Disclaimer- I own nothing, nada, rien, nichts, niente.
A/N- Thank you, Gerry and Laree!
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Harry woke up to find himself restrained to a table. Looking around, he noticed a mousy looking man with potions and clean cloths.
“Where am I?” Harry asked.
“The Chamber of Secrets,” replied the man. “The Prince’s private torture chamber. Don’t think about escaping either. The Prince, the Countess, and I are the only three who know the way in and out.” Then the mousy little man, Peter, began to clean Harry’s wounds.
“Why bother healing me, if you are going to kill me?”
“The Prince likes everyone nice and healthy before they’re broken.”
“So I’m to be tortured? I can handle that. I’ve been through worse.”
Peter looked at Harry in an almost pitying way, and shook his head.
“What? You don't believe me?”
You survived the Forbidden Forest. You must be very brave... but nobody withstands one of the Countess’ Cruciatus Curses,” Peter said.
***
The king died that night, and Ginny and Prince Draco were married in a short ceremony before sunrise. It seemed like there would be no hope for her now, but a life without love.
By noon the Slytherin common room was again packed as it had been at the engagement announcement. Prince Draco appeared as before and announced Ginny as the Queen. She once again appeared, and walked among her subjects, and again they bowed. Suddenly, softly, a ‘booing’ was heard.
She looked around her, and noticed a hag in grey robes. Ginny was puzzled. Why would anyone boo her?
“Why do you do this?” she asked her.
“Because you had love in your hands, and you gave it up,” replied the old hag.
“But they would have killed Harry if I had not come back with the Prince,” she said, distraughtly.
“Your true love lives and you marry another!” she replied. Then turning to the crowd she added. “True love saved her in the Forbidden Forest, and she treated it like rubbish. And that's what she is, the Queen of Refuse! So, bow down to her if you want. Bow to her. Bow to the Queen of Slime, the Queen of Filth, the Queen of Putrescence. Boo! Boo! Rubbish! Filth! Slime! Muck! Boo! Boo!”
The hag started to advance on Ginny. “No! You don’t understand,” Ginny said. “Please!”
Ginny woke up in a cold sweat. It was a week before the wedding, and the king was defiantly still alive. Her nightmares were getting worse by the night, and no amount of Dreamless Sleep Potion would help. Grabbing her robe, she ran to Draco’s chambers.
“Draco, it comes to this: I love Harry. I always have, and I know now, I always will. If you insist that I marry you next week, please believe me when I say; I will be dead by morning.”
“Ginny, darling, I could never cause you a moment of pain. Consider the wedding off. However, are you sure he still wants you? After all, you were the one that left him.”
“Harry will always come for me. The moment he gets my owl, he’ll Apparate here right away.”
“Very well, dearest, give me a copy of your letter, and I will have my fastest Eagle Owl find him. If he still wants you, you are free to go and live happily ever after. If not, think of me as an alternative before doing something rash.”
“You will have my letter within the hour,” she replied, walking out of the room to write toHarry.
As soon as Ginny walked out the door, Draco threw on his robes and ran to find Countess Lestrange. There would be no way those letters would get to Harry.
***
The Prince and Countess approached the entrance to the chamber. The Countess looked at the Prince in a calculating manner for a moment and said, “Your Princess is really a winning creature. A trifle unpretentious, perhaps, but her appeal is indisputable.”
“Oh, I know,” Draco drawled. “The people are quite taken with her. It's odd, but when I hired Snape to have her murdered on our engagement day, I thought that was clever. But it's going to be so much more heartbreaking when I squeeze the life out of her on our wedding night. Once Beauxbatons is blamed, the Kingdom will be truly outraged. They'll demand we go to war.”
“I believe you’re right, as always. Now, where is that secret knot? It's impossible to find.” She looked around for a minute and found the knot that opened the chamber. As the entrance opened, she looked back at Draco, and added, “Are you coming down into the Chamber? Harry has gotten his strength back. I am starting him on Crucio tonight.”
“Bella, you know how much I love watching you work. But, I've got my kingdom's one thousandth anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my future wife to murder, and Beauxbatons to frame for it. I'm swamped.”
“I’ll report to you later,” she replied, as she went down into the chamber.
***
Bellatrix entered the chamber, and walked over to Harry. He noticed that she was impeccably dressed in robes of the finest black silk.
“As you may have discovered by now,” Bella hissed, “I have a thing for pain. A passion really; would you like to help me do research?” she asked.
“Not particularly,” Harry replied defiantly.
“Here is what we will do,” she continued as if Harry had not spoken, “I will perform my experiment and then you will let me know how it feels? Doesn’t that sound like fun?” She smiled evilly at him, “Crucio!”
Harry screamed out in pain as the curse hit him. It was the worst feeling in the world. He thought his head would explode. He thought all of his bones were breaking at once. The pain was intense--so intense it seemed to last forever.