Chapter 2

Return

Draco Malfoy sat on the mattress in the corner of his cold, tiny, dark cell in the House. The room was lit only by a single lamp in the middle of the ceiling, which didn't do much good for seeing purposes. Draco was wrapping a not-so-clean bandage around a deep knife wound on his side, wincing at the pain every time he pressed a little too hard. The wound was just beneath his rib cage on his right side and it hurt like hell. He just hoped it hadn't punctured anything important inside.

Draco still couldn't believe he'd gotten himself into this mess. About two years ago, a few months after he's failed to kill Dumbledore, Draco had escaped from Voldemort, who had been torturing Draco mercilessly for his failure. The only problem was, he'd escaped without his magical powers. Voldemort had removed Draco's powers temporarily while he was being tortured so that he couldn't fight them, and Draco had escaped before they'd returned them.

So Draco had ended up in Muggle London, with no money, no shelter and no food. A man had come up to him and told Draco that he would give him food and shelter as payment for a job he was to do. Draco had foolishly agreed. He hadn't been thinking straight and he was hungry and lost. The man had led him into a world of underground fighting, where "masters" made money from their "fighters" battling other "fighters". Draco had lost count of how many other "fighters" like himself he'd killed in the past two years. And what was worse, at night, his "master" made money off of Draco "pleasuring" other "masters". That was probably why he wasn't dead yet. The "masters" loved Draco. He was the perfect little sex-toy, they'd said. That was why his "master" only set Draco up to fight the weaker "fighters", the ones he was sure to beat, because he made a lot of money from Draco's body at night, and he didn't want to lose him.

This is hell, Draco thought to himself, groaning softly as he tied the bandage tighter around his side.

Once he was sure the bandage was in place and wasn't about to come off, Draco lay down on his mattress, wanting to get some rest before he had to leave to "please" Monon Stojkonic for the night. It was Tuesday. Every Tuesday night was Stojkonic's night. Draco dreaded Tuesdays. Stojkonic was rough. Very rough. There was one time that Draco couldn't fight or even sleep because of what Stojkonic had done to him. Shuddering at the thought, Draco turned onto his side, trying to get as comfortable as possible on the chunky mattress.

Suddenly, Draco heard the heavy metal door being unlocked from the outside and it flew open, flooding the cell with a harsh light. Sitting up, Draco frowned, recognizing Razden, his "master", and two big, muscular men, ex-Navy.

What's going on? Draco wanted to ask but didn't. He hadn't spoken in about a year and a half, since a couple months after he'd arrived at this place. He hadn't felt the need to talk to anyone, so he hadn't. He sometimes wondered if he still had the ability to talk, if he could, supposing he wanted to some time. So he just sat there, glaring at Razden and the two men.

"Get up, you have some visitors." Razden ordered.

Visitors? Draco repeated in his head, confused. He didn't moved. He was shocked. Visitors? He hadn't had any visitors the whole time he had been there. He was sure no one from his previous life had known he was even alive, let alone in this place.

When Draco didn't make any move to get up, Razden turned to the two men, telling them to get Draco up.

Nodding, the men strode towards Draco and grabbed his arms, yanking him roughly to his feet. Letting out a cry of shock and pain, Draco tried pulling away from them, but couldn't seem to get his feet on the ground. Too weak and exhausted to fight them, Draco let himself be dragged out of his cell to meet his visitors.

Harry, Lupin and Snape sat on a large leather couch in a nice house in the center of London, waiting for Draco Malfoy to arrive. They had already spoken to Razden, Draco's "master", and had convinced him that they were interested in buying the boy from him. Razden wouldn't have it any other way. He hadn't been willing to just give his best sex-toy away. He demanded money. A lot of money. Seeing that was the only way to get Draco out of there without using magic, the three wizards agreed reluctantly. Luckily, all three of them were pretty rich, so they could afford the two million pounds they were planning to pay Razden.

Finally, Razden reentered the room, followed by two big men, who were half dragging, half carrying a very weak looking boy with them.

The three wizards gasped.

Draco Malfoy had changed. He had lost a lot of weight. He wasn't wearing a shirt and they could see his ribs jutting out, clear proof that he hadn't had a decent meal in a long time. His once beautiful white blonde hair was no an ugly shade of light brown, due to all the dirt and blood that had collected in it over the past two years. It was now pretty long, down to his shoulders, the longest it had ever been. He looked up at his visitors momentarily, and in that split second when they could see his eyes, they saw emptiness, loss and pain in those grey eyes, before he quickly looked away.

"My goodness, boy," Snape hissed, staring at Draco in horror. "What's happened to you?" Draco didn't reply, and didn't even look up and, seeing this, Razden backhanded the boy hard across the face, making Draco let out a small cry.

"ANSWER HIM, BOY!" he bellowed, glaring at his "fighter". When Draco still refused to say anything, Razden turned back to the wizards, apologetically. "I apologize for his behavior. He hasn't been speaking much lately. You can rest assured that he will be punished severely for this afterwards."

"It's alright, there's no need," Lupin replied softly, glancing over at Draco, whose face showed no sign of emotion, even the prospect of being "punished severely afterwards". Lupin shot a quick look at Harry, who, he noticed, hadn't been able to keep his eyes off the other boy, shocked at what had become of the powerful, arrogant wizard he had once known at school.

Turning back to Razden, Lupin said, "We'll pay two million for the boy, right now, in cash. We'll take him and that will be the end of this."

"Two million?" Razden repeated, seeming a little shocked. "Yes, yes, that sounds alright to me. Let's get this done."