Great Hall

[Caden McGinnis]

"Aww, and here I thought you'd just go ahead and empathize with the story itself," Caden snapped his fingers in discouragement. "Guess it doesn't carry the emotional weight I thought it might. And I guess it's hard to predict your reaction, seeing as I don't really know you all that well either." Casting the woman a wink and pulling from her earlier wording, "You'll have to rectify that for me sometime."

As an afterthought, he added, "Oh, and as for your proposition there, it really depends on what you need help with. I might not be able to help you much, see. Why don't you go ahead and tell me what it is, and we'll go from there."

[Alexander Chevalier]

Alex closed his eyes and deeply inhaled. Caden was being too bold. He didn't like this at all. After a moment though, he returned his focus to the leering woman. What sort of reaction would she have? She was being too calm. It inflicted a very sinister feeling.

[Alecto Carrow]

Alecto shook her head, her smile remaining "Oh that's no problem at all. I just need you to do something quite simple really, in fact -in terms your yourself, you don't have to do much…." her nose scrunched a bit as she grinned her eyes glinting playfully. "I just need an example. I'm *so* glad you volunteered." She leaned forward, gave him a wink and commented "Thanks for your services…" before saying, quite cheerfully. "Cruccio."

The wand was at his neck when she did it, and a smile was on her face. She liked a smart arse but only when they knew their place. This boy obviously didn't. Good times...

[Alexander Chevalier]

Alex braced himself as soon as he heard the woman utter her spell, a hand clenching beneath the table. He wanted more than anything to at least try and stop her, but intervening would undoubtedly do more harm than good. If it were anyone else...he doubted he'd be able to withhold at least imploring her to stop or direct the spell towards him or something. However, he knew his friend could take it. He had to trust that. He was one of the strongest people he knew.

[Caden McGinnis]

Well, yeah, he had kind of seen that coming. From the first words she had spoken to him, actually. No way of avoiding it.

When the spell made contact, the force of it knocked him from his seat and he toppled over onto the floor, twitching uncontrollably from the effects of the curse. The pain was excruciating, he had never felt anything like it, and the longer she held it, the worse it seemed to escalate. He could focus on nothing else, it was as though the very nature of the spell demanded the victim's attention, and he could not hold back the scream that the sensation pulled from him.

[Alexander Chevalier]

At the sound of Caden's scream, Alex continued to fight the urge to look away, close his eyes or even glare up at Alecto. No reaction. He absolutely couldn't convey how angered he was over this. The woman was a tyrant, a wicked gleam glistening within her cold eyes. Her mind was so entirely far gone. It was...despicable, the extent of enjoyment she derived from inflicting pain like this.

[Alecto Carrow]

Alecto smiled a bit, closed her eyes and enjoyed the scream. It was like music to her ears, she only wished that Amycus was here to enjoy it as well...

[Caden McGinnis]

Caden pressed his eyes shut, continuing to writhe in pain, his jerks becoming more violent the longer the curse was held in place. All he could do was wait, wait for the woman to have her fill, wait for the pain to end. And it would end. He focused on that one fact, and it made it a bit easier. Not that it lessened the pain or anything, it just made it easier to deal with.

[Alecto Carrow]

Alecto opened her eyes frowning a tiny bit as the boys screams became less pronounced... that was half the fun. She'd have to see if she could get more from him. She upped the level of the curse.

[Caden McGinnis]

Damn it, just when it was getting a little easier. He hadn't really thought it could feel much worse, but she had just proven him wrong, and his screams intensified. He caught ahold of himself, though, focusing on the end. End. It would end...

[Alecto Carrow]

Hearing the decible she liked Alecto smiled a bit, yeah... that was it. Her gaze flicked to the stiff form of the Chevalier boy as if daring him to say something. When he wisely didn't she finally lifted the curse.

"I do so love examples," she said as if she was speaking about having a breath of fresh air.

[Caden McGinnis]

When the curse was finally lifted, Caden released a sigh of relief, though he winced, his throat feeling sore. He opted to just lie there for a bit, waiting for the lingering ache to fade a little, before slowly lifting himself and forcing a sitting position on the floor. As his pastel gaze came to rest on the woman, he forced something of a smirk.

"You know...," he mused, his voice raspy, "I think...I'm getting to know you better already, professor."

[Alecto Carrow]

Alecto smirked back "Obviously not," she said before hitting him with the curse once more. This time the Cruccio was silent.

[Caden McGinnis]

He had known that was pushing it, but it was so hard to resist. It probably served him right. He toppled over in pain once more, falling prey to the effects of the torture curse.

[Alecto Carrow]

"Ahh, pet," the woman crooned. "I shall adopt you. I enjoy playing- I already have a pet for Gryffindor and one for Slytherin... looks like I've added a Ravenclaw to my collection. This is going to be fun. From now on that's your name... Pet. I like it... has a very... nice, ring to it..." she said conversationally as though the boy were not screaming and writhing on the floor.

After all to her it made no difference, this was what it was about, her only piece of joy since being banished to this boring rock instead of pillaging and murdering like she wanted to.

[Caden McGinnis]

It was difficult to make out the words she was saying, to process them. As he focused, however, he managed to pick apart the meaning, and focusing on that was sort of a welcome distraction from the pain itself. Anything was.

[Alecto Carrow]

"Now..." Alecto said cheerfully "Let's try this again." She lifted the spell "How are you doing pet?"

It was a test of course, would he give another smart arse reply? Or could he actually be taught? Only time would tell...

[Caden McGinnis]

It took Caden a moment to recover, to find his voice, and when he did, he nodded once and replied hoarsely, "I've been better."

[Alecto Carrow]

"Well you're better right now," Alecto said easily. "See, better... worse," she resumed the curse again. He would curb his tongue around her or go mad in the process of learning.

[Caden McGinnis]

The pain took hold of him once more, and Caden pressed his eyes shut tight as the screams forced their way from his mouth. Damn it...end...

[Alecto Carrow]

"I could do this alllll day.... through the rest of lunch, to dinner... you can spend your night screaming for me, or you can learn your place," Alecto said simply with a smile though she knew he may be too deep in pain to understand what she meant. Not that it mattered to her...

[Caden McGinnis]

He vaguely caught the sound of her voice, she was saying something, and he again tried to focus on that, on making sense of her words, as a distraction. He wasn't very effective at forming anything tangible out of any of it, but that really wasn't the point.

[Alecto Carrow]

After a moment she finally pulled back again, and once more asked, just as pleasantly as the last time "Now... lets try this again. How are you doing, pet?"

[Caden McGinnis]

A longer pause this time, as Caden fought to find his voice and collect his thoughts. He processed what she was asking, and very simply managed, "Better now."

[Alecto Carrow]

"Good, and what did we learn?" She inquired raising a brow, wondering how long his attitude would be able to hold out.

[Caden McGinnis]

He took another moment to collect himself, pressing his eyes shut at his aching body and resting his head against the floor, before forcing out in a raspy voice, "If I'm a smart a$$ with you, you'll kick my a$$."

[Alecto Carrow]

"Good Pet," Alecto said ruffling his hair. "It took a little while but you can be taught, that's good. I'd assume I'd just have to torture you to madness and be done with it, but things are looking up now." The woman gave a tiny pout "I do so hate to put a pet down..."

[Alexander Chevalier]

Alex glanced down at his friend, careful to keep his face neutral while he silently cursed at the woman. He could only hope that someday...someone would be able to inflict the same over her. Something definitely needed to be done about her though, that was for certain.

[Caden McGinnis]

Caden remained silent a moment, his breathing shallow, and he focused on normal breaths, though they were a bit painful. As he lifted his head off the floor, he awarded the woman a slight nod in response, not having anything to say but giving her the attention she wanted.

[Alecto Carrow]

"Hmm, well this has been fun… I'm very sure I'll be seeing you around- an most likely cruccoing you again as I doubt you have any real control over that mouth of yours… yet." Alecto smiled one last time and gave him a clap on the back that she knew would hurt considering the soreness of the muscles after use of the cruccio. As she passed Alex she ruffled his hair before heading up to the professors table with Dolph.