The Third Orphan

Chapter 5

She closed her eyes and suddenly she was twelve years younger and Brianna was kneeling on her back step crying. "Brianna!" Elizabeth had exclaimed. She knelt down beside her. "What wrong Brianna?" When Brianna didn't answer Elizabeth grasped her hand and said, "Come inside."

"Is anyone else home?" Brianna choked out.

"Brenden's taking his nap upstairs," replied Elizabeth, "but Daniel's still at work, it's been so busy-"

With sudden energy Brianna glanced over her shoulder, stood up, and dragged Elizabeth into the house, slamming the door behind them. The sudden movement seemed to have drained her of all her strength, however, and she collapsed on the floor. Elizabeth gasped as she saw her friend's injuries in the eerie light of the candles. Brianna was covered in scratches and bruises and there was a long gash across her cheek. Her left wrist hung at an awkward angle and one eye was swollen shut.

"We have to take you to Saint Mungos!" exclaimed Elizabeth, already reaching for her coat.

"No!" gasped Brianna. "You must tell no one I am here!"

"What happened?" Elizabeth asked for the second time.

"I... he..." stuttered Brianna, and burst into tears again.

Elizabeth pulled Brianna into her arms, ignoring the blood that stained her clothes, and held her best friend as she sobbed. Between sobs Brianna's story slowly emerged.

"They found me because of the Taboo," she gasped. "You know how I've always said His name."

"I told you not to," whispered Elizabeth shaking her head.

"It's only been around for a week," Brianna continued as if she hadn't hear Elizabeth, "and I wasn't accustomed to not saying It. I didn't have a chance. The snatchers showed up in seconds and there were five of them and only one of me. I managed to stupefy one and transfigure another, but one managed to hit me from behind with 'incarcerous' and it was all over. I think they were going to take me to Azkaban, but then one of them recognized me as Scrimgeour's daughter and they must have thought I knew information that they were unable to get from him before they... before they..." Brianna let out another strangled sob. "Before they killed him. So they took me to Malfoy Manor, and You-Know-Who was there..." Sobs once again overcame Brianna's words.

"You-Know-Who was there!" gasped Elizabeth.

Brianna nodded and after a minute was able to regain enough control to continue with her story. "They tortured me," she whispered. "The cruciatus curse and other curses I didn't know that ripped my skin and bruised me. But I didn't tell them anything." A spark of her old fire came back into her eyes. "I didn't tell them anything that Dad had told me." She gave a bitter laugh. "Not that there would have been much to tell. He always tried to protect me by telling me as little as possible, but that didn't help me at all did it?"

She continued with her story and slowly the gruesome details unfolded. "You-Know-Who took me into a room and he... he..." her voice broke off and she stared at the ground for a long moment. "Everyone says he's incapable of love but lust is different isn't it?"

Elizabeth gasped and rocked her sobbing friend back and forth like a small child, their tears mixing together into one pool of misery.

Finally Brianna said, "Someone came and told him that Harry Potter had been cornered by some of his death eaters in a cafe, but had escaped again. He left in a rage, locking me in the room and putting one of his death eaters on guard outside the door. I didn't have a wand and he thought there was no way I could escape. Brianna Scrimgeour be held captive by a single death eater?" she gave another bitter laugh. "I think not.