Lucius felt Lily shudder in his arms, trying to maintain her composure, trying not to let her eyes change in fear, trying not to scream. He felt bad for her, this was not the ideal situation for any person, and he hoped she would deal with it the right way.

Lucius spoke, "My lord, what do you want me to do with her? Presently she is sleeping, shall I wake her?"

"Yes," the boy said eagerly.

Lucius shook Lily and said, "Wake up."

Lily opened her eyes and yawned for good measure, "Where am I? Where's that freaky child molester?"

Karakoff started, "Hey!"

The boy silenced him, "My dear, not to cut to the chase, but are you an elemental?"

Lily knew that he knew that she was an elemental, and that the truth was best in this scenario, "Uh, yeah."

"Excellent. I am Tom Riddle. More oftenly known as Lord Voldemort," the boy said.

"Lord?" Lily asked, confusedly. "You couldn't be more than a few years older than me."

"True, but power knows no age," Voldemort said.

"My, my aren't we humble," Lily mumbled quietly, than remembered what Lucius had said about him having a terrible temper.

"You must be wondering why you are here," Voldemort said. "You are here to make a choice. You can either be on my side, and live for the present, or you can be dead."

"Nice options," Lily said sarcastically. "Look, let me tell you something. I don't want to be on either side. How about this, I don't fight for you, but I don't fight against you either. For the present, the Ministry doesn't know who I am, let's keep it that way."

Voldemort looked shocked. He'd have killed many others for less, he had killed many others for less, and yet, he decided, "Your proposal is acceptable."

Severus and Lucius looked dumbstruck, they expected the next thing to come out of his mouth to be the killing curse, not a compromise.

"Cool," Lily said, completely unaware of how close she had come to dying.

"Return occasionally with Lucius," Voldemort said. "I'd like to keep tabs on you. If you do not comply, it will not be you that dies. It will be your parents."

"I don't take well to threats," Lily said.

"It's only a threat if you don't fulfill a simple promise," Voldemort said pointedly.

Once Lily was out of earshot, Voldemort turned to his remaining followers, "Feisty isn't she?"

"She's never been quite like that before, but I have only known her for a day," Lucius replied.

"I see. Well, we need to make plans, the time has almost come to make my move," Voldemort said jovially.

"Shall we call the others?" Severus asked.

"No, don't bother. We will see them soon enough," he replied. "When are you returning to Hogwarts?"

"Within the week," Lucius told him.

"Hmm, it is a shame, that you must still go there," Voldemort mused. "But it would draw too much attention for all my follower's to drop out."

"Yeah, Potter and his friends already know about us," Anthony said.

"I was meaning to talk to you about that," Lucius said. "Wouldn't it be wise to get rid of them? They could be a threat to you and an influence on Lily."

"Be careful not to think too much," Voldemort hissed.

"No, my lord," Lucius replied. "I only make suggestions, I presume nothing."

"Good," Voldemort said shortly.

"You mentioned Lily in connection with Potter," Voldemort said.

"Yes," Lucius said. "She has taken up a liking for him and his friends."

"That is unfortunate," Voldemort said thoughtfully. "Who else has she been talking to?"

"Well, there is us, Potter, and another girl, Lindsay," Lucius replied.

"What type of girl is she?" Voldemort asked.

"Another unfortunate choice. The girl is a wood nymph, a Gryffindor, and she detests all things to do with Dark Magic," Lucius told him.

"Ah, keep an eye on Lily when she associates with so many bad influences," Voldemort ordered. "What house do you think she will land in?"

"It's between Slytherin and Gryffindor," Lucius replied. "She may not get into Slytherin because of her family background."

"She's a mudblood?" Voldemort asked curiously.

"Yes," Lucius said.

"I've never heard of a mudblood elemental before," Voldemort said. "But elementals are not really witches, are they? They are a phenomenon of nature, one which has popped up most favorably."

"My lord?" Severus asked.

"She will join our side, in the end," Voldemort said firmly.

Lucius and Severus exchanged a worried glance.