Light in the Darkness

Chapter 2

From the moment of the Dark Lord's return to his followers, Cordelia had sensed the great affect it had on them. Even now, sitting at an oak desk in the small room she occupied at Malfoy Manor, she could clearly recall the way the Death Eaters had cowered before their leader in that foggy graveyard on that fateful night in June.

Yet, what she recalled more than the fear in their faces, and the terrified anticipation in their slumped shoulders, was the look of utter defiance in the emerald green eyes that had stared at her through raven hair plastered with sweat to their owner's brow. Those eyes had looked so fearless in that moment. Pain had coursed through the boy like an electric fire and a thousand knives covered in acid -she knew the feeling of the Cruciatus Curse all too well- but even though he had winced and thrashed in anguish, his eyes had seemed so determined. Determined to do what? she wondered. The question had nearly driven her mad all summer, and yet she was left just as clueless as she had been that night. Had it been determination to survive? To outwit the Dark Lord?

Indeed he had done the former, but the later had not truly been achieved. Yes, he had escaped death at the hand of the Dark Lord-twice thus far- but just like on all of those other occasions, his victory seemed to have only been won by pure luck, a twist of fate, some slide of hand.

Cordelia had examined each of these incidents in as much acute detail as she could without physically interviewing anyone involved. Her investigation was thorough, yet she was only able to come up with one vague conclusion: Harry Potter had something the Dark Lord did not. She did not doubt the Dark Lord's immense power -no, that much was unfathomable to her- but "The Boy Who Lived" had escaped death one too many times for it to be coincidence, or a mistake. No, Harry Potter had a secret to his success, but with every great power there is a weakness to exploit it, and Aurora was excellent at sniffing out weakness.

The Dark Lord must have realized that Aurora possessed this gift for uncovering vulnerability, because later that evening, just as the dark-haired girl had become submerged in a rather thick book entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, a soft knocking at her door disrupted a particularly interesting paragraph about hippogriffs. Using a piece of scrap parchment as a bookmark, Cordelia set down her book and opened the door to her quaint bedroom. There, holding a small candle was a house elf with hazel eyes so large they seemed disproportionate to its diminutive two feet three inches stature.

Despite the poor lighting of the lone candle in the otherwise dark hallway, Cordelia knew at once that the creature was female. It was not by any physical characteristics -even her eagle eyes were not that sharp in such dim lighting- but by the sheer fact that she had seen the frail silhouette so many times before. Coosy was the elf's name, and Aurora knew it well from the many times she had heard it shouted out by Draco and her Uncle Lucius, as well as the occasional outburst from Aunt Narcissa. Yet, in the three years that Coosy had been "employed" at Malfoy Manor, following the unplanned liberation of Dobby, Cordelia had rarely seen the elf up close. It was the sign of a good house elf, not to be seen or heard, yet a tiny part of Cordelia wished that the elf had socialized with her as Dobby so often had. Until his release at the end of her third year of schooling, he had been her only friend. Now, she supposed, she did not have any friends at all.

Dressed only in the thin dishrag that had been tied around her like a toga, Coosy trembled in Cordelia's presence as the girl stared down at the elf. Indeed, from Coosy's perspective it all must have been quite frightening. The Malfoy's had been cruel to her from the moment she had arrived at their Manor, and though young Cordelia had never done anything to harm her, Coosy had seen the way her emotionless eyes stared blankly out the many windows in the household, and had been struck by the deathly effect it had on the girl's appearance. Paired with her pale brown skin and long bone-thin fingers, Cordelia's impassive gaze made her look like a corpse, frozen forever in time at the moment of her death. No pain, and yet no peace; just dead. The only thing that made her seem alive was her way of pacing and humming to herself when she was in her room; humming so loudly as if to stop herself from hearing her own thoughts.

Finally the small elf spoke up, "Mistress Cordelia? The Dark Lord has requested Coosy to bring you to him." Coosy's voice was a hushed squeak, but Cordelia heard her quite clearly, and nodding her head at the elf, she allowed herself to be led to the Manor's master bedroom, which Lucius and his wife had somewhat unwillingly relinquished to the Dark Lord.

Once the reached the oak door, Coosy wedged open the door ever so slightly and peered through the crack, lifting her candle to see. Inside the large room green drapes hung from the windows, and the bed was covered in lavish silk sheets dyed silver. There was a fireplace opposite the bed, and before it stood the Dark Lord, staring into the dimming fire in front of him with his back to the door.

Coosy reached up her small hand to knock on the doorframe only to become frozen mid-motion when the Dark Lord raised a hand to stop her without even turning around, "That will be all, let the girl in and be gone." Without further hesitation, the elf opened the door fully so that Cordelia could step inside, and once she had, a gentle swoosh of air and the click of a lock indicated that Coosy had gone.

As the air settled, Cordelia remained silent, her mind patient as always, though she subconsciously began to count the seconds as they passed. A total of eighty-nine seconds had passed since she had entered the room before the Dark Lord finally turned to look at her with his blood red eyes. Examining her for a moment he pondered the strange girl for a moment. Her body looked slender through her sweater and her button-up jeans skirt, but he could tell, from the way she stood with her legs shoulder length apart and her arms neatly poised behind her back that she was strong. With her dark eyes and messy curls she resembled her mother, Bellatrix, in her younger years, but Cordelia lacked her mother's curvaceous figure and pale skin. Still, the girl had something about her, that made him curious. He disliked the way she never cowered as the others did, but in the same breath he admired it. Just like her mother, he thought for the umpteenth time that evening, and that was exactly what he needed.

"Now, Cordelia, won't you please have a seat and we can get down to the matter of our little meeting here," he said gesturing to one of two plush armchairs that were situated in front of the fireplace.

She took her seat wordlessly, and stared into the fire mesmerized for a short minute by the flames before at last returning her gaze to the Dark Lord who was now seated in the chair opposite her studying her intently once more. The pair stared at each other for a second more before the Dark Lord began speaking once more, this time addressing his true purpose in requesting her presence.

"As you know, little Cordelia, I have great plans for the Wizarding World. Ever since I was a young boy at Hogwarts, I saw that things were not as they should be. The leader's of our world have become steadily more daft in the last decades, and have yet to see the error of their ways; I intend to do my part as a citizen to help show them these faults. Mudbloods and blood traitors have been soiling the pure blood of the ancestors both you and myself share. Indeed I fear for the fate wizarding community, and, as the only living descendant of Salazar Slytherin, I have taken it upon myself to fight for the purity of our race. I would like to recruit you to join the ranks of the Death Eaters. I think of you as a sort of protege, someone I can rely on to recruit others to our cause. Durmstrange is already full of so many young men ready to take on the righteous path, but I would like others."

Here the Dark Lord paused in his monologue to await a response from Cordelia, who had turned away from his intent gaze and was now contemplating the fire before them. For a moment the Dark Lord hesitated, wondering if the girl had heard anything he had said, but after half a minute of silence, the girl spoke, eyes still seemingly entranced by the fire, "What is it you wish for me to do, my lord?"

Smirking to himself, he carried on, "I would like you to go to Hogwarts and recruit your fellow students there. Much of the Slytherin House is already on our side, so you will have the unique task of recruiting students from the other Houses. Which is why I will assure that you are sorted into another."

The Dark Lord was rather smug about his plan, it was just simple enough to work. Looking at Cordelia expectantly, he was waiting for her to look at him excitedly, or with wonder at his brilliance, but instead she just continued to stare into the fireplace, and nodded her head once, "It would be my pleasure."

I would like to give a huge thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and would like to apologize for the fact that this chapter is merely a filler. Thankfully, chapter three is already in the works, so if you don't stop reading this story out of pure boredom during this chapter your patience will be rewarded in the next. Thanks again!

Magnolia