Disclaimer:
Harry Potter and associated Characters are property of our mistress, J.K. Rowling. All rights reserved.
Original Characters are mine. Duh.
Prologue
The sound of a young girl wailing in grief was what greeted Aelith as she regained consciousness. What in Archadaeus hit me? Aelith groaned as she struggled to her feet. It pained her to open her eyes and it did little good as she was unable to make anything out from all the dust and smoke in the air. The wailing continued and was helping bring Aelith back to her senses. From what she could feel of her surroundings she was in the remains of some kind of explosion of wood and stone. She rubbed her eyes and opened them again cautiously. The dust was finally settling and she took the opportunity to check herself for injuries.
Aelith was a small Archon, standing at just under five feet high. Her hair was a pale, platinum blonde color and her eyes shown an equally pale red. Her skin was battered with bruises and she had a few cuts which showed a few dots of silver oozing from within. The sight of her own essence alarmed her slightly and she experimentally flexed her wings. Pain shot through her left wing and she winced. Broken. Well, flame and thunder, this is not good. Aelith cursed softly at her luck and then looked around to take in her surroundings.
The area in which she stood was a real wreck. The stone and wood rubble that surrounded her on all sides confirmed only two things to her however. First, it was indeed some kind of explosion that caused the destruction she now struggled to stand in. Second, this was not the Imperial Palace she was in, judging by the common quality of the materials. Another benefit of looking around was she discovered the source of the wailing cries.
Not far from her, kneeling on the floor was a little girl smaller than Aelith herself was. She couldn't pinpoint an age to her, but she knew she was younger than herself. The dust covered girl was unlike any she had ever seen before. Aelith had heard of Wizards before, but never before had she actually seen one. This little girl had to be one, however. She had no wings. The girl was wearing clothing of an unfamiliar cut. The covering of dust and dirt hid most of the colors, but Aelith could tell that the girl was blonde a little darker than herself. The only color that truly stood out among the girl was a deep red, covering her hands.
Aelith was at a loss. Instinct lead her to want to comfort the girl. Growing up in Arcadaeus however had engrained into her being caution around wizards, as she had been taught of the pain, death and destruction they caused both among themselves and to her own people. These two conflicting emotions caused Aelith to hesitate for a moment, but eventually curiosity and compassion won out over caution and suspicion. Aelith stepped slowly toward the girl.
"Excuse me. Are you hurt at all?" Aelith waited for any kind of reply, but the girl either didn't hear her or was too grieved over something she appeared to be holding. A few steps forward confirmed the latter. The girl was holding a woman's head. Judging by the likeness of it, the head likely belonged to the girl's mother. Aelith felt devastated. Death was not a thing she had ever seen before, having lived all her life in the palace. Sure she had heard of it. She heard of it often. Wizard raids on the towns within the empire were commonplace and she had heard of great battles between the two nations. She had never yet seen a dead body herself though. It was a grisly sight. The only thing Aelith could think to do was try somehow to comfort the crying girl. Her attempt was not well received.
The girl first shrugged Aelith's hand off her shoulder. When Aelith tried to put her hand on it again the girl whipped her head and torso violently, throwing her hand off forcefully. The girl looked at her furiously with eyes bloodshot from weeping; tears still falling from her face. The girl shouted something at her in a language she had only basic knowledge of from her tutors. It wasn't hard to get the point though. Word and action have a habit of mixing easily to get the point across even when actual language is a barrier. This girl blamed her for what happened. The shouting was short lived though, and then a sharp, stinging pain came to the left side of her face. The girl had slapped her! The shouting resumed as the girl repeated something over and over. If her tutoring was correct, she was shouting for her mother back.
Selena Lovegood furrowed her brow in concentration. The Department of Mysteries had granted her leave to work on a new spell she was crafting. The theory behind the spell was similar to apparition, but it was combined with portkey and floo travel concepts. In theory, if this spell worked properly, one could use it to open a type of door or gateway in air that was connected to another one which also opened elsewhere. This would allow people to come and go as they pleased over distances greater than apparition alone would allow so long as the gateways were open. Selena was very careful all through her study of the theories involved and was preparing to attempt to craft the spell for the first time.
"Mommy, you can do it," a little girls voice said behind her. Her little girl Luna recently turned nine years old and Selena couldn't be more proud of her. She was looking to become a very skilled witch. Selena had been teaching her the basics of magic including household charms though the Ministry was against children using magic at all outside of school. As Selena was a Spellcrafter and did much of her work at home though there was no way for the Ministry to catch the slight against a rule few wizard families followed anyway. Selena smiled at little Luna.
"Thank you, my little darling. Mommy is going to change the world with this spell, just you watch!" Selena turned back and resumed her concentration. Her daughter gave some more encouragement from behind a desk in the basement of their home. Confident that she was prepared to make the attempt Selena waved her wand and said the incantation.
"Portus Caelum!" Magical Energy shot from her wand and began to form a large circular hole in front of her. Coursing energies of red, purple and white formed around the edges and a great wind picked up within the basement room, blowing papers and hair all around.
"You can do it, Mommy! I see something!" Luna shouted over the roaring winds. In the center of the hole an image started to appear of a tall house with a fenced garden behind it. The Weasley's home started to form through the hole. A sudden arc of green energy shot across the image and Selena felt a great surge of power through her wand arm. Something was definately wrong! Selena put her other hand to her wand in an attempt to steady it and control the energy that had begun to run wild. She couldn't let the spell collapse! Not now; not with Luna only a short distance behind her! Selena struggled with all her might to keep her control, but in the end it wasn't enough. Dark red energy lanced across the hole, crisscrossing like a web until, with a great bang, the spell fell in on itself and exploded outwards. Magical energy flailed wildly throughout the house whipping like panicked snakes in the air, cutting everything in its path like a sword would. Pain lanced throughout Selena's body as the vines of leathally uncontrolled magic tore into her and everything went black. Luna, save yourself, Selena thought, and then she knew no more.
Luna came to completely shocked. Her mommy was doing a great job and the spell looked very pretty. After a little time though everything started to look scary. The spell didn't look as pretty or nice at all. It started to make her tremble a little. When the red vines came out and started swinging around the room the whole house shook and soon there was a big banging and Luna fell to the floor. Pieces of house fell all around her and only the desk stood still. Luna crawled under the desk and screamed in fear. Something fell onto the desk that made her jump, hitting her head and knocking her out.
Luna looked around. She couldn't see mommy. She couldn't see much of anything there was so much dust in the air. Luna crawled out from under the desk and started to look for signs of her mommy under the rubble.
"Mommy! Mommy! Where are you mommy!" Luna called out panicked only stopping when her hand touched something soft and wet. Luna looked at it and her eyes widened. "MOMMY!"
Luna was sobbing for what felt like an eternity. She didn't know what else to do. Mommy was dead, and she was sure not even the best healers at St. Mungo's could fix her. She kept pleading to anyone that could hear her for help, and after several minutes she heard some of the rock and wood moving. She looked in the direction of the noise, still sobbing to see a shadow through the dust and dirt still in the air. It looked too small to be her daddy, and it had what looked like a second set of arms or maybe wings. Luna couldn't tell. No... Daddy said that Norfgawhumps only come to hurt people who are naughty! I didn't do anything wrong! Mommy didn't do anything wrong! Why would one come and hurt mommy! Luna sobbed harder and ignored the sounds behind her. After a moment more she heard the norfgawhump behind her speak.
"Ka'lael do ka. Kori'to mitass'ki te mari?" Luna didn't understand what it was saying, but she supposed that it was norfagese or something. She didn't want to talk to it. It might hurt her next. She continued to sob loudly until she felt something touch her shoulder. She tried to shrug it off first, but a moment later it was there again. This time she turned around and shrieked her grief at the thing.
"Why did you come here! Why did you hurt mommy! Mommy was a good witch and never hurt anyone! No one ever! She was the bestest and made cookies and tucked me in every night with a story! You killed my mommy!" And with great pain, little Luna Lovegood slapped the norfgawhump in front of her. Tears continued to pour down her cheeks and Luna lost all the edge in her little nine year-old voice as she said over and over, "bring mommy back to me."
Xenophilius Lovegood was having a good day. He had gone to Diagon Alley to pick up some food to surprise his wife and Luna with as a congratulations on crafting the spell that would revolutionize witch and wizard travel forever. He loved his wife dearly. It was she that had convinced him that not everything that exists in the world has been discovered and he had taken to her ideas like a new 11 year old to their first wand. As he apparated onto the path that lead up to their little cottage he was humming a merry tune he had learned called "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" when he saw his home; what was left of it.
Xeno's humming stopped dead as he looked on at the destruction that was once the home of he and his beloved wife and daughter. The shock left as instantly as it came as he dropped the bags he carried and ran to the wreckage to search for his family.
"Selena! Luna! Oh Merlin please answer me!" Xeno ran into the column of smoke that was dissapating. He could hear a wailing cry he knew belonged to his little girl, and it gave him heart that she was still alive. He couldn't hear his wife though and was looking for her still when he made out what his little girl was shouting.
"You killed my mommy!"
Xeno fell to his knees, not caring that it hurt to land like that on uneven brick stone and wood. No... Oh Merlin, no! Please say it isn't true!
"Bring mommy back to me," he could hear Luna say in a whimper. "Bring mommy back to me." Xeno forced his grief away with great difficulty for the moment. His daughter was still alive, but if she was talking to someone she might not stay that way. The dust was clearing and he staggered through the rubble until he found his daughter. She sat on part of what remained of the basement, talking to what Xeno could only guess was an angel of death, holding the head of his departed wife.
Author's Notes: Yeah, I know it starts out a bit dark, but trust me. Life isn't all daisies and cool ponds. This is how my prologue is for this story. Not all the chapters will be like this, not at all. Please do Review. Flames and Constructive Critique is most welcome. I'm using this and my other story to improve my skills and I'd really like input.
