Marooned - Fred Weasley

Chapter 30: Foe

TW: Crucio Curse and burning

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She woke up in a cluttered and dark space, her head spinning, throbbing again.

"Ugh, people really are keen on knocking me out," she mumbled, putting a hand over her head, wincing when she touched it. She definitely won't be doing that again. What had happened? She heard a grunt, realized she wasn't alone in the dark.

"Argh!" she shrieked and then a person shushed her.

"It's all right," they said.

"Where am I? Who are you?" she squinted, trying to see something through that darkness. It seemed to be a corpulent man, but she wasn't sure.

"I'm Alastor Moody, who are you?"

"What?" her voice became high pitched again and he shushed her again.

"I'm the real Alastor Moody, whomever you've met is an impersonator," he said.

Sarah's brain bleeped, remembering that the person she thought was her professor attacked her.

"I'm-I'm Sarah McCauley," she breathed out, sitting up and resting her back against a cold surface.

"McCauley? Lyana and Daniel's daughter?" he asked.

Her breath hitched, "Yes."

"What a small world."

She snorted, slapping the cold wall, "Literally, yes."

"Who is he then?" she asked.

She heard him grunt, and she was taken aback by how well that impersonator had been mimicking him all those months.

"He's Barty Crouch's son. Death Eater. Undercover, and-"

A small light broke through the darkness, and she looked up, they were deep underground. Sarah was lifted off the ground and up until she was out of there, and chained to a wall.

"What the hell?" she tried to pull on the chains and looked at him.

"I suppose you've already figured some part of the story, now," he points his wand at her, "Let's start."

"Crucio"

Sarah screamed, as she felt her skin burn. A million daggers stab her at once, there wasn't any more blood coursing through her, but inflammable liquid and it caught fire, burning her from within. She couldn't breathe, and the last thing she remembered before blacking out from the pain was her parents' voices, Be brave, I love you.

That night was restless, horrifying, Crouch, although he had Moody's appearance, used the Cruciatus Curse whenever she regained consciousness. Sarah had never felt this kind of pain before, even though he used it relentlessly, it never got better, she screamed her throat raw until she couldn't get out a sound anymore. The curse hurt her all over again, at the same intensity.

But after the fourth time, something seemed to not suffice, because he was furious.

He picked up a torch, "Incendio" and turned to her, "I do apologize, Miss McCauley, you're quite the gifted witch," he shrugs, "Look at what I'm saying, all sentimental. This scum of a traitor is starting to affect my morals."

"As if you ever had morals," said Sarah weakly, her vision coming in and out of focus. She then realized he was holding a lit up torch, hoping, praying it was to add to the light and not something else.

"Now, now, if you're well enough to snap snarky comments, I haven't been doing a very good job," he spat and started walking towards her with the torch.