Seven Years ago… Crash

It was half past one when the first crashes woke me up. Still in a place half between awake and asleep I hugged my stuffed hippogriff Xander to my chest and turned over to the cool side of my pillow. After a few seconds I felt myself drifting back to sleep and my vision started to get dark and blurry and…

Crash

My eyes snapped open. My bedroom was dark but I could see by the moonlight the outline of Claire's crib. "Good thing the noise didn't wake her," I thought dowsily as I pushed myself out of bed to see what the commotion was. I walked quietly across our room and slipped out the door, taking extra care to shut it quietly behind me so I wouldn't wake little Claire. I yawned and looked around the Lestrange Manor's living room. It was completely quiet and empty from what I could see by the moonlight. Confused, I shrugged a little to myself, figuring I had dreamt the whole thing up when I heard a yell and a series of bangs. I jumped and hugged Xander closer to me and waited.

Silence.

Cautiously, I approached the door on the opposite side of the room that lead to the main foyer. When I got close I heard more yells and hurried footsteps. I pressed my ear against the keyhole listening to their muffled shouts. I recognized my mother's voice but there were others that I didn't recognize and their rough voices scared me. It occurred to me that I should be hiding if someone was breaking into my home but I couldn't bring myself to do anything but stay crouched where I was listening at the keyhole.

"We have Rodolphus, Lestrange," I heard a deep voice say. "If you surrender now-" but my mother cut him off with a curse.

"Crucio!" I heard her yell and immediately I put my hands over my ears to block out the screams I knew would come next. I didn't know how long to wait before waking them off. My mother usually took her time with that one and I hated hearing the screams of people who my mother used it on. I tentatively took my hands off my ears and to my relief there were no screams. However, my relief turned to ice cold dread when I realized the footsteps were heading straight towards my door. I froze, torn between fear of what my mother would do if she caught me breaking a rule and fear of these foreign unfamiliar people who were invading my house.

Get up, Anna! I thought and managed to tear myself away from the door and stumble across the room back towards my bedroom just in time for the door to spring open. My mother backed through the doorway, facing away from me, wand raised with a twisted smile on her face. Over her shoulder was a group of at least eight men who were firing jets of brightly colored light out of their wands. Clearly my mother was losing but nevertheless, she was laughing wildly at the bad men as she held off their attacks. I stood as though bolted to the ground as some jets of light sailed over her shoulder and ricocheted around the room, breaking the giant glass mirror that hung on the far wall. I didn't know whether I should duck or hide or try to make it back to the bedroom so I just stood there, rooted to the spot trying to figure out what I should do. Then I thought of Claire. And I felt some small fraction of my fear dissipate to be replaced with steely resolve. No matter what, I wouldn't let these men or my mother hurt her. That was when one of the men noticed me.

"Hold your fire! It's one of the kids!" he bellowed over his shoulder and immediately the jets of light stopped. At the same time Bellatrix turned to me, an evil leer playing over her face that made my blood stop cold. For only a second we made eye contact and in that second I realized what was happening. I remembered that night my mother came home with that exhilarated look I had long ago learned meant she had torture on her mind and the hushed conversation her and my father had had after. I guess I always knew that my parents were not good people and did bad things but in that moment the memory of that night and whatever was happening now connected in my head and I realized that sometime not so long ago my parents had done something really bad and that these strange people could only be the magical law enforcement I had heard my parents discuss so many times since that night. When she was looking at me with that twisted smile on her face, I realized what was going to happen just a second before it did. I turned to run but she in one fluid motion she grabbed me by the arm and swung me around so I was in front of her facing the others. I struggled ferociously, kicking and scratching into thin air until I felt the ice cold tip of her wand on my cheek and I immediately went limp. I saw all eight of the intruders freeze.

"She's bluffing," said the man with the deep voice. "Even she wouldn't use her own daughter as a hostage."

"Wouldn't I? I heard my mother say in sweet delicate voice that sent a shiver up my back. "Go ahead, Antigone," my mother murmured while stroking my hair. "Tell the nice men if you think I am capable of such acts." I didn't move a muscle.

"You wouldn't kill your own daughter," the same man repeated but with less certainty than before. Yes she would, I thought bitterly. I had learned a long time ago not to question how far my parents could go. I guess that it was around then that I realized probably wouldn't leave that room alive. My mother would never let herself be taken quietly and whoever these people were, they came here to capture my parents and that his had to be done no matter what the cost. I could see my mother's arm raising her arm and I felt her intake a breath, about to cast another curse and I shut my eyes.