LIGHT STREAMED THROUGH THE windows of cedric's dorm, his eyes opened. he looked to side and saw stella sleeping, a sheet wrapped around her naked body as she laid on her stomach. he got up and put on boxers, his dorm room was completely empty besides the two of them.
behind him stella made a groaning noise, cedric turned around in time to see her eyes flutter open. she sat up, the sheet draped around her lower body, her chest was exposed to him. he smirked at her and walked over to her. he leaned down closer to her and put his lips on her.
"no strings attached right?" cedric whispered in her ear.
"none." stella replied.
cedric heard the door click and then creek open. he heard laughing and turned around. anthony and zach stood their hands over their mouths.
"nice." smirked anthony.
stella pulled the sheet up to her chest, "get out!"
the two of them laughed, then put their hands in front of their eyes and proceeded walked out of the room.
stella got up, "i guess that's my cue to leave." she walked over and picked up her dress from the light before off the floor, putting it on. she tried to reach the zipper but failed, "zip me up?"
cedric walked over to her and zip the back of her dress up, she turned around and kissed him one last time. she picked up her high heels from the night before and opened the door. anthony and zach we're standing in the hallway whistling. stella shot them a dirty look before leaving. anthony and zach came in the room.
"where are you two coming in from?" inquiered cedric.
"marietta edgecombe's dorm." replied anthony, sitting down on his bed.
"i don't remember her name." laughed zach.
"wait, marietta edgecombe? what happened to harlow?" cedric asked, furrowing his eyebrows.
"we got into a fight, i'm done with her for good. bitch is more trouble than she's worth." scoffed anthony.
"dude, stop calling her that." spat cedric.
"nah, it's nothing i didn't say to her face last night." smirked anthony.
"what'd you say to her?"
"something along the lines of "harlow, i'm not your boyfriend. blah blah blah. you were just a hookup to me. blah blah blah." laughed anthony.
cedric started to charged towards anthony. zach pushed him back, "take a breath, ced."
"fine." spat cedric, calming himself down, taking deep breaths. "go fuck yourself, dick."
cedric stormed out of his dorm. he couldn't remember the last time he had been this mad, this enraged. he couldn't understand why anthony would be so careless with harlow. how he could keep going back to her for his selfish purposes.
he walked down the busy halls of hogwarts. he saw some people packing their things to go home for christmas, others hugging their friends goodbye. he turned down the hall and went down the stairs to the dungeon. he pushed open the door the the slytherin common room that had students carrying luggage bags with some of their things in them. cedric knocked on the door of harlow's dorm room. he heard excited yells and then the door opened.
the face of pansy parkinson's appeared, "yes?"
"i'm here to see harlow." he told her.
pansy opened the door all the way, behind her was daphne, "we thought she was with you."
"where else could she be?" he asked.
"check her brother's dorm, room 132." she suggested before slamming the door in his face.
cedric sighed and made his way back up the stairs. he twisted and turned through the walls of hogwarts, eventually making his way to the gryffindor common room. he then made his way down to room 132 and knocked on the door.
a short brunette boy with gapped teeth opened up the door, "who are you?"
"cedric, who are you?" asked cedric.
"neville." the boy, neville, answered shortly.
"sorry," he apologized "i thought this was harry's dorm."
another boy appeared behind him, this one was a redhead, "it is."
cedric saw harry walk up to the door, "what do you want?"
"have you seen your sister?" cedric asked, tapping his foot impatiently.
"no, not in a few days." he responded.
"is something wrong?" the redhead boy said, "where's harlow?"
"that's what i'm trying to figure out, no ones seen her."
ϟ
cedric stood in dumbledore's office along with harry, fred, george and the redhead boy, whose name he found out was ron. dumbledore and snape stood on the opposite side of them.
"what's the matter of this urgent meeting?" dumbledore asked, "shouldn't you be getting packed up to go home for the break?"
"it appears, professor, that harlow's missing." cedric told him.
"what do you mean missing?" asked professor snape with a concerned look on his face.
"no ones seen her since last night." george explained.
"perhaps she just wondered off." suggested dumbledore.
cedric shook his head, "she wouldn't have just gone off without telling anyone."
"me and george were the last ones to see her." fred spoke up.
"where's the last place you saw her?" inquired dumbledore.
"near the boys bathroom." said george.
"she said she was going out for air and walked away." said fred.
"i suppose we should check the entrance." muttered dumbledore.
ϟ
the seven of them walked down the halls, navigating their way through the school. they opened the door to the main entrance of the school. the snow on the ground was thick. it would've been a beautiful sight if cedric wasn't worried out of his mind.
cedric looked at the ground, a glimmer of light caught his eyes. he bent down to see what it was, he saw a piece of gold buried in the snow. he digged it out of the snow, it was a hair clip.
"hey, i found something." he announced. the rest of them walked up to him, gathering around. he held up the hair clip.
"that was in her hair," said george.
"why is it out here?" asked harry.
cedric saw something else out of the corner of his eye, he walked over to it. there was a splotch of crimson red on the white snow.
"oh my god." a voice said behind cedric, it was ron, his mouth was wide open.
"is that-" harry began.
"it's her blood." dumbledore confirmed.
"so that begs the question." fred started up.
"where the hell is harlow?" cedric finished.
ϟ
harlow opened her eyes slowly, the bright light in the room blinding her, causing her to close her eyes again. her head was pounding. she tried opening her eyes again, her eyes were opened into a squint. harlow tried to move her hand up to her head, but realized they were restrained. her heart began to pound in her chest. she attempted to break out of the restraints, but it was no use.
she looked around the room, she was in an unrecognizable room. the room reminded harlow much of the great hall, it was gigantic. the walls were made out of dark wood that crept up to the easily thirty feet tall ceilings. the room was vacant of furniture. the only light came from the two chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and the blazing fire in the fireplace. she was alone, struggling to free herself from the chains that held her in the middle of the room.
the chains around her wrists connected directly to the ceiling, forcing harlow's hands above her head. they were just high enough that harlow's feet barely touched the ground, the only part of her feet on the ground was her tip of her toes.
the doors shot open, about twenty people walked through. harlow squinted, her vision still blurry, she tried to make out their faces. she realized that they were wearing pitch black robes that had their hoods up, cascading a shadow onto their face that masked their identity.
"good, she's up." one of them said to the other.
the person that spoke up walked towards her. they looked to have the built of a man under their robe, tall and muscular.
"who the hell are you people?" she groaned.
he stood in front of her and grabbed her chin, "no matter dear, you have something we want."
she pulled her face back, "why would i give you anything?"
"because you don't have a choice." the man said.
"you don't scare me." she spat, she looked at the chains that restrained her. "alohomora." nothing happened, she said it again, this time with more urgency, "alohomora!"
"stupid girl," he growled, "those chains don't allow you to do magic." harlow's heart pounded harder and harder. she began to panic, looking around the room for an escape plan. "now, let's begin."
ϟ
cedric picked up a wooden chair and slammed it against the wall of his dorm, "god damn it."
"cedric, calm down they'll find her." zach comforted.
"calm down?" he scoffed, pacing around the room, "i cant calm down. all i can think about is what if that's the last time i'll ever see her. what if she's hurt, what if she's dead zach."
"she's not dead, she'll be okay ced." he gave him a warm, pitiful smile.
"i never got to tell her how i feel." he muttered in almost a whisper.
this peeked anthony's attention, he rolled his eyes then got up from his bed and stood next to zach, watching cedric pace back in fourth.
cedric began again, "she could've been in pain and i was fucking stella." his voice cracked. "i should've been there with her, i should've followed her when i saw her leave."
anthony put his hand on cedric's shoulder, "it's not your fault."
"you're right." said cedric, he turned around and punched anthony in the face. the punch knocked anthony to the ground. "it's yours, if you weren't being such a self absorbed asshole-"
anthony stood up, "you're lucky you're having a breakdown right now or else i'd bloody kill you."
"i'd like to see you try." cedric spat, walking towards anthony.
zach got between them, "calm down, cedric. i mean it."
cedric gave zach a look, then raised his hands in defense, "okay, okay."
ϟ
harlow let out a bloodcurdling scream. her whole body felt like it was on fire, like it was slowly being pulled apart. tears ran down her face and into the crevice of her dry lips.
"again." the man ordered.
"no, no." she sobbed, desperately.
"crucio." woman's voice muttered at her, a burst of light came from her wand at harlow.
she let out another scream, her body wanted to shut down. the pain was almost too much for her to handle. she was covered in a thin layer of sweat. she wasn't sure how long she had been there, an hour? a day? it didn't matter, all she knew at that moment was the seemingly never ending pain.
"please." she begged, the mascara and eyeliner she had put on the night before now mixed with the tears slipping down her face. "stop."
he grabbed a hold of her chin again, "tell us." she tried to speak but the only thing that came out was a choked sob. he took the hand off her chin and struck her face. he raised his voice, "where did you get all your power from, tell us now!"
for a moment harlow closed her eyes. she remembered the hand of her uncle that would strike her, it was almost an everyday occurrence when she was with them but it never ceased to take her off guard. oh how she wished it was her uncle vernon hitting her because the pain he caused her was nothing nearly as bad as this.
"i told you," harlow cried, "i don't know."
he paced in front of her, "i've never seen a witch as powerful as you, especially at your age. you must've done something."
"i didn't, i swear." sniffled harlow.
"why don't i believe you." the man snapped, he paused for moment then gestured towards one of the other men in the room, "maybe we should resort to more muggle-like torture habits."
just on cue, one of the people drew out a knife. the handle and the blade were the same deep black color. the woman walked towards them and placed it in the man's hand.
"if you're gonna kill me just get it over with." she spat.
the man walked closer to her, "i'm afraid you're not ours to kill."
she gave him a bewildered look and then felt a hot strike of pain on her leg. she looked down, he'd cut down her thigh. she felt her blood drip down her leg, it started to bleed into her dress, making the bright red darker.
harlow tried her best to calm herself down, she didn't want to appear weak, but she was. she was tired and worn out. she wanted to collapse on the ground, but she couldn't, the restraints wouldn't let her. she saw the woman that gave the man the knife walk up to him.
the man handed her the knife, "each one of us will take turns cutting you, however it can be over anytime you'd wish to tell us your secret."
harlow stared at him silently, she couldn't remember a time where she had been this angry. she spat in his face. the man wiped her spit off his face, he moved closer to her and slapped her again. harlow inhaled sharply, taken off guard.
he stepped back as the woman stepped closer to her, she stared at her with pity, "i'm sorry." she whispered in a soft voice, she proceeded to give harlow a shallow cut along her other thigh.
harlow took another deep breath, the woman handed it to the next person in line. they walked up to harlow, they didn't say anything. they raised the knife up to her arms and cut down her right arm. blood dripped down her arm, eventually reaching her face.
the person gave it to the next. this one was different then the rest, they were more violent. they approached her angrily, "worthless half-blood trash." they said in a deep voice, harlow presumed he was a man.
he pulled up her dress to make her stomach visible. harlow's face flushed, she didn't remember the last time she was this exposed. the man took the knife and put its cold blade against the top of her stomach. he pressed the blade in, sending what felt like fire throughout her torso. he made a deep cut diagonally across her stomach. the pain was agonizing, harlow let out a scream, followed by a small sob.
"fuck you." she spat out.
harlow felt a sharp pain in her lung, she looked down and saw the knife in her. this time, the man hadn't slashed her, he'd stabbed her in her lungs. the man who had made the first cut ran over to the other one and scolded him. harlow knew they were talking to each other but she couldn't make out what they were saying. the only sound she heard was that of her weakening heartbeat. she coughed, she looked in the direction she had coughed and saw crimson red blood. i'm dying. she thought to herself, i'm going to die in here.
she felt hands on her, chains rattling then she fell down to the ground. she was free of the chains, she tried to think of a smell she could say to get her out of the room but all she could think of was the excruciating pain in her lungs.
"vulnera sanentur!" the man said, sending a blast of light in harlow's direction.
harlow looked down at her body, she realized the cuts that they had given her were fading and closing. she felt the pain in her lung subside, she wasn't bleeding anymore. harlow saw the man quickly put her chains back on, however these chains didn't connect to the ceiling, they looked like normal handcuffs that harlow had seen in the movies she used to watch with harry.
the man picked her up and carried her out of the room. he made a few turns, harlow couldn't tell where he was going, her vision was in and out. she heard a door open and then felt her face meet the ground. the door locked behind her, she looked around. she was in some sort of dungeon. there were about eight different jail cells in the room she was in. the man took out a key and locked the door behind her. he walked away, leaving harlow completely alone.
she pulled her blood soaked dress down, only now remembering how vulnerable she was. she began to cry again, her body still ached. she had never been this humiliated and exhausted. she curled herself into a ball on the cold floor and let the exhaustion take over.