Odile blinked slowly, trying to clear the haze over her eyes, mouth feeling cottony. She moaned as her head pounded, body protesting as she tried to sit up. She lifted her palm to her forehead only for it to be pulled away from her. She looked down blurrily to see a shackle around her wrists, a freezing metal chaining her to the wall. She yanked harder to free herself, with no luck. She continued to pull at them, panic building in her chest as the shackle refused to give way.

"Hello? Anyone?" She cried, heart beating wildly as her breath came in brief pants. She tugged her wrist more violently, wincing as her bones screamed at her in disapproval. She glanced around, taking in the walls that surrounded her. It was pitch black, a small gap of moonlight creeping in from the sole window providing her limited sight. Panic overtook her then, and she lunged forward, screaming her throat raw. She felt tears fall from her swollen eyes but she couldn't stop them. The chains helds her fast and painfully, refusing to budge.

"HELP! PLEASE SOMEONE, HE-"

"There's no use screaming Odile, no one can hear you." She gasped at the voice, sounding muffled from behind the door to the room. She knew that voice anywhere, and it sent a violent chill down her spine.

"Matthew?" She received no response beside a soft chuckle and the sound of retreating footsteps. Her heart leapt in her chest and she pulled at the chains more, trying desperately to get out of the restraints.

"MATTHEW PLEASE, PLEASE COME BACK! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE! PLEASE!" The last word changed from a scream into a sob, wracking her body. Minutes went by like decades, silence and darkness her only company. She wiped her eyes on her shoulder and gritted her teeth.

"This is not how I die." She finally said aloud, steeling her nerves. She stretched her legs out, slipping her heels off so she could feel the floor. The freezing stone floor caused her to shiver, but she continued nonetheless. She needed anything, a weapon, a key, and leverage that was poss-

"Ow!" She cried out in surprise as her toe hit something sharp. She carefully flattened her foot to get a better feel of the object, gripping the base with her toes and dragging it back to where she could get a better look at it. She adjusted herself so the little light she had would shine onto the object. It was a short metal rod, sharpened on one end appearing similar to the ones atop the iron gate that surrounded the mansion. How it had gotten there she had no idea, but she didn't give it a second thought. It took quite a bit of maneuvering but she finally managed to grab it in her hand. It was at that moment that a large bang sounded from the corridor behind the door and heavy footfalls approached her cell. She rammed the spike into her messy bun, barely missing her scalp. She mussed her hair around it, hoping to Merlin that the illusion of it being a hair piece would work. She had enough time to sit back up when the giant door was flung open, engulfing the room in light. She cried out at the intrusion, squeezing her eyes closed.

"Well dear, fancy seeing you here." She peeked at the figure standing in the doorway,eyes still adjusting to the sudden light.

"Eve. I take it this is your handiwork then?" He step-mother chuckled nonchalantly, entering the room slowly as if waiting for something.

"You could say it was a team effort." Matthew's snarky voice was like shattered glass to her ears, and she finally looked up fully. Her mouth dropped slightly as she saw the crowd that slipped into the cell. There stood about 10 or 15 figures, her eyes still blurring the shadows, making it difficult to get a true count.

"I don't understand, what's happening?" She stuttered, eyes flitting from figure to figure with fearful glances.

"We're going to ask you a few questions… and you will answer them. Carrow, grab her." Odile struggled as she heard the steps approaching her. As she felt clammy hands grasp her chains she thrust her head into their throat, a strangled cry coming from the figure.

"Why you little-" She had barely enough time to smirk before a fist landed squarely on her nose, a sickening crunch sounding as her head snapped back. Blood gushed down her face, a groan fell past her lips as her vision blurred. She faded out of reality for a moment; but hearing the lock the chains she was attached to being released brought her back to the present.

"Do be careful Alecto, we need her to be conscious for this next part." Odile could barely protest as the figure roughly over their shoulder, her eyes darting around the room. With light in the room she got a better idea of what had held her captive. Two short chains attached to the wall laid where she'd once been, dark red smudges around the cuffs. Her wrists throbbed in agony, but she knew she had no time to concentrate on that. She snuck her fingers into her hair, grasping the rod tightly. She sucked in a deep inhale before slamming the sharpened edge into the shoulder blade of the person holding her. There was a loud yelp and she felt herself being unceremoniously dropped to the floor. She was up then, and speeding past the few figures around her quick as a flash.

"Grab her!" She narrowly avoided a tackle from one of the shadowed figures, side stepping another failed dive. Perhaps taking physical education in Ilvermorny wasn't quite such a bad idea as it had seemed. There was a scramble of people trying to grasp her, but there was little they could do as the adrenaline pumped through her body. She fled out the doorway, eyes scanning out the corridor, seeing a staircase to her right. She turned to run, she was going to make it, she was nearly-

"CRUCIO!" And then there was pain. Pain like she'd never felt before. Like every nerve of her body was on fire, like a million needles were being pressed into her skin, like every bone in her body was breaking over and over and over again. She watched her mother die in front of her eyes a thousand times, heard Fred's silence in a thousand decibels. It was like an amp had been plugged into every terrible moment in her past and it was being blared on repeat. She dropped to the floor, legs no longer able to hold her weight. She couldn't escape it, and the seconds ticked by like hours as she writhed on the floor. She heard someone screaming, an awful guttural cry. She wanted to get them help, if only she could get up a- unless? Oh yes, that screaming was coming from her.

"Enough, Bellatrix! Stop the spell!" Her father's voice barely registered as the fire raged inside of her veins. Suddenly it stopped, and she fell flat, breath coming slowly. Every inch of her ached, and it felt like somebody had put their foot on her throat.

"Ohh, you take all the fun out of it, Mikey Moo. Or are you just doting on your darling little mudblood-loving daughter?" Bellatrix's sneering voice grated in her ears as she felt her eyes flutter shut.

"The Dark Lord wants her alive. Or are you choosing to disregard his ruling?" Her father cut back, voice tight. Her mind flagged the danger in his sentence, but it was no use. She was falling, falling into a deep state of unconsciousness. The pain in her body dulled as she slept, relieving her temporarily of the torture she'd just endured at the hands of Sirius' murderer.

A/N: Welcome to the descent everybody. Hard to believe we're already half-way through book two. It's been the biggest challenge for me as a writer, only going in with the knowledge of how I was starting and how it would end. It was everything in between that was giving me trouble. I hope y'all will enjoy the rest as much as I do.

Please don't forget to drop a review if you have a mo, and favourite/follow if you're enjoying this adventure.

Special thank you to my Ella-Verayne for following! See y'all on the next one!