Drying in the rain

My Father

"My father was a good and honest man, but when the time came as it always seems to do he was not the man I remembered. He was not my father." ~ Anna Mullin

Anna stood staring blankly as her father appeared form the shadows of Voldemort's lair. She wondered if it was real, or maybe the dark lords magic was just too powerful for her to resist.
"Anna we have much to talk about."
"You left me and mom all alone? You knew I'd come to hogwarts, why? Why did you do this?"
"I had no choice it is my destiny and yours, you're old enough now to know the truth, why you were so protected so far away, why I had to leave you and your mother..." Anna interrupted.
"Your wife! And your child! Your only child!"
"Anna. There was a reason for everything. You were promised at birth to the dark lord, and now you are old enough to fulfill that promise."
"What promise?" Cried out Anna as she began to walk closer to her father, tears streaming down her face.
"Your promise to become the dark lady." Her father whispered knowing her reaction would be poor. Anna threw herself at his knees.
"Father no! Please don't do this! I've found love already, I'm in love!" She begged, her fists beside her body as she bent down before him. "Please I'm begging you don't make me do this."
"I am the one you should beg child. John she is still a child look at her!" Hissed the dark lord from his shriveled up body.
"You? I should beg to you? You aren't even my height! You are weak! You are the one that's a child!" Manically laughed Anna as she got up to taunt him. He casted his curse, "Crucio!"  He shouted as Anna dropped to the ground in agonizing pain. It was as if all of her bones were on fire and being ground together by a wood chipper.
"She will marry you my lord. Right?" Her father glared down at his pathetic daughter as she squirmed in excruciating pain.
"Yes! She will." Voldemort cleared his shriveled up throat, reversing the spell she felt immediate relief. "Just remember Anna. Wherever you go wherever you run I will catch you, whoever you love I will destroy, whoever you are I will crush. You will be the dark lady, you will be my wife." He growled. Anna burst through the doors running into the garden she screamed. Draco heard her from his room, he knew he could do nothing, it was done. There was nothing a boy like him could do against a creature like Voldemort. Even in his misshapen form he was the most powerful wizard alive. He was alone in his home of evil, and he knew he was swallowed up already. He too would soon be like his father and as much as he regret this and wished for a different path the only path he knew was this one. This path of darkness. He looked through his curtains out to the maze as Anna screamed. It wasn't in pain like earlier but pain as she realized her entire life was a lie. Her mother had tried her best to protect her from it but even she was too weak, no one could protect Anna from what was to come. And though she had time, Anna had no idea what to do with it. She was completely lost in the dark lords grip.
She stood alone frozen in the gardens, she too pondered if living meant anything to her now that she was officially promised to Voldemort. He was cold, his body small like a toddlers but his voice was terrifying. It was gravely and ill. It shook her right down to her core the way his words turned into sentences with such evil projection. He didn't even try to be cruel it was just in his nature. It was a normality for this creature to be so cold and cunning, his shape so deformed as if he were an embryonic reptile. It was a sight she never knew she'd see, out of all the magical things she'd laid eyes upon he was by far the most intricate thing. He made her sick, he made her tremor.

"Fine Minerva fine. If you won't listen to me I'll have to speak to Dumbledore myself, alone."
"Do not try to guilt trip me Severus, where is she anyways?" Asked Minerva as Severus got up to leave.
"Malfoy manor."
"You allowed her to go to such a place? Shame on you Severus! You know the Malfoys have nothing remotely good up their sleeve, even your prized possession Draco." Minerva glared at him, her eyes piercing almost cat like.
"What do you expect me to do? It's not like she's my responsibility anymore." Severus sighed, opening the door to leave she yelled out his name. "What?"
"You stay awake and you wait for that girl!" Scolded mcgonagall as he rolled his eyes. "I am very serious. For all you know she could be dead, do you want another death on your hands?"
"I don't understand how you could say such a thing after everything we have been through Minnie." He said defeatedly.
"Do not act as if you are entirely innocent. You should've been there, you should never have joined forces with evil. And look at you now? It's as if you conspire with the death eaters even in this very moment. Your assistant of which you confessed to being in love with is in danger and you want to sit back and remove her from your care? Do you have any idea the damage that will do to her already fragile state of mind? She just lost her closest friend besides you! You've done this to yourself, you entertained feelings. Now do the responsible thing and wait for her since clearly you cannot bring yourself to retrieve her. Now get out of my office!" Minerva casted a quick spell, a blast of wind forced him away and locked the door behind it. He stood outside angrily in the dim candle light of the hallway.
"Professor Snape? I have a question about the.." Came a Gryffindor student behind him.
"Be quiet would you? If you have a question you are to ask it during class, now if you don't mind the word doesn't revolve around your idiocy and confusion over elementary subjects." Severus shoved past her, his shoulder sharply pinning past the girl as he angrily made his way to his chambers.

It was around 1 in the morning when Anna finally built up the strength to return to the castle, her childhood lost forever as she was now officially in charge of her destiny. Either she went through with her fathers plan or she found a way not to, and instead of finding the answers in Snape like she wished she could she knew only the tomb of fryers could know.
She snuck in quietly, there he was sound asleep on the couch likely awaiting her. The last thing she wanted to do was wake him, he was so peaceful and perfect when he slept. She had never seen this side of him but it was a side she knew she'd never forget. If all of this disappeared she thought, she knew moments like this would never leave her mind. They'd always be her center of thought.
Wherever he was, whatever he was dreaming of sue wished he'd take her with him. It was as if he weee in the best dream of his life so sound and tired. Wherever it was she wanted to follow him there, anywhere if it meant he would be there waiting for her like he had been.
She quietly went to pick up a blanket from the chair nearby his couch, slowly and cautiously she draped it over his sleeping body. Without haste she turned off the light and settled in on the floor so that he could stay on the couch. It was uncomfortable but it was alright as long as he was alright. She thought of how silly this sacrifice was compared to all of his.
Sacrifice she thought, what a thing. Her mother could have easily ran away without ever being scathed by the hollows family. She knew a great deal Anna supposed but she didn't matter much to them. She was a figurehead in the circus of their family but nothing more. She must've thought it was love when they married, she must've thought Anna's birth was a blessing, but instead it was a curse. A curse that would always follow Anna around wherever she went, and wherever her mother went as well given how much she loved and cherished her only daughter. Anna sighed, "my father." She whispered in complete and utter shock of this betrayal. She always thought he loved her not that he was raising her to be wife to the most vile creature to ever step foot on earth. She thought he was a good man for so long, that he cared for her truly and loved her mother. If only a younger her could see now just how blind she had been, how she missed the signs and clues how she pushed away the bad thoughts and red flags because family is family and family is good. She wished it were true, that family was an unbreakable force, and it was true technically but it seemed only that way for all the wrong reasons. Family didn't live her besides her mother of course, family didn't really truly want her around. She would never be able to rely on her family, she would never have a loving grandmother and grandfather or cousins and aunts and uncles, all was lost the moment she saw her father step away from the darkness and into her view, a terrible beard, long menacing hair, eyebrows bold like daggers as if they could slay a dragon. Nothing made sense anymore. She had seen enough this night, learned too much. Tomorrow night she'd ask her forbidden book, but right in this instant she knew sleep was her best option, if it would ever come to her.