CHAPTER NINETEEN - Reincarnation

The large dining room of the Malfoy manor was dark and cold. Two large chandeliers hung above a long table, the candles emitting a dim light that casted faint, eerie shadows across the room. People dressed in black sat along the two sides of the table, their heads pointed eagerly at a man seated at the end. This man had the body of a human, but the face of a monster. His skin was pale greyish-white, his irises were red, and he had two slits on his face in place of his nose. Just like a snake.

A caramel python slithered around his throne-like chair, it's long body gliding across the carpeted floor smoothly. The sliding sound it created echoed through the hollow chambers of the manor.

"Lucius, send your son to the gate to welcome our guest," the snake-like man said quietly, yet the dominance in his voice was unmistakable. "We wouldn't want them to feel abandoned, would we?"

"Yes, my lord." A man with long, platinum blonde hair stepped out from his seat and exited the room.

***

Attuoria was spinning through the dimensions, white light engulfing her as her body began to form once again. It felt familiar, almost normal that she was returning to a human body. She let the senses return to her, feeling the air on her skin, smelling the crisp night air, and watching as the light got dimmer and dimmer as she got closer to the ground.

Her bare feet touched onto the hard pavement, and she could feel the little pieces of gravel digging into her soles. She was once again wrapped in the airy, silky, lightweight black material, but this time it was in the form of a dress that trailed down to the ground. The dark mist shadowed along her arms like a sleeve, but leaving her shoulders and neck completely bare.

She looked up. In front of her was a large metal gate that guarded a passage towards the main door of a Victorian-styled mansion. Tall hedges lined the path, and Attuoria spotted a figure walking towards her. The person had shiny, platinum blonde hair that was glistening under the lights coming from the mansion.

As the figure got closer, she couldn't help but think he looked familiar. She never forgets a face, and this face… It looked like Draco Malfoy, but older. Rather than a snobbish eleven-year old like the one she had met three years ago, this guy looked to be about fifteen-years-old. He wore a formal, all-black suit, and his walk didn't have Draco's trademark swagger.

But when his eyes met with hers, recognition was written all over his face. "You! Why are you here?" he asked defensively. He stared at her through the bars of the gate, but made no movement to open it.

Attuoria didn't say anything.

"So you were in Romania for the past three years, weren't you? Doing what, starving?" Draco said with a slight sneer. She could hear through his thoughts that he had little to no respect for her. After all, she did say she was an orphan that had no family and no money. A family as wealthy and pureblood as the Malfoys were bound to think she was dirt.

"Let me in," said Attuoria, ignoring his comment.

"Why should I? You're just a poor, Romanian orphan. My father would kick you out in an instant."

Attuoria scowled, the feeling of annoyance returning for the first time in three years. "There's a meeting going on in your house. I'm invited. Open the gate."

Draco looked taken aback, but then his eyes narrowed. "Why would they invite you? You're lying."

"I'm not lying. Let me in."

"No."

Attuoria glared at him through the bars of the gates. He glared right back. If he was going to play games, then she was going to play him right back.

"Tell me how to open the gate," she said.

Draco smirked. "No," he said smugly, but Attuoria's trick worked. Her question put the topic of the gate inside his mind, so she could now read exactly how to open the gate through his thoughts.

There was a manual lock somewhere that could be flipped up to open the gate. Attuoria's eyes landed on a small square section at the center of the metal gate, right in front of her.

She reached her arm through the gap of the bars to flip the gate open, but Draco caught her by the wrist.

"Trying to break in? I'm sure you'd know how to do that. I bet you had to steal your way into survival back in Romania, didn't you?" said Draco, looking triumphant.

Attuoria ignored him and reached forward with her left arm instead. He tried to grab onto her arm again, but this time, his hand went straight through her arm as if it wasn't there.

"What -" he gasped as Attuoria easily unlocked the gate from the inside, the metal creaking as it edged open. He glanced at his other hand, which was still clutching Attuoria by the wrist.

"Care to let go now?" asked Attuoria, although she was also surprised that Draco's hand went through her arm. However, she didn't let it show.

With one last glare, Draco released his hand from her wrist. "You know what? Fine. Come in. We'll see who's laughing in the end." The smug look returned to his face as he led Attuoria into the mansion.

But what she heard from his thoughts as they walked into the manor was not what she expected. "What does she think she's doing, coming here? If she's muggle-born, Voldemort's going to kill her!"

Voldemort was in his house? Voldemort was at the meeting? For some reason, Attuoria grew excited at the thought that she was about to meet one of the most powerful wizards in the world, despite him being the most evil. Maybe this meeting was full of powerful wizards, including people like Voldemort and T.M.R.

Draco guided her through a cold hallway and up a flight of stairs. A large room with a long table was revealed, and about twenty people wearing black turned their heads towards the two newcomers.

"Ah, welcome!" A man said, lifting his arms into the air and bringing his black cloak up with him. Attuoria gazed at this man with interest. He's missing a nose, she thought to herself. His eyes are red, and he's so pale. Could he be a vampire?

"Attuoria, is it? Correct me if I'm wrong." The man said, bearing a slightly toothy grin.

"Yes. And you are…?" she asked, taking a step forward to the table. Draco, on the other hand, took a step back.

"I am Lord Voldemort. These people at the table here are my followers, Death Eaters. Everyone, the girl you see in front of you here is a Nightmare Demon from the spiritual dimension. Sit, Attuoria, sit." He gestured towards an empty chair at the end of the table right in front of her.

"Which one of you here is T.M.R.?" Attuoria asked as she slid into the chair.

"That is my given name," Voldemort said, taking his seat across the long table. "Tom Marvolo Riddle. I no longer go by that name, but decided to use my given initials to send you the message. The spiritual dimension would not know me by Lord Voldemort, after all."

Attuoria's eyes widened just a little bit. The whole time she was searching for T.M.R., it was actually Voldemort? The wizard that killed Harry Potter's parents, and got Hagrid expelled from school?

Despite all his evil deeds, she's got to admit: this man's got some power.

"So, how familiar are you with the human world?" Voldemort asked.

"I visited three years ago," said Attuoria, scanning the room for any faces she might've seen previously. Her eyes landed on Snape, who was staring right at her.

Snape works with Voldemort? No wonder why Harry, Ron and Hermione didn't trust him.

"Professor Snape, you remember me, don't you?"

All focus turned to Snape, who pursed his lips. "Yes, I do. You attended Hogwarts three years ago, and then disappeared mysteriously, providing a cover-up story that you were returning to your hometown in Romania."

Voldemort looked surprised. "Hogwarts? So you're already familiar with the Wizarding World?"

"You sent a message to the dream dimension fifteen years ago. I received it, but couldn't understand it. After ten years of study, I figured out the meaning of your message and came down to find you. My knowledge was limited and I was not able to track you down, therefore I went back." Attuoria explained.

"Interesting," Voldemort muttered, keeping his gaze on Attuoria. "The reason I sent that message was to see if I could recruit a more diverse range of beings into our army, one of them being you Nightmare Demons. Our goal is to cleanse the wizarding world of dirty-blooded humans, but there are people trying to stop us. I would like to provide you with an offer. In exchange for your help, I shall complete a request of yours. Anything. I know you rely on human fears to survive, and I can help you with that."

His intentions are not hostile, he just wants my help, Attuoria thought. The Elders did say that if he had no ill will, then I would be allowed to make my own decisions. He's offering me to choose anything I want from him… so what should I ask from a powerful wizard?

"I would like you to teach me how to invoke fear in humans," Attuoria blurted out immediately. "Your magic, your tactics, and your insight."

Her request was perfectly in line with her duties as a Nightmare Demon. She wanted to be the best at what she does. Her thirst for knowledge was unquenchable.

And what better way than to learn from the most powerful, most feared wizard alive?

But there was also another thing she wanted to learn, one that was fueled by curiosity more than anything else.

"I also want you to teach me the ways of humans."

"Deal." Voldemort said with no hesitation. "I will teach you all the magic I know, and show you how to easily instill fear in humans. In return, I would like for you to work with us. Although we already have a spy at Hogwarts," he beckoned towards Snape. "You have the physical body of a teenager. You would have an upper hand when it comes to controlling the students. There is one particular student that I would like you to focus on: Harry Potter."

"I've met him," said Attuoria. "Why him?"

"There was a prophecy," said Voldemort, his gaze flicking to Snape, and then to a man with long platinum blonde locks. "He is a threat to our cause."

Attuoria could tell that he was hiding the truth, so she entered his mind. Turns out, there was a prophecy which stated that a boy born at the end of July, whose parents had defied Voldemort thrice, would have the power to defeat him.

So Voldemort found Harry Potter, who was born on the last day of July, and whose parents had escaped from his grasp thrice. But the night he tried to kill the boy, his spell backfired and destroyed him instead. Now that he was back to life, he was determined to get rid of this threat.

Attuoria could understand his fear. Voldemort had a fear of death. He wanted to prevent his death, and Harry Potter was the person who was destined to 'kill him'.

"So what is it that I have to do?" she asked.

"Your job is to attend Hogwarts and make yourself acquainted with Harry Potter. Perhaps even gain some followers that may want to work for our cause. But you must not reveal your alliance with us. Severus here will guide you in case anything happens." said Voldemort, to which Attuoria nodded.

The meeting went on for another half an hour or so before the Death Eaters filed out of the mansion. They went through a few topics that helped Attuoria gain an understanding of what had happened in the Wizarding World recently. Voldemort was reborn not too long ago, and was involved in a duel with Harry, who survived. It was clearly a topic that puzzled and enraged the crew. Harry Potter defied him once as an infant, then escaped a duel with him at age fifteen. No one understood how this was even possible, and Attuoria started to realise that that might be something she needed to find out while she was spying at Hogwarts.

Voldemort arranged for her to stay with the Malfoys for the rest of the summer before school was to start. To fulfill their deal, he was to come to the house once a day to teach her magic.

Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy were very kind towards Attuoria, showing her to her temporary room which was just across the hall from Draco's.

Draco, on the other hand, didn't seem too happy.

"You're not from Romania, then?" Draco pestered her, standing at the doorway of her new room. Attuoria was sorting the clothes that Narcissa had leant her into the closet at the side of the room.

"What are you again?" Draco continued when she didn't reply. "Some sort of demon? Nightmare demon?"

"Yep." Attuoria said, hanging the last bluish-grey dress coat into the closet.

"What does that even mean?"

"I create nightmares."

"Create nightmares? How does that even work? It's in our head."

"Exactly."

The two stared at each other, Draco with a look of confusion and Attuoria with a blank expression on her face.

"So you're not human?" he asked.

"No, not entirely. My body is human, though." Attuoria beckoned towards her own body, the black mist-dress still flowing around her in an other-worldly way.

His eyes narrowed at her, and she decided to delve into his thoughts:

"So now she's the spy at Hogwarts. I always thought that was going to be my job. Why does she get it? I know she's weird, magical and non-human and all, but really? She could be doing this all for personal gain. I bet she doesn't care about helping us at all. Who knows what she's really like?"

She detected a sort of bitter sourness to his thoughts. It was slightly similar to anger, yet it definitely wasn't just anger. He was angry that she took "his job", but it was more complex than that.

It was jealousy and envy. Those two words perfectly described the tone of his thoughts: He felt discontented and resentful because she managed to take the advantages and achievements that he had wanted for years in less than a day.

But she didn't do it on purpose. She never asked Voldemort to give her a place in his army - he asked her, and he made a good deal.

"I don't get it," his thoughts continued. "Saint Potter is the same age as me, and the Dark Lord treats him like a legitimate, powerful threat. Now this girl comes in looking like a teenager and is immediately assigned an important task. But me - my family has been supporting the Dark Lord since the beginning, yet I'm still treated as Lucius Malfoy's son, the insignificant errand boy."

"Stop staring at me," Draco said, snapping Attuoria's attention back to reality.

"Ah, my bad," Attuoria apologised with a shrug. "Look, I'm sorry I took your place, but I'm sure he'll assign you a job, too. Maybe just not now."

Draco looked a little taken aback. "What did you just say?"

"I said I'm sorry I took your place -" Attuoria froze, realising her mistake. She had commented on his thoughts. He didn't know she could read his mind. "Nevermind."

"You read my mind." Draco said coldly, glaring at her.

"Read your mind? No," said Attuoria, awkwardly shutting the closet door behind her. "That's weird."

"You're a Legilimens," he said with absolute certainty. "Why didn't you tell him?"

"He never asked," Attuoria shrugged. It genuinely didn't occur to her that Voldemort would want to know about her abilities. But now that Draco mentioned it, maybe it was good that she didn't tell him.

"Can you stop?" Draco demanded, snapping his fingers in front of Attuoria's face to get her attention. "Can I have some privacy here? Stay out of my head. Mind your own business."

"I wasn't reading your thoughts," said Attuoria. "I was just thinking."

"Really? You zoned out while staring at me. Pretty obvious what you were doing."

Attuoria frowned. Was it that easy to tell? It's been three years since she last interacted with humans. Her social skills have deteriorated. She needed to regain her ability to act inconspicuous when reading other people's thoughts. Her mind traced back to the first time she landed into the mortal realm and heard Harry's thoughts without even looking at him. That was back when she had no control over her powers. This time, it seems she had too much control. She needed to loosen up a little.

"Don't flatter yourself," said Attuoria. "Your mind's not as intriguing as I thought it would be." That was a lie.

Draco glared at her, scoffed and walked away.

Attuoria shut the door to her new bedroom and changed into a long black gown. She stored the misty-black dress at the back of the closet, knowing that if she was to blend into the mortal realm, she probably shouldn't be wearing a floating dress made out of a material unknown to humans.

She lay down on the bed, feeling excited about her upcoming first lesson with Voldemort, aka Tom Riddle. Three years ago, she thought her mortal realm adventure had come to an end. It was different, now.

The adventure had only just begun.