Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it.

I've already clearly fallen behind in this again, but I've set this story as my goal for Camp NaNo, so I hope to update it every day in April at the very least (though I've already missed April 1st, and technically April 2nd but since I haven't gone to bed yet I'm counting today as the second.

Day 22: Pain

The screams that echoed in what had once been Hogwarts Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom were a common occurence nowadays. Theodore Nott was trying his hardest to block out the sound, to pretend it didn't bother him in the slightest. Theodore's father was a Death Eater. Amycus Carrow expected him to excel at the foul magic every Hogwarts student was now forced to learn. There had been a time when Theodore had even imagined that he would, that he would one day follow in his father's footsteps and bring glory to their family name. How naive he had been. There was nothing glorious about any of this.

Next to him, Vincent Crabbe laughed cruelly as he sent the Cruciatus Curse once more at the student curled on the ground in front of him. In a strange way, the laugh was almost worse than the screams. Theodore had known Crabbe since they were children, before they had even come to Hogwarts. He had always known the other boy to have a cruel streak, but his obvious enjoyment of torturing another student was still somehow shocking.

Theodore stared at the student he was supposed to have been practicing his own curse on. The girl couldn't have been any more than twelve years old. She watched him with wide, terrified eyes. Tears were already leaking down her face, and Theo hadn't even raised his wand yet. He had no idea what she had done to land herself in detention, but he knew she had done nothing to deserve this. Still, Theodore tried to steel himself. If he refused to practice the curse, he would only end up in detention himself and then he would be the one being tortured.

Some part of Theo whispered that he ought to defy the order anyway. Wasn't that the right thing to do? No, it was the stupid thing to do, he argued back to himself. If he refused to perform the curse, someone else would only do it. Perhaps Amycus himself. That would only make things worse for the girl. Everybody knew the more committed you were to a dark curse, the worse it was for the victim, and Amycus liked nothing better than the chance to inflict pain on those who had crossed him.

Theodore raised his wand and pointed it at the little girl, wishing he could apologize for what he was about to do, wishing he could explain that it was better this way, better him than someone who would perform the task at hand with relish.

"Crucio!" The girl fell to the ground, but her whimpers were much less pained than the screams of the students around her.

"Disappointing," Amycus Carrow was at Theo's side, shaking his head, "I know you can do better than that, Nott. Focus."

"Sorry, Professor," Theo muttered, forcing his voice to sound disappointed in the outcome as well.

He raised his wand again, thinking that he only hoped his results continued to be just as… disappointing.

Leave a review and tell me what you thought. I was planning to do something with Frank and Alice for this, but then I was worried it would be too similar to a drabble I read recently over the same subject.