The Blood Servant

2

It was raining when the faintly glowing figure of the girl arrived on the doorstep of Malfoy Manor.  She took hold of a small door knocker and let it swing against the dark wood. The sound rang in the chilly air, the rain falling heavily around her as she waited for a response. Sure enough,  an older woman with black and white hair answered the door. She looked slightly confused, her eyes darting into the shadows of the evening.

" Can I help you?" the lady asked the girl. There was no reply. The girl only lifted her eyes to look the woman in the face. Flustered, she tried again.

" What's your name?" 

This time the girl murmured an answer. " Ellery. My name is Ellery Sinclair," came the muffled reply.

" You're not from around here are you?"

The girl, Ellery, shook her head. Absently, she brought her left wrist out from behind her back and pulled back the sleeve of the cloak where the hair thin cross shape was still tinged pale green. " You are Narcissa Malfoy?" she asked, her voice a little louder. The older woman eyed her wearily.

" Yes," she answered hesitantly.

" Then I am in the right place. There is much to be done before your evening meal, Mrs. Malfoy."

With that, Ellery gave Narcissa a brief smile, showing her small, perfect teeth and slipped past the woman into the house. She watched as Ellery Sinclair made her way to the kitchens without any instruction. As confused as she was, Narcissa didn't question it. The only thing she wanted to know was what her son was up to, because this seemed to have Draco's name written all over it.

-------------------

" Oh, tell me you didn't!" Pansy Parkinson cried, burring her face in her hands.

" Well, I guess that means that the cottage out in the forest really is abandoned now." Theodore Nott shrugged.

" First of all, what does it matter to you, Pansy? You don't know the girl. And secondly, don't say that so loud! I'd like to keep the discovery to ourselves," Draco snapped, slumping in his seat on the train. Pansy's cheeks reddened.

" You don't know her either!" she argued, " You could have ruined her life!"

" She wasn't doing anything important out there," he fired back.

" You enslaved a person! A girl your own age! And-"

" Enough!" Draco stood, towering over her. " You keep your nose in your own business."

Too frustrated and stunned to defend herself any further, Pansy averted her eyes to look at the window. Draco sat back down and crossed his arms over his chest. The two others in the train car with them, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, remained silent. They'd had nothing to say on the matter since he told them about the spell and his little adventure. Draco wasn't sure what their deal was, but his guess was that it made them uncomfortable. The only person who wasn't either infuriated or neutral on the subject was Theo, who was just as interested to see how this would turn out as Draco himself was. It was beginning to really irritate him. He was glad that he would be getting a break from them for the summer in a matter of minutes.

The group sat in silence for the rest of the trip back to platform nine and three quarters. When the train finally screeched to a stop, Draco stood and left without so much as a nod in anyone's direction.

His distress must have been obvious, because before his parents started questioning him about the strange girl with the Italian accent that had showed up on the doorstep about a week ago, his mother asked him what was troubling him. He dismissed that question; he didn't want to talk about it. He was still in a rather hostile mood. He didn't explain the girl either, but it was good to know that spell had actually worked. There had been some doubt, the spell being as old as it was. At least something was going right.