ANEX HATED RATS. No matter what form they came in. Whether they were small and covered in lumpy fur or could speak and wore human flesh over their vermon interiors, she despised rats and that's exactly what Draco Malfoy was; a rat.

She had thought that the threats she had painted for him in a hushed, deadly tone on the train ride from Hogwarts back to London would have been explicit enough to get through his platinum, thick skull. But apparently, her detailed description of the many vile forms of tortures she would be all but too happy to inflict upon him if he were, as Muggles would say, to 'spill the beans' had not been vivid enough to keep Draco's trap sewn shut. Instead, it took little to no prompting for Draco to start his tail of their shared second year.

Sat among those Anex had always felt least comfortable with, Anex's summer was successfully ruined by Draco Malfoy.

It was going to be one of the first summers that Anex would have ever spent away from the Malfoy Manor, Deltris Silvertongue's first chose whenever she was planning Anex's summer activities , and she had already planned her two months of being away from the obnoxiously blonde family. But then, as she sat, facing Deltris, two seats down from the devil himself, and to the left of Narcissa Malfoy, Anex's doom was brought on by a simple question that crawled out of the snarl like mouth of Lucis Malfoy.

"Draco, Anex; is there anything you would like to tell us about your year at Hogwarts?"

Then, with a subtle, dooming smile that was only for Anex to see before Draco's face was dosed in coy innocence, he stared at Deltris directly. "Well it isn't really my place to say, but I'm sure Anex agrees when I say I think it's only right that you know the truth."

And the truth is what they were told, only it just happened to be Draco's truth, not Anex's. Because nothing that spilt from the lips of Draco Vermon Malfoy could ever be anything but the solid gold truth, so why wouldn't they believe him?

But the tale that Draco strung that night in the dining hall of the Malfoy Manor that for once, Anex thought she was going to be able to escape, wasn't all a lie, no he simply doctored the truth to his liking so that they were more brutally disgraceful.

Deltris was horrified to hear that the child she had so graciously raised, had had what could be counted a friendly relations with a member of the Weasley family, a family who were more commly known by the more fond nickname 'bloodtraitors' in the Silvertongue and Mafloy households. Her horror continued as Draco continued his tale, highlighting the points where Anex's involvement in Harry Potter's scuffle in the Chambers of Secrets was concerned and glazing over the part where Anex had not really had any say in her invovlment.

Draco also glossed over just how indirect Anex's invovlment in the matter really was, leaving Deltris in a state of disgust and mortification. She was also completely ashamed of Anex for not informing her sooner of her 'indescretions' -not that Anex would have had too much time as they had all only happened a few days prior- so that she might have been able to cover them up some way. Instead Deltris had to wallow in the humilation at finding all of this out while in the company of those she respected the opinion of so highly.

But the thing that made Anex's insides truly squirm and her eyes, that were already dry from side-glaring at the blonde haired vermon, strain even further was that while Draco painted his pictures of events and added in dramatics whenever he saw fit; Anex was forced to remain with her tongue trapped behind her teeth. It was far passed the time of redemption and there was absolutely nothing Anex could say or do that would stop Deltris from inflicting the punishment she saw fit. So instead of further digging herself into the bottomless pit Draco so politely marked out for her; she kept her lips sealed and pursed.

She remained word and soundless when all she wanted to do was tell the entire table how events had actually perceeded. How she hadn't been given any chose in the matter when her name was added to the list of front runners for the title 'Heir of Slytherin' after an ominous threat had been written on the castle walls in blood.

And it wasn't her fault that the people who were undoubtedly afraid of her begun to rumours that she, with her pure-blood heritage and taking to the dark arts, was the one petrifying people. Thankfully, after Harry Potter revealed that he could speak Parsletongue, her name was cleared from the list of contenders and Anex thought that would be the end of it.

Ginny Weasley had been the one to cause the continuation of her torment. Anex had noticed over the course of the year that Ginny was not acting as a normal first year should. Instead she was galloping around as if she was somehow mindless and while Anex had her suspicions, she wasn't going to start going around and spreading rumours that the first year was acting like a person possesed.

But when she found the small thing, alone and absolutely confused in an abandoned wing just near the equally abandoned female lavotories, she felt a swell of pity and moved to help. She asked the frail thing what she was doing there and, when the girl didn't have an answer, allowed her heart to fill with gold for only a moment and offered to escort Ginny back to her common room. She hadn't been expecting what came next and was completely caught off guard when a candle stick came crushing down against her temple in an impressive show of strength from such a small thing. One moment there was a flash of pain and next Anex was floating in a foggy cloud of uncousciousness.

When she finally came to, Anex was on a quest for vengence. She had only been trying to help and she now realised that was an entirely idioctic idea and swore she would never do it again because look where that got her. She was now ready to make the person who had betrayed her kindness pay for what they had done and wasn't going to stop till they understood the severity of their betrayal. To say that she was slightly offended was an understatement as she had never been one to offer assitance completely selflessly and then when she had, her act had been paid back in unnecessary violence.

Anex made her way through the castle in the direction of the abadoned lavatories where she had first found the ginger brat with a new sense of detirmination. She was ready to make the little brat pay for the mind numbing pain that pulsated at her throughly bruised temple and had every right to string the Weasley Weasel by her ankles for what she had done. After a sufficient amount of stomping through the school, she reached the bathrooms only to find it empty aside from the ghost of a particularly depressed ex-student who resided within the abandoned washroom. What she did find though was one of the walls opened and a dark passageway leading downwards.

Despite the sense danger and uncertainity that rolled off the tunnel, Anex took a closer look, she could only assume that down the shot was where Ginny was and her suspicions were confrimed when she heard a frail scream.

It took Anex a moment to consider whether or not being stuck in god knows where, alone and screaming was sufficent punishment for the severity of the crime that Ginny had commited. But when there was another scream Anex pushed back her better judgement of simply letting the brat get what she deserved and made her way down after the sound, wand raised and completely unaware of the real danger that awaited for her.

She was quickly introduced to the danger that lay ahead, after once more getting smashed over the head with something and being sent in to another world of darkness. Anex was sure that she and Ginny would have died it hadn't been for Harry Potter and his defeat of a rebirthed, young Tom Riddle who had been the one who had actually knocked Anex on conscious, both times, once while he was possessing Ginny Weasley and the other once he had regained his own form.

Anex had always been one for giving credit when credit was due and Harry Potter deserved the credit of vanquishing the Balisik monster and saving undoutedly more lives than just her own. So, pushing aside her Slytherin pride, she thanked the Gryffindor -much to the surprise of every onlooker who had witnessed the exchange on the final day of their semester.

Surprsingly, Draco decided to finish his tale with actual, solid proof. He told, in almost more explict detail than Anex had used to describe her threats on the trains that he had obviously ignored, about the last 'criminal offense' Anex commited before she left Hogwarts. She shook the hand of Harry Potter and thanked him for his assitance in the saving of her life and every other life at Hogwarts.

That was the toppling point for Deltris and she had had to physically chomp on her own lip to stop herself from screeching at Anex rigth there. Instead she saved it for after they Apparated and were in the safeties of their own home, away from the prying eyes of the Mafloys. Deltris screamed and shrieked and swore in a way Anex had never seen her. Her brown eyes bludged and her pale skin turned red as she continued to rant and holler. Her punishment was then swiftly given and was one Anex considered worse than death; summer at the Malfoy Manor with no outside trips whatsoever.

Anex had almost wept when Deltris infromed her of this because, while she usually spent summer at the manour, she had always been premitted a few occasional vists either back home or into the shopping village, Diagon Alley. But now, she was to stay two months solely in the company of Draco and his parents without even the company of the oddly cheery house-elf Dobby to keep her company.

Draco was the now the cause of Anex's most passionate of afflictions towards figurative rats rather than actual rats, which is why she remained only mildly digusted when a lumpy, brown rat scurried across her feet as she stood amoungst the scuffle of Diagon Alley. Her nose screwed up in displeasure as she felt its fur brush her ankles, but the expression held nothing of the detest and completely disgust that it did whenever she was in the presence of the truest vermon she had ever met.

"Scabbers, Scabbers wait." A strangely familiar voice shrieked and suddenly a certain Ronald Weasley came crashing passed her line of vision and then even more suddenly something Anex could only identify as a body crashed its way into her own person.

Anex fell against the cobbles with a small 'hmpf' and she winced as another person's weight lumped itself on top of her. The green eyes that blinked down into her grey were filled with bewilderment and confusion, as if they hadn't fully realised what they had just fallen upon.

The girl who made up the bottom of the two person pile groaned and attempted to get up only to be furthered pinned down to the ground by another person's weight. "For Merlin's sake Harry; could you get off me."

Suddenly the green eyes read recognition and it seemed that only then did the Potter boy fully understand the position he was in. His body was currently fully draped over that of Anex Silvertongue's and he wasn't doing anything to solve the situation, he was just lying there, on top of her.

As if struck by a shot of lightening, Harry began to move again and jumped off her body allowing Anex to finally breathe. "Sorry Anex, I didn't see you there. I was- you see- looking for Ron's rat- Scabbers."

"I think I got that from Ronald shrieking his name just before you crashed into me." Anex deadpanned, dark eyes going dull to show her displeasure.

Harry visibly flinched when she threw her hand up in his direction and looked as if he was about to faint. Anex rolled her eyes, "Well help me up then."

Harry blinked, unsure of what exactly was happening and spent an unnecessary amount of time looking rapidly between her outstretched hand and her expectant looking expression."What?"

"You knocked me over; you help me up." She stated simply, wiggling her fingers as if to make her point more clear.

"Right, right, RIGHT!" He said rather loudly and quickly grabbed her hand, that he noticed was extremely cold, and hoisted her back to her feet.

Anex spent a moment brushing off the specks of dust from her entirely black, high neck gothic-era dress and patted down her dark hair so that she now looked exactly as she had before Harry had so rudely crashed into her. She then looked up at Harry and blinked rather questioningly. It seemed that he also didn't realise that he was still standing there because his expression was still the same dumb, bewildered one as it had been during the majority of their interaction.

"Well?" He simply blinked at her and Anex thought her eyes might actually roll out of her head with the intensity of her eye roll. "Aren't you going to go after Scabbers, you know, Ron's pet rat which you crashed into me for?"

Again he seemed to be struck by lightning, Anex wondered if that was actually how he got the scar on his forehead, and jolted. "Right -sorry- yes, that's what I'm doing. Finding Scabbers. I'll be off then. Going-gone. That's me."

"Well you should probably get going then," Anex reminded with heavy amusment and in a swish of black frabric and dark hair she gracefully turned away from him. She paused though and titled her head back for a moment so that Harry could see the all-knowing smirk that her soft pink lips pulled back into. "Rats are slippery creatures you know."

Chapter one! Finished! And it didn't actually suck that much. Though, I have to say, this is the most I've ever rewritten a book. I actually have to stop myself from re-reading chapters because if I do, I'll rewrite them.

Anyway, comment and vote if you'd like!

-p.