Beautiful Day
Authors Note: This is my first posted fan-fiction. I wrote it on a whim, and I would like to know what you think. Any kind of review you can give is welcome; flames, comments, suggestions, even a simple 'I hated this,' or 'Please continue,' would be appreciated.
Andromeda Phifer was proud to say she was ten and a half years old. She loved her parents, her dog, and her many siblings. She loved her nickname, Annie, and did everything she could to make sure people called her that, instead of her horrid full name, Andromeda.
Annie was free to roam about all day in her family's many fields, great big woods, and, if she could get one of her older siblings to help her, she went swimming in the beautiful lake.
Not to mention the chances of seeing all kinds of magical creatures. The Phifer's lived on a large estate in Switzerland, and up in the mountains there were all kinds of things to see. As a bonus, Annie's parents and two eldest siblings, Jeff and Arnita were all obsessed with magical creatures. They loved anything with wings, particularly dragons, and anything that swam was loved by the family.
And quite a family it was. In addition to Annie and her parents Sophia and Thomas, there were her 8 siblings, Jeff, the oldest, Arnita, Jared, Gary, and William, Annie's older siblings, and Alexia, Maurice, and Pam, her younger sibs. Then there were her grandparents, Andrew, Jean, William, and Louise. Add the family dog, Snuffles, and that was 15 people and one dog. Annie was quite proud of having figured this number out, she had to use her toes to count all the people!
Annie had quite the family, but everything still managed to run smoothly. And today was no exception.
"Why, look at that, Snuffles! The apple trees are blooming! How lovely!" Annie said, hanging out her window. "We have to go look at them!"
"Go look at what?" demanded her brother William."I certainly don't see anything of importance."
"That's cause you're a bo-oy, and bo-oys don't know anything, William!"
"Boys know plenty, Alexia! You can't even tie your shoes!"
"Humph."
Annie was too distracted by the beauty outside her window to notice her two closest sibs' arguing. The sky was a beautiful blue, with cirrus clouds drifting all over, looking like unicorn tails in the wind.
The door banged open, bringing Annie out of her reverie and causing William and Alexia to stop arguing for a minute.
"Breakfast is ready, you guys. Annie, get dressed." Jared told them.
Annie pulled herself back into the house and, making sure the door was closed, took off her nightgown, pulled some of her older robes on, and ran downstairs to eat breakfast.
Her father looked up from his paper. "Good morning, Annie," he said. "Are you planing an outdoor escapade today?"
"Thomas, that's a ridiculous question. Annie is always planning an escapade of some sort." That was Sophie, Annie's mother, whom Annie privately thought was the most beautiful and magical person in the world.
The truth was, however, that Sophia Phifer was almost a Squib. She had been disappointed and ashamed on the summer of her eleventh year when no Hogwarts letter came for her. She had locked herself in her room and cried for what seemed like forever. But then her mother and father, William and Louise, had come to her room and told her how very, very proud they were of her. "Sophia, even if you were a three-legged frog, we would still love you. You are our daughter." Louise had said that day.
Sophia was an only child. All of her childhood had been spent in the enormous Phifer manor. Her parents had taught her what little magic she was capable of, and, when she met Thomas at a fancy dinner party, were supportive and loving to him as well.
Thomas was a wizard, and a good one at that. He went to Hogwarts with secondhand school supplies and money troubles dogged his family every time his tuition was due. When he met Sophia, he didn't think he stood a chance with her, seeing as how she was from a rich family and he was not. However, somehow they got through it all and were married, the only condition being Sophia kept the last name Phifer, and that it was passed on to any children the two should have.
From the time Sophia announced that she was pregnant with their first child, she was always worried that her children would be Squibs like her. She didn't think she could bear seeing them with that pain.
Today, however, Sophia was not worried about magic, or anything else for that matter. She had other plans.
"Annie," she said, "Will you please take Alexia with you when you go outside today?"
Everyone at the table looked up. It was an unspoken rite of passage, that when a child was deemed responsible enough, he or she would be asked to take a younger sibling under his or her wing. And apparently Annie had just been deemed responsible.
Annie stared at her mother. "Yes, mother. I would be happy to take Alexia out with me."
Upon hearing this, Alexia cheered. "I'm going outside with An-nie, I'm going outside with An-nie! We can climb trees and roll in the grass and maybe even go swimming!"
"If you want to go swimming, you'll have to get some help, okay Annie?" her father said.
"Yes father." She answered, then started to inhale her breakfast. When she was done, she waited impatiently for Alexia to finish eating. When she finished, Annie grabbed her sister's hand and made a mad dash for the stairs.
"I'll have a lunch basket made for you!" Her mother called after them.
The girls burst into the room they shared with William, and Annie said, "Lexie, you going to have to take off your dress. You can't climb trees in a dress."
Alexia frowned, but did as she was told. She took off her dress and started struggling into a pair of jeans. Annie, who was braiding her hair, looked at her sister and said, "Swimsuit first."
Alexia plunged her hand into her dresser, dug out her favorite pink swimsuit, put it on, then managed to put the jeans on. Annie then pulled a shirt over her head, braided her sister's hair, and was about to open the door when William burst in.
"Mum said I could go with you, if that's all right." He said.
Annie frowned. On the downside, he was her older brother, and if he came that meant she might not be in charge. On the upside, if they took him with them, then they could go swimming, and Annie wouldn't have to carry the lunch basket. "all right,Will, you can come. But you have to carry the food."
They charged down the stairs to the kitchen, where Mary the house elf had their food waiting for them. "There's apples, cheese, crackers, turkey pasties, and blueberry muffins in there, Annie," she said, "And I put some iced butterbeer that should stay cold for about three hours."
"Butterbeer?" Alexia gaped. "Butterbeer?"
Mary chuckled. "Yes, child, butterbeer. Now close that mouth before you let the flies in."
Alexia snapped her mouth shut quickly.
"Annie, William, make sure you have your first aid bags. With all the dark trouble up north, you can never be too safe."
Annie sighed. Every time she went out of the house, she had to take a bag that had safety gear such as first aid, flares, wolfsbane, and other nonsense in it. Granted, it fit in her pocket, but it was the principle of the thing. Sure, the dark lord was bad, but he never attacked people with small children, did he? And with Pam being only two, he must have some sense of mercy. Plus, bad things never happened on days this lovely.
Annie put these thoughts out of her head as she skipped outside with her brother and sister. Today was perfect. There was nothing to worry about.
~
***
Sophia looked down at the letter in her hands. "Thomas," she squeaked. Her husband got down from the library ladder he was on and walked aver to his wife to see what had her so scared. He looked over her shoulder and went a milky white color. The letter read:
PHIFER,
You have something
we wanT.
We gave you a chance,
years ago, Sophia, to have
a husband, children, and
POWER.
You should have taken
That Chance,
Sophia.
Now is to late.
Sophia looked at Thomas. "We have to activate the defense shield. It might be able to hold them off."
Thomas looked into her eyes. "Find the children."
~
***
"But mother, the invisibility charm should have kept us hidden. How did He find us?" Arnita asked futilely.
Sophia looked across the table at her. "I don't know how He found us, Arnita. But find us He did, and now we need to find a way to keep Him and his Death Eaters away from here."
The elders of the family were sitting at a large round table in the highest tower on the Phifer manor. The walls were covered in maps, and in the center of the table was a magical map of Europe and eastern Asia.
"I sent a letter to Dumbledore with our fastest owl. It should be arriving there any minute. Jeff, will you open a channel to Dumbledore's office, please?"
Sophia couldn't open a channel herself, so Jeff bent over the fireplace and opened a channel to Dumbledore's office. Almost instantly, Dumbledore's head appeared in the fire.
"Ms. Phifer," said Dumbledore, "I believe we have a problem."
"I believe you're right, Albus."
"As soon as I got your letter, I sent three of my best hit wizards out to assist you. But, as a wizard cannot Apparate into your grounds or out of mine, it may take quite some time for them to get there."
Sophia looked at him. "How long?"
Dumbledore returned her stare. "Three to four hours."
"How long until the Death Eaters get here?"
Dumbledore suddenly looked much older. He stared into Sophia's eyes. "Forty-five to sixty minutes."
Everyone around the table gasped. All except Sophia. She simply said, "I see."
"I'm sorry, Sophia. There just wasn't enough warning."
Sophia's gaze hardened. She said to Dumbledore, "If I don't come out of this, I will see you again, in a place where no shadows may fall."
"Sophia, you should try and get out of there."
"How? I cannot Apparate, and I have children that need protection. I can't simply leave them, can I?"
"No, you can't, nor did I think you would. May our best wishes be with you in the coming hours of gloom, Sophia." With that, Dumbledore's head disappeared.
Sophia turned to look at the rest of the table. She told them simply, "I will stay here to protect the children. We cannot escape in forty-five minutes, and even if we could, the children couldn't bear the hike through the mountains. Any of you who wish to leave may do so. Any who wish to fight, come with me." Sophia marched out of the room, and every person there followed her out.
~
***
Annie, Alexia, and William, blissfully unaware of the death warrant their mother was signing, were high up in a tree by the lake. Mary the house elf was far below, looking for them. "Children!" She called. Alexia giggled, earning her an elbow in the ribs from Annie. "Shut up," William whispered. "She probably wants us to clean our room."
Far below, Mary thought, "I wonder where they went. Danger is fast approaching, and it isn't safe out here." She called for them again. "Annie? William! Alexia?" "Where are they? I suppose I'll go check the lake."
Fifteen minutes later, Annie, William and Alexia dropped out of the tree like ripe peaches. Giggling fiercely, Annie said, "Let's go spy on our family to see what work we're missing out on."
After tracking all the way back to the house, the three of them hid behind the spruce tree next to the front room's window. Peeking in, what they saw confused them.
The front door was being hexed shut by Jeff; Arnita was nowhere to be seen; Jared, Gary, Grandpa Andrew, and Grandma Jean were rushing all of the little kids down into the heavily enchanted tunnel that lead of the grounds to where there was a pre-set Portkey to Hogsmede.
Annie heard something shrieking in the air overhead. She looked up, and almost screamed, herself. Four wizards on broomsticks, covered entirely in black, were leading what looked to be a very large, very angry lizard with wings covered in brassy spikes.
William whispered, "A Hungarian Horntail." Annie didn't particularly care what it was, she wanted it to go away.
The people in black landed in the front yard, walked up to the door, blasted the whole front wall down, and went inside, as calmly as if they had done this every day of their life.
Then the killing started.
Beams of light flew everywhere, green, red, gold, every color imaginable flew through the air that day. Then the dragon, as if sensing the time for feeding was near, entered the house. The people in black, Death Eaters, got out of the way then, and by the time the dragon was finished, there was nothing left of Thomas, Jeff, or Arnita. Sophia was nowhere to be found.
One of the Death Eaters went down the tunnel, and the sound of screaming and pounding feet came from the opening. The rest of the Death Eaters started looking for something. Annie, realizing they might see her, started to panic, and then remembered something her father had once said. "Annie, you are a witch. This makes you special. If, at sometime in the future, I am not here to protect you, I want you to think as hard as you can about being invisible. This may sound silly, but promise me you'll do it."
Suddenly determined, Annie thought, 'I'm invisible, I'm invisible.' As hard as she could. Then, remembering her siblings, she thought, 'We're invisible.'
One of the Death Eaters moved closer to the window, and as if sensing something, stared right at the three children under the tree. Seeing nothing, he went back to his work.
Suddenly, Sophia's voice ran out, "Leave this place now, or be destroyed."
The Death Eaters turned and saw Sophia standing defiantly before them. The tallest of them stepped forward and said, "Move aside, sniveling Squib. We have no reason to listen to you."
Sophia looked at him, then took a thin chain off her neck. "You have come for this," she said, holding up a small, glowing stone on a chain. "But this, Eaters, you cannot have." Sophia held the small stone close to her, whispered something, and everything went insane.
The dragon, now finished with it's disgusting task, disappeared, having no knowledge of the evil it had just done. It had only been hungry, and had eaten the food presented to it. Something entirely different happened to the Death Eaters, however.
Seemingly frozen, they began to crack, to be laced with blue-white light. Then, without even time to scream, they exploded.
Sophia, a Squib, had done all that. But such magic carries a high cost. Without the magic in her needed to give the stone what it needed, Sophia had instead used her life-force. But such things cannot be reversed. Sophia, mother of nine, wife of Thomas Marling, was dead, gone to the place where no shadows may fall.
~
***
Annie, Alexia, and William were too shocked to enter the house for a long while. When they finally went inside, they were appalled.
Blood splattered the walls, floor, and ceiling. The carpet was shredded into tiny pieces. In the middle of it all lay their mother.
William ran outside again, and they heard him being sick in the bushes. Alexia, to shocked to take it all in, went up to her room to bury herself in her stuffed animals. Annie felt drawn to her mother. She walked up to where Sophia lay and knelt down next to her. She touched her mother's face gently. "Mum," she whispered. "Mum!" Annie shook her mother, as if to get her to wake up. "No." Annie started crying, very softly, and bent down to hug her mother. As she did this, something fell out of her mother's hand.
Annie looked up to see a small light. Getting up to look at it, she saw it was the stone Sophia had used to destroy the Death Eaters. Annie bent down to look at it, wondering what it was, and yet afraid to touch it. Slowly, carefully, she picked the stone up.
Instantly, she felt the white-hot light flow through her. Somehow, though, it wasn't painful. The power of the stone sang through her veins. Annie put the small silver chain around her neck, felt the warmth flow through her. She felt odd, but she didn't mind. The stone made her feel older, somehow. Wiser. She liked it.
~
***
A full two hours later, the promised team of hit wizards arrived.
James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black got off their broomsticks and walked towards the house. Stopping twenty feet away from where the front door used to be, they looked at the house in horror.
Sirius gulped. "Think there's anybody left alive in there?" He asked.
Remus answered, "I hope so."
~
***
Annie looked up from the rubble of the front room. She saw the three men approaching the house, and got up to meet them.
She stared up at the one in the middle, who had glasses and black hair so messy it would have made her giggle if the situation hadn't been so serious. Annie met his eyes and said, "You're too late. Everyone is already dead."
Hearing those words, Sirius, Remus, and James all felt horribly guilty. True, they had gone as fast as they could, but this little girl had lost her family because they couldn't go faster.
Remus bent down to eye level with Annie. "I'm so sorry. I wish we could have been faster."
Annie stared at him, perfectly still, then threw herself at him, positively bawling. "They killed them!" she cried. "They killed everybody!"
Remus picked her up, cradling her as she sobbed. He looked at Sirius and James, who just looked back.
Hearing Annie's screams, William came out of the bushes, pale as a ghost, and Alexia looked out the window at Annie, then grabbed something out of the room and raced down the stairs to her distressed sister.
Sirius, seeing William walked up to him and said, "Hello. I'm Sirius."
William looked at the tall dark-haired man and replied, "I'm William."
Alexia charged out the front door to where her sister was. Tapping on Annie's arm before James could stop her, she got Annie's attention and gave Annie her prized stuffed dragon.
The dragon was small, with silky golden wings and fuzzy blue fur. The stuffed animal had real glass eyes, enchanted to look at whoever was holding it. The toy had been given to Annie for her fifth birthday, when she had affectionately named it 'Puff the Magic Dragon'.
"Puff'll make you feel better Annie. He always does."
Annie sniffed, looking into Puff's glass eyes. She nodded quietly, then said to Remus, "You can put me down now."
Remus obliged, setting her down as though she were made of glass. Annie then looked at them, and said, in a small voice,"You need to look at the house now, right?"
Remus nodded and James said, "Do you think you could show us around?"
Annie nodded then without waiting to see if they were following, walked into the front room and stopped next to her mother. Turning to face James, Remus, and Sirius, she told them, "This is my mother. She killed the bad men and made the dragon disappear." Remus, who was the only one not carrying a child at the moment, bent down to look at Sophia.
"What happened to her?" he asked.
Annie looked at him blankly. "She died."
Remus saw the stupidity in his question, then stood up to look at the basement tunnel.
"Where does this tunnel go, do you know?" Annie shook her head no.
William spoke up from behind Sirius. "It goes to a Portkey that goes to Hogsmede. The best chance for escaping the house in there."
Remus, James, and Sirius looked at each other, then Sirius asked William, "William, do you think you could show us where the Portkey is?"
In reply William walked over to his dead mother, kissed her on the cheek, then said, "Maybe Grandpa Andrew will be down there!" and trotted off down the stairs to the tunnel. Sirius, Remus, and Alexia followed him down. Annie looked at James pleadingly.
"Please don't make me go down there, sir. I don't like the dark."
James nodded, then asked Annie, "How did your mother kill the Death Eaters and make the dragon disappear, do you know?"
Annie pulled the little stone off her neck and handed it to James. "She killed them with this."
James took the small stone and received the same white-hot feeling Annie had, only the stone wasn't friendly towards him.
"Damn!" he yelled, and dropped it. He held his hand up and saw a patch of skin glowing blue-white. When the light disappeared, the skin underneath had been charred to a black-gray color. "What the hell is that thing," he wondered, "and how can she touch it?"
"Are you all right, sir?" Annie asked, picking up the stone. "I don't see why it hurt you."
"I was wondering just that," James thought, when he heard a young girl scream down in the basement.
"Alexia!" Annie cried, jumping up to race down the stairs as fast as she could. She didn't make it even half way down, though, because she bumped into William, Alexia, Sirius, and Remus.
"They're all dead, Annie!" Alexia sobbed. "All of them! Grandma and Grandpa and Jared and Gary, Maurice and little Pam! They're all dead!"
Annie held her sister up as Alexia sobbed in fury. She looked at William. "How could this happen, Will? It was such a beautiful day!" William just shook his head dumbly.
Sirius turned to James and said, "I think we should take them to Hogwarts, James." He looked down the tunnel. "By broom."
Disclaimers: James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Voldemort, Death Eaters, and anything else from Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling. 'The little blue stone was inspired by Atlantis: The Lost Empire, from Disney, and 'a place where no shadows may fall' belongs to J. Michael Straczynski, creator of Babylon 5.
Thank You,
Kestrel