The Dark Princess (revised)

THIRTY ~ Training

July, 1995

Ever since she returned back home, her father had been giving her lessons in hexes, curses, and how to use them in battle. He was her personal trainer, but he often had Lucius assist when he was not working at the Ministry. And a cowardly man named Peter Pettigrew always sat by the wall, watching as events played out.

"Always be alert, always be ready to defend yourself, and always strike first," was one of the first things Ariana learned. It was drilled deep into her skull for she knew the consequences of failing to follow those three steps.

+*+Two Weeks Ago+*+

Ariana and her father were in an empty room of the manor. He circled her, and said, "The three rules of fighting with Dark Magic, Ariana, is to always be alert, always be ready to defend yourself, and always strike first."

"Yes, father," she replied.

"Restate them," he ordered.

"Always be alert, always be ready to defend yourself, and always strike first."

"Good." He was suddenly standing far behind her. "Let us begin."

"What?" Before she could turn around, the Cruciatus Curse was thrown at her. She felt an unbearable pain all over her body. It felt like thousands of burning hot knives were stabbing every inch of her skin. She let out a piercing scream as she fell to the floor.

"Protego... Horribilis... I thought I had already taught you the counter charm, Ariana."

The curse was released and Ariana was panting heavily. "You... Caught me off guard."

"Do we need to go over the three rules again? Always be alert..."

"...Always be ready to defend yourself, and always strike first."

He nodded. "Now get up. We'll do this again."

+*+*+

Ariana had improved since then, much to both her and her father's approval. In consequence, she grew more jumpy and on guard. The Dark Lord would sometimes follow her and try to sneak attacks on her. He also ordered the Death Eaters that would visit the manor to do the same, in hopes to get her more prepared. He knew of the new dangers she would face if the world were to find out who she was. And this was his twisted way of caring for his daughter.

Monday to Saturday, Ariana spent 7-11:30 practicing defensive spells, then 1-6:30 practicing offensive spells with her father. She was always exhausted at the end of the day. Her only days off were Sundays and the days when her father would randomly leave the manor. On those days, she would spend locked up in her room.

It was Sunday morning and she was laying down in bed. She let Acadia out of her cage the previous evening, and she still was yet to return. She could feel the fatigue of working with her father and refused to get out of bed.

"Y-you want to go inside?" A stuttering voice asked from outside her door. It was Draco.

Ariana's door was opened to reveal a terrified Draco Malfoy and a happy Nagini. Nagini slithered into her bedroom, slowly making her way up her bed.

"Did you need something, Nagini?" Ariana asked in Parseltongue.

"The Dark Lord left me here today."

Ariana rolled over on her stomach. "So he went out?"

"Yesss..."

Draco waved to Ariana and quickly closed the door shut. Despite being a Slytherin, he really hated snakes. Especially giant ones that looked like they could kill him in seconds. He sighed in annoyance. He was hoping to spend today with Ariana but with Nagini in there, he wouldn't dare go inside.

Nagini moved next to Ariana. "He sssaid to inform you to refrain from using magic while he is gone. The Minissstry worker hiding your Trace has been killed."

"How long will he be gone?" Ariana asked, softly petting the serpent.

"Three weekssss."

"That long?"

"He is recruiting more membersss. And he needssss to find someone elsse in the Minisssstry."

"I see," Ariana replied in English.

"Severuss will be visiting twiccce a week until he comesss back."

"Snape? I haven't made any potionsss lately..."

"He will insstruct you while the Dark Lord isss gone."

"Thank you for telling me."

"With pleasure." Nagini slithered out of Ariana's bed and headed towards the closed door. She turned her head to Ariana.

"Alright." She got up and opened the door for her. Draco was still standing outside waiting. "Draco?"

"H-hey, Ari!" he said, as he avoided looking down at Nagini.

"Have you been waiting out here this whole time?"

"Yeah... You haven't left the manor all month and I was wondering if you wanted to go out to the village today? "

"Sorry Draco, but I'm really tired. Perhaps another time." Ariana retreated back into her bedroom.

"Okay... Some other time then." He stared at Ariana's closed door and sighed. He had barely seen her for the past month. He said that he would be there for her, but how could he when he is always being shut out?

In her room, Ariana was back in her bed curled up with next year's Transfiguration textbook. She always got her school books early so she could get ahead. She went through a quarter of the textbook until Aiden's owl, Cato, flew in.

"This is the first time I've seen you this summer." She ran her hand through Cato's feathers and took the letter. She opened it to see that it held the information for meeting at the amusement park next month. "Did you go all around delivering these to everyone?" She asked the tired owl. "It's okay, Cato. You can rest here for a little while."

+*+*+*+*+

A/N

OKAY IT'S OUT! CHAPTER 30 IS OUT! This is officially my longest fan fic ever!!! (It's been my longest fan fic, but I kinda didn't realize it until now)

ANYWAYS... Sorry this is kinda short??? And maybe kinda lame as I drew it out trying to get that 1000 words. Unfortunately, it's only 900 something.

The next chapter will be out relatively soon. I wrote it before writing this one but now after this I have tweak it and such for it to fit in more... Heh.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to vote/comment! Bye bye for now~

<3 Rosie