Chapter One

- The End -

Fire.

Ashes.

Horrified Screams.

Bodies falling here and there. Enemies and allies – maybe friends.

She could vaguely make the distinctive flashes of death curses flaring all around, but as strange as if may sound, those were not the main concerns on the top of Anne Baudelaire's mind.

Her focus laid on the death eater across the room whose mask had fallen off; her blood boiled and her body trembled in rage. She knew he had fired the death curse which killed her sister.

Nobody paid any attention to the blond woman crossing through the battlefield, dodging eventual curses lost in the crossfire. Her focus stood in a pair of grey eyes across the room, as she walked toward him in quick strides.

The world around her – around them – seemed to slow to a halt, and Anne knew one thing as their gazes met.

Regulus Black was going to die. She would see to it.

She was no longer thinking straight. No longer feeling anything other than the cold numbness of grief.

Her hands felt the warm handle of her wand – as if it could feel her rage, and begged her to do something about that man.

She pointed it at his heart. His eyes moved from hers to her wand, and then back; a flash of something lingering.

"Forgive me," He whispered, catching her off guard.

That was all it took for Regulus Black to take his chance and cast a silent spell – the wand movements looking frighteningly close to a shield, Anne realized. Then he pointed upwards and the entire house blew up.

His disappearing form was the last she saw of him before her entire world collapsed.


Had her siblings made it out on time?

She replayed in her mind the previous hours: shoving Bastien through the floo network, conjuring a portkey for Arwyn, and evading all sorts of curses so she could get to Ivy.

Both her brothers had found their way back, and the last she saw of Bastien he was taking on two Death Eaters. She couldn't remember seeing Arwyn though.

Ivy was hit with the killing curse before she could get to her… Regulus did it.

Her baby sister… Dead. Even though she hadn't fired the curse, she was to blame.

The weight of guilt settled over her, and with a start her eyes flew open, only to be greeted with the angry face of Sirius Black inches from hers. He yelled and shook her vigorously, but all she could do in her state was wonder what the fuck he was doing.

"WAKE UP, BAUDELAIRE!"

"You're… hurting me… Black." She croaked out, almost not recognizing her own voice. Were her vocal chords damaged in the explosion?

He kept on speaking things which made little sense, but somehow his voice seemed distant.

Anne wondered vaguely if her eardrums had also been damaged. It would make sense; everything else hurt too.

"DO YOU HEAR ME? HOW. COULD. YOU?"

He seemed to be waiting for a reply, or any kind of reaction, but her mind was running and she could not understand exactly what was going on. Anne tried to form a coherent phrase, but either nothing came out, or her attempts were dried off by the distressed man.

"Kill me," She choked out, finally.

In that moment Sirius was pulled from her side, and a girl she recognized as Lily Evans replaced him. The girl, like Sirius, had been in her year at Hogwarts, different houses.

"STOP THIS, SIRIUS!" The red haired yelled.

"SHE DID THIS!" He yelled.

"She'll be questioned later! We don't know for sure!"

"You heard what James said. And because of her-"

"LATER!" Lily yelled, cutting him off. His mouth hung open for a moment, then he closed it.

Anne realized her entire body shook. At first, she wondered if it was the pain, then it occurred to her there was a good chance she would go into shock at some point. Lily probably thought along the same lines, because she was promptly forced to drink a red potion, which caused her body to relax and her mind to numb a little, despite all of the pain she felt. Being some kind of healer herself, she knew she couldn't be given pain relief before the diagnosis were run.

"Her family is dead. Dead, Sirius! Don't you think she's had enough?"

The man seemed to collect himself and turned away. Lily sighed, and then rolled her red hair up in a knot and fixed it with a spell, before turning to face the girl. Behind her, Anne could see the sun starting to dawn, and wondered just how long she had been unconscious for.

Lily kneeled beside her, and she remained frozen to the pile of rubble she lied on.

"You were found in the blast zone, and our friends got hurt pretty badly out here. Sirius and the Aurors are under the impression you tipped off the Death Eaters and then exploded the house."

Anne fixed her gaze on the red haired woman before her, gray eyes staring at Lily's greens.

"Did you do this? Did you blow up the house?"

"Did… not," She managed to say, "Death Eater."

Lily nodded sadly, "I thought as much."

Both women were silent as the red haired waved her wand over her body in complex patterns.

"You have a dislocated shoulder, two broken ribs, a concussion, two scratched eardrums and a sprained ankle," She stated, "Did you cast a shield?"

Annie nodded, not particularly in the mood of getting into details. She could not bring herself to tell it was Regulus; not when she couldn't understand why.

"Good job. I don't think you'd have lived otherwise."

'He should have let me die,' she thought bitterly, 'He deserves to be dead too!'

"We can't risk taking you to St. Mungus now that you're targeted, so I'm going to heal you as best as I can. I couldn't find internal bleedings, and despite the injuries you don't seem too bad. Let me know if something feels off, alright?"

Anne was not impressed with her abilities – Evans had always been top of her classes at school; it was only logical she would excel at healing charms during the war. By the time she was done, the sun was high on the sky and Anne only felt tired and groggy from the pain relief as she was helped to her feet.

Lily recommended she took pain potions and dreamless sleep for the following days, and remained on bed rest for at least a week; the Order of the Phoenix would arrange for a healer to see her soon.

"I'm very sorry about your family," Lily told her, "I wish we could have gotten here sooner."

"I was too late," Anne confessed, then asked the question haunting her from the moment she woke up, "Did any of them make it out?"

Lily seemed reluctant to reply, "We found your parents and sister. One of your brothers is alive, but his status is critical. The other's nowhere to be found."

"Where is he?"

"I'll take you to him."

Anne followed Lilly, and for the first time acknowledged what her childhood home had been reduced to: an enormous hole on the ground with a row of corpses lined up around the edge, where a couple of Aurors seemed to be taking care of identification; along with debris and smoke everywhere. Most of the Order of the Phoenix members who had fought the previous night had left; the ones who sustained serious injuries were being treated or having transportation arranged.

For a moment Anne hoped she would find both of her brothers among the survivors, but upon arriving where Lily led her, she was met with Bastien's blond hair tinted red from blood, his shirt ripped to shreds. A dark haired wizard held him in a sitting position as a skinny woman applied ointment to his torso, where an ugly scar was beginning to form.

Upon close inspection Anne realized the dark haired wizard was James Potter.

"Hey Lils," He greeted her with a tired smile, and threw Anne a quiet mistrustful glare, "Pearson is almost done with him."

Anne sat in silence as his brother was healed, then she was told he would take some time to wake up and given a list of potions she should administer. James refused to speak to her, mostly talking to Lily and keeping to himself.

"Do you have anywhere to go?" Lily asked.

"Yeah… I have a place," She replied shortly.

"Is it safe? I could teach you a few protective charms…"

"It's safe. They won't find us,"

After Bastien was cleared, Anne was led by James to the Aurors to be questioned.

"Who do I talk to?" Annie asked, not inclined to repeat the Sirius Black treatment.

"Alastor is a good pick," James indicated a man with a magical eye who seemed to be working on placing a set of charms on the wards around the hole. She suspected this was probably someone very through and whom James trusted, so she nodded and moved forward.

Before she could reach the auror her eyes fell over the bodies lined up a few feet away – three of them dressed in black; Death Eaters whose masks had been removed, one of them had been in her classes in Hogwarts. Her eyes fell on the bodies of her father and stepmother, pale, wounded, broken – next to them, Ivy.

She walked faster, trying not to think about it yet. The time to grieve and provide a proper funeral would come, but she had to keep what remained of her family safe.