-1Powerless

It was the throbbing pain in her head that began to drag her back to consciousness first. The blackness became tinged with shots of red as each wave of pain took hold of her skull until the dark had faded to nothing but red. Rayne came to realise she was seeing nothing but the backs of her own eyelids and found that she could stand to force them open a crack.

The light in the room, wherever she was, was thankfully dim and Rayne found that with each tiny movement she made the pain gradually lessened. She felt as if she were clawing her way out of a black hole and had finally nearly made the surface. As things around her became clear Rayne found that she was slumped uncomfortably on a hard stone floor. Her arms ached terribly but she could not move them to ease the discomfort due to the fact that they was shackled by short chains to a mouldering wall against which she had been unceremoniously dumped.

The sudden awareness of her capture snapped Rayne harshly back to a full state of consciousness. She stood as quickly as she could muster the energy and, eyes wide, surveyed what was her new prison. She was chained into a small cell, bars from floor to ceiling, double the containment. The rest of the room appeared to be much like your typical dungeon. A small number of other cells all equipped the same as her own lined one of the walls but the vast expanse of the room appeared to be mostly empty. I'm guessing this room isn't used all that much any more. Rayne thought nervously as she looked around and finally spied her captor at the other end of the room.

A surge of anger coursed through her as the few past events of the night came back to her at the sight of Lucius Malfoy standing before a table at the far end of the room. Rayne remembered the potion, whatever it had been that knocked her out, the wax like feel of it against her skin, burning, choking. Where had it gone? And more importantly had it done anything more than simply knock her out?

She rushed forwards, testing the length and strength of the chains that bound her. The chinking noise of their movement drew Lucius's attention and he turned to face her, a vile smirk still painted on his lips. "Ah, it awakens." He spoke softly, his voice denigrating and full of distaste.

"What in the hell did you do to me." Rayne spat, tugging again against her chains. They felt old and rusted, with her preternatural strength she may well be able to break them, but at that moment she still felt rather weak. Residual effect of the potion she assumed.

"Now, now, all things in time." Lucius replied silkily, approaching Rayne at a slow saunter. "As I said earlier, we have all the time in the world for questions. Most of which, however, it will be you who must answer them." He came to a halt barely half a meter from the bars of her cell, the look on his face readable only as evil. "I do believe you have a great deal to tell me Rayne."

Rayne bared her teeth, willing for her strength to return to her again. "I will tell you nothing." She hissed, pulling sharply against the shackles at her wrists and grunting in frustration when the ancient metal did not budge even a fraction. She pulled at them again, obviously this time trying to break free of her restraints but still nothing, what the hell was wrong with her?

"Oh I did so hope you were going to say that." Lucius responded gleefully. "And I wouldn't struggle so much, I don't want you to hurt yourself…not yet."

Rayne stopped yanking at her chains and looked up into his eyes, her anger giving way once again to the fear that had gripped her when she'd first awoken. "What did you do to me?"

"Wonderful concoction that potion of mine wasn't it?" Lucius said brightly. He turned away again and plucked its empty bottle off of the table. "Took many, many hours of painstaking work to get it just right, a lot of factors to take into account. But I couldn't be more pleased with its results."

"The potion…" Rayne muttered softly, so it had done more than just knock her out sap her strength perhaps. She glanced down at her red raw wrists, "What did it do to me?"

"Aren't we like a broken record today." Lucius shook his head. "But as you so insistently keep asking…The potion is not only a powerful sleeping draught but is laced with highly potent power suppressers. And by the looks of things, it works."

"Power suppressers? You messed with my power? Motherfucker, do you have any idea what you have done."

"Now now, harness that temper of yours Rayne please. Like I said, I don't want you to hurt yourself." Lucius smirked again. "And as it happens I know exactly what I've done, protecting myself. You really think I am foolish enough to contain you here, at full power? I rather value my own life as it is Rayne."

Rayne was only half listening to what Lucius was saying, his words sounded distant, something greater was beginning to trouble her. "How long was I asleep for?" She suddenly asked.

Lucius frowned, wondering why she'd been awake for several minutes now and still it had only been her who had asked any questions. "Several hours. In all honesty I had not expected it's effect to be so strong, but no matter you are awake now."

"Hours!" Rayne exclaimed, horrified at the thought. She'd been out for hours and in this same spot probably for the greater part of it, Lucius was bound to have apparated them back to wherever here was as soon as Rayne had fallen. What naturally worried Rayne more now was the bounty hunters, whatever protections Lucius had around that place wouldn't keep them out for long, if they could get into Hogwarts to find her with little or no trouble then here would be childs play. The thought of dozens of bloodthirsty demons all hungry for their pound of her flesh winging their way rapidly to where she was now held captive filled Rayne with the hugest sense of foreboding and to top it all of she was also powerless. Even her more basic powers like her increased strength seemed to have been blocked by Lucius's potion, she really was at that moment as helpless as a captive muggle.

"You've got to let me go, you've no idea what you've done, what's coming." She hurriedly ranted, disregarding all other thoughts and feelings and concentrating hard on finding some way of escaping. Somehow pleading and appealing to Lucius's better nature didn't seem to offer her an awful lot of hope but at that moment Rayne saw it really as her only option.

"Let you go? Now why on earth should I want to do that?" Lucius asked, arching one eyebrow and shaking his head, his long platinum hair dancing around his shoulders with the movement. "No, do make yourself at home my dear girl, I have a feeling you may be here for a while.

"It seems you have made quite the impression upon my son. Now he does not fall for people so easily and so there must be something particularly special about you for you to have ensnared him so quickly." Lucius went on, his voice light and conversational but always tainted with the hint of a knife edge. The barest of threats hidden within his words. "The things he'd told to my dear friend Severus certainly did spark us an interest in you and now finally I have you just where I want you." He began to pace quickly across the room until he stood before the bars of Rayne's cell. Lucius wrapped two pale and slender hands around two of the bars and gripped them tightly, an eager and vile grin spreading on his lips. "And now you are going to tell me everything I want to know."

Rayne barely heard his little speech, her mind was too busy racing with futile and vain ideas about how she might escape that dungeon with her life. Each one more fantastical than the last and none of which had a hope in hell of ever succeeding. Once it seemed that he had finished speaking, for that moment at least Rayne shook her head and looked directly at him, "I do not have the time for this, you need to let me go." She said firmly.

At her words Lucius threw his head back and laughed, a low and sinister sound that echoed around the walls of the dungeon. "Do you not realise the situation you are in Rayne? I do not need to do anything, you on the other hand have a choice. You can either answer my questions willingly or I have ways of making you tell me."

"Will you cut out the games, you have no idea of what is coming. The longer I stay here we are all in danger now just let me go, and give me back control of my power."

Lucius actually became more interested as Rayne spoke this time, something was coming? She seemed nervous, and not of what he might do to her either as he would have wished. No her mind seemed to be elsewhere and she hardly seemed to even register the things he had been saying to her. "What is coming?" He asked, well as good a place as any to begin his interrogation. If she had an answer that actually interested him all the better, if it was simply an attempt at a diversion well he would not be fooled and he was in no hurry to finish things.

"Ask Draco," Rayne responded hurriedly. "He knows everything, I told him it all. Just let me go first."

"Draco knows does he? Well now that is useful information. However I should like to hear it, ah, straight from the horses mouth, as it were. I shall perhaps use his information to corroborate with your own story but for now I want to hear things from you." Lucius said with a frown. "I do have ways of making you talk and I can guarantee to you that none of them are pleasant."

Arguing with him seemed to be getting her nowhere, really it was doing nothing but wasting yet more of her precious time. "Demons, I stay here much longer and your nice little dungeon here will soon be overrun with demons. No matter how well protected this place is they will find a way in and you do not want to be here when they do." She finally replied simply.

Her answer was certainly interesting but not nearly enough to satisfy Lucius. On the contrary it seemed to spark his interest even more. "Why are they coming?" He asked before a partial answer occurred to him. "They are coming for you? How interesting, now why on earth would they all be coming for you?"

This time it was Rayne's turn to smirk, her situation was looking ever more hopeless and so if these really were to be her final moments alive she might as well scrape any sense of enjoyment out of them that she could. "You're housing a wanted fugitive." She said darkly, "I am wanted dead Lucius, and the bounty hunters have no qualms about how they get to their bounty. They'll tear this place apart and kill anyone they find to get to me, now if I were you I'd let me go."

"A fugitive?" Lucius asked, genuinely surprised. Her answer only served to raise in him yet more questions, but if she was telling the truth then there would probably be little time left for him to answer any. He did also get the feeling, however, that she was trying her hardest to scare him into releasing her and he wasn't going to fall for it. As it happened another idea had sparked in him, if there really were demons on their way here then perhaps he could use that to his own advantage. He had what they wanted and in return he could bargain a deal, her life for information perhaps even an audience with one of the more influential figures in the demon realm. The possibilities seemed promising and highly appealing.

"So at any moment demons could coming rushing in through my door?" Lucius asked, a mock disbelieving tone to his voice. "Well now that could be interesting, why don't we just wait and see what happens shall we."

"Interesting? You think it could be interesting?" Rayne responded, her tone exasperated. Was there really no way she could win with Lucius? "Have you understood nothing that I've told you. It won't be interesting for long, when they get here we'll all be dead. You, me, Draco, your wife. Anybody in this place will be torn apart, demons do not know what mercy is if they want something killing is the easiest way to get it. You have what they want, you do the math?"

"This story is all very intriguing Rayne," Lucius said dismissively. "However what gives you the impression that for even one moment I might believe you?" He asked, leaning heavily against the bars of her cell and aching his eyebrows nastily in her direction. "You may have entranced my son but I however am not so easily fooled. Now, we shall wait here for your hoard of demons to show up. If they do I shall sell you to them for the information I want, either way you shall prove to be of use to me."

"Your arrogance will be your downfall Lucius." Rayne said sulkily, her eyes were dark and her lips were curled in a distasteful sneer.

"Indeed." Lucius leered, pushing himself away from the bars and straightening his robes. "Well as much as I am enjoying this little conversation there are a few things I must prepare. Do enjoy your last moments of life Rayne, I look forward to meeting your family at the funeral party." With those final words Lucius turned and stalked out of the dungeon. Rayne heard the distant slam of a door followed by the harsh lull of silence, telling her that she was indeed entirely alone.

Alone, powerless, in a cell and chained to a wall to top everything off. How exactly her situation could become more hopeless Rayne could not even begin to fathom. Lucius would not let her go no matter what she said to him, that part was obvious, and without any kind of magical power to help her there was nothing Rayne could do but stand there and wait. The minutes would tick by and as each one passed her impending death would loom ever closer.

***

Rayne had fallen into some kind of depressive stupor, she had given in to the inevitable and while she was certainly not liking the idea of what was to come she had also given up on any plan of fighting it. Perhaps it really was in the end what she deserved. In a way she had betrayed everyone, Draco, the people at Hogwarts and even her own family, her own kind. Everybody in the end gets their just deserts, Rayne just hadn't seen hers coming quite as soon as this.

The sound of the door to the dungeon slamming captured her attention, was this it? Had the time come finally? Somehow she hadn't really expected them to use the door, far too civilised and not particularly terrifying or dramatic. But still the ominous noise echoed strangely down to the depths of the dungeon and Rayne held her breath, waiting to see what emerged at the foot of the stairs.

To Rayne's vague surprise it was not a demon that emerged from the stairs, it was Draco. He cast a hurried glance back up the stairs before rushing across the floor towards Rayne's cell. "You're okay." He said in a relieved tone of voice as he looked over her slumped form behind the bars.

Rayne turned her head to meet his eyes, a look of disgust crossing her face. "Okay? I'd like to debate that fact actually Draco. I am really as far from okay as I could possibly be." She said scathingly.

"You know that isn't what I meant," Draco retorted, a slight scowl falling over his features. This was not exactly how he'd wanted what may be their final ever conversation together to go. "I meant the potion." He went on, forcing his words to remain civilised as he sighed. "The potion my father made, I…Well I wasn't sure if you'd wake up again."

Those words from him melted Rayne's bad mood ever so slightly. He'd been worried about her, even after everything he'd seen and heard from her he still cared. Rayne forced herself to crack a small, sad smile. "Well I did." She muttered, avoiding meeting his eyes. "Though under the circumstances I'm not sure that it's such a good thing."

Draco smiled a little more broadly as he dug one hand into the pockets of his robes. "That was before." He said, a vague tinge of excitement to his voice as he pulled out an old and rusted looking bunch of keys.

"So you've come to spring me from jail. Draco I do believe I've been a bad influence on you, what will your father say." Rayne said. She couldn't help herself but to smile wide enough to match Draco's as he eagerly unlocked the door to her cell before stepping in and starting on the manacles that held her chained to the wall.

"I have the utmost respect for my father but…" Draco said, pausing as he carefully considered his next set of words. How could he say what he wanted without saying too much, embarrassing himself and leaving himself all too vulnerable. In the end he sighed and finished by saying, "I just wouldn't have been able to bear it, knowing you died when I could have helped."

The second manacle fell away from her wrist, Rayne was free but still powerless. "Thank you Draco. You've at least made my death that little bit more dignified." She said rubbing her sore wrists and still not meeting his gaze.

"What do you mean?" Draco frowned.

"I appreciate your help, I really do Draco but in the end it won't make much of a difference. That potion of your fathers it did something to me, to my power. I haven't even a shred of magic to use to help me and I don't know how to get it back." She explained with a shake of her head.

"I…oh well I could…"

"There's no time Draco," Rayne cut off his attempts at trying to say or do something that may somehow make things better. "I realise now that there is no other way, this is my fate and I can't change it." Finally she turned to meet his eyes and firmly held his gaze. "When they do come just promise me one thing Draco please. Promise me that you won't be here, that'll you find somewhere safe to stay until they've gone. Don't give them any reason to hurt you because, well, like you said I don't think I could stand to watch you die, not when it could be avoided."

"You could still run." Draco suggested hopefully, "I mean I know there would be no way for me to go along this time but you could still run, get away from here. You don't have to die Rayne."

She sighed and shook her head. "No Draco I do. I've been here too long and wouldn't get anywhere near far enough away before they caught me. And then without my magic…Draco I'm as powerful as a sixteen year old muggle right now, how much chance do you think I have against a hoard of demons?"

"Hoard?" Draco blurted out quite suddenly, one or two he'd been expecting but a hoard? A hoard of demons invading his home, the thought was purely terrifying.

Rayne again cracked a small smile and even ventured to let out a sad chuckle. "Okay maybe a slight exaggeration, but I wouldn't put anything past them. If I leave it'll just give them an excuse to kill you all first, if I stay then they'll get what they want right away and I can hope they'll leave it at that. There's no reason for you to die because of me Draco, you don't deserve it not after how I lied and played everyone for fools. I know what I've done and now it is time for me to pay the price."

"So I'm just to leave you here to die am I?" Draco asked, finding himself in somewhat of a dilemma. Part of him was eager to preserve his own life and was all for her idea of running and hiding somewhere, but a small part of him also didn't want to just leave her there alone to face whatever was coming. "I don't…I can't…" He began, words trailing off as he really couldn't find the right ones to say.

"Don't argue, just go while you've got the chance." Rayne sighed, grabbing one of his hands for a moment and squeezing. "And I'm sorry, about everything I've put you through. I really didn't mean for any of this to happen, I just never thought I'd meet a wizard quite like you." Rayne smiled sadly and placed a delicate, fluttering kiss on his lips before she pushed him away. "Now go, find somewhere safe and hide, before it's too late."

Draco fought a small battle of conscience as she pushed him away, lingering a longing look on her for a few moments longer before he hurriedly turned and almost ran for the stairs. But the sound of a door slamming open and splintering stopped him in his tracks. It was already too late.