Children of Fate

Lord Voldemort had many supporters throughout the world. In fact, most of the world did support him. The muggles feared him, as they well should, though they had no idea who he was or that magic existed. To him he was the leader of a group of mob like hit men. One day you were perfectly fine, the next you were nothing but a pile of smoking ashes. And then there was the skull with the snake in it the, one that floated over the houses of the victims. Of course muggles found a reasonable explanation for that. "It's a projection from a large machine," everyone said.

Those who did know of Lord Voldemort, King of the darker side of the Wizarding world, became his humble servants. Whenever there was a child was born, the father or mother of the child registered the baby in the nearest wizarding village. On the child's fifth birthday, they began being tutored on the dark arts at home. At age eleven they went to the nearest dark arts school. And, at age seventeen, the age mother's wished their children never turned, they became one of four things, depending on their grades at school.

The first occupation that could be held in Voldemort's world (which is what he called it) was, of course, a Death Eater. One of the most honored jobs, reserved for only those who were truly pureblood. The second job was to become an official. An official was assigned a second occupation, like a store clerk or a shoe shiner in Lord Voldemort's castle, which had once been Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The third job, which was what became of most girls, was the job of a wife to a Death Eater, or, if a girl wasn't that pretty, a concubine. If a young woman was very pretty she was taken to Lord Voldemort himself. Then she became either one of his many wives or one of his many mistresses.

Then there was the last job. So few got this job that really it was never considered one of the choices. Every once and a while, there was a rebel. Maybe they had tried to like the dark arts and maybe they hadn't. But when it came time to get a job, they refused the first three, so they got the fourth. The fourth occupation was to be dead and that's why not many people wanted it.

Mrs. Davies, who had been just a mere nineteen when the Lord of Darkness had taken over the wizarding world, had been very pretty, but very powerful too. At the time of the fall of the good side, she had been eight months pregnant with the child of Robert Davies, a high-ranking Death Eater. With the permission of the Dark Lord, she and Robert were wed, and not more than a week later she gave birth to Amber-Lyn, Lyn for the name of her own mother and Amber for the name of Voldemort's mother.

Eight years and three daughters later, Mr. Davies was killed at the hand of a lucky rebel. To add injury to insult (as Mrs. Davies put it) the culprit got away, putting the Davies name into shame. Five years later, when Amber-Lyn was eleven, Mrs. Davies was thought to be the most dangerous witch, besides Voldemort's Queen, head wife, mother of his heir, etc., Valicent Mondegal Riddle.

But this story is not about Mrs. Davies, or Voldemort, or even one of Mrs. Davies three other bratty daughters, Rachael-Janine, Lindsay-Marie, and Amanda-Rebecca. It's about the least likely person of all, a young girl, named Ana. Ana had been a nanny at the mansion since she was eight, when Mr. Davies had died and Mrs. Davies had decided her daughters, when dealt with on her own, were just too much.

Ana lived in the servant's sheds, which were exactly what that sounded like. On the far backside of the sprawling grounds of Davies Manor there were five small sheds. In those sheds were crammed the thirty-three human servants, both magical and muggle. Luckily for Ana the tiny three roomed cabins were assigned by age. She, along with her two and only companions, Rey and Liza, were the only people occupying their cabin. It had been that way since they were five.

Ana was an orphan. Her mother, along with the mothers of Rey and Liza, had been abandoned on Mrs. Davies front step. Out of the "kindness" in her heart, Mrs. Davies took the three of them in. Sometimes, after a very long day with the "Triple Terrors", Ana wished Mrs. Davies had shucked them to the muggles.

It was after one of these particularly long days that Ana discovered the diary. That morning she had woken up late because it was her eleventh birthday and Rey had not woken her up early, as he normally did each morning. Thanks to what he had probably intended to be a birthday present, Ana not only had no time to take a bath, but she was late to arrive in Lindsey's nursery and dress her.

If she didn't dress Lindsey on time-which always took an hour due to the fact that Lindsey had never outgrown the terrible twos-she wouldn't be on time to wake little Mandy up and help her select a robe for the day. If she didn't help Mandy select her robe, then she would be late to get Rachael up for her morning lessons in the dark arts. If Rachael wasn't up by eight and in the room in which she was taught by eight-forty, someone got in trouble and that someone was always Ana.

Of course, everything went more wrong than Ana possibly could have imagined. When she got to Lindsey's nursery, Lindsey was nowhere to be found. Ana's stomach dropped and she closed her deep blue eyes. She was in so much trouble. Turning on her heel, Ana tried to run down the hall, but instead ran into Amber-Lyn, who was more horrid, spoiled, cruel, and intolerable than any of her sisters.

"Well," Amber-Lyn said in a voice full of malice, "I see you've lost my youngest sister due to your tardiness. Won't my mum be happy to know that?" She looked as though she would have said more but at that moment an ear shattering scream. Shoving Amber-Lyn out of the way, Ana hiked her long stiff gray skirt and bolted down the hallway, skidding to an unsuccessful stop in front of Mandy's room.

After picking herself up from the wooden floor, Ana dashed into the overly pink and frilly room, clutching her hand over a stitch in her side. Little Mandy was screaming louder than a banshee and jumping up and down on her bed. "Mandy! Mandy! What's wrong?" Ana asked, silently praying Mrs. Davies was out. Maybe if she got control of the situation she wouldn't get punished.

Of course, since this morning was going to the dogs, not Mandy but Mrs. Davies, holding Lindsey, answered. "You're the only wrong thing in here that I can see at the moment," Mrs. Davies hissed, her brown eyes flashing. Literally. Ana gulped. Mrs. Davies was known for many things. One of them was getting a magical surgery that could make her eyes flash when she got extremely mad.

"Madam! It was my birthday so-"

"So you assumed I would let you off for not doing your duties properly?" Mrs. Davies asked, advancing on Ana, who was quite a bit smaller.

"No! But I didn't mean to be late!" Ana cried. She knew it was no use, though. Of all the servants Mrs. Davies liked to punish, she was the one. She was the only one made to call Mrs. Davies Madam, the only one who had to watch the three brattiest children on the planet, the only one who was forced to dye her hair from it's natural color to an ugly muddy brown.

"I don't care, little miss Ana!" Mrs. Davies snapped. Turning to her firstborn, she hissed, "Amber-Lyn, you'll be doing Ana's chores today, seeing as you didn't inform me sooner of her blunders." Amber-Lyn, wisely holding in her protests, took Lindsey in her arms and led her other sister out of the room.

"Now," Mrs. Davies said coldly, "you'll come with me!"

That meant that the rest of her day would be spent sorting through the boxes in the attic. She was correct. Mrs. Davies threw her into the large, spooky room with the orders to stay in here and clean until ten that evening when another servant would come and fetch her. Once the door to the attic had been locked magically, Ana slumped against a pile of boxes.

"This is another fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Ana," she muttered to herself. A sudden shock of anger shot through her veins and, without quite knowing why, Ana slid off one of her dull black shoes and hurled it at a stack of boxes. The top box, to her utter surprise, fell to the floor, spilling its contents on the floor. Ana just stared. She hadn't thrown the shoe that hard, had she?

Standing, she stepped cautiously towards the box, as if afraid something would spring from under the pile of junk. Ana bent down on her knees and looked at the label of the box, written in large messy letters. Kaitlyn's Things, it read, and Ana wondered who Kaitlyn was. She looked at the things that had tumbled from the box. Most of the things were expensive looking, encrusted with jewels, gems, and anything that shone prettily. Despite their fall, none of the things were harmed. Ana guessed that there was a charm preventing that. After all, who would want such finery to be ruined?

Ana picked up a small box that had a small silver oval plate on it, surrounded by rubies. Opening the box, Ana found that it was a music box. A beautiful young ballerina was lying down in the velvet insides of the box. As the light that came from the boarded up windows hit her, the ballerina awoke and stood, yawning. She was about to begin dancing and singing, as wizarding music boxes do, when she saw Ana.

"I cannot dance," she said after a long while. Ana, very surprised that the ballerina had any free will, opened her mouth to ask why, but the ballerina cut her off. "I cannot dance because, when I was purchased, I was told by my buyer that I was only to dance for his lover. And you," she said in a somewhat scornful voice, "are nothing but a scrawny little girl."

Ana's mood dropped four notches. It was her birthday, she had been locked in an attic, and now a three-inch ballerina was making fun of her. This was not her day. "Can't you just bend the rules a bit? I mean, who says you can't dance for anyone but this one girl?"

The ballerina sat down and began doing stretches. "Well, I was enchanted to be unable to dance for anyone. It's not as if I wouldn't want to dance for you. I mean, I've been locked up here for... Hey, what year is it?"

"It's August the fifth, and the year is 2010."

The ballerina's large blue eyes shot open. "Really? Then I've been in here about eleven years! Lord, what a long time!"

Ana nodded. "Well, I have to clean up this mess. It was nice-"

"Don't shut it! Please, take me with you! You have no idea what its like, being forced to live in this dark little box for eleven years!" The ballerina motioned around the area of the box, as if to say no one should be forced to live there.

Ana, pitying the small thing, gave in. "Alright, but you'll have to be quiet most of the day. I have to do a lot of work."

The ballerina nodded and jumped into Ana's palm as Ana lowered it into the box. "Thanks," she said. Ana nodded and dropped the ballerina into the pocket on the chest of her apron.

Ana bent down and began putting things back into the box. Each thing proved to be more extravagant than the next; a brush made of silver, a mirror with sapphires around the glass, a jewelry box that turned out to be filled with diamond bracelets and emerald necklaces. "Who was this woman? Was she the one you danced for?" Ana asked the silent dancer after a while.

The ballerina nodded. "Her name was Kate Lowell and she was the daughter of an extremely wealthy British merchant and his equally wealthy French wife. She went to Beauxbatons-"

"Where's that?" Ana asked. She had never heard of Beauxbatons. It didn't sound like the name Voldemort would give to one of his schools.

"Beauxbatons? That's a wizarding school in France!" The ballerina cried, looking up at Ana as though she were being extremely stupid.

"I've never heard of it. The only schools in France are Torve's Academy for the Dark Arts and Obscurit's School of Dark Magic," Ana said, giving the ballerina an equally strange look.

The ballerina's face dropped. "Oh, god, no...He won, didn't he?"

Ana raised an eyebrow. "Who won?"

"Voldemort!"

Ana flinched, just as she always did when she heard that name. "Don't say that!"

The ballerina scoffed. "Afraid to say his name? Honestly, he's a person, just like me and you."

Ana shook her head so violently that her white colonial-like cap fell off. "He's not like me! He's a king! And anyways you're not human! You're a music box trinket!" It took her a few moments to realize how truly rude that sounded. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it in a bad way. It's just that-"

"You should shut up before you say something like that again," the ballerina said, frowning a little. "You know nothing of who I am or of what I could be. For your information I am a faerie!"

Ana's eyes shot immediately to the ballerina's wingless back. "You don't have wings," she said, stating the obvious.

The ballerina/faerie snorted. "You must be really thick. Did you know that faeries can't really fly on their own?" Ana shook her head. She knew that she was blushing, but who cared? "Well, they can't. When a faerie is born they're given a band that enables them to fly, and, if you're rich and powerful enough, the band can help you grow so that you can be the size of a human."

"That's impossible!" Ana cried. Bands that made you fly? And change size? Obviously being locked in a small box for eleven years did things to your mind.

The ballerina/faerie glared at Ana. "And you're not? Think about it, little miss smarty-pants! Muggles think that magic is impossible but you're a witch and you believe you exist, don't you? Why not bands that enables you to fly and grow?"

Ana thought for a long while. It was like her day could get much stranger so why not listen to the ballerina/faerie's tale? "Alright, so why are you like this?"

The ballerina/faerie sighed dramatically. "Well, as you must know, magical music boxes having moving, singing, and dancing wooden things in them, of all shape and size. But one day a man called Rydal Jenkins discovered that if you removed the band of a faerie while they were small, you could have a real live faerie being inside your box, instead of a wooden one. Who could beat that? Ladies loved the faerie boxes so many young men flocked to buy them for their sweethearts. Of course, no one ever thought that the faeries were unhappy because after you removed the band of a faerie they became totally under your will. Most people just told them to shut it and sing."

Ana raised her eyebrows. "Then what happened to you?"

The ballerina/faerie gave Ana an evil eye before saying, "Kate Lowell's lover was a very rich man. When he purchased the box I was in he got the band, too, to give to her, as a sign of power. Kate didn't have many friends so she told me to say whatever I wished. In turn I promised I would dance for only she and her children."

"Why didn't she just let you go?" Ana asked.

The ballerina/faerie sighed angrily. "Because along with being rich, Kate Lowell's family was pureblood. They were the kind of family who arranged marriages and looked down their noses upon muggle borns and half bloods. Kate, sadly, though she could be very kind, was a great deal like them. She never offered to give me my freedom and I never asked her to."

Ana nodded. "Well, then, I suppose I'll get back to cleaning up this mess. By the way, do you have a name?"

The ballerina/faerie nodded. "My real name's too long to say but Kate always called me Tinkerbell. She seemed to think it was hilarious. Said Tinkerbell was some faerie in the story Peter Pan."

Ana nodded and went back to placing things in the box. After a while she came upon a book. It caught her eye because, unlike every other thing in the boxes contents, this thing was plain and aging. It looked as if it were a diary, with cheap purple covering the front, back, and spine and no lock. When Tinkerbell saw the book, she gasped. "Oh, lord! That was Kate's diary."

Ana tried to open it but a painful shock ran up her arms, causing her to drop the book. "Why won't it open?" she asked the giggling faerie.

"Cause," Tinkerbell said through her giggles, "it's a diary. You need a key to open a diary."

"Do you know what the key was?" Ana asked. By now she was very interested in this Kate Lowell. Was she like Amber-Lyn? Ana bet so. Amber-Lyn looked down on everyone, especially "mudbloods".

Tinkerbell nodded. "I was the key. After Kate received me, she asked if I could place a sealing charm on her diary, because her elder sisters Sophie and Amelia were always trying to break the lock. I said I could and so I became her key."

Ana almost groaned. Now she would never see Kate Lowell's diary. Tinkerbell and she, in their forty or so minutes of knowing each other, hadn't been that friendly. She silently placed the book down and began putting the other things back. Finally she was finished. Sighing, Ana stood, stretched, and, without thinking, bent down to grab her other shoe, which had remained off her foot. With a tiny scream, Tinkerbell fell from her apron pocket and straight onto the diary. Without warning, the diary lit up and flew open. Tinkerbell was thrown a few feet into the air, landing in Ana's palm.

"Thanks a ton! I could have been killed! It's lucky the diary-Oh no, the diary!" She trailed off, her blue eyes focused intently on the yellowing pages. With a defeated sigh, Tinkerbell leapt out of Ana's hand and onto the diary. "I guess you want me to show you how to unlock the damn thing, right?" Ana could only nod. Tinkerbell nodded, took a proud stance, and closed her eyes. Again the book started to glow, and then, without any warning, Ana was sucked into the diary.