Very much alive

Scorpius returned to the Manor. He ran up to his room, praying that Rose was still there. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her, asleep on the bed.

"Rose! Rose! Wake up! Wake up, we need to go! We need to leave NOW." He hesitated slightly before touching her gently to wake her up.

"What? What is it? What happened? Where is Mother? Is she okay?" Rose asked groggily, still in pain. She gasped when she saw all the signs of violence on Scorpius. "What happened to you?"

"No time to explain that now," Scorpius said. "We need to leave, before some of the others return."

Rose leaped out of bed right away. She wanted nothing more than to get out of there.

"Is Mum okay? Is she alive?"

"She is alive. She is mostly worried about you. Come! Quickly."

They started running down the stairs, but when Rose reached the bottom, she stopped dead, terrified. Scorpius came up behind her. Just then, Albus came running in the front door. He too stopped dead.

Lord Voldemort stood in front of them. Very much alive.

"Malfoy! Severus!" Voldemort said with joy in his voice. "So glad to see that you are able to join us again! But where were you going, Malfoy? You look like you have been through quite an ordeal."

"Master!" Scorpius exclaimed, horrified. He had to think fast again. "You have returned! I feared the worst when I saw you go down. I should have known not to doubt you. Forgive me." He knelt. "I was coming to collect my price before getting away from the hounds of the Ministry. I have already experienced first-hand what happens if you get caught by them, I have no wish to repeat the experience." He pointed to his bruised body. "They caught me in a Side-along Apparition, and when they saw me alone, and with the sword still in my hand, they started kicking me, calling me all sorts of things. Then they bound me and took me to a secure room. I managed to break a window and escape. I came right here, my Lord."

"Glad you were able to escape," Voldemort said. He looked towards Rose "And she won't run away from you again."

Rose whimpered and tried to walk backwards. Scorpius stopped her. He knew it wouldn't do any good now. He wondered if she had caught the sentence about the sword. A quick look at her made him think that she had hardly heard a word he had said. She looked at Voldemort with wide eyes.

Voldemort now turned to Albus. He gulped, frightened. What would happen to him now?

"Severus! It looks like you escaped without a beating! I am glad to see you as well. I was worried you might have been captured."

Albus was confused. Didn't Voldemort remember what had happened? His only choice was to play along for now.

"Thank you, my Lord. It seems the Aurors were afraid of hurting a Potter. I removed my mask at once, to show them who I was. Some tried to grab me, but none dared use their wands. I eventually got away but had to lay low to avoid additional patrols. My father especially seemed to be looking for me. I am sorry for not returning sooner. Had I known of your survival I would have returned here right away. I tried to hear what they had done to Malfoy, so I am glad to see he escaped as well."

"Well, we are here now. That is what matters. Come. We need to make new plans. There are many things we can do, even without the Mudblood Minister's death."

"But what about the girl?" Lestrange asked, "You did promise, my Lord, that we would punish her if the Mudblood did anything to displease you."

"Ah, yes. I did say that didn't I," Voldemort said, turning to look at Rose with a malicious grin. "And she even tried to escape. She needs to learn proper respect."

Rose started trembling again. She tried to back away, but there was nowhere to go.

"Chain her to the wall there, Rodolphus," Voldemort ordered. "Brutus, I seem to remember that you have a camera? Fetch it. We need to document this."

The orders were carried out swiftly. Once again, Rose was chained. She was dragged to the wall, already crying, displayed with hands and feet out to the side. Brutus quickly returned with the camera. Scorpius was laboriously getting up on his feet again, despite his injuries, thus he didn't realise what would happen until it was too late.

"Now. Let's begin, shall we?" Voldemort said. "Crucio!"

He tortured Rose for several minutes. Brutus eagerly took photos. With moving pictures, the whole scene would be unmistakable.

Scorpius tried to hold back tears. This was worse than last time. This time, he had almost got her out! So close, but now he had to watch it again. He wanted to stop it, he had to stop it! But he couldn't. Voldemort would kill him before he even had his wand out! But how much more of this could he stand?

When Voldemort finally finished, he wrote a short note and handed the pictures and the parchment to Albus. "Choose the best one of those, Severus, and send them to your family. With my greetings."

"Yes, Master," Albus said, barely managing to keep his voice steady. He ran off to do as ordered. He needed to let his family know what had happened, this was a good enough excuse.

"You two," Voldemort said, pointing to two Death Eater guards, who had entered while the display was going on. "Get Miss Weasley back to Malfoy's room. Keep her chained up properly this time, Malfoy."

"She will not escape from me again, Master," Scorpius promised. He was surprised at how steady his voice sounded.

"Now, since we are on the subject of punishment, there is yet another matter we must take care of." Voldemort turned to one of the still hooded Death Eaters. "Broadshaw, I believe this is twice now that you have failed me. First, your men failed to remain awake for a single night on guard duty, allowing all the prisoners to get away. Then you failed to notice an army of Ministry workers ready to descend on us. These were very simple tasks, Broadshaw. Even you should have been able to fulfil them. So why didn't you? Are you simply incapable of following even the simplest of orders? Or have you been in the employ of the Ministry the whole time, sabotaging our missions?"

Broadshaw started trembling "No, Master. No, I am only loyal to you. Mercy Master! I promise I will do better!"

"Yes, you will do better," Voldemort said with a dangerous tone in his voice. "You will serve a higher purpose. You get to be a demonstration of what happens when you fail Lord Voldemort."

Before long, Scorpius had almost forgotten what had happened to Rose. And how his leg was still painful from the beating he had received. This was almost as bad to watch. Almost.