Hey Guys!

I have my final exams coming up for semester so might get some delay on the next chapter :P

please read and tell me your thoughts.

Thanks to White Alchemist Taya for her wonderful review :)

I've seen the people that they've branded
They always come out open handed
Come to the mothership is landing
They're going to give us what we want
Open your eyes
Push yourself inside
Contemplate all of your senses
Tell them what you want to lose
They'll just spit in your face
Push you back in your place
Concentrate all of your answers
Tell them what you think you know

Occams Razor by 30 seconds to mars

Chapter 3

They're Not Terrorists

I regained consciousness with the feeling of floating 'Did I die?' I asked myself, my body seemed numb, before an instant second of panic sharpened my mind. I was falling not floating, any second now I would hit the gro-.

I moaned weakly as my body jarred, and waves of pain went shooting through my system. Somewhere above I heard two familiar voices laughing, Crabbe and Goyle. 'Well that solves it I'm definitely dead, must be in Hell.' I decided not to dwell on that thought. 'Come on Alex just open your eyes, it's all going to be alright' I opened my eyes… '

"Damn" I said and closed them again.

I was back in the cell and my pain seemed to be increasing ten fold as my senses started reporting back. My whole body was one big ache, with my muscles randomly and frequently cramping, leaving me struggling to adapt to the pain.

The most painful places, by far though were my wrist and under my eye, both burns were aching fiercely the areas feverish and painful to the cool touch of my fingers.

I buried my head into my knees trying to control the tears and spasming of my limbs. Never had I been this miserable.

A noise beside me made me flinch and open my eyes; it was Mary and another man. The man was tall and somewhat muscular; he had a kind looking face and blonde hair and looked to be around the same age as Mary.

"Oh dear, you annoyed them didn't you?" Mary said in a soothingly though scatterbrained way, as she kneeled down, petting my arm.
I nodded weakly. "If you call telling the blonde dude to get a hair cut, then yea I think I did kinda got on his nerves" I said in a pretend false-cheery voice, which was ruined by my voice catching and my eyes filling up I had to look away blinking rapidly as tears slid down, cooling my burning cheek. Damn I hated crying in front of people.

The man shook his head "You're an idiot girl, but it's nice to have something new, I'm John, John Smith" His voice was nice, deep and authorative, the sort of voice I would expect an army commander to have for all I knew he could be one.

"I'm Alex"

"Do you have a last name?" the man said teasingly.

I frowned trying to remember, "I don't know, I think I have amnesia I can't remember too much."

The man nodded in understanding and sympathy. "Hey here you should take it as a blessing some people would give anything to forget" as he said this his voice sadden and his face clouded, his sudden anguish making me look away in discomfort. An awkward silence fell while John tried to force back on the mask of hope.

"You have a very peculiar accent, it sounds familiar, do you remember where you're from" I smiled "I'll give you a clue, G'day mate." I saw recognition light up in his face. "You're Australian?" he whispered slightly over-acting his surprise.
"Bingo!" I played along.
"What are you doing in the U.K.?"
"Well I have been trying to work that one out for my self. One minute I'm in sunny Perth the next I'm in a forest being surrounded by psychotic nut cases" I paused quelling the sudden ache in my throat, before tentatively speaking again. "So you guy's all Pom's?"

"Most of us are" John said surprise still on his face along with a faint smile given away only by the forced twist of his lips. "There are some…Yankees," John said sampling the teenage language in an effort to be friendly "but they have all been living in the U.K for over a year."
I smiled politely. "How did you all come to be here?"

John's face simply stopped becoming blank, his head tilted now so the shadows hooded his eyes. "Kidnapped. We were taken from our homes, from the street, from buses, work, where ever you can think of. The arseholes would blow up half the bus or wherever you were killing and taking anyone who tickled their fancy." Johns voice was acridly bitter, filled with hate. "At first we thought them to be terrorists but then…" he gestured vaguely with his arm "well we quickly found out they weren't." I realised his gesture had meant the magic had made it obvious.
"After that they killed off those who were too young, old or simply those who were weak it was like the were randomly killing those who didn't pass some test." His voice broke at that and I watched as he turned his face away. "My daughter she was nine and my wife they both…" his voice failed him and the conversation stopped.

Feeling the despair growing with the silence and completely unprepared to have a grown man breakdown on me I tried to fill in the gap. "I'm sorry," I murmured pathetically.

John shuddered then regained himself. "Thanks, but they were the lucky ones, in some ways it was better for them to go.…Quickly instead of slow death in this darkness." he coughed to clear his throat, which had become thick with emotion. "you're the youngest here at the moment, its rather surprising." "T…well children older than you have been killed.

I froze in surprise, goose bumps raised on my body as a cold rush of water ran through my blood. The sudden realisation of how close I could have been to death suddenly hit me, for a few merciful seconds it blanked out the pains of my body as I appreciated still being alive. As the seconds passed and I briefly contemplated my own mortality I gently soothed my burning cheek with my cold fingers.

John large fingers firmly but gently picked up my burnt wrist nodding his face a mask, lifting his own writ, we both had the same mark.

"We all have it; it's a sign of our imprisonment." John said in a voice completely devoid of feeling again. "It's so we know that that we belong to 'Him', we are simply animals, cattle to the likes of these monsters."

I shivered at the horrible similarity to how the Nazi's treated the Jew's. The realisation twisted my stomach into knots the feeling making me want to puke as I took in John's words.

"Whose? Whose are we?"

"His name we do not know, those who do fear to speak it, however here he is referred to as the Dark Lord."

Despite the seriousness of the situation I felt like laughing. What a gay, cliché and try-hard name. My amusement didn't last long. The wrist burn could easily be covered, but the mark on my cheek would forever mar my face. It would be a symbol to everybody that I belonged to the Dark Lord. The sudden realisation allowed true depression to hit me like a blow, wiping away all my positive thinking and stripping bare the truth of the situation.

"I don't understand why they gave you a second brand though?" John questioned quietly again.

I kind of insulted the blonde guy, Lucius."
"That's not too bad though usually everyone tries to throw in a few insults."
"I taunted him about his hair."

John froze his mouth still open. "Ah" he said as he closed it. "Yea that mans a bit sensitive about his hair."

I saw John faintly shake his head not noticing my crestfallen face in the dark.

"You're crazy girl…and your antics, foolish but I guess that's youth for you." I supposed it was a compliment of a kind, but it didn't cheer me up in the slightest.

Mary who had been quietly humming to her self, hugging Johns arm, suddenly removed a bundle of material from behind her. "Happy Birthday," She whispered giggling "Father Christmas was good to you this year; he even left you a gift." I accepted the bundle kind of creeped out by Mary's behaviour.

"Thank you." I whispered, but Mary had already turned away, disappearing into the dark.

I looked back at John whose eyes followed Mary. "She was one of our leaders before you know. She's been in here the longest. When I first came I was so distraught with grief and fear that I refused to eat or drink. Mary pulled me out, gave me company, sympathy and a shoulder to lean on. She was so strong. She encouraged us to have hope and we set in place a plan to escape. It failed miserably of course and Mary was the one who took the blame. She was taken away cussing and fighting and came back three days later, battered and insane. She has good days though."

I hugged my knees closely, not wanting to hear the words coming from John's mouth that were driving me into an even deeper pit of horror and despair. I didn't want to listen to this; I didn't want to hear what horrors I could look forward to in this prison and I didn't want to accept that death frequently visited these cells.

"I'll come and talk again later." John muttered before hurriedly following Mary. A silent cry of anguish filled my body. I was really just a kid and the only adults in this place didn't care that I was cold or hungry, and they had very little sympathy for the fact that I had only just been tortured. In my world adults were meant to care about that, they were meant to make all the pain go away with a band-aid and a kiss. I stood up, legs shaking, moving away across the room, taking the material Mary had given me and finding my away past the glowing eyes of other prisoners.

My way across the cell was shaky, but I took the time to calm myself and to regain control of my emotions. It helped now that I was away from John and Mary; they were just so torn and broken that they seemed to leach the hope right out of me. Finding my way to Sirius I greeted him tiredly. "Hey boy" and sat down against the wall. My wrist and cheek were both burning so badly and I turned my cheek to the side so it was against the cool stone, it was a small relief but a relief none the less. My wrist I turned palm upwards trying to make out what had been so cruelly burnt there. I managed to make out what I guessed to be a skull with something, which could be a slug going through it. Underneath there was more, but I couldn't make that much out.

"Great not only have a got a crap tattoo but it's of a freaking slug!" I said grumpily trying to cheer myself up, "you can now call me slug skull or Sluggy!"

Sirius looked at me blankly for a few seconds then his mouth opened and curled into what looked like an all too human smile.

"I'm glad you're amused, but you ain't the one with it tattooed onto your bloody wrist and cheek! Geeze and its such an emo style as well" I whined grinning back at Sirius. Sirius looked at me, his head drooping as he whined. Moving closer I hugged him, more to reassure myself than him.

"It'll be alright, I mean we just need to work out an escape plan, it's easy…"

The depression and seriousness of the situation hit me again as I considered my situation; I was trapped, with no freedom; a prisoner. I was lost in a country on the other side of the continent, with no idea of how I had managed to get here. I had lost half my memory that didn't seem to be in any rush to return. My chance of escaping was pretty much zero as my captors had a 'slight' advantage since they could use magic. I was cold, hungry, thirsty, sore, burnt and apparently there was a chance I was going to be used in some kind of experiment?

I drew my knees up to my chest and burst into tears, keeping as silent as I could. Sirius wrapped himself closer to me until his warm body was partly covering me, he licked my hand and I hugged him, burying my head into his musty black coat and laying my cheek against his metal collar as sobs shook my body.

Sirius was frightened; which was rare. Sirius had lived a hard life and after so many years in Azkaban the after effects seemed to have numbed a lot of his feelings. As he was a man who was known for his lack of fear, except for those he loved, it was indeed strange that he felt such angst over a strange and completely random muggle girl. He gently muzzled the shuddering girl, her head half buried in his fur, and felt a sharp pain in his gut; guilt. Sirius knew it wasn't his fault; he had stumbled across the girl and, seeing her dazed, frightened look, had assumed that the Death Eaters had taken her and she had managed to escape. He had wanted to help but in the end it had gotten her into even more trouble.

Now however he wasn't sure, she had at first been afraid of him, but the girl, 'No Alex' he corrected himself, had realised something was up and had followed him, willingly. He had been desperate to escape and the girl made him lose focus, so he had fallen for their simplistic ambush. He had even more disgracefully been hit by a simple stunning spell, easily dodged, and had left the girl alone to fend off a host of Death Eaters. Some noble light warrior he was. Snape would have a ball with this! Though then again it had been Snape who had set up his escape… Sirius really couldn't really work out his feelings on that. If he had just left the girl alone, she might have been able to escape by her self, Death eaters were hardly going to care about one Muggle. He was such an idiot!

He sighed, but stopped halfway as the girl, now sound asleep, murmured, frightened by the movement. Sirius, rarely felt true fear but he did worry and he hated that feeling just as much, he was, or had been, a carefree person, in another lifetime, but lately all he had done was worry; between Harry, the Order, getting captured and now the girl…

On top of that he was imprisoned in a dungeon. He hated dungeons, they reminded him too much of Azkaban, although he was relieved that there were no Dementors around; but at least in Azkaban Dementors were all you had to worry about. Now he was prisoner to the most powerful Dark Wizard of all time, with a host of Death Eaters all after his blood.

However, what worried him the most was the fact that they hadn't killed him instantly, but had kept him alive, and that didn't bode well, due to Harry's devotion to him and his little hero problem (as he and Remus both joked rather seriously about). He was a powerful hostage and would be a valuable information source.

Sirius had been worried when the girl had been taken and had come back not in the best of wear. He wanted so badly to lunge at Malfoy's throat and tear it open, 'although I would be happy with Grabbe or Goyle…Bella would be even better, no wait Pettigrew!' What also confused him was the fact that the girl hadn't escaped from the Death Eaters, but had come from Australia; well at least that's what she said. She could very well be lying, but Sirius doubted the girl was working for HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED, since dogs, like a majority of animals, were good at sensing what a person was like; Alex had a…well a feel, which radiated normal Youth: hope, determination and kindness, but her scent was strange. She smelt of old earth, cleaner air and the tang of the ocean; she didn't smell European at all.

Despite his misgivings, the girl had surprised him with her strength, which was also part of the reason for his worry. If she kept up the attitude she was in for a rough time, but he couldn't help but feel his spirits rising with the girl being around; her aurora really was something refreshing, although he wondered if it would remain that way, kids had to age quickly in this cell if they wanted to survive.

Sirius also had to worry about maintaining his form. He could switch back to his normal shape but if he did then information would be forced from him and he would probably be killed when they realised that he didn't have much information he could share. No he had a slight advantage staying in his animagus form, it was just a case of making sure he didn't change back and a spell could force him to change. He would have to gather all his magical core to block any attack, though if He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacked him, Sirius knew he would be unable to do anything.

'I guess the positive out of all this is dogs can't get headaches from thinking too hard. Remus would be amused to hear that the most thinking I've ever done seems to only occur when I'm not actually human.' he thought with a glint of his old humour, then he closed his eyes, ears pricked and alert.

A dark muzzle gently licking my face woke me up from a strangely dreamless sleep. On waking it took a few seconds before the discomfort of my body hit me. I was stiff, every muscle aching and my wrist and cheek throbbing in time with some beat I couldn't hear. Despite the pain and discomfort, I felt oddly refreshed and renewed. Obviously my break down had done wonders 'I should do this more often'.

I blinked, my eyes were still sticky from the tears as well as irritated, this of course was not helped at all by the fact that I still had my contacts in. I was really tempted to take them out, I had dirt behind my eyes, as well as sleep, and it would be such a relief. On the other hand my sight would be severely limited… 'damn-it I hate being short sighted! Sighing stiffly I sat up, ignoring the chill that hit me as my blankets fell off. Finally I gave into temptation, removing first one, then the other contact. They would have to be removed eventually and I didn't want to increase my risk of contracting any infections.

My eyes watered for a few seconds, then the itchy scratchy feeling left; I was relived. I hesitated for a second, unsure of what to do with the lenses which sat in the palm of my hand. The light was so dim that I wasn't even sure if I still had them in my palm. I brushed my hand to the side, discarding them on the floor.

Sirius was looking at me, seeming slightly confused. I guessed he hadn't seen anyone removing his or her contacts before.

"Heya Sirius! Beautiful day today, don't you reckon?" I joked. Sirius just seemed more confused. "Hmmm, where do you think the toilet is around here?"

Sirius pointed his nose to the opposite corner of the room, where a odour had been coming from. "Oh how joyful" I said, my mood slightly dampened, then I moved off towards the corner, the smell increasing with every step. I had noticed it before but it had been irrelevant at the time.

As I got within a few metres of the corner I held my breath. Embarrassed, I looked around, but thanks to the light (and my bad eye sight) it didn't seem that anyone was watching. With a curse I just got on with it.

I was making my way back to my own corner, when a series of pops went off in the room. I ducked down and a group of small, strange creatures appeared not two feet away from me. Each was carrying a few boxes and lots of cartons. They dumped them on the floor, and I realised that the three creatures wore rags, which looked to have at some time in the past existed as pillowcases. They were thin and pale, as if they had never been in the sunlight before; their ears seemed large and pointy, like elves, and their eyes were too big for their face.

'Are these the outcomes of the experiments, that John and Mary spoke of?' The thought sent dread right through my body, but I quickly discarded the thought, leaving me to worry about it later.

The funny little creatures placed what they were carrying in the middle of the room and then two of them disappeared, again with loud pops. The last one went to follow, but caught sight of something and rushed over to Sirius in the corner and made its way over to him. I quickly got to my feet and followed. The elf stopped some feet away, well out of Sirius' reach.

"M-M-Master Black?" Sirius looked up and made his way to his feet, then slowly a light of recognition lit up his eyes and he nodded. The elf gave a small gasp bowed then spun around disappearing all in one movement.

I looked at the space were the curious creature had disappeared, I wasn't that surprised about the creatures disappearing, but still…they had just disappeared hadn't they? I hadn't just imagined it? Maybe my sight was getting worse and they had simply walked off into the darker parts of the cell.

What else was confusing was that it had recognised Sirius, talked to him. I wondered if it was a good sign or a bad sign of things to come. A rush of feet and people murmuring brought my attention to the centre of the room, where the creatures had dumped the packages. Confused I walked back the way I had come again.

People were around the boxes them rummaging through the packages and cartons, grabbing them and trying to escape. More people were appearing from the sides of the rooms… more people than I had expected. They were running forward, desperate for whatever these packages contained. Some people started to quarrel and then fight. I was drawn to the fighting, like a moth to one of those bug zapper things, unsure of what else to do.

As I reached the main group I noticed the fighting start to lessen and John, along with a few other muscular guys, grabbing the food and breaking up fights. I watched as order was eventually restored.

"CALM DOWN EVERYONE! THE FOOD WILL BE SHARED AROUND EQUALLY! STOP FIGHTING LIKE LITTLE SCHOOL CHILDREN YOU ARE ALL MATURE ADULTS ACT LIKE IT!" His words stilled the last of the restless prisoners.
"Now may I please have two orderly lines" he said more peacefully…then he noticed the pushing and shoving that took place as people rushed to que; shouting out again "WITH NO FIGHTING OR PUSHING INVOLVED!"

Despite his words people still pushed and shoved; I had to dodge between legs and arms to find a place in the que. A man came up behind me and attempted to push me out of the way.
"Don't you dare!" I said, giving him an evil look. He stopped his rough pushing, instead sneering down his nose at me, and I watched as surprise became evident on his face when he noticed my age. He recovered quickly however and knowing I couldn't do anything about it casually picked me up and threw me out of the line. "Respect your elders girl! Line up at the back."

"Hey! That's not fair! Move it mate! I was there first!" I snarled furious. He just smiled, however the man in front of him turned. "Kyle for god's sake let her in, or I'll tell the John and you won't get any food!" Well that answered the question about what was in the boxes.

I looked gratefully at the man. Kyle looked like he was going to argue but seemed to take in just how big the other man was and stepped back, letting me once again go in front. I guessed that the thought of no food was also on his mind.

Scowling at him I went back in line.

"Thanks mate" I said to the other guy.

He smiled faintly and I noticed shadows around his mouth, not just from the dim light, however his eyes were a brilliant shade of deep blue which reminded me of the deep ocean, they had a merry-sparkle in them that hadn't fully been distinguished. His hair was a light brown and I guessed that in a better light, after a wash, it would be a sandy blonde. He was also rather tall.

After that, apart from a few curses directed at me, along with having the back of my heels stepped on, I was left in peace. I felt slightly guilty fighting for a place in line, the people around me were starving and had been so for a while, judging by how skinny most of them were and how desperately they sought after the food, but it was because of that reason that I too was so desperate; if the food and water was so rare I wanted as much as I could get my hands on, even if it made me look desperate with greed.

I finally reached the start of the line and John gave me a small smile before giving me two hard biscuits, a handful of dried fruit, and a small strip of what I guessed to be jerky. Next he gave me one container of water.

"Now Alex you have to ration these carefully, we don't get water for another two days and even then no food for another four."

I nodded in dread and then with a slight hesitation I asked "Ummm could I please have some more?"

On seeing his expression harden I realised he thought the food for me.

"No, I want it for the dog." I pleaded. John opened his mouth but Kyle after over hearing cut in.

"NO WAY! We don't have enough food for 'ourselves' and the chances are the dog will die any way, in fact it would be more use to us dead, at least then we might get slightly more decent food!"

John nodded sadly in agreement "I'm sorry Alex but there really isn't enough food" he looked at me sadly, "however" he said directing a hard look at Kyle "we aren't so low as to eat dogs like savages." Despite his words he didn't give me any more, and I knew why. He and a handful of others were the only things stopping the prisoners from killing each other for food, but his position was precarious.

"I'm sorry" he whispered, and although he directed the words to me he seemed to be talking to someone else someone over my shoulder and many miles away, some where lost in a far off memory.

Glumly I turned away, making my way back, I still disliked how distant they all were with me. A hand grabbed my shoulder lightly and surprised I lurched around raising my fists, thinking it was that jerk Kyle.

"Hey girl!" It was the tall man from the line, the one with the beautiful blue eyes, he was holding out his share of meat.

I shook my head "No, you need it more than me, the dog and I will survive. Thank you though."

He looked like he wanted to argue and I changed the subject.

"I'm Alex, nice to meet you" I would have held out my hand for him to shake but didn't have one spare.

"Tom" he nodded.

I smiled, feeling myself blushing slightly "thank you" I said again before quickly turning away so the urge to snatch the food out from his hands didn't over ride my common sense. 'Hehehe' I giggled to myself 'he is cute!'.

Sirius was standing when I came back and whined softly at me in recognition, tail wagging slightly.

"Hey boy look, I got us some food and water." I gave him half of the small strip of meat, which he gulped up and looked at me for more.

"Sorry boy we got to save the rest. Here, you can have some water." I thought for a moment on how exactly I could tip the water out so that he could drink and decided the best way would be to pour it into my hand, despite the amount of water that would be wasted.

I allowed Sirius to drink a small amount, enjoying the cold water, which splashed onto my wrist. I then took a few sips myself using all my self-control not to just skull the whole carton. The water tasted old and slightly metallic, but I was too thirsty to really care. I ate a few of the dried fruit which I guessed to be a mixture of apricots, apple, sultanas and something else which tasted like a kind of carrot. I saved the rest of the food for later and sat caressing my burn under my eye with my chilled, wet fingers, giving a small dose of comfort to my burning skin.

I sat for a while deep in thought, just listening to the sounds around the room. After the food, people had calmed down and now only whispers could be heard, softly under that I noticed the sound of sobbing, the sobbing seemed to quiet the whole room until it was the only sound. It turned my gut and for some reason brought tears to my own eyes, quickly I covered my ears, turning my mind over half remembered memories, I smiled as I remembered another memory of the charity event my school had done every year.

"Hey at least this way I'll know that I can do the 40 Hour Famine, pity I wish I could have had some notification that we were going to be starved I would have asked for sponsors." I said with a false humour I didn't feel. Sirius looked confused. "Oh don't you Brits have the 40 hour Famine?" Sirius shook his head, "Well I guess British dogs wouldn't know about it anyway. The 40 hour famine is where you don't eat for 40 hours and you get people to sponsor you for not eating and at the end you send the money to World Vision who use the money to feed starving people in the third world countries." Sirius nodded and then turned his head licking his fur. "Well I can see someone is fascinated."

"So Sirius, how di-"

Before I could finish my sentence the metal door opened, letting in a cold draft and a bright light that hurt my eyes, blinding me. I covered my eyes and heard the whimpers of other people as they were also hit.

As I hurried to clear my sight, I quivered in fear. In the door way were four people, all of which had wands out, and lights burning from the tips. As the four strode into the room my fear increased and I was glad I had gone to the toilet. As they got closer I recognised the people; there was the woman named Bella, Lucius, another man I didn't know, and Grabbe and Goyle.

Sirius started quivering also and my stomach sunk as they entered the room, their eyes searching through the darkness, which we hugged so tightly.

Just check out that sexy REVIEW button! Doesn't it just make your mouse want to touch it? Caress it? Press it? :D