*I don't own Harry Potter, InuYasha, or any of their characters
For several moments, Ariana remained huddled in her arms, terrified that more scary noises would start up once again. Eventually, however, she felt brave enough to peek over her arms' protective circle.
"Papa? Mama?" she called out. When she heard no answer, she frowned slightly. In all the times before, at least one of them would at least respond... Then again, Papa had told her that they would be playing Hide and Seek against Mama. But then there was that strange dark man... did he distract Mama from the game?
Determined to find out what was going on, she slowly shuffled out from her hiding spot underneath Uncle Moony's bed. Slowly standing up, Ariana waited until she felt balanced enough to walk. She was startled enough to land on her behind, however, when the bed suddenly collapsed right next to her.
Frightened by the phenomenon, she quickly cried out, "Papa! Mama!" as she shuffled backwards away from the bed.
Still no response from either of her parents. At this point, Ariana was truly becoming more and more scared- after all, her frightened cries should've brought both of them over.
Sniffling, she stood back up and toddled out towards the door that was ajar. If Papa and Mama couldn't come to her, then she'd go to them!
Stepping out of the room, she looked around the living room, surprised by how messy the living room was. There was dust everywhere, and it appeared that chunks of the ceiling had fallen on the floor. The last time she had seen a room this messy was when Uncle Padfoot had tried to start what he called a 'Muggle Food Fight' and ended up getting all of the mashed potatoes that Mama had been planning on serving for dinner all over the dining room.
"Uh oh..." Ariana stated aloud, remembering how mad her mother had gotten during that last time.
Instinctively avoiding the chunks of ceiling, she made her way towards the staircase to the second floor. At the bottom of the steps lay her Papa, arms and limbs splayed out in a familiar position from when he would play with both her and Harry.
"Papa!" she yelled in relief as she ran to him. As she got closer, she noticed that his eyes were open. Assuming he was awake, she continued, "Papa, no more Hi' an' See', I scared..." When that got no response, she frowned. He had never ignored her before... maybe he didn't hear her? Determined to have him hear her, she yelled, "Papa, I scared!"
No response.
Toddling closer to her Papa, she proceeded to shove him to grab his attention. When he shifted back into his previous position, she shoved harder. Once more, his body moved back into his original position.
"Papa?" she queried, fear causing her throat to tighten. This kind of behavior definitely wasn't normal for her Papa... unless maybe the strange man pulled a prank on him like Uncle Padfoot and Uncle Moony sometimes did? There was that one time where Papa turned super stiff... then Mama had made him better... that's it!
"I find Mama," she decided aloud. "She he'p you!"
Remembering that Mama was putting Harry into bed, Ariana prepared to do something that she had only done before with the supervision of her parents- climb the stairs. Putting her palms flat on the first step, she braced herself to tackle that daunting climb.
Before she could, however, she heard the door open. Straightening and turning to see who it was, she was surprised to see that it was another man dressed in dark clothes. Unlike the first man who had kept his hood up, however, this dark man had left his head bare revealing rather shiny black hair. His lips tightening into thin white lines while his dark eyes glinted with something she couldn't recognize, the new man stared at she and her Papa.
Focusing his gaze on her, the stranger finally asked in a deep voice, "Where are you going, little one?"
"I find Mama," she answered, "Papa need he'p. Man I no see 'fore did som'in."
Taking a slow deep breath, the stranger finally said, "Well, little one, I'm hoping to find your Mama, too. Would you like to me to help you?"
Realizing that this man could carry her up those tall stairs, Ariana toddled up to him and raised her arms in response. As he bent down and picked her up, she pointed towards the stairs.
"Mama put Hawwy in bed," she informed him.
As he nodded in response and began to walk up the stairs, Ariana laid her head down on his shoulder and took a deep breath. While she did, she inhaled the man's scent- a mixture of plants, fur, and something metallic that together reminded her of the times when Mama went into the basement where she wasn't allowed to go.
Finally reaching the top of the stairs, the man carrying her turned his head. "Which way is the nursery?" he inquired.
Ariana cocked her head in confusion. Nursery? What was a nursery?
Sighing, the man rephrased his question, "Where does your mother put your brother to bed?"
The little girl brightened up at this new question- she could answer this one! Wriggling to be let down, eventually she was placed back on the floor. "Dis way!" she stated confidently as she toddled towards the room she shared with her brother. As the dark-haired man followed slowly, she could see that the door was ajar. Did that mean that Mama was still putting Harry in bed, then?
Arriving at the door and pushing it open, she saw Mama lying in a similar way to Papa. Frowning at this, for Mama had never fallen before to a prank, she took two steps into the room. Unexpectedly, however, she tripped over a dark cloth that covered the floor between her Mama and the door.
As she wrestled herself up from the cloth (which was a similar color to what the first Dark Man had worn- maybe it was his?), the stranger who had carried her up the stairs stopped suddenly.
"The Dark Lord's cloak?" he whispered. His voice thickened as he continued, "Oh no, no, no..." Rushing into the room behind her, he gasped loudly. "Lily, NO!" he cried out in anguish. The dark-haired man rushed passed the little girl as he rushed to her Mama. Ariana watched as he lifted up her Mama and clutched her to his chest as he began to cry.
Watching him hugging her Mama, she soon realized that Harry had not yet started to cry, which she found odd. After all, her baby brother would always begin crying when someone else cried- even if someone was crying of happiness. Deep in her heart, she began to feel a deep worry for her brother.
Toddling towards the crib, she noticed for the very first time that the wall behind it had somehow disappeared, showing the night sky in all of its glory. Frowning at this strange phenomenon, she soon found herself standing in front of the crib.
Her brother lay there flat on his back, eyes closed and limbs splayed out in a way that chilled her to the bone.
"Hawwy!" she called out as she began yanking on the crib wall. When her call had no response, she redoubled her efforts. "Wake up, Hawwy!" she cried out.
Suddenly, the crib wall- weakened by the same force that destroyed the wall behind the crib- ripped from three corners of the frame. As Ariana fell backward, the crib wall swung on its lone corner until it created a convenient ladder for the two year old leading into the crib. Standing back up as quickly as she could, Ariana saw the new ladder and quickly took advantage of it.
Crawling next to her brother, Ariana took a hold of his closest shoulder and began to shake him. "Hawwy, wake up!" she demanded. As he showed no response, she yelled, "HAWWY!"
Unbeknownst to her, a surge of energy traveled down her arms into her brother, creating an unbreakable bond that was felt by the unconscious Harry. Reacting to this energy, her brother moaned as his head shifted to the side.
Sighing in relief, Ariana called again, "Hawwy!"
At her call, Harry's eyes squeezed further shut as he lifted his arms to obviously rub them. As her eyes followed his hands, for the first time the little girl noticed that her brother's forehead now had a cut in a strange jagged line.
"Uh-oh, you got boo-boo," she stated as Harry finally opened his eyes. Focusing on his sister, he soon made an inquiring noise. Nodding, she continued, "Mama fix dat!"
"No, little one," the dark haired man stated aloud in a voice that was obviously rough with his grief. As she helped Harry sit back up and the two focused their attention on him, the man laid their Mama back down gently. Looking up at the two children, he continued, "Neither of your parents can fix anything anymore."
Cocking her head, Ariana inquired, "Why?"
Taking a deep breath, he answered, "Because they've passed on into the next world."
"Huh?"
"The dark man that was here before..." Here the man had anger filling his eyes, "He used a curse to take your Mama's life away, along with your... Papa's."
"Take 'way..." Ariana mused, trying to wrap her mind around what the man was telling her. Remembering what Mama had done one time when she had been bad, she uttered aloud, "My toys w'en I bad?"
For a moment, the man wore a confused look. With a sudden look of realization, he confirmed, "Yes, just like how your toys where taken away when you were bad." Opening his mouth as if to speak more, suddenly the dark clothed man stiffened.
"Ariana," he said, speaking her name for the first time as he stood up to his full height. As he gazed steadily into her eyes, he continued, "I have to go now- someone's here who'll help you and your sibling. While it isn't clear what the future holds, know that there is a possibility that we shall meet again." Before the two year-old could express her confusion to him, the man promptly turned on his heel and vanished with a soft crack.
Harry, having remained silent that whole time, began to cry. His sobs tugging on instincts buried so deep that they were forgotten by all but her subconscious, Ariana pulled him into a hug.
"It okay Hawwy," she comforted him, despite her own confusion about why the nice man had left, "Don't cwy..." Far off in the distance, the two could hear sirens begin to sound.
The two siblings jumped, however, when they heard the footsteps of something large enter the house.
"James? Lily?" called out a gruff yet gentle voice that sounded vaguely familiar to Ariana. Two more steps were slowly heard, and then a very loud gasp. "Oh no, James, no, no, no... yeh can't be dead..." the voice pleaded, thickening with grief. As the footsteps suddenly began to come up the stairs, Ariana hugged her brother tighter. With less footsteps than what she was used to adults using, the unknown person suddenly filled the doorway.
"Lily, not yeh too..." cried out the newcomer, revealed to be a giant bushy-faced man wearing a dark brown coat with many pockets. Ducking down and turning his body slightly sideways to fit through the door, he soon kneeled at her Mama's side just as the man before had done. "Dumbledore told me ter hurry, he did... and I'm too late fer the both of yeh... I'm so sorry..." he said as giant tears spilled from his eyes. Wiping them away, he reached deep into one of his pockets and pulled out a slightly wrinkly white flower. "I know it's not much," he stated as he laid the flower on the floor next to her Mama, "but I can't stay... the Muggles be coming, yeh see, with their flashing blues, and they won't 'preciate a big lummox like me, would they?"
After he said this last sentence, his attention was suddenly drawn to the crib where the two siblings stared at him.
"Hello, Ariana," he began, "I dunno if you remember me, but I'm Rubeus Hagrid. Yer Ma and Pa once took yeh to meet me at 'ogwarts when they 'ad to speak to Dumbledore about summat." His eyes turning towards Harry, whose tears had stopped as the babe stared curiously at the biggest person he had ever met in his short life, he added, "And yeh must be Harry– yeh were in yer Ma's belly at that time, so it's nice ter finally meet yeh."
As Ariana had a flash of a memory supporting Hagrid's statement, the man in question suddenly stood up. Using only one step to cross the room, he continued, "I'm gonna be yer friend, yeh two. Yeh may not know it yet, but yeh've got it tough now and yeh'll need friends in the times ter come." Reaching out his hand to them, he finished, "Now, it's best to come with me, don't yeh think?"
The two children hesitated for a moment. Ariana thought about what the dark-haired man said previously, and Hagrid's words now. Coming to a decision, she unwound her arms from around Harry and reached out towards the giant.
As he first picked her than her brother up, Hagrid looked back down at their Mama. "Lily, I want yeh to know... Yeh and James won't be forgotten– not by me, not by anyfolk."
Cradling the two children in a tight gentle grip, the trio then left the building as blue lights began to flash in the night and the rumble of a loud motorcycle began to be heard.
A/N: Holy bejeezus, this chapter was hard to write. Thankfully I have already established that Ariana's a bit further along in her development than most other children her age, but still... toddler speak is INSANELY hard.
I initially wanted to get this out Halloween for obvious reasons, however work interfered by putting me on constant closing shifts. Anyway... initially Ariana was supposed to make the huge climb up the stairs herself, find Lily's body, then try to wake her up until she slowly came to the realization that her Mama won't be waking up anymore, but then my Snape slapped me upside the head for putting too much on her shoulders and arrived at the house earlier than I had intended to, then proceeded to give Ari an important bonding moment that'll start setting up their relationship for the future. And no, not the shipping kind of relationship lol.
Now, I decided to do a mix of movie-verse and 'Cursed Child'-verse with this part. Initially, it was just going to just be an adaptation of movie-verse since I feel like Severus discovering Lily's body was one of the few things that the movies got better than the books. However, then along came 'Cursed Child' with an alternate take on it that is canon that also tugs SO MUCH at the heartstrings. So, I decided to combine the two into one cohesive scene.
As for why the bed didn't collapse on Ariana? Accidental magic that activated when she got frightened by the big boom creating an invisible force bubble that the bed rested on until Ariana crawled out and unconsciously burst that bubble.
Only one chapter left, then it's on to 'The Western Daughter and the Philosopher's Stone'!