Hey guys, I am so sorry that I've taken this long to update, I've just had so much on with school but yeah! Here we go here's the next one, I hope it can at least in some way make up for it! Thank you for reading and sticking with me here!
Chapter forty: Castor's POV
I considered all possibilities once the haze began to lift, when there were still lights dancing and flickering in my vision, the possibility that kept on springing and clawing back at me, daring me to trust it and make a deal to believe it was this: I had died. I had died and now I had been put into hell for all my sins, most notably being stupid enough to try and destroy the ministry of magic. Resisting the urge to groan at my idiocy sure that whatever demon was lying in wait for me, rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of having another poor unfortunate soul that they could torture and maim for all eternity, would groan at my stupidity for me. Finally the haze began to lift and squeezing my eyes tight I finally was able to open them, to find myself staring into the eyes of Draco Malfoy. His pupils white and milky, dark rings had festered themselves around his eyes, he looked as though at any second he could be consumed by them, he was scared, that was clear as his eyes widened at me, obviously not expecting me to awake.
"He's… he's awake," Draco muttered, his voice betraying him, coming out in little jitters and spurts, the boy was terrified and as I painfully strained my aching neck to see who was behind him I understood why, my mother, a dark gleam in her eyes stopped her pacing and turned suddenly to face us. A few steps back from her was Narcissa, my aunt, Lucious, my uncle, a few snatchers, the ones who had brought me here and a couple of others and Wormtail. My mother forced her way over, striding quickly to wear I was sat on the cold floor, dizzy and dazed. Her fingers wound around my shirt, a dangerous smirk entering her features but she did nothing, just turned around and went back to pacing. After a few moments she let out some infernal screech and turned on Draco, "Is it him Draco? Is it him! Tell me, we need to know," confused my eyes scrunched up, only to widen as I looked to my left and right to find Ron and Hermione and someone who looked awfully like Harry Potter apart from the fact his face was twisted and distorted, bubbled and boiled. I gulped, my heart pounding in my chest, I had found Harry at least, just in the last way I hoped.
Draco looked intently at Harry, trying to force himself to form an answer, he swallowed nervously, pools of sweat bearing themselves like jewels and beads on his forehead as I shivered before finally managing to catch his eye, I shook my head, begging him not to say yes. I knew it was Harry, it just had to be, he was with Ron and Hermione for starters and… the resemblance was just too striking even with his face distorted. I was sure Draco knew it too, there was a look in his eyes, a look that confirmed that he was practically certain that before him was Harry Potter, Voldemort's most wanted. Still, he did not stir and he did not speak. "Well?" My mother's voice was even more deranged and dangerous as she pushed for an answer.
"Found this, reckon I can-," my eyes stopped on one of the snatchers, he was holding a sword that I knew too well as my eyes grew again in size and I forced my croaky, burning and bleeding voice to utter words. In an attempt to save us from the certain hell that would break loose from my mother seeing the sword of Gryffindor.
"NO!" I roared it and my mother's head snapped to me but not before she'd caught sight of the sword. She grabbed me, forcing me up, her eyes boring into mine. She looked almost sad as she did this, not wanting to hurt me but there was something about the sword that made her so angry that she couldn't help it now. I knew why, the sword of Gryffindor should be in her vault at Gringotts. One look at Ron and Hermione confirmed it, the sword had been with them when they'd been captured. My mother would murder them most likely if she knew that, there was the slightest chance that she'd at least let me live. I had to take that chance, Ron and Hermione were far more valuable to the war than I was. "I took it mum, for your vault. I took it."
Hermione opened her mouth to protest, smart enough to know what I was doing and unable to let me do it, her moral conscience kicking in but I spoke over her, not letting her take the fall. "Yeah, I broke in and took it." Her eyes widened and she screeched. "WORMTAIL! Put the boys and that filthy mudblood in the cellar! You're going to tell me exactly how you managed to get into my vault, get past all that security." Her eyes widened, "You… you must have taken something else as well… that can't have been all you wanted from there. TELL ME WHAT YOU TOOK FROM MY VAULT!" Her madness had taken over from her motherly compassion; I realized that nothing could save me now. I was done for.
"Bella, maybe we should just-," my aunt began but her voice wavered and fell flat as she looked at me with pure sorrow, I didn't choose to be born into this family and now I was paying the price for not wanting to conform. They all, shuddering left as my mother seething threw me to the ground, her wand in her hands in an instant.
"I'm sorry Castor, I'm sorry," she began as a slow tear fell from her face and I looked at her confused. "I don't have any choice… you're father is outside, drowning his sorrows, he said to be left alone but if he knows that you're here, he'll kill you. If I don't torture you and get what I need, Lucious will most likely suggest bringing your father in to try and get the information. He will hurt you so badly I…," she shivered and closed her eyes as I understood, she had to do this to me, it was simply the lesser of two evils. The only thing was of course that I knew nothing because I hadn't really taken the sword from my mother's vault. "If you tell me… we can make it easier Castor." I shivered, I had to pretend as though I did but was just not telling her, otherwise she'd figure it out and turn on Ron or Hermione, probably Hermione since she was muggleborn and my mother would relish in getting her hands on one.
"I'm not telling you shit, we're winning this war," I spat at her, hitting her right in the face and her eyes flashed with intense anger. This wasn't the son she remembered, this wasn't the son who cared for her despite her evil disposition. This son was heartless and hated her, I tried to give her that impression. Her grip on her wand tightened as her eyes flashed a violent colour.
"If that's the way it is… CRUCIO!" I erupted into the spasms that I had grown accustom to, the hot knives stabbing me over and over again as darkness consumed and ravaged my brain, sniggering in disgust at the cries and screams of pain I made, no longer able to keep up my resistance. This was worse than it had ever been before, she was furious with me and she wanted, more than anything in the world to see me hurt. I continued to writhe and scream, begging for death, begging for its friendly clutches to take me and cradle me in its arms. However, she did not let off, only increasing the pain. It felt as if all my bones were snapping, only to grow again and then snap once more. Her eyes gleamed, the madness ensuing in my mind was far worse, all my worst memories, the times in Azkaban coming to the forefront of my head and I couldn't block them out, I couldn't stop the images and memories.
She grabbed my shirt and ripped it open, exposing the long scar that I hated, that terrified me. The images of that night at the world cup flashed in my head, the pain I had felt but the worse pain that had gone in my head that I'd wanted to find my parents and to be with them… how could I have been so stupid? Then my Uncle Ted's death flashed in my head and I felt a few tears drip like the blood which was beginning to ooze from my chest as my mother began to write on my chest the word 'Disowned,' I screamed again and again.
"MAYBE I SHOULD GET YOUR FATHER!" She was seething at me furious but suddenly her eyes softened, "No… I couldn't do that… I couldn't… I. Still, you're disowned… I thought that maybe… maybe we could salvage the embers of what we could have had if I wasn't a Death Eater, if you weren't on the side of light, if we were just a normal family but I guess not. The hate that I should have know would eventually claim you has done so… I shouldn't blame you really I mean… we're on different sides, I guess it was inevitable after all I have done. Still… it hurts and so I have to hate you back don't I? To try and lessen the hurt… so my first act is to disown you…," with her wand a vision of our family tree came up and I watched as my name crinkled and burned falling to the floor in a pile of ashes next to me. "I… I don't think I can hate you… I want to but I don't think I can." The blood poured from my chest as I tried to stop myself from going dizzy and allowing the flashing bright lights to burn in front of my eyes.
"Mum… I don't hate you… I don't, I wish I could too because then it would just make this whole thing easier but I don't hate you. I just… I have to win this war, Harry has to win this war. To do that… I can't tell you anything," keep up the lie, pretend that you took the sword. Her lip wobbled at the sincerity in my eyes, she knew for certain that I didn't hate her and as the blood continued to fall down my chest she gulped.
"I have to do this Castor… I have to find out what you know soon, or someone will go get your father… or he'll come in after he's finished drinking. If the pain I'm giving you isn't enough... maybe hearing your friends scream will open your mouth a little." I gulped, in her eyes she knew that hurting my friends could cause me to hate her but she loved me too much to care, she'd rather I stay alive even if it meant I would hate her. "Yes, also that'll mean that if your father does come in, you're out of sight of your father. WORMTAIL!" She screamed and the ghastly man came in, grabbing me by the collar he shoved me into the cellar, I noticed all the snatchers had cleared off, either too scared of my mother's insanity or simply the fact that they had been called elsewhere. "BRING OUT THE BLONDE ONE!" My mother screamed down and as soon as I saw her I felt sick, Wormtail's hand grabbed her wrist tightly, dragging Luna away from me. She smiled, telling me not to worry, that she could take this but I couldn't and Harry and Ron grabbed me, holding me back.
The door shut behind us and the screams didn't start for a few moments… the one person who had been my best friend, my girlfriend, the girl I was in love with was suffering because I had been foolish enough to lie to my mother and think no one else would suffer apart from me because of it. Well, we were all suffering now, Luna up there and us down here, hearing her pain wracked screams. I yelled, banging against the door and shouting, my throat running raw and my hands turning bloody and bruised. Tears fell from my eyes, hearing her screams, it was driving me insane, dangerously so as an intense rage filled my eyes. She was still screaming when Peter came down again, here for another one. I leapt on him as soon as he appeared, taking his wand from his pocket I did so, my burning anger at what was happening to Luna consuming me, I loved her so deeply.
"Sectumsempra!" It came from my mouth before I had a chance to think about what I was doing and with a gurgling noise, his chubby fingers clutching at the blood falling from his neck wormtail slumped to the floor, the light in his eyes dying. I had murdered him and as I looked down at his dead corpse I saw it, a look of regret, for joining Voldemort I was sure, for betraying James and Lily and for keeping us captive in here, for all the wrongs he had done in his life and then suddenly it dawned on me. Peter owed Harry a life debt and I… I had just murdered him, from that look in his eyes I was sure, he was going to help us or at least Harry might have been able to convince him too, his guilt over James and Lily had probably been resurfacing so he would have been easily persuaded to help and I… I had just destroyed him without a thought. I hadn't even given him a chance, I was disgusted at myself but Luna's screams fell into my ears again as I turned to look at everyone, their mouths open in shock.
"I'm sorry Peter," I whispered, a slow tear falling from my eye as Luna's screams continued behind me I forced myself to think of her and push the burning guilt and disgust to the back of my head. I raced up the stairs, only to hear a crash, Dobby was stood, a smirk on his little face, glaring at my mother who had just rolled out of the way of the large, audacious chandelier.
"Where's Wormtail?" My mother growled, her eyes turning to us. I still held his wand in my hand as I began to shiver, Lucious, Narcissa and Draco appeared and lumbering behind them: my father.
"Dead," Hermione whispered, her voice pained at the thought of it, seeing his body go limp and lifeless, he hadn't been evil, just scared, just so scared and I'd destroyed his chance at redeeming himself. No one would ever know the good act he could have done if I hadn't killed him. I was just as much of a monster as my mother, as my father.
"KILL THEM!" My father screamed and I knew then that I didn't deserve to live anymore. Not after what I had just done to Peter. I had murdered him. I deserved to die.
Alright thanks guys, again sorry it's been so long, I've just been so busy with school! Hope you enjoyed it, thanks for reading and please review!