Run 'Potter Vanished!'
The Daily Prophets headline flashed as it lay discarded on the kitchen table of 12 Grimmauld Place, the article smugly reporting that Harry Potter was believed to have run away being too much of a coward and a weakling to face the Dark Lord. Hermione had thrown it down in disgust that morning and those passing through the headquarters barely spared it a glance, they knew what had happened even if the wider wizarding world was being convinced of something else. Harry had been captured by the Death Eaters on one of the Orders small skirmishes to collect information, leaving everyone at a loss.
Without Harry they felt they didn't have the slightest chance of defeating Voldemort and his forces, a feeling of despair mixed with panic spread through the ranks as they tried frantically to organise an attempt at rescuing Harry based on the few small reports that Snape had managed to get through. He hadn't been killed yet at least, though Voldemort was apparently determined to see him suffer as much as possible before being forced to witness the destruction of everything he loved along with Voldemort's triumph over the entire wizarding world.
Only then would he be killed, for the meantime he was locked away in a dungeon of one of the more dismal and horrifyingly gothic pureblood mansions that Voldemort was fond of, a place that was of course crawling with wards and protective enchantments to make it impossible to find by any who weren't supposed to know. It was essentially under something similar to a fidelius charm but the magic involved was a lot darker and required a sacrifice of blood. Voldemort had used the blood of Susan Bones who had been caught along with Harry.
The Order knew that there was little or no hope of getting Harry out of there and whilst some had completely given up hope, others worked on tirelessly, if only to give themselves something to focus on other than their fate and the fate of their friend so that they wouldn't go mad with it all. Ron, Hermione and Remus were rarely seen away from the library of Grimmauld place, pouring over maps and spell books in order to at least narrow down the location or find a way of getting a message safely to Harry.
~&~
Lights flashed behind my eyes, burning reds and venomous greens, I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and furiously tried to will the images away. It wasn't going to help going over and over the ambush in my head and trying to figure out where we had slipped up, reliving the panic and the screams wouldn't change the outcome, what should have been a relatively simple scouting mission with just a small group of 10 had turned into an unmitigated disaster.
I opened my eyes to stare at the dank walls I had become so familiar with over the past..however long it had been, between the bouts of torture, always with an audience of snickering bloodthirsty Death Eaters, and the thread of taunts from the guards not to mention the fact that my only source of light was the dull glow of a few torches outside the door, it was a little difficult to keep track of time. The light that shone feebly through the small grate at the top of the door flickered suddenly making the shadows on the wall seem to come alive, one of the guards must be moving around, I was sitting huddled in one of the corners of my prison cell, my position defensive but I kept my gaze alert and swift, tracking the movements of the guards at least provided some distraction.
As far as my estimations went the guards should be switching any minute now as they had grown mostly bored of taunting me after receiving no response and each shift only seemed to last a small amount of time after the insults faded, depending on who it was guarding. Some of them I knew, others I didn't but I had come to recognise all of their voices, even their weight of their footsteps to a certain degree, one of the small benefits of being locked away like this was that my hearing seemed to have sharpened dramatically and it was rare now that anyone could take me by surprise. It was the best defense I had at the moment.
Being in here was quite an education actually, I had even learnt pretty quickly that all my Gryffindor instincts would not exactly get me far in this situation so I had been working on my Slytherin cunning instead. A few powers that had backfired into me on Voldemort's downfall were not enough to completely alter my personality so the Sorting Hat must have seen something in me to make it so adamant that Slytherin was where I belonged and I intended to use my abilities to the full to get the hell out of this place.
At the moment I was just compiling information in my head on the alertness of the guards, which of them underestimated me or just couldn't care less if I lived or died, even apathy might work to my advantage as it was always fanatics who were the most dangerous. There were also a few who seemed to have been pulled into Voldemort's ranks through fear rather than belief and one particular guard almost seemed to sympathise with me as they never taunted me and in fact without even saying anything managed to make whoever they were guarding with be quieter too. I always enjoyed the time that they were on guard the most, if you can call it enjoyment, but at least during those hours I managed to get some sleep. In fact that particular 'silent guard' as I had dubbed them often nagged at my thoughts, they spoke so rarely and so softly I could barely hear them at all, if I ever managed to get out I began to hope they might hesitate just long enough that I could get away safely.
It was for this opportunity, if it ever came, that I had started to practice my wandless magic, it was still weak but I was slowly learning how to control it and it wasn't as if I lacked the time to practice, I just had to be careful that the small increases in my magic didn't attract the attention of any of the guards. The focus that it took and the determination to improve and be ready to take any opportunity that might come my way in the future kept my spirit fighting, I didn't fear death but I had something to live for, I had a goal that was pure in its intention and knowing that kept me alive in a way that Voldemort would never be able to truly comprehend.
Besides, I'm far too stubborn to just let him break me, the Dursleys were good for something after all, they taught me endurance and now I can't wait to stare Voldemort in the eye and watch his distaste when I don't flinch. A sly, almost malicious smile seemed to creep onto my face in the darkness and I only had a moment to feel vaguely disturbed before the distant sound of footsteps dragged my attention back to my surroundings. My muscles automatically tensed as I tried to determine who the guards were, I stilled my breathing to the point where it was inaudible even to me and closed my eyes to focus entirely on the sounds.
The first person, a smug, eager stomp of heavy boots, was undoubtedly Bellatrix forcing me to stifle a groan of annoyance, she always took the most pleasure from goading me and she always said the things that made it hardest to contain my anger. The second person was harder to discern because the steps were so soft I could hardly hear them under the noise that Bellatrix made but the fact that they were so quiet made me believe it was the sympathetic guard, the one I didn't know and my suspicions were confirmed when they got closer and I was able to make out the soft padding sound that usually accompanied them.
It was strange actually now that I thought about it, they had never been on guard with Bellatrix before, she was usually put with someone with a bit more force presumably to keep her under control at least to the degree that she didn't actually come into the cell and kill me. I wondered why things had suddenly changed and if things were likely to get changed around again, if they did then I would have to start my calculations all over again.
Luckily for me my current guards apparently weren't sure why things had been changed around either prompting Bellatrix to spout off bitterly about her usual partner being busy on an errand for her Lord, a job which she obviously wished she were able to do. The madness and the obssession with Voldemort that was so clear in her voice almost made me shudder in revolt.
I listened tensely as more footsteps signalled the retreat of the previous shift of guards and the scrape of a chair echoed softly as someone sat down, a few short steps warned me that Bellatrix's special brand of taunts were about to start as she came close to the door of my cell. I swiftly shut down all thoughts, forcing myself to go numb and unfeeling as I lost myself in the twisted lanes of my mind to block out what was happening around me, to block out the sound of her voice.
I had almost lost myself to this forced apathy when a soft drawling voice brought me sharply back to reality before Bellatrix had even started to speak.
"Sit down aunt, I'm not in the mood to listen to you taunt him for the next few hours, you know as well as I do that he stopped rising to your bait weeks ago so your nattering is just pointless."
"Well how about I spend my time teaching you to respect your elders instead?" she replied and I could hear the sneer in her voice.
"I know enough family secrets to be able to threaten you if I must so sit down," the suppressed anger in his voice made me even more curious about who he was, he was practically defending me but he also said he was part of Bellatrix's family though that might not mean much considering how inbred the old pureblood families were, everyone was related to everyone in that twisted family tree.
"Fine," Bellatrix sighed and I heard the sounds of her slumping heavily into one of the chairs, "you Malfoys are so tetchy." Malfoys? But I could already tell Lucius apart from the rest and this guy certainly wasn't him, in fact the only person it could be..
"Shut up before I make you," an icy voice snapped,
Draco.
So Lucius' miniature had become a Death Eater after all, I always did wonder what had happened to him after we all left Hogwarts, if he had managed to avoid being pulled into Voldemorts ranks, apparently not. Well that made things considerably more interesting, did the little snake think he was doing me a favour by not taunting me? Merlin knows he never seemed unwilling to goad me back at Hogwarts, in fact he took every opportunity he could get to lash out at me so why was he suddenly so quiet in his dislike?
My head swirled with confusion and whilst I would have usually taken advantage of the quiet to rest my aching body that cramped up so often because it was repeatedly subjected to Crucio I found myself completely unable to relax. The fact that it was Malfoy who had been giving me brief moments of respite disturbed me more than I would have thought it would, I wondered whether being in Voldemorts service had changed him at all, whether he had grown out of being the schoolyard bully. Not likely, I thought scornfully, if anything he's probably become more sadistic, he's probably just building up to something, playing to some bigger long-term plan to torment me.
I sat there for what felt like hours just running through all the ways Malfoy might be trying to get at me, all the ways that he could use my reliance on the few hours of quiet against me but every time I thought I understood it, it all became so convoluted that it seemed ridiculous. Bellatrix made a few biting comments every now and then but Malfoy managed to shut her up again every time to my relief and then I realised that I was feeling faint gratitude towards him, which just seemed entirely wrong, sparking off more and more theories as to what he was up to.
At some point my mental rambling were interrupted when I heard Malfoy speaking again after having clearly become irritated with the exaggerated sighs that Bellatrix had become prone too now that she was deprived of her favourite sport, Potter-baiting.
"Why don't you go and see if Rodolphus has come back from his mission yet? I'm more than capable of handling Potter on my own aunt and you know as well as I do how many enchantments are on his door to stop him getting out, I doubt there will be any problem and quite frankly you're annoying me" I blinked in vague surprise, this was about the most I'd heard Malfoy say since I was but in this god-forsaken cell.
"Oh fine, but if our Lord isn't pleased remember that it will be your head on the chopping-block boy"
"I rather think both of our heads will be on the chopping-block if he found out, which is why your not going to tell anyone and why you're going to be back here before the end of our shift"
"Well why should I leave at all then if it will only get me into trouble?" I almost snorted at how petulant and childish she sounded
"Because," Malfoy began tersely, "I know full well how much you want to hear all the gory details first-hand from your husband and I really am sick of listening to you, this way both of us are happy"
"Sure, sure, I wonder what you will do when I'm away though, do you have a secret card up your sleeve Draco? A way of getting to baby Potter?" her voice actually went up a couple octaves in excitement.
"Maybe" he replied icily and all of my fears returned twofold.
"Ooh, well have fun little nephew" her cackles echoed down the corridor as I heard the footsteps signalling her departure, I waited in frozen silence, my breath coming in short gasps as I realised I was entirely alone with Malfoy now.
"Potter?" his voice sounded oddly soft and hesitant and my eyes involuntarily widened in the dark, "I know you can hear me Potter, you've got to listen to me, there isn't that long before she comes back." I made a small noise that was could be translated as assent to listen to him, "Good," he sounded relieved and I once again wondered what the hell he was up to, "I'm going to get you out of here Potter" my heart thudded in disbelief and I slowly shifted closer to the door.
"What?"
This is just a really random idea that i thought of over christmas and haven't had the chance to write until now, I'm going to try and finish it in about 10 chapters at the most I think, anyway let me know what you think, I'm not sure if its a great start or not ~xx~