Altered for the Altar

My palms feel clammy as we came to the gate and my chest was rising quickly the short, fast breaths I was taking. I wasn’t nervous, merely just completely terrified.

“Don’t mess this up, Elizabeth,” my father harshly mumbled.

I glanced up, feeling as my eyes widened in slight shock, and stared at his face. There wasn’t any sorrow or sadness lingering in the lines of age, only coldness.

“We’ve gone through too much for you to open that mouth of yours and say something that will make the boy angry,” he said.

“Yes,” chimed in my mother. "Just do as he asks, without any smart remarks.”

I was at a loss at what to say, so I only offered a curt nod to them. After that, my father pushed the gate open and we began making our way up the cobblestone walk of Malfoy Manor.

My mind swirled with millions of things, each one just as revolting as the next. My parents seemed to not mind offering up their only daughter in order to get ahead in a war that had nothing to do with us, or the fact that it was going to become quite dangerous the further we progressed in this whole thing.

We wouldn’t be able to fool everyone for the entire time; someone would see past our facade, to what we were really up to, and they wouldn’t keep our secret as the rest of us planned to. They wouldn’t think anything about going and telling one or two friends, even if they didn’t have any substantial evidence to backup what they were proclaiming, and one or two of them would believe it. Then, most of the wizarding world would see holes in what we were presenting to them.

I sighed as all the thoughts bounced around, giving a slight shake of my head at the magnitude of it all. But, I contradicted, you agreed, therefore, you are as much apart and responsible as anyone else.

My attention having been elsewhere, I almost stumbled into my mother before I realized that she’d stopped behind my father, who was raising the large serpent shaped knocker to slam it against the shiny, black front door. When it was whisked open, I had to look down a considerable bit in order to properly see what had come to welcome us. Unaccustomed to the traditions of a British Wizarding family, I perplexedly starred at the wrinkly little creature that was staring up at us all with big, emerald colored eyes.

Was it a slightly bigger elf? An oddly looking dwarf, maybe?

My father, however, didn’t seem to care as much as I did; he swiftly stepped passed the little thing, which yelped a little and scurried backwards, and my mother soon followed.

I, however, was more curious and paused in order to see if I could engage the dirtily dressed little thing in a conversation. I knew that it was a house servant of some kind, due to its reaction to my fathers close proximity, and that it was more use to cruelty instead of kindness. There where what appeared to be marks of something sharp having scaled down the length of its large head, which was bare in the way of hair, and had just stopped at the beginning of its chin.

Frowning a little, I bent down so it would be able to properly look at me, and leaned my head down to snag its gaze. It jumped a little when it’s pretty green eyes locked with mine and stumbled a couple steps back.

“Hello,” I softly said.

It sounded as if it gasped and it chanced a quick peak before snapping its gaze back down to the shiny marble of the floor. Continuing to avoid any contact with me whatsoever, it began slowly shutting the door. I stood then and turned around so to be able to remain watching the little thing.

It paused, with both tiny hands on the black wood of the door, and gradually turned its head to glance at me over its shoulder. I smiled and waggled my fingers before taking a few steps forward, intent on offering my hand in a friendly handshake. It whirled around and seemed to glue itself to the door as its face took on an expression of pure horror. Its emerald eyes grew ten times in size and its bony knees clacked together because they had begun shaking so bad.

“I’m sorry if I frightened you,” I quietly spoke, "I just want to shake your hand.”

It seemed to swallow hard and then spent a few short seconds searching my face with its pretty jeweled eyes. I continued to smile, trying to coax it away from the door, and had dropped back down so it was able to properly look me in the face again.

But before it could consider that shaking my hand wouldn’t result in anything painful, a cold voice interrupted us from behind.

“Leal.”

The thing then looked passed my shoulder and quickly scuttled up the stairs, tripping over itself as it went. Frowning, I rose from my position and turned to face the person who’d scared the creature off.

The blonde headed boy stood in a grey suit several feet behind me, with his hands shoved into the pockets of his pants just like the first time I’d seen him. He was frowning, too, and his light colored eyebrows were cast down just like before. I didn’t look for the traces of emotion this time, though; I wasn’t going to allow myself to pretend, like before, and had decided that avoiding all that together was the best way not to worsen this entire situation.

“They’re not allowed to talk to our guest’s,” he said.

I nodded and brought my eyes down to stare at my, now, twisting hands. They had begun to feel clammy again and the few moments that I’d been able to lose myself in my curiosity was fading. Saying nothing, I simply began to head in to the room that voices could be heard coming from. When I walked past him, I didn’t even look up and I doubted he’d even moved his gaze from the front door.

We weren’t friends-in fact, given our current circumstances, I’d say we were the furthest thing from that.

When I entered the room, the only person who looked over was the boy’s mother. Her eyes were as cold as anyone else’s in her family, but she seemed a bit more aware of me than the others. She continued to stare as I made my way over to my parents, so I offered up a small smile and then took to looking back down at my intertwined hands.

“Yes, yes-she has all that,” my father impatiently said.

“Because these people will notice if she isn’t at all up to the standard in which we affiliate ourselves with. She has to be believable, Reese,” Mr. Malfoy said.

“She has quite a pretty face,” a woman’s voice shot through the deep ones of the men.

It wasn’t my mothers and so I knew that Mrs. Malfoy was speaking for the first time. Her voice was soft and quiet, and her British accent flowed perfectly with it all.

“Yes, Elizabeth has always been striking,” quipped my mother.

“Yes, she’s a very beautiful girl-now can we begin the conversation about more important things? Lucius, whens this party of yours supposed to be,” said my father quickly.

Clearly any talk about me was something he disfavored, not that I was surprised much. His remarks before we’d entered through the gate had removed any notions that he might dislike me leaving and being traded to another family. He’s eyes were set on one thing and one thing only: the power our two dark populations could bring.

“A date has not been set, but we’ve considered a few weeks from now,” replied Mr. Malfoy. “Why? I thought my party meant nothing to you?”

“It doesn’t, I’m more interested in those that you’re going to invite.”

As Mr. Malfoy paused for a few seconds, something that appeared out of the corner of my eye snagged my attention and I quickly glanced over. It was Draco and he gracefully walked over to take a seat next to his mother. She didn’t reach an arm over, though I was sure I saw her hand twitch a little as she gazed worryingly over at him. He offered her a half of a smile and then returned his gaze to his shiny shoes.

“What has who I’m going to invite have anything to do with anything?”

“We’ll want to become great friends with those that are close to this Voldermort of yours, gain their trust and see if we can’t win them over to our side,” said my father.

“We’re not trying to form our own army, Reese,” Mr. Malfoy shakily said. “We merely want your numbers to join our ranks to turn the scale in our favor.”

My father sighed, clearly disgruntled, and then nodded a few times.

“Yes, but what is this ‘Dark Lord’ going to do once it’s over, Lucius? Is his going to keep you all around just because you faithfully fought for him? Highly unlikely.”

“No, we can’t have any of that if we’re going to successfully do this, Reese! You can’t doubt the Dark Lord if he’s to fully trust you-if you’re to really convince him that you intend on actually giving us the thousands you promised. He won’t refrain from killing you just because you offering a helping hand, and you’re too much of an asset to us to die.”

“I’m touched, Lucius, really. You just worry about preparing your army here and I’ll worry about the others that are to come over,” my father said.

Mr. Malfoy’s eyes had widened and now he was leaning forward a little from the couch he’d been sitting on. Clearly my father’s questioning of his leader had rattled him and I figured then that that was something that wasn’t normally done.

“He’s so skilled in Occulmency that you can’t even imagine, and when I go to report back to him, if he sees any serious threat from you, then he really won’t mind in sending someone out to kill you. He won’t see you as something that’s valuable to us; he’ll only see your doubt in him, and he makes sure to regularly clear out any trace of that.”

He wasn’t just rattled, I realized, he was completely petrified of this man they were talking about. Just as with the house servant earlier, I had no idea how their world work, but figured this Dark Lord was quite powerful and the clear leader of his dark cohorts.

“Fine,” my father coldly said. “I believe we stated that we would figure out our next move at this little meeting. So, what did you have in mind?”

It took Mr. Malfoy a few seconds to gather himself, my father’s previous words seeming to have completely put him in a state of panic, and when he replied, his voice wasn’t quite as steady as before the whole mention of after the war.

“Well, there are a few key members from the other side that need to be taken care of in order to ensure that your many will be able to be used by the Dark Lord. Draco and the girl can start on that as soon as possible, now that she’s come here.”

My eye’s widened at that. I hadn’t been informed that killing someone was going to be required of me and that was something I didn’t know if I could successfully stomach. Marrying someone in order to draw over more support for them wasn’t near the emotional magnitude of killing someone who’d never done a thing to me in their life.

“Yes, that sounds good. Keep me informed, Lucius.”

My father began to stand then, followed by my mother, and he quickly motioned for me to do so as well before he disappeared out of the room. As I was stepping out in to the hall, I caught a few quick words that Mr. Malfoy exchanged with his wife.

“If the Dark Lord think’s Reese doubt’s him, then we’ll never be able to fully redeem ourselves.”

I furrowed my brows at this, but didn’t mull over it too long-my father wouldn’t have motioned for me if it weren’t important. So I quickly headed to the front door, to where I could see him putting his fedora back and my mother slipping back into her coat.

“Remember what I said, Elizabeth,” he began. “Whatever you do, do not mess this up-it’s too important.”

I nodded and tried to force a small smile, but wasn’t able to muster much.

He swung open the door and he and my mother vanished in the fog that was now swallowing the lawn of the manor. Sighing, I watched them fade, feeling as the sense of abandonment began to sweep over me. I wasn’t expecting much from them when they left, but I would’ve liked at least a meaningful look or even a trace that they might miss me. But I got nothing and now I was cursing myself for even allowing my expectations to get that high.

A small, quiet cough interrupted my self-berating and I turned to see the little creature from before. It was looking up at me, but wasn’t able to manage fully staring at my face. I could tell it was still uncomfortable and that it was only here again because it had been instructed to by one of the Malfoy’s.

“He’s going to take you to room,” said a cold voice.

I glanced past the creature to see Draco, who was, again, frowning as he stood with his hands in his pants pockets.

“Oh, well, thank you,” I said, directing my statement and small smile down to the creature.

Its eyes grew big and it didn’t even nod, just began hurrying up the carpeted stairwell that rested a few doors down. Marveling at its odd behavior, I glanced over to Draco again and offered up only a half of a smile before directing my gaze to my hands.

“As your father previously mentioned, time is something that isn’t on our side and we’re expected to make great progress before the other’s come,” Draco said.

“I understand,” I replied, glancing up at him again.

“Just understanding isn’t enough,” he quickly retorted. “You may have a lot that you’re dealing with now, but you can’t let any of that interfere when it comes to this. It’s to important.”

Frowning, I realized then what Mr. Malfoy’s statement meant now. His family was desperate for this to work in order to either make a lasting impression on this Dark Lord they spoke of, or somehow fix whatever it was that they'd mucked up. Either one was cause enough for them all to act so frantic when any talk of how things were going to be ran came up and I wondered what other trials the Dark Lord had made them go through before they came to this.

I merely nodded, at a loss as to what I was to say back to him. Obviously any recognition on his family’s lack of favor with this person wouldn’t go over well with him and I wasn’t going to offer up a promise of success when I had no idea of any such thing being capable.

He stared for a few minutes, as if trying to read if I was truly grasping this all, and then turned to head back into the room his parents were still in.

Sighing after he’d disappeared, I caught sight of the little creature again, who’d obviously seen that I wasn’t behind him, and smiled as I began to make my way towards him.

Only a short hour in this house and I was already realizing that this all was going to be worse than I thought.