"When senseless acts of tragedy reminds us that nothing is promised. Not one day." -Lin Manuel Miranda

Jasmine was tired. She could feel her entire body filled with aches and pains from painful spells and knives and screaming and those stupid fucking shackles. Every day was the same thing.
Lucius Malfoy would say,"Where is Sirius Black?"
She replied with, "Go to Hell."
He'd cast some variation of another painful spell before asking again,"Where is Sirius Black?"
"Go to Hell."
It was a vicious never ending cycle--approximately 128 minutes...she counted--after the he left. Fenrir Greyback would sneak in and try to have his way with her. She wouldn't make a sound, and eventually Lucius would come down before he actually hurt her.
Today, however, Lucius didn't come down at all. No interrogation. No painful spells. No screaming. Only the stupid fucking shackles remained. That is, until Fenrir came down.
He put a blindfold over her eyes, tying it so tightly she felt as if she couldn't even blink. This was certainly different from every other day. He started touching her; she told him to stop. He didn't listen. There was no door opening, no voice telling Fenrir to be on his way, nothing. She was completely and utterly alone as his teeth tore into her flesh, and she screamed.

Sirius hadn't moved in two days. He had stood in the same spot, the letter gripped so tightly that he thought it might rip. He didn't care at that point. He was in the exact same spot when Kreacher brought in another letter. He tore into it, hoping and praying that Jasmine had been found.

Dear Sirius,

Oh, no. This was another ransom letter. Please, dear God, let Jasmine be okay.

I am afraid that you did not do as I asked. You did not call off the search mission. I am sorry that your wife had to be punished for your disobedience, but these things do happen. I am afraid that I could not stop Fenrir as he went savage and attacked her. He sadly got past my guards, and he bit her. We currently do not know if she became infected, but we do know that she will never come home to you. You see, everyone here has grown quite attached to the little spitfire. She brightens up a room. Plus, the boys do love to play with her. But don't worry...if she does in fact contract the disease, we will take care of it. Take out the trash, so to speak. Well, until next time.

Sirius could feel his heart stop in his chest at the thought of Jasmine going through that alone. The pain he felt was like a white hot branding iron was being pressed into his heart, cutting off his ability to breathe or function without her near. He knew he shouldn't care about her. She obviously didn't care what happened to him when she left. But there was a voice in his head saying, What if she actually did have a good reason? No. He couldn't think like that. The very thought would kill him. Knowing that she wasn't here and that he couldn't save her was nearly enough to knock him to his knees. How was he supposed to keep living when his life was having hers taken away? What did life mean if anything you did to get that one person to see you failed? What did living mean if you couldn't save the one person who had been able to save you from yourself? The answer? Nothing. It all meant nothing if the one person you actually cared about died anyway. If you did everything just right and you still failed, then what did anything matter? Life meant nothing if no one was there to see you succeed and cheer you on, even when you failed.
Sirius Black could not remember the last time before this day that he had allowed himself to cry. He knew that he must have been a small boy, before he had any feeling beat out of him. Before he was told that boys don't cry. But, he finally let the tears fall.
He cried for all of the loss he had suffered. He cried for Lily, James, Jessica, even Harry. He cried for Remus and Jasmine. He even cried for himself. The tears kept falling, and he didn't bother to wipe them away.
He finally let himself feel all of the pain that he had grown accustomed to, keeping it locked away. He finally knew that he couldn't always be strong. Sometimes allowing himself to cry and feel pain made him stronger still. He soon found himself out of reasons for his tears, but still they did not cease. He continued to cry until well after the sun had set...until he fell into a restless sleep.