WARNINGS: GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF DEATH IN THIS CHAPTER
First: I have crossed into 300 THOUSAND WORDS. It makes me want to cry. I've never stayed so invested before, and I haven't lost any motivation or passion for telling this story and I really owe it all to my readers, thanks for being here and sharing this space with me, you truly make my life a lovelier place!
SO this chapter was also very involved and I had to consult a lot of cannon! Especially when it comes to deciding what Voldemort looks like in this form, which GoF never tells us! I ended up going with DH description when Harry sees what's left of Voldemort from Kings Cross chapter.
Anyway, we are getting into it here bwhaha. Honestly, I do not even understand how I got so deep into this, i started with so many hopes of just writing endless fluff and then I go and make everyone suffer? lol. Can't help it, but I do try to give ya'll nice happy chapters too! There will be some other notes at the end, but enjoy!
Wormtail undid Penny's binds only to replace them with new ones trapping her a hard wood chair. When he was satisfied they were tight enough, so tight Penny could not move an inch, he dragged her toward the fireplace where he'd set down the creature in an armchair. Penny struggled, turning to Wormtail, "Please, don't do this!" she pleaded, knowing full well there was no getting out of this situation.
He didn't respond to her, pausing to wipe several beads of sweat from himself, Penny unable to take her eyes from his ugly, nervous face. The closer she got to the thing in the chair the more terrified she became. Her brain still had not fully recovered and caught up with events, but it functioned well enough to remind her of the prophecy Trealawny had given Harry during his exam in their third year, a premonition declaring the servant would return to his master.
For obvious reasons, Penny had never taken it seriously, she'd seen enough of Wormtail to determine him to be far too incapable to locate Voldemort. After all, if all the best aurors and even Dumbledore hadn't found him, then what hope was there for Wormtail? But, now she was forced to accept the reality that he'd been successful, meaning she, the sister of Harry Potter, was now captive of Lord Voldemort. It was the most awful of feelings, and the first time in Penny's life where the only thing she wanted to do was openly cry. She could not think, not figure out how to do anything. All she could do was feel the suffocating terror that she would soon be dead.
She'd survived her first encounter with Voldemort, how could she possibly survive again? There was no doubt in Penny's mind that he would want revenge, to make her suffer as a way to inflict pain on Harry. It wasn't fair-Penny did not want to die, the thought filled her with a vast emptiness, death felt like a very heavy blanket, one that she could never escape; beneath which, she could not breath, move, or be heard. Even Snape could not find her in death-Snape-she thought, her heart skipping a beat. If Penny died she knew the man would feel responsible, and she'd never get the chance to apologize to him, or finally get him to admit he cared for her.
There was too much more for her to learn from him, if only she hadn't been so awful to him, had taken a moment to let him explain, but instead she'd attacked him for a choice she knew nothing about, for a life she never so much as asked him about. She wished very much for a second chance, to find those dark eyes again and get the chance to tell him how annoyingly important he was to her, but that didn't matter anymore because Penny's life had taken an unfortunate turn, all she wanted was to understand why-how she had landed on their doorstep?
She remembered losing control, but she had no idea what her magic had done. The conversation she'd had with Tom was clear and crips in her head, but everything after that was blank. It was almost like she'd been asleep and merely woken up on the grass. Perhaps her expression had apparated her, but people could not apparate in the Hogwarts grounds, so how could she have left? Yet, Penny distinctly remembered feeling as though her body had been pulled apart and scattered into a dozen or more pieces and then sucked through a tube, which was not congruent with the descriptions she'd read about apparition, so perhaps it was something else entirely.
The feeling of helplessness only increased as Penny's mind raced with all the possibilities, a desperate attempt to distract her from the truth she could no longer ignore. Wormtail spun her around to face the thing ; the monster of her dreams, the evil that plagued her life; the murderer of her parents: Lord Voldemort. A wave of sickness stirred in her stomach as she laid eyes upon the revolting sight before her. She knew he wasn't a man, he'd barely survived that night, according to Dumbledore, but Penny had never imagined in what form he did manage to flee in, it was truly a picture of the most grotesque of nightmares.
Looking back at Penny was a seemingly naked child, who appeared to be wrapped in blankets, the little skin Penny could see was raw, rough and flayed looking. He had no hair, not even eyelashes and his eyelids were so far receded into his head that his cold red eyes appeared to be set upon his face like those googly-eyes she'd used in kindy usually were, as though at any moment they would fall off and Penny would be looking into an empty socket.
Nothing about Voldemort was human, it couldn't be, and yet, he held his wand in his right hand, his lips parting, cracking as he did so, causing pus to ooze from them and revealing an unnaturally toothless mouth. In order to prevent herself from vomiting, Penny turned away, realizing it was death she was looking at-her death. If she was going to die, she refused to let his face be the last thing she saw, instead she summoned up images of Harry, her beloved twin, wishing she could tell him how sorry she was for leaving him alone; of Sirius, the closest thing to a parent she'd ever known and who she'd been given far too little time to get to know, and Lupin, the most beautiful soul, the thought of which brought her comfort even in this moment.
"Ahh, yes Wormtail, she does look like that mudblood mother of hers. That silly woman who's pitiful act reduced me to this state. Tell me, what is your name, girl?" the cold, high-pitched voice said.
"The only pitiful thing is you, and it's none of your business," Penny said, losing all sense of reason at the slander of her mother, but even in her anger she still could not bring herself to look at the vile thing sitting before her.
"As foolish as the father as well, wasn't even holding his wand when he died."
From the stirring in the chair, Penny knew he'd moved and she winced, fearing it was his wand, but it was evident it was just to look at Wormtail who stammered, "P-Penelope, master, but she went by Penny."
"Penelope? Well, come tell me, Penelope, how is it you came to be here? You see, I'm very interested to know whether or not we should expect any more guests," Voldemort said, his words sending Penny's heart sinking in her chest.
No one would know where to look for her and Penny did not even know where here was! But she could not let Voldemort have that information, she needed him to believe someone was coming and perhaps in his fear not to be caught, Penny could make her escape.
"I came here by accident. I was in class and we were learning the portkey charm, but I'm never very good at anything and messed up my location. But they put trackers on all of us, so they'll come looking for me," Penny said to the ground, mustering what little courage she had left in her faint heart.
"M-my Lord, if they find us-" squeaked Wormtail, scrambling to his feet, sending relief spiraling through Penny.
"You would dare lie to Lord Voldemort?" Voldemort said softly. The sound was scarier than any angry tirade of Uncle Vernons, and her eyes snapped to his face, which she regretted instantly.
"I-Im not," she said, trying to sound convincing.
"If you will not tell me the truth, then I shall look for myself. Legilimens! "
Penny felt as though she'd been slammed into a brick wall, everything around her blurred out of focus and she became acutely aware of a presence in her head with her. It did not tread lightly like Harry normally did, instead it forced her memories forward, flicking through them with cruel hands, tossing aside all that did not satisfy him. Never in her life had Penny associated the experience of sharing her mind with someone with pain, in-fact she'd always felt the exact opposite, relief, whenever she sought Harry's company.
Voldemort beckoned her memories and Penny could only watch, no longer seeing the room and instead re-watching Karkaroff confront Snape; Snape follow Penny and then Penny's magic burst forth from her, something that piqued Voldemort's interest, sending him diving further into Penny's mind. She screamed, the pain searing at every nerve in her brain, but she did not know if she only yelled in her mind or if it actually reached her mouth as well.
Dumbledore sat before her, which elicited such a fury from Voldemort that Penny thought he might have actually struck her. "So the mark has begun to burn. . ." Voldemort said softly while Penny's chest heaved, the world spinning around her, Voldemort having finally exited her mind, leaving her reeling and trying to understand what Voldemort had found in her mind because all of the images were blurring together for her.
"L-lord, should I pack our things?"
"Of course not you imbecile, She is a liar as I said, no one is coming for her, and everything will continue as planned. Potter's name has already been selected from the cup, I saw it in her feeble mind. Patience, patience is all we need."
"A-nd and the girl, what do you wish for me to do with her?"
Finally regaining her sense of orientation, Penny sat up and looked at Wormtail who stood beside the fire, his eyes watching her almost in fearful anticipation, like a dog might when waiting for its owner to drop it a bone.
"What do you mean you planned to have Harry's name chosen from the cup?" she demanded, causing Wormtail to flinch, her brain quickly picking up on the hints that her twin was in danger.
A soft chuckle was the response she received, Penny dreading the words that would inevitably follow. "It was I who orchestrated his being in the tournament."
Dumbledore had suspected someone had put Harry's name in the cup, but no one had any ideas who, Lord Voldemort being the least plausible suggestion.
"B-but how when you're here. . ." Penny said, turning slowly back to Voldemort.
He was watching the fireplace, looking far too pleased with himself. "My most loyal servant is arranging events exactly as I intended them," he said to the crackling fire.
" Dumbledore would know-"
"Dumbledore is an old fool! No, not even he can imagine the lengths I've gone to to obtain Harry Potter. It will be quite the ceremony when he arrives," Voldemort hissed, turning back to Penny. "And you, my dear, arriving so fortuitously into my palm and with uncontrolled expression, I think you may prove to be quite useful."
"I won't help you kidnap my brother, if that's what you're thinking," Penny said through gritted teeth.
"No, no, girl, all you need to do is wait, Harry Potter will come to us, and when he does I will rise again," Voldemort said, finishing with a horrible cackle that made both Penny and Wormtail flinch.
When he'd finished Penny couldn't help noticing he looked almost diminished, as though the effort of talking had drained him of all his strength.
"I need feeding, Wormtail, have our dear helper take her upstairs and ensure she doesn't go anywhere. She can perform wand-less magic, so extra precautions will need to be taken."
In a half grunt, half snob, Wormtail agreed and moved to the door, yelling something Penny did not hear. A minute later, Wormtail returned with a tall man who's dark hair was greying. He looked down on Penny with cold, empty eyes and she realized she knew his face.
"Mr. Crouch?" she said, struck dumb by the sight of him
The last time she'd seen him was at the Quidditch Worldcup, he'd accused Harry of conjuring the dark mark. He seemed a very serious fellow, one she knew many talked about having contributed heavily to putting death eaters into Azkaban after Voldemort's fall. Seeing him confused her, there was no way he was a death eater, but then she took a closer look, noticing how dazed he seemed, his normally sharp eyes somewhat distant. She'd seen that expression before, in some of the first classes she'd had in Mad-Eye Moody's class when he'd performed the imperius curse on students and taken control of them. What she was looking at was not Barty Crouch, but a mere vessel in his form, doing Voldemort's bidding.
"Upstairs, now!" Wormtail commanded, but his voice was much too uncertain for Penny to think anyone would listen to it, but he flicked his wand and Penny's binds disappeared, Mr. Crouch taking Penny by the hair as he pulled her to her feet, dragging her towards the door.
She stumbled after him, saying angrily, "Get off me!" This was her moment, if she could just break free of his grasp she could make for the door, but it was no use, his strength was too much for her and she could make little progress against the hands that clasped her hair, dragging her up the stairs by it.
He yanked her into what would be a pitch black room, if it were not for a transparent sphere that looked to be somewhere between a glittering cage and tank. A sense of foreboding filled Penny, there was something very wrong with the cage, it was eerily familiar to her and filled her with a dread she'd never experienced before.
"Mr Crouch, don't you remember, it's me, Penny Potter! We met at the Quidditch World cup, you're under the imperius curse, you have to fight it!" she yelled, planting her heels in a last ditch effort to keep herself from being put into the sphere.
Unaffected by her words, he continued on his way, pausing only to pull out his wand, with a flick of it, the sphere shuddered and he shoved her through it. Penny landed hard on her hands, rolled over and scrambled back, colliding with the solid confines of the sphere. She yelled in frustration, banging any inch of it she could reach, desperate for a soft spot, watching Mr. Crouch make his way back the way he came, shutting the door and leaving her in the dark and quiet room.
By this point, Penny was openly crying, her chest heaving in anger at the stupid turn things had taken for her. She kicked at the cage, knowing perfectly well it would not budge, but something about the impact made her feel better. Penny reached for her wand even though, as she expected, it was useless. Then she tried to focus on her expression, but she could not connect with anything, it was like she was completely sealed off from the world around her, trapped in this enchanted, magicless bubble, the only way she'd escape being someone from the outside letting her out.
When her ankle was screaming in fiery pain from her tantrum, Penny laid back and stared up at the dark ceiling, her mind wandering to Harry. She tried to reach his mind, but wherever she was, it was much too far from Hogwarts for their connection to work. The glaring shame of her own stupidity burned against her. The day, if it was even still the same day, had started so normal. An average, dull day at Hogwarts, that ended so catastrophically landing her here, a prisoner of Lord Voldemort with no hope of ever seeing her friends and loved ones again.
Worse still was the fact Voldemort had orchestrated putting Harry's name in the goblet of fire, meaning there really was someone at Hogwarts working to kill her brother and if they succeeded, Penny would see it happen-if she could not escape and warn him. Closing her eyes, Penny tried to put the thoughts from her head, she needed to focus on the positives or she would drown in her own hopelessness.
To her irritation her mind kept drifting to a pair of dark eyes, where was he now? Was he looking for her? Could he imagine the kind of situation she had somehow gotten herself into? She thought it unlikely, even though she could not begin to comprehend how she'd ended up on Voldemort's doorstep of all places, especially when he was trying to hide from others.
When she could handle thinking of him no longer, she took a closer look at the room she was in and concluded they were currently at Crouch's house judging by the photograph of himself and his wife and son. Where was his family now? Voldemort didn't seem worried anyone would stumble upon them here, but perhaps they were captives too.
At first, Penny thought the choice to be at Crouch's house, a top Ministry official, was a ludicrous plan, but the more she thought about it the more she realized its brilliance. He was a judge for the Triwizard tournament and would have provided all the information necessary to make the plan at getting close to Harry.
The door creaking open sent Penny shooting up into a sitting position. Wormtail scuttled his way into the room holding a tray of food, he stopped at the edge of Penny's cage and peered at her with those bulging eyes of his, looking noticeably less nervous than he had in Voldemort's presence, but still quite unsettled.
"You have to let me out of here, please, Wormtail, you don't have to do this," Penny said as she scooted toward the side of the sphere nearest to him.
"M-move back or you won't eat," he said, ignoring her pleas.
"Starving sounds like a much better way to die than whatever Voldemort-"
"Don't say his name!" Wormtail shrieked, flinching so violently, some of the soup in the bowl he was holding sloshed over the side and onto his shirt.
"If you're so afraid of him why not leave him to die and come with me," Penny pressed
"And spend the rest of my life in a cell in Azkaban, I think not," he replied with a sniffle.
"Like the one you left Sirius to rot in? I noticed you haven't bothered asking how he and Moony are, Snape nearly succeeded in getting them to perform the kiss on him, you know," she said, the anger rising in her heart.
"They gave me no choice! I did what I had to!" said Wormtail, his cheeks flushing with anger.
"I know you did, and I don't hold it against you," Penny said quietly, her green eyes holding his gaze. "It doesn't matter what you did, any of it, the dead stay dead, but I don't intend to join them. Just think about it for a second, if you brought me back and gave them Vold- him , all would be forgiven."
The fat fingers holding her bowl tembled and his mouth fell slightly open as the thought settled in that self-preserving cowardly brain of his. Of course he was considering selling someone out, that was the essence of Peter Pettigrew, Penny's only hope.
Slamming her bowl down abruptly on the floor he said, "I will hear none of it. M-master ensures me-you are just like him!" Wormtail said, fumbling with his words as he all but ran from Penny, slamming the door shut behind him.
Feeling she had utterly blown her chance by being too direct, Penny fumed at herself and wished very much she'd allowed him to give her the food, while the cage kept her in it did not keep the smell of warm chicken stew out, which caused her stomach to pang in hunger, making her wonder how long it'd been since she'd last eaten. Speculating miserably if life at Hogwarts was going on without her, Penny decided closing her eyes and getting some rest was her best option. Perhaps another opportunity would show itself come morning.
The movement of the world around her startled Penny from her sleep. Her heart racing, she was confused as to how her bed was moving, but then she remembered she was not in-fact safe in her bed at Hogwarts, but rather trapped in a spherical glimmering prison that was currently floating down the stairs and back into the dining room she'd seen the previous night. She did not know how long she'd been asleep and because all the curtains were pulled she could not discern if there was any daylight or not.
When the cage had stopped moving, an opening appeared, Penny looking at it, too scared to hope he would be letting her out. Wormtail solved her dilemma by reaching in and pulling her out.
"You know you could try a good morning before manhandling me!" Penny growled as he shoved her into a chair at a small table where Mr. Crouch already sat and was currently eating porridge with that dazed look on his face.
"I'm not hungry," Penny said when Wormtail placed a bowl before her.
"I have served you breakfast at my table, you wouldn't want to displease me, would you Penelope?" replied Voldemort from his armchair.
The mere sound of his voice sent a prickle up Penny's spine. She knew a threat when she heard one and was not game to discover how much it took to make Voldemort deliver on it, so she grabbed her spoon begrudgingly. Her only solace was that she did not at least have to look at Voldemort, so she was able to enjoy her food without the worry of throwing up.
"Is that the Daily Prophet," Penny said through a spoonful of porridge, garnering her a look of deep disapproval from Wormtail, who didn't respond but returned to it.
"Well seeing as dear Peter refuses to be polite company, how about you Mr. Crouch, how do you like the porridge?" Penny asked, turning away from Wormtail with an eye roll.
Mr. Crouch paused mid bite, grunted and then continued his robotic motions.
"I agree, it really is quite bland-"
"No it's not!" Wormtail said, compulsively.
"I'm going to assume that means you made it. Trying to lose some weight, is that why you were so unkind to us all and didn't bother to sweeten this at all?" Penny asked, her eyebrow arched.
Wormtail glowed red and look as though he were trying to suck his stomach in, not that it did much for his figure and waved a fat finger at Penny, "Ungrateful, ungrateful-"
"You can talk, how ungrateful did you have to be to sell out my parents to-him-" Penny said, pausing, suddenly afraid to say Voldemort's name for the first time in her life, so she opted for jerking her head toward the chair to indicate her meaning.
"They-I-" Wormtail spluttered, but he did not seem to know how to respond both with the daughter of those he had sold out and the one with him he had aided murder them, so he opted for jamming a large spoonful of porridge into his mouth and turning back to the paper in front of him.
"I do wonder, how it is you came to be here of all places," said Penny, not caring that Wormtail was trying to ignore her. "I mean, you're supposed to be a dead man, so what would possess you to abduct a top Ministry official, unless you'd somehow managed to stumble upon some information while in Albania," Penny mused out loud, trying to put the pieces together.
"That's it, back upstairs!" Wormtail demanded, getting to his feet.
"No, Wormtail, bring the girl to me."
Feeling as though the command could only mean bad news, Penny tried her best to prepare herself for the worst. Again, she was forced from her chair by the squat man, whom she really wanted to punch, but thought better of as it was her versus three, one of them being the most powerful wizard in Britain. Wormtail brought her before Voldemort, his hand visibly shaking, "Y-yes Master," he said, giving an uneasy glance at Voldemort before scampering away again, leaving Penny on her knees, trying very hard not to look at Voldemort.
"I shall tell you what Wormtail was too bashful to share, but afterward it'll be you who does the sharing. You see, I noticed a familiar face in that mind of yours, he was one of mine, Severus, but I imagine you know him as Professor Snape," Voldemort said, his voice as even as a high shrill could be.
At the mention of her potions master, Penny's heart sped up obscenely, causing Voldemort to laugh softly. "I see why he chose you, he did ask for that mudblood mother of yours, did he not. How could he resist the second chance? Yes, my dear Penelope, it seems you may prove to be quite amusing and usefully." He paused for a moment, allowing Penny to stew in her panic. Snape? He wanted her to talk about Snape? Did he hope he would find an ally in her Potions Master? Would he be searching through Penny for a way to lure Snape to where they were?
"My most incapable servant did surprise me when he brought Bertha Jorkins to me after he blundered into her. It was a truly unfortunate reunion, seeing as those faking their death would do well to remain dead and not run into Ministry officials. Alas. . ." Voldemort said, almost tenderly, "She proved to be most useful, once I broke through the powerful memory charm our host here placed on her. It seems he was hiding something, something that would finally make getting my hands on Harry Potter possible."
It was at these words that Penny could not stop herself from looking up into the awful face before her, transfixed and terrified at the same time.
"Barty here isn't the best of fathers, you see, he was keeping his son, my most loyal follower, under the imperius curse and the watch a house-elf here this whole time."
Penny stared, confused, then she remembered the frail looking boy she'd seen in the photo upstairs.
"It was all quite straightforward, once we had freed my servant he was more than willing to go to Hogwarts and there he sits, right under the nose of that old buffoon, who is none the wiser."
Dread pooled in the pit of Penny's stomach and she was forced to look away from Voldemort because his mouth had begun to ooze from the high-pitched laughter that followed.
"How-you may be wondering, have I put my servant in his midst? Well the answer is simple, he has always been a trusting fool, so naturally he would not consider his beloved auror, Mad-Eye Moody would be the one to suspect."
The gears in Penny's brain came to a grinding halt, confused and bewildered, she was not following Voldemort's train of thought. Mad-Eye Moody had put many of Voldemort's death eaters into Azkaban, there was no way he was Voldemort's servant. . .
"So feeble of mind, of course the real Moody is of very little use to me," Voldemort said, invading her thoughts.
The real Mad-Eye? Penny thought, and then a most vivid image returned to her, one of Moody standing before the class, pulling the hip flask from his side, the one everyone joked about being the only thing he drank from.
"Polyjuice potion," Penny breathed.
"Yes, girl. It will be he who ensures young Harry wins the tournament, and he who turns the cup into a portkey so Harry can be the guest of honor at my resurrection ceremony."
The words made it to Penny's ears, but she could not accept them, the prospect was too horrible, she needed to warn him, to stop them, but she was trapped.
"Oh, don't worry, Penelope, yours will not be the same fate as Harry's, no no, one such as you will be quite useful to me. And with no coordinate, such potential you have," Voldemort cooed, and Penny felt sure, if it were not for his weakened form, he would have reached out and caressed her.
Still, she remained confused, she had no clue what a coordinate was, or what he meant by her potential, but she could surmise it meant he was going to use her for his own ends and she would have little say. What sorts of things would he force her to do? Was not death a better option than being this monster's servant?
"Now, before I tire, you will show me what Severus has been up to these many years while I've been trapped like this."
The movement before her startled Penny as she realized he was raising his wand at her, causing her to tumble backwards, her eyes finding Voldemort's just before he forced her back into her own mind to watch her memories pass her by like a slideshow. His cruel presence was slightly more careful this time, he seemed to have an incentive not to destroy her mind now, knowing she had something he desired. Even still, his essence burned against hers, it forced her struggling into submission, caring little for her preference to keep her memories private.
She was 11, Snape sitting at his desk, ignoring her as she demanded to be acknowledged. His eyes were widening, fixing on her for the first time which seemed to amuse Voldemort greatly. The slide changed and she was sitting in potions class at the front, Snape watching her brew with the utmost scrutiny, but he made no cruel remarks like he did the others. Penny beamed, feeling on top of the world as she looked at the O scrawled on the top of her first essay, several notes in red written in the margins. Fast forward, she was sitting in his office hours, unaware how he searched her features, unable to look away from her. Again and again, memories spiraled around her. Snape giving her a Christmas present, Penny opening it in her dormitory and finding a very old ring inside, an intricate P signet engraved into it. The tingling in her finger when he put it on was as real to her now as it was that day. Another jerk, as Voldemort's impatience for such emotions reached Penny. Finally, she was in the corridor, Snape arguing with Karkaroff, the dark mark present on an arm, and then he was upon her, shaking her with his fury, the world spinning out of her control only for it all to disappear and Penny finding herself flat on her back, covered in a cold sweat, her breathing coming in shallow gasps and her head aching.
"Perhaps he is lost to me," Voldemort said more to himself than to her. "Wormtail, I need feeding, send our host to find a meal suitable for Nagini before I let her have you."
"A-and the girl?" Wormtail said, looking very much as though he'd like to feed Penny to whatever this Nagini was.
"Leave her, she amuses me."
Penny had not realized the others were still in the room until Mr. Crouch took her and dragged her back to her cage, sealing her in. She didn't bother to resist him, closing her eyes when she laid back against its bottom because she had very little desire to learn how it was Wormtail fed Voldemort. Unfortunately for her, she could not shut her ears and was revolted by the indecent sucking and moaning that were intermingled with Wormtail's disgusted grunts.
But then a new sound joined the others, one of a voice Penny did not recognize.
Master, the child, may I eat her?
Penny's head shot in the direction of the voice and came face to face with a giant snake, who was peering at Penny through the glass-like barrier separating them. With a loud yell, Penny scuttled away, "No, you may not eat me!" she said, angrily.
The snake cocked its head sideways as though Penny were something peculiar.
A parseltongue?
"Enough, Wormtail, turn my chair and go ensure our Barty is doing as he was instructed," Voldemort said, his shrill voice giving away the faintest hint of interest.
Wormtail looked more than happy to leave, giving a wide berth to Penny and the snake as he passed them.
"No my sweet Nagini, you may not eat her, she is my new pet," Voldemort said, but Penny became distinctly aware that he had not said the words in English, but rather a low hiss.
Nagini looked away from Penny and began to slither her way to Voldemort, making her way slowly up the chair and settling around it so her head was resting on the arm of the chair where Voldemort's skeletal hand could rest on it, the two of them fixing their gazes on Penny. "This is my companion, Nagini, it is she who has enabled me to maintain my form. Tell me, Penelope, how is it you have come to speak parseltongue, surely that muggle loving headmaster would not dare teach it at Hogwarts, seeing as it has long been associated with the descendants of Salazar Slytherin himself," again he used that unnatural tongue to speak to her.
"I'm not a parseltongue, only Harry is! I've never-" Penny said, completely flabbergasted. She did not understand how she could be using a language without knowing she was. It had never happened to her before, but she remembered when everyone came to realize that Harry was a parseltongue, it had not gone over well. By the end of their second year after Harry opened the chamber of secrets with it, Dumbledore had hypothesized that Voldemort had mistakenly imparted some of his own traits to Harry the night he tried to kill him, but that did not explain why Penny could understand the snake and Voldemort when he was using the language.
"You were there, beside him, I remember your incessant crying, perhaps. . ." Voldemort said, responding to Penny's thought yet again, which unsettled her more.
"Perhaps what?"
"I made a miscalculation that night, one I shall not make a second time, but the ricochet seems to have imparted the gift to you as well, you should feel honored to be numbered among Salazar's heirs."
So I can't eat her? The snake said, sounding disappointed.
"No my precious, but look, Wormtail has managed to make himself more useful than anyone imagined he could be."
A panting Womrtail entered the room with what looked to be a bound and gagged postman behind him. With a wave of his wand, Wormtail sent the man floating toward Voldemort and dropped him in a crumpled heap on the carpet between Penny and Voldemort, the cords disappearing. Penny looked at the muggle, his hat tumbling from his head, revealing a head of thick brown hair. He looked at Penny first, evidently too confused to be as terrified as he should.
"Run!" was all Penny could say, her chest filling with fear as the bright blue eyes met hers, but she knew it was futile, yet, no part of her could imagine the horror of what was to come.
The snake was moving and Voldemort was speaking in parseltongue again, "Feast Nagini." The man turned to see what the strange sound was, layed eyes on Voldemort and let loose a terrified yell. Then his eyes found the great snake descending upon him and he tried to back as far away from it as he could, seemingly forgetting he had feet and trapped himself against Penny's cage. He turned away from the snake and banged on the shimmering wall that separated them, "Please, help me! Help me!" It was a voice of utter desperation, hopeless evident in his wide eyes.
"Get up and run!" Penny yelled, banging right back against the cursed thing she was trapped in, her eyes locked with his. "Please, get up!"n
But he was frozen to the spot, his eyes distant as though no longer in the present, perhaps reliving a more pleasant memory. The snake reared its head and bit into the man's calf, sending him twirling around screaming. He tried to kick it off with his other foot, but the fang was too far into his leg, the blood spurting from it.
"I have a family, please, my daughter was only born last month!" he screamed, but the snake dragged him towards itself, it's fangs now taking another bite out of him, this time in his thigh. By this point blood was everywhere and Penny was screaming too, and sobbing uncontrollably, begging them to stop it, to let the man go, unable to move her eyes from the scene before her.
Nagini pulled away from his thigh, allowing a spurt of blood to burst free from his thigh, which he tried feebly to stem, while moving back toward Penny, but Nagini had caught both of his feet in her mouth and was slowly engulfing both legs. He reached with blood-stained hands at Penny, smearing his blood across the barrier between them, grasping for anything to hold onto to pull himself free, but he was already almost waist deep into her mouth now.
He slid backwards, his head thumping to the floor, his features notably paler now from the loss of blood. He looked up at Penny, only able to make a low choking sob now. His eyes held Penny's up until the very moment they disappeared into Nagini's mouth, who shut it with a sickening crunch, a pool of blood running out of it. Penny turned away from the scene before her and began vomiting out all the contents of her stomach. She could not hold a single thing in, her whole body convulsing with each retch, not caring that she was sitting in the pool of her own bile.
"No, no, no," was all she could say to herself, unable to stem the flood of tears, the blue eyes seared into the back of her head, disappearing over and over again, his cries tormenting her because she could not make herself forget them.
Penny had seen things most had not, but this, what Lord Voldemort was, the only way she could describe it was as pure evil. Shaking from head to toe, she clung to her head, begging her conscious mind to make her forget, to take it away, to never again remember the face of that man.
"It's not real, it's not real, it can't be real," she said over and over again, her voice getting louder and louder until she was screaming, pleading with some god on a throne to make take it away, and as though answering her prayer, her world began to tip, and Penny was plunged into the depths of darkness once again.
She was nothing and she was everything at the same time; she was numb and all feeling; she was Penny and everyone. No part of her had to think or remember, she did not have to have any part with those horrid eyes begging for help-no, she could remain like this, safe from herself, floating through the depths with no sense of time or purpose. That is what she wanted, she had not a care for anything else, so she settled herself in for the slumber, but an incessant knocking kept disturbing her.
Against her will, she gradually got closer to it until voices joined it, all the noise irritating Penny. Did they not understand? She could not come back from this, to do so would cause more pain than she could handle, she would not let them make her. But then a low voice pierced through the jumble of others, making all else quiet.
"Don't make me a liar," he pleaded, filling Penny with such sadness she almost remembered to whom that voice belonged. Accompanying the voice was a soft melody which made its way through her, reminding her where her limbs were, who she was, and why she needed to wake up. She resisted, but it tugged at her and refused to let go, pulling her upward. Though she fought it, she could not resist its pull, until she burst through the ceiling of her isolation like a whale in the ocean throwing itself through the cold crisp air.
Green eyes burst into life, hopeless blue ones looking back at her, sitting up abruptly, Penny leaned over the side of the bed she was in and began retching, her uncontrollable sobs joining it.
"Let me go back, I can't, you don't understand! I made a terrible mistake," she sobbed, clinging to the firm chest before her for support.
The blue eyes were gone, and Severus Snape looked back at her. There was a flicker of relief in his tired face that was quickly replaced with tenseness as the lines deepened and a shadow fell over him. Penny reached for her head, wanting desperately to force the memories out, but Snape intercepted her hands and forced them away from her face, but Penny fought him, yelling louder.
"Let me go!"
"I won't allow you to hurt yourself further. Listen to me, you're safe, you need to let the memories settle, accept them" Snape said, forcing her flat onto the bed and taking a hold of both sides of her face. "Look at me," he demanded, and Penny was sucked into the dark wells, the soothing electricity of his igniting within her as soon as his skin met hers.
"It wasn't me they were going to hurt!" she said, hysterically, "They killed him, I don't even know what his name was!"
"Who did you see," said Snape, his voice low now.
"V-," but Penny couldn't say the name, it was vile, it felt tainted, and most of all it terrified her. She tried to shake free of Snape, but he held her firmly in place.
"The Dark Lord," he said, unable to keep the harshness from his tone.
"H-he who found me when I disappeared," Penny said, in a terrified whisper, her eyes darting around as though the giant snake or Voldemort would appear at any moment.
"What!" Snape said, sharply, but Penny wasn't paying attention anymore.
The memory blared brightly in Penny's mind eye again, she was watching it, unable to turn it off, the haunting image repeating again and again, sending her into a screaming fit. "Make it stop," was all she could repeat as others joined Snape in his attempts to calm her, as they tried to understand what it was that Penny was seeing, But Penny knew, they could not help her, just as she had been unable to help him.
So, I don't know if this is a plothole, or if anyone knows the answer to this, but why didn't Harry see the thestrals in the 4th year when he was leaving Hogwarts? Because they take the carriages back, right? I haven't found an answer, but I'm going with the cannon plot hole at this point, Penny was unable to see them until this point, like Harry can't until he see's Cedric die.
As for why they are at the Crouch's, during this point in the timeline, they left Albania, and then they stayed at the Riddle House where Voldemort says they will only stay for a week, then they go rescue little Jr. and then need to keep Crouch in check until he dies. While it isn't explicitly mentioned, several references agreed and it seems most logical.
Alright, toodles and have a great week xxx