Gone Twisted

Ash was still lying in the soft wet grass when she suddenly felt the atmosphere change. The birds stopped singing and wind seemed to have vanished and all that she could hear was the slow and menacing noise of grass being pushed aside.

Swiftly she pushed of the ground and looked around her, but she saw nothing.

Suddenly she yelped aloud and rushed away from the spot she had been sitting in a second ago.

"Nagini!" Ash yelled in surprise and held her chest, trying to calm down again. "You scared me to death! The next time let me know when you're near!" she screamed at the snake, still in shock. "What are you doing here any ways?" she asked when her heart had calmed down again.

Nagini hissed.

Ash looked at the snake in annoyance, "You know I don't understand you."

Nagini hissed again, this time moving forward and slithering between Ash's legs and towards the exit of the labyrinth.

"I'm supposed to follow you?"

Nagini looked back at the girl and Ash could swear she saw the snake roll her eyes at her.

"I guess master wants to see me?" Ash asked quietly, already knowing and fearing the answer.

Nagini just looked at Ash and then began moving along the path once again, knowing the girl would follow.



"You wanted to see me, master?" Ash asked softly after knocking at the a big oak door that lead into the study.

"Ah, yes. Come in," a voice hissed out of the darkness. Ash held open the door for the gigantic snake to slither into the room first and then followed slowly.

Normally she wouldn't have thought twice about this invitation. Voldemort always invited her over to discuss a couple of affairs, but today was different. She had noticed him watching her more intently recently, she had felt his gaze on her during the last meetings, even during dinner. Swallowing softly she took one last glance behind her at the brightly lit corridor, before slipping into the in darkness covered room.

Still facing the door, she softly closed it. Her heart started to pump faster and faster as she turned around and looked at the grim looking creature in front of her.

There was something in his eyes, in the way he sat there in the big chair across from her, in the way the the light of the fire reflected in his eyes, that made her break into cold sweat.

"Sit down," the voice hissed again and a long, sickly white and thin looking arm came into sight and pointed at a empty chair across of him. Still a bit paranoid Ash cautiously moved towards the chair and sat down. All the while, the man on the dark cloak watched her. "You seem to be a bit on edge today, may I ask why?"

Ash tried to hide her fear behind a short laugh, but it sounded forced even to her. "I-I'm sorry your Lordship. I'm not feeling so well today," she tried to excused herself, "I think I should probably get to bed again soon," she added with a slight cough.

"Soon..." Voldemort repeated after her and Ash knew she'd be sitting here a while.

"How can I help you, my Lord?" she said softly.

Voldemort smiled a bit, "You seem distracted lately."

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what I mean. You didn't say one word at last nights meeting. Just stared at the wall."

"I didn't have anything to add."

"You would have if you had been listening. We decided on killing all the order brats in at Hogwarts."

Ash's head snapped up and her eyes got wide as she tried to digest the news. There was no way that she could agree to this. Ash racked her mind to try to convince him of not doing this fatal thing.

Suddenly hoarse laughter filled the air. "There we've got the evidence. We didn't decide anything about the Hogwarts students yesterday. But you would have known that if you had been listening," Voldemort said fiercely. "However, it does sound like a good plan, doesn't it my love?" he continued and continued studying Ash's reactions while stroking Nagini's head.

Ash didn't say a thing. Voldemort was testing her and she didn't know how she could pass this test.

"I asked you something!" he said, this voice starting to get a threatening tone.

"I-I-I am unsure if that would be wise, my Lord. There are to many of the Order still out there," she said, not looking at the man in front of her, but at the ground.

"We're stronger then all of them together! Their kids are their weakest front. If we attack them there they will be forced to come out and we will be able to kill them all at once!"

"No!" Ash screamed out loud and held her head tightly as Voldemort projected the images of screaming teenagers in Hogwarts. Running away from the dangerous spells of the Death Eaters, hiding from the kiss of the Dementors. "You screw-up! Harry will kill you're sorry wrinkly ass!" she screamed.

Time stood still for her as she realised what she had just said. Still sitting in the chair, arms clamping at her hair and staring down at her lap, Ash froze in place. Swallowing hard, she slowly let her eyes wander up and looked at the pale face of the monster she had to call master.

"You disappoint me Ash. You truly disappoint me."

Ash didn't say anything. Concentrating all her power in blocking her mind to his brain attacks. She had let her guards down in fear a bit too much and now she had been exposed. She could not let Voldemort reach further into her mind and discover that she wasn't alone.

"Who's in it with you?"

"No one. I'm alone."

"No. You would have died rather then accepting to become an Death Eater. Who are you working with? Who made you change your mind?"

"No one! You used Draco on me. I couldn't watch him suffer like that!"

"You didn't care about Malfoy! You had Zabini by then."

"I did care about Malfoy! We may have broken up, but that doesn't mean my feelings for him vanished!"

"I wonder if Malfoy actually knew about you and Zabini..."

Ash froze again. Did Draco know? Ash wasn't sure. They never mentioned it. He could have seen her kissing him at the party or Chase or Pansy could have told him, but who knows?

"I'm guessing that is a no..."

"No, Draco knows, I'm sure of it. But what's that got to do with this anyhow?"

"Nothing really, just making conversation," Voldemort chortled quietly.

Ash instantly focused on her mind barriers again. She nearly forgot to keep her guard up with all the talk about Draco and Blaise.

Voldemort said something in Parseltounge. Suddenly she saw Nagini emerge from the shadows once again. The snake slithered in her direction, her small deadly eyes fixated on her face, then just before reaching her, the snake changed directions and slithered out of the heavy oak doors.

Tears were starting to form in her eyes as she watched Nagini disappear. "Were is she going?" Ash asked quietly.

"She's getting a good friend of yours, but its nothing you have to concern yourself with right now," the darkness told her once again.

Without a warning, tremendous pain erupted through her body and soul. Every cell in her body wanted to tare away from her, every muscle was ripping, every nerve was on fire and every vain broke apart. Screaming her lungs out she willed herself to stay awake, willed herself to not give into the pain and loose her concentration on her mental barrier. Like the first time he had her under his curse, Voldemort’s will to destroy her, to make her suffer for defying him was making her toenails curl up and make every bone be ripped out of her open and bleeding flesh. Had she thought that the spell during her first encounter with Voldemort was painful, the spell she was under now managed to top it by lengths.

Suddenly she knew that Voldemort, the cold-hearted evil being that she tried her best to defeat, felt betrayed by her.