Disclaimer: I do not own anything HP related nor am I making any profit from this story. Any original characters and/or settings belong to me and permission is needed from me before using any OC's/plot that I am currently writing as I have worked hard on the creation of this tale. Any similarities to other works of fan fiction are purely unintentional.

Warning: Disturbing content in this story. You have been warned.

From the Depths of Hell

Chapter 5

October 11, 2000

I am utterly astounded at the failed results from the past two days of teamwork exercises. The selected individuals, while impressive in their own ways, seem to be rather resistant in cooperating. While I can understand their lack of desire to mold themselves into what we deem acceptable, I just cannot fathom the defiance they are giving us. Don't they see that it is in their best interests to comply with the program?

I fear if things do not change, they will be eliminated. A true pity that would be.

I guess to expect anything else would be rather naïve of us. It is obvious that there are those in this test group who are enemies, so to expect an immediate cohesive unit of these subjects is a fantasy at best. It has been strongly suggested by General Cohen that some extreme measures may be implemented in order to break the subjects' animosity towards us and each other.

Something sparked inside of me causing me to speak up and I assured him that my staff and I could handle any measures to help counter the subjects' stubbornness. While he understandably looked doubtful, he accepted my statement. Of course he really did not have a choice as I am in charge of this project.

So the next phase has begun and it will be interesting to see who amongst them is the strongest willed.

Dr. Joseph Miller

Head of Genetic Research

Wheaton and Caliph Industries

October 2000

Misery seemed to be the name of the latest game the muggles seemed more than willing to play. His naked form was curled in a fetal position, desperate for warmth. He found himself constantly fighting against the despair that threatened to overwhelm him. The darkness of the room seemed to penetrate his soul and he likened it to the exposure of a Dementor. Nothing but silence reverberated around him. He would rather be back in his cell again, watching helplessly as his dear friend was assaulted by the muggle guards than to be stuck in here for much longer. He had no knowledge of how much time had passed but he was certain that as soon as he allowed himself some much needed sleep they would come.

They always did.

He was not looking forward to another bucket of icy water to help keep him awake.

He felt as if he was at the end of a taut tether that was ready to snap at any time. While he might not have been touted as overly bright during his Hogwarts' years, he was sure that the muggles were going to extremes to break his spirit. It was a hard pill to swallow, but if he was going through this then it would be a good bet that his fellow "teammates" were as well.

A most troubling thought indeed.

The grating of the door alerted him and he managed to pull himself up in a sitting position before light from the corridor swamped the room blinding him painfully. As he was hauled to his feet he knew better than to question the military men that roughly led him from the horrid dark room. His eyes streaming with tears from the brightness of the florescent lights that seemed to be the primary lighting of this place, he tried to trace where he might be in this concrete prison. Unfortunately, he had no clue as to his location compared to his familiar cell.

How sad it was that he looked forward to being back in that plexiglass cube. It was familiar to him, and compared to the unknown, well familiar was most definitely the lesser of two evils.

He winced as his legs gave out from under him. He was firmly yanked between the heavily armed guards and even he could understand the unspoken message.

Keep up.

He willed his legs to work properly, if only for a little longer. Concentrating on keeping one foot in front of the other, he kept his gaze on the floor in an attempt to diminish the brightness of the lights and to keep his dizziness at bay.

He no longer replayed how he got here in his mind as all it did was remind him of everything he had lost, his freedom being the most important. He selfishly was glad that the Gryffindor Princess was here and part of his 'team". He did not think that he could bear going through this hell alone without a friendly face. It was bad enough that the witch responsible for torturing and irretrievably damaging his parents' metal capabilities was on his team, but so were two former Slytherin's he attended Hogwarts with. The last two members of his team were both men only a couple of years older than himself. One was from Spain and frequently vocalized his anger and contempt for everything and everyone in his native tongue. The other was from the Mediterranean, seemingly from Greece, and he was eerily quiet and rather emotionless.

Quite unsettling really.

His thoughts drifted as he shuffled between his armed escort. Whoever was in charge of this operation seemed to be rather well informed with regards to the magical community. Just being able to capture them so randomly and at locations that were populated at the time spoke volumes of that fact. Not to mention the fact that all of their magic was being suppressed. How it was being done, he had no idea but he sure would love to find out.

His escort stopped abruptly in front of a door exchanging words with the soldiers stationed there. He watched apprehensively as he was ushered into the room and was surprised at the size of it. While not by any stretch of the imagination luxurious, it was by far larger than his cube cell had been. Gazing around he noted the bunks that were attached to the concrete walls. There were a total of seven, with five curiously on the left wall while only two were on the right wall. He saw the male members of his team already there on their chosen bunks eyeing his escort with hatred as the soldiers left with sharp instructions for him to find his bunk on the left which was the male side of the quarters. He continued his perusal of his new lodgings and was not happy to see three open toilets with sinks and what appeared to be a communal shower with three shower heads. On either side of the door there was a small metal bureau bolted to the floor. There were, of course, no windows.

"Longbottom." A voice drawled out breaking the silence of the room.

"Malfoy." He responded curtly before walking over and choosing the open top bunk above the Spaniard. He noted that the Greek was reclining on the only singular bunk diagonally below his.

"What now?" He asked dully.

"Now we wait for the rest of our group." Blaise Zabini answered shortly from where he sat on the other top bunk next to him.

The group waited in silence for the arrival of the final two members who represented the female contingent of their team. Neville wondered why they would keep the genders intermixed as he eyed the shower area. What would that accomplish? Locking two attractive women up with five healthy males did not seem like a very good idea to him.

The door opened and Bellatrix was shoved into the room. She stumbled before regaining her balance swiftly. Turning she literally hissed at the smirking guard as he closed the door. Neville watched with intense hatred as his parents' torturer surveyed the room her lip curling in distaste as she took in the shower and toilet accommodations. Scowling, she selected the low bunk furtherest from the door leaving the only other bunk which was also low to the floor for the last member of their group.

Almost immediately the door opened again and Hermione was shoved roughly into the room. Unable to catch herself she fell to her knees with a grimace.

"Hey! Leave her alone!" Neville shouted jumping down from his bunk as four guards surrounded the fallen witch.

"Stop where you are!" An authoritative voice commanded.

The soldiers stepped to the side and saluted the owner of the voice as he came fully into the room. He was an older man appearing to be in his mid forties with thinning brown hair cropped short and silver at his temples. He wore muggle military fatigues with numerous badges showing him to be of a high rank.

Taking advantage of the guard's inattention, Hermione scrambled to her feet and quickly bolted towards the remaining bed putting distance between her and the soldiers. Her amber eyes swiftly took in the details of the room as her mouth tightened into a frown.

"I am Colonel Gates and I am in command of your unit. You have been moved here against my better judgment by the gentleman in charge of this entire operation. This room has been specially designed with you in mind. This is where you will spend all of your time when you are not training with your various instructors. As long as you put forth your full cooperation and do as you are told we'll get along just fine. I will not hesitate to punish you when it is warranted and… It. Will. Be. Brutal."

He looked sternly around the room to the quiet captives. He was glad that they seemed cowed now that they had their light and sleep deprivation reconditioning. Granted, they all looked bedraggled and a little worse for wear but they would be in good enough shape come tomorrow.

"The dressers are labeled with your name on your drawers. There you will find your belongings that were given to you when you first arrived here. I suggest you take advantage of your down time for the rest of the day because we start at 0400." He smirked. "That means 4:00AM for those of you unfamiliar with military time."

He slid one more glance at the occupants of the room before leaving. The soldiers filed out after him, but not before a couple of them sent a wink over to the two women. An uneasy silence filled the room as the prisoners eyed each other distrustfully.

How in Merlin's name were they going to make this work?

Ginny Weasley watched quietly as her hot-tempered brother paced restlessly around the library at Grimmauld Place. Lavendar Brown occupied the wingback chair next to her also watched her boyfriend rumple his hair in agitation.

It was a grave The-Boy-Who-Lived's visage that halted the frantic movements of his long-time best friend.

"Ron, stop."

"How can you sit there calm as can be when we have a crisis on our hands?" The youngest Weasley son shouted.

The youngest of the red-headed brood twisted her lips wryly. Anyone with half a brain could see that Harry was not calm at all. His face was pale and pinched and he grasped the letter recently delivered with a death grip, his knuckles white.

"Trust me Ron; I am the furthestthing from calm."

"You don't act like it!" The red-head snarled at his best friend.

"WHAT EXACTLY WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO?!" Lavender jumped at the roar that came from the raven haired legend as he leapt to his feet, his hands slamming down on his desk forcefully.

"St. Mungo's has been completely destroyed! All of those lives were just meaningless to the muggles who did this! They don't see us as people! Many magic folk have been taken both from our side and the Dark. Neville is gone and so is…and so is…." Harry's voice broke off as he took a deep breath fighting for control.

"And so is Hermione." Ginny finished for him quietly.

'Yes. So is Hermione." He said dully.

"I get that Harry! She was my best friend too! But this is The Dark Lord we are talking about! How can you even think about meeting with him?"

"Is, Ronald Is." The raven haired man snapped back.

"What?"

"Hermione IS your best friend too. Not WAS but IS!"

Silence engulfed the small group at those words.

"Harry's right." Ginny said decisively. "We cannot just assume that she or any of the others are dead or are lost to us. We will get them back."

"But V…V…Voldemort?" Lavender asked unsurely. She understood the dire situation they were in, she really did, it just was mind blowing to even conceive of a diplomatic meeting between the two sides.

"He wants to kill Harry in case you've forgotten Gin!" Ron retorted, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

"I know that Ronald. But maybe this is the only way. Whether we like it or not, ALL of us, witches and wizards alike, are in some serious trouble. It couldn't hurt to at least meet with him and his selected emissaries."

"The Order will never go for it, and you know it." The red-headed male firmly stated.

"Which is why I need all of you on board." Harry said wearily. "I plan to speak with Moony and Kingsley before addressing this in the meeting tonight. I will need your support Ron."

"Besides Ron, Harry will need you by his side now more than ever to pull his butt out of trouble." Ginny said matter-of-factly.

Lavender let out a short laugh. "She's right you know."

Smiling grimly, the Weasley male shook his head. "Alright Harry. You have my support as long as we do this together."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

3:30 AM found all of their seven member team awake and sitting on their bunks, alert and not a little apprehensive at what the day would bring. They had adopted this schedule since they were first locked in this cell together over two weeks ago.

Draco eyed the disturbingly silent females across the room and wondered how everything had gotten so fucked up. He could not say that he still honestly despised Granger or Longbottom but it was a bitter potion to swallow to admit that he in anyway may be actually glad they were there with him.

But swallow it he would.

The Mudblood's encouraging words to Neville throughout this mess had somehow been able to reach him as well and he found that he was able to steel himself against the rigorous and brutal training regiment that they were put through daily.

He wasn't the only one.

Blaise and the Greek wizard Nikolai also seemed to be bolstered by the former Head Girl's strength and encouraging words. They were respectful and borderline protective of the petite witch and his Aunt Bella as well.

It was no wonder he thought glumly, his head resting on his knees.

The two women, each beautiful in their own rights, unfortunately drew a lot of the male guards attention. While there had been no repeat of the heinous incident on that muggle ship, the two witches were constantly harassed and put in many various and uncomfortable situations.

Strangely enough, this created a unique bond between the two witches that was scary in its brilliance. Both women were intelligent and had their own strength and advantages that they brought to the group. While there was no debating the insane and cruel streak in his Aunt Bella, it was surprising to see the depths of Granger's slyness and thirst for revenge and how well the two former opponents seemed to be getting along.

Downright scary as Neville had expressed just yesterday.

Their seventh member of their team, Carlos, was definitely a bit of a hot head. He was in no way willing to work with the team and if he wasn't careful the Spaniard would find himself eliminated like many others before him. That didn't stop them from trying to rein him in though.

While all of that was thought consuming, the most mind blowing thing was the slow dissipation of hatred and animosity between Longbottom and his Aunt Bella, particularly after she saved his life during an intense training test four days ago. The former Gryffindor was not the only one stuttering in disbelief when Bellatrix threw herself over Neville bringing him to the ground to avoid a nasty shot of an electric bolt headed his way.

All in all their dynamics had changed, whether they wanted it or not. He knew he had accepted it, had accepted them. All of them were his team, his companions and even…friends. No use in denying it anymore.

If, no…when they all got out of this hellhole, things would never go back to what they were. How could they after all they were going through together? They were truly bonding as a team, both as a whole and as individuals. It was almost frightening how seamlessly they had all fell into this and finally being able to work solidly together.

They were the best experiment so far and that was NOT a comforting thought as he saw the proud looks and pleased stares from the colonel, his Captain and the various muggle scientists.

He had an uneasy feeling that things were going to get much, much worse.

A/N: I don't know what to say besides Thank you for all of your Reviews and Support! I know it has been unforgivable ages since I last updated, but that can be said for pretty much ANY of my stories here.

I have not given up on this story, as I rather like my idea behind it and where I am taking it. I hope that you continue to stick around for the ride.

I truly apologize for the inexcusable delay in updating and I have no intention of repeating that as I am already well into writing the next chapter.

I appreciate your continuing interest and support!

Thanks for reading everyone!

F.L.