so long the light was painful. "But then again your master does believe he needs me sane, has that been holding you back?" she snapped, regretting her words the instant they left her mouth as she turned into a slap so hard her head rebounded off the stone wall behind her, causing her ears to ring and the inside of her cheek to open up on her teeth.

Even with the lighting skewing her focus, Bellatrix's eyes blazed out of the darkness with an insane light. "He will have what he wants; it's only a matter of time." The smile that slowly spread across her face only added to freakish look on her face.

Cassie refused to cower, well aware that it would only feed Bellatrix's power trip. Shaking as many of the cobwebs as she could from her head, Cassie glared up at the crazy bitch. "I have told you before," she hissed. "and I will tell you again. What you are demanding cannot be done. The spell doesn't exist."

"So says the 'Master of Death'." Bellatrix replied, her tone mocking. "But according to our sources, you know every Death spell in existence. Do you think us complete fools?"

"Yes, but that's a moot point now isn't it." Cassie snapped, already wincing at the anticipated sting she would be getting for that one, but pressing onwards. "It's precisely because I know all of the spells associated with death that I can say this with such certainty. No such spell EXISTS!" she snarled, slowing her speech as though she were speaking to an idiot. 'In for a penny, in for a pound I suppose. Maybe she'll knock me out again.' Cassie thought, even as she watched the death eater's hand twitch. 'Then again, it seems much more likely I just signed my own death warrant.'

"This is getting us nowhere Aunt." A cool voice replied, calmly interrupting Bellatrix's murderous path. "The Dark Lord agreed that I should have a chance to get the answers we seek."

"And just how do you think you will do that?" Bellatrix screamed, whirling about so fast that her hair created small whip marks on Cassie's cheeks. "Just how to you plan to find success where I have found none?"

"I don't have a plan Aunt." Draco replied from the shadows, his voice amazingly calm in the face of his aunt's insanity. "But given the lack of progress made up until this point, the Dark Lord agrees that having me speak to the prisoner can do no harm." Bellatrix snorted at this comment, obviously more than a little insulted, but unwilling to question her master's wishes. "Any route to obtain the Dark Lord's ends Aunt, isn't that right?" There was a long pause as the two of them seemed to have an entire conversation with their eyes before Draco finally spoke up. "I believe I asked to be left alone."

Bellatrix just sneered at him. "I will return soon Draco." Turning back to Cassie, the madwoman looked down her nose at the pathetic looking creature Cassie was sure she made. "It would be wise for you to give him the answer we seek you scum. The Dark Lord has little patience for fools like you and if you do not give him what he wants... well, I highly doubt you will enjoy the consequences."

Cassie watched the woman spin on her expensively ugly heels. She could have kept sniping at her if she had possessed the energy. Bellatrix had been her torturer for long enough that Cassie knew where more than a few of the bitch's buttons were. But the time she had spent chained up in this room had drained her of most of her energy and her desire to fight and so, she let the woman go. The slam of the door echoed slightly through the room before a stiff silence regained control.

When it became obvious that Bellatrix, for whatever reason, wasn't actually hovering outside the door listening, Draco muttered quietly and a beam of light burst from the tip of his wand. This time Cassie actively flinched, her eyes having just begun to become used to the darkness. Blinking furiously, she found herself just a little awestruck at the figure he cut. Whether it was the effect of the light on his pale form or just the fact that she hadn't seen light like this in Chronos only knew how long but the figure before her seemed to glow like a god in the little light his wand produced. Shaking her head, Cassie blinked furiously. Now was not the time to allow her brain to be addled.

Apparently Draco spotted her discomfort and set his wand on the floor, slightly lessening the strain on her eyes. "I would have thought they'd have just put the Imperius on you and been done with it." He murmured, glancing about the room.

Cassie shrugged. "They say it doesn't produce the desired effect with me. Don't ask me why, but I apparently fight the trance tooth and nail, making it so that the caster is forced to be constantly on hand to renew it. I suppose whomever was watching me at the time eventually decided it was more trouble than it was worth to keep trying. As for the rest... well, it may be cliché, but you can't deny its effectiveness. I am well and truly trussed up like a turkey." Now that her eyes had finally adjusted again, Cassie focused on Draco, a weak smile blooming gently. "Hello Draco... it's been a long time."

Surprisingly Draco actually grimaced as though she had struck him. "Yes, well, you know how it is Cassie..."

"Relax Draco." Cassie said, her smile growing slightly sad. "It wasn't said in anger. You're doing what you need to do to survive, to help your family survive."

"And what are you doing? Looks to me like you're trying to get yourself killed."

"Me, I'm just working to make sure your world survives this war. Anything else beyond that is secondary at the moment."

"So your own life isn't even a factor?" Was she going mad, or did he seem angry at that fact?

"Not really." She replied, watching his face become incredulous. "I'm a student of the death school Draco. One does not walk that path for long without fully accepting the fact that death, especially your own, is inevitable. It also doesn't hurt when your family has been involved in one conflict or another for the better part of the last century." Sighing, she shrugged. "Eventually you come to realize just how cheap life is in a war." She added, so casually it truly seemed like an afterthought.

Draco's mouth hung open in ungentlemanly disbelief. "So that's why you're doing this? Why you're holding out like this? Because life is cheap!?"

"Draco, stop." Cassie commanded, her voice surprisingly strong. "I'm noble and more than a little self-sacrificing, that doesn't mean I've a wish to meet my master before my time."

"Then why won't you tell him what he wants to know!" Draco hissed, violently leaning towards her. "Answer his questions, damnit, so I don't have to watch you die to."

"I can't do that Draco."

"Bloody hell Cassie-!"

"I said I can't Draco." She snapped, cutting him off. "Do you get what he is asking me to do? He wants me to cast a spell to command death to pass him over for the rest of eternity. I cannot do that."

"What are you talking about? You're a Master of Death."

"If I survive this, please remind me to strangle the person who gave me that title." She growled. "My powers come from serving Death, not from controlling him. I can only make the magic he allows me to. I can sap a man's strength from a thousand yards, strike fear into his heart at the sight of my master's pet. But there is no such spell to force death from making his rounds, it doesn't exist and it never will!" Sighing, Cassie leaned back against the cool wall behind her, slightly exhausted. "And setting aside that notion, even if I were able to keep Voldemort off of death's check list, it still wouldn't be the result he wants." Draco didn't even respond this time, simply glared at her, his eyes demanding. Rolling her eyes, Cassie continued. "Your master wants eternal youth; to be filled with vim and vigor until the end of time itself. Simply stopping death won't do that. No, he wouldn't die, but he would still age, would still wither away into nothing. The only difference is that now instead of being taken into death's embrace when that happens, your precious master would just become a sentient pile of dust." She paused a moment to just look at him, willing Draco to understand where his predecessors hadn't. "To obtain the effect your master wants he would need a wizard of immeasurable power who had somehow managed to find a way to control and manipulate time and I think we all know that such a creature has yet to exist."

"Not even in your worlds?" Now it was Cassie's turn to glare. Sighing, he dropped his head into his hand. "Right, as if you wouldn't have mentioned that by now." Turning to her, Draco felt his heart clench. Her mocha colored skin had taken on a sickly pallor that was only enhanced by the limp, scraggly appearance of the white head of hair that had once rivaled his with its sleek beauty. 'Not that you would know it with her keeping it tied up in that wretched ponytail.' He thought, a tiny smile tugging at the corner of his lip. For the briefest moment he desperately wished that she would look up at him, just so he could see those pale grey eyes of hers shining with the spirit that had made him bring her into this mess in the first place. "I'm sorry Cassie." He whispered, turning away from her. "It's my fault you're in this mess and I don't know what I should do."

"You'll do whatever it takes to get you and your family out of this alive." Cassie replied sternly. "Don't worry about me Draco, this isn't your fault. I went into this, eyes open. I could have just as easily said no when you asked me into all of this, but I didn't. What happens to me now is my doing."

"Do you not get it Ravenblood? He will KILL you when he finally realizes you're not just holding out to be noble."

"And those are the consequences of my choice." She replied calmly, fairly certain she was aggravating him even further wither somewhat cavalier attitude, but he needed to be focused. "Draco please, you've trusted me this far, trust me just a little further. There are things in motion that even I can't understand. I need to be here, exactly as I am, so that things can go along as they need to. You need to do everything you have to so your family survives. Forget I existed if that makes it any easier, but you have keep going exactly as you have been." He had to survive this war; there was no other way this could go down. Not if Cassie had any say about it. She had advantages on her side that no one but Professor Ambrose was aware of, demons and angels under her master's command that she could call on, he didn't.

Draco stared at her a moment, as though he couldn't believe what he was hearing, something she wasn't surprised about given what she was saying. "Forget you existed? Do you hear yourself?" he asked, his voice rising in anger. Turning away from her, Draco tried to get a hold of himself before the guards roaming the headquarters came running. "I brought you into this Ravenblood." He said, his tone strained. "I don't want to watch you die."

Cassie smiled softly, marveling at the stubborn strength Draco possessed. "I don't think you'll have to Draco. I can't say anything right now, but please, just trust me. We will get out if this. Now go." She said, jerking her head towards the door. "Get out of here. They can't think that we're friends or they will try and use you to get me to tell them what they want to hear or use your mother to get you to tell them what you know." Taking a breath, Cassie blinked rapidly, trying to keep the desperate tears from falling. "Go Draco. Leave, and don't ever come back."

Draco just stared at her, a dubious look in his eyes. "I can't believe you." He hissed, snatching up his wand and spinning on his heel.

Cassie watched him go, a little sad that she had to piss him off to get him to do what needed to be done. She couldn't leave it like this. "Draco?"

His hand on the doorknob, Draco snarled silently. She had wanted him to go, so why in the hell wasn't she just letting him go. "What?" he snapped.

Cassie flinched slightly at his tone, but still refused to let the tears fall. If he saw her crying, there was no way in hell a gentleman like Draco would leave her like this. "Stay safe." She whispered, feeling slightly ashamed at the inadequacy of her words. There was so much more she wanted to say, but those were all the words that seemed to come. "Please stay safe."

There was a moment where neither of them moved, a moment that seemed almost suspended in time. Each of them seemed to have a small epiphany concerning the other, one that neither of them felt able to share at the moment, each praying that there would be a future where they would be able to share them. Finally shaking himself free of his thoughts, Draco steeled himself and stormed out of the room, determined to honor Cassie's wishes to the fullest.

Cassie watched him go, feeling the slam of the door echoing down to her very core. A tear finally managed to slip past her defenses and slide slowly down her face as she listened to Draco's steps fade away. She had hurt him; that she was perfectly aware of. She had hurt him and he would probably never forgive her for it. But if he made it through this, then she could live with that.

Straightening up, Cassie scrubbed her face against her shoulder, violently erasing any trace of her sorrow from her face. Bellatrix would be returning soon and it would only feed the torture if she found Cassie weeping in the darkness. Cassie held no illusions when it came to her own limitations. If Bellatrix had any inkling that Cassie was grieving over something it would take mere moments for her to discover exactly what it was and how to use it against her. And there was no way in hell Cassie was going to allow that to happen. Leaning back, Cassie thought quietly about what she had said to Draco. If given the chance, knowing what she knew now, knowing what exactly what was to come... would she have agreed to help him? She didn't know.