Chapter One

The Storm

Charles Montgomery

Rain pattered down on the roof of my beat up station wagon as it bumped along the worn down road in one of the shabby suburbs of Cokeworth. My boss had kept me late at the bank doing twice the work of the younger apprentices he had hired. Because of this, I was running late to celebrate my youngest daughter's twenty-sixth birthday. To make it worse, I hadn't had time to stop and purchase a present for her either.

A flash of lightning lit up the road before me and I jumped in fright. Unfortunately, my jump had also caused my hands to shake the wheel. My tired hit a slick patch in the road and sent my car spinning, only stopping once it hit the rubbish bins outside of an abandoned factory. A loud pop occurred and I feared that a tire had popped.

Not wanting to spend more time in this neighborhood than I absolutely had to, I pulled my coat tighter around me before stepping out into the rain to assess the damage that had been done to my car. Rounding the car, I saw that the bins had left dents along the side of my car and one of my rear tires had been pierced by several nails. I let out a swear under my breath as I turned and surveyed the neighborhood I was in.

In the faint light of the streetlamp, I could barely make out a few run down houses along the road. There was only one that had a light on and I prayed that it was a house that would be able to help me. My children were always telling me I needed to get a phone but I never saw the point of them… until now. With a sigh, I set off down the road toward the house, drenched head to toe and shivering.

As I walked, I took in my surroundings. It appeared that there were several street lamps on the street but many of them were broken. All of the houses seemed to have been built the same way, and painted with the same dark and dreary paint. I couldn't imagine having to live on this street. I had just reached the house and was about to push open the gate when I heard a voice from behind me.

"Well, well, well. Whadda we 'ave 'ere boys?" the voice said. I looked toward the source of the voice and saw three men walking, no, stumbling toward me. This is just what I needed.

"Look, I'm not looking for any trouble. I just want to get home to my family. My car just broke down a little bit up the road and I just need to call for help." I said as I help up my hands in what I hoped was a sign that I didn't want to cause any trouble.

"Awww. Going 'ome to the family, the man is." the stranger said with a drunken laugh to the others. "We can 'elp ya. For a small fee."

"That's alright. I have everything handled." I said as I began backing up to the gate, not wanting to turn my back on the three men.

"Well, I'm going to 'ave my boys check ya. Just in case..." the stranger said with a nod to the other men. With that nod, the other two goons approached me and began to roughly dig through my pockets.

"I said I didn't have anything!" I exclaimed as I tried to push the men away.

"Be quiet" one of the men searching me said as he punched me in the gut, knocking the air out of me. I doubled over in pain as I struggled to catch my breath.

"Nothin' on him, mate!" The other man searching me called back to their leader.

"Shame. I s'pose we oughta teach 'im what 'appens when 'e can't pay the price."

"My pleasure." Goon number two said before turning back to me and kicking me in the legs, knocking me to the ground.

Once my knees hit the pavement, the men were on top of me and began to punch and kick me. Now, I am, by no means, a weak person, but I was outnumbered as I tried my hardest to fight back. It was no useless, however. When the men were satisfied with their work, they got up without saying a word. One of them, I couldn't see which through my quickly swelling eyes, pulled my jacket off before they took off, leaving me badly beaten in front of the gate.

I laid there for what felt like ages but was probably only a few minutes. With what remaining strength I could muster through the pain I was in, I used the gate to pull myself up to my feet. No part of my body was unharmed and with each movement I cringed in pain. When I was on my feet, I stumbled up to the front door of the house. I knocked twice before I feel back to the ground and the world around me faded to black.

When I came to, I found myself looking up at a ceiling that I did not recognize. I shot upright where I was laying down and instantly regretting it because the action made me dizzy. When the haze had cleared, I looked around at my surrounding. By the light of the fire burning across the room for me, I could see that the walls of the room I was in was lined with bookshelves that were stuffed with books. I knew that if my daughter, Shayna, were here, she would be combing the shelves, taking in all of the titles and feeling the spines of the books. I was sitting on a worn and lumpy green couch with a small table that separated me from the fireplace.

There was a shuffling noise behind me and I jumped up from the couch. It wasn't until that movement that I realized that I could move at all. I had barely been able to make it to the front door of a house from its front gate and here I was, moving around feeling almost as if nothing had happened to me in the first place. In the doorway that was behind the couch, a man dressed in black with equally black hair that fell to his shoulders stood with a mug.

"You would be wise to sit back down." The man said in a deep baritone voice and he moved into the room.

"Who are you? Where am I?" I asked as I sat back down on the couch.

"My name Is of no importance and you are in my house… obviously." He said as he set down the mug with steaming liquid in front of me. "Drink that. It will help with the healing."

I was uneasy about drinking what the stranger had given me, especially since he had not given me his name. Despite the uneasy feeling, however, I took the cup in my hands and began to drink its contents. What I had expected to be tea, was not tea. Instead the liquid had a taste of cherries and cinnamon but had the consistency of mud. Despite the overwhelming urge to gag the drink back up, I drained the mug before setting it back down on the table. A warming sensation began to spread throughout my body and, as much as I hated to admit it, I did begin to feel better.

"Would you care to explain why you were on my doorstep?" the figure asked from where he was standing near the fireplace. He must have moved there while I was drinking the concoction.

"I was on my way home to celebrate my daughter's birthday when I lost control of my car. I was coming to ask for help when some men approached me outside of your gate. By the way, do you have a phone? I need to call my daughter to let her know what happened."

"I do not have a phone. You will be well soon and then you ca…" he began to say but was cutoff by a loud pounding at his front door. He visibly stiffened and I knew that what was about to happen could not be good. The man pulled what looked like a stick from his sleeve and pointed it at me. I swore I could see a hint of apology in his dark eyes but when I was about to ask him what was going on, I realized that I couldn't speak. In fact, I couldn't move at all. The man left the room and I could hear him open the front door. From my place on the couch, I could hear muffled voices as he admitted the figures into the house.

"Well look what we have here, my Lord. Severus has himself a guest" came a woman's voice from the doorway I knew was behind me.

"He is not a guest. The fool threw himself in front of my door, expecting me to help him after his car broke down." My stomach dropped hearing these words from the man who's house I was in.

"What do you plan on doing with him, Severus?" came a third voice. The most chilling of the three. It was a cross between human and what I could only describe as what I thought a snake sounded like.

"Let me have a go at him, Severus. He looks like he would be fun to torture." The woman said with a menacing cackle and my heart rate sped up. What had I gotten myself into.

"No, Bellatrix." The man I now knew as Severus replied.

"Surely you don't mean to let him live." The woman responded with a gasp.

"I will do as I please! This is MY house." Severus said with authority in his voice.

"My Lord, are you really going to let Severus…"

"No, dear Bellatrix. Though I am curious as to what my most faithful servant has planned." The snake-like man responded.

"He has family. People who will come looking for him. I must plan my decision wisely." Severus responded coolly.

"I say you wait until they show up and kill the lot." The woman piped up.

"Bellatrix…" Severus began but was stopped by his master who had just walked into my line of sight.

"That is enough, Bellatrix." He said as he stooped down to look at me. The man was hideous. He was extremely pale and had two slits where his nose should be and his eyes were that of a snakes. The man looked just as he sounded. Fear seeped into the very depths of my bones.

"Perhaps I will keep him around as a servant. Or for when I get bored and choose to practice some new spells." Severus stated. I was confused what he meant by spells though. Was he talking about magic? Surely, not. It didn't exist.

"Why on earth would you have a muggle as a servant?" Bellatrix asked with disgust.

"Severus, normally I would not allow filth like this to live. However, you are a faithful follower and have been of great help lately, so I will allow you to do with him as you wish." The snake-like man said with a nod in Severus's direction.

With that consent, I felt my body loosen from its hold and the neck of my shirt was pulled up, causing me to stand. I tried to shout in protest by I found that my voice would not come, no matter how hard I yelled.

"You can try and yell all you want, but no one will hear you. I have placed a silencing spell on you." Severus spoke into my ear as he tugged me out of the room and up the set of stairs in his house to what I found out was the attic.

Once we reached the top, he shoved me into the room that held a small cot in the corner and slammed the door behind me. I tried pounding on the door but I had assumed that since he had made it so I could not talk, he had the same ability to make it so my pounding couldn't be heard. With a sigh of defeat, I slumped onto the cot in the corner and pulled my knees into my chest. While I hoped that someone would find me, I was more concerned that someone in my family would come looking for me. Little did I know, that was just the case.