ᴛʜʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴛʜᴇ ꜰᴏᴜʀᴛʜ ᴡᴀʟʟ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴜᴅᴇʀꜱ ᴇʀᴀ

xxxvi. avada kedavra

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.