Kass Pheone scrambled backwards, taking gasping breaths, anticipating when the pain would be over. She collapsed, head smashing against the glass covered pavement, her blood blending into the red color of her bottom layer of hair, soaking the jet black of the rest of her hair. She knew she was losing consciousness and desperately hoped that her brother, Jake, would make it from their aunt and uncle more unharmed than she was. Her heart pounded in her chest, and she felt a few tears escape her eyelids as screams and shrieks of anger and fear slowly faded. The pain of her bruises, scars, and cuts burned as badly as ever and blood now soaked her whole body.
"Kass! Please wake up," she heard the deperate shout of her older brother, and the corners of her mouth twitched upward in relief, although she was too tired to answer, to even lift a finger. Her skinny, tall body was lifted up, and the remaining flashes of light she could descry from beneath her eyelids were slowly fading into an overwhelming darkness, calling and beckoning to her, and Kass completely lost consciousness recalling what had happened earlier that day.
"GIRL! GET OVER HERE!" an enraged shout sounded through the door and into Kass's ears, and her eyes shot open, slightly bloodshot, but a nice hue of ice-blue, fading into a silver on the outer edges of the iris. If you could have seen her normally tan skin in the pitch darkness of her room, or as a normal person who happened to walk by would have normally called it, her closet, it would have appeared pale at the sound of the cruel voice. Kass cringed as she stood halfway up, the most she was able to rise, and narrowed her eyes in rage, opening the door. She raised her eyebrows in surprise as she realized the door was unlocked, and repocketed the wand she had taken out in case she would've had to use the alohamora charm, and pushed open the door. It creaked loudly, making Kass jump out of reflex, but Kass felt relieved that she was out of that place, as it was only four feet in length and three feet high and enough to make anyone go crazy. 'But it's not as bad as being near my uncle," a pessimistic voice sounded in the back of her head, and Kass shook her head, wondering why he called her out. Kass and her siblings had been living with her aunt and uncle, who were also their foster parents -- ever since her parents were murdered when she was only one-year-old. Unfortunately, they were Lord Voldemort's top Death Eaters which went unknown by the Ministry of Magic because they were too stupid to understand that anyone working there could possibly be a spy, and probably due to the fact that they constantly bribed the Ministry whenever they had money so they could continue being their Master's loyal spies.
Kass rounded the corner and the living room came into view. The sight always made her wince slightly. It was tiny, probably because all of her aunt and uncle's fortune had gone to help Voldemort rise to power and bribe the Ministry. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all completely black, except for smudges of dry blood, covering the wall and floor like spots on a leopard. 'Presumably from murder and torture victims of them. And probably me and my brothers and sisters,' Kass thought with a frown on her face for a second before she wiped it off of her face, making it blank. The only furniture in the room was a couch with the stuffing ripping out of it and a few wooden chairs, most of them with a couple legs broken. The few amount of candles only made the room more ominous, leaving sinister shadows imprinted on the walls.
Kass laid her eyes on the people inhabiting the room. Her last surviving brother – except for her sister who had already moved out -- and her aunt and uncle. Jake's appearance was much like herself, except the red in his hair was in streaks, and it was much shorter. Also, there was no silver in his eyes, just ice-blue. He was four years older than her, making him twelve-years-old, and starting his second year at Hogwarts as a Gryffindor when September came in a couple of months. Her uncle was very tall -- around seven feet -- with strikingly blonde hair reaching his glaring black eyes, much like two black holes, and unnaturally pale skin. His wife looked much the same, hair the same length, but with dyed black streaks, and eyes just as dark, completely contrasting her vampire-like skin color. At the moment, Kass could see her uncle roughly holding her brother by the forearm, them both not looking very pleasant at the moment.
"Yes?" Kass asked, trying to be as polite as she could to avoid a horrible punishment, although it was very hard to keep a civil tone with her teeth grinding.
"Be respectful to your superiors," her aunt hissed and began her rant. "And you know exactly why you're here. Did we ever say you were allowed to come out of your room? Did we ever say you were allowed to steal OUR food for dinner, when we have the decency to allow YOU to live, no less in our house, you ungrateful bitch. I know many people who would love to see you dead, and even more who would love to murder you with their own two hands -- which is exactly what you deserve."
Kass sneered, and unfortunately her uncle saw her. His face grew red with rage, and he slipped his wand into his hand, raised it and summoned her wand. It was caught in his outstretched hand, which caused Kass to notice that her brother was also wandless. Apparantly his wand had already been taken away.
"You will treat us with respect," her uncle whispered dangerously, slowly pronouncing each syllable, before screaming, "CRUCIO!"
The light shot towards Kass, and before she could move an inch out of the way, or even react at all, it hit her straight in the chest and she fell to her knees, writhing. 'I won't scream,' she thought determinedly, and she bit her lip, soon tasting the metallic taste of her own blood. Her shrieks of pain stopped in her throat went on for seconds, then minutes, maybe even hours, but Kass had lost all track of time, screams echoing in her head, complete agony shooting through every bone, every muscle in her body. Kass was only able to stop from screaming because she was so used to the torture, her aunt and uncle believing it an appropriate punishment since she was three years of age, and it was used on her nearly every time she saw them.
Relief swept through her body as she felt the curse being lifted and collapsed to the ground, breath ragged. But the relief wasn't long as she noticed Jake across the room from her, the same torture being put to use on him by their aunt. Kass lunged at her aunt from behind, catching her by surprise and knocking her to the ground, ending the curse and leaving her brother catching his breath on the floor, opening and closing his eyes.
"YOU BITCH!" they both screamed to each other at the exact same time, and Kass was slapped hard in the face, knocking her off her feet, and blood dripping from her cheek from her aunt's long nails. She landed on her wrist, and it snapped with a resounding crack.
"DON'T ATTACK US!" her uncle roared, grabbing a flaming hot fire poker and stabbing her thrice – once in the stomach and twice in her legs. This was Kass's breaking point as she screamed from the sheer agony, sniffing in the smell of burning flesh. A slicing curse was used on her, and gashes covered her back – then her arms – then her legs.
"DON'T TOUCH HER!" she heard the roar of her brother and the clang of the poker dropping the ground, but was quickly losing awareness as she felt a swift kick straight into the neck, and then into the jaw, with everything slowly fading…
"Oh Merlin, is your sister alright? I can't believe she's still not awake," Kass could hear a hushed voice sounding.
"Kass should be okay, possibly even wake up soon," a motherly voice floated into Kass's ears, bringing memories of when she was a baby, of her own mother before she died.
"Thank Merlin, this was one of the worse ones," Kass could hear Jake's voice, and she struggled to open her eyes, but it was in vain. It was too tiring.
"WHAT? This happened before?" she could hear the first girl's voice again, but silence met the question, giving an answer by itself. "Jake, how could you not say anything?" the voice now sounded slightly hurt andvery shocked.
Jake scoffed for an answer, "And what would the Ministry do? They are unwilling to believe that the person on the Minister's right hand is doing anything short of perfect. I know. Nothing could be done about it."
Another silence met this relevation, and all she could hear was steady breathing and the slight shuffling of feet. Kass could feel her eyelids become less heavy. Kass struggled, and finally mustered up the strength to open her eyes. As the room slowly came into her view, she held her breath. The walls were a light blue, nearly white, and actually neatly painted without the paint completely chipping off. There was flowers in a vase in the corner of the room, which was brightly lit up, comforting to anyone. She was lying in a large bed with green, fluffy covers. It was the most welcoming room she had ever been in, except possibly she had a room like this when she was a baby, she couldn't remember. It wasn't long before her brother's eyes darted to her and lit up, noticing Kass was awake. He jumped up and rushed to her bed, causing the others to look up at all of the movement.
"Are you alright? Do you hurt at-" Jake began, but Kass interrupted him.
"I'm perfectly fine. You worry too much," Kass said, giving a weak chuckle. She scratched her head, wincing slightly as her arm brushed against a gash where her neck had been kicked. Apparently, not all of the injuries were able to be healed. Kass was still very sore from when the Cruciatus Curse was used on her and where she was stabbed, but other than that, she felt fine, but then again, she was used to these beatings. 'They probably got a healer. Otherwise I wouldn't have healed this quickly, maybe even in a coma again,' Kass mused.
Jake rolled his eyes and responded with sarcasm dripping from his voice, "Yes, you're perfectly fine, which is exactly why you've been unconscious for three days."
Kass's eyes widened considerably, "Three days? I didn't think it was that long."
"It's not suprising at all, considering the amount of injuries, old and new, you had, and taking your age into acccount, I am surprised you're awake right now, and even more astonished that you don't have brain damage or permanent injuries," the woman she had heard before replied to Kass's statement.
Kass had been right about her assumptions. The lady looked like a very motherly and sweet person. She looked like she was around thirty-years-old – very young for a witch. She had curly bright red hair, which contrasted greatly with Kass's perfectly straight, dark red and black. Her eyes were a relaxing grey color, and she was short, but not pudgy at all. The girl next to her who Kass had also heard talking had silky black hair, tan skin, and sharper grey eyes. She seemed to be around Jake's age.
"Hi, I'm Andromeda Black," the girl said soothingly, "and this is Mrs. Potter. I'm in your brother's year and house at Hogwarts, and we're in the next city over from where you live."
"Hi," Kass said sleepily, yawning. "Nice to meet you."
"I wasn't able to heal all of your injuries, but most of them. You should be able to walk around soon, maybe even tonight. I have a son your age, and his a couple of his friend's are over, whom he also just met, so you might get along with them," Mrs. Potter told Kass cheerily, but her eyes showed that she felt sad for her.
"Really?" Kass asked, excited at having being able to have a friend. "What's their names?"
"My son is named James, and his two friends are Sirius Black and Lily Evans," Mrs. Potter responded. "I'll let them come up and see you later, if that's okay with you."
"Sure," Kass forced a smile.
"But right now you better get to sleep. Here's a Dreamless Sleep Potion," Mrs. Potter handed her a potion bottle, and Kass felt relieved. She was unable to ever get to sleep without a Sleeping Potion no matter how hard she tried, and unless it was a dreamless then she would wake up only a couple of hours later, sweating and shaking from a horrible nightmare. She had been addicted to the stuff since she was four-years-old.
"Thank you so much for everything," Kass said quietly before downing the potion in one gulp. Instantly everything grew hazy, and Kass met the familiar feeling of the effects of the potion.