I hung in Riddle's arms, nearly sobbing, as Fred, George, Terry, Lee, Dean, and surprisingly, Luna and Ollivander the wand maker, were forced into the room by Bellatrix. 

Fred, George, and Terry's faces immediately twisted in fury when they saw me, paling, and Terry tried to run forward; with a lazy flick of Bellatrix's wand, he was flung backward, nearly knocking over George, the latter holding him up and setting him back on his feet. 

"Get your fucking hands off her!" Fred snarled, and I shook my head at him, my eyes wide - he can't speak to Riddle like that! Does he want to get killed? 

"Ah. Weasley. We meet again." Riddle said pleasantly. "Though I cannot say that I am happy to see you. I rather dislike you." 

"The feeling's mutual." Fred seethed, and I noticed that both George and Lee's hands were clamped down on his arms, firmly holding him back. 

"Red, shut up!" I pleaded weakly. "Don't provoke him!" 

"No, no, it is quite all right, my love." Riddle tightened his grip on me, tilting me to set me on the floor. My legs wobbled, but Riddle quickly slid his arm around my waist, holding me up. "Let him speak. I am eager to hear his thoughts about me. About your HUSBAND." 

I glanced at Fred, alarmed. His usually cheekily-attractive face was twisted, scowling, his eyes flashing with a rage I'd rarely ever seen before on him. 

"You are not her husband." Fred said slowly, harshly. "You are a predator." 

"A predator." Riddle repeated, his voice soft but dangerous. "What does that make you, then, Weasley? With your initial carved above her heart?" 

I felt faint; with each second spent trying to keep myself from passing out onto the floor, I felt that I was being drained of all my energy. 

"What?" Fred said loudly. "What? You made me do that - you were trying to get to me through her -" 

Riddle laughed. It was a high, cold laugh, one laced with menace. "I was only influencing the situation. You would not have sliced open Miss Potter's skin and spilled her blood if you did not truly want to do it." 

Fred's mouth fell open. "I - I - I wasn't wanting to -" 

"Aha." Riddle smirked, his hand curling around my hip. "You are stuttering now. Some part of you wanted to lay claim to my wife, regardless if you specifically wanted to harm her. And now she has your mark on her..." 

"No - no - that's not what I wanted -" 

"Oh, but it was, was it not?" Riddle said. "You attempted to mark her as yours. But it was too late, Weasley. I have already marked her as mine... all over her skin, everywhere..." 

Riddle's eyes dropped, and he pointed his wand at my torn and bloody jumper. It fell apart around me, leaving my topless body shivering in his other hand. He smirked, his eyes on my chest covered with heart-shaped scars, but then the corners of his mouth turned down as his eyes moved lower. 

"Bella..." He said, his quiet voice laced with danger. "What have you done to my wife?" 

My cuts throbbed as blood slowly but steadily seeped out of them, all along my stomach and sides, all up and down my arms. Riddle's eyes focused on the wound left by Gryffindor's sword, which had opened again under the torture and had drenched the bandages with blood. 

"I didn't do it, my Lord!" Bellatrix shrieked, her wild eyes on the wound too. "It wasn't me! It was already there when she came to us!" 

"But you did everything else?" Riddle's eyes moved across to my left forearm. "Including... this?" 

Everyone's eyes focused on the four letters streaming scarlet on my skin. S L U T. 

"My, my, Bellatrix." Riddle said softly. "You are quite the jealous one, aren't you?" 

"My Lord -" 

"Be quiet! I shall deal with you later." Riddle turned back to the prisoners, his lips curling again. "What to do with you, what to do with you... Daisy, these are your friends. The two Weasleys, Boot. Do you love them?" 

What the fuck was he asking me this for? Would he spare them if I said yes, did he love me that much that he would let them go and do them no harm if I wanted? 

"Y-yes." I stammered. "Yes, I love them - they're my family." 

Riddle's lips curled even more. "They are what is keeping you going? Keeping you fighting for your cause?" 

"I - yes, of course." 

"And therefore you would be absolutely broken without them? To the point that you would have to search for another thing to centre your world around, or else you would succumb to a painful, pitiful existence?" 

I stared at him, my jaw clenched as I swayed on my feet. The drawing room around me was giving me an uncomfortable deja-vu, reminding me horribly of the awful things that happened here a year ago. I tried to ignore the memories as Riddle's crimson eyes bore into me. 

"Answer me, Daisy." 

Why was he asking this? I didn't trust him. Not at all. 

"Answer me! Crucio!" 

I flinched as Riddle's Cruciatus Curse hit Fred, jumping a mile out of my skin. Fred crumpled to the floor, twitching and yelling and writhing; I wrenched myself away from Riddle, screaming, "Yes, yes, the answer's yes!" 

Fred stopped shouting; he lay on the ground for a moment, groaning and panting, then he collected himself, staggering up and glaring at Riddle. The latter smirked over at me, and purred, "See? That wasn't so hard, was it?" 

"Fuck off." I spat, backing away. Riddle's eyes glinted, and he took a step towards me. 

"Hmm. You are right, Daisy. You are VERY protective over your little friends." He said. "And it would absolutely break you if they were dead." 

Riddle raised his wand, and I felt a sudden swoop of dread go through me as he pointed it straight at George. 

"No!" I yelled. "No - Tom, I - I swear to Godric, don't you dare fucking hurt him -" 

Riddle turned back to me, his smirk growing wider. "You are still using my name, I see. Imagine how connected we would be once they are all dead... nothing to hinder us any more, my love..." 

I stared at him. My heart was pounding. The boys were all pale, Fred was grabbing onto George tight. Think, Daisy, think... how can they get out of here without wands? 

"Imagine," Riddle advanced upon me, his eyes flashing with a mad excitement, "the love that we would share between us. With them gone, you would have nothing to worry about. With them gone, your focus need only be on me." 

"I'd be isolated if you killed them." I said, my voice shaking. "My whole world would crumble, I'd be so alone, I'd have nothing left. Would you really do that to me? I thought you loved me, Tom." 

"Well, that is the point, isn't it?" Riddle came closer, and I backed into the wall. "Without them, you would have nobody but me. Of course, I would go after your idiot family as well; dear Bellatrix has her eyes set on Black, and I have always had my claim on your brother. Without them, we would be unstoppable together." 

I stared up at him in fear as he approached, nowhere to go as he bent down, his eyes boring into mine. C'mon Daisy, THINK... Adam Malfoy was standing right beside them, his wand out by his side, and Lee could reach out and grab it if he could just look...

"Does that not show that I love you, Daisy? That I am willing to weed the bad things out of your life so that you can have a better future? A better future for us?" 

I gazed up into Riddle's crimson eyes, panting slightly. "No. It doesn't." I side-stepped away from him, making eye contact with Lee. "GO!" 

Lee seemed to understand exactly what I was begging him to do through my eyes. Whirling around, he reached out; he grabbed Malfoy's wand; Malfoy shouted and Bellatrix screamed; a jet of red light flew towards Lee, and he leaped sideways, colliding with the other prisoners. 

"Everybody grab onto me!" Lee shouted as Bellatrix, Floppy, and Greyback shot Stunning Spell after Stunning Spell at him. Dean, Luna, and Ollivander reached out; Fred, George, and Terry ignored him, their eyes darting between me and Riddle, glancing around frantically for anything they could use as a weapon. 

"We're not leaving Daisy!" Fred yelled, his eyes falling onto me. 

"Lee!" I shouted as Riddle pinned me to the wall, digging his wand into my side. "Lee! Just take them and GO!" 

I saw Lee nod, once, over Riddle's shoulder. As the other three clung to Lee's body, he grabbed onto the back of Fred and George's jumpers. The two yelled; Terry started to run towards me, his face panicked, his eyes wide; Luna reached out and snatched at his foot, and the group twisted - 

And with a CRACK, they were gone. 

There was a stunned silence for a moment. Riddle wasn't relenting the pressure on my shoulder, but his eyes were shut, and his breathing slow and heavy. Bellatrix was panting across the room; beside her, Greyback was staring at the space were the others had stood a second before, and Malfoy was trembling, backing away towards the door. Floppy was leaning against the wall, arms folded, looking disinterested. 

"Felix," Riddle said, his eyes still shut, "come here." 

Floppy pushed himself off the wall, sauntering over. He glared at me as Riddle turned, opening his eyes, which were practically shining with fury. 

"Take Miss Potter here, tie her up, and keep her from trying to escape." He ordered Floppy, the rage barely contained in his voice. "I am going to deal with Adam and Bellatrix." 

Floppy grabbed me by the arm, yanking me to his side. I saw Riddle advance towards Malfoy and Bellatrix over his shoulder as he roughly bound my hands together, not being gentle at all. 

"Ouch." I said as Malfoy's screams started behind me. "Dickhead." 

"Shut up, slut." Floppy said, then winced, checking behind him to make sure Riddle didn't hear. "God, you're so dumb." 

"What?" I said, glaring up at him. "Literally what? You're the dumb one!" 

"No, you." 

"No, YOU!" 

Malfoy's screams stopped. We both glanced around fearfully, only to see Riddle training his wand on Bellatrix this time, and then she started to scream instead. 

"You just keep getting yourself caught, don't you?" Floppy sneered as he tightened the last knot around my wrists. 

"This time it actually wasn't my fault though." I muttered. "Y'know, I think you're just jealous. That's why you're calling me dumb and acting like such a massive fucking wiener." 

"What?" Floppy snapped. 

I smirked. "You want a piece of me so BAD, don't you, you stupid demon -" 

"God, shut UP!" Floppy pounced on me, fastening a gag around my mouth, and I choked and spluttered, writhing against my bindings. 

"Ffffck uff!" I tried to yell at him. 

Floppy simply stood before me, smirking, as the two Death Eater's screams echoed off the walls of the manor's drawing room behind him. 

~~~ 

I nearly sobbed as I came to on the familiar bed of Riddle's quarters at Hogwarts. Riddle was looming over me menacingly, his wand pointed at my face, but he tucked it away when he saw that I was awake. 

"You could not just behave on the walk up here?" Riddle said, his voice dripping with sarcastic annoyance. "You just had to try to run away and be so very boring, did you? You already had these restraints on you, and you thought you could get away from me?" 

I simply stared up at him. I would refuse to talk, if my mouth hadn't already been gagged. 

"Silly girl. I did not want to Stun you. And now you have this large scrape on your head from falling." 

Riddle reached out his hand and traced something which stung on my temple, and I shuddered. 

"Now; first thing's first. I will have to heal all of these ailments on you. Dear, dear," Riddle said, his eyes fixating on the bandages, "what happened here, Daisy?" 

"Noon uf ur ffckin bishnish." I glared at him as he smiled in amusement, reaching out for the blood-soaked bandages. I squealed in pain as he peeled them off me, his scarlet eyes moving across the wound, his nose wrinkling in disdain as I assume he saw the Muggle stitches. 

"Amateur children." Riddle muttered. "Do none of you know how to heal magical wounds? Tsk." 

I watched him as he started murmuring spells, his wand-tip laid at the edge of my wound. My eyes widened as I noticed the small spiral of white mist circling around the wand, something which was quite familiar to me also; the small bit of Grace Riddle had managed to steal from me a year ago. 

"There." He sat back after a minute, face lit up with triumph. "All better." 

I looked down. My wound and all the cuts Bellatrix had caused all over my body were healed, without a trace of any scarring or blood. All except for the word S L U T written across my forearm. 

"I think I will leave that there for a while." Riddle smirked. "It is true, after all." 

And as I looked up from his face, desperately searching the room with my eyes for any possibility of escape, the familiarity of it came rushing back, much stronger than looking at the one room of Floppy's manor. I'd spent so much more time in here than I'd ever spent in that drawing room, been fucked in here so many times, slept in here so many times... loved in here so much... 

Shit. What the fuck was I going to do now? 

"And now," Riddle reached out for his bedside table, and my eyes widened; I attempted to scuttle away, but my hands were still tied, making my efforts fruitless, "you are to drink this, my love." 

With his other hand, Riddle yanked down my gag; he forced the goblet onto my lips, tipping the liquid in as I choked; strangely enough, it didn't smell of anything this time; I was forced to swallow, hiccuping as tears streamed down my face from the lack of oxygen in my lungs. 

Riddle let go of me, sitting back with a hungry look in his eye. He watched me as I sat there, hiccuping, crying... and nothing happened. 

Another minute. No pink clouds. No simpering unconditional 'love.' 

Nothing was happening... nothing... nothing at all... 

And as I realised what that must mean, a huge smirk broke out across his face; evil, sadistic, triumphant... the hunger satisfied.