Knights of the Serpent Lord, Chapter Two
"Deorum? I have never heard of it..." Lucius looked questioningly at Tobias.
Tobias looked around quickly, then moved in closer to him. His usual expression of joviality, now dark and cold.
"Deorum, Lucius, makes your stay in Azkaban, look like nothing but a daytrip to Hogsmeade."
Malfoy stared at him. How could anyone describe Azkaban as nothing more then a trip to Hogsmeade? More like a daytrip to Hades, itself.
Tobias laughed softly.
"My dear Lucius! You look as if you'd seen a ghost!"
He glared back at him in disgust.
"Never speak to me of Azkaban as if it were a mere picnic! I endured more suffering there, then even you, Tobias, could ever imagine! Death as it were, would have been more welcome."
Tobias fell quiet for a moment and then glared at him.
"You Lucius Malfoy, though notorius and legend, would never have survived Deorum. It is, and rest assured, I know...it is by far, much, much worse then Azkaban was, or ever could be."
Lucius sneered at this, but did not speak.
"Though you may have had the Dementors, they would have been nothing, to what Deorum could do. You would have welcomed the Kiss, if only to stop from feeling anything!"
Tobias sputtered to a stop, and breathing shallowly. he looked at Eliah and sighed.
Lucius took this moment to question this information.
"What does go on in there? If it is so much worse then Azkaban, as if that is even possible..."
Eliah, who had been quiet while her Father told the tale, muttered faintly...
"Deorum, Mr. Malfoy..." she stopped briefly, almost as if she were searching for the correct way to speak, but resumed quickly. "Azkaban, the Dementors, they took only the happiness, the good that you could feel...Deorum took not only that, but it took your will to live...they tortured you mentally, emotionally and physically. It went on day after day...and no one, nothing, would make it stop, short of death. And, " she paused to catch her breathe, "You would have prayed for it to come...if only to end it all."
Lucius stared at her.
"And you, were in Deorum?"
"Yes."
He looked her up and down, then sneered ever so slightly.
"Yet, you survived. It could not have been all that bad then."
The look on her face went from anger, to pure icy rage. She advanced towards him, her lips contorted in a snarl, and her fists clenched.
"How dare you! You have no idea what it was like in Deorum! You may say you endured suffering, you may claim to have gone thru Hades and back! But you, you bloody fool, would never have survived! They would have broken you, before you ever knew what was happening!"
Lucius found himself backing away from her. Snape, for once, had been right...she was a Viper...and a very, very lethal one at that.