Rose and Scorpius: Please Listen

(12) Don't Kill Me

Oh, you want to watch me crash?
You want to see me burn?
Just enough to fall apart, and then
You want to see me crawl?
You need to watch me beg and lose it all.

Never Forgive, Never Forget by The Death Hunter

Rose

"We need Charms Year Two and then we are done," says Albus, shoving the paper with the names of the books we needed into his pocket. There are so many books you have to get every year.

I grab two copies of Charms Year Two and walk to the back of Flourish and Blotts to pay for the books required for our second year at Hogwarts.

"Are you guys finished?" asks Ginny, when we walk out.

"Yep," I respond, tired and wanting to go home.

"Alright everyone, hands in," says Harry. Harry likes us all to apparate together. Not sure why, he just does.

We all stand in a circle with all of our hands in the middle, preparing to apparate back to the Potter's.

Well, at least me, Albus, and Alex are preparing. Harry, Ginny, Mom, Dad, James, and Emily seem to have gotten used to apparating.

Harry raised his wand and we were about to apparate but a hand grabbed my shoulder and roughly pulled me backwards causing me to separate from everyone. I saw them all apparate in front of me.

I need to get home.

Before I can look behind me to see who pulled me away from my family they apparated me and them somewhere.

I need to get home.

I feel sick when we finish apparating. We are somewhere cold. The air is foggy, grey, and dull. I can see my breath even though it is still August. The sky is midnight blue and extended outwards in all directions is grey. I assume the ground was once level concrete but now it was cracked and covered in all sorts of vegetation.

I slowly turn around to see the witch that brought me here. She was wearing a black pointed hat and black robes. Her nose was long and crooked. Her skin was a rather unpleasant shade of pale green and she had dark bags under her eyes. Her bloodshot eyes seemed to be one solid colour, probably a very dark brown. Her hair was a light brown, curly, frizzy mess. One side of her slightly blue lips was curved upwards in a smirk. She had a bright red cut on her right cheek that was surrounded by a large purple bruise.

"I need to go home," I say as steadily and sternly as it is possible to the woman.

She takes one long step towards me. "Weasley's, Potter's, they're all the same. Arrogant but weak." She started laughing causing her shake uncontrollably. Her laugh was a deafening sound. Not that it was loud it was just ugly sounding. Like a knife against a cutting board. When we went to our cousin's house when we were little (the Dursley's) I heard that sound and I had to plug my ears. This was even worse.

"They were not weak," I say through clenched teeth. "How could someone weak defeat Voldemort? Pity. He was supposed to live forever, wasn't he?"

"Crucio," she hissed, pointing her wand at me.

Pain. Lots of pain. So much pain.

I could only think of the pain.

Torture. Agony.

Finally, she stopped the spell causing me to fall to the ground. I fell on my knees and then forwards on my hands. I gasped trying to get some oxygen in my lungs but if was hard because I was coughing up blood. Luckily not to much but it still hurt.

I could sense her looming over top of me but I kept my eyes on the ground. I'd dreamed of this curse before. Never heard of it, just dreamt of it. Never had I imagined it would hurt this much. It had hurt a lot in my dreams but could not compare to what I'd just felt.

I felt nauseous, light-headed, and dizzy. My sight was going in and out of focus and darkening around the edges.

I'd always told myself that if I die in a fight I will die with a smile on my face but it doesn't even seem possible right now.

I feel the threat of tears inside my throat but I can't cry. It builds up so fast I feel it's going to explode.

I can't die now. I'm too young.

I will never grow up, I will never get married, I will never travel the world, I will never apparate on my own, I will never get a job, I will never graduate from Hogwarts, and my list goes on.

What kind of accomplishment will killing me be to her anyway?

"You're the weak one of your going to kill me," I croak. "What kind of victory is killing someone who hasn't even started their second year of school?"

She gave me a small smile that caused me to shiver.

"Maybe next time," she says before planting her foot on my back, hard.

Everything goes black.