Gabriella woke up on a rug on the floor of the Lestrange drawing room. She was shivering, but she didn't know why until a hand caressed her naked skin from her toes up to her chin.
"That Potter bitch knew her stuff," Rabastan's voice said bitterly. "I was hoping your little stunt would have left a scar."
"I like her better this way," Bellatrix said coldly. "As a starting point. Her skin looks like porcelain, like it would shatter if you stabbed it."
"You promised-"
"You'll have your fun," Bellatrix snapped. "And I'll have mine. There, now, see. The lamb is waking."
Gabriella felt both horrified and entranced. Her eyes were drawn to Bellatrix, who was watching her with a dangerously playful gleam in her eyes.
"Hello, lamb," Bellatrix teased. She ran a fingernail down the valley between Gabriella's breasts. Gabriella tried to rise, but Bellatrix shook her head and pressed a hand on her breast, holding her down. "No, no, no, don't get up, dear. I've got a few questions for you, lamb. You're going to answer them, aren't you?"
She really didn't have much of a choice.
Rabastan sat at the edge of the rug, his dark eyes watching the two women before him hungrily.
"I don't want," Gabriella choked, feeling fear rise up in her at the sight of Rabastan. Bellatrix began calming Gabriella once more and Rabastan got up and rank what proved to be Polyjuice Potion.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew it was still Rabastan, but it was hard to remember that with Bellatrix soothing her and Sirius Black standing before her.
"Now," Bellatrix said, "where is the Dark Lord?"
Gabriella frowned, confused.
"Well, he's dead, isn't he?" she replied. "Everybody knows that."
Bellatrix slapped her sharply across the cheek, her fingernails slicing hot, painful lines across Gabriella's skin. She was vaguely aware of the warm, sticky blood on her face as she shivered.
"Now, lamb," Bellatrix whispered, "you're going to list all the spells the Potters used on their house and their persons."
"Fidelus Charm," Gabriella whimpered, fighting the urge to put her hand to her stinging cheek. She didn't want to see her own blood on her fingers.
"Go on," Bellatrix pressed.
"That's all I know," Gabriella insisted. "That's all I know, I swear!"
Bellatrix hissed, beginning to pace. Gabriella didn't know what the Lestranges were looking for, but she didn't think she could help them find it. Knowing Bellatrix, this didn't bode well.
"Names of all known Order members, pet," Bellatrix snapped.
Gabriella could fell her heart racing.
Remus. Frank Longbottom. People she knew and liked.
She felt both the pull of obeying Bellatrix and the urge to protect Remus. He was the only Marauder left. She closed her eyes and could see his burning amber eyes as he made love to her. She could hear his heartbeat in her ears, the heartbeat so distinct in its speed for his...condition. No matter what happened, she could not say his name.
"Should you curse her again?" Rabastan asked in Sirius's voice. Gabriella shivered again, waiting to feel another blank rush.
"No," Bellatrix said after a moment of consideration. "Have fun, Rabastan. Call me if she squeals. Just remember, if this doesn't work as you say it will, we're going back to my way."
Gabriella's eyes opened as Bellatrix left the room and the man who looked like Sirius approached her. He walked differently and Gabriella kept reminding herself that this wasn't him, that Sirius was in Azkaban and this man was her rapist.
"Hello, little lamb," Sirius's voice said. His fingers touched her skin leaving nothing but cold in their wake.
"Please," she whimpered. "Please, I don't know anything."
His wand was pointing between her eyebrows. She opened her mouth to beg again.
"Obliviate."
/-/
Gabriella woke up on a rug on the floor of the Lestrange sitting room. She was shivering, but she mostly noticed fingers pinching her nose as she choked down a potion that someone was pouring between her lips. Her eyes fluttered open.
"Sirius?" she said, confused.
"How do you feel?"
She sat up a bit with Sirius's help, gripping his shoulders when a wash of dizziness hit her.
Gabriella felt sore, disoriented, confused, and strangely aroused. She thought it might have to do with the fact that she was naked, unsure of where her clothes were.
"I don't know," she muttered. "My head hurts." His body neared hers. "What happened?"
"I had to," he whispered, pulling up his left sleeve. Her eyes widened as she saw the Dark Mark burning black on his once-flawless forearm. She swallowed, backing away, feeling the rug burning her skin. "They were torturing you. They were going to rape and kill you if I didn't. There was talk of giving you to Greyback as a toy."
She was growing more aroused. Gabriella couldn't understand why. She was upset with Sirius. He'd done the unthinkable, he'd...he'd...
He'd saved her the only way he could. At least, that was what he was telling her. Gabriella didn't know if she could believe any of it, but she didn't have much of a choice at this point. She nodded.
"I need to go away," he whispered. "They're sending me to take care of some things, but Rabastan promised to keep you safe for me. Okay? Trust him."
She began to shiver again.
"Don't leave me," she begged, clutching Sirius more tightly. "Don't leave me with them."
Sirius she couldn't trust, but the Lestranges were monsters. He smiled at her, leaning forward and kissing her with bruising force.
"I have to," he said. "There's no other way. Be a good girl and they won't hurt you. I'll be back soon."
It was another lie, of course. He was not back soon. For three days, Bellatrix would ask her questions, use Unforgivables on her, and sometimes Gabriella would give some answers or even carve some things into her own skin with cursed knives pressed into her hand by Bellatrix, who pulled the strings.
When Bellatrix would leave, she would make Gabriella take potions that would make her incredibly aroused. Rabastan worked her down from fear and in spite of her confusion and revulsion she found herself allowing him to touch her. But there was no satisfaction in his touch. Strangely she wanted Sirius, and less to protect her, more to help her find the elusive release.
On the fourth day, Rabastan told her that Sirius was dead and that she now belonged to him.
And in spite of his obvious anger, she couldn't stop crying. Rabastan choked her until she did not have enough breath left for sobs. Then he had sex with her, repeating over and over than she belonged to him, as if to get her used to the idea.
"Stay here, lamb," Rabastan said before he left.
As if there was anywhere else to go. She'd not been allowed to leave the room for anything but baths and using the toilet, and she was always accompanied.
Gabriella went to the window, which was something like a poor floor-length mirror in the dark. She could see the scars tracing her skin like sick tattoos, joined by bruises from Rabastan. He liked to see bruises on her.
She knew what Rabastan was trying to do. In setting himself opposite Bellatrix was hoping to brainwash her, to use some sort of sick Stockholm Syndrome to make her devoted to him. She shivered again, looking at her stringy hair that had once been soft and beautiful. She had once been soft and beautiful. Gabriella couldn't tell in the window, but she was sure there were bags under her eyes, bright as the bruises blooming across her skin.
Gabriella didn't have to see her eyes to know they were empty, hollow, dull...
This was not her in the window, but some shadow of a person who resembled her.
And always, there was this horrific feeling that she had forgotten something, something very important.
Bellatrix entered the room with a tray.
"Feeding time for lamb," she teased.
Gabriella stared at the window, not turning, watching Bellatrix put down the tray from the reflection on the window.
"I'm not hungry," she whispered.
"Starving yourself won't bring them back you stupid little chit."
Them?
But Rabastan had only told her about Sirius. Who else was dead?
She continued to stare at her reflection as if it held the key to remembering.
Bellatrix growled in frustration, but Gabriella did not turn.
"Crucio!"
The white-hot pain crept across her body as she fell to her knees, twitching and writhing and screaming, her hands against the glass, sure to leave a mark.
Memories flooded her head, the dam broken... Lily and James dead, celebrating Sirius's arrest, Rabastan taking the Polyjuice Potion.
Lily and James... Dead.
Her screams had nothing to do with the curse. Her agony continued when the curse was lifted.
"I remember," Gabriella hissed as Bellatrix smirked down at her. "I remember everything you sick bastards!"
Bellatrix just giggled, stroking Gabriella's stringy hair. Gabriella was too weak to protest.
"Excellent," Bellatrix cooed. "You were so boring, thinking Sirius was going to come back any day and save you. But Rabastan wanted so badly to fuck you. Merlin knows why. You're disgusting."
Gabriella closed her eyes. Sirius was gone. Sirius was in Azkaban. It had been Rabastan who showed her the mark on his arm, not Sirius. It was just another part of the retraining of her mind.
"You did this to me," Gabriella said dully. "You made me like this."
"Oh, no, lamb," Bellatrix said happily. "You did this to yourself. None of this would have been necessary if you'd been sharing, but someone's been selfish." Her eyes gleamed brightly. "Now start - naming - names!"
Each pause was punctuated by a flick of her wand that sent a shock of pain through Gabriella's body.
"Voldemort," Gabriella spat, not wanting to give in so easily.
Enraged, Bellatrix went over to Gabriella's naked, outstretched body, listening as Gabriella cried out in pain. Steam rose off the red-hot skin where the water had come in contact.
"Give me a name!"
Gabriella gasped in pain.
"Albus Dumbledore!"
Bellatrix was clearly not amused. She levitated a bookcase carefully over to Gabriella's prone body and let it land on Gabriella's left hand, crushing multiple bones. Gabriella screamed, her voice sounding strangely outside of her as it pierced the air.
"Names!"
Gabriella thrashed her head, shaking it defiantly.
Bellatrix pointed her wand at the soles of Gabriella's feet, burning them quickly, one by one. Gabriella shrieked, twitching and convulsing, which drew her attention back to the pain in her hand.
The door opened and a younger man she didn't immediately recognize stood there, appraising the scene.
"Has she said anything?" he asked casually, taking off his gloves and tossing them on the desk.
His face was vaguely familiar, but in her haze of pain no names were coming to her as attached to it.
"Nothing useful yet," Bellatrix snarled. "But you'll talk, won't you, lamb?"
The man pulled up a chair lazily, presumably to watch.
"Speak," Bellatrix ordered.
"Lily and James Potter," Gabriella said weakly. The arrival of this man had merely strengthened her resolve. She would not tell.
"Allow me," he said softly, kneeling down and parting Gabriella's scarred, bruised thighs with surprisingly gentleness. He pulled out his wand and whispered, "Slut doesn't need this anymore."
Gabriella saw a look of delight on Bellatrix's face before she felt a searing and unimaginable pain. She cried out once more.
He had, effectively, cut out her clitoris.
But there was no stopping now. Gabriella couldn't care, not now that she understood they were not letting her live. Bellatrix liked to play with her food, and Gabriella had become the main course.
"Peter Pettigrew."
The young man conjured a feather and began to run it along the burned soles of her feet. Every shift of discomfort reminded Gabriella of the other injuries she had sustained. She whined.
"Bitch likes it," he chuckled. "Go on, then. Give me a name and I might reward you."
Gabriella snarled.
"Sirius Black," she spat.
Bellatrix touched her wand to Gabriella's stomach, shocking her. She then touched it to Gabriella's right hand, shocking her once more, this time causing the muscles in Gabriella's hand to twitch.
"You'd better really start talking, lamb," Bellatrix said coldly, "or this is really going to hurt."
Gabriella closed her eyes as her hand twitched out of her control.
"Lacibella Lane."
"Who's that?" the man asked with mild interest.
"That Healer bitch my cousin was sleeping with," Bellatrix said in a voice of pure ice. "She's dead."
The knife Gabriella was so familiar with was back, this time in Bellatrix's hand instead of her own.
Gabriella knew that it was more dangerous in the hand of its owner, for Bellatrix was always more creative with something sharp in her hand.
With a shiver, Gabriella watched Bellatrix kneel beside her, a grin on her face and a crazed gleam in her dark eyes.
"Lamb needs shearing," Bellatrix said in her baby voice, nicking a spot at the top of Gabriella's left breast. "How about we start with the toes?"
She couldn't mean what it sounded like she meant... Could she?
Apparently she could, and Gabriella shrieked in pain as the man held down Gabriella's leg, letting Bellatrix more easily carve the skin off Gabriella's burned toes.
"Please!" Gabriella cried, tears blurring her vision as muscle and tendons, too, were carved off the bones of her toes. "Alastor Moody!"
"We already know about him, pet," the man said. "You'll have to try harder."
They moved to her other foot, holding down her leg as Bellatrix carved, Gabriella screaming and shrieking and writing in pain. She could feel tears running down her face.
She closed her eyes as her toes were skinned. She was back in Sirius's kitchen, him pushing her against the table, his strong hands clutching her with desperation. Gabriella could recall the fire of his mouth on hers, the way he cried her name in their moment of shared passion.
Gabriella's voice was nearly spent.
"Fabian Prewett."
The knife moved from her toes up her foot.
"Gideon Prewett!"
Gabriella screamed. Her voice was cracking against the strain of her situation.
She had two names left, two people she could give in, two people who were still alive. Perhaps she could convince Bellatrix she had only one, but she would still have to condemn a friend to torture and death. Could she do that?
As Bellatrix continued to flay her feet, the man hit Gabriella with the Cruciatus Curse. He held her leg firmly in place to keep Bellatrix from having an accident with the knife.
Gabriella screamed and writhed. There would be no making it out. No escape. She had to do something, though, because she couldn't stand much more.
"If I give you a name," she screeched, "will you please kill me?"
Bellatrix paused.
"The name, lamb?"
"Will you-"
"The name," Bellatrix pressed, digging the knife in with more force.
Gabriella cried out.
"Frank Longbottom," she wailed.
Bellatrix immediately pulled away.
"No others?" she demanded. "You're sure you have no one else, lamb?"
Remus's face flitted across her consciousness, and never before had Gabriella realized how beautiful he was.
"No," she moaned. "Please, Bellatrix. Please."
Bellatrix stood, wiping blood off her hands and onto a handkerchief that was sitting on the desk. She opened a drawer and smiled.
"I was never very good with household spells," she mused. She lifted one of her other knives out of the drawer. "My mother bewailed her fate, the eldest daughter incapable of cooking and cleaning and organizing parties. How would she ever marry me off?" She snarled. "Of course, my simple mother never could have foreseen the rise of our Dark Lord and all it meant."
"Few did," the man murmured, eyes bright as he nodded in agreement, like a pupil eager to please his teacher.
Bellatrix didn't seem to hear him, so caught up in her monologue was she.
"I married, and well according to her standards," Bellatrix said. "And I never needed any of those silly spells. I mean, what did she think the elves were for? But there was one cooking spell I learned." She placed the two knives carefully on Gabriella's bare, bruised abdomen, the cool metal causing her muscles to contract. "You're sure, lamb, that it's just Longbottom?"
Gabriella's eyes grew wide as she realized the fate devised for her.
"Bellatrix, please! I don't know anyone else! I wasn't in the Order! I wasn't speaking to Sirius! Lily and James were in hiding!"
Dark eyes cold and unrelenting, Bellatrix waved her wand and the knives went about their work, chopping a shrieking Gabriella as if she were merely a particularly vocal vegetable.
"It's a pity," Bellatrix said with a sneer. "Always a pity to waste such pure blood. But Rabastan couldn't keep her as a pet forever, and she's not worth the trouble of breaking, weak as her mind is. She would only grow more unstable under the retraining, as she did when he tried. Such instability in her would lead to weakness in him, too, if he tried to keep her. His fondness for her would make him weak, as it made Sirius weak." Her lips curled as Gabriella's screams became more labored. "Take note, Barty. This is the face that makes blood traitors out of even the most noble of purebloods, although Merlin knows why. I mean, just look at her!" Bellatrix cackled, kicking Gabriella's bleeding foot. "Not so pretty now, are you, lamb?"
Gabriella's voice was gone. She croaked and gargled in response.
She could no longer betray Remus. Nothing else mattered, not Bellatrix, not the man, not even the knives.
"Come, Barty. Let us find my husband and his useless brother. We have a visit to pay to Frank Longbottom and his pretty young wife."
