Dear readers, this is my first story on this site, please be gentle.

This story involves a little girl, if small children being tangled in the war upsets you, please do not read it.

Lips of ice

Part 1 Lights of green ~ hugs past

Poppy Pomfrey sat on a soft fluffy bed, surrounded by stuffed animals, with soft blue veils swooping over her, like wisps of moonlight.

She had never been more miserable in her life.

in her arms a six-year-old girl with strawberry-blonde braids, was sobbing her heart out.

Elizabeth Rose McAdams, Poppy's cousin's, wife's, sister's, daughter, was now an orphan.

While Elizabeth was in Hogsmeade with her aunt, Mr and Mrs McAdams had been in the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong blood in their veins.

When Ellie's aunt brought her sleepy niece home, she had been watching her sweet, smiling face, as she walked up the path to the house. it was only Ellie's high-pitched cry, that alerted her to the green monstrosity weaving through the air above her sister's house.

She had tried to stop Ellie from going inside. She had tried to reach the broken door first. She had failed. Ellie had found her parents.

Poppy could only imagine What Elizabeth's scream had sounded like, though she tried desperately not to.

That had been four weeks ago. Ellie would not eat. She would swallow what her care-takers (through magic, and magic alone) got into her mouth, but eat of her own accord she would not.

She would drink like a fish, and cry on occasion, but for the most part Ellie had been utterly silent.

Tonight, late in March, she had been able to talk about what had happened. And she had cried. Poppy was not sure what to do but tut over her depressed state, and after the first few hours, cry with her.

Every few minutes Elizabeth's tears would subside, and she would stare silently at the wall, or doze. Within a half hour she would start again, sometimes waking herself by doing so.

So Ellie cried, and Poppy rocked her gently back and forth, both of them utterly miserable.

After a time, the little girl quieted, and Madam Pomfrey stilled.

There was a catch in the child's throat, quiet as a sigh, and Poppy sniffed.

"i want Momma..."

Poppy's breath shook slightly. "Yes... Yes you do deary... 'M awfully sorry." She tried not to let her voice break.

"i hope he dies!" Her face stretched into an absurd expression as she tried not to cry.

There was a pause, then, "i don't understand."

The soft voice hiccoughed, and the red-rimmed, stormy eyes blinked back tears they weren't ready to hold just yet. "Why would the Bad Man kill Momma?"

Poppy though her heart would break for certain.

"Did i do something wrong? Did she do something? D-d-did P-Poppa? i don't understa- and...." Her words were broken into by exhausted little sobs.

"No." Poppy called on her no nonsense voice, though there were tears streaming down her face. "You did less than nothing wrong. You and your P-parents-" she caught herself starting to sob on the word, and she had already cried enough to last a lifetime, "your parents were... and are, very, very good people. You are a good little girl, and you have done everything you can. This is none of it your fault."

"Who's fault is it?" She sniffed softly, but sounded curious, not hurt, or scared.

"His," Madam Pomfrey said, and it was the closest to snarling she'd ever come. "The Dark Lord wll not stop till his vile power has touched all the world, and he ruins everything he touches." She suddenly realized who she was speaking to, and gasped afraid she had upset the little girl again.

Surprisingly the little girl seemed more bewildered than sad.

"That's so sad. Why doesn't he just say he's sorry, and be nice again?"

"He..." Madam Pomfrey looked down slightly, and tried to control the hatred in her voice. "He was never nice, love. He hates people. He kills people, it's how he is, plain as that. He loves no one, and no one loves him. He wouldn't know love if it kissed him on the mouth.

"Really?" Her face looked so stricken, Poppy, started, and mentally gave herself a good fussing-at.

She opened her mouth to answer the child, but Ellie looked down and said softly, "I'm really, really sorry.... What if no one ever loves him, and he hates people and is bad and awful all by his self? What if no one ever says 'i love you'..." Her small, red face crumpled and she started crying all over again, not for herself, but for the man who killed her parents.

"Deary, deary... i thought you wanted the.. the Bad Man to die."

"Yes," the little girl sobbed at the top of her voice, "but not all by his self!"

She broke down into sobs again, leaving poor, confused Pomfrey to sit, head spinning and pat the little girl's hair.

"I'm sorry!" Ellie's sobs rang out into the night. "I'm Sorry, I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"