The Burrow Garden, Ottery St. Catchpole

October 13th, 1981, Evening

A tawny, scraggly, and filthy rat hid beneath a bush next to the back door of the Burrow, leading to the kitchen. The had been watching the home carefully for over a week now, and was tense this night, for this was the night.

The rat was not really a rat, you see, but an Animagus. That is, a Witch or Wizard who could transform, or shift, into an animal. This particular rat was a Wizard named Peter Pettigrew, and he was hiding in the garden of the Weasley home on a mission from his new Lord. This was the night he'd decided he would attempt to kidnap the youngest Weasley children, their twin girls - not but two months old at this point.

He watched through the screen door as the matriarch, Molly Weasley sat at her kitchen table and enjoyed a glass of wine. Peter, also known as Wormtail, had been watching carefully as first the baby girls, then the rest of the boys from the youngest toddler up to oldest boy , little 10 year old Billy, had been put to bed by their tired mother.

Yes, Wormtail knew the children. After all, The Weasleys had been friends of his once, before he took the opportunity his Lord had presented him. Friends of his in almost the same way that prat James Potter had been. He knew the little Potter brat too.

Wormtail watched the woman through the back door, kept a close eye as the glass of wine was drained, and the woman became sleepy. If his calculations were correct, she still had an hour before her husband returned home, and it seemed she was drifting off with the wine induced sleepyness. Just the moment the rat had been waiting for. He already knew that the nursery window was open to the nights breeze, so he made his way out of the garden and into the orchard, where he could climb his little rat body up the bush and into the baby girls' window.

Once in the room, the rat froze, listening carefully. After a few minutes, during which the only sounds were the twin girls heavy breathing in their adjacent cribs across the room from him. Carefully and slowly, the rat inched across the room. Once the rat was near the cribs, he slowly began to grow and change. Change into a pasty man with small, watery eyes. Looking around hesitantly once the transformation had finished, the man quickly went to work. He grabbed a canvas bag near by and started filling it with the diapers and blankets and little clothes and bottles he'd need to care for two small infants.

He was almost in the clear, the bag slung over his shoulder and a weave basket in his hand made to carry a child in one arm, ready to grab both girls, when his clumsiness finally caught up with him. One too quick turn and the bag over his shoulder crashed into an oil lamp sitting on the table. Wormtail froze for one horrible second, and the sound of the Weasley Mother rushing across the house had him grabbing the nearest girl child and turning to leap out the window. The moment Molly burst into her infant girls room was the instant Wormtail apparated from the spot beneath the nursery window where he landed after his leap.

He'd have to come back for the other one. But first, he had to get out of there. No doubt the place would be crawling with Aurors soon enough. As Wormtail cracked away, he'd heard the beginnings of Molly's wail as she discovered one of her children were gone.

Molly Weasley was enjoying the light buzz of her glass of wine, sitting in the warmth of her kitchen. As she always did, on her Arthur's late nights at work, she would be waiting for him to come home right here in their kitchen. It had been their ritual, ever since their Bill had been born nearly 11 years before, to never retire for the night without one another. It was one of the small things she and her husband did to keep their relationship alive, even under the exhaustion of their 8 children. Their pride, their joy, all 8 of their precious precious children.

Molly chuckled at herself, and then froze as a loud crash came from her youngest's room. Much quicker than an observer would think possible for a wine-drowsy woman of her stature, the mother was up and racing across the house and up the stairs to the nursery, panic in her heart and spurring her quickness.

In one heartbeat, she had thrown the door to the room open, her eyes automatically fixating on the two cribs where her baby girls should lay. In the very next heartbeat, she felt as if she had been doused in the painful shock of ice water dumped on her head. Her Guinevere was laying on her side, facing her sister's crib, screaming with all the power of her two month old lungs as if the world was being torn asunder. It was, Molly thought, oh it was. Because in her little Guinefac's crib, there was only a torn sheet. Molly felt a scream matching her infant daughter's bubble up in her throat and explode the same moment she dimly head a crack out the window. Though her head snapped in the direction of the noise, she knew she was too late to get even a last glimpse of whatever had just taken her baby girl from her.

Later, Molly would say that it was like her body moved without her direct control as the scream continued to rip out of her throat, and she fell to her knees, crawling over to her remaining daughter's crib. A hand on the rail, pulling her self up found her able to reach her little Guinevere and pull the screaming infant into her arms. Collapsing next to the crib where she stood, rocking her daughter and herself back and forth on her knees was how her husband found her only minutes later, when he had apparated home into their kitchen, only to see a spilt class of wine, and hear his wife and infant's anguished cries.

Less than ten minutes later, Arthur Weasley sat on the couch of their family room, his now quietly sobbing wife cradling one - only one - of their twin daughters next to him, the rest of their woken children piled around them, tucked against their sides, or up against their legs at a bevy of Ministry officials and Aurors swarmed their home, looking for clues.

The sobs of his wife, the worn out cries of his infant daughter, and the sniffles and quite crys of his sons blended with the cacophony of noise surrounding them. Arthur closed his eyes and leaned his head back, letting the noise wash over him as did his despair. A prayer to the Old Gods for the safety of his lost little one, a prayer to the Old Gods that their family would not be further broken, a promise to the Old Gods that he would never stop looking, never give up hope of finding his little Guinefac.

The DAILY PROPHET

Thursday, October 14 1981

WEASLEY CHILD KIDNAPPED IN DEAD OF NIGHT!

That's right, dear readers. I bring you tragic, tragic news.

Last night, The Burrow, the ancestral home of the Weasleys was broken into, and Arthur and Molly Weasley's youngest daughter, twin Guinefac Weasley, was stolen from her crib.

The family has understandably declined to make any comments, and this reporter, for one, will not bother them during this unimaginably horrible time. Information was received, however, from the official statement from the DMLE. According to the Investigating Wizard, it appears the culprit was able to sneak into the nursery of little Guinevere and Guinefac Weasley through the window.

It is unknown how they might have gotten past the wards in place at the time, though the Investigator assures this reporter that not only were the standard wards in place, but also the wards recommended by the Ministry issue pamphlet on keeping your home safe. We all know this is a dark time we live in, and obviously the family's caution was warranted.

According to the investigation thus far, it is unknown how the culprit got past those wards, it is only known that they were still in place when the Aurors arrived after a frantic flu call from a panicked Arthur Weasley. (It was said that the anguished screams of the mother, Molly Weasley, had been heard in the background of that floo-call to the headquarters of the DMLE,)

It appears, through what the Aurors were able to determine had been also taken from the room that the culprit appears to have been prepared to take both girls, as they had also packed up several supplies already stocked in the girls room. It is believed that the culprit's plan went awry when he accidentally knocked over and shattered the girls lamp, and do to Molly Weasley's quick movement upon hearing that frightful noise, the culprit had time to grab only one girl.

Aurors will be posted outside the Burrow as protection, as they suspect the culprit may return for the other girl. This reporter will respectfully keep you up to date on any new developments regarding the now lost Weasley girl.

Guinefac Weasley leaves behind a large family that will no doubt anxiously await her return.

Parents; Arthur and Molly Weasley

Siblings; William, age 10

Charles, age 8

Percival, age 5

Twins Fred and George, age 3 1/2

Ronald, age 19 months

and her twin, Guinevere, age 2 months.

The Wizard World weeps today for the Weasleys, and our prayers are that their little girl will be found.

Norman Skeeter, Reporter

The Daily Prophet

Small hut, Glastonbury, England

November 1st, 1981

Peter had been hiding here, upon order from his Lord, with the infant Weasley for near a month now. His Lord had decided that his punishment for failure to get both girls would be to take care of the infant himself until the opportunity arose to get the other one so they could be turned over to the families his Lord had choosen for them.

So far, no such opportunity had arisen. Wormtail, in rat form, had been apparating back over to the outskirts of the Burrow Orchard, to keep an eye each night as the infant lay sleeping in the crib he had transfigured from an old broken bed table that had already been in the the little hut when he'd arrived with the screaming child the night he'd taken her.

Oh, he'd been careful to stay in rat form, as few knew he had the ability, and certainly not the Ministry. And none of the people that did know would ever think that he had been the one to take the little girl anyhow. He was safe as could be.

He was also well aware that two Aurors had been posted at the Burrow every night since. Not once had the opportunity presented itself. The nursery window - actually, all of the children's windows now had bars over their windows, in an effort to block that point of entry. He'd be able to slip through in this form, of course, but he'd have to find a different way out. The house anti-apparition wards prevented that easy answer.

He never staid more than 30 minutes or so, aware of the danger of leaving the infant. Even if he had placed disillusion charms on the crib and child each time before he left. The hut was meant to appear abandoned, and the charms he placed on the child would ensure that any muggle wandering through would only see broken furniture, not the makeshift nursery he'd charmed and transfigured together. Still, he wouldn't take more chance than he should, and popped in for short surveillance trips a couple times a night just to make sure.

But this night, it was very very different. His Lord had told him they would take action against the Potters soon, and it seems his Lord had made his move the night before. Wormtail himself had been waiting for the report, but this night he could hear the Aurors guarding the Burrow talking loudly, celebrating even though the family they guarded was still mourning. He shook his little rat head in fear at what he had heard. No, no it couldn't be. His Lord could not be defeated! He could not have choosen the wrong side! Everything was falling apart. James Bloody Potter had won again! Even Dead... He took Lily with him, and that Potter Brat had somehow defeated his Lord! It wasn't right!

In a fury the little rat scammperd away to a place he could shift to human and apparate back to the shack and the child. He had to find out if it was true. In a hurry, Wormtail returned to the shack and gathered up the child. He apparated to headquarters immediately, only to quickly apparate away again when Lucius Malfoy caught sight of him, the blond aristocrat's eyes widening in rage, a shout of "TRAITOR" escaped through his lips. Peter didn't waste time to find out how many more than the three Deatheaters in front of headquarters would come rushing out for him.

Apparating to an alley in Soho, Peter began running in panic. He hid around a corner from where he had popped in, and finally looked around him. He had turned into the second alley on the left, and at the end a small, dirty girl with filthy blond hair and tattered clothes had frozen in place upon sight of him. Peter froze in return, and studied her. She looked to be about 12, maybe 14 years old. Beneath the dirt and grim, she appeared to have a dark shade of blond hair, and blue-gray eyes. At this distance, he wasn't really sure which it was. She was thin and wiry, but otherwise appeared to be a bit healthier than he'd expected a homeless muggle to appear.

His Deatheater brothers would be after him, they had called him Traitor. Too much of a coward to hang around and endure the Crucios he would get before being given the change to explain, Peter had run to give himself time.

Sirius would be after him. He was the only other person that knew about the switch in Secret Keepers. When Sirius found out, he would hunt Peter down like the rat he was. While before, he would have been perfectly safe at his Lord's side, now Wormtail had no such assurances. He looked at the girl, and then looked at the infant that lay sleeping in the same woven basket he'd taken from her room.

Peter ran to the girl and shoved the basket into her very surprised arms. Ripping the bag from his shoulder, he threw the strap around the girl's neck, and then turned and fled from the alley, not giving even a second look to the three month old infant he'd just abandoned to a homeless child, his action completed and his form disappearing from the alley in under 5 seconds.

Peter Pettigrew was on the run.

Forty five minutes later, the girl in the alley, holding the infant that had been shoved into her arms, and feeding the baby one of the bottles she'd found in the bag, snapped her head up as she heard a loud explosion coming from the direction of the main streets in London.

During their later cleanup, the Wizards sent to obliviate the Muggles that had witnessed Sirius Black supposedly blowing up Peter Pettigrew and several Muggles - would never find those little girls living in The Second Alley on the Left, Soho, London.

The Burrow Garden, Ottery St. Catchpole

October 13th, 1982

Arthur Weasley blindly stumbled into the kitchen of his family home. On any other day, he would find his cheerful and bright wife already making breakfast to feed the army of their family. On this particular morning, however, the Weasley Patriarch knew things would be different.

He had taken the day off work, and called upon one of his cousins to come and watch the children for the day. Only 6 remained at home - One had started his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry just the month before.

And the other was the reason for the darkness in the kitchen. Arthur's eyes adjusted to the dim light as his focus steadied on his wife's form sitting at the kitchen table, her head in her hands. The fog of the early morning began to clean, and he registered the quiet sounds of sniffling. He saw the tea kettle sitting on the table, next to her elbow. He suspected his wife had attempted to get up and start her morning routine either in defiance of the day, or as an attempt at distracting herself.

He drew himself up and a plan started to form in his brain. Before he could take his first action, he heard the floo start up in the family room, back from the direction he came, and he swiftly turned and retraced his step. He greeted his cousin, and let her know that the children were all still in bed. He asked her for a couple of minutes, and he and Molly would start the process of getting six children from ages 9 to 1 ready for the day at their elder cousin's home.

It wasn't long before he returned to the kitchen to find that his wife had scarcely moved. With a quick flick of his want, wall scones flickered to life. Arthur deftly grabbed up the tea kettle on his way past the table, and returned it to it's place on the stove. He shuffled around in their cabnite for a moment, and made a quite sound of triumph escape when he laid his hands on the coffee kettle. Just a second later, he had his hands on his and his wife's stash of Frankish Coffee. If ever there was a day they'd need it...

Once Arthur had the coffee perculating, he slid onto the bench next to his wife, and gently pulled the woman into his arms. Arthur closed his eyes as his wife turned and buried her face against his neck.

And once again Arthur prayed to the Old Gods. Just has he had done exactly one year before, and exactly as he would do, he decided, every year on the anniversary of their little Guinefac's kidnapping. He prayed for the safety of his lost child, the safety of his family that yet remained within his reach. He renewed his promise to keep looking, to never give up on his little girl.

Soon, he and his wife would have to face their children. Some days he was grateful that only William, Charles, and Percival seemed to remember their missing sister. Today would be one of those days, as he intended to handle his two older boys himself this morning. He'd already written a letter to William the night before, and Errol, their post owl, should be delivering it with the morning post at school. He hoped his words offered comfort to his Bill, even though he couldn't. Charlie and Percy would be comforted, and counseled to try not to let it effect them too much today, and to try not to mention it to the younger children. The twins, swiftly heading to five years old now, were already starting to understand far more than Arthur would wish them burdened with.

But for now, Arthur thought, for just this moment, he would hold his wife and they would mourn.