Before leaving the room, I changed out of the dress that I had worn all night. No other clothes were laid out and so I put back on the ones that I was wearing upon my arrival here. The top had a large stain on it from the wound Draco had given me, so I fastened one of the buttons on my cardigan to cover it.
Wormtail guided me through the hall and down the large staircase into the room that we had apparated into yesterday. As we walked down the stairs, his hand reached unexpectedly into my pocket and he snatched my wand.
I was about to snap at him, but I saw people waiting on the floor below. Draco stood next to his mother, and Bellatrix waited at the bottom of the stairs. She reached out her hand and Wormtail handed her my wand.
"Heard some good news," she said, stepping forward and stroking my hair as I descended the last step.
I glanced at Draco who looked nervous, his eyes darting between his aunt and I.
"You were quite close with Potter." She gave a nasty smile, revealing her crooked yellow teeth menacingly.
My heart fell to the floor. Wormtail must have told her. But how much, I couldn't be sure.
"I was, yes," I confirmed, in a quiet voice that was loud in the big room nonetheless.
Her smile grew even wider and she looked psychopathic. "Well done, Draco," she said, speaking to him but keeping her eyes on me. "She gets better and better."
I was confused. I thought she'd seen through me; that my connection to Harry meant that I couldn't possibly be one of them. But instead, she looked excited.
I swallowed hard and steadied my breathing. My legs started to feel weak. I didn't like the look she was giving me.
"Let's hear it then," she whispered in my ear, sending a cold shiver down my spine. She circled me, her head close to mine the whole time. "Tell us what you know," she said, taking a small step back and speaking louder.
Thinking harder, her excitement made sense. She wanted information. I said nothing at first, my brain too overwhelmed by what I was being asked to do. I rapidly tried to think of something seemingly important to say, but nothing was coming. There was nothing I could reveal without seriously putting Harry or the others in harm's way.
She looked at me wide eyed and manic, breathing hard.
"No?" she said, taken aback by my silence.
I saw Draco 's chest rise and fall rapidly as he watched his aunt stare at me.
"Why not?" she demanded. Her voice was suddenly deep and stern.
I opened my mouth but no sound came out.
She laughed humourlessly. "When Draco said he had someone who'd help I wasn't sure what to expect," she started to explain. "Draco hadn't revealed to us that you were a friend of Potter's," she said, casting him a reprimanding glance. "I'm not sure why," she said, in a bored voice, "but after last night, when we discussed your parenting issue and your vengefulness, and Wormtail over here told me about the company you once kept, I figured that you must have gotten close to the Potter boy for information."
She backed up now and stood a good distance away, enough to have my full body in view. She looked disgusted. "Am I wrong?" she asked, again with a deep and stern voice.
"No," I said, aware that I wasn't being convincing.
"You're lying," she accused, eyes burning into me.
Draco intervened, a slight sound of alarm present in his tone. "She was friends with him, genuinely too. But that was a long time ago," he said. "After meeting me, she-she changed," he tried to explain.
Bellatrix looked back and forth between us. She didn't look fully convinced. "Then why won't the bitch speak," she spat, looking at him angrily.
I found my voice this time and took her attention off of him. "Because I know nothing of recent. I stopped talking to Potter once I started talking to Draco." I tried to say Harry's name with contempt.
"It's true," Draco said, continuing the fabrication. Bellatrix looked back at him. "They grew apart once she turned to our side."
"Fine," she said, in a snappy sort of voice. "Then this isn't personal," she said giving me the same pouting face she did at dinner.
Suddenly, I felt a gruelling pain in my chest, ten times as painful as when Draco had cut me yesterday, and I doubled over.
It felt like a hot sword had just run through me and I screamed out in pain, falling forward on my knees. All I could see was red light, even when I scrunched my eyes. Between the blur, I could see Bellatrix had her want aimed at me.
"Expelliarmus!" I heard Draco yell.
The pain stopped for only a second while she defected his spell, disarming him in retaliation. She yelled the curse again and I screamed, doubling over a second time. "Crucio!" she shrieked.
I could hear Draco's voice somewhere beyond my scream. "What're you doing!" he yelled at her in panic.
The pain just continued. I couldn't even open my eyes anymore. It was like the sword was stabbing me over and over again in different spots and twisted each way out.
It couldn't have been more than a minute later but the pain and light stoped once I heard Draco scream loudly. I could hear him clearly. "She doesn't know anything!" he yelled, panicked.
I felt her boots brush against my back. "No," she said simply. "She does."
"No, she doesn't! We just told you sh-"
"She has information," Bellatrix said, expressionless, "she just thinks she doesn't."
Draco didn't respond and no one else in the room dared to say anything or intervene in any way.
She raised her voice now. "She was in his school house, she slept next to his friends, she went to class with the other Gryffindors," she listed, spitting out each word. "Oh, she's picked stuff up alright. And if she really is on our side as you say she is, and not a liar, then she just doesn't realize everything she knows, and she should be happy to have me to get it out of her."
I couldn't see her, but the pause in her speech told me she was smiling.
"Because lucky for her, I know how to loosen lips," she said.
And then she kicked me hard in the chest and I fell onto my back, my spine crashing into the hard floor. She yelled the curse again and my body started to convulse.
My screams echoed off the walls of the room. Even if I wanted to speak, I wouldn't have been able to. Knives started to go though my skull. My head was going to split open and I was going to die curled up pathetically on this floor.
"STOP IT!" I head Draco yell.
I tried opening my eyes and my head hurt even more. I saw Draco grab his mother's wand out from her hand. The witch tried to hold him back but he just shoved her off and ran at his aunt instead. He raised the stolen wand at her but she just disarmed him again.
I then heard a scream that wasn't my own. With effort, I craned my head up and saw Draco trying to grab Bellatrix's wand with his bare hands.
His aunt managed to force his hand away and cast the red light at him instead of me and he was forced backwards in an instant. He screamed in agony while his mother shrieked at the sight of her son who had now fallen onto one knee.
Bellatrix pointed the want back at me once more. But I wasn't even screaming anymore- I had no voice left. Silent tears rolled down my cheeks. The curse hit my body repeatedly but my muscles were too weak to writhe any longer. I felt myself starting to lose consciousness.
Bellatrix was now the only one screaming; she yelled her curse over and over again, and my body jolted with the impact it made on every contact.
Suddenly, I didn't feel any more pain. And for a second, I thought it was because I was dead.
But my eyes, half open, saw Draco, rushing in front of the stream of light. The impact hit him hard and he jerked back before falling onto both of his knees in front of me. He screamed and the awful, raspy sound coursed through my body, just as painful as the curse itself.
He stayed there, shielding me as I laid motionless and crumpled.
"Draco what are you doing!" Narcissa screamed. "Bella, stop it!" she barked at her sister, rushing forward.
The red light stopped and he fell onto his elbows, panting. I heard him grunt as he twisted himself to face me. He crawled forward.
"Arabella," he said, shaking my shoulder, alarm in his already croaking voice.
I could hear him speaking to me, but I could barely speak back.
"Please get up, please, Love," he begged me, quietly. But his words reverberated in the massive room for everyone to hear.
"What?" Bellatrix spluttered. "What is this?" she barked, staring at Draco with confusion. "WHAT IS THIS?" she screamed, pointing at the scene in front of her.
"Draco?" said his mother, confused, as she looked at him pleading at me.
He said nothing to either of them. Instead, he brushed the hair out of my face and shook me gently, trying to get me to move. But my muscles didn't oblige.
Bellatrix took a step forward. "Step aside, Draco," she warned. Her wand was raised again.
Draco stayed in front of me. I saw him shake his head before pushing himself onto his feet. Bellatrix made a move forward.
"Don't touch her," he said slowly and forcefully, his arm raised out in front of him. He was still breathing hard.
"You fool!" she spat. "Don't tell me," she said, gagging through her words, "that you like the bitch!"
He stayed unwavering in front of me. His chest was heaving still, his fists balled. He had no wand.
"She's just a tool!" Bellatrix barked. "A means to an end, nothing more!" She lowered her voice again. "Snap out of it Draco because it'll never happen with her, I don't care if she brands herself with the Dark Mark, I don't care if she calls herself a Death Eater-," she was yelling again, "-she's not pure! She's not for you!"
She took an aggressive step towards him but he didn't flinch. "You'll no longer be part of this family," she warned, looking seriously at her nephew. "Bloodtraitor," she accused.
At this, his mother took a step forward. "That's enough!" she cried, firmly. "Draco, take her and go," she ordered, gesturing to me.
Draco turned around and bent down. I felt him slide his arm under the small of my back and his other arm under my legs. He carried me up the stairs, shooting one last dirty look at his aunt. My head lulled as he ran up the stairs, hurting my neck with each bounce and I closed my eyes.
Finally, I felt him place me down on a soft surface. I opened my eyes and saw a different ceiling from the one I'd stared at all last night. I tried to lift my head and I saw Draco going to close the large bedroom door. This must be his room.
He locked it and walked back over to the bed, sitting beside me.
"Arabella, I'm so sorry," he whispered, squeezing my hand.
Feeling started to come back to my limbs. "It's okay, I croaked," surprised any sound came out at all. "Thank you," I said, grateful that he'd stopped her. But I grimaced at the thought that he had to face heat from his family over his feelings for me.
"Don't say that," he whispered. "Don't thank me."
I could see that his eyes were red and he looked beaten up, though I'm sure I must have looked much worse.
Every breath I took burned my lungs but at least it let feeling back into my body. I tried to sit up on my elbows and rest my back against the head board. He helped me move and placed a pillow behind me. He stroked my hair as his hand came back down to his lap.
It was a moment before he spoke again. "I'm not going to let her touch you again," he said, voice steadier. "Not her, not anyone."
I reached gently for his neck and I brought his face close to me. He kissed me softly and he gently slid me over, pulling the sheet from under me and covering me with it.
He crawled in next to me and covered himself as well. I rolled onto my side and draped my arm over his chest, burying my face into his neck.
He held me tightly and kissed the top of my head.
I finally fell asleep in his arms.