Chapter 2

Sirius' pulse was still there. Weak, but it was there. Although it wasn't clear how long the effect of the charms would last, and so the leader of the Death Eaters took out his wand, aimed it at Sirius, and yelled "Mobilcorpus!"

Fortunately, He-who-must-not-be-named had given them a portkey, with which they would get back to him. Every way else to travel would have been nearly impossible with the unconscious prisoner.

They stood in a circle around it, and then the leader touched Sirius, and all together they touched the portkey. And a short time afterwards all of them stood in a dark cellar room.

When the other ones did go back to Voldemort, Peter Pettigrew had stayed behind, in Sirius' garden, and from there he went back to his home. No one, besides perhaps Sirius, knew that he was the spy, and Sirius wouldn't be able to tell anyone.

Meanwhile Lord Voldemort had appeared to the newcomers, to see if everything had worked as planned. When he saw the unconscious prisoner, he smiled with satisfaction Now victory was near!

Soon he would kill the boy with the power to destroy him. And then he just had to get Dumbledore out of the way, and nothing could stop him. He smiled in anticipation of victory. And everyone who saw that smile shuddered, because somehow it wasn't human.

His handsome face was mauled by the expression of cruelty that had become characteristic of the wizard.

"So this is Black! Well done my faithful Death Eater! Now tie him to the wall, and then wake him!" The addressed men did as they had been told.

They maneuvered Sirius to the wall and then tied him with the shackles, which came out of the wall as ordered. Then they used a waking spell.

Sirius awakened slowly. He kept his eyes shut, while he tested his body with slow motions. Besides the terrible headache, everything seemed to be fine - if you didn't count the fact that his hands and feet were tied together and to the wall, and he hung a little bit over the floor, so that his wrists bore his whole weight. At the moment this just felt uncomfortable, soon it would become painful. But Sirius had the feeling that he would go through things much worse than overused wrists.

And then he heard a cold voice that chilled him to the bone. "Look, Black is awake! You can open your eyes, or are you so afraid to look at me?" Obviously his slow movements hadn't been as unobtrusive as he had thought them to be.

He opened his eyes and found himself looking directly into Voldemort's triumphant ones.

Although he had seen Voldemort only on old photos at the school, he immediately recognized him. He looked older now, but there was such an air of coldness and cruelty surrounding him, that it would be impossible to confuse him with someone else.

"I take it you know why you are here?" Voldemort asked mockingly.

"Go to hell!" Sirius answered heatedly.

"I believe I'll have to teach you some manners. Crucio!" Voldemort said calmly, with a small winking of his wand, and watched as Sirius bit his teeth together, as to not crying out. After some seconds he took his wand up, and Sirius exhaled relieved.

"That was just a small taste of what I can do to you. It can get much worse. Now? Do you have another answer for me?

"My answer won't change! You can spare yourself the trouble!"

"All right, it is your own fault. If you want to be that pigheaded, then I'll do it the hard way!"

"Oh, there is another way?"

"I'm the mightiest wizard on this planet. Someone with your abilities could be helpful to me…"

"Joining you? Me? Never!"

"Okay, as you wish! CRUCIO!" This time Voldemort said it with more emphasis, and while the pain had been bad before, like Sirius whole body consisted of a bad tooth, he now felt as if thousands of small needles would cut into his body.

He bit his teeth together, until he could hear them cracking, being too proud to show his pain to Voldemort and his Death Eater. After an eternity, it seemed, the pain stopped, and he couldn't suppress a relieved sigh.

"Impressive. Most of the other people at least cry at this strength."

"You'll have to do something better, to make me cry!" Sirius knew that making Voldemort angry wasn't such a good idea. But he just couldn't keep quiet. His whole being refused to play the victim. And if he wasn't able to do something, then at least he had to talk.

And perhaps it wasn't that bad if Voldemort killed him now. In spite of his brave words, he wasn't that sure that he wouldn't break down and talk, after some time. When the pain got unbearable. Sirius knew, that every man could just bear a certain amount of pain, and although his maximal amount had never been reached, that didn't mean that it didn't exist.

"As you wish. CRUCIO!" This time Voldemort cried the word, and the pain was worse than anything Sirius had ever experienced. Instead of the thousands of small needles, they were now big sticks that bore into his body. The pain became so strong, that he didn't realize he had bitten straight through his lip, nor did he even notice the pain in his wrists.

The only thing he felt was the all-embracing, searing hot pain caused by Voldemort's curse. Finally, short before he fell unconscious, the pain stopped.

"Well, I think that's enough for today. We'll continue the fun tomorrow!" he could hear Voldemort's cruel voice, then merciful darkness embraced him.