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Chapter 4

31st October 1981

Sirius was ploughing through a literal mountain of letters on his desk in the department of magical law enforcement. He had just returned from a mission that had taken over three months but he still could not believe the depth of the pile of mail and owl droppings on his desk. Scourgifying and scanning most of the mail he made inroads into it relatively quickly. Most of it were reported sightings of known death eaters which he found very strange that they were directed to his desk when he was out hunting vampires for the last ten weeks. He screwed up a report of a cursed cauldron and with impressive skill that he had acquired in the last three hours he lobbed it through the candelabra, off the foe glass, and off the rim and out of the waste paper basket. Scowling at the disappointment he continued his game of lucky or not so lucky dip.

Glancing at the seal he brightened up considerably. Tearing the envelope open he was confronted by a photo of what appeared to be a kitchen table . Turning to the enclosed letter he read the familiar neat script a smile framing his tired features.

JK Rowling Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

Dear Padfoot,

Thank you, thank you, for Harry's birthday present! It was his favourite by far. One year old and already zooming along on a toy broomstick, he looked so pleased with himself, I'm enclosing a picture so you can see. You know it only rises about two feet off the ground, but he nearly killed the cat and he smashed a horrible vase Petunia sent me for Christmas (no complaints there). Of course, James thought it was funny, says he's going to be a great Quidditch player, but we've had to pack away all the ornaments and make sure we don't take our eyes off him when he gets going.

We had a very quiet birthday tea, just us and old Bathilda, who has always been sweet to us, and who dotes on Harry. We were so sorry you couldn't come, but the Order's got to come first, and Harry's not old enough to know it's his birthday anyway! James is getting a bit frustrated shut up here, he tries not to show it but I can tell - also, Dumbledore's still got his Invisibility Cloak, so no chance of little excursions. If you could visit, it would cheer him up so much. Wormy was here last weekend, I thought he seemed down, but that was probably the news about the Bones's; I cried all evening when I heard.

Bathilda drops in most days, she's a fascinating old thing with the most amazing stories about Dumbledore, I'm not sure he'd be pleased if he knew! I don't know how much to believe, actually, because it seems incredible that Dumbledore could ever have been friends with Gellert Grindelwald. I think her mind's going, personally!

Lots of love,

Lily

Sirius turned back to the photo and saw to his delight the little black-haired toddler zooming around the kitchen on a toy broomstick with his mother running behind him. The little boy was laughing his head off and Lily looked harassed but happy.

Glancing up from the letter at the clock on his wall he saw it was already four thirty and he needed to get going. Placing the letter and photograph back in the envelope he summoned Kreacher and had him take the letter back to his room in Grimmauld Place. He waved to Alastor and a new recruit whose name he thought was Kingsley as he strode towards the floo terminus. Lily and James expected him at half past six for a Halloween dinner so that gave him plenty of time to pop into Diagon Alley to grab a bottle of elf wine and a gift for harry. He thought he might stop for a drink in the Leaky Cauldron and see if Dung Fletcher was about. He hadn't checked in with the order yet and he wanted to find out what the situation was in Britain without bothering the Potter's with unpleasant thoughts of the war. It was a full moon tonight so Remus wouldn't be coming but it would still be nice to see James, Lily and Peter this evening, not to mention his god-son. Sirius loved his god-son, but padfoot loved him even more, he and James would drive Lily thoroughly insane by prancing round the house as prongs and padfoot for little Harry's enjoyment. Smiling he called out his destination and disappeared in a swirl of green flame never knowing he would never see James and Lily again in this life.

"Audrey are you ready yet? We're going to be late!" Jack called up the stairs. He was beginning to feel a bit of a fool wrapped in toilet paper carrying a small plastic cauldron full of candy.

"Nearly." His wife jogged down the stairs putting in a skull shaped earring. "So how do I look?" She said spinning around in her short tight black dress with silver cobwebs and a tattered black cape.

"You make a sexy witch, but you've forgotten something."

"My hat's on coatstand, numpty."

"Our child's still in your room, numpty."

"Oh right hang on." Stumbling in her high heels she jogged back up the stairs. Jack craned his head to the side appreciating for the thousandth time how hot his wife was, until she caught him looking. Shouting downstairs as she continued on the landing. "I knew this dress was too short. I think I'll go change."

"If you do that we'll never get their on time! Plus you look sexy, stay like that and I might be forced to trick or treat you later he said." He waggled his eyebrows up at his wife as she came downstairs with Catherine. Also dressed as a witch her costume was purple with silver stars on it and her sleek blonde hair shone in the hall lamp. "Well you might look sexy but she is the most beautiful witch in the world."

The little blonde witch in Audrey's arms stretched out her own ones to Jack and said in a hesitant gurgle "Up-py dada?" Jack's grin split his face as he took Catherine from Audrey who rolled her eyes.

"She's such a daddy's girl."

"To right. She knows who loves her most." Audrey snorted at that while putting on a pointed witch hat.

"Your bandages are coming off."

"I brought a spare roll" he said holding up a roll of toilet paper. Unable to hold back a chuckle Audrey steered them into the car.

"Have you got the address?" She asked, while checking her lipstick in the mirror. Jack was busy strapping Catherine into the child seat in the back.

"It's on the dash. Who do we know who's going?"

"Pete and Di will be there and of course you know John and Barbara from the maths department. Oh and my old friend Jean from Uni married another dentist whose friends with John. Dianna said that she's bringing her two toddlers and some other people are bringing their kids. Apparently John and Barbara have hired a babysitter who'll look after the kids in a the playroom while we socialize."

"ah that's good, Cat wont get lonely then." Having been glancing again at the address Jack only narrowly avoided being carved up by a red route-master."

"Watch where you're going."

Eventually they negotiated their way around London's transport network and found parking thirty or so yards from the hosts house.

"Trick or treat!" Two of them called as John and Barbara opened the door.

"Jack, Audrey come in, lovely to see you, how've you been? Who's this gorgeous little witch?"

"Cat" came the giggled reply as Barbara a large red-haired woman painted green with a fake bolt sticking out of her head cooed to little Catherine.

"Why don't we go upstairs and meet the other children before we grown-ups go party? Hrm."

"Jack you go on I'll make sure that Cat, I mean Catherine's settled." Damn his infernal nickname is getting into my head. Although to be fair it was Catherine who said it. Audrey followed Barbara up the stairs to the playroom and was met by a surprisingly large number of children ranging from about two to five as well as two women. There were four boys who were sat down to one side of the room playing with blocks and making forts. On the other side of the room a young girl of about two was sat staring at a picture book. One of the women Audrey recognised immediately as Jean Harris. Her bushy brown hair hadn't changed at all and much to Audrey's annoyance her figure didn't seem to have suffered either. Jean and Audrey had had an uneasy friendship at Uni. Mainly because Audrey's boyfriend of the time Dan had fallen head over heels for Jean, while still going out with Audrey. It had become easier when Audrey went to do her PGCE and trained to be a teacher where she met Jack. It was now easily over two years since she'd last run into Jean and while she couldn't honestly say she'd missed the woman she could say it was genuinely nice to see her. "Oy Harris." Audrey called out one hand on her hips the other holding Catherine. Jean looked up from the girl in the corner who was obviously her daughter.

"Well as I live and breathe, Audrey Stevenson, I can't believe I haven't seen you in what a year?"

"Over two, I'd have said otherwise I'd have known you got preggers at some point."

Jean laughed "yeah come and say hello to Hermione, my daughter and who's this little witch?"

Catherine did her little party trick of uncannily knowing when someone was asking her name and answered. "Cat." Audrey and Jack rarely mentioned that so far it was only one of about four understandable words amongst the toddlers babble. 'Ma, Dada, Birdy and Ka' being the other words that her parents had been able to decipher.

"Yeah this is Catherine," placing her down in front of Hermione and saying "Catherine this is Hermione" Jean's daughter was about two years old. She had curly brown hair dark hazel eyes with hints of chocolate. Jean's eyes were a warm dark brown and it looked as though Hermione's were going to settle on a similar colour. She was also dressed as a witch however she was in a more traditional black cape and hat. She had been pointedly ignoring the boys with a surprising amount of superiority for a two-year old. Clearly deciding that playing forts was beneath her she was instead studying 'Jack and Jill' with the intense focus that only a young child can pay to such distractions.

At this juncture the little girl finally looked up at her new company. With scarily perfect articulation she astounded Audrey with a five word sentence. "I don't like her mummy."

While both Audrey and Jean might have been shocked by her sentence, Catherine thought it was a fantastic trick and tried to emulate it. "do iker mama" followed by a happy scream and giggle.

"Mummy can we go?"

"Hermione that's very rude, be nice you'll just have to be patient."

"But mum!" Hermione was silenced by a look from Jean and went back to looking at the picture book.

"Hermione, darling, why don't you tell Catherine the story?"

"Fine…Once upon a time…." The two adults retreated a way back to watch their children interact.

"Hermione's only two right?"

"Yeah, you spotted it to then."

"What that she can form proper sentences about two years early?"

"Oh and that she's learning to read… Seriously she can spell her name now and can do most three-letter words. She's having trouble with 'the' but is very proud of learning hat today."

"She can read! Jean you need to get her tested she could be a prodigy or a genius or something."

"I don't want that for her. I want her to be normal Augie, I want her to have friends and play with Barbie's and dress up."

The two adults continued to watch their children for a few minutes before going downstairs to join the party.

"I like your hair. But I don't like you." The brown-haired two-year old scowled at the blonde next to her. The words seemed to register as she turned with wide eyes to her companion and a look of puzzlement.

"Ilike... Mioney" She said with an expectant expression waiting for the magic words to sort everything out. Instead her baby babble attempt at her name infuriated the brown-haired girl.

"My name is Hermione." She said crossly, banging her tiny fist on the carpet to emphasise the point.

On more familiar ground at last Catherine gestured to her head and said "Cat I". She then did something that the baby sitter who had checked on a boy who had fallen over nearly missed and eventually convinced herself she had not seen it anyway. Catherine gestured to a toy bunny across the room. It stood up shook itself and bounced across the floor to Catherine who took it and passed it to Hermione. The brown-haired girl stared at the now normal bunny which had moved by itself. Hermione decided that it was probably magic. Unlike the kind in her story books there was no wand or words so she guessed it was the gesture and the desire which made the magic happen. Though she would try for a couple of years she never purposefully made any magic happen. That's not to say that strange and unexplainable things didn't happen around her. Dan and Jean Granger had a pediatric experts number on the notice board with their hands itching to the receiver by the time she turned eleven arguing with themselves to see if there was any scientific explanation for her seemingly magical powers.

Jack had wandered up the stairs to check on Catherine when he saw the bunny hop across the room. He hadn't told Audrey this because at the time he thought he was going mad but it wasn't the first time strange things happened with Cat. He would turn around for a second and she'd have disappeared from her high chair to the play pen instantaneously or her favourite toy would somehow travel halfway across the room without her moving. Audrey had so far apparently not noticed anything strange. Either that or like Jack she had decided to ignore it. Now that he had seen it again and by the shocked look on the brunette toddlers face, there was now a very good reason to talk to Audrey about the odd things that kept happening.

The purple of twilight was once again oozing its way into the valley of Godric's Hollow as the October evening gave way to-night. A slight displacement of air was all that revealed the cloaked figure of death. Hidden behind a mask of dark metal the dark lord glided down the cobbled street of the sleepy west country village. As he saw people coming round the corner he prepared to disillusion himself when he saw that there was no need. There were other people in cloaks and strange dress. Mostly children but their parents were also often dressed as ghosts or witches. One small child dressed as a witch looked up and said in a friendly voice. "Nice costume mister."

Ah of course Halloween. We used to have pumpkin pie at the orphanage. How appropriate that on the day when the world beyond this is at its closest to our own I shall make my seventh and tie myself inseparably to this life.

Gliding past the ''trick-or-treaters' he continued on the route he had extracted from Wormtail's memory. There it was the little white cottage in its wild flower meadow. A quick wave of his wand revealed complicated and powerful wards which would alert the inhabitants of his approach. First then to stop help or escape. "Protego apparo, Stareo Ianuam" anti-apparition and portkey wards crashed down into place above the Potter's wards. A powerful confundus ward later and Voldemort was confident that the Potter's could neither escape nor could aid com quick enough to save them.

He turned and after taking a deep breath to prepare himself stepped over the ward line, countered the jinxes and blasted the front door in with a flick of his wand tip. James Potter came flying into the hallway. "It's him Lily! Take Harry and Run. I'll hold him off" James ran to grab his wand on the kitchen counter but Voldemort blasted the surface as he reached for it. Diving behind the sofa. He wandlessly summoned a frying pan and charged the dark lord. The blood of Gryffindor was obvious in his eyes. The normal blue was dark and the berserker rage was coursing through his brain as he bore down upon the man who meant to kill his wife and son.

How fitting that the heir of Slytherin should be the one to wipe out one of the last of the line of Gryffindor. "Avada Kedavra". The frying pan hit the floor with a loud clang as silence fell in the room. Turning the face of James with a bare foot, Voldemort tutted at the waste of such a powerful pureblood. The crying his enhanced hearing detected from an upstairs room reminded him of why Potter could never have served. One down, just the moodblood whore and the brat to go. Ascending the stairs slowly Voldemort fingered the ring of Gryffindor on his fourth finger. He had been unable to decide in truth whether it was truly the ring of Gryffindor however it was the ring of the third Peverall brother Ignotus from whom the Potter's are descended. Either way it would make a fitting vessel for his final horcrux.

Turning into the master bedroom took in the sight of Lily tears running down her face and arms stretched across the bars of a cot. "Please don't kill Harry! Please!"

Oh dear I did promise Severus he could have the moodblood. Two more chances then I'll kill her. "Step aside girl, you need not die here."

"No" she screamed. "Kill me not him, kill me not harry please." She pleaded with him the fear and sorrow for the death of her husband was a white hot pain behind her eyes but she forced herself to stay between Voldemort and her son. She and Alice Longbottom had found the ritual and it was express that it would only work if the mother died trying to protect the son.

"I said stand aside girl or I will kill you, and dogs will feast on the corpses of your husband, your son and then finally your own."

"No you will have to kill me first before I let you get to Harry too."

So be it, bad luck Severus, you'll just have to find a new plaything. "Avada Kedavra". Once again the green light flashed through the house and another body hit the floor.

"Morsmordre." He cast the dark mark out the window to announce his victory and the death of the Potters. Turning now with a huge sense of gravity the dark lord prepared the ritual to seal the final piece of his soul. Harry James Potter the prophesied messiah of the wizarding world looked out from the bars of his cot at the strange lights. The end of a long wooden stick touched him on the forehead above his right eyebrow.

Now the world will never again doubt my power. So die's the last hope of fools. "Avada Kedavra" he yelled the killing curse and knew no more.