Mira wandered around the manor grounds for the remainder of the morning. After finishing off the vodka, she went back into the house. As she entered through the front door, she glimpsed Draco and Pansy sitting in the dining room.

She turned and headed towards her bedroom. Once safely shut in, Mira went to her wardrobe and took out a leather bag. She filled it with a pack of cigarettes, a backup lighter, her jean jacket, and the wand her mother had given her when she was ten. She slung the backpack through her shoulders, then went back downstairs. She exited the house through a side door, knowing that Pansy and Draco wouldn't notice, or of course miss, her absence.

It wasn't a long hike to the graveyard, so Mira took her time. Slowly, she meandered her way out of the Malfoy grounds, passing the dead trees and near-empty ponds, ghostly remains of a once lush yard. In the silence, that was so peaceful and so full that it was choking her, Mira was left alone with only her own thoughts. Realizing this, she wished more than ever she had the bottle of vodka still with her.

She sighed. Her thoughts traveled back to the day that she kept at the back of her mind, so blocked and so guarded in the deep darkness that it was only in the still silence of a dreary, cloudy day like this that the memory was able to surface again.

*Flashback*

The morgue was ran by muggles, and Lucius had many misgivings about taking her parents' bodies there. "But the Dark Lord always knows, and he has given his orders." Lucius told her, as the bodies of her parents trailed behind them, guided by Narcissa and Bellatrix's wands.

Mira only nodded, the numbness still coursing through her. Only one thought resided inside of her mind, only one thing kept pounding against her skull: My parents are dead. Her heart was slowing now, and Draco stood next to her, his hand warm and reaffirming on her shoulder.

"Just keep going, I promise it will all be okay, keep walking." He said in her ear.

And so she kept walking, following Lucius, not daring to look back at the lifeless bodies of her parents.

"Here we are." Lucius said, as the party approached a stone building. "It's late, and they will ask questions. Bella, you go first, tell them we are foreigners, that we found these bodies in a park, and this girl was with them. Remember your accent."

Bellatrix threw back her long, shiny sheet of hair, and strode up to the Morgue's front doors.

"Narcissa, you and Mira follow her. Mira, you must appear to be sad, devastated. I know all you are feeling is hate for Dumbledore, and we will/b get revenge on him. But for now, child, you must do this. For your parents."

Mira looked at Lucius, confused. Why would it be Dumbledore's fault? He had been over to her house not days before, planning with her parents to take them into safety...or at least, that's what she thought he was doing. Her parents were very good at keeping her away from the meeting, and if they didn't want her to know something, more often than not they were successful.

"It was Voldemort, not Dumbledore, you liar! Voldemort fucking killed my parents!." Mira seethed. The side of a serpent-headed staff collided with Mira's face, the force of it pushing her to the ground.

Lucius looked down at her. "It is Dumbledore who has taken your parents from you. Dumbledore's army, his Order, has murdered your family. The Dark Lord will have you join him, you will be a part of His family. Dumbledore will die, and you will never question that again." He said, spitting next to her on the ground. Lucius walked ahead, and Mira watched the bodies of her family float eerily past. Draco grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up. "Never blame the Dark Lord, love. He is our only hope."

If Mira's face hadn't been pounding with pain, if her heart hadn't been so cold, and her mind so numb and oblivious to everything, she would have noted the bitterness and pain in Draco's voice.

*End Flashback*

Mira shook her head forcefully, forcing the memory out of her mind. Her hands shaking, she stopped for a minute and opened her bag. She pulled her jacket around her, and quickly, hungrily, lit a cigarette.

"That's it," She whispered gratefully, her eyes fluttering shut as the tobacco and nicotine coursed through her lungs, through her veins like new blood. She blew out a smoke ring, then zipped up her bag, and continued on.

The graveyard was just ahead. The black, wrought-iron gate was old, and some bars were rusting through. The ancient lock and chain that held the gate tightly shut was removed instantly with a tap of Mira's wand. Looking around, noting how creepy the old, crumbling headstones appeared in the fog, Mira kept her wand out in front of her.

"Lumos." She murmured, making it slightly easier to see. She tossed her cigarette to the ground, and was about to go for another one, when a movement up ahead stopped her dead.

At her mother and father's graves, the only area in the whole cemetery where the grass was still alive and green, a man kneeled, hunched over, loud sobs racking his body. Mira ducked behind a tall stone snake, crouching. The man was unfamiliar from this view, and his words were jumbled together, incoherent for the most part, because of his bawling. She strained her ears, trying to take in what he said.

"….Lily and James never wanted it this way…."

Who the fuck are Lily and James? Mira thought.

"Dumbledore's lost, doesn't know what he's going to do without you…"

Okay, Dumbledore is the reason my parents were dead!Who was this man to say that Dumbledore didn't know what he was going to do now that her parents were gone?

No one left to murder, you fucking old git?Mira thought, the image of Dumbledore's twinkling face coming before her eyes.

"I will take care of Mira, I will. With Sirius gone, it falls to me to be the girl's keeper. Lily and James always said how special she was, and they were, are, right. Your daughter is to be the heir of Gryffindor. Doesn't that make you proud, Foster? Dumbledore said it would." The man had ceased his crying now, and was speaking to the headstones of Natasha and Foster as if they were actually there, as if they were enjoying an evening brandy and shooting the breeze.

"I must go now…duty at headquarters calls. Rest in peace, my old friends, for Mira will be safe." And with that the man stood, reached inside his threadbare jacket, took out a glass bottle, and scattered petals of some sort of flower over the grass in front of the two headstones.

He turned around, and for the first time, Mira saw his face. The werewolf! The one from Dumbledore's Order!Mira said to herself. His eyes were tired, his hair shaggy, and unkempt. With a loud crack, he had Dissaparted.

Mira stood from her hiding place and hurried over to her parent's tombstones. On the grass were the petals from purple Irises, Natasha's favorite flower.

"Purple Irises…" Mira mumbled aloud, trying to remember what she had read about them in one of her Herbology books, "…have natural healing powers, and make life present were death has reigned." Mira recited, picturing the paragraph from the thick, dusty book in her mind. "So that explains the grass…" She noted, as she sat, cross- legged, in front of the graves. She set her backpack beside her, and took out another cigarette. She lit it, and held it in her hand.

"Well, mum, dad, this is what I've come too…you always did say how bad smoking was for you…" Mira shrugged, pausing, and took a long drag from the cigarette. "I'm starting at Hogwarts soon…I wonder why a werewolf that belongs to the enemy was crying over your graves?" Another pull on the cigarette, another pause. "It doesn't matter, I will make Dumbledore pay." Silence hung around Mira, crushing her. Her voice, though she willed it not to, was now filled with tears."I'm scared to go to school. Draco doesn't love me, I'm all alone…so alone."

Nothing but the stony silence answered her.

Okay, let me clear up something: Mira was severely traumatized the night they took her parent's bodies to the morgue, and as soon as Lucius beat her she believed him. You must understand that Mira had always led a very sheltered life with her parents, they loved her very much and wished to keep her away from the slightly nastier aspects of human character, and this was the first time she was ever truly faced with deceit and betrayal and murder. Naturally, the effect would be devastating.

I know, I know, just go with it.