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Part One / Chapter Twenty-Eight
Venus was sevenwhen she saw her neighbor get taken into the light. It was a cool April evening in nineteen eighty-seven, and Venus was chasing herds of fireflies in the front yard.
Then, there was a ringing. A deafening ring that hurt Venus' ears, to the point of dizziness, but it seemed as if she were the only one that could hear it. Andromeda sat in the front porch flipping through her book, Tonks was sitting on the ground beside her practicing charms, as if the ringing ringing was transparent to them.
"Come along, child." A man's voice called calmly.
Venus scanned the lawns for Ted, but he was nowhere to be seen. The mystery mans voice rung in her head like static.
"Don't be frightened, you'll be okay."
The clouds around the Copeland's house changed from mystic amethyst tones to warm specks of gold, apricot tones. Her small legs carried her from the foot of the hill to the hedges of the Copeland's residence. There he was on the ground, her neighbor Jackson Copeland, bleeding profusely from his stomach. She fell to hide side when she felt herself plunge, like she'd fallen from the side of a steep cliff. The plunge happened when Jackson stopped breathing, she felt him die.
"Venus," Jackson Copeland said, and she turned to see him. He was standing behind her with a smile on his face, "it's okay. I'm alright."
Venus didn't understand. Jackson was lying on the ground in front of her, dead, and he was also standing in front of her, glowing brightly. Then the voice came again.
"Jackson, it's time."
In a flash, twilight fell again and the night sky descended upon her and Jackson's body. The voice seized and the other Jackson, the happy Jackson, was gone.
It was the first time Venus thought of that night in thirteen years, and it's all she could think of while sitting in Snape's dungeon waiting for Professor McGonagall. The Potions Professor's cold, black eyes glowered upon Venus in her seat.
"You broke Goyle's wrist in several places, Miss. Black," Snape said in a voice so cold the air around Venus dropped nearly ten degrees.
"Rosario, I've always gone by Rosario." Venus frowned as she tugged nervously at her torn sleeve.
"You mangled my student, Rosario."
"He's a bully, Professor."
"Are you giving cheek, Rosario?" Snape's eyes, if possible, had blackened entirely.
