Dreaming in Color

Chapter 19

Lauren awoke with a start, a ragged gasp escaping her lips and her heart beating an incessant pounding tempo within her chest.

What in bleeding Tarnation happened? Where the hell am I?

Then the memory of Quirrell ambushing her outside Snape's classroom flooded her head like a torrential river, leaving curling tendrils of dread and terror in its wake.

Lauren's flight instinct kicked in and she tried to struggle in an upright position, but found she was unable to move a muscle. She was effectively frozen in place.

The bastard used a Full Body-Bind Curse on me! she thought with mounting irritation, her initial fear being fast chased away by righteous anger. When I get out of this, I am going to throttle his scrawny neck so hard that it will rattle that blasted turban right off his head!

"Good, you're awake," a voice sounded somewhere to her left. It took Lauren a moment to recognize it as belonging to Quirrell, as his usual nervous stuttering was now absent, replaced by a cold sharp tone. "As you may have noticed, I have taken necessary precautions."

No shit, Captain Obvious!

Suddenly her body was being levitated from the hard, stone floor and Lauren was directed into a nearby chair, surprisingly with more gentleness than she had expected. Once settled, the Body-Bind curse was lifted from her body. But before Lauren could even so much as twitch a muscle, coils of rope instantly wrapped themselves tightly around her, pinning her firmly in place.

Lauren grunted as she tested the ropes that bound her wrists to the armrests of the chair, but they were tight enough to almost cut off circulation. Quirrell, it would seem, wasn't going to take any chances when it came to her.

Though she had to wonder why he had replaced the Body-Bind curse with ropes to begin with.

Maybe Quirrell's not as skilled as Snape and doesn't know how to partially release it like him. But I'm still stuck with no way of escaping this.

Lauren slowly raised her head and levelled Quirrell with a murderous glare. He merely smirked back smugly at her.

"I couldn't risk you escaping...or using your powers against me."

"It's not my powers you're going to have to worry when I break free," Lauren growled, wanting nothing more than to break his nose with a well-aimed punch.

A villainous chuckle bubbled from him, Quirrell clearly not the least bit concerned now that she was safely secured and restrained.

"You're very powerful...what you did to those three Gryffindors..." Quirrell mused, eying her speculatively as though he were a scientist that had been presented with a particularly interesting specimen; a specimen that needed to be dissected to discover all of its secrets.

Lauren should have been afraid by that look alone, but another thought was sneaking its way into her head.

Interesting...He assumes that I cast that spell alone. That must mean he has no idea that I was channeling Severus' magic when I attacked those boys...He has no idea about the magical bond Snape and I share. Lauren's frown became less pronounced as she pondered this revelation. That's good. That's very good. Voldemort must never find out...

Their secret was safe. But for now she was still very much a captive and she was going to have to find a way out of this.

"So why exactly do you want me?"

"I don't want you."

Lauren rolled her eyes dramatically, her feigned bravado very much in contradiction with the pounding of her heart. "Silly me, I should have been more specific. Why does Voldemort want me?"