remus lupin is finally at peace. (moonstricken) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-07-29 21:32:00 |
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It took a great deal of effort to get Lupin up the stairs of the home Marius and Tabitha had chosen two months previous. The temptation to kill him taunted his every step, as pain wracked his body from more than a day of torture and fighting. Still, he was determined, and when he was finally clear of the house and certain he would not splinch he apparated the pair of them to the stables of the Lestrange Estate. He did not need to worry that they would be disturbed here as no one but himself and Bellatrix were permitted inside the area without her permission. He grabbed his journal and using Remus's wand warded to his step-mother. "I have Lupin. Bring healing supplies and come to the stable. ~ML" After spending the night in Walden's guest room, Bellatrix had only just returned home late that afternoon and had been diligently avoiding the other occupants of Lestrange Manor. But she was well aware of the time and despite the protests that they would find a way to retrieve him, nothing had been done. And so she was once again forced to take matters into her own hands. She was preparing to carry out another round of her own answer to Remus's attempts at negotiation and she stopped only to give one last glance to her journal before heading out on what would be a quite viciously delivered retaliation (not to mention more than a bit excessive, but there was some doubt as to whether Bellatrix knew the meaning of the word.) As Marius's writing appeared on the page, she tilted her head and a smile curled across her lips. Good boy. A few healing supplies were carelessly selected and tucked into her robes on her way out of the house. She had little interest in healing, although she supposed she could at least ensure that Marius did not manage to bleed to death over the course of their little torture session. Or perhaps they might use them to keep Lupin alive and awake... They would certainly make him pay one way or another, for kidnapping Marius and for crimes that had not even been his own. As she arrived in the stables, Bellatrix took a moment to survey the scene. She gave a slight smile of both amusement and approval towards Marius as she handed the healing supplies to him before turning her attention to the bound and unconscious Lupin. Marius was more than capable of fixing himself. Bellatrix wanted to make his captor suffer. She knelt down at Remus's side and cast a silent rennervate as she looked down at him with an almost beatific smile. "Hello Lupin." Remus still felt sluggish as the spell forced him awake, eyes squeezed shut against the throbbing pain in his head after having it smashed against a wall so many times. He could smell... horses? Why were there horses? He groaned as he opened his eyes, the hay underneath him causing his skin to itch, but as he tried to move his arms, he found them bound behind his back -- and then memories of the events in the last few hours flooded back to him. A woman's voice greeted him, and as he peered up and tried to focus, his vision cleared to stare into the face of Bellatrix Lestrange. It was as if someone pulled the ground out from under his feet and dumped a bucket of ice water over him all at once, terrified shock freezing his body (not that there was much room for him to move). His mouth felt too dry to speak -- but what could he say? Marius sat down on a bale of hay, slightly irritated that Bellatrix was more intent on dealing with Lupin than healing his face and his blood loss but he knew better than to ask for help. She'd given Marius a nod of approval and that was going to be enough. Particularly because there was a reason he had requested Bella's presence and not Corbina or Rabastan. He knew that she would handle Lupin as he would want him handled. "Ask him what he did with my wand," Marius asked of his step-mother as he slowly began healing what he could with Lupin's wand. It responded better than he'd thought, but nothing in what Bellatrix had brought or in his own skill could heal the pain in his face. "Well?" Bellatrix asked of Remus as she pressed the tip of her wand into his throat. "Where is Marius's wand?" she asked, her tone almost bored despite the glint of anticipation in her eyes. Not that she actually expected an answer and even if one was forthcoming, Bellatrix did not give Remus the chance to answer before a soft "crucio," fell from her lips. Lithely springing back to her feet, she took a step back, still keeping her wand and the curse trained on Remus. She had simply been caught by flailing limbs too many times in the past to make that mistake again. "Have you any particular torments you wish to see him subjected to? Or shall I simply use my imagination?" she asked Marius curiously and that itself was a consideration she was not normally prone towards offering. Under most circumstances she would do what she pleased when it came to these little torture sessions but then, after the pieces that had been severed from him and judging by the state of Marius's face, carrying out his wishes did seem to be the least she could do. Marius was having difficulty concentrating now. He hadn't slept in Merlin knew how long and his face was throbbing. He considered her question and shook his head. "I think I need to see Antonin," he said quietly. "Make him pay for this. That is all I ask. I will return as soon as he has attended to my face." He knew that he was leaving Lupin in capable hands. Crippling pain shot through his body in a sudden jolt, and Remus screamed; he felt as if he became more susceptible to the curse every time he felt it, each time more painful than the last. The severe, blinding agony made his vision go dark around the edges, and even though Marius had left, even though Bellatrix had no real interest in the answer to her question, Remus was answering her anyway in desperate shouts. "I destroyed it! I -- I snapped his wand! Please... please stop," he begged, twisting his body in a pointless attempt to get away from the curse. It had to stop now. He'd answered her question, that was the way it worked, and Remus closed his eyes and waited for the end with an almost desperate anticipation. Bellatrix gave a slight nod towards Marius as he took his leave, although she was far more focused on the screaming, writhing man at her feet. And that was rather intriguing... She had tortured and interrogated quite a few people, even within the limits of her memory, and regardless of how little she thought of Remus Lupin, she had still expected him to be somewhat more defiant. Curious. She lifted the curse, giving Remus a slight reprieve as she twirled her wand between her fingers and paced around him. This had not meant to be an interrogation session, but if he was so willing to provide answers, she would be quite remiss to not take advantage of it. "Where is Rodolphus?" she asked, her tone suddenly sharp and demanding. "Who has him?" And then another cruciatus, aimed straight for Remus's chest as Bellatrix stared intently at the half-breed's face. As soon as the pain stopped, Remus was waiting for the peace to come, the euphoria that always followed when he answered questions truthfully... but nothing happened. He didn't understand -- but he was not left long to think until another question was asked, and another curse was cast; his cries rang out through the stable, and the horses stomped their hooves and made distressed noises, spooked by the loud screams and the unnerving scent of werewolf so nearby. He paid attention to none of this, focused solely on the question and agony, trying to think of an answer that was beyond 'I don't know'... but that was all he had. "I don't know, I don't know... I'm telling the truth! I'm not lying!" It had to stop now. It had to. Remus was so very sincere in his pleas of denial, Bellatrix found it difficult to believe that he was lying, although that did nothing to temper her frustration at his inability to provide her with the answers that she sought. This time she was not so quick to lift the curse, instead letting it linger as she channelled all of her anger and irritation into the spell. It wasn't just about Marius. Or Rodolphus. It was her frustration with her position, with dealing with the likes of Aeneas Nott and Gaius Travers, of not being able to remember a damn thing. All of it went into her curse as she used Remus as nothing more than an outlet for her anger. And then the curse stopped suddenly as Bellatrix was left standing over Remus, shaking slightly from the sheer fury that had been brought to the surface. With two quick waves of her wand, she dragged Remus off the ground, leaving him bound and hovering in the air for a moment before she sent him flying across the stable to crash forcefully into the wall as she stalked after him, pausing only to retrieve a hunting whip along the way. "You will never again lay a hand upon Marius or any one of my family," she snarled. Had he done something wrong? Even as the pain intensified (and oh, God, it felt as if someone were pulling and twisting on all of his bones) Remus began to come back to himself, his mind clearing to what was really happening... and perhaps he would have been better off lost in that conditioned state of hazy obedience where all that mattered was telling the truth and agreeing to anything that was asked of him. Without the rewards (and he needed them), however, there was no reason to remain docile. He grit his teeth and bit down on his lip in effort to stop himself from screaming his throat raw, but all he succeeded in was breaking through the skin of his lips, warm tears streaming down his face. Never touch the Lestrange family again? Never lay another hand on Marius? No... he would. He would. It was all that mattered, anymore, all that he needed -– the closure of revenge. He wouldn’t stand a chance against Bellatrix, he knew, and especially not alone and without a wand to defend himself with. He was too weak to struggle against the bonds when Bellatrix ended the curse again, and all he could do was lay in a boneless heap on the floor, gasping to catch his breath. He hung for seconds in the air, helpless, and the next thing he knew his body was colliding with the wall of the stables. "... piss off." It was weak and mumbled with a moan of pain, but defiance was present that had been absent before. Ahhh, now there was the defiance she had originally expected, and while ordinarily it would have likely prompted some degree of amusement at just how pathetic he was, at the moment it did nothing to distract her from her anger. There was very little apparent of the woman who usually laughed at the suffering of others, who delighted in finding new and creative ways to inflict pain as if it were all some twisted game. Not now. No, she was all fury and frustration and Lupin was to be her catharsis. She gave a quick, hard crack of the whip to bring it down across Remus's chest, but only once before what promised to be a far more satisfying idea took hold in her mind. In a flurry of movement, she used her wand to vanish Remus's shirt and then to turn the handle of the whip to silver. "A pity for you that your weaknesses are so easy to exploit," she sneered before she moved to jam the long, flat end of the handle into Remus's stomach, intent upon holding it there and letting silver burn half breed flesh. "I will have your hands fed to the hounds." The slash of the whip across his chest felt like a momentary sting compared to the burning, relentless pain of the silver handle pressed against his stomach. The short reprieve from screaming had not been enough, and as he started again his throat was beginning to feel sore. Remus twisted and tried to push his body away from the silver, only succeeding in causing the handle to rub against his skin -- all he could do to try and protect himself was kick his feet out at her legs as hard as he could, aiming for her knees, agony clouding his mind to the point where he couldn't think of any other way to save himself. "Nothing to say for yourself now? No witty insights?" she demanded, her voice rising above the sound of Remus's screams as she gave another twist and shove of the handle as if she might somehow break through the skin itself. And then Remus's foot connected with Bellatrix's knee. Pain shot through her leg and she was sent reeling back, but the reprieve that Remus bought himself was brief and it was only moments before she was advancing on him again, even more enraged than before. Bellatrix brought one foot down upon Remus's groin, as hard as she could possibly manage, intent upon crushing his balls beneath the sole of her boot as payment for how he had dared to publicly mock her own infertility. And then with her weight still bearing down on him, she swung the hunting whip through the air like a mallet to crack the silver handle against his ribs before jamming it against the exposed skin of his chest. "Go on. Question my value again," she snapped, every word a shrilly offered challenge. Eyes rolling back into his head, Remus' body convulsed, waves of intense nausea washing over him. Even if he had wanted to speak, he could barely breathe, and his mouth hung open as he took in shuttering gasps of air between his screams. He wanted to beg her to stop despite how fruitless the attempt might have been, but logic was far beyond him by now, and tears streamed down his face as he began to sob. He kept trying to kick his feet out at her legs, but his attempts contained far less strength than before, his shoes barely scraping against her at best. That Remus was clearly beyond the point of coherency hardly mattered to Bellatrix. Her anger was not yet sated and even the sound of his screams and the sight of his tears were not enough to quell her murderous rage. For someone who usually viewed torture as something of an art, there was very little control behind her actions now. He likely could have been unconscious and she still would have kept right on trying to hurt him, to make him pay for the frustrations he and all of his fellow vigilantes had inflicted on her. She ground the heel of her boot into his groin before stepping back and tossing the hunting whip aside. And then her wand was back in her hand as she gave it a slight flick to drag Remus back up off the ground so that his back was up against the wall, his toes grazing across the floor of the stables. She reached to close her hand around his neck, almost but not quite tightly enough to strangle him as she dug the tip of her wand into his side. "Increbresco," she growled, casting a flesh melting curse, intent on causing as much pain and inflicting as much physical damage as she could dream up. Everything felt as if it were on fire; mind-numbing pain surrounded him, and if he was having difficulty breathing before, Remus could barely get any air into his lungs now, pinned against the stable wall. There was no escape; not even the mind of the wolf to submit to and hide behind. The instincts of survival were still there, however, and when her wand jabbed against his side and he felt his flesh beginning to melt away from his muscles, he struggled wildly against the spell holding him against the wall, against her grip on his throat, against the ropes binding his arms -- tears still blurred his vision, but his screams dissolved into snarls as he fought to free his hands. He only managed to free one of his arms (snapping ropes and injuring his shoulder in the process), but as soon as he could move, his hand shot out, fingers curled into claws as he went right for Bellatrix' eyes. Bellatrix moved as soon as she heard the ropes snapping and while it was enough to keep his fingers out of her eyes, he still managed to scratch her cheek, ripping skin with his nails. It stung, but she barely noticed through her adrenaline-filled fury. The only thought was that the half breed dared to touch her, an offence for which he would pay dearly. They were long past words and taunts now, their only communication through the giving and receiving of pain and Bellatrix's grip on Remus's throat tightened, her own nails digging into his skin in return as she forcefully dragged his head away from the wall before slamming it back into the stone. His attack had been enough to bring an end to her curse and she was forced to contend with his now-free arm. But as feral as he may have been at the moment, he was still trapped. Hers to destroy. Releasing her grip on his neck and leaving her spell to do the work of holding Remus up, Bellatrix took a step back, just out of his reach, and summoned the hunting whip into her free hand. The faintest hint of a smirk curled at the edges of her lips as she simultaneously sent a bone twisting curse at Remus's arm and rammed the silver end of the whip into the now-exposed expanse of muscle along his side. Too much -- it was just too much -- he couldn't breathe, and Remus could barely find enough air to continue screaming. Silver burns over the skin, he could handle; it was still extremely painful, but he could still grit his teeth and bear it. However, as soon as the silver touched the exposed muscle on his side, there was nothing left but burning agony. His eyes glazed over and rolled back, head dropping forward to his chest, and then even the pain faded away as darkness overtook him. If there was any sign that Bellatrix had noticed that Remus was now unconscious, she did not show it. He could have been dead for all she cared, she was not finished. The silver handle of the whip was brought down over and over again across Remus's body, now wielded not as a branding iron but as a mallet. She did not care that there were no screams to fill her ears, no pleas for mercy, the music that normally fueled her sadistic desires. Only the sound of blunt metal into flesh, of ribs cracking under the force of impact. It was too soon when her arms finally began to ache, when even raw, unadulterated rage was no longer enough to propel her. She was not a weak woman by any means, but her violence was based on curses and carefully wielded knives, not this form of brutality. The whip fell to the ground and she stood, breathing heavily for a long moment. She could kill him now. She could end his miserable life as payment for his crimes. But somehow it seemed too easy to simply let his end be lapsing into unconsciousness, never to wake again. No, that was a mercy he did not deserve. And he might still have his uses, as bargaining chip or bait. She flicked her wand and let him fall limply to the ground before she floated him into one of the stalls. Remus was dropped onto the ground with no regard for his injuries and ropes shot out of Bellatrix's wand to re-bind his wrists, then his ankles. She turned to leave, stopping only as one last, sudden burst of inspiration struck. A knife was drawn and a moment later Remus's left index finger was severed in her palm. A gift for her son-in-law. Now she was finished, at least for the moment. The door slammed shut behind her as she let herself out, casting wards to keep him imprisoned should he somehow regain the ability to move. He would stay. And she would return. |