Chapter 9 Dudley
Chapter 9 Dudley
Draco read to him for a long time. Draco’s voice eventually grew coarse. It was jarring how much Draco looked like his father, it had startled Dudley. Dudley thought Lucius had come back to finish what he started. Dudley found himself listening intently to Dracos words, he didn’t know the story and Draco told it gracefully, never stumbling over his words the way Dudley would have. The story floated over to Dudley, it picked him up and took him somewhere else. Dudley slowly returned to his body, panic subsiding. The cadence and rhythm of the words bringing him back to himself and giving him something to grasp on to.
Dudley should have asked Draco to stop when he heard the first signs of strain leeching into his voice, selfishly he didn’t. He was enjoying not being afraid. Dudley feared that when Draco stopped reading the horrors of the last few days would rush back in a tidal wave. Eventually Draco stopped at the end of a chapter and shut the book. Neither of them said anything for a while. Both settling themselves back into their bodies.
Draco stood.
Dudley looked at him ‘Thankyou’ he said. Dudley meant it with every cell of his body. Draco disappeared with a crack. The rest of the morning passed uneventfully. Dudley anticipating the tortures these new wizards might wreak on him.
Dudley heard the lock to his cell open.
Lucius entered and Dudley froze, Lucius’s dress shoes clicking on the tiles.
‘Ligare’ Lucius hissed
Instantly Dudley was once more paralysed. It was worse that Dudley remembered, the helplessness was overwhelming.
Dudley was once again levitated face down through several thin corridors, the floor beneath him was all Dudley could see, changing from tile to stone and back to tile again. They eventually entered a room with a heavily patterned carpet, hexagonal art deco style in olive and viridian. Dudley was lowered unceremoniously into a chair and the rest of the room came into view.
A drawing room.
Deep green velvet chairs and chaises littered the edges, a black piano in the corner, dark grey curtains drawn tightly closed. Dudley was sat in a wooden dining chair in the middle of the room.
‘Stilla’
Dudley felt his body come back to him. Several people stared at him. Voldemort leered at Dudley like he was a particularly hard crossword clue. Just the look of his yellow eyes turned Dudley’s stomach, Dudley purposely looked past him to the other figures arranged around Voldemort in a semi circle. Umbridge was there, wearing a sickly sweet pink tea dress. Lucius and Narcissa also present, Narcissa holding Lucius’s arm tightly. Draco stood next to his parents slowly swaying from one foot to the other and picking at his left thumb. There were two new faces, Bellatrix and Snape Dudley surmised. Bellatrix was tall, she had a willowy grace to her. Almost like a ballet dancer. But with none of the gentleness. Dark circles under her eyes, black hair piled haphazardly on top of her head. She wore an outfit not dissimilar to Voldemort floaty and dark, they looked like they could almost be related. They were the same species. Snape on the other hand just looked like nothing, face blank of expression. A simple over cloak, black shoes. He was a cardboard cut out of a person. Heavy jaw and dropping eyelids. The six of them were looking at Dudley and Dudley had never felt like more of a spectacle, he cowered away from their gaze and eventually he had to look down.
‘Poor boy, look at that face’ Voldemort chortled
‘A vast improvement my lord, I love to see a mangled muggle’ Umbridge giggled.
Dudley glanced up to see Draco rubbing his forehead.
‘My boy’ Voldemort addressed Dudley.
‘You’ve been hiding things from me’ his finger traced through some of the crusted blood that still lingered on Dudley’s cheek. Voldemort’s voice was playful, it was almost worse than screaming. Voldemort liked to play with his food before he ate it.
‘Bellatrix here is most skilled in the art of torture, she should help should loosen your tongue’ Voldemort smiled
‘My good friend Snape has delivered me some veritaserum, a truth telling potion, though I doubt it we will need it. Bella is very talented and I’m hoping you’ll be good boy’
Voldemort leaned in close and licked the side of Dudley’s face with a long wet tongue. Dudley could see his dirty pointed teeth beneath his grimace as he pulled away.
‘You taste disgusting. No magic there at all is there? Muggle filth’
Dudley didn’t know the time but it felt like it was dark behind the curtains. Dudley didn’t think there was anything left of the person he had been before, if there had been that disgusting tongue had just licked the last of him away. There was a new person living in his skin now. The idea of more pain Dudley truly thought he would rather die. If he had had the means he would have done it right then. Voldemort stood straight, turned to Bellatrix
‘begin’ he instructed.
She stalked towards Dudley.
‘What are you hiding from the dark lord?’ She rasped
‘N-nothing.. I don’t know what’s wrong with my head. Truly I don’t, just use the truth stuff on me now.. please’
‘No no sweetheart- veritaserum is rare, we’ll try it the old fashioned way first’
‘Please’ Dudley mumbled, a tear falling slowly down his cheek, off his chin and into his lap. Dudley looked into Bellatrix’s eyes, searching for something human but it wasn’t there.
Bellatrix grabbed Dudley’s hair and pushed him to the floor. Dudley could have stopped her, he was far bigger than Bellatrix but he didn’t bother. He let himself be pushed to the ground.
‘Vinculo’ she announced and Dudley’s hands and feet were restrained, invisible bindings holding him at four anchor points.
‘Truly a pig in the slaughterhouse’ she looked pleased with herself. She stepped over him with a foot on either side of his body, then slowly lowered herself so she was straddling his hips. Completely immobilised, arms above his head all Dudley could do was attempt to buck her off but he stopped when he realised she seemed to be enjoying herself.
‘Oh don’t stop! You’re no fun.’ She began to lift Dudley’s shirt exposing his torso. She then took a small dagger from a holster at her ankle. Bellatrix began to carve into Dudley’s chest. Slicing into him like he was meat, dragging the sharp knife in a series of haphazard and seemingly random cuts, deep, long, short, shallow. Dudley felt beads of blood slide down his sides.
‘Tell me what are you hiding.’ she demanded after every slice.
‘Nothing’ Dudley had insisted after the first few cuts but he gave up quickly. There was no point, she didn’t actually seem to care about his answer. She was having far to much fun. Her face like a child at Christmas, wide grin and a restless excitement fizzing in her movements. Someone was breathing heavily behind Dudley. Dudley found the quick heavy breathing was something he could focus on to block out the pain, not all of it but some at least, he matched his breaths to theirs. Breathing together.