CRUEL WANTING

Chapter Seventeen

Keep Careful Watch Of My Brother's Soul

Author's Note: It has almost been two years since I updated this story, and I am so sorry for keeping you all waiting. To explain my reasons in a short list; harassment, nearly dying and a LONG time in hospital. After some rehabilitation, I'm back and ready to write again. My updates will likely be once every week or two, as I'm still trying to get back into this story. I just hope you all can understand that my writing style may have changed, and I really hope you don't get angry at the path I've decided to take with Pansy.

Featured Review: BoredRavenvlaw620: A muggle mad scientist and a werewolf walk into a bar...total chaos ensues! Can't wait to see what the next update holds.

I cannot express how much that first line made me laugh. But you pretty much summed it up beautifully. Thank you for following my work, and sorry for the wait.

Special Mentions: Victoria.P & .esp

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Blood spluttered out of Harry's lips as a strangled cough forced it's way up to his throat. In less than five minutes, the Ministry had been ripped apart and completely destroyed. To make matters worse, dozens of innocent people had died trying to defend it against their new foe: a creature that struck genuine fear into Harry's heart. Whatever it was, it was deadly and incapable of remorse. So many lives had been snuffed out by this creature, and it didn't seem to falter or slow down after taking any of them. It kept going, kept killing.

Rolling onto his side, Harry groaned as a sharp pain shot through his ribs. How was he going to beat this thing when it seemed to know every move he would make before he made it? None of his spells landed, it was too fast for any of them to meet their mark. Pushing himself onto his hands and knees, Harry reached out to grab his discarded wand, only to have it be kicked away. Looking up, Harry shuddered when he saw the creature responsible for all of this death and destruction, the creature he believed had no soul.

At first, he was struggling to believe what he was looking at. Upon first glance, she appeared to be a young woman, maybe a few years his junior. Her posture was impossibly straight, while her hair was almost as white as snow, cascading down to the base of her spine in smooth waves. There was not a single marking or imperfection on her porcelain white skin, save for the blood that she was drenched in. But that wasn't what had Harry so shocked. No, it was the empty eyes that were looking at him. They were just pure white, no iris, no pupil, just a blank soulless void that could never be filled.

"If you value your life, I suggest you stay down." Her cold and emotionless voice stated. It wasn't an order, nor was it a threat, it was a suggestion. She was giving him the choice of fight and die, or cease and live. Well, Harry knew what his choice would be, he didn't even have to contemplate the matter. Standing up, albeit wobbly, he held his ground. The creature simply shrugged her shoulders and suddenly sprouted a pair of pure white wings. The sound of her skin ripping, and bones cracking caused bile to rise up his throat.

"W-What the hell?" Harry gasped, taking a few steps backwards. He'd seen wings like that before: Draco's wings. Did that mean this creature was a Veela too? He knew for a fact that Veela were secretive, reclusive beings who didn't get involved with the Wizarding community if they could help it. So why was this one going out of her way to cause trouble? Could it be possible she was working with Greyback? If that was true, then she likely knew where Draco and Hermione were being held.

Glancing over at his wand, which was about eleven feet away now, thanks to the creature kicking it away, Harry knew his odds weren't exactly great right now. Still, if he could inflict some kind of damage on this creature, slow it down somehow, then maybe he would have more than a snowball's chance in hell.

"Eden. Remember what the boss said, you're to keep this one alive. He wants the pleasure of killing Potter himself." A gruff voice suddenly snapped. Spinning around, Harry's eyes widened in shock when he saw Vincent Crabbe leaning up against one of the cracked stone pillars within the all but destroyed room he'd lured the creature into.

"Crabbe?! You're a part of this shit show?!" Harry snarled, eyes ablaze with fury.

"What did you expect? A leopard can't change its spots, Potter. While my fellow housemates may have convinced themselves they'd changed, I can promise you their cores were as black and as cold as mine. Shame about Nott, he could have been useful had I managed to convince him to join me. Guess I've got you to thank for that." Crabbe sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in an irritated fashion.

In a moment of foolish, reckless rage, Harry lunged for Crabbe, completely forgetting he didn't have his wand. Fists would be enough, in this case, he wanted to feel the pain he was going to inflict on that bastard. But he barely made it two steps before the creature, this Eden that Crabbe had referred to, grabbed Harry's wrists and pulled his arms behind his back. She was ridiculously strong, no matter how much he fought, he couldn't break free.

"Quite the specimen isn't she? Greyback designed her himself. You're looking at a living weapon, a Veela devoid of any emotion or need to find a mate. Instead, they're very much pack animals: following their alpha's orders to the death. In a few weeks, an army of these creatures will be marching across the country and make it pure. The Dark Lord's vision will come to be, and there's nothing you can do to stop it." Crabbe smirked, walking over to Harry as if to mock him, standing just at the right distance to avoid being kicked.

"What the hell do you have to gain from all this? You know Greyback will kill you as soon as you're usefulness has run its course." Harry scoffed.

"Well, after we've cleansed the filth, we're going to need to work on getting the number of pure-bloods back up. Eden is the first of many new Veelas, created from Draco's genes, she's as much of a pure-blood as he is. She and her sisters will bear the next generation of pure-blood witches and wizards. Thanks to Greyback's efforts, none of the children born will inherit the Veela gene. I just get to be one of the lucky bastards who supply the fuel to make it all happen." Crabbe shrugged, a twisted grin spreading across his face.

Harry felt like he was going to be sick. Greyback had created life...actual life, and he was using them like toys; soldiers to fight his war and breeding stock to carry children. If Crabbe was being truthful, and Eden had no capability for emotions or even love, she was as much of a victim in this as everyone else. She had no choice but to follow orders.

Before Harry could have even tried to reason with the woman holding him back, a blur of black smoke hit Eden from the side, knocking her across the room and sending Harry flying through the air from the impact. He exclaimed in pain when his back hit the ground, eyes squeezed shut and teeth gritted as he tried to ignore the burning pain in his back. Letting out a shaky breath, he opened his eyes, shocked at the scene before him.

The first thing he saw was Eden. She was standing, and at first, you wouldn't be able to tell she'd been injured. But upon seeing her right arm, Harry knew Crabbe hadn't been lying about her not being able to feel anything. The bone of her forearm was sticking out through her skin, splintered and broken in several places. But almost as soon as he'd seen it, Harry gasped in a mixture of shock and horror as the bone started repairing itself, sinking back into Eden's skin which stitched itself back together right before his eyes.

Then he saw Pansy standing opposite her, and he was certainly more shocked by her presence, and in more particular the fangs that were protruding from underneath her lips, not to mention the small red coloured circles surrounding her pupils. Casting a nervous glance to the sun, Harry struggled to fathom what the hell was going on.

"Master told me of your kind: a half breed vampire that walks in the light, created by the Dark Lord, freaks that belongs neither in the shadows nor the sun." Eden mused.

"Have you looked in the mirror lately, love? I'm not the only freak in the room. Now, if your master told you about my kind, you know how dangerous I am. So piss off, before I rip you to pieces." Pansy snarled.

"Eden, our Master gave you a mission, leave the half-breed and complete your task." Crabbe ordered. Nodding, Eden turned her focus away from Pansy and started walking back over to Harry. Noticing this, Pansy instantly leapt into action, her form changing into a blur of black smoke once more that tackled Eden to the side, forcing her through a nearby wall. Harry grimaced when he heard hisses and growls coming from the other room. Whatever was happening back there, he wasn't keen on finding out.

However the second he stood up, Crabbe was in front of him and grabbed him by the throat. Groaning in pain, Harry quickly delivered a blow to the man's stomach, winding him and used his stunned state to escape, running out of the room and towards the nearest exit. It was then he saw Blaise running over to him, confusion flooding his features. Not wasting a second, Harry grabbed Blaise by the arm and guided him away.

"Potter! What the hell is going on? We got word that the Ministry has fallen!" Blaise demanded, running beside Harry as they narrowly managed to avoid various hexes and curses sent their way by Crabbe, who was surprisingly fast on his rather plump legs.

"Greyback has created a new strain of Veela, using Draco's D.N.A, and she's taking us down without breaking a sweat. He sent her here to get me, so he can kill me himself. Pansy showed up and she..." Harry started, only to be stopped dead in his tracks when Pansy's body was suddenly thrown clear through the wall to their left, crashing against the floor a few feet to their right with a loud thump.

Eden walked out of the hole in the wall a few moments later, her broken jaw mending itself slowly. Harry noticed Blaise paling slightly, visibly gulping at the sight before him. It was then Eden noticed Harry and started making a beeline straight for him, and despite Pansy's best efforts, she could get up due to numerous broken limbs which were healing too slowly to catch up with Eden. Blaise instantly stepped in front of Harry, selflessly defending him, only to have Eden grab him by the throat and throw him off to the side.

She was about to grab Harry when something suddenly flew down in front of him from behind, something with large black wings that kicked Eden in the chest and knocked her several hundred feet through the air. Relief flooded Harry's entire being when he saw the owner of the black wings that had saved him was none other than Flora Malfoy. But he was also sympathetic, knowing the news she was a Veela had probably not gone down well.

"Get everyone out of here. I'll hold her off as long as I can." Flora instructed, ignoring Harry's protests as she took to the air with a strong flap of her wings and took down an only just recovered Eden, their bodies a tangled mess of limbs and claws, slashing at one another like feral cats. Hesitantly, Harry ran over to Blaise and then Pansy, helping them to their feet before guiding them out of the room and back towards the exit he'd been searching for originally. When they reached the fireplace, Pansy stopped, looking at Blaise.

"Take him to our childhood hideout, I can't leave Flora here." She ordered, then disappeared in a blur of black smoke again. Nodding, Blaise pulled Harry into the fireplace, struggling to stop him from chasing after Pansy, and they disappeared from the Ministry.

. . . . . .

Draco inhaled sharply, his lungs desperately crying for air as he was pulled out of the water. Edgecombe's satisfied smirk made him really want to rip it off her face and rip her to pieces. He didn't get the chance to insult her, because she'd grabbed his hair and shoved his head back into the bath. Thirty seconds passed and she brought him back up again. The process was repeated for an hour until she finally had enough. Removing the chain around his throat that kept him chained to the bath, she stroked his cheek.

"Do you know why I'm punishing you, my love?" She asked, her voice soft, but twisted.

"You'd better hope that when I break free from these fucking chains that you've had a head start because I will not stop until I tear you apart and feed your remains to the fucking vultures!" Draco yelled, completely ignoring her question.

That didn't seem to bother her much, she simply sighed and moved away from him, clicking for one of the Death Eaters to drag Draco away by the chain that bound his wrists behind his back. She followed behind them, watching in what he could only describe as pure pleasure whilst he was roughly yanked about and dragged hardly across the concrete floor. Soon, they arrived in a large, rather over the top, extravagant bedroom. The Death Eater proceeded to chain Draco down onto a four-poster king-sized bed, which had corresponding restraints built into it, especially for him.

Once he was tied down, Marietta walked over to his side and crawled onto the bed before straddling him. The feeling of her skin on his was enough to make him feel sick.

"Don't worry, your discomfort won't last long. My potion is almost complete, soon you won't know the difference between me or you mate. We'll smell the same to you, so when you claim me and make me yours when you and I create a beautiful life together, we can finally be happy." Marietta smiled, stroking his cheeks even though he tried to pull away.

"What have you done with her?!" Draco snarled, thrashing about so much he knocked Marietta off him, and off the bed as well. She gasped in pain when her head hit the floor, and pure anger flashed across her eyes when she stood up to look at him.

"There's always someone else, isn't there?! Why can't I ever be enough for you?! You were made to be mine Draco, and if I can't have you then no one will. So be a good boy and do as you're told, or I'll let Greyback do a lot worse than he's already done." Marietta snarled, storming out of the room, ignoring Draco's desperate cries for Hermione as she left.

Meanwhile

Hermione whimpered as Greyback stalked her cage, circling her like she was prey to be devoured. In his mind, she probably was, nothing more than livestock to be killed at his leisure. They were only keeping her alive for one reason he'd revealed, until Marietta's potion to mimic Hermione's scent in order to trick Draco's Veela into thinking she was his mate was complete. Once she'd forced Draco to claim her, then Greyback was allowed to do whatever he wanted to Hermione.

So far, all he'd done was mentally torture her. He'd thrown a few Cruciatus curses in there as well, but he hadn't laid a finger on her yet. Every now and then, she could hear Draco screaming, crying for her and it broke her heart. She wanted to escape from her cage and find him, apologise for being so cold towards him and promise to never leave again.

"I don't think I'm going to kill you. Your suffering would be over with too quickly for my liking. No, I think I'll have you birth my pups." Greyback chuckled, causing a strangled sob to leave Hermione's lips, which only seemed to egg him on further. For the next hour, he spoke of what he was going to do to her, and exactly how he was going to do it.

She threw up on several occasions, but that hadn't put him off. He'd merely laughed at her suffering before eventually leaving her in a cage surrounded by her own vomit. Huddling up in a ball in a corner, Hermione just cried until she wasn't making any sounds any more.

It wasn't until a few hours later that it sounded like someone was coming back. She was expecting Greyback, maybe even Marietta who had already visited on a few occasions to gloat, but she was certainly not expecting to see Flora Malfoy being dragged down the stairs by the creature Greyback had boasted about creating: Eden, a new breed of Veela.

From what she'd gathered, they'd made her using Draco's D.N.A and cut out any potential for love and emotion, eliminating the need for a mate. Greyback wanted to create an army of them and wipe out all the Muggle-born witches and wizards to make the country 'pure'.

"Weak, untrained. Such a waste of potential." Eden sighed as she threw Flora into the cage opposite Hermione, who winced when the young girl exclaimed in pain as her ribs hit the cold, hard stone floor. Slowly, Flora pushed herself into a seated position, glaring at Eden.

"You want to talk about a waste of potential? I can smell the decay in you, without a soul your body is rejecting life. It won't be long before you bite the dust." Flora scoffed.

"I was never meant to be here forever, just long enough to fulfil my mission. Soon you will be one of us sister, Greyback will remove the weaker stands of our kind from you, and you'll march alongside your brothers and sister in battle, reclaiming and purifying this tainted world." Eden shrugged, and without another word she was gone, heading back up the stairs before sealing the door shut behind her.

Hermione looked over at Flora, who seemed both relieved and upset to see her at the same time. She could understand the feeling. On the one hand she was overjoyed to see a familiar face, someone she could seek comfort in, but it was distressing knowing they were both captives, prisoners who couldn't escape from a cruel fate placed before them.

But after a few moments, Flora stood up and walked over to the edge of her cage, looking around and then took a deep breath before a pair of pitch-black wings sprouted from her back. Hermione had to contain the bile rising in her throat at the sound of Flora's back being ripped open as the wings tore free from their fleshy prison.

"F-Flora, what's going on?" Hermione asked, a nervous look filling every inch of her eyes.

"Well, Pansy and I formulated a little jailbreak plan. Stand back, this is going to get loud, and messy." Flora warned, pulling her wings in close before sending them flying out to the side, breaking the cage apart in one blow. Pieces of metal flew around the room, clanking loudly against the wall and other cages. Someone will have definitely heard that.