The Dark Gryffindor

sjauthor: There are dozens of ways I think Voldemort can still break into the room virtually undetected. He can break in, but can he change what the room becomes? I think not...because the D.A. has put other protectives wards on it. Thanks for your review!


Note: I’m positive that I’m at least half-way done writing the story here!!!


Chapter Twenty-Three: Harsh Interrogation


Valerie felt like skipping as she walked through the Hogwarts halls. She had just received an ‘O’ on her Charms test today and Professor Flitwick had been very kind to her about how to study for the N.E.W.T so she could get Outstanding on the important exam coming up in June. So she had lost herself in the library studying again.

By the time dinnertime was drawing near she decided she would go back to the Room of Requirement to change out of her uniform and hopefully relax in her multi-coloured hammock. Besides that she knew she didn’t have the protean charm anymore and she certainly was aware of the implications of what Voldemort could do. Perhaps she should ask Voldemort to magic her a duplicate, but she supposed it was probably difficult to get him to do anything for another.

Passing the statue of Paracelsus, her robes whipped around the corner to where the entrance was. Her heart nearly stopped and she gasped. Instinctively her hand went towards her pocket, to her wand.

“Run and we’ll stun you Powers!” said a man’s hard voice. It was the real Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Amycus Carrow. He and the other Carrow were standing directly in front of the blank stretch of wall, both of them had their wands raised and ready, now pointing them straight at Valerie. It was too late. There was nothing she could do to stop them. Apparently there was a meeting going on and the Carrows knew it. The question was: how did they find out? And what was going to happen to her now?

She froze in horror. She watched as the two squat Carrows came marching right over to her at a slow pace. Defiant and trying to sound brave despite her fear, she asked, “What did you do? Corner us all? Going to get us expelled?!”

“No…Unfortunately it won’t work that way!,” said Alecto, nastily.

And Amycus said heartily, “Loyal to them bunch aren’t you, missy?”

“Yeah, I guess I am!”

And the Carrows stopped before her. They came down on her. Hard. They each grabbed an elbow, holding her in the crook of their pudgy arms. At once, they took her in stride. Valerie felt a whoosh of cold panic and dread. Something about this felt even worse than the many detentions the Carrows had given her.

They went down many flights of stairs. Despite being squat, the Carrows proved to be strong. They had pulled Valerie a couple of inches off the ground as they went down the stairs, her toes only grazing the steps. Valerie was a few inches taller than the witch and the wizard wasn’t much taller than herself.

Alecto spoke in a wheezy voice, complaining in a shrilly exasperation, “You didn’t bring a back-up? A prefect or Filch could have waited to handle them. Now they’ll be free to leave!”

Clearly she was speaking to Amycus. “I don’t know. Don’t matter. We got her captured. Now everything is small matter, right? She’ll tell us everything.”

Now Valerie intervened. “The only thing I’m telling you is this: “The D.A. is safe. They know the spell that detects a human presence! They're much less ignorant than you lot!" Valerie managed to laugh bravely for their stupidity.

Alecto grabbed her and twisted her around to face her. Her fat little hand slapped Valerie for insulting their intelligence. It hit her with a great deal of force, her cheeks swelling.

A moment later Valerie felt the cold panic consume her again. She had not expected to be caught. “Where are we going?”

“My office,” said Alecto swiftly.

“No,” Valerie managed calmly, and not like she was begging, “No. Take me to Snape. To the headmaster. He’ll do whatever you want to me. I swear!”

It was Alecto’s turn to laugh now. She chortled, “Like we want Snape getting involved!”

“He knows enough,” spat Amycus bitterly.

Valerie did not understand what they meant about Professor Snape. She wasn’t comprehending this situation much at all. What were they going to do to her? And what the bloody hell did they want?

For a couple of minutes they continued throughout the corridors somewhere in the castle, near the Muggle Studies classrooms. Finally, they came to a small room. “Alohomora!,” said Alecto. The door burst open and Amycus pushed Valerie in. She got a good look around the room. She had not been here for over a month, since the last time she reported for detention, in which she and others were always taken down to the dungeons. Things had changed. It looked worse than ever. Hundreds of papers were strewn all over the floor. Valerie got a closer look and saw they were students' work that had gone ungraded, some of them dating months ago.

“What are you looking at?” jeered Amycus. “Get yourself seated,” he grunted and pointed at an ominous chair, in the center of the room, behind Alecto’s desk.

Valerie grounded her teeth and glared at the Death Eater. But she obeyed. First throwing off whatever junky stuff was on the chair. She sat down on the edge.

Alecto came over, her wand out and said almost pleasantly, “Lie back. Lie back, I say.”

She forced herself to lay back, her feet propped up. It looked kind of like she was reclining in a muggle dentist chair. Alecto took Valerie’s hands in hers, and she shuddered at the awful touch. Alecto put them over the armrests. At once, the witch waved her wand, and little chains came to life, holding Valerie’s forearms down.

The wizard, Amycus spoke first, “I know you know things about the Room of Requirement. And you’re in the resisters camp now…”

“I told you not to begin with questioning like that, moron! I told you we couldn't afford to let Powers in on what we know!,” squabbled Alecto with Amycus. It was clear the Co-Deputy Headmasters could not get along, despite being brother and sister.

Valerie kept her teeth gritted. “Believe me – I already guessed that!”

They both ignored her comment. Amycus groaned, “Will you just Imperiuse the girl? Get on with it.”

Alecto raised her wand and took a deep breath, furrowing her brow. “Imp-“

“WAIT!,” Valerie screamed, mustering as much alarm in her tone as she possibly could. “Are you acting on Vol- the Dark Lord’s orders?”

The Carrows looked across from each other, each hovering at Valerie’s side. The two Death Eaters shared a matching menacing smile, but while both malicious, Alecto’s was jagged and toothy like a jaunty, lopsided accident.

“No…We have our own reasons. Things You-Know-Who has no concern for,” answered the witch.

“I don’t believe you,” said Valerie brusquely. The Carrows looked like they could care less what she believed. Valerie wasn’t sure whether they were acting on Voldemort’s orders, but she thought it safest to assume the worst. No matter what happened she could not inadvertently blow Snape’s cover or her own. Of course her own was linked completely to his.

Right after that final thought came into her mind, racing like a lightning bolt she heard the word issued from the witch, “Imperio!” It felt like her mind instantly went into a fog, like all senses had wool pulled over them. It was the same sensation as waking up after surgery and still feeling the effects of an anesthetic.

She heard a voice say something and she could see a blurry image of two figures before her. It yelled, seemingingly far away, “How are you communicating? When do you hold meetings?”

“Wh-what?”

The Carrows grew very impatient. Amycus actually kicked the leg of the chair and yelled at his sister, "Lay it off a little! Get her to talk sense!”

“Alright! Alright!” And Valerie felt the curse lighten. She was now aware of herself and her surroundings and most vitally, able to think. However, there was a demanding force impounding into her brain that would direct her what to do. If she should follow it...

“Now….How does Dumby’s stupid army communicate?”

“No!,” screamed Valerie. She could feel herself resisting the curse, just like she had when she and Snape had used the Dark Magic for domination in bed, and they found she had an innate talent to resist it. “No. And it’s Dumbledore’s Army,” she said calmly.

“Tell me!,” shrieked Alecto. “How are you communicating?”

“Never!,” screamed Valerie.

“I’ll get the Veritaserum ready,” she heard a ruthless voice whisper. At the same time, she looked up from the sound of a mechanical noise clicking. A metallic silver object was lowering itself over Valerie’s head with a drilling noise. It rested, clamped lightly around her forehead.

“Open up. Open your mouth,” she heard the witch’s voice hiss.

Valerie tried to shake her head no, but found she couldn’t move her neck. She kept her mouth shut, whining.

She felt the vice around her skull tighten like a screw, and the man’s voice urging, “Open that filthy mouth, Halfblood!”

She continued to refuse. “Very well,” said Amycus. She felt another metallic piece come into view, and saw it clamp over her jaw, forcing her jaw to unhinge. Magically, at the directing of Amycus’ wand the device pried Valerie’s mouth open.

Her tongue lolled out in desperation to comply before her skull cracked. If the thing holding her head got any tighter, she feared it might very well break her skull. Alecto leaned over and shook a vial. Three drops of clear liquid went all the way down her throat. By now Valerie was so overcome by panic and shock, she was hyperventilating, panting like a dog.

The two interrogators waited a few seconds for the potion to settle in her stomach and form the reaction in her body. They Alecto said eagerly, “Now…You cannot lie anymore. How does the D.A. communicate?”

“It’s simple we use a charm…No…We don’t!” Valerie swallowed hard, tasting her own bile, as she was trying to vomit up the potion, so that’s it’s effects would go away faster. She was unable to. At the same time she was now using her Occlumency skills to resist the Veritaserum, while still under the Imperius Curse.

“What charm? Tell me the truth!” Valerie answered her no again, and Alecto, finally losing it, screamed a piercing scream at the top of her lungs, almost like she was being Crucioed.

Her brother took over. “I know it’s you. You’re pilfering off us and everyone else in the school. You’re a thief as well as a liar! Tell us the truth!”

Valerie was finally nonplussed. 'What were they talking about?', she thought in a haze. “No…No. I’m not stealing things.”

But Amycus went on, smiling meanly again. He bent down into Valerie’s face, looking at her blue eyes, which were nearly bulging out the sockets from the magical vice. “I know it was you who wrecked it….”

“What? Wrecked what?”

“Don’t play dumb with us!,” shrilled Alecto.

“What? The-the diadem of course!,” boomed Amycus incredulously. “You and the rest of Dumbledore’s Army stole a diadem and guess who it belongs to? The Dark Lord! Where is it?”

“What? Oh…,” and Valerie remembered as if years ago when she had the meeting with the Dark Lord and the headmaster. Voldemort had said there was an item that could be destroyed that was supposed to be in the Room of Requirement. This must be it….She thought as fast as she could….This meant the Carrows definitely were acting on Voldemort’s orders, albeit with their own selfish motives. Apparently, Voldemort had told them a lie, telling the Carrows she was stealing from them, as well as thieving from all of Hogwarts. He had used it as an incentive to get the Carrows to inquire about the diadem.

Now, she quailed in terror. She had better not contradict anything she told Voldemort because they might tell him what she was saying here.

“Where is the diadem?! Where is it?,” screamed Alecto insanely angered.

“I don’t know. I don’t know!”

It was true that Voldemort wanted to know it’s precise location. Recently, a few days after the meeting, he had managed to get in the Room of Requirement, through remaining invisible and flying in when students entered. But Voldemort had not been able no matter how he tried (whether inside the room or out) to change what the room was currently being. Therefore, he had no way of knowing if his horcrux was safe. So he had told the Carrows to do this (but not explaining much, only that Valerie was the newest recruit in the D.A). Voldemort did not let them know, either that he knew how they were communicating. That he himself had taken her protean charmed galleon for himself. Yet, of course, Valerie had no idea of knowing it was the diadem’s location that Voldemort was after or why.

And the Carrows, they knew what would happen to them, if they failed to find Valerie containing any knowledge of the diadem. Voldemort had promised they would blamed and punished severely for this. “Crucio!,” roared Alecto.

Valerie screamed, her head was definitely ready to burst. The pain was the worst ever, and all she could do was kick her legs, writhing and twisting them like snakes. For moments this went on and Alecto screamed again, “Tell me, girl…Or you spend the rest of term's evenings in the dungeons…Where is the diadem! I must know it! He says – This is important!”

Valerie, finally was crying. A few tears came out and rolled down her red cheeks, once Alecto relinquished the Cruciatus. Valerie kept herself in Occlumency mode and remained instinctively prepared to continue resisting the Imperius, yet she was disoriented. Her voice was muffled and syrupy, “I don’t know! Please…I-I’m under an Unbreakable Vow!,” she lied, just like she had to Voldemort.

The man said gruffly, “So what if you die? Means one less resister for us to fuck with. But we can’t kill students. It’s the Dark Lord’s orders.”

Alecto bent down, and looked Valerie full in the face. “We’ll stop this right now…If you can just tell us whose been releasing prisoners?” This was not on Voldemort’s instructions for the interrogation, either but the Carrows specfically wanted to know this for their personal benefit at controlling the school.

“A – a member. I mean – I’m not telling you that!”

“Your choice…CRUCIO!,” screamed Alecto again.

Valerie’s high-pitched screams of terrors, reverberated out the room. There was currently no muffliato charm, so it was heard all the way down the corridor, echoing eerily.

Finally, she took the torture curse off of her body, with a wave of her wand. Another wave of the wand, and the clamps were removed and Amycus removed the chains from her forearms. Alecto said, only to get Valerie angry, “I know very well who is releasing them. The Longbottom dope and the Blood-traitor Weasel brat…Won’t be long ‘til we find a way to kick them out, or attack their families!”

Valerie listened, but her throat hurt too much from screaming, and she was shaking all over. She felt so weak. It had taken a lot out of her to fight the Carrows just now. She fought back a sob of misery. She remained reclined in the chair.

Amycus took a look at Valerie and then back at his sister. He criticized, “Look at her! You tortured her too soon…You should have let me have another go at the questioning!”

“Shut-up! Shut-up,” said Alecto to Amycus. And Amycus did not reply, but told Valerie, “Get out. Get out of that chair!”

With a huge amount of effort, Valerie managed to push her torso forward and slide off the chair. She landed in a heap on the floor. She was so weak from all that had happened to her.

“Come on. Get over it…,” said Amycus harshly.

Alecto came by and lifted her Imperius she had placed on Valerie before. This helped strengthen her. But she was still exhausted from being wracked by the torture curse, and the Veritaserum’s effects were still making her head swim. Yet, there could be no doubt that Valerie Powers was an exceptionally powerful witch to have kept her head and held on through all that pressure exerted on her.

“I’m issuing you detention. Every. Single. Evening. This. Week!” said Alecto Carrow slowly, wanting the girl to process every single word.

Valerie couldn’t speak. She beat her fists against the floor, full of defeat at spending time in the dungeons again and she felt a wave of intense despair.

“Starting tonight!,” said Alecto enthusiastically and she beamed her horrible, evil grin.

*

Several minutes later, Alecto was alone with Valerie, dragging her off to the dungeons. Finally they arrived.

“Get in there,” Alecto said, her voice full of resentment towards Valerie because she had failed to tell her anything valuable and so, Valerie was the reason her master would have her suffer later. And Alecto, shoved her into a cage with iron bars. Valerie crawled to the door, hands curling around the bars. She was reduced to something even she could not ponder at the moment. All she was now was basic instinct, reduced to nothing but an animal desiring escape.

She heard Alecto yell as she walked away, “I’ll be informing my Punishers you’re here. I’ll suggest a sound lashing.” What 'Punishers' meant were the prefects, specifically the ones who supported the Carrows, mostly a band of Slytherins.


NOTE: That was just crazy wasn't it?! LMAO.I promise things will get better for Valerie. But before they get better, they’re gonna get worse! She will get some justice later though.