Adamantine - D.M.

Chapter 11 - Peril, Undetermined

I awoke to the scent of wood smoke and the sound of crackling logs. The room was warm, but not stifling. Shadows bustled around the back of the room, their hushed voices bouncing off of high ceilings, flanked with heavy wooden rafters. It would have been a pleasant, if not relaxing room; had it not been for the pounding behind my eyes, and the inexplicable feeling of peril becoming more acute as I fully realized my surroundings. I was laying on a couch which bore the musty smell of furniture not often used. Books and trinkets lined ceiling-high shelves. Through a large paned window, the sky had the inky hue of midnight. Dread rising in my throat, I sat up and looked over my shoulder. A thin, pale woman with sheets of light blonde hair was in deep conversation with another, fiercer-looking woman. Alike in stature, the other woman had jet black hair, that hung in tangles around her gaunt face. Her heavily lidded eyes flickered to me almost at once; and she broke into a smile, revealing rows of broken and yellowed teeth. "Well, well", Bellatrix began striding over, tapping her wand in her opposite hand. "Just in time," she said. I scrambled to my feet, backing up with every step Bellatrix took. "Cissy, would you go collect Draco?" she requested. Narcissa left the room quietly. "He's waiting for you, you know" Bellatrix grinned evilly. Somewhere between my pounding heart, and the realization that if I was here to die, I wouldn't have been left to sleep on a couch- I found my courage. "What do you want?" I asked, willing my voice to remain as steady as possible in her presence. "Well, wouldn't that spoil the surprise?" Bellatrix motioned towards the door, wand pointed at me. I obliged; assuming that whatever was opposite the heavy oak door couldn't be nearly as bad as what lay in it. 

I was wrong. 

The Malfoy's drawing room was similar in size to the library, but contained a large, long table instead. Twelve chairs lined the table, most of them filled with faces I thought I would only ever see on a wanted poster. Dolohov. Yaxley. Mulciber. The Carrows. A man I didn't recognize sat adjacent to the head of the table, a rat-like face and a shining silver hand folded with his own. Lucius, Draco's father sat opposite to the small man, and to the right of Lucius sat Draco, avoiding eye contact and staring at the table. I was still taking in the spectacle with morbid fascination, when Bellatrix poked me in the back with her wand. "Sit" she whispered in my ear with fetid breath. I took my seat carefully, hands shaking as they gripped the carved armchair. Once sitting, I found myself magically anchored to the chair, unable to move; as if invisible chains had shackled me. A grating voice spoke out from the darkness, and the group turned to face a corner, where a door slid open. 

Had I not been bound to the chair, I would have certainly lept up in fear. While the group of death eaters was terrifying, they were nothing to the man who entered. If you can even call it a man, I guess. Red eyes glowed beneath pallid features, with two slits where one might normally find a nose. His skin was pale. Long, yellowed nails wrapped around his wand. "Ah, she does look like her mother", said Voldemort.