Okay, so, hi! How're you? Good? Good.
Now that's out of the way, down to business. Oh my God, I almost spelt business wrong. Ha, phew.
This is the first fanfic I've published, so if I get something wrong, tell me or something and I'll try and correct it. See the word try... yeah..
Moving on, I don't own anyone except Freda, her family, Arnold, Mary, Sharpay, Creepy-Guy-Stood-In-An-Archway-Guy, and some other radom extras.
The credit goes to J.K. Rowling for her great work, and being one of the best authors EVER!
Right, okay, so ONWARDS!

"Don't get lost, Freda!" My Mum called out over the bustling crowd, waving frantically. I visibly cringed; my cheeks heating up in embarrassment

"I won't!" I resentfully snapped back, dashing into a particularly tight part of the crowd.

Trust my Mum to act like that in the Middle of Diagon Alley. Gosh, anyone could have seen that! Honestly, if a Slytherin dare mention that back at School, I'll throttle them. Thank God my Mum had spotted her friend, otherwise I'd of had to drag her around all the shops. Sharpay Elliot (she's a Slytherin... And my arch enemy) would simply adore that.

Okay, introductions. I'm Freda Quirk, a Muggle-born witch, who has just finished her second year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I'm in Hufflepuff house, but trust me; I'm not a stereotypical Hufflepuff. I've already gotten into countless fights with many Slytherins, and Gryffindors; they're all just so up their selves, you know? Especially the Gryffindors, since the boy-who-wouldn't-die or whatever was there.

Honestly, I don't know what all the fuss is about. All he did was kill this evil wizard guy who had killed his parents. I could've done that!

I'm not the most popular in school, I'll admit that. But I do have friends! Arnold Todd, Hufflepuff; he's in my year. We became friends first year, when I tried to prank him, and it back fired. He's really intelligent, and shy, and doesn't like breaking the rules. But since we're friends, I find ways to bend the rules for him.
Then there's Mary Lamar, who's a year older than me. I became friends with her last year, when we both managed to get ourselves into a fight with some Gryffindors. She's a Ravenclaw, so she didn't really want to fight, because as I like to call her, she's a swot.

My best subject DADA (Defence Against the Dark Arts), and I guess my worst is Herbology. I just don't get why there isn't a spell that can take care of the plants, since they're magical and that.

"Watch it!" I snapped at some randomer as they pushed past me obnoxiously.

Checking to see my Mum was out of sight, I dashed into Weasley Wizard Wheezes. It's a joke shop; Mum wouldn't want me wasting all my money on dung bombs and crap. Like dung bombs are even useful anymore, and I wasn't even shopping for school stuff yet; I had the whole of the next five weeks to do that!

Shutting the door quickly behind me, I immediately shot over to the Wonderwitch section. I reached out and snatched a ten-second-pimple vanisher from the shelf, scanning the box speedily. Over the past two weeks I've had a sudden break out of spots, and there's only so much concealer one person can hold on their face. Don't get me wrong, I had taken it into account that I was in a joke shop, and this could make my face a whole lot worse, but I was desperate. And that other shop down the road, that's far too expensive.

I glanced around, trying to see if there was someone who'd turned up to complain about it ruining their faces, but it looked relatively calm. There were just a couple of guys in the defence section, so it seemed okay. Most of the Pupils didn't come to Diagon Alley until near the end of the holidays. That was mainly because we get our school book list near the end of the holidays, which means me and my Mum come to the alley at least twice. And it is a trek, since we don't live anywhere near London.

Looking at the price of the product, I smirked triumphantly. Anyone could afford that! So I strolled over to the empty counter and rang the bell impatiently.

"DAAAD! You've got a customer!" Came a shout from the back room. An all too familiar shout.

"You take care of it!" Was their answer. I mentally groaned, resisting the urge to smack my head against the counter. This was the last thing I wanted; him to see me buying this.
He sauntered out from the room, his blaring red hair the first thing I spotted, confirming my horrors. My eyes widened in dismay upon seeing him. There Fred Weasley II stood, in all his stupid glory or whatever. He was a year older than me, and in Gryffindor. He was so annoying. I'd gotten into so many fights with him, it was unreal. I'm on good terms with his younger sister Roxanne, but he was almost as bad as Sharpay.

He stopped dead when he spotted me, and then his face broke out into the insufferable grin.

"Well, well, well... Look what the cat dragged in."

"I bet you don't even own a cat" I snapped, "And plus, you shouldn't treat your customers like that! Bad for business, you know."

"And like you'd know that!" He scoffed, "What do you want, anyway?"

"Oh, you know, come in, meet you, annoy the hell out of you, waste my time, knock a few shelves over..." He scowled at my sarcasm, "What do you think, dumbass? I'm here to buy this!" I chucked the spot vanishing cream on the counter.

He picked it up with a painful smirk; I knew what was coming now.

"Oooh, ten-second-pimple vanisher, you really do need this, don't you? I often wonder how you can even live with yourself with so many spots!"

"You know, it's a shame they don't have cream to sort out faces; you'd be so much better!"

"I might not even let you have this now!" Fred growled.

"As if it's up to you-"

"I am the one behind the counter, not you, you know!"

"I'm sure you're Dad wouldn't be happy that you're refusing customers! And plus, wouldn't be good feedback, would it? I'm sure if you start refusing customers that your interest rate will drop as low as your popularity."

"That was such a bad insult." He glowered, stomping to the till audibly with the money I'd thrown on the counter and retrieving the change.

Slamming the change on the counter, we had our a-millionth glaring match. Well, I presume it was more than a million, but, being as intellectually awesome as I am, I round it up.

"I'd like a bag, if you don't mind" I kind of... sneered... Placing the change in my pocket. Well, hopefully it was sneered; I never knew what a sneer was, so I just kinda made my own definition of it.

With a huge, exasperated sigh, he grabbed a bag and literally threw it in my face. Taken back, my glare intensified. I was quite proud of it, actually...
Shoving the item in the bag, I gave him a rude hand gesture and stalked away.
Not before knocking over several items that was on a shelf.

See, usually I don't have the sort of courage to do stuff like that. Especially if I don't own the stuff I'm potentially destroying. But he'd really gotten me fuming. Seriously, I mean, I just wanted to, like, turn around and kill him. Honestly, he was so infuriating. But, apparently, I was too, because next thing I know, something hard's smashing itself against the back of my head.

Stumbling, I dropped the bag as my hands flew to my head. With an enraged, weird sort of shriek, I gabbed the closest item off the shelf and threw it at his insufferable, stupid face. It missed completely, like, but he got the point. Because thats when the battle began. He continued to throw things at me, taking cover behind numerous shelves, as did I. But it wasn't one you'd laugh and enjoy yourself in. Yeah, Okay, I might of enjoyed myself the tiniest bit, but no one in the history of the universe would ever find that out. It was like a proper 'fight to the death' fight, if you know what I mean. The few other customers had long since fled, so that wasn't a worry. Or a problem. Whichever word fits in good there.

But then there was a scream, furious shouting, the banging of feet on the wooden floor, and roars of anger. Ohhhhhhh dear.
I was in the middle of throwing what looked like some sort of bucket thing, and Fred had a huge box of something about to fly from his grasp into my face, when we spotted three enraged adults standing at the bottom of these stairs that I didn't even know existed. Fancy that.
One happened to make me dropped the bucket in shock; it was Ron Weasley! One of the golden-trio! My eyes popped and my jaw dropped, and I'm sure I looked very attractive during those moments. Wait... Oh my God, that just rhymed! Awesome!
Wait, no, focus!

Even though I didn't exactly believe in all that crap about The-boy-who-wouldn't-die, it was still weird to meet one of the main people in that story. Especially when they'd just caught you ruining the shop they happen to half own. If that makes sense.

"What do you think you're doing Fred?" Screeched the woman. She looked a mixture of fuming, and utterly shocked. Well, to be honest, it's not every day that you walk into a shop and see an employee and a customer throwing everything in the store at each other.

"Nothing, Mum..." Fred sighed. Oh, so she was his Mum. Ha, not good.

"You can't just attack customers!" She continued to screech.

"She was asking for it..." He muttered, glaring at me. I glared right back, and then regretted it, as the tallest ginger in the room gave me evils. And I mean, these were like, the best evils I had ever seen. I think it was Fred's Dad, since they looked so alike.

"Even if she was, you don't attack customers!" His Mum continued, waving her hands about like a mad woman, "It's bad for business!

"Exactly what I said..." I muttered quietly to myself, but everyone seemed to hear me anyway. "Um, yeah... I'm really sorry, and, um, I'll give you some money, I mean, to make up for all the mess..." Well, I didn't have a lot on me, so hopefully they'd decline like nice, normal people

There was a pause, before Fred's dad asked "What's your name?"

"Erm, Freda... Quirk..."

"Wait? The one from Hogwarts?" Ron asked Fred.
I blanched at him, completely taken back. He knew me? How the-? What the-? OH MY GOD THAT'S AMAZING!

"Um, yeah...?" Fred looked at him, probably the same way I was.

"You... You mean the girl who-" Suddenly Ron burst into a fit of hysterics. Everyone else stared at him like he was mad. "The girl... That girl who ga- gave you a bla- black eye last Christmas?" He managed to choke out.
Fred blushed immediately, mumbling something under his breath. His Mum looked very disgruntled, and I couldn't suspress my horror. Not in front of his parents! In fact, all I'd done was throw a history of magic book at him, and the corner of the binding smacked straight in his eye. I'd hidden for days.

"Ha, yeah, that wasn't actually me... It was... Uh... Okay, bye!" And with that, I turned and leapt out of the store.

I am never going in there again... without an effective disguise. If my Mum ever found out what had just happened; she'd go mental.

See, she's a muggle, and so's my Dad. They're not accustomed to the fact that fights in the wizarding world aren't as serious as muggle fights. Well, that's the conclusion I've come to, anyway. A muggle is someone who isn't magically gifted, or magical at all. I remember when I first found out I was a witch, and Professor. Longbottom came to our house. My Mum actually fainted in surprise; I'd never laughed so much. Then I almost fainted when he showed me I wasn't going crazy, and transfigured the potted plant on the window ledge into a mini dragon. He turned it back immediately, confirming he hadn't meant to turn into a dragon at all. I believed him, since he was very red in the face.

When I first came to Diagon alley I actually ended up setting fire to the book shop. Ha! That was amusing; Arnold's hair set on fire. Yeah, he didn't like me back then. It was only when I put dung bombs in his older brother's soup that he began to warm to me. His brother's in Gryffindor; everyone thinks he's better than Arnold because of that exact reason. Arnold gets upset about that sometimes, and then I give these epic speeches (that I had memorised off Mary in the past) about houses not mattering and that one day we would prove them all wrong.

If only that was possible; I'm the only Hufflepuff that's daring to be rebellious against rules!

I dashed across the now slowly quietening street, taking one fleeting look back at the now evil Weasley Wizarding Wheezes, befoe heading straight into Magical Menagerie. It was a pet shop; I'd silently had a debate with myself last night, and despite of Arnold's warning to do it, I've decided to rebel against my Dad and buy a rat. See, they have magical rats on Diagon Alley; a guy in my class has one that can skip using its own tail; it's awesome. My Mum was all ecstatic about getting one after I told her that, but my Dad was all like "Er, no, do you think I'm stupid? Skipping rats, honestly..."

I had chosen to not answer his question; I didn't think he'd appreciate it.

Shutting the door quietly behind me, I failed to keep my jaw from dropping. It was so... so... so depressing! There were, like, three candles lit, making it real dark, and since the windows were covered with blinds, it was night dark. There was no one behind the counter, and as I looked at the jars on the wall full of grotesque things, and the many creatures going wild in containers and cages, I felt like running out of the door screaming.
But I didn't, because I had to brave it for my rat.

I shuffled timidly towards the desk, double checking my wand was still in my pocket. I didn't care if I used under aged magic; I refuse to be attacked. Ringing the petite bell on the counter, I twiddled my thumbs apprehensively. I didn't like this place. At all.

Suddenly this man charged out from the back room, making me jump. He was actually quite young. And rough mind honestly squeaked 'Rape; run!', but I knew I had to be strong for my rat; to rescue it from this terrible place.
Once the guy saw me, he smiled a roughish smile. I stared back with terrified eyes.

"Why, hello there!" Gosh, his voice was awful. All sleezish and rough at the same time, "What brings a pretty young thing like you doing here?"

I gulped, my mouth going dry. This guy was super duper freaky.
"I- Well, um" was all that came from my mouth.
The guy raised a dishevelled eyebrow at me, as I tried to retrieve my voice. I had to remember, I had a wand. I could fight him off if he tried anything. He's probably just a freak anyway.

But then that stupid little voice in my head told me what my Mum once had: 'There's a paedophile in every street in Britain.'
Okay, so then I panicked.

"Rat. I need a rat. I have money, I'll buy one."
The guy looked really shocked, before his face brightened immensely.

"Oh! You want to do business? A rat, was it? Well then, come this way!" He gestured to the back room, darting in there.
I stayed put, leaning across the desk to peer in. It was awfully dark in there; I was much safer in here. He shot back a moment, a slight frown upon his face.

"Is something the matter?" He was acting innocent; I've heard of these stories. But still, I said nothing, and just stared, "No? Well, come on then!"

"Wait!" I hurriedly said before he could dart back out. He turned to face me; the annoyance was clear on his face. "I, erm, well..." I looked desperately around the room, before a sudden idea struck me. "There was a rat! Yeah, in here! It looked... nice?" I asked myself, once again checking my wand was still there.

"Really? Which one was it?"

"Err..." I looked around the room, before pointing in a random corner, "It was... Over there."
He darted over quickly. Sheesh, that guy was fast. It was shadowy-er and dismal-er than other corners in that particular corner; I couldn't see what he was doing. But a minute later he zoomed over to me, a large, squared cage in his hand.
I managed to make out paper shavings and a large, violet lump in the corner. I have no idea what that was, but I couldn't spot a rat anywhere.

"Well? What do you think?"

"Urp, well, where's the rat?" I didn't like speaking to this guy; I was terrified that any minute he was going to leap at me.

"Oh, yes, right, sorry..." He mumbled, producing a wand from his robe pockets. My hand tightened around mine, daring him to try something.

But instead, he prodded the violet lump. It moved ever so slightly, but when he prodded it again it leapt up, turning a furious shade of red.
Only then did I realise that the colour changing lump was a rat. It had a tousled looking coat, and half of its whiskers were missing. It had a huge, shiny, black nose that blended in with the dark room, and beady, almost silver eyes.
I gawped at it, and it gawped back. Its fur turned a jade colour as its greyish eyes bored into mine.

"I'll take it" I said at once. This rat was so awesome; I'd pay anything for it. Well, not literally anything, I doubt it was worth, like, my X-box o something... I can just imagine Arnold's face when he sees it; priceless.

I hardly paid attention to what the sleazy guy was telling me; I barely remember him handing me the rat's food and cage and everything. Though I think I remember him giving me a card with the colours meanings on it.

He's a dude (the rat), so I've decided to call him Rutilus, which means red in Latin. You know, since it was the first time I saw him change colour and everything. It's pronounced something like un-kilos. I know; awesome.

I felt relief wash over me as I entered the light of the street. It was almost completely deserted now; it must be lunch time. Well then, it was time to introduce my Mum to Rutilus. That's a bit long, isn't it? Maybe he needs a nickname.

Stuffing the shop's carrier bag into my shoulder bag, I made my way over to Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor, where my Mum said she would meet me, careful to treat Rutilus' cage with heed. I liked this place, especially since it was shut down for years, because of some weird Death Eater explosion or something, and then out of nowhere it opened, better than before. Its Ice-cream's to die for. But, of course, I wouldn't actually die for it. So that statement's kind of a lie.
Once in the parlour, I realised I had another hour and a half before we were due to meet. I guess I'll just have an ice cream for now, then.
Sitting outside with Rutilus' cage safely on the table and a plain vanilla sundae, I gazed down at my rat. Would it be okay if I let him out? I didn't like the fact he was cooped up in that cage all the time, and he was now an aquamarine colour, which meant he was calm.

With a simple shrug I opened the locks and reached inside, scooping him up and bringing him out. He sniffed the air a moment, before being place on the table. I smiled broadly down at him; he was so cute. Before my eyes his coat turned a bright orange colour, which made my broad grin even broader. How can my Dad not like him?
I fished out the card that tells me about his colours from my bag and scanned it, finding bright orange. Oh, it means he's feeling mischievous, or excited. That's nice; he's like me!
Well, that was what I thought, before he leapt down from the table and shot across the street.

I stared after him in shock for a moment, before leaping after him quickly, screaming his name. Thank God there was hardly anyone about, I bet I looked like a right loon. God, Fred best not be looking out of the window right now. My arms were flailing about as leapt over a bin that fell over right in front of me, like Rutilus had knocked it over himself, and I bet anything my face was bright red. And shiny.

It was ages before I caught up with him, and that was only because he halted abruptly, almost ending in me stepping on him. I picked him up speedily, clutching him tightly in my hands. Breathing heavily, I watched as he stopped struggling and turned an angry shade of red. I raised an eyebrow at this, looking at the card that was still clutched in my other hand. Huh, it meant a lot of things: anger, caution, danger, fear, aggression. So... he was angry I'd caught him? But, he was the one who'd stopped; I wouldn't have caught him otherwise...
But only then did I realise where I was. Everything had darkened, and the usually bright and vivid buildings were grey and depressing. There was no ice cream parlour, and no George's shop. I'd never been here before, yet I knew exactly where I was. I knew what Rutilus meant; he meant danger... Fear.
We were in Knockturn Alley.

I can't believe I actually gasped out loud. I mean, it was deserted; no one was going to get me. And anyway, no one could be worse than that sleazy pet shop owner, could they?
Well, that guy stood in the arch way over there could be, since he looks half-human, half-elephant.

As he continued to stare at me, I backed away. Really quite quickly and obviously. Maybe he was the rapist my mind had warned me about, and maybe my mind was a future person like that divination teacher is. Well, not a person, but a future mind, then.

Anyway, I noticed that I was backing away into an archway that lead into what looked like a dark and dingy – and therefore dangerous and unsafe – alleyway. So I was just prepared to dart into there, when something happened. Well, not to me directly, but it sure did change a lot of things.

This large group of people walked up behind the creepy-guy-stood-in-an-archway person. The leader – who looked like a very large and scary man – pulled out his wand and held it to his neck, visibly scaring the crap out of the creepy-guy-stood-in-an-archway guy. The large dude whispered in his ear threateningly, and then the guy just dropped to the floor, either unconscious... or dead.

Obviously I ran; fast, right up the alley way, clutching Rutilus for dear life. He seemed to realise the situation of danger, because he kept still and alert. As I ran straight up, I noticed a dilapidated door on my left. It was barely hanging on its hinges; it was a perfect hiding spot. I didn't want to be knocked out in Knockturn Alley; I would most definitely be raped then.
Switching Rutilus to one hand, I vaulted the broken door. Gosh, I didn't know I could do that. Anyway, it was major dark, but I obviously couldn't use lumos, 'cause then I'd get expelled or something. So I speedily clambered around the room, falling once and smashing my chin on the floor. It hurt; a lot. But to my great relief I found a doorknob to what turned out to be a spare cupboard, since I hid in there and everything. But just to make sure, I left the door open a crack.

And no sooner had I hid, a gruff voice said reparo, and the room became light. The door across the room fixed itself; the light above seemed to put itself back together, as did the room. A very large table that had lain in large chunks around the room (the origin of my chin smash accident) came together to take up the room; chairs unhooked themselves from a tangled mess in the corner and spread themselves out along the edge of the table.

At least no less than thirty five people piled into the room; each had a seat of their own. From old, aggravated looking people to people no younger than just leaving Hogwarts. I inwardly gasped at the familiar sight of Keira Willows taking a seat; Jane Willows (a girl in her sixth year that I had once gotten a detention with's) older sister. Apart from her, I recognised no one.

The large, intimidating man entered last, waving his wand silently at the door as he did so. It glowed from a dark red to a vibrant green, before making a hissing sound that scared the crap out of me. Well, I wasn't leaving any time soon. He took a seat right at the end of the table; I think he was the leader of whatever this was. He had greyed, mattered hair upon his heavily wrinkled face, and had a large scar running down the left side of his face.
There was a moment of silence, in which I dared not even breathe in case I was heard.

But then the dude spoke; his voice raspy and hoarse. "I believe you all know why I have called you tonight."

A low murmur ran down the table; everyone seemed to glance at each other in perplexity.

"No?" He looked down the table, directly at a middle aged man, who looked very... Err... Uncomfortable. "Rookwood, was it not my orders to inform everyone?"

Rookwood? I knew that name from somewhere... Hadn't he been a famous death eater or something?

"Yes, yes, but... The ministry, sir, It... Err... Has been very distracting at the moment. That Hermione Granger, sir, she won't give me a moment's peace..."

"Ah, yes, the Mudblood of the golden trio; I remember her. Extremely interfering and meddlesome; I have experienced it myself. You may be excused this once, Rookwood, but do not let it happen again."
The guy called 'Rookwood', who had up until now looked like he was about to crap himself, visibly shrunk into his chair with relief.

"So, I have called you all tonight to discuss the plan we previously concidered. Up until now we have discussed the possibility of Imperius curse being held upon someone worthy, yes?"
People nodded; I leant in more closely. What the hell were they talking about?

"Well, it appears that one of us has come up with a better plan, which not even I have been informed of: Archer?"
Everyone turned in surprise – even me – to where the frail looking woman sat. He mousy coloured hair fell into her eyes as she blushed profoundly, lowering her head. I couldn't believe it; her daughter was in the year bellow me.

"Well, I... I was, um, in the ministry the other day, s-sir, in the department of mysteries, and... I discovered something most... Wonderful." Well, that obviously wasn't a forced word. "There is a piece of magic, s-sir... Simliar to a- a Hocrux..." A wave of whispered past across the table, and people winced as though burnt, but it died down quickly, as they were eager to hear the rest. "It... It's an object, and a person places their soul in it, just like a horcrux. But, it's effectively difficult to master the procedure, possibly the most difficult piece of magic out there, and many lose their lives in the attempt of doing ss. But... But, the Dark Lord... He accomplished it."

Another hiss ran down the table, and was only silenced when the leader guy raised his hand. "And you're sure of this how?"

"As I said, I was in the department of mysteries, and through one of the many doors, there's a department full to the rim with shelves. Those shelves are rammed with a countless numbers of parchment. I happened to read through a couple, only to find that they're self-updating records with information a person's soul." She paused, taking a deep, quaking breath, "as I explored this area, I came across a high-security vault. However, being alone, and an Gringotts Curse Breaker (which gave me experience into breaking into high security locks) I wasted no time in letting my curiosity take over. Um, and inside, it was... It was the Dark Lord's account on his soul."

A sort of ripple passed through my stomach. I did not like where this was going. At all.

"And?"

"Well... It listed of his... His... Hocruxes..." People, again, recoiled as though they'd been scalded. "But, it mentioned another piece of magic. I didn't recognise the term, but later that night I researched it thoroughly. It, it..." She seemed close to tears, "If you conceal your soul in an object in this perticular sort of way, it means you may die - I mean truly die, not like last time, when Potter was merely a baby, and the Dark Lord was actually still alive -... But be brought back to life."

Everyone started at this news, even the guy that everyone seems scared of. People stared at Archer with wide, terrified eyes, even me, before a loud buzz of arguments broke out.

"That! That's impossible!" I heard a stout man shout from the bottom end furiously, though his face was smothered in some sort of weird fear expression, "No spell can bring back the dead, idiot!"

"Yes, but if you think about it sensibly, it isn't exactly bringing back the dead," An older woman argued back, "It's bring back their soul; their ideas; their intentions; their memories. Not their body or wand, or magical abilities!"

"But that is bringing back the dead!" A gruff voice echoed across the table, "It's-"

"Enough!" Boomed the scary guy, and everything immediately fell silent, "I did not say this was up for debate!"

That shout was enough to startle Rutilus, who I had forgotten was even there. He squirmed widely in my hands, squeaking madly. I desperately tried to hush him, but with no avail. He ended up biting me on my fingertip, meaning I dropped him with a startled grunt.

During this time the people outside had hushed each other, listening intently and staring at the cupboard in which I was hiding. It was not until I'd been bitten that I actually realised this. I let out a ragged breath, clutching my throbbing finger tightly. Great, now a sore finger and chin.
Then their gazes moved. From the cupboard, to along the floorboards, to the corner. And then I could see why; Rutilus was hunched in a corner, his red glow extremely visibly. I felt like bursting into tears then and there.

The huge scary leader raised his wand at Rutilus and muttered an incantation, and it took all my will power not to dart out there and disarm him.
Nothing happened; thank god.

"It's alright," He announced, "It's just a rat."
With one more fleeting glance at the cupboard, he turned back to Archer, who had token to shrinking extremely low in her seat by now. I could see the delighted glint in his eye as he began to speak again.

"You're sure you read this correctly?"

She glanced up timidly, nodding.

"You're positively, absolutely sure?"

"Y-yes, sir..."

"Then I do not think we have any use of our old plan. Archer, I need that account. Bring it to me by Monday. Bondil," He said to the even gruffer sounding man, "go and examine our Lord's body, we will need it. Jones, make sure your potion cabinet is fully stocked, I have a feeling they'll come into great use here. The rest of you, prepare for a rough looking year."
Everyone looked at each other in surprise and disbelief that it was over so abruptly, before silently and slowly standing up and beginning to file towards the door, which the leader guy opened with a swish of his wand.
"But do not be caught." The scary guy declared suddenly, making us all jump, "If you are, you stand alone. Your existence is not of our knowledge. That is all."

Everyone left fairly quickly after that. The leader guy a little after the others, because he chose to stare from Rutilus (who was still huddled in the corner) to the cupboard, and for one terrifying moment, I though he was going to check it, but after a while he just left. And with a swipe of his wand, the room fell back to its original state. Dark and unsafe.

I slid to the floor, still in the narrow cupboard, struggling for breath. What the hell is going on? There's no doubt he suspects I'm in here, that's why he ended the meeting so quickly. I ebt he's waiting outside the door... I'll have to stay hidden for a while.
But... What are those people plotting? Who are they, even?
Whoever they were, I don't think they were arranging a surprise party or anything. Ah, dry humour, my speciality.

I had to warn somebody, anybody.
They'd mentioned something about a Dark Lord, hadn't they? It obviously can't be good, if they're saying they want to resurrect a Dark Lord.
I have to warn someone important, so they can do something about it. But, no one's going to believe me, are they? I mean, like that dude had said, no magic can bring back the dead... Maybe they'll just fail at it and I can just relax.

After what felt like a claustrophobic eternity, I felt it safe enough to leave. Firstly though, I had to get Rutilus.

Still rubbing my chin with my sore finger, just in case that did something to stem the bleeding or pain or whatever in both of them, I struggled to my trembling feet, pushed open the door and clambered out.

"Rutilus!" I whispered urgently, trying to scan the room, "Come here boy, Rutilus!"

He wasn't going to come, I knew that. So I had no choice but to use magic. This was an urgent situation, and it wasn't in front of muggles or anything. In fact, it'd be in a highly populated magical place, maybe they won't be able to track me. I brought my wand out from my extremely large combat trouser pockets, pointing it in some random direction.

"Accio Rutilus..." I hissed. And then bam, he was laid in my palm. Heh, that was easy enough.
Getting rid of my wand in my pocket again, I locked my hands around Rutilus and scrambled back towards the broken door. Vaulting it with great difficulty, I tumbled out into the alleyway; out into the open.

"You!" Cried a familiar voice, but I didn't stop to chat with them.
And since a green jet of light landed right next to me, I don't think anyone would've.

It exploded the wall next to me, sending debris flying. One got me on the head, making it smack into the wall behind me. I recovered fairly quickly, though my head pounded so painfully my vision kept on losing itself.

I turned and ran so fast I imagined I was nothing more than a blur. The pit of my stomach was throwing a wild party or something; I felt as though I was about to puke. I didn't care what I looked like now, though I did care that I almost died. Even though we haven't learnt about Killing curse's yet, I think I'd recognise one when saw one. And this time I definitely did.

Wide eyed and petrified, I rounded the corner where the creepy-guy-stood-in-an-archway still lay, unconscious, as I could see he was breathing heavily. I leapt over his body and straight down that street. There were quite a lot of people pursuing me now; I could tell by the clatter behind me. And the more I sprinted around the winding alleyways and streets, the more people seemed to appear from the shadows that I passed.
These were not good guys; definitely weren't good guys.

Suddenly I ran onto a suddenly bustling street, drenched in sunlight and people. I stopped a milli-second to search for the ice-cream parlour, but was off again straight after. With a small look over my shoulder, I noticed the leader guy stood in the entrance to Knockturn alley, eyes glaring straight at me through the crowd.

I didn't hesitate to push people out of the way, I was too panic-stricken. Once in the parlour, I saw Rutilus' cage on the counter, with a note next to it. Huh, the owner guy must have known I left it. Darting straight to it (and knocking a table down on my way) I almost threw Rutilus inside it and slammed the door on it shut.
Noticing my Mum still wasn't here, I decided the Leaky Cauldron was the next, best place.
The guy behind the counter screamed at me as I darted out of the shop, cage swinging widely in my hand. I needed to find my Mum, now. And as I darted back through the street, knocking people over and such, I recognised an extremely tall figure in the crowd.

It was the Bondil guy or something from that meeting. He was out looking for me. Mierda.

I managed to get to the leaky cauldron unseen, smashing through the door and straight towards the table where my Mum's friend sat.

"Freda!... Freda? What... What happened to you?"

I furred my eyebrows at her, "What? What do you mean?"
And then I caught my reflection in the mirror across the room.

My hair was tattered and crazy, my face wet with sweat and extremely dirty. Along my jaw bone and down to my chin ran long streaks of blood, most likely from my finger. My hand were lathered in blood as well, and then I realised it wasn't just my finger that was bleeding. All along my forehead and down to my cheekbone blood gushed out, infesting my hair and dripping on my clothes.

"I... I can't explain!" I cried out.
Suddenly every pair of eyes in the pub was on me.

"Where's my Mum? I... We need to go! Now!"

"Freda, calm down! She's just gone to the loo... Look, there she is now!" Sure enough, my Mum was walking towards us, "Now, let me clean you-"
She'd reached out with her wand, but I pushed it aside. I needed my Mum to see me like this, to know the danger we were in.

She almost fainted when she saw the state I was in.
"Freda! What did you do? You're a huge mess! Wh- Is that a rat?"

"No time to explain Mum, we need to get out of here!" And with that, I grasped her wrist and dragged her upstairs, to our rented room.

"Freda!" She kept on crying, highly perplexed, as I rushed around the room, packing everything by hand. "What are you doing? What is going on?" I rushed into the bathroom, scooped up all our toiletries, and dumped them in a case. "Are you listening to me?" I double checked the now empty wardrobes, cupboards and under the beds, before throwing one of the cases at Mum, keeping the other for myself, slinging my shoulder bag back over my shoulder, and grabbing Rutilus' (who had now turned a brilliant bright orange again) cage.

"Mum, we need to get home, now. I'll explain then..." And with that, I darted back down to the pub, desperate to get home.

I sat in my living room armchair with my hammering head in my hands. My Mum and Dad sat on the sofa, while my older brother leant against the door frame with a thunderous expression on his face. My Dad had hold of Mum's hands in a comforting gesture, but he looked just as mad as my brother did.

I'd ordered Mum to call them as soon as we'd floo'd home, and because she was so confused, she did. I haven't spoken to them yet though; I was trying to think of a way to tell them what happened without sounding stupid. Oh, and let my Dad down gently about Rutilus, who was safely hidden in my room, with my 10 second pimple remover thing.

"Are you going to tell us anything today, Freda?" My Brother, Aaron, snapped from the other side of the room.

"Urgh, where to start..." I mumbled to myself. Well, it was supposed to be to myself, anyway.

"How about how you got in such a state?" My Dad growled, refusing to look at me.

Lifting my head, I looked from one to the other, tears welling up in my eyes. Sheesh, this was getting like a death scene or something, which no one but me knows about. That was a really bad comparison... I fought the tears off; I wasn't going to cry in front of my brother. That'd be horrendous.

"Well, I got like this because I was very nearly killed by the killing curse, which then happend to hit a wall, which then happened to explode and smack into my head." I said quietly.

I don't think anyone was expecting that. Maybe 'I got into a fight' (which I kinda had done, but wasn't going to tell anyone about) or 'I fell and smashed my head on a wall' (which I also kinda did...), but not that I'd almost been killed. My Dad's head whipped around to face me and Aaron almost fell over from his 'I'm-too-cool-for-this-crap' composure; Mum looked like she was about to faint; again.

"W-what?" My Mum stammered, horrified.

"You heard me, I almost got killed." I repeated forcefully.

"By who?" My Dad's voice was scarily quiet.

"Um, I don't exactly know..." I said slowly. It was going to start sounding stupid any minute now.

"You don't exactly know? What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Aaron roared all of a sudden, causing us all to jump, "Honestly Freda, if this is some sort of joke or prank, I will literally kill you!"

"Aaron!" My Mum gasped.

"Interrupt some alone time with your girlfriend, did I?" I snapped back, glaring at him, "And anyway, if I stranger comes up to you with a knife, you're not going to know who they are, are you?"

"Someone came up to you with a knife!" My Dad bellowed furiously.

"No! No, no, no. Actually, I don't know where they came from, but I think they only tried to kill me because I overheard something secret they were up to. They... They were saying something about... Bringing dead people back to life..."

"That's it?" Aaron said, "You brought us all home for that?"

"This is pretty important!" I screeched at him.

"How is it? You people are magic, I bet its normal-"

"NO! NO IT ISN'T!" I hollered at him, "It is very, very un-normal, Aaron. Even if you are magic, you aren't supposed to bring back the dead!"

"But, why would they try killing you just because you overheard that? I mean, it isn't that important, is it?" Mum asked.

"I think it was who they were thinking of bring back to life, and not the actual plan, that got them worried." I paused for a brief second, lowering my gaze to the floor, "they said something about a 'Dark Lord', but didn't go into detail..."

"Dark Lord? As in the Voldemort 'Dark Lord'?"

"Mum, I told you, that story isn't true! Well, most of it anyway. I bet Voldemort was just some guy who went mental and thought he could control everyone. He couldn't have been so hard to kill in the way that story says... But back to what happened-"

"Did anyone else overhear them?" My Dad interrupted.

"Uh, no, I don't think, unless Rutilus has other magical powers and can understand human speech..."

"Rutilus? Who's that?" Aaron asked.
Ohhhhhhhh dear; here we go.

"Well, you see, I sort of, maybe, might have, kinda, bought... a rat..."

"WHAT! I TOLD YOU NO!" My dad roared. See! I told you!

"Well, I didn't think it was fair that Aaron got to keep a chinchilla, and I can't even have a magic rat..."

"Freda, My chinchilla died two years ago..."

"That's beside the point! Look Dad, I'll discuss Rutilus some other time with you, when I'm not being hunted down by maniac people who want to kill me and everything..."

"Well, then let's call the police or something!" Dad suggested loudly, standing up and reaching for the phone.
I literally dived in front of him, snatching the phone out of his grasp.

"No Dad! The police don't even know magic exists! If they found out, I'd probably be sent to Azkaban or something!"

"Azk-?" Aaron began to ask.

"The magic people prison" I snapped, "Look I don't think we should tell anyone, just yet. I mean, no one's going to believe me, and the maniac people don't know where I live, so we should be safe for now... But I don't think this is the end of it..."

"So what was the bloody point of this bloody meeting?" Aaron finally snapped, bellowing across at me.

"Well, excuse me for warning you that your sister was almost killed!" I screeched back, "And anyway, they could come after any of us now. But fine!" I screamed, throwing the phone back down on the holder thingy, "next time I'll just leave it, shall I?"

I stormed past my brother and up the stairs, ignoring my Mums calls, and straight into my room, slamming the door. Flopping down onto my bed, I grabbed my pillow and screamed into it furiously.
Whoa, I need to do that more often.
Well, I guess everything'll just run normally again now, since they have no idea where the hell I live.

But gosh, Brothers were the most infuriating creatures alive.

*Peeks from behind hands* So...?
How was it? Good? Bad? Stupid? Awesome? Plebbish? Sky-person-ish?
Sorry, I got carried away...
Anyway, I don't get his whole reviewing business. Well, I know what a review is, but I don't get if it's really important that you get tons of reviews...
So, if it is, or if it isn't, feel free to do whichever you want. Doing so would make me happy, even if you tell me you hated it and it was as bad as pleb... ions... Plebions...
Wait, what?
Okay, so, Bye for now!
P.S: I'll try to update as soon as I can...