Diving Into You | Fred Weasley

48 | Into the Snake Pit

It had been a long time. She could feel it. While a part of her had floated away into a distant part of her own consciousness, a lingering presence remained rooted in the forefront. Often she would drift away into the depths of her own mind. Replaying old memories, living a life she knew was a fabrication of her own thoughts. Distant dreams repeated over and over, and once the scenes finished, all that would remain was darkness.

Sometimes that familiar voice spoke to her. It had been the only thing familiar that brought her comfort. Telling her to hold on, many times she had wanted to escape what she perceived to be eternal darkness. This is not what death was, surely? Oblivion was not something she had expected. But the pain she would feel every now and then felt too real, and death... well you can't feel physical pain if you were already dead now, could you?

After a time, she began to hear hushed voices. None of them familiar but one. Soon, she would understand their conversations. Over time, she started to feel things again. Often it would be a damp and soft feeling brushing over her face... or a warm hand on hers.

Soon she started to make sense of what was going on around her. There was no way she could move. It scared her- being absolutely helpless and having no control over her own body. It felt like she was trapped within the walls of her own head. There was no way to move or react to any of the things she heard being said around her. But when she began to recognize the voices, none of them were of anyone she knew. Where was mum? dad? Where was Fred? She had so many questions as to where she was. Often she heard the voices of strangers... that was until one day.

Someone would come in and hold her hand. She knew they would. But it was only a matter of time when she found out just who it was. "I told you," he'd say. His voice would quiver, whether it was in sadness or fear, she wasn't too sure, "I told you not to go to the Ministry. If only you'd just listened..."

Adrian. He was the only one she recognized. He would come in every day and hold her hand, caress her head and talk to her. "I hate seeing you like this... I hate keeping you here."

'Where?' She wanted to scream. 'Where was my family?!' Of course, she couldn't, so she resorted to trying to put the puzzle pieces together through his chats. Soon, she found herself looking forward to his daily visits, and began to understand just where she was and what was going on.

"A part of me wants you to wake up and be okay... but doing that would mean subjecting you to a terrible fate," he whispered to her one day. "I'm trying so hard, Naia. I can't stand this, but I can't fight them..."

She learned from him that she was currently unconscious in his family manor. She was taken by Dolohov and Bellatrix from the Department of Mysteries right before she could fall through the veil. Apparently, they never planned for her to leave without them. The Dark Lord had used the ploy with Sirius to hit two birds with one stone. Having partly gone through the veil only to be pulled out affected her consciousness and put her into a deep sleep, and that's why she was stuck in this state.

Seeing as the Deatheaters caught had been sent to Azkaban, Bellatrix and Dolohov brought her back to the Pucey family Manor, as their death eater status had not been revealed to the public yet. Of course, after seeing her use her abilities, they moved quickly to take her back according to the Dark Lord's orders. He had lost the prophecy, but all hope had not been lost because they managed to take her.

She was angry at Adrian at first. How could he stand by their decision to do this? He had known it was a ploy... and he didn't care to tell her before they rushed to the Ministry. But she couldn't blame him completely. Not when he cared for her even now as she was being held captive.

There were days when he would talk to her with so much fear in his voice. "They took her, Naia. She's gone... I've got no idea where they've taken her." he sobbed. Her heart went out to him and she wanted more than anything to wrap her arms around him and tell him everything was going to be alright. "Mum was hysterical, but dad didn't even look like he gave a shit. I tried to stop them, I did, but they didn't let me. My sister's gone. They wanted her to do it... to use the Imperius curse on you when you woke but she refused. She had enough, and I have no idea where dad's taken her. Mum says I ought to do what he says so the same doesn't happen to me... but I can't let them hurt you again. I can't- I can't do it, I..." his voice shook and he sucked in a shaky breath, "I'm scared."