Thoughts in the Abyss

Author's Note: All right, here's the next chapter, and it's finally the place where that "musical scene" gets to be used. A thank you goes to fg_weasley of MNFF for beta-ing this one, as well. As there isn't much to say, I'll leave you to the story. Therefore, I present for your reading enjoyment, Chapter III of Thoughts in the Abyss, entitled, Taken.

~**~

Thoughts in the Abyss

By ForeverSirius77

~**~

Chapter III: Taken

~**~

Long, black hair falling down the length of her back and strands surrounding her face like a thick, velvety curtain, Bellatrix Lestrange came into sight from around the manor's wall and walked towards her younger cousin. "What's taking so long, Regulus?" she asked, her eyes having yet to stray to Sirius's form that was thankfully still slightly obscured by the shadows of the manor.

Sirius barely felt like he wanted to breathe, afraid that the smallest noise would divert his cousin's attention towards the manor - and to him. His heart was pounding in his chest, and a part of the young Auror thought it surprising that no one else seemed to hear it. But he knew that he couldn't just sit there, waiting for Bella to notice him - for it was surely only a matter of time before the witch turned in his direction. So, as she continued talking with Regulus, Sirius put his family members' conversation to the back of his mind and, making as little movement and sound as possible, tried to break free from the ropes binding him once again.

"The Order fled from here awhile ago," said Bellatrix, her entire attention on Regulus and her back still facing the manor. "But you never came inside ..."

"I know, Bella," he answered.

"Why did you stay out here, then?"

"Well, there - I -"

But Regulus wasn't given the chance to say whatever it was he planned on uttering because at that very moment, his elder cousin's sight had left him and strayed to the manor, her gaze piercing the shadows like a cat's. A grin that could only be described as 'nearly maniacal' split her face as she saw Sirius, her dark eyes quickly taking in his bound and bleeding form with barely suppressed joy. Alternately acting like a regal, proud queen and like a child who felt that Christmas had arrived again so soon, she approached Sirius, her wand held loosely at her side and eyes alight.

"Well, well, well," she said, paying no attention to the death glare that her cousin sent her way. (She'd received plenty of them during her lifetime, after all. They stopped fazing her in childhood.) "If it isn't little Sirius, all hurt and abandoned by his little friends ... It's been a while, cousin."

"Hello, cousin ... It's been a while ..."

A door clangs shut, its sound echoing throughout the room. More voices mutter, though the words are undistinguishable.

"He can't remember anything."

No, Sirius thought, trying to push the memories away. Now was definitely not the right time for them - if there ever was a right time. But now he at least knew who one of the voices was, without a doubt. His insane cousin had always had a particular voice, after all.

Instead, he focussed his energy on the woman in front of him, paying his brother little to no attention and trying to keep the memories at bay. His swimming sight and throbbing injuries didn't seem to help matters, either. Sirius tried once again to break through the bonds or to get free somehow. (He even tried transforming - The hell with keeping it secret now - but it didn't work.) All he could do was glare at her and hope like hell he could think of something soon.

"Well, if it isn't Trixie," spat Sirius, a smirk appearing on his face as Bella's contorted into rage at his use of that nickname. "Finished grovelling at Voldy's feet already?"

His words were cut off quickly by twelve-and-three-quarter inches of walnut - Bellatrix's wand - shoving into his throat, almost making him gag. "I'd watch what you say, Sirius," she hissed, her mouth only inches from his ear - a fact that made him jerk his head back immediately. "You aren't exactly in the best position to give witty responses right about now."

Sirius snorted and glared at the cousin he hadn't seen in over three years. "Yeah, you know a battle of wits with you is never very satisfying, is it? After all, I doubt spending nights with all the masked idiots of the world increased your intellect any." He could barely keep himself from laughing out loud as he watched Bellatrix's face tense up even more, her fingers clenching and unclenching around her wand as she pulled it back from his neck.

Sirius didn't even notice as his cousin's anger faded away and was replaced with a flash of glee before the pain erupted.

A heavy weight seemed to press down on his shoulder, the intense pressure centralising over the deep gash, and he bit off a yell, though a small hiss of pain managed to escape. His eyes had clenched shut, the weight increasing just a little more before it was suddenly removed. A throbbing in his arm, however, stubbornly remained. Breathing heavily and trying to still his pounding heart, Sirius opened his eyes, his gaze going at once to his cousin.

Bellatrix stood in front of him, her wand pointed directly at his shoulder. The smile on her face made her look like a small child awakening on their birthday to see hundreds of gifts piled in front of them. "Sirius, Sirius, Sirius," she said, sighing, though her expression didn't seem to alter. She still looked blissfully happy. "I thought we went over this before, cousin -"

"Yeah, Trixie, I think that was the problem," interrupted Sirius. "You actually tried to think, and we both know that it doesn't work -" His words were cut off once again as Bellatrix's spell caused the fiery pain to tear down his arm. She held the curse longer this time, or so it seemed to Sirius, and it took all of the strength he had to keep from screaming out.

When it finally ended, Sirius had the taste of blood in his mouth - he'd bitten down a little too hard, it appeared - and even the smallest of movements hurt. He lifted his head enough to resume his glare at his cousin, but rather than meeting the cold, dark gaze of the witch, his eyes encountered the blue orbs of his brother for the first time since Bellatrix's arrival and her subsequent interruption of the brothers' conversation.

Regulus's face was expressionless, void of anything that could be used to give him an emotion and the same mask of indifference that wizards of high-class Pureblood society were taught from childhood. He stood tall and proud; not a single fault was visible and just by looking at him, at his strong appearance, people could claim that, at this moment, the seventeen-year-old wizard was the perfect image of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

Those people, however, wouldn't really look into his eyes and see the truth that those blue depths held. They wouldn't see the inner revulsion and disgust at his cousin's actions that flashed in his expression for barely a second before disappearing behind the façade - yet still remaining visible in his eyes. They wouldn't see the hesitancy to lift his wand at Bellatrix's urging that he join her, the brief glimpse of previous guilt at his actions that shadowed his gaze.

But those people weren't Regulus's older brother who, for all the differences that the two of them had shared, could read his brother like an open book. Sirius could - and did - catch those brief instances of emotion that broke through the second son of the House of Black.

Come on, Regulus, Sirius thought, paying only half a mind to Bellatrix's taunts and words while willing his brother to understand him. Just loosen the bonds.

Sirius was so caught up in the one-sided conversation with Regulus that he didn't even notice the glowing, silver animal that came out of the forest until it was almost right in front of him.

----

James just stared at Remus for what seemed like several minutes, the words of his friend barely seeming to register in his mind. "Where's Sirius?" He was vaguely aware of Lily still sitting next to him, her hands shaking slightly as they lay on his arm. Finally, he seemed to regain the power of speech.

"He's not here?" he asked, and then he promptly wanted to curse himself for the obviously pointless question. Well, of course Sirius isn't here, he thought to himself. Remus wouldn't be asking if he was!

Both Lily and Remus shook their heads. "Sirius didn't come in with the rest of you," whispered Lily, the worry and fear that had shone in her green eyes earlier in the evening reappearing stronger than ever now. "And he didn't arrive earlier, either."

Time suddenly seemed to stop for all three of them, James in particular. The room suddenly felt too small, and a lack of oxygen as well as a need to rectify the problem assaulted the bespectacled wizard. He rose from the chair, barely even noticing that the others had followed him as he left the room and headed into the kitchen, which was, thankfully, deserted. James needed somewhere where he could pace and think, uninterrupted and completely focussed.

Not even bothering to close the door behind him, James started pacing the length of room, up one side and down the other. He forcefully pushed the exhaustion that edged at his body away, shoving his mind immediately back to the raid, to the last time he had seen and spoken with his best friend, trying to recall when, exactly, Sirius had disappeared. We were talking before leaving the forest, he thought. Just like we always do. Words came to mind at the memory:

"Everything all right?"

"I'm fine ... I was just thinking -"

"About?"

"About how much fun tonight should be. What else?"

But something hadn't been right, James remembered. Sirius, for all he had claimed that he was, had not been fine. His carefree act had been exactly that - an act, a façade. There was just something about it that had been distinctly un-Sirius Black. And if he knew little else, James Potter knew his best friend.

"Something was different tonight," he muttered, unaware that he'd spoken the words aloud until Remus asked him to explain. "I don't know how, exactly, or why, but there was just something ... wrong. It was like something was bothering him, but he just shrugged it off when I asked him about it, so I let it drop."

"When was the last time you saw him?" said Lily, standing next to Remus by the kitchen's door. The two of them looked like guards, as they stood on either side of the entryway and kept their arms crossed.

James sighed, the memories of the night's events running like a film through his head. "I don't know," he said, sighing. "He could've disappeared any time during the fight, and I wouldn't know - it was too chaotic, and the last time I distinctly remember seeing him was only about a minute into the battle."

Silence fell over the three of them for a brief moment, though it was far more suffocating than any previous lull in conversation had ever been - or so it seemed. Glancing out of the window, James took in the scene of dying grass and tree branches bending to the wind's pressure, the white light of a nearly full moon giving enough brightness to the grounds to see by. His own reflection stared back at him from the dark glass panes, and he thought there was something gnawing at his brain ...

The glass! The reflection!

"Remus, do you have the two-way mirror?" exclaimed James, turning instantly away from the window and looking at his friend, a smile on his face. The expression faded, however, when he saw it wasn't mirrored on the other two people in the room.

"What?"

"Both of the mirrors are here, James," Remus answered, his voice quiet. "You and Sirius chose to leave them behind this time, rather than risk losing them."

James Potter cursed - extensively and rather colourfully. He paid little attention to his wife's glare or his friend's frown, nor did he pay much notice to their conversation. Whatever they were discussing, it more than likely wouldn't help solve their current problem. The one time we do the 'mature' and 'responsible' thing, James thought, is the one time where it blows up in our faces! That will teach a person to be responsible -

"James!"

"What?" he yelled.

He turned around, cutting off his own muttering and train of thought, to see that Lily had been calling his name more than once. As she rose an eyebrow and glared at him, he sighed and, lowering his voice, asked her again. "What is it, Lily? And where did Remus go?"

She smiled - something that was one of the last things that James felt like doing himself right about now. "Remus went to go talk to Dumbledore," she said, elaborating as she saw her husband's expression. "He just arrived a few minutes ago. You were too busy pacing and muttering to notice." Ignoring James's attempts to interrupt with a defence, Lily continued. "As for Sirius, we forgot about one of the most obvious ways to contact him - a Patronus."

Deciding that he could punish himself later for not thinking of the easiest solution, James asked, "And you've sent one?"

"We both did," she answered. "A doe and a wolf should be arriving wherever Sirius is any minute now."

----

"You really didn't understand, cousin -"

Bellatrix's words were cut off immediately as she turned away from Sirius, her gaze distracted by the sudden brightness that illuminated the area. What had previously been cloaked heavily in shadows, the darkness of the side of the manor had been overpowered by two gleaming, silver animals coming from the depths of the nearby forest and towards the two wizards and witch. Regulus's expression mirrored his cousin's.

A bright, silver wolf approached the bound Order member first, a doe following barely a step behind the canine. Opening its mouth, the doe spoke in Lily's voice. "Everyone's returned," the voice said, but the message - as brief as it was - was taken over by the wolf Patronus.

"Let us know your status," it said, Remus's voice clearly understandable by all three people listening to the words of the two Patronuses.

"Times remain the same," finished the doe, and then slowly, the two creatures faded away, leaving Bellatrix, Regulus, and Sirius in the same level of darkness that they were in before.

It took a bit before any of them spoke a word and broke the silence that had fallen upon the departure of the Patronuses. Thoughts swirled in Sirius's mind, and he barely repressed an audible sigh when Lily's and Remus's messages had been delivered. He knew what they meant - The rest of the raid members had arrived at Headquarters, and he had a quarter of an hour to send a reply Patronus to let them know how he was before the rest of the Order declared something amiss and acted.

Normally, such a time frame wasn't a problem. Messages carried by Patronuses - though they had to be concise - usually were able to arrive instantly at their intended recipient. A message didn't take barely more than a few seconds to send, so even in the midst of a particularly messy battle, there was generally enough time to take a breather to fire off a reply.

But fifteen minutes in his current predicament - wandless, injured, and held bound at wandpoint by two Death Eaters - weren't conducive to bringing about a positive result to Sirius.

Damn it, he thought, trying to organise his thoughts into something that even remotely seemed like a beneficial plan. He had the option of trying to stall Bellatrix from carrying out whatever goals she was after - his death or his capture, he wasn't quite sure which one - in the hopes that the others would arrive soon enough, but that avenue was risky at best. There was also the option of trying to overpower both his cousin and brother, but unless some of his luck changed, he wouldn't get far attempting that method.

And getting a hold of a wand with enough time to send a Patronus to the others was nigh impossible.

He glanced up at his brother once again that night, trying to get him to - at the very least - just loosen the bonds around his wrists. Come on, Regulus, he pleaded silently, hoping Bellatrix was too distracted to pay too much attention to his attempts. Do it just enough for me to get -

Sirius felt the ropes around his wrists stretch out ever so slightly, with just the smallest amount of room for him to wiggle a hand free without too much movement. He barely kept the shocked look from his face as he took another look at his brother before he worked on surreptitiously slipping his hands free from the bloody bonds - and keeping the hisses of pain silent as the movements sent pain through his arm.

Regulus didn't return the stare of his older brother, nor did he give a sign that he had done anything throughout the entire time. Instead, the younger Black son's appearance was that of the "perfect Pureblood" that he'd shown earlier.

"Oh, look, Regulus," said Bellatrix, diverting Sirius's attention slightly from his thoughts and actions as he turned to see his cousin glancing at his brother. "Little Sirius's friends know he's missing already." She turned back to Sirius, the grin on her face growing as she approached him. "Are they going to interrupt our family reunion, cousin?" she asked.

Bellatrix stopped as she stood directly in front of Sirius, and reaching down, she tightly grasped his chin, forcing his head to turn so that their eyes met, like a mother speaking to a disobedient child.

The glare that Sirius sent his cousin barely had time to register in her mind before she felt herself falling to the ground, her grip on Sirius failing as her legs were kicked out from under her. Sirius leapt away from the wall and landed on top of Bellatrix, ignoring the pain that shot through his arm at the hurried movements and his attempts to remove the wand from her loose grasp.

He had waited for her to come just close enough, had waited for her arrogance to allow his cousin to hold her wand in the least possessive grip, before Sirius had acted. The moment that she had gripped his chin, Sirius had kicked out to trip Bellatrix, sending the witch to her back in surprise, before leaving his own position against the manor's wall to try and grasp the magical instrument that she had managed to - somehow - still maintain.

Sirius was stronger than his cousin, he knew. That didn't mean Bellatrix could be underestimated in any way during a physical fight, though. The element of surprise that Sirius had had in the beginning didn't last long, however, as Bellatrix quickly recovered and sent a kick of her own into Sirius's chest, knocking the wind from him for the briefest of moments. He returned the favour by grabbing her left wrist as the hand came up to strike him, twisting the limb in such a way that the snap of a breaking bone seemed to echo around them.

Bellatrix screamed in pain, yelling at Regulus at the same time to alert the other Death Eaters in the manor, before managing to connect her elbow with the side of Sirius's face. She wasn't able to notice whether or not Regulus had followed her orders, though, as her attention was immediately returned to the walnut wand that Sirius had his fingers around, trying to wrench it from her grasp.

With another hit to his chest, and this time with an elbow, Sirius's concentration slipped just long enough for Bellatrix to turn her hand enough to point the wand's tip at her cousin, shouting "Crucio!" as she did so.

Sirius couldn't hold back the screams this time as the curse tore through his body. The pain he had felt earlier due to his injuries was only magnified by the spell, leaving him writhing on the ground as Bellatrix easily manoeuvred herself out from under him.

She kept her wand pointed at Sirius, her earlier grin returning as she held the spell for nearly a full minute before lowering her wand and releasing her cousin from the Cruciatus's grip. Bellatrix watched as he struggled to return his breathing to normal and get up from the ground, watched as the lack of strength stemming from the injuries and curses that night took their toll on Sirius. It was only when he failed to make it to his feet that she approached him, her wand held pointing squarely at his chest.

Bellatrix stared down at her cousin, taking in the blood flowing from his cuts, the bruises that were already starting to form, and the dirt that smudged his face from the physical fight the two of them had fought just moments ago. She took in the entire beaten appearance of the Auror in front of her, the gleeful expression on her face growing clearer and clearer.

"Don't worry, Sirius," she whispered, hearing the doors of the manor banging open and the sounds of the Death Eaters issuing forth. She turned her head slightly to take a quick glance at her approaching companions before returning her attention to Sirius. "No one is going to kill you." Bellatrix smiled, a giggle barely being suppressed as the other Death Eaters circled around the cousins, their lit wands providing plenty of light on the grounds.

The only reaction that Sirius seemed to give that showed he noticed the new company was to shut his eyes at the sudden intrusion of bright light. His cousin's words barely registered in his mind, his exhaustion combining with the intense pain he still felt slowing his thoughts to a crawl. Each breath hurt, his ribs screaming in agony as he tried to keep breathing at a normal rate, and his right arm hung at his side, numb. Trying to keep his sight focussed had, by now, become a lost cause.

Sirius hardly noticed as Bellatrix knelt down in front of him and muttered, "There's still plenty of time for us to play." He only partially managed to lift his head in the attempt to meet her gaze with a final glare before she whispered a Stunning Spell.

And as the jet of red light hit him in the chest, Sirius slipped into unconsciousness.

~**~

Author's Note: And there you have it, everyone! The fic has made its first darker turn, and I suppose I could be a bit kind and apologise (slightly) for the little cliffy at the end of this chapter. Coming soon will be the fourth chapter, tentatively entitled, Foreign Dreams, but I'm not very sure if it'll stay that way. Thank you so much to everyone who has read Thoughts in the Abyss, and please, let me know what you think!

~Megan