Well this is it! The commencement of a fanfic that I've been planning for so long. The first attempt at it was a complete disaster. So, I'm writing it all over again. Just as a slight A/N, this hasn't been edited yet, so any improvements, or anything that doesn't seem right, or isn't right (in the context of Order of the Phoenix and books previous only), please let me know! It will immensely when I do edit it.

Chapter One: The Filial Pact

A figure sat in the darkness of a cell in Azkaban, the wizard prison. Through a window high up the wall in the cell, the last remaining daylight poured into the cell, creating an eerie, icy blue glow. Every now and then, the glow was completely blocked out because of a dementor or two still loyal to the Ministry of Magic, but these dementors were only floating by, insuring the security of Azkaban.

This figure was not the only one in the Wizarding prison; several others were held, all in separate cells. Dark cloaks covered most all of these figures.

The cloaked body rose and walked around, clearly angry at the events that occurred only a few weeks ago. A lengthy rant involving the Department of Mysteries, and how Lucius had avoided capture, while the rest of the servants had to serve sentences in Azkaban, could be heard from the woman pacing back and forth in her cell.

"I just can't believe this!" the woman cried, obviously outraged. "How could Lucius not have been captured, he was right beside us the entire ti–"

"Bellatrix," another prisoner said, calmly. "We've heard this a million times now. We are all angry that Lucius wasn't captured, however, no matter what you say, we can't change that at the moment." His temper was slowly rising. "So you can shut up about him and wait out your term."

"My term, Macnair, is a life sentence," Bellatrix said, annoyed, "And as such, I think it only fair that Lucius be in here with us because he was fighting right along side us."

"So we've heard," a different voice sneered. Bellatrix glared at the source of the voice.

"Nobody's asked you, Dolohov. Shut up."

"You're asking me to shut up, especially after we've asked you to shut up?" Dolohov asked, and was about to make a particularly nasty comment towards his fellow Death Eater when another interrupted and demanded that everyone stopped arguing.

"Look, Bellatrix, what's done is done. However, we don't need to hear complaining every night about Lucius," the fourth Death Eater, Nott, sighed. "Everyone else, the last thing we need right now is for us to drift apart over the fact that Lucius wasn't arrested. He wasn't caught. So can we please stop arguing?"

"But–" Bellatrix tried to argue, but Nott held up is hand for silence, leaving the female Death Eater with a scrunched up, annoyed, face.

Miles and miles away, in an enormous estate, a man discussed the meaning of power with his son.

"I want you to use whatever means necessary in order to obtain this stone," the father ordered, with no emotion. "If you fail to accomplish this task, I will be very upset and disappointed, and I may even become very violent."

"And what significance does this stone have?" the son asked. "I mean, I don't want to be risking my life for just something that'll make us richer than we already are. I want to know that this stone really has great power."

"Draco, you are in no position to be questioning my orders," Draco's father replied, coldly. "All I want is for you to get this stone, in whatever way you can. As such, I'll need you to sign this." The man slipped a piece of paper from his pants pocket onto the table. Draco unfolded it, and his mother (who was also present in the room) gasped in disbelief.

"Lucius, how could you–"

"Quiet, Narcissa, you've no place in this deal." Draco's face was paler than normal, and his face wore an expression of fear and apprehension.

"Father…you can't expect me to sign this," he held the paper up, "without any information about the stone: what it looks like, exactly how it will give us power, an idea of where it might be…"

"If I knew where it was, I would get it myself," Lucius snapped. "However, after asking around, I heard that it was somewhere in the general area of Hogwarts. Now, you are a student there, and I am not. It would look a bit odd for me to be hanging around Hogwarts, would it not?"

Draco reluctantly consented, picking up a quill that his father had left on the table. Dipping it in the ink, he could see that his right hand was shaking nervously. In one last attempt to dissuade his father, he said, "You do know what will happen if I fail, of course?"

"Yes," Draco's father answered, beginning to sound annoyed. "However, I am confident that you will not fail, and with an attitude like the one you have now, I begin to doubt that. So would you hurry and sign The Contract?" Draco's hand shook as he slowly signed his name at the bottom. Once finished, he gave his father an 'I-Hate-You' glare, and stalked off to bed.

"Just so you know, I'm only doing this because of the so-called power that it'll bring the family, not because you trust me!" he called down to his father.

Narcissa heard her son storm up the stairs, and once she was certain he was out of ear-shot, she gave her husband a scornful glare, that Lucius interpreted to mean that he should be ashamed of what he just did.

"Narcissa…this wasn't my choosing," he explained, trying to make his wife comfortable with the situation.

"I know that, Lucius," she snapped, clearly angry with her husband. "But this is our only son we are talking about, and you are threatening his life! I can't believe you can't show a little more–"

Lucius Malfoy slapped his wife. "You blabbering idiot! I just told you, this wasn't an idea of my creation! This was Master's idea." Narcissa was shocked, and became suddenly speechless at what her husband just did. With a growl, she lunged at him.

"HOW DARE YOU, LUCIUS MALFOY!"

Draco, who hadn't actually gone to bed, was listening to their argument in the next room over, after sneaking back downstairs. He felt half-amused that the two were arguing, but also half-terrified, partially for the same reason. He knew how much of a bad mood they were both going to be in tomorrow.

But what terrified him most about this argument was that he found out that he was working for You-Know-Who, and not his father. He had sworn to Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle that he wouldn't start serving You-Know-Who until after h graduated from Hogwarts. But h wasn't a Death Eater right now, so there wasn't any reason to worry. If he failed, at least he wouldn't be to blame. He'd be dead.

Lucius Malfoy threw his wife off of him, after a few minutes of quarreling. He had acquired a few scratches on his wrinkleless face, and was beginning to get very angry at the stupidity of his wife.

"Are you ignorant, Narcissa? If I were to refuse one of Master's orders we'd all be killed!"

"But this is Draco!" she cried, her tone of voice switching from angry to pleading. "He's my only son!"

"I know that, you idiot, he's my only son too, but this is Master's order, and I am obliged to obey it. If you are threatening or questioning what Draco and I have just did, and what I've ordered Draco to do, you are almost directly questioning Master's order. You'd be killed for treason almost immediately!"

"I'd rather die than Draco die," Narcissa said desperately. She reached to grab The Contract, but Lucius snatched it off the table before Narcissa could get a hold of it and rip it to shreds.

"Idiot woman," Lucius muttered under his breath as he summoned the family's owl over to him. "Putting herself and her concerns over Master's." He folded up The Contract, along with a short letter he scribbled out in a few seconds.

Master- Success! Draco has signed The Contract and we should have the Water Amulet by the end of the next Hogwarts school year! it read.

Tying the letter and The Contract to the owl's leg, he mumbled, "She'd be killed in an instant!" "You know whom to go to," he said to the owl, and it fluttered off into the cool night.

Narcissa was crying now, sobbing about how her husband just put her only son in the most threatening situation of his life. Lucius turned, annoyed with his wife's stupidity.

"Narcissa, I assure you, Draco will be fine. He will bring home the Water Amulet, and the document that I just sent off to Master guarantees that."

"No," Narcissa rebutted. "It only guarantees that he's risking his life to get it."

"And would an ambitious boy such as Draco consider the possibility of failure under those conditions? No!"

The argument was beginning to get more and more amusing to Draco, who wasn't as concerned about the conditions of the agreement he made anymore. And would an ambitious boy such as Draco consider the possibility of failure.

A shrill scream interrupted Draco's daydreaming. The scream definitely belonged to his mother, he thought. But what was wrong with her? Was it is father? Before he could contemplate the matter any longer, the light illuminating from his Muggle lamp (Draco found this a most excellent way to sneak light into his house without breaking the Underage Restriction of Magic law, even if his family despised Muggles) suddenly went completely black.

Why this happened, Draco was not sure. He never took Muggle Studies, and he certainly didn't want to risk expulsion from Hogwarts by performing magic here; after all, the stone he was supposed to find for his father was supposedly located there.

He couldn't figure out what the trouble was with the lamp, so he wrapped the electric cord (he had managed to create a Muggle outlet, and with magic, wired the house with electricity, which resulted in a letter from the Ministry) around the body of the lamp and climbed the stairs to the second floor, depositing the Muggle appliance safely in his room where it couldn't be found. Emerging from his room, he heard another scream, again from his mother.

He thought against rushing down to see what was the matter; his father would definitely become suspicious of anything else he'd heard, other than a scream. Instead, he turned back into his room and changed into his nightclothes, and climbed reluctantly into bed. He had trouble falling asleep, as he kept thinking about the two screams he had heard from the kitchen area. "I hope Father hasn't hurt Mother," he said drowsily and drifted off to sleep.

A third figure had Apparated into the room. Dressed completely in black robes, the two adults immediately recognized the person now standing before them. Narcissa screamed, thinking the person was a thief or a murderer.

"Master…" Lucius whispered, subserviently. "Master what an honor it is to have you in our home." Lucius knelt down, bowing his head. Narcissa stopped her screamed and followed apologizing, but saying that her Master had gave her a scare.

"I just received your letter, Lucius," Voldemort said, his high-pitched voice sending chills up Narcissa's spine, despite the fact she'd heard it so many times before. "It's an obvious pleasure that your son has consented to do my bidding. And as I've said before, neither you, your wife, nor your son will make any mention of this mission, or else…"

The Dark Wizard raised his wand, and without muttering an incantation created a holographic image of Lucius and himself casting a Killing Curse at him. Narcissa's eyes widened in fear, but she didn't let her Master see them.

Lucius was obviously rattled by the image as well, but recovered, saying "Of course, Master, the task shall be carried through as quickly as possible, and I guarantee it to be a success." As Lucius bowed, Voldemort said, "It had better be," and Disapparated.

Narcissa looked as though she was about to burst into tears and complain about her only son being put in danger, but didn't want to combat her husband's bad side again. Her stomach still hurt from where he had managed to elbow her, hard. Most of all, she didn't want to spoil Lucius's good mood.

"I've changed my mind," she said, a smile on her face, sounding unusually giddy. "I'm not concerned about Draco's safety in the slightest anymore; I'm confident he can pull off obtaining the Water Amulet." She pushed Lucius aside, gently, humming merrily to herself as she ascended the stairs to her bedroom.

"What the devil has gotten into her?" Lucius thought aloud, with a slightly suspicious look on his face. He followed her upstairs into the bedroom, and climbed into bed on the opposite side from his wife, and fell asleep almost immediately.

Bellatrix Lestrange fell asleep in her Azkaban cell, muttering, "Wonder what Lucius is up to now…" and yawning. Once asleep a figure rose and waved his wand.

"Silencio," cut through the silent night, and the spell hit Bellatrix squarely in the throat, assuring that they didn't have to put up with her complaints tomorrow… or the day after… or the day after that… as they had for the last week. They all knew she was just jealous of him, and wanted to be free to do Master's bidding. She was also obviously still bitter from the incident at the Department of Mysteries, and how Harry had destroyed Master's reputation, first by bad-mouthing him and calling him a half blood, and then for smashing the Prophecy, and finally had them rounded up and put here.

The flash of light that erupted from the tip of the Death Eater's wand had woken several others, but not Bellatrix herself. They all quietly seemed to question what was going on.

"It's okay, you don't need to be silent," the Death Eater, Dolohov, said. "I've just put her under a Silencing Spell. She's silent for now, but the more she tries to talk, the longer the Charm lasts. And if need be, we can perform another." The other Death Eaters snickered.

As if thinking that a mere Silencing Spell wasn't enough, the Death eater known as Macnair cast an incantation that would prevent any sound from escaping Bellatrix's Azkaban cell.

The remaining Death Eaters snickered again, and one by one fell asleep.