An inky sky stretched across Godrics Hollow seeming to wrap the sleeping town in a starry blanket. A waxy moon hung overhead shedding faint light on damp streets. The glow reflecting off window panes, as a group of cloaked figures made there way through twisting labyrinth of village lanes.
The scenery would have looked almost picturesque were it not for the small animals that scampered out of the path of the menacing congregation walking through the streets.
A hollow laugh echoed from behind a metal mask and a small sparrow chirped it's last as green light engulfed it. The small body hit the ground with a thump as the slithering cloaks faded as they made there way towards there prey.
He walked up to the front door of the house, the street deserted at this time of night. The picket fence surrounding the neatly kept garden reflected the silvery moonlight that shone white against the different shades of black the rest of the garden appeared in. All the curtains were closed in the windows and no lights were visible behind them.
Cloaked in his floor length black robes, a hood obscuring his face and bald head, bare feet ghosting up the path to the front door. His white yew wand caught the light, the ivory handle held lightly between thin bony fingers, as he raised it and cast a silent 'alohamora' to unlock the door without making his presence known. He didn't want his prey knowing he was coming before he wanted them to.
As he pushed open the wooden door the house was silent.
"Wait here" he ordered the small band of cloaked men waiting at the gate to the small garden, there black cloaks making them blend seamlessly with the shadows covering the street.
He raised a hand and pointed to one of the men whose long white hair could just be spotted underneath his hood. Stepping forward the man inquired "My Lord?"
"Come with me Lucius"
The man, Lucius, bowed his head and hurried up the path and followed his 'Lord' into the house.
Only a ticking clock could be heard echoing through the seemingly empty house. In each room the silence grew more cloying. What may be a bright house during the day was a secluded realm of shadows during the night. The shelves were stacked with sleeping photos and the books rustled there pages as the Dark Lords cloak whispered past.
Small building blocks and a toy broomstick littered the carpet and Lucius nudged it with his foot as he and his master navigated there way through what he assumed was a playroom.
Lucius peered out from under his hood; there was no light coming from upstairs.
The Dark Lord as his followers called him or Voldemort the name he had fashioned for himself many years ago when he had turned to the Dark arts, gazed about the building, taking in the darkened doorways and silent portraits. The place was so still, one could believe not a single soul inhabited it.
But Voldemort knew better, he had information stating that the people he had been looking for were here, tonight, unsuspecting, the perfect time to strike. The two made there way up the stairs towards the bedrooms, Lucius following behind head down out of respect for his master, and fear of what he could do.
Voldemort stopped in front of the first door they came to at the top of the stairs and opened it slowly to avoid any noise. Looking around the dark room he saw the two Potter adults sleeping together. He lowered his hood, and Lucius copied, so he could see more clearly a smirk crossed his serpentine face as he pointed his wand at the man hissed 'Avada Kedavra'. A green burst shot from the end of his wand and hit his mark. Nothing seemed to happen if you didn't look closely but Voldemort spotted the stop in the steady rise and fall of James Potter's chest.
Next to him his wife stirred but did not wake.
Voldemort prepared to cast the killing curse again and end the life of Lily Potter as well, when he heard a soft cry from further down the hall. He turned and walked towards the noise, pausing outside the door behind which the sound came from.
He pushed it open and found himself in a nursery containing two cribs. Inside one lay a boy around the age of 18 months who wriggled in his sleep, to consumed by a dream to realise his parents were about to die.
In the other lay a girl of around the same age old her wide blue eyes watching the two strangers that had entered the room, not with fear or caution, but curiosity. Voldemort walked closer and the child just looked at him. Although she was only a babe her eyes seemed to look through him and it was almost as though he could feel her in his head.
Voldemort looked away after a minute and instantly felt the slight pressure in his head ease. She was a strange one, but could be useful to him in years to come. He beckoned Lucius forward and gestured to the child. Hesitantly Lucius picked up the child who seemed to relax in his arms and close her eyes as if in sleep.
At that moment they heard a scream from the master bedroom and heavy footsteps heading towards them. On instinct Lucius stepped back into the shadows so he would not be seen by the distressed Lily Potter as she came running into the room wand in hand and pointed it at Voldemort.
She ran in front of her sons crib noticing her daughter's was empty. She glared at the Dark Lord.
"What have you done with Ileana my daughter?" she all but spat at him.
Voldemort merely smiled evilly and blocked a curse Lily fired in anger.
"You killed my husband." She said tears forming in her eyes even as she reached behind her and cast a silent charm on her son, Harry, meaning the Dark Lord wouldn't be able to touch him should he try. Not that he would get the chance with her still breathing.
Voldemort remained silent as he raised his wand and pointed it at Lily as she refused to move from her position between him and the boy; he cast the killing curse, but felt something go wrong.
He heard Lily scream as she was struck down by the curse falling lifeless to the floor before something struck him; a terrible agony, the feeling of being torn apart. Then he realised his curse had rebounded; he was dead, for now at least.
From the corner Lucius watched as the baby boy began the scream and cry at his mothers death, before turning to the body of his master. But there was no body only an empty robe. Not knowing what to do, but knowing he couldn't stay or leave the child he still held, he all but ran from the house holding the baby close.
The other Death Eaters still stood outside and looked at Lucius as he left the house. "The Dark Lord is gone." Was all he said, before he began to walk down the road to the apparition point in the centre of Godrics Hollow.
He apparated back to his home, Malfoy Manor, and walked through the large wooden doors into the main foyer.
The building seemed to be the work of some dark minded architect. Decorated in black marble with green velvet drapes obscuring what little light would have shone through the floor to ceiling windows. A large staircase fit for a castle somewhere graced the hallway, the banisters made of the same obsidian stone as the small mosaics littering the floor. A large grand portrait hung above it, the stern faces of the Malfoy predecessors glaring down at any visitors, their steel grey eyes tracking them across the room.
His wife came running out of a side room. She knew where he had been and knew that if he was back this early after leaving something had gone wrong.
But before she could say a word she noticed the child sleeping in her husbands arms. Lucius went to hand his wife the child and she took it carefully cradling the little girl into her body.
"What...I don't..." she started but was cut off before she could form a coherent sentence.
"The Dark Lord is gone and, for some reason, he wanted this child alive." Her husband explained.
"She is a Potter." It was a statement not a question.
"Yes, Narcissa, she is."
"No. She isn't any more. The Potters are dead, and I can't leave such a helpless baby without a family. We shall raise her. As our own." Narcissa said with a hint of menace in her voice.
Before her husband could reply Narcissa walked away. He distantly heard her call a house elf to set up a second nursery next door to there own son Draco's for the child.
Between one minute and the next, the Malfoy family had gone from 3 to 4. The girl would be raised as one of them, with no knowledge of her true parents or brother, or what had happened to them. Not that she would remember anyway being so young now. It would just make things easier in the long run.
Lucius started to walk towards his own bedroom while his wife settled in their new child and smiled to himself. 'What have I let myself in for' he thought.