A/N: Hi guys thank's for taking a look at this and a large Thanks goes to my amazing Beta AndiePotter-Snape for reviewing this first chapter! This story will be an eventual SS/OC story but their will also be a lot of RL/OC first before we can get there. I hope you enjoy the first chapter and please remember to R&R as this is my very first HP multi-chapter fanfic!
Full Summary:
Rose Ashmore, has had a cursed life since day one but when she leaves America and Wicca (Wizard Intelligence for the Completely Capable Adolescent) to go to England - a home that has haunted her since she could remember - and Hogwarts - a school she was destined for - to attend for her N.E.W.T.S, she meets a group of friends, a hot werewolf and a single, greasy haired boy, that could change her life forever.
Chapter 1 - Night of the Undead
It was a cold, bitter winter night. As the prophesy had fore-told a birth was occurring in the dying months.
Kayley Ashmore lay in a hospital bed in St. Mungo's. Yes, the night was cold, deadly cold but she could not feel it as her trembling body was drenched in her hot and sticky sweat. The strain of this phenomenal event had her body twisting and contorting in pain. She let out a blood curdling scream. It was minutes from midnight and Kayley only wished that this would be over.
"Almost there Kayley, just push a little further." The doctor announced not taking his eyes from the mother's opening.
Kayley grunted in response and tried to push it further, she strained to keep another blood curdling scream in and then the body-splitting pain stopped and there was silence. There were no cries from the mother and there were no cries from the new born child, and in this silence Kayley knew that something was wrong. "In the dying months, on the thirteenth hour, When Mars and Pluto meet, a petal shall come forth from the womb of a snake." The words floated through her mind. She was the snake, she had already guess as much, as she was a Slytherin but her child, her child could not be the one the prophesy had foreseen but the silence in the room was indeed confirmation that it was her child, that was foreseen to die. The dying months, the thirteenth hour, the dying months, the thirteenth hour. It was like a chant, a mantra echoing through her mind and she knew in the silence that the child, her child was dead.
The doctors had clean the dying child of the blood that covered it's body. They had decided that it would be better for their patient to be able to hold the child for however long it took for it to die. The doctor cradled the dying child in his arms as he made his way back over to the awaiting mother. Before he could pass the child on to her mother he saw the understanding in his patient's eyes, she knew already that her child was far beyond saving.
"She's alive but she's very ill." The doctor murmured. He gestured his assistant to following him out of the room. The man that had brought Kayley in was waiting outside of the door. The doctor strode over to him to speak to the waiting man.
"Mrs Ashmore will need all the support that she can get, Mr Prothorow. Her child is dying and there is nothing we can do for her." He said trying to remain indifferent as he spoke to the man. Lewis Prothorow nodded his head in understanding, feeling a stab of pain for Kayley's loss. He had always felt something for Kayley Adams and his unrequited love had gone on when she had married John Ashmore but all he had been in her eyes was her best friend, and Lewis would have done anything, been anything to stay beside the woman he love's side.
Kayley watched Lewis as he walked to her side; he had been her best friend since her first year at Hogwarts. He had been the first to introduce her to Lord Voldemort or, as he had been known as then, Tom Riddle. He had been there for her wedding, had been the shoulder to cry on when John turned violent in a drunken haze. Lewis had always been there for her and now he was here again, at her daughter's birth and death. She smiled softly to the man and gestured to him to sit down on the bed beside her.
Lewis watched Kayley as she gave him a feeble smile, and he felt another stab of pain for this woman. He felt in his pocket the potion he had created that he had titled "Resurrection". He had been keeping it on his person ever since he had disobeyed his Lord but now Kayley was in need of a miracle, was in need of something to save her daughter but the question wasn't if he could had over the potion, because he would do it in a heartbeat. The question was could he doom her child to a cursed life? Because that's exactly what would happen if Kayley fed the potion to her daughter.
Kayley watched Lewis watching her daughter, he was her best friend and she had fallen in love with him over the years but she had known that he would never love her in return so she settled for John. After a few moments Kayley murmured "My daughter is dying Lewis, she is dying in my arms. I'm afraid Lewis because I know, I can feel it, that there is no cure."
Lewis turned his eyes away from the child and meet Kayley's eyes he could see the fear in her eyes and the decision was made for him as he stared into the azure blue orbs. He pulled the resurrection potion from his pocket and handed it over to the woman before him. The potion was a deep opaque blood red colour. It had been concocted from the use of dark magic and it contained Unicorn blood and Phoenix tears; the strongest healing ingredients in the world. It contained other ingredients as well but he couldn't remember what they were. The potion was his original and only copy, and he knew that he would not be able to make it again.
"Fed this to her, Ley, and she will live but she will have to die first." Lewis murmured, fear flashed in Kayley's eyes but then a strong head-fast determination settled in her eyes and he knew exactly what she was thinking without the need of legimancy. Lewis got to his feet and made his way to the door to leave Kayley alone with her daughter until the child died.
"Lewis," She called him back, he turned around and met her azure blue eyes again. "Will you be Rosemarie's Godfather?" She asked a smile dancing on her lips. He smiled in return, and elation filled his chest for the first time that night.
"It would be an honour," He bowed deeply in a mocking way and elation filled him even more when he heard her giggle. He raised again, a smile gracing his lips and turned away from her. He didn't know where they would stand after this, he didn't know if Rosemarie would live at all but he hoped that he would never lose Kayley and that one day she would be his once John was gone.
Kayley watched her daughter struggling to draw breath and knew that Rosemarie was suffering. Kayley uncorked the potion and placed it to her daughter's lips, and with one movement of her hand the blood red potion slipped down her daughter's mouth.
She watched as her beautiful forest green eyes widen and flash blood red before returning back to normal but the life in those eyes drained away as they slowly changed back to normal. Her little pale chest slowly came to a stop and her body became limp within the mother's arms. Kayley cried over her daughters dead body and she hoped, hoped with all of her strength that Lewis was right, that her daughter would come back to life. Kayley spent the rest of the night crying for her daughter, she fell into a deep sleep as the night sky slowly brightened with pre-dawn light. No-one saw Lewis slip back into the room, No-one saw Lewis bend over the sleeping woman to kiss her lips and no-one saw Lewis remove the baby from the woman's arms to cradle the soon-to-be-living baby, until the woman awoke from her deep sleep.
No one saw the famous Arura Lucinda Adams striding down the maternity ward in her fast-paced stroll. No one noticed the smile gracing her lips, no-one would have known that on the thirteenth hour her only grandchild was born. To say that Lucinda wasn't happy about this event would be like saying that witches couldn't preform magic. Lucinda was elated that she had a grandchild and she was now making her way — as fast as she could without running — to see her daughter and grandchild.
Kayley had said goodbye to Lewis an hour ago, his mark had burned and he had to return to their Lord with news as to why Kayley could not be present at the meeting she knew was being held at that very moment but her mind was not occupied by Lewis or the Dark Lord, or what the meeting was even about. Her thoughts, her attention was for the bundle of joy in her arms, her daughter alive and healthy as if nothing had happened to the child in the dead of the night at all. The doctors had proclaimed it to be a miracle and Kayley could do nothing but smile and agree with them.
It wasn't until Lucinda Adam and John Ashmore entered into the room that her attention was pulled away from Rosemarie. Kayley smiled as she saw her mother and husband enter into the room. Her smile faltered for a moment as she wished her father could be present too, but he had died years ago, killed in a battle against some dark wizard or another. Lucinda and John made their way to Kayley's bed and sat down in the chairs surrounding her bed. When Rosemarie had unlatched herself from her mother, Kayley handed over her daughter to her mother as she embraced John on the bed.
Lucinda took the tiny girl in her arms and felt joy spread through her heart as she looked down into the intelligent dark, forest green eyes. The child stretched her hand towards Lucinda's face and when the tiny hand touched her cheek, a memory that was not Lucinda's flashed into her mind.
Darkness. Total and complete darkness. The heart pounded blood through the gains was starting and faltering, echoing uneven beats through the veins of the dying child. The memory switched and again Lucinda was pulled into it. A man sat on the bed, the mother's warm embrace protecting her from him. Words that the child could not understand echoed around her, understanding did not fill the child, and she held back her cries of fear. The man gave her mother something and then he left. She could feel her mother crying, why was she crying? And as she struggled to let out a cry, as she struggled to breath her mother put something to her lips. Before Rose could do anything the stuff was draining down her throat. Pain. Too much pain, it made her body burn, made her want to cry but she couldn't, her body wasn't working, her tiny heart was slowing and then it stopped. The baby hand's left Lucinda's face and the new grandmother looked down into those deep and dark forest green eyes, and she saw the intelligence and understanding in the child's eyes. What on earth had just happened, the child had just shown her a memory of the night before. The child had not known the man in the memory but Lucinda did. She knew that it had been Lewis Prothorow, her daughter's best friend from her school days. The half-blood her mind whispered, but Lucinda had never cared about blood status even though she herself was a pureblood.
Her eyes turned to her daughter and she knew she couldn't tell her daughter about what she had just seen. She couldn't understand what had happened but she knew that her daughter would not take kindly to what she had just seen, what she had just learnt. She couldn't comprehend how her daughter could allow for her own daughter to be mutilated in this fashion. Lucinda knew in her heart that the child would have more unusual gifts that would be born from this mutilation but she couldn't loathe the child, she only hated what her daughter had done to her granddaughter. She met John's eyes, eyes that beseeched her to hand over the child and without really thinking she did. She closed the curtains with a flick of her wand to give the new family some privacy and she returned to her thoughts as she strode away from the family and out of the hospital.
John happily took the baby from Lucinda's arms, not completely understanding the emotions swarming in Lucinda's eyes and looked down into the familiar eyes - so much like his own - set into the baby's face. He smiled as he watched the child stretching her tiny hands towards his face. "She's beautiful," he murmured and then the baby's hand connected with his face and he was pulled into the memory that the baby had just shown Lucinda. John couldn't do anything to pull himself out of the memory. He could only watch in fascination and horror as the memory played out in his mind.
When little Rose's hand fell from his face, John's mind returned to the present, his eyes still locked on his daughter's own eyes, so similar to his own. He realized that this was what had happened to Lucinda when she had blanked out. Somehow something had happened to little Rosemarie, true, he knew little of the wizarding world as he was — as his wife's friends sometimes accidentally let slip — a muggle, but still he somehow knew that something wasn't right. It had to have been done by Kayley no-one else had been with her besides the doctor – and that other man, his mind whispered but John pushed away the thought - and John doubted that this oddity would have been the doctor's fault. Yes, Kayley had been changing lately but he had thought those changes were due to the pregnancy.
It was strange, an oddity to his only child but he couldn't see her to hold any flaws. In his eyes his daughter was perfect, she could do no wrong. In his eyes, she was his little Rose, his little petal and she was perfect. When he felt Rosemarie fall asleep in his arms, he laid her down in the cradle besides the bed.
"She's beautiful," He murmured to himself, he lifted his head and met Kayley's eyes. "I'll be back later, get some sleep." He told her and kissed his wife. Then he left the hospital without looking back at her.
Kayley watched her husband's expression turn for tuned-out to a look of pure adoration for the little Rosemarie in his arms. Yes, the child was beautiful, she was after all Kayley's own flesh and blood, and Kayley had always been beautiful in her own eyes. But now as she watched her husband looking at their daughter in that way, she felt jealousy rear its ugly head. It was absurd for her to feel jealousy for the new born and yet she did indeed feel jealous of the child. She didn't want the child any more, the pure beautiful child, she still loved her but now she was starting to regret saving the child's life. No, she shook her head in disgust towards herself, that's a shameful thing to think, Ley. That's your daughter and your husband loves you, there is nothing to be jealous of.
Kayley only smiled when her husband murmured again "She's beautiful," and Kayley could only agree, he was right after all, Rosemarie was beautiful. She watched him lay the child down, felt him kiss the top of her head and watched him leave before she fell asleep again.
It had been exactly nine years since that day, since Rose's birth and John had loved his daughter with all of his heart. He knew his wife had changed, she wasn't the woman he had fallen in love with. She was violent now and vain, not to mention that she was also morbid and dark. She had become jealous of her daughter's beauty and it just pained John to see the way his wife treated his daughter. He was afraid that he had loss her but there wasn't anyone that he could talk to about it, was there?
John looked down on the dead body and started investigating for its cause of death. John had become a mortician as it was the only work he could find and usually he was good at what he did but now he was stumped, there were no obvious sings of the cause of this death, it had not been shot, strangled, or drowned. The body had not died of a loss of blood as there were no cuts upon the body; John did tests on the inners of the body and he found that it had not died of any disease known to man. If it had not been for the fact that there was no pulse, the body could have been passed for being asleep and yet the body was dead and John could not understand how unless... But no that couldn't be, there weren't murderers in her kind was there? He knew that there were prejudices against muggles but they wouldn't kill a muggle would they? And yet it was the only solution but John knew that if this was indeed done by one of her lot he couldn't put it down in their records and so John knew that there was nothing he could do. He simply marked that the cause of death was unknown and slipped the white sheet back over the dead body.
John walked away from the dead body and went to wash his hands. He was going to go home early and spend the day with his daughter for her ninth birthday.
"See you tomorrow John," Mike Welch called from the far corner of the staff room while John collected his things. Mike was a good friend and so John replied with warmth "Yea see you tomorrow Mike," before he left the morgue for the day.
On Belmont street sat a tiny two story house, in this house lived Kayley, her daughter Rose and her husband John. Across the road lived the Potter's and their son, James. James and Rose were friends though they weren't as close as James wished that they were. James found the girl fascinating and beautiful, and it was the girl who had occupied his thoughts ever since he had met her at the little park at the end of the road. It was now, that James was making his way across the street to wish the beautiful girl happy birthday that he found her sitting on the wooden steps leading to her house that he found her crying. He felt a stab of pain for the girl and felt the small package inside of his coat's pocket burn against his skin.
"Hey Rose," James said as he sat down beside her. She sniffled softly and laid her head down on his shoulder.
Rose felt James wrap an arm around her waist and sighed, why she was crying on her birthday she didn't know, she only woke up with a terrible feeling inside of her and knew that something bad was going to happen. "Hi James," Rose replied after a while.
"Come on stop crying," James chuckled and pulled out the present he had made for her. "Here, Happy birthday, I made it myself." He said with a lazy smile directed towards the girl sitting beside him. She straightened up and took the gift from him. Rose smiled softly as she unwrapped the small package. Inside it she found a tiny wooden heart on a silver chain long enough to hang around her neck. She smiled softly before she kissed the boys cheek.
"Thank you James," She murmured as she turned around so that the boy could put the necklace on her. James blushed slightly as her lips touched his cheek but she seemed not to notice. When the necklace was on Rose, James lean back against the steps and looked up into the greying sky.
"Do you want to go to Maraudy's Fort?" James asked, asking the girl to go to their tree house in the little park down the road. Rose looked over at James and smiled sadly.
"I can't James, I'm waiting for my dad to get home," She replied honestly. She felt a stab of regret as James got his feet and with a murmured "Alright, well I'll see you later Rose," he ran off back across the street and into his own home. Rose, fingering the heart he gave her goes back inside hoping her father would come back home soon.
John walks into his home in the late afternoon and is welcome by silence which is unusual as there is always a noisy fight happening when he arrives home from work. He places his keys on the hook near the door and see's Rose in the lounge room reading the large book of muggle fairy-tales – that he had given her this morning – on the cushion on the floor. He smiled softly to himself and made his way upstairs to find where his wife is. John opened their bedroom door but Kayley wasn't in there, he closed the door and made his way to the bathroom, John opened this door too but found that Kayley wasn't in there either, John then made his way to the study and it was in there that he heard voices coming from underneath the door. John slowly opened the door and was shocked to see what he found behind the door.
Kayley had spent the day doing the usual, ignoring Rose and on this particular day she was ignoring the fact that it was her daughter's birthday. Lewis had arrived not too long ago by apparition and pulled Kayley into the study with him. It wasn't until they were both in there and the door closed behind her that he pushed her up against the wall and kissed her with all the love he felt in his heart for her. Lewis's heart had filled with elation and lust when Kayley responded to his kiss with a kiss of her own. Love and Lust took over when he had his way with her against the door. It wasn't until a few hours later when he had shown her everything he had been feeling for her for the past twenty years that he decided that he needed to talk to her about the last meeting of the Death Eaters.
"Look Kayley, the Dark Lord insists that if you want to be in his inner circle that you have to kill a muggle, your husband in particular but if you can't do it then I'll..." Lewis had been ranting but he was surprised when Kayley lifted up her hand for him to stop speaking.
"No Lewis, I will be the one to kill John. I must do it, the Dark Lord will know if I have done it or not. Besides I want to do it, I want to kill him. I don't, I don't love him anymore." Kayley said a strong determination in her voice, she faltered for a moment and then she met Lewis's eyes and whispered "I love you Lewis." They kissed again with as much passion as before but before things could go further again they heard the door opening. It opened before they could escape each other's arms and the shock on John's face was enough to know that there was going to be trouble. Lewis appariated and Kayley pulled John downstairs saying nothing until they were in the now empty lounge room.
"How dare you, after everything I've done for you Ley, you go around and cheat on me behind my back with that filthy Prothorow." John screamed his anger and hurt mixing in his words.
"How dare you call him filth, you filthy muggle." Kayley spat the word with as much venom in her voice that she could muster. "It's about time you learnt your place in my world muggle or you will die."
"Kayley you can't mean that! I'm your husband! You would tear this family apart because of your own insecurities..." He started yelling again but before he could finish his sentence Kayley had pulled out her wand and had shouted "Crucio". John fell to his knees in front of his wife and let out a blood curdling scream.
John's screams echoed around the house and it only egged Kayley on, the poison of her blood pumping through her veins. She knew what she was going to do but she didn't feel disgust at herself, she only felt elation and joy, because she would finally not only be a true Death Eater but she would finally be with Lewis and nothing would be standing in their way.
Rose heard the blood curdling scream ad ran out from her bedroom and down the corridor leading to the opening at the top of the stairs. She ran down the stairs, she kept on running until she was at the archway of the lounge room. She looked in there and saw her mother towering over her twisting and squirming father, her mother's wand pointing at her father's heart. She watched in hope when Kayley lifted her wand the curse ending but again Rose watched in horror as the wand was pointed once more at her father's heart and Kayley yelled "Adava Kedavra". There was a flash of green light and then there was only darkness. Rose met the eyes of her mother and she saw the hate that her mother felt towards Rose.
There was nothing else that Rose could do but run and so she ran, past the potter's house down the road in the opposite direction of the park, running towards Grandma Adams. Her only protection left against the evil that was her mother.
Kayley did what The Dark Lord told her. She had to kill a muggle to be in his inner circle and so she had killed her husband for her Lord. She dropped her wand arm and turned her head so that she could look at the little girl across the room from her. She had hoped that Rose wouldn't have had to see that. It wasn't something that a little girl should see. Kayley felt her left arm burn but the pain didn't mean anything, she had stopped feeling pain a long time ago. She watched as Rose ran from the house, she couldn't be bothered to stop her. She loved her daughter; she loved her in the way that only the heartless could love someone.
She couldn't remember when she had become heartless, or the event's that had led up to it but she did remember her daughter's birth. She remembered unbelievable joy as she looked at her daughter for the first time, she remembered the feeling of ice-cold terror rushing down her body as she realized that Rose - as she had named her after the first flower "Petal" that had come to mind - was dying in her arms, she remembered as Lewis Prothorow had given her the potion, the one he promised would save her life but he had also warn her that Rose would have to die first before it could take place. She remembered as Cathy Chandler had prophesized Rose would die and had foreseen that Rose would be of use to the Dark Lord. She remembered when she had first met Tom Riddle, remembered how he had been idolized at school by their classmates - especially the Slytherin's - favoured by all but one, Albus Dumbledore, an old friend of her mother's, an aurora still in her prime despite her age. Her mother was invaluable to the wizarding world and yet she knew how her mother would despise her for her choice of going to the dark side.
No matter, she though as she sent the dark mark to reside over the top of the house, letting the world know that there had been murder here. The muggles wouldn't see a thing - not that they ever did - but her mother at the end of the road would, and so would the perfect Potter's across the road.
The Potter's watched Rose run from her house down the street, the watched as Mrs Ashmore set the dark mark in the sky; they watched her appariate into the night with a loud crack and they huddle together in front of the fire grateful that their family wasn't as messed up as the one across the road.
Rose ran down the little path leading up to her grandmother's house. She knocked loudly on the door and waited, tears falling down her face as her grandmother opened the door. Her grandmother was a little younger than James mother – at the age of 48 - but at that moment the thought didn't occur to Rose, she only flew into her grandmother's arms and collapse into them as the horror of the night over took her body and mind and sent her into unconsciousness's overly large, velvety black wings.
A/N: So what did you think of the first chapter? How do you think Rose will turn out after the "messed up" mother and death of her father? And what of James? and old Maurady's Fort? Tell me what you think no matter if it's good, bad, criticism or flame and remember to and this story to you alert's list if you want updates. I would like to get at least 5 Review before I post the next chapter :) Thanks for reading!