"'Home'"

June 1997, 3 months later

Malfoy Manor was more barren than she remembered. Her family had never been ones for over-the-top decorations, they flaunted their wealth through clothes and property and power. Draco and Circi had vaults in Gringotts overflowing with gold waiting for them to enter adulthood. Yet, even her bedroom, overflowing with notebooks stuffed with loose sheets and plants a house-elf had clearly kept alive while she was away.

It was the unending feeling of being watched that kept her awake at night. Her door had no lock but she jammed it with her dresser nonetheless each night.

It was the absence of her father which she felt greatly. At home, or on the Rier Estate she could forget he existed or pretend she was on an extended holiday. After all, she spent the majority of her time away at Hogwarts- what was a few more months? But being home, or what used to be her home, and not having him watching over everything in the manor felt wrong. It had always been Lucius who protected her from Narcissa and her family, he tried every time she was alienated by someone from the House of Black and now she was surrounded by them.

Narcissa, who loved Draco to bits and looked at Circi like a stain on her favourite dress. Bellatrix, who was deranged and bloodthirsty. And then there was everyone else. The death eaters who watched her skittering off to the kitchen or over the lawn to the greenhouse with freshly smashed windows like a piece of meat. Clearly they took no pleasure in torturing the house elves but, at the end of the day, the reality was that they were guests in her house.

And then there was the Dark Lord. Voldemort was around, she knew that much. She had seen him in shadowed doorways and sitting at the head of the dining table where her father used to sit at breakfast.

The only time she felt a morsel of comfort was when Draco visited her.

She trusted him not to hurt her. That was all she trusted him with since he marched around the house with the dark mark slithering along his arm for everyone to see, but he hadn't killed Dumbledore. Snape did that. He had promised to protect Draco and that was what he had done, and, in protecting Draco he also protected Circi.

Sometimes, she thought she ought to be grateful to have him looking out for her but all she could see in him was death.

He sat with them at dinner, tense as always, and Circi watched him closely.

Murderer. Murderer. Murderer.

*

It was nearing the end of the evening when the world seemed to become even darker around Circi. She was slumped in her seat across from Draco, pushing carrots around her plate with her fork, in between Snape and Narcissa when Bellatrix burst into the room.

She was cackling as always, curly black hair sticking out in every direction and her cheeks red with the bite of cold air. The room smelled like sea salt as she waltzed in with a posse of death eaters in prison garb. Tailing the group was the devil himself, the Dark Lord, looking proud of himself and his followers.

As they all took empty seats, Circi looked around and noticed Lucius taking a seat beside Draco. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, his hair greasy and matting with neglect and, somehow, he had gained weight in his face. The other prisoners looked sallow, with sunken cheeks and shrivelled bodies but Lucius' face was plumper than usual, as if he had been hit with the stinging curse and neglected to mend his wounds.

Draco turned to his father, wide eyes full of fear and concern and expectation to be told what to do next. Circi, however, turned her head away and tried to shrink into her seat moreso.

"Look at what we have achieved," Voldemort flourished his arms and smiled, although it did not reach his eyes. "This is but a small step in our journey, but it has brought us all together." As he left, the death eaters struck up conversation with each other, snatching at the four plates of half-eaten food on the table to feed their hungry stomachs.

In the chaos, Circi slid her chair away from the table and removed herself from the room.

In the kitchens, she found the house-elves fretting over the oven and at the sink. Dishes were being washed and magically flung across the room to their shelves, pots boiled with water on the stove and through the glass door of the oven she could see some kind of bird roasting. There were at least twenty elves in the kitchen, all of which stood to attention the minute they sensed a wizard's presence. But, as Circi revealed herself to them, they all relaxed.

She was the good one, they would tell each other. And it comforted them to know she would grant them freedom if only she was their master.

Circi sat on the corner of the counter, crossing her legs to ensure she was out of the way. Here she found the only semi-decent company. Sure, most of the elves were bitter with age and anger, but some of them were kind until given reason not to be.

Nibbling on a stump of bread, Circi watched the elves go back to work. It was nice, being in the kitchen, watching life breathe into the manor and looking out through the high windows and across the garden. The kitchen was semi-underground with windows at ground level that rarely provided natural light and often snowed over. The floors were white tile, like most rooms in the manor, kept pristine by skittish cleaners. And the walls covered in peeling yellow paint which must have been white at some point but the damp was unceasing. Of course, dampness in the elves' quarters was never an issue to their masters as long as it was monitored in the surrounding living areas.

Above the kitchen was a spare bathroom which was rarely used and so the leak in the plumbing never earned the attention of the house masters, and the elves were only permitted in used rooms to enact chores and such.

Circi hoped that the extra guests meant they could finally enter the room to save them all any further repercussions of the damp in the walls.

The elves fell silent and stood to attention once again.

She watched the doorway with baited breath- no one bothered with the elves so who would see to them if not some death eater looking to take out his anger. But the tap tap tap of a cane on the ground, drawing closer, was all too familiar. She did not release her breath, though, even when her father entered the room.

Since his return, he'd changed into a black suit with a turtleneck shirt and a long coat. His hair was washed and dematted and the swelling in his cheeks had lessened although it had still not disappeared entirely and she wondered if Voldemort had something to do with that. He still held his chin high, though, looking down at the elves as half of them tended to the food and the others waited to see what he would do.

His cane lashed out at the nearest elf washing the dishes a little too enthusiastically. There was a deep scowl on his face and a look of pure hatred in his eyes as the elf flew to the ground. Their yelp and the thud of their landing shocked Circi, she shifted on the counter and watched her father with apprehension. The beak of the crow at the head of his cane glinted in the light as it twisted in his hand, the eye of the bird seemed to be staring into her soul.

A ghost of the pain she had once felt upon feeling that beak pierce her skin rippled through her body and she rubbed at her shoulder where she had a faint scar. It had been an accident- a rough attempt at preventing her from running around any longer- but it had scarred her nonetheless.

Lucius demanded the elves deliver him his food in his study within ten minutes before leaving. He glanced back at Circi and nodded to the stairs ahead of him. Every time she had been caught in the kitchens one of the elves would get hurt and, until his prison breakout, they had been safe until now. On her way from the room, she consoled the elf who had been hit, offering ointment she had leftover in her room and calling down a healer elf to check they were okay.

Of course, the elf feared she would hurt them more and insisted they deserved the treatment which pained her heart. But, upon seeing the solidarity between the elves, she forced herself to leave.