A piece of parchment

Chapter 24

People die all the time. Every second, of every minute of every day. Thousands of families get the unfortunate experience of watching their loved ones die right before their very eyes.

When you hear about all these deaths in the Daily Prophet, or on that muggle devise called a 'television', you never stop to think about the family of that person, about the pain and horrific grief that comes chasing after them.

The way their soul just fades into darkness... The fact that they will never hear their laugh again... They will never see them alive...

All I'm trying to say is, you never realise just how terrible a death is until you experience one yourself.

No one deserves to die for no reason. In fact, no one deserves to die at all. Except for men like Rodolphus, he makes me wonder if he deserves a life. A life is too valuable, too valuable to be crushed into and trampled all over; this is the life Rodolphus has been given, and he must live it, not ruin everyone else's.

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"Kreacher!" yelled Hermione running over to the dead house elf. She was crying; she had always admired elves and one year she even tried to create a society which could fight for elf rights. She even went to the extent of knitting them clothes, hats, socks- you name it. "How could you? Kill somebody as innocent as a house elf! A house elf! You deserve to be lying on that floor, not him!"

"Hermione, careful with what you say... You can't get hurt aswell!" shouted Ron, running over to her and trying to pull her back to the Weasleys. He obviously knew that Rodolphus wouldn't hesitate to hurt somebody else too.

"Yeah, that's right Mudblood. Listen to that boyfriend of yours-"

Ron let go of Hermione's arm and glared at Rodolphus at the mention of the terrible word 'Mudblood'. I had never seen his face so angry.

Ever.

"Do you wanna know something, Lestrange? You're not as bad as I thought." said Ron, tightening his grip on his wand, "You're worse."

He was gripping his wand so hard that his knuckles were completely white.

I seriously considered telling him this, as it looked like his wand was actually going to snap at any moment.

But of course, I didn't.

"And what are you going to do about it, redhead? I don't know why such a pretty girl like her would want to be with you anyway. I think I might take her... Keep the Mudblood for myself-"

"If you lay a finger on my girlfriend, there will be trouble! BIG TIME!"

Rodolphus just rolled his eyes at Ron, crossing his arms. "Yeah? And what will you do? I'm tired of you and your blood traitor family, redhead."

"Ha! And you don't think we're tired of you? Don't you think killing is enough?! You're sick. I can't even look at you!" yelled Ron once again.

Hermione stepped forward, behind Ron. She was now the one trying to tug him back, so he wouldn't get hurt. "Please Ron, please, you can't die like Kreacher! I can't live without you... Please..." she whimpered.

"Hermione, get off. If I do get hurt, I don't want you getting hurt too."

Lestrange let out a cold, long laugh. He seemed to be enjoying watching people cry or get angry.

And whilst Ron's back was turned, he held up his wand up once more.

I thought I knew what was coming.

"RON!" I yelled.

It all happened in a matter of seconds; Rodolphus moved his hand and pointed his wand at Mum instead.

I jumped in front of her.

"Avada Kedav-"

"Expelliarmus!"

For a split second, I thought I was dead. But when I looked up, wondering why I wasn't, I saw Rodolphus' wand go flying in the air, as he was disarmed by an extremely familiar person. A very familiar person, indeed.

I almost died when I saw her. Standing at the door was Angelina.

She was alive.