I Was Younger Then

The Unbreakable Vow

Warning, violence, language and Yaxley being a sleeze!

So far votes are for Snape to be the one to ruin Yaxley, so I will move in that direction and let Penny handle Umbridge. But Penny gets her moment to shine in this chapter >:)

******

Penny's feet collided with slick, freezing cement. Her feet screamed out in agony and her knees buckled, sending them skidding into the cement as well. Fleamont unstuck himself from her chest, vanishing before he hit the ground. Yaxley had not seemed to notice him, so Penny did not bring unnecessary attention to him, but she wasn't sure she could even if she wanted to.

Her shivering causing her to choke on the tears that'd finally broken through, Penny merely stared numbly ahead at the dark London street that was speckled with orange here and there. She did not care that her knees burned in agony, seeping blood from the collision; did not care that her feet were so numb by now that she couldn't feel them. All Penny was capable of processing was the horrible sense of hopelessness that was trying to convince her that her heart had stopped beating and air no longer reached her lungs. She stared into the void, seeing again a pair of dark, tortured eyes just out of arm's reach. In them she saw exactly how close she was, which also reaffirmed just how screwed she was.

There was not the slightest hope that once she entered the Department of Mysteries that anyone could save her. Yaxley knew this because Umbridge made sure of it. The idea that the system would take care of her, that maybe this time things wouldn't be so blatant made her want to laugh. Hadn't Uncle Vernon always said that the government was full of corruption and cronies doing the bidding for a few in power? Never trust them, that was his motto and why he felt entitled to dodge taxes.

Her rumination was interrupted by Yaxley, who stepped before her, blocking the sight of the street. Cocking his head, he looked down at her, his fat tongue wetting his lips as he did so

"I must say, even I wasn't prepared for how perfectly you would play into my hand," he said with a sigh of satisfaction. "You're truly something special, Penny. The way you apologized to him. Did you see his face? I've never felt so hard in my life. I've waited a long time to see that quiet, greasy bastard lose. And it's all because of you, doll."

Penny's jaw clenched as she watched the vile man, let his sickening words reach her ears, her chest heaving and body shaking.

With an awful smile he squatted down and pressed his calloused thumb to her cheek and wiped a tear from it to pull away and consider it for a long moment. "You, my darling, gave that to me. For that I'll be sure to reward you before I send what's left of you back to him. Oh how I wish I could see him relive that failure of his every time his eyes find your hollow shell. How I'd relish seeing what he desires most, destroy him," Yaxley said, and Penny wasn't entirely sure he was speaking to her anymore, his eyes fixed on the single tear resting on the tip of his thumb. But then his ugly blue eyes found her, and with the most exaggerated motion, he moved his thumb to his mouth and sucked her tear from his flesh, a horrible grin spreading across his putrid face when he'd finished.

All the hopeless fear had long evaporated from Penny as she listened to Yaxley gloat. Never before had she felt such hatred well in her chest, such a desire to see and make someone else suffer. It consumed her, moving her hand of its own volition toward one of the bricks that lined the garden beside her.

"You're pathetic," she breathed. "You think the likes of you can break us? You don't have the slightest inclination what you've gotten in between, but you will. When you think nothing can touch you, his hands will find you, and they will drag you into depths further than you can imagine. And you know he won't let it be over be quickly, he'll make you regret ever laying a hand on me. But don't worry I'll have my say first."