Lily Potter trembled as the Death Eaters turned away from her and Molly Weasley. That they had stopped questioning them was wonderful, but it could only mean that Lord Voldemort had personally arrived to question them. So far, the Death Eaters had put Lily and Molly under the Cruciatus curse a number of times. It had been horrible, but she knew it was about to get worse. As members of the Order, Lily and Molly could and would be forced to provide valuable information to the dark lord.
In another time, Molly might have been set aside and kept safe as a hostage to ply leverage on her father, Minister Prewitt. However, the dark lord had previously tried that tactic with the Minister's twin sons. The Dark Lord's threats against Gideon and Fabian Prewitt failed to sway the hard-hearted Minister of Magic, and so the twins had been killed. Voldemort would not suffer through another such fiasco.
"We've got to do something," Molly muttered through her quiet tears to Lily. "They'll kill us, and we'll never see our families again. We've got nothing to lose from trying."
"I know," Lily gasped through her pain. "I know. I'm just trying to think."
The two witches listened as the Death Eaters talked amongst themselves on the other side of the room. They could hear the familiar tones of the dark lord's voice, though they could not make out what anyone was saying.
"If only we had a portkey or something," Molly said.
"I know," Lily said, "but they took ours away from us." She racked her brain, trying to think of some way to break free of the ropes that had been tied around her wrists and ankles. Was there anything she had brought with her that the Death Eaters had not taken away?
Abruptly, she remembered that while being questioned by the Death Eaters, she had felt a small twinge on her hand. She looked down and saw the ring that Harry Ashworth had given her long ago, promising that if she was in trouble she need only turn the jewel in its setting and he would come. But Harry Ashworth was dead. Dumbledore had reported that he and Bellatrix Black apparently died in an inferno in the home of Lord Voldemort's father.
"Molly," Lily said very quietly as she scooted toward her fellow prisoner.
"Have you figured something out?" Molly asked.
"Not really," Lily said, "but it is worth a shot. The ring on my right hand can send a distress signal."
"To who?" Molly asked, scooting toward Lily instinctively.
"Probably nobody," Lily sighed, "but you never know who might be listening. See if you can twist the jewel on it."
It took some effort, but eventually Molly was able to get her fingers in the right position with enough grip to twist the ring. The jewel clicked, turned, and clicked into place. Silence abruptly descended over the room. Lily and Molly were horrified to see that the group of Death Eaters were moving toward them.
The Death Eaters formed a ring around the two prisoners with Voldemort standing in the ring and looking down at them. Lily's eyes slid away from Voldemort as she scanned the group of Death Eaters. They all wore hoods, to disguise their identities as much from each other as from their prisoners. Snape had reported this to the Order's inner circle.
The only exception to this, of course, was Narcissa Malfoy. Everybody, the Ministry included, knew that she was involved with the Death Eaters. The Ministry would have arrested and imprisoned the Malfoy family long ago, but Lucius and Draco were too good at staying hidden, and Narcissa was safely behind the walls of Malfoy Manor.
The Ministry was not foolhardy enough to suffer the number of casualties that would result from an attack on the Manor's defenses, simply to take into custody a pathetic pureblood woman whom Ministry officials could not tie directly to any specific Death Eater atrocities. That said, Ministry officials, and indeed most citizens of Magical Britain, agreed that she was ignobly guilty of numberless sins of omission. However, rather than risk the lives of aurors raiding the hiding places of Death Eater wives and children, the Ministry instead prioritized defending the innocent from Death Eater attacks.
Lily stared up at this cold-hearted, pathetic woman and wondered how Narcissa Malfoy could stand by and watch the horrible things the Death Eaters did to other people. The woman had a son. Did she not understand how horrible it was to torture and kill people?
Narcissa apparently felt Lily's gaze, and she tilted her head to stare at Lily, seemingly reading Lily's thoughts. In reply to them, she smirked. This surprised Lily greatly-it was out of character for Narcissa Malfoy, at least the Narcissa Lily remembered. At that, Narcissa broke eye contact, and stepped back into the group of Death Eaters, absently toying with a ring on her finger.
Lily had no more time to wonder about Narcissa's behavior because Voldemort was now speaking to them.
"What did you just do?"
"What do you mean?" Lily bit back.
Voldemort cast the Cruciatus curse on her, watching as Lily screamed in pain. He stopped and watched her convulse on the floor. "I suggest you tell me what you did. I know you did something that involved a certain amount of magic. I could feel it. Are you capable of wandless magic, perhaps?
Lily did not reply, and Voldemort raised his wand, but Molly spoke up to prevent her friend from being tortured. "The ring-it can send a distress signal."
"To whom does this distress signal go?" Voldemort inquired.
Lily refused to answer and got another dose of the torture curse. Eventually, she realized that it was pointless to hold out on that particular secret. It had been a stupid thing to do. She might as well just say and avoid suffering over it. "Harry Ashworth," she sobbed. "Professor Ashworth gave me the ring when he was the potions professor at Hogwarts. He said he would come if I was in distress."
Lord Voldemort laughed. "Harry Ashworth? Did you actually believe Harry Ashworth would come and save you?"
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