A/N Heya my first fic! please review! i need new ideas-pinkalarmclock
"Err Alice, your f-f-father is here…come d-d-downstairs." Lucius Malfoy stammered. Being in the presence of The Dark Lord, alias Tom Riddle, always did this to him. By that I mean he was basically wetting himself right now. Ahh…. it had been so peaceful whilst Lord Voldemort was missing, presumed dead throughout the last fourteen years…. No, think evil, Deatheaterish thoughts-Voldemort was far too good at Legimency to think in his presence and Lucius didn't fancy getting Crucioed right now.
Lucius' thoughts were interrupted by a loud shout from upstairs.
"Well, tell him from me, I'm not talking to him!" came the shill voice of a teenage girl from the next floor. "I'm sick of everything being about him" The sound of a slamming door and running footsteps accompanied the voice.
Lord Voldemort's face was a picture. Lucius wished he had a camera-that would get a laugh at the Annual Deatheater's Christmas Party. Or perhaps not.
"I'm sorry, my L-L-Lord. Alice's been a bit, t-t-teenage lately. As has
D-D-Draco." Lucius apologised. Draco's hormones had not reached quite the same heights that Alice Riddle's had. "Perhaps you should speak to her…" He quelled under Tom Riddle's furious look. A look that soon gave way to reluctant acceptance.
"Very well then, Lucius." Voldemort hissed, somehow managing to look terrifying and act like he was he granting a personally favour. But, like ever other deatheater, Lucius knew the only person ever known to scare Tom Marvolo Riddle, apart from Albus Dumbledore, was his fourteen-year old daughter, Alice. Maybe this was because she was the only person ever to stand up to him on a regular basis and still live to tell the tale. Or perhaps when he talked to he, he saw a female version of himself and was so scared that he gave her everything she wanted. The most popular theory doing the rounds this week by the deatheaters was that Alice Riddle was a vampire and had threatened her father with a bite, which would turn him into one himself, if she wasn't given she wanted. But whatever the reason, Alice Riddle had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. And she relished it.
-XxX-
Alice lay on the double bed in one of the grand spare rooms of the prestigious Malfoy Manor, flicking through the most recent edition of Madame Malkin's Robes for All Occasions owl-order catalogue and waited for the sound of the front door opening. She reached for the letter from Lucius Malfoy, delivered in the early hours of the morning that reported the joyous news of her father's rebirth. She was pleased, no matter how hard she tried to hide it, but she couldn't see the harm in making him feel bad for leaving her alone for fourteen years. Sure, he had conversed with her when she was eleven, but that was on the back of this weirdo's head for goodness sake! She had also written him letters and passed on messages through that idiot Peter 'Wormtail' Pettigrew, and had met with him many times over the past year, but it was unnerving to have conversations with a kind of ragdoll that resembled a monkey and to know it was your father. It seemed kind of wrong. So yeah, he was gonna have it big-time from Alice Elizabeth Riddle.
"Err Alice, your f-f-father is here…come d-d-downstairs." Came the voice of Lucius Malfoy, who's house she had currently been residing in for three months. She was constantly moving from deatheater's home to deatheater's home. Yet another thing to mention to her dad. Although, the manor wasn't as bad as some of other houses. She recalled with a shudder the horrible month spent in the care of the Crabbe's. She still had nightmares about the cockroaches.
She opened the heavy wooden door a few inches to shout down the stairs what she hoped was a deterring answer. She wasn't in the mood to hear one of her father's 'Look at me, I'm so clever, I have a plan!' speeches so exited her room (only pausing slightly to thoughtful slam the door loudly, causing anyone in the immediate vicinity to jump) and ran up the nearest staircase. She really loved this house. It had five floors (excluding the basement and attic) and was full of little hidey-holes and crevices. She chose the nearest door and blundered through it.
-XxX-
The heavy oak door was opened to reveal - a completely Alice-free room.
"Where is she!" demanded Lord Voldemort. Rounding on Lucius he accused " You said she'd be in here!"
"I'm s-s-sorry my Lord. She may have err….gone upstairs?" Damn those stutters.
"Well, let us find her then!"
Lucius led the way across the landing and up the nearest staircase. Incidentally, the wrong staircase. The pair emerged in a long corridor, filled with portraits. Hundreds of them.
The Dark Lord stood speechless at the top of the steep staircase. He had never seen so many pictures in one place, except perhaps in Hogwarts.
"What the ……"
"Narcissa has a, err, thing for old portraits." A thing was the understated way of saying it. More like an obsession.
"What are you doing here Lulu? Given up torturing innocent people for a few days?" said the voice that came from Lucius' least favourite portrait. It featured an old wizard, captured around 65. Lucius' uncle. That weird one… Died around fifty years ago but still blessed with a sarcastic manner and a sharp wit. Also persisted in calling him 'Lulu'. Oh, how he wished he could destroy this picture.
"Non of your damn business, Fetterbrain. Have you seen Alice Riddle pass here a few minutes ago?"
"What, the sexy one? Now if I was a few years younger and wasn't a picture….."
Voldemort drew his wand before realising it was unlikely that a Cruico would cause any pain to mere oil and canvas. Oh, well-no harm in trying.
"AHH! STOP! It tickles like hell!"
Damn.