Other Stories Set In This Universe:

The Broken Children: Sequel. It was their parents who'd fought the war, but it was they who bore the scars.

We're on Our Way to Rio: James looks into the mirror and sees something that is broken. Louis looks into his eyes and sees something that doesn't ever need to be fixed.

Before the Fall

-Rose-

"The devil doesn't come to you with red horns, a forked tail, and a pitchfork. No, she has blue eyes and red hair, and she'll rip out your heart before licking the blood off her fingers."

-Draco's Memoirs, The Price for our Sins

.o0o.

She first realises that she's not like the other children when she's five years old and her cousin, Louis, comes screaming into the world. Her cousin cries, howls, and shrieks all the time, and it gives her headaches. There's a flicker of remembrance the moment she first hears the yells, because she's heard them before, coming from Lily, Roxanne, and Hugo.

She never cries though. For as long as she can remember, she's never shed a tear, so she fails to comprehend why the other children can't carry on in the same way.

In many ways, she thinks, she's always been the odd one out. People just don't seem to understand her . . . they think there's something wrong with her because she's always silent, content to be on her own.

The howling continues. How she hates these visits to the Burrow when the whole family is here. Albus isn't too bad – he understands her, or at least she thinks he does. The others are just little irritants, even the ones older than her.

That night, when the others are all asleep, she sneaks into her parents' room and picks up her mother's wand. She's tired, so tired, of the wretched sniffles coming from upstairs. So, padding along on bare feet, she climbs the stairs and slips into the room.

Aunt Fleur doesn't notice her at first. The older woman is more fixated with trying to soothe Louis, and Rose wonders why her aunt doesn't just do the obvious thing and silence the twit.

"Rose?"

Uncle Bill walks into the room, rubbing at his eyes. Aunt Fleur turns, startled, and then goes back to rocking the bundle in her arms, content that all is well. He looks at her, smiles, and says, "Louis keeping you awake, huh? It's OK. Fleur and I probably won't sleep through the night till he's at Hogwarts."

So, Uncle Bill understands why it's so important that she quiet him down, doesn't he? It's good. It makes this so much easier.

"He just doesn't shut up! I thought I'd come up here and quiet him down."

Her uncle blinks, apparently shocked, and then seems to realise she's holding a wand. She smiles, and adds, "Don't worry, Uncle Bill. I'll quiet him down."

Before Bill can react, before he can move, she's aiming the wand at the blue bundle, the words leaving her lips. She remembers them from the time her mother lit the fireplace earlier that evening – she's sure she knows the words.

"Incerindo!"

There's a noise like thunder and a fizzling burst of orange sparks burst from the tip of the wand, and she's almost instantly aware that she's gotten the spell wrong. The blast knocks her off her feet, and she feels the wand fall from her grasp, but she's more interested in the sight at the window.

Aunt Fleur's spun herself around, shielding the squalling child with her own body, and now she's screaming as loudly as her son. The sparks splatter across her back, leaving bloody blisters with blacked edges from neck to thigh.

"Fuck!" yells Uncle Bill, scrabbling for his own wand – he seems to have forgotten that the only thing he has on is a pair of pyjama pants – and then the doors comes crashing open. Uncle Harry is the first one in, instantly taking in the scene before rushing to Fleur.

As Aunt Audrey, the only Healer in the family, kneels beside her sister-in-law, Hermione simply stares at her daughter through eyes as wide as saucers.

.o0o.

"Perhaps, we have only ourselves to blame. We could have killed her then, we could have locked her in Azkaban and thrown away the key.

But, she was just a child, and was forgiven.

How could we have known that by sparing her, the entire world would bleed?"

-Draco's Memoirs, The Price for our Sins

.o0o.

Author's Note:

So this is the prequel to: The Broken Children, and it's going to be 30 chapters in length. It, much like the sequel, is a collection of drabbles. Next, I think we're going to be taking a look at either Hugo or Scorpius.