michael corner aims to misbehave (strongenough) wrote in thispurgatory, @ 2011-06-16 11:02:00 |
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It wasn’t over. Not really. Everything still hurt. He was doing everything he could to not look at what was left of his legs - wasn’t even sure if he could wiggle his toes anymore. At least he hadn’t given anything away. Someone had to be coming for him now - Molly knew and he trusted Molly enough to tell other people who could come up with some kind of plan. Michael hadn’t checked in and that was a big red flag. And Rachel. He wasn’t even sure what had happened her. (He didn’t even want to think about what would happen to Kat or anyone else.) The real problem was that even if someone did come save him it wasn’t like he could really escape to anywhere. Maybe the Room of Requirement for a while, but in the state he was in he wasn’t going to last long without some sort of medical treatment. It wasn’t even a new problem. They tried to tell him that they were stuck at the school, at the mercy of two twisted death eaters and their protegees, but he didn’t listen. Leaning back against the cool wall, he closed his eyes. Michael didn’t sleep, so much as he drifted in and out of consciousness every now and then. It helped to pass the time, to try to block out some of the pain and if he didn’t move it wasn’t that bad. Really, it was the only thing he could do. Without a wand there wasn’t a thing h could do beside wait and hold on to that small fleeting bit of hope. Greg was rather chuffed to be asked by the Carrows to help with a detention. They'd asked him. Not Draco and not even Vince. It was bloody brilliant. And he got to work with Daphne, who was right fit, and his day was looking pretty damn good. Walking into the room - holding the door for Daphne as he was a gentleman - Greg smirked when he saw Corner. "Looking a bit worse for the wear, Corner." As a general rule, Daphne did not like to be involved in any of the new administration's policies, whether it included punishment or not. (With the Carrows, it always seemed to be more punishment than not.) But, the year was dwindling down, and she had been so uninvolved with everything that her loyalty had to be brought into question. Of course, with a name like "Greengrass," the doubts were unfounded, but Daphne essentially felt like she had no choice but to get involved. This was an awfully base way to involve herself, she thought, as she and Gregory made their way to where the detention was being held. She would much rather sit back and let others do the work. Unfortunately, things did not always go Daphne Greengrass' way and that was quite disappointing. As Greg held the door for her, Daphne's eyes widened in undisguised shock. 'Looking a bit worse for wear' was a bit of an understatement, as Michael looked a lot worse for wear. There was a fleeting moment where she felt concern, but that was taken over by disgust towards whatever had happened. She was unaccustomed to the cruelties -- yes, she did consider them cruelties, even if she was on the proper side, because she was not a proponent of the use of force; she rather thought that their goals could be much better sought by dialogue -- of the Carrows, and she felt a little sick as she stared at Michael. Even as unequivocally on the Pure side, the right side, as she was, Daphne did not approve of these means. She turned her head away for a brief second before composing herself. This was their task. "Are you okay?" She asked in a soft voice, regretting the question almost immediately after she finished asking it. Of course he wasn't okay. She could very well see that. The comments were ridiculous and Michael couldn’t help but to laugh. It was a deep dry laughter that rattled all those raw parts of him. This had to be his body going into shock. Already in shock. Fuck. He didn’t even know how long he had been here. Was it still even Tuesday? Did it really matter? Time didn’t mean anything. But someone had to get him out of here rather than leaving him to die not unlike the unnecessary way his father died. He almost would have preferred to be Padriac right now. Going down in a blaze of glory. “Oh I’m just splendid. I mean the She-Carrow gives one mean massage.” Even with dark trousers covering his legs, the extent of injuries to his legs obvious. “You here for my next round of treatment?” His words were hallow, lacking much of his normal fight, but there really wasn’t a lot left. And he didn’t have to imagine why Goyle and Greengrass were here. He already knew. Daphne couldn't help but recoil physically from Michael's laugh because it was so -- unnatural. People weren't supposed to laugh like that and even she, shielded from what the realities of war were, knew that. She couldn't look back at him because he just made her feel awful. She was still sure of the side she chose -- and would most likely not deviate from it, especially this late in the year -- but it rattled her to know that this was possible. Greg frowned at Daphne's question - that was a bit ridiculous to ask. He smirked at Corner's question, though. "See it hasn't scrambled your brains yet," he said, laughing darkly as he took out his wand. He had a new hex he wanted to try - it made your bones feel like they were burning. It was a duration hex, though, so he wasn't sure how long he could keep it up - or even if he could do it. It was going to be fun to try out. Eyes alight in anticipation, Greg cast the hex, somewhat disappointed when the hex wasn't the fiery red that the book had said, but rather a medium pink. He'd have to practice. If Daphne couldn't handle looking at something that other people had done, what were the real chances that she would have the ability to do something like that to someone she knew? Right. Zero. She wanted to prove her loyalty, but this was not the way she wanted. Stepping back just slightly and playing the faint, demure girl that she was, Daphne all but gestured for Gregory to take her place. This was possibly a huge mistake, at least for Michael, but she was more concerned about her own state of mind. Even if Greg’s hex had been more effective, Michael probably wouldn’t have noticed any differently. His bones already felt like they were on fire. Although to that end, even a weak hex that just made his bones tingle pulled a surprised cry. “What’s wrong, Daphne? Don’t you need to practice too?” Weary and exhausted as he was, Michael could still identify that Daphne didn’t want to be here, didn’t want to be seeing this - certainly didn’t want to look away. So, naturally he didn’t dare take his eyes off of her. If she was going to take part, he wanted her to face him. “Greg here doesn’t seem to be very good. Surely a lady of your stature could do better.” Daphne frowned. The least she was doing was not participating (which, in hindsight, was not her best action, to be honest) and it was like he was asking for her to participate in everything. And Daphne was not comfortable doing that at all. But if there was one thing she hated, it was someone tossing the word 'lady' back at her like it was a disease, like it was something anachronistic, like she didn't fit or it didn't belong. She was proud of her upbringing; she felt like it was the proper one, and she hated it used as an insult. She finally turned her eyes back at Michael, fixing a glare on him, clenching back the wave of sympathy she suddenly felt when she saw him again. "I'm sure Gregory is doing wonderfully without my help." Greg frowned at the byplay. What the hell was Corner on about? He'd done just fine for the first time, hadn't he? He had! Well, he'd show Corner. "Not enough for you, Corner?" he snarled, recasting the hex. It was a bit stronger this time and after a moment, he let it drop. "Better?" Knowing it was coming didn’t make it any better. Nothing made it better. He screamed again, reaching for his legs - only that just made it worse. Michael slumped further against the wall, not even able to hold himself up, but he didn’t look away from Daphne. Ladies didn’t do this. Didn’t watch, didn’t stand by and let it happen. “Did you even ask? Why?” Words were hard to come by now, his breathing labored. “What great crime I committed?” “I stopped a 12 year old who forgot a password from being in my place.” He was an idiot, but he would go down as a righteous one. “So no. Not enough.” A righteous man who never stopped pushing back, digging himself deeper and deeper in. “I want Miss Greengrass to have a go. Hate to deprive her of a learning opportunity.” If he thought that his words would turn her around on this whole supporting sides business, Michael had underestimated Daphne's resolve and -- well, loyalty, to what she believed was the right cause. If he thought that it would strike a chord within the truly well-meaning part (also known as the part that wasn't condoning letting Greg torture Michael when he had already been tortured) of Daphne, then it had done the trick. She flinched at his words, knowing that they were very well true. He liked acting like a hero, she thought, even though it was foolish to do so. So instead of responding to the first part of his words, she ignored it completely, turning a blind eye to them like she had been doing with Greg's treatment of Michael. "A learning opp --" she started, stopping herself as her voice rose. Even she could not let go of her disbelief at this being a 'learning opportunity.' "I'd rather not," she said, fixing her eyes on his and hoping her voice wouldn't falter. She was acting more like a self-righteous Pureblood now more than anything and she knew it. She crossed her arms and turned her nose up just slightly before continuing, "Like I said, Gregory is doing a wonderful job. He doesn't need my help." “So you won’t participate,” he said. Anger wasn’t going to help his situation, but maybe Michael could find the real learning opportunity in this. “But it’s okay to stand by. Watch?” He wanted to yell at her. Wanted them all to wake up and realize that it was wrong. Everything was wrong. God, if he died right now because of this and nothing change... Michael didn’t even want to think about it. “A real lady wouldn’t abide.” His voice wasn’t more than a whisper. Anger flared up in Daphne again. She hated his tone but she hated that he was clearly trying to guilt her into some sort of action. She had a mind of her own and she wasn't going to let Michael Corner influence it in any way. Especially not with his rebel ideas. And there he was, throwing the word 'lady' back at her again. She glared at him, and in an almost venomous hiss, she let her anger show, "How dare you assume you know what a lady does or does not do. I don't want to be involved in this hysteria and it's by as if you can change my mind about it!" Greg growled, his wand flashing again. Casting a Silencio over Corner, he followed it up with a Petrificus Totalus and a Wingardium Leviosa. "Come on, Corner, time for you to go back to the Carrows." He smirked as he deliberately let Corner's legs and shoulders bump into the wall as he directed Corner to the door. "Whoops." On the journey back, the reality sunk in. No one was coming to save him. Daphne had been sort of a last resort, a poorly executed one, but nothing good had come of that. Not for him. And he really wasn’t sure how long he could keep going like this. Some small part of him hoped that maybe this time they would just get it over with. End it. Anything to stop this pain, although even that was becoming more of a throbbing numbness than anything else. Michael might not have known a great deal about healing, but he could guess that wasn’t a good sign. There wasn’t much fight left in him and that was evident across all of his features. He just let himself fall back to the floor, head drooping in front of him. After the fruitless session earlier, Alecto had retired to fume about Michael's incompetence. She was a firm believer in the uses of torture to reveal information and was infuriated that it had not led to more names. However, at least it had been a chance to do what she liked best: torture. But now Michael was back and she was determined to seek a better end to her results. "Back for more already, Corner? I'm flattered," Alecto said, grinning widely as she clutched her wand. "Crucio!" she cast before letting go of it after a few seconds. She would inflict short bursts of pain on him first. Unlike before, this time he wasn’t able to hold back the screams. But he would go through the motions because as long as they were only breaking him down physically, he could keep it together. Pain faded eventually. Betraying his friends and allies wouldn’t. And Michael didn’t think he would be able to just get over that. He could take it if it was just his burden to bare. “Missed you,” he managed to squeak out. Really they were going about it all wrong. Not that he was about to offer up that sort of information. If there was any luck left for him, neither of the Carrows would figure that out. Finally he was screaming. She had been a little hurt that he had not succumbed to the pain before, but better late than never. She was acutely aware that they needed to be as "gentle" as they could be without inflicting too little damage because they still needed the names. Michael Corner could not stand that much more pain, could he? "Missed me," Alecto chortled, shaking her head. "You got a death wish, Corner?" Unfortunately, the physical body had limits. So, there wasn’t much more that he could take and come out of this okay. The one hope he had was to lose consciousness again. That way he couldn’t talk, and more importantly it couldn’t feel anything. It wouldn’t be that hard to just succumb and stop fighting to stay awake. “Already dead,” he said. Michael was passed well thought out comments. "Not that I can see," Alecto quipped, rolling her eyes at his words. She could always make him dead, of course, but it was not his time yet. Yet, being the keyword. "However..." she said, trailing off, trying to dangle a potential incentive in front of him. "If you want this all," she said, gesturing to the scene in front of her, "to stop, you know what you need to do." He knew. He has known since the start. All this could be over if he gave up his friends, if he started naming names to save his own ass. But even then there was no guarantee it would end. “Or...” his words hitched like a drowning man, “could just wait until bones...kill me.” Michael might not be a healer or particularly gifted in healing magic, but that was pretty basic. Sharp things moving around in your body were never good. Even without that, there was the possibility that he could just bleed out because his wounds hadn’t fully clotted. Alecto was not satisfied with his answer. She had expected -- demanded -- that he give up the names and take her deal. In fact, it was a very good deal. Infuriated, she levitated Michael towards him so that she could hiss at him, "You think you've had it so easy because of your father and your mother's handiwork, but let me tell that your easy ride has stopped now. You will tell us the names we want." Michael turned away, not wanting to look at her. It was bad enough that he was that close to her. “You killed my father,” he said. Of all the things he was sure of, it had to be that Padriac Wilkes was little more than a sperm donor. His father, his real father, had died locked away in a prison cell for doing the right thing. And yet, he knew what his mother played certain cards to try to make things better for him. Even Emma Corner wasn’t above starving man’s morals. But where would those morals leave Michael now? "Oh, boo hoo," she said, rolling her eyes. As if she actually cared. "The point is that your free ride stops here. Now, will you cooperate?" He swallowed. This was his chance, small as it was to make it stop before it got worse. It would have been easy to just give them what they wanted. Except they had already taken so much from him and he didn’t want to give them that too. “Fuck off.” Michael forced the words from him, sounding as sure as he could at that moment. Alecto's eyes flashed in anger. Again, not the right answer. "Well, well, well." As she continued levitating him, she kept her eyes trained on him. She knew her next move, but she wanted him to feel like she was searching for something to do next. "If you're sure..." she said, trailing off. "Imperio!" Finally, she had been waiting for this moment. The Imperius Curse was not one of her best Unforgivables (that honour belonged to Mulciber) but she could use this time to perfect it. "Tell me the names of the members of Dumbledore's Army, Corner." Michael clamped his jaw shut, trying to bit back the urge to speak. For as much practice he had with the imperius curse, that was largely built his ability to cast it and give other people the chance to be able to throw it off. This left most of his knowledge of the curse being theoretical and he never did well with that. But it was better than nothing. Only it started to physically hurt when he didn’t give her the answer. It was little flares of pain shooting through out his body on already inflamed nerve endings. He needed to tell her something. Something that wasn’t worth anything. “Albus Dumbledore, the best wizard there ever was. And Harry.” While he still wasn’t sold on Harry saving the day, the message from Luna a few weeks ago, did give more credit to that theory. Not to mention if he was being taken apart, someone needed to be that beacon of hope. “Going to get you all.” She continued her gaze on Michael. "I'm talking more than Dumbledore and Potter. More names. Who is involved in Dumbledore's Army, Corner?" She knew that he was not going to keep quiet on the names much longer, not if she kept her Imperius Curse up. The She-Carrow was pulling little pieces from him, taking who he was and turning it something else or worse - nothing. He couldn’t stop it, Michael could only decide which of those pieces she took first. He was exhausted and he just wanted it to be over. He pressed his eyes closed. “And. Then. What?” Were the words he forced through staggered breaths, as his brain tried to forget the other dozen names that he had in his head. Alecto finally smiled, still not taking her gaze from Michael. This was a step towards the right direction -- the direction where Michael was going to give up the names and Alecto would have to stop the torture. But it would all be worth it in the end when they could finally know the names of the vigilante student group. "And then the pain stops," she said simply. If he could have, he would have shook his head. Michael didn’t believe her. The pain wouldn’t just stop. Although it might dull and that was quite appealing. To have this be done with. Or maybe that was the imperius curse speaking for him, changing his inhibitions just a little bit, making him want to give her what she asked. “Not enough.” But wasn’t it? He had been through more than any of the other students. At this point he wasn’t even sure if he would ever be able to use his legs again. Michael certainly couldn’t move, couldn’t even feel his toes or his feet anymore. It could just be over. She only needed a few names. Didn’t even have to be all of them. And once again, when Alecto didn't get her way, she was angry. "You're not in the position to negotiate, are you, Corner?" She demanded, using her wand to put pressure on his wounds. "You're going to tell me the names right now and you're going to do it without conditions." This wasn't just Alecto speaking, demanding. It was the Imperius Curse commanding, carrying out its intended purpose. “You already know.” He said, not really wanting to, but this wasn’t about what he wanted anymore. “Luna.” Taken on the train at Christmas. “Ginny.” Never came back from Easter - along with Megan. And his heart stung at each of those names. They weren’t just allies, but people he loved as best he could, even if just for a little while. “Ne- no.” Cutting off mid-name didn’t make it any easier, if anything it just hurt more. “Just me. You win now. No. No more.” Only that wasn’t true and it burned at his nerve endings. “More.” Luna Lovegood. Ginny Weasley. Michael Corner. Alecto refused to believe for a second that those were the only members of Dumbledore's Army. There had to be more. Three people could not pull off everything they had done. But instead of demanding to know more immediately, she changed tactics. "Tell me if there are more members," she replied, holding the Imperius once again. Michael was fighting against it. Or at least trying to. And one name seemed continuously on the tip of his tongue. “Ne- Ne - NO!” That little piece of rebellion sent another jolt ripping through his body. In some ways this was worse than crucio. At least then the pain was at someone else’s doing and while that might also be true here - it didn’t feel that way. Stubbornness would get him nowhere, not when almost every piece of him wanted to comply. Amycus had stood idly by, content to let Alecto handle this. However, Corner was proving to be surprisingly resilient against the Imperius. Part of him wondered if Wilkes had been able to throw off the curse easily; perhaps that was something passed down from father to son. The thought was gone as quickly as it had occurred. Because there was the small matter of Alecto and Corner. Amycus didn’t want to show his sister up, but felt that she might wind up hurting the boy before he gave them the information they needed. Perhaps a little pain alongside the Imperius might jostle more information from Corner’s brain. Casually, he pointed his wand at Corner and muttered a curse to break his nose. Really at this point what was one more broken bone? He was beaten, he was bruised and he just wanted to be done. They were relentless. This whole thing was relentless. Although he had said it before in hopes of throwing them off, maybe it was true. They won certainly over him – wasn’t any stand left for him to make. Not with that damn voice in his head pleading with him to just say it, give them what they want and make it stop. Make this whole thing stop. It could be that easy. Trembling now, there wasn’t a thing he could do to stop the tears mixing with the blood from his nose. “Ne-Neville!” He finally let out, only it didn’t seem to stop there, but rather just opened the floodgate. “Seamus too.” His whole body racked with the words even as that voice told him this was good. It would be over soon. How many more people would he condemn? Neville Longbottom. Seamus Finnigan. Alecto smiled more widely, knowing that this was the best start they had ever had. She had suspicions that Longbottom was involved, because he had grown more and more outspoken through the year, but it was nice to have the confirmation. "It's nice to see your cooperation," she said. But clearly it wasn't enough, as she pointed her wand so that she could cast a spell that would kill some of the muscles in Michael's wand arm. "Any more?" He screamed as a fire shot through his right hand, leaving it shaking. What more could he give? And more importantly, what more would they take? It was all too much. She promised, hadn’t she? This could all end if Michael gave her what she wanted. “Parvati!” He managed to get out through a jumble of swears. “And Lavender.” He had implicated all of the Gryffindors, dug their graves along side his own, but that was it. At least Michael could draw the line somewhere, keep the other houses out of it. “Just Lavender.” He latched onto her name as a sort of mantra he kept repeating as he gave into his body’s desire to just stop all together. Stop fighting, stop feeling, maybe even stop existing if he was lucky enough. This entire exercise was proof enough to Alecto that torture got stuff done. Of course, she didn't exactly need the proof but it helped. "Thank you for your excellent cooperation, Corner," she simply said, grinning from ear to ear again, before walking out of the room, leaving Michael a little worse for wear. |