Hi everyone! This is my first Harry Potter story, it takes place after the 6th book so for anyone who has not read the book you may not want to read this story. The first chapter is a spoiler! Im not quite sure where im going with this story, so if anyone has some ideas, please share the wealth! I dont want this to become a mary jane and help would be greatly appreciated!I love reviews, but please if your going to criticise (sorry i cant live without spell check) make it constructive. And for the record, i own nothing all credit goes to the wonderful J.K. Rowling.

Laura woke with a start, a wicked laughter echoing through her mind punctuated by a nerve rattling scream.

"It was only a dream. It was only a dream." She whispered to herself in the dark.

She jumped again when a bolt of lightning sliced across the sky and shook the small house with a clap of thunder. Laura reached for her wand and pointed it a lantern, hesitating for only a moment before casting the spell to set the wick ablaze.

"The ministry has almost no power anymore, why do I even think about it?" she wondered out loud while checking the time, 3:30.

Even if the ministry did send a letter about underage sorcery, she wouldn't go to the hearing, it would probably just get cancelled because of some greater emergency, then forgotten about.

Laura sat up in her bed, shivering slightly from a chill. She had broken out in a sweat from the nightmare. For some reason she could never remember all the details from the dream only the laughter, the screams, and the horrible feelings that came with it. She knew the dream had to do with her parents, and possibly their deaths. No one was certain that the couple was dead, but Laura was beginning to loose hope, there was just so much death and destruction now that You- Know- Who was back, no one could blame her for giving up.

It had been two weeks since her parents were last seen and as far as she knew they were just going to a regular day of work (well as regular as a day gets). Sometimes they stayed late, even over night. The first two days that they were absent Laura never thought about it, but as two days stretched into five, then a week, Laura knew something was wrong. The young girl of 17 had already cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She had lost 10 pounds and just started taking care of herself again a few days ago. She couldn't sleep much, her dreams were terrorized by shouts of unforgivable curses, menacing laughter, and petrified screams of horror and pain. She tried to stay as alert as possible but didn't see the point, if anything happened she would be completely defenseless, what little magic she knew she could only perform half of the time.

Laura had never even finished her schooling at Hogwart School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, her parents had withdrawn her only months before the tragic death of the headmaster, Dumbledore. She was only in her fourth year, but amazed to have made it that far, the beautiful girl had hardly any talent for the craft. Her only strong point was potions which mostly required concentration, patience, and the ability to follow instruction. In her other classes she was hopeless.

Laura looked over at her school trunk and sighed, she missed the school greatly, but knew it would not open again for a long time, if at all. It had been nearly two years since the death of the headmaster and betrayal of the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Snape. Laura had been shocked to learn that the former Potions teacher had killed Dumbldore, yes Snape was evil looking and greasy, but she figured a teacher who had been working at the school for so long would be trustworthy. Now he was somewhere with You- Know- Who doing who knows what.

She sighed at the recollection of all the negative memories, and after a few more minutes layed back down in her bed, only to bolt upright again.

"Smash!"

Laura jumped out of bed as silently as she could and crept to the hallway. Breathing heavily she looked in all the rooms searching for the cause of the noise. She hesitated at her parents room,

"Maybe they will be there this time. Telling me to go back to bed and stop spooking at silly noises." She whispered to herself.

But upon opening the door she found nothing. No disturbances, and no mom or dad.

"Creek, thump! Creek, thump!"

Her heart felt as if it was clawing out of her chest and all of the nerves in her body were strung to the snapping point.

She slowly opened the door to the bathroom, she was almost certain the eerie noises were coming from the room.

Opening the door she sighed with temporary relief, the window had been shattered by the tree outside. One of the branches were sticking a few feet into the room. As the wind blew it caused the branch to screech over the window sill and bump into the neighboring wall.

"That proves that they are dead." She whispered darkly while shoving the branch back outside and attempting to repair the window.

After a few tries, one causing all the broken glass to swirl into a whirl wind shooting random shards of glass in different directions. Laura had to settle with the glass being back in place but with all the lines from where it had broken still present.

The young girl knew her parents were dead, the broken window had proved it. Their protection spells and hexes were disabled, broken. But she had no more tears left for them, she had already realized the truth. Laura walked down the hall and saw it with new eyes, it looked shabbier, dilapidated. The paint was pealing, the doors squeaked, a few of the pictures were crooked. One had even fallen to the floor, the occupant was laying on his side with a very impatient look on his face.

She continued to walk down the hall, as if in a daze, but stopped when someone cleared their throat. The surprised teenager spun around her long blonde hair billowed behind and with pale blue eyes wide with fear she looked around her, but no one was there.

"As your great great grandfather, I do expect a little more respect."

Laura looked down at the fallen picture . 'So that's who you are.' She thought as she lifted the frame with the old man in it back up to the wall. The picture would not stay though, the frame and complaining old man crashed to the ground. She sat it upright and left it on the floor, to the disapproval of her great great grandfather, but she did not know any sticking spell and was in no mood to learn and practice one.

The young women ignored the old mans complaints and walked into the living room. She thought she saw a movement in the shadows, causing her to start, but she quickly blamed it on the candle she must have left lit before going to bed.

'That's strange, I don't think I've ever used candles before. Why is there one lit? Even if I did use one, I would have blown it out, I cant chance the house burning down.' She thought as she walked toward it.

She was confused and leery, unsure what to do. She stared at the candle, noticed that the stand was shaped like a snake, curled up tightly, even defensively around the base of the black candle.

"This is very wrong, and out of place." The frightened girl whispered and began stepping back. She gasped when a shape suddenly formed from the darkness. As if the shadows had formed together into the shape of a hooded figure and was now gliding to her.

Laura wanted to run, scream, cast curses or spells, anything but stand there, but she couldn't do any of that, she was frozen in fear.

"Who- who are-" She started to demand but was cut short, a cold hand had reached around and covered her mouth, she could feel its strength even without testing it, and knew that even if she could move, fighting back would be pointless. She vaguely noticed her wand slipping from her grasp and hit the floor with a soft "tink- tink" Her knees were shaking and ready to give out. All she could register were icy words being whispered into her ear.

"Do exactly as you are told, and you may live."

The hands withdrew and Laura felt herself fall to the ground, her knees finally lost all their strength. She looked up and realized there were two of them. There where two death eaters in her house!

"W-why?" She squeaked, her throat so pinched she didn't even think she could make any noise.

She stoop up weakly, not sure if she was just having another nightmare, but the bump on her elbow was swelling, forcing her to realize that this was all real.

"Why are you here and haven't killed me yet? Surely you have no need for me?" She asked timidly, she really was expecting death, why else would two death eaters come into her house?

"This is no time for answers, the Dark Lord has asked us to retrieve you." The one who hadheld her replied. Laura thought she recognized the voice.

"P-Professor Snape?" She stuttered, but got no answer.

"It is time." The other figure announced. He was the one Laura saw emerge from the shadows.

She watched cautiously, unsure what was about to happen.

The figure she thought to be Snape reached over and grabbed her arm dragging her over to the candle, the other figure moved over also. Laura stood tense while all three of them reached for the candle, Snape leading Lauras hand. The candle was a port key.