- There was no other option but to live.
Third Pov:
They'd all been taken hostage.
Handcuffed and wrapped in chains. The group of friends were all shoved forward. Their only hope was that Avery mentioned to the Aurors their disappearance so that there would be rescue parties.
The handcuffs nullified their magic. No one could cast a single solitary spell whilst they were in those handcuffs.
Tom had knelt beside Valentine, his eyes hard like stone. He raised her into his arms, just allowing himself to feel the rise and fall of her chest. An indication that she was alive. An indication that his light hadn't been shut out. He held her on his lap, her head falling limply to the side.
Credence had ceased her convulsions and she just lay there.... almost dead. Her hair billowed around her, blood staining her clothes and her pale skin.
"Wake up." He hisses at her. "Dumbledore wake up." However she remained as limp as she had before.
Credence stalks towards them, eyes blazing in hatred and a need to hurt.
"Get that thing up!" Credence scowls down at the girl.
Tom ignores him, and instinctively holds her closer to him.
"Did you hear me!?"
"Are you speaking to me?" Tom answers, lip curling up in a mocking smirk. This causes the Obscurial to hiss in fury.
"Give it to me." Credence snaps at him, lunging to grab Valentine. Without moving or looking up from Valentine's face, Credence goes flying with an unspoken spell.
"HOW DARE YOU!!!?" Credence roars.
"Enough." Grindelwald waves a hand to the boy, giving him a warning look.
"But-"
"No. Enough." Grindelwald states and then holds up a pair of handcuffs. He straps them on Valentine's wrists and then throws another pair at Tom's feet.
"Put them on." The man orders not bothering to pay attention to the boy anymore. He'd considered Tom a threat before but now that he had Valentine in his grasp, Tom was no longer a threat.
He had the boy in a chokehold and he wasn't letting him go anytime soon.
Tom doesn't move his gaze from the girl in his arms. He reaches over and straps the cuffs on himself wordlessly.
"Damn you Dumbledore." Tom demands. "Did you have to go and faint on us."
"She's mentally scarred Thomas." The voice was deep and dark. It was airy, and would've caused anyone else to run screaming. "That bastard can control her..... control her because of me. I will DESTROY HIM. The second he dies there will be every torment of hell waiting to eternally destroy him."
"Abaddon." Tom's voice was smooth. "How lovely to finally meet you."
"Don't act curt with me boy. She's hurt. They know about me. They know she's part demon. They will hurt her."
"Why would I care?" The defensive retort comes as a second nature. He shouldn't care. He usually didn't care whether a baby was bleeding out in front of him and yet....
"Shut up Riddle. I swear I have no idea why she decided to fall in love with you." The demon scowls under his breath.
Tom felt like he'd been punched in the stomach.
"She what? "
"You act as if you didn't know." Abaddon's voice was dry and mocking. "She loves you with every ounce of her soul. She'd die for you a million times over. The sun rises and rests with your stupid smile boy. If there was ever someone trying to hurt you, she'd be the very first person trying to protect you."
Abaddon was telling him things he should have already known. But hearing them being told to him was a different tale. He knew she would die for him. He'd seen her protect him faithfully for so long.
No one had ever loved him before.
Tolerated him... took care of him sure.... but love? No. That was not a luxury that had been given to young Tom Riddle.
Even his own mother had resigned to killing herself rather than caring for him.
A loveless marriage.
A love potion that cursed him to live without love.
No one had ever loved him. No one should be able to love him and yet there she was.
His miracle.
"Then take care of your god damn miracle. You only get one."
Tom ignores Abaddon and then using his cuffed hands, he lifts Valentine into his arms. Her head flops to the side, hair flailing like a river of black.
The scene was breathtaking. No words could describe the utter and heart wrenching pain that was emitting from the couple.
Did Tom love her?
Tom couldn't look at her. Couldn't look down to see her limp, pale, almost dead body. She was so strong and now she looked helpless. Anyone who knew Valentine Dumbledore knew she was anything but helpless.
As as he marched through the debris of the Inn, the flames licking and hissing at their sides, he felt no pain. The emptiness at having no magic affected him not. It was all because of her.
In his arms. In this moment there was nothing, no one except the pair.
Tom was leading them towards a terrible, ugly fate but they were dreadfully beautiful. The dark, emotionless boy dressed in pain and the still girl soaked in blood as red as the dress she wore.
All eyes seemed to be on the boy in handcuffs, holding up his little miracle. He was chained, bloody, weary and enraged but this moment in this moment he'd never ever felt so free.
Valentine:
I couldn't breathe.
There was such an intense agony that was spreading through my body. It ate at my stomach expanding and expanding, boiling my blood like I was on fire. I was aware of screaming. Someone was screaming.
The wails were horrendous. Like someone was dying. They were like sirens that spread goosebumps on one's skin. It rose in volume so so sharply, my heart skipped a beat. The screams were continuous, pained, torturous.
And then. she realized that she was the one screaming.
She was aware of her own body flopping around like a fish. Electrocution she realized. They were torturing her. She was floating above her own body, staring down at it like it was a foreign vessel.
Was she dead?
No death shouldn't be so painful. Plus Abaddon would've been lost forever and she could still feel him in the back of her mind. A second pulse inside her.
They were taking blood from her like she was some sort of lab rat. Her Christmas party dress had been replaced with a white hospital gown. Her legs were bare and littered with scars and cuts.
They had a special appreciation for the scars on her back though. They pocked and prodded at them until their was a river of blood on the floor.
They drained her of blood. Trying to see what made her so powerful. Even without Abaddon she was powerful and they wanted to know why. They wanted to know why Abaddon had chosen her.
They wanted an army.
Ariana was strapped into a bed beside her. She was fully awake, staring at everyone in horror. The innocence in her eyes had long been lost and she was screaming.
Her screams added to mine in a haunting and mourning symphony.
They were draining her of blood too.
Gold on red.
A beautiful colour combination on their own but the creation of such beauty was heinous.
"MOMMY!!!" She was crying out for me. "DADDY HELP!!!" My eyes stung with tears. Tom. Was he alright!? Where was he?.... Aberforth.
I could feel myself floating through the walls and then I was floating in a prison cell. The sight made my heart stop.
This was a prison. Inside adjacent cells were all my friends.
They were thrown into random cells. They were starving and bloody.
Abby looked like she hadn't slept in days, eyes sunken. She rested her head on Pandora's shoulder. Pan's eyes were closed, a grimace on her too pale face.
Greta was sobbing quietly into her hands. I realized they could hear all the screaming. Every single one of them was handcuffed. Every single one of them had bruises adorning their faces.
Myrtle was lying on the floor. Cuts were scattered all over her upper arms. Cuts only I could see. She was cutting herself. The screams were haunting her. Reminding her of her past. The only one that could keep her sane in this hell was Greta but Greta was fighting demons of her own. She couldn't spare any of her usual happiness to Myrtle because it was all used up.
Claude was frantic. He was moving back and forth, pacing like a madman, hands in front of him cuffed. Aberforth was sitting to his side. His head following Claude's movements back and forth back and forth.
Rosier had his head in Chris's lap. He was silent, a grimace on his lips. "They haven't stopped screaming. It's been three days." Rosier suddenly says. Chris was running his hands through Rosier's hair like it calmed him. They'd gotten together. All this chaos had pushed them together.
"They're being tortured." The voice causes shivers to spread all over my body. Tears whelm up in my eyes.
Tom was handcuffed. He stood in the corner. Tall and proud. Eyes trained on a spot on the wall. His hands were in fists and his eyes were black. Not the soft brown they had been when I'd last seen him.
"Three days." Nott hisses, covering his face. "Good god. They're kids. We're kids. What's wrong. with them?" He snaps.
"Powerful kids." Aberforth was staring down at the floor, utterly exhausted. He looked beaten down and I knew that he hadn't gone down without a hell of a fight.
"You think Avery has realized we're missing yet?" Abby's voice quivers.
"He'd better. Else you need a new boyfriend." Lestrange grumbles, exhausted. They all had burnt marks on them as if they'd been caught in a fire.
Lestrange's blue eyes were trained on Danielle who'd gotten caught up in all this mess as well.
Tom hadn't been caught. He'd given up. I knew it in my heart like someone had told me directly. He'd given up his wand and put those handcuffs on himself.
"He gave up when Grindelwald threatened to kill you." The voice comes from behind me and I whirl around, eyes going wide in horror.
"Lilly." I breathe.
Her answering smile was mindblowing. "Lilly!? LILLY!? Is that you!?" The tears finally escaped and I lunge to hug her.
I could finally hug her.
I wrap my arms around her sobbing. "I can hug you! I can hug you!!" I was frantic. "How!? Wait am I dead?" I gasp, jerking back.
Lilly's stunning eyes gaze up at me and she shakes her head. "No. Not yet." She says grimly. "Those screams are indicative of your life."
I was still screaming... she was right.
"Wait so why am I....?" I gesture to my floating legs.
"Why are you floating around?" Lilly asks dryly, her beautiful red hair flickering like fire. "Because this is your subconscious. Grandmother Helga gave you Seer powers no?" Lilly muses and I nod.
"Yes but that entails seeing the future... I couldn't talk to the d-...." I pause seeing the look in her eyes. "-to you before..." I finish lamely.
"Talk to the dead. Go ahead. Say it little sister."
"Why though?" I ask.
She strides away and I follow her anxiously. She walks straight through the wall and out of the prison my friends were being kept in.
"Lilly!? LILLY!? Wait!!" I run after her and burst through the wall she'd walked through only to find myself in a whole other place.
Heat, dreaded heat engulfs my whole being and I'm left dehydrated like a camel in the dessert. The whole scene was black. Lava covered the ground every inch of it and everywhere were demons. Demons like Abaddon.
People walking around in chains.
Screams so much more terrible than those I'd been hearing before ring in my ears, making them want to bleed from the high pitch of the them.
Lilly turns to look at me, her red hair matching perfectly with the lava all around her.
"Welcome to Hell little sister."
- Hell is where the living are.