Chapter 4: The Mary Poppins

Maeve was back in her old home town again. She was only about 7, though. Strange...she was with her family and they were laughing! Laughing...she hadn't seen any of them laugh with her in so many years! They were out at the zoo, that's where they were! It was cold, and snowy, almost Christmas, and they were going to see Santa! Her mom and dad laughed with her as they danced through the flurries...

Suddenly she was 10, and she found out she could do things other kids couldn't. She knew stuff about her friends moments before they told her, things happened that she had already seen before, she could move things without touching them, and sometimes it was even like she randomly disappeared from situations that she didn't like. The other kids sensed something was funny about her and either ignored her or teased her. Her parents started to bicker, and her little brother began to bully her...

Maeve jerked awake, breathing heavily and crying softly. She wiped her eyes and climbed out of the old canopied bed. Pulling back the moth-eaten curtains, she saw the sun was just rising. She shook her head violently to clear the dream from her head. It was a bad dream, that was all, nothing more than that, just a nightmare. She quickly pulled a clean outfit, similar to yesterday's, out of her magic backpack and got dressed. Sitting on the bed, Maeve studied her new room more closely.

This room smelled the least like death and sadness, that's why she had chosen it. There was a nice sized window that was fogged by cob webs and other things she didn't want to know what they were. It had a large walk in closet, and a big bed with a pretty blue and purple comforter and lots of pillows. The walls were sky-blue and unbearably bare. She'd have to fix that. And she'd have to clean out under the bed, she had a feeling there was something frightening under there.

She got up and decided to go find the kitchen. Slipping quietly out into the hall, Maeve let her eyes adjust to the dark. She listened for a moment, and heard raised voices at the other end of the hall. She followed the sound to the door.

"She's just a girl, she should be easy enough, and she's smart!" said a voice she recognized as Voldemort's.

"But, Master! Please, I could do so much more help doing what we used to, torturing, killing, that's my specialty! Not babysitting some little kid..." whined a female voice.

"I am no longer asking you, Bellatrix, I'm ordering you! Do this, or else...I was exceptionally kind to you after you lost me the prophecy, so consider this your punishment. You know I could always just go back to what I normally do..." he sounded pleased at something.

"Yes Master, I'll show the girl the ropes," said the female voice, sounding defeated and resentful of it.

Footsteps stomped toward the door and Maeve had just enough time to stumble backwards before the door flew open and an angry looking young woman stormed out.

"So, you must be my new 'charge'," she said, and added sarcastically, "Great, I'm a bloody Mary Poppins!"

"My name's Lux..." she said, trying to be friendly. She waited a moment and added, "Normally that's when you introduce yourself, or shall I just call you the bitch down the hall?"

The woman glared at her and looked like she wanted to kill her. "You are so incredibly lucky the Dark Lord seems to favor you, or I would have killed you already..."

The woman sulked for a moment. Maeve tried to smile at her.

"I was just kidding, you know, I'm sorry, Miss. You know, whether we like it or not, we're kind of stuck together, so we might as well make the best of it, hm?" Maeve said perkily.

"Oh, alright! My name is Bellatrix. Happy now? Come on, let's go get you something to eat, then we get to start teaching you how to be a proper Death Eater." Bellatrix started down the steps.

"Oh, so there's a proper was to kill, mangle, and torture?"

"You bet." She grinned horribly.