Chapter 1 - Muddles and Deaf Eaters

"Narcissa, its lovely to see you again" said Ariadne embracing her sister in law. She then moved over to her brother 'Lucius, how are you?" she kissed his cheek.

"In perfect health as always Ariadne, ah Mario good to see you" he shook his brother-in-law's hand

"Hello Lucius it is nice to be back at the Manor" said the handsome Italian wizard. The Sabbias came to the Manor every other summer, the summers in between the Malfoys went to the Castle.

"Where are the children?" asked Narcissa sweetly looking around her feet for the two four year olds and the eight year old boy.

"Well Donna and Sage were just...oh they must of gone off to find some game to play, I told them to greet you first, but children will be children"

"Mmm" mused Narcissa "but I expected a bit more from Draco"

Ariadne gave Narcissa a very dirty look at her insulting her children's decorum.

Lucius, seeing the rivalry between the two women, quickly interceded

"Um…lets all go into the drawing room shall we. Dobby take up the luggage" he said to his house elf

"So my Daddy said that there were these fings called deaf eaters and they went round killing fings called muddles" said the proud four year old boy.

"That sooo cool" said the red headed girl

"Draco do you know where your Dad's dungeon is" said the eight year old boy with black hair and steely grey eyes

Draco nodded

"But I can't show you 'cause Mummy said I wasn't allowed to go in there until I'm older, why don't you ask my Daddy?" Draco shrugged "Hey Bella lets go play a game about deaf eaters and muddles"

"Okay you be the muddle!" said Belladonna

"I don't want to be a muddle, I wanna be a deaf eater"

"This game is stupid"

"No its not!"

"Sage can be a muddle then"

"I'm don't want to be a filthy muggle" said Sage

"Its muddles stupid…fine Draco, we'll take it turns, but I wanna be a deaf eater first"

Draco sighed

"Fine…um Sage, why are muddles filthy, do they not have bath times?"

"No Draco, you know how are blood is pure, the Malfoys and the Sabbias have been witches and wizards for centuries, well it means we've never had muggles in our family" Sage explained to Draco who was looking up at Sage in awe "Muggles are the opposite, they have no wizards or witches in their families"

"Yuck…so they can't do magic?" asked Draco shocked "They are so stupid!"

Belladonna shook her head at Sage

"Lucrezia's nice" she said

"Who Lucetza?" asked Draco

"A girl I met at the swimming pool, she couldn't do magic either, she was really nice though"

"Belladonna, don't mention it to Draco's Mum and Dad. Draco, don't tell your parents about this girl!"

The seriousness on Sage's face made Draco back down and he nodded silently.

"C'mon Draco, you've got to be the muddle!" Bella squealed.

Draco and Belladonna tip toed down the corridor. It was past bed time. Their parents and Sage were in bed. The two children weren't allowed to be up. But this was tradition, every time they went to each other's houses the first night was always consist of a midnight feast, they were both surprised their parents never caught them. Or perhaps they knew and they were just lenient. But they doubted it.

"Hey Draco…shall we go into your Dad's dungeon?" whispered Belladonna with a wicked grin. Draco looked almost horrified

"No I'd get into biiig trouble"

"But we might find out more about muddles and deaf eaters…c'mon" she said grinning even cheekier

"No way" Draco groaned "Its probably locked anyhow"

"It might not be…oh please lets look…or are you a baby. Aww baby Draco coochee coochee coo, lets not scare him" she taunted

Draco looked furious, he scowled and sighed

"Fine, it's this way but don't blame me if we get in trouble!" Draco grabbed her hand and dragged her towards the drawing room.

Draco lifted up the edge of the carpet to reveal a large trap door

"Cool" said Belladonna, her eyes twinkling in the dim candle light. Draco gulped and leaned forward to grab the handle, he secretly wished it was locked but to his inconvenience his father had forgotten to. Draco pulled up the trap door with help of Belladonna. They both looked down into the dark, seemingly bottomless pit.

"Wow" they send almost in unison

"Get a candle Bella" whispered Draco pointing to one of the candles on the mantle piece. Bella grabbed a chair, climbed onto it and took down a candle, she walked back to Draco and tried to light up the room beneath the trap door.

The two children could make out a ladder and a slightly full room underneath. Draco took the candle and headed down the ladder. Bella followed soon after.

"Wow look at all this stuff" Bella exclaimed looking repulsed slightly by a shrunken head in a jar "Sage would love it down here"

Draco nodded but was looking nervously around as if his father was going to pop out of thin air and bash him over the head with his cane.

"Look at all the books" Belladonna pointed to a shelf full of heavy looking and very dusty books "Bet there full of dark magic" she grinned. Even Draco had to look admiringly up at them

"Wish I could read" he moaned. Belladonna nodded. "Wow look, potions!" Draco ran forward forgetting all his fear and peered at shelves of ghoulish looking potions. There were stacks of them, all neatly set out in different colours, each with labels that neither Draco or Belladonna could read.

"Do you think they're poisonous?" Belladonna asked her cousin,

"What does that mean?" asked Draco

"It means if you drink them…you die" Bella answered

"Oh…I don't know which ones are which but…"

Belladonna and Draco suddenly felt a shadow cover them. Both knowing what was going to happen they slowly turned around to face and very tired, bedraggled and angry looking Lucius.

"Having fun?"