CECILIA

I watched my mum and Katrina laying a few feet away from me on the ground, unable to move as Katrina had, still building my strength back uo again. As the door opened, and Rose and Amy walked in, raising their wands in alarm, Tiffany raised hers, and pointed it directly at my twin sister. "Sectumsempra," she hollered with a flick of her wrist. I watched as the beam of light flew directly toward my defenseless sister, and as the tears started to roll down my face, my mum suddenly jolted and was able to gather what little strength she had remaining to fling her head and upper body onto Katrina, as the blow hit my mother's chest, and blood erupted from every inch ofher. Katrina looked at her with a face of sheer horror, and Bellatrix laughed, and whispered "Secumsempra," once more, but this time, it hit me squarely in the chest. Then the mother and daughter apparated away.

KATRINA

I lifted myself up to look at my mother, whose bleeding had stopped, and was now as white as a sheet. "Mum, can you hear me?" I whispered shakily as I gently shook her. Her eyelids fluttered down. "Answer me! Mummy!?" I shook harder, blinking away salty tears that were running down my face into my mouth. Her chest was still moving, just barely. This was real. Then, she was gone. I looked at my sister, who now had our group of friends around her, trying to stop the blood. She was knocked out. I couldn't lose the both of them today, I thought. We rushed her over to the thestrals, that now, all of us could see. We had to bring her to the hospital wing for her to be saved. If we didn't hurry, I would lose both of them tonight.

LILY

We hurried as fast as we could, Katrina and Amy holding Cecilia in their arms, to the hospital wing. "Madame Pomfrey!" I shouted, "Cecilia's hurt!" Both Madame Pomfrey and Professor McGonagall came out of the door, and Professor McGonagall's face turned white.

"Oh dear, what happened to her?" She whispered, as Madame Pomfrey took Cecilia into her arms and placed her on a bed, with her weand out, muttering a countercurse to close the open wounds. "Girls, I would suggest you go up to bed, now. Cecilia will have to stay here overnight, I'm sure," said the Headmistress. "I would like to have a conversation with you in the morning." We nodded, all but Katrina, who kept her eyes on her sister. "She'll be all right. Madame Pomfrey will give her a blood replenishing potion and then all she'll need is rest," she assured the worried Slytherin. As we started to walk away, the professor reminded us, "In the morning, meet me in my office. You have some explaining to do, though, Rose has told me the bare essentials of your situation." I looked at Rose in surprise, and her face turned red. She likely hadn't had a choice, and she wasn't one to lie to a teacher. Sometimes her qualities were a blessing and a curse.

ROSE
What had happened was just mind-boggling to me. I had gone with Amy to find the horcrux, and it actually hadn't been that difficult. Likely because how many people could know that it was in her bedroom, and how many people could succeed in getting into her bedroom without her knowing? I had expected that the place where Tiffany would live would have looked much more evil, but, really, if I had lived there, it would have looked less normal. Just an old bed with green sheets, and a bookshelf full of dusty, untouched books. It was like she barely ever actually resided there, though that was the place that she had seemed to be from the perspective of Cecilia and Katrina. Finally, we looked under the bed, (Amy's idea) to find the locket. Amy pulled the basilisk fang out of her bookbag, and stabbed it, like she was afraid it was going to jump out and attack her, just as I was afraid that tiffany would walk into the room and find us. Unlike the other times we had destroyed horcruxes, it hadn't made a sound, thankfully, because the noises that the other two had made were so loud that someone would have realized that we were here. A green liquid oozed out of it, like she had just killed a living thing. That night we had seen two real people bleed. We were now all capable of seeing the thestrals, an experience that I had wished I would live my life without seeing.

KATRINA
Mum was dead. Truly dead. And it could have been me. It should have been me. She didn't have to die. She saved me, killing herself. Mum could have killed Bellatrix. I can't. If I had died, she would have been capable enough to avenge me someday. There was no way I could avenge her. I was eleven. What could I do? These were the thoughts that rolled through my mind, preventing my sleep that horrible night. We had to get the horcruxes, so at least we could kill the one behind it all. I would kill my Aunt Bellatrix. I had to. Did dad know that mum was dead? If he didn't know already, then the next time he went into the basement, his heart would shatter into a million, unfixable pieces, joining me.

I sat in the middle of Rose, Lily and Amy, across from Professor McGonagall in her office. "What exactly, were you doing outside of school grounds yesterday?" I sighed. I hoped she wouldn't make me talk. I couldn't do it. Relive it.

"We were, um… Getting a horcrux…" Said Rose bashfully. She had told McGonagall about them before, but she hadn't told us about their conversation.

"Where were you?"

"Malfoy Manor,"

"And what occured while you were there that caused the serious injury of Miss Malfoy?" My stomach turned. I had to tell her. I was the best one.

"Well," I said. "We ran into Tiffany and Bellatrix, and they tortured us," I started. McGonagall looked at me with wide, unblinking eyes. "And… she had my mum… She tried to kill me with "Sectumsempra…" but my mum saved me… she's… gone." The Professor who had never shown signs of liking me looked me in the eyes with a pained look, and patted me on the shoulder, and swallowed. "She aimed the same spell at Cecilia… but I was too focused on mum to go help her…"

"Cecilia's all right. I'm very, very sorry for your loss, Katrina. Your mother wasn't a very good student, but as an adult she was a very wonderful woman. Especially to have raised you two." A singular tear dripped down her face. She turned to the others, now. "Were you successful in finding the horcrux?" She asked, desperately.

"Yes, we were." Then, we heard the voice of an old man.

"This will be a war, Minerva. There isn't a way we can stop it from becoming one. You need to inform the Ministry, and all the staff." The professor turned to the painting of Dumbledore.

"Albus, do you really think…" The portrait nodded solemnly. She turned back to us. "Miss Malfoy, Miss Weasley, Miss Potter, Miss Lovegood, you are excused. I need to write some letters."

"You will be able to overcome the evil, I know you will," said the painting. "Children can be stronger than one thinks. And, you all have eachother to rely on. Be strong, and good luck."