Updated: June 15th, 2017
Chapter 1: In the Dark of the Night
In the dark of the night, a baby wailed. Her mother rushed to calm her. Olivia Black dabbed at her red, puffy eyes with a tissue as she tried to quiet her daughter. She couldn't believe he had done it. Her husband; her love; her Sirius. He had ratted out the Potters' to the Dark Lord. Lily was her best friend from before their school days and after. And James was Sirius' best friend too; together they were Prongs and Padfoot.
This was not happening to her. He couldn't! He wouldn't! Sirius was not capable of murder. Harsh pranks, yes, but something as horrifying as this? Never!
Sirius Black was convicted of using the killing curse and blowing up an entire street! Twelve Muggles were killed that night along with one of his friends and fellow Marauder, Peter Pettigrew. All that was said to be left of him was a finger.
Olivia and Sirius' daughter, Coralynn Lily Vulpecula Black, stopped crying. She peered up at her mother with her big grey eyes. Olivia burst into tears and slid to the floor. Cora had been blessed with her mother's beauty and her father's deep grey eyes and black hair. That was enough to make any mother weep.
Her head snapped when as she heard a crash in the kitchen. Olivia stood up, clutching her daughter to her. Walking swiftly, she opened the closet door and placed her year-old daughter inside behind stacked boxes. "Now don't move or make a sound. Understand? Mummy will be back," she told her daughter.
Olivia reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a necklace. It had the Black family crest embedded on a dark obsidian oval. She slipped the necklace chain around her girl's neck and with a kiss on the infant's head she closed the door and whipped out her wand. She whispered a distress call and sent her tiger Patronus to Albus Dumbledore. Olivia took a deep breath and released it as she slowly made her way down the stairs to the kitchen. She stuck out her wand as she rounded the corner. No one was there. Olivia turned around and came face-to-face with the one person she dreaded the most.
"Hello, cousin," Bellatrix Lestrange greeted her in a sickly sweet tone. The witch raised her wand. Olivia did the same. "Where's little Cory? She'll want to see me, won't she?"
"You will never see or touch my daughter," Olivia growled.
"Really? I was thinking we could put our differences aside," Bellatrix smiled callously.
Olivia was now breathing hard. Of all the rotten things that could happen to her, it just had to be this. She did not want to duel Bellatrix in her house. No, she was done. She couldn't do it anymore. Peter was gone (even though she never liked him that much), Lily and James, all of their friends…Sirius.
"You tortured Alice and Frank Longbottom. You helped kill the Prewett twins and many of my friends. We will never settle any differences. I am nothing like you!" Tears were streaming down her face. She hoped Albus got her message in time. But, no matter what, that would never be so.
Bellatrix's lip curled up, "Fine. Be like that. You deserve to die like the blood-traitor you are. Avada Kedavra!"
A jet of brilliant green light shot out of her wand and hit Olivia Black straight in the chest. Before she went down, Olivia screamed her daughter's name. Bellatrix smirked at her handiwork, twirling her wand in her hand. She picked up Olivia's wand, inspecting it, then, snapped it in two.
"Pathetic," she scoffed. From upstairs she heard the wail of her little cousin. Bellatrix apparated into the nursery which was colored red and gold.
The woman slid open the closet door and reached in for little Coralynn. She held the baby with no affection. Rodolphus could not produce children. She was rather fine with that. It's not like she wanted one anyway; she had no ounce of a mother's nurture in her. Coralynn remained silent until there was a bang at the front door. Bellatrix calmly made her way to the window to see that the Order of the Phoenix – or what was left of them – had arrived. Bellatrix set the little baby in her crib.
"Until later, little one," she whispered sarcastically. She leaned up just as the door was blasted off of its hinges and Coralynn started crying. Bellatrix laughed her wild, maniacal laugh as she disapparated out of the room. Remus Lupin rushed to the spot where Bellatrix Lestrange once occupied and then moved to the crying baby. He picked her up and held her close. As soon as her head rested on his shoulder, she was asleep.
Remus took his friends' baby down to the living room where the other Order members were waiting. Molly Weasley had tears in her warm brown eyes, her husband Arthur holding her. Olivia was dead on the kitchen floor, eyes wide open. Remus felt tears run down his cheeks. Everyone he cared for was either dead or in hiding. This baby, Coralynn Lily Vulpecula Black was his last comfort. Her mother was dead, her father in Azkaban for life.
He walked out the front door without looking back. In the dark of the night, he disapparated. Oh, how Remus wanted to take the child as his own. But, he could not. She would be in danger every full moon. There was no place in Europe where little Cora would be safe from the terrors of the night.