Harry Potter 1. The Treaty

The treaty

Lucy stared at the headmaster, unsure of what she should say, unsure of what she should think, it seemed surreal… Even more surreal than the rest of her absurd and abnormal life…

_You must consider that it's going to be for the good of us all, and it's obviously in your best interest…- Fudge started rambling while he twisted his green hat between his fat hands nervously. Lucy found herself scowling at him in disgust, the Minister had been trying to make a deal with Voldemort since the incident at the ministry in the end of the previous year, he was terrified by the idea of losing his position and utterly afraid of a full blown war.

Now he had finally achieved a treaty with the Dark Lord, who in the course of the past months had taken custody of most the wizarding world, having full control over the Vampire clans, Werewolves tribes, centaurs hordes, even the ones living on the Forbidden Forest, dementors, goblins and every other creature one could think of, besides a great deal of influence inside the ministry itself. People believed that half the Wizengarmot was at his service and all the current Unspeakables were death eaters. It was needless to say that Fudge had all reasons to be scared as had the order, they were losing the war, but still the man's cowardice was disgusting.

_Good of us all? How the hell can this be good? You're giving him power over the whole wizarding world! The whole ministry will be under his control! And don't you dare tell me it's on my best interest! - She snapped at the minister hissing dangerously, as her anger flared up and some small objects blew up with unintentional magic.

Fudge stumbled backwards, sending a nervous look to Dumbledore who looked tired and old, no twinkle in his eyes.

_Please calm down my girl, we need to talk about it. - The headmaster said tiredly, and Lucy forced herself to calm down a bit.

She understood to some level why they wanted a treaty, she understood that they didn't want a replay of the first war, and this one was promising to be even worse than the first, the number of dead was alarming and was increasing with every passing day, the news of muggles being slaughtered were daily by now and had almost become a normal occurrence. She too wanted this to be over… But she couldn't come with terms that they were actually making a deal with him instead of killing the bastard and getting it over with, even if she knew that they didn't have much of a chance anyway.

The terms of the treaty were even more disturbing, Voldemort'd cease the war and even refrain from harming the muggles in exchange for full pardon for himself and all his followers, as well as some high-placed positions for his inner circle inside the ministry, the legalization of some Dark Arts, and the including of the subject on to Hogwarts grade, the reactivation of the Council of the Wise, which consisted on an organization resembling a Senate that had power over all the decisions made by the ministry, it had veto power on the laws and the power to propose new ones too. The ten members composing this council would be chosen by the Wizengarmot as it had been in the past. Also Voldemort'd be allowed to keep his death eaters as a personal guard even if they would be forbidden to take action unless to defend their master from some immediate threat.

All these demands were absurd and would let them at the dark wizard's mercy, but Lucy could see why Fudge, and even Dumbledore, would be willing to accept these conditions, even if it was only to acquire time to reorganize the light forces and manage to fight harder, even if it was to temporarily stop the mindless killings, but there was one last condition that she wouldn't, couldn't accept, a condition that from a political analysis was much harmless than the others, but she'd be dammed if she cared, she was never good with politics anyway, and she was completely selfish on her position on that last condition.

Because beyond all the power he required, Voldemort saw fit to require another prize, one that probably only served to appease his ego, he required her. He wanted the Girl-Who-Lived-To-Have-Her-Life-Screwed for himself, she was to be bonded to him in a very ancient marriage ritual, that would make her his submissive mate, and tie the two of them together for all eternity with the added bonus of giving him, as the Senior mate, complete power over her and the ability to read her emotions and to some extent her thoughts.

_I'm not marrying him. - Lucy said firmly looking at professor Dumbledore, who sighed.

_I know it's hard for you my dear girl…- "No, you do not." Lucy thought bitterly as the old man began talking. - It's hard for me too, and I would never force this situation on you, it's your decision Lucy. I just ask that you give it a bit more of thought, the decision will be completely yours in the end, I won't interfere. But I'd like you to remember that the most amazing things may come from very bad situations.

The girl sighed, and looked at the ceiling, there was no amazing thing that could come from a deal with Voldemort, nothing but death and destruction could come from him. But she wondered idly if perhaps if she sacrificed her own life, her own chance at happiness, as small as it was, she could save her friends from this destruction… from this pain, everyone had suffered so much already, so many people had died… Her parents, Cedric, Moody, Olivanders, Charlie, Oliver… And so many others that she didn't know the names of, so many people had been hurt… Perhaps if she gave away her life she could help them, even if just a little bit.

Lucy looked around the room again, her eyes resting idly on her potions teacher, Snape had been quiet during the whole ordeal, his face as stern as ever the perpetual scowl in place, but she was surprised, she had expected the man to make some biting comment about her arrogance and selfishness, she was after all condemning the whole world to a lost war because she couldn't let go of something as superficial as her freedom. But none came, he stayed there dim and silent, perhaps he was feeling sorry for her? Not likely… But he probably understood what she was feeling, he too had to give up his freedom for the greater good hadn't he? And now look at how he turned out… Green eyes looked back into twinkle-less blue ones.

_I need to think…- Lucy said simply, Dumbledore nodded, a ghost of light passing through his eyes as he watched the girl walking out of his office, he pitied the girl and suffered for her, he loved Lucy as if she was his own, and wished he could do something to protect her. But he had never been good in protecting those he loved, he was a too practical man, too analytical, he knew that in the end he would end up sacrificing her happiness to stop the war, and he felt awful for it.

_You can't be serious Albus! Letting such an important decision in the hands of a child! This is ridiculous! We can't let her choose not to do it! It's simply not an option, this treaty must be signed, our world won't survive much longer if the war continues! - The Minister started to shriek as soon as the girl stepped out of the room.

_Calm down Cornelius, Lucy is a wise child… She'll make the right choice. - The Headmaster said slowly while sucking a lemon drop.

Lucy found both Ron and Hermione sitting by the lake, the bushy-haired girl had her nose buried in a heavy tome that she was reading aloud, but the boy besides her seemed completely unaware of it, choosing to simply watch as the giant squeeze skimmed through the dark waters instead of paying attention. They both looked up as she plopped herself besides them, a gloomy expression on her face.

_So… How did it go mate? - Ron asked.

Lucy took a deep breath and told them everything about the treaty, about the marriage, about everything. Her two best friends listened with silent disbelief and in Ron's case anger. When she finally finished her tale, she was feeling better, talking about it with people she could trust made it easier to digest, even if the decision didn't seem lighter.

_WHAT THE HELL? Why would that bastard want to marry you? Isn't taking over the Ministry enough?! - Ron snapped as soon as Lucy stopped talking.

_He wants a complete victory… - Hermione said biting her lip worriedly.

_What you mean complete victory? - Ron asked hastily.

_Gaining political power and legalizing the Dark Arts isn't enough for him, he wants to show the whole world that he has absolute control over us. That he owns even our only hope…- Hermione said shooting a sad look at Lucy who sighed.

_The hell he will! You won't accept this crap, right mate? You're going to kill that bastard…

_It's not so simple Ron! You can't just brush off an important decision…- Hermione started but the boy cut her in.

_Of course it's simple! There's no way we can let him win so easily, we must fight!

_I don't know Ron…- Lucy said softly, throwing a stone on the lake.

_What? What you mean you don't know? - He asked watching her warily. - You will fight right?

_Hermione is right… It's not so simple… People are dying, innocent people are dying and more will die if this war continue…- Ron's expression went from anger to sadness in a blink, the mention of the deaths reminded him of Charlie who had died not two months ago during a confrontation between the order and the Death Eaters.

_But you're one of those innocent people Lucy, you can't just discard your life without thinking things trough. - Hermione said quickly.

Lucy bit her lip and rubbed her scar, it wasn't hurting but she had the habit to rub it when something was troubling her. That was the whole point, she wasn't one of those innocent people who should be protected, she never was, no one ever saw her as a part of the community, she had always been the-girl-who-lived or the golden girl, always the one who should save the world, but never truly a part of it.

_I know… But… It's not like I'm agreeing to commit suicide and… The war can be stopped by it… I… I don't know what to think. But I don't want people to keep dying. - She whispered. And both her friends stayed silent, neither knew what to say, the prospect of the end of the war was amazing, but they didn't want it to be at expense of their friend's happiness and life… It didn't seem fair.

It took Lucy three days to completely make her mind over the matter. Or maybe it took her three days to realize she had already made up her mind, deep down she had always known what her decision would be, she knew that she wouldn't sacrifice anyone's life if she could help it, but it took her another headline on the Daily Prophet talking about dead muggles and tortured people for her to come to terms with herself and inform the Headmaster of her decision to accept the deal, she had only one exigency though, one piece of justice she wouldn't relent on:

Wormtail was to be delivered to the ministry, a full confession on his lips, and receive his sentence, that'd be most likely a life time spent on Azkaban. She owned that little justice to both her parents, who had been betrayed by the rat, and to Sirius who had been charged with his crimes. Lucy wanted her godfather to be free, he was good man and not a criminal. Voldemort had agreed with this condition easily enough, Lucy wasn't surprised, he hadn't become a dark lord for being loyal to his servants.

And so her fate was sealed, the treaty had been signed and she was to be married on her seventeenth birthday, since the law didn't allow her to marry any time sooner and her future husband didn't want to wait any longer than the strictly necessary. What was troubling her even more was the fact that she probably wouldn't be able to go back to Hogwarts for her seventh year, she doubted that her bastard of a husband would allow her to stay away from him once they were married, and she probably would be schooled at home, if at all.

The other problem was that Dumbledore and the Minister thought it would be best if she stayed with her relatives during the summer until her marriage, they said it'd be safer, that even if Voldemort wasn't trying to kill her anymore, there would be many people who wouldn't agree with this treaty and think she was to blame for it, or resent her for making a deal with the dark lord, and if those people found her she'd be in danger. That made some kind of sense, but she still couldn't grasp why in hell she should go to the Dusleys, it wasn't like she'd be completely unprotected with the Weasleys or with Sirius.

Lucy sighed throwing a stone onto the lake, she had been doing it a lot since this whole treaty ordeal had begun, sitting by the lake sometimes with Ron and Hermione sometimes alone like now, and she threw things into the water wishing she was throwing them at some of her enemies… She really didn't want to go to the Dusleys, she had had enough of it, and the thought of it being the last time wasn't helping because this time she knew that the place she was going afterwards was most likely worse…

As soon as the news of the treaty reached the papers the letters started, she felt like she was living the Triwizard Tournament all over again, most of the correspondence was hateful, people accused her of joining the dark side, of being Voldemort's bitch and betraying them all, others were from people worried with her, asking if she had been cursed or if the Ministry was forcing her to accept it, or simply asking her to back down, and a few were thanking her for what she was doing for the wizarding world.

If possible, she hated the thanking kind most… She had expected the hateful mail, after all, people couldn't just accept that their supposed savior was marrying the man who killed their family and friends, the ones who were concerned with her were touching even if she knew that these same people would end up hating her when they discovered she did that on her own free will. But she couldn't stand the ones who were thanking her, people who were happy because she was sacrificing herself to give them a chance of life, every time she read one of those she wondered if she was doing the right thing by sacrificing herself for those cowards.

Perhaps she wanted people's pity, perhaps she just wanted the attention and play the victim, but she couldn't understand how a person could be all right with someone else suffering in their instead. She definitely preferred the hateful letters, the ones telling her she was coward for running away from the fight, the ones calling her a traitor saying she had turned her back on the dead, because that was how she felt.

Thankfully neither Voldemort nor his servants had contacted her during the remainder of term, and Lucy managed to pretend everything was just fine burying herself on her studies and completely ignoring the rest of the school, Ron and Hermione shielded her from most the outsiders influence, and her others friends kept their distance, it was obvious Lucy didn't want to talk about the issue, and they respected it, and if by chance they didn't and tried to talk about it they'd most likely only hear her hiss in anger and when the nagging was bad enough hex two or three nosy students across a room.


	2. The Rescuing

The rescuing

_Come along girl! I don't want to be spotted with you! - Uncle Vernon roared at her as she stepped out of the platform 9 ¾. Sighing dejectedly she let him drag her by the arm, it was the perfect beginning of a perfect summer with her loving family before a lovely marriage.

Lucy felt like crying.

Aunt Petunia was waiting for them with a list full of chores for Lucy. Thankfully Duddley wasn't home, he was out with his "lovely girlfriend", her aunt made a point to announce, and Lucy wondered what kind of girl could possibly date someone like Dudley.

_So, it's your last summer here right girl?- Her uncle asked with glee when she came to serve him yet another sandwich, it seemed that the family had finally ended the damned diet, not that it would make much of a difference for her anyway.

_Yes, uncle Vernon, actually I'll be leaving on my birthday.- She answered, and watched as her uncle narrowed his pig-like eyes at her.

_You'll leave on your own right girl? I won't have any more freaks coming to my house! - He roared.

_ I don't know, but I think someone is going to pick me up…

Before she knew it Vernon had dropped the sandwich and was grabbing her by the hair, she hissed but made a point of not screaming.

_Now listen here you little freak! I won't let you soil my home ever again do you understand me? I don't want any more of your kind coming here, you better tell them that or they won't find you alive to pick you up! - He screamed as he beat her across the face sending her to the ground.

Lucy shut her eyes and concentrated in tuning off the rest of the beating, she lost track of the time as she idly wondered if her married life would be any better than that, probably it'd be worse… she'd be raped too… She bit her lower lip preventing her from crying out when her uncle foot connected with her ribs, staying quiet this time was proving a lot harder than the previous ones, because this time she didn't have the prospect of going back to Hogwarts at the end of summer, nor of a happy life when she finished school, no, this time she had only the promise of a future worst than the present.

When her uncle finally tired of kicking her, she was left bleeding on the living room carpet, unable to move, she thought with a shudder that he might have broken a rib again, breathing was becoming very hard. Her last thought before passing out was that she would have to wash the blood off the damned carpet the next day, and blood stains were so hard to clean…

She was hunched uncomfortably on her own bed when she woke up again, Aunt Petunia probably didn't think that an unconscious freak looked good on her spotless living room and made Uncle Vernon drag her upstairs. Lucy took a deep breath, it still hurt, but it wasn't as bad as it was earlier, she had to be really thankful that she was a witch or she'd have died from one of those beatings as a child without the accidental magic healing the worst damages.

It was a week later that she discovered that Voldemort wasn't as quiet about the upcoming marriage as she had previously thought. It was a very hot afternoon and she had just finished her chores so she decided to take a walk on the nearby park, she idly sat on one of the banks and watched as the people passed by, she was bored, but she was also relieved to be out of the house, it seemed that her uncle and aunt were even more violent this time, she had received beatings from both of them everyday, thankfully none as hard as the first one, but still…

Lucy snapped to attention suddenly as she saw a cloaked figure disappearing between some nearby trees, she blinked and stood, it was weird to have a wizard walking in Surrey, furrowing her brow she went towards the trees, it was probably a stupid thing to do since she wasn't sure she had seen someone, and even if there was somebody there, it could very well be someone who wanted to harm her. But being the Gryffindor she was, Lucy got closer to the trees and before she could react a hand closed over her mouth while another restrained her arms.

_That was a very careless move Potter, it would be expected that you would be more careful. - Said a harsh voice. Soon the hands let go of her and she turned around to face the sneering face of her potions teacher, clad in his usual black attire.

_Uh… Professor? What are you doing here…- Lucy asked taking a step backwards.

_The dark lord seems to think that it's necessary to keep an eye on his future wife. - Snape said obviously being appalled to be the one who had to keep watch. Lucy blinked feeling confused and angry.

_An eye on me? But… How does he even know where I am? - She asked almost growling. Snape lifted an elegant eyebrow at that.

_He's legally betrothed to you, he has a right to know where his own bride lives.

_Well I don't need to be watched, it's not like I can run away or anything… You're the only one who's coming here? - She asked feeling wary with the idea of having death eaters spying on her.

_That's only part the reason the Dark Lord is monitoring you, Potter, he also is worried about your wellbeing… - Lucy sniggered at that, as if Voldemort would worry over anyone. - You certainly have heard of the uproar the treaty have caused among the wizarding community, there are many people who are displeased by the news… And no Potter, I'm not the only one who the Lord gave the duty to watch over you, there are others.

Lucy sighed heavily, no she wasn't aware of what was happening on the wizarding world right now, she wasn't allowed to receive mail, her Uncle hated those disgusting birds on his home, but she wasn't about to tell that to her teacher.

Just then she heard Duddley's voice as he came down the street with a bunch of his delinquent friends, she looked warily at him and watched as he looked at her, his eyes widening when he saw the man dressed in black standing next to her. Before she knew it, he had dismissed his friends and was hurrying home.

Lucy cursed behind her breath and brought her attention back to her teacher who was watching the whole thing with an arched eyebrow.

_Something wrong Potter? - He asked with an almost bored tone.

_Uh… No professor… I… It's better if I head home now my… My aunt may want some help with dinner. - She said hastily and took off before her teacher could answer.

Snape watched her retreating form, he was intrigued, the girl seemed quite scared when she saw her cousin coming up, it was a weird reaction, he wondered if maybe the two of them had fought recently. After some time of wondering he decided to follow the girl, he hadn't found anything weird on the neighborhood and secretly thought it was a waste of time to keep constant watch, but also knew that it wasn't a question of necessity, the Dark Lord only wanted to make a point on his ownership over her by monitoring her every step.

He cast some delusionments charms over himself and stood in front of the house number four, with another simple spying charm he was able to hear everything that was said inside the house.

Lucy was unlucky, when she got home she saw that her uncle's car was already on the garage, and Dudley had probably already told him what he saw… She opened the front door planning on sneaking through the hall and hide in her room. Needless to say that she wasn't all that lucky.

_You! Girl! I told you not to bring another one of those abnormal people here! - Her uncle screamed as he grabbed her roughly by the hair, when she was trying to climb the stairs.

_I didn't bring anyone uncle Vernon…- She said, keeping her voice as cool as possible.

_Liar! I've seen her with one of those freaks! - Dudley said as he came into the hall so he could watch the scene closely, Vernon punched her on the stomach, and she coughed.

_No! I didn't call him here… I… He… Was just passing by. - She said between ragged breaths.

_Ridiculous! Those abnormal people don't wander here! We're in a respectable neighborhood! Of course you called him here! - Aunt Petunia cut in from the door, Vernon punched her again, this time she coughed up a bit of blood.

_You'll learn not to lie and not to bring these freakish friends of yours here! - He snarled as he started to drag her upwards, he shoved her roughly inside her room, she fell on the ground and wind up hitting her head on her trunk that was beside the bed. She felt her uncle kicking her ribs and heard as he took off his belt.

_You… Freak… You… shouldn't have… been… born… You should… have died… with those useless… freaks… of parents that you have!- He said between painful lashes and harsh kicks, the thin well-worn fabric of the huge shirt she was wearing easily tearing with the strength of the strikes. - You'll obey me do you hear me you freak! I Don't… want anymore…. Abnormal… people lurking… in my neighborhood. I'll bloody kill you!… If you dare to spread… Your freakishness… around… Do you hear me… Girl? You'll be locked… In this room… for the rest of the summer… Do you hear me freak? - Her uncle kept screaming and striking. Again she found herself passing out as the pain and blood loss was too much to handle.

Snape stood frozen on the street; it was hard to believe what he was hearing, The-Girl-Who-Lived being beaten by her relatives? The Golden Girl being abused and no one had done anything? And it didn't seem to be the first time either, if her reaction to her cousin and her few protests were anything to go by… he wondered if he should go in and stop the whole thing… But it would be a bad move, some people may see it as an aggressive action of a Death Eater and the whole treaty would be blown to pieces. No, he'd have to warn his master… both of them.

Lucy woke up with a groan, she was still on the ground, lying on a pool of her dried blood, and she could feel the open cuts on her backs, the rag that was now the shirt clinging painfully on her skin. She saw through the window that the sun was already high on the sky, the fact that her aunt hadn't come up yet to force her to go back to her chores meant that her uncle would follow through with his threats and keep her locked on her room for the remainder of the summer.

In some ways it was a good thing, because she wouldn't have to do any chores neither would be around to be beaten all the time by her uncle, but that also meant she'd probably go without food for days… Sighing she tried to stand and move to the bed… As she tried to move though a sharp pain on her ribs and a fit of coughs kept her on the ground. Groaning again she slumped back and closed her eyes, she heard Hedwig hooting from her cage and she looked blearily to the white owl.

_Sorry Hedwig, I think it'll take some more time for me to recover this time…- She mumbled quietly, as she struggled to stand again, she managed to get on her feet swaying slightly, she limped towards her bed and lied on her stomach as to not hurt her back further.

Lucy woke again to the sound of exalted voices downstairs, she could distinguish clearly her uncle voice that sounded strangely high pitched as if he was afraid. She sat up on the bed rubbing her scar that was burning, she wondered briefly what could possibly be happening downstairs, but just then she heard heavy footsteps on the stairs and she panicked both because it could be her uncle to give her another beating and because the closer the steps came to her room the more her scar hurt.

Soon the door burst open, causing Hedwig to hoot startled on her cage, a man dressed in some sort of official uniform came in followed by her uncle who looked petrified.

_What…- Lucy started to ask being more confused by the minute, when another man came into the room, she looked at his crimson eyes for a moment and her scar burst into a searing hot pain, and before she knew it she was unconscious again.


	3. The Serpent's Lair

Author's note: Hi guys! I'd like to thank all of you for the support, and to apologize for the bad grammar, but english isn't my mother language and I'm struggling to write everything as correctly as I can... Also, I don't know how to get a Beta reader, so if anyone knows how, or wish to do it, I'd appreciate. Please let me know if something is incomprehensible, so that I can fix it.

And please review so that I know if you guys are liking the story.

The Serpent's Lair

Lucy didn't want to wake up, she was far too comfortable and warm to move from her spot under the covers, at least until she began to wonder where she was and what had happened, once the memories came back to her, she snapped her eyes open and sat up quickly, which she regretted immediately because she felt the room spin around her.

_You're finally awake. - A soft voice said besides her. Startled, Lucy looked to her side and saw a beautiful blonde woman sitting on a chair near the bed, a book resting on her lap, and inquisitive blue eyes watching her intently. Lucy furrowed her brow, she remembered the woman faintly but couldn't pinpoint who exactly she was.

_Who are you? Where am I? - She asked, her voice louder than usual, her eyes shifting from the woman to the luxurious room they were in, it was tasteful decorated in cream, brown and golden, there was a window, that was currently closed and a big fireplace, her trunk was placed next to her bed and Hedwig's cage was a top of it, but was empty, her wand was sitting on the bedside table. She also noticed that she wasn't wearing her own clothes, but was dressed in a simple blue gown instead, the realization making her clutch a bit tightly onto the covers.

_I'm Narcisa Malfoy, we're on the Serpent's Lair, also known as the Slytherin castle. - The woman said calmly, Lucy open her mouth to say something but Narcisa continued. - You've been unconscious for many hours, it's almost dinner time now, doctor Crabb just left. Once you were rescued from those muggles house My Lord brought you here, to his home, and called me so I could take care of you. Are you feeling better?

Lucy blinked it was a weird notion, she had been rescued from the Dusleys? By Voldemort? It was truly laughable, had anyone told her it'd happen a year ago and she'd think they were crazy, then again a year ago she could never believe she'd be engaged to the man either. Noticing that Narcisa was still watching her, Lucy hurried to answer.

_Yeah… I feel better. - She answered truthfully. - What happened to my clothes? - Narcisa made a disdainful face.

_Those rags, were all bloodied, I had to take it off so your wounds could be properly cleaned, but I must say that you have quite the talent with healing magic, you had already healed the worst damage yourself.

_Uh… It was accidental magic really… I don't know any healing spell. - Narcisa gave her a surprised look at that, but suppressed the expression fast enough.

_Well then, I think you may want to take a bath, the bathroom is over there,- The blond said motioning to a door to the right.- I've brought some of my own clothes you can use, since we couldn't find anything suitable among your things besides the school robes, tomorrow I'll accompany you to shop for some new clothes.

_Oh… Well thank you but… I don't think it'll be necessary, I'll just change and leave. - Lucy answered and Narcisa, arched her eyebrows to her.

_Leave? You can't leave, the ministry decided that since you have no others relatives you should stay with your betrothed during the remainder of summer, even Dumbledore agreed to that. - The woman said as if she was commenting about the weather.

Lucy narrowed her eyes at that.

_What? They simply decided that I have to stay here? That's ridiculous! I'm not staying, I don't have to be anywhere near Voldemort until the marriage and sure as hell I don't want to! - She nearly screamed, but the older woman only watched her with a statue-like face.

_I understand the situation may not seem ideal to you, but I truly can do nothing to change that, I advise that you take a bath and come down to dinner, the Dark Lord will be thrilled to see you, and it's possible that he may let you stay with some of your friends, he brought you here only so he could take you away from danger after all. - Narcisa said standing up and walking out of the room, she stopped by the door and glanced sideways to the girl on the bed.- I'll send an elf to take you to the dine room later, I'm sure you're hungry and will want to thank the lord…- With that said she slipped out and closed the doors behind her.

Lucy stared at door, she wanted to scream that NO! there's no way that Voldemort had done anything to help her without a hidden motive, and no, there's no way she'd thank him, or dine with him, or stay in that place for a second longer than was absolutely necessary. But there was no one there to listen and even if she whole heartedly believed that he must have an ulterior motive to take her out of the Dusley's, she couldn't think of any, and therefore she couldn't very well accuse him of anything… yet.

Sighing she threw the covers away from her and stood, she entered the door Narcisa told her was the bathroom and saw that there werealready some clothes for her and very fluffy towels near the bathtub, she made a quick trip to the loo and filled the tub with streaming hot water and all sorts of scented salts she could find.

The hot water made wonders to her body, that was still somewhat stiff due to the many hours of sleep. As she relaxed in the water she couldn't help but think about what Narcisa said, did she really believe she was going to thank Voldemort for anything? Should her? She couldn't deny that he had actually saved her, it had probably been Snape who saw what was happening and informed him… He could just have ignored it and let her there, it wasn't like she'd die before the wedding or anything, but he had informed the Ministry and had gone there himself, even if his presence had actually done a lot more damage than good.

Idly she wondered what would happen to her Uncle and Aunt, she'd have to ask someone during dinner… Voldemort couldn't possibly have killed them, could he? Probably not, it'd be bad propaganda so soon after the treaty, they'd probably be arrested, maybe go to Azkaban…

Once she was dressed, with a really beautiful light-pink silky robes, it was a bit too long and the sleeve went well past her hands, but it was still a lot more fit than Dudley's old clothes and she was a lot pretty wearing it too. Lucy put on the nice soft slippers that were left for her with the clothes and exited the bathroom, an elf was standing on the middle of the room, it's big brown eyes fixed on the ground.

_Mistress Lucy, Tipsy welcomes you Mistress! The Master Dark Lord is waiting the Mistress for dinner! Tipsy must show the way to the Mistress! - The elf said with it's tiny high shrieked voice, bowing low to her.

_Huh… Hi Tipsy, thank you. - She said quietly, and the brown eyes fixed on her as if she was the most bizarre attraction on a circus, and then it smiled up at her.

_Come! Come! Mistress with beautiful eyes! Come with tipsy! Tipsy will show the way to the pretty mistress ! - The elf started to blab and Lucy grabbed her wand and followed the she-elf out of the room with a bemused smile.

Tipsy led her through a maze of corridors and stairs, the castle seemed to be as big if not bigger than Hogwarts, it was mostly done in black stone, but there were some details in marble or silver along the halls, it was beautiful if not a bit gloomy, there were snake carvings on the walls and Lucy had the creepy feeling that they were moving. They stopped in front of two double doors that Tipsy pushed open

_Here, that's where the Master is Mistress Lucy with beautiful eyes! - She said excitedly.

_Thank you Tipsy. - Lucy said and stepped inside trying her best to ignore the aching on her scar that had started burning since she got to the door.

It was a small living room, inside were Narcisa, Lucius, Snape and sitting in a throne-like chair by the fire was Voldemort, they all turned to look at her when she came in, but her eyes fixed themselves on the red ones, narrowing slightly when the pain on her forehead increased.

_Welcome to my home Lucy. Ssssssit. - He said pointing to a chair besides his own.

Lucy glanced at the chair for a moment but chose to sit on another one, the furthest away from him, he lifted an elegant eyebrow at this.

_Why are you sitting so far away my dear bride, could it be that you're afraid of me? - He asked sarcastically, and Lucy's eyes narrowed further at that.

_I'm not afraid of you Voldemort. - She hissed angrily. - I'm so sorry if I'm not playing along your little game, but my scar is hurting enough as it is, and I really don't want to make it any worse.

Red eyes watched her pensively a long finger traced his elegant chin, he didn't seem annoyed by her biting tone, he seemed intrigued.

_Your scar still hurts because of me… that's a problem… Is there anything we can do to fix that Severusss? - He said after a moment of silence.

The Potions master shifted uncomfortably on his chair when his Lord gaze fell upon him.

_I'm afraid not my Lord, Potter had been affected since your rebirth every time you're close by or when you have a strong emotion…- Snape said slowly, trying not to cower under the sharp gaze and failing miserably at that. - But it's possible that once you're bonded and there's no feeling of hatred or fear between you that she'll stop feeling the pain.

Voldemort didn't seem to be happy with the answer and Lucy wondered if he was planning on casting a cruciatus curse on Snape, her scar seemed to burn more at the thought and she couldn't suppress a grimace, causing the red eyes to rest on her again.

_What you've done with the Dusleys? - She asked suddenly, not bothering to hide the accusing tone on her voice.

_I've let them under the Ministry custody, they will no doubt be thrown into Azkaban, I'll make sure of that. Why my bride, do you feel pity for that scum? - Voldemort said, displeasure showing through his voice, and her scar throbbed just a bit further.

__You should have let me eat them Masssster_\- A hoarse voice said just behind her and Lucy startled, looking behind herself to see Nagini sliding inside the room.

_I_ would have loved to let you my friend but that would be counterproductive for my plansss._ \- Voldemort hissed back.

The black snake came forward and stopped in front of Lucy's chair, lifting it's big head to look at her more closely.

__Hello Mistresss Lucy, It's an honour to meet my massster bride._ \- The snake said ducking slightly in what should have been a bow.

__Hello Nagini, it's nice to speak to you in less tenssse circumstancessss._\- Lucy answered dryly remembering the night when Voldemort had come back to life and the snake had been very hostile towards her.

__Forgive my later rudenessss my Mistressss, now I'm at your servicccce.-_ Nagini answered and repeated the attempted bow, coming slightly closer to Lucy.

__I don't need your services Nagini, but I may accept your friendship…_\- Lucy answered and stretched her hand to pet the giant snake, which in turn rested it's big head on her knee. Lucy couldn't help it, she liked snakes, being a parselmouth she had the tendency to befriend them.

_I_t's good to see that you've become friends with Nagini…_\- Voldemort said with an evil smirk, Lucy looked up at him and glared.

_I_ can't blame her for the misdeeds of her master._ \- She answered spitefully, but his smirk only broadened.

_It's time for dinner.- Voldemort stated in English and stood, Lucy glared at him some more while the others got to their feet, they all seemed wary, probably feeling uncomfortable for witnessing a conversation in a language they couldn't comprehend and which creeped them out.

Dinner was an uncomfortable affair, Lucy saw herself being forced to sit by the Voldemort's right, who sat at the head of the table, her scar burned more due to the close proximity but she did her best to hide it, and concentrated solely on her food. The others talked about business, except for Narcisa who looked slightly bored, but Lucy didn't pay attention to what was being said, they weren't talking anything that went against the treaty nor that seemed particularly suspicious.

When they were almost finished Voldemort turned to her.

_Narcisa tells me that you're going shopping tomorrow, you will no doubt start helping her with the preparations for the wedding, it has to suit your tasssssste after all.- He said smoothly, and she glared at him.

_I'm not making any plans for this wedding Voldemort! It wouldn't even happen if I had a choice, and I'm not staying here either, tomorrow I'm leaving. - She answered gritting her teeth.

His eyes narrowed at that.

_Oh, no you're not leaving dearrr bride. You can't leave, you'll be staying here with me until the wedding and of course afterwards. - He said coolly but his voice had threatening edge to it .

_I have no obligation to stay here before the wedding and I'm sure as hell not spending my last free summer here. - She answered hotly, the pain on her scar increasing.

_You'd rather spend it with those muggles?- He asked and she winced when a hot wave of pain washed over her. - You don't have a choice on the matter my dear, the Ministry has already stated that you should stay here. - He brought one pale hand to caress her cheek, the moment his cold skin touched hers, her scar burst in excruciating pain that irradiated through all her body, she started to shiver and bit down her lip to stop herself from screaming even as a tear slid down her cheek

If things kept going this way she'd die from the pain soon enough, he could torture her with just a flitting touch or with a bit of anger, her life would be utter hell, and she couldn't even begin to imagine what would happen when they were married and he had the right to rape her.

He took back his hand and the pain subsided, she opened her eyes again and saw that he was watching her with annoyed eyes, she kept still breathing hard, she felt like she had just being through the cruciatus curse her whole body ached.

_Tipsy. - He called and the elf popped up in front of him. - Show Lucy the way to her room. - He ordered and Lucy struggled to her feet, slowly following the elf, even if it hurt to move just yet she wanted to be as far away from Voldemort as possible, at least the pain on her scar dulled with every step away from him she took. The relieve from the pain was good enough for her to obey him without question.

_Thissss can't go on Severusssss. - Voldemort said when the girl left the room. - I can't have a bride which I cannot touch. Find me a solution! - He snapped and stood from his chair stalking out of the room with Nagini following just behind.

_Is Mistress Lucy alright? Is Mistress Lucy in pain? Can Tipsy help Mistress? - The elf asked anxiously when they exited the dine room.

_No, Tipsy, I'm fine…- Lucy said smiling softly at the elf. For now she was truly fine, for now Voldemort wouldn't hurt her so much, not before the bond, but after… She was sure she'd be anything but fine.

She found the window opened and Hedwig waiting for her on her room, two letters attached to her leg.

_Thank you for showing the way Tipsy. - Lucy said quietly, the elf bowed threw her another worried look and disappeared. Lucy sat on the bed and Hedwig landed besides her, screeching her leg so she could take the letters.

_Hey girl… Are you hungry? I'm sure there are still some treats on your cage over there. - She said running her hand over the snow-white feathers, Hedwig hooted and nipped her earlobe fondly. Smiling a bit Lucy proceeded to open the letters, one were from Ron, the other from Sirius.

_Hey Mate,_

_How are you? We're all very worried here. Mum got really pissed when she heard what happened to you, she wanted to go and hex those muggles insides out herself. Why didn't you tell us about the beatings having gotten worse? You know Dumbledore would have taken you out of there if you did… _

_Anyway, we're worried about you staying with that bastard too; dad is trying to convince the Ministry to let you stay here during the rest of the summer. Hermione is still in France with her parents, but I've sent her an owl telling what happened. _

_Everyone is sending their best wishes and hoping you're okay, we'll be at your wedding…_

_Hugs, Ron_

_Ps. I still think we should kill the bastard that calls himself your fiancé, just send an owl and I, Fred and George will go there to rescue you okay?_

Lucy laughed a bit as she finished Ron's letter, she could very well picture Mrs. Weasley ranting about killing her relatives and Ron and the Twins plotting her rescue. She just wished it was true what he said about Dumbledore, the headmaster wouldn't take her out if she asked, it wasn't as if she hadn't asked before anyway, he'd just say it was the safest thing for her, and she knew he actually believed it was for the best, just it was the best for the wizarding world not her.

Putting the first letter aside she moved on to Siriu's.

_Hey, cub_

_Are you okay there? Please write me an answer okay? I'm dying from worry here, Remus is too. I hope Voldemort doesn't try anything with you, I'm going to kill him if he does. Actually I want to go and kill those muggles too, but Remus and Dumbledore convinced me it wouldn't be a good idea to be arrested again for murder after all the trouble you had to clear my charges. Anyway, I hope those monsters get a lifetime sentence. _

_I'm trying to get you to come stay with me until the wedding, I'm sure the weasleys want you to go stay with them too, I just can't believe the Ministry threw you there with Voldemort._

_Now let me give you some good news, I'm sure you need them, I'll be your future DADA teacher, Dumbledore offered me the position a couple weeks ago. It was supposed to be a surprise but due to the circumstances I thought it would cheer you up to know. Also the other good news is that I'll be an uncle again, and you'll gain a little cousin. Remus got Tonks pregnant. Those bastards have been together for almost a year now and didn't tell us! I should kill Moony for that. Anyway… She's three month's pregnant and will be due sometime around January. I really can't wait to see Moony on diaper duty._

_I think that's it cub, me and Moony will be there on your wedding, and if everything goes right you'll see us before that._

_Love, Sirius._

Lucy had tears on her eyes when she finished the letter, she wanted so much to be with her godfather, the only family she still had… But she knew it was almost impossible for her to see him before her birthday, it was only a few weeks away, and things with the Ministry always took too long. She also knew it was very probable she wouldn't be his student either, she doubted Voldemort would let her go back to Hogwarts. And Remus was going to be a father… She just wished she could see him, and Tonks, she never had been around a pregnant woman before, she wondered if Tonks would let her rub the baby bump when she saw her…

Lucy curled herself on the bed hugging the letters to her chest, tears were sliding freely through her cheeks now. She cried herself to sleep, thinking about her friends, and her home, and the family she never had and would never have…


	4. Shopping with a Malfoy

Author's Note: Again, I't like to thank you all for the support. Also, I've changed he dialogue marking's to " ", as you suggested, hopefully I'll get around to fix the previous chapter's soon.

About Voldemort's description, it'll take another chapter or two to do it, I'm not in a hurry because I'm telling the story mostly from Lucy's point of view, and right now she's too preocupied with her future and all the bad things that have been happening to her to care about his appearance, but it'll happen soon enough. Also, there won't much interaction between them for now, I want the story to go at a slower pace, but bear with me and soon it will be all about them.

Shopping with a Malfoy

Lucy opened her eyes slowly, wondering what woke her up, sitting on the bed she saw an elf putting a huge breakfast tray on the table, it wasn't Tipsy.

"Morning." - She mumbled, the poor elf wiped around with wide scared green eyes.

"Bobby is sorry Mistress! Bobby really didn't want to wake Mistress up, Bobby will leave at once Mistress, Bobby is really sorry, but the Lord asked Bobby to bring Mistress her breakfast and…" - The poor he-elf, started to ramble, bowing so low that his long pointed nose touched the ground, Lucy also saw he was shaking.

"It's okay Bobby, It was really time for me to wake up. Thanks for bringing me breakfast." - Lucy said mildly, getting out of bed.

Bobby raised his head at that, eyes even move wide and mouth agape, Lucy fought the urge to toll her eyes "It's truly unbelievable how wizards treats their servants, the poor things not even were used to people being polite towards them", the voice on the back of her head complained, it sounded strangely like Hermione.

"Thank you Lady Lucy, Mistress, now Bobby understand why Tipsy likes Mistress, Mistress is really kind. The Lord told Bobby to bring the Mistress breakfast and that Mrs. Malfoy will come by to take Mistress to the Diagon Alley for shopping later."- The elf said a lot more calmly, but he was still looking up at Lucy with adoring eyes, he remembered her of Dobby.

"Thank you Bobby." - She said and the elf bowed to her.

"Is there anything else Bobby could do for Mistress?"

"No Bobby thanks…"- With another bow the elf was gone, and Lucy sat on the table, yawning a bit. She wasn't sure if she wanted to go shopping with Narcisa, spending time with a Malfoy certainly wouldn't be nice, then again, it was an opportunity to leave the damned castle… A sudden idea struck her then. She quickly got to her trunk, and unceremoniously placed Hedwig's cage on the ground.

"Sorry Hedwig." - She mumbled when the owl woke up due to the sudden movement and glared at her. When she opened her trunk she saw that all of her muggle clothes were gone, the only clothes there were her school robes and her dress robes. She assumed it was because she wasn't supposed to wear anything related to muggles inside Voldemort castle, that or Mrs. Malfoy thought her clothes were rags and threw them away.

She took two pieces of parchment and a quill and went back to the table. She quickly scribbled a note to Ron and one to Sirius, telling them she was fine and that she was going to Diagon Alley that day, with Mrs. Malfoy later that day. She just hoped they could go and see her. She folded the notes and poked her owl so she would wake up again. Hedwig opened her eyes and hooted indignantly.

"I'm sorry girl, I know you probably tired, but it's important that you take this to Ron and this to Sirius okay? It's probably my only chance of seeing them before my birthday." - She said smiling apologetically, as she tied the notes to the owls leg.

Hedwig nipped at her finger with a bit more force than usual, but didn't seem to be much annoyed. Lucy gave a piece of toast from the breakfast tray and watched as the owl flew out of the window. Finally she sat down to eat, she had ate very little the night before, sitting beside Voldemort did nothing for her appetite, and couldn't really remember when she had ate while with the Dursleys, so it was expected that she was famished. She ate a lot, and was delighted to discover that the food was good as Hogwart's. Lucy was wolfing down a blueberry muffin when she heard a knock on the door. She told them to come in, and Narcisa Malfoy entered the room.

"Good Morning, Ms. Potter. You're not finished yet?" - The woman said eyeing the breakfast.

"Uh… Morning… I'm finishing… Just wait a minute while I take a quick shower okay?" - She said quickly swallowing her muffing and standing, with a nod, Narcisa sat down on a chair and watched as the girl headed to the bathroom .- "Oh! Was it you who took my clothes?" - Lucy asked pausing on the bathroom door.

The blond woman blinked up at her.

"Do you call those rags, clothes? Yes, it was I who threw those away, they weren't suited for the Lord's bride, but don't worry, we will get some new clothes for you today, for now you can wear your school uniforms."

"I'm ready." - Lucy said pocketing her wand, after she had properly showered and changed. Narcisa gave her an inquisitive look.

"You seem much happier today…"- She said mildly.

"Oh, don't misunderstand me, I'm just glad that I can leave this place, even if just for a day"- Lucy answered shrugging, she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to tell the woman that she had written to her friends telling where she'd be for the day, and that she hoped to meet them there.

"You really should start to get used to the castle and to this new life Ms. Potter, it'll do you no good to be that reluctant about your wedding. You'll never have a happy married life if you keep putting up those barriers." - The woman said standing up and heading to the fire place.

Lucy scoffed.

"I'll not get used to it, and there's no way I'd have any kind of happiness while married to that monster." - Narcisa merely shook her head and handed the floo powder to the girl.

Lucy took a handful of the powder threw it on the fireplace and stepped into the flames, stating her destiny as clearly as possible. She almost fell when she got to the bar, she got out of the fire place coughing and trying to dust off the ashes from her clothes, the fireplace flared behind her and Narcisa stepped out of it gracefully.

"Ah! Finally Narcisa, I thought you weren't coming anymore." - A man said approaching them, he was wearing dark robes with a hood covering his head, making it impossible to see his face.

"I've got a bit late Rabastan, and where are your manners? That's not how you should greet our Lord's Bride." - The woman chided.

Rabastan turned to look at Lucy, who was glaring hard at him, she had heard the name before, he was Rabastan Lestrange, Bellatrix husband, he had helped her torture the Longbottons.

"Oh of course… It's an honor to meet you my lady." - He said, dripping the hood and showing his face, he had dark brown eyes and his hair was a tangled black mane, he was giving her a toothy grin.

"Why is he here?" - Lucy bit out trying to control her anger.

"To accompany us of course. Did you really think our Lord you let you wander with just me as company?" - Narcisa said as it was obvious.

"Is he that afraid I'll run away?" - Lucy sneered, Rabastan grin grew.

"Of course not, he knows a good hearted girl such as yourself would never broke the treaty would you? I'm here more for your protection, my Lady." - His voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"I don't need the protection of a Death Eater." - Lucy growled and she turned around and started to walk the back door. She felt all the eyes on the room accompanying her, thankfully there were few people there at that hour. Tom waved at her and she waved back, with a tiny smile.

The Diagon Alley on the other hand was already full of people, the streets were crowded, due to the peace the treaty had brought people were feeling confident to walk the streets again, Lucy felt slightly nostalgic as she thought of the first time she had been there, the company had been so much better back then.

"Come, we'll get your clothes first." - Narcisa said touching her arm and leading her through the crowd.

Lucy was relieved to notice Rabastan was just following behind them, she didn't want the man anywhere near her. As they walked, she could feel some people gazing at her, most just seemed surprised and slightly afraid, but some sent her hateful glares, she made a point to avoid everyone's eyes.

Lucy was surprised when Narcisa took her not to Madam Malkin, as she had expected, but to a store called Amelia Styles: Clothes and Accessories, on a street she never had seen before. The two women walked in, Rabastan said he'd wait on the small café in front. The place was impeccably clean, and really stylish, there were some soft pink loveseats scattered around, a beautiful chandelier hung from the ceiling. A young witch dressed in fluttering blue robes came to receive them.

"Oh! Mrs. Malfoy! What a pleasure to see you!" - She said with a grin.

"It's good to see you too Sara, is Amelia here?" - Narcisa asked with a grin of her own.

"Oh, yes! Yes! Mama's upstairs waiting for you. You may go up right now." - Sara said, her eyes fixing on Lucy's scar for a brief moment before turning to lead them to the stair.

Once they got upstairs, an old tall woman, dressed in purple, with her white hair properly arranged in a tight bun, was sitting on a small divan reading what seemed to be a fashion magazine.

"Amelia! What a pleasure to see you." - Narcisa said with a smile, the woman looked up and instantly put the magazine aside standing to hug the blond.

"Cissa! There's a long time since I last saw you! What will you want today? A new night dress perhaps?" - The elder woman said with a smile.

"Not today Amelia. Today it's Ms. Potter who you will be making clothes for". - Narcisa said grabbing Lucy's hand bringing her to stand in front of Amelia.

The woman's hazel eyes widened as she looked at Lucy, her eyes barely lingered on the scar though. She seemed far more interested on Lucy's eyes and face. Amelia held Lucy's face between her hands for a long time, staring deeply into her eyes, until Narcisa's discreet cough brought her back to reality.

"Oh, yes… Lucy Potter… It's an honor to have you here on my shop child. What will you want today?" - She asked slowly, leading Lucy to stand on a small platform.

"She'll need a whole wardrobe, but we'll start with her wedding dress." - Narcisa answered.

Amelia's eyes lit up and with a flicker of her wand Lucy was standing wearing only her underwear.

"Let's take the measures them. "- The old woman said calmly.

"What the…"- Lucy yelped trying to cover herself with her hands, her cheeks burning a bright Gryffindor red.

"Oh, no need to be embarrassed dear, you're among ladies." - Narcisa said nonchalantly as she sat down on the divan. Lucy opened her mouth to answer but was distracted by the metric sash that started to measure her.

"Unfold your arms and keep still darling."- Amelia said, and Lucy reluctantly dropped her arms to the sides of her body."- Very well, now, are you a virgin dear?

"What? Why does it matter?" - Lucy asked annoyed, the woman barely met her and was already inquiring about her private life.

"Being raised by muggles you wouldn't know would you? The wedding dress colors have different meanings, virgin brides wear white, non-virgins who never had children wear royal blue, those who are already mothers wear emerald green, and those who are currently pregnant wear red." - Narcisa explained mildly.

"Oh… Uh… Yes, I'm virgin." - Lucy said blushing a bit.

"Splendid! I was hoping you would say that, the royal blue would clash with your eyes, and the white will look fabulous against your skin." - Amelia said merrily.

"White silk than, right Amelia?" - Narcisa asked.

"Yes, the best silk, made by the faeries my dear, lined with pure silver strings." - The older woman said waving her wand and a huge box came into her hands. Opening it she took out the drapes of pure silk, that seemed more beautiful than anything Lucy had ever seen and with another wave of her wand the metric sash dropped and soon enough Lucy found herself surrounded by silk, scissors, silver strings, and needles, as a dress was being tailored onto her body.

She was very weary of the needles moving by magic so close of her skin, the whole dress-making was finished without incidents though, even if had taken more than an hour and Lucy was already getting tired of just standing there. Once the dress was finally done, Amelia summoned a full-length mirror in front of Lucy so she could see herself.

"Oh! It looks wonderful!" - Narcisa said with a dreamy sigh standing to look at Lucy more closely.

Lucy couldn't deny she looked beautiful, the dress was sleeveless, showing her collarbone and neck, it hung closely to her upper body, but was cut open on the front showing her navel and a great deal of skin, from her hips the silk hung loosely, outlining her legs when she moved. The dress left very little to the imagination.

"Isn't it too revealing?" - She asked frowning a little.

"No, that's how all the wedding dresses are my dear… Have you never attended a wizarding wedding before?" - Amelia asked sounding a bit surprised.

"No, never…"

"The dress is meant to be revealing, it is to show to your future husband what he's taking, also it shows your belly because it symbolizes your fertility, the place where your bond mate's child will grow." - Narcisa said quietly.

"I see…"- Lucy frowned a little, she couldn't imagine herself carrying Voldemort's child, she just couldn't imagine bringing that monster's spawn into the world, she wouldn't do it, never, even if it meant she'd never have the family she always desired.

"You shouldn't think so badly about your upcoming marriage child. Many women have being forced into convenience marriages and worked them out. Just because it doesn't seem ideal doesn't mean it won't be good for you." - Amelia said interpreting well the girl's distressed expression.

Lucy shook her head slightly.

"Nothing good can come from Voldemort. He's a monster." - She stated firmly.

"Nonsense! He's a man, a very human man, there may be nothing good in him you can see now, but certainly you'll be able to find goodness, or create it in him. There's nothing love can't do child." - Amelia said, her eyes twinkled in a way that reminded Lucy of Dumbledore, she didn't believe in the old woman's words though, they may be true to almost everyone, but certainly, they didn't apply to Voldemort.

"I think we should find her the matching shoes." - Narcisa said clearly wanting to change the subject, she too seemed skeptical towards Amelia's words.

"Oh… Yes, yes… I think I have just the right one…"- Amelia said, she waved her wand again and soon another box came flying into her hands, she took a pair of soft silver high-heeled shoes, trimmed with what Lucy could swear were diamonds. They re-sized to fit Lucy's feet as soon as she put them on.

"Perfect!" - Narcisa said approvingly.

"Well, now that it's done, let's go to the rest of the wardrobe." - Amelia said, Narcisa and her helped Lucy to take the wedding dress off.

The other clothes were all already pre-made, and they only needed to re-fitted into her body so they would fit perfectly, thankfully it only took a few minutes to adjust each piece. Lucy found herself enjoying herself while picking the fabrics, colours and models for each dress, robes, coats, skirts, pants, shirts, gloves, pyjamas, underwear… She obviously didn't try those on, she wasn't about to get naked in front of the women, but they both insisted she had to pick some.

Another four hours were spent that way, between beautiful clothes and shoes, and exclamations of "Oh! no blue for you dear, it clashes with your eyes", "black, that one will be great in black velvet don't you think?", "what about red?", "No, no red child, only for that quidditch uniform of yours, because that can't be helped, red doesn't suit you!", "Oh, look at this green! It's the exact same rue of your eyes!", "that must be the best satin I've ever saw Amelia, I think I'll want a robe made with this one myself", "This is too short!", "oh nonsense! It's perfect", "Try these boots, it matches the coat perfectly", "Yes, I think these gloves are marvelous!"…

By the time they were done, Lucy had a wardrobe with more clothes than she could possibly wear, or so she thought, Narcisa still believed she'd need some more soon, and was dead tired and hungry. But she was feeling fine too, she never thought she'd enjoy shopping with a Malfoy, but it was nice, and it made her forget about the dreadful wedding that was coming up, at least for a few hours.

Until Amelia informed her that everything naturally went to the Dark Lord's tab, when she tried to pay, she didn't like the idea of having someone else paying for her things, but Narcisa informed her that that was how the wizarding bond was supposed to be, the senior partner was responsible for every need of the junior, and also the Senior had the right to administer every account belonging to the junior mate. Lucy wasn't happy about the news at all.

They left the shop after calling for the castle's house-elves to come and pick up the clothes, and went for lunch, unfortunately to Lucy, Rabastan joined them again, but thankfully remained quiet for the most part. She was happy when Narcisa informed her they just had to grab her school supplies now before heading home (she didn't like when Narcisa referred to the serpent's lair as her home, though), because it meant she would be going back to Hogwarts after all. She was just leaving the book shop after buying her books when she heard someone calling her name.

"Oh, dear! It's so good to see you. You're okay aren't you? Those stupid muggles, how could they… Oh never mind… Are you here alone?" - Molly asked as she fussed over Lucy, checking her over to be sure she was fine.

"No, Molly… She's with me." - Narcisa said coming up behind Lucy with Rabastan.

The entire Weasley clan glared at the two.

Lucy talked to Ron, Ginny and the twins for some moments and assured Mrs. Weasly she was fine, as fine as anyone could be in that situation anyway, before Narcisa and Rabastan dragged her out of there saying they still had to buy many things and she was expected to be home for dinner, again she was pissed about them referring to the Slytherin castle as her home.

Lucy was happy to see the Weasleys, they always put her more at easy, but she was slightly disappointed when Arthur told her Sirius hadn't come to the Diagon Alley that day because he was a lot busy. She knew he was probably in Hogwarts preparing for the following year, but she missed him and wanted to give him a hug.

It was already dark when Lucy had to go back to the Serpent's Lair, Narcisa dropped her off there and went to her home, and Rabastan thankfully had departed from Diagon Alley. Sighing happily Lucy decided to take a long hot shower, she couldn't believe it, but she had enjoyed herself while shopping with a Malfoy, so far everything had been just fine, if she got to avoid Voldemort like that every day she might even survive the whole thing, not that she believed it would be possible anyway.


	5. Dinner and The Attack

Author's note: Sorry for the delay guys, but yesterday was a very busy day for me. I'll try and uptade more chapter's during the weekend, but here comes a short one, just to keep you interested. ;)

Thank you again for all the support, and please keep reviewing!

Dinner and the Attack

For the next three days, Lucy was left in peace, Voldemort had been busy with the election of the Council of the Wise, and so he and his minions were very little at the castle, she only had to endure their presence at dinner, and even then there wasn't much fuss around her either, the conversation usually went about the council and the ministry.

And so, those three days were bearable, she spent most of the time at her room writing to her friends and making her homework - it would be the first year she'd have it all finished before the last week of vacation - and on occasion, when she was sure Voldemort wasn't at the castle (the elves would inform her) she'd go to the library or to the garden and spend a few hours reading or simply watching the sky.

At the third day evening though, her relative peace was ended by Narcisa, whom she hadn't seen since their trip to the diagon alley.

"Mistress Lucy, Miss, Mrs. Malfoy, wishes to see the Mistress!" - Tipsy said after appearing with a loud pop near Lucy, who was currently laying on the carpet making her potions essay.

"Uh… Okay… Tell her to come in." - She said climbing to her feet, with another pop the elf was gone and some moments after the door was open.

"Good evening Ms. Potter." - Narcisa greeted with a polite smile.

"Hi, what you want?" - Lucy answered conscious of her rudeness, but not in the least sorry. Narcisa didn't seem to notice it and continued with a bland tone.

"I have good news today, the council election is finally over, and our Lord is among the ten councilmen. We'll be having a commemorative feast tonight. "- She said nonchalantly and walked towards the wardrobe. - "The Lord asked me to help you pick up your outfit."

Lucy watched without much attention as the older woman looked through her dresses and robes and debated with herself about which color and fabric would be more appropriate, she was angry to know that the bastard had actually got a position among the council, it was expected obviously, considering his new influence over the wizergamot, but it was frustrating all the same.

"Who else?" - She asked after some time, and as Narcisa looked at her with inquisitive eyes she elaborated. - "Who else was chosen to be a member of the council?"

"Oh! Lucius, Kingsley Shaklebolt, Pythia Zabbini, Alexander Rosier, Frederic Nott, Severus Snape, Sirius Black, Allecto Carrow and Rufus Scrimgeur. It was a very good selection I believe, despite a few disappointing names." – Narcisa said with a smile. – "Oh! Here! This one should be perfect!" – The blonde exclaimed suddenly, pulling out of the wardrobe a long dress of black velvet, along with an also black cloak, that would be clasped around her shoulders by a huge emerald. – "And I believe these shoes will be good enough, some heels so you won't be too much shorter than our Lord and yet not too high so you'll look like you're falling." – She said picking up a simple pair of black shoes, that didn't seem to be too high.

Lucy wasn't really paying attention anymore, she was still musing over the people elected to the Council, Dumbledore was not among them… How badly could things be? At least Sirius and Kingsley had been chosen, the only ones who were openly from the light side, the others… Well, Snape was a rather dubious character, if at some point he had actually been totally dark or light, Lucy believed he was neither anymore, he seemed that he was actually playing for the both sides now, even if he was by no means a bad man, really… Not like Not, or Rosier, anyway.

Thankfully no Lestrange was chosen… On the other hand, Scrimgeur was as bad as one, the man had completely sold himself, he might as well be worse than any death eater, as for Malfoy, it was expected, really…

Immersed in thoughts she barely heard when Narcisa left, she was brought from her daydream though when Tipsy popped in the room, and started to drag her to the bathroom, saying her bath was already fixed. Lucy bathed calmly, and afterwards allowed Tipsy to brush her hair; the little elf was always asking her to do so, and not to disappoint her Lucy would allow her to.

When she was finally ready she looked upon the mirror, and couldn't help but feel surprised at her own reflection, she looked older, prettier even, the black clothes gave her an air of someone who was accustomed to luxury, even if she was actually feeling as alien as a child caught wearing her mother's clothes.

Voldemort was talking to Lucius Malfoy and Draco when she got to the dining room, but as he saw her he extended a hand motioning for her to come closer. She hated to admit it, but he looked nice, in an elaborate black velvet robes, and very well groomed black hair framing his very delicate and yet quite masculine features, he looked just like she had on his own memories, only silytghly older, and his posture radiated far more power than it did back then.

Feeling the tell-tale pain on her forehead as the red eyes looked upon her, Lucy's first instinct was to turn around and go away, but as she felt every other pair of eyes in the room also fixed on her, she decided it was a better idea to go to him, mostly because he would certainly be very angry if she ignored him in front of such an audience, and if he was angry her forehead would hurt more.

She even took his hand as she got close, but regretted it immediately, as the pain from her scar seemed to irradiate towards her entire arm as if she had received an electric shock. Lucy pulled her hand back quickly as Voldemort raised an eyebrow at her, before saying:

"You look marvelous my bride, it makes me very satisfied that you chose to join me to celebrate tonight." – It was Lucy's turn to raise her eyebrows.

"I didn't think I had a choice actually." – She commented simply.

"You always have a choice my bride, but of course one of them will make me satisfied and the other... Well, I don't believe you'd like to make the other choice my dear." – He said in a very bland tone, but she felt shaken by the implied threat.

"You indeed look wonderful tonight My Lady." – Lucius chose that moment to cut in.

"Thank you Mister Malfoy, and congratulations on being elected as well…" - She said drily. He bowed slightly to her and she saw him nudge Draco forward a bit.

"It's… a pleasure to see you My Lady." – Draco said with visible difficulty and Lucy almost laughed, it was rather fun to see Malfoy struggling to be gentle to her of all people.

"Believe me, right now, the pleasure is all mine." – She said still stifling a smirk, but then she looked around the hall and asked, to no one in particular. – "Are all the elected members here?"

"Yes my bride… They have been invited, are you anxious to see your Godfather? I believe he and Shakclebolt have both decided to come only to see you." – Voldemort commented, and she wasn't sure if was angry or not, his face was impassive, but her forehead ached a little more.

Just in that moment, she saw Sirius and Kingsley making their way towards her while looking out of place and ready for battle, if Kingsley hand firmly holding his wand was any indication, then again everyone in the room seemed to be glancing deceitfully towards the two men.

Smiling Lucy rushed towards them, throwing herself in Sirius arms and burying her face in his vests. He hugged her back just as fiercely.

"Hey cub… How are you doing…? Sorry I didn't meet you in Diagon Alley, but I was a bit busy." – He said with a grim smile as they let go of each other.

"It's fine, you certainly had much to prepare for today. I didn't know you were among the candidates." – She commented.

"It was a bit of a last minute decision, Sirius was the only one in the order of the Phoenix who was from an old noble house, and we needed someone with a chance to win so we put his name as well." – Kingsley explained.

"I'm glad you two came. I missed you. But, didn't you think it was a bit risky to come to his castle?" - She asked a bit worried.

"Not really, Voldemort wouldn't risk doing anything to jeopardize the treaty and we had to see you." – Sirius answered shrugging.

"And now that this touching moment is over, I believe my bride should come with me and meet the rest of the councilmen. If you would excuse us Black, Shackelbolt." – Voldemort said as he approached them and clasped a hand on Lucy's shoulder. Saying no more he steered her away from the two.

Now, Lucy was sure he was angry, her forehead was about to explode, and his hand on her shoulder, even if through the fabric, seemed to be burning deep into her skin. She felt so dizzy from the pain that she couldn't really concentrate on what was happening anymore, she only knew that for several minutes she circled around the room staring numbly at blank spots as Voldemort spoke a bit with every councilmember until it was time that they all went to the table to dine.

During dinner the pain diminished, either because Voldemort calmed down or because of the absence of physical contact between the two. But still Lucy felt tired, and a bit sick too, she just wanted to go back to her room, and curl up in bed. So as they all finished up and started to move to another room, she excused herself and to her relief Voldemort allowed her to simply go without a comment.

Feeling tired Lucy tossed her rich dress on a corner, pulled on a night gown and threw herself on the bed, she must have fallen asleep immediately.

Unfortunately, she didn't sleep much, because what seemed to be only a few hours later she woke up at the feel of something hard pressing against her neck. She opened her eyes blearily to see the snarling face of Bellatrix Lestrange hovering just above her.

"What the hell?" – Lucy exclaimed trying to scurry away from the other woman but Bellatrix pressed her wand a bit harder against her neck.

"Be quiet you little bitch! It's about time I settle my score with you… I know what you doing, how you're trying to charm him… You little slut! How dare you get in my way? Crucio." – Bellatrix said in a very low tone, and Lucy screamed as the wave of pain coursed through her.

The mad woman laughed, while Lucy contorted in bed, before lifting the spell and pressed her face to Lucy's so that the girl could smell the heavy stench of alcohol on her breath as she spoke.

"See? You're weak, you should not be his… You should be thrown into the dungeons… The way you pranced through that ballroom tonight was disgusting! You should not be walking on his arm… That place should have been mine!" – Bellatrix screeched angrily. – "Crucio."

Lucy screamed again. Not only due to the pain from the curse, but it seemed her scar had started to hurt as well. When Bellatrix stopped the curse again cackling madly, Lucy took the opportunity to speak.

"You're right… It should be you." – She said between ragged breaths as she tried to reach to her wand that was on the bedside table. – "I'm sure that if you offered yourself to him, he would cast me away very quickly." – She kept saying.

Bellatrix noticed her moving to get the wand and grasped her wrist, digging her nails deep into the skin, causing Lucy to cry out again.

"Don't play the smart with me you little slut!" – She snarled. – "You know what angers me much? He didn't even look at me tonight, I, who served him with everything I have… Instead he walked around with you, who are nothing more than a stinky halfblood."

Lucy opened her mouth to say something, but couldn't find anything, to tell the truth she didn't remember Voltemort talking to Bellatrix at all during the feast…

"But I have a solution for that…" - The mad woman continued, pressing her wand against Lucy's cheek now. – "If you're no longer pretty he won't be distracted by you, and I will have my place back on his side." – She whispered menacingly, the tip of her wand digging onto Lucy's cheek.

On that moment Lucy's scar exploded in a searing hot pain, stronger than that from the cruciatus curse, she heard the door burst open and no longer she felt Bellatrix above her. It was difficult to see, or think, or even hear anything through the pain, but she supposed she heard Voldemort's angry voice booming inside the room, and Bellatrix screams mixing, she noticed, with her own. And then she saw no more.


	6. An Unexpected Gift

An Unexpected Gift

Lucy woke up again feeling a cool hand over her temple and something being pressed into her mouth. Soon a disgusting liquid was poured down her throat as she heard the gentle voice of a man saying:

"That's right my lady, this will stop the backlash of the pain, drink it all…"

As she finished the contents of the glass she sunk back into soft pillows and got the chance to look at the man who was giving her the potion. He was a very short old man, with his head completely bald, wearing huge rounded glasses and a very well-worn grey suit.

"Who are you?" – Lucy asked blinking up at him.

"Oh! That's right! We haven't met yet have we? You were unconscious last time. I'm Doctor Maximus Crabb. Everybody calls me Dr. Crabb. It's a great pleasure to meet you while you're awake my lady." – He said with a kind smile helping Lucy sit up a bi t more on the pillows.

She was stunned for some time, how could it be that a man as nice as the one standing in front of her could serve Voldemort to the point of being his personal doctor? It just boggled her mind. Snapping out of it she asked:

"What happened? Where is Bellatrix? What time is it?"

"oh! I don't know where Mrs. Lestrange is right now, I'm sure our Lord will take care of her… As for the time, we still have a few hours till dawn, I don't believe you've been unconscious long… All that I know is that you passed out due to the combined pain of the curse Mrs. Lestrange had put you through and the one caused by our Lord's anger, and he called me to make sure you're alright." - The little man said while rummaging through the room picking up potions vials, stethoscopes and a few other equipment Lucy didn't know the name of, and throwing them into a surprisingly small grey suitcase. – "I'm sure you'll be feeling very fine by the morning after a good night sleep and a nice breakfast. Soon enough the potions will take effect and you'll feel sleepy. Au revoir, My lady." – He added, picking up his suitcase, putting a very black rounded hat on his head and bowing slightly to her.

Lucy opened her mouth to ask something else, but he was out the door before she had the chance. True to his words she started to feel sleepy again, and wondering if Bellatrix attack would do anything to harm the treaty, she went back to sleep.

In the morning, she woke up with the already usual POP of a house elf coming into the room, in this case it was Tipsy, bringing in her breakfast, that as usual looked delicious. After a long torrent of apologies from the tiny elf and as many reassurances from Lucy that she didn't mind being awaken at all, she got up from the bed to eat, she was feeling rather hungry.

"Miss Lucy, Misstress, the Master, asked Tipsy, to tell Mistress to go to him, when Miss Lucy, Mistress was finished with her breakfast." – Tipsy added in a tiny voice, bouncing up and down on her little feet and looking apprehensively towards Lucy.

She frowned, she imagined that Voldemort would want to talk about what happened, especially if it would affect the treaty in any way, but she wondered why he was asking for her to come to him, he could simply barge into her room and say whatever he wanted, then again, it wasn't like she could say no…

"Okay Tipsy, I'll just eat something and take a shower, and then you can take me to him ok?" – She said amiably to the she-elf that nodded vigorously before popping out of the room again.

Lucy took her time eating and then bathing, she wasn't in such a hurry to go talk to Voldemort, the memory of the pain she had felt the day before was still vivid and she wasn't looking forward to a sequel, even if a small one, caused by his mere presence. But as she finally got dressed, she called for Tipsy, who was quick to pop in.

Voldemort was waiting for her in his private office, she had never been in that part of the castle before, it was a big room, with a glass window facing the east, it was furnished lavishly, with fluffy cream carpets on the floor a huge oak desk facing the door, two dark brown chairs facing it and a huge fireplace that was currently empty, bookshelves covered all the other walls.

Voldemort sat behind his desk reading something with his brows furrowed, Nagini was coiled on the ground next to him, but lifted her head when Lucy stepped in.

_"__Good to see you well, Lady ssssspeaker." _– The giant snake greeted her.

_"__Good to see you two, Nagini." – _Lucy answered politely.

Only then the dark lord seemed to take notice of her presence, lifting his eyes from the parchment he looked at her, causing her forehead to ache just a little, which comforted her in some ways, if her pain was mild it meant he was no longer angry.

"How are you feeling today my bride?" – He asked as he leaned back on his chair and motioned her to sit.

Lucy decided to remain standing and close to the door, but answered him truthfully.

"I'm much better, Dr. Crabb gave me something for the pain aftereffects and… I'm fine. What happened to Bellatrix?" – She asked looking around as if expecting the woman to be hiding somewhere in the shadows.

Voldemort frowned, and if increase of pain was anything to go by Lucy would say he wasn't happy to hear the woman's name.

"Bellatrix had the punishment she deserved last night, I assure you she felt far more pain than you did, my dear, now she is at home, her husband is making sure she stays under control and learns from her mistakes, I've also taken her wand and blocked her magic, she has been banished from my properties and my sight for now, you must not fear, my bride." – He said smoothly.

It was Lucy's time to frown.

"I don't fear her Voldemort! What I want to know is what her actions, and the punishment you gave her will mean for the treaty?"

He lifted an elegant eyebrow.

"Nothing my dear, it was an accident caused by a perturbed woman. The years in Azkaban weren't easy on Bellatrix, and have all the right to take action against the ones who tried to hurt my future wife. Unless, you chose to see it as a break on the pact, and decide to re-start the war." – He answered as smoothly as before. Lucy kept quiet, hands balled into fists, she certainly wanted to, but knew she couldn't, doing so at this time meant she'd fight and die practically on her own, and Voldemort would do whatever he pleased with the world. Since she didn't say anything he continued. – "But the reason I called you here is that her reaction to you caused me to realize not all of my followers will have a good reaction to you my bride."

Lucy fought the urge to roll her eyes, as if that wasn't obvious, half the people on the ball room was sending her murderous glances.

"Of course I can protect you from any hostilities. But this protection will only be completely effective once our bond is complete. Till then it might be unwise for you to be here, in my castle, where most of my followers may have access to you." – He continued, looking directly into her eyes searching for a reaction. – "Therefore my dear, I decided I will abide for your early desire, you shall be able to go live with those Weasleys." – He scowled as he said the name. – "If you still wish to go you should go pack your things, no need to take everything, you'll be back before long, I'll have Lucius to accompany you before lunch."

Lucy was staring, she was sure she was gaping too; actually, she couldn't believe that Voldemort was actually allowing her to go to the Burrow! True it wouldn't be for long but still. When Lucy didn't show any sign of reaction, Voldemort continued once more.

"You may consider this as a peace offering my dear, an early birthday present." – He said staring directly into her eyes, he seemed almost apologetic.

Lucy didn't know how to react, should she thank him? She opened her mouth twice to speak but didn't make a sound. He seemed to notice her distress because he inclined his head as if understanding and she nodded back to him, risking a small tight smile and left the room practically running. She couldn't believe herself, and she was sure her joy would end before long, but she would be able to enjoy what little happiness of being around friends and family before being forced to be here again.

As soon as she found her room again she started to throw some of her things into the trunk, she wasn't too keen to take the clothes Voldemort gave her to the burrow, but she didn't have a choice, Narcisa had thrown away everything she brought, so she settled into picking the few clothes that didn't seem too fancy or too expensive, which were very few indeed…

Soon enough Tipsy popped into her room informing that Mister Malfoy was there to take her to the Burow, she didn't know why in heavens she'd need Malfoy to escort her to the Burrow, she was perfectly capable of taking the floo on her own, despite her few bad experiences with it, but she wasn't about to complain now.

"Ah! Miss Potter, it's a pleasure seeing you so well." – Lucius Malfoy said when she walked into the room he was in, her trunk floating in behind her by Tipsy.

"Ah… It's good to see you too…" - She answered feeling a bit uncertain, she wasn't used to Malfoy being nice to her and certainly wasn't used to being nice in return.

"Shall we go then? We'll take the floo to the Leaky cauldron and go to the Weasleys home from there." – He explained and then lifted his wand to point at her trunk. – "Let me take care of that." – He said and shrunk the trunk, pocketing it before indicating her to the fireplace.

Nodding Lucy picked the green powder from the mantel piece threw it on the fire and stepped in. As usual she stumbled out, only to be followed right after by Lucius who grabbed her arm to help her steady herself.

"You should be careful my lady." – He said amiably to her while sending a glare towards some shady individuals sitting on the bar that were looking at them with interest. – "Shall we then…" - He added, handing her another handful of floo powder.

Feeling the expectation bubbling on her chest she threw it on the fire and screamed "The Burrow" as loud and clear as she could. When she stumbled out this time she heard a surprised screech.

"But what in the name of…" - She heard Mrs. Weasley's voice say, before she gave a loud gasp and wailed. – "Lucy! Oh good heavens."

Before she could know what was happening she found herself being hugged to death by Mrs. Weasley.

"Oh! My dear! Are you alright? Have you been hurt?" – She started as she pushed Lucy slightly away so she could look into her face.

"Mum? What's… Lucy?" – Ron's voice sounded from behind Mrs. Weasley, as he came down the stairs.

Before Lucy could try and answer all their questions the fireplace flared again and Lucius Malfoy stepped out of it.

"What do you want here? You'll not take her away!" – Mrs. Weasley snarled at the man as soon as she spotted him, pointing her wand to his chest and pushing Lucy behind herself.

"I've come in peace! I'm here simply to accompany Miss Potter." – Lucius answered with a sneer giving a disdainful look around the living room.

"What do you mean? Is he with you mate?" – Ron asked coming closer to them with a scowl in place.

"Yeah… It's okay guys. Mister Malfoy is just bringing me here, Voldemort let me stay here till the wedding…" - Lucy explained, and Mrs. Weasley lowered her wand. – "If it's not a bother…" - Lucy added feeling self-conscious, she hadn't asked beforehand if she could come.

"Of course it's no bother dear! You're always welcome here!" – Mrs. Weasley exclaimed immediately.

"Why would You-Know-Who let you stay here? He had forbidden you before." – Ron asked, brow furrowed.

Lucy hesitated, and exchanged a look with Lucius, she wasn't sure if she should mention the whole episode with Bellatrix, what if they thought it was a break on the treaty and wanted to re-start the war? Biting her lip she answered as truthfully as she dared.

"He said it was an early birthday present…"


	7. Wedding Preparations

Author's Note: Hi guys! Sorry for the huge delay, but this week has been a rough one, for me... Hope you guys enjoy it!

Wedding Preparations

Being back among her friends was, at the same time, a relief and a pain, because even if she felt happy to be able to play quidditch with the guys, or to lose as many chess games as Ron was willing to play with her, and to have Mrs. Weasley mother her and stuff her with food, there was a definitely bittersweet taste to all of it, because Lucy knew it would all irrevocably change.

And everyone else knew it too, everyone was currently reminded that it was unlikely that they'd be able to enjoy moments like those together again, because in one week Lucy would be the Dark Lady, the wife of Lord Voldemort, and certainly would never be allowed to mingle with blood traitors and muggleborns.

"I wonder why he even let you come this time! Are you sure nothing happened?" – Hermione, who was spending the remain of summer with the Weasleys, would ask Lucy every time the subject came up in conversation.

And every time Lucy would guarantee that nothing unusual had happened, both because she was still unsure about mentioning the attack from Bellatrix and because she didn't think it had been the only reason why Voldemort allowed her to come, because if it was simply a matter of her security he could simply had sent her to the Malfoy's house or assigned guards for her or something… She couldn't really grasp why Voldemort was being nice to her, but allowing her to come and stay with the Weasley's was nothing but him being exactly that, and she certainly wasn't ready to talk about it with her friends just yet.

The other recurrent topic was the bond that would form between her and Voldemort, Dumbledore had sent her a book on the bonding ceremony and its effects, and they would speculate about what it would mean for Lucy's daily life. It wasn't a pleasant subject, especially when it came to sex, that was the worst topic in Lucy's opinion, she felt her stomach churn every time she thought about sleeping with Voldemort, not only because of the humiliation and cheer degradation of the idea, but because of the pain!

Certainly she would die from the sheer agony of having that much of contact with him! She just hoped he had considered this, and maybe he would not force himself on her, risking her death and consequentially the end of the treaty for something like that wasn't something he would do… She hoped. Living in a completely fake marriage should be awful, but living a real marriage with Voldemort as a husband, would certainly be worse.

Even more alarming than the prospect of being forced to have sex with Voldemort through all the pain, was the idea that she wouldn't even be able to fight back, to try and avoid the contact! The bond assured that she would always obey her senior mate and wouldn't be able to deny him on anything, nor to harm him in any possible way, no matter what she thought (and thankfully her thoughts would be mostly unaffected) she wouldn't be able to physically act against him.

"It's so unfair! How come that only Lucy have the boundaries? Shouldn't the bond prevent You-Know-Who from hurting her as well?" – Ron asked exasperatedly, for the hundredth time, when they once again sat brooding over the book.

"That's why it's an unequal marriage Ron! Because it's unfair!" – Hermione answered exasperatedly, while frowning down at the book as if it would suddenly say something different if she just read it once more.

Lucy sighed and looked out of the window at the already darkening sky, the week was up, and the next day was her seventeenth birthday, and her wedding day, the worst day of her life. Funny how the day she had always believed would set her free had become the day when she'd be caged forever.

"Don't be so sad Lucy! Things will turn up well, I don't know how they will yet, but we'll see." – Ginny whispered, posing a hand on her arm.

She looked back at her friends, all of them with sad, sympathetic smiles looking back at her.

"That's right, we might not know how things will be fine, but they will, they always do." – Hermione added trying to sound encouraging.

"That's right mate! We always find a way to get out of trouble! We will again!" – Ron said grinning, and Lucy felt like crying, she wanted to believe them, but couldn't, and yet she was damn happy to know that at least she wasn't completely alone, now that her life was about to go downhill.

"Hey! What are you all doing up here" – Said Fred that just came into the room followed by George, or it was the other way around…

"Mum is calling us downstairs, she's prepared an early birthday cake for Lucy." – Said George.

"And we'll provide the fireworks, come on!" – Said Fred winking at them.

Excited with the promise of food Ron jumped up immediately and started dragging everything downstairs, Lucy followed with a watery smile on her face, maybe things would be okay.

The improvised birthday party went well into the night, as usual there was tons of food, and many amusing fireworks from the twins, along with many gifts Lucy got from Sirius, Remus, Hagrid (she wasn't so sure she'd keep the wooden box he gave her, it had teeth on the lid), the Weasleys themselves (a variety of pranks from the twins, a new sweater from Mrs. Weasley and a new seeker glove from Ron) Hermione, and the most intriguing one from Dumbledore, who sent her a watch that had no pointers and no numbers.

Lucy and everyone else went to bed well after midnight, she was feeling happy and slightly dizzy from the amount of butterbeer she had drunk (Mrs. Weasleys pretended not to notice they drank for the entire night), and also very tired, so tired in fact that she fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow, no disturbing thoughts kept her awake this time.

"Lucy dear, wake up!" – She heard a soft voice coming from above her, as someone shook her lightly.

She opened her eyes blearily to see Mrs. Weasley bending over her with a concerned face.

"It's morning already, dear! Malfoy is here to pick you up… You must get ready for... for…" - The matron seemed to choke on her words as her eyes filled with water. – "Well, it's time to get up." – She finished sniffling.

The sleepiness left Lucy instantly, and she sat up on the bed, sending a small smile to Hermione and Ginny, who had awoken as well, she got dressed slowly, and keeping her head down, she could feel the girl's eyes on her, and she didn't want to see the pity on their eyes.

Lucy didn't bother speaking to anyone as she descended the stairs to find Mr. Malfoy waiting for her on the living room, and nobody said anything to her either, even as they all came downstairs to see her go. She didn't say anything to Lucius, either, even as they stepped through the Burrow's fireplace directly to the Malfoy's Manor, the blonde didn't bother to greet her either, he looked almost sympathetic…

"Oh! There you are! There's so much to do and so little time! Come, my lady, come, and Lucius, dear, could you go check if the carriages for the guests are been properly prepared?" – Narcisa started saying, as soon as Lucy stepped into the luxurious room of the Malfoy's Manor, she had a real battalion of house-elves around her, all looking busy and efficient, Lucy could see that a few of them were from the Serpent's Lair, she recoknized Tipsy and Bobby.

After she gave a light peck on Lucius lips Narcisa grabbed Lucy's arms and dragged her down a long corridor, with the elves still following them, while talking nonstop.

"You see Miss. Potter. I'd like to let you sleep for a bit longer, merlin knows what a few hours of sleep can do for the skin, but there's just no time! The ceremony will be at sunset, and there's so much to organize… So first, we'll start with the bathing, and then we'll see for the hair, and everything else."

Lucy wondered how could someone think that there was little time till sunset! It was barely morning!

Soon Narcisa led them into a beautiful bedroom with a huge bed on a corner, a small stool on the middle, a dresser filled with make-up, and jewelry boxes, and a huge mirror, that covered an entire wall, on the back, there was a door that led to the bathroom, and a breakfast table ready, where Narcisa made her sit.

"You should eat something, my lady, and you – she said pointing to two elves, - go prepare a bath for the lady, a simple hot bath for now with scented oils to prepare her skin for shaving later.

"Shaving?" – Lucy asked a little startled.

"Don't worry, it's nothing uncomfortable," - The older woman answered waving her off – "now eat, my lady. I'll be back soon, before the milk bath, I have to check the arrangements for the dinner, and there's still the drinks!" – She added with a tired sigh before walking rapidly out of the room.

Lucy was left gaping at the door while wondering what in heaven's name Mrs. Malfoy meant by a "milk bath". Sighing she turned to the food, deciding that eating was actually a good idea. After she munched down two French toasts with a cup of tea (which was all she managed to swallow) the elves steered her to the bathroom.

Lucy never thought a bath could take so long, there was no place on her body that wasn't washed, scrubbed or rinsed at least four times by the elves, she also never knew there existed so many tipes of oils, soaps and shampoos for her hair and her skin, actually she was starting to worry that they would wash her hair out of her head if they put another shampoo on it.

After about three hours of bath, the elves decided to do the "shaving" Narcisa had mentioned, and she couldn't be more embarrassed, they shaved her in places she didn't even know existed on her body. And finally, they helped her out of the bathtub helping her put on a bath robe and involved her hair on a soft towel.

After it was all done she was dragged back to the bedroom, and was given a pedicure and a manicure, all her nails were properly trimmed and cleaned and painted with a soft and very dignified pearly color. Once that was almost done, Narcisa walked back into the room looking utterly tired.

"Oh good! How are you feeling my lady? Your skin is looking wonderful!" – The woman said caressing her cheek lightly.

"I'm fine… A bit hungry, actually." – Lucy confessed, while stifling a yawn.

"Oh sure you are! It's past lunchtime now. I'll order us something to eat before you get to your milk bath." – The blonde said before ordering an elf to bring them lunch.

"Uhn… Mrs. Malfoy, what exactly you mean by milk bath?" – Lucy asked hoping beyond hope that it wouldn't be actual milk.

"Oh! Of course you wouldn't know… It is tradition that the bride takes a long bath in Unicorn's milk, it's wonderful for the skin, and it's also very auspicious, beyond the fact that it helps fertility." – She explained calmly not noticing the look of mild disgust from Lucy.

"How exactly is the milk acquired?" – The girl asked still dreading the answer.

"Oh! It must be given freely of course, it would be a dreadful sin to steal something like that from a Unicorn, that's why it's so rare." – Narcisa explained again.

Lucy had to admit that the milk bath was actually very relaxing, she was left alone on the bathtub this time, no elves or anything, so she could soak on the soft white substance and relax, and the sweet smell from the milk made it almost impossible not to, so much that Lucy actually fell asleep.

She was awoken by the elves, that helped her out again, dried her, and brought her back to the bedroom to help her make her hair dress and the makeup, they sat her so she was sitting with her back to the mirror so that she wouldn't be able to see their work until it was complete.

Narcisa came back once her makeup and hair were done, and she was simply waiting for her, to put on the dress. The blonde was already ready for the ceremony, wearing a beautiful baby blue dress, that made her look even more pale and blonde than she already was, Lucy kept herself wondering if she'd manage to look prettier than Narcisa.

"Come dear, let's put on the dress, it's almost time." – The woman said with a somewhat sad smile.

Lucy nodded and came to stand on the stool on the middle of the room. As she got dressed, she couldn't help but shiver a little.

"There's no need to be so nervous my dear, everybody feels that way before an arranged wedding, I know it wasn't easy for me to walk down the aisle to Lucius." – Narcisa said with a sympathetic smile. – "But we all manage." – She finished in a murmur as she helped Lucy to put on her shoes. – "Look, you're beautiful."

Narcisa made Lucy turn around to the mirror, and she couldn't help but to gasp at her own reflection, she was indeed beautiful, her hair was perfect, tied on an elaborate braid, the dress looked like liquid light around her body.

"And with this, we're done." – Whispered Narcisa as she put a beautiful diamond diadem on Lucy's head. – "This diadem has been on our lord's family for many centuries, he asked me to give you this as a birthday present."

Once she put the tiara on Lucy's head though, they heard a knock on the door, and soon, Professor Snape, clad on very luxurious velvet black robes came in, holding a vial on his hands.

"Ah! Severus, I feared you wouldn't finish it on time!" – Narcisa exclaimed.

"Good evening Narcisa, Potter, my lord asked me to bring you this potion." – He said while offering the vial to Lucy.

"What's this?" – Lucy asked eying the red liquid suspiciously.

"This, Potter, is what will allow you to touch the Dark Lord without feeling any pain, it's a potion made with his own blood, that will counter the reaction you have to him, it won't fix the pain you feel due to his anger, that's caused by the mind link between the two of you, which should be minimized by the bond itself, but physical contact shouldn't be an issue anymore." – Snape explained calmly.

Lucy stared at the potion, it was, in a sense, the solution for her problems, she would no longer suffer from too much pain, and yet if she drank it, it would be as if she gave permission for him to touch her.

"You should drink it my dear." – Narcisa said, as if understanding Lucy's thoughts, - "Whatever will happen, will happen anyway, you shouldn't suffer more than necessary."

Feeling more trapped than ever before, Lucy drank the potion in one gulp.


	8. The Wedding Night

The Wedding Night

Narcisa and Professor Snape headed first to the Ministry through floo powder, leaving Lucy to ride alone on a black Carriage pulled by four beautiful black Pegasus. She could still feel the potion's bitter taste on her tongue as she flew through the sky towards her fate.

She wasn't sure how long she flew, she felt so numb that she didn't even bother to look out of the window to see the night sky. And before she knew it the carriage was descending, it landed gracefully in what seemed to be an inner patio of the Ministry. It was oddly quiet outside and for a moment Lucy wondered if the Pegasus had taken her to the wrong place.

Soon, though, the carriage door was open by none other than Professor Dumbledore. The sight of the old kind man, with his long silver beard and hair, dressed in lavish mid-night blue robes that sparkled with silver stars, brought tears to Lucy's eyes, especially because as she looked upon those kind blue eyes, she didn't see the usual twinkle.

"Professor…" - She whispered before rushing to hug the old man, who returned her hug tenderly.

"How are you faring my girl?" – He inquired lightly as they broke off the hug and he helped her to climb down from the carriage.

"I'm fine sir." – She answered with a quivering smile. – "Why are you here though?"

"Well, you see… Tom has deemed it fit that I must take you down the aisle and deliver you to him…" - He answered with a pained smile.

Lucy nodded, it seemed something Voldemort would want, the very paragon of light, the founder of the Order of Phoenix would deliver the last hope for the light side to the arms of the dark lord. It was rather poetic, if you thought about it.

"Let's us go them?" – Dumbledore said offering her his arm.

Nodding, Lucy took his arm and let him steer her towards the huge double doors that would most likely lead them to the Atrium where the ceremony would be held.

Lucy was taken aback by the number of people gathered on the Atrium, the entire Britain seemed to be there, and perhaps a small part of the rest of Europe as well. As she walked down the Aisle, holding firmly to Dumbledore's arm as if to prevent herself from falling, she looked around to try and see her friends.

Soon she spotted the Weasleys, that were gathered in a small corner looking like spooked animals, all bearing gloomy faces, she tried to smile encouragingly at them, but failed miserably at it. Further away she saw the Hogwarts teachers, all bundled together, Mcgonagal looking somber, Snape, as stoned faced as ever, Professor Sprout, drying her tears discreetly, Professor Flitwick blowing his nose into a huge napkin, Madame Pomfrey, waving sadly at her, and Hagrig, that shook with powerful hiccups.

And there was Sirius as well, looking somber and gloomy, Remus by his side, looked positively sick, supporting himself on Tonks shoulder, and her hair was gray and dull tonight. Close to them stood Kingsley Shacklebolt, who nodded to Lucy as she passed by, and Cornelius Fudge looking positively nervous while holding his hat with shaking hands. Lucy made a point to ignore Scrimgeur and Rosier that also stood beside the Minister.

The Malfoys all nodded to her with brilliant smiles when she spotted them, even Draco, who was standing near Blaise, that made a small reverence towards her, mimicked by a tall woman on his side, that Lucy imagined to be Pythia Zabini. And then she saw the Lestranges, she shuddered when she saw the scowl on Bellatrix's face.

And the aisle was over, and Lucy was forced to look forward and see Voldemort, staring at her with his glowing red eyes. She felt shivers run down her spine when she noticed there was no pain on her scar.

Voldemort offered her his hands, and after a bit of hesitation she took them.

"I deliver you your bride and prize." – Dumbledore whispered sadly, and Voldemort sent him a smirk, as both him and Lucy stepped into a circle of light on the floor.

As soon as the stepped on it, they started to rise from the ground, to stand above the guests, the ceiling over them seemed to open to let the light of the moon shine over the two of them. It would have a been a lovely scenario, if it wasn't such a desperate one.

Down on the ground, four people came to stand around the circle with their wand raised, Lucy was somewhat surprised to see that they were Professor Snape, Professor Dumbledore, Lucius Malfoy and Sirius… All them with their wands raised.

"Behold! The two souls that stand before you and seek to be united under the sacred Bond of blood!" – Stated Professor Snape and stream of red light left his wand to wrap around Lucy and Voldemort.

"Behold! The two souls that stand under the moon and seek to be united under the sacred Bond of Magic." – Said Sirius, and a stream of blue light also came to warp around the floating couple.

Lucy could feel the two strings of magic trying to tie her closely to Voldemort, and she wanted deeply to resist.

"Behold! The two souls that stand under the night and seek to be united under the sacred Bond of Time!" – Said Malfoy and golden light came to tie them even closer.

Voldemort looked at Lucy intently, and she shivered under his burning stare.

"Behold! The two souls that stand together and seek to be united under the sacred Bond of Love!" – The voice of Dumbledore thundered around the Atrium and burning white light twirled around them as well.

Lucy was shocked to hear the word "Love" on this bonding, this had nothing to do with love… It never would be… By this time, tears where already streaming down her face.

"May their wishes be granted! Let them speak their vows!" – Came the four voices, speaking as if they were one.

The voice of Voldemort sounded smooth and almost gentle as he spoke without tearing his eyes from Lucy.

"I vow to be always by your side, your life shall be also mine, I'll forever protect you and make everything in my power to bring you happiness…" - Lucy could feel powerful magic flowing form Voldemort's hands into her, and she could feel something burn on the ring finger of her left hand, as if she was been branded with melted metal. - "my magic shall be forever yours, your pains shall be forever mine. I give you now my life, my name and my soul and claim you as my own." - He finished softly.

Trembling Lucy started to speak, her voice sounded softer than a whisper and yet she could hear it reverberating around the place.

"I vow to be always by your side, your life shall be also mine… I'll forever serve you and make everything in my power to bring you happiness."- Lucy's voice was shaking but she struggled to keep talking, the heat between their hands was increasing and her own magic was now flowing into him.- "my magic shall be forever yours, your fears shall be forever mine. I accept your name, your life and soul, and will dispose now of my own. I… I'll be forever yours." - She finished with a whisper, her eyes were locked into his and she was now shaking and breathing fast.

"The vows have been made. May thee have my blessing." – Snape said.

"The vows have been made. May thee have my blessing." – Sirius murmured.

"The vows have been made. May thee have my blessing." - Lucius repeated.

"The vows have been made. May thee have my blessing." – Dumbledore said sounding like a wounded animal.

Lucy felt Voldemort gripping her more tightly and pulling her to him, to her horror she found she couldn't resist, her body obeyed immediately, and she was crushed against his chest as his arms snaked around her waist and his mouth covered hers. It was her first kiss, and it felt impossibly bitter.

When he pulled back, Lucy saw that they were already back on the ground, and he led her rather tenderly towards two throne like chair where they would receive the gifts and congratulations from the guests, while the lavish dinner was served.

Lucy felt numb, she couldn't help but stare dumbfounded to the red band that had formed on her finger. She barely paid attention to the guests that came and went, most came only to bow for Voldemort and kiss his hand, barely sparing her a look. Others, came to give her a reassuring smile and a pity look, among the raze of faces she barely knew, she could recognize the Weasleys, Hermione, the Malfoys, Remus, her teachers, and Bellatrix Lestrange, who made a point to kiss Voldemort's feet and leave while sending Lucy a look of utmost hatred.

And even if the guests were numerous and the dinner and song stretched on for many hours, it seemed to Lucy that the time went too fast, and too soon for her, she was leaving with Voldemort taking her by the arm. They didn't leave on the carriage she came, instead Voldemort activated a port key and they disappeared together to show up in the middle of a bedroom.

"Finally my beloved, we're home." – Voldemort whispered grinning down at her as he cupped her chin to make her look up at him. – "There's no need to cry my sweet, I shall be gentle." – He added, while he wiped a few tears from her cheek before he bend down to claim her lips.

"Please… Don't." – Lucy managed to choke out between his kisses as she felt his hands roaming her body through the silk of her dress. It made Voldemort pause to look at her, his red eyes boring into hers.

"You're mine now, you belong to me my darling, and I shall have you, but you do not need to fear, I won't hurt you, ever, you'll find I can take very good care of what belongs to me." – He whispered on her ear as he snatched her up and walked to the bed, laying her gently on silky white sheets.

Just as the book had explained, Lucy could not fight or reject any of Voldemort's advances, but to be truthful she could not accuse him of being cruel or forceful, it was quite the contrary, he was gentle, he seemed to worship her body in every possible way he could, and to her utmost shame and horror, her body did seem to enjoy his attention, even if her mind still screamed with the wrongness of the situation.

She didn't feel any pain when he claimed her, and if she was absolutely honest with herself she would admit that it had been pleasurable to her, if she closed her eyes and chose to forget who it was that lied on top of her.

Once Voldemort found completeness inside of her body, he kissed her forehead gently while gathering her on his arms, ready to fall asleep after another conquest. Lucy on the other hand didn't fell asleep, even if she felt exhausted, instead she cried silently, her fate was sealed, and there was nothing she could but to accept it. And to her utter horror, her fate might not be as terrible as it should have been.


	9. Back to Hogwarts

Autho's Note: Sorry for the huge delay guy's... But I'm trying my best to keep this going as fast as possible. Please continue reviewing and giving me feedback.

Back to Hogwarts

During the entire month between her wedding day and the start of term Lucy didn't leave the Serpent's Lair, her days were mostly the same, she'd wake up late in the morning, and Voldemort would be gone already, she'd take her breakfast on her own and spend some time in the library, or the gardens, sometime she'd even take a flight around the castle's grounds, always being careful to stay within the wards, she'd have lunch on her own as well, for most of the days, and occasionally she'd be joined by Narcisa Malfoy, who she believed had been instructed by Voldemort to keep her company.

Surprisingly enough she enjoyed the woman's company, they'd only talk about trivial things, but it was rather nice. On the afternoon, after Narcisa left, Lucy would sometimes write to her friends, she was pleased to find out that she was allowed to write to whoever she wanted and also to receive their letters back, even if she wasn't allowed to visit any one, nor to bring them here; sometimes while she was writing Nagini would also come and chat with her while she wrote or, sometimes join her for a sun bath on the gardens, the snake was also surprisingly nice.

Dinner was usually the most uncomfortable time of the day, because Voldemort would always join her, when they ate alone it was particularly bad, since his attempts to keep a conversation with Lucy would invariably lead to an argument, which would leave her with a blinding headache caused by his anger towards her. Thankfully they had company most of the nights, mostly members of the council or death eaters, and then Voldemort's attention would be usually focused on talking about business, leaving Lucy in peace to enjoy her dinner calmly and mostly silent.

After dinner Lucy would head to the bedroom on her own, shower and get into bed to sleep, only much later Voldemort would come, after he was done with whatever work he was doing, he'd climb on the bed and wake her, and then he'd claim her again and again, sometimes he'd take her three times on the same night, but always with the utmost gentleness, even more so on the nights they had argued. After he was done, he'd fall asleep with Lucy still secure in his arms, and she'd cry until it was almost dawn again when the exhaustion would make her sleep.

As the first of September approached Lucy decided to bring the matter up on the dinner table, they hadn't yet discussed the start of school, and she feared he had changed his mind about allowing her to go.

"Voldemort…" - She called up causing him to look up. – "I'd like to know how I'll be going to King's Cross tomorrow, will I be taking the floo, or the carriage?" – She asked staring him directly into his eyes, he grinned.

"You won't be going be going to King's Cross tomorrow my beloved." – He said smoothly, and her eyes widened, and her anger flared up, but before she could say anything he continued. – "No… You'll be going directly to Hogwarts the day after, by using this." – He said as he conjured a black velvet box on the thin air and held it up for her.

It was a necklace, a very simple and yet a beautiful one, a simple thin string of white gold that held one ruby, beautifully shaped in the form of a heart. Voldemort took the necklace from the box and stood up to stand behind Lucy.

"This my beloved is a portkey," - he explained as he fixed the necklace on her neck, - "every morning you'll say "Hogwarts" in parseltongue to be taken to the school, and at the end of every day, after your last class you'll say "home" also in parseltongue to come back here and have dinner with me." – He finished placing a kiss on her earlobe before going back to his place on the table. – "It was Severus who came with this wonderful idea; it wouldn't do for us to be parted for longer than necessary don't you think? I'd certainly wouldn't want to sleep away from my beloved wife for so long, and I wouldn't want to keep you away from school either."

Lucy couldn't find her voice to answer, it was a rather good solution indeed, if one didn't consider that she'd love to sleep away from her husband for as long as she could, but she certainly preferred this arrangement than been kept from Hogwarts all together.

And thus, on the first day of class Lucy allowed Tipsy to help her get dressed and to comb her hair before activating the portkey to land rather ungracefully on the ground in the middle of the Entrance Hall. The people there, heading to breakfast, looked startled at her and some started to whisper to one another immediately. Surprisingly it was a Slytherin boy, who she didn't know, that helped her to her feet.

"Are you alright, my lady?" – Another Slytherin boy asked politely.

"Uh… Sure." – She answered feeling rather embarrassed, she wasn't used to Slytherins being nice to her.

Luckily she heard someone screaming her name, and turned gratefully to see Ron and Hermione running towards her.

"Hey Guys!" – She greeted as they hugged her.

"Oh Lucy! How are you? Are you okay?" – Hermione asked looking her over worriedly.

"I'm fine! Haven't you two got my letters?" – She asked raising her eyebrows.

"We have, but we couldn't be one hundred per cent sure that all of it was true, you know Voldemort could have been making you write them or something." – Hermione answered shrugging.

"Oh… Don't worry, it was really me, and I'm really fine." – Lucy answered with a smile.

"Yes you are…" - Said Ron frowning at her. – "Come on, let's eat, I'm starving!" – He exclaimed and started to lead the girls towards the Great Hall.

As they sat down Lucy looked up at head table to see Professor Dumbledore raising a goblet of pumpkin juice towards her and Sirius winking at her. She was surprised though to see that Hagrid wasn't up there, it wasn't hard to miss his huge presence, and instead it was Rabastan Lestange who sat beside Sirius.

"what happened to Hagrid?" – She asked alarmed.

"Oh… He moved to France with Madame Maxime." – Hermione answered. – "And Lestrange will be the Treat of Magical Creatures teacher now."

"And he will also be the flying instructor and our referee. Madam Hooch has retired." – Ron added, glaring up at the head table.

"It seems like she went back to Romania to take care of her Grandchildren. Oh look… The new Werewolf regulation will be full function this week." – Said Hermione, frowning at her copy of the Daily Prophet. –"It's awful."

"Can't believe they'll do that." – Complained Ginny, that was sitting nearby and listened to Hermione's comment.

Lucy frowned.

"Do you guys really think it's bad?" – She asked tentatively causing everyone to look at her startled.

"What do you mean? Of course it's bad! It's You-know-who's stuff!" – Ron said with a scowl.

"Lucy… The Werewolves will all be forced to be registered by the ministry, and their names will be public domain! They'll be treated like some kind of uncontrolled beasts who need to be watched all the time." – Hermione said looking at her like she was crazy.

"Well I know they'll have to registered, but all animagus are registered and nobody seems to think it's a bad thing." – Everyone on the table shot her odd glances. - "What I mean is, they'll all be given the wolfsbane potion, every month, with no charge, and as long they keep getting it on the ministry, they'll be allowed to work anywhere they want, and even their children will be able to come to Hogwarts like everybody else… I mean… Remus life would have been much better if this law existed on his time." – Lucy tried to explain.

The werewolf regulation law was the only thing related to Voldemort's work that she had been interested in, he had been discussing it with Professor Snape, Malfoy and Greyback over dinner one night, and she had been rather surprised to notice it was actually a great idea. That night she had even spoken up to suggest that Lupin would do a great Head for the new department since he had a good relationship with wizards already, and she was even more surprised when Voldemort accepted her idea, even against Greyback's opinion.

"Looking on that side it's truly a nice idea…" - Hermione conceded biting her lip. – "But they can still abuse their power, and use this knowledge to slowly hunt the werewolves down."

"It's always a possibility… But Remus will be the head of the new department, and, I don't think he'd let that happen." – Lucy offered.

"Professor Lupin will be the head of the department? Wow! This might actually work then… He's a great guy, I hadn't believed the papers when they said there would be actual werewolves working on the department of regulation." – Neville, who had been listening to the conversation, piped in.

"Why would Voldemort put Lupin ahead of it though? I thought he'd put some death eater, or perhaps that Greyback." – Ginny commented, and Lucy shrugged.

"I mentioned Lupin's name, and since Professor Snape also thought it was a nice idea…" - She trailed off.

"Yeah… This werewolf regulation thing might look like something nice, but we can't forget that You-know-who is a fucking murderer! I can't believe you're actually taking his side Lucy!" – Ron said looking at her with something akin to disgust.

"I… I didn't forget Ron…" - She whispered feeling like she had just been slapped across the face, had she truly been defending Voldemort?

But before Ron could retort they were interrupted by Professor Mcgonagal who was delivering their schedule, and all possible unpleasant thoughts were washed away as they saw that their first class was DADA, with Sirius. They couldn't wait.

Being back to classes was definitely refreshing to Lucy, even if she counted that they had an absurd amount of homework from both Sirius and Professor Mcgonagal by the time they headed to lunch.

"I can't believe Sirius assigned so many work to us! I thought he was nice!" – Ron grumbled.

"He is a teacher Ron! He is supposed to give us homework!" – Hermione answered rolling her eyes.

And like that Lucy spent her first day of school, and the days that came afterwards. She'd wake up and get dressed and head to the school to have breakfast with her friends, and go to classes, and head back to the Slytherin castle before dinner, then she'd take a bath and head down to eat with Voldemort and whichever guests he had.

After that she'd go to the library, sometimes accompanied by Nagini to do her homework, and only much later she'd go to the bedroom and get to bed, Voldemort would usually come by the same time she did, and as usual, he'd take her as many times as he deemed fit and fall asleep leaving her to cry at her heart content, thankfully she cried for only a few minutes now instead of hours.

Again, it was a rather nice routine for her, even if it was not what she had once expected for her last year at Hogwarts.


	10. A Fight and a Change

A Fight and a Change

The sense of normalcy at Hogwarts was only blown off by the constant staring from the other students that seemed to think everything Lucy did was either a sign that she was becoming dark like her husband or a sign that she was utterly suffering, and the occasional dark comment towards her.

Beyond that was also the oddity of the new found respect of all the Slytherins towards her, what made her embarrassed most of the time, and would make Ron rather angry, Hermione and Ginny though did seem to enjoy their new company, since Draco and Blaise especially would always be around them.

Three weeks after the start of term on a very hot Saturday morning Lucy was found by the quidditch pitch with the rest of the Gryffindor team, she was the new captain and had to choose two chasers to replace Angelina and Katie that had graduated last year. She was surprised to find that almost everyone from Gryffindor up from the second year (even though a few of the first years tried) had signed up to do the tests.

"Man… This will take the whole morning!" – Ron moaned watching the huge line that had formed.

"We have no choice but to test them all though…" - Lucy sighed. – "Come on guys, everyone to the air, we'll test them in a team first, three at a time, and once we narrow the options down we'll test them individually." – She ordered.

Most of the people who tried were just helpless, only a few could actually hold themselves on a broom, and among those, even a more limited number was capable of handling the quaffle without dropping it…

It was almost lunchtime and everyone was dead tired when Hermione came by bringing pumpkin juice for everybody.

"Isn't it over yet? You've been here all morning!" – She exclaimed as she watched the last four competitors passed the quaffle to one another.

"Yeah… You won't believe how many people tried out, it was tiresome." – Lucy said grabbing a bottle of pumpkin juice.

"I've just ran into Sirius… I mean, Professor Black, and he invited us to have lunch with him." – Hermione said while handing some juice to the rest of the team.

"Sounds nice… Let us just finish it here…"

A few minutes more and the team managed to reach a conclusion, the new chasers would be Seamus Finnigan and, surprisingly enough, Lavender Brown, who was amazingly good in the air.

That done, Lucy and Ron head to the showers and followed Hermione to the third floor to Sirius office. They didn't bother knocking since he was already expecting them, they were surprised though to see that Sirius was not alone, Rabastan Lestrange was sitting across from him and the two were talking in hushed tones, stopping their conversation as soon as the three walked in.

"Oh! There you are, I was expecting you guys. Uhn… Professor Lestrange was…" - Sirius seemed at a loss of words, but just them Rabastan stood up.

"I'm just leaving, we'll finished this conversation another time, okay Sirius?" – The death eater said as he walked out of the door, but not before bowing to Lucy.

"What did this guy wanted here?" – Ron asked frowning.

"AH… Nothing serious, just school stuff, nothing you should worry about." – Sirius answered and Lucy wondered why he was so flushed. – "But come here cub! I've missed you!" – He said giving her a bear hug.

"I've missed you too Sirius." – She said smiling.

"Come on, sit! I've brought some butterbeer to us, tell me, how have you been your school year so far?" – He asked as he summoned a few bottles.

They spent a very fun afternoon with Sirius, talking about school and hearing his stories about the Marauders, Lucy couldn't remember the last time she had been so carefree. The sun was already setting when she noticed the time.

"Jeez! It's late already! I have to go home!" – She exclaimed as she looked outside the window, not noticing the weird look Ron sent her way.

She said goodbye to everyone, hugged Sirius again and whispered "home" in parseltongue to find herself back at the Slytherin castle, all the way down on the foyer. Sighing she started to climb the entire nine floors till she reached the entrance for the North Tower and to her Bedroom.

She was feeling rather tired, she was no longer used to all this exercise, the little flying she did during summer couldn't compare at all, and she was also rather pleased with her choice, Lavender was really good, who would have known… She only wished Ron and Seamus hadn't been mad at her for not picking Dean, but he was just not as good as Lavender.

She was halfway through taking her clothes off and already heading to the bathroom when she felt her scar burning with pain, Voldemort seemed to be furious, she could only wonder what could be wrong. Soon he burst into the room throwing the door open.

"What…" - She stated turning around to look at him, to see him glaring at her with a face that could only remind her of the time he was seeking to murder her.

"_Do you think I'm a fool my bride? Do you think it's wise to mock me this way?"_ – He said in parseltongue, his voice dangerously low as he stalked towards her, Lucy walked backwards.

"What are you talking about?" – She asked on a small voice, this was possibly the first time since the wedding that she felt trully scared of him.

"W_here have you been today? Do you think you can just disappear to do as you please? You've stayed away from home the entire day, when you were supposed to be here by lunch!"_ – He screamed, Lucy had backed away into a wall now, and he was standing right in front of her, his face very close to hers, her scar hurting like hell, she closed her eyes. – "_Look at me when I'm speaking to you!"_ – He screamed, holding her arm forcefully and shaking her furiously, causing her to cry out and look back up to him. – "_Now answer, where have you been?"_

"I… I've told you… I was at Hogwarts! I had to hold trials for the quidditch team." – She answered trying to keep her voice steady, he seemed more angered by her answer.

"_The trials should be over by noon!"_ – He snarled tightening his grip on her arm causing her to whimper a little. – "_Now answer me, why did you keep me waiting for you the entire afternoon!"_ –He bellowed.

_"How could I know you would be waiting for me? You're never home for lunch! I was having fun with my friends. Next time you want me with you, you should let me know Voldemort!"_ – She answered narrowing her eyes to him and switching to parseltongue without even noticing.

After her outburst she waited for his reaction with dread, a slap perhaps, the increase of the pain on her forehead for sure, but she was surprised when instead of getting angrier he seemed to calm down, the pain on her scar subdued and he let go of her arm.

They were both breathing hard and looking intently into each other's eyes. Lucy couldn't tell who initiated it, but soon they were kissing, a kiss that was not like the others they shared that have always been initiated by him and to which she barely responded, this time she was kissing back, her hands found their way into his hair, and she knew he was pleased by the change, so much that she could swear she heard him purr into the kiss.

The kisses progressed so that Voldemort started kissing her neck and collarbone causing Lucy to moan a little, even as she felt him trying to take off the clothes she still had on.

"I… I need a bath." – She mubled through ragged breaths, causing him to chuckle, and nip playfully at her neck.

"We shall have to solve this, hun?" – He whispered before picking her up and leading her to the bathroom.

Lucy couldn't really tell what made her act the way she did, but this time she didn't simply let him do what he wanted, she wanted it too, she helped him undress, actually enjoying the view of his lean body and the touch of his hands on her skin, she delivered herself completely to him this time, and she could tell that he knew.

They made love in the bathtub, taking their sweet time to reach completion, it was the first time Lucy reached the orgasm, and she came calling his name. After, Voldemort took her to the bed, they were still soaking wet, they made love again, and again, and again, till Lucy could no longer count, or think, or anything.

It was only much later that they were finally too exhausted to do anything else, and yet they lay together in bed holding each other and feeling contented.

"I'm hungry…" - Lucy said after some time, sitting up a bit to look into Voldemort's eyes, he seemed so relaxed that he hardly looked like himself, there were no worry or angry lines around his forehead and eyes, no scowl on his mouth, he looked young and careless.

Without moving he snapped his fingers and called to an elf, ordering some dinner for both of them, to be served in the room. Lucy was left blushing furiously, he chuckled when he noticed this.

"Why are you're so embarrassed my beloved?" – He asked running a hand through her unruly hair.

"Well I'm not comfortable with Bobby seeing us like this…" - She mumbled, causing him to laugh and summon a pair of robes for them.

After they ate, they made love yet another time, and fell asleep in each other's arms, and for the first time since the wedding Lucy didn't cry herself to sleep. She didn't want to think on the reason why she accepted him so freely that night, or why she felt so good, or what it could mean, or even if it was the right thing to happen. She only knew that she was happy with things like that, and knew that things would never be the same for them again.

Things had changed, and she wanted to keep those changes.


	11. Unexpected News

Unexpected News

Lucy's relationship with Voldemort improved with each passing day, so much that even their bond seemed to strengthen, she could actually feel his feelings now, the ones that weren't anger, true that it was more accurate when they were close together, but eventually she'd catch herself knowing that Voldemort is tired, or pleased, even from Hogwarts.

On his part the change was even more accentuated, because if he could always feel her stronger emotions, now he could even notice the small variations on her humor, and would constantly startle her by commenting on then.

But the changes on their bond was far from being the more significant change, it was their conversations more than anything that made Lucy more aware of her growing feelings for her husband. Because if before they'd exchange only the more essential words, now they've taken to have longer conversations, sometimes about Lucy's day in class and sometimes about politics, about Voldemort's work.

Lucy found herself delighted to hear about the comings and goings of the Council and the Ministry, and found herself comfortable enough to give her feedback on the matters that Voldemort brought up, the same as he felt very comfortable to share some of his worries with her.

The morning of Halloween's day for an instance found husband and wife discussing the new project about business relations between Goblins and Wizzards, during breakfast, that Lucy would now take at home most of the days.

"The ministry is being particularly difficult to convince on this matter, Fudge seems to agree whole heartedly with the Daily's Prophet opinion that I'm trying to prevent Goblins from dealing with Wizzards." – Voldemort commented with a sigh.

"But… It does seem a lot biased, I mean this new law would create rules for contracts made with Goblins, it would demand things differently for them." – Lucy commented trying not to sound accusatory.

"But it's in order to protect both Wizards and Goblins and avoid future conflicts." – He said exasperated, and Lucy raised her eyebrows, causing him to sigh and continue. – "The culture of Goblins is very different from ours, demand that a contract celebrated between both species are necessarily public and magically bound is a measure to avoid that any of the parts make demands that hadn't been previously accorded. For an instance, the concept of ownership is completely different for them, to the goblins the one who makes something is their legit owner forever, if he sells that object he simply gives it away for a period of time, usually as long as the life of the buyer, which means that by their rules when the buyer dies the object should be returned to the maker, with wizards this doesn't exist, and by our laws everything passes to one's descendent including those objects made by goblins, which is why they often believe that we steal from them. With the new regulation any sale made by goblins would need to be specifically detailed, even to include a clause stating to whom the object would go in the case of the buyer's death, and none of them would be able to say they've been deceived. It would avoid any unnecessary tension." – Voldemort explained calmly.

"Hum… It seems reasonable, I think, but I doubt the minister will see it that way, especially with everything the papers are saying about it. You should try and deal with the Daily Prophet first." – Lucy commented while taking a sip from her herbal tea.

"I think I might." – Voldemort commented with a scowl, pausing though when he noticed the startled face of Lucy who found herself wondering what kind of ideas she had just given him. – "Do not worry, my beloved, I only mean I might send an official note to the papers explaining the law project, no violence intended." – He said calmly and she flushed feeling slightly embarrassed by her previous thoughts.

"I'm sorry." – She mumbled, before getting up. – "I must really go now though, I have class in a few minutes."

"You haven't eaten anything, though." – He commented apparently noncommittally, but Lucy could feel some concern through the bond.

"I'm not really feeling hungry, besides I think I'm still a bit queasy." – She said scrunching her nose a little as she remembered the day before when she threw up her entire breakfast.

"Very well them, have fun tonight on the Halloween feast." – He said as he allowed her to bend down and give him a light peck, before activating the portkey.

Lucy rushed to DADA classroom, she was running late already, what would often occur when she ate breakfast at home, thankfully Sirius hadn't arrived yet, and she managed to find a place between Hermione and Ron.

"You're late." – Hermione commented giving her a hard look.

"Had to take breakfast at the castle again." – She answered shrugging, Lucy was always very careful not to let them know she actually chose to eat at home, the first time she said it Ron's reaction had been awful.

"Hum… Will you at least be able to stay for the feast?" – Ron asked.

"Yeah, no problem."

"Great! It wouldn't be fair for you to lose it huh? I bet the food on the snake's castle can't compare to Hogwart's." – He said with a smirk, and Lucy smiled nodding, she didn't think it was a good idea to point out that the food on Serpent's lair was actually better.

Just then Sirius walked in, putting an end to the vexing conversation, it was getting really difficult for Lucy to hide the fact that she liked Voldemort now, or at least like whom he was to her now, but she dreaded the day she'd have to tell them, Ron's reaction wasn't going to be pretty…

After class, Sirius called her back.

"Yes, Professor?" – She asked politely, seeing that there were still some students on the classroom.

"Lucy… I'd like to talk to you about…" - He started before getting up and start pacing behind the table, looking flushed.

"Is there something wrong Sirius? Something bad happened?" – Lucy asked alarmed, imagining if it had something to do with Voldemort or the order.

"No… Nothing bad! I… It's just some news…" - He trailed off, looking at her with an unreadable expression. –" Do you have time later to come by? Perhaps before the feast?" – He asked hesitantly.

"Yes… I can come. Are you sure everything is alright?" – She answered still feeling worried.

"Yes. Everything is fine, it's just some private stuff that I'd like to tell you personally so… Just come by okay? And, you can bring Ron and Hermione as well." – He said with a frail smile as some students entered the class for the next lesson.

Nodding Lucy left, and went to find Ron and Hermione and head to Transfiguration class, still very concerned, she couldn't imagine what could be vexing Sirius so much, the man seemed almost afraid to talk to her…

"What did Sirius want?" – Ron whispered to her, as Professor Mcgonagal scribbled something on the black board.

"He said he has some news… We should drop by his office before the feast."- She answered in an equally hushed tone.

Hermione shushed them somewhat exasperated, when Prfessor Mcgonagal turned around to address the class again.

By the time all their classes were done, and they finally managed to go up to Sirius' office, Lucy was almost busting with curiosity, many dark possibilities passing through her mind, "would the Order be planning something? Did Sirius want restart the war?", the mere thought get her a cold sweat.

Ron, on the other end, seemed to have lost interest on the news, by now his stomach was growling loudly and he was all for going straight to the Great Hall, even though he had stuffed himself with roasted beef and mashed potatoes at lunch.

"Come on mate, Sirius can wait till tomorrow! I mean, you must be starving too, right? You barely ate at lunch!" – He complained.

"I'm fine Ron… I'm hungry but I can wait until after I talk to Sirius." – She lied smoothly, she wasn't hungry at all, actually just the thought of going to the Great Hall filled with heavy sauced food and hungry teenagers made her stomach churn, the only thing preventing her from going straight home, to eat some light dinner with Voldemort, was the awful reaction she'd get from Ron.

"You haven't been eating much lately Lucy, are you sure you're not sick? I think we should go and talk to Madam Pomfrey…" - Hermione commented shooting her a worried look.

"Hum… I might have a stomach flu or something… But, I'll ask Voldemort for a potion, or maybe he could call Dr. Crabb if it doesn't go away on the weekend." – She answered shrugging, as they reached Sirius's office.

They went in to find Sirius and Rabastan inside the office, the later was sitting on the desk, while the former paced back and forth with a worried face.

"What the fuck is Lestrange doing here?" – Ron asked with a scowl.

"Language! Mr. Weasley! – Sirius snapped at him, causing Lucy to arch an eyebrow at him, as Rabastan stood up to put a calming hand on his shoulder. – "I'm sorry. Please, sit. I… We have something to tell you guys and… I hope you'll not take this too badly." – He added sounding somewhat apologetic.

"What could you have to say to us, that also involve him." – Ron asked pointing rudely to Professor Lestrange.

"Ron! Let the professors speak!" – Hermione chided, as both she and Lucy dragged the red head to sit on the three chairs that had magically appeared in front of the professor desk, as both Sirius and Rabastan proceeded to sit on it.

"Well… Look, during the summer, when I came here to Hogwarts to prepare for the first term, so did Rabastan, since he too was starting as a teacher, and…" - Sirius paused, passing a hand through his hair. – "We had to spend a lot of time together and… Look, I want you to understand that this doesn't change who I am or where I stand, I just started seeing things a bit differently and…" - He paused again as Rabastan put a hand on his shoulder raising an eyebrow.

"Sirius, you're not making any sense". – He commented indicating the three teens that looked befuddled.

"Just go straight to the point Paddfoot, we can take anything." – Lucy said with a reassuring smile.

"Okay… Well then… I'd like to tell you, that me and Rabastan are together, romantically so for about a month now. We're not yet sure where this is going." – He made a vague gesture between the two. – "But I wanted to tell you, Lucy, before it got any deeper, you mean a lot to me cub, and I know this can be confusing, specially so soon after the war and…"

He was interrupted as Ron stood up rashly, balling his hands into fists.

"Ron! What…" - Hermione started but got cut off as well.

"You're shagging a Death Eater?" – Ron spat angrily, - "you're not only a fag, but you're also with a bloody Death Eater?" – He almost shouted.

"Ron, you can't be serious…" - Lucy started, frowning at her friend, what only caused him to scowl, before turning and storming out of the room.

Sirius looked devastated, looking at Lucy as if she would run too. Hermione, though, was the first to speak.

"Sirius… Professor Lestrange… I want you to know I think it's brilliant, the war is over, and things are working out, so I don't think there is any reason to not like your relationship. And Ron… He's a twat, but he'll come around." – She said offering them a smile. – "I Guess I should go talk to him…" - She added with a sigh, before standing up and leaving as well.

Both Rabastan and Sirius looked at Lucy expectantly, the girl sighed and stood up to hug her godfather, she was surprised, of course, and she couldn't say she liked Rabastan… But who was she to judge anyone, she was actually enjoying being married to the Dark Lord himself…

"Sirius… Never scare me this way again okay? I thought someone was dying! Not that you had gotten yourself a boyfriend!" – She chided, letting go of him to glare at his face. – "And, of course I'm okay with it! It's your life, you don't owe me an explanation or anything! Besides… I can't really begrudge you for dating a Death Eater, while I am married to the Dark Lord, and actually enjoying it." – She said and watched as both men shared a surprised look.

"Seriously? You're liking Voldemort?" – Sirius asked astonished, she shrugged.

"Yeah… things changed. I can't really admit it publicly yet, because people would think I've gone dark, or mad, or both… But things are nice." – She said simply. – "And besides… Now I can invite you to dinner, as Rabastan's date!" – She exclaimed, and the three of them laughed.

"Well… I think you should go down to the feast…" - Sirius said with a suspiciously watery smile. – "We'll go down in a minute."

"Sure… I'll go ahead and find Ron and Hermione." – She said moving towards the door, but paused just before opening it and turned to look at Rabastan. – "You know, before I go, I think I should mention that I love my godfather very much, and if for some reason he ends up hurt by all this, I'll ask Voldemort to torture and kill you in the most gruesome way he can think of." – She said seriously, before smiling and exiting the room, leaving a positively terrified Rabastan.

Lucy went to the great hall to find a still sulking Ron, who was already stuffing his face with roasted beef and mashed pumpkins, as soon as she saw him shoveling the food on his mouth she felt her hunger fly away, and a sick feeling settled on her stomach.

"What took you so long?" – Ron asked as she sat down, not bothering to swallow his food before speaking. – "Don't tell me you approve of Sirius being a fag?"

"Ron! Stop being so close minded! Homosexuality is perfectly normal remember? Even the muggles accept it nowadays, and the wizarding community has always been very accommodating… I really don't understand why you're being so biased!" – Hermione said sighing exasperated, and Lucy was thankful she at least had her mouth clean.

"It wouldn't be a problem if he was shagging some nice guy Mione! But he decided to bend over for a bloody Death Eater!" – Ron said angrily, spilling a bit of juice down his chin. Lucy felt her stomach churn.

"The war is over Ron…" - Lucy offered dejectedly, and he turned to glare at her.

"So what? He is still a death eater scum! Don't tell me you think it's okay Lucy." – He said giving her a disbelieving and somewhat disgusted look, before whipping his mouth with his sleeve.

Lucy felt like gagging, she stood up.

"Look… I'm not feeling okay. I'm going home." – She said before striding away quickly and not bothered to look behind to see Ron's glare and Hermione's worried frown. She activated the portkey, and soon she hit the ground on the Serpent's Lair foyer.

Not able to hold it in anymore she keeled over and emptied her very distressed stomach right there on the floor. She felt like shit… The customary pop told her an elf had just appeared besides her, and soon all the mess she made was gone.

"The Lady, is feeling sick! Tipsy will help the Lady go to her room so she can rest! Straining herself like this is no good for the Lady, and for the baby!" – She heard Tipsy say as she felt a push of magic helping her to stand up. Lucy frowned at the elf's words.

"Baby? What baby Tipsy?" – She asked, as she steadied herself on her feet, she must have misunderstood…

"The baby the Lady is carrying! Lady is carrying Master's heir! Tipsy is so happy! Tipsy loves babies!" – The elf answered, the huge ears flapping around happily, Lucy felt like she was going to be sick again.

This couldn't be happening… She couldn't be pregnant! She was much too young, much too stupid! And it was Voldemort's child… Oh Merlin…

"Tipsy… Are you sure?" – She asked, dreading the answer, her period should have come this month already shouldn't it? She asked herself feeling somewhat stupid.

"Yes! Tipsy is very sure the Lady is carrying a baby! Tipsy knows a pregnant witch very well, the magic changes!" – The elf said happily, as it climbed the stairs besides Lucy. – "The master will be so pleased…"

"No!" – Lucy screamed, startling Tipsy, who looked fearfully at her. – "Sorry, Tipsy, but please don't tell Voldemort okay? You can't!"

"But… Tipsy must not lie to Master…" - The elf answered, it's huge blue eyes tearing up.

"I know… I just… You don't have to lie to him, if he asks you'll answer the truth, but, don't go telling him okay? I… I should do it myself." – She said weakly, and Tipsy nodded slowly, before the two of them started climbing up the stairs together again.

How am supposed to tell him those unexpected news? Will he even want the child?


	12. A Near Tragedy and some Truths

A Near Tragedy and Some Truths

Lucy couldn't figure out how to tell Voldemort about the child, she was terrified of what he might say… He might not want the baby… He could force her to have an abortion; she hated to even think about it, even if she was indeed terrified of having a child, she was too young, too stupid to be a mother… But she couldn't get rid of her own baby.

And on the other hand Voldemort might want the child, and that scenario could prove to be even worse… What if the child was like him? Dark and corrupt. What if Voldemort wanted it to be like this? What if he made the baby become a monster… A killer… She hated to think about that too.

And so, she didn't say anything to him for the next week, she mulled over the subject over and over in her head, and tried to start the conversation, but she always wind up choking on her own words and saying nothing.

Voldemort picked up on her mood, of course, he constantly sent her worried looks and even more worried signs through the bond, he even asked one night, after they made love, as Lucy clung to him in a very desperate manner, with tears on her eyes.

"What ails you my beloved?" – He asked caressing her cheek lovingly, as he moved so his deep crimsom eyes could look upon hers.

Lucy shook her head minutely.

"It's nothing." – She whispered burying her head on his chest.

"I know you are lying Lucy. I can sense your distress. But I won't force you to tell me what is making you so miserable, not for now, anyway." – He said softly running a hand through her hair. – "But if this continues, you'll have to tell me, do you understand? I won't allow anyone to hurt my mate as you've been hurting." – He planted a kiss on the top of her head as he felt her shudder against him, and allowed both of them to drift off to sleep.

Saturday she woke up feeling like she had been hit by a truck, she was sick, as usual, and sore all over, she contemplated the idea of just staying in bed the entire day, to see if everything went away, but remembered with a groan that she had a quidditch game against ravenclaw…

Sighing, she stood up, took a quick a shower, put on her uniform and grabbed her firebolt, then she climbed down the stairs to give Voldemort a light kiss on the lips and lie to him saying that she'd have breakfast at Hogwarts, as she had done for the past week, when in truth, she'd tell Ron and Hermione that she had already ate at home. Breakfast was a meal hard to keep on her stomach these days.

When she finally appeared on Hogwarts' entrance hall she stood there quietly for a few moments with her eyes closed waiting for the dizziness to pass. Taking the portkey had become a lot more uncomfortable lately. Lucy suspected that pregnant women shouldn't use them, but as it was, she couldn't request another way of transportation without explaining why she needed one to Voldemort, and she wasn't ready for this yet.

As she felt her senses were back in control, she headed to the Great Hall, trying to ignore the slight pain on her stomach, she was feeling it since yesterday, and thought it was possibly due to her very poor eating habits of late, she was only eating at lunch and dinner, and lunch was really difficult to eat while sitting near Ronald and his awful table manners, so she could say she only ate correctly during dinner, when she was safe back home.

"Hey guys." - she greeted plopping herself down between Ron and Hermione.

"Hey Lucy… Jeez you look pale…" - Hermione commented frowning at her friend.

"Don't go getting sick at us today mate! We have to start well on the tournament, if we want the Cup again this year!" – Ron said merrily, giving her a pat on the back.

"I'm fine… I just don't like portkeys much." – She lied smoothly.

Lucy wasn't feeling fine, and didn't start to feel better as the morning progressed, she only wanted to get the game over with so she could return home and curl in bed all afternoon.

As she sat on her broom and took flight together with her team, dizziness overcame her again and she had to lean forward to keep herself steady. At the same time the light pain on her stomach grew sharper. She bit her lip, while going higher on the sky, she had to find that snitch soon…

She circled the sky, high above her team, so she could have a better view of the pitch, Cho Chang, the ravenclaw sicker, did the same, she only hoped one of them found the bloody snitch soon… She didn't really care about winning the game anymore, she just wanted to get off this damned broom…

It took her about half an hour but finally she spotted the golden ball hovering on the other side of the pitch, she sprinted after it, almost knocking herself against a Gryffindor chaser, but soon her fingers closed over the cool metal of the snitch, and with a sigh, barely noticing the applause from the crowd, she headed to the ground, as the rest of her team rushed to accompany her.

As she slid from the broom though, Lucy felt something hot and sticky sliding through her legs, she heard a gasp from her team as she looked down to see blood staining her pants.

"My Lady…" - She heard Rabastan exclaim, as he broke through the Gryffindor's team to get to her.

_No… No… _She thought over and over in her head as she watched numbly the red stain between her legs, how could she be so careless? She was losing her child because she was stupid… She felt herself swoon on her feet and felt as Rabastan caught her before she could fall.

Lucy felt a pang of panic and concern reach her through the bond, and her wedding band grow impossibly warm before she passed out. She only hoped Voldemort could forgive her.

She opened her eyes blearily, faintly aware that someone was speaking to her, soon her eyes adjusted enough so she could see she was safely back to the Serpent's Lair, with the kind face of Dr. Crabb hovering over her. Lucy offered him a tired smile, before remembering what happened and hastily trying to sit up. The Medwizard stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder.

"The baby… Did I lose it? Is it gone?" – She asked feeling tears gathering on her eyes. Dr. Crabb sighed.

"So… You did know about the child…" - He commented softly before sitting down on a chair besides her bed. – "You were very careless my Lady. You could have lost your child today… You see… Traveling by portkey isn't advisable for pregnant women, especially not so often as you do… And from my examinations you haven't eaten enough lately." – He said with a very grim face, but finally broke down on a smile. – "But you were lucky, I was able to come here fast enough and managed to stop the contractions, and you, and your baby are fine."

Lucy let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and a few relief tears escaped her eyes.

"So… The baby is fine? It'll be okay?" – She asked placing a hand over her stomach, Dr. Crabb became serious again.

"Yes… But, you must understand that you've put yourself and the child under great distress, therefore, you'll need to be in complete bed rest for quite some time. I don't believe you should go back to Hogwarts until the end of Christmas break…" - Lucy opened her mouth to protest but he shushed her with a stern look. – "You've barely past the first month of pregnancy, it's quite a delicate moment, especially after what happened, in order to be sure that you won't have any more contractions, you must avoid any kind of strenuous movements, even walking, or sitting for too long might be dangerous during the next months. You'll also take a potion a day to help with the hormones productions and help your body to secure the baby. I'll be checking on you once a week and whenever you feel you might need me. Your diet must be quite especial as well, I've already given instructions to the house elves, I believe they'll take a good care of you, do you have any questions?"

Lucy decided not to argue, she had already endangered her child's life because of her fear of telling Voldemort, she wasn't about to do that again, and besides it might be actually good to enjoy a prolonged vacation, it was only two weeks until the start of Christmas break anyway…

"Dr. Crabb… I don't know much about pregnancies and babies and that stuff, so… Could you please send me some books on the subject or something? I want to know better what to expect, I don't want to muck it up again." – She said in a rather small voice and the medwizard smiled.

"Of course! It's a splendid idea, I'll send you books on pregnancy and baby's care, it'll certainly be useful for a first time mother." – He said before standing up. – "But now I must go my Lady, our Lord has been waiting rather impatiently to see you, he was quite worried." – He said before walking out of the door.

Lucy felt a knot on her throat, yes, she could feel Voldemort concern and hurt through the bond, she didn't exactly understand why he was hurt, but soon she'd find out, because as soon as Dr. Crabb left the room, the Dark Lord strode in, his face unreadable as he looked directly into his wife's eyes.

"Lucy… Tell me, my dear, has it been truly so atrocious to live with me so far?" – Voldemort asked in a cool voice, never tearing his eyes from hers, Lucy frowned and opened her mouth to speak but he continued. – "Do you still hate me to this point? To the point where you would foolishly try to get rid of this child simply to spite me?" – His eyes burned into hers and she flinched under his gaze as she shook her head.

"No… That's not what happened!" – She said, trying not to cry.

"And what happened? Please explain, because the only thing I know is that my mate has been grieving all week, refusing to tell me why, and then I find out that she was pregnant and carelessly decided to put herself and the child at risk, without telling me. Tell me, Lucy what really happened?" – He asked, his voice filled with an emotion that Lucy couldn't really identify, but it made her heart ache.

"I was scared. I… I found out about the baby on Halloweens night, Tipsy told me about it and… I didn't know what to do. I wasn't sure you'd want the child, I was scared that if I told you, you'd tell me that I couldn't keep it and the possibility hurt too much…" - She was crying freely now, and Voldemort seemed to soften at her words, because he sighed and stepped closer to her, leaning in to caress her cheek and dry her tears along the way.

"Have I given you any reason to fear me ever since the treaty Lucy? Do you think you actually had reason to be that scared?" – He whispered.

"You can't blame me for not trusting you completely Voldemort." – She said bitterly. – "You wanted me dead mere months ago… I know you never did anything to hurt me since the treaty but you've also never said anything about having a child, and beyond that I'm not really prepared for this situation. I know it was bound to happen at some point considering we're married and I never thought about using contraceptives, but I've never really considered this a possibility." – Lucy sighed and closed her eyes briefly leaning into his touch upon her cheek. – "I'm scared, I'm too young to be a mother, and I have my reservations about you as father, but don't think for one instant that I would consciously hurt this baby."

Voldemort grabbed her chin gently, making her look up into his eyes, they burned with an intensity that made her shudder.

"You have nothing to fear of me, do you understand my beloved? You, and whatever offspring you give me, may never be afraid of me. Never. You are the only person in this world who can say with absolute sure that you have no reason to be scared. I'll always protect you. Always."

Lucy could feel the truth through their bond, the intensity in which he meant it, and the devotion he felt as he said that to her, and it all made her feel dizzy.

"Why?" – She asked drowsily. And with that simple word she wanted to know so much, why did he asked for her during the treaty? Why he was so nice to her now? Why he wanted to protect her? Why he looked at her in that way…

Voldemort seemed to understand the depth of her question because he sighed and sat down on the chair near the bed.

"Because I've marked you as my equal Lucy, because I chose you to complete me, and because I don't want to be incomplete anymore. You see, I am a great wizard Lucy, the greatest of this era, and yet I was flawed, because I overlooked an ancient power, and I paid dearly because of that flaw. I don't want to be flawed Lucy, I want to embrace that power, but it's something I can't teach myself, but you my beloved can, you have this power and you can teach me." – He said softly, never leaving her eyes from hers.

But Lucy could only frown at him, it was the prophesy all over again, this talk about she possessing a power that could conquer him, a power that she didn't have, nor understood…

"I don't understand. I don't have any power Voldemort. Let alone something that I could actually teach you." – She said with some dread, would he decided it was more worth to kill her after he realized she truly had nothing to offer him?

"Oh but you do… Don't you see? This power runs into your very veins my darling…" - He said caressing her cheek again. – "Love, Lucy, your mother sacrificed herself out of love for you, and that was my downfall, because I overlooked its importance, and now, you sacrificed yourself out of love for your friends, and the world in general, you know how to love Lucy, and that's why I chose you, I believed that you only would be able to teach me this power. Tell me, was I wrong?" – He asked with a desperation in his voice that startled her.

But as Lucy looked into his eyes and felt the yearning coming from the bond, and the tenderness behind his intentions, and the warm feeling that rose inside her as a response, she smiled and raised her own hand to rest it upon his face, taking her time to caress his thin lips and the soft cheek.

"No. You were not wrong. I think we can learn together…" - She said softly, and leaned in to kiss him, he met her halfway there, and pressed her back against the mattress as he deepened the kiss.

The kisses continued for a few minutes until Voldemort drew away, leaving a pouting Lucy, he smirked.

"I'd be glad to continue this, but you're forbidden to engage on any strenuous activities." - He said chuckling as she blushed furiously. – "And, it's well after dinner time, I'll order the elves to bring you something light. Would you like me to have dinner here with you?" – He asked passing a hand through her hair.

"I'd like that… I don't want to be alone right now." – She answered with a grateful smile, she was feeling a little hungry, now that she thought about it… And she was also relieved for the change of the subject, she wasn't really sure what she had just admitted to feel about her husband, but whatever it was she meant it, they'd have time to talk about it all afterwards...

But, for now, she was happy to just eat dinner in bed accompanied by her mate, and sleep in his arms, without thinking about the complicated things she was feeling and what those feelings might bring in the future.


End file.
