"I see, Rookwood. Well, if that's all there is…" long, skeletal fingers wrapped themselves around a long, spindly wand. "Crucio!"
The hooded figure on the ground shrieked and writhed in agony, falling to the floor. Four Death Eaters watched in silence as their colleague was tortured.
"That amount of information is nowhere near satisfactory" hissed a cruel, cold voice. "I expected better. Now leave my presence!" Lord Voldemort's scarlet slit-pupiled eyes narrowed as Rookwood scampered out, whimpering. He grimaced. His Death Eaters were such weak fools.
"Now, where is the boy?"
The door opened, and two more hooded men marched in, their hands clasped tightly around a pale seventeen year-old. Draco Malfoy was struggling in their grip, but his arms were pinned to his sides, and the beefy men were carrying him a foot off the ground.
"Crabbe, Goyle, drop him." The men dropped Draco on the floor, where he continued to flail about for a second until he realised he had been released. He gazed up nervously, but could not meet Voldemort's eyes, and a shiver of terror ran through his spine.
Meanwhile, no-one noticed another hooded figure creep in the doorway and stand in the shadows.
"Well, well, Draco… looks like you are in trouble again" Voldemort sneered. Crabbe and Goyle snickered but silenced at a look from Voldemort. "It seems that simple orders do not matter to you. It seems that you think yourself allowed to defy me."
Draco closed his eyes. He was trembling, and a bead of sweat dripped from his forehead. What horrific punishment was in store for him?
"I ordered you to go with your aunt to Godric's Hollow the day Potter went, and yet you were no-where to be seen. It was your fault the attack failed, was it not?"
"I didn't- I couldn't- no- I - but…" Draco babbled. He took a deep breath and pulled himself together. "I didn't do anything." He knew this was the wrong thing to say at once, as the surrounding Death Eaters gasped. Lucius looked terrified, Bellatrix had screwed up her eyes, and Snape was making frantic hand-waving movements.
"Exactly!" Voldemort spat "you did not go to Godric's Hollow, you did not help with the attack, and you did not do as I told you! You didn't do anything!" his deathly white fingers were inching towards his wand. "You should be very grateful that I am not going to kill you." Draco's heart lightened, but just a tiny bit. Beside Snape, Lucius breathed a sigh, apparently of relief. "But your punishment will be… severe."
"NO!" shrieked a voice. Everyone turned as Narcissa Malfoy rushed out of her corner and flung herself on her knees in front of Draco. Lucius, shocked, turned to Snape and Bellatrix, but she just shrugged and Snape was looking as shocked as he was.
"My Lord, please, he is confused!" she cried, holding her hands above her head as though shielding herself and Draco. "I beg your mercy!"
Voldemort sat back in his throne and glared at her coolly. "And why should Lord Voldemort have mercy on your lazy, disobedient son?"
"P-please, it was not his fault… it was I who told him not to do it." The five surrounding Death Eaters gasped and Crabbe, Goyle and Wormtail started muttering immediately. Draco, who was still on his knees, gaped at his Mother.
"You were the one who discouraged him from doing my bidding?!" Voldemort glared at her through his fiery red eyes, boring into her greyish blue ones.
"I-I was a-afraid!" she sobbed. She seemed to have lost her nerve at the reaction of the other Death Eaters and tears were now cascading down her face. "I d-d-didn't think h-he would be r-ready for s-such a task, so I persuaded h-him not to go. Please, M-My Lord, have mercy!"
"Mum, what are you doing?" Draco hissed quietly. None of this was true, of course; he had stayed locked in his bedroom of his own accord.
Voldemort stared at her in silence for a while, and then let out a mad cackle.
"So!" he swooped down on her. "You thought you could get him out of following my commands, did you? You thought it would go unnoticed?" he was slowly circling them. Narcissa was crouched on the ground, shivering and whimpering. "You deserve death, fool!"
"Narcissa…"said Lucius in a strangled whisper.
"Then again, I have a better idea…" he flicked his wand, and Narcissa was levitating a few centimetres off the ground. It looked as though an invisible rope had tied itself around her neck and was hanging her. She choked and franticly grabbed at her neck. "Crabbe, Goyle!"
Two hairy pairs of hands wrapped themselves around Draco's arms.
"You see, Draco, this is what happens when you disobey me and follow mummy…" he pointed his wand at Narcissa's struggling figure and said, in a slow cruel way; "Crucio!"
Just as Rookwood had done minuets before, Narcissa shrieked with agony, writhing and twisting while she was suspended in the air, so she looked like an oversized animal dangling from a string.
Any fear Draco had had before was wiped out.
"NO! LEAVE HER ALONE! NO!" he bellowed, kicking and lashing out at his captors, but for all the use it was he might as well have been kicking a stone pillar.
Lucius was frozen in horror, the writhing form of his wife reflected in his eyes.
Finally Voldemort lifted the curse. Narcissa hung, panting and gasping for air. Voldemort seemed to have decided he didn't want her hanging there anymore, so he flicked his wand again and she dropped to the floor with a sickening thud.
"Enjoying the show, Lucius?" he shot. Lucius stared from him to Narcissa. "How about you doing the honours?" an evil glint had appeared in Voldemort's eyes, the one he only got when he was tearing families apart. Or torturing Harry Potter.
Lucius shuddered and backed up against the wall. "My Lord… please… I can't…"
"Let me put it this way, Lucius. Either you do your wife a little favour" he twiddled his wand in his fingers "or I make it a thousand times worse."
"NO!" Draco yelled "DON'T MAKE HIM!"
"It's your choice, Malfoy. Either you do it" an evil, spiteful grin creeped across his face "or I do it."
Crabbe and Goyle chuckled stupidly. Bellatrix was glaring at her sister with a mixture of revulsion and annoyance. But Snape's face was hidden in the shadows.
Slowly, unbearably, Lucius raised his wand. "Cr-crucio."
Once again Narcissa seized up in agony. Draco struggled harder than ever against Crabbe and Goyle.
"Cru-crucio." Lucius' wand shook so badly he almost dropped it. His eyes snapped from his screaming wife, to his struggling son, to his amused master, who was avidly watching them, drinking in the pain he was causing… Narcissa's suffering was cut short as Lucius, with a startling cry, flung his wand across the room, so it rolled to a stand still at Voldemort's feet.
"No more? Pity. I do enjoy these dramatic fights between couples." He lifted his foot and trod on Lucius' wand, snapping it clean in two. "Get out of my way!" Lucius, who looked terrified by his own daring, backed against the wall again. Rusty chains snaked out and clamped him in place.
"My Lord… no…" he whispered, but Voldemort ignored him.
"Crucio!"
Narcissa's screams seemed to echo off the walls, and Draco couldn't stop the hot, furious tears spilling from his eyes. Rage pounded through him like some insane wild animal caged up and dying to kill.
"Let her go…" he choked. Why didn't anyone do anything? Could no-one stop this maniac?
On and on it went, his mother's screams stopping and starting as one curse finished and another began. Voldemort was enjoying it immensely; dancing around and twirling his wand like some evil, demented ballet dancer. He laughed mercilessly at her cries and tears, and every so often flashed Draco an evil, gloating look.
"I suppose that will do" he said, after what seemed like hours. "You may leave!"
Bellatrix stalked out, Wormtail scampering after her. Crabbe and Goyle dropped Draco and stomped out too. Only Voldemort, Snape (still concealed in the shadows) and the Malfoys were left. Draco rushed to his mother's side.
"Mum?" he said quietly. She didn't respond. She was barely conscious, limp and unmoving. Voldemort glided towards them.
"Liar" he whispered venomously, so only Draco and Narcissa could hear. "You lied, Narcissa Malfoy. I know perfectly well you had no part in your son's disobedience."
Narcissa, using her last ounce of energy, looked into his burning eyes, before her head hit the ground, unconscious.
"Mother!" Draco tried to shake her awake, but she remained in a constant state of rest.
"How touching" Voldemort sneered. "Now, you won't be trying that again, or dear Mummy here will be suffering much worse." He turned to go, flicking his wand at the chains that bound Lucius, so they released him. But it was only after Voldemort had disaperated that Lucius, who had been embarrassed by his earlier outburst of emotion and remained incredibly still and emotionless in company, flung himself on his knees at Narcissa's side.
"Narcissa" he breathed, this was one of the rare times Draco had seen him show extreme emotion. "I'm… so sorry…" he covered his face with his hands and remained completely still. Draco wasn't angry at him for turning on his mother; he knew he had only done it because Voldemort had forced him to.
"You… idiot boy!" Lucius roared suddenly, and Draco narrowly ducked a blow aimed at his head. "If you hadn't disobeyed the Dark Lord, your mother wouldn't be in this state!" But Draco just stared at his father coolly. He could see the shame and insecurity behind the anger in his eyes; he was ashamed for hurting Narcissa so badly, and he was trying to mask it by blaming Draco. He raised his fist again, but it was grasped by Snape, who had been skulking in the shadows. "Let go of me!" Lucius spat.
"No."
Lucius struggled in Snape's firm grasp for a second, but then he clutched at his long blonde hair, his fingernails digging into his scalp.
"Come on." Snape gently lifted Narcissa's limp form and led Draco out through the doors the other Death Eaters had left through. "No, Father" he thought. "This isn't my fault. It's the Dark Lord's". He glanced at his mother's lifeless form and pictured Voldemort's face leering spitefully at him. Pure hatred surged through him like white-hot electricity. Compared to this, his hatred for Potter and Dumbledore felt like a childish grudge.
He had to get away.
*
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