"here is the thing about equality - everyone's equal when they're dead"

*

It was night when Eva finally arrived home, spending hours wandering around her town with no real purpose. All of her childhood friendships had fallen apart over the years of secrets and absences. In some ways, her home was as foreign as it was familiar.

The Cup was over. Lasting over seven hours, the United States finally won with a score of six hundred twenty-five to four hundred fifty. The group celebrated all night after the match before returning to James' house for more celebration. A few days later, everyone departed for their own homes.

Walking down the street with her headphones on, she happily tuned out the world as she listened to an ABBA cassette. Music always brightened her mood. Something about the melodies and lyrics woven together in a way that was magical. Different magic than the kind they taught at Hogwarts, but magic all the same.

Usually when they saw her, neighbors smiled at the blonde girl skipping down the sidewalk with an infectious smile. That's the Taylor girl, they muttered to each other. An oddity, but a sweet thing nonetheless. No one knew why Amelia Taylor sent her daughter away to boarding school for the majority of the year when she loved her so much, so she was naturally a topic of gossip.

Today, however, she saw no one. No one waved at her as she walked down the streets, no dogs barked, no old friends gave her a polite hello. The stillness bothered her, but she ignored it, choosing to get lost in the music instead. Until she turned the corner on her street, when she stopped dead in her tracks.

The paint-chipped ranch house sat at the end of her street, the pink beds of mums rippling in the night wind. The front door swung back and forth as if someone had forgotten to close it.

And ghastly green against the inky black sky, the Dark Mark hovered over the house.

Eva saw all of this in a matter of seconds. Bile rose in her throat and she dropped her bag on the sidewalk, running as fast as she could for the house. Her heart thumped wildly in her chest.

"No," she kept muttering under her breath, praying that the inevitable hadn't occurred, but she knew what the mark meant. "No, please."

Wand in hand, she ran through the ajar door and into the dark entryway.

"Mum!" She yelled. Her cracking voice echoed in the hallway as she ran from room to room. "Mum!"

Terrified beyond belief, she entered the living room, dark like all the others, to find her mother lying in the middle of the floor, motionless.

"Mum!" She threw herself down on the ground and shook her a little. Tears flowed from her eyes when nothing happened even when she checked for a nonexistent pulse. Her eyes, the green eyes that once looked so lovingly at her daughter and husband, stared blankly at the ceiling. 

They killed her.

Eva slid down her cheeks rapidly as she cried next to her mother's body, her corpse. She had never felt pain like this before, not even when her father died. She wanted to rip her heart out of her chest just so she didn't have to feel anything anymore.

It's because of me. Because of what I am.

"I'm sorry," she whispered repeatedly. "I'm so, so sorry."

She didn't know how long she sat there in the dark living room sobbing, but a maniacal cackle reached her ears and sent shivers down her spine.

Eva rose quickly, clutching her wand in her shaking hand, and spun around. Bellatrix Black stepped out of the shadows, twirling her own wand between her fingers, a wicked smirk on her pale face.

"What a touching scene," She sneered, her expression taunting. "Back home from the match so soon?"

"Get. Out." Eva growled the words, so beyond playing her games. "Get out, or I swear, I'll kill you."

Bellatrix mocked fear. "Oh, my cousin's stupid girlfriend is making threats now? Threatening murder of all things? When the Dark Lord asked for a Muggle to use as an example, I volunteered my idea right away. I told him that I could kill not only a filthy Muggle, but also her filthy Mudblood daughter who associates with blood traitors and Muggle-lovers! Lucky for me, he agreed." She laughed again, but it didn't scare Eva. It infuriated her.

"You don't know a single thing about me," She hissed, unshed tears in her eyes. "I don't care what you think of me because I know everything you think of me is wrong. I will say it one more time: get out."

They stared at each other, Eva with hate, Bellatrix with amusement. 

"Stupefy!" Eva cried, aiming her wand and firing off the spell. Bellatrix deflected her spell and threw one of her own. 

"Diffindo!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The two witches began to deal with immense skill and concentration. Bellatrix aimed to kill, shooting off killing curses left and right. Eva dodged and fought back, but she didn't want to kill Bellatrix: she wanted to hurt her.

She wanted to make her pay, to feel even a fraction of the pain she felt at the murder of her mother, her last family member. Anger unlike any she had ever felt before curled inside her, and it needed to be unleashed on the one who destroyed everything. 

"Crucio!" 

The curse hit Eva before she had a chance to move out of the way. Pain coursed through her, rattled every bone in her body, pain worse than anything she'd ever felt. She dropped to the ground, screaming as she writhed, gripping onto the leg of a chair until her knuckles turned white. Worst of all, part of her didn't want to fight it. Didn't want to try and escape. She just wanted to give in to the darkness and pain.

It's my fault. 

Bellatrix's face appeared above her, laughing as the girl screamed her voice hoarse. Leaning down, she whispered in her ear, "you're weaker than I thought."

Eva mustered all of her courage and spat in her face. Anger flooded her cheeks with red. Bellatrix stamped on her face, breaking Eva's nose. Blood spurted out of her nostrils, warm against her cold face. 

On the ground with her enemy above, Eva realized that this was not the way she wanted to go. Not wallowing in pity and accepting the fate she'd been dealt. 

I will not die tonight.

Gathering any strength she had left, she shoved the Death Eater off of her and pulled herself up into a standing position. She picked the first name that popped into her scattered mind and turned on the spot, apparating away with a loud crack. 

*

When Eva touched the ground again, she almost fell on impact. A searing pain filled her shoulder and her entire body shook from the after-effects of the Cruciatis Curse. The smell of trees filled her broken nose as she stumbled towards the back door, almost tripping on a stepping stone. Voices reached her ears from inside the house.

"What are you doing up at this hour? Back to bed this instant!"

"I swear I heard a crack, Mum, almost like someone apparated!"

The back door opened, flooding the dark yard with light. Eva did her best to move faster, desperate to feel safe again. A figure ran out to meet her, his face paling to a paperwhite when he recognized her. 

"Eva!"

She all but fell into his strong arms and gripped a fistful of his t-shirt in her trembling hands, ignoring the pain that coursed through her entire being. "She's dead!"

James stared at his broken friend with wide, terrified eyes and pulled her close. "Eva, y-y-you've got to calm down. I- what happened? Your arm-"

"I don't care!" She screamed into his chest. It hurt her throat, but she continued. "I don't care about any of it! She's dead, James, she's dead and it's my fault!"

Her knees felt too weak to hold her beaten body any longer, and she collapsed, only not hitting the ground because James held her tightly. Shaking, he lowered her to the ground and rested her head on his lap before counting her injuries. Blood trickled down her face, it looked as if her nose had been broken again, she kept twitching, and her right shoulder was severely mangled.

"Mum!" He called hoarsely, tears in his eyes. He hated that he couldn't do anything, that he didn't even know where to start. "Dad!"

This was James Potter's worst nightmare. 

"Help me!"

Mrs. Potter ran out of the house followed by her husband. Both took in the scene with frantic expressions when they found their son on his knees in the garden clutching a girl they prayed was only unconscious. 

"Oh dear," Mrs. Potter whispered. "James, please take her inside. Lay her on the couch. Quickly."

James nodded and gently lifted Eva from the ground into his arms. Her head fell limply to the side, her blonde hair tinted with blood. He took a deep breath and tried not to panic before doing as his mother asked.

Once he laid her on the couch, Mrs. Potter pushed James aside and immediately began to assess her injuries. He found himself unable to move, though, frozen to the spot by fear. She took out her wand and began muttering spells in an attempt to discover what must have happened. 

"James, go to the kitchen and get me a wet rag and dittany from the top cabinet," she instructed, using that soft voice she only ever used when someone was hurt. The boy didn't react at all, still staring in shock. "James!"

"Sorry." He ducked into the kitchen and turned the water on, gripping the counter tightly as he leaned over and closed his eyes, fighting the urge to throw up. She's okay. She's okay. She's okay. 

He returned and Mrs. Potter immediately began to clean out her shoulder with the bottle of dittany. Eva whimpered in her sleep as the liquid came into contact with her torn flesh, but she remained unconscious. James paced the floor, messing up his hair every few minutes.

"Splinched," Mr. Potter said quietly to his son, nodding to her injured shoulder. Of course. Eva barely passed her Apparation test and almost never attempted that mode of transportation because she was terrible at it. James realized how desperate she must have been to apparate knowing that it probably wouldn't work. 

But why did she come here? What happened?

"Do you mind if I Floo Sirius?" His father shook his head, so James crossed the room and threw some Floo powder into the fireplace. He stepped into the emerald green flames and mumbled the address of Sirius' apartment before disappearing. 

*

Sirius had always been a night person. Early on in his life, he enjoyed the nighttime because it meant his parents were asleep. In the dark, he couldn't see them. They wouldn't yell at him. As he grew older, his nightmares worsened and he found that staying awake was easier than falling back asleep, so that is what he did. He learned to operate on less rest and used the extra hours to his advantage.

On this particular night, he lounged on the couch, currently his only piece of furniture, and opened up his worn copy of Quidditch Through the Ages with the plan to read more about the new champions of the world. A few pages in, his reading was interrupted by a green flame in his fireplace and James tripping into his living room covered in soot. 

James' random appearance didn't exactly surprise Sirius. Over the last few weeks, they'd been randomly Flooing to each other's homes at odd times just because they could. However, he did think one o'clock in the morning was a bit excessive for their games, and his eyes flicked up in mild irritation.

"Really, Prongs," he commented, already back in his book, "don't you have a bedtime?"

James felt like he couldn't breathe. He leaned on the fireplace mantle. "Sirius, you've got to come to my place. Now."

"I'm okay, actually. I kind of like living by myself." He finally looked up at his friend and was on his feet within seconds, striding over to him with concern in his expression. "What is it? What happened? Is it your parents?" He couldn't imagine anything happening to the two people who acted more like parents than his blood ones ever did.

The answer James gave was worse. Much worse.

He only managed to say one word.

"Eva."

I'M SORRY!

This chapter was really intense, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway