chapter 11

(a/n- as you may know, i absolutely adore angst. ive been waiting to write it for a long time! yay! now i can! its really bloody! i was over at gavvie's house and she drew a picture of Mary in this chapter and it was the bloodiest thing i've ever seen. i was like "hahaha its just a smidge too bloody" yea something evil like that. the things that go on in that basement. its crazy. lol. anyway hope ya like this and you can stomach it. hehehe)

(disclaimer- i own nothing cept Mary, Fiona Bates, Michael Bates, and Katie McDowell.)

A week passed, nothing happened. That is, until after that week....

(a/n-heh my feeble attempts to add suspense)

Harry was upstairs in his bedroom when he heard a crashing noise coming from downstairs. "Probably just Dudley throwing a tantrum," he thought to himself. But he wasn't convinced.

About a minute later, Mary walked into the room. "What happened to you?" Harry asked worriedly. Her wrist seemed to be broken and her nose was bleeding.

"I-er-tripped," she said. She had a pained expression on her face.

"You okay?" he said. He knew she was lying. Well, if she didn't want him to know, that wasn't his business. He would probably find out soon anyway.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she sat down on the bed. She conjured up a cast for her wrist with her wand. "I think I'll go to bed. I'm tired," she said.

"Ok, night sis," he said, but she was already asleep.

(The next night)

Harry heard the same crashing noises from downstairs. He opened the door and looked down the steps. Mary was stumbling up the stairs and apparently couldn't walk. "I was running around and twisted my ankle," she said when he looked at her suspiciously.

"Here, let me help you up," he said as he lifted her up and let her lean on him. She was so pale. They made their way into the bedroom and Harry laid Mary down on her bed. "You gonna be alright?" he asked.

"Yeah, of course. It doesn't hurt that badly," she replied, still cringing.

"Alright," he said suspiciously. He still didn't believe her. "Well, goodnight then," he said.

"Goodnight," she replied. Harry turned off the light but Mary could not sleep. She kept thinking about the other times she had been beaten worse than this. Her thoughts took her back 11 years, to the night Mrs. Bates died...

Mary was awakened at midnight by the sound of breaking glass. The little 5-year-old girl hopped out of bed and went into the living room. She saw a tall figure moving around the house. "Who's there?" she said loudly in her little voice. Obviously, she was scared to death. She turned on the light and a fist collided with the side of her head. She was thrown onto the end table, and kicked hard in the ribs. In her attempt to crawl back to her room, the knife the man had been carrying found a home inside her leg. Mary screamed, which brought Mrs. Bates hobbling out.

"Shame on you, Michael Bates! I thought I raised you better!" she yelled. The man pulled out a gun and pointed it at her. "You put that gun d-!" He had pulled the trigger. A spot of blood had formed on her night gown. She fell to the ground, dead.

Fiona Bates's son looked at Mary, who was crying in the corner. He aimed the gun at his head, and fired. She screamed again.

16-year-old Mary then cried herself to sleep.

"Harry! Mary! Get the bloody hell down here for dinner!"

yelled Uncle Vernon the next night. Dinner was eaten in silence as usual, and afterward Harry and Mary began to make their way upstairs.

"Get back here, girl!" said Aunt Petunia angrily.

"Just go up without me, Harry, ok?" Mary said. Harry began to make his way up the stairs, but then turned around and came to the bottom to see what was going on.

"Clean up, girl!" Petunia said loudly.

"How many damn times do I have to tell you?" Mary retorted angrily. "I am not your slave!"

"How dare you?" yelled Petunia, and slapped her across the face.

"I'll take it from here, Petunia," said Vernon. "What's wrong with you, Potter?" he yelled at Mary, who's face was half-red. "Listen to your Aunt!"

"No," she said simply. Vernon pushed her into a glass cabinet and it broke. His fist collided with her face and gave her a black eye. He grabbed her by her neck, pushed her against the wall, and lifted her up. She hung there, gasping for breath and choking.

"If you defy us again," he whispered, "I'll make you wish you were never born. Got that?"

Just as she was turning blue, Mary managed to nod and Vernon dropped her. She lay on her back, coughing and gasping. Vernon knelt down and punched her in the mouth. She started choking on her blood. "Get upstairs, now!" he growled.

She crawled to the bottom of the staircase and found Harry waiting for her. "Come on," he said gently, "I'll help you." He had a shocked and disgusted look on his face. They entered the room and Mary collapsed on her bed. She was shaking and spitting up a lot of blood.

"Why didn't you tell me they were doing this?" he asked quietly.

"Because," Mary said weakly, "You have enough on your plate already. Trust me, Harry; I'm not worth worrying about."

"But you are, Mary," he said. "I'm your brother, and you can tell me anything, okay?"

She nodded.

"What are they doing this for, anyway?" Harry asked seriously.

"Because I won't do what they tell me to," she said.

"Then why don't you just do it instead of being beaten like this?" he asked.

"Harry!" she exclaimed. "Our parents did not give their lives for us so we could be slaves for the Dursley's! My life has sucked pretty bad so far, and I refuse to take that kind of "you're different so you serve us." shit from anyone. Trust me, this is all worth it. And someday we're both gonna escape this hellhole and go live with Sirius."

Harry looked a little surprised by her response. "Yeah but-but that really looked like it hurt," he said thickly.

"Of course it does!" she said. "But if you think just now is hell for me, well, you know the things that happened after I met Sirius, right? Well, not even Sirius knows the things that happened before I was sent to Azkaban. You wanna hear?"

Harry nodded and sat up. "As long as you don't mind," he said quickly.

"It's okay," she replied. "Anyway, the first time I experienced abuse was when I was 5. That was the night Mrs. Bates died. It was the middle of the night, and I heard a crashing sound coming from the living room, so I got up and went in. I turned the light on and a man started beating me. He stabbed me in the leg and I screamed, which woke Mrs. Bates up. She yelled at him to stop, but he shot her in the chest and she died instantly. Then, he aimed the gun at his own head and fired. It was horrible to watch. Probably the worst night of my life. So I just called the ambulance and lived on the streets, as you know. There was something that I just pretended never happened, but I can't pretend anymore. I actually made a friend on those streets. Well, at least I thought she was my friend. I was 7, and I met this girl who was about 14. Her name was Katie McDowell, and we made friends pretty fast. One night she invited me to meet her friends at some old run-down warehouse. Of course, I went with her. I got there and was immediately knocked unconscious. I woke up to find them cutting slits in my legs with shards of glass. They cut me up so I couldn't get up and escape. "Katie!" I said, cringing with pain. "I thought you were my friend!" Well of course she just laughed. One of the boys in her gang came up and started punching me all over. A couple others started joining them. They wouldn't stop. No matter how much I begged for mercy and cried, they would not stop. Meanwhile, all the other members of the gang were laughing their heads off. Some cop cars arrived suddenly, and started shooting at the gang. They were shooting back. I saw so many people die. There was blood everywhere. Their's and mine. Katie was the only one that lived, and she escaped. I managed to crawl out of the way and back to my abnormally large box that I lived in. I had blood and bruises all over my face, but for some reason, I think that there was so much pain at once that my body just kind of gave up trying to hurt. I fell asleep peacefully that night, and I didn't think about it again until now. And then I met Sirius in Azkaban, and my life changed forever. I never thought about all those things that had happened. Without him, I would be probably be dead right now."

Harry got up and hugged his sister as hard as he could. "Oh my God, Mary, I'm so sorry. I-I can't believe it; how heartless could someone be to hurt a little girl like you were?"

"Thanks, Harry," she said with a smile. "Thankfully, that only happened those two times. I'm actually pretty over it now that I've finally told someone about it. I'll tell Sirius when I'm ready, I guess."

"Yeah. I guess we should get to bed," said Harry sleepily.

"Yeah," she replied with a yawn.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Thanks for listening. It really feels better to tell someone."

"No problem," he replied, "See you in the AM."

"Night," she said.

The next night at around 8:00, while Harry was out for a walk, Fred Weasley called the Dursley's, and thankfully, Mary picked it up before anyone else noticed. "Hello?" she said.

"Hey Mary! It's Fred," he said

"Oh my God, Fred! Hi! I miss you guys so much!"

"We miss you too. So how's your summer?"

"Really crappy. You?"

"Not too bad, actually. The business is going pretty well."

"That's great." Mary felt someone tapping on her shoulder. "Can you hold on a second?" she said to Fred.

"Sure," he replied.

Mary turned around to face Dudley. "You're n-not supposed t-to use that," he said nervously.

"Is that so?" replied Mary in a voice of false sweetness. "Well, what are you gonna do about it, Dinky Duddydums?"

"I-I'm telling," he said even more nervously.

"That's right," said Mary, "go cry about it to Mommy and Daddy, Ickle Diddykins."

Dudley ran off to tell his parents.

"Sorry, Fred," Mary said.

"It's okay."

There was a slight pause.

"Hey Mary?" asked Fred.

"Yeah?"

"I was-er-wondering if some time you might want to-"

Mary didn't hear anymore because someone pulled her back by her shirt.

"So, what do you think?" asked Fred. "Mary? Are you there?"

The phone was quickly hung up on the other end. "Maybe she just got in trouble for using the phone, but I'm sure she's okay," thought Fred. He hung up the phone and got back to work in the shop.

Back at the Dursley's, Uncle Vernon grabbed Mary by the front of her robes and slammed her against the wall. "What the devil were you doing, Potter?" he howled. He was completely beside himself. His hand collided with the side of her face.

"I was just using the phone," she said coolly. "What, is that illegal or something?"

He smacked her face again and slammed her against a glass cabinet. She winced slightly as the broken glass and wood cut into her back, and she started spitting up blood again. This continued for at least half an hour, in which Mary heard three different snaps coming from her own body. Almost the whole first floors were covered with blood. When it was finally over, both Mary's legs were broken, and her wrist was too. She was drenched in blood and she had deep cuts and bruises all over. Uncle Vernon grabbed a steak knife from the kitchen, and pressed it against her throat.

"Now get out of here and don't come back, you filthy little freak!" he whispered. "Get out now!" he kicked her so hard in the ribs that one of them broke. She dragged herself out into the street and rested under a tree in the grass. She hurt all over-she just wanted to pass out.

"All right," she thought, "I can't stay here, my best course of action would be to go to Number 12 Grimmauld Place. It's not terribly far. But I have to figure it out now. I'm thinking that I won't be able to think clearly in a couple minutes or so. Heh. Goodbye sanity."

She was right; In a few minutes she was extremely weak and couldn't think straight. She drug herself for a while, and winced anytime she moved. It was hell. She passed through her old alleyway, the one she lived in for those three years. Her box was still there. She decided to see if she could still fit in it. She could use a quick rest, anyway. She opened it up and saw someone she never expected to see.

"Katie? Katie McDowell?" Mary said in disbelief.

"Mary?" the woman inside the box said. She was ragged and filthy.

"You betrayed me," Mary said weakly. "I can never forgive you for that."

"Mary, you don't understand! My friends forced me! I didn't want to!" Katie said.

"I don't care. You making your life hell like mine is was your own decision," said Mary. "I'm leaving. Goodbye Katie. You are a part of my life that I don't need to be with me."

She dragged herself off and finally arrived at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. She was exhausted and half dead when she got there. She knocked on the door and a very tired looking Lupin answered the door.

(a/n- whoa. i freaked myself out with all that. anyway, hope you liked it, violence doesn't get worse in the next chapter-don't worry. i can't wait til the next chappie! its gonna be so cute with Mary and Sirius and Lupin heeheehee!!! lol! well please keep reviewing; i didn't get many for chapter 10, so please keep reviewing if you're not! bye byes!)