~Albus~

It had been weeks. Who knew how many. Scorpius didn't get a copy of the paper often enough for us to really keep track of time. I was pretty sure it was January, or maybe February, but if someone had told me I'd been here for six months I would have believed them.

Every morning, I woke from one nightmare to another. Dreaming about my dad dying had almost become a relief, because for those moments I wasn't here. And I would have given nearly anything to not be here.

Recently, they'd taken to putting Colette in solitary confinement for days at a time. I suppose some people might have been glad for the break I got during those days, just sitting ignored in my cell with nothing to do but talk to Scorpius and worry. But honestly, I hated it. They could have been torturing her, hurting her, doing unspeakable things that I wouldn't even let myself think about. I was never quite sure that it was just solitary confinement until they'd inevitably brought her back—cursing up a storm most of the time, but otherwise unscathed.

And... though I felt guilty, the idea that maybe this time she'd actually broken always seemed to work its way into my head. I banished the thought immediately every time it showed its head, but it persisted anyway. And I couldn't help feeling horrible at this lack of faith in her. I never told her about it, obviously, and she never seemed to suspect anything. But I still felt so bad.

Of course, between the stints in solitary Colette and I were subjected to the normal torture routine. You know: Hurt Colette, just for fun, then get on to the real business of hurting me and forcing her to watch. Sometimes Welling showed up, sometimes not. Somehow he'd found people almost as sadistic as him to carry on in his absence.

Today was just like any other. They'd brought Colette back from solitary two hours ago (it had lasted three days, as far as Scorpius and I could keep track, and she told us they'd forced her to stay awake the whole time). She'd barely had time to fall asleep before the guards were bustling into our cells, yanking us to our feet and dragging us out.

Colette stumbled in the hallway. One of the guards grabbed her arm and jerked her back up so viciously that I was afraid she might fall. She tried to pull out of his grasp, seeming completely normal again, and told him to do something inappropriate. He just laughed, but I struggled to keep the concern off my face. Maybe the lack of sleep had affected her. Maybe today would be the day. It wasn't like Colette to show any sign of weakness, including unsteadiness.

Can't think like that, Al, I chided myself. It's going to be all right. She's going to be all right. And if she was struggling, that just meant I needed to be even stronger to make up for it. Not doubting her. How could I do that?

The guards took a sharp turn into the room we knew well by now, even though we seemed to take a different route to get here every time. As the they pushed us to opposite sides of the room, I tried to catch Colette's eye, shoot her an encouraging smile or something, but she was busy glaring at the guard who had finally let go of her arm to shove her toward the wall.

"I'd wipe that look off your face, missy," he snapped. "It'd be a shame if you made me angry, don't you think?"

Colette's glare hardened. Instead of answering, she spit at him. I bit my tongue, holding back a worried gasp. She didn't have to go antagonizing them at every turn, did she? Though I suppose I would've been more concerned if she hadn't, honestly.

The guard snarled at her as he wiped the spit from his shirt. "Think you're funny, do you?"

Quick as a snitch, his arm shot up, poised to slap her across the face. Colette didn't even flinch (though I did). She just tossed her head. "I do happen to think I'm funny, yes."

I winced and closed my eyes just in time to hear the sound of his hand against her cheek. When I opened them again, she had her hand pressed over her cheek, a red mark covering most of the side of her face. Now, she finally caught my eyes, and I saw a flash of concern before she glared back at the guard. "Is that the best you can do?"

"Definitely not," the man said, a cruel smile dancing its way across his face. He waved his wand toward the center of the room, and I instinctively took a step back as the barrier came crashing down. I braced myself for whatever horrible thing they were about to do to us.

The guard held his wand out and whispered a spell I couldn't hear. It was a little difficult to see through the shifting of the barrier. I squinted as what looked like little ropes of lightning began coming out of his wand, snaking up his arm. This couldn't be good.

He'd made the mistake of watching Colette for some kind of reaction, but she was just watching him with a hint of boredom. I still didn't know how she did it. Regardless, it seemed to annoy the guard. He swung his wand down and snapped it. The lightning, or electricity, or whatever it was, followed his movement, cracking against the floor like a whip. I started, mouth dropping open, but Colette just rolled her eyes as if the worst thing happened was that we were sitting in potions class and Lockley had just announced that we couldn't work with a partner.

"You got better places to be?" the man growled.

"Do you want me to answer that?" Colette asked, rolling her eyes again.

Apparently, the man didn't. He pulled his hand back, then swung the lightning whip forward and across Colette's face and chest.

Instead of doing what I assume a normal whip would do and falling back down after the initial crack, the tendrils of lightning seemed to grab hold of her. Colette let out a gasp of pain, following by sporadic, terrifying shaking that not even the shimmering of the barrier could cause. Somehow, she stayed upright, but her face was contorted in pain, seizing with the effects of whatever curse this was.

After several eternal seconds, then man pulled his wand back, and the glowing ends of the whip fell back. Colette was still shaking, but she leveled a glare at him even as she struggled to catch her breath. "You'll have to do better than that."

"It'd be my pleasure," the man said, grinning sadistically. He swung the whip again, and as he did, the wand of another guard standing behind Colette crackled to life, too. She swung hers at Colette as well, making my friend yell out in pain. After a few seconds, it appeared to drive her to her knees. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but it looked like the lightning was flowing directly into her, across her face and back and shoulders.

I couldn't help it; I ran at the barrier. "Stop it! Don't hurt her!" Of course, the guards ignored me, and Colette didn't seem to hear, thankfully. She would've been angry. But I felt like crying just watching this, Colette straining against the two lightning whips, crying out in pain over the crackling sound of the electricity. And I know that sounds ridiculous, because she was the one being hurt right then, and me crying about it would be making it all about me, but I really can't describe how horrible it is to watch your best friend be tortured like that, and be completely unable to do anything about it.

It seemed like way too long before they stopped. Colette was curled on the floor, twitching and shaking and struggling to breathe. I bit my lip, resisting the urge to ask if she was okay, or to scream at the guards for hurting her like that. The woman had leaned over her now. "Are you ready to cooperate?"

Colette coughed, and for a moment I worried that she wouldn't be able to answer at all. I almost let out a sigh of relief when I saw her head shaking slightly. "Screw off," she managed, her voice so faint I could barely hear it through the barrier.

The woman sniffed. "Fine." She reached down to grab Colette's arm and yank her up to a sitting position. "We'll try the boy."

I whimpered in spite of myself. Colette met my eyes, fully concerned now, and I tried to shoot her a brave smile, but I really don't think I pulled it off. I heard a crackling sound behind me. Was it better to see it coming? I didn't know. I closed my eyes tightly, hoping this would all be over soon. Maybe they'd knock me unconscious quickly this time, and I'd wake up in my cell hours from now and this would all be a horrible memory I could lock away and never think about again.

A crack, then fireworks exploding all over my body.

I think I might have screamed. Every cell was being ripped apart and thrown back together, it felt like.

I was being set on fire over and over and over again.

My head was going to explode.

The whole world was shattering.

The energy pulsing through me was eating me alive.

I couldn't feel anything at all.

I could feel everything all at once.

Then, finally, the black peace of being still, being just myself again. I was twitching, shaking. I could feel the cold stone underneath me through my clothes, my cheek pressed against the floor. I blinked my eyes open, and stars danced across my vision. I was dimly aware of people talking, movement around me. Colette, my mind urged. Don't let her break.

With a groan, I found my hands and pushed myself to sit up. My eyes darted around the room, trying to find her for a bit too longer before they actually did. "I'm all right, Colette," my voice said, though it felt just a little bit unconnected from my body.

Colette was watching me with her mouth pressed into a firm line. She clearly didn't believe me, though I couldn't tell if the guards knew that. "I know you are."

"Don't give in."

"I'm not."

"That's unfortunate."

I jumped at the sound of Welling's voice; I hadn't even known he was in the room. I found him a little quicker than I'd found Colette. He was standing by the door on Colette's side of the barrier, frowning at her. "Very unfortunate," he continued. "I suppose you're set on that?"

She told him to do something that I would've had to give her detention for back at school, which just made Welling narrow his eyes, unamused. "Have I mentioned to you, St. Pierre, that we will release your young friend here if you cooperate?"

A lie, and an obvious one at that. I expected her to immediately laugh that off, but Colette seemed caught off guard for a moment. Maybe I was the only one who could tell, maybe it was just the intense lack of sleep, but when she glanced at me I felt like I saw a little bit of waver in her eyes.

"Colette, that's ridiculous," I protested. "He's obviously lying. And even if he wasn't, it's not worth it. Don't even think about it."

"I know that," Colette said firmly. She frowned at me, then her expression deepened into a glare as she turned back to Welling. "I'll die before doing anything you want. Albus will, too."

Welling chuckled, to my annoyance. "Why don't you sleep on the offer, then?" He waved his hand dismissively, and a few of the guards stepped forward to haul me to my feet and prod us both towards the door.

I resisted the urge to turn around and try to guess what Colette was thinking as we walked down the twisting halls. Surely she knew he couldn't be telling the truth. How could they just release me back into the public without exposing the truth of what was going on at the detention centers? They couldn't. And they wouldn't get rid of their leverage on her that easily, either. She had to know all that, right?

Scorpius was asleep when we were deposited back into our cells. As the guards marched back down the hall, I clambered up as close as I could to the bars. "Colette, you're not thinking about that, are you?"

"About what?" she asked dully, sitting down against the wall across from me.

I sank to the ground next to the bars. "They're not going to release me. He was lying. You're not considering giving in over that, are you?"

She didn't look up. "Of course not."

"He can't be trusted. And even if he could, I wouldn't want you to do that." I grabbed the bars, leaning forward desperately. "I'd rather be here, being tortured and hurt with you, than know you broke down for my sake. You believe that, right?"

For a long moment, Colette didn't answer. She was staring at the ground, I thought, tapping her fingers against the bars of her cell. I resisted the urge to keep arguing the point, because that probably wasn't going to help. Finally, she sighed and glanced up. Her eyes were so sorrowful that I suddenly found my own growing misty. "It's okay if that's not true, Al. It's okay if you'd rather be anywhere else. You don't deserve to be here."

"Neither do you."

She shrugged. "Doesn't change the fact that it's okay if you wish you could leave. And... and maybe you could? Maybe—"

"Colette, he was lying. He's not going to release me any more than he's going to release you. The best he'd do is move me to another cell block and lie to you about it, and then we'd both be worse off than we are now."

I shook my head, feeling at a loss just a bit what had gotten into her? Wasn't this obvious? I noticed again the black circles under her eyes as she closed them, seeming pained. Right. She'd had less than two hours of sleep in over three days. Of course it wasn't obvious to her. "You're not thinking straight right now," I said gently, pursing my lips and bracing myself for a storm at that accusation. "You're exhausted. Try to sleep, please? We can talk about this again later, when you're rested."

To my surprise, Colette didn't argue. Instead, she nodded slowly, shot me a sad smile. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I'm sorry you're here."

"You didn't have anything to do with that," I said soothingly. "Get some rest, okay?"

She nodded again, and I watched until she'd stumbled over to her cot before I got up and walked to mine. I think she was out within five minutes, but I found myself unable to sleep, staring up at the stars I could see through the skylight. Wishing I was home.

~~~~

Question of the Day: What's your favorite movie soundtrack?

Answer: How to Train Your Dragon is just quality, man (and not just the soundtrack!). But a very nostalgic runner up would be any Star Wars movie,

Vote and comment!

~Elli

Word count: 2567