ELISABETH woke with such a horrible pain to the back of her skull that the witch was forced to fight down horrible waves of nausea for the better part of an hour. She could sense that Barty was in the room with her, wherever it was the wizard had seen fit to whisk her away to.

She could not bring herself to look up at her former fiancé and meet the man's gaze. It was not only because she was more than ashamed and afraid at how she had left things between the two of them, but she knew if she opened her mouth, she would be horribly sick all over the place. She did not want his house-elf Winky to have to clean up such a disgusting mess if she could help it.

She moaned and helplessly begged Merlin if He was even listening to her to take the pain away and keep her safe, to somehow let her send a message to Quirinus and let him know that she'd not forgotten. But all she could do was bury her face into the pillow.

She was so disoriented and the pain in her head was far too great that she did not even take the time to think about where Barty might have brought her to. She did not lift her head to check their surroundings. No good would come from any kind of effort to try to reach the furious wizard until her head was clear. It took well over a half-hour for the fog of confusion Elisabeth found herself in to dissipate.

Fear. That dreaded emotion winding its icy tendrils around her heart and squeezing the feeble quivering muscle within until she felt lightheaded. It always lurked, waiting to remind her of the precarious position she now found herself in. Everything came back to her suddenly in a flash of knowing so strong it nearly stole the breath from her lungs. There were no holes missing. None that she could recall.

Elisabeth tried to think about where Barty might have brought her and what she might be able to say or do to get out of this was even afraid to speak to Barty until she had all that she wanted to say planned out very carefully in her mind. Barty had looked as though he had obviously wanted to kill her for the pain she had caused him, but why he had not done it, she had no idea. But one thing was certain.

The wizard was terribly unstable now and anything she said might only stoke the fires of his anger further. She thought she heard Barty pacing around the room and occasionally muttering to himself, though he spoke in too hushed a tone for her to make out anything about what was being spoken.

As she lay there shivering, too dizzy to move, she felt a blanket drop down over her, thick and warm, and she kept it over herself. The pain in her head slowly began to dissipate and after a long time, Elisabeth was able to open her eyes. The spots in her vision had cleared away and slowly, the unfamiliar and blurry surroundings of whatever room she was in began to solidify and take shape into things she recognized. A jolt left her as Elisabeth slowly sat up straighter.

It looked like Barty had brought her home. She recognized the Crouch family's sitting room.

She did not know what Barty hoped to achieve by literally kidnapping her off the streets of Diagon Alley, though to the best of her recollection, no one had witnessed it happening.

Elisabeth shivered with gritted teeth as she turned to look toward Barty. His back was paraded to her as he stood by the windowsill. One thing was certain beyond anything else. The wizard was still not over how she had left him. He'd still clung to his attachment to her. How strong it was, what it was rooted in, or if he felt anything for her beyond a carnal desire, she couldn't say, but Elisabeth knew it was there.

She recalled how Barty's hand had started to badly shake as he'd held his wand to her throat, trying to will himself to cut into her exposed and vulnerable skin. It would have been incredibly easy for the man and yet, he had stopped himself. Barty Crouch Jr. had been unable to kill her.

She'd heard rumors that since she had fled from him shortly before their wedding that he had officially joined the ranks of the Death Eaters. She prayed that was not the case, but hoped that his attachment to her ran deep, long enough to allow herself to figure out what on Merlin's green earth she could possibly say to convince the deranged wizard to let her go free.

She sat up slowly and shrugged the blanket off her shoulders, trying to remind herself of the fact that Barty had not killed her for her betrayal when he'd had the chance.

She hoped the knowledge would give her at least some strength.

"Barty?" Elisabeth whispered in a scratchy, timid voice.

His back was still facing her when she softly spoke his name and he jumped as he whirled around to glower at her, his dark eyes narrowed and laced in suspicion. His lips parted as if he intended to speak to her, however, it took him a moment.

When he did, the man's voice was listless.

"I should kill you, Lizzy, for what you did to me," Barty growled, hissing his words through gritted teeth. "I should hate you," he snarled, his face looking flushed. He paused. "But...I can't," he confessed.

Elisabeth swallowed down hard past a lump in her throat and numbly nodded.

She knew the wizard was right, Merlin damn him. She deserved every bit of his hatred. She'd fled and left him before their wedding without any kind of note or indication as to why, but she would have hoped that her choice would have been obvious.

She struggled to find the right words to say. Barty stared at her, his eyes dark and rage-filled and he let his gaze linger as she asked the one question she wasn't sure she wanted an answer to right now, but she had to get it out, and she had to know her chances.

"Will you kill me?" she asked, her voice cracking and tears coming to her eyes as she fumbled by her belt for her wand, though her hands shook too badly to manage to hold her wand steady.

"No..." She heard him growl. She watched the man's fingers flex around the handle of his wand and he jerked his head away from her and looked to the side. Barty paraded his back to her again and Elisabeth watched as he went to the closet on the far side of the room. He did not open it, however, nor turn to face her. Elisabeth waited with dread churning in her stomach, her mouth dry, as the wizard turned again and kicked at the wall with the heel of his leather black boot. She could hear his ragged angry breaths.

She gasped slightly in reaction as he let loose his fury on the wall but still, Barty Crouch Jr. did not turn back to her. Instead, she watched as he wiped at his face with his hand, scrubbing his face hard and then running his fingers through his of straw-colored hair. Barty kicked at the wall and then turned back.

Still, he did not come towards her or retreat, but nor did the wizard stand still either. Elisabeth swore she could see the man's Dark magic and energy pulsating through his veins.

Barty had no outlet available to him, no one upon which to vent his frustration and anger and pain, or at least, no outlet that he wanted at the moment.

She did not know if apologizing to him again would calm him or remind him of the reason he had to kill her now that he had brought her here to a more secluded location, where he could do anything to her.

She knew her words could likely be the death of her or her salvation, but she had to say something to Barty. Barty might not act against her, but she knew that she had to try to do what she could to diffuse his anger.

Elisabeth cautiously stepped forward and did not stop, despite her brain screaming at her to turn her heel and flee. There was a part of her that suspected she would not be able to Disapparate from this room if she were to try. She fully suspected Barty had put up countermeasures in place to prevent it. A twinge of worry and guilt wormed her way into her heart as she thought of Quirinus, and if her friend was growing worried at the fact she had not returned.

She flinched as she touched Barty's shoulder, but only because the wizard did so the moment she gave the man's left shoulder a feather-light little squeeze, trying to coax just enough pressure to convince the wizard to turn and look her in the eyes.

Elisabeth lowered her gaze to the floor, too timid to look him in the eyes as he slowly lifted his gaze to hers, and it was then that a flash of color caught her eyes.

Curious, she slowly lifted her left hand and felt all the blood drain from her face.

On her left ring finger was a wedding band, plain and silver in design. She was unable to stifle the reflexive gasp of disgust as she immediately went to remove the ring with the intent of giving it back to him, though the damned bloody piece of jewelry would not budge. It seemed stuck, permanently, onto her finger.

"Wh-what did you do, Barty? Wh...what is this? Why...did you do this?" she demanded in a shaky voice as more tears came to her eyes as she lifted her hand to eye level to study the ring she now wore.

Her mind began to race with at least a dozen and one possibility, and none of them were at all good. When the wizard she had thought she loved once spoke to her, his voice was flat and cold.

"Insurance, Luv. Don't bother trying to take it off. It won't come off. It's a little enchantment of my own design, do you like it? I hope so, because it's a part of you now, as I am," The edges of his thin mouth curled upward into something resembling a feral snarl as Elisabeth only stared at him, tears pouring down her cheeks at how Barty had horribly betrayed her and violated her just now by slipping the ring on her finger while she'd been knocked unconscious. He continued in favor of his argument. "I know that you still love me, Elisabeth. After a while, however long it takes, but I don't care how long, but I know that you will feel what I feel. You're mine now, as you always have been. No more fighting, no more running, Elisabeth. You'll be with me now. You are not leaving me again, Raywood. Not a second time, and if the day comes when you're foolish enough to try, then I will chain you downstairs in Father's wine cellar and you'll never see the light of day again," he growled, his cheeks flushed red in rage as he strode forward and cupped her chin in his calloused hand, tilting it upward slightly so she was left with nowhere to look but at him. "You're mine, Elisabeth. You should have always been mine. You cannot leave me now, but…why did you leave me?" he growled angrily, cocking his head to the side and glaring at her expectantly.

He continued holding her face in his hands. Though feeling her smooth skin against his felt so good, Merlin he had bloody missed this—had missed her—and even though he felt a certain relief having Elisabeth with him once more, he was on edge. He feared she'd leave him. He knew that the witch who had wormed her way into his black and wretched heart when they were in school probably had people in her life worried about her, but it was not being discovered that he feared now. It was the thought that the witch standing so close to him now would be taken away from him. Again. Discovering that she'd fled had been the only time in the Death Eater's entire existence that he'd known true fear.

It was a horrible feeling, this terrible wave of cold dread that washed over him to find Elisabeth missing a few years ago. He had stood there blinded by this new feeling. He'd remained in his sitting room where he'd last left her for Merlin only knowing how long it had been. He knew, though.

He knew that she had not been stolen. She had run away from him.

He'd clung to the feeling of uncontrollable rage in the two years he'd spent looking for her, though he'd not been able to find Elisabeth, to his avail. She was a clever minx, his bride, but the cleverness that had drawn her to him during school would do her no good now that she was back with him, for good.

It was that rage he still felt even now as it looked upon her beautiful features, hating her, and needing her. He had always been a patient man, there was a reason the Dark Lord had trusted him among all the others. He need not give himself away too soon.

He had imagined killing his bride when he'd spotted her in Diagon Alley, by happenstance. He'd stared at her and imagined sending the last of the Unforgiveable Curses towards her chest.

And it had felt good. Even now, he felt his muscles twitch as he yearned for the witch's blood.

Barty itched to punish Elisabeth for what she had done to him. Even as she had woken up and tried to speak to him, he got angrier. The more she tried to apologize for leaving, the angrier he became. It was why he had dug the ring out of his trousers' pocket and slipped it onto her finger with an enchantment of his own design while she slept, one she would not be so foolish as to try to work around or break it. He wanted her back. He hated her and wanted Elisabeth Raywood to die.

But he did not only wish to kill her, Merlin's Beard, no. He wanted to torture her, just like he had done to Auror Frank and Alice Longbottom for information on his master's location.

He wanted her to suffer. Always, he had enjoyed killing, but he had never quite had the desire to draw it out of a person. He saw no point in prolonging the suffering. He was not like Bellatrix, who often preferred to play with her food before eating it. But with Elisabeth, he wanted it.

For leaving him, she needed to suffer, to bleed, to cry, to scream and beg him to stop. But when it had come down to it, as he'd pressed the tip of his wand against her vulnerable throat, he couldn't do it.

It had been those eyes of hers. So sad. She looked so scared of him. It rattled him to his core and threatened to tear him asunder. He wanted to make it stop, just do anything to make it bloody stop, but he wanted to hurt the witch who'd ripped his heart out and taken it with her when she'd abandoned him. It was a horrible conflict. One the Death Eater had never experienced before.

The indecision only lasted a moment but those few seconds felt like an eternity. He needed Elisabeth with him by his side, as his wife. Wanted her. He grew tired of sitting through meetings for the Dark Lord alongside Bellatrix and Rodolphus and Lucius and Narcissa, Antonin and his wife, Elena, only to miss what his comrades didn't. The love of a good witch. It was the strongest desire he'd ever felt.

Even stronger than killing. He didn't think he could find words possible to describe it.

Seething though he was with Elisabeth, he could not kill his witch. At least…not yet.

Not while he felt like this, and not as long as she agreed to stay. If she stayed and married him, he'd have no cause to hurt a hair on her head.

"I—I had to leave you, Barty," she whispered and his jaw clenched. She had to do nothing. She should have stayed with him. He did not like what she said. "I—I couldn't marry a man who allies himself with…him. I—I'm a Healer, Barty, I—I took an oath to do no harm. I don't want you hurting people, Barty."

You harmed me, is what he wanted to say but couldn't. His lips parted as if he meant to say it, and a little grunt escaped, but nothing else came out. He wanted to say it so badly to the witch he loved, but his tongue sent the words away with a rough swallow.

Elisabeth glanced away from him and continued to study the ring she now wore on her finger.

Her mouth went slightly slack and when she looked back up at him, there was an odd determination, a fierceness he'd not seen in the red-headed witch before, but he was quick to decide he liked her this way. She chewed on her bottom lip.

Barty got the impression by the look in her eyes that the witch was doing some very quick thinking. He tensed, ready to pounce and fully prepared to lunge at the slightest hint of a lie, at any indication that Elisabeth meant to leave him. He had lost her once, he would not lose the prickly witch a second time.

When he spoke, his voice trembled and it had dropped an octave lower than he was used to, almost a low rasp. He drifted his hand upward and ran his fingers through the locks of her luscious thick red hair, cherishing the softness and the smooth silky texture. The feeling of it almost calmed his frayed nerves.

"Who were you meeting? That's entirely too much food for you to eat by yourself, Luv, I know you well. You don't eat that much, darling," he growled, flicking his gaze towards the bag of food he'd set on a coffee table in front of the sofa in his sitting room. "Another man? Who is it? Tell me who he is. I'll find him, whoever he is, and I'll shove that food so far down his throat he'll be shitting it out seconds later," he snapped, a harsh angry bite to his voice that made Elisabeth look up at Barty in alarm and pure disgust.

"I…" Elisabeth hesitated as her voice trailed off. She wanted to lie to Barty, though the wizard was using his Power voice and his already dark eyes had gone even darker.

As she looked up at him, the only spirit left burning in the man's eyes was suspicion and rage.

For a moment, she wondered if he had somehow managed to inconspicuously put her under influence of the Imperius Curse to force her into telling the truth, though one look at his wand confirmed this was not the case. His wand lay tucked in his belt, as did her own.

"Quirinus, I…I was meeting Quirinus, Barty, for…dinner, he...survived the Potter boy's attack, if you haven't heard, though someone as smart as you must surely already know. Word travels fast in your circle, doesn't it?" she whispered, spite dripping from her tone as she addressed Barty,

Though it gave her pause, as hearing Quirnus's name sounded funny on her lips as it left her lips without much thought, which surprised her. She had tried desperately to forget Quirinus Quirrell the night they had rowed underneath his mother's willow tree in the backyard of his parents' home.

He had been livid when she had come to him with the news that she was engaged to Barty. The two wizards had never liked one another, and now, she thought she was beginning to understand why.

If she'd known Barty's true nature back then, she would have never agreed to the wizard's proposal shortly after graduating from Hogwarts, but she had not. She wished she would have listened to him, and she wished that she would have been able to convince her beloved friend to stay with her, that he need not venture to Albania to prove himself to colleagues who apparently already thought little of him.

Elisabeth was ripped from her thoughts of Quirinus by Barty making a noise at the back of his throat that came from deep within the man's slender chest.

A shudder went down her spine as she could only describe the noise Barty made now as a low growl.

"You're with him now?" he snarled in disbelief, staring at her incredulously with moisture-filled brown eyes. "What was it, Elisabeth, a pity shag? Hmm? What the bloody hell do you see in a git like Quirrell?"

Frustration bubbled within her chest at hearing her former fiancé speak so odiously against her friend, and the harsh words were ripped from her lips before she could stop herself.

"Don't, don't you dare talk like that, Barty, I don't want to hear it," she growled, her voice trembling as she spoke. "You—you have no right to speak that way about him, Barty. None. He was my friend before you and I ever started dating," she snapped. "He's hurt. Dumbledore asked that I look after him."

She cringed the moment the words left her mouth and she clamped a hand over her mouth in shock at what she had just done. She had not intended to be so candid with Barty and let so much information slip about what had happened to poor Quirinus, but she had been drawn to the listlessness of the wizard's hot, dark eyes, and it was as if the truth was ripped from her lips and not of her own accord.

Dread wormed its way into her heart as she watched as the wizard stared. The edges of Barty's lips twitched as he fought back the beginnings of what Elisabeth suspected was a rather victorious little smirk.

"He would know, wouldn't he, of the Dark Lord's whereabouts…" Barty murmured in a hoarse voice, a glint in the man's eyes that Elisabeth knew she did not like. "Perhaps…with persuasion, he would tell me, or did you forget, Luv, I have my ways of making people talk, the witless worm was not fit to serve as the Dark Lord's host. Lord Voldemort should have sent a message, a sign, that he needed our aid, darling, we would have come for him," he growled lowly, his fingers drifting down to the handle of his wand.

Before Elisabeth could open her mouth to speak, to tell him that Quirinus's memory had been Obliviated and he would not remember anything from the last year or so of his life, he grabbed her roughly by the wrist and pulled her flush against his chest. She stumbled from how he manhandled her, but did not fight him.

"Come, Luv. We'll pay a visit to Quirinus together. Perhaps I should even eat with you since you already went through the trouble."

He smirked and snaked a hand around her waist, raising his wand in the other and causing the bag of takeout food she'd bought from the Leaky Cauldron to float lazily in mid-air toward him.

He plucked it from the air with his thumb and forefinger and rose a brow at Elisabeth, brown eyes against brown, half-smiling as he flicked his gaze towards the enchanted ring permanently affixed to her ring finger.

"Perhaps it's high time I proclaim our engagement to our…mutual old friend. Quirrell seems to think that you are free to be claimed."

Elisabeth shook her head in a quest to defend him. "N-no, Barty, I—I could…take myself, he was just—"

But Barty's lips were pressed against hers before she could protest.

She stiffened at the feeling of his lips pressed against hers, not returning his kiss, too terrified and disgusted to even breathe, and when Barty finally pulled away, he brushed the pad of one of his fingertips along the faint pink blush that had speckled its way along her cheek and chuckled at her with mocking, a thing the wizard did so naturally.

"You were saying, Luv?" he told her, teasing her.

"I…nothing, Barty."

Elisabeth looked down, flushed and stripped off her words, and could not bring herself to say what she wanted to. It would likely only succeed in making things even worse for Quirinus and more awkward.

"Let's go. And I don't think it goes without saying that if you don't try to leave again, Lizzy…or else," he threatened her. Barty waited for a dutiful nod from Elisabeth.

As she did, glancing to the floor, refusing to look at him, Barty gently pulled Elisabeth close and kissed her on the forehead, tilting her head upward.

The look glistening in his eyes was perilous, but to Elisabeth, it was a warning as clear as the nose on her face. To stay away from Quirinus and not try to leave him. Or else…

Up until this point, she had not wanted to believe that Barty could be so cruel, that his true nature could be so wicked. When they had been in their seventh year, she had been enamored with the handsome wizard to the point that he'd blinded her.

Quirinus had tried, Merlin bless the man, to protect her from the truth about the wizard she had thought herself to be in love with once. But now, she knew.

Barty Crouch Jr. was no man. He was the devil. And he owned her. This ring on her finger likely wouldn't come off, not unless she'd be willing to cut it off. Bile rose in her throat as Barty turned on his heels, taking her with him back to Quirinus's home via means of Side-Along Apparition.

There was no other choice but to humor him for now and pretend to do as he wanted. Or else what? Would he hurt Quirinus if she didn't comply and give the wizard whatever he wanted?

Without words or tears as their feet touched down at the edge of the wizarding village she and Quirinus lived in, she reluctantly took Barty by the hand and led the deranged wizard down the deserted streets of the village. She didn't want to know what 'or else' meant.

As she fled, she tried to ignore the burn of Barty Crouch Jr.'s gaze piercing a hole in the back of her skull as she led the man forward, Quirinus's simple two-story cottage coming into her line of sight as they rounded the street. Her stomach churned.

She started to fear the worst.