Prologue

Sometimes things happen for a reason. Things seem to fall into place in a perfect sequence of extraordinary events, but sometimes, things happen, and we aren't really sure why. They happen so unexpectedly, they happen without a sequence like they were pulled from one part of our expanding timeline and placed into a moment so far-fetched, it seems as though it's the wrong piece for the jigsaw puzzle.

Dawn thought this exact thing during the summer between her Sixth and Seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She had been taught how to apparate, you see, during lessons in her sixth year – and she was somewhat of a master by their summer break which was perfect.

It was perfect because she was turning seventeen at the very start of summer.

You see, that's what Dawn would call a perfect sequence of events. Something so wonderful that impacted her life for the better, her apparition classes happened to start at the exact time they had to. She had to be a master to get her licence to do it and she did, right before summer.

Right before seventeen.

Regardless of that, though. Dawn used this to her advantage when she could go anywhere, she could possibly wish to. She had always been smart, quick-witted but very quiet around her school peers. In fact, she was very surprised she even had one friend – but she did, and it was her best friend.

He was her person, her favourite person.

Jasper had gotten his apparating licence too, and the pair had decided to do everything together during summer. They had a plan. They would meet at Jasper's house every second day and meet at hers every other day and plan what they wished to do.

Did they wish to go to Edinburgh and see the castle sitting upon its hill? Or did they wish to go to Paris and eat wonderful French cheese? Well of course, and they had planned to, but only without telling their parents.

These would be added to her perfect sequence of events. Her and Jasper couldn't ever spend summer together due to how far they lived from each other, with Jasper's mother not having the most amount of money being a half-blood and the same with Dawn being muggleborn. All they had throughout the years were the constant string of letters that Dawn still kept under her bed to read when she was upset or missed him, though there were very rare and scare visits to each other over the years that they cherished completely..

On the second day of summer, Dawn jumped out of bed at exactly five past seven in the morning. She could hardly sleep and needed to get up. Maybe apparating to Jasper's house at eight in the morning wasn't in their plan but she couldn't help herself. She said a quick goodbye to her mum and dad, and she was on her way.

The Irish town that Jasper grew up was very muggle. A small village near the coast and rather cold as Dawn had always noted.

She had apparated just about halfway up the street from Jasper's cottage that he lived in with his mother. She was a single mother to Jasper and Jasper alone. She had little income that she earned working in diagon alley, a Hufflepuff witch with years of wisdom behind her. Jasper didn't know his father, he was a muggle from the little information his mother had told him, but nothing else was known.

It was a silent morning. A Saturday in the early hours did not strike anyone as a time to be up, unless it were Dawn's rowdy neighbour who thought that it was acceptable to mow his lawn earlier than seven.

There was an eery fog that travelled with Dawn as she bounded down the pavement. Her excitement almost bubbling which caused a spring in the step of her converse clad feet. She very much enjoyed muggle fashion, and It was rather odd to see a young seventeen-year-old girl opt for the robes that her father wore...she wasn't fully into the whole witch attire.

Her spring stopped soon after and so did she. There was a piece of parchment attached to Jasper's open door that she couldn't quite make out.

Intrigued, she opened the small iron gate that was always locked but this time all she had to do was push it and it opened. It was odd, out of routine.

House number seven.

She took a small step forward, a slight bubbling fear creeping up from her stomach and sending Goosebumps over the skin at her neck just beneath her bouncing curls. An odd feeling invited itself into her mind, something was wrong.

Another step forward, and she gasped.

That mark.

The parchment, it had a single mark on it.

A skull, and from it a snake.

She ripped it from the door, the eery silence inside beckoning her in but it was most unwelcoming. She was a shy girl with a brave face and utterly terrified of what she would find. She wished to run, to apparate home and hide in her bed and let someone else do this.

She was not cut out to be brave. She was not a Gryffindor and knew that she never would be brave was not a word that Dawn found in her vocabulary.

Nonetheless, she grabbed tightly onto the doorknob. There was no need to twist it, but she did it anyway, something out of habit and an unconscious thought of "maybe this will sound quieter." The door squeaked, though, and she winced.

Her silence was soon out the window, "No!"

On the floor, there he was. Jasper, eyes open and skin grey. She screamed, a loud crack in her voice and wailed. Her bag dropped to her feet, but she dropped to her knees, her fists curled and her tears already falling.

"Jasper!" she begged him, pleaded with the body on the ground. His bright green eyes staring at the dull cream ceiling of their living room, the last thing he saw.

"No, no...no! Jasper, please!" she sobbed his name, trying with all her might to resurrect the boy. It was magic, though. There was nothing muggle about the death that took place. Nothing out of place, no blood splatters on the wall.

He seemed almost the same, preserved in the magic that took his life except for the dark creep of the grey skin that replaced his tanned tone. She gripped onto the boy for dear life, unsure of what to do but she could not leave him.

It was the boy that ran after bullies who liked to taunt her. It was the boy that purposely laughed louder at her jokes so that she would feel less shy to tell them, because he truly did find her funny and she should know it.

It was the boy who sat next to her through every meal and every class they shared so she wouldn't feel as nervous to sit there. The boy who would take the attention off of her and put it on himself.

It was her Jasper.

"Please," she whimpered into the wetness on his chest. Her lip trembling with pain and sorrow and anger, and her hands curled tightly around his close, "Jasper...please don't leave me!"

The creak of the floorboards made her jump. She stumbled slightly, her knees to her chest at the footsteps coming from the kitchen. Frozen with fear, she could hardly protect herself.

She had her wand gripped in her hand, her eyes on Jasper and then the door to the kitchen. She watched, and watched and watched, and then...the doorknob twisted.

It was slow, a high pitch creak ringing through her ears as though over amplified.

It was Jasper's mother, and Dawn would have almost felt some significant jump in relief had it not been for the woman's wand. She raised it, eyes blank and nothing behind them. Dawn was terrified, adrenaline pumping through her.

The woman, one she had known well, raised her wand above her. She shouted something so loud and Dawn practically leaped out of the way, screaming as she done so, and dodging the curse thrown at her.

And just like that, Jasper's mother, she fell to her knees with almost nothing left in her. Dawn watched, unable to peel her eyes away, practically shielding Jasper and her panting loud in the silent home.

Jasper's mother raised her wand to her head – aimed at herself, eyes ringed with dark circles and wrinkles covering her old face. She whispered in a hoarse, painful sounding voice a mere sentence that sent chills barrelling down Dawn's back, "...praise the dark lord."

Dawn screamed, arm jumping out as the green blinding light engulfed Jasper's mother and in it's place the woman fell limp to the floor, eyes open and glassy and her wand rolling away from her.