In the depths of the forest, eleven year old Lina Dupont clutched her books. Silent shivers racked her body as she gasped through the pain crushing her chest. She slowly stumbled downstairs, her grey eyes burning with the light of the dawn. Her father and brother lay peacefully upstairs, sleep freeing them temporarily from the weight of their grief. Her mother lay dead across the sea.

She struck a match, her small fingers lighting the candle that hung above the dining room table. She stacked her books on the worn wood, each landing with a dull thud, before taking one from the top of the pile and opening it to page 42. She silently muttered the words, her index finger following the weathered lettering across the page, trapping her waning concentration. Revelio. She whispered the word, committing it to memory. Unbeknownst to her, Death Eaters lurked in the forest beyond, making their way towards the cottage.

There was a light creak on the stairs. She recognised her brother's footfalls, which stumbled clumsily down towards the dining room where Lina sat. He clutched a small, fraying, blue, blanket to his chest. It had been his ninth birthday the week before. His cheeks shimmered in the candlelight.

'Hello Noé.' Lina whispered with a pained smile, her throat constricting as she shut her book gently, her fingers lingering on the page she had been reading. Noé's lips twitched – either to smile or cry – and he spoke quickly and quietly.

'I dreamt about maman again. Her eyes were sad.' He wrung the corner of the blanket with his fingers, staring at his feet. Lina didn't know how to answer. She pushed the book away, took his hand and sat on the sofa in the corner of the room, encouraging him to do the same.

'It's going to be ok. Maman was very strong, she died defeating a very evil man. I'm sure she's protecting us now, even if we can't see her.' Lina's words were almost automatic – she'd heard papa say them every day for the past month. She didn't know whether she believed them. A frown wrinkled Noé's brow, but he seemed to accept the words, nodding slowly.

'Can you do some magic?'

Lina's eyes lit up at the prospect and for the first time that morning a genuine, untroubled smile passed over her face. Her eyes twinkled with mischief.

'Why of course.' By the time she had uttered the words she was already moving towards the table where her book lay waiting for her. It had been maman's. She remembered when her mother had first folded the corners of the pages that would be useful in protecting her family. She had explained very carefully how to cast them without a wand, something learnt in her time lecturing at Oagadou: essential as long as Lina still had the trace. She flicked towards her brother's favourite spell. Protego. Noé stood on his tiptoes and reached over the table to brush his fingers over the image of the wizard surrounded by a brilliant protective light. Lina smiled.

'I've been practicing,' she lifted her hands up and closed her eyes to focus. 'Protego'. A few wisps of light drifted from her fingertips, before the room was dark once more. The Death Eaters outside lingered, drawn by brief flicker of light. Noé pulled up a chair next to her and sat down. His legs dangled loosely in the air, his toes far from reaching the ground.

'Wow… more, more-'

'-Shhh.' But she obliged, returning to the page she had been studying earlier. 'Homenum revelio'. The darkness outside shifted, and Lina was drawn to the trees on the east side of the cottage. She blew out the candle and crept towards the window, keeping her face in the shadow, away from the rising sun that illuminated everything too brightly just beyond. Her bright brown eyes, young and vulnerable, squinted into the forest. Various figures walked among the cover of the trees; an unmistakable shuffling of darkness. She bolted. Noé was already running.

Her feet sounded all too heavy on the creaking, wooden, stairs, and her father was awake before she reached the landing, ushering them towards the west-facing window. They leapt, Noé, followed by Lina, followed by their father, and began to run towards the portkey that lay obscured by the forest just under a kilometre away. There was silence in the clearing, apart from their ragged breathing which threatened to give them away. If they were spotted, any one of the Death Eaters that hunted them could apparate and they would be dead within seconds. If they were lucky. Maman had made more than a few enemies in her work as auror, since freed by Voldemort before the Battle of Hogwarts. The worst of them, those who had survived, were here for revenge, and Lina's muggle father could do little to protect them.

Shouts erupted behind them, thundering across the space. A man in a mask was beside Lina in less than a second. Before a single wisp of magic could leave his wand she yelled 'Protego,' knowing her magic was far too volatile and far too untrained to do much. She used the distraction to leap towards him, getting close enough to be behind his wand, whilst papa aimed a kick into his stomach. The man grunted, and Lina took his wand, running towards the lights of a small town that were emerging ahead. They took refuge behind a line of boulders that sat on the steep slope down towards the river. They looked at each other slowly, their father reaching out to squeeze their hands, smiling despite the stench of fear that clouded around them. He motioned for them to stay still, while he crouched, slowly straightening his legs to look over the stone that shielded them. It was clear. He nudged Lina and Noé forward shielding them as they continued to run. They only had to reach the portkey that lay just within the treeline at the edge of the town, past the narrow river, which gleamed in the light of the dawn. Another three hundred metres at most. Her brother stumbled. Lina turned. A Death Eater stood less than seventy-five paces behind her. A silent gasp escaped her lips. For an instant they both faced each other, immobile. Breathless. The trees whispered gently above them.

'Stupefy!'

Her desperate cry echoed, singeing the bark of a few trees yet having no more effect. Again she yelled, this time turning away to run, supporting her brother and leading him in front of her. She swallowed, her mouth dry. She heard the body of the death eater fall, and glanced behind her to see his mask tumbling across the forest floor. A bubble of surprise burst from her lips.

They had reached the river, and without hesitation she dived in. She moved slowly through the inky water, her limbs stretching, her muscles burning, her heart thudding in her chest. Whilst under the still water of the river, the world above was obscured from her senses. White rocks lay in the river bed, their surfaces worn, reflecting what little light they reached, their shapes forming ghosts far under the powerful current. And as quickly as she had leapt into the river, she surfaced for air, searching around for her brother and father, who were just a little ahead. A red pebble, larger than the others, lay nestled between two boulders ahead. The portkey. They scrambled up the river bank, her father turning to pull her out of the water as mud and stones scraped her knees. Here, across the river, they were most vulnerable, having lost the cover of trees to save them from incoming spells. When the first masked figure arrived at the river bank opposite them, Lina yelped, still holding the wand she had taken from the previous.

'Stupefy!' She cried again whilst running forward, the Death Eater disapparating long before her spell would have been able to travel the short distance across the river. Only this time the wand to which she was not accustomed, erupted in her hand, backfiring. She supposed it was particularly loyal to its master. The spell hit her little brother, who was running just a few paces ahead of her. His eyelids closed as he hurtled towards the floor. She leapt towards him, grabbing hold of his hand as his body thumped softly against the earth, and a Death Eater emerged beside her. The portkey was almost within reach. She lunged forward, still holding Noé. Only a few centimetres more. Her father gripped onto her forearm, and her fingers brushed the pebble. She clutched it tighter as the world began to spin.

Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! I'll be posting roughly once a fortnight. I'll also (as a law student who really should) add a quick disclaimer and state that although the characters and story are mine, the world it is set in most certainly is not and I do not wish to offend or infringe on any property rights.