Wand at the ready, I crept closer to the door, when I heard a voice whispering softly behind it. I froze. It was the Dark Lord’s high, cold, sinister voice, crooning softly to his snake. I was suddenly afraid to move, as if one small step backwards would bring his wrath crashing around my shoulders.

Draco stumbled lethargically from his bed, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. Bellatrix led him, still in his pyjamas, his bare feet slapping on the cold flagstones, down two flights of stairs to the ground floor. He had been too tired and confused to even begin to work out what was going on. Then he saw where he was; a large, airy, high-ceilinged room, the walls and floor padded with dragon hide. The duelling room.

"If you'd like to join us in class, Mr. Malfoy?" Professor Vector's caustic voice cut through his daydreams. He pulled his head up, raising one eyebrow threateningly at his teacher. It was expected of him, even if right now he felt like slumping onto the desk and drifting away..

Night had stolen over Hogwarts; a blanket of darkness, of silence, and of safety for the creatures that walked in its shadows. And tonight there were many. Something in the depths of the forest howled desolately at the full moon just rising over the snow-capped mountaintops. The sky was already studded with rhinestone stars, uninterrupted in its inky glory but for a faint tangerine glow in the distance which marked a Muggle city.

Even though the room had been quiet before, only a few whispers escaping lips, the silence that descended as Nagini’s squat head pushed around the heavy door was immediately noticeable. She regarded us from the floor, her ribbon tongue sweeping the air. Then he entered, robes billowing as if caught in a perpetual gale. When the Dark Lord spoke, his voice was like ice, beautiful and terrible.