Torture

Harry's hope had been in vain.

Judging from the Death Eater's reaction and the absence of Voldemort himself, the Dark Lord must be within him.

Though thankfully, everything had been going as planned.

As promised, Lucius helped Harry to continue to fool the Death Eaters into thinking that he was Lord Voldemort.

For the most part, it wasn't hard to keep up the pretension. Harry figured Nagini could probably tell that he wasn't Voldemort, hence her reluctance to be around him, but he wasn't particularly concerned about the snake betraying him since he's the only Parselmouth around, and surely the snake wouldn't want to harm him since her master still reside in him.

The Death Eaters were too fearful to remain in his presence for long. They only reported their activities dutifully and went about their business under his permission.

The only challenge would be Bellatrix Lestrange. The witch practically glued herself to him. She followed him everywhere just to stare at him with admiration, it was gross not to mention disturbing. For more times than Harry could recall, he found himself itching to strangle the witch barehanded for killing Sirius, but Lucius would always stop him just in time.

When others were not around, he often told Harry, rather harshly, to wipe that murderous look off his face.

Harry still remember the one time he had lashed out at the aristocrat, claiming that the Death Eaters deserve to be tortured for what they have done, and the other had replied in a grave voice.

"You are different from Voldemort, Harry."

Harry sat in Voldemort's throne, playing with his holly wand while he contemplated ways to find out more information about Voldemort's horcruxes from his Death Eaters. He had already gotten into contact with Dumbledore and established his situation.

Harry squeezed the bridge of his nose, missing the famaliar feeling of glasses on his face. He could imagine Hermione and Ron wanting to come and save him after the first time he sent the Order a letter, but he couldn't allow that.

Now that he had finally infiltrated Voldemort's Death Eaters, he had to gain more valuable information. Knowledge is power, but all he had succeeded so far was informing the aurors of a few small skirmishes in some distant villages.

Screams could be heard down the hall. Harry closed his eyes.

It happened quite often, the Death Eaters would almost drag in one victim daily to toss them into the dungeon. Then in every few days, a few bodies would be dragged out lest their stench travel to other parts of the Manor.

But instead of fading away like usual, the scream got louder and louder.

Harry opened his eyes irritably. His brows shot up at the sight of Bellatrix Lestrange dragging in a member of the Order.

"My Lord," she bowed. She yanked the collar of the man harshly with one hand; her other hand jabbed at his temple with her wand. The man whimpered once he saw Harry.

Harry nodded at Bellatrix in acknowledgement. He kept his face blank.

"I've brought a member of the Order, do you wish to interrogate him?" With a violent thrust on Bellatrix's part, the man nearly landed on his face in front of Harry.

Harry scrutinized the man, he couldn't seem to recall his name. The man cowered slightly but he soon raised his head proudly.

"Bring him to the dungeon, I will deal with him privately." When Bellatrix didn't move, Harry glared at the witch. He had to calm himself before he could ask:

"Anything else, Bella?" The endearing name made Harry wanted to vomit, but Lucius had warned and insisted that he called the witch "Bella".

"My Lord, you haven't been acting like yourself lately." Harry narrowed his eyes at the accusatory tone.

"And you suggest?" Harry grounded out coolly. His fist tightened where the witch couldn't see.

Bellatrix hesitated, but then she stood straight.

"The Death Eaters have started to question your power my Lord. They said...they..." Harry arched a brow, Bellatrix gave him a bewildered look before she spoke almost timidly, "they said you have been changed by the Boy-Who-Lived."

"Nonsense!" Harry hoped he has faked Voldemort's rage with expertise.

Bellatrix gave a squeal and crouched down. She covered her head like a child and peeked at him from under her arms.

Harry stomped off the throne until he towered over the trembling witch. He had an urge to laugh, this witch, this scum who has killed Sirius, feared him?

"You've only used your yew wand once when you returned and you haven't been using it since." Harry's glowered at Bellatrix. She sat on the floor, a childlike innocence in her eyes. Harry suddenly had an idea.

"Would you like to see it?" He said, deceptively gentle as he took out the yew wand and stroke it.

His eyes quickly scanned the room. Good, Lucius is not here. As for the member from the Order... Harry wouldn't put it past him to make it out alive if he was pathetic enough to be caught in the first place. Even if he did escape, he doubt Dumbledore would trust the man enough to believe his words.

Bellatrix nodded, her eyes becoming dreamy and sheepish instantly.

"Crucio." Harry was startled by the power that engulfed him the moment he held onto the yew wand, and when he spoke the incantation, he watched in amazement as a beam of red shot out from the end like a bullet, directly into Bellatrix's chest.

The woman immediately fell on the ground, her piercing wail raising to higher and higher octaves, until it went past what Harry thought was humanly possible.

Harry could only watch the pale wand in his hand. He... succeeded?

A vicious satisfaction grew inside him as the witch before him continued to thrash about. Harry smirked.

He watched in fascination as his Godfather's murderer twitched, and eventually, stopped moving. Her fingers uncurling from her fists.

There was a choked noise, Harry found the man Bellatrix had brought in staring at him in horror.

Harry began to approach him. All traces of defiance gone, the man crawled backward. Before Harry could raise his wand, a stunning spell hit the man from behind, his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell, his body splayed across the ground messily.

Harry snarled at the intruder, only to find Lucius standing at the entrance of the room, his face pale and his wand quivered as he approached Harry warily.

Blood drained from Harry's face. He staggered and fell back onto Voldemort's throne.

Lucius crouched down in front of Bellatrix's unmoving body and put his finger in front of the witch's nose. A second later, he sighed in relief.

There was a mixture of fear concern in the man's grey eyes as he looked up at Harry.

Harry opened his mouth and then closed it, he threw the yew wand across the room as hard as he could.

It clattered against the ground, a loud and hollow sound in the grand, echoing room.

Harry looked at the two limp bodies in the room, then stared down at his hands in horror.

"What have I done, Lucius?" He asked shakily, even though he did not want to hear the answer.

Lucius shook his head, he did not speak.

Author's note: Thank you for reading. A big thank you to Red Furry Demon for helping me. I got Bella's pose from a Youtube video "Voldemort speaks to Nagini in Parseltongue". I can't remember the exact time, but at one point, she was crouching with her head covered in the background.