Hi all! This is my first attempt at a Harry Potter story, so please let me know how you like it. I always accept constructive criticism, because how else am I going to learn what my readers want? So, read…and enjoy! But please, no mean things...I am human after all.

Harry stared out of the window, the rainy and cloudy weather reflecting his mood. He really didn't want to go back to Hogwarts. Not after Dumbledore dead, and Ginny gone as well. He could remember it as clear as if it had happened yesterday. Ron's owl had appeared in his widow early one morning, a note with two sentences.

"Death Eaters attacked last night. They took Ginny's body."

Harry remembered feeling as if his heart had died. Ginny gone was the only thing that registered in his mind. He hadn't spoken to anyone since then, just nodding, shaking his head and shrugging were now his way of communicating. Ron was almost the same way, but he used one-worded sentences. Hermione was shocked when she saw them. Both empty shells of the energetic boys she had known so well. Ginny's loss had affected her as well, for she had grown close to the bright opinionated young girl. She hated leaving Harry alone when she and Ron had to go do Head Boy and Girl duties, but she couldn't not go. So now Harry was sitting all alone, staring out of the rain streaked window. A yelling voice brought him out of his trance. The voice was pleading for someone to stop. Curiosity got the better of him, and he got out of his seat, and opened the compartment door. In the corridor a little ways down, Draco Malfoy was standing over a quivering body, kicking, laughing. Harry saw that several people were looking out of their compartments, but not doing anything. For a moment, Harry was going to go back inside, but a scream drove that thought out of his mind.

"Draco, stop, please!" A girl's voice, full of pain. Harry turned around, and strode out of the compartment, emerald green eyes blazing with a deeper than deep anger. He walked to where Draco stood, a smirk on his lips as he delivered another kick to the girl's midsection. Draco stopped when Harry stood in front of him, and for a moment, cowered at the sight of his eyes. Harry was about to turn to the girl when Draco spoke.

"I heard that they took you little wench's life, after they used her. I was told that she moaned like a whore." That was a mistake on his part. Harry whirled around, and dealt him a powerful punch in the jaw, rendering him unconscious. Turning back to the girl, he saw that she was barely breathing, cramped in her fetal position. Kneeling down he brushed her gold hair out of her face, and noticed the bruises. She whimpered and shrank back from his touch. He made a shh-ing sound. She slowly opened her eyes, and Harry saw that she had dark violet eyes.

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Mara stayed curled up after Draco stopped kicking her, knowing her cousin wasn't tired yet. When she felt a hand gently touching her face, she whimpered and shrank back from his touch. The person made a soft shushing noise. Laboring to open her eyes, she saw eyes completely unlike those of her cousin. These were empty, but she could tell that they used to be filled with warmth. Her cousin's were cold and cruel. The last thing Mara remembered before slipping into a faint was being picked up.

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Harry picked up the limp form of the girl, and easily carried her to his compartment, his fellow students watching him. Laying the girl on the seat in front of were he was sitting, he hesitated, before lifting up her shirt to examine her stomach. Black and blue bruises covered the area.

"Oh Merlin!" Hermione's voice said from behind him. Harry turned around, and saw his two friends standing there, shock and horror on their faces. "Harry, who did this?" she asked. Harry stared at her, then looked at the girl in front of him, then spoke one word,

"Malfoy." This was the first word he had spoken in a while. Hermione stared at the girl, while Ron looked at Harry, whose jaw was set. He almost hadn't recognized Harry when he saw him at the train station. The summer had filled him out, and his shoulders were broader and more muscular. He also had gotten taller, almost six two, while he was six two. Hermione had also changed, getting a womanlier figure, and less bushy hair. Ron had openly stared.

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Mara shifted, slowly coming back to reality. Harry put her shirt down, and Hermione and Ron sat down, while Harry stayed kneeling next to her. Slowly, Mara's eyes opened. The first thing she saw was a figure by her side, and she shrank back, but as her eyes focused, she saw that it wasn't Malfoy, but the young man who had picked her up. She tried sitting up, but with a gasp of pain, falling back. Closing her eyes, she fought back the urge to cry.

"Who is she?" a girl's voice whispered.

"Don't know." Came a male voice from the corner. Mara opened her eyes, and was able to see the occupants of the compartment she was in.

"Where am I?" she asked, in a soft, but strangely powerful voice.

"You are in Harry's and our's compartment." The girl said. Mara swept her violet gaze to her brown ones. "I am Hermione Granger, and these are Ron Weasley and Harry Potter." Hermione said, pointing to each boy in turn. Mara struggled to sit up, wincing, but finally sitting up.

"I'm Mara Scott." Mara said, noticing that the boys eyed her warily, as if expecting her to lash out at them or something. Pushing a strand of gold hair out of her face, she looked into Harry's eyes. After a few moment's she looked away, shocked by what she saw. Harry was shocked as well. When Mara had looked into his eyes, it was as though he were seeing in though a window into her soul. Heartbreak and pain and loss, stood out like a sore thumb. But a fierce determination shone through all the darkness. There was also a glimmer of hope, something he hadn't seen in a while. Mara was silent. Harry's eyes held more than other people's. His held pain, confusion, loss, anger and sadness and resentment.

"Mara, I need to ask. Why did Malfoy do this to you?" Hermione said, pointing to her stomach.

"He's my cousin. I'm a half-blood, and I'm an orphan." Mara said, as if it would be explaining everything. And it was.

"Why did you stay?" Hermione asked. Mara looked to the ground, but said in a whisper.

"I couldn't leave. I had nowhere else to go. And it's kind of hard to leave if you are chained up, or have a broken body. I was Draco's personal slave and toy, though his father did put on a limit of what he could do, like no rape or anything, saying that he didn't want tinged blood in his family."

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Harry stared at the girl in front of him. Her softly curling gold hair hung down the side of her face creating a curtain. The picture of pain she created bore itself into his mind, and he closed his eyes, wanting to shut out the memories. Memories of a redhead that had embedded herself into his heart.

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What neither of them knew was that this was only the beginning. A new beginning to the future. One that they could not stop. But changes aren't easy…