She

by Inkpot

‘…The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, the devil will come…’ (She comes and makes Draco her ‘china doll’.)

2. Me

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended. All the new characters and situations are mine, my own.

Warning: fic contains sexual situations, profanity and things not suitable for children under the age of thirteen.

One of your reviews would do me great honour.

She

Part two:

When I went to the manor at the end of term my mother was nowhere in sight. She would have normally found me at the platform with my father, but a house elf had been there instead.

I found her in one of the high towers, sitting at the window and staring out at the mountains. I knocked on the door and waited until she told me to come forth. Her face stained with tears, her eyes were puffy and bloodshot. Her hair undone, around her shoulders, un-brushed and wild.

'Mother,' I walked forward and stood at her feet. She turned to me and she was like I had never seen her before. Narcissa had never been 'unbrushed' or 'wild'. She had always calm and composed. She turned to me and gripped my shoulders. My mother never 'gripped' anything. She always held, or picked up, never gripped. She shook me and when I looked into her eyes; her pupils were dilated almost as big as her irises.

'They've taken your father. We must get him out Draco, we must save him. He'll die in there, we must save him. You must help me Draco, I can not do it alone.' She shook me so hard my head started to ache. She is mad, was all I could think, she'd lost her mind. 'Do you understand Draco, you must get him out!'

'Mother, calm yourself, it would not do for you to run wild into Azkaban and call for him. You must plan calmly. Your tactics must be-'

'NO! I can not wait to plan, he'll die. Die!' She shook me so much that I was forced to shove her away roughly. She didn't seem to feel it, she just fell back and then stood right back up.  She looked around the tower room dreamily and shook her head. Slowly first, and then she went faster and harder until her hair was like a fan around her head. She unnerved me.   

She stopped suddenly and a single tear ran down her left cheek. 'Lucius will die…' she whispered.

She blinked gradually and then turned back to the tower window. I stood far from her, I don't remember when I'd taken those steps back. She'd lost her mind and I did not try to stop it. Something in me told me not to help her, not to help my father, to just leave. I didn't, I just stood in the tower room watching her as she gazed at the mountains like a woman who'd lost a world.

But perhaps that was my way of leaving. I did not literally walk out the door, jump on a bus and never turn back. I just didn't walk forward to her or to my father. 

Why was she like this? Did she lose her mind because of the love that she had for my father, or had she lost her mind because the perfect portrait of the perfect family that she had drawn up for the world to see, came apart. Was she really going mad for losing my father, or losing the envy of those around her?

Not too much later, a house elf appeared and tugged at her dress. She looked down and looked away, as if she'd not seen it. It spoke to her, told her she must rest, that she must go to her room, eat and sleep. A butler came up the stairs and told her the same. Soon, they had her in her room and I stood by her bed as she ate like a child, dropping food on her linen nightgown, liquid trickling down her chin. I had never seen my mother so helpless and it seemed that a part of what I'd believed in was falling away. In my childhood I believed that my mother was a pillar, one standing proud and strong as if challenging the sands of time and God himself.

But it wasn't that, any longer. My mother wasn't, my childhood was becoming a no longer. Slowly, it was becoming a was instead of an is.

One of the pillars had toppled.

My childhood was evanescing.

*

I did not see Annabel all of that summer. She did not come to me and I spent my days alone in the manor. I wandered once or twice to the village near us but nothing interested me there. Not even the Muggle girls that I used to enjoy teasing. Everything was grey, but not in the kind between white and black. Everything wasn't in between, on level ground. Everything was tasteless. Calm and boring. I had lost my father, my mother was slowly losing her mind and Annabel had lost interest in me.

I tried to fish once but that didn't go as planned, I quickly lost interest. I took refugee in my father's study among his books. I read the words of Shakespeare, Eddings, Aristotle, Austen, the Bronte sisters, Homer, Dickens, Browning, Brock, Hardy and Percy Hemingway. I read books on the Dark Arts, wizard history, potions, astronomy, transfiguration and philosophy.

'…The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike, the devil will come…'

I read so much my eyes ached for days without end. It was the only thing left for me to do.

To read and change.

I changed so much that summer, as my mind grew and I learned more of the world, I let go of many things. Among of which were the abilities to care, to feel and to live. Oh, I lived all right, I breathed, dreamed and ate when I remembered, but I was a mere shadow. A shadow of boy that was and never will be again. What innocence I had maintained till the age of fifteen I had lost over the summer. I was now sixteen and already bored with my life, unfocused, disinterested and never again surprised or happy.

One thing remained.

Not the love for my father or the worry for my mother but my love for Annabel. I worried about her. I wondered why she'd not come to me, why she'd left me when I needed her most. I wondered if I should hate her for leaving me, but I couldn't bring myself to feel anything but obsessive love. It was nothing that I'd felt before, or even allowed myself to feel. I loved her deeply; I yearned for her and wished her with me all the time. But she didn't come and I knew not where she was so I was unable to seek her out.

Even as the days passed, the memories of Annabel were embedding themselves into my mind. Everything I did, it somehow reflected a moment that I'd spent with her or something that she'd said. As the days passed, she was no longer a woman to me, she was a seraph. In my mind, she had turned into something unreachable as the stars but as 'soon to be obtained' as a puffy cloud for a child. Everyday before I fell asleep or in those odd moments when I zoomed out while reading, I believed that Annabel would soon come to me. Soon, meaning, this very minute.

My mind made her something angelic. Like a saint, the Virgin Mary or Gabrielle. Holy and not of the human race. Untouchable. Idolised by humankind – me – thought of as something majestic, bigger then ourselves. Too good for one of us to own. Like Buddha might have been a mere human at one time but now is thought of as a god. Annabel, once just a woman, but now my mind had made her a goddess fit for worship.

I had never left room in my mind for God or holy beings, but now I found room in my mind for her. I never believed in a god of any form, but I believed in Annabel. I believed that she would come to me.

In my father's study, among his many books, I found an old tattered book of assorted poems. One poem suited me so well, that I took it and wrote it on the walls of my father's study. I wrote it on the walls of the dining room, the library, the sun room, the many hallways, my bedroom, even the foyer. I memorised it in the process and till this day I still remember it. I write it sometimes still.

I have dreamed of you so much that you are no longer real.
Is there still time for me to reach your breathing body, to kiss your mouth and make your dear voice come alive again?

I have dreamed of you so much that my arms, grown used to being crossed on my chest as I hugged your shadow, would perhaps not bend to the shape of your body. For faced with the real form of what has haunted me and governed me for so many days and years, I would surely become a shadow.

O scales of feeling.

I have dreamed of you so much that surely there is no more time for me to wake up. I sleep on my feet prey to all the forms of life and love, and you, the only one who counts for me today, I can no more touch your face and lips than touch the lips and face of some passerby.

I have dreamed of you so much, have walked so much, talked so much, slept so much with your phantom, that perhaps the only thing left for me is to become a phantom among phantoms, a shadow a hundred times more shadow than the shadow that moves and goes on moving, brightly, over the sundial of your life.

*

The days passed and I looked after my mother, heard her rambling and I agreed when she said that my father would die if I did not plan with her to save him. I nodded; I'd done a lot of nodding that summer. I cared not for my father and what I did for my mother was out of duty, maybe guilt. I do not know.

*

September 1st came and I was due back at school. I packed my things and kissed my mother goodbye for the last time. She held onto my sleeve and told me that my father would die. I nodded. She burst into tears and begged me not to leave her; she said that she needed someone and that she couldn't stand to be alone in the large manor. I whispered in her ear things that I did not believe. I soothed her and kissed her again, she lay down among the sheets and pillows and I sat stroking her hair until she'd fallen asleep.

When I arrived at the platform everybody was there, everybody was always there. I saw Harry Potter with the Weasleys as their plump mother kissed them goodbye and their father clapped them on the back. The Weasley girl had grown and blossomed, I realised. Ronald had grown an inch or two and Hermione Granger had filled out a little and her blouse seemed tighter around her breasts. All these things I noticed out of need to keep track of everything around me, so I don't wake one day and find myself in a whole new world that frightened me.

When they caught my eye I did not bother to sneer or call them names; they seemed baffled and uneasy about this. I got on the train and put my trunk in a compartment. I did not sit with Goyle and Crabbe, did not try to put my hands under Pansy's clothes or get a tumble with Blaise. I sat alone and let my thoughts wonder as I watched the scenery go by in a blur.

Halfway through the trip, out of boredom, I decided to take a walk. I walked by closed doors and people laughing and joking. When I neared one of the carriage doors, it opened and the trio stepped out. Ronald's eyes narrowed at me and he snarled something or other. I did not react; I just waited – not politely, silently – for them to give me way. Harry frowned and told them to let me pass, Hermione watched me with big eyes as if I were a walking textbook that she needed to read before it ran off. I put my hands in my pockets and continued my passing. I could feel their curious, inquisitive eyes on my back, but I ignored them.

I got back to school and attended classes, finished assignments, answered questions and said I was fine when Snape asked me how I was. I did this out of duty to myself, for I knew, my old self would not have liked it if I'd failed classes and took pity from prying eyes. I did not socialise with any of the people that I used to socialise with before. I did not even smile when an old acquittance passed me by, nor did I smirk, sneer or jeer at the Gryffindors. Not even Harry Potter, the one who'd sentenced my father to death. I did no longer feel that vengeance was necessary, nothing was anymore.

I pushed through the days, I felt exhausted even though I slept like a sack and ate all my meals. Everything was dense, even the air around me. The oxygen that I was forced to breath stunk of dead and waste. The girls that tried to flirt with me were all ugly and too obvious. I yearned for my Annabel.

When the teachers got together and called me to the Headmaster's office for a 'counselling session', I went. Snape, McGonagall and Dumbledore were there. I nodded and said I was fine. I answered in monosyllables and only spoke when I was spoken to. My set and bored face expression did not waver, not because I wished to come off as the tortured youth, but because that was what I was feeling. Bored. Snape laid a hand on my shoulder and told me it would get better, I did not hate him for making a grave mistake, I just nodded.

I missed my Annabel and none of their words could make it different.

When the papers read that my father had been broken out of Azkaban by Death Eaters, I set the paper aside. I continued to do what I had to do out of duty. I knew I couldn't be with her but I did what I had to do. Through all the grey, I had the sense to recognise that I didn't - couldn't - know how to let my Annabel go.

When everybody waited for my reaction to the news, I did not give one, I just stared and nodded. My face was set and I was bored. When Snape asked me how I was, I said fine. It wasn't depression, it was boredom and longing for my Annabel.

When someone is given a star, they live at the level of this star, guided by the light of this star but then the star is taken away… someone isn't content with the light of a torch any more. They need the star again.

My mother was well again, I was told by Pansy who caught me in a hallway and told me the 'good news'. I'd nodded to that and gave no reaction, I saw the disappointment on her face but did not care.

My life was a duty. Everything was a duty; even breathing was now a duty.

*

It was nearing Easter – not that Easter meant anything now, for I no longer even thought about the possibility of there being a God, saints or angels – when Annabel sent me a letter.

I was in Potions when it came. The owl flew in through the doorway, dropped the letter, and flew away. I felt everybody's eyes on me, even Snape's. The letter was in an envelope and the envelope was coloured in peach. There was a seal of an hourglass and fangs. I ripped it open, leaving my potion to boil when I was meant to turn the fire off when it simmered. The paper inside was the same colour, it said nothing. But I knew, for it smelt like honeysuckle. Those staring over my shoulder saw nothing and the word quickly spread around the class. I'd received a blank letter. I thought about her using invisible ink, but thought against it.

That night, at twelve, I left my dormitory and walked down to the lake. The night was calm and a bit chilly.  I waited and waited until she came. She was dressed in black. Her shoulders and arms were showing, her blood coloured hair was tide back, her dress was puffed from waist down and hovered around her, she wore fancy shoes and elegant sapphire rocks on her ears and around her throat.

She hadn't changed.

I wished to wrap my hands around that neck. I wanted to bite her lips and shake her like mad. I wanted to yell in her face and push her to the ground. I wanted to pull that long soft hair of hers and make her hurt. I was so angry at her, I was furious with her. I wanted to hit her and kill her but I didn't.

I stared at her with indifference. My face was calm and bored, just like it had been without her. My face had been calm and bored for so long that it was the way my face relaxed now, the way my muscles grew. She touched my cheek and then cupped my chin. I let her, I did not care. I did not show her how the blood burned through my veins or how I lost all control over my knees going down to my feet so I could not turn from her. She didn't know I wished to draw her to me and bury my head in her hair or kiss that stiff neck of hers. How at the same time I wanted to break it.

'My china doll, you've grown so much.' She smiled that cold smile of hers and came closer to peck me on the cheek but I held her wrist and pushed her away. I stared at her for a long time and her beauty made me feel so little and stupid it terrified me. My chest ached and I wished to put my hand to it and rub to get the breath moving in it. I did the hardest thing that I had done all my life; I turned from her and started back up to the castle. Her voice was barely audible over the soft breeze but it reached my ears and stopped me dead in my tracks.

'You walk away from me, petal?' I spun around and I could contain my temper no longer. I took long strides back to her, grabbed both of her wrists and twisted her arms behind her back. I held her wrists so tightly; she had no choice but to stiffen up against me. Every part of Annabel was up against me, her breasts, her thighs, her stomach, her hips, waist and her shoulders were against my chest. I had grown, I was now taller then she. A head taller.   

As I looked into her eyes, they were sad and I did not allow her sadness to cut me like a blade, I concentrated on my anger. Something occurred to me then. My Annabel was selfish, she saw nothing but her reflection, she cared for no one but herself. She did not care for me, did not love me, did not want me. She cared only for what I could do for her.

This should have made me give up, should have made me push her away and forget about her. To fall in love with Pansy or even the Weasley girl. But it was not so.

Gods, saints and angels were not selfish, they did not use people, why did she? Her apathy made me more determined to make her care for me, love me and want me like I wanted her.

My anger was still flaring, so I did something I had never done before; I shouted in her face and squeezed her wrists hard enough to stop the circulation to her hands.

'I never walked away from you, you left me. Don't even accuse me of not caring for or loving you, I'm not selfish. You are. I want to hate you for leaving me, I want to kill you but I can't. I can't do anything that I want to do to you; I can't even make love with you like I want to. Don't ever, ever come to me again. I wish never to see your face or hear your voice or smell your perfume ever again. I want you gone from my life forever!'

'You've changed,' she'd said in the smallest of voices. 'You aren't my old china doll anymore. You've changed.'

'I've changed because you left me to change. This is all your fault.' With this, I let go of her wrists and stepped back. With another look over her, I turned and walked back to the castle. She did not call me nor did I wish for her to, I wished to have her go, I wished to be alone. I had not felt this much since last year, over six months ago, this much emotion at one time exhausted me. I wanted sleep. I wanted rest. I wanted eternal rest.

*

The next two weeks passed unsteadily. I would keep calm and bored and then I'd lash out at someone. I felt so shaky, literally. I'd pick up a cup at breakfast and before it reached my mouth, it would be all over the table. I'd pick up a spoon and my hand would rattle so much that I would draw the attention of those around me. I tried picking up my quill in potions and I dropped it three times. The third time, Snape was passing around and he picked it and handed it to me. He'd asked if I was all right, I'd nodded and said I was fine.

I was useless. I couldn't feed myself, write, pick up my school bag, it took me forever to dress myself and using the toilet was a hazard. I wasn't just failing physically, mentally, I was breaking down too. When I look back on it now, I decide that it was because I'd kept it all in for six months and in a matter of a few minutes it had all come rushing back like an avalanche. I felt hopeless, like an old man who lost the ability to walk and looked back on his young days and was able to pinpoint the exact moment when he'd become a useless slob of flesh.

I tried to hide it. When I dropped my quill for the sixth time, I acted like I hadn't. When I spilt my pumpkin juice all over myself and the table I'd act like it was an accident that happened once in ten years. I'd just pick myself up with an annoyed expression and head back to my dormitory to change.

I started forgetting.

I'd be walking to my next class and then I'd completely forget where I was going. I'd pause in the middle of the hallway and zoom out. I never remembered what happened during those episodes. I still don't now. All I remember was the fear and confusion that I felt afterwards. I hated being afraid and for that I was angry. From my natural need to be in control and understand everything around me, confusion had me devastated.

I felt like I was slipping away, evaporating, fading, melting like a grain of salt in a cup of water and all I could do was watch. At the age of sixteen and a half, I was losing my mind and body like an old man at eighty five. What I did not know then was that everybody knew. Everybody knew that Draco Malfoy was ailing, losing his mind. I did not see the pity in their eyes or the way they moved out of my way in the corridors, as if afraid of me or not wanting to touch me least I broke.

I felt frustrated, I felt like I was being locked in a small room with no windows and not aloud out. Everything was a whirlpool of emotions and colours that I really did begin to lose my mind. The losing of my wits wasn't just an illusion by the pressures on me, it was an actual fact. My mind was fraying.

In any case, if they ever looked at me with doubt, I chased their doubt away one day when I went down to dinner.

I had been late; the only seat left at the Slytherin table was at the far end next to the head table. I had my book bag against my chest, like a child, because I had not been able to sling it over my shoulder. Half way down the table I stopped and half turned to go back. I do not remember what happened next. I had another episode where I was totally blank. I was told later that I'd paused and looked at everything around me like I'd never seen it before. I turned in a circle, not knowing what to do or where to go. Snape had seen me from the head table and out of compassion he'd come over to me. Snape was showing me compassion. He stood a few meters away and called me. I didn't turn but jumped and dropped my book bag with all its contents on the ground. They all rolled out of the bag and the inkwell burst over my things. I'd stood silently and watched as the ink ran like a river of blood over the white parchment.

Snape used his wand to clean it and picked up my bag. He was leading me out of the hall as everybody whispered and pointed at me. Even the trio were curiously concerned. By the time I was outside, I'd come back. My mind had come back from the deep shadows that it was in, to my body. I remember looking up at Snape and then back inside the hall.

Taking my bag from him, I walked away. He'd asked me what's wrong and then I'd said I was fine.  

The next day in potions, it all came to a final show down. I was at my peek, all frustration at my inability, anger, loss, missing Annabel, emotionally and physically exhausted and for the first time, I'd seen the pity in their eyes and it killed me. I had had enough; this was the official mental breakdown.

Snape was passing around a potion for us to smell and when it got to me, I shook so bad that it fell out of my grasp and shattered when it hit the ground. I blacked out for seconds. I don't remember what happened then but when I came back I was staring at the brown velvetiness of the liquid on the stone surface.

Pansy had her hand on my shoulder and she was asking me if I was all right. I was terrified, confused and angry. I wanted to burst or ran to the edge of a cliff and swear and curse the life out of me. Instead I shoved Pansy off her seat, and yelled at her things that I don't even remember. Things that made her cry and ran out of the classroom. I lunged out of my seat and then staggered and fell to my knees.

I saw Snape rushing towards me, I saw Harry Potter from the next seat, standing and frowning down at me in confusion. Like I was a bomb about to blow or a wild animal about to attack. I heard Snape telling someone to get the nurse. I was on all fours, gagging. My body needed to throw up but there was nothing in my stomach as I hadn't eaten for the last three days because I had no been able to hold a spoon or lift a cup. 

I fell to the side and, to my complete disgrace, burst into tears.

Today, I could still hear my sobs echoing off the uncarpeted dungeon floor. I rolled into the smallest ball humanly possible and cried as I covered my head with my hands and shook like a mad bull.

Hands, Snape's hands, were on my shoulders. There were a lot of noises and over all that I could hear my own sobs.  I don't remember exactly what I felt then, because I felt everything. It was so over whelming that my body decided to stop and let it all out at the once.

Suddenly, all sound stopped.

There was complete and utter mute. I couldn't even hear a pin dropping. Then I heard footsteps. I remember footsteps. Then I felt small hands on my back, pulling my hands away from my head. I thought it was the nurse but when I smelt honeysuckle, I knew it was my Annabel. She'd come to me, remembered me. I could feel her but inches away.

'Don't break, my china doll,' she said to me. I knew everybody else heard her too, but it didn't matter because Annabel spoke to me. I was her china doll, nobody else. Just me.

Gently, she pulled my hands away from my head, put her own on my shoulders and brought me sitting. I saw her then. She was wearing an enormous robe and gloves. The cape covered every inch of her and had to it attached a hood that covered half of her face as well. Only when she took it off and threw it over my shoulders did I realise that I had nearly frozen to death.

She now wore a white dress. As always, her shoulders and arms were showing. The dress hovered around her from waist down and with it she wore white boots that met the hem of her dress at the knees. Her hair was up and around her neck she wore the most expensive looking interact necklace of rubies and pearl. It was huge, the lowest ruby shaped like a tear. From her ears dropped rubies as well, encrusted with creamy pearl. Her lips were the most vivid colour of red I had ever seen in my whole entire life. Her eyes wore adorned with shine.

She was my visions of perfection. Mine. All mine. My love was back and she held me in her arms, to her bosom as I shook and cried. I do not know how she knew I had needed her more then ever I had before at this moment. I did not know how she knew exactly what to do to bring me back to sanity but I didn't care. All I cared about was her smell, the softness of her skin, her beautiful clothes, her gentle hands and long hair. All I cared about was my Annabel.

After a while, I stopped crying and she wiped at my tears with her white material gloves that were midway on her upper arms. She kissed my cheek and helped me to my feet, taking the robe from around my shoulders and wrapping it around her. It seemed necessary to cover every part of her. She even pulled out a white mask from her pocket and put it on under the hood. She took my hand and without another word to anyone she led me away.

Only when Snape came out behind us did she stop.

'Annabel,' it did not occur to me to ask how he knew her name. 'You can not take him.'

'I do as I please, Severus.'

'They'll come looking for him; they won't leave him for you.'

'Let them come! I won't leave him. I won't. He's my china doll. I made him and I won't leave him.'

She tugged at my hand and I quickly followed as she left the dungeons. The end of the period signalled and everybody came spilling out of the classrooms. That did not stop her; she walked through them and they seemed to be parting for her. Her walk was confident and sure. I ran to keep up with her long strides. She led me out of the castle and quickly across the ground to a carriage – it wasn't a school carriage – with a man sitting with the ruins and two horses in the lead. As soon as she approached, the man jumped and opened the door for her. She didn't even glance his way as she sat and pulled me after her. Once inside she shut the door and I saw darkness. The carriage from the inside was pitch black with the curtains thick and no crack here or there.

She murmured a spell and lit four candles on the side walls. She threw off the cape and the mask. Her face expression was one that I'd never seen before. Her eyes were wide, her mouth wider and her nose crinkled. She looked giddy. Smug. Cheeky. Like a little girl who'd stolen a slice of cake and gotten away with it. When I furrowed my brow, she burst out laughing. Her laughter was real, not triumphant like the one I'd heard when she first announced that I was to be her china doll. Or all the other ones that she seemed to sound only because the moment called for it.

She stomped her feet really quickly on the floor in excitement and clapped her hands twice. 'This is so exciting, wouldn't you say, china doll?' Her eyes were lit with fire and her cheeks were rosy. I'd never seen her like this and I loved it.

'What's exciting?'

'This.' She got up from her couch on one side of the carriage and sat next to me on my side. 'I got you away, I saved you.'

'I didn't need you to save me.' My tone hardened and my eyes turned to ice. She looked a little put out and started arranging her dress around her. She puffed it up and I imagined if I looked down at her she'd look like a white flower, with a red bud, in full bloom.

I'd never seen her like this; she never arranged her dress around her because her dress always seemed to arrange itself. It was never unarranged from the first place. Her cheeks were never flushed because she was always calm and stiff. She never laughed, stomped her feet or clapped her hands in excitement because she was simply never excited. She either smirked or smiled coldly. This side of her made me feel like I was at a circus and seeing the lioness that was high on ecstasy, for the first time. I loved this in her. Just like I loved everything else in her.

'Oh, come now, petal, don't be a spoilsport. I won't tell you that you did absolutely need me to save you because you were having a mental breakdown which I did save you from if you won't try to deny it.' She sat rocking her torso, a lock of hair twisted around her index finger and glitter in her eyes. She was like a little girl showing off her new dress.

She'd always seemed too old and wise to me, not old physically, but mentally, and now she was acting like a giddy eleven-year-old with a stolen slice of cake. I moved to the opposite couch and folded my arms, staring at the window even though it was covered. It didn't occur to me to ask her why we didn't pull back the drapes instead of lighting the candles. I think I appreciated the warmth too much.

'What's wrong with you?' I asked.

She shrugged her shoulders and moved to sit next to me. 'Nothing, I'm just happy to see you, Draco.' She so rarely called me by my name that it sounded melodious from her lips.

'Why did you leave me for so long, Annabel? Do you know what happened to me? I needed you but you decided that it was your time to forget me. Then you come waltzing back in and become upset when I don't want to see you. Do you have any idea what happened to me over the summer? How I needed you? My mother was going mad, my father was in Azkaban and I was alone. And then you show up after six months and you trigger something in me that shouldn't have been triggered.' I looked at the draped window even though I couldn't see through it. As long as I wasn't looking at her because I knew that my defences would fall.

'I came to you but you didn't see me,' she said and sat back on her legs, the excitement beginning to fade away from her eyes. 

'Then what was the use?'

'I saw you. I made sure you were all right.'

'So much for that.'

There was a long silence; all that could be heard was the click clack of the horse hoofs on the cobbled streets.

She touched my shoulder and I turned towards her.

'I did what was best for you. You needed time to grow up. With me around you, you would've stayed as fourteen as the day I met-'

'No I wouldn't have!'

'You never thought that if I wanted you to stay a child, you would stay a child to have me come to you? You did. I wanted you to grow up but I couldn't tell you without it being odd. Without you asking questions so I just stood back and watched from afar.' She paused and shrugged delicately. 'Fishing is not your thing, by the way. You should come with a 'don't try this at home' warning on the side of the box.'

I couldn't help it; at this I cracked a smile. She laughed again and the excitement came back to her face.

'Oh, Draco, you're going to have such fun! You'll meet my family and I'll take you with me to places. Oh, I can't wait to have you with me all the time. To show you to my friends and dress you and buy you shoes and … oh… such fun!' She squealed in anticipation and clapped her hands again.

'I'm not a doll or a little girl so you could take me and buy me shoes and dress me up…' I said, eyeing her up and down in reapproach. She looked at me and frowned, as if this hadn't occurred to her before. After a moment she dismissed it with a wave of her hand – like a child would an irritating fly.

'Never mind that. Oh… I need to get you clothes.' She opened the robe that I wore and inspected my school uniform. 'These won't do. Oh no, not at all.' She paused, considering, and then looked worried. 'I won't be able to take you shopping today; I'll need to get prepared for the ball… uh… I got it! Tobias is about your size I think. You've grown so much! You just need to fill out a little and you'll look like a grown man. You're handsome too; really handsome, just like Lucius. Soon you'll be seventeen. Aha…'

All I could do was wear half a smile and narrow my eyes in curiosity. 'You'll like Tobias. Don't let him get to you; he just needs to see if your worthy and then he'll treat you like an equal. There's Sebastian, he's fine. Nice but swings both ways so keep a look out. Shawn doesn't speak much; you'll need to get him talking. I usually get him talking, but I've known him for years… Roxanna is… you'll find out soon enough… There's Benjamin, Chu-Ya, Egi, Mussa, Ailionora, Elva, Edith, Marcus – who's the boss - and Emma. That's just my family; there will be other people there as well. Other families from all over the world. It's going to be huge! You'll have such fun, Draco!'

She paused for an easy smile. There was a knock on the door and the driver said that we'd arrived. Where did we arrive, I did not know. I just watched as she threw the robe back on and wore the mask.

'Why do you wear those?' I asked.

'So my skin doesn't burn, petal.'

'Why would it burn?'

'I have a disease, that's why I'm so pale. I have a skin disease; I'm allergic to sunlight.' The driver opened the door and he held her hand as she stepped down elegantly. Without waiting for me to come down, or even get off the seat, she took my hand and started walking. I nearly tripped but she didn't seem to notice as she hurried on and told me to keep up. I decided that she was a woman who didn't take care of her possessions, china or not.

A castle, something medieval. It was huge. Slightly bigger then the Hogwarts castle with grounds ten times as beautifully decorated with flowers, fountains, birds, bushes, trees, a few rabbits and what looked like peacocks.

When she neared the doors, they opened of their own accord and when we were in, they shut again. I couldn't see the ceiling when I looked up; it was so high I couldn't see it. I noticed that all the windows were draped just like the carriage had been. There were candles on the walls, giving out bright shining light. There were also portraits and paintings. The walls themselves were littered with intricate designs that dazzled and tired the eye. They were all black – the walls – and the designs were golden. The frames of the painting and portraits were gold and thick.  The ground was tiled black, it was shiny, I could see my reflection.

We were in a foyer, there was a grand staircase leading to the second floor, and three hallways. One led to the right, another to the left and the last led straight on. We kept to the one in front of us and she walked hurriedly as she threw off her mask and her robe, dropping them on the floor. I glanced back and out of the shadows came a manservant who took them and disappeared just as fast. The designs on the walls followed through the bends and turns. There were portraits of people and drawings of settings, nature, streams and fruit bowls. Among those, were paintings of naked maidens being ravaged by older men. One of the paintings was a group of men, about six or eight, dressed in black and white. The woman who was frightened and crying, was naked and bleeding.

There were many doors, all framed in gold. The walls were also adorned with lit candles. The building was ancient and it spoke of glory and mystery.

We turned and passed so many doors that I soon lost track of where we were. One of the doors that we passed sat opened. I stopped and looked in. There was a woman, a naked one. There were two men, both dressed. One of them was kissing the woman with a hand between her legs and the other was trailing a yellow snake dotted in black, up her leg. I frowned, I had never seen anything like this, what were they doing?  Wouldn't that snake bite the woman? Wouldn't she die?

Before I could linger on my thoughts, Annabel came back. She'd walked a bit and came back when she'd realised I wasn't with her. She took hold of my hand and tugged me along in that same hurried fashion of hers.

'Don't watch Draco, you should never watch unless you are invited to. It's rude, you could offend people that way.'

'What were they doing to that woman?'

'What? Haven't you ever met a person who got pleasure out of hurting another? Come now Draco, you weren't that sheltered. That was Roxanna by the way. What did I tell you about her? You should never get caught with her in an empty room with anything sharp, that's what. She gets…kinky.'

We climbed a staircase and at the top waited another manservant. She passed him without any acknowledgment; she took the cup of red wine that he held out to for her though. She sipped at it as we hurried along, I'd never seen anybody enjoy wine the way that she did.

Finally, she stopped at large double doors and threw them opened. There was a small room with an Italian style couch and a plant under a painting on the opposite wall. Right along there was a wall in which was a smaller door – also gold.

She opened it and stopped inside the room. It was a bedroom. With a huge canopy four poster, a walk in closet, a desk, a dresser and another door that, by no doubt, led to the bathroom. The colour scheme in the room was indigo. With indigo coloured drapes, bed sheets, cushions, chairs and carpet. I looked up at the ceiling and it looked as if it had been carved into the building. The room had been painted black while the walls were painted in the same shade as the bed sheets. In the middle of it hung a chandelier holding many lit candles.

'This is your room, china doll.' She held out her hands like a shopkeeper showing off his new products. 'I'll bring you some of Tobias' clothes, you'll change and I'll take you to Marcus. You must have Marcus' blessing to stay.' She looked me over a few times and then clapped her hands. Two servants came in – both male. She spoke with one and then left the room.

I was left to the servants, who led me to the door that we hadn't opened yet. It was a white tiled bathroom. It was pretty modern in such an ancient house. It was big with a bath in the middle, a sink and cabinet on one side and then there was another door on the other side. When they pushed me into it, I found that it was a small cubical for the toilet. I came back out and inspected the walls as I washed my hands. There were paintings and plants. Two paintings – one of a lake and another of a cottage and a girl that stood in front of it with a flower basket and a puppy. 

I was still washing my hands when they pulled me away from the sink and without ceremony, began undressing me. I was used to this, back at the manor there was much the same treatment. But I was usually asked before a man began to undo my buttons and unzip my pants.

I was standing naked with one of the servants throwing the clothes in a laundry shoot and the other filling up the giant bath. He added scents and skin moisturisers. The one who'd been putting the clothes away, pushed and prodded me until I climbed into it. One was soon rubbing shampoo into my hair and the other was looking over my nails. The one that seemed younger held a loofah and began scrubbing my back and shoulders. They washed my hair and it was in my eyes when Annabel came bursting through the doors. I remained perfectly still under the clear water when she stepped up to the tub and smiled at me.

'I've got your clothes,' she said. 'They'll help you into them and take in the hems if need be. I think they're the right size though…' She cocked her head to one side and studied my naked body, her eyes lingering on my thighs and groin. She smiled again and left the bathroom. Once outside, I heard her erupt into giggles. I caught sight of one of the servants and he seemed to be holding back laughter.

'What?' I snapped when I stood up to leave the tab. They wrapped me in a bathrobe and led me to the main room. I dried and dressed in an Armani suite. Black and black shirt. Black tie and black shoes. I was given a black cape that was rimmed with dark green, along with an hourglass on a chain. The chain was silver with specks of silver, like seeping mercury. The hourglass held fine sand grains mixed with minute emeralds and some sort of black stone. The servant instructed me to wrap the chain around my wrist and let the hourglass dangle just out of my reach.

They slicked my hair back and applied some sort of strong scent – I didn't like it but they said that Annabel wanted it. I nodded because Annabel wanted it.

She came in dressed in deep red. Her hair was down, but from around her temples and her ears, it was pulled back in an intricate twist. I'd never seen her with her hair down before, it was beautiful and there was so much of it there. I wanted to run my fingers through and bury my face in it. Her ball gown trailed behind her, her shoes were open and showed off her tiny buffed toes. The gown was sleeveless, but her shoulders weren't showing as usual. It was rimmed with black as deep as the stones that she wore around her neck and let dangle from her ears. Her makeup was light and her lips seemed like glass even as her eyelids shimmered and caught the light. In her hair, there were tiny white flowers and crystals.

'You look so handsome, petal.' Sh put her hands on my shoulders as she always did and smiled. 'How do I look?' she asked as she did a little twirl in her elegant dress. She'd never asked me how she looked. She always knew how she looked, she was always confident and strong. She never seemed concerned with such pity things as dresses or shoes.  This new side of her was still baffling me.

'Beautiful, you always look beautiful,' and even as I said it, I found that I couldn't stop my eyes from roaming over her. She was beautiful as she'd always been.

'Don't stare so, china doll . And don't let your jaw hang like that,' She shut my mouth with a loud snap and grinned. She'd never grinned before. I caught her eyes and I was transfixed. The smile died from her face, and she cocked her head to one side as I studied the depth of her pupils. I'd never realised before, but her emerald eyes were tinged with grey. It could be seen if one concentrated on it. Like someone had gotten a quill and added a few strokes. With her red flaming hair, she looked colourful. It only added to her beauty I decided.

It started to get awkward when I finally decided to ask about that chain that I'd been given. 'It's the symbol of our house. An hourglass. Just like that little ugly crest for Hogwarts.' I followed her as we walked through the double doors and turned into a long corridor lined with doors and portraits just like all the others. 

'What does it mean? Why an hourglass?' I'd asked as I hurried to catch up with her.

'Keeping time time time in a sort of Runic rhyme…' she said over her shoulder and rounded a corner.

'What?'

'Had we but world enough, and time...' she said and her voice rose a couple of octaves. 'The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.' She lifted her hands as she spoke and her voice was yet louder. 'Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton, Time….' She spoke like a preacher and I'd never seen her so passionate about anything. Something tingled in my chest as I hurried to keep up.  'Why, I hold fate clasped in my fist, and could command the course of time's eternal motion, hadst thou been one thought more steady than an ebbing sea… All my possessions for a moment of time… Time, the avenger! Time, the devourer of everything!'

'Time goes, you say? Ah no! Alas, Time stays, we go!' She yelled and stopped, turning around to me she cocked her head in that new way that I found I liked very much. 'Ring any bells?' she asked in a quite whisper.

'Is it meant to…?' I asked in a moment of bafflement.

'Time. There is nothing else that matters to us but time. To us, time is the only friend. For we live and things die, we live and things whether away with time. But we live with time. As long as here is time, here we are. If there is no time, there is no us. Alpha and Beta. Time and us. Us and time. Do you get it now?'

'You and time. Time is important to you. I get it,' I said, not really getting it at all.

'Time is the most powerful weapon in the world, petal. It is the never dying, the ever growing. Empires rise and fall but time remains. People live and die but Time remains. People die because of old age, because of Time. Empires fall because of Time, because time makes them fall. Their time is up. There is no power in weapons or wealth because in time, all these things waste away. But Time itself is always there. Time was there with Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Chinggis Khan, Lenin, Stalin, Moa, and Hitler. They thought they would live forever and rule forever but Time had other plans. In time, they lost power and poof! They perished. But Time remained. Because in the end, Time has all power. Time was there at the start and it will be there at the end. When it finishes so will everything else. But it will last forever. That's why our crest is Time. We will last forever.'

I wanted to tell her that she was contradicting herself. I wanted to tell her she was making no sense whatsoever. Instead, I nodded, and, satisfied, she threw open a set of golden double doors. There was a short hallway and then another door. At this, she stopped and composed herself. She knocked thrice and waited. She was bid to enter and I guessed that we were entering Marcus' study. She opened the door and gestured for me to follow.

There were shelves climbing all the way to the ceiling. Ancient books lived there, with ancient tails and ancient words. At the far end of the enormous room were drapes falling from the border of the wall. They were black, with golden pulls on the side to open them. There was a chandelier with about fifty candles in the middle of the curved ceiling which also seemed to be carved into the building. The carpet was white and fluffy, not a speck of dust or dirt touched it. A seating area held the middle of the room, around a mahogany coffee table.

At the base of the wall opposite from where we stood, there was a desk, a mahogany desk, there was a chair, a mahogany chair, and on the chair sat a man. A beautiful man. He had pitch black silk hair that reached below his shoulders; it was tied with a blue ribbon just under his nape. His eyes were a dark blue almost black colour. His lips were thin and peach, but perfect on his face. He had an oval shaped face with a pointy chin and nose.

He was tall and graceful, his shoulders weren't wide but they held his body elegantly. On his hands, neck and face his skin was as white as porcelain. Flawless and clear. When he looked up to see Annabel a smile graced his face and he rose. He walked around his desk and came towards us. He and Annabel met half way and he blessed her with a kiss on each cheek. I felt a pang of jealousy, but set it aside, obviously this man was like an older brother or father to her. Marcus had one of his hands holding the nape of her neck and the other rested on her cheek.

'My Annabel,' he said pensively and his voice struck my very bone marrow with the authority that it carried. The voice of my father or Snape could in no way be compared to this. He called her my Annabel, I didn't want him calling her that, for she was my Annabel. I stood back and watched as the man's eyes roamed her face and gown. 'The youngest of my family and the most beautiful. For you certainly look adoringly beautiful tonight.'

'Thank you my lord,' Her voice was back to being steady and, by no doubt, there was that same cold smile on her face. 'I wanted to introduce someone to you-' she turned then and gestured me forward. When I came and stood next to her, she put her hand between my shoulder blades and introduced me to him. 'Draco Malfoy, my china doll.'

Marcus inspected me; I could feel his eyes eating up every part of my body. His eyes lingered on my hair and then a little on the chain that hung from my hand. When I looked at him and inspected him closely, I felt like I'd been caught in an enchantment. He had a commanding presence, but yet it made me feel like I could lay back and sleep. My eyes felt heavy and I knew if he told me to go jump off the highest tower in this building, I would. Something about him caught me, I felt respect for this man, not out of fear but probably love. I'd fallen in love with him. Not the same love that I had for Annabel but love for something that I wished to learn from, read, unravel.

'Draco Malfoy… who's Lucius Malfoy?'

'My father.' I heard my voice, I didn't know that I'd spoken but my voice sounded smooth and sure. Something sputtered across his features and suddenly his head snapped towards Annabel and his hand rose for her shoulder.

'You bring a Malfoy into our midst! The son of Lucius Malfoy, no less!'

'My lord,' she said quietly and put her hand on his chest. With that, she stepped closer and pressed her body against his, one hand on his chest and another on his back. 'My lord,' she said again, this time her voice was low and husky. 'I would do nothing to endanger the family. You know that. I do not bring an enemy, I bring a friend. I've made him, he poses no harm… I'm sure of that… Do you trust my judgment, my lord?'

Marcus looked down at her, at her face, at her lips that were mere inches from his and a soft smile played at his lips. 'Yes, I do.'  She smiled at him slowly, ever so slowly and kissed his cheek. They made a good picture, I thought, the one of the dominant male and the innocent and beautiful maiden. I hated it. Why was she pressed against him like that? What was that look that Marcus was giving her? Why did she kiss his cheek in that way? Were they…

'Draco, I give you my trust on the account of Annabel's word. Prove us wrong and you would have damned yourself to hell,' Marcus said. Annabel moved away from him and curtsied.

'Thank you,' I said. 'Why do you distrust the Malfoys?'

His brow lifted and his lips pressed. 'For centuries, the Malfoys have held this house a grudge. At every chance they get, they kill one of our own. What choice do we have but to strike back? We do, we kill some of them too, but they were the ones that started this feud. This went on as skirmishes for so long until one of our ancestors made a vow to strike down every last Malfoy. He died before fulfilling that vow, he had the same skin disease that Annabel has and he was exposed to the sun. By a Malfoy. It is then the duty of this house to carry out his vow. There will come a day when it will be fulfilled. That time has not come and will not come for a while. But it will. I feel it.' He paused and considered me for a while. 'Would you not do the same for you kin, Draco, kill for those that you love?'

'Yes,' I answered with out hesitation, my mind automatically skipping to Annabel. 'I would kill for those that I love.'

'Good. Because you are young and uneducated in this matter, I will lift the curse that bids you no entrance to this house. Only if you follow Annabel. Will you be at the ball then? Annabel could introduce you formally as a new member to this family. You will be a minor member, one with no powers or word until you are deemed worthy enough to become a major member like I and Annabel. You will remain with her until then, you will do as she says, do as she does and obey her every order. Her every order. You will be her apprentice and she will teach you the ways of the House of Time. Do you understand?'

I did, I wanted to understand and I wanted to do everything that he told me. Not because of his power, his enchanting air or even because I seemed to love him so much. It was because I got to do all these things with Annabel. My Annabel. The Annabel that I loved and wanted to make love with.

'Yes, sir.' He nodded and walked back to his desk. Annabel took this as her cue to get us out and she took my hand. We did not speak until were back in my room.

'That went remarkably well, don't you think?'

Had she missed something that I hadn't?

'Is there something between you and Marcus?'

'What would make you ask something like that?' she asked as she moved to the dresser to check her hair and makeup.

'How you had your hands on him… you kissed him-'

'I kiss you, there's nothing going on between you and I in that way.'

'But-'

'No, Draco, there is nothing going on between me and Marcus in that nature.' Her voice was stiff and I could see that she was mighty uncomfortable when it came to talking about herself. I wanted to prod her out of that, to make her open up to me like I'd opened up to her at the age of fourteen.

'Who are you with then? You must be with someone….'

'I'm not. I'm alone.'

'Why?'

'Why what?'

'What aren't you-'

'Oh, Draco, stop it! Stop asking questions! I don't like answering questions, stop it! I order you to stop it!'   

She'd never lost her temper before, just like she'd never been excited, giddy, flirtatious or funny. I'd never seen the way her right hand flexed when she was angry, how she screwed her eyes shut or how a little crease appeared on top of her left eyebrow when she was highly emotional. It must've been this house, I decided. This house had an impact on her and I liked it. Just like I liked it when she was cool and composed, I liked it now when she showed this new part of her.

A servant knocked on the door and entered, he said something to her and she nodded, waving him away.

'We're going down to the main hall now, where all of the balls in this castle are held. We are the family – I am, you are not – of this house, the ones who are holding the ball, so we will be making a fashionably late entrance. We will greet the guests and socialize. Stay close to me and listen to everything I say. Try not to make any mistakes, china doll, I wouldn't want to have break you.' She smiled with stiff, polite courtesy and walked to the door.

So that's how she was when she was angry. I imagined that she would use my out-of-place in this house against me every time I angered her. Hold her power over my head. Just like she would scowled a cat and kick it when it scratched or hissed. Later on, I learned that my guess was right. She would use that on me as a weapon, it was her way, her defence mechanism.

We walked through many corridors and doors, one staircase and another corridor. All the way, we were gradually joined by the rest of the occupants of the house. Annabel greeted them politely and they smiled behind her back, they could sense her anger just like I could as she hurried along in front of us all and thrust on her gloves. When Marcus joined us, he greeted her and she forced a stiff smile to him. He fell in step with the rest of us and gave her an amused smile. I wasn't smiling, though, her anger made me uneasy, it gave me that fluttering feeling in my stomach that I so detested.

I only recognised three people from those who walked with us. Marcus, who was engaged in conversation with some other man who looked Japanese or Chinese. Roxanne, I recognised her even though she was positively dressed in a gown of deep orange and pink. And Tobias, I only recognised him because he was the only one close to my body size.

He looked no older then nineteen, with brown curls, porcelain skin, a small, almost feminie mouth, and a mischievous spangle in his eye. He played with his sleeves as he walked, and a blond woman, who walked next to him, currently occupied in a conversation with a very dark man, turned to him and slapped his hands that were held at chest hight. He looked put out and stopped fiddling. He looked up then as if a sixth sense told him I was watching.

As if to scare me, he bared his teeth and hissed. I found it weird, not scary, I smirked and lifted a disinterested eyebrow. As if to entertain me – and show off – he closed his wrists. When he opened them a galleon was between his index and middle finger, he closed his wrists again and opened them, the galleon was gone. I wasn't that impressed, after all, I did have a wand in my pocket. He amused me, though. I decided to make a point to make a friend out of that man.

We all stopped in front of huge oak doors, Annabel still fiddled with her gloves, her face serious, slightly irritated. I found her irresistible in that state. Marcus stepped up next to her and got a firm hold of her hands and then released them.

'Relax, Butterfly, you aren't nervous are you?'

'Do not jest, Marcus, you know I hate when you tease me.' 

'Yes, but I enjoy it so much.' 

A servant appeared at the doors and I knew he was waiting to be given the order to open them. I'd been to enough balls at the manor to know how these things worked. I wasn't the least nervous about it. Marcus waited next to Annabel and it was obvious that he meant to walk in with her.  

'Oh, Marcus, walk in with me! You walked in with her last time!' Roxanne appeared at Marcus' elbow and squealed in a voice that I – if I wasn't totally devoted to Annabel – would have found most arousing. Marcus looked down at her and then looked away in a manner of someone with too little time to deal with silly girls.

'That's because she doesn't claw at me and have an orgasm over it, Rox.'

'Uh!' Roxanne folded her gloved hands over her chest and shrugged like a spoilt child with an irresistibly sexy pout. Marcus seemed to be trying to ignore her, and if she'd had the same effect on him that she was threatening to have on me, it must've been very hard to do so. 'Marcus!' she wailed and tugged on his arm. 'I want to walk in with you, you know how I love you.'  He sighed.

'Oh, go ahead,' Annabel said and gave him a stiff smile. 'I'll walk in with anybody else.'

She took a firm grip on my hand, her nails digging viciously into my wrist, and stood me behind Marcus as she stood on my left behind Roxanne. Roxanne turned around and was definitely smug.

'Stop being so down Annie, you make for such bad company when you're like that.'

Annabel was glaring daggers at the other woman when the doors were thrown opened and The House of Time was introduced. The hall was huge and long, on the far wall I spotted the house crest – the hourglass and fangs.

It was a sea of heads. Women wearing every colour known to man, and men dressed in dark monochromes of black, green and brown. Then there were the guests from entirely different cultures, dressed in entirely different clothes. There were women dressed in the traditional dress of India – a Sari – and China. One man was dressed like those African people who I'd seen in old story books, with the naked chest, the wrap around skirt and the material around one shoulder. There was a man in a turban and a woman with peacock feathers in her hair.

They all had one thing in common, though. On all their clothes were little crests. Just like Annabel, Tobias, Marcus, Roxanne and the others had the hourglass and fangs and I held the chain, other houses had other signs. There was wolf, hands, feathers, a lion, a bird, a bee and even a giant pebble.

We descended the stairs with my arm held out supporting Annabel's hand. 'Don't wander off until I give you permission. Do as I say and don't step a toe out of line.' I looked at her from the corner of my eye and saw the change. The anger in her face evaporated like water on red coals, a playful, coquettish, devilish expression replaced it instead. It wasn't just an expression, it was all over her body movement. I was amazed. The change was split second. When we got to the bottom, Marcus and Roxanne had already started greeting guests. Annabel did the same and I stood beside her. She didn't introduce me and when they asked she told them to wait and see.

She flirted with the men, they took her hands and kissed them, she touched their faces and put her hands on their chests. An American wizard whispered something in her ear and her laughter boiled my blood, her answer infuriated me further.

'Oh, I'd love to be bad with you, sir, but I'm afraid I don't know how to be bad,' she pouted and the men around her chuckled.

The women kissed her cheek and they whispered to each other in low voices. In the way that just told you women were talking about naughty things. Especially when they sneaked looks at some men and turned back with giggles. There was white and red wine. Annabel told me to drink the white wine, she told me not to over drink.

There was music and dancing. It wasn't classical like at the parties that my parents held, it was modern music. Muggle and magical artists. I recognised The Weird Sisters and a travelling band named Pirates for Sirens. There was slow music where they danced in couples and fast music where they jumped, touched each other and snogged. Annabel danced with many men; they all laid their hands on her and whispered dirty things in her ears. I found myself checking my watch continuously as my blood simmered in my veins after watching her being passed from one man's hold to the other. She was like a lamb passed and tasted by a pack of wolves.

When the huge grandfather clock struck twelve the music stopped and everybody paused.

Annabel walked to and climbed half way up the steps. Every eye was on her as all noise dropped to a minimum.

'On behalf of Marcus D'Aurelius, the father of The House of Time, I welcome you to our house.' She paused as the guests clapped, cheered and toasted. 'We thank you for being here, your presence honours us. You've all been here before, we enjoy your company and – we hope – you enjoyed ours as well. We want you to meet each other and socialise, get to know other houses from other countries for these times are hard. They aren't the times of our ancestors when the likes of us were feared, but nor are they the times when we had ultimate and absolute power. The times are changing. The world changes for us, each one of you, we must change with it. We change, accumulate, but never lose the bonds that hold us together, that make us strong to endure and never forget what our great, great, grandmothers and grandfather had to do so we could be here today.' There was a murmur of agreement and she waited until it completely died away.  When she went on, her voice was calmer, more even and mysterious like a man revealing a greatly hidden secret.

'But tonight,' she said, 'is a different night to all those before it. Tonight, I present to you a gift that I've been given by Time itself. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Draco Malfoy, the newest member of The House of Time.' She stepped back and held her hands out to present me. Something happened that had never happened before. All the guests, every young and old, black and white, bowed. They bent their back legs and got down on their front legs. A sea of backs I saw and the sight moved me. The fine hair on my arms stood. I turned to Annabel in question and she was curtsying. She looked up and smiled.

'Welcome, my china doll.' She whispered to me. When the crowed stood up, I inclined my head and raised my glass. They all did the same and drank.

'Enjoy yourselves,' she told them, 'and may this be a night that you remember.'

By the end of the ball, they were all exhausted. I wasn't, for I hadn't danced as much as any of them. After I had been introduced many wizards and witches had welcomed me in their midst. By the end of the night, I knew not the name of one of them. I danced with a couple of women, but it wasn't really anything of value as I had done so millions of times at Malfoy balls.

The House of Time were all at the doors saying goodbye and thanking the guests for coming at the end of the ball. The moon was still up but I estimated that it will start setting in half an hour or so. After they had all left, there was a sigh and everybody – falling off their feet and in Roxanne's case, slightly tipsy – headed to their rooms. Annabel walked me back to my room in silence.

When we reached it, she walked in with me to the second door after that little room and stopped there. She leaned on the doorframe and smiled at me sleepily.

'Did you enjoy yourself, petal?' She seemed to have forgotten her previous anger with me and I was glad. 'You'll probably have more fun when you know more people. For a first timer, I think you went great. You didn't even say one stupid thing.'

'I did enjoy myself, thank you.' I told a half truth, for I had enjoyed watching her all night. Just watching her, not watching her with other men. I didn't think it was the right time to say anything concerning that matter, for we were both tired.

'Sleep well, china doll, we go a-hunting tomorrow. Shoes, tailors, accessories, lunch-' she yawned '-and some stuff for me.' with a tired giggle, she leaned in and kissed my cheek. It occurred to me, it was the first time that she'd ever done that. With another yawn she whispered a goodnight and left. I sighed and walked into my room. The servants were there. They undressed me and re-dressed me in nightclothes. I was too tired to complain. I fell on my bed and they tucked me in. I was asleep before they'd blown out all the candles.