Chapter 12
Harry took a deep breath “Okay so then…” He paused and let the memories hit him as he decided what he should say.
Harry blinked. And blinked again. He couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black… wherever he was. Harry shifted and realized he was a cold hard concrete floor, and his hands and feet were stuck. After some further investigation, he realized that he was tied with chains with his hands above his head and his feet tied together as well. He also was only in his boxers, and it was freezing.
This was not good.
Harry thought back to the last thing he remembered. He remembered Dumbledore coming in and levitating him out of Hogwarts grounds dropping him at the gates. He remembered pleading for Dumbledore to at least let him firecall the Weasley’s or his godfather. He couldn’t use magic, and he knew he was a sitting duck for death eaters.
Dumbledore had only smiled at him sadly and wished him luck, stating that it was for the greater good. Eventually Harry had stumbled to his feet and tried to get to Hogsmeade to hopefully find someone who could help him, but he never made it there. He had been intercepted by none other than Bellatrix Lestrange.
Which meant that now he was probably in some dungeon of an old pure-blood castle, waiting to be tortured and then killed. Harry took a deep breath. And waited. And waited. He seemed to wait for hours and hours and nothing happened. He fell asleep and woke up countless times and still nothing. No one came. Was this their plan? Were they going to lock him down here until he starved to death?
No. Eventually, long after Harry had given up trying to keep track of time, he heard footsteps. A lantern came around some corner, and Harry squinted at the bright light.
“Harry, did you think we had forgotten you?” came the dreaded voice of Bellatrix, “We would never forget you. We have such plans for our savior. You really do need to pay for what you did to our master.”
Harry flinched as she slammed the lantern down next to his head.
“We’re going to have so much fun together,” Bella cooed into his face. She reached out and turned his head to the side, “Look over there. Look at all of my toys.”
Harry’s stomach dropped at the large array of torture instruments that covered the walls. He couldn’t even guess the purpose of most of them, but none of them looked good. Bellatrix squealed in delight.
“We’ll start slow I promise,” she giggled. She chose a small dagger and then settled herself over Harry’s chest. Slowly, she began to carve into him. Harry flinched but did not scream.
“Well that was boring,” she said, not looking upset at all, instead she looked more excited, “Let’s try this one.”
The next knife she used burned hot as she cut into him. He still did not scream, though he was close. He heard his skin sizzling as she pressed the blade down harder. He jerked and tried to get away but he was determined not to scream. The next knife was serrated. She ran it over the skin on his stomach. The next knife shocked him as it dug into his skin. Harry flinched and convulsed, biting his tongue but he still didn’t scream. Harry lost count of all the knives that she used on his chest. His chest was honestly going numb and he was dizzy from the blood loss. His head lolled to the side.
“No no Harry, enervate!” she said, jabbing him with her wand, “I think I’m done with knives.”
It only took her a few more tries to find something to make him scream. She alternated between whipping him with horrific instruments and using more delicate tools that caused precise pain. And he screamed. And he kept screaming. He screamed until he passed out, and she woke him up to do it again. Over and over.
Hours or days later, Harry didn’t know, she finally stopped. He lay shaking on the floor praying for death.
“I think that’s enough for now,” Bellatrix decided, “See you later Harry, you’ve been lovely. I’ll send the elves in because you’re not allowed to die yet.”
The elves came in and they healed what they could, and gave him blood replenishing potions. They apologized for not being allowed to give him pain killers. Harry wasn’t in any state to be able to reply.
The next time Harry saw Bellatrix, she came with friends.
“Harry, this is Fenrir Greyback, and Rowle, and we’re going to play some mind games today,” she decided. Harry didn’t know whether or not to be more afraid, or thankful that his body was going to get a break.
Later, he knew that the mind games were so much worse. His body didn’t get a break either. First they interrogated him about things he didn’t know the answers to. They dunked his head underwater that they conjured until he felt like he was drowning, and then they shocked him. And that repeated. Over and over.
Then, they brought in several boggarts, and Harry got to watch as everyone he loved died horrific deaths. Ron. Hermione. Sirius. Remus. The twins. Over and over. All while Bella was laughing with glee.
Next, they brought in three muggles. They told him he had to pick which one had to die. He refused. They killed all three. They brought in a new group, he picked one through tears, and they killed the other two. Over and over they did this.
They went back to the physical torture when they were bored. They burned him, cut him, shocked him, and hurt him in any way that they could think of without damaging him too much or killing him. One time, they even brought in a dementor. After seeing the effect that it had on him, they decided to keep stationed just outside of the room so that Harry could always feel the cold creeping into his chest.
Eventually, they decided that Harry seemed most afraid of the water torture, so they conjured a large glass box and put him in it, and slowly filled it with water. When he thought he would die, it began to drain. He sighed with relief too soon. When the water was down to his shoulders, it turned to acid. He screamed.
Sometime later they force fed him a potion. It made all of his wildest nightmares come to life inside of his head. He didn’t know they weren’t real. Again, he watched all of his friends die in front of him. He felt himself drowning. He watched as a fake Uncle Vernon advanced upon him. He watched Cedric die. More and more. Over and over.
Harry lost track of what they did to him. He stopped reacting. He lay limply no matter what they showed him or made him do. No matter what torture they inflicted, he was numb.
This infuriated Bellatrix. She began screaming in frustration, angered that she had broken her toy. That was until she got a better idea.
“Oh! Harry! I know!” she giggled and jumped up and down. Harry stared listlessly at the ceiling, “I know one way we haven’t played.”
She came over to him and straddled his body, alighting all of his injuries in fresh pain.
“You’re a little young for me which is why I didn’t think of it before but,” she giggled again and then turned to her counterparts, “Boys, leave us, I’d like some privacy for this, you can have your turn later.”
She then called for a house elf, “Fetch me an erectile dysfunction cure potion please.”
She poured the potion down Harry’s throat and against his will, he began to harden. She banished his boxers. Bellatrix unclothed herself. Harry felt tears come out of his eyes as he lay there unable to stop her. He hadn’t done anything like this before. He felt violated and disgusted by her, and himself.
“There we go baby, I knew you were still there,” Bellatrix crooned, licking up his tears as she moved over him.
Harry tried to block out what she was doing to him, but he couldn’t. She was hot and heavy and uncomfortable. If he could have, he would have screamed. He was too tired.
Finally, she was done. He closed his eyes as she left. He hoped to be left alone now, but he had no such luck.
He heard two pairs of heavier footsteps approaching.
“If you thought that was bad boy, you haven’t seen anything yet,” Rowle jeered. He unhooked Harry’s chains and flipped him over, and then forced him up over a short table so that he was on all fours. His knees were still on the ground and his hands were changed to the floor next to the legs of the table. He couldn’t move, and felt so exposed.
Greyback moved in front of him and forced him to open his mouth as Rowle moved behind him. Just before either of them could penetrate him, he heard a loud bang.
“What was that?” Growled Fenrir.
“I don’t know,” Rowle said nervously. Harry was softly crying and not really paying any attention. They didn’t have to wait long to find out what it was, as there was another louder bang and then there was a flash of lights that Harry couldn’t pay much attention to.
Fenrir and Rowle left him to fight the intruder, but Harry remained chained to the table.
“You sick bastards!” the intruder yelled. Vaguely, Harry recognized that it was someone familiar’s voice, but he was in too much pain, fear, and shame to figure it out.
Eventually the flashes and noises stopped.
Harry flinched as someone appeared in front of him and crouched down to undo his hands.
“Harry, can you hear me? I’m sorry it took so long to find you, We’re going to get you out alright? Stay with me,” the person said. Harry looked up.
“Sirius?” he croaked.
“Yes Harry, I’m getting you out of here, you’re safe now,” Sirius nodded. He finished Harry’s hands and draped his cloak over Harry’s shivering body before undoing the chains on his ankles. When he was done, he lifted Harry into his arms, and made sure the cloak was fully covering him.
Harry lolled his head onto Sirius’s shoulder. His eyes began to droop closed.
“No Harry, stay with me for a little bit longer okay? You can sleep as soon as we get you checked out,” Sirius said, and then yelled down the dark hallway, “Moony, I got him, let’s go.”
“Merlin, what did they do to him?” Remus said as he joined them. Harry could tell that they were moving upstairs.
“At least he’s alive,” Sirius said weakly, “Still with me kid?”
Harry tried to say yes but all that came out was a weak groan.
“You’re doing great, just a little longer,” Remus encouraged. They were running through some halls as fast as they could while carrying him, “Tonks says we’re clear.”
“Alright.”
Suddenly, Harry could feel that they were outside as the breeze hit him. His injuries were jostled even more as the two men broke into a sprint. He whimpered.
“Sorry Harry,” Sirius said breathlessly, “Almost there.”
There were shouts behind them, “Fuck!” Remus cursed.
Curses began flying towards them and Remus turned around to defend them.
“Sirius, Remus! Come on!” came a female voice. Suddenly Harry fell to the ground harshly as Sirius dropped him.
“No! Sirius!” Remus yelled. Harry groaned on the ground and tried to look around for what had happened. His heart dropped as he saw Sirius laying on the ground, still. Death Eaters approached from the Manor, flinging curses at them.
“He’s gone Remus! Leave him,” the woman cried desperately. Harry felt something warm and sticky spreading on his chest as his vision began blurring. His wounds must have opened during the fall.
“Remus!” came a booming voice, “Grab the boy and go!”
Suddenly, a magnificent shield appeared. Harry could barely make out a tall figure that he didn't recognize holding the shield that was protecting them.
Remus was sobbing as he stumbled over to grab Harry from the ground. Harry finally lost consciousness as he was lifted for the second time. The last thing he heard was,
“Nick! He’s bleeding a lot…”
There was more but Harry’s world faded to darkness.
When Harry came to, the first thing he noticed was how soft his blanket was. He blinked open his eyes slowly, cringing at the light. He looked around the unfamiliar room. It was a bedroom of some kind. It was very bare though, no pictures or decorations, just a few bookshelves.
There was an old man sitting in a chair, staring at him. Harry shifted uncomfortably, and then groaned. He hurt. Everywhere. A lot.
“Welcome back Harry,” he said. Harry stared at him. “I’m Nicholas Flamel, but you can call me Nick.”
If Harry had been more awake, his jaw would have hit the floor. Nicholas Flamel??
“I’m sure you have a few questions,” Nick said, “First, you are safe, you are at my house. It is very well protected. Secondly, you are very badly injured so please do not move too much, but we are taking very good care of you. Third, none of your friends know where you are for your safety.”
The previous events came rushing back to him. Dumbledore kicking him out, his torture, his rescue. And…
“Sirius?” Harry managed to croak. His throat felt raw.
“I’m sorry, he didn’t make it,” the man said sympathetically. Harry closed his eyes in despair, “Listen to me kid, he died because of mistakes that other people made. It wasn’t your fault in the slightest. He loved you. You aren’t going to get over this today, but not for one second should you think it’s your fault.”
After a few minutes Harry opened his eyes again. “Remus?”
“He’s okay, he’s gone into hiding from the Death Eaters with Tonks,” Nick explained, “When you’re better maybe we can arrange something.”
“Why am I here?” Harry asked after he processed. His brain was moving slowly but Nick was patient.
Nick sighed. “Well, to tell you the truth, I found out what my old friend Albus had been planning for you, and I strongly disagreed. Do you think the horcrux in your head is gone?”
Harry looked at the man cautiously and nodded.
“I believe you. There’s still more horcruxes out there, and I bet you can help find them. Besides that, you need somewhere safe and quiet to heal. And then, you need to be trained up. You’ll have a target on you for the rest of your life, and that’s not fair, but it is what it is. I want you to know how to defend yourself,” Nick explained.
“Why do you care?” Harry asked, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You’ve gone through a lot from what I hear. No one’s been in your corner and that’s a shame. You’re powerful too, and people take advantage of that, I know what that’s like. You aren’t trapped here, but I’d like to help you, and keep you safe until you can keep yourself safe,” Nick said, “I’m not going to lie to you or keep secrets, I’ll treat you like an adult, and I’ll be tough on you. But, I’ll also give you a home here with my wife and we’ll take care of you.”
“What if Dumbledore comes back?” Harry hated how his voice shook. He was terrified of the man after all he’d been through.
“He will not. I made it clear how I felt. If he tries to come near you, I’ll protect you with my life, but it won’t come to that,” Nick said seriously.
Harry nodded, too exhausted to take more in.
“Sleep now, you need to heal, we’ll talk more later,” Nick said softly.
“Thank you,” Harry murmured as he drifted back into sleep.