Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments):

April Monthly Challenge - HOUSE CHALLENGE - Going, Going, Gone!
Hufflepuff prompt #30 - Restriction: No using character names

Writing Club - Showtime
Blood Brothers
Prompt #12 - Secrets - Object: Locket

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Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter Universe, or any of it's characters.

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Thank you Alana, for looking this over for me and helping me wrangle all those stupid out of place commas and run on sentences! You're the best! :D

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Warning: Contains violence. Cursing. And eludes to more violence.

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The house is easy to get into; there are barely any wards protecting it. I don't know why I expected more protections on the home - the woman who lived here was obviously an idiot. As I walk into the front room, I gasp in horror - make that an idiot without any taste for decorations. I grimace in disgust as I look around, the room is…pink. Everything is pink, from the knock-off copy of the sofa I know my sister recently purchased - luckily in a more...neutral color - to the curtains that hung around the windows, even the carpets (again, knock-off copies of the beautiful oriental ones my sister bought). Even the bricks in the fireplace are pink! How does one get pink bricks - much less find someone willing to build with them? Seriously.

I transfigure the sofa to be a tasteful black. The carpets become grey. The wallpaper...I shudder again looking at it. The walls are covered in a huge pattern of cabbage roses, and they are all - you guessed it - various shades of pink. The best I can do for that is remove the color completely. This leaves that horrid pattern on the walls, but at least it's barely noticeable if you don't look closely.

Looking at my timepiece, I realize the woman is late. How dare she inconvenience us like this! Just as I start to think up some interesting ways to make her pay for her tardiness, the floo flares to life and she steps out. The stupid bint doesn't even have her wand drawn!

"Crucio!" I don't put my heart into the curse, and it shows. She is writhing on the ground before me, but not screaming as loudly as others have in the past. I sigh and lift the curse. She continues to whimper at my feet, her body convulsing. This is a new development. I never really took the time to watch my past victims after lifting the curse. I rather like the way it stays with her. When her convulsions begin to lessen and she's only shaking a little, she looks up at me. There is hatred in her eyes, behind the fear. Yes, I know that look well. I give her my biggest smile.

"That's what you get for not being here when I was told you would be." I keep my voice prim and proper, as mother taught me I should always do when speaking to my elders. I glance down to look at her neck, excited to taunt her about the locket she's publicly claimed as an heirloom from her family. It's not there...the locket my Lord told me to retrieve - it's not there! I begin to panic.

"Where's the locket?" I yell at her, crouching down to press my wand into what I think might be her neck - her chin is so close to her chest that I might be threatening her chin. I frown at that thought, looking more carefully at the area my wand is pressing into. She whimpers again, and tries to flinch back from me. I look back at her face to see that her eyes have widened considerably in fear, and her face looks more like that of a toad then it did in the picture the Prophet ran that morning. I smell urine, and look down her body in disgust to see she's pissed herself. This is what is running the muggle born registration committee? How pathetic.

"Tell me now. Where. Is. The. Locket!?" My voice is now shrill, I can hear it, and even though I'm usually annoyed with the way it sounds, I am to concerned to care right now. My Lord was adamant. That locket is his, and I was to come and retrieve it from the stupid bint who said otherwise. How dare she flaunt one of my Lord's possessions to all and sundry? She starts to wiggle her body backwards in an awkward manner; it's like she forgot she has arms and legs attached to her body. I growl and stand up. "Crucio!" I put more effort into the curse this time, and her screams make me giggle. Oh, I love it when they scream for me. As I release the curse to watch her in the aftermath again, I'm disappointed. She's still convulsing, but now she's just gasping for air - no more whimpers, not even a half-hearted scream. I pout, and ask her again, "Where is that oh so pretty locket you were wearing in the picture the Prophet ran this morning?"

"S...S...Stolen. T..t...today. M...m...mud...mudblood at th..the Mi...Ministry!" she finally gasps out, her convulsions reduced to a shivering from the curse, but still there.

This makes me angry. Very angry. "You let it get stolen?" I whip myself away from her, slashing my wand at the sofa. It explodes in front of me, and the white stuffing flutters around us like snow. I take a deep breath and turn back to her, smiling again. My voice has gone back to the prim and proper my mother taught me so well as I ask, "So let's just get things straight here. You somehow got my Lord's locket and decided it was a good idea to wear it instead of giving it back to him. Then you publicly announced that it was a family heirloom - even though you knew that to be a lie." I tilt my head as I say the last, and her head bobbles up and down like her neck bones have been vanished.

"Then, today at the Ministry, it was stolen. Stolen by a mudblood?" Her head bobbles again, this time faster, and I wonder if she's going to break her neck before I can have more fun with her. It is a concern, I definitely don't want her to die before I've had my fill of her screams. "Stop that; you're going to hurt yourself," I tell her in a more clipped tone. "Stay right there, don't move at all."

I start pacing in front of her, thinking. My Lord is going to be very angry. Should I bring the woman before him to tell her story, or just torture her to death and tell him myself? Either way, he was going to be angry...though if I bring the woman to him, he will kill her and I won't be able to have any fun. Then again, my Lord might be even more angry if I bring this...filth into his presence. Especially as she's already soiled herself. Yes, I will finish with her and then go tell my Lord the bad news myself.

I turn back to her with a smile on my face, and put my wand away in its holster before unsheathing the knife I have strapped to my hip. "Ok, enough questions. Now...where to start with your punishment?" I idly ask myself. She screams loudly, trying to back away again only to find herself in the corner of the room. Oh yes, this was going to be very entertaining.

Word Count: 1182 by Google Docs