Eventually, Harry managed to stop laughing at the idea of Riddle's and Dumbledore's torment at the hands of the other. Filing that knowledge away for another time, he sat back on the couch and looked at Mal expectantly. She drew a shaky breath, knowing what that look meant. It was her turn now.

Mal took a deep, careful breath. "Much like you set your world up with the events leading to your first death, I need to do the same with events that led to my birth, and eventually, all of my deaths. Can you bear with me as I do? It's a long story, and I need to tell it all, so you have a full understanding of things later on."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." He assured her, taking her hand and holding it softly. "This isn't going to be easy for either of us. There will be rather ugly and difficult things to get through coming from my side of this conversation. I'll listen to yours, and I know you'd do nothing less than that for me."

His hand was cool and comforting as he held her own. She hoped he didn't mind if she didn't let go. She didn't want to let go. He seemed to understand this and showed no signs of releasing his hold.

"Well, you began your tale with your parents and their origins; I should start with mine. Mainly, my mother’s origins." She said softly.

The entire maternal side of her family lived in a community. Describing it, she had him picture a suburb with hundreds of houses. Some were small and mediocre in quality, while others were large and of higher standers. Some had large yards; others had small yards. They were all close, with a large forest surrounding them from the back and sides. In that community was a large church and small, exclusive schools controlled by the church.

One apartment complex was just on the community's edge, a very short distance from the town's central square. While the community was technically a part of the town, the community was very reclusive. The community never participated in the town's events or celebrated holidays with them. The only business done in the town was shopping. As the town's other occupants were relatively small in number, it relied on the community's business to survive and thus didn't complain much about the community's behavior.

The community, as the large church and its connecting schools, would suggest, was very religious. While their primary worshipping practices were reminiscent of Catholicism, that wasn't precisely the religion they practiced. It carried Puritan aspects one would see during the times of the Witch Trials in Salem. Mal wasn't sure if it came from a religious standpoint or a personal one, but there was no equality. The community was very much a powerbase for men.

The entire community was extraordinarily devoted and brutal to any who disobeyed the Biblical and the Home rules. What rules were given by man or God were to be obeyed. Boys had to listen until they were grown men; then, they could have their own rules. Respect Thy Father was very much a code that was to be adhered to as if it were the word of God.

While it was something that most didn't know about, even those within the community, Mal was very much aware that they were deadly to anything they viewed as an abnormality. They would attempt to "cure" the anomalies; if they could not, those who were abnormal disappeared and were never seen or heard from again.

Men were mostly safe, but the women were, more often than not, tortured beyond imagination. In many cases, the girls/ women who showed "abnormalities" disappeared and were never seen or heard from again.

Harry cringed, "Definitely sounds similar to the Salem Witch Trials with the Puritans."

A grave look came over Mal's face that Harry did not like.

"They may not have been as public or as verbose as the Puritans, but they were no less severe with their practices." She said softly.

Mal's mother, Lauren, was one of fifteen children born to her grandmother. Born as one of the many middle children, as one would expect from an overly large household that favored the males, Lauren grew up neglected, abused, and heavily brainwashed into the community's dogma but called it devotion.

Like all of the community's daughters, Lauren's future was either: in the nunnery, in service to God. To live a life with silent prayer, caring for either the gardens, the small clinic they kept, or the school. Or to be another stay-at-home wife and mother.

Now, women could have jobs if they had an aptitude for it, especially if it brought more resources into the community. But only if their husbands granted their permission, and the wives found proper care for their children during their work hours. Several women worked as nurses at the clinic with a handful of nuns.

However, Lauren was told she wasn't fit for either a job or being a nun. In the end, all she was good for was being a complacent wife for some man and the mother to the many children he would give her. Lauren was under the impression that would have been at least ten children, perhaps even more than her mother had. Who, as previously stated, birthed a total of fifteen.

Lauren was told this so often when she was young that it was the only source of comfort she had. Soon she wouldn't be stuck in this house and given little attention. Soon she would be someone's wife and the mother to many children. As such, she would be the center of attention. At all times.

Harry shook his head in disgust of his own. "Sounds like a certain loudmouth redhead matriarch I know."

Mal nodded, knowing to whom he was referring. "But things changed for the worse when my mother started her menses."

"And things hadn't already?" Harry asked incredulously.

Mal bobbed her in concession but otherwise did not comment on his remark as she continued.

Lauren had woken up one morning shortly after she was fifteen to discover herself in a pool of blood. She had started her menses the day before, and the community was so happy. They had begun to fear Lauren would never get her menses and worried how the nunnery would be able to contain her. Thus far, her personality was not suited to service life, but without her menses, she was ill.

If she couldn't breed, what other life was she meant to have if not in service to God?

With the start of her menses, they thought their troubles were over. But their joy was short-lived. There was too much blood for it to be a simple matter of overflow.

Lauren was not the first daughter of the community to have appeared with these same issues. There had been trouble when the community reacted badly to such a situation and attempted to exorcise the demon, whom they firmly believed had possessed the girl. This time, hoping to avoid issues with the authorities, they sought medical attention immediately. The clinic was of no use in this situation, so they had to bring Lauren to the hospital in the next county.

"Issues?"

Mal sighed; his confusion was understandable. "To them, the police forces, the child protection services were all outsiders. To them, what right did these people have to come into their community, their homes, and question their ways?"

Seeing that he was still a little confused, she thought of another way to explain it, and one that might be better in the long run.

"Think of it like this; Dumbledore kept outsiders from you too. After everything you endured, all of your bouts of accidental magic, someone had to have come, at least to erase the memories of those who witnessed it. Others in Little Whinging had to have at least suspected that something was wrong, not to mention your teachers and the other children. Dumbledore took care of all of that, so no one from the Wizarding World would come to find you. He wanted you left ignorant of the true wealth and power you had."

He finally understood what she meant. "They kept others out so no one who would think to ask the right questions; people who would not only ask but investigate. Uncovering that there were a lot of things going on that shouldn't be."

Mal nodded; he got it.

It took a while, but eventually, a gynecologist diagnosed Lauren with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome or PCOS.

Harry held up a hand to stop her and looked at her, confused. "What the bloody hell is that? I've never heard of that before."

"No, I imagine you wouldn't have. Rida made a passing comment that it was a shame that this affliction only existed in my world." Mal smiled remorsefully. "Among the many symptoms are cysts on the ovaries, it can cause irregular periods, heavy bleeding, it can cause diabetes to the woman, but the part that is important to the story is that it makes it difficult to have children."

Some women who were diagnosed go on to have many children naturally with no issues conceiving at all. Some managed to conceive with help from treatments. Then there were those that couldn't conceive at all no matter what they did.

While it was personal, Mal explained it from her perspective, as she inherited PCOS from her mother. Mal's was an extreme case. While her periods seemed normal enough in High School, they were extremely painful. They made it difficult to walk and came with migraines that had her bedridden. Eventually, in her adulthood, it got to the point where she bled for a year straight. If she wanted any chance at having a normal life, it was deemed medically necessary that she have a partial hysterectomy. But with the large cysts on her ovaries, she had no choice but to have a complete hysterectomy or face many surgeries later in life to remove them. There was also the matter that she'd still have to live with the daily pain.

Lauren, like Mal, had in her twenties, suffered greatly. She had heavy periods, bad cramping, and migraines as well. It led to her missing a great deal of school. Eventually, she developed diabetes, as well. Lauren was physically and mentally sick due to her body's state and the abuse from all community corners. Being told she had PCOS and there was no cure, only things that helped with the symptoms, was the worst thing possible for Lauren.

It seemed after the diagnosis, everyone around Lauren stopped loving her. There wasn't a kind word to be found. Everyone treated her differently; if they didn't avoid her outright, they took every chance they had to put her down. Because of this, in the future, when people delivered terrible news to Lauren, she reacted very, very, badly—often becoming hostile towards the deliverer of the bad news.

When a doctor told her at eighteen that she shouldn't have children because it would affect her health, she attacked him. When the family finally broke the fight apart, the doctor said Lauren couldn't have children and walked away, rather than tell the truth and be attacked again, this time by a mob.

"How did you find all this out?" Harry finally asked, unable to hold the question back any longer. "From what you’d said on the matter, I doubt very much your extended family would have told you any of this."

"Oh, they didn't." She assured him. "When things they don't agree with happen, they either pretend it didn't happen or consider it blasphemy. So obviously, they never spoke about the truth of my mother's ailments." Mal shook her head in disgust. "My doctor found out about that during the third round of my one-year period in my previous life. He found my mother's original doctors, and they broke patient confidentiality to tell me. They felt my health and my need to make an informed decision was more important than protecting my mother's "shame," I guess you could say."

Harry squeezed her hand in comfort but said nothing aloud. He realized some time ago that she was building up an image of the community, and her family, so he could understand why certain things happened the way they did. This was one such case.

He wished he could have been there for her after finding out such terrible news, both her diagnosis and the truth about her mother's ailments. Given what Tarnok said about her husband, he got the distinct impression that she suffered through all of that alone.

He also wished more than anything to kill her family or reap justice upon that community. Given this was just the beginning, he wondered just how badly he would wish to do that later on?

Mal continued her tale, utterly oblivious to Harry's thoughts and reactions to her story.

After graduation, which Lauren barely managed to accomplish, she went to the nunnery for some time. Eventually, even they gave up dealing with her. Even if no children came from the union, marriage was better than putting up with her; however, all the community men refused. Nothing could convince them to change their minds. Left with no other choice and with great reluctance, the church pulled enough money for her to attend one year of college.

The hope was that she would either find a husband or find a career path that made her happy. If that proved to be the case, the church would fund her entire college education, even if it took her from the community. Which Mal suspected that many hoped would be the case. She theorized that because of the way some people still treated Lauren in the future.

Mal fought the instinct to curl up in a ball as she tried to get through this next part. Over the years, she'd grown detached when talking about her mother. Her father, however, was another story.

After a year of college, Lauren came home engaged to Terry Matthews, who had recently graduated college. Although he was an outsider, the entire community welcomed him with open arms. They had hoped that Terry would take Lauren away from the community, but she wanted to be in her hometown with her family. Whether to show off to them or because of how "devote" she was, Mal couldn't say.

Despite her apparent medical issues, Terry still loved Lauren and married her; this shocked all of the community's men. Especially those who weren't in service to God and thus able to marry and procreate. Why would a man marry a woman if she couldn't breed for him? It baffled them, and eventually, it disgusted them to the point they refused to have anything to do with Terry.

While this confused Terry, he didn't pursue it to find answers. He had a few friends in town, and other than his beloved wife, that was all he needed for companionship. He worked as an accountant for the town's committee, doctors, and other business officials that could afford his services. He made a decent living for himself. It was certainly enough to provide for himself and Lauren.

To Lauren, it was all lavish and extravagant, vacations, fancy restaurants, and she always had new clothes, but really, it wasn't all she made it out to be. A few amusement parks in the next state or the beach in the south of Texas were hardly exotic. The higher-end restaurants a couple of towns over, while nice, were hardly a French café in Paris. Still, Lauren was happier than she had ever been, so the community stopped gossiping about her to her face. She was allowed the delusion that they cared and were delighted for her.

At first, the church officials liked Terry. He married the undesirable Lauren, and his inability to take her away from the community was hardly his fault. She was a stubborn one, and they knew this well. Time carried on, however, and the longer he lived there, Terry noticed things.

At first, he kept quiet, but eventually, it became too much for him, and he started to point out the inconsistencies and questioning things aloud. Then men tried to enlighten Terry to their ways, but Terry called them all hypocrites and vile people. As one would assume, this did not sit well with the church officials, and the rest of the community reacted badly to his declarations.

The church then tried to intercede, but they also failed. They had attempted to use Lauren shortly after that to reign Terry in, but she was far too happy and spoiled, in their opinion, to listen to them. When they couldn't silence him or gain control of him, they tried another method."

"They began belittling him." Harry said, knowing all too well how that went.

Mal nodded in answer.

Still, despite the community actively working against him, Terry had his job in the town, and he had a happy life with Lauren. But she wanted a baby; it escalated to where she was crying herself to sleep at night. To make his wife happy, Terry suggested that they adopt, and Lauren agreed. While Lauren was eager for the chance to be a mother, the community, in particular the church officials, was against it.

"Why!?" Harry asked, appalled. The situation was hitting a little too close to home for comfort. "Furthermore, what right do they have to interfere with such a choice!?"

"The church officials of whatever that bastardized religion is ruled the community. What they say went. If a man loved his sister's best friend, but they thought the girl he'd bullied all his life was a better match, he'd married their suggestion the next week. That's one of the reasons the community is very dangerous; the church rules, and the people blindly follow." Mal explained.

Harry sighed in defeat. "Sounds like Dumbledore with Hogwarts and the Ministry with Wizarding Britain for that matter."

She nodded; it was eerily similar.

"As for your other question, why they opposed; in their eyes, children are a punishment for women from God, but a blessing to men."

At Harry's horrified look, Mal realized she had to explain in further detail.

They taught in the community that when God cast Adam and Eve out of Eden, he told them to go forth and multiply. He meant this as a punishment for Eve, who had eaten the apple against God's orders then tricked Adam into doing the same, but it was Adam's path for redemption. There was no mention of the snake that the original bible said manipulated Eve into taking the first bite.

Church Officials further taught that the babes borne to the community were born with the original sin committed by Eve, tainting their souls, which is why they were baptized.

The baptism wiped the slate clean for the boys, and they were genuinely innocent thereafter. They carried no taint from Eve or their mother. They were to obey their father until they reached adulthood, then it was their God-given duty to marry a woman, then have as many children as God saw fit to bless them with. The more children, the better his chances at redemption. They raised their sons to follow in their footsteps while raising their daughters to know their place.

The girls were baptized to tame the sin, the taint, in an effort to quell the desire in women to defy God's laws. They were married to men so that they might provide the path for their husband's redemption in the eyes of God. However many lives were put in their womb; they were to carry and birth without a complaint. They were to care for the children and the home. For that was how they might avoid Hell.

Harry shuddered and shook his head. "I am so sorry that you had to grow up with that."

Mal shrugged. "As Tarnok said, I never believed it. I never knew why, but I always felt that it was wrong."

"Thank God for that." Harry muttered.

Getting back to her tale, she told how her parents were able to adopt a newborn boy. The parents were killed in a car accident the day they were returning home from the hospital. As they had lived in the town, and the Mayor knew that Terry and Lauren were looking to adopt, he offered them the chance to take in the orphan, which they gladly accepted.

Due to the circumstances, Lauren's family and the church accepted the boy named Andrew. It had "obviously" been a sign from God that the child was meant for them. Lauren thought she couldn't be happier. She was happily married to a good man who loved her and showered her with attention. But most of all, she was finally a mother. A son. The gender that was coveted by mothers and blessed by the church.

Lauren proved to be an excellent mother to Andrew, and the community was stumped. Here was a woman who they had firmly believed was good for nothing. Yet her husband showed her more compassion than any woman in the community thought possible. And her son was one of the best-behaved boys the community had ever seen.

However, if it was one thing that mortal life taught Mal, good things are not made to last. Two years after Andrew came into their lives, Lauren learned she was pregnant. Terry was astonished as he had believed Lauren couldn't conceive at all. However, the OBGYN soon disabused Terry of that notion. Lauren could have children, but the doctors recommended for her health that she didn't. And it was soon apparent why.

Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

Lauren was already sick due to the pregnancy, but it got worse as the pregnancy progressed. Anything and everything that could go wrong seemed to. Lauren spent a lot of time in bed or the hospital. Thankfully, the town had a daycare center for Andrew while Terry worked.

It all came to a head when Mal was born five weeks premature. Which considering Lauren had been in labor off and on since her sixth month of pregnancy, it was a miracle she managed to incubate Mal for as long as she did. The process nearly stopped Lauren's heart; if that had happened, they would have had to do a C-section to save Mal before rushing to save Lauren. Thankfully, be it through sheer will or stubborn pride, Lauren managed to have a natural birth and just barely managed to survive it.

Lauren broke as she saw her baby girl hooked up with tubes and monitors. It took a month and a half before they were finally able to bring Mal home. Andrew adored his little sister and was an excellent big brother. While the fighting and resentment that usually came with siblings missed Mal and Andrew, but it seemed to hit Terry and Lauren pretty hard.

Lauren was having a hard time recovering from the pregnancy and delivery, and in his defense, it would have never been a good time to bring it up, but Terry sat Lauren down to talk. He confessed that he'd done a lot of research on the matter and told her that he agreed with the doctors; any more children would kill Lauren. He loved her and their children; he wanted to spend the rest of his life loving her and them.

He knew how she was raised and believed she would never get her tubes tied or any other procedure that would inhibit her ability to have children. So after she was fully healed and they were given the green light again, he was going to get a vasectomy.

While it may have been expected to those in the community, Terry was unprepared when he met Lauren's violent reaction against it.

To make matters worse, rather than deal with it themselves, she told her entire family and the church his plans. While he was shocked at Lauren's reaction, he was furious that other people were trying to influence his marriage. He argued that it was none of their business, but the church disagreed. Lauren was a follower of their laws, and in their eyes, Terry was not only slapping their beliefs in the face, he was being abusive towards his wife. It was her duty in life to provide him with children, and if she died in the process, then that was God's will. To deny her that was to deny God's word, and they wouldn't stand for it.

The way she said it, and the way she had to fight back the tears while talking, Harry came to realize that's what they told her. When she came clean to them about her health and the methods she had taken to ensure she would live, that's what her family had told her.

It was not long after the church yelled that at him that Terry had enough. He began making plans to move out of the community and even had a different job lined up in another state. Lauren was in shock, but as she was healing, she couldn't fight or leave him. She had nowhere else to go. Lauren also didn't want to leave him. While leaving the community scared her, she was too spoiled by Terry; that was not something she could give up so easily.

When the church got wind of what Terry was planning, the community acted with haste. Soon, Terry was accused of attacking several members of the community. The community did it in a way that even the outside police forces had to agree with the evidence presented. It resulted in Terry being arrested several times for assault. Each time he was arrested, the townspeople started to doubt his word and believed the community more. After the fifth time, no one, not even his former friends or clients in the town, would defend him.

Each time he was arrested, the community enacted part two of their dastardly plan. They all gathered around Lauren, acting concerned and caring for her. They gushed and cooed over the children and lavished Lauren with attention and love. After his second arrest, they began whispering horrible things about Terry in her ears.

After his fifth arrest, Lauren broke down. Terry was hurting her family, her community; she believed them when they said that Terry was a danger to her children. She believed them when they said they loved her, and she wouldn't be alone through this; they would always be there for her.

Part three of the community's plan was enacted when Lauren filed for divorce. Usually, the church was dead set against such an action, but they would make the exception this time.

"I thought they wanted Lauren gone; why would they stop Terry from taking his family away from them?"

Mal shook her head. "He insulted them. He fought them. So they did what they always did to those who fought the church; they destroyed him."

There was no one to speak on Terry's behalf; with all of his arrests and the community's cries of abuse and vile acts he committed, he was sent to prison, and the courts gave full custody to Lauren.

As they promised, as soon as Terry was gone, they lavished Lauren with praise, and many men began to take notice of her now. She had proven she was a worthy wife and a bearer of children. They had been convinced by the church officials they'd been jealous of what she gave Terry, and they now coveted that for themselves. But none more so than Arnold Higgins, a man ten years her senior.

Arnold, ironically, was of the same profession that Terry was, and he soon took over not only his duties in the community but Terry's from the town. Everyone respected him in both areas. His house was a family home, with rich decorations and the finest materials. But he lacked children; his first wife passed away without providing him any. In the young Lauren, who was relatively pleasing to the eye, he found his answer.

It wasn't six months after the divorce that Lauren was remarried and pregnant once more. The community was happy, and Arnold was thrilled to be able to have his own children finally. The community's caring and love for her dried up. Her parents had all but abandoned her; anything she said, even during confession, was soon known to all. Arnold's affections that he used to woo her turned cold and ruthless as he demanded child after child.

Lauren began to realize that she had been lied to and manipulated. She'd lost the man that truly loved her and was now stuck with a man that used her body till it was practically broken, then left to sleep in his own bed. Terry had been gentle; he had been kind. Arnold was rough and demanding.

She also made a startling discovery: she hated being pregnant. She hated the way it made her feel and what it did to her body.

To make matters worse, with each child she had, the doctor's warnings proved right. Her health got worse and worse. Yet Arnold persisted. She would give him child after child until she died giving birth to one. So long as the child survived, he didn't care. There had been eight more babies by the time Mal was ten.

Harry felt like he was going to be sick. He knew precisely how Lauren must have felt, realizing she'd been tricked into marrying someone whose only interest was in what you could give them.

"Lauren fell apart, didn't she?" he asked softly.

Mal nodded.

"You said she was sick mentally; it only got worse, didn't it?"

Mal nodded again, but this time, she managed to at least answer with words as well. "Mom's mind withered away with every terrible act, harsh word, and child she had. Soon, she didn't love any of us; she just wanted to be left alone, to not be in pain. She took it out on us when things went bad and ignored us the rest of the time."

Harry already felt sick to his stomach, but he knew she wasn't finished with her tale yet. There was still a lot more to go over before she reached her first death.

So she wouldn't lose momentum, afraid that she would break down and clam up, Mal pushed forward with her story. She already felt better explaining what she had and knew she would feel purged once finished; the hard part was getting to that point. She was also grateful that Harry had yet to release her hand and was providing constant comfort.

She went into detail about her days under her mother's care. Basically, to say that her mother wasn't there. She would care for the new babies, but only if she had to nurse them. Once Mal and Andrew were old enough, they changed diapers, supplemented their mother's nursing with bottles for the older ones as Lauren could only tolerate the newborns. Once they reached three-four months, they were passed off. Usually, by that time, Lauren was either pregnant or getting as much rest in as she could before she was pregnant again.

It seemed to be a pattern for Lauren that things always went from bad to worse.

Mal had tears running down her cheeks. "I swear I can feel her pain and feel her heartbreaking." She drew a shaky breath and bit back the desperate need to sob. "She realized too late what she had with my father and how she was being used and broken with Arnold."

There were days where all Lauren did was cry, then there were days when she reacted violently at the sight of her children. More often than not, though, Lauren was withdrawn, secluded in the bedroom, and silent. The children preferred that version of their mother. At least then, they could pretend that their mother wasn't always sad, and they didn't get hurt.

After her ninth pregnancy and her eighth child with Arnold was born, Lauren's body finally gave out. Her heart stopped, and she kept hemorrhaging. They quickly learned there was a tear in her uterine wall. They fought to get Lauren stabilized and to stop the bleeding. In the end, to have any chance of saving her life, they had to do a complete hysterectomy.

The community and Arnold were not given a choice because no one was there. It was something they had come to expect from the Higgins family. Arnold, or someone from the community, would drop Lauren off when she went into labor. Arnold had work and the other kids to look after. Arnold would visit when he got off work. If the baby hadn't come by, then he would leave and go back home.

Lauren's hospital stays were spent alone. She never saw Arnold until after the delivery. He could have stopped by a couple of times, but she wouldn't have seen him.

"Because no self-respecting man of the community would ever be by his wife's side while she was in labor." Mal spat.

A woman was expected to look after herself, especially when she was in labor. The pain of bringing a life into the world was the punishment of God for woman's sin, as the sect believed.

So the doctors had to make a decision then and there. Save her life or let her die. Knowing they were going to get slapped regardless, they went with the decision they could live with. So they did all they could. By the time Arnold and the sect found out, they had to grit their teeth and give thanks, but only to keep the doctors and police out of the sect's business.

"This Arnold does not sound like a good guy." Harry commented darkly. "Honestly, he sounds almost as bad as Vernon."

"I guess, so you understand somethings, I should explain a bit more about Arnold." Mal swallowed back the urge to sob, knowing she would need strength to get through the next parts.

Given how young they were when he was sent to prison over the community's lies, neither Andrew nor Mal remembered Terry; the only father they ever knew was Arnold. Some would think that a blessing, the community certainly did, but behind the closed doors of their home, Arnold never failed to refer to them as the bastard children.

To the community, Arnold was the dream man. A loving husband, handsome, devoted to the church and the community, popular enough to work outside the community and not bring trouble in, and a wonderful father to his many children. Even the unwanted stepchildren from Lauren's disgraceful period.

That's how her first marriage was referred to.

In truth, Arnold was anything but those things. The public saw the persona he wanted them to see; only those who lived with him knew the truth.

Arnold had a temper. It was hot, quick, and deadly. He made it no secret in the house that his first wife had committed suicide to punish him. She took her own life so she would never be forced to bear his children. He wanted someone weak after that, someone who could not fight him; Lauren was his solution. He didn't love her; he didn't love anyone; it was all about his pleasure and getting his sons.

His dealings with the children were minimum; they were expected to be seen on social occasions but never heard. While he was home, he was either locked in Lauren's room, attempting to put his child in her again or venting out his frustrations. The only time Lauren was safe from being bruised was while she was confirmed pregnant with a boy. She was safe through the first trimester; once the doctors confirmed the baby a girl, she was less secure. However, a boy earned her praise from Arnold and little gifts.

When disciplining the children, he yelled at everyone equally. His solution to a conflict with them was, more often than not, to hit hard; hit them all, and that would be the end of it. It didn't matter who did what; it didn't matter if one or more of them weren't home when it happened; they were all punished the same. There were days that the children were fearful of going home because Arnold might be there waiting for them to smack them all and ground them for two or more weeks from television, going outside, or something else.

Tv, movies, and walks outside weren't something that Mal could enjoy leisurely until she was an adult and moved out. It was the same for all of her siblings. Even Arnold's precious sons couldn't stand the man.

But the one who got it the worst was Andrew. Any excuse that Arnold got to wail on Andrew, he took it. Andrew never had a moment's peace. He was grounded continuously, always hiding bruises, but still, he stayed affable.

"More often than not, Andrew helped me with taking care of the house and the babies." Mal sniffed, a few tears escaping as she did. "With mom always hidden away, or occupied by Arnold, all of the household chores were left to the oldest female," she pointed at herself, "as you can imagine, a six-year-old cooking Sunday dinner for a large family isn't exactly easy."

Harry remembered all of the meals he cooked for his family at that age and had to agree.

Arnold's punishments weren't exactly unique to him alone. The whole community was hard on their children. Toddlers were expected to have a teenager's maturity and sit there quietly when they were told. Arnold was incredibly hard on all of his children when it came to school; they had to have a high-grade point average; anything less than a 3.5 would see the child in question severely punished.

It was there that Arnold lost all respect from all of his sons. They were expected to be better than all the rest; with the highest scores, outstanding sportsmanship, anything that was considered "manly" or would help them get further in life than Arnold had- they were expected to accel. Arnold's boys were to be the best of the best, as Arnold believed he had been.

Some parents punished their children with heavier chores, or in the most extreme cases, leaving them outside no matter the weather until the lesson was driven home. In comparison, Arnold had done all of that and more. The girls were given the household chores; the boys were given yard work or put through rigorous workouts that would have adult males cringe.

Harry was sure he could taste blood in his mouth. He was having to bite his tongue to keep from shaking with rage or going on a rampage. He was grateful this place healed damage quickly, or his tongue would be in pieces.

This was the life that Mal had lived over and over? Never getting any peace even in the afterlife? This was what Rida had forced her to endure? And there was still worse to come given what Tarnok said?

"How bad was it?" He finally asked when his tongue was no longer sporting holes where his teeth had bitten through.

She looked up at him and found the rage burning in those emerald green eyes. "I thought you wanted my first death? I was trying to give as much detail before moving onto that."

"Not at the expense of knowing what came before." He shook his head. "I can sense that you're glossing over certain details, and I don't want that. You tell all, and I'll do the same."

"It's not a good story."

"Neither are my lives." He argued back softly.

"Fair enough." Mal sighed.

The earliest memory Mal had, in all of her lives, seemed to be a nightmare, even though she knew it wasn't. She woke up crying from a horrible nightmare about a monster in the closet. Arnold came bursting into the room. The next thing she remembered was being hauled off the floor by her hair and tossed back into the room. In her first life, she shared the room with Andrew, as it was called the nursery. Even if Andrew had been dead asleep, he too was woken up and punished by Arnold for not keeping her line.

"We tried to tell people, but as you can imagine, living in that place, no one helped us." Mal sighed. "One of Arnold's biggest rules was "what happens in this house; stays in this house." Though he needn't have bothered with that. It didn't matter what we told people; they didn't care and never helped us."

Harry just shook his head. "Even a few people tried to help me. It wasn't a lot, but some did notice and tried. They disappeared shortly after, though, or they didn't even remember me the next day."

"In the fanfictions, Dumbledore made them forget because he needed his weapon weak and mailable. Some even went so far as to say that Dumbledore amplified what the Dursley's already felt to make them violent or spelled them to be that way." Mal said automatically.

It honestly didn't surprise Harry in the slightest, though he decided to wait to tell Mal that the Dursley's were vicious all on their own.

"That's the image of Arnold." Mal sighed. "A self-proclaimed saint and the perfect husband and father. He could do no wrong and expected others to think the same. He was a pillar of the community. When in truth, he was nothing but a vile monster."

She had successfully painted what her daily life was like and what she and her siblings endured under the hands of her so-called parents. Though she did add that only Andrew and Christie seemed to like her. The others, after a certain age, did all they could to get her into trouble.

"Picking up where I left before with Lauren, she had the hysterectomy and was brought home with my baby brother. While that was a huge occurrence, and it affects my lives greatly each time, there was a part of that night that only affects my first life."

Lauren had named the baby Timothy after some saint that Mal was ignorant of despite her "teachings." In the hospital, Arnold was all smiles and joyful.

Mal was ten and was now very used to caring for newborns and the house. They came home, and Timothy was shoved into her arms. Lauren and Arnold were locked in a section of the house that could have been considered the office and library. It's where they all gathered for prayers at night.

While Mal cared for Timothy and cooked dinner for the family, she could hear Arnold yelling at Lauren. Calling others, and they yelled at her over the speakerphone. Shortly after dinner, others began arriving and going into the Prayer Room. Mal heard them calling her mother less than a woman now, Arnold yelled himself with them, saying she should have died giving birth to Timmy, and the others agreed. Lauren was always troublesome, but she at least had some worth; now, she was worthless to them all.

What was he was supposed to do now when he wanted more children? Eight were not enough for him. Her mother got pregnant eighteen times and had fifteen healthy children; he wanted at least that many living children, more if he could. He expected that Lauren would die in childbirth eventually, enabling him to marry another young woman, one who was more fertile, to have those children.

More and more people came, and Mal was ushered upstairs with little Timothy. There were no prayers that night, and the children ate dinner in the small common area on the second floor, where the kids played and did their homework. Mal's was thankfully already done at that point so she could take care of Timothy without worry.

Andrew had been trying to help Mal all night. So while she cared for Timothy and cooked dinner, Andrew did the dishes. He cleaned the parts of the house that needed and helped the younger ones with their homework and bedtime rituals.

When the time rolled around, Arnold moved Timothy's bassinet into Mal's room with her sisters. Andrew tucked them all into bed, even Mal. She could remember him covering her up and kissing her forehead good night. Telling his sisters he loved them, she barely managed a love you too before passing out.

The next thing she remembered was waking up to Arnold yelling, "What are you doing!?"

Mal had slept through Timothy waking up and crying, as had Agatha and Christie. Andrew was in the room, holding a wailing Timothy who would not calm down. Arnold was in the doorway, red-faced and shouting for all his worth at Andrew and further scaring Timothy.

Mal was hauled out of bed, Timothy shoved in her arms again, and Arnold dragged Andrew out of the room.

Mal calmed Timothy, and others brought up warm bottles of breast milk for him when it was time to feed him. For the rest of the night, Mal sat by her bedroom door in tears. She could hear Andrew crying, screaming, pleading with them to stop. The chanting of prayers getting louder and louder. No one answered her questions when they came up, and she had to force herself to take care of the baby.

The next morning, she hadn't slept a wink; Timothy was given to a weak and worn-out-looking Lauren's arms, and Andrew was gone.

"I never knew what happened to him. All traces of my older brother disappeared before I was let out of my room the next morning." Mal sobbed. "His screams, pleas, and cries haunted my nightmares years after. Well into my adulthood in later lives, and even shortly before I died. Though I never realized it until I came here what those nightmares were. For the rest of that life, I had to pretend that Andrew never existed or be severely punished. I never saw him again, in that life, or any other that followed."

Harry had to gulp back his own tears. He could feel her pain and wanted nothing more than to take her into his arms and tell her that everything would be alright. "What do you think happened?"

"As I said before, abnormalities disappeared." Mal whispered, tears following freely. "Arnold told us all that Andrew was trying to kill Timothy, and he was taken away to be punished for his crimes. I knew it was a load of bull. If I had to guess, they killed him and hid his body somewhere in the forest."

Harry shook his head and a tear of his own rolled down his cheek. He knew how he felt when Sirius died, how he reacted to Cedric's death, for that matter. But to realize that your big brother was killed as a child, and to be afraid that the same would happen to you, he couldn't imagine that.

Looking at Mal, he realized there was a reason why he was so drawn to her. The same pain he felt, the same horrors he went through, she could relate to. She alone could understand him. He wondered if she knew that too; if not, how long would it take for her to figure it out?

"Now, that leads me to my first death. Please, be patient with me and let me get it all out before you do or say anything."

Harry sat back, folding his hands together over his stomach, and waited for her to continue.

Whatever happened that night allowed Lauren to stay alive. Arnold didn't visit her in her room anymore, there were never any more babies, and Lauren hid away in her room. Lauren ignored the children, ignored Arnold, ignored the world at large. Her health got worse and worse, as the doctors all warned. Her organs began shutting down, but all Arnold did was make her uncomfortable. Not that Lauren complained. She didn't fight to stay alive, but death wasn't making it easy for her. Despite what the doctors said, she remained alive.

Mal's own death came before her mothers, three years after Timothy was born and Andrew's disappearance.

Puberty had hit her hard when she turned twelve, and she was developing faster and faster. She went from a B cup to a DD over one summer, but that was in another life between thirteen and fourteen. As one would expect from the community, there was talk; some good, some bad; everyone had an opinion and wanted it to be known. The woman all spoke as if she was an evil thing; the men looked at her as if she were a broodmare and were debating if her stock was worthy enough to continue their bloodlines. Indeed a body like that on such a young woman was an indication she was to be a breeder herself.

It was late fall after thunderstorms hit the area and turned the temperatures colder than usual. Mal had gotten a failing grade and was locked outside during a storm for over an hour. The following day, she was extremely sick. The clinic gave her some medicine and told her to stay in bed for at least a week. Between the high fevers and the medication, she was pretty much asleep the entire time. She only had a few cognitive moments; the rest seemed like she was dreaming.

It was on the third day of her being confined to a bed when Arnold came in. Complaining that for three years, he was without release, and Lauren appeared to hanging on. Mal was becoming the talk of the community. She would make for a better breeder than her mother and grandmother were. Mal was certainly more pleasing to look at on her worst day than Lauren was on her best.

He was already receiving offers for her hand, but why should he accept any of them when Lauren would be gone someday, and Arnold would need his third wife. The most children a couple had at any one time was twenty; he wanted to surpass that, even if it meant breeding his wives to death before getting another. Mal would be a perfect third wife for him; she was already trained about household matters; all that was left was the bedroom matters.

It was disappointing that he had to wait until she was an adult, but he was horny now, perhaps if all he used was his hands.

"I was mostly out of it, but I remember the pressure of his hands." Mal sobbed, shuddering at the memory. "His hands were cold and calloused. I blacked out shortly after he left the room."

Harry tensed as she continued but said nothing.

"When I woke up later, I was covered with his, well, his sperm. He didn't even have the decency to clean me off before he left. Sick, scared, I ran to my mother. I wasn't sure what I was thinking; I knew my mother wouldn't help me. All she did was push me out of the room and slam the door in my face. I went to the bathroom to clean off, but it was too close to the stairs. In the state I was in, I fell. Somehow, in my efforts to get back up, I ended up outside. I think I was trying for the first-floor bathroom but ended up going in the opposite direction."

"Didn't anyone notice?" He rasped, fighting back his tears. "Didn't anyone try to help you?"

"My siblings were coming home from school, and a few of them kicked me out of their way. I landed in the pool with the last kick. I could hear Christie screaming as the cold water hit me, but at the same time, I started to blackout again. I drowned before anyone could pull me out."

Mal broke, wracked with sobs and shaking so much she wasn't sure if she could stop. She'd never told anyone about that. No one while she was alive and Rida certainly didn't want to hear about "that event" when she came back here. So life afterlife, she endured it, unable to talk about it. Now that she had, the magnitude of what occurred settled in her mind, and she broke.