Hogwarts` Cinderella
Chapter 1: Malfoy Manor
Anastasia picked up the bucket of dirty soap water and the wet rag from the freshly cleaned floors, and walked out of the living room into the kitchen, which she also referred to as her bedroom. After getting rid of the barely clean rag and the water, she placed the now empty bucket below the huge sink and wiped her hands with the towel she had conveniently hung beside it before-hand. Glancing around the huge silver and emerald themed kitchen, like the rest of the manor, she walked out and hurried to the dining room where her foster family, namely the Malfoys, had almost finished their breakfast.
She had grown quite accustomed to calling the Malfoy Manor her 'home' when in reality it was nothing more than a workplace for her where her employers gave her a bed to sleep and some food that barely kept her alive, at least while she was not at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Her employers in this case were her foster parents; Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, who made her work without any payment. Though, she did not quite understand why the Malfoys had adopted her, six years ago, in the first place, if all they wanted was a human slave. It did not make sense, as they already had a couple of house elves that could do all their household chores and could also run outside errands.
When this family of purebloods had come to the orphanage she had lived at, they seemed very sweet and caring, but later it turned out that it was all for show... Reality was that they wanted a puppet who would dance whenever they wanted and in every way they wanted it to. It was a method to make them look good in front of the Ministry of Magic, knowing that their history of involvement with Lord Voldemort did little to prevent them from public humiliation, anyway.
She was one year old when her parents were killed and she was never told who they were or who killed them, or even how she was brought to the orphanage, because apparently she did not have any living relatives left. She preferred to stay ignorant, anyway. She was often tempted to seek those killers for revenge, but then she would repress the feelings thinking it was a waste of time and energy. If she was meant to know about her parents, then she would know when the time was right. For now, ignorance was bliss.
Now at the blooming age of almost fourteen, she was more of a servant to her foster parents and siblings than an adopted daughter or sister. She did all the chores around the manor and also quite a bit of outside errands, despite the presence of house elves. She, however, thought it was better this way; the lesser the house elves were told to work, the lesser they would suffer at the brutal hands of the Malfoys for no reason.
She had tried to guess the reason for the hatred she received from her foster parents, but she would come up with nothing but only the fact that she looked the complete opposite of a Malfoy. The Malfoys all had white-blonde hair and pale complexions, and she, on the other hand, had jet black hair that she always kept up in a bun, with olive complexioned skin. While the Malfoys were tall, she was no taller than 5 feet 3 inches. Last, but not the least, her foster family had either grey eyes or blue, but she had, in her opinion, dull and boring brown eyes, that had too much pain and sorrow hidden beneath the surface. She knew she looked nothing special compared to her foster sister, Annika, but she still thought that it would have been nice if once in a while someone would tell her that even she, the plain and boring Anastasia Malfoy, had pretty eyes and nice hair, which would be an utter lie, but refreshing nonetheless.
The Malfoys hated her so much that they taken to calling her by the name 'Nastya' rather than her real name 'Anastasia' or even the nickname she had been given by her old friends at the orphanage, 'Asia'. She always called herself either Asia or Anastasia, never introducing herself as Nastya to anybody. It was nasty when her foster family used it to humiliate her as it was, she did not want anyone else bothering her about it too.
Maybe they hate me because I am in Gryffindor... she always thought, but never had the guts to believe any of her assumptions where her foster family was concerned. Besides, she had become a Gryffindor after she had joined Hogwarts and they had treated like dirt eversince she was a month from her eighth birthday.
Walking through the dark and gloomy hallways of the Manor, and passing several doors and rooms, Asia made her way into the dining room where the only source of light was the sunlight streaming through the large window panes lined across the black and grey wall opposite the big oak doors she had entered through. In the middle of the room stood a long dining table that seated more than fourteen people, but currently sat only the four Malfoys: Father, at the head of the table; Mother, on his right; Annika, beside Mother; and Draco, on Father's left. There was also a fireplace behind Father's seat, which gave only a little heat to the cold and stony room.
Father sat there reading a copy of the Daily Prophet while eating a piece of bacon with his silver fork. The others sat eating so quietly that the silence felt eerie and uncomfortable.
"Just a reminder, Nastya," said Father monotonously in his cold voice, without looking up, startling her a little, "You are expected to be well and ready to leave at two in the afternoon, sharp. If not, we will be insisted to leave you here to prepare our back-to-home meal, while we enjoy the World Cup that you want to attend oh-so-dearly. Is that understood?"
"Yes, father," Asia replied in a small voice.
"Is that understood, loud and clear?" Father asked in a louder and threatening voice this time, without even looking up from the Prophet.
"Yes, father," Asia repeated, louder, knowing the consequences of not being loud enough for Father or Mother to hear.
She remembered the last time she was not loud enough, when she received a dose of the Cruciatus Curse for twenty, long, painful minutes, after which she could not walk properly for at least an hour. Of course, she received a separate punishment for that after she tried and failed to walk a couple of times. Mother had made her stand in the corner of the library for ten hours straight, without permitting her to eat or drink, or even to go to the washroom; the worst ten hours of her life.
She shuddered at the memory. That was three years ago, on her eleventh birthday. It was the same day when she had received her letter from Hogwarts. She had been so excited that morning; she had thought that nothing could have brought her spirits down. She could not have been more wrong. That punishment had been a birthday gift from her foster family. Even the house elf, Dobby had given her a better gift than that!
"Good," replied Father, bringing Asia back from her memory lane, "Now I'll have to get going to the Ministry. Clean the house up, and do what you are told to do. If I get anything close to a complaint from my kids about your attitude or any of your smartness, you should be ready for the consequences later tonight, then."
With that said, he pushed past her and walked out of the dining room and then the house leaving echoes of slamming doors behind him, and a 'pop' telling everyone that he had already apparated to the Ministry. The impact of Father's nudge had left Asia holding onto the oak door for support, as she barely avoided herself being hurt.
"Clean up this mess," snapped Mother, as she stood up and walked past her to do who-knows-what.
"You have fifteen minutes, Nastya," sneered Annika, as she too pushed her seat back, creating a loud scraping noise, and stalked toward Asia, "Clean this up and bring me my cleansers. Don't be late, or you will know the end result."
"Yes, Annika," Asia replied, in a non-wavering voice, and gave a small nod.
Annika just smirked and walked out of the dining room, flipping her straight, white-blonde hair over her shoulder, as Asia just watched her walk away.
Another scraping sound made her snap her attention back to the dining table. It was Draco. He stood up and picked up a piece of toast from the table and wordlessly walked out of the room.
He always does that, Asia thought with a sigh.
And it was true. He never encouraged any of the abuse Asia had suffered all these years, but he never did anything to make it better, either. But it was enough for Asia to realize that Draco did have some good in him, even though he never showed it to others willingly.
Asia just kept thinking about her past and present life as she started the long process of throwing away the leftovers and collecting and transferring all the clean and dirty dishes to the kitchen. If she worked on a normal pace, it usually took her about half an hour to do so, because of the amount of dishes and food her foster family wasted. But, today she had been given a special warning to complete all this in only fifteen minutes: meaning to work three times faster than she always does. She did not want to anger Annika, further angering Father and Mother in the process and as a result, missing the once in a lifetime opportunity of going to the World Cup.
Tomorrow would be her fourteenth birthday and it was a miracle that for the first time in her life, on her birthday, something that she liked would be happening. Tomorrow she would be among her fellow Quidditch fans, watching her favorite players play the Quidditch World Cup Finals. Bulgaria versus Ireland. Victor Krum played the Bulgarian seeker. Troy, Mullet and Moran, were her favorite players from the Irish team. No one knew how much she enjoyed Quidditch.
Quidditch...
Oh, how she absolutely loved the game! It seemed like it had been ages since she last played, whereas in reality she had played only almost a month and a half ago. Well, it was more of a lonely practice, but it was playing all the same. Ever since she learnt how to fly on her very first flying lessons in her first year at Hogwarts, she had fallen in love with the feeling of freedom she had never felt before. The feeling of being high up in the sky where there is no limit to where one can go and how far they can go, had just kept her hooked. She had never tried out for the Quidditch team, but she always attended the games and had always played by herself out in the pitch when there was no match or no practice. She smiled as she remembered the last time she had flown and had felt the freedom, which she needed so badly at the moment. She could practically feel it as she walked from the dining room to the kitchen a little faster than normal, that caused a few of her black curls to stir in the air.
She was carrying the last of the dishes to the kitchen when her small moment of happiness was cut short by her name being screamed from somewhere on the second floor of the Manor.
"NASTYA!" It was Annika.
Seems like my fifteen minutes are already over, she thought ruefully.
She rushed up the stairs while carrying a large bowl filled with lukewarm water, a few slices of lemon and a couple of drops of honey. She balanced the bowl in one hand and while she wiped the other hand on her half-wet apron, she knocked on the door to Annika's bedroom. The door was a light grey color with an emerald door knob that turned as Annika opened the door slowly and let Asia in.
"Took you long enough," She snapped at her.
"Sorry, Annika," Asia replied hurriedly, "the water took long to warm."
"Oh whatever," Annika waved her off, as she walked over to the dresser and sat on the green cushioned chair in front of it.
She looked like the epitome of perfection even when she had done nothing but let her long white-blonde curls loose. She had a plain, blood-red, silk gown on that had a round neck and reached her ankles. It sharply contrasted with her pale complexion and blemish-free skin.
She looked older than her twelve-year-old-self because of her height and looks. She was tall and slim and had a pointed face, just like her older brother. Annika was everything Asia wanted to be - at least as far looks went. But if she were to be asked what she would not like to change about herself, it would be her personality. Asia's personality was way more appealing than Annika's.
"Now, hurry-up already! I don't have all day!"
Asia hurriedly walked over to the dresser and placed the large bowl in front of her and walked back out the door, closing it quietly before hurrying down the stairs and into the kitchen where she had a large pile of dishes left to wash and dry.
However, when she entered the kitchen she was shocked, to say the least, to see all the dishes clean and dry, neatly piled up on the shelves beside the sink. She searched the kitchen for any sign of one of the house elves who could have finished her task, but obviously she could find no one. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she thought of anyone who would do this for her, without the fear of being caught and punished.
Suddenly there was a 'pop' behind her, snapping her attention back to the door, where she found a tray filled with a very warm and delicious breakfast.
So this person knows I did not have breakfast yet, she thought as her frown deepened. Then as she thought it, her confused expression changed to that of understanding and a slow smile spread across her face.
"You can come out now, Dobby," she said in a low voice.
Just as she said this, the house elf appeared before her with another 'pop'. He was the same as she had last seen him: large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. He had a large smile on his face as he jumped up and hugged the life out of her.
"Hello to you too, Dobby," Asia said with a chuckle as she hugged the little creature back. It had been ages since she last saw him and ages since she had smiled this wide.
It felt good to have him back.