Embracing Shadows

Chapter Six

Whenever Seto or Ollivander were upstairs for a torture session she'd count down the time until the other two came back after all they were never sure when the torture session would be their last and they simply didn't come back. Luna had almost passed out when Seto was bought back from being tortured by Bella; his face was a mess from self harm. He was shaking all over from shock; he was barely breathing and coughing up blood from screaming so hard.

Seeing him in that state put her into shock herself, he was so pale, if it wasn't for the fact he was shaking, she'd think he was already dead. She grabbed the water bowl and began cleaning his wounds the best she could, pulling his winter coat over him, trying to keep him warm and staying next to him. She cried as Seto flinched away every time she touched him, it wasn't quite as bad after his experience with the dementors, after that experience he'd flinch slightly and look around with fear, as if he expected someone else. At first she thought it had been the Death Eaters, but he held defiance in his eyes whenever the Death Eaters would come down for another session she wasn't sure she'd get him back from. After the dementors Seto had started talking in his sleep, tossing and turning from nightmares, begging for someone to stop, the most horrifying thing was the name he called the person who'd caused these nightmares, it made her heart clench, the person who had hurt him, broken him to the point that being held captive and tortured by complete strangers didn't even affect him; his father Gozaburo. It made her sick, a father even if by adoption was meant to love and care for their child, not hurt them. The other name he frequently called out was Mokuba, but the tone wasn't of disgust and hate, it was usually fear, concern and love that he'd call out the name of his younger brother. She didn't even want to know what would happen to Seto if they ever found out about Mokuba, his one weakness that was guaranteed the shatter the already broken teenager.

She was startled out of her thoughts when the door to the cell opened. With slight fear she waited for the Death Eater to come through, if it was Narcissa it was a food delivery, if it was Draco it would either be a food delivery or to get whatever was upsetting him off his chest and everything would be fine. Any other Death Eater was a threat and most likely taking Seto or Mr Ollivander for another torture session.

The first Death Eater who entered was Narcissa Malfoy but she didn't have any food like she normally did, the second one surprised her, it was her Potions Professor who was currently Head Master of the school. She wondered what had drawn him to kill Headmaster Dumbledore, since she didn't get evil vibes from the accused murderer. The vibes from him was anything but; she got the feeling of helplessness, concern, shame and pride.

"Professor Snape" Luna stated as the potions master knelt down on the other side of Seto, ignoring her, or at least pretending to. He gave off the emotion of relief when he'd seen her untouched, not that those emotions ever crossed his face.

"I don't understand, why does you know who keep you alive?" he asked even though he knew that the boy wouldn't answer and Narcissa had less of an idea then he did. "You're sister really did a number on him, it wouldn't surprise me if he's just like the Longbottoms after what he just endured."

"It's because he's special" Luna told the professor. "I could feel it the first time I met him, he has an ancient magic that was thought to have died with the Pharaohs."

He looked at the girl everyone had always written off as eccentric; Potter had good taste with some of his friends if he was friends with the Ravenclaw girl in front of him. Luna was his best Potions student in her year level. Her only issue was she liked to experiment; she obviously got that trait off her mother who he'd gone to school with. He wanted to asked Luna more but he had a cover to maintain, though he suspected that Luna could read his true emotions, she'd always managed to be in touch with everyone else's emotions no matter how much they attempted to guard them. He didn't have time to listen to her anyway, the supposed muggle was in worse condition then he'd been lead to believe. He levitated the boy and bough him upstairs so he could work on him with the assistance of Lady Malfoy. Shoving potions down his throat and Narcissa using all the healing spells she knew to keep him alive and hopefully sane after all the Dark Lord would take it out on them if they failed.

Removing to boys clothing so that he could heal his wounds he was saddened to see the scarring, waving a diagnostic spell he was surprised to find that majority of them where from old wounds, only a small minority had been left by the Death Eaters. It seemed the boys words where true, he'd already been broken long ago, the Death Eaters couldn't break something already shattered. Working with the boy first hand he could feel the magic in boy's core, it felt different than normal magic, ancient like Luna suggest, but he'd come across similar magic before but he couldn't remember who it was who'd possessed this type of magic. At the time it hadn't been important since students came through the school with odd magic due to mixed blood due to magical creatures. He'd just written this magic off as belonging to a magical creature he wasn't familiar with the last time he'd come across it.

KC

Draco looked slightly happier when he came down after the death of his uncle, but only slightly happier. Luna was happy to see him; it was lonely in the cell without Seto. Considering the circumstances it was impossible to be fully happy. She tried to be fully happy, and pretend that everything was normal but it was hard, even though she wasn't getting abused and tortured or starved being locked in the same place day after day of the same wasn't fun at all with no natural light and watching her cell mates being tortured on a daily basis had been terrible, she felt guilty that she wasn't being tortured as well. If she wasn't getting reports from Draco about Seto's current condition she'd be going insane from worry, she wished she could leave, Draco had tried to let her out, but the warding had prevented her from going past the door. Only someone with permission from Lucius Malfoy or Voldemort himself could remove a prisoner from the cell.

KC

He wasn't the same after Bella had cursed him, it had left long lasting damage and every time he went up for a torture session he was worse which infuriated his captor, he still wasn't a sure of why he was still alive, he couldn't figure out the purpose behind the snake man known as Voldemort was keeping him around. He'd even gone as far as having Narcissa and another Death Eater nursing him back to health. The Dark Lord always seemed so frustrated after he tried to play in his mind, and it was getting harder to block the attempts the more he was tortured. Then again maybe he was kept alive since he was the Death Eaters favourite toy since he sometimes retaliated, it made it more exciting for them not knowing what he was going to do. He was losing more of his muscle and nerve control and he could feel his mind coming apart and several bones had been broken and no longer seemed to be setting properly when the Death Eaters healed him, if he ever got out of this place alive his bones where going to need to be re-broken and set correctly. The world was getting more and more distant every time he was cursed. He was thrown back into the cell each time with Luna and the old man who didn't talk much anymore. He was usually unconscious each time they bought him back. Luna would clean his wounds and make sure he didn't choke on his own vomit and sleep next to him to keep him warm.

He now had trouble keeping up with conversations; his speech was severely slurred and at times had trouble remembering how to speak English, he was grateful that he'd taught Luna Japanese he could still communicate with her. He had trouble standing to walk to the corner of the cell which had been used as there toilet, he had trouble even sitting; he felt like he had pins and needles constantly, but lying down was uncomfortable. His thoughts drifted to Mokuba quiet often, hoping and praying that his younger brother was safe. And even though he wasn't in his right mind anymore he wouldn't change killing Bella's husband for anything.

KC

After Bella had nearly killed him, he'd lost all track of time, but he knew a bit of time had passed since his capture. The old man wasn't doing well at all and seemed like it was only a matter of time before he died, in fact he was in better condition than the old man, which they all put down to the fact that he was younger. Luna still hadn't been tortured and was healthier than anyone else physically but was suffering mentally from being locked up for so long. She spoke to the nargles and other fantasy creatures whenever Seto was trapped in his own mind and couldn't talk back. On this day he'd been staring at the one spot all day in an awkward sitting position, body shaking all over. He wasn't really registering much around him, but when he did he noticed water coming down in a fast stream from the ceiling and pooling in the corner. Luna had noticed as well and was looking at the water with a bizarre fascination, like she'd never seen water before. But then again that was how he was looking at the water himself. He managed to get himself into a standing potion and very slowly he shuffled over to the water. The freezing cold water ran clean over his finger, he tasted a small amount, it tasted fresh and no trace of poison, fine for human consumption.

"It's clean" he announced to the other two occupants. Luna came over immediately and they both took long drinks of water. The water the Malfoy's bought down for them was always room temperature. It was so refreshing drinking cold water after so long. After a few minutes Luna grabbed one of the bowls and filled it with water and then walked over to Ollivander, Seto helped the older man sit up; trying not to freak out with the human contact, telling himself that it was him touching the older man to help, the older man wasn't touching him. It was physically hard to lift him, he didn't have much strength left.

They didn't know how long the water would last for so they took the opportunity to clean out and fill up every dish that had ever been used to feed them to store water, hoping that the Death Eaters would leave the water alone. They didn't need to worry about rodents or bugs going near the water; He hadn't seen any down here the whole time. Both teenagers where soaked by the time they finished filling the water containers. Luna walked back to the water and sat in the puddle letting the water run over her.

"Come join me" she indicated to a spot in the puddle next to her. He was wet already and his clothes where filthy so after he made sure he didn't have his deck of cards and his photo of Mokuba he sat next to her, the freezing water numbed the pain he was in ever so slightly. They both just sat there for a long while, enjoying the water even though it was freezing. He was disturbed from a day dream when Luna stood up, he didn't realise he'd lent against her at some point, he turned away with a blush when she stripped her clothes off. He made a move to go but she placed a hand on his arm to indicate that it was alright that he stay there. "You should wash properly since we have this rare chance to be clean."

Being naked in other front of another person was something he hadn't done in a long time, since his step-father had died. He didn't want anyone to see his naked body; he was covered in scars from many different incidents. Along his chest and stomach and under his hairline and partly down the back of his neck from life saving surgery, after the bus crash that killed his father, it was one of the reasons he kept his hair long at the back; his whole body excluding his face and hands had scars from Gozaburo Kaiba beating him; his arms had scars from his step father cutting his wrists when he'd tried to show someone the welts on the back of his legs. The sadistic man then took him to a public hospital emergency room and announced nationwide that his adopted son had attempted to commit suicide because of the abuse he'd received from his biological parents, trying to turn them into the bad guys while he received praise for taking in a troubled child. Senior Kaiba very nearly killed him several times pulling that stunt multiple times. Plus he had several new scars to add to the mix from the Death Eaters.

Luna didn't even pay attention, she just continued scrubbing the dirt away and trying to get her clothing as clean as possible. Seto looked at his blue dress shirt and white jacket and pants. Couldn't even tell their original colour anymore from how stained they were. All he knew was he'd never felt this clean in his life, even though he knew he was still more filthy then when he was at home. If he ever got back he was going to take a nice long soak in a hot bubble bath or maybe a soak in a hot spring, he owned a few around Japan. Once he was satisfied his clothes were as clean as they were going to get he put his wet singlet and underpants back on. The only issue with washing their clothing was they didn't really have anywhere to hang them. They ended up using the chains that where hanging from the wall. Luna decided she was going to remain fully naked.

They then returned to his jacket, placing it over both their shoulders to keep them warm since the cell was still freezing cold; both of them where shivering from the cold. The old man had fallen back into a restless sleep. They should've cleaned him but neither had the energy and at some point both fell asleep.

KC

He was woke up when someone entered the cell, he braced himself to be dragged upstairs for another visit with the cult called Death Eaters, he didn't want them to see him, to know how scared he was, for them to assume that they were the ones to mark him like this. His heart almost stopped beating when he felt the warmth next to him from a naked person, he almost panicked when he realised that at some point during their sleep he'd pulled a naked Luna into a protective hug. He pushed her away as soon as he realised he was touching her. Luna didn't seem to mind the hug or that she'd been pushed away. She just smiled at him before glancing in the direction of the person entering their cell.

The person who'd come down to the cell was Narcissa Malfoy with more food she placed the food bowl and water on the floor in the usual spot before glancing towards the water feature in the room, the bowls of water around the room and the hanging clothing. She then glanced at Luna who didn't seem to mind being seen naked and he'd pulled his coat over himself trying to cover the worst of his scarring. The older woman got out her wand and muttered a few words pointing at him; he braced himself for pain and was surprised when he felt no pain but found he was now sitting in dry underwear; his only other experience with spells being those of pain and healing to cause more pain. Narcissa then cast the same spell on their drying clothing and another spell on the old man and his jacket leaving them cleaned left without saying anything. Luna called out thankyou as she left. Both teenagers put there now dried clothing back on, it felt so nice having clean clothes after who knows how long of filthy clothing, they ate in silence trying, he was trying not to spill food on his clothing with his shaky hands before falling back to sleep, the feeling of being clean and with full bellies both where able to imagine they where elsewhere with much ease.

KC

The next day the water feature was still a part of their cell or at least he thought it was the next day with his sense of tracking time at the moment it was possible that it was only two hours or two days. The water seemed to have pooled a bit and not pooled any further then what it had yesterday which normally meant the water was draining somewhere but since this was a magical environment it was probably spelled so that it wouldn't get any bigger then it currently was and he suspected that Narcissa had spelled the water when she'd dried their clothing. The only bad thing with the water was how it was affecting his obsessive compulsive personality. He needed to have the cell in a perfect state. It was distracting looking at how dirty the floor was compared to his now semi clean clothing. Blood straine's where everywhere, the corner the toilet was in stunk, plus a couple messes where the toilet wasn't located due to losing control of bodily functions after a session with the friendly neighbourhood death eaters.

Luna was skipping around the cell at the moment from one end to the other singing to herself. Trying to keep her cheerful mood even though she wanted to break down and cry.

"Hello Draco" she called out in a sing song voice as the cell door was opened and the terrified young master of the house came in, looking just as mentally affected at the three prisoners.

Dragon boy didn't come with food or water like he normally did when he came into the cell and just sat in the corner and started crying.

He was still contemplating how to clean the floor and decided that the best article of clothing to use would be his socks since they were worn out from wearing them for however long he'd been here. He took off his not so white jacket and wrapped it around his deck of cards and locket so they wouldn't get wet and grabbed one of the water containers pouring it onto the floor where there where dark bloodstains and began cleaning. It wasn't like he had anything else better to do, and he couldn't attack Draco and hold him hostage to get himself freed. He'd already tried that, not that Draco knew. It seemed that Draco and Narcissa where both protected from harm, most likely because it was their home, after all he'd been able to attack another Death Eater who'd come down to take him upstairs, the only reason he didn't try that trick anymore was due to the fact they'd hit the old man with a curse and came close to hitting Luna, and he didn't want to risk the teenagers safety. Luna continued skipping around the cell singing out questions to Draco who ignored them all.

KC

It was a good hour later when Draco finally stopped crying and started watching him work at cleaning the floor.

"What are you looking at?" he questioned in a hostile tone after feeling the eyes on him and not moving.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked attempting to use a pompous voice.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he snapped, it actually made him feel good being able to respond to someone like they where an employee. "I'm cleaning since this place is filthy. I should be the one asking what you're doing, since you came in just sat in the corner crying."

"My father forced me to kill someone, and then he cursed me when I refused to kill them" Draco shouted out, close to breaking point. "Why would he hurt me, I'm supposed to be his son and killing is wrong, even if they are mudbloods. You don't know what it's like."

He laughed one of his crazy borderline insane laughs, considering the situation he probably was insane. "You're lucky kid. I was eleven years old the first time I was forced to kill someone. It messes with a person's head especially when it gets easier to kill every time you're forced, till it becomes second nature so that you don't even have to think about the fact it was wrong to kill them."

"Is that why you where able to kill three members of the inner circle so easily, you've been trained to kill?" Draco asked, still haunted by making his first kill, it was like sixth year all over again when he worried about his order to kill the Headmaster Dumbledore and spent most of the year unable to relax and locked up in Moaning Myrles bathroom in near hysteria.

"I guess it was a bit of that and pure survival instinct, it's amazing how far the human race goes to survive even when they want to die" he replied and started cleaning the floor again.

He hadn't meant to comfort the other boy, but his words seemed to relax Draco more than horrify him.