Demonic Release

A/N: I’ve never really done anything like this before, so please, bear with me. It’s going to be grotesque, it’s going to be depraved, I hope that it doesn’t turn you all away from my writings, but every once in a while you have to release that inner demon lest it wreck havoc on everything you do, tainting your soul like a canker in the fragrant rose.


Drip. Drip. Drip. The flesh of her wrists were rubbed raw, the cold metal digging into them. She tried to let her arms shrink back, hoping to allow them to slip through the restraints. Shrill cackling filled her ears and her eyes searched the darkness. They found nothing. Dim red light flooded across her face and she winced, trying to shy away from it.

“The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout,” a shrill voice cackled very close to her ear. She shuddered feeling that warm, sticky breath against her skin. “Down came the rain and washed the spider out!” And the voice burst into laughter. Tonks shrieked, cold water pouring down her body, splashing over her head and face. She twitched and thrashed, trying to shake the water from her, signaling more maniacal laughter from the shrill voice.

“Aww, da widdle baby’s all wet,” the voice hissed and once again thrust the red light into her face. “Go on, Nymphadora, wiggle your nose, shrink out of your shackles!”

“Don’t call me that!” Her voice was broken, but her spirit soared hot and hard, forcing the defiant words from her throat, which stung as if it were swollen shut. “Urgh!” she cried as her head was forced sharply to one side, the cold hand leaving a red print on her cheek.

“You’ve no room to speak, you filthy blood traitor!” Bellatrix shrieked. There was a heavy thud that echoed through the room and lights overhead flickered into existence. She turned her head, long black hair whipping about her face as she did. A heavy frown creased her lips and she pouted at the figure striding toward her. “Oh, playtime over already? I’ve only just begun…”

The pale figure of Severus Snape loomed over Bellatrix LeStrange, his eyes dark and unreadable. “Our Lord wishes to see you.”

Again she pouted. “Fine. I hope he doesn’t intend to see me long. This is one is going to be so much fun,” her lips curled up, revealing a mouthful of yellow, crooked teeth before she narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re going to watch her. Don’t touch her.” She spat. “I don’t want her pretty body all punctured full of holes thanks to your impatient prick. You can have what’s left of her once I’m done.”

Severus nodded and watched as the brunette strode from the room, not wincing in the slightest when the door slammed. His eyes turned to the woman held up on her toes by a pair of shackles that bound her wrists and were hoisted high above her head.

She sobbed, heaving a sigh. “Oh thank God, Severus.” She whimpered. “You’ll help me to escape.”

He said nothing. His eyes wandered up and down her naked body, surprised at how few physical markings her flesh bore. Her hair looked wild, long strands of every color flowing from her scalp as if someone had short-circuited her metamorphmagus ability.

She wriggled her nose, trying to shrink her limbs but her efforts were futile. “Severus,” she whimpered. “Please, think of Teddy.” Her face scrunched tightly, but she couldn’t even manage to elongate her nose. “Severus,” her broken sob filled the room. “Please don’t let her kill me. Please! Please, Severus, please help me!”

“Please! Oh please!” Bellatrix mocked her. She took careful steps toward her prisoner. “Quit your crying or I’ll give you something to cry about!” she shrieked and wrapped both arms around Severus’ shoulders. “His loyalties lie with our Lord!” she spat. “You’re a filthy blood traitor!” Turning her dark eyes to the wizard, she smirked. “You’re losing your touch, Severus.”

His voice was level as he spoke. “You bade me orders to watch.”

She snorted. “Since when do you ever take orders from me? IF I didn’t know better, I’d swear you’ve gone soft.” His hand came down hard across her face, the other yanking her back by her thick black hair.

“Mock me in front of a prisoner again, and I’ll show you who’s gone soft.” He growled against her ear and then shoved her to the ground. Turning on his heel, he strode from the room, slamming the door shut behind him. Maniacal laughter filled the room once more as Bellatrix rose to her feet.

“Oh, isn’t he precious,” she smiled, a wild looking twinkling in her eyes. “I’m so glad he behaved,” she snickered. “Because now I can share with you what’s going to happen to him,” she teased.

Tonks would not lift her gaze to meet the other witch’s menacing eyes. “You’re pathetic,” she croaked, trying her best not to crumble.

“Oh! Ho! Ho! Pathetic am I?” she circled around behind the woman stung from the ceiling and forced the point of her boot into the younger woman’s back. Tonks’ body pitched forward and she cried out, pain shooting through her. “Who’s pathetic now, Nymphadora?”

“Don’t— call—” she choked, sputtering over her words.

“Or what? Hmm? You’ll do what exactly?” The woman smirked, and then burst into a fit of giggled. “Nymphadora! Nymphadora! Nymphadora!” she shrieked. “Go on, widdle baby! Make me stop! Oh? Where’s your precious Severus to save you now? Hmm? Where is he, Nymphadora?”

“Stop it!”

Bellatrix’s hand swung across the other’s face. “Filthy blood traitor! Ooh…let’s call Severus back and have him watch, shall we?” she giggled, clapping her hands together. Tonks hung her head, tears rolling down her cheeks. She’d been clumsy, desperate for the knock at the door to be Remus, desperate for her husband to wrap his arms around her and take their sleeping son, so desperate that she’d been careless, gotten herself caught in a trap, and now faced Merlin only knew what on the other end of it. The only hope she could cling to was the fact that she’d managed to get Teddy to safety via portkey, though that did little to help her sanity, thinking of how the others would worry over Teddy arriving at the Burrow without her.

“Come, little niece,” Bellatrix hissed. “Look at Aunt Bella,” she sneered and then cackled again. She began to hum, halfway through the spider song she’d been singing before, the witch picked up the words. “Out came the sun and washed up all the rain…” her lips floated near the other’s ear. “And the itsy bitsy spider got smooshed into the wall!” she shrieked and then pressed her palm hard against her niece’s face.

Tonks held in a groan, trying not to falter, trying to think of a way out. It was obvious she’d been stripped of her metamorphmagus skills, though she wasn’t entirely sure that was physically possible and assumed that they’d been somehow restrained. If she could figure out how to break those magical restraints on her natural abilities, then perhaps she could stand a fighting chance. She’d hardly noticed that she’d been naked until she’d felt the boot in her back, and she was certain a bruise was forming in its wake.

“He doesn’t think you hold valuable information…” she hissed right near the other witch’s ear. “And Severus, that sniveling idiot, agreed with him. I was told to dispose of you.” Bellatrix paced a slow circle around her prisoner once more. “But seeing as I have to kill you anyhow, I figured I’d have a bit of fun first.” She cackled. “Severus wanted to kill you straight away. He’s gone soft in his old age, you don’t get to hear them scream when you kill them straight away,” she shrieked and burst into another peal of laughter.

“You’re a sick woman,” Tonks managed to hiss. “Let me go,” she said, knowing it wouldn’t do any good to beg with the woman. Severus had been her last hope. If he was resigned to killing her, she knew that the outcome of the situation did not look good. Trying to twist her legs, she only managed to scrape her bare toes across the cold stone floor.

“Sick, am I? Why, my poor itty, bitty niece, you must be mistaken. I feel perfectly fine…though you won’t when we’re all said and done…” she sneered and then flung her fist hard forward. Tonks hardly felt the pain as the world swirled into blackness.