Helena appeared two blocks from her house. She thought it would be better to walk than to apparate directly there just in case unwanted wizards began to follow her. This was the same reason to why she did not light up her wand, but chose to follow street lamps instead. After a few minutes, she was looking at her house and she went to the front door and unlocked it using the key that she hadn't managed to lose. She entered the house exactly how they left it, but it brought back buried memories. She went up the stairs slowly, trying hard not to break down. She caught whiffs of small traces of vanilla

Even her perfume still lingers, she thought miserably. Oh Katie, why did you have to be killed? I loved you so, but I never told you enough. Tears came running down from her eyes quicker than she could stop them. She reached the landing, letting her tears flow down her face. She clutched herself tightly and her back slid down the wall. She trembled and quivered as the realised what hit her. Her nails dug into her arms, breaking the skin but she didn't care. The blood ran down her arms didn't feel like anything, the numbness of her body spread rapidly in the past few seconds. Her eyes got flooded with her bitter sweet memory.

The air was warm and temperatures were high. They were sat in the shade of a large ebony tree nearby a blue lake in the middle of summer. Katie's hair danced with the sunlight, her eyes glittering, her skin radiant, her everything made Helena love her even more than the day before.

"I wish we could just, you know, fly away," Katie said, her voice calm, looking at a sparrow flying off in the blue, cloudless sky.

"Me too," Helena replied. "It'd be much simpler. We could just sit for a thousand hours, without a care in the world."

"We could leave now."

Helena chuckled, but she noted that Katie had seriousness etched upon her face.

"Katie, we're not even of age yet. Heck, we don't even have a chance against the odds."

"I guess you're right. Maybe in the future, when we're both done with Hogwarts. We can just leave without a trace. You and I can go abroad, to a nice place, where they won't find us or expect us to be. We can stay there until we grow old. Like, get married, adopt a few kids..."

"Katie, I hate children."

"Pfft, you've not been around them much, have you?"

"I have too, you know how annoying the First Years can get on the corridor and they're like 'Um can you point me to History of Magic?' and you give them directions in the exact opposite way..."

Katie laughed.

"I have to admit, I've done that a few times myself. It's so funny when you do it when you're going to a lesson and you see them get all flustered and they're like 'What do you mean this isn't the subject I'm supposed to be at?' and you see them running where they're supposed to be and you can sometimes see them get shouted for being like five minutes late because they got lost."

Helena laughed at that thought and so did Katie. It was a long time ago when they had felt happiness like this.

The memory affected Helena even more. Just the thought of her...

Blood trickled steadily down her arms now and her senses returned to her. Her nails would leave puncture marks later, she was sure of it. Struggling to get up, she crawled to the bath room and stood up, careful not to fall, and rinsed cold water and literally drowned her arms in the sink to wash the blood off. The redness swirled, and eventually, when her arms were raw with the numbness of the cold water, the blood finally disappeared.

She stopped the tap and roughly healed the puncture marks. They didn't matter, they just reminded Helena of her.

She shook her head rapidly. No, she thought. I musn't think about that. Or her that way. The pain is blinding me too hard. I just feel so numb and empty. And sure enough, her stomach felt like there was a large gaping hole eating her from the inside-out.

She forced her legs to move. Right, left. Pause. Right, left. Pause. They were stiff in their movements, but they managed slowly. No sudden movements, but each step was harder than the last.

She pushed the door open to her dead parent's bedroom. She hadn't been in here in a long time.

Dust was gathering on the bookshelf and the wood of the wardrobe doors were rotting away. She was too tired, too weak to care by that point. And to think that she probably wouldn't be returning here again... It was too much. She didn't remember her parents, she just had one picture when she was about five years old with them both next to her. She loved that picture, it was in her bedroom. Helena thought that she might as well take it with her.

She left the bedroom, not feeling very happy about the situation, and entered her own bedroom. She looked around, seeing if there was anything of value for her to take with her. There wasn't much to take, as she didn't really collect things as she lived. She cursed herself out of regret. Why did she expect for her to live forever? Even just thinking about her name makes the tears run smoothly down her face. She sighed and she put the bag on her shoulder, like she normally does with her school bag.

She went down the stairs slowly, carefully not to fall down them as she was shaking so much, even though it wasn't cold.

She heard a loud bang echo over her entire house, it echoing as far as her ears could reach.

Shit, she thought violently. They're here to take me away, perhaps even killing me.

She drew out her wand and ran towards the kitchen. She attempted to apparate away but they had put an anti-disapparation jinx around her area.

Fucking fuck fuck.

She blocked the kitchen door and they seemed to have blocked the back door.

Fucking shit!

Her breaths became shorter and came more quickly.

Okay... Calm down.

She breathed in and out several times, before she felt calm enough to think about it.

Isn't there a trap door in here? she wondered. She vaguely remembered her parent's mentioning it. But the only question is... where?

She knelt down to the floor and the ground was shaking more violently in the entire world. She furiously patted her hands on the floor, searching for a gap in the floor.

Finally, a nudge caused her to plunge right into the floor, almost causing her head to bash into the floor. That would've been fatal. But, a door opened in the floor into darkness.

I must be insane, she thought bitterly.

She climbed into the darkness and stood of a small ledge to stop her from plunging deeper into the dark. She shut the door above her, and she was alone in the dark. She made sure that the door was shut tight.

She heard a bang above her and gasped at the violent sound.

Soft footsteps trod carefully above her.

It's him, she realised. Terror struck her like a lightning bolt.

"Come out, come out wherever you are," his voice echoed. She shut her eyes tight, careful not to move just in case he somehow heard her from down below.

"My lord?" came another voice. "We've searched the house. She isn't here."

Helena could feel the anger radiating from Voldemort.

"How is that possible?" he hissed dangerously.

"I - I don't know, my lord," the voice stammered.

"SILENCE!" Voldemort screamed. "What use are you, if you cannot find one little girl?"

The voice stayed silent.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Helena felt the body thump on the floor.

"I will find you," Voldemort muttered to himself.

The world was deadly silent now, no sound escaped from the atmosphere.

But then, it got hot.

Heat and fire erupted above her, as the heat started to overwhelm the enclosed space.

Then, she jumped down into the ground, going down a slide of sorts.

She landed surprisingly softly on the floor and just ran.

She had no idea where she was running to. She just ran.