I sit still, very still, with my legs crossed under the seat, looking out at the fields flashing by.

The inside of the Hogwarts Express is comfortable, and under normal circumstances I would take time to enjoy the beautifully embodied armrests and majestic patterned ceiling above me; but these are not normal circumstances. I am on my way to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for what would be my 6th year, if I had been going here all my school life, which I haven't. I'm just joining now, about halfway into the school year. I don't like that- that everyone else is already there, settled in. At least at the beginning of the year I would have had time to acquaint myself with the surroundings, but he told me too late. I have to jump right in at the deep end- knowing nothing.

Maybe it will do me good-at least I won't have to work too hard to get his attention. I mean, I'm guessing new students are pretty rare, especially this late on in the year. And it'll take something big to get his attention- I'm guessing he's pretty preoccupied with certain duties he has been told to carry out.

As am I come to think of it. Ever since my parents told me what the Dark Lord wanted I haven't been able to think about anything but him. Finally meeting him will be interesting- like meeting a character out of a story and finding they're completely different to how you imagined. Or maybe he'll be just as I imagined. I'll have to wait and see.

Maybe he'll be like his mother, though she seems quite cowardly and I can't imagine a coward taking on the challenges he has. She always hid behind Lucius, and now she hides behind Bellatrix. I can't imagine him being the type to hide behind others.

I think he'll be more like his father. I only saw him once or twice and he didn't speak to me, though I still felt like he had insulted me just as much as if he'd yelled a stream of profanities at me. He was cold and cruel and calculating and he looked down on everyone, like no one was good enough for him. Like no one quite matched up to his greatness. I say that but no doubt he becomes a sniveling wreck in front of the Dark Lord. Everyone does.

I hadn't understood how one man could be so terrifying, how people could be so scared that they wouldn't even want to speak his name. That was until I met him. Just thinking about that encounter makes my hair stand on end.

"So, this is you're daughter? The one who you have elected for this task?" He asked in that slimy voice of his.

My parents simply nodded their heads frantically, each of them about a foot behind me and staring directly at the marble floor. The pitying looks they gave me as we walked in had made me feel like I was being offered up as a human sacrifice. The way he surveyed me now didn't help to counteract that feeling.

I could feel his eyes scanning every inch of my body, I say feel because I didn't dare look up at him to actually see where his eyes were looking. It was like they had icy lasers in them, pointing right at me, and everywhere they went the hair stood up and the skin froze.

"Hmm," he said, considering the offering before him, "I can see she's not an idiot." He said slowly, each word dripping with malice. A malice that I don't think was particularly aimed at anyone right now, but was just always there, as a warning of what could come if he acquired a target. "She'd have to be an idiot to look me in face. And you're not looking at me are you-?" He paused, a question hanging in the air.

"A-Annora," I managed to choke out my name.

"Ah, yes, Annora. Look at me Annora." He said simply.

I'm not sure if I was actually physically shaking as I voiced my reply, but I wouldn't be surprised if I look as though I was trying to give a dramatic reenactment of a full scale earthquake. "I- I thought you said I'd have to be- have to be and idiot to look at- at you."

He made a sound that may have been a chuckle, but I feel wrong describing any sound coming from him as a chuckle. It sounds jolly, cheerful- which he is most definitely not. "Quite right. You'll be an idiot if you look at me," he paused, "but you'll be a dead idiot if you ignore me when I give you an instruction. So, look at me Annora."

I could feel the blood pounding in my head as I lifted it to look up at him.

His hand grabbed my jaw as he held me in place, inspecting me. His fingers dug into my throat. They were deathly cold but somehow any flesh they touched seemed to burn and scream out in pain.

When he was done looking at me, he let go and I had to use every once of self-control I had to stop myself bolting for the door. Instead I had to make do with raising my shaking palm and rubbing at the soreness in my neck. I could tell there would be red marks where his fingers had dug into my pale skin.

"She'll do" he said simply, and my parents sighed with relief behind me. "Does she understand what she needs to do?"

They nodded emphatically.

"Of course, my lord."

"We explained every to her last night, my lord."

He looked at me and I flinched, having accidently met his eyes for a second. He saw my reaction and a cold smirk tweaked the edges of his lips. "Do you understand your task?"

"Yes, my lord."

"You will do everything in your power to help him. Whether it is to aid his experiments or to support him when he needs. If he wants a shoulder to cry on, you will offer up your shoulder. If he needs someone to confide in, you will listen. If he needs anything, anything, you will be there."

"Yes, my lord."

"I had assigned this task to Severus of course but the boy doesn't seem to trust his professor. Severus will be informed of your arrival and the task I have set you. The boy will not however, you are to gain his trust on your own. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord."

His eyes bore into me, "It may surprise you to hear Annora that some people are so intimidated by my presence that they will do anything to get away from me. They nod their heads and they say 'Yes, my lord' but they don't understand a word I'm saying. Are you one of those people, Annora?"

"No, my lord."

"Because if you are, I hope you at least understand what is at risk. If you should fail this task, then you will not be held wholly responsible, your parents, who brought you to me, will also be responsible." He paused. He always seemed to be putting his full concentration into what he said, carefully enunciating every syllable so that there was no chance that he could be misunderstood. "I am not best pleased with your parents and it may take something like this to- shall I say- push me over the edge. Do you understand?"

I head my mother whimper behind me.

"Yes, my lord."

He looked my up and down once more, and nodded to himself. "Very well," he turned and waved his hand at us, "You may go."

I turned and walked as quickly as I could without sprinting out of the door and into the light. Once out of the cold room I breathed in the clean air my lungs had been craving and dropped to my knees. Someone pulled me up.

"Not here Annora," my mother, Alecto, told me, her voice still shaky.

The hand on my back belonged to my father, Amycus. He held me up as we marched towards the black iron gates (though of course they may as well have been made of paper, it wasn't them that kept people out, it was the spells.)

"Mother," I said as we walked out, "when you all say I have to befriend him, gain his trust, please him and stuff like that. Do you mean I might have to like- um"

"Anything, my daughter," She said, "You have to do anything."

"Anything and everything," added my father, "You cannot fail."

So here I am speeding towards Hogwarts on an otherwise empty Hogwarts Express. On my way to do the will of the Dark Lord Voldermort and help Draco Malfoy in his task to kill Albus Dumbledore.

All because my stupid parents want to make it up to the Dark Lord, because all those years ago, when they thought he was dead, they denied ever having anything to do with them. And now he's come back from the dead and he's not 'best pleased' and they are claiming to be his loyal servants once again- his Death Eaters.

So what can they do to prove their loyalty? Put their necks on the line? No, no, no. Sacrifice their daughter? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.

So here I am, through no fault of my own, all because I am Annora Carrow.