Morose.

Alicis could see him through the frosted windows. There was no mistaking that sleek, white hair and those metallic eyes that she had grown to remember as she longingly climbed the icy steps of Malfoy Manor. Alicis' parents looked too old, too brittle, and much too grave as of late. They gracefully slammed the knocker against the jet black door.

Alicis now saw him very often. Draco was told to wait with her while the Dark Lord had his words with the adults. Though pathetically apparent that he would much rather be any place but with her, Draco sat reluctantly next to Alicis during these meetings, sometimes acknowledging her small talk with a snap, sometimes with a nod, but most times with silence, ignoring her very presence entirely.

"Master and Mistress Legend," the house elf announced with a squeak, bowing low enough for its lengthy nose to hit the carpet, stepping aside to allow the guests to step into the mansion. Alicis gave her usual glance around the foyer, examining each webless corner, each piece of light penetrating the luminous chandelier, each curtain crease and wood crevice. Contrary to normal standing, though the Malfoy place did look the customary cleanliness, the room around Alicis, she decided, was much less regal and, even less welcoming, though she would have never thought that to be possible.

Alicis next analyzed the many faces gathered around the room, chatting amongst themselves, awaiting their guest of honor anxiously. Beside the staircase, the top of his mousy head reaching just below the banister, was Wormtail, twitching aggressively, nose twisting this way and that while his beady eyes searched the crowd. In the corner opposite stood a tall, dark man by the name of Severus Snape, whose greasy, black hair covered his face, though his long, sharp nose protruded from this curtain, as he carried out a simple conversation with a broader, furry man by the name of Fenrir Greyback. Two of the original three Malfoys stood motionless in the center of the room, Narcissa with a stiff, yet firm arm around Draco as she glanced distastefully around the grotesque group, looking close to a pig as her sneer crinkled her nose and a low whining escaped from her throat.

"Auswin, Andreyous," Narcissa greeted tightly, granting them the smallest of listless nods as if her welcome was the best gift anyone could receive. "Alicis," she gritted her teeth with a much quieter tone, hissing as if Alicis was of dangerous nature; Narcissa's arm constricted around Draco's shoulders.

"Narcissa," Alicis' mother spoke wearily, completely ignoring the boy. Alicis was not hurt, nor slightly phased by the fact that both her mother and father allowed Narcissa's crude glare slip through their tired fingers; neither parent much cared how Alicis felt.

"Good evening, Draco," greeted Alicis hopefully, chancing a glance into his chilly eyes.

"Good evening, Alicis," a shocked mask came to each of the four other's faces as Draco dipped into a short-lived bow. Alicis felt the animal of a heart beat against her chest, the butterflies fluttering savagely in her stomach, and though she hid her smile well, the pink tint of her cheeks alerted anyone who cared to watch to her bliss.

Through her unaccustomed giddiness, she almost missed the loud crack that echoed from the gate beyond the Malfoy Manor. At once, the house elf pounced for the knob, seizing the door and hauling it almost from its hinges before any bell would be thrown throughout the house. The elf bowed lower than anytime before as the room grew deafeningly and immensely quiet, watching the figure sauntering toward them up the stone path. Some, like Wormtail, seemed terrified; others, such as Snape and Narcissa, showed a mask of apathy; while some, as Draco and Alicis, did not have a look at all, but simply stared down at the luscious carpets with expressions of nothing more than blankness though, on the inside, they felt quite horror-stricken and devastated.

From underneath the darkened sky, Alicis could see the figure of a misshapen, disgusting man, his stench carrying farther than any visual aspect of the creature. The man stalked slowly toward the house, each and every follower quiet. Reaching the threshold, one unsightly, pasty foot with rotting toenails stepped onto the carpet, ill-favored, wicked snake coiling around and through them, though that was all Alicis could see, for she would never dare look any higher than Voldemort's legs; she did not want to face the devil within his eyes. Alicis could not understand why or how a man could become such a monster, and yet still have as many loyal followers as this creature did, but she would never question this aloud.

"I believe," hissed Voldemort, two sharp, sibilant words that shook Alicis to her very soul. "that it is time to begin,"

"Upstairs, both of you-"

"Not tonight," demanded Voldemort as Narcissa began to thrust Alicis and Draco forward. "I would like to have a word with both of the...children," Without hesitation, though she felt much reluctance and terror at these words, Alicis urged her body to move forward, straying slightly back from the Dark Lord as he led Draco and herself into the study, slamming the door. Alicis nearly jumped from her shoes; Draco merely stood tall, looking nowhere in particular.

Alicis continued to depict each thread from the carpet with her miserable eyes, insides shaking with fear. She knew nothing good could come from the meeting. She didn't ask for this! She wasn't a bad child. She did good in school, she had actual friends. And yet she was in the presence of the Devil, as if she had done something so unbearable that she had been sentenced to Hell for the rest of eternity.

"I have a job for you both," Voldemort hissed with the utmost venom in his high pitched drawl. "Give me your left arms," he suddenly demanded, pulling his wand from the arm of his tattered cloak.

With a single, terrified glance at Draco, Alicis saw nothing but blankness and, possibly, a spot of pride in his cold eyes, and she knew that she had to be strong. Taking a silent breath, she thrusted her sleeve from her arm, staring straight up into the Dark Lord's eyes. They glowed with the blood of his long since forgotten victims, pupils narrow and cold with the reflection of greed. Alicis no longer feared this man, but loathed him, as he placed his wand upon her forearm and began to silently state the spell that would trap her in his snake-like grasp until she was killed.

And, as far as she knew, that couldn't be too far off.



Alicis waved her wand routinely over the door of the Vanishing Cabinet, closing her eyes and concentrating with every inch of her mind and body as she quietly chanted Harmonia Nectare Passus. A small whooshing sound popped her eyes open as she dived toward the cabinet, slamming the door open in hope of repair. Alicis found the apple in the spot she had placed it before, feelings of disappointment and dread washing over her.

"This is never going to work!" Draco shouted from behind Alicis. He looked too old and too frail to even be in school. These words built a fire within Alicis.

"We can do this, Draco-"

"We?! This was supposed to be my assignment! And then you had to come along and ruin everything-"

"You honestly think I wanted this?" Alicis screamed back, stalking over to Draco with smoldering eyes that she hoped would burn at least a small hole into Draco's skin. "I didn't ask for this, you ungrateful little weasel! The Dark Lord did this to me!" And she pulled up her sleeve to show him the mark they had gotten few months before. Draco seemed to flinch slightly away from it, as if the pulsating snake would suddenly pounce from it's place and sink its venomous fangs into his own skin.

"I don't want this, Draco," Alicis whispered, without noticing the tears sliding from her eyes and down her nose. "I don't want this..." she repeated over and over, suddenly collapsing into Draco's arms and sobbing uncontrollably. Draco stiffened for a moment, but wrapped his long, thin arms around Alicis' trembling frame, rubbing the smallest circles into her back and letting an almost silent, "Sh... It's going to be okay..." echo through the lost things. Alicis cried into Draco's shoulder for hours, it seemed, until it was no longer light out, and they returned to their dorms, and fell into their menacing dreams.