Prologue: Now (16 Years Old)

Right now I am lying on my bed in the fifth-year girl's dormitory at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The clock is ticking nearer and nearer to midnight as shadows penetrate the open hangings of my four-poster and fall upon my body. I am still wearing my clothes from the day. Forget pajamas. My normal clothes are comfortable enough to live in all the time. I'm wearing a black strappy tank top that has an open lace-up back and a very short dark green miniskirt with black fishnet tights, like almost every other day. I didn't even bother to take off my knee-high black boots. The daggers are still concealed in their usual hiding place, tucked into the sides of my boots.

I can hear my sister, Eva, turning over on her bed. She evidently can't sleep right now either. It doesn't surprise me. We are identical twins, after all. We share almost everything. Our looks, obviously. We keep our silvery blonde hair at exactly the same length and we both have big black eyes. We're both 5'9" tall and wear the same shoe size. We share our clothes all the time too. We both wear almost depressingly dark clothes all the time. It accentuates our black eyes and brings out our silvery hair and slightly pale skin. We also have some basic telepathic skills when dealing with each other. I've always been able to read her thoughts and send her messages with my mind, and she's been able to do the same with me. We always know what the other is thinking. Sometimes it even gets to the point where we don't know who's thinking what. We also share powerful telekinetic abilities. You will almost always see me snap my fingers when I call something to me, but that's just for effect. I don't need to. Neither does Eva.

The cause of this morose sleeplessness is the same thing for both of us. We're caught up in our own and each other's thoughts. Our thoughts are actually mostly memories. Memories that have haunted us for years. Memories of our past…