Life choices (Remus Lupin Marauders era)

Chapter 42

"Ok Imogen, we're going to start the spell process today. There will be a few trials and everything but we hope that it'll all turn out good in the end." A bubbly healer smiles down at me from where he sits behind a desk. "Now I'm afraid that getting you to speak openly without any aid is not possible, but to tackle the problem, we've got to go down to the root, haven't we? Yes, now then, we're going to have to go back to where it started from."

I know he's talking about that day. The day my world shattered into tiny little specks that are fragilely held together with tiny slithers of glue.

"We're going to have to go into your mind, find the source and figure out a solution to you speaking. Understand."

No. How does bringing up my past help with my future? It's over, it's done with, I never want to look back at it ever again.

Instead I feel myself nodding robotically with a sad and nervous expression.

"Everything's going to be just fine."

I'm lead through sterile pale blue and green corridors to one of the healers treatment rooms. They direct me to a table and make me lie down on my back. The ceiling above me is covered in pictures of beautiful dragons, pygmy puffs and cats. It's a strange mix but oddly comforting.

"Now then." The healer says, massaging my temples with two fingers, making me squirm uncomfortably. "Just try to relax and feel yourself floating away. You'll feel a slight pinch and then you're back in the memory, but don't worry, just remember that you can't be harmed."

Not physically anyway.

I'm not sure that they completely understand the severity of what happened, and I really don't need to have it brought to my attention again.

I decide to just try and block out their mumbling and drift off like they told me to.

The last thing I properly remember is a wand being placed by my neck, and what felt like a bolt of electricity drifting up to my brain before I'm back in the dark room that I know way too well.

I immediately stop trying to drift off and snap my eyes open, screaming and thrashing about. I can't escape from that room though, I'm too far gone into the memory. The screaming and kicking results in a kick to the stomach and a painful shot of the crucio curse.

I scream once again, loudly, as I float up into the air above the small group of people blasting shots of light at my thin child's frame. They eventually stop and lower me to the floor until my head hits against the stone tiles painfully. They all lean over me, their sick smiles making me whimper in fear and pain.

"You're going to keep quiet now, aren't you." A young girl with wild black hair smiles sadistically.

I can't help but nod and she grabs my lips, pinching them between her sharp nails and making spots of blood trickle down my chin.

"You're never going to talk again. Are you? Because if you do....." A breathy laugh escapes her lips and blows a couple of strands across my face. "You, and your family will be very sorry."

The tears continue to stream down my face and she coos, moving her hands from my mouth and stroking my cheek.

"Shhh, shh. We don't want our itty bitty little baby to be upset now."

Her fingers trail from my cheek to my chin where she swipes the blood off my chin, looking at it on her finger before placing it in her mouth.