Disclaimer: JK Rowling's characters and ideas belong to her, not to me. This story begins about an hour after HBP leaves off, and it does contain HBP spoilers.

I hope you all enjoy it, please review, I would be happy to hear any feedback on my story.

This is the revised version of chapter one, so there have been some changes made. The most noticable is that Loki has been given a new name. Until I get caught up on my revising Loki and Hector will be interchangable, but it shouldn't be much longer before that is taken care of.

For now, enjoy the changes, and keep checking back for further revisions. Updates will be soon to follow, I intend to have this done before Deathly Hallows

Calida had her head resting against the window, staring out at nothing in particular. It all seemed very surreal. The compartment was full of her close acquaintances, each of whom she called friends for the sake of simplicity, and her boyfriend of 3 years, Hector. They were all making a good deal of noise, but Calida couldn't really hear any of it, her mind was elsewhere. She knew that in just over 24 hours, her life would change forever.

It was this change that held her attention. She kept envisioning the scenario over and over again in her mind's eye.

"Hey Lida?"

She started at her name and looked over at Rian.

"Do you want to come spend a week at my house with Tuccia and Hector?"

"I can't," she said slowly, and paused before finishing "I'm going to be really busy for a while."

"Lida honey, you haven't seemed yourself since…well…since Dumbledore died. Are you okay? Is there anything you want to talk about?"

The fact was, there were hundreds of things she wanted to talk about, but now was not the time. Dumbledore's death wasn't a surprise to her, and she had had plenty of time to adjust to it before it ever even happened. What she had on her mind lately was something causing her to burst with glee, but for some reason, whenever that happened, she usually came off depressed to her friends. She decided that now wasn't the time to tell them, not just yet.

She cast her mind around and threw out the first thing that came to her, something she reasoned could possibly be depressing.

"I just can't believe we really are leaving. I mean, this has been seven years of our lives, and now it's all over. Next September we won't be getting onto the Hogwarts Express. Do you realize that this could be the last time we ever get to take this train anywhere?"

Everyone laughed. "That's what's bothering you? You're all upset that we have finally graduated, that we are leaving school? You always were an odd little girl," snickered Tuccia.

"I'm not saying I'm not glad we're leaving, it's just a bit sad."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Rian cut in. "Seven years spent in the dormitories, the common room, eating in the Great Hall, and now it's all over."

"Of course, I'm looking forward to getting on with my life after school," Calida whispered, more to herself than her friends. She could almost feel herself getting a glazed look as she stared out the window again, the scene of tomorrow night once more in her mind.

They let her pass out the rest of the trip in silence. Or rather, she was so lost in her own thoughts that trying to get her attention failed the rest of the way.

It was very dark when they arrived at platform 9 ¾ because they had left late in the afternoon, about an hour after Dumbledore's funeral.

Calida got off the train and hugged her friends good-bye on the platform, promising each of them that she would be in touch soon. She kissed Hector and took out her wand. With a small flick she vanished her luggage and her owl, Arvalis, sending them on home ahead to await her there. Then with one last look at the Hogwarts Express she smiled to herself and disappareted with an inaudible pop.

Calida looked around her room. It was exactly the same as she had left it. There was a very comfortable looking bed covered in black sheets and blankets, an elegant writing desk in the corner, an old chair that resembled a bowl on a pedestal, and a large freestanding mirror framed in very realistic looking black snakes.

The desk shook slightly, and she guessed that a boggart had moved in over the last several months. She walked over to the desk and opened the drawer. Trying not to look at the gigantic shape emerging from it, she waved her hand impatiently, and with a crack the boggart had vanished in a wisp of smoke. Calida had long ago learned to do such simple magic without voice or wand. Her parents had never enforced the 'no underage magic rule' but had taught and encouraged her from the time she could walk and talk.

She made an odd hand gesture at her trunk, which immediately began to unpack and put things away of its own accord, and Arvalis was released from a cage that could no longer be seen. When everything had put itself neatly away, she snapped her fingers and climbed into bed wearing the nightclothes that had appeared at her snap. As excited as she was about what would soon be coming, she fell asleep almost instantly.

It was late in the morning when she woke up. She knew her parents and her siblings would be downstairs waiting to welcome her home, but just now, she didn't want to leave the warm comfort of her bed. She kept her eyes closed envisioning the events that would take place in a few hours time, when there was a knock on her door.

Calida opened her eyes and looked suspiciously at her door. She snapped her fingers again and was fully dressed in deep crimson robes.

"Come in," she called as she sat up on the edge of her bed.

The door opened very slowly and she saw a pale pointed face appear in the doorway. She had known Draco at school, he was in the year below her, but they liked to hang out and talk in the common room.

It had been Draco that had found a way to get the Death Eaters inside Hogwarts, it had been Draco that was supposed to kill Dumbledore. He looked very upset, almost as thin and pale as he had been while struggling to fix the Vanishing Cabinet.

The last time had seen Draco his form was barely visible beyond the Hogwarts gates, and almost impossible to see for Harry and Snape dueling in front of them. She gave him a welcoming smile and gestured for him to sit down. Draco hesitated for a moment before falling to his knees on the floor in front of her, rather than sitting beside her.

"Help me, Calida, please. I think I'm in way over my head. He said he would kill me and my family if I didn't do it, and I didn't. It wasn't me it was Snape. What am I supposed to do Calida? Help me." She had never heard this note of urgency in his voice, nor the desperation that was also made plain by the look in his eyes.

Calida stared at him for a moment, searching for any sign of trickery within his mind, and sensing none she took his hand with a warm smile.

"When do you see him next?"

Draco was silent for a long time before he responded very quietly, "Tonight."

This was not unexpected, but she would have given a great deal for Draco to have said anything else.

"I'll see what I can do Draco, but you have to be there, make no changes from the usual ritual. I can't promise any results, but I'll try"

Draco nodded his thanks and left the room silently.

Calida put her head in her hands and sighed. This was what she had been afraid of. She knew Draco and his family were in trouble, and it made sense that he would turn to her.

She stood up and walked over to a blank stretch on her wall and ran her finger over it whispering a single word in parseltongue. She had never mentioned this particular ability to anyone, friend or family. Her family, she knew had descended from the great Salazar Slytherin, though, there was only one person linking her to him, and that person had died some 900 years ago. Such a small and distant connection it was rarely acknowledged outside her own family. However, she cherished this gift, and kept it secret.

At her whisper a door appeared in the wall. She opened the door smirking to herself, remembering that she had created this room when she was only 13, to hide her most precious possessions in.

She reached in and took out a golden cup with a badger on it. Her great-grandfather had given it to her on his Deathbed. He had told her to keep it secret, never to let another soul see or touch it as long as she should live. She knew it was a relic of Helga Hufflepuff, but he had told her that it belonged to the Dark Lord, and if he should ever ask for it, she was not to argue.

Calida frequently went to hold it when she was worried or upset; she felt a sense of comfort and safety when she held it. Almost as if the cup itself was endowed with the ability to assure continued life. Whenever she felt she couldn't go on, holding the cup could always change that.

Calida had taken the cup out many times to feel its comforting power, but something felt wrong this time. The second she touched it she was filled with a sudden dread. Pain shot through her arm and she tried to pull away but it was impossible, she fell to the ground screaming. Surely someone would hear her and come to her aid.

Please come, she thought, please. Someone, anyone, you have to hear me.

Even as she thought these words though, she realized there would be no help, she had set and Imperturbable Charm on the door that would activate every time the door was shut. Calida convulsed with pain, gasping for air until everything went black.

When she awoke she was dazed and confused, and quite at a loss to understand how she had got on the ground. It was several minutes before her vision cleared enough to see the cup lying several feet away from her.

Calida propped herself up against her writing desk and tried to catch her breath. It felt like hours went by before she could think of what to do. Slowly she stood up, shaking dangerously as she did. Using her left hand to steady herself, she raised her right. She knew that she was too weak to perform the spells she had decided she must, without the aid of a wand.

Her outstretched hand twitched and her wand appeared in it from thin air. She took a deep breath and concentrated on levitating the cup back to the shelf on which it usually rested, and then placed several protective spells around it.

The outermost spell would require a blood price to pass. The next level of security was a fiery mist that had to be touched in just the right spot with just the right words to avoid something resembling what had happened when Calida had touched the cup. The last layer of protection she put upon it was one that detected power, no matter how old or young the witch or wizard, they would have to possess a certain level of power to pass this barrier. Calida had not worked with that spell enough to know what would happen to those without the power who tried to pass. Finally, she stepped back and sealed the wall, which could only be opened by a parselmouth.

Calida turned and sat on her bed. She knew what she would have to do now, what she would have to ask, what she would have to say. While she was still anxious for the events of the evening, it was now far more bleak than she had thought this time yesterday. She now had two tasks ahead of her, and endeavoring on either could end her life.

Calida raised her head and looked around the room. She muttered a few words and waved her wand in a circle, careful that her wand pointed at each wall, the floor, and ceiling, placing and anti-disapparation jinx on it. She then walked to her door, placed her hand on it, emitting hissing and spitting noises as she did so. She opened the door and did the same to the other side.

Then she smiled knowing that anyone who wished to take the cup would now have to know one word to get in, one word to get the cup, and one word to exit the room, all in parseltongue. Not to mention the other three layers of security. She closed the door and walked down the stairs. Halfway to the dinning room she twirled her wand in her hand and it was gone.

Calida entered to find her family sitting around the table smiling at her. Her mother jumped up, hugged her, kissed her cheek, and finally led her over to her chair.

"Now, I've had the elves make you some bacon and eggs for dinner. Yes, I know it's well past breakfast time, but you like them and this is an important day. If you want something else just tell me dear. Have you got yourself all unpacked now? Did you lay out your robes for this evening?" Her mother began combing Calida's hair, and her little sister Tellus giggled.

"Bacon and eggs is fine mum, I unpacked as soon as I got home last night, I have my robes ready, and I am perfectly capable of combing my own hair." Calida replied irritably as she filled her plate.

"Don't worry Calida, mum still thinks I can't take care of myself either," whispered her brother.

"I heard that Atabulus. Now eat your breakfast and keep your mouth shut," she snapped.

"It's dinner time, mum," Atabulus reminded her.

"Hush and eat," mother snapped back. The excitement of the evening was clearly overwhelming to her.

Atabulus rolled his eyes and went back to eating his food. Calida looked over at her father who was reading the Daily Prophet.

"Anything interesting?" She asked.

"Two arrests, neither of them are Death Eaters, but they wouldn't report that, of course," he skimmed the paper further. "Let's see here, some woman named Finnigan was found dead last night, work of the Death Eaters. It says she has a son who came home from school with her, but he wasn't found anywhere. They aren't sure if he is still alive or not."

"He probably is," said Atabulus annoyed. "Avery and Nott said someone disapperated the second they showed up. I'd be willing to bet it was him."

Calida smiled at her brother as he shredded a piece of bacon into bits and speared it viciously onto his fork. He was always annoyed if someone died and he didn't get to be there. She wondered if perhaps she would be like that.

She finished her dinner and walked out into the hallway. It was lit with torches mounted onto the smooth stone walls. The flickering quality gave her a pale dead look, and the light seemed to disappear in her eyes, no trace of the bright flames anywhere.

She turned off into a large room on the left. The room was almost as tall as the Great Hall had been. As she stepped in the room was lit from above. Unlike the great hall, this ceiling was bewitched to always show sunlight. There were a few windows on one wall, arches near the very top.

Every wall in the room was filled with shelves and shelves of books. Here and there throughout the room were more freestanding bookshelves covered front and back with more books. She walked over to one that was situated at the end of a very comfortable looking chair that had been well overstuffed for softness.

On the other side of the chair was a small table. She took a large book bound in sleek, black dragon hide off the shelf and sat down in the chair. Calida had read this book many times, it was full of the most basic Dark Arts spells there were. Calida turned to the first page muttering to herself, she would need to know all of this soon, in just 5 hours.

Well, there you go. That's chapter one. Chapters two and three should be along very shortly.