"Please..." A brunette whimpered, looking around every few seconds. "Severus... help me."
"What would I get in exchange?" Severus drawled. "Surely the task the Dark Lord presented the Malfoy boy with is incomparably dangerous than the one your daughter acquired."
"Severus," The woman wailed. "Should Draco fail, my daughter would also get the blame. Draco would have Narcissa to protect him while I would be joining her husband and mine in Azkaban!"
"What do I get in exchange, Mignonne?" Severus repeated.
"I..." Laurelle Mignonne stuttered. "You would gain the Dark Lord's trust."
"You cannot provide me with what I already have gained."
"Please!" Laurelle sobbed. "Severus, I am begging you. Help my daughter. Help Karena."
After a few minutes of silence, Severus muttered, "I will try."
"Thank you," She let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
Slamming her History of Magic textbook shut, Karena Mignonne sighed and stared out of the window of the Hogwarts Express.
She felt pressured.
Pressured that she was the only heir of the Mignonnes'. Pressured because she was given a task by the Dark Lord himself. A task of helping Malfoy.
She scoffed. Helping Malfoy. She detested Malfoy with a passion.
Although she hated him, she did admit they were similar. They both were provided with everything they needed, anything they desired but like most pureblood families, it all came with a price. The Malfoys' and the Mignonnes' were both long time followers of He Who Shall Not Be Named and Karena was also expected to be a death eater.
Was she a death eater? Yes.
She was delighted, when her father informed that she was going to be given a task. But yes, Karena was afraid. If she failed- if Draco failed- she would have to pay for her mistakes. She wasn't a Gryffindor, she wasn't brave. She was afraid her parents would have to pay for her mistakes, or maybe her own life. She wondered how her life would be if she was a muggle. Would she enjoy it or not? How would she react-
"What's wrong with this thing?" Blaise Zabini said angrily as he tried to slam the door shut.
The sliding door opened forcefully instead of closing and Zabini toppled into Karena's lap. She pushed him off hastily, making him fall on Goyle's lap.
"Get off me!" Goyle grunted, trying to push Zabini off.
"You're pulling me, you arse!" Zabini screeched.
"Who are you calling an arse?"
"You, you daft idiot!"
"I'm- not- an- idiot!" Goyle stood up and slammed the door shut, making Zabini fall on the ground.
Crabbe returned to his "Merlin's Adventures" comic book while Malfoy layed back down with his head in Parkinson's lap and his feet on Crabbe's knees.
"Zabini." Karena gave him a nod and stared out the window, leaning against him.
"Thank you for pushing me off." He said sarcastically.
"You're welcome." Karena responded without looking at Zabini.
"So, Zabini," Malfoy said. "What did Slughorn want?"
"Just trying to make up to well connected people," Zabini responded, glowering at Goyle. "Not that he managed to find many."
"Who else had he invited?" Malfoy demanded, scowling.
"McLaggen from Gryffindor." Zabini responded airily. "Someone called Belby from Ravenclaw."
"Oh yeah, McLaggen's uncle's big in the ministry." Malfoy said.
"Belby's a prat." Parkinson said, still stroking Malfoy's blonde hair
"And Longbottom," Zabini continued. "Potter and that Weasley girl."
Malfoy sat up, knocking Parkinson's hand aside in the process. "He invited Longbottom?"
"Well, I assume so, Longbottom was there." Zabini said indifferently, putting his arm on Karena's shoulders.
"What's Longbottom got that interests Slughorn?" Karena attempted to hide a smirk, Malfoy was just too arrogant.
"Obviously Slughorn wanted to look at precious Potter. " Malfoy sneered. "But that Weasley girl! What's so special about her?"
" A lot of boys like her. Even you think she's good looking, don't you, Blaise, and we all know how hard you are to please!" Parkinson said, looking at Malfoy through the corner of her eye for his reaction.
"I wouldn't touch a filthy blood traitor like her whatever she looked like." Zabini said coldly. Parkinson seemed pleased at his answer and Malfoy sank back across her lap and Parkinson resumed stroking his hair.
"Well," Said Malfoy. "I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's going a bit senile. Shame, my father always said he was a good wizard in his day. My father used to be a bit of a favourite of his. Slughorn probably hasn't heard I'm on the train, or-"
"I wouldn't bank on an invitation," Zabini said. "I don't think Slughorn's interested in Death Eaters."
Malfoy forced out a humourless laugh while Karena stiffened.
Karena looked away. He shouldn't be worrying about petty things like that. She looked away, trying to think of other things... a pureblood should always be neat and poised. She sat up straighter and pulled out a compact mirror, looking at her reflection. She looked at her brown hair she got from her mother and the gray eyes every single member of the Mignonne clan had. She patted her hair down and shut her compact mirror.
"Well, you never know," Said Malfoy with the ghost of a smirk. "I might have –er- moved on to bigger and better things."
"Malfoy," Karena said with a warning tone.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes at her, while a hint of curiousity marred Zabini's features and Parkinson, with a dumbfounded look, said, "Do you mean –Him?"
Malfoy shrugged and Karena's head snapped to the luggage rack, thinking she heard something move.
"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I think the Dark Lord wouldn't care how many O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s anyone's got-"
"You will complete your education, Malfoy. I'll be at Malfoy manor during summer and the whole of next year; I'll have to do whatever you do. And I want to be smart, unlike you." Karena said, earning a look of annoyance from him.
"And you think you or Karena will be able to do something for him?" Zabini asked, scathingly. "Sixteen years old and not even fully qualified yet?"
"I've just said, haven't I? Maybe he doesn't care if the both of us are qualified. Maybe the job he wants us to do isn't something that we need to be qualified for." Malfoy said with his eyes shut.
Crabbe and Goyle were both sitting with their mouth open like gargoyles and Parkinson was staring at Malfoy like he was the best thing that was created.
"I see Hogwarts," Karena said, taking her robes out of her trunk, calmly. "We'd better get our robes on."
Karena heard a gasp from the luggage rack as Goyle swung his trunk down. It seemed Malfoy did as well; he was frowning at the rack.
The train halted to a stop, Goyle ran out instantly, punching second years out of the way while Crabbe and Zabini followed.
"Are you both coming?" Parkinson asked, her hand held out, hoping Malfoy would take it.
"You go on," Malfoy said. "You too, Mignonne."
"I have to check something. You go on," Karena said, expressionless.
"I have to check something," Malfoy mocked Karena with an un-natural, high-pitched voice.
Karena narrowed her eyes at him and pointed her wand at the luggage rack and said, "Petrificus totalus."
After Harry Potter toppled down the rack to both Karena's and Malfoy's legs, a cloak was ripped off him by Malfoy. Potter stared up at a smiling Malfoy and a smirking Karena, unable to move a muscle in his body.
"I thought so." Karena said softly and stored her 13 ¾ inch, cypress wood and unicorn hair core wand safely back into her robes.
"I heard Goyle's trunk hit you." Malfoy said jubilantly. "And I thought I saw something white flash through the air when Zabini came back."
Karena's eyes lingered on Potter's trainers for a moment. "That was you blocking the door when Zabini came back in, I suppose?"
Malfoy ignored Karena and continued, "You didn't hear anything I care about, Potter. But while I've got you here..."
Malfoy proceeded to stomp on Potter's face, hard, making blood splatter.
"That's from my father. Now let's see..." Malfoy took hold of the cloak and threw it over him. "I don't reckon they'll find you till the train's back in London."
"See you around, Potter." Karena said bored-ly
"Or not." Malfoy finished, taking care to tread Potter's fingers.
As soon as they left the train, Malfoy sneered, "You can drop the poised act now, Mignonne. It's not a secret that you act like a prat to me. Apparently I'm not good enough company for you to be polite to."
Karena let out a sigh of fake relief. "Good, I was getting tired of acting civilly to you, you arse. Did you really have to stomp on his nose?"
"Yes," Said Malfoy. "Yes, I did."
"You could at least let me kick his groin." Mignonne grumbled.
"Yes, but that would destroy your "little miss perfect image."" Malfoy said sarcastically.
"That's why I didn't do it, moron," Karena decided to ignore the sarcasm. "You could've done it for me."
"Oh, but, Miss Mignonne. I wouldn't do anything for you if it's the last thing I ever do." Malfoy smirked.
"Neither would I. But I'm very sure Draco Malfoy would be wrapped around my finger soon." Karena stuck her nose up in the air.
"If that happened," Malfoy said. "I am sure it would the other way around."
A/N: So that was the first chapter but it's not really a chapter too, since the scene was from the Half Blood Prince. It's just the starting and it would be great to get some feedback. I'm quite intimidated, really, all the Harry Potter fanfiction authors have great grammar and I'm not that good at it. This isn't my first fic, though. I usually write HP/Twilight crossovers, although I hate Twilight. Crossovers are easier, since there is a character already. But Bella was a Mary-Sue, so I changed her a lot in my fic. Anyway, should I write in this format or the normal type of format? It's the first time I wrote this way. I hope my character, Karena (pronounced Kah-ray-nah), is not a Mary-Sue and I'll work to make sure she has a lot of flaws. (: Give some feedback, please. It would be great.
