Chapter One: Suspicions

It was a beautiful day. The wind rustled the leaves of the great oak tree that they had settled themselves under, the heat of the sun causing them to seek shade for a while. Arianwen and her friends had always enjoyed this particular patch of land within the expansive grounds that surrounded her home. It was just so peaceful, there was a small lake towards the bottom of the field, and wooded area beyond that. When they were little, Arianwen and her friends would play hide and seek amongst the trees, ice skate when the lake froze over in winter, and stop by the oak tree when they'd ventured out with the horses.

"So when are you leaving for Hogwarts?" questioned a dark haired boy, pulling Arianwen from her memories of happy summers past and back to the present.

"I don't know exactly, in a few weeks anyway. Not long to go..." she tailed off as she felt a nervous pang in her stomach, she wasn't looking forward to changing schools in the slightest. It had not been a decision that Arianwen had any say in; her Uncle Dafydd had just announced it one evening in July.

"I still don't understand why you have to go, its not like you're failing at St Albans?" a golden-haired girl chimed in. That was Arianwen's best friend, Brianne, a pretty girl with large brown eyes and lots of faint freckles dotted around her cheeks and nose. They had been friends since the age of three, when they first met in nursery and had both grown into two of the most attractive girls in their area. Brianne was particularly upset that her best friend was leaving her to attend a school hundreds of miles away in Scotland.

"I don't think my academic achievements have the first thing to do with the decision, as much as Uncle Dafydd tries to pretend. He just wants me out of the way so he can figure out how to steal my money –"

"Arianwen! Stop it!" a brown haired boy sat up quickly, looking shocked.

"Oh come on Carwyn," Arianwen urged, "I know you believe in following the rules, but surely you can see past your sensibilities for a minute! My uncle has never been motivated by doing what's right, he cares only for money and power."

It was true, Dafydd Gwydion was the second son of the great Duke of Pembrokeshire & Carmarthenshire. He had plenty of status already but had always wanted what his elder brother, Dewi, had. As the elder son, Dewi had been given the title Marquess Gwydion, and Dafydd was simply 'Lord'. Dewi always had first pick of everything, houses, women, horses, the lot; Dafydd still received an excellent upbringing, but his personality hadn't fared so well from constantly living under his brother's shadow. Dewi had married an incredibly beautiful countess from Monaco called Annaliese who later gave birth to their beloved daughter Arianwen. He was the star child.

Dewi had married too, but the marriage ended in scandal when his wife left him for the Earl of Gwynedd, and taken a large portion of his money and land entitlements with her. The whole thing had left a rather bitter taste in Dafydd's mouth, it grew worse as he watched his brother thriving with his new family.

Tragically, Annaliese passed away when Arianwen was five years old. She'd been suffering from a rare illness that she'd contracted during pregnancy, and as Arianwen grew stronger, so did the disease. Her death did not please Dafydd, Annaliese had always been very kind to him but he did gain some form of sick satisfaction from seeing the golden child, his brother, so torn and broken. Arianwen hadn't coped with her mother's death very well at all, while she was only five, as the daughter to a Duke, she was expected to have a higher control on her emotions than she did. She screamed a cried at the funeral, and lashed out violently when anyone tried to subdue her. With Annaliese's standing in the community, the funeral had been far from intimate so Arianwen had been scolded greatly for embarrassing the family at such a public event. Her grandfather drafted in the help of a strict governess to teach Arianwen how to conduct herself like a Lady. When Arianwen was twelve, her grandfather passed away from old age… Arianwen, older and more practiced, didn't even shed a tear. Governess Matthews praised her for her composure.

"You must learn to compartmentalise" Governess Matthews would tell her repetitively, "you will lock away your pain and carry on living in the present".

She would picture a little cabinet with multiple stiff little wooden draws, whenever something happened that Arianwen didn't want to openly react to, she would picture her hand pulling one of the little draws open and drop a little black box into it. She would slam the draw shut and return to the present.

"Governess Matthews?" the twelve year old Arianwen asked tentatively

"Yes, child?" The stern lady answered curiously.

"What if I want to open one of the draws?" Governess Matthews knew what the small girl was referring to.

"No Lady Arianwen. You must not open a draw once you've closed it, it will bring you far more sorrow and anguish than it could possibly bring happiness. No, you will keep the draws closed."

"Arianwen!" she felt a hand shake her left shoulder roughly.

"Oh, sorry! I was just –"

"Daydreaming." Replied four voices in unison. Arianwen flushed, she did have a bad habit of zoning out half way through conversations, Governess Matthews would've slapped her if she was there.

"So uh, what were we talking about?"

Carwyn sighed loudly. He was the most sensible of the group, he often tried to provide the others with little speeches containing words of wisdom that he would suggest they take note of. He was a stocky boy, standing at 5"11, he was the shortest of the boys in their friendship group but he always held himself as if he were much taller. Carwyn had his dark brown hair slicked back importantly, his robes were always pristine and tailored with the latest high end materials. None of their group were exactly poor, they all came from long lines of pureblooded witches and wizards and held a variety of titles between them. Arianwen's father had always praised her on maintaing a 'well connected' friendship circle. There were two other boys in their group; Gwyn and Owain, they made an effort to hang out with Arianwen, Brianne and Carwyn as often as they could manage but were always busy with some kind of Quidditch match or other.

"You were about to tell us why you think your Uncle Dafydd is so evil." Gwyn reminded her, laughing.

"Ah…yes" Arianwen shuffled her bum closer to the base of the tree, trying to sit with more poise before making her next point, "I overheard him speaking with Mrs Zabini in the drawing room yesterday, he was telling her how it wouldn't be long before 'all of this is mine' and he would be 'the richest man in South Wales'"

She sat back dramatically, while her friends pondered the news. "He was probably just trying to show off, its pretty obvious how much he fancies her" Brianne tried to sound as positive as possible, "I'm sure he's not sitting in his big chair in the drawing room, plotting how to overthrow you and cackling to himself like some kind of villainous maniac!"

"I wouldn't be so sure" Owain's deep voice cut through the laughter of the others, "I agree with Ri, there's something not right about all of this." Owain was the oldest of the group, he was due to start his seventh year in September and was highly regarded by everyone in their school, St Albans. Owain would be Head Boy when school started up again, he was terribly clever and especially gifted in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Arianwen thought of him as an older brother, he was always on hand to give her advice and protect her from pushy reporters who would try to bully stories out of her.

"Agreed" added Gwyn, "Don't worry we'll keep an eye on him while you're gone" he put an arm round Arianwen comfortingly and she cuddled in to him obediently, "thanks guys."

Meanwhile, in Wiltshire…

"If I have to go to another debutante ball I will hang myself" Draco Malfoy spat moodily. He was lounging on a garden sofa in the grounds of Malfoy Manor, sprawled across the other bits of furniture were Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle and Blaise Zabini, a few of Draco's friends from Hogwarts.

Crabbe let out a bark of laughter at Draco's remark "it wouldn't be so bad if there was more talent" Crabbe argued, he rather liked the debutante balls, it gave the boys a perfectly legitimate excuse to ogle all the pureblooded witches of their age.

"Its true," Draco smirked, "but I haven't seen anyone particularly impressive yet".

"Oh I dunno" Goyle joined in, "Tracey Davis looked pretty fit at Pansy's ball"

"And Pansy basically had her tits out" Crabbe grunted, grining creepily at the memory of Pansy's attire.

The other boys all laughed heartily at this, "yeah Pansy's an adequate fuck, but that voice…" Draco visibly cringed at the thought of Pansy's high-pitched whine.

"Draco my darling, why aren't you holding my hand?" Blaise put on a screechy voice, attempting to imitate Pansy Parkinson, "Draaaaaco where are you? Don't you want to see my new knickers?"

The boys all howled with laughter at this, while Blaise, now imitating Draco, jumped up and hid behind the sofa, pretending to look out for Pansy. "Honestly, I don't even know why you shag her Malfoy, she's a bit of a dog and," he paused, "the more you do it, the more you convince her that you'll end up engaged!" They all laughed again, Blaise shot Draco a disgusted look, as if he was tainted by association.

"Its just so easy" Draco drawled, "and powerful wizards have needs, she knows that."

Blaise scoffed. "You're such a conceited twat, a sixth year Hogwarts student is hardly a powerful wizard."

Draco paused, considering Blaise's words, should he tell them? They would find out sooner or later anyway, he thought. "Yes but not all sixth year students have one of these" he rolled up his sleeve to show the Dark Mark that had been burned onto it a few weeks prior. He sat back with a satisfied smile on his face as the other boys gasped, their mouths wide open in disbelief. "You see," Draco drawled superiorly, "powerful wizards have needs."

Blaise didn't know what to say, he hadn't expected that at all. Since when did the Dark Lord recruit students that were still in Hogwarts, what could he possibly have to gain from this new arrangement with Draco?

"Well fuck me" Goyle said, still astonished. He was interrupted from making any further comment as at that moment, a large tawny owl soared into their midst, landing on the arm of Blaise's chair.

"Zeus!" Blaise greeted his owl, stroking its head with the back of his index finger, "what have you got for me?" The owl held out its leg importantly, tied to it was an envelope that had been wax sealed with a coat of arms he was very familiar with. "Ah yes, Arianwen." He muttered.

"Ooh its from a girl! Who is she, Blaise?" Draco demanded, smiling slyly.

Crabbe, who was sitting nearest Blaise, shot to his feet and grabbed the letter straight out of Blaise's grasp.

"Oi, give that back!" but it was too late, Crabbe had already torn the letter open and hastened to read it aloud in an over emphasised high-pitched voice.

"Dear Blaise,

Thanks for writing, its nice to speak to someone other than the elves, Uncle Dafydd is doing his best to isolate me from everyone at the moment. Your mother was here last night, she seems to be getting quite close with Uncle Dafydd, anything I should know about? Do come along next time won't you? I'm going out of my mind with boredom!"

Crabbe paused here for dramatic affect, while the other boys wiggled their eyebrows suggestively at Blaise.

Crabbe continued, "Anyway I may as well break the news, seeing as I can't change Uncle Dafydd's mind… I'm transferring to Hogwarts for sixth year. As you can imagine I'm thrilled.

Unfortunately it seems that Uncle Dafydd isn't as dense as Father said, he must have seen the draught of living death (laced with poison, of course) that I had brewing in my lab. He'd gotten one of the elves to test his food for him, and well…bon nuit little elf… So now he's banned me from the lab as well, must he make my assassination attempts such a chore?

Let me know if you have any more ideas, being locked up is curbing my creativity somewhat. You really must visit soon, Uncle won't mind, he can't turn down a Zabini after all. Brianne has been asking after you too…(I'm winking by the way).

Anyway, I'll see you at the ball, you can give me the low down on your school. Do they really let muggles go to the same school as you? I can't understand why Uncle Dafydd is forcing this upon me, but psycho's will do as they please I suppose.

Miss you!

Yours,

Arianwen xx

"Well well!" Draco smirked at Blaise, "who's this girl that you've got hidden away then? And who is Brianne?"

Blaise sighed in annoyance, he'd been friends with Arianwen for many years now and had managed to keep it quiet, he knew his friends would be far too interested in the situation, especially considering how attractive she is.

"My mother met her father at some society gathering when she was married to that Welsh guy. They're all from Wales, Lady Arianwen and I have been friends for a few years. She's been excellent company at all the functions my mother has been forcing me to attend."

"Lady Arianwen is it?" Goyle asked sarcastically.

"Yes actually, she's quite a high member of the Welsh gentry. And that's Marchioness Arianwen Gwydion to you, Goyle." It was Blaise's turn to smirk, the Zabini's were certainly very well connected. At least while all the attention was on Arianwen, he didn't have to explain who Brianne was, he was not in the mood for the taunting that would most definitely be in store for him.

Draco turned to Blaise, "her surname is familiar, Gwydion did you say?" Blaise nodded and pointed to a magazine on the coffee table in front of Draco's sofa, "she's on the cover", he said.

Draco picked up the magazine, it was Witch Weekly, his mother had been reading it earlier that day. 'Marchioness Is Youngest Ever Witch to Receive Order of Merlin: Third Class' the title read. Below it was the image of a beaming sixteen year old, shaking hands with the Minister for Magic. Draco examined the picture, the girl was extremely pretty and her hair was glistening on the cover, it was long, thick and light golden blonde in colour, which hung effortlessy in curls, framing her tanned face. She had high cheekbones, a small button nose and a wide smile, her plump lips framing perfectly her straight glossy white teeth. The most striking of her features were her large green eyes, they weren't a bright emerald but more of a muted light green. The girl in the picture moved between shaking Scrimgeour's hand and smiling up at the reader proudly. He couldn't make out much of her body as she was holding the parchment with the Order of Merlin up to the camera. Draco looked back at Blaise in surprise, "how have you managed to keep someone like her quiet for so long?"

Blaise snorted, rolling his eyes at Draco, "because Malfoy, I knew how you would react… someone's got to protect the poor girl seeing as she has no father or brothers."

"Protect her? From me?" Draco laughed "Why?"

"Because you're the exact type of person someone like Arianwen should avoid. You'd just fuck her and run off when you get bored" Blaise raised an eyebrow at him accusingly.

"And?" Draco did his sly laugh again, confirming Blaise's decision to keep her quiet.

"Oh well, if she's coming to Hogwarts then you may as well give up, Zabini."

"Yeah," Crabbe added, "He'll definitely shag her now." Blaise pocketed the letter silently, ignoring his friends, they really were pigs sometimes.

"How has she got the Order of Merlin: Third Class?" Goyle piped up.

"Well if you read the article," Blaise shifted in annoyance, "you'd see that she's invented some new potion that can reverse some of the effects of the Cruciatus Curse, for when its been used a bit…enthusiastically".

"Oh." Draco looked a little disappointed, "She won't be a Slytherin then."

"We'll see." Blaise said, his tone indicating that they had reached the end of this particular topic.

A/N: Hello lovely readers! If you made it this far then I hope you enjoyed the first chapter, as you can tell there's a lot of setting the scene going on - I'll try and get to the good stuff as soon as possible! Please review to let me know what you think :)