Disclaimer: Any dialogue, event, character, etc. that seems familiar in the Harry Potter universe belong to J.K. Rowling and anyone else who owns them.
The rest of the holidays flew by, with no report of the Death Eaters' escape. During the meetings everyone agreed that Fudge was probably trying to keep it hushed up so that the wizarding world would not panic. The night before the term was to start again found Sarah rushing through Malfoy Manor to find her belongings, while Draco ordered his House Elf to do his packing.
As Sarah was heading upstairs with an armload of school books, parchment, ink and quills from where she had left them in the library, she was forced to come to an abrupt halt as Bellatrix stood in front of her, sneering at her. Sarah moved to the left and then to the right Bellatrix copying her every move, keeping her from going up the stairs. Sarah finally yelled, "What?"
Bella leaned down, spitting out, "I don't trust you."
"That's fine as I don't trust you either. Now, get out of my way, Bella. You are a servant, I am the heir." Sarah said snidely, a smug grin on her face.
Bella swore, pulling out her wand, only to find two wands in her face. She swore once more as she caught sight of Severus at the end of one of those wands, as he had headed directly for the stairs when he heard Sarah yell. "That was very foolish of you, Bella," Severus lectured her, his eyes full of loathing.
""Why would that be?" Bella bit out.
"I have already warned you Bella that I do not take kindly to harm be falling my heir." Voldermort's voice drifted down toward them, as he stepped out from the shadows above the stairs, Nagini at his feet.
Sarah stilled a shudder that went through her at the sight of her father's snake. She was not afraid of snakes in general, but anything that was over a certain length or poisonous she did not like and Nagini had both qualities. She tore her eyes away from the snake and looked at Voldemort.
She watched as he flicked his wand, and Bella fell on the floor in front of her, groaning and twitching before erupting into a hysterical laugh. Sarah looked down at her books, and began picking them up, Severus bending down to help her out. By the time they had finished picking up her books Bella had stopped being crucioed. "Sarah," Voldemort hissed at her, she looked up at him as he continued, "go upstairs and finish packing. You and I will be staying at Severus's house tonight."
She nodded and trotted up the stairs with Severus. When they reached her room, they tossed her stuff on the bed. "Did you know?" They both asked each other at the same time.
Severus sighed in frustration, "Dumbledore was expecting you to give your report tonight. This will be a problem."
"Don't you have a report to give as well?"
"Yes, but the Dark Lord will be fine with that as he expects me to report to Dumbledore."
"So I'll be stuck in the house with him alone."
"Probably," Severus scowled, and gave her a look of sympathy.
Sarah went back to the packing she had done while they were talking, shoving things she did not want her father to find under everything, "What am I going to do with him?"
"You can bet he won't play Jenga." Severus snorted at the image that conjured up, Sarah giving him a slight glare.
Sarah slammed her trunk lid shut, and locked it. "We don't have a tv. I am not allowed to make potions and I wouldn't want to do that with him anyway. All my homework has been done for a while so I don't even have that to do with him."
"Read. He'll do something else, and you won't have to talk or interact with him much." Severus advised, before levitating her trunk and they both headed out of the room to join Voldemort.
Snape apparated them straight into his house, and then turned to Voldemort, "My lord if you will follow me." Severus ushered him into his bedroom, thankful that today had been laundry day. He excused himself, grabbing a pair of pajamas and a change of clothes before exiting the room.
Placing them in the study for when he slept on the couch later, he went back upstairs to check on Sarah. They met in the hall where Sarah was coming out of the bathroom, her hair wet and pinned up, wearing a Hogwarts t-shirt she bought in Hogsmeade and a pair of black, flannel pajama pants. "I am heading to see Dumbledore. Stay in the house, do not answer the door and get to bed on time."
Sarah nodded and kissed his cheek, slipping a note for Fred and one for Dumbledore into his hand, "Be careful, Papa Sev." He rolled his eyes at the note for Fred but nodded, before leaving the house. Sarah went down into the kitchen, pulling a box of Cinnamon Grahams out of the cupboard and pouring it into a bowl. She then poured milk on it and jumped onto the counter beside it, sitting down to eat it. As she started eating Voldemort walked into the room, giving her a questioning glance, and Sarah motioned to the cereal box beside her, "Want some?"
"No," Voldemort glared at the Muggle food.
Sarah fought to not roll her eyes, "Severus has some bread and tea here I can make you some toast and tea if you want."
He nodded and she set her cereal aside, working on getting the food taken care of. When it was finished she placed the toast and tea with their condiments in front of him before hopping back onto the counter to finish eating her cereal. As soon as she was done, she leaned over placing the bowl in the sink, then turned to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest. After a few minutes her legs began to swing slightly in restlessness.
"What, Sarah?"
"What was mom like?" She blurted out, before swallowing in fear as Voldemort set down his tea cup and glared at her. "Never mind. Forget it." She jumped down and turned to the sink, quickly cleaning her dishes and leaving them to dry, before heading for the door.
"Stop." He ordered and she halted, "Look at me." She turned around clenching her fists at her side. "Sit down." She sat where he pointed and watched as he finished his tea and toast. He wiped his mouth with his napkin and tossed it onto the table. "Your mother was an intelligent witch, and a faithful servant when she finally accepted her fate."
Sarah fought down the rage she felt at his dismissal of her mother. "She was entertaining to be around and she provided me with an heir. As such when I was told of her death and yours I demanded the blood of those who had taken what belonged to me." He explained, before waving his hand dismissively.
Sarah grabbed his dishes, and cleaned them, trying to ignore his eyes on her as she did so. As she cleaned them and straightened up the kitchen she fought down the hatred she felt at his words and treatment of her mother. Finally when she was done and her temper was under control she turned to him, "I was going to go read some in Severus's study, unless you would like to do something together."
"No," he replied tersely. She nodded and headed into the study, Voldermort following behind her. She flicked on the fire and grabbed a book off of the shelf. Curling up on the couch, she laid her head on the arm rest and began reading. Voldemort looked through the books before finally choosing one that he took to sit in Severus's chair, Nagini who had been in Severus's room up until that moment came in and curled up at his feet.
A few hours later, he set the book aside and got up to go to bed. As he passed Sarah, he realized she was asleep with her head resting at a crooked angle against the arm of the sofa. He flicked his wrist killing the fire and went to bed, Nagini following after him. When Severus arrived at Spinner's End, a few hours later he walked through the house ensuring it was locked up and everything was safe. As he reached the study to go to sleep on the couch, he looked down to see a shivering Sarah, and took in the position she was laying in. He groaned as he realized that in the morning her neck was going to be painful, and he bent down to pull her up and into his arms. Her eyes fluttered a bit but never truly opened and her arms went around his neck in her slightly coherent state. When he reached her room, he laid her in the bed, pulling the covers over her, before he went back downstairs to stretch out on the couch with one of the extra blankets from the linen closet.
Sarah startled awake as she felt something flicking at her face and heard a hissing voice demand that she get up. As her eyes opened she stared straight into Nagini's eyes, and realized that it was the snake's tongue that had lashed against her cheek. She fought back an urge to scream in the animal's face, and merely whispered, "I am up Nagini. Now please get out of my room so I may change." The snake backed up and slithered out of the room no doubt to tell her father that she was awake and getting dressed.
Sarah quickly took a shower and changed into a pair of jeans, a polo and sneakers before searching around her room to make sure that she had everything she would need for the rest of the year. When she had confirmed that she had packed everything, she flipped the light off and trotted down the stairs before using the door frame for the kitchen to swing herself inside the room. Voldemort looked up in disapproval at her loudness and Severus raised his eyebrow in annoyance. "We will be heading out in a few minutes, Sarah," Voldemort told her and Sarah quickly poured herself some tea and put some milk in it to cool it down a bit so that she could drink it quickly as she buttered her toast.
As she finished buttering it up, Voldemort headed for the door dressed in the suit Sarah had bought him with glamours and potions covering the distortions of his face and hands. Sarah yelled good-bye to Severus and chased after Voldemort with her toast folded in half in her hand. As they reached the front entrance area, Voldemort grabbed her wrist and apparated them to the apparation point at King's Cross station. He dropped her hand and strode off as Sarah trotted behind him eating her toast as she went. When they reached the barrier by platforms nine and ten, Sarah sighed as they quickly crossed the threshold onto platform nine and three-quarters.
She looked over as her father stared at the train in front of him. A porter came up to her to put her luggage on the train, she nodded her thanks as she looked around seeing only a few other people on the platform with them. She felt Voldemort move away and she followed him as he went to sit on a bench in a shadowed corner. As they sat quietly waiting for the departure time, Voldemort muttered, "It is just as I remember it on my first day of Hogwarts." Sarah looked up at him, and he looked down at her before continuing, "An amazing sight to behold, one of the great things about Hogwarts is this train. But even more so the knowledge and power that can be gained at the school. Not the knowledge that fool teaches but the magic that can make you stronger...invincible." Sarah heard her name called and jerked her head to see one of the other Slytherin's wave to her, she nodded to the other girl and then turned back to her father. "And she would be?"
"Some first year." Sarah muttered, not even sure who the child was but she had learned quickly that the Slytherins maneuvered around within themselves trying to gain as many connections, especially powerful ones, as they could and they started this as early as possible. "Did the Sorting Hat try to place you anywhere else?"
"Besides Slytherin?" Voldemort looked at her enraged at the thought, and hissed softly, "No! I am Slytherin's heir to have put me anywhere else would have been the last thing that tattered cloth ever tried to do. Lucius's father started Hogwarts with me and he was one of my first followers. Though we did not have as intelligent of a Head of House as you do, we had an old fool thankfully. A fool but one who proved useful with information that he was very willing to give."
They both looked over as the Malfoys entered the platform area and moved toward them, Malfoy dipping his head in acknowledment of the Dark Lord as did his family. As soon as he was done nodding his head, Draco turned to Sarah, "Is your stuff already on the train?" She nodded and then inclined her head toward the porter who came up to Draco's trunk and went to place it where Draco commanded him to put it on the train. Draco turned back to Sarah, "Are you ready to go back to school?"
"Insanely," Sarah sneered, but quickly straightened her face up as her father glared in her direction. They talked quietly in their huddle, Sarah joining in on the conversation when she was required to. Soon enough the whistle sounded and Draco, who had run off to talk with Blaise, Gregory and Vincent came back to say good-bye to his parents before heading into the train. Sarah quickly gave Narcissa and Lucius a hug before giving her father his customary farewell and ran for the train.
While she patrolled she kept an eye out for the Weasleys, Potter and Granger but was unable to find them on the train. As she slipped into the compartment where Draco and the rest of their friends were sitting she kept her face toward the window as she tried to fight the worry she felt at the fact that they were not on the train, and tried go through everything she thought Dumbledore might question her about the next time she saw him. By the time that they arrived at Hogsmeade station Sarah was ready to get into the castle, eat and go to sleep. As they rode off in the carriages, Sarah peered up through the window in the carriage and pleaded for mercy as they drew closer to Hogwarts.