The smell of rotting flesh and human waste, maybe even animal waste, was everywhere, stinging my nose, most probably even sticking to my clothes. I covered my nose with my hand, desperately wishing I could have performed the bubble head charm before entering. As I entered the enclosure of the prison the stench became stronger, almost unbearable.

The officer walking in front of me took long strides obviously used to it all by now. His patronus emitted some warmth, driving the dementors away from us into the darker corners. He was used to the cold, the rattling breaths, the mutterings, the clanging of handcuffs and chains, the wild roars of the prisoners, their screams of Merlin knows what, mad laughter, cackling, everything that I was finding more than a little difficult to digest. Right now, I admit I understand Sirius better now.

I clutched my wand tighter, just in case. This place was actually horrible, like your worst nightmare all sewn together. Inspire of the clouds, dim grayish sunlight filtered through but it only reached the island, it never reached the inmates. The prison was dark even in the morning daylight. The only light in the cells was a small sconce with blue flames. The dark gray walls perfectly depicted the dry and depressing mind state of most of them.

In one corner of this very nightmarish place sat a man with long, platinum blonde hair. His hair which was earlier smooth and lustrous appeared to have become dry and brittle. His skin was paler than usual and waxier. Even with his short two month stay his eyes had sunk deep. He stared blankly into space, out of the window, his hollow expression reminiscent of his wife who had recently come begging for her son's life. Hollow, helpless and completely forgotten, defeated.

“Lucius Malfoy.” the officer called clanging the bars of his prison with his baton. “You have visitors.”

At the word visitors, he seemed to light up. His head snapped to look at me and his eyes lit up in some hope, wild hope. The once handsome man, my godfather had turned into nothing but a ghost of his previous self. He stood up to come near the bars. He was still obviously the same height but he looked considerably thinner. His mane was frizzy, a stubbly beard had grown on his hollow cheeks. His frail body was covered in smelly gray, tattered robe. The officer left me alone with him. His patronus hovered outside the corridor.

“Shine?” he whispered, his gray eyes somehow softening. “You are not one of my illusions are you, come to haunt me?”

“Lucius, it's okay. I know I can't say everything's okay right now. But I promise it will be. We are trying our best.” I said, he was far more broken than I imagined. I couldn't help but give him fake support.

“What is he planning as my punishment?” he croaked. I sighed. His worst fear had been realised. How could I tell him that! But, he had every right to know.

“He is using Draco to fulfil his schemes this year.” I said. “He has an almost impossible task. If he succeeds he wins himself glory above all others, but if he fails...

His eyes widened in horror. “He dies.” he said in a tortured whisper. “He can't do that. He can't do that to my only son! I won't be able to live with myself if Draco dies to pay for my mistakes.” he sobbed. This man, with his cold, gray eyes, I had never seen him this weak. He was one of the strongest I knew.

“Calm down, Lucius. I am sure he will manage it. I- I will help him if he asks for it.” I tried to soothe him.

“You-- you will?” he asked as if he suddenly saw a ray of hope in all the dark. “You have to help him, Shine. Please I beg of you. Even if it means completing the task yourself. You have to fulfil it. I know I failed you. I have no right to ask of any favours from you of all people. I know I promised to not harm Sirius. But I had no control over Bellatrix. I swear, I did try. I am sorry for that. But you have to help my son. This is not his fault. Not his mistake, in any way.  Please.”

“I will try my best, Lucius.” I muttered. He caught my shoulders through the prison bars and leaned forward. I was scared for a moment. I tried to back away but his hold was too firm, too tight.

“Trying is not enough.” he hissed. His voice was merely a whisper, the sound of a man broken through and through. “You have to promise me. Promise me you will not let him die. You will do everything, even if it means completing the task if it appears that Draco would fail.”

I nodded. If I didn't agree to this I would never get what I wanted or needed. A promise, from him. And so in the spur of that one moment, I agreed. “I promise.”

                             ************************************

I looked up at the Volkov Manor, building up my courage, treading up the path slowly. I had already taken an appointment with Vladimir so we could meet and discuss something very important. He was reluctant at first to see me (as would be expected) but he finally agreed.

There were two things I needed to accomplish today. It was only a week to the start of school and I had to do finish this one task before that. The works of Drew manor were almost complete. We had eliminated everything that was dangerous to us and put up defensive spells. I had a brilliant idea to hide only the right wing with the Fidelius charm and somehow that worked.

Now only we had any idea of it's existence. Sera had warded the place with elemental charms. I had put to use some of my new found talent with my powers. And I realised one more thing about them. Whether or not I was happy didn't matter, what mattered was that I was confident, that I was aware of what I was doing. If I was lost or worried about something I wouldn't be able to get them to work.

Now what remained was executing people willing to take up the cause. And my next shot would be convincing the two brothers and their mother. If possible even their father, but u was a little doubtful about Grigori Volkov agreeing to it.

I climbed up the steps of the marble porch and knocked with the wolf shaped knocker. The wolf turned it's eyes on me and kind of scanned me. It nodded slightly in acceptance and the door clicked open. I pushed open the door to enter the huge property, feeling a bit awkward in my casual dressing, only a black punk metal band tee and white waistcoat with artistically ripped gray skinny jeans. Adrian descended down the stairs to greet the guest, in this case it was obviously me.

“What are you doing here?” he spat as if I was walking, talking model of goblin piss. Even his expression was like he had just tasted it. I shrugged.

“Don't blame me just because you and your brother dear have no communication. And don't give me that expression. Where's he?” I asked. He scowled at me.

“I don't know. Nor do I care. And neither should you. He has no interest in seeing anyone especially your ugly, scarface.” he mocked. Now, there are a hundred things you can mock me about and I won't give dragon shit. But you mock me about my scars or about my father in any way, you are dead meat.

“Thank you for pointing that out, but am sure he doesn't mind seeing my scarface when my sorry arse is involved. Now, I need to talk with him. If he's asleep please wake him up.” I drawled, trying hard to reign in my anger.

“How dare you even try to talk to him after what you did to him!” he was shouting now. I hadn't done anything. He seemed perfectly normal to me at all those meetings.

“I haven't done anything. Stop being an arse and get him, Rian. I need to discuss something very important with him.” I said. He pulled me into the drawing room with him.

“Do you have any idea what he goes through every time you break his heart?” he snapped. I turned to look at him considerably shocked. Recently it had not been me but him avoiding me. He was the one not ready to accept my apology. He was being an arse. Not me.

“Me? I am not the one running away all the time. For Merlin's sake Rian, your brother has been breaking my heart. Not the other way round.” I retorted angry at being falsely accused.

“Well good for you.” he sneered. My temper was rising. Really rising, like I could see red at the corner of my eyesight. “At least he found his brains now. You were never good for him. You will never be any good for him.”

“Shut up.” I shouted. My voice was slowly rising. His eyes narrowed. “Shut the fucking hell up! What do you even know about what I went through last year? I missed him. I fucking missed him more than I can express. You have no idea how hard it was for me to break up at the end of the tournament. But I had to.”

“You.... had to.” he drawled with a sneer. “You actually think I would believe that shit you are trying to feed me? He's my brother and you will not see him. I think that's final. You are welcome to leave.”

“He has agreed to see me.” I said calmly, trying to still maintain my volume but it was rising out of control. “And I don't care what you think.”

“Mir will not see you. He doesn't need to deal with you any more than he already has to. He won't dance to your whims anymore.” he retorted stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest. Dance to my whims? What the bloody fucking fresh hell was he talking about?

“Look Adrian, you have no righ-”

“You don't teach me to do what I can and should do. Don't teach me my rights Snape.” he growled his volume rising above mine. “My brother is depressed enough without having to see you everyday. He hates you. I hate you. And I would very much like it if you leave us alone. It's your fault alone that he has turned into what he has become. All your fault.”

“My fault?” I echoed completely confused. I had no idea he was depressed in any way.

“Don't tell me you have no idea!” he sneered. I still gave him a blank expression. He sighed and continued. “He has turned into an insomniac, he doesn't eat or talk properly to anyone, he's just mechanical like he has lost a piece of himself, like he's just carrying on with life for no reason.”

“I- I had no idea. The last time I saw him he seemed perfectly normal.” I muttered.

“You think he would show you how sad he is? When you are the reason for it, Shine?” he asked. “As far as I know he regrets something. He just keeps staring point blank at a wall and then he will get up go to his room and put up silencing charms. The house elf cleans up broken bottles and glasses almost everyday. He has definitely been drinking more than ever before. He has been smoking one pack a day. He's horrible, only a ghost of what he was once. There is pain in his eyes and I can't bear to look at my twin that way. I will request you just once. Please leave.” His voice held all the contempt and every bit of request. I stared at him. I would finally have to open the truth, tell it to Rian. He was suddenly distracted by something behind me bit he quickly turned his attention to me.

“I-- please, at least let me talk to him.” I tried desperately enough to explain my position to him. He was closing the distance between us. “I didn't mean to do this. I swear. I love him, Rian. Why would I want to break him in the worst way possible? I just wanted to protect him, protect him from this, exactly this. I am sorry I changed him for the worse in the process. But please, Rian. I need to--” Suddenly we were so close I could see his eyes clearly at this distance. See the electric blue sparks floating in the ice green cold eyes. They were different from Mir's.

I stiffened. I could feel his body heat radiating negative energy. I could see the animalistic urge in him as he towered over me, smirking. Somehow I knew his smirk was not directed at me but at the person behind me. I knit my eyebrows in confusion. I was about to turn when he tilted my chin firmly to look up at him. His lips pressed down on mine. My eyes widened in panic. I pushed my hands against his chest but he was totally immovable. His hand grasped my waist for support pulling me in closer, his lips softly fluttered mine open to grant his tongue some entry. His other hand pulled me in by my hair.

I scratched at his neck with my nails but he won't budge, instead he closed his eyes and moved his hand up my body. I cringed inwardly at the unwanted physical contact, reminded strongly of my experiences just a few months before. I wasn't going to use my powers and seriously harm him just for kissing me but the effect his small act was having on me was terrible. I was tearing up inside. Tears bubbled up in my eyes, in a last attempt I pulled at his hair, hard enough to pull some out but his lips stayed glued to mine. I tried screaming only to grant his tongue entrance to my mouth muffling my screams into moans.

And then abruptly with the sound like a plunger being pulled from the sink it ended. He pulled away from me, the same smirk upon his face widening further. I wanted to wipe that stupid smirk off his face. My hand balled up into a fist and it connected with his nose. There was a crack and he jumped around holding a bleeding nose. But I was not done yet, the tears fell from my eyes making my vision blurry. My mind was replaying images of the night of my initiation in my head. I was yet again forced to feel out of control and weak. I raised my hand and brought it down to slap him.

“Why?” I screamed loud enough for the whole house to hear. I hated the feeling, the feeling like I was this weak marionette doll not in control of my life or the situation. I hated being weak, I hated the violation of my will and wish.

“Why did you do that?” I started crying. I guess he didn't expect the tears for he backed up with his hand held to his face trying to protect himself from anymore damage. He chuckled darkly.

“Because I wanted to show him what you truly are. A slut, a worthless person who he shouldn't trouble himself over.” he drawled lazily and flicked his wand to stop the bleeding. A cold shudder ran through me. So Mir saw everything?

Then why did he not interfere, try to stop us? And then it struck me, the true meaning of his statement. He meant Mir to see what he wanted to, that I kissed him back. From my weak resiattempts it most probably appeared like I was egging him on instead of pushing him away. Shit!

“I hate you, Adrian Volkov!” I screamed at him watching him smirk. I was very annoyed at him and that smirk was extremely annoying. I pulled out my wand before he could reach his.

“Densaugeo.” I hexed him causing his teeth to grow like a rabbit's. He cursed under his breath but they were considerably muffled under his hands trying to shield his ugly face with the beaver teeth.