It was dark inside. The walls were damp, and no light shone through the isolated room. It was just me, all alone. Waiting for a hero, somebody who would come to save me from this torture.
I crawl into the corner and curl up against the wall. I breathe slowly and the taste of vomit comes back up in my mouth. chills run down my entire body as soon as I hear any kind of noise. Walking, shuffling, something upstairs falling. Just the thought that at any moment somebody could come in the cellar as torture me as they please. My arms already have several cuts running up and down the sides. Theres a cut on my face that runs from about my cheekbone down to my chin.
There is a large burn mark about the size of my hand on the side of my neck. The outline of my lips had been traced by a small dagger. Parts of my hair had been singed or chopped off. Blood, dirt and bruises cover the rest of my body.
The footsteps begin to get louder and I shudder pulling my arms tight around my small form. Bruised, cut and malnurished. I begin to wonder if somebody would ever even bother to try and come for me. It might even be too dangerous.
"Good-morning mudblood, you ready to co-operate yet?"
I don't answer. She comes over to me, gripping my hair firmly and dragging me out to the center of the room. "No!" I scream.. "Stop, le... leave me al..alone." I stammer. "I... I've told you be...before.. I d..don't know anything."
"I know you're lying to me Mudblood, tell me the truth, or shall I try and make you!" She screams becoming angrier with every word.
In about a second. My entire body has been infused with unbearable pain. Everything inside me is on fire. Millions of needles peirce through my delicate skin. Every inch of my body screams in protest. "STOP!" I scream over and over. "Please, please stop." I cry. "I.. I can't do it, I can't."
"Why don't we play a little game?" She say kneeling down before me. Only inches away from my face. "The longer you can keep your filthy little mouth shut under the curse, the longer I'll let you rest. Or shall I get somebody else to come down and finsh what I started."
I'm quiet for a while I don't know exactly what she expects to hear from me.
"Why don't we play a game?" She smirks. "Crucio"
This time the pain is worse, I let out a little moan at first,Hoping she didn't hear me. Biting my lip hard to keep myself quiet after that Blood fills into my mouth and I realize i've broken through the skin of my lip with my teeth.
"Oh, thats too bad... Why don't we try again?"
"CRUCIO."
My stomach aches, the feeling of nausea sets in even though I can't remember the last time i've eaten anything substantial. My head pounds but I force myself to stay quiet. I clench my teeth together and dig my nails into my hands. Scrunching up my face as I toss and turn in pain. Finally after what seems like forever I can't take the pain any longer. "STOP, PLEASE STOP." I scream. The pain lets up sooner than I expected.
"Hmm ten minutes.. well done Mudblood. I think you've earned your rest. Now you better behave yourself later when the others come down to talk with you or I may consider coming for a little visit earlier than planned. "
I whimper in reply as she leaves me alone in the darkness. The pounding in my head still hasn't gone away, and the feeling of nausea remains at a constant. Still I think to myself its much better that what she put me through a few minutes ago. I consider moving back to my little corner and resting my pounding head against the cold wall. But everytime I even move a single muscle the rest of my body screams in protest. Instead I lie my head on the cool ground and close my eyes. Slowly driffting away into unconsciouness.
I wake myself up as I scream in my sleep. shooting straight up, I look around the room afraid of who might be there. I'm still alone, nobody has come down yet and I hope there is still a lot of time until they decide to pay me a visit again. I begin to wonder where my friends are, why were they so quick to abandon me when I was in danger? I feel that I'm only waiting for nothing. Nobody will come save me, Bellatrix and the other Death Eaters will soon become fed up with what they think is my act. But truly I'm just as clueless as they are about Ron and Harry's location.
The only thing I have to look forward to is the breaks inbetween Torture or interrogation sessions. The pounding in my head has lessend since I fell asleep and the nauseous feeling has almost completely gone away. I dread the moment that I hear footsteps knowing that they are coming for me. The wait is nerveracking, I've only become weaker since I've been here and there would be no chance I could fight back without a wand at this point, which was taken and destroyed in front of me.
I begin to hear footsteps coming from outside the cellar. Somebody has come back to begin my torture once more. The cellar door opens, and I sly away. I hear laughing coming from near the door.
"Afraid already Mudblood?" The voice asks. I recognize it as Lucuis Malfoy, Draco's father. But he isn't alone. I hear the laught of Bellatrix as well in the background. Taunting me, she laughs with excitment.
"Why don't we show Lucius our little game? STAND UP."
I push myself against the wall and try to stand before she grabs my hair again and pulls me into the center of the room. Throwing my weak body with ease onto the stone cold floor. "Now, you remember the point of the game don't you, lets see how long you can go this time... CRUCIO."
As soon as the pain hits. I squeeze my hands together and Bit down hard on my lip, opening the cut I had made earlier. I thrash around on the floor, wanting to scream. Wanting to let them know how much pain I'm in. I bang my head hard on the floor and let out a soft cry. "Hmmm only two minutes this time... why don't we amp up the pain and try this again." Bellatrix smiles Evily. "CRUCIO."
This time its even worse than it has been every other time combined. My head begins to pound again and every one of Bellatrix's laughs crawl through my body like physical pain. My insides feel as though they are about to burn throught the rest of my body. A thousand knives slice through my limbs. Slowly but painfully every single bone in my body begins to break. I cover my face with my hands ripping out some of my hair in the meantime. The pain is becoming too much to bear and I begin to scream, loud. The curse is lifted and I'm left alone once more. Left in severe pain. Wondering if anyone will ever come for me, the thought almost makes me laugh... The world wants your best friend dead. What on earth would ever make you think that he's stupid enough to come and rescue you. It's pathetic.
For the longest time nobody comes for me. My pain is slowly beginning to decrease and for the first time I feel A little bit better knowing that they won't be coming back down here to torture me for a little while at least. I wonder what time it is, I've lost track since I've been down here. There are no windows since the cellars where prisoners are held are kept underground. I assume that It's been at least a couple weeks and the Death Eaters probably tend to come torture me for information more often during daylight hours.
My head begins to pound again. I can't hear anything, I can't see anything. But surely I'm screaming. I no longer have the sensation of touch and I'm not sure whatst happening but I'm sure the Death Eaters present are laughing at my misery. I know what they're trying to do. "Sensory Deprivation." A method used usually to extract information during long-term use. During a short-term use it can be used as a form of therapy as well. "What do you want?" I call out. "I... I swear I... I don't know anything." I stammer hoping my words come out correct as I can't even hear myself speaking.
Slowly I begin to hear soft voices around me, voices that are whispering. I don't understand what they are saying to me. But they sound angry, demonic and they are quite frightening. I let out a small whimper. "Wha...What do you want?" I ask.
The whispers get louder as they fill into my head, soon the whispers turn to angry voices and ear peircing screams. Crying desperately for help. I curl up into a ball on the ground. Hugging my knees as close to my chest as possible. "St...Stop." I cry. "Pl.. Please St...St ...Stop I've Ha..had enough." I speak, sumbling on my words. Slowly my hearing, sight and sensation of touch return.
"Very well then, we'll let Bellatrix have a little fun with you later." The taller of the two smirks evily ans walks away laughing with his friend. I shudder at the thought of having to be interrogated by Bellatrix once more. Why can't they leave me alone? Or just kill me already. Isnt it obvious that I have no clue whatsoever about the location of my friends?
Minutes later, both Bellatrix and Lucuis return to the cellar. "Well Mudblood, we've been informed that you've been of no use to the others, not going to give up your friends yet are we?"
"I...I told you before.. I don't KNOW WHERE THEY ARE." I end up screaming.
"You will learn to respect us, CRUCIO."
I double over in pain, screaming. This time the curse is much worse than it has ever been before. "I...I... I'm sorry... Ple...please.. St...stop." I cry. "Please St..stop. I... I can't take it."
"You will respect us unless you wish for a repeat of that pain you felt, understand."
"Yes." I mumble weakly nodding. With those last few words the two leave me alone. I have no strength left and I curl up in my current placement and fall asleep. Only moments later I wake from a loud noise.
I hear a loud noise come from outside again. It seems extremely close. It doesn't sound anything like footsteps. A thunderstorm perhaps? My assumptions are confirmed because soon afterwards I can hear wind and rain. Pounding against the walls upstairs I figure I have enough built-up strength to drag myself over to the wall and sit up against it. As soon as I rest my head back against the wall, light from the hallway of the basement pours in through the door.
I don't even look up to see who it is. I see a form come towards me, they seem to have left the door open and I consider if I should run or not.
"Granger!" He says snaping his finger inches away from my face. I recognize this voice. I squint at the change of lighting as I look towards the open door. For weeks now I have been so accustomed to the darkness that I almost forgot about how bright it is in the outside world. "Granger! We have to go." He hisses.
"Why?" I ask frightened, almost shaking. "Whats going on, what are they going to do to me?" I finish now shaking frantically.
"Nothing Granger, the basement tends to flood when it rains a lot, and It's supposed to rain all throughout the week and Bellatrix would rather not take the chances of having you drown yourself." He said sarcastically. "Now get up!"
Using the wall I push myself up onto my feet. Stumbling about, Malfoy grabs onto my arm. "Don't fall." He says. "Because I won't hear the end of it if you fall on your head and die from internal bleeding."
"Oh, I'm sure it won't matter, not like the magical community needs another filthy mudblood like me."
Malfoy turns around and looks into my eyes. "Don't start Hermione... Im not here to be your friend but I certainly do not need you to talk about yourself like that. now let's go, they want you to be upstairs in ten minutes."
I nod silently and try not to stumble when I walk. I stop as soon as we get to the stairs. I look up and down. Probably only about thirty of them. "What now Granger? Can't climb stairs?" Malfoy asks. I shake my head and he groans in frustration then proceeds to pick me up. "You tell anybody about this and they'll kill the both of us, understand, I wasn't event supposed to touch you, let alone carry you. As soon as we get to the top you have to walk yourself.
Malfoy leads me to a small hallway with a series of rooms. "These are where the servants would stay." He said. "You have a bed, and your own washroom... I suggest you take advantage of that while you have it, after the the rain stops and we stop the basement from flooding they'll drag you right back down there, and before you panic, yes my father said you could use the facilites provided to you. You will not be allowed to leave this room unless escorted. if you try to escape you will be severly punished. Got it? somebody will be by shortly to check up on you or something."
Malfoy leaves quickly and I decide I might as well clean the blood and dirt of my skin. I walk into the small bathroom that connects with my room. The entire area is about twelve by twleve feet. The washroom and bedroom taking up equal space. A toilet, sink and shower are all cramed into the small space. I find a towel underneath the sink and turn on the shower, strip off whats left of my dirty tattered clothing and step inside, letting the warm water run over my body. I scrub off the blood and dirt caked onto nearly every part of my skin. I run both my hands through my hair and try to get the grime out. Grabbing the towel I wrap it around my body and step out of the shower.
A robe hangs on the back off the door. A small note hiding away in one of the pockets.
Granger
Clothes are in the nightstand by the bed.
M
I put the robe on and walk outside. Finding the clothes Malfoy has put out for me. I quickly change, then lie on the bed, snuggling underneath the covers. I drift away into a deep and calming sleep. Dreaming and wondering about the fatefull day when someone will finally come for me.
