𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘺 𝘞𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝄂︎❂︎𝄃︎ 𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘓𝘶𝘱𝘪𝘯

Chapter Fifty - A Phoenix and An Escape

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Edith spent all afternoon and all night in that cage. She laid on the ground in the corner of the cell. Her knees were tucked to her chest. Her fingers traced over her mate mark as she tried to find some sort of comfort.

She had been gone for almost ten hours. Though to her, she had no idea how long it had been. There were no windows and the Death Eaters on her patrol were silent. As the hours passed, she spent the entirety occluding. She'd only slept for a half hour to reach Remus, but stayed awake the rest of the time.

She needed to plan a route of escape. There had to be a time when the death eaters would falter and she could take them down. There had to be.

Severus walked out of the basement, having caught sight of Edith and immediately turning around. "So it is true... they have her." He whispered to Narcissa who walked next to him. They had made their way to an empty hallway.

"She's been silent since she got here. Severus, they're going after her child next. We can't let them." Narcissa held onto her arm. She was a death eater, yes. But she was a woman first. And an almost-mother... having had over three miscarriages trying to carry her own child.

She sympathized with Edith. She was so young, like herself. All she wanted to do was protect her family.

"They could go after Lily and Regulus as well. Regulus has the entire black fortune. And Lily is just some muggleborn standing in the Dark Lords way. I saw into her memories... she'll go insane in that cell. You don't know what they did to her in that lab." He told her solemnly. He knew what it was like to be trapped. But to be thrown back into a lab where you were tortured for ten years... he couldn't imagine having to relive that.

"We'll figure something out. For now... we can only hope."

~~

Remus barely slept. He hadn't left Potter Manor. The Marauders had stayed with him as much as they could. James and Sirius were in training to be Aurors and Peter had a job at a muggle bakery. Lily and Regulus were the only two that were around constantly.

Everyone chipped in to help with Juliet. They knew Remus was suffering. When Edith was in the cave he looked dead inside. And that was before he was magically bound to her.

Now with their mate bond sealed he felt like an entire part of him was missing.

She had begged... pleaded with him not to find her. It took everything in him not to scour the entire wizarding world for her. He could feel Moony coming closer and closer to the front every hour without her.

~~

Edith had been gone for 24 hours. They gave her the meager minimum of food. She did everything to distract herself. Pacing, counting, reciting potion ingredients.

She couldn't let herself sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she just saw the lab. She saw every child that died as a result of the same experiment done to her. She saw that doctor's face as he pointed a wand at her face just before a green light flooded her vision.

Eventually, under Tom's orders, a few DeathEaters were sent in to try and torture her daughters location from her. They used multiple curses, most notable of which was the crucio. Thanks to the sessions she had with Regulus at her treehouse at Hogwarts, she had a bit of a tolerance built up.

Magic wasn't the only thing. No, that would be far too easy. Voldemort let the doctor run a few tests on her. She tried to fight but they bound her to the wall while they stuck her with various needles.

As much as she wanted to be strong, she was not built of stone. She'd break. She'd cry. She'd scream. She'd beg. She'd wish for them to just end her.