'Daddy! Daddy!' the little girl cried. The tall man with eyes so like his daughter's turned to scoop her up. She hid her little flame-coloured head in his shoulder and clutched him with tiny, desperate hands.
'What's wrong, princess?' he asked gently. 'What happened?'
'There are bad men in the garden! I was playing the piano and then something banged and I looked out the window and something blasted the gate! They've all got wands, Daddy. And they're wearing hoods and cloaks and I'm scared…' She trailed off into a frightened whimper and hid her face in her father's shoulder. He turned, went to the stairs with long, swift strides, and took the stairs two at a time.
'Edward, what's wrong?' his wife called. She was holding a baby girl with entrancingly blue eyes and small hands, and a little boy who looked a little younger than the girl her husband was carrying was clinging to her leg.
'Amy saw Death Eaters coming into the front yard. Take William and Meaghan and Disapparate to Hogsmeade. I'll come after you with Amy,' he said quickly, pulling the cupboard door open as quietly as possible. He pulled out two big bags that were full to overflowing and pressed one on his wife.
She stared at him. 'The Death Eaters?' she said weakly.
He ignored her question. 'Go. Go now!'
There was a loud BOOM from downstairs. Then Edward heard what he most dreaded; footsteps coming up the stairs.
He put the little girl down gently. 'Sweetheart, can you be a good girl and do something for Daddy?' She nodded, eyes wide and unblinking. 'Take Meaghan and William and hide in the cupboard. Don't come out, no matter what you hear or see. Can you do that for me?'
She finally found her voice. 'Are you coming too, Daddy?' she asked timidly.
'No, sweetie, I'm not, I'm going to tell the Death Eaters to go away. Now hurry, quickly. Hide in there withMeaghan and William.'
'I want you to come too, Daddy! And what about Mummy?' she said, her eyes filling with tears.
Her mother moved quickly to kneel and embrace the little girl. 'Oh, my little baby girl, I'll see you soon. I promise.'
'Promise?' she demanded tearfully.
'Promise. Now, quickly, hide!'
Her father caught her up, kissed her lovingly, and put her little sister into her arms. Her eleven-month old brother clung to her as her father closed the cupboard door, leaving her in darkness.
The little girl could never remember what happened next. She rocked her little sister, wide-eyed and unblinking, as she heard screams from outside the cupboard doors. William had curled up and gone to sleep against her leg before the screaming started, sucking his thumb. Meaghan, the baby, whimpered once, but the little girl shushed her gently. She went to sleep restlessly in her arms.
After hours passed, the screaming stopped. But the little girl didn't dare come out, terrified of what might be waiting for her.
Time passed. Her sister woke and began to cry, but the little girl shushed her in terror. Her brother didn't wake, and at last she crept out.
The room was dark. But the little child had good night-vision. As she crept towards the bed, she stumbled over something. She looked at what she had stumbled over, and her heart stopped.
It was a body. She smelt the sweet scent of her mother's shampoo, and she could feel the scar her mother had received when she was young, under her tiny fingers. Her eyes filled with tears, but she angrily wiped them away and felt around on the floor. She encountered another body – her father's. She pulled them both towards her and rocked back and forwards, her parent's heads in her lap. Hot tears landed on her blue sundress, but she didn't notice.
Finally, she got up. Her sister was screaming, and her brother had woken up and was demanding nourishment. She found the prepared bottles of formula milk in the fridge and warmed it for thirty seconds, as her mother had so carefully taught her to do. She fed her brother with the sandwiches her mother had made for their planned picnic, and gave him the chocolate milk her father had so carefully mixed for the picnic planned for the afternoon. Then she picked up the bags her father had pulled out, donned the baby capsule her father had carried Meaghan in, and lifted the baby into it. Her sister sighed contentedly, tucked one hand into her sister's collar, and fell asleep.
The little girl picked up the two bags, slung one over each shoulder, and took her brother by the hand. She moved woodenly, going about her duties like a toy puppet, its strings being pulled by an unseen hand, directed by a methodical, invisible brain. She led him out of the house and stuck out her right hand, facing the road. In her hand was clutched a teddy bear and a photo frame.
A purple bus appeared at the end of the street, and came to a screeching halt in front of her. 'Three tickets to Hogsmeade, please,' she said. They were the first words she had spoken since she had said goodbye to her father that morning. Then she sat down on a seat and carefully opened a purse, counting out three Galleons. The conductor looked at her curiously, but didn't comment. The old man knew all too well the state of numbness which the mind goes into when a person had suffered a great and terrible loss.
The little girl somehow managed to get her brother and sister settled and calm off the bus in Hogsmeade and up to the gates of Hogwarts. She knocked on the gates and waited patiently.
Hours later, a tall man in purple, star-spangled robes came striding down from the castle, and unlocked the gates. 'My dear child, whatever is the matter?' he asked in concern.
The little girl looked up at him, and then at the tall, stern looking woman who came to stand beside him. The woman's face softened as she bent down to take the baby from the little girl.
And two-and-a-half year old Amy Johnson burst into hysterical tears and flung her arms around Minerva McGonagall as William tottered towards Albus Dumbledore and looked up at him with the timeless, ingenuous smile of children all around the world.