Ch. 2 - Back Story
Piles of brightly colored paper littered the floor, as blood seeped into the carpet. The victims eyes wide-open, seeming to find you no matter where you stood in the room, as she hung from the ceiling. Her neck was broken, as it hung from a metal hook. The muscle tendons holding together, but only by a thread, as it threatened to break completely.
A small whimper sounded through the room, as your forced to look down at the little body huddled in the corner. You can't help the tears in your eyes as you hear the small child call out to her 'Mamma', while she stares at the hanging figure.
You walk slowly up to the small child, thinking 'She can't even be more than 2'. You crouch down and gently touch the child's cheek. She turns her young and innocent eyes to you, silently questioning, 'What happened to my Mamma?'. You don't know how to answer, so you silently pick the child up, doing your best to ignore her cries for her 'Mamma'. You side step the pool of blood, and head for the door.
As you're walking down the steps, you're wondering, 'Who killed her? Why was she killed? Why was the child left alive? Did the killer see the errors of his ways when and if he tried to kill her?'. These questions spin in your head, but no answers can be seen. You pull out your car keys from your pocket, and open the passenger seat door. You buckle up the little girl, go around to the driver's side, and get in.
The humming of the car can't keep the same questions out of you head. You turn on the radio, hoping to become distracted. The little girl watching you the whole time.
You pull up in front of an apartment complex, and park in front of Number 43. The humming of the car stops as you pull out the key from the ignition. You reach over and unbuckle the little girl, and get out. The little girl just sits there, and follows your movements with her eyes, as you come around to her side of the car. You open the door slowly, trying not to scare her.
"Come on, Baby. Come up and I'll get you some hot chocolate, ok?" You say in a soft and gentle voice. She looks up at you.
"Sarah."
"What?" you ask startled that she even spoke.
"My name Sarah. Not baby." She's still looking at you, her dark blue eyes filled with pain and sadness.
"Ok Sarah. How about we go up into my apartment, and get you some hot chocolate?" she silently puts her hand in yours hesitantly. Instead of letting her walk, you pick her up, and rest her on your hip. As you walk to your apartment door, you single out your door key.
As you walk into your two-bedroom apartment, one room for you, and another, usually, for your friends, you flip the lights on and set your keys down. Sarah looks around at your apartment. She notices that you have a couch against the wall, an entertainment center, a stereo, TV, and just a bunch of other stuff that she doesn't recognize.
You set her down in your kitchen, and dig through the cupboards, looking for the hot chocolate you promised. You find some and smile triumphantly. You put water in the teapot, on the stove, and let it start to boil.
"Sarah? Would you like to change into some Pj's while your hot chocolate is getting ready?"
"I don't have clothes."
"That's ok, you can borrow one of my nightshirts, all right?" she nods quietly. You lead her into your room, and pull out a shirt, and help her into it.
The next day, you receive a call from the adoption agency. A Mr. Lucius Malfoy wants to adopt Sarah. You think, 'Ok, well, I've seen his papers, he's most likely the best one for the job, and he has a son one year older than her. So she'll have a play friend. I guess it'll be ok.' Although what you don't know, is that, when she's older, she'll face worse horrors then what happened the day you found her.
Back To The Present
One Squijum came up to Sarah, took one sniff, and started rubbing against her leg, meowing almost desperately. The other Squijums raced towards Sarah, also meowing. Sarah knelt down as the five Squijums fought to get her attention. She looked among them, and started to pet the only two black ones. The three that she didn't pet, meowed one last time, and walked slowly back to their cage.
"Miss Black, I believe tha' I should take yeh to the 'eadmasters office, an' those two little 'uns won' be leaving yeh now." Hagrid put a hand on Sarah's shoulder, and led her up to the castle.
"Class dismissed!" Hagrid boomed over his shoulder.
"Starburst." Hagrid said, and the gargoyle in from of the Headmasters office moved aside, showing a staircase.
"Up we go now. Come on." Hagrid pushed Sarah up the stairs, and followed after the Squijums. After Hagrid knocked on the office door, Sarah heard the Headmasters slightly muffled 'Enter'. Once they entered, they sat down, Hagrid politely refusing tea, and Sarah accepting it. Hagrid explained the classes events, and their current situation. When he finished, the Headmaster turned to Sarah.
"Miss Black, what do you have to say about this?" he asked quietly.
"Well, sir, I'm guessing my Muggle studies Professor, Professor Geller, gave you a copy of the poem I did for our assignment?" the Headmaster nodded.
"Then, sir, I'd like Professor Snape to be here and Explain things to you. Oh, and, would Draco Malfoy be able to join too? Because he's tied in also."
The Headmaster agreed and sent Hagrid back to his classes, and a house elf to retrieve Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy. Moments later, Professor Snape arrived, and they patiently waited for Draco to arrive.
When Draco did arrive, one of the black Squijums that was resting by Sarah's feet, jumped up, and acted as if it wanted to go to Draco, but couldn't, because it was tied to Sarah.
"Go ahead little one." Sarah whispered to the little creature. The Squijum broke free of his restraints, and ran to Draco, and rubbed against his leg. Draco reached down, and patted him on the head, and the Squijum purred loudly.
"Draco?"
"Yea, Sarah?"
"Well, you see, these are Squijums. Do you remember what they are? Remember from your third year, before the Hippogriffs?" Draco thought for a moment, and paled.
"Oh, shit." He murmured.
"Draco, that's why I asked Professor Snape here. See, he can explain this, out, situation to the Headmaster."
"Oh, ok." The Headmaster looked to Severus.
"Headmaster as I'm sure you know, Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater…"
