Unhappy Beginnings
⚠️Trigger Warning: abuse( kinda graphic, it’s gonna be bad yall)⚠️
It’s dark, too dark. A faint music plays in the distance mixed with laughter and the chatter of strangers. Looking around at the dirty overlapping tarps surrounding her. She can hardly make out some metal bars making cages. Creatures fill the cages, large eyes look out at her from all areas. Her feet crunch on the straw laying in the dirt as she turns, listening to the sounds of breath. Standing still she can still hear something crunching through the straw, a continuous drag. A small light draws her eye as she sees the end of a long green-black, something slink from the room. She steps forward, opening the flap of what she now recognizes to be a patchwork tent, she enters another section of the tent. She feels farther away, somehow, from where she is supposed to be, it is lighter here. Oil lamps light the way along with lit candles floating through the air. Magical windows surround the top of the tent, and early morning skies are visible.
In the distance she sees the creature dragging slowly across the floor, its long slinky body reflecting the light around them. She steps forward cautiously, making sure not to make any sudden threatening movements. The creature stops and turns to face her. Its narrow eyes glow amber in the firelight. She had never seen a snake so beautiful as the one she saw before her, but that was the only way she could think to describe it, beautiful.
The snake lets out a low hiss and slithers forward, but she doesn’t fear; she knows the snake will not harm her. A shattered mirror lies on its side but the snake pays no mind. She cannot help but stare at the reflection, it reflects not a snake, but a woman. As quickly as she came into the mirror she left and it was just a snake.
It stops in front of her and she kneels before it. Light pours in the windows as the sun rises, casting everything in a golden hue. The snake begins to pile in on itself, molding and twisting, she gasps in shock as it seals into itself before tearing, snakeskin becoming smooth and silky, green turning pale. Sitting up is the woman from the mirror, her dark hair lying around her, green eyes staring into her soul. The woman’s hands reach out towards her, cupping her face. Her mouth moves, but the words are unintelligible, .
It’s dark, too dark. She is looking up at what appears to be a ceiling, shouting, she can hear screaming.
The woman gives her a sad smile.
Looking to her left, she can see she is lying down. She looks through the bars next to her, confused. There's a door cracked slightly, a light pouring into the room from what appears to be a hallway.
The woman lets go of her face, leaning away from her.
The door slams open and a man stands before her.
The woman begins to cry, stepping away from her, and covers her face, outlined in sunlight.
Before the man can take a step towards her a flash of green throws him to the ground in front of her, his cold, dead eyes looking straight through her. A blank look on his face.
The woman whispers, “I am sssso, sssorry.”
A man steps into the doorway, he is impossibly tall, his black hair a shadow. He steps over the dead man and towards her. As he gets closer she can see more of him. He stands before her, reaching into the crib he picks her up, cradling her in his arms. “Well well, what have we here?” He pulls a wand out, pointing it at her face. Her little hand reaches out, holding the end of it, and her giggles echo through the room. He makes a face at her reaction.
The woman begins to curl back in upon herself, shaking and moaning. The sound of skin ripping echoes through the large room, and skin turns back into scales, a snakey face looking back at her.
The man puts her back in her crib. Stepping away he walks to the door. Before he leaves he turns back to her. “I’ll be back for you.”
The snake slithers back away from her tears drop from its eyes. She didn’t know snakes could cry.
Screaming, a woman is screaming. “NO, PLEASE!!! Not Harry, please not Harry!! Take me instead, please! AHHHHH!!!” Greenlight reflects down the hall. Crying, a baby cries, his shrieks echo down the hall through her room. She can hear the man say something.
She steps towards the snake but it turns and slithers from the room. She follows and sees her slither down some stone stairs. A blade comes out of nowhere and the snake's head is chopped clean off.
“AVADA KEDAVRA!!” Fire, the room is on fire. Everything went green and now it is red. The hallway is gone, and the man’s body is thrown farther into her room. His cold hand reached towards his daughter. His little flower. The baby lays there quietly, unknowing of her dead parents and the boy who saved them all.
With a gasp, Lily sits up in her bed. Soaked in sweat her eyes darted around her bedroom. She moves to sit on the side of her bed, reaching to grab the glass of water off her side table. Taking some slow sips she picks up the letter sitting there. Reading over it again she feels calmer. Tomorrow the Malfoys will arrive to pick her up so that she can spend two weeks at their house. And then they will be going to the Quidditch World Cup. Deciding not to reminisce on her dream she gets out of bed. Showering for the day and dressing comfortably in a jumper and dungarees.
Realizing she hasn’t even begun to pack she gets her luggage out. Carefully picking out her outfits and loading them away, she spends most of her day packing for her trip and then what she can for school. Next, she cleans up Claude’s bed and puts his outfits and things in small luggage, Cena walks over carrying some of her things, favorite sweaters, and such. Lily makes sure to put them in her bag as well. Both creatures have become very spoiled, if not from the custom clothing knitted by Mrs. Weasley then by the toys and cuddly things Lily buys them from the shops. Lily dresses Claude in a bright summer sweater as Ceba pulls on a similar one. Setting each creature in a pocket. The rest of her day is spent grocery shopping with her aunt and cleaning the house.
Today’s the day, Lily takes all over things to the sitting room where she sits next to Dudley and they begin watching one of his shows on the Telly. This goes on for a while until there’s a commotion in the hallway.
Vernon and Harry seem to be arguing. She has never heard them have an argument this heated before so her curiosity and nosiness are piqued. Standing from her spot on the couch she slowly makes her way to the doorway leading to the hallway.
Harry glares definitely at his uncle, unable to believe the foolishness he is hearing.
“Why would I let you go to those freaky friends of yours home to fill your head with more drivel when they cannot even speak on the telephone? I don’t need you to become a bigger freak. You don’t need to be getting any ideas that you can be anything more than the freak you are!” Vernon spits out venomously, pushing a finger against Harry’s chest. “You are disobedient and argumentative enough without those subhuman monsters making things worse! I don’t want them anywhere near my family or infecting my house with any of the m-magical diseases.” He gags on the word magical.
Lily gasps and holds onto the doorway of the hall, Petunia and Dudley come up behind her watching. Harry’s blood boils over and he snaps, “Subhuman, subhuman!?!? If anyone here is subhuman it is you! Lily and I are the same, we are wizards!” Vernon flinches back, “That’s right, MAGIC! It doesn’t hurt you! We aren’t monsters just because we have powers, would you call Lily a subhuman monster? She’s the same as me!”
“Yes!” Vernon hisses, face red.
Lily feels tears fill her eyes as she makes eye contact with Harry, turning back to Vernon he speaks quietly, hiding his blinding fury under a calm exterior. “Of all of the terrible people I have ever met, and of all the horrible things people have said to me, you and your filthy muggle family are probably the worst muggle scum I have ever had the displeasure of knowing. And I cannot wait to turn seventeen and escape this filthy house and go live with my people. Wizard people, and I will get Lily out of here, and you will never see us again.”
Vernon snaps, his hand darting out to slap Harry across the face. With a shout, Lily goes to rush to him but Petunia holds her back.
Another hit sends Harry to the ground, before he can think of a way to get out of there a foot lands in his stomach. The air escapes his lungs as another hit makes its way to his stomach. Harry can hardly breathe, not a break in sight, as hit upon hit, slams him into the wall.
Lily’s screams fill the hallway as Vernon continues to take his anger out on the boy. With a flick of his wrist, he removes his belt, pulling it from its belt loops.
Apperating on the street Mr. Malfoy is disgusted at the small muggle houses and dare he say it, the muggle clothing they are all wearing. He may hate them but he cannot disrupt the statute of secrecy. Walking down the private drive Mr. Malfoy’s black suit looks as sharp as his shiny black shoes, his wife is a vision in her long black dress with frilled sleeves and the base of the dress, her black heels clicking against the pavement.
Draco tries his best not to excitedly run from one house to the next trying to find the right one, he holds his parent's hands looking dashing in his matching black suit and shiny shoes.
Finally seeing the address of his friend’s home, they walk up to the porch. They stopped in shock as screaming and shouting echoed through the door. Lucius pulls out his wand.
Harry cries out in pain, face to the wall. He does his best to block his neck and head with his arms from the belt making contact with his back. He screams in pain as the belt buckle catches patches of skin, flaying his back. Lily’s struggle to free herself from Petunia’s arms becomes successful as she releases her. Lily runs forward shouting for him to stop, stepping between the two but Vernon doesn’t.
Lily falls into a scream, pain blinding her as the buckle catches across her face. Rolling over she covers Harry’s body with her own. Vernon’s anger blinds him and whips her back repeatedly. He is so blinded with rage that he doesn’t hear his wife shout for him to stop, nor see his son leap in front of Lily, wanting to protect his cousins from his erratic father.
Lily puts her hands around Dudley to protect him, her hands catching a lot of the brunt of the force, she worries they may be broken because they sting so badly. Blood drips from the wound on her face into her eyes and she cannot help but cry and cry. When is the pain gonna stop, someone save them, please.
The door of the Dursley’s house swings open and the Malfoy’s are shocked at what they see. Quick as a whip (no pun intended) Draco stupifies Vernon as Lucius sends out two patronuses, one to the Ministry and the other to Hogwarts.
Harry lets out a shout and a silvery light expels from his mouth and flies from the room.
It feels like this has been going on for hours but it has only been minutes. Petunia is held away from the children at wand point by Mr. Malfoy, her husband tied up by incarcerous. Draco and Narcissa sit at the children's sides, Lily’s face buried in Draco’s side as she sobs in pain, Draco reaches a hand and touches Harry’s head, wiping the tears off his crying face.
Not long after the sealed fireplace in the sitting room blows up and Mr. Weasley rushes out of it, wand out. Countless Ministry of Magic officials appear on the property and others follow Mr. Weasley through the fireplace.
The Potters and Dudley are magically lifted onto stretchers and into magical ambulances. As they swap them to stretchers Harry passes out from the pain. Lily cannot help but cry and reach out for Draco, scared to go in the ambulance. His father holds him back as they watch the doors close and fly away.
They are brought to St Mungo's
Lily sits on the side of her hospital bed, Harry lays on his stomach, unconscious in the hospital bed across the room. His back was wrapped and covered in salves by the other healers. Lily is being talked to by the young female healer dabbing the blood off her face but she can not focus on that because of the sound of press outside of the room and the flashes of light reflecting through the closed curtains. It isn’t until the young male healer going to clean her hands loses hold on the salve he’s getting to put on her hands.
She shrieks as the spills all over her hands, it’s supposed to heal the lacerations covering them but something's wrong. A bright pain envelops her hands, she jerks away from them both as she screams in pain. Falling off of the bed she sobs from landing on her wounded back and slamming her head on the tile. Backing away she pushes herself into a corner. Both healers spring to help her but she refuses to let anyone near her, as they try to get close they are pushed back by an invisible force.
Her lacerations have become so much worse than just cuts, the salve has apparently expired unknowingly and now blood drips out of the sores created.
Suddenly the doors burst open and Severus comes running in surrounded by the flashing lights of the press. A few paparazzi get in and begin taking pictures of the crying girl and the unconscious boy who lived. He walks straight over to the injured girl, the healers go to warn him about the invisible shield but he just passes through it. Picking her straight up she wraps as much around him as she can crying and sobbing. Many pictures are taken before the healers push them out.
Calming her down he sits with her on the bed and gets her hands and back cleaned and wrapped to the best of his ability. Her hands cannot be healed by magic because they were injured by magic, and her back cannot be fully healed because of the severity of the wounds. Dabbing at her face wound it heals almost completely except for a scar.
He sits with her and strokes the hair out of her face while she sleeps, he is filled with so much rage and regret he can hardly breathe. Looking to the young man sleeping across the way he knows he will be better to them, for them. This will never, ever happen again.