A Black Rose In A White Bush

A Black Rose In A White Bush



Piles of brightly colored paper littered the floor, as the blood seeped into the carpet. The victims eyes wide-open, seeming to find the sole occupant no matter where he stood in the room, as she hung from the ceiling. Her neck was broken, as it hung from the noose. The muscle tendons holding together, but only by a thread, as it threatened to break completely, visible in the dimly lit room.

A small whimper sounded through the room, as he was forced to look down at the little body huddled in the corner. He can't help the tears forming in his eyes as he heard the small child call out to her 'Mamma,' while she stares at the hanging figure.

He walked slowly over to the small child, thinking ‘She can’t even be more than 2!' He crouched down and gently touched the child’s cheek. She turned her young and innocent eyes to his pain filled ones, silently questioning, ‘What happened to my Mamma?' He doesn't know how to answer, so he silently picks the child up, doing his best to ignore her cries for her ‘Mamma.’ He side stepped the pool of blood, and headed for the door.

As he's walking down the steps, he can't help but wonder,
‘Who killed her? Why was she killed? Why was the child left alive? Did the killer see the errors of his ways when and if he tried to kill her?’

These questions spin around in his head, but no answers can be seen. He pulled out your car keys from his pocket and opened the passenger seat door. He buckles the little girl into the passenger seat and goes around to the driver’s side and gets in.

The humming of the car can’t keep the questions out of his head, echoing insistently. He turns on the radio, hoping to become distracted. The little girl watched him the whole time.

He pulls up in front of an apartment complex, and parks in front of Number 43. The humming of the car stops as he pulls the key from the ignition. He reaches over and unbuckles the little girl and gets out. The little girl just sits there, her eyes following his movements as he come around to her side of the car. He opens the door slowly, trying not to scare her.

“Come on, baby. Come up and I’ll get you some hot chocolate, ok?” he says in a soft and gentle voice. She looks up at his, her face scrunched up in discomfort.

“Sarah.”

“What?” he asked, startled that she even spoke.

“My name Sarah. Not baby.” She’s still looking at him, her dark blue eyes filled with pain and sadness.

“Ok ,Sarah. How about we go up to my apartment, and get you some hot chocolate?” she silently puts her hand in his, hesitantly. Instead of letting her walk, he pick her up, gently resting her on his hip. As he walk to his apartment door, he singles out your door key with his one free hand.

As he walked into his two-bedroom apartment, one room for him, and the other, usually, for his friends, he flips the lights on and sets his keys, and Sarah, down. Sarah looks around his apartment. She see that he has a couch against the wall, an entertainment center, a stereo, TV, and just a bunch of other electronic stuff that she doesn’t recognize.

He sets her down in his kitchen, and digs through the cupboards, looking for the hot chocolate he promised her. He finds some and smiles triumphantly. He puts fresh water in the teapot, on the stove, and lets it start to boil.

“Sarah? Would you like to change into some Pj’s while your hot chocolate is getting ready?”

“I don’t have clothes.” her voice is soft. She's still standing where he put her down.

“That’s ok, you can borrow one of my nightshirts, all right?” she nods quietly. He leads her into his bedroom and pulls out a shirt, and helps her into it. She looks down at her feet, seeing that they're the only thing really visible from his long shirt on her.

He heard the teapot whistle and gently steered her into the kitchen, helping her sit up in one of the table chairs. He poured the hot water into a mug, adding the hot chocolate mix into the water. After stirring it, making sure all of the powder had dissipated, he set the mug on the table in front of her.

“It's hot, so be careful.” he warned. She put her small hands around the mug and simply stared at it. He nodded and sighed softly, walking over to his phone to call his work, letting them know that they needed to call the authorities and look into the little girls home. His boss let him know that the girl would be put up for adoption once the investigation was over and that she would spend the time in the care of Child Services.

She would spend the night at his apartment that night, and he would regularly see her – he was going to be assigned at her Social Worker to make sure she was placed in a good home.

~

Once the investigation was over, just two weeks after Sarah was found, her Social Worker received a call from the adoption agency.

A Mr. Lucius Malfoy wanted to adopt Sarah.

As he looked over Mr. Malfoy's papers, he though ‘Well, I’ve seen his papers, and he’s most likely the best one for the job. He even has a son one year older than her, so she’ll have a playmate. I guess it’ll be ok.’

Although, what he didn’t know, is that, when she’s older, she’ll face worse horrors then what happened the day he found her.

Present

One Squijum came up to Sarah, took one sniff, and started rubbing against her leg, meowing almost desperately. The other Squijum's raced towards Sarah, happy that the cause of their concern was found; also meowing. Sarah knelt down as the five Squijum's fought to get her attention. She looked among them, and started to pet the only two black ones. The three that she didn’t pet, rubbed again her leg in 'goodbye,' meowed one last time, and walked slowly back to their cage.

“Miss Black, I believe tha’ I should take yeh to the ‘eadmasters office, an’ those two little ‘uns won’ be leaving yeh now.” Hagrid put a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. The class was looking at Sarah curiously, already whispering to each other behind their hands.

“Class dismissed!” Hagrid boomed over his shoulder.

~

“Starburst.” Hagrid said, and the gargoyle guarding the staircase to the Headmasters office moved aside; granting them entrance.

“Up we go now. Come on.” Hagrid pushed Sarah up the stairs, following after the Squijum's.

Hagrid knocked on the office door, and Sarah heard the Headmasters slightly muffled ‘Enter’.

Once they entered, they sat down, Hagrid politely refusing tea, and Sarah politely accepting it. Hagrid explained the class' event, and their current situation. When he finished, the Headmaster turned to Sarah.

“Miss Black, what do you have to say about this?” he asked quietly, the copy of her poem recently opened and sitting on his desk.

“Well, sir, I’m guessing my Muggle Studies Professor, Professor Geller, already sent you a copy of the poem I did for our assignment.” it was a statement, but the Headmaster nodded anyway.

“Then, sir, I’d like Professor Snape to be here to explain things to you. And would Draco Malfoy be able to join us, too? He's tied into this, also.”

The Headmaster agreed and, after sending Hagrid back to his dismissed class, he sent a house elf to retrieve Professor Snape and Draco Malfoy. Moments later, Professor Snape arrived, and they patiently waited for Draco to arrive. Professor Snape took one of the empty seats next to Sarah, giving the cat-like creatures at her feet and odd look, not recognizing their species.

When Draco did arrive, one of the black Squijum's that was resting by Sarah’s feet jumped up and acted as if it wanted to go to Draco, but couldn’t, because it was tied to Sarah. He mewed sadly.

“Go ahead, little one.” Sarah whispered to the little creature. The Squijum broke free of his invisible restraints, and ran to Draco, rubbing against his leg. Draco reached down, patted him on the head, and the Squijum purred loudly.

“Draco?” her voice was soft.

“Yea, Sarah?”

“These are Squijums. Do you remember what they are? Remember learning about them, from your third year, before the Hippogriffs?” Draco thought for a moment, and paled.

“Shit.” He murmured. Professor Snape sighed softly, things clicking into place.

“Draco, that’s why I asked to have Professor Snape here. See, he can explain this – our – situation to the Headmaster.”

“Ok.” The Headmaster looked to Severus expectantly while Draco took the other empty seat, his Squijum jumping up into his lap, rubbing his head against Draco's chest. Severus rubbed his face wearily before beginning.

“Headmaster as I’m sure you know, Lucius Malfoy is a Death Eater…”