Winter wasn't six months away, but I still felt a chill creep up my spine everytime the sun went down. Mum and Dad had only picked me up from the train yesterday, but already life at Hogwarts seemed so far away. I only had to survive on the streets here for six week, then we'd all head to Headquarters, after that the Burrow. Those were my only true homes.

Not these rat infested streets my parents lived by.

Maybe Malfoy was right? I am a filthy mudblood. I sure did feel like one.

"Mia?" A shocked voice asked.

I looked up from my work of kicking a pebble down the street.

"Hey, Liam," I replied neutrally.

This brown haired, brown eyed boy was the exact reason my parents had to move here. He had taken their credit card and blown everything they had. He was also the exact reason the shadows have eyes. My brother was a very dangerous Muggle no one wanted to cross.

"What are you doing out here?" he demanded. Although nearly two years older, he was nearly as terrifying as Voldemort's tales, maybe equal to meeting Voldemort in person. Maybe.

"I was looking for you, actually," I lied convincingly. "Mum says dinner's ready."

"I won't be home for dinner," he said codly. "Neither will you."

"But mum and dad-"

"I don't care about Mum and Dad," he interrupted. "I have work to do, so do you."

"Who-Who's going to be there?" I knew I stuttered, but I couldn't really help it. I was terrified of my brother.

"Anthony and Kyle."

"Oh. . . okay," I nodded. "I should call mum and-"

"Already took care of it," Liam grabbed my arm and dragged me to an alleyway where his little gang meets. I knew he didn't call mum, and she'd be worried sick all night. A few pieces of fotted plywood fell away due to my brother's violent movement to rid them from his path. Tony and Kyle looked up from their game of cards.

"You brought the main dish," Kyle looked me over and I felt my anger swell up before I looked him back over. Leather jacket, dirty ripped jeans, black shirt, and DC shoes on his feet. The usual was what it would be. My welcome home.

"I'm more of a . . . pudding surprise," I shrugged. I hated them all. I hated my parents for putting me in this neighborhood. I hated my brother for making me apart of the gang. I hated his friends for using me like I'm trash.

"Back from boarding school?" Tony asked. He flopped a card down, without even glancing at me further.

"I'm here, aren't I?" my voice had taken a bossy tone, the one I used on Harry and Ron when they didn't study or do their homework.

"Yes, I guess you are," Tony frowned, setting another card down. Whether he was disappointed with my tone or the game he was playing, I didn't know. Nor did I care.

Kyle put all of his cards down, letting Liam take his place. But Kyle sauntered towards me. The dangerous glint in his eyes caused me to freeze in fear.

"Kyle, be careful, please," Liam warned, but his heart wasn't in it.

"Oh, boss, I will be," Kyle smirked. Tony looked up from his cards briefly, seeing my terrified face. Then he looked down and pretended nothing was going on as he placed his card atop Liam's.

"I win," Tony said casually. My heart was racing as Kyle cornered me against the brick. "Kyle you shouldn't freak her out. Watch how its done."

Before I knew what was happening, Tony was in front of me, Kyle growling in frustration behind him. Tony's hand reached out and I looked at it hesitantly.

"I'm not gunna hurt you, doll," he smirked. My eyes flickered to his own and there was a hint of worry, concern, and something begging me to trust him. I took his hand after a second and he threw a grin over his shoulder to a fuming Kyle. Liam looked amused.

"She's gulliable," I heard Liam spit. Tony opened a door to my right, to a beat up white van, before shoving me inside. He got in himself, shutting the door.

"Muss up your hair," Tony said quietly.

"Wha-?" I asked, confused.

"Fine," he sighed. His hands shot to my head, causing me to flinch until I realized he was knotting up my hair. I looked so much like Lavender Brown I wanted to puke. My clothes disheveled, my hair a mess, and there were bruises over my skin where Tony had squeezed my wrists and arms to make it look like he hand manhandled me.

"I don't understand," I whispered, expressing my confusion.

"You really thought I'd do that to you?" Tony snorted. "I'm horrible, but not that much. You need to stop coming here."

"I would if Liam-"

He shook his head, "You have to have somewhere to go until you go back to school."

I shook my head, tears springing in my eyes, "Not for six weeks," I admitted. "Well, five weeks, four days."

"You need to escape," Tony whispered forcefully, shaking my arm. "Soon."

"I have nowhere to go!" I stressed. "Liam's my brother. If I go live with family, he'll find me!"

"I can protect you, if you trust me."

I nodded immediately, "If-if you don't want to-"

"If I didn't want to, I wouldn't have offered," Tony snapped. "Quickly, yes or no?"

"N-I mean, Yes," I hesitated.

"Play along," he requested before kicking the doors open, "I want her for myself."

Liam raised an eyebrow, "What?"

"She's mine," Tony smirked, an evil glint in his eyes. "I want her to myself."

"No way man!" Kyle shouted. "I called dibs on her!"

How could these teenagers, not much older than me, disrespect woman so easily? It's not like we did anything terrible to them! We need protection from these types of monsters.

"Too late," Tony smirked. "You should have had her before I did. She's mine."

Liam looked to me, to see the flush in my face from the hottness of the van and the tears in my eyes from the admittance to me being weak and not being able to escape my own brother's hold.

"You can have her. She can't be that great."

He wasn't like this. He never was! He was a nice guy, hardly ever said anything mean to me or anyone. Then one day he steals Dad's credit card, which contained most of the family's income, and splurged it all on a van, a few cars for him and his buddies, and then we lived in the slums. Literally. I worked as hard as I could while I was home in the summers, babysitting, just to get some money for my parents to flee. As long as they were safe. Dad almost had to sell the business, and then we'd be homeless as well.

"And she stays with me," Tony said, glaring at Kyle.

"Whatever, man. I get your sister."

"She's five, Kyle," Tony spat. "She's hardly of any use."

"Not in a few years, she won't be," Kyle smirked. "Ka-ching."

"Ugh, you disgusting, little, foul, evil cockroach!" I hissed.

Tony gripped my wrist and I felt his slap before I saw it. I clenched my jaw in anger, but otherwise remained silent.

"And you already have her under control," Liam laughed. "Way to go, mate."

"I'm taking her back to my place so she can get aquainted with her new prison," Tony winked at the two boys.

I struggled the entire way to his beat down Chevy and when I was shoved in the back, after the alley was out of sight, did I stop struggling.

"Sorry," Tony muttered.

"Don't be," I said quietly. I saw his gun in the passenger seat. "Can you teach me how to use that?"

"Use what?" I saw Tony look at me through the mirror.

"The gun. Teach me how to use it," I demanded.

"Why would I do that?" Tony spat.

"Because I'm going to kill them," I swore. "Him and Liam."

Tony laughed, "Sure, sweetheart. I'd like to see you try."

"By the time I leave for school, they'll be underground," I promised. I knew I had let the darkness overwhelm me, but I would be protecting many people if they lived. I had to protect the people.

"Like your spunk, girl," Tony chuckled, "But you don't have the guts. You're too innocent, too, poppet."

"Watch me," I challenged.

1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&1&

Two days, two days until Fred and George would come to get me. Two bloody days! And now I was sounding like Ron. I had managed to rack up three hundred pounds babysitting around the block and that morning, I pressed it into my mum's hand.

"Leave," I told her quietly.

"Honey," she sighed. "You know we can't. You need this for your school books."

"I got them last summer," I told her. "I don't need it. Please, mum, just leave and forget about Liam. I know he's your son, but he's killed and hurt people before."

"There's not anything I can do about that," my mother sighed.

I bit my lip, "Mum, please."

"I'm sorry," she pressed the money back into my hand before grabbing her purse. "I have to go to work. Be careful, alright? Miss Havisham's expecting you at eight, dear!"

"Bye, Mum," I said softly, hugging her, and discreetly slipping the pounds into her pocket. "I love you."

She smiled brightly, "I love you, too, Mia."

I watched her leave and then waited a few moments before picking up the phone, "Tony? Yeah, its Mia. Listen, I need a favor from you."

"What is it?" he sounded tired. I probably woke him up.

"Sorry for waking you," I apologized quickly. "But I need you to try to have sex with me tonight. But in the middle of the entire gang."

"Mia, what the hell!" he gasped, suddenly awake.

"I made a promise," I said with determination. "And I don't break promises. I'll meet you in the alley at nine tonight."

I hung up before he could disagree and slipped my tennis shoes on. The phone rang right after I hung up, but I chose to ignore it and grabbed my purse. Babysitting, here I come.

I made a hundred pounds today, from Ms. Havisham, just because she had me stay two hours over than when I was supposed to. After apologizing to me profusely, she ended up doubling my pay. I told her over and over again, that I didn't need any of it, but she wouldn't hear it. I worked five pounds an hour for ten hours. It's not like I bloody needed it. I was leaving in two days.

I clutched my purse to me with determination set in my jaw. Tonight, it was going to happen.

Almost as soon as I pushed the plywood away, I was slammed into the brick wall.

"I need you right now," Tony groaned into my ear as he placed a kiss onto my lips with need.

"When I say," I murmured against his lips so that no one would hear but him. "Move to the left."

He nodded and started to slide his hand up my shirt. My heart was pounding. I had never gone even this far with anyone and this was all new for me. So I made it look like I knew what I was doing while digging in my purse blindly. I found what I was looking for and clutched it in my hand.

"Move," I whispered.

He moved and seemed to push me against the wooden fence that blocked the alley from the street, but I manuvered so that my back was to him and the small gun was pointed at the two boys that were watching with interest. I fired at first Kyle and then turned to Liam.

"Woah, Mia."

"You treated me like garbage," I spat. "And you treat anyone you see on the streets at night as garbage. It's ridiculous, Liam. And I'm fed up with it, so is Mum and Dad."

I fired and let the tears fall. I turned to Tony, and he held up his hands. I tossed the gun to him, making sure the safety lock was on. "Clean that well and don't look at me for a full two minutes, got it?"

He nodded, confused, and turned his back to me. I pulled my wand out and knew that since I was doing underage magic, I had to use small spells so it looked like I was studying. "Think, Hermione, think," I muttered. "Scourgify," I whispered. "Accio bullets."

The two bullets shot into my hand and I pressed them into my palm before backing up from the bodies and shoving my wand into my pants. "Let's go," I ordered Tony. I grabbed his hand with my bloodless one and ran to my house.

"Stay here," I ordered.

He nodded and I took the gun from his hands before running into my house, "Mum, Dad, Fred and George are here to take me back to the Burrow. Some things have come up and they expected me sooner. I'll see you next summer, alright? Take care."

I had hugged each of them after I packed my things, cleaned my hands, and put the gun in my trunk.

"I'll miss you dear," Mum whispered, hugging me tighter.

"Use that money," I told her. "Please."

"I will," she promised. "Thank you."

"It's nothing," I assured her. I hugged my dad next.

"Did you hear from Liam?"

"Last I heard was he was going to London for a few weeks. Don't know if its true or not, though," I lied.

"Alright," he sighed. "Take care, please."

"I will, dad," I promised. "Please, look out for Mum."

"Always will."

I kissed his forehead before going outside and grabbing Tony's hand before my parents could see.

"Where are we-?"

I cut him off, "Your house. You're coming with me far away from here."

"But you just killed them!" Tony whispered.

"And that's why we're leaving," I told him. "They'll trace you back to this somehow. They'll hear from around the street that the three of you were friends and they'll try to convict you of it all. So we have to do this until I can call my friend to help."

"But-"

"Now its time for you to trust me," I interrupted. "Do you?"

He hesitated, "Yeah, but-"

"Good," I smiled. "Come on."

"Don't go to my house," I heard him say. "Go straight to wherever you're going."

I led him to the bus station and asked the woman for change, which she gave me. "Two tickets to Devon, please," I said to her.

She eyed me skeptically, but gave me the two tickets. "Six pounds, fifty."

I gave her the amount she wanted and grabbed Tony's hand, walking as fast as I could to our train. "Get on," I ordered.

He obliged and we were silent the rest of the journey.

"Fred, George!" I sighed in relief, opening the door. Fred's arm snapped down, previously in a pose to knock. I hugged both of them and led them inside.

"What do you need from us-"

"Our most trusted and intelligent advisor," the other finished.

"I need you to do a memory charm on him and change his identity to John Sully Parker," I gestured to the sleeping man in the bed. "Then change his ID to match."

"Ooh, what trouble did you get into now?" George asked as Fred, the more skilled in charms, walked over to Tony.

"If I don't tell you, then Molly won't find out about the Witch Weekly Magazines," I threatened.

George gulped, "Deal."

I smiled, "Thanks for coming."

"This your bag, then?" He gestured to my things.

I nodded, and he took them. "Fred'll bring you to the Burrow, right Freddie?"

"'Course, mate. Can't leave our female counterpart of the Golden Trio in this dump, can we?"

"'Course not!" George laughed. "See you then, Mia."

I rolled my eyes and waited for Fred to finish as George apparated.

"What else, Mia?" Fred asked, looking excited.

"I need you to get me to the Burrow, Fred," I grinned.

"Right, then," he straightened and took my hand. I made sure the just under a hundred pounds were sitting on the dresser next to him. He'll be able to start over now. He could consider this repayment for saving me from Kyle. And after the wars over, I'll return and let him have his memory back.

And no one had to know that I killed my brother, and his best friend. That was my burden - my touch of darkness - to bear.

This is the one-shot referring to Hermione's excellent gun shooting in the story My Dragons, Your Phoenix, His Death Eaters. Hope you liked:) Review, please! and this is only a one-shot:)