DISCLAIMER!! Harry Potter and everything from his world do not belong to us, Angel Zash and Nilaraniel. We're just borrowing it. If you're lawyers looking to sue, don't waste your time. You'll just get three times the bills! If you want to be notified on when this fic is updated, leave your email in a review and you'll be added to the list! You'll also be notified when all of Angel Zash's fics are updated AND.you can even chat with other fans. ;) We will be putting author notes at the end of each chapter. Look for comments from us about the fic as well as our thoughts on your reviews. ;) Without further ado, we begin!! Enjoy!)

Harry watched as tears began to flood her large red eyes and felt his chest tighten in horror. He reached out to her, but the smaller girl flinched back from him and stood. He watched with wide eyes as the girl ran for the Forbidden Forest, blinded by her tears.
"Tsuki," Harry cried as he too stood and began to run after her.
Tsuki didn't hear Harry. She only knew that she had to escape him. He'd never forgive her if he found out, if he discovered her secret.
Little did she know, a hooded figure stood to the side of an ancient yew, just inside the forest. A wand extended from under the figure's cloak, pointing to the ground. The figure waited patiently, watching as the girl ran straight toward him. She would never see him where he stood in the shadow of the forest and he grinned to himself ever so slightly.
Avery's head jerked up as he caught sight of somebody else running after the girl. It had been perfect, his prey had been coming directly to him, right into his waiting arms, but now... He growled as he realized it was that Potter boy. He continued to wait quietly for the girl to enter the cover of the trees, as she undoubtedly would.
Tsuki didn't see the man towering over her until his hands were around her small waist and her feet had left the ground. She shrieked in terror and just caught a glimpse of Harry running into the cover of trees after her, his hand drawing his wand out of his cloak.
"Harry, no!" Tsuki shrieked at him, struggling against the Death Eater's grip.
Avery turned on his heels, heading back for the portkey that waited only a few feet away. He slung the shrieking girl over his shoulder as he ran and barely glancing back, aimed his wand at Harry, sending a Stunner in his direction.
"We'll take care of you soon enough, Potter." He growled to himself after gruffly reciting the incantation and placing a hand on the portkey.
The spell missed Harry by a foot, striking the ground before him and lifting both him and the surrounding vegetation into the air and throwing them back. He landed hard on his back, the wind knocked from his lungs. He lay gasping for breath for a minute before scrambling back to his feet and taking off in the direction he'd last seen Tsuki.
Harry returned to Hogwarts empty-handed, however, and fear set into the castle at the loss of its small red-eyed Slytherin.
The panic swelled even higher when Tsuki was discovered two weeks later, unconscious and beaten before the doors to the legendary school.

**************************************************************************** *

Nathaira placed the containers of Firewhisky gently into her trunk before standing up and yawning. She had just returned from Hogsmeade, and it was apparent that she had just missed dinner.
Stepping down from the dormitory, she heard her fellow Slytherins entering the common room. She began slowly down the stairs as two other girls made their way up. One of them stopped beside Nathaira, who turned to face her.
"What are you looking at?" Nathaira asked.
The other girl smirked. "Your git of a sister is in with Pomfrey."
Nathaira blinked, and within a second had continued down the stairs. She left the common room and headed down the hallway. It wasn't until she was sure no one was in sight that she took up her robes and ran as quickly as she could, up the many flights of stairs toward the hospital wing.
The door was just ahead... How long had it been? Two days? Two weeks? Two months? It had taken everything in her to show the outside world that her sister's disappearance hadn't bothered her...
But despite her non-caring attitude, Nathaira had been worried. very worried. Truth was she had cried herself to sleep nearly every night since Tsuki had gone missing...not that she'd ever admit that to anyone, not even to herself.
She barely managed to slide to a halt in front of the door, letting go of her robes so that they flew wildly around her. She burst through the door into the hospital wing.
"Where is she?" She demanded, instantly concealing any sign of fear or worry.
Harry didn't look up from where he stood watching Tsuki sleep, guilt etched across his face. Snape turned to Nathaira from his place next to Harry and scowled at the girl, his black eyes glittering menacingly.
"I would have thought," he told her, in a quiet, though dangerous voice, "that you would have been here hours ago. Did you just now find it in your heart to be concerned about your only sister?"
Nathaira paused as she studied the scene that greeted her. A scowl not unlike Snape's crossed her own face as he spoke. She stormed over to her sister's side, pulling her robes tightly around her body as she glared up into Snape's dark eyes.
"You're one to talk about hearts when you haven't got one yourself, Snape." She whispered venomously. "What has happened to her and where has she been? She has been awake, hasn't she?" She raised her voice from the venomous whisper, though it now took on a rather haughty air. She glared at Potter, who she had only just taken notice of.
Snape scowled, answering, "She's been unconscious since she was found in front of the doors to the castle. Seems the Death Eaters decided to have some fun with our little student."
Harry flinched at this but otherwise showed no sign of hearing.
Nathaira looked back up to Snape again and replied quietly. "...Death Eaters? You don't think Lord Voldemort..." It had occurred to her that he might have been behind this, but to have her come back to them in this state after having been with him? She watched Snape intently while she spoke, watching for the slightest reaction.
Snape scowled down at the hard-faced young Slytherin, "Who told?"
She scowled right back at him. "Who told what?" Sighing heavily, she moved to the other side of the bed and stopped at her sister's head. "Tsuki...can you hear me?" she asked in her usual harsh voice.
"Does it look like she can?" Snape snarled irritably.
"Leave her alone," Harry snarled right back at his intimidating professor. "She's just worried!"
"And when exactly did that have anything to do with you, Potter," Snape asked angrily, turning to glare at the Boy Wonder.
"Be quiet both of you! I certainly don't need you...Potter..." she spat the word as if it had a foul taste when spoken, "sticking up for me." She looked slowly from Harry to Snape, her glare changing to an expression of slight amusement.
"And you...you shouldn't speak to one of your own House...one of your children like that, now should you..." She grinned at Snape a moment before mouthing the word "daddy", her grin turning to a full fledged smile.
A look of terror crossed Snape's face momentarily, "You should have more respect for you elders, girl!" He shot a look at Harry to see if the nosey boy had realized his daughter's blunder. Fortunately, the boy seemed aware of something going on, but not what it was exactly.
That fleeting moment, the exact moment that the look of terror had appeared on Snape's face, though it had only lasted a second or so, was possibly the greatest moment of Nathaira's life thus far. Rarely had she dared come that close to giving away her and Snape's secret... What would Potter's reaction be if he knew?
Her dark eyes fell from her father's and she looked back down to her half-sister. Nathaira wished Potter and Snape would leave. Neither of them had any business at Tsuki's bedside. She removed a hand from inside her robe. Though it had been close to her body, it would have felt quite cold against Tsuki's forehead, had she been able to feel it. Nathaira brushed strands of black hair from the younger girl's face, willing her eyes to open.
"Tsuki...please hear me." She whispered this time, quietly and gently, somewhat urgently.
'I hear you...' Tsuki thought, straining with all that she was to respond. She barely registered Snape's annoyed sigh as she willed her lips to move or her eyes to open. But they refused to respond. Her life was now cold and dark, oblivion stretching on for she didn't know how long, maybe forever?
'Sister,' she silently begged, 'Help me!
She wished that she could at least cry, just one tear would do, but even that was denied her by her "Dear Father." She wanted to swear revenge for what had happened, wanted to destroy the world as soon as she woke up, but a sinking feeling of helplessness was overcoming her. Not to mention a growing certainty that this was all her fault...
But it couldn't be! Could it? How did this all begin anyway...?

**************************************************************************** ******* Two summers earlier.

Tsuki Gray sat beneath the kitchen table with her cat, hoping against hope her mother wouldn't find her. Or if she did, that she at least think she'd been innocently playing with the cat and it was her sister Nathaira, or Hissy as Tsuki liked to call her, that had magicked water all over the upstairs bathroom.
Nathaira peered around the corner, her wand held at the ready. She smirked as she saw her sister's back was to her and that she was hiding under the table...with that stupid cat of course.
Nathaira turned to look behind her, making sure Mum was not in sight. She turned back to look at her sister, her long blonde hair falling over her shoulder as she did. Silently, she darted into the kitchen and jammed the tip of her wand into the back of her sister's head.
"HA! Wait till Mum finds out, you git! It's full of frogs now as well. Any moment now she'll start screamin', I'll bet ya!"
A scream sounded right on cue from the top of the stairs and Tsuki sighed, reining in the impulse to risk more trouble by popping her sister a good one.
"Mom won't blame me. I'm too cute sitting in the kitchen, playing with my precious kitty!" She listened as their mother pounded down the stairs and adopted an innocent expression after throwing a quick smirk at her sister.
Nathaira turned quickly to her mother as she appeared in the doorway, smashing her wand into the back pocket of her jeans and covering it with her t-shirt.
"Hi Mum. What's wrong?" She turned to the cupboard and reached for a Chocolate Frog, but quickly thought better and grabbed a pack of Every Flavor Beans instead.
Ms Gray stood in the kitchen doorway, her long dark hair swaying behind her and her chest heaving in rage.
"Who...did...it? Who flooded the bathroom and didn't even bother to clean it up?!" She eyed both her daughters and, with a sweeping motion and muttered word, had them both floating before her, their limbs stuck together to prevent any possible escape.
"Aww Mum!" Nathaira whined as she did her best to fight the spell. "I hate when you do this..." She wondered if her mother had noticed the frogs she had added...
Ms Gray turned her attention on her oldest daughter, "Did you do it then? Or did you just add the FROGS for added effect!"
Tsuki tried hard to keep a straight face, but it was hard. She did manage to only turn red from the effort though.
"No! I didn't do it!" She tried her best to point a finger at her little sister. "SHE did it."

Tsuki gasped at her sister, "What? No! Mooooom! You know she's the queen of frogs!"
Ms Gray scowled, "Fine! You're both grounded!" Tsuki cursed indignantly under her breath in response.

"Queen of frogs? You're the queen of...of hairballs then!" As for being officially grounded...she never did much aside from sit in her room by herself anyway... She felt as though she was grounded for life, having the younger sister that she did.
Tsuki raspberried her sister and bit her tongue as a huge explosion rocked the kitchen, causing her mother to drop the sisters.
Nathaira looked up from the ground to see something large and dark towering over them. She stared fearfully at it, until finally it spoke and she gasped at the eeriness of the voice.
"My dear Emma. I am glad to see you again, but I have come about the girls..." The man turned to look down at the two sisters.
Tsuki stared at the red-eyed, pale-skinned creature before her and began slowly scrabbling backwards. "M-M-Mom? Who's that," she asked in an awed, yet trembly voice.
Nathaira stared at the man who stood a short distance from her. "...Lord Voldemort? It...It can't be..." She knew she was wrong. "Mum? What's going on?"

Ms Gray stared at her husband, answering on instinct, "That is the Dark Lord..." She knelt quickly at his feet and shook from fear. "My L- Lord. I thought you were dead?"
Nathaira shivered as the red eyes focused on her own brown eyes. He ignored his wife for the moment.
"You dare speak my name, girl?"
Nathaira could not force her eyes away from his. She felt her heart beating in her throat and suddenly she felt very sick. She heard a deep sound and her eyes widened as she expected to be dead in a moment's time. The Dark Lord laughed, but only for a moment. He became silent and turned his eyes back to his wife.
"You have not told them I presume?" He asked.
Ms Gray shook her head, her long black hair flying about her.
"They were too young and then...then it was simply too dangerous."
Tsuki's eyes widened slightly as she stared uncomprehendingly at her mother. Tell them? Dangerous? What was going on here?
Voldemort looked down at the cowering woman.
"For shame." He turned to the two girls again, their obvious fear almost bringing a smile to his lips.
"It is time that you know. All these years you have not known who your father is..."

Nathaira looked up at him, raising an eyebrow ever so slightly. She knew who her father was. Well she at least knew his name...as for Tsuki. Who knew who her father was. All Nathaira knew was that she and her sister did not share the same father. Tsuki, however, did not know this, nor did she have any idea that Nathaira had always known the name of her own father.

Voldemort folded his arms under his robes, causing them to flow ominously around him as he stepped closer to the girls. "My young girls...my daughters..." He allowed himself the slightest of smiles, awaiting their responses.
"My father," Tsuki asked softly, not daring to believe. She ignored a muffled sob from her mother as she stared at her father.
"Yes. Tsuki. It is true." The Dark Lord replied.

Nathaira's eyebrow rose further at his confession. She looked to her mother. "But Mum...?"

Tsuki sat in shock for a few moments before a grin slowly spread across her face, "I have a father! Hear that, Hissy? I have a father!"
Nathaira glared at Tsuki. "Of course you do, stupid, everybody has a father."

Tsuki scowled at her sister. "Frog Queen," she snapped, "I never knew who he was before!"
"Hairball Que..." Nathaira started to return the insult but was interrupted.
"Now Tsuki...Nathaira..." Voldemort looked slowly from one girl to the other. "I do not have the time for your bickering. There is an important matter I must discuss with you."

"What do I call you," Tsuki asked her newfound father. She liked the idea of having a father and was too shocked to feel the anger at his desertion as more than a distant buzz.
Ms Gray choked slightly, but decided it prudent to stay silent until spoken to.
"'My Lord' of course." Voldemort looked to Tsuki. "This fall you will not return to your normal school. You will be attending Hogwarts. Everything has been arranged. Do you understand?" He looked to Nathaira, who almost protested but quickly thought better of it. She nodded quickly instead.
Tsuki's eyes filled with tears, "I can't call you father?" She asked it quietly, but her next statement was exclaimed with an anger that rang throughout the kitchen. "That figures! After all, you weren't even around the last 14 years of my life!"
She ignored the gasps from around the room as she stared defiantly into her father's red eyes. It wasn't long until fear quickly chased away her anger as she realized what she had done.
The menacing red eyes narrowed as a wand appeared from under the black robes. The Dark Lord pointed it at the girl, apparently very willing to use it.
"You will never speak to me like that again. Is that understood? You will refer to me as "My Lord" and nothing else." He then glanced at Nathaira as if making sure she had heard as well, before returning his cold stare to Tsuki. He spoke in a voice laced with venom. It sent chills down Nathaira's spine as she stared up at him in wonder. Was he truly Tsuki's father? If it was the truth then she was quite jealous. She doubted her father was anything compared to the man that now stood before them.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, sir," Tsuki stammered, bowing her head.
"She's just a child, My Lord," Ms Gray finally spoke up. "She's been looking forward to finding her father for a long time and then to find he's such a powerful person as yourself and not even be able to claim him by a name... She was simply disappointed, My Lord. She meant no disrespect."
Voldemort considered the mother's response. He would ignore the incident for now. Replacing his wand, he looked to Tsuki again, his expression softening. "Tell me that you understand the situation with your schooling, my youngest daughter."

Nodding quickly, Tsuki rushed to answer her father, "Y-yes, My Lord. We're changing schools."

"Good. There is a man by the name of Snape who is a professor there."

Nathaira's jaw dropped. "S...Severus Snape?" She looked to her mother, wanting answers but know she wouldn't get any right now.

Voldemort looked curiously to the girl. "Yes. You have heard of him."

"Yeah, he was Mom's old--" Tsuki began.
"An old friend I told them about. Since he now works at Hogwarts, I thought he would be safe to tell them about," Ms Gray interrupted her youngest daughter.

Tsuki looked at her mother in surprise, but sensed that saying anything would cause a bigger scene than the one she had already caused.

Satisfied with the reply, Voldemort continued as though he had not been so rudely interrupted. Nathaira on the other hand, sent a glare in her mother's direction before returning her attention to the Dark Lord.

"At any rate, this man was one of my loyal Death Eaters, though I am not quite sure where his loyalties lie at this time. Snape is head of Slytherin house at Hogwarts, the house the two of you will belong to." He paused for a moment, studying the three faces in front of him. "I will be in contact with both of you once you arrive at Hogwarts. You will be my eyes and ears within the school." He paused again before continuing. "I hope there are no questions?"

For once showing a measure of survival instinct, Tsuki remained as silent as her mother and sister at the obvious rhetorical question. Ms Gray was grateful for this, but she hoped her husband would leave soon.

The Dark Lord smiled, almost warmly, and motioned for his daughters to stand.

"I am glad to see that my daughters are willing to help their father, even if I have been away for some time."

Nathaira went to him, fascinated with the fact that she was in the presence of the Dark Lord himself and that he was truly her half sister's father...

"Of course, My Lord," Ms Gray told the Dark Lord. "They are your daughtersss." She put emphasis on the plural so that Nathaira would understand and hopefully take the hint.
"Very well." Voldemort looked to his daughters, motioning for them to come to him. Nathaira glanced at her mother before moving to him, an obviously fake smile on her face.
"I am willing to help you in any way that I can, My Lord." He placed a cold pale hand on her shoulder as she spoke.
Fear uncurled itself in Tsuki's stomach and sent bile rushing up her esophagus. She knew this smacked of wrong, but he was her father, wasn't he? And she'd always wanted a father, even if he was an angry, murderous man who barely seemed human. Course, that might be a plus! Who'd dare mess with one of his daughters?
Stepping forward with a reverent smile and pushing the fear stubbornly away, Tsuki told said, "I'll do whatever my father tells me to."
"Your father yes, but your Lord above all. Remember that young Tsuki." He placed his other hand on her shoulder and looked down at his girls almost lovingly. He then looked up to his wife.
"Now, I must speak with you in private."
Tsuki beamed as her mother stood nervously, "Go play outside, girls."
With one last grin at her father, Tsuki picked up her cat and raced happily out of the kitchen and through the back door.
Nathaira bowed her head slightly at the Dark Lord as his hand lifted from her shoulder. She walked from the room, brushing past her mother as she passed, following Tsuki out of the door.
Voldemort watched as his daughters left, waiting a moment until turning to his wife. She stood, fearfully, her eyes focused on his shoulder, not daring to look at his eyes.
"This is a delicate time. I must find those that were once loyal to me, and learn if they will join me once again. I must weed out those who refuse my wishes." He considered her for a few seconds before putting a hand under her chin and forcing her to look at his face.
"Where do you stand in this matter, Emma Gray?"
"With you as always, My Lord," Ms Gray answered, knowing what any other answer would cost her. "I am your loyal servant as always."
"I believed as much. I never found reason to not trust you, my dear. Now, there is something you must do." He returned his hands under his robes.
The irony of his words struck Ms Gray at the same time as the sudden terror at what he was possibly reaching for. She hid it well though, keeping her pale face carefully schooled into a blank, yet intent expression. She had played this role once before.
She would do it again.
"You must insure me that my daughters will be loyal to me as well. They must honor me above all else and serve me to their greatest ability. What they will be doing for me at Hogwarts is of the utmost importance. Any sign of failing me...and they will be...punished." He lowered his voice as he spoke, his eyes narrowing at the same time.
"You already saw how loyal they are, My Lord," Ms Gray told him. "They would never betray their father. Tsuki, at least, has looked forward to meeting you her entire life. And Nathaira's as Dark Arts crazed as they come. You will have their total obedience."
"I am glad that we understand each other. I will be in contact with my daughters. Things will be changing soon, changing for the better. They must remain loyal or else... I know how much you love them. You will not let them suffer the same fate as past traitors."
Ms Gray nodded and watched as her husband took his leave. Once he was out of sight she sunk to the floor and held her hands to her heart. If he ever found out-- If anything went wrong-- She could only hope that her precious, if chaotic, daughters would survive her husband's plans...

(Notes!: So you wonder where this story is going? For now we will continue with our little flashback. Tsuki is in her 4th year and Nathaira is in her 5th year.This takes place during Book 5, but we're redoing it and taking it in our own direction. Should be interesting. ::authors grin evilly::)