Confessions of a Villain

Chapter Six

Hear My Cry

I awoke from the darkness in a strangely calm state. Lurking in the depths of my mind I knew that I shouldn't be calm, I should be in a near panic…and yet, I could not bring myself to this predicament.

My eyes fluttered open with anticipated pain, but found only comfort. I could not remember what had happened, only that I had passed out. How horribly embarrassing to fall unconscious like that anyway. I sincerely hoped that no one saw me.

Becoming more familiar with my surroundings I discovered that I was in a bed that I did not recognize. Knowing that I did not very well place myself in it I peered around the bedroom. Funnily enough it almost looked like Malfoy Manner. But that wasn't even plausible…Draco's old home had been shut down years ago. Even if by chance I were at Malfoy Manner it wouldn't look like this. No one had been living in it for years now; it wouldn't be furnished and clean like this. Yet still…

No place on this Earth is quite like that particular residence. One's frame of mind simply had a way of changing when there. The ancient architecture of the building was a marvelous thing in itself, something to be envied by any who knew of structures and the beauty that can lie in a building. If you couldn't appreciate these things, or even if you could, there was something about the house that just grabbed a hold of you…something that had the quality to scare the living daylights out of you and pacify you at the same time. It was a contradiction, it was living history, it was an inexplicable wonder. It was something that had been attempted to be duplicated by thousands of others, but they couldn't ever find the right…ingredients to make it whole. I knew that I was there now, because like I said, it couldn't be duplicated, and I could feel the magic of the house weaving through my very being.

Stumbling in an uncharacteristically ungraceful manner I left the confined chambers of my mysterious residence. Once in the hall I caught sight of myself in a passing mirror and walked towards my own reflection. I looked dreadful. While attempting to no avail to smooth down my hair I first noticed my eyes. Only, they weren't my eyes. They weren't the deep brown color that I was accustomed to see starring back at me, they were gray, they were…Draco's.

Baffled beyond belief I just stood there looking at my eyes, hoping and knowing that it must only be some trick of the light. All Malfoy's had a very distinctive silvery shade of eye color. That same unusual color now just happened to be my new eyeshade? Of course that couldn't happen, I mean you just don't wake up one day and have a new eye color…do you?

I cast my gaze away from the mirror and hurried down the hall in search of another mirror, one that wouldn't lie to me like that damn looking glass that I had first seen. I came to the end of the long dark corridor and found myself looking with a subdued shock at a large dining room that without mistake belonged to Malfoy Manner.

Shaken with confusion that I wasn't familiar with I walked towards the enormous table and took a seat in the nearest chair. I was in Malfoy Manner. Now the main question weighing on my mind was only if Draco was here also.

I observed the room in a newfound interest; perhaps he was here. It would make sense if he were. I got up from the chair and walked out of the dining room and towards the stairway that had, at one time, lead to Draco's chambers. However, before I could begin my decent up the stairway someone else was coming down them.

The "someone" in question was a woman. An intriguingly attractive woman with red hair that seemed to match my own. I walked towards her in somewhat of a daze and for the first time in my life felt as if I might faint from shock, for she had deep brown eyes precisely how mine used to be. And I had seen more than enough photographs to know who she was…I was standing in front of my mother.

Unable to move another step I settled for simply standing there in a gawking type position. She came to me with a friendly smile and gave me an affectionate stroke of the cheek with a "good morning dear." I nodded weakly in response; this was not plausible in the least. My eyes saw my mother, very alive, standing right in front of me but my mind couldn't comprehend it.

She looped her arm with my own and led my back to the dining room. "I trust you are feeling better now," she asked with genuine sincerity. I nodded again which provoked her to laugh. "Are you not going to actually say anything?"

Taken aback by her teasing manner my eyes widened which most likely caused me to look extremely frightened. She bit her lip habitually before placing a caring hand to my forehead, "I don't believe that you have a fever dear. But perhaps it would be best to get you to a healer anyhow, you look positively awful…I believe that your father is heading to St. Mungo's this morning, I'll go see if he won't mind taking you."

Ignoring the fact that I was still very much past the adult age and being treated as a five-year-old a sharp anxiety pain shot through me, who was my father? Obviously in the back of my mind I was more than aware of putting the pieces together in this demented world. Malfoy Manner plus brand new gray eyes equals one Lucius Malfoy as my father.

Not to be disappointed by my logic the man in question showed up with the reappearance of my mother a few moments later. I tried to stifle my apprehension but found it difficult when faced with his knowing sneer. He looked exactly like Draco. That was something that I had always despised. It was just weird.

As I thought of Draco again for one fleeting moment I sincerely hoped and prayed that he was not here. If he were still who he normally was then that would make us brother and sister. And that is one problem that I just do not need. Even in the Wizarding World we have our limits on the whole incest thing.

"What precisely is wrong with the girl Molly?" A flash of anger immediately surged through me after being referred to as "the girl." How demeaning is that affectionate nickname?

"Nothing is wrong," I said quickly, not wanting to go with him, "I'm fine."

My mother -or at least the woman who looked exactly like her- gave a worried look before concurring with me that no healer was needed. Lucius sneered, muttered something about uselessness and left. Thank God for that last action.

Left alone once again with her I turned, trying to keep my amazement from showing. She smiled warmly at me and invited me to breakfast with her. Even with hunger being completely absent from my state of mind I readily agreed and followed her to the expensive table. I kept trying to convince myself that it was some sort of trick, that she wasn't real…but how do you talk yourself into a reality that you have been longing to change almost your entire life?

We sat in a peaceful silence and I felt content just being in her presence. It was getting harder and harder to keep the grounding thoughts of disillusion in my mind when everything about her was so right, so familiar. I can remember certain things about her from when I was a child, such as her distinct smell of lavender. Lavender was inching towards my senses throughout the meal.

Our silence came to an end when she struck up a conversation that I had little to no answer to. "Virginia dear," she began in a somewhat nervous manner, "I just want to let you know that I've noticed a change in you in the past few months…I must confess to liking it."

I responded with nothing, as I had no clue what she was talking about. This bothered me as inadequacy failed to suit me properly in any form.

Seeing that I was not going to supply her with information she continued, "I know that you've always had a close bond with your aunt, but I think you are old enough to know that it would be best if you did not indulge yourself with your fascination of her. To my knowledge you have been spending less time with her, this is wise Virginia. She lives in dangers which I dare not speak."

A close bond with my aunt? Surely she didn't mean Velena. "Why to you presume so greatly about…Velena." I held my breath for a moment waiting to see how she reacted to the name. A sigh of disappointment assured me that I was correct; she had been speaking of Velena.

"I grew up with her," my mother said without meeting my eyes, "she had a strong presence and seems to be gifted with the ability to draw others to her. You may think yourself like her, there was a time when I fancied myself to be nothing short of her clone, but you aren't like her Virginia. You are so much better than her."

"Why are you so different from her," I pressed, attempting to find out any information about this strange situation, "you are blood, are you not?"

Another sigh to my question. "I know I am far from perfect and have made many grave mistakes which I continue to pay for this very day. I am different from her because I can view the things I did wrong as mistakes; she sees nothing wrong with them. She justifies the vilest deeds and I know in my heart that you are not that way. You are a good person, just trapped behind your own icy nature."

With nothing to say I excused myself and found my way back to the room that I had woken up in. There had to be something in that room, something that would give me any kind of hint about what had happened to me and where I was. I knew I was in Malfoy Manner, but it was a different universe or something…

My eyes widened in understanding, I had read about all sorts of parallel dimensions that existed. Most were written in pure theory though, no one had been known to slip into an alternate reality…or at least, no one had come back to tell of it.

It made sense. I was in some sort of substitute world where my mother had married Lucius Malfoy instead of Arthur Weasley. But, if she had married Malfoy then that changed close to everything that I knew! If I was a Malfoy, what was Draco? Confused and suddenly very tired I made my way to the bed that I had first awoken on and shut my eyes. Why did everything always have to happen to me?