Dream Girl

THIRTY - BROKEN SHIELDS

The cellar was really cold and they only had two blankets. All of them were more than willing to give it up on behalf of Mr. Olivander. The old man was in really poor shape, underfed and sick and keeping him in the warmth was the least they could do right now. Alora was afraid that he would not last much longer in these conditions. But she didn't have much time to worry about the old man. Her mind was soon occupied with another problem.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? A blood traitor with his little filthy girlfriend." Bellatrix's voice cut the cold silence like a sharp knife. Her thick dark hair was frizzy and wild and she had an almost manic expression on her face.

Theo quickly jumped up on his feet and stepped in front of Alora, trying to hide her from the crazy women.

"Cute, but I don't need you right now. There will be plenty of opportunity to play hero," Bellatrix chuckled and flicked her wand, wordlessly sending Theo flying away. He hit the wall of the cellar hard, falling to the ground unconscious.

"Theo!" Alora screamed in panic as she noticed the stream of blood running down his face. She immediately wanted to run towards him but she was stuck on the place with another spell.

"Now when that is done, let's have a girl chit chat, shall we?" The crazy witch laughed again, waving her wand to force Alora from the cellar.

Alora quickly glanced behind her, seeing both Dean and Luna crouching next to Theo's body. But they quickly disappeared from her view as she was forced to go up the stairs and into the big lobby.

"So tell me little girl, do you really have the ability to control people's dreams?" Bellatrix asked without hesitation, going straight to the point.

Alora stood there still in complete shock and full of worry about her best friend. But she quickly snapped back into reality as she felt Lestrange slowly creeping into her mind, trying to find all the answers she needed. Luckily Alora was quite skilled in Occlumency. She was trained from a young age after all. She immediately locked away every memory of Draco, pushing them down, to the deepest end of her mind together with the knowledge of her abilities.

"I asked you a question!" she spat angrily.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alora said flatly.

The pressure in her head increased and her body immediately started shaking.

"You are evidently trying to hide something. That's not how innocent people act, is it? Let's see if you hold your shields while trying to survive this," her laughter became almost lunatic. "Crucio!"

Alora still couldn't move so there was no way she could dodge the curse. It hit her right in the chest with full force. The pain was immediate. Her blood was on fire. She felt like a thousand needles and knives were stabbing her body, tearing her skin apart. She immediately forgot where she was and why she was there as she screamed her lungs out. Her Occlumency shields wavered but stayed strong even through all the unbearable pain.

"I asked you again. Do you have any special powers?" Bellatrix stopped the curse, giving her a few minutes to collect herself and answer. Her head felt like it could explode in any minute and she felt something warm tickling her chin as she started bleeding from her nose. Her whole body ached so badly and it took a lot of strength to not pass out right now.

Alora looked up from the ground where she fell down after the curse hit her. "N-no," she managed to stutter out.

"Ok," she gave her fake sweet smile. "Let's try this again, Crucio!"

And so the pain started again but somehow even worse than before. Alora knew that if they would continue like this she wouldn't be able to hold all the shields. She was losing her strength at a rapid pace, trying to survive the torture and protecting her secret and Draco at the same time. After the curse hit her for the fourth time she knew she had to choose. She had to choose if she had to sacrifice herself or Draco and she soon realized there really weren't any options, only one. So after Bellatrix gave her another chance to breathe so she could answer her, she slowly dropped one of her shields.

Bellatrix laughed triumphantly, flipping through Alora's memories like in an open book. She watched with silent admiration how Alora created people's dreams while pushing all of their nightmares away.

"Such a power in the hands of such a weak person. How is a half-blood capable of doing something like this?"

"I don't know. I was born like this," Alora admitted weakly. Her whole body was sore and she was completely drained. Her nose finally stopped bleeding but she now had several quite deep wounds all over her body which were now bleeding instead. She wasn't sure where she got them. If it was the aftermath of the torturing curse or if she did it to herself in the agony.

"Whatever. Tell me now, can you do it the other way?" Bellatrix asked with anticipation.

Alora let out a shaky breath, knowing exactly what she was asking about. That was quick. It didn't take the evil witch more than five minutes to want to misuse her powers. Alora was always thinking about her abilities as something pure, light and good. She was honoured to be able to wield it, to be able to help people's minds and souls. And she also knew that she would rather die than do the exact oposit and serve Voldemort.

"No," she shook her head at least.

"Are you trying to lie to me again?"

"I am not lying and you know that since you are literally rummaging in my head," Alora sobbed, even talking was hurting her now so she decided to reveal one more memory. The one when her grandmother was telling her the story about the one moment when their abilities were discovered by some dark wizard.

She watched Bellatrix as her smile dropped suddenly, realizing using her as a weapon wouldn't be that easy if possible at all. But after a few long moments of silence the evil witch shook her head slightly and put on back her slightly lunatic smirk. "Well, luckily we have all the time we wanted to try, haven't we?"

"Bella! What are-, oh. You are not alone."

"Cissy, I am quite busy right now," Bellatrix whined.

"You promised, sister. He's coming home soon," Narcissa said nervously, flicking her eyes in between the hurt girl on the floor and the fireplace.

"Fine. I'll finish this later then," the wicked sister agreed reluctantly, pulling Alora up on her feet by her hair and then towards the cellar entrance.

As soon as they disappeared down the stairs the room lit up with green flames and Draco stepped out of the fireplace. His stomach immediately clenched seeing the small puddle of blood on the floor, not knowing it belonged to his girlfriend.

"Mother," he greeted her plainly, letting her hug him quickly.

"I am glad you're home, dear. Sorry for this mess. Go freshen up a bit, food will be ready soon."

Draco quickly glanced towards the stairs to the basement, wondering if Luna was still there and when he would be able to visit her, before he turned around and headed towards his room. He had absolutely no idea that his home had now several more prisoners, one of them being his best friend.

And the other was the girl he was in love with.