December 29th, 1976The memory of blood was overwhelming and caused her stomach to turn. Her head turned to the
side as she stared into the glare of Bellatrix Lestrange. It had been years since she had had a nightmare
about her Death Eater torturer. Confronting the witch outside of Malfoy Manor after Narcissa and
Lucius's wedding had somehow cured her of her fear, but Bellatrix was still staring at Mia.
Instead of cold and ruthless eyes looking back into her own, these eyes were empty.
Mia could briefly hear the sound of a Cruciatus Curse being thrown in the distance as she looked
down and realised that the blood she had been smelling was pouring out of a large gash in Bellatrix's throat.
Sight and smell were overpowering, but the sound was muffled other than the loud noise of a crying dog. She
could scarcely hear the sound of a man and woman fighting, but one word was clear as day, "Sectumsempra!"
She turned her head to see an older Lucius Malfoy collapse to the ground bleeding, revealing a furious Draco
behind him.
Suddenly, she was standing outside of Gringotts beside Harry, Ron, Sirius, and Draco. A pile of
Death Eaters behind them. Dream or memory? Mia wondered to herself as she stepped close to Sirius.
"You're not a killer," he said to Draco but looked at her.
She stared down at the pile of bodies where one had been left breathing: Crabbe Sr.
In the blink of an eye, he stopped breathing, and she glanced down to see a green light leave her
wand, striking the man repeatedly in the chest as though she could not stop herself. His body quickly shifted
into the unmoving bodies of the Carrow twins—this time at the young age of seventeen, both branded as
Death Eaters—Amycus with a smug expression on his face, and Alecto laughing even as the green light
of the Killing Curse struck her over and over.
In the distance, she could see a seventeen-year-old Hermione Granger with a large book in her lap,
Ron and Harry sitting beside her.
"Isn't there any way of putting yourself back together?" Ron asked.
"Yes," Hermione affirmed with a hollow smile, "but it would be excruciatingly painful."
Harry looked at her, curious, and challenged, "Why? How do you do it?"
"Remorse. You've got to really feel what you've done. There's a footnote. Apparently, the pain of
it can destroy you. I can't see Voldemort attempting it, somehow, can you?"
Mia felt a sharp pain in her chest as she looked back down at the laughing bodies of the Carrow
twins; unaffected by the Killing Curse her wand was throwing at them of its own will. She tried to get it to