A PYRITES

CHAPTER 1

Minutes Till Midnight

Sept. 19, 1979; 11:45pm

"It's a girl." announced the midwife. At approximately quarter to midnight Ivor and Eilidh Pyrites's daughter was born. She and her husband has been having difficulty in conceiving a child and after two miscarriages it was ill-advised to try and conceive a child again. But one fateful day, they found out that Mrs. Pyrites was pregnant again and in spite of her delicate condition she pushed through the pregnancy.

"She's beautiful." whispered Eilidh as his husband pushed his arms that's cradling their daughter forward so that she could see her closer.

"She is," Ivor smiled at her, he was fighting back tears. He could see that Eilidh was exhausted and weak. She lifted her left hand and traced her fingertip along their daughters face, her eyes gleamed with happiness. She raised her eyes back to look at her husband, she smiled and said in a low voice "I love you both. Take-" she let out a shuddering breath and continued to say "-care of her." She gasped out a small chuckle. "I'm happy. Very happy. Thank you for everything." she stated. "You have seen this coming. We've been preparing for this" she held his cheek with the hand she used to caress their daughter's face.

"We have, but we couldn't ever be prepared," Ivor whispered. "Not really. Probably never would be," she smiled ruefully at her husband.

That night they laid close together in their shared bed and their daughter in between them. Ivor never slept, he kept holding onto his wife's hand that was on his cheek. It has been losing its warmth as the time ticked by. When he let go of her hand, it slipped limply on the bed. He held a hand on her face and only felt coldness. "Eilidh... love. Wake up," he managed to choke out. "Eilidh look at me," He touched his forehead on hers and was now whimpering. His tears went down his cheeks as he shut his eyes and a pained sob escaped his lips.

"Wake up."

She never did.

Sept. 24, 1979; 11:51pm

A couple of days have passed since Eilidh's passing when Ivor was awakened by the sudden pain in his head. He opened his eyes and instead of seeing the interior of his bedroom, his sight was in a tunnel vision showing him a moving image of his staircase as if he was going down from it and it was leading him to his front door then suddenly he heard a knock. The door opened to the sight of the most vile and evil wizard that has set foot in England. He blinked and regained his normal vision. He tensed as he heard a knock akin to what he heard in his visions. He immediately grabbed his wand under his pillow, cast a nonverbal silencing charm around his bedroom and stood up as fast as he could. There is no time to panic. Get to safety. He chanted in his head. He grabbed his daughter from her cot, flicked his wand and his bedroom fixed itself as if it hadn't been used for a couple of days and activated the portkey that was his wife's ring. It has been hanging around on silver chain close to his heart. Ivor has been waiting for this to happen. He knows that sooner or later Voldemort will come for him. He should've brought his daughter to safety much earlier, but he wants to spend a little more time with her. He heard a blast from below as he felt the pull in his gut caused by the portkey.

He stumbled in front of a small townhouse with russet brick walls and with a black window and door frames. He knocked at the door and was opened by a woman who was the spitting image of his wife apart from her bushy hair.

"Ivor!" she gasped. "Has it happened?" Ivor nodded. The woman sobbed as she sank down to the floor.

"Amelia. I need you to take care of my daughter." His eyes were starting to glaze as he kneeled down close to her. He handed his daughter to her after he kissed his daughter's forehead.

"Daughter... her name's Hermione, isn't it?"

"That's right. Daughter of Helen," he smiled ruefully at her.

"Eilidh," she whispered as she caressed Hermione's cheek.

"I have to go."

"When will you be back?"

"I can't tell when. I can't even tell if I'd be able to come back," he took off his necklace with Eilidh's wedding band and took his own wedding band. He transfigured it both, morphing it into one. Now it's a pendant, that looks like the House of Pyrites crest. He kissed his daughters' head and handed the pendant to Amelia.

"I'll be sure to give it to her," she assured him.

"I- I have to go," he said gravely.

"Ellis and I will take care of her like she's our own daughter."

"Thank you," he stepped back reluctantly and turned to leave. He looked at his daughter for possibly the last time and he apparated.

A/N:

Eilidh is a beautiful Gaelic name whose equivalents are Helen, Ellen and Elaine.

Please review!

If you noticed some grammar errors, I am sorry. English is not my first language so I'm not that good at it. Please bear with me.

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER. He belongs to J.K. Rowling