Chapter 3 -
"Stupid!"
*Bang!*
"Stupid!"
*Bang!*
"Stupid!"
*Bang!*
"Stupid!" Sirius yelled and banged his head against the wall again in frustration. It was just about the only thing he could do. The chains holding his arms weren't long enough to let him stand; otherwise he would have been pacing no matter how small the room was. He wanted to yell and scream and curse, but he wasn't about to let those bastards have the satisfaction.
He couldn't believe he'd fallen for that. He'd always imagined that if he were caught it would be by at least half a dozen Death Eaters all surrounding him and throwing curses at him till he finally fell. Or at lest something equally dramatic. But no, he'd been distracted by a pretty face and he'd forgotten, for just a minute, that there were people after him and he was supposed to be hiding.
His mind replayed the events of the night, trying to find some little clue that the other man had had more sinister intentions than a shag in his hotel room. But all his mind could come up with were the contradicting visions, of gold eyes filled with playful desire and then mocking contempt, the feel of warm lips kissing along his jaw and the blinding pain of a slap hard enough to break bone. He sighed and slumped against the wall of the cell. He'd give one thing to that guy, whatever his name was. He was a good actor: Sirius hadn't suspected a thing.
"I'm sorry James," he whispered, closing his eyes against the headache starting to pound in the back of his skull. "I knew this was a bad idea, you should have chosen Peter, no one would have ever suspected him," Sirius' eyes snapped open as a sharp laugh echoed against the stone walls of his cell. Leaning against the frame of his cell door was the bastard who had gotten him into this mess. Sirius glared at him, but the only response he got was a teeth-baring smile.
"Oh, yes, and that would have made our job so much easier," the other man said smugly.
"What are you talking about?" Sirius bit out. "You guys probably don't even know who Peter is."
"You think so? You're wrong, I know very well who Peter Pettigrew is," Sirius' eyes grew wide. 'Oh God, what have they done to Peter.' He thought frantically.
"If you bastards have hurt him…" but he was cut off as his captor laughed at him again.
"Hurt him?" he asked, as if it were the most absurd thing he had ever heard. "He came to us." Sirius shook his head violently. The meaning was clear, but he just couldn't believe him. Peter was harmless.
"You're lying!" he yelled jerking forward to punch him only to be brought up short by the shackles on his wrists.
Instantly, the Death Eater was standing over him, his hands shoving Sirius' shoulders painfully against the wall. Sirius tried to keep his expression neutral, but the intensity with which the other man was staring at him made him shiver.
"Don't believe me?" the man asked in a silken whisper. "Then I'll have him bring your meals…when I feel you deserve them." 'Ah, now we're getting to the threats,' Sirius thought. He'd had several classes on interrogating prisoners in Auror training. But in the end it always boiled down to threats and Sirius already knew that those wouldn't work on him. Because nothing the Death Eaters could do to him would be half as bad as what he knew they'd do to James and his family if they found them.
"Now, I know you can't be that stupid. You know why you're here and what I want. So make this easier on both of us and just tell me where they are," the man said, his eyes never leaving Sirius'.
"I know what you want," Sirius said, smirking. "And it's got nothing to do with the information you Master wants you to beat out of me." His captor's gold eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing to slits.
"You think so do you?" he growled out. He leaned forward and ran his tongue along Sirius' bottom lip. The action was so unexpectedly gentle that Sirius gasped. His captor took the opportunity to lap at his mouth again, his tongue sliding between Sirius' lips to explore his mouth.
At first Sirius kissed back, reveling in the warmth and passion behind the caress, but as he tried to put his arms around the other man and the chains on his wrists clanged against the rock wall behind him he was brought painfully back to reality. His eyes snapped open and, without thinking, he bit down, hard.
The other man pulled back with a yelp and put his hand to his now bleeding lip. For a surreal moment Sirius thought that his eyes were glowing: pale yellow, ethereal and terrifying. But the moment passed and Sirius found himself with a broken jaw without seeing more than a blur of the hit that delivered it. The world spun for a moment before he forced himself to ignore the pain and pay attention to his captor.
"Don't ever bite me," the man ground out, baring teeth that, for the first time, Sirius realized were a bit too long and a bit too pointed to be human. "I bite back." Sirius barely withheld a shiver of fear at the ice and malice in the other man's voice.
Sirius watched as the other man forced himself to calm down and pulled his wand from a pocket in his robes and pointed it at him. Sirius tensed, fully expecting crucio or imperio depending on what his captor wanted to do with him. But the only spell cast was one to heal his jaw.
"I could have killed you for that," he said softly, his eyes focused on some distant point, not even looking at him.
"No you couldn't. Your master needs me alive," Sirius countered, moving his newly healed jaw experimentally. Amber eyes moved to focus on him, his captor cocked his head, considering.
"True," he said at last. "But I could make you wish you were dead." There was no change of expression, no warning as the man kicked out and crushed Sirius' arm between his heel and the wall. Sirius couldn't keep himself from crying out in pain, instinctively trying to move the arm to cradle it against his chest and only managed to twist his arm into an unnatural angle by pulling against the shackle on his wrist.
"I'm not going to heal that one," Sirius heard the other man say through ringing ears. His senses were swimming and he hoped he didn't go into shock.
"What's your name?" Sirius bit out as he managed to focus on his cell again. The other man raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "I want to know who I should be damning to hell." He explained, glaring at him the whole time. His captor just laughed.
" My name is Remus Lupin. But it won't do you any good, I'm already damned," he said and then left Sirius alone in the cell. For the next few hours he swam in and out of consciousness, the pain in his arm settling down to a dull throb as long as he stayed perfectly still. He was roused from his half-sleep by the door to his cell opening again.
Sirius looked up, fully expecting to see Remus walking through the door. But it wasn't Remus. It was Peter.
"He was telling the truth," Sirius said numbly as the short and rather pudgy form of his school friend walked across the cell and placed a bowl of water on the stone pallet that Sirius was chained to. Peter didn't say anything; he wouldn't even look at Sirius.
"Peter…Pete!" Sirius yelled as the smaller man turned to leave the cell. Peter finally looked up at him, his expression warring between pity and anger.
"Just tell them where they are Sirius," he said in little more than a whisper before closing the cell door and locking it behind him.