DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything of the wonderful world of Harry Potter! ALL rights go to JK Rowling.
PROLOGUE
Everything happened so fast that dreaded night.
" I was awoke to a smell that will forever haunt my memories. My eyes shot open, realizing that what I was sensing was no sort of nightmare. I quickly place my satin robe around my shoulders, grab my wand from the side table, and sprint from the bed. My room large and decadent with accents of gold and rubies on every wall was now impossible to see through the thick smoke that had entered the room. Before even making it to my door I hear a harsh and panicked knock.
""Princess! Princess!" The voice of my startled handmade Sofia shouted to me. I open the door with sweaty palms. She grabs my hand instantly and pulls me into the corridor of our mansion.
"Sofia, what on earth is happening," I gasp the words out through the smoke, "Sofia! Where is my family?" I am now in tears getting a grasp on the walls tumbling down around me./p
"Miss, there has been an accident. I was told to get you and bring you to safety as quickly as possible, I myself had no time for questions." She doesn't even have the time to look at me as she is barreling, with my hand in hers, down the marble staircase. I mean to ask more questions but the smoke is too thick, there are no words coming out.
Finally we break through the front doors of the mansion, and I am able to breathe in the clear night air. I fall to my knees, and before I know it at least 10 of my families servants and handlers are surrounding me, coming to my aid. I cough almost uncontrollably.
"Move! Move!"
"Through the haze of people I see my Uncle Ivan desperately trying to get to me. Though he is not my uncle by blood, he has always been family. He is my fathers most trusted advisor and has taken care of him since the time they were children. He falls to his knees with me, redness thick in his eyes.
I am able to look at him then and with a sob I ask, "Where are they?"
He immediately knows that I am referring to my mother, sister and father.
They were all in the north wing of the home, Katarina. The roof of that wing collapsed not 15 minutes ago," he says with tears in his eyes, "We were not able to save them."
From my position on my knees I fall even farther to the ground with my face in my hands against the gravel. I sob harder than I ever have before in recognition that my family, my beloved family had perished while I slept soundly.
It takes no time before my father's men pick me off up the ground with intentions to clean me up and to determine if I need medical attention.
"She must be removed at once!" My fathers lead guard states to my Uncle, "You know she is unsafe here, this was a deliberate attack!"/p
Attack? Attack on us? I was unaware we were in a war to begin with. Don't attacks only happen in wars? We are a loved family in Russia, the most pure of blood in all of Russia's Wizarding society. Who on earth would try to take us down in such a horrific way?
"Floo her then, as quickly as you can. If the muggleborns have a second attack in mind to finish the job they will not be far off! Go, take her now!" Ivan is now pushing my rag doll like body into the hands of my father's guards. I start to panic as it sounds like Ivan will not be coming with me.
"Uncle! Do not stay here if it is dangerous! Come with me!" I yell as I am about to be taken away.
"You will not be alone, I am sending you to your distant cousins in the United Kingdom, there you will be safe! The Malfoy's will take care you and treat you as one of their own, Princess." He cups my face in attempt to comfort me; he whispers, "This is not goodbye."
Why does it feel like goodbye then?
"My sobs wrack through my body, as I am apparated away from the scene. It hits me then that I can never go back there, that I will never walk through the doors of my childhood home again. That I forever will need to be hidden from those that attacked my family in the worst way, who took away everything that I am and everything that I was going to be.
I realize now that I have an enemy.
My sadness is turned to an emotion I have never felt before, sheer and unadulterated anger. My tears stop and I now wear a mask of passionate animosity. One of which will dictate the rest of my life's decisions. I will do whatever it takes to abolish the people who caused me this pain, the one group who, before today, I never looked at as a foe. Politics was never my game until now; I will do whatever it takes to get my revenge on these muggleborns.
Before I know it, I am flooed to an unknown location. I step through the fireplace and meet the eyes of an older man, approximately the age of my now late father, with stark white hair. He speaks with an arrogant air to his voice.
"I am Abraxas Malfoy, and you are most safe here, Miss Petrovsky. Welcome to Malfoy Manor."