CHAPTER ONE
Her Master, Her Teacher
Oh, how susceptible the human mind is! How easily a man can make a woman whither under his gaze. I promised myself, over and over, that I would never let that happen. How foolish I had been. The second I first laid eyes on him, I swooned. I nearly fainted. His skin, so deathly pale, his icy eyes as cold as death. Should this not scare me? Should I not turn, running and screaming? I knew I should be frightened. But I wasn't. I was awed.
The Dark Lord stood before me, his wand pointed straight at my heart. Was I to die today? Would I even care? Truth be told. If this excruciatingly dark wizard were to kill me, if I were to die by his hands, I would be elated. I would be honoured.
The Dark Lord tilted his head, his pale face showing no hint of emotion.
"Your name, witch," he hissed.
A cold shiver ran up my spines, through my veins, setting them on a chilled fire. The pleasure of it all must have been clear on my face, for the Dark Lord's expression changed, becoming one of amusement. He studied me a while, circling around me. I could feel his gaze on every part of my body. My needle-straight hair, pale as the moon, my skin so white it could rival the dead's. My deep, nearly black eyes, large and luminous, my small, subtle nose, and my heart shaped lips that always seemed to be pouting, just like my mother's. His gaze lingered a while on the rest of my body, hidden only by a towel, barely large enough to call itself one.
"Your name!" Voldemort said, having circled fully around me.
"P-Pippa," I stammered, another round of ice fire blazing through my veins as he spoke, "my name is Pippa."
"I meant you last name, you foolish child! What use to me is your first?"
I didn't mean to glare at him. It was rather stupid of me, actually, because within seconds, the Dark Lord had me lifted against the wall, the towel struggling to stay wrapped around my body. His hand was at my throat and his long fingers dug into my neck, the other hand still pointing his wand at me. But still, I felt no fear. I willed myself to be afraid, but I wasn't.
"Black." I croaked.
The cruel wizard ripped his hand away and I dropped to the floor in a heap, gasping for breath while trying to make sure the towel was still covering me.
"Black? That is not possible. The last of the Black name left with that fool, Sirius. He never had a child."
I tried not to glare at him again. Who was the idiot now? "Well, quite obviously, I am here, my Lord. I use the name black because I dislike my maiden names. Malfoy, Lestrange. They make me sick to my stomach!"
The Dark Lord burst into a wicked laughter. "That, child, is utterly impossible."
"What do you know of fidelity, my Lord?"
"What sort of question is that?"
"Fidelity. Faithfulness, loyalty. What do you know of it?"
"You test my patience, witch!"
I stood slowly, wrapping the towel tighter around me. "I'm sure you're already familiar with love." I said the word as if it were a most foul thing. "How fickle it is. How love is easily manipulated, how it likes to stray." I tucked a moonlight strand of hair behind my ear. "My mother is Bellatrix Lestrange, and my father is Lucius Malfoy."
The Dark Lord didn't say a word. He simply stared at me, as if trying to place my looks with those of Lucius and Bellatrix. "Lucius and Bellatrix..." he hissed, mulling it over. "Why have I never seen you?"
With the wave of my hand, I transfigured the towel into something much less revealing- a floor length black gown with no sleeves that hugged my body perfectly.
"The daughter of two of my most respected Death Eaters who is able to do both wandless and wordless magic and I have never met you? How old are you?" Voldemort ran his wand down the curve of my neck, running it down the long portion of cleavage that was still showing. I was a show off . . . I couldn't help it. Besides . . . He seemed to like it.
"I'm eighteen. My mother thinks I am dead, Narcissa believes I am Lucius' distant cousin's daughter. Only Lucius truly knows the truth..."
As if on queue, my father turned into the hallway and spotted us, his hair exactly the same colour as mine.
Everything changed.
• • •
"It can't be her. I killed her!" Bellatrix shrieked, her dark eyes blazing.
"I... I switched her." Lucius looked away from Bellatrix's murderous glare. "I knew you'd kill her the second she was born, so I'd prepared a polyjuice potion while you were still pregnant. I gave it to one of the dying patients."
"How...touching..." Voldemort hissed, disgusted. So was I. "But... I am actually quite glad that this happened. You see... I would like to take Pippa under my wing."
"WHAT!" my parents and I exclaimed.
• • •
A lot of what happened next is a blur. As it turned out, Narcissa had already figured out and put it behind her long ago. Draco refused to accept me as his sister . . . I really didn't care. My father didn't want to give me up. My mother wanted to kill me. But the Dark Lord had taken a liking to me.
"Not to you, you idiot!" he kept reminding me. "To your abilities. You would be nothing to me without them!"
I believed him.
And with that, the Dark Lord became my tutor in magic.
• • •
I was backed against a cold wall, the shoulder of my blood red sleeved corset smoking with the fire I'd just patted out. My chest heaved, and I was panting harshly. It was only ten minutes into my second lesson with the Dark Lord, and he'd already had at least three chances to kill me.
"You useless child! Where is that power I saw? Where did your abilities go? Or is transfigur-ation all you can do!" The Dark Lord flung another curse towards me, and I barely had time to counter it.
"Expelliarimus!" I hurled the spell towards him and he easily reflected it with a wave of his hand.
"You will never go anywhere with spells like that, Black!"
The anger was rising within me, replacing my exhaustion and fuelling my power.
"Crucio!"
To my deep surprise, the Dark Lord fell to the floor where he writhed under the power of my anger, my frustration. It wasn't long before his strength over powered mine, and he stood up again, a cold, malicious smile on his face.
"So, the little witch wishes to play with the unforgivable curses, does she?"
For the very first time, I felt fear. And I loved it. Until...
"Crucio!"
"Nghh!" I yelped, collapsing to the floor. Every part of my body felt as if it were being twisted, bent, burned. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before, and nothing I would ever feel again. I felt the cold, wicked power that burned through Voldemort as he hit me with the curse, drawing nearer to me.
"Do not dish out what you cannot take, you insufferable girl!"
"I... I can- Ah!" I winced as my body convulsed harshly under the curse.
"You can? Yet there you lie. I could kill you right now. I could have killed you the second I met you, but I sensed your power. Where is it now? Why are you not using it! Get up!" The Dark Lord shouted, releasing the curse.
I settled as the pain left, trying to catch my breath. I slowly staggered to my feet. Sweat poured down my face, and I felt the need to retch, to expel everything from my stomach.
"You disgust me..." the Dark Lord spat, turning sharply and heading towards the door.
With a sharp flick of my wand, the door slammed in the wizard's face. Another flick and I forced him to face me. "This lesson is not finished." I growled, bringing myself upright.
The Dark Lord only grinned madly, raising his wand. "And now you try to control me? Imperio!"
I went rigid as I felt the Dark Lord enter my mind, taking control.
"Get OUT!" I shouted, mentally shoving the Dark Lord. His control was released, and he was sent flying as a wave of mental magic hit him square in the chest. The next thing I knew, I was standing over her, snakes coming out of the tip of my wand and wrapping around his neck. "I am not insufferable, I am not a child, and I am NOT foolish!"
"Choke herrr..." the wizard hissed in parseltongue. I gasped as the snakes from my out wand began to wrap around my thin neck. A small zap from my wand, and they retreated, but not before Voldemort had me pinned, for a third time, against a wall. His snake-like face moved close to mine as his arms blocked either side of me.
I pressed the sharp tip of my wand under his chin, stopping him from moving any closer. But, to my surprise, I began moving closer. I pushed myself off of the wall and closed the distance between me and the powerful wizard, my wand still pressing into his chin. The Dark Lord stood completely still, his icy eyes staring into my black orbs. And then, I did the thing that even my mother had never dared to do (though I was sure she'd always wanted to). I closed my eyes, and I kissed him.
The cold heat of his dry lips made every inch of my skin tingle. I opened my mouth and trailed my tongue over the smooth curve of his lower lip as his hands moved away from the wall and began crawling down my sides, feeling my every curve and-
I was thrown back against the wall, my feet a foot off the ground as the dark lord placed his teeth against my neck, biting into the exposed flesh, his nails digging into my hips as he held me in place against the wall. I couldn't help the slow moan that escaped my lips, and, within seconds, the Dark Lord had turned and thrown me against the floor. I would have a lot of bruises, but at that moment, I did not care. I could till feel the Dark Lord's lips on mine, his teeth against my neck, already bruising.
The Dark Lord had started to busy himself with discarding his robed when-
"My Lord, the bounty hunters claim to have spotted the Potter boy-" Lucius stopped dead in his tracks as he saw me sprawled on the floor, battered and panting heavily. "M-my Lord, perhaps you are being too harsh-"
"Father, don't embarrass me! I am fine!"
Lucius looked at me sceptically, his expression saying 'I'm embarrassing you?'. I glared at him and stood up, brushing the dirt off of my tattered clothing, I used a stitching spell to repair it.
The Dark Lord acted as if he'd simply been readjusting his robes and grinned at Lucius. "She's good... when she's angry. I will be out in a moment, Lucius."
Lucius bowed and left the room, not before shooting another swift glance my way.
"We shall . . . continue this another day, Black."
And he swept out of the room, leaving me wishing my stupid father hadn't interrupted us.