Piper's body began to quake when she heard footsteps come down the stairs. She knew this routine like the back of her hand at this point (and it had barely been a week):
1. Bellatrix would come downstairs to retrieve her
2. Piper would be dragged upstairs
3. She would get tortured by Bellatrix for information
4. Piper would return to the basement and cry herself to sleep
Her pale hands began to shake and she tucked her knees into her chest, awaiting the awful presence of Bellatrix Lestrange. But something was different today: there were multiple pairs of feet walking down the cement stairs, she was sure of it. She knew what to expect when it was just Bellatrix, but now that it was multiple people, Piper began to panic even more.
"Oh, God." She thought to herself as the footsteps drew nearer, "This is it, they are finally going to all torture me together and kill me. Narcissa, Lucius, and Bellatrix -- I am going to die today. This is it. Oh my God."
She hugged her knees as hard as she could and tucked her head into her chest, not wanting the Death Eaters to see her cry before they killed her.
"That's her?" A new voice asked apprehensively. A man- no, a boy.
Piper peeked her head up slowly and looked through her dirty curls that fell on her face. It was Narcissa who stared at her with no expression, Bellatrix with a smirk, and a blonde boy in a black suit who looked no older than her. He glared at her while she tried to slow down her breathing.
"This will be another one of your tasks, Draco." Bellatrix cooed into the blonde boy's ear while he shuddered, "Fail to accomplish this task, and I will handle it...accordingly." She laughed maniacally.
Draco.
Their eyes met. His blue eyes remained unreadable as he turned to his mother.
"What do you want me to do?" He asked in a determined voice, his voice unwavering.
"She is the cousin of Hermione Granger. We have been watching the Grangers closely for the past 4 years, they are very close. You are to find out any information about any of Potter, Weasley, and Granger's plans. When the time comes, if needed, we will use her to lure them here." Narcissa explained sternly, "Do not fail the Dark Lord, Draco. After the...incident...with your father going to Azkaban, your father has not been the same. The Dark Lord will kill us, Draco, if another Malfoy fails him. Don't forget, you still have to deal with Albus."
Draco's jaw stiffened and he felt his whole chest tense. Killing Dumbledore was something he knew he would never be able to do, and if he did, he anxiously anticipated how he would have to live with that haunting memory for the rest of his life. This was his last chance. If he didn't successfully get information from her, he would be punished. And even worse, if he didn't kill Dumbledore within the next month, him and his family would be killed. Though when he thought about it, death didn't seem so bad after what he had gone through in the past year.
"You will begin working with her immediately." Narcissa said to Draco after unlocking the door to the basement cell. She spun on her heel and went to leave, not wanting anything more to do with the situation. Bellatrix smiled maliciously and licked her black teeth,
"Done miss me too much, muggy-muggle." She taunted Piper as she followed her sister upstairs, leaving Draco and Piper alone.
Piper remained hugging her knees as she stared at the boy, waiting for him to do something. He stared at her for a minute before coming in and locking the door behind him. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribcage as he slowly walked towards her. His hands were in his pockets, his jaw was clenched, and he looked down at her. She felt herself involuntarily scooting backwards away from him until her back hit the stone wall. He watched her carefully the whole time. He watched how her fingers trembled slightly trembled, how her chest was rising and falling rapidly from fear, how her curls fell against her shoulders.
"You resemble your cousin." Was the first thing he said to her.
She stared at him unsure of how to respond.
"Name?" He asked as he towered over her.
"P-Piper." It came out as a whisper, for her throat was sore from all the screaming she had done due to the torture of Bellatrix.
"Piper." He repeated to himself quietly.
"You look l-like your father." She whispered. Apparently saying this triggered something within Draco, because she watched an unfamiliar look sweep over his eyes then, just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.
"Yes." He responded stiffly. The tension was awful, the silence was unbearable, and the two teenagers both had a million thoughts racing through their heads. Neither one knew what to do, it was as if they could both sense that the other was broken. Draco could just see it based on the way her body looked, but he could also hear it in her voice whenever she tried to speak. Piper could see it in his pale blue eyes that he had dealt with his fair share of suffering too, because the skin under his eyes was dark and deep and there was a glimmer of pain that lingered in his face.
"What are Granger, Weasley, and Potter planning to do against the Dark Lord?" He asked.
Confusion swept over her face. So many names, so much unknown, yet for some reason everyone thought she had the answers. She was familiar with Potter and Weasley, of course, but she didn't even know what Draco wanted to hear.
"I-I don't know."
He let out a breath of aggression and tore his gaze from her. He couldn't stand to look at her a second longer.
"That will be all for today." He muttered and turned on his heel without bothering to look back at the shaking girl.
He opened the door with his wand and locked it behind him, and just like that, he was gone. No more questioning, no torturing, nothing. Piper let out a breath she realized she had been holding in and she let go of her legs. A sob that wracked her whole chest suddenly came out of nowhere and she couldn't seem to stop. She buried her face in her dirty hands.
This was her life now. This was where she was going to die. Everyone she knew probably thought she was dead, and they were right to think that considering she would be in due time. She was in a world she was not even slightly familiar with and she felt so trapped, so alone. Whenever Hermione had described her life in the magical world, she somehow failed to mention that bad parts of it, such as the situation Piper was in now.
Piper thought magic was for witches and wizards to do good, not to torture innocent people. But that was the reality of Hermione's world, and she had done her best to shield Piper from it all her life. Piper curled up into a ball on the floor and let her drowsiness and pain take over as she slipped into yet another sleep filled with nothing but nightmares.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
Draco raked his hand through his hair as he made it up the top of the stairs. He was exhausted emotionally from dealing with the never ending stress of being a Death Eater, and physically from spending time fixing the vanishing cabinet and apparating to the Manor.
"Draco." The strained voice of his father spoke. He saw his father sitting at the table with his mother, and he gestured for him to come join them.
Clearing his throat, the blonde boy walked over to the table and sat at the end near his father.
"Yes, Father?"
Lucius Malfoy looked ill. Ill was an understatement-- he looked dead. He was an absolute mess and clearly he had seen some things in Azkaban that ruined whatever was left of the man. He turned to look at Draco, a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips.
"You are to befriend the muggle, Draco." He drawled out.
Draco's nose flared, "I beg your pardon?" he asked, trying to control his temper.
There was no way that he would befriend the muggle. He could barely stand anyone who wasn't a pure-blood because that was the way he was raised. In another life, perhaps Draco could have been friends with a half-blood, mudblood, or even a muggle. But Draco's heart and mind were too far gone; they were much too ruined now to be changed. He had not had a "real" friendship in years; the closest he had come to one had been with his classmate Theodore Nott. Unfortunately, becoming a Death Eater had ruined the friendship (among other things) on both ends. Because of the tattoo on his arm, he would never have another normal relationship ever again.
"You are to, at least, pretend to befriend her. Pretend to care for her. Make stories up to open up to her about. She needs to trust you and then we will know what she knows about Potter and his friends. She needs to think that you are different, Draco," Lucius paused and took a shaky breath before leaning in close to his son, staring into his eyes, almost pleading, "You are this family's last hope."
Draco uncomfortably looked towards his mother who simply nodded at him, encouraging him to really listen to what his father was saying. Knowing this was yet another situation he had absolutely no control over, he turned back to his father and nodded.
"Pretending," He said as he looked his father in the eyes, "I can pretend. You have my word, Father."