Chapter 1

There was too much smoke to see three feet in front of your face and there was yelling; yelling of curses and hexes. The Order members were looking for someone and destroying rooms as they went. Lumos-lit wand tips were moving through the haze, working their way to the second floor.

Farthest away in a secret room a women whispers purposefully to a small girl. The women had dark hair swimming around her shoulders knocked loose by the commotion and striking ice blue eyes. Her features were schooled into calm as she leant down to the young girl; her spitting image. Baby fat rounded her face but there was no mistaking the resemblance when you saw her eyes. Those eyes were spilling tears and her mother was almost in tears herself looking at her scared child. She crouched down and gently took the child by the hands.

"Now Lanius, I know you're scared. So am I," she stopped to clear her throat of tears, "but I need you to be strong for me and your father. Do you understand?"

The little girl shook her head and wiped to tears off her face.

The women smiled through her fear, "That's a good girl. Now, I'm going to tell you what's going to happen. Are you listening, Lanius?"

"Yes, Momma," she whispered brokenly. She hated seeing her mother in this state.

"I'm going to go out and hold off all of these bad people, okay? And when I tell you to you are going to go to the closest fireplace and floo to Malfoy Manor. Can you remember that? Malfoy Manor?" She tried to keep her voice steady.

"Yes, but Momma I don't want to leave you…" She let out a sob she was keeping in.

"I know, honey. I know. But I need you to be brave and need you to do this for me. Just this one thing."

"Okay. I'll try," the girl gave a small smile. The women saw her daughter's courage and gave a sob of her own and pulled her in for a tight hug. She pulled back when she heard footsteps hit the stairs and looked to Lanius.

"I love you, Lanius. From the bottom of my heart I love you." A kiss was pressed into the girls messy hair.

"I love you too, Momma."

The woman let go and positioned both of them at the door and gave Lanius a chance to ready herself to run. She looked down at her daughter and tried to memorize what her adorable face looked like. It was likely she'd never see her daughter again. She was a powerful witch, one of the most powerful of her time, but she was simply outnumbered. Hell, she knew she was probably going to die. She wasn't going to see her beloved husband or Lanius after tonight. But she found peace in knowing at least she would die trying to save her only child.

She was going to die with good reason.

And she wasn't going down without putting up a hell of a fight.

"Are you ready, Lanius?" She flicked out her wand from its sheath and gave her daughter a final squeeze of her hand.

"Yes, Momma."

"Okay, on the count of three I'm going to open the door and I'm going to put up a spell that will give you about five seconds to run. And I want you to run as fast as you can to the closest fireplace-"

"Which is in yours and Daddy's bedroom and floo to Malfoy Manor. I can do it Momma."

"That's a good girl. Now on the count of three.

"One."

The girl tensed, ready to run as fast as her small legs could carry her.

"Two."

The woman let go of her daughter's hand and put her wand hand at the ready, silently saying good-bye to her husband.

"Now!"

The door flung open and flashes of spells were seen through the smoke. A bright flash of purple came from the women's wand and made a bubble of sorts around her and Lanius.

"Go, Lanius! Go NOW!"

The girl ran as fast as she could down a hallway to her right. She ran, for what seemed like to her miles, and was almost to her parents' bedroom when she heard her mother scream. She paused and turned to see a sight that scared her more than anything.

Her mother was writhing on the floor, long black robes twisting around her legs, with almost a dozen figures standing over her. One of the men had her mother under a curse that she recognized as Crucio. A pain spell.

"MOMMA!"

She started running back to her mother ignoring the fact that her screaming had drawn attention to herself and now the bad people were bearing down on her. She was grabbed from behind but she still kept screaming for her mother and reaching for her with her arms.

The woman heard her daughter's screams and turned to see her in the grips of a man from the Order.

"NOOO! DON'T YOU TOUCH HER! SHE'S DONE NOTHING! JUST LET HER GO!" She was no longer paying attention to the bone-shattering pain and started crawling towards Lanius.

Soon both mother and daughter were screaming in sync and reaching towards each other. But the woman's scream cut off abruptly when a green light met her chest and she fell to the ground limp.

Lanius's screams reached their peak.

"MOMMA! MOMMA! NOOOO!"