TW: This chapter contains acts of torture. Proceed with caution.
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The same voice shrieked again and again inside the Lestrange Manor in England. In every corner of that hall, a single pitch of cries resonated. Even the imprisoned boys in the manor's cellar could hear her cries.
They couldn't take it.
Regulus wanted to rip his ears off hearing Callie lose her voice little by little with every shriek. He had no idea what was happening. His cousin had a number of ways to make Callie cry that loud. Even if he wasn't receiving the torture, his ears were. He could hear how painful whatever Bellatrix was doing.
"D@mn it!" Sirius slammed his fist on the door. Even though it was made of wood, they couldn't seem to barge it open.
"We need to save her," Remus said and right after that, Callie shrieked again. He closed his eyes in pain. It might not be physical but it was mental torture.
"Let us out!" James yelled.
"I'm going to kill them," Regulus let the words through his gritted teeth, his nails digging into his fingers. "I'm going to kill them."
Meanwhile, in the hall, Peter closed his eyes shut. He wanted to shut his ears close not to hear Callie's cries. He wanted to help her. But how? How could he do that? He was just... him. Just Peter. He wasn't as brave as Sirius or James or as smart as Remus and Regulus. He couldn't help her.
"Stop... please..." Callie begged in a whisper, tired.
"Then tell me. How did you know about the Horcruxes."
Callie cried again. Her cheeks couldn't be dried as tears kept sweeping through them. She shook her head. No matter how painful it is, no matter how much she wanted Bellatrix to stop, she couldn't bring herself to betray that world. She couldn't.
That gave her a deep curve carved on her skin. The deepest and the loudest, most painful cry of all.
Bellatrix pushed herself up and sighed. She flipped a thin group of her hair away from her face. Her satisfied gaze ran down to Callie who couldn't even pant in tiredness. Her wound bled deep red that it numbed 'till her fingertips. Her tears escaped her eyes one by one. Even they seemed tired.
Mudblood, Bellatrix wrote that word on her forearm. That was probably what Hermione felt, Callie thought. It broke her heart to see her favourite girl on screen cry because of the same torture she underwent. But she never thought she'd ever feel it herself.
The sinister Black dropped her gaze to Callie's bag around her. Her smile widened which the girl on the floor couldn't see. Her eyes were blurred with tears that hadn't stopped flowing.
Bellatrix took her bag. She wanted to cry out, "No!" or "Don't!" just so she wouldn't go through her things and find anything against them. But she couldn't. Not with the numbing pain she was enduring.
The oldest Black opened the bag. She put her arm inside and took whatever her hand touched first. It was just a book. He threw it on the floor, not minding that it hit Callie's knee. She reached for an item again. A dress. No use. She threw it down again. Bellatrix kept doing so again and again and again. Though she did not take interest in the Invisibility Cloak which didn't look like one or the Marauders Map.
She threw it, and it landed right on Callie's hand injured hand. It landed harder though not like how a paper should, sending pain through her arm. But Bellatrix didn't notice. She was busy rummaging through her bag to look for anything helpful.
Callie tried to move the map to see the heavy thing that made it fall that way. She moved subtly that none of the Death Eaters inside saw. There, gold and chain lay in between the parchment.
Time turner.
They didn't seem as hopeless as it seemed.
She clutched the map as tight as she could and dragged it to her. Even though that meant enduring the pain in her arm.
After realizing there was so much inside that small bag, Bellatrix turned it upside down and began showering everything she had on her. Every book, every piece of clothing, even the robe she wore when she got there, and her wand. Bellatrix probably didn't notice it nor did anyone, really. But Peter did. It was in between a sweater and the dress she used to fake Bellatrix's identity. He swallowed as a plan formed in his head. But there was one thing Callie knew missing: Gordic Gryffindor's sword.
Callie's phone hit the floor. As an alien object to the witch, Bellatrix stopped. She looked at the rectangular box and took it.
Callie pressed her eyes together in frustration. Currently, in that room, that phone of hers had knowledge of that world she didn't want Voldemort to know. So, even if Bellatrix chose to carve in all parts of her body, she wouldn't say a word.
"What is this?" She fiddled with it, looking back and forth. She spotted a flat button and pressed it. The rectangular box's back lit up much to her surprise. "Hmm. Strange." She pointed her wand at Callie. "What's this?"
Of course, as she promised herself, she kept her mouth shut. No word would come out of them.
That only triggered Bellatrix to put the tip of her wand on Callie's neck.
"I said, what is this?!"
Tears escaped her eyes and her lips whimpered. But no. She wouldn't.
And Bellatrix could see that. Callie didn't care about herself. She couldn't figure out the rectangular object in her hand. There was only one thing left.
"The boys. Bring them!"
Callie's eyes shot open. All of a sudden, her arm numbed with pain again. She looked up to see where the Death Eaters would go and whether they would take her boys.
She heard the noise of resistance. No. She knew right then what Bellatrix would do, triggering more tears. She couldn't...
"Callie..." Although it sounded like a whisper, she heard it. And it broke her that Regulus saw her like that. Her bright sunshine, gone with a wounded arm and blood oozing out.
"Please," she cried to Bellatrix. But it was too late, she had walked towards the boys being held down by Death Eaters.
"Get her up."
The nearby Death Eater pulled her up, facing Bellatrix and the boys.
They saw the blood trailing down Callie's forearm and dripping on the perfect floor reflecting the ceiling. The word mudblood carved on her skin.
"What did you do to her?!" Regulus couldn't contain his rage seeing how drain and painful she looked.
But Bellatrix smirked and her eyes darkened. "I thought you'd like my present."
He tried to break free in anger. Regulus never let anything bring his raw emotions out. But seeing Callie like that, there was nothing to control; the beast inside he was trying to keep was asking to break free.
"I'm going to kill you."
"Is that a threat?"
Regulus would've said more. He would want to tell her the gory details he had in his mind of what he'd do to his cousin. But he didn't want Callie to see or hear that. Not like that. He knew she wouldn't want to hear it.
Bellatrix giggled when he gave no response.
"Couldn't say more, hmm, cousin? You weren't like that when we're torturing those muggles on your initiation—"
"I didn't torture anyone!" Regulus looked at Callie. "Callie, I didn't! I swear, I never did!"
And she smiled at him softly and nodded. "I know." Even though there were no records to say so or otherwise, she chose to believe him.
And he was more than relieved that she did.
"Enough chats!"
Callie flinched at her voice. She never thought she'd be that afraid of a character more than she could think of.
"This filthy mudblood didn't want to talk. Maybe you could make her."
No warning, nothing. She pointed her wand at James and he was on his knees, crying in pain.
"No!" "Bella, stop!" "Stop this madness!" "Please! Stop!"
Their voices were battling on top of each other. But Bellatrix top all of them with a maniacal laugh. Peter wanted her to stop. But he couldn't even muster his voice, let alone speak to the deadliest Death Eater.
"Now will you speak?" She looked back at Callie, letting James off the curse as he fell to the floor.
Her tears were unstoppable. Everything she was trying to keep inside her burst out seeing her promise being broken right in front of her. She promised no harm would come to them. What she was seeing was harm and it came to them.
But she still wouldn't answer her. She wanted Bellatrix to stop but she couldn't tell her that. Because if Callie did she'd have to tell Voldemort everything that would endanger that world.
"If you say so. Or won't." Her next target was Sirius earning cries of complaints once more. But their shouts were just music to Bellatrix's ears.
"What about now?"
"Don't Callie," Sirius tried to yell with his strained voice.
Callie was so close to giving up. So close to breaking. And Sirius just asked her not to. But they were hurting.
"A word, mudblood?"
"Don't say anythi- AH!" Remus was interrupted by his own scream when Bellatrix threw the curse at him.
"Please, stop!"
"Your answer?!"
"I-I can't. I can't-"
"Crucio!" Her next target was Regulus.
The boys had almost no energy to ask her to stop but Callie was wiggling where she was kneeling and asking Bellatrix to just stop.
"Just stop! Please, just stop!" She watched as Regulus curled on the ground. The only thing left was to break his torso because of how curled he was. He tried not to let the whimper of the lowest volume out. But the pain he never felt for a year now came back in a hitch. He couldn't stop the loud scream to escape his mouth.
Bellatrix alternated between the four boys. Peter tried to look away and never let a tear escape. And when he failed, he wiped it away.
And Callie couldn't take it anymore.
"Fine! Fine! I'll talk! Just stop!"
And Beatrix did. "Shame. I was having fun."
The Death Eater holding Callie let her go with Bellatrix's nod. Without any other thoughts, Callie crawled towards the boys struggling to sit up. She didn't care about the piercing pain every time she put pressure on her injured arm. She didn't care about the blood she was trailing behind her. All she cared about was to get to them.
"If you had just told me they could make you talk, we wouldn't have to go through what we did. But I enjoyed carving you. I hope you like my art too. Now, speak!"
"Please, Callie," Regulus begged, holding her hand. "Don't."
"Please, Callie. Don't," Bellatrix imitated. "Speak!" She pointed her wand at them with her patience growing thin as a line.
Not wanting to see or hear or know that they were suffering, after so much resistance, Callie gave in.
"I'm not from here," her voice shook as she trembled too, holding back Regulus's hand. "I'm from a different world."
"No." Remus was barely heard.
"Callie, don't do this," Sirius asked beside her.
But she shook her head. "I have to." For them.
"What does that mean?" Voldemort asked, taking interest and walking towards her.
Peter pretended to follow him and tripped between Callie's clothes just so he could get her wand and hid it in his arms.
"It means what exactly it does," Callie explained. "I don't belong here, in this world. I belong to a world where this one is written in books. And I've read those books. That's how I know everything that I do."
Voldemort nodded, understanding the reason how she knew of the Horcrux and a way to destroy them. That was probably also how she persuaded Regulus, one of his dedicated followers.
"Then you know how I will achieve eternal immortality?"
"I don't-"
"Lies!" Bellatrux had no knowledge of whether she was telling the truth or not. But to her, anything that went against her belief got the Cruciatus Curse. And Callie went against her belief that she knew how to give Voldemort total immortality. Hence, Callie's yell echoed around the room again.
"No!" "Don't!" "Stop!" "Stop this!" "Stop!" "Let her go!" Their voices overlapped again.
And only when Bellatrix was satisfied did she stop. Callie panted but continue explaining.
"I don't know! Believe me! You already did the best anyone can think of, anyone can think of! Your Horcruxes! That's the farthest I know anyone can be immortal."
"And you destroyed them." His grave voice gave away his next step.
Callie pressed her eyes together and held onto the boys. She made she could feel them. At the very least, until her last breath, she knew they were just beside her.
Because Voldemort would kill them.
The past weeks Callie had been in that world flashed before her eyes. The painful event in the seaside cave, the search and destruction of the Gaunt Ring, the destruction of Helga Hufflepuff's cup, and their break into Gringgots. The destruction of Tom Riddle's diary and Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem. Fighting against that basilisk!
Even the small things like buying clothes that Bellatrix would wear, spending time with them, talking about chapters in their life she never knew, her meal deliveries, and them letting her borrow their clothes. Playing in the snow, receiving gifts, and spending Christmas with them. Staying in the Shrieking Shack, going into the Hogwarts castle, using the invisibility cloak.
She had nothing to regret. She knew she had spent all her time with her beloved characters and knew they were real. They became her friends and they loved her. And she found love too, with someone she never expected.
The only regret Callie had was failing. She had carefully planned then what she'd do to keep them all alive. For Harry to live with his parents. For James and Lily to get to parent him. For Peter to live truly free. For Remus to not be alone. For Sirius not to rot in Azkaban. And For Regulus not to die.
But why was it that no matter how hard she tried, she still failed? They were still on their knees, weak, battered. And in front of them was Voldemort, pointing his wand at all of them. The very person Callie swore she'd defeat to give the Marauders and Regulus the life she deserved.
And Callie understood it now. She was no hero. No matter what she did, she couldn't escape their destiny, could she? It was already written.
Even the time turner in her hand was no use. She couldn't even get up to run away and give herself time to turn around the time and give them another chance.
So even though she didn't want to, Callie knew she had to accept their impending death. But even in whatever afterlife she'd be, she would never forget the Marauders, Regulus, that world, the world she was born in, her family, her friends, and Bubbles.
Callie did so much with them starting at their first encounter. In the Gryffindor Common Room where she woke up after falling unconscious. She could never forget how one moment, she was in her room, holding her Marauders' Map in her Hogwarts Robe. She chanted, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."
Well, wouldn't it be nice to end her chapter in that world with the closing spell?
With one tear that left her eyes, Callie swallowed, slowly accepting defeat.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to the boys. "I love you," she whispered for her family in her world, leaving the wind to carry her message she would never be able to carry herself. Another tear fell to her cheek and she pulled her one last smile.
"Avada..." "Mischief..."
"Managed!" "Kedavra!"