"What are you doing, Crucia?" Fred asked thought he knew full well what was on my mind currently. He turned slightly pale and gulped. Good. He feared me. That was a good sign. I was growing stronger in my ability to run up fear in one.

"The only person I have ever cared about truly died three months ago," I told him loud and clear, hate took the form of liquid. Tears dropped from my eyes, but when the anger enveloped me again, the tears became like a film of hatred against Fred. A Weasley. "I have nothing left. I'm not afraid to kill you."

Just then, a very flustered Professor McGonagall came running into the Tower. "Miss Black, I have news of your aunt's…" When she saw the scene unfolding before her, she paused. I would have expected a shriek, a gasp, something that showed fear or surprise. But McGonagall just stared and me and swallowed hard. "Well, I see now. You plan to kill Fred Weasley."

My hand, which was gripping the wand ever so tightly, started to tremble slightly. I straightened out my wrist and gave it a tug. I would show no weakness.

"Yes, I do!" I shouted. "Now, don't you dare think I'm afraid to kill you too, Professor! You're just as much as a… half-blood, muggle lover. And…and you probably assisted in killing my mother and aunt. You disloyal coward!"

Professor McGonagall looked especially concerned with the last part. She pulled out her wand on me. "For one, I am most certainly NOT disloyal. That is one thing I will never be. Nor am I a coward. Look at yourself, Crucia. Look at what you have become! Hatred's consumed you!"

Tears formed around the rim of my eyes. I felt a soft touch on my shoulder. In my maniac and crazed stage, I saw my aunt's ghost. Narcissa. She was gently touching my arm, pushing the wand downwards.

As I looked at my once beloved aunt, I felt my arm slightly fight against it. To my left was the ghost of my mother, grinning proudly and urging me on. She was whispering in my ear, "Do it."

I trembled some more. I didn't know which way to go. I wanted to kill them. But for what? I didn't know.

"Let hate consume me! I hate you all! You've done NOTHING for me! I'm just an outcast here, now. They all call me the dark witch, so I shall be! I hear them whisper, saying I'm just like her. Why not let them be true? Why try to fight my own fate?"

Professor McGonagall looked disgusted with me. "Because you are far more than Bellatrix ever was. You have mastered something she never would have been able to touch. Love! And friendship, and loyalty!"

"She was loyal to the Dark Lord! She always was!" I screamed back.

"Out of obsession, not loyalty!" McGonagall shouted back at me. Fred looked at me. Not with fear. With seriousness.

"My mother loved me!" I shouted.

"No," McGonagall answered softly. My mother's ghost whispered in my ear, "lies."

"She did!"

"She never loved you, Crucia, never!" McGonagall yelled at me, with pure hatred.

I screamed and shouted, "Expelliarmus!" McGonagall's wand flew forward and I caught it, breathing in and out heavily. She was mine now.

"Kill them both." My mother told me.

"You're more than this, Crucia." Fred told me angrily. "Your aunt would be ever ashamed at what you have become! A monster, just like the mother that never wanted you!"

Instead of ghosts, real people came to me, cloaked in black. I became frightened myself, sniffling my nose and looking at them carefully and fearfully.

"Who are you?" I asked them, wondering if they were friends or foes. They probably were foes, I decided looking at one in particular who grinned at me mischievously.

"Just old friends of your mother," one spoke, out of the three. "We knew one day you would retake her position, to help raise a new Dark Lord. Or become one yourself. The time is right. You are ready."

Professor McGonagall looked carefully at the hooded people. "Gregory? Is that you? You've only just graduated from here…and you've gone off looking for trouble."

The one called Gregory snarled. "Not trouble. A leader. And we've found her. Now, Crucia. Kill her. Make it quick. They'll start wondering where she is." He ordered me. Then he looked at Fred, who was reaching for his wand. "And as for the Weasley, I'll take him myself."

One might say it was love over duty, loyalty over honor, feelings over pride. I called it defending the love of my life.

"NO! Stupefy!" I shouted at Gregory, causing him to fall back, landing only inches away from the edge of the Astronomy Tower.

The other two sprang into action. I stepped in front of McGonagall as Fred quickly scrambled up his own courage and picked up his wand.

"Move on, girl! Let me at the old hag!" a second hooded figure shouted towards me. I took a deep breath. No, I was good after all. I wasn't all bad. I wasn't Bellatrix. I never would be.

"No." A flash of light struck my chest and I fell back, feeling as though I were caught in a deep sleep. I fell to the floor, knowing full well I would most likely not wake up. I let the darkness cover me, my eyes closing over a sobbing Fred and a equally heart broken McGonagall. This was the end…