she isn't what she says

Chapter 20: Captured

'And that's when she realised, no matter how hard she tried to change the past, she could never be a hero. Because they had already decided she was a villain.' - Unknown

Valencia wakes up because it's cold. She doesn't see anything unusual in this. Eyes still shut, she reaches over to pick up her blanket and to pull it closer to her body. Except there's no blanket. Her questing hand finds only air. Valencia's eyes jolt open, and panic rises hot in her body.

She had been captured; bruised and beaten. Breathing was arduous because of the broken nose that had been filled with clumps of dried blood, it hurt to even perform the involuntary movements of inhaling and exhaling as her fractured ribs pierced painfully at the sides. The lips that were once full, soft and pink were now dry, cracked, splintered and bruised and hurt just as badly as the rest of the face. The skin under both eyes throbbed and was possibly black and blue as the rest of her visible, exposed skin.

Blood trickled down one side of her face; from a gash right above the left eye, that had come about from being thrown aggressively against the wall multiple times and beaten brutally to the point of numbness. Her wrists and ankles ached from the long hours of being tied up with rough rope that tied around once pale and smooth arms, it too violently digging into the now raw skin. The whole of her back ached from the endless flogging of the whip that left a terrible, persistent stinging sensation long after the whipping.

Valencia lay face down on the filthy, grimy floor of a unknown room, hands and feet tied behind her. Cooling the skin of her bruised cheek against the cold hard floor. Just waiting for the end to come, she had fought them as hard as she could and was still fighting them until that very moment, but they had robbed her of her strength and dignity.

"What do you want with me?" Valencia tried to shout out, but barely made a whisper because of her hoarse voice. She was too worn down to move and could barely feel her limbs. A figure comes out of the shadows of the small room.

"Weasley?" Valencia spat. "I knew a blood traitor would be involved in this." Valencia said smirking. "Tell me where your family and the Dark Lord is!" Bill Weasley demanded pointing his wand towards Valencia's throat. "Are you gonna kill me Sir?" Valencia asked doing her usual Lestrange smirk, knowing he wouldn't. 

"Let me see if some curses will help loosen you, to tell the truth." Bill threatened. 

"CRUCIO!" He yelled as Valencia felt the curse go through her body as she saw the red coloured light surround her body. She started to laugh. "You think that will hurt me?" Valencia continuously laughed until she said, "I spent six years in Azkaban, I can tolerate the pain of the cruciatus curse."

Valencia saw another figure walk out from the shadows and tell Bill to stop as it clearly wasn't working. "Your clearly stronger than we all thought." Snape declared looking at Valencia who was still tied to the only chair in the room.

Snape was a member of the Order? That filthy little liar, Valencia thought to herself.

If only she could reach her Dark Mark and summon the Dark Lord and her family.

"Why were you so quick to join the Dark side, Miss Lestrange?"

Valencia sneered, "It's my destiny." Snape muttered in response. "It's none of your business anyway, you're a filthy little liar." Valencia spat back, giving a full glare at him. He turned around to pour himself a glass of water, making Valencia feel thirsty. She had been abducted sometime during the night, on her late time walk, close to Malfoy Manor, so she hadn't eaten or drank for nearly ten hours.

Valencia suddenly quickly reached for her Dark Mark tattoo which appeared large on her petite thin arm. However, Snape quickly shot a spell at her which stopped her, and froze her.

Blood bubbled up and slicked her teeth as she hobbled along the Burrow's wall, listening for the sounds of fighting up ahead. Of course they'd come to rescue her, how could she have ever doubted?

She was so afraid of dying, but she couldn't die alone...