Chapter One

"Isabella," a female, English accented voice whispered, then came a nudge, "Isabella."

I stood up straight so fast that I hit my head against the iron bar of the cage I was in. I let out a loud shriek of pain, but the girl quickly covered my mouth with her hands and anxiously glanced around the room.

"Shhh…" she said, still looking around to see if any one of the sleeping bodies in the room had been stirring. Once she was confident no one had woken she began to speak again. "No one else knows that you're awake yet, so please be quiet and let me explain a few things to you."

When my eyes started to adjust to the pitch black darkness, I studied the girl for a second or two. She had bushy brown hair, brown eyes, a very pale complexion, and rather large front teeth. Something about her expression made me pause, her eyes reminded me of the way an animal looks when it's being hunted…terrified. In that split second, I decided to trust this stranger. I nodded my head slowly, silently agreeing to be as noiseless as possible. The girl removed her hands from my mouth and let out a sigh of relief.

"My name is Hermione Granger." The girl began, she paused to make sure that I was the only listener, "I have no idea how to break this to you Isabella, so I'm going to try to make this as blunt as possible so that you understand what is going on. Please hear me out before you pass me off as delusional."

"How do you know my name?" I asked in a volume that matched hers.

"The person who brought you in told us that your name was Isabella." Hermione replied, but before she could continue, I interrupted her.

"Please just call me Bella."

"Well then, Bella-" I could detect a hint of irritation, "The head housemaid Lauren will tell all the things you need to know about your current situation, which is why I'll neglect to tell you about it, but I need to tell you something about some of the people in this house. You cannot trust everyone, especially Lauren, and anyone associated with her. They are the eyes and ears for the Mrs. Malfoy, her spies."

"I'm confused, who is Mrs. Malfoy, why does she need spies?" I could tell that I had said this a bit too loudly, because instantly her hands were covering my mouth once more.

"Just trust me, okay?"

"Ok." I said, unsure of what to make of this situation.

"Good," Hermione said.

She promptly crawled back to the cot on the floor and went to sleep. I decided to pretend to be asleep. I wasn't quite sure what to make of the strange girl's comments.

My mind was brought back to Forks, Washington. I wondered what Jacob was doing now. Would he be cramming for finals? Or maybe over at Embry's? Had anyone noticed that I was gone? I knew for a fact that they didn't know that I was gone. How could they? All of them had left me. Even if the-Cullens knew something was wrong with me, that I'd been kidnapped, would they care?

I didn't want to know the answer to that question.

If it weren't for the need to pretend to be asleep, I would have crossed my arms across my chest and tried to hold myself together. If I wasn't in this cage, I would have gone back to the rez, and visited Jacob. It was selfish, using Jake as a distraction and as a way to see Edward, even if it was just some made of version of him that didn't compare to the original. I felt horrible for leaching off such a person like Jacob, someone so happy and young, but I couldn't help it.

Served me right to be on my own, alone. Now there was absolutely no one, not even Charlie, to pick up the pieces.

The small part of my brain, the part that had a grain of self-preservation, urged me to get over myself and be strong; instincts told me that I would need to be.

Suddenly a ringing noise filled the room. I 'woke up' and glanced around to find the source of the noise, a clock on the wall. What surprised me was the speed at which the occupants of the room woke up and got themselves ready. They shared something in common with Hermione, they had fear. A fear so strong I couldn't help but feel it too. But what were they afraid of?

A platinum blond haired girl, with clear blue eyes approached me. She gave me a rather large and warm smile. For a moment I was stunned by her brilliant white toothed grin. It took me a while to realize that she had said good morning. I stared at her stupidly until this dawned on me.

"Good morning," I said after a long pause, mentally, I slapped myself.

"Bella, my name is Lauren Mallory," my eyes widened, but I quickly adjusted my expression so that I didn't look quite so surprised, "Since you're a muggle, I've got quite a lot to explain."

"A what?"

She smiled a little condescendingly, "A non-magical person. Someone who cannot do magic."

I blinked wondering if she was serious. I mean I'd heard of shape shifters, and-vampires but witches and wizards? That sounded a bit far fetched, even to me.

"There's no such thing as magic." A few snorts came from the people who were eavesdropping.

Lauren shook her head, "That's where you'd be wrong, Magic is very real. Magical creatures exist secretly, but the Dark Lord plans on rectifying that problem immediately."

"The Dark...what?"

"The leader of the entire magical world." She replied with a hint of admiration.

None of this made any sense! Ed-he had said that the 'royalty' of the vampire world was the Volturi, he'd made no mention of a 'dark lord.' I threw my head into my hands, and felt the pricking of a migraine coming on.

The girl stuck her hand through the empty-space in between the bars and patted my back in an attempt to comfort me. "I know that this all must be very strange and new to you, but I swear that you'll adjust."

"Why am I here?" I shrugged away from her.

"You are Master Malfoy's un-paid chamber maid."

"You mean…" I swallowed hard, "That I am a slave." I hoped that I'd misheard her or didn't properly understand the situation, but my suspicions were proven to be correct when Lauren replied,

"Well Of course!"

I think I fell into a state of shock. Lauren continued to speak, debriefing me on the dos and don'ts of my new occupation. I could hear her, but just barely. Suddenly, all of my former problems seemed silly and childish. Things could always get worse…and they did.

I walked out of my cage numbly, and put on the same uncomfortable looking robes that the other slaves wore. I nearly followed them to the kitchen, when the Lauren girl quickly stopped me.

"No," she said, then pointed to a long hallway, "You have somewhere else that you should be."

I followed her instructions, and timidly tapped against one of the mahogany doors.

"Master Draco," I called.

"What?"

I shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do. His voice was rude. Nothing in Lauren's lecture had prepared me for this.

"How may I help you Master Draco?"

The door swung open, and revealed the boy I was supposed to serve. He was tall, with had a rather pale, but not unhealthy looking complexion. His features were pointed, and angular, he had grey eyes, and silvery blond hair. I couldn't help but compare him to some of the more beautiful people I'd encountered, he wasn't per say the best looking person I'd ever seen, but he most certainly was up to a certain standard.

"Are you stupid or something? I SAID- that I want you to draw my bath and clean my room. When they said mudbloods are slow, they weren't kidding." Draco sneered.

My face flushed, this good-looking boy rubbed me the wrong way. That old saying about how a rotten personality helps bring out the more unattractive features in an otherwise nice-looking person held true in this situation. Suddenly he looked scrawny, and his face started to appear a bit too feminine, his pointed features reminded me of a pixie which reminded me of Ali-a girl. I was tempted to yell at him, but I bit my tongue.

I entered his room. "My apologies Master Draco."

"How about you keep your mouth shut filth, your voice is giving me a headache."

I nodded mutely, and yanked the faucet so that the tap would run. I felt the water to make sure that it was warm, and added a few essential oils to the tub. When it was nearly full I turned off the water and walked past my new 'master.' When he shut the door behind him, I began to arrange the room into something much more orderly. I'd done this so often to keep myself occupied after Edward left, it was easy to pretend that I was back in my old room. After a couple minutes or so, Draco traipsed back into his room, thankfully fully clothed in an odd-looking garment. I vaguely remembered that it was called a robe. Something like what I was wearing, but made of a much more expensive material, and in a more elaborate cut.

"Is there anything else you wish for me to do?"

Draco rolled his eyes at me. I wasn't sure what that meant, but I decided to follow him down into the dinning room. But as I entered I instantly knew that something was wrong. It was almost as if the air didn't feel quite right. The hair on the back of my neck stood up and I felt the urge to turn around and run, but I knew the concept of escaping this place was stupid and pointless. I was no match for a wizard. Regardless of my fear, I walked in with him, and remained next to his seat.

The first thing I noticed were the occupied chairs situated along the wooden table. I quickly averted my eyes. There was something savage about them. A cruelty I couldn't begin to imagine let alone explain. At the head of the table, was a man, but I'm not sure if he could truly be called a man. He was bald, with narrow red eyes, and no nose. He bore a stronger resemblance to a reptile than a human being.

Draco stared at the man in what appeared to be awe. "The Dark Lord-"

Author's note: If there is any thing that Hermione or Draco said that wasn't cohesive with the British manner of speaking, please correct me English readers. Anyways thank you to the review I received, It really made me smile and work harder to complete this chapter. Anyways, I'm hurrying to get this finished before school starts up again in September and I have no time, so if there are grammar/spelling mistakes I've overlooked please tell me, sometimes I don't catch them all before I publish chapters. Any ways, I am thankful to all of you readers. Ciao for now.