Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Abiageal had just regained consciousness. She had a terrible headache and she felt her blood running down her temple then down her cheek and neck, finally soaking her top. She groaned when the pain suddenly doubled. She looked around her, trying to figure out where she was but the darkness that engulfed her did not let her see anything.

Her eyes could not adjust to the darkness, but she stood up anyway before starting to move forward cautiously, her hands straight in front of her to protect herself in case she hit a wall or other hard surface.

Her fingers slid over the various stone surfaces but Abiageal was unable to tell where she was. She concentrated, closing her eyes for a few moments to try to hear the sounds outside the padded cell she was in, but there was nothing. Not the slightest sound. Not a bird singing. Not a screech. No people talking. Nothing, it was nothingness. As if she were in a place cut off from the outside world.

She also had not found a door, which was not logical or rational. If the person who had kidnapped her had managed to bring her here, there had to be a way in and out, other than the ghosts of Hogwarts, no one could walk through walls and Abiageal knew for a fact that she was not one of the ghosts of Hogwarts.

She tried to think of a solution. She wondered what Theodore would do if he was here, if it had been him who had been locked in this strange place. She shook her head from side to side, it was not a good idea, Theodore would already be mad with rage punching the walls screaming at the culprit to let him out if he did not want to die in horrible pain. So it was not a good idea to act like he would.

She did not know why her brain had made the connection but after thinking about Theodore threatening to kill the stranger who was holding him against his will if he were in her place, she had realized that she did not have her wand in her hand, she prayed that it was somewhere on the floor. She knelt on the floor before crossing the long room back and forth on all fours, desperately searching for her wand. She had found one part where she had regained consciousness and the other half a few meters further.

"If that's not luck, I don't know what is!" she said sarcastically.

She threw away the two pieces that had still made up her wand the day before before getting up, she ignored the pain she felt throughout her body and the fact that her head was spinning after getting up so quickly.

"Hello! Is anyone there? Please let me out, I didn't do anything! I don't even know who you fart or where I am!"

She screamed at the top of her lungs, hoping someone would hear her, she knew it was a long shot, but who knew what would happen? Maybe she would get lucky. It was unlikely, but not impossible.

"Please! I promise I won't tell anyone! I...I'm sure no one noticed I was gone!" she screamed again.

Nothing, she got no answer and fear was consuming her more and more. She was afraid, very afraid, even. She tried to be brave and courageous, telling herself that Theodore would not be panicking like she was, Theodore would be calm and serene. If Theodore was here, he would sit in a corner patiently waiting for the stranger to come and then try to run away. So that was what she was going to do.

She went and sat down against the wall closest to her and then she waited and she waited and she waited and she waited some more.

Abiageal had not realized she had fallen asleep, she had woken up with a start when she heard footsteps approaching her. An intense light hurt her eyes and prevented her from seeing the stranger in front of her.

"Why am I here?" Abiageal asked timidly.

Abiageal was not sure she really wanted the answer to that question. She felt like she was not going to like the answer.

"You know that very well," the stranger spat.

She did not recognize the voice. It was not someone she knew. Or maybe... maybe she did know him after all, Lord Voldemort had provided new masks to the Death Eaters, the metal of the mask and the thin cage at the mouth distorted the voice and tone of voice.

So his kidnapper was surely a Death Eater so Abiageal promised himself to concentrate on his voice to try to recognize it.

"No, I don't know. But...but my parents have money, a lot of money, they will pay any price for you to free me."

The man laughed, Abiageal did not suspect that the man behind the mask had three times more money than his parents. But, the only goal was to make him talk as much as possible in order to try to identify this mysterious kidnapper.

"I don't care about your parents' money," he replied, laughing again.

Abiageal did not take his eyes off him, he came even closer to her before kneeling down to get to the same height as her, she could only feel his breath fall on her face.

"I'll leave you to think about your presence here."

He stood up before heading towards the door, before turning his head and addressing her one last word.

"See you later, Gail."

The door closed behind him and Abiageal felt all the air escape from her lungs and her heart dropped into her stomach. She knew who it was. His first mistake had been to use that nickname. But, Abiageal had doubts, was it really a mistake? No, she had known him for a long time, he made no mistakes, everything was done with deliberation, he never left anything to chance, he wanted her to know who he was without having to say his name out loud and explicitly.

Abiageal was paralyzed on the spot, she had not even tried to run away while the door had remained wide open the entire time of the exchange, she was fast, she had years of experience running away at full speed to avoid any awkward and embarrassing situations and any situations that required any confrontation. She was sure she could outrun him, plus, he did not seem to have his wand with him, so by the time he went to get his wand, she could have already been far away.

Abiageal was paralyzed on the spot, she had not even tried to run away while the door had remained wide open the entire time of the exchange, she was fast, she had years of experience running away at full speed to avoid all awkward and embarrassing situations and all situations that required any confrontation. She was sure she could outrun him, plus, he did not seem to have his wand with him, so by the time he went to get his wand, she could have already been far away. But she could not do anything at all.

"And one last thing, Gail, don't try to Apparate. It's impossible."

The door slammed shut and Abiageal found herself once again in complete darkness.

Abiageal tried to Apparate anyway, despite the warning of her mysterious kidnapper, who was no longer mysterious. She felt her demolecularize body bounce against the walls of her long cell before collapsing heavily on the ground, she could not see them but she felt that new wounds, bruises and scratches were forming on her body.

She had been warned, but she had to check for herself. It was the only way to be sure.

Abiageal pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly for comfort. She did not know how long she had been in that position. Five minutes. Ten minutes. An hour. Three hours. She had lost all sense of time, just at one point she had started to cry.

Abiageal did not understand why he was doing this to her, she had always been correct, polite and respectful with him; she had always respected the rules he had, she never stayed too long so as not to cause any inconvenience to the master of the house; she always made sure to get out of his way, to make sure never to bother him or irritate him with her presence; she always made sure to be neither seen nor heard by him because she knew he did not like having visitors.

Abiageal finally lay down on the ground, despite the high temperatures, the stony ground was icy ( between fear, anguish and the freezing cold of the ground, Abiageal was trembling like a leaf ).

Abiageal cried again. She pressed firmly on an old scar she had that she had in common with Theodore, she had gotten it after one of their adventures at the playground, she had tripped and when she fell she had hurt herself badly, she had cried uncontrollably so Theodore had decided to fall on the same spot as her and he had hurt himself the same way, Abiageal had stopped crying when Theodore had proudly announced that now they were "scar brothers" ( Abiageal, had kindly pointed out to him that she was a girl and that therefore she could not be a 'brother', to which Theodore had replied that they were a 'scar sibling' ) and that no matter where she was in the world, if she pressed hard on his scar, then he would know where she was and he would come join her. Abiageal had never had to test that hypothesis and even though she knew it was impossible, that that wasn't how it worked, she had done it anyway.

"Please, Theodore...help me...I'm begging you..." she pressed even harder on the scar, praying it would work this time, but of course, it was too good to be true. "Please, Theo..."

As predictable as it seemed, Theodore had not appeared in her padded cell. It made sense after all, if she could not Apparate out of the cell, then no one could Apparate into the cell.

Several hours had passed ( at least, she supposed, she had no motion of time ), so she had followed her kidnapper's advice, she had thought about the reason for her presence here and honestly, she had found no excuse. So yes, it was true, she was far from perfect and she had never claimed to be, she had perhaps caused harm without necessarily realizing it, she had perhaps emotionally hurt someone with her absolute frankness and her very pronounced taste for the truth, Abiageal knew and assumed the fact that she was not exempt from all reproach, but she felt that nothing she had done or said justified holding her captive. She had flaws, just like everyone else did, but she was still young which should normally give her time to correct what she had done wrong and learn from her mistakes so as not to repeat them in the future. This man prevented her from doing so and she did not even know why. All she wanted was to understand what she had done wrong.

The door finally opened again, unlike the first time, it was not her kidnapper who entered but a house elf, she had a tray with food and a glass of water that looked more like a thimble than a glass. The elf slid the tray to Abiageal, but she did not leave right away. Abiageal thought that the elf, whose name Abiageal did not know, was waiting for her to finish eating to collect everything as soon as she finished eating.

"Master..." the elf began but Abiageal did not give him time to finish his sentence.

"Please don't say his name," the elf nodded.

"Master ordered me to chain you, Miss, he doesn't want you to try to escape."

The elf snapped her fingers and a chain appeared around her feet, the other end of the chain embedded in the wall a few meters away from her. Abiageal could not tell if the house elf felt sorry for her or if she was completely indifferent to her fate so Abiageal kept silent as she ate.

"Can you do me a favor?" Abiageal asked once her plate was empty along with her pathetic excuse of a glass of water.

"I'll see what I can do."

So Abiageal asked her to find Theodore, she asked him to warn him that she was being held captive, she did not really know where but that she needed him, she needed him to come and rescue her.

The house-elf nodded weakly before retrieving the tray and leaving Abiageal alone, once again. Unfortunately, once the house-elf had left her prison, she did not pass on Abiageal's message. She remained silent as if no words had been spoken.