"Thank you. For letting me say goodbye, thank you."

I admit, once again, that muggle caught me off guard. Prisoners have said a lot of things upon seeing the dungeon, but none of them had thanked me before, for anything. I had to hand it to her, she was very surprising for a muggle slave. She could be rather entertaining, if only her stay was permanent.

"Draco, take me out tonight."

It was the whining voice of Pansy that broke me out of my train of thought. I wished she didn't whine so much, life would be much more tolerable then. Then again she was a simple creature. Give her a nice meal and a good shag and she was happy for a few days. But still, if only she didn't whine.

"No," I answered back, sipping my small glass of whiskey. Honestly I had no desire to spend an evening listening to her. Not after last night. We were successful in securing another piece of our little puzzle, but it was rather tiring and put me in no mood to deal with her alone for very long.

"But Draco you-"

"I said no. I will not say it again."

For a spilt second I pondered whether I should have felt guilty for snapping at her, but I was quickly reminded she knew better than to whine. She also knew my mind was very rarely changed. She plopped down on the couch next to me with a pout on her face. Why must she be so dramatic? I had half a mind to let her pout the rest of the day, it wasn't going to affect me directly, but life with her in general was so much worse when she pouted. Then again, if it were up to me she wouldn't even be here.

I'm no fool. I knew there was no perfect pure-blood witch, but there were witches far less annoying than Pansy. She was good for a shag and she was always willing to shag, I'll give her that, but that was where her usefulness ended. If I had my way, at the very least I would have a more obedient witch by my side. Naturally if I could, I would also like her to be far less dramatic as well, but I desire obedience the most. Right on cue, I heard Pansy let out a deep, dramatic sigh. Honestly, why did she have to pout every time she didn't get her way?

I suppose Pansy was obedient in her own way, if you were stern enough with her. She certainly wasn't disobedient. It was the little things though. The pouting, the begging, the nagging, the whining. It was all annoying and rather frustrating at times. She made life so difficult if she didn't get her way that it was often easier to give her what she wanted if only to shut her up. I once ignored her antics for three days before finally giving her whatever it was that she wanted. I like to think I could have gone longer if her antics didn't affect the house elves and the occasional guest. She was rather impressive that way, I suppose.

"I…I just thought you would want to celebrate," she said quietly.

I did want to celebrate, but not tonight. And not with her. I would much rather have a few drinks with the boys than an evening at dinner with her.

"Another night," I responded, taking another sip. It had already occurred to me that it was too early to have a drink. Whether or not I cared was another matter.

She simply smiled as she leaned over to kiss my cheek. Luckily pacifying her was a simple task, as was distracting her. Thinking I was as pleased as she was, she curled up next to me leaning her head on my shoulder. We sat like that for some time, in silence shockingly enough. I suppose it was nice, in a way. Until my mother come through the door.

I could hear her footsteps coming down the hall before she burst through the door to the study. I knew she must have been upset the way she stormed down the hallway. It never crossed my mind that her anger would be directed at me.

"What were you thinking? Have you gone mad?" she hadn't raised her voice. Then again she didn't need to, her tone was cold as ice.

"What are you talking about mother?"

I had barely reacted to her; however Pansy acted as if her life was being threatened. Upon Narcissa entering the room, Pansy immediately shot up and quickly made her way to stand behind the couch. That was yet another annoying quality of Pansy, she was as cowardly as they come.

"The muggle slave you beat and threw in the dungeon," she snapped.

"Are we keeping our prisoners somewhere else I don't know about?" It would be a lie if I said I wasn't the slightest bit confused. My mother had never objected to how our family treated prisoners or muggles. It made no logical sense for her to object to it now.

"You left her to die."

"What on earth are you-"

"You beat her, threw her in the dungeon, and didn't bother to heal her or feed her," her voice grew colder.

"I gave orders to one of the house elves to feed her later today. She will be fine," I said slightly irritated. The next thing I heard was her hand making contact with my face. Soon after, I felt the sting on my cheek. Shock rang through my body. She had never laid a hand on me before. The shock quickly turned to anger and rage. "What-"

"Did you look at her?"

"Of course I bloody looked her," I snapped as I stood. "How do you think I managed to get her here if I didn't look at her?"

"Then you saw how small she is? How little there is to her? And you beat her anyway. You stupid boy. She is no good to us dea-"

"No one forced her to fight back," I snapped back, cutting her off. This was utterly pointless. I knew what was needed, what had to be done, she knew that as well. If she didn't stick her nose where it didn't belong this wouldn't have been an issue. I knew the muggle needed to be kept alive, otherwise it wouldn't have been so damn difficult to acquire her. "She will stay in the dungeon until it's time for her to be of use. The dungeon will serve her purpose to stay alive just fine," I said more calmly as I sat.

My mother's glare grew even colder, but I noticed something slightly out of place. A smirk played at the edge of her mouth. It was so small I almost didn't see it. "No. She will stay in the bedroom at the end of the second floor. The room at the top of the back stairs, just next to the library."

"But..that's my room."

It was Pansy's whiney voice that spoke this time.

"Was your room. I have moved your things to the room just west of the main stairs," my mother answered.

"That closet you pass off as a room to guests?"

It was much harder than it should have been to hide my smile as I sipped my drink. Pansy wasn't exactly wrong. That particular room was one of the small guest rooms. It had no windows and no private bathroom. If I was being honest it really didn't have much closet either. It really shouldn't have been considered a guest room, which is exactly why we housed guest we didn't like in that room. That was another reason for my smile.

Narcissa was the only person to dislike Pansy more than myself. On paper, she understood the arrangement my father had set up, but didn't like it. I didn't blame her. I didn't like it either. But like her, on paper I understood it. Pansy and I came from two pureblood lines in the wizarding world. Being married to anything less would be unthinkable, even though pureblood wizards are hard to come by these days. It made sense, logically, to marry, but I felt nothing for Pansy. And my mother was about as thrilled with it as I was. Pansy on the other hand couldn't be happier. She had crush on me since our first meeting in school. After that it was nearly impossible to escape her completely. Now I'm forced to marry her. My only grace in the whole miserable deal, is the date. Narcissa, being the brilliant woman she is, suggested we marry after we complete our little mission, as way to celebrate.

"You were never meant to have that room in the first place. And if you are going to act like an ungrateful child, then you can go back to your family's estate until the wedding." Narcissa managed to put the right amount of hostility and distaste in her words while still sounding calm and collected.

Pansy replied by apparating out of the room; although, I'm sure she gave Narcissa a quick pout before doing so. We all knew being forced to leave until the marriage was the last thing she wanted, and Narcissa often held that over Pansy's head. I often enjoyed it when that card was played. It was the quickest, most effective way, to put Pansy in her place.

"Well done, mother," I commented, taking another sip. To my disappointment my glass was empty when I put it to my lips. With half a mind to fill it again, I put the empty glass on the end table next to me. It was always an unfortunate thing when the whiskey was gone.

"That muggle cannot stay in that room all day. She'll go mad and be no use of us," Narcissa said with a sigh. She relaxed into a chair next to the couch, looking comfortable and at peace. I knew that was a mask. Since this whole this thing started she had been very tense and uneasy at every decision made. She wanted success, like the rest of us did, but she wasn't sure it was a good idea to re-awaking the power we were after.

"What are you talking about, mother?"

"Leaving her in that room all day, day after day, with little contact with anyone else. It's not good for her," she said looking deep in thought.

"Put her back in the dungeon then. We're always taking prisoners in and out of there."

She shook her head slowly. "After seeing those same prisoners going mad, do you really think it would be any better there? No. Just as dangerous to leave her down there."

Once again I was confused as to where this conversation was going. Rarely was my mother this cryptic and vague. Yet she spoke as if I knew exactly what she meant.

"What are you suggesting? We walk her once a day like a dog?" The image brought a small smile to my lips as I spoke.

"In a way."

Her response was immediate causing my smile to disappear. One look at her and I knew I was not going to be happy with the words that came out of her mouth next. When she had something clever no one else knew she would have a certain look to her. It was barely noticeable in any one specific part of her, but it was there. It was a small slight change in the air, the way she spoke, the way she moved her body, a certain light in her eyes. It was there now.

"I want her to follow you through your daily routine. Not the meetings with the Death Eaters of course, but the rest of your day. Like a shadow-"

"You want me to befriend a muggle?"

"I want you to keep a close eye on her. This is too important to leave her with someone else. And there is no telling how long it will take to gather the rest of what we need, leaving her in that room will drive her mad. She doesn't have to be with you all day, just for a few hours just enough to keep her mind awake."

She had become slightly more animated as she talked. This wasn't something that had popped into her head one afternoon. No, this was something she had given a lot of thought on. And she was right. I hated to admit it, even to myself. Keeping that muggle locked up short term didn't carry much risk; however gathering the rest of what was needed to finish the spell could take a year, or longer if we were unlucky enough. Leaving her that long did carry a lot of risk. She was no use dead or wanting to be dead.

Putting Crabbe or Goyle in charge of was asking for something to go wrong. Zibani could be trusted enough, if only he could keep it in his pants. Aside from myself, Narcissa was the only person that could be trusted to keep an eye on her. But even she was out of the question. She and my father spent most of their time now at our vacation home. She wasn't here often enough to effectively keep an eye on her.

"Fine," I grumbled out.

"You'll thank me for this. When she's still usable at the end of all of this. You'll thank me." She smiled briefly before standing and leaving.

I sighed heavily before standing and apparating just outside of the muggles door. I was prepared, before arriving, that Pansy was likely to be there already. In Pansy's simple mind it was the muggle's fault that she was now forced into, argumentatively, the worst room in the manor. For her, that was cause for revenge, and that was Pansy's specialty. Next to annoying anyone within seconds, of course. I was prepared to walk in seeing Pansy hassling the muggle a bit. I was not prepared to see the muggle cornered as spelled objects fly at her repeatedly as Pansy sat on the bed, giggling like a child.

To say I was angry wouldn't be clear enough. I was enraged was closer to it. She knew better than this. She knew better than to mess with anything involving the spell, unless specifically asked. "Parkinson," I barked," What do you think you're doing?"

With a squeak, she jumped off the bed, and with her focus on me the objects she had spelled had dropped to the floor immediately. "I was teaching that muggle to stay in her place," she answered. She looked me straight in the eye as she spoke, like this was an everyday occurrence. Her casualty to it all fueled my rage.

"She is not something for you to play with! Stay away from her. Last thing we need is for you to screw it up now," I snapped harshly.

"But I was-"

"Go near her again, and I will personally throw you out of this manor," I snapped as I stepped closer.

Stupid bitch, I thought.

We had one shot at this spell. One. There was no second try. No time to make any mistakes. This had to go perfectly or it wasn't going to work. Tears had started to form in Pansy's eyes. They were fake. She felt no remorse or guilt about what she did, only that she got caught. "Get out." With out a word, she apporated out of the room. There was no doubt she would pout about this for the next week but she had gone too far.

Movement caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. It was the muggle slave trying to get up. After a few failed tries to stand she crawled over to the dresser to pull herself up. It took me longer than it should have to understand why she didn't simply stand up. She was too week to hold her own body weight without some support. It was then I understood why my mother had been so upset. With clothes that fit her properly it was clear how little there was to her. Her bones stuck out everywhere. There really wasn't any fat or muscle to her.

How did I miss that?

It was clear now why Narcissa had been upset. After the beating that muggle took, there was no logical reason why she was still alive. There was nothing to her. Just bone under copper skin. I'll admit, part of me was happy she would need a few days of rest to gain weight and recover before she became my shadow.

It was when she started to make her way to the bathroom that I noticed a few scrapes and scratches that had started to bleed. "Here," I said stopping her as I pulled out my wand.

She visibly stiffened. "No. Please, no." She looked panicked as she tried to back away. I suppose it was understandable, the only real experience she had with magic in the last 24 hours involved some sort of pain. "They're just scratches. Nothing more," she said after a moment.

It would be quicker to just heal her, but I was in no mood to fight with her about it. If she wanted to let them heal slowly, painfully, then so be it. It made no difference to me wither way. I let her go and watched as she slowly made to the bathroom.

"How often were you fed?" I asked she cleaned herself up.

"Once a day. Sometimes more if they felt I had been good, but that rarely happened," she answered quietly.

"You're too thin to be fed once a day," I noted.

"I watched three girls and kept the house. One meal a day wasn't enough for that much activity," she said. "I'm sorry", she added as she came out of the bathroom, "I shouldn't speak about my masters like that-," she shook her head. "Former masters," she corrected. "It won't happen again."

"See that it doesn't," I snapped. If I were being truthful, her brief mistake in wording hadn't upset me. I barely noticed her wording until she corrected herself. For a muggle slave, she was incredibly well behaved and knew her place well.

She nodded and bowed her head like every slave was taught to do. "Listen carefully slave," I said after a moment, "you are not to leave this room unless it is with me. Under no circumstances will you leave this room for anyone else or any other reason. Is that understood?" I waited for her to nod before I continued. "For now you need to gain some weight and rest-"

"No! Please, put me to work. I-," she began to interrupt.

"Silence," I hissed. She flinched and bowed her head again. "You need more weight on you before you can be of any use. A house elf will bring you your meals for now," I continued. "Understood?" She nodded quickly, still keeping her head low. With that out of the way I turned to leave. I was almost to the door when she spoke.

"Sir? You haven't told me how you would like me to address you."

I smiled. This is one was very well taught. "Master Malfoy," I answered, "or sir will do."