Death doesn't discriminate
Between the sinners and the saints
It takes and it takes and it takes
And we keep living anyway
We rise and we fall
And we break
And we make our mistakes
And if there's a reason I'm still alive
When everyone who loves me has died
I'm willing to wait for it
I'm willing to wait for it

23 : Wait For It (edited)

tw: torture

The day started out perfect for Catherine — waking up in James's arms and being able to press a chaste kiss on his forehead. She smiled to herself as she watched him still in deep sleep, unconsciously hugging her tighter. Wanting to shift to a more comfortable position, Catherine tried to move James's hand, but upon touching it, she felt her gut being jabbed once more as she was teleported to her dorm.

Catherine groaned in slight pain, rubbing her abdomen as she rolled over her bed. "I have got to learn how to fucking control it." She stretched her arms upon standing on the floor, turning to check if she had disturbed her room mates, only to see the three of them standing in one line with their arms crossed as they stared at her. Catherine jolted in surprise, pressing a hand to her chest as she let out a short laugh. "The lot of you scared me."

"We scared you? You scared us!" Lily exclaimed with a disapproving click of her tongue. "Where were you, Cathy? You disappeared yesterday, and the boys said they couldn't find James. We thought the two of you ran away together."

Catherine flushed in slight embarrassment. "I'm sorry." She approached them and threw her arms around them with a large grin. "It won't happen again. I promise."

Marlene chuckled, patting her on the back. "You're a big girl, Cathy. Go do what you want to do, just don't scare us like that."

"So, what happened to you two?" Alice asked.

Catherine let out a breath before telling them about her brother's best friend whom she met in Tomes and Scrolls all the way to the sudden appearance of Death Eaters near Hog's Head. She skipped out teleporting to The Shrieking Shack, considering how they weren't aware of her Merlin magic except for Lily whom she had told a couple of days ago.

She took a shower and got dressed quickly in a collared shirt with a vest and tucked in a black skirt. She stuffed her feet in a pair of shoes before shuffling out of the room and waving goodbye to her friends. She couldn't avoid the little bounce in her step and huge grin on her face as she stepped out of the Gryffindor Common Room, excited to see James.

A thought flashed across her mind and Catherine scrunched her nose in a thoughtful manner. After what just happened yesterday, she wasn't so sure about what to think of Peter Pettigrew anymore. She hasn't heard his side of the story, because after all, she might be too quick to judge him. He might just be a misunderstood teenage boy.

She shook her head to clear herself from Peter-related thoughts as she focused on James. God, she was so in love with him even a bat could probably see it.

She had just left the huge castle grounds, entering the path that led to Hogsmeade, only to be stopped by someone's fingers latching onto her wrist as two people flanked either sides of her. Catherine's eyes flashed around in a startled manner, not expecting to see those two people. "Malfoy? Lestrange?"

Lucius smirked, gripping her wrist tighter, "'Ello, Valentine."

Catherine gritted her teeth, refusing to move an inch, afraid she would end up throwing a right hook straight to his jaw. "Don't. Call. Me. That."

Bellatrix made a disgusted sound as she mocked, "Only Potter can, eh? Young love. I think I just threw up in my mouth." Bellatrix Lestrange née Black was a couple of years older than Catherine was, having graduated from Hogwarts years ago and was now married to Rodolphus Lestrange.

"What do the both of you want?" Catherine all but growled at the two nuisances. Her morning was going terrific until the two approached her.

The wild-haired girl stared hard at Catherine. "We have some business in which you're needed."

Before Catherine could even do or say something, Lucius had apparated them away from where they stood. Stumbling into a dark place, Catherine yelped in distress as her knees buckled from the sudden wave of vertigo. She hit the floor, coughing hoarsely as she pressed a hand against her stomach, feeling as though she wanted to throw up.

Bellatrix showed up a second later and Catherine was suddenly terrified upon realising she was in a dark, eery house. Lucius left the room to enter a corridor, talking to someone named Master off in the distance as Bellatrix grabbed some shackles lying on top of a chair. Catherine took the opportunity to dive forward and reach for her wand that fell from her pocket upon apparition. Bellatrix seemed to expect this as she slammed her foot hard against Catherine's wrist, preventing her from reaching for her wand. Catherine cried out in pain, feeling her wrist crush under the hard impact, tears threatening to spill out.

As soon as she retracted her wrist, she snapped her head upwards to look at Bellatrix. She felt for her instinctive magic deep within her as she summoned it. She willed the Merlin magic to throw the older girl against the wall, but Bellatrix was a step quicker than her. A jet of red light streamed out of her wand as she yelled, "Crucio!"

Catherine screamed in pure agony, her back arching in pain as the feeling as though her bones were on fire and thousands of knives plunging and twisting deep into her skin. "Stop," she whispered, choking on her sobs as she shut her eyes tight and wished this was all a dream.

The Cruciatus Curse was put to a halt as Bellatrix continued to shackle Catherine's wrist and chain her legs to the chair. Catherine wearily opened her eyes, her body still suffering from the excruciating pain as her eyes landed on the wand Bellatrix had just used.

The bitch had used Catherine's wand.

She grounded her teeth together as she tried to summon her instinctive magic again. The tip of her own wand was pressed against the jugular on her neck as Bellatrix's eyes flashed dangerously. "You try your little magic on me, and you and your Potter won't live to see another day."

Catherine swallowed hard and pulled her head away from Bellatrix as she growled, "Where the fuck am I?" She winced afterwards, regretting to have spoken because of the pain in her vocal cords from having screamed so much earlier.

"The Black Manor." Bellatrix grinned deviously, circling around Catherine. "You're our Master's lovely guest this morning."

"I'd feel more of a guest if you'd at least turn the fucking lights on so I can see the host," Catherine lashed out hotly.

The bitch clicked her tongue with a shake of her head. "The Dark Lord doesn't want to speak to you at the moment unless he sees the words imprinted on your flesh."

Catherine furrowed her eyebrows. "What words — FUCKING HELL!" Another scream ripped out violently from her throat as a flaming sensation enveloped her back. It felt as though someone was carving something on her flesh with a jagged knife. "STOP IT! PLEASE STOP IT!" She thrashed and cried out for Bellatrix to stop, feeling lightheaded from all the screaming and the pain engulfing her entire body. Her face was streaked with tears, her throat dry and sore from yelling, and she could tell her back was bleeding from what the currently-smiling woman had just done to her.

"Do you want to see what's permanently engraved on you?" Bellatrix laughed manically, using Catherine's wand to write something in the air for Catherine to see.

The tortured girl was breathing heavily, her eyes were too heavy for her to fully open as she gazed at the words written on the air.

BLOOD TRAITOR

Catherine wanted to be strong and refuse to shed a tear in front of the perpetrator, but she was tired and drained of energy. She wasn't as strong as she wanted to be, the tears slipping continuously down on her face as her body shook terribly from the pain. Her breathing was ragged as she quietly whispered, "Lestrange, please stop. Why are you doing this?"

The response she got from the pale woman was another Cruciatus Curse that made her pass out. The last thing she suddenly thought of is the ring James gave her, and how she prayed it was still on her finger.

««•»»

Sirius found James in the Great Hall, having breakfast with Remus, Peter, and Catherine's friends. He sprinted over excitedly, sliding into the seat next to him and effectively startling James who dropped his spoon by accident.

"Guess what?" Sirius asked with a beaming face as James snatched up his fallen spoon.

"What?" James asked after playfully smacking Sirius on the forehead with his spoon, then tossing it on the table.

"I got my apparition license." Sirius was grinning so widely, James thought his face would split into two.

"That's great," James clapped a hand against Sirius's back before taking a gulp from his pumpkin juice. "Now you can do some of the pranks we planned for the summer when we could apparate."

Remus rolled his eyes from across of them before asking, "Have you transferred all of your belongings to James's house already?"

Sirius shook his head, getting to his feet. "Now that you've mentioned it, I'll go do that." He glanced at James. "Do you mind if I drop by your house today to leave my stuff in the guest room?"

James shook his head before saying through a mouthful of toast, "You know, you can stop calling it a guest room and just say your room."

Sirius couldn't help but to smile at that. My room, he thought. "Thanks, mate. I'll be back before lunch, cover for me." He turned to leave just as James stopped him.

"Have you seen Valentine?" His eyebrows were furrowed in a worried manner, wondering where she was at the moment. James's heart seemed to beat furiously against his chest as a feeling of something terrible bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He was so worried she was all he thought about the whole morning.

Sirius cocked his head to the side momentarily. "No, I haven't. Is something wrong?"

James shook his head. "Never mind. She's probably in Hogsmeade again. See you later, Padfoot."

Sirius nodded and mock-saluted James and waved goodbye to the others before sprinting out of the castle. He apparated to the Black Manor as soon as he left school grounds, learning how to brace himself in order not to get a wave of dizziness from the magical transportation.

He shuffled around his dark room, not bothering to turn on the lights and alert his family of his arrival. His bedroom was bare, all of his things already in Hogwarts and some in James's house. He pulled out the remaining of his clothes and tucked them in his backpack with an Extendable Charm on it. After making sure there was nothing valuable left, he got ready to disapparate when a loud scream made him freeze in his tracks.

"I swear I heard that voice before," Sirius muttered with a frown. He shut his eyes and thought hard of where he had heard that shout before when it clicked. His eyes flew open as he cursed under his breath, making a mad dash down the stairs to the empty room.

He entered through the doors with a wild look on his face as he took in the sight before him. Bellatrix was sitting on a chair across of someone chained to their seat as she played with a wand that didn't belong to her. Sirius's heart literally stopped upon seeing Catherine Valentine knocked out cold on the chair, her head lolled to the side as blood started seeping throughout the back of her shirt.

Sirius was breathing heavily in complete anger as he whipped out his wand faster than Bellatrix could even blink. He stomped his way to them as he exclaimed, "Stupefy!" Bellatrix was knocked out of her chair, now unconscious from the Stunning Spell as Sirius swiftly tucked his wand back into his pocket. He snatched Catherine's wand as well, keeping it safe with him as he knelt in front of the tortured and bleeding teenage witch.

"Cat," he whispered in an urgent tone, cupping her cheek gently as he tried to wake her. "Cat, can you hear me? You're going to be alright, do you understand?" Sirius broke the shackles and chains binding her as quickly as he could when Catherine stirred a bit.

"S-Siri," she breathed out, her half-opened eyes lazily staring up at him.

"I'm here," he responded immediately, gently putting an arm at the back of her neck.

"James—ring," was the last thing she said before passing out once more.

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, blinking rapidly before glancing around at the ground when his eyes fell on something shining. He snatched the ring James gave Catherine from the floor and stuffed it in his pocket before hooking an arm under her knees. "Don't worry, I'll get you to James in a second." Lifting her up, Sirius disapparated from the Black Manor with Catherine safely tucked in his arms.

The rest of the morning was a blur to Sirius as he, his friends, Catherine's friends, and Professor Dumbledore all attended on Catherine's wounds. Everyone discussed about it in the Headmaster's office. Everyone, that is, except for James who refused to leave Catherine's side.

Dumbledore decided it would be safe for her to be in her dorm room rather than the Hospital Wing, several curious students might get paranoid upon seeing her severe injuries. And it would be best for Catherine to have some privacy at the moment after having been violated in the most terrible way she's ever experienced.

"Don't worry," James's voice croaked through his tears, bending over to press a chaste kiss on his love's forehead while firmly gripping her hand. "You're safe now, Valentine. I promise, I'll never let anything like this happen again. They have to get through me first before they can even lay a finger on you." He sighed, gritting his teeth in frustration over what Catherine had just experienced. He can't even imagine what it's like. "I'm not letting go of this hand."