Chapter Five: Punishment

It's here! So after a long time I decided to update this. I'll do my best to come out with a new chapter soon! Please leave comments, it's really helpful!

Students stopped in the hallways to see the sight. Even the professors had to stop and think about what they were seeing. Alecto and Amycus led a blindfolded Cameron up the constantly changing staircases. He walked with as much dignity as he could muster. There was no way of knowing what would come next and he was honestly terrified, but Cameron knew he couldn't show it. Maybe after this he'd be able to achieve some redemption with Amber. It was unrealistic, but possible. The young Lestrange's thoughts were interrupted by a professor stopping the Death Eaters.

"Excuse me, but where are you going?" Professor McGonagall inquired. Even in her old age she was sure to look out for her students. It took Cameron by surprise that she was interfering when he had helped them on so many occasions.

"This isn't any of your business." Alecto spat.

"Death Eater or not he is still one of my students." She replied.

"You need to learn your place, this is our school." Alecto retorted.

"My apologies." Professor McGonagall said. "I'm just not used to you torturing members of the Slytherin house."

"Get out of the way." Amycus said. She pushed the elder professor out of the way. "You're lucky we've let you live this long." Cameron felt himself being pushed by the Death Eaters. For some reason he had felt hopeful when McGonagall had interfered. He wasn't sure why since she hadn't been successful any either time. Honestly she came out better than most times. Usually the professor was tortured herself.

The journey through the castle seemed to go on and on. Cameron could hear the jabber between students and faculty as he went. Eventually he could hear the sound of a wooden door opening. It let out a drawn out creek before being slammed shut by the Death Eater twins. Now there was complete silence. The room was cool and damp. Even without having his sight, Cameron could already make dark assumptions about it.

"You can take off the blindfold now." Alecto muttered. Cameron gladly untied it and tossed it onto the ground. All of his assumptions proved to be right. There were no windows in the small room. It looked as if it were a dungeon. The only sign of life were the spider webs residing in every crevice available. Cameron scanned the room for some form of escape. All that existed was a wooden slab in the middle of the floor. However, there was no means of torture in the room. No chair to sit in while being inflicted by a spell or curse. Not even any sort of muggle remedies. It was completely empty.

"Alright, so what is all this about?" Cameron asked. While he spoke Amycus was busy ensuring that the door was locked. "I know I let that girl go. I have my reasons for it." Without a word Alecto walked over to Cameron. He dug through the teen's slytherin robes and pulled out his wand. "What are you doing?" Promptly he snapped it in half.

"We have been given orders." Alecto said plainly. Cameron watched in horror as the Death Eater tossed his broken wand across the dungeon like room.

"To destroy my wand?" Cameron questioned angrily.

"To kill you." Amycus replied. Cameron gulped.

"That seems a little extreme doesn't it?" Cameron asked.

"A Death Eater must be prepared to do all he can for the Dark Lord. You can't spare some childhood friend." Alecto explained. "This is a very important time and we can't afford to have you muddling it up with your soft behavior." Cameron backed up. He didn't know what to do. They weren't bluffing. Alecto and Amycus would be more than happy to kill him or any student. Was this the cost for defending his friend? An idea popped into his head.

"What will my mother do?"

"What are you talking about?" Alecto asked.

"If she knows that you killed me you'll never see the end of it. She will never stop torturing you." Cameron said. "Just let me go and I'll forget about it. You'll regret it if you don't."

"Do you really think we're that stupid?" Amycus laughed.

"I probably shouldn't answer truthfully." Cameron replied. The female Death Eater pried open the wooden slab to reveal a seemingly endless drop.

"This was all an accident. You were sneaking around the castle and fell." Alecto said coldly. He withdrew his wand. Cameron's eyes widened. Before he could do anything to save himself he was in the air. Cameron plummeted through the hole. For a moment he was in free fall and could see the square light coming from above. The fall ended abruptly when he landed on an odd substance.

Cameron moaned in pain. He looked up and the wooden slab was placed back over the hole. It took him a moment to adjust his eyes to where he was.

"Damn it." Cameron said softly. As his eyes adjusted, the fear inside of him intensified. He was on top of a series of plants that he had learned about his first year of Hogwarts. The plants that his mother had said she had wished Potter had died in. It was Devil's Snare.

There was no time to react. A few tendrils wrapped around Cameron's ankles and knees. They secured him to make it impossible to stand up. He was vulnerable to the oncoming plants as they proceeded to envelop his torso and chest. Cameron thrashed about, trying his best to loosen the ever tightening grip of the Devil's Snare. The teen closed his eyes, searching the deepest parts of his memory to recall the herbology class that had taught him to resist the dangerous plant.

"What's that supposed to be?" Amber asked. An eleven year old Cameron looked up from his doodle filled parchment and turned towards his best friend. About 10% of the paper contained notes while the rest were half decent drawings.

"Oh, it's just some characters for a comic idea I have." Cameron replied.

"Does it involve how to defend against Devil's Snare?" Amber questioned with a smirk. The young Slytherin stuck his tongue out at the girl and laughed.

"Now then," Professor Sprout called out from the front of the greenhouse. "Before we end our session, who can tell me the two methods of protection you could use against Devil's Snare?" Cameron rolled his eyes as Hermonie's hand shot up.

"Well Professor, the most effect way-"

Cameron's eyes shot open as the plant tightened further. Almost every inch of his body below his head was within its grasp. There was no use struggling and nothing in his memories could help him. It all seemed so long ago. Thinking about that day was only worth it because it was a time when he was friends with Amber. If only things had stayed that way. If he could just see her again and apologize. Tears started to form in Cameron's eyes. He mustered as much strength as he could.

"Help! Alecto! Amycus!" Cameron screamed. "Help me!" A tendril shot out and wrapped firmly around Cameron's mouth. Another emerged and started to constrict his neck. With no way to breathe, Cameron's eyes started to flutter shut. This was it. After all these years his stupid mistakes culminated to this. The young Death Eater was away from his mother, had no true friends, and worst of all, was unable to say goodbye to Amber.

His eyes grew wide as a blinding light suddenly filled the room. Out of the corner of his eyes Cameron saw a tall man with greasy black hair emerge from the shadows. Before he could make out who it was Cameron gave in to the lack of oxygen and passed out.

Chapter 6: (Title TBD) Coming Soon