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The tall, elegant Italian girl peered carefully around the edges of her navy colored cloak hood. She had to be sure that no one was watching her before she entered her cottage; she lived in a forest right next to a boarding school for young witches and wizards and they could be exceptionally nosy. Once she was certain that she was alone, she lowered the hood of her dusty gold locks and unlocked the front door, sweeping inside quickly and closing the door behind her.

What she didn't see was the single Hogwarts student, a boy about her age that had hidden himself well when he'd seen her. And he intended to pass this information to his classmates.

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It was early May, and the students of Hogwarts were enjoying the nice weather as much as they could in between studying for exams. A group of Slytherins stood just outside the Forbidden Forest, talking in mumbles among themselves when one of their friends came running out of the trees. It was Theodore Nott, back from his dare, and he looked very excited, his face flushed. He caught the nearest person, Draco Malfoy, by the arm and began pulling him towards the school.

" Hey! What is it?" Draco demanded, caught off guard by Theo's sudden appearance.

Theo didn't answer, he only kept dragging Draco up the hill. Everyone else in the group traded confused glances and hurried after them, curious. When they reached a hallway just inside the school, Theo let go of Draco and attempted to catch his breath.

" There was a girl in the Forbidden Forest! Tall and thin, with gold hair and nearly colorless eyes, navy blue cloak. She went into that old abandoned cottage!" he panted. At first, Draco's eyebrows knit in confusion, but as Theo's words sank in, his pale eyes began to light up.

" You're saying someone actually lives there?" he asked slowly, making sure he heard correctly. Theo nodded enthusiastically.

This was excellent news. A few weeks earlier, he'd stumbled across the most peculiar book in the library while pretending to study. It had the most bizarre cover, decorated with odd symbols and bound in a shining silver. Having never seen anything like it, he'd removed from the shelf and skimmed a few of the pages, which were written in English, much to his surprise. It was a book of extremely old spells that hadn't been used in centuries. Most of them were either highly dangerous or required plants and substances that no longer existed, but there were a couple that he could actually try. According to the author's note, these spells also required a bit of talent, and he was sure he was capable. There was one in particular that Draco wanted to test, but it involved enslaving another human being. He wasn't about to go trying it on other students; he had no desire to be expelled from Hogwarts. But, if there was someone living in the forest that no one but he and Theo knew about, that just might work.....

" Draco? You okay?" Theo waved a hand in front of Draco's eyes. He blinked and shook his thoughts away, a grin forming on his face.

" Yes. Never better," he replied, nudging his classmate aside to slip past him.

" Where're you going?" Theo called.

Draco ignored him and kept walking down the corridor towards the Slytherin common room. He was going to read the full spell and figure out how to get out of the school tonight.

This was going to be exciting.

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The dark blue glow that surrounded the girl filled the air with the rich scent of grapefruit. In her right hand was a buzzing stone sword that was also glowing blue. She brought it down as hard as she could on the nasty predator in front of her. It was a type of vampire that had been circling her house for weeks, and recently it had begun bothering her, scratching at the windows trying to get in. Normally she was uncomfortable with ending the life of any creature, but this one had pushed her over the edge. As soon as the stone met the neck of the vampire, its neck snapped in two and the body dissolved.

" Good target practice," she mumbled, her clear Italian accent pronounced more than usual. She turned her colorless eyes to the fading sunlight and spun the blade in her hand. Placing it in its sheath, the girl averted her eyes from the beautifully painted skies and looked around her. The shadowed trees were empty, as they always were. She sighed, tucking a golden lock behind her ear. She was often lonely, but lonely was safer. That was what she'd learned to live by.

Little did she know that everything was about to change forever.

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It had taken Draco a total of two hours to get out of the school. Every time he found a possible way out, there was something in his way. When he finally found a way out, though, he hurried to the old cottage. Sure enough, there was a faint light shining through one of the back windows. It was tinged a pale blue color, like that of a night light. He got closer to the window and pushed on it.

"Excellent," he whispered to himself, "It's unlocked."

The glass slid aside smoothly, and he lifted himself into the room effortlessly.

And paused abruptly.

The pale blue glow wasn't coming from a night light. It was radiating off the fair skin of the girl laying on the bed, her back to him. Even though she wasn't facing him, he could make out her elegant figure and gentle gold waves of hair. She was quite stunning, and did, in fact, appear to be about fifteen, his age. He then realized he was staring and shook his head, digging around in his pocket for the book and his wand. He flipped it open to the back, and held it up to the light so he could see the instructions better.

" Hmm..." he reached his hand back into his pocket and withdrew a knife. " This ought to do."

Carefully, he tiptoed over to the other side of the glowing girl's body and gently moved her arm outward, towards himself. He made a small cross on her wrist with the knife, very lightly so that it might not hurt her as much. Then, wincing, he pricked his own finger and said the strange sounding spell aloud over the droplet of blood and pressed it firmly to the cut. It sparked pale green where their blood met and when he removed his finger, the cross shaped cut still glowed.

" I hope this works," Draco mumbled to himself, quickly crossing the room to the open window. As he slipped into the night, he kept his fingers crossed. He hoped the spell wasn't too old to work. He'd just have to find out when he got home for the summer.

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There was a strange hollowness that filled the girl's mind when she woke up the next morning. It was as if she wasn't really thinking clearly. There was a second voice echoing with in the walls of her brain, telling her to go. She could clearly see the image of an extravagant house, and absently grabbed a big backpack and began filling it with her belongings. Once it was full to bursting, she tied her locks back away from her face, swung her cloak over her shoulders and left, locking the door behind her.

There was a smaller voice, a fainter opinion fading in the back of her thoughts telling her that she was going the wrong way. Home was the place she just left. Yet the echo of the strangers voice was louder, and her body obeyed before she had the chance to think about it. So she continued walking, through the vast forest, onto the train tracks and so forth without pausing and without looking back.

Walking purposefully towards Malfoy Manor.

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Author's note: Hello everyone! I hope you're enjoying this fan fiction so far. I know I sure am! I've attempted Harry Potter fan fictions before and they didn't turn out how I wanted them to (Thank goddess none of them are here! I've spared your eyes, you're welcome).

I just wanted to let you all know that the art above is mine, and I will putting more of my art in as the story goes along. Please don't take me mediocre art, it's not worth it. Besides, I'm not looking for trouble, I just want to have fun, and art makes everything more fun, heh. So yeah :) Please enjoy this story!

- Jordan Menssen/ Ellery Foster