It had been a long day. All the students wanted to do was sleep. The teachers' nerves were stretched to breaking. As their restless quills scratched their parchment, a girl was running for her life. A group of people wearing dark hooded cloaks were running down the streets shouting things and making people levitate. The screams of pain emanating from smoking buildings were enough to scare away any animals in the vicinity.
"Camilla!" a voice cried from an alley. The girl turned to see her brother hobble out onto the street. His leg was bloodied and his face was bruised. "They rammed me into a wall. My leg… Can you help me?" She nodded with tears streaming down her face. He put his arm around her shoulders and they resumed the quest for quest for escape. Unfortunately, together they were slow. The hooded figures were quickly catching up to them. A shout broke out from the group when they saw the two hobbling down the street.
"Camilla…." Her brother whispered looking at her.
"No! You aren't going to play the hero!" Camilla spoke for the first time since this horrible incident had started. Spying an open alleyway, unpolluted by the debris and fire that plagued most of the town, she pulled him down it. They only made it halfway through before a voice came from the end.
"Windgardium Leviosa!" Her brother was lifted out of her reach.
"Run!" he screamed as he was slammed into a wall.
With one last glance at her brother, she ran the rest of the length. When she reached the other side, she turned right hoping still to escape. A hooded figure stood directly in her path. A harsh growl tore from her throat as she threw herself at the figure. Her plan was to push the attacker aside and continue on her quest. Instead the man grabbed her.
"Let me go!" she screamed struggling against her captor. The man let out a grunt and murmured words foreign to her ears. Suddenly the world was savagely ripped from beneath her feet and she was flying at impossible speeds yet going nowhere. Then the sensation stopped and she saw what looked to be a city straight out of a storybook filled with magic.
Her captor lifted his arm and Camilla saw he held what looked to be a polished twig, "I'm sorry," a voice flowed from the cloak followed by more unfamiliar words. A sort of darkness surrounded her and she felt it time to sleep. Her captor caught her in his arms as sleep wrapped her in its forgetful embrace. For the girl at the moment, all was well.
She awoke in a room crowded with paintings and furniture. It was the paintings that she first noticed. They seemed to move. Camilla closed her eyes, shook her head, and then opened her eyes again. Yes, they were really moving. She stared in wonder about her until her eyes fell upon her still-cloaked captor talking to an old man by a fireplace. The old man looked to be at least one hundred years old though he had a … joie de vivre… feel to him. His long white beard nearly brushed the ground. He wore the oddest clothing. Some sort of robe and a ridiculous hat.
Her eyes narrowed as she again focused on the evil hooded figure. "You!" she tried to shout but all that came out was an indignant whisper. "You... killed my brother." Camilla rolled off the couch she was laying on and rushed to the man. "You killed him and kidnapped me!" With her fists she took her anger out on his chest. "Why? Why would you do that?" She felt herself being pulled away and made to sit down. The tears, of anger but more of grief, came now as she sat looking at the two men in front of her. No…wait now there were four. The third had pulled her from the man while the fourth had watched.
"Are you quite finished?" a harsh voice came from the depths of the hood. It gave her anger a renewed force and through the grief, she felt an urge to hurt the man.
"Dear child, please!" The old man said pulling his chair towards her. "As strange or as hard to accept as it may be, we are not the enemy."
"You may not be, sir, but he is." She bit out.
"C'mon Snape, take the hood off," The fourth man said. He had a sort of haunted look about his eyes that one could only notice if looking for the worst in somebody's character. The hooded figure, whose name was apparently Snape, withdrew the hood revealing greasy black hair and a demeaning scowl.
"Would you like a glass of water?" The third man asked. She decided she liked everyone but the Snape character.
"Yes, I would, thank you." She sunk back in the chair beginning to realize that, incomprehensible as it was, the people meant not to hurt her.
"I know you view Professor Snape as the enemy, but if it weren't for him you would not be alive." The old man stated.
"Goody for him. He plays hero while his comrades slam my only family into the wall." Her mother's teachings kicked in and rather reluctantly she added, "Though I do thank you, I owe you a life debt."
"What town was this?" the fourth man with the long black hair asked of the greasy man called Snape.
"I don't know the name, but the town is no more. This girl is the only survivor."
"Girl? I'll have you know that I am 28 years of age. Hardly a girl, Mr. Snape." She said choosing to ignore the rest of that statement. As she said this, the third man returned with her glass of water. "Thank you, Mr….?" she trailed off.
"Lupin, Remus Lupin"
"Thank you then, Mr. Lupin." She looked down at the glass. The air around her stilled, blocking out all noise. The water in the cup became a window and through it shown the future. "You shouldn't leave next full moon. Something will call you from this place and its inhabitants but following it will only bring you pain. The one called Voldemort will use you to hurt others." Camilla shook off the fuzziness that came after such an episode and slowly took a drink from the glass. She looked up to a room of astonished glances. "Who is Voldemort?" she asked setting the water glass aside.
AN: Well, I'm pretty sure this is an original idea. If it isn't it will be…trust me. J Hmm…. The future of this piece holds great potential. My looking glass tells me so. J Stay tuned…chapter two needs only to be typed out and it shall be delivered to you.