Even the smallest decision can change the course of the world. Some have bigger impacts than others: Some can change the world for the better, others for worse. Albus Dumbledore being considered the wisest and most powerful wizard of all time since Merlin himself has made many different mistakes in his life, but he will eventually learn that making decisions without knowing all the valuables can have devastating effects and meddling for only the common good, without caring about the individuals involved can sometimes make things worse.
On this late evening as the month October dies with the festive Halloween celebration a small family consisting of a handsome, dark haired man, his equally beautiful fair, red-headed wife and his two little children were preparing for bed. His twins were a small, chubby dark haired boy and a small red-headed girl which had some metamorphic gift as she was able to darken her hair sometimes towards her father's hair colour.
Early snow was silently drifting to the cold ground. Although it was the most sacred festival called Samhein or Halloween for the wizarding population in the small village in the West County of England, no happy children were seen outside collecting sweets from their neighbours. These were dangerous times as the there was a terrible war raging within this community. Tom Riddle, who was better known as Lord Voldemort or You-know-who by the light side, and as The dark Lord by his loyal followers was leading this bloody war towards the extinction or subjugation of all muggle borns. The small family within their small two store stonewalled cottage, believing that they were still safe through the Fidelius charm, were unaware at the tragedy that was about to be unfold. A tragedy, which would separate one young member entirely from the rest, while havoc would follow this persons' every step. You could say that the person would change the fate of the entire galaxy.
Suddenly the weather outside changed to a very unusual weather phenomenon as thunder and lightning were accompanying the snow falling outside. The snow on the cold, hard ground was dampening the carefully placed steps of the dark hooded creature which slowly, but steadily made its way towards the cottage. It's almost too simple he thought. The stupid spineless little Pettigrew had been made their secret keeper and he had informed him the minute he knew. The Potter's had already defied him trice and he would finally kill their children. James Potter was a Pureblood and he would only spill it if necessary, maybe he could put him under the Imperius curse and as Snape had begged for the life of his Lily, he would give her to Snape once he was finished with the Potters here. After all Snape's loyalty had been proven by bringing him the important parts of the prophesy. With a flick of his wand he opened the front door and silently went upstairs where he could hear the laughing of the happy family, trying to put their children to bed. How pathetic! They have not even realized the breach of their wards around their house. He had thought as an Auror Potter would be better prepared. Apparently, they preferred trusting their best friend.
Annoyed, he flicked the wand again and destroyed the white door to the children's room with a loud explosion. Lily and James Potter quickly spun around and readied their wands. Their hearts were beating erratically as they were standing opposite the very monster they had tried to evade for over a year. The hood covered Lord Voldemord's pale face but the only thing they could spot were his deep red eyes which were shining from beneath the darkness of his hood. Had Peter been caught and tortured? But they had performed the Fidelus ritual only yesterday. Had he betrayed them? Dear God! Was he a death eater? They had suspected a spy within their ranks, but Peter? They heard a deep rumble coming from the chest of the Dark Lord.
"Did you really believe you could evade me?" he hissed. "You know what I have come for! Step aside and I'll let you live."
"We will not let you harm our children!" Lily growled angrily, not showing how much she actually feared the situation. But she was also determined to protect her children. Her mother had always told her that she was just as strong as her father when it came to dangerous situations.
"And here I wanted to be generous." Lord Voldemord stated shaking his head seemingly sad:"James Potter. You are a powerful pureblood. I do not wish to spill your precious blood and you Lily Potter. One of my most trusted followers has bargained for your life and I wanted to be generous, but you leave me no choice. You two are all that stands between me and my goal."
The two little children sitting in their crib were astonishingly quiet as if they knew the severity of the situation.
"Expelliarmus" James suddenly shouted pointing his wand while Lily concentrated on magically waving a complicated shield charm. She would not let any harm come to their children. James and Lord Voldemord were quickly shooting spells and blocks black and forth effectively destroying the interior around them until the pale, red eyed man deflected another one and finally sent a non-verbally spoken spell at the protecting parents sending them tumbling against the wall and knocking them out before Lily was able to finish her protective spell.
Stepping towards the two now wailing twins he raised his wand again with crackling glee about what he was about to do in a few seconds. His power would be absolute. No one would be able to defeat him. The girl with the red hair and blue eyes looked him straight in the eye as if she dared to challenge him. He was here for the boy and he would kill him first and then kill the insolent little girl slowly and very painfully.
"Avada Kedavra!" he hissed darkly and the room was filled with a harsh cold green flash, but at the very same moment something else happened:
The little girl pushed her brother down and threw herself above him just as a bright light was slowly spreading around the two children and the deadly curse was reflected at the shocked dark wizard who felt himself torn into thousand tiny little pieces. Just as he disintegrated something black escaped his body and flew towards the wavering shield of light. With the impact of the curse the girl had been pushed behind her brother and lost consciousness, which unfortunately allowed a dark substance to attach itself into her brother's forehead leaving a scar shaped like a lightning bolt.
A few hours later James Potter groaned as he slowly came back to the living from where he had been knocked out. He had one hell of a hangover. No! He remembered! Voldemort had been in this very room! He suddenly jumped up, feeling his wife lying next to him. "Lily!" he shook her shoulders distressed! "Wake up!" As she groaned to he was absolutely relieved. His muggle-borne wife was alive. When she carefully tried to stand up he aided her by pulling her up with his hands around her waist and ran for the bed of their precious children. Please, let them be alive! He saw them both sleeping peacefully at odd angles. Harry had a newly acquired scar of a lightning bolt, which could only mean that he had been hit with a very dark curse. His daughter Elizabeth however was breathing shallowly and he could feel that she was slowly burning up. Lying on the floor he could see a dark hood and a wand. What in Merlin's name happened here! It seemed that Voldemort had met his fate through his children. But how? Lily was already feeling her children's foreheads. While her daughter was dangerously warm with fever, her brother's body temperature was much colder. "Lily, quick we have to get them to St. Mungos." James stuttered. "You are right!" she answered scooping Harry up while James did the same with their daughter.
Using the Floo Network they quickly appeared in St. Mungo's crying desperately for a healer to check their children over. While they were examined thoroughly, the headmaster of Hogwarts and good friend of the family Albus Dumbledore, came with the children's godfather as fast as he could as he had been informed by Sirius that he had found the house empty and that there were clear signs of struggle. While Lily was inside the examination room with the twins, James told him exactly what had happened to them and how he had found the children afterwards.
"We have managed to bring the fever down, although we have no definite idea about the cause." the healer informed the worried mother standing next to her children. "Do you have any theory because we did not have any contact with other people for month? She could not have gotten an infection from anyone visiting." she asked stroking over her daughter's hair.
"Normally her condition resembles someone whose magical core has been drained through exercitation, but that is very unlikely as she is too young to have such a strong magical core. And I must warn you that your daughter might be a squib as I hardly detected any magic in her. Your son's condition can be explained by the dark magic he has been hit with, but his magical core is weak but stable."
"But I thought I saw her doing accidental magic some time ago. It's not possible that she is a squib!" Lily defended her.
"That may be but it is not unheard of wizards who have a weak magical core that they lose magic entirely when they are confronted with a traumatizing event. An attack of You-know-who is something which I would call traumatizing. I will give her a potion to bring down the fever and then you can take them both home." the pale healer calmly told her.
When she came out of the examination room with the two twins Lilly cried into her husband's shoulder. Her daughter had lost all magic, but was fine and Harry would also be fine. It was finally over. They could live finally in peace. It would be difficult for their daughter, now that she had lost all her power, but they would pull through. She was certain of it.
A few hours later they were all comfortably seated in 12 Grimmauld Place, which Sirius being the last free Black had inherited. They were once again retelling Dumbledore what had occurred in the room and how they had found the children and Lily told them under tears what the healer had informed her about. Her daughter Elizabeth had lost her magic. She was now forced to live within the wizarding world without being able to perform magic. Albus put a hand over Lily's and told her about his own late sister who had also lost her magic due to a traumatic experience. He had also looked over the siblings when they had laid them into bed after coming back from St. Mungos and he had come to the conclusion that Harry was in fact the boy who lived. But he knew that the fight was not yet over as he had seen over the years, that Voldemort had done something which had made him less and less human, so there was a huge risk that he was not entirely dead. And if that was the case then he had to train Harry.
"Lily, I am afraid, that the danger is not yet over, but we have won time. Voldemort was not enough human anymore to be completely gone. We have to train Harry as best as we can because only Harry can defeat him in case he comes back. You must now focus all your energy at preparing your son." he insisted.
"But what about Elizabeth?" she sobbed. "I cannot just leave her behind! She is my daughter too!"
"I agree, Dumbledore. We cannot leave our daughter behind! Not after all we have been through together!" James angrily jumped up.
The old man soothingly put his hands on his lap. "I understand, but please put yourself in your daughter's position for one second. Her brother will be famous, be able to do magic and he will receive all your attention in order to prepare him for what he has to do. Your daughter however will be on the sidelines, desperate for your attention; even though you try to give it to her it will never be enough. She will grow resentful of her brother and bitter, jealous of the magical gift her brother has and she has lost. She will be the squib sibling: an outcast in our current society. Do you really want this for your daughter?"
"Of course not, but what can we do? I do not want to lose my daughter!" Lily sobbed into James's shoulder who stroked her back soothingly. He too did not want to let go of their daughter.
"Maybe I can take her." Sirius suggested. "I am her godfather after all. If you cannot look after her then I will raise her as my own."
"As noble as your suggestion is, Sirius I am afraid that you miss the problem that she has lost her magic. As I said, she would grow up in a world of magic without being able to do magic herself. And as you are Harry's godfather too you would still be in frequent contact and the resentment towards him would still grow."
"I still like Sirius suggestion better at what I fear that you want us to do, Dumbledore." James growled. "Are you expecting us to throw her out into the muggle world just because she is not able to do magic anymore! She is our daughter! She belongs with us."
"Please calm yourself, James. I do not expect you to throw her out of your family, but Lily's sister Petunia has a child at the same age, does she not?" he asked carefully in Lily's direction.
"You cannot take her to Petunia. She hates what we are! We would condemn her to a life of misery! Elizabeth stays." she stomped her right foot.
"I believe that your sister will not hate her when she finds out that your daughter has no magic. We can omit that she had it at a point of time. Petunia was jealous of you when you received your Hogwarts letter. I am certain that she would gladly take her once she finds out that Elizabeth is in her terms normal. Lily, I beseech you. Your daughter could have the opportunity for a good life among muggles without jealousy or magic and with Petunia I can create blood wards to protect her. "
He could see the wheels turning in Lily's mind. She loved their daughter, but she also wanted the best for her even though it broke her heart. "Alright" she nodded,"but I will talk to my sister and if she does not agree then this discussion is over."
"But Lily!" James argued.
"We have to do what is best for our daughter James. Maybe we could pay them for their expenses and we could visit her regularly." Lily said hugging herself and James dejectedly nodded.
A week later Nr. 4 Privet Drive received a new member after Lily had talked for a long time with her sister who finally relented after she heard that they would receive weekly payments for the girl without magic. Although the girl looked similarly like her sister she had apparently no magic inside her. At first she was happy to have a companion for her little Dudders, who was also normal like her, but after a few month things happened which made it abundantly clear that the little girl was indeed a freak like her sister and did have magic.
This was the beginning of the little girl's long misery until another long lost family member turned up to spirit her away. Dumbledore and the Potters would realize in a few years that they had made the worst mistake possible by giving the child away.
Any idea who this relative could be? I would love to hear your suggestions, but I have already a certain individual in mind. (Keep in mind that Lily is a redhead and that there is a very prominent Sith Lord with the same hair colour. )