45 – An Elf for Every Occasion

Terror gripped my heart when I heard another pair of footsteps come along with Ascada's and my heart stopped when Severus leaned down and looked at my broken body. What was he doing here? Of course, he had to fulfill the duties of a Death Eater to keep up pretenses but I hadn't expected to see him again here.

His cold eyes focused on mine and for a moment I thought I saw something like regret wash over his face but he composed himself too fast for me to be sure. "You're a savage, Alacta." He sneered.

The wild woman just laughed hysterically and snapped. "So can you help me or not?"

"Veritaserum takes months to brew but if you want to elongate her suffering, I can give you something the muggles used to use to disinfect their wounds." He suggested, glowering at my kidnapper.

"Sanitize her wounds? Why would I want to do that? I don't want to help her, infections will pain her even more. That sounds good to me." She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion.

"Iodine, it burns like hell." He told her with a devilish grin, handing her a bottle of a dark red substance and I shivered. With the amount of my wounds, rubbing my wounds with the disinfecting substance could be interpreted as torture. But I knew that Severus was doing me a favor because an infection would be excruciatingly painful.

"Alright, but hurry up with the veritaserum. I'm getting tired of her screaming without giving me a shred of information to please the Dark Lord." She told him impatiently.

"Doesn't he think you are wasting your time?" He mused, stepping up in front of her challengingly.

Alacta crossed her arms defiantly. "He'll award me grandly when I hand over a member of the Order of the Phoenix to him."

"Whatever you say." Snape sneered before he disapparated, leaving me alone with a gleeful Acada that started cleaning my wounds with the fiery substance.

When my entire skin felt like it was on fire, she screamed. "Crucio!"

My muscles contorted as they were set on fire and I writhed in pain, my screams echoing in my skull. I couldn't tell how long she stood there, laughing at the spasms that rocked my body, but when she finally left me on my own the ghost of the pain she had inflicted on me haunted me and kept me from falling into a reviving slumber. The burning sensation hadn't left me because of the disinfection prickling in my freshly opened wounds.


It felt like years passed as I endured Alacta's vendetta but it couldn't have been that long because then she would have already forced me into drinking Severus' veritaserum and then I would have no choice but to tell her all I knew about the Order and I could never forgive myself such a betrayal. I was beginning to seriously panic because I couldn't escape and the Order had to find me soon because Severus had to keep up the pretense of being a loyal Death Eater so he couldn't be of much assistance to me.


A soft plop made me shudder at the thought that Alacta had already returned to torture me again. I wasn't ready to face her again, I had hardly had time to compose myself from the last time and I didn't want to give her the satisfaction of showing her just how weak I had become.

"Mistress Katrina!" Hobblestone gasped in terror when he saw my condition and relief washed through me so powerfully that it made me giddy with happiness. I had never been so happy to see someone in my entire life. "I'm so horribly sorry that I didn't find Mistress Katrina earlier. Professor Snape led me to where that horrible woman hid you away behind magical wards." He told me in a frenzy.

"Mistress?" I asked in confusion.

"Yes, Professor Dumbledore decided I should be your elf and he released me out of his service to find you." He told me proudly.

"That's nice of him." I said weakly.

"Yes, I am so happy to be of service to Mistress Katrina." He told me, taking my hand. "I'll take Mistress Katrina home now, alright?" I just nodded and let him apparate me home.


Hobblestone tried to help me up, supporting my weight but I just couldn't stand because my legs were to weak. The wound on my thigh was still bleeding and I had just lost too much blood to be able to walk around.

Oliver rushed me, tears streaking down his cheeks. "You're alive. Oh bloody hell, I am so happy to see you. Thank you, Hobblestone, thank you so much." He thanked the elf, taking my weight of his shoulders and supporting me instead of my small life savior.

"What did that horrible woman do to you?" A familiar voice piped up and my head snapped up making my vision blur and I was sure that I had to be hallucinating because that could not be Alice standing before me, looking at me with worried eyes.

"Alice?" I sobbed and Oliver caught me when I tried to walk over to the girl I believed to be dead. I fell into her arms and she started sobbing as well. "But you were dead, I practically killed you." I told her in a rush, my voice breaking.

She patted my hair softly and told me. "It wasn't your fault. I called Hobblestone and he took me to Professor Snape who was able to reverse the spell, saving my life. I'm so relieved you're alright, you were gone for so long I was sure you must be dead." She whispered, her voice cracking.

"I thought the same of you. Wait, are we even safe here? If Alacta notices my absence, she'll hunt me down." I gasped in horror, panic making my limbs tremble and Oliver picked me up so I wouldn't have to bring up any more energy for half-standing in Alice's arms.

"Dumbledore himself placed countless wards around your apartment and mine as well. Since you were taken security has been sharpened." He told me soothingly, pressing me closer to his chest.

My arms started throbbing again and I let Oliver put me down onto one of the chairs in our kitchen. He wouldn't let go of my hand, holding on as if I would disappear again any second. The tear tracks on his face shimmered in the dim light of our dining room and I tried to wipe them away but my trembling hands couldn't get the job done. "I was so scared I wouldn't see you again." I told him quietly.

He scooted his chair closer to mine and draped an arm around my waist, being careful not to touch my arms. "I've never felt so miserable in my life. Ari suspended me from the team until I sorted out my personal issues, I hardly functioned properly I was so worried." He told me, caressing whatever part of me he could reach without hurting me.

"But I'm here now." I told him with a small smile. The first real one I mustered up in months, I supposed. I was actually free I realized. No more torture from that madwoman for me and I was fiercely proud of myself that I hadn't given her anything to hold against the Order while she was at it.

"Yeah, I'm still overwhelmed. So many people in the Order worried for your safety and many members put as much extra effort into finding you as they could without neglecting their actual tasks." He told me thoughtfully.

I turned around, trying to find Hobblestone and he stepped up to my side and looked up at me expectantly. "Where exactly was I, Hobblestone?"

"Mistress Katrina was held in the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade." He informed me politely.

"I knew that tolling sounded familiar." I mused and then asked him. "Could you bring me my purple bag? Since we won't be able to go to the hospital Alice will have to heal me." Alice just nodded eagerly in agreement and immediately went to work when Hobblestone brought her my hag and she found the medical case.

"You brewed all these yourself?" She asked in awe, staring at the content of the case. "You really have kept a lot from me, haven't you?"

"I'm sorry, I only wanted to protect you. But I failed." I uttered, dropping my head in defeat.

She just laughed softly. "You silly girl, if you hadn't sacrificed yourself for me I would have never survived. I can't stand one bit of pain and would have shriveled in the face of what that woman put you through." She told me seriously.

"I still put you into danger and I can't forgive myself for that." I told her miserably.

She just shook her head at me in disbelief. "No need for that. I forgive you. What you do for the Order is amazing and I admire your courage." She had completely unwrapped the bandages around my left arm and winced. "You're going to be left with some horrible scarring." She told me as she started healing what could be healed.

"I don't care much as long as I survive. It will be a reminder of why we have to fight against the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, they're greedy savages." I said in disgust.


Alice finished healing my wounds and I was left with white lines crisscrossing along my entire arms and an hourglass shaped scar where Ascada had twisted the knife in my thigh but I had seen worse. Hobblestone made us dinner, cleaned our apartment and helped Alice take care of me.

I couldn't believe how bloody lucky I had been to heal his finger in the kitchens of Hogwarts because if I hadn't I was pretty sure that I wouldn't be alive to live through this year's winter, which meant I had been at Alacta's disposal for almost three months and had lived to tell the tale.