Chapter One: Taunting the Dragon.
"CRUCIO!" a voice hissed aloud, almost as sly as a snake. A cracking sound whipped through the air before loud pain filled screamed echoed through out the Manor. None of this seemed unusual. Everyday someone was cursed, and with that, most of the Manor had gotten used to it. Instead of worrying, the Manor let the deed slide and simply ignored the screaming cries for help. Yet this particular scream hurtled through out the whole manor, that it was heard at the top floor where Aciea laid in her four poster bed. Her eye lids felt very droopy, her mind wishing for a decent amount of sleep. With all the missions Aceia was sent on, she barley had time to spare for a couple of hours to rest. Most of the Manor was tired, but did not dare to show it in front of the Dark Lord.
Aceia shut her eyes for just a moment when the pain filled screams reached her room. Her eyes shot open instantly. Who's being tortured today? she thought to herself. More screams traveled into her room. Aceia had an urge to shut the door, lock it and leave the world behind and enter a dreamless sleep... But the yells in horror kept her thinking. The screams were familiar. Suddenly, Aceia sat bolt right up in her bed. Her gray eyes were wide with fear. It couldn't be...
Aceia jumped off her bed and rushed out of her room. She followed the screams down the staircase, past the front door and toward the Grand Dining Room. Her raven hair flew behind her as she ran with all her might. She skid forward on her heals, stopping to the open entrance of the Grand Dining Room. Aceia breathed heavily, her eyes focused directly on the scene. In front of her, the Dark Lord held out his wand as bolts of red light traveled down to a twitching body on the floor. The body yelped in agonizing pain, his screams high and furious. The Dark Lord had a wide grin on his flattened snake like face, his luminous red eyes beaming down at him as he cries out in torture. Aceia stood there, almost feeling paralyzed. This could not be happening. Her brother could not be the victim. He just could not be...
The Dark Lords eyes raised to where Aceia stood. His eyes widened and his grin widened malevolently. "Aceia, come" he hissed, using his free hand to welcome her in. "Come and join me." Aceia did not dare to move at first. She just watched in horror, her older brother, Avior, being tortured to his death. The Dark Lord growled by her paralyzed state and boomed his voice over the screams of Avior. "I said COME!" the Dark Lord waved his hand once. It felt as if an invisible hand pushed Aceia into the Grand Dining Hall, and drew her next to the Dark Lord. "Take out your wand" he ordered, releasing the curse on her brother. Aceia shakily bent down to her boots and pulled out her wand. "Now finish what I started" the Dark Lord snapped. Aceia widened her eyes and gulped thickly, watching her brother attempt to stand up to escape. With a flick of the Dark Lords wand, Avior was pushed back down to the floor face first. "FINISH!" he roared, his red eyes glittering with anger.
Aceia raised her wand. "CRUCIO!" she yelled. Within a second, a red electric light spat out of the tip of her wand, landing directly on Avior. The Dark Lords slim lip curled into a sinister grin and watched as Aceia tortured her brother. Eventually, Aceia felt warm tears rain down her sunken pale cheeks. Her eyes were so filled with water, she could barley see out of them. After minutes of torture, the Dark Lord lowered Aceia's wand and stopped the curse in action. "Very good" he said softly. "Very good..."
Aceia kept her wand in hand, ready to defend herself if the Dark Lord decides to change victims. But to her surprise, the Dark Lord swept past her and strode out of the Grand Dining Hall without another word. Making sure he was a good enough distance away, Aceia lept forward for her brother. She melt to her knees and leaned over him.
"Avior.. I'm sorry... I'm sorry" Aceia pleaded over and over, hoping her brother wouldn't be mad at her. He weakly shook his head and inhaled a deep, uneven breath. "N-No... It's okay. It was h-h-him" Avior muttered.
"What happened?" she whispered, placing her hand lightly on his shoulder. Avior picked himself up to a sitting position and leaned against the wall. "I-I didn't do as told... I guess I d-d-eserved it. I could of done better..."
"He has no right to curse you!" Aceia snapped viciously, balling her fist together. "Just wait till Draco's father hears about this!"
"And what would he be able to do?" Avior asked doubtfully.
"Well he took us in, did he not?" Aceia growled, "I'm sure he will stick up for your own sake, Avior. I'll make sure of it."
"I'd like to see something like that happen" Avior attempted to snort.
"Just watch.. We have --"
Crack
In front of them, Lucius Malfoy and his wife, Narcissa Malfoy stand with their only son, Draco Malfoy. Lucius Malfoy pushed his overly long blond hair away from his face and stared down at Avior with a deadly expression. They had just apparated into the Manor.
"Why are you two on the floor?" he asked in a soothing tone. "Get up this instant."
Aceia stood up with her arms crossed over her chest tightly. "Avior can't" she spat nastily. "He was just cursed." Lucius took one last glance at Avior and gave a little shrug. "Very well than... Dismiss him to his room" he pointed his bejeweled snake headed cane toward Draco. "Draco, be useful and help these two out, now will you?" Draco nodded his head solemnly and made his way over to Avior and Aceia. Lucius and Narcissa stuck their chins up proudly and strode out of the room to find the Dark Lord and have a clear discussion.
Aceia grabbed Aviors right arm while Draco reached for the other. By the way Draco looked, he obviously did not want to be here right now. He had a tight expression on his face that made him look like a replica of Voldemort. "Cursed or not, this is a house elfs job" Draco spat, lifting Avior up with Aceia. "Oh shut up" Aceia groaned, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "You can never do one favor without complaining about it." The tears that once rolled down Aceia's cheeks were now dried up and stained. With a bit of rest, Avior would be better in know time.
"Why shouldn't I complain? I shouldn't be doing this" Draco sneered, walking out of the Grand Dining Hall and into the Great Room where Lucius, Narcissa, Draco's aunt Bellatrix, and Lucius's cousin Geniah sat. "And why is that?" Aceia asked with a raised eyebrow. There was nothing more she hated than the consistent complaining on Draco Malfoy. Other than this, she had no other problem. She felt connected to him in a way... Since Aceia was a pureblood, she was distantly related to the Malfoys. Aceia was a Black, along with Bellatrix who used to carry the family name until she married. Then there was Sirius who was brutally murdered by Bellatrix. Bellatrix felt to take Aceia as a 'close cousin' or sometimes even calls her her 'child'. "Because I'd rather not waste my time carrying someone up six flights of stairs" Draco grumbled.
"Lazy..." Aceia shook her head with a smug smirk. "This just proves you are inevitably lazy."
Avior just shut his eyes and ignored the steaming conversation between the two and leaned his head weakly on his shoulder, almost looking dead. "This proves you are just annoying" Draco retorted grimly.
"If I'm annoying, that makes you annoying... ickle Drakey Poo Poo" Aceia teased amusingly. Draco scrunched his nose angrily and shot her a deadly glare. "Say that one more time... One more time and just watch what will happen."
"Well, I have nothing to lose" Aceia grinned darkly, eventually making it up to Aviors bedroom. They laid him down on the bed, wrapped the covers around him, and promised to return shortly. Both Aceia and Draco shut the door quietly behind them and made there way back down the hall. "Ickle Drakey Poo Poo obviously gets offended quite easily" Aceia adds on to the taunting, finding Draco's non responsive attitude amusing. "Looks like I'm going to have to send a personal order to the Dark Lord himself to curse you" Draco threatened harshly, darting a fierce glare at Aceia. Aceia simply rolled her eyes, knowing this threat was a bunch of rubbish.
"Go right ahead, but I'll make sure to personally curse you myself" said Aceia in a growl. "But I'm sure you hear that all the time from that Potter boy, correct?" Aceia quirked an eyebrow. Draco gagged by the name and shook his head menacingly. "You wish" Draco hissed rudely.
"Oh wait, what about that girl? Whats here name.... Hertonie? No, thats not it... Um... Hernonie? No thats --"
"HERMONIE!" Draco groaned aloud. "Her bloody name is Hermonie."
"Ah, yes... Hermonie" Aceia grinned, thinking of ways to taunt Draco. "Fancy her, do you?"
"Are you mad?" Draco spat in disgust. "Do NOT even mention that blast ended skank and her two Broomheads!" Aceila snickers quietly under her breath, soon not able to hold it. She laughed aloud, snickering at Draco who was flashing the most serious face she has ever seen. "Laugh a little" Aceila insisted, her mood opening up into a much happier state. Her brother was now safe and packed away under his warm covers while she enjoyed Draaco's short temper. Life felt good as of for now. That is, until the Dark Lord returns.
"Come on, Draco... Why so Sirius?" Aceila barks a loud laughter while Draco just starred at her as if she had three heads. "You see what I did there? Sirius? You know... Sirius Black." Draco just rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Only you would come up with an idiotic joke like that" he sighed irritably.
"Correction. Only I would have a sense of humor" Aceia flashed a sarcastic smirk. "I'm just enjoying the freedom I have now... Then I'll go back to being the anti-social little kid I am when I'm around him"
"Hopefully he'll be back soon" Draco spat sarcastically. "Otherwise you'll start spitting out corny jokes about the Dark Lord having no nose." Aceia couldn't help but let out another bark of laughter. "Good one, Drakey Poo Poo, you're getting the hang of the humor."
Both Draco and Aceia wander into the Great Room where the most of the Manor relax. The room was large and spacious, murky green and glowing silver patterns surrounding the walls and carpeting. Black fluffed leather couches row together with a large snake embroided coffee table in the middle. A huge white bricked fire place stood at the end of the room, a green sizzling fire crackling peacefully. Above the couches was a golden chandelier with tiny sculptures of snakes slithering around the bass of the light. The dimly lit room cascaded shadows along the green swamp colored walls.
"I wonder where he could be" Narcissa wondered aloud curiously, her long silver painted fingernails tapping against her knee.
"He probably has a thirst for blood" Bellatrix hissed with a deep grin etched across her pale skinned face. Bellatrix glanced behind her shoulder, her grin growing larger as she spotted Draco and a chuckling Aceia. "As do I" Bellatrix coos, licking her lips. "I wouldn't mind killing a lot of mudbloods at the moment now... Ah, Aceia dear, Draco, where have you been?" Aceia stopped laughing and fell silent for a brief moment. She hesitated before plopping down on the couch between Bellatrix and Geniah.
"Attempting to get some sleep" Aceia said simply with a shrug. "And helping out Avior..."
"Care for yourself, Aceia dear" Geniah pitched in. "I'm sure he could help himself out."
"He cursed him" Draco added, taking a seat down next to Narcissa and Lucius at the end of the couch.
"Then he must of deserved it" Bellatrix sneered, her dark eyes narrowing into tight slits. "I still don't understand why my Lord added him to the group... He is such an arrogant little --"
"Watch your mouth" Narcissa stepped in, pursing her lips up slightly. "We took him in" she starred around the room at each and every one of them. "We as in the whole Manor. He is now our family... Our son."
"No son of mine" Bellatrix spat in disgust, leaning back in her chair. "Aceia is much, much more worthy. Even if she is a Black."
"It's just a last name" Aceia said honestly with another shrug. "My last name does not exactly define who I am, Bellatrix."
"Yes, yes it does" Bellatrix protested. "Either you are a mudblood, a mudblood lover or a pureblood... And Aceia dear, you did very well in proving yourself, oh yes, yes you have. We all do find you as one of us. As of for your brother... Now that is a problem. My Lord had every right to curse him. Maybe he will learn from the lesson."
"He just needs a bit of work, Bellatrix" Lucius added in a drawn out tone. "As for my son..." Lucius wrapped an arm aroun Draco with a sly smirk invading his lips. "He is doing an excellent job. Living up the family name, he is." Draco bit his bottom lip, and washed over a fake expression of proudness. "And my children are doing all the better" Geniah said fondly.
Bellatrix suddenly stood up and raised her chin up proudly, slipping her wand out of her sleeve of her dress. "I'm going to go out for a bit of fun... Aceia, you come with me." Aceia had no right to protest. Bellatrix grabbed her by the shoulder and stood behind her as if she were Aceia's parent. "Now remember all of you, tonight is the meeting... the others will be joining in... I'm sure of it."
With that, Bellatrix muttered where to go in Aceia's ear, raised her wand and apparated out of the Manor. Aceia raised her own wand and apparated right behind Bellatrix.
Okay guys, this was my first chapter. I'd like to keep this story going on. I have so many HP fan fics yet can not complete any of them! So help me out and give an honest comment below vvvvv the more the better. Thank you!
-EternalFaith