July 1993
She was weak. Over the years her body had grown fragile, but never before had she felt so utterly defenceless. Unable to support her head, it hung lifelessly into her chest, and at the sound of approaching feet she raised her eyes.
His hair blended into the room, matching the white walls that sickened her with their irony; there was nothing light, nothing good in this place. Her brain acknowledged the dull pang of hatred and anger for the man before her. The man who had taken everything she had left and had destroyed her.
She wanted to attack him, her mind told her to kill him, to gain satisfaction at watching the light leave his eyes, but her body didn't react.
Her body was far too focused on forcing her lungs to accept the air surrounding her, urging herself to keep living; to not give in to the exhaustion.
So when he muttered the familiar words, the smirk apparent in his tone, her body rejected the command to defend and with a jolt of searing agony in her head, a choked cry and gasp for relief; everything went black.
Harry had been terrified, of that Sirius was completely certain. As he watched the boy fall back, and in turn almost get flattened by the Knight Bus, he had to physically fight the urge to run over and help him.
It was his fault, of course, that Harry had seen him. The plan was meant to be that he caught a glimpse of his Godson without Harry knowing, before continuing on with his plan, however, that had all gone out of the window the second the boy had come into his vision.
Sirius had been unable to prevent himself from edging closer at the sight of him, he just looked so much like James it was unbelievable. He watched in wonder as the boy dragged his trunk out into the street and shook his head in disbelief, it was like staring at James.
For the first time in a very long time Sirius felt a flicker of happiness as he watched the boy in front of him. It was as if James hadn't completely disappeared as he had always believed; a part of his best friend would always be here.
Simultaneously, amongst the wave of love and happiness for his Godson, sadness seeped through his body. His child would be the same age as Harry. Would they have looked like him? Or had fair hair like their mother?
Were they even alive?
The question haunted his thoughts and he pushed them aside.
He slipped back into the shadows, just before Harry uncertainly stared at the spot he had just been standing in.
When Harry left on the Knight Bus, Sirius couldn't resist moving closer to the Muggle home the boy had grown up in, unable to keep the distaste from his expression.
He recalled all of the times James had spoken of Lily's sister; he remembered Lily's expression when Petunia had sent back the wedding invitation unopened. He was certain that Harry could not have grown up happily here, and glancing briefly through the living room window his suspicions were confirmed.
Turning and running back into the cloak of night, Sirius could not contain the wolfish grin and low chuckle that rumbled through his chest. It appeared Harry did not just take after James in his looks, his heart gleamed with pride; Harry had blown up his Aunt.
The world was horrifically white, there was no shape or movement or even any shadows, it was just a blinding, harsh white that seared her eyes. However, a cacophony of noise surrounded her, consumed her and seemed to flow through her veins and out into the white abyss.
Her head ached with a blinding pain and she clutched at her ears to try and block out the deafening sounds but nothing happened, it did not quieten, it was as if the noises were coming from within her.
A mixture of screaming, the kind she had grown accustomed to making herself when being tortured, manic laughter and sobbing.
A cold, controlling voice was the most prominent, it was overbearing and the sound of it made her feel sick.
'Do it. Kill them' it hissed.
She shuddered, suddenly feeling very cold.
She didn't want to be here anymore, she didn't like the white; the bright, endless white...
A flash of a face, barely there for even a second, shot into her vision.
Two, empty, grey orb-like eyes pierced her own.
She squinted in concentration but before she had time to focus the face was gone.
Gradually, as she closed her eyes tightly, the noise faded and a ringing silence soon replaced it.
Her head still thumped wildly, and she let out a loud groan.
She moved tentivally, stretching one finger out at a time before slowly testing out each limb for any injuries she had sustained.
Each body part responded fluidly, and despite a dull ache throughout her body, she felt no pain that was cause for alarm.
Begrudgingly, she cracked open her eyes and ignored the sense of frustration as the familiar white surroundings flooded her vision.
'Home sweet home' she muttered mutinously.
It was a few minutes before she realised that for the first time in years, her tatty rags had been exchanged for a set of white robes.
It took a further minute for her to realise that the robes were slightly damp.
However it only took a second for the horrified scream to tear from her throat as she saw the bright red blood that drenched her white robes.
'WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?'
Her shouts echoed around the small room and she knew nobody was listening, but her horror and disgust clouded any rational thinking.
The blood; the sickening redness of it gleaming against the white tiles reminded her...it made her remember all those years ago.
All that blood.
'WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!' she screamed again, fighting against the chains that bound her to the floor.
'NO, NO, NO, NO!' she kicked at the wall, trying to exude her rage.
'What did they do to me?' she whispered, staring down at her bloody robes as a terrifying thought entered her mind.
'What did they make me do?'
Her hands began to shake violently as she attempted to wipe the blood off of her body and her face was suddenly void of tears as the shock set in. After all the years she had been there, she had always managed to stay strong and prevent them from using her as a weapon, yet one lapse in concentration, one moment of weakness, had destroyed it all
She quickly realised that the blood was not going to come out of her already stained robes so she leant back against the wall with a shaky sigh and closed her eyes.
She prayed silently that whoever they had used her against wasn't too badly injured.
I hope they're not dead.
She closed her eyes and shuddered at the thought, could she have killed someone? Would she ever remember if she had?
After hours of questioning herself she decided upon two things, firstly, she would never be used as a weapon by them again. Secondly, she would use the situation to her advantage.
If they believed she had weakened, that she had finally succumbed to them, she was certain that they would no longer feel the need to so viciously attack her; and so carefully ensure of her restraint.
They will let their guard down.
A burble of laughter escaped her chapped lips, sounding slightly hysterical in the silence of the cell.
Relaxing her body, and slowly allowing each limb to grow numb, she withdrew back into her mind. Pushing the day's events away from her and returning to her place of safety behind her barriers.
As she closed her eyes and embraced the numbness that overcome her body, the last thing she saw was an image of two grey eyes, filled with a hazy emptiness that tore at Alina's already savaged heart.
A/N: Thank you so much for all of your reviews! I'm so happy with the response to this story and for that of Unconditional aswell you're all amazing! I was going to wait till Saturday to update, but I was convinced otherwise haha! Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this chapter!