Confined to darkness long after the flame in the lantern died out, Renata couldn't tell how long she had been stuck in the root cellar as she lost all sense of time. After her body recovered from the Cruciatus Curse, meaning after the chills faded and her heart rate steadied to a normal pace, Renata became overwhelmed with exhaustion. However, she pushed herself to remain awake and focused on the picture of Harry. It was the only thing that kept her mind focused or else she would enter a state of panic. There was no telling what her parents had in store for her, and after battling it out with her mother, Renata was certain that Alcina was going to have little to no mercy when she returned.

There had never been a case of someone being able to actually block the Cruciatus Curse once they were struck with it and she had never heard of anyone breaking out from the curse unless they were released. Her mother probably knew that as well and she seemed well-versed with the Unforgivable Curse which left her somewhat baffled. After the most recent visit with Alcina, Renata would admit that she didn't look to her mother as an outstanding role model as she once did, but her mother had fallen from grace and hit an all-time low with what she was doing.

It seemed Sirius and James were right with their assumptions and findings, what her family was involved in was cult-like, but it was so much worse, at least, in her mind. They had infiltrated the Ministry, hospitals, schools, and law enforcement, all of them were under the corruption, leaving Renata with limited areas of where she could turn. Where she would turn for help, there was no telling if they were part of the "perfect order" or not.

But she was still in disbelief over the entire matter, not to say that she didn't believe it was happening because she was living through it, but how it was all coming to light after she reached adulthood, left her baffled. There was no telling how long it had been going on, from what she could infer, it was several decades and probably longer than that. The "society" was beyond the idea of blood supremacy, they were attempting to become the overall supremacy around the world. They wanted perfection and anyone who stepped out of the boundaries was punished and then altered to fit the mould.

It was sickening and Renata would have assumed that her parents would take no part in such things, but how wrong she was. Not only did they take to altering her and Adelmo's memories, they had done worse things as a source of punishment and made them forget about it. From her earlier memory of watching Adelmo being dragged out of the room by his hair, he had no recollection of that and Renata was terrified of finding out what they had truly faced in their childhood.

Especially Adelmo since he was considered the troublesome one, somehow even if Renata acted on her own accord, it was blamed on her brother. It made her wonder how many times Adelmo had suffered from something she had done without realising that he was going to pay for it. She shuddered to think about it and wondered where her brother was currently. How long had she been in Italy? How long had it taken for James to find her?

She exhausted her mind with all the questions racing through it and as the light faded in the cellar, she folded the photograph of Harry and held onto it in her palm as she allowed her eyes to close.

Unfortunately, her night of uncovering suppressed memories had yet to come to an end as she closed her eyes and found herself in another familiar memory that had not made sense to her before.

Once again, she was seated in the root cellar, a similar tired expression on her face as she sat with her parents before her. Both Alcina and Nencio had their wands out and pointed at her, but Renata didn't look fearful, but tears streamed down her face as she could barely keep her head up.

"Renata, you are not protecting your brother by withholding the name," Alcina said, " you're only making it worse for him and yourself. Just give us the name of the man that Adelmo has been seeing. Let us help him-"

"There isn't a man."

"You're lying!" Nencio yelled in her face causing her to flinch but she kept her mouth closed as she lifted her head to stare down her father.

"She's not going to give us the information we need, let's just take it from her and be done with it," Alcina growled under her breath, " we're wasting time."

However, it was Renata who acted quickly, kicking out her leg and kicking the wand out of her mother's hand before diving towards it. She managed to grab it and within seconds disapparated from the scene to go and find her brother to warn him of what their parents were doing. Her mother's wand did not cooperate with her though as it wouldn't allow her to apparate easily. The last one ended with her landing further away from her brother's place than she had initially anticipated.

But it was her luck that she saw Adelmo returning from work, taking his time to walk home in order to enjoy the beautiful weather. She had landed on the curb upon her arrival on the street, leaving her to fall over as her body was still weak from whatever torture her parents had subjected her towards in order to get her to talk.

"Al!" she called out to him but her voice wasn't nearly as loud as she wanted it to be. It was hoarse, cracking as if she hadn't had a glass of water in days. "Al!"

She attempted to push herself up, her arms shaking along with her entire body until a foot suddenly came to slam down on her back, shoving her back down to the ground. A painful cry emitted from her as the foot pressed down harder and harder until it felt like she was going to crack a rib. The wand was snatched from her hand, leaving her to look ahead where Adelmo had turned at the sound of her cry, only to be attacked by hooded-figures.

"NOO!" she screamed as Adelmo collapsed and was violently beaten in front of her. Attempting to fight and get away, Renata stopped when she heard a cracking sound and looked over to see that the group of hooded figures disapparated from the scene and the foot on her back released her allowing her to get up and rush over to his side.

"Adelmo!" Renata called out his name as she heard him groaning in pain and carefully, she rolled him onto his back, only to let out a scream and fall back as she saw the state he was in. His face was bloody, swollen, and bruised as he cried and groaned in pain.

"I'm going to help you! I'm going to..." she looked around and saw his wand on the ground, leaving her to reach for it only to have her wrist grabbed roughly. Peering up, one of the hooded figures was still standing in front of her before pulling the good back to reveal her father standing in front of her.

"He needs to be punished for his sins, Renata."

"They're not sins, Papà," Renata told him as she was suddenly lifted to her feet from behind, " why can't you see that? He's not hurting anyone."

"He's hurting himself, Renata," Nencio said, " you do not understand, you are naive."

"He's your son! What are you doing to him? What are you doing to us?!"

Nencio reached out a hand and touched Renata's face, leaving her to stare at him in bewilderment.

"Your mother and I are trying to help you."

Suddenly, a cold bucket of water was dumped on her body as she remained on the root cellar floor, causing her to gasp as she woke up. It felt like Renata had fallen through a frozen pond as the water was absolutely freezing, stinging her skin like a thousand tiny knives stabbing her directly at the same time. There was no relief either as she continued to shiver, pushing herself to sit up, only to be struck with another bucketful and then another. If anything, it was almost as if each bucket of water was getting colder.

"Stop!" she cried out. "Stop!"

Lifting up her arms, Renata could barely keep them up for long as her body was left in an exhaustive state, it felt like she had gotten absolutely no sleep. They fell to her sides and as soon as they did, she was hit with another dose of the water. Falling back to the floor, Renata shivered violently as her teeth chattered but finally, the water torture seemed to come to an end and she was left alone for a minute as she heard footsteps pacing back and forth slowly as she attempted to recover.

"Wh-Who's...Who's t-th...there?"

The footsteps came near where her head was and in the light of the wand, she witnessed her mother, leaving her to roll her eyes and look away defiantly.

"Renata, I have never known you to be this stubborn," Alcina said with a shake of her head," all of this could go much easier if you would just submit. Tell me, sweetheart, tell me your dreams to be an Auror."

In her hand, the corner of the folded photograph dug into Renata's palm as she squeezed her fists.

"I don't want to be an Auror," Renata said as she rested her head against the floor, awaiting the punishment. "I don't want to be one and I've never wanted to be one. It's never been my dream."

Renata realised that she was just putting herself through the punishments by fighting her mother, but at the same time, she felt like her defiance was preventing Alcina from doing whatever she really wanted to do with Renata's mind. At least, that's was the idea she was holding onto along with Harry as something to focus on in her mind.

"This is why people have gone mad, isn't it, Mamma?" Renata questioned quietly as she could assume Alcina already had her wand ready and aimed. "They've gone mad because their memories have been altered so many times to fit this description of perfection. But somehow, for many of them, like myself, we're able to recover the memories. Horrific memories of what's been done to us or what we've witnessed. Who knows, you may not be the worst of the families out there. But it's led to some killing themselves or killing their families, is that your idea of perfection, Mamma?"

"Those were the weak ones, "Alcina answered as if it was the simplest question, " a natural selection if you will-"

"There is nothing natural about it! You stripped away memories! You replaced them or suppressed them against their will. It was your actions and the actions of all the families involved in this practice that have destroyed people! And it has destroyed people because there is no such thing as a universal definition of perfection. It's different for every person you come across."

"Oh please, Renata, save it. I suppose the next thing to come out of your mouth was the fact that you find James Potter to be perfect."

"Perfect for me," Renata said with a faint smile as she closed her eyes, " I don't care if no one else sees him the way I do. But I think he's perfect, with all of his flaws, just as he accepted me for mine."

"And let me guess, you love him?" Alcina asked her in a mocking tone.

"I do," Renata replied in confidence, " I love him and I love his son so much. I love Harry as much as if he were my own. I love Sirius and Remus and that's with all of the mistakes they've made in their own pasts. I think it shows how amazing they all truly are. You don't get to experience that, Mamma, because the people you are "helping" are all the same person. You have no idea who they really are because you've taken that away from them."

"You're naive in this state-"

"And I'm fine with that," Renata growled, " I'm fine with being naive, stubborn, too trusting, easily persuaded, terrible at dancing...I'm fine with all of it because that's what makes me who I am. Not this shell of a person that you want, that's not who I am and I rather go mad than accept life as a puppet."

As if she were expecting it, Renata had tensed her body just seconds before the Cruciatus Curse was unleashed on her body once more. She nearly bit through her tongue as she clamped down, tasting the blood in her mouth as she tried to fight through it. As she squeezed her fists harder, she could feel the photograph in her hand and used all of her mental strength to focus on it.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," she repeated to herself inside of her head, " Harry, Harry, Harry."

Released from it again, Renata attempted to gather the breath she was holding as she fought through the curse that had been unleashed on her body. Alcina stomped over and lowered herself down to Renata's level as the younger woman rolled onto her side to face her.

"You are so ungrateful," Alcina whispered harshly at her, " after everything your father and I have done for you and your brother. The two of you are ungrateful! You spit it all back in our faces like bratty children."

"Maybe we're brats because you didn't parent us," Renata countered, " you only covered up the problem, you didn't parent. This is the price you pay for it."

The door to the root cellar opened and once again, more people flooded in leaving Renata to sigh as she wasn't sure if she could handle much more of the Cruciatus Curse being thrown at her.

"Take care of her," Alcina ordered to the others that were too cowardly to reveal their faces under the hoods they were.

Lifted up, Renata was placed into the kneeling position, feeling the tears stream down her face as she realised that she wasn't going to escape. They were going to alter her memories or erase them again and she didn't think she was going to get lucky a second time to run into James and Sirius. But just the thought of it all left her angry, especially with her mother as she watched the woman trying to leave.

"Don't worry," she called to her mother, " once I go mad, you'll have the luxury of being the first I come after."

Alcina paused with a raised brow before walking back over to Renata and with a shake of her head, she offered a small smile that was beyond menacing considering the context they were in. How could anyone smile at such a moment?

"You will feel better shortly, Renata."

As Alcina left, Renata suddenly had her head yanked back as whoever preferred the memory-alterations grabbed a fistful of her head to keep her in place. Her eyes looked up, a glimpse of the hood of the person, but the majority of her vision focused on the ceiling before. Squeezing her eyes shut, Renata tried to focus as she squeezed the photo once more.

"Brilla brilla?" she heard Harry's voice ask, bringing her to open her eyes and finding Harry sitting with her in the hammock out in the garden. She smiled before nodding her head and starting the song for him so he could try and sing along with her.

"Brilla brilla una stellina," her lips mouthed silently back in the root cellar, "Su nel cielo piccolina."

The two people in charge of her, looked over in the direction of one another as they couldn't make out what she was saying and no matter how hard the other person tried they couldn't extract the memories as ordered. Every attempt failed as nothing would pull and several times, the wand was knocked out of their hands.

"What is she whispering?" one of them demanded to know. "Is it a counter-spell?"

"I don't know! I can't make out what she's saying because she's not saying it out loud! She's not even whispering it."

"Seal her lips-"

Suddenly, the two froze in place as they heard Renata start to laugh. Thinking about what she had said to Alcina previously about going mad, it suddenly made the atmosphere uncomfortable as they hadn't been able to extract any memories and now she was laughing, which was definitely odd after what she had been subjected to.

Little did they know that as they yelled at her and told her to stop laughing before they gave her a reason to stop, she could feel their fear which only brought her to laugh harder. She came to a sudden stop at one point and looked in the direction that had been the one trying to fulfil the procedure. She offered a maniacal looking grin as she tilted her head to the side.

"Plaaaay?" she questioned with her best impression of Harry. "Plaaaaay?"

She went to clap her hands to add to the effect, but with her arms chained, she was still only able to move to shake them. Fear struck the two men hard as they didn't act as fast as they should have and they had neglected just how upset Renata had become the day before when James had been insulted as a "broken man." Her anger within the chains had loosened their hold in the wall and with Renata's rapid flapping movement to try and clap her hands to appear as if she had gone mad, they finally broke from the wall.

There was no hesitation once her arms were able to freely move as she swung them around and struck both of the men with chains. It wasn't enough to knock them out but it was enough to knock a wand to the ground that Renata was quick to retrieve and aim at both of them as she kicked the other wand into the darkness of the cellar corner.

One of them went to turn to retrieve the wand, but Renata was no longer in the mood to play.

"Don't," she told him, " don't move."

Apparently, he felt as if he didn't have to listen to her as he went for the wand again and Renata decided to show him that she wasn't fooling around with her demands. With a quick and jagged movement of the wand, the man was suddenly slammed into the wall of dirt on the unfinished side of the cellar and she and the other man were able to witness as he began to sink into the dirt as if it had suddenly become quicksand. When she released the incantation, only a bit of the man's face was left exposed as the hood was pulled back.

"Davide?" she blinked several times in surprise as she came to face to face with one of her old classmates that had been in her same year, Davide Cestaio. She remembered him more so than her other classmates, mainly because his parents were good friends with hers as she had been growing up.

Looking over in the direction of the other hooded figure, who had his hands up in a surrendering motion, using the wand, she knocked his hood back to reveal Davide's younger brother, Gian.

"You two are involved in all of this?" she questioned softly. "But why? Actually, you know what, I don't care the reason, I've heard enough of all of this nonsense."

With no hesitation, she brought Gian to face the same fate as his older brother before facing both of them in their dirt prison.

"And I like your earlier suggestion of sealing lips," she said to them as she approached, " but I'll do you one better."

Suddenly, both men had their tongues fixed to the roofs of their mouths, leaving them unable to talk or do anything but whimper as Renata turned away from them. In the midst of the chaos, she had dropped the photograph of Harry and quickly knelt down to retrieve it from the floor before slipping it into the pocket of her robes as she made her way to walk out of the cellar.