Home for Christmas

[Samantha Driscoll]

"Good evening, Miss Driscoll."

"In my room, elf, you're new here aren't you? You're the first elf I've meant that can string words into a proper sentence," said Samantha sarcastically. She was laden with many packages and a large trunk which she shoved at the unsuspecting creature. The house-elf helped her take off her cloak and hung it up while Samantha slipped off her gloves, and looked at her reflection in a long mirror inside the Driscoll mansion. The Driscoll mansion was huge, not only because of the actual mansion which was gigantic but outside it was a large swimming pool, horse stables, and gardens, making it one of the largest homes in the area, in fact in the whole town. The Driscolls lived in Cornwall and Samantha had just arrived a few minutes ago after spending a few days at Diagon Alley as she was to spend the Christmas holidays at home according to her parents' wish. She studied her reflection closely. She was wearing tight-fitting robes of midnight blue, and sparkling silver sequins were sewn on the sleeves and lower half of her robes in an intricate design. Her hair was tied up in an elegant knot held with blue ribbon. She sighed softly as she stared at her reflection. She felt she was too thin, but that couldn’t be helped. Her mother insisted that she continue with her dratted ballet training, and she never managed to put on any weight when she was practicing regularly.

"Good evening Samantha. I trust you had a safe journey home?" said Gwyneth Driscoll in her well-bred emotionless voice as she walked down the carpeted staircase and into the entrance hall of the mansion to meet her daughter. Gwyneth looked completely different from her daughter for she had long hair that was such a pale shade of blonde it was almost white, and their features were very different, but both of them possessed the same icy blue eyes that looked so devoid of any emotion.

"Yes Mum, it was quite uneventful. I have bought all the robes and accessories we chose together from Gladrags' as you told me to. They'll send the ones that need adjusting by tomorrow," said Samantha. Neither of the two hugged or kissed each other. Samantha didn’t expect it and Gwyneth wouldn’t know how to go about it. She led her daughter into the luxurious lounge with its expensive furniture which had all been chosen with great care and showed evidence of the unerring taste the Driscoll's had. "Well done my dear. How is the ballet coming on?" asked her mother looking her daughter appraisingly and deciding she was satisfied with what she saw. Samantha was turning out the way she wanted her to, not like that horrible second child Charles. He was a great disappointment to her husband and her; they had wanted to be sure the heir to all their wealth was wizard who knew what it was to be a pureblood, to come from a long line of purebloods, who never broke the Driscoll code which did not allow anybody into their family they did not deem worthy. They would just have to make sure Samantha married someone they found worthy; luckily the girl was obedient and knew she was to concede to the suitor her parents would choose for her without protesting. She had no boyfriend to the best of Gwyneth's knowledge and that was just as well.

"I have been practising every night mother, I am sure Madame Renault will be quite pleased with my progress," answered Samantha. She winced as she thought of her sore feet which she had had to bandage the other night. She would not tell her mother about her that though as she did not want any trouble with her. She didn't want to her think the practice was giving her any trouble and wanted to assure her that she was doing well.

"That's lovely Samantha. Go to your room and rest, your father has asked me to tell you to meet him in his office in an hour. He seems to have something important to tell you," said Gwyneth. "Yes mother," said Samantha. She went to her room, and plopped down on her bed, staring at the ceiling unseeingly. She didn't feel tired at all, and she was wondering what her father wanted with her. She knew he was going to want to make sure she had read all the books he had sent her and would start making sure she could perform all the charms correctly as soon as he saw her.

[Samantha Driscoll]

An hour later saw her sitting in her father's study room. She stood by his library, idly reading the books titles' that she knew so well. Not one book hadn't a complex charm, spell or potion within its pages. She noticed a book was missing as she passed fingers over the books that were arranged so neatly on their shelves. Her eyes went to his desk, and there it was. She went over to his desk and looked at it and picked it up. It had no title on its cover and when she opened it to read its contents a cold blast came out of it and her hand froze. Samantha pulled out her wand with her other hand and performed a quick warming charm on it, chiding herself for not knowing better than to open one of her father's books before thinking of the protective charms he might have placed on it.

"Good evening Samantha," said Hector Driscoll. Samantha shivered suddenly, as though a sudden chill had just entered the air. Her father had a strange way of materialising out of nowhere, and his cold voice had always made her feel uneasy. She never knew exactly where she was with her father, never knew what he was thinking, and at times she felt it was better that way. He gave her a piercing stare that Samantha knew well yet still a part of her felt like recoiling from him. She felt he could see her thoughts and tried not to shift under his gaze as she let go of the book and sat back down again without a word, just greeting her father with a slight bow of her head. She could make out a C on the first page of the book, but she hadn’t been able to read more.

"You have read the books I sent you," said Hector, and it was a statement not a question. He knew Samantha would never disobey him and that his wish was her command. "I must warn you though, nothing will prepare you for the experience you are about to undergo. It has always been my belief that to learn something you must experience it fully, to understand an illness and be able to cure it there is no better way to learn than to have it yourself," he continued. Samantha looked at her father with no change in her indifferent expression, though her head was spinning. What was he getting at? She remembered her mother's letter; she had said something about her father "taking her to a new level." Did this have something to do with this? She couldn’t understand his cryptic words, yet they scared her. She listened attentively to her father, mystified and waiting for him to enlighten her. "I am sure you know what the darkest magic out there is. You are now seventeen, soon to turn eighteen, and I have almost taught you all I know. You were not ready before for what I am going to teach you today, in fact, no-one is ever ready to be hit by what I shall teach you. I think you have surmised what I am talking about. The Unforgivable Curses."

Samantha let out a breath she had not been aware she was holding. However, her father's words had an effect far from relaxing on her nerves. She had not known he could perform the Unforgivables. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought he was going to teach them to her. Samantha did not know if her father was Death Eater or not, and had never dared to ask. Her father told her what he wanted and nobody could divulge information out of him he was not ready to give. She was lost in her thoughts when she was jerked out of them to find her father's wand pointed at her and before she could do anything an incantation came out of his mouth in a menacing hiss.

"Crucio!"

It was like giving a baby a vaccination. One moment it was smiling happily and the next it was yelling loudly not knowing what had hit it, like it could not believe such pain was possible, unable to believe that its parents could betray it and put it through such torture. Every fibre of her being was on fire, yet she did not feel hot, instead she felt a freezing sensation that started from somewhere inside her and spread to the tips of her fingers and to her head and to her toes. She could not even continue screaming she was in that much pain. Every part of her body felt like it had been connected to an electric current, and she squirmed and writhed in pain, trying to open her mouth to beg her father to stop but unable to mutter a single word. After the first, loud, heart-rending yowl she was moaning pitifully.

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. She had almost thought that she hadn’t been able to live through it and had died. She opened her eyes to see her father's shoe. She hadn't realised she had fallen from her chair on to the ground, nor that he had gotten up to stand beside her. She was perspiring profusely, and all the hairs on her skin were standing up. She took in deep gulps of air like someone who had almost drowned and was just recovering. She looked up at him still in the same sleeping position on the off-white moquette, and for once Samantha's icy blue eyes were filled with expression. It was pure terror as she looked at her father unable to believe the torture she had just been put through. How one person could do that to another, seemed, at least at the moment, inconceivable.

"Go to your room," he said. "Now!" Samantha stood up and ran helter-skelter to her room, still stunned by her experience. Her mind was reeling and she didn't know what to think or do so she obeyed her father, feeling a strange sort of weightlessness as if she was dreaming.

[Samantha Driscoll]

"Good evening Samantha."

"Good evening Father," she replied warily. She was dressed in her training clothes, black pants and a sleeveless black leather top, knowing her father was not one to waste time. He was giving her his same piercing stare and Samantha almost cringed as she remembered the day before. "Samantha," he said, and his voice was unusually kind, or at least she supposed it was what she could call kind as it did not sound as harsh and unyielding as she was used to. "You know what I expect from you and what I for you, do you not?" he asked, and Samantha nodded her head. "And is not what you dream of yourself? Is it not what you have always strived to achieve?" he continued, his eyes fixed on her. "Yes," she answered. "Total power and total control. To make the rules, and not to follow the rules made by others. Others, who you have seen yourself, are unworthy. Your family line and your heritage stand for something, Samantha. And that is why I'm teaching you something that is so difficult. It is because I know you can do it. You have the ability," he said assertively.

Samantha looked back at her father a new light in her eyes. She could almost forget the pain of the day before, almost forget what her own father had done to her, and by the end of his short speech she was already convinced. This was for her own benefit. And when learned this spell, think of the power she would have. Think of all she could do. She was ready, and as she looked at her father he smiled at her, and Samantha returned the smile. She was going to do this – she was going to learn how to have total power over a person by hurting them as much as possibly could. And she wasn't scared anymore.

[Samantha Driscoll]

"I do not know what to say to you Samantha," said Hector. "You have certainly made some progress, but not as much as I thought you would," he said shaking his head. "I should have thought this would not be so difficult for you. We have been working at it for two weeks and yet you are still not in control of the spell," he said. "You are to return to school tomorrow, and we shall have to delay working on the curse till you are back. I was hoping we would work on the Imperius curse then. Now please go to your room and I will see you in the summer," he said dismissively. Samantha left the room in a hurry seeking the seclusion of her own room. Once again, she had failed her father. What a hopeless case she was. She had let him down after all his hopes for her, and she could not see what she was doing wrong so she could do it correctly, which made her feel even worse. He hadn't even said goodbye to her properly, but she knew she deserved it for her failure. She wished tomorrow would come quickly and she was back at Hogwarts. She knew she would keep dwelling on the matter till she was back at school and there were her other studies to distract her.