Hi, everyone! I'm so happy you decided to join Ravenfire for her second year at Hogwarts. This one is promised to have plenty of twists and turns as Raven struggles with her loyalty and friendships. I hope you enjoy and continue to stick around for more!

Chapter One

My eyes fluttered open to sunlight filtering through my window at Malfoy Manor. I held up my hands so that I could see the bruises on my wrists. My father had gotten drunk the night before and took his ever-present anger out on me. It wasn't unusual, especially since I'd be leaving for Hogwarts in a matter of weeks. These were his last chances to abuse me until I came home for the holidays.

Regardless, as soon as the beating had ended, I'd travelled by Floo Powder to the Malfoys and spent the night there. However, as I awoke, something felt new. Something always felt a little different after I had endured a beating, and the one last night was rather severe. But this sensation was completely new. I'd never experienced anything like it.

It was a new, strange feeling that was completely alien to me. It felt as though there were extensions on different parts of my body. As if there were…more of me. I thought perhaps my head was just swollen, but that wasn't right.

Cautiously, I lifted my fingers to the top of my head, one of the main points of the odd feeling. I gasped audibly when I felt a pair of fluffy, semi-pointed ears sprouting from my long, dirty blonde hair, which had begun growing in darker over the summer. My other hand shot behind my lower back where I could feel an extension of my spine. Surely enough, there was a big, bushy tail. Covering my mouth so as not to cry out in fear or shock, I ran over to the large mirror on the other side of the room.

The tail that stuck out of one leg of my shorts, as well as the additional ears, were bright scarlet. Seeing everything with my eyes instead of trusting my fingers made me let loose one long, bloodcurdling scream. I'd barely finished when Dobby appeared in my bedroom.

"Pardon me for intruding, Miss Ashe, but Dobby was worried when he…" the house elf trailed off as his eyes landed on the cause of the shriek, "Oh dear. Shall Dobby get Master Draco?"

"No!" I exclaimed, "I don't want him to see me like this. Narcissa, get Narcissa! She'll know what to do."

"Mistress Narcissa is out at the moment. Dobby will fetch Master Lucius instead."

"No, wait-!"

But Dobby had already disappeared.

A few moments later, I heard heavy footsteps coming down the hall.

"Raven, what's going on?" Lucius asked lazily as he entered the room, but he froze as soon as he saw me, his eyes widening.

Mr. Malfoy was not an easy man to shock, but I had done it once again.

"I don't know, Daddy," I whimpered as tears welled in my eyes.

He approached me slowly, studying the ears and tail as if I were a specimen instead of his son's best friend.

"Fox fur," he stated, more to himself than to me.

Without warning, he reached up to trap one of my fluffy ears between his thumb and index finger. Automatically, my sensitive ear tried to twitch away, but it was captured nonetheless. He studied it intently for a few moments.

"What am I supposed to do?" I asked nervously, jerking my head away from him. He let the ear slip away easily, "Am I stuck like this? Hogwarts starts soon, and I can't go to school looking like a fox."

"Follow me. I have a way to fix it. For now," Mr. Malfoy commented as he led me out of my room and down the hall towards his office.

I cautiously followed, praying not to run into Draco. The last thing I wanted was for Draco to see me like this. It was humiliating to be part animal. And the way Lucius was studying me – the way Draco would surely study me – was just as humiliating.

When we finally arrived at Mr. Malfoy's study, I sat down in one of the leather chairs next to the fireplace while he walked over to his bookshelf and searched for something.

"Have you ever heard of an animagus?" he asked, pulling a rather large book off the shelf and sitting opposite me.

"No."

"It's someone who can turn into an animal. Your mother is one."

"So, she turns into a fox too?"

"Not a fox. A rabbit. And it isn't random and uncontrolled like yours. She has complete power over when she turns into a rabbit, and it is never a partial transformation."

"So, I can turn into a full fox? Is that a good thing?"

"Well, it indicates a lot of power, and when you learn how to control this raw power, I believe you will be able to turn into a full fox whenever you'd like. A fox fits you rather nicely actually. Smart, cunning. But the ability itself was most likely passed down genetically, which is rare," he explained absently, flipping through the book in search of something, "It takes a lot of power to control it, but I doubt you'll have a problem with that. You'll just need to learn. I'm not an animagus, so I can't teach you, but your mother certainly can."

"How come I never knew that she could do that?"

"Because your mother is unregistered. All animagi need to be registered with the Ministry. If they do not, they are breaking the law. Someone will need to take you to the Ministry as soon as you've mastered transforming."

"But what do I do about it now?"

"When I was at Hogwarts, we learned a transfiguration spell, but I forgot it, not thinking I'd ever need it. Luckily, I have a book on animagus transformation. Ah, here it is."

As he stood up, he drew his wand and let it brush against my forehead.

"Prorsus humana," he muttered, making my ears and tail shrink back until they were nonexistent.

I shivered and cringed violently; the sensation was new and uncomfortable. But it passed quickly, and Lucius withdrew his wand.

"Thank you," I muttered, standing as he took the book back to the shelf.

"Just remember the spell if that ever happens at school. It is prudent that no one knows what you are becoming until I have a chance to take you to the Ministry."

"Yes, Daddy," I said, taking a few steps forward and absently running my fingers over the edge of his desk.

It was then that I noticed a box and a leather-bound book sitting on the otherwise clear surface.

"What's that?" I asked.

Lucius turned from the bookshelf to see what I was referring to.

"Oh that," he replied dryly, following my gaze, "That is a box of items I'm going to sell at Borgin and Burkes when we go to Diagon Alley today."

"What about the book? Are you going to sell that too?"

"No. It's just a book I happened to be reading earlier," he replied casually, moving to take a seat behind his desk. He grabbed the book and slipped it into one of his desk drawers, "I haven't put it away yet. Why don't you go get ready to go to Diagon Alley? We'll be leaving soon."

I regarded him suspiciously, but I didn't dare challenge him. There was something he was hiding, but unfortunately, Mr. Malfoy was very good at hiding things. Whatever he was lying about, I had no clue what it was. I could suspect him of nothing more than lying to me.

So, with a quiet "yes, Daddy," I turned and left the room.