The darkness settled for too long. She hadn't a clue how much time had passed when she next forced her eyes open.
The back of her head was throbbing, she could feel the blow to her cranium. A benign aching sensation flared through her entire body.
Her eyes wouldn't adjust and it was too difficult to keep them open. Unfocused, blurry and she could practically see the pain that her body endured. She kept them closed.
She knew she wasn't home. The hard freezing surface beneath her confirmed that. Stony flooring, and a chilling draught of air brushing against her skin. She didn't know where she was and couldn't enable herself to see just yet.
As her mind rushed a million miles per second, she considered every possibility of her location, recollecting what had happened just before she ended up in this mess, the reasons which she was all too familiar with.
This was bound to have happened eventually. She'd predicted it.
A certain rage, mixed with despair consumed her, forcing her to open her eyes once again. But as expected, there was a void of darkness above her.
She briefly considered the possibility that she had gone blind. Panicked for a moment. This was until a cloudy blur of luminescent locks wavered into view. The radiant face of Luna Lovegood materialised in front of her.
"Oh! You're awake," her voice sang. "I was growing worried."
Athena just stared up at her, looking as if she was face to face with a ghost.
"Luna?" she choked out, before she bolted upright from the floor, giving herself whiplash and an unbearable dizziness.
Her arms cascaded around Luna's petite frame and she unthinkingly squeezed her into a tight embrace.
"Missed me?" Luna whispered, sounding like her usual self. It brought slight comfort.
She rushed to gather her surroundings, an overwhelming doom impending upon her.
"What—where are we? What's—what's happening?" her words stammered out.
Luna grasped onto Athena's shoulders, attempting to calm her. "I'll explain everything, but I'll need you to calm down first."
Athena attempted a few deep breaths, clutching onto Luna's hand. Her chest was heaving, each breath felt like inhaling a flurry of dust.
Although Luna sounded like herself, when Athena really focused on her face, she realised how worn down and defeated she seemed.
"Okay?" Luna asked a few minutes later.
She nodded, bracing herself, not so sure that she actually wanted to know the answer. She controlled her breathing, to an extent.
"We've been taken as prisoners to the Death Eaters," she stated. "As for where we are—well we're—" She hesitated, an anxious expression taking over her. "We're in the cellar of Malfoy Manor."
And all at once, Athena couldn't breathe at all.
"Wha—we're—you mean—"
"And before you get your hopes up, Malfoy's not going to save us. He can't. It's pretty much impossible, even if he wants to try."
She continued to stare at her in disbelief, waiting in torturous anticipation for her to elaborate.
"When they took you here, I heard them speaking. They've enchanted this room so Draco can't get in. Even if he considered it, he would only be turned away at his own conscience, meaning there would be no suspicion on his part. It's all very methodical of them. I'm so sorry, Athena. No one's coming for us. They can't."
Athena had never heard Luna like this before. Speaking so mundanely, with such a lack of hope. It gave her nothing. No feeling, not even pain. Just nothing. The familiar void.
She was the wick of a candle, and the flame in her chest was all burned out.
"There must be a way out of here. There—there has to be," she muttered, feeling exponentially drained.
"I've looked and tried. Their security is spectacularly strict. It's completely soundproof too. We could scream and shout for days and not a person would hear us."
Deeper, she was delving into the ominous pits of death that would eventually snatch her away. Steal her for itself.
"Luna, how long have you been here?"
"Since the beginning of the Christmas holidays. They took me from Kings Cross. I don't know what month it is now, let alone the day."
"And—how long have I been here?"
"You were asleep for quite a while after they brought you here. They must've given you a sleeping draught or something to keep you down," she informed. "How's your head? It was bleeding a little bit earlier. I did my best to clear it up by using my jumper over there."
She was pointing to a light blue item, patched with red stains.
Her attention had been far from the throbbing agony on the back of her skull, but Luna's mention of it had made the pain ten times worse.
She lifted her hand to the blow and winced, cringing at the way her hair was matted with the blood.
"Hurts," she whispered.
"You'll need to eat. It's been hours since they last brought food. Shouldn't be too long now. They usually bring it in the morning—I think. Sometimes at night. I'm not so sure. But unfortunately it's never much."
She wasn't even hungry regardless.
"May I ask—how is everyone? How's Pansy?" Luna enquired.
"Worried. I'm pretty sure she thinks you're dead. None of us wanted to come to that conclusion. But—Oh!"
She suddenly remembered the final detail of the night she was captured. Pansy, knocked out on the floor.
"She waited for me—we went to the pub and she waited for me outside. She was unconscious on the floor when I found her. They—they knocked her out. What—what if they've got her somewhere?"
"She'll be okay."
Athena gaped at her, wide eyed in confusion.
"She's the daughter of two Death Eaters. She can't be harmed. It's sort of a law of theirs—I guess."
She gave a sigh of relief.
"I'm curious...I know why I'm here, but why are you?" Luna asked a few minutes later.
Athena let out a deep sigh. "It's a lo—ng story," she said, emphasising the 'long'.
"We do have quite a lot of time. It would be nice to listen to someones voice for a while. It's been too quiet."
"Well—"
And she told her virtually everything. From every detail about her father and his life, to the events of the night Cedric died, how she'd thought Draco had given over her secret and how Cedric had saved her life.
"I'm sure—I'm here to die," she established.
But what she couldn't determine was why they hadn't got it over with already. What were they waiting for?
"Shouldn't you take it as a good sign? The fact that you're being held as their prisoner, rather than a victim of their execution?"
"I believe I'm both."
"Oh. I'm sorry."
She appreciated that Luna didn't assure her everything would be alright. She liked that she didn't try to change her mind of what she already knew was going to happen. She didn't give her false hope.
"Well we've got the rest of our time to spend in here until then," she continued. "I'm pleased you're the friend I'm here with. I've always liked you, Athena. You don't deserve any of this."
"Neither do you," she squeezed her hand comfortingly.
"Our bloody father's, getting us into these messes," she rolled her eyes with an air of humour.
Athena released a short chuckle, but it ended too quickly.
They sat with their backs against the wall of the cellar, heads rested between the crevices in the grey bricks and legs limp in front of them.
She wouldn't have minded falling into a deep sleep just there. For death to take her before she had to come face to face with it.
The longer spent trapped in the cellar, the more time seemed to blur past like a vague shadow. The very concept of time had escaped her and there was nothing she could do about it.
It always seemed to be nighttime in the darkness of their entrapment.
The many hours spent asleep had disorientated her out of normality completely. Luna had been right. She couldn't tell if hours or days were going by.
The only occurrences she could resonate with time was when they were given their rations of food at whatever point in the day it was.
But sometimes she'd sleep through it, therefore throwing off her mental mapping of it.
Every second, minute, tick of the clock was spent sitting there, waiting around to die. Waiting for the moment of catharsis when it would all end, and the desperation for it dredged through her, draining any slither of life left.
In the time she spent awake, she sometimes heard the footsteps, vague voices and tones from those above them, listening intently.
It was the only thing she could hear besides the dripping of the leaking drain pipe that ran down the far wall of the cellar.
She'd listen and listen, only hoping to hear him. To gain comfort from the deep, familiar tone of his voice.
And the day that it finally happened, it had shocked her out of her sleepy state.
She sprung upright, clinging to the silence between her and the surroundings, paying extra careful attention to the sounds from above.
And she could hear him.
He was there.
And it was like listening to a memory. The mere tone of his voice was everything she'd longed to hear.
Even his footsteps were familiar. She recognised them immediately and clung onto that desperation for familiarity with all of her mental strength.
If only he knew she was there. How cruel this arrangement was.
She might die down there, and he'd never have known. And when he'd eventually learn of the cause of her death, he'd be sure to blame himself.
The moment she believed she was too far gone into the void to care for anything, this happened. And it pulled her out halfway, bringing her to the realisation that perhaps there was still hope.
Because he was alive. Only a few feet away from her. And she'd do anything to see him again.
She had to live. For him.
Even if that meant clinging to every remnant of resilience and what was left of the hope in her spirit. She had to do it. She couldn't waste away down here without seeing him again.
After a while she'd concluded that was the reason they were keeping her in this cellar. To die a slow and painful death.
She couldn't even pay attention to the gradual sinister thinning of her flesh as the days went by. If things carried on this way, even without the interference of the Death Eaters, she'd surely die anyway.
But that couldn't happen. Not today.
He was there and this was her chance.
Luna was fast asleep. She had been for hours now. Athena crept over to her side, whispering her name and giving her a gentle shake in an attempt to wake her.
"Luna?"
Nothing.
She increased the volume of her voice.
"Luna."
Her eyes fluttered open, reluctant to pull herself out of her sleepy state.
Luna didn't appear well at all. Athena didn't even want to imagine what she herself looked like.
"He's here! I can hear him! Listen!"
They waited for a moment, allowing the deep tone of Draco's voice to penetrate the silence.
Luna wasn't particularly fazed.
"You don't seem surprised," Athena said, disappointed.
"Well—it's just—I've heard him quite a few times actually. I mean he does sort of live here," she smiled, sympathetically.
She slumped her back hopelessly against the wall, a bothered sigh escaping her as she squeezed her eyes close.
The food was brought down several minutes later—probably, and Athena received a sudden impulse when Peter Pettigrew swung the cellar door open.
One last try, she thought. Repeated the words in her head until she could muster the energy to do what she intended.
Adrenaline fuelled her, flowing through her veins and she leapt over to the doorway, taking a deep breath to project her voice as loud as she could possibly achieve.
"Dra—co!"
It came out in a strangled scream, rather unclear. The effort of it took everything out of her.
Pettigrew's podgy face grew a deep shade of fiery crimson when he struck his hand across her face, slapping her hard. It forced her backwards, colliding with the ground.
"Stupid bitch," he sneered, then laughed viciously. "He's not even here. Just left."
He tossed the plates of food out to the floor, throwing them carelessly as if he was feeding a room of dogs. The food scattered across the floor, making a loud echo around the room.
Pettigrew gave a nasty grin that made her want to vomit, before slamming the door behind him.
Athena hesitantly turned around to see Luna's expression, who appeared completely shocked and clearly in disbelief.
She ran to Athena's aid immediately, placing a hand over the deep red mark on her cheek. Her hands were freezing, it was rather soothing.
"I'm so sorry," Athena whispered. "I just wanted to try—"
"Shhh..." Luna pulled her into a hug.
She began humming a sweet melody into Athena's ear in an attempt to comfort her.
Tears seeped from Athena's eyes, until they were streaming and streaming and eventually she was sobbing into Luna's shoulder. All she could afford to do was cry about the very possibility that life had come to this.
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sixtieth chapter complete