A/N: Hey guys! This is my first published story, so I hope you like it.
*** Disclaimer : I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS IN THIS FIC OTHER THAN ROSE LEVINE AND THE PLOT LINE. ALL THE REST BELONGS TO J.K ROWLING ***
Rose Levine, that's my name. I'm home for the summer. On September first, I'm going to return to Hogwarts for my fifth year. But that was another two months from now. Now I'm at my house in Moscow. I had recently moved here two years ago, from London. But even though it's very far from Hogwarts, I still manage to catch the train departure at Kings Cross station every year.
I just got back from the grocery store, since I needed to get some supplies my mother asked for. As I approach the house, I hear my name being screamed. Someone was screaming my name. I stopped dead for a moment, and then one last painful scream could be heard from upstairs, a voice that sounded far too much like my brothers. As I turn the key and unlock the door with shaking hands, I hear a loud crack that sounds like someone disapparaiting.
I open the door, ready to run upstairs, but the scene I walk into stops me and freezes my very core. As I stare at the scene before me, I feel the blood drain from my face. The groceries fall to the floor, and scatter away from me. I see one of the oranges roll into a puddle of blood. There, on the white wall, is the dark mark, painted with a red substance that had a metallic smell to it. I could already guess what it was. Under it is the word "mudblood" written in the same red liquid. I take several steps forward, and enter the kitchen. I had to find my parents and my little brother. "Mom! Dad! Benny!" I scream. "Where are they?" I thought, as I stumble into the living room, "Mom? Da-", my words falter. There on the couch lay my mother's torn and mangled body, unmoving. A few feet away, the body of my father lay on the ground. His lifeless green eyes stared back at the identical pair I owned. "No, no, no, no, no" I mumbled to myself. "NO!". I felt fury and the deepest sorrow sink into my very core. How did this happen? Who did this? Where is Benny? As much as I wanted to fall to the ground and weep for the loss of my beloved parents, I had to find Benny. I need to know if he is okay, maybe they forgot him, maybe he was hiding. Some rational part of me knows this was not the case, but I threw that part of me against a wall in my mind.
I run up the stairs, taking them two at a time, and tripping on the last one. I heave myself up as I hear voices and a few "pops" coming from my brother's room, and slowly walk towards it. As I open the door I see that blood litters the floor. I look up and gaze at the figure clad in black billowing robes, with a wand in their hand and a mask to their face. I immediately recognize the figure as Lucius Malfoy. The blond hair and grey eyes were a dead give-away. Panic shoots through me as I realize the situation. Then anger boils through my body as I scream "How could you Lucius! He was a child! They were innocent!". He smiles to me, and Sais "How nice of you to join us, Miss Levine. I was just about to leave and join the others to rejoice, but now I see there's one more problem I must get rid of before I go" and lifts his wand at me. Panic retakes the stand alongside fear as he sais "How about some fun first?" and narrow his eyes and he mutters "Crucio".
Pains like nothing I've ever felt shoots through every morsel of tissue and bone of my body. It starts from my bones and reaches everywhere from my eyes to my fingers. I fall to the floor as a scream irrupts from my throat. I twist and turn on myself, trying to rid my body of this pain. I turn away from him and face Benny's closet only to see his little form huddled unmoving in the very back of the closet. No, he's left me as well. Tears from my pain and from my loss fall down my cheeks as more screams leave my mouth. He stops a moment before saying the curse again and I belt out more screams.
I hear a whooshing sound coming from downstairs. I can hear people talking as the curse is lifted from me. I stop my scream at last, and Lucius looks at the door to the room and mutters "dammit" and points his wand at my forearm and mutters a spell that makes my arm burn. "You have been labelled now, my dear, and I will find you one day, to rid the wizarding world of mudblood scum like you." he said as he raised his wand, and he disapparates away into oblivion. I then here someone, a woman, says "Oh lord, Albus! Look at this. The poor people are-"she chokes back a sob as she hears sounds from the room I'm in. It sounded like Professor McGonagall. I try my best to scream their names, to try and let them know that they weren't too late, that I was here, but nothing but a gargled sob leaves my mouth as I stare at the closet. "I believe we might not be too late, Albus" Sais the velvet voice that belongs to no one but Severus Snape.
I hear three sets of footsteps rush up the stairs until they reached the room in which I was slowly crawling to my brother's body. McGonagall's face is the first I see through my watery eyes, then Dumbledore's appeared, and then finally Severus's. They all stare at me in shock, and Professor McGonagall gives out a low sob as her eyes look over the scene. I keep crawling on my hands and knees, out of breath and sobbing, and I grab my brother's limp form from the closet he had been hiding in.
No, how could they kill and innocent child? He was only five years old. Five years old! He had screamed for my help, but I had not answered. "Benny, no, Ben no no, not you to" I whisper to his newly deaf ears. A faint sob builds up in my chest. They were all dead, my mom, my dad and my only sibling, gone. I look at him, and his face remained unmarred by all. He looked asleep like this. His beautiful eyes were closed, but I know that if they were open, they would be as grey as smoke. His little pink lips were slightly parted, and his cheeks were a little rosy. "Come on buddy, wake up. You need to wake up. For me Ben, please" I plead, to no avail. Tears fall on his body as I cradle him in my arms, running my fingers in his hair. "Your just asleep, all you need to do is wake up, I love you Ben, come on" I say. I have never felt so alone. I stare at my Professor's and say:
"Help, you need to help him! He's asleep, but he won't wake up! Please help my brother! Please!" I wail at them.
"Ben, wake up buddy, your okay. Mommy would want you to wake up" I say to him. I flatten his hair once more, and gently shake his little body.
"I don't believe your brother is going to wake up, dear one" whispered Dumbledore, whilst the other two could do nothing but stare at the scene.
"No, no, no no no no" I said, this seemed to be my word of the night. "He can't be dead, he's only five…..only five…." I whisper.
"Professor McGonagall, I would ask you to floo back to Hogwarts and ask the elves to prepare an extra room for Miss Levine. Severus, please escort Rose back down the stairs and into the kitchen, and make sure she is well. Then floo back to my office at Hogwarts, and await my arrival. I must apparate to the ministry" said Dumbledore.
McGonagall left the room silently, and I heard her go down the stairs, seconds later a whooshing sound could be heard from the fire place.
Professor Snape then moved forward and attempted to lift me up. "No, I can't leave him! I can't" I say to him, as I try and pry his hands off of my arms. "There is nothing you can do for him now" he says to me in a soft voice. "You must let him go now, so he can sleep in peace" he says in the same tone. Slowly, slowly my hands release my brother. My hand touch's his cheek one last time, and I wipe the tears that had fallen from my eyes off of his skin. "I'm sorry I couldn't be there to protect you like I should have, little brother, so sorry…" I gently whisper to him, and I push back some of his hair out of his face. I try and memorize his features; his porcelain skin, thick black lash's, little pink, heart shaped lips, and his black hair. Professor Snape's hands are back on my arms, gently prying mine off of my brother's. I slowly let Professor Snape lift me up, supporting most of my weight. I stand to his left, and his left arm is around me, holding onto my elbow, and his other is holding my right arm. Dumbledore disappartes with a loud "crack", and the sounds startles me so that I yelp out loud.
I leave my brothers room, feeling far too sorrowful to even look at his little form anymore. I stumble down the stairs taking them one at a time, and as I descend, tears continue a decent of their own down my cheeks. Getting a better look at the house from my vantage point, I can see that some vases are smashed and lay broken in pieces. Some couches and tables are overturned, and a small fire is shimmering at the bottom of the stairs. With a flick of his wand, Professor Snape makes the fire vanish.
As we pass by the living room, which leads to the kitchen, I stop and look over the scene once more. "Mom…." I say, hoping she would stir, or give any sign of life. Seeing this is impossible, I drag my stare from her to my father. "Daddy….." I whisper and my voice shakes, but still his eyes held no sign of resurrection. Professor Snape merely said: "come" and pulls me toward the kitchen.
He walks me a few more steps and leads me to the table. I sit on the chair, suddenly feeling extremely exhausted; all the while tears keep a steady flow down my cheeks. The vibrant red word "Mudblood" is silently screaming at me, and so I look across the table and remember times when we used to eat here as a family.
I faintly realize that Professor is trying to talk to me, because I can see his lips moving, but I can hear no sound from them. All I see are memories of my mother and father cooking, laughing, living. My brother trying to get on his chair, telling me of his days events and discoveries. Yes, I remember him, "Rose look at me, look at me" he would say. Yes I could see him perfectly actually, like he was right in front of me. His black hair ruffled. "Look at me, Miss Levine, can you hear me" said Ben. Miss Levine? Why would Benny call me that? Then Benny's black hair grew to chin length, and he was wearing black billowing robes. Benny suddenly became the tall and sinuous form of Professor Snape. "Miss Levine, can you hear me"? he said. "I….I….yes…s-sorry….just got lost….lost in thought…" I said. Professor Snape looks me over once more, and I think I saw a flash of sympathy in his eyes, but then it was gone. His eyes remained emotionless, but did not hold the scowl that he normally wore in class. "Are you okay? Physically, are you hurt?" he says. His eyes look over my face and body, but not in a perverted way. I know he's looking for signs of injury. "No, no physically I'm not hurt….it's not my blood…it's….theirs" I say.
As I look down, I noticed my jeans were soaked in blood as were my hands. Then I notice my left forearm has something on it. I turn it so that I can see the underside of it and Professor quickly grabs my arm. "When did you get this?" He asked me in a rush, losing his cool demeanour very fast. "I-uh it was Lucius Malfoy, atleast I think it was, and h-he muttered a spell and then I just felt my arm burn" was what I said in a rush, trying to justify myself. He furrowed his brow, and I looked away, and stared at my arm.
A new sort of mark adorned it, one that looked very similar to the dark mark, only simpler and very distorted and dark. "What does this mean?" I asked him in a whisper. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose and let go of my arm. "This means things get a lot more complicated", and then simply said "Very well, come, we must get to Hogwarts". For the second time that day, he grabs my elbow and lifts me up. I know I looked hopeless and pathetic, but honestly, I was far too tired and weary to care. We re-enter the living room, and I can't see my parents because Snape's body is in the way, whether he did this on purpose or by accident I don't know, but I was thankful for it. We both step into the fire place, he grabs a pinch of green powder from the mantel place, and sais "Dumbledore's office, Hogwarts" and lets the powder fall.
A/N: So feel free to comment if you want. You can give me suggestions about the plot line and such. All forms of criticism is welcome, just keep it polite :)