Zhang Xiao lowered his head, feeling his eyes grow hot.
Zhang Chengdao and Li Qingshu rested their hands on his shoulders, their faces livid, their free hands already clenched into fists.
Bellatrix crouched opposite them, tutted twice, and said in a strange tone:
"My father told me... 'If you want a friend who will be faithful unto death, find yourself a Longbottom...'
I wonder how much your cheap loyalty is worth to Dumbledore?"
Suddenly, a smile of utter delight spread across her face, and she whipped her wand toward Neville:
"Perhaps my father was right. But your child or your loyalty-which will you choose?
I'm so very curious!
Cruciatus Curse!"
Neville let out a scream of agony unlike any he had ever made before, his tiny body convulsing on the floor.
"Daddy! Mummy!" He could only scream the two words he knew, his cries tearing at the heart.
Alice and Frank let out a low, inhuman wail-the saddest sound imaginable, born of pain pushed to its limit and the helplessness of being unable to change anything.
After a long while, Neville stopped screaming. Weeping, he tried to crawl toward his mother, but the inhuman torture had drained every last ounce of strength from his tiny body.
"Still won't talk?"
Bellatrix idly kicked Neville's body:
"I really don't know what you're thinking. Perhaps it still doesn't hurt enough? Hey, Longbottom, have you remembered yet?"
Frank took his wife's hand and gave her a smile of quiet acceptance.
With her battered hand, Alice slowly took something from her pocket and tremblingly brought it to Neville's lips.
It was a piece of Multi-Flavored Bubble Gum soaked in blood.
"Neville... have some gum, and it won't hurt anymore... be a good boy. Mummy will blow your favorite bubbles for you, all right?"
Barty Crouch