Hell
It felt like every inch of his body was trying to implode upon itself and he was suffocating. It lasted about ten seconds and then ended as suddenly as he hit the ground. He had no idea what had just happened. All he knew was that his head was pounding and he couldn't see straight.
As he lifted his head to look around, he felt himself be dragged across the floor by his arm to a door that was on the other side of the room. He could feel his back and head being scraped open by the gravel on the ground. When they reached the door, his capture dropped him roughly to the ground and his arms made a loud cracking sound as they hit the cold, stone floor.
Rookwood rapped on the door three times and a hole at eye level was opened.
"P-Password Rookwood?", a voice stuttered.
"Pureblood." He replied in a harsh voice.
The hole closed and then the whole door swung open and in the doorway stood a rat-like man. His head was balding, he had giant buck teeth, and he kept his hands by his face at all times.
"Let us through wormtail. We brought the boy." Lucius said with a sneer. Peter stepped aside with a flinch as Malfoy drew his wand.
This time he was not dragged. They apparently didn't think they should waste their energy on him by carrying him so they just levitated him instead. The whole time he was trying to protect himself by feigning unconsciousness.
After a few minutes of silence and turns down numerous hallways, they finally came to a stop. He knew who they were going to. He could feel it in his scar. It slowly started throbbing more and more as they got closer to their destination. There were two more knocks and a high-pitched, cold voice spoke.
"Come in Rookwood. Lucius."
"Master. We got him. We got him." Rookwood said happily as he got down on his knees and kissed the bottom of his masters robes.
"Bring him to me."
Harry felt himself moving again and then he was thrown to the floor roughly. He let out a yelp of pain and his façade of unconsciousness dissolved.
" Well, well, well. What a nice surprise Harry. Thank you for so very kindly dropping by. I've been waiting for you. Tell me, how has your summer holiday been so far Harry? How has it been without your precious mutt?"
"Shut up!" Harry yelled as thoughts of his godfather rushed to the surface of his mind.
"Now, now Harry. No need to be rude to your host. I have very gratefully taken you into my summer home. You shall show me respect." Voldemort said strangely politely.
"Respect for what? You bloody bastard! You're sick!" He yelled furiously.
"You shall show me RESPECT BOY! Crucio!"
Harry felt every nerve of his body on fire. His skin was being ripped off surely. Knives were piercing his eyes, even his hair hurt. It was then that he knew where he was. He was in hell.
/
Private Drive was a picture of destruction. Number 4 had a dark mark hovering over it and underneath it a giant hole remained where a house once stood. After they had captured Harry, they had thought it hilarious to blow up the house. Reporters, Aurors, friends of Harry, and the Order were all gathered around the street. The aurors had been cleaning up for an hour already and were working on setting the muggle's memories straight.
Dudley's body had been taken out of the house dead but otherwise unharmed and placed on a stretcher outside for the muggle's to come and take away. Petunia and Uncle Vernon were hovered over the body crying for all they were worth. They were so out of it that they didn't even care that every inch of their property was covered with magic.
Ron was sitting on the curb of the road with the other Weasley's. All of them had tears in their eyes. Arthur was clutching Molly to his chest as she sobbed. Ron was in between Fred and George and they both had arms around him. For once they sported identical looks of shock instead of the usual and familiar smiles.
"I was so scared! I could've pulled him out of the apparition! I just stood there!" Molly cried in anguish. "He's gone Arthur! He's gone! Oh god they'll kill him!"
" He's going to be fine Molly. He's strong. We've got to stay strong for him now. We'll find him okay?" Arthur tried to console her the best he could but she just cried harder. He wasn't to dry either. He could feel tears streaming down his face too.
"Mum? Don't give up on him. I know him. He'll give You- Know-Who hell. He's strong. Dad's right. He'll make it. He had to!" Ron finished with a cough as he choked on the lump of dread lodging in his throat. He had to be ok. He was the boy-who-lived. That had to mean something right? He'd make it. He just had to!
/
He didn't even have the energy to think anymore. His mind was blank it seemed. All he could muster was the strength to listen to the steady drip of the ceiling. Other than that it remained deathly silent. Nobody had come to check on him for a few hours now. He was beginning to think they just forgot about him. He hadn't eaten since yesterday morning and it was night now.
Although they did leave him in a room with water. There was a sink in the far corner of the stone cell. But every time he tried to move his way over there pain radiated through his body so bad that he had to bite his hand to not scream. They had been torturing his for a week now. Every hour he had a new 'visitor' as he called it. But they hadn't come in at least 3 hours now. And it was starting to put him on edge.
His torture sessions had been worse than anything he ever imagined. They found the art of making him scream until his throat was raw the most joyous event ever. They would laugh jubilantly as they would finally break him and he would collapse of exhaustion. He wouldn't be able to move a muscle and they like to take advantage of it. That's when the real fun would begin. They would levitate him halfway to the ceiling and then let him drop to the ground with a resounding crack. By that point Harry could barely manage anything but a low moan of pain as his wounds would reopen. Bellatrix was the worse so far. The fact that she was the one to kill Sirius and taunted him about it made it ten times worse than the others. She would laugh manically as she saw tears in his eyes from both the physical and mental pain. She truly was a sick women.
Just then, for then for the first time in hours, he heard those dreaded footsteps. He felt dread rising in his chest but still slightly hoping it was one of the dim death eaters. They didn't know the worse tortures so it was more bearable.
He was a shadow and a figure unlocked the cell door. As the shadow appeared closer he lost all hopes of having a stupid death eater. He may not be the most smart person ever, but man did Lucius like to get creative.
/
It was going on 3 weeks now that Harry had been missing. The Order was doing everything they could to figure out where Voldemort was keeping him, but with no such luck. At this point they were losing hope of even finding him alive.
It infuriated Ron to know that they lost there faith in Harry. If Harry was dead Ron would be able to tell. He would know. But he hadn't felt anything of the sort yet. He could only feel pain, sadness, loss, anger - every bad emotion—he felt it. He was mad at everyone for not doing more and and mad at himself for not protecting his best friend. He fet terrible.
The first couple of days had been the hardest. He didn't even come down for meals. He would only eat a little when someone brought it up to him. He couldn't stand to look at anyone in the eyes. Not even Hermione could get through to him. She stood outside his room for an hour talking and knocking but got no answer.
He knew he was hurting her, but he just couldn't muster the courage to face her and see her pain. If she felt as bad as him, he wouldn't know how to help. He'd probably just make it worse.
What finally got him to come out was none other than Lupin. He had just lost Sirius, and then Harry. His last connection to his best friends.
Ron had been coming out of the loo when Remus walked by. Ron hadn't talked in days. He didn't know what made him do it, but he felt his mouth open and a hoarse croak followed,
"R-Remus…" he cleared his throat and tried again, "…Rumus- I-I just…" he didn't know what to say.
"You don't have to say anything Ron." Remus said sounding tired, "look I miss him as much as you do. We're doing everything we can. We just don't have any leads right now. But we're going to find him. He'll be alright. But right now Hermione and your parents, and your siblings are all missing him too. They need you and you need them." And with that he gave one last look and walked past Ron and down the stairs.
He stood there in the doorway of the bathroom for what seemed like hours, contemplating on what his next move would be. Slowly he made his way to the stairs. He gave one last backwards glance towards his room and then headed downstairs. When he entered the room, the whole room went silent. He felt all eyes on him.
He heaved a sigh and walked over to Charlie sitting at a table where a game of chess was sitting.
"Play me?" he asked in a voice that he didn't recognize as his own.
"Sure. Sit." There was a look of hope in Charlie's eyes as he watched his younger brother concentrate on the game in front of him. Maybe things might turn out ok after all.
/
An ear splitting scream pierced through the cell as the tortures continued. It was Bellatrix's turn. She had been at it now for about 30 minutes or so and showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. He had been under the cruciatus, cutting curses, and countless imperius's that made him do other various painful tasks.
"Oh itty bitty baby Potter. Have you had enough yet? You in too much pain? I bet your friends aren't even looking for you anymore."
"Your lying. They're still looking for me. You'll see." He rasped out painfully.
"Well in the mean time, we still have a playdate to finish. How about a potion? For me?" she said in a sickly sweet voice that made him shiver in terror of what was to come.
" It doesn't even taste that bad." She uncorked a vial of green potion and attempted to put it into his mouth. He turned his head sharply and shut his mouth tight in desperation.
" Now, now Harry we don't want to be rude now do we? Well…. If you won't drink it I'll just have to do this.." and with that she stood up and tipped the vial just enough to let out a small stream of it and it landing on his bare skin.
There was pain beyond any cruciatus he'd ever felt. The potion was burning his skin. He could feel blisters forming on his arms and chest and he swore his arms were on fire. But he didn't want to let her see that she was breaking him. So he bit his lip until he tasted blood and tears were streaming down his face. The pain and the bloody taste in his mouth combined made him gag. He turned himself onto his side quickly and retched up what little he had ingested over the past weeks.
Just as he thought he might die from it all, he felt a bucket of ice cold water thrown over him and sighed in relief. He lay there shaking and gasping for air.
"You're weak Potter. Pathetic." She stated simply as though she were merely telling him the weather, and left. The second he heard the door click he let out a shuddering breath and felt tears of pain, humiliation, and pure hopelessness well up in his eyes. He had never felt so alone in his life. He was sure he was going to die here. And nobody would ever again wonder about the wonderful boy-who-lived.
