Chapter 1

The two cloaked and masked men stood in front of the desk, listening intently to every words being said and trying to memorize them, knowing that if they didn't they would be paying dearly.

The man behind the desk was leaning back in his chair, slowly stroking the head of a giant snake in his lap, earning satisfied hisses in exchange. It looked rather repulsing to the two other men, who felt the hair on the back of their necks rise from just being in the same room, but they knew better than to ever speak their thoughts out loud. After all, Nagini held a very dear place in the Dark Lord's heart.

The Dark Lords detailed description of next weeks Death Eater meeting was abruptly cut off by a very scared looking house elf.

"What is it?" The question came out as a very low hiss, and could have almost been mistaken for parseltongue.

"T-the young l-lady h-has a-a-arrived, s-sir" The elf said, too afraid to even look up from the floor. Barely had he finished when a loud "I'm home!" echoed trough the large castle. The eyes of the younger man widened in surprise and Nagini suddenly seemed wide awake compared to the dream like state she had been in before and was hissing excitedly.

The Dark Lord waved for the house elf to disappear, not even bothering with a punishment for being interrupted, and hissed something to the giant snake that seemed more than happy when she slithered across the room and out the door.

"She wasn't supposed to be here until tomorrow…" He mumbled under his breath, mostly to himself, while he stood up from his comfortable chair. "We will continue this some other day." The two men bowed before they backed up a step and turned around to walk out the room.

The only way to enter and leave this castle was trough the big fireplace in the entrance hall, unless you we're one of the lucky two to have a port key, which they didn't.

As they we're nearing the entrance hall they heard Nagini's satisfied hissing.

"What ever you see; bow, look away and pretend you haven't seen anything at all." The older man whispered to the younger, who was about to ask a question but the look he received silenced him.

As they rounded the corner they saw Nagini, half laying in the lap of a young girl, no older than seventeen, who was stroking her head just like the Dark Lord had done minutes earlier. As they came into view the girls eyes darted in their direction and the men instantly bowed and continued without a word towards the fireplace behind her. A low hiss escaped her lips, just in time for the two men to hear before the older one followed the younger as they Flooed away.

A house elf was standing in front of the fireplace, ready to collect the black robes of his masters who were supposed to arrive at any moment. The younger one arrived first, like always when they visited the Dark Lord, but this time he looked so bewildered he didn't even manage to insult the elf like he usually did.

His father followed him closely behind, his jaw tight and he too, was unusually quiet.

"Who…was that, father?"

"What you saw, Draco was not meant for your eyes. Forget it and never bring it up again." Lucius turned around and started walking towards the salon; he needed a drink after what had happened this afternoon. But his son was determined to get an answer to his question, and followed after him.

"Father!"

"It was the Dark Lord's daughter. And if you have an ounce of self preservation in you, you wouldn't ask one more question."

"He has a daughter?"

Lucius hesitated in the very last moment and chose a bigger glass, which he filled to the brim before he lifted it to his lips and swallowed all of the burning liquid at once.

"Hmm. She's the Lord's best kept secret, a very few from the inner circle even know she exists. And it is obvious the Dark Lord intends for it to remain that way."

Nagini lazily turned her head towards the direction of the footsteps she was hearing as the girl stroked her head. Oh, how she loved to be stroked. She hissed in content.

"Eliana," the Dark Lord said in a rather unhappy tone, his lips pressed tightly against each other.

"Nice to see you too, father." Eliana answered, without looking up, enraging him further.

"You're a day early. You are making it very hard for me to keep your existence a secret if you can't even follow a simple schedule."

"I don't like Moscow, it's too cold at this time of the year. Besides, I missed my favorite snake in the world." She cooed the last bit, bending down to kiss the top of Nagini's head.

The Dark Lord pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers, taking a deep breath.

"I'm sorry father, I didn't know it would cause trouble." The apology sounded sincere and he knew it was. No matter how much he hated to admit it, the Dark Lord could not stay angry with his daughter.

"Dinner will be served soon, you can tell me all about this semester at Durmstrang then-"

"I can tell you about it right now," she cute him off "it's miserable." It really did sound miserable judging just by the way she practically spit the word out.

"At dinner, Eliana. I have some work to finish."

The long table was set for two, with silver plates and expensive crystal. It was a rather unusual sight and something the elves were ordered to do only when the Lord's daughter was home from school, which wasn't too often.

The mouth-watering aroma from the three-course dinner, that was waiting to be served, filled the whole floor and hurried Eliana's steps. Her father was already seated and waited for her presence before he signaled the elves to serve soup.

"You ordered them to prepare my favorite again." The girl stated as she picked one of the spoons around her plate.

"I hope it still is your favorite."

"It's all right." The dinner continued in an awkward silence, like it did every year, and the elves served the two silent humans their main course and then the sweet dessert.

"How is school? Are you getting good grades?"

"I already told you, it's miserable. Please don't make me go back, or at least let me take Nagini with me!" The girl pleaded, knowing she had a limited amount of time for her yearly campaign before winter break would be over.

"We have been over thi-"

"You have no idea what it's like. The teachers are terrified of me, the student's all whisper behind my back about the possible causes for the teacher's behavior and no one will talk to me and I have to wear the stupid glamour every day!" She hit her fist in the table as if to emphasize what she had just said, turning over her own glass in the process.

"Sit down. It's all for your own good, and you know it. I'll talk to your headmaster about how the other kid's are tre-"

"-treating me and force them to be my friends? What is this, kindergarten? It won't solve the problem; it will only make it worse. I don't wanna be the bullied kid who only has friends because they're threatened into it!"

"I'll buy you a pet." Eliana gave her father an are-you-serious-look before she walked out of the dinning room, shaking with furry. Her father on the other hand couldn't help but to smile just a little bit, his daughter lacked humor sometimes. But his daughter was unhappy and he would have to come up with a solution.