Prompt 020: Golden
Fandom: Harry Potter
Character: Bellatrix Lestrange
Rating: PG-13
Summary: As she tortures Remus Lupin, she thinks about how his fur will look when he's a werewolf. AU
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, the magalicious J.K. Rowling does. I own the storyline and the things you or J.K. Rowling don't recognize.
Word Count: 1312
Prompt 020-Golden
The basement was damp and dank. Dank was the ultimate word. Water from a recent rainstorm dripped down the walls and fed the moss and ivy creeping up the sides. There were at least three different kinds of termites chewing at the stairs, weakening them. He hoped, when they came for them, they broke through the wood and fell on some very, very sharp pieces. He heard the faraway spiders creeping in the corners of the room, where the walls met the ceiling. There were no windows. He struggled in his chains. He felt the hard shackles clamp down on his wrists further, drawing his blood with their rusty edges. The metal clanged against the wall and he winced.
Remus Lupin leaned against the wall and breathed deeply. The acrid air stung his mouth and throat, burning in his lungs. He hissed out in three short breaths, trying to make the pain lessen. He had learned that technique from a friend. It didn't work, but it was worth a try. Where was he going to go?
The chains and shackles were metal, and not only metal, but they were silver. A werewolf, in either his human or lycan form, is extremely allergic to silver. It burns the skin and eats away at the flesh. Whoever kidnaped him knew him, intimately. He had no doubt they were Death Eaters, but who were they? He was only familiar with a handful.
His question was answered when a door he didn't know was there opened at the top of the creaky and termite-ridden stairs. A sliver of light grew to an entire block of light and two figures blotted it out with their bodies. They walked down the rotting stairs, avoiding the parts they knew to be rotten. That showed they knew what they were doing, they'd tortured people in the basement before. Remus shivered. He hadn't thought about what they would do to him, but it seemed like he knew. They would torture him.
The first character that came into the light, he could see her face. Her. Long inky black hair trailed down her body in hundreds of tiny braids. Pale skin shone in the light from the door. Deep mocha eyes glinted with malice and malevolence. She wore the black robes of her order and the skull mask over her face. She was short, two heads shorter than her comrade. She pulled her mask back and grinned at her cousin's best friend. Bellatrix Lestrange. Could he have any worse luck?
When he realized who the last person was, he realized he could. The second person was at least six feet and three inches tall, over a foot of Bellatrix's height. He had cold black eyes that showed no emotion whatsoever. Remus doubted whether they ever had. He wore the black hood of his occupation, the executioner's hood, and carried a huge axe, towering over him or Bellatrix. Remus gulped down as he recognized the tools of McNair's trade. The man was probably here to kill him after they finished torturing him. He swallowed some more nervousness and met his torturers with as much merit as possible.
Bellatrix giggled as they came closer. The wolf was putting on a brave show, but he would be babbling by the time they were finished with him. She knelt in front of his bruised and battered face, amazed his wolf hadn't healed the cuts sooner. "Hello, Remus. Have a good sleep?"
"Go to hell, Bellatrix," Remus cursed. He was tempted to spit into her face, but when he did that in their seventh year, she almost killed him.
"Oh, darling. You first," and she removed her wand from her sleeve, where she always kept it. She pointed it at his chest and muttered a spell inside her head. ...Secta... It was a shortened version of Sectumspempra, but it had a similar effect, as she saw now. Three deep cuts in Remus' chest opened themselves and he howled as his blood spurted. She muttered the counter spell and the cuts healed themselves. He was white and shaky from the blood loss. Fantastic. He'd break even sooner and she could get back. But, Bellatrix thought, she'd be lying to herself if she thought she didn't enjoy her work. She did, immensely.
"What...what was...that?" Remus heaved.
"That was a little spell of my creation. Like it?" Bellatrix hissed into his face. He glared at her and winced.
"Let's not stop there," McNair advised.
"Agreed, McNair. Now, Remus, I know you know this one. Let's say it together, McNair. Shall we?" She pointed her wand as McNair muttered the spell in his head and pointed his own wand at the werewolf.
"Crucio!" Every nerve in Remus' body ignited with fiery pain. They all fired at the same time, over and over. He screamed as the curse took its toll on him. Every second was extended into an eternity. He couldn't take it. After thirty seconds, Bellatrix removed the curse and glanced down at his body. He had screamed for her, but he wasn't crying like a good puppy. She would just have to do it again. However, before she could raise her wand against him, something happened.
Remus rolled on the floor, he was howling and crying and weeping and growling and cursing. Bellatrix backed up and smirked as she realized what was going on.
"What's going on, Lestrange? The spell is over, isn't it?" McNair asked her.
"It's the second full moon tonight, McNair, and our dear Lupin here hasn't taken his wolfbane potion, have you?" She knelt a bit further back and laughed as she saw his bloodshot eyes and protruding teeth. His muscles strained underneath the skin. Ribs broke and rebroke, then healed to make way for the new body they would inhabit.
"That's impossible. The moon doesn't rise for another four hours."
"McNair, use that skull the Dark Lord lets you keep. Why, I don't know. The pain has expedited his transformation. It will be just a matter of moments," Bellatrix explained. She laughed and clapped her hands. "Wonderful!"
His heart strained and burst in size, his stomach shrank, and his blood boiled. Hair sprouted out all over his body and his eyes faded into black orbs. Large, soft ears sprouted from his head and his teeth fell out, replacing themselves with newer teeth, sharper teeth. Bellatrix was so close to jumping up and down, gleefully. She was so excited.
After few minutes of strangled screams and painful yelps, where Remus Lupin once was chained to the wall, was a sleek animal with bright black eyes. It growled and struggled against the chains. Bellatrix saw McNair back up. Pussy. He was a monster executioner for a living, but he couldn't handle a live werewolf? Bellatrix wasn't afraid. She went closer, lit her wand, and looked at the beast chained to the wall.
She had seen -and tortured- werewolves before at the behest of Fenrir Greyback, but this was a new one. This was when she was flying on her own. The one aspect about Remus in his lycan form was his fur.
Gold. The purest of purest shades. It glittered in the wand light and shimmered. Ash blond, white, and light browns were woven together by some deity with beauty in mind to make gold. Golden fur.
Too bad she had to kill him. He was truly beautiful.
Maybe, after she killed him, she could convince the Dark Lord to give her his skin?
The End.