"We are having a party tomorrow little Nymph." I glanced over at Malfoy, currently sitting at the dining table like a king. My lip curled and I shuffled the food around on my plate again, some weird gelatine blob wiggled when I hit it with my fork. I had come straight to the dining room after the 'cupboard' incident, and did my best not to smack Malfoy across the face for daring to sell Rosie to that disgusting Nott humanoid.

He frowned when I didn't respond, inwardly I smirked. "Don't you want to know what the party is for?"

I took a bite of my jelly thing, gagged and spat it out on the plate, a disgusted noise left Malfoy. "Purification Ball." Short answers are best, don't get angry.

"She saw the request for funding for the ball." Riddle sat across from me, red eyes trained on my downcast ones.

Malfoy 'humfed', "eat your food." I scoffed and looked at the plate, this wasn't food, this was 'look at how fancy I am' balls of mush.

"I'm not hungry." I took a sip of the wine, spat that back in too. Nasty stuff.

A fork slammed down on a plate, I glanced up at Riddle. How do I piss him off when I'm not even trying to. "We will be debuting you to society tomorrow, I expect you to eat your food and drink your wine like a human, not the animal you are."

I looked at him bored, control, and nodded before placing my fork down. The room was silent, "may I be excused?"

"No." Twin voices answered, I sighed and sunk further into my chair. Already sick of behaving, I looked around the room we were in. It was large and cold, like much of the Manor. There was a buffet style table at the front of the room, all covered in icky looking food. Bangers and mash would be nice right now.

"I will be handing off my collection of creatures." Stated Malfoy, "I understand you have become close to Vanessa, you had best say your goodbyes."

"Not in the mood to keep you harem then?" Fucking mouth, I bit my tongue.

Eyes narrowed, Malfoy looked at me. "Do you want me to keep them?"

"Yes." My lips twitched in a smile when he swore and slammed his cutlery down.

"You are the most impossible woman."

I chuckled and winked at him. "Not a women remember," I held up my brand, "call me Creatur-"

"Enough!" Malfoy and I both jumped, Riddle rarely yelled. He took a breath and waved his hand at the door, it opened and two people in black robes and masks walked in. Between them was Vanessa, I sucked in a breath at the sight of her. She was beaten, badly. Two swollen eyes met mine and I flinched, he knew.

"Did you really think you could keep a secret from me Mudblood." Riddle spoke to me, I flinched and looked at him. "Malfoy, you really need to tame your pets better. Imagine my surprise when one of my servants came to me, speaking about some crazy Nymph who was going to blow us all up and the Veela who was helping her."

Vanessa let out a chuckled from between the robed men, she was barely able to stand, but she still managed to spit a glob of blood and Riddle. It missed. One of the men spun her around and backhanded her across the face, she cried out and fell to the ground at their feet. Furious I stood, my chair scraped backwards across the floor.

"Sit...down." The dark voice was deathly calm, my hands shook a little in fear but I stood my ground.

"Get...fucked." This time I spat, and it actually managed to hit Riddle's robes. The masked men made to come towards me, the fury in their eyes visible through the tiny slits in the masks.

"Stop," they stopped. My teeth instinctively slid down and I hissed at them, my fingernail started to hurt and I looked down briefly to see claws sliding over the top of my normal nails. I was radiating rage, body practically giving off waves of energy.

"Calm down Tony," I narrowed my eyes at Malfoy.

Riddle waved his hand at me when I went to slash out at Malfoy, I was inches from his neck when a crushing weight sent me to the floor. It felt like my legs were made of heavy metal, further pressure to my shoulders forced my chest to hit the ground.

"Take the Veela for re-education." From my position I could only see the legs of the men snap together in military fashion. "Don't harm her further, I believe she has learnt her lesson." There was slight hesitation from the men before Vanessa was picked up and disappeared from my view.

Once again there was silence in the room. "What the fuck do we do now Tom?"

"She want's to act like a creature, we treat her like one." Footsteps came around the table, my claws dug further into the wood beneath me, leaving deep groves. "Did you really think I would let you escape?"

Laughter bubbled out of my throat, "no."

"What was the plan then? You escape and bring back Muggles to help you kill us?" The weight slowly left my shoulders and I could breath properly again.

"No, I was going to kill you both." From my position I could just meet Riddle's eyes. "Not that there is much of you left to kill." Soulless, literally.

The hex holding me down suddenly let up, I could see from the surprise in Riddle's face that he hadn't been the one to do it. Taking my chance I scurried up backed away from the Wizards, I had no chance of beating them and they knew it.

"How did you do that?" Hissed Riddle.

Shrugging I started backing towards the door, both he and Malfoy were eerily still. I had felt a small twinge of magic leave me when the hex let up, maybe I had managed to break it?

"Grab her." Commanded evil incarnate, Malfoy moved towards me.

"Come on Antoinette, play nice." I smirked inwardly, ok. Rushing forward into Malfoy's arms. I kicked up when his hands gripped my shoulders. He shifted suddenly and blocked most of my hit, but I still got him a little bit. His face went pale and his hands fell away, spinning I went back to my previous position.

"Fuck," he gasped out and gripped his bollocks. "Why do you always go for the muggle shots with me?"

"Do I have to do everything myself?" Ground out Riddle, he pointed that weird wand at me and I braced for pain. Whatever he was going to cast bounced off me, a ripple went around me and I felt slightly weaker.

"How the hell is she doing that?" Malfoy released his family jewels and looked worriedly at Riddle, who looked equally confused.

My eyes lit up at the realisation that some more of my Nymph powers must be ramping up, mainly, instinctual magic. Goodbye only fireballs, hello useful shield. That same realisation suddenly overcame Riddle's face, and he looked slightly worried, as in his eye brow twitched.

"Stop Tony."

I grinned, "nope" my 'e' popped. Bracing my feet apart, I widened my palms and felt the hot lick of flames on them. I met Riddle's gaze for a quick moment, then flung my hand towards him. He dissipated the ball of fire with a wave of his wand, and sent something back at me. Again my shield absorbed it, but this time I could almost feel the web of magic that held the spell together. Twisting my hand I sent the spell back off towards Malfoy, who barely got his wand up in time to block it. I was surprised he had actually managed to not get hit, considering who the original caster was. Which meant Riddle was 'taking it easy' on me.

"What's wrong Lord Voldemort, scared you'll hurt me?" I fell to the ground when a stronger spell shot towards me alarmingly fast, it flew over my shield and hit the door behind me. The door blasted away with a sound that made my ears pop, I could hear screaming down the hall as people ran away from the blast radius. "Guess not." I rolled myself back up and darted out the broken door before either man could react, there was shouting from behind me but I didn't stop.

Fuck this. Weaving in and out of panicked staff, who took one look at who was chasing me and dropped to the ground in reverence, I tried to remember the quickest way to the library. Safe space. I could stay and fight, but my energy was already low, and Riddle seemed just mad enough to actually get through my shield. My fingers had just touched the doorhandle when I went flying, a scream left my throat as arms wrapped around mine, pinning them to the side. We landed on our side, my captor purposefully taking the blunt of the fall. Malfoy let out a grunt of pain, but his arms stayed tight around me.

I wiggled wildly, until the bands of fucking steel that held me tightened and it became hard to breath. Slow and measured footsteps came down the hall towards us, I sank instinctively back a little in the arms that held me. Malfoy was the easier one to deal with.

"Shhh," lips touched the top of my head, "when are you going to learn not to piss him off." Whispered Malfoy, his arms tightening in a almost comforting way. They were strange polar opposites.

"Get her up." The dark sound in the deep voice caused a shiver down my spine, this is where I die.

"Can't exactly do that and keep a grip on her, My Lord." The last part added quickly, even Malfoy knew how pissed Riddle was. The 'Lord' snarled in anger and reached down and gripped my arms, he yanked me up so fast I nearly headbutted him.

"Do you have the collar?" Malfoy stood up and reached into his robe pocket, he bought out a sliver band with a small ring in the front of it. I recognised it as a similar collar to what they made their Muggleborn slaves wear, but different then the one they made me wear to the Ministry. Before I could attempt to throw myself away Malfoy had snapped it around my neck, Riddle immediately released me and I fell to the ground. Fingers clawing at the band, there was no clasp though. There was a strange power coming from the collar, I could feel it almost sapping my energy. Slightly groggy I glared up at Riddle, he had the nerve to quirk his lips at me in a almost smile.

"Don't bother, it's enchanted." No shit, "I had the elves cook this little band up for you when I was told what you were planning."

"What is it?" My claws sunk back into my fingers and I could feel my fangs receding, the invisible shield around me faltered and then dissipated.

"People always underestimate the magic of elves, they are and always have been good at one thing." He leaned down a little and gripped the circular hook at the front of the collar, I found myself unable to stop myself from standing at his command. "Slavery." He released his grip and I stumbled back a little, panting and extremely drained.

Malfoy put a hand on my shoulder and I flinched, I could feel the room closing in a little as a panic attack nearly caught me.

"Lets take her to the dungeon, let her see how we treat those who rebel." Riddle turned and walked away from the library, the hand on my shoulder tightened and pushed me forward a little.

I planted my feet into the ground and tried to loosen the grip on my shoulder, I was yanked forward by the front of my throat. That blasted diamond chain was connected to the hold in the front of my new collar, my feet moved forward without my violation. I could feel the will and wants of Riddle as he pulled me along behind him, the chain seemed to act as a silent commander to his will. We walked past frightened staff in the hallway, I could hear his voice in my head commanding me and was unable to resist.

"Look down, don't make eye contact, you are beneath even these slaves". My gaze shot to the floor and I wanted to scream that I wasn't beat, that it was this blasted collar. But I remained silent, mouth shut by enchantment.

We came to a non-descript door and entered, down we went until there was another corridor in front of us. I could hear quiet whimpering and crying, I flinched at the sounds of flesh hitting flesh.

"Eyes up", the voice rang through my head and I looked around. There were thick wooden doors with bars on them that allowed for limited viewing, inside one I could see dirty and huddled bodies of people.

"This is what happens to those who resist the 'status quo', as you put it to Vanessa." We walked past that door to another one, Vanessa was inside and she was strapped to a chair. There was a man holding a wand to her head, I could see something silvery connecting the wood to her temple.

"You may speak".

"What are you doing to her?"

Riddle looked in and smirked, "erasing hope."

Malfoy added, "we are adjusting and taking her memories of you. Once this is done she will be back to the way she was before she ever met you, no memory of an attempted revolt." He answered my silent question, "then I will sell her."

"That's barbaric. This is all disgusting, I hope yo-"

"Silence".

My voice was gone and my head dropped down in frustration, tears clouded my vision for a moment and I took a breath.

We continued walking, I could hear the wailing and cries of those around us. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to beg them to stop this, please. But I couldn't, the band around my neck preventing even the slightest sound to leave my mouth.

"This will be your room tonight." We stopped outside a wooden door and it opened. Inside the stone walls were covered with grime, and dripped with something that smelt and looked like shit.

"Go inside", silently I obeyed. There was a pallet off to the side with some filthy bedding, and a bucket next to it.

"I had hoped you would behave after this morning, it appears that you are incapable of controlling the animal inside." The chain around my neck vanished and I could feel the urge to scream and pull my hair coming on, I barely resisted, instead I turned and faced the Monsters. They looked decidedly proud of themselves, like they hadn't already locked me in a dungeon once before and tortured me. I felt myself bend, but not break, they would not break me. Refusing to show my fear, I reached out for the door and closed it on them before Riddle could attempt to get off another last word. I could see their faces through the bars for a moment before I turned around. Malfoy looked conflicted but determined, and Riddle had narrowed eyes, deep red and horrifying. I ignored them, and tried not to beg them to let me out when I heard them walking away. Soon it was just me, me and the screams of the poor people locked up around me. I sunk to my knees, clothes soaking up the wetness around me, and wept.