Chapter Two

Pain of the Past

She walked the newly bought but now broken bike away from house Number 4 on Privet Drive as the sun was first showing signs of sinking in the sky. The wheel was bent but it didn't matter, she was in. With each step towards the house she had 'moved into' she was painfully reminded of the Muggle's remedies to her scrapes and abrasions. The wounds were not fake, but at moments as she walked towards the house she longed for them to be so but then quickly pushed the pain to the back of her mind. The sooner she got back to the house the sooner she could begin on her 'father'.

She shook her head turning the corner and crossing the street at the end of the block. When she had worked with a partner this wouldn't have been such a problem, the he could simply been the adult…she shook her head sharply crossing to at quaint-looking pale yellow house with white trim. She refused to think about him at the moment. She walked the bike into the garage next to the dark car that had 'backfired and almost hit her'. Smiling ruefully to herself she quickly changed the car to a silver jeep with a flick of her hand.

She walked into the house through an adjoining door. She tossed her keys onto the rather ratty looking kitchen counter top and made for the stairs but stopped with her foot on the first step. She moaned retracing her steps to the archway that showed into the living room (or parlor as these English people called it). She stomped in and as she expected, Remus Lupin was sitting on the disgustingly mustard yellow couch reading a book.

She shook her head and looked at him, her arms on her hips. "Remus John Lupin, I warned you, I work alone!"

He glanced up and then back at the book turning the page. "Nice cuts, do you need to get those looked at?"

"Don't change the subject and no, I don't." He didn't even look at her. Ire burned in her and she waved her and in a jerky movement. The book flew from his hands and into hers. She glanced at the title, Defense Against Black Magic by Richard Peters. The anger that now burned in her caused the candles in the room to burst into light. "I believe this book is mine,"

"Look, K—"

"What are you doing here?" she asked cutting him off. "I'll give you five seconds to answer me before I send you into the middle of Diagon Alley in a pair of tighty-whities."

She suppressed a grin when Lupin visibly paled at this statement. "I, I'm here to tell you to be careful. Severus got wind of some news that Harry might be attacked soon."

She glared at him. "I'm still waiting for a reason for you being here." She said crossing her hands in front of her chest. "And you're down to three seconds."

He swallowed hard. "I, I wanted to make sure you got into the Dursleys…" She raised her eyebrows at him. "I didn't think you would get in, get them to trust you…"

"You Order members are insufferable!" she said turning on her heel with a roll of her eyes.

She stalked to the bathroom with Lupin hot on her heels. "How did you do it?"

"Skill," she said before shutting the door in his face.

She heard him sigh on the other side of the door as she waved her hand over her cuts, taking the pain away but not healing them. "But how did you do it?"

She yanked off the tank top and then pulled the pants down. She ignored him for a moment while she changed into a black baggy man's shirt over her head. The shirt had a white stripe going through it with the words 'Beauty and the Beast the Broadway Musical' along the front and the dates on the back with a single rose. "Do what?" she asked pulling on a pair of jean shorts and opening the door.

Lupin was leaning against the wall near the door. "Get in, they, his family hates anything magical."

She scoffed at him and his stupidity. "Are all English wizards this dumb?" she muttered. "Here's a little hint, Remus," she leaned into his face, standing on her tiptoes to do so. "Don't tell them you're a witch or wizard…ooo, what a concept huh?"

He ignored her sarcasm and watched her walk away. Her shirt was long enough to cover most of her shorts, leaving only a thin line of jean showing and her combat boots reached up to her knee giving her a decidedly odd look. "But they aren't a very trusting family, and from what I know that cousin of his is downright cruel."

"He's also the size of a whale, honestly I don't know how Potter stays so thin with the size that cousin and uncle are…" she muttered under breath moving towards the kitchen.

"How did you do it, they aren't a very trusting family," Remus repeated as she stood staring at the kitchen before waving her hand and the countertops (which were a rather horrid apple-red color) changed into a rich oak-wood along with the cabinets and each of the cabinets had a Japanese word engraved into the soft oak wood, painted over in black.

"And you aren't a very trusting man in this case," she snapped before waving her hand again and the floor in the kitchen changed to a rather beautiful shade of jade green. "Look," she frowned and snapped her finger at the fridge and it changed into a side-by-side made of panel wood with a Japanese word engraved on either door. "I know what I'm doing, why don't you just trust me?"

He sighed. "I care very deeply for Harry."

"You and everyone else but Tom Riddle and Severus Snape." She muttered under her breath and waved her hand once more. The wall (which was painted the same ghastly apple-red the counter-tops had once been) changed into a creamy ivory color with Japanese words written in scattered spots on the wall. An oak-wood table appeared in a breakfast nook and comfy-looking chairs appeared around the table with a jade cushion and a soft oak color to the wood. She turned to him, satisfied with the changes she made. "I was hired to do a job and you know I work alone, no adults, no kids, no teachers, and defiantly no over-bearing parent-types."

She brushed by him and stood in front of the living room. She first changed the hideous couch into a comfortable-looking hunter-green couch-loveseat-set compete with a large, squashy armchair that reminded Remus of the chairs in the common rooms at Hogwarts. The fireplace that had been against the wall, which seemed to be made of brick and was painted a lime green, changed into an immaculate dark wood masterpiece. She changed the carpet in the parlor (a carpet so dirty that no one could tell what color it had been originally) into a beautiful cherry-wood hardwood floor. She frowned and then added a shaggy off-green rug in front of the fireplace before changing the wall color into wood paneling.

Remus was surprised at the homey-feeling the room exerted as she added a few more features (bookcases, pictures, and a grand piano). "I'm not trying to be any of those," he said shaking himself out of the trance he had been lulled into by watching her Transfigure the room with such ease.

"Trying and succeeding are two different things, Remus."

"No fair quoting, Severus." He said chuckling as she continued to change the features in the house, moving towards the front door as she went.

She snapped her fingers once more and the walls in the entrance way changed into a rather pretty shade of rich red. "I wasn't attempting to quote that over-grown bat." A few end tables appeared along with a cute maroon loveseat appeared with a flower design on them.

Several pictures appeared on the walls as she continued her sweep of the bottom floor (the only room she did not go into with Lupin around was the basement). The pictures were of two people (a couple had three in them but not many): one person was her at varying ages and the other was of an older man with no face. The third person who was in few pictures and one alone was of a young woman who looked remarkably similar to the brown-haired girl moving about the house. Her face had the same defiant look but the woman's face held much more joy that filled all the way to hazel blue eyes.

Remus hung back watched her change the show dinning room before turning to the staircase. "Why is there no face on the pictures of you and the man?" he asked following her up the stairs (which she had left a soft-blue-green carpet on).

She glanced at him as she changed the floors into the same soft blue-green carpet that extended from the stairs. More pictures appeared on the walls, these with her looking like she was going to a private school, and the others with the face-less man and the woman. "Because, I have yet to create a temporary dad for this job and I need to see what my muse turns him into before I can put his face in the picture…"

"And the woman?" he questioned as the walls turned into a pale blue.

She froze for a moment, her eyes falling on a picture with the woman in it. "I, I told the truth for once, that my mother was dead so I didn't have to create a robot for her as well…"

"She looks a lot like you," He said curiously. "Well at least how you look now."

"She is my real mother," the emotion caught in the girl's throat. She shook her head clearing her throat for a moment, blinking rapidly and turning away from Lupin. "What she looked like on one of her jobs, not many features were changed."

"I see,"

She looked at him sharply, anger masking her obvious pain. "No you don't, you can't see. No can." She turned on her heel and marched past a closed door, the one room she had already changed and claimed as her own. She walked to the master bedroom and Lupin was not far behind her. "Is there any particular reason you are following me?" she snapped changing the master bedroom into dusty shades of slate blue that made the room look actually rather welcoming. "I already told you I want you out of my house."

Remus didn't move and just stared at her. "We need to talk." He said the first thing that obviously came to his head.

She rolled her eyes. "Good Lord, I'm through with talking to you stupid, idiotic adults!" she suddenly shouted. "Did you not hear me last night? I work ALONE!" She was shouting into his face. He took a step back. When she wanted to be she could be downright scary and at the moment Lupin was having second thoughts about having come. "Dumbledore called and hired me, end of story. GET OVER IT!" she stomped away to the smallest bedroom in the house and changed the floor into a hardwood floor and then the walls to wood paneling that was the same shade as the floor. The room seemed to grow rows of bookcases along the walls along with a large maroon armchair in the desk with a computer on it.

"K—" he attempted to speak but she shot him a death-glare.

"Shouldn't you be at Grimwald's Palace?" she said suddenly, a malevolent grin on her face. "The full moon is almost here, no even a week away, Moony." She whispered devilishly. She watched something flicker in his honey-brown eyes before she stalked away from him with a satisfied smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"I wanted to make sure you can handle your—"

She stopped abruptly outside her room causing him to bump into her. Her brow darkened and she whirled around to face him. "You tried to break into my room!" she accused.

"I was just—"

"Shut up!" she snapped and he immediately was merely moving his mouth with no sound issuing from his lips. She was too angry to even smirk at him. "I have held my patience with you because of our past friendship, Remus, but you went too far with attempting to break into my room." He had stopped attempting to speak and stared at her, unsure of what she would do. She moved towards him, looking more menacing that Snape had ever looked, giving Lupin a glare that would have sent even Dumbledore running. Lupin backed into the wall and swallowed hard. "Never come back here unless I personally invite you."

He moved his mouth, by reading his lips he was obviously apologizing. She snorted. "I don't want your flipping apology, werewolf," pain sprung to his face at the venom in her voice. "Dumbledore trusts me enough to do this job well and you should know that I will do anything to keep this job from failing." She shook her head. "I'm sending you to Hogsmade, go where ever the hell you want from there but have someone else take the silence spell off of you because I don't want to hear your voice at the moment." She shot him a glare that would make Severus Snape's glares look like child play. "Don't come back." She hissed in a deadly voice.

She waved her hand and he disappeared. She rolled her eyes before waving her hand again, to add the final touches to the house. A dozen of boxes filled with knick-knacks that had been on the walls and shelves appeared around the living room and the front room. Several were scattered about the floor upstairs and more than two-dozen empty boxes were stacked near the door.

She turned to her room and whispered the password while turning the knob. She walked into the room, the colorful beads she had hung in front of the door moved, hitting together softly. She had expanded it slightly from the size it had once been in order for her to live in it magically (if any Muggle came by she would claim the other bedroom on the floor as to hide the magical things in this room).

Her bed sat in one corner of the room, a green comforter on it with a canopy above it. A dark wood bedside table sat next to the head of her bed and an oriental green rug was sitting on the floor. A single picture frame, plain picture frame sat on the table, one of her and a young man around her age along with a small hand-held mirror next to it, glowing slightly. A box sat under her bed, the one that she stored her old photo albums in and a dresser stood by the door. A large trunk, similar to the one that Moody owned and kept at Grimwald's Palace, sat along side the same wall the window was on. She had put in a bathroom to the side of the room that held a secret panel that she hid her 'magical' things in.

She sat down on the bed and looked at the picture. She was laughing and smiling, being swung around in a circle by a young man with light brown hair and brown eyes. Tears splashed down her face as she traced the frame. Their laughing faces filling the picture before they kissed. She put the frame face down and pulled her knees to her chest.

"I miss you, Richard." She whispered to no one. She smiled at a picture hanging on her wall of Richard and herself with their parents behind them. It had been taken right before her parents and Richard's parents went on the job that claimed their lives. "I miss all of you,"

She picked up a ratted teddy bear, the one he had given her for her thirteenth birthday and hugged it tightly, letting it catch her salty tears. Richard Peterson. His name rang clear in her mind from the day they had met. They were both five when they meet and became partners at the Paladins. Both their real parents had been friends and part of the same group that began to train witches and wizards at a younger age, refining their skills till they could not be beaten even by the strongest Black witch or wizard, or as the English call it, Dark witch or wizard.

She bit her lip leaning back against the light olive green wall. She was chosen out of hundreds of thousands of children throughout the U.S. and North America along with Richard. They had shown early signs of magic and with time grew stronger and stronger. They were always paired up together in duels, 'group work', and so on because their last names were so close together. Mr. Peterson this will be your partner, Ms. Peters. The instructor's voice echoed through the hollow acres of her mind. They had become partners, friends, lovers. He had been the only person she worked with until he was killed.

"It was your fault too!" she snapped standing up, tossing the bear aside. She walked over to a picture with her and Richard in each other's arms, one that had been taken only a week before they went on their last job together. "Yes, you," she said to herself in the picture, the fourteen-year-old girl looked at her confused. "You killed him." the girl in the picture looked up at the young man holding her. Richard pulled the girl closer to him protectively, as if doing so would save the happy brunette in the picture from this raging and bitter one. "Yes, it was her. She killed you," it came out as a hushed whisper.

The glass on the picture frames shattered so suddenly she stumbled back, shielding her eyes from the flying shards. She sighed and repaired the glass, all the people with the exception of her parents, hiding behind the frames, afraid of the spontaneous magic. She glanced at the two worried parents. "Oh mom and dad, if only you knew I would turn out to be a murderer."

She opened the top dresser drawer, taking a small compact mirror from it and walked from the room, shutting the door behind her. She glanced at the walls in the hallways. Mirrors were positioned strategically around the house, up to three in a room and at least one in every room of the house, each with a different look and design on it. She whispered small incantation inaudibly as she waved her hand over the small mirror. An image appeared on the mirror and she nodded, causing the image to be displayed on all of the mirrors around the house. It had been a stroke of genius for her to take along her homemade tracking charm. All it need was physical contact with the person that she wanted to tract and the 'car almost hitting her' trick worked wonders for her.

Harry didn't think it at all strange for her to trip and grab his arm to stay balanced, though he ended up pulling her completely into his arms. She hurried down the stairs and into the kitchen and looked at the toaster, which she was using to reflect what Harry was doing. She took a deep breath in and let it out slowly. He was looking through an old picture album. She saw his parents laughing and in their wedding clothes with Sirius Black off to the side, smiling broadly.

"Oh Wonder Boy," she whispered shaking her head. "You blame yourself don't you? Stupid Order leaving you there after what happened at the Ministry, do you think the adults even have brains?" Harry traced Sirius' face with his finger, tears dropping down his face. "Of course not, they sent you back there.

She heard banging on his door causing the boy in glasses to look up sharply. She frowned as the door was shoved open and Vernon barged in. Harry shut the album closed and placed his pillow over it, wiping at his eyes at the same time. He didn't even look at his uncle as the man spoke. "How dare you take that, that thing out in public!" his fat uncle thundered.

"What did you expect me to do? Voldemort is back! How could I have know that was just car backfiring—(It worked though, got you out of the house long enough for me to get the tracking charm on you. She thought to herself)—and not someone disapparting!"

"Disa-what!"

Stupid muggle, doesn't even care that his nephew is a wizard and doesn't even take the time to know about the magical world. She thought shaking her head. "Disappearing one place and appearing elsewhere. With Voldemort back he could send someone at any time!" he shouted bitterly in response.

She was slightly surprised that he used the name Tom Riddle gave himself rather that the normal wizarding world's You-Know-Who crap everyone else in the Wizarding world used. She started to prepare her dinner, still watching the image on the toaster. She knew his family didn't like him but the rage in Vernon Dursley's eyes caused her to wonder if it was stronger than just dislike.

"I don't care if the devil himself is after you, you are not to take that thing out again!"

"That's easy for someone who doesn't have one of the most powerful dark wizards of the world after you." muttered Harry getting up and pouring some water into his owl's feeder.

Vernon grabbed him gruffly by the shoulders, lifting him off the floor slighting. She paused in the middle of chopping up some lettuce for a salad. "Now you listen to me boy! I don't care who's going to kill you or not! It's just the same in my mind, one less mouth to feed. You are not to take it out again."

She let out a breath of air. This wasn't what he needed after what happened at the Ministry of Magic. He didn't need to feel like he was unwanted. She knew what it could do to a person, hell she was living proof what it could do to a person. Harry was staring to the side numbly, allowing his uncle to shaking him like he was a rag doll. "Fight it, Harry, come on Wonder Boy, fight it. Fight the big whale."

"Do you understand!"

"Let me go,"

He shook his head but released Harry. "Do you understand!"

"Fine! I understand but I don't care!" Harry shouted.

"You will not speak to me that way!"

"Just leave me alone!"

"You will do what ever I tell you to or else I will find a way to hand you over personally to the person that killed your idiot parents just to get you off my hands!"

"Get out of my room!" he screamed.

"DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!" said Vernon, his fat and meaty hit Harry across the face, sending the frail boy into the wall with a deafening thud.

She winced, her full attention onto the reflection. Harry seemed unhindered by the blow into the wall and turned to his uncle, tears shining in his blood shot eyes. He looked horrible. "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" he shouted grabbing the books on his desk and throwing them at Vernon. A book hit his uncle squarely in his large gut causing him to gasp. "GET OUT!" He threw what ever came to his hands at his uncle. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT!"

Vernon ducked out of the room, dogging books and articles of clothes best he could. He slammed the door shut as Harry threw a thick book at him. It hit against the door and fell onto the floor. She heard the lock turn on the door as Harry crumbled to the floor, leaning against the wall. His owl hooed at him but he didn't seem to notice that in the action the water he had just put in along with the food had spilled onto the floor of her cage. He brought his knees to his chest, his emaciated body shaking with sobs. She could only guess that his uncle's words were echoing in his head.

She sighed cutting up the lettuce again and putting it into a bowl. She wanted to comfort him. Tell him it would be okay, that he had people that cared about him, that loved him. But she knew it wouldn't help. She knew that all it would do it cause him to slip farther away from the ones who loved him. She knew all too well what death of a loved one does to a person.