Lord Voldemort's Pet

I'm still alive.

My gasping comes in short, shallow puffs as I realise that this time He hasn't killed me. It sickens me that part of me is glad, glad that He cares for me enough to let me exist another day in his presence.

I shiver, and look pleadingly through the narrow bars of my cage at a dark cloaked figure lurking near the door. He glares at me in contempt and I sense his longing to put me out of my misery.

That sick part of my shrivelled brain pipes up and tells me that I'm not miserable, I'm not. I am merely deprived of the luxuries my Lord bestows upon others.

I am ready to agree wholeheartedly, when another voice titters and asks me if food and water should be indulgences, not necessities.

It reminds me of the barely remembered life I had before my Lord took me - when I could eat and drink whenever I wanted and I could roam the world freely.

I don't need that now, I argue silently. My Lord has given me all this - look!

I sweep my arm suddenly around my filthy cage and my bony arm collides painfully with the bars.

All this? The voice mocks me. 'All this' is a birdcage not fit to keep an owl in.

I screech angrily, the sound of my hoarse, scratchy voice startling the voice away. I grin wildly, and suck the blood leaking from my bleeding gums greedily.

The man lurking in the shadows looks at me piteously and approaches my den cautiously. I freeze, and cackle at the punishment my Lord will inflict on him if he abuses me.

He reaches out a pale hand and slips in through the bars. I skitter away and almost immediately hit the back of my cage. I glower at the patient hand, and start salivating uncontrollably when I see a biscuit enclosed in the hand. I leap towards it and dig my long, filth-encrusted nails into the arm as he snatches the biscuit away.

He shrieks, and drops the golden, nourishing food as he jumps back to cradle his angrily bleeding arm. I grab the biscuit, afraid my only source of food would disappear, chattering and laughing incoherently while carefully gathering up every fallen crumb - savouring every one.

I have barely swallowed the rich, crumbly cracker when a faceless human drags me from my haven and takes me to my Lord. I giggle insanely as I realize He wants to play again.

I am thrown to the floor at His feet, and I snap my teeth at the hastily retreating masked man. I look into my dear Master's flat, white face, his red, loving eyes and his snakelike nose and scramble as close as I can get without touching.

"Do you remember your name?" my Lord asks me suddenly. I am deliriously happy that He speaks to me, so I laugh hysterically and shake my head rapidly.

All the black-clad men in the room laugh. I snarl at them, and skitter across the floor, spider like, and madly giggle as they step back hurriedly.

"Do you remember your face?" Master asks gently, ignoring the outbreak of whispering.

A pale blur swims into my memory, and I shake my head once more.

My Lord twirls his wand lazily and bestows me with a pain so delicious I was shaking and vomiting as soon as it was over.

"Master...lovely master..." I croak, spitting the bile from my mouth. I grin up at my Lord and stroke his robe lovingly.

He kicks me, and I skid a few feet across the floor. I chuckle quietly to myself.

The man I scratched approaches carefully, with a large, rectangular object. He turns it round, and I hiss and leap to my master as the silver light reflects painfully in my sunken eyes.

"Look into the mirror," coos the Dark Lord, almost cruelly. But my Master s never cruel, not to me, my brain whispers delightedly.

Eager to please, I crawl to the silver light, and squint at my reflection.

My skin is wrinkled and grey, ugly scars and welts dancing across like perverted tattoos. What's left of my hair is wispy and rusty from blood. My rags barely hide my protruding ribs and my fat, bloated stomach. I am sure the sticklike arms and legs jutting out aren't mine. I stroke a deep scar lovingly - my Master gifted me with this, I think proudly.

"Look into your eyes," says my Lord.

I stare into my own hollow, dark eyes, and remember.

I am Regulus Black.

Lord Voldemort's pet.