Chapter 1

Running past luxury items that she could never afford, Marissa rushed past countless stores and people, gradually slowing down in front of her apartment complex. Pausing, she glances quickly around, drops off her stuff by the gate, and unlocks the door. Rapping twice on the door two floors above her floor, a man opens the door. “I’m ready” she says, and walks in, fixing her composure. He nods silently, closing the door behind her and leading her to a dark room. “Wait here” he says, closing the door behind her once again. The dark, musky room had a putrid smell, almost collaborating with the smell of dead people. Scrunching her nose in disgust, she managed to find a chair in the dark and sat down.

The door opens and a dim light flickers on, casting a poor lighting on the figure in the doorway. “Mrs. Malfoy, it’s a pleasure to meet you” Marissa says, looking at the young woman before her. Mrs. Malfoy nods curtly, shutting the door behind her. She strides over to Marissa, grabbing an envelope, and sits down. “There are things…” Mrs. Malfoy begins quietly, looking directly at Marissa, her brown eyes boring into Marissa’s grey ones. “There are things that you cannot possibly know and there are things that I would wish you knew for this would be so much easier to explain if you knew. You must understand that my husband and I have gone through terrible things. Things that you could never imagine.” She continues, looking into Marissa’s eyes. She is delusional just like the rest of them Marissa thinks to herself as she continues to listen. Mrs. Malfoy opens her mouth to speak when the door opens once more to reveal a man towering in the doorway. “Astoria, what are you doing?” a cold voice pierced through the deafening silence. Mrs. Malfoy, Astoria looks up warily towards the man. “Draco, not now.” She said sharply and turned back to Marissa. “I need your help. Three years ago, I had a cousin and after this thing that I can’t speak of ended, I lost him. I need you to help me find him. In return I will help you.” She said quickly, glancing at her husband. Mr. Malfoy held no expression but you could tell, in his eyes, that he was extremely mad. Marissa cleared her throat. “Um…How do I find her?” she mutters, avoiding Draco’s gaze. “Him. And last I heard, he was here, in town.” Astoria says, handing Marissa a picture of a handsome boy who looked about 15. “He’s older now of course but here is something” she says and pats Marissa’s leg. Marissa glances up, nods, and grabs her bag. “I should get going…” she mutters awkwardly and heads for the door. Mr. Malfoy towers over her as she approaches him. He nods and moves out of the way, and Marissa quickly flees the apartment, heading towards her own.

As soon as Marissa leaves the apartment, and Draco made sure that he heard the door slam close, he narrowed his eyes on his wife. “Astoria, what were you doing? You know that she’s a muggle and she has no f*****g idea what you just sent her to do.” He mutters darkly, casting the door closed with a flick of his hand. Astoria’s eyes flicker downward and for a moment, Draco felt a sense of remorse for her. After all, he did leave Astoria once the war was over, only to be reunited with her a year later. “Draco, you know how much he means to me.” She mutters and flicks her had to pull up a chair next to her. “Come and sit “she says, gesturing towards the chair. He stays still for a moment and then slowly walks over, fashioning himself in the chair next to her. She gets up and curls up next to him. “I know Astoria…but what you did was dangerous. I mean, she could get hurt and we would have to move, again I might add.” He states coolly, his eyes flickering towards her face. He reaches down, gently grabs her chin in the palm of his hand, and kisses her, letting all her sorrows drift away for a split moment. Then it was over, and he got up and left the room.

Two floors down, Marissa enters her apartment as quietly as she could, so that she wouldn’t disturb her sleeping mother. She sighs and trudges off towards her room, pulling out the picture that Mrs. Malfoy handed her, and turned the picture over. Caleb Saul, slytherin house, age 15. What in the world was slytherin house? Marissa sighs and crawls into her bed, grabbing her laptop as she went. She may as well have grabbed some snacks as well because she knew that this was going to be a long night ahead and she didn’t want anything to interrupt her search process.