"No! Don't hurt them!" Rachel screamed, fighting the ropes that bound her.
"Crucio!" an unknown Death Eater shouted and once again Rachel's parent's loud screams of pain filled the air. They were also bound by ropes and had had Victoria's wand snapped in half. David and Victoria were still yelling and writhing on the hard ground, tears streaming from their eyes.
"Give yourself up or watch your parents die!" another masked Death Eater demanded.
"No, Rachel, don't do it!" David shouted.
"Don't do it, Rachel! You need to save the Wizarding World!" Victoria yelled.
Rachel just sat there, paralyzed by the ropes, as her parents were basically asking to be killed. The two Death Eaters took her silence as a no and the one who kept torturing Rachel's parents said, "Okay, then, say goodbye to your parents!"
"Rach, we love you!" David and Victoria yelled.
"I love you too!" Rachel sobbed, knowing what was about to happen.
"Avada Kedavra!" the Death Eater shouted and two green flashes struck David and Victoria, making their once struggling and sobbing bodies lay still.
"No!" Rachel screamed, a waterfall of tears falling down her cheeks.
"Come on, let's take her back with the bodies," the other one said.
They roughly pulled Rachel onto her feet, body still bound by the ropes and had the bodies of her dead parents shoved up against her and placed a Portkey on top of their heads, which transported Rachel and the bodies back to her home.
The second that they arrived at Rachel's home, Rachel's knees buckled and she fell to the ground and the bodies of her parents fell on top of her. Due to the positioning, she was forced to look into their permanently shocked faces; the lights that usually filled her mother's green eyes and her father's blue eyes were gone.
Rachel started sobbing again. Being as gentle as possible, she rolled her parents tied up bodies off of her and crawled for her wand, which was merely a few inches from her. She gripped it tightly and used a charm to cut the ropes from her body, freeing herself. Then she proceeded to do the same with her parents. After that, she levitated them into the empty house, up the stairs, and into their bedroom and laid them down on their bed. Rachel took her fingers and lightly closed each of their eyelids and then almost fell down the stairs as she went to call her boyfriend and most trusted friend, Sirius Black.
She bent down in front of her stone fireplace that was already lit from earlier that night. The fire was the only source of light in warm and cozy living room. Rachel grabbed some green powder and said, "James Potter's house!"
There was a spinning sensation that stopped after a minute. Rachel was looking into the kitchen of Mr. and Mrs. Potter's house. She saw James and Sirius sitting at the table, looking thoroughly surprised by this event.
"Hey, Rach!" James said excitedly. Then he noticed her wiping the tears out of his face and concern filled his face, along with Sirius's.
"Rach, why are you crying?" Sirius asked concernedly.
"M-my parents," she said through her sobs.
"What about them? Are they okay?"
Rachel shook her head, wiping tears out of her eyes.
"Okay, we'll be there in a minute," James said, and Rachel pulled her head out of the fireplace.
Suddenly, she wondered how she would tell Angela and Danielle about Mom and Dad. The thought of that conversation devastated Rachel to an extreme degree. Luckily, they two of them were in Diagon Alley with Lily and her parents. She knew that it would probably be today unless she sent the girls to a friend's house.
Just then, the fireplace lit up with green flames and James and Sirius crawled out of it. Deciding that there needed to be more light in the dark living room (it was nighttime), she turned on one of the table lamps with a rich red lampshade. Light erupted and revealed the amazingly clean living room.
Sirius crossed the room in two steps and pulled Rachel into a tight hug. James also came up and hugged her from behind. They both pulled away and asked, "What's going on?"
Instead of answering them, for fear of bawling again, she brought her numb body up the stairs, indicating for the guys to follow. She led them to her parent's bedroom and went by their closet and heard both James and Sirius gasp. Unable to look at her parent's bodies again, she turned away from the bed and allowed more tears to fall. Rachel could hardly believe it: she'd lost her parents and older brother from this war. Voldemort was targeting everyone who would die to protect her and it infuriated her to no end.
"How? H-how?" James stuttered.
"A couple hours ago," Rachel started. "We were taking our nightly walk around the neighborhood when two Death Eaters ambushed us. I had left my wand at home and they'd summoned her wand before she could react. They took us to this park and proceeded to tie us up. One of them tortured them and forced me to watch." At this point, Rachel's voice became thick from emotion. "After a couple of hours, they said if I gave myself up that they'd let my parents go. They were screaming at me to not do it. Before I could even answer, they k-killed them and we got back via Portkey."
Sirius came up to her and embraced her tightly, thinking of how devastating this summer had become. Everyone had passed their exams, they'd gotten together a few times, and always had a good time. Now, Rachel's defenses would be lowered, meaning a higher chance of more attacks, meaning more deaths, and they couldn't afford any more deaths. For now though, he stroked her hair as she clutched onto him, sobbing again.
Five days later, on the day of August 2nd, they had the funerals for David and Victoria Delancy. Many people attended and Rachel gave a beautiful speech that had almost everyone in their seats tearing up. According to the lawyer, Rachel now had custody of her younger siblings and took up the responsibility. Although, since she would be gone for a vast majority of the year, Lily's parents agreed to take Danielle and Angela in. Angela was supposed to start Duffletown this year but wanted to wait another year now.
The Marauders were spending so much time with Rachel after the funerals that they practically lived there. Sirius had agreed to move in with Rachel so she'd have protection 24/7. Unfortunately, Rachel barely came out of her bedroom and slept from most of the day.
On the day of August 28th, just three days before they left for their final year at Hogwarts, the Marauders sat downstairs in the living room while Rachel was upstairs sleeping.
"I can't believe she's still like this," Peter said.
"Wormtail, it's hard for her," Remus responded. "She watched her brother get killed, then saw his ghost or something during the battle a couple of years ago, then saw him again when she almost died a couple of months ago, and now she was forced to watch her parents be tortured and then killed. It's enough to make anyone act this way."
"Not to mention she feels guilty about their deaths," Sirius added. "She feels that if it wasn't for her, the Prophecy wouldn't have been made, therefore Voldemort wouldn't have gone after her that one night, meaning that Tommy would still be alive. Then, her parents were tortured and killed because Rach refused to give herself up."
"Once the year gets started, I think she'll be better." James said. "Besides, my parents told me that there's something going on this year that will get everyone excited."
"Ooh, what is it?" Sirius asked.
"I don't know, they wouldn't tell me. Dumbledore should be telling us about it after the sorting. Guess what, though? I'm Head Boy."
"What? No way!" the others said, shocked.
"Yeah, I got the badge and everything."
"Oh man, Lily's gonna be ticked off," smirked Sirius.
The following days until Hogwarts were uneventful. The Marauders had had their luggage delivered to Rachel's house so they could stay there for the last couple of days. With some persuasion, they were able to get Rachel up and moving. They could tell that she was starting to cheer up when she was around people. After she made them breakfast, they piled their luggage into Rachel's dark blue 2009 Mustang, and she drove them to King's Cross station. Lily's father offered to bring it back to the house so she left the car keys with him.
Once Rachel said goodbye to Angela and Danielle, she got into the train with her friends. They made their way to the last compartment which they occupied every year. James told her about the mystery event once the train got going and it grabbed her interest. For the entire train ride, they talked about what it could be.
They soon arrived at Hogwarts and went through the usual routine: drop bags off in entrance hall, watch the sorting, eat a large feast, and wait for Dumbledore to do his speech. This time, he talked about something new.
"Unfortunately, there will be no Quidditch this year."
Rachel and James looked outraged along with all of the other Quidditch players from the different houses.
"Although, something else will be happening at Hogwarts that I think you'll find enjoyable. It gives me great pleasure to announce that Hogwarts will be hosting the Triwizard Tournament."
Chatter and excitement went through the Great Hall.
"Now, after much collaboration, we've agreed that no student under the age of 17 will be allowed to enter their names for the tournament. On Saturday, the ninth of October, we will be having some students from Durmstrang and Beauxbatons arrive. Then students will be allowed to submit their names. On October 16th, we will announce the champion of each school. There will be an age line around the decider, so underage students should be warned to not enter their name. With that, I'll dismiss you to your rooms."
The sound of benches scraping against the stone floor filled the Hall, making it almost impossible to hear anyone talking. Once everyone made it to Gryffindor tower, Rachel went into the boy's dormitory for their annual start-of-term discussion.
"I take it you guys are entering the tournament too?" Rachel asked, already knowing the answer.
"Hell yeah!" James and Sirius replied.
"I'm not going to," Remus said. "I want to make sure I do okay on my N.E.W.T.s this year,"
"Yeah, me too," Peter agreed.
"I heard that if you get selected, you don't have to do the exams or tests at the end of the year," Rachel said, grinning.
"Awesome!" Sirius shouted.
"Yeah, no torturous testing," James agreed.
"Well, I'll let you other boys think about it, but I'm definitely entering my name," Rachel said, and with a wave she left the room and went into the girl's dorm, where Lily was already sleeping and also fell asleep.