A/N: This chapter is significantly darker than the rest of the story, and contains themes of abuse, torture, and rape.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read, review, favorite, or follow this story. I get excited every time I see someone new interacting with my store :)
August 3rd, 1997
I awoke, sometime later, in a dark and gloomy room. My face was pressed against cold stone, and my body was aching, as if I had been put under the Cruciatus Curse while I was knocked out. I opened my eyes slowly, looking around the room and able to see, as my eyes adjusted, that I was in some sort of cell.
At once, the numbness that I had felt during the war disappeared, replaced by an overwhelming wave of pain. In a flash, I had pushed my protesting body up off the ground and had latched myself on to the cell bars.
"HELP!" I cried out, shaking the bars as though that would force their unrelenting latch to open. "Someone HELP!"
I called out until my voice went hoarse, and I slumped to the ground, the bars digging in to my back uncomfortably. I started crying, uncontrollably. I had let myself be captured. I had let myself be separated from Sirius, Harry, Hollyn and Eliana. Who knew if I would ever see them again – or if I had lost them forever? My shoulders were shaking as the tears fell; I didn't know where I was, how long I had been here, or if there was any way out.
I cried until the tears ran out. I felt drained. I felt defeated. We had fought for so long – I had held my nerves back for so long, as Sirius, Harry, Remus…and everyone else, risked their lives, and in the end, I had been the one who got captured. I could only hope that Sirius would forget about me; that he wouldn't do anything drastic to try to find me. Harry, Hollyn and Eliana needed him – and I needed him to be there for his children.
"Are you okay, dear?" a weak voice asked through the darkness. I jumped, startled and looked around helplessly through the darkness, trying to locate where the noise had come from.
"Hello?" I asked hesitantly, my eyes not adjusted to the darkness yet.
"Over here, next cell over," came the voice again. I moved blindly towards it, feeling my way through the cold cell on my hands and knees. I managed to find the edge of the cell, separated from another by cold, steel bars. I groped the bars, until I felt someone's hand, reaching out to me. I could see him now, just barely; my eyes having adjusted slightly more to the darkness.
"Mr. Ollivander?" I asked.
"Yes, dear. Mrs. Black, right?" he said softly, his hand icy cold in mine.
"Yes," I said, grasping his hand tightly in my hand. "How are you? You've been so missed – are you alright? Nobody knew what happened to you – your store was ransacked."
"I'm fine," he said. "I've been here for the last year, death eaters broke in to my store as I was closing up. Oh, my poor wands! I've adjusted…the pain isn't so bad anymore."
"Is there any way out?" I asked, desperately.
"No." He said, with finality "I've tried everything."
I was quiet for a minute, letting that information sink in. "How long have I been here?"
"A couple of days – two or three at most. It's difficult to tell, but I've been fed four times since you got here, and they usually feed me once or twice a day."
"Where are we?" I asked.
Ollivander didn't answer me right away, but his hold on my hand tightened. Finally, he said, "The cellars of Malfoy Manor." My heart dropped in to the pit of my stomach.
Time passed slowly in the cells. Ollivander and I talked at the beginning, me telling him news of the war's progress, and him telling me the nuggets of information he had learned since being captured. After days of nothing but darkness, the conversation slowly died out to us checking in with each other every couple of hours, making sure the other hadn't given up.
Every so often, food would appear in our cells. It was the only way to track time, although the food seemed to come at random intervals. I passed the time between meals by dropping in to daydreams of Sirius – Sirius from all periods of time. I would have killed for a supply of daydream charms from Weasleys' Wizards Wheezes, but my imagination had to suffice. I dreamed of Sirius roaming the halls at Hogwarts, his tie undone and his shirt untucked, laughing at something James had said. Sirius lounging on the couch in our loft, waiting for me to change after a tough Quidditch practice. Sirius holding Harry for the first time, Lily a wreck that he would drop her son, and James talking about buying Harry his first broom. Sirius, seeing Hollyn for the first time, his face lighting up as he met his daughter. Sirius handing Harry and Hollyn presents on their birthday, Sirius holding me late at night as we chatted quietly about the future. Sirius holding Eliana for the first time, his face alight with pride and awe at the miracle we had created. Always Sirius.
It made my heart hurt, thinking of my family. I missed them all terribly, and wondered what they were doing. Did Eliana know that I was gone? Did she miss me? How were Harry and Hollyn handling it? Was Sirius a mess? No matter how much I was hurting, I knew that they were hurting more. I hoped Molly was helping Sirius with Eliana. I hoped Sirius was being kind to her. I hoped Remus hadn't run away – that he was there to help his best friend get through this. I hoped that Remus had gotten over himself, and gotten together with Tonks. I hoped they were all…somehow…in some way…happy.
It was several days later, as I sat on the cold floor dreaming about Sirius, that the door at the top of the stairs opened, light spilling in to the dark basement. I flinched, the light hurting my eyes. I hadn't seen light in weeks, and my eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness.
I backed myself in to the corner of the cell, shying away from the light and the oncoming person.
"Back up, both of you!" the man squeaked…and there was something familiar about it.
"Wormtail?" I croaked in disbelief, having identified his voice from the memories that played like movies in my mind. His face came in to view as he stepped up to the cell door, levitating two trays of food.
"St..stay away!" Peter stuttered; his voice high pitched.
"Wormtail, you've gotta help me," I begged, scrambling to my feet and latching against the bars. "Please!"
"Step back…or…or…I'll hex you!" His wand hand was shaking.
I deflated and stumbled back against the corner that I had taken up as my safe space. "I should have known. You've always been a coward," I spat at him.
Peter didn't answer, but he waved his wand and the trays of food appeared in front of us. I wondered why, all of a sudden, he needed to come downstairs to deliver us food. Did he just want to see me, like a zoo animal stuck in a cage? Did his curiosity finally get the best of him, and he figured he'd go check on the girl who he had known most of his life? The girl who was the love of his best friend's life? The best friend that he had betrayed and sent to prison for years? "How can you live with yourself?" I screamed at him, my frustration at the situation coming to a breaking point. "How can you live with yourself knowing you killed Lily and James? Knowing that you sent Sirius to Azkaban for a crime he didn't commit?"
Peter turned around, heading back up the stairs, without saying anything to me. "LOOK AT ME!" I screamed, launching myself at the bars again, completely out of control, an animal trying to break free.
He turned in surprise, his bulging eyes wide and watery. "Look at what has become of your friends. Look at what you did!"
"Back up," he squeaked.
I shook my head at him, at a loss. "What happened to you, Peter?" I asked sadly, retreating back to my corner, the fight gone. He didn't answer, and he didn't come downstairs again. Food appeared at random intervals, like it had before, but I had lost the will to eat. It seemed like too much effort to eat – what was I eating for? There was no way anyone even knew where I was – they probably assumed I was dead at this point. And even if they did know where I was, there was no way they could fight their way through Malfoy Manor – and no way I would want them to.
Weeks bled their way into months, and I slowly lost my mind. I had stopped eating, except the bare minimum to sustain myself. I wasn't trying to kill myself, but I also didn't feel the need to keep my strength up. It was as if Ollivander and I had been forgotten; nobody came downstairs to check on us after I had screamed at Peter. I'd taken to sleeping for extended periods of time, waking up, checking on Ollivander, and then turning over and falling back asleep.
I was reminiscing in my corner, the night Sirius and I got engaged flowing freely in my mind, remembering him down on one knee, fake snow falling around him. As I was starting to drift away, locked in the excess corners of my mind, the door at the top of the stairs opened suddenly. It had been so long since anyone had come downstairs, that I almost forgot there were other people in the manor.
"Put her with the others, Draco," came a sharp voice from the top of the stairs. "And bring Black up with you."
I curled up upon myself, trying to make myself as small as possible; as if that would make Draco somehow not see me. He came down the stairs, his pinched face white as he pulled Luna Lovegood – not gently, but not violently – down the stairs.
"Stay back," he commanded quietly, looking me in the eye with a look that I couldn't identify. If I had been of sounder mind, I would have noticed how tired he looked, how scared. But all I could think about was my own fear. They had never come for me before, and I didn't know what to expect at the top of the stairs, but I figured it wouldn't be good.
"Luna?" I croaked; my voice hoarse from non-use. I couldn't remember the last time I had spoken, except a word or two here or there to Mr. Ollivander.
"Hi, Mrs. Black," Luna said brightly, in the same ethereal voice I had come to expect from her. She almost seemed to radiate warmth, even though she had just been captured by death eaters. I envied her that – hope. I had lost my hope months ago.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm okay. They took me off the train on the way home for Christmas break. Hollyn's okay, though – Mrs. Weasley pulled her and Ginny out of school last week. She's safe," Luna assured me, walking in to the cell, which Draco had opened.
"Mrs. Weasley?" I asked, shaking my head. "Where's Sirius? Why didn't Sirius take care of her?"
"Stop talking!" Draco ordered, weakly.
"What happened to Sirius?" I demanded desperately, holding Luna by the arms. I hadn't even realized that I had gotten to my feet.
"Oh, of course you wouldn't know. He went off with Harry, Ron and Hermione," Luna said in her musical voice. If she was disturbed by me grabbing her, she didn't show it.
"He WHAT?" I screamed. "What about his kid –" I cut myself off before I said 'kids'. I'd just managed to remember that no one knew about Eliana – I didn't need Draco picking up on my slip of tongue, and asking questions.
"No one really knows what they're doing, but they went on the run after the Ministry attacked Bill and Fleur's wedding," Luna said. Luna turned her head and noticed Mr. Ollivander cowering in his cell. "Hi, Mr. Ollivander."
I was trying to wrap my head around all of this new information when Malfoy screamed, suddenly. "SHUT UP!" I jumped at the sudden volume, and turned to look at him. He waved his wand, and suddenly my hands were bound. Luna's binds seemed to disappear at the same time. Malfoy grabbed me by my arm, and pulled me out of the cell, locking it behind us.
"Draco, please," I begged, pulling away from him futilely.
"Shut up," he snapped at me.
"Please don't do this. This isn't you; you know my kids! You know Harry, and Hollyn. Please don't do this, let me get you out of here," I begged, becoming hysterical. Draco had stiffened upon me mentioning Harry and Hollyn. It was subtle, but I had picked up on it. The same…hesitancy…regret…that I had seen written on his face at the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. I could tell that he didn't like being reminded that his classmates were involved in this war, just like he was.
He didn't say anything, until we had reached the top of the stairs, the sudden light blinding me. He pulled me down the corridor, in front of a pair of large oak doors. He paused, before pushing open the doors, and said out of the corner of his mouth, "Hollyn really is okay. They don't know where she is."
I was confused by why he would tell me this, but I didn't have time to process before he had pulled me through the doors. The scene in front of me was simply horrifying. It was a large drawing room – at one end stood Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, on the other…Bellatrix and Lord Voldemort himself.
My heart became a block of ice as terror flooded my veins. I stopped moving, and Draco had to push me forward so that I stumbled to the ground. He stepped around me, and walked back over to his parents. Narcissa wrapped her arm around his shoulder, holding him close to herself protectively. Lucius looked as though he were a puppet, standing in his own home but controlling none of his own actions. He was a shadow of the man that I had seen at the Quidditch World Cup, just three years ago.
But it was the other corner of the room that had struck me dumb. Lord Voldemort stood there in dark robes; his face as snakelike as Harry had always described. I'd never seen him up close before, and the inhuman effect of his features struck a fear in me that I had never felt before. The power that emanated from him…it wasn't natural. It was like nothing I had ever seen before.
"Well, well, well…Mrs. Black. How nice of you to join us!" He said, his voice deep and almost purring.
I didn't say anything, staring up at him from my place on the ground, my eyes wide. Even if I had wanted to speak, I doubted I would be able to get the words out.
"Now, how are you finding the accommodations here?" Voldemort said, his arms out wide and sweeping across the drawing room floor towards me. Again, I didn't answer, terror gripping me tightly in her remorseless grasp.
Bellatrix shrieked in outrage and rushed over towards me, her arms spread wide like a bat, kneeling down so her yellow teeth were inches from my face. "The Dark Lord himself speaks to you, and you say nothing? Have you no respect?"
"Bellatrix," Voldemort purred, "let's not be rude. Look at her shake." Bellatrix backed off immediately, looking at Voldemort reverently. Voldemort looked down at me, his head held to the side like a dog in confusion.
"I can see why our dear friend Sirius is so enamored of you, Mrs. Black. You do possess a certain…charm. Beauty, too. I do have to admit, I am surprised he hasn't come storming the Manor yet…I thought for sure that he would have done anything within his power to get you back. Mr. Whitmore seemed sure that he would have been here by now, knocking the doors down, as they say."
My blood boiled when he mentioned Jase, but Voldemort had already moved on. "Now…Mrs. Black…where is your husband? Where is Harry Potter?" He spoke in an affectionate tone, his words floating around to caress my face; like an old friend, inquiring politely about my life. His words did not have the intended effect on me; instead of feeling comforted or calm, I felt each word like a stab, leaving me cold and scared.
I didn't answer. Bellatrix looked to Voldemort, her insanity shining through clearly, as though she were asking for permission to attack me. She seemed particularly offended that I hadn't spoken.
Voldemort held up a hand slowly, silencing her before she even spoke. His expression didn't change as he turned his head to the other side, still examining me. He crouched down, so that his snakelike red eyes were staring in to my brown eyes. "I'm going to ask one more time, Mrs. Black. Where is Harry Potter?"
"I don't know," I spat, finding strength somewhere deep inside of me, wishing he would move his inhuman face away from me.
"Perhaps…a little bit of incentive will loosen your tongue?" He asked coldly, a smirk appearing on his thin lips, stretching his face into a grotesque mask. "Crucio," he whispered, and the pain that wracked through my body was so intense, that I soon wished I were dead. Blazing heat filled every inch of my body; my bones were breaking over and over again. I surely must be dead – no person could endure this pain and survive it.
The pain lifted what felt like hours later, but probably was only seconds. I was panting, my entire body broken out in a cold sweat. I looked up at him, my body contorted grotesquely on the ground, and I steeled myself for whatever would come next.
"Now, Mrs. Black, I ask again. Where. Is. Harry. Potter?"
"I don't know," I repeated, in a weak voice.
"Shame," he clucked his tongue. "Perhaps, another lesson. Crucio."
Unbelievable pain. I was rolling around on the ground, trying in vain to make the pain dissipate. It had reached my head, the fire spreading so that I felt as if my brain was melting. I couldn't see, couldn't think, couldn't feel anything but the immense and all-encompassing pain.
The pain stopped, and I realized I was crying, scrunched in a ball on the ground. "Please, please," I begged. "Please stop, I don't know anything. I don't know where they are. I didn't know they were going anywhere before Jase captured me."
Voldemort stared down at me, evaluating. My brain, still hurting from the aftermath of the Cruciatus, vaguely felt a probing pain. Although normally the pain would have been unbearable, I barely even registered that it was happening. He was performing legilimancy on me, searching my mind for any information I might have. He stood slowly, turning towards the Malfoys. "She knows nothing."
"What shall we do with her?" Bellatrix asked, hungrily. Her insane eyes had turned to me, a crazy smile on her face. "Kill her? Oh, I would love to kill her – that would hurt my dear, dear cousin like no other."
"No. No one kills her. She is more useful to me alive. Whitmore can have her though, for a little – he deserves a little…reward…for having the forethought to bring her here. Sirius will come, eventually. And with him, Harry Potter."
He turned, and stalked out of the room. Bellatrix followed behind him, fawning over him as he moved. The three Malfoys stared at me, as I caught my breath on the floor, the marble of the flooring cooling my flaming cheeks.
"Please help me," I cried, sobs taking over my body. "Please."
The three Malfoys stared at me; their blue eyes wide. Lucius turned from me first, walking through the door behind him. "I will get Whitmore. You two will leave once he is here. Do not let her move."
Narcissa nodded dumbly, her eyes never leaving mine. The door slammed behind him, but neither Draco nor Narcissa moved. "Please, don't do this. We can protect you – both of you. If you just help me, we can protect you."
Neither of them answered me. I tried again, desperately, "Please!"
"Dumbledore is dead," Narcissa snapped. "There is no one who can protect us."
"Sirius would," I said quietly. "You know he would."
"Sirius is on the run. He hasn't even come looking for you yet. I don't think any of us can rely on him," Narcissa sniffed.
"It's not true – he doesn't know where I am. He would have come for me, if he knew. He would have."
"He's not coming for you," A voice said from behind me. "He thinks you're in Azkaban – that's the story we had the Prophet spread. He knows he can't get in there – not that he would go anywhere near that place again. I know I never would."
It was Jase, having appeared through one of the far doors into the drawing room.
"Come, Draco," Narcissa said quickly, sweeping Draco from the room. His pale face turned back to look at me, ever so briefly, before he left the room, closing the door behind him with a deafening click. He looked…forlorn, yearning, as though he wished he could help me. But maybe I was projecting, hopeful that someone in this place wished they could help me. Sirius had always been there to save me before…but he wasn't coming. Nobody was going to help me. I was alone.
I hadn't heard Jase approach, too caught up in my own depressing thoughts. He grabbed me by the hair, pulling me to my knees. He pulled so hard, my neck craned all the way backwards – any further and I worried that it might break.
"I'm sorry that Sirius can't be with us today – I would have loved to do this while he sat in front of us, forced to watch. I'll just have to make sure you have your memories this time…so that you can explain it all to him, play by play, if you ever do get the unlikely chance to see him again," Jase said, his voice falsely sympathetic. "Crucio."
Pain flooded my body again, not as intense as Voldemort's had been, but painful enough that I was shaking when he finished. I lay on the ground, the after tremors shaking my body, causing me to flinch against the marble flooring.
"I've wanted to do that for years," Jase sneered, his white teeth shining as he grinned snidely down at me. "How about another one? Hmmm, baby? Would you like that? Seeing you scream on the ground is really working for me, I must admit. Reminds me of that night in Hogwarts – bet you would have screamed that night too, if you hadn't been worried about the whole school knowing what a slut you are."
Pain, again. At a certain point, I just became numb to it, barely realizing when he lifted the curse. The after tremors were worse now. I vaguely felt someone gently running their hands through my hair, and I felt, for a brief moment, hope. Had Sirius come to save me after all? The hand tightened at the scruff of my neck, forcing my head up to look at him. My brief moment of hope deflated, as I looked up at Jase's face, inches from my own.
"Get up," he hissed. He had hold of my arm, pulling me up violently. My legs were shaking too much to support me, and I fell back to my knees.
"Up!" He screamed, grabbing me by the hair and forcing me back to my feet.
Many hours later, I was forced back in to my cell, my body bruised and my legs still shaking. I lay where I had fallen when Jase had shoved me back in to the cell, no strength left in me to move once I was laying down. I felt the last remnants of strength fade from my body, giving way to the waterworks that I had just barely been holding back.
Luna came forward hesitantly. "Mrs. Black?" She asked quietly. I couldn't find it within myself to answer her. "We heard you screaming for hours. Are you okay?"
I just cried harder, knowing that one of my kid's friends had heard me being tortured, being attacked, being assaulted again. Luna didn't try to talk again, but she sat down beside me, took my head onto her lap, and ran her fingers gently through my tangled hair.
I found myself in this position every couple of days. After I had been returned by Jase, it seemed as though a schedule had taken place. Voldemort tortured Ollivander personally a couple of times – apparently asking for information about wands. I couldn't make heads or tails of why he was interested in wand-making, but I didn't have too much brain power left to think harder about that. They never came for Luna – probably thinking she couldn't have any useful information.
Every couple of days, Draco or Wormtail came downstairs to get me, bringing me back to the drawing room where I was tortured – usually by Jase but sometimes by Bellatrix herself. I never saw Voldemort again, but I had to assume he was in the house somewhere – every so often, someone would flinch and go running to a different part of the Manor, apparently summoned by the Dark Lord.
Jase abused me in every way he could – emotionally, physically, sexually. The only thing that kept me from completely losing my mind and giving up, was the thought that Sirius, Harry, Hollyn and Eliana were all safe, and I knew nothing that could give them away. If they had been found, Voldemort's joy would have been palpable – I would have known immediately.
Each time I found myself back in the dark cell, after hours of torture, Luna found her way to me, running her fingers through my hair and holding me as I shook. I eventually lost track of the days, although Luna was convinced that she had been with us for just over three months. It had been Christmastime when Luna was captured, which would put us towards the end of March, if Luna was right. And for some reason, I tended to believe her.
It was one of those times, Luna holding me as I shook off the tremors of the Cruciatus Curse, Luna holding my shoulders steady as they shook uncontrollably, when the door opened again. I knew that they wouldn't be coming to get me again, not so soon after they had brought me back. They'd never done that before.
I couldn't see, the bright light hurting my head and causing my headache to intensify. I closed my eyes tightly, turning my head away from the light. The cell door opened, and three or four people were pushed inside.
"Let me go!" someone screamed, banging their fist against the cell door. My heart plummeted. I knew that voice. And it was the last thing I wanted to hear, locked inside this cell.
"Harry?" I cried in disbelief, my head snapping to look at our new cellmates. "Ron, Hermione?" There was someone else, a dark-skinned boy around Harry's age. He looked vaguely familiar, but my pain addled brain couldn't place him. I had seen him before, though, that much I knew. The boy noticed Luna, and walked over to her, checking to see if she was okay. A goblin had been placed in Ollivander's cell; I couldn't wrap my head around the unlikely group of people we know found ourselves with.
"Addie!" Harry rushed over, kneeling down near my head. His face was swollen, as though he had been attacked. "What happened to you?"
"We thought you were in Azkaban!" Ron exclaimed, walking over towards us as well.
"Never mind me," I said, rolling up and pushing myself up shakily so that I was sitting. Every motion sent after tremors of blazing flames wracking through my body. "What are you lot doing here? Where's Sirius? What happened to your face?"
"He's upstairs," Hermione said in a small voice. "They're torturing him." As she said it, I heard the heartbreaking sound of Sirius, screaming in pain, echoing throughout the manor.
"No," I said. "No, no, no. Who's up there?"
"The Malfoys, someone that…well…we think it was Whitmore," Hermione said, looking at Harry to see if she should keep talking.
"And Bellatrix," Harry finished.
"No!" I cried. "Not Bellatrix – I thought she'd gone out with Voldemort earlier. She wasn't there before. She wasn't there!"
I picked myself up, my legs protesting against my weight. I stumbled over to the bars of the cell, Ron catching me as I almost fell. "TAKE ME! TAKE ME INSTEAD!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, as Sirius's painfilled screams intensified. His screams hurt me more than anything I had endured during the last several months of my imprisonment.
"PLEASE!" I screamed. "PLEASE TAKE ME! DON'T HURT HIM!"
I tried for several more minutes, until my voice gave out. I fell to the floor, sobbing. "They're hurting him, they're hurting Sirius. Please, make it stop. Make it stop," I begged, to nobody in particular. None of us could do anything about it.
Harry sat down next to me, taking my hand in his own. "It'll be okay, Addie. Sirius is strong."
"What do they want?" I asked, wiping tears from under my eyes. "They want you, Harry. I don't understand why they haven't called You-Know-Who yet. They've been torturing my for months, trying to get information on you. Trying to get you to see that I was here, to come and save me."
"We…have the sword of Gryffindor. Bellatrix went insane when she saw it – accused us of being in her Gringott's vault. She's torturing Sirius because she thinks we stole from her," Harry said.
"Why do you have the sword of Gryffindor?" I asked.
"We needed it…to destroy…" Hermione trailed off, looking at Harry to finish. He shook his head, and she closed her mouth.
"We'll tell you after we've gotten out of here," Harry promised me.
"There's no way out," I said sadly. "Ollivander and I have been in here for months. Luna too. We've tried everything. We're stuck."
Everyone stopped talking at those words. Hermione's brow was furrowed as she thought furiously for a way out. The only sound was the sound of Sirius, screaming in pain. Every time he screamed, I felt it like a shot to my heart. They'd had him for too long – they were going to ruin him, break him. I wished it was me. I was used to it by now – the pain. There was nothing more they could do to me; they had already taken everything from me. The only thing they could do to hurt me now, would be to hurt someone I loved. And they were doing it, right now; and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Fifteen minutes later, the screams subsided. It wasn't long before the door was blown open again, and Draco made his way downstairs.
"Step back," he ordered. Nobody moved. "I'm just here for her," he said, pointing to me.
Still, nobody moved. Draco took his wand out, holding it shakily and pointing it in to the cell. "Come on," Draco almost begged. It was the first time I had seen his hand shake; the first time I had truly seen his mask fall. He was breaking.
"Why didn't you identify us?" Hermione asked quietly. "Upstairs? Why didn't you tell them who we are?"
Draco shrugged, his face pale and pained. "Please," he whispered. "I don't want to hurt any of you. They just want her."
Harry stepped in front of me, but I pushed him back. I shook my head at him. "It's okay, Harry. It's not so bad. I'd rather it be me than Sirius."
The cell door opened, and I stepped out willingly. Draco closed it behind me, turning around without so much as another look at Harry. I turned as well, and made my way up the stairs, without Draco's help. At the top of the stairs, before opening the door in to the hallway that I had come to know and dread, he paused. Staring at the door in front of him, he whispered, so quietly that had anyone been breathing too loudly, we would have missed it, "House elf."
Without waiting to see if the kids had heard him, he pushed the door open and pulled me through it. House elf…house elf? Of course! House elves could apparate, even through anti-apparition wards. If Harry could just get Kreacher – would Kreacher answer him? I had to hope that Harry would understand Draco, and that Kreacher would come when called. Both of Kreacher's master were in danger…he should come. I kicked myself the entire way to the drawing room, that I hadn't thought to call Kreacher myself.
I was pushed in to the room, and saw Sirius squirming on the floor in pain. He was bloody, shaking, and looked as though he hadn't had a shower in weeks.
"Sirius!" I screamed, breaking from Draco's weak hold and running towards my husband. I didn't make it far before Bellatrix had turned her wand on me. I fell to the ground, the familiar feeling of the Cruciatus Curse bringing me to my knees.
It was over quickly. Relatively. "Addie," Sirius said raspingly, rolling over, attempting to face me. "No."
His voice was so weak, it broke my heart. "I'm here, baby, I'm here," I assured him, reaching out for him. I couldn't reach him, as another wave of pain hit me. My hand fell uselessly to the ground between our two bodies.
"NO!" Sirius screamed, attempting to stand. "STOP IT!"
"Tell me what you were doing in my vault, and I'll stop," Bellatrix snapped, her usual playful – psychotic, but playful – demeanor when torturing nowhere to be found.
"We weren't in your vault, you fucking crazy bitch!" Sirius snapped. It was the wrong thing to say, I thought to myself, as another curse hit me. I wish whoever was screaming would stop – it was hurting my head. The curse stopped, and I shook on the ground.
"Addie!" Sirius was crying. I was the one screaming. I stopped, the pain subsiding somewhat. I was used to this – this was manageable.
"She's too used to the Cruciatus Curse," Bellatrix cursed. "Fucking Whitmore, ruined her."
"WHITMORE?" Sirius exclaimed, attempting again to get to his feet, despite the fact that his arms were shaking so badly that his elbows gave out and he hit the ground again. "He's been torturing you?" He asked me over his shoulder, defeated.
"No matter," Bellatrix pondered. She reached in to her pocket, pulling out a blade. "We'll just have to…change it up."
She came over to me, binding Sirius as he attempted to roll in front of me. I had no fight left in me. She looked down at me, the tip of her knife digging in to my cheek. "Now, dear cousin. You better come up with something, quickly, or your beautiful bride is going to have a permanent smile…carved in to her face."
"I don't know anything…please…please…don't hurt her…hurt me instead!" Bellatrix dug the tip of her blade deeper and I screamed as the pain blossomed at the point where her blade was cutting my cheek. She had picked the same spot that Jase had burned me – which had never really healed. It was a cursed wound; it must be a cursed blade as well. There was no reason so much fire should be spreading, just from the tip of her blade. "PLEASE! STOP! The sword is a fake…it's a fake! Get the goblin…he can tell you! PLEASE STOP HURTING HER!"
Bellatrix backed off, appraising the situation. "Draco. Get the goblin," she snapped.
"Don't tell Draco what to do!" Lucius snapped. "This is still my house, Bella."
Bellatrix laughed dismissively. "You lost any rights to this house the moment you lost your wand, Lucius. Draco, go, or face the same fate as my cousin here." She kicked Sirius to solidify her point.
He took off at once, his shoes clacking on the marble ground. I took the opportunity to scramble closer to Sirius, one of my hands desperately reaching out for his. I found one, and took hold, trying to communicate that I was okay with just the feeling of my hand in his. Bellatrix had turned her back on us, pacing, the tip of her blade pressed in to the palm of her other hand. She hadn't seen me move closer.
Draco was back quickly. He pushed the goblin in front of Bellatrix, and without looking at Sirius or I, hurried back over to his parents.
"Goblin, identify this sword. Is it the same that was held in my vault?" Bellatrix snapped, handing the sword over to the goblin. He took it and examined it for a moment. He turned it over in his hands, examining it from every angle.
"It is a fake," he said finally, holding it close to his chest. Had Bellatrix known anything about goblins, she would have known at once that he was lying. Based on all of the stories Bill and Fleur had told me, the goblin would have dropped the sword the moment he determined it to be a fake; he wouldn't be holding it to his breast, lovingly.
Bellatrix laughed, wildly, slashing her wand around and sending blood spurting from the goblin's cheek. "Crucio!" she cried, aiming for Sirius, shooting without true aim. "Crucio, Crucio, Crucio!" Pain hit me, Sirius was screaming. I couldn't even tell anymore when the pain had started or stopped – my entire body throbbed with residual pain.
"I will call the Dark Lord!" She cried in joy, ripping back her sleeve and pressing the tip of her wand in to the dark mark on her left arm. "He will be so pleased with me…we have captured Harry Potter!"
"Bellatrix!" Lucius snapped, rushing forward to pull her wand away. "You should have allowed me! It is my home!" Bellatrix and Lucius continued to argue, but I was distracted by an enormous crack, which echoed throughout the hall. Harry, Ron and Hermione had appeared in the center of the drawing room.
The next minute happened in slow-mo. Harry dove towards Lucius, knocking him to the ground. A wand flew out of his hand – Narcissa's. Harry caught it with his seeker reflexes, turning adeptly and disarming Draco in one fluid movement. He caught Draco's wand in his other hand, throwing one to Hermione. Sirius, taking cover in the chaos that had ensued, managed to dive to the side, picking up his own wand, which had been deposited in a pile in an abandoned rucksack, where the snatchers had placed the sword. He grabbed his own, and picked up the rest of them. He threw one to me, before turning to Bellatrix. Bellatrix disarmed Hermione, sending Narcissa's wand flying; Harry maintained Draco's wand in his hand, turning it towards Bellatrix.
At once, Harry, Sirius and I all turned our wands on Bellatrix and sent stunning spells her way, while Ron pulled the goblin out of the line of fire. Our three spells converged, hitting her squarely in the chest. She flew backwards, her head cracking against the marble fireplace; she slumped to the ground, knocked out. As she had flown backwards, her wand flew out of her hand. Lucius caught it, and being within reaching distance of me, pulled me in front of him, the tip of his wand pressed against my temple.
"Nobody moves, or Addison dies," he snarled.
"Let her go, Lucius," Sirius growled, stepping closer towards us. Lucius pressed the tip of his wand into my temple harder.
"I don't think I will. Draco, Narcissa, round up the rest of them," he barked over his shoulder. When he heard no movement, he turned his head to glare at his family.
Narcissa was standing against the wall, cowering. Draco had Narcissa's wand in his hand; he must have picked it up after Hermione had been disarmed. Draco looked as if all of the blood had left his body. He was sweating, and pale, his entire body shaking – but his wand was held steady…and it was pointing at his father.
"Let her go," he said quietly.
"What?" Lucius shook his head, as if swatting away a fly. "Draco, do as you are told!"
"No. Let her go," he repeated, taking a step closer to his father.
"Draco, the Dark Lord is on his way here, we don't have time for this!" Lucius screamed.
Another loud pop, and Dobby stood in the center of the room.
"Dobby!" Harry cried.
"Harry, take the others and go!" Sirius shouted, his wand still turned on Lucius. "GO!"
"Dobby, do not go anywhere!" Lucius screamed. "I forbid it!"
"Not without you two!" Harry protested at the same time.
"Harry, go NOW. I'll take care of this – Dobby come back for us," Sirius insisted.
"Dobby will do as Master Black says," Dobby said in his high-pitched squeak, avoiding looking at Lucius altogether. He took Harry forcibly by the wrist, and Hermione as well, who had grabbed hold of Ron, the goblin snatched in to Ron's arms haphazardly. The five of them disappeared with another crack. He was back almost instantly, and Lucius stamped his foot in outrage.
"Dobby! How dare you defy a direct order from your master," Lucius cried.
"Dobby is a free elf!" Dobby defied, glaring at Lucius.
Lucius screamed in outrage, turning his head from Dobby and back towards Draco. "Draco! Do something!"
"I am doing something," Draco said. His wand hand trembled slightly now, but he seemed to steel himself, and his hand steadied.
"Draco," Narcissa warned from her corner. "Do as your father says."
"No!" He screamed, losing some of his composure. "I am always doing as he says! And look at where that has gotten me! A marked death eater! A murderer at sixteen. I never wanted this! I never wanted any of this! He's the one who wanted this! And because of his mistakes, I'm paying the consequences. Nobody cares about me…nobody knows me at all…except for her."
"What the fuck are you talking about, kid?" Lucius snapped, getting impatient.
"HOLLYN!" He screamed, rage taking over. "I've been dating Hollyn Black for the last two years – not that any of you would have known that."
I felt my heart sink. It was Draco Malfoy – the boy that Hollyn had been owling all the time, the boy who had sent her that bracelet for her birthday, the boy that Hollyn had been meeting up with at Hogwarts. Of course, she would keep it a secret, even from Ginny. She knew Harry would never approve, and probably would have done something to stop it. But it didn't make any sense – how had they gotten together, what did he want with her?
"I don't know what delusion you are operating under," Lucius chuckled. "But I don't care if you and her had a child together. It doesn't make one ounce of a difference to me. She's going to die, just like her stupid fucking parents will."
"I'm giving you one chance, Father," Draco said, his voice quivering. "Let Mrs. Black go, or I'll kill you."
"You'd kill your own father?" Lucius laughed outright this time. "Because of some blood-traitor slut that you've been fucking?"
Sirius screamed in outrage, flinging a purple hex at Lucius's hand, slicing off three of his fingers, causing his wand to go flying. Lucius released me, screaming in pain and cradling his hand.
"Come on!" Sirius called, already holding Dobby's hand. "Addie, let's go!"
"Wait!" I screamed, over Lucius's cursing. "I promised Draco, that we would protect him. We can't leave without him." Sirius growled at my obstinance, but I was determined to uphold my promise.
Draco took a step towards his father, who was cowering in the center of the drawing room, blood flowing freely from his severed fingers. "I told you, Father. One chance to let her go, and you didn't take it."
"You wouldn't kill me, would you? Your own Father? You don't have the nerve," Lucius taunted.
"I didn't have the nerve before, perhaps. I wouldn't have had the nerve if not for her – but I have someone to fight for, I have someone who loves me waiting out there. And I will do anything to protect her, and her family. Including kill you, Father," he said in a deadly cold voice, standing over Lucius, the tip of his wand in the center of Lucius's forehead.
Lucius must have sensed how serious Draco was, for his face fell. "Draco….?"
"Goodbye, Father." Green light filled the room, and Lucius fell to the ground, dead, at his son's hand.
