Tom Riddle wasn't always evil. There was a time when he felt something other than hate. Something more than the iron taste of bitterness rested in his mouth. Something less than a monster gazed back at him from a reflective surface. A time when he felt wonder, and friendship, and dare he say it, love. (Set in the final chapters of DH) one-shot.

"You're a disgrace to the name Black. You're too tainted for Seth Parkinson now. Get out! Get out of this house!" Bellatrix knew what awaited Andromeda in a loveless marriage with Seth Parkinson. It was a well-known secret amongst the Pureblood families that he had rather extreme methods of keeping his wives in check. That will not happen her sister.

Ron should have anticipated Harry sneaking away and surrendering out of some misguided attempt to keep the rest of them safe. His best friend was dead.

"I don't need help from a filthy mudblood!" He had regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Perhaps if they hadn't, it wouldn't have ended like this... Her emerald eyes stared, empty of the sparkle they'd always held. He'd never see that sparkle again.

For the first time in 7 years, Harry was allowed to cry. He was allowed to process everything that had happened to him, because if truth be told he had not been able to make sense of a single thing since Hagrid knocked down his door and announced he was a wizard.He did not have to be Harry Potter, leader of a war that had started long before he was even born. Continued Chap from DH