Alice's POV
I woke up in a state of haziness. It took me a while to come to and even then, all I could hear was water dripping.
Everything was so dark. Is it a lack of light or is there something wrong with my vision?
Shivering, I tried to sit up. I blinked several times, disorientated by how difficult it was to get a bearing on my surroundings.
Where am I? I wondered.
Suddenly, a light flickered on.
"Awake? You took your time," a voice growled.
I blinked rapidly, trying to adjust to the sudden light. At the same time, I searched for my wand, but instead of finding it, found that my hands were bound by magical chains that dug into my wrists. My legs were also bound.
"Now…" a voice hissed. "We're going to make this simple and quick."
Finally starting to get my vision back, I saw three figures emerge before out of the darkness before me. Bellatrix, I recognized, and the Lestrange brothers, Rodolphus and Rabastan. The two brothers were sitting at a desk while Bellatrix stood in front of me, towering over my bound body. I could now see that we were in some sort-of downstairs cellar. A leaky pipe dripped dully from the ceiling. There was hardly any light except for the lamp besides the desk that Rodolphus had clicked on.
"Where is the Dark Lord? Tell me. Tell me what you have done to him," Bellatrix demanded, her voice dangerously low.
I looked up at her and swallowed.
"Tell me now," she commanded. She grabbed my hair and jerked my head back.
I stared up at her, frightened but unwilling to give in. In my head, prayers rang out, Augusta, please keep Neville safe. In my heart, too, I begged for their safety and for Frank's. Please, let them be safe. Let them be far, far away from here.
Bellatrix's face, wrought in displeasure, turned to Rabastan. In a cold, clipped voice, she ordered, "Bring in the mute."
Rabastan nodded. Without another word, he left the cellar for a moment. When he returned, he dragged in a trembling, mumbling figure with him. Rabastan threw the shuddering heap on the floor next to me.
"Frank! Frank!?" I cried out.
His eyes unfocused, he muttered wildly.
"Frank -?" My voice broke. Frank, my beloved, didn't seem able to recognize me at all.
"What did you do to him!?" I shouted.
When I touched his face, he cringed. I felt my heart shatter.
Come back to me, my love. Frank, please…
"Bellatrix!" I screamed, enraged. I turned and twisted at my bounds, trying to get free.
"Answer the question or you shall get the same treatment!" Bellatrix threatened. "Where is the Dark Lord?!"
I glared up at her defiantly. "He's gone, Bellatrix," I said stoutly. "He was defeated by a baby. Your Dark Lord was defeated by Lily and James' son."
Bellatrix's face twisted, going from mere displeasure to deep horror and rage. She lifted her wand and without holding back one bit, she shouted, "Crucio!"
I screamed as unbelievable pain tore through me.
Besides me, Frank threw his hands over his ears and shut his eyes tightly.
"No," he whimpered, shaking his head and curling up into a ball. "No, no, no..."
As soon as Bellatrix took the curse off, she screamed at me, "TELL ME WHERE HE IS!"
I crawled over to Frank. Grasping his wrists in my hands, I whispered to him fervently, "We're going to be okay, my love. We're going to be all right. Don't be afraid. We're together now."
Despite the tears running down my cheeks, I tried to be brave - for Frank and for Neville. "Frank, I love you," I murmured to him.
But Frank pulled away from me, and continued shaking his head. "No," he murmured. "No, no, no."
"You won't answer?" Bellatrix's harsh voice interrupted us, cutting through my fervent whispers and Frank's muted whimpers.
Bellatrix clucked her tongue. Then, she said thinly, "Fine, we'll do this the hard way. Crucio!"
This time, Bellatrix tortured me for so long, I started openly sobbing and gasping for breath.
"Tell me what you know, you filthy blood traitor! Crucio!"
"Ahhhh! Stop it! Stop! Please"
"Crucio!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Frank crawled into the darkest corner of the room and pressing his face into his knees, he kept whispering, "No, no, no..."
"F-Frank," I whispered, "Frank, think of Ne-Nevi -"
"Where is the Dark Lord? Why won't you tell me, you bitch? Crucio!"
"AHHHH!"
An hour later and I was on my floor, sobbing and begging. "I don't know! I don't know anything! Please just let us go! Please!"
"YOU KNOW! YOU'RE JUST NOT TELLING ME! CRUCIO!"
"AHHHH!" Half-sobbing, half-screaming, I wondered how much longer I could take this. It was one of those questions that is never meant to be answered, that never should be answered. But it was.
Three hours later, my body already since long defeated and my spirit mangled a long time ago, my mind finally broke. All the memories and ideas and thoughts that make you you- it all came apart. It wasn't enough for the threads of the tapestry to unravel. It all had to turn to dust, too. These hideous people in front of me, they would be satisfied with nothing else. Scared witless by the loss of their ultimate Master, their Lord, their God, they tortured two human beings for information that simply did not exist.
I no longer remembered who I was.
My last thought, which I will never be able to remember from this moment afterwards, was not so much a thought as it was a feeling. I love you, Neville. Mummy's so sorry to leave you behind. But now, it's time for your father and I to search for a peace that I have to believe waits for me, somewhere out in that realm just short of death- the realm of the incomplete, the realm of wasting away.
Raylynx's POV
I woke up on Harry's birthday to an owl from Shacklebolt, asking me to come to the Ministry of Magic immediately. I got up and headed to the Ministry of Magic, wondering how to slip something to my two-year-old godson without being caught by his witch-hunting aunt and uncle. But those thoughts fluttered away when I arrived at the Ministry to find it in a complete uproar. There were people rioting in the main entrance and even outdoors. The security guards were trying to disperse them or at least force them indoors, to stop the Muggles from noticing.
Pushing past the frenzied crowd and showing the guards my Auror badge, I hurried inside. Once inside the Ministry building, Shacklebolt, Dawlish, Savage, and I met up in front of courtroom 8.
I immediately began to ask, "What's going-?"
Shacklebolt held up his hand to silence me. "Now we don't have much time so listen carefully," he said briskly. "Late last night, the Security and Defense Department detected the excessive use of the Cruciatus Curse. Unfortunately, the exact place had magical barriers which distorted our ability to pinpoint the location. By the time the Ministry agents had discovered the place, it was too late for the victims."
"Victims?" Dawlish repeated, frowning.
"Yes," Shacklebolt said sorrowfully.
Dawlish, Savage, and I all exchanged nervous glances.
"Who?" I asked.
Shacklebolt sighed heavily. "Frank and Alice Longbottom."
My head spun. I tripped backwards slightly and had to reach out and grab the wall to steady myself.
"Whoa there," Savage reached out to steady me.
I looked up at Shacklebolt, who looked at me with pitying eyes.
"By the time the Ministry agents had discovered the place, it was too late for the victims." Too late?
"They're not… they're not dead?" I whispered.
"No," Shacklebolt replied grimly. "Worse, far worse."
"What could possibly be worse than death?" Savage questioned.
"They were tortured to insanity," Shacklebolt answered. His eyes clouded over as he told us the details. "They have no memory of who they are and they barely respond to direct contact. They can't recognize their environments. They're… mentally broken."
"Because they were tortured so much?" Savage said. His usually proud and discouraging face displayed his discomfort and utter discomfort.
Shacklebolt nodded at Savage.
"Alice..." I whispered, so lowly that only Dawlish, who was standing closest to me, could hear. Dawlish looked at me anxiously as he read the coming of a full mental breakdown on my face.
"But how come everyone knows?" Savage asked. "Shouldn't this have been top-secret information? And I mean, the least we could do was to protect Frank and Alice's privacy..."
"I agree," Shacklebolt responded. His voice grew heavy as he informed us, "Unfortunately, the Daily Prophet printed this story before it was approved. As we all know, the Longbottoms were well-respected by the community, so it's only natural that so many people are in an uproar. The protestors at the Ministry are demanding accountability as to how we could have let this happen. After all, Voldemort is supposed to have been defeated." Shacklebolt looked down at his hands miserably as he murmured, "Nobody expected anything like this to happen. After all, we're supposed to be safe now."
"Well, what are we doing in the courtrooms?" Dawlish inquired.
"Karkaroff has decided to break his silence," Shacklebolt explained, taking a deep breath and looking back up at us. "We're hoping he will know who attacked the Longbottoms so that we can go after them and hunt them down before the public loses any more faith in the Ministry."
With that, Shacklebolt said firmly, "Come. The trial will begin any minute now."
Numbly, I shuffled in behind them.
Karkaroff was brought out. He was magically chained to the prisoner's chair in the middle of the dreary room.
"Igor Karkaroff, you have been brought to this trial at your own request," Crouch said, speaking from the judge's podium, several rows above Karkaroff.
"Yes, sir," Karkaroff said feebly. All of his time spent running and hiding from the Ministry, combined with his short stay in Azkaban, showed on his gaunt face.
"What is the evidence you wished to present?" Crouch demanded, not wasting any time.
"I-I have names, sir," Karkaroff muttered.
"Yes?" Crouch said impatiently.
"There was Rosier- Evan Rosier," Karkaroff offered.
The secretary shuffled some papers while Crouch glared at him. Finally, Crouch received Rosier's file, nearly whipping it out of the secretary's hand.
"Rosier is dead," Crouch said shortly, throwing the paper aside without a second glance. The secretary scrambled to catch it before it slid off of the podium.
"Dead? I didn't know," Karkaroff said and the desperation on his face showed. Now, that was one name he couldn't use for leverage, since the person attached to the name was dead.
Crouch, clearly unimpressed, began to say, "If that is all the witness has to offer-"
"No!" Karkaroff yelled desperately. "There was a-an Augustus Rookwood!"
Crouch paused. His eyebrows lifted at this unexpected name. "Augustus Rookwood? From the Department of Mysteries?"
"Yes, the very same!" Karkaroff said eagerly. "He passed information to You-Know-Who from inside the Ministry himself."
Crouch spoke sinisterly as he replied, "Very well. Council shall deliberate. In the meantime, witness will return back to Azkaban-"
"No, please! Please!" Karkaroff's voice rang out most desperately. He strained against his chair in a terrible manner, twisting his gaunt body this way and that. He tried to stand up as he shouted, "What about Snape? Severus Snape!?"
My eyes flickered to where Dumbledore was, predicting his move. Sure enough, Dumbledore rose from the stands and said firmly, "As this Council is well aware, I have presented testimony on this matter. Severus Snape is no more a Death Eater than I am."
Crouch nodded peevishly, already familiar with this information.
"It's a LIE! Severus Snape continues to serve the Dark Lord!" Karkaroff shouted, but was shouted down by Crouch.
"Enough! Silence!" Crouch yelled. "This session is now OVER!"
"Oh no," Karkaroff said. "No, no, no. There are others."
"Others?"
"You will let me go after you have heard these names," Karkaroff said. He then took a long shuddering breath. "You see, I know who tortured the Aurors Frank and Alice Longbottom. And I know where they are."
"Give me the names!" Crouch said, his voice suddenly stretched with tension.
"You will secure my freedom after this," Karkaroff demanded.
"The names! Give me the wretched names!"
"Rodolphus, Rabastan, and Bellatrix Lestrange- and Bartemius Crouch-"
There was collectively a loud gasp.
"-Junior," Karkaroff finished and grinned evilly at Crouch.
Crouch stared back at him, dumbstruck for the first time in his life.
Amelia Bones hesitantly stood up and said, "Aurors, gather your team. You will bring those four mentioned Death Eaters to trial here."
"No," Crouch said. "I will handle my son."
He said it so coldly and menacingly that nobody dared to disagree.
"Witness, you will provide us with their location," Bones ordered. "Aurors, I shall send Top Hit Wizards to your office."
"Come on," Shacklebolt said to us. "Let's go."
But as we hurried out of the courtroom, something occurred to me.
"Wait," I said. "If Alice and Frank are still alive, they're receiving treatment, aren't they? Then that means they're in St. Mungo's."
Shacklebolt's eyes shaded over. "I wouldn't," he said quietly. "Raylynx, I wouldn't-"
"I'll be right back. Ten minutes at most."
"We may have left by then," Shacklebolt warned.
I just shook my head and raced out of there. I nearly bumped into Jasper, who was speaking urgently with Gregory, the Head of the Aurors. Gregory recognized me as an Auror.
"Wait!" he called to me. "Where do you think you're going?"
I realized then that I might look a tad suspicious, racing out ten minutes before Aurors were sent out after the Death Eaters. But I had to see Frank and Alice. I had to make sure they were going to be all right.
"To St. Mungo's, sir!" I yelled, and began running again.
"Wait-!" he called, but I didn't this time.
Gregory sighed. "Jasper, m'boy, will you keep an eye on her? Bring her back to Auror headquarters."
"Alright," Jasper answered calmly and then took off, running lithely.
"Miss, no one but immediate family is allowed-"
"You have to let me see them. Please, Alice is my best friend!"
"I'm sorry, but I can't-"
"You don't understand. She is my family. Please-"
"Miss, I don't want to do this, but if I have to, I will have you escorted out."
"Just give me two seconds-"
"This is your last chance-"
"Let her in."
The nurse turned around as Augusta Longbottom came into view.
"She's a close family friend," August said wearily. That look of tiredness made my spine tingle with fear. She wasn't angry or upset. She just looked... so listless.
The nurse sighed and finally stepped aside. Just then, another figure showed up at the doorway.
"I'm supposed to accompany her, Gregory's orders," Jasper said lightly. The nurse groaned and threw up her hands.
Finally she muttered, "Not like it'll make a difference who's in the room."
I furrowed my brow at her comment.
Augusta, Jasper, and I were led further into the hospital ward.
"What are you doing here?" I questioned Jasper, even as my eyes were searching for Alice and Frank.
"Following you," he whispered back.
Finally, Augusta opened the door to a private ward, and we stepped in.
As soon we came into the room, a baby started crying. Augusta rushed over to the crib and cradled Neville in her arms.
I approached the other beds in the room. I saw its occupants. "Alice-" I started, but then I choked on my breath. Alice's eyes were bulging slightly on an unrecognizably gaunt face. Her hair had turned shockingly white. Worst of all, there was a terrible emptiness in her eyes. She jerked like an infant every so often, but there was no controlled motion and no recognition of her surroundings. When I said her name, she cried out wanly, but then slumped back. Her eyes stared at the ceiling above her as she mouthed soundlessly. She didn't recognize me. Of course not. She couldn't even recognize herself. Frank was in the same state.
"Ms. Kingsley. Miss?"
From Augusta's arms, Neville wailed loudly.
I felt like my knees were going to give out, but I couldn't let myself go like that in front of Augusta and Neville. I fell back against the wall and pressed my fingers against my eyes and tried to hold it together.
"Ms. Kingsley. I'm sorry, but we have to go," Jasper reminded me. His voice was gentle and sorrowful.
That's right, I have to go. I have to go hunt down the bastards that did this. I took a deep, rattling breath and pulled myself off the wall.
I walked over to Neville and placed a hand against his tiny face. Then I gently grasped Augusta's shoulder.
Neither of us said anything. The grief was too much.
Without looking back at Frank and Alice, I left the ward with Jasper right behind me.
We rushed down to Auror headquarters. Everyone was huddled around the main conference table, trying to sort out who should go.
"Moody and Ahmed should go," Gregory stated, and everybody nodded their assent.
Ahmed stepped forward and said, "I request that Shacklebolt come with us. He has proved himself most capable." There was another round of agreement.
At that moment, the best and brightest Hit Wizards entered the room. There was Dmitri, a Romanian wizard with twenty-five years in service, Maude, an elderly woman who was still undisputedly one of the cleverest minds and best duelers within the Ministry, and Chris, Sola's old friend back in Hogwarts. He started a little when he saw me, but then smiled sorrowfully. Sola had broken things off with him when she retreated into her Muggle lifestyle.
"That makes six of us. It's still risky, considering who we're dealing with," Moody growled.
"We'll have a perimeter around the opera house," Gregory answered. "Savage, you take the West End. Dawlish, you'll be around the back. Kingsley, you cover the front, and Riley, you protect the East."
Jasper nodded from beside me. I paused, confused. What is a Magical Beasts Regulator doing amongst Aurors? Why is Gregory assigning him to the perimeter?But I didn't linger on the thought. I had more pressing matters to attend to.
"With all due respect, sir, I think you should place me in the implementation unit," I stepped up and addressed Gregory directly. If I'm not the one to kill Bellatrix, I'll never live it down. I need to do this- and I can't trust Mad-Eye to keep her alive.
"I don't think so. You're just an Auror-in-training, and we're only allowing our best to go head-to-head with these Death Eaters. It's for your own good," Gregory said sternly. "You do realize who you're up against?"
"I know," I said through gritted teeth, thinking of all of the people Bellatrix and the others had taken from me. "Trust me, I'm more than aware of who we're going up against."
"This isn't your personal vendetta, Kingsley," Ahmed warned me. "Mind your position, and fall back."
"I swear to you-" I began, but I was immediately cut off by Moody, who slapped his hand on the table.
"Keep wasting valuable time and I'll take you off perimeter watch myself," he barked at me. "Let's go!" He brushed past me and headed out the door. The others filed in after him. Jasper shot me a sympathetic look, but followed Moody out.
Chris paused and held the door open for the rest of us. As I walked past him, he said, "Ray, this will be dangerous. If you're still in training, it's not worth losing you here." He looked at me with kind, but stern eyes. With a nod, he went on ahead, catching up to the rest of the Hit Wizards.
We came upon an old opera house that had long since been deserted.
"I hardly need to remind you all that we are confronting three of the most dangerous wizards and witches in the world," Ahmed said calmly. He looked each of us in the eye with a hard glint in his eye and gave me an especially stern gaze.
"Follow orders," he stressed. "You are not the only one who bears a grudge."
I barely held back my frustration as he, Moody, Shacklebolt, Chris, Maude, and Dmitri went on ahead to enter the opera house. The rest of us hurriedly spread out to our four points. We angled ourselves so that Jasper and I could see each other, and Savage and Dawlish could see the other.
Ahmed's remark gave me the focus I needed to stay aware of the orders, but it did not kill my motivation in the slightest to find Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan and wring their necks one by one.
The four of us standing guard pulled out our wands, ready for the slightest hint of attempted escape. I held back a sigh as I pulled out my wand. I'd mended the halves of my old wand with the King's wand when I realized I would have to trade it to Ollivander. But the wand resisted me rather strongly. My spells were slightly late and my magic was nowhere near as strong as it used to be. I'd manage to counterbalance the negative effects of the wand by relying half on the wand half on nonverbal magic. It seemed to speed things up a little to have some magic come directly from me and directly through the medium of the wand, but it was incredibly draining. I was convinced we could have managed to catch Fenrir last time, if only my wand actually fit me.
Don't fail me this time, I begged it.
Ahmed's POV
We stealthily infiltrated the opera house. We made our way to the innermost rooms beyond the main hall and suddenly found ourselves on stage.
Just beyond the curtains, we could hear voices arguing.
"Bella, they had no information to give. That was made clear when they let their minds break rather than-"
Moody beckoned us all forward and we quickly but cautiously got into formation.
"The Dark Lord cannot have been defeated by a baby. He is alive. The question is how to find him and restore him to power!"
Moody held up three fingers, then started to fold them down. Three, two-
"Agreed, but we all know the Dark Lord was not merely fighting a baby. This must have been set up by Dumbledore and brought about by that traitor-"
One-!
"Stupefy!"
"Incarcerous!"
"Petrificus Totalus!"
An array of six offensive spells ripped through the curtains and at the three figures standing behind them.
There was a loud grunt and a curse as one amongst the three was caught. He tripped and fell over, long ropes binding his arms, feet, and gagging his mouth.
"I got him! Go!" Moody yelled at us, hurriedly kneeling down to secure Rabastan.
Rodolphus and Bellatrix had sprinted away. They took off running down separate hallways.
Dmitri, Chris, and Maude tailed Rodolphus. Shacklebolt and I stayed right on Bellatrix's heels. The pathway narrowed and soon, I had to fall behind Shacklebolt so that we could keep running after her.
Having planned this, Bellatrix took advantage of the linear formation and turning around suddenly, shrieked, "Expulso!"
Shacklebolt was thrown backwards.
"Shacklebolt!"
"I'm- fine," he managed to say. He had thrown up his arms in time to save himself, but long gashes were apparent on both his arms and his lower stomach.
"Avada Ked-!"
"Stupefy!" I shouted, and my spell broke Bellatrix's spellcasting, as she scrambled to dodge my Stunner in that narrow hallway.
Shacklebolt gritted his teeth and tried to force himself up.
"Stay down!" I shouted at him. "Incisura!"
My spell caught Bellatrix in the shoulder. She hissed as blood began to trickle down her arm.
"Crucio!" she shouted. When I put up another Shield, she pointed her wand at the ceiling and screeched, "Bombarda Maxima!"
The ceiling started to cave in. I knew that I might be able to outrun it. But on the other hand, I was the only one with Shacklebolt. If I left him, he might bleed to his death. So I backed away and put up a Shield.
"No, I'm not- important. Go after her, Ahmed," Shacklebolt begged me.
"Relax," I said, though regret swarmed up inside me. I thought of all my lost comrades. But vengeance did not lie in capturing Bellatrix. It lay it saving the people I cared about and making sure she did not take away more of them away from me. I knelt beside Shacklebolt and began to cast healing spells.
"Beside," I said wryly. "Maybe now Raylynx Kingsley will get the chance she was looking for."
