James didn't want to look at Albus as they went back to the Dark dungeon, though they both hid under the Invisibility Cloak. They had all had dinner with Rose, as Al clearly did not want to leave them alone for a moment. But he hadn't said anything about what they had done. What Rose suspected; he had no idea. The two Aurors had become annoyingly good at not showing their emotions when they didn't want to. She didn't even make a comment when Albus said that the three of them had some business they needed to attend to, and that they might be gone for most of the night. Scorpius had barely looked at her the whole meal, though he had pretended to talk like nothing was wrong. Rose gave him a kiss goodbye; the other two a hug and they were gone.
Entering this place a second time was no better than the first. Sure, Scorpius wasn't carrying a tied-up person this time, but the inside was just as dark and awful as ever. Al jumped when Scorpius said the password, he probably recognised the meaning of it.
As the door to the reception area slowly closed behind them, the three of them made their way to the door where Vane would still be. Scorpius hesitated.
"There is no need for you to be in the room…" he tried to say, but Albus didn't let him finish.
"Yes, it is. I need to make sure she is secure and not hurt." Scorpius sighed but opened the door. Vane was still in the exact same spot that they had left her in, of course. But it was clear that she was crying and had a familiar, resigned look on her face. The same look, James realised, Scorpius had had when he first saw him in that hole. That was why he hadn't recognised him at first.
"You know what this reminds me of?" Albus said as he looked at Scorpius. "It is pretty much exactly how Rose looked, when she was chained in your room." Scorpius flinched.
"That was unnecessary," he said.
"Is it? Because I am fairly certain I heard you say that you never wanted to see any other person go through that again."
"And she's not going through what Rose went through. She isn't afraid that I will abuse her sexually or that I will kill her or her family and everyone she cares about."
"You don't know that. Did you tell her that you won't kill her?"
Scorpius didn't reply. He scowled at Albus. James stayed silent. He knew that this was something Al and Scorpius had to sort out between them. He was also a little jealous when he saw the strength of their friendship. He didn't have anyone like that.
After what seemed like several long minutes of the two of them communicating with each other mostly through looks and the occasional gesture, Albus spoke up again.
"Now, we are going to sit here until you feel that she has stayed here long enough. I'm not going to rush you, unless it is getting close to 6am. That is when the morning guards get to work at the prison, and there will be a lot more of them. It is a lot easier to get her back there before they arrive. But that is over 12 hours away. You do whatever you were planning on doing anyway. Don't worry, she won't see me." And with that, Albus took the Invisibility Cloak from James and disappeared. Scorpius looked over at James. James shook his head. He had nothing more he wanted to say to this woman. Scorpius sat down looking over at her. There was no expression on his face.
James couldn't remember exactly how long they sat there. No one said anything, though Vane did occasionally whimper. James wondered exactly what terrors she was imagining in her head. Finally, Scorpius got to his feet.
"Time to get her back. How do you want to do this?"
Al's voice came from behind them.
"We do the exact reverse of how you got out. Remind me to suggest an alarm on that gate later. But there is no need to go in or out the front entry this time."
Scorpius nodded, then looked to James. They had already practised what to do when it was time to return. Slowly, Vane became aware of their presence. Albus made sure to stay under the Cloak of course.
"…Are you sure?" Scorpius asked, clearly annoyed.
"Yes. Dad said they are about to take her out for some press photo or something, she wouldn't be sulking then. We need to take her back."
Scorpius sighed. "Fine. We can always go back and get her another time. We should probably wait until most people have forgotten about her anyway. I was a bit impatient."
"That is understandable. Do you want me to take her down?"
"No, I'll do it. Just get under the Cloak, I need to pay the man up front before we leave anyway."
James nodded, pretended to take a cloak on, while in reality, Albus simply came and took him under it as well.
Vane shrank away from Scorpius as he approached her. He looked at her with disgust, then removed the chains before he tied her up like he had before.
"There's been a slight change of plan," he said after he had put her over his shoulders. "But don't worry, I'll be back at a later time so we can finish what we started."
Vane seemed to whimper even more at that. Scorpius had never removed her gag, though it didn't seem to strangle her anymore.
They went out of the room, Scorpius stopped for a brief moment in front of the guard, left 5 Galleons on the table and simply said. "Thank you for your hospitality. I'll be back another time," and went out the door. Then they quickly Disapparated, before anyone could see them.
James was still amazed that it was so easy to break into a prison. They got her back with no issue at all, Scorpius removed the ropes and the gag, and left her with a last ominous warning.
"Feel free to tell everyone about what just happened. They won't believe you. You've spent the last week trying to convince everyone I am a monster. I'll be back later to show just what a monster you have created."
Just as he turned to go, Vane actually said something. "Please, no more. I'll do whatever you say, but please, don't take me back there. Please, just kill me, don't take me back there." She tried to reach out to Scorpius, but he moved away from her in disgust.
"There is nothing you can do that I want. If I wanted you dead, you would be. For now, just knowing that you have to spend the rest of your life in this place, a place I only had to stay in for about two months, will have to be enough. But don't get too comfortable. I know how to check on you without you knowing it. I will be back when you least expect it."
And with that, he left a shivering, crying Vane behind. James gave her a weak smile.
"Don't worry," he said. "There probably won't be anyone coming to look for you today. I just made that up, so that he wouldn't harm you further today." For some reason, Vane didn't seem to find that reassuring.
Well outside the prison walls, Albus turned to look at the two of them.
"I hope you've learnt something," he said. "And not just that you shouldn't use my name when trying to sneak into places." James nodded. Scorpius didn't say anything, but the way he didn't quite want to meet Albus' eyes said it all.