What Lurks In The Dark

Chapter 1- Changes

It was another regular dinner at Malfoy Manor. The dining room was on the third floor out of seven, it was at the end of a long and shadowy corridor. The rooms before the dining room were a few recreational rooms for Lucius, rooms that appeared once a month as an escape for the elder Malfoy from Narcissa's great wrath. The dining room was dark, as usual, with just a few candles to light it.

Lucius Malfoy sat at the head of the large table, made of Italian wood with a medium-sized wooden snake's head in the middle. The snake's head was not only a pretty decoration for Lucius but also a spice holder, containing over a hundred spices, legal or illegal. A few meters to Lucius' right sat his wife, Narcissa, who was playing nervously with her fork, and to his right his son, Draco. Narcissa never enjoyed dinners, she knew Draco needed to be in St Mungo's, but his father wouldn't let Draco ruin the Malfoy name by sending him there. And so Draco suffered. And so did Narcissa.

Libbs, the house-elf, had just brought another round of a wine, an illegal luxury that Narcissa happily took.

Draco was rearranging his food, in a kind of fixation - meat to the right, salads to the bottom and the rest of his portion to the left. He still didn't eat, and all he did was look at the plate. In his head, Draco believed he was creating a potion during Snape's class.

"I can't stand seeing him like this anymore."

Narcissa dropped her glass, but it didn't break due to special charms cast by Ater.

Ater, a wizard who served as head-of-house-elves, knew it was time to clear the room for the weekly fight. He was once again happy he had cast charms on the glasses so they would not break; it was getting nasty with all the broken glasses. He quickly went with Libbs through the secret door in the wall, sent him to the kitchen and guarded the door. He, of course, heard every word, and his main concern was Draco.

"I will not send him to St. Mungo's to foul our family name!" Lucius cried and dropped his glass as well.

"Your family name is already foul," she grinned back. "You just don't want to admit it, your brother is there!"

She was drunk, as always.

"I have no brother," said Lucius in contempt. "The boy is fine, aren't you, Draco?"

They both turned to him and a few seconds later he finally looked at them.

"I am fine, mother," he said as tears fell on his cheeks. "I just need to finish this potion for Snape..."

His mother's cry didn't let him finish his sentence.

"If you won't let him go to St. Mungo's, I'm leaving."

It was the first time she made that threat, and Ater started to worry, their fight never went that way, and Ater was worried, for he knew Lucius wouldn't let her leave.

"Stop this nonsense," he said and violently took out his wand.

"Somnus!" he cried, and Narcissa dropped to the floor; he had put her in a bewitched sleep.

"Take care of this," he said to Ater, who went out the secret door, as Lucius continued his dinner, eating her food as well.

~*~*~*~

This scenario repeated itself a couple of times during the next months. Getting worse every time. Ater knew it was a matter of time before Narcissa finally left.

This day came sooner than expected on an early June day.

"Where are you going?" shouted Lucius after he woke up to find all of Narcissa's belongings packed.

"I'm leaving you, Lucius, I can't go on like this, no more wine, bewitched sleeps, what? Do you think I don't know about them? I'm going, and you can't stop me," she frowned at him.

"I understand," he surprisingly said as he walked her to the driveway, where she collected all her stuff, ready to Disapparate.

"Just before you go, one last hug?"

He opened his arms, and she fell into the trap.

Lucius held her hard, and then he took out a special knife, with two blades, and drove it into her lower abdomen.

"Bastard!" she mumbled at him.

Lucius then said a few words in ancient Sumerian, opening her mind for a complete and legal control.

"You're going to go away for awhile," he whispered in her ear. "Your sister in Sweden is ill, you will go find her and take care of here until she's good"

He ended his orders and pulled out the knife. No mark was visible on her body.

"Goodbye Lucius, give my love to Draco, I will return once Osmunda is well."

She Dissapparated for Sweden. Her sister, of course, was not in Sweden, a fact that would give Narcissa a hard time to find her there.

"Why Sweden?" Ater came to Lucius and asked.

"There's a person there who can take care of her," he smiled to him.

"I always liked the lack of legislation on ancient Sumerian spells. Not that I care." He said as an afterthought and went back into the Manor.

~*~*~*~

The house became even quieter than it was before; with Draco mostly in his room and Lucius in his study, the only footsteps one could hear were those of Ater and the house-elves.

It wasn't normal for Draco to leave his room during the afternoon, but that day he did. When he stepped out of his room, everything became darker. He walked for a few minutes, not seeing rooms, not seeing stairs, not seeing anything really.

Then, he saw it - a fire right in front of him; he wanted to scream, but behind the fire was a figure, which for some weird reason remained in the dark even though the fire lit the area.

"What do you want?" Draco asked fearfully.

"He is waiting for you," it whispered.

"Who? Who is waiting for me?" Draco froze.

"You cannot escape," it continued. "He is coming!"

It jumped over the fire towards Draco, but Draco fell backwards and it all disappeared.

The fire, the scary figure were no more, and the sun shone through the windows.

"Master Draco," a little squeaky voice was heard from behind - it was the house-elf.

"Come with Libbs, Master Draco, I is returning you to your room now."

The house-elf helped him return to his room, but Draco was too busy thinking about what he had seen.

~*~*~*~

A few weeks later, at dinner, Lucius had some news for Draco.

"You know, I heard Timere Magus is coming to visit his family next week. He will also come here. Remember? He was your best friend before Hogwarts," Lucius smiled.

"Oh good, I think we have a lot to catch up on," Draco replied coldly.

Then Draco remembered.

"He is coming for you, you cannot escape, he is coming!"

He remembered his vision.