August 7, 1995
"Where is the girl?" the cold, cruel voice of the man everyone feared demanded.
"Please, Master? No, please; anyone but her!" his most loyal ally begged.
"Tell me where she is! She must be destroyed. I do not wish to harm you, now step aside!"
"No, I will not." he said resolutely, though his pale, sweating complexion didn't make his pleas too convincing.
"You dare defy me, you fool? Have you no mind?"
"I have mind aplenty, my Lord; but I cannot allow harm to come to my only child! Please spare her, that is all I ask, I'll do anything."
"If you will not tell me where she is, then I shall find her myself, Incarcerous!" the Dark One exclaimed, binding the pale young blond man by his hands and feet, barely missing the sharp corner of an expensive marble table as he fell to the ground. "Get him out of my sight! Now!!!"
"Y... Yes master..." a nervous Death Eater said nearby, "Hey! You with the hair, little help please?" and another hooded figure sprinted over to help carry the man outside.
"Well what are all of you waiting for? Help me find the girl!" he exclaimed, and started up the stairs while his followers scattered in other directions of the large home.
In the room at the end of the hallway a young redhaired child awoke from all the commotion. She lifted her tiny head and blinked her large green eyes, looking for the source of the noise. She looked down at her pillow and sticking out from under it was the handle of her father's magic stick, almost instinctively the girl took it in her tiny hand and started waving it, giggling as a stream of pink sparks flew out, startling her dog who began barking and trying to attack the stick.
"No doggie, no fetch tonight. This is fun!" she exclaimed as the stick caused some of her doll toys to crash to the floor.
The Dark One jumped as he heard spontaneous barking coming from the end of the hall, "This way..." he said to himself, "Alohamora!" he exclaimed and the door burst open, causing the girl to scream in fright.
"There you are, my darling Demetria." he hissed, "but I fear this must be our last hello, may you rest in peace, child... Avada Kedavr..."
"Expecto Patronum!!!" the girl shouted, knocking him off his feet.
"What the??" he said, and looked up to see a red Japanese dragon looming over him. The Dragon, was too small to be real and too opaque to be a hallucination. It growled threateningly and the Dark One himself crawled backward out of the bedroom and ran until he was on the well trimmed lawn of the Malfoy residence; his scarlet eyes wide with fear and disbelief, his body trembling as he struggled to regain his composure.
"Master?" a concerned Death Eater asked, "Are you???"
"No, I am not afraid, Snape! Darklord Voldemort fears nothing! Let's get out of here, she's not worth the trouble."
"But you said..."
"Silence! Now let us leave before we are discovered." and they dissappearated with two consecutive cracks which echoed down the empty street. The only evidence that anything had happened that evening was a small scar, burned into the shoulder blade of the brave young redhaired girl, who was now sleeping soundly, her dog by her side and her father's magic stick resting in the crook of her arm. A stick that makes sparks and dragons was way cooler than any teddy bear, so she hugged it and slept until her daddy came home to to hug her and show her even more fun wand tricks the next day.