"Very well, we will continue again tomorrow. I believe you are supposed to be with Antonin this afternoon." I nodded and practically ran from the room.
I slowed down a bit when I was far enough away from the room. I reached the dining room a little out of breath and practically threw the door open in my hast. A surprised Voldemort was staring at me when I entered. Without saying a word I walked to a seat a few down from his that was preset up and sat down.
"Good afternoon, Aunalay," Voldemort said while looking me up and down. He obviously had not missed my messy appearance. I decided to voice my displeasure. "Good for you maybe," I mumbled as I stabbed my fork into the chicken breast in front of me rather violently. "What did that chicken breast ever do to you?" I looked up bewildered. Did Voldemort really just joke? The Dark Lord in front of me did not look terrifying at all. On the contrary he appeared rather foolish. He had a large grin across his face and looked as if he had just said the funniest thing ever. I laughed in spite of myself.
"Perhaps I should be asking what Bellatrix Lestrange ever did to you, hmm? Judging by the look of you and the violent manner in which you are attacking your lunch I would say something or a lot of things you didn't appreciate." I tore into my first bite and finished chewing before answering him. I found that I was absolutely starving, but I needed to rant and food can wait.
"She jinxed me about a bagillion times and then her and Rudolphus laughed at me when I tried to stand up and fell back down since one of her stupid spells had broken my ankle!" I practically shouted at him. "Hmm, and what did you do to earn this treatment?" It was my turn to look stupid. I stared up at him with a confused look on my face. What had I done? Yes Aunalay, what did you do to deserve to be abused and humiliated? Was he actually serious? Please tell me this was another lame joke.
"Come now Aunalay, I know Bella well enough to know that she would not disobey my orders. I specifically told all of my death eaters that you were not to be touched unless you acted out. What did you do?"
"I accidentally slept in and was like three minutes late. I told her it was only three minutes, but she went all crazy on me and told me I needed to learn to respect hers and others time. I mean come on, really!" I said, not hiding my exasperation. I suddenly wished I had when I noticed Voldemort's previously amused expression had turned into a rather cool, unreadable one.
"That would explain your absence at breakfast. She is right. You do need to learn to respect others time. I will not have you wasting my death eaters time for your precious beauty sleep." Was he really justifying her abuse? Of course he is, a little voice in my head told me. He is still Voldemort.
"I'm sorry I was just so tired last night I completely forgot about anything else." I chanced a glance up. His face was still unreadable."Perhaps you will remember next time. Did you learn anything this morning, at least?" I took another bite before I spoke. "I learned a couple of stinging jinxes and that they really hurt." He chuckled at my response and then lunch settled back into realitively casually conversation. It felt rather odd to have a friendly chat over lunch with my former arch enemy. It was surprisingly nice, though. After I had finished I stood to leave. I was stopped suddenly, however, when Voldemort cleared his throat. I turned around as he began to speak.
"Do not forget your lesson with Antonin this afternoon and do try not to be late. You are excused." He motioned toward the door as he spoke. I left the room and headed back in the direction of my room. I had a few hours to kill before Dolohov would be expecting me and I wanted to stay as far away from Bellatrix and the others as possible until then. When I reached my room I headed for the bed with the intent of taking a nap. I began setting my alarm this time. Bellatrix was right about one thing, I wouldn't forget to do that again. After setting my alarm I looked up. I hadn't really taken much notice to the view out of my window until now. The yard was perfect. I would have expected nothing less from the Malfoys. It was a rather beautiful sight. Then something caught my eye. Just beyond the immediate yard was what appeared to be a rather nice quidditch pitch. I couldn't believe my eyes. The Malfoys owned their own pitch! I could see no one flying and was fairly certain it was empty. It had been so long since I had been on a broom. I suddenly wasn't tired anymore. Instead of climbing into bed I ran to the closet, threw on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a cloak since it was a little chilly out. I grabbed my broom and invisibility cloak from inside my closet. It was one of the few possessions of mine that I still had with me. I had taken Hermione's bag and stuffed only a few items in. My broom, wand, the marauders map, my cloak, sirious's mirror, two changes of clothes, and the snitch. If the others had seen me packing they would have caught on and tried to stop me sooner so I took the bare minimum.
After I was dressed I headed for the door. I threw on the invisibility cloak and headed for the stairs. I was pretty sure I was allowed to wander, but I didn't really want to run into any death eaters along the way. The cloak appeared to be useful as I passed a handful of death eaters on my way through the mansion. I reached the front door and pulled it open. I then began my trek across the lawn to the portion that I remembered seeing the pitch. I found it surprisingly easy. The size of it alone made it hard to miss. It had some stadium seating, a full standard sized field, a rather large shed filled with a variety of brooms. Some of these had names like Draco Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy, Antonin Dolohov, Gregory Goyle, and Bellatrix Lestrange. Others seemed to merely be spares. After exploring I walked toward the middle of the pitch. I checked my watch. I still had two hours before I was supposed to meet with Dolohov. That was plenty of time. I jumped on my broom and kicked off.