The Ultimate Sacrifice

TW – It gets a bit dicey from here: death, torture, sexual harassment. Nothing too graphic, but please consider yourselves warned.

Claudia was back in the office, properly this time, the following day. She wrote up all the reports on her adventures in Paris and gave them to Moody without any expectation any of them would be officially filed. As she was clearing her desk to make sure she looked at all the material on Inkwood before confronting him, she spotted a note in Oscar's handwriting.

"Muggle liaison office messaged. They have some report ready for you."

Claudia smiled to herself. Was her luck really turning?

And it certainly seemed that way. The report from the muggle police could not have been any clearer, as Claudia read it while walking back to her desk from the Muggle Law Enforcement Liaison Office. There were several eyewitnesses clearly stating that Buckling did not fall but was in fact pushed into the path of the moving train. What happened next, however, was less clear. Some of the witnesses claimed that the assailant disappeared like a ghost or vanished into thin air. That may have seen strange to a bunch of muggles at a train station, but not to Claudia. To her, it sounded very much like apparition.

She strode back into her office, still staring at the police report and smiling. Her mood was not ruined even by tripping over the threshold and nearly falling flat on her face.

"You seem chipper. What's that?" Oscar asked and pointed at the report.

"Leverage…" Claudia smirked, packed her bag and, without another word, made her way to St Mungo's.

She did not even bother knocking on Inkwood's door, instead choosing just to barge in.

"Get out!" Inkwood yelled, towering over her from behind his desk. He was red in the face and if looks could kill, Claudia would be a pile of ashes on his carpet. But she stood firm. The law was on her side, and that was all the encouragement she needed.

"No. I am here on official Auror Office business, and I have questions."

"And why should I answer them?" he hissed.

"Because otherwise-" she took out the muggle police report and slammed it on Inkwood's desk. "I am really going to start looking into this."

Inkwoold froze for a second but was quick to recover his composure. "That was an accident."

"Where were you the night Buckling died?"

"You have nothing on me!"

"Maybe not. But I have enough to launch an investigation. And I have a reason to believe you would have a motive too-" she bore her eyes into Inkwood for a second or two. "Do you really want to be explaining to your patients why you are a prime suspect in a murder inquiry?"

"You can't do this-"

"Maybe not… But I know you aren't telling me the whole truth."

"What do you want?"

Carefully, Claudia put the muggle police file back in her bag. "I want those memories you took after Buckling died…"

It was a shot in the dark but seemed to have worked. Without another word, Inkwood crossed his office towards the bookshelf that made Claudia's Probity Probe quiver last time. He tapped a book to reveal a secret compartment and handed over a jar of swirling silvery trails that Claudia instantly recognised as memories.

"Take them and never come back," Inkwood hissed.

"With pleasure."

With the jar of memories safely in her hands, Claudia apparated back to the Ministry and run straight to the Department of Mysteries. If there was one person who could help her see all the secrets that the jar was hiding, it was Agrippa.

The moment Claudia pointed her wand at the memories, she knew that reading them was going to be tougher than anything she had ever done before. There was not a single coherent thread that lasted longer than half a second, and everything was jumbled together. Claudia lowered her wand, broke the connection and collapsed into a chair. "I feel dizzy just watching this."

"What was in there?"

"Have a look."

Agrippa pointed his own wand at the memories but did not last much longer than Claudia did. "Never seen anything like it," he mumbled when he retreated back to reality. "This is going to take months to sort out."

"We can sort it out?"

Agrippa nodded. "We will need to take the snippets out of the jar like this-" he said and drew the tiniest of silver threads with his wand out of the jar and into a small bowl he took from his desk drawer. "And try to match the ones that seem similar. Once we have sorted them, we can start pulling the individual scenes back together."

Claudia sighed. "That will take months."

"And you will need to be precise, more precise than we've practiced in these lessons. And patient…"

"Great," Claudia mumbled.

Agrippa smirked, which annoyed her a little, before asking: "What's your wand?"

"Cedar with dragon heartstring."

Agrippa hummed. "Not bad for Legilimency. But you'll need something better for such a delicate task. Try one of these-" he walked over to one of the many cabinets that lined his office, took out a long box and placed it on the table in front of Claudia.

She opened it to find about a dozen wands, all in light brown shiny wood. "Never seen a wood like this…" she mumbled.

"They're all silver lime wands, a wood well suited to Legilimency. You can choose one to use-" he paused and smiled –"and keep."

Claudia picked up a couple and turned them in her hand, feeling nothing. And then she spotted a long, slender wand with no marking. She felt instantly drawn to it. The moment Claudia touched it, warmth flooded her whole body. And when she looked at Agrippa to tell him this wand was the one, images from his childhood flashed in front of her eyes.

"I haven't even-" she gasped and looked at the wand. "How did it do that?"

"I think you found the one."

"What core is it?"

"Rougarou hair"

"Never heard of that either."

"It's imported. There is a wandmaker who uses it in America. Some say it's got affinity for dark arts."

Claudia sighed and turned the wand over in her hand. "I can see how a dark wizard would find Legilimency useful."

"Why do you think it's outlawed…"

"Good point. Shall we?"

They spent the rest of the evening picking up small slivers of memories out of the jar and separating them. It was the fiddliest thing Claudia had ever done. They spent six hours on it and learnt absolutely nothing.

"Oh, one last thing," Agrippa mumbled as they were about to part ways. "Don't use that wand for anything other than Legilimency. It would lose its power."

"Understood."

It was now the end of July and the first birthday of Claudia's (and she still felt weird saying it) godson had arrived. Claudia and Sirius took a quick trip to Diagon Alley to buy the boys some presents. They picked a kid racing broom for Harry, which they were sure James would love and Lily would hate. And for Neville, Claudia could not resist buying a little leather jacket not too dissimilar to the one she got from Sirius and always wore. It did not much matter that it was incredibly impractical, expensive, and way too big for Neville, Claudia just could not leave it in the shop.

Alice a Lily organised a cute little birthday gathering for the two boys. But it was small; Remus only popped in briefly to drop off the presents, Peter was on a mission, and Marlene was visiting her sick parents.

"Shall we open the presents?" Lily asked as she came from the kitchen with fresh tray of scones.

Sirius held on tighter to little Harry, who was sitting on his lap, and began to bounce him up and down on his knee. "Presents, presents, presents!" he chanted to Harry's absolute delight. The little boy just could not stop laughing at his godfather's silliness.

James was just as (if not more) excited about the little broom as Harry was and grabbed Harry from Sirius' arms so they could try it. But Harry was not especially stable on his new toy and kept falling off. In one especially boisterous attempt to safe his son from hitting his head on the floor, James knocked over the birthday cake and it splattered on the carpet.

Claudia burst out laughing but immediately bit here lip and glanced at Lily. But Lily could not help it either, she was laughing with everyone else. Then, she took out a wand from the pocket of her full green skirt, and the cake flew back on the table and reassembled itself.

Then, it was Neville's turn to get his present from his godmother.

Alice laughed when she pulled out the little leather jacket. "Oh, your mother is going to hate this, Frank."

Frank took it from his wife and wrapped it around Neville's shoulders. "She wouldn't let me have one until I turned twenty. I'm well jealous!" He picked up his son. "Come on, Nev. Let's go have a look at you in the mirror."

Claudia watched them leave and when they did, she turned to Alice. "So, you don't hate it?"

"I'm just glad you had enough sense not to buy him that broom," Alice chuckled and gave her best friend a hug. "We'll need to keep an eye on it, though, make sure his grandmother does not burn it at the first opportunity."

"Has she gotten any easier?"

"Not especially, no," Alice shrugged. "It's always Frank this, Frank that… Like it's some kind of competition. Do you know Frank walked at eleven months?" she added bitterly. "And started showing signs of magic even before then?"

"Neville has plenty of time to start showing signs of magic!"

"I know that!" Alice hissed. "Say that to her!"

But the babies soon got tired, and it was time for everyone to either go have a nap or go home. Claudia and Sirius just managed to find enough time for a picture with their godchildren.

When they got home, Claudia sat on the bed staring at it. They were all sitting on the sofa, Neville was snuggling up to Claudia, still wearing his new jacket, and Harry was waving his broom about, beaming.

Claudia smiled to herself. "You know what," she whispered in Sirius' direction. "If something was to happen to their parents, we would be able to look after them. Right?"

Sirius sat down next to Claudia and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You should have seen Harry the other day when he started throwing his potato mash at Lily's face, you'd feel very differently." He kissed his girlfriend's temple. "Besides, nothing is going to happen to them. They're safe in hiding."

Claudia placed the picture carefully on her bedside table. "You changed your mind, then?"

"About what?"

"About Remus being the spy."

Sirius sighed. "I don't know. Maybe." He dropped into the bed and stared at the ceiling.

Claudia laid down next to him and placed her hand on his heart.

But it was Sirius who spoke again. "I can't fathom a reason why he'd want to do it. I just can't… But what other explanation is there? Who else could've done it."

"I don't know," she whispered.

Sirius turned to Claudia and stared into her eyes. "You don't think it was me, do you?"

"Not in a million years."

Sirius' face melted into a smile. "That's all that matters to me."

"And Moody doesn't think it's you either…" she added.

But the babies' birthday party was the last respite Claudia got. For days, she did nothing other than work with Agrippa on the memories. They managed to isolate a few memories that actually meant something but were useless for the case. No-one was likely to be interested in how this witness did in his Hogwarts Quidditch try-outs.

The long hours in the Department of Mysteries also meant that Claudia was late to the Order meeting in the second week of July.

When she got to that day's venue – a semi-derelict manor on the outskirts of London - everyone was lined up against the windows in several rows, and James was balancing a camera on a chair. Claudia slipped to the back of the crowd and stood next to Moody, just behind Frank and Alice. "What's going on?" she whispered.

"We're taking a group picture," Moody hissed with an expression that made it abundantly clear he was not too happy about it.

Claudia looked around. Sirius, being Sirius, was standing right in the middle with Lily and James, who has now taken his place in the crowd and was pointing his wand at the camera.

"Should we be taking a picture?" she whispered to Moody. "Isn't this supposed to be a secret organisation?"

"Do you think they don't know you're in the Order?"

"I supposed they do… But don't tell me you think this is a good idea."

"It's not." Moody shrugged. "But there're only so many battles I can have with Dumbledore any given time."

Claudia chuckled, as did Moody, just as the camera clicked.

"Besides," Moody added. "He promised to enchant it so no one but us could see it."

With much further ado, everyone assembled around a dusty dining table.

"Hey," Claudia whispered as she took her seat next to Sirius.

"You made it," he said and affectionately brushed her back. "I thought you might sleep in the Department of Mysteries again."

"I don't sleep there!" Claudia said with a laugh.

"You might as well."

But further conversation was cut short as Dumbledore opened the meeting. "Alastor happened to uncover some concerning information-"

"Concerning is one word for it, alright…" Moody interrupted. "The Ministry is leaking like a sieve. The bomb the Death Eaters used to blow up that bookshop, and countless other houses since… We have intelligence it came from the Department of Mysteries."

"How?" Claudia interjected. "It's the most secretive place I've ever seen!"

"There was a spy," Moody explained. "Rockwood. He's been arrested now, but Voldemort could have hundreds of these things by now."

"What's the plan?" Sirius asked.

"Later…" Moody growled.

Dumbledore cleared his throat. "I will need four volunteers for the mission this Thursday. It might take a few days."

Claudia raised her hand, then leaned towards Sirius when he kept his hand down. "You not coming?"

"I got Wizengamot…"

"I wanted to come and watch!" she said and lowered her hand slightly.

"It's a closed meeting anyway."

"Avery!" Moody barked and interrupted Claudia's and Sirius' whispering. "You in or out?"

"In," she quickly recovered.

"Great. You four stay here after the meeting." Moody said.

Claudia quickly looked around – the other people who volunteered were Fabian, Gideon and Peter. She sighed. Should have kept my hand down, she thought to herself, this was going to be one awkward mission.

Soon, the meeting was over and the four stayed behind.

"So, what's the plan?" Fabian repeated Sirius' question from the main meeting.

"We think we know where Rockwood had his secret workshop. We need to find it and destroy it," Moody said.

"Just a moment, Alastor," Dumbledore said softly. "There are other ways. We could simply try to understand the magic behind them and develop a counter spell."

"Albus-" Moody barked and hit the table with his fist. "We don't have time to muck about with counter spells. This war might be over in a matter of weeks."

Claudia, who had never seen Moody and Dumbledore disagree this publicly, stared at them with her mouth slightly ajar. Dumbledore eyes, that always looked soft to Claudia, suddenly had a lot of steeliness about them.

"What do the rest of you think?" Dumbledore said, not taking his eyes off Moody for a second.

"We could do both," Fabian spoke first. "See what we can find and then blow up the workshop."

"There might not be time to do both," Gideon pitched in. "But I don't know which is the better plan. They both have merits-"

Claudia looked at Peter, who was staring at his shoes. She remembered the time where he could not decide whether to side with James or Sirius over a stupid potion antidote. This must have been killing him. But she knew what the right thing to do was. She waited for Dumbledore to look at her-

"Moody's right, Headmaster," she said. "If there is a choice to be made, we cannot risk leaving the stock of these things in the Death Eaters' possession. Not now."

"Very well," Dumbledore said through lips just ever so slightly pressed together. "Try to obtain the intelligence as well as destroy the workshop, but if you cannot do both, prioritise the former."

"Understood," Claudia mumbled and caught the sight of Moody practically gloating in her peripheral vision.

"Take your time. Watch the place for days if you have to."

"And the Ministry can't do this, why?" Gideon changed the subject.

"Because Crouch doesn't believe there could be a leak in the Department of Mysteries," Moody's expression had turned sour again. "And refuses to investigate."

"Where's the place?" Fabian asked.

"I'll give Avery the address," Moody said. "You three meet her at Sudbury train station on Thursday at 5pm."

"Where on Earth is that?"

"Take a train from Liverpool Street towards Ipswich. I think you might need to change somewhere."

"Can't we organise a portkey?" Peter asked in a faint voice.

Moody just stared at him.

"It's less traceable if we take the train. Especially if we are on different ones," Claudia took pity on him and explained before Moody started growling.

With that, they were all dismissed but Claudia stayed behind until it was just her and Moody. He took out a map. "There's a manor about five miles from the station. Belongs to Goyle. You'll need to be careful, walk through the woods."

Claudia stashed the map in her pocket. "We'll get rid of it. Whatever it takes."

"Be safe. And don't tell anyone else about the plan."

The day of the mission had arrived, and just after lunch Claudia was getting ready to set off for Liverpool Street station to take a train to Sudbury.

"Claude," Sirius mumbled and rubbed his palms. "I'm going to skip Wizengamot. I'll come with you."

"You can't," she whispered and sat him down on the sofa. "The Wizengamot is way more important than this mission. You have to go. You can make a real difference there."

"It's not more important than you."

"I can look after myself."

"I know." Sirius grabbed Claudia's hands in his and brought them to his lips. "But I have a bad feeling about this. All these missions going wrong, the mole… You don't know what could happen," he mumbled with his eyes closed.

"Neither of us knows what's going to happen any time we step out of this door. We have to keep fighting-"

"I know…"

Claudia freed her hands from Sirius' grip and placed them on the back of his neck, pulling him closer to her. "I'll see you soon. I promise."

Sirius sighed. "Alright. Please be careful."

"I will," she replied and kissed him. "But I really have to go now."

The closer Claudia got to Sudbury, the heavier the stones in her stomach seemed to have gotten. She could not quite shake off Sirius' words. He was right, a lot of missions were going wrong lately.

And seeing Fabian, Gideon and Peter waiting at the station did absolutely nothing to improve her mood. They all looked just as miserable as she did.

"Follow me," Claudia mumbled, barely raising her eyes from the map Moody gave her and set off into the nearby woods.

The four Order members walked at a steady pace in an attempt to stay quiet. A storm was coming, and it was already nearly dark. Claudia was at the front, looking at the map, and the others followed her. All of a sudden, she felt that one of them was catching up with her, so she turned her head and saw Fabian's face.

"How much further?" he asked.

Claudia passed him the map and pointed at the red cross Moody drew on the place where the manor was.

"And we are-" Fabian hummed.

"Here," Claudia pointed about three quarters of a way between the train station and their destination. "We're nearly there. We should find a good vantage point and set up camp."

Fabian chuckled.

"What?" Claudia hissed, a little annoyed he was laughing at her. If he did not like what she was proposing, she wished he would just come out and say it!

"I just remembered you walking to your first Order meeting, barely saying a word for months. And now-" he chuckled again. "Now you're giving us all orders, and no one even bats an eye lid."

Claudia could not help but laugh too, but then-

BANG!

Instinctively, Claudia dived to the ground and then looked around.

A trunk of a nearby tree shattered under the force of some spell.

BANG!

And then another.

There was no doubt about it. They were being attacked.

"We have to go deeper into the forest!" Gideon shouting, hiding behind a tree. "We need to find better cover!"

Claudia crawled to protect herself behind a wide oak and looked. The forest did look thicker in the direction opposite to where the spells were coming from. "Let's run there. We'll find cover."

All four of them set off, zigzagging between the trees to dodge the spells. Every now and then, someone managed to throw a hex or a defensive spell over their shoulder.

They ran and ran until-

Claudia's foot got caught under a tree branch and she tumbled down. But instead of hitting the ground, the forest floor just kept giving away from underneath her and she rolled down a hill.

Eventually, she did hit the ground, really hard. She looked around to see Fabian, Gideon and Peter, all collecting themselves from the forest road they all fell on.

"We're sitting ducks here!" Fabian exclaimed and swished his wand around to repair a huge gash on his arm.

"Let's keep going," Claudia jumped to her feet but nearly tumbled as her ankle gave way. Mercifully, they had a healer with them, and Claudia's ankle was soon fixed enough to continue.

They scrambled up the hill on the other side of the road and kept going. Claudia legs and lungs were beginning to burn. Not long now, she mumbled to herself and strained her eyes to look ahead. The forest was now nearly impenetrable, with a thick undergrowth. If they managed to get just a few hundred yards further, no one would find them there-

But then another spell came swishing past her, this time from the right.

And then from the left.

They were ambushed.

"Let's re-group at the station!" Claudia yelled and gripped her wand. It was time to apparate well out of there. They were clearly outnumbered.

Claudia focused in an attempt to apparate but nothing happened. She was still standing in the forest, and so were the others.

"They must have cast the anti-apparition charm over us…" Peter mumbled.

"Clearly," Claudia hissed. "Let's take cover." She dived behind a particularly thick bush and waited.

Soon enough, the Death Eater's bombs began to rain on them. Trees, bushes, the dried leaves on the forest floor were soon on fire all around them.

They tried to counter with all manner of offensive spells, but it was hard to attack as they were desperately outnumbered and had no idea where the enemy actually was.

And then, a black ball landed with a thud just by Claudia's foot. It hissed, but just as she was getting ready to kick it back to wherever it came from, the hissing stopped.

She stared at the bomb for a good few seconds, before slowly picking it up. It had not detonated.

She outstretched her arm, getting ready to throw it back at the Death Eaters.

"Hang on," Fabian said and grabbed her arm. "Use it to blow up the house. Take Peter and go destroy that place. Gideon and I will hold them off."

"We have to stay together. That's the best chance-"

"Go!" Fabian pleaded with her. "They will move the stash if we don't destroy it now."

"There are too many of them for you."

"We'll hold them off," he said and turned back to shoot another spell.

Without thinking, Claudia flung her arms around him. And for a moment, the battle stopped, and everything went quiet. "I will destroy that place, I promise."

Fabian squeezed Claudia in his arms, giving her a strange sense of familiarity. Maybe it was the rhythm of his breath, or his cologne… She was not sure. "Please get out of here alive," he whispered in her ear, his lips only millimetres away from her skin.

She turned to run but did not get far, as Fabian grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him.

He opened his mouth but said nothing. He was breathing heavily through parted lips, making them quiver, and the fire was reflecting in his eyes.

Claudia had seen him like this before… And she was absolutely sure he was about to kiss her.

Instead, however, Fabian closed his eyes. "Run," he whispered and slowly let go off her arm.

"Fabian…" she said but it felt pointless. Saying his name was not going to change their fate. "I'm sorry… For everything."

"Run!" he said, now much more loudly and resolutely.

Before Claudia reacted, another bomb landed nearby and threw them both off their feet. When she collected herself, the stillness of the moment was gone.

She fetched Peter from behind a nearby oak and shoved him in the direction of the manor. They broke into a run again, leaving the sound of the Death Eaters' bombs and duelling behind them.

Claudia could not quite resist and turned for a moment. She could just about make out Fabian's and Gideon's silhouettes against the burning forest, as they launched a doomed offensive against their enemies.

They were desperately outnumbered.

She wiped her tears and gripped the bomb. There was a job to do. That workshop needed to be blown up.

She tried to apparate towards the manor and this time it worked, even with Peter in tow. The anti-apparition charm did not extend too far, she thought, as she landed by the foot of the manor. Maybe Fabian and Gideon would make it out too.

But that newly found hope was quickly extinguished. Figures dressed in black were slowly moving towards her, their wands raised. Claudia swallowed dry. There was no time to investigate where the workshop was, or how best to destroy it. Blind luck would have to do.

Claudia gripped the bomb and threw it through the nearest window into the cellar. As she turned back, five Death Eaters were pointing their wand at her. One of them was holding Peter by the collar.

"It's over…" he sneered.

"No, it's not," she replied and waited. "Come on, come on…" she muttered to herself.

She did not have to wait for long. Just as she finished her sentence, she heard an explosion coming from behind her, and then another, and another. She smirked; she must have somehow gotten the workshop, and waited for another-

But the explosion that came next was so massive, it threw Claudia off her feet. She felt mud on her face, and then everything went black.

When Claudia opened her eyes, she was no longer outside. The mud she landed in was replaced by a stone floor, covered in the thinnest layer of straw. She looked around for any sign of where she was, and saw Peter huddled in the corner. There was no sign of Gideon or Fabian, or any of the Death Eaters.

"Fabian and Gideon?" she whispered hoarsely and grabbed her head, feeling sharp, pulsating pain. Clearly, she should not have tried to sit up. "Have they-" she swallowed, remembering Fabian's face in the glow of the fire "-have they been captured too?"

Peter shook his head, staring at his feet and refusing to look at Claudia. "I don't know."

"How long have I been out?"

"A few hours…"

"Where are we?" she grimaced, rubbing the side of her head to relieve some of the pain.

"No idea…" Peter whispered and held onto his knees.

Claudia rolled her eyes and jumped to her feet. The world around her spun, into darkness but she managed to hold onto the wall and not tumble to the ground.

When her eyesight returned, and the world stopped spinning, she looked around. They were in a cellar, low arches made of big grey stones were hanging over their heads. And a sliver of moonlight was coming in from the tiniest of windows right under the ceiling.

The corner of the cellar where Claudia and Peter were held was partitioned with heavy metal bars.

Claudia fumbled through her pockets, but predictably, there was no sign of her wand. "Took your wand too?" she asked Peter.

He nodded.

Peter's inaction was beginning to irritate Claudia. They had to get out of there! She could think of several reasons why the Death Eaters wanted them alive, and none of them were worth hanging around for. But before she could make her displeasure at Peter's behaviour known-

The door to the cellar creaked open and a man walked in with a twisted smile on his face.

Claudia watched him as he unlocked the cage they were kept in, playing ostentatiously with his wand. Even Claudia was not stupid enough to try something. She was defenceless against an armed wizard, no matter how weak.

"Stand up, you scum-" the captor dragged Peter – who was closer to the door - to standing. "How did you find this place?"

But instead of replying, Peter burst into tears. Looking disgusted, the Death Eater dropped him back on the ground and walked over to Claudia.

"What do we have here?" he whispered and pressed his long, pale, twisted face so close to her that Claudia found herself with her back to the wall. His wand was wedged in between her ribs. "I wasn't sure if you were a girl before, he lifted his left hand towards Claudia face and grabbed her chin. "But I'm sure now."

She stared at him, petrified and unable to move.

Slowly, he let go off her chin and brushed her throat, and chest bone. "Let's be extra sure."

Something had risen inside Claudia. Something that made her unfreeze. And before she knew what she was doing, she spat in his face.

The Death Eater moved with lightning speed and within a second, he had Claudia pinned against the wall by her throat.

She desperately tried to keep her feet on the ground, but he was much stronger and the pressure on her throat was becoming unbearable.

The air was getting thinner and thinner.

"You don't have to pretend you don't want me-" he hissed, baring his teeth. "I assume your boyfriend wouldn't let you come here alone. I doubt that it's that weasel in the corner over there, and I personally killed the other two. So whichever one of them he was, you don't have to worry about him anymore-"

Upon hearing those words, all strength abandoned Claudia and she nearly slipped out of the Death Eater's grasp like a marionette whose strings were cut off without prior warning.

"You'll pay for this," she whispered, desperately trying not to burst into tears. She did not want to give him the satisfaction.

But the Death Eater just laughed. It was a horrible, hollow laugh that echoed through the cellar for what seemed like eternity. The intensity with which Claudia's tears were forcing themselves into her eyes increased with every passing second.

Fabian was dead.

He was never going to see him again. Talk to him.

Worse still, he sacrificed himself for her. He should have just run with them. Maybe, just maybe. If he did, he would not have been dead, and Claudia would not have been here.

And the things Oscar said at the party… The look in Fabian's eyes she saw in the forest… If he sacrificed himself because of some misguided feelings for her… Tears were now flowing down her cheeks. It became impossible to hold them in.

The Death Eater stopped laughing and grabbed her by the chin again. "You are in no position to threaten me, remember that."

"Dolohov!" someone barked, and Claudia's eyes darted towards the entrance to the cellar. Unbeknown to her, a man and a woman had entered while she was being tormented.

"Anton, my dear Anton," the woman said in a high-pitched voice, as she floated into the cell. "What did the Dark Lord say about prisoners?"

Claudia had a nagging feeling that she had seen this woman before. But she seemed a little too old to be a Hogwarts contemporary- She pushed Dolohov aside, and Claudia tumbled to the ground as he released his grip on her.

The woman crouched in front of Claudia. "How did you find the place?" she asked sweetly.

Claudia scoffed. How stupid did they think she was? This was the oldest interrogation tactics in the book.

Something very evil flashed in the women's eyes. "You will tell me," she said in a much colder tone.

"I will not," Claudia said. As she uttered those words, she realised why this woman looked so familiar. The grey eyes betrayed her. It was Sirius' cousin Bellatrix.

"Crucio."

All of Claudia's senses were overtaken by searing, overwhelming pain. Like a hundred burning knives were plunging into her body.

But the pain went as quickly as it came, and Bellatrix spoke again.

"What about now? Will you tell me now?"

"Fuck off," she whispered with difficulty, refusing to give in. She looked up at Bellatrix and, just for a second, saw a look in her captor's eyes that she had not seen since she last came face-to-face with her father: pure hatred. Bellatrix lifted her wand again-

"Crucio!"

It was hard to judge how long the pain lasted this time. It was so overwhelming that nothing in the world existed for the time Claudia was being tortured. She could not clear her mind to focus on anything but the pain. The pain was all she had.

When this bout of the curse ended, Claudia found herself on all fours panting heavily. She felt dizzy and nauseous. So nauseous in fact that she threw up all over the stone floor. Great, she thought, not only am I being tortured, but now I am also humiliated, and I reek.

"I don't want to do this to you," Bellatrix spoke softly again. "I just need you to talk to me…" she paused and crouched down again. "What's your name, dear?"

Claudia looked up. She had absolutely nothing to lose by telling the truth. "Claudia Avery…" she mumbled. "I guess you might want to tell my father I'm here."

"Crucio!"

Claudia could not take it anymore and screamed. It was a desperate scream, and it echoed and echoed through the cellar for what seemed like eternity.

The sound of it alone made her want to die.

"You and my blood traitor cousin both deserve to suffer fate worse than death," Bellatrix screeched. "I'm going to start with you, and then hunt him down." She cackled. "Crucio!"

This was the end. Claudia could feel her consciousness slipping away. In fact, she wanted it to slip away. Anything to make this end…

"Bella, stop!" The man who had not spoken until now intervened. "We have to tell him she's here."

"Crucio!"

The pain was worse than ever.

Everything was suddenly dark.

Claudia tried and failed to open her eyes. And then, even her own screams died down.

A/N - I know FFN has been a bit temperamental of late. Just a reminder this story is also on AO3 (same name, same pen-name) if you wanted to swith over.