You don't have to read Footsteps of my Father before reading this, but if you do, it'll make a lot more sense and you'll understand where she's coming from. This prologue, it's actually nearly a year after the events of Footsteps and centered around one of the characters from it.

Please read and review!!

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Raven's Cry

Prologue

They say that you don't remember much from before you were ten years old. You may have flickers of memories, snatches of what happened. But it's not until you turn ten when you begin to remember much more. And sometimes, the things that you remember are not that pleasant. Love, loss, betrayal, friendship, loyalty; those are the characteristics that make up my life and my story.

They say that when a soul is born into a body, it has a certain destiny. But where do souls come from, exactly? Some say they come from an immortal sea, from where they hold all knowledge and are the closest to enlightenment that any human could ever conceive to wish or hope for. However, when a soul is born into a physical body, it loses what it knew in that higher plane and once it is in a physical body, it has to work quite hard to regain even the tiniest amount of knowledge that it once held. As time wreaks its inevitable damage upon the physical form, the soul becomes even further detached from that immortal sea of souls.

However, each soul is unique and the fate that it is destined for is determined when it is placed in a physical body. No one knows their destiny but every step they take in the world brings them closer to their final fate.

As for me, my fate is to become a Death Eater. I've known this since I was informed of who my parents were. However, I have a chance to change it, and I've never backed down from a challenge; never. I will fight for what I believe in and I will make those that try to detain me have a life of living hell.

I have lost so much over the past few years; I don't even know where to begin. I am a witch and I grew up in a pure-blooded wizarding home, though not with my real parents. No, my real parents are still rotting away in Azkaban, which is the least that they deserve after their crimes as Death Eaters. They tortured and killed countless Muggles and wizards without so much as a backwards glance. And I despise them for that.

I grew up with a good family; wonderful parents and the best sister in the world, and they never once judged me because of my parentage. They accepted me and, although I knew of the evils of the Muggle and Wizarding worlds, I had a secure life. My adoptive parents were both Aurors and by the time I was five, I knew nearly as many charms and hexes as a second- year at Hogwarts. Taken, they weren't as advanced, but I could at least perform a few basic ones. Once I learned something, I never forgot it.

I believe that my soul has a purpose here, whether it be light or dark. I have known all my life that I was destined for something, though I did not know what at the time.

I may only be thirteen, but I remember much of my life before I came to Hogwarts. It is painful to look back upon, for I had such a happy life and then, it was all ripped away. The likely hood of me going to Azkaban is high, as I am currently within the grasp of the Dark Lord himself, and if any Auror caught me in his presence, I would be locked up and serve the same fate as my parents. One of my close friends lies in Azkaban at the moment, and he didn't even do anything. He was just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was supposed to have been released within a month; however, he lies there still, forgotten because of the war that has begun.

The Dark Lord has his plans . . . and I have mine. I do not know fear, for I have never had it. However, loss is a painful lesson in life, and I have learned that in hundred folds.

My name is Raven Maria Lestrange.

And this is the story of my life.