Lillith's Father [2]

Lillith's Father: Chapter Twelve:

Chapter Twelve:

Severus held her to his chest as Minerva tossed a handful of floo powder into Dumbledore's rather large fireplace before stepping in, careful not to bump the sleeping girl in his arms.  

The green flames licked at his pants and black cloak, seeming to crawl up them and eat away at everything, but there was no pain. 

"Malfoy Manor," he intoned, speaking clearly and loudly, looking ahead and refusing to look at Lillith. He was sure that if he saw her, innocent as she was as she slept, before he gave her to the Dark Lord, even his well built mask would not be able to stay in place.  In a time such as that, he could not afford to lose his mask.  

The halls were empty as he carried his daughter through enemy territory before coming to the doors that closed off the entry way to large, spacious room in which he knew Voldemort sat.  It was hard, juggling Lillith around so that he could knock upon the solid wood doors, and open the heavy things as someone called for him to enter.  

"Severus brought the girl!" Bellatrix clapped as if he had done a particularly amusing trick, and smiled her wicked smile, wild, crazed eyes dancing in the dim lights that surrounded the room.  

*_*_*_*_*_*

I groaned, blinking as my head pounded uncomfortably and fought to remember where I was.  Where I was laying was hard, and I felt something something digging into my back.  

Rolling over, I realized that I was lying on a floor, well not a floor, but the ground.  Rocks and pebbles were digging into my skin and I winced as I used my hands to push myself up into a sitting position, making one rather sharp rock lodge itself into the palm of my hand.  I looked around me, remembering my father saying it was time.  He was going to take me to Voldemort..

But where was father, where was Voldemort, and most importantly, where was I?  

I stared at the ground a moment longer, almost afraid to look up but I couldn't hear any noises, so I assumed I was alone.  

A quick glance around told me I was correct, and I was also in a cell of some sort.  A dungeon maybe. There was a cement bench in the corner, the ground was mostly dirt with an some rocks ranging in size from pebble to palm size, a large hole dug out in the corner that had an awful scent coming from it, which I took to be where I was supposed to do my business.  

Through all of our talks between Dumbledore, Father and McGonagall, I never really expected to be shoved into a dungeon.  I expected torture and being beaten, mind games and being terrified, but I never expected to be held in a prison cell.   

I wrinkled my nose at the stench coming from the hole. I wasn't new to the hole 'going to the bathroom where you could', I'd been homeless for years, I couldn't always find a restruant or store to let me use their loo when I had to go.  But I never had to stay in the same place as where I'd gone, I'd never had to sit around and smell it, it was absolutely disgusting.  I almost gagged at the scent, but I pulled my sleeve to my nose, breathing in the scent of laundry cleaner, which helped quite a bit.

Backing myself up against the wall adjacent to the stone bench, I stared out of the iron bars.  I noticed that they were large, but not large enough for even a newborn baby to squeeze through.  

A rodent could do it through.  

Or not, my mind squeaked as I saw a large snake slithering through the hallway.  Up and down the hallway were other cells, and briefly I wondered if anyone else was in one, but then my mind jumped back to the monster.  

It was leaving the hallway, going up the stairs towards an open door.  I would need to wait at least a few days to try and see if that thing had a schedule of times it came and left here, if I could transorm into my animagus form, I could escape, but not so long as I knew that thing was running around. It could eat me in my human form and easily swallow me without even unhinging its jaw in my animagus form.  

I wasn't even aware household snakes could get that big!  It didn't seem interested in me at all, which was something I could easily be thankful for, I really disliked snakes, I probably would have screamed if it so much as looked in my direction, and I'd have been scared witless.  

That couldn't happen.  I needed my wits about me to get through this.  There was no telling how long I'd be here.  

I needed to think of a plan.  It had to be when nobody was around, not even that snake. So far, nobody had come down to check on me, but I had only been awake around a half hour, if that even.  But what if normally their were guards.  Or what if their were charms protecting prisoners from escaping.  

The more I thought of that, the more I knew it would be true.  Voldemort was smart, he wouldn't just leave a capable witch or wizard behind nothing more than metal bars.  Though I wasn't very capable, I thought with a grimace.  I had no wand.  Did my father take it or was Voldemort in possession of it?  If I escaped and I couldn't get my wand back, what would happen?  I'd be useless!

How long had I been in here, I wondered, looking back into the hallway and across into the other cells that I could see.  Nobody seemed to be moving, and certainly nobody was speaking.  Maybe I was the only one?  

"H-Hello?" I called out softly, my voice echoing more than I would have liked.  The cold in the air seemed to seep into my bones, my blood stream, chilling me to the core, I wore no shoes, I realized for the first time, and I no longer had my school robe, just a simple pair of shorts and a t-shirt.  But it was only a couple of days before Christmas when my father had told me it was time, so it was already frozen outside of Hogwarts, I imagined that wherever I was now was also rather frozen under layers of snow.  

But there was no heating system down here, of course not, why would anyone want to make their prisoners comfortable? Instead I wrapped my arms around myself, pulling my legs to my chest to try and keep the heat, but it barely made a difference at all.  There was no blanket, not even a sheet or scrap of clothe in the cell, and within a few hours of sitting their, shivering and trying to think of a way to escape, I actually began to wish that someone would come take me out of here.

Even if that meant I would be confronted by Voldemort.  

Which is when another plan came to mind.  What if.. I made it clear that I could be just as evil.  That I could do what they wanted.  Maybe I could become a double agent like my father?  

It was a cruddy plan, full of holes and ways to get me killed, but it was better than what I'd had before, which was absolutely nothing.

I heard a door open from the left end of the hall leading into the cells, the soft steps of someone heading inside, and then that someone stopped at my door, unlocking it. I could barely see the smile on the womans face, and I strained to get a better look. 

Who was letting me out?  

[[A/N: BAM!  Another chapter completed. That is three chapters in less than 24 hours, my dears.  I'm about to start on the thirteenth chapter as well, though I dont know if I will finish before the day is up.  Go to my profile and check out the message i sent out to my fans, it would mean a LOT to me if you would, please and thank you.  You should also know that this story wont be as long as Snape's Daughter was, it'll be significantly shorter.  So here is this.  See you guys later]]