Have you ever heard of the butterfly effect? Where one small, insignificant, teeny little action can change the course of the entire future...of course most of you have, it's a fairly popular theory. Apparently there's just that one little action that elicits a consequence- a reaction if you will, which causes an effect which changes the perception of something and so on and so on for an indefinite period of time. Have you, however heard of one small, insignificant, teeny tiny little action that can change the course of the last 23 years as well as the entire future? No, me neither...or not until now at least. So what was it that caused me to be in the library at that exact time? Was it a coincidence? Was it fate? Was it Professor Humdinkle's knack for being a complete douchefart and setting N.E.W.T. level essays when we've only just started 6th year and are already pretty far behind? Was it the fact that I had orange squash with my toast instead of my usual cup of tea this morning which led to a lengthy discussion about routine with my friends which led to me forgetting about aforementioned essay for which I needed a book from the library for, until an indecent time of night? Who knows, but the fact remains that for whatever reason, I was in the Hogwarts library at that indecent time of night and got myself cornered by a handful of creepers in cloaks and masks. Who, where, when, what, why or whatever caused me to be there isn't important just yet because it's the consequence of my being there that matters...so yeah, flash forward to my present and here I am.

The last thing I remember was a bright orange light hitting me right in my chest followed straight by a pink one and narrowly being missed by a bright green jet of light, then there was a flash of purple...not the jet of colour from a jinx this time but more of a burst of colour illuminating everything and then I hit the ground with an agonising impact. Everything hurts, trying to move hurts, my head hurts, my limbs hurt, my chest hurts. I can feel my energy dwindling away and each breath I take requires more and more effort, every inhale causes a jolt of pain through the entirety of my torso and my lungs to tighten painfully which leads me to inhale sharply and repeat the whole process...except each time my breath comes a little shallower and shallower...I don't know how to fix it, I just want the pain to stop but it can't- pain means I'm alive, I have to keep breathing if I want to live... and I do. I don't want to die, I can't die, I'm not ready. I realise my eyes are closed and it takes an immeasurable amount of time before I succeed in opening them again, it took several moments before my vision cleared enough to make out the tree branches looming over me and the bushes I was lay next to. Tree branches? Bushes? In the library? What, did they dump me in the Forbidden Forest while I was unconscious or something? Fuckers. It didn't seem as though I was in the forest though, the trees were too far apart and the flowers looked too well tended, I couldn't think on it more as I realised the pain was dulling and my vision was becoming even more out of focus and it frightened me, I didn't like the pain but I had just established that pain meant life! My breathing hitched and became faster and shallower, the faster my breaths came the shallower they were and the shallower they were the faster they came. Fuck.

Realising my eyes had shut I wrenched them open, I wasn't ready for this, I'm wasn't ready to go and if death wanted me you can be damn sure that I'm going to fight it off until my heart stopped- even if that inevitability was coming at the very least half a century too soon as far as I was concerned. Oh bloody hell, I've always said that I didn't want to die a virgin and yep, here I am, my life slipping away with every stupid, shitty bloody second that goes past and not only am I still a virgin but I've never even been kissed. Fuck you fate, destiny, or whatever the hell deity exists, just fuck you. Actually no, if I'm not getting fucked, neither are you so curse you, a plague upon your house! Yeah, that'll teach you to mess with me. Some rustling and the sound of twigs snapping interrupted my internal angst,

"-telling you, s'definitely around here somewhere." Said a male voice I didn't recognise.

Oh God, I thought, they're coming back to finish the job. They're going to kill me, I don't stand a chance. Well, that'll teach me to try and curse fate/destiny/some sort of deity. They act fast, I thought bitterly.
I was powerless to stop the possibilities of what they could do from running through my mind, there were so many kinds of torture, would they stick to wizarding methods like the Cruciatus curse or would they beat me and/or rape me...I remembered the atrocities the Daily Prophet reported during the war, I knew that they weren't above such things-I'd rather they just out right killed me. My breathing had become even more erratic, it was loud and rasping, even to my numbed hearing; praying silently but fervently that they wouldn't find me I frantically made an effort to calm myself down.

"I don't see anything Prongs, are you sure you saw it wasn't just an effect from the flash? Plus, your eyesight's less reliable than a dead badger's so maybe it was just nothing and you're dragging us around in bushes pointlessly." Replied a second male.

Prongs? Did I hear that right? But then it could be a code name of course; Death Eaters wouldn't use real names in a public place.

"Or maybe that was your plan all along, to get poor, unsuspecting, little old me into the neck of the forest where you'd take advantage of the isolation and blackmail me into doing you sexual favours! You whore!" Proclaimed the second male in a faux dramatic voice.

"Don't be an idiot all your life Pad." Replied a third voice in a dry tone as someone scoffed and replied.

Three. There are three of them and I am going to die. The fact sank in and it made me cold, my eyes lost focus for several moments as I became extremely dizzy. My wand! It suddenly occurs to me that I'm a witch, a witch who can do magic as long as she had a wand.

"God, you're dumb." A voice in my head tells me.

Maybe I can reach into my jeans pocket and heal myself enough so that I can hide and try and get back in school. After waiting impatiently for the bout of dizziness to fade away I go to reach for my wand, but my arm doesn't seem to want to co-operate with me very much, I had just slightly moved it when a flash of pain hit me centring in my elbow and radiating throughout the entire limb making my teeth clench and my heart stutter and I gasp and let out a frightened whimper. Fuck.

"I'm too pretty for y-"

I'm don't want to die.

"Shut up" Said the voice that had told off 'Pad' sharply, "I think I can hear something."

Shit. I lifted up my arm to bring my hand to my mouth in an attempt to stifle the rasping noises that were becoming incessant and noisy and drawing attention but that turned out to be the wrong thing to do as a wave of pain shot down my arm and made me cry out. A moment of tense silence follows, and then,

"This way, there's someone here." I hear one of the voices whisper loudly. I can't make out the replies over the combination of sound of my rasps and the snapping of twigs, cursing my stupidity internally I figure there's no point in wasting my energy with trying to control my breathing now. The rustling sounds mere feet away and the pain's not just stopping at radiating up and down my arm but is inching across my chest causing a tightening sensation; within seconds it all becomes too much, the pain, the dizziness, the situation I'm in and my injuries- I just want it to stop. I can feel my lungs protesting from the lack of oxygen, they feel constricted and I stop trying to fight. I allow my eyelids to slide shut and let the pain take over me hoping that I'll at least lose unconsciousness before the footsteps found me, not willing to face whatever these three have in store for me. My mind wanders and I think about my friends, wondering if they've noticed I'm missing yet- I told them I'd be about twenty minutes tops...surely it's been more than that by now. They had better cry when I'm discovered missing and at least one of them should name a child after me...a first born child. Something I realise that I'll never have, I realise suddenly.

I'll never fall in love, or make silly mistakes that I should learn from only to repeat them again. I'll never get proposed to or have a family of my own. I'm sixteen years old; I should have all these things to look forward to and I'm not going to get any of them, I think bitterly. I don't even get to graduate.

I'd rather my life flashed before my eyes than this morbid realisation, my mouth let out a weakened, strangled sob. I can hear someone talking near one of my ears but I can't figure out what they're saying and a hand feels hot against my cheek but – I don't know how to explain it- it doesn't feel like it normally does, it's as though all my senses have been numbed to some extent.

I guess they've found me I think emotionlessly, at least it won't take long for them to finish the job. Who says there isn't a silver lining?

I feel hands on my torso and fingers probing my neck and I flinch away slightly as a surge of pure terror overtake the emotionless state I was in. I wish my emotions and thoughts were numbed like my physical senses, the concept of rape is my worst nightmare and I'd no doubt rather die first.

"N-no, p-p-pl...ease" I can't help but let fear override my pride- some Gryffindor I turn out be.

The hands on my neck still their movements and move away, I can vaguely hear a voice –or more than one having a conversation. Maybe they're talking about how stupid I am, trying to plead with Death Eaters. Unsure whether or not they were laughing at my request or showing surprise that I still had enough life in me to be somewhat coherent I had no choice but to lie there while they talked about me. I strained my ears, focusing on the incessant hum that was their conversation trying to make out words, I'd probably regret it after I hear what they're saying but I can't take just lying there not knowing what was going to happen.

"-g to live that long if we don't do something now." One of them said urgently.

"We can't. Whoever did this used dark magic, it's not something we can fix ourselves and if we try we'll kill her.

Wait, fix...what? Aren't they just going t kill me anyway? My head spins as I consider the thought that may actually be sick enough to want to heal me just so that they can hurt me some more.

"Why isn't James back, do you think they're here?" For a soulless, evil killer this one almost sounded anxious and for some reason I find this amusing; a broken chuckle sounds from my mouth that comes across rather hysterical and breaks off with my breath getting caught in my throat which takes several tense moments to clear, just long enough that it makes me think that it's not going to, but when it does I realise the response the anxious Death Eater's companion is saying has broken off.

Oh my bad, do continue.

"It can't hurt to try, I suppose."

Yes it can!

Whatever they want to try can absolutely hurt, maybe not them but definitely to bloody me!

I wonder if it's normal to have these mood swings when you're bleeding out, I mean in the space of...well, I don't really know but it can't have been too long I've gone from scared and slightly reflective to emotionless to terrified to facetiously amused to curious to amused- I don't think this is normal.

"What shall we start with?"

How about pissing off? I think.

They don't sound very old to be honest, maybe around my age or so. Again, letting curiosity overtake my senses I open my eyes, it takes a while for my eyes to get into focus and even then things are quite blurry. Sight confirmed what I already knew; there were two guys here, plus the one that had gone somewhere whose name I'd forgotten. They were knelt on either side of me and my guess was right, they were around my age- maybe a few years older. One was sandy haired and the other black haired, I couldn't help but notice even through the blurriness that they were rather good looking (what, I'm grievously injured not dead, give a girl a break!). On the one si- Oh God, why is he pointing his wand at me?!

"Sshhhh, it's okay we're not going to hurt you." The black haired one said.

Oh sure I thought slightly hysterically, as soon as you put the damn wand down! My breath caught and this time I couldn't regain it, my head span and the wave of dizziness made me clench my eyes closed.

"You need to calm down pet; the more you panic the worse it'll be."

These guys need to work on their calming down techniques because seriously, they suck. At this point my arm was throbbing incessantly, my lungs tightened as I still couldn't catch my breath, my chest hurt, everything inside of me felt broken and heavy and one of my legs –I couldn't tell you which-felt as though it was on fire, I hadn't even realised I had injured it. I thought the pain was supposed to die down the closer you are to death in situations like this but this is excruciating.

A pair of hands places themselves on my face and a sharp voice is saying something I can't quite make out...

It sounds like the words are all connected making it sound like the irritating buzz of a bee. Heh. Buzz buzz buzzzzzzzzzzzzz. God, I guess my mind's the first thing to go. I think disparagingly.

My eyes flutter open slightly and see one of their faces right above mine and the other next to it-well it looks like they're floating head actually...it's a bit disconcerting if I'm frank.

But I'm not Frank, I'm me. Heh.

Shut up, me.

"Good girl, keep your eyes open darling, listen to me, focus on my voice,calm down, think around the pain, think of it as something separate from your body's normal function." The light haired floating head commands me.

I can't keep my eyes open; the daylight hurts them so I ignore him and let them close again.

"No, open your eyes, look at me, focus on my voice."

I want to die, please just let me die, I pray just leave me alone and let me die.

The pain wasn't stopping, with each second, each throb it intensifies. The hands are back on my face and this time more demanding and a hell of a lot more annoying, they pat me sharply on my cheek and when I don't respond they grasp my chin and shake my head sharply,

"Open your eyes, now. Get up." This must be the other floating head, the first one's nicer.

Opening my eyes I contort my expression into a weak glare of irritation and my suspicions are right, the dark haired head is now in my face while the other one, the gentler –if the word gentle can be used on a Death Eater- is on the side.

"Keep them open. Do. Not. Close. Them." The bossy one instructs me as he and his companion both move so that they're in my peripheral vision. Or they would be if my peripheral vision wasn't currently faulty and not available to see. One of them is holding their wand over me, clenching my teeth and moving my head so that I could see them, I see that, actually, they both have their wands out and aimed at me.

"-t with a diagnostic"

"We don't have time; she's already lost too much blood and she's struggling to breathe."

I'm bleeding?

"That won't fucking matter if they've cast certain spells on her then a simple healing charm will snuff her out long before blood loss and lack of fucking oxygen does. More painfully too."

How pleasant. Pleasant as a picnic.

"I still say we wait for James and Dad, Dad's had experience with stuff like this."

Dad? Is this some sort of Death Eater family reunion? Maybe they'll drink my blood as wine and eat me for dessert.

"We don't have time, Pads we need to act now!

Yes, please hurry up and heal me just so you can re-injure me. Oh, pretty please!

If we wait much longer she's dead, she's already delirious"

No I'm not.

"Fine, I'm starting with a diagnostic but if it picks anything up then we wait."

"And what if it is some kind of dark magic but one that isn't picked up with a diagnostic, then what?

There's no reply, the conversation stops here, I wasn't able to keep up with who was saying what but I managed to keep up with the conversation which was an achievement considering I think there's a bug in one of my ears. My airway opens slightly and allows me to take in some oxygen, instead of relieving the pain in my lungs it makes them throb like a bitch. The dark haired guy waved his wand over me and I braced myself just in case their version of a diagnostic spell varied from the one normal people who weren't Death Eaters cast, when nothing happened I relaxed slightly, thankful that they didn't add any more pain to what I was already feeling. A heavy silence hung in the air for several moments- long enough for me to wonder what they were going to do next.

"What now?" The sandy haired one asked.

The bossy one lowered his head so it was closer to mine. Woahhh. So the only time a guy this utterly sexy pays me any attention and he's going to be the death of me...great. Can we say typical?

"Did you feel anything? Did that hurt?" He asked.

If we were in any other situation it occurs to me that the first response that I'd think of and end up having to bite back to think of something suitable would be "Did it hurt when you fell out of my fantasies and into reality?" For some reason I found that rather funny and let out a giggle...well it was supposed to be a giggle but it sounded weird and stuttered and ended with a weak cough which sent spasms of agony shooting through me. Is it too soon to be getting used to this?

Focusing back on the two guys I saw that the third had come back, I couldn't really make out his face anymore or if any of them were saying anything, my hearing is literally completely blocked. I felt very light all of a sudden. On some level I'm kinda glad I'm not alone, they hadn't tortured me and it doesn't look as though they're going to get the time to either and this way I'm not alone- their presence is comforting in a round-a-about kind of way. One of them, I can't make out which is pointing a wand at me again and everything stops, there's no more pain until it feels as though something bursts inside me, it feels as though someone's cast the Cruciatus curse on each and every inch of my body and I black out.