*SPACK!*
"Six."
Riven counted, as another stripe appeared across Hagrid’s body while the cripple writhed across the floor and continued cursing between pained breaths, however the fury that had dominated his voice only moments ago already seemed noticeably weaker than before.
"Rot in hell, ye little bastard..."
Hagrid muttered through gritted teeth, as his remaining hand clenched against the floorboards while he fought to suppress the pain radiating through his body.
"Should’ve drowned ye in a river the day I bought ye..."
He cursed again, however the venom behind his words felt far less convincing than before.
The realization that he could neither intimidate nor bargain his way out of this situation had finally begun settling into his mind, as every threat he had uttered had been ignored, every promise had been dismissed, and every attempt to regain control had failed completely.
*SPACK!*
"Seven."
Riven counted again, as Hagrid’s body jerked from the impact while another strained groan escaped his lips, with far less resistance than before.
"I should’ve just let the Yellowtail bastards kill me. That would have been a better end than this humiliation ...."
Hagrid muttered, as for a moment he tried to glare at Riven, however the expression failed to hold properly, as the pain, fear, and humiliation spreading through him made it increasingly difficult to maintain the hateful mask he had worn for so many years.
As Riven watched the cripple’s reaction, he found himself feeling a satisfaction unlike anything he had experienced before, because for years he had watched this man reduce others to a similar state of helplessness, forcing them to accept punishments they could neither avoid nor resist while he stood above them deciding how much suffering they deserved.
Now, however, Hagrid lay trembling on the floor with nowhere left to crawl, as the power he had once wielded over others had been stripped away piece by piece until all that remained was an old cripple waiting for the next strike.
*SPACK!*
"Eight."
Riven counted, as the leather cut across Hagrid’s side once more, causing his body to tense sharply before slowly curling inward.
This time, however, the reaction was different, because rather than attempting to crawl away or hurl another threat, Hagrid merely closed his eye and clenched his jaw moments before the strike landed, as though he had already understood that the pain was coming regardless of what he did.
Watching that small change brought Riven more satisfaction than any of the previous blows, because although the belt had wounded Hagrid’s body, it was only now that he felt as though he had finally begun breaking the man himself.
For years, Hagrid had carried himself with the certainty that he would always remain the one in control, however as he lay shivering on the floor while waiting for punishment to arrive, that certainty seemed to be crumbling away piece by piece.
Slowly, Riven raised the belt once more.
Hagrid noticed the movement from the corner of his eye before instinctively bracing himself for the impact.
*SPACK!*
"Nine."
Riven counted, as the leather struck home once again.
Yet even after the blow landed, Hagrid offered little reaction beyond a strained grunt while remaining curled against the floorboards, as though his body had already begun preparing itself to endure rather than resist.
Seeing that, Riven finally lowered the belt, as he realized that his goal of psychologically breaking Hagrid had been achieved, as he threw the belt away, and bent down to pick up his wooden sword.
"You know, although I’ve always hated you since the moment you bought my mother and forced her into prostitution, there was still a period of my life where I genuinely tried my hardest to earn your approval."
Riven said, as he slowly stood back up and began to turn the sword in his hand.
"When I was three or four years old and growing up inside that brothel surrounded almost entirely by women, you were the only constant male figure in my life."
He continued, as his voice remained remarkably calm despite the emotions attached to the memories he was recounting.
"And back then, I remember scrubbing the floors harder than my small body could manage, carrying more buckets from the well than my shoulders could support, and trying my best to complete every task that was given to me, because a part of me genuinely hoped that one day you would notice the effort and tell me that I’d done a good job."
Riven said, as a faint smile appeared on his face.
"Or perhaps I hoped that if you were pleased enough with me, you might give my mother a day off, or make her work a little less than usual."
He added, as the smile quickly disappeared.
"But you were never humane enough for that."
Riven muttered, as he slowly looked around the brothel that had defined so much of his childhood.
"To you, the women working here were never people. They were livestock that needed to be worked until every last bronze coin of value had been extracted from them."
He continued, as Hagrid quietly listened from the floor.
"And I wasn’t much different."
Riven said.
"I wasn’t a child. I wasn’t somebody’s son. I wasn’t even a person in your eyes."
He continued, as years of bitterness gradually surfaced within his voice.
"I was simply an extra attachment that came with my mother, a useful tool that helped ensure your investment never became disobedient."
For several moments, silence filled the room.
"Regardless of how hard I worked, I was never able to please you."
Riven eventually said.
"And perhaps that’s why I hate you more than anyone else in this village."
He continued, as his gaze settled upon Hagrid once more.
"Not because you’re more responsible for my suffering than the men who murdered my father and brother, and not because you’re worse than the bastard who took my sister away."
Riven said, as his grip around the wooden sword gradually tightened.
"I hate you because you’re the only one whose approval I ever tried to genuinely acquire...."
He admitted.
"And yet despite all my efforts, you never even saw me as half a human being."
He concluded, as for a moment, Hagrid remained silent, before snorting out loud.
*Snort*
"Tha’s because ye ain’t half a human."
Hagrid muttered, as a crooked grin slowly spread across his bloodied face.
"Yer a slave."
He continued.
"A damn bastard slave."
The grin widened further.
"I own yer ass."
Hagrid muttered, as even now, standing at death’s door, he seemed incapable of viewing Riven as anything other than property.
For several moments, Riven simply stared at him.
Then, unexpectedly, he began to chuckle.
"Ha..hahahaha...."
He laughed, as he realized that the problem had never been him.
That no matter how much effort he would have put behind pleasing Hagrid, he was never going to get any results, because those efforts were never going to count towards anything fruitful anyways.
As after laughing for a while, he let out a deep breath, and got his composure together again, before tightening his grip over his wooden sword and raising it above Hagrid’s head.
"I don’t know whether I’ll meet you there again or not.... But I do know for sure that you’re going to rot in hell after tonight."
He muttered, as Hagrid’s eye widened.
The cripple looked like he was about to say his final words, however before he could utter even a single syllable—
*THUK*
The wooden blade plunged downward with terrifying force, as the sharpened tip pierced through Hagrid’s throat before continuing straight through the back of his neck and into the floorboards beneath him.
For a brief moment, the cripple’s body convulsed while his remaining eye widened in shock, before gradually losing focus as the life slowly drained from it, with the final thing he saw being the boy he had spent years tormenting standing above him with a smile on his face.
And just like that, Hagrid’s life came to an end, as Riven finally crossed the first name off his revenge list.