Cruel

Amelia groaned, regaining consciousness slowly. She did not dare open her eyes just yet since she didn’t know her whereabouts…but she did know that her hands were tied behind her back, and that what felt like a piece of tape was stuck to her mouth. Deciding that it was no use waiting any longer she fluttered her eyes open, taking in the room.

It was a basement, and not one that had been renovated recently either. It wasn’t very big and the only thing she saw at first were bookshelves filled with various objects and a crooked table. Everything had a layer of dust on it, and the only light that filtered in came from a small window.

Even with that, you could only see shapes. Before she could register anything else she caught sight of something moving beside her and tried to scream; it came muffled out because of the tape. A second later, though, that same tape was ripped off of her lips, leaving a stinging feeling instead.

“Relax, it’s just me.” Amelia relaxed instantly at the sound of Scabior’s voice, forgetting all about their disagreement earlier. She turned a bit and saw that his hands were tied behind his back too.

“How…” she began but Scabior caught on and pulled out one of his hand that he had managed to free. The young woman couldn’t help but chuckle lightly at this.

“They suck at tying knots.” Scabior said, and Amelia was sure there was a smirk on that lovely face of his.

“Where are the others?” she whispered, now aware that their capturers could be close enough to hear them.

“Eric and Oliver are on the other side of the basement. I think Eric’s still unconscious, but Oliver’s awake. I heard him trying to talk.” As to prove this, a muffled sound was heard from the right corner.

Surveying her surroundings a bit more, Amelia realized that she and Scabior were in the middle of the room, their backs against a large pole. She couldn’t feel the bulge in the pocket of her pants that was the usual place for her wand, so she guessed they had taken that away.

“Where’s Greyback?” she suddenly asked, remembering the other member of their party.

“They had trouble stinging him. Werewolf, right? They decided to keep him upstairs with them, I could hear them talking about it. We had a guard looking after us but she left a few minutes ago. Don’t know where to, though. When she gets back I’ll put the piece of tape back on your mouth just so they don’t suspect us.”

Amelia wasn’t fond of the idea. Not at all. Scabior seemed to sense this since he sighed loudly.

“Don’t worry, I’ll put mine back too, love. By the way sorry ‘bout calling you a skank, I guess.”

Amelia knew it was killing him to say sorry, she really did. You could almost hear the strain in his voice as he spoke those words.

“Sorry about calling you a wanker.” Amelia replied, laughing a bit as she said it.

“Oh, bloody hell.” was all the man said after, leading Amelia to sigh. She knew that all wasn’t forgiven…and that chances were they’d start fighting again soon. They were too much alike, the both of them. It would be impossible for them to go even a day without getting in an argument.

Suddenly, a light was turned on and the whole room was lit dimly by a poor light bulb. Amelia didn’t even have the time to react before the damn piece of tape was back on her lips, and she turned her head stiffly to where Scabior was. He winked at her when he caught her staring, before putting his own piece of tape on his mouth and replacing his hand behind his back. Amelia frowned as she continued to inspect him, noticing a large gash on his cheek and a bruise on his temple…but Scabior only shook his head as if to say that he was fine and there were more important things.

Footsteps could now be heard descending the stairs and getting closer to where they were. Finally, the person appeared and Amelia couldn’t believe it. It was some young girl, couldn’t be older than fifteen, and she was all skin and bones. Her cheeks were a bit hollowed as if she hadn’t been eating well, and her brown hair was like straw on her scalp. They had been captured by this? Honestly?

Amelia looked at Scabior in surprise, but he only shrugged his shoulders and turned back his attention towards the girl.

“Leaving me down here alone,” she was muttering under her breath as she went and sat on a stool just in front of the pair. “It was such a good idea to come with these two idiots and now here I am, stuck guarding these four.” The young girl was glaring at nothing in particular, wand firmly in hand. She looked around and caught Amelia’s look of faint amusement, which seemed to only anger the young girl more.

“Don’t look at me like that, you bitch. I know who you people are. And now look at where you are, locked up in this basement,” the girl said, advancing towards Amelia so she was only inches from her now. She got to her knees so that their eyes were level ,and the snatcher had a hard time not rolling her eyes. She had always found monologues quite pathetic. The girl suddenly raised her wand, though, alerting Amelia to the beginning of madness in her eyes.

Amelia didn’t feel fear often, but one thing she was quite afraid of was the insanity in people’s mind. The girl apparently saw that fear because she grinned, showing a missing teeth.

“Not so brave now, are you princess? Maybe I should show you what real pain feels like, that would be fun! Oh, and your little boy toy will be able to watch! It’ll just make for a better show!”

Amelia felt the fear seep through her like ice cold water, her eyes wide as she bit her lip to try and stop it from trembling. She didn’t have to suffer through that terror long, though, because the girl said something she didn’t quite catch, and then suddenly pain was shooting through Amelia like a wildfire, burning and scorching her insides. She withered down on the floor, her face now pressed against the cement as she yelled enough to make her throat raw, but it came out muffled.

Through the pain, she could faintly hear the cackling of the girl.

Suddenly, it stopped, and Amelia lay limp on the floor trying to regain her breath as tears spilled on her cheeks. She was gasping for breath, her nose not letting enough air get to her lungs. Just as she thought that the piece of tape was ripped harshly off of her lips and she gulped some air as she felt her hands being untied. She felt her body being hoisted up into a sitting position as arms cradled her and soothing words were whispered in her ears, although she couldn’t quite make out what they were. Amelia lifted her head up so that she saw Scabior’s worried face centimeters from hers.

The young woman gasped for breath once more, trying to steady her breathing so they could get the hell out of there. She didn’t want to go, though. She wanted to stay in Scabior’s arms where she knew she was safe and that nothing else mattered. Sadly, it couldn’t stay like that though.

“We’ve got to go, babe. We’ve got to catch these bloody fuckers and then get the hell out of here.” she said a bit more weakly than she would’ve liked but still, Scabior nodded and helped her get up to her feet. The girl lay on the ground, the mark of her insane laughter still on her lips. She was dead, Amelia was sure of it, and for once in her life she was fucking glad of someone’s death.

“She’s still worth about a hundred galleons.” Scabior said, a bit thoughtfully. Amelia noticed that his arm was still around her waist and she kissed his bloodied cheek before worming out of his grasp to go and untie Oliver and Eric. They were both conscious now and Oliver immediately voiced his concerns about Amelia..but the latter only replied hastily, saying they didn’t have much time to lose since the two other men must’ve noticed the racket.

“Come on. We only have one wand but we’ll probably catch them a bit by surprise. Plus, fighting like muggles is actually quite fun.” Scabior was smirking a bit now, although still looking at Amelia with a tinge of concern.

Eric wanted to form a plan, but Amelia quickly denied that request. They didn’t have the time, so Scabior took the girl’s wand, which Amelia cringed away from faintly, and they set up towards the top of the stairs quietly but swiftly. They could hear footsteps and voices from outside the door where they were now huddled upon, but either the door was too thick or the men didn’t talk loud enough because they couldn’t quite make out what they were saying.

They didn’t have a plan. They didn’t know what they were up against, but as Scabior raised one of his fingers, they all prepared to jump at the scene. Scabior lifted another finger while Oliver held the doorknob, awaiting the signal. As Scabior lifted his third finger Oliver thrust the door open, and the four of them jumped into the open. They were in a kitchen, but Amelia didn’t have time to look at the details because the two men that had probably just sat down at the table jumped up, wands at the ready. They weren’t fast enough, though, because Scabior stupefied the one that looked the youngest as Eric and Oliver barreled through the kitchen, jumping on the men. It was a short fight, four against one, and the other man was soon knocked out also. Scabior tied them up with a wave of his wand as they looked at their handiwork.

“Okay, Eric and Oliver, go look for Greyback. I’ll go see if these guys got anything worth some more money. Amelia, love, stay here and look after these two.”

Amelia knew that Scabior was giving her an easy job because he thought she was still a bit fragile. And while that annoyed her a bit, she was still glad because it had rattled her up. She had never had the crucio curse performed on her; and she sure as hell wasn’t ready to repeat that experience.

Before she knew it, the boys were all back. Thankfully, Oliver had found all of their wands ,and Amelia instantly felt better once she had hers in her hand again. Eric had gone to get the body of the girl who was now lying with her two accomplices. Greyback looked angry that he hadn’t participated in the fight, but Amelia couldn’t decipher wgat Scabior was thinking. It bothered her, but she knew he wasn’t angry at her so she dismissed it for the moment.

“Let’s go?” she asked hopefully.

“Let’s go.” Scabior simply replied. Greyback took the two men in his arms while Eric took the girl, Amelia linked hands with Scabior ,and with a quick glance to the others they all disapparated to the ministry.