Black and White

1

I ran out the front door as fast as my eight year old legs would carry me, trying to get away from my mother's dreams. She had been bragging to Aunt Narcissa and Uncle Lucius and their friends about when I would be grown up, and how I would serve the Dark Lord, just like them. She had even made me become an animagus two years earlier to try and become more powerful. It had taken months, and, in her words, had failed. You don't get to choose your animal, and I was doomed to turn into a tiny chameleon. Now, she spoke of how my name would be feared, and how I would kill anyone who stood in my way. But I didn't want any of that. I didn't want to hurt, let alone kill, anyone.

I found myself standing on the pier to the lake beside my home. I stared at the glassy blue water. How easy would it be to jump in and escape the plans Mother was making? There were mermaids in the lake. But not the sweet kind. The beautiful kind that will try to drown you by making you think they're your best friend. Right now, that didn't seem like such a bad thing. At least I would have a friend.

On the edge of the pier, I got down on my knees, my eyes never leaving the dark water. In the middle of the lake, I saw two heads emerge, with silky auburn hair. They went back under and swam to me. They said sweet things in their language of clicks and hisses. All my time living here, I could understand their words.

Come with me, Zuben, one cooed, using my nickname. You don't have to stay with them. They hurt you. Come with me.

"Zuben!" Draco's voice shouted, but he sounded blurry.

The next thing I knew, my cousin was pulling me from the water. There was a cut on his arm, where the mermaid had scratched him. He had saved me, but that only meant I would have to go back.

"Zuben, what were you thinking?" Draco questioned, furious. "Now I know what my father meant when he said you were just as crazy as Sirius Black!"

There were tears in my eyes. "I was thinking..." I trailed off, but I had to say it. "Draco, I don't want to be bad, like Mother and your parents. I want to be nice and have friends. I don't want to work for You-Know-Who when I grow up. I don't want to be like Mother."

"Well, well, well," came Mother's voice. "What do we have here? You don't want to be like me? Why not?"

Her voice was mocking, and I could see in her eyes that I was in trouble. She would hit me for forgetting to dust the dresser, so what would she do now? But I think she only heard the last sentence.

There was no getting out of it. Not with Mother, Aunt Narcissa, Uncle Lucius, and their friends staring me down. But I didn't want to say it again.

Aunt Narcissa was fretting over Draco's arm, but no one worried about me. He had a scratch, but I had almost been killed.

"She said she doesn't want to be bad," Draco revealed, saving his own skin, as usual when it came to talking to the adults. "And she doesn't want to work for the Dark Lord."

I was angry. He had promised me, a year earlier, that anything said between us would stay between us. He knew they would hurt me for it. All of a sudden, his blond hair caught fire, and Aunt Narcissa shrieked in horror. Uncle Lucius put out the fire, and everyone turned on me, even though Draco was unhurt. Only then did I realize my anger had caused the fire. I was a witch, and my first act could have severely hurt my cousin.

"You won't have a choice, Zubeneschamali," Mother said, glaring down at me, resting her hand on the side of my face. "You will be a Death Eater, just like your father and I, and you will be a servant of the Dark Lord. You don't get to decide."

"Bellatrix, look what she did to my son!" Aunt Narcissa cried. Draco's hair was singed, but nothing else.

Mother sneered. "Looks like you need to learn your lesson, Zuben."

That's the day I learned what the cruciatus curse feels like. A shiver crawls down my spine at the memory. The cruciatus curse always hurts, but that day, I think, was the worst.

"Zuben!" Mother cries out, and I immediately rush to her. She is sitting at the kitchen table of the Malfoy Manor, where we live with her sister and her family.

"Yes, Mother?" I ask, keeping my distance. She doesn't seem particularly foul, currently, but it seems she has forgotten that today is my birthday. Not that I expected her to remember.

"This came in the mail for you," she replies, tossing an envelope onto the table.

I stare at the envelope, recognizing the seal immediately. Hogwarts. My letter, and my ticket out, has arrived, even adressed to my name. They spelled it correctly, I might add, which really is a nice surprise.

"Don't get too excited," Mother smirks as the magical energy crackles around me. "Narcissa and Draco will take you in an hour to get your supplies."

"Yes, ma'am," I smile happily.

It's not often that I smile, but it's even rarer that I get out of the house. My mother was spared Azkaban on her claims that she was only a Death Eater to protect her husband and, later, me, but that doesn't mean that people like or accept her, especially after what she did to the Longbottoms.