I forgot to put in the disclaimer last time. (oops) so here:
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters. They all belong to the talented J.K. Rowling, and I seriously doubt she'll give Draco to me, as much as I might plead.
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Chapter Two
Murder
Cho sat up straight with a jolt. She glanced around, through narrowed eyes, confused.
Who screamed?
Cho's brow furrowed as she rubbed her head. She narrowed her eyes on her closed door as her world came spinning into focus. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, she got out of bed.
"Mum?" She muttered, still drowsy. Did she imagine the scream?
The scream came again, filled with pain and anguish, though this time she could hear voices, and someone sobbing, pleading... It was a desperate plea Cho was all too familiar with.
Panic now filled her. A cold wave of fear washed over her, leaving her heart hammering inside her chest.
His floating image quickly left her brain as she came crashing back to reality. Cho lunged to the door and wrenched it open, foolishly leaving her wand on the bedside table.
She sprang down the hall barefoot, coldness gripping her, though it was a very warm summer night.
Wild possibilities wracked her brain. Voldemort, it insisted. She and her parents were part of the Order, after all. She knew Voldemort was trying to kill off the Order one by one, as they were too meddlesome in his affairs. They may be better prepared than last time, but when Voldemort wants you killed, there was little way you can stop him.
Cho ran towards the noise. It was coming from the living room. Just outside the entryway, Cho stopped, breathing hard. Fear was pressing against her, making it difficult to breathe. Crouched low in the shadows, she squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to look.
But she had to. Her parents were in danger.
She drawled a long, deep breath to calm herself, and slowly, she opened her eyes. A horrible image greeted her eyes. It took her every bit of her will to stop from screaming.
Her mother, in a blood red nightgown, was magically pinned to the wall. Her pale face had a horror-struck look upon it and was gently dripping blood. Cho froze. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe... She had never seen something as heart-stopping and terrifying as this. Her mother had tears in her eyes, helplessly struggling against her hold, face filled with anger and loss. She was opening and closing her mouth, veins popping in her neck. Someone had put a Silencing Charm on her, it became apparent, because try as she might, no sound escaped her lips. She was staring at a certain point on the floor some feet in front of her. Cho followed her gaze, still useless with shock. What she saw made her stomach contract.
Her father, bloodstained and limp, was lying on the floor amidst a pool of crimson, clearly dead.
No less than ten Death Eaters were scattered around him, some with knives, some brandishing wands, and others with other means of torture.
Cho felt sick. A lump had risen in her throat, making it difficult for her to swallow. They could have just killed him with a curse, Cho knew, but they wanted her father to suffer. They had tortured him to death. Silent tears made their way, unknown, down Cho's icy cheeks.
Cho had heard stories about this. Death Eaters parading around at night, killing and torturing Muggles; it never occurred to her that this would be happening to her family. She was stupid to assume that they would never die... like this, at least.
She tore her eyes away from her father. She couldn't look at him anymore. She focused on her mother instead, still unable to physically do anything. Her mother had tears of rage and hurt everywhere, helplessness etched deep in her soft lines of age. Her whole body was now shaking, and her fists curled into tight balls.
A single drop of blood fell from her face to her nightgown, which, Cho noticed with growing horror, that was not originally red, as she previously assumed, but red with shining blood, on her originally white nightgown.
A Death Eater now approached Cho's mother. He waved his wand and took the Silencing Charm off of her, as a terrible shriek of fury flooded out of her mouth.
"'Want to hear her scream," grunted the Death Eater nastily.
A burning hate filled Cho, as she realized that she was doing nothing to help her parents. What the hell was she doing just gaping at them like that? She could've maybe helped them!
But fear and shock still grounded her, and she was still unable to move. The Death Eater rose a knife. something clicked in Cho's mind, and she could finally move. But before she could even straighten up properly, the Death Eater had lashed out with his sharpened knife.Cho swung her head away, eyes squeezed shut tight, not wanting to witness her own mother being slain.
But she was too late.
The image of her mother will haunt her for the rest of her life.
The Death Eaters threw her mother's now lifeless body by her father's corpse carelessly.
A hatred that she never knew before now burst inside her. She flung herself into the living room, not exactly sure what she was going to do.
But as she caught sight of her parents, despair drowned the hate, and tears came flooding down her cheeks, weakening her.
Her knees gave. With sobs that racked her body, she crawled slowly towards her parents, dismissing the fact that the ten Death Eaters stiffened at her arrival, and that she was, too, probably to die soon.
A Death Eater sent a curse flying at her crawling figure, and it hit her side. With a yell, she fell in a crumpled heap with a faint gasp, pain overtaking her. But she tremblingly rose again, continuously crawling forward, her goal fresh in her mind, ignoring the curses whizzing past dangerously.
With her destination all but forgotten, she dodged another curse, to finally reaching her parents at last.
She secured the remaining distance by taking them both in an embrace. Ignoring the pool of blood that was gathering and becoming larger all the time, she cried into their lifeless forms, everything else forgotten.
"Ah. Who's this?" A cruel voice reached Cho's ears, who've only just realized that the flying curses had stopped.
After a moment, "Get up."
Cho raised her head slowing, hiccupping slightly. She knew she must have looked pathetic, so helpless and vulnerable. Nevertheless, she narrowed her eyes and glared at the Death Eater with a renewed hatred. "You killed them," she managed to rasp out. Her voice had long gone, along with her will to live.
She didn't care anymore. Let them kill her. Any effort to escape would be unsuccessful. She wasn't stupid. She could count. She was outnumbered ten armed Death Eaters to one injured, wandless girl. They could kill her instantly.
But as she glanced around, she noticed one particular Death Eater who was standing stiffly apart from the others. He had his wand pointed to the ground, instead of on her, like the others. There was something familiar about his figure that Cho couldn't quite place, but she couldn't dwell upon that, because just then, a Death Eater grabbed the front of her gown and pinned her to the wall with his arm like she was a rag doll.
There, all she could do was choke, hiccup, and sob continuously pathetically.
"Crying over your dead parents?" The Death Eater said nastily.
Cho glared at him and choked out, "Go to hell, you bastard."
The Death Eater raised his other arm and swung it heavily across her face. Cho yelped at the impact, face growing hot and a trickle of blood flowed from her lip. Her head was spinning very fast.
The Death Eater swore and then slammed her against the wall, his hand still pinning her. Cho knew she was going to lose consciousness very soon, her head was already throbing and starting to cloud over. The Death Eater put his face very near Cho's and hissed, "Better finish her off fast, it's getting light." He nodded at the window.
As he raised his wand, the Death Eater that Cho noticed was lingering before suddenly lunged out and grabbed him.
"NO! Leave her! There will be wizards swarming in this place soon!"
The Death Eater that had Cho pinned dropped her in surprise.
In a fraction of a second, many things happened. Just as Cho was snapping to attention at the familiarity of the Death Eater's voice, her eyes fell upon the window. She felt her body rebel. A shimmering green skull was hovering in the coming dawn. The Dark Mark.
The skull, the growing pain, her parents, the stench of death... it was all too much.
The World was spinning too fast. Her knees gave. Without any means of support, she crumpled. As she fell, her conscious gave also, and she fell into a world of black, the image of her dead parents foreverly imprinted inside her eyelids. And as she slid, she left a streak of blood along the wall. It was the blood of her parents, mingled with her own.
The early rays of dawn fell upon the room, lightening it, painting a very gruesome picture.
Revealed were the blood stained curtains and walls, the bloody corpses, and Cho's, once white, nightgown now a horrible red.
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A/N: My second chappy is done! Whoohoo! (Actually, it was done a long time ago, but having people Beta it, and typing it up...ay.) I think it was much better than the first one, don't you think?
Please review! I'm kind of stuck here... I have some ideas, but they're not so great, so gimme suggestions! The many reviews will clear my head, trust me. So if you want the next chapter, then review!!!