Lina had been married to Roger Boyd for two years before the child was born. A beautiful ginger girl, with a face already full of freckles, and bright green eyes that made people feel like she could see inside them. Of course she couldn't, really, for Elise was just one year old. Because of Elise, Lina had become best friends with her neighbour Rachel Allen, who had a boy called Thomas, only one day older than little Elise. So Rachel spent nearly all the day at Lina's house, talking and exchanging experiences. They had grown so close that they considered each other family.

At that evening, it was halloween and the two women were together in the kitchen cooking and baking sweets for children who would later knock on the door saying "trick or treats?". Lina felt an odd chill go up her spine when she saw the clouds outside. It was, indeed, a cloudy evening. So dark it looked like the sky was about to fall down, in fact.

"Oh, Lina, isn't it perfect for halloween? Funny, isn't it?" Said Rachel. Rachel tended to be a bit over optimistic. "I love halloween, you know? Feels so magical! It's perfect! So dark and mysterious, and all those children dressed like witches and vampires and ghosts!"

"What?" Lina was busy looking outside. Those clouds were definitely abnormal. Something was wrong. "Oh, yeah. It's a really beautiful day."

"I can barely wait for the day when our babies will first go out to ask for sweets. Can't you picture them doing that?"

"It's gonna be really fun, isn't it?" She laughed for a moment, imagining them with witch costumes, holding pumpkin-like baskets filled with sweets and smiling. However, she couldn't ignore the dark clouds on sky. Something was definitely wrong.

Lina headed to her bedroom, sensing something would happen on that evening. She spat an excuse for her sudden absence and locked herself in the bedroom. Under the bed, her fingers found a loose board on the floor and took it off the way. That's where she kept her wand, where no one could ever find it. Her trembling fingers held the object for a moment when she brought it closer to her eyes. She missed holding it. She missed magic. She missed him. It was a thirteen inch wand, made of oak with unicorn hair for the core. Lina slid the wand under her sleeve, holding it with an elastic to prevent it from falling.

Lina had hidden in the muggle world after the Dark Lord had made it clear that no resistance would be forgiven. After seeing some great friends being murdered, she decided to leave everything behind, to protect her loved ones. As part of the resistance, she knew things, but she wasn't sure she could keep herself from telling those things if she were to be tortured. She studied the muggles. She adapted to their way of living. She even married a muggle. She never used magic, or she could be tracked. The only thing she couldn't hide was her daughter. Young Elise would most certainly be a witch. And she was certain that, on that evening, she had been found. They would come for her and there was nothing she could do about it.

When she headed back to the kitchen, Rachel had just taken the cake out of the oven and placed it on the balcony.

In the livingroom, Elise and Thomas were crawling, chasing each other in a baby's way to play tag.

The two children had completely different personalities. Elise was a curious, interactive and noisy little girl, always looking everywhere, noticing every detail, touching everything all the time. Lina's biggest worry was that, someday, she would end up in hospital for a surgery in order to take a key off her daughter's throat. Or worse: that Elise could find her wand while crawling in the bedroom.

On the other hand, Thomas was a quiet, centered little boy. He could easily stare at something for hours. So silent he seemed not to be there at all. He even looked completely different from Elise. He had deep brown, sparkling eyes, dark skin and black curly hair. Maybe the only thing he and Elise had in common was the fact that each one of them looked exactly like their respective mother.

There was thunder outside, but no rain. Lina's hand squeezed the tip of her wand.

When they were done with the sweets, Lina ordered pizza for dinner and it arrived along with her husband, who seemed cheerful. He kissed his wife after climbing the stairs.

"I got promoted, honey!"

"That's amazing, honey!" She answered. The extra money would be welcomed, since Lina had gotten fired just after the end of her maternity leave. Rachel came into the room to congratulate him as well, as she overheard the conversation.

"Oh, Rachel! Let's all sit and have this amazing pizza to celebrate. I think there's some wine somewhere!"

Roger's cheerful personality was the one thing that first attracted Lina to him. He always seemed to be able to make the best of whatever situation. He even found a way to cheer her up when the doctors started losing hope on the baby's chance of survival after hours of labour. That had brought her strength back.

They had dinner together, toasting to Roger's promotion. The pizza wasn't really good, but Lina hadn't had time to cook anything besides sweets for the children who knocked on the door.

After that, they washed the dishes and sat down on the living room to chat. They discussed the weather, it seemed that a storm might be coming, but there was no wind, just dark clouds. Lina was certain something terrible was about to happen, something related to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. That was no usual storm.

Occasionally, a knock on the door would make them get up to go give children some sweets. The cake had long been finished.

It was half past eleven when Rachel got up from her seat on the couch and got Thomas from where he was asleep on the floor, holding hands with Elise. Elise wasn't happy when she woke up to find that her best friend was gone, and cried.

"Oh, I feel bad for separating them! But Thomas will be back tomorrow, Elise, I promise!" Said Rachel. Although Elise didn't understand, she stopped crying anyway.

When Lina and Roger went to bed, she hid the wand in the nightstand drawer. It took a long time until she could finally fall asleep and, when she did, she dreamt of a green flash of light on the windows of an unknown house. She woke up in the morning, screaming.

The next morning, something was most definitely wrong.

Was she got up to prepare breakfast while Roger took a shower, she was surprised by an owl sitting on the fence that separated the apartment outside area from the building's common area. An owl, in the middle of the day? And that specific owl… where had she seen it before? It was definitely not a common owl. It was from a wizard or witch. Where could it be heading? She didn't know anyone from her world that lived nearby, that was the reason why she had chosen that area to live.

She tried not to think about it while preparing the toasts and coffee, but it was impossible to ignore another owl sitting right next to the first one when she fried the eggs.

Elise woke up crying and Lina went to get her. The little girl grabbed her shirt with the tiny hands and kept crying and crying. There was not much that could disturb Elise that much… must have been a dream. What did babies dream about? Something bad, apparently. For a moment, Lina wondered if it could have been the same dream with the flash of green light.

As Roger walked into the living room and sat at the table near the couch with the newspaper in his hands, Lina tried her best to stay calm.

"That's odd" He said. "A house exploded in a tiny town called Godric's Hollow, in England. I never heard of such place." Lina grabbed the newspaper out of her husband's hands, ignoring his complaints. Godric's Hollow. It wasn't supposed to be mentioned in muggle's newspapers… Could it be only on her's?

"That's odd indeed." She said, more to herself than to Roger. Then she looked at the clock on the wall. "Oh, deary me. You are going to be late!"

He finished his coffee faster than the blink of an eye, Hugged Lina, kissed Elise's cheek and ran downstairs. Lina could hear the door slamming as he hurried outside.

Rachel knocked on the glass door that separated the apartment from the common area and Lina let her in with Thomas. Elise immediately laughed and clapped the tiny hands. She was put in the ground and crawled to the boy. They immediately started playing in their mysterious way. Elise tried to stand, using the coffee table for support. She had been trying to take her first steps for the last week, while Thomas experimented his first nearly understandable sounds. He was watching her as she moved her baby legs.

Lina went to her bedroom to look through the window and saw the most shocking scene. Witches and wizards walking by the street with colourful cloaks, greeting each other. Owls flying on every direction.

What the hell could possibly be happening? She grabbed a pen and a piece of paper and thought about what she could write, who to ask. There was only one person.

Is everything alright? I read about Godric's Hollow.

What happened?

L.B

She rolled the paper and kept it with her, along with her wand, which she hid again inside her sleeve. An owl was still sitting on the fence outside. It seemed to be waiting for her. She shouted an excuse that would take Rachel out of the living room and went outside. She gave the paper to the owl and the animal held it into their beak.

"Take it to him. You know who I am talking about. Go."

The owl flew away.

Her heart sank in her chest. Could… could he have died in Godric's Hollow last night?

Lina went back inside and tried to live her day as if nothing was happening, disconsidering the owls flying, the people walking and even the huge black dog that sat across the street and stared at her window. She wouldn't disconsider the dog if she had seen it, but she didn't.

When everything was done in the house, Rachel suggested that they would take the babies to the meadows to play outside for a bit. Lina was a tiny bit scared, but agreed anyway.

"Jesus christ, I have never seen so many owls… and during the day?"

"Oh, yes. This is really weird." Answered Lina, not realizing they were being followed by an enormous street dog.

Elise and Thomas were now being pushed in baby swings. But just for a bit, because soon it got too cold to be outside. The leaves had finished falling already.

"Would you like to have a cup of hot chocolate somewhere nearby?" Asked Rachel.

They ended up heading to somewhere called The Chocolate Tree. It was the tastier hot chocolate they had ever had. It was nightfall when they finally left and had a shock when they left the shop. Shooting stars on the sky above. Flashes of golden light cutting through the sky. Oh my, thought Lina.

She made them hurry to get home and told Rachel she had a headache, so she and Thomas had to leave. Roger was already home by that time.

Lina didn't get any sleep on that night. As Roger rolled over on the bed, she got up and headed to Elise's room. She got the baby, carefully not to wake her up, and went to sit by the window, watching the street. It was silent. Completely silent. Dark. Unusual.

Then a mysterious figure appeared. Someone wearing a dark cloak walked to the door and knocked. They tried the door knob. Then one hand slowly raised a wand. Lina needed to see no more. She ran to her bedroom, woke Roger up and handed him Elise, along with the car keys and some money.

"Go. Get into Rachel's apartment, take her and Thomas. Get in the car and go. Go to Glasgow, I will meet you there." Roger didn't know anything, but the terrorized gaze in his wife's eyes told him to ask no questions. She watched as he left through the common area to meet Rachel. Heard footsteps on the stairs two seconds after that. Mentally, she recited all the spells she could use in a duel. There was nothing to block a death curse, however. So as the unknown wizard appeared on top of the stairs, she pointed her wand to him and shouted.

"EXPELLIARMUS!"

His wand flew from his hand and landed on her feet. Lina still had her wand in hand, threatening him. The wizard raised his hands to the hood and threw it back. She sighed in relief.

The man was Sirius Black.

"My goodness, Sirius!" She said, her heart still pounding and the wand still in hand. She remembered something. "How did we use to call you in school?"

"Padfoot!" He answered. Than asked. "What did I call you?"

"Linny" She said, blushing.

He rushed to hug her.

"Did you get my letter? Is that why you are here?"

"I had heard rumours that you could be in Edinburgh. After last night, I just jumped in a train. I had to find you. It was easier than I expected."

"What about last night?" She cut him.

"Oh, Lina..." His voice was a mix of pity and pain. "Lily and James are dead."

"What? Dead? Was that what happened in Godric's Hollow?"

"Yes. You-Know-Who found them. Wormtail gave them away." Lina felt as if the ground was gone. She walked into the living room to sit on the couch. Her red hair was trembling under the moonlight. She stared at the carpet. The tears came soon enough.

"Merlin's beard, Lina, everyone thought I was the one who knew! They are gonna think I betrayed them!" He grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. He had the eyes of a mad man.

"Sirius, calm down! Come, sit down, I will make you a cup of tea!" She said.

"No. I have to go soon. They will look for me."

"I can hide you! We will figure out something we can do."

"I Have to go. I will only put you and your family in danger." His voice was cold, painful. "Anyway, there's some good news at last. The boy lived. And the Dark Lord is gone."

"Gone?" She whispered in shock. "Wait, what boy?"

"Their boy. Harry. My godson!" He shouted. "Oh, Lina, how can you not know? Haven't you even taken a look outside? What have you been doing since you left? Since you deserted the war? Shutting your eyes to our world… hiding like a coward. You left me, Lina! ME! A witch like you. You… you were valuable to us! Maybe the Potters would still be alive if..." He didn't seem himself. Lina cried uncontrolably, unsure if the cause was the loss of her friends or Sirius' words. Still, she got a grip of herself and shouted back.

"I couldn't have done anything! I knew too much! Too many names! I couldn't risk giving it to him!" Sirius was shaking.

"I know…" He fell to his knees in front of her. "I'm sorry I said all of that. It's just that… James and Lily..." She hugged him, stroking his hair as both cried.

"You have to believe me, Lina. I didn't do it. I didn't tell him." He cried. She cupped his face between her hands.

"I believe you." She whispered.

Then he kissed her. Deeply. Both could feel how each other longed for that moment for the past five years. She could feel it. She belonged with him. With her world. She should go back with him. She didn't even love Roger. She liked him a lot of course, he was an amazing husband. But her heart belonged to Sirius and there was nothing she could possibly do about that. But then there was Elise. Her little baby. She couldn't go.

Lina broke the kiss.

"I am so sorry..." She said.

"Come with me, Lina. Let's go somewhere else. Let's hide somewhere… We can go to… We can go to Brazil, or Australia… you always said you wanted to go somewhere warmer, didn't you?"

"I can't… I can't leave Elise here."

"Then bring her along! We can be a family, like we always wanted!"

"How can I go back, Sirius? After leaving like that… After so many have died, how can I go back and face everyone?"

"Who gives a damn about everyone? You don't have to look at them, we can go somewhere where there's just the two of us!"

"Hiding? Running away from Aurors? How can I put Elise through that? Sirius… If it were just me, I would follow you without blinking. But it's not. I can't do this to her." There were tears in her eyes again.

"I… I understand." He said, with what seemed to be a knot in his throat. "I… I must leave, then."

"No. Please, stay some more!" Even after refusing his offer, Lina was still desperate to spend some time with him. "How could the boy survive? There's no way to survive a killing curse!"

"I know." Answered Sirius. "It's a mystery. He is the boy who lived. The one who defeated You-Know-Who."

"After all of that… A little boy..."

"He has a mark. A scar on his forehead, where the curse reached him. He… He looks so much like James. But has Lily's eyes."

Sirius touched her cheek with one finger, touching her freckles.

"I missed you so much..." He whispered. Lina held his hand and kissed it's palm.

"So did I. And I will still miss you, every single day."

"I love you, Lina." He said. And got his answer.

Than, with another deep kiss, he said goodbye. Walked to the middle of the living room and disapparated.