Let Truth Be Told

CHAPTER ONE: Keys of Darkness

Kristin Aires did not decide to become a cold-hearted bitch. Life had made that proposition for her, and her parents took that opportunity, giving her no say in the matter whatsoever. Kristin despised her parents, no she loathed them. She hated them with the very core of her existence. Sending her to this stupid, ridiculous school at the other end of the country did not earn them any bonus points. They told her it was for the best, that it was one of the highest-ranking schools in the whole of Europe, and that it would do her good to go to a mixed school. Like that would justify anything. Kristin hated them even more.

"Aires, Kristin," a stern voice rang out in the Great Hall.

Grumbling, Kristin walked towards the stool placed in the middle of the room. Her head was poised, and her posture gave away no sign of nervousness. Though she was slightly anxious, these emotions were not written on any part of her body. If she had her way, Kristin would be walking slumped right now, her face contorted in a vicious snarl to anyone who would dare look at her. But she had been taught from an early age that it was weak to portray any emotions in any situation. Emotions could destroy you, and Kristin was strong, she detested being weak - she treasured power. To have immense power was the sole purpose of existence. Though one way of gaining such glorious power was to use emotion as deception. The art of deceit could be used so that people believed that you were somebody else - with feelings that differed to your own.

Kristin's face briefly showed distaste as she was told to place an old, ragged, dirty hat upon her head. She then mentally scolded herself for revealing her dislike for the old hat. Aires showed no emotion and no feelings. They were cold-blooded humans that walked the Wizarding World.

Staring straight ahead past the many heads seated at the four vast tables, Kristin fixed her cold, piercing light blue eyes on the wall at the far end of the Hall. She sat still on the stool, unmoving, as the stern-voiced, old hag of a teacher named Professor McGonagall announced that she was a transfer student, and would be joining the seventh years for their last year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She could really use a face-lift, thought seventeen-year-old Kristin.

Her blue eyes widened as Professor McGonagall placed the old hat upon her head, and it spoke to her. Other than her eyes widening, nothing else showed her surprise that an old hat was speaking to her. Its hoarse and rusty voice was mumbling on about which house to place her in. Kristin did not care which house she was placed in. She wanted the hat to hurry up and make its stupid decision because she was starving; she had not eaten since the day before. Her parents had stupidly forgotten to order groceries for the house-elves to cook for dinner, so there had been nothing to eat, unless you counted a few crackers. Her parents were useless creatures. The only worthwhile thing they had ever taught her was to show no emotions, and look where that had gotten her: a lone, cold-hearted bitch with no friends whatsoever.

"Hufflepuff," the old hat suddenly announced.

"Hufflepuff?" she whispered to the hat. "You stuck me in a house of leftovers?"

The hat replied in its aging voice, "You would not let me read your mind, so how am I supposed to know which is your greatest quality? The glimpses I received were those that told me, you were fairly intelligent and highly gifted in the Dark Arts, but your other standards are not as high, and altogether not sufficient enough for the house of Ravenclaw. You are highly ambitious and have a lust for power, therefore much suited for Slytherin. However, you are also highly brave, whether you are noble or not, I could not tell. You are also incredibly loyal in certain aspects. But to see into your true personality that I was unable to do, I could not delve deep enough into your mind. Now, you tell me, what house was I supposed to place you in? The neutral one of course"

Kristin smiled smugly to herself. She prided herself on learning the art of occlumency; she had mastered it to a level that something such as a Sorting Hat who merely intruded on the qualities of one's personality, could not read her. Occlumency was not supposed to affect a Sorting Hat.

Standing up, Kristin walked towards the table of clapping people. She glanced at the yellow banner hanging above the table. A badger? What sort of house does a badger represent? Good for sniffing out things in the dirt? She scanned the rest of the banners hung in the Hall, and decided that it was a tie between which house she approved of: the lion or the snake. Lions were proved to be independent, strong and noble creatures whilst snakes were proved to be cunning, sly and poisonous. Kristin was not noble and she was not poisonous.

As she sat down amongst her new housemates, Kristin was conscious of the fact that she was receiving a few admirable glances from the males in her house. Though she was not exceptionally beautiful, she was pretty and reasonably attractive, but she conveyed an image of hostility around her. Her prettiness consisted of long brown ringlets, sharp light blue eyes, fair skin and a small mouth. Nevertheless, her attractiveness did not come from this prettiness. It came from a power and confidence that seemed to glow off her, as the Unattainable, and the Unreadable. It was obvious the male population loved to win over an Ice Queen. It made it so much more challenging, and a greater conquest to brag about.

Kristin did not speak to her new housemates though they tried to make small talk. She worked better alone, away from the interference of human emotions. The Feast, as she was told, flew by. She ate until she could eat no more, cramming her mouth with chicken drumsticks, lasagne, Shepard's pie, vegetables and rich apple pie with thick custard. Kristin thought she had never had such a decent meal.

Once the meal was over, Kristin followed her housemates to her new dormitory concealed behind an invisible door that only opened if a correct password was spoken to a brick. Kristin decided she did not want any interrogating questions from her new housemates about her life - she had endured enough of that during mealtime. Therefore she decided to go straight to bed. However, going to sleep in a strange place didn't prove to be easy. After an hour of tossing and turning, Kristin got up and decided to explore her new home. She took no notice of the rest of her housemates that were still awake as she proceeded out the dormitory door.

After wandering around the large castle, Kristin was finding it difficult to return to her dormitory. She was lost and could not find her way back. Just when she was deciding what her best option would be, carrying on searching the castle or asking for help, a male voice spoke behind her.

"Lost, are we?"

Kristin spun round and was greeted by a thin, pointy-faced boy with white-blonde hair and pallid skin. He looked to her like a young man who was gravely ill. Kristin did not reply. She did not speak to strangers; instead she stared at him, trying to discover what sort of person he was.

The boy spoke again, "You're the new girl aren't you?" His mouth curled up into a sneer when she did not speak. "Are you placed under some curse that keeps you from talking?"

"I can speak perfectly fine," Kristin replied coldly.

"You're from the Aires family aren't you?"

"Last time I checked," Kristin answered with the same chilliness.

"I'm Malfoy. Draco Malfoy," the boy said, holding out his hand as he introduced himself.

Kristin merely stared at Draco's hand. "I do not converse with strangers."

Draco laughed. "But we aren't strangers, Miss Aires. I know your family, and you know mine."

"You've never been mentioned."

"Perhaps the great and powerful Malfoy family are too scary to be heard by your ears. Your mummy and daddy must have been protecting you by not telling you my name," Draco said mockingly.

Kristin made no comment. Instead, she concentrated inside her mind, and then flicked its power towards Draco.

Instantly, Draco gasped as his memories and feelings swam before him. He tried to shut his mind against this use of Legilimency. Concentrating hard, he managed to shut his mind, though it took him a few tries and drained nearly all his energy. Clearly, this new girl, Kristin Aires, had been taught well.

Kristin smirked. "Not so brave now, are we?" she said, cocking her head to one side. "I see Draco Malfoy isn't as great as he makes himself out to be. I don't think Daddy likes you, do you? You're a failure to him."

Angered at being humiliated and invaded, Draco whipped out his wand and muttered a binding curse.

Acting fast enough, Kristin managed to defect the spell by muttering a counter-curse. Realising that this was now a duel, Kristin mumbled a curse that, if used with enough power, could kill its victim.

Draco suddenly found himself on his knees, struggling for breath. He felt as if a hand had clasped itself around his neck, not quite strangling him but pressing against his neck with a force that it hard to take in oxygen.

Her eyes glittering, Kristin grinned as she saw the boy wrestle for air. Malfoys' really weren't as honourable as they thought they were, especially this one. Though the boy had clearly mastered some of the higher aspects of the Dark Arts, he still had plenty to learn. Knowing that Draco had suffered enough, Kristin released the curse. She hadn't planned to kill him with it; it had just been some nighttime entertainment.

Breathing heavily, Draco gripped his wand and managed to bind Kristin when she was momentarily off guard. Full of anger and loathing, he stuck his wand underneath her neck, threatening her. "Look who's the weak one now? Nobody, I repeat, nobody humiliates a Malfoy. Especially not me."

Suddenly, a piercing shrill rang out in the corridor. Catching Draco by surprise, he released the binding spell. He stared down the corridor to see the owner of the shrieking voice. She came into view fairly quickly.

Kristin, having been released from the spell, spun round to see who had disturbed their duel. She was greeted by the presence of a fairly small, plain, bushy brown-haired girl. Kristin could evidently see that the girl had some sort of authority, and she was steaming livid.

"Draco Malfoy, what are you doing?" the girl screeched. "Doing magic in the corridors? You're Head Boy!"

Kristin glanced back at the young man she had been duelling with. Just peeping out of his cloak, pinned to his jumper was a shiny, silver badge that read 'Head Boy'. Kristin gulped, knowing that she had just landed herself in a whole lot of trouble. Oh boy!