I wasn't into children; I felt honestly that it was never in me to have them. When he told me my assignment was to train this little witch I felt surly that he had chosen the wrong person for the job. I approached the walk with a frown; the wards around the house were set in place by my master himself to insure her safety. A house elf opened the door; I cast my cloak aside as the elf led me into the parlor. On the floor, surrounded by little wooden animals, my tiny charge sat.

"Hello little one." I said as I approached her, I was not about to sit on the floor so I drew up a chair and looked down at her.

She looked up at me with huge black eyes, a serious look on her face. "The animals don't move." She said in a stubborn voice as she shoved one of them to the side and stood up. "The animals at the zoo move."

She drew closer to me and I sat back, "I'm five." She said holding up her five pudgy little fingers.

"How lovely. I'm Bellatrix." I said with disdain; I didn't want the little fingers, which were no doubt sticky, to touch my robes.

The small creature blinked up at me, those eyes staring into mine fearlessly; "My name is Emma." She retorted, as if I should have known that five was her age and not her name.

"Oh I see." I replied, "Well Emma, shall we start your lessons?"

She tilted her head and looked at me, "No." She replied and moved away back to her animals.

"No?" I said as my eyebrow rose; this thing, this creature had said no to me…I wasn't entirely sure how to take that. "Now see here poppet, I am here to teach you. My Master commands it."

In that moment her face lifted once again to mine, her eyes were wide, "The Dark Lord." She said in awe.

Try as I might I could not keep the look of surprise off my face that she knew of my Master. "Yes poppet, the Dark Lord." I said as a whole new appreciation for the small child in front of me started to take over my heart.

"Do a trick for me?" The little girl said as she held up a small carving of a dog. "Make it move around like at the zoo." She said bouncing up onto her knees. I graced her with a smile and pulled out my wand, giving the small figure a tap on the head it came to life in her hand. Squeals of delight rang from the little girl as she hugged it close.

"Teach me how to do that." She said holding up a tiger for me to tap like her dog. I smiled at her and tapped the tiger.

"I will teach you all the secrets of the universe poppet." I said as I watched her face light up at the sight of the dog and the tiger circling each other slowly. Despite my misgivings about getting on the floor I did so anyway. The child's laughter was infectious and in spite of myself I was feeling myself instantly drawn to her.

"You do one." I said holding out my wand to her. She took it carefully and tapped the little bear; sparks came out of the wand but nothing else.

"Don't fret." I said as I saw the look of disappointment on her face. "You need your own wand. I'll help you this time." I closed my hand over her small one; surprisingly her fingers were not sticky as I had previously thought.

"Alright now, think about wanting the bear to come to life and then tap him. Think really hard." I said as I moved the wand to tap the tiny wood carving. At once I knew she felt the magic flow over my hand to hers and then the wand because she gasped.

"See how easy magic is." I said as I moved the wand away from her. She was hooked, her eyes looking from the wand to the animals.

"Can I have one of those?" She said as her fingers reached out slowly to touch the wand. I nodded at her, "Well we will have to ask our Master and see what he says." This won her over completely I could tell, I was curious about how she knew my Master and how she was fearless when I spoke about him.

Several hours passed before it was time for me to leave, the little creature was exhausted, and her eyes could hardly remain open as I tapped the animals with her hand underneath mine to return them to their natural state. "I will return tomorrow Emma." I said as a house elf retrieved my cloak.

Emma was asleep on the floor before I reached the door.