"Hey, Andrea. Have you seen Horatio?"
She nodded, humming to herself and playing with her hair.
He sighed.
' Honestly, can she stop fucking moping around?'
"Well? Where is he?"
She interrupted her humming for just long enough to say, "I saw him going into that orange guest room. Downstairs"
"Thanks" he muttered and started making his way there, grumbling to himself.
' Stupid bitch. So she killed her parents, so fucking what? Doesn't give her the right to not answer me. Fucking cunt'
He stopped in his tracks as an idea occurred to him.
' Yeah. That'd be great. Just need to speak to Snape'
With a spring in his step, he continued onward, not bothering to knock before opening the door.
And stopping immediately, when he found Blaise and Horatio busy.
Blaise was lying on his back, his eyes closed and moaning in obvious rapture as Horatio moved, lips locked around Blaise's nipple and hand wrapped tight around his cock.
He carefully walked backward without making a sound and closed the door as softly as he could.
Then he just breathed for a moment.
' Well, I guess it's a good thing that Blaise is moving on. But what the fuck is it about him that he has to do this type of thing where anyone can just walk in?'
He walked off, deciding to try his luck with finding Snape and getting Andrea some of that potion instead.
Borgin and Burke's was practically full to capacity as they crowded around the Cabinet.
Sköll, a Norwegian werewolf who Sharptooth had described as impressively idiotic, walked into the Cabinet, closing the door behind him.
He had been very easy to convince. Barely even needed a real reward.
Everyone held their breath as they waited for some sign, some indication that it had been successful.
"Fuck it" Harry muttered.
He pulled open the Cabinet's door.
And there was nothing inside.
Instantly, cheers began to break out, echoing around the small shop and making the glass display boxes rattle.
And the mirror in Harry's hand heated up.
Sköll appeared on the other side, standing amongst the piles of the Room of Hidden Things.
"It worked, sir"
Harry rolled his eyes.
' I would never have guessed'
"Be nice" Daphne whispered to him.
"Thank you. Well done, Sköll. Great work, really. You can come back now"
A minute later, the Cabinet inside Borgin and Burke's opened, the door being pushed from the inside.
Sköll walked out, raising his arms in victory.
Harry clapped him on the back. "Thank you, Sköll. She's all yours, tonight. Just don't break or kill her, ok?"
"I won't, milord. I won't"
Harry and Daphne were with Ginny, debating whether or not to destroy her remaining hand and eye when the first explosion rocked the manor's grounds.
It'd been two days since the Cabinet had been proven to still be working, and almost two weeks since they had sent off the pictures to the Weasleys.
By that point, they had all but decided that they were going to be ignored.
The ground shook again, and they heard someone screaming about an attack.
He looked at Daphne and smiled, drawing his wand.
"Hey, Ginny," he prodded her with his wand.
"Hey. Cunt. Stupid fucking whore, look at me!"
The tip of his wand burned a hole in her cheek, and her eye slowly focused on him.
"Do you hear that?"
She nodded.
"Do you know what that is?"
She shook her head.
"Sometimes," Daphne said, "I wish we would have left her tongue"
"Yeah, well. We know the countercurse. But not for now. If we capture them, then sure"
He looked at Ginny again, sighing when he noticed how her eye was unfocused again.
"Look. At. Me. Whore!"
She did, ignoring the blood running down her face, ignoring the fresh cuts.
"That's a rescue mission for you. You're going to have friends with you. Isn't that exciting?"
She looked blank for a moment, then nodded slowly.
"Good. Now stay here. Be good. And maybe we'll give you a tongue again. Won't that be nice?"
She nodded.
Another explosion shook the manor, dust falling from the dungeon roof.
Daphne gripped his arm, her eyes glowing brightly. "Come on, babe. Let's do it!"
"Yeah. Let's"
They ran upstairs, making their way to the entrance hall.
Where a scene of utter chaos greeted them.
A thick, grayish white mist poured through the doors, ghoulish shapes appearing in it for instants before disappearing.
"POTTER! GREENGRASS! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM THAT MIST!"
He turned at Rookwood's roar, his gaze coming to rest on where the man stood, halfway up the stairs, furiously casting toward the oncoming mist.
Daphne suddenly squeezed his arm, and his head whipped back.
Goyle stood at the entrance to the lounge, a spear of mist impaled in his chest, his mouth opening and closing stupidly.
As Harry watched, Goyle's body dissolved into nothingness, not even leaving his clothes behind, his face appearing for a moment in the mist before it was swirled way.
He raised his wand and began spinning it through the motions.
And it flew out of his hand.
"FIENDFYRE DOESN'T WORK! IT JUST MAKES IT WORSE! FUCKING RUN!"
They ran, stopping next to Rookwood on the landing.
He tossed Harry back his wand, not stopping his frantic casting.
"Call Him! Fucking do it!"
Someone screamed from outside, a high pitched shriek that ended abruptly with an explosion.
"FUCKING CALL HIM, POTTER! JUST PRESS THE FUCKING MARK!"
The mist reached the bottom of the spiraling stairwell.
And Harry pressed his Mark.
Everything seemed to fall silent for a second, everything other than the screaming, burning pain in his arm.
And then it ended, and the Dark Lord stood beside him.
His eyes widened at the sight of the mist, and He glanced for a split-second over at what Rookwood was casting.
Then He just stared ahead, as the wall of white drew nearer.
He thrust His hand forward, drops of blood flying into the mist, His wand flashing as He did so.
And the mist vanished.
"I want them alive," the Dark Lord said, His voice a whip of tightly controlled fury.
As Harry and Daphne started making their way down the stairs, their hands twined together, a small metallic-looking ball flew through the open doors.
Behind them, the Dark Lord growled out an incantation.
And the ball stopped its descent, landing in mid-air and hovering there.
Mist began to pour out of it, forming a perfect sphere.
It didn't spread any further than an inch or two around it.
The Dark Lord growled again, and it vanished.
"They dare unleash the Evil of Logoth? Against me? AGAINST WHAT IS MINE? THEY DARE?!"
They reached the gardens at a run, the Dark Lord's furious shrieks following them through the doors.
They arrived just in time to see Bellatrix cackle as she slapped one of the balls out of the air.
It exploded just as it landed, one of the Weasleys and Patil managing to jump out of the way, the other one being thrown and landing right next to a mangled body on the neat lawn.
Harry stunned him just as he started to push himself to his feet.
Bella just laughed raucously as she dueled the other two.
"GEORGE," Patil shouted, conjuring a shield and blocking Bella's spell, "HE'S HERE! WE NEED TO GO!"
"NOT WITHOUT FRED!"
And the Dark Lord stepped out of the door.
Patil threw another of those balls, and in the instant that everyone's wand shot towards it, grabbed the conscious Weasley's arm and spun, disapparating away.
And as suddenly as it had begun, the attack was over.
Harry looked around, wincing slightly. Bodies littered the grounds, few of them moving.
Breathing heavily, the Dark Lord walked over to Weasley.
He waved his wand curtly, and the ginger rose into the air, his limbs splaying out and his eyes opening.
The Dark Lord grabbed his face and stared into his eyes.
After a few minutes, He let go, growling softly.
"He has a blood portkey. Attuned to the Weasley family and the other girl. Activation word is Prewett"
He turned, glowing eyes coming to rest on Harry and Daphne.
"I want it destroyed. Brought to unparalleled heights of agony. Then poison it and send it back to Grindelwald. Leave it's tongue functional"
"It'll be a pleasure, my-"
"You have forty-eight hours. Then we will move to Hogwarts"
The Dark Lord turned to Bellatrix. "Send for the healers. Now"
Fred woke up slowly, the room around him taking an eternity to come into focus.
There was a metal collar around his neck, attached by a chain to the stone wall.
His hands were chained up in front of him.
His legs were likewise bound.
Other than that, and his lack of a wand, everything seemed to be working fine.
He could feel the portkey's comfortable weight, pushing into his side where he rested against the wall.
And Ginny was in front of him, chained to the opposite wall.
He just stared for a minute, taking in her ruined appearance.
Her missing eye and hand, her toeless feet. The word carved into her chest. The patches of flesh uncovered by skin. The cuts and burns covering her body.
He barely kept from vomiting.
"Ginny? Ginny? Wake up"
Very, very slowly, her eye opened, coming to rest upon him.
She showed no signs of recognition.
"Ginny? I'm gonna get you out of here. I promise. Ok?"
"You're not here" she whispered.
"I am. I'm here, Gin. Fuck, what've they done to you?"
She just shook her head, her eye closing. "You're not real"
"GINNY!"
"Not real. No. Not real. Not real. Nothing's real. Not real"
He started to cry, as she continued muttering.
"Gin-Ginny. Please, listen. I'm gonna get you out of here"
"Ginny not real. Ginny-I'm Ginny. Please is good. They like please. They don't like Ginny"
"Fucking hell. Merlin, Ginny. What've-what've they done to you?"
She just looked at him blankly for a moment before bursting out laughing.
She laughed in a high pitch, her voice cold and somehow frightening.
It made the hairs on his arm stand up.
"Scream. Scream. Cry. Please. Cunt. Whore. Whore. Ginnywhore"
He managed to push his hand up into his mouth as she started laughing again.
"No breaking Ginny. No killing Ginny. No breeding Ginny. Only scream, whore cunt"
He bit deeply, the pain from his hand not nearly as bad as what he was hearing.
What his sister, his sister who had been so fun, so energetic, so full of life, was saying.
"Blood-traitor bitch. Ginnybitch. Wolves and wolves and Crabbe and Goyle and Tonks-and Tonks-and Tonks-and Tonks-and Tonks was Ginny's friend!"
He shook his hands, some of the blood dripping onto the manacles.
"Tonks not Tonks. Ginny cruel. Punish. Please is good. Tonks is bad. Capella is good. Scream is good. They like scream. They like cry"
"Secare!" He whispered, focusing on the magic flowing through his blood.
Nothing happened.
"Fred here now. Fred scream. Not only Ginnywhore. Also Fred. Blood-traitor Fred"
He just stared in dismay at the uncut manacles.
"Secare!"
He began to shake, fear flooding through him as he realized.
' I shouldn't have come here. Oh fuck. Oh fuck'
The door opened, and Potter and Greengrass walked in.
Ginny immediately kneeled, her head touching the floor and naked back shaking.
There were as many scars across her back as across her chest.
"Look, Daph. He's awake. And so is she. You been talking to him, bitch?"
"Yes, sir"
Greengrass laughed while Potter just smiled.
"And look. He must have figured it out now. No blood magic in here"
He just glared at them.
"Well," Potter said, rubbing his hands together. "We're on a schedule. Let's get started, shall we?"
The door closed behind them.
It didn't take long before Fred began to scream.
Hogwarts dungeons
"We need to go back-we-we need-please-please, Lord, we-"
Grindelwald hissed, his Wand flashing as he stood.
George and Padma rose into the air, their hands being torn from one another's grips, their muscles tensing, the tendons in their necks standing out as their backs arched.
"I ORDERED YOU TO NOT GO! YOU DISOBEYED ME! AND THEN YOU BEG PERMISSION TO REPEAT YOUR MISTAKE?"
"We-"
"FOOLISH CHILDREN! I ORDERED YOU!"
His Wand slashed, and they screamed.
"YOU WILL SUFFER! YOU WILL FEEL SOME, SOME OF HIS AGONY! THE BOND WILL PASS SOME OF IT THROUGH TO YOU! IT WILL AFFECT MY POWERS OF REASON!"
He turned around abruptly, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes.
They fell to the ground with a thump.
"You may have just lost us the war," he whispered. "I hope you are proud. Get out of my sight or you will beg to share his fate"
He didn't return to his throne until their hurried footsteps had faded into the distance.
He sat again, breathing deeply.
It wasn't just the loss of one of his bonded warriors that so unnerved him.
It was what he had seen in their worthless minds when he examined their memories of the attack.
' Potter has made Horcruxes. At least one. And if there has been merging of their souls, he has granted Voldemort an extra safeguard. And with Longbottom out of the game, I stand at a great, extremely severe disadvantage'
He kept his eyes closed, clearing his mind, trying to move past the stress and fear.
A hint of panic remained one that he could not vanquish.
And he knew it would only worsen.
' What will Voldemort do? Torture Fred, of course. Kill him, eventually. And then? Attack Hogwarts, of course'
Part of him wishes that he could just go to the headmistress' office and rage at Albus' portrait.
The sane part of his mind knew that if he did so, he would doubtless end up murdering her. And if he did, their chances would only be worsened when Voldemort finally attacked.
Slowly, his pulse returned to a regular pace, his breathing becoming less hurried.
' First: ensure that the other two are not captured. They will be useless anyway, in their current state.
Second: send a message to McGonagall. The castle will soon enough be under attack.
Third: Prepare for war.
If I will die, I will take down every Death Eaters I can with me'
He sat on his throne, breathing heavily.
The last two days had been… intense, to say the least. He had been forced to keep his two remaining warriors unconscious.
Their constant screams and sobs had been most distracting.
Thankfully, unlike them, he was not suffering any of the actual pain that Fred was experiencing. But he had found it almost impossible to concentrate for more than half an hour at a time, and he kept having to prevent himself from making incompetent decisions.
The previous day, he'd come within an inch of apparating to Malfoy Manor. And while he was Gellert Grindelwald, he knew full well that in his current state, he would not be able to stand against Voldemort and a contingent of his Death Eaters. Not for long, at least.
And so he'd manage to busy himself with the castle's defenses.
' Idiot. I should never have done it. I knew it was a possibility, I knew it! But I needed an edge, I needed the additional power. Fool! I am a fool!
I should have foreseen the inevitable outcome!'
A sharp crack split the air, interrupting his self-recriminations.
Somehow, what remained of Fred was still alive.
He walked over to it, as if in a dream.
A head attached to a torso. No eyes, no ears, no nose. No arms, no legs. It was naked, and the penis still attached had been sliced vertically down the middle, the testicles crushed.
No skin.
And it moaned.
Grindelwald had seen many horrors, in his lifetime. He had caused many horrors.
But as he stood there, gazing down at the broken form of what was once Fred Weasley, he could think of nothing as terrible as this.
Broken shards of ribs poked through the skinless flesh, gleaming white.
Every inch of flesh that he could see was covered in cuts and burns.
Vaguely, he noticed the teeth that had been impaled into the flesh.
He reached down and plucked up the note that was pinned into an empty eye socket, wincing at the fresh moans it caused.
He heard footsteps behind him, heard the terrible screams as his two saw what had arrived.
' His presence. It must have awoken them, pushing through the bond'
He ignored them, as he ignored the creature before him.
" Sorry, we think you left this behind!
Of course, it was in a different state then. But we've had a busy forty-eight hours. Someone's been with him at all times! It really was a lot of fun! Now, we're running low on Weasleys. Could you send us a replacement, please?
P.S. we've been reliably assured that there's no cure for what we poisoned it with and that it'll be in terrible pain till it dies. Of course, you could kill it, but will your bond let you?"
The Dark Lord walked forward, stopping a few meters away from the wrought iron gates of Hogwarts.
His army stood silently, assembled behind Him.
When He spoke, His voice carried, echoing through the quiet village of Hogsmeade, certainly being heard in the castle itself.
"Because I am merciful, I give you this one last chance. Seven days, and I will attack. Surrender, and you will live. Europe is mine. Hogwarts cannot stand against my might. I do not wish to spill more magical blood than is absolutely necessary. I do not wish to destroy my noble ancestor's school, to force us to rebuild it. Hogwarts should be sacrosanct. I have great respect for most of the residents of Hogwarts. Do not force me to destroy you all. Surrender, and you will live. Seven days"
He walked back, the entire army looking to Him.
"Let their fear strangle them. And if they have not surrendered in one week, we attack"