Lily Snape [3]

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Chapter Twenty-Four: 

As my mind screamed 'idiot' for doing this, my heart swelled with pride for being brave enough to go through with it.  I didn't cry, I didn't scream, I made no noise as two Death Eater's dragged me out of the dungeons and through the house of the Malfoy's, into the room where I was usually brought to eat supper when I was held prisoner.  

"We found her in the dungeons, My Lord," One male voice, that I recognized as Yaxley's said as he bowed slightly to the monster in front of us.  

"Such a brave little child...coming back while knowing what we'd do to her when she did... or is it just stupidity?" Voldemort scoffed, his dead eyes glaring at me as I stood straight and looked him in the face. 

"Probably stupidity," I said, trying to sound as if I wasn't frightened at all, though in truth, my heard was pounding loudly inside of my chest.  I could practically feel it trying to escape through my ribcage, but I hoped that the others couldn't hear it, even if it was loud enough that the entire mansion very well could.  

"Kill her," The Dark Lord muttered, waving his hands as though to dismiss everyone in the room.  

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull after hearing those words, and though I wanted to argue for my life, my voice had left me in my time of need.  

Yaxley pulled his wand out before pointing it straight at my chest.  

"My Lord, perhaps she's more useful than you give her credit for.  Potter is quite fond of her, and if it gets out that we have her, perhaps he will come right to our doorstep to save her."   Closing my eyes, I silently thanked whoever it was who had spoken, knowing that those words would ensure my safety, or at the very least, my life.  

I couldn't die now, I was too young, I wanted to marry Fred, I wanted to live to be old and grey with him, I could not die.  Please let me live long enough to say 'I do', I prayed silently to anyone who would listen.  

The anger radiating from Voldemort was easily felt as he pulled out his wand and shot at the Death Eater who had spoken out for my life.  He fell to the ground and screamed in utter agony for several seconds before he was released from what was obviously the Cruciatus Curse.  

"You make a good point, but I will not tolerate you speaking against me, Lucius.  We tried that tactic before and she escaped, who is to say that she will not escape again?"  

"I'm sorry, My Lord, please forgive me.  I simply hoped to help in some way," Lucius Malfoy bowed, before standing upright once more.  "I believe she came for Lovegood, the girl in the dungeons, and if we take her wand, put a guard on her, it would be impossible for her to escape, as she will not leave without that girl."  

Every word he spoke was true, I'd never leave without Luna, and I could only hope that Voldemort realized it and left me with my life.  

"Very well, put a dementor in to guard her.  In the meantime, I believe some of you are getting restless, feel free to make a toy out of her. Let the word out that the girl has been caught, and she can be found here.  If Potter doesn't come and save her within the month, I'll kill her myself and feed her to Nagini."  

---

It was cold, so cold and lonely.  Every ounce of happiness I had just two days ago as I came to rescue Luna had left me, no doubt because of the thing that kept me from escaping.  I shivered in my makeshift bed, crying into the thin pillow as I thought of Fred, and of George, all the Weasley's, and Harry and Hermione.  I thought of Luna, wondered how she was doing.  

I thought about the fact that I'd never escape, I couldn't get away from a dementor, it was impossible.  The only person who could was my real father, and he.. well he was dead and couldn't help me all that much.

I'd been here only those two days, and I'd been given a month until I was killed, that left me with about 28 days. I was certain Harry wouldn't come for me, as he didn't even know I was captured, nobody had heard from him in ages and I was sure he hadn't talked to anyone besides Hermione and Ron as it was, otherwise more people would have reported him, told others how he was doing. 

That meant that I'd be dead by mid-april at the very latest, closer to the first week of April but I was hopeful that they wouldn't kill me right off.  

Stay hopefully. 

I could hear the Dementor moving, but that never meant much, it seemed to hate staying in one spot and was usually moving up and down the corridors of the dungeons.  I'd never known before this that Malfoy Manor had two sets of dungeons, but on one end is where Luna and the other two were, and I was on the other side completely.  

I heard nothing, I saw nothing and the only company I had was a soul-sucking monster. 

I had to find a way to keep my spirits up, or I knew that within a week, I'd have gone mad.  I already felt control over my sanity slipping with each moment I spent in the monster's presence.  I coudln't handle it, nobody could.  I felt so depressed, as if nothing was okay and nor would it ever be, nobody would save me, I'd be left in the dungeons to rot. 

I couldn't do it.  

Flipping over, I buried my head under my barely-existant blanket and attemted sleep.  

---

One week down, three weeks to go, my mind muttered as I woke up.  My sanity had long since left me, and I had to make marks on the wall to guess how many days I'd been here.  There was no light, no meals besides an occassional toss of molded bread, there was no anything.  I could only assume when another day had passed, but perhaps I'd only been in here three days, or maybe I'd been in here two weeks already. 

I wasn't sure, and I no longer cared.  

I'd given up any hope I had when my sanity left me, and I often conversed with the monster, just to have someone to talk to.  

I didn't know if it could understand me or even hear me, but I spoke nonetheless, and several times I'd become almost-suicidal and asked the dementor to 'kiss' me.  I hadn't though, not yet.  If it ever came to the point where I knew that I'd be killed by Voldemort, I'd ask for that one favour.  That one favour to make sure he didn't get the chance to gloat about my death and have another name on his large list of people he'd murdered.

I'd get a Dementor's Kiss when my time was getting short.  

As my stomach gnawed on itself, I began to cry.  From the pain, from the hunger, from the loss of sanity, the disgusting feeling of rat's crawling across me and bugs inside my skin.  I cried for all that I'd had and all that I'd lost, and for the first time in five days, I felt as if sanity had returned to me.  

It only lasted a moment.