The nunnery was magnificent, set as it was at the foothills of the Swiss Alps. It had once been a castle, and had been converted when the nuns took over. It had all the modern conveniences one could have wished for, but I and my fellow inmates didn't get to enjoy those conveniences. Instead, we were locked in the basement, shut in tiny cells with no light, and no way to tell the time. The cells were cold and damp, and riddled with rats, spiders, and other unpleasant creatures who seemed to take a perverse joy in annoying us any time of the day or night.
Whenever we were allowed into the upper reaches of the castle, we were always accompanied by stern-faced nuns who policed our emotions and made us feel whatever they wanted us to feel. We were never allowed to speak, or even think - the nuns had a way of blanking our minds to make sure no stray thoughts crept in - and the nuns never spoke to us, instead directing us to do whatever they wished by gestures, as if we didn't deserve the basic human right to be spoken to.
Chores were a part of daily life at the castle, and they were many and varied. The nuns always made sure we were given the most disgusting of duties, but some of the boys actually enjoyed the dirty work we were made to do. The nuns saw that and immediately confined them to their cells for twenty-three hours a day, only letting them out for one hour of supervised excercise in the basement. Two of the boys eventually gave up and asked to be sent home, and I hated the smug faces of their parents as they came to collect their "wayward" sons. That was when I realised the place was designed to break us.
More "inmates" came and went, and most didn't last for more than a few months before they were on bended knees, begging to be sent home so they could get away from this place. The nuns would often deny these requests, until the inmate was forced to completely prostrate themselves, tears streaming down their face as they pleaded to be allowd to go home. I think the nuns got off on the suffering they caused, and their powers seemed to grow stronger, fed by their captives' misery.
I refused to give in. I'd done nothing wrong, and my parents were the ones who were in the wrong for treating me the way I was just because I was a werewolf. The nuns dug at me day and night, but even though their methods raised blisters on my soul, I refused to let them get to me. I was innocent of the wrongdoings my parents accused me of; and I'd had nothing to do with Harry and his cohorts. Sometimes at night, when the nuns' vigilance waned for a few precious minutes, I found myself wishing Harry's surviving cohorts the best in their mission, even if the methods had been a bit crude. But I never let my thoughts wander too long; the nuns would always resume their endless watch on me sooner or later, and I'd learned very early on that stray thoughts could sometimes been seen as an admission of guilt.
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After what seemed like forever, but what was in reality two years, I was summoned to the abbess's office, where she confronted me with cold grey eyes. "I am very disappointed in you," she said. "You will not conform."
"I've done nothing wrong," I said. "I'm innocent of any wrongdoing. It's not my fault I was born a werewolf."
The abbess clicked her tongue in disapproval. "You are an abomination," she told me. "You should have been drowned at birth. But your mother kindly allowed you to live, and she has done all for you that a mother should do for her child. You have thrown her kindness in her face by consorting with criminals, and even now, you still refuse to give up your ties to them."
"I'd never met them before the bank robbery," I insisted. "It was sheer accident that led them to the bank the day I was there. And it was sheer accident that led them to the hospital the day I was removed. I'm worried about them, as any reasonable person would be, but that doesn't mean I have anything to do with their schemes."
"Your 'friends' are leading a push to have similarly troubled children removed and 'cared for'," the abbess told me. "They intend to raise these children to be criminals like them. Your parents are very worried you will become a criminal - that is why they sent you here to get you away from those toxic people."
"The only toxic people are my parents for abusing me," I said angrily. "And they're scared I'll get out from under their thumb and spread the truth about what they did to me."
The abbess rose, glaring. "You are a pitiful wretch for a human being," she said. "Had I my way, I'd lock you away in the dungeons and let you starve to death. Since I can't do that without your mother's permission, I find myself instead forced to send you away to another place which will be even less forgiving. You won't be able to get away with your defiance there."
"Try it," I said. "I won't be muzzled or shackled into silence."
"Your defiance is going to get you killed," the abbess warned me.
"Better dead than a slave to outdated notions," I snapped.
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