A Dark Corridor

Chapter 20: A Long Night

Note: This chapter is going to be rougher than the others so far, insofar as violence is concerned. But you already figured that, didn't you?

Draco stared into those eyes. It was a strange thing; his father had so very much wanted Draco to meet the Dark Lord. He lived for the day that Voldemort would be restored to his former power. And now, he was hanging upside down in front of him. This was far from the sort of meeting that Lucius Malfoy had envisioned for his son and the Dark Lord.

"Voldemort?" Draco asked. The wizard-creature raised his brows slightly, as though surprised to hear his name being spoken. "What do you want with me? I hope you haven't been listening to this little twerp over here. He's just jealous that I'm now better friends with Severus Snape than he ever was. Trust me, you don't want to piss me off..."

Voldemort smirked in amusement. "Or you'll do what?" he asked.

"Well, if I were you, I wouldn't do anything to piss me off, or you'll find out..." Draco answered vaguely. He had some small clue, he had one hope. If he could somehow reach for his powers (as he was blocked from them by a spell the twins must have placed on him), he could possibly try...

"Are you trying to tell me that I will be losing a potential ally if I were to allow Mr. Lestrange to conduct his experiment on you? He had told me who you are, or, at least who you claim to be. Lucius Malfoy's son... You know that he is already one of my closest allies. But, as of yet, he has no child. Certainly not one who is only a few years younger than he himself is."

"Has he heard about me?" Draco asked.

Voldemort appeared innocent, if that was possible. "How could he have, if I have only heard of you myself this very evening? You see, Mr. Lestrange here is most eager to join me in my quest for forwarding the causes of wizards and witches. He told me that he had knowledge of someone who was in the Order of the Phoenix. They are my adversaries, you know. They seem to think that mixing with Muggles is a far better idea than to keep ourselves above and beyond them, as I have always believed is best. To me, Muggles are no better than apes. However, Albus Dumbledore and his allies within the Ministry of Magic seem to think that we would be better off behaving like apes than to offend them. I say we put the apes in the zoo where they belong."

"Sir, I have very little experience with Muggles, to be honest," Draco confessed. "I must say that my father, Lucius, kept me quite sheltered as a child. I wouldn't know whether or not Muggles were one way or another. My father used to say the same things you say, or pretty much," Draco rambled. "But don't you think it's pretty presumptuous to say that I am a member of the Order of the Phoenix? Where's your proof?"

"Only the word of Lestrange here. He says you have knowledge of some of their members. Who they are. I want to know who they are, Mr. Malfoy. You need to tell me who they are," Voldemort answered.

"He says? Your'e taking his word for it? Don't you think you ought to check out his motives before you go trusting him?" Draco argued.

"My Lord..." Lestrange interrupted, "If I may begin, I will get the answers you desire from him." He handed his wand to Rachel. "Hold onto him for me," he told her. Voldemort cleared the path for the young initiate. Draco snarled as Lestrange faced him.

"You little piece of shit. Just wait until I get myself untied from this. You're going to be sorry you were ever born," Draco raged.

"See this?" Lestrange asked Draco. He held up a small composition style notebook. Draco frowned, but said nothing. "It's a sort of journal. When I found out about it, I begged the writer of it to let me keep it once he left Hogwart's. Since he already knew everything in the book, he agreed, making me promise that once I became proficient in it, that I would go and join the Dark Lord and his noble cause. I worked diligently for three years, perfecting the techniques described in this book. Tonight, I'm going to demonstrate my efficiency to the Dark Lord."

He held up Draco's wand. "This process is not supposed to be used with the victim's own wand. While it's true that I would get better results from my own, as you can see, Rachel is holding it, so I'll use yours. Did you know that the Cruciatus Curse can be concentrated on only one part of a person's body?"

"I beg your pardon for interrupting, but what good would that do?" Voldemort asked. "It would seem to me that it would be far more efficient to perform the curse on the entire body, and therefore obtain a result far more quickly."

"Ah, but where's the fun in that?" Rachel giggled. Draco turned his head to look at her. She was the one holding him hostage, he noted. Not Lestrange, and not Voldemort.

"Fun? We're not here for fun. We're here to get answers out of him," Voldemort spat.

"You're a freak, Lestrange, you and your whore sister!" Draco screamed.

Lestrange poked Draco on the chest with his wand. "Crucio!" he growled. Draco's chest burned as a thousand volts of electricity seemed to jolt him. After a few seconds, Lestrange removed his wand, and the pain ceased immediately. "Let's start telling my new master what he wants to know, shall we?" Lestrange urged.

Draco panicked. He didn't know very much about the Order, except anything that would betray James Potter, who actaully had been pretty decent to him lately. "What can I tell you? I don't know anything about them!" Draco yelled as Lestrange put the wand to his skin again. Pain charged through his shoulder now. It was pain unlike anything he'd ever experienced. When it stopped again Draco roared "You're pathetic, Lestrange! You've been frying little animals to practice for these past years. And now you even have me all tied up so you can do what you want without being challenged. You're a coward!"

Coward or not, Lestrange continued. He calmly placed his wand inside Draco's ear. The pain was even worse than having to listen to Snape yell in his ear for hours about acting like a Gryffindor! "A name, if you please," Lestrange prompted Draco after removing the wand from Draco's ear. "Or perhaps you'd like the other ear done?"

This went on for a while. Draco had no concept of time. Voldemort was vascillating between horror and boredom. Rachel seemed to be excited in a rather sexual way. Especially when Lestrange's probing wand started touching other areas of Draco's body besides his ears and chest...

"Tell me a name!" Voldemort demanded as Lestrange removed his wand for what must have been the twentieth time.

Draco swallowed as he saw Lestrange's wand moving below his waist yet again. "Professor Foxworth..." he answered at last.

"Foxworth is with the Ministry, you know," Voldemort smiled calmly. "He's a specially trained wizard, who was sent to be on the Hogwart's staff, as soon as they saw my ascent to power. In other words, Mr. Malfoy, I knew about him all along. Now, then, another name, if you would be so kind?"

"Stop that!" Draco ordered Lestrange. "I know another one," he said, "Potter! And his friends!" Draco figured that he'd warn them once he got away from these bastards.

"Potter? Why am I not surprised? James Potter will be the last in my mother's branch of my family to finally die when I get the chance. And now, I shall take even more pleasure in destroying him. Who are his friends?"

"What do I have to do everything for you?" Draco snapped.

"Well, that was rather the point of this whole session, Malfoy. I came to you because I want their names. Let's not make this whole night a waste, Malfoy..." Voldemort urged. Draco felt his body being moved by the magical bind that Rachel had on him. It was being moved lower, and flattened to a supine position.

"Stick the wand up his ass," Rachel urged her brother. "Then he'll start talking!"

"Why you little bitch!" Draco snarled.

Lestrange did what his sister suggested. "Crucio!

Draco didn't know how he had managed to survive this far, and now, he was experiencing a pain so very deep and horrifying that he surely thought he would die from it. Or at least, he wished he would die after this. The very idea of actually living after this was unthinkably cruel.

And just as abruptly as it began, it stopped. Rachel looked quite flushed from it. Draco felt anger as fierce as an inferno rage through him. "You're getting off on this to be sure! Tell me, Rachel, who was the better lay? Severus or your brother?" he spat.

Rachel's expression changed to outrage. She charged forward as though to try the Cruciatus Curse on him herself. But in that instant, Draco sensed her blocking spell on him drop.

"Rachel, no!" Lestrange bellowed, but it was too late. Draco was able to feel his powers return to him. He dropped to the ground, and sat there as he used the power he'd already pulled into himself to sieze Rachel and squeeze. She screamed as she grabbed her head with her hands, clawing at her hair to try and somehow keep Draco's magic out of her mind. But he quickly found the spot in her brain that controlled her ablility to use magic, and he crushed it. He could even see the red gash appear over her head, in her aura.

The look of horror on Voldemort's face as he saw Rachel bleeding from her eyes and howling in agony was almost worth the price that Draco had paid. "He's a Breaker!" Voldemort shrieked. "Lestrange! Get out!" And the Dark Lord raced out of the dungeon. Draco was about ready to sieze Lestrange, but Lestrange was quick enough to scoop up his sister and dash out himself. Draco watched them go, and he knew he'd never see any of them ever again.

He stumbled around the room. How did he know how to do that? What was he going to do now? Should he tell Dumbledore what he'd done? Would he like to live the rest of his life with a collar around his neck, like Sev was going to? And then, Draco came across the journal that Lestrange had been waving in his face. He picked it up and paged through it. The handwriting seemed a bit familiar. And when he saw the inscription on the inside cover: This Book is Property Of: Lucius Malfoy, Draco finally fainted.