"I didn't expect it from you," said a voice of a tall, pale man.

"But we already recovered them," Druella argued seriously.

"You think that is a merit!" The man shouted angrily, hitting her in the face. "Did you say 'them'?" The person questioned curiously.

"The mudblood came with us," Calynn's father confessed angrily.

The pale one made a face of disgust as he looked down on his followers.

"You know well that only my faithful followers have the mark," the man specified, "and we don't want your daughter to lose that honor, do we?"

"I do not want it!" The little girl shouted, rising from the cold floor of the empty room. It took a while to get up and know where she was because she was used to the cozy bed in Lily's room. She woke up with disturbed breathing and teary eyes, before falling asleep she had dedicated herself to crying for everything that was about to happen and because they could not escape from that place.

"Are you okay?" Asked the redhead who had risen quickly.

"Yes, it has only been..." the girl commented, although she did not find the words to finish.

"This time what has it been?" Asked Lily in a barely audible whisper, still with her eyes almost closed.

"He has punished them," Calynn explained coldly, unable to express all the ideas in her head about what she had seen.

"Who?" Asked Lily confused.

"Their leader has punished my parents," said the little girl, analyzing the words.

"Why?" The redhead asked.

"Because I ran away and because they had to bring you here," she murmured. "I think it really bothered them to have to bring you with me," she added.

"Do you think they do something to us for that?" Lily questioned sounding worried.

Calynn was thoughtful for a moment, after so long Calynn knew they were capable of anything, but she wanted to keep her friend calm.

"Maybe," she said after a moment of self-absorption. "I hope it was only a dream, but it felt too real." Lily didn't answer, Calynn interpreted her silence as an expression of fear since she couldn't see her face because of the darkness. "I know, I know it's normal to be afraid," said the little blue-eyed girl. The girl was going to comment something else when they heard noises outside the room, quickly went back to bed and pretended to be asleep.

"It's all the fault of the filthy mudblood!" Were the only words they managed to catch from inside the room.

Calynn held back the tears that were about to come out of her eyes, supposed to be asleep.

They kept hearing some noises and screams that they couldn't understand. The room was completely dark, only a small line of light came under the door.

"Alohomora!" They listened attentively to the voice of Cygnus behind the door.

The door opened loudly and her parents' footsteps were heard upon entering.

"Lumos Maxima!" Her mother shouted this time as the room filled with the light of the wand.

"Do you think I'm going to believe you are still asleep after this scandal?" Druella said.

Both girls opened their eyes, although the strong light bothered them. "Get up!" Druella said as she let her face be seen with a small blow.

The girls got up without replicating and it was when they observed that each of their parents held two wands. There was a moment of silence where the little ones were only being pointed with the wand. Calynn watched her wand as she thought about how to take it away from her mother, it seemed that she had her eyes lost but it wasn't.

Without further thinking, Calynn pounced on Druella as she struggled to remove the wand from her hands.

"Immobulus!" Cygnus shouted, pointing at his daughter.

Calynn was paralyzed upon receiving the spell, her father approached her daughter and began pushing her toward an edge of the room without being able to move. Cygnus was still pointing her with the wand that buried her in her chin with such force that it caused her pain.

When father and daughter reached the corner of the room, Calynn's mother ran to Lily, took her hair and pulled her in front of her daughter where she could observe her.

"Do you see what you have done?" Said Druella, putting Lily's face in front of hers.

Calynn watched her as tears slid down her cheeks as she watched her friend's wet and sad face with pleading eyes. Little Black wanted to say something, but she couldn't move her lips because of the spell, she could only watch. "If you hadn't been a coward," the woman began, "none of this would be happening.

Druella had a smile on her face, threw the wand that lit the room on the floor and took her daughter's wand.

"Crucio!" The woman shouted loudly.

Shouts filled the room, Lily fell to the ground because of the spell. Calynn was breathing hard and was breathing through her mouth. She noticed that and began to try to move slowly so that her father did not notice, when she made sure that she could almost move her whole body, she removed the Cygnus wand from her chin and pushed her mother making her fall on the floor while screaming of Lily ceased. Calynn reached down to avoid a spell coming from her father's wand, approached Lily, took her hand and began to pull her with all her strength since the redhead had no strength to get up. They began to cross the room slowly as Calynn moved quickly to avoid the occasional spell cast by her father.

"Crucio!" A woman's voice shouted and this time the spell hit one of the little girl's legs as she fell to the ground, but did not give her any pain. Calynn got up as fast as she could and realized that she no longer held Lily so she thought she was up. She kept running, almost reaching the door. "One more step and I kill her!" Druella's voice rang throughout the room. Calynn stopped in her tracks, as she staggered, turned around and saw her friend trembling in fear as Calynn's wand pointed her directly at her heart, Lily stared at her pleadingly as tears covered her face. Calynn did not move, she was paralyzed with fear trying to concentrate, after a while she decided to move slowly leaving the open door further and further away where she could escape.

Druella smiled and threw Lily causing a blow to her face, she went to where was the wand that lit the room and picked it up from the floor, went to the door of the room followed by Cygnus who left the room before her.

"This is just the beginning," Druella said with a smile on her face. "Nox!"

And she left the room, turning off her wand.

They did not wait for Druella to leave the room so that both girls began to cry.

"It's just the beginning!" Lily replied between sobs, she cried for everything that had happened and for fear of what might happen next.

"It wasn't a dream," little Black whispered thoughtfully with a neutral expression, it didn't mean she wasn't afraid, but rather she had been surprised that the nightmare she had had minutes before her parents arrived was reality.

"What have you said?" The redhead questioned a little dizzy.

"What I dreamed really happened, didn't you notice?" Calynn exasperated sitting on the floor next to her friend. The girl just shook her head. "My mother had a blow on her face, that's why she wanted revenge," said Little Black.

Lily began to reason what her friend meant.

"That's right, that means she was really furious and that's why she did this to us," Lily commented between sobs.

"Whatever happens I will have the dark mark and I will not be able to do anything to avoid it," Calynn concluded in a broken voice as she remembered the dream she had had at Lily's house a few months ago, the same one that would have given everything to know that it was not true.

There was a moment of silence where they noticed that the light of dawn began to enter slightly through the windows and illuminated the girls' face a little.

"Are you alright?" Calynn asked her friend after a while.

"How could you survive this?" Lily questioned her as she took her neck because of the pain she had felt.

"I wouldn't have done it without your help," Calynn said with a slight smile.

"Do you think it's true that this is just the beginning?" Lily questioned with concern.

"No, it was just a threat," said little Black.

And she was not wrong, fortunately.

The days passed very slowly, but none was worse than the first. Both girls had quickly become accustomed and when they knew that both parents were going out, they played Muggle games in the small room until the parents who almost always arrived late at night, arrived. Every day they brought at least two meals a day and left them on the floor of the room. The girls did not talk to Druella or Cygnus unless they spoke to them. In spite of everything, the little ones had fun and talked remembering some good memories, something that Calynn's parents did not suspect in the least. Every day they looked out the window waiting for Severus to help them, but they never watched the boy during their stay. It often rained, despite being summer, the cold and the rains did not fade at all.

During the last week of August, the girls began to worry about the fact that if they were going to Hogwarts, all their materials were held by Calynn's parents as well as her owl that they didn't know if she was still alive.

It was August 30 at night, of the few that the parents had not left the house. Lily and Calynn chatted in the dark while they waited for the dinner, they rarely gave them.

"Tomorrow will be one of the best days," Lily said enthusiastically.

"I wouldn't be so sure, they haven't told us anything about tomorrow," Calynn explained.

"We could ask them when they come," the redhead said.

"Maybe, if they really give us dinner," said little Black.

They kept talking about the little information about Hogwarts' houses and which one they wanted to belong to while exchanging comments about them. A few steps were heard outside, they were silent immediately and the door opened. Druella entered without saying a word leaving a plate on the floor, was about to leave when a voice stopped her.

"Mom," Calynn muttered, trying not to sound afraid.

"What?" The woman replied reproachfully.

"Are we going to Hogwarts?"

There was a long moment of silence.