The early morning of December 27th was a cold and blustery one in the town of Abingdon-on-Thames. Heavy cloud cover obscured the moon and stars and the downtown streetlamps seemed to glow more timidly than usual against the pitch black of night. Snow was falling heavily, making any kind of travel perilous.
Despite the conditions, three hooded figures wearing black cloaks strode confidently out from behind a tall hedgerow and onto a quiet residential street. The trio moved carefully down the right side of the street, their footfalls muffled by the few inches of white powder that had already accumulated overnight. As they approached the end of the street, they paused in front of a small brick home. The dwelling was in good repair and its yard was surrounded by a perfectly-painted white picket fence. A holiday wreath graced the front door, its bright red ribbon a striking contrast to the black of the door on which it hung.
"This the place?" one of the figures whispered gruffly.
"Has to be," a second replied.
"Exactly as he described it…" the third, a female voice, said in wonder. "Hard to believe he's never set foot here."
"Pried it from a memory," the second speaker, a trim wizard in his thirties, chuckled.
"Quiet!" the first hissed. "Time to move."
Their brief conference ended, the trio advanced, pausing only to gently open the small gate separating the yard from the sidewalk. The original speaker, a middle-aged wizard with a beard as black as the night itself, moved to slip along the side of the house, indicating to the others to enter through the wreathed door out front. The tall, spindly witch was the first to draw her wand, quietly casting the unlocking charm to gain access to the residence. Carefully she and her companion entered the house as the other wizard made his way around to locate the back door.
Reaching it, the older wizard slipped his own wand from within his robes and unlocked it. While the others had the more pleasurable task this evening, his was the more difficult. He began carefully searching the lower floor of the house for Muggle valuables. It was of vital importance that as many of these as possible go missing. Having worked in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement for the past seventeen years he knew the value in disguising the motive behind what they were about to do. Without Aurors to help them uncover the magical traces their actions would leave behind, it would be only too easy for foolish Muggles who came upon the scene to draw the wrong conclusion.
Upstairs the witch and wizard scanned the bedrooms. The first belonged to a Muggle child of sixteen who was sleeping soundly in a bed against the wall. The pair cast a sticking charm on the door before shutting it and moving on. Next, they encountered another child's room. The boy sleeping within appeared to be approximately fourteen, but his décor was far different. On his closet door hung a pair of discarded Hogwarts robes, a yellow and black tie had been cast aside on the small desk, laying across a pile of spellbooks. On the wall over his bed a Hufflepuff banner hung proudly. Sneering, the witch and wizard repeated the process from the first bedroom. The mudblood would be too inept in his young age to overcome it. Finally, the pair came upon the home's master bedroom. Staring within they noted a Muggle man and wife sleeping, the woman with her head nestled upon her husband's chest comfortably. Wands drawn, they entered and began their work.
As he moved through the living room, scanning the well-decorated Christmas tree and still-hung stockings, the middle-aged wizard heard the first muffled cry. The woman's. He was irritated. Despite their useless state, Muggle men were generally more dangerous, possessing the brute strength, if they acted quickly enough, to disarm a witch or wizard by force. The man should've been slain first. Still he noted, his partners were not without flair. From what he could tell they had awakened the husband. The fool was pathetically pleading for the lives of himself and his children. Cruel laughter came down the stairwell before his life ended in a muffled scream. Footsteps indicated his companions had moved on to deal with the children.
The wizard completed his job downstairs by carefully breaking the lock on the back door of the home so the Muggles sent to investigate might consider it a burglary gone wrong. As he ascended the staircase, he was hopeful. They were toying with the Muggle child as his mudblood brother awakened, trying desperately to make his way past his own stuck door. Sadly, he reached the top of the stairs just too late to see the brothers' lives ended. Encountering the scene, he raised an eyebrow. The fallen Hufflepuff had blasted his door from its hinges. Still, it had done nothing but bring him more quickly to his own end. His eyes vacant, his body now lay slashed open in the hall, blood staining the wall and carpet.
"The others are similar?" he asked simply.
"As you said," the witch replied. "To look like Muggle weapons."
"Shall we cast the Mark?" asked the third.
"Of course not you fool!" the man exclaimed. "The Aurors will come for this one, yes. But the movement is still growing. We cannot give away our involvement in all these incidents. It tells the enemy too much about our numbers. Besides, unfriendly wizards have killed Muggles and their spawn for simpler reasons throughout our time…"
Motioning to the stairway, he led his companions out the front door and into the cold night. The neighboring houses remained dark and the air remained silent. With a series of soft pops, they disapparated.
A/N: Very short here and with a purpose. I felt it was time to address the growing darkness in the world outside Hogwarts. To ignore that, seems to me to ignore something important about not just the time the characters were living in, but also values and positions that become very important to their development. While it will not immediately become a focus of the story, it will continue to be addressed throughout and will grow in importance to the plot over time. I also decided to make at least the first foray into this area be through the eyes of the perpetrators so we could see the depth of their callous disregard for lives they see as worthless firsthand. Next chapter will be brighter.
As always, thanks for reading! If you're enjoying the story, please leave a like if you haven't already and review below!