Dark dungeon

When they appeared in a small, dinky corner of Knockturn Alley, James thought he knew where this was going. He had a vague recollection of seeing someone enter here once and being tossed out when he tried to follow. He had been trying to fight the man at the time. 

"You better put your Cloak back on," Scorpius said, but James had already done it. This was not a place for him to be recognised. 

As Scorpius knocked, James wondered why he wasn't covering Vane in any way. But the dry, wrinkled old man inside didn't even bat an eye as he saw Scorpius stand there with a gagged and tied up woman. 

"Password?" was all he asked.

"Magia est potentia" Scorpius said with a voice James had never heard before. What did that mean? It sounded like Latin, but he had never really paid attention to those lessons. 

The man opened the door and then pointed to a door to their left. "Three doors down," was all he said. As they passed one of the other doors, James thought he could hear the faint echo of a scream. Vane heard it too. She started to panic, trying to wriggle out of her bonds. Scorpius' face showed only a slightly satisfied grin. He opened the door to the room indicated. As he closed the door and used Muffliato, James felt it was safe to become visible again. 

"What is this place?" he asked, though he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. Scorpius didn't answer at first, taking care to place Vane in the corner of the room where there were chains seemingly meant to control a person. In a moment, the ropes were gone, but Vane was held upright by chains on her arms and feet. Scorpius then made a sound barrier between her and them. 

"Never mind what it is. It served the purpose I needed, to make her scared. I was afraid I would actually have to pretend to use any of these things to get that effect," he said as he pointed to the rest of the room. Vane seemed to look around her too and started fighting her chains even harder. Scorpius hadn't removed the gag. Neither of them had any wish to hear her voice, even if it would be pleading or yelling at them.

James looked around too and didn't like what he saw. He had no idea what most of these things did, but none of them looked pleasant. Several looked like Muggle torture instruments he had seen pictures of in class. Why did such a place still exist, even in Knockturn Alley? He felt a dangerous Dark aura from some of these items as well. 

"What- what are you going to do to her now?"

"Nothing. I am not a monster, despite what she thinks. I just want her to feel a little of the fear we felt, a little bit of the helplessness. This is the only place I know that can make her feel that. We'll sneak her back into the prison again tomorrow. But please, play along for a short time. Most importantly, remind me of our other obligation in about 5 minutes, or when I indicate. That is our cue to hasten out and leave her here."

"Leave her here? Tied up like that?"

"Don't worry, it is not dangerous. Hermione was held like this for a full day, it didn't seem to hinder her much."

James wasn't so sure he believed that. Aunt Hermione had lashed out quite violently after being held like this and traumatised. But he didn't dare protest now. 

"Okay, I am going to slowly let her start hearing us again, as if my barrier failed. Please, just play along."

"What are you going to say?" 

"Nothing of much importance. You don't need to reply at all, just don't protest."

James nodded reluctantly. And just like that, as Scorpius turned around so that half his face was visible for Vane, it was as if he became a completely different person.

"… Just need to decide on where to start," he said, as if it was the end of a longer explanation. "Like I said, we have at least a few days before they even become suspicious. After that, we need to figure out how to make them stop looking. I suppose we could make a dummy, like she was going to, but Harry might suspect that now."

"That may make it appear that it is her own escape plan though," James said, playing along. 

"Good point. And it would make them look at completely different places. Either way, no one will find her here. Hardly anyone even knows this place exists anymore and those who do won't admit to it."

James had no trouble believing that. Who had that been, screaming in the other room? 

"Well, time to get started," Scorpius said as he turned towards Vane properly. His face grew even darker as he looked at her. James stayed back, but he had no mercy in his eyes for this woman either.

Vane was still gagged, though it no longer seemed to tighten if she tried to say something. Scorpius moved towards her with menace in his eyes. 

"You called me a monster, Vane. You were wrong. At least you were two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, I wouldn't even dream of doing anything like this. I would have been more than satisfied thinking about you rotting away in a prison cell for the rest of your life. Now, that is not enough for me. Now, I want you to feel even a small amount of the panic and helplessness that I felt, down in that hole. Not knowing what would come next. Not knowing who would come for me next. Thinking I would die down in that miserable hole. Well, I don't have a hole to put you in. What I have is a life-long membership to the Dark dungeon. It comes with being a Malfoy, though I have never used it before. You get to be my first ever guest. You should be proud."

While he said this, Vane had become more and more frantic. She fought against the chains, tried to move as far away from Scorpius as she could go and looked absolutely terrified. Even James started to feel a little sympathy. Then he remembered who it was and steeled his heart again. She deserved to feel this terror. He just hoped Scorpius would stop at that. 

"Now, lucky for you," Scorpius said "Despite several run-ins with Dark Wizards, I haven't quite mastered the Cruciatus Curse. That would have been the simplest, and the easiest way to get this over with quickly. But then, we have other ways to get much the same results. Muggles have invented many ways to hurt people, but they leave a mark. I can't do that yet. I need to be sure that I won't need to briefly return you first. But this, this may be just the thing." He took out one of the green skulls from a cupboard behind them. James shied away from it. Whatever that thing did, it was not good. What was Scorpius thinking?

"This skull," Scorpius said, as he placed it on a stool with its green eyes looking directly at Vane. "Makes the victim relive the darkest moments of their lives. Over and over. It was extracted from a Dementor. I think you are familiar with those, aren't you?" Vane shivered and tried to get away from it. 

James had had enough. This was too much. He made a sound and interrupted. "Not to spoil the moment, but we need to get a move on, if we are to make it home for dinner."

Scorpius seemed to jump out of some trance. He straightened, and gave him an almost smile, as much of a smile as he had been able to do, since returning. 

"You're right. Sorry, I got a little carried away. I'll just leave this here and we can continue later." And without a backwards glance he started moving towards the door. James put the Invisibility Cloak on as he pretended not to hear the frantic screams from the woman behind them.