Magic? || Years 5-7

Lock and Key: Captured

Warnings: Blood (non-graphic). That's it :) It's a lighter chapter (ish)

According to Luna, it was a week or two before Christmas. Meaning Amisty had been trapped inside Malfoy Manor for four months already. The Quibbler, the Lovegoods's magazine, had been publishing article after article in support of Harry, and Luna had been kidnapped on her way home from Hogwarts to shut her father up.

"They haven't hurt you, have they?" Amisty asked, a tad breathless.

"Oh, I'm alright," Luna said. "I figured it'd be best to let it happen."

"Yeah," Amisty said, her forehead pressed to stone. If she squinted, she could see the pale curls of Luna's hair in the darkness. "I get that."

Snape had also become Headmaster at Hogwarts, with Alecto and Amycus Carrow as the Muggle Studies Professor and the DADA Professor respectively, although the topics had skewed considerably from what they once were. As had punishments, but that was to be expected.

Hopefully, Madame Pomfrey had stocked up during the summer.

Luna had been, with the help of Neville and Ginny, rousing Dumbledore's Army once more against the Death Eaters in the castle. It'd been going well, at least for a while, and they'd even attempted to steal the Sword of Gryffindor from Snape's office. It didn't work, they'd gotten detention, but morale was high despite the circumstances.

"Did they take your wand?"

"Yes," Luna said quietly. "I'm sorry, Amisty. I think they broke it."

"It's not your fault, Luna," Amisty replied, her stomach twisting at the memory of her own wand snapped in two. "I'm sorry you lost it."

"It's not too terrible," Luna said with the same ditzy lightness that was so heartwarming Amisty couldn't help but smile. "Magic isn't limited to only wands, you know. Goblins and house-elves use it all the time, and they're not allowed to have wands."

Amisty paused. Thought of the starry-furred wolf perched on the edge of her bed. The cacophony of sound only dimmed with a silver potion. The bright flash of a transformation and the way the world seemed so much brighter. The runes floating from the tip of her finger to her friends in one last goodbye.

The gold ring in her eyes that still refused to fade after so many months of heartbreak and hurt.

The Life Bond Bellatrix still had yet to break.

"Yeah." Amisty ran her thumb against her finger, right where a shining ring used to be. "I know."

Hours later, footsteps creaked overhead. Hushed voices and the scrape of a trunk being lifted off the floor and hoisted away. A fire crackled, the faint scent of embers wafting down between the floorboards, followed by the clink of silverware and a dull buzz of chatter.

It seemed Draco was home for the holidays.

Amisty warred in silence with herself as warmth swelled in her chest, because yes he was here but. . . Bellatrix was worse when she had an audience, even more so with Draco present. Like she reveled in tearing an already wilting relationship apart bit by torturous bit. Wasted no time in interrogation, even when they both knew Amisty held no answers. Grew more lenient with knives when she knew Draco would sneak down and heal the best he could. Something like a punishment for the two of them, but Narcissa would never let her sister harm her son, no matter how foolish he was being.

Sometimes, when the dark corners of her cell swayed and voices that weren't hers whispered taunts in her ears, Amisty wished they'd never met at all.

Or, at least, they'd stayed enemies. At least then, then she'd be spared from all this horror, and he wouldn't have to watch. Powerless. Because that was what was expected of him. At least then she wouldn't be chained in a basement waiting for the door to creak open and face the wrong end of a mad woman's wand.