At 6:37 pm on a warm summer evening in 1962, reports started flooding through to the auror department of the Ministry for Magic about a house residing in Godric's Hollow. William Darby, Head Auror, sat in his office as two of his aurors filtered the reports.
"It appears firstly, they are complaining of shouting coming from the house, particularly a woman. Another report states that the house is shaking and they can feel the vibration through their floor across the street, more shouting, and ..."
William looked up from the letter he was composing at the lack of words, a frown etching on his face. Fifteen years in the auror department, seven as Head Auror, and still it seemed that every day was different to the next. After the uprising and war of Grindelwald, there was a relative calm across Britain in regards to dark wizards. Petty crimes became very popular, a lot of thievery and minor altercations between wizarding folk taking up the bulk of reports to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Domestic issues, he found, were almost always the most draining. With the uprising He considered himself slightly lucky with this case as he would not have to wipe the memory of any muggles considering this was a wizarding town. The paperwork that went into obliviating a muggle...
The auror glanced from his paperwork to the Head Auror, who raised his eyebrows expectingly. The auror nodded and continued.
"One of the neighbours states that the house is fading, sir."
William Darby grunts in response, perhaps this was a case for the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes...
"The neighbours are worried for the child in the house. They say that two wizards in black robes entered the house about twenty minutes ago, which is odd because the house rarely has guests enter from the front door. The husband of the family works a night shift at St. Mungos while the wife stays at home with the child, so it is very unusual for them to be having visitors at this hour. It could be possible that we are dealing with dark wizards here, sir."
The Head Auror nods, as he looks across the board of on duty aurors. Not including himself, he only had 5 fully trained aurors and two new recruits, considering it was summer holidays for Hogwarts students and majority of his aurors wanted time off to spend with their children. Currently, MacDonald and Gribbs were attending another call out in a town on the east coast, Finchley was on his scheduled break so that left him with the two aurors standing in front of him and two trainees. There must always be a fully trained auror at the department. Darby sighed, it had been a few years since he had the pleasure of working a call out. He stood from his desk, tucked his wand into the security band on his wrist, and started formulating his plan of attack.
"Richard, you will stay with Winters and cover base. Fowler, you'll come with me and we will take the other trainee with us. We will apparate there, Fowler you will side along with, what's his name again?" Darby paused, as he secured his robe.
"Charles Dodge, sir." Richard supplied.
"Right then, Fowler you'll take Dodge and we will proceed with a standard inspection of the property before determining if it's safe to enter. Richard, if we are not back within the hour, send over Finchley when he is back from break. Not to worry, let's get a move on."
William Darby left the room with a flourish of his robe, the two aurors hot on his tail. With everything set in place, the three apparated out of the Ministry, landing safely at the marked destination in Godric's Hollow. The noise was immediate, a mix between a loud screech and a heavy groan could be heard from the other end of the street. They swiftly started moving along the street, and could feel the eyes of the neighbourhood watching from either behind their window curtains or in their front gardens all curious to see what would happen. They approached the house silently, Darby moving to wrap around the side of the house, Dodge following behind and Fowler taking the opposite side of the house. The house was visibly moving, the ground beneath their feet shaking violently, as the house changed from opaque to translucent. Darby placed his palm on the bricks, feeling the vibration tenfold and his hand and forearm fade momentarily with the house. He backed off a step, and pointed back to the direction of the front door. Dodge followed behind.
"I'll enter first, Fowler will follow. Dodge, stand by and keep an eye on the house. Take note of anything happening, and if you see anyone exit the house, use a simple stunning spell or full body bind. Follow in pursuit if necessary."
Dodge nodded, and stood guard of the house as his mentor auror and Head Auror entered the house. He had been taken on several call outs now and was quietly confident in his abilities as an auror in training. Only a few more months would see his graduation from cadet, and he would be allowed to take on more responsibility when on call out duty. For a few moments, everything seemed okay, he had faith in his seniors that they would be successful. However, in the blink of an eye, there was one final shout that would echo through the street in Godric's Hollow on the otherwise pleasant late afternoon, and number 18 disappeared without a magical trace.